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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2832-h.zip b/2832-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab94ad1 --- /dev/null +++ b/2832-h.zip diff --git a/2832-h/2832-h.htm b/2832-h/2832-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b6e8d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/2832-h/2832-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11874 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Myth, Ritual, and Religion, by Andrew Lang + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1, by Andrew Lang + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1 + +Author: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: November 12, 2009 [EBook #2832] +Last Updated: November 26, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION, VOL. 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION + </h1> + <h3> + Volume One + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Andrew Lang + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF1"> PREFACE TO NEW IMPRESSION. </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_PREF2"> PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0003"> <b>MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION</b> </a> <a + href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> SYSTEMS OF MYTHOLOGY + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> NEW + SYSTEM PROPOSED <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> THE + MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES—CONFUSION WITH NATURE—TOTEMISM + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> THE + MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES—MAGIC—METAMORPHOSIS—METAPHYSIC—PSYCHOLOGY + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> NATURE + MYTHS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> NON-ARYAN + MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> INDO-ARYAN MYTHS—SOURCES + OF EVIDENCE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> INDIAN + MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> GREEK MYTHS OF THE + ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND MAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER + X. </a> GREEK COSMOGONIC MYTHS <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> SAVAGE DIVINE MYTHS + <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DETAILED CONTENTS + </h2> + <blockquote> + <p> + PREFACE TO NEW IMPRESSION. <br /> PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. <br /> CHAPTER + I.—SYSTEMS OF MYTHOLOGY. <br /> Definitions of religion—Contradictory + evidence—"Belief in <br /> spiritual beings"—Objection to Mr. + Tylor's definition—Definition <br /> as regards this argument—Problem: + the contradiction between <br /> religion and myth—Two human moods—Examples—Case + of Greece— <br /> Ancient mythologists—Criticism by Eusebius—Modern + mythological <br /> systems—Mr. Max Muller—Mannhardt. <br /> + CHAPTER II.—NEW SYSTEM PROPOSED. <br /> Chapter I. recapitulated—Proposal + of a new method: Science of <br /> comparative or historical study of man—Anticipated + in part by <br /> Eusebius, Fontenelle, De Brosses, Spencer (of C. C. C., + Cambridge), <br /> and Mannhardt—Science of Tylor—Object of + inquiry: to find <br /> condition of human intellect in which marvels of + myth are parts of <br /> practical everyday belief—This is the + savage state—Savages <br /> described—The wild element of + myth a survival from the savage <br /> state—Advantages of this + method—Partly accounts for wide <br /> DIFFUSION as well as ORIGIN + of myths—Connected with general <br /> theory of evolution—Puzzling + example of myth of the water- <br /> swallower—Professor Tiele's + criticism of the method— <br /> Objections to method, and answer to + these—See Appendix B. <br /> CHAPTER III.—THE MENTAL + CONDITION OF SAVAGES—CONFUSION WITH <br /> NATURE—TOTEMISM. + <br /> The mental condition of savages the basis of the irrational + element <br /> in myth—Characteristics of that condition: (1) + Confusion of all <br /> things in an equality of presumed animation and + intelligence; <br /> (2) Belief in sorcery; (3) Spiritualism; (4) + Curiosity; (5) Easy <br /> credulity and mental indolence—The + curiosity is satisfied, thanks <br /> to the credulity, by myths in + answer to all inquiries—Evidence for <br /> this—Mr. Tylor's + opinion—Mr. Im Thurn—Jesuit missionaries' <br /> Relations—Examples + of confusion between men, plants, beasts and <br /> other natural objects—Reports + of travellers—Evidence from <br /> institution of totemism—Definition + of totemism—Totemism in <br /> Australia, Africa, America, the + Oceanic Islands, India, North Asia— <br /> Conclusions: Totemism + being found so widely distributed, is a proof <br /> of the existence of + that savage mental condition in which no line <br /> is drawn between men + and the other things in the world. This <br /> confusion is one of the + characteristics of myth in all races. <br /> CHAPTER IV.—THE MENTAL + CONDITION OF SAVAGES—MAGIC— <br /> METAMORPHOSIS—METAPHYSIC—PSYCHOLOGY. + <br /> Claims of sorcerers—Savage scientific speculation—Theory + of <br /> causation—Credulity, except as to new religious ideas—"Post + hoc, <br /> ergo propter hoc"—Fundamental ideas of magic—Examples: + <br /> incantations, ghosts, spirits—Evidence of rank and other + <br /> institutions in proof of confusions of mind exhibited in magical + <br /> beliefs. <br /> CHAPTER V.—NATURE MYTHS. <br /> Savage fancy, + curiosity and credulity illustrated in nature myths— <br /> In + these all phenomena are explained by belief in the general <br /> + animation of everything, combined with belief in metamorphosis—Sun + <br /> myths, Asian, Australian, African, Melanesian, Indian, + Californian, <br /> Brazilian, Maori, Samoan—Moon myths, + Australian, Muysca, Mexican, <br /> Zulu, Macassar, Greenland, Piute, + Malay—Thunder myths—Greek and <br /> Aryan sun and moon myths—Star + myths—Myths, savage and civilised, <br /> of animals, accounting + for their marks and habits—Examples of <br /> custom of claiming + blood kinship with lower animals—Myths of <br /> various plants and + trees—Myths of stones, and of metamorphosis <br /> into stones, + Greek, Australian and American—The whole natural <br /> philosophy + of savages expressed in myths, and survives in folk-lore <br /> and + classical poetry; and legends of metamorphosis. <br /> CHAPTER VI.—NON-ARYAN + MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. <br /> Confusions of myth—Various + origins of man and of things—Myths of <br /> Australia, Andaman + Islands, Bushmen, Ovaherero, Namaquas, Zulus, <br /> Hurons, Iroquois, + Diggers, Navajoes, Winnebagoes, Chaldaeans, <br /> Thlinkeets, Pacific + Islanders, Maoris, Aztecs, Peruvians— <br /> Similarity of ideas + pervading all those peoples in various <br /> conditions of society and + culture. <br /> CHAPTER VII.—INDO-ARYAN MYTHS—SOURCES OF + EVIDENCE. <br /> Authorities—Vedas—Brahmanas—Social + condition of Vedic India— <br /> Arts—Ranks—War—Vedic + fetishism—Ancestor worship—Date of Rig- <br /> Veda Hymns + doubtful—Obscurity of the Hymns—Difficulty of <br /> + interpreting the real character of Veda—Not primitive but <br /> + sacerdotal—The moral purity not innocence but refinement. <br /> + CHAPTER VIII.—INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + <br /> Comparison of Vedic and savage myths—The metaphysical Vedic + <br /> account of the beginning of things—Opposite and savage fable + of <br /> world made out of fragments of a man—Discussion of this + hymn— <br /> Absurdities of Brahmanas—Prajapati, a Vedic + Unkulunkulu or Qat— <br /> Evolutionary myths—Marriage of + heaven and earth—Myths of Puranas, <br /> their savage parallels—Most + savage myths are repeated in Brahmanas. <br /> CHAPTER IX.—GREEK + MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND MAN. <br /> The Greeks practically + civilised when we first meet them in Homer— <br /> Their mythology, + however, is full of repulsive features—The <br /> hypothesis that + many of these are savage survivals—Are there other <br /> examples + of such survival in Greek life and institutions?—Greek <br /> + opinion was constant that the race had been savage—Illustrations + <br /> of savage survival from Greek law of homicide, from magic, <br /> + religion, human sacrifice, religious art, traces of totemism, and <br /> + from the mysteries—Conclusion: that savage survival may also be + <br /> expected in Greek myths. <br /> CHAPTER X.—GREEK COSMOGONIC + MYTHS. <br /> Nature of the evidence—Traditions of origin of the + world and man— <br /> Homeric, Hesiodic and Orphic myths—Later + evidence of historians, <br /> dramatists, commentators—The Homeric + story comparatively pure—The <br /> story in Hesiod, and its savage + analogues—The explanations of the <br /> myth of Cronus, modern and + ancient—The Orphic cosmogony—Phanes <br /> and Prajapati—Greek + myths of the origin of man—Their savage <br /> analogues. <br /> + CHAPTER XI.—SAVAGE DIVINE MYTHS. <br /> The origin of a belief in + GOD beyond the ken of history and of <br /> speculation—Sketch of + conjectural theories—Two elements in all <br /> beliefs, whether of + backward or civilised races—The Mythical and <br /> the Religious—These + may be coeval, or either may be older than the <br /> other—Difficulty + of study—The current anthropological theory— <br /> Stated + objections to the theory—Gods and spirits—Suggestion that + <br /> savage religion is borrowed from Europeans—Reply to Mr. + Tylor's <br /> arguments on this head—The morality of savages. + <br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF1" id="link2H_PREF1"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE TO NEW IMPRESSION. + </h2> + <p> + When this book first appeared (1886), the philological school of + interpretation of religion and myth, being then still powerful in England, + was criticised and opposed by the author. In Science, as on the Turkish + throne of old, "Amurath to Amurath succeeds"; the philological theories of + religion and myth have now yielded to anthropological methods. The centre + of the anthropological position was the "ghost theory" of Mr. Herbert + Spencer, the "Animistic" theory of Mr. E. R. Tylor, according to whom the + propitiation of ancestral and other spirits leads to polytheism, and + thence to monotheism. In the second edition (1901) of this work the author + argued that the belief in a "relatively supreme being," anthropomorphic + was as old as, and might be even older, than animistic religion. This + theory he exhibited at greater length, and with a larger collection of + evidence, in his Making of Religion. + </p> + <p> + Since 1901, a great deal of fresh testimony as to what Mr. Howitt styles + the "All Father" in savage and barbaric religions has accrued. As regards + this being in Africa, the reader may consult the volumes of the New Series + of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, which are full of African + evidence, not, as yet, discussed, to my knowledge, by any writer on the + History of Religion. As late as Man, for July, 1906, No. 66, Mr. Parkinson + published interesting Yoruba legends about Oleron, the maker and father of + men, and Oro, the Master of the Bull Roarer. + </p> + <p> + From Australia, we have Mr. Howitt's account of the All Father in his + Native Tribes of South-East Australia, with the account of the All Father + of the Central Australian tribe, the Kaitish, in North Central Tribes of + Australia, by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen (1904), also The Euahlayi Tribe, + by Mrs. Langley Parker (1906). These masterly books are indispensable to + all students of the subject, while, in Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's work + cited, and in their earlier Native Tribes of Central Australia, we are + introduced to savages who offer an elaborate animistic theory, and are + said to show no traces of the All Father belief. + </p> + <p> + The books of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen also present much evidence as to a + previously unknown form of totemism, in which the totem is not hereditary, + and does not regulate marriage. This prevails among the Arunta "nation," + and the Kaitish tribe. In the opinion of Mr. Spencer (Report Australian + Association for Advancement of Science, 1904) and of Mr. J. G. Frazer + (Fortnightly Review, September, 1905), this is the earliest surviving form + of totemism, and Mr. Frazer suggests an animistic origin for the + institution. I have criticised these views in The Secret of the Totem + (1905), and proposed a different solution of the problem. (See also + "Primitive and Advanced Totemism" in Journal of the Anthropological + Institute, July, 1906.) In the works mentioned will be found references to + other sources of information as to these questions, which are still sub + judice. Mrs. Bates, who has been studying the hitherto almost unknown + tribes of Western Australia, promises a book on their beliefs and + institutions, and Mr. N. W. Thomas is engaged on a volume on Australian + institutions. In this place the author can only direct attention to these + novel sources, and to the promised third edition of Mr. Frazer's The + Golden Bough. + </p> + <p> + A. L. <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF2" id="link2H_PREF2"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + </h2> + <p> + The original edition of Myth, Ritual and Religion, published in 1887, has + long been out of print. In revising the book I have brought it into line + with the ideas expressed in the second part of my Making of Religion + (1898) and have excised certain passages which, as the book first + appeared, were inconsistent with its main thesis. In some cases the + original passages are retained in notes, to show the nature of the + development of the author's opinions. A fragment or two of controversy has + been deleted, and chapters xi. and xii., on the religion of the lowest + races, have been entirely rewritten, on the strength of more recent or + earlier information lately acquired. The gist of the book as it stands now + and as it originally stood is contained in the following lines from the + preface of 1887: "While the attempt is made to show that the wilder + features of myth survive from, or were borrowed from, or were imitated + from the ideas of people in the savage condition of thought, the existence—even + among savages—of comparatively pure, if inarticulate, religious + beliefs is insisted on throughout". To that opinion I adhere, and I trust + that it is now expressed with more consistency than in the first edition. + I have seen reason, more and more, to doubt the validity of the "ghost + theory," or animistic hypothesis, as explanatory of the whole fabric of + religion; and I present arguments against Mr. Tylor's contention that the + higher conceptions of savage faith are borrowed from missionaries.(1) It + is very possible, however, that Mr. Tylor has arguments more powerful than + those contained in his paper of 1892. For our information is not yet + adequate to a scientific theory of the Origin of Religion, and probably + never will be. Behind the races whom we must regard as "nearest the + beginning" are their unknown ancestors from a dateless past, men as human + as ourselves, but men concerning whose psychical, mental and moral + condition we can only form conjectures. Among them religion arose, in + circumstances of which we are necessarily ignorant. Thus I only venture on + a surmise as to the germ of a faith in a Maker (if I am not to say + "Creator") and Judge of men. But, as to whether the higher religious + belief, or the lower mythical stories came first, we are at least certain + that the Christian conception of God, given pure, was presently entangled, + by the popular fancy of Europe, in new Marchen about the Deity, the + Madonna, her Son, and the Apostles. Here, beyond possibility of denial, + pure belief came first, fanciful legend was attached after. I am inclined + to surmise that this has always been the case, and, in the pages on the + legend of Zeus, I show the processes of degeneration, of mythical + accretions on a faith in a Heaven-God, in action. That "the feeling of + religious devotion" attests "high faculties" in early man (such as are + often denied to men who "cannot count up to seven"), and that "the same + high mental faculties... would infallibly lead him, as long as his + reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various strange + superstitions and customs," was the belief of Mr. Darwin.(2) That is also + my view, and I note that the lowest savages are not yet guilty of the very + worst practices, "sacrifice of human beings to a blood-loving God," and + ordeals by poison and fire, to which Mr. Darwin alludes. "The improvement + of our science" has freed us from misdeeds which are unknown to the + Andamanese or the Australians. Thus there was, as regards these points in + morals, degeneracy from savagery as society advanced, and I believe that + there was also degeneration in religion. To say this is not to hint at a + theory of supernatural revelation to the earliest men, a theory which I + must, in limine disclaim. + </p> + <p> + (1) Tylor, "Limits of Savage Religion." Journal of the Anthropological + Institute, vol. xxi. + </p> + <p> + (2) Descent of Man, p. 68, 1871. + </p> + <p> + In vol. ii. p. 19 occurs a reference, in a note, to Mr. Hartland's + criticism of my ideas about Australian gods as set forth in the Making of + Religion. Mr. Hartland, who kindly read the chapters on Australian + religion in this book, does not consider that my note on p. 19 meets the + point of his argument. As to the Australians, I mean no more than that, + AMONG endless low myths, some of them possess a belief in a "maker of + everything," a primal being, still in existence, watching conduct, + punishing breaches of his laws, and, in some cases, rewarding the good in + a future life. Of course these are the germs of a sympathetic religion, + even if the being thus regarded is mixed up with immoral or humorous + contradictory myths. My position is not harmed by such myths, which occur + in all old religions, and, in the middle ages, new myths were attached to + the sacred figures of Christianity in poetry and popular tales. + </p> + <p> + Thus, if there is nothing "sacred" in a religion because wild or wicked + fables about the gods also occur, there is nothing "sacred" in almost any + religion on earth. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Hartland's point, however, seems to be that, in the Making of + Religion, I had selected certain Australian beliefs as especially "sacred" + and to be distinguished from others, because they are inculcated at the + religious Mysteries of some tribes. His aim, then, is to discover low, + wild, immoral myths, inculcated at the Mysteries, and thus to destroy my + line drawn between religion on one hand and myth or mere folk-lore on the + other. Thus there is a being named Daramulun, of whose rites, among the + Coast Murring, I condensed the account of Mr. Howitt.(1) From a statement + by Mr. Greenway(2) Mr. Hartland learned that Daramulun's name is said to + mean "leg on one side" or "lame". He, therefore, with fine humour, speaks + of Daramulun as "a creator with a game leg," though when "Baiame" is + derived by two excellent linguists, Mr. Ridley and Mr. Greenway, from + Kamilaroi baia, "to make," Mr. Hartland is by no means so sure of the + sense of the name. It happens to be inconvenient to him! Let the names + mean what they may, Mr. Hartland finds, in an obiter dictum of Mr. Howitt + (before he was initiated), that Daramulun is said to have "died," and that + his spirit is now aloft. Who says so, and where, we are not informed,(3) + and the question is important. + </p> + <p> + (1) J. A. I., xiii. pp. 440-459. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., xxi. p. 294. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., xiii. p. 194. + </p> + <p> + For the Wiraijuri, IN THEIR MYSTERIES, tell a myth of cannibal conduct of + Daramulun's, and of deceit and failure of knowledge in Baiame.(1) Of this + I was unaware, or neglected it, for I explicitly said that I followed Mr. + Howitt's account, where no such matter is mentioned. Mr. Howitt, in fact, + described the Mysteries of the Coast Murring, while the narrator of the + low myths, Mr. Matthews, described those of a remote tribe, the Wiraijuri, + with whom Daramulun is not the chief, but a subordinate person. How Mr. + Matthews' friends can at once hold that Daramulun was "destroyed" by + Baiame (their chief deity), and also that Daramulun's voice is heard at + their rites, I don't know.(2) Nor do I know why Mr. Hartland takes the + myth of a tribe where Daramulun is "the evil spirit who rules the + night,"(3) and introduces it as an argument against the belief of a + distant tribe, where, by Mr. Howitt's account, Daramulun is not an evil + spirit, but "the master" of all, whose abode is above the sky, and to whom + are attributed powers of omnipotence and omnipresence, or, at any rate, + the power "to do anything and to go anywhere.... To his direct ordinances + are attributed the social and moral laws of the community."(4) This is not + "an evil spirit"! When Mr. Hartland goes for scandals to a remote tribe of + a different creed that he may discredit the creed of the Coast Murring, he + might as well attribute to the Free Kirk "the errors of Rome". But Mr. + Hartland does it!(5) Being "cunning of fence" he may reply that I also + spoke loosely of Wiraijuri and Coast Murring as, indifferently, + Daramulunites. I did, and I was wrong, and my critic ought not to accept + but to expose my error. The Wiraijuri Daramulun, who was annihilated, yet + who is "an evil spirit that rules the night," is not the Murring guardian + and founder of recognised ethics. + </p> + <p> + (1) J. A. I., xxv. p. 297. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., May, 1895, p. 419. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid. + </p> + <p> + (4) Ibid., xiii. pp. 458, 459. + </p> + <p> + (5) Folk-Lore, ix., No. iv., p. 299. + </p> + <p> + But, in the Wiraijuri mysteries, the master, Baiame, deceives the women as + to the Mysteries! Shocking to US, but to deceive the women as to these + arcana, is, to the Australian mind in general, necessary for the safety of + the world. Moreover, we have heard of a lying spirit sent to deceive + prophets in a much higher creed. Finally, in a myth of the Mystery of the + Wiraijuri, Baiame is not omniscient. Indeed, even civilised races cannot + keep on the level of these religious conceptions, and not to keep on that + level is—mythology. Apollo, in the hymn to Hermes, sung on a sacred + occasion, needs to ask an old vine-dresser for intelligence. Hyperion + "sees all and hears all," but needs to be informed, by his daughters, of + the slaughter of his kine. The Lord, in the Book of Job, has to ask Satan, + "Whence comest thou?" Now for the sake of dramatic effect, now from pure + inability to live on the level of his highest thought, man mythologises + and anthropomorphises, in Greece or Israel, as in Australia. + </p> + <p> + It does not follow that there is "nothing sacred" in his religion. Mr. + Hartland offers me a case in point. In Mrs. Langloh Parker's Australian + Legendary Tales (pp. 11, 94), are myths of low adventures of Baiame. In + her More Australian Legendary Tales (pp. 84-99), is a very poetical and + charming aspect of the Baiame belief. Mr. Hartland says that I will "seek + to put" the first set of stories out of court, as "a kind of joke with no + sacredness about it". Not I, but the Noongahburrah tribe themselves make + this essential distinction. Mrs. Langloh Parker says:(1) "The former + series" (with the low Baiame myths) "were all such legends as are told to + the black picaninnies; among the present are some they would not be + allowed to hear, touching as they do on sacred things, taboo to the + young". The blacks draw the line which I am said to seek to draw. + </p> + <p> + (1) More Legendary Tales, p. xv. + </p> + <p> + In yet another case(1) grotesque hunting adventures of Baiame are told in + the mysteries, and illustrated by the sacred temporary representations in + raised earth. I did not know it; I merely followed Mr. Howitt. But I do + not doubt it. My reply is, that there was "something sacred" in Greek + mysteries, something purifying, ennobling, consoling. For this Lobeck has + collected (and disparaged) the evidence of Pindar, Sophocles, Cicero and + many others, while even Aristophanes, as Prof. Campbell remarks, says: "We + only have bright sun and cheerful life who have been initiated and lived + piously in regard to strangers and to private citizens".(2) Security and + peace of mind, in this world and for the next, were, we know not how, + borne into the hearts of Pindar and Sophocles in the Mysteries. Yet, if we + may at all trust the Fathers, there were scenes of debauchery, as at the + Mysteries of the Fijians (Nanga) there was buffoonery ("to amuse the + boys," Mr. Howitt says of some Australian rites), the story of Baubo is + only one example, and, in other mysteries than the Eleusinian, we know of + mummeries in which an absurd tale of Zeus is related in connection with an + oak log. Yet surely there was "something sacred" in the faith of Zeus! Let + us judge the Australians as we judge Greeks. The precepts as to "speaking + the straightforward truth," as to unselfishness, avoidance of quarrels, of + wrongs to "unprotected women," of unnatural vices, are certainly + communicated in the Mysteries of some tribes, with, in another, knowledge + of the name and nature of "Our Father," Munganngaur. That a Totemistic + dance, or medicine-dance of Emu hunting, is also displayed(3) at certain + Mysteries of a given tribe, and that Baiame is spoken of as the hero of + this ballet, no more deprives the Australian moral and religious teaching + (at the Mysteries) of sacred value, than the stupid indecency whereby + Baubo made Demeter laugh destroys the sacredness of the Eleusinia, on + which Pindar, Sophocles and Cicero eloquently dwell. If the Australian + mystae, at the most solemn moment of their lives, are shown a dull or + dirty divine ballet d'action, what did Sophocles see, after taking a swim + with his pig? Many things far from edifying, yet the sacred element of + religious hope and faith was also represented. So it is in Australia. + </p> + <p> + (1) J. A. I., xxiv. p. 416. + </p> + <p> + (2) Religion in Greek Literature, p. 259. It is to be regretted that the + learned professor gives no references. The Greek Mysteries are treated + later in this volume. + </p> + <p> + (3) See A picture of Australia, 1829, p. 264. + </p> + <p> + These studies ought to be comparative, otherwise they are worthless. As + Mr. Hartland calls Daramulun "an eternal Creator with a game leg" who + "died," he may call Zeus an "eternal father, who swallowed his wife, lay + with his mother and sister, made love as a swan, and died, nay, was + buried, in Crete". I do not think that Mr. Hartland would call Zeus "a + ghost-god" (my own phrase), or think that he was scoring a point against + me, if I spoke of the sacred and ethical characteristics of the Zeus + adored by Eumaeus in the Odyssey. He would not be so humorous about Zeus, + nor fall into an ignoratio elenchi. For my point never was that any + Australian tribe had a pure theistic conception unsoiled and unobliterated + by myth and buffoonery. My argument was that AMONG their ideas is that of + a superhuman being, unceasing (if I may not say eternal), a maker (if I + may not say a Creator), a guardian of certain by no means despicable + ethics, which I never proclaimed as supernormally inspired! It is no reply + to me to say that, in or out of Mysteries, low fables about that being are + told, and buffooneries are enacted. For, though I say that certain high + ideas are taught in Mysteries, I do not think I say that in Mysteries no + low myths are told. + </p> + <p> + I take this opportunity, as the earliest, to apologise for an error in my + Making of Religion concerning a passage in the Primitive Culture of my + friend Mr. E. B. Tylor. Mr. Tylor quoted(1) a passage from Captain John + Smith's History of Virginia, as given in Pinkerton, xiii. pp. 13-39, 1632. + In this passage no mention occurs of a Virginian deity named Ahone but + "Okee," another and more truculent god, is named. I observed that, if Mr. + Tylor had used Strachey's Historie of Travaile (1612), he would have found + "a slightly varying copy" of Smith's text of 1632, with Ahone as superior + to Okee. I added in a note (p. 253): "There is a description of Virginia, + by W. Strachey, including Smith's remarks published in 1612. Strachey + interwove some of this work with his own MS. in the British Museum." Here, + as presently will be shown, I erred, in company with Strachey's editor of + 1849, and with the writer on Strachey in the Dictionary of National + Biography. What Mr. Tylor quoted from an edition of Smith in 1632 had + already appeared, in 1612, in a book (Map of Virginia, with a description + of the Countrey) described on the title-page as "written by Captain + Smith," though, in my opinion, Smith may have had a collaborator. There is + no evidence whatever that Strachey had anything to do with this book of + 1612, in which there is no mention of Ahone. Mr. Arber dates Strachey's + own MS. (in which Ahone occurs) as of 1610-1615.(2) I myself, for reasons + presently to be alleged, date the MS. mainly in 1611-1612. If Mr. Arber + and I are right, Strachey must have had access to Smith's MS. before it + was published in 1612, and we shall see how he used it. My point here is + that Strachey mentioned Ahone (in MS.) before Smith's book of 1612 was + published. This could not be gathered from the dedication to Bacon + prefixed to Strachey's MS., for that dedication cannot be earlier that + 1618.(3) I now ask leave to discuss the evidence for an early + pre-Christian belief in a primal Creator, held by the Indian tribes from + Plymouth, in New England, to Roanoke Island, off Southern Virginia. + </p> + <p> + (1) Prim. Cult. ii. p. 342. + </p> + <p> + (2) Arber's Smith, p. cxxxiii. + </p> + <p> + (3) Hakluyt Society, Strachey, 1849, pp. xxi., xxii. + </p> + <p> + THE GOD AHONE. + </p> + <p> + An insertion by a manifest plagiary into the work of a detected liar is + not, usually, good evidence. Yet this is all the evidence, it may be + urged, which we have for the existence of a belief, in early Virginia, as + to a good Creator, named Ahone. The matter stands thus: In 1607-1609 the + famed Captain John Smith endured and achieved in Virginia sufferings and + adventures. In 1608 he sent to the Council at home a MS. map and + description of the colony. In 1609 he returned to England (October). In + May, 1610, William Strachey, gent., arrived in Virginia, where he was + "secretary of state" to Lord De la Warr. In 1612 Strachey and Smith were + both in England. In that year Barnes of Oxford published A Map of + Virginia, with a description, etc., "written by Captain Smith," according + to the title-page. There was annexed a compilation from various sources, + edited by "W. S.," that is, NOT William Strachey, but Dr. William Symonds. + In the same year, 1612, or in 1611, William Strachey wrote his Historie of + Travaile into Virginia Britannia, at least as far as page 124 of the + Hakluyt edition of 1849.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) For proof see p. 24. third line from foot of page, where 1612 is + indicated. Again, see p. 98, line 5, where "last year" is dated as "1610, + about Christmas," which would put Strachey's work at this point as + actually of 1611; prior, that is, to Smith's publication. Again, p. 124, + "this last year, myself being at the Falls" (of the James River), "I found + in an Indian house certain clawes... which I brought away and into + England". + </p> + <p> + If Strachey, who went out with Lord De la Warr as secretary in 1610, + returned with him (as is likely), he sailed for England on 28th March, + 1611. In that case, he was in England in 1611, and the passages cited + leave it dubious whether he wrote his book in 1611, 1612, or in both + years.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Mr. Arber dates the MS. "1610-1615," and attributes to Strachey Laws + for Virginia, 1612. + </p> + <p> + Strachey embodies in his work considerable pieces of Smith's Map of + Virginia and Description, written in 1608, and published in 1612. He + continually deserts Smith, however, adding more recent information, + reflections and references to the ancient classics, with allusions to his + own travels in the Levant. His glossary is much more extensive than + Smith's, and he inserts a native song of triumph over the English in the + original.(1) Now, when Strachey comes to the religion of the natives(2) he + gives eighteen pages (much of it verbiage) to five of Smith's.(3) What + Smith (1612) says of their chief god I quote, setting Strachey's version + (1611-1612) beside it. + </p> + <p> + (1) Strachey, pp. 79-80. He may have got the song from Kemps or Machumps, + friendly natives. + </p> + <p> + (2) Pp. 82-100. + </p> + <p> + (3) Arber, pp. 74-79. + </p> + <p> + SMITH (Published, 1612). + </p> + <p> + But their chiefe God they worship is the Diuell. Him they call Oke, and + serue him more of feare than loue. They say they have conference with him, + and fashion themselues as near to his shape as they can imagine. In their + Temples, they have his image euile favouredly carved, and then painted, + and adorned with chaines, copper, and beades; and covered with a skin, in + such manner as the deformity may well suit with such a God. By him is + commonly the sepulcher of their Kings. + </p> + <p> + STRACHEY (Written, 1611-12). + </p> + <p> + But their chief god they worship is no other, indeed, then the divell, + whome they make presentments of, and shadow under the forme of an idoll, + which they entitle Okeus, and whome they worship as the Romans did their + hurtful god Vejovis, more for feare of harme then for hope of any good; + they saie they have conference with him, and fashion themselves in their + disguisments as neere to his shape as they can imagyn. In every territory + of a weroance is a temple and a priest, peradventure two or thrie; yet + happie doth that weroance accompt himself who can detayne with him a + Quiyough-quisock, of the best, grave, lucky, well instructed in their + misteryes, and beloved of their god; and such a one is noe lesse honoured + then was Dianae's priest at Ephesus, for whome they have their more + private temples, with oratories and chauneells therein, according as is + the dignity and reverence of the Quiyough-quisock, which the weroance + wilbe at charge to build upon purpose, sometyme twenty foote broad and a + hundred in length, fashioned arbour wyse after their buylding, having + comonly the dore opening into the east, and at the west end a spence or + chauncell from the body of the temple, with hollow wyndings and pillers, + whereon stand divers black imagies, fashioned to the shoulders, with their + faces looking down the church, and where within their weroances, upon a + kind of biere of reedes, lye buryed; and under them, apart, in a vault low + in the ground (as a more secrett thing), vailed with a matt, sitts their + Okeus, an image ill-favouredly carved, all black dressed, with chaynes of + perle, the presentment and figure of that god (say the priests unto the + laity, and who religiously believe what the priests saie) which doth them + all the harme they suffer, be yt in their bodies or goods, within doores + or abroad; and true yt is many of them are divers tymes (especyally + offendors) shrewdly scratched as they walke alone in the woods, yt may + well be by the subtyle spirit, the malitious enemy to mankind, whome, + therefore, to pacefie and worke to doe them good (at least no harme) the + priests tell them they must do these and these sacrifices unto (them) of + these and these things, and thus and thus often, by which meanes not only + their owne children, but straungers, are sometimes sacrificed unto him: + whilst the great god (the priests tell them) who governes all the world, + and makes the sun to shine, creating the moone and stars his companyons, + great powers, and which dwell with him, and by whose virtues and + influences the under earth is tempered, and brings forth her fruiets + according to her seasons, they calling Ahone; the good and peaceable god + requires no such dutyes, nor needes be sacrificed unto, for he intendeth + all good unto them, and will doe noe harme, only the displeased Okeus, + looking into all men's accions, and examining the same according to the + severe scale of justice, punisheth them with sicknesse, beats them, and + strikes their ripe corn with blastings, stormes, and thunder clapps, + stirrs up warre, and makes their women falce unto them. Such is the misery + and thraldome under which Sathan hath bound these wretched miscreants. + </p> + <p> + I began by calling Strachey a plagiary. The reader will now observe that + he gives far more than he takes. For example, his account of the temples + is much more full than that of Smith, and he adds to Smith's version the + character and being of Ahone, as what "the priests tell them". I submit, + therefore, that Strachey's additions, if valid for temples, are not + discredited for Ahone, merely because they are inserted in the framework + of Smith. As far as I understand the matter, Smith's Map of Virginia + (1612) is an amended copy, with additions, by Smith or another writer of + that description, which he sent home to the Council of Virginia, in + November, 1608.(1) To the book of 1612 was added a portion of "Relations" + by different hands, edited by W. S., namely, Dr. Symonds. Strachey's + editor, in 1849, regarded W. S. as Strachey, and supposed that Strachey + was the real author of Smith's Map of Virginia, so that, in his Historie + of Travaile, Strachey merely took back his own. He did not take back his + own; he made use of Smith's MS., not yet published, if Mr. Arber and I + rightly date Strachey's MS. at 1610-15, or 1611-12. Why Strachey acted + thus it is possible to conjecture. As a scholar well acquainted with + Virginia, and as Secretary for the Colony, he would have access to Smith's + MS. of 1608 among the papers of the Council, before its publication. Smith + professes himself "no scholer".(2) On the other hand, Strachey likes to + show off his Latin and Greek. He has a curious, if inaccurate, knowledge + of esoteric Greek and Roman religious antiquities, and in writing of + religion aims at a comparative method. Strachey, however, took the trouble + to copy bits of Smith into his own larger work, which he never gave to the + printers. + </p> + <p> + (1) Arber, p. 444. + </p> + <p> + (2) Arber, p. 442. + </p> + <p> + Now as to Ahone. It suits my argument to suppose that Strachey's account + is no less genuine than his description of the temples (illustrated by a + picture by John White, who had been in Virginia in 1589), and the account + of the Great Hare of American mythology.(1) This view of a Virginian + Creator, "our chief god" "who takes upon him this shape of a hare," was + got, says Strachey, "last year, 1610," from a brother of the Potomac King, + by a boy named Spilman, who says that Smith "sold" him to Powhattan.(2) In + his own brief narrative Spelman (or Spilman) says nothing about the + Cosmogonic Legend of the Great Hare. The story came up when Captain Argoll + was telling Powhattan's brother the account of creation in Genesis (1610). + </p> + <p> + (1) Strachey, p. 98-100. + </p> + <p> + (2) "Spilman's Narrative," Arber, cx.-cxiv. + </p> + <p> + Now Strachey's Great Hare is accepted by mythologists, while Ahone is + regarded with suspicion. Ahone does not happen to suit anthropological + ideas, the Hare suits them rather better. Moreover, and more important, + there is abundant corroborative evidence for Oke and for the Hare, + Michabo, who, says Dr. Brinton, "was originally the highest divinity + recognised by them, powerful and beneficent beyond all others, maker of + the heavens and the world," just like Ahone, in fact. And Dr. Brinton + instructs us that Michabo originally meant not Great Hare, but "the spirit + of light".(1) Thus, originally, the Red Men adored "The Spirit of Light, + maker of the heavens and the world". Strachey claims no more than this for + Ahone. Now, of course, Dr. Brinton may be right. But I have already + expressed my extreme distrust of the philological processes by which he + extracts "The Great Light; spirit of light," from Michabo, "beyond a + doubt!" In my poor opinion, whatever claims Michabo may have as an unique + creator of earth and heaven—"God is Light,"—he owes his + mythical aspect as a Hare to something other than an unconscious pun. In + any case, according to Dr. Brinton, Michabo, regarded as a creator, is + equivalent to Strachey's Ahone. This amount of corroboration, valeat + quantum, I may claim, from the Potomac Indians, for the belief in Ahone on + the James River. Dr. Brinton is notoriously not a believer in American + "monotheism".(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Myths of the New World, p. 178. + </p> + <p> + (2) Myths of the New World, p. 53. + </p> + <p> + The opponents of the authenticity of Ahone, however, will certainly argue: + "For Oke, or Oki, as a redoubted being or spirit, or general name for such + personages, we have plentiful evidence, corroborating that of Smith. But + what evidence as to Ahone corroborates that of Strachey?" I must confess + that I have no explicit corroborative evidence for Ahone, but then I have + no accessible library of early books on Virginia. Now it is clear that if + I found and produced evidence for Ahone as late as 1625, I would be met at + once with the retort that, between 1610 and 1625, Christian ideas had + contaminated the native beliefs. Thus if I find Ahone, or a deity of like + attributes, after a very early date, he is of no use for my purpose. Nor + do I much expect to find him. But do we find Winslow's Massachusetts God, + Kiehtan, named AFTER 1622 ("I only ask for information"), and if we don't, + does that prevent Mr. Tylor from citing Kiehtan, with apparent reliance on + the evidence?(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Primitive Culture, ii. p. 342. + </p> + <p> + Again, Ahone, though primal and creative, is, by Strachey's account, a + sleeping partner. He has no sacrifice, and no temple or idol is recorded. + Therefore the belief in Ahone could only be discovered as a result of + inquiry, whereas figures of Oke or Okeus, and his services, were common + and conspicuous.(1) As to Oke, I cannot quite understand Mr. Tylor's + attitude. Summarising Lafitau, a late writer of 1724, Mr. Tylor writes: + "The whole class of spirits or demons, known to the Caribs by the name of + cemi, in Algonkin as manitu, in Huron as oki, Lafitau now spells with + capital letters, and converts them each into a supreme being".(2) Yet in + Primitive Culture, ii., 342, 1891, Mr. Tylor had cited Smith's Okee (with + a capital letter) as the "chief god" of the Virginians in 1612. How can + Lafitau be said to have elevated oki into Oki, and so to have made a god + out of "a class of spirits or demons," in 1724, when Mr. Tylor had already + cited Smith's Okee, with a capital letter and as a "chief god," in 1612? + Smith, rebuked for the same by Mr. Tylor, had even identified Okee with + the devil. Lafitau certainly did not begin this erroneous view of Oki as a + "chief god" among the Virginians. If I cannot to-day produce corroboration + for a god named Ahone, I can at least show that, from the north of New + England to the south of Virginia, there is early evidence, cited by Mr. + Tylor, for a belief in a primal creative being, closely analogous to + Ahone. And this evidence, I think, distinctly proves that such a being as + Ahone was within the capacity of the Indians in these latitudes. Mr. Tylor + must have thought in 1891 that the natives were competent to a belief in a + supreme deity, for he said, "Another famous native American name for the + supreme deity is Oki".(3) In the essay of 1892, however, Oki does not + appear to exist as a god's name till 1724. We may now, for earlier + evidence, turn to Master Thomas Heriot, "that learned mathematician" "who + spoke the Indian language," and was with the company which abandoned + Virginia on 18th June, 1586. They ranged 130 miles north and 130 miles + north-west of Roanoke Island, which brings them into the neighbourhood of + Smith's and Strachey's country. Heriot writes as to the native creeds: + "They believe that there are many gods which they call Mantoac, but of + different sorts and degrees. Also that there is one chiefe God that hath + beene from all eternitie, who, as they say, when he purposed first to make + the world, made first other gods of a principall order, to be as + instruments to be used in the Creation and Government to follow, and after + the Sunne, Moone and Starres as pettie gods, and the instruments of the + other order more principall.... They thinke that all the gods are of + humane shape," and represent them by anthropomorphic idols. An idol, or + image, "Kewasa" (the plural is "Kewasowok"), is placed in the temples, + "where they worship, pray and make many offerings". Good souls go to be + happy with the gods, the bad burn in Popogusso, a great pit, "where the + sun sets". The evidence for this theory of a future life, as usual, is + that of men who died and revived again, a story found in a score of widely + separated regions, down to our day, when the death, revival and revelation + occurred to the founder of the Arapahoe new religion of the Ghost Dance. + The belief "works for righteousness". "The common sort... have great care + to avoyde torment after death, and to enjoy blesse," also they have "great + respect to their Governors". + </p> + <p> + (1) Okee's image, as early as 1607, was borne into battle against Smith, + who captured the god (Arber, p. 393). Ahone was not thus en evidence. + </p> + <p> + (2) Journal of Anthrop. Inst., Feb., 1892, pp. 285, 286. + </p> + <p> + (3) Prim. Cult,, ii. p. 342. + </p> + <p> + This belief in a chief god "from all eternitie" (that is, of unexplained + origin), may not be convenient to some speculators, but it exactly + corroborates Strachey's account of Ahone as creator with subordinates. The + evidence is of 1586 (twenty-six years before Strachey), and, like + Strachey, Heriot attributes the whole scheme of belief to "the priestes". + "This is the sum of their religion, which I learned by having speciall + familiaritie with some of their priests."(1) I see no escape from the + conclusion that the Virginians believed as Heriot says they did, except + the device of alleging that they promptly borrowed some of Heriot's ideas + and maintained that these ideas had ever been their own. Heriot certainly + did not recognise the identity. "Through conversing with us they were + brought into great doubts of their owne (religion), and no small + admiration of ours; of which many desired to learne more than we had the + meanes for want of utterance in their language to expresse." So Heriot + could not be subtle in the native tongue. Heriot did what he could to + convert them: "I did my best to make His immortall glory knowne". His + efforts were chiefly successful by virtue of the savage admiration of our + guns, mathematical instruments, and so forth. These sources of an awakened + interest in Christianity would vanish with the total destruction and + discomfiture of the colony, unless a few captives, later massacred, taught + our religion to the natives.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) According to Strachey, Heriot could speak the native language. + </p> + <p> + (2) Heriot's Narrative, pp. 37-39. Quaritch, London, 1893. + </p> + <p> + I shall cite another early example of a New England deity akin to Ahone, + with a deputy, a friend of sorcerers, like Okee. This account is in + Smith's General History of New England, 1606-1624. We sent out a colony in + 1607; "they all returned in the yeere 1608," esteeming the country "a + cold, barren, mountainous rocky desart". I am apt to believe that they did + not plant the fructifying seeds of grace among the natives in 1607-1608. + But the missionary efforts of French traders may, of course, have been + blessed; nor can I deny that a yellow-haired man, whose corpse was found + in 1620 with some objects of iron, may have converted the natives to such + beliefs as they possessed. We are told, however, that these tenets were of + ancestral antiquity. I cite E. Winslow, as edited by Smith (1623-24):— + </p> + <p> + "Those where in this Plantation (New Plymouth) say Kiehtan(1) made all the + other Gods: also one man and one woman, and with them all mankinde, but + how they became so dispersed they know not. They say that at first there + was no king but Kiehtan, that dwelleth far westerly above the heavens, + whither all good men go when they die, and have plentie of all things. The + bad go thither also and knock at the door, but ('the door is shut') he + bids them go wander in endless want and misery, for they shall not stay + there. They never saw Kiehtan,(2) but they hold it a great charge and + dutie that one race teach another; and to him they make feasts and cry and + sing for plenty and victory, or anything that is good. + </p> + <p> + (1) In 1873 Mr. Tylor regarded Dr. Brinton's etymology of Kiehtan as = + Kittanitowit = "Great Living Spirit," as "plausible". In his edition of + 1891 he omits this etymology. Personally I entirely distrust the + philological theories of the original sense of old divine names as a + general rule. + </p> + <p> + (2) "They never saw Kiehtan." So, about 1854, "The common answer of + intelligent black fellows on the Barwon when asked if they know Baiame... + is this: 'Kamil zaia zummi Baiame, zaia winuzgulda'; 'I have not seen + Baiame, I have heard or perceived him'. If asked who made the sky, the + earth, the animals and man, they always answer 'Baiame'." Daramulun, + according to the same authority in Lang's Queensland, was the familiar of + sorcerers, and appeared as a serpent. This answers, as I show, to Hobamock + the subordinate power to Kiehtan in New England and to Okee, the familiar + of sorcerers in Virginia. (Ridley, J. A. I., 1872, p. 277.) + </p> + <p> + "They have another Power they call Hobamock, which we conceive the Devill, + and upon him they call to cure their wounds and diseases; when they are + curable he persuades them he sent them, because they have displeased him; + but, if they be mortal, then he saith, 'Kiehtan sent them'; which makes + them never call on him in their sickness. They say this Hobamock appears + to them sometimes like a man, a deer, or an eagle, but most commonly like + a snake; not to all but to their Powahs to cure diseases, and Undeses... + and these are such as conjure in Virginia, and cause the people to do what + they list." Winslow (or rather Smith editing Winslow here), had already + said, "They believe, as do the Virginians, of many divine powers, yet of + one above all the rest, as the Southern Virginians call their chief god + Kewassa (an error), and that we now inhabit Oke.... The Massachusetts call + their great god Kiehtan."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Arber, pp. 767, 768. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, in Heriot (1586), Strachey (1611-12) and Winslow (1622), we + find fairly harmonious accounts of a polydaemonism with a chief, primal, + creative being above and behind it; a being unnamed, and Ahone and + Kiehtan. + </p> + <p> + Is all this invention? Or was all this derived from Europeans before 1586, + and, if so, from what Europeans? Mr. Tylor, in 1873, wrote, "After due + allowance made for misrendering of savage answers, and importation of + white men's thoughts, it can hardly be judged that a divine being, whose + characteristics are often so unlike what European intercourse would have + suggested, and who is heard of by such early explorers among such distant + tribes, could be a deity of foreign origin". NOW, he "can HARDLY be + ALTOGETHER a deity of foreign origin".(1) I agree with Mr. Tylor's earlier + statement. In my opinion Ahone—Okeus, Kiehtan—Hobamock, + correspond, the first pair to the usually unseen Australian Baiame (a + crystal or hypnotic vision of Baiame scarcely counts), while the second + pair, Okeus and Hobamock, answer to the Australian familiars of sorcerers, + Koin and Brewin; the American "Powers" being those of peoples on a higher + level of culture. Like Tharramulun where Baiame is supreme, Hobamock + appears as a snake (Asclepius). + </p> + <p> + (1) Prim. Cult., ii. 340, 1873, 1892. + </p> + <p> + For all these reasons I am inclined to accept Strachey's Ahone as a + veritable element in Virginian belief. Without temple or service, such a + being was not conspicuous, like Okee and other gods which had idols and + sacrifices. + </p> + <p> + As far as I see, Strachey has no theory to serve by inventing Ahone. He + asks how any races "if descended from the people of the first creation, + should maintain so general and gross a defection from the true knowledge + of God". He is reduced to suppose that, as descendants of Ham, they + inherit "the ignorance of true godliness." (p. 45). The children of Shem + and Japheth alone "retained, until the coming of the Messias, the only + knowledge of the eternal and never-changing Trinity". The Virginians, on + the other hand, fell heir to the ignorance, and "fearful and superstitious + instinct of nature" of Ham (p. 40). Ahone, therefore, is not invented by + Strachey to bolster up a theory (held by Strachey), of an inherited + revelation, or of a sensus numinis which could not go wrong. Unless a + proof be given that Strachey had a theory, or any other purpose, to serve + by inventing Ahone, I cannot at present come into the opinion that he + gratuitously fabled, though he may have unconsciously exaggerated. + </p> + <p> + What were Strachey's sources? He was for nine months, if not more, in the + colony: he had travelled at least 115 miles up the James River, he + occasionally suggests modifications of Smith's map, he refers to Smith's + adventures, and his glossary is very much larger than Smith's; its + accuracy I leave to American linguists. Such a witness, despite his + admitted use of Smith's text (if it is really all by Smith throughout) is + not to be despised, and he is not despised in America.(1) Strachey, it is + true, had not, like Smith, been captured by Indians and either treated + with perfect kindness and consideration (as Smith reported at the time), + or tied to a tree and threatened with arrows, and laid out to have his + head knocked in with a stone; as he alleged sixteen years later! Strachey, + not being captured, did not owe his release (1) to the magnanimity of + Powhattan, (2) to his own ingenious lies, (3) to the intercession of + Pocahontas, as Smith, and his friends for him, at various dates + inconsistently declared. Smith certainly saw more of the natives at home: + Strachey brought a more studious mind to what he could learn of their + customs and ideas; and is not a convicted braggart. I conjecture that one + of Strachey's sources was a native named Kemps. Smith had seized Kemps and + Kinsock in 1609. Unknown authorities (Powell? and Todkill?) represent + these two savages as "the most exact villaines in the country".(2) They + were made to labour in fetters, then were set at liberty, but "little + desired it".(3) Some "souldiers" ran away to the liberated Kemps, who + brought them back to Smith.(4) Why Kemps and his friend are called "two of + the most exact villains in the country" does not appear. Kemps died "of + the surveye" (scurvey, probably) at Jamestown, in 1610-11. He was much + made of by Lord De la Warr, "could speak a pretty deal of our English, and + came orderly to church every day to prayers". He gave Strachey the names + of Powhattan's wives, and told him, truly or not, that Pocahontas was + married, about 1610, to an Indian named Kocoum.(5) I offer the guess that + Kemps and Machumps, who came and went from Pocahontas, and recited an + Indian prayer which Strachey neglected to copy out, may have been among + Strachey's authorities. I shall, of course, be told that Kemps picked up + Ahone at church. This did not strike Strachey as being the fact; he had no + opinion of the creed in which Ahone was a factor, "the misery and + thraldome under which Sathan has bound these wretched miscreants". + According to Strachey, the priests, far from borrowing any part of our + faith, "feare and tremble lest the knowledge of God, and of our Saviour + Jesus Christ be taught in these parts". + </p> + <p> + (1) Arber, cxvii. Strachey mentions that (before his arrival in Virginia) + Pocahontas turned cart-wheels, naked, in Jamestown, being then under + twelve, and not yet wearing the apron. Smith says she was ten in 1608, but + does not mention the cart-wheels. Later, he found it convenient to put her + age at twelve or thirteen in 1608. Most American scholars, such as Mr. + Adams, entirely distrust the romantic later narratives of Smith. + </p> + <p> + (2) The Proeeedings, etc., by W. S. Arber, p. 151. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., p. 155. + </p> + <p> + (4) Ibid., p. 157. + </p> + <p> + (5) Strachey, pp. 54, 55. + </p> + <p> + Strachey is therefore for putting down the priests, and, like Smith + (indeed here borrowing from Smith), accuses them of sacrificing children. + To Smith's statement that such a rite was worked at Quiyough-cohanock, + Strachey adds that Sir George Percy (who was with Smith) "was at, and + observed" a similar mystery at Kecoughtan. It is plain that the rite was + not a sacrifice, but a Bora, or initiation, and the parallel of the + Spartan flogging of boys, with the retreat of the boys and their + instructors, is very close, and, of course, unnoted by classical scholars + except Mr. Frazer. Strachey ends with the critical remark that we shall + not know all the certainty of the religion and mysteries till we can + capture some of the priests, or Quiyough-quisocks. + </p> + <p> + Students who have access to a good library of Americana may do more to + elucidate Ahone. I regard him as in a line with Kiehtan and the God spoken + of by Heriot, and do not believe (1) that Strachey lied; (2) that natives + deceived Strachey; (3) that Ahone was borrowed from "the God of Captain + Smith". + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION. + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. SYSTEMS OF MYTHOLOGY. + </h2> + <p> + Definitions of religion—Contradictory evidence—"Belief in + spiritual beings"—Objection to Mr. Tylor's definition—Definition + as regards this argument—Problem: the contradiction between religion + and myth—Two human moods—Examples—Case of Greece—Ancient + mythologists—Criticism by Eusebius—Modern mythological systems—Mr. + Max Muller—Mannhardt. + </p> + <p> + The word "Religion" may be, and has been, employed in many different + senses, and with a perplexing width of significance. No attempt to define + the word is likely to be quite satisfactory, but almost any definition may + serve the purpose of an argument, if the writer who employs it states his + meaning frankly and adheres to it steadily. An example of the confusions + which may arise from the use of the term "religion" is familiar to + students. Dr. J. D. Lang wrote concerning the native races of Australia: + "They have nothing whatever of the character of religion, or of religious + observances, to distinguish them from the beasts that perish". Yet in the + same book Dr. Lang published evidence assigning to the natives belief in + "Turramullun, the chief of demons, who is the author of disease, mischief + and wisdom".(1) The belief in a superhuman author of "disease, mischief + and wisdom" is certainly a religious belief not conspicuously held by "the + beasts"; yet all religion was denied to the Australians by the very author + who prints (in however erroneous a style) an account of part of their + creed. This writer merely inherited the old missionary habit of speaking + about the god of a non-Christian people as a "demon" or an "evil spirit". + </p> + <p> + (1) See Primitive Culture, second edition, i. 419. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Lang's negative opinion was contradicted in testimony published by + himself, an appendix by the Rev. Mr. Ridley, containing evidence of the + belief in Baiame. "Those who have learned that 'God' is the name by which + we speak of the Creator, say that Baiame is God."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Lang's Queensland, p. 445, 1861. + </p> + <p> + As "a minimum definition of religion," Mr. Tylor has suggested "the belief + in spiritual beings". Against this it may be urged that, while we have no + definite certainty that any race of men is destitute of belief in + spiritual beings, yet certain moral and creative deities of low races do + not seem to be envisaged as "spiritual" at all. They are regarded as + EXISTENCES, as BEINGS, unconditioned by Time, Space, or Death, and nobody + appears to have put the purely metaphysical question, "Are these beings + spiritual or material?"(1) Now, if a race were discovered which believed + in such beings, yet had no faith in spirits, that race could not be called + irreligious, as it would have to be called in Mr. Tylor's "minimum + definition". Almost certainly, no race in this stage of belief in nothing + but unconditioned but not expressly spiritual beings is extant. Yet such a + belief may conceivably have existed before men had developed the theory of + spirits at all, and such a belief, in creative and moral unconditioned + beings, not alleged to be spiritual, could not be excluded from a + definition of religion.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) See The Making of Religion, pp. 201-210. + </p> + <p> + (2) "The history of the Jews, nay, the history of our own mind, proves to + demonstration that the thought of God is a far easier thought, and a far + earlier, than that of a spirit." Father Tyrrell, S. J., The Month, + October, 1898. As to the Jews, the question is debated. As to our own + infancy, we are certainly taught about God before we are likely to be + capable of the metaphysical notion of spirit. But we can scarcely reason + from children in Christian houses to the infancy of the race. + </p> + <p> + For these reasons we propose (merely for the purpose of the present work) + to define religion as the belief in a primal being, a Maker, undying, + usually moral, without denying that the belief in spiritual beings, even + if immoral, may be styled religious. Our definition is expressly framed + for the purpose of the argument, because that argument endeavours to bring + into view the essential conflict between religion and myth. We intend to + show that this conflict between the religious and the mythical conception + is present, not only (where it has been universally recognised) in the + faiths of the ancient civilised peoples, as in Greece, Rome, India and + Egypt, but also in the ideas of the lowest known savages. + </p> + <p> + It may, of course, be argued that the belief in Creator is itself a myth. + However that may be, the attitude of awe, and of moral obedience, in face + of such a supposed being, is religious in the sense of the Christian + religion, whereas the fabrication of fanciful, humorous, and wildly + irrational fables about that being, or others, is essentially mythical in + the ordinary significance of that word, though not absent from popular + Christianity. + </p> + <p> + Now, the whole crux and puzzle of mythology is, "Why, having attained (in + whatever way) to a belief in an undying guardian, 'Master of Life,' did + mankind set to work to evolve a chronique scandaleuse about HIM? And why + is that chronique the elaborately absurd set of legends which we find in + all mythologies?" + </p> + <p> + In answering, or trying to answer, these questions, we cannot go behind + the beliefs of the races now most immersed in savage ignorance. About the + psychology of races yet more undeveloped we can have no historical + knowledge. Among the lowest known tribes we usually find, just as in + ancient Greece, the belief in a deathless "Father," "Master," "Maker," and + also the crowd of humorous, obscene, fanciful myths which are in flagrant + contradiction with the religious character of that belief. That belief is + what we call rational, and even elevated. The myths, on the other hand, + are what we call irrational and debasing. We regard low savages as very + irrational and debased characters, consequently the nature of their myths + does not surprise us. Their religious conception, however, of a "Father" + or "Master of Life" seems out of keeping with the nature of the savage + mind as we understand it. Still, there the religious conception actually + is, and it seems to follow that we do not wholly understand the savage + mind, or its unknown antecedents. In any case, there the facts are, as + shall be demonstrated. However the ancestors of Australians, or + Andamanese, or Hurons arrived at their highest religious conception, they + decidedly possess it.(1) The development of their mythical conceptions is + accounted for by those qualities of their minds which we do understand, + and shall illustrate at length. For the present, we can only say that the + religious conception uprises from the human intellect in one mood, that of + earnest contemplation and submission: while the mythical ideas uprise from + another mood, that of playful and erratic fancy. These two moods are + conspicuous even in Christianity. The former, that of earnest and + submissive contemplation, declares itself in prayers, hymns, and "the dim + religious light" of cathedrals. The second mood, that of playful and + erratic fancy, is conspicuous in the buffoonery of Miracle Plays, in + Marchen, these burlesque popular tales about our Lord and the Apostles, + and in the hideous and grotesque sculptures on sacred edifices. The two + moods are present, and in conflict, through the whole religious history of + the human race. They stand as near each other, and as far apart, as Love + and Lust. + </p> + <p> + (1) The hypothesis that the conception was borrowed from European creeds + will be discussed later. See, too, "Are Savage Gods borrowed from + Missionaries?" Nineteenth Century, January, 1899. + </p> + <p> + It will later be shown that even some of the most backward savages make a + perhaps half-conscious distinction between their mythology and their + religion. As to the former, they are communicative; as to the latter, they + jealously guard their secret in sacred mysteries. It is improbable that + reflective "black fellows" have been morally shocked by the flagrant + contradictions between their religious conceptions and their mythical + stories of the divine beings. But human thought could not come into + explicit clearness of consciousness without producing the sense of shock + and surprise at these contradictions between the Religion and the Myth of + the same god. Of this we proceed to give examples. + </p> + <p> + In Greece, as early as the sixth century B. C., we are all familiar with + Xenophanes' poem(1) complaining that the gods were credited with the worst + crimes of mortals—in fact, with abominations only known in the + orgies of Nero and Elagabalus. We hear Pindar refusing to repeat the tale + which told him the blessed were cannibals.(2) In India we read the pious + Brahmanic attempts to expound decently the myths which made Indra the + slayer of a Brahman; the sinner, that is, of the unpardonable sin. In + Egypt, too, we study the priestly or philosophic systems by which the + clergy strove to strip the burden of absurdity and sacrilege from their + own deities. From all these efforts of civilised and pious believers to + explain away the stories about their own gods we may infer one fact—the + most important to the student of mythology—the fact that myths were + not evolved in times of clear civilised thought. It is when Greece is just + beginning to free her thought from the bondage of too concrete language, + when she is striving to coin abstract terms, that her philosophers and + poets first find the myths of Greece a stumbling-block. + </p> + <p> + (1) Ritter and Preller, Hist. Philos., Gothae, 1869, p. 82. + </p> + <p> + (2) Olympic Odes, i., Myers's translation: "To me it is impossible to call + one of the blessed gods a cannibal.... Meet it is for a man that + concerning the gods he speak honourably, for the reproach is less. Of + thee, son of Tantalus, I will speak contrariwise to them who have gone + before me." In avoiding the story of the cannibal god, however, Pindar + tells a tale even more offensive to our morality. + </p> + <p> + All early attempts at an interpretation of mythology are so many efforts + to explain the myths on some principle which shall seem not unreasonable + to men living at the time of the explanation. Therefore the pious + remonstrances and the forced constructions of early thinkers like + Xenophanes, of poets like Pindar, of all ancient Homeric scholars and + Pagan apologists, from Theagenes of Rhegium (525 B. C.), the early Homeric + commentator, to Porphyry, almost the last of the heathen philosophers, are + so many proofs that to Greece, as soon as she had a reflective literature, + the myths of Greece seemed impious and IRRATIONAL. The essays of the + native commentators on the Veda, in the same way, are endeavours to put + into myths felt to be irrational and impious a meaning which does not + offend either piety or reason. We may therefore conclude that it was not + men in an early stage of philosophic thought (as philosophy is now + understood)—not men like Empedocles and Heraclitus, nor reasonably + devout men like Eumaeus, the pious swineherd of the Odyssey—who + evolved the blasphemous myths of Greece, of Egypt and of India. We must + look elsewhere for an explanation. We must try to discover some actual and + demonstrable and widely prevalent condition of the human mind, in which + tales that even to remote and rudimentary civilisations appeared + irrational and unnatural would seem natural and rational. To discover this + intellectual condition has been the aim of all mythologists who did not + believe that myth is a divine tradition depraved by human weakness, or a + distorted version of historical events. + </p> + <p> + Before going further, it is desirable to set forth what our aim is, and to + what extent we are seeking an interpretation of mythology. It is not our + purpose to explain every detail of every ancient legend, either as a + distorted historical fact or as the result of this or that confusion of + thought caused by forgetfulness of the meanings of language, or in any + other way; nay, we must constantly protest against the excursions of too + venturesome ingenuity. Myth is so ancient, so complex, so full of + elements, that it is vain labour to seek a cause for every phenomenon. We + are chiefly occupied with the quest for an historical condition of the + human intellect to which the element in myths, regarded by us as + irrational, shall seem rational enough. If we can prove that such a state + of mind widely exists among men, and has existed, that state of mind may + be provisionally considered as the fount and ORIGIN of the myths which + have always perplexed men in a reasonable modern mental condition. Again, + if it can be shown that this mental stage was one through which all + civilised races have passed, the universality of the mythopoeic mental + condition will to some extent explain the universal DIFFUSION of the + stories. + </p> + <p> + Now, in all mythologies, whether savage or civilised, and in all religions + where myths intrude, there exist two factors—the factor which we now + regard as rational, and that which we moderns regard as irrational. The + former element needs little explanation; the latter has demanded + explanation ever since human thought became comparatively instructed and + abstract. + </p> + <p> + To take an example; even in the myths of savages there is much that still + seems rational and transparent. If savages tell us that some wise being + taught them all the simple arts of life, the use of fire, of the bow and + arrow, the barbing of hooks, and so forth, we understand them at once. + Nothing can be more natural than that man should believe in an original + inventor of the arts, and should tell tales about the imaginary + discoverers if the real heroes be forgotten. So far all is plain sailing. + But when the savage goes on to say that he who taught the use of fire or + who gave the first marriage laws was a rabbit or a crow, or a dog, or a + beaver, or a spider, then we are at once face to face with the element in + myths which seems to us IRRATIONAL. Again, among civilised peoples we read + of the pure all-seeing Varuna in the Vedas, to whom sin is an offence. We + read of Indra, the Lord of Thunder, borne in his chariot, the giver of + victory, the giver of wealth to the pious; here once more all seems + natural and plain. The notion of a deity who guides the whirlwind and + directs the storm, a god of battles, a god who blesses righteousness, is + familiar to us and intelligible; but when we read how Indra drank himself + drunk and committed adulteries with Asura women, and got himself born from + the same womb as a bull, and changed himself into a quail or a ram, and + suffered from the most abject physical terror, and so forth, then we are + among myths no longer readily intelligible; here, we feel, are IRRATIONAL + stories, of which the original ideas, in their natural sense, can hardly + have been conceived by men in a pure and rational early civilisation. + Again, in the religions of even the lowest races, such myths as these are + in contradiction with the ethical elements of the faith. + </p> + <p> + If we look at Greek religious tradition, we observe the coexistence of the + RATIONAL and the apparently IRRATIONAL elements. The RATIONAL myths are + those which represent the gods as beautiful and wise beings. The Artemis + of the Odyssey "taking her pastime in the chase of boars and swift deer, + while with her the wild wood-nymphs disport them, and high over them all + she rears her brow, and is easily to be known where all are fair,"(1) is a + perfectly RATIONAL mythic representation of a divine being. We feel, even + now, that the conception of a "queen and goddess, chaste and fair," the + abbess, as Paul de Saint-Victor calls her, of the woodlands, is a + beautiful and natural fancy, which requires no explanation. On the other + hand, the Artemis of Arcadia, who is confused with the nymph Callisto, + who, again, is said to have become a she-bear, and later a star; and the + Brauronian Artemis, whose maiden ministers danced a bear-dance,(2) are + goddesses whose legend seems unnatural, and needs to be made intelligible. + Or, again, there is nothing not explicable and natural in the conception + of the Olympian Zeus as represented by the great chryselephantine statue + of Zeus at Olympia, or in the Homeric conception of Zeus as a god who + "turns everywhere his shining eyes, and beholds all things, and protects + the righteous, and deals good or evil fortune to men." But the Zeus whose + grave was shown in Crete, or the Zeus who played Demeter an obscene trick + by the aid of a ram, or the Zeus who, in the shape of a swan, became the + father of Castor and Pollux, or the Zeus who deceived Hera by means of a + feigned marriage with an inanimate object, or the Zeus who was afraid of + Attes, or the Zeus who made love to women in the shape of an ant or a + cuckoo, is a being whose myth is felt to be unnatural and bewildering.(3) + It is this IRRATIONAL and unnatural element, as Mr. Max Muller says, "the + silly, senseless, and savage element," that makes mythology the puzzle + which men have so long found it. For, observe, Greek myth does not + represent merely a humorous play of fancy, dealing with things religiously + sacred as if by way of relief from the strained reverential contemplation + of the majesty of Zeus. Many stories of Greek mythology are such as could + not cross, for the first time, the mind of a civilised Xenophanes or + Theagenes, even in a dream. THIS was the real puzzle. + </p> + <p> + (1) Odyssey, vi. 102. + </p> + <p> + (2) (Greek word omitted); compare Harpokration on this word. + </p> + <p> + (3) These are the features in myth which provoke, for example, the wonder + of Emeric-David. "The lizard, the wolf, the dog, the ass, the frog, and + all the other brutes so common on religious monuments everywhere, do they + not all imply a THOUGHT which we must divine?" He concludes that these + animals, plants, and monsters of myths are so many "enigmas" and "symbols" + veiling some deep, sacred idea, allegories of some esoteric religious + creed. Jupiter, Paris, 1832, p. lxxvii. + </p> + <p> + We have offered examples—Savage, Indian, and Greek—of that + element in mythology which, as all civilised races have felt, demands + explanation. + </p> + <p> + To be still more explicit, we may draw up a brief list of the chief + problems in the legendary stories attached to the old religions of the + world—the problems which it is our special purpose to notice. First + we have, in the myths of all races, the most grotesque conceptions of the + character of gods when mythically envisaged. Beings who, in religion, + leave little to be desired, and are spoken of as holy, immortal, + omniscient, and kindly, are, in myth, represented as fashioned in the + likeness not only of man, but of the beasts; as subject to death, as + ignorant and impious. + </p> + <p> + Most pre-Christian religions had their "zoomorphic" or partially + zoomorphic idols, gods in the shape of the lower animals, or with the + heads and necks of the lower animals. In the same way all mythologies + represent the gods as fond of appearing in animal forms. Under these + disguises they conduct many amours, even with the daughters of men, and + Greek houses were proud of their descent from Zeus in the shape of an + eagle or ant, a serpent or a swan; while Cronus and the Vedic Tvashtri and + Poseidon made love as horses, and Apollo as a dog. Not less wild are the + legends about the births of gods from the thigh, or the head, or feet, or + armpits of some parent; while tales describing and pictures representing + unspeakable divine obscenities were frequent in the mythology and in the + temples of Greece. Once more, the gods were said to possess and exercise + the power of turning men and women into birds, beasts, fishes, trees, and + stones, so that there was scarcely a familiar natural object in the Greek + world which had not once (according to legend) been a man or a woman. The + myths of the origin of the world and man, again, were in the last degree + childish and disgusting. The Bushmen and Australians have, perhaps, no + story of the origin of species quite so barbarous in style as the + anecdotes about Phanes and Prajapati which are preserved in the Orphic + hymns and in the Brahmanas. The conduct of the earlier dynasties of + classical gods towards each other was as notoriously cruel and loathsome + as their behaviour towards mortals was tricksy and capricious. The + classical gods, with all their immortal might, are, by a mythical + contradiction of the religious conception, regarded as capable of fear and + pain, and are led into scrapes as ludicrous as those of Brer Wolf or Brer + Terrapin in the tales of the Negroes of the Southern States of America. + The stars, again, in mythology, are mixed up with beasts, planets and men + in the same embroglio of fantastic opinion. The dead and the living, men, + beasts and gods, trees and stars, and rivers, and sun, and moon, dance + through the region of myths in a burlesque ballet of Priapus, where + everything may be anything, where nature has no laws and imagination no + limits. + </p> + <p> + Such are the irrational characteristics of myths, classic or Indian, + European or American, African or Asiatic, Australian or Maori. Such is one + element we find all the world over among civilised and savage people, quod + semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. It is no wonder that pious and + reflective men have, in so many ages and in so many ways, tried to account + to themselves for their possession of beliefs closely connected with + religion which yet seemed ruinous to religion and morality. + </p> + <p> + The explanations which men have given of their own sacred stories, the + apologies for their own gods which they have been constrained to offer to + themselves, were the earliest babblings of a science of mythology. That + science was, in its dim beginnings, intended to satisfy a moral need. Man + found that his gods, when mythically envisaged, were not made in his own + moral image at its best, but in the image sometimes of the beasts, + sometimes of his own moral nature at its very worst: in the likeness of + robbers, wizards, sorcerers, and adulterers. Now, it is impossible here to + examine minutely all systems of mythological interpretation. Every key has + been tried in this difficult lock; every cause of confusion has been taken + up and tested, deemed adequate, and finally rejected or assigned a + subordinate place. Probably the first attempts to shake off the burden of + religious horror at mythical impiety were made by way of silent omission. + Thus most of the foulest myths of early India are absent, and presumably + were left out, in the Rig-Veda. "The religious sentiment of the hymns, + already so elevated, has discarded most of the tales which offended it, + but has not succeeded in discarding them all."(1) Just as the poets of the + Rig-Veda prefer to avoid the more offensive traditions about Indra and + Tvashtri, so Homer succeeds in avoiding the more grotesque and puerile + tales about his own gods.(2) The period of actual apology comes later. + Pindar declines, as we have seen, to accuse a god of cannibalism. The + Satapatha Brahmana invents a new story about the slaying of Visvarupa. Not + Indra, but Trita, says the Brahmana apologetically, slew the three-headed + son of Tvashtri. "Indra assuredly was free from that sin, for he is a + god," says the Indian apologist.(3) Yet sins which to us appear far more + monstrous than the peccadillo of killing a three-headed Brahman are + attributed freely to Indra. + </p> + <p> + (1) Les Religions de l'Inde, Barth, p. 14. See also postea, "Indian + Myths". + </p> + <p> + (2) The reasons for Homer's reticence are probably different in different + passages. Perhaps in some cases he had heard a purer version of myth than + what reached Hesiod; perhaps he sometimes purposely (like Pindar) purified + a myth; usually he must have selected, in conformity with the noble + humanity and purity of his taste, the tales that best conformed to his + ideal. He makes his deities reluctant to drag out in dispute old scandals + of their early unheroic adventures, some of which, however, he gives, as + the kicking of Hephaestus out of heaven, and the imprisonment of Ares in a + vessel of bronze. Compare Professor Jebb's Homer, p. 83: "whatever the + instinct of the great artist has tolerated, at least it has purged these + things away." that is, divine amours in bestial form. + </p> + <p> + (3) Satapatha Brahmana, Oxford, 1882, vol. i. p. 47. + </p> + <p> + While poets could but omit a blasphemous tale or sketch an apology in + passing, it became the business of philosophers and of antiquarian writers + deliberately to "whitewash" the gods of popular religion. Systematic + explanations of the sacred stories, whether as preserved in poetry or as + told by priests, had to be provided. India had her etymological and her + legendary school of mythology.(1) Thus, while the hymn SEEMED to tell how + the Maruts were gods, "born together with the spotted deer," the + etymological interpreters explained that the word for deer only meant the + many-coloured lines of clouds.(2) In the armoury of apologetics etymology + has been the most serviceable weapon. It is easy to see that by aid of + etymology the most repulsive legend may be compelled to yield a pure or + harmless sense, and may be explained as an innocent blunder, caused by + mere verbal misunderstanding. Brahmans, Greeks, and Germans have equally + found comfort in this hypothesis. In the Cratylus of Plato, Socrates + speaks of the notion of explaining myths by etymological guesses at the + meaning of divine names as "a philosophy which came to him all in an + instant". Thus we find Socrates shocked by the irreverence which styled + Zeus the son of Cronus, "who is a proverb for stupidity". But on examining + philologically the name Kronos, Socrates decides that it must really mean + Koros, "not in the sense of a youth, but signifying the pure and garnished + mind". Therefore, when people first called Zeus the son of Cronus, they + meant nothing irreverent, but only that Zeus is the child of the pure mind + or pure reason. Not only is this etymological system most pious and + consolatory, but it is, as Socrates adds, of universal application. "For + now I bethink me of a very new and ingenious notion,... that we may put in + and pull out letters at pleasure, and alter the accents."(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Rig-Veda Sanhita. Max Muller, p. 59. + </p> + <p> + (2) Postea, "Indian Divine Myths". + </p> + <p> + (3) Jowett's Plato, vol. i. pp. 632, 670. + </p> + <p> + Socrates, of course, speaks more than half in irony, but there is a + certain truth in his account of etymological analysis and its dependence + on individual tastes and preconceived theory. + </p> + <p> + The ancient classical schools of mythological interpretation, though + unscientific and unsuccessful, are not without interest. We find + philosophers and grammarians looking, just as we ourselves are looking, + for some condition of the human intellect out of which the absurd element + in myths might conceivably have sprung. Very naturally the philosophers + supposed that the human beings in whose brain and speech myths had their + origin must have been philosophers like themselves—intelligent, + educated persons. But such persons, they argued, could never have meant to + tell stories about the gods so full of nonsense and blasphemy. + </p> + <p> + Therefore the nonsense and blasphemy must originally have had some + harmless, or even praiseworthy, sense. What could that sense have been? + This question each ancient mythologist answered in accordance with his own + taste and prejudices, and above all, and like all other and later + speculators, in harmony with the general tendency of his own studies. If + he lived when physical speculation was coming into fashion, as in the age + of Empedocles, he thought that the Homeric poems must contain a veiled + account of physical philosophy. This was the opinion of Theagenes of + Rhegium, who wrote at a period when a crude physicism was disengaging + itself from the earlier religious and mythical cosmogonic systems of + Greece. Theagenes was shocked by the Homeric description of the battle in + which the gods fought as allies of the Achaeans and Trojans. He therefore + explained away the affair as a veiled account of the strife of the + elements. Such "strife" was familiar to readers of the physical + speculations of Empedocles and of Heraclitus, who blamed Homer for his + prayer against Strife.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Is. et Osir., 48. + </p> + <p> + It did not occur to Theagenes to ask whether any evidence existed to show + that the pre-Homeric Greeks were Empedoclean or Heraclitean philosophers. + He readily proved to himself that Apollo, Helios, and Hephaestus were + allegorical representations, like what such philosophers would feign,—of + fire, that Hera was air, Poseidon water, Artemis the moon, and the rest he + disposed of in the same fashion.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Scholia on Iliad, xx. 67. Dindorf (1877), vol. iv. p. 231. "This + manner of apologetics is as old as Theagenes of Rhegium. Homer offers + theological doctrine in the guise of physical allegory." + </p> + <p> + Metrodorus, again, turned not only the gods, but the Homeric heroes into + "elemental combinations and physical agencies"; for there is nothing new + in the mythological philosophy recently popular, which saw the sun, and + the cloud, and the wind in Achilles, Athene, and Hermes.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Grote, Hist, of Greece, ed. 1869, i. p. 404. + </p> + <p> + In the Bacchae (291-297), Euripides puts another of the mythological + systems of his own time into the mouth of Cadmus, the Theban king, who + advances a philological explanation of the story that Dionysus was sewn up + in the thigh of Zeus. The most famous of the later theories was that of + Euhemerus (316 B.C.). In a kind of philosophical romance, Euhemerus + declared that he had sailed to some No-man's-land, Panchaea, where he + found the verity about mythical times engraved on pillars of bronze. This + truth he published in the Sacra Historia, where he rationalised the + fables, averring that the gods had been men, and that the myths were + exaggerated and distorted records of facts. (See Eusebius, Praep. E., ii + 55.) The Abbe Banier (La Mythologie expliquee par l'Histoire, Paris, 1738, + vol. ii. p. 218) attempts the defence of Euhemerus, whom most of the + ancients regarded as an atheist. There was an element of truth in his + romantic hypothesis.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) See Block, Euhemere et sa Doctrine, Mons, 1876. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes the old stories were said to conceal a moral, sometimes a + physical, sometimes a mystical or Neo-platonic sort of meaning. As every + apologist interpreted the legends in his own fashion, the interpretations + usually disagreed and killed each other. Just as one modern mythologist + sees the wind in Aeetes and the dawn in Medea, while another of the same + school believes, on equally good evidence, that both Aeetes and Medea are + the moon, so writers like Porphyry (270 A. D.) and Plutarch (60 A. D.) + made the ancient deities types of their own favourite doctrines, whatever + these might happen to be. + </p> + <p> + When Christianity became powerful, the Christian writers naturally + attacked heathen religion where it was most vulnerable, on the side of the + myths, and of the mysteries which were dramatic representations of the + myths. "Pretty gods you worship," said the Fathers, in effect, "homicides, + adulterers, bulls, bears, mice, ants, and what not." The heathen + apologists for the old religion were thus driven in the early ages of + Christianity to various methods of explaining away the myths of their + discredited religion. + </p> + <p> + The early Christian writers very easily, and with considerable + argumentative power, disposed of the apologies for the myths advanced by + Porphyry and Plutarch. Thus Eusebius in the Praeparatio Evangelica first + attacks the Egyptian interpretations of their own bestial or semi-bestial + gods. He shows that the various interpretations destroy each other, and + goes on to point out that Greek myth is in essence only a veneered and + varnished version of the faith of Egypt. He ridicules, with a good deal of + humour, the old theories which resolved so many mythical heroes into the + sun; he shows that while one system is contented to regard Zeus as mere + fire and air, another system recognises in him the higher reason, while + Heracles, Dionysus, Apollo, and Asclepius, father and child, are all + indifferently the sun. + </p> + <p> + Granting that the myth-makers were only constructing physical allegories, + why did they wrap them up, asks Eusebius, in what WE consider abominable + fictions? In what state were the people who could not look at the pure + processes of Nature without being reminded of the most hideous and + unnatural offences? Once more: "The physical interpreters do not even + agree in their physical interpretations". All these are equally facile, + equally plausible, and equally incapable of proof. Again, Eusebius argues, + the interpreters take for granted in the makers of the myths an amount of + physical knowledge which they certainly did not possess. For example, if + Leto were only another name for Hera, the character of Zeus would be + cleared as far as his amour with Leto is concerned. Now, the ancient + believers in the "physical phenomena theory" of myths made out that Hera, + the wife of Zeus, was really the same person under another name as Leto, + his mistress. "For Hera is the earth" (they said at other times that Hera + was the air), "and Leto is the night; but night is only the shadow of the + earth, and therefore Leto is only the shadow of Hera." It was easy, + however, to prove that this scientific view of night as the shadow of + earth was not likely to be known to myth-makers, who regarded "swift + Night" as an actual person. Plutarch, too, had an abstruse theory to + explain the legend about the dummy wife,—a log of oak-wood, which + Zeus pretended to marry when at variance with Hera.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Pausanias, ix. 31. + </p> + <p> + This quarrel, he said, was merely the confusion and strife of elements. + Zeus was heat, Hera was cold (she had already been explained as earth and + air), the dummy wife of oak-wood was a tree that emerged after a flood, + and so forth. Of course, there was no evidence that mythopoeic men held + Plutarchian theories of heat and cold and the conflict of the elements; + besides, as Eusebius pointed out, Hera had already been defined once as an + allegory of wedded life, and once as the earth, and again as the air, and + it was rather too late to assert that she was also the cold and watery + element in the world. As for his own explanation of the myths, Eusebius + holds that they descend from a period when men in their lawless barbarism + knew no better than to tell such tales. "Ancient folk, in the exceeding + savagery of their lives, made no account of God, the universal Creator + (here Eusebius is probably wrong)... but betook them to all manner of + abominations. For the laws of decent existence were not yet established, + nor was any settled and peaceful state ordained among men, but only a + loose and savage fashion of wandering life, while, as beasts irrational, + they cared for no more than to fill their bellies, being in a manner + without God in the world." Growing a little more civilised, men, according + to Eusebius, sought after something divine, which they found in the + heavenly bodies. Later, they fell to worshipping living persons, + especially "medicine men" and conjurors, and continued to worship them + even after their decease, so that Greek temples are really tombs of the + dead.(1) Finally, the civilised ancients, with a conservative reluctance + to abandon their old myths (Greek text omitted), invented for them moral + or physical explanations, like those of Plutarch and others, earlier and + later.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Praep. E., ii. 5. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., 6,19. + </p> + <p> + As Eusebius, like Clemens of Alexandria, Arnobius, and the other early + Christian disputants, had no prejudice in favour of Hellenic mythology, + and no sentimental reason for wishing to suppose that the origin of its + impurities was pure, he found his way almost to the theory of the + irrational element in mythology which we propose to offer. + </p> + <p> + Even to sketch the history of mythological hypothesis in modern times + would require a book to itself. It must suffice here to indicate the + various lines which speculation as to mythology has pursued. + </p> + <p> + All interpretations of myth have been formed in accordance with the ideas + prevalent in the time of the interpreters. The early Greek physicists + thought that mythopoeic men had been physicists. Aristotle hints that they + were (like himself) political philosophers.(1) Neo-platonists sought in + the myths for Neo-platonism; most Christians (unlike Eusebius) either + sided with Euhemerus, or found in myth the inventions of devils, or a + tarnished and distorted memory of the Biblical revelation. + </p> + <p> + (1) Met., xi. 8,19. + </p> + <p> + This was the theory, for example, of good old Jacob Bryant, who saw + everywhere memories of the Noachian deluge and proofs of the correctness + of Old Testament ethnology.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Bryant, A New System, wherein an Attempt is made to Divest Tradition + of Fable, 1774. + </p> + <p> + Much the same attempt to find the Biblical truth at the bottom of savage + and ancient fable has been recently made by the late M. Lenormant, a + Catholic scholar.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Les Origines de l'Histoire d'apres le Bible, 1880-1884. + </p> + <p> + In the beginning of the present century Germany turned her attention to + mythology. As usual, men's ideas were biassed by the general nature of + their opinions. In a pious kind of spirit, Friedrich Creuzer sought to + find SYMBOLS of some pure, early, and Oriental theosophy in the myths and + mysteries of Greece. Certainly the Greeks of the philosophical period + explained their own myths as symbols of higher things, but the explanation + was an after-thought.(1) The great Lobeck, in his Aglaophamus (1829), + brought back common sense, and made it the guide of his vast, his + unequalled learning. In a gentler and more genial spirit, C. Otfried + Muller laid the foundation of a truly scientific and historical + mythology.(2) Neither of these writers had, like Alfred Maury,(3) much + knowledge of the myths and faiths of the lower races, but they often seem + on the point of anticipating the ethnological method. + </p> + <p> + (1) Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie, 2d edit., Leipzig, 1836-43. + </p> + <p> + (2) Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology, English trans., + London, 1844. + </p> + <p> + (3) Histoire des Religions de la Grece Antique, Paris, 1857. + </p> + <p> + When philological science in our own century came to maturity, in + philology, as of old in physics and later in symbols, was sought the key + of myths. While physical allegory, religious and esoteric symbolism, + verbal confusion, historical legend, and an original divine tradition, + perverted in ages of darkness, have been the most popular keys in other + ages, the scientific nineteenth century has had a philological key of its + own. The methods of Kuhn, Breal, Max Muller, and generally the + philological method, cannot be examined here at full length.(1) Briefly + speaking, the modern philological method is intended for a scientific + application of the old etymological interpretations. Cadmus in the Bacchae + of Euripides, Socrates in the Cratylus of Plato, dismiss unpalatable myths + as the results of verbal confusion. People had originally said something + quite sensible—so the hypothesis runs—but when their + descendants forgot the meaning of their remarks, a new and absurd meaning + followed from a series of unconscious puns.(2) This view was supported in + ancient times by purely conjectural and impossible etymologies. Thus the + myth that Dionysus was sewn up in the THIGH of Zeus (Greek text omitted) + was explained by Euripides as the result of a confusion of words. People + had originally said that Zeus gave a pledge (Greek text omitted) to Hera. + The modern philological school relies for explanations of untoward and + other myths on similar confusions. Thus Daphne is said to have been + originally not a girl of romance, but the dawn (Sanskirt, dahana: ahana) + pursued by the rising sun. But as the original Aryan sense of Dahana or + Ahana was lost, and as Daphne came to mean the laurel—the wood which + burns easily—the fable arose that the tree had been a girl called + Daphne.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) See Mythology in Encyclop. Brit. and in La Mythologie (A. L.), Paris, + 1886, where Mr. Max Muller's system is criticised. See also Custom and + Myth and Modern Mythology. + </p> + <p> + (2) That a considerable number of myths, chiefly myths of place names, + arise from popular etymologies is certain: what is objected to is the vast + proportion given to this element in myths. + </p> + <p> + (3) Max Muller, Nineteenth Century, December, 1885; "Solar Myths," + January, 1886; Myths and Mythologists (A. L). Whitney, Mannhardt, + Bergaigne, and others dispute the etymology. Or. and Ling. Studies, 1874, + p. 160; Mannhardt, Antike Wald und Feld Kultus (Berlin, 1877), p. xx.; + Bergaigne, La Religion Vedique, iii. 293; nor does Curtius like it much, + Principles of Greek Etymology, English trans., ii. 92, 93; Modern + Mythology (A. L.), 1897. + </p> + <p> + This system chiefly rests on comparison between the Sanskrit names in the + Rig-Veda and the mythic names in Greek, German, Slavonic, and other Aryan + legends. The attempt is made to prove that, in the common speech of the + undivided Aryan race, many words for splendid or glowing natural phenomena + existed, and that natural processes were described in a figurative style. + As the various Aryan families separated, the sense of the old words and + names became dim, the nomina developed into numina, the names into gods, + the descriptions of elemental processes into myths. As this system has + already been criticised by us elsewhere with minute attention, a reference + to these reviews must suffice in this place. Briefly, it may be stated + that the various masters of the school—Kuhn, Max Muller, Roth, + Schwartz, and the rest—rarely agree where agreement is essential, + that is, in the philological foundations of their building. They differ in + very many of the etymological analyses of mythical names. They also differ + in the interpretations they put on the names, Kuhn almost invariably + seeing fire, storm, cloud, or lightning where Mr. Max Muller sees the + chaste Dawn. Thus Mannhardt, after having been a disciple, is obliged to + say that comparative Indo-Germanic mythology has not borne the fruit + expected, and that "the CERTAIN gains of the system reduce themselves to + the scantiest list of parallels, such as Dyaus = Zeus = Tius, Parjanya = + Perkunas, Bhaga = Bog, Varuna = Uranos" (a position much disputed), etc. + Mannhardt adds his belief that a number of other "equations"—such as + Sarameya = Hermeias, Saranyus = Demeter Erinnys, Kentauros = Gandharva, + and many others—will not stand criticism, and he fears that these + ingenious guesses will prove mere jeux d'esprit rather than actual + facts.(1) Many examples of the precarious and contradictory character of + the results of philological mythology, many instances of "dubious + etymologies," false logic, leaps at foregone conclusions, and attempts to + make what is peculiarly Indian in thought into matter of universal + application, will meet us in the chapters on Indian and Greek divine + legends.(2) "The method in its practical working shows a fundamental lack + of the historical sense," says Mannhardt. Examples are torn from their + contexts, he observes; historical evolution is neglected; passages of the + Veda, themselves totally obscure, are dragged forward to account for + obscure Greek mythical phenomena. Such are the accusations brought by the + regretted Mannhardt against the school to which he originally belonged, + and which was popular and all-powerful even in the maturity of his own + more clear-sighted genius. Proofs of the correctness of his criticism will + be offered abundantly in the course of this work. It will become evident + that, great as are the acquisitions of Philology, her least certain + discoveries have been too hastily applied in alien "matter," that is, in + the region of myth. Not that philology is wholly without place or part in + the investigation of myth, when there is agreement among philologists as + to the meaning of a divine name. In that case a certain amount of light is + thrown on the legend of the bearer of the name, and on its origin and + first home, Aryan, Greek, Semitic, or the like. But how rare is agreement + among philologists! + </p> + <p> + (1) Baum und Feld Kultus, p. xvii. Kuhn's "epoch-making" book is Die + Herabkunft des Feuers, Berlin, 1859. By way of example of the disputes as + to the original meaning of a name like Prometheus, compare Memoires de la + Societe de Linguistique de Paris, t. iv. p. 336. + </p> + <p> + (2) See especially Mannhardt's note on Kuhn's theories of Poseidon and + Hermes, B. u. F. K., pp. xviii., xix., note 1. + </p> + <p> + "The philological method," says Professor Tiele,(1) "is inadequate and + misleading, when it is a question of discovering the ORIGIN of a myth, or + the physical explanation of the oldest myths, or of accounting for the + rude and obscene element in the divine legends of civilised races. But + these are not the only problems of mythology. There is, for example, the + question of the GENEALOGICAL relations of myths, where we have to + determine whether the myths of peoples whose speech is of the same family + are special modifications of a mythology once common to the race whence + these peoples have sprung. The philological method alone can answer here." + But this will seem a very limited province when we find that almost all + races, however remote and unconnected in speech, have practically much the + same myths. + </p> + <p> + (1) Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel., xii. 3, 260, Nov., Dec., 1885. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. NEW SYSTEM PROPOSED. + </h2> + <p> + Chap. I. recapitulated—Proposal of a new method: Science of + comparative or historical study of man—Anticipated in part by + Eusebius, Fontenelle, De Brosses, Spencer (of C. C. C., Cambridge), and + Mannhardt—Science of Tylor—Object of inquiry: to find + condition of human intellect in which marvels of myth are parts of + practical everyday belief—This is the savage state—Savages + described—The wild element of myth a survival from the savage state—Advantages + of this method—Partly accounts for wide DIFFUSION as well as ORIGIN + of myths—Connected with general theory of evolution—Puzzling + example of myth of the water-swallower—Professor Tiele's criticism + of the method—Objections to method, and answer to these—See + Appendix B. + </p> + <p> + The past systems of mythological interpretation have been briefly + sketched. It has been shown that the practical need for a reconciliation + between RELIGION and MORALITY on one side, and the MYTHS about the gods on + the other, produced the hypotheses of Theagenes and Metrodorus, of + Socrates and Euemerus, of Aristotle and Plutarch. It has been shown that + in each case the reconcilers argued on the basis of their own ideas and of + the philosophies of their time. The early physicist thought that myth + concealed a physical philosophy; the early etymologist saw in it a + confusion of language; the early political speculator supposed that myth + was an invention of legislators; the literary Euhemerus found the secret + of myths in the course of an imaginary voyage to a fabled island. Then + came the moment of the Christian attacks, and Pagan philosophers, touched + with Oriental pantheism, recognised in myths certain pantheistic symbols + and a cryptic revelation of their own Neo-platonism. When the gods were + dead and their altars fallen, then antiquaries brought their curiosity to + the problem of explaining myth. Christians recognised in it a depraved + version of the Jewish sacred writings, and found the ark on every + mountain-top of Greece. The critical nineteenth century brought in, with + Otfried Muller and Lobeck, a closer analysis; and finally, in the sudden + rise of comparative philology, it chanced that philologists annexed the + domain of myths. Each of these systems had its own amount of truth, but + each certainly failed to unravel the whole web of tradition and of foolish + faith. + </p> + <p> + Meantime a new science has come into existence, the science which studies + man in the sum of all his works and thoughts, as evolved through the whole + process of his development. This science, Comparative Anthropology, + examines the development of law out of custom; the development of weapons + from the stick or stone to the latest repeating rifle; the development of + society from the horde to the nation. It is a study which does not despise + the most backward nor degraded tribe, nor neglect the most civilised, and + it frequently finds in Australians or Nootkas the germ of ideas and + institutions which Greeks or Romans brought to perfection, or retained, + little altered from their early rudeness, in the midst of civilisation. + </p> + <p> + It is inevitable that this science should also try its hand on mythology. + Our purpose is to employ the anthropological method—the study of the + evolution of ideas, from the savage to the barbarous, and thence to the + civilised stage—in the province of myth, ritual, and religion. It + has been shown that the light of this method had dawned on Eusebius in his + polemic with the heathen apologists. Spencer, the head of Corpus, + Cambridge (1630-93), had really no other scheme in his mind in his erudite + work on Hebrew Ritual.(1) Spencer was a student of man's religions + generally, and he came to the conclusion that Hebrew ritual was but an + expurgated, and, so to speak, divinely "licensed" adaptation of heathen + customs at large. We do but follow his guidance on less perilous ground + when we seek for the original forms of classical rite and myth in the + parallel usages and legends of the most backward races. + </p> + <p> + (1) De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus, Tubingae, 1782. + </p> + <p> + Fontenelle in the last century, stated, with all the clearness of the + French intellect, the system which is partially worked out in this essay—the + system which explains the irrational element in myth as inherited from + savagery. Fontenelle's paper (Sur l'Origine des Fables) is brief, + sensible, and witty, and requires little but copious evidence to make it + adequate. But he merely threw out the idea, and left it to be + neglected.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) See Appendix A., Fontenelle's Origine des Fables. + </p> + <p> + Among other founders of the anthropological or historical school of + mythology, De Brosses should not be forgotten. In his Dieux Fetiches + (1760) he follows the path which Eusebius indicated—the path of + Spencer and Fontenelle—now the beaten road of Tylor and M'Lennan and + Mannhardt. + </p> + <p> + In anthropology, in the science of Waitz, Tylor, and M'Lennan, in the + examination of man's faith in the light of his social, legal, and + historical conditions generally, we find, with Mannhardt, some of the keys + of myth. This science "makes it manifest that the different stages through + which humanity has passed in its intellectual evolution have still their + living representatives among various existing races. The study of these + lower races is an invaluable instrument for the interpretation of the + survivals from earlier stages, which we meet in the full civilisation of + cultivated peoples, but whose origins were in the remotest fetichism and + savagery."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Mannhardt op. cit. p. xxiii. + </p> + <p> + It is by following this road, and by the aid of anthropology and of human + history, that we propose to seek for a demonstrably actual condition of + the human intellect, whereof the puzzling qualities of myth would be the + natural and inevitable fruit. In all the earlier theories which we have + sketched, inquirers took it for granted that the myth-makers were men with + philosophic and moral ideas like their own—ideas which, from some + reason of religion or state, they expressed in bizarre terms of allegory. + We shall attempt, on the other hand, to prove that the human mind has + passed through a condition quite unlike that of civilised men—a + condition in which things seemed natural and rational that now appear + unnatural and devoid of reason, and in which, therefore, if myths were + evolved, they would, if they survived into civilisation, be such as + civilised men find strange and perplexing. + </p> + <p> + Our first question will be, Is there a stage of human society and of the + human intellect in which facts that appear to us to be monstrous and + irrational—facts corresponding to the wilder incidents of myth—are + accepted as ordinary occurrences of everyday life? In the region of + romantic rather than of mythical invention we know that there is such a + state. Mr. Lane, in his preface to the Arabian Nights, says that the Arabs + have an advantage over us as story-tellers. They can introduce such + incidents as the change of a man into a horse, or of a woman into a dog, + or the intervention of an Afreet without any more scruple than our own + novelists feel in describing a duel or the concealment of a will. Among + the Arabs the agencies of magic and of spirits are regarded as at least as + probable and common as duels and concealments of wills seem to be thought + by European novelists. It is obvious that we need look no farther for the + explanation of the supernatural events in Arab romances. Now, let us apply + this system to mythology. It is admitted that Greeks, Romans, Aryans of + India in the age of the Sanskrit commentators, and Egyptians of the + Ptolemaic and earlier ages, were as much puzzled as we are by the mythical + adventures of their gods. But is there any known stage of the human + intellect in which similar adventures, and the metamorphoses of men into + animals, trees, stars, and all else that puzzles us in the civilised + mythologies, are regarded as possible incidents of daily human life? Our + answer is, that everything in the civilised mythologies which we regard as + irrational seems only part of the accepted and natural order of things to + contemporary savages, and in the past seemed equally rational and natural + to savages concerning whom we have historical information.(1) Our theory + is, therefore, that the savage and senseless element in mythology is, for + the most part, a legacy from the fancy of ancestors of the civilised races + who were once in an intellectual state not higher, but probably lower, + than that of Australians, Bush-men, Red Indians, the lower races of South + America, and other worse than barbaric peoples. As the ancestors of the + Greeks, Aryans of India, Egyptians and others advanced in civilisation, + their religious thought was shocked and surprised by myths (originally + dating from the period of savagery, and natural in that period, though + even then often in contradiction to morals and religion) which were + preserved down to the time of Pausanias by local priesthoods, or which + were stereotyped in the ancient poems of Hesiod and Homer, or in the + Brahmanas and Vedas of India, or were retained in the popular religion of + Egypt. This theory recommended itself to Lobeck. "We may believe that + ancient and early tribes framed gods like unto themselves in action and in + experience, and that the allegorical softening down of myths is the + explanation added later by descendants who had attained to purer ideas of + divinity, yet dared not reject the religion of their ancestors."(2) The + senseless element in the myths would, by this theory, be for the most part + a "survival"; and the age and condition of human thought whence it + survived would be one in which our most ordinary ideas about the nature of + things and the limits of possibility did not yet exist, when all things + were conceived of in quite other fashion; the age, that is, of savagery. + </p> + <p> + (1) We have been asked to DEFINE a savage. He cannot be defined in an + epigram, but by way of choice of a type:— + </p> + <p> + 1. In material equipment the perfect savage is he who employs tools of + stone and wood, not of metal; who is nomadic rather than settled; who is + acquainted (if at all) only with the rudest forms of the arts of potting, + weaving, fire-making, etc.; and who derives more of his food from the + chase and from wild roots and plants than from any kind of agriculture or + from the flesh of domesticated animals. + </p> + <p> + 2. In psychology the savage is he who (extending unconsciously to the + universe his own implicit consciousness of personality) regards all + natural objects as animated and intelligent beings, and, drawing no hard + and fast line between himself and the things in the world, is readily + persuaded that men may be metamorphosed into plants, beasts and stars; + that winds and clouds, sun and dawn, are persons with human passions and + parts; and that the lower animals especially may be creatures more + powerful than himself, and, in a sense, divine and creative. + </p> + <p> + 3. In religion the savage is he who (while often, in certain moods, + conscious of a far higher moral faith) believes also in ancestral ghosts + or spirits of woods and wells that were never ancestral; prays frequently + by dint of magic; and sometimes adores inanimate objects, or even appeals + to the beasts as supernatural protectors. + </p> + <p> + 4. In society the savage is he who (as a rule) bases his laws on the + well-defined lines of totemism—that is, claims descent from or other + close relation to natural objects, and derives from the sacredness of + those objects the sanction of his marriage prohibitions and blood-feuds, + while he makes skill in magic a claim to distinguished rank. + </p> + <p> + Such, for our purpose, is the savage, and we propose to explain the more + "senseless" factors in civilised mythology as "survivals" of these ideas + and customs preserved by conservatism and local tradition, or, less + probably, borrowed from races which were, or had been, savage. + </p> + <p> + (2) Aglaoph., i. 153. Had Lobeck gone a step farther and examined the + mental condition of veteres et priscae gentes, this book would have been, + superfluous. Nor did he know that the purer ideas were also existing among + certain low savages. + </p> + <p> + It is universally admitted that "survivals" of this kind do account for + many anomalies in our institutions, in law, politics, society, even in + dress and manners. If isolated fragments of earlier ages abide in these, + it is still more probable that other fragments will survive in anything so + closely connected as is mythology with the conservative religious + sentiment and tradition. Our object, then, is to prove that the "silly, + savage, and irrational" element in the myths of civilised peoples is, as a + rule, either a survival from the period of savagery, or has been borrowed + from savage neighbours by a cultivated people, or, lastly, is an imitation + by later poets of old savage data.(1) For example, to explain the + constellations as metamorphosed men, animals, or other objects of + terrestrial life is the habit of savages,(2)—a natural habit among + people who regard all things as on one level of personal life and + intelligence. When the stars, among civilised Greeks or Aryans of India, + are also popularly regarded as transformed and transfigured men, animals + and the like, this belief may be either a survival from the age when the + ancestors of Greeks and Indians were in the intellectual condition of the + Australian Murri; or the star-name and star-myth may have been borrowed + from savages, or from cultivated peoples once savage or apt to copy + savages; or, as in the case of the Coma Berenices, a poet of a late age + may have invented a new artificial myth on the old lines of savage fancy. + </p> + <p> + (1) We may be asked why do savages entertain the irrational ideas which + survive in myth? One might as well ask why they eat each other, or use + stones instead of metal. Their intellectual powers are not fully + developed, and hasty analogy from their own unreasoned consciousness is + their chief guide. Myth, in Mr. Darwin's phrase, is one of the "miserable + and indirect consequences of our highest faculties". Descent of Man, p. + 69. + </p> + <p> + (2) See Custom and Myth, "Star-Myths". + </p> + <p> + This method of interpreting a certain element in mythology is, we must + repeat, no new thing, though, to judge from the protests of several + mythologists, it is new to many inquirers. We have seen that Eusebius + threw out proposals in this direction; that Spencer, De Brosses, and + Fontenelle unconsciously followed him; and we have quoted from Lobeck a + statement of a similar opinion. The whole matter has been stated as + clearly as possible by Mr. B. B. Tylor:— + </p> + <p> + "Savages have been for untold ages, and still are, living in the + myth-making stage of the human mind. It was through sheer ignorance and + neglect of this direct knowledge how and by what manner of men myths are + really made that their simple philosophy has come to be buried under + masses of commentator's rubbish..."(1) Mr. Tylor goes on thus (and his + words contain the gist of our argument): "The general thesis maintained is + that myth arose in the savage condition prevalent in remote ages among the + whole human race; that it remains comparatively unchanged among the rude + modern tribes who have departed least from these primitive conditions, + while higher and later civilisations, partly by retaining its actual + principles, and partly by carrying on its inherited results in the form of + ancestral tradition, continued it not merely in toleration, but in + honour".(2) Elsewhere Mr. Tylor points out that by this method of + interpretation we may study myths in various stages of evolution, from the + rude guess of the savage at an explanation of natural phenomena, through + the systems of the higher barbarisms, or lower civilisations (as in + ancient Mexico), and the sacerdotage of India, till myth reaches its most + human form in Greece. Yet even in Greek myth the beast is not wholly cast + out, and Hellas by no means "let the ape and tiger die". That Mr. Tylor + does not exclude the Aryan race from his general theory is plain + enough.(3) "What is the Aryan conception of the Thunder-god but a poetic + elaboration of thoughts inherited from the savage stage through which the + primitive Aryans had passed?"(4) + </p> + <p> + (1) Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., i. p. 283. + </p> + <p> + (2) Op. cit., p. 275. + </p> + <p> + (3) Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., ii. 265. + </p> + <p> + (4) Pretty much the same view seems to be taken by Mr. Max Muller + (Nineteenth Century, January, 1882) when he calls Tsui Goab (whom the + Hottentots believe to be a defunct conjuror) "a Hottentot Indra or Zeus". + </p> + <p> + The advantages of our hypothesis (if its legitimacy be admitted) are + obvious. In the first place, we have to deal with an actual demonstrable + condition of the human intellect. The existence of the savage state in all + its various degrees, and of the common intellectual habits and conditions + which are shared by the backward peoples, and again the survival of many + of these in civilisation, are indubitable facts. We are not obliged to + fall back upon some fanciful and unsupported theory of what "primitive + man" did, and said, and thought. Nay, more; we escape all the fallacies + connected with the terms "primitive man". We are not compelled (as will be + shown later)(1) to prove that the first men of all were like modern + savages, nor that savages represent primitive man. It may be that the + lowest extant savages are the nearest of existing peoples to the type of + the first human beings. But on this point it is unnecessary for us to + dogmatise. If we can show that, whether men began their career as savages + or not, they have at least passed through the savage status or have + borrowed the ideas of races in the savage status, that is all we need. We + escape from all the snares of theories (incapable of historical proof) + about the really primeval and original condition of the human family. + </p> + <p> + (1) Appendix B. + </p> + <p> + Once more, our theory naturally attaches itself to the general system of + Evolution. We are enabled to examine mythology as a thing of gradual + development and of slow and manifold modifications, corresponding in some + degree to the various changes in the general progress of society. Thus we + shall watch the barbaric conditions of thought which produce barbaric + myths, while these in their turn are retained, or perhaps purified, or + perhaps explained away, by more advanced civilisations. Further, we shall + be able to detect the survival of the savage ideas with least + modification, and the persistence of the savage myths with least change, + among the classes of a civilised population which have shared least in the + general advance. These classes are, first, the rustic peoples, dwelling + far from cities and schools, on heaths or by the sea; second, the + conservative local priesthoods, who retain the more crude and ancient + myths of the local gods and heroes after these have been modified or + rejected by the purer sense of philosophers and national poets. Thus much + of ancient myth is a woven warp and woof of three threads: the savage + donnee, the civilised and poetic modification of the savage donnee, the + version of the original fable which survives in popular tales and in the + "sacred chapters" of local priesthoods. A critical study of these three + stages in myth is in accordance with the recognised practice of science. + Indeed, the whole system is only an application to this particular + province, mythology, of the method by which the development either of + organisms or of human institutions is traced. As the anomalies and + apparently useless and accidental features in the human or in other animal + organisms may be explained as stunted or rudimentary survivals of organs + useful in a previous stage of life, so the anomalous and irrational myths + of civilised races may be explained as survivals of stories which, in an + earlier state of thought and knowledge, seemed natural enough. The + persistence of the myths is accounted for by the well-known conservatism + of the religious sentiment—a conservatism noticed even by Eusebius. + "In later days, when they became ashamed of the religious beliefs of their + ancestors, they invented private and respectful interpretations, each to + suit himself. For no one dared to shake the ancestral beliefs, as they + honoured at a very high rate the sacredness and antiquity of old + associations, and of the teaching they had received in childhood."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Praep. E., ii. 6, 19. + </p> + <p> + Thus the method which we propose to employ is in harmony both with modern + scientific procedure and with the views of a clear-sighted Father of the + Church. Consequently no system could well be less "heretical" and + "unorthodox". + </p> + <p> + The last advantage of our hypothesis which need here be mentioned is that + it helps to explain the DIFFUSION no less than the ORIGIN of the wild and + crazy element in myth. We seek for the origin of the savage factor of myth + in one aspect of the intellectual condition of savages. We say "in one + aspect" expressly; to guard against the suggestion that the savage + intellect has no aspect but this, and no saner ideas than those of myth. + The DIFFUSION of stories practically identical in every quarter of the + globe may be (provisionally) regarded as the result of the prevalence in + every quarter, at one time or another, of similar mental habits and ideas. + This explanation must not be pressed too hard nor too far. If we find all + over the world a belief that men can change themselves and their + neighbours into beasts, that belief will account for the appearance of + metamorphosis in myth. If we find a belief that inanimate objects are + really much on a level with man, the opinion will account for incidents of + myth such as that in which the wooden figure-head of the Argo speaks with + a human voice. Again, a widespread belief in the separability of the soul + or the life from the body will account for the incident in nursery tales + and myths of the "giant who had no heart in his body," but kept his heart + and life elsewhere. An ancient identity of mental status and the working + of similar mental forces at the attempt to explain the same phenomena will + account, without any theory of borrowing, or transmission of myth, or of + original unity of race, for the world-wide diffusion of many mythical + conceptions. + </p> + <p> + But this theory of the original similarity of the savage mind everywhere + and in all races will scarcely account for the world-wide distribution of + long and intricate mythical PLOTS, of consecutive series of adroitly + interwoven situations. In presence of these long romances, found among so + many widely severed peoples, conjecture is, at present, almost idle. We do + not know, in many instances, whether such stories were independently + developed, or carried from a common centre, or borrowed by one race from + another, and so handed on round the world. + </p> + <p> + This chapter may conclude with an example of a tale whose DIFFUSION may be + explained in divers ways, though its ORIGIN seems undoubtedly savage. If + we turn to the Algonkins, a stock of Red Indians, we come on a popular + tradition which really does give pause to the mythologist. Could this + story, he asks himself, have been separately invented in widely different + places, or could the Iroquois have borrowed from the Australian blacks or + the Andaman Islanders? It is a common thing in most mythologies to find + everything of value to man—fire, sun, water—in the keeping of + some hostile power. The fire, or the sun, or the water is then stolen, or + in other ways rescued from the enemy and restored to humanity. The Huron + story (as far as water is concerned) is told by Father Paul Le Jeune, a + Jesuit missionary, who lived among the Hurons about 1636. The myth begins + with the usual opposition between two brothers, the Cain and Abel of + savage legend. One of the brothers, named Ioskeha, slew the other, and + became the father of mankind (as known to the Red Indians) and the + guardian of the Iroquois. The earth was at first arid and sterile, but + Ioskeha destroyed the gigantic frog which had swallowed all the waters, + and guided the torrents into smooth streams and lakes.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1636, p. 103 (Paris, Cramoisy, 1637). + </p> + <p> + Now where, outside of North America, do we find this frog who swallowed + all the water? We find him in Australia. + </p> + <p> + "The aborigines of Lake Tyers," remarks Mr. Brough Smyth, "say that at one + time there was no water anywhere on the face of the earth. All the waters + were contained in the body of a huge frog, and men and women could get + none of them. A council was held, and... it was agreed that the frog + should be made to laugh, when the waters would run out of his mouth, and + there would be plenty in all parts." + </p> + <p> + To make a long story short, all the animals played the jester before the + gigantic solemn frog, who sat as grave as Louis XV. "I do not like + buffoons who don't make me laugh," said that majestical monarch. At last + the eel danced on the tip of his tail, and the gravity of the prodigious + Batrachian gave way. He laughed till he literally split his sides, and the + imprisoned waters came with a rush. Indeed, many persons were drowned, + though this is not the only Australian version of the Deluge. + </p> + <p> + The Andaman Islanders dwell at a very considerable distance from Australia + and from the Iroquois, and, in the present condition of the natives of + Australia and Andaman, neither could possibly visit the other. The frog in + the Andaman version is called a toad, and he came to swallow the waters in + the following way: One day a woodpecker was eating honey high up in the + boughs of a tree. Far below, the toad was a witness of the feast, and + asked for some honey. "Well, come up here, and you shall have some," said + the woodpecker. "But how am I to climb?" "Take hold of that creeper, and I + will draw you up," said the woodpecker; but all the while he was bent on a + practical joke. So the toad got into a bucket he happened to possess, and + fastened the bucket to the creeper. "Now, pull!" Then the woodpecker + raised the toad slowly to the level of the bough where the honey was, and + presently let him down with a run, not only disappointing the poor toad, + but shaking him severely. The toad went away in a rage and looked about + him for revenge. A happy thought occurred to him, and he drank up all the + water of the rivers and lakes. Birds and beasts were perishing, + woodpeckers among them, of thirst. The toad, overjoyed at his success, + wished to add insult to the injury, and, very thoughtlessly, began to + dance in an irritating manner at his foes. But then the stolen waters + gushed out of his mouth in full volume, and the drought soon ended. One of + the most curious points in this myth is the origin of the quarrel between + the woodpecker and the toad. The same beginning—the tale of an + insult put on an animal by hauling up and letting him down with a run—occurs + in an African Marchen.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 429, 430; Brinton, American + Hero Myths, i. 55. Cf. also Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1636, 1640, + 1671; (Sagard, Hist. du Canada, 1636, p. 451;) Journal Anthrop. Inst., + 1881. + </p> + <p> + Now this strangely diffused story of the slaying of the frog which had + swallowed all the water seems to be a savage myth of which the more heroic + conflict of Indra with Vrittra (the dragon which had swallowed all the + waters) is an epic and sublimer version.(1) "The heavenly water, which + Vrittra withholds from the world, is usually the prize of the contest." + </p> + <p> + (1) Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, iii. p. 337. See postea, "Divine Myths of + India". + </p> + <p> + The serpent of Vedic myth is, perhaps, rather the robber-guardian than the + swallower of the waters, but Indra is still, like the Iroquois Ioskeha, + "he who wounds the full one".(1) This example of the wide distribution of + a myth shows how the question of diffusion, though connected with, is yet + distinct from that of origin. The advantage of our method will prove to + be, that it discovers an historical and demonstrable state of mind as the + origin of the wild element in myth. Again, the wide prevalence in the + earliest times of this mental condition will, to a certain extent, explain + the DISTRIBUTION of myth. Room must be left, of course, for processes of + borrowing and transmission, but how Andamanese, Australians and Hurons + could borrow from each other is an unsolved problem. + </p> + <p> + (1) Gubernatis, Zoological Myth. ii. 395, note 2. "When Indra kills the + serpent he opens the torrent of the waters" (p. 393). See also Aitareya + Brahmana, translated by Haug, ii. 483. + </p> + <p> + Finally, our hypothesis is not involved in dubious theories of race. To + us, myths appear to be affected (in their origins) much less by the race + than by the stage of culture attained by the people who cherish them. A + fight for the waters between a monstrous dragon like Vrittra and a heroic + god like Indra is a nobler affair than a quarrel for the waters between a + woodpecker and a toad. But the improvement and transfiguration, so to + speak, of a myth at bottom the same is due to the superior culture, not to + the peculiar race, of the Vedic poets, except so far as culture itself + depends on race. How far the purer culture was attained to by the original + superiority of the Aryan over the Andaman breed, it is not necessary for + our purpose to inquire. Thus, on the whole, we may claim for our system a + certain demonstrable character, which helps to simplify the problems of + mythology, and to remove them from the realm of fanciful guesses and + conflicting etymological conjectures into that of sober science. That + these pretensions are not unacknowledged even by mythologists trained in + other schools is proved by the remarks of Dr. Tiele.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel., "Le Mythe de Cronos," January, 1886. Dr. + Tiele is not, it must be noted, a thorough adherent of our theory. See + Modern Mythology: "The Question of Allies". + </p> + <p> + Dr. Tiele writes: "If I were obliged to choose between this method" (the + system here advocated) "and that of comparative philology, it is the + former that I would adopt without the slightest hesitation. This method + alone enables us to explain the fact, which has so often provoked + amazement, that people so refined as the Greeks,... or so rude, but + morally pure, as the Germans,... managed to attribute to their gods all + manner of cowardly, cruel and disorderly conduct. This method alone + explains the why and wherefore of all those strange metamorphoses of gods + into beasts and plants, and even stones, which scandalised philosophers, + and which the witty Ovid played on for the diversion of his + contemporaries. In short, this method teaches us to recognise in all those + strange stories the survivals of a barbaric age, long passed away, but + enduring to later times in the form of religious traditions, of all + traditions the most persistent.... Finally, this method alone enables us + to explain the origin of myths, because it endeavours to study them in + their rudest and most primitive shape, thus allowing their true + significance to be much more clearly apparent than it can be in the myths + (so often touched, retouched, augmented and humanised) which are current + among races arrived at a certain degree of culture." + </p> + <p> + The method is to this extent applauded by a most competent authority, and + it has been warmly accepted by a distinguished French school of students, + represented by M. Gaidoz. But it is obvious that the method rests on a + double hypothesis: first, that satisfactory evidence as to the mental + conditions of the lower and backward races is obtainable; second, that the + civilised races (however they began) either passed through the savage + state of thought and practice, or borrowed very freely from people in that + condition. These hypotheses have been attacked by opponents; the + trustworthiness of our evidence, especially, has been assailed. By way of + facilitating the course of the exposition and of lessening the disturbing + element of controversy, a reply to the objections and a defence of the + evidence has been relegated to an Appendix.(1) Meanwhile we go on to + examine the peculiar characteristics of the mental condition of savages + and of peoples in the lower and upper barbarisms. + </p> + <p> + (1) Appendix B. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES—CONFUSION WITH + </h2> + <p> + NATURE—TOTEMISM. + </p> + <p> + The mental condition of savages the basis of the irrational element in + myth—Characteristics of that condition: (1) Confusion of all things + in an equality of presumed animation and intelligence; (2) Belief in + sorcery; (3) Spiritualism; (4) Curiosity; (5) Easy credulity and mental + indolence—The curiosity is satisfied, thanks to the credulity, by + myths in answer to all inquiries—Evidence for this—Mr. Tylor's + opinion—Mr. Im Thurn—Jesuit missionaries' Relations—Examples + of confusion between men, plants, beasts and other natural objects—Reports + of travellers—Evidence from institution of totemism—Definition + of totemism—Totemism in Australia, Africa, America, the Oceanic + Islands, India, North Asia—Conclusions: Totemism being found so + widely distributed, is a proof of the existence of that savage mental + condition in which no line is drawn between men and the other things in + the world. This confusion is one of the characteristics of myth in all + races. + </p> + <p> + We set out to discover a stage of human intellectual development which + would necessarily produce the essential elements of myth. We think we have + found that stage in the condition of savagery. We now proceed to array the + evidence for the mental processes of savages. We intend to demonstrate the + existence in practical savage life of the ideas which most surprise us + when we find them in civilised sacred legends. + </p> + <p> + For the purposes of this inquiry, it is enough to select a few special + peculiarities of savage thought. + </p> + <p> + 1. First we have that nebulous and confused frame of mind to which all + things, animate or inanimate, human, animal, vegetable, or inorganic, seem + on the same level of life, passion and reason. The savage, at all events + when myth-making, draws no hard and fast line between himself and the + things in the world. He regards himself as literally akin to animals and + plants and heavenly bodies; he attributes sex and procreative powers even + to stones and rocks, and he assigns human speech and human feelings to sun + and moon and stars and wind, no less than to beasts, birds and fishes.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) "So fasst auch das Alterthum ihren Unterschied von den Menschen ganz + anders als die spatere Zeit."—Grimm, quoted by Liebrecht, Zur + Volkskunde, p. 17. + </p> + <p> + 2. The second point to note in savage opinion is the belief in magic and + sorcery. The world and all the things in it being vaguely conceived of as + sensible and rational, obey the commands of certain members of the tribe, + chiefs, jugglers, conjurors, or what you will. Rocks open at their order, + rivers dry up, animals are their servants and hold converse with them. + These magicians cause or heal diseases, and can command even the weather, + bringing rain or thunder or sunshine at their will.(1) There are few + supernatural attributes of "cloud-compelling Zeus" or of Apollo that are + not freely assigned to the tribal conjuror. By virtue, doubtless, of the + community of nature between man and the things in the world, the conjuror + (like Zeus or Indra) can assume at will the shape of any animal, or can + metamorphose his neighbours or enemies into animal forms. + </p> + <p> + (1) See Roth in North-West Central Queensland Aborigines, chapter xii., + 1897. + </p> + <p> + 3. Another peculiarity of savage belief naturally connects itself with + that which has just been described. The savage has very strong ideas about + the persistent existence of the souls of the dead. They retain much of + their old nature, but are often more malignant after death than they had + been during life. They are frequently at the beck and call of the + conjuror, whom they aid with their advice and with their magical power. By + virtue of the close connection already spoken of between man and the + animals, the souls of the dead are not rarely supposed to migrate into the + bodies of beasts, or to revert to the condition of that species of + creatures with which each tribe supposes itself to be related by ties of + kinship or friendship. With the usual inconsistency of mythical belief, + the souls of the dead are spoken of, at other times, as if they inhabited + a spiritual world, sometimes a paradise of flowers, sometimes a gloomy + place, which mortal men may visit, but whence no one can escape who has + tasted of the food of the ghosts. + </p> + <p> + 4. In connection with spirits a far-reaching savage philosophy prevails. + It is not unusual to assign a ghost to all objects, animate or inanimate, + and the spirit or strength of a man is frequently regarded as something + separable, capable of being located in an external object, or something + with a definite locality in the body. A man's strength and spirit may + reside in his kidney fat, in his heart, in a lock of his hair, or may even + be stored by him in some separate receptacle. Very frequently a man is + held capable of detaching his soul from his body, and letting it roam + about on his business, sometimes in the form of a bird or other animal. + </p> + <p> + 5. Many minor savage beliefs might be named, such as the common faith in + friendly or protecting animals, and the notion that "natural deaths" (as + we call them) are always UNNATURAL, that death is always caused by some + hostile spirit or conjuror. From this opinion comes the myth that man is + naturally not subject to death: that death was somehow introduced into the + world by a mistake or misdeed is a corollary. (See "Myths of the Origin of + Death" in Modern Mythology.) + </p> + <p> + 6. One more mental peculiarity of the savage mind remains to be considered + in this brief summary. The savage, like the civilised man, is curious. The + first faint impulses of the scientific spirit are at work in his brain; he + is anxious to give himself an account of the world in which he finds + himself. But he is not more curious than he is, on occasion, credulous. + His intellect is eager to ask questions, as is the habit of children, but + his intellect is also lazy, and he is content with the first answer that + comes to hand. "Ils s'arretent aux premieres notions qu'ils en ont," says + Pere Hierome Lalemant.(1) "Nothing," says Schoolcraft, "is too capacious + (sic) for Indian belief."(2) The replies to his questions he receives from + tradition or (when a new problem arises) evolves an answer for himself in + the shape of STORIES. Just as Socrates, in the Platonic dialogues, recalls + or invents a myth in the despair of reason, so the savage has a story for + answer to almost every question that he can ask himself. These stories are + in a sense scientific, because they attempt a solution of the riddles of + the world. They are in a sense religious, because there is usually a + supernatural power, a deus ex machina, of some sort to cut the knot of the + problem. Such stories, then, are the science, and to a certain extent the + religious tradition, of savages.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1648, p. 70. + </p> + <p> + (2) Algic Researches, i. 41. + </p> + <p> + (3) "The Indians (Algonkins) conveyed instruction—moral, mechanical + and religious—through traditionary fictions and tales."—Schoolcraft, + Algic Researches, i. 12. + </p> + <p> + Now these tales are necessarily cast in the mould of the savage ideas of + which a sketch has been given. The changes of the heavenly bodies, the + processes of day and night, the existence of the stars, the invention of + the arts, the origin of the world (as far as known to the savage), of the + tribe, of the various animals and plants, the origin of death itself, the + origin of the perplexing traditional tribal customs, are all accounted for + in stories. At the same time, an actual divine Maker is sometimes + postulated. The stories, again, are fashioned in accordance with the + beliefs already named: the belief in human connection with and kinship + with beasts and plants; the belief in magic; the belief in the perpetual + possibility of metamorphosis or "shape shifting"; the belief in the + permanence and power of the ghosts of the dead; the belief in the personal + and animated character of all the things in the world, and so forth. + </p> + <p> + No more need be said to explain the wild and (as it seems to us moderns) + the irrational character of savage myth. It is a jungle of foolish + fancies, a walpurgis nacht of gods and beasts and men and stars and + ghosts, all moving madly on a level of common personality and animation, + and all changing shapes at random, as partners are changed in some + fantastic witches' revel. Such is savage mythology, and how could it be + otherwise when we consider the elements of thought and belief out of which + it is mainly composed? We shall see that part of the mythology of the + Greeks or the Aryans of India is but a similar walpurgis nacht, in which + an incestuous or amorous god may become a beast, and the object of his + pursuit, once a woman, may also become a beast, and then shift shapes to a + tree or a bird or a star. But in the civilised races the genius of the + people tends to suppress, exclude and refine away the wild element, which, + however, is never wholly eliminated. The Erinyes soon stop the mouth of + the horse of Achilles when he begins, like the horse in Grimm's Goose + Girl, to hold a sustained conversation.(1) But the ancient, cruel, and + grotesque savage element, nearly overcome by Homer and greatly reduced by + the Vedic poets, breaks out again in Hesiod, in temple legends and + Brahmanic glosses, and finally proves so strong that it can only be + subdued by Christianity, or rather by that break between the educated + classes and the traditional past of religion which has resulted from + Christianity. Even so, myth lingers in the folk-lore of the + non-progressive classes of Europe, and, as in Roumania, invades religion. + </p> + <p> + (1) Iliad, xix. 418. + </p> + <p> + We have now to demonstrate the existence in the savage intellect of the + various ideas and habits which we have described, and out of which + mythology springs. First, we have to show that "a nebulous and confused + state of mind, to which all things, animate or inanimate, human, animal, + vegetable or inorganic, seem on the same level of life, passion and + reason," does really exist.(1) The existence of this condition of the + intellect will be demonstrated first on the evidence of the statements of + civilised observers, next on the evidence of the savage institutions in + which it is embodied. + </p> + <p> + (1) Creuzer and Guigniaut, vol. i. p. 111. + </p> + <p> + The opinion of Mr. Tylor is naturally of great value, as it is formed on + as wide an acquaintance with the views of the lower races as any inquirers + can hope to possess. Mr. Tylor observes: "We have to inform ourselves of + the savage man's idea, which is very different from the civilised man's, + of the nature of the lower animals.... The sense of an absolute psychical + distinction between man and beast, so prevalent in the civilised world, is + hardly to be found among the lower races."(1) The universal attribution of + "souls" to all things—the theory known as "Animism"—is another + proof that the savage draws no hard and fast line between man and the + other things in the world. The notion of the Italian country-people, that + cruelty to an animal does not matter because it is not a "Christian," has + no parallel in the philosophy of the savage, to whom all objects seem to + have souls, just as men have. Mr. Im Thurn found the absence of any sense + of a difference between man and nature a characteristic of his native + companions in Guiana. "The very phrase, 'Men and other animals,' or even, + as it is often expressed, 'Men and animals,' based as it is on the + superiority which civilised man feels over other animals, expresses a + dichotomy which is in no way recognised by the Indian.... It is therefore + most important to realise how comparatively small really is the difference + between men in a state of savagery and other animals, and how completely + even such difference as exists escapes the notice of savage men... It is + not, therefore, too much to say that, according to the view of the + Indians, other animals differ from men only in bodily form and in their + various degrees of strength; in spirit they do not differ at all."(2) The + Indian's notion of the life of plants and stones is on the same level of + unreason, as we moderns reckon reason. He believes in the spirits of rocks + and stones, undeterred by the absence of motion in these objects. "Not + only many rocks, but also many waterfalls, streams, and indeed material + objects of every sort, are supposed each to consist of a body and a + spirit, as does man."(3) It is not our business to ask here how men came + by the belief in universal animation. That belief is gradually withdrawn, + distinctions are gradually introduced, as civilisation and knowledge + advance. It is enough for us if the failure to draw a hard and fast line + between man and beasts, stones and plants, be practically universal among + savages, and if it gradually disappears before the fuller knowledge of + civilisation. The report which Mr. Im Thurn brings from the Indians of + Guiana is confirmed by what Schoolcraft says of the Algonkin races of the + northern part of the continent. "The belief of the narrators and listeners + in every wild and improbable thing told helps wonderfully in the original + stories, in joining all parts together. The Indian believes that the whole + visible and invisible creation is animated.... To make the matter worse, + these tribes believe that animals of the lowest as well as highest class + in the chain of creation are alike endowed with reasoning powers and + faculties. As a natural conclusion they endow birds, beasts and all other + animals with souls."(4) As an example of the ease with which the savage + recognises consciousness and voluntary motion even in stones, may be cited + Kohl's account of the beliefs of the Objibeways.(5) Nearly every Indian + has discovered, he says, an object in which he places special confidence, + and to which he sacrifices more zealously than to the Great Spirit. The + "hope" of Otamigan (a companion of the traveller) was a rock, which once + advanced to meet him, swayed, bowed and went back again. Another Indian + revered a Canadian larch, "because he once heard a very remarkable + rustling in its branches". It thus appears that while the savage has a + general kind of sense that inanimate things are animated, he is a good + deal impressed by their conduct when he thinks that they actually display + their animation. In the same way a devout modern spiritualist probably + regards with more reverence a table which he has seen dancing and heard + rapping than a table at which he has only dined. Another general statement + of failure to draw the line between men and the irrational creation is + found in the old Jesuit missionary Le Jeune's Relations de la Nouvelle + France.(6) "Les sauvages se persuadent que non seulement les hommes et les + autres animaux, mais aussi que toutes les autres choses sont animees." + Again: "Ils tiennent les poissons raisonnables, comme aussi les cerfs". In + the Solomon Islands, Mr. Romilly sailed with an old chief who used violent + language to the waves when they threatened to dash over the boat, and "old + Takki's exhortations were successful".(7) Waitz(8) discovers the same + attitude towards the animals among the negroes. Man, in their opinion, is + by no means a separate sort of person on the summit of nature and high + above the beasts; these he rather regards as dark and enigmatic beings, + whose life is full of mystery, and which he therefore considers now as his + inferiors, now as his superiors. A collection of evidence as to the savage + failure to discriminate between human and non-human, animate and + inanimate, has been brought together by Sir John Lubbock.(9) + </p> + <p> + (1) Primitive Culture, i. 167-169. + </p> + <p> + (2) Among the Indians of Guiana (1883), p. 350. + </p> + <p> + (3) Op. Cit., 355. + </p> + <p> + (4) Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, i. 41. + </p> + <p> + (5) Kohl, Wanderings Round Lake Superior, pp. 58, 59; Muller, Amerikan + Urrelig., pp. 62-67. + </p> + <p> + (6) 1636, p. 109. + </p> + <p> + (7) Western Pacific, p. 84. + </p> + <p> + (8) Anthropologie der Natur-Volker, ii. 177. + </p> + <p> + (9) Origin of Civilisation, p. 33. A number of examples of this mental + attitude among the Bushmen will be found in chap. v., postea. + </p> + <p> + To a race accustomed like ourselves to arrange and classify, to people + familiar from childhood and its games with "vegetable, animal and + mineral," a condition of mind in which no such distinctions are drawn, any + more than they are drawn in Greek or Brahmanic myths, must naturally seem + like what Mr. Max Muller calls "temporary insanity". The imagination of + the savage has been defined by Mr. Tylor as "midway between the conditions + of a healthy, prosaic, modern citizen, and of a raving fanatic, or of a + patient in a fever-ward". If any relics of such imagination survive in + civilised mythology, they will very closely resemble the productions of a + once universal "temporary insanity". Let it be granted, then, that "to the + lower tribes of man, sun and stars, trees and rivers, winds and clouds, + become personal, animate creatures, leading lives conformed to human or + animal analogies, and performing their special functions in the universe + with the aid of limbs like beasts, or of artificial instruments like men; + or that what men's eyes behold is but the instrument to be used or the + material to be shaped, while behind it there stands some prodigious but + yet half-human creature, who grasps it with his hands or blows it with his + breath. The basis on which such ideas as these are built is not to be + narrowed down to poetic fancy and transformed metaphor. They rest upon a + broad philosophy of nature; early and crude, indeed, but thoughtful, + consistent, and quite really and seriously meant."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Primtive Culture, i. 285. + </p> + <p> + For the sake of illustration, some minor examples must next be given of + this confusion between man and other things in the world, which will + presently be illustrated by the testimony of a powerful and long diffused + set of institutions. + </p> + <p> + The Christian Quiches of Guatemala believe that each of them has a beast + as his friend and protector, just as in the Highlands "the dog is the + friend of the Maclaines". When the Finns, in their epic poem the Kalewala, + have killed a bear, they implore the animal to forgive them. "Oh, Ot-so," + chant the singers, "be not angry that we come near thee. The bear, the + honey-footed bear, was born in lands between sun and moon, and he died, + not by men's hands, but of his own will."(1) The Red Men of North + America(2) have a tradition showing how it is that the bear does not die, + but, like Herodotus with the sacred stories of the Egyptian priests, Mr. + Schoolcraft "cannot induce himself to write it out".(3) It is a most + curious fact that the natives of Australia tell a similar tale of THEIR + "native bear". "He did not die" when attacked by men.(4) In parts of + Australia it is a great offence to skin the native bear, just as on a part + of the west coast of Ireland, where seals are superstitiously regarded, + the people cannot be bribed to skin them. In New Caledonia, when a child + tries to kill a lizard, the men warn him to "beware of killing his own + ancestor".(5) The Zulus spare to destroy a certain species of serpents, + believed to be the spirits of kinsmen, as the great snake which appeared + when Aeneas did sacrifice was held to be the ghost of Anchises. Mexican + women(6) believed that children born during an eclipse turn into mice. In + Australia the natives believe that the wild dog has the power of speech; + whoever listens to him is petrified; and a certain spot is shown where + "the wild dog spoke and turned the men into stone";(7) and the blacks run + for their lives as soon as the dog begins to speak. What it said was + "Bones". + </p> + <p> + (1) Kalewala, in La Finlande, Leouzon Le Duc (1845), vol. ii. p. 100; cf. + also the Introduction. + </p> + <p> + (2) Schoolcraft, v. 420. + </p> + <p> + (3) See similar ceremonies propitiatory of the bear in Jewett's Adventures + among the Nootkas, Edinburgh, 1824. + </p> + <p> + (4) Brough Smyth, i. 449. + </p> + <p> + (5) J. J. Atkinson's MS. + </p> + <p> + (6) Sahagun, ii. viii. 250; Bancroft, iii. 111. Compare stories of women + who give birth to animals in Melusine, 1886, August-November. The + Batavians believe that women, when delivered of a child, are frequently + delivered at the same time of a young crocodile as a twin. Hawkesworth's + Voyages, iii. 756. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 17 et seq. + </p> + <p> + (7) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 497. + </p> + <p> + These are minor examples of a form of opinion which is so strong that it + is actually the chief constituent in savage society. That society, whether + in Ashantee or Australia, in North America or South Africa, or North Asia + or India, or among the wilder tribes of ancient Peru, is based on an + institution generally called "totemism". This very extraordinary + institution, whatever its origin, cannot have arisen except among men + capable of conceiving kinship and all human relationships as existing + between themselves and all animate and inanimate things. It is the rule, + and not the exception, that savage societies are founded upon this belief. + The political and social conduct of the backward races is regulated in + such matters as blood-feud and marriage by theories of the actual kindred + and connection by descent, or by old friendship, which men have in common + with beasts, plants, the sun and moon, the stars, and even the wind and + the rain. Now, in whatever way this belief in such relations to beasts and + plants may have arisen, it undoubtedly testifies to a condition of mind in + which no hard and fast line was drawn between man and animate and + inanimate nature. The discovery of the wide distribution of the social + arrangements based on this belief is entirely due to Mr. J. F. M'Lennan, + the author of Primitive Marriage. Mr. M'Lennan's essays ("The Worship of + Plants and Animals," "Totems and Totemism") were published in the + Fortnightly Review, 1869-71. Any follower in the footsteps of Mr. M'Lennan + has it in his power to add a little evidence to that originally set forth, + and perhaps to sift the somewhat uncritical authorities adduced.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) See also Mr. Frazer's Totemism, and Golden Bough, with chapter on + Totemism in Modern Mythology. + </p> + <p> + The name "Totemism" or "Totamism" was first applied at the end of the last + century by Long(1) to the Red Indian custom which acknowledges human + kinship with animals. This institution had already been recognised among + the Iroquois by Lafitau,(2) and by other observers. As to the word + "totem," Mr. Max Muller(3) quotes an opinion that the interpreters, + missionaries, Government inspectors, and others who apply the name totem + to the Indian "family mark" must have been ignorant of the Indian + languages, for there is in them no such word as totem. The right word, it + appears, is otem; but as "totemism" has the advantage of possessing the + ground, we prefer to say "totemism" rather than "otemism". The facts are + the same, whatever name we give them. As Mr. Muller says himself,(4) + "every warrior has his crest, which is called his totem";(5) and he goes + on to describe a totem of an Indian who died about 1793. We may now return + to the consideration of "otemism" or totemism. We approach it rather as a + fact in the science of mythology than as a stage in the evolution of the + modern family system. For us totemism is interesting because it proves the + existence of that savage mental attitude which assumes kindred and + alliance between man and the things in the world. As will afterwards be + seen, totemism has also left its mark on the mythologies of the civilised + races. We shall examine the institution first as it is found in Australia, + because the Australian form of totemism shows in the highest known degree + the savage habit of confusing in a community of kinship men, stars, + plants, beasts, the heavenly bodies, and the forces of Nature. When this + has once been elucidated, a shorter notice of other totemistic races will + serve our purpose. + </p> + <p> + (1) Voyages and Travels, 1791. + </p> + <p> + (2) Moeurs des Sauvages (1724), p. 461. + </p> + <p> + (3) Academy, December 15, 1883. + </p> + <p> + (4) Selected Essays (1881), ii. 376. + </p> + <p> + (5) Compare Mr. Max Muller's Contributions to the Science of Mythology. + </p> + <p> + The society of the Murri or black fellows of Australia is divided into + local tribes, each of which possesses, or used to possess, and hunt over a + considerable tract of country. These local tribes are united by + contiguity, and by common local interests, but not necessarily by blood + kinship. For example, the Port Mackay tribe, the Mount Gambier tribe, the + Ballarat tribe, all take their names from their district. In the same way + we might speak of the people of Strathclyde or of Northumbria in early + English history. Now, all these local tribes contain an indefinite number + of stocks of kindred, of men believing themselves to be related by the + ties of blood and common descent. That descent the groups agree in + tracing, not from some real or idealised human parent, but from some + animal, plant, or other natural object, as the kangaroo, the emu, the + iguana, the pelican, and so forth. Persons of the pelican stock in the + north of Queensland regard themselves as relations of people of the same + stock in the most southern parts of Australia. The creature from which + each tribe claims descent is called "of the same flesh," while persons of + another stock are "fresh flesh". A native may not marry a woman of "his + own flesh"; it is only a woman of "fresh" or "strange" flesh he may marry. + A man may not eat an animal of "his own flesh"; he may only eat "strange + flesh". Only under great stress of need will an Australian eat the animal + which is the flesh-and-blood cousin and protector of his stock.(1) (These + rules of marriage and blood, however, do not apply among the Arunta of + Central Australia, whose Totems (if Totems they should be called) have + been developed on very different lines.(2)) Clearer evidence of the + confusion between man and beast, of the claiming of kin between man and + beast, could hardly be. + </p> + <p> + (1) Dawson, Aborigines, pp. 26, 27; Howitt and Fison, Kamilaroi and + Kurnai, p. 169. + </p> + <p> + (2) Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia. + </p> + <p> + But the Australian philosophy of the intercommunion of Nature goes still + farther than this. Besides the local divisions and the kindred stocks + which trace their descent from animals, there exist among many Australian + tribes divisions of a kind still unexplained. For example, every man of + the Mount Gambier local tribe is by birth either a Kumite or a Kroki. This + classification applies to the whole of the sensible universe. Thus smoke + and honeysuckle trees belong to the division Kumite, and are akin to the + fishhawk stock of men. On the other hand, the kangaroo, summer, autumn, + the wind and the shevak tree belong to the division Kroki, and are akin to + the black cockatoo stock of men. Any human member of the Kroki division + has thus for his brothers the sun, the wind, the kangaroo, and the rest; + while any man of the Kumite division and the crow surname is the brother + of the rain, the thunder, and the winter. This extraordinary belief is not + a mere idle fancy—it influences conduct. "A man does not kill or use + as food any of the animals of the same subdivision (Kroki or Kumite) with + himself, excepting when hunger compels, and then they express sorrow for + having to eat their wingong (friends) or tumanang (their flesh). When + using the last word they touch their breasts, to indicate the close + relationship, meaning almost a portion of themselves. To illustrate: One + day one of the blacks killed a crow. Three or four days afterwards a + Boortwa (a man of the crow surname and stock), named Larry, died. He had + been ailing for some days, but the killing of his wingong (totem) hastened + his death."(1) Commenting on this statement, Mr. Fison observes: "The + South Australian savage looks upon the universe as the Great Tribe, to one + of whose divisions he himself belongs; and all things, animate and + inanimate, which belong to his class are parts of the body corporate + whereof he himself is part". This account of the Australian beliefs and + customs is borne out, to a certain extent, by the evidence of Sir George + Grey,(2) and of the late Mr. Gideon Scott Lang.(3) These two writers take + no account of the singular "dichotomous" divisions, as of Kumite and + Kroki, but they draw attention to the groups of kindred which derive their + surnames from animals, plants, and the like. "The origin of these family + names," says Sir George Grey, "is attributed by the natives to different + causes.... One origin frequently assigned by the natives is, that they + were derived from some vegetable or animal being very common in the + district which the family inhabited." We have seen from the evidence of + Messrs. Fison and Howitt that a more common native explanation is based on + kinship with the vegetable or plant which bestows the family surname. Sir + George Gray mentions that the families use their plant or animal as a + crest or kobong (totem), and he adds that natives never willingly kill + animals of their kobong, holding that some one of that species is their + nearest friend. The consequences of eating forbidden animals vary + considerably. Sometimes the Boyl-yas (that is, ghosts) avenge the crime. + Thus when Sir George Grey ate some mussels (which, after all, are not the + crest of the Greys), a storm followed, and one of his black fellow + improvised this stave:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Oh, wherefore did he eat the mussels? + Now the Boyl-yas storms and thunders make; + Oh, wherefore would he eat the mussels? +</pre> + <p> + (1) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 169. + </p> + <p> + (2) Travels, ii. 225. + </p> + <p> + (3) Lang, Lecture on Natives of Australia, p. 10. + </p> + <p> + There are two points in the arrangements of these stocks of kindred named + from plants and animals which we shall find to possess a high importance. + No member of any such kindred may marry a woman of the same name and + descended from the same object.(1) Thus no man of the Emu stock may marry + an Emu woman; no Blacksnake may marry a Blacksnake woman, and so forth. + This point is very strongly put by Mr. Dawson, who has had much experience + of the blacks. "So strictly are the laws of marriage carried out, that, + should any sign of courtship or affection be observed between those 'of + one flesh,' the brothers or male relatives of the woman beat her + severely." If the incestuous pair (though not in the least related + according to our ideas) run away together, they are "half-killed"; and if + the woman dies in consequence of her punishment, her partner in iniquity + is beaten again. No "eric" or blood-fine of any kind is paid for her + death, which carries no blood-feud. "Her punishment is legal."(2) This + account fully corroborates that of Sir George Grey.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Taplin, The Nerrinyeri. p. 2. "Every tribe, regarded by them as a + family, has its ngaitge, or tutelary genius or tribal symbol, in the shape + of some bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, or substance. Between + individuals of the same tribe no marriage can take place." Among the + Narrinyeri kindred is reckoned (p. 10) on the father's side. See also (p. + 46) ngaitge = Samoan aitu. "No man or woman will kill their ngaitge," + except with precautions, for food. + </p> + <p> + (2) Op. cit., p. 28. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., ii. 220. + </p> + <p> + Our conclusion is that the belief in "one flesh" (a kinship shared with + the animals) must be a thoroughly binding idea, as the notion is + sanctioned by capital punishment. + </p> + <p> + Another important feature in Australian totemism strengthens our position. + The idea of the animal kinship must be an ancient one in the race, because + the family surname, Emu, Bandicoot, or what not, and the crest, kobong, or + protecting and kindred animal, are inherited through the mother's side in + the majority of stocks. This custom, therefore, belongs to that early + period of human society in which the woman is the permanent and recognised + factor in the family while male parentage is uncertain.(1) One other + feature of Australian totemism must be mentioned before we leave the + subject. There is some evidence that in certain tribes the wingong or + totem of each man is indicated by a tattooed representation of it upon his + flesh. The natives are very licentious, but men would shrink from an amour + with a woman who neither belonged to their own district nor spoke their + language, but who, in spite of that, was of their totem. To avoid + mistakes, it seems that some tribes mark the totem on the flesh with + incised lines.(2) The natives frequently design figures of some kind on + the trees growing near the graves of deceased warriors. Some observers + have fancied that in these designs they recognised the totem of the dead + men; but on this subject evidence is by no means clear. We shall see that + this primitive sort of heraldry, this carving or painting of hereditary + blazons, is common among the Red Men of America.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Cf. Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht; M'Lennan, Primitive Marriage, passim; + Encycl. Brit. s. v. Family. + </p> + <p> + (2) Fison, op. cit., p. 66. + </p> + <p> + (3) Among other recent sources see Howitt in "Organisation of Australian + Tribes" (Transactions of Royal Society of Victoria, 1889), and Spencer and + Gillen, Natives of Central Australia. In Central Australia there is a + marked difference in the form of Totemism. + </p> + <p> + Though a large amount of evidence might be added to that already put + forward, we may now sum up the inferences to be drawn from the study of + totemism in Australia. It has been shown (1) that the natives think + themselves actually akin to animals, plants, the sun, and the wind, and + things in general; (2) that those ideas influence their conduct, and even + regulate their social arrangements, because (3) men and women of the + kinship of the same animal or plant may not intermarry, while men are + obliged to defend, and in case of murder to avenge, persons of the stock + of the family or plant from which they themselves derive their family + name. Thus, on the evidence of institutions, it is plain that the + Australians are (or before the influence of the Europeans became prevalent + were) in a state of mind which draws no hard and fast line between man and + the things in the world. If, therefore, we find that in Australian myth, + men, gods, beasts, and things all shift shapes incessantly, and figure in + a coroboree dance of confusion, there will be nothing to astonish us in + the discovery. The myths of men in the Australian intellectual condition, + of men who hold long conversations with the little "native bear," and ask + him for oracles, will naturally and inevitably be grotesque and + confused.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Brough Smyth, i. 447, on MS. authority of W. Thomas. + </p> + <p> + It is "a far cry" from Australia to the West Coast of Africa, and it is + scarcely to be supposed that the Australians have borrowed ideas and + institutions from Ashantee, or that the people of Ashantee have derived + their conceptions of the universe from the Murri of Australia. We find, + however, on the West African Coast, just as we do in Australia, that there + exist large local divisions of the natives. These divisions are spoken of + by Mr. Bowditch (who visited the country on a mission in 1817) as nations, + and they are much more populous and powerful (as the people are more + civilised) than the local tribes of Australia. Yet, just as among the + local tribes of Australia, the nations of the West African Coast are + divided into stocks of kindred, each STOCK having its representatives in + each NATION. Thus an Ashantee or a Fantee may belong to the same stock of + kindred as a member of the Assin or Akini nation. When an Ashantee of the + Annona stock of kindred meets a Warsaw man of the same stock they salute + and acknowledge each other as brothers. In the same way a Ballarat man of + the Kangaroo stock in Australia recognises a relative in a Mount Gambier + man who is also a Kangaroo. Now, with one exception, all the names of the + twelve stocks of West African kindreds, or at least all of them which Mr. + Bowditch could get the native interpreters to translate, are derived from + animals, plants and other natural objects, just as in Australia.(1) Thus + Quonna is a buffalo, Abrootoo is a cornstalk, Abbradi a plantain. Other + names are, in English, the parrot, the wild cat, red earth, panther and + dog. Thus all the natives of this part of Africa are parrots, dogs, + buffaloes, panthers, and so forth, just as the Australians are emus, + iguanas, black cockatoos, kangaroos, and the rest. It is remarkable that + there is an Incra stock, or clan of ants, in Ashantee, just as there was a + race of Myrmidons, believed to be descended from or otherwise connected + with ants, in ancient Greece. Though Bowditch's account of these West + African family divisions is brief, the arrangement tallies closely with + that of Australia. It is no great stretch of imagination to infer that the + African tribes do, or once did, believe themselves to be of the kindred of + the animals whose names they bear.(2) It is more or less confirmatory of + this hypothesis that no family is permitted to use as food the animal from + which it derives its name. We have seen that a similar rule prevails, as + far as hunger and scarcity of victuals permit it to be obeyed, among the + natives of Australia. The Intchwa stock in Ashantee and Fantee is + particularly unlucky, because its members may not eat the dog, "much + relished by native epicures, and therefore a serious privation". Equally + to be pitied were the ancient Egyptians, who, if they belonged to the + district of the sheep, might not eat mutton, which their neighbours, the + Lycopolitae, devoured at pleasure. These restrictions appear to be + connected with the almost universal dislike of cannibals to eat persons of + their own kindred except as a pious duty. This law of the game in + cannibalism has not yet been thoroughly examined, though we often hear of + wars waged expressly for the purpose of securing food (human meat), while + some South American tribes actually bred from captive women by way of + securing constant supplies of permitted flesh.(3) When we find stocks, + then, which derive their names from animals and decline to eat these + animals, we may at least SUSPECT that they once claimed kinship with the + name-giving beasts. The refusal to eat them raises a presumption of such + faith. Old Bosman(4) had noticed the same practices. "One eats no mutton, + another no goat's flesh, another no beef, swine's flesh, wild fowl, cocks + with white feathers, and they say their ancestors did so from the + beginning of the world." + </p> + <p> + (1) The evidence of native interpreters may be viewed with suspicion. It + is improbable, however, that in 1817 the interpreters were acquainted with + the totemistic theory of mythologists, and deliberately mistranslated the + names of the stocks, so as to make them harmonise with Indian, Australian, + and Red Indian totem kindreds. This, indeed, is an example where the + criterion of "recurrence" or "coincidence" seems to be valuable. + Bowditch's Mission to Ashantee (1873), p. 181. + </p> + <p> + (2) This view, however, does not prevail among the totemistic tribes of + British Columbia, for example. + </p> + <p> + (3) Cieza de Leon (Hakluyt Society), p. 50. This amazing tale is supported + by the statement that kinship went by the female side (p. 49); the father + was thus not of the kin of his child by the alien woman. Cieza was with + Validillo in 1538. + </p> + <p> + (4) In Pinkerton, xvi. 400. + </p> + <p> + While in the case of the Ashantee tribes, we can only infer the existence + of a belief in kinship with the animals from the presence of the other + features of fully developed totemism (especially from the refusal to eat + the name-giving animal), we have direct evidence for the opinion in + another part of Africa, among the Bechuanas.(1) Casalis, who passed + twenty-three years as a missionary in South Africa, thus describes the + institution: "While the united communities usually bear the name of their + chief or of the district which they inhabit" (local tribes, as in + Australia), "each stock (tribu) derives its title from an animal or a + vegetable. All the Bechuanas are subdivided thus into Bakuenas + (crocodile-men), Batlapis (men of the fish), Banarer (of the buffalo), + Banukus (porcupines), Bamoraras (wild vines), and so forth. The Bakuenas + call the crocodile their father, sing about him in their feasts, swear by + him, and mark the ears of their cattle with an incision which resembles + the open jaws of the creature." This custom of marking the cattle with the + crest, as it were, of the stock, takes among some races the shape of + deforming themselves, so as the more to resemble the animal from which + they claim descent. "The chief of the family which holds the chief rank in + the stock is called 'The Great Man of the Crocodile'. Precisely in the + same way the Duchess of Sutherland is styled in Gaelic 'The Great Lady of + the Cat,'" though totemism is probably not the origin of this title. + </p> + <p> + (1) E. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, 1859. + </p> + <p> + Casalis proceeds: "No one would dare to eat the flesh or wear the skin of + the animal whose name he bears. If the animal be dangerous—the lion, + for example—people only kill him after offering every apology and + asking his pardon. Purification must follow such a sacrifice." Casalis was + much struck with the resemblance between these practices and the similar + customs of North American races. Livingstone's account(1) on the whole + corroborates that of Casalis, though he says the Batau (tribe of the lion) + no longer exists. "They use the word bina 'to dance,' in reference to the + custom of thus naming themselves, so that when you wish to ascertain what + tribe they belong to, you say, 'What do you dance?' It would seem as if + this had been part of the worship of old." The mythological and religious + knowledge of the Bushmen is still imparted in dances; and when a man is + ignorant of some myth he will say, "I do not dance that dance," meaning + that he does not belong to the guild which preserves that particular + "sacred chapter".(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Missionary Travels (1857), p. 13. + </p> + <p> + (2) Orpen, Cape Monthly Magazine, 1872. + </p> + <p> + Casalis noticed the similarity between South African and Red Indian + opinion about kinship with vegetables and beasts. The difficulty in + treating the Red Indian belief is chiefly found in the abundance of the + evidence. Perhaps the first person who ever used the word "totemism," or, + as he spells it, "totamism," was (as we said) Mr. Long, an interpreter + among the Chippeways, who published his Voyages in 1791. Long was not + wholly ignorant of the languages, as it was his business to speak them, + and he was an adopted Indian. The ceremony of adoption was painful, + beginning with a feast of dog's flesh, followed by a Turkish bath and a + prolonged process of tattooing.(1) According to Long,(2) "The totam, they + conceive, assumes the form of some beast or other, and therefore they + never kill, hurt, or eat the animal whose form they think this totam + bears". One man was filled with religious apprehensions, and gave himself + up to the gloomy belief of Bunyan and Cowper, that he had committed the + unpardonable sin, because he dreamed he had killed his totem, a bear.(3) + This is only one example, like the refusal of the Osages to kill the + beavers, with which they count cousins,(4) that the Red Man's belief is an + actual creed, and does influence his conduct. + </p> + <p> + (1) Long, pp. 46-49. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., p. 86. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., p. 87. + </p> + <p> + (4) Schoolcraft, i. 319. + </p> + <p> + As in Australia, the belief in common kin with beasts is most clearly + proved by the construction of Red Indian society. The "totemistic" stage + of thought and manners prevails. Thus Charlevoix says,(1) "Plusieurs + nations ont chacune trois familles ou tribus principales, AUSSI ANCIENNES, + A CE QU'IL PAROIT, QUE LEUR ORIGINE. Chaque tribu porte le nom d'un + animal, et la nation entiere a aussi le sien, dont elle prend le nom, et + dont la figure est sa marque, ou, se l'on veut, ses armoiries, on ne signe + point autrement les traites qu'en traceant ces figures." Among the animal + totems Charlevoix notices porcupine, bear, wolf and turtle. The armoiries, + the totemistic heraldry of the peoples of Virginia, greatly interested a + heraldic ancestor of Gibbon the historian,(2) who settled in the colony. + According to Schoolcraft,(3) the totem or family badge, of a dead warrior + is drawn in a reverse position on his grave-post. In the same way the + leopards of England are drawn reversed on the shield of an English king + opposite the mention of his death in old monkish chronicles. As a general + rule,(4) persons bearing the same totem in America cannot intermarry. "The + union must be between various totems." Moreover, as in the case of the + Australians, "the descent of the chief is in the female line". We thus + find among the Red Men precisely the same totemistic regulations as among + the Aborigines of Australia. Like the Australians, the Red Men "never" + (perhaps we should read "hardly ever") eat their totems. Totemists, in + short, spare the beasts that are their own kith and kin. To avoid + multiplying details which all corroborate each other, it may suffice to + refer to Schoolcraft for totemism among the Iowas(5) and the Pueblos;(6) + for the Iroquois, to Lafitau, a missionary of the early part of the + eighteenth century. Lafitau was perhaps the first writer who ever + explained certain features in Greek and other ancient myths and practices + as survivals from totemism. The Chimera, a composite creature, lion, goat + and serpent, might represent, Lafitau thought, a league of three totem + tribes, just as wolf, bear and turtle represented the Iroquois League. + </p> + <p> + (1) Histoire de la France-Nouvelle, iii. 266. + </p> + <p> + (2) Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, by John Gibbon, Blue Mantle, London, + 1682. "The dancers, were painted some party per pale, gul and sab, some + party per fesse of the same colours;" whence Gibbon concluded "that + heraldry was ingrafted naturally into the sense of the humane race". + </p> + <p> + (3) Vol. i. p. 356. + </p> + <p> + (4) Schoolcraft, v. 73. + </p> + <p> + (5) Ibid., iii. 268. + </p> + <p> + (6) Ibid., iv. 86. + </p> + <p> + The martyred Pere Rasles, again, writing in 1723,(1) says that one stock + of the Outaonaks claims descent from a hare ("the great hare was a man of + prodigious size"), while another stock derive their lineage from the carp, + and a third descends from a bear; yet they do not scruple, after certain + expiatory rites, to eat bear's flesh. Other North American examples are + the Kutchin, who have always possessed the system of totems.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Kip's Jesuits in America i. 33. + </p> + <p> + (2) Dall's Alaska, pp. 196-198. + </p> + <p> + It is to be noticed, as a peculiarity of Red Indian totemism which we have + not observed (though it may exist) in Africa, that certain stocks claim + relations with the sun. Thus Pere Le Petit, writing from New Orleans in + 1730, mentions the Sun, or great chief of the Natchez Indians.(1) The + totem of the privileged class among the Natchez was the sun, and in all + myths the sun is regarded as a living being, who can have children, who + may be beaten, who bleeds when cut, and is simply on the same footing as + men and everything else in the world. Precisely similar evidence comes + from South America. In this case our best authority is almost beyond + suspicion. He knew the native languages well, being himself a half-caste. + He was learned in the European learning of his time; and as a son of the + Incas, he had access to all surviving Peruvian stores of knowledge, and + could collect without difficulty the testimonies of his countrymen. It + will be seen(2) that Don Garcilasso de la Vega could estimate evidence, + and ridiculed the rough methods and fallacious guesses of Spanish + inquirers. Garcilasso de la Vega was born about 1540, being the son of an + Inca princess and of a Spanish conqueror. His book, Commentarias + Reales,(3) was expressly intended to rectify the errors of such Spanish + writers as Acosta. In his account of Peruvian religion, Garcilasso + distinguishes between the beliefs of the tribes previous to the rise of + the Inca empire and the sun-worship of the Incas. But it is plain, from + Garcilasso's own account and from other evidence, that under the Incas the + older faiths and fetichisms survived, in subordination to sun-worship, + just as Pagan superstitions survived in custom and folk-lore after the + official recognition of Christianity. Sun-worship, in Peru, and the belief + in a Supreme Creator there, seem even, like Catholicism in Mexico, China + and elsewhere, to have made a kind of compromise with the lower beliefs, + and to have been content to allow a certain amount of bowing down in the + temples of the elder faiths. According, then, to Garcilasso's account of + Peruvian totemism, "An Indian was not looked upon as honourable unless he + was descended from a fountain, river,(4) or lake, or even from the sea, OR + FROM A WILD ANIMAL, such as a bear, lion, tiger, eagle, or the bird they + call cuntur (condor), or some other bird of prey ".(5) A certain amount of + worship was connected with this belief in kinship with beasts and natural + objects. Men offered up to their totems "what they usually saw them + eat".(6) On the seacoasts "they worshipped sardines, skates, dog-fish, + and, for want of larger gods, crabs.... There was not an animal, how vile + and filthy soever, that they did not worship as a god," including + "lizards, toads and frogs." Garcilasso (who says they ate the fish they + worshipped) gives his own theory of the origin of totemism. In the + beginning men had only sought for badges whereby to discriminate one human + stock from another. "The one desired to have a god different from the + other.... They only thought of making one different from another." When + the Inca emperors began to civilise the totemistic stocks, they pointed + out that their own father, the sun, possessed "splendour and beauty" as + contrasted with "the ugliness and filth of the frogs and other vermin they + looked upon as gods".(7) Garcilasso, of course, does not use the North + American word totem (or ote or otem) for the family badge which + represented the family ancestors. He calls these things, as a general + rule, pacarissa. The sun was the pacarissa of the Incas, as it was of the + chief of the Natchez. The pacarissa of other stocks was the lion, bear, + frog, or what not. Garcilasso accounts for the belief accorded to the + Incas, when they claimed actual descent from the sun, by observing(8) that + "there were tribes among their subjects who professed similar fabulous + descents, though they did not comprehend how to select ancestors so well + as the Incas, but adored animals and other low and earthly objects". As to + the fact of the Peruvian worship of beasts, if more evidence is wanted, it + is given, among others, by Cieza de Leon,(9) who contrasts the adoration + of the Roman gods with that offered in Peru to brutes. "In the important + temple of Pacha-camac (the spiritual deity of Peru) they worshipped a + she-fox or vixen and an emerald." The devil also "appeared to them and + spoke in the form of a tiger, very fierce". Other examples of totemism in + South America may be studied in the tribes on the Amazon.(10) Mr. Wallace + found the Pineapple stock, the Mosquitoes, Woodpeckers, Herons, and other + totem kindreds. A curious example of similar ideas is discovered among the + Bonis of Guiana. These people were originally West Coast Africans imported + as slaves, who have won their freedom with the sword. While they retain a + rough belief in Gadou (God) and Didibi (the devil), they are divided into + totem stocks with animal names. The red ape, turtle and cayman are among + the chief totems.(11) + </p> + <p> + (1) Kip, ii. 288. + </p> + <p> + (2) Appendix B. + </p> + <p> + (3) See translation in Hakluyt Society's Collection. + </p> + <p> + (4) Like many Greek heroes. Odyssey, iii. 489. "Orsilochus, the child + begotten of Alpheus." + </p> + <p> + (5) Comm. Real., i. 75. + </p> + <p> + (6) Ibid., 53. + </p> + <p> + (7) Ibid., 102. + </p> + <p> + (8) Ibid., 83. + </p> + <p> + (9) Cieza de Leon (Hakluyt Society), p. 183. + </p> + <p> + (10) Acuna, p. 103; Wallace, Travels on Amazon (1853), pp. 481-506. + </p> + <p> + (11) Crevaux, Voyages dans l'Amerique du Sud, p. 59. + </p> + <p> + After this hasty examination of the confused belief in kinship with + animals and other natural objects which underlies institutions in + Australia, West and South Africa, North and South America, we may glance + at similar notions among the non-Aryan races of India. In Dalton's + Ethnology of Bengal,(1) he tells us that the Garo clans are divided into + maharis or motherhoods. Children belong to the mahari of the mother, just + as (in general) they derive their stock name and totem from the mother's + side in Australia and among the North American Indians. No man may marry + (as among the Red Indians and Australians) a woman belonging to his own + stock, motherhood or mahari. So far the maharis of Bengal exactly + correspond to the totem kindred. But do the Maharis also take their names + from plants and animals, and so forth? We know that the Killis, similar + communities among the Bengal Hos and Mundos, do this.(2) "The Mundaris, + like the Oraons, adopt as their tribal distinction the name of some + animal, and the flesh of that animal is tabooed to them as food; for + example, the eel, the tortoise." This is exactly the state of things in + Ashanti. Dalton mentions also(3) a princely family in Nagpur which claims + descent from "a great hooded snake". Among the Oraons he found(4) tribes + which might not eat young mice (considered a dainty) or tortoises, and a + stock which might not eat the oil of the tree which was their totem, nor + even sit in its shade. "The family or tribal names" (within which they may + not marry) "are usually those of animals or plants, and when this is the + case, the flesh of some part of the animal or the fruit of the tree is + tabooed to the tribe called after it." + </p> + <p> + (1) Dalton, p. 63. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., p. 189. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., p. 166. + </p> + <p> + (4) Ibid., p. 254. + </p> + <p> + An excellent sketch of totemism in India is given by Mr. H. H. Risley of + the Bengal Civil Service:—(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) The Asiatic Quarterly, No. 3, Essay on "Primitive Marriage in Bengal." + </p> + <p> + "At the bottom of the social system, as understood by the average Hindu, + stands a large body of non-Aryan castes and tribes, each of which is + broken up into a number of what may be called totemistic exogamous septs. + Each sept bears the name of an animal, a tree, a plant, or of some + material object, natural or artificial, which the members of that sept are + prohibited from killing, eating, cutting, burning, carrying, using, + etc."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Here we may note that the origin of exogamy itself is merely part of a + strict totemistic prohibition. A man may not "use" an object within the + totem kin, nor a woman of the kin. Compare the Greek idiom (Greek text + omitted). + </p> + <p> + Mr. Risley finds that both Kolarians, as the Sonthals, and Dravidians, as + the Oraons, are in this state of totemism, like the Hos and Mundas. It is + most instructive to learn that, as one of these tribes rises in the social + scale, it sloughs off its totem, and, abandoning the common name derived + from bird, beast, or plant, adopts that of an eponymous ancestor. A + tendency in this direction has been observed by Messrs. Fison and Howitt + even in Australia. The Mahilis, Koras and Kurmis, who profess to be + members of the Hindu community, still retain the totemistic organisation, + with names derived from birds, beasts and plants. Even the Jagannathi + Kumhars of Orissa, taking rank immediately below the writer-caste, have + the totems tiger, snake, weasel, cow, frog, sparrow and tortoise. The + sub-castes of the Khatlya Kumhars explain away their totem-names "as names + of certain saints, who, being present at Daksha's Horse-sacrifice, + transformed themselves into animals to escape the wrath of Siva," like the + gods of Egypt when they fled in bestial form from the wrath of Set. + </p> + <p> + Among the non-Aryan tribes the marriage law has the totemistic sanction. + No man may marry a woman of his totem kin. When the totem-name is changed + for an eponym, the non-Aryan, rising in the social scale, is practically + in the same position as the Brahmans, "divided into exogamous sections + (gotras), the members of which profess to be descended from the mythical + rishi or inspired saint whose name the gotra bears". There is thus nothing + to bar the conjecture that the exogamous gotras of the whole Brahmans were + once a form of totem-kindred, which (like aspiring non-Aryan stocks at the + present day) dropped the totem-name and renamed the septs from some + eponymous hero, medicine-man, or Rishi. + </p> + <p> + Constant repetition of the same set of facts becomes irksome, and yet is + made necessary by the legitimate demand for trustworthy and abundant + evidence. As the reader must already have reflected, this living mythical + belief in the common confused equality of men, gods, plants, beasts, + rivers, and what not, which still regulates savage society,(1) is one of + the most prominent features in mythology. Porphyry remarked and exactly + described it among the Egyptians—"common and akin to men and gods + they believed the beasts to be."(2) The belief in such equality is alien + to modern civilisation. We have shown that it is common and fundamental in + savagery. For instance, in the Pacific, we might quote Turner,(3) and for + Melanesia, Codrington,(4) while for New Zealand we have Taylor.(5) For the + Jakuts, along the banks of the Lena in Northern Asia, we have the evidence + of Strahlenberg, who writes: "Each tribe of these people look upon some + particular creature as sacred, e.g., a swan, goose, raven, etc., and such + is not eaten by that tribe" though the others may eat it.(6) As the + majority of our witnesses were quite unaware that the facts they described + were common among races of whom many of them had never even heard, their + evidence may surely be accepted as valid, especially as the beliefs + testified to express themselves in marriage laws, in the blood-feud, in + abstinence from food, on pillars over graves, in rude heraldry, and in + other obvious and palpable shapes. If we have not made out, by the + evidence of institutions, that a confused credulity concerning the + equality and kinship of man and the objects in nature is actually a ruling + belief among savages, and even higher races, from the Lena to the Amazon, + from the Gold Coast to Queensland, we may despair of ever convincing an + opponent. The survival of the same beliefs and institutions among + civilised races, Aryan and others, will later be demonstrated.(7) If we + find that the mythology of civilised races here agrees with the actual + practical belief of savages, and if we also find that civilised races + retain survivals of the institutions in which the belief is expressed by + savages, then we may surely infer that the activity of beasts in the myths + of Greece springs from the same sources as the similar activity of beasts + in the myths of Iroquois or Kaffirs. That is to say, part of the + irrational element in Greek myth will be shown to be derived (whether by + inheritance or borrowing) from an ascertained condition of savage fancy. + </p> + <p> + (1) See some very curious and disgusting examples of this confusion in + Liebrecht's Zur Volkskunde, pp. 395, 396 (Heilbronn, 1879). + </p> + <p> + (2) De Abst., ii. 26. + </p> + <p> + (3) Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 238, and Samoa by the same author. + Complete totemism is not asserted here, and is denied for Melanesia. + </p> + <p> + (4) Journ. Anthrop. Inst., "Religious Practices in Melanesia". + </p> + <p> + (5) New Zealand, "Animal Intermarriage with Men". + </p> + <p> + (6) Description of Asia (1783), p. 383. + </p> + <p> + (7) Professor Robertson Smith, Kinship in Arabia, attempts to show that + totemism existed in the Semitic races. The topic must be left to + Orientalists. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. THE MENTAL CONDITION OF + </h2> + <p> + SAVAGES—MAGIC—METAMORPHOSIS—METAPHYSIC—PSYCHOLOGY. + </p> + <p> + Claims of sorcerers—Savage scientific speculation—Theory of + causation—Credulity, except as to new religious ideas—"Post + hoc, ergo propter hoc"—Fundamental ideas of magic—Examples: + incantations, ghosts, spirits—Evidence of rank and other + institutions in proof of confusions of mind exhibited in magical beliefs. + </p> + <p> + "I mean eftsoons to have a fling at magicians for their abominable lies + and monstrous vanities."—PLINY, ap. Phil. Holland. + </p> + <p> + "Quoy de ceux qui naturellement se changent en loups, en juments, et puis + encores en hommes?"—MONTAIGNE, Apologie pour Raymond de Sebonde. + </p> + <p> + The second feature in the savage intellectual condition which we promised + to investigate was the belief in magic and sorcery. The world and all the + things in it being conceived of vaguely as sensible and rational, are + supposed to obey the commands of certain members of each tribe, such as + chiefs, jugglers, or conjurors. These conjurors, like Zeus or Indra, can + affect the weather, work miracles, assume what shapes, animal, vegetable, + or inorganic, they please, and can metamorphose other persons into similar + shapes. It has already been shown that savage man has regarded all THINGS + as PERSONS much on a level with himself. It has now to be shown WHAT KIND + OF PERSON HE CONCEIVES HIMSELF TO BE. He does not look on men as civilised + races regard them, that is, as beings with strict limitations. On the + other hand, he thinks of certain members of his tribe as exempt from most + of the limitations, and capable of working every miracle that tradition + has ever attributed to prophets or gods. Nor are such miraculous powers, + such practical omnipotence, supposed by savages to be at all rare among + themselves. Though highly valued, miraculous attainments are not believed + to be unusual. This must be kept steadily in mind. When myth-making man + regards the sky or sun or wind as a person, he does not mean merely a + person with the limitations recognised by modern races. He means a person + with the miraculous powers of the medicine-man. The sky, sun, wind or + other elemental personage can converse with the dead, and can turn himself + and his neighbours into animals, stones and trees. + </p> + <p> + To understand these functions and their exercise, it is necessary to + examine what may be called savage science, savage metaphysics, and the + savage theory of the state of the dead. The medicine-man's supernatural + claims are rooted in the general savage view of the world, of what is + possible, and of what (if anything) is impossible. The savage, even more + than the civilised man, may be described as a creature "moving about in + worlds not realised". He feels, no less than civilised man, the need of + making the world intelligible, and he is active in his search for causes + and effects. There is much "speculation in these eyes that he doth glare + withal". This is a statement which has been denied by some persons who + have lived with savages. Thus Mr. Bates, in his Naturalist on the + Amazon,(1) writes: "Their want of curiosity is extreme.... Vicente (an + Indian companion) did not know the cause of thunder and lightning. I asked + him who made the sun, the stars, the trees. He didn't know, and had never + heard the subject mentioned in his tribe." But Mr. Bates admits that even + Vicente had a theory of the configuration of the world. "The necessity of + a theory of the earth and water had been felt, and a theory had been + suggested." Again, Mr. Bates says about a certain Brazilian tribe, "Their + sluggish minds seem unable to conceive or feel the want of a theory of the + soul"; and he thinks the cause of this indolence is the lack "of a written + language or a leisured class". Now savages, as a rule, are all in the + "leisured class," all sportsmen. Mr. Herbert Spencer, too, has expressed + scepticism about the curiosity attributed to savages. The point is + important, because, in our view, the medicine-man's powers are rooted in + the savage theory of things, and if the savage is too sluggish to invent + or half consciously evolve a theory of things, our hypothesis is baseless. + Again, we expect to find in savage myths the answer given by savages to + their own questions. But this view is impossible if savages do not ask + themselves, and never have asked themselves, any questions at all about + the world. On this topic Mr. Spencer writes: "Along with absence of + surprise there naturally goes absence of intelligent curiosity".(2) Yet + Mr. Spencer admits that, according to some witnesses, "the Dyaks have an + insatiable curiosity," the Samoans "are usually very inquisitive," and + "the Tahitians are remarkably curious and inquisitive". Nothing is more + common than to find travellers complaining that savages, in their ardently + inquiring curiosity, will not leave the European for a moment to his own + undisturbed devices. Mr. Spencer's savages, who showed no curiosity, + displayed this impassiveness when Europeans were trying to make them + exhibit signs of surprise. Impassivity is a point of honour with many + uncivilised races, and we cannot infer that a savage has no curiosity + because he does not excite himself over a mirror, or when his European + visitors try to swagger with their mechanical appliances. Mr. Herbert + Spencer founds, on the statements of Mr. Bates already quoted, a notion + that "the savage, lacking ability to think and the accompanying desire to + know, is without tendency to speculate". He backs Mr. Bates's experience + with Mungo Park's failure to "draw" the negroes about the causes of day + and night. They had never indulged a conjecture nor formed an hypothesis + on the matter. Yet Park avers that "the belief in one God is entire and + universal among them". This he "pronounces without the smallest shadow of + doubt". As to "primitive man," according to Mr. Spencer, "the need for + explanations about surrounding appearances does not occur to him". We have + disclaimed all knowledge about "primitive man," but it is easy to show + that Mr. Spencer grounds his belief in the lack of speculation among + savages on a frail foundation of evidence. + </p> + <p> + (1) Vol. ii. p. 162. + </p> + <p> + (2) Sociology, p. 98. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Spencer has admitted speculation, or at least curiosity, among New + Caledonians, New Guinea people, Dyaks, Samoans and Tahitians. Even where + he denies its existence, as among the Amazon tribes mentioned by Mr. + Bates, we happen to be able to show that Mr. Bates was misinformed. + Another traveller, the American geologist, Professor Hartt of Cornell + University, lived long among the tribes of the Amazon. But Professor Hartt + did not, like Mr. Bates, find them at all destitute of theories of things—theories + expressed in myths, and testifying to the intellectual activity and + curiosity which demands an answer to its questions. Professor Hartt, when + he first became acquainted with the Indians of the Amazon, knew that they + were well supplied with myths, and he set to work to collect them. But he + found that neither by coaxing nor by offers of money could he persuade an + Indian to relate a myth. Only by accident, "while wearily paddling up the + Paranamirim of the Ituki," did he hear the steersman telling stories to + the oarsmen to keep them awake. Professor Hartt furtively noted down the + tale, and he found that by "setting the ball rolling," and narrating a + story himself, he could make the natives throw off reserve and add to his + stock of tales. "After one has obtained his first myth, and has learned to + recite it accurately and spiritedly, the rest is easy." The tales + published by Professor Hartt are chiefly animal stories, like those + current in Africa and among the Red Indians, and Hartt even believed that + many of the legends had been imported by Negroes. But as the majority of + the Negro myths, like those of the Australians, give a "reason why" for + the existence of some phenomenon or other, the argument against early + man's curiosity and vivacity of intellect is rather injured, even if the + Amazonian myths were imported from Africa. Mr. Spencer based his disbelief + in the intellectual curiosity of the Amazonian tribes and of Negroes on + the reports of Mr. Bates and of Mungo Park. But it turns out that both + Negroes and Amazonians have stories which do satisfy an unscientific + curiosity, and it is even held that the Negroes lent the Amazonians these + very stories.(1) The Kamschadals, according to Steller, "give themselves a + reason why for everything, according to their own lively fancy, and do not + leave the smallest matter uncriticised".(2) As far, then, as Mr. Spencer's + objections apply to existing savages, we may consider them overweighed by + the evidence, and we may believe in a naive savage curiosity about the + world and desire for explanations of the causes of things. Mr. Tylor's + opinion corroborates our own: "Man's craving to know the causes at work in + each event he witnesses, the reasons why each state of things he surveys + is such as it is and no other, is no product of high civilisation, but a + characteristic of his race down to its lowest stages. Among rude savages + it is already an intellectual appetite, whose satisfaction claims many of + the moments not engrossed by war or sport, food or sleep. Even in the + Botocudo or the Australian, scientific speculation has its germ in actual + experience."(3) It will be shown later that the food of the savage + intellectual appetite is offered and consumed in the shape of explanatory + myths. + </p> + <p> + (1) See Amazonian Tortoise-Myth., pp. 5, 37, 40; and compare Mr. Harris's + Preface to Nights with Uncle Remus. + </p> + <p> + (2) Steller, p. 267. Cf. Farrer's Primitive Manners, p. 274. + </p> + <p> + (3) Primitive Culture, i. 369. + </p> + <p> + But we must now observe that the "actual experience," properly so called, + of the savage is so limited and so coloured by misconception and + superstition, that his knowledge of the world varies very much from the + conceptions of civilised races. He seeks an explanation, a theory of + things, based on his experience. But his knowledge of physical causes and + of natural laws is exceedingly scanty, and he is driven to fall back upon + what we may call metaphysical, or, in many cases "supernatural" + explanations. The narrower the range of man's knowledge of physical + causes, the wider is the field which he has to fill up with hypothetical + causes of a metaphysical or "supernatural" character. These "supernatural" + causes themselves the savage believes to be matters of experience. It is + to his mind a matter of experience that all nature is personal and + animated; that men may change shapes with beasts; that incantations and + supernatural beings can cause sunshine and storm. + </p> + <p> + A good example of this is given in Charlevoix's work on French Canada.(1) + Charlevoix was a Jesuit father and missionary among the Hurons and other + tribes of North America. He thus describes the philosophy of the Red Men: + "The Hurons attribute the most ordinary effects to supernatural + causes".(2) In the same page the good father himself attributes the + welcome arrival of rainy weather and the cure of certain savage patients + to the prayers of Pere Brebeuf and to the exhibition of the sacraments. + Charlevoix had considerably extended the field in which natural effects + are known to be produced by natural causes. He was much more + scientifically minded than his savage flock, and was quite aware that an + ordinary clock with a pendulum cannot bring bad luck to a whole tribe, and + that a weather-cock is not a magical machine for securing unpleasant + weather. The Hurons, however, knowing less of natural causes and nothing + of modern machinery, were as convinced that his clock was ruining the luck + of the tribe and his weather-cock spoiling the weather, as Father + Charlevoix could be of the truth of his own inferences. One or two other + anecdotes in the good father's history and letters help to explain the + difference between the philosophies of wild and of Christian men. The Pere + Brebeuf was once summoned at the instigation of a Huron wizard or + "medicine-man" before a council of the tribe. His judges told the father + that nothing had gone right since he appeared among them. To this Brebeuf + replied by "drawing the attention of the savages to the absurdity of their + principles". He admitted(3) the premise that nothing had turned out well + in the tribe since his arrival. "But the reason," said he, "plainly is + that God is angry with your hardness of heart." No sooner had the good + father thus demonstrated the absurdity of savage principles of reasoning, + than the malignant Huron wizard fell down dead at his feet! This event + naturally added to the confusion of the savages. + </p> + <p> + (1) Histoire de la France-Nouvelle. + </p> + <p> + (2) Vol. i. p. 191. + </p> + <p> + (3) Vol. i. p. 192. + </p> + <p> + Coincidences of this sort have a great effect on savage minds. Catlin, the + friend of the Mandan tribe, mentions a chief who consolidated his power by + aid of a little arsenic, bought from the whites. The chief used to + prophesy the sudden death of his opponents, which always occurred at the + time indicated. The natural results of the administration of arsenic were + attributed by the barbarous people to supernatural powers in the + possession of the chief.(1) Thus the philosophy of savages seeks causas + cognoscere rerum, like the philosophy of civilised men, but it flies + hastily to a hypothesis of "supernatural" causes which are only guessed + at, and are incapable of demonstration. This frame of mind prevails still + in civilised countries, as the Bishop of Nantes showed when, in 1846, he + attributed the floods of the Loire to "the excesses of the press and the + general disregard of Sunday". That "supernatural" causes exist and may + operate, it is not at all our intention to deny. But the habit of looking + everywhere for such causes, and of assuming their interference at will, is + the main characteristic of savage speculation. The peculiarity of the + savage is that he thinks human agents can work supernaturally, whereas + even the Bishop reserved his supernatural explanations for the Deity. On + this belief in man's power to affect events beyond the limits of natural + possibility is based the whole theory of MAGIC, the whole power of + sorcerers. That theory, again, finds incessant expression in myth, and + therefore deserves our attention. + </p> + <p> + (1) Catlin, Letters, ii. 117. + </p> + <p> + The theory requires for its existence an almost boundless credulity. This + credulity appears to Europeans to prevail in full force among savages. + Bosman is amazed by the African belief that a spider created the world. + Moffat is astonished at the South African notion that the sea was + accidentally created by a girl. Charlevoix says, "Les sauvages sont d'une + facilite a croire ce qu'on leur dit, que les plus facheuse experiences + n'ont jamais pu guerir".(1) But it is a curious fact that while savages + are, as a rule, so credulous, they often laugh at the religious doctrines + taught them by missionaries. Elsewhere they recognise certain essential + doctrines as familiar forms of old. Dr. Moffat remarks, "To speak of the + Creation, the Fall and the Resurrection, seemed more fabulous, extravagant + and ludicrous to them than their own vain stories of lions and hyaenas." + Again, "The Gospel appeared too preposterous for the most foolish to + believe".(2) While the Zulus declared that they used to accept their own + myths without inquiry,(3) it was a Zulu who suggested to Bishop Colenso + his doubts about the historical character of the Noachian Deluge. + Hearne(4) knew a Red Man, Matorabhee, who, "though a perfect bigot with + regard to the arts and tricks of the jugglers, could yet by no means be + impressed with a belief of any part of OUR religion". Lieutenant Haggard, + R.N., tells the writer that during an eclipse at Lamoo he ridiculed the + native notion of driving away a beast which devours the moon, and + explained the real cause of the phenomenon. But his native friend + protested that "he could not be expected to believe such a story". Yet + other savages aver an old agreement with the belief in a moral Creator. + </p> + <p> + (1) Vol. ii. p. 378. + </p> + <p> + (2) Missionary Labours, p. 245. + </p> + <p> + (3) Callaway, Religion of Amazulus, i. 35. + </p> + <p> + (4) Journey among the Indians, 1795, p. 350. + </p> + <p> + We have already seen sufficient examples of credulity in savage doctrines + about the equal relations of men and beasts, stars, clouds and plants. The + same readiness of belief, which would be surprising in a Christian child, + has been found to regulate the rudimentary political organisations of grey + barbarians. Add to this credulity a philosophy which takes resemblance, or + contiguity in space, or nearness in time as a sufficient reason for + predicating the relations of cause and effect, and we have the basis of + savage physical science. Yet the metaphysical theories of savages, as + expressed in Maori, Polynesian, and Zuni hymns, often amaze us by their + wealth of abstract ideas. Coincidence elsewhere stands for cause. + </p> + <p> + Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, is the motto of the savage philosophy of + causation. The untutored reasoner speculates on the principles of the + Egyptian clergy, as described by Herodotus.(1) "The Egyptians have + discovered more omens and prodigies than any other men; for when aught + prodigious occurs, they keep good watch, and write down what follows; and + then, if anything like the prodigy be repeated, they expect the same + events to follow as before." This way of looking at things is the very + essence of superstition. + </p> + <p> + (1) II. p. 82. + </p> + <p> + Savages, as a rule, are not even so scientific as the Egyptians. When an + untoward event occurs, they look for its cause among all the less familiar + circumstances of the last few days, and select the determining cause very + much at random. Thus the arrival of the French missionaries among the + Hurons was coincident with certain unfortunate events; therefore it was + argued that the advent of the missionaries was the cause of the + misfortune. When the Bechuanas suffered from drought, they attributed the + lack of rain to the arrival of Dr. Moffat, and especially to his beard, + his church bell, and a bag of salt in his possession. Here there was not + even the pretence of analogy between cause and effect. Some savages might + have argued (it is quite in their style), that as salt causes thirst, a + bag of salt causes drought; but no such case could be made out against Dr. + Moffat's bell and beard. To give an example from the beliefs of English + peasants. When a cottage was buried by a little avalanche in 1772, the + accident was attributed to the carelessness of the cottagers, who had + allowed a light to be taken out of their dwelling in Christmas-tide.(1) We + see the same confusion between antecedence and consequence in time on one + side, and cause and effect on the other, when the Red Indians aver that + birds actually bring winds and storms or fair weather. They take literally + the sense of the Rhodian swallow-song:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The swallow hath come, + Bringing fair hours, + Bringing fair seasons, + On black back and white breast.(2) +</pre> + <p> + (1) Shropshire Folk-Lore, by Miss Burne, iii. 401. + </p> + <p> + (2) Brinton, Myths of New World, p. 107. + </p> + <p> + Again, in the Pacific the people of one island always attribute hurricanes + to the machinations of the people of the nearest island to windward. The + wind comes from them; therefore (as their medicine-men can notoriously + influence the weather), they must have sent the wind. This unneighbourly + act is a casus belli, and through the whole of a group of islands the + banner of war, like the flag of freedom in Byron, flies against the wind. + The chief principle, then, of savage science is that antecedence and + consequence in time are the same as effect and cause.(1) Again, savage + science holds that LIKE AFFECTS LIKE, that you can injure a man, for + example, by injuring his effigy. On these principles the savage explains + the world to himself, and on these principles he tries to subdue to + himself the world. Now the putting of these principles into practice is + simply the exercise of art magic, an art to which nothing seems + impossible. The belief that his Shamans or medicine-men practise this art + is universal among savages. It seriously affects their conduct, and is + reflected in their myths. + </p> + <p> + (1) See account of Zuni metaphysics in chapter on American Divine Myths. + </p> + <p> + The one general rule which governs all magical reasoning is, that casual + connection in thought is equivalent to causative connection in fact. Like + suggests like to human thought by association of ideas; wherefore like + influences like, or produces analogous effects in practice. Any object + once in a man's possession, especially his hair or his nails, is supposed + to be capable of being used against him by a sorcerer. The part suggests + the whole. A lock of a man's hair was part of the man; to destroy the hair + is to destroy its former owner. Again, whatever event follows another in + time suggests it, and may have been caused by it. Accompanying these ideas + is the belief that nature is peopled by invisible spiritual powers, over + which magicians and sorcerers possess influence. The magic of the lower + races chiefly turns on these two beliefs. First, "man having come to + associate in thought those things which he found by experience to be + connected in fact, proceeded erroneously to invert their action, and to + conclude that association in thought must involve similar connection in + reality. He thus attempted to discover, to foretell, and to cause events, + by means of processes which we now see to have only an ideal + significance."(1) Secondly, man endeavoured to make disembodied spirits of + the dead, or any other spirits, obedient to his will. Savage philosophy + presumes that the beliefs are correct, and that their practical + application is successful. Examples of the first of the two chief magical + ideas are as common in unscientific modern times or among unscientific + modern people as in the savage world. + </p> + <p> + (1) Primitive Culture, i. 14. + </p> + <p> + The physicians of the age of Charles II. were wont to give their patients + "mummy powder," that is, pulverised mummy. They argued that the mummy had + lasted for a very long time, and that the patients ought to do so + likewise. Pliny imagined that diamonds must be found in company with gold, + because these are the most perfect substances in the world, and like + should draw to like. Aurum potabile, or drinkable gold, was a favourite + medical nostrum of the Middle Ages, because gold, being perfect, should + produce perfect health. Among savages the belief that like is caused by + like is exemplified in very many practices. The New Caledonians, when they + wish their yam plots to be fertile, bury in them with mystic ceremonies + certain stones which are naturally shaped like yams. The Melanesians have + reduced this kind of magic to a system. Among them certain stones have a + magical efficacy, which is determined in each case by the shape of the + stone. "A stone in the shape of a pig, of a bread-fruit, of a yam, was a + most valuable find. No garden was planted without the stones which were to + increase the crop."(1) Stones with a rude resemblance to beasts bring the + Zuni luck in the chase. + </p> + <p> + (1) Rev. R. H. Codrington, Journ. Anth. Inst., February, 1881. + </p> + <p> + The spiritual theory in some places is mixed up with the "like to like" + theory, and the magical stones are found where the spirits have been heard + twittering and whistling. "A large stone lying with a number of small ones + under it, like a sow among her sucklings, was good for a childless + woman."(1) It is the savage belief that stones reproduce their species, a + belief consonant with the general theory of universal animation and + personality. The ancient belief that diamonds gendered diamonds is a + survival from these ideas. "A stone with little disks upon it was good to + bring in money; any fanciful interpretation of a mark was enough to give a + character to the stone and its associated Vui" or spirit in Melanesia. In + Scotland, stones shaped like various parts of the human body are expected + to cure the diseases with which these members may be afflicted. "These + stones were called by the names of the limbs which they represented, as + 'eye-stone,' 'head-stone'." The patient washed the affected part of the + body, and rubbed it well with the stone corresponding.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Codrington, Journ. Anth. Soc., x. iii. 276. + </p> + <p> + (2) Gregor, Folk-Lore of North-East Counties, p. 40. + </p> + <p> + To return from European peasant-magic to that of savages, we find that + when the Bushmen want wet weather they light fires, believing that the + black smoke clouds will attract black rain clouds; while the Zulus + sacrifice black cattle to attract black clouds of rain.(1) Though this + magic has its origin in savage ignorance, it survives into civilisation. + Thus the sacrifices of the Vedic age were imitations of the natural + phenomena which the priests desired to produce.(2) "C'etait un moyen de + faire tombre la pluie en realisant, par les representations terrestres des + eaux du nuage et de l'eclair, les conditions dans lesquelles celui-ci + determine dans le ciel l'epanchement de celles-la." A good example of + magical science is afforded by the medical practice of the Dacotahs of + North America.(3) When any one is ill, an image of his disease, a boil or + what not, is carved in wood. This little image is then placed in a bowl of + water and shot at with a gun. The image of the disease being destroyed, + the disease itself is expected to disappear. Compare the magic of the + Philistines, who made golden images of the sores which plagued them and + stowed them away in the ark.(4) The custom of making a wax statuette of an + enemy, and piercing it with pins or melting it before the fire, so that + the detested person might waste as his semblance melted, was common in + mediaeval Europe, was known to Plato, and is practised by Negroes. Some + Australians take some of the hair of an enemy, mix it with grease and the + feathers of the eagle, and burn it in the fire. This is "bar" or black + magic. The boarding under the chair of a magistrate in Barbadoes was + lifted not long ago, and the ground beneath was found covered with wax + images of litigants stuck full of pins. + </p> + <p> + (1) Callaway, i. 92. + </p> + <p> + (2) Bergaigne, Religion Vedique, i. 126-138, i., vii., viii. + </p> + <p> + (3) Schoolcraft, iv. 491. + </p> + <p> + (4) 1 Samuel vi. 4, 5. + </p> + <p> + The war-magic of the Dacotahs works in a similar manner. Before a party + starts on the war-trail, the chief, with various ceremonies, takes his + club and stands before his tent. An old witch bowls hoops at him; each + hoop represents an enemy, and for each he strikes a foeman is expected to + fall. A bowl of sweetened water is also set out to entice the spirits of + the enemy.(1) The war-magic of the Aryans in India does not differ much in + character from that of the Dacotahs. "If any one wishes his army to be + victorious, he should go beyond the battle-line, cut a stalk of grass at + the top and end, and throw it against the hostile army with the words, + Prasahe kas trapasyati?—O Prasaha, who sees thee? If one who has + such knowledge cuts a stalk of grass and throws the parts at the hostile + army, it becomes split and dissolved, just as a daughter-in-law becomes + abashed and faints when seeing her father-in-law,"—an allusion, + apparently, to the widespread tabu which makes fathers-in-law, + daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and mothers-in-law avoid each other.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Schoolcraft, iv. 496. + </p> + <p> + (2) Aitareya Brahmana, iii. 22. + </p> + <p> + The hunt-dances of the Red Indians and Australians are arranged like their + war-magic. Effigies of the bears, deer, or kangaroos are made, or some of + the hunters imitate the motions of these animals. The rest of the dancers + pretend to spear them, and it is hoped that this will ensure success among + the real bears and kangaroos. + </p> + <p> + Here is a singular piece of magic in which Europeans and Australian blacks + agree. Boris Godunoff made his servants swear never to injure him by + casting spells with the dust on which his feet or his carriage wheels had + left traces.(1) Mr. Howitt finds the same magic among the Kurnai.(2) + "Seeing a Tatungolung very lame, I asked him what was the matter. He said, + 'Some fellow has put BOTTLE in my foot'. I found he was probably suffering + from acute rheumatism. He explained that some enemy must have found his + foot-track and have buried in it a piece of broken bottle. The magic + influence, he believed, caused it to enter his foot." On another occasion + a native told Mr. Howitt that he had seen black fellows putting poison in + his foot-tracks. Bosman mentions a similar practice among the people of + Guinea. In Scottish folk-lore a screw nail is fixed into the footprint of + the person who is to be injured. + </p> + <p> + (1) Rambaud's History of Russia, English trans., i. 351. + </p> + <p> + (2) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 250. + </p> + <p> + Just as these magical efforts to influence like by like work their way + into Vedic and other religions, so they are introduced into the religion + of the savage. His prayers are addresses to some sort of superior being, + but the efficacy of the prayer is often eked out by a little magic, unless + indeed we prefer to suppose that the words of the supplication are + interpreted by gesture-speech. Sproat writes: "Set words and gestures are + used according to the thing desired. For instance, in praying for salmon, + the native rubs the backs of his hands, looks upwards, and mutters the + words, 'Many salmon, many salmon'. If he wishes for deer, he carefully + rubs both eyes; or, if it is geese, he rubs the back of his shoulder, + uttering always in a sing-song way the accustomed formula.... All these + practices in praying no doubt have a meaning. We may see a steady hand is + needed in throwing the salmon-spear, and clear eyesight in finding deer in + the forest."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Savage Life, p. 208. + </p> + <p> + In addition to these forms of symbolical magic (which might be multiplied + to any extent), we find among savages the belief in the power of songs of + INCANTATION. This is a feature of magic which specially deserves our + attention. In myths, and still more in marchen or household tales, we + shall constantly find that the most miraculous effects are caused when the + hero pronounces a few lines of rhyme. In Rome, as we have all read in the + Latin Delectus, it was thought that incantations could draw down the moon. + In the Odyssey the kinsfolk of Odysseus sing "a song of healing" over the + wound which was dealt him by the boar's tusk. Jeanne d'Arc, wounded at + Orleans, refused a similar remedy. Sophocles speaks of the folly of + muttering incantations over wounds that need the surgeon's knife. The song + that salved wounds occurs in the Kalewala, the epic poem of the Finns. In + many of Grimm's marchen, miracles are wrought by the repetition of + snatches of rhyme. This belief is derived from the savage state of fancy. + According to Kohl,(1) "Every sorrowful or joyful emotion that opens the + Indian's mouth is at once wrapped up in the garb of a wabanonagamowin + (chanson magicale). If you ask one of them to sing you a simple innocent + hymn in praise of Nature, a spring or jovial hunting stave, he never gives + you anything but a form of incantation, with which he says you will be + able to call to you all the birds from the sky, and all the foxes and + wolves from their caves and burrows."(2) The giant's daughter in the + Scotch marchen, Nicht, Nought, Nothing, is thus enabled to call to her aid + "all the birds of the sky". In the same way, if you ask an Indian for a + love-song, he will say that a philtre is really much more efficacious. The + savage, in short, is extremely practical. His arts, music and drawing, + exist not pour l'art, but for a definite purpose, as methods of getting + something that the artist wants. The young lover whom Kohl knew, like the + lover of Bombyca in Theocritus, believed in having an image of himself and + an image of the beloved. Into the heart of the female image he thrust + magic powders, and he said that this was common, lovers adding songs, + "partly elegiac, partly malicious, and almost criminal forms of + incantation".(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Page 395. + </p> + <p> + (2) Cf. Comparetti's Traditional Poetry of the Finns. + </p> + <p> + (3) Kitchi gami, pp. 395, 397. + </p> + <p> + Among the Indo-Aryans the masaminik or incantations of the Red Man are + known as mantras.(1) These are usually texts from the Veda, and are + chanted over the sick and in other circumstances where magic is believed + to be efficacious. Among the New Zealanders the incantations are called + karakias, and are employed in actual life. There is a special karakia to + raise the wind. In Maori myths the hero is very handy with his karakia. + Rocks split before him, as before girls who use incantations in Kaffir and + Bushman tales. He assumes the shape of any animal at will, or flies in the + air, all by virtue of the karakia or incantation.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 441, "Incantations from the Atharva Veda". + </p> + <p> + (2) Taylor's New Zealand; Theal's Kaffir Folk-Lore, South-African + Folk-Lore Journal, passim; Shortland's Traditions of the New Zealanders, + pp. 130-135. + </p> + <p> + Without multiplying examples in the savage belief that miracles can be + wrought by virtue of physical CORRESPONDANCES, by like acting on like, by + the part affecting the whole, and so forth, we may go on to the magical + results produced by the aid of spirits. These may be either spirits of the + dead or spiritual essences that never animated mortal men. Savage magic or + science rests partly on the belief that the world is peopled by a "choir + invisible," or rather by a choir only occasionally visible to certain + gifted people, sorcerers and diviners. An enormous amount of evidence to + prove the existence of these tenets has been collected by Mr. Tylor, and + is accessible to all in the chapters on "Animism" in his Primitive + Culture. It is not our business here to account for the universality of + the belief in spirits. Mr. Tylor, following Lucretius and Homer, derives + the belief from the reasonings of early men on the phenomena of dreams, + fainting, shadows, visions caused by narcotics, hallucinations, and other + facts which suggest the hypothesis of a separable life apart from the + bodily organism. It would scarcely be fair not to add that the kind of + "facts" investigated by the Psychical Society—such "facts" as the + appearance of men at the moment of death in places remote from the scene + of their decease, with such real or delusive experiences as the noises and + visions in haunted houses—are familiar to savages. Without + discussing these obscure matters, it may be said that they influence the + thoughts even of some scientifically trained and civilised men. It is + natural, therefore, that they should strongly sway the credulous + imagination of backward races, in which they originate or confirm the + belief that life can exist and manifest itself after the death of the + body.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) See the author's Making of Religion, 1898. + </p> + <p> + Some examples of savage "ghost-stories," precisely analogous to the + "facts" of the Psychical Society's investigations, may be adduced. The + first is curious because it offers among the Kanekas an example of a + belief current in Breton folk-lore. The story is vouched for by Mr. J. J. + Atkinson, late of Noumea, New Caledonia. Mr. Atkinson, we have reason to + believe, was unacquainted with the Breton parallel. To him one day a + Kaneka of his acquaintance paid a visit, and seemed loth to go away. He + took leave, returned, and took leave again, till Mr. Atkinson asked him + the reason of his behaviour. He then explained that he was about to die, + and would never see his English friend again. As he seemed in perfect + health, Mr. Atkinson rallied him on his hypochondria; but the poor fellow + replied that his fate was sealed. He had lately met in the wood one whom + he took for the Kaneka girl of his heart; but he became aware too late + that she was no mortal woman, but a wood-spirit in the guise of the + beloved. The result would be his death within three days, and, as a matter + of fact, he died. This is the groundwork of the old Breton ballad of Le + Sieur Nan, who dies after his intrigue with the forest spectre.(1) A tale + more like a common modern ghost-story is vouched for by Mr. C. J. Du Ve, + in Australia. In the year 1860, a Maneroo black fellow died in the service + of Mr. Du Ve. "The day before he died, having been ill some time, he said + that in the night his father, his father's friend, and a female spirit he + could not recognise, had come to him and said that he would die next day, + and that they would wait for him. Mr. Du Ye adds that, though previously + the Christian belief had been explained to this man, it had entirely + faded, and that he had gone back to the belief of his childhood." Mr. + Fison, who prints this tale in his Kamilaroi and Kurnai,(2) adds, "I could + give many similar instances which have come within my own knowledge among + the Fijians, and, strange to say, the dying man in all these cases kept + his appointment with the ghosts to the very day". + </p> + <p> + (1) It may, of course, be conjectured that the French introduced this + belief into New Caledonia. + </p> + <p> + (2) Page 247. + </p> + <p> + In the Cruise of the Beagle is a parallel anecdote of a Fuegian, Jimmy + Button, and his father's ghost. + </p> + <p> + Without entering into a discussion of ghosts, it is plain that the kind of + evidence, whatever its value may be, which convinces many educated + Europeans of the existence of "veridical" apparitions has also played its + part in the philosophy of uncivilised races. On this belief in + apparitions, then, is based the power of the savage sorcerers and + necromants, of the men who converse with the dead and are aided by + disembodied spirits. These men have greatly influenced the beginnings of + mythology. Among certain Australian tribes the necromants are called + Birraark.(1) "The Kurnai tell me," says Mr. Howitt, "that a Birraark was + supposed to be initiated by the 'Mrarts (ghosts) when they met him + wandering in the bush.... It was from the ghosts that he obtained replies + to questions concerning events passing at a distance or yet to happen, + which might be of interest or moment to his tribe." Mr. Howitt prints an + account of a spiritual seance in the bush.(2) "The fires were let go down. + The Birraark uttered a cry 'coo-ee' at intervals. At length a distant + reply was heard, and shortly afterwards the sound as of persons jumping on + the ground in succession. A voice was then heard in the gloom asking in a + strange intonation, 'What is wanted?' Questions were put by the Birraark + and replies given. At the termination of the seance, the spirit-voice + said, 'We are going'. Finally, the Birraark was found in the top of an + almost inaccessible tree, apparently asleep."(3) There was one Birraark at + least to every clan. The Kurnai gave the name of "Brewin" (a powerful evil + spirit) to a Birraark who was once carried away for several days by the + Mrarts or spirits.(4) It is a belief with the Australians, as, according + to Bosman, it was with the people of the Gold Coast, that a very powerful + wizard lives far inland, and the Negroes held that to this warlock the + spirits of the dead went to be judged according to the merit of their + actions in life. Here we have a doctrine answering to the Greek belief in + "the wizard Minos," Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus, and to the Egyptian idea of + Osiris as judge of the departed.(5) The pretensions of the sorcerer to + converse with the dead are attested by Mr. Brough Smyth.(6) "A sorcerer + lying on his stomach spoke to the deceased, and the other sitting by his + side received the precious messages which the dead man told." As a natural + result of these beliefs, the Australian necromant has great power in the + tribe. Mr. Howitt mentions a case in which a group of kindred, ceasing to + use their old totemistic surname, called themselves the children of a + famous dead Birraark, who thus became an eponymous hero, like Ion among + the Ionians.(7) Among the Scotch Highlanders the position and practice of + the seer were very like those of the Birraark. "A person," says Scott,(8) + "was wrapped up in the skin of a newly slain bullock and deposited beside + a waterfall or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, + wild and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing + but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the + question proposed and whatever was impressed on him by his exalted + imagination PASSED FOR THE INSPIRATION OF THE DISEMBODIED SPIRITS who + haunt these desolate recesses." A number of examples are given in Martin's + Description of the Western Islands.(9) In the Century magazine (July, + 1882) is a very full report of Thlinkeet medicine-men and metamorphoses. + </p> + <p> + (1) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 253. + </p> + <p> + (2) Page 254. + </p> + <p> + (3) In the Jesuit Relations (1637), p. 51, we read that the Red Indian + sorcerer or Jossakeed was credited with power to vanish suddenly away out + of sight of the men standing around him. Of him, as of Homeric gods, it + might be said, "Who has power to see him come or go against his will?" + </p> + <p> + (4) Here, in the first edition, occurred the following passage: "The + conception of Brewin is about as near as the Kurnai get to the idea of a + God; their conferring of his name on a powerful sorcerer is therefore a + point of importance and interest". Mr. Howitt's later knowledge + demonstrates an error here. + </p> + <p> + (5) Bosman in Pinkerton, xvi. p. 401. + </p> + <p> + (6) Aborigines of Australia, i. 197. + </p> + <p> + (7) In Victoria, after dark the wizard goes up to the clouds and brings + down a good spirit. Dawkins, p. 57. For eponymous medicine-men see + Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 231. + </p> + <p> + (8) Lady of the Lake, note 1 to Canto iv. + </p> + <p> + (9) P. 112. + </p> + <p> + The sorcerer among the Zulus is, apparently, of a naturally hysterical and + nervous constitution. "He hears the spirits who speak by whistlings + speaking to him."(1) Whistling is also the language of the ghosts in New + Caledonia, where Mr. Atkinson informs us that he has occasionally put an + able-bodied Kaneka to ignominious flight by whistling softly in the dusk. + The ghosts in Homer make a similar sound, "and even as bats flit gibbering + in the secret place of a wondrous cavern,... even so the souls gibbered as + they fared together" (Odyssey, xxiv. 5). "The familiar spirits make him" + (that Zulu sorcerer) "acquainted with what is about to happen, and then he + divines for the people." As the Birraarks learn songs and dance-music from + the Mrarts, so the Zulu Inyanga or diviners learn magical couplets from + the Itongo or spirits.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Callaway, Religious System of the Amazules, p. 265. + </p> + <p> + (2) On all this, see "Possession" in The Making of Religion. + </p> + <p> + The evidence of institutions confirms the reports about savage belief in + magic. The political power of the diviners is very great, as may be + observed from the fact that a hereditary chief needs their consecration to + make him a chief de jure.(1) In fact, the qualities of the diviner are + those which give his sacred authority to the chief. When he has obtained + from the diviners all their medicines and information as to the mode of + using the isitundu (a magical vessel), it is said that he often orders + them to be killed. Now, the chief is so far a medicine-man that he is lord + of the air. "The heaven is the chief's," say the Zulus; and when he calls + out his men, "though the heaven is clear, it becomes clouded by the great + wind that arises". Other Zulus explain this as the mere hyperbole of + adulation. "The word of the chief gives confidence to his troops; they + say, 'We are going; the chief has already seen all that will happen in his + vessel'. Such then are chiefs; they use a vessel for divination."(2) The + makers of rain are known in Zululand as "heaven-herds" or "sky-herds," who + herd the heaven that it may not break out and do its will on the property + of the people. These men are, in fact, (Greek text omitted), + "cloud-gatherers," like the Homeric Zeus, the lord of the heavens. Their + name of "herds of the heavens" has a Vedic sound. "The herd that herds the + lightning," say the Zulus, "does the same as the herder of the cattle; he + does as he does by whistling; he says, 'Tshu-i-i-i. Depart and go yonder. + Do not come here.'" Here let it be observed that the Zulus conceive of the + thunder-clouds and lightning as actual creatures, capable of being herded + like sheep. There is no metaphor or allegory about the matter,(3) and no + forgetfulness of the original meaning of words. The cloud-herd is just + like the cowherd, except that not every man, but only sorcerers, and they + who have eaten the "lightning-bird" (a bird shot near the place where + lightning has struck the earth), can herd the clouds of heaven. The same + ideas prevail among the Bushmen, where the rainmaker is asked "to milk a + nice gentle female rain"; the rain-clouds are her hair. Among the Bushmen + Rain is a person. Among the Red Indians no metaphor seems to be intended + when it is said that "it is always birds who make the wind, except that of + the east". The Dacotahs once killed a thunder-bird(4) behind Little Crow's + village on the Missouri. It had a face like a man with a nose like an + eagle's bill.(5) + </p> + <p> + (1) Callaway, p. 340. + </p> + <p> + (2) Callaway, Religions System of the Amazules, p. 343. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., p. 385. + </p> + <p> + (4) Schoolcraft, iii. 486. + </p> + <p> + (5) Compare Callaway, p. 119. + </p> + <p> + The political and social powers which come into the hands of the sorcerers + are manifest, even in the case of the Australians. Tribes and individuals + can attempt few enterprises without the aid of the man who listens to the + ghosts. Only he can foretell the future, and, in the case of the natural + death of a member of the tribe, can direct the vengeance of the survivors + against the hostile magician who has committed a murder by "bar" or magic. + Among the Zulus we have seen that sorcery gives the sanction to the power + of the chief. "The winds and weather are at the command" of Bosman's + "great fetisher". Inland from the Gold Coast,(1) the king of Loango, + according to the Abbe Proyart, "has credit to make rain fall on earth". + Similar beliefs, with like political results, will be found to follow from + the superstition of magic among the Red Indians of North America. The + difficulty of writing about sorcerers among the Red Indians is caused by + the abundance of the evidence. Charlevoix and the other early Jesuit + missionaries found that the jongleurs, as Charlevoix calls the Jossakeeds + or medicine-men, were their chief opponents. As among the Scotch + Highlanders, the Australians and the Zulus, the Red Indian jongleur is + visited by the spirits. He covers a hut with the skin of the animal which + he commonly wears, retires thither, and there converses with the bodiless + beings.(2) The good missionary like Mr. Moffat in Africa, was convinced + that the exercises of the Jossakeeds were verily supernatural. "Ces + seducteurs ont un veritable commerce avec le pere du mensonge."(3) This + was denied by earlier and wiser Jesuit missionaries. Their political power + was naturally great. In time of war "ils avancent et retardent les marches + comme il leur plait". In our own century it was a medicine-man, Ten Squa + Ta Way, who by his magical processes and superstitious rites stirred up a + formidable war against the United States.(4) According to Mr. Pond,(5) the + native name of the Dacotah medicine-men, "Wakan," signifies "men + supernaturally gifted". Medicine-men are believed to be "wakanised" by + mystic intercourse with supernatural beings. The business of the wakanised + man is to discern future events, to lead and direct parties on the + war-trail, "to raise the storm or calm the tempest, to converse with the + lightning or thunder as with familiar friends".(6) The wakanised man, like + the Australian Birraark and the Zulu diviner, "dictates chants and + prayers". In battle "every Dacotah warrior looks to the Wakan man as + almost his only resource". Belief in Wakan men is, Mr. Pond says, + universal among the Dacotahs, except where Christianity has undermined it. + "Their influence is deeply felt by every individual of the tribe, and + controls all their affairs." The Wakan man's functions are absorbed by the + general or war-chief of the tribe, and in Schoolcraft (iv. 495), Captain + Eastman prints copies of native scrolls showing the war-chief at work as a + wizard. "The war-chief who leads the party to war is always one of these + medicine-men." In another passage the medicine-men are described as + "having a voice in the sale of land". It must be observed that the + Jossakeed, or medicine-man, pure and simple, exercises a power which is + not in itself hereditary. Chieftainship, when associated with inheritance + of property, is hereditary; and when the chief, as among the Zulus, + absorbs supernatural power, then the same man becomes diviner and chief, + and is a person of great and sacred influence. The liveliest account of + the performances of the Maori "tohunga" or sorcerer is to be found in Old + New Zealand,(7) by the Pakeha Maori, an English gentleman who had lived + with the natives like one of themselves. The tohunga, says this author,(8) + presided over "all those services and customs which had something + approaching to a religious character. They also pretended to power by + means of certain familiar spirits, to foretell future events, and even in + some cases to control them.... The spirit 'entered into' them, and, on + being questioned, gave a response in a sort of half whistling, + half-articulate voice, supposed to be the proper language of spirits." In + New South Wales, Mrs. Langlot Parker has witnessed a similar exhibition. + The "spirits" told the truth in this case. The Pakeha Maori was present in + a darkened village-hall when the spirit of a young man, a great friend of + his own, was called up by a tohunga. "Suddenly, without the slightest + warning, a voice came out of the darkness.... The voice all through, it is + to be remembered, was not the voice of the tohunga, but a strange + melancholy sound, like the sound of a wind blowing into a hollow vessel. + 'It is well with me; my place is a good place.' The spirit gave an answer + to a question which proved to be correct, and then 'Farewell,' cried the + spirit FROM DEEP BENEATH THE GROUND. 'Farewell,' again, FROM HIGH IN AIR. + 'Farewell,' once more came moaning through the distant darkness of the + night." As chiefs in New Zealand no less than tohungas can exercise the + mystical and magical power of tabu, that is, of imparting to any object or + person an inviolable character, and can prevent or remit the mysterious + punishment for infringement of tabu, it appears probable that in New + Zealand, as well as among the Zulus and Red Indians, chiefs have a + tendency to absorb the sacred character and powers of the tohungas. This + is natural enough, for a tohunga, if he plays his cards well, is sure to + acquire property and hereditary wealth, which, in combination with magical + influence, are the necessary qualifications for the office of the + chieftain. + </p> + <p> + (1) Pinkerton, xvi. 401. + </p> + <p> + (2) Charlevoix, i. 105. See "Savage Spiritualism" in Cock Lane and Common + Sense. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., iii. 362. + </p> + <p> + (4) Catlin, ii. 17. + </p> + <p> + (5) In Schoolcraft, iv. 402. + </p> + <p> + (6) Pond, in Schoolcraft, iv. 647. + </p> + <p> + (7) Auckland, 1863. + </p> + <p> + (8) Page 148. + </p> + <p> + Here is the place to mention a fact which, though at first sight it may + appear to have only a social interest, yet bears on the development of + mythology. Property and rank seem to have been essential to each other in + the making of social rank, and where one is absent among contemporary + savages, there we do not find the other. As an example of this, we might + take the case of two peoples who, like the Homeric Ethiopians, are the + outermost of men, and dwell far apart at the ends of the world. The + Eskimos and the Fuegians, at the extreme north and south of the American + continent, agree in having little or no private property and no chiefs. + Yet magic is providing a kind of basis of rank. The bleak plains of ice + and rock are, like Attica, "the mother of men without master or lord". + Among the "house-mates" of the smaller settlements there is no head-man, + and in the larger gatherings Dr. Rink says that "still less than among the + house-mates was any one belonging to such a place to be considered a + chief". The songs and stories of the Eskimo contain the praises of men who + have risen up and killed any usurper who tried to be a ruler over his + "place-mates". No one could possibly establish any authority on the basis + of property, because "superfluous property, implements, etc., rarely + existed". If there are three boats in one household, one of the boats is + "borrowed" by the community, and reverts to the general fund. If we look + at the account of the Fuegians described in Admiral Fitzroy's cruise, we + find a similar absence of rank produced by similar causes. "The perfect + equality among the individuals composing the tribes must for a long time + retard their civilisation.... At present even a piece of cloth is torn in + shreds and distributed, and no one individual becomes richer than another. + On the other hand, it is difficult to understand how a chief can arise + till there is property of some sort by which he might manifest and still + increase his authority." In the same book, however, we get a glimpse of + one means by which authority can be exercised. "The doctor-wizard of each + party has much influence over his companions." Among the Eskimos this + element in the growth of authority also exists. A class of wizards called + Angakut have power to cause fine weather, and, by the gift of second-sight + and magical practices, can detect crimes, so that they necessarily become + a kind of civil magistrates. These Angekkok or Angakut have familiar + spirits called Torngak, a word connected with the name of their chief + spiritual being, Torngarsak. The Torngak is commonly the ghost of a + deceased parent of the sorcerer. "These men," says Egede, "are held in + great honour and esteem among this stupid and ignorant nation, insomuch + that nobody dare ever refuse the strictest obedience when they command him + in the name of Torngarsak." The importance and actual existence of belief + in magic has thus been attested by the evidence of institutions, even + among Australians, Fuegians and Eskimos. + </p> + <p> + It is now necessary to pass from examples of tribes who have superstitious + respect for certain individuals, but who have no property and no chiefs, + to peoples who exhibit the phenomenon of superstitious reverence attached + to wealthy rulers or to judges. To take the example of Ireland, as + described in the Senchus Mor, we learn that the chiefs, just like the + Angakut of the Eskimos, had "power to make fair or foul weather" in the + literal sense of the words.(1) In Africa, in the same way, as Bosman, the + old traveller, says, "As to what difference there is between one negro and + another, the richest man is the most honoured," yet the most honoured man + has the same magical power as the poor Angakuts of the Eskimos. + </p> + <p> + (1) Early History of Institutions, p. 195. + </p> + <p> + "In the Solomon Islands," says Dr. Codrington, "there is nothing to + prevent a common man from becoming a chief, if he can show that he has the + mana (supernatural power) for it."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Journ. Anth. Inst., x. iii. 287, 300, 309. + </p> + <p> + Though it is anticipating a later stage of this inquiry, we must here + observe that the sacredness, and even the magical virtues of barbarous + chiefs seem to have descended to the early leaders of European races. The + children of Odin and of Zeus were "sacred kings". The Homeric chiefs, like + those of the Zulus and the Red Men, and of the early Irish and Swedes, + exercised an influence over the physical universe. Homer(1) speaks of "a + blameless king, one that fears the gods, and reigns among many men and + mighty, and the black earth bears wheat and barley, and the sheep bring + forth and fail not, and the sea gives store of fish, and all out of his + good sovereignty". + </p> + <p> + (1) Od., xix. 109. + </p> + <p> + The attributes usually assigned by barbarous peoples to their medicine-men + have not yet been exhausted. We have found that they can foresee and + declare the future; that they control the weather and the sensible world; + that they can converse with, visit and employ about their own business the + souls of the dead. It would be easy to show at even greater length that + the medicine-man has everywhere the power of metamorphosis. He can assume + the shapes of all beasts, birds, fishes, insects and inorganic matters, + and he can subdue other people to the same enchantment. This belief + obviously rests on the lack of recognised distinction between man and the + rest of the world, which we have so frequently insisted on as a + characteristic of savage and barbarous thought. Examples of accredited + metamorphosis are so common everywhere, and so well known, that it would + be waste of space to give a long account of them. In Primitive Culture(1) + a cloud of witnesses to the belief in human tigers, hyaenas, leopards and + wolves is collected.(2) Mr. Lane(3) found metamorphosis by wizards as + accredited a working belief at Cairo as it is among Abipones, Eskimo, or + the people of Ashangoland. In various parts of Scotland there is a tale of + a witch who was shot at when in the guise of a hare. In this shape she was + wounded, and the same wound was found on her when she resumed her human + appearance. Lafitau, early in the last century, found precisely the same + tale, except that the wizards took the form of birds, not of hares, among + the Red Indians. The birds were wounded by the magical arrows of an old + medicine-man, Shonnoh Koui Eretsi, and these bolts were found in the + bodies of the human culprits. In Japan, as we learn from several stories + in Mr. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, people chiefly metamorphose + themselves into foxes and badgers. The sorcerers of Honduras(4) "possess + the power of transforming men into wild beasts, and were much feared + accordingly". Among the Cakchiquels, a cultivated people of Guatemala, the + very name of the clergy, haleb, was derived from their power of assuming + animal shapes, which they took on as easily as the Homeric gods.(5) + Regnard, the French dramatist, who travelled among the Lapps at the end of + the seventeenth century (1681), says: "They believe witches can turn men + into cats;" and again, "Under the figures of swans, crows, falcons and + geese, they call up tempests and destroy ships".(6) Among the Bushmen + "sorcerers assume the forms of beasts and jackals".(7) Dobrizhoffer + (1717-91), a missionary in Paraguay, found that "sorcerers arrogate to + themselves the power of transforming themselves into tigers".(8) He was + present when the Abipones believed that a conversion of this sort was + actually taking place: "Alas," cried the people, "his whole body is + beginning to be covered with tiger-spots; his nails are growing". Near + Loanda, Livingstone found that a "chief may metamorphose himself into a + lion, kill any one he choses, and then resume his proper form".(9) Among + the Barotse and Balonda, "while persons are still alive they may enter + into lions and alligators".(10) Among the Mayas of Central America + "sorcerers could transform themselves into dogs, pigs and other animals; + their glance was death to a victim".(11) The Thlinkeets think that their + Shamans can metamorphose themselves into animals at pleasure; and a very + old raven was pointed out to Mr. C. E. S. Wood as an incarnation of the + soul of a Shaman.(12) Sir A. C. Lyall finds a similar belief in + flourishing existence in India. The European superstition of the were-wolf + is too well known to need description. Perhaps the most curious legend is + that told by Giraldus Cambrensis about a man and his wife metamorphosed + into wolves by an abbot. They retained human speech, made exemplary + professions of Christian faith, and sent for priests when they found their + last hours approaching. In an old Norman ballad a girl is transformed into + a white doe, and hunted and slain by her brother's hounds. The + "aboriginal" peoples of India retain similar convictions. Among the + Hos,(13) an old sorcerer called Pusa was known to turn himself habitually + into a tiger, and to eat his neighbour's goats, and even their wives. + Examples of the power of sorcerers to turn, as with the Gorgon's head, + their enemies into stone, are peculiarly common in America.(14) Hearne + found that the Indians believed they descended from a dog, who could turn + himself into a handsome young man.(15) + </p> + <p> + (1) Vol. i. pp. 309-315. + </p> + <p> + (2) See also M'Lennan on Lykanthropy in Encyclopedia Britannica. + </p> + <p> + (3) Arabian Nights, i. 51. + </p> + <p> + (4) Bancroft, Races of Pacific Coast, i. 740. + </p> + <p> + (5) Brinton, Annals of the Cakchiquels, p. 46. + </p> + <p> + (6) Pinkerton, i. 471. + </p> + <p> + (7) Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Folk-Lore, pp. 15, 40. + </p> + <p> + (8) English translation of Dobrizhoffer's Abipones, i. 163. + </p> + <p> + (9) Missionary Travels, p. 615. + </p> + <p> + (10) Livingstone, p. 642. + </p> + <p> + (11) Bancroft, ii. + </p> + <p> + (12) Century Magazine, July, 1882. + </p> + <p> + (13) Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal, p. 200. + </p> + <p> + (14) Dorman, pp. 130, 134; Report of Ethnological Bureau, Washington, + 1880-81. + </p> + <p> + (15) A Journey, etc., p. 342. + </p> + <p> + Let us recapitulate the powers attributed all over the world, by the lower + people, to medicine-men. The medicine-man has all miracles at his command. + He rules the sky, he flies into the air, he becomes visible or invisible + at will, he can take or confer any form at pleasure, and resume his human + shape. He can control spirits, can converse with the dead, and can descend + to their abodes. + </p> + <p> + When we begin to examine the gods of MYTHOLOGY, savage or civilised, as + distinct from deities contemplated, in devotion, as moral and creative + guardians of ethics, we shall find that, with the general, though not + invariable addition of immortality, they possess the very same + accomplishments as the medicine-man, peay, tohunga, jossakeed, birraark, + or whatever name for sorcerer we may choose. Among the Greeks, Zeus, + mythically envisaged, enjoys in heaven all the attributes of the + medicine-man; among the Iroquois, as Pere le Jeune, the old Jesuit + missionary, observed,(1) the medicine-man enjoys on earth all the + attributes of Zeus. Briefly, the miraculous and supernatural endowments of + the gods of MYTH, whether these gods be zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, are + exactly the magical properties with which the medicine-man is credited by + his tribe. It does not at all follow, as Euemerus and Mr. Herbert Spencer + might argue, that the god was once a real living medicine-man. But + myth-making man confers on the deities of myth the magical powers which he + claims for himself. + </p> + <p> + (1) Relations (1636), p. 114. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. NATURE MYTHS. + </h2> + <p> + Savage fancy, curiosity and credulity illustrated in nature myths—In + these all phenomena are explained by belief in the general animation of + everything, combined with belief in metamorphosis—Sun myths, Asian, + Australian, African, Melanesian, Indian, Californian, Brazilian, Maori, + Samoan—Moon myths, Australian, Muysca, Mexican, Zulu, Macassar, + Greenland, Piute, Malay—Thunder myths—Greek and Aryan sun and + moon myths—Star myths—Myths, savage and civilised, of animals, + accounting for their marks and habits—Examples of custom of claiming + blood kinship with lower animals—Myths of various plants and trees—Myths + of stones, and of metamorphosis into stones, Greek, Australian and + American—The whole natural philosophy of savages expressed in myths, + and survives in folk-lore and classical poetry; and legends of + metamorphosis. + </p> + <p> + The intellectual condition of savages which has been presented and + established by the evidence both of observers and of institutions, may now + be studied in savage myths. These myths, indeed, would of themselves + demonstrate that the ideas which the lower races entertain about the world + correspond with our statement. If any one were to ask himself, from what + mental conditions do the following savage stories arise? he would + naturally answer that the minds which conceived the tales were curious, + indolent, credulous of magic and witchcraft, capable of drawing no line + between things and persons, capable of crediting all things with human + passions and resolutions. But, as myths analogous to those of savages, + when found among civilised peoples, have been ascribed to a psychological + condition produced by a disease of language acting after civilisation had + made considerable advances, we cannot take the savage myths as proof of + what savages think, believe and practice in the course of daily life. To + do so would be, perhaps, to argue in a circle. We must therefore study the + myths of the undeveloped races in themselves. + </p> + <p> + These myths form a composite whole, so complex and so nebulous that it is + hard indeed to array them in classes and categories. For example, if we + look at myths concerning the origin of various phenomena, we find that + some introduce the action of gods or extra-natural beings, while others + rest on a rude theory of capricious evolution; others, again, invoke the + aid of the magic of mortals, and most regard the great natural forces, the + heavenly bodies, and the animals, as so many personal characters capable + of voluntarily modifying themselves or of being modified by the most + trivial accidents. Some sort of arrangement, however, must be attempted, + only the student is to understand that the lines are never drawn with + definite fixity, that any category may glide into any other category of + myth. + </p> + <p> + We shall begin by considering some nature myths—myths, that is to + say, which explain the facts of the visible universe. These range from + tales about heaven, day, night, the sun and the stars, to tales accounting + for the red breast of the ousel, the habits of the quail, the spots and + stripes of wild beasts, the formation of rocks and stones, the foliage of + trees, the shapes of plants. In a sense these myths are the science of + savages; in a sense they are their sacred history; in a sense they are + their fiction and romance. Beginning with the sun, we find, as Mr. Tylor + says, that "in early philosophy throughout the world the sun and moon are + alive, and, as it were, human in their nature".(1) The mass of these solar + myths is so enormous that only a few examples can be given, chosen almost + at random out of the heap. The sun is regarded as a personal being, + capable not only of being affected by charms and incantations, but of + being trapped and beaten, of appearing on earth, of taking a wife of the + daughters of men. Garcilasso de la Vega has a story of an Inca prince, a + speculative thinker, who was puzzled by the sun-worship of his ancestors. + If the sun be thus all-powerful, the Inca inquired, why is he plainly + subject to laws? why does he go his daily round, instead of wandering at + large up and down the fields of heaven? The prince concluded that there + was a will superior to the sun's will, and he raised a temple to the + Unknown Power. Now the phenomena which put the Inca on the path of + monotheistic religion, a path already traditional, according to + Garcilasso, have also struck the fancy of savages. Why, they ask, does the + sun run his course like a tamed beast? A reply suited to a mind which + holds that all things are personal is given in myths. Some one caught and + tamed the sun by physical force or by art magic. + </p> + <p> + (1) Primitive Culture, i. 288. + </p> + <p> + In Australia the myth says that there was a time when the sun did not set. + "It was at all times day, and the blacks grew weary." Norralie considered + and decided that the sun should disappear at intervals. He addressed the + sun in an incantation (couched like the Finnish Kalewala in the metre of + Longfellow's Hiawatha); and the incantation is thus interpreted: "Sun, + sun, burn your wood, burn your internal substance, and go down". The sun + therefore now burns out his fuel in a day, and goes below for fresh + firewood.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 430. + </p> + <p> + In New Zealand the taming of the sun is attributed to the great hero Maui, + the Prometheus of the Maoris. He set snares to catch the sun, but in vain, + for the sun's rays bit them through. According to another account, while + Norralie wished to hasten the sun's setting, Maui wanted to delay it, for + the sun used to speed through the heavens at a racing pace. Maui therefore + snared the sun, and beat him so unmercifully that he has been lame ever + since, and travels slowly, giving longer days. "The sun, when beaten, + cried out and revealed his second great name, Taura-mis-te-ra."(1) It will + be remembered that Indra, in his abject terror when he fled after the + slaying of Vrittra, also revealed his mystic name. In North America the + same story of the trapping and laming of the sun is told, and attributed + to a hero named Tcha-ka-betch. In Samoa the sun had a child by a Samoan + woman. He trapped the sun with a rope made of a vine and extorted + presents. Another Samoan lassoed the sun and made him promise to move more + slowly.(2) These Samoan and Australian fancies are nearly as dignified as + the tale in the Aitareya Brahmana. The gods, afraid "that the sun would + fall out of heaven, pulled him up and tied him with five ropes". These + ropes are recognised as verses in the ritual, but probably the ritual is + later than the ropes. In Mexico we find that the sun himself (like the + stars in most myths) was once a human or pre-human devotee, Nanahuatzin, + who leapt into a fire to propitiate the gods.(3) Translated to heaven as + the sun, Nanahuatzin burned so very fiercely that he threatened to reduce + the world to a cinder. Arrows were therefore shot at him, and this + punishment had as happy an effect as the beatings administered by Maui and + Tcha-ka-betch. Among the Bushmen of South Africa the sun was once a man, + from whose armpit a limited amount of light was radiated round his hut. + Some children threw him up into the sky, and there he stuck, and there he + shines.(4) In the Homeric hymn to Helios, as Mr. Max Muller observes, "the + poet looks on Helios as a half god, almost a hero, who had once lived on + earth," which is precisely the view of the Bushmen.(5) Among the Aztecs + the sun is said to have been attacked by a hunter and grievously wounded + by his arrows.(6) The Gallinomeros, in Central California, seem at least + to know that the sun is material and impersonal. They say that when all + was dark in the beginning, the animals were constantly jostling each + other. After a painful encounter, the hawk and the coyote collected two + balls of inflammable substance; the hawk (Indra was occasionally a hawk) + flew up with them into heaven, and lighted them with sparks from a flint. + There they gave light as sun and moon. This is an exception to the general + rule that the heavenly bodies are regarded as persons. The Melanesian tale + of the bringing of night is a curious contrast to the Mexican, Maori, + Australian and American Indian stories which we have quoted. In Melanesia, + as in Australia, the days were long, indeed endless, and people grew + tired; but instead of sending the sun down below by an incantation when + night would follow in course of nature, the Melanesian hero went to Night + (conceived of as a person) and begged his assistance. Night (Qong) + received Qat (the hero) kindly, darkened his eyes, gave him sleep, and, in + twelve hours or so, crept up from the horizon and sent the sun crawling to + the west.(7) In the same spirit Paracelsus is said to have attributed + night, not to the absence of the sun, but to the apparition of certain + stars which radiate darkness. It is extraordinary that a myth like the + Melanesian should occur in Brazil. There was endless day till some one + married a girl whose father "the great serpent," was the owner of night. + The father sent night bottled up in a gourd. The gourd was not to be + uncorked till the messengers reached the bride, but they, in their + curiosity, opened the gourd, and let night out prematurely.(8) + </p> + <p> + (1) Taylor, New Zealand, p. 131. + </p> + <p> + (2) Turner, Samoa, p. 20. + </p> + <p> + (3) Sahagun, French trans., vii. ii. + </p> + <p> + (4) Bleck, Hottentot Fables, p. 67; Bushman Folk-Lore, pp. 9, 11. + </p> + <p> + (5) Compare a Californian solar myth: Bancroft, iii. pp. 85, 86. + </p> + <p> + (6) Bancroft, iii. 73, quoting Burgoa, i. 128, 196. + </p> + <p> + (7) Codrington, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., February, 1881. + </p> + <p> + (8) Contes Indiens du Bresil, pp. 1-9, by Couto de Magalhaes. Rio de + Janeiro, 1883. M. Henri Gaidoz kindly presented the author with this work. + </p> + <p> + The myths which have been reported deal mainly with the sun as a person + who shines, and at fixed intervals disappears. His relations with the moon + are much more complicated, and are the subject of endless stories, all + explaining in a romantic fashion why the moon waxes and wanes, whence come + her spots, why she is eclipsed, all starting from the premise that sun and + moon are persons with human parts and passions. Sometimes the moon is a + man, sometimes a woman and the sex of the sun varies according to the + fancy of the narrators. Different tribes of the same race, as among the + Australians, have different views of the sex of moon and sun. Among the + aborigines of Victoria, the moon, like the sun among the Bushmen, was a + black fellow before he went up into the sky. After an unusually savage + career, he was killed with a stone hatchet by the wives of the eagle, and + now he shines in the heavens.(1) Another myth explanatory of the moon's + phases was found by Mr. Meyer in 1846 among the natives of Encounter Bay. + According to them the moon is a woman, and a bad woman to boot. She lives + a life of dissipation among men, which makes her consumptive, and she + wastes away till they drive her from their company. While she is in + retreat, she lives on nourishing roots, becomes quite plump, resumes her + gay career, and again wastes away. The same tribe, strangely enough, think + that the sun also is a woman. Every night she descends among the dead, who + stand in double lines to greet her and let her pass. She has a lover among + the dead, who has presented her with a red kangaroo skin, and in this she + appears at her rising. Such is the view of rosy-fingered Dawn entertained + by the blacks of Encounter Bay. In South America, among the Muyscas of + Bogota, the moon, Huythaca, is the malevolent wife of the child of the + sun; she was a woman before her husband banished her to the fields of + space.(2) The moon is a man among the Khasias of the Himalaya, and he was + guilty of the unpardonable offence of admiring his mother-in-law. As a + general rule, the mother-in-law is not even to be spoken to by the savage + son-in-law. The lady threw ashes in his face to discourage his passion, + hence the moon's spots. The waning of the moon suggested the most + beautiful and best known of savage myths, that in which the moon sends a + beast to tell mortals that, though they die like her, like her they shall + be born again.(3) Because the spots in the moon were thought to resemble a + hare they were accounted for in Mexico by the hypothesis that a god smote + the moon in the face with a rabbit;(4) in Zululand and Thibet by a fancied + translation of a good or bad hare to the moon. + </p> + <p> + (1) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 432. + </p> + <p> + (2) Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 353. + </p> + <p> + (3) Bleek, Reynard in South Africa, pp. 69-74. + </p> + <p> + (4) Sahagun, viii. 2. + </p> + <p> + The Eskimos have a peculiar myth to account for the moon's spots. Sun and + moon were human brother and sister. In the darkness the moon once + attempted the virtue of the sun. She smeared his face over with ashes, + that she might detect him when a light was brought. She did discover who + her assailant had been, fled to the sky, and became the sun. The moon + still pursues her, and his face is still blackened with the marks of + ashes.(1) Gervaise(2) says that in Macassar the moon was held to be with + child by the sun, and that when he pursued her and wished to beat her, she + was delivered of the earth. They are now reconciled. About the alternate + appearance of sun and moon a beautifully complete and adequate tale is + told by the Piute Indians of California. No more adequate and scientific + explanation could possibly be offered, granting the hypothesis that sun + and moon are human persons and savage persons. The myth is printed as it + was taken down by Mr. De Quille from the lips of Tooroop Eenah (Desert + Father), a chief of the Piutes, and published in a San Francisco + newspaper. + </p> + <p> + (1) Crantz's History of Greenland, i. 212. + </p> + <p> + (2) Royaume de Macacar, 1688. + </p> + <p> + "The sun is the father and ruler of the heavens. He is the big chief. The + moon is his wife and the stars are their children. The sun eats his + children whenever he can catch them. They flee before him, and are all the + time afraid when he is passing through the heavens. When he (their father) + appears in the morning, you see all the stars, his children, fly out of + sight—go away back into the blue of the above—and they do not + wake to be seen again until he, their father, is about going to his bed. + </p> + <p> + "Down deep under the ground—deep, deep, under all the ground—is + a great hole. At night, when he has passed over the world, looked down on + everything and finished his work, he, the sun, goes into his hole, and he + crawls and creeps along it till he comes to his bed in the middle part of + the earth. So then he, the sun, sleeps there in his bed all night. + </p> + <p> + "This hole is so little, and he, the sun, is so big, that he cannot turn + round in it; and so he must, when he has had all his sleep, pass on + through, and in the morning we see him come out in the east. When he, the + sun, has so come out, he begins to hunt up through the sky to catch and + eat any that he can of the stars, his children, for if he does not so + catch and eat he cannot live. He, the sun, is not all seen. The shape of + him is like a snake or a lizard. It is not his head that we can see, but + his belly, filled up with the stars that times and times he has swallowed. + </p> + <p> + "The moon is the mother of the heavens and is the wife of the sun. She, + the moon, goes into the same hole as her husband to sleep her naps. But + always she has great fear of the sun, her husband, and when he comes + through the hole to the nobee (tent) deep in the ground to sleep, she gets + out and comes away if he be cross. + </p> + <p> + "She, the moon, has great love for her children, the stars, and is happy + to travel among them in the above; and they, her children, feel safe, and + sing and dance as she passes along. But the mother, she cannot help that + some of her children must be swallowed by the father every month. It is + ordered that way by the Pah-ah (Great Spirit), who lives above the place + of all. + </p> + <p> + "Every month that father, the sun, does swallow some of the stars, his + children, and then that mother, the moon, feels sorrow. She must mourn; so + she must put the black on her face for to mourn the dead. You see the + Piute women put black on their faces when a child is gone. But the dark + will wear away from the face of that mother, the moon, a little and a + little every day, and after a time again we see all bright the face of + her. But soon more of her children are gone, and again she must put on her + face the pitch and the black." + </p> + <p> + Here all the phenomena are accounted for, and the explanation is as + advanced as the Egyptian doctrine of the hole under the earth where the + sun goes when he passes from our view. And still the Great Spirit is over + all: Religion comes athwart Myth. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Tylor quotes(1) a nature myth about sun, moon and stars which + remarkably corresponds to the speculation of the Piutes. The Mintira of + the Malayan Peninsula say that both sun and moon are women. The stars are + the moon's children; once the sun had as many. They each agreed (like the + women of Jerusalem in the famine), to eat their own children; but the sun + swallowed her whole family, while the moon concealed hers. When the sun + saw this she was exceedingly angry, and pursued the moon to kill her. + Occasionally she gets a bite out of the moon, and that is an eclipse. The + Hos of North-East India tell the same tale, but say that the sun cleft the + moon in twain for her treachery, and that she continues to be cut in two + and grow again every month. With these sun and moon legends sometimes + coexists the RELIGIOUS belief in a Creator of these and of all things. + </p> + <p> + (1) Primitive Culture, i. 356. + </p> + <p> + In harmony with the general hypothesis that all objects in nature are + personal, and human or bestial, in real shape, and in passion and habits, + are the myths which account for eclipses. These have so frequently been + published and commented on(1) that a long statement would be tedious and + superfluous. To the savage mind, and even to the Chinese and the peasants + of some European countries, the need of an explanation is satisfied by the + myth that an evil beast is devouring the sun or the moon. The people even + try by firing off guns, shrieking, and clashing cymbals, to frighten the + beast (wolf, pig, dragon, or what not) from his prey. What the hungry + monster in the sky is doing when he is not biting the sun or moon we are + not informed. Probably he herds with the big bird whose wings, among the + Dacotahs of America and the Zulus of Africa, make thunder; or he may + associate with the dragons, serpents, cows and other aerial cattle which + supply the rain, and show themselves in the waterspout. Chinese, + Greenland, Hindoo, Finnish, Lithunian and Moorish examples of the myth + about the moon-devouring beasts are vouched for by Grimm.(2) A Mongolian + legend has it that the gods wished to punish the maleficent Arakho for his + misdeeds, but Arakho hid so cleverly that their limited omnipotence could + not find him. The sun, when asked to turn spy, gave an evasive answer. The + moon told the truth. Arakho was punished, and ever since he chases sun and + moon. When he nearly catches either of them, there is an eclipse, and the + people try to drive him off by making a hideous uproar with musical and + other instruments.(3) Captain Beeckman in 1704 was in Borneo, when the + natives declared that the devil "was eating the moon". + </p> + <p> + (1) Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i.; Lefebure, Les Yeux d'Horus. + </p> + <p> + (2) Teutonic Mythology, English trans., ii. 706. + </p> + <p> + (3) Moon-Lore by Rev. T. Harley, p. 167. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Brinton in his Myths and Myth-Makers gives examples from Peruvians, + Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois and Algonkins. It would be easy, and is perhaps + superfluous, to go on multiplying proofs of the belief that sun and moon + are, or have been, persons. In the Hervey Isles these two luminaries are + thought to have been made out of the body of a child cut in twain by his + parents. The blood escaped from the half which is the moon, hence her + pallor.(1) This tale is an exception to the general rule, but reminds us + of the many myths which represent the things in the world as having been + made out of a mutilated man, like the Vedic Purusha. It is hardly + necessary, except by way of record, to point out that the Greek myths of + sun and moon, like the myths of savages, start from the conception of the + solar and lunar bodies as persons with parts and passions, human loves and + human sorrows. As in the Mongolian myth of Arakho, the sun "sees all and + hears all," and, less honourable than the Mongolian sun, he plays the spy + for Hephaestus on the loves of Ares and Aphrodite. He has mistresses and + human children, such as Circe and Aeetes.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 45. + </p> + <p> + (2) See chapter on Greek Divine Myths. + </p> + <p> + The sun is all-seeing and all-penetrating. In a Greek song of to-day a + mother sends a message to an absent daughter by the sun; it is but an + unconscious repetition of the request of the dying Ajax that the heavenly + body will tell his fate to his old father and his sorrowing spouse.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Sophocles, Ajax, 846. + </p> + <p> + Selene, the moon, like Helios, the sun, was a person, and amorous. Beloved + by Zeus, she gave birth to Pandia, and Pan gained her affection by the + simple rustic gift of a fleece.(1) The Australian Dawn, with her present + of a red kangaroo skin, was not more lightly won than the chaste Selene. + Her affection for Endymion is well known, and her cold white glance shines + through the crevices of his mountain grave, hewn in a rocky wall, like the + tombs of Phrygia.(2) She is the sister of the sun in Hesiod, the daughter + (by his sister) of Hyperion in the Homeric hymns to Helios. + </p> + <p> + (1) Virgil, Georgics, iii. 391. + </p> + <p> + (2) Preller, Griech. Myth., i. 163. + </p> + <p> + In Greece the aspects of sun and moon take the most ideal human forms, and + show themselves in the most gracious myths. But, after all, these retain + in their anthropomorphism the marks of the earliest fancy, the fancy of + Eskimos and Australians. It seems to be commonly thought that the + existence of solar myths is denied by anthropologists. This is a vulgar + error. There is an enormous mass of solar myths, but they are not caused + by "a disease of language," and—all myths are not solar! + </p> + <p> + There is no occasion to dwell long on myths of the same character in which + the stars are accounted for as transformed human adventurers. It has often + been shown that this opinion is practically of world-wide distribution.(1) + We find it in Australia, Persia, Greece, among the Bushmen, in North and + South America, among the Eskimos, in ancient Egypt, in New Zealand, in + ancient India—briefly, wherever we look. The Sanskrit forms of these + myths have been said to arise from confusion as to the meaning of words. + But is it credible that, in all languages, however different, the same + kind of unconscious puns should have led to the same mistaken beliefs? As + the savage, barbarous and Greek star-myths (such as that of Callisto, + first changed into a bear and then into a constellation) are familiar to + most readers, a few examples of Sanskrit star-stories are offered here + from the Satapatha Brahmana.(2) Fires are not, according to the Brahmana + ritual, to be lighted under the stars called Krittikas, the Pleiades. The + reason is that the stars were the wives of the bears (Riksha), for the + group known in Brahmanic times as the Rishis (sages) were originally + called the Rikshas (bears). But the wives of the bears were excluded from + the society of their husbands, for the bears rise in the north and their + wives in the east. Therefore the worshipper should not set up his fires + under the Pleiades, lest he should thereby be separated from the company + of his wife. The Brahmanas(3) also tell us that Prajapati had an unholy + passion for his daughter, who was in the form of a doe. The gods made + Rudra fire an arrow at Prajapati to punish him; he was wounded, and leaped + into the sky, where he became one constellation and his daughter another, + and the arrow a third group of stars. In general, according to the + Brahmanas, "the stars are the lights of virtuous men who go to the + heavenly world".(4) + </p> + <p> + (1) Custom and Myth, "Star-Myths"; Primitive Culture, i. 288, 291; J. G. + Muller, Amerikanischen Urreligionen, pp. 52, 53. + </p> + <p> + (2) Sacred Books of the East, i. 283-286. + </p> + <p> + (3) Aitareya Bramana, iii. 33. + </p> + <p> + (4) Satapatha Brahmana, vi. 5, 4, 8. For Greek examples, Hesiod, Ovid, and + the Catasterismoi, attributed to Eratosthenes, are useful authorities. + Probably many of the tales in Eratosthenes are late fictions consciously + moulded on traditional data. + </p> + <p> + Passing from savage myths explanatory of the nature of celestial bodies to + myths accounting for the formation and colour and habits of beasts, birds + and fishes, we find ourselves, as an old Jesuit missionary says, in the + midst of a barbarous version of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It has been shown + that the possibility of interchange of form between man and beast is part + of the working belief of everyday existence among the lower peoples. They + regard all things as on one level, or, to use an old political phrase, + they "level up" everything to equality with the human status. Thus Mr. Im + Thurn, a very good observer, found that to the Indians of Guiana "all + objects, animate or inaminate, seem exactly of the same nature, except + that they differ by the accident of bodily form". Clearly to grasp this + entirely natural conception of primitive man, the civilised student must + make a great effort to forget for a time all that science has taught him + of the differences between the objects which fill the world.(1) "To the + ear of the savage, animals certainly seem to talk." "As far as the Indians + of Guiana are concerned, I do not believe that they distinguish such + beings as sun and moon, or such other natural phenomena as winds and + storms, from men and other animals, from plants and other inanimate + objects, or from any other objects whatsoever." Bancroft says about North + American myths, "Beasts and birds and fishes fetch and carry, talk and + act, in a way that leaves even Aesop's heroes quite in the shade".(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xi. 366-369. A very large and rich collection + of testimonies as to metamorphosis will be found in J. G. Muller's + Amerikanischen Urreligionen, p. 62 et seq.; while, for European + superstitions, Bodin on La Demonomanie des Sorciers, Lyon, 1598, may be + consulted. + </p> + <p> + (2) Vol. iii. p. 127. + </p> + <p> + The savage tendency is to see in inanimate things animals, and in animals + disguised men. M. Reville quotes in his Religions des Peuples + Non-Civilise's, i. 64, the story of some Negroes, who, the first time they + were shown a cornemuse, took the instrument for a beast, the two holes for + its eyes. The Highlander who looted a watch at Prestonpans, and observing, + "She's teed," sold it cheap when it ran down, was in the same + psychological condition. A queer bit of savage science is displayed on a + black stone tobacco-pipe from the Pacific Coast.(1) The savage artist has + carved the pipe in the likeness of a steamer, as a steamer is conceived by + him. "Unable to account for the motive power, he imagines the paddle to be + linked round the tongue of a coiled serpent, fastened to the tail of the + vessel," and so he represents it on the black stone pipe. Nay, a savage's + belief that beasts are on his own level is so literal, that he actually + makes blood-covenants with the lower animals, as he does with men, + mingling his gore with theirs, or smearing both together on a stone;(2) + while to bury dead animals with sacred rites is as usual among the + Bedouins and Malagasies to-day as in ancient Egypt or Attica. In the same + way the Ainos of Japan, who regard the bear as a kinsman, sacrifice a bear + once a year. But, to propitiate the animal and his connections, they + appoint him a "mother," an Aino girl, who looks after his comforts, and + behaves in a way as maternal as possible. The bear is now a kinsman, + (Greek text omitted), and cannot avenge himself within the kin. This, at + least, seems to be the humour of it. In Lagarde's Reliquiae Juris + Ecclesiastici Antiquissimae a similar Syrian covenant of kinship with + insects is described. About 700 A. D., when a Syrian garden was infested + by caterpillars, the maidens were assembled, and one caterpillar was + caught. Then one of the virgins was "made its mother," and the creature + was buried with due lamentations. The "mother" was then brought to the + spot where the pests were, her companions bewailed her, and the + caterpillars perished like their chosen kinsman, but without extorting + revenge.(3) Revenge was out of their reach. They had been brought within + the kin of their foes, and there were no Erinnyes, "avengers of kindred + blood," to help them. People in this condition of belief naturally tell + hundreds of tales, in which men, stones, trees, beasts, shift shapes, and + in which the modifications of animal forms are caused by accident, or by + human agency, or by magic, or by metamorphosis. Such tales survive in our + modern folk-lore. To make our meaning clear, we may give the European + nursery-myth of the origin of the donkey's long ears, and, among other + illustrations, the Australian myth of the origin of the black and white + plumage of the pelican. Mr. Ralston has published the Russian version of + the myth of the donkey's ears. The Spanish form, which is identical with + the Russian, is given by Fernan Caballero in La Gaviota. + </p> + <p> + (1) Magazine of Art, January, 1883. + </p> + <p> + (2) "Malagasy Folk-Tales," Folk-Lore Journal, October, 1883. + </p> + <p> + (3) We are indebted to Professor Robertson Smith for this example, and to + Miss Bird's Journal, pp. 90, 97, for the Aino parallel. + </p> + <p> + "Listen! do you know why your ears are so big?" (the story is told to a + stupid little boy with big ears). "When Father Adam found himself in + Paradise with the animals, he gave each its name; those of THY species, my + child, he named 'donkeys'. One day, not long after, he called the beasts + together, and asked each to tell him its name. They all answered right + except the animals of THY sort, and they had forgotten their name! Then + Father Adam was very angry, and, taking that forgetful donkey by the ears, + he pulled them out, screaming 'You are called DONKEY!' And the donkey's + ears have been long ever since." This, to a child, is a credible + explanation. So, perhaps, is another survival of this form of science—the + Scotch explanation of the black marks on the haddock; they were impressed + by St. Peter's finger and thumb when he took the piece of money for + Caesar's tax out of the fish's mouth. + </p> + <p> + Turning from folk-lore to savage beliefs, we learn that from one end of + Africa to another the honey-bird, schneter, is said to be an old woman + whose son was lost, and who pursued him till she was turned into a bird, + which still shrieks his name, "Schneter, Schneter".(1) In the same way the + manners of most of the birds known to the Greeks were accounted for by the + myth that they had been men and women. Zeus, for example, turned Ceyx and + Halcyon into sea-fowls because they were too proud in their married + happiness.(2) To these myths of the origin of various animals we shall + return, but we must not forget the black and white Australian pelican. Why + is the pelican parti-coloured?(3) For this reason: After the Flood (the + origin of which is variously explained by the Murri), the pelican (who had + been a black fellow) made a canoe, and went about like a kind of Noah, + trying to save the drowning. In the course of his benevolent mission he + fell in love with a woman, but she and her friends played him a trick and + escaped from him. The pelican at once prepared to go on the war-path. The + first thing to do was to daub himself white, as is the custom of the + blacks before a battle. They think the white pipe-clay strikes terror and + inspires respect among the enemy. But when the pelican was only half + pipe-clayed, another pelican came past, and, "not knowing what such a + queer black and white thing was, struck the first pelican with his beak + and killed him. Before that pelicans were all black; now they are black + and white. That is the reason."(4) + </p> + <p> + (1) Barth, iii. 358. + </p> + <p> + (2) Apollodorus, i. 7 (13, 12). + </p> + <p> + (3) Sahagun, viii. 2, accounts for colours of eagle and tiger. A number of + races explain the habits and marks of animals as the result of a curse or + blessing of a god or hero. The Hottentots, the Huarochiri of Peru, the New + Zealanders (Shortland, Traditions, p. 57), are among the peoples which use + this myth. + </p> + <p> + (4) Brough Symth, Aborigines of Australia, i. 477, 478. + </p> + <p> + "That is the reason." Therewith native philosopy is satisfied, and does + not examine in Mr. Darwin's laborious manner the slow evolution of the + colour of the pelican's plumage. The mythological stories about animals + are rather difficult to treat, because they are so much mixed up with the + topic of totemism. Here we only examine myths which account by means of a + legend for certain peculiarities in the habits, cries, or colours and + shapes of animals. The Ojibbeways told Kohl they had a story for every + creature, accounting for its ways and appearance. Among the Greeks, as + among Australians and Bushmen, we find that nearly every notable bird or + beast had its tradition. The nightingale and the swallow have a story of + the most savage description, a story reported by Apollodorus, though + Homer(1) refers to another, and, as usual, to a gentler and more refined + form of the myth. Here is the version of Apollodorus. "Pandion" (an early + king of Athens) "married Zeuxippe, his mother's sister, by whom he had two + daughters, Procne and Philomela, and two sons, Erechtheus and Butes. A war + broke out with Labdas about some debatable land, and Erechtheus invited + the alliance of Tereus of Thrace, the son of Ares. Having brought the war, + with the aid of Tereus, to a happy end, he gave him his daughter Procne to + wife. By Procne, Tereus had a son, Itys, and thereafter fell in love with + Philomela, whom he seduced, pretending that Procne was dead, whereas he + had really concealed her somewhere in his lands. Thereon he married + Philomela, and cut out her tongue. But she wove into a robe characters + that told the whole story, and by means of these acquainted Procne with + her sufferings. Thereon Procne found her sister, and slew Itys, her own + son, whose body she cooked, and served up to Tereus in a banquet. + Thereafter Procne and her sister fled together, and Tereus seized an axe + and followed after them. They were overtaken at Daulia in Phocis, and + prayed to the gods that they might be turned into birds. So Procne became + the nightingale, and Philomela the swallow, while Tereus was changed into + a hoopoe."(2) Pausanias has a different legend; Procne and Philomela died + of excessive grief. + </p> + <p> + (1) Odyssey, xix. 523. + </p> + <p> + (2) A Red Indian nightingale-myth is alluded to by J. G. Muller, Amerik. + Urrel., p. 175. Some one was turned into a nightingale by the sun, and + still wails for a lost lover. + </p> + <p> + These ancient men and women metamorphosed into birds were HONOURED AS + ANCESTORS by the Athenians.(1) Thus the unceasing musical wail of the + nightingale and the shrill cry of the swallow were explained by a Greek + story. The birds were lamenting their old human sorrow, as the honey-bird + in Africa still repeats the name of her lost son. + </p> + <p> + (1) Pausanias, i. v. Pausanias thinks such things no longer occur. + </p> + <p> + Why does the red-robin live near the dwellings of men, a bold and friendly + bird? The Chippeway Indians say he was once a young brave whose father set + him a task too cruel for his strength, and made him starve too long when + he reached man's estate. He turned into a robin, and said to his father, + "I shall always be the friend of man, and keep near their dwellings. I + could not gratify your pride as a warrior, but I will cheer you by my + songs."(1) The converse of this legend is the Greek myth of the hawk. Why + is the hawk so hated by birds? Hierax was a benevolent person who + succoured a race hated by Poseidon. The god therefore changed him into a + hawk, and made him as much detested by birds, and as fatal to them, as he + had been beloved by and gentle to men.(2) The Hervey Islanders explain the + peculiarities of several fishes by the share they took in the adventures + of Ina, who stamped, for example, on the sole, and so flattened him for + ever.(3) In Greece the dolphins were, according to the Homeric hymn to + Dionysus, metamorphosed pirates who had insulted the god. But because the + dolphin found the hidden sea-goddess whom Poseidon loved, the dolphin, + too, was raised by the grateful sea-god to the stars.(4) The vulture and + the heron, according to Boeo (said to have been a priestess in Delphi and + the author of a Greek treatise on the traditions about birds), were once a + man named Aigupios (vulture) and his mother, Boulis. They sinned + inadvertently, like Oedipus and Jocasta; wherefore Boulis, becoming aware + of the guilt, was about to put out the eyes of her son and slay herself. + Then they were changed, Boulis into the heron, "which tears out and feeds + on the eyes of snakes, birds and fishes, and Aigupios into the vulture + which bears his name". This story, of which the more repulsive details are + suppressed, is much less pleasing and more savage than the Hervey + Islanders' myth of the origin of pigs. Maaru was an old blind man who + lived with his son Kationgia. There came a year of famine, and Kationgia + had great difficulty in finding food for himself and his father. He gave + the blind old man puddings of banana roots and fishes, while he lived + himself on sea-slugs and shellfish, like the people of Terra del Fuego. + But blind old Maaru suspected his son of giving him the worst share and + keeping what was best for himself. At last he discovered that Kationgia + was really being starved; he felt his body, and found that he was a mere + living skeleton. The two wept together, and the father made a feast of + some cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit, which he had reserved against the last + extremity. When all was finished, he said he had eaten his last meal and + was about to die. He ordered his son to cover him with leaves and grass, + and return to the spot in four days. If worms were crawling about, he was + to throw leaves and grass over them and come back four days later. + Kationgia did as he was instructed, and, on his second visit to the grave, + found the whole mass of leaves in commotion. A brood of pigs, black, white + and speckled, had sprung up from the soil; famine was a thing of the past, + and Kationgia became a great chief in the island.(5) + </p> + <p> + (1) Schoolcraft, ii. 229, 230. + </p> + <p> + (1) Boeo, quoted by Antoninus Liberalis. + </p> + <p> + (3) Gill, South Sea Myths, pp. 88-95. + </p> + <p> + (4) Artemidorus in his Love Elegies, quoted by the Pseud-Eratosthenes. + </p> + <p> + (5) Gill, Myths and Songs from South Pacific, pp. 135-138. + </p> + <p> + "The owl was a baker's daughter" is the fragment of Christian mythology + preserved by Ophelia. The baker's daughter behaved rudely to our Lord, and + was changed into the bird that looks not on the sun. The Greeks had a + similar legend of feminine impiety by which they mythically explained the + origin of the owl, the bat and the eagle-owl. Minyas of Orchomenos had + three daughters, Leucippe, Arsippe and Alcathoe, most industrious women, + who declined to join the wild mysteries of Dionysus. The god took the + shape of a maiden, and tried to win them to his worship. They refused, and + he assumed the form of a bull, a lion, and a leopard as easily as the + chiefs of the Abipones become tigers, or as the chiefs among the African + Barotse and Balonda metamorphose themselves into lions and alligators.(1) + The daughters of Minyas, in alarm, drew lots to determine which of them + should sacrifice a victim to the god. Leucippe drew the lot and offered up + her own son. They then rushed to join the sacred rites of Dionysus, when + Hermes transformed them into the bat, the owl and the eagle-owl, and these + three hide from the light of the sun.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Livingstone, Missionary Travels, pp. 615, 642. + </p> + <p> + (2) Nicander, quoted by Antoninus Liberalis. + </p> + <p> + A few examples of Bushman and Australian myths explanatory of the colours + and habits of animals will probably suffice to establish the resemblance + between savage and Hellenic legends of this character. The Bushman myth + about the origin of the eland (a large antelope) is not printed in full by + Dr. Bleek, but he observes that it "gives an account of the reasons for + the colours of the gemsbok, hartebeest, eland, quagga and springbok".(1) + Speculative Bushmen seem to have been puzzled to account for the wildness + of the eland. It would be much more convenient if the eland were tame and + could be easily captured. They explain its wildness by saying that the + eland was "spoiled" before Cagn, the creator, or rather maker of most + things, had quite finished it. Cagn's relations came and hunted the first + eland too soon, after which all other elands grew wild. Cagn then said, + "Go and hunt them and try to kill one; that is now your work, for it was + you who spoilt them".(2) The Bushmen have another myth explanatory of the + white patches on the breasts of crows in their country. Some men tarried + long at their hunting, and their wives sent out crows in search of their + husbands. Round each crow's neck was hung a piece of fat to serve as food + on the journey. Hence the crows have white patches on breast and neck. + </p> + <p> + (1) Brief Account of Bushmen Folk-Lore, p. 7. + </p> + <p> + (2) Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + </p> + <p> + In Australia the origins of nearly all animals appear to be explained in + myths, of which a fair collection is printed in Mr. Brough Symth's + Aborigines of Victoria.(1) Still better examples occur in Mrs. Langloh + Parker's Australian Legends. Why is the crane so thin? Once he was a man + named Kar-ween, the second man fashioned out of clay by Pund-jel, a + singular creative being, whose chequered career is traced elsewhere in our + chapter on "Savage Myths of the Origin of the World and of Man". Kar-ween + and Pund-jel had a quarrel about the wives of the former, whom Pund-jel + was inclined to admire. The crafty Kar-ween gave a dance (jugargiull, + corobboree), at which the creator Pund-jel was disporting himself gaily + (like the Great Panjandrum), when Kar-ween pinned him with a spear. + Pund-jel threw another which took Kar-ween in the knee-joint, so that he + could not walk, but soon pined away and became a mere skeleton. "Thereupon + Pund-jel made Kar-ween a crane," and that is why the crane has such + attenuated legs. The Kortume, Munkari and Waingilhe, now birds, were once + men. The two latter behaved unkindly to their friend Kortume, who shot + them out of his hut in a storm of rain, singing at the same time an + incantation. The three then turned into birds, and when the Kortume sings + it is a token that rain may be expected. + </p> + <p> + (1) Vol. i. p. 426 et seq. + </p> + <p> + Let us now compare with these Australian myths of the origin of certain + species of birds the Greek story of the origin of frogs, as told by + Menecrates and Nicander.(1) The frogs were herdsmen metamorphosed by Leto, + the mother of Apollo. But, by way of showing how closely akin are the + fancies of Greeks and Australian black fellows, we shall tell the legend + without the proper names, which gave it a fictitious dignity. + </p> + <p> + (1) Antoninus Liberalis, xxxv. + </p> + <p> + THE ORIGIN OF FROGS. + </p> + <p> + "A woman bore two children, and sought for a water-spring wherein to bathe + them. She found a well, but herdsmen drove her away from it that their + cattle might drink. Then some wolves met her and led her to a river, of + which she drank, and in its waters she bathed her children. Then she went + back to the well where the herdsmen were now bathing, and she turned them + all into frogs. She struck their backs and shoulders with a rough stone + and drove them into the waters, and ever since that day frogs live in + marshes and beside rivers." + </p> + <p> + A volume might be filled with such examples of the kindred fancies of + Greeks and savages. Enough has probably been said to illustrate our point, + which is that Greek myths of this character were inherited from the period + of savagery, when ideas of metamorphosis and of the kinship of men and + beasts were real practical beliefs. Events conceived to be common in real + life were introduced into myths, and these myths were savage science, and + were intended to account for the Origin of Species. But when once this + train of imagination has been fired, it burns on both in literature and in + the legends of the peasantry. Every one who writes a Christmas tale for + children now employs the machinery of metamorphosis, and in European + folk-lore, as Fontenelle remarked, stories persist which are precisely + similar in kind to the minor myths of savages. + </p> + <p> + Reasoning in this wise, the Mundas of Bengal thus account for + peculiarities of certain animals. Sing Bonga, the chief god, cast certain + people out of heaven; they fell to earth, found iron ore, and began + smelting it. The black smoke displeased Sing Bonga, who sent two king + crows and an owl to bid people cease to pollute the atmosphere. But the + iron smelters spoiled these birds' tails, and blackened the previously + white crow, scorched its beak red, and flattened its head. Sing Bonga + burned man, and turned woman into hills and waterspouts.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Dalton, pp. 186, 187. + </p> + <p> + Examples of this class of myth in Indo-Aryan literature are not hard to + find. Why is dawn red? Why are donkeys slow? Why have mules no young ones? + Mules have no foals because they were severely burned when Agni (fire) + drove them in a chariot race. Dawn is red, not because (as in Australia) + she wears a red kangaroo cloak, but because she competed in this race with + red cows for her coursers. Donkeys are slow because they never recovered + from their exertions in the same race, when the Asvins called on their + asses and landed themselves the winners.(1) And cows are accommodated with + horns for a reason no less probable and satisfactory.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Aitareya Brahmana, ii. 272, iv. 9. + </p> + <p> + (2) iv. 17. + </p> + <p> + Though in the legends of the less developed peoples men and women are more + frequently metamorphosed into birds and beasts than into stones and + plants, yet such changes of form are by no means unknown. To the + north-east of Western Point there lies a range of hills, inhabited, + according to the natives of Victoria, by a creature whose body is made of + stone, and weapons make no wound in so sturdy a constitution. The blacks + refuse to visit the range haunted by the mythic stone beast. "Some black + fellows were once camped at the lakes near Shaving Point. They were + cooking their fish when a native dog came up. They did not give him + anything to eat. He became cross and said, 'You black fellows have lots of + fish, but you give me none'. So he changed them all into a big rock. This + is quite true, for the big rock is there to this day, and I have seen it + with my own eyes."(1) Another native, Toolabar, says that the women of the + fishing party cried out yacka torn, "very good". A dog replied yacka torn, + and they were all changed into rocks. This very man, Toolabar, once heard + a dog begin to talk, whereupon he and his father fled. Had they waited + they would have become stones. "We should have been like it, wallung," + that is, stones. + </p> + <p> + (1) Native narrator, ap. Brough Smyth, i. 479. + </p> + <p> + Among the North American Indians any stone which has a resemblance to the + human or animal figure is explained as an example of metamorphosis. Three + stones among the Aricaras were a girl, her lover and her dog, who fled + from home because the course of true love did not run smooth, and who were + petrified. Certain stones near Chinook Point were sea-giants who swallowed + a man. His brother, by aid of fire, dried up the bay and released the man, + still alive, from the body of the giant. Then the giants were turned into + rocks.(1) The rising sun in Popol Vuh (if the evidence of Popol Vuh, the + Quichua sacred book, is to be accepted) changed into stone the lion, + serpent and tiger gods. The Standing Rock on the Upper Missouri is adored + by the Indians, and decorated with coloured ribbons and skins of animals. + This stone was a woman, who, like Niobe, became literally petrified with + grief when her husband took a second wife. Another stone-woman in a cave + on the banks of the Kickapoo was wont to kill people who came near her, + and is even now approached with great respect. The Oneidas and Dacotahs + claim descent from stones to which they ascribe animation.(2) Montesinos + speaks of a sacred stone which was removed from a mountain by one of the + Incas. A parrot flew out of it and lodged in another stone, which the + natives still worship.(3) The Breton myth about one of the great stone + circles (the stones were peasants who danced on a Sunday) is a well-known + example of this kind of myth surviving in folk-lore. There is a kind of + stone Actaeon(4) near Little Muniton Creek, "resembling the bust of a man + whose head is decorated with the horns of a stag".(5) A crowd of myths of + metamorphosis into stone will be found among the Iroquois legends in + Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 1880-81. If men may become stones, on the + other hand, in Samoa (as in the Greek myth of Deucalion), stones may + become men.(6) Gods, too, especially when these gods happen to be + cuttlefish, might be petrified. They were chased in Samoa by an Upolu + hero, who caught them in a great net and killed them. "They were changed + into stones, and now stand up in a rocky part of the lagoon on the north + side of Upolu."(7) Mauke, the first man, came out of a stone. In short,(8) + men and stones and beasts and gods and thunder have interchangeable forms. + In Mangaia(9) the god Ra was tossed up into the sky by Maui and became + pumice-stone. Many samples of this petrified deity are found in Mangaia. + In Melanesia matters are so mixed that it is not easy to decide whether a + worshipful stone is the dwelling of a dead man's soul or is of spiritual + merit in itself, or whether "the stone is the spirit's outward part or + organ". The Vui, or spirit, has much the same relations with snakes, owls + and sharks.(10) Qasavara, the mythical opponent of Qat, the Melanesian + Prometheus, "fell dead from heaven" (like Ra in Mangia), and was turned + into a stone, on which sacrifices are made by those who desire strength in + fighting. + </p> + <p> + (1) See authorities ap. Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, pp. 130-138. + </p> + <p> + (2) Dorman, p. 133. + </p> + <p> + (3) Many examples are collected by J. G. Muller, Amerikanischen + Urreligionen, pp. 97, 110, 125, especially when the stones have a likeness + to human form, p. 17a. "Im der That werden auch einige in Steine, oder in + Thiere and Pflanzen verwandelt." Cf. p. 220. Instances (from Balboa) of + men turned into stone by wizards, p. 309. + </p> + <p> + (4) Preller thinks that Actaeon, devoured by his hounds after being + changed into a stag, is a symbol of the vernal year. Palaephatus (De Fab. + Narrat.) holds that the story is a moral fable. + </p> + <p> + (5) Dorman, p. 137. + </p> + <p> + (6) Turner's Samoa, p. 299. + </p> + <p> + (7) Samoa, p. 31. + </p> + <p> + (8) Op. cit., p. 34. + </p> + <p> + (9) Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 60. + </p> + <p> + (10) Codrington, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., February, 1881. + </p> + <p> + Without delaying longer among savage myths of metamorphosis into stones, + it may be briefly shown that the Greeks retained this with all the other + vagaries of early fancy. Every one remembers the use which Perseus made of + the Gorgon's head, and the stones on the coast of Seriphus, which, like + the stones near Western Point in Victoria, had once been men, the enemies + of the hero. "Also he slew the Gorgon," sings Pindar, "and bare home her + head, with serpent tresses decked, to the island folk a stony death." + Observe Pindar's explanatory remark: "I ween there is no marvel impossible + if gods have wrought thereto". In the same pious spirit a Turk in an isle + of the Levant once told Mr. Newton a story of how a man hunted a stag, and + the stag spoke to him. "The stag spoke?" said Mr. Newton. "Yes, by Allah's + will," replied the Turk. Like Pindar, he was repeating an incident quite + natural to the minds of Australians, or Bushmen, or Samoans, or Red Men, + but, like the religious Pindar, he felt that the affair was rather + marvellous, and accounted for it by the exercise of omnipotent power.(1) + The Greek example of Niobe and her children may best be quoted in Mr. + Bridges' translation from the Iliad:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + And somewhere now, among lone mountain rocks + On Sipylus, where couch the nymphs at night + Who dance all day by Achelous' stream, + The once proud mother lies, herself a rook, + And in cold breast broods o'er the goddess' wrong. + —Prometheus the fire-bringer.(2) +</pre> + <p> + In the Iliad it is added that Cronion made the people into stones. The + attitude of the later Greek mind towards these myths may be observed in a + fragment of Philemon, the comic poet. "Never, by the gods, have I + believed, nor will believe, that Niobe the stone was once a woman. Nay, by + reason of her calamities she became speechless, and so, from her silence, + was called a stone."(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Pindar, Pyth. x., Myers's translation. + </p> + <p> + (2) xxiv. 611. + </p> + <p> + (3) The Scholiast on Iliad, xxiv. 6, 7. + </p> + <p> + There is another famous petrification in the Iliad. When the prodigy of + the snake and the sparrows had appeared to the assembled Achaeans at + Aulis, Zeus displayed a great marvel, and changed into a stone the serpent + which swallowed the young of the sparrow. Changes into stone, though less + common than changes into fishes, birds and beasts, were thus obviously not + too strange for the credulity of Greek mythology, which could also believe + that a stone became the mother of Agdestis by Zeus. + </p> + <p> + As to interchange of shape between men and women and PLANTS, our + information, so far as the lower races are concerned, is less copious. It + has already been shown that the totems of many stocks in all parts of the + world are plants, and this belief in connection with a plant by itself + demonstrates that the confused belief in all things being on one level has + thus introduced vegetables into the dominion of myth. As far as possessing + souls is concerned, Mr. Tylor has proved that plants are as well equipped + as men or beasts or minerals.(1) In India the doctrine of transmigration + widely and clearly recognises the idea of trees or smaller plants being + animated by human souls. In the well-known ancient Egyptian story of "The + Two Brothers,"(2) the life of the younger is practically merged in that of + the acacia tree where he has hidden his heart; and when he becomes a bull + and is sacrificed, his spiritual part passes into a pair of Persea trees. + The Yarucaris of Bolivia say that a girl once bewailed in the forest her + loverless estate. She happened to notice a beautiful tree, which she + adorned with ornaments as well as she might. The tree assumed the shape of + a handsome young man— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + She did not find him so remiss, + But, lightly issuing through, + He did repay her kiss for kiss, + With usury thereto.(3) +</pre> + <p> + J. G. Muller, who quotes this tale from Andree, says it has "many + analogies with the tales of metamorphosis of human beings into trees among + the ancients, as reported by Ovid". The worship of plants and trees is a + well-known feature in religion, and probably implies (at least in many + cases) a recognition of personality. In Samoa, metamorphosis into + vegetables is not uncommon. For example, the king of Fiji was a cannibal, + and (very naturally) "the people were melting away under him". The + brothers Toa and Pale, wishing to escape the royal oven, adopted various + changes of shape. They knew that straight timber was being sought for to + make a canoe for the king, so Pale, when he assumed a vegetable form, + became a crooked stick overgrown with creepers, but Toa "preferred + standing erect as a handsome straight tree". Poor Toa was therefore cut + down by the king's shipwrights, though, thanks to his brother's magic + wiles, they did not make a canoe out of him after all.(4) In Samoa the + trees are so far human that they not only go to war with each other, but + actually embark in canoes to seek out distant enemies.(5) The Ottawa + Indians account for the origin of maize by a myth in which a wizard fought + with and conquered a little man who had a little crown of feathers. From + his ashes arose the maize with its crown of leaves and heavy ears of + corn.(6) + </p> + <p> + (1) Primitive Culture, i. 145; examples of Society Islanders, Dyaks, + Karens, Buddhists. + </p> + <p> + (2) Maspero, Contes Egyptiens, p. 25. + </p> + <p> + (3) J. G. Muller, Amerik. Urrel., p. 264. + </p> + <p> + (4) Turner's Samoa, p. 219. + </p> + <p> + (5) Ibid.. p. 213. + </p> + <p> + (6) Amerik. Urrel., p. 60. + </p> + <p> + In Mangaia the myth of the origin of the cocoa-nut tree is a series of + transformation scenes, in which the persons shift shapes with the alacrity + of medicine-men. Ina used to bathe in a pool where an eel became quite + familiar with her. At last the fish took courage and made his declaration. + He was Tuna, the chief of all eels. "Be mine," he cried, and Ina was his. + For some mystical reason he was obliged to leave her, but (like the White + Cat in the fairy tale) he requested her to cut off his eel's head and bury + it. Regretfully but firmly did Ina comply with his request, and from the + buried eel's head sprang two cocoa trees, one from each half of the brain + of Tuna. As a proof of this be it remarked, that when the nut is husked we + always find on it "the two eyes and mouth of the lover of Ina".(1) All + over the world, from ancient Egypt to the wigwams of the Algonkins, plants + and other matters are said to have sprung from a dismembered god or hero, + while men are said to have sprung from plants.(2) We may therefore perhaps + look on it as a proved point that the general savage habit of "levelling + up" prevails even in their view of the vegetable world, and has left + traces (as we have seen) in their myths. + </p> + <p> + (1) Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 79. + </p> + <p> + (2) Myths of the Beginning of Things. + </p> + <p> + Turning now to the mythology of Greece, we see that the same rule holds + good. Metamorphosis into plants and flowers is extremely common; the + instances of Daphne, Myrrha, Hyacinth, Narcissus and the sisters of + Phaethon at once occur to the memory. + </p> + <p> + Most of those myths in which everything in Nature becomes personal and + human, while all persons may become anything in Nature, we explain, then, + as survivals or imitations of tales conceived when men were in the savage + intellectual condition. In that stage, as we demonstrated, no line is + drawn between things animate and inanimate, dumb or "articulate speaking," + organic or inorganic, personal or impersonal. Such a mental stage, again, + is reflected in the nature-myths, many of which are merely "aetiological,"—assign + a cause, that is, for phenomena, and satisfy an indolent and credulous + curiosity. + </p> + <p> + We may be asked again, "But how did this intellectual condition come to + exist?" To answer that is no part of our business; for us it is enough to + trace myth, or a certain element in myth, to a demonstrable and actual + stage of thought. But this stage, which is constantly found to survive in + the minds of children, is thus explained or described by Hume in his Essay + on Natural Religion: "There is an universal tendency in mankind to + conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those + qualities... of which they are intimately conscious".(1) Now they believe + themselves to be conscious of magical and supernatural powers, which they + do not, of course, possess. These powers of effecting metamorphosis, of + "shape-shifting," of flying, of becoming invisible at will, of conversing + with the dead, of miraculously healing the sick, savages pass on to their + gods (as will be shown in a later chapter), and the gods of myth survive + and retain the miraculous gifts after their worshippers (become more + reasonable) have quite forgotten that they themselves once claimed similar + endowments. So far, then, it has been shown that savage fancy, wherever + studied, is wild; that savage curiosity is keen; that savage credulity is + practically boundless. These considerations explain the existence of + savage myths of sun, stars, beasts, plants and stones; similar myths fill + Greek legend and the Sanskrit Brahmanes. We conclude that, in Greek and + Sanskrit, the myths are relics (whether borrowed or inherited) of the + savage mental STATUS. + </p> + <p> + (1) See Appendix B. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. NON-ARYAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + </h2> + <p> + Confusions of myth—Various origins of man and of things—Myths + of Australia, Andaman Islands, Bushmen, Ovaherero, Namaquas, Zulus, + Hurons, Iroquois, Diggers, Navajoes, Winnebagoes, Chaldaeans, Thlinkeets, + Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Aztecs, Peruvians—Similarity of ideas + pervading all those peoples in various conditions of society and culture. + </p> + <p> + The difficulties of classification which beset the study of mythology have + already been described. Nowhere are they more perplexing than when we try + to classify what may be styled Cosmogonic Myths. The very word cosmogonic + implies the pre-existence of the idea of a cosmos, an orderly universe, + and this was exactly the last idea that could enter the mind of the + myth-makers. There is no such thing as orderliness in their mythical + conceptions, and no such thing as an universe. The natural question, "Who + made the world, or how did the things in the world come to be?" is the + question which is answered by cosmogonic myths. But it is answered + piecemeal. To a Christian child the reply is given, "God made all things". + We have known this reply discussed by some little girls of six (a Scotch + minister's daughters, and naturally metaphysical), one of whom solved all + difficulties by the impromptu myth, "God first made a little place to + stand on, and then he made the rest". But savages and the myth-makers, + whose stories survive into the civilised religions, could adhere firmly to + no such account as this. Here occurs in the first edition of this book the + following passage: "They (savages) have not, and had not, the conception + of God as we understand what we mean by the word. They have, and had at + most, only the small-change of the idea God,"—here the belief in a + moral being who watches conduct; here again the hypothesis of a pre-human + race of magnified, non-natural medicine-men, or of extra-natural beings + with human and magical attributes, but often wearing the fur, and fins, + and feathers of the lower animals. Mingled with these faiths (whether + earlier, later, or coeval in origin with these) are the dread and love of + ancestral ghosts, often transmuting themselves into worship of an + imaginary and ideal first parent of the tribe, who once more is often a + beast or a bird. Here is nothing like the notion of an omnipotent, + invisible, spiritual being, the creator of our religion; here is only la + monnaie of the conception." + </p> + <p> + It ought to have occurred to the author that he was here traversing the + main theory of his own book, which is that RELIGION is one thing, myth + quite another thing. That many low races of savages entertain, in hours of + RELIGIOUS thought, an elevated conception of a moral and undying Maker of + Things, and Master of Life, a Father in Heaven, has already been stated, + and knowledge of the facts has been considerably increased since this work + first appeared (1887). But the MYTHICAL conceptions described in the last + paragraph coexist with the religious conception in the faiths of very low + savages, such as the Australians and Andamanese, just as the same + contradictory coexistence is notorious in ancient Greece, India, Egypt and + Anahuac. In a sense, certain low savages HAVE the "conception of God, as + we understand what we mean by the word". But that sense, when savages come + to spinning fables about origins, is apt to be overlaid and perplexed by + the frivolity of their mythical fancy. + </p> + <p> + With such shifting, grotesque and inadequate fables, the cosmogonic myths + of the world are necessarily bewildered and perplexed. We have already + seen in the chapter on "Nature Myths" that many things, sun, moon, the + stars, "that have another birth," and various animals and plants, are + accounted for on the hypothesis that they are later than the appearance of + man—that they originally WERE men. To the European mind it seems + natural to rank myths of the gods before myths of the making or the + evolution of the world, because our religion, like that of the more + philosophic Greeks, makes the deity the fount of all existences, causa + causans, "what unmoved moves," the beginning and the end. But the + myth-makers, deserting any such ideas they may possess, find it necessary, + like the child of whom we spoke, to postulate a PLACE for the divine + energy to work from, and that place is the earth or the heavens. Then, + again, heaven and earth are themselves often regarded in the usual + mythical way, as animated, as persons with parts and passions, and + finally, among advancing races, as gods. Into this medley of incongruous + and inconsistent conceptions we must introduce what order we may, always + remembering that the order is not native to the subject, but is brought in + for the purpose of study. + </p> + <p> + The origin of the world and of man is naturally a problem which has + excited the curiosity of the least developed minds. Every savage race has + its own myths on this subject, most of them bearing the marks of the + childish and crude imagination, whose character we have investigated, and + all varying in amount of what may be called philosophical thought. + </p> + <p> + All the cosmogonic myths, as distinct from religious belief in a Creator, + waver between the theory of construction, or rather of reconstruction, and + the theory of evolution, very rudely conceived. The earth, as a rule, is + mythically averred to have grown out of some original matter, perhaps an + animal, perhaps an egg which floated on the waters, perhaps a handful of + mud from below the waters. But this conception does not exclude the idea + that many of the things in the world, minerals, plants and what not, are + fragments of the frame of a semi-supernatural and gigantic being, human or + bestial, belonging to a race which preceded the advent of man.(1) Such + were the Titans, demi-gods, Nurrumbunguttias in Australia. Various members + of this race are found active in myths of the creation, or rather the + construction, of man and of the world. Among the lowest races it is to be + noted that mythical animals of supernatural power often take the place of + beings like the Finnish Wainamoinen, the Greek Prometheus, the Zulu + Unkulunkulu, the Red Indian Manabozho, himself usually a great hare. + </p> + <p> + (1) Macrobius, Saturnal., i. xx. + </p> + <p> + The ages before the development or creation of man are filled up, in the + myths, with the loves and wars of supernatural people. The appearance of + man is explained in three or four contradictory ways, each of which is + represented in the various myths of most mythologies. Often man is + fashioned out of clay, or stone, or other materials, by a Maker of all + things, sometimes half-human or bestial, but also half-divine. Sometimes + the first man rises out of the earth, and is himself confused with the + Creator, a theory perhaps illustrated by the Zulu myth of Unkulunkulu, + "The Old, Old One". Sometimes man arrives ready made, with most of the + animals, from his former home in a hole in the ground, and he furnishes + the world for himself with stars, sun, moon and everything else he needs. + Again, there are many myths which declare that man was evolved out of one + or other of the lower animals. This myth is usually employed by tribesmen + to explain the origin of their own peculiar stock of kindred. Once more, + man is taken to be the fruit of some tree or plant, or not to have emerged + ready-made, but to have grown out of the ground like a plant or a tree. In + some countries, as among the Bechuanas, the Boeotians, and the Peruvians, + the spot where men first came out on earth is known to be some + neighbouring marsh or cave. Lastly, man is occasionally represented as + having been framed out of a piece of the body of the Creator, or made by + some demiurgic potter out of clay. All these legends are told by savages, + with no sense of their inconsistency. There is no single orthodoxy on the + matter, and we shall see that all these theories coexist pell-mell among + the mythological traditions of civilised races. In almost every mythology, + too, the whole theory of the origin of man is crossed by the tradition of + a Deluge, or some other great destruction, followed by revival or + reconstruction of the species, a tale by no means necessarily of Biblical + origin. + </p> + <p> + In examining savage myths of the origin of man and of the world, we shall + begin by considering those current among the most backward peoples, where + no hereditary or endowed priesthood has elaborated and improved the + popular beliefs. The natives of Australia furnish us with myths of a + purely popular type, the property, not of professional priests and poets, + but of all the old men and full-grown warriors of the country. Here, as + everywhere else, the student must be on his guard against accepting myths + which are disguised forms of missionary teaching.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Taplin, The Narrinyeri. "He must also beware of supposing that the + Australians believe in a creator in our sense, because the Narrinyeri, for + example, say that Nurundere 'made everything'. Nurundere is but an + idealised wizard and hunter, with a rival of his species." This occurs in + the first edition, but "making all things" is one idea, wizardry is + another. + </p> + <p> + In Southern Australia we learn that the Boonoorong, an Australian coast + tribe, ascribe the creation of things to a being named Bun-jel or + Pund-jel. He figures as the chief of an earlier supernatural class of + existence, with human relationships; thus he "has a wife, WHOSE FACE HE + HAS NEVER SEEN," brothers, a son, and so on. Now this name Bun-jel means + "eagle-hawk," and the eagle-hawk is a totem among certain stocks. Thus, + when we hear that Eagle-hawk is the maker of men and things we are + reminded of the Bushman creator, Cagn, who now receives prayers of + considerable beauty and pathos, but who is (in some theories) identified + with kaggen, the mantis insect, a creative grasshopper, and the chief + figure in Bushman mythology.(1) Bun-jel or Pund-jel also figures in + Australian belief, neither as the creator nor as the eagle-hawk, but "as + an old man who lives at the sources of the Yarra river, where he possesses + great multitudes of cattle".(2) The term Bun-jel is also used, much like + our "Mr.," to denote the older men of the Kurnai and Briakolung, some of + whom have magical powers. One of them, Krawra, or "West Wind," can cause + the wind to blow so violently as to prevent the natives from climbing + trees; this man has semi-divine attributes. From these facts it appears + that this Australian creator, in myth, partakes of the character of the + totem or worshipful beast, and of that of the wizard or medicine-man. He + carried a large knife, and, when he made the earth, he went up and down + slicing it into creeks and valleys. The aborigines of the northern parts + of Victoria seem to believe in Pund-jel in what may perhaps be his most + primitive mythical shape, that of an eagle.(3) This eagle and a crow + created everything, and separated the Murray blacks into their two main + divisions, which derive their names from the crow and the eagle. The + Melbourne blacks seem to make Pund-jel more anthropomorphic. Men are his + (Greek text omitted) figures kneaded of clay, as Aristophanes says in the + Birds. Pund-jel made two clay images of men, and danced round them. "He + made their hair—one had straight, one curly hair—of bark. He + danced round them. He lay on them, and breathed his breath into their + mouths, noses and navels, and danced round them. Then they arose + full-grown young men." Some blacks seeing a brickmaker at work on a bridge + over the Yarra exclaimed, "Like 'em that Pund-jel make 'em Koolin". But + other blacks prefer to believe that, as Pindar puts the Phrygian legend, + the sun saw men growing like trees. + </p> + <p> + (1) Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Mythology, p. 6; Cape Monthly + Magazine, July, 1874, pp. 1-13; Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 210, 324. + </p> + <p> + (2) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 210. + </p> + <p> + (3) Brough Smyth, Natives of Victoria, vol. i. p. 423. + </p> + <p> + The first man was formed out of the gum of a wattle-tree, and came out of + the knot of a wattle-tree. He then entered into a young woman (though he + was the first man) and was born.(1) The Encounter Bay people have another + myth, which might have been attributed by Dean Swift to the Yahoos, so + foul an origin does it allot to mankind. + </p> + <p> + (1) Meyer, Aborigines of Encounter Bay. See, later, "Gods of the Lowest + Races". + </p> + <p> + Australian myths of creation are by no means exclusive of a hypothesis of + evolution. Thus the Dieyrie, whose notions Mr. Gason has recorded, hold a + very mixed view. They aver that "the good spirit" Moora-Moora made a + number of small black lizards, liked them, and promised them dominion. He + divided their feet into toes and fingers, gave them noses and lips, and + set them upright. Down they fell, and Moora-Moora cut off their tails. + Then they walked erect and were men.(1) The conclusion of the adventures + of one Australian creator is melancholy. He has ceased to dwell among + mortals whom he watches and inspires. The Jay possessed many bags full of + wind; he opened them, and Pund-jel was carried up by the blast into the + heavens. But this event did not occur before Pund-jel had taught men and + women the essential arts of life. He had shown the former how to spear + kangaroos, he still exists and inspires poets. From the cosmogonic myths + of Australia (the character of some of which is in contradiction with the + higher religious belief of the people to be later described) we may turn, + without reaching a race of much higher civilisation, to the dwellers in + the Andaman Islands and their opinions about the origin of things. + </p> + <p> + (1) Gason's Dieyries, ap. Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 20. + </p> + <p> + The Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, are remote from any shores, and + are protected from foreign influences by dangerous coral reefs, and by the + reputed ferocity and cannibalism of the natives. These are Negritos, and + are commonly spoken of as most abject savages. They are not, however, + without distinctions of rank; they are clean, modest, moral after + marriage, and most strict in the observance of prohibited degrees. Unlike + the Australians, they use bows and arrows, but are said to be incapable of + striking a light, and, at all events, find the process so difficult that, + like the Australians and the farmer in the Odyssey,(1) they are compelled + "to hoard the seeds of fire". Their mythology contains explanations of the + origin of men and animals, and of their own customs and language. + </p> + <p> + (1) Odyssey, v. 490. + </p> + <p> + The Andamanese, long spoken of as "godless," owe much to Mr. Man, an + English official, who has made a most careful study of their beliefs.(1) + So extraordinary is the contradiction between the relative purity and + morality of the RELIGION and the savagery of the myths of the Andamanese, + that, in the first edition of this work, I insisted that the "spiritual + god" of the faith must have been "borrowed from the same quarter as the + stone house" in which he is mythically said to live. But later and wider + study, and fresh information from various quarters, have convinced me that + the relative purity of Andamanese religion, with its ethical sanction of + conduct, may well be, and probably is, a natural unborrowed development. + It is easy for MYTH to borrow the notion of a stone house from our recent + settlement at Port Blair. But it would not be easy for RELIGION to borrow + many new ideas from an alien creed, in a very few years, while the noted + ferocity of the islanders towards strangers, and the inaccessibility of + their abode, makes earlier borrowing, on a large scale at least, highly + improbable. The Andamanese god, Puluga, is "like fire" but invisible, + unborn and immortal, knowing and punishing or rewarding, men's deeds, even + "the thoughts of their hearts". But when once mythical fancy plays round + him, and stories are told about him, he is credited with a wife who is an + eel or a shrimp, just as Zeus made love as an ant or a cuckoo. Puluga was + the maker of men; no particular myth as to how he made them is given. They + tried to kill him, after the deluge (of which a grotesque myth is told), + but he replied that he was "as hard as wood". His legend is in the usual + mythical contradiction with the higher elements in his religion. + </p> + <p> + (1) Journ. Anthrop. Soc., vol. xii. p. 157 et seq. + </p> + <p> + Leaving the Andaman islanders, but still studying races in the lowest + degree of civilisation, we come to the Bushmen of South Africa. This very + curious and interesting people, far inferior in material equipment to the + Hottentots, is sometimes regarded as a branch of that race.(1) The + Hottentots call themselves "Khoi-khoi," the Bushmen they style "Sa". The + poor Sa lead the life of pariahs, and are hated and chased by all other + natives of South Africa. They are hunters and diggers for roots, while the + Hottentots, perhaps their kinsmen, are cattle-breeders.(2) Being so + ill-nourished, the Bushmen are very small, but sturdy. They dwell in, or + rather wander through, countries which have been touched by some ancient + civilisation, as is proved by the mysterious mines and roads of + Mashonaland. It is singular that the Bushmen possess a tradition according + to which they could once "make stone things that flew over rivers". They + have remarkable artistic powers, and their drawings of men and animals on + the walls of caves are often not inferior to the designs on early Greek + vases.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) See "Divine Myths of the Lower Races". + </p> + <p> + (2) Hahu, Tsuni Goam, p. 4. See other accounts in Waitz, Anthropologie, + ii. 328. + </p> + <p> + (3) Custom and Myth, where illustrations of Bushman art are given, pp. + 290-295. + </p> + <p> + Thus we must regard the Bushmen as possibly degenerated from a higher + status, though there is nothing (except perhaps the tradition about + bridge-making) to show that it was more exalted than that of their more + prosperous neighbours, the Hottentots. The myths of the Bushmen, however, + are almost on the lowest known level. A very good and authentic example of + Bushman cosmogonic myth was given to Mr. Orpen, chief magistrate of St. + John's territory, by Qing, King Nqusha's huntsman. Qing "had never seen a + white man, but in fighting," till he became acquainted with Mr. Orpen.(1) + The chief force in Bushmen myth is by Dr. Bleek identified with the + mantis, a sort of large grasshopper. Though he seems at least as + "chimerical a beast" as the Aryan creative boar, the "mighty big hare" of + the Algonkins, the large spider who made the world in the opinion of the + Gold Coast people, or the eagle of the Australians, yet the insect (if + insect he be), like the others, has achieved moral qualities and is + addressed in prayer. In his religious aspect he is nothing less than a + grasshopper. He is called Cagn. "Cagn made all things and we pray to him," + said Qing. "Coti is the wife of Cagn." Qing did not know where they came + from; "perhaps with the men who brought the sun". The fact is, Qing "did + not dance that dance," that is, was not one of the Bushmen initiated into + the more esoteric mysteries of Cagn. Till we, too, are initiated, we can + know very little of Cagn in his religious aspect. Among the Bushmen, as + among the Greeks, there is "no religious mystery without dancing". Qing + was not very consistent. He said Cagn gave orders and caused all things to + appear and to be made, sun, moon, stars, wind, mountains, animals, and + this, of course, is a lofty theory of creation. Elsewhere myth avers that + Cagn did not so much create as manufacture the objects in nature. In his + early day "the snakes were also men". Cagn struck snakes with his staff + and turned them into men, as Zeus, in the Aeginetan myth, did with ants. + He also turned offending men into baboons. In Bushman myth, little as we + really know of it, we see the usual opposition of fable and faith, a kind + creator in religion is apparently a magician in myth. + </p> + <p> + (1) Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + </p> + <p> + Neighbours of the Bushmen, but more fortunate in their wealth of sheep and + cattle, are the Ovaherero. The myths of the Ovaherero, a tribe dwelling in + a part of Hereraland "which had not yet been under the influence of + civilisation and Christianity," have been studied by the Rev. H. + Reiderbecke, missionary at Otyozondyupa. The Ovaherero, he says, have a + kind of tree Ygdrasil, a tree out of which men are born, and this plays a + great part in their myth of creation. The tree, which still exists, though + at a great age, is called the Omumborombonga tree. Out of it came, in the + beginning, the first man and woman. Oxen stepped forth from it too, but + baboons, as Caliban says of the stars, "came otherwise," and sheep and + goats sprang from a flat rock. Black people are so coloured, according to + the Ovaherero, because when the first parents emerged from the tree and + slew an ox, the ancestress of the blacks appropriated the black liver of + the victim. The Ovakuru Meyuru or "OLD ONES in heaven," once let the skies + down with a run, but drew them up again (as the gods of the Satapatha + Brahmana drew the sun) when most of mankind had been drowned.(1) The + remnant pacified the OLD ONES (as Odysseus did the spirits of the dead) by + the sacrifice of a BLACK ewe, a practice still used to appease ghosts by + the Ovaherero. The neighbouring Omnambo ascribe the creation of man to + Kalunga, who came out of the earth, and made the first three sheep.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) An example of a Deluge myth in Africa, where M. Lenormant found none. + </p> + <p> + (2) South African Folk-Lore Journal, ii. pt. v. p. 95. + </p> + <p> + Among the Namaquas, an African people on the same level of nomadic culture + as the Ovaherero, a divine or heroic early being called Heitsi Eibib had a + good deal to do with the origin of things. If he did not exactly make the + animals, he impressed on them their characters, and their habits (like + those of the serpent in Genesis) are said to have been conferred by a + curse, the curse of Heitsi Eibib. A precisely similar notion was found by + Avila among the Indians of Huarochiri, whose divine culture-hero imposed, + by a curse or a blessing, their character and habits on the beasts.(1) The + lion used to live in a nest up a tree till Heitsi Eibib cursed him and + bade him walk on the ground. He also cursed the hare, "and the hare ran + away, and is still running".(2) The name of the first man is given as + Eichaknanabiseb (with a multitude of "clicks"), and he is said to have met + all the animals on a flat rock, and played a game with them for copper + beads. The rainbow was made by Gaunab, who is generally a malevolent + being, of whom more hereafter. + </p> + <p> + (1) Fables of Yncas (Hakluyt Society), p. 127. + </p> + <p> + (2) Tsuni Goam, pp. 66, 67. + </p> + <p> + Leaving these African races, which, whatever their relative degrees of + culture, are physically somewhat contemptible, we reach their northern + neighbours, the Zulus. They are among the finest, and certainly among the + least religious, of the undeveloped peoples. Their faith is mainly in + magic and ghosts, but there are traces of a fading and loftier belief. + </p> + <p> + The social and political condition of the Zulu is well understood. They + are a pastoral, but not a nomadic people, possessing large kraals or + towns. They practise agriculture, and they had, till quite recently, a + centralised government and a large army, somewhat on the German system. + They appear to have no regular class of priests, and supernatural power is + owned by the chiefs and the king, and by diviners and sorcerers, who + conduct the sacrifices. Their myths are the more interesting because, + whether from their natural scepticism, which confuted Bishop Colenso in + his orthodox days, or from acquaintance with European ideas, they have + begun to doubt the truth of their own traditions.(1) The Zulu theory of + the origin of man and of the world commences with the feats of + Unkulunkulu, "the old, old one," who, in some legends, was the first man, + "and broke off in the beginning". Like Manabozho among the Indians of + North America, and like Wainamoinen among the Finns, Unkulunkulu imparted + to men a knowledge of the arts, of marriage, and so forth. His exploits in + this direction, however, must be considered in another part of this work. + Men in general "came out of a bed of reeds".(2) But there is much + confusion about this bed of reeds, named "Uthlanga". The younger people + ask where the bed of reeds was; the old men do not know, and neither did + their fathers know. But they stick to it that "that bed of reeds still + exists". Educated Zulus appear somewhat inclined to take the expression in + an allegorical sense, and to understand the reeds either as a kind of + protoplasm or as a creator who was mortal. "He exists no longer. As my + grandfather no longer exists, he too no longer exists; he died." Chiefs + who wish to claim high descent trace their pedigree to Uthlanga, as the + Homeric kings traced theirs to Zeus. The myths given by Dr. Callaway are + very contradictory. + </p> + <p> + (1) These legends have been carefully collected and published by Bishop + Callaway (Trubner & Co., 1868). + </p> + <p> + (2) Callaway, p. 9. + </p> + <p> + In addition to the legend that men came out of a bed of reeds, other and + perhaps even more puerile stories are current. "Some men say that they + were belched up by a cow;" others "that Unkulunkulu split them out of a + stone,"(1) which recalls the legend of Pyrrha and Deucalion. The myth + about the cow is still applied to great chiefs. "He was not born; he was + belched up by a cow." The myth of the stone origin corresponds to the + Homeric saying about men "born from the stone or the oak of the old + tale".(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Without anticipating a later chapter, the resemblances of these to + Greek myths, as arrayed by M. Bouche Leclercq (De Origine Generis Humani), + is very striking. + </p> + <p> + (2) Odyssey, xix. 103. + </p> + <p> + In addition to the theory of the natal bed of reeds, the Zulus, like the + Navajoes of New Mexico, and the Bushmen, believe in the subterranean + origin of man. There was a succession of emigrations from below of + different tribes of men, each having its own Unkulunkulu. All accounts + agree that Unkulunkulu is not worshipped, and he does not seem to be + identified with "the lord who plays in heaven"—a kind of fading Zeus—when + there is thunder. Unkulunkulu is not worshipped, though ancestral spirits + are worshipped, because he lived so long ago that no one can now trace his + pedigree to the being who is at once the first man and the creator. His + "honour-giving name is lost in the lapse of years, and the family rites + have become obsolete."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) See Zulu religion in The Making of Religion, pp. 225-229, where it is + argued that ghost worship has superseded a higher faith, of which traces + are discernible. + </p> + <p> + The native races of the North American continent (concerning whose + civilisation more will be said in the account of their divine myths) + occupy every stage of culture, from the truly bestial condition in which + some of the Digger Indians at present exist, living on insects and + unacquainted even with the use of the bow, to the civilisation which the + Spaniards destroyed among the Aztecs. + </p> + <p> + The original facts about religion in America are much disputed, and will + be more appropriately treated later. It is now very usual for + anthropologists to say, like Mr. Dorman, "no approach to monotheismn had + been made before the discovery of America by Europeans, and the Great + Spirit mentioned in these (their) books is an introduction by + Christianity".(1) "This view will not bear examination," says Mr. Tylor, + and we shall later demonstrate the accuracy of his remark.(2) But at + present we are concerned, not with what Indian religion had to say about + her Gods, but with what Indian myth had to tell about the beginnings of + things. + </p> + <p> + (1) Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 15. + </p> + <p> + (2) Primitive Culture, 1873, ii. p. 340. + </p> + <p> + The Hurons, for example (to choose a people in a state of middle + barbarism), start in myth from the usual conception of a powerful + non-natural race of men dwelling in the heavens, whence they descended, + and colonised, not to say constructed, the earth. In the Relation de la + Nouvelle France, written by Pere Paul le Jeune, of the Company of Jesus, + in 1636, there is a very full account of Huron opinion, which, with some + changes of names, exists among the other branches of the Algonkin family + of Indians. + </p> + <p> + They recognise as the founder of their kindred a woman named Ataentsic, + who, like Hephaestus in the Iliad, was banished from the sky. In the upper + world there are woods and plains, as on earth. Ataentsic fell down a hole + when she was hunting a bear, or she cut down a heaven-tree, and fell with + the fall of this Huron Ygdrasil, or she was seduced by an adventurer from + the under world, and was tossed out of heaven for her fault. However it + chanced, she dropped on the back of the turtle in the midst of the waters. + He consulted the other aquatic animals, and one of them, generally said to + have been the musk-rat, fished(1) up some soil and fashioned the earth.(2) + Here Ataentsic gave birth to twins, Ioskeha and Tawiscara. These represent + the usual dualism of myth; they answer to Osiris and Set, to Ormuzd and + Ahriman, and were bitter enemies. According to one form of the myth, the + woman of the sky had twins, and what occurred may be quoted from Dr. + Brinton. "Even before birth one of them betrayed his restless and evil + nature by refusing to be born in the usual manner, but insisting on + breaking through his parent's side or arm-pit. He did so, but it cost his + mother her life. Her body was buried, and from it sprang the various + vegetable productions," pumpkins, maize, beans, and so forth.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Relations, 1633. In this myth one Messon, the Great Hare, is the + beginner of our race. He married a daughter of the Musk-rat. + </p> + <p> + (2) Here we first meet in this investigation a very widely distributed + myth. The myths already examined have taken the origin of earth for + granted. The Hurons account for its origin; a speck of earth was fished + out of the waters and grew. In M. H. de Charencey's tract Une Legende + Cosmogonique (Havre, 1884) this legend is traced. M. de Charencey + distinguishes (1) a continental version; (2) an insular version; (3) a + mixed and Hindoo version. Among continental variants he gives a Vogul + version (Revue de Philologie et d'Ethnographie, Paris, 1874, i. 10). Numi + Tarom (a god who cooks fish in heaven) hangs a male and female above the + abyss of waters in a silver cradle. He gives them, later, just earth + enough to build a house on. Their son, in the guise of a squirrel, climbs + to Numi Tarom, and receives from him a duck-skin and a goose-skin. Clad in + these, like Yehl in his raven-skin or Odin in his hawk-skin, he enjoys the + powers of the animals, dives and brings up three handfuls of mud, which + grow into our earth. Elempi makes men out of clay and snow. The American + version M. de Charencey gives from Nicholas Perrot (Mem. sur les Moers, + etc., Paris, 1864, i. 3). Perrot was a traveller of the seventeenth + century. The Great Hare takes a hand in the making of earth out of + fished-up soil. After giving other North American variants, and comparing + the animals that, after three attempts, fish up earth to the dove and + raven of Noah, M. de Charencey reaches the Bulgarians. God made Satan, in + the skin of a diver, fish up earth out of Lake Tiberias. Three doves fish + up earth, in the beginning, in the Galician popular legend (Chodzko, + Contes des Paysans Slaves, p. 374). In the INSULAR version, as in New + Zealand, the island is usually fished up with a hook by a heroic angler + (Japan, Tonga, Tahiti, New Zealand). The Hindoo version, in which the boar + plays the part of musk-rat, or duck, or diver, will be given in "Indian + Cosmogonic Myths". + </p> + <p> + (3) Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 54. Nicholas Perrot and various + Jesuit Relations are the original authorities. See "Divine Myths of + America". Mr. Leland, in his Algonkin Tales, prints the same story, with + the names altered to Glooskap and Malsumis, from oral tradition. Compare + Schoolcraft, v. 155, and i. 317, and the versions of PP. Charlevoix and + Lafitau. In Charlevoix the good and bad brothers are Manabozho and + Chokanipok or Chakekanapok, and out of the bones and entrails of the + latter many plants and animals were fashioned, just as, according to a + Greek myth preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus, parsley and pomegranates + arose from the blood and scattered members of Dionysus Zagreus. The tale + of Tawiscara's violent birth is told of Set in Egypt, and of Indra in the + Veda, as will be shown later. This is a very common fable, and, as Mr. + Whitley Stokes tells me, it recurs in old Irish legends of the birth of + our Lord, Myth, as usual, invading religion, even Christian religion. + </p> + <p> + According to another version of the origin of things, the maker of them + was one Michabous, or Michabo, the Great Hare. His birthplace was shown at + an island called Michilimakinak, like the birthplace of Apollo at Delos. + The Great Hare made the earth, and, as will afterwards appear, was the + inventor of the arts of life. On the whole, the Iroquois and Algonkin + myths agree in finding the origin of life in an upper world beyond the + sky. The earth was either fished up (as by Brahma when he dived in the + shape of a boar) by some beast which descended to the bottom of the + waters, or grew out of the tortoise on whose back Ataentsic fell. The + first dwellers in the world were either beasts like Manabozho or Michabo, + the Great Hare, or the primeval wolves of the Uinkarets,(1) or the + creative musk-rat, or were more anthropomorphic heroes, such as Ioskeha + and Tawiscara. As for the things in the world, some were made, some + evolved, some are transformed parts of an early non-natural man or animal. + There is a tendency to identify Ataentsic, the sky-woman, with the moon, + and in the Two Great Brethren, hostile as they are, to recognise moon and + sun.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Powell, Bureau of Ethnology, i. 44. + </p> + <p> + (2) Dr. Brinton has endeavoured to demonstrate by arguments drawn from + etymology that Michabos, Messou, Missibizi or Manabozho, the Great Hare, + is originally a personification of Dawn (Myths of the New World, p. 178). + I have examined his arguments in the Nineteenth Century, January, 1886, + which may be consulted, and in Melusine, January, 1887. The hare appears + to be one out of the countless primeval beast-culture heroes. A curious + piece of magic in a tradition of the Dene Hareskins may seem to aid Dr. + Brinton's theory: "Pendant la nuit il entra, jeta au feu une tete de + lievre blanc et aussitot le jour se fit".—Petitot, Traditions + Indiennes, p. 173. But I take it that the sacrifice of a white hare's head + makes light magically, as sacrifice of black beasts and columns of black + smoke make rainclouds. + </p> + <p> + Some of the degraded Digger Indians of California have the following myth + of the origin of species. In this legend, it will be noticed, a species of + evolution takes the place of a theory of creation. The story was told to + Mr. Adam Johnston, who "drew" the narrator by communicating to a chief the + Biblical narrative of the creation.(1) The chief said it was a strange + story, and one that he had never heard when he lived at the Mission of St. + John under the care of a Padre. According to this chief (he ruled over the + Po-to-yan-te tribe or Coyotes), the first Indians were coyotes. When one + of their number died, his body became full of little animals or spirits. + They took various shapes, as of deer, antelopes, and so forth; but as some + exhibited a tendency to fly off to the moon, the Po-to-yan-tes now usually + bury the bodies of their dead, to prevent the extinction of species. Then + the Indians began to assume the shape of man, but it was a slow + transformation. At first they walked on all fours, then they would begin + to develop an isolated human feature, one finger, one toe, one eye, like + the ascidian, our first parent in the view of modern science. Then they + doubled their organs, got into the habit of sitting up, and wore away + their tails, which they unaffectedly regret, "as they consider the tail + quite an ornament". Ideas of the immortality of the soul are said to be + confined to the old women of the tribe, and, in short, according to this + version, the Digger Indians occupy the modern scientific position. + </p> + <p> + (1) Schoolcraft, vol. v. + </p> + <p> + The Winnebagoes, who communicated their myths to Mr. Fletcher,(1) are + suspected of having been influenced by the Biblical narrative. They say + that the Great Spirit woke up as from a dream, and found himself sitting + in a chair. As he was all alone, he took a piece of his body and a piece + of earth, and made a man. He next made a woman, steadied the earth by + placing beasts beneath it at the corners, and created plants and animals. + Other men he made out of bears. "He created the white man to make tools + for the poor Indians"—a very pleasing example of a teleological + hypothesis and of the doctrine of final causes as understood by the + Winnebagoes. The Chaldean myth of the making of man is recalled by the + legend that the Great Spirit cut out a piece of himself for the purpose; + the Chaldean wisdom coincides, too, with the philosophical acumen of the + Po-to-yan-te or Coyote tribe of Digger Indians. Though the Chaldean theory + is only connected with that of the Red Men by its savagery, we may briefly + state it in this place. + </p> + <p> + (1) Ibid., iv. 228. + </p> + <p> + According to Berosus, as reported by Alexander Polyhistor, the universe + was originally (as before Manabozho's time) water and mud. Herein all + manner of mixed monsters, with human heads, goat's horns, four legs, and + tails, bred confusedly. In place of the Iroquois Ataentsic, a woman called + Omoroca presided over the mud and the menagerie. She, too, like Ataentsic, + is sometimes recognised as the moon. Affairs being in this state, + Bel-Maruduk arrived and cut Omoroca in two (Chokanipok destroyed + Ataentsic), and out of Omoroca Bel made the world and the things in it. We + have already seen that in savage myth many things are fashioned out of a + dead member of the extra-natural race. Lastly, Bel cut his own head off, + and with the blood the gods mixed clay and made men. The Chaldeans + inherited very savage fancies.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Cf. Syncellus, p. 29; Euseb., Chronic. Armen., ed. Mai, p. 10; + Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, i. 506. + </p> + <p> + One ought, perhaps, to apologise to the Chaldeans for inserting their + myths among the fables of the least cultivated peoples; but it will + scarcely be maintained that the Oriental myths differ in character from + the Digger Indian and Iroquois explanations of the origin of things. The + Ahts of Vancouver Island, whom Mr. Sproat knew intimately, and of whose + ideas he gives a cautious account (for he was well aware of the limits of + his knowledge), tell a story of the usual character.(1) They believe in a + member of the extra-natural race, named Quawteaht, of whom we shall hear + more in his heroic character. As a demiurge "he is undoubtedly represented + as the general framer, I do not say creator, of all things, though some + special things are excepted. He made the earth and water, the trees and + rocks, and all the animals. Some say that Quawteaht made the sun and moon, + but the majority of the Indians believe that he had nothing to do with + their formation, and that they are deities superior to himself, though now + distant and less active. He gave names to everything; among the rest, to + all the Indian houses which then existed, although inhabited only by birds + and animals. Quawteaht went away before the apparent change of the birds + and beasts into Indians, which took place in the following manner:— + </p> + <p> + "The birds and beasts of old had the spirits of the Indians dwelling in + them, and occupied the various coast villages, as the Ahts do at present. + One day a canoe manned by two Indians from an unknown country approached + the shore. As they coasted along, at each house at which they landed, the + deer, bear, elk, and other brute inhabitants fled to the mountains, and + the geese and other birds flew to the woods and rivers. But in this + flight, the Indians, who had hitherto been contained in the bodies of the + various creatures, were left behind, and from that time they took + possession of the deserted dwellings and assumed the condition in which we + now see them." + </p> + <p> + (1) Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, pp. 210, 211. + </p> + <p> + Crossing the northern continent of America to the west, we are in the + domains of various animal culture-heroes, ancestors and teachers of the + human race and the makers, to some extent, of the things in the world. As + the eastern tribes have their Great Hare, so the western tribes have their + wolf hero and progenitor, or their coyote, or their raven, or their dog. + It is possible, and even certain in some cases, that the animal which was + the dominant totem of a race became heir to any cosmogonic legends that + were floating about. + </p> + <p> + The country of the Papagos, on the eastern side of the Gulf of California, + is the southern boundary of the province of the coyote or prairie wolf. + The realm of his influence as a kind of Prometheus, or even as a demiurge, + extends very far northwards. In the myth related by Con Quien, the chief + of the central Papagos,(1) the coyote acts the part of the fish in the + Sanskrit legend of the flood, while Montezuma undertakes the role of Manu. + This Montezuma was formed, like the Adams of so many races, out of + potter's clay in the hands of the Great Spirit. In all this legend it + seems plain enough that the name of Montezuma is imported from Mexico, and + has been arbitrarily given to the hero of the Papagos. According to Mr. + Powers, whose manuscript notes Mr. Bancroft quotes (iii. 87), all the + natives of California believe that their first ancestors were created + directly from the earth of their present dwelling-places, and in very many + cases these ancestors were coyotes. + </p> + <p> + (1) Davidson, Indian Affairs Report, 1865, p. 131; Bancroft, iii. 75. + </p> + <p> + The Pimas, a race who live near the Papagos on the eastern coast of the + Gulf of California, say that the earth was made by a being named + Earth-prophet. At first it appeared like a spider's web, reminding one of + the West African legend that a great spider created the world. Man was + made by the Earth-prophet out of clay kneaded with sweat. A mysterious + eagle and a deluge play a great part in the later mythical adventures of + war and the world, as known to the Pimas.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Communicated to Mr. Bancroft by Mr. Stout of the Pima Agency. + </p> + <p> + In Oregon the coyote appears as a somewhat tentative demiurge, and the men + of his creation, like the beings first formed by Prajapati in the Sanskrit + myth, needed to be reviewed, corrected and considerably augmented. The + Chinooks of Oregon believe in the usual race of magnified non-natural men, + who preceded humanity. + </p> + <p> + These semi-divine people were called Ulhaipa by the Chinooks, and Sehuiab + by the Lummies. But the coyote was the maker of men. As the first of + Nature's journeymen, he made men rather badly, with closed eyes and + motionless feet. A kind being, named Ikanam, touched up the coyote's crude + essays with a sharp stone, opening the eyes of men, and giving their hands + and feet the powers of movement. He also acted as a "culture-hero," + introducing the first arts. (1) + </p> + <p> + (1) (Frauchere's Narrative, 258; Gibb's Chinook Vocabulary; Parker's + exploring Tour, i. 139;) Bancroft, iii. 96. + </p> + <p> + Moving up the West Pacific coast we reach British Columbia, where the + coyote is not supposed to have been so active as our old friend the + musk-rat in the great work of the creation. According to the Tacullies, + nothing existed in the beginning but water and a musk-rat. As the animal + sought his food at the bottom of the water, his mouth was frequently + filled with mud. This he spat out, and so gradually formed by alluvial + deposit an island. This island was small at first, like earth in the + Sanskrit myth in the Satapatha Brahmana, but gradually increased in bulk. + The Tacullies have no new light to throw on the origin of man.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Bancroft, iii. 98; Harmon's Journey, pp. 302, 303. + </p> + <p> + The Thlinkeets, who are neighbours of the Tacullies on the north, incline + to give crow or raven the chief role in the task of creation, just as some + Australians allot the same part to the eagle-hawk, and the Yakuts to a + hawk, a crow and a teal-duck. We shall hear much of Yehl later, as one of + the mythical heroes of the introduction of civilisation. North of the + Thlinkeets, a bird and a dog take the creative duties, the Aleuts and + Koniagas being descended from a dog. Among the more northern Tinnehs, the + dog who was the progenitor of the race had the power of assuming the shape + of a handsome young man. He supplied the protoplasm of the Tinnehs, as + Purusha did that of the Aryan world, out of his own body. A giant tore him + to pieces, as the gods tore Purusha, and out of the fragments thrown into + the rivers came fish, the fragments tossed into the air took life as + birds, and so forth.(1) This recalls the Australian myth of the origin of + fish and the Ananzi stories of the origin of whips.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Hearne, pp. 342, 343; Bancroft, iii. 106. + </p> + <p> + (2) See "Divine Myths of Lower Races". M. Cosquin, in Contes de Lorraine, + vol. i. p. 58, gives the Ananzi story. + </p> + <p> + Between the cosmogonic myths of the barbarous or savage American tribes + and those of the great cultivated American peoples, Aztecs, Peruvians and + Quiches, place should be found for the legends of certain races in the + South Pacific. Of these, the most important are the Maoris or natives of + New Zealand, the Mangaians and the Samoans. Beyond the usual and + world-wide correspondences of myth, the divine tales of the various South + Sea isles display resemblances so many and essential that they must be + supposed to spring from a common and probably not very distant centre. As + it is practically impossible to separate Maori myths of the making of + things from Maori myths of the gods and their origin, we must pass over + here the metaphysical hymns and stories of the original divine beings, + Rangi and Papa, Heaven and Earth, and of their cruel but necessary divorce + by their children, who then became the usual Titanic race which constructs + and "airs" the world for the reception of man.(1) Among these beings, more + fully described in our chapter on the gods of the lower races, is Tiki, + with his wife Marikoriko, twilight. Tane (male) is another of the + primordial race, children of earth and heaven, and between him and Tiki + lies the credit of having made or begotten humanity. Tane adorned the body + of his father, heaven (Rangi), by sticking stars all over it, as disks of + pearl-shells are stuck all over images. He was the parent of trees and + birds, but some trees are original and divine beings. The first woman was + not born, but formed out of the sun and the echo, a pretty myth. Man was + made by Tiki, who took red clay, and kneaded it with his own blood, or + with the red water of swamps. The habits of animals, some of which are + gods, while others are descended from gods, follow from their conduct at + the moment when heaven and earth were violently divorced. New Zealand + itself, or at least one of the isles, was a huge fish caught by Maui (of + whom more hereafter). Just as Pund-jel, in Australia, cut out the gullies + and vales with his knife, so the mountains and dells of New Zealand were + produced by the knives of Maui's brothers when they crimped his big + fish.(2) Quite apart from those childish ideas are the astonishing + metaphysical hymns about the first stirrings of light in darkness, of + "becoming" and "being," which remind us of Hegel and Heraclitus, or of the + most purely speculative ideas in the Rig-Veda.(3) Scarcely less + metaphysical are the myths of Mangaia, of which Mr. Gill(4) gives an + elaborate account. + </p> + <p> + (1) See "Divine Myths of Lower Races". + </p> + <p> + (2) Taylor, New Zealand, pp. 115-121; Bastian, Heilige Sage der + Polynesier, pp. 36-50; Shortland, Traditions of New Zealanders. + </p> + <p> + (3) See chapter on "Divine Myths of the Lower Races," and on "Indian + Cosmogonic Myths" + </p> + <p> + (4) Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, pp. 1-22. + </p> + <p> + The Mangaian ideas of the world are complex, and of an early scientific + sort. The universe is like the hollow of a vast cocoa-nut shell, divided + into many imaginary circles like those of mediaeval speculation. There is + a demon at the stem, as it were, of the cocoa-nut, and, where the edges of + the imaginary shell nearly meet, dwells a woman demon, whose name means + "the very beginning". In this system we observe efforts at metaphysics and + physical speculation. But it is very characteristic of rude thought that + such extremely abstract conceptions as "the very beginning" are + represented as possessing life and human form. The woman at the bottom of + the shell was anxious for progeny, and therefore plucked a bit out of her + own right side, as Eve was made out of the rib of Adam. This piece of + flesh became Vatea, the father of gods and men. Vatea (like Oannes in the + Chaldean legend) was half man, half fish. "The Very Beginning" begat other + children in the same manner, and some of these became departmental gods of + ocean, noon-day, and so forth. Curiously enough, the Mangaians seem to be + sticklers for primogeniture. Vatea, as the first-born son, originally had + his domain next above that of his mother. But she was pained by the + thought that his younger brothers each took a higher place than his; so + she pushed his land up, and it is now next below the solid crust on which + mortals live in Mangaia. Vatea married a woman from one of the under + worlds named Papa, and their children had the regular human form. One + child was born either from Papa's head, like Athene from the head of Zeus, + or from her armpit, like Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus. Another child + may be said, in the language of dog-breeders, to have "thrown back," for + he wears the form of a white or black lizard. In the Mangaian system the + sky is a solid vault of blue stone. In the beginning of things the sky + (like Ouranos in Greece and Rangi in New Zealand) pressed hard on earth, + and the god Ru was obliged to thrust the two asunder, or rather he was + engaged in this task when Maui tossed both Ru and the sky so high up that + they never came down again. Ru is now the Atlas of Mangaia, "the + sky-supporting Ru".(1) His lower limbs fell to earth, and became + pumice-stone. In these Mangaian myths we discern resemblances to New + Zealand fictions, as is natural, and the tearing of the body of "the Very + Beginning" has numerous counterparts in European, American and Indian + fable. But on the whole, the Mangaian myths are more remarkable for their + semi-scientific philosophy than for their coincidences with the fancies of + other early peoples. + </p> + <p> + (1) Gill, p. 59. + </p> + <p> + The Samoans, like the Maoris and Greeks, hold that heaven at first fell + down and lay upon earth.(1) The arrowroot and another plant pushed up + heaven, and "the heaven-pushing place" is still known and pointed out. + Others say the god Ti-iti-i pushed up heaven, and his feet made holes six + feet deep in the rocks during this exertion. The other Samoan myths + chiefly explain the origin of fire, and the causes of the characteristic + forms and habits of animals and plants. The Samoans, too, possess a + semi-mythical, metaphysical cosmogony, starting from NOTHING, but rapidly + becoming the history of rocks, clouds, hills, dew and various animals, who + intermarried, and to whom the royal family of Samoa trace their origin + through twenty-three generations. So personal are Samoan abstract + conceptions, that "SPACE had a long-legged stool," on to which a head + fell, and grew into a companion for Space. Yet another myth says that the + god Tangaloa existed in space, and made heaven and earth, and sent down + his daughter, a snipe. Man he made out of the mussel-fish. So confused are + the doctrines of the Samoans.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Turner's Samoa, p. 198. + </p> + <p> + (2) Turner's Samoa, pp. 1-9. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps the cosmogonic myths of the less cultivated races have now been + stated in sufficient number. As an example of the ideas which prevailed in + an American race of higher culture, we may take the Quiche legend as given + in the Popol Vuh, a post-Christian collection of the sacred myths of the + nation, written down after the Spanish conquest, and published in French + by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) See Popol Vuh in Mr. Max Muller's Chips from a German Workshop, with a + discussion of its authenticity. In his Annals of the Cakchiquels, a nation + bordering on the Quiches, Dr. Brinton expresses his belief in the genuine + character of the text. Compare Bancroft, iii. p. 45. The ancient and + original Popol Vuh, the native book in native characters, disappeared + during the Spanish conquest. + </p> + <p> + The Quiches, like their neighbours the Cakchiquels, were a highly + civilised race, possessing well-built towns, roads and the arts of life, + and were great agriculturists. Maize, the staple of food among these + advanced Americans, was almost as great a god as Soma among the + Indo-Aryans. The Quiches were acquainted with a kind of picture-writing, + and possessed records in which myth glided into history. The Popol Vuh, or + book of the people, gives itself out as a post-Columbian copy of these + traditions, and may doubtless contain European ideas. As we see in the + Commentarias Reales of the half-blood Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, the + conquered people were anxious to prove that their beliefs were by no means + so irrational and so "devilish" as to Spanish critics they appeared. + According to the Popol Vuh, there was in the beginning nothing but water + and the feathered serpent, one of their chief divine beings; but there + also existed somehow, "they that gave life". Their names mean "shooter of + blow-pipe at coyote," "at opossum," and so forth. They said "Earth," and + there WAS earth, and plants growing thereon. Animals followed, and the + Givers of life said "Speak our names," but the animals could only cluck + and croak. Then said the Givers, "Inasmuch as ye cannot praise us, ye + shall be killed and eaten". They then made men out of clay; these men were + weak and watery, and by water they were destroyed. Next they made men of + wood and women of the pith of trees. These puppets married and gave in + marriage, and peopled earth with wooden mannikins. This unsatisfactory + race was destroyed by a rain of resin and by the wild beasts. The + survivors developed into apes. Next came a period occupied by the wildest + feats of the magnified non-natural race and of animals. The record is like + the description of a supernatural pantomime—the nightmare of a god. + The Titans upset hills, are turned into stone, and behave like Heitsi + Eibib in the Namaqua myths. + </p> + <p> + Last of all, men were made of yellow and white maize, and these gave more + satisfaction, but their sight was contracted. These, however, survived, + and became the parents of the present stock of humanity. + </p> + <p> + Here we have the conceptions of creation and of evolution combined. Men + are MADE, but only the fittest survive; the rest are either destroyed or + permitted to develop into lower species. A similar mixture of the same + ideas will be found in one of the Brahmanas among the Aryans of India. It + is to be observed that the Quiche myths, as recorded in Popol Vuh, contain + not only traces of belief in a creative word and power, but many hymns of + a lofty and beautifully devotional character. + </p> + <p> + "Hail! O Creator, O Former! Thou that hearest and understandest us, + abandon us not, forsake us not! O God, thou that art in heaven and on the + earth, O Heart of Heaven, O Heart of Earth, give us descendants and + posterity as long as the light endures." + </p> + <p> + This is an example of the prayers of the men made out of maize, made + especially that they might "call on the name" of the god or gods. Whether + we are to attribute this and similar passages to Christian influence (for + Popol Vuh, as we have it, is but an attempt to collect the fragments of + the lost book that remained in men's minds after the conquest), or whether + the purer portions of the myth be due to untaught native reflection and + piety, it is not possible to determine. It is improbable that the ideas of + a hostile race would be introduced into religious hymns by their victims. + Here, as elsewhere in the sacred legends of civilised peoples, various + strata of mythical and religious thought coexist. + </p> + <p> + No American people reached such a pitch of civilisation as the Aztecs of + Anahuac, whose capital was the city of Mexico. It is needless here to + repeat the story of their grandeur and their fall. Obscure as their + history, previous to the Spanish invasion, may be, it is certain that they + possessed a highly organised society, fortified towns, established + colleges or priesthoods, magnificent temples, an elaborate calendar, great + wealth in the precious metals, the art of picture-writing in considerable + perfection, and a despotic central government. The higher classes in a + society like this could not but develop speculative systems, and it is + alleged that shortly before the reign of Montezuma attempts had been made + to introduce a pure monotheistic religion. But the ritual of the Aztecs + remained an example of the utmost barbarity. Never was a more cruel faith, + not even in Carthage. Nowhere did temples reek with such pools of human + blood; nowhere else, not in Dahomey and Ashanti, were human sacrifice, + cannibalism and torture so essential to the cult that secured the favour + of the gods. In these dark fanes—reeking with gore, peopled by + monstrous shapes of idols bird-headed or beast-headed, and adorned with + the hideous carvings in which we still see the priest, under the mask of + some less ravenous forest beast, tormenting the victim—in these + abominable temples the Castilian conquerors might well believe that they + saw the dwellings of devils. + </p> + <p> + Yet Mexican religion had its moral and beautiful aspect, and the gods, or + certain of the gods, required from their worshippers not only bloody + hands, but clean hearts. + </p> + <p> + To the gods we return later. The myths of the origin of things may be + studied without a knowledge of the whole Aztec Pantheon. Our authorities, + though numerous, lack complete originality and are occasionally confused. + We have first the Aztec monuments and hieroglyphic scrolls, for the most + part undeciphered. These merely attest the hideous and cruel character of + the deities. Next we have the reports of early missionaries, like Sahagun + and Mendieta, of conquerors, like Bernal Diaz, and of noble half-breeds, + such as Ixtlilxochitl.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Bancroft's Native Races of Pacific Coast of North America, vol. iii., + contains an account of the sources, and, with Sahagun and Acosta, is + mainly followed here. See also J. G. Muller, Ur. Amerik. Rel., p. 507. See + chapter on the "Divine Myths of Mexico". + </p> + <p> + There are two elements in Mexican, as in Quiche, and Indo-Aryan, and + Maori, and even Andaman cosmogonic myth. We find the purer religion and + the really philosophic speculation concurrent with such crude and childish + stories as usually satisfy the intellectual demands of Ahts, Cahrocs and + Bushmen; but of the purer and more speculative opinions we know little. + Many of the noble, learned and priestly classes of Aztecs perished at the + conquest. The survivors were more or less converted to Catholicism, and in + their writings probably put the best face possible on the native religion. + Like the Spanish clergy, their instructors, they were inclined to explain + away their national gods by a system of euhemerism, by taking it for + granted that the gods and culture-heroes had originally been ordinary men, + worshipped after their decease. This is almost invariably the view adopted + by Sahagun. Side by side with the confessions, as it were, of the clergy + and cultivated classes coexisted the popular beliefs, the myths of the + people, partaking of the nature of folk-lore, but not rejected by the + priesthood. + </p> + <p> + Both strata of belief are represented in the surviving cosmogonic myths of + the Aztecs. Probably we may reckon in the first or learned and speculative + class of tales the account of a series of constructions and + reconstructions of the world. This idea is not peculiar to the higher + mythologies, the notion of a deluge and recreation or renewal of things is + almost universal, and even among the untutored Australians there are + memories of a flood and of an age of ruinous winds. But the theory of + definite epochs, calculated in accordance with the Mexican calendar, of + epochs in which things were made and re-made, answers closely to the + Indo-Aryan conception of successive kalpas, and can only have been + developed after the method of reckoning time had been carried to some + perfection. "When heaven and earth were fashioned, they had already been + four times created and destroyed," say the fragments of what is called the + Chimalpopoca manuscript. Probably this theory of a series of kalpas is + only one of the devices by which the human mind has tried to cheat itself + into the belief that it can conceive a beginning of things. The earth + stands on an elephant, the elephant on a tortoise, and it is going too far + to ask what the tortoise stands on. In the same way the world's beginning + seems to become more intelligible or less puzzling when it is thrown back + into a series of beginnings and endings. This method also was in harmony + with those vague ideas of evolution and of the survival of the fittest + which we have detected in myth. The various tentative human races of the + Popol Vuh degenerated or were destroyed because they did not fulfil the + purposes for which they were made. In Brahmanic myth we shall see that + type after type was condemned and perished because it was inadequate, or + inadequately equipped—because it did not harmonise with its + environment.(1) For these series of experimental creations and inefficient + evolutions vast spaces of time were required, according to the Aztec and + Indo-Aryan philosophies. It is not impossible that actual floods and great + convulsions of nature may have been remembered in tradition, and may have + lent colour and form to these somewhat philosophic myths of origins. From + such sources probably comes the Mexican hypothesis of a water-age (ending + in a deluge), an earth-age (ending in an earthquake), a wind-age (ending + in hurricanes), and the present dispensation, to be destroyed by fire. + </p> + <p> + (1) As an example of a dim evolutionary idea, note the myths of the + various ages as reported by Mendieta, according to which there were five + earlier ages "or suns" of bad quality, so that the contemporary human + beings were unable to live on the fruits of the earth. + </p> + <p> + The less philosophic and more popular Aztec legend of the commencement of + the world is mainly remarkable for the importance given in it to objects + of stone. For some reason, stones play a much greater part in American + than in other mythologies. An emerald was worshipped in the temple of + Pachacamac, who was, according to Garcilasso, the supreme and spiritual + deity of the Incas. The creation legend of the Cakchiquels of Guatemala(1) + makes much of a mysterious, primeval and animated obsidian stone. In the + Iroquois myths(2) stones are the leading characters. Nor did Aztec myth + escape this influence. + </p> + <p> + (1) Brinton, Annals of the Cakchiquels. + </p> + <p> + (2) Erminie Smith, Bureau of Ethnol. Report, ii. + </p> + <p> + There was a god in heaven named Citlalatonac, and a goddess, Citlalicue. + When we speak of "heaven" we must probably think of some such world of + ordinary terrestrial nature above the sky as that from which Ataentsic + fell in the Huron story. The goddess gave birth to a flint-knife, and + flung the flint down to earth. This abnormal birth partly answers to that + of the youngest of the Adityas, the rejected abortion in the Veda, and to + the similar birth and rejection of Maui in New Zealand. From the fallen + flint-knife sprang our old friends the magnified non-natural beings with + human characteristics, "the gods," to the number of 1600. The gods sent up + the hawk (who in India and Australia generally comes to the front on these + occasions), and asked their mother, or rather grandmother, to help them to + make men, to be their servants. Citlalicue rather jeered at her + unconsidered offspring. She advised them to go to the lord of the homes of + the departed, Mictlanteuctli, and borrow a bone or some ashes of the dead + who are with him. We must never ask for consistency from myths. This + statement implies that men had already been in existence, though they were + not yet created. Perhaps they had perished in one of the four great + destructions. With difficulty and danger the gods stole a bone from Hades, + placed it in a bowl, and smeared it with their own blood, as in Chaldea + and elsewhere. Finally, a boy and a girl were born out of the bowl. From + this pair sprang men, and certain of the gods, jumping into a furnace, + became sun and moon. To the sun they then, in Aztec fashion, sacrificed + themselves, and there, one might think, was an end of them. But they + afterwards appeared in wondrous fashions to their worshippers, and + ordained the ritual of religion. According to another legend, man and + woman (as in African myths) struggled out of a hole in the ground.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Authorities: Ixtlil.; Kingsborough, ix. pp. 205, 206; Sahagun, Hist. + Gen., i. 3, vii. 2; J. G. Muller, p. 510, where Muller compares the + Delphic conception of ages of the world; Bancroft, iii. pp. 60, 65. + </p> + <p> + The myths of the peoples under the empire of the Incas in Peru are + extremely interesting, because almost all mythical formations are found + existing together, while we have historical evidence as to the order and + manner of their development. The Peru of the Incas covered the modern + state of the same name, and included Ecuador, with parts of Chili and + Bolivia. M. Reville calculates that the empire was about 2500 miles in + length, four times as long as France, and that its breadth was from 250 to + 500 miles. The country, contained three different climatic regions, and + was peopled by races of many different degrees of culture, all more or + less subject to the dominion of the Children of the Sun. The three regions + were the dry strip along the coast, the fertile and cultivated land about + the spurs of the Cordilleras, and the inland mountain regions, inhabited + by the wildest races. Near Cuzco, the Inca capital, was the Lake of + Titicaca, the Mediterranean, as it were, of Peru, for on the shores of + this inland sea was developed the chief civilisation of the new world. + </p> + <p> + As to the institutions, myths and religion of the empire, we have copious + if contradictory information. There are the narratives of the Spanish + conquerors, especially of Pizarro's chaplain, Valverde, an ignorant + bigoted fanatic. Then we have somewhat later travellers and missionaries, + of whom Cieza de Leon (his book was published thirty years after the + conquest, in 1553) is one of the most trustworthy. The "Royal + Commentaries" of Garcilasso de la Vega, son of an Inca lady and a Spanish + conqueror, have often already been quoted. The critical spirit and sound + sense of Garcilasso are in remarkable contrast to the stupid orthodoxy of + the Spaniards, but some allowance must be made for his fervent Peruvian + patriotism. He had heard the Inca traditions repeated in boyhood, and very + early in life collected all the information which his mother and maternal + uncle had to give him, or which could be extracted from the quipus (the + records of knotted cord), and from the commemorative pictures of his + ancestors. Garcilasso had access, moreover, to the "torn papers" of Blas + Valera, an early Spanish missionary of unusual sense and acuteness. + Christoval de Moluna is also an excellent authority, and much may be + learned from the volume of Rites and Laws of the Yncas.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) A more complete list of authorities, including the garrulous Acosta, + is published by M. Reville in his Hibbert Lectures, pp. 136, 137. + Garcilasso, Cieza de Leon, Christoval de Moluna, Acosta and the Rites and + Laws have all been translated by Mr. Clements Markham, and are published, + with the editor's learned and ingenious notes, in the collection of the + Hakluyt Society. Care must be taken to discriminate between what is + reported about the Indians of the various provinces, who were in very + different grades of culture, and what is told about the Incas themselves. + </p> + <p> + The political and religious condition of the Peruvian empire is very + clearly conceived and stated by Garcilasso. Without making due allowance + for that mysterious earlier civilisation, older than the Incas, whose + cyclopean buildings are the wonder of travellers, Garcilasso attributes + the introduction of civilisation to his own ancestors. Allowing for what + is confessedly mythical in his narrative, it must be admitted that he has + a firm grasp of what the actual history must have been. He recognises a + period of savagery before the Incas, a condition of the rudest barbarism, + which still existed on the fringes and mountain recesses of the empire. + The religion of that period was mere magic and totemism. From all manner + of natural objects, but chiefly from beasts and birds, the various savage + stocks of Peru claimed descent, and they revered and offered sacrifice to + their totemic ancestors.(1) Garcilasso adds, what is almost incredible, + that the Indians tamely permitted themselves to be eaten by their totems, + when these were carnivorous animals. They did this with the less + reluctance as they were cannibals, and accustomed to breed children for + the purposes of the cuisine from captive women taken in war.(2) Among the + huacas or idols, totems, fetishes and other adorable objects of the + Indians, worshipped before and retained after the introduction of the Inca + sun-totem and solar cult, Garcilasso names trees, hills, rocks, caves, + fountains, emeralds, pieces of jasper, tigers, lions, bears, foxes, + monkeys, condors, owls, lizards, toads, frogs, sheep, maize, the sea, "for + want of larger gods, crabs" and bats. The bat was also the totem of the + Zotzil, the chief family of the Cakchiquels of Guatemala, and the most + high god of the Cakchiquels was worshipped in the shape of a bat. We are + reminded of religion as it exists in Samoa. The explanation of Blas Valera + was that in each totem (pacarissa) the Indians adored the devil. + </p> + <p> + (1) Com. Real., vol. i., chap. ix., x. xi. pp. 47-53. + </p> + <p> + (2) Cieza de Leon, xii., xv., xix., xxi., xxiii., xxvi., xxviii., xxxii. + Cieza is speaking of people in the valley of Cauca, in New Granada. + </p> + <p> + Athwart this early religion of totems and fetishes came, in Garcilasso's + narrative, the purer religion of the Incas, with what he regards as a + philosophic development of a belief in a Supreme Being. According to him, + the Inca sun-worship was really a totemism of a loftier character. The + Incas "knew how to choose gods better than the Indians". Garcilasso's + theory is that the earlier totems were selected chiefly as distinguishing + marks by the various stocks, though, of course, this does not explain why + the animals or other objects of each family were worshipped or were + regarded as ancestors, and the blood-connections of the men who adored + them. The Incas, disdaining crabs, lizards, bats and even serpents and + lions, "chose" the sun. Then, just like the other totemic tribes, they + feigned to be of the blood and lineage of the sun. + </p> + <p> + This fable is, in brief, the Inca myth of the origin of civilisation and + of man, or at least of their breed of men. As M. Reville well remarks, it + is obvious that the Inca claim is an adaptation of the local myth of Lake + Titicaca, the inland sea of Peru. According to that myth, the Children of + the Sun, the ancestors of the Incas, came out of the earth (as in Greek + and African legends) at Lake Titicaca, or reached its shores after + wandering from the hole or cave whence they first emerged. The myth, as + adapted by the Incas, takes for granted the previous existence of mankind, + and, in some of its forms, the Inca period is preceded by the deluge. + </p> + <p> + Of the Peruvian myth concerning the origin of things, the following + account is given by a Spanish priest, Christoval de Moluna, in a report to + the Bishop of Cuzco in 1570.(1) The story was collected from the lips of + ancient Peruvians and old native priests, who again drew their information + in part from the painted records reserved in the temple of the sun near + Cuzco. The legend begins with a deluge myth; a cataclysm ended a period of + human existence. All mankind perished except a man and woman, who floated + in a box to a distance of several hundred miles from Cuzco. There the + creator commanded them to settle, and there, like Pund-jel in Australia, + he made clay images of men of all races, attired in their national dress, + and then animated them. They were all fashioned and painted as correct + models, and were provided with their national songs and with seed-corn. + They then were put into the earth, and emerged all over the world at the + proper places, some (as in Africa and Greece) coming out of fountains, + some out of trees, some out of caves. For this reason they made huacas + (worshipful objects or fetishes) of the trees, caves and fountains. Some + of the earliest men were changed into stones, others into falcons, condors + and other creatures which we know were totems in Peru. Probably this myth + of metamorphosis was invented to account for the reverence paid to totems + or pacarissas as the Peruvians called them. In Tiahuanaco, where the + creation, or rather manufacture of men took place, the creator turned many + sinners into stones. The sun was made in the shape of a man, and, as he + soared into heaven, he called out in a friendly fashion to Manco Ccapac, + the Ideal first Inca, "Look upon me as thy father, and worship me as thy + father". In these fables the creator is called Pachyachachi, "Teacher of + the world". According to Christoval, the creator and his sons were + "eternal and unchangeable". Among the Canaris men descend from the + survivor of the deluge, and a beautiful bird with the face of a woman, a + siren in fact, but known better to ornithologists as a macaw. "The chief + cause," says the good Christoval, "of these fables was ignorance of God." + </p> + <p> + (1) Rites and Laws of the Yncas, p. 4, Hakluyt Society, 1873. + </p> + <p> + The story, as told by Cieza de Leon, runs thus:(1) A white man of great + stature (in fact, "a magnified non-natural man") came into the world, and + gave life to beasts and human beings. His name was Ticiviracocha, and he + was called the Father of the Sun.(2) There are likenesses of him in the + temple, and he was regarded as a moral teacher. It was owing apparently to + this benevolent being that four mysterious brothers and sisters emerged + from a cave—Children of the Sun, fathers of the Incas, teachers of + savage men. Their own conduct, however, was not exemplary, and they shut + up in a hole in the earth the brother of whom they were jealous. This + incident is even more common in the marchen or household tales than in the + regular tribal or national myths of the world.(3) The buried brother + emerged again with wings, and "without doubt he must have been some + devil," says honest Cieza de Leon. This brother was Manco Ccapac, the + heroic ancestor of the Incas, and he turned his jealous brethren into + stones. The whole tale is in the spirit illustrated by the wilder romances + of the Popol Vuh. + </p> + <p> + (1) Second Part of the Chronicles of Peru, p 5. + </p> + <p> + (2) See Making of Religion, pp. 265-270. Name and God are much disputed. + </p> + <p> + (3) The story of Joseph and the marchen of Jean de l'Ours are well-known + examples. + </p> + <p> + Garcilasso gives three forms of this myth. According to "the old Inca," + his maternal uncle, it was the sun which sent down two of his children, + giving them a golden staff, which would sink into the ground at the place + where they were to rest from wandering. It sank at Lake Titicaca. About + the current myths Garcilasso says generally that they were "more like + dreams" than straightforward stories; but, as he adds, the Greeks and + Romans also "invented fables worthy to be laughed at, and in greater + number than the Indians. The stories of one age of heathenism may be + compared with those of the other, and in many points they will be found to + agree." This critical position of Garcilasso's will be proved correct when + we reach the myths of Greeks and Indo-Aryans. The myth as narrated + north-east of Cuzco speaks of the four brothers and four sisters who came + out of caves, and the caves in Inca times were panelled with gold and + silver. + </p> + <p> + Athwart all these lower myths, survivals from the savage stage, comes what + Garcilasso regards as the philosophical Inca belief in Pachacamac. This + deity, to Garcilasso's mind, was purely spiritual: he had no image and + dwelt in no temple; in fact, he is that very God whom the Spanish + missionaries proclaimed. This view, though the fact has been doubted, was + very probably held by the Amautas, or philosophical class in Peru.(1) + Cieza de Leon says "the name of this devil, Pachacamac, means creator of + the world". Garcilasso urges that Pachacamac was the animus mundi; that he + did not "make the world," as Pund-jel and other savage demiurges made it, + but that he was to the universe what the soul is to the body. + </p> + <p> + (1) Com. Real., vol. i. p. 106. + </p> + <p> + Here we find ourselves, if among myths at all, among the myths of + metaphysics—rational myths; that is, myths corresponding to our + present stage of thought, and therefore intelligible to us. Pachacamac + "made the sun, and lightning, and thunder, and of these the sun was + worshipped by the Incas". Garcilasso denies that the moon was worshipped. + The reflections of the sceptical or monotheistic Inca, who declared that + the sun, far from being a free agent, "seems like a thing held to its + task," are reported by Garcilasso, and appear to prove that solar worship + was giving way, in the minds of educated Peruvians, a hundred years before + the arrival of Pizarro and Valverde with his missal.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Garcilasso, viii. 8, quoting Blas Valera. + </p> + <p> + From this summary it appears that the higher Peruvian religion had wrested + to its service, and to the dynastic purposes of the Incas, a native myth + of the familiar class, in which men come ready made out of holes in the + ground. But in Peru we do not find nearly such abundance of other savage + origin myths as will be proved to exist in the legends of Greeks and + Indo-Aryans. The reason probably is that Peru left no native literature; + the missionaries disdained stories of "devils," and Garcilasso's common + sense and patriotism were alike revolted by the incidents of stories "more + like dreams" than truthful records. He therefore was silent about them. In + Greece and India, on the other hand, the native religious literature + preserved myths of the making of man out of clay, of his birth from trees + and stones, of the fashioning of things out of the fragments of mutilated + gods and Titans, of the cosmic egg, of the rending and wounding of a + personal heaven and a personal earth, of the fishing up from the waters of + a tiny earth which grew greater, of the development of men out of beasts, + with a dozen other such notions as are familiar to contemporary Bushmen, + Australians, Digger Indians, and Cahrocs. But in Greece and India these + ideas coexist with myths and religious beliefs as purely spiritual and + metaphysical as the belief in the Pachacamac of Garcilasso and the Amautas + of Peru. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. INDO-ARYAN MYTHS—SOURCES OF EVIDENCE. + </h2> + <p> + Authorities—Vedas—Brahmanas—Social condition of Vedic + India—Arts—Ranks—War—Vedic fetishism—Ancestor + worship—Date of Rig-Veda Hymns doubtful—Obscurity of the Hymns—Difficulty + of interpreting the real character of Veda—Not primitive but + sacerdotal—The moral purity not innocence but refinement. + </p> + <p> + Before examining the myths of the Aryans of India, it is necessary to have + a clear notion of the nature of the evidence from which we derive our + knowledge of the subject. That evidence is found in a large and + incongruous mass of literary documents, the heritage of the Indian people. + In this mass are extremely ancient texts (the Rig-Veda, and the + Atharva-Veda), expository comments of a date so much later that the + original meaning of the older documents was sometimes lost (the + Brahmanas), and poems and legendary collections of a period later still, a + period when the whole character of religious thought had sensibly altered. + In this literature there is indeed a certain continuity; the names of + several gods of the earliest time are preserved in the legends of the + latest. But the influences of many centuries of change, of contending + philosophies, of periods of national growth and advance, and of national + decadence and decay, have been at work on the mythology of India. Here we + have myths that were perhaps originally popular tales, and are probably + old; here again, we have later legends that certainly were conceived in + the narrow minds of a pedantic and ceremonious priesthood. It is not + possible, of course, to analyse in this place all the myths of all the + periods; we must be content to point out some which seem to be typical + examples of the working of the human intellect in its earlier or its later + childhood, in its distant hours of barbaric beginnings, or in the senility + of its sacerdotage. + </p> + <p> + The documents which contain Indian mythology may be divided, broadly + speaking, into four classes. First, and most ancient in date of + composition, are the collections of hymns known as the Vedas. Next, and + (as far as date of collection goes) far less ancient, are the expository + texts called the Brahmanas. Later still, come other manuals of devotion + and of sacred learning, called Sutras and Upanishads; and last are the + epic poems (Itihasas), and the books of legends called Puranas. We are + chiefly concerned here with the Vedas and Brahmanas. A gulf of time, a + period of social and literary change, separates the Brahmanas from the + Vedas. But the epics and Puranas differ perhaps even still more from the + Brahmanas, on account of vast religious changes which brought new gods + into the Indian Olympus, or elevated to the highest place old gods + formerly of low degree. From the composition of the first Vedic hymn to + the compilation of the latest Purana, religious and mythopoeic fancy was + never at rest. + </p> + <p> + Various motives induced various poets to assign, on various occasions the + highest powers to this or the other god. The most antique legends were + probably omitted or softened by some early Vedic bard (Rishi) of noble + genius, or again impure myths were brought from the obscurity of oral + circulation and foisted into literature by some poet less divinely + inspired. Old deities were half-forgotten, and forgotten deities were + resuscitated. Sages shook off superstitious bonds, priests forged new + fetters on ancient patterns for themselves and their flocks. Philosophy + explained away the more degrading myths; myths as degrading were suggested + to dark and servile hearts by unscientific etymologies. Over the whole + mass of ancient mythology the new mythology of a debased Brahmanic + ritualism grew like some luxurious and baneful parasite. It is enough for + our purpose if we can show that even in the purest and most antique + mythology of India the element of traditional savagery survived and played + its part, and that the irrational legends of the Vedas and Brahmanas can + often be explained as relics of savage philosophy or faith, or as + novelties planned on the ancient savage model, whether borrowed or native + to the race. + </p> + <p> + The oldest documents of Indian mythology are the Vedas, usually reckoned + as four in number. The oldest, again, of the four, is the Sanhita + ("collection") of the Rig-Veda. It is a purely lyrical assortment of the + songs "which the Hindus brought with them from their ancient homes on the + banks of the Indus". In the manuscripts, the hymns are classified + according to the families of poets to whom they are ascribed. Though + composed on the banks of the Indus by sacred bards, the hymns were + compiled and arranged in India proper. At what date the oldest hymns of + which this collection is made up were first chanted it is impossible to + say with even approximate certainty. Opinions differ, or have differed, + between 2400 B.C. and 1400 B.C. as the period when the earliest sacred + lyrics of the Veda may first have been listened by gods and men. In + addition to the Rig-Veda we have the Sanhita of the Sama-Veda, "an + anthology taken from the Rik-Samhita, comprising those of its verses which + were intended to be chanted at the ceremonies of the soma sacrifice".(1) + It is conjectured that the hymns of the Sama-Veda were borrowed from the + Rig-Veda before the latter had been edited and stereotyped into its + present form. Next comes the Yajur-Veda, "which contains the formulas for + the entire sacrificial ceremonial, and indeed forms its proper + foundations," the other Vedas being devoted to the soma sacrifice.(2) The + Yajur-Veda has two divisions, known as the Black and the White Yajur, + which have common matter, but differ in arrangement. The Black Yajur-Veda + is also called the Taittirya, and it is described as "a motley undigested + jumble of different pieces".(3) Last comes Atharva-Veda, not always + regarded as a Veda properly speaking. It derives its name from an old + semi-mythical priestly family, the Atharvans, and is full of magical + formulae, imprecations, folk-lore and spells. There are good reasons for + thinking this late as a collection, however early may be the magical ideas + expressed in its contents.(4) + </p> + <p> + (1) Weber, History of Indian Literature, Eng. transl., p. 63. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., p. 86. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid, p. 87. The name Taittirya is derived from a partridge, or from a + Rishi named Partridge in Sanskrit. There is a story that the pupils of a + sage were turned into partridges, to pick up sacred texts. + </p> + <p> + (4) Barth (Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 6) thinks that the existence of + such a collection as the Atharva-Veda is implied, perhaps, in a text of + the Rig-Veda, x. 90, 9. + </p> + <p> + Between the Vedas, or, at all events, between the oldest of the Vedas, and + the compilation of the Brahmanas, these "canonised explanations of a + canonised text,"(1) it is probable that some centuries and many social + changes intervened.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Whitney, Oriental and Linguistic studies, First Series, p. 4. + </p> + <p> + (2) Max Muller, Biographical Essays, p. 20. "The prose portions presuppose + the hymns, and, to judge from the utter inability of the authors of the + Brahmanas to understand the antiquated language of the hymns, these + Brahmanas must be ascribed to a much later period than that which gave + birth to the hymns." + </p> + <p> + If we would criticise the documents for Indian mythology in a scientific + manner, it is now necessary that we should try to discover, as far as + possible, the social and religious condition of the people among whom the + Vedas took shape. Were they in any sense "primitive," or were they + civilised? Was their religion in its obscure beginnings or was it already + a special and peculiar development, the fruit of many ages of thought? Now + it is an unfortunate thing that scholars have constantly, and as it were + involuntarily, drifted into the error of regarding the Vedas as if they + were "primitive," as if they exhibited to us the "germs" and "genesis" of + religion and mythology, as if they contained the simple though strange + utterances of PRIMITIVE thought.(1) Thus Mr. Whitney declares, in his + Oriental and Linguistic Studies, "that the Vedas exhibit to us the very + earliest germs of the Hindu culture". Mr. Max Muller avers that "no + country can be compared to India as offering opportunities for a real + study of the genesis and growth of religion".(2) Yet the same scholar + observes that "even the earliest specimens of Vedic poetry belong to the + modern history of the race, and that the early period of the historical + growth of religion had passed away before the Rishis (bards) could have + worshipped their Devas or bright beings with sacred hymns and + invocations". Though this is manifestly true, the sacred hymns and + invocations of the Rishis are constantly used as testimony bearing on the + beginning of the historical growth of religion. Nay, more; these remains + of "the modern history of the race" are supposed to exhibit mythology in + the process of making, as if the race had possessed no mythology before it + reached a comparatively modern period, the Vedic age. In the same spirit, + Dr. Muir, the learned editor of Sanskrit Texts, speaks in one place as if + the Vedic hymns "illustrated the natural workings of the human mind in the + period of its infancy".(3) A brief examination of the social and political + and religious condition of man, as described by the poets of the Vedas, + will prove that his infancy had long been left behind him when the first + Vedic hymns were chanted. + </p> + <p> + (1) Ibid., Rig-Veda Sanhita, p. vii. + </p> + <p> + (2) Hibbert Lectures, p. 131. + </p> + <p> + (3) Nothing can prove more absolutely and more briefly the late character + of Vedic faith than the fact that the faith had already to be defended + against the attacks of sceptics. The impious denied the existence of Indra + because he was invisible. Rig-Veda, ii. 12, 5; viii. 89, 3; v. 30, 1-2; + vi. 27, 3. Bergaigne, ii. 167. "Es gibt keinen Indra, so hat der eine und + der ander gesagt" (Ludwig's version). + </p> + <p> + As Barth observes, the very ideas which permeate the Veda, the idea of the + mystic efficacy of sacrifice, of brahma, prove that the poems are + profoundly sacerdotal; and this should have given pause to the writers who + have persisted in representing the hymns as the work of primitive + shepherds praising their gods as they feed their flocks.(1) In the Vedic + age the ranks of society are already at least as clearly defined as in + Homeric Greece. "We men," says a poet of the Rig-Veda,(2) "have all our + different imaginations and designs. The carpenter seeks something that is + broken, the doctor a patient, the priest some one who will offer + libations.... The artisan continually seeks after a man with plenty of + gold.... I am a poet, my father is a doctor, and my mother is a grinder of + corn." Chariots and the art of the chariot-builder are as frequently + spoken of as in the Iliad. Spears, swords, axes and coats of mail were in + common use. The art of boat-building or of ship-building was well known. + Kine and horses, sheep and dogs, had long been domesticated. The bow was a + favourite weapon, and warriors fought in chariots, like the Homeric Greeks + and the Egyptians. Weaving was commonly practised. The people probably + lived, as a rule, in village settlements, but cities or fortified places + were by no means unknown.(3) As for political society, "kings are + frequently mentioned in the hymns," and "it was regarded as eminently + beneficial for a king to entertain a family priest," on whom he was + expected to confer thousands of kine, lovely slaves and lumps of gold. In + the family polygamy existed, probably as the exception. There is reason to + suppose that the brother-in-law was permitted, if not expected, to "raise + up seed" to his dead brother, as among the Hebrews.(4) As to literature, + the very structure of the hymns proves that it was elaborate and + consciously artistic. M. Barth writes: "It would be a great mistake to + speak of the primitive naivete of the Vedic poetry and religion".(5) Both + the poetry and the religion, on the other hand, display in the highest + degree the mark of the sacerdotal spirit. The myths, though originally + derived from nature-worship, in an infinite majority of cases only reflect + natural phenomena through a veil of ritualistic corruptions.(6) The rigid + division of castes is seldom recognised in the Rig-Veda. We seem to see + caste in the making.(7) The Rishis and priests of the princely families + were on their way to becoming the all-powerful Brahmans. The kings and + princes were on their way to becoming the caste of Kshatriyas or warriors. + The mass of the people was soon to sink into the caste of Vaisyas and + broken men. Non-Aryan aborigines and others were possibly developing into + the caste of Sudras. Thus the spirit of division and of ceremonialism had + still some of its conquests to achieve. But the extraordinary attention + given and the immense importance assigned to the details of sacrifice, and + the supernatural efficacy constantly attributed to a sort of magical + asceticism (tapas, austere fervour), prove that the worst and most foolish + elements of later Indian society and thought were in the Vedic age already + in powerful existence. + </p> + <p> + (1) Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 27. + </p> + <p> + (2) ix. 112. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ludwig, Rig-Veda, iii. 203. The burgs were fortified with wooden + palisades, capable of being destroyed by fire. "Cities" may be too + magnificent a word for what perhaps were more like pahs. But compare + Kaegi, The Rig-Veda, note 42, Engl. transl. Kaegi's book (translated by + Dr. Arrowsmith, Boston, U.S., 1886) is probably the best short manual of + the subject. + </p> + <p> + (4) Deut. xxv. 5; Matt. xxii. 24. + </p> + <p> + (5) Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, i. 245. + </p> + <p> + (6) Ludwig, iii. 262. + </p> + <p> + (7) On this subject see Muir, i. 192, with the remarks of Haug. "From all + we know, the real origin of caste seems to go back to a time anterior to + the composition of the Vedic hymns, though its development into a regular + system with insurmountable barriers can be referred only to the later + period of the Vedic times." Roth approaches the subject from the word + brahm, that is, prayer with a mystical efficacy, as his starting-point. + From brahm, prayer, came brahma, he who pronounces the prayers and + performs the rite. This celebrant developed into a priest, whom to + entertain brought blessings on kings. This domestic chaplaincy (conferring + peculiar and even supernatural benefits) became hereditary in families, + and these, united by common interests, exalted themselves into the Brahman + caste. But in the Vedic age gifts of prayer and poetry alone marked out + the purohitas, or men put forward to mediate between gods and mortals. + Compare Ludwig, iii. 221. + </p> + <p> + Thus it is self-evident that the society in which the Vedic poets lived + was so far from being PRIMITIVE that it was even superior to the higher + barbarisms (such as that of the Scythians of Herodotus and Germans of + Tacitus), and might be regarded as safely arrived at the threshold of + civilisation. Society possessed kings, though they may have been kings of + small communities, like those who warred with Joshua or fought under the + walls of Thebes or Troy. Poets were better paid than they seem to have + been at the courts of Homer or are at the present time. For the tribal + festivals special priests were appointed, "who distinguished themselves by + their comprehensive knowledge of the requisite rites and by their + learning, and amongst whom a sort of rivalry is gradually developed, + according as one tribe or another is supposed to have more or less + prospered by its sacrifices".(1) In the family marriage is sacred, and + traces of polyandry and of the levirate, surviving as late as the epic + poems, were regarded as things that need to be explained away. Perhaps the + most barbaric feature in Vedic society, the most singular relic of a + distant past, is the survival, even in a modified and symbolic form, of + human sacrifice.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Weber, p. 37. + </p> + <p> + (2) Wilson, Rig-Veda, i. p. 59-63; Muir, i. ii.; Wilson, Rig-Veda i. p. + xxiv., ii. 8 (ii. 90); Aitareya Brahmana, Haug's version, vol. ii. pp. + 462, 469. + </p> + <p> + As to the religious condition of the Vedic Aryans, we must steadily + remember that in the Vedas we have the views of the Rishis only, that is, + of sacred poets on their way to becoming a sacred caste. Necessarily they + no more represent the POPULAR creeds than the psalmists and prophets, with + their lofty monotheistic morality, represent the popular creeds of Israel. + The faith of the Rishis, as will be shown later, like that of the + psalmists, has a noble moral aspect. Yet certain elements of this higher + creed are already found in the faiths of the lowest savages. The Rishis + probably did not actually INVENT them. Consciousness of sin, of + imperfection in the sight of divine beings, has been developed (as it has + even in Australia) and is often confessed. But on the whole the religion + of the Rishis is practical—it might almost be said, is magical. They + desire temporal blessings, rain, sunshine, long life, power, wealth in + flocks and herds. The whole purpose of the sacrifices which occupy so much + of their time and thought is to obtain these good things. The sacrifice + and the sacrificer come between gods and men. On the man's side is faith, + munificence, a compelling force of prayer and of intentness of will. The + sacrifice invigorates the gods to do the will of the sacrificer; it is + supposed to be mystically celebrated in heaven as well as on earth—the + gods are always sacrificing. Often (as when rain is wanted) the sacrifice + imitates the end which it is desirable to gain.(1) In all these matters a + minute ritual is already observed. The mystic word brahma, in the sense of + hymn or prayer of a compelling and magical efficacy, has already come into + use. The brahma answers almost to the Maori karakia or incantation and + charm. "This brahma of Visvamitra protects the tribe of Bharata." "Atri + with the fourth prayer discovered the sun concealed by unholy + darkness."(2) The complicated ritual, in which prayer and sacrifice were + supposed to exert a constraining influence on the supernatural powers, + already existed, Haug thinks, in the time of the chief Rishis or hymnists + of the Rig-Veda.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Compare "The Prayers of Savages" in J. A. Farrer's Primitive Manners, + and Ludwig, iii. 262-296, and see Bergaigne, La Religion Vedique, vol. i. + p. 121. + </p> + <p> + (2) See texts in Muir, i. 242. + </p> + <p> + (3) Preface to translation of Aitareya Brahmana, p. 36. + </p> + <p> + In many respects the nature of the idea of the divine, as entertained by + the Rishis of the Rig-Veda, is still matter for discussion. In the chapter + on Vedic gods such particulars as can be ascertained will be given. + Roughly speaking, the religion is mainly, though not wholly, a cult of + departmental gods, originally, in certain cases, forces of Nature, but + endowed with moral earnestness. As to fetishism in the Vedas the opinions + of the learned are divided. M. Bergaigne(1) looks on the whole ritual as, + practically, an organised fetishism, employed to influence gods of a far + higher and purer character. Mr. Max Muller remarks, "that stones, bones, + shells, herbs and all the other so-called fetishes, are simply absent in + the old hymns, though they appear in more modern hymns, particularly those + of the Atharva-Veda. When artificial objects are mentioned and celebrated + in the Rig-Veda, they are only such as might be praised even by Wordsworth + or Tennyson—chariots, bows, quivers, axes, drums, sacrificial + vessels and similar objects. They never assume any individual character; + they are simply mentioned as useful or precious, it may be as sacred."(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) La Religion Vedique, vol. i. p. 123. "Le culte est assimilable dans + une certaine mesure aux incantations, aux pratiques magiques." + </p> + <p> + (2) Hibbert Lectures, p. 198. + </p> + <p> + When the existence of fetish "herbs" is denied by Mr. Max Muller, he does + not, of course, forget Soma, that divine juice. It is also to be noted + that in modern India, as Mr. Max Muller himself observes, Sir Alfred Lyall + finds that "the husbandman prays to his plough and the fisher to his net," + these objects being, at present, fetishes. In opposition to Mr. Max + Muller, Barth avers that the same kind of fetishism which flourishes + to-day flourishes in the Rig-Veda. "Mountains, rivers, springs, trees, + herbs are invoked as so many powers. The beasts which live with man—the + horse, the cow, the dog, the bird and the animals which imperil his + existence—receive a cult of praise and prayer. Among the instruments + of ritual, some objects are more than things consecrated—they are + divinities; and the war-chariot, the weapons of defence and offence, the + plough, are the objects not only of benedictions but of prayers."(1) These + absolute contradictions on matters of fact add, of course, to the + difficulty of understanding the early Indo-Aryan religion. One authority + says that the Vedic people were fetish-worshippers; another authority + denies it. + </p> + <p> + (1) Barth, Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 7, with the Vedic texts. + </p> + <p> + Were the Rishis ancestor-worshippers? Barth has no doubt whatever that + they were. In the pitris or fathers he recognises ancestral spirits, now + "companions of the gods, and gods themselves. At their head appear the + earliest celebrants of the sacrifice, Atharvan, the Angiras, the Kavis + (the pitris, par excellence) equals of the greatest gods, spirits who, BY + DINT OF SACRIFICE, drew forth the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun + and lighted the stars,"—cosmical feats which, as we have seen, are + sometimes attributed by the lower races to their idealised mythic + ancestors, the "old, old ones" of Australians and Ovahereroes. + </p> + <p> + A few examples of invocations of the ancestral spirits may not be out of + place.(1) "May the Fathers protect me in my invocation of the gods." Here + is a curious case, especially when we remember how the wolf, in the North + American myth, scattered the stars like spangles over the sky: "The + fathers have adorned the sky with stars".(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Rig-Veda, vi. 52,4. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., x. 68, xi. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Whitney (Oriental and Linguistic Studies, First Series, p. 59) gives + examples of the ceremony of feeding the Aryan ghosts. "The fathers are + supposed to assemble, upon due invocation, about the altar of him who + would pay them homage, to seat themselves upon the straw or matting spread + for each of the guests invited, and to partake of the offerings set before + them." The food seems chiefly to consist of rice, sesame and honey. + </p> + <p> + Important as is the element of ancestor-worship in the evolution of + religion, Mr. Max Muller, in his Hibbert Lectures, merely remarks that + thoughts and feelings about the dead "supplied some of the earliest and + most important elements of religion"; but how these earliest elements + affect his system does not appear. On a general view, then, the religion + of the Vedic poets contained a vast number of elements in solution—elements + such as meet us in every quarter of the globe. The belief in ancestral + ghosts, the adoration of fetishes, the devotion to a moral ideal, + contemplated in the persons of various deities, some of whom at least have + been, and partly remain, personal natural forces, are all mingled, and all + are drifting towards a kind of pantheism, in which, while everything is + divine, and gods are reckoned by millions, the worshipper has glimpses of + one single divine essence. The ritual, as we have seen, is more or less + magical in character. The general elements of the beliefs are found, in + various proportions, everywhere; the pantheistic mysticism is almost + peculiar to India. It is, perhaps, needless to repeat that a faith so very + composite, and already so strongly differentiated, cannot possibly be + "primitive," and that the beliefs and practices of a race so highly + organised in society and so well equipped in material civilisation as the + Vedic Aryans cannot possibly be "near the beginning". Far from expecting + to find in the Veda the primitive myths of the Aryans, we must remember + that myth had already, when these hymns were sung, become obnoxious to the + religious sentiment. "Thus," writes Barth, "the authors of the hymns have + expurgated, or at least left in the shade, a vast number of legends older + than their time; such, for example, as the identity of soma with the moon, + as the account of the divine families, of the parricide of Indra, and a + long list might be made of the reticences of the Veda.... It would be + difficult to extract from the hymns a chapter on the loves of the gods. + The goddesses are veiled, the adventures of the gods are scarcely touched + on in passing.... We must allow for the moral delicacy of the singers, and + for their dislike of speaking too precisely about the gods. Sometimes it + seems as if their chief object was to avoid plain speaking.... But often + there is nothing save jargon and indolence of mind in this voluntary + obscurity, for already in the Veda the Indian intellect is deeply smitten + with its inveterate malady of affecting mystery the more, the more it has + nothing to conceal; the mania for scattering symbols which symbolise no + reality, and for sporting with riddles which it is not worth while to + divine."(1) Barth, however, also recognises amidst these confusions, "the + inquietude of a heart deeply stirred, which seeks truth and redemption in + prayer". Such is the natural judgment of the clear French intellect on the + wilfully obscure, tormented and evasive intellect of India. + </p> + <p> + (1) Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 21. + </p> + <p> + It would be interesting were it possible to illuminate the criticism of + Vedic religion by ascertaining which hymns in the Rig-Veda are the most + ancient, and which are later. Could we do this, we might draw inferences + as to the comparative antiquity of the religious ideas in the poems. But + no such discrimination of relative antiquity seems to be within the reach + of critics. M. Bergaigne thinks it impossible at present to determine the + relative age of the hymns by any philological test. The ideas expressed + are not more easily arrayed in order of date. We might think that the + poems which contain most ceremonial allusions were the latest. But Mr. Max + Muller says that "even the earliest hymns have sentiments worthy of the + most advanced ceremonialists".(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 556. + </p> + <p> + The first and oldest source of our knowledge of Indo-Aryan myths is the + Rig-Veda, whose nature and character have been described. The second + source is the Atharva-Veda with the Brahmanas. The peculiarity of the + Atharva is its collection of magical incantations spells and fragments of + folklore. These are often, doubtless, of the highest antiquity. Sorcery + and the arts of medicine-men are earlier in the course of evolution than + priesthood. We meet them everywhere among races who have not developed the + institution of an order of priests serving national gods. As a collection, + the Atharva-Veda is later than the Rig-Veda, but we need not therefore + conclude that the IDEAS of the Atharva are "a later development of the + more primitive ideas of the Rig-Veda". Magic is quod semper, quod ubique, + quod ab omnibus; the ideas of the Atharva-Veda are everywhere; the + peculiar notions of the Rig-Veda are the special property of an advanced + and highly differentiated people. Even in the present collected shape, M. + Barth thinks that many hymns of the Atharva are not much later than those + of the Rig-Veda. Mr. Whitney, admitting the lateness of the Atharva as a + collection, says, "This would not necessarily imply that the main body of + the Atharva hymns were not already in existence when the compilation of + the Rig-Veda took place".(1) The Atharva refers to some poets of the Rig + (as certain hymnists in the Rig also do) as earlier men. If in the Rig (as + Weber says) "there breathes a lively natural feeling, a warm love of + nature, while in the Atharva, on the contrary, there predominates an + anxious apprehension of evil spirits and their magical powers," it by no + means follows that this apprehension is of later origin than the lively + feeling for Nature. Rather the reverse. There appears to be no doubt(2) + that the style and language of the Atharva are later than those of the + Rig. Roth, who recognises the change, in language and style, yet considers + the Atharva "part of the old literature".(3) He concludes that the Atharva + contains many pieces which, "both by their style and ideas, are shown to + be contemporary with the older hymns of the Rig-Veda". In religion, + according to Muir,(4) the Atharva shows progress in the direction of + monotheism in its celebration of Brahman, but it also introduces + serpent-worship. + </p> + <p> + (1) Journal of the American Oriental Society. iv. 253. + </p> + <p> + (2) Muir, ii. 446. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., ii. 448. + </p> + <p> + (4) Ibid., ii. 451. + </p> + <p> + As to the Atharva, then, we are free to suppose, if we like, that the dark + magic, the evil spirits, the incantations, are old parts of Indian, as of + all other popular beliefs, though they come later into literature than the + poetry about Ushas and the morality of Varuna. The same remarks apply to + our third source of information, the Brahmanas. These are indubitably + comments on the sacred texts very much more modern in form than the texts + themselves. But it does not follow, and this is most important for our + purpose, that the myths in the Brahmanas are all later than the Vedic + myths or corruptions of the Veda. Muir remarks,(1) "The Rig-Veda, though + the oldest collection, does not necessarily contain everything that is of + the greatest age in Indian thought or tradition. We know, for example, + that certain legends, bearing the impress of the highest antiquity, such + as that of the deluge, appear first in the Brahmanas." We are especially + interested in this criticism, because most of the myths which we profess + to explain as survivals of savagery are narrated in the Brahmanas. If + these are necessarily late corruptions of Vedic ideas, because the + collection of the Brahmanas is far more modern than that of the Veda, our + argument is instantly disproved. But if ideas of an earlier stratum of + thought than the Vedic stratum may appear in a later collection, as ideas + of an earlier stratum of thought than the Homeric appear in poetry and + prose far later than Homer, then our contention is legitimate. It will be + shown in effect that a number of myths of the Brahmanas correspond in + character and incident with the myths of savages, such as Cahrocs and + Ahts. Our explanation is, that these tales partly survived, in the minds + perhaps of conservative local priesthoods, from the savage stage of + thought, or were borrowed from aborigines in that stage, or were moulded + in more recent times on surviving examples of that wild early fancy. + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, iv. 450. + </p> + <p> + In the age of the Brahmanas the people have spread southwards from the + basin of the Indus to that of the Ganges. The old sacred texts have begun + to be scarcely comprehensible. The priesthood has become much more + strictly defined and more rigorously constituted. Absurd as it may seem, + the Vedic metres, like the Gayatri, have been personified, and appear as + active heroines of stories presumably older than this personification. The + Asuras have descended from the rank of gods to that of the heavenly + opposition to Indra's government; they are now a kind of fiends, and the + Brahmanas are occupied with long stories about the war in heaven, itself a + very ancient conception. Varuna becomes cruel on occasion, and hostile. + Prajapati becomes the great mythical hero, and inherits the wildest myths + of the savage heroic beasts and birds. + </p> + <p> + The priests are now Brahmans, a hereditary divine caste, who possess all + the vast and puerile knowledge of ritual and sacrificial minutiae. As life + in the opera is a series of songs, so life in the Brahmanas is a sequence + of sacrifices. Sacrifice makes the sun rise and set, and the rivers run + this way or that. + </p> + <p> + The study of Indian myth is obstructed, as has been shown, by the + difficulty of determining the relative dates of the various legends, but + there are a myriad of other obstacles to the study of Indian mythology. A + poet of the Vedas says, "The chanters of hymns go about enveloped in mist, + and unsatisfied with idle talk".(1) The ancient hymns are still "enveloped + in mist," owing to the difficulty of their language and the variety of + modern renderings and interpretations. The heretics of Vedic religion, the + opponents of the orthodox commentators in ages comparatively recent, used + to complain that the Vedas were simply nonsense, and their authors "knaves + and buffoons". There are moments when the modern student of Vedic myths is + inclined to echo this petulant complaint. For example, it is difficult + enough to find in the Rig-Veda anything like a categoric account of the + gods, and a description of their personal appearance. But in Rig-Veda, + viii. 29, 1, we read of one god, "a youth, brown, now hostile, now + friendly; a golden lustre invests him". Who is this youth? "Soma as the + moon," according to the commentators. M. Langlois thinks the sun is meant. + Dr. Aufrecht thinks the troop of Maruts (spirits of the storm), to whom, + he remarks, the epithet "dark-brown, tawny" is as applicable as it is to + their master, Rudra. This is rather confusing, and a mythological inquirer + would like to know for certain whether he is reading about the sun or + soma, the moon, or the winds. + </p> + <p> + (1) Rig-Veda, x. 82, 7, but compare Bergaigne, op. cit., iii. 72, + "enveloppes de nuees et de murmures". + </p> + <p> + To take another example; we open Mr. Max Muller's translation of the + Rig-Veda at random, say at page 49. In the second verse of the hymn to the + Maruts, Mr. Muller translates, "They who were born together, + self-luminous, with the spotted deer (the clouds), the spears, the + daggers, the glittering ornaments. I hear their whips almost close by, as + they crack them in their hands; they gain splendour on their way." Now + Wilson translates this passage, "Who, borne by spotted deer, were born + self-luminous, with weapons, war-cries and decorations. I hear the + cracking of their whips in their hands, wonderfully inspiring courage in + the fight." Benfey has, "Who with stags and spears, and with thunder and + lightning, self-luminous, were born. Hard by rings the crack of their whip + as it sounds in their hands; bright fare they down in storm." Langlois + translates, "Just born are they, self-luminous. Mark ye their arms, their + decorations, their car drawn by deer? Hear ye their clamour? Listen! 'tis + the noise of the whip they hold in their hands, the sound that stirs up + courage in the battle." This is an ordinary example of the diversities of + Vedic translation. It is sufficiently puzzling, nor is the matter made + more transparent by the variety of opinion as to the meaning of the "deer" + along with which the Maruts are said (by some of the translators) to have + been born. This is just the sort of passage on which a controversy + affecting the whole nature of Vedic mythological ideas might be raised. + According to a text in the Yajur Veda, gods, and men, and beasts, and + other matters were created from various portions of the frame of a divine + being named Prajapati.(1) The god Agni, Brahmans and the goat were born + from the mouth of Prajapati. From his breast and arms came the god Indra + (sometimes spoken of as a ram), the sheep, and of men the Rajanya. Cows + and gods called Visvadevas were born together from his middle. Are we to + understand the words "they who were born together with the spotted deer" + to refer to a myth of this kind—a myth representing the Maruts and + deer as having been born at the same birth, as Agni came with the goat, + and Indra with the sheep? This is just the point on which the Indian + commentators were divided.(2) Sayana, the old commentator, says, "The + legendary school takes them for deer with white spots; the etymological + school, for the many-coloured lines of clouds". The modern legendary (or + anthropological) and etymological (or philological) students of mythology + are often as much at variance in their attempts to interpret the + traditions of India. + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 16. + </p> + <p> + (2) Max Muller, Rig-Veda Sanhita, trans., vol. i. p. 59. + </p> + <p> + Another famous, and almost comic, example of the difficulty of Vedic + interpretation is well known. In Rig-Veda, x. 16, 4, there is a funeral + hymn. Agni, the fire-god, is supplicated either to roast a goat or to warm + the soul of the dead and convey it to paradise. Whether the soul is to be + thus comforted or the goat is to be grilled, is a question that has + mightily puzzled Vedic doctors.(1) Professor Muller and M. Langlois are + all for "the immortal soul", the goat has advocates, or had advocates, in + Aufrecht, Ludwig and Roth. More important difficulties of interpretation + are illustrated by the attitude of M. Bergaigne in La Religion Vedique, + and his controversy with the great German lexicographers. The study of + mythology at one time made the Vedas its starting-point. But perhaps it + would be wise to begin from something more intelligible, something less + perplexed by difficulties of language and diversities of interpretation. + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, v. 217. + </p> + <p> + In attempting to criticise the various Aryan myths, we shall be guided, on + the whole, by the character of the myths themselves. Pure and elevated + conceptions we shall be inclined to assign to a pure and elevated + condition of thought (though such conceptions do, recognisably, occur in + the lowest known religious strata), and we shall make no difficulty about + believing that Rishis and singers capable of noble conceptions existed in + an age very remote in time, in a society which had many of the features of + a lofty and simple civilisation. But we shall not, therefore, assume that + the hymns of these Rishis are in any sense "primitive," or throw much + light on the infancy of the human mind, or on the "origin" of religious + and heroic myths. Impure, childish and barbaric conceptions, on the other + hand, we shall be inclined to attribute to an impure, childish, and + barbaric condition of thought; and we shall again make no difficulty about + believing that ideas originally conceived when that stage of thought was + general have been retained and handed down to a far later period. This + view of the possible, or rather probable, antiquity of many of the myths + preserved in the Brahmanas is strengthened, if it needed strengthening, by + the opinion of Dr. Weber.(1) "We must indeed assume generally with regard + to many of those legends (in the Brahmanas of the Rig-Veda) that they had + already gained a rounded independent shape in tradition before they were + incorporated into the Brahmanas; and of this we have frequent evidence in + the DISTINCTLY ARCHAIC CHARACTER OF THEIR LANGUAGE, compared with that of + the rest of the text." + </p> + <p> + (1) History of Indian Literature, English trans., p. 47. + </p> + <p> + We have now briefly stated the nature and probable relative antiquity of + the evidence which is at the disposal of Vedic mythologists. The chief + lesson we would enforce is the necessity of suspending the judgment when + the Vedas are represented as examples of primitive and comparatively pure + and simple natural religion. They are not primitive; they are highly + differentiated, highly complex, extremely enigmatic expressions of fairly + advanced and very peculiar religious thought. They are not morally so very + pure as has been maintained, and their purity, such as it is, seems the + result of conscious reticence and wary selection rather than of primeval + innocence. Yet the bards or editors have by no means wholly excluded very + ancient myths of a thoroughly savage character. These will be chiefly + exposed in the chapter on "Indo-Aryan Myths of the Beginnings of Things," + which follows. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + </h2> + <p> + Comparison of Vedic and savage myths—The metaphysical Vedic account + of the beginning of things—Opposite and savage fable of world made + out of fragments of a man—Discussion of this hymn—Absurdities + of Brahmanas—Prajapati, a Vedic Unkulunkulu or Qat—Evolutionary + myths—Marriage of heaven and earth—Myths of Puranas, their + savage parallels—Most savage myths are repeated in Brahmanas. + </p> + <p> + In discussing the savage myths of the origin of the world and of man, we + observed that they were as inconsistent as they were fanciful. Among the + fancies embodied in the myths was noted the theory that the world, or + various parts of it, had been formed out of the body of some huge + non-natural being, a god, or giant, or a member of some ancient mysterious + race. We also noted the myths of the original union of heaven and earth, + and their violent separation as displayed in the tales of Greeks and + Maoris, to which may be added the Acagchemem nation in California.(1) + Another feature of savage cosmogonies, illustrated especially in some + early Slavonic myths, in Australian legends, and in the faith of the + American races, was the creation of the world, or the recovery of a + drowned world by animals, as the raven, the dove and the coyote. The + hatching of all things out of an egg was another rude conception, chiefly + noted among the Finns. The Indian form occurs in the Satapatha + Brahmana.(2) The preservation of the human race in the Deluge, or the + creation of the race after the Deluge, was yet another detail of savage + mythology; and for many of these fancies we seemed to find a satisfactory + origin in the exceedingly credulous and confused state of savage + philosophy and savage imagination. + </p> + <p> + (1) Bancroft, v. 162. + </p> + <p> + (2) Sacred Books of the East, i. 216. + </p> + <p> + The question now to be asked is, do the traditions of the Aryans of India + supply us with myths so closely resembling the myths of Nootkas, Maoris + and Australians that we may provisionally explain them as stories + originally due to the invention of savages? This question may be answered + in the affirmative. The Vedas, the Epics and the Puranas contain a large + store of various cosmogonic traditions as inconsistent as the parallel + myths of savages. We have an Aryan Ilmarinen, Tvashtri, who, like the + Finnish smith, forged "the iron vault of hollow heaven" and the ball of + earth.(1) Again, the earth is said to have sprung, as in some Mangaian + fables, "from a being called Uttanapad".(2) Again, Brahmanaspati, "blew + the gods forth like a blacksmith," and the gods had a hand in the making + of things. In contrast with these childish pieces of anthropomorphism, we + have the famous and sublime speculations of an often-quoted hymn.(3) It is + thus that the poet dreams of the days before being and non-being began:— + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, v. 354. + </p> + <p> + (2) Rig-Veda, x. 72, 4. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., x. 126. + </p> + <p> + "There was then neither non-entity nor entity; there was no atmosphere nor + sky above. What enveloped (all)?... Was it water, the profound abyss? + Death was not then, nor immortality: there was no distinction of day or + night. That One breathed calmly, self-supported; then was nothing + different from it, or above it. In the beginning darkness existed, + enveloped in darkness. All this was undistinguishable water. That One + which lay void and wrapped in nothingness was developed by the power of + fervour. Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind (and + which) sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered to be the + bond which connects entity with non-entity. The ray (or cord) which + stretched across these (worlds), was it below or was it above? There were + there impregnating powers and mighty forces, a self-supporting principle + beneath and energy aloft. Who knows? who here can declare whence has + sprung, whence this creation? The gods are subsequent to the development + of this (universe); who then knows whence it arose? From what this + creation arose, and whether (any one) made it or not, he who in the + highest heaven is its ruler, he verily knows, or (even) he does not + know."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., v. 357. + </p> + <p> + Here there is a Vedic hymn of the origin of things, from a book, it is + true, supposed to be late, which is almost, if not absolutely, free from + mythological ideas. The "self-supporting principle beneath and energy + aloft" may refer, as Dr. Muir suggests, to the father, heaven above, and + the mother, earth beneath. The "bond between entity and non-entity" is + sought in a favourite idea of the Indian philosophers, that of tapas or + "fervour". The other speculations remind us, though they are much more + restrained and temperate in character, of the metaphysical chants of the + New Zealand priests, of the Zunis, of Popol Vuh, and so on. These belong + to very early culture. + </p> + <p> + What is the relative age of this hymn? If it could be proved to be the + oldest in the Veda, it would demonstrate no more than this, that in time + exceedingly remote the Aryans of India possessed a philosopher, perhaps a + school of philosophers, who applied the minds to abstract speculations on + the origin of things. It could not prove that mythological speculations + had not preceded the attempts of a purer philosophy. But the date cannot + be ascertained. Mr. Max Muller cannot go farther than the suggestion that + the hymn is an expression of the perennis quaedam philosophia of Leibnitz. + We are also warned that a hymn is not necessarily modern because it is + philosophical.(1) Certainly that is true; the Zunis, Maoris, and Mangaians + exhibit amazing powers of abstract thought. We are not concerned to show + that this hymn is late; but it seems almost superfluous to remark that + ideas like those which it contains can scarcely be accepted as expressing + man's earliest theory of the origin of all things. We turn from such ideas + to those which the Aryans of India have in common with black men and red + men, with far-off Finns and Scandinavians, Chaldaeans, Haidahs, Cherokees, + Murri and Maori, Mangaians and Egyptians. + </p> + <p> + (1) History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 568. + </p> + <p> + The next Vedic account of creation which we propose to consider is as + remote as possible in character from the sublime philosophic poem. In the + Purusha Sukta, the ninetieth hymn of the tenth book of the Rig-Veda + Sanhita, we have a description of the creation of all things out of the + severed limbs of a magnified non-natural man, Purusha. This conception is + of course that which occurs in the Norse myths of the rent body of Ymir. + Borr's sons took the body of the Giant Ymir and of his flesh formed the + earth, of his blood seas and waters, of his bones mountains, of his teeth + rocks and stones, of his hair all manner of plants, of his skull the + firmament, of his brains the clouds, and so forth. In Chaldean story, Bel + cuts in twain the magnified non-natural woman Omorca, and converts the + halves of her body into heaven and earth. Among the Iroquois in North + America, Chokanipok was the giant whose limbs, bones and blood furnished + the raw material of many natural objects; while in Mangaia portions of Ru, + in Egypt of Set and Osiris, in Greece of Dionysus Zagreus were used in + creating various things, such as stones, plants and metals. The same ideas + precisely are found in the ninetieth hymn of the tenth book of the + Rig-Veda. Yet it is a singular thing that, in all the discussions as to + the antiquity and significance of this hymn which have come under our + notice, there has not been one single reference made to parallel legends + among Aryan or non-Aryan peoples. In accordance with the general + principles which guide us in this work, we are inclined to regard any + ideas which are at once rude in character and widely distributed, both + among civilised and uncivilised races, as extremely old, whatever may be + the age of the literary form in which they are presented. But the current + of learned opinions as to the date of the Purusha Sukta, the Vedic hymn + about the sacrifice of Purusha and the creation of the world out of + fragments of his body, runs in the opposite direction. The hymn is not + regarded as very ancient by most Sanskrit scholars. We shall now quote the + hymn, which contains the data on which any theory as to its age must be + founded:—(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Rig-Veda, x. 90; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 9. + </p> + <p> + "Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. On every + side enveloping the earth, he overpassed (it) by a space of ten fingers. + Purusha himself is this whole (universe), whatever is and whatever shall + be.... When the gods performed a sacrifice with Purusha as the oblation, + the spring was its butter, the summer its fuel, and the autumn its + (accompanying) offering. This victim, Purusha, born in the beginning, they + immolated on the sacrificial grass. With him the gods, the Sadhyas, and + the Rishis sacrificed. From that universal sacrifice were provided curds + and butter. It formed those aerial (creatures) and animals both wild and + tame. From that universal sacrifice sprang the Ric and Saman verses, the + metres and Yajush. From it sprang horses, and all animals with two rows of + teeth; kine sprang from it; from it goats and sheep. When (the gods) + divided Purusha, into how many parts did they cut him up? What was his + mouth? What arms (had he)? What (two objects) are said (to have been) his + thighs and feet? The Brahman was his mouth; the Rajanya was made his arms; + the being (called) the Vaisya, he was his thighs; the Sudra sprang from + his feet. The moon sprang from his soul (Mahas), the sun from his eye, + Indra and Agni from his mouth, and Yaiyu from his breath. From his navel + arose the air, from his head the sky, from his feet the earth, from his + ear the (four) quarters; in this manner (the gods) formed the world. When + the gods, performing sacrifice, bound Purusha as a victim, there were + seven sticks (stuck up) for it (around the fire), and thrice seven pieces + of fuel were made. With sacrifice the gods performed the sacrifice. These + were the earliest rites. These great powers have sought the sky, where are + the former Sadhyas, gods." + </p> + <p> + The myth here stated is plain enough in its essential facts. The gods + performed a sacrifice with a gigantic anthropomorphic being (Purusha = + Man) as the victim. Sacrifice is not found, as a rule, in the religious of + the most backward races of all; it is, relatively, an innovation, as shall + be shown later. His head, like the head of Ymir, formed the sky, his eye + the sun, animals sprang from his body. The four castes are connected with, + and it appears to be implied that they sprang from, his mouth, arms, + thighs and feet. It is obvious that this last part of the myth is + subsequent to the formation of castes. This is one of the chief arguments + for the late date of the hymn, as castes are not distinctly recognised + elsewhere in the Rig-Veda. Mr. Max Muller(1) believes the hymn to be + "modern both in its character and in its diction," and this opinion he + supports by philological arguments. Dr. Muir(2) says that the hymn "has + every character of modernness both in its diction and ideas". Dr Haug, on + the other hand,(3) in a paper read in 1871, admits that the present form + of the hymn is not older than the greater part of the hymns of the tenth + book, and than those of the Atharva Veda; but he adds, "The ideas which + the hymn contains are certainly of a primeval antiquity.... In fact, the + hymn is found in the Yajur-Veda among the formulas connected with human + sacrifices, which were formerly practised in India." We have expressly + declined to speak about "primeval antiquity," as we have scarcely any + evidence as to the myths and mental condition for example, even of + palaeolithic man; but we may so far agree with Dr. Haug as to affirm that + the fundamental idea of the Purusha Sukta, namely, the creation of the + world or portions of the world out of the fragments of a fabulous + anthropomorphic being is common to Chaldeans, Iroquois, Egyptians, Greeks, + Tinnehs, Mangaians and Aryan Indians. This is presumptive proof of the + antiquity of the ideas which Dr. Muir and Mr. Max Muller think relatively + modern. The savage and brutal character of the invention needs no + demonstration. Among very low savages, for example, the Tinnehs of British + North America, not a man, not a god, but a DOG, is torn up, and the + fragments are made into animals.(4) On the Paloure River a beaver suffers + in the manner of Purusha. We may, for these reasons, regard the chief idea + of the myth as extremely ancient—infinitely more ancient than the + diction of the hymn. + </p> + <p> + (1) Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 570. + </p> + <p> + (2) Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 12. + </p> + <p> + (3) Sanskrit Text, 2nd edit., ii. 463. + </p> + <p> + (4) Hearne's Journey, pp. 342-343. + </p> + <p> + As to the mention of the castes, supposed to be a comparatively modern + institution, that is not an essential part of the legend. When the idea of + creation out of a living being was once received it was easy to extend the + conception to any institution, of which the origin was forgotten. The + Teutonic race had a myth which explained the origin of the classes eorl, + ceorl and thrall (earl, churl and slave). A South American people, to + explain the different ranks in society, hit on the very myth of Plato, the + legend of golden, silver and copper races, from which the ranks of society + have descended. The Vedic poet, in our opinion, merely extended to the + institution of caste a myth which had already explained the origin of the + sun, the firmament, animals, and so forth, on the usual lines of savage + thought. The Purusha Sukta is the type of many other Indian myths of + creation, of which the following(1) one is extremely noteworthy. + "Prajapati desired to propagate. He formed the Trivrit (stoma) from his + mouth. After it were produced the deity Agni, the metre Gayatri,... of men + the Brahman, of beasts the goat;... from his breast, and from his arms he + formed the Panchadasa (stoma). After it were created the God Indra, the + Trishtubh metre,... of men the Rajanya, of beasts the sheep. Hence they + are vigorous, because they were created from vigour. From his middle he + formed the Saptadasa (stoma). After it were created the gods called the + Yisvadevas, the Jagati metre,... of men the Vaisya, of beasts kine. Hence + they are to be eaten, because they were created from the receptacle of + food." The form in which we receive this myth is obviously later than the + institution of caste and the technical names for metres. Yet surely any + statement that kine "are to be eaten" must be older than the universal + prohibition to eat that sacred animal the cow. Possibly we might argue + that when this theory of creation was first promulgated, goats and sheep + were forbidden food.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Taittirya Sanhita, or Yajur-Veda, vii. i. 1-4; Muir, 2nd edit., i. 15. + </p> + <p> + (2) Mr. M'Lennan has drawn some singular inferences from this passage, + connecting, as it does, certain gods and certain classes of men with + certain animals, in a manner somewhat suggestive of totemism (Fornightly + Review), February, 1870. + </p> + <p> + Turning from the Vedas to the Brahmanas, we find a curiously savage myth + of the origin of species.(1) According to this passage of the Brahmana, + "this universe was formerly soul only, in the form of Purusha". He caused + himself to fall asunder into two parts. Thence arose a husband and a wife. + "He cohabited with her; from them men were born. She reflected, 'How does + he, after having produced me from himself, cohabit with me? Ah, let me + disappear.' She became a cow, and the other a bull, and he cohabited with + her. From them kine were produced." After a series of similar + metamorphoses of the female into all animal shapes, and a similar series + of pursuits by the male in appropriate form, "in this manner pairs of all + sorts of creatures down to ants were created". This myth is a parallel to + the various Greek legends about the amours in bestial form of Zeus, + Nemesis, Cronus, Demeter and other gods and goddesses. In the Brahmanas + this myth is an explanation of the origin of species, and such an + explanation as could scarcely have occurred to a civilised mind. In other + myths in the Brahmanas, Prajapati creates men from his body, or rather the + fluid of his body becomes a tortoise, the tortoise becomes a man + (purusha), with similar examples of speculation.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Satapatha Brahmana, xiv. 4, 2; Muir, 2nd edit., i. 25. + </p> + <p> + (2) Similar tales are found among the Khonds. + </p> + <p> + Among all these Brahmana myths of the part taken by Prajapati in the + creation or evoking of things, the question arises who WAS Prajapati? His + role is that of the great Hare in American myth; he is a kind of demiurge, + and his name means "The Master of Things Created," like the Australian + Biamban, "Master," and the American title of the chief Manitou, "Master of + Life",(1) Dr. Muir remarks that, as the Vedic mind advances from mere + divine beings who "reside and operate in fire" (Agni), "dwell and shine in + the sun" (Surya), or "in the atmosphere" (Indra), towards a conception of + deity, "the farther step would be taken of speaking of the deity under + such new names as Visvakarman and Prajapati". These are "appellatives + which do not designate any limited functions connected with any single + department of Nature, but the more general and abstract notions of divine + power operating in the production and government of the universe". Now the + interesting point is that round this new and abstract NAME gravitate the + most savage and crudest myths, exactly the myths we meet among Hottentots + and Nootkas. For example, among the Hottentots it is Heitsi Eibib, among + the Huarochiri Indians it is Uiracocha, who confers, by curse or blessing, + on the animals their proper attributes and characteristics.(2) In the + Satapatha Brahmana it is Prajapati who takes this part, that falls to rude + culture-heroes of Hottentots and Huarochiris.(3) How Prajapati made + experiments in a kind of state-aided evolution, so to speak, or evolution + superintended and assisted from above, will presently be set forth. + </p> + <p> + (1) Bergaigne, iii. 40. + </p> + <p> + (2) Avila, Fables of the Yncas, p. 127. + </p> + <p> + (3) English translation, ii. 361. + </p> + <p> + In the Puranas creation is a process renewed after each kalpa, or vast + mundane period. Brahma awakes from his slumber, and finds the world a + waste of water. Then, just as in the American myths of the coyote, and the + Slavonic myths of the devil and the doves, a boar or a fish or a tortoise + fishes up the world out of the waters. That boar, fish, tortoise, or what + not, is Brahma or Vishnu. This savage conception of the beginnings of + creation in the act of a tortoise, fish, or boar is not first found in the + Puranas, as Mr. Muir points out, but is indicated in the Black Yajur Veda + and in the Satapatha Brahmana.(1) In the Satapatha Brahmana, xiv. 1, 2, + 11, we discover the idea, so common in savage myths—for example, in + that of the Navajoes—that the earth was at first very small, a mere + patch, and grew bigger after the animal fished it up. "Formerly this earth + was only so large, of the size of a span. A boar called Emusha raised her + up." Here the boar makes no pretence of being the incarnation of a god, + but is a mere boar sans phrase, like the creative coyote of the Papogas + and Chinooks, or the musk-rat of the Tacullies. This is a good example of + the development of myths. Savages begin, as we saw, by mythically + regarding various animals, spiders, grasshoppers, ravens, eagles, + cockatoos, as the creators or recoverers of the world. As civilisation + advances, those animals still perform their beneficent functions, but are + looked on as gods in disguise. In time the animals are often dropped + altogether, though they hold their place with great tenacity in the + cosmogonic traditions of the Aryans in India. When we find the Satapatha + Brahmana alleging(2) "that all creatures are descended from a tortoise," + we seem to be among the rude Indians of the Pacific Coast. But when the + tortoise is identified with Aditya, and when Adityas prove to be solar + deities, sons of Aditi, and when Aditi is recognised by Mr. Muller as the + Dawn, we see that the Aryan mind has not been idle, but has added a good + deal to the savage idea of the descent of men and beasts from a + tortoise.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 52. + </p> + <p> + (2) Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 54. + </p> + <p> + (3) See Ternaux Compans' Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, lxxxvi. p. 5. For + Mexican traditions, "Mexican and Australian Hurricane World's End," + Bancroft, v. 64. + </p> + <p> + Another feature of savage myths of creation we found to be the + introduction of a crude theory of evolution. We saw that among the + Potoyante tribe of the Digger Indians, and among certain Australian + tribes, men and beasts were supposed to have been slowly evolved and + improved out of the forms first of reptiles and then of quadrupeds. In the + mythologies of the more civilised South American races, the idea of the + survival of the fittest was otherwise expressed. The gods made several + attempts at creation, and each set of created beings proving in one way or + other unsuited to its environment, was permitted to die out or degenerated + into apes, and was succeeded by a set better adapted for survival.(1) In + much the same way the Satapatha Brahmana(2) represents mammals as the last + result of a series of creative experiments. "Prajapati created living + beings, which perished for want of food. Birds and serpents perished thus. + Prajapati reflected, 'How is it that my creatures perish after having been + formed?' He perceived this: 'They perish from want of food'. In his own + presence he caused milk to be supplied to breasts. He created living + beings, which, resorting to the breasts, were thus preserved. These are + the creatures which did not perish." + </p> + <p> + (1) This myth is found in Popol Vuh. A Chinook myth of the same sort, + Bancroft, v. 95. + </p> + <p> + (2) ii. 5, 11; Muir, 2nd edit., i. 70. + </p> + <p> + The common myth which derives the world from a great egg—the myth + perhaps most familiar in its Finnish shape—is found in the Satapatha + Brahmana.(1) "In the beginning this universe was waters, nothing but + waters. The waters desired: 'How can we be reproduced?' So saying, they + toiled, they performed austerity. While they were performing austerity, a + golden egg came into existence. It then became a year.... From it in a + year a man came into existence, who was Prajapati.... He conceived progeny + in himself; with his mouth he created the gods." According to another + text,(2) "Prajapati took the form of a tortoise". The tortoise is the same + as Aditya.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) xi. 1, 6, 1; Muir, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1863. + </p> + <p> + (2) Satapatha Brahmana, vii. 4, 3, 5. + </p> + <p> + (3) Aitareya Brahmana, iii. 34 (11, 219), a very discreditable origin of + species. + </p> + <p> + It is now time to examine the Aryan shape of the widely spread myth about + the marriage of heaven and earth, and the fortunes of their children. We + have already seen that in New Zealand heaven and earth were regarded as + real persons, of bodily parts and passions, united in a secular embrace. + We shall apply the same explanation to the Greek myth of Gaea and of the + mutilation of Cronus. In India, Dyaus (heaven) answers to the Greek Uranus + and the Maori Rangi, while Prithivi (earth) is the Greek Gaea, the Maori + Papa. In the Veda, heaven and earth are constantly styled "parents";(1) + but this we might regard as a mere metaphorical expression, still common + in poetry. A passage of the Aitareya Brahmana, however, retains the old + conception, in which there was nothing metaphorical at all.(2) These two + worlds, heaven and earth, were once joined. Subsequently they were + separated (according to one account, by Indra, who thus plays the part of + Cronus and of Tane Mahuta). "Heaven and earth," says Dr. Muir, "are + regarded as the parents not only of men, but of the gods also, as appears + from the various texts where they are designated by the epithet Devapatre, + 'having gods for their children'." By men in an early stage of thought + this myth was accepted along with others in which heaven and earth were + regarded as objects created by one of their own children, as by Indra,(3) + who "stretched them out like a hide," who, like Atlas, "sustains and + upholds them"(4) or, again, Tvashtri, the divine smith, wrought them by + his craft; or, once more, heaven and earth sprung from the head and feet + of Purusha. In short, if any one wished to give an example of that + recklessness of orthodoxy or consistency which is the mark of early myth, + he could find no better example than the Indian legends of the origin of + things. Perhaps there is not one of the myths current among the lower + races which has not its counterpart in the Indian Brahmanas. It has been + enough for us to give a selection of examples. + </p> + <p> + (1) Muir, v. 22. + </p> + <p> + (2) iv. 27; Haug, ii. 308. + </p> + <p> + (3) Rig-Veda, viii. 6, 5. + </p> + <p> + (4) Ibid., iii. 32, 8. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. GREEK MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND MAN. + </h2> + <p> + The Greeks practically civilised when we first meet them in Homer—Their + mythology, however, is full of repulsive features—The hypothesis + that many of these are savage survivals—Are there other examples of + such survival in Greek life and institutions?—Greek opinion was + constant that the race had been savage—Illustrations of savage + survival from Greek law of homicide, from magic, religion, human + sacrifice, religious art, traces of totemism, and from the mysteries—Conclusion: + that savage survival may also be expected in Greek myths. + </p> + <p> + The Greeks, when we first make their acquaintance in the Homeric poems, + were a cultivated people, dwelling, under the government of royal + families, in small city states. This social condition they must have + attained by 1000 B.C., and probably much earlier. They had already a long + settled past behind them, and had no recollection of any national + migration from the "cradle of the Aryan race". On the other hand, many + tribes thought themselves earth-born from the soil of the place where they + were settled. The Maori traditions prove that memories of a national + migration may persist for several hundred years among men ignorant of + writing. Greek legend, among a far more civilised race, only spoke of + occasional foreign settlers from Sidon, Lydia, or Egypt. The Homeric + Greeks were well acquainted with almost all the arts of life, though it is + not absolutely certain that they could write, and certainly they were not + addicted to reading. In war they fought from chariots, like the Egyptians + and Assyrians; they were bold seafarers, being accustomed to harry the + shores even of Egypt, and they had large commercial dealings with the + people of Tyre and Sidon. In the matter of religion they were + comparatively free and unrestrained. Their deities, though, in myth, + capricious in character, might be regarded in many ways as "making for + righteousness". They protected the stranger and the suppliant; they + sanctioned the oath, they frowned on the use of poisoned arrows; marriage + and domestic life were guarded by their good-will; they dispensed good and + evil fortune, to be accepted with humility and resignation among mortals. + </p> + <p> + The patriarchal head of each family performed the sacrifices for his + household, the king for the state, the ruler of Mycenae, Agamemnon, for + the whole Achaean host encamped before the walls of Troy. At the same + time, prophets, like Calchas, possessed considerable influence, due partly + to an hereditary gift of second-sight, as in the case of Theoclymenus,(1) + partly to acquired professional skill in observing omens, partly to the + direct inspiration of the gods. The oracle at Delphi, or, as it is called + by Homer, Pytho, was already famous, and religion recognised, in various + degrees, all the gods familiar to the later cult of Hellas. In a people so + advanced, so much in contact with foreign races and foreign ideas, and so + wonderfully gifted by nature with keen intellect and perfect taste, it is + natural to expect, if anywhere, a mythology almost free from repulsive + elements, and almost purged of all that we regard as survivals from the + condition of savagery. But while Greek mythology is richer far than any + other in beautiful legend, and is thronged with lovely and majestic forms + of gods and goddesses, nymphs and oreads ideally fair, none the less a + very large proportion of its legends is practically on a level with the + myths of Maoris, Thlinkeets, Cahrocs and Bushmen. + </p> + <p> + (1) Odyssey, xx. 354. + </p> + <p> + This is the part of Greek mythology which has at all times excited most + curiosity, and has been made the subject of many systems of + interpretation. The Greeks themselves, from almost the earliest historical + ages, were deeply concerned either to veil or explain away the blasphemous + horrors of their own "sacred chapters," poetic traditions and temple + legends. We endeavour to account for these as relics of an age of + barbarism lying very far behind the time of Homer—an age when the + ancestors of the Greeks either borrowed, or more probably developed for + themselves, the kind of myths by which savage peoples endeavour to explain + the nature and origin of the world and all phenomena. + </p> + <p> + The correctness of this explanation, resting as it does on the belief that + the Greeks were at one time in the savage status, might be demonstrated + from the fact that not only myths, but Greek life in general, and + especially Greek ritual, teemed with surviving examples of institutions + and of manners which are found everywhere among the most backward and + barbarous races. It is not as if only the myths of Greece retained this + rudeness, or as if the Greeks supposed themselves to have been always + civilised. The whole of Greek life yields relics of savagery when the + surface is excavated ever so slightly. Moreover, that the Greeks, as soon + as they came to reflect on these matters at all, believed themselves to + have emerged from a condition of savagery is undeniable. The poets are + entirely at one on this subject with Moschion, a writer of the school of + Euripides. "The time hath been, yea, it HATH been," he says, "when men + lived like the beasts, dwelling in mountain caves, and clefts unvisited of + the sun.... Then they broke not the soil with ploughs nor by aid of iron, + but the weaker man was slain to make the supper of the stronger," and so + on.(1) This view of the savage origin of mankind was also held by + Aristotle:(2) "It is probable that the first men, whether they were + produced by the earth (earth-born) or survived from some deluge, were on a + level of ignorance and darkness".(3) This opinion, consciously held and + stated by philosophers and poets, reveals itself also in the universal + popular Greek traditions that men were originally ignorant of fire, + agriculture, metallurgy and all the other arts and conveniences of life, + till they were instructed by ideal culture-heroes, like Prometheus, + members of a race divine or half divine. A still more curious Athenian + tradition (preserved by Varro) maintained, not only that marriage was + originally unknown, but that, as among Australians and some Red Indians, + the family name, descended through the mother, and kinship was reckoned on + the female side before the time of Cecrops.(4) + </p> + <p> + (1) Moschion; cf. Preller, Ausgewahlte Aufsatze, p. 206. + </p> + <p> + (2) Politics, ii. 8-21; Plato, Laws, 667-680. + </p> + <p> + (3) Compare Horace, Satires, i. 3, 99; Lucretius, v. 923. + </p> + <p> + (4) Suidas, s.v. "Prometheus"; Augustine, De Civitate Dei, xviii. 9. + </p> + <p> + While Greek opinion, both popular and philosophical, admitted, or rather + asserted, that savagery lay in the background of the historical prospect, + Greek institutions retained a thousand birth-marks of savagery. It is + manifest and undeniable that the Greek criminal law, as far as it effected + murder, sprang directly from the old savage blood-feud.(1) The Athenian + law was a civilised modification of the savage rule that the kindred of a + slain man take up his blood-feud. Where homicide was committed WITHIN the + circle of blood relationship, as by Orestes, Greek religion provided the + Erinnyes to punish an offence which had, as it were, no human avenger. The + precautions taken by murderers to lay the ghost of the slain man were much + like those in favour among the Australians. The Greek cut off the + extremities of his victim, the tips of the hands and feet, and disposed + them neatly beneath the arm-pits of the slain man.(2) In the same spirit, + and for the same purpose, the Australian black cuts off the thumbs of his + dead enemy, that the ghost too may be mutilated and prevented from + throwing at him with a ghostly spear. We learn also from Apollonius + Rhodius and his scholiast that Greek murderers used thrice to suck in and + spit out the gore of their victims, perhaps with some idea of thereby + partaking of their blood, and so, by becoming members of their kin, + putting it beyond the power of the ghosts to avenge themselves. Similar + ideas inspire the worldwide savage custom of making an artificial "blood + brotherhood" by mingling the blood of the contracting parties. As to the + ceremonies of cleansing from blood-guiltiness among the Greeks, we may + conjecture that these too had their primitive side; for Orestes, in the + Eumenides, maintains that he has been purified of his mother's slaughter + by sufficient blood of swine. But this point will be illustrated + presently, when we touch on the mysteries. + </p> + <p> + (1) Duncker, History of Greece, Engl. transl., vol. ii. p. 129. + </p> + <p> + (2) See "Arm-pitting in Ancient Greece," in the American Journal of + Philology, October, 1885, where a discussion of the familiar texts in + Aeschylus and Apollonius Rhodius will be found. + </p> + <p> + Ritual and myth, as might be expected, retained vast masses of savage + rites and superstitious habits and customs. To be "in all things too + superstitious," too full of deisidaimonia, was even in St. Paul's time the + characteristic of the Athenians. Now superstition, or deisidaimonia, is + defined by Theophrastus,(1) as "cowardice in regard to the supernatural" + ((Greek text omitted)). This "cowardice" has in all ages and countries + secured the permanence of ritual and religious traditions. Men have always + argued, like one of the persons in M. Renan's play, Le Pretre de Nemi, + that "l'ordre du monde depend de l'ordre des rites qu'on observe". The + familiar endurable sequence of the seasons of spring, and seed-sowing, and + harvest depend upon the due performance of immemorial religious acts. "In + the mystic deposits," says Dinarchus, "lies the safety of the city."(2) + What the "mystic deposits" were nobody knows for certain, but they must + have been of very archaic sanctity, and occur among the Arunta and the + Pawnees. + </p> + <p> + (1) Characters. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ap. Hermann, Lehrbuch, p. 41; Aglaophamus, 965. + </p> + <p> + Ritual is preserved because it preserves LUCK. Not only among the Romans + and the Brahmans, with their endless minute ritual actions, but among such + lower races as the Kanekas of New Caledonia, the efficacy of religious + functions is destroyed by the slightest accidental infraction of + established rules.(1) The same timid conservatism presides over myth, and + in each locality the mystery-plays, with their accompanying narratives, + preserved inviolate the early forms of legend. Myth and ritual do not + admit of being argued about. "C'etait le rite etabli. Ce n'etait pas plus + absurde qu'autre chose," says the conservative in M. Renan's piece, + defending the mode of appointment of + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The priest who slew the slayer, + And shall himself be slain. +</pre> + <p> + (1) Thus the watchers of the dead in New Caledonia are fed by the sorcerer + with a mess at the end of a very long spoon, and should the food miss the + mouth, all the ceremonies have to be repeated. This detail is from Mr. J. + J. Atkinson. + </p> + <p> + Now, if the rites and myths preserved by the timorousness of this same + "cowardice towards the supernatural" were originally evolved in the stage + of savagery, savage they would remain, as it is impious and dangerous to + reform them till the religion which they serve perishes with them. These + relics in Greek ritual and faith are very commonly explained as due to + Oriental influences, as things borrowed from the dark and bloody + superstitions of Asia. But this attempt to save the native Greek character + for "blitheness" and humanity must not be pushed too far.(1) It must be + remembered that the cruder and wilder sacrifices and legends of Greece + were strictly LOCAL; that they were attached to these ancient temples, old + altars, barbarous xoana, or wooden idols, and rough fetish stones, in + which Pausanias found the most ancient relics of Hellenic theology. This + is a proof of their antiquity and a presumption in favour of their freedom + from foreign influence. Most of these things were survivals from that + dimly remembered prehistoric age in which the Greeks, not yet gathered + into city states, lived in villages or kraals, or pueblos, as we should + translate (Greek text omitted), if we were speaking of African or American + tribes. In that stage the early Greeks must have lacked both the civic and + the national or Panhellenic sentiment; their political unit was the clan, + which, again, answered in part to the totem kindred of America, or Africa, + or Australia.(2) In this stagnant condition they could not have made + acquaintance with the many creeds of Semitic and other alien peoples on + the shores of the Levant.(3) It was later, when Greece had developed the + city life of the heroic age, that her adventurous sons came into close + contact with Egypt and Phoenicia. + </p> + <p> + (1) Claus, De Antiq. Form. Dianae, 6,7,16. + </p> + <p> + (2) As C. O. Muller judiciously remarks: "The scenes of nine-tenths of the + Greek myths are laid in PARTICULAR DISTRICTS OF GREECE, and they speak of + the primeval inhabitants, of the lineage and adventures of native heroes. + They manifest an accurate acquaintance with individual localities, which, + at a time when Greece was neither explored by antiquaries, nor did + geographical handbooks exist, could be possessed only by the inhabitants + of these localities." Muller gives, as examples, myths of bears more or + less divine. Scientific Mythology, pp. 14, 15. + </p> + <p> + (3) Compare Claus, De Dianae Antiquissima Natura, p. 3. + </p> + <p> + In the colonising time, still later—perhaps from 900 B.C. downwards—the + Greeks, settled on sites whence they had expelled Sidonians or Sicanians, + very naturally continued, with modifications, the worship of such gods as + they found already in possession. Like the Romans, the Greeks easily + recognised their own deities in the analogous members of foreign + polytheistic systems. Thus we can allow for alien elements in such gods + and goddesses as Zeus Asterios, as Aphrodite of Cyprus or Eryx, or the + many-breasted Ephesian Artemis, whose monstrous form had its exact + analogue among the Aztecs in that many-breasted goddess of the maguey + plant whence beer was made. To discern and disengage the borrowed factors + in the Hellenic Olympus by analysis of divine names is a task to which + comparative philology may lawfully devote herself; but we cannot so + readily explain by presumed borrowing from without the rude xoana of the + ancient local temples, the wild myths of the local legends, the sacra + which were the exclusive property of old-world families, Butadae or + Eumolpidae. These are clearly survivals from a stage of Greek culture + earlier than the city state, earlier than the heroic age of the roving + Greek Vikings, and far earlier than the Greek colonies. They belong to + that conservative and immobile period when the tribe or clan, settled in + its scattered kraals, lived a life of agriculture, hunting and + cattle-breeding, engaged in no larger or more adventurous wars than border + feuds about women or cattle. Such wars were on a humbler scale than even + Nestor's old fights with the Epeians; such adventures did not bring the + tribe into contact with alien religions. If Sidonian merchantmen chanced + to establish a factory near a tribe in this condition, their religion was + not likely to make many proselytes. + </p> + <p> + These reasons for believing that most of the wilder element in Greek + ritual and myth was native may be briefly recapitulated, as they are often + overlooked. The more strange and savage features meet us in LOCAL tales + and practices, often in remote upland temples and chapels. There they had + survived from the society of the VILLAGE status, before villages were + gathered into CITIES, before Greeks had taken to a roving life, or made + much acquaintance with distant and maritime peoples. + </p> + <p> + For these historical reasons, it may be assumed that the LOCAL religious + antiquities of Greece, especially in upland districts like Arcadia and + Elis, are as old, and as purely national, as free from foreign influences + as any Greek institutions can be. In these rites and myths of true + folk-lore and Volksleben, developed before Hellas won its way to the pure + Hellenic stage, before Egypt and Phoenicia were familiar, should be found + that common rude element which Greeks share with the other races of the + world, and which was, to some extent, purged away by the genius of Homer + and Pindar, pii vates et Phaebo digna locuti. + </p> + <p> + In proof of this local conservatism, some passages collected by K. F. + Hermann in his Lehrbuch der Griechischen Antiquitaten(1) may be cited. + Thus Isocrates writes,(2) "This was all their care, neither to destroy any + of the ancestral rites, nor to add aught beyond what was ordained". + Clemens Alexandrinus reports that certain Thessalians worshipped storks, + "IN ACCORDANCE WITH USE AND WONT".(3) Plato lays down the very "law of + least change" which has been described. "Whether the legislator is + establishing a new state or restoring an old and decayed one, in respect + of gods and temples,... if he be a man of sense, he will MAKE NO CHANGE IN + ANYTHING which the oracle of Delphi, or Dodona, or Ammon has sanctioned, + in whatever manner." In this very passage Plato(4) speaks of rites + "derived from Tyrrhenia or Cyprus" as falling within the later period of + the Greek Wanderjahre. On the high religious value of things antique, + Porphyry wrote in a late age, and when the new religion of Christ was + victorious, "Comparing the new sacred images with the old, we see that the + old are more simply fashioned, yet are held divine, but the new, admired + for their elaborate execution, have less persuasion of divinity,"—a + remark anticipated by Pausanias, "The statues Daedalus wrought are + quainter to the outward view, yet there shows forth in them somewhat + supernatural".(5) So Athenaeus(6) reports of a visitor to the shrine of + Leto in Delos, that he expected the ancient statue of the mother of Apollo + to be something remarkable, but, unlike the pious Porphyry, burst out + laughing when he found it a shapeless wooden idol. These idols were + dressed out, fed and adorned as if they had life.(7) It is natural that + myths dating from an age when Greek gods resembled Polynesian idols should + be as rude as Polynesian myths. The tenacity of LOCAL myth is demonstrated + by Pausanias, who declares that even in the highly civilised Attica the + Demes retained legends different from those of the central city—the + legends, probably, which were current before the villages were + "Synoecised" into Athens.(8) + </p> + <p> + (1) Zweiter Theil, 1858. + </p> + <p> + (2) Areop., 30. + </p> + <p> + (3) Clem. Alex., Oxford, 1715, i. 34. + </p> + <p> + (4) Laws, v. 738. + </p> + <p> + (5) De. Abst., ii. 18; Paus., ii. 4, 5. + </p> + <p> + (6) xiv. 2. + </p> + <p> + (7) Hermann, op. cit., p. 94, note 10. + </p> + <p> + (8) Pausanias, i. 14, 6. + </p> + <p> + It appears, then, that Greek ritual necessarily preserves matter of the + highest antiquity, and that the oldest rites and myths will probably be + found, not in the Panhellenic temples, like that in Olympia, not in the + NATIONAL poets, like Homer and Sophocles, but in the LOCAL fanes of early + tribal gods, and in the LOCAL mysteries, and the myths which came late, if + they came at all, into literary circulation. This opinion is strengthened + and illustrated by that invaluable guide-book of the artistic and + religious pilgrim written in the second century after our era by + Pausanias. If we follow him, we shall find that many of the ceremonies, + stories and idols which he regarded as oldest are analogous to the idols + and myths of the contemporary backward races. Let us then, for the sake of + illustrating the local and savage survivals in Greek religion, accompany + Pausanias in his tour through Hellas. + </p> + <p> + In Christian countries, especially in modern times, the contents of one + church are very like the furniture of another church; the functions in one + resemble those in all, though on the Continent some shrines still retain + relics and customs of the period when local saints had their peculiar + rites. But it was a very different thing in Greece. The pilgrim who + arrived at a temple never could guess what oddity or horror in the way of + statues, sacrifices, or stories might be prepared for his edification. In + the first place, there were HUMAN SACRIFICES. These are not familiar to + low savages, if known to them at all. Probably they were first offered to + barbaric royal ghosts, and thence transferred to gods. In the town of + Salamis, in Cyprus, about the date of Hadrian, the devout might have found + the priest slaying a human victim to Zeus,—an interesting custom, + instituted, according to Lactantius, by Teucer, and continued till the age + of the Roman Empire.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Euseb., Praep. Ev., iv. 17, mentions, among peoples practising human + sacrifices, Rhodes, Salamis, Heliopolis, Chios, Tenedos, Lacedaemon, + Arcadia and Athens; and, among gods thus honoured, Hera, Athene, Cronus, + Ares, Dionysus, Zeus and Apollo. For Dionysus the Cannibal, Plutarch, + Themist., 13; Porphyr., Abst., ii. 55. For the sacrifice to Zeus + Laphystius, see Grote, i. c. vi., and his array of authorities, especially + Herodotus, vii. 197. Clemens Alexandrinus (i. 36) mentions the Messenians, + to Zeus; the Taurians, to Artemis, the folk of Pella, to Peleus and + Chiron; the Cretans, to Zeus; the Lesbians, to Dionysus. Geusius de + Victimis Humanis (1699) may be consulted. + </p> + <p> + At Alos in Achaia Phthiotis, the stranger MIGHT have seen an extraordinary + spectacle, though we admit that the odds would have been highly against + his chance of witnessing the following events. As the stranger approaches + the town-hall, he observes an elderly and most respectable citizen + strolling in the same direction. The citizen is so lost in thought that + apparently he does not notice where he is going. Behind him comes a crowd + of excited but silent people, who watch him with intense interest. The + citizen reaches the steps of the town-hall, while the excitement of his + friends behind increases visibly. Without thinking, the elderly person + enters the building. With a wild and un-Aryan howl, the other people of + Alos are down on him, pinion him, wreathe him with flowery garlands, and, + lead him to the temple of Zeus Laphystius, or "The Glutton," where he is + solemnly sacrificed on the altar. This was the custom of the good Greeks + of Alos whenever a descendant of the house of Athamas entered the + Prytaneion. Of course the family were very careful, as a rule, to keep at + a safe distance from the forbidden place. "What a sacrifice for Greeks!" + as the author of the Minos(1) says in that dialogue which is incorrectly + attributed to Plato. "He cannot get out except to be sacrificed," says + Herodotus, speaking of the unlucky descendant of Athamas. The custom + appears to have existed as late as the time of the scholiast on Apollonius + Rhodius.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) 315, c.; Plato, Laws, vi. 782, c. + </p> + <p> + (2) Argonautica, vii. 197. + </p> + <p> + Even in the second century, when Pausanias visited Arcadia, he found what + seem to have been human sacrifices to Zeus. The passage is so very strange + and romantic that we quote a part of it.(1) "The Lycaean hill hath other + marvels to show, and chiefly this: thereon there is a grove of Zeus + Lycaeus, wherein may men in nowise enter; but if any transgresses the law + and goes within, he must die within the space of one year. This tale, + moreover, they tell, namely, that whatsoever man or beast cometh within + the grove casts no shadow, and the hunter pursues not the deer into that + wood, but, waiting till the beast comes forth again, sees that it has left + its shadow behind. And on the highest crest of the whole mountain there is + a mound of heaped-up earth, the altar of Zeus Lycaeus, and the more part + of Peloponnesus can be seen from that place. And before the altar stand + two pillars facing the rising sun, and thereon golden eagles of yet more + ancient workmanship. And on this altar they sacrifice to Zeus in a manner + that may not be spoken, and little liking had I to make much search into + this matter. BUT LET IT BE AS IT IS, AND AS IT HATH BEEN FROM THE + BEGINNING." The words "as it hath been from the beginning" are ominous and + significant, for the traditional myths of Arcadia tell of the human + sacrifices of Lycaon, and of men who, tasting the meat of a mixed + sacrifice, put human flesh between their lips unawares.(2) This aspect of + Greek religion, then, is almost on a level with the mysterious cannibal + horrors of "Voodoo," as practised by the secret societies of negroes in + Hayti. But concerning these things, as Pausanias might say, it is little + pleasure to inquire. + </p> + <p> + (1) Pausanias, viii. 2. + </p> + <p> + (2) Plato, Rep., viii. 565, d. This rite occurs in some African coronation + ceremonies. + </p> + <p> + Even where men were not sacrificed to the gods, the tourist among the + temples would learn that these bloody rites had once been customary, and + ceremonies existed by way of commutation. This is precisely what we find + in Vedic religion, in which the empty form of sacrificing a man was gone + through, and the origin of the world was traced to the fragments of a god + sacrificed by gods.(1) In Sparta was an altar of Artemis Orthia, and a + wooden image of great rudeness and antiquity—so rude indeed, that + Pausanias, though accustomed to Greek fetish-stones, thought it must be of + barbaric origin. The story was that certain people of different towns, + when sacrificing at the altar, were seized with frenzy and slew each + other. The oracle commanded that the altar should be sprinkled with human + blood. Men were therefore chosen by lot to be sacrificed till Lycurgus + commuted the offering, and sprinkled the altar with the blood of boys who + were flogged before the goddess. The priestess holds the statue of the + goddess during the flogging, and if any of the boys are but lightly + scourged, the image becomes too heavy for her to bear. + </p> + <p> + (1) The Purusha Sukhta, in Rig-Veda, x. 90. + </p> + <p> + The Ionians near Anthea had a temple of Artemis Triclaria, and to her it + had been customary to sacrifice yearly a youth and maiden of transcendent + beauty. In Pausanias's time the human sacrifice was commuted. He himself + beheld the strange spectacle of living beasts and birds being driven into + the fire to Artemis Laphria, a Calydonian goddess, and he had seen bears + rush back among the ministrants; but there was no record that any one had + ever been hurt by these wild beasts.(1) The bear was a beast closely + connected with Artemis, and there is some reason to suppose that the + goddess had herself been a she-bear or succeeded to the cult of a she-bear + in the morning of time.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Paus., vii. 18, 19. + </p> + <p> + (2) See "Artemis", postea. + </p> + <p> + It may be believed that where symbolic human sacrifices are offered, that + is, where some other victim is slain or a dummy of a man is destroyed, and + where legend maintains that the sacrifice was once human, there men and + women were originally the victims. Greek ritual and Greek myth were full + of such tales and such commutations.(1) In Rome, as is well known, + effigies of men called Argives were sacrificed.(2) As an example of a + beast-victim given in commutation, Pausanias mentions(3) the case of the + folk of Potniae, who were compelled once a year to offer to Dionysus a + boy, in the bloom of youth. But the sacrifice was commuted for a goat. + </p> + <p> + (1) See Hermann, Alterthumer., ii. 159-161, for abundant examples. + </p> + <p> + (2) Plutarch, Quest. Rom. 32. + </p> + <p> + (3) ix. 8, 1. + </p> + <p> + These commutations are familiar all over the world. Even in Mexico, where + human sacrifices and ritual cannibalism were daily events, Quetzalcoatl + was credited with commuting human sacrifices for blood drawn from the + bodies of the religious. In this one matter even the most conservative + creeds and the faiths most opposed to change sometimes say with Tartuffe:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Le ciel defend, de vrai, certains contentements, + Mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements. +</pre> + <p> + Though the fact has been denied (doubtless without reflection), the fact + remains that the Greeks offered human sacrifices. Now what does this + imply? Must it be taken as a survival from barbarism, as one of the proofs + that the Greeks had passed through the barbaric status? + </p> + <p> + The answer is less obvious than might be supposed. Sacrifice has two + origins. First, there are HONORIFIC sacrifices, in which the ghost or god + (or divine beast, if a divine beast be worshipped) is offered the food he + is believed to prefer. This does not occur among the lowest savages. To + carnivorous totems, Garcilasso says, the Indians of Peru offered + themselves. The feeding of sacred mice in the temples of Apollo Smintheus + is well known. Secondly, there are expiatory or PIACULAR sacrifices, in + which the worshipper, as it were, fines himself in a child, an ox, or + something else that he treasures. The latter kind of sacrifice (most + common in cases of crime done or suspected within the circle of kindred) + is not necessarily barbaric, except in its cruelty. An example is the + Attic Thargelia, in which two human scape-goats annually bore "the sins of + the congregation," and were flogged, driven to the sea with figs tied + round their necks, and burned.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Compare the Marseilles human sacrifice, Petron., 141; and for the + Thargelia, Tsetzes, Chiliads, v. 736; Hellad. in Photius, p. 1590 f. and + Harpoc. s. v. + </p> + <p> + The institution of human sacrifice, then, whether the offering be regarded + as food, or as a gift to the god of what is dearest to man (as in the case + of Jephtha's daughter), or whether the victim be supposed to carry on his + head the sins of the people, does not necessarily date from the period of + savagery. Indeed, sacrifice flourishes most, not among savages, but among + advancing barbarians. It would probably be impossible to find any examples + of human sacrifices of an expiatory or piacular character, any sacrifices + at all, among Australians, or Andamanese, or Fuegians. The notion of + presenting food to the supernatural powers, whether ghosts or gods, is + relatively rare among savages.(1) The terrible Aztec banquets of which the + gods were partakers are the most noted examples of human sacrifices with a + purely cannibal origin. Now there is good reason to guess that human + sacrifices with no other origin than cannibalism survived even in ancient + Greece. "It may be conjectured," writes Professor Robertson Smith,(2) + "that the human sacrifices offered to the Wolf Zeus (Lycaeus) in Arcadia + were originally cannibal feasts of a Wolf tribe. The first participants in + the rite were, according to later legend, changed into wolves; and in + later times(3) at least one fragment of the human flesh was placed among + the sacrificial portions derived from other victims, and the man who ate + it was believed to become a were-wolf."(4) It is the almost universal rule + with cannibals not to eat members of their own stock, just as they do not + eat their own totem. Thus, as Professor Robertson Smith says, when the + human victim is a captive or other foreigner, the human sacrifice may be + regarded as a survival of cannibalism. Where, on the other hand, the + victim is a fellow tribesman, the sacrifice is expiatory or piacular. + </p> + <p> + (1) Jevons, Introduction to the Science of Religion, pp. 161, 199. + </p> + <p> + (2) Encyc. Brit., s. v. "Sacrifice". + </p> + <p> + (3) Plato, Rep., viii. 565, D. + </p> + <p> + (4) Paus., viii. 2. + </p> + <p> + Among Greek cannibal gods we cannot fail to reckon the so-called "Cannibal + Dionysus," and probably the Zeus of Orchomenos, Zeus Laphystius, who is + explained by Suidas as "the Glutton Zeus". The cognate verb ((Greek text + omitted)) means "to eat with mangling and rending," "to devour + gluttonously". By Zeus Laphystius, then, men's flesh was gorged in this + distressing fashion. + </p> + <p> + The evidence of human sacrifice (especially when it seems not piacular, + but a relic of cannibalism) raises a presumption that Greeks had once been + barbarians. The presumption is confirmed by the evidence of early Greek + religious art. + </p> + <p> + When his curiosity about human sacrifices was satisfied, the pilgrim in + Greece might turn his attention to the statues and other representations + of the gods. He would find that the modern statues by famous artists were + beautiful anthropomorphic works in marble or in gold and ivory. It is true + that the faces of the ancient gilded Dionysi at Corinth were smudged all + over with cinnabar, like fetish-stones in India or Africa.(1) As a rule, + however, the statues of historic times were beautiful representations of + kindly and gracious beings. The older works were stiff and rigid images, + with the lips screwed into an unmeaning smile. Older yet were the bronze + gods, made before the art of soldering was invented, and formed of beaten + plates joined by small nails. Still more ancient were the wooden images, + which probably bore but a slight resemblance to the human frame, and which + were often mere "stocks".(2) Perhaps once a year were shown the very early + gods, the Demeter with the horse's head, the Artemis with the fish's + tails, the cuckoo Hera, whose image was of pear-wood, the Zeus with three + eyes, the Hermes, made after the fashion of the pictures on the walls of + sacred caves among the Bushmen. But the oldest gods of all, says Pausanias + repeatedly, were rude stones in the temple or the temple precinct. In + Achaean Pharae he found some thirty squared stones, named each after a + god. "Among all the Greeks in the oldest times rude stones were worshipped + in place of statues." The superstitious man in Theophrastus's Characters + used to anoint the sacred stones with oil. The stone which Cronus + swallowed in mistake for Zeus was honoured at Delphi, and kept warm with + wool wrappings. There was another sacred stone among the Troezenians, and + the Megarians worshipped as Apollo a stone cut roughly into a pyramidal + form. The Argives had a big stone called Zeus Kappotas. The Thespians + worshipped a stone which they called Eros; "their oldest idol is a rude + stone".(3) It is well known that the original fetish-stone has been found + in situ below the feet of the statue of Apollo in Delos. On this showing, + then, the religion of very early Greeks in Greece was not unlike that of + modern Negroes. The artistic evolution of the gods, a remarkably rapid one + after a certain point, could be traced in every temple. It began with the + rude stone, and rose to the wooden idol, in which, as we have seen, + Pausanias and Porphyry found such sanctity. Next it reached the hammered + bronze image, passed through the archaic marbles, and culminated in the + finer marbles and the chryselephantine statues of Zeus and Athena. But + none of the ancient sacred objects lost their sacredness. The oldest were + always the holiest idols; the oldest of all were stumps and stones, like + savage fetish-stones. + </p> + <p> + (1) Pausanias, ii. 2. + </p> + <p> + (2) Clemens Alex., Protrept. (Oxford, 1715). p. 41. + </p> + <p> + (3) Gill, Myths of South Pacific, p. 60. Compare a god, which proved to be + merely pumice-stone, and was regarded as the god of winds and waves, + having been drifted to Puka-Puka. Offerings of food were made to it during + hurricanes. + </p> + <p> + Another argument in favour of the general thesis that savagery left deep + marks on Greek life in general, and on myth in particular, may be derived + from survivals of totemism in ritual and legend. The following instances + need not necessarily be accepted, but it may be admitted that they are + precisely the traces which totemism would leave had it once existed, and + then waned away on the advance of civilisation.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) The argument to be derived from the character of the Greek (Greek text + omitted) as a modified form of the totem-kindred is too long and complex + to be put forward here. It is stated in Custom and Myth, "The history of + the Family," in M'Lennan's Studies in Early history, and is assumed, if + not proved, in Ancient Society by the late Mr. Lewis Morgan. + </p> + <p> + That Greeks in certain districts regarded with religious reverence certain + plants and animals is beyond dispute. That some stocks even traced their + lineage to beasts will be shown in the chapter on Greek Divine Myths, and + the presumption is that these creatures, though explained as incarnations + and disguises of various gods, were once totems sans phrase, as will be + inferred from various examples. Clemens Alexandrinus, again, after + describing the animal-worship of the Egyptians, mentions cases of zoolatry + in Greece.(1) The Thessalians revered storks, the Thebans weasels, and the + myth ran that the weasel had in some way aided Alcmena when in labour with + Heracles. In another form of the myth the weasel was the foster-mother of + the hero.(2) Other Thessalians, the Myrmidons, claimed descent from the + ant and revered ants. The religious respect paid to mice in the temple of + Apollo Smintheus, in the Troad, Rhodes, Gela, Lesbos and Crete is well + known, and a local tribe were alluded to as Mice by an oracle. The god + himself, like the Japanese harvest-god, was represented in art with a + mouse at his foot, and mice, as has been said, were fed at his shrine.(3) + The Syrians, says Clemens Alexandrinus, worship doves and fishes, as the + Elians worship Zeus.(4) The people of Delphi adored the wolf,(5) and the + Samians the sheep. The Athenians had a hero whom they worshipped in the + shape of a wolf.(6) A remarkable testimony is that of the scholiast on + Apollonius Rhodius, ii. 124. "The wolf," he says, "was a beast held in + honour by the Athenians, and whosoever slays a wolf collects what is + needful for its burial." The burial of sacred animals in Egypt is + familiar. An Arab tribe mourns over and solemnly buries all dead + gazelles.(7) Nay, flies were adored with the sacrifice of an ox near the + temple of Apollo in Leucas.(8) Pausanias (iii. 22) mentions certain + colonists who were guided by a hare to a site where the animal hid in a + myrtle-bush. They therefore adore the myrtle, (Greek text omitted). In the + same way a Carian stock, the Ioxidae, revered the asparagus.(9) A + remarkable example of descent mythically claimed from one of the lower + animals is noted by Otfried Muller.(10) Speaking of the swan of Apollo, he + says, "That deity was worshipped, according to the testimony of the Iliad, + in the Trojan island of Tenedos. There, too, was Tennes honoured as the + (Greek text omitted) of the island. Now his father was called Cycnus (the + swan) in an oft-told and romantic legend.(11)... The swan, therefore, as + father to the chief hero on the Apolline island, stands in distinct + relation to the god, who is made to come forward still more prominently + from the fact that Apollo himself is also called father of Tennes. I think + we can scarcely fail to recognise a mythus which was local at Tenedos.... + The fact, too, of calling the swan, instead of Apollo, the father of a + hero, demands altogether a simplicity and boldness of fancy which are far + more ancient than the poems of Homer." + </p> + <p> + (1) Op. cit., i. 34. + </p> + <p> + (2) Scholiast on Iliad, xix. 119. + </p> + <p> + (3) Aelian, H. A., xii. 5; Strabo, xiii. 604. Compare "Apollo and the + Mouse, Custom and Myth, pp. 103-120. + </p> + <p> + (4) Lucian, De Dea Syria. + </p> + <p> + (5) Aelian, H. A., xii. 40. + </p> + <p> + (6) Harpocration, (Greek text omitted). Compare an address to the + wolf-hero, "who delights in the flight and tears of men," in Aristophanes, + Vespae, 389. + </p> + <p> + (7) Robertson Smith, Kinship in Early Arabia, pp. 195-204. + </p> + <p> + (8) Aelian, xi. 8. + </p> + <p> + (9) Plutarch, Theseus, 14. + </p> + <p> + (10) Proleg., Engl. trans., p. 204. + </p> + <p> + (11) (Canne on Conon, 28.) + </p> + <p> + Had Muller known that this "simplicity and boldness of fancy" exist + to-day, for example, among the Swan tribe of Australia, he would probably + have recognised in Cycnus a survival from totemism. The fancy survives + again in Virgil's Cupavo, "with swan's plumes rising from his crest, the + mark of his father's form".(1) Descent was claimed, not only from a swan + Apollo, but from a dog Apollo. + </p> + <p> + (1) Aeneid, x. 187. + </p> + <p> + In connection with the same set of ideas, it is pointed out that several + (Greek text omitted), or stocks, had eponymous heroes, in whose names the + names of the ancestral beast apparently survived. In Attica the Crioeis + have their hero (Crio, "Ram"), the Butadae have Butas ("Bullman"), the + Aegidae have Aegeus ("Goat"), and the Cynadae, Cynus ("Dog"). Lycus, + according to Harpocration (s. v.) has his statue in the shape of a wolf in + the Lyceum. "The general facts that certain animals might not be + sacrificed to certain gods" (at Athens the Aegidae introduced Athena, to + whom no goat might be offered on the Acropolis, while she herself wore the + goat skin, aegis), "while, on the other hand, each deity demanded + particular victims, explained by the ancients themselves in certain cases + to be hostile animals, find their natural explanation" in totemism.(1) Mr. + Evelyn Abbott points out, however, that the names Aegeus, Aegae, Aegina, + and others, may be connected with the goat only by an old + volks-etymologie, as on coins of Aegina in Achaea. The real meaning of the + words may be different. Compare (Greek text omitted), the sea-shore. Mr. + J. G. Frazer does not, at present, regard totemism as proved in the case + of Greece.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Some apparent survivals of totemism in ritual will be found in the + chapter on Greek gods, especially Zeus, Dionysus, and Apollo. + </p> + <p> + (2) See his Golden Bough, an alternative explanation of these animals in + connection with "The Corn Spirit". + </p> + <p> + As final examples of survivals from the age of barbarism in the religion + of Greece, certain features in the Mysteries may be noted. Plutarch speaks + of "the eating of raw flesh, and tearing to pieces of victims, as also + fastings and beatings of the breast, and again in many places abusive + language at the sacrifices, and other mad doings". The mysteries of + Demeter, as will appear when her legend is criticised, contained one + element all unlike these "mad doings"; and the evidence of Sophocles, + Pindar, Plutarch and others demonstrate that religious consolations were + somehow conveyed in the Eleusinia. But Greece had many other local + mysteries, and in several of these it is undeniable the Greeks acted much + as contemporary Australians, Zunis and Negroes act in their secret + initiations which, however, also inculcate moral ideas of considerable + excellence. Important as these analogies are, they appear to have escaped + the notice of most mythologists. M. Alfred Maury, however, in Les + Religions de la Grece, published in 1857, offers several instances of + hidden rites, common to Hellas and to barbarism. + </p> + <p> + There seem in the mysteries of savage races to be two chief purposes. + There is the intention of giving to the initiated a certain sacred + character, which puts them in close relation with gods or demons, and + there is the introduction of the young to complete or advancing manhood, + and to full participation in the savage Church with its ethical ideas. The + latter ceremonies correspond, in short, to confirmation, and they are + usually of a severe character, being meant to test by fasting (as Plutarch + says) and by torture (as in the familiar Spartan rite) the courage and + constancy of the young braves. The Greek mysteries best known to us are + the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinia. In the former the rites (as will + appear later) partook of the nature of savage "medicine" or magic, and + were mainly intended to secure fertility in husbandry and in the family. + In the Eleusinia the purpose was the purification of the initiated, + secured by ablutions and by standing on the "ram's-skin of Zeus," and + after purifications the mystae engaged in sacred dances, and were + permitted to view a miracle play representing the sorrows and consolations + of Demeter. There was a higher element, necessarily obscure in nature. The + chief features in the whole were purifications, dancing, sacrifice and the + representation of the miracle play. It would be tedious to offer an + exhaustive account of savage rites analogous to these mysteries of Hellas. + Let it suffice to display the points where Greek found itself in harmony + with Australian, and American, and African practice. These points are: (1) + mystic dances; (2) the use of a little instrument, called turndun in + Australia, whereby a roaring noise is made, and the profane are warned + off; (3) the habit of daubing persons about to be initiated with clay or + anything else that is sordid, and of washing this off; apparently by way + of showing that old guilt is removed and a new life entered upon; (4) the + performances with serpents may be noticed, while the "mad doings" and + "howlings" mentioned by Plutarch are familiar to every reader of travels + in uncivilised countries; (5) ethical instruction is communicated. + </p> + <p> + First, as to the mystic dances, Lucian observes:(1) "You cannot find a + single ancient mystery in which there is not dancing.... This much all men + know, that most people say of the revealers of the mysteries that they + 'dance them out'" ((Greek text omitted)). Clemens of Alexandria uses the + same term when speaking of his own "appalling revelations".(2) So closely + connected are mysteries with dancing among savages, that when Mr. Orpen + asked Qing, the Bushman hunter, about some doctrines in which Qing was not + initiated, he said: "Only the initiated men of that dance know these + things". To "dance" this or that means to be acquainted with this or that + myth, which is represented in a dance or ballet d'action(3) ((Greek text + omitted)). So widely distributed is the practice, that Acosta, in an + interesting passage, mentions it as familiar to the people of Peru before + and after the Spanish conquest. The text is a valuable instance of + survival in religion. When they were converted to Christianity the + Peruvians detected the analogy between our sacrament and their mysteries, + and they kept up as much as possible of the old rite in the new ritual. + Just as the mystae of Eleusis practised chastity, abstaining from certain + food, and above all from beans, before the great Pagan sacrament, so did + the Indians. "To prepare themselves all the people fasted two days, during + which they did neyther company with their wives, nor eate any meate with + salt or garlicke, nor drink any chic.... And although the Indians now + forbeare to sacrifice beasts or other things publikely, which cannot be + hidden from the Spaniardes, yet doe they still use many ceremonies that + have their beginnings from these feasts and auntient superstitions, for at + this day do they covertly make their feast of Ytu at the daunces of the + feast of the Sacrament. Another feast falleth almost at the same time, + whereas the Christians observe the solempnitie of the holy Sacrament, + which DOTH RESEMBLE IT IN SOME SORT, AS IN DAUNCING, SINGING AND + REPRESENTATIONS."(4) The holy "daunces" at Seville are under Papal + disapproval, but are to be kept up, it is said, till the peculiar dresses + used in them are worn out. Acosta's Indians also had "garments which + served only for this feast". It is superfluous to multiply examples of the + dancing, which is an invariable feature of savage as of Greek mysteries. + </p> + <p> + (1) (Greek text omitted), chap. xv. 277. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ap. Euseb., Praep. Ev., ii, 3, 6. + </p> + <p> + (3) Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + </p> + <p> + (4) Acosta, Historie of the Indies, book v. chap. xxviii. London, 1604. + </p> + <p> + 2. The Greek and savage use of the turndun, or bribbun of Australia in the + mysteries is familiar to students. This fish-shaped flat board of wood is + tied to a string, and whirled round, so as to cause a peculiar muffled + roar. Lobeck quotes from the old scholia on Clemens Alexandrinus, + published by Bastius in annotations on St. Gregory, the following Greek + description of the turndun, the "bull-roarer" of English country lads, the + Gaelic srannam:(1) (Greek text omitted)". "The conus was a little slab of + wood, tied to a string, and whirled round in the mysteries to make a + whirring noise. As the mystic uses of the turndun in Australia, New + Zealand, New Mexico and Zululand have elsewhere been described at some + length (Custom and Myth, pp. 28-44), it may be enough to refer the reader + to the passage. Mr. Taylor has since found the instrument used in + religious mysteries in West Africa, so it has now been tracked almost + round the world. That an instrument so rude should be employed by Greek + and Australians on mystic occasions is in itself a remarkable coincidence. + Unfortunately, Lobeck, who published the Greek description of the turndun + (Aglaophamus, 700), was unacquainted with the modern ethnological + evidence. + </p> + <p> + (1) Pronounced strantham. For this information I am indebted to my friend + Mr. M'Allister, schoolmaster at St. Mary's Loch. + </p> + <p> + 3. The custom of plastering the initiated over with clay or filth was + common in Greek as in barbaric mysteries. Greek examples may be given + first. Demosthenes accuses Aeschines of helping his mother in certain + mystic rites, aiding her, especially, by bedaubing the initiate with clay + and bran.(1) Harpocration explains the term used ((Greek text omitted)) + thus: "Daubing the clay and bran on the initiate, to explain which they + say that the Titans when they attacked Dionysus daubed themselves over + with chalk, but afterwards, for ritual purposes, clay was used". It may be + urged with some force that the mother of Aeschines introduced foreign, + novel and possibly savage rites. But Sophocles, in a fragment of his lost + play, the Captives, uses the term in the same ritual sense— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (Greek text omitted). +</pre> + <p> + (1) De Corona, 313. + </p> + <p> + The idea clearly was that by cleansing away the filth plastered over the + body was symbolised the pure and free condition of the initiate. He might + now cry in the mystic chant— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (Greek text omitted). + Worse have I fled, better have I found. +</pre> + <p> + That this was the significance of the daubing with clay in Greek mysteries + and the subsequent cleansing seems quite certain. We are led straight to + this conclusion by similar rites, in which the purpose of mystically + cleansing was openly put forward. Thus Plutarch, in his essay on + superstition, represents the guilty man who would be purified actually + rolling in clay, confessing his misdeeds, and then sitting at home + purified by the cleansing process ((Greek text omitted)).(1) In another + rite, the cleansing of blood-guiltiness, a similar process was practised. + Orestes, after killing his mother, complains that the Eumenides do not + cease to persecute him, though he has been "purified by blood of + swine".(2) Apollonius says that the red hand of the murderer was dipped in + the blood of swine and then washed.(3) Athenaeus describes a similar + unpleasant ceremony.(4) The blood of whelps was apparently used also, men + being first daubed with it and then washed clean.(5) The word (Greek text + omitted) is again the appropriate ritual term. Such rites Plutarch calls + (Greek text omitted), "filthy purifications".(6) If daubing with dirt is + known to have been a feature of Greek mysteries, it meets us everywhere + among savages. In O-Kee-Pa, that curiously minute account of the Mandan + mysteries, Catlin writes that a portion of the frame of the initiate was + "covered with clay, which the operator took from a wooden bowl, and with + his hand plastered unsparingly over". The fifty young men waiting for + initiation "were naked and entirely covered with clay of various + colours".(7) The custom is mentioned by Captain John Smith in Virginia. + Mr. Winwood Reade found it in Africa, where, as among the Mandans and + Spartans, cruel torture and flogging accompanied the initiation of young + men.(8) In Australia the evidence for daubing the initiate is very + abundant.(9) In New Mexico, the Zunis stole Mr. Cushing's black paint, as + considering it even better than clay for religious daubing.(10) + </p> + <p> + (1) So Hermann, op. cit., 133. + </p> + <p> + (2) Eumenides, 273. + </p> + <p> + (3) Argonautica, iv. 693. + </p> + <p> + (4) ix. 78. Hermann, from whom the latter passages are borrowed, also + quotes the evidence of a vase published by Feuerbach, Lehrbuch, p. 131, + with other authorities. + </p> + <p> + (5) Plutarch, Quaest. Rom., 68. + </p> + <p> + (6) De Superstitione, chap. xii. + </p> + <p> + (7) O-Kee-Pa, London, 1867, p. 21. + </p> + <p> + (8) Savage Africa, case of Mongilomba; Pausanias, iii. 15. + </p> + <p> + (9) Brough Smyth, i. 60. + </p> + <p> + (10) Custma and Myth, p. 40. + </p> + <p> + 4. Another savage rite, the use of serpents in Greek mysteries, is + attested by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Demosthenes (loc. cit.). Clemens + says the snakes were caressed in representations of the loves of Zeus in + serpentine form. The great savage example is that of "the snake-dance of + the Moquis," who handle rattle-snakes in the mysteries without being + harmed.(1) The dance is partly totemistic, partly meant, like the + Thesmophoria, to secure the fertility of the lands of the Moquis of + Arizonas. The turndum or (Greek text omitted) is employed. Masks are worn, + as in the rites of Demeter Cidiria in Arcadia.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) The Snake-Dance of the Moquis. By Captain John G. Bourke, London, + 1884. + </p> + <p> + (2) Pausanias, viii. 16. + </p> + <p> + 5. This last point of contact between certain Greek and certain savage + mysteries is highly important. The argument of Lobeck, in his celebrated + work Aglaophamus, is that the Mysteries were of no great moment in + religion. Had he known the evidence as to savage initiations, he would + have been confirmed in his opinion, for many of the singular Greek rites + are clearly survivals from savagery. But was there no more truly religious + survival? Pindar is a very ancient witness that things of divine import + were revealed. "Happy is he who having seen these things goes under the + hollow earth. He knows the end of life, and the god-given beginning."(1) + Sophocles "chimes in," as Lobeck says, declaring that the initiate alone + LIVE in Hades, while other souls endure all evils. Crinagoras avers that + even in life the initiate live secure, and in death are the happier. + Isagoras declares that about the end of life and all eternity they have + sweet hopes. + </p> + <p> + (1) Fragm., cxvi., 128 H. p. 265. + </p> + <p> + Splendida testimonia, cries Lobeck. He tries to minimise the evidence, + remarking that Isocrates promises the very same rewards to all who live + justly and righteously. But why not, if to live justly and righteously was + part of the teaching of the mysteries of Eleusis? Cicero's evidence, + almost a translation of the Greek passages already cited, Lobeck dismisses + as purely rhetorical.(1) Lobeck's method is rather cavalier. Pindar and + Sophocles meant something of great significance. + </p> + <p> + (1) De Legibus ii. 14; Aglaophamus, pp. 69-74. + </p> + <p> + Now we have acknowledged savage survivals of ugly rites in the Greek + mysteries. But it is only fair to remember that, in certain of the few + savage mysteries of which we know the secret, righteousness of life and a + knowledge of good are inculcated. This is the case in Australia, and in + Central Africa, where to be "uninitiated" is equivalent to being + selfish.(1) Thus it seems not improbable that consolatory doctrines were + expounded in the Eleusinia, and that this kind of sermon or exhortation + was no less a survival from savagery than the daubing with clay, and the + (Greek text omitted), and other wild rites. + </p> + <p> + (1) Making of Religion, pp. 193-197, 235. + </p> + <p> + We have now attempted to establish that in Greek law and ritual many + savage customs and usages did undeniably survive. We have seen that both + philosophical and popular opinion in Greece believed in a past age of + savagery. In law, in religion, in religious art, in custom, in human + sacrifice, in relics of totemism, and in the mysteries, we have seen that + the Greeks retained plenty of the usages now found among the remotest and + most backward races. We have urged against the suggestion of borrowing + from Egypt or Asia that these survivals are constantly found in local and + tribal religion and rituals, and that consequently they probably date from + that remote prehistoric past when the Greeks lived in village settlements. + It may still doubtless be urged that all these things are Pelasgic, and + were the customs of a race settled in Hellas before the arrival of the + Homeric Achaeans, and Dorians, and Argives, who, on this hypothesis, + adopted and kept up the old savage Pelasgian ways and superstitions. It is + impossible to prove or disprove this belief, nor does it affect our + argument. We allege that all Greek life below the surface was rich in + institutions now found among the most barbaric peoples. These + institutions, whether borrowed or inherited, would still be part of the + legacy left by savages to cultivated peoples. As this legacy is so large + in custom and ritual, it is not unfair to argue that portions of it will + also be found in myths. It is now time to discuss Greek myths of the + origin of things, and decide whether they are or are not analogous in + ideas to the myths which spring from the wild and ignorant fancy of + Australians, Cahrocs, Nootkas and Bushmen. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. GREEK COSMOGONIC MYTHS. + </h2> + <p> + Nature of the evidence—Traditions of origin of the world and man—Homeric, + Hesiodic and Orphic myths—Later evidence of historians, dramatists, + commentators—The Homeric story comparatively pure—The story in + Hesiod, and its savage analogues—The explanations of the myth of + Cronus, modern and ancient—The Orphic cosmogony—Phanes and + Prajapati—Greek myths of the origin of man—Their savage + analogues. + </p> + <p> + The authorities for Greek cosmogonic myth are extremely various in date, + character and value. The most ancient texts are the Iliad and the poems + attributed to Hesiod. The Iliad, whatever its date, whatever the place of + its composition, was intended to please a noble class of warriors. The + Hesiodic poems, at least the Theogony, have clearly a didactic aim, and + the intention of presenting a systematic and orderly account of the divine + genealogies. To neither would we willingly attribute a date much later + than the ninth century of our era, but the question of the dates of all + the epic and Hesiodic poems, and even of their various parts, is greatly + disputed among scholars. Yet it is nowhere denied that, however late the + present form of some of the poems may be, they contain ideas of extreme + antiquity. Although the Homeric poems are usually considered, on the + whole, more ancient than those attributed to Hesiod,(1) it is a fact worth + remembering that the notions of the origin of things in Hesiod are much + more savage and (as we hold) much more archaic than the opinions of Homer. + </p> + <p> + (1) Grote assigns his Theogony to circ. 750 A.D. The Thegony was taught to + boys in Greece, much as the Church Catechism and Bible are taught in + England; Aeschines in Ctesiph., 135, p. 73. Libanius, 400 years after + Christ (i. 502-509, iv. 874). + </p> + <p> + While Hesiod offers a complete theogony or genealogy of deities and + heroes, Homer gives no more than hints and allusions to the stormy past of + the gods. It is clear, however, that his conception of that past differed + considerably from the traditions of Hesiod. However we explain it, the + Homeric mythology (though itself repugnant to the philosophers from + Xenophanes downwards) is much more mild, pure and humane than the + mythology either of Hesiod or of our other Greek authorities. Some may + imagine that Homer retains a clearer and less corrupted memory than Hesiod + possessed of an original and authentic "divine tradition". Others may find + in Homer's comparative purity a proof of the later date of his epics in + their present form, or may even proclaim that Homer was a kind of + Cervantes, who wished to laugh the gods away. There is no conceivable or + inconceivable theory about Homer that has not its advocates. For + ourselves, we hold that the divine genius of Homer, though working in an + age distant rather than "early," selected instinctively the purer mythical + materials, and burned away the coarser dross of antique legend, leaving + little but the gold which is comparatively refined. + </p> + <p> + We must remember that it does not follow that any mythical ideas are later + than the age of Homer because we first meet them in poems of a later date. + We have already seen that though the Brahmanas are much later in date of + compilation than the Veda, yet a tradition which we first find in the + Brahmanas may be older than the time at which the Veda was compiled. In + the same way, as Mr. Max Muller observes, "we know that certain ideas + which we find in later writers do not occur in Homer. But it does not + follow at all that such ideas are all of later growth or possess a + secondary character. One myth may have belonged to one tribe; one god may + have had his chief worship in one locality; and our becoming acquainted + with these through a later poet does not in the least prove their later + origin."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Hibbert Lectures, pp. 130, 131. + </p> + <p> + After Homer and Hesiod, our most ancient authorities for Greek cosmogonic + myths are probably the so-called Orphic fragments. Concerning the dates + and the manner of growth of these poems volumes of erudition have been + compiled. As Homer is silent about Orpheus (in spite of the position which + the mythical Thracian bard acquired as the inventor of letters and magic + and the father of the mysteries), it has been usual to regard the Orphic + ideas as of late introduction. We may agree with Grote and Lobeck that + these ideas and the ascetic "Orphic mode of life" first acquired + importance in Greece about the time of Epimenides, or, roughly speaking, + between 620 and 500 B.C.(1) That age certainly witnessed a curious growth + of superstitious fears and of mystic ceremonies intended to mitigate + spiritual terrors. Greece was becoming more intimately acquainted with + Egypt and with Asia, and was comparing her own religion with the beliefs + and rites of other peoples. The times and the minds of men were being + prepared for the clear philosophies that soon "on Argive heights divinely + sang". Just as, when the old world was about to accept Christianity, a + deluge of Oriental and barbaric superstitions swept across men's minds, so + immediately before the dawn of Greek philosophy there came an irruption of + mysticism and of spiritual fears. We may suppose that the Orphic poems + were collected, edited and probably interpolated, in this dark hour of + Greece. "To me," says Lobeck, "it appears that the verses may be referred + to the age of Onomacritus, an age curious in the writings of ancient + poets, and attracted by the allurements of mystic religions." The style of + the surviving fragments is sufficiently pure and epic; the strange unheard + of myths are unlike those which the Alexandrian poets drew from fountains + long lost.(2) But how much in the Orphic myths is imported from Asia or + Egypt, how much is the invention of literary forgers like Onomacritus, how + much should be regarded as the first guesses of the physical + poet-philosophers, and how much is truly ancient popular legend recast in + literary form, it is impossible with certainty to determine. + </p> + <p> + (1) Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. 317; Grote, iii. 86. + </p> + <p> + (2) Aglaophamus, i. 611. + </p> + <p> + We must not regard a myth as necessarily late or necessarily foreign + because we first meet it in an "Orphic composition". If the myth be one of + the sort which encounter us in every quarter, nay, in every obscure nook + of the globe, we may plausibly regard it as ancient. If it bear the + distinct marks of being a Neo-platonic pastiche, we may reject it without + hesitation. On the whole, however, our Orphic authorities can never be + quoted with much satisfaction. The later sources of evidence for Greek + myths are not of great use to the student of cosmogonic legend, though + invaluable when we come to treat of the established dynasty of gods, the + heroes and the "culture-heroes". For these the authorities are the whole + range of Greek literature, poets, dramatists, philosophers, critics, + historians and travellers. We have also the notes and comments of the + scholiasts or commentators on the poets and dramatists. Sometimes these + annotators only darken counsel by their guesses. Sometimes perhaps, + especially in the scholia on the Iliad and Odyssey, they furnish us with a + precious myth or popular marchen not otherwise recorded. The regular + professional mythographi, again, of whom Apollodorus (150 B.C.) is the + type, compiled manuals explanatory of the myths which were alluded to by + the poets. The scholiasts and mythographi often retain myths from lost + poems and lost plays. Finally, from the travellers and historians we + occasionally glean examples of the tales ("holy chapters," as Mr. Grote + calls them) which were narrated by priests and temple officials to the + pilgrims who visited the sacred shrines. + </p> + <p> + These "chapters" are almost invariably puerile, savage and obscene. They + bear the stamp of extreme antiquity, because they never, as a rule, passed + through the purifying medium of literature. There were many myths too + crude and archaic for the purposes of poetry and of the drama. These were + handed down from local priest to local priest, with the inviolability of + sacred and immutable tradition. We have already given a reason for + assigning a high antiquity to the local temple myths. Just as Greeks lived + in villages before they gathered into towns, so their gods were gods of + villages or tribes before they were national deities. The local myths are + those of the archaic village state of "culture," more ancient, more + savage, than literary narrative. Very frequently the local legends were + subjected to the process of allegorical interpretation, as men became + alive to the monstrosity of their unsophisticated meaning. Often they + proved too savage for our authorities, who merely remark, "Concerning this + a certain holy chapter is told," but decline to record the legend. In the + same way missionaries, with mistaken delicacy, often refuse to repeat some + savage legend with which they are acquainted. + </p> + <p> + The latest sort of testimony as to Greek myths must be sought in the + writings of the heathen apologists or learned Pagan defenders of Paganism + in the first centuries during Christianity, and in the works of their + opponents, the fathers of the Church. Though the fathers certainly do not + understate the abominations of Paganism, and though the heathen apologists + make free use of allegorical (and impossible) interpretations, the + evidence of both is often useful and important. The testimony of ancient + art, vases, statues, pictures and the descriptions of these where they no + longer survive, are also of service and interest. + </p> + <p> + After this brief examination of the sources of our knowledge of Greek + myth, we may approach the Homeric legends of the origin of things and the + world's beginning. In Homer these matters are only referred to + incidentally. He more than once calls Oceanus (that is, the fabled stream + which flows all round the world, here regarded as a PERSON) "the origin of + the gods," "the origin of all things".(1) That Ocean is considered a + person, and that he is not an allegory for water or the aqueous element, + appears from the speech of Hera to Aphrodite: "I am going to visit the + limits of the bountiful earth, and Oceanus, father of the gods, and mother + Tethys, who reared me duly and nurtured me in their halls, when far-seeing + Zeus imprisoned Cronus beneath the earth and the unvintaged sea".(2) Homer + does not appear to know Uranus as the father of Cronus, and thus the myth + of the mutilation of Uranus necessarily does not occur in Homer. Cronus, + the head of the dynasty which preceded that of Zeus, is described(3) as + the son of Rhea, but nothing is said of his father. The passage contains + the account which Poseidon himself chose to give of the war in heaven: + "Three brethren are we, and sons of Cronus whom Rhea bare—Zeus and + myself, and Hades is the third, the ruler of the folk in the underworld. + And in three lots were all things divided, and each drew a domain of his + own." Here Zeus is the ELDEST son of Cronus. Though lots are drawn at + hazard for the property of the father (which we know to have been + customary in Homer's time), yet throughout the Iliad Zeus constantly + claims the respect and obedience due to him by right of primogeniture.(4) + We shall see that Hesiod adopts exactly the opposite view. Zeus is the + YOUNGEST child of Cronus. His supremacy is an example of jungsten recht, + the wide-spread custom which makes the youngest child the heir in + chief.(5) But how did the sons of Cronus come to have his property in + their hands to divide? By right of successful rebellion, when "Zeus + imprisoned Cronus beneath the earth and the unvintaged sea". With Cronus + in his imprisonment are the Titans. That is all that Homer cares to tell + about the absolute beginning of things and the first dynasty of rulers of + Olympus. His interest is all in the actual reigning family, that of the + Cronidae, nor is he fond of reporting their youthful excesses. + </p> + <p> + (1) Iliad, xiv. 201, 302, 246. + </p> + <p> + (2) In reading what Homer and Hesiod report about these matters, we must + remember that all the forces and phenomena are conceived of by them as + PERSONS. In this regard the archaic and savage view of all things as + personal and human is preserved. "I maintain," says Grote, "moreover, + fully the character of these great divine agents as persons, which is the + light in which they presented themselves to the Homeric or Hesiodic + audience. Uranus, Nyx, Hypnos and Oneiros (heaven, night, sleep and dream) + are persons just as much as Zeus or Apollo. To resolve them into mere + allegories is unsafe and unprofitable. We then depart from the point of + view of the original hearers without acquiring any consistent or + philosophical point of view of our own." This holds good though portions + of the Hesiodic genealogies are distinctly poetic allegories cast in the + mould or the ancient personal theory of things. + </p> + <p> + (3) Iliad, xv. 187. + </p> + <p> + (4) The custom by which sons drew lots for equal shares of their dead + father's property is described in Odyssey, xiv. 199-212. Here Odysseus, + giving a false account of himself, says that he was a Cretan, a bastard, + and that his half-brothers, born in wedlock, drew lots for their father's + inheritance, and did not admit him to the drawing, but gave him a small + portion apart. + </p> + <p> + (5) See Elton, Origins of English History, pp. 185-207. + </p> + <p> + We now turn from Homer's incidental allusions to the ample and systematic + narrative of Hesiod. As Mr. Grote says, "Men habitually took their + information respecting their theogonic antiquities from the Hesiodic + poems." Hesiod was accepted as an authority both by the pious Pausanias in + the second century of our era—who protested against any attempt to + alter stories about the gods—and by moral reformers like Plato and + Xenophanes, who were revolted by the ancient legends,(1) and, indeed, + denied their truth. Yet, though Hesiod represents Greek orthodoxy, we have + observed that Homer (whose epics are probably still more ancient) steadily + ignores the more barbarous portions of Hesiod's narrative. Thus the + question arises: Are the stories of Hesiod's invention, and later than + Homer, or does Homer's genius half-unconsciously purify materials like + those which Hesiod presents in the crudest form? Mr. Grote says: "How far + these stories are the invention of Hesiod himself it is impossible to + determine. They bring us down to a cast of fancy more coarse and + indelicate than the Homeric, and more nearly resemble some of the holy + chapters ((Greek text omitted)) of the more recent mysteries, such, for + example, as the tale of Dionysus Zagreus. There is evidence in the + Theogony itself that the author was acquainted with local legends current + both at Krete and at Delphi, for he mentions both the mountain-cave in + Krete wherein the newly-born Zeus was hidden, and the stone near the + Delphian temple—the identical stone which Kronos had swallowed—placed + by Zeus himself as a sign and marvel to mortal men. Both these monuments, + which the poet expressly refers to, and had probably seen, imply a whole + train of accessory and explanatory local legends, current probably among + the priests of Krete and Delphi." + </p> + <p> + (1) Timaeeus, 41; Republic, 377. + </p> + <p> + All these circumstances appear to be good evidence of the great antiquity + of the legends recorded by Hesiod. In the first place, arguing merely a + priori, it is extremely improbable that in the brief interval between the + date of the comparatively pure and noble mythology of the Iliad and the + much ruder Theogony of Hesiod men INVENTED stories like the mutilation of + Uranus, and the swallowing of his offspring by Cronus. The former legend + is almost exactly parallel, as has already been shown, to the myth of Papa + and Rangi in New Zealand. The later has its parallels among the savage + Bushmen and Australians. It is highly improbable that men in an age so + civilised as that of Homer invented myths as hideous as those of the + lowest savages. But if we take these myths to be, not new inventions, but + the sacred stories of local priesthoods, their antiquity is probably + incalculable. The sacred stories, as we know from Pausanias, Herodotus and + from all the writers who touch on the subject of the mysteries, were myths + communicated by the priests to the initiated. Plato speaks of such myths + in the Republic, 378: "If there is an absolute necessity for their + mention, a very few might hear them in a mystery, and then let them + sacrifice, not a common pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; this + would have the effect of very greatly diminishing the number of the + hearers". This is an amusing example of a plan for veiling the horrors of + myth. The pig was the animal usually offered to Demeter, the goddess of + the Eleusinian mysteries. Plato proposes to substitute some "unprocurable" + beast, perhaps a giraffe or an elephant. + </p> + <p> + To Hesiod, then, we must turn for what is the earliest complete literary + form of the Greek cosmogonic myth. Hesiod begins, like the New Zealanders, + with "the august race of gods, by earth and wide heaven begotten".(1) So + the New Zealanders, as we have seen, say, "The heaven which is above us, + and the earth which is beneath us, are the progenitors of men and the + origin of all things". Hesiod(2) somewhat differs from this view by making + Chaos absolutely first of all things, followed by "wide-bosomed Earth," + Tartarus and Eros (love). Chaos unaided produced Erebus and Night; the + children of Night and Erebus are Aether and Day. Earth produced Heaven, + who then became her own lover, and to Heaven she bore Oceanus, and the + Titans, Coeeus and Crius, Hyperion and Iapetus, Thea and Rhea, Themis, + Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, "and youngest after these was born Cronus of + crooked counsel, the most dreadful of her children, who ever detested his + puissant sire," Heaven. There were other sons of Earth and Heaven + peculiarly hateful to their father,(3) and these Uranus used to hide from + the light in a hollow of Gaea. Both they and Gaea resented this treatment, + and the Titans, like "the children of Heaven and Earth," in the New + Zealand poem, "sought to discern the difference between light and + darkness". Gaea (unlike Earth in the New Zealand myth, for there she is + purely passive), conspired with her children, produced iron, and asked her + sons to avenge their wrongs.(4) Fear fell upon all of them save Cronus, + who (like Tane Mahuta in the Maori poem) determined to end the embraces of + Earth and Heaven. But while the New Zealand, like the Indo-Aryan myth,(5) + conceives of Earth and Heaven as two beings who have never previously been + sundered at all, Hesiod makes Heaven amorously approach his spouse from a + distance. This was the moment for Cronus,(6) who stretched out his hand + armed with the sickle of iron, and mutilated Uranus. As in so many savage + myths, the blood of the wounded god fallen on the ground produced strange + creatures, nymphs of the ash-tree, giants and furies. As in the Maori + myth, one of the children of Heaven stood apart and did not consent to the + deed. This was Oceanus in Greece,(7) and in New Zealand it was Tawhiri + Matea, the wind, "who arose and followed his father, Heaven, and remained + with him in the open spaces of the sky". Uranus now predicted(8) that + there would come a day of vengeance for the evil deed of Cronus, and so + ends the dynasty of Uranus. + </p> + <p> + (1) Theog., 45. + </p> + <p> + (2) Ibid., 116. + </p> + <p> + (3) Ibid., 155. + </p> + <p> + (4) Ibid., 166. + </p> + <p> + (5) Muir, v. 23, quoting Aitareya Brahmana, iv. 27: "These two worlds were + once joined; subsequently they separated". + </p> + <p> + (6) Theog., 175-185. + </p> + <p> + (7) Apollod., i, 15. + </p> + <p> + (8) Theog., 209. + </p> + <p> + This story was one of the great stumbling-blocks of orthodox Greece. It + was the tale that Plato said should be told, if at all, only to a few in a + mystery, after the sacrifice of some rare and scarcely obtainable animal. + Even among the Maoris, the conduct of the children who severed their + father and mother is regarded as a singular instance of iniquity, and is + told to children as a moral warning, an example to be condemned. In + Greece, on the other hand, unless we are to take the Euthyphro as wholly + ironical, some of the pious justified their conduct by the example of + Zeus. Euthyphro quotes this example when he is about to prosecute his own + father, for which act, he says, "Men are angry with ME; so inconsistently + do they talk when I am concerned and when the gods are concerned".(1) But + in Greek THE TALE HAS NO MEANING. It has been allegorised in various ways, + and Lafitau fancied that it was a distorted form of the Biblical account + of the origin of sin. In Maori the legend is perfectly intelligible. + Heaven and earth were conceived of (like everything else), as beings with + human parts and passions, linked in an endless embrace which crushed and + darkened their children. It became necessary to separate them, and this + feat was achieved not without pain. "Then wailed the Heaven, and exclaimed + the Earth, 'Wherefore this murder? Why this great sin? Why separate us?' + But what cared Tane? Upwards he sent one and downwards the other. He + cruelly severed the sinews which united Heaven and Earth."(2) The Greek + myth too, contemplated earth and heaven as beings corporeally united, and + heaven as a malignant power that concealed his children in darkness. + </p> + <p> + (1) Euthyphro, 6. + </p> + <p> + (2) Taylor, New Zealand, 119. + </p> + <p> + But while the conception of heaven and earth as parents of living things + remains perfectly intelligible in one sense, the vivid personification + which regarded them as creatures with human parts and passions had ceased + to be intelligible in Greece before the times of the earliest + philosophers. The old physical conception of the pair became a metaphor, + and the account of their rending asunder by their children lost all + significance, and seemed to be an abominable and unintelligible myth. When + examined in the light of the New Zealand story, and of the fact that early + peoples do regard all phenomena as human beings, with physical attributes + like those of men, the legend of Cronus, and Uranus, and Gaea ceases to be + a mystery. It is, at bottom, a savage explanation (as in the Samoan story) + of the separation of earth and heaven, an explanation which could only + have occurred to people in a state of mind which civilisation has + forgotten. + </p> + <p> + The next generation of Hesiodic gods (if gods we are to call the members + of this race of non-natural men) was not more fortunate than the first in + its family relations. + </p> + <p> + Cronus wedded his sister, Rhea, and begat Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, + and the youngest, Zeus. "And mighty Cronus swallowed down each of them, + each that came to their mother's knees from her holy womb, with this + intent that none other of the proud sons of heaven should hold his kingly + sway among the immortals. Heaven and Earth had warned him that he too + should fall through his children. Wherefore he kept no vain watch, but + spied and swallowed down each of his offspring, while grief immitigable + took possession of Rhea."(1) Rhea, being about to become the mother of + Zeus, took counsel with Uranus and Gaea. By their advice she went to + Crete, where Zeus was born, and, in place of the child, she presented to + Cronus a huge stone swathed in swaddling bands. This he swallowed, and was + easy in his mind. Zeus grew up, and by some means, suggested by Gaea, + compelled Zeus to disgorge all his offspring. "And he vomited out the + stone first, as he had swallowed it last."(2) The swallowed children + emerged alive, and Zeus fixed the stone at Pytho (Delphi), where + Pausanias(3) had the privilege of seeing it, and where, as it did not + tempt the cupidity of barbarous invaders, it probably still exists. It was + not a large stone, Pausanias says, and the Delphians used to pour oil over + it, as Jacob did(4) to the stone at Bethel, and on feast-days they covered + it with wraps of wool. The custom of smearing fetish-stones (which + Theophrastus mentions as one of the practices of the superstitious man) is + clearly a survival from the savage stage of religion. As a rule, however, + among savages, fetish-stones are daubed with red paint (like the face of + the wooden ancient Dionysi in Greece, and of Tsui Goab among the + Hottentots), not smeared with oil.(5) + </p> + <p> + (1) Theog., 460, 465. + </p> + <p> + (2) Theog., 498. + </p> + <p> + (3) x. 245. + </p> + <p> + (4) Gen. xxviii. 18. + </p> + <p> + (5) Pausanias, ii. 2, 5. "Churinga" in Australia are greased with the + natural moisture of the palm of the hand, and rubbed with red ochre.—Spencer + and Gillen. They are "sacred things," but not exactly fetishes. + </p> + <p> + The myth of the swallowing and disgorging of his own children by Cronus + was another of the stumbling-blocks of Greek orthodoxy. The common + explanation, that Time ((Greek text omitted)) does swallow his children, + the days, is not quite satisfactory. Time brings never the past back + again, as Cronus did. Besides, the myth of the swallowing is not confined + to Cronus. Modern philology has given, as usual, different analyses of the + meaning of the name of the god. Hermann, with Preller, derives it from + (Greek text omitted), to fulfil. The harvest-month, says Preller, was + named Cronion in Greece, and Cronia was the title of the harvest-festival. + The sickle of Cronus is thus brought into connection with the sickle of + the harvester.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Preller, Gr. Myth., i. 44; Hartung, ii. 48; Porphyry, Abst., ii. 54. + Welcker will not hear of this etymology, Gr. gott., i. 145, note 9. + </p> + <p> + The second myth, in which Cronus swallows his children, has numerous + parallels in savage legend. Bushmen tell of Kwai Hemm, the devourer, who + swallows that great god, the mantis insect, and disgorges him alive with + all the other persons and animals whom he has engulphed in the course of a + long and voracious career.(1) The moon in Australia, while he lived on + earth, was very greedy, and swallowed the eagle-god, whom he had to + disgorge. Mr. Im Thurn found similar tales among the Indians of Guiana. + The swallowing and disgorging of Heracles by the monster that was to slay + Hesione is well known. Scotch peasants tell of the same feats, but + localise the myth on the banks of the Ken in Galloway. Basutos, Eskimos, + Zulus and European fairy tales all possess this incident, the swallowing + of many persons by a being from whose maw they return alive and in good + case. + </p> + <p> + (1) Bleek, Bushman Folk-lore, pp. 6, 8. + </p> + <p> + A mythical conception which prevails from Greenland to South Africa, from + Delphi to the Solomon Islands, from Brittany to the shores of Lake + Superior, must have some foundation in the common elements of human + nature.(1) Now it seems highly probable that this curious idea may have + been originally invented in an attempt to explain natural phenomena by a + nature-myth. It has already been shown (chapter v.) that eclipses are + interpreted, even by the peasantry of advanced races, as the swallowing of + the moon by a beast or a monster. The Piutes account for the disappearance + of the stars in the daytime by the hypothesis that the "sun swallows his + children". In the Melanesian myth, dawn is cut out of the body of night by + Qat, armed with a knife of red obsidian. Here are examples(2) of + transparent nature-myths in which this idea occurs for obvious explanatory + purposes, and in accordance with the laws of the savage imagination. Thus + the conception of the swallowing and disgorging being may very well have + arisen out of a nature-myth. But why is the notion attached to the legend + of Cronus? + </p> + <p> + (1) The myth of Cronus and the swallowed children and the stone is + transferred to Gargantua. See Sebillot, Gargantua dans les Traditions + Populaires. But it is impossible to be certain that this is not an example + of direct borrowing by Madame De Cerny in her Saint Suliac, p. 69. + </p> + <p> + (2) Compare Tylor, Prim. Cult., i. 338. + </p> + <p> + That is precisely the question about which mythologists differ, as has + been shown, and perhaps it is better to offer no explanation. However + stories arise—and this story probably arose from a nature-myth—it + is certain that they wander about the world, that they change masters, and + thus a legend which is told of a princess with an impossible name in + Zululand is told of the mother of Charlemagne in France. The tale of the + swallowing may have been attributed to Cronus, as a great truculent deity, + though it has no particular elemental signification in connection with his + legend. + </p> + <p> + This peculiarly savage trick of swallowing each other became an inherited + habit in the family of Cronus. When Zeus reached years of discretion, he + married Metis, and this lady, according to the scholiast on Hesiod, had + the power of transforming herself into any shape she pleased. When she was + about to be a mother, Zeus induced her to assume the shape of a fly and + instantly swallowed her.(1) In behaving thus, Zeus acted on the advice of + Uranus and Gaea. It was feared that Metis would produce a child more + powerful than his father. Zeus avoided this peril by swallowing his wife, + and himself gave birth to Athene. The notion of swallowing a hostile + person, who has been changed by magic into a conveniently small bulk, is + very common. It occurs in the story of Taliesin.(2) Caridwen, in the shape + of a hen, swallows Gwion Bach, in the form of a grain of wheat. In the + same manner the princess in the Arabian Nights swallowed the Geni. Here + then we have in the Hesiodic myth an old marchen pressed into the service + of the higher mythology. The apprehension which Zeus (like Herod and King + Arthur) always felt lest an unborn child should overthrow him, was also + familiar to Indra; but, instead of swallowing the mother and concealing + her in his own body, like Zeus, Indra entered the mother's body, and + himself was born instead of the dreaded child.(3) A cow on this occasion + was born along with Indra. This adventure of the (Greek text omitted) or + swallowing of Metis was explained by the late Platonists as a Platonic + allegory. Probably the people who originated the tale were not Platonists, + any more than Pandarus was all Aristotelian. + </p> + <p> + (1) Hesiod, Theogonia, 886. See Scholiast and note in Aglaophamus, i. 613. + Compare Puss in Boots and the Ogre. + </p> + <p> + (2) Mabinogion, p. 473. + </p> + <p> + (3) Black Yajur Veda, quoted by Sayana. + </p> + <p> + After Homer and Hesiod, the oldest literary authorities for Greek + cosmogonic myths are the poems attributed to Orpheus. About their probable + date, as has been said, little is known. They have reached us only in + fragments, but seem to contain the first guesses of a philosophy not yet + disengaged from mythical conditions. The poet preserves, indeed, some + extremely rude touches of early imagination, while at the same time one of + the noblest and boldest expressions of pantheistic thought is attributed + to him. From the same source are drawn ideas as pure as those of the + philosophical Vedic hymn,(1) and as wild as those of the Vedic Purusha + Sukta, or legend of the fashioning of the world out of the mangled limbs + of Purusha. The authors of the Orphic cosmogony appear to have begun with + some remarks on Time ((Greek text omitted)). "Time was when as yet this + world was not."(2) Time, regarded in the mythical fashion as a person, + generated Chaos and Aether. The Orphic poet styles Chaos (Greek text + omitted), "the monstrous gulph," or "gap". This term curiously reminds one + of Ginnunga-gap in the Scandinavian cosmogonic legends. "Ginnunga-gap was + light as windless air," and therein the blast of heat met the cold rime, + whence Ymir was generated, the Purusha of Northern fable.(3) These ideas + correspond well with the Orphic conception of primitive space.(4) + </p> + <p> + (1) Rig-Veda, x. 90. + </p> + <p> + (2) Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. 470. See also the quotations from Proclus. + </p> + <p> + (3) Gylfi's Mocking. + </p> + <p> + (4) Aglaophamus, p. 473. + </p> + <p> + In process of time Chaos produced an egg, shining and silver white. It is + absurd to inquire, according to Lobeck, whether the poet borrowed this + widely spread notion of a cosmic egg from Phoenicia, Babylon, Egypt (where + the goose-god Seb laid the egg), or whether the Orphic singer originated + so obvious an idea. Quaerere ludicrum est. The conception may have been + borrowed, but manifestly it is one of the earliest hypotheses that occur + to the rude imagination. We have now three primitive generations, time, + chaos, the egg, and in the fourth generation the egg gave birth to Phanes, + the great hero of the Orphic cosmogony.(1) The earliest and rudest + thinkers were puzzled, as many savage cosmogonic myths have demonstrated, + to account for the origin of life. The myths frequently hit on the theory + of a hermaphroditic being, both male and female, who produces another + being out of himself. Prajapati in the Indian stories, and Hrimthursar in + Scandinavian legend—"one of his feet got a son on the other"—with + Lox in the Algonquin tale are examples of these double-sexed personages. + In the Orphic poem, Phanes is both male and female. This Phanes held + within him "the seed of all the gods,"(2) and his name is confused with + the names of Metis and Ericapaeus in a kind of trinity. All this part of + the Orphic doctrine is greatly obscured by the allegorical and + theosophistic interpretations of the late Platonists long after our era, + who, as usual, insisted on finding their own trinitarian ideas, commenta + frigidissima, concealed under the mythical narrative.(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Clemens Alexan., p. 672. + </p> + <p> + (2) Damascius, ap. Lobeck, i. 481. + </p> + <p> + (3) Aglaoph., i. 483. + </p> + <p> + Another description by Hieronymus of the first being, the Orphic Phanes, + "as a serpent with bull's and lion's heads, with a human face in the + middle and wings on the shoulders," is sufficiently rude and senseless. + But these physical attributes could easily be explained away as types of + anything the Platonist pleased.(1) The Orphic Phanes, too, was almost as + many-headed as a giant in a fairy tale, or as Purusha in the Rig-Veda. He + had a ram's head, a bull's head, a snake's head and a lion's head, and + glanced around with four eyes, presumably human.(2) This remarkable being + was also provided with golden wings. The nature of the physical + arrangements by which Phanes became capable of originating life in the + world is described in a style so savage and crude that the reader must be + referred to Suidas for the original text.(3) The tale is worthy of the + Swift-like fancy of the Australian Narrinyeri. + </p> + <p> + (1) Damascius, 381, ap. Lobeck, i. 484. + </p> + <p> + (2) Hermias in Phaedr. ap. Lobeck, i. 493. + </p> + <p> + (3) Suidas s. v. Phanes. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be easier or more delusive than to explain all this wild part + of the Orphic cosmogony as an allegorical veil of any modern ideas we + choose to select. But why the "allegory" should closely imitate the rough + guesses of uncivilised peoples, Ahts, Diggers, Zunis, Cahrocs, it is less + easy to explain. We can readily imagine African or American tribes who + were accustomed to revere bulls, rams, snakes, and so forth, ascribing the + heads of all their various animal patrons to the deity of their + confederation. We can easily see how such races as practise the savage + rites of puberty should attribute to the first being the special organs of + Phanes. But on the Neo-Platonic hypothesis that Orpheus was a seer of + Neo-Platonic opinions, we do not see why he should have veiled his ideas + under so savage an allegory. This part of the Orphic speculation is left + in judicious silence by some modern commentators, such as M. Darmesteter + in Les Cosmogonies Aryennes.(1) Indeed, if we choose to regard Apollonius + Rhodius, an Alexandrine poet writing in a highly civilised age, as the + representative of Orphicism, it is easy to mask and pass by the more stern + and characteristic fortresses of the Orphic divine. The theriomorphic + Phanes is a much less "Aryan" and agreeable object than the glorious + golden-winged Eros, the love-god of Apollonius Rhodius and + Aristophanes.(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) Essais Orientaux, p. 166. + </p> + <p> + (2) Argonautica, 1-12; Aves, 693. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, the Orphic fragments appear to contain survivals of savage + myths of the origin of things blended with purer speculations. The savage + ideas are finally explained by late philosophers as allegorical veils and + vestments of philosophy; but the interpretation is arbitrary, and varies + with the taste and fancy of each interpreter. Meanwhile the coincidence of + the wilder elements with the speculations native to races in the lowest + grades of civilisation is undeniable. This opinion is confirmed by the + Greek myths of the origin of Man. These, too, coincide with the various + absurd conjectures of savages. + </p> + <p> + In studying the various Greek local legends of the origin of Man, we + encounter the difficulty of separating them from the myths of heroes, + which it will be more convenient to treat separately. This difficulty we + have already met in our treatment of savage traditions of the beginnings + of the race. Thus we saw that among the Melanesians, Qat, and among the + Ahts, Quawteaht, were heroic persons, who made men and most other things. + But it was desirable to keep their performances of this sort separate from + their other feats, their introduction of fire, for example, and of various + arts. In the same way it will be well, in reviewing Greek legends, to keep + Prometheus' share in the making of men apart from the other stories of his + exploits as a benefactor of the men whom he made. In Hesiod, Prometheus is + the son of the Titan Iapetus, and perhaps his chief exploit is to play + upon Zeus a trick of which we find the parallel in various savage myths. + It seems, however, from Ovid(1) and other texts, that Hesiod somewhere + spoke of Prometheus as having made men out of clay, like Pund-jel in the + Australian, Qat in the Melanesian and Tiki in the Maori myths. The same + story is preserved in Servius's commentary on Virgil.(2) A different + legend is preserved in the Etymologicum Magnum (voc. Ikonion). According + to this story, after the deluge of Deucalion, "Zeus bade Prometheus and + Athene make images of men out of clay, and the winds blew into them the + breath of life". In confirmation of this legend, Pausanias was shown in + Phocis certain stones of the colour of clay, and "smelling very like human + flesh"; and these, according to the Phocians, were "the remains of the + clay from which the whole human race was fashioned by Prometheus".(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Ovid. Metam. i. 82. + </p> + <p> + (2) Eclogue, vi. 42. + </p> + <p> + (3) Pausanias, x. 4, 3. + </p> + <p> + Aristophanes, too, in the Birds (686) talks of men as (Greek text + omitted), figures kneaded of clay. Thus there are sufficient traces in + Greek tradition of the savage myth that man was made of clay by some + superior being, like Pund-jel in the quaint Australian story. + </p> + <p> + We saw that among various rude races other theories of the origin of man + were current. Men were thought to have come out of a hole in the ground or + a bed of reeds, and sometimes the very scene of their first appearance was + still known and pointed out to the curious. This myth was current among + races who regarded themselves as the only people whose origin needed + explanation. Other stories represented man as the fruit of a tree, or the + child of a rock or stone, or as the descendant of one of the lower + animals. Examples of these opinions in Greek legend are now to be given. + In the first place, we have a fragment of Pindar, in which the poet + enumerates several of the centres from which different Greek tribes + believed men to have sprung. "Hard it is to find out whether Alalkomeneus, + first of men, arose on the marsh of Cephissus, or whether the Curetes of + Ida first, a stock divine, arose, or if it was the Phrygian Corybantes + that the sun earliest saw—men like trees walking;" and Pindar + mentions Egyptian and Libyan legends of the same description.(1) The + Thebans and the Arcadians held themselves to be "earth-born". "The black + earth bore Pelasgus on the high wooded hills," says an ancient line of + Asius. The Dryopians were an example of a race of men born from ash-trees. + The myth of gens virum truncis et duro robore nata, "born of tree-trunk + and the heart of oak," had passed into a proverb even in Homer's time.(2) + Lucian mentions(3) the Athenian myth "that men grew like cabbages out of + the earth". As to Greek myths of the descent of families from animals, + these will be examined in the discussion of the legend of Zeus. + </p> + <p> + (1) Preller, Aus. Auf., p. 158. + </p> + <p> + (2) Virgil Aen., viii. 315; Odyssey, xix. 163; Iliad, ii. xxii. 120; + Juvenal, vi. 11. Cf. also Bouche Leclerq, De Origine Generis Humani. + </p> + <p> + (3) Philops. iii. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. SAVAGE DIVINE MYTHS. + </h2> + <p> + The origin of a belief in GOD beyond the ken of history and of speculation—Sketch + of conjectural theories—Two elements in all beliefs, whether of + backward or civilised races—The Mythical and the Religious—These + may be coeval, or either may be older than the other—Difficulty of + study—The current anthropological theory—Stated objections to + the theory—Gods and spirits—Suggestion that savage religion is + borrowed from Europeans—Reply to Mr. Tylor's arguments on this head—The + morality of savages. + </p> + <p> + "The question of the origin of a belief in Deity does not come within the + scope of a strictly historical inquiry. No man can watch the idea of GOD + in the making or in the beginning. We are acquainted with no race whose + beginning does not lie far back in the unpenetrated past. Even on the + hypothesis that the natives of Australia, for example, were discovered in + a state of culture more backward than that of other known races, yet the + institutions and ideas of the Australians must have required for their + development an incalculable series of centuries. The notions of man about + the Deity, man's religious sentiments and his mythical narratives, must be + taken as we find them. There have been, and are, many theories as to the + origin of the conception of a supernatural being or beings, concerned with + the fortunes of mankind, and once active in the making of the earth and + its inhabitants. There is the hypothesis of an original divine tradition, + darkened by the smoke of foolish mortal fancies. There is the hypothesis + of an innate and intuitive sensus numinis. There is the opinion that the + notion of Deity was introduced to man by the very nature of his knowledge + and perceptions, which compel him in all things to recognise a finite and + an infinite. There is the hypothesis that gods were originally ghosts, the + magnified shapes of ancestral spectres. There is the doctrine that man, + seeking in his early speculations for the causes of things, and conscious + of his own powers as an active cause, projected his own shadow on the + mists of the unknown, and peopled the void with figures of magnified + non-natural men, his own parents and protectors, and the makers of many of + the things in the world. + </p> + <p> + "Since the actual truth cannot be determined by observation and + experiment, the question as to the first germs of the divine conception + must here be left unanswered. But it is possible to disengage and examine + apart the two chief elements in the earliest as in the latest ideas of + Godhead. Among the lowest and most backward, as among the most advanced + races, there coexist the MYTHICAL and the RELIGIOUS elements in belief. + The rational factor (or what approves itself to us as the rational factor) + is visible in religion; the irrational is prominent in myth. The + Australian, the Bushman, the Solomon Islander, in hours of danger and + necessity 'yearns after the gods,' and has present in his heart the idea + of a father and friend. This is the religious element. The same man, when + he comes to indulge his fancy for fiction, will degrade this spiritual + friend and father to the level of the beasts, and will make him the hero + of comic or repulsive adventures. This is the mythical or irrational + element. Religion, in its moral aspect, always traces back to the belief + in a power that is benign and works for righteousness. Myth, even in Homer + or the Rig-Veda, perpetually falls back on the old stock of absurd and + immoral divine adventures.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) M. Knappert here, in a note to the Dutch translation, denies the + lowest mythical element to the Hebrews, as their documents have reached + us. + </p> + <p> + "It would be rash, in the present state of knowledge, to pronounce that + the germ of the serious Homeric sense of the justice and power of the + Divinity is earlier or later than the germ of the Homeric stories of gods + disguised as animals, or imprisoned by mortals, or kicked out of Olympus. + The rational and irrational aspects of mythology and religion may be of + coeval antiquity for all that is certainly known, or either of them, in + the dark backward of mortal experience, may have preceded the other. There + is probably no religion nor mythology which does not offer both aspects to + the student. But it is the part of advancing civilisation to adorn and + purify the rational element, and to subordinate and supersede the + irrational element, as far as religious conservatism, ritual and priestly + dogma will permit." + </p> + <p> + Such were the general remarks with which this chapter opened in the + original edition of the present work. But reading, reflection and certain + additions to the author's knowledge of facts, have made it seem advisable + to state, more fully and forcibly than before, that, in his opinion, not + only the puzzling element of myth, but the purer element of a religious + belief sanctioning morality is derived by civilised people from a remote + past of savagery. It is also necessary to draw attention to a singular + religious phenomena, a break, or "fault," as geologists call it, in the + religious strata. While the most backward savages, in certain cases, + present the conception of a Being who sanctions ethics, and while that + conception recurs at a given stage of civilisation, it appears to fade, or + even to disappear in some conditions of barbarism. Among some barbaric + peoples, such as the Zulus, and the Red Indians of French Canada when + first observed, as among some Polynesians and some tribes of Western and + Central Africa little trace of a supreme being is found, except a name, + and that name is even occasionally a matter of ridicule. The highest + religious conception has been reached, and is generally known, yet the + Being conceived of as creative is utterly neglected, while ghosts, or + minor gods, are served and adored. To this religious phenomenon (if + correctly observed) we must attempt to assign a cause. For this purpose it + is necessary to state again what may be called the current or popular + anthropological theory of the evolution of Gods. + </p> + <p> + That theory takes varying shapes. In the philosophy of Mr. Herbert Spencer + we find a pure Euhemerism. Gods are but ghosts of dead men, raised to a + higher and finally to the highest power. In the somewhat analogous but not + identical system of Mr. Tylor, man first attains to the idea of spirit by + reflection on various physical, psychological and psychical experiences, + such as sleep, dreams, trances, shadows, hallucinations, breath and death, + and he gradually extends the conception of soul or ghost till all nature + is peopled with spirits. Of these spirits one is finally promoted to + supremacy, where the conception of a supreme being occurs. In the lowest + faiths there is said, on this theory, to be no connection, or very little + connection, between religion and morality. To supply a religious sanction + of morals is the work of advancing thought.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Prim. Cult., ii. 381. Huxley's Science and Hebrew Tradition, pp. + 346,372. + </p> + <p> + This current hypothesis is, confessedly, "animistic," in Mr. Tylor's + phrase, or, in Mr. Spencer's terminology, it is "the ghost theory". The + human soul, says Mr. Tylor, has been the model on which all man's ideas of + spiritual beings, from "the tiniest elf" to "the heavenly Creator and + ruler of the world, the Great Spirit," have been framed.(1) Thus it has + been necessary for Mr. Tylor and for Mr. Spencer to discover first an + origin of man's idea of his own soul, and that supposed origin in + psychological, physical and psychical experiences is no doubt adequate. By + reflection on these facts, probably, the idea of spirit was reached, + though the psychical experiences enumerated by Mr. Tylor may contain + points as yet unexplained by Materialism. From these sources are derived + all really "animistic" gods, all that from the first partake of the nature + of hungry ghosts, placated by sacrifices of food, though in certain cases + that hunger may have been transferred, we surmise, by worshippers to gods + not ORIGINALLY animistic. + </p> + <p> + (1) Prim. Cult., ii. 109 + </p> + <p> + In answer to this theory of an animistic or ghostly origin of all gods, it + must first be observed that all gods are not necessarily, it would seem, + of animistic origin. Among certain of the lowest savages, although they + believe in ghosts, the animistic conception, the spiritual idea, is not + attached to the relatively supreme being of their faith. He is merely a + powerful BEING, unborn, and not subject to death. The purely metaphysical + question "was he a ghost?" does not seem always to have been asked. + Consequently there is no logical reason why man's idea of a Maker should + not be prior to man's idea that there are such things as souls, ghosts and + spirits. Therefore the animistic theory is not necessary as material for + the "god-idea". We cannot, of course, prove that the "god-idea" was + historically prior to the "ghost-idea," for we know no savages who have a + god and yet are ignorant of ghosts. But we can show that the idea of God + may exist, in germ, without explicitly involving the idea of spirit. Thus + gods MAY be prior in evolution to ghosts, and therefore the animistic + theory of the origin of gods in ghosts need not necessarily be accepted. + </p> + <p> + In the first place, the original evolution of a god out of a ghost need + not be conceded, because in perhaps all known savage theological + philosophy the God, the Maker and Master, is regarded as a being who + existed before death entered the world. Everywhere, practically speaking, + death is looked on as a comparatively late intruder. He came not only + after God was active, but after men and beasts had populated the world. + Scores of myths accounting for this invasion of death have been collected + all over the world.(1) Thus the relatively supreme being, or beings, of + religion are looked on as prior to Death, therefore, not as ghosts. They + are sometimes expressly distinguished as "original gods" from other gods + who are secondary, being souls of chiefs. Thus all Tongan gods are Atua, + but all Atua are not "original gods".(2) The word Atua, according to Mr. + White, is "A-tu-a". "A" was the name given to the author of the universe, + and signifies: "Am the unlimited in power," "The Conception," "the + Leader," "the Beyond All". "Tua" means "Beyond that which is most + distant," "Behind all matter," and "Behind every action". Clearly these + conceptions are not more mythical (indeed A does not seem to occur in the + myths), nor are they more involved in ghosts, than the unknown absolute of + Mr. Herbert Spencer. Yet the word Atua denotes gods who are recognised as + ghosts of chiefs, no less than it denotes the supreme existence.(3) These + ideas are the metaphysical theology of a race considerably above the + lowest level. They lend no assistance to a theory that A was, or was + evolved out of, a human ghost, and he is not found in Maori MYTHOLOGY as + far as our knowledge goes. But, among the lowest known savages, the + Australians, we read that "the Creator was a gigantic black, once on + earth, now among the stars". This is in Gippsland; the deities of the + Fuegians and the Blackfoot Indians are also Beings, anthropomorphic, + unborn and undying, like Mangarrah, the creative being of the Larrakeah + tribe in Australia. "A very good man called Mangarrah lives in the sky.... + He made everything" (blacks excepted). He never dies.(4) The Melanesian + Vui "never were men," were "something different," and "were NOT ghosts". + It is as a Being, not as a Spirit, that the Kurnai deity Munganngaur (Our + Father) is described.(5) In short, though Europeans often speak of these + divine beings of low savages as "spirits," it does not appear that the + natives themselves advance here the metaphysical idea of spirit. These + gods are just BEINGS, anthropomorphic, or (in myth and fable), very often + bestial, "theriomorphic".(6) It is manifest that a divine being envisaged + thus need not have been evolved out of the theory of spirits or ghosts, + and may even have been prior to the rise of the belief in ghosts. + </p> + <p> + (1) See Modern Mythology, "Myths of Origin of Death". + </p> + <p> + (2) Mariner, ii. 127. + </p> + <p> + (3) White, Ancient History of the Maoris, vol. i. p. 4; other views in + Gill's Myths of the Pacific. I am not committed to Mr. White's opinion. + </p> + <p> + (4) Journal Anthrop. Inst., Nov., 1894, p. 191. + </p> + <p> + (5) Ibid., 1886, p. 313. + </p> + <p> + (6) See Making of Religion, pp. 201-210, for a more copious statement. + </p> + <p> + Again, these powerful, or omnipotent divine beings are looked on as + guardians of morality, punishers of sin, rewarders of righteousness, both + in this world and in a future life, in places where ghosts, though + believed in, ARE NOT WORSHIPPED, NOR IN RECEIPT OF SACRIFICE, and where, + great grandfathers being forgotten, ancestral ghosts can scarcely swell + into gods. This occurs among Andamanese, Fuegians and Australians, + therefore, among non-ghost-worshipping races, ghosts cannot have developed + into deities who are not even necessarily spirits. These gods, again, do + not receive sacrifice, and thus lack the note of descent from hungry + food-craving ghosts. In Australia, indeed, while ghosts are not known to + receive any offerings, "the recent custom of providing food for it"—the + dead body of a friend—"is derided by the intelligent old aborigines + as 'white fellow's gammon'".(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 51, 1881. + </p> + <p> + The Australians possess no chiefs like "Vich Ian Vohr or Chingachgook" + whose ghosts might be said to swell into supreme moral deities. "Headmen" + they have, leaders of various degrees of authority, but no Vich Ian Vohr, + no semi-sacred representative of the tribe.(1) Nor are the ghosts of the + Headmen known to receive any particular posthumous attention or worship. + Thus it really seems impossible to show proof that Australian gods grew + out of Australian ghosts, a subject to which we shall return. + </p> + <p> + (1) Howitt, Organisation of Australian Tribes, pp. 101-113. "Transactions + of Royal Society of Victoria," 1889. + </p> + <p> + Some supporters of the current theory therefore fall back on the + hypothesis that the Australians are sadly degenerate.(1) Chiefs, it is + argued, or kings, they once had, and the gods are surviving ghosts of + these wholly forgotten potentates. To this we reply that we know not the + very faintest trace of Australian degeneration. Sir John Lubbock and Mr. + Tylor have correctly argued that the soil of Australia has not yet yielded + so much as a fragment of native pottery, nor any trace of native metal + work, not a vestige of stone buildings occurs, nor of any work beyond the + present native level of culture, unless we reckon weirs for fish-catching. + "The Australian boomerang," writes Mr. Tylor, "has been claimed as derived + from some hypothetical high culture, whereas the transition-stages through + which it is connected with the club are to be observed in its own country, + while no civilised race possesses the weapon."(2) + </p> + <p> + (1) See Prof. Menzie's History of Religion, pp. 16, 17, where a singular + inconsistency has escaped the author. + </p> + <p> + (2) Prim. Cult., i. 57, 67. + </p> + <p> + Therefore the Australian, with his boomerang, represents no degeneration + but advance on his ancestors, who had not yet developed the boomerang out + of the club. If the excessively complex nature of Australian rules of + prohibited degrees be appealed to as proof of degeneration from the stage + in which they were evolved, we reply that civilisation everywhere tends + not to complicate but to simplify such rules, as it also notoriously + simplifies the forms of language. + </p> + <p> + The Australian people, when discovered, were only emerging from + palaeolithic culture, while the neighbouring Tasmanians were frankly + palaeolithic.(1) Far from degenerating, the Australians show advance when + they supersede their beast or other totem by an eponymous human hero.(2) + The eponymous hero, however, changed with each generation, so that no one + name was fixed as that of tribal father, later perhaps to become a tribal + god. We find several tribes in which the children now follow the FATHER'S + class, and thus paternal kin takes the place of the usual early savage + method of reckoning kinship by the mother's side, elsewhere prevalent in + Australia. In one of these tribes, dwelling between the Glenelg and Mount + Napier, headmanship is hereditary, but nothing is said of any worship of + the ghosts of chiefs. All this social improvement denotes advance on the + usual Australian standard.(3) Of degeneration (except when produced + recently by European vices and diseases) I know no trace in Australia. + Their highest religious conceptions, therefore, are not to be disposed of + as survivals of a religion of the ghosts of such chiefs as the Australians + are not shown ever to have recognised. The "God idea" in Australia, or + among the Andamanese, must have some other source than the Ghost-Theory. + This is all the more obvious because not only are ghosts not worshipped by + the Australians, but also the divine beings who are alleged to form links + between the ghost and the moral god are absent. There are no departmental + gods, as of war, peace, the chase, love, and so forth. Sun, sky and earth + are equally unworshipped. There is nothing in religion between a Being, on + one hand (with a son or sons), and vague mischievous spirits, boilyas or + mrarts, and ghosts (who are not worshipped), on the other hand. The + friends of the idea that the God is an ancient evolution from the ghost of + such a chief as is not proved to have existed, must apparently believe + that the intermediate stages in religious evolution, departmental gods, + nature gods and gods of polytheism in general once existed in Australia, + and have all been swept away in a deluge of degeneration. That deluge left + in religion a moral, potently active Father and Judge. Now that conception + is considerably above the obsolescent belief in an otiose god which is + usually found among barbaric races of the type from which the Australians + are said to have degenerated. There is no proof of degeneracy, and, if + degeneration has occurred, why has it left just the kind of deity who, in + the higher barbaric culture, is not commonly found? Clearly this attempt + to explain the highest aspect of Australian religion by an undemonstrated + degeneration is an effort of despair. + </p> + <p> + (1) Tylor, preface to Ling Roth's Aborigines of Tasmania, pp. v.-viii. + </p> + <p> + (2) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 231. + </p> + <p> + (3) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 277, 278. + </p> + <p> + While the current theory thus appears to break down over the deities of + certain Australian tribes and of other low savages to be more particularly + described later, it is not more successful in dealing with what we have + called the "fault" or break in the religious strata of higher races. The + nature of that "fault" may thus be described: While the deities of several + low savage peoples are religiously regarded as guardians and judges of + conduct both in this life and in the next, among higher barbarians they + are often little, or not at all, interested in conduct. Again, while among + Australians, and Andamanese, and Fuegians, there is hardly a verifiable + trace, if any trace there be, of sacrifice to any divine being, among + barbarians the gods beneath the very highest are in receipt even of human + sacrifice. Even among barbarians the highest deity is very rarely + worshipped with sacrifice. Through various degrees he is found to lose all + claim on worship, and even to become a mere name, and finally a jest and a + mockery. Meanwhile ancestral ghosts, and gods framed on the same lines as + ghosts, receive sacrifice of food and of human victims. Once more, the + high gods of low savages are not localised, not confined to any temple or + region. But the gods of higher barbarians (the gods beneath the highest), + are localised in this way, as occasionally even the highest god also is. + </p> + <p> + All this shows that, among advancing barbarians, the gods, if they started + from the estate of gods among savages on the lowest level, become + demoralised, limited, conditioned, relegated to an otiose condition, and + finally deposed, till progressive civilisation, as in Greece, reinstates + or invents purer and more philosophic conceptions, without being able to + abolish popular and priestly myth and ritual. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, is a flaw or break in the strata of religion. What was the + cause of this flaw? We answer, the evolution, through ghosts, of + "animistic" gods who retained the hunger and selfishness of these + ancestral spirits whom the lowest savages are not known to worship. + </p> + <p> + The moral divine beings of these lowest races, beings (when religiously + regarded) unconditioned, in need of no gift that man can give, are not to + be won by offerings of food and blood. Of such offerings ghosts, and gods + modelled on ghosts, are notoriously in need. Strengthened and propitiated + by blood and sacrifice (not offered to the gods of low savages), the + animistic deities will become partisans of their adorers, and will either + pay no regard to the morals of their worshippers, or will be easily bribed + to forgive sins. Here then is, ethically speaking, a flaw in the strata of + religion, a flaw found in the creeds of ghost-worshipping barbarians, but + not of non-ghost-worshipping savages. A crowd of venal, easy-going, + serviceable deities has now been evolved out of ghosts, and Animism is on + its way to supplant or overlay a rude early form of theism. Granting the + facts, we fail to see how they are explained by the current theory which + makes the highest god the latest in evolution from a ghost. That theory + wrecks itself again on the circumstance that, whereas the tribal or + national highest divine being, as latest in evolution, ought to be the + most potent, he is, in fact, among barbaric races, usually the most + disregarded. A new idea, of course, is not necessarily a powerful or + fashionable idea. It may be regarded as a "fad," or a heresy, or a low + form of dissent. But, when universally known to and accepted by a tribe or + people, then it must be deemed likely to possess great influence. But that + is not the case; and among barbaric tribes the most advanced conception of + deity is the least regarded, the most obsolete. + </p> + <p> + An excellent instance of the difference between the theory here advocated, + and that generally held by anthropologists, may be found in Mr. + Abercromby's valuable work, Pre-and Proto-Historic Finns, i. 150-154. The + gods, and other early ideas, says Mr. Abercromby, "could in no sense be + considered as supernatural". We shall give examples of gods among the + races "nearest the beginning," whose attributes of power and knowledge can + not, by us at least, be considered other than "supernatural". "The gods" + (in this hypothesis) "were so human that they could be forced to act in + accordance with the wishes of their worshippers, and could likewise be + punished." These ideas, to an Australian black, or an Andamanese, would + seem dangerously blasphemous. These older gods "resided chiefly in trees, + wells, rivers and animals". But many gods of our lowest known savages live + "beyond the sky". Mr. Abercromby supposes the sky god to be of later + evolution, and to be worshipped after man had exhausted "the helpers that + seemed nearest at hand... in the trees and waters at his very door". Now + the Australian black has not a door, nor has he gods of any service to him + in the "trees and waters," though sprites may lurk in such places for + mischief. But in Mr. Abercromby's view, some men turned at last to the + sky-god, "who in time would gain a large circle of worshippers". He would + come to be thought omnipotent, omniscient, the Creator. This notion, says + Mr. Abercromby, "must, if this view is correct, be of late origin". But + the view is not correct. The far-seeing powerful Maker beyond the sky is + found among the very backward races who have not developed helpers nearer + man, dwelling round what would be his door, if door he was civilised + enough to possess. Such near neighbouring gods, of human needs, capable of + being bullied, or propitiated by sacrifice, are found in races higher than + the lowest, who, for their easily procurable aid, have allowed the Maker + to sink into an otiose god, or a mere name. Mr. Abercromby unconsciously + proves our case by quoting the example of a Samoyede. This man knew a + Sky-god, Num; that conception was familiar to him. He also knew a familiar + spirit. On Mr. Abercromby's theory he should have resorted for help to the + Sky-god, not to the sprite. But he did the reverse: he said, "I cannot + approach Num, he is too far away; if I could reach him I should not + beseech thee (the familiar spirit), but should go myself; but I cannot". + For this precise reason, people who have developed the belief in + accessible affable spirits go to them, with a spell to constrain, or a + gift to bribe, and neglect, in some cases almost forget, their Maker. But + He is worshipped by low savages, who do not propitiate ghosts and who have + no gods in wells and trees, close at hand. It seems an obvious inference + that the greater God is the earlier evolved. + </p> + <p> + These are among the difficulties of the current anthropological theory. + There is, however, a solution by which the weakness of the divine + conception, its neglected, disused aspect among barbaric races, might be + explained by anthropologists, without regarding it as an obsolescent form + of a very early idea. This solution is therefore in common use. It is + applied to the deity revealed in the ancient mysteries of the Australians, + and it is employed in American and African instances. + </p> + <p> + The custom is to say that the highest divine being of American or African + native peoples has been borrowed from Europeans, and is, especially, a + savage refraction from the God of missionaries. If this can be proved, the + shadowy, practically powerless "Master of Life" of certain barbaric + peoples, will have degenerated from the Christian conception, because of + that conception he will be only a faint unsuccessful refraction. He has + been introduced by Europeans, it is argued, but is not in harmony with his + new environment, and so is "half-remembered and half forgot". + </p> + <p> + The hypothesis of borrowing admits of only one answer, but that answer + should be conclusive. If we can discover, say in North America, a single + instance in which the supreme being occurs, while yet he cannot possibly + be accounted for by any traceable or verifiable foreign influence, then + the burden of proof, in other cases, falls on the opponent. When he urges + that other North American supreme beings were borrowed, we can reply that + our crucial example shows that this need not be the fact. To prove that it + is the fact, in his instances, is then his business. It is obvious that + for information on this subject we must go to the reports of the earliest + travellers who knew the Red Indians well. We must try to get at gods + behind any known missionary efforts. Mr. Tylor offers us the testimony of + Heriot, about 1586, that the natives of Virginia believed in many gods, + also in one chief god, "who first made other principal gods, and then the + sun, moon and stars as petty gods".(1) Whence could the natives of + Virginia have borrowed this notion of a Creator before 1586? If it is + replied, in the usual way, that they developed him upwards out of sun, + moon and star gods, other principal gods, and finally reached the idea of + the Creator, we answer that the idea of the Maker is found where these + alleged intermediate stages are NOT found, as in Australia. In Virginia + then, as in Victoria, a Creator may have been evolved in some other way + than that of gradual ascent from ghosts, and may have been, as in + Australia and elsewhere, prior to verifiable ghost-worship. Again, in + Virginia at our first settlement, the native priests strenuously resisted + the introduction of Christianity. They were content with their deity, + Ahone, "the great God who governs all the world, and makes the sun to + shine, creating the moon and stars his companions.... The good and + peaceable God... needs not to be sacrificed unto, for he intendeth all + good unto them." This good Creator, without sacrifice, among a settled + agricultural barbaric race sacrificing to other gods and ghosts, + manifestly cannot be borrowed from the newly arrived religion of + Christianity, which his priests, according to the observer, vigorously + resisted. Ahone had a subordinate deity, magisterial in functions, + "looking into all men's actions" and punishing the same, when evil. To + THIS god sacrifices WERE made, and if his name, Okeus, is derived from Oki + = "spirit," he was, of course, an animistic ghost-evolved deity. + Anthropological writers, by an oversight, have dwelt on Oki, but have not + mentioned Ahone.(2) Manifestly it is not possible to insist that these + Virginian high deities were borrowed, without saying whence and when they + were borrowed by a barbaric race which was, at the same time, rejecting + Christian teaching. + </p> + <p> + (1) Prim. Cult., ii. 341. + </p> + <p> + (2) History of Travaile into Virginia, by William Strachey, 1612. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Tylor writes, with his habitual perspicacity: "It is the widespread + belief in the Great Spirit, whatever his precise nature and origin, that + has long and deservedly drawn the attention of European thinkers to the + native religions of the North American tribes". Now while, in recent + times, Christian ideas may undeniably have crystallised round "the Great + Spirit," it has come to be thought "that THE WHOLE DOCTRINE of the Great + Spirit was borrowed by the savages from missionaries and colonists. But + this view will not bear examination," says Mr. Tylor.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Prim. Cult, ii. pp. 339, 340 (1873). For some reason, Mr. Tylor + modifies this passage in 1891. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Tylor proceeds to prove this by examples from Greenland, and the + Algonkins. He instances the Massachusett God, Kiehtan, who created the + other gods, and receives the just into heaven. This was recorded in 1622, + but the belief, says Winslow, our authority, goes back into the unknown + past. "They never saw Kiehtan, but THEY HOLD IT A GREAT CHARGE AND DUTY + THAT ONE AGE TEACH ANOTHER." How could a deity thus rooted in a + traditional past be borrowed from recent English settlers? + </p> + <p> + In these cases the hypothesis of borrowing breaks down, and still more + does it break down over the Algonkin deity Atahocan. + </p> + <p> + Father Le Jeune, S.J., went first among the Algonkins, a missionary + pioneer, in 1633, and suffered unspeakable things in his courageous + endeavour to win souls in a most recalcitrant flock. He writes (1633): "As + this savage has given me occasion to speak of their god, I will remark + that it is a great error to think that the savages have no knowledge of + any deity. I was surprised to hear this in France. I do not know their + secrets, but, from the little which I am about to tell, it will be seen + that they have such knowledge. + </p> + <p> + "They say that one exists whom they call Atahocan, who made the whole. + Speaking of God in a wigwam one day, they asked me 'what is God?' I told + them that it was He who made all things, Heaven and Earth. They then began + to cry out to each other, 'Atahocan! Atahocan! it is Atahocan!'" + </p> + <p> + There could be no better evidence that Atahocan was NOT (as is often said) + "borrowed from the Jesuits". The Jesuits had only just arrived. + </p> + <p> + Later (1634) Le Jeune interrogated an old man and a partly Europeanised + sorcerer. They replied that nothing was certain; that Atahocan was only + spoken of as "of a thing so remote," that assurance was impossible. "In + fact, their word Nitatohokan means, 'I fable, I tell an old story'." + </p> + <p> + Thus Atahocan, though at once recognised as identical with the Creator of + the missionary, was so far from being the latest thing in religious + evolution that he had passed into a proverb for the ancient and the + fabulous. This, of course, is inconsistent with RECENT borrowing. He was + neglected for Khichikouai, spirits which inspire seers, and are of some + practical use, receiving rewards in offerings of grease, says Le Jeune.(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Relations, 1633, 1634. + </p> + <p> + The obsolescent Atahocan seems to have had no moral activity. But, in + America, this indolence of God is not universal. Mr. Parkman indeed + writes: "In the primitive Indian's conception of a God, the idea of moral + good has no part".(1) But this is definitely contradicted by Heriot, + Strachey, Winslow, already cited, and by Pere Le Jeune. The good + attributes of Kiehtan and Ahone were not borrowed from Christianity, were + matter of Indian belief before the English arrived. Mr. Parkman writes: + "The moment the Indians began to contemplate the object of his faith, and + sought to clothe it with attributes, it became finite, and commonly + ridiculous". It did so, as usual, in MYTHOLOGY, but not in RELIGION. There + is nothing ridiculous in what is known of Ahone and Kiehtan. If they had a + mythology, and if we knew the myths, doubtless they would be ridiculous + enough. The savage mind, turned from belief and awe into the spinning of + yarns, instantly yields to humorous fancy. As we know, mediaeval popular + Christianity, in imagery, marchen or tales, and art, copiously illustrates + the same mental phenomenon. Saints, God, our Lord, and the Virgin, all + play ludicrous and immoral parts in Christian folk-tales. This is + Mythology, and here is, beyond all cavil, a late corruption of Religion. + Here, where we know the history of a creed, Religion is early, and these + myths are late. Other examples of American divine ideas might be given, + such as the extraordinary hymns in which the Zunis address the Eternal, + Ahonawilona. But as the Zuni religion has only been studied in recent + years, the hymns would be dismissed as "borrowed," though there is nothing + Catholic or Christian about them. We have preferred to select examples + where borrowing from Christianity is out of the question. The current + anthropological theory is thus confronted with American examples of ideas + of the divine which cannot have been borrowed, while, if the gods are said + to have been evolved out of ghosts, we reply that, in some cases, they + receive no sacrifice, sacrifice being usually a note of ghostly descent. + Again, similar gods, as we show, exist where ghosts of chiefs are not + worshipped, and as far as evidence goes never were worshipped, because + there is no evidence of the existence at any time of such chiefs. The + American highest gods may then be equally free from the taint of ghostly + descent. + </p> + <p> + (1) Parkman, The Jesuits in North America. p. lxxviii. + </p> + <p> + There is another more or less moral North American deity whose evolution + is rather questionable. Pere Brebeuf (1636), speaking of the Hurons, says + that "they have recourse to Heaven in almost all their necessities,... and + I may say that it is, in fact, God whom they blindly adore, for they + imagine that there is an Oki, that is, a demon, in heaven, who regulates + the seasons, bridles the winds and the waves of the sea, and helps them in + every need. They dread his wrath, and appeal to him as witness to the + inviolability of their faith, when they make a promise or treaty of peace + with enemies. 'Heaven hear us to-day' is their form of adjuration."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Relations, 1636, pp. 106, 107. + </p> + <p> + A spiritual being, whose home is heaven, who rides on the winds, whose + wrath is dreaded, who sanctions the oath, is only called "a demon" by the + prejudice of the worthy father who, at the same time, admits that the + savages have a conception of God—and that God, so conceived, is this + demon! + </p> + <p> + The debatable question is, was the "demon," or the actual expanse of sky, + first in evolution? That cannot precisely be settled, but in the analogous + Chinese case of China we find heaven (Tien) and "Shang-ti, the personal + ruling Deity," corresponding to the Huron "demon". Shang-ti, the personal + deity, occurs most in the oldest, pre-Confucian sacred documents, and, so + far, appears to be the earlier conception. The "demon" in Huron faith may + also be earlier than the religious regard paid to his home, the sky.(1) + The unborrowed antiquity of a belief in a divine being, creative and + sometimes moral, in North America, is thus demonstrated. So far I had + written when I accidentally fell in with Mr. Tylor's essay on "The Limits + of Savage Religion".(2) In that essay, rather to my surprise, Mr. Tylor + argues for the borrowing of "The Great Spirit," "The Great Manitou," from + the Jesuits. Now, as to the phrase, "Great Spirit," the Jesuits doubtless + caused its promulgation, and, where their teaching penetrated, shreds of + their doctrine may have adhered to the Indian conception of that divine + being. But Mr. Tylor in his essay does not allude to the early evidence, + his own, for Oki, Atahocan, Kiehtan, and Torngursak, all undeniably prior + to Jesuit influence, and found where Jesuits, later, did not go. As Mr. + Tylor offers no reason for disregarding evidence in 1892 which he had + republished in a new edition of Primitive Culture in 1891, it is + impossible to argue against him in this place. He went on, in the essay + cited (1892) to contend that the Australian god of the Kamilaroi of + Victoria, Baiame, is, in name and attributes, of missionary introduction. + Happily this hypothesis can be refuted, as we show in the following + chapter on Australian gods. + </p> + <p> + (1) See Tylor, Prim. Cult., ii. 362, and Making of Religion, p. 318; also + Menzies, History of Religion, pp. 108,109, and Dr. Legge's Chinese + Classics, in Sacred Books of the East, vols. iii., xxvii., xxviii. + </p> + <p> + (2) Journ. of Anthrop. Inst., vol. xxi., 1892. + </p> + <p> + It would be easy enough to meet the hypothesis of borrowing in the case of + the many African tribes who possess something approaching to a rude + monotheistic conception. Among these are the Dinkas of the Upper Nile, + with their neighbours, whose creed Russegger compares to that of modern + Deists in Europe. The Dinka god, Dendid, is omnipotent, but so benevolent + that he is not addressed in prayer, nor propitiated by sacrifice. Compare + the supreme being of the Caribs, beneficent, otiose, unadored.(1) A + similar deity, veiled in the instruction of the as yet unpenetrated + Mysteries, exists among the Yao of Central Africa.(2) Of the negro race, + Waitz says, "even if we do not call them monotheists, we may still think + of them as standing on the boundary of monotheism despite their + innumerable rude superstitions".(3) The Tshi speaking people of the Gold + Coast have their unworshipped Nyankupon, a now otiose unadored being, with + a magisterial deputy, worshipped with many sacrifices. The case is almost + an exact parallel to that of Ahone and Oki in America. THESE were not + borrowed, and the author has argued at length against Major Ellis's theory + of the borrowing from Christians of Nyankupon.(4) + </p> + <p> + (1) Rochefort, Les Isles Antilles, p. 415. Tylor, ii. 337. + </p> + <p> + (2) Macdonald, Africana, 1, 71, 72, 130, 279-301. Scott, Dictionary of the + Manganja Language, Making of Religion, pp. 230-238. A contradictory view + in Spencer, Ecclesiastical Institutions, p. 681. + </p> + <p> + (3) Anthropologie, ii. 167. + </p> + <p> + (4) Making of Religion, pp. 243-250. + </p> + <p> + To conclude this chapter, the study of savage and barbaric religions seems + to yield the following facts:— + </p> + <p> + 1. Low savages. No regular chiefs. Great beings, not in receipt of + sacrifice, sanctioning morality. Ghosts are not worshipped, though + believed in. Polytheism, departmental gods and gods of heaven, earth, sky + and so forth, have not been developed or are not found. + </p> + <p> + 2. Barbaric races. Aristocratic or monarchic. Ghosts are worshipped and + receive sacrifice. Polytheistic gods are in renown and receive sacrifice. + There is usually a supreme Maker who is, in some cases, moral, in others + otiose. In only one or two known cases (as in that of the Polynesian + Taaroa) is he in receipt of sacrifice. + </p> + <p> + 3. Barbaric races. (Zulus, monarchic with Unkulunkulu; some Algonquins + (feebly aristocratic) with Atahocan). Religion is mainly ancestor worship + or vague spirit worship; ghosts are propitiated with food. There are + traces of an original divine being whose name is becoming obsolescent and + a matter of jest. + </p> + <p> + 4. Early civilisations. Monarchic or aristocratic. (Greece, Egypt, India, + Peru, Mexico.) Polytheism. One god tends to be supreme. Religiously + regarded, gods are moral; in myth are the reverse. Gods are in receipt of + sacrifice. Heavenly society is modelled on that of men, monarchic or + aristocratic. Philosophic thought tends towards belief in one pure god, + who may be named Zeus, in Greece. + </p> + <p> + 5. The religion of Israel. Probably a revival and purification of the old + conception of a moral, beneficent creator, whose creed had been involved + in sacrifice and anthropomorphic myth. + </p> + <p> + In all the stages thus roughly sketched, myths of the lowest sort prevail, + except in the records of the last stage, where the documents have been + edited by earnest monotheists. + </p> + <p> + If this theory be approximately correct, man's earliest religious ideas + may very well have consisted, in a sense, of dependence on a supreme moral + being who, when attempts were made by savages to describe the modus of his + working, became involved in the fancies of mythology. How this belief in + such a being arose we have no evidence to prove. We make no hint at a + sensus numinis, or direct revelation. + </p> + <p> + While offering no hypothesis of the origin of belief in a moral creator we + may present a suggestion. Mr. Darwin says about early man: "The same high + mental faculties which first led man to believe in unseen spiritual + agencies, then in fetichism, polytheism and ultimately monotheism, would + infallibly lead him, so long as his reasoning powers remained poorly + developed, to various strange superstitions and customs".(1) Now, + accepting Mr. Darwin's theory that early man had "high mental faculties," + the conception of a Maker of things does not seem beyond his grasp. Man + himself made plenty of things, and could probably conceive of a being who + made the world and the objects in it. "Certainly there must be some Being + who made all these things. He must be very good too," said an Eskimo to a + missionary.(2) The goodness is inferred by the Eskimo from his own + contentment with "the things which are made".(3) + </p> + <p> + (1) Darwin, Descent of Man, i. p. 66. + </p> + <p> + (2) Cranz, i. 199. + </p> + <p> + (3) Romans, i. 19. + </p> + <p> + Another example of barbaric man "seeking after God" may be adduced. + </p> + <p> + What the Greenlander said is corroborated by what a Kaffir said. Kaffir + religion is mainly animistic, ancestral spirits receive food and sacrifice—there + is but an evanescent tradition of a "Lord in Heaven". Thus a very + respectable Kaffir said to M. Arbrousset, "your tidings (Christianity) are + what I want; and I was seeking before I knew you.... I asked myself + sorrowful questions. 'Who has touched the stars with his hands?... Who + makes the waters flow?... Who can have given earth the wisdom and power to + produce corn?' Then I buried my face in my hands." + </p> + <p> + "This," says Sir John Lubbock, "was, however, an exceptional case. As a + general rule savages do not set themselves to think out such + questions."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Origin of Civilisation, p. 201. + </p> + <p> + As a common fact, if savages never ask the question, at all events, + somehow, they have the answer ready made. "Mangarrah, or Baiame, Puluga, + or Dendid, or Ahone, or Ahonawilona, or Atahocan, or Taaroa, or Tui Laga, + was the maker." Therefore savages who know that leave the question alone, + or add mythical accretions. But their ancestors must have asked the + question, like the "very respectable Kaffir" before they answered it. + </p> + <p> + Having reached the idea of a Creator, it was not difficult to add that he + was "good," or beneficent, and was deathless. + </p> + <p> + A notion of a good powerful Maker, not subject to death because + necessarily prior to Death (who only invaded the world late), seems easier + of attainment than the notion of Spirit which, ex hypothesi, demands much + delicate psychological study and hard thought. The idea of a Good Maker, + once reached, becomes, perhaps, the germ of future theism, but, as Mr. + Darwin says, the human mind was "infallibly led to various strange + superstitions". As St. Paul says, in perfect agreement with Mr. Darwin on + this point, "they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish + heart was darkened". + </p> + <p> + Among other imaginations (right or wrong) was the belief in spirits, with + all that followed in the way of instituting sacrifices, even of human + beings, and of dropping morality, about which the ghost of a deceased + medicine-man was not likely to be much interested. The supposed nearness + to man, and the venal and partial character of worshipped gods and + ghost-gods, would inevitably win for them more service and attention than + would be paid to a Maker remote, unbought and impartial. Hence the + conception of such a Being would tend to obsolescence, as we see that it + does, and would be most obscured where ghosts were most propitiated, as + among the Zulus. Later philosophy would attach the spiritual conception to + the revived or newly discovered idea of the supreme God. + </p> + <p> + In all this speculation there is nothing mystical; no supernatural or + supernormal interference is postulated. Supernormal experiences may have + helped to originate or support the belief in spirits, that, however, is + another question. But this hypothesis of the origin of belief in a good + unceasing Maker of things is, of course, confessedly a conjecture, for + which historical evidence cannot be given, in the nature of the case. All + our attempts to discover origins far behind history must be conjectural. + Their value must be estimated by the extent to which this or that + hypothesis colligates the facts. Now our hypothesis does colligate the + facts. It shows how belief in a moral supreme being might arise before + ghosts were worshipped, and it accounts for the flaw in the religious + strata, for the mythical accretions, for the otiose Creator in the + background of many barbaric religions, and for the almost universal + absence of sacrifice to the God relatively supreme. He was, from his + earliest conception, in no need of gifts from men. + </p> + <p> + On this matter of otiose supreme gods, Professor Menzies writes, "It is + very common to find in savage beliefs a vague far-off god, who is at the + back of all the others, takes little part in the management of things, and + receives little worship. But it is impossible to judge what that being was + at an earlier time; he may have been a nature god, or a spirit who has by + degrees grown faint, and come to occupy this position." + </p> + <p> + Now the position which he occupies is usually, if not universally, that of + the Creator. He could not arrive at this rank by "becoming faint," nor + could "a nature-god" be the Maker of Nature. The only way by which we can + discover "what that being was at an earlier time" is to see what he IS at + an earlier time, that is to say, what the conception of him is, among men + in an earlier state of culture. Among them, as we show, he is very much + more near, potent and moral, than among races more advanced in social + evolution and material culture. We can form no opinion as to the nature of + such "vague, far-off gods, at the back of all the others," till we collect + and compare examples, and endeavour to ascertain what points they have in + common, and in what points they differ from each other. It then becomes + plain that they are least far away, and most potent, where there is least + ghostly and polytheistic competition, that is, among the most backward + races. The more animism the less theism, is the general rule. Manifestly + the current hypothesis—that all religion is animistic in origin—does + not account for these facts, and is obliged to fly to an undemonstrated + theory of degradation, or to an undemonstrated theory of borrowing. That + our theory is inconsistent with the general doctrine of evolution we + cannot admit, if we are allowed to agree with Mr. Darwin's statement about + the high mental faculties which first led man to sympathetic, and then to + wild beliefs. We do not pretend to be more Darwinian than Mr. Darwin, who + compares "these miserable and indirect results of our higher faculties" to + "the occasional mistakes of the instincts of the lower animals". + </p> + <p> + The opinion here maintained, namely, that a germ of pure belief may be + detected amidst the confusion of low savage faith, and that in a still + earlier stage it may have been less overlaid with fable, is in direct + contradiction to current theories. It is also in contradiction with the + opinions entertained by myself before I made an independent examination of + the evidence. Like others, I was inclined to regard reports of a moral + Creator, who observes conduct, and judges it even in the next life, as + rumours due either to Christian influence, or to mistake. I well know, + however, and could, and did, discount the sources of error. I was on my + guard against the twin fallacies of describing all savage religion as + "devil worship," and of expecting to find a primitive "divine tradition". + I was also on my guard against the modern bias derived from the + "ghost-theory," and Mr. Spencer's works, and I kept an eye on + opportunities of "borrowing".(1) I had, in fact, classified all known + idola in the first edition of this work, such as the fallacy of leading + questions and the chance of deliberate deception. I sought the earliest + evidence, prior to any missionary teaching, and the evidence of what the + first missionaries found, in the way of belief, on their arrival. I + preferred the testimony of the best educated observers, and of those most + familiar with native languages. I sought for evidence in native hymns + (Maori, Zuni, Dinka, Red Indian) and in native ceremonial and mystery, as + these sources were least likely to be contaminated. + </p> + <p> + (1) Making of Religion, p. 187. + </p> + <p> + On the other side, I found a vast body of testimony that savages had no + religion at all. But that testimony, en masse, was refuted by Roskoff, and + also, in places, by Tylor. When three witnesses were brought to swear that + they saw the Irishman commit a crime, he offered to bring a dozen + witnesses who did NOT see him. Negative evidence of squatters, sailors and + colonists, who did NOT see any religion among this or that race, is not + worth much against evidence of trained observers and linguists who DID + find what the others missed, and who found more the more they knew the + tribe in question. Again, like others, I thought savages incapable of such + relatively pure ideas as I now believe some of them to possess. But I + could not resist the evidence, and I abandoned my a priori notions. The + evidence forcibly attests gradations in the central belief. It is found in + various shades, from relative potency down to a vanishing trace, and it is + found in significant proportion to the prevalence of animistic ideas, + being weakest where they are most developed, strongest where they are + least developed. There must be a reason for these phenomena, and that + reason, as it seems to me, is the overlaying and supersession of a rudely + Theistic by an animistic creed. That one cause would explain, and does + colligate, all the facts. + </p> + <p> + There remains a point on which misconception proves to be possible. It + will be shown, contrary to the current hypothesis, that the religion of + the lowest races, in its highest form, sanctions morality. That morality, + again, in certain instances, demands unselfishness. Of course we are not + claiming for that doctrine any supernatural origin. Religion, if it + sanctions ethics at all, will sanction those which the conscience accepts, + and those ethics, in one way or other, must have been evolved. That the + "cosmical" law is "the weakest must go to the wall" is generally conceded. + Man, however, is found trying to reverse the law, by equal and friendly + dealing (at least within what is vaguely called "the tribe"). His + religion, as in Australia, will be shown to insist on this unselfishness. + How did he evolve his ethics? + </p> + <p> + "Be it little or be it much they get," says Dampier about the Australians + in 1688, "every one has his part, as well the young and tender as the old + and feeble, who are not able to get abroad as the strong and lusty." This + conduct reverses the cosmical process, and notoriously civilised society, + Christian society, does not act on these principles. Neither do the + savages, who knock the old and feeble on the head, or deliberately leave + them to starve, act on these principles, sanctioned by Australian + religion, but (according to Mr. Dawson) NOT carried out in Australian + practice. "When old people become infirm... it is lawful and customary to + kill them."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) Australian Aborigines, p. 62. + </p> + <p> + As to the point of unselfishness, evolutionists are apt to account for it + by common interest. A tribe in which the strongest monopolise what is best + will not survive so well as an unselfish tribe in the struggle for + existence. But precisely the opposite is true, aristocracy marks the more + successful barbaric races, and an aristocratic slave-holding tribe could + have swept Australia as the Zulus swept South Africa. That aristocracy and + acquisition of separate property are steps in advance on communistic + savagery all history declares. Therefore a tribe which in Australia + developed private property, and reduced its neighbours to slavery, would + have been better fitted to survive than such a tribe as Dampier describes. + </p> + <p> + This is so evident that probably, or possibly, the Dampier state of + society was not developed in obedience to a recognised tribal interest, + but in obedience to an affectionate instinct. "Ils s'entr' aiment les une + les autres," says Brebeuf of the Hurons.(1) "I never heard the women + complain of being left out of feasts, or that the men ate the best + portions... every one does his business sweetly, peaceably, without + dispute. You never see disputes, quarrels, hatred, or reproach among + them." Brebeuf then tells how a young Indian stranger, in a time of want, + stole the best part of a moose. "They did not rage or curse, they only + bantered him, and yet to take our meat was almost to take our lives." + Brebeuf wanted to lecture the lad; his Indian host bade him hold his + peace, and the stranger was given hospitality, with his wife and children. + "They are very generous, and make it a point not to attach themselves to + the goods of this world." "Their greatest reproach is 'that man wants + everything, he is greedy'. They support, with never a murmur, widows, + orphans and old men, yet they kill hopeless or troublesome invalids, and + their whole conduct to Europeans was the reverse of their domestic + behaviour." + </p> + <p> + (1) Relations, 1634, p. 29. + </p> + <p> + Another example of savage unselfish ethics may be found in Mr. Mann's + account of the Andaman Islanders, a nomad race, very low in culture. "It + is a noteworthy trait, and one which deserves high commendation, that + every care and consideration are paid by all classes to the very young, + the weak, the aged, and the helpless, and these being made special objects + of interest and attention, invariably fare better in regard to the + comforts and necessaries of daily life than any of the otherwise more + fortunate members of the community."(1) + </p> + <p> + (1) J. A. I., xii. p. 93. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Huxley, in his celebrated Romanes Lecture on "Evolution and Morality," + laid stress on man's contravention of the cosmic law, "the weakest must go + to the wall". He did not explain the evolution of man's opposition to this + law. The ordinary evolutionist hypothesis, that the tribe would prosper + most whose members were least self-seeking, is contradicted by all + history. The overbearing, "grabbing," aristocratic, individualistic, + unscrupulous races beat the others out of the field. Mr. Huxley, indeed, + alleged that the "influence of the cosmic process in the evolution of + society is the greater the more rudimentary its civilisation. Social + progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step and the + substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical + process.... As civilisation has advanced, so has the extent of this + interference increased...."(1) But where, in Europe, is the interference + so marked as among the Andamanese? We have still to face the problem of + the generosity of low savages. + </p> + <p> + (1) Ethics of Evolution, pp. 81-84. + </p> + <p> + It is conceivable that the higher ethics of low savages rather reflect + their emotional instincts than arise from tribal legislation which is + supposed to enable a "tribe" to prosper in the struggle for existence. As + Brebeuf and Dampier, among others, prove, savages often set a good example + to Christians, and their ethics are, in certain cases, as among the + Andamanese and Fuegians, and, probably among the Yao, sanctioned by their + religion. But, as Mr. Tylor says, "the better savage social life seems but + in unstable equilibrium, liable to be easily upset by a touch of distress, + temptation, or violence".(1) Still, religion does its best, in certain + cases, to lend equilibrium; though all the world over, religion often + fails in practice. + </p> + <p> + (1) Prim. Cult., i. 51. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1, by Andrew Lang + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION, VOL. 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 2832-h.htm or 2832-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/2832/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1 + +Author: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: September, 2001 [Etext #2832] +Posting Date: November 12, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION, VOL. 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION + +Volume One + + +By Andrew Lang + + +CONTENTS + + + PREFACE TO NEW IMPRESSION. + + PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + + CHAPTER I.--SYSTEMS OF MYTHOLOGY. + + Definitions of religion--Contradictory evidence--"Belief in + spiritual beings"--Objection to Mr. Tylor's definition--Definition + as regards this argument--Problem: the contradiction between + religion and myth--Two human moods--Examples--Case of Greece-- + Ancient mythologists--Criticism by Eusebius--Modern mythological + systems--Mr. Max Muller--Mannhardt. + + + CHAPTER II.--NEW SYSTEM PROPOSED. + + Chapter I. recapitulated--Proposal of a new method: Science of + comparative or historical study of man--Anticipated in part by + Eusebius, Fontenelle, De Brosses, Spencer (of C. C. C., Cambridge), + and Mannhardt--Science of Tylor--Object of inquiry: to find + condition of human intellect in which marvels of myth are parts of + practical everyday belief--This is the savage state--Savages + described--The wild element of myth a survival from the savage + state--Advantages of this method--Partly accounts for wide + DIFFUSION as well as ORIGIN of myths--Connected with general + theory of evolution--Puzzling example of myth of the water- + swallower--Professor Tiele's criticism of the method-- + Objections to method, and answer to these--See Appendix B. + + + CHAPTER III.--THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--CONFUSION WITH + NATURE--TOTEMISM. + + The mental condition of savages the basis of the irrational element + in myth--Characteristics of that condition: (1) Confusion of all + things in an equality of presumed animation and intelligence; + (2) Belief in sorcery; (3) Spiritualism; (4) Curiosity; (5) Easy + credulity and mental indolence--The curiosity is satisfied, thanks + to the credulity, by myths in answer to all inquiries--Evidence for + this--Mr. Tylor's opinion--Mr. Im Thurn--Jesuit missionaries' + Relations--Examples of confusion between men, plants, beasts and + other natural objects--Reports of travellers--Evidence from + institution of totemism--Definition of totemism--Totemism in + Australia, Africa, America, the Oceanic Islands, India, North Asia-- + Conclusions: Totemism being found so widely distributed, is a proof + of the existence of that savage mental condition in which no line + is drawn between men and the other things in the world. This + confusion is one of the characteristics of myth in all races. + + + CHAPTER IV.--THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--MAGIC-- + METAMORPHOSIS--METAPHYSIC--PSYCHOLOGY. + + Claims of sorcerers--Savage scientific speculation--Theory of + causation--Credulity, except as to new religious ideas--"Post hoc, + ergo propter hoc"--Fundamental ideas of magic--Examples: + incantations, ghosts, spirits--Evidence of rank and other + institutions in proof of confusions of mind exhibited in magical + beliefs. + + + CHAPTER V.--NATURE MYTHS. + + Savage fancy, curiosity and credulity illustrated in nature myths-- + In these all phenomena are explained by belief in the general + animation of everything, combined with belief in metamorphosis--Sun + myths, Asian, Australian, African, Melanesian, Indian, Californian, + Brazilian, Maori, Samoan--Moon myths, Australian, Muysca, Mexican, + Zulu, Macassar, Greenland, Piute, Malay--Thunder myths--Greek and + Aryan sun and moon myths--Star myths--Myths, savage and civilised, + of animals, accounting for their marks and habits--Examples of + custom of claiming blood kinship with lower animals--Myths of + various plants and trees--Myths of stones, and of metamorphosis + into stones, Greek, Australian and American--The whole natural + philosophy of savages expressed in myths, and survives in folk-lore + and classical poetry; and legends of metamorphosis. + + + CHAPTER VI.--NON-ARYAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + + Confusions of myth--Various origins of man and of things--Myths of + Australia, Andaman Islands, Bushmen, Ovaherero, Namaquas, Zulus, + Hurons, Iroquois, Diggers, Navajoes, Winnebagoes, Chaldaeans, + Thlinkeets, Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Aztecs, Peruvians-- + Similarity of ideas pervading all those peoples in various + conditions of society and culture. + + + CHAPTER VII.--INDO-ARYAN MYTHS--SOURCES OF EVIDENCE. + + Authorities--Vedas--Brahmanas--Social condition of Vedic India-- + Arts--Ranks--War--Vedic fetishism--Ancestor worship--Date of Rig- + Veda Hymns doubtful--Obscurity of the Hymns--Difficulty of + interpreting the real character of Veda--Not primitive but + sacerdotal--The moral purity not innocence but refinement. + + + CHAPTER VIII.--INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + + Comparison of Vedic and savage myths--The metaphysical Vedic + account of the beginning of things--Opposite and savage fable of + world made out of fragments of a man--Discussion of this hymn-- + Absurdities of Brahmanas--Prajapati, a Vedic Unkulunkulu or Qat-- + Evolutionary myths--Marriage of heaven and earth--Myths of Puranas, + their savage parallels--Most savage myths are repeated in Brahmanas. + + + CHAPTER IX.--GREEK MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND MAN. + + The Greeks practically civilised when we first meet them in Homer-- + Their mythology, however, is full of repulsive features--The + hypothesis that many of these are savage survivals--Are there other + examples of such survival in Greek life and institutions?--Greek + opinion was constant that the race had been savage--Illustrations + of savage survival from Greek law of homicide, from magic, + religion, human sacrifice, religious art, traces of totemism, and + from the mysteries--Conclusion: that savage survival may also be + expected in Greek myths. + + + CHAPTER X.--GREEK COSMOGONIC MYTHS. + + Nature of the evidence--Traditions of origin of the world and man-- + Homeric, Hesiodic and Orphic myths--Later evidence of historians, + dramatists, commentators--The Homeric story comparatively pure--The + story in Hesiod, and its savage analogues--The explanations of the + myth of Cronus, modern and ancient--The Orphic cosmogony--Phanes + and Prajapati--Greek myths of the origin of man--Their savage + analogues. + + + CHAPTER XI.--SAVAGE DIVINE MYTHS. + + The origin of a belief in GOD beyond the ken of history and of + speculation--Sketch of conjectural theories--Two elements in all + beliefs, whether of backward or civilised races--The Mythical and + the Religious--These may be coeval, or either may be older than the + other--Difficulty of study--The current anthropological theory-- + Stated objections to the theory--Gods and spirits--Suggestion that + savage religion is borrowed from Europeans--Reply to Mr. Tylor's + arguments on this head--The morality of savages. + + + + +PREFACE TO NEW IMPRESSION. + + +When this book first appeared (1886), the philological school of +interpretation of religion and myth, being then still powerful in +England, was criticised and opposed by the author. In Science, as on the +Turkish throne of old, "Amurath to Amurath succeeds"; the philological +theories of religion and myth have now yielded to anthropological +methods. The centre of the anthropological position was the "ghost +theory" of Mr. Herbert Spencer, the "Animistic" theory of Mr. E. R. +Tylor, according to whom the propitiation of ancestral and other spirits +leads to polytheism, and thence to monotheism. In the second edition +(1901) of this work the author argued that the belief in a "relatively +supreme being," anthropomorphic was as old as, and might be even older, +than animistic religion. This theory he exhibited at greater length, and +with a larger collection of evidence, in his Making of Religion. + +Since 1901, a great deal of fresh testimony as to what Mr. Howitt +styles the "All Father" in savage and barbaric religions has accrued. As +regards this being in Africa, the reader may consult the volumes of the +New Series of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, which are +full of African evidence, not, as yet, discussed, to my knowledge, by +any writer on the History of Religion. As late as Man, for July, 1906, +No. 66, Mr. Parkinson published interesting Yoruba legends about Oleron, +the maker and father of men, and Oro, the Master of the Bull Roarer. + +From Australia, we have Mr. Howitt's account of the All Father in his +Native Tribes of South-East Australia, with the account of the All +Father of the Central Australian tribe, the Kaitish, in North Central +Tribes of Australia, by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen (1904), also The +Euahlayi Tribe, by Mrs. Langley Parker (1906). These masterly books are +indispensable to all students of the subject, while, in Messrs. Spencer +and Gillen's work cited, and in their earlier Native Tribes of Central +Australia, we are introduced to savages who offer an elaborate animistic +theory, and are said to show no traces of the All Father belief. + +The books of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen also present much evidence as +to a previously unknown form of totemism, in which the totem is not +hereditary, and does not regulate marriage. This prevails among the +Arunta "nation," and the Kaitish tribe. In the opinion of Mr. Spencer +(Report Australian Association for Advancement of Science, 1904) and +of Mr. J. G. Frazer (Fortnightly Review, September, 1905), this is +the earliest surviving form of totemism, and Mr. Frazer suggests an +animistic origin for the institution. I have criticised these views in +The Secret of the Totem (1905), and proposed a different solution of the +problem. (See also "Primitive and Advanced Totemism" in Journal of the +Anthropological Institute, July, 1906.) In the works mentioned will be +found references to other sources of information as to these questions, +which are still sub judice. Mrs. Bates, who has been studying the +hitherto almost unknown tribes of Western Australia, promises a book +on their beliefs and institutions, and Mr. N. W. Thomas is engaged on +a volume on Australian institutions. In this place the author can only +direct attention to these novel sources, and to the promised third +edition of Mr. Frazer's The Golden Bough. + +A. L. + + + + +PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + + +The original edition of Myth, Ritual and Religion, published in 1887, +has long been out of print. In revising the book I have brought it +into line with the ideas expressed in the second part of my Making of +Religion (1898) and have excised certain passages which, as the book +first appeared, were inconsistent with its main thesis. In some cases +the original passages are retained in notes, to show the nature of the +development of the author's opinions. A fragment or two of controversy +has been deleted, and chapters xi. and xii., on the religion of the +lowest races, have been entirely rewritten, on the strength of more +recent or earlier information lately acquired. The gist of the book as +it stands now and as it originally stood is contained in the following +lines from the preface of 1887: "While the attempt is made to show that +the wilder features of myth survive from, or were borrowed from, or were +imitated from the ideas of people in the savage condition of +thought, the existence--even among savages--of comparatively pure, if +inarticulate, religious beliefs is insisted on throughout". To that +opinion I adhere, and I trust that it is now expressed with more +consistency than in the first edition. I have seen reason, more +and more, to doubt the validity of the "ghost theory," or animistic +hypothesis, as explanatory of the whole fabric of religion; and I +present arguments against Mr. Tylor's contention that the higher +conceptions of savage faith are borrowed from missionaries.(1) It is +very possible, however, that Mr. Tylor has arguments more powerful than +those contained in his paper of 1892. For our information is not yet +adequate to a scientific theory of the Origin of Religion, and probably +never will be. Behind the races whom we must regard as "nearest the +beginning" are their unknown ancestors from a dateless past, men as +human as ourselves, but men concerning whose psychical, mental and moral +condition we can only form conjectures. Among them religion arose, in +circumstances of which we are necessarily ignorant. Thus I only venture +on a surmise as to the germ of a faith in a Maker (if I am not to say +"Creator") and Judge of men. But, as to whether the higher religious +belief, or the lower mythical stories came first, we are at least +certain that the Christian conception of God, given pure, was presently +entangled, by the popular fancy of Europe, in new Marchen about the +Deity, the Madonna, her Son, and the Apostles. Here, beyond possibility +of denial, pure belief came first, fanciful legend was attached after. +I am inclined to surmise that this has always been the case, and, in the +pages on the legend of Zeus, I show the processes of degeneration, of +mythical accretions on a faith in a Heaven-God, in action. That "the +feeling of religious devotion" attests "high faculties" in early man +(such as are often denied to men who "cannot count up to seven"), and +that "the same high mental faculties... would infallibly lead him, +as long as his reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various +strange superstitions and customs," was the belief of Mr. Darwin.(2) +That is also my view, and I note that the lowest savages are not yet +guilty of the very worst practices, "sacrifice of human beings to a +blood-loving God," and ordeals by poison and fire, to which Mr. Darwin +alludes. "The improvement of our science" has freed us from misdeeds +which are unknown to the Andamanese or the Australians. Thus there was, +as regards these points in morals, degeneracy from savagery as society +advanced, and I believe that there was also degeneration in religion. +To say this is not to hint at a theory of supernatural revelation to the +earliest men, a theory which I must, in limine disclaim. + + +(1) Tylor, "Limits of Savage Religion." Journal of the Anthropological +Institute, vol. xxi. + +(2) Descent of Man, p. 68, 1871. + + +In vol. ii. p. 19 occurs a reference, in a note, to Mr. Hartland's +criticism of my ideas about Australian gods as set forth in the Making +of Religion. Mr. Hartland, who kindly read the chapters on Australian +religion in this book, does not consider that my note on p. 19 meets the +point of his argument. As to the Australians, I mean no more than that, +AMONG endless low myths, some of them possess a belief in a "maker +of everything," a primal being, still in existence, watching conduct, +punishing breaches of his laws, and, in some cases, rewarding the +good in a future life. Of course these are the germs of a sympathetic +religion, even if the being thus regarded is mixed up with immoral or +humorous contradictory myths. My position is not harmed by such myths, +which occur in all old religions, and, in the middle ages, new myths +were attached to the sacred figures of Christianity in poetry and +popular tales. + +Thus, if there is nothing "sacred" in a religion because wild or wicked +fables about the gods also occur, there is nothing "sacred" in almost +any religion on earth. + +Mr. Hartland's point, however, seems to be that, in the Making of +Religion, I had selected certain Australian beliefs as especially +"sacred" and to be distinguished from others, because they are +inculcated at the religious Mysteries of some tribes. His aim, then, is +to discover low, wild, immoral myths, inculcated at the Mysteries, and +thus to destroy my line drawn between religion on one hand and myth or +mere folk-lore on the other. Thus there is a being named Daramulun, of +whose rites, among the Coast Murring, I condensed the account of Mr. +Howitt.(1) From a statement by Mr. Greenway(2) Mr. Hartland learned +that Daramulun's name is said to mean "leg on one side" or "lame". He, +therefore, with fine humour, speaks of Daramulun as "a creator with a +game leg," though when "Baiame" is derived by two excellent linguists, +Mr. Ridley and Mr. Greenway, from Kamilaroi baia, "to make," Mr. +Hartland is by no means so sure of the sense of the name. It happens to +be inconvenient to him! Let the names mean what they may, Mr. Hartland +finds, in an obiter dictum of Mr. Howitt (before he was initiated), that +Daramulun is said to have "died," and that his spirit is now aloft. +Who says so, and where, we are not informed,(3) and the question is +important. + + +(1) J. A. I., xiii. pp. 440-459. + +(2) Ibid., xxi. p. 294. + +(3) Ibid., xiii. p. 194. + + +For the Wiraijuri, IN THEIR MYSTERIES, tell a myth of cannibal conduct +of Daramulun's, and of deceit and failure of knowledge in Baiame.(1) +Of this I was unaware, or neglected it, for I explicitly said that I +followed Mr. Howitt's account, where no such matter is mentioned. Mr. +Howitt, in fact, described the Mysteries of the Coast Murring, while +the narrator of the low myths, Mr. Matthews, described those of a +remote tribe, the Wiraijuri, with whom Daramulun is not the chief, but +a subordinate person. How Mr. Matthews' friends can at once hold that +Daramulun was "destroyed" by Baiame (their chief deity), and also that +Daramulun's voice is heard at their rites, I don't know.(2) Nor do I +know why Mr. Hartland takes the myth of a tribe where Daramulun is "the +evil spirit who rules the night,"(3) and introduces it as an argument +against the belief of a distant tribe, where, by Mr. Howitt's account, +Daramulun is not an evil spirit, but "the master" of all, whose abode +is above the sky, and to whom are attributed powers of omnipotence +and omnipresence, or, at any rate, the power "to do anything and to +go anywhere.... To his direct ordinances are attributed the social and +moral laws of the community."(4) This is not "an evil spirit"! When Mr. +Hartland goes for scandals to a remote tribe of a different creed +that he may discredit the creed of the Coast Murring, he might as well +attribute to the Free Kirk "the errors of Rome". But Mr. Hartland does +it!(5) Being "cunning of fence" he may reply that I also spoke loosely +of Wiraijuri and Coast Murring as, indifferently, Daramulunites. I did, +and I was wrong, and my critic ought not to accept but to expose my +error. The Wiraijuri Daramulun, who was annihilated, yet who is "an evil +spirit that rules the night," is not the Murring guardian and founder of +recognised ethics. + + +(1) J. A. I., xxv. p. 297. + +(2) Ibid., May, 1895, p. 419. + +(3) Ibid. + +(4) Ibid., xiii. pp. 458, 459. + +(5) Folk-Lore, ix., No. iv., p. 299. + + +But, in the Wiraijuri mysteries, the master, Baiame, deceives the women +as to the Mysteries! Shocking to US, but to deceive the women as to +these arcana, is, to the Australian mind in general, necessary for the +safety of the world. Moreover, we have heard of a lying spirit sent +to deceive prophets in a much higher creed. Finally, in a myth of +the Mystery of the Wiraijuri, Baiame is not omniscient. Indeed, even +civilised races cannot keep on the level of these religious conceptions, +and not to keep on that level is--mythology. Apollo, in the hymn to +Hermes, sung on a sacred occasion, needs to ask an old vine-dresser +for intelligence. Hyperion "sees all and hears all," but needs to be +informed, by his daughters, of the slaughter of his kine. The Lord, in +the Book of Job, has to ask Satan, "Whence comest thou?" Now for the +sake of dramatic effect, now from pure inability to live on the level of +his highest thought, man mythologises and anthropomorphises, in Greece +or Israel, as in Australia. + +It does not follow that there is "nothing sacred" in his religion. Mr. +Hartland offers me a case in point. In Mrs. Langloh Parker's Australian +Legendary Tales (pp. 11, 94), are myths of low adventures of Baiame. In +her More Australian Legendary Tales (pp. 84-99), is a very poetical +and charming aspect of the Baiame belief. Mr. Hartland says that I will +"seek to put" the first set of stories out of court, as "a kind of +joke with no sacredness about it". Not I, but the Noongahburrah tribe +themselves make this essential distinction. Mrs. Langloh Parker says:(1) +"The former series" (with the low Baiame myths) "were all such legends +as are told to the black picaninnies; among the present are some they +would not be allowed to hear, touching as they do on sacred things, +taboo to the young". The blacks draw the line which I am said to seek to +draw. + + +(1) More Legendary Tales, p. xv. + + +In yet another case(1) grotesque hunting adventures of Baiame are +told in the mysteries, and illustrated by the sacred temporary +representations in raised earth. I did not know it; I merely followed +Mr. Howitt. But I do not doubt it. My reply is, that there was +"something sacred" in Greek mysteries, something purifying, ennobling, +consoling. For this Lobeck has collected (and disparaged) the evidence +of Pindar, Sophocles, Cicero and many others, while even Aristophanes, +as Prof. Campbell remarks, says: "We only have bright sun and cheerful +life who have been initiated and lived piously in regard to strangers +and to private citizens".(2) Security and peace of mind, in this world +and for the next, were, we know not how, borne into the hearts of Pindar +and Sophocles in the Mysteries. Yet, if we may at all trust the Fathers, +there were scenes of debauchery, as at the Mysteries of the Fijians +(Nanga) there was buffoonery ("to amuse the boys," Mr. Howitt says of +some Australian rites), the story of Baubo is only one example, and, in +other mysteries than the Eleusinian, we know of mummeries in which an +absurd tale of Zeus is related in connection with an oak log. Yet surely +there was "something sacred" in the faith of Zeus! Let us judge the +Australians as we judge Greeks. The precepts as to "speaking the +straightforward truth," as to unselfishness, avoidance of quarrels, +of wrongs to "unprotected women," of unnatural vices, are certainly +communicated in the Mysteries of some tribes, with, in another, +knowledge of the name and nature of "Our Father," Munganngaur. That a +Totemistic dance, or medicine-dance of Emu hunting, is also displayed(3) +at certain Mysteries of a given tribe, and that Baiame is spoken of +as the hero of this ballet, no more deprives the Australian moral and +religious teaching (at the Mysteries) of sacred value, than the stupid +indecency whereby Baubo made Demeter laugh destroys the sacredness of +the Eleusinia, on which Pindar, Sophocles and Cicero eloquently dwell. +If the Australian mystae, at the most solemn moment of their lives, are +shown a dull or dirty divine ballet d'action, what did Sophocles see, +after taking a swim with his pig? Many things far from edifying, yet the +sacred element of religious hope and faith was also represented. So it +is in Australia. + + +(1) J. A. I., xxiv. p. 416. + +(2) Religion in Greek Literature, p. 259. It is to be regretted that the +learned professor gives no references. The Greek Mysteries are treated +later in this volume. + +(3) See A picture of Australia, 1829, p. 264. + + +These studies ought to be comparative, otherwise they are worthless. As +Mr. Hartland calls Daramulun "an eternal Creator with a game leg" who +"died," he may call Zeus an "eternal father, who swallowed his wife, +lay with his mother and sister, made love as a swan, and died, nay, was +buried, in Crete". I do not think that Mr. Hartland would call Zeus "a +ghost-god" (my own phrase), or think that he was scoring a point against +me, if I spoke of the sacred and ethical characteristics of the Zeus +adored by Eumaeus in the Odyssey. He would not be so humorous about +Zeus, nor fall into an ignoratio elenchi. For my point never was +that any Australian tribe had a pure theistic conception unsoiled and +unobliterated by myth and buffoonery. My argument was that AMONG +their ideas is that of a superhuman being, unceasing (if I may not say +eternal), a maker (if I may not say a Creator), a guardian of certain +by no means despicable ethics, which I never proclaimed as supernormally +inspired! It is no reply to me to say that, in or out of Mysteries, low +fables about that being are told, and buffooneries are enacted. For, +though I say that certain high ideas are taught in Mysteries, I do not +think I say that in Mysteries no low myths are told. + +I take this opportunity, as the earliest, to apologise for an error in +my Making of Religion concerning a passage in the Primitive Culture of +my friend Mr. E. B. Tylor. Mr. Tylor quoted(1) a passage from Captain +John Smith's History of Virginia, as given in Pinkerton, xiii. pp. +13-39, 1632. In this passage no mention occurs of a Virginian deity +named Ahone but "Okee," another and more truculent god, is named. I +observed that, if Mr. Tylor had used Strachey's Historie of Travaile +(1612), he would have found "a slightly varying copy" of Smith's text of +1632, with Ahone as superior to Okee. I added in a note (p. 253): "There +is a description of Virginia, by W. Strachey, including Smith's remarks +published in 1612. Strachey interwove some of this work with his own MS. +in the British Museum." Here, as presently will be shown, I erred, in +company with Strachey's editor of 1849, and with the writer on Strachey +in the Dictionary of National Biography. What Mr. Tylor quoted from an +edition of Smith in 1632 had already appeared, in 1612, in a book +(Map of Virginia, with a description of the Countrey) described on the +title-page as "written by Captain Smith," though, in my opinion, Smith +may have had a collaborator. There is no evidence whatever that Strachey +had anything to do with this book of 1612, in which there is no mention +of Ahone. Mr. Arber dates Strachey's own MS. (in which Ahone occurs) as +of 1610-1615.(2) I myself, for reasons presently to be alleged, date +the MS. mainly in 1611-1612. If Mr. Arber and I are right, Strachey must +have had access to Smith's MS. before it was published in 1612, and we +shall see how he used it. My point here is that Strachey mentioned Ahone +(in MS.) before Smith's book of 1612 was published. This could not be +gathered from the dedication to Bacon prefixed to Strachey's MS., for +that dedication cannot be earlier that 1618.(3) I now ask leave to +discuss the evidence for an early pre-Christian belief in a primal +Creator, held by the Indian tribes from Plymouth, in New England, to +Roanoke Island, off Southern Virginia. + + +(1) Prim. Cult. ii. p. 342. + +(2) Arber's Smith, p. cxxxiii. + +(3) Hakluyt Society, Strachey, 1849, pp. xxi., xxii. + + +THE GOD AHONE. + +An insertion by a manifest plagiary into the work of a detected liar +is not, usually, good evidence. Yet this is all the evidence, it may be +urged, which we have for the existence of a belief, in early Virginia, +as to a good Creator, named Ahone. The matter stands thus: In 1607-1609 +the famed Captain John Smith endured and achieved in Virginia sufferings +and adventures. In 1608 he sent to the Council at home a MS. map and +description of the colony. In 1609 he returned to England (October). In +May, 1610, William Strachey, gent., arrived in Virginia, where he was +"secretary of state" to Lord De la Warr. In 1612 Strachey and Smith +were both in England. In that year Barnes of Oxford published A Map +of Virginia, with a description, etc., "written by Captain Smith," +according to the title-page. There was annexed a compilation from +various sources, edited by "W. S.," that is, NOT William Strachey, +but Dr. William Symonds. In the same year, 1612, or in 1611, William +Strachey wrote his Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia, at +least as far as page 124 of the Hakluyt edition of 1849.(1) + + +(1) For proof see p. 24. third line from foot of page, where 1612 is +indicated. Again, see p. 98, line 5, where "last year" is dated as +"1610, about Christmas," which would put Strachey's work at this point +as actually of 1611; prior, that is, to Smith's publication. Again, p. +124, "this last year, myself being at the Falls" (of the James River), +"I found in an Indian house certain clawes... which I brought away and +into England". + + +If Strachey, who went out with Lord De la Warr as secretary in 1610, +returned with him (as is likely), he sailed for England on 28th March, +1611. In that case, he was in England in 1611, and the passages cited +leave it dubious whether he wrote his book in 1611, 1612, or in both +years.(1) + + +(1) Mr. Arber dates the MS. "1610-1615," and attributes to Strachey Laws +for Virginia, 1612. + + +Strachey embodies in his work considerable pieces of Smith's Map of +Virginia and Description, written in 1608, and published in 1612. He +continually deserts Smith, however, adding more recent information, +reflections and references to the ancient classics, with allusions to +his own travels in the Levant. His glossary is much more extensive than +Smith's, and he inserts a native song of triumph over the English in the +original.(1) Now, when Strachey comes to the religion of the natives(2) +he gives eighteen pages (much of it verbiage) to five of Smith's.(3) +What Smith (1612) says of their chief god I quote, setting Strachey's +version (1611-1612) beside it. + + +(1) Strachey, pp. 79-80. He may have got the song from Kemps or +Machumps, friendly natives. + +(2) Pp. 82-100. + +(3) Arber, pp. 74-79. + + +SMITH (Published, 1612). + +But their chiefe God they worship is the Diuell. Him they call Oke, and +serue him more of feare than loue. They say they have conference with +him, and fashion themselues as near to his shape as they can imagine. +In their Temples, they have his image euile favouredly carved, and then +painted, and adorned with chaines, copper, and beades; and covered with +a skin, in such manner as the deformity may well suit with such a God. +By him is commonly the sepulcher of their Kings. + + +STRACHEY (Written, 1611-12). + +But their chief god they worship is no other, indeed, then the divell, +whome they make presentments of, and shadow under the forme of an idoll, +which they entitle Okeus, and whome they worship as the Romans did their +hurtful god Vejovis, more for feare of harme then for hope of any good; +they saie they have conference with him, and fashion themselves in +their disguisments as neere to his shape as they can imagyn. In every +territory of a weroance is a temple and a priest, peradventure two or +thrie; yet happie doth that weroance accompt himself who can detayne +with him a Quiyough-quisock, of the best, grave, lucky, well instructed +in their misteryes, and beloved of their god; and such a one is noe +lesse honoured then was Dianae's priest at Ephesus, for whome they +have their more private temples, with oratories and chauneells therein, +according as is the dignity and reverence of the Quiyough-quisock, which +the weroance wilbe at charge to build upon purpose, sometyme twenty +foote broad and a hundred in length, fashioned arbour wyse after their +buylding, having comonly the dore opening into the east, and at the +west end a spence or chauncell from the body of the temple, with hollow +wyndings and pillers, whereon stand divers black imagies, fashioned +to the shoulders, with their faces looking down the church, and where +within their weroances, upon a kind of biere of reedes, lye buryed; +and under them, apart, in a vault low in the ground (as a more secrett +thing), vailed with a matt, sitts their Okeus, an image ill-favouredly +carved, all black dressed, with chaynes of perle, the presentment and +figure of that god (say the priests unto the laity, and who religiously +believe what the priests saie) which doth them all the harme they +suffer, be yt in their bodies or goods, within doores or abroad; and +true yt is many of them are divers tymes (especyally offendors) shrewdly +scratched as they walke alone in the woods, yt may well be by the +subtyle spirit, the malitious enemy to mankind, whome, therefore, to +pacefie and worke to doe them good (at least no harme) the priests tell +them they must do these and these sacrifices unto (them) of these and +these things, and thus and thus often, by which meanes not only their +owne children, but straungers, are sometimes sacrificed unto him: whilst +the great god (the priests tell them) who governes all the world, and +makes the sun to shine, creating the moone and stars his companyons, +great powers, and which dwell with him, and by whose virtues and +influences the under earth is tempered, and brings forth her fruiets +according to her seasons, they calling Ahone; the good and peaceable god +requires no such dutyes, nor needes be sacrificed unto, for he intendeth +all good unto them, and will doe noe harme, only the displeased Okeus, +looking into all men's accions, and examining the same according to the +severe scale of justice, punisheth them with sicknesse, beats them, and +strikes their ripe corn with blastings, stormes, and thunder clapps, +stirrs up warre, and makes their women falce unto them. Such is the +misery and thraldome under which Sathan hath bound these wretched +miscreants. + + +I began by calling Strachey a plagiary. The reader will now observe that +he gives far more than he takes. For example, his account of the temples +is much more full than that of Smith, and he adds to Smith's version the +character and being of Ahone, as what "the priests tell them". I submit, +therefore, that Strachey's additions, if valid for temples, are not +discredited for Ahone, merely because they are inserted in the framework +of Smith. As far as I understand the matter, Smith's Map of Virginia +(1612) is an amended copy, with additions, by Smith or another writer +of that description, which he sent home to the Council of Virginia, +in November, 1608.(1) To the book of 1612 was added a portion of +"Relations" by different hands, edited by W. S., namely, Dr. Symonds. +Strachey's editor, in 1849, regarded W. S. as Strachey, and supposed +that Strachey was the real author of Smith's Map of Virginia, so that, +in his Historie of Travaile, Strachey merely took back his own. He did +not take back his own; he made use of Smith's MS., not yet published, if +Mr. Arber and I rightly date Strachey's MS. at 1610-15, or 1611-12. +Why Strachey acted thus it is possible to conjecture. As a scholar well +acquainted with Virginia, and as Secretary for the Colony, he would have +access to Smith's MS. of 1608 among the papers of the Council, before +its publication. Smith professes himself "no scholer".(2) On the other +hand, Strachey likes to show off his Latin and Greek. He has a +curious, if inaccurate, knowledge of esoteric Greek and Roman religious +antiquities, and in writing of religion aims at a comparative method. +Strachey, however, took the trouble to copy bits of Smith into his own +larger work, which he never gave to the printers. + + +(1) Arber, p. 444. + +(2) Arber, p. 442. + + +Now as to Ahone. It suits my argument to suppose that Strachey's account +is no less genuine than his description of the temples (illustrated by +a picture by John White, who had been in Virginia in 1589), and the +account of the Great Hare of American mythology.(1) This view of a +Virginian Creator, "our chief god" "who takes upon him this shape of a +hare," was got, says Strachey, "last year, 1610," from a brother of the +Potomac King, by a boy named Spilman, who says that Smith "sold" him +to Powhattan.(2) In his own brief narrative Spelman (or Spilman) says +nothing about the Cosmogonic Legend of the Great Hare. The story came +up when Captain Argoll was telling Powhattan's brother the account of +creation in Genesis (1610). + + +(1) Strachey, p. 98-100. + +(2) "Spilman's Narrative," Arber, cx.-cxiv. + + +Now Strachey's Great Hare is accepted by mythologists, while Ahone is +regarded with suspicion. Ahone does not happen to suit anthropological +ideas, the Hare suits them rather better. Moreover, and more important, +there is abundant corroborative evidence for Oke and for the Hare, +Michabo, who, says Dr. Brinton, "was originally the highest divinity +recognised by them, powerful and beneficent beyond all others, maker of +the heavens and the world," just like Ahone, in fact. And Dr. Brinton +instructs us that Michabo originally meant not Great Hare, but "the +spirit of light".(1) Thus, originally, the Red Men adored "The Spirit of +Light, maker of the heavens and the world". Strachey claims no more than +this for Ahone. Now, of course, Dr. Brinton may be right. But I have +already expressed my extreme distrust of the philological processes +by which he extracts "The Great Light; spirit of light," from Michabo, +"beyond a doubt!" In my poor opinion, whatever claims Michabo may have +as an unique creator of earth and heaven--"God is Light,"--he owes his +mythical aspect as a Hare to something other than an unconscious pun. In +any case, according to Dr. Brinton, Michabo, regarded as a creator, is +equivalent to Strachey's Ahone. This amount of corroboration, valeat +quantum, I may claim, from the Potomac Indians, for the belief in +Ahone on the James River. Dr. Brinton is notoriously not a believer in +American "monotheism".(2) + + +(1) Myths of the New World, p. 178. + +(2) Myths of the New World, p. 53. + + +The opponents of the authenticity of Ahone, however, will certainly +argue: "For Oke, or Oki, as a redoubted being or spirit, or general name +for such personages, we have plentiful evidence, corroborating that of +Smith. But what evidence as to Ahone corroborates that of Strachey?" I +must confess that I have no explicit corroborative evidence for Ahone, +but then I have no accessible library of early books on Virginia. Now +it is clear that if I found and produced evidence for Ahone as late +as 1625, I would be met at once with the retort that, between 1610 and +1625, Christian ideas had contaminated the native beliefs. Thus if I +find Ahone, or a deity of like attributes, after a very early date, he +is of no use for my purpose. Nor do I much expect to find him. But do we +find Winslow's Massachusetts God, Kiehtan, named AFTER 1622 ("I only +ask for information"), and if we don't, does that prevent Mr. Tylor from +citing Kiehtan, with apparent reliance on the evidence?(1) + + +(1) Primitive Culture, ii. p. 342. + + +Again, Ahone, though primal and creative, is, by Strachey's account, +a sleeping partner. He has no sacrifice, and no temple or idol is +recorded. Therefore the belief in Ahone could only be discovered as a +result of inquiry, whereas figures of Oke or Okeus, and his services, +were common and conspicuous.(1) As to Oke, I cannot quite understand Mr. +Tylor's attitude. Summarising Lafitau, a late writer of 1724, Mr. Tylor +writes: "The whole class of spirits or demons, known to the Caribs by +the name of cemi, in Algonkin as manitu, in Huron as oki, Lafitau now +spells with capital letters, and converts them each into a supreme +being".(2) Yet in Primitive Culture, ii., 342, 1891, Mr. Tylor had +cited Smith's Okee (with a capital letter) as the "chief god" of the +Virginians in 1612. How can Lafitau be said to have elevated oki into +Oki, and so to have made a god out of "a class of spirits or demons," +in 1724, when Mr. Tylor had already cited Smith's Okee, with a capital +letter and as a "chief god," in 1612? Smith, rebuked for the same by Mr. +Tylor, had even identified Okee with the devil. Lafitau certainly +did not begin this erroneous view of Oki as a "chief god" among the +Virginians. If I cannot to-day produce corroboration for a god named +Ahone, I can at least show that, from the north of New England to the +south of Virginia, there is early evidence, cited by Mr. Tylor, for a +belief in a primal creative being, closely analogous to Ahone. And this +evidence, I think, distinctly proves that such a being as Ahone was +within the capacity of the Indians in these latitudes. Mr. Tylor must +have thought in 1891 that the natives were competent to a belief in a +supreme deity, for he said, "Another famous native American name for the +supreme deity is Oki".(3) In the essay of 1892, however, Oki does not +appear to exist as a god's name till 1724. We may now, for earlier +evidence, turn to Master Thomas Heriot, "that learned mathematician" +"who spoke the Indian language," and was with the company which +abandoned Virginia on 18th June, 1586. They ranged 130 miles north +and 130 miles north-west of Roanoke Island, which brings them into the +neighbourhood of Smith's and Strachey's country. Heriot writes as to the +native creeds: "They believe that there are many gods which they call +Mantoac, but of different sorts and degrees. Also that there is one +chiefe God that hath beene from all eternitie, who, as they say, when he +purposed first to make the world, made first other gods of a principall +order, to be as instruments to be used in the Creation and Government to +follow, and after the Sunne, Moone and Starres as pettie gods, and the +instruments of the other order more principall.... They thinke that all +the gods are of humane shape," and represent them by anthropomorphic +idols. An idol, or image, "Kewasa" (the plural is "Kewasowok"), +is placed in the temples, "where they worship, pray and make many +offerings". Good souls go to be happy with the gods, the bad burn in +Popogusso, a great pit, "where the sun sets". The evidence for this +theory of a future life, as usual, is that of men who died and revived +again, a story found in a score of widely separated regions, down to our +day, when the death, revival and revelation occurred to the founder +of the Arapahoe new religion of the Ghost Dance. The belief "works for +righteousness". "The common sort... have great care to avoyde torment +after death, and to enjoy blesse," also they have "great respect to +their Governors". + + +(1) Okee's image, as early as 1607, was borne into battle against Smith, +who captured the god (Arber, p. 393). Ahone was not thus en evidence. + +(2) Journal of Anthrop. Inst., Feb., 1892, pp. 285, 286. + +(3) Prim. Cult,, ii. p. 342. + + +This belief in a chief god "from all eternitie" (that is, of unexplained +origin), may not be convenient to some speculators, but it exactly +corroborates Strachey's account of Ahone as creator with subordinates. +The evidence is of 1586 (twenty-six years before Strachey), and, +like Strachey, Heriot attributes the whole scheme of belief to "the +priestes". "This is the sum of their religion, which I learned by having +speciall familiaritie with some of their priests."(1) I see no escape +from the conclusion that the Virginians believed as Heriot says they +did, except the device of alleging that they promptly borrowed some of +Heriot's ideas and maintained that these ideas had ever been their own. +Heriot certainly did not recognise the identity. "Through conversing +with us they were brought into great doubts of their owne (religion), +and no small admiration of ours; of which many desired to learne more +than we had the meanes for want of utterance in their language to +expresse." So Heriot could not be subtle in the native tongue. Heriot +did what he could to convert them: "I did my best to make His immortall +glory knowne". His efforts were chiefly successful by virtue of the +savage admiration of our guns, mathematical instruments, and so forth. +These sources of an awakened interest in Christianity would vanish +with the total destruction and discomfiture of the colony, unless a few +captives, later massacred, taught our religion to the natives.(2) + + +(1) According to Strachey, Heriot could speak the native language. + +(2) Heriot's Narrative, pp. 37-39. Quaritch, London, 1893. + + +I shall cite another early example of a New England deity akin to Ahone, +with a deputy, a friend of sorcerers, like Okee. This account is in +Smith's General History of New England, 1606-1624. We sent out a colony +in 1607; "they all returned in the yeere 1608," esteeming the country "a +cold, barren, mountainous rocky desart". I am apt to believe that +they did not plant the fructifying seeds of grace among the natives in +1607-1608. But the missionary efforts of French traders may, of course, +have been blessed; nor can I deny that a yellow-haired man, whose corpse +was found in 1620 with some objects of iron, may have converted the +natives to such beliefs as they possessed. We are told, however, that +these tenets were of ancestral antiquity. I cite E. Winslow, as edited +by Smith (1623-24):-- + +"Those where in this Plantation (New Plymouth) say Kiehtan(1) made all +the other Gods: also one man and one woman, and with them all mankinde, +but how they became so dispersed they know not. They say that at first +there was no king but Kiehtan, that dwelleth far westerly above the +heavens, whither all good men go when they die, and have plentie of all +things. The bad go thither also and knock at the door, but ('the door is +shut') he bids them go wander in endless want and misery, for they shall +not stay there. They never saw Kiehtan,(2) but they hold it a great +charge and dutie that one race teach another; and to him they make +feasts and cry and sing for plenty and victory, or anything that is +good. + + +(1) In 1873 Mr. Tylor regarded Dr. Brinton's etymology of Kiehtan as = +Kittanitowit = "Great Living Spirit," as "plausible". In his edition +of 1891 he omits this etymology. Personally I entirely distrust the +philological theories of the original sense of old divine names as a +general rule. + +(2) "They never saw Kiehtan." So, about 1854, "The common answer +of intelligent black fellows on the Barwon when asked if they know +Baiame... is this: 'Kamil zaia zummi Baiame, zaia winuzgulda'; 'I have +not seen Baiame, I have heard or perceived him'. If asked who made +the sky, the earth, the animals and man, they always answer 'Baiame'." +Daramulun, according to the same authority in Lang's Queensland, was +the familiar of sorcerers, and appeared as a serpent. This answers, as I +show, to Hobamock the subordinate power to Kiehtan in New England and to +Okee, the familiar of sorcerers in Virginia. (Ridley, J. A. I., 1872, p. +277.) + + +"They have another Power they call Hobamock, which we conceive the +Devill, and upon him they call to cure their wounds and diseases; when +they are curable he persuades them he sent them, because they have +displeased him; but, if they be mortal, then he saith, 'Kiehtan sent +them'; which makes them never call on him in their sickness. They say +this Hobamock appears to them sometimes like a man, a deer, or an eagle, +but most commonly like a snake; not to all but to their Powahs to cure +diseases, and Undeses... and these are such as conjure in Virginia, and +cause the people to do what they list." Winslow (or rather Smith editing +Winslow here), had already said, "They believe, as do the Virginians, +of many divine powers, yet of one above all the rest, as the Southern +Virginians call their chief god Kewassa (an error), and that we now +inhabit Oke.... The Massachusetts call their great god Kiehtan."(1) + + +(1) Arber, pp. 767, 768. + + +Here, then, in Heriot (1586), Strachey (1611-12) and Winslow (1622), we +find fairly harmonious accounts of a polydaemonism with a chief, primal, +creative being above and behind it; a being unnamed, and Ahone and +Kiehtan. + +Is all this invention? Or was all this derived from Europeans before +1586, and, if so, from what Europeans? Mr. Tylor, in 1873, wrote, "After +due allowance made for misrendering of savage answers, and importation +of white men's thoughts, it can hardly be judged that a divine being, +whose characteristics are often so unlike what European intercourse +would have suggested, and who is heard of by such early explorers among +such distant tribes, could be a deity of foreign origin". NOW, he "can +HARDLY be ALTOGETHER a deity of foreign origin".(1) I agree with +Mr. Tylor's earlier statement. In my opinion Ahone--Okeus, +Kiehtan--Hobamock, correspond, the first pair to the usually unseen +Australian Baiame (a crystal or hypnotic vision of Baiame scarcely +counts), while the second pair, Okeus and Hobamock, answer to the +Australian familiars of sorcerers, Koin and Brewin; the American +"Powers" being those of peoples on a higher level of culture. Like +Tharramulun where Baiame is supreme, Hobamock appears as a snake +(Asclepius). + + +(1) Prim. Cult., ii. 340, 1873, 1892. + + +For all these reasons I am inclined to accept Strachey's Ahone as a +veritable element in Virginian belief. Without temple or service, such a +being was not conspicuous, like Okee and other gods which had idols and +sacrifices. + +As far as I see, Strachey has no theory to serve by inventing Ahone. He +asks how any races "if descended from the people of the first creation, +should maintain so general and gross a defection from the true knowledge +of God". He is reduced to suppose that, as descendants of Ham, they +inherit "the ignorance of true godliness." (p. 45). The children of Shem +and Japheth alone "retained, until the coming of the Messias, the only +knowledge of the eternal and never-changing Trinity". The Virginians, +on the other hand, fell heir to the ignorance, and "fearful and +superstitious instinct of nature" of Ham (p. 40). Ahone, therefore, is +not invented by Strachey to bolster up a theory (held by Strachey), +of an inherited revelation, or of a sensus numinis which could not go +wrong. Unless a proof be given that Strachey had a theory, or any other +purpose, to serve by inventing Ahone, I cannot at present come into the +opinion that he gratuitously fabled, though he may have unconsciously +exaggerated. + +What were Strachey's sources? He was for nine months, if not more, in +the colony: he had travelled at least 115 miles up the James River, he +occasionally suggests modifications of Smith's map, he refers to Smith's +adventures, and his glossary is very much larger than Smith's; its +accuracy I leave to American linguists. Such a witness, despite his +admitted use of Smith's text (if it is really all by Smith throughout) +is not to be despised, and he is not despised in America.(1) Strachey, +it is true, had not, like Smith, been captured by Indians and either +treated with perfect kindness and consideration (as Smith reported at +the time), or tied to a tree and threatened with arrows, and laid out +to have his head knocked in with a stone; as he alleged sixteen years +later! Strachey, not being captured, did not owe his release (1) to +the magnanimity of Powhattan, (2) to his own ingenious lies, (3) to +the intercession of Pocahontas, as Smith, and his friends for him, at +various dates inconsistently declared. Smith certainly saw more of the +natives at home: Strachey brought a more studious mind to what he could +learn of their customs and ideas; and is not a convicted braggart. I +conjecture that one of Strachey's sources was a native named Kemps. +Smith had seized Kemps and Kinsock in 1609. Unknown authorities (Powell? +and Todkill?) represent these two savages as "the most exact villaines +in the country".(2) They were made to labour in fetters, then were set +at liberty, but "little desired it".(3) Some "souldiers" ran away to the +liberated Kemps, who brought them back to Smith.(4) Why Kemps and his +friend are called "two of the most exact villains in the country" +does not appear. Kemps died "of the surveye" (scurvey, probably) at +Jamestown, in 1610-11. He was much made of by Lord De la Warr, "could +speak a pretty deal of our English, and came orderly to church every day +to prayers". He gave Strachey the names of Powhattan's wives, and told +him, truly or not, that Pocahontas was married, about 1610, to an Indian +named Kocoum.(5) I offer the guess that Kemps and Machumps, who came +and went from Pocahontas, and recited an Indian prayer which Strachey +neglected to copy out, may have been among Strachey's authorities. I +shall, of course, be told that Kemps picked up Ahone at church. This did +not strike Strachey as being the fact; he had no opinion of the creed in +which Ahone was a factor, "the misery and thraldome under which Sathan +has bound these wretched miscreants". According to Strachey, the +priests, far from borrowing any part of our faith, "feare and tremble +lest the knowledge of God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ be taught in +these parts". + + +(1) Arber, cxvii. Strachey mentions that (before his arrival in +Virginia) Pocahontas turned cart-wheels, naked, in Jamestown, being then +under twelve, and not yet wearing the apron. Smith says she was ten +in 1608, but does not mention the cart-wheels. Later, he found it +convenient to put her age at twelve or thirteen in 1608. Most American +scholars, such as Mr. Adams, entirely distrust the romantic later +narratives of Smith. + +(2) The Proeeedings, etc., by W. S. Arber, p. 151. + +(3) Ibid., p. 155. + +(4) Ibid., p. 157. + +(5) Strachey, pp. 54, 55. + + +Strachey is therefore for putting down the priests, and, like Smith +(indeed here borrowing from Smith), accuses them of sacrificing +children. To Smith's statement that such a rite was worked at +Quiyough-cohanock, Strachey adds that Sir George Percy (who was with +Smith) "was at, and observed" a similar mystery at Kecoughtan. It is +plain that the rite was not a sacrifice, but a Bora, or initiation, and +the parallel of the Spartan flogging of boys, with the retreat of the +boys and their instructors, is very close, and, of course, unnoted by +classical scholars except Mr. Frazer. Strachey ends with the critical +remark that we shall not know all the certainty of the religion and +mysteries till we can capture some of the priests, or Quiyough-quisocks. + +Students who have access to a good library of Americana may do more +to elucidate Ahone. I regard him as in a line with Kiehtan and the God +spoken of by Heriot, and do not believe (1) that Strachey lied; (2) that +natives deceived Strachey; (3) that Ahone was borrowed from "the God of +Captain Smith". + + + + +MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION. + + + +CHAPTER I. SYSTEMS OF MYTHOLOGY. + +Definitions of religion--Contradictory evidence--"Belief in spiritual +beings"--Objection to Mr. Tylor's definition--Definition as regards +this argument--Problem: the contradiction between religion and myth--Two +human moods--Examples--Case of Greece--Ancient mythologists--Criticism +by Eusebius--Modern mythological systems--Mr. Max Muller--Mannhardt. + + +The word "Religion" may be, and has been, employed in many different +senses, and with a perplexing width of significance. No attempt to +define the word is likely to be quite satisfactory, but almost any +definition may serve the purpose of an argument, if the writer who +employs it states his meaning frankly and adheres to it steadily. An +example of the confusions which may arise from the use of the term +"religion" is familiar to students. Dr. J. D. Lang wrote concerning the +native races of Australia: "They have nothing whatever of the character +of religion, or of religious observances, to distinguish them from the +beasts that perish". Yet in the same book Dr. Lang published evidence +assigning to the natives belief in "Turramullun, the chief of demons, +who is the author of disease, mischief and wisdom".(1) The belief in +a superhuman author of "disease, mischief and wisdom" is certainly +a religious belief not conspicuously held by "the beasts"; yet all +religion was denied to the Australians by the very author who prints +(in however erroneous a style) an account of part of their creed. This +writer merely inherited the old missionary habit of speaking about the +god of a non-Christian people as a "demon" or an "evil spirit". + + +(1) See Primitive Culture, second edition, i. 419. + + +Dr. Lang's negative opinion was contradicted in testimony published by +himself, an appendix by the Rev. Mr. Ridley, containing evidence of +the belief in Baiame. "Those who have learned that 'God' is the name by +which we speak of the Creator, say that Baiame is God."(1) + + +(1) Lang's Queensland, p. 445, 1861. + + +As "a minimum definition of religion," Mr. Tylor has suggested "the +belief in spiritual beings". Against this it may be urged that, while we +have no definite certainty that any race of men is destitute of belief +in spiritual beings, yet certain moral and creative deities of low races +do not seem to be envisaged as "spiritual" at all. They are regarded +as EXISTENCES, as BEINGS, unconditioned by Time, Space, or Death, and +nobody appears to have put the purely metaphysical question, "Are these +beings spiritual or material?"(1) Now, if a race were discovered which +believed in such beings, yet had no faith in spirits, that race could +not be called irreligious, as it would have to be called in Mr. Tylor's +"minimum definition". Almost certainly, no race in this stage of belief +in nothing but unconditioned but not expressly spiritual beings is +extant. Yet such a belief may conceivably have existed before men had +developed the theory of spirits at all, and such a belief, in creative +and moral unconditioned beings, not alleged to be spiritual, could not +be excluded from a definition of religion.(2) + + +(1) See The Making of Religion, pp. 201-210. + +(2) "The history of the Jews, nay, the history of our own mind, proves +to demonstration that the thought of God is a far easier thought, and a +far earlier, than that of a spirit." Father Tyrrell, S. J., The Month, +October, 1898. As to the Jews, the question is debated. As to our own +infancy, we are certainly taught about God before we are likely to be +capable of the metaphysical notion of spirit. But we can scarcely reason +from children in Christian houses to the infancy of the race. + + +For these reasons we propose (merely for the purpose of the present +work) to define religion as the belief in a primal being, a Maker, +undying, usually moral, without denying that the belief in spiritual +beings, even if immoral, may be styled religious. Our definition is +expressly framed for the purpose of the argument, because that argument +endeavours to bring into view the essential conflict between religion +and myth. We intend to show that this conflict between the religious +and the mythical conception is present, not only (where it has been +universally recognised) in the faiths of the ancient civilised peoples, +as in Greece, Rome, India and Egypt, but also in the ideas of the lowest +known savages. + +It may, of course, be argued that the belief in Creator is itself a +myth. However that may be, the attitude of awe, and of moral obedience, +in face of such a supposed being, is religious in the sense of the +Christian religion, whereas the fabrication of fanciful, humorous, and +wildly irrational fables about that being, or others, is essentially +mythical in the ordinary significance of that word, though not absent +from popular Christianity. + +Now, the whole crux and puzzle of mythology is, "Why, having attained +(in whatever way) to a belief in an undying guardian, 'Master of Life,' +did mankind set to work to evolve a chronique scandaleuse about HIM? +And why is that chronique the elaborately absurd set of legends which we +find in all mythologies?" + +In answering, or trying to answer, these questions, we cannot go behind +the beliefs of the races now most immersed in savage ignorance. About +the psychology of races yet more undeveloped we can have no historical +knowledge. Among the lowest known tribes we usually find, just as in +ancient Greece, the belief in a deathless "Father," "Master," "Maker," +and also the crowd of humorous, obscene, fanciful myths which are in +flagrant contradiction with the religious character of that belief. That +belief is what we call rational, and even elevated. The myths, on the +other hand, are what we call irrational and debasing. We regard low +savages as very irrational and debased characters, consequently the +nature of their myths does not surprise us. Their religious conception, +however, of a "Father" or "Master of Life" seems out of keeping with +the nature of the savage mind as we understand it. Still, there the +religious conception actually is, and it seems to follow that we do not +wholly understand the savage mind, or its unknown antecedents. In +any case, there the facts are, as shall be demonstrated. However the +ancestors of Australians, or Andamanese, or Hurons arrived at their +highest religious conception, they decidedly possess it.(1) The +development of their mythical conceptions is accounted for by those +qualities of their minds which we do understand, and shall illustrate at +length. For the present, we can only say that the religious conception +uprises from the human intellect in one mood, that of earnest +contemplation and submission: while the mythical ideas uprise from +another mood, that of playful and erratic fancy. These two moods are +conspicuous even in Christianity. The former, that of earnest and +submissive contemplation, declares itself in prayers, hymns, and "the +dim religious light" of cathedrals. The second mood, that of playful +and erratic fancy, is conspicuous in the buffoonery of Miracle Plays, in +Marchen, these burlesque popular tales about our Lord and the Apostles, +and in the hideous and grotesque sculptures on sacred edifices. The two +moods are present, and in conflict, through the whole religious history +of the human race. They stand as near each other, and as far apart, as +Love and Lust. + + +(1) The hypothesis that the conception was borrowed from European +creeds will be discussed later. See, too, "Are Savage Gods borrowed from +Missionaries?" Nineteenth Century, January, 1899. + + +It will later be shown that even some of the most backward savages make +a perhaps half-conscious distinction between their mythology and their +religion. As to the former, they are communicative; as to the latter, +they jealously guard their secret in sacred mysteries. It is improbable +that reflective "black fellows" have been morally shocked by the +flagrant contradictions between their religious conceptions and their +mythical stories of the divine beings. But human thought could not come +into explicit clearness of consciousness without producing the sense of +shock and surprise at these contradictions between the Religion and the +Myth of the same god. Of this we proceed to give examples. + +In Greece, as early as the sixth century B. C., we are all familiar with +Xenophanes' poem(1) complaining that the gods were credited with the +worst crimes of mortals--in fact, with abominations only known in the +orgies of Nero and Elagabalus. We hear Pindar refusing to repeat the +tale which told him the blessed were cannibals.(2) In India we read the +pious Brahmanic attempts to expound decently the myths which made Indra +the slayer of a Brahman; the sinner, that is, of the unpardonable sin. +In Egypt, too, we study the priestly or philosophic systems by which the +clergy strove to strip the burden of absurdity and sacrilege from their +own deities. From all these efforts of civilised and pious believers to +explain away the stories about their own gods we may infer one fact--the +most important to the student of mythology--the fact that myths were not +evolved in times of clear civilised thought. It is when Greece is just +beginning to free her thought from the bondage of too concrete language, +when she is striving to coin abstract terms, that her philosophers and +poets first find the myths of Greece a stumbling-block. + + +(1) Ritter and Preller, Hist. Philos., Gothae, 1869, p. 82. + +(2) Olympic Odes, i., Myers's translation: "To me it is impossible to +call one of the blessed gods a cannibal.... Meet it is for a man that +concerning the gods he speak honourably, for the reproach is less. Of +thee, son of Tantalus, I will speak contrariwise to them who have gone +before me." In avoiding the story of the cannibal god, however, Pindar +tells a tale even more offensive to our morality. + + +All early attempts at an interpretation of mythology are so many efforts +to explain the myths on some principle which shall seem not unreasonable +to men living at the time of the explanation. Therefore the pious +remonstrances and the forced constructions of early thinkers like +Xenophanes, of poets like Pindar, of all ancient Homeric scholars and +Pagan apologists, from Theagenes of Rhegium (525 B. C.), the early +Homeric commentator, to Porphyry, almost the last of the heathen +philosophers, are so many proofs that to Greece, as soon as she had +a reflective literature, the myths of Greece seemed impious and +IRRATIONAL. The essays of the native commentators on the Veda, in the +same way, are endeavours to put into myths felt to be irrational and +impious a meaning which does not offend either piety or reason. We may +therefore conclude that it was not men in an early stage of philosophic +thought (as philosophy is now understood)--not men like Empedocles and +Heraclitus, nor reasonably devout men like Eumaeus, the pious swineherd +of the Odyssey--who evolved the blasphemous myths of Greece, of Egypt +and of India. We must look elsewhere for an explanation. We must try to +discover some actual and demonstrable and widely prevalent condition +of the human mind, in which tales that even to remote and rudimentary +civilisations appeared irrational and unnatural would seem natural and +rational. To discover this intellectual condition has been the aim of +all mythologists who did not believe that myth is a divine tradition +depraved by human weakness, or a distorted version of historical events. + +Before going further, it is desirable to set forth what our aim is, and +to what extent we are seeking an interpretation of mythology. It is not +our purpose to explain every detail of every ancient legend, either as a +distorted historical fact or as the result of this or that confusion of +thought caused by forgetfulness of the meanings of language, or in any +other way; nay, we must constantly protest against the excursions of +too venturesome ingenuity. Myth is so ancient, so complex, so full of +elements, that it is vain labour to seek a cause for every phenomenon. +We are chiefly occupied with the quest for an historical condition of +the human intellect to which the element in myths, regarded by us as +irrational, shall seem rational enough. If we can prove that such a +state of mind widely exists among men, and has existed, that state of +mind may be provisionally considered as the fount and ORIGIN of the +myths which have always perplexed men in a reasonable modern mental +condition. Again, if it can be shown that this mental stage was one +through which all civilised races have passed, the universality of the +mythopoeic mental condition will to some extent explain the universal +DIFFUSION of the stories. + +Now, in all mythologies, whether savage or civilised, and in all +religions where myths intrude, there exist two factors--the factor +which we now regard as rational, and that which we moderns regard as +irrational. The former element needs little explanation; the latter +has demanded explanation ever since human thought became comparatively +instructed and abstract. + +To take an example; even in the myths of savages there is much that +still seems rational and transparent. If savages tell us that some wise +being taught them all the simple arts of life, the use of fire, of the +bow and arrow, the barbing of hooks, and so forth, we understand them +at once. Nothing can be more natural than that man should believe in an +original inventor of the arts, and should tell tales about the imaginary +discoverers if the real heroes be forgotten. So far all is plain +sailing. But when the savage goes on to say that he who taught the use +of fire or who gave the first marriage laws was a rabbit or a crow, or a +dog, or a beaver, or a spider, then we are at once face to face with the +element in myths which seems to us IRRATIONAL. Again, among civilised +peoples we read of the pure all-seeing Varuna in the Vedas, to whom +sin is an offence. We read of Indra, the Lord of Thunder, borne in his +chariot, the giver of victory, the giver of wealth to the pious; here +once more all seems natural and plain. The notion of a deity who guides +the whirlwind and directs the storm, a god of battles, a god who blesses +righteousness, is familiar to us and intelligible; but when we read how +Indra drank himself drunk and committed adulteries with Asura women, and +got himself born from the same womb as a bull, and changed himself into +a quail or a ram, and suffered from the most abject physical terror, and +so forth, then we are among myths no longer readily intelligible; here, +we feel, are IRRATIONAL stories, of which the original ideas, in their +natural sense, can hardly have been conceived by men in a pure and +rational early civilisation. Again, in the religions of even the +lowest races, such myths as these are in contradiction with the ethical +elements of the faith. + +If we look at Greek religious tradition, we observe the coexistence of +the RATIONAL and the apparently IRRATIONAL elements. The RATIONAL myths +are those which represent the gods as beautiful and wise beings. The +Artemis of the Odyssey "taking her pastime in the chase of boars and +swift deer, while with her the wild wood-nymphs disport them, and high +over them all she rears her brow, and is easily to be known where all +are fair,"(1) is a perfectly RATIONAL mythic representation of a divine +being. We feel, even now, that the conception of a "queen and goddess, +chaste and fair," the abbess, as Paul de Saint-Victor calls her, of +the woodlands, is a beautiful and natural fancy, which requires no +explanation. On the other hand, the Artemis of Arcadia, who is confused +with the nymph Callisto, who, again, is said to have become a she-bear, +and later a star; and the Brauronian Artemis, whose maiden ministers +danced a bear-dance,(2) are goddesses whose legend seems unnatural, +and needs to be made intelligible. Or, again, there is nothing not +explicable and natural in the conception of the Olympian Zeus as +represented by the great chryselephantine statue of Zeus at Olympia, +or in the Homeric conception of Zeus as a god who "turns everywhere his +shining eyes, and beholds all things, and protects the righteous, and +deals good or evil fortune to men." But the Zeus whose grave was shown in +Crete, or the Zeus who played Demeter an obscene trick by the aid of +a ram, or the Zeus who, in the shape of a swan, became the father of +Castor and Pollux, or the Zeus who deceived Hera by means of a feigned +marriage with an inanimate object, or the Zeus who was afraid of Attes, +or the Zeus who made love to women in the shape of an ant or a cuckoo, +is a being whose myth is felt to be unnatural and bewildering.(3) It +is this IRRATIONAL and unnatural element, as Mr. Max Muller says, "the +silly, senseless, and savage element," that makes mythology the puzzle +which men have so long found it. For, observe, Greek myth does +not represent merely a humorous play of fancy, dealing with things +religiously sacred as if by way of relief from the strained reverential +contemplation of the majesty of Zeus. Many stories of Greek mythology +are such as could not cross, for the first time, the mind of a civilised +Xenophanes or Theagenes, even in a dream. THIS was the real puzzle. + + +(1) Odyssey, vi. 102. + +(2) (Greek word omitted); compare Harpokration on this word. + +(3) These are the features in myth which provoke, for example, the +wonder of Emeric-David. "The lizard, the wolf, the dog, the ass, +the frog, and all the other brutes so common on religious monuments +everywhere, do they not all imply a THOUGHT which we must divine?" He +concludes that these animals, plants, and monsters of myths are so many +"enigmas" and "symbols" veiling some deep, sacred idea, allegories of +some esoteric religious creed. Jupiter, Paris, 1832, p. lxxvii. + + +We have offered examples--Savage, Indian, and Greek--of that element in +mythology which, as all civilised races have felt, demands explanation. + +To be still more explicit, we may draw up a brief list of the chief +problems in the legendary stories attached to the old religions of the +world--the problems which it is our special purpose to notice. First we +have, in the myths of all races, the most grotesque conceptions of the +character of gods when mythically envisaged. Beings who, in religion, +leave little to be desired, and are spoken of as holy, immortal, +omniscient, and kindly, are, in myth, represented as fashioned in the +likeness not only of man, but of the beasts; as subject to death, as +ignorant and impious. + +Most pre-Christian religions had their "zoomorphic" or partially +zoomorphic idols, gods in the shape of the lower animals, or with the +heads and necks of the lower animals. In the same way all mythologies +represent the gods as fond of appearing in animal forms. Under these +disguises they conduct many amours, even with the daughters of men, and +Greek houses were proud of their descent from Zeus in the shape of an +eagle or ant, a serpent or a swan; while Cronus and the Vedic Tvashtri +and Poseidon made love as horses, and Apollo as a dog. Not less wild +are the legends about the births of gods from the thigh, or the head, +or feet, or armpits of some parent; while tales describing and pictures +representing unspeakable divine obscenities were frequent in the +mythology and in the temples of Greece. Once more, the gods were said +to possess and exercise the power of turning men and women into birds, +beasts, fishes, trees, and stones, so that there was scarcely a familiar +natural object in the Greek world which had not once (according to +legend) been a man or a woman. The myths of the origin of the world and +man, again, were in the last degree childish and disgusting. The Bushmen +and Australians have, perhaps, no story of the origin of species quite +so barbarous in style as the anecdotes about Phanes and Prajapati which +are preserved in the Orphic hymns and in the Brahmanas. The conduct +of the earlier dynasties of classical gods towards each other was as +notoriously cruel and loathsome as their behaviour towards mortals was +tricksy and capricious. The classical gods, with all their immortal +might, are, by a mythical contradiction of the religious conception, +regarded as capable of fear and pain, and are led into scrapes as +ludicrous as those of Brer Wolf or Brer Terrapin in the tales of +the Negroes of the Southern States of America. The stars, again, +in mythology, are mixed up with beasts, planets and men in the same +embroglio of fantastic opinion. The dead and the living, men, beasts and +gods, trees and stars, and rivers, and sun, and moon, dance through the +region of myths in a burlesque ballet of Priapus, where everything may +be anything, where nature has no laws and imagination no limits. + +Such are the irrational characteristics of myths, classic or Indian, +European or American, African or Asiatic, Australian or Maori. Such +is one element we find all the world over among civilised and savage +people, quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. It is no wonder that +pious and reflective men have, in so many ages and in so many ways, +tried to account to themselves for their possession of beliefs closely +connected with religion which yet seemed ruinous to religion and +morality. + +The explanations which men have given of their own sacred stories, the +apologies for their own gods which they have been constrained to offer +to themselves, were the earliest babblings of a science of mythology. +That science was, in its dim beginnings, intended to satisfy a moral +need. Man found that his gods, when mythically envisaged, were not made +in his own moral image at its best, but in the image sometimes of the +beasts, sometimes of his own moral nature at its very worst: in the +likeness of robbers, wizards, sorcerers, and adulterers. Now, it +is impossible here to examine minutely all systems of mythological +interpretation. Every key has been tried in this difficult lock; every +cause of confusion has been taken up and tested, deemed adequate, and +finally rejected or assigned a subordinate place. Probably the first +attempts to shake off the burden of religious horror at mythical impiety +were made by way of silent omission. Thus most of the foulest myths of +early India are absent, and presumably were left out, in the Rig-Veda. +"The religious sentiment of the hymns, already so elevated, has +discarded most of the tales which offended it, but has not succeeded +in discarding them all."(1) Just as the poets of the Rig-Veda prefer to +avoid the more offensive traditions about Indra and Tvashtri, so Homer +succeeds in avoiding the more grotesque and puerile tales about his own +gods.(2) The period of actual apology comes later. Pindar declines, as +we have seen, to accuse a god of cannibalism. The Satapatha Brahmana +invents a new story about the slaying of Visvarupa. Not Indra, but +Trita, says the Brahmana apologetically, slew the three-headed son of +Tvashtri. "Indra assuredly was free from that sin, for he is a god," +says the Indian apologist.(3) Yet sins which to us appear far more +monstrous than the peccadillo of killing a three-headed Brahman are +attributed freely to Indra. + + +(1) Les Religions de l'Inde, Barth, p. 14. See also postea, "Indian +Myths". + +(2) The reasons for Homer's reticence are probably different in +different passages. Perhaps in some cases he had heard a purer version +of myth than what reached Hesiod; perhaps he sometimes purposely (like +Pindar) purified a myth; usually he must have selected, in conformity +with the noble humanity and purity of his taste, the tales that best +conformed to his ideal. He makes his deities reluctant to drag out in +dispute old scandals of their early unheroic adventures, some of which, +however, he gives, as the kicking of Hephaestus out of heaven, and the +imprisonment of Ares in a vessel of bronze. Compare Professor Jebb's +Homer, p. 83: "whatever the instinct of the great artist has tolerated, +at least it has purged these things away." that is, divine amours in +bestial form. + +(3) Satapatha Brahmana, Oxford, 1882, vol. i. p. 47. + + +While poets could but omit a blasphemous tale or sketch an apology +in passing, it became the business of philosophers and of antiquarian +writers deliberately to "whitewash" the gods of popular religion. +Systematic explanations of the sacred stories, whether as preserved +in poetry or as told by priests, had to be provided. India had her +etymological and her legendary school of mythology.(1) Thus, while the +hymn SEEMED to tell how the Maruts were gods, "born together with the +spotted deer," the etymological interpreters explained that the word for +deer only meant the many-coloured lines of clouds.(2) In the armoury of +apologetics etymology has been the most serviceable weapon. It is +easy to see that by aid of etymology the most repulsive legend may be +compelled to yield a pure or harmless sense, and may be explained as +an innocent blunder, caused by mere verbal misunderstanding. Brahmans, +Greeks, and Germans have equally found comfort in this hypothesis. In +the Cratylus of Plato, Socrates speaks of the notion of explaining myths +by etymological guesses at the meaning of divine names as "a philosophy +which came to him all in an instant". Thus we find Socrates shocked by +the irreverence which styled Zeus the son of Cronus, "who is a proverb +for stupidity". But on examining philologically the name Kronos, +Socrates decides that it must really mean Koros, "not in the sense of +a youth, but signifying the pure and garnished mind". Therefore, +when people first called Zeus the son of Cronus, they meant nothing +irreverent, but only that Zeus is the child of the pure mind or pure +reason. Not only is this etymological system most pious and consolatory, +but it is, as Socrates adds, of universal application. "For now I +bethink me of a very new and ingenious notion,... that we may put in and +pull out letters at pleasure, and alter the accents."(3) + + +(1) Rig-Veda Sanhita. Max Muller, p. 59. + +(2) Postea, "Indian Divine Myths". + +(3) Jowett's Plato, vol. i. pp. 632, 670. + + +Socrates, of course, speaks more than half in irony, but there is a +certain truth in his account of etymological analysis and its dependence +on individual tastes and preconceived theory. + +The ancient classical schools of mythological interpretation, though +unscientific and unsuccessful, are not without interest. We find +philosophers and grammarians looking, just as we ourselves are looking, +for some condition of the human intellect out of which the absurd +element in myths might conceivably have sprung. Very naturally the +philosophers supposed that the human beings in whose brain and +speech myths had their origin must have been philosophers like +themselves--intelligent, educated persons. But such persons, they +argued, could never have meant to tell stories about the gods so full of +nonsense and blasphemy. + +Therefore the nonsense and blasphemy must originally have had some +harmless, or even praiseworthy, sense. What could that sense have been? +This question each ancient mythologist answered in accordance with his +own taste and prejudices, and above all, and like all other and later +speculators, in harmony with the general tendency of his own studies. +If he lived when physical speculation was coming into fashion, as in +the age of Empedocles, he thought that the Homeric poems must contain a +veiled account of physical philosophy. This was the opinion of Theagenes +of Rhegium, who wrote at a period when a crude physicism was disengaging +itself from the earlier religious and mythical cosmogonic systems of +Greece. Theagenes was shocked by the Homeric description of the battle +in which the gods fought as allies of the Achaeans and Trojans. He +therefore explained away the affair as a veiled account of the strife +of the elements. Such "strife" was familiar to readers of the physical +speculations of Empedocles and of Heraclitus, who blamed Homer for his +prayer against Strife.(1) + + +(1) Is. et Osir., 48. + + +It did not occur to Theagenes to ask whether any evidence existed +to show that the pre-Homeric Greeks were Empedoclean or Heraclitean +philosophers. He readily proved to himself that Apollo, Helios, and +Hephaestus were allegorical representations, like what such philosophers +would feign,--of fire, that Hera was air, Poseidon water, Artemis the +moon, and the rest he disposed of in the same fashion.(1) + + +(1) Scholia on Iliad, xx. 67. Dindorf (1877), vol. iv. p. 231. "This +manner of apologetics is as old as Theagenes of Rhegium. Homer offers +theological doctrine in the guise of physical allegory." + + +Metrodorus, again, turned not only the gods, but the Homeric heroes into +"elemental combinations and physical agencies"; for there is nothing new +in the mythological philosophy recently popular, which saw the sun, and +the cloud, and the wind in Achilles, Athene, and Hermes.(1) + + +(1) Grote, Hist, of Greece, ed. 1869, i. p. 404. + + +In the Bacchae (291-297), Euripides puts another of the mythological +systems of his own time into the mouth of Cadmus, the Theban king, who +advances a philological explanation of the story that Dionysus was sewn +up in the thigh of Zeus. The most famous of the later theories was that +of Euhemerus (316 B.C.). In a kind of philosophical romance, Euhemerus +declared that he had sailed to some No-man's-land, Panchaea, where he +found the verity about mythical times engraved on pillars of bronze. +This truth he published in the Sacra Historia, where he rationalised +the fables, averring that the gods had been men, and that the myths were +exaggerated and distorted records of facts. (See Eusebius, Praep. E., +ii 55.) The Abbe Banier (La Mythologie expliquee par l'Histoire, Paris, +1738, vol. ii. p. 218) attempts the defence of Euhemerus, whom most of +the ancients regarded as an atheist. There was an element of truth in +his romantic hypothesis.(1) + + +(1) See Block, Euhemere et sa Doctrine, Mons, 1876. + + +Sometimes the old stories were said to conceal a moral, sometimes a +physical, sometimes a mystical or Neo-platonic sort of meaning. As +every apologist interpreted the legends in his own fashion, the +interpretations usually disagreed and killed each other. Just as one +modern mythologist sees the wind in Aeetes and the dawn in Medea, while +another of the same school believes, on equally good evidence, that both +Aeetes and Medea are the moon, so writers like Porphyry (270 A. D.) +and Plutarch (60 A. D.) made the ancient deities types of their own +favourite doctrines, whatever these might happen to be. + +When Christianity became powerful, the Christian writers naturally +attacked heathen religion where it was most vulnerable, on the side of +the myths, and of the mysteries which were dramatic representations +of the myths. "Pretty gods you worship," said the Fathers, in effect, +"homicides, adulterers, bulls, bears, mice, ants, and what not." The +heathen apologists for the old religion were thus driven in the early +ages of Christianity to various methods of explaining away the myths of +their discredited religion. + +The early Christian writers very easily, and with considerable +argumentative power, disposed of the apologies for the myths advanced by +Porphyry and Plutarch. Thus Eusebius in the Praeparatio Evangelica +first attacks the Egyptian interpretations of their own bestial or +semi-bestial gods. He shows that the various interpretations destroy +each other, and goes on to point out that Greek myth is in essence only +a veneered and varnished version of the faith of Egypt. He ridicules, +with a good deal of humour, the old theories which resolved so many +mythical heroes into the sun; he shows that while one system is +contented to regard Zeus as mere fire and air, another system recognises +in him the higher reason, while Heracles, Dionysus, Apollo, and +Asclepius, father and child, are all indifferently the sun. + +Granting that the myth-makers were only constructing physical +allegories, why did they wrap them up, asks Eusebius, in what WE +consider abominable fictions? In what state were the people who could +not look at the pure processes of Nature without being reminded of +the most hideous and unnatural offences? Once more: "The physical +interpreters do not even agree in their physical interpretations". All +these are equally facile, equally plausible, and equally incapable of +proof. Again, Eusebius argues, the interpreters take for granted in the +makers of the myths an amount of physical knowledge which they certainly +did not possess. For example, if Leto were only another name for Hera, +the character of Zeus would be cleared as far as his amour with Leto is +concerned. Now, the ancient believers in the "physical phenomena theory" +of myths made out that Hera, the wife of Zeus, was really the same +person under another name as Leto, his mistress. "For Hera is the earth" +(they said at other times that Hera was the air), "and Leto is the +night; but night is only the shadow of the earth, and therefore Leto +is only the shadow of Hera." It was easy, however, to prove that this +scientific view of night as the shadow of earth was not likely to be +known to myth-makers, who regarded "swift Night" as an actual person. +Plutarch, too, had an abstruse theory to explain the legend about the +dummy wife,--a log of oak-wood, which Zeus pretended to marry when at +variance with Hera.(1) + + +(1) Pausanias, ix. 31. + + +This quarrel, he said, was merely the confusion and strife of elements. +Zeus was heat, Hera was cold (she had already been explained as earth +and air), the dummy wife of oak-wood was a tree that emerged after a +flood, and so forth. Of course, there was no evidence that mythopoeic +men held Plutarchian theories of heat and cold and the conflict of +the elements; besides, as Eusebius pointed out, Hera had already been +defined once as an allegory of wedded life, and once as the earth, and +again as the air, and it was rather too late to assert that she was also +the cold and watery element in the world. As for his own explanation of +the myths, Eusebius holds that they descend from a period when men in +their lawless barbarism knew no better than to tell such tales. "Ancient +folk, in the exceeding savagery of their lives, made no account of God, +the universal Creator (here Eusebius is probably wrong)... but betook +them to all manner of abominations. For the laws of decent existence +were not yet established, nor was any settled and peaceful state +ordained among men, but only a loose and savage fashion of wandering +life, while, as beasts irrational, they cared for no more than to fill +their bellies, being in a manner without God in the world." Growing +a little more civilised, men, according to Eusebius, sought after +something divine, which they found in the heavenly bodies. Later, +they fell to worshipping living persons, especially "medicine men" and +conjurors, and continued to worship them even after their decease, +so that Greek temples are really tombs of the dead.(1) Finally, the +civilised ancients, with a conservative reluctance to abandon their +old myths (Greek text omitted), invented for them moral or physical +explanations, like those of Plutarch and others, earlier and later.(2) + + +(1) Praep. E., ii. 5. + +(2) Ibid., 6,19. + + +As Eusebius, like Clemens of Alexandria, Arnobius, and the other early +Christian disputants, had no prejudice in favour of Hellenic mythology, +and no sentimental reason for wishing to suppose that the origin of +its impurities was pure, he found his way almost to the theory of the +irrational element in mythology which we propose to offer. + +Even to sketch the history of mythological hypothesis in modern times +would require a book to itself. It must suffice here to indicate the +various lines which speculation as to mythology has pursued. + +All interpretations of myth have been formed in accordance with the +ideas prevalent in the time of the interpreters. The early Greek +physicists thought that mythopoeic men had been physicists. Aristotle +hints that they were (like himself) political philosophers.(1) +Neo-platonists sought in the myths for Neo-platonism; most Christians +(unlike Eusebius) either sided with Euhemerus, or found in myth the +inventions of devils, or a tarnished and distorted memory of the +Biblical revelation. + + +(1) Met., xi. 8,19. + + +This was the theory, for example, of good old Jacob Bryant, who saw +everywhere memories of the Noachian deluge and proofs of the correctness +of Old Testament ethnology.(1) + + +(1) Bryant, A New System, wherein an Attempt is made to Divest Tradition +of Fable, 1774. + + +Much the same attempt to find the Biblical truth at the bottom of savage +and ancient fable has been recently made by the late M. Lenormant, a +Catholic scholar.(1) + + +(1) Les Origines de l'Histoire d'apres le Bible, 1880-1884. + + +In the beginning of the present century Germany turned her attention to +mythology. As usual, men's ideas were biassed by the general nature of +their opinions. In a pious kind of spirit, Friedrich Creuzer sought to +find SYMBOLS of some pure, early, and Oriental theosophy in the myths +and mysteries of Greece. Certainly the Greeks of the philosophical +period explained their own myths as symbols of higher things, but +the explanation was an after-thought.(1) The great Lobeck, in his +Aglaophamus (1829), brought back common sense, and made it the guide of +his vast, his unequalled learning. In a gentler and more genial +spirit, C. Otfried Muller laid the foundation of a truly scientific +and historical mythology.(2) Neither of these writers had, like Alfred +Maury,(3) much knowledge of the myths and faiths of the lower races, but +they often seem on the point of anticipating the ethnological method. + + +(1) Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie, 2d edit., Leipzig, 1836-43. + +(2) Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology, English trans., +London, 1844. + +(3) Histoire des Religions de la Grece Antique, Paris, 1857. + + +When philological science in our own century came to maturity, in +philology, as of old in physics and later in symbols, was sought the +key of myths. While physical allegory, religious and esoteric symbolism, +verbal confusion, historical legend, and an original divine tradition, +perverted in ages of darkness, have been the most popular keys in other +ages, the scientific nineteenth century has had a philological key +of its own. The methods of Kuhn, Breal, Max Muller, and generally the +philological method, cannot be examined here at full length.(1) Briefly +speaking, the modern philological method is intended for a scientific +application of the old etymological interpretations. Cadmus in the +Bacchae of Euripides, Socrates in the Cratylus of Plato, dismiss +unpalatable myths as the results of verbal confusion. People had +originally said something quite sensible--so the hypothesis runs--but +when their descendants forgot the meaning of their remarks, a new and +absurd meaning followed from a series of unconscious puns.(2) This view +was supported in ancient times by purely conjectural and impossible +etymologies. Thus the myth that Dionysus was sewn up in the THIGH of +Zeus (Greek text omitted) was explained by Euripides as the result of a +confusion of words. People had originally said that Zeus gave a pledge +(Greek text omitted) to Hera. The modern philological school relies for +explanations of untoward and other myths on similar confusions. Thus +Daphne is said to have been originally not a girl of romance, but the +dawn (Sanskirt, dahana: ahana) pursued by the rising sun. But as the +original Aryan sense of Dahana or Ahana was lost, and as Daphne came to +mean the laurel--the wood which burns easily--the fable arose that the +tree had been a girl called Daphne.(3) + + +(1) See Mythology in Encyclop. Brit. and in La Mythologie (A. L.), +Paris, 1886, where Mr. Max Muller's system is criticised. See also +Custom and Myth and Modern Mythology. + +(2) That a considerable number of myths, chiefly myths of place names, +arise from popular etymologies is certain: what is objected to is the +vast proportion given to this element in myths. + +(3) Max Muller, Nineteenth Century, December, 1885; "Solar Myths," +January, 1886; Myths and Mythologists (A. L). Whitney, Mannhardt, +Bergaigne, and others dispute the etymology. Or. and Ling. Studies, +1874, p. 160; Mannhardt, Antike Wald und Feld Kultus (Berlin, 1877), p. +xx.; Bergaigne, La Religion Vedique, iii. 293; nor does Curtius like it +much, Principles of Greek Etymology, English trans., ii. 92, 93; Modern +Mythology (A. L.), 1897. + + +This system chiefly rests on comparison between the Sanskrit names in +the Rig-Veda and the mythic names in Greek, German, Slavonic, and other +Aryan legends. The attempt is made to prove that, in the common speech +of the undivided Aryan race, many words for splendid or glowing natural +phenomena existed, and that natural processes were described in a +figurative style. As the various Aryan families separated, the sense of +the old words and names became dim, the nomina developed into numina, +the names into gods, the descriptions of elemental processes into myths. +As this system has already been criticised by us elsewhere with minute +attention, a reference to these reviews must suffice in this place. +Briefly, it may be stated that the various masters of the school--Kuhn, +Max Muller, Roth, Schwartz, and the rest--rarely agree where agreement +is essential, that is, in the philological foundations of their +building. They differ in very many of the etymological analyses of +mythical names. They also differ in the interpretations they put on the +names, Kuhn almost invariably seeing fire, storm, cloud, or lightning +where Mr. Max Muller sees the chaste Dawn. Thus Mannhardt, after having +been a disciple, is obliged to say that comparative Indo-Germanic +mythology has not borne the fruit expected, and that "the CERTAIN gains +of the system reduce themselves to the scantiest list of parallels, +such as Dyaus = Zeus = Tius, Parjanya = Perkunas, Bhaga = Bog, Varuna = +Uranos" (a position much disputed), etc. Mannhardt adds his belief that +a number of other "equations"--such as Sarameya = Hermeias, Saranyus = +Demeter Erinnys, Kentauros = Gandharva, and many others--will not stand +criticism, and he fears that these ingenious guesses will prove +mere jeux d'esprit rather than actual facts.(1) Many examples of the +precarious and contradictory character of the results of philological +mythology, many instances of "dubious etymologies," false logic, leaps +at foregone conclusions, and attempts to make what is peculiarly Indian +in thought into matter of universal application, will meet us in the +chapters on Indian and Greek divine legends.(2) "The method in its +practical working shows a fundamental lack of the historical sense," +says Mannhardt. Examples are torn from their contexts, he observes; +historical evolution is neglected; passages of the Veda, themselves +totally obscure, are dragged forward to account for obscure Greek +mythical phenomena. Such are the accusations brought by the regretted +Mannhardt against the school to which he originally belonged, and +which was popular and all-powerful even in the maturity of his own more +clear-sighted genius. Proofs of the correctness of his criticism will +be offered abundantly in the course of this work. It will become evident +that, great as are the acquisitions of Philology, her least certain +discoveries have been too hastily applied in alien "matter," that is, in +the region of myth. Not that philology is wholly without place or part +in the investigation of myth, when there is agreement among philologists +as to the meaning of a divine name. In that case a certain amount of +light is thrown on the legend of the bearer of the name, and on its +origin and first home, Aryan, Greek, Semitic, or the like. But how rare +is agreement among philologists! + + +(1) Baum und Feld Kultus, p. xvii. Kuhn's "epoch-making" book is Die +Herabkunft des Feuers, Berlin, 1859. By way of example of the disputes +as to the original meaning of a name like Prometheus, compare Memoires +de la Societe de Linguistique de Paris, t. iv. p. 336. + +(2) See especially Mannhardt's note on Kuhn's theories of Poseidon and +Hermes, B. u. F. K., pp. xviii., xix., note 1. + + +"The philological method," says Professor Tiele,(1) "is inadequate and +misleading, when it is a question of discovering the ORIGIN of a myth, +or the physical explanation of the oldest myths, or of accounting for +the rude and obscene element in the divine legends of civilised races. +But these are not the only problems of mythology. There is, for example, +the question of the GENEALOGICAL relations of myths, where we have +to determine whether the myths of peoples whose speech is of the same +family are special modifications of a mythology once common to the race +whence these peoples have sprung. The philological method alone can +answer here." But this will seem a very limited province when we find +that almost all races, however remote and unconnected in speech, have +practically much the same myths. + + +(1) Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel., xii. 3, 260, Nov., Dec., 1885. + + + +CHAPTER II. NEW SYSTEM PROPOSED. + +Chap. I. recapitulated--Proposal of a new method: Science of +comparative or historical study of man--Anticipated in part by +Eusebius, Fontenelle, De Brosses, Spencer (of C. C. C., Cambridge), and +Mannhardt--Science of Tylor--Object of inquiry: to find condition of +human intellect in which marvels of myth are parts of practical everyday +belief--This is the savage state--Savages described--The wild element of +myth a survival from the savage state--Advantages of this method--Partly +accounts for wide DIFFUSION as well as ORIGIN of myths--Connected +with general theory of evolution--Puzzling example of myth of the +water-swallower--Professor Tiele's criticism of the method--Objections +to method, and answer to these--See Appendix B. + + +The past systems of mythological interpretation have been briefly +sketched. It has been shown that the practical need for a reconciliation +between RELIGION and MORALITY on one side, and the MYTHS about the gods +on the other, produced the hypotheses of Theagenes and Metrodorus, of +Socrates and Euemerus, of Aristotle and Plutarch. It has been shown that +in each case the reconcilers argued on the basis of their own ideas and +of the philosophies of their time. The early physicist thought that +myth concealed a physical philosophy; the early etymologist saw in it a +confusion of language; the early political speculator supposed that myth +was an invention of legislators; the literary Euhemerus found the secret +of myths in the course of an imaginary voyage to a fabled island. +Then came the moment of the Christian attacks, and Pagan philosophers, +touched with Oriental pantheism, recognised in myths certain pantheistic +symbols and a cryptic revelation of their own Neo-platonism. When the +gods were dead and their altars fallen, then antiquaries brought their +curiosity to the problem of explaining myth. Christians recognised in it +a depraved version of the Jewish sacred writings, and found the ark on +every mountain-top of Greece. The critical nineteenth century brought +in, with Otfried Muller and Lobeck, a closer analysis; and finally, in +the sudden rise of comparative philology, it chanced that philologists +annexed the domain of myths. Each of these systems had its own amount of +truth, but each certainly failed to unravel the whole web of tradition +and of foolish faith. + +Meantime a new science has come into existence, the science which +studies man in the sum of all his works and thoughts, as evolved +through the whole process of his development. This science, Comparative +Anthropology, examines the development of law out of custom; the +development of weapons from the stick or stone to the latest repeating +rifle; the development of society from the horde to the nation. It is a +study which does not despise the most backward nor degraded tribe, nor +neglect the most civilised, and it frequently finds in Australians +or Nootkas the germ of ideas and institutions which Greeks or Romans +brought to perfection, or retained, little altered from their early +rudeness, in the midst of civilisation. + +It is inevitable that this science should also try its hand on +mythology. Our purpose is to employ the anthropological method--the +study of the evolution of ideas, from the savage to the barbarous, and +thence to the civilised stage--in the province of myth, ritual, and +religion. It has been shown that the light of this method had dawned on +Eusebius in his polemic with the heathen apologists. Spencer, the head +of Corpus, Cambridge (1630-93), had really no other scheme in his mind +in his erudite work on Hebrew Ritual.(1) Spencer was a student of man's +religions generally, and he came to the conclusion that Hebrew ritual +was but an expurgated, and, so to speak, divinely "licensed" adaptation +of heathen customs at large. We do but follow his guidance on less +perilous ground when we seek for the original forms of classical rite +and myth in the parallel usages and legends of the most backward races. + + +(1) De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus, Tubingae, 1782. + + +Fontenelle in the last century, stated, with all the clearness of the +French intellect, the system which is partially worked out in this +essay--the system which explains the irrational element in myth as +inherited from savagery. Fontenelle's paper (Sur l'Origine des Fables) +is brief, sensible, and witty, and requires little but copious evidence +to make it adequate. But he merely threw out the idea, and left it to be +neglected.(1) + + +(1) See Appendix A., Fontenelle's Origine des Fables. + + +Among other founders of the anthropological or historical school of +mythology, De Brosses should not be forgotten. In his Dieux Fetiches +(1760) he follows the path which Eusebius indicated--the path of Spencer +and Fontenelle--now the beaten road of Tylor and M'Lennan and Mannhardt. + +In anthropology, in the science of Waitz, Tylor, and M'Lennan, in +the examination of man's faith in the light of his social, legal, and +historical conditions generally, we find, with Mannhardt, some of the +keys of myth. This science "makes it manifest that the different stages +through which humanity has passed in its intellectual evolution have +still their living representatives among various existing races. +The study of these lower races is an invaluable instrument for the +interpretation of the survivals from earlier stages, which we meet in +the full civilisation of cultivated peoples, but whose origins were in +the remotest fetichism and savagery."(1) + + +(1) Mannhardt op. cit. p. xxiii. + + +It is by following this road, and by the aid of anthropology and +of human history, that we propose to seek for a demonstrably actual +condition of the human intellect, whereof the puzzling qualities of myth +would be the natural and inevitable fruit. In all the earlier theories +which we have sketched, inquirers took it for granted that the +myth-makers were men with philosophic and moral ideas like their +own--ideas which, from some reason of religion or state, they expressed +in bizarre terms of allegory. We shall attempt, on the other hand, to +prove that the human mind has passed through a condition quite unlike +that of civilised men--a condition in which things seemed natural and +rational that now appear unnatural and devoid of reason, and in which, +therefore, if myths were evolved, they would, if they survived into +civilisation, be such as civilised men find strange and perplexing. + +Our first question will be, Is there a stage of human society and of +the human intellect in which facts that appear to us to be monstrous +and irrational--facts corresponding to the wilder incidents of myth--are +accepted as ordinary occurrences of everyday life? In the region of +romantic rather than of mythical invention we know that there is such +a state. Mr. Lane, in his preface to the Arabian Nights, says that the +Arabs have an advantage over us as story-tellers. They can introduce +such incidents as the change of a man into a horse, or of a woman into a +dog, or the intervention of an Afreet without any more scruple than our +own novelists feel in describing a duel or the concealment of a will. +Among the Arabs the agencies of magic and of spirits are regarded as at +least as probable and common as duels and concealments of wills seem +to be thought by European novelists. It is obvious that we need look no +farther for the explanation of the supernatural events in Arab romances. +Now, let us apply this system to mythology. It is admitted that Greeks, +Romans, Aryans of India in the age of the Sanskrit commentators, and +Egyptians of the Ptolemaic and earlier ages, were as much puzzled as +we are by the mythical adventures of their gods. But is there any +known stage of the human intellect in which similar adventures, and +the metamorphoses of men into animals, trees, stars, and all else +that puzzles us in the civilised mythologies, are regarded as possible +incidents of daily human life? Our answer is, that everything in the +civilised mythologies which we regard as irrational seems only part of +the accepted and natural order of things to contemporary savages, and in +the past seemed equally rational and natural to savages concerning whom +we have historical information.(1) Our theory is, therefore, that the +savage and senseless element in mythology is, for the most part, a +legacy from the fancy of ancestors of the civilised races who were once +in an intellectual state not higher, but probably lower, than that of +Australians, Bush-men, Red Indians, the lower races of South America, +and other worse than barbaric peoples. As the ancestors of the Greeks, +Aryans of India, Egyptians and others advanced in civilisation, their +religious thought was shocked and surprised by myths (originally dating +from the period of savagery, and natural in that period, though even +then often in contradiction to morals and religion) which were preserved +down to the time of Pausanias by local priesthoods, or which were +stereotyped in the ancient poems of Hesiod and Homer, or in the +Brahmanas and Vedas of India, or were retained in the popular religion +of Egypt. This theory recommended itself to Lobeck. "We may believe that +ancient and early tribes framed gods like unto themselves in action and +in experience, and that the allegorical softening down of myths is the +explanation added later by descendants who had attained to purer ideas +of divinity, yet dared not reject the religion of their ancestors."(2) +The senseless element in the myths would, by this theory, be for the +most part a "survival"; and the age and condition of human thought +whence it survived would be one in which our most ordinary ideas about +the nature of things and the limits of possibility did not yet exist, +when all things were conceived of in quite other fashion; the age, that +is, of savagery. + + +(1) We have been asked to DEFINE a savage. He cannot be defined in an +epigram, but by way of choice of a type:-- + +1. In material equipment the perfect savage is he who employs tools of +stone and wood, not of metal; who is nomadic rather than settled; who +is acquainted (if at all) only with the rudest forms of the arts of +potting, weaving, fire-making, etc.; and who derives more of his food +from the chase and from wild roots and plants than from any kind of +agriculture or from the flesh of domesticated animals. + +2. In psychology the savage is he who (extending unconsciously to the +universe his own implicit consciousness of personality) regards all +natural objects as animated and intelligent beings, and, drawing no hard +and fast line between himself and the things in the world, is readily +persuaded that men may be metamorphosed into plants, beasts and stars; +that winds and clouds, sun and dawn, are persons with human passions +and parts; and that the lower animals especially may be creatures more +powerful than himself, and, in a sense, divine and creative. + +3. In religion the savage is he who (while often, in certain moods, +conscious of a far higher moral faith) believes also in ancestral +ghosts or spirits of woods and wells that were never ancestral; prays +frequently by dint of magic; and sometimes adores inanimate objects, or +even appeals to the beasts as supernatural protectors. + +4. In society the savage is he who (as a rule) bases his laws on the +well-defined lines of totemism--that is, claims descent from or other +close relation to natural objects, and derives from the sacredness of +those objects the sanction of his marriage prohibitions and blood-feuds, +while he makes skill in magic a claim to distinguished rank. + +Such, for our purpose, is the savage, and we propose to explain the more +"senseless" factors in civilised mythology as "survivals" of these ideas +and customs preserved by conservatism and local tradition, or, less +probably, borrowed from races which were, or had been, savage. + +(2) Aglaoph., i. 153. Had Lobeck gone a step farther and examined the +mental condition of veteres et priscae gentes, this book would have +been, superfluous. Nor did he know that the purer ideas were also +existing among certain low savages. + + +It is universally admitted that "survivals" of this kind do account for +many anomalies in our institutions, in law, politics, society, even in +dress and manners. If isolated fragments of earlier ages abide in these, +it is still more probable that other fragments will survive in anything +so closely connected as is mythology with the conservative religious +sentiment and tradition. Our object, then, is to prove that the "silly, +savage, and irrational" element in the myths of civilised peoples is, +as a rule, either a survival from the period of savagery, or has been +borrowed from savage neighbours by a cultivated people, or, lastly, +is an imitation by later poets of old savage data.(1) For example, +to explain the constellations as metamorphosed men, animals, or other +objects of terrestrial life is the habit of savages,(2)--a natural habit +among people who regard all things as on one level of personal life and +intelligence. When the stars, among civilised Greeks or Aryans of India, +are also popularly regarded as transformed and transfigured men, animals +and the like, this belief may be either a survival from the age when the +ancestors of Greeks and Indians were in the intellectual condition +of the Australian Murri; or the star-name and star-myth may have been +borrowed from savages, or from cultivated peoples once savage or apt to +copy savages; or, as in the case of the Coma Berenices, a poet of a late +age may have invented a new artificial myth on the old lines of savage +fancy. + + +(1) We may be asked why do savages entertain the irrational ideas which +survive in myth? One might as well ask why they eat each other, or +use stones instead of metal. Their intellectual powers are not fully +developed, and hasty analogy from their own unreasoned consciousness +is their chief guide. Myth, in Mr. Darwin's phrase, is one of the +"miserable and indirect consequences of our highest faculties". Descent +of Man, p. 69. + +(2) See Custom and Myth, "Star-Myths". + + +This method of interpreting a certain element in mythology is, we must +repeat, no new thing, though, to judge from the protests of several +mythologists, it is new to many inquirers. We have seen that Eusebius +threw out proposals in this direction; that Spencer, De Brosses, and +Fontenelle unconsciously followed him; and we have quoted from Lobeck +a statement of a similar opinion. The whole matter has been stated as +clearly as possible by Mr. B. B. Tylor:-- + +"Savages have been for untold ages, and still are, living in the +myth-making stage of the human mind. It was through sheer ignorance and +neglect of this direct knowledge how and by what manner of men myths +are really made that their simple philosophy has come to be buried under +masses of commentator's rubbish..."(1) Mr. Tylor goes on thus (and his +words contain the gist of our argument): "The general thesis maintained +is that myth arose in the savage condition prevalent in remote ages +among the whole human race; that it remains comparatively unchanged +among the rude modern tribes who have departed least from these +primitive conditions, while higher and later civilisations, partly by +retaining its actual principles, and partly by carrying on its inherited +results in the form of ancestral tradition, continued it not merely in +toleration, but in honour".(2) Elsewhere Mr. Tylor points out that by +this method of interpretation we may study myths in various stages +of evolution, from the rude guess of the savage at an explanation of +natural phenomena, through the systems of the higher barbarisms, or +lower civilisations (as in ancient Mexico), and the sacerdotage of +India, till myth reaches its most human form in Greece. Yet even in +Greek myth the beast is not wholly cast out, and Hellas by no means "let +the ape and tiger die". That Mr. Tylor does not exclude the Aryan +race from his general theory is plain enough.(3) "What is the Aryan +conception of the Thunder-god but a poetic elaboration of thoughts +inherited from the savage stage through which the primitive Aryans had +passed?"(4) + + +(1) Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., i. p. 283. + +(2) Op. cit., p. 275. + +(3) Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., ii. 265. + +(4) Pretty much the same view seems to be taken by Mr. Max Muller +(Nineteenth Century, January, 1882) when he calls Tsui Goab (whom the +Hottentots believe to be a defunct conjuror) "a Hottentot Indra or +Zeus". + + +The advantages of our hypothesis (if its legitimacy be admitted) are +obvious. In the first place, we have to deal with an actual demonstrable +condition of the human intellect. The existence of the savage state +in all its various degrees, and of the common intellectual habits and +conditions which are shared by the backward peoples, and again the +survival of many of these in civilisation, are indubitable facts. We are +not obliged to fall back upon some fanciful and unsupported theory of +what "primitive man" did, and said, and thought. Nay, more; we escape +all the fallacies connected with the terms "primitive man". We are not +compelled (as will be shown later)(1) to prove that the first men of all +were like modern savages, nor that savages represent primitive man. +It may be that the lowest extant savages are the nearest of existing +peoples to the type of the first human beings. But on this point it is +unnecessary for us to dogmatise. If we can show that, whether men began +their career as savages or not, they have at least passed through the +savage status or have borrowed the ideas of races in the savage +status, that is all we need. We escape from all the snares of theories +(incapable of historical proof) about the really primeval and original +condition of the human family. + + +(1) Appendix B. + + +Once more, our theory naturally attaches itself to the general system +of Evolution. We are enabled to examine mythology as a thing of gradual +development and of slow and manifold modifications, corresponding in +some degree to the various changes in the general progress of society. +Thus we shall watch the barbaric conditions of thought which produce +barbaric myths, while these in their turn are retained, or perhaps +purified, or perhaps explained away, by more advanced civilisations. +Further, we shall be able to detect the survival of the savage ideas +with least modification, and the persistence of the savage myths with +least change, among the classes of a civilised population which have +shared least in the general advance. These classes are, first, the +rustic peoples, dwelling far from cities and schools, on heaths or by +the sea; second, the conservative local priesthoods, who retain the more +crude and ancient myths of the local gods and heroes after these +have been modified or rejected by the purer sense of philosophers and +national poets. Thus much of ancient myth is a woven warp and woof of +three threads: the savage donnee, the civilised and poetic modification +of the savage donnee, the version of the original fable which survives +in popular tales and in the "sacred chapters" of local priesthoods. A +critical study of these three stages in myth is in accordance with the +recognised practice of science. Indeed, the whole system is only an +application to this particular province, mythology, of the method by +which the development either of organisms or of human institutions is +traced. As the anomalies and apparently useless and accidental features +in the human or in other animal organisms may be explained as stunted or +rudimentary survivals of organs useful in a previous stage of life, so +the anomalous and irrational myths of civilised races may be explained +as survivals of stories which, in an earlier state of thought and +knowledge, seemed natural enough. The persistence of the myths +is accounted for by the well-known conservatism of the religious +sentiment--a conservatism noticed even by Eusebius. "In later days, when +they became ashamed of the religious beliefs of their ancestors, they +invented private and respectful interpretations, each to suit himself. +For no one dared to shake the ancestral beliefs, as they honoured at a +very high rate the sacredness and antiquity of old associations, and of +the teaching they had received in childhood."(1) + + +(1) Praep. E., ii. 6, 19. + + +Thus the method which we propose to employ is in harmony both with +modern scientific procedure and with the views of a clear-sighted Father +of the Church. Consequently no system could well be less "heretical" and +"unorthodox". + +The last advantage of our hypothesis which need here be mentioned is +that it helps to explain the DIFFUSION no less than the ORIGIN of the +wild and crazy element in myth. We seek for the origin of the savage +factor of myth in one aspect of the intellectual condition of savages. +We say "in one aspect" expressly; to guard against the suggestion that +the savage intellect has no aspect but this, and no saner ideas than +those of myth. The DIFFUSION of stories practically identical in every +quarter of the globe may be (provisionally) regarded as the result of +the prevalence in every quarter, at one time or another, of similar +mental habits and ideas. This explanation must not be pressed too hard +nor too far. If we find all over the world a belief that men can change +themselves and their neighbours into beasts, that belief will account +for the appearance of metamorphosis in myth. If we find a belief that +inanimate objects are really much on a level with man, the opinion +will account for incidents of myth such as that in which the wooden +figure-head of the Argo speaks with a human voice. Again, a widespread +belief in the separability of the soul or the life from the body will +account for the incident in nursery tales and myths of the "giant who +had no heart in his body," but kept his heart and life elsewhere. An +ancient identity of mental status and the working of similar mental +forces at the attempt to explain the same phenomena will account, +without any theory of borrowing, or transmission of myth, or of +original unity of race, for the world-wide diffusion of many mythical +conceptions. + +But this theory of the original similarity of the savage mind everywhere +and in all races will scarcely account for the world-wide distribution +of long and intricate mythical PLOTS, of consecutive series of adroitly +interwoven situations. In presence of these long romances, found among +so many widely severed peoples, conjecture is, at present, almost +idle. We do not know, in many instances, whether such stories were +independently developed, or carried from a common centre, or borrowed by +one race from another, and so handed on round the world. + +This chapter may conclude with an example of a tale whose DIFFUSION may +be explained in divers ways, though its ORIGIN seems undoubtedly savage. +If we turn to the Algonkins, a stock of Red Indians, we come on a +popular tradition which really does give pause to the mythologist. Could +this story, he asks himself, have been separately invented in widely +different places, or could the Iroquois have borrowed from the +Australian blacks or the Andaman Islanders? It is a common thing in most +mythologies to find everything of value to man--fire, sun, water--in +the keeping of some hostile power. The fire, or the sun, or the water +is then stolen, or in other ways rescued from the enemy and restored +to humanity. The Huron story (as far as water is concerned) is told by +Father Paul Le Jeune, a Jesuit missionary, who lived among the Hurons +about 1636. The myth begins with the usual opposition between two +brothers, the Cain and Abel of savage legend. One of the brothers, named +Ioskeha, slew the other, and became the father of mankind (as known +to the Red Indians) and the guardian of the Iroquois. The earth was at +first arid and sterile, but Ioskeha destroyed the gigantic frog which +had swallowed all the waters, and guided the torrents into smooth +streams and lakes.(1) + + +(1) Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1636, p. 103 (Paris, Cramoisy, +1637). + + +Now where, outside of North America, do we find this frog who swallowed +all the water? We find him in Australia. + +"The aborigines of Lake Tyers," remarks Mr. Brough Smyth, "say that at +one time there was no water anywhere on the face of the earth. All the +waters were contained in the body of a huge frog, and men and women +could get none of them. A council was held, and... it was agreed that +the frog should be made to laugh, when the waters would run out of his +mouth, and there would be plenty in all parts." + +To make a long story short, all the animals played the jester before +the gigantic solemn frog, who sat as grave as Louis XV. "I do not like +buffoons who don't make me laugh," said that majestical monarch. At last +the eel danced on the tip of his tail, and the gravity of the prodigious +Batrachian gave way. He laughed till he literally split his sides, +and the imprisoned waters came with a rush. Indeed, many persons were +drowned, though this is not the only Australian version of the Deluge. + +The Andaman Islanders dwell at a very considerable distance from +Australia and from the Iroquois, and, in the present condition of the +natives of Australia and Andaman, neither could possibly visit the +other. The frog in the Andaman version is called a toad, and he came to +swallow the waters in the following way: One day a woodpecker was eating +honey high up in the boughs of a tree. Far below, the toad was a witness +of the feast, and asked for some honey. "Well, come up here, and you +shall have some," said the woodpecker. "But how am I to climb?" "Take +hold of that creeper, and I will draw you up," said the woodpecker; but +all the while he was bent on a practical joke. So the toad got into a +bucket he happened to possess, and fastened the bucket to the creeper. +"Now, pull!" Then the woodpecker raised the toad slowly to the level of +the bough where the honey was, and presently let him down with a run, +not only disappointing the poor toad, but shaking him severely. The toad +went away in a rage and looked about him for revenge. A happy thought +occurred to him, and he drank up all the water of the rivers and lakes. +Birds and beasts were perishing, woodpeckers among them, of thirst. The +toad, overjoyed at his success, wished to add insult to the injury, and, +very thoughtlessly, began to dance in an irritating manner at his foes. +But then the stolen waters gushed out of his mouth in full volume, and +the drought soon ended. One of the most curious points in this myth is +the origin of the quarrel between the woodpecker and the toad. The same +beginning--the tale of an insult put on an animal by hauling up and +letting him down with a run--occurs in an African Marchen.(1) + + +(1) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 429, 430; Brinton, American +Hero Myths, i. 55. Cf. also Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1636, 1640, +1671; (Sagard, Hist. du Canada, 1636, p. 451;) Journal Anthrop. Inst., +1881. + + +Now this strangely diffused story of the slaying of the frog which had +swallowed all the water seems to be a savage myth of which the more +heroic conflict of Indra with Vrittra (the dragon which had swallowed +all the waters) is an epic and sublimer version.(1) "The heavenly water, +which Vrittra withholds from the world, is usually the prize of the +contest." + + +(1) Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, iii. p. 337. See postea, "Divine Myths of +India". + + +The serpent of Vedic myth is, perhaps, rather the robber-guardian than +the swallower of the waters, but Indra is still, like the Iroquois +Ioskeha, "he who wounds the full one".(1) This example of the wide +distribution of a myth shows how the question of diffusion, though +connected with, is yet distinct from that of origin. The advantage +of our method will prove to be, that it discovers an historical and +demonstrable state of mind as the origin of the wild element in +myth. Again, the wide prevalence in the earliest times of this mental +condition will, to a certain extent, explain the DISTRIBUTION of +myth. Room must be left, of course, for processes of borrowing and +transmission, but how Andamanese, Australians and Hurons could borrow +from each other is an unsolved problem. + + +(1) Gubernatis, Zoological Myth. ii. 395, note 2. "When Indra kills the +serpent he opens the torrent of the waters" (p. 393). See also Aitareya +Brahmana, translated by Haug, ii. 483. + + +Finally, our hypothesis is not involved in dubious theories of race. To +us, myths appear to be affected (in their origins) much less by the race +than by the stage of culture attained by the people who cherish them. +A fight for the waters between a monstrous dragon like Vrittra and a +heroic god like Indra is a nobler affair than a quarrel for the +waters between a woodpecker and a toad. But the improvement and +transfiguration, so to speak, of a myth at bottom the same is due to the +superior culture, not to the peculiar race, of the Vedic poets, except +so far as culture itself depends on race. How far the purer culture was +attained to by the original superiority of the Aryan over the Andaman +breed, it is not necessary for our purpose to inquire. Thus, on the +whole, we may claim for our system a certain demonstrable character, +which helps to simplify the problems of mythology, and to remove +them from the realm of fanciful guesses and conflicting etymological +conjectures into that of sober science. That these pretensions are not +unacknowledged even by mythologists trained in other schools is proved +by the remarks of Dr. Tiele.(1) + + +(1) Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel., "Le Mythe de Cronos," January, 1886. Dr. +Tiele is not, it must be noted, a thorough adherent of our theory. See +Modern Mythology: "The Question of Allies". + + +Dr. Tiele writes: "If I were obliged to choose between this method" (the +system here advocated) "and that of comparative philology, it is the +former that I would adopt without the slightest hesitation. This method +alone enables us to explain the fact, which has so often provoked +amazement, that people so refined as the Greeks,... or so rude, but +morally pure, as the Germans,... managed to attribute to their gods +all manner of cowardly, cruel and disorderly conduct. This method alone +explains the why and wherefore of all those strange metamorphoses +of gods into beasts and plants, and even stones, which scandalised +philosophers, and which the witty Ovid played on for the diversion of +his contemporaries. In short, this method teaches us to recognise in all +those strange stories the survivals of a barbaric age, long passed away, +but enduring to later times in the form of religious traditions, of all +traditions the most persistent.... Finally, this method alone enables us +to explain the origin of myths, because it endeavours to study them +in their rudest and most primitive shape, thus allowing their true +significance to be much more clearly apparent than it can be in the +myths (so often touched, retouched, augmented and humanised) which are +current among races arrived at a certain degree of culture." + +The method is to this extent applauded by a most competent authority, +and it has been warmly accepted by a distinguished French school of +students, represented by M. Gaidoz. But it is obvious that the method +rests on a double hypothesis: first, that satisfactory evidence as to +the mental conditions of the lower and backward races is obtainable; +second, that the civilised races (however they began) either passed +through the savage state of thought and practice, or borrowed very +freely from people in that condition. These hypotheses have been +attacked by opponents; the trustworthiness of our evidence, especially, +has been assailed. By way of facilitating the course of the exposition +and of lessening the disturbing element of controversy, a reply to +the objections and a defence of the evidence has been relegated to an +Appendix.(1) Meanwhile we go on to examine the peculiar characteristics +of the mental condition of savages and of peoples in the lower and upper +barbarisms. + + +(1) Appendix B. + + + +CHAPTER III. THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--CONFUSION WITH +NATURE--TOTEMISM. + + +The mental condition of savages the basis of the irrational element in +myth--Characteristics of that condition: (1) Confusion of all things +in an equality of presumed animation and intelligence; (2) Belief in +sorcery; (3) Spiritualism; (4) Curiosity; (5) Easy credulity and mental +indolence--The curiosity is satisfied, thanks to the credulity, by myths +in answer to all inquiries--Evidence for this--Mr. Tylor's opinion--Mr. +Im Thurn--Jesuit missionaries' Relations--Examples of confusion +between men, plants, beasts and other natural objects--Reports of +travellers--Evidence from institution of totemism--Definition of +totemism--Totemism in Australia, Africa, America, the Oceanic Islands, +India, North Asia--Conclusions: Totemism being found so widely +distributed, is a proof of the existence of that savage mental condition +in which no line is drawn between men and the other things in the world. +This confusion is one of the characteristics of myth in all races. + + +We set out to discover a stage of human intellectual development which +would necessarily produce the essential elements of myth. We think we +have found that stage in the condition of savagery. We now proceed to +array the evidence for the mental processes of savages. We intend to +demonstrate the existence in practical savage life of the ideas which +most surprise us when we find them in civilised sacred legends. + +For the purposes of this inquiry, it is enough to select a few special +peculiarities of savage thought. + +1. First we have that nebulous and confused frame of mind to which all +things, animate or inanimate, human, animal, vegetable, or inorganic, +seem on the same level of life, passion and reason. The savage, at all +events when myth-making, draws no hard and fast line between himself and +the things in the world. He regards himself as literally akin to animals +and plants and heavenly bodies; he attributes sex and procreative powers +even to stones and rocks, and he assigns human speech and human feelings +to sun and moon and stars and wind, no less than to beasts, birds and +fishes.(1) + + +(1) "So fasst auch das Alterthum ihren Unterschied von den Menschen +ganz anders als die spatere Zeit."--Grimm, quoted by Liebrecht, Zur +Volkskunde, p. 17. + + +2. The second point to note in savage opinion is the belief in magic and +sorcery. The world and all the things in it being vaguely conceived of +as sensible and rational, obey the commands of certain members of the +tribe, chiefs, jugglers, conjurors, or what you will. Rocks open at +their order, rivers dry up, animals are their servants and hold converse +with them. These magicians cause or heal diseases, and can command even +the weather, bringing rain or thunder or sunshine at their will.(1) +There are few supernatural attributes of "cloud-compelling Zeus" or of +Apollo that are not freely assigned to the tribal conjuror. By virtue, +doubtless, of the community of nature between man and the things in the +world, the conjuror (like Zeus or Indra) can assume at will the shape +of any animal, or can metamorphose his neighbours or enemies into animal +forms. + + +(1) See Roth in North-West Central Queensland Aborigines, chapter xii., +1897. + + +3. Another peculiarity of savage belief naturally connects itself with +that which has just been described. The savage has very strong ideas +about the persistent existence of the souls of the dead. They retain +much of their old nature, but are often more malignant after death than +they had been during life. They are frequently at the beck and call of +the conjuror, whom they aid with their advice and with their magical +power. By virtue of the close connection already spoken of between +man and the animals, the souls of the dead are not rarely supposed to +migrate into the bodies of beasts, or to revert to the condition of that +species of creatures with which each tribe supposes itself to be related +by ties of kinship or friendship. With the usual inconsistency of +mythical belief, the souls of the dead are spoken of, at other times, +as if they inhabited a spiritual world, sometimes a paradise of flowers, +sometimes a gloomy place, which mortal men may visit, but whence no one +can escape who has tasted of the food of the ghosts. + +4. In connection with spirits a far-reaching savage philosophy +prevails. It is not unusual to assign a ghost to all objects, animate or +inanimate, and the spirit or strength of a man is frequently regarded as +something separable, capable of being located in an external object, +or something with a definite locality in the body. A man's strength +and spirit may reside in his kidney fat, in his heart, in a lock of his +hair, or may even be stored by him in some separate receptacle. Very +frequently a man is held capable of detaching his soul from his body, +and letting it roam about on his business, sometimes in the form of a +bird or other animal. + +5. Many minor savage beliefs might be named, such as the common faith in +friendly or protecting animals, and the notion that "natural deaths" (as +we call them) are always UNNATURAL, that death is always caused by some +hostile spirit or conjuror. From this opinion comes the myth that man is +naturally not subject to death: that death was somehow introduced into +the world by a mistake or misdeed is a corollary. (See "Myths of the +Origin of Death" in Modern Mythology.) + +6. One more mental peculiarity of the savage mind remains to be +considered in this brief summary. The savage, like the civilised man, is +curious. The first faint impulses of the scientific spirit are at work +in his brain; he is anxious to give himself an account of the world +in which he finds himself. But he is not more curious than he is, on +occasion, credulous. His intellect is eager to ask questions, as is the +habit of children, but his intellect is also lazy, and he is content +with the first answer that comes to hand. "Ils s'arretent aux premieres +notions qu'ils en ont," says Pere Hierome Lalemant.(1) "Nothing," says +Schoolcraft, "is too capacious (sic) for Indian belief."(2) The replies +to his questions he receives from tradition or (when a new problem +arises) evolves an answer for himself in the shape of STORIES. Just as +Socrates, in the Platonic dialogues, recalls or invents a myth in the +despair of reason, so the savage has a story for answer to almost +every question that he can ask himself. These stories are in a sense +scientific, because they attempt a solution of the riddles of the world. +They are in a sense religious, because there is usually a supernatural +power, a deus ex machina, of some sort to cut the knot of the problem. +Such stories, then, are the science, and to a certain extent the +religious tradition, of savages.(3) + + +(1) Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1648, p. 70. + +(2) Algic Researches, i. 41. + +(3) "The Indians (Algonkins) conveyed instruction--moral, mechanical and +religious--through traditionary fictions and tales."--Schoolcraft, Algic +Researches, i. 12. + + +Now these tales are necessarily cast in the mould of the savage ideas of +which a sketch has been given. The changes of the heavenly bodies, the +processes of day and night, the existence of the stars, the invention +of the arts, the origin of the world (as far as known to the savage), +of the tribe, of the various animals and plants, the origin of death +itself, the origin of the perplexing traditional tribal customs, are all +accounted for in stories. At the same time, an actual divine Maker is +sometimes postulated. The stories, again, are fashioned in accordance +with the beliefs already named: the belief in human connection with and +kinship with beasts and plants; the belief in magic; the belief in the +perpetual possibility of metamorphosis or "shape shifting"; the belief +in the permanence and power of the ghosts of the dead; the belief in the +personal and animated character of all the things in the world, and so +forth. + +No more need be said to explain the wild and (as it seems to us moderns) +the irrational character of savage myth. It is a jungle of foolish +fancies, a walpurgis nacht of gods and beasts and men and stars and +ghosts, all moving madly on a level of common personality and animation, +and all changing shapes at random, as partners are changed in some +fantastic witches' revel. Such is savage mythology, and how could it +be otherwise when we consider the elements of thought and belief out of +which it is mainly composed? We shall see that part of the mythology of +the Greeks or the Aryans of India is but a similar walpurgis nacht, in +which an incestuous or amorous god may become a beast, and the object +of his pursuit, once a woman, may also become a beast, and then shift +shapes to a tree or a bird or a star. But in the civilised races the +genius of the people tends to suppress, exclude and refine away the wild +element, which, however, is never wholly eliminated. The Erinyes soon +stop the mouth of the horse of Achilles when he begins, like the horse +in Grimm's Goose Girl, to hold a sustained conversation.(1) But the +ancient, cruel, and grotesque savage element, nearly overcome by Homer +and greatly reduced by the Vedic poets, breaks out again in Hesiod, in +temple legends and Brahmanic glosses, and finally proves so strong that +it can only be subdued by Christianity, or rather by that break between +the educated classes and the traditional past of religion which has +resulted from Christianity. Even so, myth lingers in the folk-lore of +the non-progressive classes of Europe, and, as in Roumania, invades +religion. + + +(1) Iliad, xix. 418. + + +We have now to demonstrate the existence in the savage intellect of +the various ideas and habits which we have described, and out of which +mythology springs. First, we have to show that "a nebulous and confused +state of mind, to which all things, animate or inanimate, human, animal, +vegetable or inorganic, seem on the same level of life, passion and +reason," does really exist.(1) The existence of this condition of the +intellect will be demonstrated first on the evidence of the statements +of civilised observers, next on the evidence of the savage institutions +in which it is embodied. + + +(1) Creuzer and Guigniaut, vol. i. p. 111. + + +The opinion of Mr. Tylor is naturally of great value, as it is formed +on as wide an acquaintance with the views of the lower races as any +inquirers can hope to possess. Mr. Tylor observes: "We have to inform +ourselves of the savage man's idea, which is very different from the +civilised man's, of the nature of the lower animals.... The sense of an +absolute psychical distinction between man and beast, so prevalent in +the civilised world, is hardly to be found among the lower races."(1) +The universal attribution of "souls" to all things--the theory known as +"Animism"--is another proof that the savage draws no hard and fast line +between man and the other things in the world. The notion of the Italian +country-people, that cruelty to an animal does not matter because it is +not a "Christian," has no parallel in the philosophy of the savage, +to whom all objects seem to have souls, just as men have. Mr. Im Thurn +found the absence of any sense of a difference between man and nature +a characteristic of his native companions in Guiana. "The very phrase, +'Men and other animals,' or even, as it is often expressed, 'Men and +animals,' based as it is on the superiority which civilised man feels +over other animals, expresses a dichotomy which is in no way recognised +by the Indian.... It is therefore most important to realise how +comparatively small really is the difference between men in a state of +savagery and other animals, and how completely even such difference as +exists escapes the notice of savage men... It is not, therefore, too +much to say that, according to the view of the Indians, other animals +differ from men only in bodily form and in their various degrees of +strength; in spirit they do not differ at all."(2) The Indian's notion +of the life of plants and stones is on the same level of unreason, as we +moderns reckon reason. He believes in the spirits of rocks and stones, +undeterred by the absence of motion in these objects. "Not only many +rocks, but also many waterfalls, streams, and indeed material objects of +every sort, are supposed each to consist of a body and a spirit, as does +man."(3) It is not our business to ask here how men came by the belief +in universal animation. That belief is gradually withdrawn, distinctions +are gradually introduced, as civilisation and knowledge advance. It is +enough for us if the failure to draw a hard and fast line between man +and beasts, stones and plants, be practically universal among +savages, and if it gradually disappears before the fuller knowledge of +civilisation. The report which Mr. Im Thurn brings from the Indians of +Guiana is confirmed by what Schoolcraft says of the Algonkin races of +the northern part of the continent. "The belief of the narrators and +listeners in every wild and improbable thing told helps wonderfully in +the original stories, in joining all parts together. The Indian believes +that the whole visible and invisible creation is animated.... To make +the matter worse, these tribes believe that animals of the lowest as +well as highest class in the chain of creation are alike endowed with +reasoning powers and faculties. As a natural conclusion they endow +birds, beasts and all other animals with souls."(4) As an example of the +ease with which the savage recognises consciousness and voluntary +motion even in stones, may be cited Kohl's account of the beliefs of the +Objibeways.(5) Nearly every Indian has discovered, he says, an object +in which he places special confidence, and to which he sacrifices more +zealously than to the Great Spirit. The "hope" of Otamigan (a companion +of the traveller) was a rock, which once advanced to meet him, swayed, +bowed and went back again. Another Indian revered a Canadian larch, +"because he once heard a very remarkable rustling in its branches". +It thus appears that while the savage has a general kind of sense that +inanimate things are animated, he is a good deal impressed by their +conduct when he thinks that they actually display their animation. In +the same way a devout modern spiritualist probably regards with more +reverence a table which he has seen dancing and heard rapping than a +table at which he has only dined. Another general statement of failure +to draw the line between men and the irrational creation is found in +the old Jesuit missionary Le Jeune's Relations de la Nouvelle France.(6) +"Les sauvages se persuadent que non seulement les hommes et les autres +animaux, mais aussi que toutes les autres choses sont animees." Again: +"Ils tiennent les poissons raisonnables, comme aussi les cerfs". In the +Solomon Islands, Mr. Romilly sailed with an old chief who used violent +language to the waves when they threatened to dash over the boat, and +"old Takki's exhortations were successful".(7) Waitz(8) discovers the +same attitude towards the animals among the negroes. Man, in their +opinion, is by no means a separate sort of person on the summit of +nature and high above the beasts; these he rather regards as dark and +enigmatic beings, whose life is full of mystery, and which he therefore +considers now as his inferiors, now as his superiors. A collection of +evidence as to the savage failure to discriminate between human and +non-human, animate and inanimate, has been brought together by Sir John +Lubbock.(9) + + +(1) Primitive Culture, i. 167-169. + +(2) Among the Indians of Guiana (1883), p. 350. + +(3) Op. Cit., 355. + +(4) Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, i. 41. + +(5) Kohl, Wanderings Round Lake Superior, pp. 58, 59; Muller, Amerikan +Urrelig., pp. 62-67. + +(6) 1636, p. 109. + +(7) Western Pacific, p. 84. + +(8) Anthropologie der Natur-Volker, ii. 177. + +(9) Origin of Civilisation, p. 33. A number of examples of this mental +attitude among the Bushmen will be found in chap. v., postea. + + +To a race accustomed like ourselves to arrange and classify, to people +familiar from childhood and its games with "vegetable, animal and +mineral," a condition of mind in which no such distinctions are drawn, +any more than they are drawn in Greek or Brahmanic myths, must +naturally seem like what Mr. Max Muller calls "temporary insanity". +The imagination of the savage has been defined by Mr. Tylor as "midway +between the conditions of a healthy, prosaic, modern citizen, and of a +raving fanatic, or of a patient in a fever-ward". If any relics of +such imagination survive in civilised mythology, they will very closely +resemble the productions of a once universal "temporary insanity". Let +it be granted, then, that "to the lower tribes of man, sun and stars, +trees and rivers, winds and clouds, become personal, animate creatures, +leading lives conformed to human or animal analogies, and performing +their special functions in the universe with the aid of limbs like +beasts, or of artificial instruments like men; or that what men's eyes +behold is but the instrument to be used or the material to be shaped, +while behind it there stands some prodigious but yet half-human +creature, who grasps it with his hands or blows it with his breath. The +basis on which such ideas as these are built is not to be narrowed +down to poetic fancy and transformed metaphor. They rest upon a +broad philosophy of nature; early and crude, indeed, but thoughtful, +consistent, and quite really and seriously meant."(1) + + +(1) Primtive Culture, i. 285. + + +For the sake of illustration, some minor examples must next be given +of this confusion between man and other things in the world, which +will presently be illustrated by the testimony of a powerful and long +diffused set of institutions. + +The Christian Quiches of Guatemala believe that each of them has a beast +as his friend and protector, just as in the Highlands "the dog is +the friend of the Maclaines". When the Finns, in their epic poem the +Kalewala, have killed a bear, they implore the animal to forgive them. +"Oh, Ot-so," chant the singers, "be not angry that we come near thee. +The bear, the honey-footed bear, was born in lands between sun and moon, +and he died, not by men's hands, but of his own will."(1) The Red Men of +North America(2) have a tradition showing how it is that the bear does +not die, but, like Herodotus with the sacred stories of the Egyptian +priests, Mr. Schoolcraft "cannot induce himself to write it out".(3) It +is a most curious fact that the natives of Australia tell a similar tale +of THEIR "native bear". "He did not die" when attacked by men.(4) In +parts of Australia it is a great offence to skin the native bear, +just as on a part of the west coast of Ireland, where seals are +superstitiously regarded, the people cannot be bribed to skin them. In +New Caledonia, when a child tries to kill a lizard, the men warn him to +"beware of killing his own ancestor".(5) The Zulus spare to destroy a +certain species of serpents, believed to be the spirits of kinsmen, as +the great snake which appeared when Aeneas did sacrifice was held to +be the ghost of Anchises. Mexican women(6) believed that children born +during an eclipse turn into mice. In Australia the natives believe +that the wild dog has the power of speech; whoever listens to him is +petrified; and a certain spot is shown where "the wild dog spoke and +turned the men into stone";(7) and the blacks run for their lives as +soon as the dog begins to speak. What it said was "Bones". + + +(1) Kalewala, in La Finlande, Leouzon Le Duc (1845), vol. ii. p. 100; +cf. also the Introduction. + +(2) Schoolcraft, v. 420. + +(3) See similar ceremonies propitiatory of the bear in Jewett's +Adventures among the Nootkas, Edinburgh, 1824. + +(4) Brough Smyth, i. 449. + +(5) J. J. Atkinson's MS. + +(6) Sahagun, ii. viii. 250; Bancroft, iii. 111. Compare stories of +women who give birth to animals in Melusine, 1886, August-November. The +Batavians believe that women, when delivered of a child, are frequently +delivered at the same time of a young crocodile as a twin. Hawkesworth's +Voyages, iii. 756. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 17 et seq. + +(7) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 497. + + +These are minor examples of a form of opinion which is so strong that +it is actually the chief constituent in savage society. That society, +whether in Ashantee or Australia, in North America or South Africa, +or North Asia or India, or among the wilder tribes of ancient Peru, +is based on an institution generally called "totemism". This very +extraordinary institution, whatever its origin, cannot have arisen +except among men capable of conceiving kinship and all human +relationships as existing between themselves and all animate and +inanimate things. It is the rule, and not the exception, that savage +societies are founded upon this belief. The political and social conduct +of the backward races is regulated in such matters as blood-feud and +marriage by theories of the actual kindred and connection by descent, or +by old friendship, which men have in common with beasts, plants, the sun +and moon, the stars, and even the wind and the rain. Now, in whatever +way this belief in such relations to beasts and plants may have arisen, +it undoubtedly testifies to a condition of mind in which no hard and +fast line was drawn between man and animate and inanimate nature. The +discovery of the wide distribution of the social arrangements based +on this belief is entirely due to Mr. J. F. M'Lennan, the author of +Primitive Marriage. Mr. M'Lennan's essays ("The Worship of Plants and +Animals," "Totems and Totemism") were published in the Fortnightly +Review, 1869-71. Any follower in the footsteps of Mr. M'Lennan has it +in his power to add a little evidence to that originally set forth, and +perhaps to sift the somewhat uncritical authorities adduced.(1) + + +(1) See also Mr. Frazer's Totemism, and Golden Bough, with chapter on +Totemism in Modern Mythology. + + +The name "Totemism" or "Totamism" was first applied at the end of the +last century by Long(1) to the Red Indian custom which acknowledges +human kinship with animals. This institution had already been recognised +among the Iroquois by Lafitau,(2) and by other observers. As to the +word "totem," Mr. Max Muller(3) quotes an opinion that the interpreters, +missionaries, Government inspectors, and others who apply the name +totem to the Indian "family mark" must have been ignorant of the Indian +languages, for there is in them no such word as totem. The right word, +it appears, is otem; but as "totemism" has the advantage of possessing +the ground, we prefer to say "totemism" rather than "otemism". The facts +are the same, whatever name we give them. As Mr. Muller says himself,(4) +"every warrior has his crest, which is called his totem";(5) and he +goes on to describe a totem of an Indian who died about 1793. We may +now return to the consideration of "otemism" or totemism. We approach +it rather as a fact in the science of mythology than as a stage in the +evolution of the modern family system. For us totemism is interesting +because it proves the existence of that savage mental attitude which +assumes kindred and alliance between man and the things in the world. +As will afterwards be seen, totemism has also left its mark on the +mythologies of the civilised races. We shall examine the institution +first as it is found in Australia, because the Australian form of +totemism shows in the highest known degree the savage habit of confusing +in a community of kinship men, stars, plants, beasts, the heavenly +bodies, and the forces of Nature. When this has once been elucidated, a +shorter notice of other totemistic races will serve our purpose. + + +(1) Voyages and Travels, 1791. + +(2) Moeurs des Sauvages (1724), p. 461. + +(3) Academy, December 15, 1883. + +(4) Selected Essays (1881), ii. 376. + +(5) Compare Mr. Max Muller's Contributions to the Science of Mythology. + + +The society of the Murri or black fellows of Australia is divided into +local tribes, each of which possesses, or used to possess, and hunt +over a considerable tract of country. These local tribes are united by +contiguity, and by common local interests, but not necessarily by blood +kinship. For example, the Port Mackay tribe, the Mount Gambier tribe, +the Ballarat tribe, all take their names from their district. In the +same way we might speak of the people of Strathclyde or of Northumbria +in early English history. Now, all these local tribes contain an +indefinite number of stocks of kindred, of men believing themselves to +be related by the ties of blood and common descent. That descent the +groups agree in tracing, not from some real or idealised human parent, +but from some animal, plant, or other natural object, as the kangaroo, +the emu, the iguana, the pelican, and so forth. Persons of the pelican +stock in the north of Queensland regard themselves as relations of +people of the same stock in the most southern parts of Australia. The +creature from which each tribe claims descent is called "of the same +flesh," while persons of another stock are "fresh flesh". A native may +not marry a woman of "his own flesh"; it is only a woman of "fresh" or +"strange" flesh he may marry. A man may not eat an animal of "his own +flesh"; he may only eat "strange flesh". Only under great stress of need +will an Australian eat the animal which is the flesh-and-blood cousin +and protector of his stock.(1) (These rules of marriage and blood, +however, do not apply among the Arunta of Central Australia, whose +Totems (if Totems they should be called) have been developed on very +different lines.(2)) Clearer evidence of the confusion between man and +beast, of the claiming of kin between man and beast, could hardly be. + + +(1) Dawson, Aborigines, pp. 26, 27; Howitt and Fison, Kamilaroi and +Kurnai, p. 169. + +(2) Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia. + + +But the Australian philosophy of the intercommunion of Nature goes still +farther than this. Besides the local divisions and the kindred +stocks which trace their descent from animals, there exist among many +Australian tribes divisions of a kind still unexplained. For example, +every man of the Mount Gambier local tribe is by birth either a Kumite +or a Kroki. This classification applies to the whole of the sensible +universe. Thus smoke and honeysuckle trees belong to the division +Kumite, and are akin to the fishhawk stock of men. On the other hand, +the kangaroo, summer, autumn, the wind and the shevak tree belong to +the division Kroki, and are akin to the black cockatoo stock of men. Any +human member of the Kroki division has thus for his brothers the sun, +the wind, the kangaroo, and the rest; while any man of the Kumite +division and the crow surname is the brother of the rain, the thunder, +and the winter. This extraordinary belief is not a mere idle fancy--it +influences conduct. "A man does not kill or use as food any of the +animals of the same subdivision (Kroki or Kumite) with himself, +excepting when hunger compels, and then they express sorrow for having +to eat their wingong (friends) or tumanang (their flesh). When using the +last word they touch their breasts, to indicate the close relationship, +meaning almost a portion of themselves. To illustrate: One day one of +the blacks killed a crow. Three or four days afterwards a Boortwa (a man +of the crow surname and stock), named Larry, died. He had been ailing +for some days, but the killing of his wingong (totem) hastened his +death."(1) Commenting on this statement, Mr. Fison observes: "The South +Australian savage looks upon the universe as the Great Tribe, to one +of whose divisions he himself belongs; and all things, animate and +inanimate, which belong to his class are parts of the body corporate +whereof he himself is part". This account of the Australian beliefs and +customs is borne out, to a certain extent, by the evidence of Sir George +Grey,(2) and of the late Mr. Gideon Scott Lang.(3) These two writers +take no account of the singular "dichotomous" divisions, as of Kumite +and Kroki, but they draw attention to the groups of kindred which derive +their surnames from animals, plants, and the like. "The origin of these +family names," says Sir George Grey, "is attributed by the natives to +different causes.... One origin frequently assigned by the natives is, +that they were derived from some vegetable or animal being very common +in the district which the family inhabited." We have seen from +the evidence of Messrs. Fison and Howitt that a more common native +explanation is based on kinship with the vegetable or plant which +bestows the family surname. Sir George Gray mentions that the families +use their plant or animal as a crest or kobong (totem), and he adds that +natives never willingly kill animals of their kobong, holding that some +one of that species is their nearest friend. The consequences of eating +forbidden animals vary considerably. Sometimes the Boyl-yas (that is, +ghosts) avenge the crime. Thus when Sir George Grey ate some mussels +(which, after all, are not the crest of the Greys), a storm followed, +and one of his black fellow improvised this stave:-- + + + Oh, wherefore did he eat the mussels? + Now the Boyl-yas storms and thunders make; + Oh, wherefore would he eat the mussels? + + +(1) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 169. + +(2) Travels, ii. 225. + +(3) Lang, Lecture on Natives of Australia, p. 10. + + +There are two points in the arrangements of these stocks of kindred +named from plants and animals which we shall find to possess a high +importance. No member of any such kindred may marry a woman of the same +name and descended from the same object.(1) Thus no man of the Emu stock +may marry an Emu woman; no Blacksnake may marry a Blacksnake woman, and +so forth. This point is very strongly put by Mr. Dawson, who has had +much experience of the blacks. "So strictly are the laws of marriage +carried out, that, should any sign of courtship or affection be observed +between those 'of one flesh,' the brothers or male relatives of the +woman beat her severely." If the incestuous pair (though not in the +least related according to our ideas) run away together, they are +"half-killed"; and if the woman dies in consequence of her punishment, +her partner in iniquity is beaten again. No "eric" or blood-fine of any +kind is paid for her death, which carries no blood-feud. "Her punishment +is legal."(2) This account fully corroborates that of Sir George +Grey.(3) + + +(1) Taplin, The Nerrinyeri. p. 2. "Every tribe, regarded by them as a +family, has its ngaitge, or tutelary genius or tribal symbol, in the +shape of some bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, or substance. Between +individuals of the same tribe no marriage can take place." Among the +Narrinyeri kindred is reckoned (p. 10) on the father's side. See +also (p. 46) ngaitge = Samoan aitu. "No man or woman will kill their +ngaitge," except with precautions, for food. + +(2) Op. cit., p. 28. + +(3) Ibid., ii. 220. + + +Our conclusion is that the belief in "one flesh" (a kinship shared +with the animals) must be a thoroughly binding idea, as the notion is +sanctioned by capital punishment. + +Another important feature in Australian totemism strengthens our +position. The idea of the animal kinship must be an ancient one in the +race, because the family surname, Emu, Bandicoot, or what not, and the +crest, kobong, or protecting and kindred animal, are inherited through +the mother's side in the majority of stocks. This custom, therefore, +belongs to that early period of human society in which the woman is the +permanent and recognised factor in the family while male parentage is +uncertain.(1) One other feature of Australian totemism must be mentioned +before we leave the subject. There is some evidence that in certain +tribes the wingong or totem of each man is indicated by a tattooed +representation of it upon his flesh. The natives are very licentious, +but men would shrink from an amour with a woman who neither belonged to +their own district nor spoke their language, but who, in spite of that, +was of their totem. To avoid mistakes, it seems that some tribes mark +the totem on the flesh with incised lines.(2) The natives frequently +design figures of some kind on the trees growing near the graves of +deceased warriors. Some observers have fancied that in these designs +they recognised the totem of the dead men; but on this subject evidence +is by no means clear. We shall see that this primitive sort of heraldry, +this carving or painting of hereditary blazons, is common among the Red +Men of America.(3) + + +(1) Cf. Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht; M'Lennan, Primitive Marriage, passim; +Encycl. Brit. s. v. Family. + +(2) Fison, op. cit., p. 66. + +(3) Among other recent sources see Howitt in "Organisation of Australian +Tribes" (Transactions of Royal Society of Victoria, 1889), and Spencer +and Gillen, Natives of Central Australia. In Central Australia there is +a marked difference in the form of Totemism. + + +Though a large amount of evidence might be added to that already put +forward, we may now sum up the inferences to be drawn from the study +of totemism in Australia. It has been shown (1) that the natives think +themselves actually akin to animals, plants, the sun, and the wind, and +things in general; (2) that those ideas influence their conduct, and +even regulate their social arrangements, because (3) men and women of +the kinship of the same animal or plant may not intermarry, while men +are obliged to defend, and in case of murder to avenge, persons of the +stock of the family or plant from which they themselves derive their +family name. Thus, on the evidence of institutions, it is plain that +the Australians are (or before the influence of the Europeans became +prevalent were) in a state of mind which draws no hard and fast line +between man and the things in the world. If, therefore, we find that +in Australian myth, men, gods, beasts, and things all shift shapes +incessantly, and figure in a coroboree dance of confusion, there will +be nothing to astonish us in the discovery. The myths of men in the +Australian intellectual condition, of men who hold long conversations +with the little "native bear," and ask him for oracles, will naturally +and inevitably be grotesque and confused.(1) + + +(1) Brough Smyth, i. 447, on MS. authority of W. Thomas. + + +It is "a far cry" from Australia to the West Coast of Africa, and it +is scarcely to be supposed that the Australians have borrowed ideas and +institutions from Ashantee, or that the people of Ashantee have derived +their conceptions of the universe from the Murri of Australia. We find, +however, on the West African Coast, just as we do in Australia, that +there exist large local divisions of the natives. These divisions are +spoken of by Mr. Bowditch (who visited the country on a mission in 1817) +as nations, and they are much more populous and powerful (as the people +are more civilised) than the local tribes of Australia. Yet, just as +among the local tribes of Australia, the nations of the West African +Coast are divided into stocks of kindred, each STOCK having its +representatives in each NATION. Thus an Ashantee or a Fantee may belong +to the same stock of kindred as a member of the Assin or Akini nation. +When an Ashantee of the Annona stock of kindred meets a Warsaw man of +the same stock they salute and acknowledge each other as brothers. +In the same way a Ballarat man of the Kangaroo stock in Australia +recognises a relative in a Mount Gambier man who is also a Kangaroo. +Now, with one exception, all the names of the twelve stocks of West +African kindreds, or at least all of them which Mr. Bowditch could get +the native interpreters to translate, are derived from animals, plants +and other natural objects, just as in Australia.(1) Thus Quonna is a +buffalo, Abrootoo is a cornstalk, Abbradi a plantain. Other names are, +in English, the parrot, the wild cat, red earth, panther and dog. Thus +all the natives of this part of Africa are parrots, dogs, buffaloes, +panthers, and so forth, just as the Australians are emus, iguanas, black +cockatoos, kangaroos, and the rest. It is remarkable that there is an +Incra stock, or clan of ants, in Ashantee, just as there was a race of +Myrmidons, believed to be descended from or otherwise connected with +ants, in ancient Greece. Though Bowditch's account of these West African +family divisions is brief, the arrangement tallies closely with that +of Australia. It is no great stretch of imagination to infer that the +African tribes do, or once did, believe themselves to be of the kindred +of the animals whose names they bear.(2) It is more or less confirmatory +of this hypothesis that no family is permitted to use as food the +animal from which it derives its name. We have seen that a similar rule +prevails, as far as hunger and scarcity of victuals permit it to be +obeyed, among the natives of Australia. The Intchwa stock in Ashantee +and Fantee is particularly unlucky, because its members may not eat +the dog, "much relished by native epicures, and therefore a serious +privation". Equally to be pitied were the ancient Egyptians, who, if +they belonged to the district of the sheep, might not eat mutton, +which their neighbours, the Lycopolitae, devoured at pleasure. These +restrictions appear to be connected with the almost universal dislike +of cannibals to eat persons of their own kindred except as a pious +duty. This law of the game in cannibalism has not yet been thoroughly +examined, though we often hear of wars waged expressly for the purpose +of securing food (human meat), while some South American tribes +actually bred from captive women by way of securing constant supplies of +permitted flesh.(3) When we find stocks, then, which derive their names +from animals and decline to eat these animals, we may at least SUSPECT +that they once claimed kinship with the name-giving beasts. The refusal +to eat them raises a presumption of such faith. Old Bosman(4) had +noticed the same practices. "One eats no mutton, another no goat's +flesh, another no beef, swine's flesh, wild fowl, cocks with white +feathers, and they say their ancestors did so from the beginning of the +world." + + +(1) The evidence of native interpreters may be viewed with suspicion. +It is improbable, however, that in 1817 the interpreters were +acquainted with the totemistic theory of mythologists, and deliberately +mistranslated the names of the stocks, so as to make them harmonise with +Indian, Australian, and Red Indian totem kindreds. This, indeed, is an +example where the criterion of "recurrence" or "coincidence" seems to be +valuable. Bowditch's Mission to Ashantee (1873), p. 181. + +(2) This view, however, does not prevail among the totemistic tribes of +British Columbia, for example. + +(3) Cieza de Leon (Hakluyt Society), p. 50. This amazing tale is +supported by the statement that kinship went by the female side (p. +49); the father was thus not of the kin of his child by the alien woman. +Cieza was with Validillo in 1538. + +(4) In Pinkerton, xvi. 400. + + +While in the case of the Ashantee tribes, we can only infer the +existence of a belief in kinship with the animals from the presence +of the other features of fully developed totemism (especially from the +refusal to eat the name-giving animal), we have direct evidence for the +opinion in another part of Africa, among the Bechuanas.(1) Casalis, +who passed twenty-three years as a missionary in South Africa, thus +describes the institution: "While the united communities usually bear +the name of their chief or of the district which they inhabit" (local +tribes, as in Australia), "each stock (tribu) derives its title from +an animal or a vegetable. All the Bechuanas are subdivided thus into +Bakuenas (crocodile-men), Batlapis (men of the fish), Banarer (of the +buffalo), Banukus (porcupines), Bamoraras (wild vines), and so forth. +The Bakuenas call the crocodile their father, sing about him in their +feasts, swear by him, and mark the ears of their cattle with an incision +which resembles the open jaws of the creature." This custom of marking +the cattle with the crest, as it were, of the stock, takes among some +races the shape of deforming themselves, so as the more to resemble the +animal from which they claim descent. "The chief of the family which +holds the chief rank in the stock is called 'The Great Man of the +Crocodile'. Precisely in the same way the Duchess of Sutherland is +styled in Gaelic 'The Great Lady of the Cat,'" though totemism is +probably not the origin of this title. + + +(1) E. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, 1859. + + +Casalis proceeds: "No one would dare to eat the flesh or wear the skin +of the animal whose name he bears. If the animal be dangerous--the +lion, for example--people only kill him after offering every apology and +asking his pardon. Purification must follow such a sacrifice." Casalis +was much struck with the resemblance between these practices and the +similar customs of North American races. Livingstone's account(1) on the +whole corroborates that of Casalis, though he says the Batau (tribe +of the lion) no longer exists. "They use the word bina 'to dance,' in +reference to the custom of thus naming themselves, so that when you wish +to ascertain what tribe they belong to, you say, 'What do you dance?' +It would seem as if this had been part of the worship of old." The +mythological and religious knowledge of the Bushmen is still imparted in +dances; and when a man is ignorant of some myth he will say, "I do not +dance that dance," meaning that he does not belong to the guild which +preserves that particular "sacred chapter".(2) + + +(1) Missionary Travels (1857), p. 13. + +(2) Orpen, Cape Monthly Magazine, 1872. + + +Casalis noticed the similarity between South African and Red Indian +opinion about kinship with vegetables and beasts. The difficulty in +treating the Red Indian belief is chiefly found in the abundance of the +evidence. Perhaps the first person who ever used the word "totemism," +or, as he spells it, "totamism," was (as we said) Mr. Long, an +interpreter among the Chippeways, who published his Voyages in 1791. +Long was not wholly ignorant of the languages, as it was his business to +speak them, and he was an adopted Indian. The ceremony of adoption was +painful, beginning with a feast of dog's flesh, followed by a Turkish +bath and a prolonged process of tattooing.(1) According to Long,(2) +"The totam, they conceive, assumes the form of some beast or other, and +therefore they never kill, hurt, or eat the animal whose form they think +this totam bears". One man was filled with religious apprehensions, and +gave himself up to the gloomy belief of Bunyan and Cowper, that he had +committed the unpardonable sin, because he dreamed he had killed his +totem, a bear.(3) This is only one example, like the refusal of the +Osages to kill the beavers, with which they count cousins,(4) that the +Red Man's belief is an actual creed, and does influence his conduct. + + +(1) Long, pp. 46-49. + +(2) Ibid., p. 86. + +(3) Ibid., p. 87. + +(4) Schoolcraft, i. 319. + + +As in Australia, the belief in common kin with beasts is most clearly +proved by the construction of Red Indian society. The "totemistic" stage +of thought and manners prevails. Thus Charlevoix says,(1) "Plusieurs +nations ont chacune trois familles ou tribus principales, AUSSI +ANCIENNES, A CE QU'IL PAROIT, QUE LEUR ORIGINE. Chaque tribu porte le +nom d'un animal, et la nation entiere a aussi le sien, dont elle +prend le nom, et dont la figure est sa marque, ou, se l'on veut, ses +armoiries, on ne signe point autrement les traites qu'en traceant ces +figures." Among the animal totems Charlevoix notices porcupine, bear, +wolf and turtle. The armoiries, the totemistic heraldry of the peoples +of Virginia, greatly interested a heraldic ancestor of Gibbon the +historian,(2) who settled in the colony. According to Schoolcraft,(3) +the totem or family badge, of a dead warrior is drawn in a reverse +position on his grave-post. In the same way the leopards of England are +drawn reversed on the shield of an English king opposite the mention +of his death in old monkish chronicles. As a general rule,(4) persons +bearing the same totem in America cannot intermarry. "The union must be +between various totems." Moreover, as in the case of the Australians, +"the descent of the chief is in the female line". We thus find among +the Red Men precisely the same totemistic regulations as among the +Aborigines of Australia. Like the Australians, the Red Men "never" +(perhaps we should read "hardly ever") eat their totems. Totemists, +in short, spare the beasts that are their own kith and kin. To avoid +multiplying details which all corroborate each other, it may suffice to +refer to Schoolcraft for totemism among the Iowas(5) and the Pueblos;(6) +for the Iroquois, to Lafitau, a missionary of the early part of the +eighteenth century. Lafitau was perhaps the first writer who ever +explained certain features in Greek and other ancient myths and +practices as survivals from totemism. The Chimera, a composite creature, +lion, goat and serpent, might represent, Lafitau thought, a league +of three totem tribes, just as wolf, bear and turtle represented the +Iroquois League. + + +(1) Histoire de la France-Nouvelle, iii. 266. + +(2) Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, by John Gibbon, Blue Mantle, +London, 1682. "The dancers, were painted some party per pale, gul and +sab, some party per fesse of the same colours;" whence Gibbon concluded +"that heraldry was ingrafted naturally into the sense of the humane +race". + +(3) Vol. i. p. 356. + +(4) Schoolcraft, v. 73. + +(5) Ibid., iii. 268. + +(6) Ibid., iv. 86. + + +The martyred Pere Rasles, again, writing in 1723,(1) says that one stock +of the Outaonaks claims descent from a hare ("the great hare was a man +of prodigious size"), while another stock derive their lineage from the +carp, and a third descends from a bear; yet they do not scruple, after +certain expiatory rites, to eat bear's flesh. Other North American +examples are the Kutchin, who have always possessed the system of +totems.(2) + + +(1) Kip's Jesuits in America i. 33. + +(2) Dall's Alaska, pp. 196-198. + + +It is to be noticed, as a peculiarity of Red Indian totemism which we +have not observed (though it may exist) in Africa, that certain stocks +claim relations with the sun. Thus Pere Le Petit, writing from New +Orleans in 1730, mentions the Sun, or great chief of the Natchez +Indians.(1) The totem of the privileged class among the Natchez was the +sun, and in all myths the sun is regarded as a living being, who can +have children, who may be beaten, who bleeds when cut, and is simply +on the same footing as men and everything else in the world. Precisely +similar evidence comes from South America. In this case our best +authority is almost beyond suspicion. He knew the native languages well, +being himself a half-caste. He was learned in the European learning +of his time; and as a son of the Incas, he had access to all surviving +Peruvian stores of knowledge, and could collect without difficulty the +testimonies of his countrymen. It will be seen(2) that Don Garcilasso +de la Vega could estimate evidence, and ridiculed the rough methods and +fallacious guesses of Spanish inquirers. Garcilasso de la Vega was +born about 1540, being the son of an Inca princess and of a Spanish +conqueror. His book, Commentarias Reales,(3) was expressly intended to +rectify the errors of such Spanish writers as Acosta. In his account of +Peruvian religion, Garcilasso distinguishes between the beliefs of the +tribes previous to the rise of the Inca empire and the sun-worship of +the Incas. But it is plain, from Garcilasso's own account and from other +evidence, that under the Incas the older faiths and fetichisms survived, +in subordination to sun-worship, just as Pagan superstitions survived +in custom and folk-lore after the official recognition of Christianity. +Sun-worship, in Peru, and the belief in a Supreme Creator there, seem +even, like Catholicism in Mexico, China and elsewhere, to have made a +kind of compromise with the lower beliefs, and to have been content +to allow a certain amount of bowing down in the temples of the elder +faiths. According, then, to Garcilasso's account of Peruvian totemism, +"An Indian was not looked upon as honourable unless he was descended +from a fountain, river,(4) or lake, or even from the sea, OR FROM A WILD +ANIMAL, such as a bear, lion, tiger, eagle, or the bird they call cuntur +(condor), or some other bird of prey ".(5) A certain amount of worship +was connected with this belief in kinship with beasts and natural +objects. Men offered up to their totems "what they usually saw them +eat".(6) On the seacoasts "they worshipped sardines, skates, dog-fish, +and, for want of larger gods, crabs.... There was not an animal, how +vile and filthy soever, that they did not worship as a god," including +"lizards, toads and frogs." Garcilasso (who says they ate the fish +they worshipped) gives his own theory of the origin of totemism. In the +beginning men had only sought for badges whereby to discriminate one +human stock from another. "The one desired to have a god different from +the other.... They only thought of making one different from another." +When the Inca emperors began to civilise the totemistic stocks, they +pointed out that their own father, the sun, possessed "splendour and +beauty" as contrasted with "the ugliness and filth of the frogs and +other vermin they looked upon as gods".(7) Garcilasso, of course, does +not use the North American word totem (or ote or otem) for the family +badge which represented the family ancestors. He calls these things, as +a general rule, pacarissa. The sun was the pacarissa of the Incas, as it +was of the chief of the Natchez. The pacarissa of other stocks was +the lion, bear, frog, or what not. Garcilasso accounts for the belief +accorded to the Incas, when they claimed actual descent from the sun, by +observing(8) that "there were tribes among their subjects who professed +similar fabulous descents, though they did not comprehend how to select +ancestors so well as the Incas, but adored animals and other low and +earthly objects". As to the fact of the Peruvian worship of beasts, if +more evidence is wanted, it is given, among others, by Cieza de Leon,(9) +who contrasts the adoration of the Roman gods with that offered in Peru +to brutes. "In the important temple of Pacha-camac (the spiritual deity +of Peru) they worshipped a she-fox or vixen and an emerald." The devil +also "appeared to them and spoke in the form of a tiger, very fierce". +Other examples of totemism in South America may be studied in the +tribes on the Amazon.(10) Mr. Wallace found the Pineapple stock, the +Mosquitoes, Woodpeckers, Herons, and other totem kindreds. A curious +example of similar ideas is discovered among the Bonis of Guiana. These +people were originally West Coast Africans imported as slaves, who have +won their freedom with the sword. While they retain a rough belief in +Gadou (God) and Didibi (the devil), they are divided into totem stocks +with animal names. The red ape, turtle and cayman are among the chief +totems.(11) + + +(1) Kip, ii. 288. + +(2) Appendix B. + +(3) See translation in Hakluyt Society's Collection. + +(4) Like many Greek heroes. Odyssey, iii. 489. "Orsilochus, the child +begotten of Alpheus." + +(5) Comm. Real., i. 75. + +(6) Ibid., 53. + +(7) Ibid., 102. + +(8) Ibid., 83. + +(9) Cieza de Leon (Hakluyt Society), p. 183. + +(10) Acuna, p. 103; Wallace, Travels on Amazon (1853), pp. 481-506. + +(11) Crevaux, Voyages dans l'Amerique du Sud, p. 59. + + +After this hasty examination of the confused belief in kinship with +animals and other natural objects which underlies institutions in +Australia, West and South Africa, North and South America, we may glance +at similar notions among the non-Aryan races of India. In Dalton's +Ethnology of Bengal,(1) he tells us that the Garo clans are divided into +maharis or motherhoods. Children belong to the mahari of the mother, +just as (in general) they derive their stock name and totem from the +mother's side in Australia and among the North American Indians. No man +may marry (as among the Red Indians and Australians) a woman belonging +to his own stock, motherhood or mahari. So far the maharis of Bengal +exactly correspond to the totem kindred. But do the Maharis also take +their names from plants and animals, and so forth? We know that the +Killis, similar communities among the Bengal Hos and Mundos, do this.(2) +"The Mundaris, like the Oraons, adopt as their tribal distinction the +name of some animal, and the flesh of that animal is tabooed to them as +food; for example, the eel, the tortoise." This is exactly the state of +things in Ashanti. Dalton mentions also(3) a princely family in Nagpur +which claims descent from "a great hooded snake". Among the Oraons he +found(4) tribes which might not eat young mice (considered a dainty) or +tortoises, and a stock which might not eat the oil of the tree which +was their totem, nor even sit in its shade. "The family or tribal names" +(within which they may not marry) "are usually those of animals or +plants, and when this is the case, the flesh of some part of the animal +or the fruit of the tree is tabooed to the tribe called after it." + + +(1) Dalton, p. 63. + +(2) Ibid., p. 189. + +(3) Ibid., p. 166. + +(4) Ibid., p. 254. + + +An excellent sketch of totemism in India is given by Mr. H. H. Risley of +the Bengal Civil Service:--(1) + + +(1) The Asiatic Quarterly, No. 3, Essay on "Primitive Marriage in +Bengal." + + +"At the bottom of the social system, as understood by the average Hindu, +stands a large body of non-Aryan castes and tribes, each of which is +broken up into a number of what may be called totemistic exogamous +septs. Each sept bears the name of an animal, a tree, a plant, or of +some material object, natural or artificial, which the members of that +sept are prohibited from killing, eating, cutting, burning, carrying, +using, etc."(1) + + +(1) Here we may note that the origin of exogamy itself is merely part +of a strict totemistic prohibition. A man may not "use" an object within +the totem kin, nor a woman of the kin. Compare the Greek idiom (Greek +text omitted). + + +Mr. Risley finds that both Kolarians, as the Sonthals, and Dravidians, +as the Oraons, are in this state of totemism, like the Hos and Mundas. +It is most instructive to learn that, as one of these tribes rises in +the social scale, it sloughs off its totem, and, abandoning the common +name derived from bird, beast, or plant, adopts that of an eponymous +ancestor. A tendency in this direction has been observed by Messrs. +Fison and Howitt even in Australia. The Mahilis, Koras and Kurmis, +who profess to be members of the Hindu community, still retain the +totemistic organisation, with names derived from birds, beasts and +plants. Even the Jagannathi Kumhars of Orissa, taking rank immediately +below the writer-caste, have the totems tiger, snake, weasel, cow, frog, +sparrow and tortoise. The sub-castes of the Khatlya Kumhars explain away +their totem-names "as names of certain saints, who, being present at +Daksha's Horse-sacrifice, transformed themselves into animals to escape +the wrath of Siva," like the gods of Egypt when they fled in bestial +form from the wrath of Set. + +Among the non-Aryan tribes the marriage law has the totemistic sanction. +No man may marry a woman of his totem kin. When the totem-name is +changed for an eponym, the non-Aryan, rising in the social scale, +is practically in the same position as the Brahmans, "divided into +exogamous sections (gotras), the members of which profess to be +descended from the mythical rishi or inspired saint whose name the gotra +bears". There is thus nothing to bar the conjecture that the exogamous +gotras of the whole Brahmans were once a form of totem-kindred, +which (like aspiring non-Aryan stocks at the present day) dropped the +totem-name and renamed the septs from some eponymous hero, medicine-man, +or Rishi. + +Constant repetition of the same set of facts becomes irksome, and yet +is made necessary by the legitimate demand for trustworthy and abundant +evidence. As the reader must already have reflected, this living +mythical belief in the common confused equality of men, gods, plants, +beasts, rivers, and what not, which still regulates savage society,(1) +is one of the most prominent features in mythology. Porphyry remarked +and exactly described it among the Egyptians--"common and akin to men +and gods they believed the beasts to be."(2) The belief in such equality +is alien to modern civilisation. We have shown that it is common and +fundamental in savagery. For instance, in the Pacific, we might quote +Turner,(3) and for Melanesia, Codrington,(4) while for New Zealand we +have Taylor.(5) For the Jakuts, along the banks of the Lena in Northern +Asia, we have the evidence of Strahlenberg, who writes: "Each tribe of +these people look upon some particular creature as sacred, e.g., a swan, +goose, raven, etc., and such is not eaten by that tribe" though the +others may eat it.(6) As the majority of our witnesses were quite +unaware that the facts they described were common among races of whom +many of them had never even heard, their evidence may surely be accepted +as valid, especially as the beliefs testified to express themselves in +marriage laws, in the blood-feud, in abstinence from food, on pillars +over graves, in rude heraldry, and in other obvious and palpable +shapes. If we have not made out, by the evidence of institutions, that +a confused credulity concerning the equality and kinship of man and the +objects in nature is actually a ruling belief among savages, and even +higher races, from the Lena to the Amazon, from the Gold Coast to +Queensland, we may despair of ever convincing an opponent. The survival +of the same beliefs and institutions among civilised races, Aryan and +others, will later be demonstrated.(7) If we find that the mythology of +civilised races here agrees with the actual practical belief of savages, +and if we also find that civilised races retain survivals of the +institutions in which the belief is expressed by savages, then we may +surely infer that the activity of beasts in the myths of Greece springs +from the same sources as the similar activity of beasts in the myths of +Iroquois or Kaffirs. That is to say, part of the irrational element +in Greek myth will be shown to be derived (whether by inheritance or +borrowing) from an ascertained condition of savage fancy. + + +(1) See some very curious and disgusting examples of this confusion in +Liebrecht's Zur Volkskunde, pp. 395, 396 (Heilbronn, 1879). + +(2) De Abst., ii. 26. + +(3) Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 238, and Samoa by the same author. +Complete totemism is not asserted here, and is denied for Melanesia. + +(4) Journ. Anthrop. Inst., "Religious Practices in Melanesia". + +(5) New Zealand, "Animal Intermarriage with Men". + +(6) Description of Asia (1783), p. 383. + +(7) Professor Robertson Smith, Kinship in Arabia, attempts to show +that totemism existed in the Semitic races. The topic must be left to +Orientalists. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE MENTAL CONDITION OF +SAVAGES--MAGIC--METAMORPHOSIS--METAPHYSIC--PSYCHOLOGY. + + +Claims of sorcerers--Savage scientific speculation--Theory of +causation--Credulity, except as to new religious ideas--"Post hoc, +ergo propter hoc"--Fundamental ideas of magic--Examples: incantations, +ghosts, spirits--Evidence of rank and other institutions in proof of +confusions of mind exhibited in magical beliefs. + + +"I mean eftsoons to have a fling at magicians for their abominable lies +and monstrous vanities."--PLINY, ap. Phil. Holland. + +"Quoy de ceux qui naturellement se changent en loups, en juments, et +puis encores en hommes?"--MONTAIGNE, Apologie pour Raymond de Sebonde. + + +The second feature in the savage intellectual condition which we +promised to investigate was the belief in magic and sorcery. The world +and all the things in it being conceived of vaguely as sensible and +rational, are supposed to obey the commands of certain members of each +tribe, such as chiefs, jugglers, or conjurors. These conjurors, like +Zeus or Indra, can affect the weather, work miracles, assume what +shapes, animal, vegetable, or inorganic, they please, and can +metamorphose other persons into similar shapes. It has already been +shown that savage man has regarded all THINGS as PERSONS much on a level +with himself. It has now to be shown WHAT KIND OF PERSON HE CONCEIVES +HIMSELF TO BE. He does not look on men as civilised races regard them, +that is, as beings with strict limitations. On the other hand, he thinks +of certain members of his tribe as exempt from most of the limitations, +and capable of working every miracle that tradition has ever attributed +to prophets or gods. Nor are such miraculous powers, such practical +omnipotence, supposed by savages to be at all rare among themselves. +Though highly valued, miraculous attainments are not believed to be +unusual. This must be kept steadily in mind. When myth-making man +regards the sky or sun or wind as a person, he does not mean merely +a person with the limitations recognised by modern races. He means a +person with the miraculous powers of the medicine-man. The sky, sun, +wind or other elemental personage can converse with the dead, and can +turn himself and his neighbours into animals, stones and trees. + +To understand these functions and their exercise, it is necessary to +examine what may be called savage science, savage metaphysics, and the +savage theory of the state of the dead. The medicine-man's supernatural +claims are rooted in the general savage view of the world, of what is +possible, and of what (if anything) is impossible. The savage, even more +than the civilised man, may be described as a creature "moving about in +worlds not realised". He feels, no less than civilised man, the need of +making the world intelligible, and he is active in his search for causes +and effects. There is much "speculation in these eyes that he doth glare +withal". This is a statement which has been denied by some persons +who have lived with savages. Thus Mr. Bates, in his Naturalist on the +Amazon,(1) writes: "Their want of curiosity is extreme.... Vicente (an +Indian companion) did not know the cause of thunder and lightning. I +asked him who made the sun, the stars, the trees. He didn't know, and +had never heard the subject mentioned in his tribe." But Mr. Bates +admits that even Vicente had a theory of the configuration of the world. +"The necessity of a theory of the earth and water had been felt, and +a theory had been suggested." Again, Mr. Bates says about a certain +Brazilian tribe, "Their sluggish minds seem unable to conceive or feel +the want of a theory of the soul"; and he thinks the cause of this +indolence is the lack "of a written language or a leisured class". Now +savages, as a rule, are all in the "leisured class," all sportsmen. +Mr. Herbert Spencer, too, has expressed scepticism about the curiosity +attributed to savages. The point is important, because, in our view, the +medicine-man's powers are rooted in the savage theory of things, and if +the savage is too sluggish to invent or half consciously evolve a theory +of things, our hypothesis is baseless. Again, we expect to find in +savage myths the answer given by savages to their own questions. But +this view is impossible if savages do not ask themselves, and never have +asked themselves, any questions at all about the world. On this topic +Mr. Spencer writes: "Along with absence of surprise there naturally +goes absence of intelligent curiosity".(2) Yet Mr. Spencer admits that, +according to some witnesses, "the Dyaks have an insatiable curiosity," +the Samoans "are usually very inquisitive," and "the Tahitians are +remarkably curious and inquisitive". Nothing is more common than to +find travellers complaining that savages, in their ardently inquiring +curiosity, will not leave the European for a moment to his own +undisturbed devices. Mr. Spencer's savages, who showed no curiosity, +displayed this impassiveness when Europeans were trying to make them +exhibit signs of surprise. Impassivity is a point of honour with many +uncivilised races, and we cannot infer that a savage has no curiosity +because he does not excite himself over a mirror, or when his European +visitors try to swagger with their mechanical appliances. Mr. Herbert +Spencer founds, on the statements of Mr. Bates already quoted, a notion +that "the savage, lacking ability to think and the accompanying desire +to know, is without tendency to speculate". He backs Mr. Bates's +experience with Mungo Park's failure to "draw" the negroes about the +causes of day and night. They had never indulged a conjecture nor formed +an hypothesis on the matter. Yet Park avers that "the belief in one God +is entire and universal among them". This he "pronounces without the +smallest shadow of doubt". As to "primitive man," according to Mr. +Spencer, "the need for explanations about surrounding appearances does +not occur to him". We have disclaimed all knowledge about "primitive +man," but it is easy to show that Mr. Spencer grounds his belief in the +lack of speculation among savages on a frail foundation of evidence. + + +(1) Vol. ii. p. 162. + +(2) Sociology, p. 98. + + +Mr. Spencer has admitted speculation, or at least curiosity, among New +Caledonians, New Guinea people, Dyaks, Samoans and Tahitians. Even where +he denies its existence, as among the Amazon tribes mentioned by Mr. +Bates, we happen to be able to show that Mr. Bates was misinformed. +Another traveller, the American geologist, Professor Hartt of Cornell +University, lived long among the tribes of the Amazon. But Professor +Hartt did not, like Mr. Bates, find them at all destitute of theories of +things--theories expressed in myths, and testifying to the intellectual +activity and curiosity which demands an answer to its questions. +Professor Hartt, when he first became acquainted with the Indians of the +Amazon, knew that they were well supplied with myths, and he set to work +to collect them. But he found that neither by coaxing nor by offers of +money could he persuade an Indian to relate a myth. Only by accident, +"while wearily paddling up the Paranamirim of the Ituki," did he +hear the steersman telling stories to the oarsmen to keep them awake. +Professor Hartt furtively noted down the tale, and he found that by +"setting the ball rolling," and narrating a story himself, he could make +the natives throw off reserve and add to his stock of tales. "After one +has obtained his first myth, and has learned to recite it accurately and +spiritedly, the rest is easy." The tales published by Professor Hartt +are chiefly animal stories, like those current in Africa and among the +Red Indians, and Hartt even believed that many of the legends had been +imported by Negroes. But as the majority of the Negro myths, like +those of the Australians, give a "reason why" for the existence of some +phenomenon or other, the argument against early man's curiosity and +vivacity of intellect is rather injured, even if the Amazonian myths +were imported from Africa. Mr. Spencer based his disbelief in the +intellectual curiosity of the Amazonian tribes and of Negroes on the +reports of Mr. Bates and of Mungo Park. But it turns out that both +Negroes and Amazonians have stories which do satisfy an unscientific +curiosity, and it is even held that the Negroes lent the Amazonians +these very stories.(1) The Kamschadals, according to Steller, "give +themselves a reason why for everything, according to their own lively +fancy, and do not leave the smallest matter uncriticised".(2) As far, +then, as Mr. Spencer's objections apply to existing savages, we may +consider them overweighed by the evidence, and we may believe in a naive +savage curiosity about the world and desire for explanations of the +causes of things. Mr. Tylor's opinion corroborates our own: "Man's +craving to know the causes at work in each event he witnesses, the +reasons why each state of things he surveys is such as it is and no +other, is no product of high civilisation, but a characteristic of his +race down to its lowest stages. Among rude savages it is already an +intellectual appetite, whose satisfaction claims many of the moments not +engrossed by war or sport, food or sleep. Even in the Botocudo or +the Australian, scientific speculation has its germ in actual +experience."(3) It will be shown later that the food of the savage +intellectual appetite is offered and consumed in the shape of +explanatory myths. + + +(1) See Amazonian Tortoise-Myth., pp. 5, 37, 40; and compare Mr. +Harris's Preface to Nights with Uncle Remus. + +(2) Steller, p. 267. Cf. Farrer's Primitive Manners, p. 274. + +(3) Primitive Culture, i. 369. + + +But we must now observe that the "actual experience," properly so +called, of the savage is so limited and so coloured by misconception and +superstition, that his knowledge of the world varies very much from the +conceptions of civilised races. He seeks an explanation, a theory of +things, based on his experience. But his knowledge of physical causes +and of natural laws is exceedingly scanty, and he is driven to fall back +upon what we may call metaphysical, or, in many cases "supernatural" +explanations. The narrower the range of man's knowledge of physical +causes, the wider is the field which he has to fill up with +hypothetical causes of a metaphysical or "supernatural" character. These +"supernatural" causes themselves the savage believes to be matters of +experience. It is to his mind a matter of experience that all nature +is personal and animated; that men may change shapes with beasts; that +incantations and supernatural beings can cause sunshine and storm. + +A good example of this is given in Charlevoix's work on French +Canada.(1) Charlevoix was a Jesuit father and missionary among the +Hurons and other tribes of North America. He thus describes the +philosophy of the Red Men: "The Hurons attribute the most ordinary +effects to supernatural causes".(2) In the same page the good father +himself attributes the welcome arrival of rainy weather and the cure +of certain savage patients to the prayers of Pere Brebeuf and to the +exhibition of the sacraments. Charlevoix had considerably extended +the field in which natural effects are known to be produced by natural +causes. He was much more scientifically minded than his savage flock, +and was quite aware that an ordinary clock with a pendulum cannot bring +bad luck to a whole tribe, and that a weather-cock is not a magical +machine for securing unpleasant weather. The Hurons, however, knowing +less of natural causes and nothing of modern machinery, were as +convinced that his clock was ruining the luck of the tribe and his +weather-cock spoiling the weather, as Father Charlevoix could be of +the truth of his own inferences. One or two other anecdotes in the good +father's history and letters help to explain the difference between the +philosophies of wild and of Christian men. The Pere Brebeuf was once +summoned at the instigation of a Huron wizard or "medicine-man" before +a council of the tribe. His judges told the father that nothing had gone +right since he appeared among them. To this Brebeuf replied by "drawing +the attention of the savages to the absurdity of their principles". He +admitted(3) the premise that nothing had turned out well in the tribe +since his arrival. "But the reason," said he, "plainly is that God is +angry with your hardness of heart." No sooner had the good father thus +demonstrated the absurdity of savage principles of reasoning, than the +malignant Huron wizard fell down dead at his feet! This event naturally +added to the confusion of the savages. + + +(1) Histoire de la France-Nouvelle. + +(2) Vol. i. p. 191. + +(3) Vol. i. p. 192. + + +Coincidences of this sort have a great effect on savage minds. Catlin, +the friend of the Mandan tribe, mentions a chief who consolidated his +power by aid of a little arsenic, bought from the whites. The chief used +to prophesy the sudden death of his opponents, which always occurred at +the time indicated. The natural results of the administration of arsenic +were attributed by the barbarous people to supernatural powers in the +possession of the chief.(1) Thus the philosophy of savages seeks causas +cognoscere rerum, like the philosophy of civilised men, but it flies +hastily to a hypothesis of "supernatural" causes which are only guessed +at, and are incapable of demonstration. This frame of mind prevails +still in civilised countries, as the Bishop of Nantes showed when, in +1846, he attributed the floods of the Loire to "the excesses of the +press and the general disregard of Sunday". That "supernatural" causes +exist and may operate, it is not at all our intention to deny. But +the habit of looking everywhere for such causes, and of assuming their +interference at will, is the main characteristic of savage speculation. +The peculiarity of the savage is that he thinks human agents can work +supernaturally, whereas even the Bishop reserved his supernatural +explanations for the Deity. On this belief in man's power to affect +events beyond the limits of natural possibility is based the whole +theory of MAGIC, the whole power of sorcerers. That theory, again, finds +incessant expression in myth, and therefore deserves our attention. + + +(1) Catlin, Letters, ii. 117. + + +The theory requires for its existence an almost boundless credulity. +This credulity appears to Europeans to prevail in full force among +savages. Bosman is amazed by the African belief that a spider created +the world. Moffat is astonished at the South African notion that the sea +was accidentally created by a girl. Charlevoix says, "Les sauvages +sont d'une facilite a croire ce qu'on leur dit, que les plus facheuse +experiences n'ont jamais pu guerir".(1) But it is a curious fact that +while savages are, as a rule, so credulous, they often laugh at +the religious doctrines taught them by missionaries. Elsewhere they +recognise certain essential doctrines as familiar forms of old. +Dr. Moffat remarks, "To speak of the Creation, the Fall and the +Resurrection, seemed more fabulous, extravagant and ludicrous to them +than their own vain stories of lions and hyaenas." Again, "The Gospel +appeared too preposterous for the most foolish to believe".(2) While +the Zulus declared that they used to accept their own myths without +inquiry,(3) it was a Zulu who suggested to Bishop Colenso his doubts +about the historical character of the Noachian Deluge. Hearne(4) knew +a Red Man, Matorabhee, who, "though a perfect bigot with regard to the +arts and tricks of the jugglers, could yet by no means be impressed with +a belief of any part of OUR religion". Lieutenant Haggard, R.N., tells +the writer that during an eclipse at Lamoo he ridiculed the native +notion of driving away a beast which devours the moon, and explained the +real cause of the phenomenon. But his native friend protested that "he +could not be expected to believe such a story". Yet other savages aver +an old agreement with the belief in a moral Creator. + + +(1) Vol. ii. p. 378. + +(2) Missionary Labours, p. 245. + +(3) Callaway, Religion of Amazulus, i. 35. + +(4) Journey among the Indians, 1795, p. 350. + + +We have already seen sufficient examples of credulity in savage +doctrines about the equal relations of men and beasts, stars, clouds +and plants. The same readiness of belief, which would be surprising in +a Christian child, has been found to regulate the rudimentary political +organisations of grey barbarians. Add to this credulity a philosophy +which takes resemblance, or contiguity in space, or nearness in time as +a sufficient reason for predicating the relations of cause and effect, +and we have the basis of savage physical science. Yet the metaphysical +theories of savages, as expressed in Maori, Polynesian, and Zuni hymns, +often amaze us by their wealth of abstract ideas. Coincidence elsewhere +stands for cause. + +Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, is the motto of the savage philosophy of +causation. The untutored reasoner speculates on the principles of the +Egyptian clergy, as described by Herodotus.(1) "The Egyptians have +discovered more omens and prodigies than any other men; for when aught +prodigious occurs, they keep good watch, and write down what follows; +and then, if anything like the prodigy be repeated, they expect the same +events to follow as before." This way of looking at things is the very +essence of superstition. + + +(1) II. p. 82. + + +Savages, as a rule, are not even so scientific as the Egyptians. When +an untoward event occurs, they look for its cause among all the less +familiar circumstances of the last few days, and select the determining +cause very much at random. Thus the arrival of the French missionaries +among the Hurons was coincident with certain unfortunate events; +therefore it was argued that the advent of the missionaries was the +cause of the misfortune. When the Bechuanas suffered from drought, they +attributed the lack of rain to the arrival of Dr. Moffat, and especially +to his beard, his church bell, and a bag of salt in his possession. Here +there was not even the pretence of analogy between cause and effect. +Some savages might have argued (it is quite in their style), that as +salt causes thirst, a bag of salt causes drought; but no such case could +be made out against Dr. Moffat's bell and beard. To give an example from +the beliefs of English peasants. When a cottage was buried by a little +avalanche in 1772, the accident was attributed to the carelessness of +the cottagers, who had allowed a light to be taken out of their dwelling +in Christmas-tide.(1) We see the same confusion between antecedence and +consequence in time on one side, and cause and effect on the other, when +the Red Indians aver that birds actually bring winds and storms or fair +weather. They take literally the sense of the Rhodian swallow-song:-- + + + The swallow hath come, + Bringing fair hours, + Bringing fair seasons, + On black back and white breast.(2) + + +(1) Shropshire Folk-Lore, by Miss Burne, iii. 401. + +(2) Brinton, Myths of New World, p. 107. + + +Again, in the Pacific the people of one island always attribute +hurricanes to the machinations of the people of the nearest island to +windward. The wind comes from them; therefore (as their medicine-men can +notoriously influence the weather), they must have sent the wind. This +unneighbourly act is a casus belli, and through the whole of a group +of islands the banner of war, like the flag of freedom in Byron, flies +against the wind. The chief principle, then, of savage science is that +antecedence and consequence in time are the same as effect and cause.(1) +Again, savage science holds that LIKE AFFECTS LIKE, that you can injure +a man, for example, by injuring his effigy. On these principles the +savage explains the world to himself, and on these principles he tries +to subdue to himself the world. Now the putting of these principles into +practice is simply the exercise of art magic, an art to which nothing +seems impossible. The belief that his Shamans or medicine-men practise +this art is universal among savages. It seriously affects their conduct, +and is reflected in their myths. + + +(1) See account of Zuni metaphysics in chapter on American Divine Myths. + + +The one general rule which governs all magical reasoning is, that casual +connection in thought is equivalent to causative connection in fact. +Like suggests like to human thought by association of ideas; wherefore +like influences like, or produces analogous effects in practice. Any +object once in a man's possession, especially his hair or his nails, is +supposed to be capable of being used against him by a sorcerer. The +part suggests the whole. A lock of a man's hair was part of the man; to +destroy the hair is to destroy its former owner. Again, whatever event +follows another in time suggests it, and may have been caused by +it. Accompanying these ideas is the belief that nature is peopled by +invisible spiritual powers, over which magicians and sorcerers possess +influence. The magic of the lower races chiefly turns on these two +beliefs. First, "man having come to associate in thought those things +which he found by experience to be connected in fact, proceeded +erroneously to invert their action, and to conclude that association in +thought must involve similar connection in reality. He thus attempted to +discover, to foretell, and to cause events, by means of processes +which we now see to have only an ideal significance."(1) Secondly, +man endeavoured to make disembodied spirits of the dead, or any other +spirits, obedient to his will. Savage philosophy presumes that the +beliefs are correct, and that their practical application is successful. +Examples of the first of the two chief magical ideas are as common in +unscientific modern times or among unscientific modern people as in the +savage world. + + +(1) Primitive Culture, i. 14. + + +The physicians of the age of Charles II. were wont to give their +patients "mummy powder," that is, pulverised mummy. They argued that the +mummy had lasted for a very long time, and that the patients ought to do +so likewise. Pliny imagined that diamonds must be found in company with +gold, because these are the most perfect substances in the world, and +like should draw to like. Aurum potabile, or drinkable gold, was a +favourite medical nostrum of the Middle Ages, because gold, being +perfect, should produce perfect health. Among savages the belief that +like is caused by like is exemplified in very many practices. The New +Caledonians, when they wish their yam plots to be fertile, bury in them +with mystic ceremonies certain stones which are naturally shaped like +yams. The Melanesians have reduced this kind of magic to a system. Among +them certain stones have a magical efficacy, which is determined in each +case by the shape of the stone. "A stone in the shape of a pig, of a +bread-fruit, of a yam, was a most valuable find. No garden was planted +without the stones which were to increase the crop."(1) Stones with a +rude resemblance to beasts bring the Zuni luck in the chase. + + +(1) Rev. R. H. Codrington, Journ. Anth. Inst., February, 1881. + + +The spiritual theory in some places is mixed up with the "like to like" +theory, and the magical stones are found where the spirits have been +heard twittering and whistling. "A large stone lying with a number of +small ones under it, like a sow among her sucklings, was good for a +childless woman."(1) It is the savage belief that stones reproduce +their species, a belief consonant with the general theory of universal +animation and personality. The ancient belief that diamonds gendered +diamonds is a survival from these ideas. "A stone with little disks upon +it was good to bring in money; any fanciful interpretation of a mark +was enough to give a character to the stone and its associated Vui" or +spirit in Melanesia. In Scotland, stones shaped like various parts +of the human body are expected to cure the diseases with which these +members may be afflicted. "These stones were called by the names of the +limbs which they represented, as 'eye-stone,' 'head-stone'." The patient +washed the affected part of the body, and rubbed it well with the stone +corresponding.(2) + + +(1) Codrington, Journ. Anth. Soc., x. iii. 276. + +(2) Gregor, Folk-Lore of North-East Counties, p. 40. + + +To return from European peasant-magic to that of savages, we find that +when the Bushmen want wet weather they light fires, believing that +the black smoke clouds will attract black rain clouds; while the Zulus +sacrifice black cattle to attract black clouds of rain.(1) Though this +magic has its origin in savage ignorance, it survives into civilisation. +Thus the sacrifices of the Vedic age were imitations of the natural +phenomena which the priests desired to produce.(2) "C'etait un moyen de +faire tombre la pluie en realisant, par les representations terrestres +des eaux du nuage et de l'eclair, les conditions dans lesquelles +celui-ci determine dans le ciel l'epanchement de celles-la." A good +example of magical science is afforded by the medical practice of the +Dacotahs of North America.(3) When any one is ill, an image of his +disease, a boil or what not, is carved in wood. This little image is +then placed in a bowl of water and shot at with a gun. The image of the +disease being destroyed, the disease itself is expected to disappear. +Compare the magic of the Philistines, who made golden images of the +sores which plagued them and stowed them away in the ark.(4) The custom +of making a wax statuette of an enemy, and piercing it with pins or +melting it before the fire, so that the detested person might waste +as his semblance melted, was common in mediaeval Europe, was known to +Plato, and is practised by Negroes. Some Australians take some of the +hair of an enemy, mix it with grease and the feathers of the eagle, and +burn it in the fire. This is "bar" or black magic. The boarding under +the chair of a magistrate in Barbadoes was lifted not long ago, and the +ground beneath was found covered with wax images of litigants stuck full +of pins. + + +(1) Callaway, i. 92. + +(2) Bergaigne, Religion Vedique, i. 126-138, i., vii., viii. + +(3) Schoolcraft, iv. 491. + +(4) 1 Samuel vi. 4, 5. + + +The war-magic of the Dacotahs works in a similar manner. Before a party +starts on the war-trail, the chief, with various ceremonies, takes his +club and stands before his tent. An old witch bowls hoops at him; each +hoop represents an enemy, and for each he strikes a foeman is expected +to fall. A bowl of sweetened water is also set out to entice the spirits +of the enemy.(1) The war-magic of the Aryans in India does not differ +much in character from that of the Dacotahs. "If any one wishes his army +to be victorious, he should go beyond the battle-line, cut a stalk of +grass at the top and end, and throw it against the hostile army with the +words, Prasahe kas trapasyati?--O Prasaha, who sees thee? If one who has +such knowledge cuts a stalk of grass and throws the parts at the hostile +army, it becomes split and dissolved, just as a daughter-in-law becomes +abashed and faints when seeing her father-in-law,"--an allusion, +apparently, to the widespread tabu which makes fathers-in-law, +daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and mothers-in-law avoid each other.(2) + + +(1) Schoolcraft, iv. 496. + +(2) Aitareya Brahmana, iii. 22. + + +The hunt-dances of the Red Indians and Australians are arranged like +their war-magic. Effigies of the bears, deer, or kangaroos are made, or +some of the hunters imitate the motions of these animals. The rest of +the dancers pretend to spear them, and it is hoped that this will ensure +success among the real bears and kangaroos. + +Here is a singular piece of magic in which Europeans and Australian +blacks agree. Boris Godunoff made his servants swear never to injure him +by casting spells with the dust on which his feet or his carriage wheels +had left traces.(1) Mr. Howitt finds the same magic among the Kurnai.(2) +"Seeing a Tatungolung very lame, I asked him what was the matter. He +said, 'Some fellow has put BOTTLE in my foot'. I found he was probably +suffering from acute rheumatism. He explained that some enemy must have +found his foot-track and have buried in it a piece of broken bottle. The +magic influence, he believed, caused it to enter his foot." On another +occasion a native told Mr. Howitt that he had seen black fellows putting +poison in his foot-tracks. Bosman mentions a similar practice among the +people of Guinea. In Scottish folk-lore a screw nail is fixed into the +footprint of the person who is to be injured. + + +(1) Rambaud's History of Russia, English trans., i. 351. + +(2) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 250. + + +Just as these magical efforts to influence like by like work their way +into Vedic and other religions, so they are introduced into the religion +of the savage. His prayers are addresses to some sort of superior being, +but the efficacy of the prayer is often eked out by a little magic, +unless indeed we prefer to suppose that the words of the supplication +are interpreted by gesture-speech. Sproat writes: "Set words and +gestures are used according to the thing desired. For instance, in +praying for salmon, the native rubs the backs of his hands, looks +upwards, and mutters the words, 'Many salmon, many salmon'. If he wishes +for deer, he carefully rubs both eyes; or, if it is geese, he rubs the +back of his shoulder, uttering always in a sing-song way the accustomed +formula.... All these practices in praying no doubt have a meaning. We +may see a steady hand is needed in throwing the salmon-spear, and clear +eyesight in finding deer in the forest."(1) + + +(1) Savage Life, p. 208. + + +In addition to these forms of symbolical magic (which might be +multiplied to any extent), we find among savages the belief in the power +of songs of INCANTATION. This is a feature of magic which specially +deserves our attention. In myths, and still more in marchen or household +tales, we shall constantly find that the most miraculous effects are +caused when the hero pronounces a few lines of rhyme. In Rome, as we +have all read in the Latin Delectus, it was thought that incantations +could draw down the moon. In the Odyssey the kinsfolk of Odysseus sing +"a song of healing" over the wound which was dealt him by the boar's +tusk. Jeanne d'Arc, wounded at Orleans, refused a similar remedy. +Sophocles speaks of the folly of muttering incantations over wounds +that need the surgeon's knife. The song that salved wounds occurs in +the Kalewala, the epic poem of the Finns. In many of Grimm's marchen, +miracles are wrought by the repetition of snatches of rhyme. This belief +is derived from the savage state of fancy. According to Kohl,(1) "Every +sorrowful or joyful emotion that opens the Indian's mouth is at once +wrapped up in the garb of a wabanonagamowin (chanson magicale). If you +ask one of them to sing you a simple innocent hymn in praise of Nature, +a spring or jovial hunting stave, he never gives you anything but a form +of incantation, with which he says you will be able to call to you all +the birds from the sky, and all the foxes and wolves from their caves +and burrows."(2) The giant's daughter in the Scotch marchen, Nicht, +Nought, Nothing, is thus enabled to call to her aid "all the birds of +the sky". In the same way, if you ask an Indian for a love-song, he +will say that a philtre is really much more efficacious. The savage, in +short, is extremely practical. His arts, music and drawing, exist not +pour l'art, but for a definite purpose, as methods of getting something +that the artist wants. The young lover whom Kohl knew, like the lover +of Bombyca in Theocritus, believed in having an image of himself and an +image of the beloved. Into the heart of the female image he thrust magic +powders, and he said that this was common, lovers adding songs, "partly +elegiac, partly malicious, and almost criminal forms of incantation".(3) + + +(1) Page 395. + +(2) Cf. Comparetti's Traditional Poetry of the Finns. + +(3) Kitchi gami, pp. 395, 397. + + +Among the Indo-Aryans the masaminik or incantations of the Red Man are +known as mantras.(1) These are usually texts from the Veda, and are +chanted over the sick and in other circumstances where magic is believed +to be efficacious. Among the New Zealanders the incantations are called +karakias, and are employed in actual life. There is a special karakia to +raise the wind. In Maori myths the hero is very handy with his karakia. +Rocks split before him, as before girls who use incantations in Kaffir +and Bushman tales. He assumes the shape of any animal at will, or flies +in the air, all by virtue of the karakia or incantation.(2) + + +(1) Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 441, "Incantations from the Atharva Veda". + +(2) Taylor's New Zealand; Theal's Kaffir Folk-Lore, South-African +Folk-Lore Journal, passim; Shortland's Traditions of the New Zealanders, +pp. 130-135. + + +Without multiplying examples in the savage belief that miracles can be +wrought by virtue of physical CORRESPONDANCES, by like acting on like, +by the part affecting the whole, and so forth, we may go on to the +magical results produced by the aid of spirits. These may be either +spirits of the dead or spiritual essences that never animated mortal +men. Savage magic or science rests partly on the belief that the +world is peopled by a "choir invisible," or rather by a choir only +occasionally visible to certain gifted people, sorcerers and diviners. +An enormous amount of evidence to prove the existence of these tenets +has been collected by Mr. Tylor, and is accessible to all in the +chapters on "Animism" in his Primitive Culture. It is not our business +here to account for the universality of the belief in spirits. Mr. +Tylor, following Lucretius and Homer, derives the belief from the +reasonings of early men on the phenomena of dreams, fainting, shadows, +visions caused by narcotics, hallucinations, and other facts which +suggest the hypothesis of a separable life apart from the bodily +organism. It would scarcely be fair not to add that the kind of "facts" +investigated by the Psychical Society--such "facts" as the appearance +of men at the moment of death in places remote from the scene of their +decease, with such real or delusive experiences as the noises and +visions in haunted houses--are familiar to savages. Without discussing +these obscure matters, it may be said that they influence the thoughts +even of some scientifically trained and civilised men. It is natural, +therefore, that they should strongly sway the credulous imagination of +backward races, in which they originate or confirm the belief that life +can exist and manifest itself after the death of the body.(1) + + +(1) See the author's Making of Religion, 1898. + + +Some examples of savage "ghost-stories," precisely analogous to the +"facts" of the Psychical Society's investigations, may be adduced. The +first is curious because it offers among the Kanekas an example of a +belief current in Breton folk-lore. The story is vouched for by Mr. J. +J. Atkinson, late of Noumea, New Caledonia. Mr. Atkinson, we have reason +to believe, was unacquainted with the Breton parallel. To him one day a +Kaneka of his acquaintance paid a visit, and seemed loth to go away. He +took leave, returned, and took leave again, till Mr. Atkinson asked him +the reason of his behaviour. He then explained that he was about to die, +and would never see his English friend again. As he seemed in perfect +health, Mr. Atkinson rallied him on his hypochondria; but the poor +fellow replied that his fate was sealed. He had lately met in the wood +one whom he took for the Kaneka girl of his heart; but he became aware +too late that she was no mortal woman, but a wood-spirit in the guise of +the beloved. The result would be his death within three days, and, as a +matter of fact, he died. This is the groundwork of the old Breton ballad +of Le Sieur Nan, who dies after his intrigue with the forest spectre.(1) +A tale more like a common modern ghost-story is vouched for by Mr. C. +J. Du Ve, in Australia. In the year 1860, a Maneroo black fellow died in +the service of Mr. Du Ve. "The day before he died, having been ill some +time, he said that in the night his father, his father's friend, and a +female spirit he could not recognise, had come to him and said that he +would die next day, and that they would wait for him. Mr. Du Ye adds +that, though previously the Christian belief had been explained to this +man, it had entirely faded, and that he had gone back to the belief of +his childhood." Mr. Fison, who prints this tale in his Kamilaroi and +Kurnai,(2) adds, "I could give many similar instances which have come +within my own knowledge among the Fijians, and, strange to say, the +dying man in all these cases kept his appointment with the ghosts to the +very day". + + +(1) It may, of course, be conjectured that the French introduced this +belief into New Caledonia. + +(2) Page 247. + + +In the Cruise of the Beagle is a parallel anecdote of a Fuegian, Jimmy +Button, and his father's ghost. + +Without entering into a discussion of ghosts, it is plain that the kind +of evidence, whatever its value may be, which convinces many educated +Europeans of the existence of "veridical" apparitions has also played +its part in the philosophy of uncivilised races. On this belief in +apparitions, then, is based the power of the savage sorcerers and +necromants, of the men who converse with the dead and are aided by +disembodied spirits. These men have greatly influenced the beginnings +of mythology. Among certain Australian tribes the necromants are called +Birraark.(1) "The Kurnai tell me," says Mr. Howitt, "that a Birraark +was supposed to be initiated by the 'Mrarts (ghosts) when they met +him wandering in the bush.... It was from the ghosts that he obtained +replies to questions concerning events passing at a distance or yet to +happen, which might be of interest or moment to his tribe." Mr. Howitt +prints an account of a spiritual seance in the bush.(2) "The fires were +let go down. The Birraark uttered a cry 'coo-ee' at intervals. At +length a distant reply was heard, and shortly afterwards the sound as of +persons jumping on the ground in succession. A voice was then heard in +the gloom asking in a strange intonation, 'What is wanted?' Questions +were put by the Birraark and replies given. At the termination of the +seance, the spirit-voice said, 'We are going'. Finally, the Birraark was +found in the top of an almost inaccessible tree, apparently asleep."(3) +There was one Birraark at least to every clan. The Kurnai gave the name +of "Brewin" (a powerful evil spirit) to a Birraark who was once carried +away for several days by the Mrarts or spirits.(4) It is a belief with +the Australians, as, according to Bosman, it was with the people of +the Gold Coast, that a very powerful wizard lives far inland, and the +Negroes held that to this warlock the spirits of the dead went to be +judged according to the merit of their actions in life. Here we have a +doctrine answering to the Greek belief in "the wizard Minos," Aeacus, +and Rhadamanthus, and to the Egyptian idea of Osiris as judge of the +departed.(5) The pretensions of the sorcerer to converse with the dead +are attested by Mr. Brough Smyth.(6) "A sorcerer lying on his stomach +spoke to the deceased, and the other sitting by his side received the +precious messages which the dead man told." As a natural result of these +beliefs, the Australian necromant has great power in the tribe. Mr. +Howitt mentions a case in which a group of kindred, ceasing to use their +old totemistic surname, called themselves the children of a famous +dead Birraark, who thus became an eponymous hero, like Ion among the +Ionians.(7) Among the Scotch Highlanders the position and practice +of the seer were very like those of the Birraark. "A person," says +Scott,(8) "was wrapped up in the skin of a newly slain bullock and +deposited beside a waterfall or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some +other strange, wild and unusual situation, where the scenery around him +suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved +in his mind the question proposed and whatever was impressed on him by +his exalted imagination PASSED FOR THE INSPIRATION OF THE DISEMBODIED +SPIRITS who haunt these desolate recesses." A number of examples are +given in Martin's Description of the Western Islands.(9) In the Century +magazine (July, 1882) is a very full report of Thlinkeet medicine-men +and metamorphoses. + + +(1) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 253. + +(2) Page 254. + +(3) In the Jesuit Relations (1637), p. 51, we read that the Red Indian +sorcerer or Jossakeed was credited with power to vanish suddenly away +out of sight of the men standing around him. Of him, as of Homeric +gods, it might be said, "Who has power to see him come or go against his +will?" + +(4) Here, in the first edition, occurred the following passage: "The +conception of Brewin is about as near as the Kurnai get to the idea of a +God; their conferring of his name on a powerful sorcerer is therefore +a point of importance and interest". Mr. Howitt's later knowledge +demonstrates an error here. + +(5) Bosman in Pinkerton, xvi. p. 401. + +(6) Aborigines of Australia, i. 197. + +(7) In Victoria, after dark the wizard goes up to the clouds and brings +down a good spirit. Dawkins, p. 57. For eponymous medicine-men see +Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 231. + +(8) Lady of the Lake, note 1 to Canto iv. + +(9) P. 112. + + +The sorcerer among the Zulus is, apparently, of a naturally hysterical +and nervous constitution. "He hears the spirits who speak by whistlings +speaking to him."(1) Whistling is also the language of the ghosts in New +Caledonia, where Mr. Atkinson informs us that he has occasionally put +an able-bodied Kaneka to ignominious flight by whistling softly in the +dusk. The ghosts in Homer make a similar sound, "and even as bats flit +gibbering in the secret place of a wondrous cavern,... even so the +souls gibbered as they fared together" (Odyssey, xxiv. 5). "The familiar +spirits make him" (that Zulu sorcerer) "acquainted with what is about +to happen, and then he divines for the people." As the Birraarks learn +songs and dance-music from the Mrarts, so the Zulu Inyanga or diviners +learn magical couplets from the Itongo or spirits.(2) + + +(1) Callaway, Religious System of the Amazules, p. 265. + +(2) On all this, see "Possession" in The Making of Religion. + + +The evidence of institutions confirms the reports about savage belief +in magic. The political power of the diviners is very great, as may be +observed from the fact that a hereditary chief needs their consecration +to make him a chief de jure.(1) In fact, the qualities of the diviner +are those which give his sacred authority to the chief. When he has +obtained from the diviners all their medicines and information as to the +mode of using the isitundu (a magical vessel), it is said that he often +orders them to be killed. Now, the chief is so far a medicine-man that +he is lord of the air. "The heaven is the chief's," say the Zulus; +and when he calls out his men, "though the heaven is clear, it becomes +clouded by the great wind that arises". Other Zulus explain this as the +mere hyperbole of adulation. "The word of the chief gives confidence to +his troops; they say, 'We are going; the chief has already seen all that +will happen in his vessel'. Such then are chiefs; they use a vessel +for divination."(2) The makers of rain are known in Zululand as +"heaven-herds" or "sky-herds," who herd the heaven that it may not break +out and do its will on the property of the people. These men are, in +fact, (Greek text omitted), "cloud-gatherers," like the Homeric Zeus, +the lord of the heavens. Their name of "herds of the heavens" has a +Vedic sound. "The herd that herds the lightning," say the Zulus, "does +the same as the herder of the cattle; he does as he does by whistling; +he says, 'Tshu-i-i-i. Depart and go yonder. Do not come here.'" Here +let it be observed that the Zulus conceive of the thunder-clouds and +lightning as actual creatures, capable of being herded like sheep. There +is no metaphor or allegory about the matter,(3) and no forgetfulness of +the original meaning of words. The cloud-herd is just like the cowherd, +except that not every man, but only sorcerers, and they who have eaten +the "lightning-bird" (a bird shot near the place where lightning has +struck the earth), can herd the clouds of heaven. The same ideas prevail +among the Bushmen, where the rainmaker is asked "to milk a nice gentle +female rain"; the rain-clouds are her hair. Among the Bushmen Rain is a +person. Among the Red Indians no metaphor seems to be intended when it +is said that "it is always birds who make the wind, except that of the +east". The Dacotahs once killed a thunder-bird(4) behind Little Crow's +village on the Missouri. It had a face like a man with a nose like an +eagle's bill.(5) + + +(1) Callaway, p. 340. + +(2) Callaway, Religions System of the Amazules, p. 343. + +(3) Ibid., p. 385. + +(4) Schoolcraft, iii. 486. + +(5) Compare Callaway, p. 119. + + +The political and social powers which come into the hands of the +sorcerers are manifest, even in the case of the Australians. Tribes and +individuals can attempt few enterprises without the aid of the man who +listens to the ghosts. Only he can foretell the future, and, in the case +of the natural death of a member of the tribe, can direct the vengeance +of the survivors against the hostile magician who has committed a murder +by "bar" or magic. Among the Zulus we have seen that sorcery gives the +sanction to the power of the chief. "The winds and weather are at the +command" of Bosman's "great fetisher". Inland from the Gold Coast,(1) +the king of Loango, according to the Abbe Proyart, "has credit to make +rain fall on earth". Similar beliefs, with like political results, will +be found to follow from the superstition of magic among the Red Indians +of North America. The difficulty of writing about sorcerers among the +Red Indians is caused by the abundance of the evidence. Charlevoix +and the other early Jesuit missionaries found that the jongleurs, +as Charlevoix calls the Jossakeeds or medicine-men, were their chief +opponents. As among the Scotch Highlanders, the Australians and the +Zulus, the Red Indian jongleur is visited by the spirits. He covers +a hut with the skin of the animal which he commonly wears, retires +thither, and there converses with the bodiless beings.(2) The good +missionary like Mr. Moffat in Africa, was convinced that the exercises +of the Jossakeeds were verily supernatural. "Ces seducteurs ont un +veritable commerce avec le pere du mensonge."(3) This was denied +by earlier and wiser Jesuit missionaries. Their political power was +naturally great. In time of war "ils avancent et retardent les marches +comme il leur plait". In our own century it was a medicine-man, Ten Squa +Ta Way, who by his magical processes and superstitious rites stirred up +a formidable war against the United States.(4) According to Mr. Pond,(5) +the native name of the Dacotah medicine-men, "Wakan," signifies "men +supernaturally gifted". Medicine-men are believed to be "wakanised" +by mystic intercourse with supernatural beings. The business of the +wakanised man is to discern future events, to lead and direct parties on +the war-trail, "to raise the storm or calm the tempest, to converse with +the lightning or thunder as with familiar friends".(6) The wakanised +man, like the Australian Birraark and the Zulu diviner, "dictates chants +and prayers". In battle "every Dacotah warrior looks to the Wakan man +as almost his only resource". Belief in Wakan men is, Mr. Pond says, +universal among the Dacotahs, except where Christianity has undermined +it. "Their influence is deeply felt by every individual of the tribe, +and controls all their affairs." The Wakan man's functions are absorbed +by the general or war-chief of the tribe, and in Schoolcraft (iv. 495), +Captain Eastman prints copies of native scrolls showing the war-chief +at work as a wizard. "The war-chief who leads the party to war is always +one of these medicine-men." In another passage the medicine-men are +described as "having a voice in the sale of land". It must be observed +that the Jossakeed, or medicine-man, pure and simple, exercises a power +which is not in itself hereditary. Chieftainship, when associated with +inheritance of property, is hereditary; and when the chief, as among the +Zulus, absorbs supernatural power, then the same man becomes diviner +and chief, and is a person of great and sacred influence. The liveliest +account of the performances of the Maori "tohunga" or sorcerer is to be +found in Old New Zealand,(7) by the Pakeha Maori, an English gentleman +who had lived with the natives like one of themselves. The tohunga, says +this author,(8) presided over "all those services and customs which had +something approaching to a religious character. They also pretended to +power by means of certain familiar spirits, to foretell future events, +and even in some cases to control them.... The spirit 'entered into' +them, and, on being questioned, gave a response in a sort of half +whistling, half-articulate voice, supposed to be the proper language +of spirits." In New South Wales, Mrs. Langlot Parker has witnessed +a similar exhibition. The "spirits" told the truth in this case. The +Pakeha Maori was present in a darkened village-hall when the spirit of +a young man, a great friend of his own, was called up by a tohunga. +"Suddenly, without the slightest warning, a voice came out of the +darkness.... The voice all through, it is to be remembered, was not the +voice of the tohunga, but a strange melancholy sound, like the sound of +a wind blowing into a hollow vessel. 'It is well with me; my place is a +good place.' The spirit gave an answer to a question which proved to +be correct, and then 'Farewell,' cried the spirit FROM DEEP BENEATH THE +GROUND. 'Farewell,' again, FROM HIGH IN AIR. 'Farewell,' once more came +moaning through the distant darkness of the night." As chiefs in New +Zealand no less than tohungas can exercise the mystical and magical +power of tabu, that is, of imparting to any object or person an +inviolable character, and can prevent or remit the mysterious punishment +for infringement of tabu, it appears probable that in New Zealand, +as well as among the Zulus and Red Indians, chiefs have a tendency to +absorb the sacred character and powers of the tohungas. This is natural +enough, for a tohunga, if he plays his cards well, is sure to acquire +property and hereditary wealth, which, in combination with magical +influence, are the necessary qualifications for the office of the +chieftain. + + +(1) Pinkerton, xvi. 401. + +(2) Charlevoix, i. 105. See "Savage Spiritualism" in Cock Lane and +Common Sense. + +(3) Ibid., iii. 362. + +(4) Catlin, ii. 17. + +(5) In Schoolcraft, iv. 402. + +(6) Pond, in Schoolcraft, iv. 647. + +(7) Auckland, 1863. + +(8) Page 148. + + +Here is the place to mention a fact which, though at first sight it may +appear to have only a social interest, yet bears on the development of +mythology. Property and rank seem to have been essential to each other +in the making of social rank, and where one is absent among contemporary +savages, there we do not find the other. As an example of this, we might +take the case of two peoples who, like the Homeric Ethiopians, are the +outermost of men, and dwell far apart at the ends of the world. The +Eskimos and the Fuegians, at the extreme north and south of the American +continent, agree in having little or no private property and no chiefs. +Yet magic is providing a kind of basis of rank. The bleak plains of ice +and rock are, like Attica, "the mother of men without master or lord". +Among the "house-mates" of the smaller settlements there is no head-man, +and in the larger gatherings Dr. Rink says that "still less than among +the house-mates was any one belonging to such a place to be considered +a chief". The songs and stories of the Eskimo contain the praises of men +who have risen up and killed any usurper who tried to be a ruler over +his "place-mates". No one could possibly establish any authority on +the basis of property, because "superfluous property, implements, etc., +rarely existed". If there are three boats in one household, one of the +boats is "borrowed" by the community, and reverts to the general fund. +If we look at the account of the Fuegians described in Admiral Fitzroy's +cruise, we find a similar absence of rank produced by similar causes. +"The perfect equality among the individuals composing the tribes must +for a long time retard their civilisation.... At present even a piece of +cloth is torn in shreds and distributed, and no one individual becomes +richer than another. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand +how a chief can arise till there is property of some sort by which he +might manifest and still increase his authority." In the same book, +however, we get a glimpse of one means by which authority can be +exercised. "The doctor-wizard of each party has much influence over his +companions." Among the Eskimos this element in the growth of authority +also exists. A class of wizards called Angakut have power to cause fine +weather, and, by the gift of second-sight and magical practices, +can detect crimes, so that they necessarily become a kind of civil +magistrates. These Angekkok or Angakut have familiar spirits called +Torngak, a word connected with the name of their chief spiritual being, +Torngarsak. The Torngak is commonly the ghost of a deceased parent of +the sorcerer. "These men," says Egede, "are held in great honour and +esteem among this stupid and ignorant nation, insomuch that nobody dare +ever refuse the strictest obedience when they command him in the name of +Torngarsak." The importance and actual existence of belief in magic +has thus been attested by the evidence of institutions, even among +Australians, Fuegians and Eskimos. + +It is now necessary to pass from examples of tribes who have +superstitious respect for certain individuals, but who have no property +and no chiefs, to peoples who exhibit the phenomenon of superstitious +reverence attached to wealthy rulers or to judges. To take the example +of Ireland, as described in the Senchus Mor, we learn that the chiefs, +just like the Angakut of the Eskimos, had "power to make fair or foul +weather" in the literal sense of the words.(1) In Africa, in the same +way, as Bosman, the old traveller, says, "As to what difference there +is between one negro and another, the richest man is the most honoured," +yet the most honoured man has the same magical power as the poor +Angakuts of the Eskimos. + + +(1) Early History of Institutions, p. 195. + + +"In the Solomon Islands," says Dr. Codrington, "there is nothing to +prevent a common man from becoming a chief, if he can show that he has +the mana (supernatural power) for it."(1) + + +(1) Journ. Anth. Inst., x. iii. 287, 300, 309. + + +Though it is anticipating a later stage of this inquiry, we must here +observe that the sacredness, and even the magical virtues of barbarous +chiefs seem to have descended to the early leaders of European races. +The children of Odin and of Zeus were "sacred kings". The Homeric +chiefs, like those of the Zulus and the Red Men, and of the early Irish +and Swedes, exercised an influence over the physical universe. Homer(1) +speaks of "a blameless king, one that fears the gods, and reigns among +many men and mighty, and the black earth bears wheat and barley, and the +sheep bring forth and fail not, and the sea gives store of fish, and all +out of his good sovereignty". + + +(1) Od., xix. 109. + + +The attributes usually assigned by barbarous peoples to their +medicine-men have not yet been exhausted. We have found that they can +foresee and declare the future; that they control the weather and the +sensible world; that they can converse with, visit and employ about +their own business the souls of the dead. It would be easy to show at +even greater length that the medicine-man has everywhere the power of +metamorphosis. He can assume the shapes of all beasts, birds, fishes, +insects and inorganic matters, and he can subdue other people to the +same enchantment. This belief obviously rests on the lack of recognised +distinction between man and the rest of the world, which we have so +frequently insisted on as a characteristic of savage and barbarous +thought. Examples of accredited metamorphosis are so common everywhere, +and so well known, that it would be waste of space to give a long +account of them. In Primitive Culture(1) a cloud of witnesses to the +belief in human tigers, hyaenas, leopards and wolves is collected.(2) +Mr. Lane(3) found metamorphosis by wizards as accredited a working +belief at Cairo as it is among Abipones, Eskimo, or the people of +Ashangoland. In various parts of Scotland there is a tale of a witch who +was shot at when in the guise of a hare. In this shape she was +wounded, and the same wound was found on her when she resumed her human +appearance. Lafitau, early in the last century, found precisely the +same tale, except that the wizards took the form of birds, not of hares, +among the Red Indians. The birds were wounded by the magical arrows of +an old medicine-man, Shonnoh Koui Eretsi, and these bolts were found +in the bodies of the human culprits. In Japan, as we learn from several +stories in Mr. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, people chiefly metamorphose +themselves into foxes and badgers. The sorcerers of Honduras(4) "possess +the power of transforming men into wild beasts, and were much feared +accordingly". Among the Cakchiquels, a cultivated people of Guatemala, +the very name of the clergy, haleb, was derived from their power of +assuming animal shapes, which they took on as easily as the Homeric +gods.(5) Regnard, the French dramatist, who travelled among the Lapps at +the end of the seventeenth century (1681), says: "They believe witches +can turn men into cats;" and again, "Under the figures of swans, crows, +falcons and geese, they call up tempests and destroy ships".(6) Among +the Bushmen "sorcerers assume the forms of beasts and jackals".(7) +Dobrizhoffer (1717-91), a missionary in Paraguay, found that "sorcerers +arrogate to themselves the power of transforming themselves into +tigers".(8) He was present when the Abipones believed that a conversion +of this sort was actually taking place: "Alas," cried the people, "his +whole body is beginning to be covered with tiger-spots; his nails are +growing". Near Loanda, Livingstone found that a "chief may metamorphose +himself into a lion, kill any one he choses, and then resume his proper +form".(9) Among the Barotse and Balonda, "while persons are still +alive they may enter into lions and alligators".(10) Among the Mayas of +Central America "sorcerers could transform themselves into dogs, +pigs and other animals; their glance was death to a victim".(11) The +Thlinkeets think that their Shamans can metamorphose themselves into +animals at pleasure; and a very old raven was pointed out to Mr. C. E. +S. Wood as an incarnation of the soul of a Shaman.(12) Sir A. C. Lyall +finds a similar belief in flourishing existence in India. The European +superstition of the were-wolf is too well known to need description. +Perhaps the most curious legend is that told by Giraldus Cambrensis +about a man and his wife metamorphosed into wolves by an abbot. They +retained human speech, made exemplary professions of Christian faith, +and sent for priests when they found their last hours approaching. In an +old Norman ballad a girl is transformed into a white doe, and hunted and +slain by her brother's hounds. The "aboriginal" peoples of India retain +similar convictions. Among the Hos,(13) an old sorcerer called Pusa +was known to turn himself habitually into a tiger, and to eat his +neighbour's goats, and even their wives. Examples of the power of +sorcerers to turn, as with the Gorgon's head, their enemies into stone, +are peculiarly common in America.(14) Hearne found that the Indians +believed they descended from a dog, who could turn himself into a +handsome young man.(15) + + +(1) Vol. i. pp. 309-315. + +(2) See also M'Lennan on Lykanthropy in Encyclopedia Britannica. + +(3) Arabian Nights, i. 51. + +(4) Bancroft, Races of Pacific Coast, i. 740. + +(5) Brinton, Annals of the Cakchiquels, p. 46. + +(6) Pinkerton, i. 471. + +(7) Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Folk-Lore, pp. 15, 40. + +(8) English translation of Dobrizhoffer's Abipones, i. 163. + +(9) Missionary Travels, p. 615. + +(10) Livingstone, p. 642. + +(11) Bancroft, ii. + +(12) Century Magazine, July, 1882. + +(13) Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal, p. 200. + +(14) Dorman, pp. 130, 134; Report of Ethnological Bureau, Washington, +1880-81. + +(15) A Journey, etc., p. 342. + + +Let us recapitulate the powers attributed all over the world, by the +lower people, to medicine-men. The medicine-man has all miracles at his +command. He rules the sky, he flies into the air, he becomes visible +or invisible at will, he can take or confer any form at pleasure, and +resume his human shape. He can control spirits, can converse with the +dead, and can descend to their abodes. + +When we begin to examine the gods of MYTHOLOGY, savage or civilised, as +distinct from deities contemplated, in devotion, as moral and creative +guardians of ethics, we shall find that, with the general, though +not invariable addition of immortality, they possess the very same +accomplishments as the medicine-man, peay, tohunga, jossakeed, birraark, +or whatever name for sorcerer we may choose. Among the Greeks, Zeus, +mythically envisaged, enjoys in heaven all the attributes of the +medicine-man; among the Iroquois, as Pere le Jeune, the old Jesuit +missionary, observed,(1) the medicine-man enjoys on earth all the +attributes of Zeus. Briefly, the miraculous and supernatural +endowments of the gods of MYTH, whether these gods be zoomorphic or +anthropomorphic, are exactly the magical properties with which the +medicine-man is credited by his tribe. It does not at all follow, as +Euemerus and Mr. Herbert Spencer might argue, that the god was once a +real living medicine-man. But myth-making man confers on the deities of +myth the magical powers which he claims for himself. + + +(1) Relations (1636), p. 114. + + + +CHAPTER V. NATURE MYTHS. + + +Savage fancy, curiosity and credulity illustrated in nature myths--In +these all phenomena are explained by belief in the general animation +of everything, combined with belief in metamorphosis--Sun myths, Asian, +Australian, African, Melanesian, Indian, Californian, Brazilian, +Maori, Samoan--Moon myths, Australian, Muysca, Mexican, Zulu, Macassar, +Greenland, Piute, Malay--Thunder myths--Greek and Aryan sun and moon +myths--Star myths--Myths, savage and civilised, of animals, accounting +for their marks and habits--Examples of custom of claiming blood kinship +with lower animals--Myths of various plants and trees--Myths of stones, +and of metamorphosis into stones, Greek, Australian and American--The +whole natural philosophy of savages expressed in myths, and survives in +folk-lore and classical poetry; and legends of metamorphosis. + + +The intellectual condition of savages which has been presented and +established by the evidence both of observers and of institutions, may +now be studied in savage myths. These myths, indeed, would of themselves +demonstrate that the ideas which the lower races entertain about the +world correspond with our statement. If any one were to ask himself, +from what mental conditions do the following savage stories arise? he +would naturally answer that the minds which conceived the tales were +curious, indolent, credulous of magic and witchcraft, capable of drawing +no line between things and persons, capable of crediting all things +with human passions and resolutions. But, as myths analogous to those +of savages, when found among civilised peoples, have been ascribed to a +psychological condition produced by a disease of language acting after +civilisation had made considerable advances, we cannot take the savage +myths as proof of what savages think, believe and practice in the course +of daily life. To do so would be, perhaps, to argue in a circle. We must +therefore study the myths of the undeveloped races in themselves. + +These myths form a composite whole, so complex and so nebulous that it +is hard indeed to array them in classes and categories. For example, +if we look at myths concerning the origin of various phenomena, we find +that some introduce the action of gods or extra-natural beings, while +others rest on a rude theory of capricious evolution; others, again, +invoke the aid of the magic of mortals, and most regard the great +natural forces, the heavenly bodies, and the animals, as so many +personal characters capable of voluntarily modifying themselves or of +being modified by the most trivial accidents. Some sort of arrangement, +however, must be attempted, only the student is to understand that the +lines are never drawn with definite fixity, that any category may glide +into any other category of myth. + +We shall begin by considering some nature myths--myths, that is to say, +which explain the facts of the visible universe. These range from tales +about heaven, day, night, the sun and the stars, to tales accounting +for the red breast of the ousel, the habits of the quail, the spots and +stripes of wild beasts, the formation of rocks and stones, the foliage +of trees, the shapes of plants. In a sense these myths are the science +of savages; in a sense they are their sacred history; in a sense they +are their fiction and romance. Beginning with the sun, we find, as Mr. +Tylor says, that "in early philosophy throughout the world the sun and +moon are alive, and, as it were, human in their nature".(1) The mass of +these solar myths is so enormous that only a few examples can be given, +chosen almost at random out of the heap. The sun is regarded as a +personal being, capable not only of being affected by charms and +incantations, but of being trapped and beaten, of appearing on earth, of +taking a wife of the daughters of men. Garcilasso de la Vega has a +story of an Inca prince, a speculative thinker, who was puzzled by the +sun-worship of his ancestors. If the sun be thus all-powerful, the Inca +inquired, why is he plainly subject to laws? why does he go his daily +round, instead of wandering at large up and down the fields of heaven? +The prince concluded that there was a will superior to the sun's will, +and he raised a temple to the Unknown Power. Now the phenomena which +put the Inca on the path of monotheistic religion, a path already +traditional, according to Garcilasso, have also struck the fancy of +savages. Why, they ask, does the sun run his course like a tamed beast? +A reply suited to a mind which holds that all things are personal is +given in myths. Some one caught and tamed the sun by physical force or +by art magic. + + +(1) Primitive Culture, i. 288. + + +In Australia the myth says that there was a time when the sun did not +set. "It was at all times day, and the blacks grew weary." Norralie +considered and decided that the sun should disappear at intervals. He +addressed the sun in an incantation (couched like the Finnish Kalewala +in the metre of Longfellow's Hiawatha); and the incantation is thus +interpreted: "Sun, sun, burn your wood, burn your internal substance, +and go down". The sun therefore now burns out his fuel in a day, and +goes below for fresh firewood.(1) + + +(1) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 430. + + +In New Zealand the taming of the sun is attributed to the great hero +Maui, the Prometheus of the Maoris. He set snares to catch the sun, +but in vain, for the sun's rays bit them through. According to another +account, while Norralie wished to hasten the sun's setting, Maui wanted +to delay it, for the sun used to speed through the heavens at a racing +pace. Maui therefore snared the sun, and beat him so unmercifully that +he has been lame ever since, and travels slowly, giving longer days. +"The sun, when beaten, cried out and revealed his second great name, +Taura-mis-te-ra."(1) It will be remembered that Indra, in his abject +terror when he fled after the slaying of Vrittra, also revealed his +mystic name. In North America the same story of the trapping and laming +of the sun is told, and attributed to a hero named Tcha-ka-betch. In +Samoa the sun had a child by a Samoan woman. He trapped the sun with a +rope made of a vine and extorted presents. Another Samoan lassoed +the sun and made him promise to move more slowly.(2) These Samoan and +Australian fancies are nearly as dignified as the tale in the Aitareya +Brahmana. The gods, afraid "that the sun would fall out of heaven, +pulled him up and tied him with five ropes". These ropes are recognised +as verses in the ritual, but probably the ritual is later than the +ropes. In Mexico we find that the sun himself (like the stars in most +myths) was once a human or pre-human devotee, Nanahuatzin, who leapt +into a fire to propitiate the gods.(3) Translated to heaven as the sun, +Nanahuatzin burned so very fiercely that he threatened to reduce +the world to a cinder. Arrows were therefore shot at him, and this +punishment had as happy an effect as the beatings administered by Maui +and Tcha-ka-betch. Among the Bushmen of South Africa the sun was once a +man, from whose armpit a limited amount of light was radiated round his +hut. Some children threw him up into the sky, and there he stuck, and +there he shines.(4) In the Homeric hymn to Helios, as Mr. Max Muller +observes, "the poet looks on Helios as a half god, almost a hero, who +had once lived on earth," which is precisely the view of the Bushmen.(5) +Among the Aztecs the sun is said to have been attacked by a hunter +and grievously wounded by his arrows.(6) The Gallinomeros, in Central +California, seem at least to know that the sun is material and +impersonal. They say that when all was dark in the beginning, the +animals were constantly jostling each other. After a painful encounter, +the hawk and the coyote collected two balls of inflammable substance; +the hawk (Indra was occasionally a hawk) flew up with them into heaven, +and lighted them with sparks from a flint. There they gave light as sun +and moon. This is an exception to the general rule that the heavenly +bodies are regarded as persons. The Melanesian tale of the bringing +of night is a curious contrast to the Mexican, Maori, Australian and +American Indian stories which we have quoted. In Melanesia, as in +Australia, the days were long, indeed endless, and people grew tired; +but instead of sending the sun down below by an incantation when night +would follow in course of nature, the Melanesian hero went to Night +(conceived of as a person) and begged his assistance. Night (Qong) +received Qat (the hero) kindly, darkened his eyes, gave him sleep, +and, in twelve hours or so, crept up from the horizon and sent the sun +crawling to the west.(7) In the same spirit Paracelsus is said to have +attributed night, not to the absence of the sun, but to the apparition +of certain stars which radiate darkness. It is extraordinary that a myth +like the Melanesian should occur in Brazil. There was endless day till +some one married a girl whose father "the great serpent," was the owner +of night. The father sent night bottled up in a gourd. The gourd was not +to be uncorked till the messengers reached the bride, but they, in their +curiosity, opened the gourd, and let night out prematurely.(8) + + +(1) Taylor, New Zealand, p. 131. + +(2) Turner, Samoa, p. 20. + +(3) Sahagun, French trans., vii. ii. + +(4) Bleck, Hottentot Fables, p. 67; Bushman Folk-Lore, pp. 9, 11. + +(5) Compare a Californian solar myth: Bancroft, iii. pp. 85, 86. + +(6) Bancroft, iii. 73, quoting Burgoa, i. 128, 196. + +(7) Codrington, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., February, 1881. + +(8) Contes Indiens du Bresil, pp. 1-9, by Couto de Magalhaes. Rio de +Janeiro, 1883. M. Henri Gaidoz kindly presented the author with this +work. + + +The myths which have been reported deal mainly with the sun as a person +who shines, and at fixed intervals disappears. His relations with the +moon are much more complicated, and are the subject of endless stories, +all explaining in a romantic fashion why the moon waxes and wanes, +whence come her spots, why she is eclipsed, all starting from the +premise that sun and moon are persons with human parts and passions. +Sometimes the moon is a man, sometimes a woman and the sex of the sun +varies according to the fancy of the narrators. Different tribes of the +same race, as among the Australians, have different views of the sex of +moon and sun. Among the aborigines of Victoria, the moon, like the sun +among the Bushmen, was a black fellow before he went up into the sky. +After an unusually savage career, he was killed with a stone hatchet +by the wives of the eagle, and now he shines in the heavens.(1) Another +myth explanatory of the moon's phases was found by Mr. Meyer in 1846 +among the natives of Encounter Bay. According to them the moon is a +woman, and a bad woman to boot. She lives a life of dissipation among +men, which makes her consumptive, and she wastes away till they drive +her from their company. While she is in retreat, she lives on nourishing +roots, becomes quite plump, resumes her gay career, and again wastes +away. The same tribe, strangely enough, think that the sun also is a +woman. Every night she descends among the dead, who stand in double +lines to greet her and let her pass. She has a lover among the dead, who +has presented her with a red kangaroo skin, and in this she appears at +her rising. Such is the view of rosy-fingered Dawn entertained by the +blacks of Encounter Bay. In South America, among the Muyscas of Bogota, +the moon, Huythaca, is the malevolent wife of the child of the sun; she +was a woman before her husband banished her to the fields of space.(2) +The moon is a man among the Khasias of the Himalaya, and he was guilty +of the unpardonable offence of admiring his mother-in-law. As a general +rule, the mother-in-law is not even to be spoken to by the savage +son-in-law. The lady threw ashes in his face to discourage his passion, +hence the moon's spots. The waning of the moon suggested the most +beautiful and best known of savage myths, that in which the moon sends +a beast to tell mortals that, though they die like her, like her they +shall be born again.(3) Because the spots in the moon were thought to +resemble a hare they were accounted for in Mexico by the hypothesis +that a god smote the moon in the face with a rabbit;(4) in Zululand and +Thibet by a fancied translation of a good or bad hare to the moon. + + +(1) Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 432. + +(2) Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 353. + +(3) Bleek, Reynard in South Africa, pp. 69-74. + +(4) Sahagun, viii. 2. + + +The Eskimos have a peculiar myth to account for the moon's spots. Sun +and moon were human brother and sister. In the darkness the moon once +attempted the virtue of the sun. She smeared his face over with ashes, +that she might detect him when a light was brought. She did discover who +her assailant had been, fled to the sky, and became the sun. The moon +still pursues her, and his face is still blackened with the marks of +ashes.(1) Gervaise(2) says that in Macassar the moon was held to be with +child by the sun, and that when he pursued her and wished to beat her, +she was delivered of the earth. They are now reconciled. About the +alternate appearance of sun and moon a beautifully complete and adequate +tale is told by the Piute Indians of California. No more adequate +and scientific explanation could possibly be offered, granting the +hypothesis that sun and moon are human persons and savage persons. The +myth is printed as it was taken down by Mr. De Quille from the lips of +Tooroop Eenah (Desert Father), a chief of the Piutes, and published in a +San Francisco newspaper. + + +(1) Crantz's History of Greenland, i. 212. + +(2) Royaume de Macacar, 1688. + + +"The sun is the father and ruler of the heavens. He is the big chief. +The moon is his wife and the stars are their children. The sun eats his +children whenever he can catch them. They flee before him, and are all +the time afraid when he is passing through the heavens. When he (their +father) appears in the morning, you see all the stars, his children, fly +out of sight--go away back into the blue of the above--and they do not +wake to be seen again until he, their father, is about going to his bed. + +"Down deep under the ground--deep, deep, under all the ground--is a +great hole. At night, when he has passed over the world, looked down on +everything and finished his work, he, the sun, goes into his hole, and +he crawls and creeps along it till he comes to his bed in the middle +part of the earth. So then he, the sun, sleeps there in his bed all +night. + +"This hole is so little, and he, the sun, is so big, that he cannot +turn round in it; and so he must, when he has had all his sleep, pass +on through, and in the morning we see him come out in the east. When he, +the sun, has so come out, he begins to hunt up through the sky to catch +and eat any that he can of the stars, his children, for if he does not +so catch and eat he cannot live. He, the sun, is not all seen. The shape +of him is like a snake or a lizard. It is not his head that we can see, +but his belly, filled up with the stars that times and times he has +swallowed. + +"The moon is the mother of the heavens and is the wife of the sun. She, +the moon, goes into the same hole as her husband to sleep her naps. But +always she has great fear of the sun, her husband, and when he comes +through the hole to the nobee (tent) deep in the ground to sleep, she +gets out and comes away if he be cross. + +"She, the moon, has great love for her children, the stars, and is happy +to travel among them in the above; and they, her children, feel safe, +and sing and dance as she passes along. But the mother, she cannot help +that some of her children must be swallowed by the father every month. +It is ordered that way by the Pah-ah (Great Spirit), who lives above the +place of all. + +"Every month that father, the sun, does swallow some of the stars, his +children, and then that mother, the moon, feels sorrow. She must mourn; +so she must put the black on her face for to mourn the dead. You see the +Piute women put black on their faces when a child is gone. But the dark +will wear away from the face of that mother, the moon, a little and a +little every day, and after a time again we see all bright the face of +her. But soon more of her children are gone, and again she must put on +her face the pitch and the black." + +Here all the phenomena are accounted for, and the explanation is as +advanced as the Egyptian doctrine of the hole under the earth where the +sun goes when he passes from our view. And still the Great Spirit is +over all: Religion comes athwart Myth. + +Mr. Tylor quotes(1) a nature myth about sun, moon and stars which +remarkably corresponds to the speculation of the Piutes. The Mintira of +the Malayan Peninsula say that both sun and moon are women. The stars +are the moon's children; once the sun had as many. They each agreed +(like the women of Jerusalem in the famine), to eat their own children; +but the sun swallowed her whole family, while the moon concealed hers. +When the sun saw this she was exceedingly angry, and pursued the moon to +kill her. Occasionally she gets a bite out of the moon, and that is an +eclipse. The Hos of North-East India tell the same tale, but say +that the sun cleft the moon in twain for her treachery, and that she +continues to be cut in two and grow again every month. With these sun +and moon legends sometimes coexists the RELIGIOUS belief in a Creator of +these and of all things. + + +(1) Primitive Culture, i. 356. + + +In harmony with the general hypothesis that all objects in nature +are personal, and human or bestial, in real shape, and in passion +and habits, are the myths which account for eclipses. These have so +frequently been published and commented on(1) that a long statement +would be tedious and superfluous. To the savage mind, and even to the +Chinese and the peasants of some European countries, the need of an +explanation is satisfied by the myth that an evil beast is devouring the +sun or the moon. The people even try by firing off guns, shrieking, and +clashing cymbals, to frighten the beast (wolf, pig, dragon, or what not) +from his prey. What the hungry monster in the sky is doing when he is +not biting the sun or moon we are not informed. Probably he herds with +the big bird whose wings, among the Dacotahs of America and the Zulus +of Africa, make thunder; or he may associate with the dragons, serpents, +cows and other aerial cattle which supply the rain, and show themselves +in the waterspout. Chinese, Greenland, Hindoo, Finnish, Lithunian and +Moorish examples of the myth about the moon-devouring beasts are vouched +for by Grimm.(2) A Mongolian legend has it that the gods wished to +punish the maleficent Arakho for his misdeeds, but Arakho hid so +cleverly that their limited omnipotence could not find him. The sun, +when asked to turn spy, gave an evasive answer. The moon told the truth. +Arakho was punished, and ever since he chases sun and moon. When he +nearly catches either of them, there is an eclipse, and the people +try to drive him off by making a hideous uproar with musical and other +instruments.(3) Captain Beeckman in 1704 was in Borneo, when the natives +declared that the devil "was eating the moon". + + +(1) Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i.; Lefebure, Les Yeux d'Horus. + +(2) Teutonic Mythology, English trans., ii. 706. + +(3) Moon-Lore by Rev. T. Harley, p. 167. + + +Dr. Brinton in his Myths and Myth-Makers gives examples from Peruvians, +Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois and Algonkins. It would be easy, and is perhaps +superfluous, to go on multiplying proofs of the belief that sun and moon +are, or have been, persons. In the Hervey Isles these two luminaries are +thought to have been made out of the body of a child cut in twain by his +parents. The blood escaped from the half which is the moon, hence her +pallor.(1) This tale is an exception to the general rule, but reminds us +of the many myths which represent the things in the world as having +been made out of a mutilated man, like the Vedic Purusha. It is hardly +necessary, except by way of record, to point out that the Greek myths +of sun and moon, like the myths of savages, start from the conception +of the solar and lunar bodies as persons with parts and passions, human +loves and human sorrows. As in the Mongolian myth of Arakho, the sun +"sees all and hears all," and, less honourable than the Mongolian sun, +he plays the spy for Hephaestus on the loves of Ares and Aphrodite. He +has mistresses and human children, such as Circe and Aeetes.(2) + + +(1) Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 45. + +(2) See chapter on Greek Divine Myths. + + +The sun is all-seeing and all-penetrating. In a Greek song of to-day a +mother sends a message to an absent daughter by the sun; it is but +an unconscious repetition of the request of the dying Ajax that the +heavenly body will tell his fate to his old father and his sorrowing +spouse.(1) + + +(1) Sophocles, Ajax, 846. + + +Selene, the moon, like Helios, the sun, was a person, and amorous. +Beloved by Zeus, she gave birth to Pandia, and Pan gained her affection +by the simple rustic gift of a fleece.(1) The Australian Dawn, with her +present of a red kangaroo skin, was not more lightly won than the chaste +Selene. Her affection for Endymion is well known, and her cold white +glance shines through the crevices of his mountain grave, hewn in a +rocky wall, like the tombs of Phrygia.(2) She is the sister of the sun +in Hesiod, the daughter (by his sister) of Hyperion in the Homeric hymns +to Helios. + + +(1) Virgil, Georgics, iii. 391. + +(2) Preller, Griech. Myth., i. 163. + + +In Greece the aspects of sun and moon take the most ideal human forms, +and show themselves in the most gracious myths. But, after all, these +retain in their anthropomorphism the marks of the earliest fancy, the +fancy of Eskimos and Australians. It seems to be commonly thought that +the existence of solar myths is denied by anthropologists. This is a +vulgar error. There is an enormous mass of solar myths, but they are not +caused by "a disease of language," and--all myths are not solar! + +There is no occasion to dwell long on myths of the same character in +which the stars are accounted for as transformed human adventurers. +It has often been shown that this opinion is practically of world-wide +distribution.(1) We find it in Australia, Persia, Greece, among the +Bushmen, in North and South America, among the Eskimos, in ancient +Egypt, in New Zealand, in ancient India--briefly, wherever we look. The +Sanskrit forms of these myths have been said to arise from confusion +as to the meaning of words. But is it credible that, in all languages, +however different, the same kind of unconscious puns should have led to +the same mistaken beliefs? As the savage, barbarous and Greek star-myths +(such as that of Callisto, first changed into a bear and then into a +constellation) are familiar to most readers, a few examples of Sanskrit +star-stories are offered here from the Satapatha Brahmana.(2) Fires are +not, according to the Brahmana ritual, to be lighted under the stars +called Krittikas, the Pleiades. The reason is that the stars were the +wives of the bears (Riksha), for the group known in Brahmanic times as +the Rishis (sages) were originally called the Rikshas (bears). But the +wives of the bears were excluded from the society of their husbands, for +the bears rise in the north and their wives in the east. Therefore +the worshipper should not set up his fires under the Pleiades, lest +he should thereby be separated from the company of his wife. The +Brahmanas(3) also tell us that Prajapati had an unholy passion for his +daughter, who was in the form of a doe. The gods made Rudra fire an +arrow at Prajapati to punish him; he was wounded, and leaped into the +sky, where he became one constellation and his daughter another, and the +arrow a third group of stars. In general, according to the Brahmanas, +"the stars are the lights of virtuous men who go to the heavenly +world".(4) + + +(1) Custom and Myth, "Star-Myths"; Primitive Culture, i. 288, 291; J. G. +Muller, Amerikanischen Urreligionen, pp. 52, 53. + +(2) Sacred Books of the East, i. 283-286. + +(3) Aitareya Bramana, iii. 33. + +(4) Satapatha Brahmana, vi. 5, 4, 8. For Greek examples, Hesiod, +Ovid, and the Catasterismoi, attributed to Eratosthenes, are useful +authorities. Probably many of the tales in Eratosthenes are late +fictions consciously moulded on traditional data. + + +Passing from savage myths explanatory of the nature of celestial bodies +to myths accounting for the formation and colour and habits of beasts, +birds and fishes, we find ourselves, as an old Jesuit missionary says, +in the midst of a barbarous version of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It has been +shown that the possibility of interchange of form between man and beast +is part of the working belief of everyday existence among the lower +peoples. They regard all things as on one level, or, to use an old +political phrase, they "level up" everything to equality with the human +status. Thus Mr. Im Thurn, a very good observer, found that to the +Indians of Guiana "all objects, animate or inaminate, seem exactly +of the same nature, except that they differ by the accident of bodily +form". Clearly to grasp this entirely natural conception of primitive +man, the civilised student must make a great effort to forget for a time +all that science has taught him of the differences between the objects +which fill the world.(1) "To the ear of the savage, animals certainly +seem to talk." "As far as the Indians of Guiana are concerned, I do not +believe that they distinguish such beings as sun and moon, or such other +natural phenomena as winds and storms, from men and other animals, +from plants and other inanimate objects, or from any other objects +whatsoever." Bancroft says about North American myths, "Beasts and birds +and fishes fetch and carry, talk and act, in a way that leaves even +Aesop's heroes quite in the shade".(2) + + +(1) Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xi. 366-369. A very large and rich collection +of testimonies as to metamorphosis will be found in J. G. Muller's +Amerikanischen Urreligionen, p. 62 et seq.; while, for European +superstitions, Bodin on La Demonomanie des Sorciers, Lyon, 1598, may be +consulted. + +(2) Vol. iii. p. 127. + + +The savage tendency is to see in inanimate things animals, and in +animals disguised men. M. Reville quotes in his Religions des Peuples +Non-Civilise's, i. 64, the story of some Negroes, who, the first time +they were shown a cornemuse, took the instrument for a beast, the two +holes for its eyes. The Highlander who looted a watch at Prestonpans, +and observing, "She's teed," sold it cheap when it ran down, was in the +same psychological condition. A queer bit of savage science is displayed +on a black stone tobacco-pipe from the Pacific Coast.(1) The savage +artist has carved the pipe in the likeness of a steamer, as a steamer is +conceived by him. "Unable to account for the motive power, he imagines +the paddle to be linked round the tongue of a coiled serpent, fastened +to the tail of the vessel," and so he represents it on the black stone +pipe. Nay, a savage's belief that beasts are on his own level is so +literal, that he actually makes blood-covenants with the lower animals, +as he does with men, mingling his gore with theirs, or smearing both +together on a stone;(2) while to bury dead animals with sacred rites is +as usual among the Bedouins and Malagasies to-day as in ancient Egypt +or Attica. In the same way the Ainos of Japan, who regard the bear as a +kinsman, sacrifice a bear once a year. But, to propitiate the animal and +his connections, they appoint him a "mother," an Aino girl, who looks +after his comforts, and behaves in a way as maternal as possible. The +bear is now a kinsman, (Greek text omitted), and cannot avenge himself +within the kin. This, at least, seems to be the humour of it. In +Lagarde's Reliquiae Juris Ecclesiastici Antiquissimae a similar Syrian +covenant of kinship with insects is described. About 700 A. D., when a +Syrian garden was infested by caterpillars, the maidens were assembled, +and one caterpillar was caught. Then one of the virgins was "made its +mother," and the creature was buried with due lamentations. The "mother" +was then brought to the spot where the pests were, her companions +bewailed her, and the caterpillars perished like their chosen kinsman, +but without extorting revenge.(3) Revenge was out of their reach. +They had been brought within the kin of their foes, and there were no +Erinnyes, "avengers of kindred blood," to help them. People in this +condition of belief naturally tell hundreds of tales, in which men, +stones, trees, beasts, shift shapes, and in which the modifications of +animal forms are caused by accident, or by human agency, or by magic, +or by metamorphosis. Such tales survive in our modern folk-lore. To make +our meaning clear, we may give the European nursery-myth of the +origin of the donkey's long ears, and, among other illustrations, the +Australian myth of the origin of the black and white plumage of the +pelican. Mr. Ralston has published the Russian version of the myth +of the donkey's ears. The Spanish form, which is identical with the +Russian, is given by Fernan Caballero in La Gaviota. + + +(1) Magazine of Art, January, 1883. + +(2) "Malagasy Folk-Tales," Folk-Lore Journal, October, 1883. + +(3) We are indebted to Professor Robertson Smith for this example, and +to Miss Bird's Journal, pp. 90, 97, for the Aino parallel. + + +"Listen! do you know why your ears are so big?" (the story is told to +a stupid little boy with big ears). "When Father Adam found himself in +Paradise with the animals, he gave each its name; those of THY species, +my child, he named 'donkeys'. One day, not long after, he called the +beasts together, and asked each to tell him its name. They all answered +right except the animals of THY sort, and they had forgotten their name! +Then Father Adam was very angry, and, taking that forgetful donkey by +the ears, he pulled them out, screaming 'You are called DONKEY!' And +the donkey's ears have been long ever since." This, to a child, is a +credible explanation. So, perhaps, is another survival of this form of +science--the Scotch explanation of the black marks on the haddock; they +were impressed by St. Peter's finger and thumb when he took the piece of +money for Caesar's tax out of the fish's mouth. + +Turning from folk-lore to savage beliefs, we learn that from one end of +Africa to another the honey-bird, schneter, is said to be an old woman +whose son was lost, and who pursued him till she was turned into a bird, +which still shrieks his name, "Schneter, Schneter".(1) In the same way +the manners of most of the birds known to the Greeks were accounted for +by the myth that they had been men and women. Zeus, for example, turned +Ceyx and Halcyon into sea-fowls because they were too proud in their +married happiness.(2) To these myths of the origin of various animals +we shall return, but we must not forget the black and white Australian +pelican. Why is the pelican parti-coloured?(3) For this reason: After +the Flood (the origin of which is variously explained by the Murri), the +pelican (who had been a black fellow) made a canoe, and went about +like a kind of Noah, trying to save the drowning. In the course of his +benevolent mission he fell in love with a woman, but she and her friends +played him a trick and escaped from him. The pelican at once prepared to +go on the war-path. The first thing to do was to daub himself white, +as is the custom of the blacks before a battle. They think the white +pipe-clay strikes terror and inspires respect among the enemy. But when +the pelican was only half pipe-clayed, another pelican came past, and, +"not knowing what such a queer black and white thing was, struck the +first pelican with his beak and killed him. Before that pelicans were +all black; now they are black and white. That is the reason."(4) + + +(1) Barth, iii. 358. + +(2) Apollodorus, i. 7 (13, 12). + +(3) Sahagun, viii. 2, accounts for colours of eagle and tiger. A number +of races explain the habits and marks of animals as the result of a +curse or blessing of a god or hero. The Hottentots, the Huarochiri of +Peru, the New Zealanders (Shortland, Traditions, p. 57), are among the +peoples which use this myth. + +(4) Brough Symth, Aborigines of Australia, i. 477, 478. + + +"That is the reason." Therewith native philosopy is satisfied, and does +not examine in Mr. Darwin's laborious manner the slow evolution of the +colour of the pelican's plumage. The mythological stories about animals +are rather difficult to treat, because they are so much mixed up with +the topic of totemism. Here we only examine myths which account by means +of a legend for certain peculiarities in the habits, cries, or colours +and shapes of animals. The Ojibbeways told Kohl they had a story for +every creature, accounting for its ways and appearance. Among the +Greeks, as among Australians and Bushmen, we find that nearly every +notable bird or beast had its tradition. The nightingale and the +swallow have a story of the most savage description, a story reported +by Apollodorus, though Homer(1) refers to another, and, as usual, to +a gentler and more refined form of the myth. Here is the version of +Apollodorus. "Pandion" (an early king of Athens) "married Zeuxippe, his +mother's sister, by whom he had two daughters, Procne and Philomela, and +two sons, Erechtheus and Butes. A war broke out with Labdas about some +debatable land, and Erechtheus invited the alliance of Tereus of Thrace, +the son of Ares. Having brought the war, with the aid of Tereus, to a +happy end, he gave him his daughter Procne to wife. By Procne, Tereus +had a son, Itys, and thereafter fell in love with Philomela, whom +he seduced, pretending that Procne was dead, whereas he had really +concealed her somewhere in his lands. Thereon he married Philomela, and +cut out her tongue. But she wove into a robe characters that told +the whole story, and by means of these acquainted Procne with her +sufferings. Thereon Procne found her sister, and slew Itys, her own son, +whose body she cooked, and served up to Tereus in a banquet. Thereafter +Procne and her sister fled together, and Tereus seized an axe and +followed after them. They were overtaken at Daulia in Phocis, and prayed +to the gods that they might be turned into birds. So Procne became the +nightingale, and Philomela the swallow, while Tereus was changed into a +hoopoe."(2) Pausanias has a different legend; Procne and Philomela died +of excessive grief. + + +(1) Odyssey, xix. 523. + +(2) A Red Indian nightingale-myth is alluded to by J. G. Muller, Amerik. +Urrel., p. 175. Some one was turned into a nightingale by the sun, and +still wails for a lost lover. + + +These ancient men and women metamorphosed into birds were HONOURED AS +ANCESTORS by the Athenians.(1) Thus the unceasing musical wail of the +nightingale and the shrill cry of the swallow were explained by a +Greek story. The birds were lamenting their old human sorrow, as the +honey-bird in Africa still repeats the name of her lost son. + + +(1) Pausanias, i. v. Pausanias thinks such things no longer occur. + + +Why does the red-robin live near the dwellings of men, a bold and +friendly bird? The Chippeway Indians say he was once a young brave whose +father set him a task too cruel for his strength, and made him starve +too long when he reached man's estate. He turned into a robin, and said +to his father, "I shall always be the friend of man, and keep near their +dwellings. I could not gratify your pride as a warrior, but I will cheer +you by my songs."(1) The converse of this legend is the Greek myth of +the hawk. Why is the hawk so hated by birds? Hierax was a benevolent +person who succoured a race hated by Poseidon. The god therefore changed +him into a hawk, and made him as much detested by birds, and as fatal +to them, as he had been beloved by and gentle to men.(2) The Hervey +Islanders explain the peculiarities of several fishes by the share they +took in the adventures of Ina, who stamped, for example, on the sole, +and so flattened him for ever.(3) In Greece the dolphins were, according +to the Homeric hymn to Dionysus, metamorphosed pirates who had insulted +the god. But because the dolphin found the hidden sea-goddess whom +Poseidon loved, the dolphin, too, was raised by the grateful sea-god to +the stars.(4) The vulture and the heron, according to Boeo (said to have +been a priestess in Delphi and the author of a Greek treatise on the +traditions about birds), were once a man named Aigupios (vulture) and +his mother, Boulis. They sinned inadvertently, like Oedipus and Jocasta; +wherefore Boulis, becoming aware of the guilt, was about to put out the +eyes of her son and slay herself. Then they were changed, Boulis into +the heron, "which tears out and feeds on the eyes of snakes, birds and +fishes, and Aigupios into the vulture which bears his name". This +story, of which the more repulsive details are suppressed, is much less +pleasing and more savage than the Hervey Islanders' myth of the origin +of pigs. Maaru was an old blind man who lived with his son Kationgia. +There came a year of famine, and Kationgia had great difficulty in +finding food for himself and his father. He gave the blind old man +puddings of banana roots and fishes, while he lived himself on sea-slugs +and shellfish, like the people of Terra del Fuego. But blind old Maaru +suspected his son of giving him the worst share and keeping what was +best for himself. At last he discovered that Kationgia was really being +starved; he felt his body, and found that he was a mere living skeleton. +The two wept together, and the father made a feast of some cocoa-nuts +and bread-fruit, which he had reserved against the last extremity. When +all was finished, he said he had eaten his last meal and was about to +die. He ordered his son to cover him with leaves and grass, and return +to the spot in four days. If worms were crawling about, he was to throw +leaves and grass over them and come back four days later. Kationgia did +as he was instructed, and, on his second visit to the grave, found the +whole mass of leaves in commotion. A brood of pigs, black, white and +speckled, had sprung up from the soil; famine was a thing of the past, +and Kationgia became a great chief in the island.(5) + + +(1) Schoolcraft, ii. 229, 230. + +(1) Boeo, quoted by Antoninus Liberalis. + +(3) Gill, South Sea Myths, pp. 88-95. + +(4) Artemidorus in his Love Elegies, quoted by the Pseud-Eratosthenes. + +(5) Gill, Myths and Songs from South Pacific, pp. 135-138. + + +"The owl was a baker's daughter" is the fragment of Christian mythology +preserved by Ophelia. The baker's daughter behaved rudely to our Lord, +and was changed into the bird that looks not on the sun. The Greeks had +a similar legend of feminine impiety by which they mythically explained +the origin of the owl, the bat and the eagle-owl. Minyas of Orchomenos +had three daughters, Leucippe, Arsippe and Alcathoe, most industrious +women, who declined to join the wild mysteries of Dionysus. The god +took the shape of a maiden, and tried to win them to his worship. They +refused, and he assumed the form of a bull, a lion, and a leopard as +easily as the chiefs of the Abipones become tigers, or as the chiefs +among the African Barotse and Balonda metamorphose themselves into +lions and alligators.(1) The daughters of Minyas, in alarm, drew lots to +determine which of them should sacrifice a victim to the god. Leucippe +drew the lot and offered up her own son. They then rushed to join the +sacred rites of Dionysus, when Hermes transformed them into the bat, +the owl and the eagle-owl, and these three hide from the light of the +sun.(2) + + +(1) Livingstone, Missionary Travels, pp. 615, 642. + +(2) Nicander, quoted by Antoninus Liberalis. + + +A few examples of Bushman and Australian myths explanatory of the +colours and habits of animals will probably suffice to establish the +resemblance between savage and Hellenic legends of this character. The +Bushman myth about the origin of the eland (a large antelope) is not +printed in full by Dr. Bleek, but he observes that it "gives an account +of the reasons for the colours of the gemsbok, hartebeest, eland, quagga +and springbok".(1) Speculative Bushmen seem to have been puzzled to +account for the wildness of the eland. It would be much more convenient +if the eland were tame and could be easily captured. They explain +its wildness by saying that the eland was "spoiled" before Cagn, the +creator, or rather maker of most things, had quite finished it. Cagn's +relations came and hunted the first eland too soon, after which all +other elands grew wild. Cagn then said, "Go and hunt them and try to +kill one; that is now your work, for it was you who spoilt them".(2) +The Bushmen have another myth explanatory of the white patches on +the breasts of crows in their country. Some men tarried long at their +hunting, and their wives sent out crows in search of their husbands. +Round each crow's neck was hung a piece of fat to serve as food on the +journey. Hence the crows have white patches on breast and neck. + + +(1) Brief Account of Bushmen Folk-Lore, p. 7. + +(2) Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + + +In Australia the origins of nearly all animals appear to be explained +in myths, of which a fair collection is printed in Mr. Brough Symth's +Aborigines of Victoria.(1) Still better examples occur in Mrs. Langloh +Parker's Australian Legends. Why is the crane so thin? Once he was a +man named Kar-ween, the second man fashioned out of clay by Pund-jel, a +singular creative being, whose chequered career is traced elsewhere in +our chapter on "Savage Myths of the Origin of the World and of Man". +Kar-ween and Pund-jel had a quarrel about the wives of the former, +whom Pund-jel was inclined to admire. The crafty Kar-ween gave a dance +(jugargiull, corobboree), at which the creator Pund-jel was disporting +himself gaily (like the Great Panjandrum), when Kar-ween pinned him with +a spear. Pund-jel threw another which took Kar-ween in the knee-joint, +so that he could not walk, but soon pined away and became a mere +skeleton. "Thereupon Pund-jel made Kar-ween a crane," and that is why +the crane has such attenuated legs. The Kortume, Munkari and Waingilhe, +now birds, were once men. The two latter behaved unkindly to their +friend Kortume, who shot them out of his hut in a storm of rain, singing +at the same time an incantation. The three then turned into birds, and +when the Kortume sings it is a token that rain may be expected. + + +(1) Vol. i. p. 426 et seq. + + +Let us now compare with these Australian myths of the origin of certain +species of birds the Greek story of the origin of frogs, as told by +Menecrates and Nicander.(1) The frogs were herdsmen metamorphosed by +Leto, the mother of Apollo. But, by way of showing how closely akin are +the fancies of Greeks and Australian black fellows, we shall tell the +legend without the proper names, which gave it a fictitious dignity. + + +(1) Antoninus Liberalis, xxxv. + + +THE ORIGIN OF FROGS. + +"A woman bore two children, and sought for a water-spring wherein to +bathe them. She found a well, but herdsmen drove her away from it that +their cattle might drink. Then some wolves met her and led her to a +river, of which she drank, and in its waters she bathed her children. +Then she went back to the well where the herdsmen were now bathing, and +she turned them all into frogs. She struck their backs and shoulders +with a rough stone and drove them into the waters, and ever since that +day frogs live in marshes and beside rivers." + +A volume might be filled with such examples of the kindred fancies of +Greeks and savages. Enough has probably been said to illustrate our +point, which is that Greek myths of this character were inherited from +the period of savagery, when ideas of metamorphosis and of the kinship +of men and beasts were real practical beliefs. Events conceived to be +common in real life were introduced into myths, and these myths were +savage science, and were intended to account for the Origin of Species. +But when once this train of imagination has been fired, it burns on both +in literature and in the legends of the peasantry. Every one who +writes a Christmas tale for children now employs the machinery of +metamorphosis, and in European folk-lore, as Fontenelle remarked, +stories persist which are precisely similar in kind to the minor myths +of savages. + +Reasoning in this wise, the Mundas of Bengal thus account for +peculiarities of certain animals. Sing Bonga, the chief god, cast +certain people out of heaven; they fell to earth, found iron ore, and +began smelting it. The black smoke displeased Sing Bonga, who sent two +king crows and an owl to bid people cease to pollute the atmosphere. +But the iron smelters spoiled these birds' tails, and blackened the +previously white crow, scorched its beak red, and flattened its head. +Sing Bonga burned man, and turned woman into hills and waterspouts.(1) + + +(1) Dalton, pp. 186, 187. + + +Examples of this class of myth in Indo-Aryan literature are not hard +to find. Why is dawn red? Why are donkeys slow? Why have mules no young +ones? Mules have no foals because they were severely burned when Agni +(fire) drove them in a chariot race. Dawn is red, not because (as in +Australia) she wears a red kangaroo cloak, but because she competed in +this race with red cows for her coursers. Donkeys are slow because they +never recovered from their exertions in the same race, when the Asvins +called on their asses and landed themselves the winners.(1) And cows +are accommodated with horns for a reason no less probable and +satisfactory.(2) + + +(1) Aitareya Brahmana, ii. 272, iv. 9. + +(2) iv. 17. + + +Though in the legends of the less developed peoples men and women are +more frequently metamorphosed into birds and beasts than into stones +and plants, yet such changes of form are by no means unknown. To the +north-east of Western Point there lies a range of hills, inhabited, +according to the natives of Victoria, by a creature whose body is made +of stone, and weapons make no wound in so sturdy a constitution. The +blacks refuse to visit the range haunted by the mythic stone beast. +"Some black fellows were once camped at the lakes near Shaving Point. +They were cooking their fish when a native dog came up. They did not +give him anything to eat. He became cross and said, 'You black fellows +have lots of fish, but you give me none'. So he changed them all into a +big rock. This is quite true, for the big rock is there to this day, and +I have seen it with my own eyes."(1) Another native, Toolabar, says that +the women of the fishing party cried out yacka torn, "very good". A dog +replied yacka torn, and they were all changed into rocks. This very man, +Toolabar, once heard a dog begin to talk, whereupon he and his father +fled. Had they waited they would have become stones. "We should have +been like it, wallung," that is, stones. + + +(1) Native narrator, ap. Brough Smyth, i. 479. + + +Among the North American Indians any stone which has a resemblance to +the human or animal figure is explained as an example of metamorphosis. +Three stones among the Aricaras were a girl, her lover and her dog, who +fled from home because the course of true love did not run smooth, and +who were petrified. Certain stones near Chinook Point were sea-giants +who swallowed a man. His brother, by aid of fire, dried up the bay and +released the man, still alive, from the body of the giant. Then the +giants were turned into rocks.(1) The rising sun in Popol Vuh (if the +evidence of Popol Vuh, the Quichua sacred book, is to be accepted) +changed into stone the lion, serpent and tiger gods. The Standing Rock +on the Upper Missouri is adored by the Indians, and decorated with +coloured ribbons and skins of animals. This stone was a woman, who, like +Niobe, became literally petrified with grief when her husband took a +second wife. Another stone-woman in a cave on the banks of the Kickapoo +was wont to kill people who came near her, and is even now approached +with great respect. The Oneidas and Dacotahs claim descent from stones +to which they ascribe animation.(2) Montesinos speaks of a sacred stone +which was removed from a mountain by one of the Incas. A parrot flew out +of it and lodged in another stone, which the natives still worship.(3) +The Breton myth about one of the great stone circles (the stones were +peasants who danced on a Sunday) is a well-known example of this kind +of myth surviving in folk-lore. There is a kind of stone Actaeon(4) +near Little Muniton Creek, "resembling the bust of a man whose head +is decorated with the horns of a stag".(5) A crowd of myths of +metamorphosis into stone will be found among the Iroquois legends in +Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 1880-81. If men may become stones, on +the other hand, in Samoa (as in the Greek myth of Deucalion), stones +may become men.(6) Gods, too, especially when these gods happen to be +cuttlefish, might be petrified. They were chased in Samoa by an Upolu +hero, who caught them in a great net and killed them. "They were changed +into stones, and now stand up in a rocky part of the lagoon on the +north side of Upolu."(7) Mauke, the first man, came out of a stone. +In short,(8) men and stones and beasts and gods and thunder have +interchangeable forms. In Mangaia(9) the god Ra was tossed up into the +sky by Maui and became pumice-stone. Many samples of this petrified +deity are found in Mangaia. In Melanesia matters are so mixed that it is +not easy to decide whether a worshipful stone is the dwelling of a dead +man's soul or is of spiritual merit in itself, or whether "the stone is +the spirit's outward part or organ". The Vui, or spirit, has much the +same relations with snakes, owls and sharks.(10) Qasavara, the mythical +opponent of Qat, the Melanesian Prometheus, "fell dead from heaven" +(like Ra in Mangia), and was turned into a stone, on which sacrifices +are made by those who desire strength in fighting. + + +(1) See authorities ap. Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, pp. 130-138. + +(2) Dorman, p. 133. + +(3) Many examples are collected by J. G. Muller, Amerikanischen +Urreligionen, pp. 97, 110, 125, especially when the stones have a +likeness to human form, p. 17a. "Im der That werden auch einige in +Steine, oder in Thiere and Pflanzen verwandelt." Cf. p. 220. Instances +(from Balboa) of men turned into stone by wizards, p. 309. + +(4) Preller thinks that Actaeon, devoured by his hounds after being +changed into a stag, is a symbol of the vernal year. Palaephatus (De +Fab. Narrat.) holds that the story is a moral fable. + +(5) Dorman, p. 137. + +(6) Turner's Samoa, p. 299. + +(7) Samoa, p. 31. + +(8) Op. cit., p. 34. + +(9) Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 60. + +(10) Codrington, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., February, 1881. + + +Without delaying longer among savage myths of metamorphosis into stones, +it may be briefly shown that the Greeks retained this with all the other +vagaries of early fancy. Every one remembers the use which Perseus made +of the Gorgon's head, and the stones on the coast of Seriphus, which, +like the stones near Western Point in Victoria, had once been men, the +enemies of the hero. "Also he slew the Gorgon," sings Pindar, "and bare +home her head, with serpent tresses decked, to the island folk a stony +death." Observe Pindar's explanatory remark: "I ween there is no marvel +impossible if gods have wrought thereto". In the same pious spirit a +Turk in an isle of the Levant once told Mr. Newton a story of how a man +hunted a stag, and the stag spoke to him. "The stag spoke?" said Mr. +Newton. "Yes, by Allah's will," replied the Turk. Like Pindar, he was +repeating an incident quite natural to the minds of Australians, or +Bushmen, or Samoans, or Red Men, but, like the religious Pindar, he +felt that the affair was rather marvellous, and accounted for it by +the exercise of omnipotent power.(1) The Greek example of Niobe and +her children may best be quoted in Mr. Bridges' translation from the +Iliad:-- + + + And somewhere now, among lone mountain rocks + On Sipylus, where couch the nymphs at night + Who dance all day by Achelous' stream, + The once proud mother lies, herself a rook, + And in cold breast broods o'er the goddess' wrong. + --Prometheus the fire-bringer.(2) + + +In the Iliad it is added that Cronion made the people into stones. The +attitude of the later Greek mind towards these myths may be observed +in a fragment of Philemon, the comic poet. "Never, by the gods, have I +believed, nor will believe, that Niobe the stone was once a woman. Nay, +by reason of her calamities she became speechless, and so, from her +silence, was called a stone."(3) + + +(1) Pindar, Pyth. x., Myers's translation. + +(2) xxiv. 611. + +(3) The Scholiast on Iliad, xxiv. 6, 7. + + +There is another famous petrification in the Iliad. When the prodigy +of the snake and the sparrows had appeared to the assembled Achaeans +at Aulis, Zeus displayed a great marvel, and changed into a stone the +serpent which swallowed the young of the sparrow. Changes into stone, +though less common than changes into fishes, birds and beasts, were thus +obviously not too strange for the credulity of Greek mythology, which +could also believe that a stone became the mother of Agdestis by Zeus. + +As to interchange of shape between men and women and PLANTS, our +information, so far as the lower races are concerned, is less copious. +It has already been shown that the totems of many stocks in all parts +of the world are plants, and this belief in connection with a plant by +itself demonstrates that the confused belief in all things being on one +level has thus introduced vegetables into the dominion of myth. As far +as possessing souls is concerned, Mr. Tylor has proved that plants are +as well equipped as men or beasts or minerals.(1) In India the doctrine +of transmigration widely and clearly recognises the idea of trees or +smaller plants being animated by human souls. In the well-known ancient +Egyptian story of "The Two Brothers,"(2) the life of the younger is +practically merged in that of the acacia tree where he has hidden his +heart; and when he becomes a bull and is sacrificed, his spiritual part +passes into a pair of Persea trees. The Yarucaris of Bolivia say that a +girl once bewailed in the forest her loverless estate. She happened to +notice a beautiful tree, which she adorned with ornaments as well as she +might. The tree assumed the shape of a handsome young man-- + + + She did not find him so remiss, + But, lightly issuing through, + He did repay her kiss for kiss, + With usury thereto.(3) + + +J. G. Muller, who quotes this tale from Andree, says it has "many +analogies with the tales of metamorphosis of human beings into trees +among the ancients, as reported by Ovid". The worship of plants and +trees is a well-known feature in religion, and probably implies +(at least in many cases) a recognition of personality. In Samoa, +metamorphosis into vegetables is not uncommon. For example, the king of +Fiji was a cannibal, and (very naturally) "the people were melting away +under him". The brothers Toa and Pale, wishing to escape the royal oven, +adopted various changes of shape. They knew that straight timber was +being sought for to make a canoe for the king, so Pale, when he assumed +a vegetable form, became a crooked stick overgrown with creepers, but +Toa "preferred standing erect as a handsome straight tree". Poor Toa +was therefore cut down by the king's shipwrights, though, thanks to +his brother's magic wiles, they did not make a canoe out of him after +all.(4) In Samoa the trees are so far human that they not only go to +war with each other, but actually embark in canoes to seek out distant +enemies.(5) The Ottawa Indians account for the origin of maize by a +myth in which a wizard fought with and conquered a little man who had a +little crown of feathers. From his ashes arose the maize with its crown +of leaves and heavy ears of corn.(6) + + +(1) Primitive Culture, i. 145; examples of Society Islanders, Dyaks, +Karens, Buddhists. + +(2) Maspero, Contes Egyptiens, p. 25. + +(3) J. G. Muller, Amerik. Urrel., p. 264. + +(4) Turner's Samoa, p. 219. + +(5) Ibid.. p. 213. + +(6) Amerik. Urrel., p. 60. + + +In Mangaia the myth of the origin of the cocoa-nut tree is a series +of transformation scenes, in which the persons shift shapes with the +alacrity of medicine-men. Ina used to bathe in a pool where an eel +became quite familiar with her. At last the fish took courage and made +his declaration. He was Tuna, the chief of all eels. "Be mine," he +cried, and Ina was his. For some mystical reason he was obliged to leave +her, but (like the White Cat in the fairy tale) he requested her to cut +off his eel's head and bury it. Regretfully but firmly did Ina comply +with his request, and from the buried eel's head sprang two cocoa +trees, one from each half of the brain of Tuna. As a proof of this be it +remarked, that when the nut is husked we always find on it "the two +eyes and mouth of the lover of Ina".(1) All over the world, from ancient +Egypt to the wigwams of the Algonkins, plants and other matters are said +to have sprung from a dismembered god or hero, while men are said to +have sprung from plants.(2) We may therefore perhaps look on it as a +proved point that the general savage habit of "levelling up" prevails +even in their view of the vegetable world, and has left traces (as we +have seen) in their myths. + + +(1) Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 79. + +(2) Myths of the Beginning of Things. + + +Turning now to the mythology of Greece, we see that the same rule holds +good. Metamorphosis into plants and flowers is extremely common; the +instances of Daphne, Myrrha, Hyacinth, Narcissus and the sisters of +Phaethon at once occur to the memory. + +Most of those myths in which everything in Nature becomes personal and +human, while all persons may become anything in Nature, we explain, +then, as survivals or imitations of tales conceived when men were in +the savage intellectual condition. In that stage, as we demonstrated, no +line is drawn between things animate and inanimate, dumb or "articulate +speaking," organic or inorganic, personal or impersonal. Such a mental +stage, again, is reflected in the nature-myths, many of which are merely +"aetiological,"--assign a cause, that is, for phenomena, and satisfy an +indolent and credulous curiosity. + +We may be asked again, "But how did this intellectual condition come to +exist?" To answer that is no part of our business; for us it is enough +to trace myth, or a certain element in myth, to a demonstrable and +actual stage of thought. But this stage, which is constantly found to +survive in the minds of children, is thus explained or described by Hume +in his Essay on Natural Religion: "There is an universal tendency in +mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every +object those qualities... of which they are intimately conscious".(1) +Now they believe themselves to be conscious of magical and supernatural +powers, which they do not, of course, possess. These powers of effecting +metamorphosis, of "shape-shifting," of flying, of becoming invisible +at will, of conversing with the dead, of miraculously healing the sick, +savages pass on to their gods (as will be shown in a later chapter), +and the gods of myth survive and retain the miraculous gifts after their +worshippers (become more reasonable) have quite forgotten that they +themselves once claimed similar endowments. So far, then, it has +been shown that savage fancy, wherever studied, is wild; that savage +curiosity is keen; that savage credulity is practically boundless. These +considerations explain the existence of savage myths of sun, stars, +beasts, plants and stones; similar myths fill Greek legend and the +Sanskrit Brahmanes. We conclude that, in Greek and Sanskrit, the myths +are relics (whether borrowed or inherited) of the savage mental STATUS. + + +(1) See Appendix B. + + + +CHAPTER VI. NON-ARYAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + + +Confusions of myth--Various origins of man and of things--Myths of +Australia, Andaman Islands, Bushmen, Ovaherero, Namaquas, Zulus, Hurons, +Iroquois, Diggers, Navajoes, Winnebagoes, Chaldaeans, Thlinkeets, +Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Aztecs, Peruvians--Similarity of ideas +pervading all those peoples in various conditions of society and +culture. + + +The difficulties of classification which beset the study of mythology +have already been described. Nowhere are they more perplexing than when +we try to classify what may be styled Cosmogonic Myths. The very word +cosmogonic implies the pre-existence of the idea of a cosmos, an orderly +universe, and this was exactly the last idea that could enter the mind +of the myth-makers. There is no such thing as orderliness in their +mythical conceptions, and no such thing as an universe. The natural +question, "Who made the world, or how did the things in the world come +to be?" is the question which is answered by cosmogonic myths. But it is +answered piecemeal. To a Christian child the reply is given, "God made +all things". We have known this reply discussed by some little girls of +six (a Scotch minister's daughters, and naturally metaphysical), one of +whom solved all difficulties by the impromptu myth, "God first made a +little place to stand on, and then he made the rest". But savages and +the myth-makers, whose stories survive into the civilised religions, +could adhere firmly to no such account as this. Here occurs in the first +edition of this book the following passage: "They (savages) have not, +and had not, the conception of God as we understand what we mean by +the word. They have, and had at most, only the small-change of the idea +God,"--here the belief in a moral being who watches conduct; here +again the hypothesis of a pre-human race of magnified, non-natural +medicine-men, or of extra-natural beings with human and magical +attributes, but often wearing the fur, and fins, and feathers of the +lower animals. Mingled with these faiths (whether earlier, later, or +coeval in origin with these) are the dread and love of ancestral ghosts, +often transmuting themselves into worship of an imaginary and ideal +first parent of the tribe, who once more is often a beast or a bird. +Here is nothing like the notion of an omnipotent, invisible, spiritual +being, the creator of our religion; here is only la monnaie of the +conception." + +It ought to have occurred to the author that he was here traversing the +main theory of his own book, which is that RELIGION is one thing, myth +quite another thing. That many low races of savages entertain, in hours +of RELIGIOUS thought, an elevated conception of a moral and undying +Maker of Things, and Master of Life, a Father in Heaven, has already +been stated, and knowledge of the facts has been considerably increased +since this work first appeared (1887). But the MYTHICAL conceptions +described in the last paragraph coexist with the religious conception in +the faiths of very low savages, such as the Australians and Andamanese, +just as the same contradictory coexistence is notorious in ancient +Greece, India, Egypt and Anahuac. In a sense, certain low savages HAVE +the "conception of God, as we understand what we mean by the word". But +that sense, when savages come to spinning fables about origins, is apt +to be overlaid and perplexed by the frivolity of their mythical fancy. + +With such shifting, grotesque and inadequate fables, the cosmogonic +myths of the world are necessarily bewildered and perplexed. We have +already seen in the chapter on "Nature Myths" that many things, sun, +moon, the stars, "that have another birth," and various animals and +plants, are accounted for on the hypothesis that they are later than the +appearance of man--that they originally WERE men. To the European mind +it seems natural to rank myths of the gods before myths of the making or +the evolution of the world, because our religion, like that of the more +philosophic Greeks, makes the deity the fount of all existences, causa +causans, "what unmoved moves," the beginning and the end. But the +myth-makers, deserting any such ideas they may possess, find it +necessary, like the child of whom we spoke, to postulate a PLACE for the +divine energy to work from, and that place is the earth or the heavens. +Then, again, heaven and earth are themselves often regarded in the +usual mythical way, as animated, as persons with parts and passions, and +finally, among advancing races, as gods. Into this medley of incongruous +and inconsistent conceptions we must introduce what order we may, always +remembering that the order is not native to the subject, but is brought +in for the purpose of study. + +The origin of the world and of man is naturally a problem which has +excited the curiosity of the least developed minds. Every savage race +has its own myths on this subject, most of them bearing the marks of the +childish and crude imagination, whose character we have investigated, +and all varying in amount of what may be called philosophical thought. + +All the cosmogonic myths, as distinct from religious belief in a +Creator, waver between the theory of construction, or rather of +reconstruction, and the theory of evolution, very rudely conceived. +The earth, as a rule, is mythically averred to have grown out of some +original matter, perhaps an animal, perhaps an egg which floated on +the waters, perhaps a handful of mud from below the waters. But this +conception does not exclude the idea that many of the things in the +world, minerals, plants and what not, are fragments of the frame of a +semi-supernatural and gigantic being, human or bestial, belonging to +a race which preceded the advent of man.(1) Such were the Titans, +demi-gods, Nurrumbunguttias in Australia. Various members of this race +are found active in myths of the creation, or rather the construction, +of man and of the world. Among the lowest races it is to be noted that +mythical animals of supernatural power often take the place of +beings like the Finnish Wainamoinen, the Greek Prometheus, the Zulu +Unkulunkulu, the Red Indian Manabozho, himself usually a great hare. + + +(1) Macrobius, Saturnal., i. xx. + + +The ages before the development or creation of man are filled up, in the +myths, with the loves and wars of supernatural people. The appearance of +man is explained in three or four contradictory ways, each of which +is represented in the various myths of most mythologies. Often man is +fashioned out of clay, or stone, or other materials, by a Maker of all +things, sometimes half-human or bestial, but also half-divine. Sometimes +the first man rises out of the earth, and is himself confused with the +Creator, a theory perhaps illustrated by the Zulu myth of Unkulunkulu, +"The Old, Old One". Sometimes man arrives ready made, with most of the +animals, from his former home in a hole in the ground, and he furnishes +the world for himself with stars, sun, moon and everything else he +needs. Again, there are many myths which declare that man was evolved +out of one or other of the lower animals. This myth is usually employed +by tribesmen to explain the origin of their own peculiar stock of +kindred. Once more, man is taken to be the fruit of some tree or plant, +or not to have emerged ready-made, but to have grown out of the ground +like a plant or a tree. In some countries, as among the Bechuanas, the +Boeotians, and the Peruvians, the spot where men first came out on +earth is known to be some neighbouring marsh or cave. Lastly, man is +occasionally represented as having been framed out of a piece of the +body of the Creator, or made by some demiurgic potter out of clay. All +these legends are told by savages, with no sense of their inconsistency. +There is no single orthodoxy on the matter, and we shall see that all +these theories coexist pell-mell among the mythological traditions of +civilised races. In almost every mythology, too, the whole theory of +the origin of man is crossed by the tradition of a Deluge, or some other +great destruction, followed by revival or reconstruction of the species, +a tale by no means necessarily of Biblical origin. + +In examining savage myths of the origin of man and of the world, +we shall begin by considering those current among the most backward +peoples, where no hereditary or endowed priesthood has elaborated and +improved the popular beliefs. The natives of Australia furnish us +with myths of a purely popular type, the property, not of professional +priests and poets, but of all the old men and full-grown warriors of +the country. Here, as everywhere else, the student must be on his +guard against accepting myths which are disguised forms of missionary +teaching.(1) + + +(1) Taplin, The Narrinyeri. "He must also beware of supposing that the +Australians believe in a creator in our sense, because the Narrinyeri, +for example, say that Nurundere 'made everything'. Nurundere is but an +idealised wizard and hunter, with a rival of his species." This occurs +in the first edition, but "making all things" is one idea, wizardry is +another. + + +In Southern Australia we learn that the Boonoorong, an Australian +coast tribe, ascribe the creation of things to a being named Bun-jel or +Pund-jel. He figures as the chief of an earlier supernatural class of +existence, with human relationships; thus he "has a wife, WHOSE FACE HE +HAS NEVER SEEN," brothers, a son, and so on. Now this name Bun-jel means +"eagle-hawk," and the eagle-hawk is a totem among certain stocks. Thus, +when we hear that Eagle-hawk is the maker of men and things we are +reminded of the Bushman creator, Cagn, who now receives prayers of +considerable beauty and pathos, but who is (in some theories) identified +with kaggen, the mantis insect, a creative grasshopper, and the chief +figure in Bushman mythology.(1) Bun-jel or Pund-jel also figures in +Australian belief, neither as the creator nor as the eagle-hawk, but +"as an old man who lives at the sources of the Yarra river, where he +possesses great multitudes of cattle".(2) The term Bun-jel is also +used, much like our "Mr.," to denote the older men of the Kurnai and +Briakolung, some of whom have magical powers. One of them, Krawra, or +"West Wind," can cause the wind to blow so violently as to prevent the +natives from climbing trees; this man has semi-divine attributes. From +these facts it appears that this Australian creator, in myth, partakes +of the character of the totem or worshipful beast, and of that of the +wizard or medicine-man. He carried a large knife, and, when he made +the earth, he went up and down slicing it into creeks and valleys. The +aborigines of the northern parts of Victoria seem to believe in Pund-jel +in what may perhaps be his most primitive mythical shape, that of an +eagle.(3) This eagle and a crow created everything, and separated the +Murray blacks into their two main divisions, which derive their names +from the crow and the eagle. The Melbourne blacks seem to make Pund-jel +more anthropomorphic. Men are his (Greek text omitted) figures kneaded +of clay, as Aristophanes says in the Birds. Pund-jel made two clay +images of men, and danced round them. "He made their hair--one had +straight, one curly hair--of bark. He danced round them. He lay on them, +and breathed his breath into their mouths, noses and navels, and danced +round them. Then they arose full-grown young men." Some blacks seeing a +brickmaker at work on a bridge over the Yarra exclaimed, "Like 'em that +Pund-jel make 'em Koolin". But other blacks prefer to believe that, as +Pindar puts the Phrygian legend, the sun saw men growing like trees. + + +(1) Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Mythology, p. 6; Cape Monthly +Magazine, July, 1874, pp. 1-13; Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 210, 324. + +(2) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 210. + +(3) Brough Smyth, Natives of Victoria, vol. i. p. 423. + + +The first man was formed out of the gum of a wattle-tree, and came out +of the knot of a wattle-tree. He then entered into a young woman (though +he was the first man) and was born.(1) The Encounter Bay people have +another myth, which might have been attributed by Dean Swift to the +Yahoos, so foul an origin does it allot to mankind. + + +(1) Meyer, Aborigines of Encounter Bay. See, later, "Gods of the Lowest +Races". + + +Australian myths of creation are by no means exclusive of a hypothesis +of evolution. Thus the Dieyrie, whose notions Mr. Gason has recorded, +hold a very mixed view. They aver that "the good spirit" Moora-Moora +made a number of small black lizards, liked them, and promised them +dominion. He divided their feet into toes and fingers, gave them noses +and lips, and set them upright. Down they fell, and Moora-Moora cut off +their tails. Then they walked erect and were men.(1) The conclusion of +the adventures of one Australian creator is melancholy. He has ceased to +dwell among mortals whom he watches and inspires. The Jay possessed many +bags full of wind; he opened them, and Pund-jel was carried up by the +blast into the heavens. But this event did not occur before Pund-jel had +taught men and women the essential arts of life. He had shown the former +how to spear kangaroos, he still exists and inspires poets. From the +cosmogonic myths of Australia (the character of some of which is in +contradiction with the higher religious belief of the people to be +later described) we may turn, without reaching a race of much higher +civilisation, to the dwellers in the Andaman Islands and their opinions +about the origin of things. + + +(1) Gason's Dieyries, ap. Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 20. + + +The Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, are remote from any shores, +and are protected from foreign influences by dangerous coral reefs, +and by the reputed ferocity and cannibalism of the natives. These are +Negritos, and are commonly spoken of as most abject savages. They are +not, however, without distinctions of rank; they are clean, modest, +moral after marriage, and most strict in the observance of prohibited +degrees. Unlike the Australians, they use bows and arrows, but are +said to be incapable of striking a light, and, at all events, find the +process so difficult that, like the Australians and the farmer in the +Odyssey,(1) they are compelled "to hoard the seeds of fire". Their +mythology contains explanations of the origin of men and animals, and of +their own customs and language. + + +(1) Odyssey, v. 490. + + +The Andamanese, long spoken of as "godless," owe much to Mr. Man, an +English official, who has made a most careful study of their beliefs.(1) +So extraordinary is the contradiction between the relative purity +and morality of the RELIGION and the savagery of the myths of the +Andamanese, that, in the first edition of this work, I insisted that +the "spiritual god" of the faith must have been "borrowed from the same +quarter as the stone house" in which he is mythically said to live. But +later and wider study, and fresh information from various quarters, have +convinced me that the relative purity of Andamanese religion, with its +ethical sanction of conduct, may well be, and probably is, a natural +unborrowed development. It is easy for MYTH to borrow the notion of a +stone house from our recent settlement at Port Blair. But it would not +be easy for RELIGION to borrow many new ideas from an alien creed, in +a very few years, while the noted ferocity of the islanders towards +strangers, and the inaccessibility of their abode, makes earlier +borrowing, on a large scale at least, highly improbable. The Andamanese +god, Puluga, is "like fire" but invisible, unborn and immortal, knowing +and punishing or rewarding, men's deeds, even "the thoughts of their +hearts". But when once mythical fancy plays round him, and stories are +told about him, he is credited with a wife who is an eel or a shrimp, +just as Zeus made love as an ant or a cuckoo. Puluga was the maker of +men; no particular myth as to how he made them is given. They tried to +kill him, after the deluge (of which a grotesque myth is told), but +he replied that he was "as hard as wood". His legend is in the usual +mythical contradiction with the higher elements in his religion. + + +(1) Journ. Anthrop. Soc., vol. xii. p. 157 et seq. + + +Leaving the Andaman islanders, but still studying races in the lowest +degree of civilisation, we come to the Bushmen of South Africa. This +very curious and interesting people, far inferior in material equipment +to the Hottentots, is sometimes regarded as a branch of that race.(1) +The Hottentots call themselves "Khoi-khoi," the Bushmen they style "Sa". +The poor Sa lead the life of pariahs, and are hated and chased by all +other natives of South Africa. They are hunters and diggers for roots, +while the Hottentots, perhaps their kinsmen, are cattle-breeders.(2) +Being so ill-nourished, the Bushmen are very small, but sturdy. They +dwell in, or rather wander through, countries which have been touched +by some ancient civilisation, as is proved by the mysterious mines +and roads of Mashonaland. It is singular that the Bushmen possess a +tradition according to which they could once "make stone things that +flew over rivers". They have remarkable artistic powers, and their +drawings of men and animals on the walls of caves are often not inferior +to the designs on early Greek vases.(3) + + +(1) See "Divine Myths of the Lower Races". + +(2) Hahu, Tsuni Goam, p. 4. See other accounts in Waitz, Anthropologie, +ii. 328. + +(3) Custom and Myth, where illustrations of Bushman art are given, pp. +290-295. + + +Thus we must regard the Bushmen as possibly degenerated from a higher +status, though there is nothing (except perhaps the tradition about +bridge-making) to show that it was more exalted than that of their +more prosperous neighbours, the Hottentots. The myths of the Bushmen, +however, are almost on the lowest known level. A very good and authentic +example of Bushman cosmogonic myth was given to Mr. Orpen, chief +magistrate of St. John's territory, by Qing, King Nqusha's huntsman. +Qing "had never seen a white man, but in fighting," till he became +acquainted with Mr. Orpen.(1) The chief force in Bushmen myth is by Dr. +Bleek identified with the mantis, a sort of large grasshopper. Though he +seems at least as "chimerical a beast" as the Aryan creative boar, the +"mighty big hare" of the Algonkins, the large spider who made the +world in the opinion of the Gold Coast people, or the eagle of the +Australians, yet the insect (if insect he be), like the others, has +achieved moral qualities and is addressed in prayer. In his religious +aspect he is nothing less than a grasshopper. He is called Cagn. "Cagn +made all things and we pray to him," said Qing. "Coti is the wife of +Cagn." Qing did not know where they came from; "perhaps with the men who +brought the sun". The fact is, Qing "did not dance that dance," that is, +was not one of the Bushmen initiated into the more esoteric mysteries +of Cagn. Till we, too, are initiated, we can know very little of Cagn in +his religious aspect. Among the Bushmen, as among the Greeks, there is +"no religious mystery without dancing". Qing was not very consistent. +He said Cagn gave orders and caused all things to appear and to be made, +sun, moon, stars, wind, mountains, animals, and this, of course, is a +lofty theory of creation. Elsewhere myth avers that Cagn did not so +much create as manufacture the objects in nature. In his early day "the +snakes were also men". Cagn struck snakes with his staff and turned them +into men, as Zeus, in the Aeginetan myth, did with ants. He also turned +offending men into baboons. In Bushman myth, little as we really know +of it, we see the usual opposition of fable and faith, a kind creator in +religion is apparently a magician in myth. + + +(1) Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + + +Neighbours of the Bushmen, but more fortunate in their wealth of sheep +and cattle, are the Ovaherero. The myths of the Ovaherero, a tribe +dwelling in a part of Hereraland "which had not yet been under the +influence of civilisation and Christianity," have been studied by the +Rev. H. Reiderbecke, missionary at Otyozondyupa. The Ovaherero, he says, +have a kind of tree Ygdrasil, a tree out of which men are born, and +this plays a great part in their myth of creation. The tree, which still +exists, though at a great age, is called the Omumborombonga tree. Out of +it came, in the beginning, the first man and woman. Oxen stepped +forth from it too, but baboons, as Caliban says of the stars, "came +otherwise," and sheep and goats sprang from a flat rock. Black people +are so coloured, according to the Ovaherero, because when the first +parents emerged from the tree and slew an ox, the ancestress of the +blacks appropriated the black liver of the victim. The Ovakuru Meyuru or +"OLD ONES in heaven," once let the skies down with a run, but drew them +up again (as the gods of the Satapatha Brahmana drew the sun) when most +of mankind had been drowned.(1) The remnant pacified the OLD ONES (as +Odysseus did the spirits of the dead) by the sacrifice of a BLACK ewe, a +practice still used to appease ghosts by the Ovaherero. The neighbouring +Omnambo ascribe the creation of man to Kalunga, who came out of the +earth, and made the first three sheep.(2) + + +(1) An example of a Deluge myth in Africa, where M. Lenormant found +none. + +(2) South African Folk-Lore Journal, ii. pt. v. p. 95. + + +Among the Namaquas, an African people on the same level of nomadic +culture as the Ovaherero, a divine or heroic early being called Heitsi +Eibib had a good deal to do with the origin of things. If he did not +exactly make the animals, he impressed on them their characters, and +their habits (like those of the serpent in Genesis) are said to have +been conferred by a curse, the curse of Heitsi Eibib. A precisely +similar notion was found by Avila among the Indians of Huarochiri, whose +divine culture-hero imposed, by a curse or a blessing, their character +and habits on the beasts.(1) The lion used to live in a nest up a tree +till Heitsi Eibib cursed him and bade him walk on the ground. He also +cursed the hare, "and the hare ran away, and is still running".(2) The +name of the first man is given as Eichaknanabiseb (with a multitude of +"clicks"), and he is said to have met all the animals on a flat rock, +and played a game with them for copper beads. The rainbow was made by +Gaunab, who is generally a malevolent being, of whom more hereafter. + + +(1) Fables of Yncas (Hakluyt Society), p. 127. + +(2) Tsuni Goam, pp. 66, 67. + + +Leaving these African races, which, whatever their relative degrees of +culture, are physically somewhat contemptible, we reach their northern +neighbours, the Zulus. They are among the finest, and certainly among +the least religious, of the undeveloped peoples. Their faith is mainly +in magic and ghosts, but there are traces of a fading and loftier +belief. + +The social and political condition of the Zulu is well understood. They +are a pastoral, but not a nomadic people, possessing large kraals or +towns. They practise agriculture, and they had, till quite recently, a +centralised government and a large army, somewhat on the German system. +They appear to have no regular class of priests, and supernatural power +is owned by the chiefs and the king, and by diviners and sorcerers, who +conduct the sacrifices. Their myths are the more interesting because, +whether from their natural scepticism, which confuted Bishop Colenso in +his orthodox days, or from acquaintance with European ideas, they have +begun to doubt the truth of their own traditions.(1) The Zulu theory +of the origin of man and of the world commences with the feats of +Unkulunkulu, "the old, old one," who, in some legends, was the first +man, "and broke off in the beginning". Like Manabozho among the Indians +of North America, and like Wainamoinen among the Finns, Unkulunkulu +imparted to men a knowledge of the arts, of marriage, and so forth. His +exploits in this direction, however, must be considered in another part +of this work. Men in general "came out of a bed of reeds".(2) But there +is much confusion about this bed of reeds, named "Uthlanga". The younger +people ask where the bed of reeds was; the old men do not know, and +neither did their fathers know. But they stick to it that "that bed of +reeds still exists". Educated Zulus appear somewhat inclined to take the +expression in an allegorical sense, and to understand the reeds either +as a kind of protoplasm or as a creator who was mortal. "He exists no +longer. As my grandfather no longer exists, he too no longer exists; +he died." Chiefs who wish to claim high descent trace their pedigree to +Uthlanga, as the Homeric kings traced theirs to Zeus. The myths given by +Dr. Callaway are very contradictory. + + +(1) These legends have been carefully collected and published by Bishop +Callaway (Trubner & Co., 1868). + +(2) Callaway, p. 9. + + +In addition to the legend that men came out of a bed of reeds, other and +perhaps even more puerile stories are current. "Some men say that they +were belched up by a cow;" others "that Unkulunkulu split them out of +a stone,"(1) which recalls the legend of Pyrrha and Deucalion. The myth +about the cow is still applied to great chiefs. "He was not born; he was +belched up by a cow." The myth of the stone origin corresponds to the +Homeric saying about men "born from the stone or the oak of the old +tale".(2) + + +(1) Without anticipating a later chapter, the resemblances of these +to Greek myths, as arrayed by M. Bouche Leclercq (De Origine Generis +Humani), is very striking. + +(2) Odyssey, xix. 103. + + +In addition to the theory of the natal bed of reeds, the Zulus, like +the Navajoes of New Mexico, and the Bushmen, believe in the subterranean +origin of man. There was a succession of emigrations from below of +different tribes of men, each having its own Unkulunkulu. All accounts +agree that Unkulunkulu is not worshipped, and he does not seem to +be identified with "the lord who plays in heaven"--a kind of fading +Zeus--when there is thunder. Unkulunkulu is not worshipped, though +ancestral spirits are worshipped, because he lived so long ago that no +one can now trace his pedigree to the being who is at once the first man +and the creator. His "honour-giving name is lost in the lapse of years, +and the family rites have become obsolete."(1) + + +(1) See Zulu religion in The Making of Religion, pp. 225-229, where it +is argued that ghost worship has superseded a higher faith, of which +traces are discernible. + + +The native races of the North American continent (concerning whose +civilisation more will be said in the account of their divine myths) +occupy every stage of culture, from the truly bestial condition in +which some of the Digger Indians at present exist, living on insects and +unacquainted even with the use of the bow, to the civilisation which the +Spaniards destroyed among the Aztecs. + +The original facts about religion in America are much disputed, and +will be more appropriately treated later. It is now very usual for +anthropologists to say, like Mr. Dorman, "no approach to monotheismn had +been made before the discovery of America by Europeans, and the +Great Spirit mentioned in these (their) books is an introduction by +Christianity".(1) "This view will not bear examination," says Mr. Tylor, +and we shall later demonstrate the accuracy of his remark.(2) But at +present we are concerned, not with what Indian religion had to say about +her Gods, but with what Indian myth had to tell about the beginnings of +things. + + +(1) Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 15. + +(2) Primitive Culture, 1873, ii. p. 340. + + +The Hurons, for example (to choose a people in a state of middle +barbarism), start in myth from the usual conception of a powerful +non-natural race of men dwelling in the heavens, whence they descended, +and colonised, not to say constructed, the earth. In the Relation de la +Nouvelle France, written by Pere Paul le Jeune, of the Company of Jesus, +in 1636, there is a very full account of Huron opinion, which, with some +changes of names, exists among the other branches of the Algonkin family +of Indians. + +They recognise as the founder of their kindred a woman named Ataentsic, +who, like Hephaestus in the Iliad, was banished from the sky. In the +upper world there are woods and plains, as on earth. Ataentsic fell down +a hole when she was hunting a bear, or she cut down a heaven-tree, and +fell with the fall of this Huron Ygdrasil, or she was seduced by an +adventurer from the under world, and was tossed out of heaven for her +fault. However it chanced, she dropped on the back of the turtle in the +midst of the waters. He consulted the other aquatic animals, and one of +them, generally said to have been the musk-rat, fished(1) up some soil +and fashioned the earth.(2) Here Ataentsic gave birth to twins, Ioskeha +and Tawiscara. These represent the usual dualism of myth; they answer +to Osiris and Set, to Ormuzd and Ahriman, and were bitter enemies. +According to one form of the myth, the woman of the sky had twins, and +what occurred may be quoted from Dr. Brinton. "Even before birth one of +them betrayed his restless and evil nature by refusing to be born in +the usual manner, but insisting on breaking through his parent's side +or arm-pit. He did so, but it cost his mother her life. Her body was +buried, and from it sprang the various vegetable productions," pumpkins, +maize, beans, and so forth.(3) + + +(1) Relations, 1633. In this myth one Messon, the Great Hare, is the +beginner of our race. He married a daughter of the Musk-rat. + +(2) Here we first meet in this investigation a very widely distributed +myth. The myths already examined have taken the origin of earth for +granted. The Hurons account for its origin; a speck of earth was fished +out of the waters and grew. In M. H. de Charencey's tract Une Legende +Cosmogonique (Havre, 1884) this legend is traced. M. de Charencey +distinguishes (1) a continental version; (2) an insular version; (3) a +mixed and Hindoo version. Among continental variants he gives a Vogul +version (Revue de Philologie et d'Ethnographie, Paris, 1874, i. 10). +Numi Tarom (a god who cooks fish in heaven) hangs a male and female +above the abyss of waters in a silver cradle. He gives them, later, just +earth enough to build a house on. Their son, in the guise of a +squirrel, climbs to Numi Tarom, and receives from him a duck-skin and +a goose-skin. Clad in these, like Yehl in his raven-skin or Odin in +his hawk-skin, he enjoys the powers of the animals, dives and brings up +three handfuls of mud, which grow into our earth. Elempi makes men +out of clay and snow. The American version M. de Charencey gives from +Nicholas Perrot (Mem. sur les Moers, etc., Paris, 1864, i. 3). Perrot +was a traveller of the seventeenth century. The Great Hare takes a hand +in the making of earth out of fished-up soil. After giving other North +American variants, and comparing the animals that, after three attempts, +fish up earth to the dove and raven of Noah, M. de Charencey reaches the +Bulgarians. God made Satan, in the skin of a diver, fish up earth out +of Lake Tiberias. Three doves fish up earth, in the beginning, in the +Galician popular legend (Chodzko, Contes des Paysans Slaves, p. 374). In +the INSULAR version, as in New Zealand, the island is usually fished up +with a hook by a heroic angler (Japan, Tonga, Tahiti, New Zealand). The +Hindoo version, in which the boar plays the part of musk-rat, or duck, +or diver, will be given in "Indian Cosmogonic Myths". + +(3) Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 54. Nicholas Perrot and various +Jesuit Relations are the original authorities. See "Divine Myths of +America". Mr. Leland, in his Algonkin Tales, prints the same story, with +the names altered to Glooskap and Malsumis, from oral tradition. Compare +Schoolcraft, v. 155, and i. 317, and the versions of PP. Charlevoix +and Lafitau. In Charlevoix the good and bad brothers are Manabozho and +Chokanipok or Chakekanapok, and out of the bones and entrails of the +latter many plants and animals were fashioned, just as, according to a +Greek myth preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus, parsley and pomegranates +arose from the blood and scattered members of Dionysus Zagreus. The tale +of Tawiscara's violent birth is told of Set in Egypt, and of Indra in +the Veda, as will be shown later. This is a very common fable, and, as +Mr. Whitley Stokes tells me, it recurs in old Irish legends of the birth +of our Lord, Myth, as usual, invading religion, even Christian religion. + + +According to another version of the origin of things, the maker of them +was one Michabous, or Michabo, the Great Hare. His birthplace was shown +at an island called Michilimakinak, like the birthplace of Apollo at +Delos. The Great Hare made the earth, and, as will afterwards appear, +was the inventor of the arts of life. On the whole, the Iroquois and +Algonkin myths agree in finding the origin of life in an upper world +beyond the sky. The earth was either fished up (as by Brahma when he +dived in the shape of a boar) by some beast which descended to the +bottom of the waters, or grew out of the tortoise on whose back +Ataentsic fell. The first dwellers in the world were either beasts like +Manabozho or Michabo, the Great Hare, or the primeval wolves of the +Uinkarets,(1) or the creative musk-rat, or were more anthropomorphic +heroes, such as Ioskeha and Tawiscara. As for the things in the world, +some were made, some evolved, some are transformed parts of an early +non-natural man or animal. There is a tendency to identify Ataentsic, +the sky-woman, with the moon, and in the Two Great Brethren, hostile as +they are, to recognise moon and sun.(2) + + +(1) Powell, Bureau of Ethnology, i. 44. + +(2) Dr. Brinton has endeavoured to demonstrate by arguments drawn from +etymology that Michabos, Messou, Missibizi or Manabozho, the Great Hare, +is originally a personification of Dawn (Myths of the New World, p. +178). I have examined his arguments in the Nineteenth Century, January, +1886, which may be consulted, and in Melusine, January, 1887. The hare +appears to be one out of the countless primeval beast-culture heroes. A +curious piece of magic in a tradition of the Dene Hareskins may seem to +aid Dr. Brinton's theory: "Pendant la nuit il entra, jeta au feu une +tete de lievre blanc et aussitot le jour se fit".--Petitot, Traditions +Indiennes, p. 173. But I take it that the sacrifice of a white hare's +head makes light magically, as sacrifice of black beasts and columns of +black smoke make rainclouds. + + +Some of the degraded Digger Indians of California have the following +myth of the origin of species. In this legend, it will be noticed, a +species of evolution takes the place of a theory of creation. The story +was told to Mr. Adam Johnston, who "drew" the narrator by communicating +to a chief the Biblical narrative of the creation.(1) The chief said it +was a strange story, and one that he had never heard when he lived at +the Mission of St. John under the care of a Padre. According to this +chief (he ruled over the Po-to-yan-te tribe or Coyotes), the first +Indians were coyotes. When one of their number died, his body became +full of little animals or spirits. They took various shapes, as of deer, +antelopes, and so forth; but as some exhibited a tendency to fly off to +the moon, the Po-to-yan-tes now usually bury the bodies of their dead, +to prevent the extinction of species. Then the Indians began to assume +the shape of man, but it was a slow transformation. At first they +walked on all fours, then they would begin to develop an isolated human +feature, one finger, one toe, one eye, like the ascidian, our first +parent in the view of modern science. Then they doubled their organs, +got into the habit of sitting up, and wore away their tails, which they +unaffectedly regret, "as they consider the tail quite an ornament". +Ideas of the immortality of the soul are said to be confined to the old +women of the tribe, and, in short, according to this version, the Digger +Indians occupy the modern scientific position. + + +(1) Schoolcraft, vol. v. + + +The Winnebagoes, who communicated their myths to Mr. Fletcher,(1) are +suspected of having been influenced by the Biblical narrative. They say +that the Great Spirit woke up as from a dream, and found himself sitting +in a chair. As he was all alone, he took a piece of his body and a piece +of earth, and made a man. He next made a woman, steadied the earth +by placing beasts beneath it at the corners, and created plants and +animals. Other men he made out of bears. "He created the white man +to make tools for the poor Indians"--a very pleasing example of +a teleological hypothesis and of the doctrine of final causes as +understood by the Winnebagoes. The Chaldean myth of the making of man is +recalled by the legend that the Great Spirit cut out a piece of +himself for the purpose; the Chaldean wisdom coincides, too, with the +philosophical acumen of the Po-to-yan-te or Coyote tribe of Digger +Indians. Though the Chaldean theory is only connected with that of the +Red Men by its savagery, we may briefly state it in this place. + + +(1) Ibid., iv. 228. + + +According to Berosus, as reported by Alexander Polyhistor, the universe +was originally (as before Manabozho's time) water and mud. Herein all +manner of mixed monsters, with human heads, goat's horns, four legs, +and tails, bred confusedly. In place of the Iroquois Ataentsic, a woman +called Omoroca presided over the mud and the menagerie. She, too, like +Ataentsic, is sometimes recognised as the moon. Affairs being in this +state, Bel-Maruduk arrived and cut Omoroca in two (Chokanipok destroyed +Ataentsic), and out of Omoroca Bel made the world and the things in it. +We have already seen that in savage myth many things are fashioned out +of a dead member of the extra-natural race. Lastly, Bel cut his own head +off, and with the blood the gods mixed clay and made men. The Chaldeans +inherited very savage fancies.(1) + + +(1) Cf. Syncellus, p. 29; Euseb., Chronic. Armen., ed. Mai, p. 10; +Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, i. 506. + + +One ought, perhaps, to apologise to the Chaldeans for inserting their +myths among the fables of the least cultivated peoples; but it will +scarcely be maintained that the Oriental myths differ in character from +the Digger Indian and Iroquois explanations of the origin of things. The +Ahts of Vancouver Island, whom Mr. Sproat knew intimately, and of whose +ideas he gives a cautious account (for he was well aware of the limits +of his knowledge), tell a story of the usual character.(1) They believe +in a member of the extra-natural race, named Quawteaht, of whom we shall +hear more in his heroic character. As a demiurge "he is undoubtedly +represented as the general framer, I do not say creator, of all things, +though some special things are excepted. He made the earth and water, +the trees and rocks, and all the animals. Some say that Quawteaht made +the sun and moon, but the majority of the Indians believe that he had +nothing to do with their formation, and that they are deities superior +to himself, though now distant and less active. He gave names to +everything; among the rest, to all the Indian houses which then existed, +although inhabited only by birds and animals. Quawteaht went away before +the apparent change of the birds and beasts into Indians, which took +place in the following manner:-- + +"The birds and beasts of old had the spirits of the Indians dwelling +in them, and occupied the various coast villages, as the Ahts do at +present. One day a canoe manned by two Indians from an unknown country +approached the shore. As they coasted along, at each house at which they +landed, the deer, bear, elk, and other brute inhabitants fled to the +mountains, and the geese and other birds flew to the woods and rivers. +But in this flight, the Indians, who had hitherto been contained in the +bodies of the various creatures, were left behind, and from that time +they took possession of the deserted dwellings and assumed the condition +in which we now see them." + + +(1) Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, pp. 210, 211. + + +Crossing the northern continent of America to the west, we are in the +domains of various animal culture-heroes, ancestors and teachers of the +human race and the makers, to some extent, of the things in the world. +As the eastern tribes have their Great Hare, so the western tribes have +their wolf hero and progenitor, or their coyote, or their raven, or +their dog. It is possible, and even certain in some cases, that the +animal which was the dominant totem of a race became heir to any +cosmogonic legends that were floating about. + +The country of the Papagos, on the eastern side of the Gulf of +California, is the southern boundary of the province of the coyote or +prairie wolf. The realm of his influence as a kind of Prometheus, or +even as a demiurge, extends very far northwards. In the myth related by +Con Quien, the chief of the central Papagos,(1) the coyote acts the +part of the fish in the Sanskrit legend of the flood, while Montezuma +undertakes the role of Manu. This Montezuma was formed, like the Adams +of so many races, out of potter's clay in the hands of the Great Spirit. +In all this legend it seems plain enough that the name of Montezuma is +imported from Mexico, and has been arbitrarily given to the hero of the +Papagos. According to Mr. Powers, whose manuscript notes Mr. Bancroft +quotes (iii. 87), all the natives of California believe that their +first ancestors were created directly from the earth of their present +dwelling-places, and in very many cases these ancestors were coyotes. + + +(1) Davidson, Indian Affairs Report, 1865, p. 131; Bancroft, iii. 75. + + +The Pimas, a race who live near the Papagos on the eastern coast of +the Gulf of California, say that the earth was made by a being named +Earth-prophet. At first it appeared like a spider's web, reminding one +of the West African legend that a great spider created the world. +Man was made by the Earth-prophet out of clay kneaded with sweat. A +mysterious eagle and a deluge play a great part in the later mythical +adventures of war and the world, as known to the Pimas.(1) + + +(1) Communicated to Mr. Bancroft by Mr. Stout of the Pima Agency. + + +In Oregon the coyote appears as a somewhat tentative demiurge, and the +men of his creation, like the beings first formed by Prajapati in +the Sanskrit myth, needed to be reviewed, corrected and considerably +augmented. The Chinooks of Oregon believe in the usual race of magnified +non-natural men, who preceded humanity. + +These semi-divine people were called Ulhaipa by the Chinooks, and +Sehuiab by the Lummies. But the coyote was the maker of men. As the +first of Nature's journeymen, he made men rather badly, with closed eyes +and motionless feet. A kind being, named Ikanam, touched up the coyote's +crude essays with a sharp stone, opening the eyes of men, and giving +their hands and feet the powers of movement. He also acted as a +"culture-hero," introducing the first arts. (1) + + +(1) (Frauchere's Narrative, 258; Gibb's Chinook Vocabulary; Parker's +exploring Tour, i. 139;) Bancroft, iii. 96. + + +Moving up the West Pacific coast we reach British Columbia, where the +coyote is not supposed to have been so active as our old friend the +musk-rat in the great work of the creation. According to the Tacullies, +nothing existed in the beginning but water and a musk-rat. As the animal +sought his food at the bottom of the water, his mouth was frequently +filled with mud. This he spat out, and so gradually formed by alluvial +deposit an island. This island was small at first, like earth in the +Sanskrit myth in the Satapatha Brahmana, but gradually increased in +bulk. The Tacullies have no new light to throw on the origin of man.(1) + + +(1) Bancroft, iii. 98; Harmon's Journey, pp. 302, 303. + + +The Thlinkeets, who are neighbours of the Tacullies on the north, +incline to give crow or raven the chief role in the task of creation, +just as some Australians allot the same part to the eagle-hawk, and the +Yakuts to a hawk, a crow and a teal-duck. We shall hear much of +Yehl later, as one of the mythical heroes of the introduction of +civilisation. North of the Thlinkeets, a bird and a dog take the +creative duties, the Aleuts and Koniagas being descended from a dog. +Among the more northern Tinnehs, the dog who was the progenitor of the +race had the power of assuming the shape of a handsome young man. He +supplied the protoplasm of the Tinnehs, as Purusha did that of the Aryan +world, out of his own body. A giant tore him to pieces, as the gods tore +Purusha, and out of the fragments thrown into the rivers came fish, the +fragments tossed into the air took life as birds, and so forth.(1) This +recalls the Australian myth of the origin of fish and the Ananzi stories +of the origin of whips.(2) + + +(1) Hearne, pp. 342, 343; Bancroft, iii. 106. + +(2) See "Divine Myths of Lower Races". M. Cosquin, in Contes de +Lorraine, vol. i. p. 58, gives the Ananzi story. + + +Between the cosmogonic myths of the barbarous or savage American tribes +and those of the great cultivated American peoples, Aztecs, Peruvians +and Quiches, place should be found for the legends of certain races +in the South Pacific. Of these, the most important are the Maoris or +natives of New Zealand, the Mangaians and the Samoans. Beyond the usual +and world-wide correspondences of myth, the divine tales of the various +South Sea isles display resemblances so many and essential that they +must be supposed to spring from a common and probably not very distant +centre. As it is practically impossible to separate Maori myths of the +making of things from Maori myths of the gods and their origin, we must +pass over here the metaphysical hymns and stories of the original +divine beings, Rangi and Papa, Heaven and Earth, and of their cruel but +necessary divorce by their children, who then became the usual Titanic +race which constructs and "airs" the world for the reception of man.(1) +Among these beings, more fully described in our chapter on the gods +of the lower races, is Tiki, with his wife Marikoriko, twilight. Tane +(male) is another of the primordial race, children of earth and heaven, +and between him and Tiki lies the credit of having made or begotten +humanity. Tane adorned the body of his father, heaven (Rangi), by +sticking stars all over it, as disks of pearl-shells are stuck all +over images. He was the parent of trees and birds, but some trees are +original and divine beings. The first woman was not born, but formed out +of the sun and the echo, a pretty myth. Man was made by Tiki, who took +red clay, and kneaded it with his own blood, or with the red water of +swamps. The habits of animals, some of which are gods, while others are +descended from gods, follow from their conduct at the moment when heaven +and earth were violently divorced. New Zealand itself, or at least one +of the isles, was a huge fish caught by Maui (of whom more hereafter). +Just as Pund-jel, in Australia, cut out the gullies and vales with his +knife, so the mountains and dells of New Zealand were produced by the +knives of Maui's brothers when they crimped his big fish.(2) Quite apart +from those childish ideas are the astonishing metaphysical hymns about +the first stirrings of light in darkness, of "becoming" and "being," +which remind us of Hegel and Heraclitus, or of the most purely +speculative ideas in the Rig-Veda.(3) Scarcely less metaphysical are the +myths of Mangaia, of which Mr. Gill(4) gives an elaborate account. + + +(1) See "Divine Myths of Lower Races". + +(2) Taylor, New Zealand, pp. 115-121; Bastian, Heilige Sage der +Polynesier, pp. 36-50; Shortland, Traditions of New Zealanders. + +(3) See chapter on "Divine Myths of the Lower Races," and on "Indian +Cosmogonic Myths" + +(4) Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, pp. 1-22. + + +The Mangaian ideas of the world are complex, and of an early scientific +sort. The universe is like the hollow of a vast cocoa-nut shell, divided +into many imaginary circles like those of mediaeval speculation. There +is a demon at the stem, as it were, of the cocoa-nut, and, where the +edges of the imaginary shell nearly meet, dwells a woman demon, whose +name means "the very beginning". In this system we observe efforts at +metaphysics and physical speculation. But it is very characteristic +of rude thought that such extremely abstract conceptions as "the very +beginning" are represented as possessing life and human form. The +woman at the bottom of the shell was anxious for progeny, and therefore +plucked a bit out of her own right side, as Eve was made out of the rib +of Adam. This piece of flesh became Vatea, the father of gods and men. +Vatea (like Oannes in the Chaldean legend) was half man, half fish. "The +Very Beginning" begat other children in the same manner, and some +of these became departmental gods of ocean, noon-day, and so forth. +Curiously enough, the Mangaians seem to be sticklers for primogeniture. +Vatea, as the first-born son, originally had his domain next above +that of his mother. But she was pained by the thought that his younger +brothers each took a higher place than his; so she pushed his land +up, and it is now next below the solid crust on which mortals live in +Mangaia. Vatea married a woman from one of the under worlds named Papa, +and their children had the regular human form. One child was born either +from Papa's head, like Athene from the head of Zeus, or from her armpit, +like Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus. Another child may be said, in the +language of dog-breeders, to have "thrown back," for he wears the form +of a white or black lizard. In the Mangaian system the sky is a solid +vault of blue stone. In the beginning of things the sky (like Ouranos in +Greece and Rangi in New Zealand) pressed hard on earth, and the god Ru +was obliged to thrust the two asunder, or rather he was engaged in this +task when Maui tossed both Ru and the sky so high up that they never +came down again. Ru is now the Atlas of Mangaia, "the sky-supporting +Ru".(1) His lower limbs fell to earth, and became pumice-stone. In these +Mangaian myths we discern resemblances to New Zealand fictions, as +is natural, and the tearing of the body of "the Very Beginning" has +numerous counterparts in European, American and Indian fable. But on the +whole, the Mangaian myths are more remarkable for their semi-scientific +philosophy than for their coincidences with the fancies of other early +peoples. + + +(1) Gill, p. 59. + + +The Samoans, like the Maoris and Greeks, hold that heaven at first fell +down and lay upon earth.(1) The arrowroot and another plant pushed up +heaven, and "the heaven-pushing place" is still known and pointed out. +Others say the god Ti-iti-i pushed up heaven, and his feet made holes +six feet deep in the rocks during this exertion. The other Samoan myths +chiefly explain the origin of fire, and the causes of the characteristic +forms and habits of animals and plants. The Samoans, too, possess +a semi-mythical, metaphysical cosmogony, starting from NOTHING, but +rapidly becoming the history of rocks, clouds, hills, dew and various +animals, who intermarried, and to whom the royal family of Samoa trace +their origin through twenty-three generations. So personal are Samoan +abstract conceptions, that "SPACE had a long-legged stool," on to which +a head fell, and grew into a companion for Space. Yet another myth says +that the god Tangaloa existed in space, and made heaven and earth, and +sent down his daughter, a snipe. Man he made out of the mussel-fish. So +confused are the doctrines of the Samoans.(2) + + +(1) Turner's Samoa, p. 198. + +(2) Turner's Samoa, pp. 1-9. + + +Perhaps the cosmogonic myths of the less cultivated races have now been +stated in sufficient number. As an example of the ideas which prevailed +in an American race of higher culture, we may take the Quiche legend as +given in the Popol Vuh, a post-Christian collection of the sacred myths +of the nation, written down after the Spanish conquest, and published in +French by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg.(1) + + +(1) See Popol Vuh in Mr. Max Muller's Chips from a German Workshop, with +a discussion of its authenticity. In his Annals of the Cakchiquels, a +nation bordering on the Quiches, Dr. Brinton expresses his belief in the +genuine character of the text. Compare Bancroft, iii. p. 45. The +ancient and original Popol Vuh, the native book in native characters, +disappeared during the Spanish conquest. + + +The Quiches, like their neighbours the Cakchiquels, were a highly +civilised race, possessing well-built towns, roads and the arts of life, +and were great agriculturists. Maize, the staple of food among these +advanced Americans, was almost as great a god as Soma among the +Indo-Aryans. The Quiches were acquainted with a kind of picture-writing, +and possessed records in which myth glided into history. The Popol Vuh, +or book of the people, gives itself out as a post-Columbian copy of +these traditions, and may doubtless contain European ideas. As we see +in the Commentarias Reales of the half-blood Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, +the conquered people were anxious to prove that their beliefs were by +no means so irrational and so "devilish" as to Spanish critics they +appeared. According to the Popol Vuh, there was in the beginning nothing +but water and the feathered serpent, one of their chief divine beings; +but there also existed somehow, "they that gave life". Their names mean +"shooter of blow-pipe at coyote," "at opossum," and so forth. They +said "Earth," and there WAS earth, and plants growing thereon. Animals +followed, and the Givers of life said "Speak our names," but the animals +could only cluck and croak. Then said the Givers, "Inasmuch as ye cannot +praise us, ye shall be killed and eaten". They then made men out of +clay; these men were weak and watery, and by water they were destroyed. +Next they made men of wood and women of the pith of trees. These puppets +married and gave in marriage, and peopled earth with wooden mannikins. +This unsatisfactory race was destroyed by a rain of resin and by the +wild beasts. The survivors developed into apes. Next came a period +occupied by the wildest feats of the magnified non-natural race and +of animals. The record is like the description of a supernatural +pantomime--the nightmare of a god. The Titans upset hills, are turned +into stone, and behave like Heitsi Eibib in the Namaqua myths. + +Last of all, men were made of yellow and white maize, and these gave +more satisfaction, but their sight was contracted. These, however, +survived, and became the parents of the present stock of humanity. + +Here we have the conceptions of creation and of evolution combined. Men +are MADE, but only the fittest survive; the rest are either destroyed or +permitted to develop into lower species. A similar mixture of the same +ideas will be found in one of the Brahmanas among the Aryans of India. +It is to be observed that the Quiche myths, as recorded in Popol Vuh, +contain not only traces of belief in a creative word and power, but many +hymns of a lofty and beautifully devotional character. + +"Hail! O Creator, O Former! Thou that hearest and understandest us, +abandon us not, forsake us not! O God, thou that art in heaven and on +the earth, O Heart of Heaven, O Heart of Earth, give us descendants and +posterity as long as the light endures." + +This is an example of the prayers of the men made out of maize, made +especially that they might "call on the name" of the god or gods. +Whether we are to attribute this and similar passages to Christian +influence (for Popol Vuh, as we have it, is but an attempt to collect +the fragments of the lost book that remained in men's minds after the +conquest), or whether the purer portions of the myth be due to untaught +native reflection and piety, it is not possible to determine. It is +improbable that the ideas of a hostile race would be introduced into +religious hymns by their victims. Here, as elsewhere in the sacred +legends of civilised peoples, various strata of mythical and religious +thought coexist. + +No American people reached such a pitch of civilisation as the Aztecs +of Anahuac, whose capital was the city of Mexico. It is needless here +to repeat the story of their grandeur and their fall. Obscure as their +history, previous to the Spanish invasion, may be, it is certain that +they possessed a highly organised society, fortified towns, established +colleges or priesthoods, magnificent temples, an elaborate calendar, +great wealth in the precious metals, the art of picture-writing in +considerable perfection, and a despotic central government. The higher +classes in a society like this could not but develop speculative +systems, and it is alleged that shortly before the reign of Montezuma +attempts had been made to introduce a pure monotheistic religion. But +the ritual of the Aztecs remained an example of the utmost barbarity. +Never was a more cruel faith, not even in Carthage. Nowhere did temples +reek with such pools of human blood; nowhere else, not in Dahomey and +Ashanti, were human sacrifice, cannibalism and torture so essential +to the cult that secured the favour of the gods. In these dark +fanes--reeking with gore, peopled by monstrous shapes of idols +bird-headed or beast-headed, and adorned with the hideous carvings in +which we still see the priest, under the mask of some less ravenous +forest beast, tormenting the victim--in these abominable temples the +Castilian conquerors might well believe that they saw the dwellings of +devils. + +Yet Mexican religion had its moral and beautiful aspect, and the gods, +or certain of the gods, required from their worshippers not only bloody +hands, but clean hearts. + +To the gods we return later. The myths of the origin of things may +be studied without a knowledge of the whole Aztec Pantheon. Our +authorities, though numerous, lack complete originality and are +occasionally confused. We have first the Aztec monuments and +hieroglyphic scrolls, for the most part undeciphered. These merely +attest the hideous and cruel character of the deities. Next we have the +reports of early missionaries, like Sahagun and Mendieta, of conquerors, +like Bernal Diaz, and of noble half-breeds, such as Ixtlilxochitl.(1) + + +(1) Bancroft's Native Races of Pacific Coast of North America, vol. +iii., contains an account of the sources, and, with Sahagun and Acosta, +is mainly followed here. See also J. G. Muller, Ur. Amerik. Rel., p. +507. See chapter on the "Divine Myths of Mexico". + + +There are two elements in Mexican, as in Quiche, and Indo-Aryan, and +Maori, and even Andaman cosmogonic myth. We find the purer religion +and the really philosophic speculation concurrent with such crude and +childish stories as usually satisfy the intellectual demands of Ahts, +Cahrocs and Bushmen; but of the purer and more speculative opinions we +know little. Many of the noble, learned and priestly classes of Aztecs +perished at the conquest. The survivors were more or less converted to +Catholicism, and in their writings probably put the best face possible +on the native religion. Like the Spanish clergy, their instructors, +they were inclined to explain away their national gods by a system of +euhemerism, by taking it for granted that the gods and culture-heroes +had originally been ordinary men, worshipped after their decease. This +is almost invariably the view adopted by Sahagun. Side by side with the +confessions, as it were, of the clergy and cultivated classes coexisted +the popular beliefs, the myths of the people, partaking of the nature of +folk-lore, but not rejected by the priesthood. + +Both strata of belief are represented in the surviving cosmogonic +myths of the Aztecs. Probably we may reckon in the first or learned and +speculative class of tales the account of a series of constructions and +reconstructions of the world. This idea is not peculiar to the higher +mythologies, the notion of a deluge and recreation or renewal of things +is almost universal, and even among the untutored Australians there are +memories of a flood and of an age of ruinous winds. But the theory of +definite epochs, calculated in accordance with the Mexican calendar, +of epochs in which things were made and re-made, answers closely to +the Indo-Aryan conception of successive kalpas, and can only have been +developed after the method of reckoning time had been carried to some +perfection. "When heaven and earth were fashioned, they had already been +four times created and destroyed," say the fragments of what is called +the Chimalpopoca manuscript. Probably this theory of a series of kalpas +is only one of the devices by which the human mind has tried to cheat +itself into the belief that it can conceive a beginning of things. The +earth stands on an elephant, the elephant on a tortoise, and it is going +too far to ask what the tortoise stands on. In the same way the world's +beginning seems to become more intelligible or less puzzling when it is +thrown back into a series of beginnings and endings. This method also +was in harmony with those vague ideas of evolution and of the survival +of the fittest which we have detected in myth. The various tentative +human races of the Popol Vuh degenerated or were destroyed because they +did not fulfil the purposes for which they were made. In Brahmanic myth +we shall see that type after type was condemned and perished because it +was inadequate, or inadequately equipped--because it did not harmonise +with its environment.(1) For these series of experimental creations and +inefficient evolutions vast spaces of time were required, according to +the Aztec and Indo-Aryan philosophies. It is not impossible that actual +floods and great convulsions of nature may have been remembered +in tradition, and may have lent colour and form to these somewhat +philosophic myths of origins. From such sources probably comes the +Mexican hypothesis of a water-age (ending in a deluge), an earth-age +(ending in an earthquake), a wind-age (ending in hurricanes), and the +present dispensation, to be destroyed by fire. + + +(1) As an example of a dim evolutionary idea, note the myths of the +various ages as reported by Mendieta, according to which there were five +earlier ages "or suns" of bad quality, so that the contemporary human +beings were unable to live on the fruits of the earth. + + +The less philosophic and more popular Aztec legend of the commencement +of the world is mainly remarkable for the importance given in it to +objects of stone. For some reason, stones play a much greater part in +American than in other mythologies. An emerald was worshipped in the +temple of Pachacamac, who was, according to Garcilasso, the supreme and +spiritual deity of the Incas. The creation legend of the Cakchiquels of +Guatemala(1) makes much of a mysterious, primeval and animated obsidian +stone. In the Iroquois myths(2) stones are the leading characters. Nor +did Aztec myth escape this influence. + + +(1) Brinton, Annals of the Cakchiquels. + +(2) Erminie Smith, Bureau of Ethnol. Report, ii. + + +There was a god in heaven named Citlalatonac, and a goddess, Citlalicue. +When we speak of "heaven" we must probably think of some such world of +ordinary terrestrial nature above the sky as that from which Ataentsic +fell in the Huron story. The goddess gave birth to a flint-knife, and +flung the flint down to earth. This abnormal birth partly answers to +that of the youngest of the Adityas, the rejected abortion in the Veda, +and to the similar birth and rejection of Maui in New Zealand. From +the fallen flint-knife sprang our old friends the magnified non-natural +beings with human characteristics, "the gods," to the number of 1600. +The gods sent up the hawk (who in India and Australia generally comes +to the front on these occasions), and asked their mother, or rather +grandmother, to help them to make men, to be their servants. Citlalicue +rather jeered at her unconsidered offspring. She advised them to go to +the lord of the homes of the departed, Mictlanteuctli, and borrow a +bone or some ashes of the dead who are with him. We must never ask for +consistency from myths. This statement implies that men had already +been in existence, though they were not yet created. Perhaps they had +perished in one of the four great destructions. With difficulty and +danger the gods stole a bone from Hades, placed it in a bowl, and +smeared it with their own blood, as in Chaldea and elsewhere. Finally, a +boy and a girl were born out of the bowl. From this pair sprang men, and +certain of the gods, jumping into a furnace, became sun and moon. To the +sun they then, in Aztec fashion, sacrificed themselves, and there, +one might think, was an end of them. But they afterwards appeared in +wondrous fashions to their worshippers, and ordained the ritual of +religion. According to another legend, man and woman (as in African +myths) struggled out of a hole in the ground.(1) + + +(1) Authorities: Ixtlil.; Kingsborough, ix. pp. 205, 206; Sahagun, Hist. +Gen., i. 3, vii. 2; J. G. Muller, p. 510, where Muller compares the +Delphic conception of ages of the world; Bancroft, iii. pp. 60, 65. + + +The myths of the peoples under the empire of the Incas in Peru are +extremely interesting, because almost all mythical formations are found +existing together, while we have historical evidence as to the order and +manner of their development. The Peru of the Incas covered the modern +state of the same name, and included Ecuador, with parts of Chili and +Bolivia. M. Reville calculates that the empire was about 2500 miles in +length, four times as long as France, and that its breadth was from 250 +to 500 miles. The country, contained three different climatic regions, +and was peopled by races of many different degrees of culture, all more +or less subject to the dominion of the Children of the Sun. The three +regions were the dry strip along the coast, the fertile and cultivated +land about the spurs of the Cordilleras, and the inland mountain +regions, inhabited by the wildest races. Near Cuzco, the Inca capital, +was the Lake of Titicaca, the Mediterranean, as it were, of Peru, for +on the shores of this inland sea was developed the chief civilisation of +the new world. + +As to the institutions, myths and religion of the empire, we have +copious if contradictory information. There are the narratives of the +Spanish conquerors, especially of Pizarro's chaplain, Valverde, an +ignorant bigoted fanatic. Then we have somewhat later travellers and +missionaries, of whom Cieza de Leon (his book was published thirty years +after the conquest, in 1553) is one of the most trustworthy. The "Royal +Commentaries" of Garcilasso de la Vega, son of an Inca lady and a +Spanish conqueror, have often already been quoted. The critical spirit +and sound sense of Garcilasso are in remarkable contrast to the stupid +orthodoxy of the Spaniards, but some allowance must be made for his +fervent Peruvian patriotism. He had heard the Inca traditions repeated +in boyhood, and very early in life collected all the information +which his mother and maternal uncle had to give him, or which could be +extracted from the quipus (the records of knotted cord), and from +the commemorative pictures of his ancestors. Garcilasso had access, +moreover, to the "torn papers" of Blas Valera, an early Spanish +missionary of unusual sense and acuteness. Christoval de Moluna is also +an excellent authority, and much may be learned from the volume of Rites +and Laws of the Yncas.(1) + + +(1) A more complete list of authorities, including the garrulous Acosta, +is published by M. Reville in his Hibbert Lectures, pp. 136, 137. +Garcilasso, Cieza de Leon, Christoval de Moluna, Acosta and the Rites +and Laws have all been translated by Mr. Clements Markham, and are +published, with the editor's learned and ingenious notes, in the +collection of the Hakluyt Society. Care must be taken to discriminate +between what is reported about the Indians of the various provinces, +who were in very different grades of culture, and what is told about the +Incas themselves. + + +The political and religious condition of the Peruvian empire is very +clearly conceived and stated by Garcilasso. Without making due allowance +for that mysterious earlier civilisation, older than the Incas, whose +cyclopean buildings are the wonder of travellers, Garcilasso attributes +the introduction of civilisation to his own ancestors. Allowing for what +is confessedly mythical in his narrative, it must be admitted that +he has a firm grasp of what the actual history must have been. He +recognises a period of savagery before the Incas, a condition of the +rudest barbarism, which still existed on the fringes and mountain +recesses of the empire. The religion of that period was mere magic and +totemism. From all manner of natural objects, but chiefly from beasts +and birds, the various savage stocks of Peru claimed descent, and they +revered and offered sacrifice to their totemic ancestors.(1) Garcilasso +adds, what is almost incredible, that the Indians tamely permitted +themselves to be eaten by their totems, when these were carnivorous +animals. They did this with the less reluctance as they were cannibals, +and accustomed to breed children for the purposes of the cuisine from +captive women taken in war.(2) Among the huacas or idols, totems, +fetishes and other adorable objects of the Indians, worshipped before +and retained after the introduction of the Inca sun-totem and solar +cult, Garcilasso names trees, hills, rocks, caves, fountains, emeralds, +pieces of jasper, tigers, lions, bears, foxes, monkeys, condors, owls, +lizards, toads, frogs, sheep, maize, the sea, "for want of larger gods, +crabs" and bats. The bat was also the totem of the Zotzil, the chief +family of the Cakchiquels of Guatemala, and the most high god of the +Cakchiquels was worshipped in the shape of a bat. We are reminded of +religion as it exists in Samoa. The explanation of Blas Valera was that +in each totem (pacarissa) the Indians adored the devil. + + +(1) Com. Real., vol. i., chap. ix., x. xi. pp. 47-53. + +(2) Cieza de Leon, xii., xv., xix., xxi., xxiii., xxvi., xxviii., xxxii. +Cieza is speaking of people in the valley of Cauca, in New Granada. + + +Athwart this early religion of totems and fetishes came, in Garcilasso's +narrative, the purer religion of the Incas, with what he regards as a +philosophic development of a belief in a Supreme Being. According to +him, the Inca sun-worship was really a totemism of a loftier +character. The Incas "knew how to choose gods better than the Indians". +Garcilasso's theory is that the earlier totems were selected chiefly as +distinguishing marks by the various stocks, though, of course, this +does not explain why the animals or other objects of each family were +worshipped or were regarded as ancestors, and the blood-connections of +the men who adored them. The Incas, disdaining crabs, lizards, bats +and even serpents and lions, "chose" the sun. Then, just like the other +totemic tribes, they feigned to be of the blood and lineage of the sun. + +This fable is, in brief, the Inca myth of the origin of civilisation and +of man, or at least of their breed of men. As M. Reville well remarks, +it is obvious that the Inca claim is an adaptation of the local myth +of Lake Titicaca, the inland sea of Peru. According to that myth, the +Children of the Sun, the ancestors of the Incas, came out of the earth +(as in Greek and African legends) at Lake Titicaca, or reached its +shores after wandering from the hole or cave whence they first emerged. +The myth, as adapted by the Incas, takes for granted the previous +existence of mankind, and, in some of its forms, the Inca period is +preceded by the deluge. + +Of the Peruvian myth concerning the origin of things, the following +account is given by a Spanish priest, Christoval de Moluna, in a report +to the Bishop of Cuzco in 1570.(1) The story was collected from the +lips of ancient Peruvians and old native priests, who again drew their +information in part from the painted records reserved in the temple of +the sun near Cuzco. The legend begins with a deluge myth; a cataclysm +ended a period of human existence. All mankind perished except a man and +woman, who floated in a box to a distance of several hundred miles +from Cuzco. There the creator commanded them to settle, and there, like +Pund-jel in Australia, he made clay images of men of all races, attired +in their national dress, and then animated them. They were all fashioned +and painted as correct models, and were provided with their national +songs and with seed-corn. They then were put into the earth, and emerged +all over the world at the proper places, some (as in Africa and Greece) +coming out of fountains, some out of trees, some out of caves. For this +reason they made huacas (worshipful objects or fetishes) of the trees, +caves and fountains. Some of the earliest men were changed into stones, +others into falcons, condors and other creatures which we know were +totems in Peru. Probably this myth of metamorphosis was invented to +account for the reverence paid to totems or pacarissas as the Peruvians +called them. In Tiahuanaco, where the creation, or rather manufacture of +men took place, the creator turned many sinners into stones. The sun was +made in the shape of a man, and, as he soared into heaven, he called out +in a friendly fashion to Manco Ccapac, the Ideal first Inca, "Look upon +me as thy father, and worship me as thy father". In these fables the +creator is called Pachyachachi, "Teacher of the world". According to +Christoval, the creator and his sons were "eternal and unchangeable". +Among the Canaris men descend from the survivor of the deluge, and a +beautiful bird with the face of a woman, a siren in fact, but known +better to ornithologists as a macaw. "The chief cause," says the good +Christoval, "of these fables was ignorance of God." + + +(1) Rites and Laws of the Yncas, p. 4, Hakluyt Society, 1873. + + +The story, as told by Cieza de Leon, runs thus:(1) A white man of great +stature (in fact, "a magnified non-natural man") came into the world, +and gave life to beasts and human beings. His name was Ticiviracocha, +and he was called the Father of the Sun.(2) There are likenesses of +him in the temple, and he was regarded as a moral teacher. It was owing +apparently to this benevolent being that four mysterious brothers and +sisters emerged from a cave--Children of the Sun, fathers of the Incas, +teachers of savage men. Their own conduct, however, was not exemplary, +and they shut up in a hole in the earth the brother of whom they were +jealous. This incident is even more common in the marchen or household +tales than in the regular tribal or national myths of the world.(3) The +buried brother emerged again with wings, and "without doubt he must +have been some devil," says honest Cieza de Leon. This brother was Manco +Ccapac, the heroic ancestor of the Incas, and he turned his jealous +brethren into stones. The whole tale is in the spirit illustrated by the +wilder romances of the Popol Vuh. + + +(1) Second Part of the Chronicles of Peru, p 5. + +(2) See Making of Religion, pp. 265-270. Name and God are much disputed. + +(3) The story of Joseph and the marchen of Jean de l'Ours are well-known +examples. + + +Garcilasso gives three forms of this myth. According to "the old Inca," +his maternal uncle, it was the sun which sent down two of his children, +giving them a golden staff, which would sink into the ground at the +place where they were to rest from wandering. It sank at Lake Titicaca. +About the current myths Garcilasso says generally that they were "more +like dreams" than straightforward stories; but, as he adds, the Greeks +and Romans also "invented fables worthy to be laughed at, and in greater +number than the Indians. The stories of one age of heathenism may be +compared with those of the other, and in many points they will be found +to agree." This critical position of Garcilasso's will be proved correct +when we reach the myths of Greeks and Indo-Aryans. The myth as narrated +north-east of Cuzco speaks of the four brothers and four sisters who +came out of caves, and the caves in Inca times were panelled with gold +and silver. + +Athwart all these lower myths, survivals from the savage stage, comes +what Garcilasso regards as the philosophical Inca belief in Pachacamac. +This deity, to Garcilasso's mind, was purely spiritual: he had no image +and dwelt in no temple; in fact, he is that very God whom the Spanish +missionaries proclaimed. This view, though the fact has been doubted, +was very probably held by the Amautas, or philosophical class in +Peru.(1) Cieza de Leon says "the name of this devil, Pachacamac, means +creator of the world". Garcilasso urges that Pachacamac was the animus +mundi; that he did not "make the world," as Pund-jel and other savage +demiurges made it, but that he was to the universe what the soul is to +the body. + + +(1) Com. Real., vol. i. p. 106. + + +Here we find ourselves, if among myths at all, among the myths of +metaphysics--rational myths; that is, myths corresponding to our present +stage of thought, and therefore intelligible to us. Pachacamac "made the +sun, and lightning, and thunder, and of these the sun was worshipped +by the Incas". Garcilasso denies that the moon was worshipped. The +reflections of the sceptical or monotheistic Inca, who declared that the +sun, far from being a free agent, "seems like a thing held to its task," +are reported by Garcilasso, and appear to prove that solar worship was +giving way, in the minds of educated Peruvians, a hundred years before +the arrival of Pizarro and Valverde with his missal.(1) + + +(1) Garcilasso, viii. 8, quoting Blas Valera. + + +From this summary it appears that the higher Peruvian religion had +wrested to its service, and to the dynastic purposes of the Incas, a +native myth of the familiar class, in which men come ready made out of +holes in the ground. But in Peru we do not find nearly such abundance of +other savage origin myths as will be proved to exist in the legends of +Greeks and Indo-Aryans. The reason probably is that Peru left no +native literature; the missionaries disdained stories of "devils," and +Garcilasso's common sense and patriotism were alike revolted by the +incidents of stories "more like dreams" than truthful records. He +therefore was silent about them. In Greece and India, on the other hand, +the native religious literature preserved myths of the making of man out +of clay, of his birth from trees and stones, of the fashioning of things +out of the fragments of mutilated gods and Titans, of the cosmic egg, of +the rending and wounding of a personal heaven and a personal earth, of +the fishing up from the waters of a tiny earth which grew greater, of +the development of men out of beasts, with a dozen other such notions as +are familiar to contemporary Bushmen, Australians, Digger Indians, and +Cahrocs. But in Greece and India these ideas coexist with myths and +religious beliefs as purely spiritual and metaphysical as the belief in +the Pachacamac of Garcilasso and the Amautas of Peru. + + + +CHAPTER VII. INDO-ARYAN MYTHS--SOURCES OF EVIDENCE. + + +Authorities--Vedas--Brahmanas--Social condition of Vedic +India--Arts--Ranks--War--Vedic fetishism--Ancestor worship--Date +of Rig-Veda Hymns doubtful--Obscurity of the Hymns--Difficulty +of interpreting the real character of Veda--Not primitive but +sacerdotal--The moral purity not innocence but refinement. + + +Before examining the myths of the Aryans of India, it is necessary to +have a clear notion of the nature of the evidence from which we derive +our knowledge of the subject. That evidence is found in a large and +incongruous mass of literary documents, the heritage of the Indian +people. In this mass are extremely ancient texts (the Rig-Veda, and +the Atharva-Veda), expository comments of a date so much later that +the original meaning of the older documents was sometimes lost (the +Brahmanas), and poems and legendary collections of a period later still, +a period when the whole character of religious thought had sensibly +altered. In this literature there is indeed a certain continuity; the +names of several gods of the earliest time are preserved in the legends +of the latest. But the influences of many centuries of change, of +contending philosophies, of periods of national growth and advance, and +of national decadence and decay, have been at work on the mythology of +India. Here we have myths that were perhaps originally popular tales, +and are probably old; here again, we have later legends that certainly +were conceived in the narrow minds of a pedantic and ceremonious +priesthood. It is not possible, of course, to analyse in this place all +the myths of all the periods; we must be content to point out some which +seem to be typical examples of the working of the human intellect in +its earlier or its later childhood, in its distant hours of barbaric +beginnings, or in the senility of its sacerdotage. + +The documents which contain Indian mythology may be divided, broadly +speaking, into four classes. First, and most ancient in date of +composition, are the collections of hymns known as the Vedas. Next, and +(as far as date of collection goes) far less ancient, are the expository +texts called the Brahmanas. Later still, come other manuals of devotion +and of sacred learning, called Sutras and Upanishads; and last are the +epic poems (Itihasas), and the books of legends called Puranas. We are +chiefly concerned here with the Vedas and Brahmanas. A gulf of time, a +period of social and literary change, separates the Brahmanas from the +Vedas. But the epics and Puranas differ perhaps even still more from the +Brahmanas, on account of vast religious changes which brought new gods +into the Indian Olympus, or elevated to the highest place old gods +formerly of low degree. From the composition of the first Vedic hymn to +the compilation of the latest Purana, religious and mythopoeic fancy was +never at rest. + +Various motives induced various poets to assign, on various occasions +the highest powers to this or the other god. The most antique legends +were probably omitted or softened by some early Vedic bard (Rishi) of +noble genius, or again impure myths were brought from the obscurity of +oral circulation and foisted into literature by some poet less divinely +inspired. Old deities were half-forgotten, and forgotten deities were +resuscitated. Sages shook off superstitious bonds, priests forged new +fetters on ancient patterns for themselves and their flocks. Philosophy +explained away the more degrading myths; myths as degrading were +suggested to dark and servile hearts by unscientific etymologies. Over +the whole mass of ancient mythology the new mythology of a debased +Brahmanic ritualism grew like some luxurious and baneful parasite. It is +enough for our purpose if we can show that even in the purest and most +antique mythology of India the element of traditional savagery survived +and played its part, and that the irrational legends of the Vedas and +Brahmanas can often be explained as relics of savage philosophy or +faith, or as novelties planned on the ancient savage model, whether +borrowed or native to the race. + +The oldest documents of Indian mythology are the Vedas, usually reckoned +as four in number. The oldest, again, of the four, is the Sanhita +("collection") of the Rig-Veda. It is a purely lyrical assortment of the +songs "which the Hindus brought with them from their ancient homes on +the banks of the Indus". In the manuscripts, the hymns are classified +according to the families of poets to whom they are ascribed. Though +composed on the banks of the Indus by sacred bards, the hymns were +compiled and arranged in India proper. At what date the oldest hymns of +which this collection is made up were first chanted it is impossible to +say with even approximate certainty. Opinions differ, or have differed, +between 2400 B.C. and 1400 B.C. as the period when the earliest sacred +lyrics of the Veda may first have been listened by gods and men. In +addition to the Rig-Veda we have the Sanhita of the Sama-Veda, "an +anthology taken from the Rik-Samhita, comprising those of its verses +which were intended to be chanted at the ceremonies of the soma +sacrifice".(1) It is conjectured that the hymns of the Sama-Veda +were borrowed from the Rig-Veda before the latter had been edited and +stereotyped into its present form. Next comes the Yajur-Veda, "which +contains the formulas for the entire sacrificial ceremonial, and indeed +forms its proper foundations," the other Vedas being devoted to the soma +sacrifice.(2) The Yajur-Veda has two divisions, known as the Black and +the White Yajur, which have common matter, but differ in arrangement. +The Black Yajur-Veda is also called the Taittirya, and it is described +as "a motley undigested jumble of different pieces".(3) Last comes +Atharva-Veda, not always regarded as a Veda properly speaking. It +derives its name from an old semi-mythical priestly family, the +Atharvans, and is full of magical formulae, imprecations, folk-lore and +spells. There are good reasons for thinking this late as a collection, +however early may be the magical ideas expressed in its contents.(4) + + +(1) Weber, History of Indian Literature, Eng. transl., p. 63. + +(2) Ibid., p. 86. + +(3) Ibid, p. 87. The name Taittirya is derived from a partridge, or from +a Rishi named Partridge in Sanskrit. There is a story that the pupils of +a sage were turned into partridges, to pick up sacred texts. + +(4) Barth (Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 6) thinks that the existence of +such a collection as the Atharva-Veda is implied, perhaps, in a text of +the Rig-Veda, x. 90, 9. + + +Between the Vedas, or, at all events, between the oldest of the Vedas, +and the compilation of the Brahmanas, these "canonised explanations of +a canonised text,"(1) it is probable that some centuries and many social +changes intervened.(2) + + +(1) Whitney, Oriental and Linguistic studies, First Series, p. 4. + +(2) Max Muller, Biographical Essays, p. 20. "The prose portions +presuppose the hymns, and, to judge from the utter inability of the +authors of the Brahmanas to understand the antiquated language of the +hymns, these Brahmanas must be ascribed to a much later period than that +which gave birth to the hymns." + + +If we would criticise the documents for Indian mythology in a scientific +manner, it is now necessary that we should try to discover, as far as +possible, the social and religious condition of the people among whom +the Vedas took shape. Were they in any sense "primitive," or were +they civilised? Was their religion in its obscure beginnings or was it +already a special and peculiar development, the fruit of many ages of +thought? Now it is an unfortunate thing that scholars have constantly, +and as it were involuntarily, drifted into the error of regarding +the Vedas as if they were "primitive," as if they exhibited to us the +"germs" and "genesis" of religion and mythology, as if they contained +the simple though strange utterances of PRIMITIVE thought.(1) Thus Mr. +Whitney declares, in his Oriental and Linguistic Studies, "that the +Vedas exhibit to us the very earliest germs of the Hindu culture". Mr. +Max Muller avers that "no country can be compared to India as +offering opportunities for a real study of the genesis and growth of +religion".(2) Yet the same scholar observes that "even the earliest +specimens of Vedic poetry belong to the modern history of the race, and +that the early period of the historical growth of religion had passed +away before the Rishis (bards) could have worshipped their Devas +or bright beings with sacred hymns and invocations". Though this is +manifestly true, the sacred hymns and invocations of the Rishis are +constantly used as testimony bearing on the beginning of the historical +growth of religion. Nay, more; these remains of "the modern history of +the race" are supposed to exhibit mythology in the process of making, as +if the race had possessed no mythology before it reached a comparatively +modern period, the Vedic age. In the same spirit, Dr. Muir, the learned +editor of Sanskrit Texts, speaks in one place as if the Vedic hymns +"illustrated the natural workings of the human mind in the period of +its infancy".(3) A brief examination of the social and political and +religious condition of man, as described by the poets of the Vedas, +will prove that his infancy had long been left behind him when the first +Vedic hymns were chanted. + + +(1) Ibid., Rig-Veda Sanhita, p. vii. + +(2) Hibbert Lectures, p. 131. + +(3) Nothing can prove more absolutely and more briefly the late +character of Vedic faith than the fact that the faith had already to +be defended against the attacks of sceptics. The impious denied the +existence of Indra because he was invisible. Rig-Veda, ii. 12, 5; viii. +89, 3; v. 30, 1-2; vi. 27, 3. Bergaigne, ii. 167. "Es gibt keinen Indra, +so hat der eine und der ander gesagt" (Ludwig's version). + + +As Barth observes, the very ideas which permeate the Veda, the idea of +the mystic efficacy of sacrifice, of brahma, prove that the poems are +profoundly sacerdotal; and this should have given pause to the writers +who have persisted in representing the hymns as the work of primitive +shepherds praising their gods as they feed their flocks.(1) In the Vedic +age the ranks of society are already at least as clearly defined as in +Homeric Greece. "We men," says a poet of the Rig-Veda,(2) "have all our +different imaginations and designs. The carpenter seeks something that +is broken, the doctor a patient, the priest some one who will offer +libations.... The artisan continually seeks after a man with plenty of +gold.... I am a poet, my father is a doctor, and my mother is a grinder +of corn." Chariots and the art of the chariot-builder are as frequently +spoken of as in the Iliad. Spears, swords, axes and coats of mail were +in common use. The art of boat-building or of ship-building was well +known. Kine and horses, sheep and dogs, had long been domesticated. The +bow was a favourite weapon, and warriors fought in chariots, like the +Homeric Greeks and the Egyptians. Weaving was commonly practised. The +people probably lived, as a rule, in village settlements, but cities or +fortified places were by no means unknown.(3) As for political society, +"kings are frequently mentioned in the hymns," and "it was regarded as +eminently beneficial for a king to entertain a family priest," on whom +he was expected to confer thousands of kine, lovely slaves and lumps of +gold. In the family polygamy existed, probably as the exception. There +is reason to suppose that the brother-in-law was permitted, if +not expected, to "raise up seed" to his dead brother, as among the +Hebrews.(4) As to literature, the very structure of the hymns proves +that it was elaborate and consciously artistic. M. Barth writes: "It +would be a great mistake to speak of the primitive naivete of the Vedic +poetry and religion".(5) Both the poetry and the religion, on the other +hand, display in the highest degree the mark of the sacerdotal spirit. +The myths, though originally derived from nature-worship, in an infinite +majority of cases only reflect natural phenomena through a veil of +ritualistic corruptions.(6) The rigid division of castes is seldom +recognised in the Rig-Veda. We seem to see caste in the making.(7) +The Rishis and priests of the princely families were on their way to +becoming the all-powerful Brahmans. The kings and princes were on their +way to becoming the caste of Kshatriyas or warriors. The mass of the +people was soon to sink into the caste of Vaisyas and broken men. +Non-Aryan aborigines and others were possibly developing into the caste +of Sudras. Thus the spirit of division and of ceremonialism had still +some of its conquests to achieve. But the extraordinary attention given +and the immense importance assigned to the details of sacrifice, and +the supernatural efficacy constantly attributed to a sort of magical +asceticism (tapas, austere fervour), prove that the worst and most +foolish elements of later Indian society and thought were in the Vedic +age already in powerful existence. + + +(1) Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 27. + +(2) ix. 112. + +(3) Ludwig, Rig-Veda, iii. 203. The burgs were fortified with wooden +palisades, capable of being destroyed by fire. "Cities" may be too +magnificent a word for what perhaps were more like pahs. But compare +Kaegi, The Rig-Veda, note 42, Engl. transl. Kaegi's book (translated by +Dr. Arrowsmith, Boston, U.S., 1886) is probably the best short manual of +the subject. + +(4) Deut. xxv. 5; Matt. xxii. 24. + +(5) Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, i. 245. + +(6) Ludwig, iii. 262. + +(7) On this subject see Muir, i. 192, with the remarks of Haug. "From +all we know, the real origin of caste seems to go back to a time +anterior to the composition of the Vedic hymns, though its development +into a regular system with insurmountable barriers can be referred only +to the later period of the Vedic times." Roth approaches the subject +from the word brahm, that is, prayer with a mystical efficacy, as his +starting-point. From brahm, prayer, came brahma, he who pronounces the +prayers and performs the rite. This celebrant developed into a priest, +whom to entertain brought blessings on kings. This domestic chaplaincy +(conferring peculiar and even supernatural benefits) became hereditary +in families, and these, united by common interests, exalted themselves +into the Brahman caste. But in the Vedic age gifts of prayer and poetry +alone marked out the purohitas, or men put forward to mediate between +gods and mortals. Compare Ludwig, iii. 221. + + +Thus it is self-evident that the society in which the Vedic poets lived +was so far from being PRIMITIVE that it was even superior to the higher +barbarisms (such as that of the Scythians of Herodotus and Germans of +Tacitus), and might be regarded as safely arrived at the threshold of +civilisation. Society possessed kings, though they may have been kings +of small communities, like those who warred with Joshua or fought under +the walls of Thebes or Troy. Poets were better paid than they seem to +have been at the courts of Homer or are at the present time. For the +tribal festivals special priests were appointed, "who distinguished +themselves by their comprehensive knowledge of the requisite rites +and by their learning, and amongst whom a sort of rivalry is gradually +developed, according as one tribe or another is supposed to have more or +less prospered by its sacrifices".(1) In the family marriage is sacred, +and traces of polyandry and of the levirate, surviving as late as the +epic poems, were regarded as things that need to be explained away. +Perhaps the most barbaric feature in Vedic society, the most singular +relic of a distant past, is the survival, even in a modified and +symbolic form, of human sacrifice.(2) + + +(1) Weber, p. 37. + +(2) Wilson, Rig-Veda, i. p. 59-63; Muir, i. ii.; Wilson, Rig-Veda i. p. +xxiv., ii. 8 (ii. 90); Aitareya Brahmana, Haug's version, vol. ii. pp. +462, 469. + + +As to the religious condition of the Vedic Aryans, we must steadily +remember that in the Vedas we have the views of the Rishis only, that +is, of sacred poets on their way to becoming a sacred caste. Necessarily +they no more represent the POPULAR creeds than the psalmists and +prophets, with their lofty monotheistic morality, represent the popular +creeds of Israel. The faith of the Rishis, as will be shown later, like +that of the psalmists, has a noble moral aspect. Yet certain elements of +this higher creed are already found in the faiths of the lowest savages. +The Rishis probably did not actually INVENT them. Consciousness of sin, +of imperfection in the sight of divine beings, has been developed (as +it has even in Australia) and is often confessed. But on the whole +the religion of the Rishis is practical--it might almost be said, is +magical. They desire temporal blessings, rain, sunshine, long life, +power, wealth in flocks and herds. The whole purpose of the sacrifices +which occupy so much of their time and thought is to obtain these good +things. The sacrifice and the sacrificer come between gods and men. On +the man's side is faith, munificence, a compelling force of prayer and +of intentness of will. The sacrifice invigorates the gods to do the will +of the sacrificer; it is supposed to be mystically celebrated in heaven +as well as on earth--the gods are always sacrificing. Often (as when +rain is wanted) the sacrifice imitates the end which it is desirable to +gain.(1) In all these matters a minute ritual is already observed. The +mystic word brahma, in the sense of hymn or prayer of a compelling and +magical efficacy, has already come into use. The brahma answers +almost to the Maori karakia or incantation and charm. "This brahma of +Visvamitra protects the tribe of Bharata." "Atri with the fourth prayer +discovered the sun concealed by unholy darkness."(2) The complicated +ritual, in which prayer and sacrifice were supposed to exert a +constraining influence on the supernatural powers, already existed, Haug +thinks, in the time of the chief Rishis or hymnists of the Rig-Veda.(3) + + +(1) Compare "The Prayers of Savages" in J. A. Farrer's Primitive +Manners, and Ludwig, iii. 262-296, and see Bergaigne, La Religion +Vedique, vol. i. p. 121. + +(2) See texts in Muir, i. 242. + +(3) Preface to translation of Aitareya Brahmana, p. 36. + + +In many respects the nature of the idea of the divine, as entertained +by the Rishis of the Rig-Veda, is still matter for discussion. In the +chapter on Vedic gods such particulars as can be ascertained will be +given. Roughly speaking, the religion is mainly, though not wholly, +a cult of departmental gods, originally, in certain cases, forces of +Nature, but endowed with moral earnestness. As to fetishism in the Vedas +the opinions of the learned are divided. M. Bergaigne(1) looks on +the whole ritual as, practically, an organised fetishism, employed +to influence gods of a far higher and purer character. Mr. Max Muller +remarks, "that stones, bones, shells, herbs and all the other so-called +fetishes, are simply absent in the old hymns, though they appear in more +modern hymns, particularly those of the Atharva-Veda. When artificial +objects are mentioned and celebrated in the Rig-Veda, they are only +such as might be praised even by Wordsworth or Tennyson--chariots, bows, +quivers, axes, drums, sacrificial vessels and similar objects. They +never assume any individual character; they are simply mentioned as +useful or precious, it may be as sacred."(2) + + +(1) La Religion Vedique, vol. i. p. 123. "Le culte est assimilable dans +une certaine mesure aux incantations, aux pratiques magiques." + +(2) Hibbert Lectures, p. 198. + + +When the existence of fetish "herbs" is denied by Mr. Max Muller, he +does not, of course, forget Soma, that divine juice. It is also to be +noted that in modern India, as Mr. Max Muller himself observes, Sir +Alfred Lyall finds that "the husbandman prays to his plough and the +fisher to his net," these objects being, at present, fetishes. In +opposition to Mr. Max Muller, Barth avers that the same kind of +fetishism which flourishes to-day flourishes in the Rig-Veda. +"Mountains, rivers, springs, trees, herbs are invoked as so many powers. +The beasts which live with man--the horse, the cow, the dog, the bird +and the animals which imperil his existence--receive a cult of praise +and prayer. Among the instruments of ritual, some objects are more +than things consecrated--they are divinities; and the war-chariot, the +weapons of defence and offence, the plough, are the objects not only +of benedictions but of prayers."(1) These absolute contradictions on +matters of fact add, of course, to the difficulty of understanding the +early Indo-Aryan religion. One authority says that the Vedic people were +fetish-worshippers; another authority denies it. + + +(1) Barth, Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 7, with the Vedic texts. + + +Were the Rishis ancestor-worshippers? Barth has no doubt whatever that +they were. In the pitris or fathers he recognises ancestral spirits, now +"companions of the gods, and gods themselves. At their head appear the +earliest celebrants of the sacrifice, Atharvan, the Angiras, the Kavis +(the pitris, par excellence) equals of the greatest gods, spirits who, +BY DINT OF SACRIFICE, drew forth the world from chaos, gave birth to the +sun and lighted the stars,"--cosmical feats which, as we have seen, +are sometimes attributed by the lower races to their idealised mythic +ancestors, the "old, old ones" of Australians and Ovahereroes. + +A few examples of invocations of the ancestral spirits may not be out +of place.(1) "May the Fathers protect me in my invocation of the gods." +Here is a curious case, especially when we remember how the wolf, in +the North American myth, scattered the stars like spangles over the sky: +"The fathers have adorned the sky with stars".(2) + + +(1) Rig-Veda, vi. 52,4. + +(2) Ibid., x. 68, xi. + +Mr. Whitney (Oriental and Linguistic Studies, First Series, p. 59) gives +examples of the ceremony of feeding the Aryan ghosts. "The fathers are +supposed to assemble, upon due invocation, about the altar of him who +would pay them homage, to seat themselves upon the straw or matting +spread for each of the guests invited, and to partake of the offerings +set before them." The food seems chiefly to consist of rice, sesame and +honey. + + +Important as is the element of ancestor-worship in the evolution of +religion, Mr. Max Muller, in his Hibbert Lectures, merely remarks that +thoughts and feelings about the dead "supplied some of the earliest and +most important elements of religion"; but how these earliest elements +affect his system does not appear. On a general view, then, the +religion of the Vedic poets contained a vast number of elements in +solution--elements such as meet us in every quarter of the globe. The +belief in ancestral ghosts, the adoration of fetishes, the devotion to +a moral ideal, contemplated in the persons of various deities, some of +whom at least have been, and partly remain, personal natural forces, are +all mingled, and all are drifting towards a kind of pantheism, in which, +while everything is divine, and gods are reckoned by millions, the +worshipper has glimpses of one single divine essence. The ritual, as we +have seen, is more or less magical in character. The general elements +of the beliefs are found, in various proportions, everywhere; the +pantheistic mysticism is almost peculiar to India. It is, perhaps, +needless to repeat that a faith so very composite, and already so +strongly differentiated, cannot possibly be "primitive," and that the +beliefs and practices of a race so highly organised in society and +so well equipped in material civilisation as the Vedic Aryans cannot +possibly be "near the beginning". Far from expecting to find in the +Veda the primitive myths of the Aryans, we must remember that myth had +already, when these hymns were sung, become obnoxious to the religious +sentiment. "Thus," writes Barth, "the authors of the hymns have +expurgated, or at least left in the shade, a vast number of legends +older than their time; such, for example, as the identity of soma with +the moon, as the account of the divine families, of the parricide of +Indra, and a long list might be made of the reticences of the Veda.... +It would be difficult to extract from the hymns a chapter on the loves +of the gods. The goddesses are veiled, the adventures of the gods are +scarcely touched on in passing.... We must allow for the moral delicacy +of the singers, and for their dislike of speaking too precisely about +the gods. Sometimes it seems as if their chief object was to avoid plain +speaking.... But often there is nothing save jargon and indolence of +mind in this voluntary obscurity, for already in the Veda the Indian +intellect is deeply smitten with its inveterate malady of affecting +mystery the more, the more it has nothing to conceal; the mania for +scattering symbols which symbolise no reality, and for sporting with +riddles which it is not worth while to divine."(1) Barth, however, also +recognises amidst these confusions, "the inquietude of a heart deeply +stirred, which seeks truth and redemption in prayer". Such is the +natural judgment of the clear French intellect on the wilfully obscure, +tormented and evasive intellect of India. + + +(1) Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 21. + + +It would be interesting were it possible to illuminate the criticism of +Vedic religion by ascertaining which hymns in the Rig-Veda are the most +ancient, and which are later. Could we do this, we might draw inferences +as to the comparative antiquity of the religious ideas in the poems. +But no such discrimination of relative antiquity seems to be within +the reach of critics. M. Bergaigne thinks it impossible at present to +determine the relative age of the hymns by any philological test. The +ideas expressed are not more easily arrayed in order of date. We might +think that the poems which contain most ceremonial allusions were the +latest. But Mr. Max Muller says that "even the earliest hymns have +sentiments worthy of the most advanced ceremonialists".(1) + + +(1) History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 556. + + +The first and oldest source of our knowledge of Indo-Aryan myths is the +Rig-Veda, whose nature and character have been described. The second +source is the Atharva-Veda with the Brahmanas. The peculiarity of the +Atharva is its collection of magical incantations spells and fragments +of folklore. These are often, doubtless, of the highest antiquity. +Sorcery and the arts of medicine-men are earlier in the course of +evolution than priesthood. We meet them everywhere among races who have +not developed the institution of an order of priests serving national +gods. As a collection, the Atharva-Veda is later than the Rig-Veda, +but we need not therefore conclude that the IDEAS of the Atharva are "a +later development of the more primitive ideas of the Rig-Veda". Magic is +quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus; the ideas of the Atharva-Veda +are everywhere; the peculiar notions of the Rig-Veda are the special +property of an advanced and highly differentiated people. Even in the +present collected shape, M. Barth thinks that many hymns of the Atharva +are not much later than those of the Rig-Veda. Mr. Whitney, admitting +the lateness of the Atharva as a collection, says, "This would not +necessarily imply that the main body of the Atharva hymns were +not already in existence when the compilation of the Rig-Veda took +place".(1) The Atharva refers to some poets of the Rig (as certain +hymnists in the Rig also do) as earlier men. If in the Rig (as Weber +says) "there breathes a lively natural feeling, a warm love of nature, +while in the Atharva, on the contrary, there predominates an anxious +apprehension of evil spirits and their magical powers," it by no means +follows that this apprehension is of later origin than the lively +feeling for Nature. Rather the reverse. There appears to be no doubt(2) +that the style and language of the Atharva are later than those of +the Rig. Roth, who recognises the change, in language and style, yet +considers the Atharva "part of the old literature".(3) He concludes that +the Atharva contains many pieces which, "both by their style and ideas, +are shown to be contemporary with the older hymns of the Rig-Veda". +In religion, according to Muir,(4) the Atharva shows progress in the +direction of monotheism in its celebration of Brahman, but it also +introduces serpent-worship. + + +(1) Journal of the American Oriental Society. iv. 253. + +(2) Muir, ii. 446. + +(3) Ibid., ii. 448. + +(4) Ibid., ii. 451. + + +As to the Atharva, then, we are free to suppose, if we like, that the +dark magic, the evil spirits, the incantations, are old parts of Indian, +as of all other popular beliefs, though they come later into literature +than the poetry about Ushas and the morality of Varuna. The same remarks +apply to our third source of information, the Brahmanas. These are +indubitably comments on the sacred texts very much more modern in form +than the texts themselves. But it does not follow, and this is most +important for our purpose, that the myths in the Brahmanas are all later +than the Vedic myths or corruptions of the Veda. Muir remarks,(1) "The +Rig-Veda, though the oldest collection, does not necessarily contain +everything that is of the greatest age in Indian thought or tradition. +We know, for example, that certain legends, bearing the impress of +the highest antiquity, such as that of the deluge, appear first in the +Brahmanas." We are especially interested in this criticism, because most +of the myths which we profess to explain as survivals of savagery are +narrated in the Brahmanas. If these are necessarily late corruptions of +Vedic ideas, because the collection of the Brahmanas is far more modern +than that of the Veda, our argument is instantly disproved. But if ideas +of an earlier stratum of thought than the Vedic stratum may appear in +a later collection, as ideas of an earlier stratum of thought than +the Homeric appear in poetry and prose far later than Homer, then our +contention is legitimate. It will be shown in effect that a number of +myths of the Brahmanas correspond in character and incident with the +myths of savages, such as Cahrocs and Ahts. Our explanation is, that +these tales partly survived, in the minds perhaps of conservative local +priesthoods, from the savage stage of thought, or were borrowed from +aborigines in that stage, or were moulded in more recent times on +surviving examples of that wild early fancy. + + +(1) Muir, iv. 450. + + +In the age of the Brahmanas the people have spread southwards from the +basin of the Indus to that of the Ganges. The old sacred texts have +begun to be scarcely comprehensible. The priesthood has become much more +strictly defined and more rigorously constituted. Absurd as it may seem, +the Vedic metres, like the Gayatri, have been personified, and appear as +active heroines of stories presumably older than this personification. +The Asuras have descended from the rank of gods to that of the heavenly +opposition to Indra's government; they are now a kind of fiends, and the +Brahmanas are occupied with long stories about the war in heaven, +itself a very ancient conception. Varuna becomes cruel on occasion, and +hostile. Prajapati becomes the great mythical hero, and inherits the +wildest myths of the savage heroic beasts and birds. + +The priests are now Brahmans, a hereditary divine caste, who possess all +the vast and puerile knowledge of ritual and sacrificial minutiae. As +life in the opera is a series of songs, so life in the Brahmanas is a +sequence of sacrifices. Sacrifice makes the sun rise and set, and the +rivers run this way or that. + +The study of Indian myth is obstructed, as has been shown, by the +difficulty of determining the relative dates of the various legends, but +there are a myriad of other obstacles to the study of Indian mythology. +A poet of the Vedas says, "The chanters of hymns go about enveloped in +mist, and unsatisfied with idle talk".(1) The ancient hymns are still +"enveloped in mist," owing to the difficulty of their language and the +variety of modern renderings and interpretations. The heretics of +Vedic religion, the opponents of the orthodox commentators in ages +comparatively recent, used to complain that the Vedas were simply +nonsense, and their authors "knaves and buffoons". There are moments +when the modern student of Vedic myths is inclined to echo this petulant +complaint. For example, it is difficult enough to find in the Rig-Veda +anything like a categoric account of the gods, and a description of +their personal appearance. But in Rig-Veda, viii. 29, 1, we read of one +god, "a youth, brown, now hostile, now friendly; a golden lustre +invests him". Who is this youth? "Soma as the moon," according to the +commentators. M. Langlois thinks the sun is meant. Dr. Aufrecht thinks +the troop of Maruts (spirits of the storm), to whom, he remarks, the +epithet "dark-brown, tawny" is as applicable as it is to their master, +Rudra. This is rather confusing, and a mythological inquirer would like +to know for certain whether he is reading about the sun or soma, the +moon, or the winds. + + +(1) Rig-Veda, x. 82, 7, but compare Bergaigne, op. cit., iii. 72, +"enveloppes de nuees et de murmures". + + +To take another example; we open Mr. Max Muller's translation of the +Rig-Veda at random, say at page 49. In the second verse of the hymn +to the Maruts, Mr. Muller translates, "They who were born together, +self-luminous, with the spotted deer (the clouds), the spears, the +daggers, the glittering ornaments. I hear their whips almost close by, +as they crack them in their hands; they gain splendour on their way." +Now Wilson translates this passage, "Who, borne by spotted deer, were +born self-luminous, with weapons, war-cries and decorations. I hear the +cracking of their whips in their hands, wonderfully inspiring courage in +the fight." Benfey has, "Who with stags and spears, and with thunder and +lightning, self-luminous, were born. Hard by rings the crack of their +whip as it sounds in their hands; bright fare they down in storm." +Langlois translates, "Just born are they, self-luminous. Mark ye their +arms, their decorations, their car drawn by deer? Hear ye their clamour? +Listen! 'tis the noise of the whip they hold in their hands, the sound +that stirs up courage in the battle." This is an ordinary example of the +diversities of Vedic translation. It is sufficiently puzzling, nor is +the matter made more transparent by the variety of opinion as to the +meaning of the "deer" along with which the Maruts are said (by some of +the translators) to have been born. This is just the sort of passage +on which a controversy affecting the whole nature of Vedic mythological +ideas might be raised. According to a text in the Yajur Veda, gods, and +men, and beasts, and other matters were created from various portions of +the frame of a divine being named Prajapati.(1) The god Agni, Brahmans +and the goat were born from the mouth of Prajapati. From his breast and +arms came the god Indra (sometimes spoken of as a ram), the sheep, and +of men the Rajanya. Cows and gods called Visvadevas were born together +from his middle. Are we to understand the words "they who were born +together with the spotted deer" to refer to a myth of this kind--a myth +representing the Maruts and deer as having been born at the same birth, +as Agni came with the goat, and Indra with the sheep? This is just the +point on which the Indian commentators were divided.(2) Sayana, the old +commentator, says, "The legendary school takes them for deer with white +spots; the etymological school, for the many-coloured lines of +clouds". The modern legendary (or anthropological) and etymological (or +philological) students of mythology are often as much at variance in +their attempts to interpret the traditions of India. + + +(1) Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 16. + +(2) Max Muller, Rig-Veda Sanhita, trans., vol. i. p. 59. + + +Another famous, and almost comic, example of the difficulty of Vedic +interpretation is well known. In Rig-Veda, x. 16, 4, there is a funeral +hymn. Agni, the fire-god, is supplicated either to roast a goat or to +warm the soul of the dead and convey it to paradise. Whether the soul +is to be thus comforted or the goat is to be grilled, is a question that +has mightily puzzled Vedic doctors.(1) Professor Muller and M. Langlois +are all for "the immortal soul", the goat has advocates, or had +advocates, in Aufrecht, Ludwig and Roth. More important difficulties +of interpretation are illustrated by the attitude of M. Bergaigne in +La Religion Vedique, and his controversy with the great German +lexicographers. The study of mythology at one time made the Vedas its +starting-point. But perhaps it would be wise to begin from something +more intelligible, something less perplexed by difficulties of language +and diversities of interpretation. + + +(1) Muir, v. 217. + + +In attempting to criticise the various Aryan myths, we shall be guided, +on the whole, by the character of the myths themselves. Pure and +elevated conceptions we shall be inclined to assign to a pure and +elevated condition of thought (though such conceptions do, recognisably, +occur in the lowest known religious strata), and we shall make no +difficulty about believing that Rishis and singers capable of noble +conceptions existed in an age very remote in time, in a society which +had many of the features of a lofty and simple civilisation. But we +shall not, therefore, assume that the hymns of these Rishis are in any +sense "primitive," or throw much light on the infancy of the human mind, +or on the "origin" of religious and heroic myths. Impure, childish +and barbaric conceptions, on the other hand, we shall be inclined to +attribute to an impure, childish, and barbaric condition of thought; and +we shall again make no difficulty about believing that ideas originally +conceived when that stage of thought was general have been retained and +handed down to a far later period. This view of the possible, or rather +probable, antiquity of many of the myths preserved in the Brahmanas +is strengthened, if it needed strengthening, by the opinion of Dr. +Weber.(1) "We must indeed assume generally with regard to many of those +legends (in the Brahmanas of the Rig-Veda) that they had already gained +a rounded independent shape in tradition before they were incorporated +into the Brahmanas; and of this we have frequent evidence in the +DISTINCTLY ARCHAIC CHARACTER OF THEIR LANGUAGE, compared with that of +the rest of the text." + + +(1) History of Indian Literature, English trans., p. 47. + + +We have now briefly stated the nature and probable relative antiquity of +the evidence which is at the disposal of Vedic mythologists. The chief +lesson we would enforce is the necessity of suspending the judgment when +the Vedas are represented as examples of primitive and comparatively +pure and simple natural religion. They are not primitive; they are +highly differentiated, highly complex, extremely enigmatic expressions +of fairly advanced and very peculiar religious thought. They are not +morally so very pure as has been maintained, and their purity, such as +it is, seems the result of conscious reticence and wary selection rather +than of primeval innocence. Yet the bards or editors have by no means +wholly excluded very ancient myths of a thoroughly savage character. +These will be chiefly exposed in the chapter on "Indo-Aryan Myths of the +Beginnings of Things," which follows. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + +Comparison of Vedic and savage myths--The metaphysical Vedic account of +the beginning of things--Opposite and savage fable of world made out +of fragments of a man--Discussion of this hymn--Absurdities of +Brahmanas--Prajapati, a Vedic Unkulunkulu or Qat--Evolutionary +myths--Marriage of heaven and earth--Myths of Puranas, their savage +parallels--Most savage myths are repeated in Brahmanas. + + +In discussing the savage myths of the origin of the world and of man, we +observed that they were as inconsistent as they were fanciful. Among the +fancies embodied in the myths was noted the theory that the world, +or various parts of it, had been formed out of the body of some +huge non-natural being, a god, or giant, or a member of some ancient +mysterious race. We also noted the myths of the original union of heaven +and earth, and their violent separation as displayed in the tales +of Greeks and Maoris, to which may be added the Acagchemem nation +in California.(1) Another feature of savage cosmogonies, illustrated +especially in some early Slavonic myths, in Australian legends, and in +the faith of the American races, was the creation of the world, or the +recovery of a drowned world by animals, as the raven, the dove and +the coyote. The hatching of all things out of an egg was another rude +conception, chiefly noted among the Finns. The Indian form occurs in the +Satapatha Brahmana.(2) The preservation of the human race in the Deluge, +or the creation of the race after the Deluge, was yet another detail +of savage mythology; and for many of these fancies we seemed to find a +satisfactory origin in the exceedingly credulous and confused state of +savage philosophy and savage imagination. + + +(1) Bancroft, v. 162. + +(2) Sacred Books of the East, i. 216. + + +The question now to be asked is, do the traditions of the Aryans of +India supply us with myths so closely resembling the myths of Nootkas, +Maoris and Australians that we may provisionally explain them as +stories originally due to the invention of savages? This question may +be answered in the affirmative. The Vedas, the Epics and the Puranas +contain a large store of various cosmogonic traditions as inconsistent +as the parallel myths of savages. We have an Aryan Ilmarinen, Tvashtri, +who, like the Finnish smith, forged "the iron vault of hollow heaven" +and the ball of earth.(1) Again, the earth is said to have sprung, as +in some Mangaian fables, "from a being called Uttanapad".(2) Again, +Brahmanaspati, "blew the gods forth like a blacksmith," and the gods had +a hand in the making of things. In contrast with these childish pieces +of anthropomorphism, we have the famous and sublime speculations of an +often-quoted hymn.(3) It is thus that the poet dreams of the days before +being and non-being began:-- + + +(1) Muir, v. 354. + +(2) Rig-Veda, x. 72, 4. + +(3) Ibid., x. 126. + + +"There was then neither non-entity nor entity; there was no atmosphere +nor sky above. What enveloped (all)?... Was it water, the profound +abyss? Death was not then, nor immortality: there was no distinction of +day or night. That One breathed calmly, self-supported; then was nothing +different from it, or above it. In the beginning darkness existed, +enveloped in darkness. All this was undistinguishable water. That One +which lay void and wrapped in nothingness was developed by the power +of fervour. Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind +(and which) sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered to be +the bond which connects entity with non-entity. The ray (or cord) which +stretched across these (worlds), was it below or was it above? There +were there impregnating powers and mighty forces, a self-supporting +principle beneath and energy aloft. Who knows? who here can declare +whence has sprung, whence this creation? The gods are subsequent to the +development of this (universe); who then knows whence it arose? From +what this creation arose, and whether (any one) made it or not, he who +in the highest heaven is its ruler, he verily knows, or (even) he does +not know."(1) + + +(1) Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., v. 357. + + +Here there is a Vedic hymn of the origin of things, from a book, it is +true, supposed to be late, which is almost, if not absolutely, free from +mythological ideas. The "self-supporting principle beneath and energy +aloft" may refer, as Dr. Muir suggests, to the father, heaven above, and +the mother, earth beneath. The "bond between entity and non-entity" is +sought in a favourite idea of the Indian philosophers, that of tapas or +"fervour". The other speculations remind us, though they are much more +restrained and temperate in character, of the metaphysical chants of the +New Zealand priests, of the Zunis, of Popol Vuh, and so on. These belong +to very early culture. + +What is the relative age of this hymn? If it could be proved to be the +oldest in the Veda, it would demonstrate no more than this, that in time +exceedingly remote the Aryans of India possessed a philosopher, perhaps +a school of philosophers, who applied the minds to abstract speculations +on the origin of things. It could not prove that mythological +speculations had not preceded the attempts of a purer philosophy. But +the date cannot be ascertained. Mr. Max Muller cannot go farther than +the suggestion that the hymn is an expression of the perennis quaedam +philosophia of Leibnitz. We are also warned that a hymn is not +necessarily modern because it is philosophical.(1) Certainly that +is true; the Zunis, Maoris, and Mangaians exhibit amazing powers of +abstract thought. We are not concerned to show that this hymn is late; +but it seems almost superfluous to remark that ideas like those which it +contains can scarcely be accepted as expressing man's earliest theory +of the origin of all things. We turn from such ideas to those which the +Aryans of India have in common with black men and red men, with far-off +Finns and Scandinavians, Chaldaeans, Haidahs, Cherokees, Murri and +Maori, Mangaians and Egyptians. + + +(1) History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 568. + + +The next Vedic account of creation which we propose to consider is as +remote as possible in character from the sublime philosophic poem. In +the Purusha Sukta, the ninetieth hymn of the tenth book of the Rig-Veda +Sanhita, we have a description of the creation of all things out of the +severed limbs of a magnified non-natural man, Purusha. This conception +is of course that which occurs in the Norse myths of the rent body +of Ymir. Borr's sons took the body of the Giant Ymir and of his flesh +formed the earth, of his blood seas and waters, of his bones mountains, +of his teeth rocks and stones, of his hair all manner of plants, of his +skull the firmament, of his brains the clouds, and so forth. In Chaldean +story, Bel cuts in twain the magnified non-natural woman Omorca, +and converts the halves of her body into heaven and earth. Among the +Iroquois in North America, Chokanipok was the giant whose limbs, bones +and blood furnished the raw material of many natural objects; while +in Mangaia portions of Ru, in Egypt of Set and Osiris, in Greece of +Dionysus Zagreus were used in creating various things, such as stones, +plants and metals. The same ideas precisely are found in the ninetieth +hymn of the tenth book of the Rig-Veda. Yet it is a singular thing that, +in all the discussions as to the antiquity and significance of this +hymn which have come under our notice, there has not been one single +reference made to parallel legends among Aryan or non-Aryan peoples. In +accordance with the general principles which guide us in this work, we +are inclined to regard any ideas which are at once rude in character +and widely distributed, both among civilised and uncivilised races, as +extremely old, whatever may be the age of the literary form in which +they are presented. But the current of learned opinions as to the date +of the Purusha Sukta, the Vedic hymn about the sacrifice of Purusha +and the creation of the world out of fragments of his body, runs in the +opposite direction. The hymn is not regarded as very ancient by most +Sanskrit scholars. We shall now quote the hymn, which contains the data +on which any theory as to its age must be founded:--(1) + + +(1) Rig-Veda, x. 90; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 9. + + +"Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. On +every side enveloping the earth, he overpassed (it) by a space of ten +fingers. Purusha himself is this whole (universe), whatever is and +whatever shall be.... When the gods performed a sacrifice with Purusha +as the oblation, the spring was its butter, the summer its fuel, and the +autumn its (accompanying) offering. This victim, Purusha, born in the +beginning, they immolated on the sacrificial grass. With him the gods, +the Sadhyas, and the Rishis sacrificed. From that universal sacrifice +were provided curds and butter. It formed those aerial (creatures) and +animals both wild and tame. From that universal sacrifice sprang the Ric +and Saman verses, the metres and Yajush. From it sprang horses, and all +animals with two rows of teeth; kine sprang from it; from it goats and +sheep. When (the gods) divided Purusha, into how many parts did they cut +him up? What was his mouth? What arms (had he)? What (two objects) are +said (to have been) his thighs and feet? The Brahman was his mouth; the +Rajanya was made his arms; the being (called) the Vaisya, he was his +thighs; the Sudra sprang from his feet. The moon sprang from his soul +(Mahas), the sun from his eye, Indra and Agni from his mouth, and Yaiyu +from his breath. From his navel arose the air, from his head the sky, +from his feet the earth, from his ear the (four) quarters; in this +manner (the gods) formed the world. When the gods, performing sacrifice, +bound Purusha as a victim, there were seven sticks (stuck up) for it +(around the fire), and thrice seven pieces of fuel were made. With +sacrifice the gods performed the sacrifice. These were the earliest +rites. These great powers have sought the sky, where are the former +Sadhyas, gods." + +The myth here stated is plain enough in its essential facts. The gods +performed a sacrifice with a gigantic anthropomorphic being (Purusha = +Man) as the victim. Sacrifice is not found, as a rule, in the religious +of the most backward races of all; it is, relatively, an innovation, as +shall be shown later. His head, like the head of Ymir, formed the sky, +his eye the sun, animals sprang from his body. The four castes are +connected with, and it appears to be implied that they sprang from, his +mouth, arms, thighs and feet. It is obvious that this last part of the +myth is subsequent to the formation of castes. This is one of the chief +arguments for the late date of the hymn, as castes are not distinctly +recognised elsewhere in the Rig-Veda. Mr. Max Muller(1) believes the +hymn to be "modern both in its character and in its diction," and this +opinion he supports by philological arguments. Dr. Muir(2) says that the +hymn "has every character of modernness both in its diction and ideas". +Dr Haug, on the other hand,(3) in a paper read in 1871, admits that the +present form of the hymn is not older than the greater part of the hymns +of the tenth book, and than those of the Atharva Veda; but he adds, "The +ideas which the hymn contains are certainly of a primeval antiquity.... +In fact, the hymn is found in the Yajur-Veda among the formulas +connected with human sacrifices, which were formerly practised in +India." We have expressly declined to speak about "primeval antiquity," +as we have scarcely any evidence as to the myths and mental condition +for example, even of palaeolithic man; but we may so far agree with +Dr. Haug as to affirm that the fundamental idea of the Purusha Sukta, +namely, the creation of the world or portions of the world out of the +fragments of a fabulous anthropomorphic being is common to Chaldeans, +Iroquois, Egyptians, Greeks, Tinnehs, Mangaians and Aryan Indians. This +is presumptive proof of the antiquity of the ideas which Dr. Muir and +Mr. Max Muller think relatively modern. The savage and brutal character +of the invention needs no demonstration. Among very low savages, for +example, the Tinnehs of British North America, not a man, not a god, but +a DOG, is torn up, and the fragments are made into animals.(4) On the +Paloure River a beaver suffers in the manner of Purusha. We may, +for these reasons, regard the chief idea of the myth as extremely +ancient--infinitely more ancient than the diction of the hymn. + + +(1) Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 570. + +(2) Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 12. + +(3) Sanskrit Text, 2nd edit., ii. 463. + +(4) Hearne's Journey, pp. 342-343. + + +As to the mention of the castes, supposed to be a comparatively modern +institution, that is not an essential part of the legend. When the +idea of creation out of a living being was once received it was easy +to extend the conception to any institution, of which the origin was +forgotten. The Teutonic race had a myth which explained the origin of +the classes eorl, ceorl and thrall (earl, churl and slave). A South +American people, to explain the different ranks in society, hit on the +very myth of Plato, the legend of golden, silver and copper races, +from which the ranks of society have descended. The Vedic poet, in our +opinion, merely extended to the institution of caste a myth which had +already explained the origin of the sun, the firmament, animals, and so +forth, on the usual lines of savage thought. The Purusha Sukta is the +type of many other Indian myths of creation, of which the following(1) +one is extremely noteworthy. "Prajapati desired to propagate. He formed +the Trivrit (stoma) from his mouth. After it were produced the deity +Agni, the metre Gayatri,... of men the Brahman, of beasts the goat;... +from his breast, and from his arms he formed the Panchadasa (stoma). +After it were created the God Indra, the Trishtubh metre,... of men the +Rajanya, of beasts the sheep. Hence they are vigorous, because they were +created from vigour. From his middle he formed the Saptadasa (stoma). +After it were created the gods called the Yisvadevas, the Jagati +metre,... of men the Vaisya, of beasts kine. Hence they are to be eaten, +because they were created from the receptacle of food." The form in +which we receive this myth is obviously later than the institution of +caste and the technical names for metres. Yet surely any statement that +kine "are to be eaten" must be older than the universal prohibition to +eat that sacred animal the cow. Possibly we might argue that when this +theory of creation was first promulgated, goats and sheep were forbidden +food.(2) + + +(1) Taittirya Sanhita, or Yajur-Veda, vii. i. 1-4; Muir, 2nd edit., i. +15. + +(2) Mr. M'Lennan has drawn some singular inferences from this passage, +connecting, as it does, certain gods and certain classes of men with +certain animals, in a manner somewhat suggestive of totemism (Fornightly +Review), February, 1870. + + +Turning from the Vedas to the Brahmanas, we find a curiously savage myth +of the origin of species.(1) According to this passage of the Brahmana, +"this universe was formerly soul only, in the form of Purusha". He +caused himself to fall asunder into two parts. Thence arose a husband +and a wife. "He cohabited with her; from them men were born. She +reflected, 'How does he, after having produced me from himself, cohabit +with me? Ah, let me disappear.' She became a cow, and the other a bull, +and he cohabited with her. From them kine were produced." After a series +of similar metamorphoses of the female into all animal shapes, and a +similar series of pursuits by the male in appropriate form, "in this +manner pairs of all sorts of creatures down to ants were created". This +myth is a parallel to the various Greek legends about the amours in +bestial form of Zeus, Nemesis, Cronus, Demeter and other gods and +goddesses. In the Brahmanas this myth is an explanation of the origin +of species, and such an explanation as could scarcely have occurred to +a civilised mind. In other myths in the Brahmanas, Prajapati creates men +from his body, or rather the fluid of his body becomes a tortoise, +the tortoise becomes a man (purusha), with similar examples of +speculation.(2) + + +(1) Satapatha Brahmana, xiv. 4, 2; Muir, 2nd edit., i. 25. + +(2) Similar tales are found among the Khonds. + + +Among all these Brahmana myths of the part taken by Prajapati in the +creation or evoking of things, the question arises who WAS Prajapati? +His role is that of the great Hare in American myth; he is a kind of +demiurge, and his name means "The Master of Things Created," like +the Australian Biamban, "Master," and the American title of the chief +Manitou, "Master of Life",(1) Dr. Muir remarks that, as the Vedic +mind advances from mere divine beings who "reside and operate in fire" +(Agni), "dwell and shine in the sun" (Surya), or "in the atmosphere" +(Indra), towards a conception of deity, "the farther step would be +taken of speaking of the deity under such new names as Visvakarman and +Prajapati". These are "appellatives which do not designate any limited +functions connected with any single department of Nature, but the more +general and abstract notions of divine power operating in the production +and government of the universe". Now the interesting point is that round +this new and abstract NAME gravitate the most savage and crudest myths, +exactly the myths we meet among Hottentots and Nootkas. For example, +among the Hottentots it is Heitsi Eibib, among the Huarochiri Indians +it is Uiracocha, who confers, by curse or blessing, on the animals their +proper attributes and characteristics.(2) In the Satapatha Brahmana it +is Prajapati who takes this part, that falls to rude culture-heroes of +Hottentots and Huarochiris.(3) How Prajapati made experiments in a kind +of state-aided evolution, so to speak, or evolution superintended and +assisted from above, will presently be set forth. + + +(1) Bergaigne, iii. 40. + +(2) Avila, Fables of the Yncas, p. 127. + +(3) English translation, ii. 361. + + +In the Puranas creation is a process renewed after each kalpa, or vast +mundane period. Brahma awakes from his slumber, and finds the world a +waste of water. Then, just as in the American myths of the coyote, and +the Slavonic myths of the devil and the doves, a boar or a fish or +a tortoise fishes up the world out of the waters. That boar, fish, +tortoise, or what not, is Brahma or Vishnu. This savage conception of +the beginnings of creation in the act of a tortoise, fish, or boar is +not first found in the Puranas, as Mr. Muir points out, but is indicated +in the Black Yajur Veda and in the Satapatha Brahmana.(1) In the +Satapatha Brahmana, xiv. 1, 2, 11, we discover the idea, so common in +savage myths--for example, in that of the Navajoes--that the earth was +at first very small, a mere patch, and grew bigger after the animal +fished it up. "Formerly this earth was only so large, of the size of +a span. A boar called Emusha raised her up." Here the boar makes no +pretence of being the incarnation of a god, but is a mere boar sans +phrase, like the creative coyote of the Papogas and Chinooks, or the +musk-rat of the Tacullies. This is a good example of the development +of myths. Savages begin, as we saw, by mythically regarding various +animals, spiders, grasshoppers, ravens, eagles, cockatoos, as the +creators or recoverers of the world. As civilisation advances, those +animals still perform their beneficent functions, but are looked on +as gods in disguise. In time the animals are often dropped altogether, +though they hold their place with great tenacity in the cosmogonic +traditions of the Aryans in India. When we find the Satapatha Brahmana +alleging(2) "that all creatures are descended from a tortoise," we seem +to be among the rude Indians of the Pacific Coast. But when the tortoise +is identified with Aditya, and when Adityas prove to be solar deities, +sons of Aditi, and when Aditi is recognised by Mr. Muller as the Dawn, +we see that the Aryan mind has not been idle, but has added a good deal +to the savage idea of the descent of men and beasts from a tortoise.(3) + + +(1) Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 52. + +(2) Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 54. + +(3) See Ternaux Compans' Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, lxxxvi. p. 5. +For Mexican traditions, "Mexican and Australian Hurricane World's End," +Bancroft, v. 64. + + +Another feature of savage myths of creation we found to be the +introduction of a crude theory of evolution. We saw that among the +Potoyante tribe of the Digger Indians, and among certain Australian +tribes, men and beasts were supposed to have been slowly evolved and +improved out of the forms first of reptiles and then of quadrupeds. In +the mythologies of the more civilised South American races, the idea +of the survival of the fittest was otherwise expressed. The gods made +several attempts at creation, and each set of created beings proving in +one way or other unsuited to its environment, was permitted to die out +or degenerated into apes, and was succeeded by a set better adapted for +survival.(1) In much the same way the Satapatha Brahmana(2) represents +mammals as the last result of a series of creative experiments. +"Prajapati created living beings, which perished for want of food. Birds +and serpents perished thus. Prajapati reflected, 'How is it that my +creatures perish after having been formed?' He perceived this: 'They +perish from want of food'. In his own presence he caused milk to be +supplied to breasts. He created living beings, which, resorting to the +breasts, were thus preserved. These are the creatures which did not +perish." + + +(1) This myth is found in Popol Vuh. A Chinook myth of the same sort, +Bancroft, v. 95. + +(2) ii. 5, 11; Muir, 2nd edit., i. 70. + + +The common myth which derives the world from a great egg--the myth +perhaps most familiar in its Finnish shape--is found in the Satapatha +Brahmana.(1) "In the beginning this universe was waters, nothing but +waters. The waters desired: 'How can we be reproduced?' So saying, they +toiled, they performed austerity. While they were performing austerity, +a golden egg came into existence. It then became a year.... From it in +a year a man came into existence, who was Prajapati.... He conceived +progeny in himself; with his mouth he created the gods." According to +another text,(2) "Prajapati took the form of a tortoise". The tortoise +is the same as Aditya.(3) + + +(1) xi. 1, 6, 1; Muir, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1863. + +(2) Satapatha Brahmana, vii. 4, 3, 5. + +(3) Aitareya Brahmana, iii. 34 (11, 219), a very discreditable origin of +species. + + +It is now time to examine the Aryan shape of the widely spread myth +about the marriage of heaven and earth, and the fortunes of their +children. We have already seen that in New Zealand heaven and earth +were regarded as real persons, of bodily parts and passions, united in +a secular embrace. We shall apply the same explanation to the Greek +myth of Gaea and of the mutilation of Cronus. In India, Dyaus (heaven) +answers to the Greek Uranus and the Maori Rangi, while Prithivi (earth) +is the Greek Gaea, the Maori Papa. In the Veda, heaven and earth are +constantly styled "parents";(1) but this we might regard as a mere +metaphorical expression, still common in poetry. A passage of the +Aitareya Brahmana, however, retains the old conception, in which there +was nothing metaphorical at all.(2) These two worlds, heaven and earth, +were once joined. Subsequently they were separated (according to +one account, by Indra, who thus plays the part of Cronus and of Tane +Mahuta). "Heaven and earth," says Dr. Muir, "are regarded as the parents +not only of men, but of the gods also, as appears from the various texts +where they are designated by the epithet Devapatre, 'having gods for +their children'." By men in an early stage of thought this myth was +accepted along with others in which heaven and earth were regarded +as objects created by one of their own children, as by Indra,(3) who +"stretched them out like a hide," who, like Atlas, "sustains and upholds +them"(4) or, again, Tvashtri, the divine smith, wrought them by his +craft; or, once more, heaven and earth sprung from the head and feet +of Purusha. In short, if any one wished to give an example of that +recklessness of orthodoxy or consistency which is the mark of early +myth, he could find no better example than the Indian legends of the +origin of things. Perhaps there is not one of the myths current among +the lower races which has not its counterpart in the Indian Brahmanas. +It has been enough for us to give a selection of examples. + + +(1) Muir, v. 22. + +(2) iv. 27; Haug, ii. 308. + +(3) Rig-Veda, viii. 6, 5. + +(4) Ibid., iii. 32, 8. + + + +CHAPTER IX. GREEK MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND MAN. + +The Greeks practically civilised when we first meet them in Homer--Their +mythology, however, is full of repulsive features--The hypothesis that +many of these are savage survivals--Are there other examples of such +survival in Greek life and institutions?--Greek opinion was constant +that the race had been savage--Illustrations of savage survival from +Greek law of homicide, from magic, religion, human sacrifice, religious +art, traces of totemism, and from the mysteries--Conclusion: that savage +survival may also be expected in Greek myths. + + +The Greeks, when we first make their acquaintance in the Homeric poems, +were a cultivated people, dwelling, under the government of royal +families, in small city states. This social condition they must have +attained by 1000 B.C., and probably much earlier. They had already a +long settled past behind them, and had no recollection of any national +migration from the "cradle of the Aryan race". On the other hand, many +tribes thought themselves earth-born from the soil of the place where +they were settled. The Maori traditions prove that memories of a +national migration may persist for several hundred years among men +ignorant of writing. Greek legend, among a far more civilised race, only +spoke of occasional foreign settlers from Sidon, Lydia, or Egypt. The +Homeric Greeks were well acquainted with almost all the arts of life, +though it is not absolutely certain that they could write, and certainly +they were not addicted to reading. In war they fought from chariots, +like the Egyptians and Assyrians; they were bold seafarers, being +accustomed to harry the shores even of Egypt, and they had large +commercial dealings with the people of Tyre and Sidon. In the matter of +religion they were comparatively free and unrestrained. Their deities, +though, in myth, capricious in character, might be regarded in many +ways as "making for righteousness". They protected the stranger and the +suppliant; they sanctioned the oath, they frowned on the use of poisoned +arrows; marriage and domestic life were guarded by their good-will; +they dispensed good and evil fortune, to be accepted with humility and +resignation among mortals. + +The patriarchal head of each family performed the sacrifices for his +household, the king for the state, the ruler of Mycenae, Agamemnon, for +the whole Achaean host encamped before the walls of Troy. At the same +time, prophets, like Calchas, possessed considerable influence, +due partly to an hereditary gift of second-sight, as in the case of +Theoclymenus,(1) partly to acquired professional skill in observing +omens, partly to the direct inspiration of the gods. The oracle at +Delphi, or, as it is called by Homer, Pytho, was already famous, and +religion recognised, in various degrees, all the gods familiar to the +later cult of Hellas. In a people so advanced, so much in contact with +foreign races and foreign ideas, and so wonderfully gifted by nature +with keen intellect and perfect taste, it is natural to expect, if +anywhere, a mythology almost free from repulsive elements, and almost +purged of all that we regard as survivals from the condition of +savagery. But while Greek mythology is richer far than any other in +beautiful legend, and is thronged with lovely and majestic forms of +gods and goddesses, nymphs and oreads ideally fair, none the less a very +large proportion of its legends is practically on a level with the myths +of Maoris, Thlinkeets, Cahrocs and Bushmen. + + +(1) Odyssey, xx. 354. + + +This is the part of Greek mythology which has at all times excited +most curiosity, and has been made the subject of many systems of +interpretation. The Greeks themselves, from almost the earliest +historical ages, were deeply concerned either to veil or explain +away the blasphemous horrors of their own "sacred chapters," poetic +traditions and temple legends. We endeavour to account for these +as relics of an age of barbarism lying very far behind the time of +Homer--an age when the ancestors of the Greeks either borrowed, or more +probably developed for themselves, the kind of myths by which savage +peoples endeavour to explain the nature and origin of the world and all +phenomena. + +The correctness of this explanation, resting as it does on the belief +that the Greeks were at one time in the savage status, might be +demonstrated from the fact that not only myths, but Greek life in +general, and especially Greek ritual, teemed with surviving examples of +institutions and of manners which are found everywhere among the most +backward and barbarous races. It is not as if only the myths of Greece +retained this rudeness, or as if the Greeks supposed themselves to have +been always civilised. The whole of Greek life yields relics of savagery +when the surface is excavated ever so slightly. Moreover, that the +Greeks, as soon as they came to reflect on these matters at all, +believed themselves to have emerged from a condition of savagery is +undeniable. The poets are entirely at one on this subject with Moschion, +a writer of the school of Euripides. "The time hath been, yea, it HATH +been," he says, "when men lived like the beasts, dwelling in mountain +caves, and clefts unvisited of the sun.... Then they broke not the soil +with ploughs nor by aid of iron, but the weaker man was slain to make +the supper of the stronger," and so on.(1) This view of the savage +origin of mankind was also held by Aristotle:(2) "It is probable that +the first men, whether they were produced by the earth (earth-born) +or survived from some deluge, were on a level of ignorance and +darkness".(3) This opinion, consciously held and stated by philosophers +and poets, reveals itself also in the universal popular Greek traditions +that men were originally ignorant of fire, agriculture, metallurgy and +all the other arts and conveniences of life, till they were instructed +by ideal culture-heroes, like Prometheus, members of a race divine +or half divine. A still more curious Athenian tradition (preserved by +Varro) maintained, not only that marriage was originally unknown, +but that, as among Australians and some Red Indians, the family name, +descended through the mother, and kinship was reckoned on the female +side before the time of Cecrops.(4) + + +(1) Moschion; cf. Preller, Ausgewahlte Aufsatze, p. 206. + +(2) Politics, ii. 8-21; Plato, Laws, 667-680. + +(3) Compare Horace, Satires, i. 3, 99; Lucretius, v. 923. + +(4) Suidas, s.v. "Prometheus"; Augustine, De Civitate Dei, xviii. 9. + + +While Greek opinion, both popular and philosophical, admitted, or +rather asserted, that savagery lay in the background of the historical +prospect, Greek institutions retained a thousand birth-marks of +savagery. It is manifest and undeniable that the Greek criminal law, +as far as it effected murder, sprang directly from the old savage +blood-feud.(1) The Athenian law was a civilised modification of the +savage rule that the kindred of a slain man take up his blood-feud. +Where homicide was committed WITHIN the circle of blood relationship, +as by Orestes, Greek religion provided the Erinnyes to punish an offence +which had, as it were, no human avenger. The precautions taken by +murderers to lay the ghost of the slain man were much like those in +favour among the Australians. The Greek cut off the extremities of his +victim, the tips of the hands and feet, and disposed them neatly beneath +the arm-pits of the slain man.(2) In the same spirit, and for the same +purpose, the Australian black cuts off the thumbs of his dead enemy, +that the ghost too may be mutilated and prevented from throwing at him +with a ghostly spear. We learn also from Apollonius Rhodius and his +scholiast that Greek murderers used thrice to suck in and spit out the +gore of their victims, perhaps with some idea of thereby partaking of +their blood, and so, by becoming members of their kin, putting it beyond +the power of the ghosts to avenge themselves. Similar ideas inspire the +worldwide savage custom of making an artificial "blood brotherhood" by +mingling the blood of the contracting parties. As to the ceremonies of +cleansing from blood-guiltiness among the Greeks, we may conjecture +that these too had their primitive side; for Orestes, in the Eumenides, +maintains that he has been purified of his mother's slaughter by +sufficient blood of swine. But this point will be illustrated presently, +when we touch on the mysteries. + + +(1) Duncker, History of Greece, Engl. transl., vol. ii. p. 129. + +(2) See "Arm-pitting in Ancient Greece," in the American Journal of +Philology, October, 1885, where a discussion of the familiar texts in +Aeschylus and Apollonius Rhodius will be found. + + +Ritual and myth, as might be expected, retained vast masses of savage +rites and superstitious habits and customs. To be "in all things too +superstitious," too full of deisidaimonia, was even in St. Paul's time +the characteristic of the Athenians. Now superstition, or deisidaimonia, +is defined by Theophrastus,(1) as "cowardice in regard to the +supernatural" ((Greek text omitted)). This "cowardice" has in all ages +and countries secured the permanence of ritual and religious traditions. +Men have always argued, like one of the persons in M. Renan's play, Le +Pretre de Nemi, that "l'ordre du monde depend de l'ordre des rites qu'on +observe". The familiar endurable sequence of the seasons of spring, and +seed-sowing, and harvest depend upon the due performance of immemorial +religious acts. "In the mystic deposits," says Dinarchus, "lies the +safety of the city."(2) What the "mystic deposits" were nobody knows +for certain, but they must have been of very archaic sanctity, and occur +among the Arunta and the Pawnees. + + +(1) Characters. + +(2) Ap. Hermann, Lehrbuch, p. 41; Aglaophamus, 965. + + +Ritual is preserved because it preserves LUCK. Not only among the Romans +and the Brahmans, with their endless minute ritual actions, but among +such lower races as the Kanekas of New Caledonia, the efficacy of +religious functions is destroyed by the slightest accidental infraction +of established rules.(1) The same timid conservatism presides over +myth, and in each locality the mystery-plays, with their accompanying +narratives, preserved inviolate the early forms of legend. Myth and +ritual do not admit of being argued about. "C'etait le rite etabli. Ce +n'etait pas plus absurde qu'autre chose," says the conservative in M. +Renan's piece, defending the mode of appointment of + + + The priest who slew the slayer, + And shall himself be slain. + + +(1) Thus the watchers of the dead in New Caledonia are fed by the +sorcerer with a mess at the end of a very long spoon, and should the +food miss the mouth, all the ceremonies have to be repeated. This detail +is from Mr. J. J. Atkinson. + + +Now, if the rites and myths preserved by the timorousness of this same +"cowardice towards the supernatural" were originally evolved in the +stage of savagery, savage they would remain, as it is impious and +dangerous to reform them till the religion which they serve perishes +with them. These relics in Greek ritual and faith are very commonly +explained as due to Oriental influences, as things borrowed from the +dark and bloody superstitions of Asia. But this attempt to save the +native Greek character for "blitheness" and humanity must not be pushed +too far.(1) It must be remembered that the cruder and wilder sacrifices +and legends of Greece were strictly LOCAL; that they were attached to +these ancient temples, old altars, barbarous xoana, or wooden idols, and +rough fetish stones, in which Pausanias found the most ancient relics of +Hellenic theology. This is a proof of their antiquity and a presumption +in favour of their freedom from foreign influence. Most of these things +were survivals from that dimly remembered prehistoric age in which the +Greeks, not yet gathered into city states, lived in villages or kraals, +or pueblos, as we should translate (Greek text omitted), if we were +speaking of African or American tribes. In that stage the early +Greeks must have lacked both the civic and the national or Panhellenic +sentiment; their political unit was the clan, which, again, answered +in part to the totem kindred of America, or Africa, or Australia.(2) In +this stagnant condition they could not have made acquaintance with the +many creeds of Semitic and other alien peoples on the shores of the +Levant.(3) It was later, when Greece had developed the city life of the +heroic age, that her adventurous sons came into close contact with Egypt +and Phoenicia. + + +(1) Claus, De Antiq. Form. Dianae, 6,7,16. + +(2) As C. O. Muller judiciously remarks: "The scenes of nine-tenths of +the Greek myths are laid in PARTICULAR DISTRICTS OF GREECE, and they +speak of the primeval inhabitants, of the lineage and adventures of +native heroes. They manifest an accurate acquaintance with individual +localities, which, at a time when Greece was neither explored by +antiquaries, nor did geographical handbooks exist, could be possessed +only by the inhabitants of these localities." Muller gives, as examples, +myths of bears more or less divine. Scientific Mythology, pp. 14, 15. + +(3) Compare Claus, De Dianae Antiquissima Natura, p. 3. + + +In the colonising time, still later--perhaps from 900 B.C. +downwards--the Greeks, settled on sites whence they had expelled +Sidonians or Sicanians, very naturally continued, with modifications, +the worship of such gods as they found already in possession. Like the +Romans, the Greeks easily recognised their own deities in the analogous +members of foreign polytheistic systems. Thus we can allow for alien +elements in such gods and goddesses as Zeus Asterios, as Aphrodite of +Cyprus or Eryx, or the many-breasted Ephesian Artemis, whose monstrous +form had its exact analogue among the Aztecs in that many-breasted +goddess of the maguey plant whence beer was made. To discern and +disengage the borrowed factors in the Hellenic Olympus by analysis +of divine names is a task to which comparative philology may lawfully +devote herself; but we cannot so readily explain by presumed borrowing +from without the rude xoana of the ancient local temples, the wild myths +of the local legends, the sacra which were the exclusive property of +old-world families, Butadae or Eumolpidae. These are clearly survivals +from a stage of Greek culture earlier than the city state, earlier than +the heroic age of the roving Greek Vikings, and far earlier than the +Greek colonies. They belong to that conservative and immobile period +when the tribe or clan, settled in its scattered kraals, lived a life of +agriculture, hunting and cattle-breeding, engaged in no larger or more +adventurous wars than border feuds about women or cattle. Such wars were +on a humbler scale than even Nestor's old fights with the Epeians; such +adventures did not bring the tribe into contact with alien religions. If +Sidonian merchantmen chanced to establish a factory near a tribe in this +condition, their religion was not likely to make many proselytes. + +These reasons for believing that most of the wilder element in Greek +ritual and myth was native may be briefly recapitulated, as they are +often overlooked. The more strange and savage features meet us in LOCAL +tales and practices, often in remote upland temples and chapels. +There they had survived from the society of the VILLAGE status, before +villages were gathered into CITIES, before Greeks had taken to a roving +life, or made much acquaintance with distant and maritime peoples. + +For these historical reasons, it may be assumed that the LOCAL religious +antiquities of Greece, especially in upland districts like Arcadia +and Elis, are as old, and as purely national, as free from foreign +influences as any Greek institutions can be. In these rites and myths +of true folk-lore and Volksleben, developed before Hellas won its way +to the pure Hellenic stage, before Egypt and Phoenicia were familiar, +should be found that common rude element which Greeks share with the +other races of the world, and which was, to some extent, purged away by +the genius of Homer and Pindar, pii vates et Phaebo digna locuti. + +In proof of this local conservatism, some passages collected by K. F. +Hermann in his Lehrbuch der Griechischen Antiquitaten(1) may be cited. +Thus Isocrates writes,(2) "This was all their care, neither to destroy +any of the ancestral rites, nor to add aught beyond what was ordained". +Clemens Alexandrinus reports that certain Thessalians worshipped storks, +"IN ACCORDANCE WITH USE AND WONT".(3) Plato lays down the very "law +of least change" which has been described. "Whether the legislator is +establishing a new state or restoring an old and decayed one, in respect +of gods and temples,... if he be a man of sense, he will MAKE NO +CHANGE IN ANYTHING which the oracle of Delphi, or Dodona, or Ammon has +sanctioned, in whatever manner." In this very passage Plato(4) speaks +of rites "derived from Tyrrhenia or Cyprus" as falling within the later +period of the Greek Wanderjahre. On the high religious value of things +antique, Porphyry wrote in a late age, and when the new religion of +Christ was victorious, "Comparing the new sacred images with the old, we +see that the old are more simply fashioned, yet are held divine, but +the new, admired for their elaborate execution, have less persuasion +of divinity,"--a remark anticipated by Pausanias, "The statues Daedalus +wrought are quainter to the outward view, yet there shows forth in them +somewhat supernatural".(5) So Athenaeus(6) reports of a visitor to the +shrine of Leto in Delos, that he expected the ancient statue of the +mother of Apollo to be something remarkable, but, unlike the pious +Porphyry, burst out laughing when he found it a shapeless wooden idol. +These idols were dressed out, fed and adorned as if they had life.(7) +It is natural that myths dating from an age when Greek gods resembled +Polynesian idols should be as rude as Polynesian myths. The tenacity of +LOCAL myth is demonstrated by Pausanias, who declares that even in the +highly civilised Attica the Demes retained legends different from those +of the central city--the legends, probably, which were current before +the villages were "Synoecised" into Athens.(8) + + +(1) Zweiter Theil, 1858. + +(2) Areop., 30. + +(3) Clem. Alex., Oxford, 1715, i. 34. + +(4) Laws, v. 738. + +(5) De. Abst., ii. 18; Paus., ii. 4, 5. + +(6) xiv. 2. + +(7) Hermann, op. cit., p. 94, note 10. + +(8) Pausanias, i. 14, 6. + + +It appears, then, that Greek ritual necessarily preserves matter of the +highest antiquity, and that the oldest rites and myths will probably be +found, not in the Panhellenic temples, like that in Olympia, not in +the NATIONAL poets, like Homer and Sophocles, but in the LOCAL fanes of +early tribal gods, and in the LOCAL mysteries, and the myths which came +late, if they came at all, into literary circulation. This opinion +is strengthened and illustrated by that invaluable guide-book of the +artistic and religious pilgrim written in the second century after +our era by Pausanias. If we follow him, we shall find that many of the +ceremonies, stories and idols which he regarded as oldest are analogous +to the idols and myths of the contemporary backward races. Let us then, +for the sake of illustrating the local and savage survivals in Greek +religion, accompany Pausanias in his tour through Hellas. + +In Christian countries, especially in modern times, the contents of one +church are very like the furniture of another church; the functions in +one resemble those in all, though on the Continent some shrines still +retain relics and customs of the period when local saints had their +peculiar rites. But it was a very different thing in Greece. The pilgrim +who arrived at a temple never could guess what oddity or horror in +the way of statues, sacrifices, or stories might be prepared for his +edification. In the first place, there were HUMAN SACRIFICES. These are +not familiar to low savages, if known to them at all. Probably they were +first offered to barbaric royal ghosts, and thence transferred to gods. +In the town of Salamis, in Cyprus, about the date of Hadrian, the +devout might have found the priest slaying a human victim to Zeus,--an +interesting custom, instituted, according to Lactantius, by Teucer, and +continued till the age of the Roman Empire.(1) + + +(1) Euseb., Praep. Ev., iv. 17, mentions, among peoples practising human +sacrifices, Rhodes, Salamis, Heliopolis, Chios, Tenedos, Lacedaemon, +Arcadia and Athens; and, among gods thus honoured, Hera, Athene, Cronus, +Ares, Dionysus, Zeus and Apollo. For Dionysus the Cannibal, Plutarch, +Themist., 13; Porphyr., Abst., ii. 55. For the sacrifice to Zeus +Laphystius, see Grote, i. c. vi., and his array of authorities, +especially Herodotus, vii. 197. Clemens Alexandrinus (i. 36) mentions +the Messenians, to Zeus; the Taurians, to Artemis, the folk of Pella, +to Peleus and Chiron; the Cretans, to Zeus; the Lesbians, to Dionysus. +Geusius de Victimis Humanis (1699) may be consulted. + + +At Alos in Achaia Phthiotis, the stranger MIGHT have seen an +extraordinary spectacle, though we admit that the odds would have been +highly against his chance of witnessing the following events. As the +stranger approaches the town-hall, he observes an elderly and most +respectable citizen strolling in the same direction. The citizen is so +lost in thought that apparently he does not notice where he is going. +Behind him comes a crowd of excited but silent people, who watch him +with intense interest. The citizen reaches the steps of the town-hall, +while the excitement of his friends behind increases visibly. Without +thinking, the elderly person enters the building. With a wild and +un-Aryan howl, the other people of Alos are down on him, pinion him, +wreathe him with flowery garlands, and, lead him to the temple of Zeus +Laphystius, or "The Glutton," where he is solemnly sacrificed on +the altar. This was the custom of the good Greeks of Alos whenever a +descendant of the house of Athamas entered the Prytaneion. Of course the +family were very careful, as a rule, to keep at a safe distance from +the forbidden place. "What a sacrifice for Greeks!" as the author of the +Minos(1) says in that dialogue which is incorrectly attributed to Plato. +"He cannot get out except to be sacrificed," says Herodotus, speaking of +the unlucky descendant of Athamas. The custom appears to have existed as +late as the time of the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius.(2) + + +(1) 315, c.; Plato, Laws, vi. 782, c. + +(2) Argonautica, vii. 197. + + +Even in the second century, when Pausanias visited Arcadia, he found +what seem to have been human sacrifices to Zeus. The passage is so very +strange and romantic that we quote a part of it.(1) "The Lycaean hill +hath other marvels to show, and chiefly this: thereon there is a +grove of Zeus Lycaeus, wherein may men in nowise enter; but if any +transgresses the law and goes within, he must die within the space of +one year. This tale, moreover, they tell, namely, that whatsoever man +or beast cometh within the grove casts no shadow, and the hunter pursues +not the deer into that wood, but, waiting till the beast comes forth +again, sees that it has left its shadow behind. And on the highest crest +of the whole mountain there is a mound of heaped-up earth, the altar of +Zeus Lycaeus, and the more part of Peloponnesus can be seen from that +place. And before the altar stand two pillars facing the rising sun, and +thereon golden eagles of yet more ancient workmanship. And on this altar +they sacrifice to Zeus in a manner that may not be spoken, and little +liking had I to make much search into this matter. BUT LET IT BE AS IT +IS, AND AS IT HATH BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING." The words "as it hath been +from the beginning" are ominous and significant, for the traditional +myths of Arcadia tell of the human sacrifices of Lycaon, and of men who, +tasting the meat of a mixed sacrifice, put human flesh between their +lips unawares.(2) This aspect of Greek religion, then, is almost on a +level with the mysterious cannibal horrors of "Voodoo," as practised by +the secret societies of negroes in Hayti. But concerning these things, +as Pausanias might say, it is little pleasure to inquire. + + +(1) Pausanias, viii. 2. + +(2) Plato, Rep., viii. 565, d. This rite occurs in some African +coronation ceremonies. + + +Even where men were not sacrificed to the gods, the tourist among the +temples would learn that these bloody rites had once been customary, and +ceremonies existed by way of commutation. This is precisely what we find +in Vedic religion, in which the empty form of sacrificing a man was gone +through, and the origin of the world was traced to the fragments of a +god sacrificed by gods.(1) In Sparta was an altar of Artemis Orthia, +and a wooden image of great rudeness and antiquity--so rude indeed, that +Pausanias, though accustomed to Greek fetish-stones, thought it must +be of barbaric origin. The story was that certain people of different +towns, when sacrificing at the altar, were seized with frenzy and slew +each other. The oracle commanded that the altar should be sprinkled +with human blood. Men were therefore chosen by lot to be sacrificed till +Lycurgus commuted the offering, and sprinkled the altar with the blood +of boys who were flogged before the goddess. The priestess holds the +statue of the goddess during the flogging, and if any of the boys are +but lightly scourged, the image becomes too heavy for her to bear. + + +(1) The Purusha Sukhta, in Rig-Veda, x. 90. + + +The Ionians near Anthea had a temple of Artemis Triclaria, and to her +it had been customary to sacrifice yearly a youth and maiden of +transcendent beauty. In Pausanias's time the human sacrifice was +commuted. He himself beheld the strange spectacle of living beasts +and birds being driven into the fire to Artemis Laphria, a Calydonian +goddess, and he had seen bears rush back among the ministrants; but +there was no record that any one had ever been hurt by these wild +beasts.(1) The bear was a beast closely connected with Artemis, and +there is some reason to suppose that the goddess had herself been +a she-bear or succeeded to the cult of a she-bear in the morning of +time.(2) + + +(1) Paus., vii. 18, 19. + +(2) See "Artemis", postea. + + +It may be believed that where symbolic human sacrifices are offered, +that is, where some other victim is slain or a dummy of a man is +destroyed, and where legend maintains that the sacrifice was once human, +there men and women were originally the victims. Greek ritual and Greek +myth were full of such tales and such commutations.(1) In Rome, as is +well known, effigies of men called Argives were sacrificed.(2) As an +example of a beast-victim given in commutation, Pausanias mentions(3) +the case of the folk of Potniae, who were compelled once a year to offer +to Dionysus a boy, in the bloom of youth. But the sacrifice was commuted +for a goat. + + +(1) See Hermann, Alterthumer., ii. 159-161, for abundant examples. + +(2) Plutarch, Quest. Rom. 32. + +(3) ix. 8, 1. + + +These commutations are familiar all over the world. Even in Mexico, +where human sacrifices and ritual cannibalism were daily events, +Quetzalcoatl was credited with commuting human sacrifices for blood +drawn from the bodies of the religious. In this one matter even the most +conservative creeds and the faiths most opposed to change sometimes say +with Tartuffe:-- + + + Le ciel defend, de vrai, certains contentements, + Mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements. + + +Though the fact has been denied (doubtless without reflection), the fact +remains that the Greeks offered human sacrifices. Now what does this +imply? Must it be taken as a survival from barbarism, as one of the +proofs that the Greeks had passed through the barbaric status? + +The answer is less obvious than might be supposed. Sacrifice has two +origins. First, there are HONORIFIC sacrifices, in which the ghost or +god (or divine beast, if a divine beast be worshipped) is offered the +food he is believed to prefer. This does not occur among the lowest +savages. To carnivorous totems, Garcilasso says, the Indians of Peru +offered themselves. The feeding of sacred mice in the temples of Apollo +Smintheus is well known. Secondly, there are expiatory or PIACULAR +sacrifices, in which the worshipper, as it were, fines himself in a +child, an ox, or something else that he treasures. The latter kind of +sacrifice (most common in cases of crime done or suspected within the +circle of kindred) is not necessarily barbaric, except in its cruelty. +An example is the Attic Thargelia, in which two human scape-goats +annually bore "the sins of the congregation," and were flogged, driven +to the sea with figs tied round their necks, and burned.(1) + + +(1) Compare the Marseilles human sacrifice, Petron., 141; and for the +Thargelia, Tsetzes, Chiliads, v. 736; Hellad. in Photius, p. 1590 f. and +Harpoc. s. v. + + +The institution of human sacrifice, then, whether the offering be +regarded as food, or as a gift to the god of what is dearest to man (as +in the case of Jephtha's daughter), or whether the victim be supposed to +carry on his head the sins of the people, does not necessarily date from +the period of savagery. Indeed, sacrifice flourishes most, not among +savages, but among advancing barbarians. It would probably be impossible +to find any examples of human sacrifices of an expiatory or piacular +character, any sacrifices at all, among Australians, or Andamanese, +or Fuegians. The notion of presenting food to the supernatural powers, +whether ghosts or gods, is relatively rare among savages.(1) The +terrible Aztec banquets of which the gods were partakers are the most +noted examples of human sacrifices with a purely cannibal origin. Now +there is good reason to guess that human sacrifices with no other +origin than cannibalism survived even in ancient Greece. "It may be +conjectured," writes Professor Robertson Smith,(2) "that the human +sacrifices offered to the Wolf Zeus (Lycaeus) in Arcadia were originally +cannibal feasts of a Wolf tribe. The first participants in the rite +were, according to later legend, changed into wolves; and in later +times(3) at least one fragment of the human flesh was placed among the +sacrificial portions derived from other victims, and the man who ate it +was believed to become a were-wolf."(4) It is the almost universal rule +with cannibals not to eat members of their own stock, just as they do +not eat their own totem. Thus, as Professor Robertson Smith says, when +the human victim is a captive or other foreigner, the human sacrifice +may be regarded as a survival of cannibalism. Where, on the other +hand, the victim is a fellow tribesman, the sacrifice is expiatory or +piacular. + + +(1) Jevons, Introduction to the Science of Religion, pp. 161, 199. + +(2) Encyc. Brit., s. v. "Sacrifice". + +(3) Plato, Rep., viii. 565, D. + +(4) Paus., viii. 2. + + +Among Greek cannibal gods we cannot fail to reckon the so-called +"Cannibal Dionysus," and probably the Zeus of Orchomenos, Zeus +Laphystius, who is explained by Suidas as "the Glutton Zeus". The +cognate verb ((Greek text omitted)) means "to eat with mangling and +rending," "to devour gluttonously". By Zeus Laphystius, then, men's +flesh was gorged in this distressing fashion. + +The evidence of human sacrifice (especially when it seems not piacular, +but a relic of cannibalism) raises a presumption that Greeks had once +been barbarians. The presumption is confirmed by the evidence of early +Greek religious art. + +When his curiosity about human sacrifices was satisfied, the pilgrim in +Greece might turn his attention to the statues and other representations +of the gods. He would find that the modern statues by famous artists +were beautiful anthropomorphic works in marble or in gold and ivory. +It is true that the faces of the ancient gilded Dionysi at Corinth +were smudged all over with cinnabar, like fetish-stones in India or +Africa.(1) As a rule, however, the statues of historic times were +beautiful representations of kindly and gracious beings. The older works +were stiff and rigid images, with the lips screwed into an unmeaning +smile. Older yet were the bronze gods, made before the art of soldering +was invented, and formed of beaten plates joined by small nails. Still +more ancient were the wooden images, which probably bore but a slight +resemblance to the human frame, and which were often mere "stocks".(2) +Perhaps once a year were shown the very early gods, the Demeter with the +horse's head, the Artemis with the fish's tails, the cuckoo Hera, whose +image was of pear-wood, the Zeus with three eyes, the Hermes, made +after the fashion of the pictures on the walls of sacred caves among +the Bushmen. But the oldest gods of all, says Pausanias repeatedly, were +rude stones in the temple or the temple precinct. In Achaean Pharae he +found some thirty squared stones, named each after a god. "Among all +the Greeks in the oldest times rude stones were worshipped in place of +statues." The superstitious man in Theophrastus's Characters used to +anoint the sacred stones with oil. The stone which Cronus swallowed +in mistake for Zeus was honoured at Delphi, and kept warm with wool +wrappings. There was another sacred stone among the Troezenians, and +the Megarians worshipped as Apollo a stone cut roughly into a pyramidal +form. The Argives had a big stone called Zeus Kappotas. The Thespians +worshipped a stone which they called Eros; "their oldest idol is a rude +stone".(3) It is well known that the original fetish-stone has been +found in situ below the feet of the statue of Apollo in Delos. On this +showing, then, the religion of very early Greeks in Greece was not +unlike that of modern Negroes. The artistic evolution of the gods, a +remarkably rapid one after a certain point, could be traced in every +temple. It began with the rude stone, and rose to the wooden idol, in +which, as we have seen, Pausanias and Porphyry found such sanctity. +Next it reached the hammered bronze image, passed through the archaic +marbles, and culminated in the finer marbles and the chryselephantine +statues of Zeus and Athena. But none of the ancient sacred objects lost +their sacredness. The oldest were always the holiest idols; the oldest +of all were stumps and stones, like savage fetish-stones. + + +(1) Pausanias, ii. 2. + +(2) Clemens Alex., Protrept. (Oxford, 1715). p. 41. + +(3) Gill, Myths of South Pacific, p. 60. Compare a god, which proved to +be merely pumice-stone, and was regarded as the god of winds and waves, +having been drifted to Puka-Puka. Offerings of food were made to it +during hurricanes. + + +Another argument in favour of the general thesis that savagery left +deep marks on Greek life in general, and on myth in particular, may be +derived from survivals of totemism in ritual and legend. The following +instances need not necessarily be accepted, but it may be admitted that +they are precisely the traces which totemism would leave had it once +existed, and then waned away on the advance of civilisation.(1) + + +(1) The argument to be derived from the character of the Greek (Greek +text omitted) as a modified form of the totem-kindred is too long and +complex to be put forward here. It is stated in Custom and Myth, "The +history of the Family," in M'Lennan's Studies in Early history, and is +assumed, if not proved, in Ancient Society by the late Mr. Lewis Morgan. + + +That Greeks in certain districts regarded with religious reverence +certain plants and animals is beyond dispute. That some stocks even +traced their lineage to beasts will be shown in the chapter on Greek +Divine Myths, and the presumption is that these creatures, though +explained as incarnations and disguises of various gods, were once +totems sans phrase, as will be inferred from various examples. Clemens +Alexandrinus, again, after describing the animal-worship of the +Egyptians, mentions cases of zoolatry in Greece.(1) The Thessalians +revered storks, the Thebans weasels, and the myth ran that the weasel +had in some way aided Alcmena when in labour with Heracles. In another +form of the myth the weasel was the foster-mother of the hero.(2) Other +Thessalians, the Myrmidons, claimed descent from the ant and revered +ants. The religious respect paid to mice in the temple of Apollo +Smintheus, in the Troad, Rhodes, Gela, Lesbos and Crete is well known, +and a local tribe were alluded to as Mice by an oracle. The god himself, +like the Japanese harvest-god, was represented in art with a mouse at +his foot, and mice, as has been said, were fed at his shrine.(3) The +Syrians, says Clemens Alexandrinus, worship doves and fishes, as the +Elians worship Zeus.(4) The people of Delphi adored the wolf,(5) and the +Samians the sheep. The Athenians had a hero whom they worshipped in the +shape of a wolf.(6) A remarkable testimony is that of the scholiast on +Apollonius Rhodius, ii. 124. "The wolf," he says, "was a beast held in +honour by the Athenians, and whosoever slays a wolf collects what +is needful for its burial." The burial of sacred animals in Egypt +is familiar. An Arab tribe mourns over and solemnly buries all dead +gazelles.(7) Nay, flies were adored with the sacrifice of an ox near +the temple of Apollo in Leucas.(8) Pausanias (iii. 22) mentions certain +colonists who were guided by a hare to a site where the animal hid in a +myrtle-bush. They therefore adore the myrtle, (Greek text omitted). In +the same way a Carian stock, the Ioxidae, revered the asparagus.(9) A +remarkable example of descent mythically claimed from one of the lower +animals is noted by Otfried Muller.(10) Speaking of the swan of Apollo, +he says, "That deity was worshipped, according to the testimony of the +Iliad, in the Trojan island of Tenedos. There, too, was Tennes honoured +as the (Greek text omitted) of the island. Now his father was called +Cycnus (the swan) in an oft-told and romantic legend.(11)... The swan, +therefore, as father to the chief hero on the Apolline island, stands +in distinct relation to the god, who is made to come forward still more +prominently from the fact that Apollo himself is also called father of +Tennes. I think we can scarcely fail to recognise a mythus which was +local at Tenedos.... The fact, too, of calling the swan, instead of +Apollo, the father of a hero, demands altogether a simplicity and +boldness of fancy which are far more ancient than the poems of Homer." + + +(1) Op. cit., i. 34. + +(2) Scholiast on Iliad, xix. 119. + +(3) Aelian, H. A., xii. 5; Strabo, xiii. 604. Compare "Apollo and the +Mouse, Custom and Myth, pp. 103-120. + +(4) Lucian, De Dea Syria. + +(5) Aelian, H. A., xii. 40. + +(6) Harpocration, (Greek text omitted). Compare an address to +the wolf-hero, "who delights in the flight and tears of men," in +Aristophanes, Vespae, 389. + +(7) Robertson Smith, Kinship in Early Arabia, pp. 195-204. + +(8) Aelian, xi. 8. + +(9) Plutarch, Theseus, 14. + +(10) Proleg., Engl. trans., p. 204. + +(11) (Canne on Conon, 28.) + + +Had Muller known that this "simplicity and boldness of fancy" exist +to-day, for example, among the Swan tribe of Australia, he would +probably have recognised in Cycnus a survival from totemism. The fancy +survives again in Virgil's Cupavo, "with swan's plumes rising from his +crest, the mark of his father's form".(1) Descent was claimed, not only +from a swan Apollo, but from a dog Apollo. + + +(1) Aeneid, x. 187. + + +In connection with the same set of ideas, it is pointed out that several +(Greek text omitted), or stocks, had eponymous heroes, in whose names +the names of the ancestral beast apparently survived. In Attica +the Crioeis have their hero (Crio, "Ram"), the Butadae have Butas +("Bullman"), the Aegidae have Aegeus ("Goat"), and the Cynadae, Cynus +("Dog"). Lycus, according to Harpocration (s. v.) has his statue in the +shape of a wolf in the Lyceum. "The general facts that certain animals +might not be sacrificed to certain gods" (at Athens the Aegidae +introduced Athena, to whom no goat might be offered on the Acropolis, +while she herself wore the goat skin, aegis), "while, on the other +hand, each deity demanded particular victims, explained by the ancients +themselves in certain cases to be hostile animals, find their natural +explanation" in totemism.(1) Mr. Evelyn Abbott points out, however, that +the names Aegeus, Aegae, Aegina, and others, may be connected with the +goat only by an old volks-etymologie, as on coins of Aegina in Achaea. +The real meaning of the words may be different. Compare (Greek text +omitted), the sea-shore. Mr. J. G. Frazer does not, at present, regard +totemism as proved in the case of Greece.(2) + + +(1) Some apparent survivals of totemism in ritual will be found in the +chapter on Greek gods, especially Zeus, Dionysus, and Apollo. + +(2) See his Golden Bough, an alternative explanation of these animals in +connection with "The Corn Spirit". + + +As final examples of survivals from the age of barbarism in the religion +of Greece, certain features in the Mysteries may be noted. Plutarch +speaks of "the eating of raw flesh, and tearing to pieces of victims, +as also fastings and beatings of the breast, and again in many places +abusive language at the sacrifices, and other mad doings". The mysteries +of Demeter, as will appear when her legend is criticised, contained one +element all unlike these "mad doings"; and the evidence of Sophocles, +Pindar, Plutarch and others demonstrate that religious consolations +were somehow conveyed in the Eleusinia. But Greece had many other local +mysteries, and in several of these it is undeniable the Greeks acted +much as contemporary Australians, Zunis and Negroes act in their secret +initiations which, however, also inculcate moral ideas of considerable +excellence. Important as these analogies are, they appear to have +escaped the notice of most mythologists. M. Alfred Maury, however, in +Les Religions de la Grece, published in 1857, offers several instances +of hidden rites, common to Hellas and to barbarism. + +There seem in the mysteries of savage races to be two chief purposes. +There is the intention of giving to the initiated a certain sacred +character, which puts them in close relation with gods or demons, and +there is the introduction of the young to complete or advancing manhood, +and to full participation in the savage Church with its ethical ideas. +The latter ceremonies correspond, in short, to confirmation, and they +are usually of a severe character, being meant to test by fasting (as +Plutarch says) and by torture (as in the familiar Spartan rite) the +courage and constancy of the young braves. The Greek mysteries best +known to us are the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinia. In the former the +rites (as will appear later) partook of the nature of savage "medicine" +or magic, and were mainly intended to secure fertility in husbandry and +in the family. In the Eleusinia the purpose was the purification of the +initiated, secured by ablutions and by standing on the "ram's-skin of +Zeus," and after purifications the mystae engaged in sacred dances, +and were permitted to view a miracle play representing the sorrows and +consolations of Demeter. There was a higher element, necessarily obscure +in nature. The chief features in the whole were purifications, dancing, +sacrifice and the representation of the miracle play. It would be +tedious to offer an exhaustive account of savage rites analogous to +these mysteries of Hellas. Let it suffice to display the points where +Greek found itself in harmony with Australian, and American, and African +practice. These points are: (1) mystic dances; (2) the use of a little +instrument, called turndun in Australia, whereby a roaring noise is +made, and the profane are warned off; (3) the habit of daubing persons +about to be initiated with clay or anything else that is sordid, and of +washing this off; apparently by way of showing that old guilt is removed +and a new life entered upon; (4) the performances with serpents may be +noticed, while the "mad doings" and "howlings" mentioned by Plutarch +are familiar to every reader of travels in uncivilised countries; (5) +ethical instruction is communicated. + +First, as to the mystic dances, Lucian observes:(1) "You cannot find a +single ancient mystery in which there is not dancing.... This much all +men know, that most people say of the revealers of the mysteries that +they 'dance them out'" ((Greek text omitted)). Clemens of Alexandria +uses the same term when speaking of his own "appalling revelations".(2) +So closely connected are mysteries with dancing among savages, that when +Mr. Orpen asked Qing, the Bushman hunter, about some doctrines in which +Qing was not initiated, he said: "Only the initiated men of that dance +know these things". To "dance" this or that means to be acquainted with +this or that myth, which is represented in a dance or ballet d'action(3) +((Greek text omitted)). So widely distributed is the practice, that +Acosta, in an interesting passage, mentions it as familiar to the people +of Peru before and after the Spanish conquest. The text is a valuable +instance of survival in religion. When they were converted to +Christianity the Peruvians detected the analogy between our sacrament +and their mysteries, and they kept up as much as possible of the +old rite in the new ritual. Just as the mystae of Eleusis practised +chastity, abstaining from certain food, and above all from beans, before +the great Pagan sacrament, so did the Indians. "To prepare themselves +all the people fasted two days, during which they did neyther company +with their wives, nor eate any meate with salt or garlicke, nor drink +any chic.... And although the Indians now forbeare to sacrifice beasts +or other things publikely, which cannot be hidden from the Spaniardes, +yet doe they still use many ceremonies that have their beginnings +from these feasts and auntient superstitions, for at this day do they +covertly make their feast of Ytu at the daunces of the feast of the +Sacrament. Another feast falleth almost at the same time, whereas the +Christians observe the solempnitie of the holy Sacrament, which +DOTH RESEMBLE IT IN SOME SORT, AS IN DAUNCING, SINGING AND +REPRESENTATIONS."(4) The holy "daunces" at Seville are under Papal +disapproval, but are to be kept up, it is said, till the peculiar +dresses used in them are worn out. Acosta's Indians also had "garments +which served only for this feast". It is superfluous to multiply +examples of the dancing, which is an invariable feature of savage as of +Greek mysteries. + + +(1) (Greek text omitted), chap. xv. 277. + +(2) Ap. Euseb., Praep. Ev., ii, 3, 6. + +(3) Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + +(4) Acosta, Historie of the Indies, book v. chap. xxviii. London, 1604. + + +2. The Greek and savage use of the turndun, or bribbun of Australia in +the mysteries is familiar to students. This fish-shaped flat board of +wood is tied to a string, and whirled round, so as to cause a +peculiar muffled roar. Lobeck quotes from the old scholia on Clemens +Alexandrinus, published by Bastius in annotations on St. Gregory, the +following Greek description of the turndun, the "bull-roarer" of English +country lads, the Gaelic srannam:(1) (Greek text omitted)". "The conus +was a little slab of wood, tied to a string, and whirled round in the +mysteries to make a whirring noise. As the mystic uses of the turndun +in Australia, New Zealand, New Mexico and Zululand have elsewhere been +described at some length (Custom and Myth, pp. 28-44), it may be enough +to refer the reader to the passage. Mr. Taylor has since found the +instrument used in religious mysteries in West Africa, so it has now +been tracked almost round the world. That an instrument so rude should +be employed by Greek and Australians on mystic occasions is in itself a +remarkable coincidence. Unfortunately, Lobeck, who published the Greek +description of the turndun (Aglaophamus, 700), was unacquainted with the +modern ethnological evidence. + + +(1) Pronounced strantham. For this information I am indebted to my +friend Mr. M'Allister, schoolmaster at St. Mary's Loch. + + +3. The custom of plastering the initiated over with clay or filth was +common in Greek as in barbaric mysteries. Greek examples may be given +first. Demosthenes accuses Aeschines of helping his mother in certain +mystic rites, aiding her, especially, by bedaubing the initiate with +clay and bran.(1) Harpocration explains the term used ((Greek text +omitted)) thus: "Daubing the clay and bran on the initiate, to explain +which they say that the Titans when they attacked Dionysus daubed +themselves over with chalk, but afterwards, for ritual purposes, clay +was used". It may be urged with some force that the mother of Aeschines +introduced foreign, novel and possibly savage rites. But Sophocles, in +a fragment of his lost play, the Captives, uses the term in the same +ritual sense-- + + + (Greek text omitted). + + +(1) De Corona, 313. + + +The idea clearly was that by cleansing away the filth plastered over +the body was symbolised the pure and free condition of the initiate. He +might now cry in the mystic chant-- + + + (Greek text omitted). + Worse have I fled, better have I found. + + +That this was the significance of the daubing with clay in Greek +mysteries and the subsequent cleansing seems quite certain. We are led +straight to this conclusion by similar rites, in which the purpose of +mystically cleansing was openly put forward. Thus Plutarch, in his +essay on superstition, represents the guilty man who would be purified +actually rolling in clay, confessing his misdeeds, and then sitting at +home purified by the cleansing process ((Greek text omitted)).(1) In +another rite, the cleansing of blood-guiltiness, a similar process +was practised. Orestes, after killing his mother, complains that the +Eumenides do not cease to persecute him, though he has been "purified +by blood of swine".(2) Apollonius says that the red hand of the murderer +was dipped in the blood of swine and then washed.(3) Athenaeus describes +a similar unpleasant ceremony.(4) The blood of whelps was apparently +used also, men being first daubed with it and then washed clean.(5) The +word (Greek text omitted) is again the appropriate ritual term. Such +rites Plutarch calls (Greek text omitted), "filthy purifications".(6) If +daubing with dirt is known to have been a feature of Greek mysteries, +it meets us everywhere among savages. In O-Kee-Pa, that curiously minute +account of the Mandan mysteries, Catlin writes that a portion of the +frame of the initiate was "covered with clay, which the operator took +from a wooden bowl, and with his hand plastered unsparingly over". The +fifty young men waiting for initiation "were naked and entirely covered +with clay of various colours".(7) The custom is mentioned by Captain +John Smith in Virginia. Mr. Winwood Reade found it in Africa, where, as +among the Mandans and Spartans, cruel torture and flogging accompanied +the initiation of young men.(8) In Australia the evidence for daubing +the initiate is very abundant.(9) In New Mexico, the Zunis stole Mr. +Cushing's black paint, as considering it even better than clay for +religious daubing.(10) + + +(1) So Hermann, op. cit., 133. + +(2) Eumenides, 273. + +(3) Argonautica, iv. 693. + +(4) ix. 78. Hermann, from whom the latter passages are borrowed, also +quotes the evidence of a vase published by Feuerbach, Lehrbuch, p. 131, +with other authorities. + +(5) Plutarch, Quaest. Rom., 68. + +(6) De Superstitione, chap. xii. + +(7) O-Kee-Pa, London, 1867, p. 21. + +(8) Savage Africa, case of Mongilomba; Pausanias, iii. 15. + +(9) Brough Smyth, i. 60. + +(10) Custma and Myth, p. 40. + + +4. Another savage rite, the use of serpents in Greek mysteries, is +attested by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Demosthenes (loc. cit.). Clemens +says the snakes were caressed in representations of the loves of Zeus in +serpentine form. The great savage example is that of "the snake-dance +of the Moquis," who handle rattle-snakes in the mysteries without +being harmed.(1) The dance is partly totemistic, partly meant, like +the Thesmophoria, to secure the fertility of the lands of the Moquis +of Arizonas. The turndum or (Greek text omitted) is employed. Masks are +worn, as in the rites of Demeter Cidiria in Arcadia.(2) + + +(1) The Snake-Dance of the Moquis. By Captain John G. Bourke, London, +1884. + +(2) Pausanias, viii. 16. + + +5. This last point of contact between certain Greek and certain savage +mysteries is highly important. The argument of Lobeck, in his celebrated +work Aglaophamus, is that the Mysteries were of no great moment in +religion. Had he known the evidence as to savage initiations, he would +have been confirmed in his opinion, for many of the singular Greek +rites are clearly survivals from savagery. But was there no more truly +religious survival? Pindar is a very ancient witness that things of +divine import were revealed. "Happy is he who having seen these things +goes under the hollow earth. He knows the end of life, and the god-given +beginning."(1) Sophocles "chimes in," as Lobeck says, declaring that +the initiate alone LIVE in Hades, while other souls endure all evils. +Crinagoras avers that even in life the initiate live secure, and in +death are the happier. Isagoras declares that about the end of life and +all eternity they have sweet hopes. + + +(1) Fragm., cxvi., 128 H. p. 265. + + +Splendida testimonia, cries Lobeck. He tries to minimise the evidence, +remarking that Isocrates promises the very same rewards to all who live +justly and righteously. But why not, if to live justly and righteously +was part of the teaching of the mysteries of Eleusis? Cicero's evidence, +almost a translation of the Greek passages already cited, Lobeck +dismisses as purely rhetorical.(1) Lobeck's method is rather cavalier. +Pindar and Sophocles meant something of great significance. + + +(1) De Legibus ii. 14; Aglaophamus, pp. 69-74. + + +Now we have acknowledged savage survivals of ugly rites in the Greek +mysteries. But it is only fair to remember that, in certain of the few +savage mysteries of which we know the secret, righteousness of life and +a knowledge of good are inculcated. This is the case in Australia, and +in Central Africa, where to be "uninitiated" is equivalent to being +selfish.(1) Thus it seems not improbable that consolatory doctrines were +expounded in the Eleusinia, and that this kind of sermon or exhortation +was no less a survival from savagery than the daubing with clay, and the +(Greek text omitted), and other wild rites. + + +(1) Making of Religion, pp. 193-197, 235. + + +We have now attempted to establish that in Greek law and ritual many +savage customs and usages did undeniably survive. We have seen that both +philosophical and popular opinion in Greece believed in a past age of +savagery. In law, in religion, in religious art, in custom, in human +sacrifice, in relics of totemism, and in the mysteries, we have seen +that the Greeks retained plenty of the usages now found among the +remotest and most backward races. We have urged against the suggestion +of borrowing from Egypt or Asia that these survivals are constantly +found in local and tribal religion and rituals, and that consequently +they probably date from that remote prehistoric past when the Greeks +lived in village settlements. It may still doubtless be urged that all +these things are Pelasgic, and were the customs of a race settled in +Hellas before the arrival of the Homeric Achaeans, and Dorians, and +Argives, who, on this hypothesis, adopted and kept up the old savage +Pelasgian ways and superstitions. It is impossible to prove or disprove +this belief, nor does it affect our argument. We allege that all Greek +life below the surface was rich in institutions now found among the most +barbaric peoples. These institutions, whether borrowed or inherited, +would still be part of the legacy left by savages to cultivated peoples. +As this legacy is so large in custom and ritual, it is not unfair to +argue that portions of it will also be found in myths. It is now time to +discuss Greek myths of the origin of things, and decide whether they are +or are not analogous in ideas to the myths which spring from the wild +and ignorant fancy of Australians, Cahrocs, Nootkas and Bushmen. + + + +CHAPTER X. GREEK COSMOGONIC MYTHS. + +Nature of the evidence--Traditions of origin of the world and +man--Homeric, Hesiodic and Orphic myths--Later evidence of historians, +dramatists, commentators--The Homeric story comparatively pure--The +story in Hesiod, and its savage analogues--The explanations of the +myth of Cronus, modern and ancient--The Orphic cosmogony--Phanes and +Prajapati--Greek myths of the origin of man--Their savage analogues. + + +The authorities for Greek cosmogonic myth are extremely various in date, +character and value. The most ancient texts are the Iliad and the poems +attributed to Hesiod. The Iliad, whatever its date, whatever the place +of its composition, was intended to please a noble class of warriors. +The Hesiodic poems, at least the Theogony, have clearly a didactic aim, +and the intention of presenting a systematic and orderly account of the +divine genealogies. To neither would we willingly attribute a date much +later than the ninth century of our era, but the question of the dates +of all the epic and Hesiodic poems, and even of their various parts, is +greatly disputed among scholars. Yet it is nowhere denied that, however +late the present form of some of the poems may be, they contain ideas of +extreme antiquity. Although the Homeric poems are usually considered, on +the whole, more ancient than those attributed to Hesiod,(1) it is a fact +worth remembering that the notions of the origin of things in Hesiod are +much more savage and (as we hold) much more archaic than the opinions of +Homer. + + +(1) Grote assigns his Theogony to circ. 750 A.D. The Thegony was taught +to boys in Greece, much as the Church Catechism and Bible are taught in +England; Aeschines in Ctesiph., 135, p. 73. Libanius, 400 years after +Christ (i. 502-509, iv. 874). + + +While Hesiod offers a complete theogony or genealogy of deities and +heroes, Homer gives no more than hints and allusions to the stormy past +of the gods. It is clear, however, that his conception of that past +differed considerably from the traditions of Hesiod. However we explain +it, the Homeric mythology (though itself repugnant to the philosophers +from Xenophanes downwards) is much more mild, pure and humane than the +mythology either of Hesiod or of our other Greek authorities. Some may +imagine that Homer retains a clearer and less corrupted memory than +Hesiod possessed of an original and authentic "divine tradition". Others +may find in Homer's comparative purity a proof of the later date of his +epics in their present form, or may even proclaim that Homer was a kind +of Cervantes, who wished to laugh the gods away. There is no conceivable +or inconceivable theory about Homer that has not its advocates. For +ourselves, we hold that the divine genius of Homer, though working in +an age distant rather than "early," selected instinctively the purer +mythical materials, and burned away the coarser dross of antique legend, +leaving little but the gold which is comparatively refined. + +We must remember that it does not follow that any mythical ideas are +later than the age of Homer because we first meet them in poems of a +later date. We have already seen that though the Brahmanas are much +later in date of compilation than the Veda, yet a tradition which we +first find in the Brahmanas may be older than the time at which the Veda +was compiled. In the same way, as Mr. Max Muller observes, "we know that +certain ideas which we find in later writers do not occur in Homer. But +it does not follow at all that such ideas are all of later growth or +possess a secondary character. One myth may have belonged to one tribe; +one god may have had his chief worship in one locality; and our becoming +acquainted with these through a later poet does not in the least prove +their later origin."(1) + + +(1) Hibbert Lectures, pp. 130, 131. + + +After Homer and Hesiod, our most ancient authorities for Greek +cosmogonic myths are probably the so-called Orphic fragments. Concerning +the dates and the manner of growth of these poems volumes of erudition +have been compiled. As Homer is silent about Orpheus (in spite of the +position which the mythical Thracian bard acquired as the inventor of +letters and magic and the father of the mysteries), it has been usual to +regard the Orphic ideas as of late introduction. We may agree with Grote +and Lobeck that these ideas and the ascetic "Orphic mode of life" first +acquired importance in Greece about the time of Epimenides, or, roughly +speaking, between 620 and 500 B.C.(1) That age certainly witnessed a +curious growth of superstitious fears and of mystic ceremonies intended +to mitigate spiritual terrors. Greece was becoming more intimately +acquainted with Egypt and with Asia, and was comparing her own religion +with the beliefs and rites of other peoples. The times and the minds of +men were being prepared for the clear philosophies that soon "on Argive +heights divinely sang". Just as, when the old world was about to accept +Christianity, a deluge of Oriental and barbaric superstitions swept +across men's minds, so immediately before the dawn of Greek philosophy +there came an irruption of mysticism and of spiritual fears. We may +suppose that the Orphic poems were collected, edited and probably +interpolated, in this dark hour of Greece. "To me," says Lobeck, "it +appears that the verses may be referred to the age of Onomacritus, +an age curious in the writings of ancient poets, and attracted by the +allurements of mystic religions." The style of the surviving fragments +is sufficiently pure and epic; the strange unheard of myths are unlike +those which the Alexandrian poets drew from fountains long lost.(2) But +how much in the Orphic myths is imported from Asia or Egypt, how much is +the invention of literary forgers like Onomacritus, how much should be +regarded as the first guesses of the physical poet-philosophers, and +how much is truly ancient popular legend recast in literary form, it is +impossible with certainty to determine. + + +(1) Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. 317; Grote, iii. 86. + +(2) Aglaophamus, i. 611. + + +We must not regard a myth as necessarily late or necessarily foreign +because we first meet it in an "Orphic composition". If the myth be one +of the sort which encounter us in every quarter, nay, in every obscure +nook of the globe, we may plausibly regard it as ancient. If it bear +the distinct marks of being a Neo-platonic pastiche, we may reject it +without hesitation. On the whole, however, our Orphic authorities can +never be quoted with much satisfaction. The later sources of evidence +for Greek myths are not of great use to the student of cosmogonic +legend, though invaluable when we come to treat of the established +dynasty of gods, the heroes and the "culture-heroes". For these the +authorities are the whole range of Greek literature, poets, dramatists, +philosophers, critics, historians and travellers. We have also the +notes and comments of the scholiasts or commentators on the poets and +dramatists. Sometimes these annotators only darken counsel by their +guesses. Sometimes perhaps, especially in the scholia on the Iliad and +Odyssey, they furnish us with a precious myth or popular marchen not +otherwise recorded. The regular professional mythographi, again, of whom +Apollodorus (150 B.C.) is the type, compiled manuals explanatory of the +myths which were alluded to by the poets. The scholiasts and mythographi +often retain myths from lost poems and lost plays. Finally, from the +travellers and historians we occasionally glean examples of the tales +("holy chapters," as Mr. Grote calls them) which were narrated by +priests and temple officials to the pilgrims who visited the sacred +shrines. + +These "chapters" are almost invariably puerile, savage and obscene. +They bear the stamp of extreme antiquity, because they never, as a rule, +passed through the purifying medium of literature. There were many myths +too crude and archaic for the purposes of poetry and of the drama. +These were handed down from local priest to local priest, with the +inviolability of sacred and immutable tradition. We have already given a +reason for assigning a high antiquity to the local temple myths. Just as +Greeks lived in villages before they gathered into towns, so their gods +were gods of villages or tribes before they were national deities. The +local myths are those of the archaic village state of "culture," more +ancient, more savage, than literary narrative. Very frequently the local +legends were subjected to the process of allegorical interpretation, as +men became alive to the monstrosity of their unsophisticated meaning. +Often they proved too savage for our authorities, who merely remark, +"Concerning this a certain holy chapter is told," but decline to record +the legend. In the same way missionaries, with mistaken delicacy, often +refuse to repeat some savage legend with which they are acquainted. + +The latest sort of testimony as to Greek myths must be sought in +the writings of the heathen apologists or learned Pagan defenders of +Paganism in the first centuries during Christianity, and in the works of +their opponents, the fathers of the Church. Though the fathers certainly +do not understate the abominations of Paganism, and though the +heathen apologists make free use of allegorical (and impossible) +interpretations, the evidence of both is often useful and important. The +testimony of ancient art, vases, statues, pictures and the descriptions +of these where they no longer survive, are also of service and interest. + +After this brief examination of the sources of our knowledge of Greek +myth, we may approach the Homeric legends of the origin of things and +the world's beginning. In Homer these matters are only referred to +incidentally. He more than once calls Oceanus (that is, the fabled +stream which flows all round the world, here regarded as a PERSON) +"the origin of the gods," "the origin of all things".(1) That Ocean is +considered a person, and that he is not an allegory for water or the +aqueous element, appears from the speech of Hera to Aphrodite: "I am +going to visit the limits of the bountiful earth, and Oceanus, father of +the gods, and mother Tethys, who reared me duly and nurtured me in their +halls, when far-seeing Zeus imprisoned Cronus beneath the earth and the +unvintaged sea".(2) Homer does not appear to know Uranus as the father +of Cronus, and thus the myth of the mutilation of Uranus necessarily +does not occur in Homer. Cronus, the head of the dynasty which preceded +that of Zeus, is described(3) as the son of Rhea, but nothing is said +of his father. The passage contains the account which Poseidon himself +chose to give of the war in heaven: "Three brethren are we, and sons +of Cronus whom Rhea bare--Zeus and myself, and Hades is the third, the +ruler of the folk in the underworld. And in three lots were all things +divided, and each drew a domain of his own." Here Zeus is the ELDEST +son of Cronus. Though lots are drawn at hazard for the property of +the father (which we know to have been customary in Homer's time), yet +throughout the Iliad Zeus constantly claims the respect and obedience +due to him by right of primogeniture.(4) We shall see that Hesiod adopts +exactly the opposite view. Zeus is the YOUNGEST child of Cronus. His +supremacy is an example of jungsten recht, the wide-spread custom which +makes the youngest child the heir in chief.(5) But how did the sons of +Cronus come to have his property in their hands to divide? By right of +successful rebellion, when "Zeus imprisoned Cronus beneath the earth +and the unvintaged sea". With Cronus in his imprisonment are the Titans. +That is all that Homer cares to tell about the absolute beginning of +things and the first dynasty of rulers of Olympus. His interest is all +in the actual reigning family, that of the Cronidae, nor is he fond of +reporting their youthful excesses. + + +(1) Iliad, xiv. 201, 302, 246. + +(2) In reading what Homer and Hesiod report about these matters, we must +remember that all the forces and phenomena are conceived of by them as +PERSONS. In this regard the archaic and savage view of all things as +personal and human is preserved. "I maintain," says Grote, "moreover, +fully the character of these great divine agents as persons, which is +the light in which they presented themselves to the Homeric or Hesiodic +audience. Uranus, Nyx, Hypnos and Oneiros (heaven, night, sleep and +dream) are persons just as much as Zeus or Apollo. To resolve them into +mere allegories is unsafe and unprofitable. We then depart from the +point of view of the original hearers without acquiring any consistent +or philosophical point of view of our own." This holds good though +portions of the Hesiodic genealogies are distinctly poetic allegories +cast in the mould or the ancient personal theory of things. + +(3) Iliad, xv. 187. + +(4) The custom by which sons drew lots for equal shares of their dead +father's property is described in Odyssey, xiv. 199-212. Here Odysseus, +giving a false account of himself, says that he was a Cretan, a bastard, +and that his half-brothers, born in wedlock, drew lots for their +father's inheritance, and did not admit him to the drawing, but gave him +a small portion apart. + +(5) See Elton, Origins of English History, pp. 185-207. + + +We now turn from Homer's incidental allusions to the ample and +systematic narrative of Hesiod. As Mr. Grote says, "Men habitually +took their information respecting their theogonic antiquities from the +Hesiodic poems." Hesiod was accepted as an authority both by the pious +Pausanias in the second century of our era--who protested against any +attempt to alter stories about the gods--and by moral reformers like +Plato and Xenophanes, who were revolted by the ancient legends,(1) +and, indeed, denied their truth. Yet, though Hesiod represents Greek +orthodoxy, we have observed that Homer (whose epics are probably still +more ancient) steadily ignores the more barbarous portions of Hesiod's +narrative. Thus the question arises: Are the stories of +Hesiod's invention, and later than Homer, or does Homer's genius +half-unconsciously purify materials like those which Hesiod presents +in the crudest form? Mr. Grote says: "How far these stories are the +invention of Hesiod himself it is impossible to determine. They bring us +down to a cast of fancy more coarse and indelicate than the Homeric, and +more nearly resemble some of the holy chapters ((Greek text omitted)) +of the more recent mysteries, such, for example, as the tale of Dionysus +Zagreus. There is evidence in the Theogony itself that the author was +acquainted with local legends current both at Krete and at Delphi, for +he mentions both the mountain-cave in Krete wherein the newly-born Zeus +was hidden, and the stone near the Delphian temple--the identical stone +which Kronos had swallowed--placed by Zeus himself as a sign and marvel +to mortal men. Both these monuments, which the poet expressly refers to, +and had probably seen, imply a whole train of accessory and explanatory +local legends, current probably among the priests of Krete and Delphi." + + +(1) Timaeeus, 41; Republic, 377. + + +All these circumstances appear to be good evidence of the great +antiquity of the legends recorded by Hesiod. In the first place, arguing +merely a priori, it is extremely improbable that in the brief interval +between the date of the comparatively pure and noble mythology of the +Iliad and the much ruder Theogony of Hesiod men INVENTED stories like +the mutilation of Uranus, and the swallowing of his offspring by Cronus. +The former legend is almost exactly parallel, as has already been +shown, to the myth of Papa and Rangi in New Zealand. The later has +its parallels among the savage Bushmen and Australians. It is highly +improbable that men in an age so civilised as that of Homer invented +myths as hideous as those of the lowest savages. But if we take these +myths to be, not new inventions, but the sacred stories of local +priesthoods, their antiquity is probably incalculable. The sacred +stories, as we know from Pausanias, Herodotus and from all the writers +who touch on the subject of the mysteries, were myths communicated +by the priests to the initiated. Plato speaks of such myths in the +Republic, 378: "If there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a +very few might hear them in a mystery, and then let them sacrifice, not +a common pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; this would have the +effect of very greatly diminishing the number of the hearers". This is +an amusing example of a plan for veiling the horrors of myth. The pig +was the animal usually offered to Demeter, the goddess of the Eleusinian +mysteries. Plato proposes to substitute some "unprocurable" beast, +perhaps a giraffe or an elephant. + +To Hesiod, then, we must turn for what is the earliest complete +literary form of the Greek cosmogonic myth. Hesiod begins, like the +New Zealanders, with "the august race of gods, by earth and wide heaven +begotten".(1) So the New Zealanders, as we have seen, say, "The +heaven which is above us, and the earth which is beneath us, are the +progenitors of men and the origin of all things". Hesiod(2) somewhat +differs from this view by making Chaos absolutely first of all things, +followed by "wide-bosomed Earth," Tartarus and Eros (love). Chaos +unaided produced Erebus and Night; the children of Night and Erebus are +Aether and Day. Earth produced Heaven, who then became her own lover, +and to Heaven she bore Oceanus, and the Titans, Coeeus and Crius, +Hyperion and Iapetus, Thea and Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, +"and youngest after these was born Cronus of crooked counsel, the most +dreadful of her children, who ever detested his puissant sire," Heaven. +There were other sons of Earth and Heaven peculiarly hateful to their +father,(3) and these Uranus used to hide from the light in a hollow of +Gaea. Both they and Gaea resented this treatment, and the Titans, like +"the children of Heaven and Earth," in the New Zealand poem, "sought to +discern the difference between light and darkness". Gaea (unlike Earth +in the New Zealand myth, for there she is purely passive), conspired +with her children, produced iron, and asked her sons to avenge their +wrongs.(4) Fear fell upon all of them save Cronus, who (like Tane Mahuta +in the Maori poem) determined to end the embraces of Earth and Heaven. +But while the New Zealand, like the Indo-Aryan myth,(5) conceives of +Earth and Heaven as two beings who have never previously been sundered +at all, Hesiod makes Heaven amorously approach his spouse from a +distance. This was the moment for Cronus,(6) who stretched out his +hand armed with the sickle of iron, and mutilated Uranus. As in so many +savage myths, the blood of the wounded god fallen on the ground produced +strange creatures, nymphs of the ash-tree, giants and furies. As in +the Maori myth, one of the children of Heaven stood apart and did not +consent to the deed. This was Oceanus in Greece,(7) and in New Zealand +it was Tawhiri Matea, the wind, "who arose and followed his father, +Heaven, and remained with him in the open spaces of the sky". Uranus now +predicted(8) that there would come a day of vengeance for the evil deed +of Cronus, and so ends the dynasty of Uranus. + + +(1) Theog., 45. + +(2) Ibid., 116. + +(3) Ibid., 155. + +(4) Ibid., 166. + +(5) Muir, v. 23, quoting Aitareya Brahmana, iv. 27: "These two worlds +were once joined; subsequently they separated". + +(6) Theog., 175-185. + +(7) Apollod., i, 15. + +(8) Theog., 209. + + +This story was one of the great stumbling-blocks of orthodox Greece. It +was the tale that Plato said should be told, if at all, only to a few +in a mystery, after the sacrifice of some rare and scarcely obtainable +animal. Even among the Maoris, the conduct of the children who severed +their father and mother is regarded as a singular instance of iniquity, +and is told to children as a moral warning, an example to be condemned. +In Greece, on the other hand, unless we are to take the Euthyphro +as wholly ironical, some of the pious justified their conduct by the +example of Zeus. Euthyphro quotes this example when he is about to +prosecute his own father, for which act, he says, "Men are angry with +ME; so inconsistently do they talk when I am concerned and when the gods +are concerned".(1) But in Greek THE TALE HAS NO MEANING. It has been +allegorised in various ways, and Lafitau fancied that it was a distorted +form of the Biblical account of the origin of sin. In Maori the legend +is perfectly intelligible. Heaven and earth were conceived of (like +everything else), as beings with human parts and passions, linked in +an endless embrace which crushed and darkened their children. It became +necessary to separate them, and this feat was achieved not without +pain. "Then wailed the Heaven, and exclaimed the Earth, 'Wherefore +this murder? Why this great sin? Why separate us?' But what cared Tane? +Upwards he sent one and downwards the other. He cruelly severed +the sinews which united Heaven and Earth."(2) The Greek myth too, +contemplated earth and heaven as beings corporeally united, and heaven +as a malignant power that concealed his children in darkness. + + +(1) Euthyphro, 6. + +(2) Taylor, New Zealand, 119. + + +But while the conception of heaven and earth as parents of living things +remains perfectly intelligible in one sense, the vivid personification +which regarded them as creatures with human parts and passions had +ceased to be intelligible in Greece before the times of the earliest +philosophers. The old physical conception of the pair became a metaphor, +and the account of their rending asunder by their children lost all +significance, and seemed to be an abominable and unintelligible myth. +When examined in the light of the New Zealand story, and of the fact +that early peoples do regard all phenomena as human beings, with +physical attributes like those of men, the legend of Cronus, and Uranus, +and Gaea ceases to be a mystery. It is, at bottom, a savage explanation +(as in the Samoan story) of the separation of earth and heaven, an +explanation which could only have occurred to people in a state of mind +which civilisation has forgotten. + +The next generation of Hesiodic gods (if gods we are to call the members +of this race of non-natural men) was not more fortunate than the first +in its family relations. + +Cronus wedded his sister, Rhea, and begat Demeter, Hera, Hades, +Poseidon, and the youngest, Zeus. "And mighty Cronus swallowed down each +of them, each that came to their mother's knees from her holy womb, with +this intent that none other of the proud sons of heaven should hold his +kingly sway among the immortals. Heaven and Earth had warned him that he +too should fall through his children. Wherefore he kept no vain +watch, but spied and swallowed down each of his offspring, while grief +immitigable took possession of Rhea."(1) Rhea, being about to become the +mother of Zeus, took counsel with Uranus and Gaea. By their advice she +went to Crete, where Zeus was born, and, in place of the child, she +presented to Cronus a huge stone swathed in swaddling bands. This he +swallowed, and was easy in his mind. Zeus grew up, and by some means, +suggested by Gaea, compelled Zeus to disgorge all his offspring. "And +he vomited out the stone first, as he had swallowed it last."(2) The +swallowed children emerged alive, and Zeus fixed the stone at Pytho +(Delphi), where Pausanias(3) had the privilege of seeing it, and where, +as it did not tempt the cupidity of barbarous invaders, it probably +still exists. It was not a large stone, Pausanias says, and the +Delphians used to pour oil over it, as Jacob did(4) to the stone at +Bethel, and on feast-days they covered it with wraps of wool. The custom +of smearing fetish-stones (which Theophrastus mentions as one of the +practices of the superstitious man) is clearly a survival from +the savage stage of religion. As a rule, however, among savages, +fetish-stones are daubed with red paint (like the face of the wooden +ancient Dionysi in Greece, and of Tsui Goab among the Hottentots), not +smeared with oil.(5) + + +(1) Theog., 460, 465. + +(2) Theog., 498. + +(3) x. 245. + +(4) Gen. xxviii. 18. + +(5) Pausanias, ii. 2, 5. "Churinga" in Australia are greased with +the natural moisture of the palm of the hand, and rubbed with red +ochre.--Spencer and Gillen. They are "sacred things," but not exactly +fetishes. + + +The myth of the swallowing and disgorging of his own children by Cronus +was another of the stumbling-blocks of Greek orthodoxy. The common +explanation, that Time ((Greek text omitted)) does swallow his children, +the days, is not quite satisfactory. Time brings never the past back +again, as Cronus did. Besides, the myth of the swallowing is not +confined to Cronus. Modern philology has given, as usual, different +analyses of the meaning of the name of the god. Hermann, with Preller, +derives it from (Greek text omitted), to fulfil. The harvest-month, says +Preller, was named Cronion in Greece, and Cronia was the title of the +harvest-festival. The sickle of Cronus is thus brought into connection +with the sickle of the harvester.(1) + + +(1) Preller, Gr. Myth., i. 44; Hartung, ii. 48; Porphyry, Abst., ii. 54. +Welcker will not hear of this etymology, Gr. gott., i. 145, note 9. + + +The second myth, in which Cronus swallows his children, has numerous +parallels in savage legend. Bushmen tell of Kwai Hemm, the devourer, who +swallows that great god, the mantis insect, and disgorges him alive with +all the other persons and animals whom he has engulphed in the course of +a long and voracious career.(1) The moon in Australia, while he lived +on earth, was very greedy, and swallowed the eagle-god, whom he had to +disgorge. Mr. Im Thurn found similar tales among the Indians of Guiana. +The swallowing and disgorging of Heracles by the monster that was to +slay Hesione is well known. Scotch peasants tell of the same feats, but +localise the myth on the banks of the Ken in Galloway. Basutos, Eskimos, +Zulus and European fairy tales all possess this incident, the swallowing +of many persons by a being from whose maw they return alive and in good +case. + + +(1) Bleek, Bushman Folk-lore, pp. 6, 8. + + +A mythical conception which prevails from Greenland to South Africa, +from Delphi to the Solomon Islands, from Brittany to the shores of Lake +Superior, must have some foundation in the common elements of human +nature.(1) Now it seems highly probable that this curious idea may have +been originally invented in an attempt to explain natural phenomena by +a nature-myth. It has already been shown (chapter v.) that eclipses are +interpreted, even by the peasantry of advanced races, as the swallowing +of the moon by a beast or a monster. The Piutes account for the +disappearance of the stars in the daytime by the hypothesis that the +"sun swallows his children". In the Melanesian myth, dawn is cut out of +the body of night by Qat, armed with a knife of red obsidian. Here are +examples(2) of transparent nature-myths in which this idea occurs for +obvious explanatory purposes, and in accordance with the laws of the +savage imagination. Thus the conception of the swallowing and disgorging +being may very well have arisen out of a nature-myth. But why is the +notion attached to the legend of Cronus? + + +(1) The myth of Cronus and the swallowed children and the stone is +transferred to Gargantua. See Sebillot, Gargantua dans les Traditions +Populaires. But it is impossible to be certain that this is not an +example of direct borrowing by Madame De Cerny in her Saint Suliac, p. +69. + +(2) Compare Tylor, Prim. Cult., i. 338. + + +That is precisely the question about which mythologists differ, as has +been shown, and perhaps it is better to offer no explanation. However +stories arise--and this story probably arose from a nature-myth--it is +certain that they wander about the world, that they change masters, and +thus a legend which is told of a princess with an impossible name in +Zululand is told of the mother of Charlemagne in France. The tale of +the swallowing may have been attributed to Cronus, as a great truculent +deity, though it has no particular elemental signification in connection +with his legend. + +This peculiarly savage trick of swallowing each other became an +inherited habit in the family of Cronus. When Zeus reached years of +discretion, he married Metis, and this lady, according to the scholiast +on Hesiod, had the power of transforming herself into any shape she +pleased. When she was about to be a mother, Zeus induced her to assume +the shape of a fly and instantly swallowed her.(1) In behaving thus, +Zeus acted on the advice of Uranus and Gaea. It was feared that Metis +would produce a child more powerful than his father. Zeus avoided this +peril by swallowing his wife, and himself gave birth to Athene. The +notion of swallowing a hostile person, who has been changed by magic +into a conveniently small bulk, is very common. It occurs in the story +of Taliesin.(2) Caridwen, in the shape of a hen, swallows Gwion Bach, +in the form of a grain of wheat. In the same manner the princess in the +Arabian Nights swallowed the Geni. Here then we have in the Hesiodic +myth an old marchen pressed into the service of the higher mythology. +The apprehension which Zeus (like Herod and King Arthur) always felt +lest an unborn child should overthrow him, was also familiar to Indra; +but, instead of swallowing the mother and concealing her in his own +body, like Zeus, Indra entered the mother's body, and himself was born +instead of the dreaded child.(3) A cow on this occasion was born along +with Indra. This adventure of the (Greek text omitted) or swallowing +of Metis was explained by the late Platonists as a Platonic allegory. +Probably the people who originated the tale were not Platonists, any +more than Pandarus was all Aristotelian. + + +(1) Hesiod, Theogonia, 886. See Scholiast and note in Aglaophamus, i. +613. Compare Puss in Boots and the Ogre. + +(2) Mabinogion, p. 473. + +(3) Black Yajur Veda, quoted by Sayana. + + +After Homer and Hesiod, the oldest literary authorities for Greek +cosmogonic myths are the poems attributed to Orpheus. About their +probable date, as has been said, little is known. They have reached us +only in fragments, but seem to contain the first guesses of a philosophy +not yet disengaged from mythical conditions. The poet preserves, indeed, +some extremely rude touches of early imagination, while at the same time +one of the noblest and boldest expressions of pantheistic thought is +attributed to him. From the same source are drawn ideas as pure as those +of the philosophical Vedic hymn,(1) and as wild as those of the Vedic +Purusha Sukta, or legend of the fashioning of the world out of the +mangled limbs of Purusha. The authors of the Orphic cosmogony appear to +have begun with some remarks on Time ((Greek text omitted)). "Time +was when as yet this world was not."(2) Time, regarded in the mythical +fashion as a person, generated Chaos and Aether. The Orphic poet styles +Chaos (Greek text omitted), "the monstrous gulph," or "gap". This term +curiously reminds one of Ginnunga-gap in the Scandinavian cosmogonic +legends. "Ginnunga-gap was light as windless air," and therein the blast +of heat met the cold rime, whence Ymir was generated, the Purusha +of Northern fable.(3) These ideas correspond well with the Orphic +conception of primitive space.(4) + + +(1) Rig-Veda, x. 90. + +(2) Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. 470. See also the quotations from Proclus. + +(3) Gylfi's Mocking. + +(4) Aglaophamus, p. 473. + + +In process of time Chaos produced an egg, shining and silver white. It +is absurd to inquire, according to Lobeck, whether the poet borrowed +this widely spread notion of a cosmic egg from Phoenicia, Babylon, Egypt +(where the goose-god Seb laid the egg), or whether the Orphic singer +originated so obvious an idea. Quaerere ludicrum est. The conception may +have been borrowed, but manifestly it is one of the earliest hypotheses +that occur to the rude imagination. We have now three primitive +generations, time, chaos, the egg, and in the fourth generation the egg +gave birth to Phanes, the great hero of the Orphic cosmogony.(1) The +earliest and rudest thinkers were puzzled, as many savage cosmogonic +myths have demonstrated, to account for the origin of life. The myths +frequently hit on the theory of a hermaphroditic being, both male and +female, who produces another being out of himself. Prajapati in the +Indian stories, and Hrimthursar in Scandinavian legend--"one of his feet +got a son on the other"--with Lox in the Algonquin tale are examples of +these double-sexed personages. In the Orphic poem, Phanes is both male +and female. This Phanes held within him "the seed of all the gods,"(2) +and his name is confused with the names of Metis and Ericapaeus in +a kind of trinity. All this part of the Orphic doctrine is greatly +obscured by the allegorical and theosophistic interpretations of the +late Platonists long after our era, who, as usual, insisted on finding +their own trinitarian ideas, commenta frigidissima, concealed under the +mythical narrative.(3) + + +(1) Clemens Alexan., p. 672. + +(2) Damascius, ap. Lobeck, i. 481. + +(3) Aglaoph., i. 483. + + +Another description by Hieronymus of the first being, the Orphic Phanes, +"as a serpent with bull's and lion's heads, with a human face in the +middle and wings on the shoulders," is sufficiently rude and senseless. +But these physical attributes could easily be explained away as types of +anything the Platonist pleased.(1) The Orphic Phanes, too, was almost as +many-headed as a giant in a fairy tale, or as Purusha in the Rig-Veda. +He had a ram's head, a bull's head, a snake's head and a lion's head, +and glanced around with four eyes, presumably human.(2) This remarkable +being was also provided with golden wings. The nature of the physical +arrangements by which Phanes became capable of originating life in the +world is described in a style so savage and crude that the reader must +be referred to Suidas for the original text.(3) The tale is worthy of +the Swift-like fancy of the Australian Narrinyeri. + + +(1) Damascius, 381, ap. Lobeck, i. 484. + +(2) Hermias in Phaedr. ap. Lobeck, i. 493. + +(3) Suidas s. v. Phanes. + + +Nothing can be easier or more delusive than to explain all this wild +part of the Orphic cosmogony as an allegorical veil of any modern ideas +we choose to select. But why the "allegory" should closely imitate the +rough guesses of uncivilised peoples, Ahts, Diggers, Zunis, Cahrocs, +it is less easy to explain. We can readily imagine African or American +tribes who were accustomed to revere bulls, rams, snakes, and so forth, +ascribing the heads of all their various animal patrons to the deity of +their confederation. We can easily see how such races as practise the +savage rites of puberty should attribute to the first being the special +organs of Phanes. But on the Neo-Platonic hypothesis that Orpheus was a +seer of Neo-Platonic opinions, we do not see why he should have +veiled his ideas under so savage an allegory. This part of the Orphic +speculation is left in judicious silence by some modern commentators, +such as M. Darmesteter in Les Cosmogonies Aryennes.(1) Indeed, if we +choose to regard Apollonius Rhodius, an Alexandrine poet writing in a +highly civilised age, as the representative of Orphicism, it is easy +to mask and pass by the more stern and characteristic fortresses of +the Orphic divine. The theriomorphic Phanes is a much less "Aryan" and +agreeable object than the glorious golden-winged Eros, the love-god of +Apollonius Rhodius and Aristophanes.(2) + + +(1) Essais Orientaux, p. 166. + +(2) Argonautica, 1-12; Aves, 693. + + +On the whole, the Orphic fragments appear to contain survivals of savage +myths of the origin of things blended with purer speculations. The +savage ideas are finally explained by late philosophers as allegorical +veils and vestments of philosophy; but the interpretation is arbitrary, +and varies with the taste and fancy of each interpreter. Meanwhile the +coincidence of the wilder elements with the speculations native to races +in the lowest grades of civilisation is undeniable. This opinion is +confirmed by the Greek myths of the origin of Man. These, too, coincide +with the various absurd conjectures of savages. + +In studying the various Greek local legends of the origin of Man, we +encounter the difficulty of separating them from the myths of heroes, +which it will be more convenient to treat separately. This difficulty we +have already met in our treatment of savage traditions of the beginnings +of the race. Thus we saw that among the Melanesians, Qat, and among +the Ahts, Quawteaht, were heroic persons, who made men and most other +things. But it was desirable to keep their performances of this sort +separate from their other feats, their introduction of fire, for +example, and of various arts. In the same way it will be well, in +reviewing Greek legends, to keep Prometheus' share in the making of men +apart from the other stories of his exploits as a benefactor of the men +whom he made. In Hesiod, Prometheus is the son of the Titan Iapetus, and +perhaps his chief exploit is to play upon Zeus a trick of which we find +the parallel in various savage myths. It seems, however, from Ovid(1) +and other texts, that Hesiod somewhere spoke of Prometheus as having +made men out of clay, like Pund-jel in the Australian, Qat in the +Melanesian and Tiki in the Maori myths. The same story is preserved in +Servius's commentary on Virgil.(2) A different legend is preserved in +the Etymologicum Magnum (voc. Ikonion). According to this story, after +the deluge of Deucalion, "Zeus bade Prometheus and Athene make images +of men out of clay, and the winds blew into them the breath of life". +In confirmation of this legend, Pausanias was shown in Phocis certain +stones of the colour of clay, and "smelling very like human flesh"; and +these, according to the Phocians, were "the remains of the clay from +which the whole human race was fashioned by Prometheus".(3) + + +(1) Ovid. Metam. i. 82. + +(2) Eclogue, vi. 42. + +(3) Pausanias, x. 4, 3. + + +Aristophanes, too, in the Birds (686) talks of men as (Greek text +omitted), figures kneaded of clay. Thus there are sufficient traces in +Greek tradition of the savage myth that man was made of clay by some +superior being, like Pund-jel in the quaint Australian story. + +We saw that among various rude races other theories of the origin of man +were current. Men were thought to have come out of a hole in the +ground or a bed of reeds, and sometimes the very scene of their first +appearance was still known and pointed out to the curious. This myth +was current among races who regarded themselves as the only people whose +origin needed explanation. Other stories represented man as the fruit of +a tree, or the child of a rock or stone, or as the descendant of one of +the lower animals. Examples of these opinions in Greek legend are now to +be given. In the first place, we have a fragment of Pindar, in which the +poet enumerates several of the centres from which different Greek +tribes believed men to have sprung. "Hard it is to find out whether +Alalkomeneus, first of men, arose on the marsh of Cephissus, or whether +the Curetes of Ida first, a stock divine, arose, or if it was the +Phrygian Corybantes that the sun earliest saw--men like trees +walking;" and Pindar mentions Egyptian and Libyan legends of the same +description.(1) The Thebans and the Arcadians held themselves to be +"earth-born". "The black earth bore Pelasgus on the high wooded hills," +says an ancient line of Asius. The Dryopians were an example of a race +of men born from ash-trees. The myth of gens virum truncis et duro +robore nata, "born of tree-trunk and the heart of oak," had passed into +a proverb even in Homer's time.(2) Lucian mentions(3) the Athenian myth +"that men grew like cabbages out of the earth". As to Greek myths of +the descent of families from animals, these will be examined in the +discussion of the legend of Zeus. + + +(1) Preller, Aus. Auf., p. 158. + +(2) Virgil Aen., viii. 315; Odyssey, xix. 163; Iliad, ii. xxii. 120; +Juvenal, vi. 11. Cf. also Bouche Leclerq, De Origine Generis Humani. + +(3) Philops. iii. + + + +CHAPTER XI. SAVAGE DIVINE MYTHS. + +The origin of a belief in GOD beyond the ken of history and of +speculation--Sketch of conjectural theories--Two elements in all +beliefs, whether of backward or civilised races--The Mythical and +the Religious--These may be coeval, or either may be older than the +other--Difficulty of study--The current anthropological theory--Stated +objections to the theory--Gods and spirits--Suggestion that savage +religion is borrowed from Europeans--Reply to Mr. Tylor's arguments on +this head--The morality of savages. + + +"The question of the origin of a belief in Deity does not come within +the scope of a strictly historical inquiry. No man can watch the idea +of GOD in the making or in the beginning. We are acquainted with no race +whose beginning does not lie far back in the unpenetrated past. Even +on the hypothesis that the natives of Australia, for example, were +discovered in a state of culture more backward than that of other known +races, yet the institutions and ideas of the Australians must have +required for their development an incalculable series of centuries. +The notions of man about the Deity, man's religious sentiments and his +mythical narratives, must be taken as we find them. There have been, and +are, many theories as to the origin of the conception of a supernatural +being or beings, concerned with the fortunes of mankind, and once active +in the making of the earth and its inhabitants. There is the hypothesis +of an original divine tradition, darkened by the smoke of foolish mortal +fancies. There is the hypothesis of an innate and intuitive sensus +numinis. There is the opinion that the notion of Deity was introduced +to man by the very nature of his knowledge and perceptions, which compel +him in all things to recognise a finite and an infinite. There is the +hypothesis that gods were originally ghosts, the magnified shapes of +ancestral spectres. There is the doctrine that man, seeking in his early +speculations for the causes of things, and conscious of his own powers +as an active cause, projected his own shadow on the mists of the +unknown, and peopled the void with figures of magnified non-natural men, +his own parents and protectors, and the makers of many of the things in +the world. + +"Since the actual truth cannot be determined by observation and +experiment, the question as to the first germs of the divine conception +must here be left unanswered. But it is possible to disengage and +examine apart the two chief elements in the earliest as in the latest +ideas of Godhead. Among the lowest and most backward, as among the most +advanced races, there coexist the MYTHICAL and the RELIGIOUS elements +in belief. The rational factor (or what approves itself to us as the +rational factor) is visible in religion; the irrational is prominent +in myth. The Australian, the Bushman, the Solomon Islander, in hours +of danger and necessity 'yearns after the gods,' and has present in his +heart the idea of a father and friend. This is the religious element. +The same man, when he comes to indulge his fancy for fiction, will +degrade this spiritual friend and father to the level of the beasts, +and will make him the hero of comic or repulsive adventures. This is the +mythical or irrational element. Religion, in its moral aspect, always +traces back to the belief in a power that is benign and works for +righteousness. Myth, even in Homer or the Rig-Veda, perpetually falls +back on the old stock of absurd and immoral divine adventures.(1) + + +(1) M. Knappert here, in a note to the Dutch translation, denies the +lowest mythical element to the Hebrews, as their documents have reached +us. + + +"It would be rash, in the present state of knowledge, to pronounce that +the germ of the serious Homeric sense of the justice and power of the +Divinity is earlier or later than the germ of the Homeric stories of +gods disguised as animals, or imprisoned by mortals, or kicked out of +Olympus. The rational and irrational aspects of mythology and religion +may be of coeval antiquity for all that is certainly known, or either of +them, in the dark backward of mortal experience, may have preceded the +other. There is probably no religion nor mythology which does not +offer both aspects to the student. But it is the part of advancing +civilisation to adorn and purify the rational element, and to +subordinate and supersede the irrational element, as far as religious +conservatism, ritual and priestly dogma will permit." + +Such were the general remarks with which this chapter opened in the +original edition of the present work. But reading, reflection and +certain additions to the author's knowledge of facts, have made it seem +advisable to state, more fully and forcibly than before, that, in his +opinion, not only the puzzling element of myth, but the purer element of +a religious belief sanctioning morality is derived by civilised people +from a remote past of savagery. It is also necessary to draw attention +to a singular religious phenomena, a break, or "fault," as geologists +call it, in the religious strata. While the most backward savages, in +certain cases, present the conception of a Being who sanctions ethics, +and while that conception recurs at a given stage of civilisation, it +appears to fade, or even to disappear in some conditions of barbarism. +Among some barbaric peoples, such as the Zulus, and the Red Indians of +French Canada when first observed, as among some Polynesians and some +tribes of Western and Central Africa little trace of a supreme being +is found, except a name, and that name is even occasionally a matter +of ridicule. The highest religious conception has been reached, and +is generally known, yet the Being conceived of as creative is utterly +neglected, while ghosts, or minor gods, are served and adored. To this +religious phenomenon (if correctly observed) we must attempt to assign +a cause. For this purpose it is necessary to state again what may be +called the current or popular anthropological theory of the evolution of +Gods. + +That theory takes varying shapes. In the philosophy of Mr. Herbert +Spencer we find a pure Euhemerism. Gods are but ghosts of dead men, +raised to a higher and finally to the highest power. In the somewhat +analogous but not identical system of Mr. Tylor, man first attains to +the idea of spirit by reflection on various physical, psychological +and psychical experiences, such as sleep, dreams, trances, shadows, +hallucinations, breath and death, and he gradually extends the +conception of soul or ghost till all nature is peopled with spirits. Of +these spirits one is finally promoted to supremacy, where the conception +of a supreme being occurs. In the lowest faiths there is said, on this +theory, to be no connection, or very little connection, between religion +and morality. To supply a religious sanction of morals is the work of +advancing thought.(1) + + +(1) Prim. Cult., ii. 381. Huxley's Science and Hebrew Tradition, pp. +346,372. + + +This current hypothesis is, confessedly, "animistic," in Mr. Tylor's +phrase, or, in Mr. Spencer's terminology, it is "the ghost theory". The +human soul, says Mr. Tylor, has been the model on which all man's ideas +of spiritual beings, from "the tiniest elf" to "the heavenly Creator and +ruler of the world, the Great Spirit," have been framed.(1) Thus it has +been necessary for Mr. Tylor and for Mr. Spencer to discover first +an origin of man's idea of his own soul, and that supposed origin in +psychological, physical and psychical experiences is no doubt adequate. +By reflection on these facts, probably, the idea of spirit was reached, +though the psychical experiences enumerated by Mr. Tylor may contain +points as yet unexplained by Materialism. From these sources are derived +all really "animistic" gods, all that from the first partake of the +nature of hungry ghosts, placated by sacrifices of food, though in +certain cases that hunger may have been transferred, we surmise, by +worshippers to gods not ORIGINALLY animistic. + + +(1) Prim. Cult., ii. 109 + + +In answer to this theory of an animistic or ghostly origin of all gods, +it must first be observed that all gods are not necessarily, it would +seem, of animistic origin. Among certain of the lowest savages, although +they believe in ghosts, the animistic conception, the spiritual idea, +is not attached to the relatively supreme being of their faith. He is +merely a powerful BEING, unborn, and not subject to death. The purely +metaphysical question "was he a ghost?" does not seem always to have +been asked. Consequently there is no logical reason why man's idea of +a Maker should not be prior to man's idea that there are such things +as souls, ghosts and spirits. Therefore the animistic theory is not +necessary as material for the "god-idea". We cannot, of course, prove +that the "god-idea" was historically prior to the "ghost-idea," for we +know no savages who have a god and yet are ignorant of ghosts. But we +can show that the idea of God may exist, in germ, without explicitly +involving the idea of spirit. Thus gods MAY be prior in evolution to +ghosts, and therefore the animistic theory of the origin of gods in +ghosts need not necessarily be accepted. + +In the first place, the original evolution of a god out of a ghost +need not be conceded, because in perhaps all known savage theological +philosophy the God, the Maker and Master, is regarded as a being +who existed before death entered the world. Everywhere, practically +speaking, death is looked on as a comparatively late intruder. He came +not only after God was active, but after men and beasts had populated +the world. Scores of myths accounting for this invasion of death have +been collected all over the world.(1) Thus the relatively supreme being, +or beings, of religion are looked on as prior to Death, therefore, not +as ghosts. They are sometimes expressly distinguished as "original +gods" from other gods who are secondary, being souls of chiefs. Thus all +Tongan gods are Atua, but all Atua are not "original gods".(2) The word +Atua, according to Mr. White, is "A-tu-a". "A" was the name given to the +author of the universe, and signifies: "Am the unlimited in power," "The +Conception," "the Leader," "the Beyond All". "Tua" means "Beyond that +which is most distant," "Behind all matter," and "Behind every action". +Clearly these conceptions are not more mythical (indeed A does not seem +to occur in the myths), nor are they more involved in ghosts, than the +unknown absolute of Mr. Herbert Spencer. Yet the word Atua denotes gods +who are recognised as ghosts of chiefs, no less than it denotes the +supreme existence.(3) These ideas are the metaphysical theology of a +race considerably above the lowest level. They lend no assistance to a +theory that A was, or was evolved out of, a human ghost, and he is not +found in Maori MYTHOLOGY as far as our knowledge goes. But, among the +lowest known savages, the Australians, we read that "the Creator was +a gigantic black, once on earth, now among the stars". This is in +Gippsland; the deities of the Fuegians and the Blackfoot Indians are +also Beings, anthropomorphic, unborn and undying, like Mangarrah, the +creative being of the Larrakeah tribe in Australia. "A very good man +called Mangarrah lives in the sky.... He made everything" (blacks +excepted). He never dies.(4) The Melanesian Vui "never were men," were +"something different," and "were NOT ghosts". It is as a Being, not as a +Spirit, that the Kurnai deity Munganngaur (Our Father) is described.(5) +In short, though Europeans often speak of these divine beings of low +savages as "spirits," it does not appear that the natives themselves +advance here the metaphysical idea of spirit. These gods are just +BEINGS, anthropomorphic, or (in myth and fable), very often bestial, +"theriomorphic".(6) It is manifest that a divine being envisaged thus +need not have been evolved out of the theory of spirits or ghosts, and +may even have been prior to the rise of the belief in ghosts. + + +(1) See Modern Mythology, "Myths of Origin of Death". + +(2) Mariner, ii. 127. + +(3) White, Ancient History of the Maoris, vol. i. p. 4; other views in +Gill's Myths of the Pacific. I am not committed to Mr. White's opinion. + +(4) Journal Anthrop. Inst., Nov., 1894, p. 191. + +(5) Ibid., 1886, p. 313. + +(6) See Making of Religion, pp. 201-210, for a more copious statement. + + +Again, these powerful, or omnipotent divine beings are looked on as +guardians of morality, punishers of sin, rewarders of righteousness, +both in this world and in a future life, in places where ghosts, though +believed in, ARE NOT WORSHIPPED, NOR IN RECEIPT OF SACRIFICE, and where, +great grandfathers being forgotten, ancestral ghosts can scarcely swell +into gods. This occurs among Andamanese, Fuegians and Australians, +therefore, among non-ghost-worshipping races, ghosts cannot have +developed into deities who are not even necessarily spirits. These gods, +again, do not receive sacrifice, and thus lack the note of descent from +hungry food-craving ghosts. In Australia, indeed, while ghosts are not +known to receive any offerings, "the recent custom of providing food +for it"--the dead body of a friend--"is derided by the intelligent old +aborigines as 'white fellow's gammon'".(1) + + +(1) Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 51, 1881. + + +The Australians possess no chiefs like "Vich Ian Vohr or Chingachgook" +whose ghosts might be said to swell into supreme moral deities. +"Headmen" they have, leaders of various degrees of authority, but no +Vich Ian Vohr, no semi-sacred representative of the tribe.(1) Nor are +the ghosts of the Headmen known to receive any particular posthumous +attention or worship. Thus it really seems impossible to show proof that +Australian gods grew out of Australian ghosts, a subject to which we +shall return. + + +(1) Howitt, Organisation of Australian Tribes, pp. 101-113. +"Transactions of Royal Society of Victoria," 1889. + + +Some supporters of the current theory therefore fall back on the +hypothesis that the Australians are sadly degenerate.(1) Chiefs, it is +argued, or kings, they once had, and the gods are surviving ghosts of +these wholly forgotten potentates. To this we reply that we know not the +very faintest trace of Australian degeneration. Sir John Lubbock and +Mr. Tylor have correctly argued that the soil of Australia has not yet +yielded so much as a fragment of native pottery, nor any trace of native +metal work, not a vestige of stone buildings occurs, nor of any work +beyond the present native level of culture, unless we reckon weirs for +fish-catching. "The Australian boomerang," writes Mr. Tylor, "has been +claimed as derived from some hypothetical high culture, whereas the +transition-stages through which it is connected with the club are to +be observed in its own country, while no civilised race possesses the +weapon."(2) + + +(1) See Prof. Menzie's History of Religion, pp. 16, 17, where a singular +inconsistency has escaped the author. + +(2) Prim. Cult., i. 57, 67. + + +Therefore the Australian, with his boomerang, represents no degeneration +but advance on his ancestors, who had not yet developed the boomerang +out of the club. If the excessively complex nature of Australian rules +of prohibited degrees be appealed to as proof of degeneration from the +stage in which they were evolved, we reply that civilisation everywhere +tends not to complicate but to simplify such rules, as it also +notoriously simplifies the forms of language. + +The Australian people, when discovered, were only emerging from +palaeolithic culture, while the neighbouring Tasmanians were frankly +palaeolithic.(1) Far from degenerating, the Australians show advance +when they supersede their beast or other totem by an eponymous human +hero.(2) The eponymous hero, however, changed with each generation, so +that no one name was fixed as that of tribal father, later perhaps to +become a tribal god. We find several tribes in which the children now +follow the FATHER'S class, and thus paternal kin takes the place of the +usual early savage method of reckoning kinship by the mother's side, +elsewhere prevalent in Australia. In one of these tribes, dwelling +between the Glenelg and Mount Napier, headmanship is hereditary, but +nothing is said of any worship of the ghosts of chiefs. All this social +improvement denotes advance on the usual Australian standard.(3) Of +degeneration (except when produced recently by European vices and +diseases) I know no trace in Australia. Their highest religious +conceptions, therefore, are not to be disposed of as survivals of a +religion of the ghosts of such chiefs as the Australians are not shown +ever to have recognised. The "God idea" in Australia, or among the +Andamanese, must have some other source than the Ghost-Theory. This is +all the more obvious because not only are ghosts not worshipped by the +Australians, but also the divine beings who are alleged to form +links between the ghost and the moral god are absent. There are no +departmental gods, as of war, peace, the chase, love, and so forth. Sun, +sky and earth are equally unworshipped. There is nothing in religion +between a Being, on one hand (with a son or sons), and vague mischievous +spirits, boilyas or mrarts, and ghosts (who are not worshipped), on the +other hand. The friends of the idea that the God is an ancient evolution +from the ghost of such a chief as is not proved to have existed, must +apparently believe that the intermediate stages in religious evolution, +departmental gods, nature gods and gods of polytheism in general once +existed in Australia, and have all been swept away in a deluge of +degeneration. That deluge left in religion a moral, potently active +Father and Judge. Now that conception is considerably above the +obsolescent belief in an otiose god which is usually found among +barbaric races of the type from which the Australians are said to have +degenerated. There is no proof of degeneracy, and, if degeneration has +occurred, why has it left just the kind of deity who, in the higher +barbaric culture, is not commonly found? Clearly this attempt to +explain the highest aspect of Australian religion by an undemonstrated +degeneration is an effort of despair. + + +(1) Tylor, preface to Ling Roth's Aborigines of Tasmania, pp. v.-viii. + +(2) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 231. + +(3) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 277, 278. + + +While the current theory thus appears to break down over the deities +of certain Australian tribes and of other low savages to be more +particularly described later, it is not more successful in dealing with +what we have called the "fault" or break in the religious strata of +higher races. The nature of that "fault" may thus be described: While +the deities of several low savage peoples are religiously regarded as +guardians and judges of conduct both in this life and in the next, among +higher barbarians they are often little, or not at all, interested in +conduct. Again, while among Australians, and Andamanese, and Fuegians, +there is hardly a verifiable trace, if any trace there be, of sacrifice +to any divine being, among barbarians the gods beneath the very highest +are in receipt even of human sacrifice. Even among barbarians the +highest deity is very rarely worshipped with sacrifice. Through various +degrees he is found to lose all claim on worship, and even to become a +mere name, and finally a jest and a mockery. Meanwhile ancestral ghosts, +and gods framed on the same lines as ghosts, receive sacrifice of food +and of human victims. Once more, the high gods of low savages are not +localised, not confined to any temple or region. But the gods of higher +barbarians (the gods beneath the highest), are localised in this way, as +occasionally even the highest god also is. + +All this shows that, among advancing barbarians, the gods, if they +started from the estate of gods among savages on the lowest level, +become demoralised, limited, conditioned, relegated to an otiose +condition, and finally deposed, till progressive civilisation, as in +Greece, reinstates or invents purer and more philosophic conceptions, +without being able to abolish popular and priestly myth and ritual. + +Here, then, is a flaw or break in the strata of religion. What was +the cause of this flaw? We answer, the evolution, through ghosts, +of "animistic" gods who retained the hunger and selfishness of these +ancestral spirits whom the lowest savages are not known to worship. + +The moral divine beings of these lowest races, beings (when religiously +regarded) unconditioned, in need of no gift that man can give, are not +to be won by offerings of food and blood. Of such offerings ghosts, +and gods modelled on ghosts, are notoriously in need. Strengthened +and propitiated by blood and sacrifice (not offered to the gods of low +savages), the animistic deities will become partisans of their adorers, +and will either pay no regard to the morals of their worshippers, or +will be easily bribed to forgive sins. Here then is, ethically speaking, +a flaw in the strata of religion, a flaw found in the creeds of +ghost-worshipping barbarians, but not of non-ghost-worshipping savages. +A crowd of venal, easy-going, serviceable deities has now been evolved +out of ghosts, and Animism is on its way to supplant or overlay a rude +early form of theism. Granting the facts, we fail to see how they are +explained by the current theory which makes the highest god the latest +in evolution from a ghost. That theory wrecks itself again on the +circumstance that, whereas the tribal or national highest divine being, +as latest in evolution, ought to be the most potent, he is, in fact, +among barbaric races, usually the most disregarded. A new idea, of +course, is not necessarily a powerful or fashionable idea. It may be +regarded as a "fad," or a heresy, or a low form of dissent. But, when +universally known to and accepted by a tribe or people, then it must be +deemed likely to possess great influence. But that is not the case; and +among barbaric tribes the most advanced conception of deity is the least +regarded, the most obsolete. + +An excellent instance of the difference between the theory here +advocated, and that generally held by anthropologists, may be found +in Mr. Abercromby's valuable work, Pre-and Proto-Historic Finns, i. +150-154. The gods, and other early ideas, says Mr. Abercromby, "could in +no sense be considered as supernatural". We shall give examples of gods +among the races "nearest the beginning," whose attributes of power +and knowledge can not, by us at least, be considered other than +"supernatural". "The gods" (in this hypothesis) "were so human that +they could be forced to act in accordance with the wishes of their +worshippers, and could likewise be punished." These ideas, to an +Australian black, or an Andamanese, would seem dangerously blasphemous. +These older gods "resided chiefly in trees, wells, rivers and animals". +But many gods of our lowest known savages live "beyond the sky". Mr. +Abercromby supposes the sky god to be of later evolution, and to be +worshipped after man had exhausted "the helpers that seemed nearest at +hand... in the trees and waters at his very door". Now the Australian +black has not a door, nor has he gods of any service to him in the +"trees and waters," though sprites may lurk in such places for mischief. +But in Mr. Abercromby's view, some men turned at last to the sky-god, +"who in time would gain a large circle of worshippers". He would come +to be thought omnipotent, omniscient, the Creator. This notion, says Mr. +Abercromby, "must, if this view is correct, be of late origin". But the +view is not correct. The far-seeing powerful Maker beyond the sky is +found among the very backward races who have not developed helpers +nearer man, dwelling round what would be his door, if door he was +civilised enough to possess. Such near neighbouring gods, of human +needs, capable of being bullied, or propitiated by sacrifice, are found +in races higher than the lowest, who, for their easily procurable aid, +have allowed the Maker to sink into an otiose god, or a mere name. Mr. +Abercromby unconsciously proves our case by quoting the example of a +Samoyede. This man knew a Sky-god, Num; that conception was familiar +to him. He also knew a familiar spirit. On Mr. Abercromby's theory he +should have resorted for help to the Sky-god, not to the sprite. But he +did the reverse: he said, "I cannot approach Num, he is too far away; if +I could reach him I should not beseech thee (the familiar spirit), but +should go myself; but I cannot". For this precise reason, people who +have developed the belief in accessible affable spirits go to them, with +a spell to constrain, or a gift to bribe, and neglect, in some cases +almost forget, their Maker. But He is worshipped by low savages, who do +not propitiate ghosts and who have no gods in wells and trees, close at +hand. It seems an obvious inference that the greater God is the earlier +evolved. + +These are among the difficulties of the current anthropological theory. +There is, however, a solution by which the weakness of the divine +conception, its neglected, disused aspect among barbaric races, might +be explained by anthropologists, without regarding it as an obsolescent +form of a very early idea. This solution is therefore in common use. +It is applied to the deity revealed in the ancient mysteries of the +Australians, and it is employed in American and African instances. + +The custom is to say that the highest divine being of American or +African native peoples has been borrowed from Europeans, and is, +especially, a savage refraction from the God of missionaries. If this +can be proved, the shadowy, practically powerless "Master of Life" +of certain barbaric peoples, will have degenerated from the Christian +conception, because of that conception he will be only a faint +unsuccessful refraction. He has been introduced by Europeans, it is +argued, but is not in harmony with his new environment, and so is +"half-remembered and half forgot". + +The hypothesis of borrowing admits of only one answer, but that answer +should be conclusive. If we can discover, say in North America, a single +instance in which the supreme being occurs, while yet he cannot possibly +be accounted for by any traceable or verifiable foreign influence, then +the burden of proof, in other cases, falls on the opponent. When he +urges that other North American supreme beings were borrowed, we can +reply that our crucial example shows that this need not be the fact. To +prove that it is the fact, in his instances, is then his business. It is +obvious that for information on this subject we must go to the reports +of the earliest travellers who knew the Red Indians well. We must try to +get at gods behind any known missionary efforts. Mr. Tylor offers us the +testimony of Heriot, about 1586, that the natives of Virginia believed +in many gods, also in one chief god, "who first made other principal +gods, and then the sun, moon and stars as petty gods".(1) Whence could +the natives of Virginia have borrowed this notion of a Creator before +1586? If it is replied, in the usual way, that they developed him +upwards out of sun, moon and star gods, other principal gods, and +finally reached the idea of the Creator, we answer that the idea of the +Maker is found where these alleged intermediate stages are NOT found, as +in Australia. In Virginia then, as in Victoria, a Creator may have been +evolved in some other way than that of gradual ascent from ghosts, +and may have been, as in Australia and elsewhere, prior to verifiable +ghost-worship. Again, in Virginia at our first settlement, the native +priests strenuously resisted the introduction of Christianity. They +were content with their deity, Ahone, "the great God who governs all +the world, and makes the sun to shine, creating the moon and stars his +companions.... The good and peaceable God... needs not to be sacrificed +unto, for he intendeth all good unto them." This good Creator, without +sacrifice, among a settled agricultural barbaric race sacrificing to +other gods and ghosts, manifestly cannot be borrowed from the newly +arrived religion of Christianity, which his priests, according to +the observer, vigorously resisted. Ahone had a subordinate deity, +magisterial in functions, "looking into all men's actions" and punishing +the same, when evil. To THIS god sacrifices WERE made, and if his name, +Okeus, is derived from Oki = "spirit," he was, of course, an animistic +ghost-evolved deity. Anthropological writers, by an oversight, have +dwelt on Oki, but have not mentioned Ahone.(2) Manifestly it is not +possible to insist that these Virginian high deities were borrowed, +without saying whence and when they were borrowed by a barbaric race +which was, at the same time, rejecting Christian teaching. + + +(1) Prim. Cult., ii. 341. + +(2) History of Travaile into Virginia, by William Strachey, 1612. + + +Mr. Tylor writes, with his habitual perspicacity: "It is the widespread +belief in the Great Spirit, whatever his precise nature and origin, that +has long and deservedly drawn the attention of European thinkers to the +native religions of the North American tribes". Now while, in recent +times, Christian ideas may undeniably have crystallised round "the Great +Spirit," it has come to be thought "that THE WHOLE DOCTRINE of the Great +Spirit was borrowed by the savages from missionaries and colonists. But +this view will not bear examination," says Mr. Tylor.(1) + + +(1) Prim. Cult, ii. pp. 339, 340 (1873). For some reason, Mr. Tylor +modifies this passage in 1891. + + +Mr. Tylor proceeds to prove this by examples from Greenland, and the +Algonkins. He instances the Massachusett God, Kiehtan, who created the +other gods, and receives the just into heaven. This was recorded in +1622, but the belief, says Winslow, our authority, goes back into the +unknown past. "They never saw Kiehtan, but THEY HOLD IT A GREAT CHARGE +AND DUTY THAT ONE AGE TEACH ANOTHER." How could a deity thus rooted in a +traditional past be borrowed from recent English settlers? + +In these cases the hypothesis of borrowing breaks down, and still more +does it break down over the Algonkin deity Atahocan. + +Father Le Jeune, S.J., went first among the Algonkins, a missionary +pioneer, in 1633, and suffered unspeakable things in his courageous +endeavour to win souls in a most recalcitrant flock. He writes (1633): +"As this savage has given me occasion to speak of their god, I will +remark that it is a great error to think that the savages have no +knowledge of any deity. I was surprised to hear this in France. I do not +know their secrets, but, from the little which I am about to tell, it +will be seen that they have such knowledge. + +"They say that one exists whom they call Atahocan, who made the whole. +Speaking of God in a wigwam one day, they asked me 'what is God?' I told +them that it was He who made all things, Heaven and Earth. They then +began to cry out to each other, 'Atahocan! Atahocan! it is Atahocan!'" + +There could be no better evidence that Atahocan was NOT (as is often +said) "borrowed from the Jesuits". The Jesuits had only just arrived. + +Later (1634) Le Jeune interrogated an old man and a partly Europeanised +sorcerer. They replied that nothing was certain; that Atahocan was only +spoken of as "of a thing so remote," that assurance was impossible. "In +fact, their word Nitatohokan means, 'I fable, I tell an old story'." + +Thus Atahocan, though at once recognised as identical with the Creator +of the missionary, was so far from being the latest thing in religious +evolution that he had passed into a proverb for the ancient and the +fabulous. This, of course, is inconsistent with RECENT borrowing. He was +neglected for Khichikouai, spirits which inspire seers, and are of +some practical use, receiving rewards in offerings of grease, says Le +Jeune.(1) + + +(1) Relations, 1633, 1634. + + +The obsolescent Atahocan seems to have had no moral activity. But, in +America, this indolence of God is not universal. Mr. Parkman indeed +writes: "In the primitive Indian's conception of a God, the idea of +moral good has no part".(1) But this is definitely contradicted by +Heriot, Strachey, Winslow, already cited, and by Pere Le Jeune. The good +attributes of Kiehtan and Ahone were not borrowed from Christianity, +were matter of Indian belief before the English arrived. Mr. Parkman +writes: "The moment the Indians began to contemplate the object of his +faith, and sought to clothe it with attributes, it became finite, and +commonly ridiculous". It did so, as usual, in MYTHOLOGY, but not in +RELIGION. There is nothing ridiculous in what is known of Ahone and +Kiehtan. If they had a mythology, and if we knew the myths, doubtless +they would be ridiculous enough. The savage mind, turned from belief and +awe into the spinning of yarns, instantly yields to humorous fancy. As +we know, mediaeval popular Christianity, in imagery, marchen or tales, +and art, copiously illustrates the same mental phenomenon. Saints, +God, our Lord, and the Virgin, all play ludicrous and immoral parts in +Christian folk-tales. This is Mythology, and here is, beyond all cavil, +a late corruption of Religion. Here, where we know the history of a +creed, Religion is early, and these myths are late. Other examples of +American divine ideas might be given, such as the extraordinary hymns +in which the Zunis address the Eternal, Ahonawilona. But as the Zuni +religion has only been studied in recent years, the hymns would be +dismissed as "borrowed," though there is nothing Catholic or Christian +about them. We have preferred to select examples where borrowing from +Christianity is out of the question. The current anthropological theory +is thus confronted with American examples of ideas of the divine which +cannot have been borrowed, while, if the gods are said to have been +evolved out of ghosts, we reply that, in some cases, they receive no +sacrifice, sacrifice being usually a note of ghostly descent. Again, +similar gods, as we show, exist where ghosts of chiefs are not +worshipped, and as far as evidence goes never were worshipped, because +there is no evidence of the existence at any time of such chiefs. The +American highest gods may then be equally free from the taint of ghostly +descent. + + +(1) Parkman, The Jesuits in North America. p. lxxviii. + + +There is another more or less moral North American deity whose evolution +is rather questionable. Pere Brebeuf (1636), speaking of the +Hurons, says that "they have recourse to Heaven in almost all their +necessities,... and I may say that it is, in fact, God whom they blindly +adore, for they imagine that there is an Oki, that is, a demon, in +heaven, who regulates the seasons, bridles the winds and the waves of +the sea, and helps them in every need. They dread his wrath, and appeal +to him as witness to the inviolability of their faith, when they make +a promise or treaty of peace with enemies. 'Heaven hear us to-day' is +their form of adjuration."(1) + + +(1) Relations, 1636, pp. 106, 107. + + +A spiritual being, whose home is heaven, who rides on the winds, whose +wrath is dreaded, who sanctions the oath, is only called "a demon" by +the prejudice of the worthy father who, at the same time, admits that +the savages have a conception of God--and that God, so conceived, is +this demon! + +The debatable question is, was the "demon," or the actual expanse of +sky, first in evolution? That cannot precisely be settled, but in the +analogous Chinese case of China we find heaven (Tien) and "Shang-ti, the +personal ruling Deity," corresponding to the Huron "demon". Shang-ti, +the personal deity, occurs most in the oldest, pre-Confucian sacred +documents, and, so far, appears to be the earlier conception. The +"demon" in Huron faith may also be earlier than the religious regard +paid to his home, the sky.(1) The unborrowed antiquity of a belief in +a divine being, creative and sometimes moral, in North America, is thus +demonstrated. So far I had written when I accidentally fell in with +Mr. Tylor's essay on "The Limits of Savage Religion".(2) In that essay, +rather to my surprise, Mr. Tylor argues for the borrowing of "The Great +Spirit," "The Great Manitou," from the Jesuits. Now, as to the phrase, +"Great Spirit," the Jesuits doubtless caused its promulgation, and, +where their teaching penetrated, shreds of their doctrine may have +adhered to the Indian conception of that divine being. But Mr. Tylor +in his essay does not allude to the early evidence, his own, for Oki, +Atahocan, Kiehtan, and Torngursak, all undeniably prior to Jesuit +influence, and found where Jesuits, later, did not go. As Mr. Tylor +offers no reason for disregarding evidence in 1892 which he had +republished in a new edition of Primitive Culture in 1891, it is +impossible to argue against him in this place. He went on, in the essay +cited (1892) to contend that the Australian god of the Kamilaroi +of Victoria, Baiame, is, in name and attributes, of missionary +introduction. Happily this hypothesis can be refuted, as we show in the +following chapter on Australian gods. + + +(1) See Tylor, Prim. Cult., ii. 362, and Making of Religion, p. 318; +also Menzies, History of Religion, pp. 108,109, and Dr. Legge's Chinese +Classics, in Sacred Books of the East, vols. iii., xxvii., xxviii. + +(2) Journ. of Anthrop. Inst., vol. xxi., 1892. + + +It would be easy enough to meet the hypothesis of borrowing in the case +of the many African tribes who possess something approaching to a rude +monotheistic conception. Among these are the Dinkas of the Upper Nile, +with their neighbours, whose creed Russegger compares to that of +modern Deists in Europe. The Dinka god, Dendid, is omnipotent, but +so benevolent that he is not addressed in prayer, nor propitiated by +sacrifice. Compare the supreme being of the Caribs, beneficent, otiose, +unadored.(1) A similar deity, veiled in the instruction of the as yet +unpenetrated Mysteries, exists among the Yao of Central Africa.(2) Of +the negro race, Waitz says, "even if we do not call them monotheists, +we may still think of them as standing on the boundary of monotheism +despite their innumerable rude superstitions".(3) The Tshi speaking +people of the Gold Coast have their unworshipped Nyankupon, a now +otiose unadored being, with a magisterial deputy, worshipped with many +sacrifices. The case is almost an exact parallel to that of Ahone and +Oki in America. THESE were not borrowed, and the author has argued at +length against Major Ellis's theory of the borrowing from Christians of +Nyankupon.(4) + + +(1) Rochefort, Les Isles Antilles, p. 415. Tylor, ii. 337. + +(2) Macdonald, Africana, 1, 71, 72, 130, 279-301. Scott, Dictionary of +the Manganja Language, Making of Religion, pp. 230-238. A contradictory +view in Spencer, Ecclesiastical Institutions, p. 681. + +(3) Anthropologie, ii. 167. + +(4) Making of Religion, pp. 243-250. + + +To conclude this chapter, the study of savage and barbaric religions +seems to yield the following facts:-- + +1. Low savages. No regular chiefs. Great beings, not in receipt of +sacrifice, sanctioning morality. Ghosts are not worshipped, though +believed in. Polytheism, departmental gods and gods of heaven, earth, +sky and so forth, have not been developed or are not found. + +2. Barbaric races. Aristocratic or monarchic. Ghosts are worshipped +and receive sacrifice. Polytheistic gods are in renown and receive +sacrifice. There is usually a supreme Maker who is, in some cases, +moral, in others otiose. In only one or two known cases (as in that of +the Polynesian Taaroa) is he in receipt of sacrifice. + +3. Barbaric races. (Zulus, monarchic with Unkulunkulu; some Algonquins +(feebly aristocratic) with Atahocan). Religion is mainly ancestor +worship or vague spirit worship; ghosts are propitiated with food. +There are traces of an original divine being whose name is becoming +obsolescent and a matter of jest. + +4. Early civilisations. Monarchic or aristocratic. (Greece, Egypt, +India, Peru, Mexico.) Polytheism. One god tends to be supreme. +Religiously regarded, gods are moral; in myth are the reverse. Gods are +in receipt of sacrifice. Heavenly society is modelled on that of men, +monarchic or aristocratic. Philosophic thought tends towards belief in +one pure god, who may be named Zeus, in Greece. + +5. The religion of Israel. Probably a revival and purification of the +old conception of a moral, beneficent creator, whose creed had been +involved in sacrifice and anthropomorphic myth. + +In all the stages thus roughly sketched, myths of the lowest sort +prevail, except in the records of the last stage, where the documents +have been edited by earnest monotheists. + +If this theory be approximately correct, man's earliest religious ideas +may very well have consisted, in a sense, of dependence on a supreme +moral being who, when attempts were made by savages to describe the +modus of his working, became involved in the fancies of mythology. How +this belief in such a being arose we have no evidence to prove. We make +no hint at a sensus numinis, or direct revelation. + +While offering no hypothesis of the origin of belief in a moral creator +we may present a suggestion. Mr. Darwin says about early man: "The same +high mental faculties which first led man to believe in unseen spiritual +agencies, then in fetichism, polytheism and ultimately monotheism, would +infallibly lead him, so long as his reasoning powers remained poorly +developed, to various strange superstitions and customs".(1) Now, +accepting Mr. Darwin's theory that early man had "high mental +faculties," the conception of a Maker of things does not seem beyond his +grasp. Man himself made plenty of things, and could probably conceive of +a being who made the world and the objects in it. "Certainly there must +be some Being who made all these things. He must be very good too," said +an Eskimo to a missionary.(2) The goodness is inferred by the Eskimo +from his own contentment with "the things which are made".(3) + + +(1) Darwin, Descent of Man, i. p. 66. + +(2) Cranz, i. 199. + +(3) Romans, i. 19. + + +Another example of barbaric man "seeking after God" may be adduced. + +What the Greenlander said is corroborated by what a Kaffir said. +Kaffir religion is mainly animistic, ancestral spirits receive food and +sacrifice--there is but an evanescent tradition of a "Lord in Heaven". +Thus a very respectable Kaffir said to M. Arbrousset, "your tidings +(Christianity) are what I want; and I was seeking before I knew you.... +I asked myself sorrowful questions. 'Who has touched the stars with his +hands?... Who makes the waters flow?... Who can have given earth the +wisdom and power to produce corn?' Then I buried my face in my hands." + +"This," says Sir John Lubbock, "was, however, an exceptional case. As +a general rule savages do not set themselves to think out such +questions."(1) + + +(1) Origin of Civilisation, p. 201. + + +As a common fact, if savages never ask the question, at all events, +somehow, they have the answer ready made. "Mangarrah, or Baiame, Puluga, +or Dendid, or Ahone, or Ahonawilona, or Atahocan, or Taaroa, or Tui +Laga, was the maker." Therefore savages who know that leave the question +alone, or add mythical accretions. But their ancestors must have asked +the question, like the "very respectable Kaffir" before they answered +it. + +Having reached the idea of a Creator, it was not difficult to add that +he was "good," or beneficent, and was deathless. + +A notion of a good powerful Maker, not subject to death because +necessarily prior to Death (who only invaded the world late), seems +easier of attainment than the notion of Spirit which, ex hypothesi, +demands much delicate psychological study and hard thought. The idea of +a Good Maker, once reached, becomes, perhaps, the germ of future theism, +but, as Mr. Darwin says, the human mind was "infallibly led to various +strange superstitions". As St. Paul says, in perfect agreement with Mr. +Darwin on this point, "they became vain in their imaginations, and their +foolish heart was darkened". + +Among other imaginations (right or wrong) was the belief in spirits, +with all that followed in the way of instituting sacrifices, even of +human beings, and of dropping morality, about which the ghost of a +deceased medicine-man was not likely to be much interested. The supposed +nearness to man, and the venal and partial character of worshipped gods +and ghost-gods, would inevitably win for them more service and attention +than would be paid to a Maker remote, unbought and impartial. Hence the +conception of such a Being would tend to obsolescence, as we see that it +does, and would be most obscured where ghosts were most propitiated, as +among the Zulus. Later philosophy would attach the spiritual conception +to the revived or newly discovered idea of the supreme God. + +In all this speculation there is nothing mystical; no supernatural or +supernormal interference is postulated. Supernormal experiences may have +helped to originate or support the belief in spirits, that, however, is +another question. But this hypothesis of the origin of belief in a good +unceasing Maker of things is, of course, confessedly a conjecture, for +which historical evidence cannot be given, in the nature of the +case. All our attempts to discover origins far behind history must be +conjectural. Their value must be estimated by the extent to which +this or that hypothesis colligates the facts. Now our hypothesis does +colligate the facts. It shows how belief in a moral supreme being might +arise before ghosts were worshipped, and it accounts for the flaw in the +religious strata, for the mythical accretions, for the otiose Creator in +the background of many barbaric religions, and for the almost universal +absence of sacrifice to the God relatively supreme. He was, from his +earliest conception, in no need of gifts from men. + +On this matter of otiose supreme gods, Professor Menzies writes, "It is +very common to find in savage beliefs a vague far-off god, who is at the +back of all the others, takes little part in the management of things, +and receives little worship. But it is impossible to judge what that +being was at an earlier time; he may have been a nature god, or a spirit +who has by degrees grown faint, and come to occupy this position." + +Now the position which he occupies is usually, if not universally, that +of the Creator. He could not arrive at this rank by "becoming faint," +nor could "a nature-god" be the Maker of Nature. The only way by which +we can discover "what that being was at an earlier time" is to see what +he IS at an earlier time, that is to say, what the conception of him is, +among men in an earlier state of culture. Among them, as we show, he is +very much more near, potent and moral, than among races more advanced in +social evolution and material culture. We can form no opinion as to the +nature of such "vague, far-off gods, at the back of all the others," +till we collect and compare examples, and endeavour to ascertain what +points they have in common, and in what points they differ from each +other. It then becomes plain that they are least far away, and most +potent, where there is least ghostly and polytheistic competition, that +is, among the most backward races. The more animism the less theism, is +the general rule. Manifestly the current hypothesis--that all religion +is animistic in origin--does not account for these facts, and is +obliged to fly to an undemonstrated theory of degradation, or to an +undemonstrated theory of borrowing. That our theory is inconsistent with +the general doctrine of evolution we cannot admit, if we are allowed to +agree with Mr. Darwin's statement about the high mental faculties +which first led man to sympathetic, and then to wild beliefs. We do +not pretend to be more Darwinian than Mr. Darwin, who compares "these +miserable and indirect results of our higher faculties" to "the +occasional mistakes of the instincts of the lower animals". + +The opinion here maintained, namely, that a germ of pure belief may be +detected amidst the confusion of low savage faith, and that in a still +earlier stage it may have been less overlaid with fable, is in direct +contradiction to current theories. It is also in contradiction with the +opinions entertained by myself before I made an independent examination +of the evidence. Like others, I was inclined to regard reports of a +moral Creator, who observes conduct, and judges it even in the next +life, as rumours due either to Christian influence, or to mistake. I +well know, however, and could, and did, discount the sources of error. +I was on my guard against the twin fallacies of describing all savage +religion as "devil worship," and of expecting to find a primitive +"divine tradition". I was also on my guard against the modern bias +derived from the "ghost-theory," and Mr. Spencer's works, and I kept an +eye on opportunities of "borrowing".(1) I had, in fact, classified all +known idola in the first edition of this work, such as the fallacy of +leading questions and the chance of deliberate deception. I sought the +earliest evidence, prior to any missionary teaching, and the evidence +of what the first missionaries found, in the way of belief, on their +arrival. I preferred the testimony of the best educated observers, and +of those most familiar with native languages. I sought for evidence in +native hymns (Maori, Zuni, Dinka, Red Indian) and in native ceremonial +and mystery, as these sources were least likely to be contaminated. + + +(1) Making of Religion, p. 187. + + +On the other side, I found a vast body of testimony that savages had no +religion at all. But that testimony, en masse, was refuted by Roskoff, +and also, in places, by Tylor. When three witnesses were brought to +swear that they saw the Irishman commit a crime, he offered to bring +a dozen witnesses who did NOT see him. Negative evidence of squatters, +sailors and colonists, who did NOT see any religion among this or +that race, is not worth much against evidence of trained observers and +linguists who DID find what the others missed, and who found more the +more they knew the tribe in question. Again, like others, I thought +savages incapable of such relatively pure ideas as I now believe some of +them to possess. But I could not resist the evidence, and I abandoned +my a priori notions. The evidence forcibly attests gradations in the +central belief. It is found in various shades, from relative potency +down to a vanishing trace, and it is found in significant proportion +to the prevalence of animistic ideas, being weakest where they are most +developed, strongest where they are least developed. There must be a +reason for these phenomena, and that reason, as it seems to me, is the +overlaying and supersession of a rudely Theistic by an animistic creed. +That one cause would explain, and does colligate, all the facts. + +There remains a point on which misconception proves to be possible. It +will be shown, contrary to the current hypothesis, that the religion +of the lowest races, in its highest form, sanctions morality. That +morality, again, in certain instances, demands unselfishness. Of course +we are not claiming for that doctrine any supernatural origin. Religion, +if it sanctions ethics at all, will sanction those which the conscience +accepts, and those ethics, in one way or other, must have been evolved. +That the "cosmical" law is "the weakest must go to the wall" is +generally conceded. Man, however, is found trying to reverse the law, by +equal and friendly dealing (at least within what is vaguely called "the +tribe"). His religion, as in Australia, will be shown to insist on this +unselfishness. How did he evolve his ethics? + +"Be it little or be it much they get," says Dampier about the +Australians in 1688, "every one has his part, as well the young and +tender as the old and feeble, who are not able to get abroad as the +strong and lusty." This conduct reverses the cosmical process, and +notoriously civilised society, Christian society, does not act on these +principles. Neither do the savages, who knock the old and feeble on the +head, or deliberately leave them to starve, act on these principles, +sanctioned by Australian religion, but (according to Mr. Dawson) NOT +carried out in Australian practice. "When old people become infirm... it +is lawful and customary to kill them."(1) + + +(1) Australian Aborigines, p. 62. + + +As to the point of unselfishness, evolutionists are apt to account for +it by common interest. A tribe in which the strongest monopolise what is +best will not survive so well as an unselfish tribe in the struggle for +existence. But precisely the opposite is true, aristocracy marks the +more successful barbaric races, and an aristocratic slave-holding +tribe could have swept Australia as the Zulus swept South Africa. That +aristocracy and acquisition of separate property are steps in advance +on communistic savagery all history declares. Therefore a tribe which +in Australia developed private property, and reduced its neighbours to +slavery, would have been better fitted to survive than such a tribe as +Dampier describes. + +This is so evident that probably, or possibly, the Dampier state of +society was not developed in obedience to a recognised tribal interest, +but in obedience to an affectionate instinct. "Ils s'entr' aiment les +une les autres," says Brebeuf of the Hurons.(1) "I never heard the +women complain of being left out of feasts, or that the men ate the +best portions... every one does his business sweetly, peaceably, without +dispute. You never see disputes, quarrels, hatred, or reproach among +them." Brebeuf then tells how a young Indian stranger, in a time of +want, stole the best part of a moose. "They did not rage or curse, +they only bantered him, and yet to take our meat was almost to take our +lives." Brebeuf wanted to lecture the lad; his Indian host bade him hold +his peace, and the stranger was given hospitality, with his wife and +children. "They are very generous, and make it a point not to attach +themselves to the goods of this world." "Their greatest reproach is +'that man wants everything, he is greedy'. They support, with never +a murmur, widows, orphans and old men, yet they kill hopeless or +troublesome invalids, and their whole conduct to Europeans was the +reverse of their domestic behaviour." + + +(1) Relations, 1634, p. 29. + + +Another example of savage unselfish ethics may be found in Mr. Mann's +account of the Andaman Islanders, a nomad race, very low in culture. "It +is a noteworthy trait, and one which deserves high commendation, that +every care and consideration are paid by all classes to the very young, +the weak, the aged, and the helpless, and these being made special +objects of interest and attention, invariably fare better in regard to +the comforts and necessaries of daily life than any of the otherwise +more fortunate members of the community."(1) + + +(1) J. A. I., xii. p. 93. + + +Mr. Huxley, in his celebrated Romanes Lecture on "Evolution and +Morality," laid stress on man's contravention of the cosmic law, "the +weakest must go to the wall". He did not explain the evolution of man's +opposition to this law. The ordinary evolutionist hypothesis, that +the tribe would prosper most whose members were least self-seeking, is +contradicted by all history. The overbearing, "grabbing," aristocratic, +individualistic, unscrupulous races beat the others out of the field. +Mr. Huxley, indeed, alleged that the "influence of the cosmic process +in the evolution of society is the greater the more rudimentary its +civilisation. Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at +every step and the substitution for it of another, which may be called +the ethical process.... As civilisation has advanced, so has the extent +of this interference increased...."(1) But where, in Europe, is the +interference so marked as among the Andamanese? We have still to face +the problem of the generosity of low savages. + + +(1) Ethics of Evolution, pp. 81-84. + + +It is conceivable that the higher ethics of low savages rather reflect +their emotional instincts than arise from tribal legislation which is +supposed to enable a "tribe" to prosper in the struggle for existence. +As Brebeuf and Dampier, among others, prove, savages often set a good +example to Christians, and their ethics are, in certain cases, as among +the Andamanese and Fuegians, and, probably among the Yao, sanctioned by +their religion. But, as Mr. Tylor says, "the better savage social life +seems but in unstable equilibrium, liable to be easily upset by a touch +of distress, temptation, or violence".(1) Still, religion does its +best, in certain cases, to lend equilibrium; though all the world over, +religion often fails in practice. + + +(1) Prim. Cult., i. 51. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1, by Andrew Lang + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION, VOL. 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 2832.txt or 2832.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/2832/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION + +by Andrew Lang + + + + +Volume One + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE TO NEW IMPRESSION. + +PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + +CHAPTER I. -- SYSTEMS OF MYTHOLOGY. + +Definitions of religion--Contradictory evidence--"Belief in +spiritual beings"--Objection to Mr. Tylor's definition--Definition +as regards this argument--Problem: the contradiction between +religion and myth--Two human moods--Examples--Case of Greece-- +Ancient mythologists--Criticism by Eusebius--Modern mythological +systems--Mr. Max Muller--Mannhardt. + + +CHAPTER II. -- NEW SYSTEM PROPOSED. + +Chapter I. recapitulated--Proposal of a new method: Science of +comparative or historical study of man--Anticipated in part by +Eusebius, Fontenelle, De Brosses, Spencer (of C. C. C., Cambridge), +and Mannhardt--Science of Tylor--Object of inquiry: to find +condition of human intellect in which marvels of myth are parts of +practical everyday belief--This is the savage state--Savages +described--The wild element of myth a survival from the savage +state--Advantages of this method--Partly accounts for wide +DIFFUSION as well as ORIGIN of myths--Connected with general +theory of evolution--Puzzling example of myth of the water- +swallower--Professor Tiele's criticism of the method-- +Objections to method, and answer to these--See Appendix B. + + +CHAPTER III. -- THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--CONFUSION WITH + NATURE--TOTEMISM. + +The mental condition of savages the basis of the irrational element +in myth--Characteristics of that condition: (1) Confusion of all +things in an equality of presumed animation and intelligence; +(2) Belief in sorcery; (3) Spiritualism; (4) Curiosity; (5) Easy +credulity and mental indolence--The curiosity is satisfied, thanks +to the credulity, by myths in answer to all inquiries--Evidence for +this--Mr. Tylor's opinion--Mr. Im Thurn--Jesuit missionaries' +Relations--Examples of confusion between men, plants, beasts and +other natural objects--Reports of travellers--Evidence from +institution of totemism--Definition of totemism--Totemism in +Australia, Africa, America, the Oceanic Islands, India, North Asia-- +Conclusions: Totemism being found so widely distributed, is a proof +of the existence of that savage mental condition in which no line +is drawn between men and the other things in the world. This +confusion is one of the characteristics of myth in all races. + + +CHAPTER IV. -- THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--MAGIC-- + METAMORPHOSIS--METAPHYSIC--PSYCHOLOGY. + +Claims of sorcerers--Savage scientific speculation--Theory of +causation--Credulity, except as to new religious ideas--"Post hoc, +ergo propter hoc"--Fundamental ideas of magic--Examples: +incantations, ghosts, spirits--Evidence of rank and other +institutions in proof of confusions of mind exhibited in magical +beliefs. + + +CHAPTER V. -- NATURE MYTHS. + +Savage fancy, curiosity and credulity illustrated in nature myths-- +In these all phenomena are explained by belief in the general +animation of everything, combined with belief in metamorphosis--Sun +myths, Asian, Australian, African, Melanesian, Indian, Californian, +Brazilian, Maori, Samoan--Moon myths, Australian, Muysca, Mexican, +Zulu, Macassar, Greenland, Piute, Malay--Thunder myths--Greek and +Aryan sun and moon myths--Star myths--Myths, savage and civilised, +of animals, accounting for their marks and habits--Examples of +custom of claiming blood kinship with lower animals--Myths of +various plants and trees--Myths of stones, and of metamorphosis +into stones, Greek, Australian and American--The whole natural +philosophy of savages expressed in myths, and survives in folk-lore +and classical poetry; and legends of metamorphosis. + + +CHAPTER VI. -- NON-ARYAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + +Confusions of myth--Various origins of man and of things--Myths of +Australia, Andaman Islands, Bushmen, Ovaherero, Namaquas, Zulus, +Hurons, Iroquois, Diggers, Navajoes, Winnebagoes, Chaldaeans, +Thlinkeets, Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Aztecs, Peruvians-- +Similarity of ideas pervading all those peoples in various +conditions of society and culture. + + +CHAPTER VII. -- INDO-ARYAN MYTHS--SOURCES OF EVIDENCE. + +Authorities--Vedas--Brahmanas--Social condition of Vedic India-- +Arts--Ranks--War--Vedic fetishism--Ancestor worship--Date of Rig- +Veda Hymns doubtful--Obscurity of the Hymns--Difficulty of +interpreting the real character of Veda--Not primitive but +sacerdotal--The moral purity not innocence but refinement. + + +CHAPTER VIII. -- INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + +Comparison of Vedic and savage myths--The metaphysical Vedic +account of the beginning of things--Opposite and savage fable of +world made out of fragments of a man--Discussion of this hymn-- +Absurdities of Brahmanas--Prajapati, a Vedic Unkulunkulu or Qat-- +Evolutionary myths--Marriage of heaven and earth--Myths of Puranas, +their savage parallels--Most savage myths are repeated in Brahmanas. + + +CHAPTER IX. -- GREEK MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND MAN. + +The Greeks practically civilised when we first meet them in Homer-- +Their mythology, however, is full of repulsive features--The +hypothesis that many of these are savage survivals--Are there other +examples of such survival in Greek life and institutions?--Greek +opinion was constant that the race had been savage--Illustrations +of savage survival from Greek law of homicide, from magic, +religion, human sacrifice, religious art, traces of totemism, and +from the mysteries--Conclusion: that savage survival may also be +expected in Greek myths. + + +CHAPTER X. -- GREEK COSMOGONIC MYTHS. + +Nature of the evidence--Traditions of origin of the world and man-- +Homeric, Hesiodic and Orphic myths--Later evidence of historians, +dramatists, commentators--The Homeric story comparatively pure--The +story in Hesiod, and its savage analogues--The explanations of the +myth of Cronus, modern and ancient--The Orphic cosmogony--Phanes +and Prajapati--Greek myths of the origin of man--Their savage +analogues. + + +CHAPTER XI. -- SAVAGE DIVINE MYTHS. + +The origin of a belief in GOD beyond the ken of history and of +speculation--Sketch of conjectural theories--Two elements in all +beliefs, whether of backward or civilised races--The Mythical and +the Religious--These may be coeval, or either may be older than the +other--Difficulty of study--The current anthropological theory-- +Stated objections to the theory--Gods and spirits--Suggestion that +savage religion is borrowed from Europeans--Reply to Mr. Tylor's +arguments on this head--The morality of savages. + + + +PREFACE TO NEW IMPRESSION. + + +When this book first appeared (1886), the philological school of +interpretation of religion and myth, being then still powerful in +England, was criticised and opposed by the author. In Science, as +on the Turkish throne of old, "Amurath to Amurath succeeds"; the +philological theories of religion and myth have now yielded to +anthropological methods. The centre of the anthropological +position was the "ghost theory" of Mr. Herbert Spencer, the +"Animistic" theory of Mr. E. R. Tylor, according to whom the +propitiation of ancestral and other spirits leads to polytheism, +and thence to monotheism. In the second edition (1901) of this +work the author argued that the belief in a "relatively supreme +being," anthropomorphic was as old as, and might be even older, +than animistic religion. This theory he exhibited at greater +length, and with a larger collection of evidence, in his Making of +Religion. + +Since 1901, a great deal of fresh testimony as to what Mr. Howitt +styles the "All Father" in savage and barbaric religions has +accrued. As regards this being in Africa, the reader may consult +the volumes of the New Series of the Journal of the Anthropological +Institute, which are full of African evidence, not, as yet, +discussed, to my knowledge, by any writer on the History of +Religion. As late as Man, for July, 1906, No. 66, Mr. Parkinson +published interesting Yoruba legends about Oleron, the maker and +father of men, and Oro, the Master of the Bull Roarer. + +From Australia, we have Mr. Howitt's account of the All Father in +his Native Tribes of South-East Australia, with the account of the +All Father of the Central Australian tribe, the Kaitish, in North +Central Tribes of Australia, by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen (1904), +also The Euahlayi Tribe, by Mrs. Langley Parker (1906). These +masterly books are indispensable to all students of the subject, +while, in Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's work cited, and in their +earlier Native Tribes of Central Australia, we are introduced to +savages who offer an elaborate animistic theory, and are said to +show no traces of the All Father belief. + +The books of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen also present much evidence +as to a previously unknown form of totemism, in which the totem is +not hereditary, and does not regulate marriage. This prevails +among the Arunta "nation," and the Kaitish tribe. In the opinion +of Mr. Spencer (Report Australian Association for Advancement of +Science, 1904) and of Mr. J. G. Frazer (Fortnightly Review, +September, 1905), this is the earliest surviving form of totemism, +and Mr. Frazer suggests an animistic origin for the institution. I +have criticised these views in The Secret of the Totem (1905), and +proposed a different solution of the problem. (See also "Primitive +and Advanced Totemism" in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, +July, 1906.) In the works mentioned will be found references to +other sources of information as to these questions, which are still +sub judice. Mrs. Bates, who has been studying the hitherto almost +unknown tribes of Western Australia, promises a book on their +beliefs and institutions, and Mr. N. W. Thomas is engaged on a +volume on Australian institutions. In this place the author can +only direct attention to these novel sources, and to the promised +third edition of Mr. Frazer's The Golden Bough. + +A. L. + + + +PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. + + +The original edition of Myth, Ritual and Religion, published in +1887, has long been out of print. In revising the book I have +brought it into line with the ideas expressed in the second part of +my Making of Religion (1898) and have excised certain passages +which, as the book first appeared, were inconsistent with its main +thesis. In some cases the original passages are retained in notes, +to show the nature of the development of the author's opinions. A +fragment or two of controversy has been deleted, and chapters xi. +and xii., on the religion of the lowest races, have been entirely +rewritten, on the strength of more recent or earlier information +lately acquired. The gist of the book as it stands now and as it +originally stood is contained in the following lines from the +preface of 1887: "While the attempt is made to show that the wilder +features of myth survive from, or were borrowed from, or were +imitated from the ideas of people in the savage condition of +thought, the existence--even among savages--of comparatively pure, +if inarticulate, religious beliefs is insisted on throughout". To +that opinion I adhere, and I trust that it is now expressed with +more consistency than in the first edition. I have seen reason, +more and more, to doubt the validity of the "ghost theory," or +animistic hypothesis, as explanatory of the whole fabric of +religion; and I present arguments against Mr. Tylor's contention +that the higher conceptions of savage faith are borrowed from +missionaries.[1] It is very possible, however, that Mr. Tylor has +arguments more powerful than those contained in his paper of 1892. +For our information is not yet adequate to a scientific theory of +the Origin of Religion, and probably never will be. Behind the +races whom we must regard as "nearest the beginning" are their +unknown ancestors from a dateless past, men as human as ourselves, +but men concerning whose psychical, mental and moral condition we +can only form conjectures. Among them religion arose, in +circumstances of which we are necessarily ignorant. Thus I only +venture on a surmise as to the germ of a faith in a Maker (if I am +not to say "Creator") and Judge of men. But, as to whether the +higher religious belief, or the lower mythical stories came first, +we are at least certain that the Christian conception of God, given +pure, was presently entangled, by the popular fancy of Europe, in +new Marchen about the Deity, the Madonna, her Son, and the +Apostles. Here, beyond possibility of denial, pure belief came +first, fanciful legend was attached after. I am inclined to +surmise that this has always been the case, and, in the pages on +the legend of Zeus, I show the processes of degeneration, of +mythical accretions on a faith in a Heaven-God, in action. That +"the feeling of religious devotion" attests "high faculties" in +early man (such as are often denied to men who "cannot count up to +seven"), and that "the same high mental faculties . . . would +infallibly lead him, as long as his reasoning powers remained +poorly developed, to various strange superstitions and customs," +was the belief of Mr. Darwin.[2] That is also my view, and I note +that the lowest savages are not yet guilty of the very worst +practices, "sacrifice of human beings to a blood-loving God," and +ordeals by poison and fire, to which Mr. Darwin alludes. "The +improvement of our science" has freed us from misdeeds which are +unknown to the Andamanese or the Australians. Thus there was, as +regards these points in morals, degeneracy from savagery as society +advanced, and I believe that there was also degeneration in +religion. To say this is not to hint at a theory of supernatural +revelation to the earliest men, a theory which I must, in limine +disclaim. + + +[1] Tylor, "Limits of Savage Religion." Journal of the +Anthropological Institute, vol. xxi. + +[2] Descent of Man, p. 68, 1871. + + +In vol. ii. p. 19 occurs a reference, in a note, to Mr. Hartland's +criticism of my ideas about Australian gods as set forth in the +Making of Religion. Mr. Hartland, who kindly read the chapters on +Australian religion in this book, does not consider that my note on +p. 19 meets the point of his argument. As to the Australians, I +mean no more than that, AMONG endless low myths, some of them +possess a belief in a "maker of everything," a primal being, still +in existence, watching conduct, punishing breaches of his laws, +and, in some cases, rewarding the good in a future life. Of course +these are the germs of a sympathetic religion, even if the being +thus regarded is mixed up with immoral or humorous contradictory +myths. My position is not harmed by such myths, which occur in all +old religions, and, in the middle ages, new myths were attached to +the sacred figures of Christianity in poetry and popular tales. + +Thus, if there is nothing "sacred" in a religion because wild or +wicked fables about the gods also occur, there is nothing "sacred" +in almost any religion on earth. + +Mr. Hartland's point, however, seems to be that, in the Making of +Religion, I had selected certain Australian beliefs as especially +"sacred" and to be distinguished from others, because they are +inculcated at the religious Mysteries of some tribes. His aim, +then, is to discover low, wild, immoral myths, inculcated at the +Mysteries, and thus to destroy my line drawn between religion on +one hand and myth or mere folk-lore on the other. Thus there is a +being named Daramulun, of whose rites, among the Coast Murring, I +condensed the account of Mr. Howitt.[1] From a statement by Mr. +Greenway[2] Mr. Hartland learned that Daramulun's name is said to +mean "leg on one side" or "lame". He, therefore, with fine humour, +speaks of Daramulun as "a creator with a game leg," though when +"Baiame" is derived by two excellent linguists, Mr. Ridley and Mr. +Greenway, from Kamilaroi baia, "to make," Mr. Hartland is by no +means so sure of the sense of the name. It happens to be +inconvenient to him! Let the names mean what they may, Mr. +Hartland finds, in an obiter dictum of Mr. Howitt (before he was +initiated), that Daramulun is said to have "died," and that his +spirit is now aloft. Who says so, and where, we are not +informed,[3] and the question is important. + + +[1] J. A. I., xiii. pp. 440-459. + +[2] Ibid., xxi. p. 294. + +[3] Ibid., xiii. p. 194. + + +For the Wiraijuri, IN THEIR MYSTERIES, tell a myth of cannibal +conduct of Daramulun's, and of deceit and failure of knowledge in +Baiame.[1] Of this I was unaware, or neglected it, for I +explicitly said that I followed Mr. Howitt's account, where no such +matter is mentioned. Mr. Howitt, in fact, described the Mysteries +of the Coast Murring, while the narrator of the low myths, Mr. +Matthews, described those of a remote tribe, the Wiraijuri, with +whom Daramulun is not the chief, but a subordinate person. How Mr. +Matthews' friends can at once hold that Daramulun was "destroyed" +by Baiame (their chief deity), and also that Daramulun's voice is +heard at their rites, I don't know.[2] Nor do I know why Mr. +Hartland takes the myth of a tribe where Daramulun is "the evil +spirit who rules the night,"[3] and introduces it as an argument +against the belief of a distant tribe, where, by Mr. Howitt's +account, Daramulun is not an evil spirit, but "the master" of all, +whose abode is above the sky, and to whom are attributed powers of +omnipotence and omnipresence, or, at any rate, the power "to do +anything and to go anywhere. . . . To his direct ordinances are +attributed the social and moral laws of the community."[4] This is +not "an evil spirit"! When Mr. Hartland goes for scandals to a +remote tribe of a different creed that he may discredit the creed +of the Coast Murring, he might as well attribute to the Free Kirk +"the errors of Rome". But Mr. Hartland does it![5] Being "cunning +of fence" he may reply that I also spoke loosely of Wiraijuri and +Coast Murring as, indifferently, Daramulunites. I did, and I was +wrong, and my critic ought not to accept but to expose my error. +The Wiraijuri Daramulun, who was annihilated, yet who is "an evil +spirit that rules the night," is not the Murring guardian and +founder of recognised ethics. + + +[1] J. A. I., xxv. p. 297. + +[2] Ibid., May, 1895, p. 419. + +[3] Ibid. + +[4] Ibid., xiii. pp. 458, 459. + +[5] Folk-Lore, ix., No. iv., p. 299. + + +But, in the Wiraijuri mysteries, the master, Baiame, deceives the +women as to the Mysteries! Shocking to US, but to deceive the +women as to these arcana, is, to the Australian mind in general, +necessary for the safety of the world. Moreover, we have heard of +a lying spirit sent to deceive prophets in a much higher creed. +Finally, in a myth of the Mystery of the Wiraijuri, Baiame is not +omniscient. Indeed, even civilised races cannot keep on the level +of these religious conceptions, and not to keep on that level is-- +mythology. Apollo, in the hymn to Hermes, sung on a sacred +occasion, needs to ask an old vine-dresser for intelligence. +Hyperion "sees all and hears all," but needs to be informed, by his +daughters, of the slaughter of his kine. The Lord, in the Book of +Job, has to ask Satan, "Whence comest thou?" Now for the sake of +dramatic effect, now from pure inability to live on the level of +his highest thought, man mythologises and anthropomorphises, in +Greece or Israel, as in Australia. + +It does not follow that there is "nothing sacred" in his religion. +Mr. Hartland offers me a case in point. In Mrs. Langloh Parker's +Australian Legendary Tales (pp. 11, 94), are myths of low +adventures of Baiame. In her More Australian Legendary Tales (pp. +84-99), is a very poetical and charming aspect of the Baiame +belief. Mr. Hartland says that I will "seek to put" the first set +of stories out of court, as "a kind of joke with no sacredness +about it". Not I, but the Noongahburrah tribe themselves make this +essential distinction. Mrs. Langloh Parker says:[1] "The former +series" (with the low Baiame myths) "were all such legends as are +told to the black picaninnies; among the present are some they +would not be allowed to hear, touching as they do on sacred things, +taboo to the young". The blacks draw the line which I am said to +seek to draw. + + +[1] More Legendary Tales, p. xv. + + +In yet another case[1] grotesque hunting adventures of Baiame are +told in the mysteries, and illustrated by the sacred temporary +representations in raised earth. I did not know it; I merely +followed Mr. Howitt. But I do not doubt it. My reply is, that +there was "something sacred" in Greek mysteries, something +purifying, ennobling, consoling. For this Lobeck has collected +(and disparaged) the evidence of Pindar, Sophocles, Cicero and many +others, while even Aristophanes, as Prof. Campbell remarks, says: +"We only have bright sun and cheerful life who have been initiated +and lived piously in regard to strangers and to private +citizens".[2] Security and peace of mind, in this world and for +the next, were, we know not how, borne into the hearts of Pindar +and Sophocles in the Mysteries. Yet, if we may at all trust the +Fathers, there were scenes of debauchery, as at the Mysteries of +the Fijians (Nanga) there was buffoonery ("to amuse the boys," Mr. +Howitt says of some Australian rites), the story of Baubo is only +one example, and, in other mysteries than the Eleusinian, we know +of mummeries in which an absurd tale of Zeus is related in +connection with an oak log. Yet surely there was "something +sacred" in the faith of Zeus! Let us judge the Australians as we +judge Greeks. The precepts as to "speaking the straightforward +truth," as to unselfishness, avoidance of quarrels, of wrongs to +"unprotected women," of unnatural vices, are certainly communicated +in the Mysteries of some tribes, with, in another, knowledge of the +name and nature of "Our Father," Munganngaur. That a Totemistic +dance, or medicine-dance of Emu hunting, is also displayed[3] at +certain Mysteries of a given tribe, and that Baiame is spoken of as +the hero of this ballet, no more deprives the Australian moral and +religious teaching (at the Mysteries) of sacred value, than the +stupid indecency whereby Baubo made Demeter laugh destroys the +sacredness of the Eleusinia, on which Pindar, Sophocles and Cicero +eloquently dwell. If the Australian mystae, at the most solemn +moment of their lives, are shown a dull or dirty divine ballet +d'action, what did Sophocles see, after taking a swim with his pig? +Many things far from edifying, yet the sacred element of religious +hope and faith was also represented. So it is in Australia. + + +[1] J. A. I., xxiv. p. 416. + +[2] Religion in Greek Literature, p. 259. It is to be regretted +that the learned professor gives no references. The Greek +Mysteries are treated later in this volume. + +[3] See A picture of Australia, 1829, p. 264. + + +These studies ought to be comparative, otherwise they are +worthless. As Mr. Hartland calls Daramulun "an eternal Creator +with a game leg" who "died," he may call Zeus an "eternal father, +who swallowed his wife, lay with his mother and sister, made love +as a swan, and died, nay, was buried, in Crete". I do not think +that Mr. Hartland would call Zeus "a ghost-god" (my own phrase), or +think that he was scoring a point against me, if I spoke of the +sacred and ethical characteristics of the Zeus adored by Eumaeus in +the Odyssey. He would not be so humorous about Zeus, nor fall into +an ignoratio elenchi. For my point never was that any Australian +tribe had a pure theistic conception unsoiled and unobliterated by +myth and buffoonery. My argument was that AMONG their ideas is +that of a superhuman being, unceasing (if I may not say eternal), a +maker (if I may not say a Creator), a guardian of certain by no +means despicable ethics, which I never proclaimed as supernormally +inspired! It is no reply to me to say that, in or out of +Mysteries, low fables about that being are told, and buffooneries +are enacted. For, though I say that certain high ideas are taught +in Mysteries, I do not think I say that in Mysteries no low myths +are told. + +I take this opportunity, as the earliest, to apologise for an error +in my Making of Religion concerning a passage in the Primitive +Culture of my friend Mr. E. B. Tylor. Mr. Tylor quoted[1] a +passage from Captain John Smith's History of Virginia, as given in +Pinkerton, xiii. pp. 13-39, 1632. In this passage no mention +occurs of a Virginian deity named Ahone but "Okee," another and +more truculent god, is named. I observed that, if Mr. Tylor had +used Strachey's Historie of Travaile (1612), he would have found "a +slightly varying copy" of Smith's text of 1632, with Ahone as +superior to Okee. I added in a note (p. 253): "There is a +description of Virginia, by W. Strachey, including Smith's remarks +published in 1612. Strachey interwove some of this work with his +own MS. in the British Museum." Here, as presently will be shown, +I erred, in company with Strachey's editor of 1849, and with the +writer on Strachey in the Dictionary of National Biography. What +Mr. Tylor quoted from an edition of Smith in 1632 had already +appeared, in 1612, in a book (Map of Virginia, with a description +of the Countrey) described on the title-page as "written by Captain +Smith," though, in my opinion, Smith may have had a collaborator. +There is no evidence whatever that Strachey had anything to do with +this book of 1612, in which there is no mention of Ahone. Mr. +Arber dates Strachey's own MS. (in which Ahone occurs) as of 1610- +1615.[2] I myself, for reasons presently to be alleged, date the +MS. mainly in 1611-1612. If Mr. Arber and I are right, Strachey +must have had access to Smith's MS. before it was published in +1612, and we shall see how he used it. My point here is that +Strachey mentioned Ahone (in MS.) before Smith's book of 1612 was +published. This could not be gathered from the dedication to Bacon +prefixed to Strachey's MS., for that dedication cannot be earlier +that 1618.[3] I now ask leave to discuss the evidence for an early +pre-Christian belief in a primal Creator, held by the Indian tribes +from Plymouth, in New England, to Roanoke Island, off Southern +Virginia. + + +[1] Prim. Cult. ii. p. 342. + +[2] Arber's Smith, p. cxxxiii. + +[3] Hakluyt Society, Strachey, 1849, pp. xxi., xxii. + + +THE GOD AHONE. + +An insertion by a manifest plagiary into the work of a detected +liar is not, usually, good evidence. Yet this is all the evidence, +it may be urged, which we have for the existence of a belief, in +early Virginia, as to a good Creator, named Ahone. The matter +stands thus: In 1607-1609 the famed Captain John Smith endured and +achieved in Virginia sufferings and adventures. In 1608 he sent to +the Council at home a MS. map and description of the colony. In +1609 he returned to England (October). In May, 1610, William +Strachey, gent., arrived in Virginia, where he was "secretary of +state" to Lord De la Warr. In 1612 Strachey and Smith were both in +England. In that year Barnes of Oxford published A Map of +Virginia, with a description, etc., "written by Captain Smith," +according to the title-page. There was annexed a compilation from +various sources, edited by "W. S.," that is, NOT William Strachey, +but Dr. William Symonds. In the same year, 1612, or in 1611, +William Strachey wrote his Historie of Travaile into Virginia +Britannia, at least as far as page 124 of the Hakluyt edition of +1849.[1] + + +[1] For proof see p. 24. third line from foot of page, where 1612 +is indicated. Again, see p. 98, line 5, where "last year" is dated +as "1610, about Christmas," which would put Strachey's work at this +point as actually of 1611; prior, that is, to Smith's publication. +Again, p. 124, "this last year, myself being at the Falls" (of the +James River), "I found in an Indian house certain clawes . . . +which I brought away and into England". + + +If Strachey, who went out with Lord De la Warr as secretary in +1610, returned with him (as is likely), he sailed for England on +28th March, 1611. In that case, he was in England in 1611, and the +passages cited leave it dubious whether he wrote his book in 1611, +1612, or in both years.[1] + + +[1] Mr. Arber dates the MS. "1610-1615," and attributes to Strachey +Laws for Virginia, 1612. + + +Strachey embodies in his work considerable pieces of Smith's Map of +Virginia and Description, written in 1608, and published in 1612. +He continually deserts Smith, however, adding more recent +information, reflections and references to the ancient classics, +with allusions to his own travels in the Levant. His glossary is +much more extensive than Smith's, and he inserts a native song of +triumph over the English in the original.[1] Now, when Strachey +comes to the religion of the natives[2] he gives eighteen pages +(much of it verbiage) to five of Smith's.[3] What Smith (1612) +says of their chief god I quote, setting Strachey's version (1611- +1612) beside it. + + +[1] Strachey, pp. 79-80. He may have got the song from Kemps or +Machumps, friendly natives. + +[2] Pp. 82-100. + +[3] Arber, pp. 74-79. + + +SMITH (Published, 1612). + +But their chiefe God they worship is the Diuell. Him they call +Oke, and serue him more of feare than loue. They say they haue +conference with him, and fashion themselues as neare to his shape +as they can imagine. In their Temples, they have his image euile +favouredly carved, and then painted, and adorned with chaines, +copper, and beades; and couered with a skin, in such manner as the +deformity may well suit with such a God. By him is commonly the +sepulcher of their Kings. + + +STRACHEY (Written, 1611-12). + +But their chief god they worship is no other, indeed, then the +divell, whome they make presentments of, and shadow under the forme +of an idoll, which they entitle Okeus, and whome they worship as +the Romans did their hurtful god Vejovis, more for feare of harme +then for hope of any good; they saie they have conference with him, +and fashion themselves in their disguisments as neere to his shape +as they can imagyn. In every territory of a weroance is a temple +and a priest, peradventure two or thrie; yet happie doth that +weroance accompt himself who can detayne with him a Quiyough- +quisock, of the best, grave, lucky, well instructed in their +misteryes, and beloved of their god; and such a one is noe lesse +honoured then was Dianae's priest at Ephesus, for whome they have +their more private temples, with oratories and chauneells therein, +according as is the dignity and reverence of the Quiyough-quisock, +which the weroance wilbe at charge to build upon purpose, sometyme +twenty foote broad and a hundred in length, fashioned arbour wyse +after their buylding, having comonly the dore opening into the +east, and at the west end a spence or chauncell from the body of +the temple, with hollow wyndings and pillers, whereon stand divers +black imagies, fashioned to the shoulders, with their faces looking +down the church, and where within their weroances, upon a kind of +biere of reedes, lye buryed; and under them, apart, in a vault low +in the ground (as a more secrett thing), vailed with a matt, sitts +their Okeus, an image ill-favouredly carved, all black dressed, +with chaynes of perle, the presentment and figure of that god (say +the priests unto the laity, and who religiously believe what the +priests saie) which doth them all the harme they suffer, be yt in +their bodies or goods, within doores or abroad; and true yt is many +of them are divers tymes (especyally offendors) shrewdly scratched +as they walke alone in the woods, yt may well be by the subtyle +spirit, the malitious enemy to mankind, whome, therefore, to +pacefie and worke to doe them good (at least no harme) the priests +tell them they must do these and these sacrifices unto [them] of +these and these things, and thus and thus often, by which meanes +not only their owne children, but straungers, are sometimes +sacrificed unto him: whilst the great god (the priests tell them) +who governes all the world, and makes the sun to shine, creating +the moone and stars his companyons, great powers, and which dwell +with him, and by whose virtues and influences the under earth is +tempered, and brings forth her fruiets according to her seasons, +they calling Ahone; the good and peaceable god requires no such +dutyes, nor needes be sacrificed unto, for he intendeth all good +unto them, and will doe noe harme, only the displeased Okeus, +looking into all men's accions, and examining the same according to +the severe scale of justice, punisheth them with sicknesse, beats +them, and strikes their ripe corn with blastings, stormes, and +thunder clapps, stirrs up warre, and makes their women falce unto +them. Such is the misery and thraldome under which Sathan hath +bound these wretched miscreants. + + +I began by calling Strachey a plagiary. The reader will now +observe that he gives far more than he takes. For example, his +account of the temples is much more full than that of Smith, and he +adds to Smith's version the character and being of Ahone, as what +"the priests tell them". I submit, therefore, that Strachey's +additions, if valid for temples, are not discredited for Ahone, +merely because they are inserted in the framework of Smith. As far +as I understand the matter, Smith's Map of Virginia (1612) is an +amended copy, with additions, by Smith or another writer of that +description, which he sent home to the Council of Virginia, in +November, 1608.[1] To the book of 1612 was added a portion of +"Relations" by different hands, edited by W. S., namely, Dr. +Symonds. Strachey's editor, in 1849, regarded W. S. as Strachey, +and supposed that Strachey was the real author of Smith's Map of +Virginia, so that, in his Historie of Travaile, Strachey merely +took back his own. He did not take back his own; he made use of +Smith's MS., not yet published, if Mr. Arber and I rightly date +Strachey's MS. at 1610-15, or 1611-12. Why Strachey acted thus it +is possible to conjecture. As a scholar well acquainted with +Virginia, and as Secretary for the Colony, he would have access to +Smith's MS. of 1608 among the papers of the Council, before its +publication. Smith professes himself "no scholer".[2] On the +other hand, Strachey likes to show off his Latin and Greek. He has +a curious, if inaccurate, knowledge of esoteric Greek and Roman +religious antiquities, and in writing of religion aims at a +comparative method. Strachey, however, took the trouble to copy +bits of Smith into his own larger work, which he never gave to the +printers. + + +[1] Arber, p. 444. + +[2] Arber, p. 442. + + +Now as to Ahone. It suits my argument to suppose that Strachey's +account is no less genuine than his description of the temples +(illustrated by a picture by John White, who had been in Virginia +in 1589), and the account of the Great Hare of American mythology.[1] +This view of a Virginian Creator, "our chief god" "who takes upon +him this shape of a hare," was got, says Strachey, "last year, +1610," from a brother of the Potomac King, by a boy named Spilman, +who says that Smith "sold" him to Powhattan.[2] In his own brief +narrative Spelman (or Spilman) says nothing about the Cosmogonic +Legend of the Great Hare. The story came up when Captain Argoll was +telling Powhattan's brother the account of creation in Genesis +(1610). + + +[1] Strachey, p. 98-100. + +[2] "Spilman's Narrative," Arber, cx.-cxiv. + + +Now Strachey's Great Hare is accepted by mythologists, while Ahone +is regarded with suspicion. Ahone does not happen to suit +anthropological ideas, the Hare suits them rather better. +Moreover, and more important, there is abundant corroborative +evidence for Oke and for the Hare, Michabo, who, says Dr. Brinton, +"was originally the highest divinity recognised by them, powerful +and beneficent beyond all others, maker of the heavens and the +world," just like Ahone, in fact. And Dr. Brinton instructs us +that Michabo originally meant not Great Hare, but "the spirit of +light".[1] Thus, originally, the Red Men adored "The Spirit of +Light, maker of the heavens and the world". Strachey claims no +more than this for Ahone. Now, of course, Dr. Brinton may be +right. But I have already expressed my extreme distrust of the +philological processes by which he extracts "The Great Light; +spirit of light," from Michabo, "beyond a doubt!" In my poor +opinion, whatever claims Michabo may have as an unique creator of +earth and heaven--"God is Light,"--he owes his mythical aspect as a +Hare to something other than an unconscious pun. In any case, +according to Dr. Brinton, Michabo, regarded as a creator, is +equivalent to Strachey's Ahone. This amount of corroboration, +valeat quantum, I may claim, from the Potomac Indians, for the +belief in Ahone on the James River. Dr. Brinton is notoriously not +a believer in American "monotheism".[2] + + +[1] Myths of the New World, p. 178. + +[2] Myths of the New World, p. 53. + + +The opponents of the authenticity of Ahone, however, will certainly +argue: "For Oke, or Oki, as a redoubted being or spirit, or general +name for such personages, we have plentiful evidence, corroborating +that of Smith. But what evidence as to Ahone corroborates that of +Strachey?" I must confess that I have no explicit corroborative +evidence for Ahone, but then I have no accessible library of early +books on Virginia. Now it is clear that if I found and produced +evidence for Ahone as late as 1625, I would be met at once with the +retort that, between 1610 and 1625, Christian ideas had contaminated +the native beliefs. Thus if I find Ahone, or a deity of like +attributes, after a very early date, he is of no use for my purpose. +Nor do I much expect to find him. But do we find Winslow's +Massachusetts God, Kiehtan, named AFTER 1622 ("I only ask for +information"), and if we don't, does that prevent Mr. Tylor from +citing Kiehtan, with apparent reliance on the evidence?[1] + + +[1] Primitive Culture, ii. p. 342. + + +Again, Ahone, though primal and creative, is, by Strachey's +account, a sleeping partner. He has no sacrifice, and no temple or +idol is recorded. Therefore the belief in Ahone could only be +discovered as a result of inquiry, whereas figures of Oke or Okeus, +and his services, were common and conspicuous.[1] As to Oke, I +cannot quite understand Mr. Tylor's attitude. Summarising Lafitau, +a late writer of 1724, Mr. Tylor writes: "The whole class of +spirits or demons, known to the Caribs by the name of cemi, in +Algonkin as manitu, in Huron as oki, Lafitau now spells with +capital letters, and converts them each into a supreme being".[2] +Yet in Primitive Culture, ii., 342, 1891, Mr. Tylor had cited +Smith's Okee (with a capital letter) as the "chief god" of the +Virginians in 1612. How can Lafitau be said to have elevated oki +into Oki, and so to have made a god out of "a class of spirits or +demons," in 1724, when Mr. Tylor had already cited Smith's Okee, +with a capital letter and as a "chief god," in 1612? Smith, +rebuked for the same by Mr. Tylor, had even identified Okee with +the devil. Lafitau certainly did not begin this erroneous view of +Oki as a "chief god" among the Virginians. If I cannot to-day +produce corroboration for a god named Ahone, I can at least show +that, from the north of New England to the south of Virginia, there +is early evidence, cited by Mr. Tylor, for a belief in a primal +creative being, closely analogous to Ahone. And this evidence, I +think, distinctly proves that such a being as Ahone was within the +capacity of the Indians in these latitudes. Mr. Tylor must have +thought in 1891 that the natives were competent to a belief in a +supreme deity, for he said, "Another famous native American name +for the supreme deity is Oki".[3] In the essay of 1892, however, +Oki does not appear to exist as a god's name till 1724. We may +now, for earlier evidence, turn to Master Thomas Heriot, "that +learned mathematician" "who spoke the Indian language," and was +with the company which abandoned Virginia on 18th June, 1586. They +ranged 130 miles north and 130 miles north-west of Roanoke Island, +which brings them into the neighbourhood of Smith's and Strachey's +country. Heriot writes as to the native creeds: "They believe that +there are many gods which they call Mantoac, but of different sorts +and degrees. Also that there is one chiefe God that hath beene +from all eternitie, who, as they say, when he purposed first to +make the world, made first other gods of a principall order, to be +as instruments to be used in the Creation and Government to follow, +and after the Sunne, Moone and Starres as pettie gods, and the +instruments of the other order more principall. . . . They thinke +that all the gods are of humane shape," and represent them by +anthropomorphic idols. An idol, or image, "Kewasa" (the plural is +"Kewasowok"), is placed in the temples, "where they worship, pray +and make many offerings". Good souls go to be happy with the gods, +the bad burn in Popogusso, a great pit, "where the sun sets". The +evidence for this theory of a future life, as usual, is that of men +who died and revived again, a story found in a score of widely +separated regions, down to our day, when the death, revival and +revelation occurred to the founder of the Arapahoe new religion of +the Ghost Dance. The belief "works for righteousness". "The +common sort . . . have great care to avoyde torment after death, +and to enjoy blesse," also they have "great respect to their +Governors". + + +[1] Okee's image, as early as 1607, was borne into battle against +Smith, who captured the god (Arber, p. 393). Ahone was not thus en +evidence. + +[2] Journal of Anthrop. Inst., Feb., 1892, pp. 285, 286. + +[3] Prim. Cult,, ii. p. 342. + + +This belief in a chief god "from all eternitie" (that is, of +unexplained origin), may not be convenient to some speculators, but +it exactly corroborates Strachey's account of Ahone as creator with +subordinates. The evidence is of 1586 (twenty-six years before +Strachey), and, like Strachey, Heriot attributes the whole scheme +of belief to "the priestes". "This is the sum of their religion, +which I learned by having speciall familiaritie with some of their +priests."[1] I see no escape from the conclusion that the +Virginians believed as Heriot says they did, except the device of +alleging that they promptly borrowed some of Heriot's ideas and +maintained that these ideas had ever been their own. Heriot +certainly did not recognise the identity. "Through conversing with +us they were brought into great doubts of their owne [religion], +and no small admiration of ours; of which many desired to learne +more than we had the meanes for want of utterance in their language +to expresse." So Heriot could not be subtle in the native tongue. +Heriot did what he could to convert them: "I did my best to make +His immortall glory knowne". His efforts were chiefly successful +by virtue of the savage admiration of our guns, mathematical +instruments, and so forth. These sources of an awakened interest +in Christianity would vanish with the total destruction and +discomfiture of the colony, unless a few captives, later massacred, +taught our religion to the natives.[2] + + +[1] According to Strachey, Heriot could speak the native language. + +[2] Heriot's Narrative, pp. 37-39. Quaritch, London, 1893. + + +I shall cite another early example of a New England deity akin to +Ahone, with a deputy, a friend of sorcerers, like Okee. This +account is in Smith's General History of New England, 1606-1624. +We sent out a colony in 1607; "they all returned in the yeere +1608," esteeming the country "a cold, barren, mountainous rocky +desart". I am apt to believe that they did not plant the +fructifying seeds of grace among the natives in 1607-1608. But the +missionary efforts of French traders may, of course, have been +blessed; nor can I deny that a yellow-haired man, whose corpse was +found in 1620 with some objects of iron, may have converted the +natives to such beliefs as they possessed. We are told, however, +that these tenets were of ancestral antiquity. I cite E. Winslow, +as edited by Smith (1623-24):-- + +"Those where is this Plantation [New Plymouth] say Kiehtan[1] made +all the other Gods: also one man and one woman, and with them all +mankinde, but how they became so dispersed they know not. They say +that at first there was no king but Kiehtan, that dwelleth far +westerly above the heavens, whither all good men go when they die, +and have plentie of all things. The bad go thither also and knock +at the door, but ['the door is shut'] he bids them go wander in +endless want and misery, for they shall not stay there. They never +saw Kiehtan,[2] but they hold it a great charge and dutie that one +race teach another; and to him they make feasts and cry and sing +for plenty and victory, or anything that is good. + + +[1] In 1873 Mr. Tylor regarded Dr. Brinton's etymology of Kiehtan +as = Kittanitowit = "Great Living Spirit," as "plausible". In his +edition of 1891 he omits this etymology. Personally I entirely +distrust the philological theories of the original sense of old +divine names as a general rule. + +[2] "They never saw Kiehtan." So, about 1854, "The common answer +of intelligent black fellows on the Barwon when asked if they know +Baiame . . . is this: 'Kamil zaia zummi Baiame, zaia winuzgulda'; +'I have not seen Baiame, I have heard or perceived him'. If asked +who made the sky, the earth, the animals and man, they always answer +'Baiame'." Daramulun, according to the same authority in Lang's +Queensland, was the familiar of sorcerers, and appeared as a +serpent. This answers, as I show, to Hobamock the subordinate power +to Kiehtan in New England and to Okee, the familiar of sorcerers in +Virginia. (Ridley, J. A. I., 1872, p. 277.) + + +"They have another Power they call Hobamock, which we conceive the +Devill, and upon him they call to cure their wounds and diseases; +when they are curable he persuades them he sent them, because they +have displeased him; but, if they be mortal, then he saith, +'Kiehtan sent them'; which makes them never call on him in their +sickness. They say this Hobamock appears to them sometimes like a +man, a deer, or an eagle, but most commonly like a snake; not to +all but to their Powahs to cure diseases, and Undeses . . . and +these are such as conjure in Virginia, and cause the people to do +what they list." Winslow (or rather Smith editing Winslow here), +had already said, "They believe, as do the Virginians, of many +divine powers, yet of one above all the rest, as the Southern +Virginians call their chief god Kewassa [an error], and that we now +inhabit Oke. . . . The Massachusetts call their great god +Kiehtan."[1] + + +[1] Arber, pp. 767, 768. + + +Here, then, in Heriot (1586), Strachey (1611-12) and Winslow +(1622), we find fairly harmonious accounts of a polydaemonism with +a chief, primal, creative being above and behind it; a being +unnamed, and Ahone and Kiehtan. + +Is all this invention? Or was all this derived from Europeans +before 1586, and, if so, from what Europeans? Mr. Tylor, in 1873, +wrote, "After due allowance made for misrendering of savage +answers, and importation of white men's thoughts, it can hardly be +judged that a divine being, whose characteristics are often so +unlike what European intercourse would have suggested, and who is +heard of by such early explorers among such distant tribes, could +be a deity of foreign origin". NOW, he "can HARDLY be ALTOGETHER a +deity of foreign origin".[1] I agree with Mr. Tylor's earlier +statement. In my opinion Ahone--Okeus, Kiehtan--Hobamock, +correspond, the first pair to the usually unseen Australian Baiame +(a crystal or hypnotic vision of Baiame scarcely counts), while the +second pair, Okeus and Hobamock, answer to the Australian familiars +of sorcerers, Koin and Brewin; the American "Powers" being those of +peoples on a higher level of culture. Like Tharramulun where +Baiame is supreme, Hobamock appears as a snake (Asclepius). + + +[1] Prim. Cult., ii. 340, 1873, 1892. + + +For all these reasons I am inclined to accept Strachey's Ahone as a +veritable element in Virginian belief. Without temple or service, +such a being was not conspicuous, like Okee and other gods which +had idols and sacrifices. + +As far as I see, Strachey has no theory to serve by inventing +Ahone. He asks how any races "if descended from the people of the +first creation, should maintain so general and gross a defection +from the true knowledge of God". He is reduced to suppose that, as +descendants of Ham, they inherit "the ignorance of true godliness." +(p. 45). The children of Shem and Japheth alone "retained, until +the coming of the Messias, the only knowledge of the eternal and +never-changing Trinity". The Virginians, on the other hand, fell +heir to the ignorance, and "fearful and superstitious instinct of +nature" of Ham (p. 40). Ahone, therefore, is not invented by +Strachey to bolster up a theory (held by Strachey), of an inherited +revelation, or of a sensus numinis which could not go wrong. +Unless a proof be given that Strachey had a theory, or any other +purpose, to serve by inventing Ahone, I cannot at present come into +the opinion that he gratuitously fabled, though he may have +unconsciously exaggerated. + +What were Strachey's sources? He was for nine months, if not more, +in the colony: he had travelled at least 115 miles up the James +River, he occasionally suggests modifications of Smith's map, he +refers to Smith's adventures, and his glossary is very much larger +than Smith's; its accuracy I leave to American linguists. Such a +witness, despite his admitted use of Smith's text (if it is really +all by Smith throughout) is not to be despised, and he is not +despised in America.[1] Strachey, it is true, had not, like Smith, +been captured by Indians and either treated with perfect kindness +and consideration (as Smith reported at the time), or tied to a +tree and threatened with arrows, and laid out to have his head +knocked in with a stone; as he alleged sixteen years later! +Strachey, not being captured, did not owe his release (1) to the +magnanimity of Powhattan, (2) to his own ingenious lies, (3) to the +intercession of Pocahontas, as Smith, and his friends for him, at +various dates inconsistently declared. Smith certainly saw more of +the natives at home: Strachey brought a more studious mind to what +he could learn of their customs and ideas; and is not a convicted +braggart. I conjecture that one of Strachey's sources was a native +named Kemps. Smith had seized Kemps and Kinsock in 1609. Unknown +authorities (Powell? and Todkill?) represent these two savages as +"the most exact villaines in the country".[2] They were made to +labour in fetters, then were set at liberty, but "little desired +it".[3] Some "souldiers" ran away to the liberated Kemps, who +brought them back to Smith.[4] Why Kemps and his friend are called +"two of the most exact villains in the country" does not appear. +Kemps died "of the surveye" (scurvey, probably) at Jamestown, in +1610-11. He was much made of by Lord De la Warr, "could speak a +pretty deal of our English, and came orderly to church every day to +prayers". He gave Strachey the names of Powhattan's wives, and +told him, truly or not, that Pocahontas was married, about 1610, to +an Indian named Kocoum.[5] I offer the guess that Kemps and +Machumps, who came and went from Pocahontas, and recited an Indian +prayer which Strachey neglected to copy out, may have been among +Strachey's authorities. I shall, of course, be told that Kemps +picked up Ahone at church. This did not strike Strachey as being +the fact; he had no opinion of the creed in which Ahone was a +factor, "the misery and thraldome under which Sathan has bound +these wretched miscreants". According to Strachey, the priests, +far from borrowing any part of our faith, "feare and tremble lest +the knowledge of God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ be taught in +these parts". + + +[1] Arber, cxvii. Strachey mentions that (before his arrival in +Virginia) Pocahontas turned cart-wheels, naked, in Jamestown, being +then under twelve, and not yet wearing the apron. Smith says she +was ten in 1608, but does not mention the cart-wheels. Later, he +found it convenient to put her age at twelve or thirteen in 1608. +Most American scholars, such as Mr. Adams, entirely distrust the +romantic later narratives of Smith. + +[2] The Proeeedings, etc., by W. S. Arber, p. 151. + +[3] Ibid., p. 155. + +[4] Ibid., p. 157. + +[5] Strachey, pp. 54, 55. + + +Strachey is therefore for putting down the priests, and, like Smith +(indeed here borrowing from Smith), accuses them of sacrificing +children. To Smith's statement that such a rite was worked at +Quiyough-cohanock, Strachey adds that Sir George Percy (who was +with Smith) "was at, and observed" a similar mystery at Kecoughtan. +It is plain that the rite was not a sacrifice, but a Bora, or +initiation, and the parallel of the Spartan flogging of boys, with +the retreat of the boys and their instructors, is very close, and, +of course, unnoted by classical scholars except Mr. Frazer. +Strachey ends with the critical remark that we shall not know all +the certainty of the religion and mysteries till we can capture +some of the priests, or Quiyough-quisocks. + +Students who have access to a good library of Americana may do more +to elucidate Ahone. I regard him as in a line with Kiehtan and the +God spoken of by Heriot, and do not believe (1) that Strachey lied; +(2) that natives deceived Strachey; (3) that Ahone was borrowed +from "the God of Captain Smith". + + + +MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION. + + +CHAPTER I. + +SYSTEMS OF MYTHOLOGY. + +Definitions of religion--Contradictory evidence--"Belief in +spiritual beings"--Objection to Mr. Tylor's definition--Definition +as regards this argument--Problem: the contradiction between +religion and myth--Two human moods--Examples--Case of Greece-- +Ancient mythologists--Criticism by Eusebius--Modern mythological +systems--Mr. Max Muller--Mannhardt. + + +The word "Religion" may be, and has been, employed in many different +senses, and with a perplexing width of significance. No attempt to +define the word is likely to be quite satisfactory, but almost any +definition may serve the purpose of an argument, if the writer who +employs it states his meaning frankly and adheres to it steadily. +An example of the confusions which may arise from the use of the +term "religion" is familiar to students. Dr. J. D. Lang wrote +concerning the native races of Australia: "They have nothing +whatever of the character of religion, or of religious observances, +to distinguish them from the beasts that perish". Yet in the same +book Dr. Lang published evidence assigning to the natives belief in +"Turramullun, the chief of demons, who is the author of disease, +mischief and wisdom".[1] The belief in a superhuman author of +"disease, mischief and wisdom" is certainly a religious belief not +conspicuously held by "the beasts"; yet all religion was denied to +the Australians by the very author who prints (in however erroneous +a style) an account of part of their creed. This writer merely +inherited the old missionary habit of speaking about the god of a +non-Christian people as a "demon" or an "evil spirit". + + +[1] See Primitive Culture, second edition, i. 419. + + +Dr. Lang's negative opinion was contradicted in testimony published +by himself, an appendix by the Rev. Mr. Ridley, containing evidence +of the belief in Baiame. "Those who have learned that 'God' is the +name by which we speak of the Creator, say that Baiame is God."[1] + + +[1] Lang's Queensland, p. 445, 1861. + + +As "a minimum definition of religion," Mr. Tylor has suggested "the +belief in spiritual beings". Against this it may be urged that, +while we have no definite certainty that any race of men is +destitute of belief in spiritual beings, yet certain moral and +creative deities of low races do not seem to be envisaged as +"spiritual" at all. They are regarded as EXISTENCES, as BEINGS, +unconditioned by Time, Space, or Death, and nobody appears to have +put the purely metaphysical question, "Are these beings spiritual +or material?"[1] Now, if a race were discovered which believed in +such beings, yet had no faith in spirits, that race could not be +called irreligious, as it would have to be called in Mr. Tylor's +"minimum definition". Almost certainly, no race in this stage of +belief in nothing but unconditioned but not expressly spiritual +beings is extant. Yet such a belief may conceivably have existed +before men had developed the theory of spirits at all, and such a +belief, in creative and moral unconditioned beings, not alleged to +be spiritual, could not be excluded from a definition of religion.[2] + + +[1] See The Making of Religion, pp. 201-210. + +[2] "The history of the Jews, nay, the history of our own mind, +proves to demonstration that the thought of God is a far easier +thought, and a far earlier, than that of a spirit." Father +Tyrrell, S. J., The Month, October, 1898. As to the Jews, the +question is debated. As to our own infancy, we are certainly +taught about God before we are likely to be capable of the +metaphysical notion of spirit. But we can scarcely reason from +children in Christian houses to the infancy of the race. + + +For these reasons we propose (merely for the purpose of the present +work) to define religion as the belief in a primal being, a Maker, +undying, usually moral, without denying that the belief in +spiritual beings, even if immoral, may be styled religious. Our +definition is expressly framed for the purpose of the argument, +because that argument endeavours to bring into view the essential +conflict between religion and myth. We intend to show that this +conflict between the religious and the mythical conception is +present, not only (where it has been universally recognised) in the +faiths of the ancient civilised peoples, as in Greece, Rome, India +and Egypt, but also in the ideas of the lowest known savages. + +It may, of course, be argued that the belief in Creator is itself +a myth. However that may be, the attitude of awe, and of moral +obedience, in face of such a supposed being, is religious in the +sense of the Christian religion, whereas the fabrication of +fanciful, humorous, and wildly irrational fables about that being, +or others, is essentially mythical in the ordinary significance of +that word, though not absent from popular Christianity. + +Now, the whole crux and puzzle of mythology is, "Why, having +attained (in whatever way) to a belief in an undying guardian, +'Master of Life,' did mankind set to work to evolve a chronique +scandaleuse about HIM? And why is that chronique the elaborately +absurd set of legends which we find in all mythologies?" + +In answering, or trying to answer, these questions, we cannot go +behind the beliefs of the races now most immersed in savage +ignorance. About the psychology of races yet more undeveloped we +can have no historical knowledge. Among the lowest known tribes we +usually find, just as in ancient Greece, the belief in a deathless +"Father," "Master," "Maker," and also the crowd of humorous, +obscene, fanciful myths which are in flagrant contradiction with +the religious character of that belief. That belief is what we +call rational, and even elevated. The myths, on the other hand, +are what we call irrational and debasing. We regard low savages as +very irrational and debased characters, consequently the nature of +their myths does not surprise us. Their religious conception, +however, of a "Father" or "Master of Life" seems out of keeping +with the nature of the savage mind as we understand it. Still, +there the religious conception actually is, and it seems to follow +that we do not wholly understand the savage mind, or its unknown +antecedents. In any case, there the facts are, as shall be +demonstrated. However the ancestors of Australians, or Andamanese, +or Hurons arrived at their highest religious conception, they +decidedly possess it.[1] The development of their mythical +conceptions is accounted for by those qualities of their minds +which we do understand, and shall illustrate at length. For the +present, we can only say that the religious conception uprises from +the human intellect in one mood, that of earnest contemplation and +submission: while the mythical ideas uprise from another mood, that +of playful and erratic fancy. These two moods are conspicuous even +in Christianity. The former, that of earnest and submissive +contemplation, declares itself in prayers, hymns, and "the dim +religious light" of cathedrals. The second mood, that of playful +and erratic fancy, is conspicuous in the buffoonery of Miracle +Plays, in Marchen, these burlesque popular tales about our Lord and +the Apostles, and in the hideous and grotesque sculptures on sacred +edifices. The two moods are present, and in conflict, through the +whole religious history of the human race. They stand as near each +other, and as far apart, as Love and Lust. + + +[1] The hypothesis that the conception was borrowed from European +creeds will be discussed later. See, too, "Are Savage Gods +borrowed from Missionaries?" Nineteenth Century, January, 1899. + + +It will later be shown that even some of the most backward savages +make a perhaps half-conscious distinction between their mythology +and their religion. As to the former, they are communicative; as +to the latter, they jealously guard their secret in sacred +mysteries. It is improbable that reflective "black fellows" have +been morally shocked by the flagrant contradictions between their +religious conceptions and their mythical stories of the divine +beings. But human thought could not come into explicit clearness +of consciousness without producing the sense of shock and surprise +at these contradictions between the Religion and the Myth of the +same god. Of this we proceed to give examples. + +In Greece, as early as the sixth century B. C., we are all familiar +with Xenophanes' poem[1] complaining that the gods were credited +with the worst crimes of mortals--in fact, with abominations only +known in the orgies of Nero and Elagabalus. We hear Pindar +refusing to repeat the tale which told him the blessed were +cannibals.[2] In India we read the pious Brahmanic attempts to +expound decently the myths which made Indra the slayer of a +Brahman; the sinner, that is, of the unpardonable sin. In Egypt, +too, we study the priestly or philosophic systems by which the +clergy strove to strip the burden of absurdity and sacrilege from +their own deities. From all these efforts of civilised and pious +believers to explain away the stories about their own gods we may +infer one fact--the most important to the student of mythology--the +fact that myths were not evolved in times of clear civilised +thought. It is when Greece is just beginning to free her thought +from the bondage of too concrete language, when she is striving to +coin abstract terms, that her philosophers and poets first find the +myths of Greece a stumbling-block. + + +[1] Ritter and Preller, Hist. Philos., Gothae, 1869, p. 82. + +[2] Olympic Odes, i., Myers's translation: "To me it is impossible +to call one of the blessed gods a cannibal. . . . Meet it is for a +man that concerning the gods he speak honourably, for the reproach +is less. Of thee, son of Tantalus, I will speak contrariwise to +them who have gone before me." In avoiding the story of the +cannibal god, however, Pindar tells a tale even more offensive to +our morality. + + +All early attempts at an interpretation of mythology are so many +efforts to explain the myths on some principle which shall seem not +unreasonable to men living at the time of the explanation. +Therefore the pious remonstrances and the forced constructions of +early thinkers like Xenophanes, of poets like Pindar, of all +ancient Homeric scholars and Pagan apologists, from Theagenes of +Rhegium (525 B. C.), the early Homeric commentator, to Porphyry, +almost the last of the heathen philosophers, are so many proofs +that to Greece, as soon as she had a reflective literature, the +myths of Greece seemed impious and IRRATIONAL. The essays of the +native commentators on the Veda, in the same way, are endeavours to +put into myths felt to be irrational and impious a meaning which +does not offend either piety or reason. We may therefore conclude +that it was not men in an early stage of philosophic thought (as +philosophy is now understood)--not men like Empedocles and +Heraclitus, nor reasonably devout men like Eumaeus, the pious +swineherd of the Odyssey--who evolved the blasphemous myths of +Greece, of Egypt and of India. We must look elsewhere for an +explanation. We must try to discover some actual and demonstrable +and widely prevalent condition of the human mind, in which tales +that even to remote and rudimentary civilisations appeared +irrational and unnatural would seem natural and rational. To +discover this intellectual condition has been the aim of all +mythologists who did not believe that myth is a divine tradition +depraved by human weakness, or a distorted version of historical +events. + +Before going further, it is desirable to set forth what our aim is, +and to what extent we are seeking an interpretation of mythology. +It is not our purpose to explain every detail of every ancient +legend, either as a distorted historical fact or as the result of +this or that confusion of thought caused by forgetfulness of the +meanings of language, or in any other way; nay, we must constantly +protest against the excursions of too venturesome ingenuity. Myth +is so ancient, so complex, so full of elements, that it is vain +labour to seek a cause for every phenomenon. We are chiefly +occupied with the quest for an historical condition of the human +intellect to which the element in myths, regarded by us as +irrational, shall seem rational enough. If we can prove that such +a state of mind widely exists among men, and has existed, that +state of mind may be provisionally considered as the fount and +ORIGIN of the myths which have always perplexed men in a reasonable +modern mental condition. Again, if it can be shown that this +mental stage was one through which all civilised races have passed, +the universality of the mythopoeic mental condition will to some +extent explain the universal DIFFUSION of the stories. + +Now, in all mythologies, whether savage or civilised, and in all +religions where myths intrude, there exist two factors--the factor +which we now regard as rational, and that which we moderns regard +as irrational. The former element needs little explanation; the +latter has demanded explanation ever since human thought became +comparatively instructed and abstract. + +To take an example; even in the myths of savages there is much that +still seems rational and transparent. If savages tell us that some +wise being taught them all the simple arts of life, the use of +fire, of the bow and arrow, the barbing of hooks, and so forth, we +understand them at once. Nothing can be more natural than that man +should believe in an original inventor of the arts, and should tell +tales about the imaginary discoverers if the real heroes be +forgotten. So far all is plain sailing. But when the savage goes +on to say that he who taught the use of fire or who gave the first +marriage laws was a rabbit or a crow, or a dog, or a beaver, or a +spider, then we are at once face to face with the element in myths +which seems to us IRRATIONAL. Again, among civilised peoples we +read of the pure all-seeing Varuna in the Vedas, to whom sin is an +offence. We read of Indra, the Lord of Thunder, borne in his +chariot, the giver of victory, the giver of wealth to the pious; +here once more all seems natural and plain. The notion of a deity +who guides the whirlwind and directs the storm, a god of battles, a +god who blesses righteousness, is familiar to us and intelligible; +but when we read how Indra drank himself drunk and committed +adulteries with Asura women, and got himself born from the same +womb as a bull, and changed himself into a quail or a ram, and +suffered from the most abject physical terror, and so forth, then +we are among myths no longer readily intelligible; here, we feel, +are IRRATIONAL stories, of which the original ideas, in their +natural sense, can hardly have been conceived by men in a pure and +rational early civilisation. Again, in the religions of even the +lowest races, such myths as these are in contradiction with the +ethical elements of the faith. + +If we look at Greek religious tradition, we observe the coexistence +of the RATIONAL and the apparently IRRATIONAL elements. The +RATIONAL myths are those which represent the gods as beautiful and +wise beings. The Artemis of the Odyssey "taking her pastime in the +chase of boars and swift deer, while with her the wild wood-nymphs +disport them, and high over them all she rears her brow, and is +easily to be known where all are fair,"[1] is a perfectly RATIONAL +mythic representation of a divine being. We feel, even now, that +the conception of a "queen and goddess, chaste and fair," the +abbess, as Paul de Saint-Victor calls her, of the woodlands, is a +beautiful and natural fancy, which requires no explanation. On the +other hand, the Artemis of Arcadia, who is confused with the nymph +Callisto, who, again, is said to have become a she-bear, and later +a star; and the Brauronian Artemis, whose maiden ministers danced a +bear-dance,[2] are goddesses whose legend seems unnatural, and +needs to be made intelligible. Or, again, there is nothing not +explicable and natural in the conception of the Olympian Zeus as +represented by the great chryselephantine statue of Zeus at +Olympia, or in the Homeric conception of Zeus as a god who "turns +everywhere his shining eyes, and beholds all things, and protects +the righteous, and deals good or evil fortune to men. But the Zeus +whose grave was shown in Crete, or the Zeus who played Demeter an +obscene trick by the aid of a ram, or the Zeus who, in the shape of +a swan, became the father of Castor and Pollux, or the Zeus who +deceived Hera by means of a feigned marriage with an inanimate +object, or the Zeus who was afraid of Attes, or the Zeus who made +love to women in the shape of an ant or a cuckoo, is a being whose +myth is felt to be unnatural and bewildering.[3] It is this +IRRATIONAL and unnatural element, as Mr. Max Muller says, "the +silly, senseless, and savage element," that makes mythology the +puzzle which men have so long found it. For, observe, Greek myth +does not represent merely a humorous play of fancy, dealing with +things religiously sacred as if by way of relief from the strained +reverential contemplation of the majesty of Zeus. Many stories of +Greek mythology are such as could not cross, for the first time, +the mind of a civilised Xenophanes or Theagenes, even in a dream. +THIS was the real puzzle. + + +[1] Odyssey, vi. 102. + +[2] [Greek word omitted]; compare Harpokration on this word. + +[3] These are the features in myth which provoke, for example, the +wonder of Emeric-David. "The lizard, the wolf, the dog, the ass, +the frog, and all the other brutes so common on religious monuments +everywhere, do they not all imply a THOUGHT which we must divine?" +He concludes that these animals, plants, and monsters of myths are +so many "enigmas" and "symbols" veiling some deep, sacred idea, +allegories of some esoteric religious creed. Jupiter, Paris, 1832, +p. lxxvii. + + +We have offered examples--Savage, Indian, and Greek--of that +element in mythology which, as all civilised races have felt, +demands explanation. + +To be still more explicit, we may draw up a brief list of the chief +problems in the legendary stories attached to the old religions of +the world--the problems which it is our special purpose to notice. +First we have, in the myths of all races, the most grotesque +conceptions of the character of gods when mythically envisaged. +Beings who, in religion, leave little to be desired, and are spoken +of as holy, immortal, omniscient, and kindly, are, in myth, +represented as fashioned in the likeness not only of man, but of +the beasts; as subject to death, as ignorant and impious. + +Most pre-Christian religions had their "zoomorphic" or partially +zoomorphic idols, gods in the shape of the lower animals, or with +the heads and necks of the lower animals. In the same way all +mythologies represent the gods as fond of appearing in animal +forms. Under these disguises they conduct many amours, even with +the daughters of men, and Greek houses were proud of their descent +from Zeus in the shape of an eagle or ant, a serpent or a swan; +while Cronus and the Vedic Tvashtri and Poseidon made love as +horses, and Apollo as a dog. Not less wild are the legends about +the births of gods from the thigh, or the head, or feet, or armpits +of some parent; while tales describing and pictures representing +unspeakable divine obscenities were frequent in the mythology and +in the temples of Greece. Once more, the gods were said to possess +and exercise the power of turning men and women into birds, beasts, +fishes, trees, and stones, so that there was scarcely a familiar +natural object in the Greek world which had not once (according to +legend) been a man or a woman. The myths of the origin of the +world and man, again, were in the last degree childish and +disgusting. The Bushmen and Australians have, perhaps, no story of +the origin of species quite so barbarous in style as the anecdotes +about Phanes and Prajapati which are preserved in the Orphic hymns +and in the Brahmanas. The conduct of the earlier dynasties of +classical gods towards each other was as notoriously cruel and +loathsome as their behaviour towards mortals was tricksy and +capricious. The classical gods, with all their immortal might, +are, by a mythical contradiction of the religious conception, +regarded as capable of fear and pain, and are led into scrapes as +ludicrous as those of Brer Wolf or Brer Terrapin in the tales of +the Negroes of the Southern States of America. The stars, again, +in mythology, are mixed up with beasts, planets and men in the same +embroglio of fantastic opinion. The dead and the living, men, +beasts and gods, trees and stars, and rivers, and sun, and moon, +dance through the region of myths in a burlesque ballet of Priapus, +where everything may be anything, where nature has no laws and +imagination no limits. + +Such are the irrational characteristics of myths, classic or +Indian, European or American, African or Asiatic, Australian or +Maori. Such is one element we find all the world over among +civilised and savage people, quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab +omnibus. It is no wonder that pious and reflective men have, in so +many ages and in so many ways, tried to account to themselves for +their possession of beliefs closely connected with religion which +yet seemed ruinous to religion and morality. + +The explanations which men have given of their own sacred stories, +the apologies for their own gods which they have been constrained +to offer to themselves, were the earliest babblings of a science of +mythology. That science was, in its dim beginnings, intended to +satisfy a moral need. Man found that his gods, when mythically +envisaged, were not made in his own moral image at its best, but in +the image sometimes of the beasts, sometimes of his own moral +nature at its very worst: in the likeness of robbers, wizards, +sorcerers, and adulterers. Now, it is impossible here to examine +minutely all systems of mythological interpretation. Every key has +been tried in this difficult lock; every cause of confusion has +been taken up and tested, deemed adequate, and finally rejected or +assigned a subordinate place. Probably the first attempts to shake +off the burden of religious horror at mythical impiety were made by +way of silent omission. Thus most of the foulest myths of early +India are absent, and presumably were left out, in the Rig-Veda. +"The religious sentiment of the hymns, already so elevated, has +discarded most of the tales which offended it, but has not +succeeded in discarding them all."[1] Just as the poets of the +Rig-Veda prefer to avoid the more offensive traditions about Indra +and Tvashtri, so Homer succeeds in avoiding the more grotesque and +puerile tales about his own gods.[2] The period of actual apology +comes later. Pindar declines, as we have seen, to accuse a god of +cannibalism. The Satapatha Brahmana invents a new story about the +slaying of Visvarupa. Not Indra, but Trita, says the Brahmana +apologetically, slew the three-headed son of Tvashtri. "Indra +assuredly was free from that sin, for he is a god," says the Indian +apologist.[3] Yet sins which to us appear far more monstrous than +the peccadillo of killing a three-headed Brahman are attributed +freely to Indra. + + +[1] Les Religions de l'Inde, Barth, p. 14. See also postea, "Indian +Myths". + +[2] The reasons for Homer's reticence are probably different in +different passages. Perhaps in some cases he had heard a purer +version of myth than what reached Hesiod; perhaps he sometimes +purposely (like Pindar) purified a myth; usually he must have +selected, in conformity with the noble humanity and purity of his +taste, the tales that best conformed to his ideal. He makes his +deities reluctant to drag out in dispute old scandals of their +early unheroic adventures, some of which, however, he gives, as the +kicking of Hephaestus out of heaven, and the imprisonment of Ares +in a vessel of bronze. Compare Professor Jebb's Homer, p. 83: +"whatever the instinct of the great artist has tolerated, at least +it has purged these things away." that is, divine amours in bestial +form. + +[3] Satapatha Brahmana, Oxford, 1882, vol. i. p. 47. + + +While poets could but omit a blasphemous tale or sketch an apology +in passing, it became the business of philosophers and of +antiquarian writers deliberately to "whitewash" the gods of popular +religion. Systematic explanations of the sacred stories, whether +as preserved in poetry or as told by priests, had to be provided. +India had her etymological and her legendary school of mythology.[1] +Thus, while the hymn SEEMED to tell how the Maruts were gods, "born +together with the spotted deer," the etymological interpreters +explained that the word for deer only meant the many-coloured lines +of clouds.[2] In the armoury of apologetics etymology has been the +most serviceable weapon. It is easy to see that by aid of etymology +the most repulsive legend may be compelled to yield a pure or +harmless sense, and may be explained as an innocent blunder, caused +by mere verbal misunderstanding. Brahmans, Greeks, and Germans have +equally found comfort in this hypothesis. In the Cratylus of Plato, +Socrates speaks of the notion of explaining myths by etymological +guesses at the meaning of divine names as "a philosophy which came +to him all in an instant". Thus we find Socrates shocked by the +irreverence which styled Zeus the son of Cronus, "who is a proverb +for stupidity". But on examining philologically the name Kronos, +Socrates decides that it must really mean Koros, "not in the sense +of a youth, but signifying the pure and garnished mind". Therefore, +when people first called Zeus the son of Cronus, they meant nothing +irreverent, but only that Zeus is the child of the pure mind or pure +reason. Not only is this etymological system most pious and +consolatory, but it is, as Socrates adds, of universal application. +"For now I bethink me of a very new and ingenious notion, . . . that +we may put in and pull out letters at pleasure, and alter the +accents."[3] + + +[1] Rig-Veda Sanhita. Max Muller, p. 59. + +[2] Postea, "Indian Divine Myths". + +[3] Jowett's Plato, vol. i. pp. 632, 670. + + +Socrates, of course, speaks more than half in irony, but there is a +certain truth in his account of etymological analysis and its +dependence on individual tastes and preconceived theory. + +The ancient classical schools of mythological interpretation, +though unscientific and unsuccessful, are not without interest. We +find philosophers and grammarians looking, just as we ourselves are +looking, for some condition of the human intellect out of which the +absurd element in myths might conceivably have sprung. Very +naturally the philosophers supposed that the human beings in whose +brain and speech myths had their origin must have been philosophers +like themselves--intelligent, educated persons. But such persons, +they argued, could never have meant to tell stories about the gods +so full of nonsense and blasphemy. + +Therefore the nonsense and blasphemy must originally have had some +harmless, or even praiseworthy, sense. What could that sense have +been? This question each ancient mythologist answered in +accordance with his own taste and prejudices, and above all, and +like all other and later speculators, in harmony with the general +tendency of his own studies. If he lived when physical speculation +was coming into fashion, as in the age of Empedocles, he thought +that the Homeric poems must contain a veiled account of physical +philosophy. This was the opinion of Theagenes of Rhegium, who +wrote at a period when a crude physicism was disengaging itself +from the earlier religious and mythical cosmogonic systems of +Greece. Theagenes was shocked by the Homeric description of the +battle in which the gods fought as allies of the Achaeans and +Trojans. He therefore explained away the affair as a veiled +account of the strife of the elements. Such "strife" was familiar +to readers of the physical speculations of Empedocles and of +Heraclitus, who blamed Homer for his prayer against Strife.[1] + + +[1] Is. et Osir., 48. + + +It did not occur to Theagenes to ask whether any evidence existed +to show that the pre-Homeric Greeks were Empedoclean or Heraclitean +philosophers. He readily proved to himself that Apollo, Helios, +and Hephaestus were allegorical representations, like what such +philosophers would feign,--of fire, that Hera was air, Poseidon +water, Artemis the moon, and the rest he disposed of in the same +fashion.[1] + + +[1] Scholia on Iliad, xx. 67. Dindorf (1877), vol. iv. p. 231. +"This manner of apologetics is as old as Theagenes of Rhegium. +Homer offers theological doctrine in the guise of physical +allegory." + + +Metrodorus, again, turned not only the gods, but the Homeric heroes +into "elemental combinations and physical agencies"; for there is +nothing new in the mythological philosophy recently popular, which +saw the sun, and the cloud, and the wind in Achilles, Athene, and +Hermes.[1] + + +[1] Grote, Hist, of Greece, ed. 1869, i. p. 404. + + +In the Bacchae (291-297), Euripides puts another of the +mythological systems of his own time into the mouth of Cadmus, the +Theban king, who advances a philological explanation of the story +that Dionysus was sewn up in the thigh of Zeus. The most famous of +the later theories was that of Euhemerus (316 B.C.). In a kind of +philosophical romance, Euhemerus declared that he had sailed to +some No-man's-land, Panchaea, where he found the verity about +mythical times engraved on pillars of bronze. This truth he +published in the Sacra Historia, where he rationalised the fables, +averring that the gods had been men, and that the myths were +exaggerated and distorted records of facts. (See Eusebius, Praep. +E., ii 55.) The Abbe Banier (La Mythologie expliquee par +l'Histoire, Paris, 1738, vol. ii. p. 218) attempts the defence of +Euhemerus, whom most of the ancients regarded as an atheist. There +was an element of truth in his romantic hypothesis.[1] + + +[1] See Block, Euhemere et sa Doctrine, Mons, 1876. + + +Sometimes the old stories were said to conceal a moral, sometimes a +physical, sometimes a mystical or Neo-platonic sort of meaning. As +every apologist interpreted the legends in his own fashion, the +interpretations usually disagreed and killed each other. Just as +one modern mythologist sees the wind in Aeetes and the dawn in +Medea, while another of the same school believes, on equally good +evidence, that both Aeetes and Medea are the moon, so writers like +Porphyry (270 A. D.) and Plutarch (60 A. D.) made the ancient +deities types of their own favourite doctrines, whatever these +might happen to be. + +When Christianity became powerful, the Christian writers naturally +attacked heathen religion where it was most vulnerable, on the +side of the myths, and of the mysteries which were dramatic +representations of the myths. "Pretty gods you worship," said the +Fathers, in effect, "homicides, adulterers, bulls, bears, mice, +ants, and what not." The heathen apologists for the old religion +were thus driven in the early ages of Christianity to various +methods of explaining away the myths of their discredited religion. + +The early Christian writers very easily, and with considerable +argumentative power, disposed of the apologies for the myths +advanced by Porphyry and Plutarch. Thus Eusebius in the +Praeparatio Evangelica first attacks the Egyptian interpretations +of their own bestial or semi-bestial gods. He shows that the +various interpretations destroy each other, and goes on to point +out that Greek myth is in essence only a veneered and varnished +version of the faith of Egypt. He ridicules, with a good deal of +humour, the old theories which resolved so many mythical heroes +into the sun; he shows that while one system is contented to regard +Zeus as mere fire and air, another system recognises in him the +higher reason, while Heracles, Dionysus, Apollo, and Asclepius, +father and child, are all indifferently the sun. + +Granting that the myth-makers were only constructing physical +allegories, why did they wrap them up, asks Eusebius, in what WE +consider abominable fictions? In what state were the people who +could not look at the pure processes of Nature without being +reminded of the most hideous and unnatural offences? Once more: +"The physical interpreters do not even agree in their physical +interpretations". All these are equally facile, equally plausible, +and equally incapable of proof. Again, Eusebius argues, the +interpreters take for granted in the makers of the myths an amount +of physical knowledge which they certainly did not possess. For +example, if Leto were only another name for Hera, the character of +Zeus would be cleared as far as his amour with Leto is concerned. +Now, the ancient believers in the "physical phenomena theory" of +myths made out that Hera, the wife of Zeus, was really the same +person under another name as Leto, his mistress. "For Hera is the +earth" (they said at other times that Hera was the air), "and Leto +is the night; but night is only the shadow of the earth, and +therefore Leto is only the shadow of Hera." It was easy, however, +to prove that this scientific view of night as the shadow of earth +was not likely to be known to myth-makers, who regarded "swift +Night" as an actual person. Plutarch, too, had an abstruse theory +to explain the legend about the dummy wife,--a log of oak-wood, +which Zeus pretended to marry when at variance with Hera.[1] + + +[1] Pausanias, ix. 31. + + +This quarrel, he said, was merely the confusion and strife of +elements. Zeus was heat, Hera was cold (she had already been +explained as earth and air), the dummy wife of oak-wood was a tree +that emerged after a flood, and so forth. Of course, there was no +evidence that mythopoeic men held Plutarchian theories of heat and +cold and the conflict of the elements; besides, as Eusebius pointed +out, Hera had already been defined once as an allegory of wedded +life, and once as the earth, and again as the air, and it was +rather too late to assert that she was also the cold and watery +element in the world. As for his own explanation of the myths, +Eusebius holds that they descend from a period when men in their +lawless barbarism knew no better than to tell such tales. "Ancient +folk, in the exceeding savagery of their lives, made no account of +God, the universal Creator [here Eusebius is probably wrong] . . . +but betook them to all manner of abominations. For the laws of +decent existence were not yet established, nor was any settled and +peaceful state ordained among men, but only a loose and savage +fashion of wandering life, while, as beasts irrational, they cared +for no more than to fill their bellies, being in a manner without +God in the world." Growing a little more civilised, men, according +to Eusebius, sought after something divine, which they found in the +heavenly bodies. Later, they fell to worshipping living persons, +especially "medicine men" and conjurors, and continued to worship +them even after their decease, so that Greek temples are really +tombs of the dead.[1] Finally, the civilised ancients, with a +conservative reluctance to abandon their old myths (Greek text +omitted), invented for them moral or physical explanations, like +those of Plutarch and others, earlier and later.[2] + + +[1] Praep. E., ii. 5. + +[2] Ibid., 6,19. + + +As Eusebius, like Clemens of Alexandria, Arnobius, and the other +early Christian disputants, had no prejudice in favour of Hellenic +mythology, and no sentimental reason for wishing to suppose that +the origin of its impurities was pure, he found his way almost to +the theory of the irrational element in mythology which we propose +to offer. + +Even to sketch the history of mythological hypothesis in modern +times would require a book to itself. It must suffice here to +indicate the various lines which speculation as to mythology has +pursued. + +All interpretations of myth have been formed in accordance with the +ideas prevalent in the time of the interpreters. The early Greek +physicists thought that mythopoeic men had been physicists. +Aristotle hints that they were (like himself) political +philosophers.[1] Neo-platonists sought in the myths for Neo- +platonism; most Christians (unlike Eusebius) either sided with +Euhemerus, or found in myth the inventions of devils, or a +tarnished and distorted memory of the Biblical revelation. + + +[1] Met., xi. 8,19. + + +This was the theory, for example, of good old Jacob Bryant, who saw +everywhere memories of the Noachian deluge and proofs of the +correctness of Old Testament ethnology.[1] + + +[1] Bryant, A New System, wherein an Attempt is made to Divest +Tradition of Fable, 1774. + + +Much the same attempt to find the Biblical truth at the bottom of +savage and ancient fable has been recently made by the late M. +Lenormant, a Catholic scholar.[1] + + +[1] Les Origines de l'Histoire d'apres le Bible, 1880-1884. + + +In the beginning of the present century Germany turned her +attention to mythology. As usual, men's ideas were biassed by the +general nature of their opinions. In a pious kind of spirit, +Friedrich Creuzer sought to find SYMBOLS of some pure, early, and +Oriental theosophy in the myths and mysteries of Greece. Certainly +the Greeks of the philosophical period explained their own myths as +symbols of higher things, but the explanation was an after- +thought.[1] The great Lobeck, in his Aglaophamus (1829), brought +back common sense, and made it the guide of his vast, his +unequalled learning. In a gentler and more genial spirit, C. +Otfried Muller laid the foundation of a truly scientific and +historical mythology.[2] Neither of these writers had, like Alfred +Maury,[3] much knowledge of the myths and faiths of the lower +races, but they often seem on the point of anticipating the +ethnological method. + + +[1] Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie, 2d edit., Leipzig, 1836-43. + +[2] Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology, English +trans., London, 1844. + +[3] Histoire des Religions de la Grece Antique, Paris, 1857. + + +When philological science in our own century came to maturity, in +philology, as of old in physics and later in symbols, was sought +the key of myths. While physical allegory, religious and esoteric +symbolism, verbal confusion, historical legend, and an original +divine tradition, perverted in ages of darkness, have been the most +popular keys in other ages, the scientific nineteenth century has +had a philological key of its own. The methods of Kuhn, Breal, Max +Muller, and generally the philological method, cannot be examined +here at full length.[1] Briefly speaking, the modern philological +method is intended for a scientific application of the old +etymological interpretations. Cadmus in the Bacchae of Euripides, +Socrates in the Cratylus of Plato, dismiss unpalatable myths as the +results of verbal confusion. People had originally said something +quite sensible--so the hypothesis runs--but when their descendants +forgot the meaning of their remarks, a new and absurd meaning +followed from a series of unconscious puns.[2] This view was +supported in ancient times by purely conjectural and impossible +etymologies. Thus the myth that Dionysus was sewn up in the THIGH +of Zeus (Greek text omitted) was explained by Euripides as the +result of a confusion of words. People had originally said that +Zeus gave a pledge (Greek text omitted) to Hera. The modern +philological school relies for explanations of untoward and other +myths on similar confusions. Thus Daphne is said to have been +originally not a girl of romance, but the dawn (Sanskirt, dahana: +ahana) pursued by the rising sun. But as the original Aryan sense +of Dahana or Ahana was lost, and as Daphne came to mean the laurel-- +the wood which burns easily--the fable arose that the tree had +been a girl called Daphne.[3] + + +[1] See Mythology in Encyclop. Brit. and in La Mythologie (A. L.), +Paris, 1886, where Mr. Max Muller's system is criticised. See also +Custom and Myth and Modern Mythology. + +[2] That a considerable number of myths, chiefly myths of place +names, arise from popular etymologies is certain: what is objected +to is the vast proportion given to this element in myths. + +[3] Max Muller, Nineteenth Century, December, 1885; "Solar Myths," +January, 1886; Myths and Mythologists (A. L). Whitney, Mannhardt, +Bergaigne, and others dispute the etymology. Or. and Ling. +Studies, 1874, p. 160; Mannhardt, Antike Wald und Feld Kultus +(Berlin, 1877), p. xx.; Bergaigne, La Religion Vedique, iii. 293; +nor does Curtius like it much, Principles of Greek Etymology, +English trans., ii. 92, 93; Modern Mythology (A. L.), 1897. + + +This system chiefly rests on comparison between the Sanskrit names +in the Rig-Veda and the mythic names in Greek, German, Slavonic, +and other Aryan legends. The attempt is made to prove that, in the +common speech of the undivided Aryan race, many words for splendid +or glowing natural phenomena existed, and that natural processes +were described in a figurative style. As the various Aryan +families separated, the sense of the old words and names became +dim, the nomina developed into numina, the names into gods, the +descriptions of elemental processes into myths. As this system has +already been criticised by us elsewhere with minute attention, a +reference to these reviews must suffice in this place. Briefly, it +may be stated that the various masters of the school--Kuhn, Max +Muller, Roth, Schwartz, and the rest--rarely agree where agreement +is essential, that is, in the philological foundations of their +building. They differ in very many of the etymological analyses of +mythical names. They also differ in the interpretations they put +on the names, Kuhn almost invariably seeing fire, storm, cloud, or +lightning where Mr. Max Muller sees the chaste Dawn. Thus +Mannhardt, after having been a disciple, is obliged to say that +comparative Indo-Germanic mythology has not borne the fruit +expected, and that "the CERTAIN gains of the system reduce +themselves to the scantiest list of parallels, such as Dyaus = Zeus += Tius, Parjanya = Perkunas, Bhaga = Bog, Varuna = Uranos" (a +position much disputed), etc. Mannhardt adds his belief that a +number of other "equations"--such as Sarameya = Hermeias, Saranyus += Demeter Erinnys, Kentauros = Gandharva, and many others--will not +stand criticism, and he fears that these ingenious guesses will +prove mere jeux d'esprit rather than actual facts.[1] Many +examples of the precarious and contradictory character of the +results of philological mythology, many instances of "dubious +etymologies," false logic, leaps at foregone conclusions, and +attempts to make what is peculiarly Indian in thought into matter +of universal application, will meet us in the chapters on Indian +and Greek divine legends.[2] "The method in its practical working +shows a fundamental lack of the historical sense," says Mannhardt. +Examples are torn from their contexts, he observes; historical +evolution is neglected; passages of the Veda, themselves totally +obscure, are dragged forward to account for obscure Greek mythical +phenomena. Such are the accusations brought by the regretted +Mannhardt against the school to which he originally belonged, and +which was popular and all-powerful even in the maturity of his own +more clear-sighted genius. Proofs of the correctness of his +criticism will be offered abundantly in the course of this work. +It will become evident that, great as are the acquisitions of +Philology, her least certain discoveries have been too hastily +applied in alien "matter," that is, in the region of myth. Not +that philology is wholly without place or part in the investigation +of myth, when there is agreement among philologists as to the +meaning of a divine name. In that case a certain amount of light +is thrown on the legend of the bearer of the name, and on its +origin and first home, Aryan, Greek, Semitic, or the like. But how +rare is agreement among philologists! + + +[1] Baum und Feld Kultus, p. xvii. Kuhn's "epoch-making" book is +Die Herabkunft des Feuers, Berlin, 1859. By way of example of the +disputes as to the original meaning of a name like Prometheus, +compare Memoires de la Societe de Linguistique de Paris, t. iv. p. +336. + +[2] See especially Mannhardt's note on Kuhn's theories of Poseidon +and Hermes, B. u. F. K., pp. xviii., xix., note 1. + + +"The philological method," says Professor Tiele,[1] "is inadequate +and misleading, when it is a question of discovering the ORIGIN of +a myth, or the physical explanation of the oldest myths, or of +accounting for the rude and obscene element in the divine legends +of civilised races. But these are not the only problems of +mythology. There is, for example, the question of the GENEALOGICAL +relations of myths, where we have to determine whether the myths of +peoples whose speech is of the same family are special modifications +of a mythology once common to the race whence these peoples have +sprung. The philological method alone can answer here." But this +will seem a very limited province when we find that almost all +races, however remote and unconnected in speech, have practically +much the same myths. + + +[1] Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel., xii. 3, 260, Nov., Dec., 1885. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NEW SYSTEM PROPOSED. + +Chapter I. recapitulated--Proposal of a new method: Science of +comparative or historical study of man--Anticipated in part by +Eusebius, Fontenelle, De Brosses, Spencer (of C. C. C., Cambridge), +and Mannhardt--Science of Tylor--Object of inquiry: to find +condition of human intellect in which marvels of myth are parts of +practical everyday belief--This is the savage state--Savages +described--The wild element of myth a survival from the savage +state--Advantages of this method--Partly accounts for wide +DIFFUSION as well as ORIGIN of myths--Connected with general +theory of evolution--Puzzling example of myth of the water- +swallower--Professor Tiele's criticism of the method--Objections +to method, and answer to these--See Appendix B. + + +The past systems of mythological interpretation have been briefly +sketched. It has been shown that the practical need for a +reconciliation between RELIGION and MORALITY on one side, and the +MYTHS about the gods on the other, produced the hypotheses of +Theagenes and Metrodorus, of Socrates and Euemerus, of Aristotle +and Plutarch. It has been shown that in each case the reconcilers +argued on the basis of their own ideas and of the philosophies of +their time. The early physicist thought that myth concealed a +physical philosophy; the early etymologist saw in it a confusion of +language; the early political speculator supposed that myth was an +invention of legislators; the literary Euhemerus found the secret +of myths in the course of an imaginary voyage to a fabled island. +Then came the moment of the Christian attacks, and Pagan +philosophers, touched with Oriental pantheism, recognised in myths +certain pantheistic symbols and a cryptic revelation of their own +Neo-platonism. When the gods were dead and their altars fallen, +then antiquaries brought their curiosity to the problem of +explaining myth. Christians recognised in it a depraved version of +the Jewish sacred writings, and found the ark on every mountain-top +of Greece. The critical nineteenth century brought in, with +Otfried Muller and Lobeck, a closer analysis; and finally, in the +sudden rise of comparative philology, it chanced that philologists +annexed the domain of myths. Each of these systems had its own +amount of truth, but each certainly failed to unravel the whole web +of tradition and of foolish faith. + +Meantime a new science has come into existence, the science which +studies man in the sum of all his works and thoughts, as evolved +through the whole process of his development. This science, +Comparative Anthropology, examines the development of law out of +custom; the development of weapons from the stick or stone to the +latest repeating rifle; the development of society from the horde +to the nation. It is a study which does not despise the most +backward nor degraded tribe, nor neglect the most civilised, and it +frequently finds in Australians or Nootkas the germ of ideas and +institutions which Greeks or Romans brought to perfection, or +retained, little altered from their early rudeness, in the midst of +civilisation. + +It is inevitable that this science should also try its hand on +mythology. Our purpose is to employ the anthropological method-- +the study of the evolution of ideas, from the savage to the +barbarous, and thence to the civilised stage--in the province of +myth, ritual, and religion. It has been shown that the light of +this method had dawned on Eusebius in his polemic with the heathen +apologists. Spencer, the head of Corpus, Cambridge (1630-93), had +really no other scheme in his mind in his erudite work on Hebrew +Ritual.[1] Spencer was a student of man's religions generally, and +he came to the conclusion that Hebrew ritual was but an expurgated, +and, so to speak, divinely "licensed" adaptation of heathen customs +at large. We do but follow his guidance on less perilous ground +when we seek for the original forms of classical rite and myth in +the parallel usages and legends of the most backward races. + + +[1] De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus, Tubingae, 1782. + + +Fontenelle in the last century, stated, with all the clearness of +the French intellect, the system which is partially worked out in +this essay--the system which explains the irrational element in +myth as inherited from savagery. Fontenelle's paper (Sur l'Origine +des Fables) is brief, sensible, and witty, and requires little but +copious evidence to make it adequate. But he merely threw out the +idea, and left it to be neglected.[1] + + +[1] See Appendix A., Fontenelle's Origine des Fables. + + +Among other founders of the anthropological or historical school of +mythology, De Brosses should not be forgotten. In his Dieux +Fetiches (1760) he follows the path which Eusebius indicated--the +path of Spencer and Fontenelle--now the beaten road of Tylor and +M'Lennan and Mannhardt. + +In anthropology, in the science of Waitz, Tylor, and M'Lennan, in +the examination of man's faith in the light of his social, legal, +and historical conditions generally, we find, with Mannhardt, some +of the keys of myth. This science "makes it manifest that the +different stages through which humanity has passed in its +intellectual evolution have still their living representatives +among various existing races. The study of these lower races is an +invaluable instrument for the interpretation of the survivals from +earlier stages, which we meet in the full civilisation of +cultivated peoples, but whose origins were in the remotest +fetichism and savagery."[1] + + +[1] Mannhardt op. cit. p. xxiii. + + +It is by following this road, and by the aid of anthropology and of +human history, that we propose to seek for a demonstrably actual +condition of the human intellect, whereof the puzzling qualities of +myth would be the natural and inevitable fruit. In all the earlier +theories which we have sketched, inquirers took it for granted that +the myth-makers were men with philosophic and moral ideas like +their own--ideas which, from some reason of religion or state, they +expressed in bizarre terms of allegory. We shall attempt, on the +other hand, to prove that the human mind has passed through a +condition quite unlike that of civilised men--a condition in which +things seemed natural and rational that now appear unnatural and +devoid of reason, and in which, therefore, if myths were evolved, +they would, if they survived into civilisation, be such as +civilised men find strange and perplexing. + +Our first question will be, Is there a stage of human society and +of the human intellect in which facts that appear to us to be +monstrous and irrational--facts corresponding to the wilder +incidents of myth--are accepted as ordinary occurrences of everyday +life? In the region of romantic rather than of mythical invention +we know that there is such a state. Mr. Lane, in his preface to +the Arabian Nights, says that the Arabs have an advantage over us +as story-tellers. They can introduce such incidents as the change +of a man into a horse, or of a woman into a dog, or the intervention +of an Afreet without any more scruple than our own novelists feel in +describing a duel or the concealment of a will. Among the Arabs the +agencies of magic and of spirits are regarded as at least as +probable and common as duels and concealments of wills seem to be +thought by European novelists. It is obvious that we need look no +farther for the explanation of the supernatural events in Arab +romances. Now, let us apply this system to mythology. It is +admitted that Greeks, Romans, Aryans of India in the age of the +Sanskrit commentators, and Egyptians of the Ptolemaic and earlier +ages, were as much puzzled as we are by the mythical adventures of +their gods. But is there any known stage of the human intellect in +which similar adventures, and the metamorphoses of men into animals, +trees, stars, and all else that puzzles us in the civilised +mythologies, are regarded as possible incidents of daily human life? +Our answer is, that everything in the civilised mythologies which we +regard as irrational seems only part of the accepted and natural +order of things to contemporary savages, and in the past seemed +equally rational and natural to savages concerning whom we have +historical information.[1] Our theory is, therefore, that the +savage and senseless element in mythology is, for the most part, a +legacy from the fancy of ancestors of the civilised races who were +once in an intellectual state not higher, but probably lower, than +that of Australians, Bush-men, Red Indians, the lower races of South +America, and other worse than barbaric peoples. As the ancestors of +the Greeks, Aryans of India, Egyptians and others advanced in +civilisation, their religious thought was shocked and surprised by +myths (originally dating from the period of savagery, and natural in +that period, though even then often in contradiction to morals and +religion) which were preserved down to the time of Pausanias by +local priesthoods, or which were stereotyped in the ancient poems of +Hesiod and Homer, or in the Brahmanas and Vedas of India, or were +retained in the popular religion of Egypt. This theory recommended +itself to Lobeck. "We may believe that ancient and early tribes +framed gods like unto themselves in action and in experience, and +that the allegorical softening down of myths is the explanation +added later by descendants who had attained to purer ideas of +divinity, yet dared not reject the religion of their ancestors."[2] +The senseless element in the myths would, by this theory, be for the +most part a "survival"; and the age and condition of human thought +whence it survived would be one in which our most ordinary ideas +about the nature of things and the limits of possibility did not yet +exist, when all things were conceived of in quite other fashion; the +age, that is, of savagery. + + +[1] We have been asked to DEFINE a savage. He cannot be defined in +an epigram, but by way of choice of a type:-- + +1. In material equipment the perfect savage is he who employs +tools of stone and wood, not of metal; who is nomadic rather than +settled; who is acquainted (if at all) only with the rudest forms +of the arts of potting, weaving, fire-making, etc.; and who derives +more of his food from the chase and from wild roots and plants than +from any kind of agriculture or from the flesh of domesticated +animals. + +2. In psychology the savage is he who (extending unconsciously to +the universe his own implicit consciousness of personality) regards +all natural objects as animated and intelligent beings, and, +drawing no hard and fast line between himself and the things in the +world, is readily persuaded that men may be metamorphosed into +plants, beasts and stars; that winds and clouds, sun and dawn, are +persons with human passions and parts; and that the lower animals +especially may be creatures more powerful than himself, and, in a +sense, divine and creative. + +3. In religion the savage is he who (while often, in certain +moods, conscious of a far higher moral faith) believes also in +ancestral ghosts or spirits of woods and wells that were never +ancestral; prays frequently by dint of magic; and sometimes adores +inanimate objects, or even appeals to the beasts as supernatural +protectors. + +4. In society the savage is he who (as a rule) bases his laws on +the well-defined lines of totemism--that is, claims descent from or +other close relation to natural objects, and derives from the +sacredness of those objects the sanction of his marriage +prohibitions and blood-feuds, while he makes skill in magic a claim +to distinguished rank. + +Such, for our purpose, is the savage, and we propose to explain the +more "senseless" factors in civilised mythology as "survivals" of +these ideas and customs preserved by conservatism and local +tradition, or, less probably, borrowed from races which were, or +had been, savage. + +[2] Aglaoph., i. 153. Had Lobeck gone a step farther and examined +the mental condition of veteres et priscae gentes, this book would +have been, superfluous. Nor did he know that the purer ideas were +also existing among certain low savages. + + +It is universally admitted that "survivals" of this kind do account +for many anomalies in our institutions, in law, politics, society, +even in dress and manners. If isolated fragments of earlier ages +abide in these, it is still more probable that other fragments will +survive in anything so closely connected as is mythology with the +conservative religious sentiment and tradition. Our object, then, +is to prove that the "silly, savage, and irrational" element in the +myths of civilised peoples is, as a rule, either a survival from +the period of savagery, or has been borrowed from savage neighbours +by a cultivated people, or, lastly, is an imitation by later poets +of old savage data.[1] For example, to explain the constellations +as metamorphosed men, animals, or other objects of terrestrial life +is the habit of savages,[2]--a natural habit among people who +regard all things as on one level of personal life and intelligence. +When the stars, among civilised Greeks or Aryans of India, are also +popularly regarded as transformed and transfigured men, animals and +the like, this belief may be either a survival from the age when the +ancestors of Greeks and Indians were in the intellectual condition +of the Australian Murri; or the star-name and star-myth may have +been borrowed from savages, or from cultivated peoples once savage +or apt to copy savages; or, as in the case of the Coma Berenices, a +poet of a late age may have invented a new artificial myth on the +old lines of savage fancy. + + +[1] We may be asked why do savages entertain the irrational ideas +which survive in myth? One might as well ask why they eat each +other, or use stones instead of metal. Their intellectual powers +are not fully developed, and hasty analogy from their own +unreasoned consciousness is their chief guide. Myth, in Mr. +Darwin's phrase, is one of the "miserable and indirect consequences +of our highest faculties". Descent of Man, p. 69. + +[2] See Custom and Myth, "Star-Myths". + + +This method of interpreting a certain element in mythology is, we +must repeat, no new thing, though, to judge from the protests of +several mythologists, it is new to many inquirers. We have seen +that Eusebius threw out proposals in this direction; that Spencer, +De Brosses, and Fontenelle unconsciously followed him; and we have +quoted from Lobeck a statement of a similar opinion. The whole +matter has been stated as clearly as possible by Mr. B. B. Tylor:-- + +"Savages have been for untold ages, and still are, living in the +myth-making stage of the human mind. It was through sheer +ignorance and neglect of this direct knowledge how and by what +manner of men myths are really made that their simple philosophy +has come to be buried under masses of commentator's rubbish. . ."[1] +Mr. Tylor goes on thus (and his words contain the gist of our +argument): "The general thesis maintained is that myth arose in +the savage condition prevalent in remote ages among the whole human +race; that it remains comparatively unchanged among the rude modern +tribes who have departed least from these primitive conditions, +while higher and later civilisations, partly by retaining its +actual principles, and partly by carrying on its inherited results +in the form of ancestral tradition, continued it not merely in +toleration, but in honour".[2] Elsewhere Mr. Tylor points out that +by this method of interpretation we may study myths in various +stages of evolution, from the rude guess of the savage at an +explanation of natural phenomena, through the systems of the higher +barbarisms, or lower civilisations (as in ancient Mexico), and the +sacerdotage of India, till myth reaches its most human form in +Greece. Yet even in Greek myth the beast is not wholly cast out, +and Hellas by no means "let the ape and tiger die". That Mr. Tylor +does not exclude the Aryan race from his general theory is plain +enough.[3] "What is the Aryan conception of the Thunder-god but a +poetic elaboration of thoughts inherited from the savage stage +through which the primitive Aryans had passed?"[4] + + +[1] Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., i. p. 283. + +[2] Op. cit., p. 275. + +[3] Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., ii. 265. + +[4] Pretty much the same view seems to be taken by Mr. Max Muller +(Nineteenth Century, January, 1882) when he calls Tsui Goab (whom +the Hottentots believe to be a defunct conjuror) "a Hottentot Indra +or Zeus". + + +The advantages of our hypothesis (if its legitimacy be admitted) +are obvious. In the first place, we have to deal with an actual +demonstrable condition of the human intellect. The existence of +the savage state in all its various degrees, and of the common +intellectual habits and conditions which are shared by the backward +peoples, and again the survival of many of these in civilisation, +are indubitable facts. We are not obliged to fall back upon some +fanciful and unsupported theory of what "primitive man" did, and +said, and thought. Nay, more; we escape all the fallacies +connected with the terms "primitive man". We are not compelled (as +will be shown later)[1] to prove that the first men of all were +like modern savages, nor that savages represent primitive man. It +may be that the lowest extant savages are the nearest of existing +peoples to the type of the first human beings. But on this point +it is unnecessary for us to dogmatise. If we can show that, +whether men began their career as savages or not, they have at +least passed through the savage status or have borrowed the ideas +of races in the savage status, that is all we need. We escape from +all the snares of theories (incapable of historical proof) about +the really primeval and original condition of the human family. + + +[1] Appendix B. + + +Once more, our theory naturally attaches itself to the general +system of Evolution. We are enabled to examine mythology as a +thing of gradual development and of slow and manifold modifications, +corresponding in some degree to the various changes in the general +progress of society. Thus we shall watch the barbaric conditions of +thought which produce barbaric myths, while these in their turn are +retained, or perhaps purified, or perhaps explained away, by more +advanced civilisations. Further, we shall be able to detect the +survival of the savage ideas with least modification, and the +persistence of the savage myths with least change, among the classes +of a civilised population which have shared least in the general +advance. These classes are, first, the rustic peoples, dwelling far +from cities and schools, on heaths or by the sea; second, the +conservative local priesthoods, who retain the more crude and +ancient myths of the local gods and heroes after these have been +modified or rejected by the purer sense of philosophers and national +poets. Thus much of ancient myth is a woven warp and woof of three +threads: the savage donnee, the civilised and poetic modification of +the savage donnee, the version of the original fable which survives +in popular tales and in the "sacred chapters" of local priesthoods. +A critical study of these three stages in myth is in accordance with +the recognised practice of science. Indeed, the whole system is +only an application to this particular province, mythology, of the +method by which the development either of organisms or of human +institutions is traced. As the anomalies and apparently useless and +accidental features in the human or in other animal organisms may be +explained as stunted or rudimentary survivals of organs useful in a +previous stage of life, so the anomalous and irrational myths of +civilised races may be explained as survivals of stories which, in +an earlier state of thought and knowledge, seemed natural enough. +The persistence of the myths is accounted for by the well-known +conservatism of the religious sentiment--a conservatism noticed even +by Eusebius. "In later days, when they became ashamed of the +religious beliefs of their ancestors, they invented private and +respectful interpretations, each to suit himself. For no one dared +to shake the ancestral beliefs, as they honoured at a very high rate +the sacredness and antiquity of old associations, and of the +teaching they had received in childhood."[1] + + +[1] Praep. E., ii. 6, 19. + + +Thus the method which we propose to employ is in harmony both with +modern scientific procedure and with the views of a clear-sighted +Father of the Church. Consequently no system could well be less +"heretical" and "unorthodox". + +The last advantage of our hypothesis which need here be mentioned +is that it helps to explain the DIFFUSION no less than the ORIGIN +of the wild and crazy element in myth. We seek for the origin of +the savage factor of myth in one aspect of the intellectual +condition of savages. We say "in one aspect" expressly; to guard +against the suggestion that the savage intellect has no aspect but +this, and no saner ideas than those of myth. The DIFFUSION of +stories practically identical in every quarter of the globe may be +(provisionally) regarded as the result of the prevalence in every +quarter, at one time or another, of similar mental habits and +ideas. This explanation must not be pressed too hard nor too far. +If we find all over the world a belief that men can change +themselves and their neighbours into beasts, that belief will +account for the appearance of metamorphosis in myth. If we find a +belief that inanimate objects are really much on a level with man, +the opinion will account for incidents of myth such as that in +which the wooden figure-head of the Argo speaks with a human voice. +Again, a widespread belief in the separability of the soul or the +life from the body will account for the incident in nursery tales +and myths of the "giant who had no heart in his body," but kept his +heart and life elsewhere. An ancient identity of mental status and +the working of similar mental forces at the attempt to explain the +same phenomena will account, without any theory of borrowing, or +transmission of myth, or of original unity of race, for the world- +wide diffusion of many mythical conceptions. + +But this theory of the original similarity of the savage mind +everywhere and in all races will scarcely account for the world- +wide distribution of long and intricate mythical PLOTS, of +consecutive series of adroitly interwoven situations. In presence +of these long romances, found among so many widely severed peoples, +conjecture is, at present, almost idle. We do not know, in many +instances, whether such stories were independently developed, or +carried from a common centre, or borrowed by one race from another, +and so handed on round the world. + +This chapter may conclude with an example of a tale whose DIFFUSION +may be explained in divers ways, though its ORIGIN seems +undoubtedly savage. If we turn to the Algonkins, a stock of Red +Indians, we come on a popular tradition which really does give +pause to the mythologist. Could this story, he asks himself, have +been separately invented in widely different places, or could the +Iroquois have borrowed from the Australian blacks or the Andaman +Islanders? It is a common thing in most mythologies to find +everything of value to man--fire, sun, water--in the keeping of +some hostile power. The fire, or the sun, or the water is then +stolen, or in other ways rescued from the enemy and restored to +humanity. The Huron story (as far as water is concerned) is told +by Father Paul Le Jeune, a Jesuit missionary, who lived among the +Hurons about 1636. The myth begins with the usual opposition +between two brothers, the Cain and Abel of savage legend. One of +the brothers, named Ioskeha, slew the other, and became the father +of mankind (as known to the Red Indians) and the guardian of the +Iroquois. The earth was at first arid and sterile, but Ioskeha +destroyed the gigantic frog which had swallowed all the waters, and +guided the torrents into smooth streams and lakes.[1] + + +[1] Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1636, p. 103 (Paris, Cramoisy, +1637). + + +Now where, outside of North America, do we find this frog who +swallowed all the water? We find him in Australia. + +"The aborigines of Lake Tyers," remarks Mr. Brough Smyth, "say that +at one time there was no water anywhere on the face of the earth. +All the waters were contained in the body of a huge frog, and men +and women could get none of them. A council was held, and . . . it +was agreed that the frog should be made to laugh, when the waters +would run out of his mouth, and there would be plenty in all +parts." + +To make a long story short, all the animals played the jester +before the gigantic solemn frog, who sat as grave as Louis XV. "I +do not like buffoons who don't make me laugh," said that majestical +monarch. At last the eel danced on the tip of his tail, and the +gravity of the prodigious Batrachian gave way. He laughed till he +literally split his sides, and the imprisoned waters came with a +rush. Indeed, many persons were drowned, though this is not the +only Australian version of the Deluge. + +The Andaman Islanders dwell at a very considerable distance from +Australia and from the Iroquois, and, in the present condition of +the natives of Australia and Andaman, neither could possibly visit +the other. The frog in the Andaman version is called a toad, and +he came to swallow the waters in the following way: One day a +woodpecker was eating honey high up in the boughs of a tree. Far +below, the toad was a witness of the feast, and asked for some +honey. "Well, come up here, and you shall have some," said the +woodpecker. "But how am I to climb?" "Take hold of that creeper, +and I will draw you up," said the woodpecker; but all the while he +was bent on a practical joke. So the toad got into a bucket he +happened to possess, and fastened the bucket to the creeper. "Now, +pull!" Then the woodpecker raised the toad slowly to the level of +the bough where the honey was, and presently let him down with a +run, not only disappointing the poor toad, but shaking him +severely. The toad went away in a rage and looked about him for +revenge. A happy thought occurred to him, and he drank up all the +water of the rivers and lakes. Birds and beasts were perishing, +woodpeckers among them, of thirst. The toad, overjoyed at his +success, wished to add insult to the injury, and, very +thoughtlessly, began to dance in an irritating manner at his foes. +But then the stolen waters gushed out of his mouth in full volume, +and the drought soon ended. One of the most curious points in this +myth is the origin of the quarrel between the woodpecker and the +toad. The same beginning--the tale of an insult put on an animal +by hauling up and letting him down with a run--occurs in an African +Marchen.[1] + + +[1] Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 429, 430; Brinton, +American Hero Myths, i. 55. Cf. also Relations de la Nouvelle +France, 1636, 1640, 1671; [Sagard, Hist. du Canada, 1636, p. 451;] +Journal Anthrop. Inst., 1881. + + +Now this strangely diffused story of the slaying of the frog which +had swallowed all the water seems to be a savage myth of which the +more heroic conflict of Indra with Vrittra (the dragon which had +swallowed all the waters) is an epic and sublimer version.[1] "The +heavenly water, which Vrittra withholds from the world, is usually +the prize of the contest." + + +[1] Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, iii. p. 337. See postea, "Divine Myths +of India". + + +The serpent of Vedic myth is, perhaps, rather the robber-guardian +than the swallower of the waters, but Indra is still, like the +Iroquois Ioskeha, "he who wounds the full one".[1] This example of +the wide distribution of a myth shows how the question of +diffusion, though connected with, is yet distinct from that of +origin. The advantage of our method will prove to be, that it +discovers an historical and demonstrable state of mind as the +origin of the wild element in myth. Again, the wide prevalence in +the earliest times of this mental condition will, to a certain +extent, explain the DISTRIBUTION of myth. Room must be left, of +course, for processes of borrowing and transmission, but how +Andamanese, Australians and Hurons could borrow from each other is +an unsolved problem. + + +[1] Gubernatis, Zoological Myth. ii. 395, note 2. "When Indra +kills the serpent he opens the torrent of the waters" (p. 393). +See also Aitareya Brahmana, translated by Haug, ii. 483. + + +Finally, our hypothesis is not involved in dubious theories of +race. To us, myths appear to be affected (in their origins) much +less by the race than by the stage of culture attained by the +people who cherish them. A fight for the waters between a +monstrous dragon like Vrittra and a heroic god like Indra is a +nobler affair than a quarrel for the waters between a woodpecker +and a toad. But the improvement and transfiguration, so to speak, +of a myth at bottom the same is due to the superior culture, not to +the peculiar race, of the Vedic poets, except so far as culture +itself depends on race. How far the purer culture was attained to +by the original superiority of the Aryan over the Andaman breed, it +is not necessary for our purpose to inquire. Thus, on the whole, +we may claim for our system a certain demonstrable character, which +helps to simplify the problems of mythology, and to remove them +from the realm of fanciful guesses and conflicting etymological +conjectures into that of sober science. That these pretensions are +not unacknowledged even by mythologists trained in other schools is +proved by the remarks of Dr. Tiele.[1] + + +[1] Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel., "Le Mythe de Cronos," January, 1886. +Dr. Tiele is not, it must be noted, a thorough adherent of our +theory. See Modern Mythology: "The Question of Allies". + + +Dr. Tiele writes: "If I were obliged to choose between this method" +(the system here advocated) "and that of comparative philology, it +is the former that I would adopt without the slightest hesitation. +This method alone enables us to explain the fact, which has so +often provoked amazement, that people so refined as the Greeks, . . . +or so rude, but morally pure, as the Germans, . . . managed to +attribute to their gods all manner of cowardly, cruel and +disorderly conduct. This method alone explains the why and +wherefore of all those strange metamorphoses of gods into beasts +and plants, and even stones, which scandalised philosophers, and +which the witty Ovid played on for the diversion of his +contemporaries. In short, this method teaches us to recognise in +all those strange stories the survivals of a barbaric age, long +passed away, but enduring to later times in the form of religious +traditions, of all traditions the most persistent. . . . Finally, +this method alone enables us to explain the origin of myths, +because it endeavours to study them in their rudest and most +primitive shape, thus allowing their true significance to be much +more clearly apparent than it can be in the myths (so often +touched, retouched, augmented and humanised) which are current +among races arrived at a certain degree of culture." + +The method is to this extent applauded by a most competent +authority, and it has been warmly accepted by a distinguished +French school of students, represented by M. Gaidoz. But it is +obvious that the method rests on a double hypothesis: first, that +satisfactory evidence as to the mental conditions of the lower and +backward races is obtainable; second, that the civilised races +(however they began) either passed through the savage state of +thought and practice, or borrowed very freely from people in that +condition. These hypotheses have been attacked by opponents; the +trustworthiness of our evidence, especially, has been assailed. By +way of facilitating the course of the exposition and of lessening +the disturbing element of controversy, a reply to the objections +and a defence of the evidence has been relegated to an Appendix.[1] +Meanwhile we go on to examine the peculiar characteristics of the +mental condition of savages and of peoples in the lower and upper +barbarisms. + + +[1] Appendix B. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--CONFUSION WITH NATURE--TOTEMISM. + + +The mental condition of savages the basis of the irrational element +in myth--Characteristics of that condition: (1) Confusion of all +things in an equality of presumed animation and intelligence; +(2) Belief in sorcery; (3) Spiritualism; (4) Curiosity; (5) Easy +credulity and mental indolence--The curiosity is satisfied, thanks +to the credulity, by myths in answer to all inquiries--Evidence for +this--Mr. Tylor's opinion--Mr. Im Thurn--Jesuit missionaries' +Relations--Examples of confusion between men, plants, beasts and +other natural objects--Reports of travellers--Evidence from +institution of totemism--Definition of totemism--Totemism in +Australia, Africa, America, the Oceanic Islands, India, North Asia-- +Conclusions: Totemism being found so widely distributed, is a proof +of the existence of that savage mental condition in which no line +is drawn between men and the other things in the world. This +confusion is one of the characteristics of myth in all races. + + +We set out to discover a stage of human intellectual development +which would necessarily produce the essential elements of myth. We +think we have found that stage in the condition of savagery. We +now proceed to array the evidence for the mental processes of +savages. We intend to demonstrate the existence in practical +savage life of the ideas which most surprise us when we find them +in civilised sacred legends. + +For the purposes of this inquiry, it is enough to select a few +special peculiarities of savage thought. + +1. First we have that nebulous and confused frame of mind to which +all things, animate or inanimate, human, animal, vegetable, or +inorganic, seem on the same level of life, passion and reason. The +savage, at all events when myth-making, draws no hard and fast line +between himself and the things in the world. He regards himself as +literally akin to animals and plants and heavenly bodies; he +attributes sex and procreative powers even to stones and rocks, and +he assigns human speech and human feelings to sun and moon and +stars and wind, no less than to beasts, birds and fishes.[1] + + +[1] "So fasst auch das Alterthum ihren Unterschied von den Menschen +ganz anders als die spatere Zeit."--Grimm, quoted by Liebrecht, Zur +Volkskunde, p. 17. + + +2. The second point to note in savage opinion is the belief in +magic and sorcery. The world and all the things in it being +vaguely conceived of as sensible and rational, obey the commands of +certain members of the tribe, chiefs, jugglers, conjurors, or what +you will. Rocks open at their order, rivers dry up, animals are +their servants and hold converse with them. These magicians cause +or heal diseases, and can command even the weather, bringing rain +or thunder or sunshine at their will.[1] There are few +supernatural attributes of "cloud-compelling Zeus" or of Apollo +that are not freely assigned to the tribal conjuror. By virtue, +doubtless, of the community of nature between man and the things in +the world, the conjuror (like Zeus or Indra) can assume at will the +shape of any animal, or can metamorphose his neighbours or enemies +into animal forms. + + +[1] See Roth in North-West Central Queensland Aborigines, chapter +xii., 1897. + + +3. Another peculiarity of savage belief naturally connects itself +with that which has just been described. The savage has very +strong ideas about the persistent existence of the souls of the +dead. They retain much of their old nature, but are often more +malignant after death than they had been during life. They are +frequently at the beck and call of the conjuror, whom they aid with +their advice and with their magical power. By virtue of the close +connection already spoken of between man and the animals, the souls +of the dead are not rarely supposed to migrate into the bodies of +beasts, or to revert to the condition of that species of creatures +with which each tribe supposes itself to be related by ties of +kinship or friendship. With the usual inconsistency of mythical +belief, the souls of the dead are spoken of, at other times, as if +they inhabited a spiritual world, sometimes a paradise of flowers, +sometimes a gloomy place, which mortal men may visit, but whence no +one can escape who has tasted of the food of the ghosts. + +4. In connection with spirits a far-reaching savage philosophy +prevails. It is not unusual to assign a ghost to all objects, +animate or inanimate, and the spirit or strength of a man is +frequently regarded as something separable, capable of being +located in an external object, or something with a definite +locality in the body. A man's strength and spirit may reside in +his kidney fat, in his heart, in a lock of his hair, or may even be +stored by him in some separate receptacle. Very frequently a man +is held capable of detaching his soul from his body, and letting it +roam about on his business, sometimes in the form of a bird or +other animal. + +5. Many minor savage beliefs might be named, such as the common +faith in friendly or protecting animals, and the notion that +"natural deaths" (as we call them) are always UNNATURAL, that death +is always caused by some hostile spirit or conjuror. From this +opinion comes the myth that man is naturally not subject to death: +that death was somehow introduced into the world by a mistake or +misdeed is a corollary. (See "Myths of the Origin of Death" in +Modern Mythology.) + +6. One more mental peculiarity of the savage mind remains to be +considered in this brief summary. The savage, like the civilised +man, is curious. The first faint impulses of the scientific spirit +are at work in his brain; he is anxious to give himself an account +of the world in which he finds himself. But he is not more curious +than he is, on occasion, credulous. His intellect is eager to ask +questions, as is the habit of children, but his intellect is also +lazy, and he is content with the first answer that comes to hand. +"Ils s'arretent aux premieres notions qu'ils en ont," says Pere +Hierome Lalemant.[1] "Nothing," says Schoolcraft, "is too +capacious (sic) for Indian belief."[2] The replies to his +questions he receives from tradition or (when a new problem arises) +evolves an answer for himself in the shape of STORIES. Just as +Socrates, in the Platonic dialogues, recalls or invents a myth in +the despair of reason, so the savage has a story for answer to +almost every question that he can ask himself. These stories are +in a sense scientific, because they attempt a solution of the +riddles of the world. They are in a sense religious, because there +is usually a supernatural power, a deus ex machina, of some sort to +cut the knot of the problem. Such stories, then, are the science, +and to a certain extent the religious tradition, of savages.[3] + + +[1] Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1648, p. 70. + +[2] Algic Researches, i. 41. + +[3] "The Indians (Algonkins) conveyed instruction--moral, +mechanical and religious--through traditionary fictions and +tales."--Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, i. 12. + + +Now these tales are necessarily cast in the mould of the savage +ideas of which a sketch has been given. The changes of the +heavenly bodies, the processes of day and night, the existence of +the stars, the invention of the arts, the origin of the world (as +far as known to the savage), of the tribe, of the various animals +and plants, the origin of death itself, the origin of the +perplexing traditional tribal customs, are all accounted for in +stories. At the same time, an actual divine Maker is sometimes +postulated. The stories, again, are fashioned in accordance with +the beliefs already named: the belief in human connection with and +kinship with beasts and plants; the belief in magic; the belief in +the perpetual possibility of metamorphosis or "shape shifting"; the +belief in the permanence and power of the ghosts of the dead; the +belief in the personal and animated character of all the things in +the world, and so forth. + +No more need be said to explain the wild and (as it seems to us +moderns) the irrational character of savage myth. It is a jungle +of foolish fancies, a walpurgis nacht of gods and beasts and men +and stars and ghosts, all moving madly on a level of common +personality and animation, and all changing shapes at random, as +partners are changed in some fantastic witches' revel. Such is +savage mythology, and how could it be otherwise when we consider +the elements of thought and belief out of which it is mainly +composed? We shall see that part of the mythology of the Greeks or +the Aryans of India is but a similar walpurgis nacht, in which an +incestuous or amorous god may become a beast, and the object of his +pursuit, once a woman, may also become a beast, and then shift +shapes to a tree or a bird or a star. But in the civilised races +the genius of the people tends to suppress, exclude and refine away +the wild element, which, however, is never wholly eliminated. The +Erinyes soon stop the mouth of the horse of Achilles when he +begins, like the horse in Grimm's Goose Girl, to hold a sustained +conversation.[1] But the ancient, cruel, and grotesque savage +element, nearly overcome by Homer and greatly reduced by the Vedic +poets, breaks out again in Hesiod, in temple legends and Brahmanic +glosses, and finally proves so strong that it can only be subdued +by Christianity, or rather by that break between the educated +classes and the traditional past of religion which has resulted +from Christianity. Even so, myth lingers in the folk-lore of the +non-progressive classes of Europe, and, as in Roumania, invades +religion. + + +[1] Iliad, xix. 418. + + +We have now to demonstrate the existence in the savage intellect of +the various ideas and habits which we have described, and out of +which mythology springs. First, we have to show that "a nebulous +and confused state of mind, to which all things, animate or +inanimate, human, animal, vegetable or inorganic, seem on the same +level of life, passion and reason," does really exist.[1] The +existence of this condition of the intellect will be demonstrated +first on the evidence of the statements of civilised observers, +next on the evidence of the savage institutions in which it is +embodied. + + +[1] Creuzer and Guigniaut, vol. i. p. 111. + + +The opinion of Mr. Tylor is naturally of great value, as it is +formed on as wide an acquaintance with the views of the lower races +as any inquirers can hope to possess. Mr. Tylor observes: "We have +to inform ourselves of the savage man's idea, which is very different +from the civilised man's, of the nature of the lower animals. . . . +The sense of an absolute psychical distinction between man and +beast, so prevalent in the civilised world, is hardly to be found +among the lower races."[1] The universal attribution of "souls" to +all things--the theory known as "Animism"--is another proof that the +savage draws no hard and fast line between man and the other things +in the world. The notion of the Italian country-people, that +cruelty to an animal does not matter because it is not a "Christian," +has no parallel in the philosophy of the savage, to whom all objects +seem to have souls, just as men have. Mr. Im Thurn found the +absence of any sense of a difference between man and nature a +characteristic of his native companions in Guiana. "The very +phrase, 'Men and other animals,' or even, as it is often expressed, +'Men and animals,' based as it is on the superiority which civilised +man feels over other animals, expresses a dichotomy which is in no +way recognised by the Indian. . . . It is therefore most important +to realise how comparatively small really is the difference between +men in a state of savagery and other animals, and how completely +even such difference as exists escapes the notice of savage men. . . +It is not, therefore, too much to say that, according to the view +of the Indians, other animals differ from men only in bodily form +and in their various degrees of strength; in spirit they do not +differ at all."[2] The Indian's notion of the life of plants and +stones is on the same level of unreason, as we moderns reckon +reason. He believes in the spirits of rocks and stones, undeterred +by the absence of motion in these objects. "Not only many rocks, +but also many waterfalls, streams, and indeed material objects of +every sort, are supposed each to consist of a body and a spirit, as +does man."[3] It is not our business to ask here how men came by +the belief in universal animation. That belief is gradually +withdrawn, distinctions are gradually introduced, as civilisation +and knowledge advance. It is enough for us if the failure to draw a +hard and fast line between man and beasts, stones and plants, be +practically universal among savages, and if it gradually disappears +before the fuller knowledge of civilisation. The report which Mr. +Im Thurn brings from the Indians of Guiana is confirmed by what +Schoolcraft says of the Algonkin races of the northern part of the +continent. "The belief of the narrators and listeners in every wild +and improbable thing told helps wonderfully in the original stories, +in joining all parts together. The Indian believes that the whole +visible and invisible creation is animated. . . . To make the +matter worse, these tribes believe that animals of the lowest as +well as highest class in the chain of creation are alike endowed +with reasoning powers and faculties. As a natural conclusion they +endow birds, beasts and all other animals with souls."[4] As an +example of the ease with which the savage recognises consciousness +and voluntary motion even in stones, may be cited Kohl's account of +the beliefs of the Objibeways.[5] Nearly every Indian has +discovered, he says, an object in which he places special +confidence, and to which he sacrifices more zealously than to the +Great Spirit. The "hope" of Otamigan (a companion of the traveller) +was a rock, which once advanced to meet him, swayed, bowed and went +back again. Another Indian revered a Canadian larch, "because he +once heard a very remarkable rustling in its branches". It thus +appears that while the savage has a general kind of sense that +inanimate things are animated, he is a good deal impressed by their +conduct when he thinks that they actually display their animation. +In the same way a devout modern spiritualist probably regards with +more reverence a table which he has seen dancing and heard rapping +than a table at which he has only dined. Another general statement +of failure to draw the line between men and the irrational creation +is found in the old Jesuit missionary Le Jeune's Relations de la +Nouvelle France.[6] "Les sauvages se persuadent que non seulement +les hommes et les autres animaux, mais aussi que toutes les autres +choses sont animees." Again: "Ils tiennent les poissons +raisonnables, comme aussi les cerfs". In the Solomon Islands, Mr. +Romilly sailed with an old chief who used violent language to the +waves when they threatened to dash over the boat, and "old Takki's +exhortations were successful".[7] Waitz[8] discovers the same +attitude towards the animals among the negroes. Man, in their +opinion, is by no means a separate sort of person on the summit of +nature and high above the beasts; these he rather regards as dark +and enigmatic beings, whose life is full of mystery, and which he +therefore considers now as his inferiors, now as his superiors. A +collection of evidence as to the savage failure to discriminate +between human and non-human, animate and inanimate, has been brought +together by Sir John Lubbock.[9] + + +[1] Primitive Culture, i. 167-169. + +[2] Among the Indians of Guiana (1883), p. 350. + +[3] Op. Cit., 355. + +[4] Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, i. 41. + +[5] Kohl, Wanderings Round Lake Superior, pp. 58, 59; Muller, +Amerikan Urrelig., pp. 62-67. + +[6] 1636, p. 109. + +[7] Western Pacific, p. 84. + +[8] Anthropologie der Natur-Volker, ii. 177. + +[9] Origin of Civilisation, p. 33. A number of examples of this +mental attitude among the Bushmen will be found in chap. v., +postea. + + +To a race accustomed like ourselves to arrange and classify, to +people familiar from childhood and its games with "vegetable, +animal and mineral," a condition of mind in which no such +distinctions are drawn, any more than they are drawn in Greek or +Brahmanic myths, must naturally seem like what Mr. Max Muller calls +"temporary insanity". The imagination of the savage has been +defined by Mr. Tylor as "midway between the conditions of a +healthy, prosaic, modern citizen, and of a raving fanatic, or of a +patient in a fever-ward". If any relics of such imagination +survive in civilised mythology, they will very closely resemble the +productions of a once universal "temporary insanity". Let it be +granted, then, that "to the lower tribes of man, sun and stars, +trees and rivers, winds and clouds, become personal, animate +creatures, leading lives conformed to human or animal analogies, +and performing their special functions in the universe with the aid +of limbs like beasts, or of artificial instruments like men; or +that what men's eyes behold is but the instrument to be used or the +material to be shaped, while behind it there stands some prodigious +but yet half-human creature, who grasps it with his hands or blows +it with his breath. The basis on which such ideas as these are +built is not to be narrowed down to poetic fancy and transformed +metaphor. They rest upon a broad philosophy of nature; early and +crude, indeed, but thoughtful, consistent, and quite really and +seriously meant."[1] + + +[1] Primtive Culture, i. 285. + + +For the sake of illustration, some minor examples must next be +given of this confusion between man and other things in the world, +which will presently be illustrated by the testimony of a powerful +and long diffused set of institutions. + +The Christian Quiches of Guatemala believe that each of them has a +beast as his friend and protector, just as in the Highlands "the +dog is the friend of the Maclaines". When the Finns, in their epic +poem the Kalewala, have killed a bear, they implore the animal to +forgive them. "Oh, Ot-so," chant the singers, "be not angry that +we come near thee. The bear, the honey-footed bear, was born in +lands between sun and moon, and he died, not by men's hands, but of +his own will."[1] The Red Men of North America[2] have a tradition +showing how it is that the bear does not die, but, like Herodotus +with the sacred stories of the Egyptian priests, Mr. Schoolcraft +"cannot induce himself to write it out".[3] It is a most curious +fact that the natives of Australia tell a similar tale of THEIR +"native bear". "He did not die" when attacked by men.[4] In parts +of Australia it is a great offence to skin the native bear, just as +on a part of the west coast of Ireland, where seals are +superstitiously regarded, the people cannot be bribed to skin them. +In New Caledonia, when a child tries to kill a lizard, the men warn +him to "beware of killing his own ancestor".[5] The Zulus spare to +destroy a certain species of serpents, believed to be the spirits +of kinsmen, as the great snake which appeared when Aeneas did +sacrifice was held to be the ghost of Anchises. Mexican women[6] +believed that children born during an eclipse turn into mice. In +Australia the natives believe that the wild dog has the power of +speech; whoever listens to him is petrified; and a certain spot is +shown where "the wild dog spoke and turned the men into stone";[7] +and the blacks run for their lives as soon as the dog begins to +speak. What it said was "Bones". + + +[1] Kalewala, in La Finlande, Leouzon Le Duc (1845), vol. ii. p. +100; cf. also the Introduction. + +[2] Schoolcraft, v. 420. + +[3] See similar ceremonies propitiatory of the bear in Jewett's +Adventures among the Nootkas, Edinburgh, 1824. + +[4] Brough Smyth, i. 449. + +[5] J. J. Atkinson's MS. + +[6] Sahagun, ii. viii. 250; Bancroft, iii. 111. Compare stories of +women who give birth to animals in Melusine, 1886, August-November. +The Batavians believe that women, when delivered of a child, are +frequently delivered at the same time of a young crocodile as a +twin. Hawkesworth's Voyages, iii. 756. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, +p. 17 et seq. + +[7] Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 497. + + +These are minor examples of a form of opinion which is so strong +that it is actually the chief constituent in savage society. That +society, whether in Ashantee or Australia, in North America or +South Africa, or North Asia or India, or among the wilder tribes of +ancient Peru, is based on an institution generally called +"totemism". This very extraordinary institution, whatever its +origin, cannot have arisen except among men capable of conceiving +kinship and all human relationships as existing between themselves +and all animate and inanimate things. It is the rule, and not the +exception, that savage societies are founded upon this belief. The +political and social conduct of the backward races is regulated in +such matters as blood-feud and marriage by theories of the actual +kindred and connection by descent, or by old friendship, which men +have in common with beasts, plants, the sun and moon, the stars, +and even the wind and the rain. Now, in whatever way this belief +in such relations to beasts and plants may have arisen, it +undoubtedly testifies to a condition of mind in which no hard and +fast line was drawn between man and animate and inanimate nature. +The discovery of the wide distribution of the social arrangements +based on this belief is entirely due to Mr. J. F. M'Lennan, the +author of Primitive Marriage. Mr. M'Lennan's essays ("The Worship +of Plants and Animals," "Totems and Totemism") were published in +the Fortnightly Review, 1869-71. Any follower in the footsteps of +Mr. M'Lennan has it in his power to add a little evidence to that +originally set forth, and perhaps to sift the somewhat uncritical +authorities adduced.[1] + + +[1] See also Mr. Frazer's Totemism, and Golden Bough, with chapter +on Totemism in Modern Mythology. + + +The name "Totemism" or "Totamism" was first applied at the end of +the last century by Long[1] to the Red Indian custom which +acknowledges human kinship with animals. This institution had +already been recognised among the Iroquois by Lafitau,[2] and by +other observers. As to the word "totem," Mr. Max Muller[3] quotes +an opinion that the interpreters, missionaries, Government +inspectors, and others who apply the name totem to the Indian +"family mark" must have been ignorant of the Indian languages, for +there is in them no such word as totem. The right word, it +appears, is otem; but as "totemism" has the advantage of possessing +the ground, we prefer to say "totemism" rather than "otemism". The +facts are the same, whatever name we give them. As Mr. Muller says +himself,[4] "every warrior has his crest, which is called his +totem";[5] and he goes on to describe a totem of an Indian who died +about 1793. We may now return to the consideration of "otemism" or +totemism. We approach it rather as a fact in the science of +mythology than as a stage in the evolution of the modern family +system. For us totemism is interesting because it proves the +existence of that savage mental attitude which assumes kindred and +alliance between man and the things in the world. As will +afterwards be seen, totemism has also left its mark on the +mythologies of the civilised races. We shall examine the +institution first as it is found in Australia, because the +Australian form of totemism shows in the highest known degree the +savage habit of confusing in a community of kinship men, stars, +plants, beasts, the heavenly bodies, and the forces of Nature. When +this has once been elucidated, a shorter notice of other totemistic +races will serve our purpose. + + +[1] Voyages and Travels, 1791. + +[2] Moeurs des Sauvages (1724), p. 461. + +[3] Academy, December 15, 1883. + +[4] Selected Essays (1881), ii. 376. + +[5] Compare Mr. Max Muller's Contributions to the Science of +Mythology. + + +The society of the Murri or black fellows of Australia is divided +into local tribes, each of which possesses, or used to possess, and +hunt over a considerable tract of country. These local tribes are +united by contiguity, and by common local interests, but not +necessarily by blood kinship. For example, the Port Mackay tribe, +the Mount Gambier tribe, the Ballarat tribe, all take their names +from their district. In the same way we might speak of the people +of Strathclyde or of Northumbria in early English history. Now, +all these local tribes contain an indefinite number of stocks of +kindred, of men believing themselves to be related by the ties of +blood and common descent. That descent the groups agree in +tracing, not from some real or idealised human parent, but from +some animal, plant, or other natural object, as the kangaroo, the +emu, the iguana, the pelican, and so forth. Persons of the pelican +stock in the north of Queensland regard themselves as relations of +people of the same stock in the most southern parts of Australia. +The creature from which each tribe claims descent is called "of the +same flesh," while persons of another stock are "fresh flesh". A +native may not marry a woman of "his own flesh"; it is only a woman +of "fresh" or "strange" flesh he may marry. A man may not eat an +animal of "his own flesh"; he may only eat "strange flesh". Only +under great stress of need will an Australian eat the animal which +is the flesh-and-blood cousin and protector of his stock.[1] +(These rules of marriage and blood, however, do not apply among the +Arunta of Central Australia, whose Totems (if Totems they should be +called) have been developed on very different lines.[2]) Clearer +evidence of the confusion between man and beast, of the claiming of +kin between man and beast, could hardly be. + + +[1] Dawson, Aborigines, pp. 26, 27; Howitt and Fison, Kamilaroi and +Kurnai, p. 169. + +[2] Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia. + + +But the Australian philosophy of the intercommunion of Nature goes +still farther than this. Besides the local divisions and the +kindred stocks which trace their descent from animals, there exist +among many Australian tribes divisions of a kind still unexplained. +For example, every man of the Mount Gambier local tribe is by birth +either a Kumite or a Kroki. This classification applies to the +whole of the sensible universe. Thus smoke and honeysuckle trees +belong to the division Kumite, and are akin to the fishhawk stock +of men. On the other hand, the kangaroo, summer, autumn, the wind +and the shevak tree belong to the division Kroki, and are akin to +the black cockatoo stock of men. Any human member of the Kroki +division has thus for his brothers the sun, the wind, the kangaroo, +and the rest; while any man of the Kumite division and the crow +surname is the brother of the rain, the thunder, and the winter. +This extraordinary belief is not a mere idle fancy--it influences +conduct. "A man does not kill or use as food any of the animals of +the same subdivision (Kroki or Kumite) with himself, excepting when +hunger compels, and then they express sorrow for having to eat +their wingong (friends) or tumanang (their flesh). When using the +last word they touch their breasts, to indicate the close +relationship, meaning almost a portion of themselves. To +illustrate: One day one of the blacks killed a crow. Three or four +days afterwards a Boortwa (a man of the crow surname and stock), +named Larry, died. He had been ailing for some days, but the +killing of his wingong (totem) hastened his death."[1] Commenting +on this statement, Mr. Fison observes: "The South Australian savage +looks upon the universe as the Great Tribe, to one of whose +divisions he himself belongs; and all things, animate and +inanimate, which belong to his class are parts of the body +corporate whereof he himself is part". This account of the +Australian beliefs and customs is borne out, to a certain extent, +by the evidence of Sir George Grey,[2] and of the late Mr. Gideon +Scott Lang.[3] These two writers take no account of the singular +"dichotomous" divisions, as of Kumite and Kroki, but they draw +attention to the groups of kindred which derive their surnames from +animals, plants, and the like. "The origin of these family names," +says Sir George Grey, "is attributed by the natives to different +causes. . . . One origin frequently assigned by the natives is, +that they were derived from some vegetable or animal being very +common in the district which the family inhabited." We have seen +from the evidence of Messrs. Fison and Howitt that a more common +native explanation is based on kinship with the vegetable or plant +which bestows the family surname. Sir George Gray mentions that +the families use their plant or animal as a crest or kobong +(totem), and he adds that natives never willingly kill animals of +their kobong, holding that some one of that species is their +nearest friend. The consequences of eating forbidden animals vary +considerably. Sometimes the Boyl-yas (that is, ghosts) avenge the +crime. Thus when Sir George Grey ate some mussels (which, after +all, are not the crest of the Greys), a storm followed, and one of +his black fellow improvised this stave:-- + + + Oh, wherefore did he eat the mussels? + Now the Boyl-yas storms and thunders make; + Oh, wherefore would he eat the mussels? + + +[1] Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 169. + +[2] Travels, ii. 225. + +[3] Lang, Lecture on Natives of Australia, p. 10. + + +There are two points in the arrangements of these stocks of kindred +named from plants and animals which we shall find to possess a high +importance. No member of any such kindred may marry a woman of the +same name and descended from the same object.[1] Thus no man of +the Emu stock may marry an Emu woman; no Blacksnake may marry a +Blacksnake woman, and so forth. This point is very strongly put by +Mr. Dawson, who has had much experience of the blacks. "So +strictly are the laws of marriage carried out, that, should any +sign of courtship or affection be observed between those 'of one +flesh,' the brothers or male relatives of the woman beat her +severely." If the incestuous pair (though not in the least related +according to our ideas) run away together, they are "half-killed"; +and if the woman dies in consequence of her punishment, her partner +in iniquity is beaten again. No "eric" or blood-fine of any kind +is paid for her death, which carries no blood-feud. "Her +punishment is legal."[2] This account fully corroborates that of +Sir George Grey.[3] + + +[1] Taplin, The Nerrinyeri. p. 2. "Every tribe, regarded by them +as a family, has its ngaitge, or tutelary genius or tribal symbol, +in the shape of some bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, or +substance. Between individuals of the same tribe no marriage can +take place." Among the Narrinyeri kindred is reckoned (p. 10) on +the father's side. See also (p. 46) ngaitge = Samoan aitu. "No +man or woman will kill their ngaitge," except with precautions, for +food. + +[2] Op. cit., p. 28. + +[3] Ibid., ii. 220. + + +Our conclusion is that the belief in "one flesh" (a kinship shared +with the animals) must be a thoroughly binding idea, as the notion +is sanctioned by capital punishment. + +Another important feature in Australian totemism strengthens our +position. The idea of the animal kinship must be an ancient one in +the race, because the family surname, Emu, Bandicoot, or what not, +and the crest, kobong, or protecting and kindred animal, are +inherited through the mother's side in the majority of stocks. +This custom, therefore, belongs to that early period of human +society in which the woman is the permanent and recognised factor +in the family while male parentage is uncertain.[1] One other +feature of Australian totemism must be mentioned before we leave +the subject. There is some evidence that in certain tribes the +wingong or totem of each man is indicated by a tattooed +representation of it upon his flesh. The natives are very +licentious, but men would shrink from an amour with a woman who +neither belonged to their own district nor spoke their language, +but who, in spite of that, was of their totem. To avoid mistakes, +it seems that some tribes mark the totem on the flesh with incised +lines.[2] The natives frequently design figures of some kind on +the trees growing near the graves of deceased warriors. Some +observers have fancied that in these designs they recognised the +totem of the dead men; but on this subject evidence is by no means +clear. We shall see that this primitive sort of heraldry, this +carving or painting of hereditary blazons, is common among the Red +Men of America.[3] + + +[1] Cf. Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht; M'Lennan, Primitive Marriage, +passim; Encycl. Brit. s. v. Family. + +[2] Fison, op. cit., p. 66. + +[3] Among other recent sources see Howitt in "Organisation of +Australian Tribes" (Transactions of Royal Society of Victoria, +1889), and Spencer and Gillen, Natives of Central Australia. In +Central Australia there is a marked difference in the form of +Totemism. + + +Though a large amount of evidence might be added to that already +put forward, we may now sum up the inferences to be drawn from the +study of totemism in Australia. It has been shown (1) that the +natives think themselves actually akin to animals, plants, the sun, +and the wind, and things in general; (2) that those ideas influence +their conduct, and even regulate their social arrangements, because +(3) men and women of the kinship of the same animal or plant may +not intermarry, while men are obliged to defend, and in case of +murder to avenge, persons of the stock of the family or plant from +which they themselves derive their family name. Thus, on the +evidence of institutions, it is plain that the Australians are (or +before the influence of the Europeans became prevalent were) in a +state of mind which draws no hard and fast line between man and the +things in the world. If, therefore, we find that in Australian +myth, men, gods, beasts, and things all shift shapes incessantly, +and figure in a coroboree dance of confusion, there will be nothing +to astonish us in the discovery. The myths of men in the Australian +intellectual condition, of men who hold long conversations with the +little "native bear," and ask him for oracles, will naturally and +inevitably be grotesque and confused.[1] + + +[1] Brough Smyth, i. 447, on MS. authority of W. Thomas. + + +It is "a far cry" from Australia to the West Coast of Africa, and +it is scarcely to be supposed that the Australians have borrowed +ideas and institutions from Ashantee, or that the people of +Ashantee have derived their conceptions of the universe from the +Murri of Australia. We find, however, on the West African Coast, +just as we do in Australia, that there exist large local divisions +of the natives. These divisions are spoken of by Mr. Bowditch (who +visited the country on a mission in 1817) as nations, and they are +much more populous and powerful (as the people are more civilised) +than the local tribes of Australia. Yet, just as among the local +tribes of Australia, the nations of the West African Coast are +divided into stocks of kindred, each STOCK having its representatives +in each NATION. Thus an Ashantee or a Fantee may belong to the same +stock of kindred as a member of the Assin or Akini nation. When an +Ashantee of the Annona stock of kindred meets a Warsaw man of the +same stock they salute and acknowledge each other as brothers. In +the same way a Ballarat man of the Kangaroo stock in Australia +recognises a relative in a Mount Gambier man who is also a Kangaroo. +Now, with one exception, all the names of the twelve stocks of West +African kindreds, or at least all of them which Mr. Bowditch could +get the native interpreters to translate, are derived from animals, +plants and other natural objects, just as in Australia.[1] Thus +Quonna is a buffalo, Abrootoo is a cornstalk, Abbradi a plantain. +Other names are, in English, the parrot, the wild cat, red earth, +panther and dog. Thus all the natives of this part of Africa are +parrots, dogs, buffaloes, panthers, and so forth, just as the +Australians are emus, iguanas, black cockatoos, kangaroos, and the +rest. It is remarkable that there is an Incra stock, or clan of +ants, in Ashantee, just as there was a race of Myrmidons, believed +to be descended from or otherwise connected with ants, in ancient +Greece. Though Bowditch's account of these West African family +divisions is brief, the arrangement tallies closely with that of +Australia. It is no great stretch of imagination to infer that the +African tribes do, or once did, believe themselves to be of the +kindred of the animals whose names they bear.[2] It is more or less +confirmatory of this hypothesis that no family is permitted to use +as food the animal from which it derives its name. We have seen +that a similar rule prevails, as far as hunger and scarcity of +victuals permit it to be obeyed, among the natives of Australia. +The Intchwa stock in Ashantee and Fantee is particularly unlucky, +because its members may not eat the dog, "much relished by native +epicures, and therefore a serious privation". Equally to be pitied +were the ancient Egyptians, who, if they belonged to the district of +the sheep, might not eat mutton, which their neighbours, the +Lycopolitae, devoured at pleasure. These restrictions appear to be +connected with the almost universal dislike of cannibals to eat +persons of their own kindred except as a pious duty. This law of +the game in cannibalism has not yet been thoroughly examined, though +we often hear of wars waged expressly for the purpose of securing +food (human meat), while some South American tribes actually bred +from captive women by way of securing constant supplies of permitted +flesh.[3] When we find stocks, then, which derive their names from +animals and decline to eat these animals, we may at least SUSPECT +that they once claimed kinship with the name-giving beasts. The +refusal to eat them raises a presumption of such faith. Old +Bosman[4] had noticed the same practices. "One eats no mutton, +another no goat's flesh, another no beef, swine's flesh, wild fowl, +cocks with white feathers, and they say their ancestors did so from +the beginning of the world." + + +[1] The evidence of native interpreters may be viewed with +suspicion. It is improbable, however, that in 1817 the +interpreters were acquainted with the totemistic theory of +mythologists, and deliberately mistranslated the names of the +stocks, so as to make them harmonise with Indian, Australian, and +Red Indian totem kindreds. This, indeed, is an example where the +criterion of "recurrence" or "coincidence" seems to be valuable. +Bowditch's Mission to Ashantee (1873), p. 181. + +[2] This view, however, does not prevail among the totemistic +tribes of British Columbia, for example. + +[3] Cieza de Leon (Hakluyt Society), p. 50. This amazing tale is +supported by the statement that kinship went by the female side (p. +49); the father was thus not of the kin of his child by the alien +woman. Cieza was with Validillo in 1538. + +[4] In Pinkerton, xvi. 400. + + +While in the case of the Ashantee tribes, we can only infer the +existence of a belief in kinship with the animals from the presence +of the other features of fully developed totemism (especially from +the refusal to eat the name-giving animal), we have direct evidence +for the opinion in another part of Africa, among the Bechuanas.[1] +Casalis, who passed twenty-three years as a missionary in South +Africa, thus describes the institution: "While the united +communities usually bear the name of their chief or of the district +which they inhabit" (local tribes, as in Australia), "each stock +(tribu) derives its title from an animal or a vegetable. All the +Bechuanas are subdivided thus into Bakuenas (crocodile-men), +Batlapis (men of the fish), Banarer (of the buffalo), Banukus +(porcupines), Bamoraras (wild vines), and so forth. The Bakuenas +call the crocodile their father, sing about him in their feasts, +swear by him, and mark the ears of their cattle with an incision +which resembles the open jaws of the creature." This custom of +marking the cattle with the crest, as it were, of the stock, takes +among some races the shape of deforming themselves, so as the more +to resemble the animal from which they claim descent. "The chief +of the family which holds the chief rank in the stock is called +'The Great Man of the Crocodile'. Precisely in the same way the +Duchess of Sutherland is styled in Gaelic 'The Great Lady of the +Cat,'" though totemism is probably not the origin of this title. + + +[1] E. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, 1859. + + +Casalis proceeds: "No one would dare to eat the flesh or wear the +skin of the animal whose name he bears. If the animal be +dangerous--the lion, for example--people only kill him after +offering every apology and asking his pardon. Purification must +follow such a sacrifice." Casalis was much struck with the +resemblance between these practices and the similar customs of +North American races. Livingstone's account[1] on the whole +corroborates that of Casalis, though he says the Batau (tribe of +the lion) no longer exists. "They use the word bina 'to dance,' in +reference to the custom of thus naming themselves, so that when you +wish to ascertain what tribe they belong to, you say, 'What do you +dance?' It would seem as if this had been part of the worship of +old." The mythological and religious knowledge of the Bushmen is +still imparted in dances; and when a man is ignorant of some myth +he will say, "I do not dance that dance," meaning that he does not +belong to the guild which preserves that particular "sacred +chapter".[2] + + +[1] Missionary Travels (1857), p. 13. + +[2] Orpen, Cape Monthly Magazine, 1872. + + +Casalis noticed the similarity between South African and Red Indian +opinion about kinship with vegetables and beasts. The difficulty +in treating the Red Indian belief is chiefly found in the abundance +of the evidence. Perhaps the first person who ever used the word +"totemism," or, as he spells it, "totamism," was (as we said) Mr. +Long, an interpreter among the Chippeways, who published his +Voyages in 1791. Long was not wholly ignorant of the languages, as +it was his business to speak them, and he was an adopted Indian. +The ceremony of adoption was painful, beginning with a feast of +dog's flesh, followed by a Turkish bath and a prolonged process of +tattooing.[1] According to Long,[2] "The totam, they conceive, +assumes the form of some beast or other, and therefore they never +kill, hurt, or eat the animal whose form they think this totam +bears". One man was filled with religious apprehensions, and gave +himself up to the gloomy belief of Bunyan and Cowper, that he had +committed the unpardonable sin, because he dreamed he had killed +his totem, a bear.[3] This is only one example, like the refusal +of the Osages to kill the beavers, with which they count cousins,[4] +that the Red Man's belief is an actual creed, and does influence +his conduct. + + +[1] Long, pp. 46-49. + +[2] Ibid., p. 86. + +[3] Ibid., p. 87. + +[4] Schoolcraft, i. 319. + + +As in Australia, the belief in common kin with beasts is most +clearly proved by the construction of Red Indian society. The +"totemistic" stage of thought and manners prevails. Thus +Charlevoix says,[1] "Plusieurs nations ont chacune trois familles +ou tribus principales, AUSSI ANCIENNES, A CE QU'IL PAROIT, QUE LEUR +ORIGINE. Chaque tribu porte le nom d'un animal, et la nation +entiere a aussi le sien, dont elle prend le nom, et dont la figure +est sa marque, ou, se l'on veut, ses armoiries, on ne signe point +autrement les traites qu'en traceant ces figures." Among the +animal totems Charlevoix notices porcupine, bear, wolf and turtle. +The armoiries, the totemistic heraldry of the peoples of Virginia, +greatly interested a heraldic ancestor of Gibbon the historian,[2] +who settled in the colony. According to Schoolcraft,[3] the totem +or family badge, of a dead warrior is drawn in a reverse position +on his grave-post. In the same way the leopards of England are +drawn reversed on the shield of an English king opposite the +mention of his death in old monkish chronicles. As a general +rule,[4] persons bearing the same totem in America cannot +intermarry. "The union must be between various totems." Moreover, +as in the case of the Australians, "the descent of the chief is in +the female line". We thus find among the Red Men precisely the +same totemistic regulations as among the Aborigines of Australia. +Like the Australians, the Red Men "never" (perhaps we should read +"hardly ever") eat their totems. Totemists, in short, spare the +beasts that are their own kith and kin. To avoid multiplying +details which all corroborate each other, it may suffice to refer +to Schoolcraft for totemism among the Iowas[5] and the Pueblos;[6] +for the Iroquois, to Lafitau, a missionary of the early part of the +eighteenth century. Lafitau was perhaps the first writer who ever +explained certain features in Greek and other ancient myths and +practices as survivals from totemism. The Chimera, a composite +creature, lion, goat and serpent, might represent, Lafitau thought, +a league of three totem tribes, just as wolf, bear and turtle +represented the Iroquois League. + + +[1] Histoire de la France-Nouvelle, iii. 266. + +[2] Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, by John Gibbon, Blue Mantle, +London, 1682. "The dancers, were painted some party per pale, gul +and sab, some party per fesse of the same colours;" whence Gibbon +concluded "that heraldry was ingrafted naturally into the sense of +the humane race". + +[3] Vol. i. p. 356. + +[4] Schoolcraft, v. 73. + +[5] Ibid., iii. 268. + +[6] Ibid., iv. 86. + + +The martyred Pere Rasles, again, writing in 1723,[1] says that one +stock of the Outaonaks claims descent from a hare ("the great hare +was a man of prodigious size"), while another stock derive their +lineage from the carp, and a third descends from a bear; yet they +do not scruple, after certain expiatory rites, to eat bear's flesh. +Other North American examples are the Kutchin, who have always +possessed the system of totems.[2] + + +[1] Kip's Jesuits in America i. 33. + +[2] Dall's Alaska, pp. 196-198. + + +It is to be noticed, as a peculiarity of Red Indian totemism which +we have not observed (though it may exist) in Africa, that certain +stocks claim relations with the sun. Thus Pere Le Petit, writing +from New Orleans in 1730, mentions the Sun, or great chief of the +Natchez Indians.[1] The totem of the privileged class among the +Natchez was the sun, and in all myths the sun is regarded as a +living being, who can have children, who may be beaten, who bleeds +when cut, and is simply on the same footing as men and everything +else in the world. Precisely similar evidence comes from South +America. In this case our best authority is almost beyond +suspicion. He knew the native languages well, being himself a +half-caste. He was learned in the European learning of his time; +and as a son of the Incas, he had access to all surviving Peruvian +stores of knowledge, and could collect without difficulty the +testimonies of his countrymen. It will be seen[2] that Don +Garcilasso de la Vega could estimate evidence, and ridiculed the +rough methods and fallacious guesses of Spanish inquirers. +Garcilasso de la Vega was born about 1540, being the son of an Inca +princess and of a Spanish conqueror. His book, Commentarias +Reales,[3] was expressly intended to rectify the errors of such +Spanish writers as Acosta. In his account of Peruvian religion, +Garcilasso distinguishes between the beliefs of the tribes previous +to the rise of the Inca empire and the sun-worship of the Incas. +But it is plain, from Garcilasso's own account and from other +evidence, that under the Incas the older faiths and fetichisms +survived, in subordination to sun-worship, just as Pagan +superstitions survived in custom and folk-lore after the official +recognition of Christianity. Sun-worship, in Peru, and the belief +in a Supreme Creator there, seem even, like Catholicism in Mexico, +China and elsewhere, to have made a kind of compromise with the +lower beliefs, and to have been content to allow a certain amount +of bowing down in the temples of the elder faiths. According, +then, to Garcilasso's account of Peruvian totemism, "An Indian was +not looked upon as honourable unless he was descended from a +fountain, river,[4] or lake, or even from the sea, OR FROM A WILD +ANIMAL, such as a bear, lion, tiger, eagle, or the bird they call +cuntur (condor), or some other bird of prey ".[5] A certain amount +of worship was connected with this belief in kinship with beasts +and natural objects. Men offered up to their totems "what they +usually saw them eat".[6] On the seacoasts "they worshipped +sardines, skates, dog-fish, and, for want of larger gods, +crabs. . . . There was not an animal, how vile and filthy soever, +that they did not worship as a god," including "lizards, toads and +frogs." Garcilasso (who says they ate the fish they worshipped) +gives his own theory of the origin of totemism. In the beginning +men had only sought for badges whereby to discriminate one human +stock from another. "The one desired to have a god different from +the other. . . . They only thought of making one different from +another." When the Inca emperors began to civilise the totemistic +stocks, they pointed out that their own father, the sun, possessed +"splendour and beauty" as contrasted with "the ugliness and filth of +the frogs and other vermin they looked upon as gods".[7] Garcilasso, +of course, does not use the North American word totem (or ote or +otem) for the family badge which represented the family ancestors. +He calls these things, as a general rule, pacarissa. The sun was the +pacarissa of the Incas, as it was of the chief of the Natchez. The +pacarissa of other stocks was the lion, bear, frog, or what not. +Garcilasso accounts for the belief accorded to the Incas, when they +claimed actual descent from the sun, by observing[8] that "there +were tribes among their subjects who professed similar fabulous +descents, though they did not comprehend how to select ancestors so +well as the Incas, but adored animals and other low and earthly +objects". As to the fact of the Peruvian worship of beasts, if more +evidence is wanted, it is given, among others, by Cieza de Leon,[9] +who contrasts the adoration of the Roman gods with that offered in +Peru to brutes. "In the important temple of Pacha-camac (the +spiritual deity of Peru) they worshipped a she-fox or vixen and an +emerald." The devil also "appeared to them and spoke in the form of +a tiger, very fierce". Other examples of totemism in South America +may be studied in the tribes on the Amazon.[10] Mr. Wallace found +the Pineapple stock, the Mosquitoes, Woodpeckers, Herons, and other +totem kindreds. A curious example of similar ideas is discovered +among the Bonis of Guiana. These people were originally West Coast +Africans imported as slaves, who have won their freedom with the +sword. While they retain a rough belief in Gadou (God) and Didibi +(the devil), they are divided into totem stocks with animal names. +The red ape, turtle and cayman are among the chief totems.[11] + + +[1] Kip, ii. 288. + +[2] Appendix B. + +[3] See translation in Hakluyt Society's Collection. + +[4] Like many Greek heroes. Odyssey, iii. 489. "Orsilochus, the +child begotten of Alpheus." + +[5] Comm. Real., i. 75. + +[6] Ibid., 53. + +[7] Ibid., 102. + +[8] Ibid., 83. + +[9] Cieza de Leon (Hakluyt Society), p. 183. + +[10] Acuna, p. 103; Wallace, Travels on Amazon (1853), pp. 481-506. + +[11] Crevaux, Voyages dans l'Amerique du Sud, p. 59. + + +After this hasty examination of the confused belief in kinship with +animals and other natural objects which underlies institutions in +Australia, West and South Africa, North and South America, we may +glance at similar notions among the non-Aryan races of India. In +Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal,[1] he tells us that the Garo clans +are divided into maharis or motherhoods. Children belong to the +mahari of the mother, just as (in general) they derive their stock +name and totem from the mother's side in Australia and among the +North American Indians. No man may marry (as among the Red Indians +and Australians) a woman belonging to his own stock, motherhood or +mahari. So far the maharis of Bengal exactly correspond to the +totem kindred. But do the Maharis also take their names from +plants and animals, and so forth? We know that the Killis, similar +communities among the Bengal Hos and Mundos, do this.[2] "The +Mundaris, like the Oraons, adopt as their tribal distinction the +name of some animal, and the flesh of that animal is tabooed to +them as food; for example, the eel, the tortoise." This is exactly +the state of things in Ashanti. Dalton mentions also[3] a princely +family in Nagpur which claims descent from "a great hooded snake". +Among the Oraons he found[4] tribes which might not eat young mice +(considered a dainty) or tortoises, and a stock which might not eat +the oil of the tree which was their totem, nor even sit in its +shade. "The family or tribal names" (within which they may not +marry) "are usually those of animals or plants, and when this is +the case, the flesh of some part of the animal or the fruit of the +tree is tabooed to the tribe called after it." + + +[1] Dalton, p. 63. + +[2] Ibid., p. 189. + +[3] Ibid., p. 166. + +[4] Ibid., p. 254. + + +An excellent sketch of totemism in India is given by Mr. H. H. +Risley of the Bengal Civil Service:--[1] + + +[1] The Asiatic Quarterly, No. 3, Essay on "Primitive Marriage in +Bengal." + + +"At the bottom of the social system, as understood by the average +Hindu, stands a large body of non-Aryan castes and tribes, each of +which is broken up into a number of what may be called totemistic +exogamous septs. Each sept bears the name of an animal, a tree, a +plant, or of some material object, natural or artificial, which the +members of that sept are prohibited from killing, eating, cutting, +burning, carrying, using, etc."[1] + + +[1] Here we may note that the origin of exogamy itself is merely +part of a strict totemistic prohibition. A man may not "use" an +object within the totem kin, nor a woman of the kin. Compare the +Greek idiom [Greek text omitted]. + + +Mr. Risley finds that both Kolarians, as the Sonthals, and +Dravidians, as the Oraons, are in this state of totemism, like the +Hos and Mundas. It is most instructive to learn that, as one of +these tribes rises in the social scale, it sloughs off its totem, +and, abandoning the common name derived from bird, beast, or plant, +adopts that of an eponymous ancestor. A tendency in this direction +has been observed by Messrs. Fison and Howitt even in Australia. +The Mahilis, Koras and Kurmis, who profess to be members of the +Hindu community, still retain the totemistic organisation, with +names derived from birds, beasts and plants. Even the Jagannathi +Kumhars of Orissa, taking rank immediately below the writer-caste, +have the totems tiger, snake, weasel, cow, frog, sparrow and +tortoise. The sub-castes of the Khatlya Kumhars explain away their +totem-names "as names of certain saints, who, being present at +Daksha's Horse-sacrifice, transformed themselves into animals to +escape the wrath of Siva," like the gods of Egypt when they fled in +bestial form from the wrath of Set. + +Among the non-Aryan tribes the marriage law has the totemistic +sanction. No man may marry a woman of his totem kin. When the +totem-name is changed for an eponym, the non-Aryan, rising in the +social scale, is practically in the same position as the Brahmans, +"divided into exogamous sections (gotras), the members of which +profess to be descended from the mythical rishi or inspired saint +whose name the gotra bears". There is thus nothing to bar the +conjecture that the exogamous gotras of the whole Brahmans were +once a form of totem-kindred, which (like aspiring non-Aryan stocks +at the present day) dropped the totem-name and renamed the septs +from some eponymous hero, medicine-man, or Rishi. + +Constant repetition of the same set of facts becomes irksome, and +yet is made necessary by the legitimate demand for trustworthy and +abundant evidence. As the reader must already have reflected, this +living mythical belief in the common confused equality of men, +gods, plants, beasts, rivers, and what not, which still regulates +savage society,[1] is one of the most prominent features in +mythology. Porphyry remarked and exactly described it among the +Egyptians--"common and akin to men and gods they believed the +beasts to be."[2] The belief in such equality is alien to modern +civilisation. We have shown that it is common and fundamental in +savagery. For instance, in the Pacific, we might quote Turner,[3] +and for Melanesia, Codrington,[4] while for New Zealand we have +Taylor.[5] For the Jakuts, along the banks of the Lena in Northern +Asia, we have the evidence of Strahlenberg, who writes: "Each tribe +of these people look upon some particular creature as sacred, e.g., +a swan, goose, raven, etc., and such is not eaten by that tribe" +though the others may eat it.[6] As the majority of our witnesses +were quite unaware that the facts they described were common among +races of whom many of them had never even heard, their evidence may +surely be accepted as valid, especially as the beliefs testified to +express themselves in marriage laws, in the blood-feud, in +abstinence from food, on pillars over graves, in rude heraldry, and +in other obvious and palpable shapes. If we have not made out, by +the evidence of institutions, that a confused credulity concerning +the equality and kinship of man and the objects in nature is +actually a ruling belief among savages, and even higher races, from +the Lena to the Amazon, from the Gold Coast to Queensland, we may +despair of ever convincing an opponent. The survival of the same +beliefs and institutions among civilised races, Aryan and others, +will later be demonstrated.[7] If we find that the mythology of +civilised races here agrees with the actual practical belief of +savages, and if we also find that civilised races retain survivals +of the institutions in which the belief is expressed by savages, +then we may surely infer that the activity of beasts in the myths +of Greece springs from the same sources as the similar activity of +beasts in the myths of Iroquois or Kaffirs. That is to say, part +of the irrational element in Greek myth will be shown to be derived +(whether by inheritance or borrowing) from an ascertained condition +of savage fancy. + + +[1] See some very curious and disgusting examples of this confusion +in Liebrecht's Zur Volkskunde, pp. 395, 396 (Heilbronn, 1879). + +[2] De Abst., ii. 26. + +[3] Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 238, and Samoa by the same +author. Complete totemism is not asserted here, and is denied for +Melanesia. + +[4] Journ. Anthrop. Inst., "Religious Practices in Melanesia". + +[5] New Zealand, "Animal Intermarriage with Men". + +[6] Description of Asia (1783), p. 383. + +[7] Professor Robertson Smith, Kinship in Arabia, attempts to show +that totemism existed in the Semitic races. The topic must be left +to Orientalists. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--MAGIC--METAMORPHOSIS--METAPHYSIC-- +PSYCHOLOGY. + + +Claims of sorcerers--Savage scientific speculation--Theory of +causation--Credulity, except as to new religious ideas--"Post hoc, +ergo propter hoc"--Fundamental ideas of magic--Examples: +incantations, ghosts, spirits--Evidence of rank and other +institutions in proof of confusions of mind exhibited in magical +beliefs. + + +"I mean eftsoons to have a fling at magicians for their abominable +lies and monstrous vanities."--PLINY, ap. Phil. Holland. + +"Quoy de ceux qui naturellement se changent en loups, en juments, +et puis encores en hommes?"--MONTAIGNE, Apologie pour Raymond de +Sebonde. + + +The second feature in the savage intellectual condition which we +promised to investigate was the belief in magic and sorcery. The +world and all the things in it being conceived of vaguely as +sensible and rational, are supposed to obey the commands of certain +members of each tribe, such as chiefs, jugglers, or conjurors. +These conjurors, like Zeus or Indra, can affect the weather, work +miracles, assume what shapes, animal, vegetable, or inorganic, they +please, and can metamorphose other persons into similar shapes. It +has already been shown that savage man has regarded all THINGS as +PERSONS much on a level with himself. It has now to be shown WHAT +KIND OF PERSON HE CONCEIVES HIMSELF TO BE. He does not look on men +as civilised races regard them, that is, as beings with strict +limitations. On the other hand, he thinks of certain members of +his tribe as exempt from most of the limitations, and capable of +working every miracle that tradition has ever attributed to +prophets or gods. Nor are such miraculous powers, such practical +omnipotence, supposed by savages to be at all rare among +themselves. Though highly valued, miraculous attainments are not +believed to be unusual. This must be kept steadily in mind. When +myth-making man regards the sky or sun or wind as a person, he does +not mean merely a person with the limitations recognised by modern +races. He means a person with the miraculous powers of the +medicine-man. The sky, sun, wind or other elemental personage can +converse with the dead, and can turn himself and his neighbours +into animals, stones and trees. + +To understand these functions and their exercise, it is necessary +to examine what may be called savage science, savage metaphysics, +and the savage theory of the state of the dead. The medicine-man's +supernatural claims are rooted in the general savage view of the +world, of what is possible, and of what (if anything) is +impossible. The savage, even more than the civilised man, may be +described as a creature "moving about in worlds not realised". He +feels, no less than civilised man, the need of making the world +intelligible, and he is active in his search for causes and +effects. There is much "speculation in these eyes that he doth +glare withal". This is a statement which has been denied by some +persons who have lived with savages. Thus Mr. Bates, in his +Naturalist on the Amazon,[1] writes: "Their want of curiosity is +extreme. . . . Vicente (an Indian companion) did not know the +cause of thunder and lightning. I asked him who made the sun, the +stars, the trees. He didn't know, and had never heard the subject +mentioned in his tribe." But Mr. Bates admits that even Vicente +had a theory of the configuration of the world. "The necessity of +a theory of the earth and water had been felt, and a theory had +been suggested." Again, Mr. Bates says about a certain Brazilian +tribe, "Their sluggish minds seem unable to conceive or feel the +want of a theory of the soul"; and he thinks the cause of this +indolence is the lack "of a written language or a leisured class". +Now savages, as a rule, are all in the "leisured class," all +sportsmen. Mr. Herbert Spencer, too, has expressed scepticism +about the curiosity attributed to savages. The point is important, +because, in our view, the medicine-man's powers are rooted in the +savage theory of things, and if the savage is too sluggish to +invent or half consciously evolve a theory of things, our +hypothesis is baseless. Again, we expect to find in savage myths +the answer given by savages to their own questions. But this view +is impossible if savages do not ask themselves, and never have +asked themselves, any questions at all about the world. On this +topic Mr. Spencer writes: "Along with absence of surprise there +naturally goes absence of intelligent curiosity".[2] Yet Mr. +Spencer admits that, according to some witnesses, "the Dyaks have +an insatiable curiosity," the Samoans "are usually very +inquisitive," and "the Tahitians are remarkably curious and +inquisitive". Nothing is more common than to find travellers +complaining that savages, in their ardently inquiring curiosity, +will not leave the European for a moment to his own undisturbed +devices. Mr. Spencer's savages, who showed no curiosity, displayed +this impassiveness when Europeans were trying to make them exhibit +signs of surprise. Impassivity is a point of honour with many +uncivilised races, and we cannot infer that a savage has no +curiosity because he does not excite himself over a mirror, or when +his European visitors try to swagger with their mechanical +appliances. Mr. Herbert Spencer founds, on the statements of Mr. +Bates already quoted, a notion that "the savage, lacking ability to +think and the accompanying desire to know, is without tendency to +speculate". He backs Mr. Bates's experience with Mungo Park's +failure to "draw" the negroes about the causes of day and night. +They had never indulged a conjecture nor formed an hypothesis on +the matter. Yet Park avers that "the belief in one God is entire +and universal among them". This he "pronounces without the +smallest shadow of doubt". As to "primitive man," according to Mr. +Spencer, "the need for explanations about surrounding appearances +does not occur to him". We have disclaimed all knowledge about +"primitive man," but it is easy to show that Mr. Spencer grounds +his belief in the lack of speculation among savages on a frail +foundation of evidence. + + +[1] Vol. ii. p. 162. + +[2] Sociology, p. 98. + + +Mr. Spencer has admitted speculation, or at least curiosity, among +New Caledonians, New Guinea people, Dyaks, Samoans and Tahitians. +Even where he denies its existence, as among the Amazon tribes +mentioned by Mr. Bates, we happen to be able to show that Mr. Bates +was misinformed. Another traveller, the American geologist, +Professor Hartt of Cornell University, lived long among the tribes +of the Amazon. But Professor Hartt did not, like Mr. Bates, find +them at all destitute of theories of things--theories expressed in +myths, and testifying to the intellectual activity and curiosity +which demands an answer to its questions. Professor Hartt, when he +first became acquainted with the Indians of the Amazon, knew that +they were well supplied with myths, and he set to work to collect +them. But he found that neither by coaxing nor by offers of money +could he persuade an Indian to relate a myth. Only by accident, +"while wearily paddling up the Paranamirim of the Ituki," did he +hear the steersman telling stories to the oarsmen to keep them +awake. Professor Hartt furtively noted down the tale, and he found +that by "setting the ball rolling," and narrating a story himself, +he could make the natives throw off reserve and add to his stock of +tales. "After one has obtained his first myth, and has learned to +recite it accurately and spiritedly, the rest is easy." The tales +published by Professor Hartt are chiefly animal stories, like those +current in Africa and among the Red Indians, and Hartt even +believed that many of the legends had been imported by Negroes. +But as the majority of the Negro myths, like those of the +Australians, give a "reason why" for the existence of some +phenomenon or other, the argument against early man's curiosity and +vivacity of intellect is rather injured, even if the Amazonian +myths were imported from Africa. Mr. Spencer based his disbelief +in the intellectual curiosity of the Amazonian tribes and of +Negroes on the reports of Mr. Bates and of Mungo Park. But it +turns out that both Negroes and Amazonians have stories which do +satisfy an unscientific curiosity, and it is even held that the +Negroes lent the Amazonians these very stories.[1] The +Kamschadals, according to Steller, "give themselves a reason why +for everything, according to their own lively fancy, and do not +leave the smallest matter uncriticised".[2] As far, then, as Mr. +Spencer's objections apply to existing savages, we may consider +them overweighed by the evidence, and we may believe in a naive +savage curiosity about the world and desire for explanations of the +causes of things. Mr. Tylor's opinion corroborates our own: "Man's +craving to know the causes at work in each event he witnesses, the +reasons why each state of things he surveys is such as it is and no +other, is no product of high civilisation, but a characteristic of +his race down to its lowest stages. Among rude savages it is +already an intellectual appetite, whose satisfaction claims many of +the moments not engrossed by war or sport, food or sleep. Even in +the Botocudo or the Australian, scientific speculation has its germ +in actual experience."[3] It will be shown later that the food of +the savage intellectual appetite is offered and consumed in the +shape of explanatory myths. + + +[1] See Amazonian Tortoise-Myth., pp. 5, 37, 40; and compare Mr. +Harris's Preface to Nights with Uncle Remus. + +[2] Steller, p. 267. Cf. Farrer's Primitive Manners, p. 274. + +[3] Primitive Culture, i. 369. + + +But we must now observe that the "actual experience," properly so +called, of the savage is so limited and so coloured by misconception +and superstition, that his knowledge of the world varies very much +from the conceptions of civilised races. He seeks an explanation, a +theory of things, based on his experience. But his knowledge of +physical causes and of natural laws is exceedingly scanty, and he is +driven to fall back upon what we may call metaphysical, or, in many +cases "supernatural" explanations. The narrower the range of man's +knowledge of physical causes, the wider is the field which he has to +fill up with hypothetical causes of a metaphysical or "supernatural" +character. These "supernatural" causes themselves the savage +believes to be matters of experience. It is to his mind a matter of +experience that all nature is personal and animated; that men may +change shapes with beasts; that incantations and supernatural beings +can cause sunshine and storm. + +A good example of this is given in Charlevoix's work on French +Canada.[1] Charlevoix was a Jesuit father and missionary among the +Hurons and other tribes of North America. He thus describes the +philosophy of the Red Men: "The Hurons attribute the most ordinary +effects to supernatural causes".[2] In the same page the good +father himself attributes the welcome arrival of rainy weather and +the cure of certain savage patients to the prayers of Pere Brebeuf +and to the exhibition of the sacraments. Charlevoix had +considerably extended the field in which natural effects are known +to be produced by natural causes. He was much more scientifically +minded than his savage flock, and was quite aware that an ordinary +clock with a pendulum cannot bring bad luck to a whole tribe, and +that a weather-cock is not a magical machine for securing +unpleasant weather. The Hurons, however, knowing less of natural +causes and nothing of modern machinery, were as convinced that his +clock was ruining the luck of the tribe and his weather-cock +spoiling the weather, as Father Charlevoix could be of the truth of +his own inferences. One or two other anecdotes in the good +father's history and letters help to explain the difference between +the philosophies of wild and of Christian men. The Pere Brebeuf +was once summoned at the instigation of a Huron wizard or +"medicine-man" before a council of the tribe. His judges told the +father that nothing had gone right since he appeared among them. +To this Brebeuf replied by "drawing the attention of the savages to +the absurdity of their principles". He admitted[3] the premise +that nothing had turned out well in the tribe since his arrival. +"But the reason," said he, "plainly is that God is angry with your +hardness of heart." No sooner had the good father thus demonstrated +the absurdity of savage principles of reasoning, than the malignant +Huron wizard fell down dead at his feet! This event naturally added +to the confusion of the savages. + + +[1] Histoire de la France-Nouvelle. + +[2] Vol. i. p. 191. + +[3] Vol. i. p. 192. + + +Coincidences of this sort have a great effect on savage minds. +Catlin, the friend of the Mandan tribe, mentions a chief who +consolidated his power by aid of a little arsenic, bought from the +whites. The chief used to prophesy the sudden death of his +opponents, which always occurred at the time indicated. The +natural results of the administration of arsenic were attributed by +the barbarous people to supernatural powers in the possession of +the chief.[1] Thus the philosophy of savages seeks causas +cognoscere rerum, like the philosophy of civilised men, but it +flies hastily to a hypothesis of "supernatural" causes which are +only guessed at, and are incapable of demonstration. This frame of +mind prevails still in civilised countries, as the Bishop of Nantes +showed when, in 1846, he attributed the floods of the Loire to "the +excesses of the press and the general disregard of Sunday". That +"supernatural" causes exist and may operate, it is not at all our +intention to deny. But the habit of looking everywhere for such +causes, and of assuming their interference at will, is the main +characteristic of savage speculation. The peculiarity of the +savage is that he thinks human agents can work supernaturally, +whereas even the Bishop reserved his supernatural explanations for +the Deity. On this belief in man's power to affect events beyond +the limits of natural possibility is based the whole theory of +MAGIC, the whole power of sorcerers. That theory, again, finds +incessant expression in myth, and therefore deserves our attention. + + +[1] Catlin, Letters, ii. 117. + + +The theory requires for its existence an almost boundless +credulity. This credulity appears to Europeans to prevail in full +force among savages. Bosman is amazed by the African belief that a +spider created the world. Moffat is astonished at the South +African notion that the sea was accidentally created by a girl. +Charlevoix says, "Les sauvages sont d'une facilite a croire ce +qu'on leur dit, que les plus facheuse experiences n'ont jamais pu +guerir".[1] But it is a curious fact that while savages are, as a +rule, so credulous, they often laugh at the religious doctrines +taught them by missionaries. Elsewhere they recognise certain +essential doctrines as familiar forms of old. Dr. Moffat remarks, +"To speak of the Creation, the Fall and the Resurrection, seemed +more fabulous, extravagant and ludicrous to them than their own +vain stories of lions and hyaenas." Again, "The Gospel appeared +too preposterous for the most foolish to believe".[2] While the +Zulus declared that they used to accept their own myths without +inquiry,[3] it was a Zulu who suggested to Bishop Colenso his +doubts about the historical character of the Noachian Deluge. +Hearne[4] knew a Red Man, Matorabhee, who, "though a perfect bigot +with regard to the arts and tricks of the jugglers, could yet by no +means be impressed with a belief of any part of OUR religion". +Lieutenant Haggard, R.N., tells the writer that during an eclipse +at Lamoo he ridiculed the native notion of driving away a beast +which devours the moon, and explained the real cause of the +phenomenon. But his native friend protested that "he could not be +expected to believe such a story". Yet other savages aver an old +agreement with the belief in a moral Creator. + + +[1] Vol. ii. p. 378. + +[2] Missionary Labours, p. 245. + +[3] Callaway, Religion of Amazulus, i. 35. + +[4] Journey among the Indians, 1795, p. 350. + + +We have already seen sufficient examples of credulity in savage +doctrines about the equal relations of men and beasts, stars, +clouds and plants. The same readiness of belief, which would be +surprising in a Christian child, has been found to regulate the +rudimentary political organisations of grey barbarians. Add to +this credulity a philosophy which takes resemblance, or contiguity +in space, or nearness in time as a sufficient reason for +predicating the relations of cause and effect, and we have the +basis of savage physical science. Yet the metaphysical theories of +savages, as expressed in Maori, Polynesian, and Zuni hymns, often +amaze us by their wealth of abstract ideas. Coincidence elsewhere +stands for cause. + +Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, is the motto of the savage philosophy +of causation. The untutored reasoner speculates on the principles +of the Egyptian clergy, as described by Herodotus.[1] "The +Egyptians have discovered more omens and prodigies than any other +men; for when aught prodigious occurs, they keep good watch, and +write down what follows; and then, if anything like the prodigy be +repeated, they expect the same events to follow as before." This +way of looking at things is the very essence of superstition. + + +[1] II. p. 82. + + +Savages, as a rule, are not even so scientific as the Egyptians. +When an untoward event occurs, they look for its cause among all +the less familiar circumstances of the last few days, and select +the determining cause very much at random. Thus the arrival of the +French missionaries among the Hurons was coincident with certain +unfortunate events; therefore it was argued that the advent of the +missionaries was the cause of the misfortune. When the Bechuanas +suffered from drought, they attributed the lack of rain to the +arrival of Dr. Moffat, and especially to his beard, his church +bell, and a bag of salt in his possession. Here there was not even +the pretence of analogy between cause and effect. Some savages +might have argued (it is quite in their style), that as salt causes +thirst, a bag of salt causes drought; but no such case could be +made out against Dr. Moffat's bell and beard. To give an example +from the beliefs of English peasants. When a cottage was buried by +a little avalanche in 1772, the accident was attributed to the +carelessness of the cottagers, who had allowed a light to be taken +out of their dwelling in Christmas-tide.[1] We see the same +confusion between antecedence and consequence in time on one side, +and cause and effect on the other, when the Red Indians aver that +birds actually bring winds and storms or fair weather. They take +literally the sense of the Rhodian swallow-song:-- + + + The swallow hath come, + Bringing fair hours, + Bringing fair seasons, + On black back and white breast.[2] + + +[1] Shropshire Folk-Lore, by Miss Burne, iii. 401. + +[2] Brinton, Myths of New World, p. 107. + + +Again, in the Pacific the people of one island always attribute +hurricanes to the machinations of the people of the nearest island +to windward. The wind comes from them; therefore (as their +medicine-men can notoriously influence the weather), they must have +sent the wind. This unneighbourly act is a casus belli, and +through the whole of a group of islands the banner of war, like the +flag of freedom in Byron, flies against the wind. The chief +principle, then, of savage science is that antecedence and +consequence in time are the same as effect and cause.[1] Again, +savage science holds that LIKE AFFECTS LIKE, that you can injure a +man, for example, by injuring his effigy. On these principles the +savage explains the world to himself, and on these principles he +tries to subdue to himself the world. Now the putting of these +principles into practice is simply the exercise of art magic, an +art to which nothing seems impossible. The belief that his Shamans +or medicine-men practise this art is universal among savages. It +seriously affects their conduct, and is reflected in their myths. + + +[1] See account of Zuni metaphysics in chapter on American Divine +Myths. + + +The one general rule which governs all magical reasoning is, that +casual connection in thought is equivalent to causative connection +in fact. Like suggests like to human thought by association of +ideas; wherefore like influences like, or produces analogous +effects in practice. Any object once in a man's possession, +especially his hair or his nails, is supposed to be capable of +being used against him by a sorcerer. The part suggests the whole. +A lock of a man's hair was part of the man; to destroy the hair is +to destroy its former owner. Again, whatever event follows another +in time suggests it, and may have been caused by it. Accompanying +these ideas is the belief that nature is peopled by invisible +spiritual powers, over which magicians and sorcerers possess +influence. The magic of the lower races chiefly turns on these two +beliefs. First, "man having come to associate in thought those +things which he found by experience to be connected in fact, +proceeded erroneously to invert their action, and to conclude that +association in thought must involve similar connection in reality. +He thus attempted to discover, to foretell, and to cause events, +by means of processes which we now see to have only an ideal +significance."[1] Secondly, man endeavoured to make disembodied +spirits of the dead, or any other spirits, obedient to his will. +Savage philosophy presumes that the beliefs are correct, and that +their practical application is successful. Examples of the first +of the two chief magical ideas are as common in unscientific modern +times or among unscientific modern people as in the savage world. + + +[1] Primitive Culture, i. 14. + + +The physicians of the age of Charles II. were wont to give their +patients "mummy powder," that is, pulverised mummy. They argued +that the mummy had lasted for a very long time, and that the +patients ought to do so likewise. Pliny imagined that diamonds +must be found in company with gold, because these are the most +perfect substances in the world, and like should draw to like. +Aurum potabile, or drinkable gold, was a favourite medical nostrum +of the Middle Ages, because gold, being perfect, should produce +perfect health. Among savages the belief that like is caused by +like is exemplified in very many practices. The New Caledonians, +when they wish their yam plots to be fertile, bury in them with +mystic ceremonies certain stones which are naturally shaped like +yams. The Melanesians have reduced this kind of magic to a system. +Among them certain stones have a magical efficacy, which is +determined in each case by the shape of the stone. "A stone in the +shape of a pig, of a bread-fruit, of a yam, was a most valuable +find. No garden was planted without the stones which were to +increase the crop."[1] Stones with a rude resemblance to beasts +bring the Zuni luck in the chase. + + +[1] Rev. R. H. Codrington, Journ. Anth. Inst., February, 1881. + + +The spiritual theory in some places is mixed up with the "like to +like" theory, and the magical stones are found where the spirits +have been heard twittering and whistling. "A large stone lying +with a number of small ones under it, like a sow among her +sucklings, was good for a childless woman."[1] It is the savage +belief that stones reproduce their species, a belief consonant with +the general theory of universal animation and personality. The +ancient belief that diamonds gendered diamonds is a survival from +these ideas. "A stone with little disks upon it was good to bring +in money; any fanciful interpretation of a mark was enough to give +a character to the stone and its associated Vui" or spirit in +Melanesia. In Scotland, stones shaped like various parts of the +human body are expected to cure the diseases with which these +members may be afflicted. "These stones were called by the names +of the limbs which they represented, as 'eye-stone,' 'head-stone'." +The patient washed the affected part of the body, and rubbed it +well with the stone corresponding.[2] + + +[1] Codrington, Journ. Anth. Soc., x. iii. 276. + +[2] Gregor, Folk-Lore of North-East Counties, p. 40. + + +To return from European peasant-magic to that of savages, we find +that when the Bushmen want wet weather they light fires, believing +that the black smoke clouds will attract black rain clouds; while +the Zulus sacrifice black cattle to attract black clouds of +rain.[1] Though this magic has its origin in savage ignorance, it +survives into civilisation. Thus the sacrifices of the Vedic age +were imitations of the natural phenomena which the priests desired +to produce.[2] "C'etait un moyen de faire tombre la pluie en +realisant, par les representations terrestres des eaux du nuage et +de l'eclair, les conditions dans lesquelles celui-ci determine dans +le ciel l'epanchement de celles-la." A good example of magical +science is afforded by the medical practice of the Dacotahs of +North America.[3] When any one is ill, an image of his disease, a +boil or what not, is carved in wood. This little image is then +placed in a bowl of water and shot at with a gun. The image of the +disease being destroyed, the disease itself is expected to +disappear. Compare the magic of the Philistines, who made golden +images of the sores which plagued them and stowed them away in the +ark.[4] The custom of making a wax statuette of an enemy, and +piercing it with pins or melting it before the fire, so that the +detested person might waste as his semblance melted, was common in +mediaeval Europe, was known to Plato, and is practised by Negroes. +Some Australians take some of the hair of an enemy, mix it with +grease and the feathers of the eagle, and burn it in the fire. +This is "bar" or black magic. The boarding under the chair of a +magistrate in Barbadoes was lifted not long ago, and the ground +beneath was found covered with wax images of litigants stuck full +of pins. + + +[1] Callaway, i. 92. + +[2] Bergaigne, Religion Vedique, i. 126-138, i., vii., viii. + +[3] Schoolcraft, iv. 491. + +[4] 1 Samuel vi. 4, 5. + + +The war-magic of the Dacotahs works in a similar manner. Before a +party starts on the war-trail, the chief, with various ceremonies, +takes his club and stands before his tent. An old witch bowls +hoops at him; each hoop represents an enemy, and for each he +strikes a foeman is expected to fall. A bowl of sweetened water is +also set out to entice the spirits of the enemy.[1] The war-magic +of the Aryans in India does not differ much in character from that +of the Dacotahs. "If any one wishes his army to be victorious, he +should go beyond the battle-line, cut a stalk of grass at the top +and end, and throw it against the hostile army with the words, +Prasahe kas trapasyati?--O Prasaha, who sees thee? If one who has +such knowledge cuts a stalk of grass and throws the parts at the +hostile army, it becomes split and dissolved, just as a daughter- +in-law becomes abashed and faints when seeing her father-in-law,"-- +an allusion, apparently, to the widespread tabu which makes +fathers-in-law, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and mothers-in-law +avoid each other.[2] + + +[1] Schoolcraft, iv. 496. + +[2] Aitareya Brahmana, iii. 22. + + +The hunt-dances of the Red Indians and Australians are arranged +like their war-magic. Effigies of the bears, deer, or kangaroos +are made, or some of the hunters imitate the motions of these +animals. The rest of the dancers pretend to spear them, and it is +hoped that this will ensure success among the real bears and +kangaroos. + +Here is a singular piece of magic in which Europeans and Australian +blacks agree. Boris Godunoff made his servants swear never to +injure him by casting spells with the dust on which his feet or his +carriage wheels had left traces.[1] Mr. Howitt finds the same +magic among the Kurnai.[2] "Seeing a Tatungolung very lame, I +asked him what was the matter. He said, 'Some fellow has put +BOTTLE in my foot'. I found he was probably suffering from acute +rheumatism. He explained that some enemy must have found his foot- +track and have buried in it a piece of broken bottle. The magic +influence, he believed, caused it to enter his foot." On another +occasion a native told Mr. Howitt that he had seen black fellows +putting poison in his foot-tracks. Bosman mentions a similar +practice among the people of Guinea. In Scottish folk-lore a screw +nail is fixed into the footprint of the person who is to be +injured. + + +[1] Rambaud's History of Russia, English trans., i. 351. + +[2] Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 250. + + +Just as these magical efforts to influence like by like work their +way into Vedic and other religions, so they are introduced into the +religion of the savage. His prayers are addresses to some sort of +superior being, but the efficacy of the prayer is often eked out by +a little magic, unless indeed we prefer to suppose that the words +of the supplication are interpreted by gesture-speech. Sproat +writes: "Set words and gestures are used according to the thing +desired. For instance, in praying for salmon, the native rubs the +backs of his hands, looks upwards, and mutters the words, 'Many +salmon, many salmon'. If he wishes for deer, he carefully rubs +both eyes; or, if it is geese, he rubs the back of his shoulder, +uttering always in a sing-song way the accustomed formula. . . . +All these practices in praying no doubt have a meaning. We may see +a steady hand is needed in throwing the salmon-spear, and clear +eyesight in finding deer in the forest."[1] + + +[1] Savage Life, p. 208. + + +In addition to these forms of symbolical magic (which might be +multiplied to any extent), we find among savages the belief in the +power of songs of INCANTATION. This is a feature of magic which +specially deserves our attention. In myths, and still more in +marchen or household tales, we shall constantly find that the most +miraculous effects are caused when the hero pronounces a few lines +of rhyme. In Rome, as we have all read in the Latin Delectus, it +was thought that incantations could draw down the moon. In the +Odyssey the kinsfolk of Odysseus sing "a song of healing" over the +wound which was dealt him by the boar's tusk. Jeanne d'Arc, +wounded at Orleans, refused a similar remedy. Sophocles speaks of +the folly of muttering incantations over wounds that need the +surgeon's knife. The song that salved wounds occurs in the +Kalewala, the epic poem of the Finns. In many of Grimm's marchen, +miracles are wrought by the repetition of snatches of rhyme. This +belief is derived from the savage state of fancy. According to +Kohl,[1] "Every sorrowful or joyful emotion that opens the Indian's +mouth is at once wrapped up in the garb of a wabanonagamowin +(chanson magicale). If you ask one of them to sing you a simple +innocent hymn in praise of Nature, a spring or jovial hunting +stave, he never gives you anything but a form of incantation, with +which he says you will be able to call to you all the birds from +the sky, and all the foxes and wolves from their caves and +burrows."[2] The giant's daughter in the Scotch marchen, Nicht, +Nought, Nothing, is thus enabled to call to her aid "all the birds +of the sky". In the same way, if you ask an Indian for a love- +song, he will say that a philtre is really much more efficacious. +The savage, in short, is extremely practical. His arts, music and +drawing, exist not pour l'art, but for a definite purpose, as +methods of getting something that the artist wants. The young +lover whom Kohl knew, like the lover of Bombyca in Theocritus, +believed in having an image of himself and an image of the beloved. +Into the heart of the female image he thrust magic powders, and he +said that this was common, lovers adding songs, "partly elegiac, +partly malicious, and almost criminal forms of incantation".[3] + + +[1] Page 395. + +[2] Cf. Comparetti's Traditional Poetry of the Finns. + +[3] Kitchi gami, pp. 395, 397. + + +Among the Indo-Aryans the masaminik or incantations of the Red Man +are known as mantras.[1] These are usually texts from the Veda, +and are chanted over the sick and in other circumstances where +magic is believed to be efficacious. Among the New Zealanders the +incantations are called karakias, and are employed in actual life. +There is a special karakia to raise the wind. In Maori myths the +hero is very handy with his karakia. Rocks split before him, as +before girls who use incantations in Kaffir and Bushman tales. He +assumes the shape of any animal at will, or flies in the air, all +by virtue of the karakia or incantation.[2] + + +[1] Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 441, "Incantations from the Atharva +Veda". + +[2] Taylor's New Zealand; Theal's Kaffir Folk-Lore, South-African +Folk-Lore Journal, passim; Shortland's Traditions of the New +Zealanders, pp. 130-135. + + +Without multiplying examples in the savage belief that miracles can +be wrought by virtue of physical CORRESPONDANCES, by like acting on +like, by the part affecting the whole, and so forth, we may go on +to the magical results produced by the aid of spirits. These may +be either spirits of the dead or spiritual essences that never +animated mortal men. Savage magic or science rests partly on the +belief that the world is peopled by a "choir invisible," or rather +by a choir only occasionally visible to certain gifted people, +sorcerers and diviners. An enormous amount of evidence to prove +the existence of these tenets has been collected by Mr. Tylor, and +is accessible to all in the chapters on "Animism" in his Primitive +Culture. It is not our business here to account for the +universality of the belief in spirits. Mr. Tylor, following +Lucretius and Homer, derives the belief from the reasonings of +early men on the phenomena of dreams, fainting, shadows, visions +caused by narcotics, hallucinations, and other facts which suggest +the hypothesis of a separable life apart from the bodily organism. +It would scarcely be fair not to add that the kind of "facts" +investigated by the Psychical Society--such "facts" as the +appearance of men at the moment of death in places remote from the +scene of their decease, with such real or delusive experiences as +the noises and visions in haunted houses--are familiar to savages. +Without discussing these obscure matters, it may be said that they +influence the thoughts even of some scientifically trained and +civilised men. It is natural, therefore, that they should strongly +sway the credulous imagination of backward races, in which they +originate or confirm the belief that life can exist and manifest +itself after the death of the body.[1] + + +[1] See the author's Making of Religion, 1898. + + +Some examples of savage "ghost-stories," precisely analogous to the +"facts" of the Psychical Society's investigations, may be adduced. +The first is curious because it offers among the Kanekas an example +of a belief current in Breton folk-lore. The story is vouched for +by Mr. J. J. Atkinson, late of Noumea, New Caledonia. Mr. +Atkinson, we have reason to believe, was unacquainted with the +Breton parallel. To him one day a Kaneka of his acquaintance paid +a visit, and seemed loth to go away. He took leave, returned, and +took leave again, till Mr. Atkinson asked him the reason of his +behaviour. He then explained that he was about to die, and would +never see his English friend again. As he seemed in perfect +health, Mr. Atkinson rallied him on his hypochondria; but the poor +fellow replied that his fate was sealed. He had lately met in the +wood one whom he took for the Kaneka girl of his heart; but he +became aware too late that she was no mortal woman, but a wood- +spirit in the guise of the beloved. The result would be his death +within three days, and, as a matter of fact, he died. This is the +groundwork of the old Breton ballad of Le Sieur Nan, who dies after +his intrigue with the forest spectre.[1] A tale more like a common +modern ghost-story is vouched for by Mr. C. J. Du Ve, in Australia. +In the year 1860, a Maneroo black fellow died in the service of Mr. +Du Ve. "The day before he died, having been ill some time, he said +that in the night his father, his father's friend, and a female +spirit he could not recognise, had come to him and said that he +would die next day, and that they would wait for him. Mr. Du Ye +adds that, though previously the Christian belief had been +explained to this man, it had entirely faded, and that he had gone +back to the belief of his childhood." Mr. Fison, who prints this +tale in his Kamilaroi and Kurnai,[2] adds, "I could give many +similar instances which have come within my own knowledge among the +Fijians, and, strange to say, the dying man in all these cases kept +his appointment with the ghosts to the very day". + + +[1] It may, of course, be conjectured that the French introduced +this belief into New Caledonia. + +[2] Page 247. + + +In the Cruise of the Beagle is a parallel anecdote of a Fuegian, +Jimmy Button, and his father's ghost. + +Without entering into a discussion of ghosts, it is plain that the +kind of evidence, whatever its value may be, which convinces many +educated Europeans of the existence of "veridical" apparitions has +also played its part in the philosophy of uncivilised races. On +this belief in apparitions, then, is based the power of the savage +sorcerers and necromants, of the men who converse with the dead and +are aided by disembodied spirits. These men have greatly influenced +the beginnings of mythology. Among certain Australian tribes the +necromants are called Birraark.[1] "The Kurnai tell me," says Mr. +Howitt, "that a Birraark was supposed to be initiated by the 'Mrarts +(ghosts) when they met him wandering in the bush. . . . It was from +the ghosts that he obtained replies to questions concerning events +passing at a distance or yet to happen, which might be of interest +or moment to his tribe." Mr. Howitt prints an account of a +spiritual seance in the bush.[2] "The fires were let go down. The +Birraark uttered a cry 'coo-ee' at intervals. At length a distant +reply was heard, and shortly afterwards the sound as of persons +jumping on the ground in succession. A voice was then heard in the +gloom asking in a strange intonation, 'What is wanted?' Questions +were put by the Birraark and replies given. At the termination of +the seance, the spirit-voice said, 'We are going'. Finally, the +Birraark was found in the top of an almost inaccessible tree, +apparently asleep."[3] There was one Birraark at least to every +clan. The Kurnai gave the name of "Brewin" (a powerful evil spirit) +to a Birraark who was once carried away for several days by the +Mrarts or spirits.[4] It is a belief with the Australians, as, +according to Bosman, it was with the people of the Gold Coast, that +a very powerful wizard lives far inland, and the Negroes held that +to this warlock the spirits of the dead went to be judged according +to the merit of their actions in life. Here we have a doctrine +answering to the Greek belief in "the wizard Minos," Aeacus, and +Rhadamanthus, and to the Egyptian idea of Osiris as judge of the +departed.[5] The pretensions of the sorcerer to converse with the +dead are attested by Mr. Brough Smyth.[6] "A sorcerer lying on his +stomach spoke to the deceased, and the other sitting by his side +received the precious messages which the dead man told." As a +natural result of these beliefs, the Australian necromant has great +power in the tribe. Mr. Howitt mentions a case in which a group of +kindred, ceasing to use their old totemistic surname, called +themselves the children of a famous dead Birraark, who thus became +an eponymous hero, like Ion among the Ionians.[7] Among the Scotch +Highlanders the position and practice of the seer were very like +those of the Birraark. "A person," says Scott,[8] "was wrapped up +in the skin of a newly slain bullock and deposited beside a +waterfall or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, +wild and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested +nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his +mind the question proposed and whatever was impressed on him by his +exalted imagination PASSED FOR THE INSPIRATION OF THE DISEMBODIED +SPIRITS who haunt these desolate recesses." A number of examples +are given in Martin's Description of the Western Islands.[9] In the +Century magazine (July, 1882) is a very full report of Thlinkeet +medicine-men and metamorphoses. + + +[1] Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 253. + +[2] Page 254. + +[3] In the Jesuit Relations (1637), p. 51, we read that the Red +Indian sorcerer or Jossakeed was credited with power to vanish +suddenly away out of sight of the men standing around him. Of him, +as of Homeric gods, it might be said, "Who has power to see him +come or go against his will?" + +[4] Here, in the first edition, occurred the following passage: +"The conception of Brewin is about as near as the Kurnai get to the +idea of a God; their conferring of his name on a powerful sorcerer +is therefore a point of importance and interest". Mr. Howitt's +later knowledge demonstrates an error here. + +[5] Bosman in Pinkerton, xvi. p. 401. + +[6] Aborigines of Australia, i. 197. + +[7] In Victoria, after dark the wizard goes up to the clouds and +brings down a good spirit. Dawkins, p. 57. For eponymous +medicine-men see Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 231. + +[8] Lady of the Lake, note 1 to Canto iv. + +[9] P. 112. + + +The sorcerer among the Zulus is, apparently, of a naturally +hysterical and nervous constitution. "He hears the spirits who +speak by whistlings speaking to him."[1] Whistling is also the +language of the ghosts in New Caledonia, where Mr. Atkinson informs +us that he has occasionally put an able-bodied Kaneka to +ignominious flight by whistling softly in the dusk. The ghosts in +Homer make a similar sound, "and even as bats flit gibbering in the +secret place of a wondrous cavern, . . . even so the souls gibbered +as they fared together" (Odyssey, xxiv. 5). "The familiar spirits +make him" (that Zulu sorcerer) "acquainted with what is about to +happen, and then he divines for the people." As the Birraarks +learn songs and dance-music from the Mrarts, so the Zulu Inyanga or +diviners learn magical couplets from the Itongo or spirits.[2] + + +[1] Callaway, Religious System of the Amazules, p. 265. + +[2] On all this, see "Possession" in The Making of Religion. + + +The evidence of institutions confirms the reports about savage +belief in magic. The political power of the diviners is very +great, as may be observed from the fact that a hereditary chief +needs their consecration to make him a chief de jure.[1] In fact, +the qualities of the diviner are those which give his sacred +authority to the chief. When he has obtained from the diviners all +their medicines and information as to the mode of using the +isitundu (a magical vessel), it is said that he often orders them +to be killed. Now, the chief is so far a medicine-man that he is +lord of the air. "The heaven is the chief's," say the Zulus; and +when he calls out his men, "though the heaven is clear, it becomes +clouded by the great wind that arises". Other Zulus explain this +as the mere hyperbole of adulation. "The word of the chief gives +confidence to his troops; they say, 'We are going; the chief has +already seen all that will happen in his vessel'. Such then are +chiefs; they use a vessel for divination."[2] The makers of rain +are known in Zululand as "heaven-herds" or "sky-herds," who herd +the heaven that it may not break out and do its will on the +property of the people. These men are, in fact, [Greek text +omitted], "cloud-gatherers," like the Homeric Zeus, the lord of the +heavens. Their name of "herds of the heavens" has a Vedic sound. +"The herd that herds the lightning," say the Zulus, "does the same +as the herder of the cattle; he does as he does by whistling; he +says, 'Tshu-i-i-i. Depart and go yonder. Do not come here.'" +Here let it be observed that the Zulus conceive of the thunder- +clouds and lightning as actual creatures, capable of being herded +like sheep. There is no metaphor or allegory about the matter,[3] +and no forgetfulness of the original meaning of words. The cloud- +herd is just like the cowherd, except that not every man, but only +sorcerers, and they who have eaten the "lightning-bird" (a bird +shot near the place where lightning has struck the earth), can herd +the clouds of heaven. The same ideas prevail among the Bushmen, +where the rainmaker is asked "to milk a nice gentle female rain"; +the rain-clouds are her hair. Among the Bushmen Rain is a person. +Among the Red Indians no metaphor seems to be intended when it is +said that "it is always birds who make the wind, except that of the +east". The Dacotahs once killed a thunder-bird[4] behind Little +Crow's village on the Missouri. It had a face like a man with a +nose like an eagle's bill.[5] + + +[1] Callaway, p. 340. + +[2] Callaway, Religions System of the Amazules, p. 343. + +[3] Ibid., p. 385. + +[4] Schoolcraft, iii. 486. + +[5] Compare Callaway, p. 119. + + +The political and social powers which come into the hands of the +sorcerers are manifest, even in the case of the Australians. +Tribes and individuals can attempt few enterprises without the aid +of the man who listens to the ghosts. Only he can foretell the +future, and, in the case of the natural death of a member of the +tribe, can direct the vengeance of the survivors against the +hostile magician who has committed a murder by "bar" or magic. +Among the Zulus we have seen that sorcery gives the sanction to the +power of the chief. "The winds and weather are at the command" of +Bosman's "great fetisher". Inland from the Gold Coast,[1] the king +of Loango, according to the Abbe Proyart, "has credit to make rain +fall on earth". Similar beliefs, with like political results, will +be found to follow from the superstition of magic among the Red +Indians of North America. The difficulty of writing about sorcerers +among the Red Indians is caused by the abundance of the evidence. +Charlevoix and the other early Jesuit missionaries found that the +jongleurs, as Charlevoix calls the Jossakeeds or medicine-men, were +their chief opponents. As among the Scotch Highlanders, the +Australians and the Zulus, the Red Indian jongleur is visited by +the spirits. He covers a hut with the skin of the animal which he +commonly wears, retires thither, and there converses with the +bodiless beings.[2] The good missionary like Mr. Moffat in Africa, +was convinced that the exercises of the Jossakeeds were verily +supernatural. "Ces seducteurs ont un veritable commerce avec le +pere du mensonge."[3] This was denied by earlier and wiser Jesuit +missionaries. Their political power was naturally great. In time +of war "ils avancent et retardent les marches comme il leur plait". +In our own century it was a medicine-man, Ten Squa Ta Way, who by +his magical processes and superstitious rites stirred up a +formidable war against the United States.[4] According to Mr. +Pond,[5] the native name of the Dacotah medicine-men, "Wakan," +signifies "men supernaturally gifted". Medicine-men are believed +to be "wakanised" by mystic intercourse with supernatural beings. +The business of the wakanised man is to discern future events, to +lead and direct parties on the war-trail, "to raise the storm or +calm the tempest, to converse with the lightning or thunder as with +familiar friends".[6] The wakanised man, like the Australian +Birraark and the Zulu diviner, "dictates chants and prayers". In +battle "every Dacotah warrior looks to the Wakan man as almost his +only resource". Belief in Wakan men is, Mr. Pond says, universal +among the Dacotahs, except where Christianity has undermined it. +"Their influence is deeply felt by every individual of the tribe, +and controls all their affairs." The Wakan man's functions are +absorbed by the general or war-chief of the tribe, and in +Schoolcraft (iv. 495), Captain Eastman prints copies of native +scrolls showing the war-chief at work as a wizard. "The war-chief +who leads the party to war is always one of these medicine-men." +In another passage the medicine-men are described as "having a +voice in the sale of land". It must be observed that the +Jossakeed, or medicine-man, pure and simple, exercises a power +which is not in itself hereditary. Chieftainship, when associated +with inheritance of property, is hereditary; and when the chief, as +among the Zulus, absorbs supernatural power, then the same man +becomes diviner and chief, and is a person of great and sacred +influence. The liveliest account of the performances of the Maori +"tohunga" or sorcerer is to be found in Old New Zealand,[7] by the +Pakeha Maori, an English gentleman who had lived with the natives +like one of themselves. The tohunga, says this author,[8] presided +over "all those services and customs which had something +approaching to a religious character. They also pretended to power +by means of certain familiar spirits, to foretell future events, +and even in some cases to control them. . . . The spirit 'entered +into' them, and, on being questioned, gave a response in a sort of +half whistling, half-articulate voice, supposed to be the proper +language of spirits." In New South Wales, Mrs. Langlot Parker has +witnessed a similar exhibition. The "spirits" told the truth in +this case. The Pakeha Maori was present in a darkened village-hall +when the spirit of a young man, a great friend of his own, was +called up by a tohunga. "Suddenly, without the slightest warning, +a voice came out of the darkness. . . . The voice all through, it +is to be remembered, was not the voice of the tohunga, but a +strange melancholy sound, like the sound of a wind blowing into a +hollow vessel. 'It is well with me; my place is a good place.' +The spirit gave an answer to a question which proved to be correct, +and then 'Farewell,' cried the spirit FROM DEEP BENEATH THE GROUND. +'Farewell,' again, FROM HIGH IN AIR. 'Farewell,' once more came +moaning through the distant darkness of the night." As chiefs in +New Zealand no less than tohungas can exercise the mystical and +magical power of tabu, that is, of imparting to any object or +person an inviolable character, and can prevent or remit the +mysterious punishment for infringement of tabu, it appears probable +that in New Zealand, as well as among the Zulus and Red Indians, +chiefs have a tendency to absorb the sacred character and powers of +the tohungas. This is natural enough, for a tohunga, if he plays +his cards well, is sure to acquire property and hereditary wealth, +which, in combination with magical influence, are the necessary +qualifications for the office of the chieftain. + + +[1] Pinkerton, xvi. 401. + +[2] Charlevoix, i. 105. See "Savage Spiritualism" in Cock Lane and +Common Sense. + +[3] Ibid., iii. 362. + +[4] Catlin, ii. 17. + +[5] In Schoolcraft, iv. 402. + +[6] Pond, in Schoolcraft, iv. 647. + +[7] Auckland, 1863. + +[8] Page 148. + + +Here is the place to mention a fact which, though at first sight it +may appear to have only a social interest, yet bears on the +development of mythology. Property and rank seem to have been +essential to each other in the making of social rank, and where one +is absent among contemporary savages, there we do not find the +other. As an example of this, we might take the case of two +peoples who, like the Homeric Ethiopians, are the outermost of men, +and dwell far apart at the ends of the world. The Eskimos and the +Fuegians, at the extreme north and south of the American continent, +agree in having little or no private property and no chiefs. Yet +magic is providing a kind of basis of rank. The bleak plains of +ice and rock are, like Attica, "the mother of men without master or +lord". Among the "house-mates" of the smaller settlements there is +no head-man, and in the larger gatherings Dr. Rink says that "still +less than among the house-mates was any one belonging to such a +place to be considered a chief". The songs and stories of the +Eskimo contain the praises of men who have risen up and killed any +usurper who tried to be a ruler over his "place-mates". No one +could possibly establish any authority on the basis of property, +because "superfluous property, implements, etc., rarely existed". +If there are three boats in one household, one of the boats is +"borrowed" by the community, and reverts to the general fund. +If we look at the account of the Fuegians described in Admiral +Fitzroy's cruise, we find a similar absence of rank produced by +similar causes. "The perfect equality among the individuals +composing the tribes must for a long time retard their +civilisation. . . . At present even a piece of cloth is torn in +shreds and distributed, and no one individual becomes richer than +another. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand how a +chief can arise till there is property of some sort by which he +might manifest and still increase his authority." In the same +book, however, we get a glimpse of one means by which authority can +be exercised. "The doctor-wizard of each party has much influence +over his companions." Among the Eskimos this element in the growth +of authority also exists. A class of wizards called Angakut have +power to cause fine weather, and, by the gift of second-sight and +magical practices, can detect crimes, so that they necessarily +become a kind of civil magistrates. These Angekkok or Angakut have +familiar spirits called Torngak, a word connected with the name of +their chief spiritual being, Torngarsak. The Torngak is commonly +the ghost of a deceased parent of the sorcerer. "These men," says +Egede, "are held in great honour and esteem among this stupid and +ignorant nation, insomuch that nobody dare ever refuse the +strictest obedience when they command him in the name of +Torngarsak." The importance and actual existence of belief in +magic has thus been attested by the evidence of institutions, even +among Australians, Fuegians and Eskimos. + +It is now necessary to pass from examples of tribes who have +superstitious respect for certain individuals, but who have no +property and no chiefs, to peoples who exhibit the phenomenon of +superstitious reverence attached to wealthy rulers or to judges. +To take the example of Ireland, as described in the Senchus Mor, we +learn that the chiefs, just like the Angakut of the Eskimos, had +"power to make fair or foul weather" in the literal sense of the +words.[1] In Africa, in the same way, as Bosman, the old traveller, +says, "As to what difference there is between one negro and another, +the richest man is the most honoured," yet the most honoured man has +the same magical power as the poor Angakuts of the Eskimos. + + +[1] Early History of Institutions, p. 195. + + +"In the Solomon Islands," says Dr. Codrington, "there is nothing to +prevent a common man from becoming a chief, if he can show that he +has the mana (supernatural power) for it."[1] + + +[1] Journ. Anth. Inst., x. iii. 287, 300, 309. + + +Though it is anticipating a later stage of this inquiry, we must +here observe that the sacredness, and even the magical virtues of +barbarous chiefs seem to have descended to the early leaders of +European races. The children of Odin and of Zeus were "sacred +kings". The Homeric chiefs, like those of the Zulus and the Red +Men, and of the early Irish and Swedes, exercised an influence over +the physical universe. Homer[1] speaks of "a blameless king, one +that fears the gods, and reigns among many men and mighty, and the +black earth bears wheat and barley, and the sheep bring forth and +fail not, and the sea gives store of fish, and all out of his good +sovereignty". + + +[1] Od., xix. 109. + + +The attributes usually assigned by barbarous peoples to their +medicine-men have not yet been exhausted. We have found that they +can foresee and declare the future; that they control the weather +and the sensible world; that they can converse with, visit and +employ about their own business the souls of the dead. It would be +easy to show at even greater length that the medicine-man has +everywhere the power of metamorphosis. He can assume the shapes of +all beasts, birds, fishes, insects and inorganic matters, and he +can subdue other people to the same enchantment. This belief +obviously rests on the lack of recognised distinction between man +and the rest of the world, which we have so frequently insisted on +as a characteristic of savage and barbarous thought. Examples of +accredited metamorphosis are so common everywhere, and so well +known, that it would be waste of space to give a long account of +them. In Primitive Culture[1] a cloud of witnesses to the belief +in human tigers, hyaenas, leopards and wolves is collected.[2] Mr. +Lane[3] found metamorphosis by wizards as accredited a working +belief at Cairo as it is among Abipones, Eskimo, or the people of +Ashangoland. In various parts of Scotland there is a tale of a +witch who was shot at when in the guise of a hare. In this shape +she was wounded, and the same wound was found on her when she +resumed her human appearance. Lafitau, early in the last century, +found precisely the same tale, except that the wizards took the +form of birds, not of hares, among the Red Indians. The birds were +wounded by the magical arrows of an old medicine-man, Shonnoh Koui +Eretsi, and these bolts were found in the bodies of the human +culprits. In Japan, as we learn from several stories in Mr. +Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, people chiefly metamorphose +themselves into foxes and badgers. The sorcerers of Honduras[4] +"possess the power of transforming men into wild beasts, and were +much feared accordingly". Among the Cakchiquels, a cultivated +people of Guatemala, the very name of the clergy, haleb, was +derived from their power of assuming animal shapes, which they took +on as easily as the Homeric gods.[5] Regnard, the French +dramatist, who travelled among the Lapps at the end of the +seventeenth century (1681), says: "They believe witches can turn +men into cats;" and again, "Under the figures of swans, crows, +falcons and geese, they call up tempests and destroy ships".[6] +Among the Bushmen "sorcerers assume the forms of beasts and +jackals".[7] Dobrizhoffer (1717-91), a missionary in Paraguay, +found that "sorcerers arrogate to themselves the power of +transforming themselves into tigers".[8] He was present when the +Abipones believed that a conversion of this sort was actually +taking place: "Alas," cried the people, "his whole body is +beginning to be covered with tiger-spots; his nails are growing". +Near Loanda, Livingstone found that a "chief may metamorphose +himself into a lion, kill any one he choses, and then resume his +proper form".[9] Among the Barotse and Balonda, "while persons are +still alive they may enter into lions and alligators".[10] Among +the Mayas of Central America "sorcerers could transform themselves +into dogs, pigs and other animals; their glance was death to a +victim".[11] The Thlinkeets think that their Shamans can +metamorphose themselves into animals at pleasure; and a very old +raven was pointed out to Mr. C. E. S. Wood as an incarnation of the +soul of a Shaman.[12] Sir A. C. Lyall finds a similar belief in +flourishing existence in India. The European superstition of the +were-wolf is too well known to need description. Perhaps the most +curious legend is that told by Giraldus Cambrensis about a man and +his wife metamorphosed into wolves by an abbot. They retained +human speech, made exemplary professions of Christian faith, and +sent for priests when they found their last hours approaching. In +an old Norman ballad a girl is transformed into a white doe, and +hunted and slain by her brother's hounds. The "aboriginal" peoples +of India retain similar convictions. Among the Hos,[13] an old +sorcerer called Pusa was known to turn himself habitually into a +tiger, and to eat his neighbour's goats, and even their wives. +Examples of the power of sorcerers to turn, as with the Gorgon's +head, their enemies into stone, are peculiarly common in +America.[14] Hearne found that the Indians believed they descended +from a dog, who could turn himself into a handsome young man.[15] + + +[1] Vol. i. pp. 309-315. + +[2] See also M'Lennan on Lykanthropy in Encyclopedia Britannica. + +[3] Arabian Nights, i. 51. + +[4] Bancroft, Races of Pacific Coast, i. 740. + +[5] Brinton, Annals of the Cakchiquels, p. 46. + +[6] Pinkerton, i. 471. + +[7] Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Folk-Lore, pp. 15, 40. + +[8] English translation of Dobrizhoffer's Abipones, i. 163. + +[9] Missionary Travels, p. 615. + +[10] Livingstone, p. 642. + +[11] Bancroft, ii. + +[12] Century Magazine, July, 1882. + +[13] Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal, p. 200. + +[14] Dorman, pp. 130, 134; Report of Ethnological Bureau, +Washington, 1880-81. + +[15] A Journey, etc., p. 342. + + +Let us recapitulate the powers attributed all over the world, by +the lower people, to medicine-men. The medicine-man has all +miracles at his command. He rules the sky, he flies into the air, +he becomes visible or invisible at will, he can take or confer any +form at pleasure, and resume his human shape. He can control +spirits, can converse with the dead, and can descend to their +abodes. + +When we begin to examine the gods of MYTHOLOGY, savage or civilised, +as distinct from deities contemplated, in devotion, as moral and +creative guardians of ethics, we shall find that, with the general, +though not invariable addition of immortality, they possess the very +same accomplishments as the medicine-man, peay, tohunga, jossakeed, +birraark, or whatever name for sorcerer we may choose. Among the +Greeks, Zeus, mythically envisaged, enjoys in heaven all the +attributes of the medicine-man; among the Iroquois, as Pere le +Jeune, the old Jesuit missionary, observed,[1] the medicine-man +enjoys on earth all the attributes of Zeus. Briefly, the miraculous +and supernatural endowments of the gods of MYTH, whether these gods +be zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, are exactly the magical properties +with which the medicine-man is credited by his tribe. It does not +at all follow, as Euemerus and Mr. Herbert Spencer might argue, that +the god was once a real living medicine- man. But myth-making man +confers on the deities of myth the magical powers which he claims +for himself. + + +[1] Relations (1636), p. 114. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +NATURE MYTHS. + + +Savage fancy, curiosity and credulity illustrated in nature myths-- +In these all phenomena are explained by belief in the general +animation of everything, combined with belief in metamorphosis--Sun +myths, Asian, Australian, African, Melanesian, Indian, Californian, +Brazilian, Maori, Samoan--Moon myths, Australian, Muysca, Mexican, +Zulu, Macassar, Greenland, Piute, Malay--Thunder myths--Greek and +Aryan sun and moon myths--Star myths--Myths, savage and civilised, +of animals, accounting for their marks and habits--Examples of +custom of claiming blood kinship with lower animals--Myths of +various plants and trees--Myths of stones, and of metamorphosis +into stones, Greek, Australian and American--The whole natural +philosophy of savages expressed in myths, and survives in folk-lore +and classical poetry; and legends of metamorphosis. + + +The intellectual condition of savages which has been presented and +established by the evidence both of observers and of institutions, +may now be studied in savage myths. These myths, indeed, would of +themselves demonstrate that the ideas which the lower races +entertain about the world correspond with our statement. If any +one were to ask himself, from what mental conditions do the +following savage stories arise? he would naturally answer that the +minds which conceived the tales were curious, indolent, credulous +of magic and witchcraft, capable of drawing no line between things +and persons, capable of crediting all things with human passions +and resolutions. But, as myths analogous to those of savages, when +found among civilised peoples, have been ascribed to a psychological +condition produced by a disease of language acting after civilisation +had made considerable advances, we cannot take the savage myths as +proof of what savages think, believe and practice in the course of +daily life. To do so would be, perhaps, to argue in a circle. We +must therefore study the myths of the undeveloped races in +themselves. + +These myths form a composite whole, so complex and so nebulous that +it is hard indeed to array them in classes and categories. For +example, if we look at myths concerning the origin of various +phenomena, we find that some introduce the action of gods or extra- +natural beings, while others rest on a rude theory of capricious +evolution; others, again, invoke the aid of the magic of mortals, +and most regard the great natural forces, the heavenly bodies, and +the animals, as so many personal characters capable of voluntarily +modifying themselves or of being modified by the most trivial +accidents. Some sort of arrangement, however, must be attempted, +only the student is to understand that the lines are never drawn +with definite fixity, that any category may glide into any other +category of myth. + +We shall begin by considering some nature myths--myths, that is to +say, which explain the facts of the visible universe. These range +from tales about heaven, day, night, the sun and the stars, to +tales accounting for the red breast of the ousel, the habits of the +quail, the spots and stripes of wild beasts, the formation of rocks +and stones, the foliage of trees, the shapes of plants. In a sense +these myths are the science of savages; in a sense they are their +sacred history; in a sense they are their fiction and romance. +Beginning with the sun, we find, as Mr. Tylor says, that "in early +philosophy throughout the world the sun and moon are alive, and, as +it were, human in their nature".[1] The mass of these solar myths +is so enormous that only a few examples can be given, chosen almost +at random out of the heap. The sun is regarded as a personal +being, capable not only of being affected by charms and +incantations, but of being trapped and beaten, of appearing on +earth, of taking a wife of the daughters of men. Garcilasso de la +Vega has a story of an Inca prince, a speculative thinker, who was +puzzled by the sun-worship of his ancestors. If the sun be thus +all-powerful, the Inca inquired, why is he plainly subject to laws? +why does he go his daily round, instead of wandering at large up +and down the fields of heaven? The prince concluded that there was +a will superior to the sun's will, and he raised a temple to the +Unknown Power. Now the phenomena which put the Inca on the path of +monotheistic religion, a path already traditional, according to +Garcilasso, have also struck the fancy of savages. Why, they ask, +does the sun run his course like a tamed beast? A reply suited to +a mind which holds that all things are personal is given in myths. +Some one caught and tamed the sun by physical force or by art +magic. + + +[1] Primitive Culture, i. 288. + + +In Australia the myth says that there was a time when the sun did +not set. "It was at all times day, and the blacks grew weary. +Norralie considered and decided that the sun should disappear at +intervals. He addressed the sun in an incantation (couched like +the Finnish Kalewala in the metre of Longfellow's Hiawatha); and +the incantation is thus interpreted: "Sun, sun, burn your wood, +burn your internal substance, and go down". The sun therefore now +burns out his fuel in a day, and goes below for fresh firewood.[1] + + +[1] Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 430. + + +In New Zealand the taming of the sun is attributed to the great +hero Maui, the Prometheus of the Maoris. He set snares to catch +the sun, but in vain, for the sun's rays bit them through. +According to another account, while Norralie wished to hasten the +sun's setting, Maui wanted to delay it, for the sun used to speed +through the heavens at a racing pace. Maui therefore snared the +sun, and beat him so unmercifully that he has been lame ever since, +and travels slowly, giving longer days. "The sun, when beaten, +cried out and revealed his second great name, Taura-mis-te-ra."[1] +It will be remembered that Indra, in his abject terror when he fled +after the slaying of Vrittra, also revealed his mystic name. In +North America the same story of the trapping and laming of the sun +is told, and attributed to a hero named Tcha-ka-betch. In Samoa +the sun had a child by a Samoan woman. He trapped the sun with a +rope made of a vine and extorted presents. Another Samoan lassoed +the sun and made him promise to move more slowly.[2] These Samoan +and Australian fancies are nearly as dignified as the tale in the +Aitareya Brahmana. The gods, afraid "that the sun would fall out +of heaven, pulled him up and tied him with five ropes". These +ropes are recognised as verses in the ritual, but probably the +ritual is later than the ropes. In Mexico we find that the sun +himself (like the stars in most myths) was once a human or pre- +human devotee, Nanahuatzin, who leapt into a fire to propitiate the +gods.[3] Translated to heaven as the sun, Nanahuatzin burned so +very fiercely that he threatened to reduce the world to a cinder. +Arrows were therefore shot at him, and this punishment had as happy +an effect as the beatings administered by Maui and Tcha-ka-betch. +Among the Bushmen of South Africa the sun was once a man, from +whose armpit a limited amount of light was radiated round his hut. +Some children threw him up into the sky, and there he stuck, and +there he shines.[4] In the Homeric hymn to Helios, as Mr. Max +Muller observes, "the poet looks on Helios as a half god, almost a +hero, who had once lived on earth," which is precisely the view of +the Bushmen.[5] Among the Aztecs the sun is said to have been +attacked by a hunter and grievously wounded by his arrows.[6] The +Gallinomeros, in Central California, seem at least to know that the +sun is material and impersonal. They say that when all was dark in +the beginning, the animals were constantly jostling each other. +After a painful encounter, the hawk and the coyote collected two +balls of inflammable substance; the hawk (Indra was occasionally a +hawk) flew up with them into heaven, and lighted them with sparks +from a flint. There they gave light as sun and moon. This is an +exception to the general rule that the heavenly bodies are regarded +as persons. The Melanesian tale of the bringing of night is a +curious contrast to the Mexican, Maori, Australian and American +Indian stories which we have quoted. In Melanesia, as in +Australia, the days were long, indeed endless, and people grew +tired; but instead of sending the sun down below by an incantation +when night would follow in course of nature, the Melanesian hero +went to Night (conceived of as a person) and begged his assistance. +Night (Qong) received Qat (the hero) kindly, darkened his eyes, +gave him sleep, and, in twelve hours or so, crept up from the +horizon and sent the sun crawling to the west.[7] In the same +spirit Paracelsus is said to have attributed night, not to the +absence of the sun, but to the apparition of certain stars which +radiate darkness. It is extraordinary that a myth like the +Melanesian should occur in Brazil. There was endless day till some +one married a girl whose father "the great serpent," was the owner +of night. The father sent night bottled up in a gourd. The gourd +was not to be uncorked till the messengers reached the bride, but +they, in their curiosity, opened the gourd, and let night out +prematurely.[8] + + +[1] Taylor, New Zealand, p. 131. + +[2] Turner, Samoa, p. 20. + +[3] Sahagun, French trans., vii. ii. + +[4] Bleck, Hottentot Fables, p. 67; Bushman Folk-Lore, pp. 9, 11. + +[5] Compare a Californian solar myth: Bancroft, iii. pp. 85, 86. + +[6] Bancroft, iii. 73, quoting Burgoa, i. 128, 196. + +[7] Codrington, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., February, 1881. + +[8] Contes Indiens du Bresil, pp. 1-9, by Couto de Magalhaes. Rio +de Janeiro, 1883. M. Henri Gaidoz kindly presented the author with +this work. + + +The myths which have been reported deal mainly with the sun as a +person who shines, and at fixed intervals disappears. His +relations with the moon are much more complicated, and are the +subject of endless stories, all explaining in a romantic fashion +why the moon waxes and wanes, whence come her spots, why she is +eclipsed, all starting from the premise that sun and moon are +persons with human parts and passions. Sometimes the moon is a +man, sometimes a woman and the sex of the sun varies according to +the fancy of the narrators. Different tribes of the same race, as +among the Australians, have different views of the sex of moon and +sun. Among the aborigines of Victoria, the moon, like the sun +among the Bushmen, was a black fellow before he went up into the +sky. After an unusually savage career, he was killed with a stone +hatchet by the wives of the eagle, and now he shines in the +heavens.[1] Another myth explanatory of the moon's phases was +found by Mr. Meyer in 1846 among the natives of Encounter Bay. +According to them the moon is a woman, and a bad woman to boot. +She lives a life of dissipation among men, which makes her +consumptive, and she wastes away till they drive her from their +company. While she is in retreat, she lives on nourishing roots, +becomes quite plump, resumes her gay career, and again wastes away. +The same tribe, strangely enough, think that the sun also is a +woman. Every night she descends among the dead, who stand in +double lines to greet her and let her pass. She has a lover among +the dead, who has presented her with a red kangaroo skin, and in +this she appears at her rising. Such is the view of rosy-fingered +Dawn entertained by the blacks of Encounter Bay. In South America, +among the Muyscas of Bogota, the moon, Huythaca, is the malevolent +wife of the child of the sun; she was a woman before her husband +banished her to the fields of space.[2] The moon is a man among +the Khasias of the Himalaya, and he was guilty of the unpardonable +offence of admiring his mother-in-law. As a general rule, the +mother-in-law is not even to be spoken to by the savage son-in-law. +The lady threw ashes in his face to discourage his passion, hence +the moon's spots. The waning of the moon suggested the most +beautiful and best known of savage myths, that in which the moon +sends a beast to tell mortals that, though they die like her, like +her they shall be born again.[3] Because the spots in the moon +were thought to resemble a hare they were accounted for in Mexico +by the hypothesis that a god smote the moon in the face with a +rabbit;[4] in Zululand and Thibet by a fancied translation of a +good or bad hare to the moon. + + +[1] Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 432. + +[2] Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 353. + +[3] Bleek, Reynard in South Africa, pp. 69-74. + +[4] Sahagun, viii. 2. + + +The Eskimos have a peculiar myth to account for the moon's spots. +Sun and moon were human brother and sister. In the darkness the +moon once attempted the virtue of the sun. She smeared his face +over with ashes, that she might detect him when a light was +brought. She did discover who her assailant had been, fled to the +sky, and became the sun. The moon still pursues her, and his face +is still blackened with the marks of ashes.[1] Gervaise[2] says +that in Macassar the moon was held to be with child by the sun, and +that when he pursued her and wished to beat her, she was delivered +of the earth. They are now reconciled. About the alternate +appearance of sun and moon a beautifully complete and adequate tale +is told by the Piute Indians of California. No more adequate and +scientific explanation could possibly be offered, granting the +hypothesis that sun and moon are human persons and savage persons. +The myth is printed as it was taken down by Mr. De Quille from the +lips of Tooroop Eenah (Desert Father), a chief of the Piutes, and +published in a San Francisco newspaper. + + +[1] Crantz's History of Greenland, i. 212. + +[2] Royaume de Macacar, l688. + + +"The sun is the father and ruler of the heavens. He is the big +chief. The moon is his wife and the stars are their children. The +sun eats his children whenever he can catch them. They flee before +him, and are all the time afraid when he is passing through the +heavens. When he (their father) appears in the morning, you see +all the stars, his children, fly out of sight--go away back into +the blue of the above--and they do not wake to be seen again until +he, their father, is about going to his bed. + +"Down deep under the ground--deep, deep, under all the ground--is a +great hole. At night, when he has passed over the world, looked +down on everything and finished his work, he, the sun, goes into +his hole, and he crawls and creeps along it till he comes to his +bed in the middle part of the earth. So then he, the sun, sleeps +there in his bed all night. + +"This hole is so little, and he, the sun, is so big, that he cannot +turn round in it; and so he must, when he has had all his sleep, +pass on through, and in the morning we see him come out in the +east. When he, the sun, has so come out, he begins to hunt up +through the sky to catch and eat any that he can of the stars, his +children, for if he does not so catch and eat he cannot live. He, +the sun, is not all seen. The shape of him is like a snake or a +lizard. It is not his head that we can see, but his belly, filled +up with the stars that times and times he has swallowed. + +"The moon is the mother of the heavens and is the wife of the sun. +She, the moon, goes into the same hole as her husband to sleep her +naps. But always she has great fear of the sun, her husband, and +when he comes through the hole to the nobee (tent) deep in the +ground to sleep, she gets out and comes away if he be cross. + +"She, the moon, has great love for her children, the stars, and is +happy to travel among them in the above; and they, her children, +feel safe, and sing and dance as she passes along. But the mother, +she cannot help that some of her children must be swallowed by the +father every month. It is ordered that way by the Pah-ah (Great +Spirit), who lives above the place of all. + +"Every month that father, the sun, does swallow some of the stars, +his children, and then that mother, the moon, feels sorrow. She +must mourn; so she must put the black on her face for to mourn the +dead. You see the Piute women put black on their faces when a +child is gone. But the dark will wear away from the face of that +mother, the moon, a little and a little every day, and after a time +again we see all bright the face of her. But soon more of her +children are gone, and again she must put on her face the pitch and +the black." + +Here all the phenomena are accounted for, and the explanation is as +advanced as the Egyptian doctrine of the hole under the earth where +the sun goes when he passes from our view. And still the Great +Spirit is over all: Religion comes athwart Myth. + +Mr. Tylor quotes[1] a nature myth about sun, moon and stars which +remarkably corresponds to the speculation of the Piutes. The +Mintira of the Malayan Peninsula say that both sun and moon are +women. The stars are the moon's children; once the sun had as +many. They each agreed (like the women of Jerusalem in the +famine), to eat their own children; but the sun swallowed her whole +family, while the moon concealed hers. When the sun saw this she +was exceedingly angry, and pursued the moon to kill her. +Occasionally she gets a bite out of the moon, and that is an +eclipse. The Hos of North-East India tell the same tale, but say +that the sun cleft the moon in twain for her treachery, and that +she continues to be cut in two and grow again every month. With +these sun and moon legends sometimes coexists the RELIGIOUS belief +in a Creator of these and of all things. + + +[1] Primitive Culture, i. 356. + + +In harmony with the general hypothesis that all objects in nature +are personal, and human or bestial, in real shape, and in passion +and habits, are the myths which account for eclipses. These have +so frequently been published and commented on[1] that a long +statement would be tedious and superfluous. To the savage mind, +and even to the Chinese and the peasants of some European +countries, the need of an explanation is satisfied by the myth that +an evil beast is devouring the sun or the moon. The people even +try by firing off guns, shrieking, and clashing cymbals, to +frighten the beast (wolf, pig, dragon, or what not) from his prey. +What the hungry monster in the sky is doing when he is not biting +the sun or moon we are not informed. Probably he herds with the +big bird whose wings, among the Dacotahs of America and the Zulus +of Africa, make thunder; or he may associate with the dragons, +serpents, cows and other aerial cattle which supply the rain, and +show themselves in the waterspout. Chinese, Greenland, Hindoo, +Finnish, Lithunian and Moorish examples of the myth about the moon- +devouring beasts are vouched for by Grimm.[2] A Mongolian legend +has it that the gods wished to punish the maleficent Arakho for his +misdeeds, but Arakho hid so cleverly that their limited omnipotence +could not find him. The sun, when asked to turn spy, gave an +evasive answer. The moon told the truth. Arakho was punished, and +ever since he chases sun and moon. When he nearly catches either +of them, there is an eclipse, and the people try to drive him off +by making a hideous uproar with musical and other instruments.[3] +Captain Beeckman in 1704 was in Borneo, when the natives declared +that the devil "was eating the moon". + + +[1] Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i.; Lefebure, Les Yeux d'Horus, + +[2] Teutonic Mythology, English trans., ii. 706. + +[3] Moon-Lore by Rev. T. Harley, p. 167. + + +Dr. Brinton in his Myths and Myth-Makers gives examples from +Peruvians, Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois and Algonkins. It would be +easy, and is perhaps superfluous, to go on multiplying proofs of +the belief that sun and moon are, or have been, persons. In the +Hervey Isles these two luminaries are thought to have been made out +of the body of a child cut in twain by his parents. The blood +escaped from the half which is the moon, hence her pallor.[1] This +tale is an exception to the general rule, but reminds us of the +many myths which represent the things in the world as having been +made out of a mutilated man, like the Vedic Purusha. It is hardly +necessary, except by way of record, to point out that the Greek +myths of sun and moon, like the myths of savages, start from the +conception of the solar and lunar bodies as persons with parts and +passions, human loves and human sorrows. As in the Mongolian myth +of Arakho, the sun "sees all and hears all," and, less honourable +than the Mongolian sun, he plays the spy for Hephaestus on the +loves of Ares and Aphrodite. He has mistresses and human children, +such as Circe and Aeetes.[2] + + +[1] Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 45. + +[2] See chapter on Greek Divine Myths. + + +The sun is all-seeing and all-penetrating. In a Greek song of to- +day a mother sends a message to an absent daughter by the sun; it +is but an unconscious repetition of the request of the dying Ajax +that the heavenly body will tell his fate to his old father and his +sorrowing spouse.[1] + + +[1] Sophocles, Ajax, 846. + + +Selene, the moon, like Helios, the sun, was a person, and amorous. +Beloved by Zeus, she gave birth to Pandia, and Pan gained her +affection by the simple rustic gift of a fleece.[1] The Australian +Dawn, with her present of a red kangaroo skin, was not more lightly +won than the chaste Selene. Her affection for Endymion is well +known, and her cold white glance shines through the crevices of his +mountain grave, hewn in a rocky wall, like the tombs of Phrygia.[2] +She is the sister of the sun in Hesiod, the daughter (by his +sister) of Hyperion in the Homeric hymns to Helios. + + +[1] Virgil, Georgics, iii. 391. + +[2] Preller, Griech. Myth., i. 163. + + +In Greece the aspects of sun and moon take the most ideal human +forms, and show themselves in the most gracious myths. But, after +all, these retain in their anthropomorphism the marks of the +earliest fancy, the fancy of Eskimos and Australians. It seems to +be commonly thought that the existence of solar myths is denied by +anthropologists. This is a vulgar error. There is an enormous +mass of solar myths, but they are not caused by "a disease of +language," and--all myths are not solar! + +There is no occasion to dwell long on myths of the same character +in which the stars are accounted for as transformed human +adventurers. It has often been shown that this opinion is +practically of world-wide distribution.[1] We find it in +Australia, Persia, Greece, among the Bushmen, in North and South +America, among the Eskimos, in ancient Egypt, in New Zealand, in +ancient India--briefly, wherever we look. The Sanskrit forms of +these myths have been said to arise from confusion as to the +meaning of words. But is it credible that, in all languages, +however different, the same kind of unconscious puns should have +led to the same mistaken beliefs? As the savage, barbarous and +Greek star-myths (such as that of Callisto, first changed into a +bear and then into a constellation) are familiar to most readers, a +few examples of Sanskrit star-stories are offered here from the +Satapatha Brahmana.[2] Fires are not, according to the Brahmana +ritual, to be lighted under the stars called Krittikas, the +Pleiades. The reason is that the stars were the wives of the bears +(Riksha), for the group known in Brahmanic times as the Rishis +(sages) were originally called the Rikshas (bears). But the wives +of the bears were excluded from the society of their husbands, for +the bears rise in the north and their wives in the east. Therefore +the worshipper should not set up his fires under the Pleiades, lest +he should thereby be separated from the company of his wife. The +Brahmanas[3] also tell us that Prajapati had an unholy passion for +his daughter, who was in the form of a doe. The gods made Rudra +fire an arrow at Prajapati to punish him; he was wounded, and +leaped into the sky, where he became one constellation and his +daughter another, and the arrow a third group of stars. In +general, according to the Brahmanas, "the stars are the lights of +virtuous men who go to the heavenly world".[4] + + +[1] Custom and Myth, "Star-Myths"; Primitive Culture, i. 288, 291; +J. G. Muller, Amerikanischen Urreligionen, pp. 52, 53. + +[2] Sacred Books of the East, i. 283-286. + +[3] Aitareya Bramana, iii. 33. + +[4] Satapatha Brahmana, vi. 5, 4, 8. For Greek examples, Hesiod, +Ovid, and the Catasterismoi, attributed to Eratosthenes, are useful +authorities. Probably many of the tales in Eratosthenes are late +fictions consciously moulded on traditional data. + + +Passing from savage myths explanatory of the nature of celestial +bodies to myths accounting for the formation and colour and habits +of beasts, birds and fishes, we find ourselves, as an old Jesuit +missionary says, in the midst of a barbarous version of Ovid's +Metamorphoses. It has been shown that the possibility of +interchange of form between man and beast is part of the working +belief of everyday existence among the lower peoples. They regard +all things as on one level, or, to use an old political phrase, +they "level up" everything to equality with the human status. Thus +Mr. Im Thurn, a very good observer, found that to the Indians of +Guiana "all objects, animate or inaminate, seem exactly of the same +nature, except that they differ by the accident of bodily form". +Clearly to grasp this entirely natural conception of primitive man, +the civilised student must make a great effort to forget for a time +all that science has taught him of the differences between the +objects which fill the world.[1] "To the ear of the savage, +animals certainly seem to talk." "As far as the Indians of Guiana +are concerned, I do not believe that they distinguish such beings +as sun and moon, or such other natural phenomena as winds and +storms, from men and other animals, from plants and other inanimate +objects, or from any other objects whatsoever." Bancroft says +about North American myths, "Beasts and birds and fishes fetch and +carry, talk and act, in a way that leaves even Aesop's heroes quite +in the shade".[2] + + +[1] Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xi. 366-369. A very large and rich +collection of testimonies as to metamorphosis will be found in J. +G. Muller's Amerikanischen Urreligionen, p. 62 et seq.; while, for +European superstitions, Bodin on La Demonomanie des Sorciers, Lyon, +1598, may be consulted. + +[2] Vol. iii. p. 127. + + +The savage tendency is to see in inanimate things animals, and in +animals disguised men. M. Reville quotes in his Religions des +Peuples Non-Civilise's, i. 64, the story of some Negroes, who, the +first time they were shown a cornemuse, took the instrument for a +beast, the two holes for its eyes. The Highlander who looted a +watch at Prestonpans, and observing, "She's teed," sold it cheap +when it ran down, was in the same psychological condition. A queer +bit of savage science is displayed on a black stone tobacco-pipe +from the Pacific Coast.[1] The savage artist has carved the pipe +in the likeness of a steamer, as a steamer is conceived by him. +"Unable to account for the motive power, he imagines the paddle to +be linked round the tongue of a coiled serpent, fastened to the +tail of the vessel," and so he represents it on the black stone +pipe. Nay, a savage's belief that beasts are on his own level is +so literal, that he actually makes blood-covenants with the lower +animals, as he does with men, mingling his gore with theirs, or +smearing both together on a stone;[2] while to bury dead animals +with sacred rites is as usual among the Bedouins and Malagasies to- +day as in ancient Egypt or Attica. In the same way the Ainos of +Japan, who regard the bear as a kinsman, sacrifice a bear once a +year. But, to propitiate the animal and his connections, they +appoint him a "mother," an Aino girl, who looks after his comforts, +and behaves in a way as maternal as possible. The bear is now a +kinsman, [Greek text omitted], and cannot avenge himself within the +kin. This, at least, seems to be the humour of it. In Lagarde's +Reliquiae Juris Ecclesiastici Antiquissimae a similar Syrian +covenant of kinship with insects is described. About 700 A. D., +when a Syrian garden was infested by caterpillars, the maidens were +assembled, and one caterpillar was caught. Then one of the virgins +was "made its mother," and the creature was buried with due +lamentations. The "mother" was then brought to the spot where the +pests were, her companions bewailed her, and the caterpillars +perished like their chosen kinsman, but without extorting +revenge.[3] Revenge was out of their reach. They had been brought +within the kin of their foes, and there were no Erinnyes, "avengers +of kindred blood," to help them. People in this condition of +belief naturally tell hundreds of tales, in which men, stones, +trees, beasts, shift shapes, and in which the modifications of +animal forms are caused by accident, or by human agency, or by +magic, or by metamorphosis. Such tales survive in our modern folk- +lore. To make our meaning clear, we may give the European nursery- +myth of the origin of the donkey's long ears, and, among other +illustrations, the Australian myth of the origin of the black and +white plumage of the pelican. Mr. Ralston has published the +Russian version of the myth of the donkey's ears. The Spanish +form, which is identical with the Russian, is given by Fernan +Caballero in La Gaviota. + + +[1] Magazine of Art, January, 1883. + +[2] "Malagasy Folk-Tales," Folk-Lore Journal, October, 1883. + +[3] We are indebted to Professor Robertson Smith for this example, +and to Miss Bird's Journal, pp. 90, 97, for the Aino parallel. + + +"Listen! do you know why your ears are so big?" (the story is told +to a stupid little boy with big ears). "When Father Adam found +himself in Paradise with the animals, he gave each its name; those +of THY species, my child, he named 'donkeys'. One day, not long +after, he called the beasts together, and asked each to tell him +its name. They all answered right except the animals of THY sort, +and they had forgotten their name! Then Father Adam was very +angry, and, taking that forgetful donkey by the ears, he pulled +them out, screaming 'You are called DONKEY!' And the donkey's ears +have been long ever since." This, to a child, is a credible +explanation. So, perhaps, is another survival of this form of +science--the Scotch explanation of the black marks on the haddock; +they were impressed by St. Peter's finger and thumb when he took +the piece of money for Caesar's tax out of the fish's mouth. + +Turning from folk-lore to savage beliefs, we learn that from one +end of Africa to another the honey-bird, schneter, is said to be an +old woman whose son was lost, and who pursued him till she was +turned into a bird, which still shrieks his name, "Schneter, +Schneter".[1] In the same way the manners of most of the birds +known to the Greeks were accounted for by the myth that they had +been men and women. Zeus, for example, turned Ceyx and Halcyon +into sea-fowls because they were too proud in their married +happiness.[2] To these myths of the origin of various animals we +shall return, but we must not forget the black and white Australian +pelican. Why is the pelican parti-coloured?[3] For this reason: +After the Flood (the origin of which is variously explained by the +Murri), the pelican (who had been a black fellow) made a canoe, and +went about like a kind of Noah, trying to save the drowning. In +the course of his benevolent mission he fell in love with a woman, +but she and her friends played him a trick and escaped from him. +The pelican at once prepared to go on the war-path. The first +thing to do was to daub himself white, as is the custom of the +blacks before a battle. They think the white pipe-clay strikes +terror and inspires respect among the enemy. But when the pelican +was only half pipe-clayed, another pelican came past, and, "not +knowing what such a queer black and white thing was, struck the +first pelican with his beak and killed him. Before that pelicans +were all black; now they are black and white. That is the +reason."[4] + + +[1] Barth, iii. 358. + +[2] Apollodorus, i. 7 (13, 12). + +[3] Sahagun, viii. 2, accounts for colours of eagle and tiger. A +number of races explain the habits and marks of animals as the +result of a curse or blessing of a god or hero. The Hottentots, +the Huarochiri of Peru, the New Zealanders (Shortland, Traditions, +p. 57), are among the peoples which use this myth. + +[4] Brough Symth, Aborigines of Australia, i. 477, 478. + + +"That is the reason." Therewith native philosopy is satisfied, and +does not examine in Mr. Darwin's laborious manner the slow +evolution of the colour of the pelican's plumage. The mythological +stories about animals are rather difficult to treat, because they +are so much mixed up with the topic of totemism. Here we only +examine myths which account by means of a legend for certain +peculiarities in the habits, cries, or colours and shapes of +animals. The Ojibbeways told Kohl they had a story for every +creature, accounting for its ways and appearance. Among the +Greeks, as among Australians and Bushmen, we find that nearly every +notable bird or beast had its tradition. The nightingale and the +swallow have a story of the most savage description, a story +reported by Apollodorus, though Homer[1] refers to another, and, as +usual, to a gentler and more refined form of the myth. Here is the +version of Apollodorus. "Pandion" (an early king of Athens) +"married Zeuxippe, his mother's sister, by whom he had two +daughters, Procne and Philomela, and two sons, Erechtheus and +Butes. A war broke out with Labdas about some debatable land, and +Erechtheus invited the alliance of Tereus of Thrace, the son of +Ares. Having brought the war, with the aid of Tereus, to a happy +end, he gave him his daughter Procne to wife. By Procne, Tereus +had a son, Itys, and thereafter fell in love with Philomela, whom +he seduced, pretending that Procne was dead, whereas he had really +concealed her somewhere in his lands. Thereon he married +Philomela, and cut out her tongue. But she wove into a robe +characters that told the whole story, and by means of these +acquainted Procne with her sufferings. Thereon Procne found her +sister, and slew Itys, her own son, whose body she cooked, and +served up to Tereus in a banquet. Thereafter Procne and her sister +fled together, and Tereus seized an axe and followed after them. +They were overtaken at Daulia in Phocis, and prayed to the gods +that they might be turned into birds. So Procne became the +nightingale, and Philomela the swallow, while Tereus was changed +into a hoopoe."[2] Pausanias has a different legend; Procne and +Philomela died of excessive grief. + + +[1] Odyssey, xix. 523. + +[2] A Red Indian nightingale-myth is alluded to by J. G. Muller, +Amerik. Urrel., p. 175. Some one was turned into a nightingale by +the sun, and still wails for a lost lover. + + +These ancient men and women metamorphosed into birds were HONOURED +AS ANCESTORS by the Athenians.[1] Thus the unceasing musical wail +of the nightingale and the shrill cry of the swallow were explained +by a Greek story. The birds were lamenting their old human sorrow, +as the honey-bird in Africa still repeats the name of her lost son. + + +[1] Pausanias, i. v. Pausanias thinks such things no longer occur. + + +Why does the red-robin live near the dwellings of men, a bold and +friendly bird? The Chippeway Indians say he was once a young +brave whose father set him a task too cruel for his strength, and +made him starve too long when he reached man's estate. He turned +into a robin, and said to his father, "I shall always be the friend +of man, and keep near their dwellings. I could not gratify your +pride as a warrior, but I will cheer you by my songs."[1] The +converse of this legend is the Greek myth of the hawk. Why is the +hawk so hated by birds? Hierax was a benevolent person who +succoured a race hated by Poseidon. The god therefore changed him +into a hawk, and made him as much detested by birds, and as fatal +to them, as he had been beloved by and gentle to men.[2] The +Hervey Islanders explain the peculiarities of several fishes by the +share they took in the adventures of Ina, who stamped, for example, +on the sole, and so flattened him for ever.[3] In Greece the +dolphins were, according to the Homeric hymn to Dionysus, +metamorphosed pirates who had insulted the god. But because the +dolphin found the hidden sea-goddess whom Poseidon loved, the +dolphin, too, was raised by the grateful sea-god to the stars.[4] +The vulture and the heron, according to Boeo (said to have been a +priestess in Delphi and the author of a Greek treatise on the +traditions about birds), were once a man named Aigupios (vulture) +and his mother, Boulis. They sinned inadvertently, like Oedipus +and Jocasta; wherefore Boulis, becoming aware of the guilt, was +about to put out the eyes of her son and slay herself. Then they +were changed, Boulis into the heron, "which tears out and feeds on +the eyes of snakes, birds and fishes, and Aigupios into the vulture +which bears his name". This story, of which the more repulsive +details are suppressed, is much less pleasing and more savage than +the Hervey Islanders' myth of the origin of pigs. Maaru was an old +blind man who lived with his son Kationgia. There came a year of +famine, and Kationgia had great difficulty in finding food for +himself and his father. He gave the blind old man puddings of +banana roots and fishes, while he lived himself on sea-slugs and +shellfish, like the people of Terra del Fuego. But blind old Maaru +suspected his son of giving him the worst share and keeping what +was best for himself. At last he discovered that Kationgia was +really being starved; he felt his body, and found that he was a +mere living skeleton. The two wept together, and the father made a +feast of some cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit, which he had reserved +against the last extremity. When all was finished, he said he had +eaten his last meal and was about to die. He ordered his son to +cover him with leaves and grass, and return to the spot in four +days. If worms were crawling about, he was to throw leaves and +grass over them and come back four days later. Kationgia did as he +was instructed, and, on his second visit to the grave, found the +whole mass of leaves in commotion. A brood of pigs, black, white +and speckled, had sprung up from the soil; famine was a thing of +the past, and Kationgia became a great chief in the island.[5] + + +[1] Schoolcraft, ii. 229, 230. + +[1] Boeo, quoted by Antoninus Liberalis. + +[3] Gill, South Sea Myths, pp. 88-95. + +[4] Artemidorus in his Love Elegies, quoted by the Pseud- +Eratosthenes. + +[5] Gill, Myths and Songs from South Pacific, pp. 135-138. + + +"The owl was a baker's daughter" is the fragment of Christian +mythology preserved by Ophelia. The baker's daughter behaved +rudely to our Lord, and was changed into the bird that looks not on +the sun. The Greeks had a similar legend of feminine impiety by +which they mythically explained the origin of the owl, the bat and +the eagle-owl. Minyas of Orchomenos had three daughters, Leucippe, +Arsippe and Alcathoe, most industrious women, who declined to join +the wild mysteries of Dionysus. The god took the shape of a +maiden, and tried to win them to his worship. They refused, and he +assumed the form of a bull, a lion, and a leopard as easily as the +chiefs of the Abipones become tigers, or as the chiefs among the +African Barotse and Balonda metamorphose themselves into lions and +alligators.[1] The daughters of Minyas, in alarm, drew lots to +determine which of them should sacrifice a victim to the god. +Leucippe drew the lot and offered up her own son. They then rushed +to join the sacred rites of Dionysus, when Hermes transformed them +into the bat, the owl and the eagle-owl, and these three hide from +the light of the sun.[2] + + +[1] Livingstone, Missionary Travels, pp. 615, 642. + +[2] Nicander, quoted by Antoninus Liberalis. + + +A few examples of Bushman and Australian myths explanatory of the +colours and habits of animals will probably suffice to establish +the resemblance between savage and Hellenic legends of this +character. The Bushman myth about the origin of the eland (a large +antelope) is not printed in full by Dr. Bleek, but he observes that +it "gives an account of the reasons for the colours of the gemsbok, +hartebeest, eland, quagga and springbok".[1] Speculative Bushmen +seem to have been puzzled to account for the wildness of the eland. +It would be much more convenient if the eland were tame and could +be easily captured. They explain its wildness by saying that the +eland was "spoiled" before Cagn, the creator, or rather maker of +most things, had quite finished it. Cagn's relations came and +hunted the first eland too soon, after which all other elands grew +wild. Cagn then said, "Go and hunt them and try to kill one; that +is now your work, for it was you who spoilt them".[2] The Bushmen +have another myth explanatory of the white patches on the breasts +of crows in their country. Some men tarried long at their hunting, +and their wives sent out crows in search of their husbands. Round +each crow's neck was hung a piece of fat to serve as food on the +journey. Hence the crows have white patches on breast and neck. + + +[1] Brief Account of Bushmen Folk-Lore, p. 7. + +[2] Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + + +In Australia the origins of nearly all animals appear to be +explained in myths, of which a fair collection is printed in Mr. +Brough Symth's Aborigines of Victoria.[1] Still better examples +occur in Mrs. Langloh Parker's Australian Legends. Why is the +crane so thin? Once he was a man named Kar-ween, the second man +fashioned out of clay by Pund-jel, a singular creative being, whose +chequered career is traced elsewhere in our chapter on "Savage +Myths of the Origin of the World and of Man". Kar-ween and Pund- +jel had a quarrel about the wives of the former, whom Pund-jel was +inclined to admire. The crafty Kar-ween gave a dance (jugargiull, +corobboree), at which the creator Pund-jel was disporting himself +gaily (like the Great Panjandrum), when Kar-ween pinned him with a +spear. Pund-jel threw another which took Kar-ween in the knee- +joint, so that he could not walk, but soon pined away and became a +mere skeleton. "Thereupon Pund-jel made Kar-ween a crane," and +that is why the crane has such attenuated legs. The Kortume, +Munkari and Waingilhe, now birds, were once men. The two latter +behaved unkindly to their friend Kortume, who shot them out of his +hut in a storm of rain, singing at the same time an incantation. +The three then turned into birds, and when the Kortume sings it is +a token that rain may be expected. + + +[1] Vol. i. p. 426 et seq. + + +Let us now compare with these Australian myths of the origin of +certain species of birds the Greek story of the origin of frogs, as +told by Menecrates and Nicander.[1] The frogs were herdsmen +metamorphosed by Leto, the mother of Apollo. But, by way of +showing how closely akin are the fancies of Greeks and Australian +black fellows, we shall tell the legend without the proper names, +which gave it a fictitious dignity. + + +[1] Antoninus Liberalis, xxxv. + + +THE ORIGIN OF FROGS. + +"A woman bore two children, and sought for a water-spring wherein +to bathe them. She found a well, but herdsmen drove her away from +it that their cattle might drink. Then some wolves met her and led +her to a river, of which she drank, and in its waters she bathed +her children. Then she went back to the well where the herdsmen +were now bathing, and she turned them all into frogs. She struck +their backs and shoulders with a rough stone and drove them into +the waters, and ever since that day frogs live in marshes and +beside rivers." + +A volume might be filled with such examples of the kindred fancies +of Greeks and savages. Enough has probably been said to illustrate +our point, which is that Greek myths of this character were +inherited from the period of savagery, when ideas of metamorphosis +and of the kinship of men and beasts were real practical beliefs. +Events conceived to be common in real life were introduced into +myths, and these myths were savage science, and were intended to +account for the Origin of Species. But when once this train of +imagination has been fired, it burns on both in literature and in +the legends of the peasantry. Every one who writes a Christmas +tale for children now employs the machinery of metamorphosis, and +in European folk-lore, as Fontenelle remarked, stories persist +which are precisely similar in kind to the minor myths of savages. + +Reasoning in this wise, the Mundas of Bengal thus account for +peculiarities of certain animals. Sing Bonga, the chief god, cast +certain people out of heaven; they fell to earth, found iron ore, +and began smelting it. The black smoke displeased Sing Bonga, who +sent two king crows and an owl to bid people cease to pollute the +atmosphere. But the iron smelters spoiled these birds' tails, and +blackened the previously white crow, scorched its beak red, and +flattened its head. Sing Bonga burned man, and turned woman into +hills and waterspouts.[1] + + +[1] Dalton, pp. 186, 187. + + +Examples of this class of myth in Indo-Aryan literature are not +hard to find. Why is dawn red? Why are donkeys slow? Why have +mules no young ones? Mules have no foals because they were +severely burned when Agni (fire) drove them in a chariot race. +Dawn is red, not because (as in Australia) she wears a red kangaroo +cloak, but because she competed in this race with red cows for her +coursers. Donkeys are slow because they never recovered from their +exertions in the same race, when the Asvins called on their asses +and landed themselves the winners.[1] And cows are accommodated +with horns for a reason no less probable and satisfactory.[2] + + +[1] Aitareya Brahmana, ii. 272, iv. 9. + +[2] iv. 17. + + +Though in the legends of the less developed peoples men and women +are more frequently metamorphosed into birds and beasts than into +stones and plants, yet such changes of form are by no means +unknown. To the north-east of Western Point there lies a range of +hills, inhabited, according to the natives of Victoria, by a +creature whose body is made of stone, and weapons make no wound in +so sturdy a constitution. The blacks refuse to visit the range +haunted by the mythic stone beast. "Some black fellows were once +camped at the lakes near Shaving Point. They were cooking their +fish when a native dog came up. They did not give him anything to +eat. He became cross and said, 'You black fellows have lots of +fish, but you give me none'. So he changed them all into a big +rock. This is quite true, for the big rock is there to this day, +and I have seen it with my own eyes."[1] Another native, Toolabar, +says that the women of the fishing party cried out yacka torn, +"very good". A dog replied yacka torn, and they were all changed +into rocks. This very man, Toolabar, once heard a dog begin to +talk, whereupon he and his father fled. Had they waited they would +have become stones. "We should have been like it, wallung," that +is, stones. + + +[1] Native narrator, ap. Brough Smyth, i. 479. + + +Among the North American Indians any stone which has a resemblance +to the human or animal figure is explained as an example of +metamorphosis. Three stones among the Aricaras were a girl, her +lover and her dog, who fled from home because the course of true +love did not run smooth, and who were petrified. Certain stones +near Chinook Point were sea-giants who swallowed a man. His +brother, by aid of fire, dried up the bay and released the man, +still alive, from the body of the giant. Then the giants were +turned into rocks.[1] The rising sun in Popol Vuh (if the evidence +of Popol Vuh, the Quichua sacred book, is to be accepted) changed +into stone the lion, serpent and tiger gods. The Standing Rock on +the Upper Missouri is adored by the Indians, and decorated with +coloured ribbons and skins of animals. This stone was a woman, +who, like Niobe, became literally petrified with grief when her +husband took a second wife. Another stone-woman in a cave on the +banks of the Kickapoo was wont to kill people who came near her, +and is even now approached with great respect. The Oneidas and +Dacotahs claim descent from stones to which they ascribe +animation.[2] Montesinos speaks of a sacred stone which was +removed from a mountain by one of the Incas. A parrot flew out of +it and lodged in another stone, which the natives still worship.[3] +The Breton myth about one of the great stone circles (the stones +were peasants who danced on a Sunday) is a well-known example of +this kind of myth surviving in folk-lore. There is a kind of stone +Actaeon[4] near Little Muniton Creek, "resembling the bust of a man +whose head is decorated with the horns of a stag".[5] A crowd of +myths of metamorphosis into stone will be found among the Iroquois +legends in Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 1880-81. If men may +become stones, on the other hand, in Samoa (as in the Greek myth of +Deucalion), stones may become men.[6] Gods, too, especially when +these gods happen to be cuttlefish, might be petrified. They were +chased in Samoa by an Upolu hero, who caught them in a great net +and killed them. "They were changed into stones, and now stand up +in a rocky part of the lagoon on the north side of Upolu."[7] +Mauke, the first man, came out of a stone. In short,[8] men and +stones and beasts and gods and thunder have interchangeable forms. +In Mangaia[9] the god Ra was tossed up into the sky by Maui and +became pumice-stone. Many samples of this petrified deity are +found in Mangaia. In Melanesia matters are so mixed that it is not +easy to decide whether a worshipful stone is the dwelling of a dead +man's soul or is of spiritual merit in itself, or whether "the +stone is the spirit's outward part or organ". The Vui, or spirit, +has much the same relations with snakes, owls and sharks.[10] +Qasavara, the mythical opponent of Qat, the Melanesian Prometheus, +"fell dead from heaven" (like Ra in Mangia), and was turned into a +stone, on which sacrifices are made by those who desire strength in +fighting. + + +[1] See authorities ap. Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, pp. 130- +138. + +[2] Dorman, p. 133. + +[3] Many examples are collected by J. G. Muller, Amerikanischen +Urreligionen, pp. 97, 110, 125, especially when the stones have a +likeness to human form, p. 17a. Im der That werden auch einige in +Steine, oder in Thiere and Pflanzen verwandelt." Cf. p. 220. +Instances (from Balboa) of men turned into stone by wizards, p. +309. + +[4] Preller thinks that Actaeon, devoured by his hounds after being +changed into a stag, is a symbol of the vernal year. Palaephatus +(De Fab. Narrat.) holds that the story is a moral fable. + +[5] Dorman, p. 137. + +[6] Turner's Samoa, p. 299. + +[7] Samoa, p. 31. + +[8] Op. cit., p. 34. + +[9] Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 60. + +[10] Codrington, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., February, 1881. + + +Without delaying longer among savage myths of metamorphosis into +stones, it may be briefly shown that the Greeks retained this with +all the other vagaries of early fancy. Every one remembers the use +which Perseus made of the Gorgon's head, and the stones on the +coast of Seriphus, which, like the stones near Western Point in +Victoria, had once been men, the enemies of the hero. "Also he +slew the Gorgon," sings Pindar, "and bare home her head, with +serpent tresses decked, to the island folk a stony death." Observe +Pindar's explanatory remark: "I ween there is no marvel impossible +if gods have wrought thereto". In the same pious spirit a Turk in +an isle of the Levant once told Mr. Newton a story of how a man +hunted a stag, and the stag spoke to him. "The stag spoke?" said +Mr. Newton. "Yes, by Allah's will," replied the Turk. Like +Pindar, he was repeating an incident quite natural to the minds of +Australians, or Bushmen, or Samoans, or Red Men, but, like the +religious Pindar, he felt that the affair was rather marvellous, +and accounted for it by the exercise of omnipotent power.[1] The +Greek example of Niobe and her children may best be quoted in Mr. +Bridges' translation from the Iliad:-- + + + And somewhere now, among lone mountain rocks + On Sipylus, where couch the nymphs at night + Who dance all day by Achelous' stream, + The once proud mother lies, herself a rook, + And in cold breast broods o'er the goddess' wrong. + --Prometheus the fire-bringer.[2] + + +In the Iliad it is added that Cronion made the people into stones. +The attitude of the later Greek mind towards these myths may be +observed in a fragment of Philemon, the comic poet. "Never, by the +gods, have I believed, nor will believe, that Niobe the stone was +once a woman. Nay, by reason of her calamities she became +speechless, and so, from her silence, was called a stone."[3] + + +[1] Pindar, Pyth. x., Myers's translation. + +[2] xxiv. 611. + +[3] The Scholiast on Iliad, xxiv. 6, 7. + + +There is another famous petrification in the Iliad. When the +prodigy of the snake and the sparrows had appeared to the assembled +Achaeans at Aulis, Zeus displayed a great marvel, and changed into +a stone the serpent which swallowed the young of the sparrow. +Changes into stone, though less common than changes into fishes, +birds and beasts, were thus obviously not too strange for the +credulity of Greek mythology, which could also believe that a stone +became the mother of Agdestis by Zeus. + +As to interchange of shape between men and women and PLANTS, our +information, so far as the lower races are concerned, is less +copious. It has already been shown that the totems of many stocks +in all parts of the world are plants, and this belief in connection +with a plant by itself demonstrates that the confused belief in all +things being on one level has thus introduced vegetables into the +dominion of myth. As far as possessing souls is concerned, Mr. +Tylor has proved that plants are as well equipped as men or beasts +or minerals.[1] In India the doctrine of transmigration widely and +clearly recognises the idea of trees or smaller plants being +animated by human souls". In the well-known ancient Egyptian story +of "The Two Brothers,"[2] the life of the younger is practically +merged in that of the acacia tree where he has hidden his heart; +and when he becomes a bull and is sacrificed, his spiritual part +passes into a pair of Persea trees. The Yarucaris of Bolivia say +that a girl once bewailed in the forest her loverless estate. She +happened to notice a beautiful tree, which she adorned with +ornaments as well as she might. The tree assumed the shape of a +handsome young man-- + + + She did not find him so remiss, + But, lightly issuing through, + He did repay her kiss for kiss, + With usury thereto.[3] + + +J. G. Muller, who quotes this tale from Andree, says it has "many +analogies with the tales of metamorphosis of human beings into +trees among the ancients, as reported by Ovid". The worship of +plants and trees is a well-known feature in religion, and probably +implies (at least in many cases) a recognition of personality. In +Samoa, metamorphosis into vegetables is not uncommon. For example, +the king of Fiji was a cannibal, and (very naturally) "the people +were melting away under him". The brothers Toa and Pale, wishing +to escape the royal oven, adopted various changes of shape. They +knew that straight timber was being sought for to make a canoe for +the king, so Pale, when he assumed a vegetable form, became a +crooked stick overgrown with creepers, but Toa "preferred standing +erect as a handsome straight tree". Poor Toa was therefore cut +down by the king's shipwrights, though, thanks to his brother's +magic wiles, they did not make a canoe out of him after all.[4] In +Samoa the trees are so far human that they not only go to war with +each other, but actually embark in canoes to seek out distant +enemies.[5] The Ottawa Indians account for the origin of maize by +a myth in which a wizard fought with and conquered a little man who +had a little crown of feathers. From his ashes arose the maize +with its crown of leaves and heavy ears of corn.[6] + + +[1] Primitive Culture, i. 145; examples of Society Islanders, +Dyaks, Karens, Buddhists. + +[2] Maspero, Contes Egyptiens, p. 25. + +[3] J. G. Muller, Amerik. Urrel., p. 264. + +[4] Turner's Samoa, p. 219. + +[5] Ibid.. p. 213. + +[6] Amerik. Urrel., p. 60. + + +In Mangaia the myth of the origin of the cocoa-nut tree is a series +of transformation scenes, in which the persons shift shapes with +the alacrity of medicine-men. Ina used to bathe in a pool where an +eel became quite familiar with her. At last the fish took courage +and made his declaration. He was Tuna, the chief of all eels. "Be +mine," he cried, and Ina was his. For some mystical reason he was +obliged to leave her, but (like the White Cat in the fairy tale) he +requested her to cut off his eel's head and bury it. Regretfully +but firmly did Ina comply with his request, and from the buried +eel's head sprang two cocoa trees, one from each half of the brain +of Tuna. As a proof of this be it remarked, that when the nut is +husked we always find on it "the two eyes and mouth of the lover of +Ina".[1] All over the world, from ancient Egypt to the wigwams of +the Algonkins, plants and other matters are said to have sprung +from a dismembered god or hero, while men are said to have sprung +from plants.[2] We may therefore perhaps look on it as a proved +point that the general savage habit of "levelling up" prevails even +in their view of the vegetable world, and has left traces (as we +have seen) in their myths. + + +[1] Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 79. + +[2] Myths of the Beginning of Things. + + +Turning now to the mythology of Greece, we see that the same rule +holds good. Metamorphosis into plants and flowers is extremely +common; the instances of Daphne, Myrrha, Hyacinth, Narcissus and +the sisters of Phaethon at once occur to the memory. + +Most of those myths in which everything in Nature becomes personal +and human, while all persons may become anything in Nature, we +explain, then, as survivals or imitations of tales conceived when +men were in the savage intellectual condition. In that stage, as +we demonstrated, no line is drawn between things animate and +inanimate, dumb or "articulate speaking," organic or inorganic, +personal or impersonal. Such a mental stage, again, is reflected +in the nature-myths, many of which are merely "aetiological,"-- +assign a cause, that is, for phenomena, and satisfy an indolent and +credulous curiosity. + +We may be asked again, "But how did this intellectual condition +come to exist?" To answer that is no part of our business; for us +it is enough to trace myth, or a certain element in myth, to a +demonstrable and actual stage of thought. But this stage, which +is constantly found to survive in the minds of children, is thus +explained or described by Hume in his Essay on Natural Religion: +"There is an universal tendency in mankind to conceive all +beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those +qualities . . . of which they are intimately conscious".[1] Now +they believe themselves to be conscious of magical and supernatural +powers, which they do not, of course, possess. These powers of +effecting metamorphosis, of "shape-shifting," of flying, of becoming +invisible at will, of conversing with the dead, of miraculously +healing the sick, savages pass on to their gods (as will be shown +in a later chapter), and the gods of myth survive and retain the +miraculous gifts after their worshippers (become more reasonable) +have quite forgotten that they themselves once claimed similar +endowments. So far, then, it has been shown that savage fancy, +wherever studied, is wild; that savage curiosity is keen; that +savage credulity is practically boundless. These considerations +explain the existence of savage myths of sun, stars, beasts, plants +and stones; similar myths fill Greek legend and the Sanskrit +Brahmanes. We conclude that, in Greek and Sanskrit, the myths are +relics (whether borrowed or inherited) of the savage mental STATUS. + + +[1] See Appendix B. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +NON-ARYAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + + +Confusions of myth--Various origins of man and of things--Myths of +Australia, Andaman Islands, Bushmen, Ovaherero, Namaquas, Zulus, +Hurons, Iroquois, Diggers, Navajoes, Winnebagoes, Chaldaeans, +Thlinkeets, Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Aztecs, Peruvians-- +Similarity of ideas pervading all those peoples in various +conditions of society and culture. + + +The difficulties of classification which beset the study of +mythology have already been described. Nowhere are they more +perplexing than when we try to classify what may be styled +Cosmogonic Myths. The very word cosmogonic implies the pre- +existence of the idea of a cosmos, an orderly universe, and this +was exactly the last idea that could enter the mind of the myth- +makers. There is no such thing as orderliness in their mythical +conceptions, and no such thing as an universe. The natural +question, "Who made the world, or how did the things in the world +come to be?" is the question which is answered by cosmogonic myths. +But it is answered piecemeal. To a Christian child the reply is +given, "God made all things". We have known this reply discussed +by some little girls of six (a Scotch minister's daughters, and +naturally metaphysical), one of whom solved all difficulties by the +impromptu myth, "God first made a little place to stand on, and +then he made the rest". But savages and the myth-makers, whose +stories survive into the civilised religions, could adhere firmly +to no such account as this. Here occurs in the first edition of +this book the following passage: "They (savages) have not, and had +not, the conception of God as we understand what we mean by the +word. They have, and had at most, only the small-change of the +idea "God,"--here the belief in a moral being who watches conduct; +here again the hypothesis of a pre-human race of magnified, non- +natural medicine-men, or of extra-natural beings with human and +magical attributes, but often wearing the fur, and fins, and +feathers of the lower animals. Mingled with these faiths (whether +earlier, later, or coeval in origin with these) are the dread and +love of ancestral ghosts, often transmuting themselves into worship +of an imaginary and ideal first parent of the tribe, who once more +is often a beast or a bird. Here is nothing like the notion of an +omnipotent, invisible, spiritual being, the creator of our +religion; here is only la monnaie of the conception." + +It ought to have occurred to the author that he was here traversing +the main theory of his own book, which is that RELIGION is one +thing, myth quite another thing. That many low races of savages +entertain, in hours of RELIGIOUS thought, an elevated conception of +a moral and undying Maker of Things, and Master of Life, a Father +in Heaven, has already been stated, and knowledge of the facts has +been considerably increased since this work first appeared (1887). +But the MYTHICAL conceptions described in the last paragraph +coexist with the religious conception in the faiths of very low +savages, such as the Australians and Andamanese, just as the same +contradictory coexistence is notorious in ancient Greece, India, +Egypt and Anahuac. In a sense, certain low savages HAVE the +"conception of God, as we understand what we mean by the word". +But that sense, when savages come to spinning fables about origins, +is apt to be overlaid and perplexed by the frivolity of their +mythical fancy. + +With such shifting, grotesque and inadequate fables, the cosmogonic +myths of the world are necessarily bewildered and perplexed. We +have already seen in the chapter on "Nature Myths" that many +things, sun, moon, the stars, "that have another birth," and +various animals and plants, are accounted for on the hypothesis +that they are later than the appearance of man--that they +originally WERE men. To the European mind it seems natural to rank +myths of the gods before myths of the making or the evolution of +the world, because our religion, like that of the more philosophic +Greeks, makes the deity the fount of all existences, causa causans, +"what unmoved moves," the beginning and the end. But the myth- +makers, deserting any such ideas they may possess, find it +necessary, like the child of whom we spoke, to postulate a PLACE +for the divine energy to work from, and that place is the earth or +the heavens. Then, again, heaven and earth are themselves often +regarded in the usual mythical way, as animated, as persons with +parts and passions, and finally, among advancing races, as gods. +Into this medley of incongruous and inconsistent conceptions we +must introduce what order we may, always remembering that the order +is not native to the subject, but is brought in for the purpose of +study. + +The origin of the world and of man is naturally a problem which has +excited the curiosity of the least developed minds. Every savage +race has its own myths on this subject, most of them bearing the +marks of the childish and crude imagination, whose character we +have investigated, and all varying in amount of what may be called +philosophical thought. + +All the cosmogonic myths, as distinct from religious belief in a +Creator, waver between the theory of construction, or rather of +reconstruction, and the theory of evolution, very rudely conceived. +The earth, as a rule, is mythically averred to have grown out of +some original matter, perhaps an animal, perhaps an egg which +floated on the waters, perhaps a handful of mud from below the +waters. But this conception does not exclude the idea that many of +the things in the world, minerals, plants and what not, are +fragments of the frame of a semi-supernatural and gigantic being, +human or bestial, belonging to a race which preceded the advent of +man.[1] Such were the Titans, demi-gods, Nurrumbunguttias in +Australia. Various members of this race are found active in myths +of the creation, or rather the construction, of man and of the +world. Among the lowest races it is to be noted that mythical +animals of supernatural power often take the place of beings like +the Finnish Wainamoinen, the Greek Prometheus, the Zulu +Unkulunkulu, the Red Indian Manabozho, himself usually a great +hare. + + +[1] Macrobius, Saturnal., i. xx. + + +The ages before the development or creation of man are filled up, +in the myths, with the loves and wars of supernatural people. The +appearance of man is explained in three or four contradictory ways, +each of which is represented in the various myths of most +mythologies. Often man is fashioned out of clay, or stone, or +other materials, by a Maker of all things, sometimes half-human or +bestial, but also half-divine. Sometimes the first man rises out +of the earth, and is himself confused with the Creator, a theory +perhaps illustrated by the Zulu myth of Unkulunkulu, "The Old, Old +One". Sometimes man arrives ready made, with most of the animals, +from his former home in a hole in the ground, and he furnishes the +world for himself with stars, sun, moon and everything else he +needs. Again, there are many myths which declare that man was +evolved out of one or other of the lower animals. This myth is +usually employed by tribesmen to explain the origin of their own +peculiar stock of kindred. Once more, man is taken to be the fruit +of some tree or plant, or not to have emerged ready-made, but to +have grown out of the ground like a plant or a tree. In some +countries, as among the Bechuanas, the Boeotians, and the +Peruvians, the spot where men first came out on earth is known to +be some neighbouring marsh or cave. Lastly, man is occasionally +represented as having been framed out of a piece of the body of the +Creator, or made by some demiurgic potter out of clay. All these +legends are told by savages, with no sense of their inconsistency. +There is no single orthodoxy on the matter, and we shall see that +all these theories coexist pell-mell among the mythological +traditions of civilised races. In almost every mythology, too, the +whole theory of the origin of man is crossed by the tradition of a +Deluge, or some other great destruction, followed by revival or +reconstruction of the species, a tale by no means necessarily of +Biblical origin. + +In examining savage myths of the origin of man and of the world, we +shall begin by considering those current among the most backward +peoples, where no hereditary or endowed priesthood has elaborated +and improved the popular beliefs. The natives of Australia furnish +us with myths of a purely popular type, the property, not of +professional priests and poets, but of all the old men and full- +grown warriors of the country. Here, as everywhere else, the +student must be on his guard against accepting myths which are +disguised forms of missionary teaching.[1] + + +[1] Taplin, The Narrinyeri. "He must also beware of supposing that +the Australians believe in a creator in our sense, because the +Narrinyeri, for example, say that Nurundere 'made everything'. +Nurundere is but an idealised wizard and hunter, with a rival of +his species." This occurs in the first edition, but "making all +things" is one idea, wizardry is another. + + +In Southern Australia we learn that the Boonoorong, an Australian +coast tribe, ascribe the creation of things to a being named Bun- +jel or Pund-jel. He figures as the chief of an earlier +supernatural class of existence, with human relationships; thus he +"has a wife, WHOSE FACE HE HAS NEVER SEEN," brothers, a son, and so +on. Now this name Bun-jel means "eagle-hawk," and the eagle-hawk +is a totem among certain stocks. Thus, when we hear that Eagle- +hawk is the maker of men and things we are reminded of the Bushman +creator, Cagn, who now receives prayers of considerable beauty and +pathos, but who is (in some theories) identified with kaggen, the +mantis insect, a creative grasshopper, and the chief figure in +Bushman mythology.[1] Bun-jel or Pund-jel also figures in +Australian belief, neither as the creator nor as the eagle-hawk, +but "as an old man who lives at the sources of the Yarra river, +where he possesses great multitudes of cattle".[2] The term Bun- +jel is also used, much like our "Mr.," to denote the older men of +the Kurnai and Briakolung, some of whom have magical powers. One +of them, Krawra, or "West Wind," can cause the wind to blow so +violently as to prevent the natives from climbing trees; this man +has semi-divine attributes. From these facts it appears that this +Australian creator, in myth, partakes of the character of the totem +or worshipful beast, and of that of the wizard or medicine-man. He +carried a large knife, and, when he made the earth, he went up and +down slicing it into creeks and valleys. The aborigines of the +northern parts of Victoria seem to believe in Pund-jel in what may +perhaps be his most primitive mythical shape, that of an eagle.[3] +This eagle and a crow created everything, and separated the Murray +blacks into their two main divisions, which derive their names from +the crow and the eagle. The Melbourne blacks seem to make Pund-jel +more anthropomorphic. Men are his [Greek text omitted] figures +kneaded of clay, as Aristophanes says in the Birds. Pund-jel made +two clay images of men, and danced round them. "He made their +hair--one had straight, one curly hair--of bark. He danced round +them. He lay on them, and breathed his breath into their mouths, +noses and navels, and danced round them. Then they arose full- +grown young men." Some blacks seeing a brickmaker at work on a +bridge over the Yarra exclaimed, "Like 'em that Pund-jel make 'em +Koolin". But other blacks prefer to believe that, as Pindar puts +the Phrygian legend, the sun saw men growing like trees. + + +[1] Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Mythology, p. 6; Cape Monthly +Magazine, July, 1874, pp. 1-13; Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 210, 324. + +[2] Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 210. + +[3] Brough Smyth, Natives of Victoria, vol. i. p. 423. + + +The first man was formed out of the gum of a wattle-tree, and came +out of the knot of a wattle-tree. He then entered into a young +woman (though he was the first man) and was born.[1] The Encounter +Bay people have another myth, which might have been attributed by +Dean Swift to the Yahoos, so foul an origin does it allot to +mankind. + + +[1] Meyer, Aborigines of Encounter Bay. See, later, "Gods of the +Lowest Races". + + +Australian myths of creation are by no means exclusive of a +hypothesis of evolution. Thus the Dieyrie, whose notions Mr. Gason +has recorded, hold a very mixed view. They aver that "the good +spirit" Moora-Moora made a number of small black lizards, liked +them, and promised them dominion. He divided their feet into toes +and fingers, gave them noses and lips, and set them upright. Down +they fell, and Moora-Moora cut off their tails. Then they walked +erect and were men.[1] The conclusion of the adventures of one +Australian creator is melancholy. He has ceased to dwell among +mortals whom he watches and inspires. The Jay possessed many bags +full of wind; he opened them, and Pund-jel was carried up by the +blast into the heavens. But this event did not occur before Pund- +jel had taught men and women the essential arts of life. He had +shown the former how to spear kangaroos, he still exists and +inspires poets. From the cosmogonic myths of Australia (the +character of some of which is in contradiction with the higher +religious belief of the people to be later described) we may turn, +without reaching a race of much higher civilisation, to the +dwellers in the Andaman Islands and their opinions about the origin +of things. + + +[1] Gason's Dieyries, ap. Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 20. + + +The Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, are remote from any +shores, and are protected from foreign influences by dangerous +coral reefs, and by the reputed ferocity and cannibalism of the +natives. These are Negritos, and are commonly spoken of as most +abject savages. They are not, however, without distinctions of +rank; they are clean, modest, moral after marriage, and most strict +in the observance of prohibited degrees. Unlike the Australians, +they use bows and arrows, but are said to be incapable of striking +a light, and, at all events, find the process so difficult that, +like the Australians and the farmer in the Odyssey,[1] they are +compelled "to hoard the seeds of fire". Their mythology contains +explanations of the origin of men and animals, and of their own +customs and language. + + +[1] Odyssey, v. 490. + + +The Andamanese, long spoken of as "godless," owe much to Mr. Man, +an English official, who has made a most careful study of their +beliefs.[1] So extraordinary is the contradiction between the +relative purity and morality of the RELIGION and the savagery of +the myths of the Andamanese, that, in the first edition of this +work, I insisted that the "spiritual god" of the faith must have +been "borrowed from the same quarter as the stone house" in which +he is mythically said to live. But later and wider study, and +fresh information from various quarters, have convinced me that the +relative purity of Andamanese religion, with its ethical sanction +of conduct, may well be, and probably is, a natural unborrowed +development. It is easy for MYTH to borrow the notion of a stone +house from our recent settlement at Port Blair. But it would not +be easy for RELIGION to borrow many new ideas from an alien creed, +in a very few years, while the noted ferocity of the islanders +towards strangers, and the inaccessibility of their abode, makes +earlier borrowing, on a large scale at least, highly improbable. +The Andamanese god, Puluga, is "like fire" but invisible, unborn +and immortal, knowing and punishing or rewarding, men's deeds, even +"the thoughts of their hearts". But when once mythical fancy plays +round him, and stories are told about him, he is credited with a +wife who is an eel or a shrimp, just as Zeus made love as an ant or +a cuckoo. Puluga was the maker of men; no particular myth as to +how he made them is given. They tried to kill him, after the +deluge (of which a grotesque myth is told), but he replied that he +was "as hard as wood". His legend is in the usual mythical +contradiction with the higher elements in his religion. + + +[1] Journ. Anthrop. Soc., vol. xii. p. 157 et seq. + + +Leaving the Andaman islanders, but still studying races in the +lowest degree of civilisation, we come to the Bushmen of South +Africa. This very curious and interesting people, far inferior in +material equipment to the Hottentots, is sometimes regarded as a +branch of that race.[1] The Hottentots call themselves "Khoi- +khoi," the Bushmen they style "Sa". The poor Sa lead the life of +pariahs, and are hated and chased by all other natives of South +Africa. They are hunters and diggers for roots, while the +Hottentots, perhaps their kinsmen, are cattle-breeders.[2] Being +so ill-nourished, the Bushmen are very small, but sturdy. They +dwell in, or rather wander through, countries which have been +touched by some ancient civilisation, as is proved by the +mysterious mines and roads of Mashonaland. It is singular that the +Bushmen possess a tradition according to which they could once +"make stone things that flew over rivers". They have remarkable +artistic powers, and their drawings of men and animals on the walls +of caves are often not inferior to the designs on early Greek +vases.[3] + + +[1] See "Divine Myths of the Lower Races". + +[2] Hahu, Tsuni Goam, p. 4. See other accounts in Waitz, +Anthropologie, ii. 328. + +[3] Custom and Myth, where illustrations of Bushman art are given, +pp. 290-295. + + +Thus we must regard the Bushmen as possibly degenerated from a +higher status, though there is nothing (except perhaps the +tradition about bridge-making) to show that it was more exalted +than that of their more prosperous neighbours, the Hottentots. The +myths of the Bushmen, however, are almost on the lowest known +level. A very good and authentic example of Bushman cosmogonic +myth was given to Mr. Orpen, chief magistrate of St. John's +territory, by Qing, King Nqusha's huntsman. Qing "had never seen a +white man, but in fighting," till he became acquainted with Mr. +Orpen.[1] The chief force in Bushmen myth is by Dr. Bleek +identified with the mantis, a sort of large grasshopper. Though he +seems at least as "chimerical a beast" as the Aryan creative boar, +the "mighty big hare" of the Algonkins, the large spider who made +the world in the opinion of the Gold Coast people, or the eagle of +the Australians, yet the insect (if insect he be), like the others, +has achieved moral qualities and is addressed in prayer. In his +religious aspect he is nothing less than a grasshopper. He is +called Cagn. "Cagn made all things and we pray to him," said Qing. +"Coti is the wife of Cagn." Qing did not know where they came +from; "perhaps with the men who brought the sun". The fact is, +Qing "did not dance that dance," that is, was not one of the +Bushmen initiated into the more esoteric mysteries of Cagn. Till +we, too, are initiated, we can know very little of Cagn in his +religious aspect. Among the Bushmen, as among the Greeks, there is +"no religious mystery without dancing". Qing was not very +consistent. He said Cagn gave orders and caused all things to +appear and to be made, sun, moon, stars, wind, mountains, animals, +and this, of course, is a lofty theory of creation. Elsewhere myth +avers that Cagn did not so much create as manufacture the objects +in nature. In his early day "the snakes were also men". Cagn +struck snakes with his staff and turned them into men, as Zeus, in +the Aeginetan myth, did with ants. He also turned offending men +into baboons. In Bushman myth, little as we really know of it, we +see the usual opposition of fable and faith, a kind creator in +religion is apparently a magician in myth. + + +[1] Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + + +Neighbours of the Bushmen, but more fortunate in their wealth of +sheep and cattle, are the Ovaherero. The myths of the Ovaherero, a +tribe dwelling in a part of Hereraland "which had not yet been +under the influence of civilisation and Christianity," have been +studied by the Rev. H. Reiderbecke, missionary at Otyozondyupa. +The Ovaherero, he says, have a kind of tree Ygdrasil, a tree out of +which men are born, and this plays a great part in their myth of +creation. The tree, which still exists, though at a great age, is +called the Omumborombonga tree. Out of it came, in the beginning, +the first man and woman. Oxen stepped forth from it too, but +baboons, as Caliban says of the stars, "came otherwise," and sheep +and goats sprang from a flat rock. Black people are so coloured, +according to the Ovaherero, because when the first parents emerged +from the tree and slew an ox, the ancestress of the blacks +appropriated the black liver of the victim. The Ovakuru Meyuru or +"OLD ONES in heaven," once let the skies down with a run, but drew +them up again (as the gods of the Satapatha Brahmana drew the sun) +when most of mankind had been drowned.[1] The remnant pacified the +OLD ONES (as Odysseus did the spirits of the dead) by the sacrifice +of a BLACK ewe, a practice still used to appease ghosts by the +Ovaherero. The neighbouring Omnambo ascribe the creation of man to +Kalunga, who came out of the earth, and made the first three +sheep.[2] + + +[1] An example of a Deluge myth in Africa, where M. Lenormant found +none. + +[2] South African Folk-Lore Journal, ii. pt. v. p. 95. + + +Among the Namaquas, an African people on the same level of nomadic +culture as the Ovaherero, a divine or heroic early being called +Heitsi Eibib had a good deal to do with the origin of things. If +he did not exactly make the animals, he impressed on them their +characters, and their habits (like those of the serpent in Genesis) +are said to have been conferred by a curse, the curse of Heitsi +Eibib. A precisely similar notion was found by Avila among the +Indians of Huarochiri, whose divine culture-hero imposed, by a +curse or a blessing, their character and habits on the beasts.[1] +The lion used to live in a nest up a tree till Heitsi Eibib cursed +him and bade him walk on the ground. He also cursed the hare, "and +the hare ran away, and is still running".[2] The name of the first +man is given as Eichaknanabiseb (with a multitude of "clicks"), and +he is said to have met all the animals on a flat rock, and played a +game with them for copper beads. The rainbow was made by Gaunab, +who is generally a malevolent being, of whom more hereafter. + + +[1] Fables of Yncas (Hakluyt Society), p. 127. + +[2] Tsuni Goam, pp. 66, 67. + + +Leaving these African races, which, whatever their relative degrees +of culture, are physically somewhat contemptible, we reach their +northern neighbours, the Zulus. They are among the finest, and +certainly among the least religious, of the undeveloped peoples. +Their faith is mainly in magic and ghosts, but there are traces of +a fading and loftier belief. + +The social and political condition of the Zulu is well understood. +They are a pastoral, but not a nomadic people, possessing large +kraals or towns. They practise agriculture, and they had, till +quite recently, a centralised government and a large army, somewhat +on the German system. They appear to have no regular class of +priests, and supernatural power is owned by the chiefs and the +king, and by diviners and sorcerers, who conduct the sacrifices. +Their myths are the more interesting because, whether from their +natural scepticism, which confuted Bishop Colenso in his orthodox +days, or from acquaintance with European ideas, they have begun to +doubt the truth of their own traditions.[1] The Zulu theory of the +origin of man and of the world commences with the feats of +Unkulunkulu, "the old, old one," who, in some legends, was the +first man, "and broke off in the beginning". Like Manabozho among +the Indians of North America, and like Wainamoinen among the Finns, +Unkulunkulu imparted to men a knowledge of the arts, of marriage, +and so forth. His exploits in this direction, however, must be +considered in another part of this work. Men in general "came out +of a bed of reeds".[2] But there is much confusion about this bed +of reeds, named "Uthlanga". The younger people ask where the bed +of reeds was; the old men do not know, and neither did their +fathers know. But they stick to it that "that bed of reeds still +exists". Educated Zulus appear somewhat inclined to take the +expression in an allegorical sense, and to understand the reeds +either as a kind of protoplasm or as a creator who was mortal. "He +exists no longer. As my grandfather no longer exists, he too no +longer exists; he died." Chiefs who wish to claim high descent +trace their pedigree to Uthlanga, as the Homeric kings traced +theirs to Zeus. The myths given by Dr. Callaway are very +contradictory. + + +[1] These legends have been carefully collected and published by +Bishop Callaway (Trubner & Co., 1868). + +[2] Callaway, p. 9. + + +In addition to the legend that men came out of a bed of reeds, +other and perhaps even more puerile stories are current. "Some men +say that they were belched up by a cow;" others "that Unkulunkulu +split them out of a stone,"[1] which recalls the legend of Pyrrha +and Deucalion. The myth about the cow is still applied to great +chiefs. "He was not born; he was belched up by a cow." The myth +of the stone origin corresponds to the Homeric saying about men +"born from the stone or the oak of the old tale".[2] + + +[1] Without anticipating a later chapter, the resemblances of these +to Greek myths, as arrayed by M. Bouche Leclercq (De Origine +Generis Humani), is very striking. + +[2] Odyssey, xix. 103. + + +In addition to the theory of the natal bed of reeds, the Zulus, +like the Navajoes of New Mexico, and the Bushmen, believe in the +subterranean origin of man. There was a succession of emigrations +from below of different tribes of men, each having its own +Unkulunkulu. All accounts agree that Unkulunkulu is not +worshipped, and he does not seem to be identified with "the lord +who plays in heaven"--a kind of fading Zeus--when there is thunder. +Unkulunkulu is not worshipped, though ancestral spirits are +worshipped, because he lived so long ago that no one can now trace +his pedigree to the being who is at once the first man and the +creator. His "honour-giving name is lost in the lapse of years, +and the family rites have become obsolete."[1] + + +[1] See Zulu religion in The Making of Religion, pp. 225-229, where +it is argued that ghost worship has superseded a higher faith, of +which traces are discernible. + + +The native races of the North American continent (concerning whose +civilisation more will be said in the account of their divine +myths) occupy every stage of culture, from the truly bestial +condition in which some of the Digger Indians at present exist, +living on insects and unacquainted even with the use of the bow, to +the civilisation which the Spaniards destroyed among the Aztecs. + +The original facts about religion in America are much disputed, and +will be more appropriately treated later. It is now very usual for +anthropologists to say, like Mr. Dorman, "no approach to +monotheismn had been made before the discovery of America by +Europeans, and the Great Spirit mentioned in these (their) books is +an introduction by Christianity".[1] "This view will not bear +examination," says Mr. Tylor, and we shall later demonstrate the +accuracy of his remark.[2] But at present we are concerned, not +with what Indian religion had to say about her Gods, but with what +Indian myth had to tell about the beginnings of things. + + +[1] Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 15. + +[2] Primitive Culture, 1873, ii. p. 340. + + +The Hurons, for example (to choose a people in a state of middle +barbarism), start in myth from the usual conception of a powerful +non-natural race of men dwelling in the heavens, whence they +descended, and colonised, not to say constructed, the earth. In +the Relation de la Nouvelle France, written by Pere Paul le Jeune, +of the Company of Jesus, in 1636, there is a very full account of +Huron opinion, which, with some changes of names, exists among the +other branches of the Algonkin family of Indians. + +They recognise as the founder of their kindred a woman named +Ataentsic, who, like Hephaestus in the Iliad, was banished from the +sky. In the upper world there are woods and plains, as on earth. +Ataentsic fell down a hole when she was hunting a bear, or she cut +down a heaven-tree, and fell with the fall of this Huron Ygdrasil, +or she was seduced by an adventurer from the under world, and was +tossed out of heaven for her fault. However it chanced, she +dropped on the back of the turtle in the midst of the waters. He +consulted the other aquatic animals, and one of them, generally +said to have been the musk-rat, fished[1] up some soil and +fashioned the earth.[2] Here Ataentsic gave birth to twins, +Ioskeha and Tawiscara. These represent the usual dualism of myth; +they answer to Osiris and Set, to Ormuzd and Ahriman, and were +bitter enemies. According to one form of the myth, the woman of +the sky had twins, and what occurred may be quoted from Dr. +Brinton. "Even before birth one of them betrayed his restless and +evil nature by refusing to be born in the usual manner, but +insisting on breaking through his parent's side or arm-pit. He did +so, but it cost his mother her life. Her body was buried, and from +it sprang the various vegetable productions," pumpkins, maize, +beans, and so forth.[3] + + +[1] Relations, 1633. In this myth one Messon, the Great Hare, is +the beginner of our race. He married a daughter of the Musk-rat. + +[2] Here we first meet in this investigation a very widely +distributed myth. The myths already examined have taken the origin +of earth for granted. The Hurons account for its origin; a speck +of earth was fished out of the waters and grew. In M. H. de +Charencey's tract Une Legende Cosmogonique (Havre, 1884) this +legend is traced. M. de Charencey distinguishes (1) a continental +version; (2) an insular version; (3) a mixed and Hindoo version. +Among continental variants he gives a Vogul version (Revue de +Philologie et d'Ethnographie, Paris, 1874, i. 10). Numi Tarom (a +god who cooks fish in heaven) hangs a male and female above the +abyss of waters in a silver cradle. He gives them, later, just +earth enough to build a house on. Their son, in the guise of a +squirrel, climbs to Numi Tarom, and receives from him a duck-skin +and a goose-skin. Clad in these, like Yehl in his raven-skin or +Odin in his hawk-skin, he enjoys the powers of the animals, dives +and brings up three handfuls of mud, which grow into our earth. +Elempi makes men out of clay and snow. The American version M. de +Charencey gives from Nicholas Perrot (Mem. sur les Moers, etc., +Paris, 1864, i. 3). Perrot was a traveller of the seventeenth +century. The Great Hare takes a hand in the making of earth out of +fished-up soil. After giving other North American variants, and +comparing the animals that, after three attempts, fish up earth to +the dove and raven of Noah, M. de Charencey reaches the Bulgarians. +God made Satan, in the skin of a diver, fish up earth out of Lake +Tiberias. Three doves fish up earth, in the beginning, in the +Galician popular legend (Chodzko, Contes des Paysans Slaves, p. +374). In the INSULAR version, as in New Zealand, the island is +usually fished up with a hook by a heroic angler (Japan, Tonga, +Tahiti, New Zealand). The Hindoo version, in which the boar plays +the part of musk-rat, or duck, or diver, will be given in "Indian +Cosmogonic Myths". + +[3] Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 54. Nicholas Perrot and +various Jesuit Relations are the original authorities. See "Divine +Myths of America". Mr. Leland, in his Algonkin Tales, prints the +same story, with the names altered to Glooskap and Malsumis, from +oral tradition. Compare Schoolcraft, v. 155, and i. 317, and the +versions of PP. Charlevoix and Lafitau. In Charlevoix the good and +bad brothers are Manabozho and Chokanipok or Chakekanapok, and out +of the bones and entrails of the latter many plants and animals +were fashioned, just as, according to a Greek myth preserved by +Clemens Alexandrinus, parsley and pomegranates arose from the blood +and scattered members of Dionysus Zagreus. The tale of Tawiscara's +violent birth is told of Set in Egypt, and of Indra in the Veda, as +will be shown later. This is a very common fable, and, as Mr. +Whitley Stokes tells me, it recurs in old Irish legends of the +birth of our Lord, Myth, as usual, invading religion, even +Christian religion. + + +According to another version of the origin of things, the maker of +them was one Michabous, or Michabo, the Great Hare. His birthplace +was shown at an island called Michilimakinak, like the birthplace +of Apollo at Delos. The Great Hare made the earth, and, as will +afterwards appear, was the inventor of the arts of life. On the +whole, the Iroquois and Algonkin myths agree in finding the origin +of life in an upper world beyond the sky. The earth was either +fished up (as by Brahma when he dived in the shape of a boar) by +some beast which descended to the bottom of the waters, or grew out +of the tortoise on whose back Ataentsic fell. The first dwellers +in the world were either beasts like Manabozho or Michabo, the +Great Hare, or the primeval wolves of the Uinkarets,[1] or the +creative musk-rat, or were more anthropomorphic heroes, such as +Ioskeha and Tawiscara. As for the things in the world, some were +made, some evolved, some are transformed parts of an early non- +natural man or animal. There is a tendency to identify Ataentsic, +the sky-woman, with the moon, and in the Two Great Brethren, +hostile as they are, to recognise moon and sun.[2] + + +[1] Powell, Bureau of Ethnology, i. 44. + +[2] Dr. Brinton has endeavoured to demonstrate by arguments drawn +from etymology that Michabos, Messou, Missibizi or Manabozho, the +Great Hare, is originally a personification of Dawn (Myths of the +New World, p. 178). I have examined his arguments in the +Nineteenth Century, January, 1886, which may be consulted, and in +Melusine, January, 1887. The hare appears to be one out of the +countless primeval beast-culture heroes. A curious piece of magic +in a tradition of the Dene Hareskins may seem to aid Dr. Brinton's +theory: Pendant la nuit il entra, jeta au feu une tete de lievre +blanc et aussitot le jour se fit".--Petitot, Traditions Indiennes, +p. 173. But I take it that the sacrifice of a white hare's head +makes light magically, as sacrifice of black beasts and columns of +black smoke make rainclouds. + + +Some of the degraded Digger Indians of California have the +following myth of the origin of species. In this legend, it will +be noticed, a species of evolution takes the place of a theory of +creation. The story was told to Mr. Adam Johnston, who "drew" the +narrator by communicating to a chief the Biblical narrative of the +creation.[1] The chief said it was a strange story, and one that +he had never heard when he lived at the Mission of St. John under +the care of a Padre. According to this chief (he ruled over the +Po-to-yan-te tribe or Coyotes), the first Indians were coyotes. +When one of their number died, his body became full of little +animals or spirits. They took various shapes, as of deer, +antelopes, and so forth; but as some exhibited a tendency to fly +off to the moon, the Po-to-yan-tes now usually bury the bodies of +their dead, to prevent the extinction of species. Then the Indians +began to assume the shape of man, but it was a slow transformation. +At first they walked on all fours, then they would begin to develop +an isolated human feature, one finger, one toe, one eye, like the +ascidian, our first parent in the view of modern science. Then +they doubled their organs, got into the habit of sitting up, and +wore away their tails, which they unaffectedly regret, "as they +consider the tail quite an ornament". Ideas of the immortality of +the soul are said to be confined to the old women of the tribe, +and, in short, according to this version, the Digger Indians occupy +the modern scientific position. + + +[1] Schoolcraft, vol. v. + + +The Winnebagoes, who communicated their myths to Mr. Fletcher,[1] +are suspected of having been influenced by the Biblical narrative. +They say that the Great Spirit woke up as from a dream, and found +himself sitting in a chair. As he was all alone, he took a piece +of his body and a piece of earth, and made a man. He next made a +woman, steadied the earth by placing beasts beneath it at the +corners, and created plants and animals. Other men he made out of +bears. "He created the white man to make tools for the poor +Indians"--a very pleasing example of a teleological hypothesis and +of the doctrine of final causes as understood by the Winnebagoes. +The Chaldean myth of the making of man is recalled by the legend +that the Great Spirit cut out a piece of himself for the purpose; +the Chaldean wisdom coincides, too, with the philosophical acumen +of the Po-to-yan-te or Coyote tribe of Digger Indians. Though the +Chaldean theory is only connected with that of the Red Men by its +savagery, we may briefly state it in this place. + + +[1] Ibid., iv. 228. + + +According to Berosus, as reported by Alexander Polyhistor, the +universe was originally (as before Manabozho's time) water and mud. +Herein all manner of mixed monsters, with human heads, goat's +horns, four legs, and tails, bred confusedly. In place of the +Iroquois Ataentsic, a woman called Omoroca presided over the mud +and the menagerie. She, too, like Ataentsic, is sometimes +recognised as the moon. Affairs being in this state, Bel-Maruduk +arrived and cut Omoroca in two (Chokanipok destroyed Ataentsic), +and out of Omoroca Bel made the world and the things in it. We +have already seen that in savage myth many things are fashioned out +of a dead member of the extra-natural race. Lastly, Bel cut his +own head off, and with the blood the gods mixed clay and made men. +The Chaldeans inherited very savage fancies.[1] + + +[1] Cf. Syncellus, p. 29; Euseb., Chronic. Armen., ed. Mai, p. 10; +Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, i. 506. + + +One ought, perhaps, to apologise to the Chaldeans for inserting +their myths among the fables of the least cultivated peoples; but +it will scarcely be maintained that the Oriental myths differ in +character from the Digger Indian and Iroquois explanations of the +origin of things. The Ahts of Vancouver Island, whom Mr. Sproat +knew intimately, and of whose ideas he gives a cautious account +(for he was well aware of the limits of his knowledge), tell a +story of the usual character.[1] They believe in a member of the +extra-natural race, named Quawteaht, of whom we shall hear more in +his heroic character. As a demiurge "he is undoubtedly represented +as the general framer, I do not say creator, of all things, though +some special things are excepted. He made the earth and water, the +trees and rocks, and all the animals. Some say that Quawteaht made +the sun and moon, but the majority of the Indians believe that he +had nothing to do with their formation, and that they are deities +superior to himself, though now distant and less active. He gave +names to everything; among the rest, to all the Indian houses which +then existed, although inhabited only by birds and animals. +Quawteaht went away before the apparent change of the birds and +beasts into Indians, which took place in the following manner:-- + +"The birds and beasts of old had the spirits of the Indians +dwelling in them, and occupied the various coast villages, as the +Ahts do at present. One day a canoe manned by two Indians from an +unknown country approached the shore. As they coasted along, at +each house at which they landed, the deer, bear, elk, and other +brute inhabitants fled to the mountains, and the geese and other +birds flew to the woods and rivers. But in this flight, the +Indians, who had hitherto been contained in the bodies of the +various creatures, were left behind, and from that time they took +possession of the deserted dwellings and assumed the condition in +which we now see them." + + +[1] Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, pp. 210, 211. + + +Crossing the northern continent of America to the west, we are in +the domains of various animal culture-heroes, ancestors and +teachers of the human race and the makers, to some extent, of the +things in the world. As the eastern tribes have their Great Hare, +so the western tribes have their wolf hero and progenitor, or their +coyote, or their raven, or their dog. It is possible, and even +certain in some cases, that the animal which was the dominant totem +of a race became heir to any cosmogonic legends that were floating +about. + +The country of the Papagos, on the eastern side of the Gulf of +California, is the southern boundary of the province of the coyote +or prairie wolf. The realm of his influence as a kind of +Prometheus, or even as a demiurge, extends very far northwards. In +the myth related by Con Quien, the chief of the central Papagos,[1] +the coyote acts the part of the fish in the Sanskrit legend of the +flood, while Montezuma undertakes the role of Manu. This Montezuma +was formed, like the Adams of so many races, out of potter's clay +in the hands of the Great Spirit. In all this legend it seems +plain enough that the name of Montezuma is imported from Mexico, +and has been arbitrarily given to the hero of the Papagos. +According to Mr. Powers, whose manuscript notes Mr. Bancroft quotes +(iii. 87), all the natives of California believe that their first +ancestors were created directly from the earth of their present +dwelling-places, and in very many cases these ancestors were +coyotes. + + +[1] Davidson, Indian Affairs Report, 1865, p. 131; Bancroft, iii. +75. + + +The Pimas, a race who live near the Papagos on the eastern coast of +the Gulf of California, say that the earth was made by a being +named Earth-prophet. At first it appeared like a spider's web, +reminding one of the West African legend that a great spider +created the world. Man was made by the Earth-prophet out of clay +kneaded with sweat. A mysterious eagle and a deluge play a great +part in the later mythical adventures of war and the world, as +known to the Pimas.[1] + + +[1] Communicated to Mr. Bancroft by Mr. Stout of the Pima Agency. + + +In Oregon the coyote appears as a somewhat tentative demiurge, and +the men of his creation, like the beings first formed by Prajapati +in the Sanskrit myth, needed to be reviewed, corrected and +considerably augmented. The Chinooks of Oregon believe in the +usual race of magnified non-natural men, who preceded humanity. + +These semi-divine people were called Ulhaipa by the Chinooks, and +Sehuiab by the Lummies. But the coyote was the maker of men. As +the first of Nature's journeymen, he made men rather badly, with +closed eyes and motionless feet. A kind being, named Ikanam, +touched up the coyote's crude essays with a sharp stone, opening +the eyes of men, and giving their hands and feet the powers of +movement. He also acted as a "culture-hero," introducing the first +arts. [1] + + +[1] [Frauchere's Narrative, 258; Gibb's Chinook Vocabulary; +Parker's exploring Tour, i. 139;] Bancroft, iii. 96. + + +Moving up the West Pacific coast we reach British Columbia, where +the coyote is not supposed to have been so active as our old friend +the musk-rat in the great work of the creation. According to the +Tacullies, nothing existed in the beginning but water and a musk- +rat. As the animal sought his food at the bottom of the water, his +mouth was frequently filled with mud. This he spat out, and so +gradually formed by alluvial deposit an island. This island was +small at first, like earth in the Sanskrit myth in the Satapatha +Brahmana, but gradually increased in bulk. The Tacullies have no +new light to throw on the origin of man.[1] + + +[1] Bancroft, iii. 98; Harmon's Journey, pp. 302, 303. + + +The Thlinkeets, who are neighbours of the Tacullies on the north, +incline to give crow or raven the chief role in the task of +creation, just as some Australians allot the same part to the +eagle-hawk, and the Yakuts to a hawk, a crow and a teal-duck. We +shall hear much of Yehl later, as one of the mythical heroes of the +introduction of civilisation. North of the Thlinkeets, a bird and +a dog take the creative duties, the Aleuts and Koniagas being +descended from a dog. Among the more northern Tinnehs, the dog who +was the progenitor of the race had the power of assuming the shape +of a handsome young man. He supplied the protoplasm of the +Tinnehs, as Purusha did that of the Aryan world, out of his own +body. A giant tore him to pieces, as the gods tore Purusha, and +out of the fragments thrown into the rivers came fish, the +fragments tossed into the air took life as birds, and so forth.[1] +This recalls the Australian myth of the origin of fish and the +Ananzi stories of the origin of whips.[2] + + +[1] Hearne, pp. 342, 343; Bancroft, iii. 106. + +[2] See "Divine Myths of Lower Races". M. Cosquin, in Contes de +Lorraine, vol. i. p. 58, gives the Ananzi story. + + +Between the cosmogonic myths of the barbarous or savage American +tribes and those of the great cultivated American peoples, Aztecs, +Peruvians and Quiches, place should be found for the legends of +certain races in the South Pacific. Of these, the most important +are the Maoris or natives of New Zealand, the Mangaians and the +Samoans. Beyond the usual and world-wide correspondences of myth, +the divine tales of the various South Sea isles display +resemblances so many and essential that they must be supposed to +spring from a common and probably not very distant centre. As it +is practically impossible to separate Maori myths of the making of +things from Maori myths of the gods and their origin, we must pass +over here the metaphysical hymns and stories of the original divine +beings, Rangi and Papa, Heaven and Earth, and of their cruel but +necessary divorce by their children, who then became the usual +Titanic race which constructs and "airs" the world for the +reception of man.[1] Among these beings, more fully described in +our chapter on the gods of the lower races, is Tiki, with his wife +Marikoriko, twilight. Tane (male) is another of the primordial +race, children of earth and heaven, and between him and Tiki lies +the credit of having made or begotten humanity. Tane adorned the +body of his father, heaven (Rangi), by sticking stars all over it, +as disks of pearl-shells are stuck all over images. He was the +parent of trees and birds, but some trees are original and divine +beings. The first woman was not born, but formed out of the sun +and the echo, a pretty myth. Man was made by Tiki, who took red +clay, and kneaded it with his own blood, or with the red water of +swamps. The habits of animals, some of which are gods, while +others are descended from gods, follow from their conduct at the +moment when heaven and earth were violently divorced. New Zealand +itself, or at least one of the isles, was a huge fish caught by +Maui (of whom more hereafter). Just as Pund-jel, in Australia, cut +out the gullies and vales with his knife, so the mountains and +dells of New Zealand were produced by the knives of Maui's brothers +when they crimped his big fish.[2] Quite apart from those childish +ideas are the astonishing metaphysical hymns about the first +stirrings of light in darkness, of "becoming" and "being," which +remind us of Hegel and Heraclitus, or of the most purely +speculative ideas in the Rig-Veda.[3] Scarcely less metaphysical +are the myths of Mangaia, of which Mr. Gill[4] gives an elaborate +account. + + +[1] See "Divine Myths of Lower Races". + +[2] Taylor, New Zealand, pp. 115-121; Bastian, Heilige Sage der +Polynesier, pp. 36-50; Shortland, Traditions of New Zealanders. + +[3] See chapter on "Divine Myths of the Lower Races," and on "Indian +Cosmogonic Myths" + +[4] Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, pp. 1-22. + + +The Mangaian ideas of the world are complex, and of an early +scientific sort. The universe is like the hollow of a vast cocoa- +nut shell, divided into many imaginary circles like those of +mediaeval speculation. There is a demon at the stem, as it were, +of the cocoa-nut, and, where the edges of the imaginary shell +nearly meet, dwells a woman demon, whose name means "the very +beginning". In this system we observe efforts at metaphysics and +physical speculation. But it is very characteristic of rude +thought that such extremely abstract conceptions as "the very +beginning" are represented as possessing life and human form. The +woman at the bottom of the shell was anxious for progeny, and +therefore plucked a bit out of her own right side, as Eve was made +out of the rib of Adam. This piece of flesh became Vatea, the +father of gods and men. Vatea (like Oannes in the Chaldean legend) +was half man, half fish. "The Very Beginning" begat other children +in the same manner, and some of these became departmental gods of +ocean, noon-day, and so forth. Curiously enough, the Mangaians +seem to be sticklers for primogeniture. Vatea, as the first-born +son, originally had his domain next above that of his mother. But +she was pained by the thought that his younger brothers each took a +higher place than his; so she pushed his land up, and it is now +next below the solid crust on which mortals live in Mangaia. Vatea +married a woman from one of the under worlds named Papa, and their +children had the regular human form. One child was born either +from Papa's head, like Athene from the head of Zeus, or from her +armpit, like Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus. Another child may be +said, in the language of dog-breeders, to have "thrown back," for +he wears the form of a white or black lizard. In the Mangaian +system the sky is a solid vault of blue stone. In the beginning of +things the sky (like Ouranos in Greece and Rangi in New Zealand) +pressed hard on earth, and the god Ru was obliged to thrust the two +asunder, or rather he was engaged in this task when Maui tossed +both Ru and the sky so high up that they never came down again. Ru +is now the Atlas of Mangaia, "the sky-supporting Ru".[1] His lower +limbs fell to earth, and became pumice-stone. In these Mangaian +myths we discern resemblances to New Zealand fictions, as is +natural, and the tearing of the body of "the Very Beginning" has +numerous counterparts in European, American and Indian fable. But +on the whole, the Mangaian myths are more remarkable for their +semi-scientific philosophy than for their coincidences with the +fancies of other early peoples. + + +[1] Gill, p. 59. + + +The Samoans, like the Maoris and Greeks, hold that heaven at first +fell down and lay upon earth.[1] The arrowroot and another plant +pushed up heaven, and "the heaven-pushing place" is still known and +pointed out. Others say the god Ti-iti-i pushed up heaven, and his +feet made holes six feet deep in the rocks during this exertion. +The other Samoan myths chiefly explain the origin of fire, and the +causes of the characteristic forms and habits of animals and +plants. The Samoans, too, possess a semi-mythical, metaphysical +cosmogony, starting from NOTHING, but rapidly becoming the history +of rocks, clouds, hills, dew and various animals, who intermarried, +and to whom the royal family of Samoa trace their origin through +twenty-three generations. So personal are Samoan abstract +conceptions, that "SPACE had a long-legged stool," on to which a +head fell, and grew into a companion for Space. Yet another myth +says that the god Tangaloa existed in space, and made heaven and +earth, and sent down his daughter, a snipe. Man he made out of the +mussel-fish. So confused are the doctrines of the Samoans.[2] + + +[1] Turner's Samoa, p. 198. + +[2] Turner's Samoa, pp. 1-9. + + +Perhaps the cosmogonic myths of the less cultivated races have now +been stated in sufficient number. As an example of the ideas which +prevailed in an American race of higher culture, we may take the +Quiche legend as given in the Popol Vuh, a post-Christian +collection of the sacred myths of the nation, written down after +the Spanish conquest, and published in French by the Abbe Brasseur +de Bourbourg.[1] + + +[1] See Popol Vuh in Mr. Max Muller's Chips from a German Workshop, +with a discussion of its authenticity. In his Annals of the +Cakchiquels, a nation bordering on the Quiches, Dr. Brinton +expresses his belief in the genuine character of the text. Compare +Bancroft, iii. p. 45. The ancient and original Popol Vuh, the +native book in native characters, disappeared during the Spanish +conquest. + + +The Quiches, like their neighbours the Cakchiquels, were a highly +civilised race, possessing well-built towns, roads and the arts of +life, and were great agriculturists. Maize, the staple of food +among these advanced Americans, was almost as great a god as Soma +among the Indo-Aryans. The Quiches were acquainted with a kind of +picture-writing, and possessed records in which myth glided into +history. The Popol Vuh, or book of the people, gives itself out as +a post-Columbian copy of these traditions, and may doubtless +contain European ideas. As we see in the Commentarias Reales of +the half-blood Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, the conquered people +were anxious to prove that their beliefs were by no means so +irrational and so "devilish" as to Spanish critics they appeared. +According to the Popol Vuh, there was in the beginning nothing but +water and the feathered serpent, one of their chief divine beings; +but there also existed somehow, "they that gave life". Their names +mean "shooter of blow-pipe at coyote," "at opossum," and so forth. +They said "Earth," and there WAS earth, and plants growing thereon. +Animals followed, and the Givers of life said "Speak our names," +but the animals could only cluck and croak. Then said the Givers, +"Inasmuch as ye cannot praise us, ye shall be killed and eaten". +They then made men out of clay; these men were weak and watery, and +by water they were destroyed. Next they made men of wood and women +of the pith of trees. These puppets married and gave in marriage, +and peopled earth with wooden mannikins. This unsatisfactory race +was destroyed by a rain of resin and by the wild beasts. The +survivors developed into apes. Next came a period occupied by the +wildest feats of the magnified non-natural race and of animals. +The record is like the description of a supernatural pantomime--the +nightmare of a god. The Titans upset hills, are turned into stone, +and behave like Heitsi Eibib in the Namaqua myths. + +Last of all, men were made of yellow and white maize, and these +gave more satisfaction, but their sight was contracted. These, +however, survived, and became the parents of the present stock of +humanity. + +Here we have the conceptions of creation and of evolution combined. +Men are MADE, but only the fittest survive; the rest are either +destroyed or permitted to develop into lower species. A similar +mixture of the same ideas will be found in one of the Brahmanas +among the Aryans of India. It is to be observed that the Quiche +myths, as recorded in Popol Vuh, contain not only traces of belief +in a creative word and power, but many hymns of a lofty and +beautifully devotional character. + +"Hail! O Creator, O Former! Thou that hearest and understandest +us, abandon us not, forsake us not! O God, thou that art in heaven +and on the earth, O Heart of Heaven, O Heart of Earth, give us +descendants and posterity as long as the light endures." + +This is an example of the prayers of the men made out of maize, +made especially that they might "call on the name" of the god or +gods. Whether we are to attribute this and similar passages to +Christian influence (for Popol Vuh, as we have it, is but an +attempt to collect the fragments of the lost book that remained in +men's minds after the conquest), or whether the purer portions of +the myth be due to untaught native reflection and piety, it is not +possible to determine. It is improbable that the ideas of a +hostile race would be introduced into religious hymns by their +victims. Here, as elsewhere in the sacred legends of civilised +peoples, various strata of mythical and religious thought coexist. + +No American people reached such a pitch of civilisation as the +Aztecs of Anahuac, whose capital was the city of Mexico. It is +needless here to repeat the story of their grandeur and their fall. +Obscure as their history, previous to the Spanish invasion, may be, +it is certain that they possessed a highly organised society, +fortified towns, established colleges or priesthoods, magnificent +temples, an elaborate calendar, great wealth in the precious +metals, the art of picture-writing in considerable perfection, and +a despotic central government. The higher classes in a society +like this could not but develop speculative systems, and it is +alleged that shortly before the reign of Montezuma attempts had +been made to introduce a pure monotheistic religion. But the +ritual of the Aztecs remained an example of the utmost barbarity. +Never was a more cruel faith, not even in Carthage. Nowhere did +temples reek with such pools of human blood; nowhere else, not in +Dahomey and Ashanti, were human sacrifice, cannibalism and torture +so essential to the cult that secured the favour of the gods. In +these dark fanes--reeking with gore, peopled by monstrous shapes of +idols bird-headed or beast-headed, and adorned with the hideous +carvings in which we still see the priest, under the mask of some +less ravenous forest beast, tormenting the victim--in these +abominable temples the Castilian conquerors might well believe that +they saw the dwellings of devils. + +Yet Mexican religion had its moral and beautiful aspect, and the +gods, or certain of the gods, required from their worshippers not +only bloody hands, but clean hearts. + +To the gods we return later. The myths of the origin of things may +be studied without a knowledge of the whole Aztec Pantheon. Our +authorities, though numerous, lack complete originality and are +occasionally confused. We have first the Aztec monuments and +hieroglyphic scrolls, for the most part undeciphered. These merely +attest the hideous and cruel character of the deities. Next we +have the reports of early missionaries, like Sahagun and Mendieta, +of conquerors, like Bernal Diaz, and of noble half-breeds, such as +Ixtlilxochitl.[1] + + +[1] Bancroft's Native Races of Pacific Coast of North America, vol. +iii., contains an account of the sources, and, with Sahagun and +Acosta, is mainly followed here. See also J. G. Muller, Ur. +Amerik. Rel., p. 507. See chapter on the "Divine Myths of Mexico". + + +There are two elements in Mexican, as in Quiche, and Indo-Aryan, +and Maori, and even Andaman cosmogonic myth. We find the purer +religion and the really philosophic speculation concurrent with +such crude and childish stories as usually satisfy the intellectual +demands of Ahts, Cahrocs and Bushmen; but of the purer and more +speculative opinions we know little. Many of the noble, learned +and priestly classes of Aztecs perished at the conquest. The +survivors were more or less converted to Catholicism, and in their +writings probably put the best face possible on the native +religion. Like the Spanish clergy, their instructors, they were +inclined to explain away their national gods by a system of +euhemerism, by taking it for granted that the gods and culture- +heroes had originally been ordinary men, worshipped after their +decease. This is almost invariably the view adopted by Sahagun. +Side by side with the confessions, as it were, of the clergy and +cultivated classes coexisted the popular beliefs, the myths of the +people, partaking of the nature of folk-lore, but not rejected by +the priesthood. + +Both strata of belief are represented in the surviving cosmogonic +myths of the Aztecs. Probably we may reckon in the first or +learned and speculative class of tales the account of a series of +constructions and reconstructions of the world. This idea is not +peculiar to the higher mythologies, the notion of a deluge and +recreation or renewal of things is almost universal, and even among +the untutored Australians there are memories of a flood and of an +age of ruinous winds. But the theory of definite epochs, +calculated in accordance with the Mexican calendar, of epochs in +which things were made and re-made, answers closely to the Indo- +Aryan conception of successive kalpas, and can only have been +developed after the method of reckoning time had been carried to +some perfection. "When heaven and earth were fashioned, they had +already been four times created and destroyed," say the fragments +of what is called the Chimalpopoca manuscript. Probably this +theory of a series of kalpas is only one of the devices by which +the human mind has tried to cheat itself into the belief that it +can conceive a beginning of things. The earth stands on an +elephant, the elephant on a tortoise, and it is going too far to +ask what the tortoise stands on. In the same way the world's +beginning seems to become more intelligible or less puzzling when +it is thrown back into a series of beginnings and endings. This +method also was in harmony with those vague ideas of evolution and +of the survival of the fittest which we have detected in myth. The +various tentative human races of the Popol Vuh degenerated or were +destroyed because they did not fulfil the purposes for which they +were made. In Brahmanic myth we shall see that type after type was +condemned and perished because it was inadequate, or inadequately +equipped--because it did not harmonise with its environment.[1] +For these series of experimental creations and inefficient +evolutions vast spaces of time were required, according to the +Aztec and Indo-Aryan philosophies. It is not impossible that +actual floods and great convulsions of nature may have been +remembered in tradition, and may have lent colour and form to these +somewhat philosophic myths of origins. From such sources probably +comes the Mexican hypothesis of a water-age (ending in a deluge), +an earth-age (ending in an earthquake), a wind-age (ending in +hurricanes), and the present dispensation, to be destroyed by fire. + + +[1] As an example of a dim evolutionary idea, note the myths of the +various ages as reported by Mendieta, according to which there were +five earlier ages "or suns" of bad quality, so that the contemporary +human beings were unable to live on the fruits of the earth. + + +The less philosophic and more popular Aztec legend of the +commencement of the world is mainly remarkable for the importance +given in it to objects of stone. For some reason, stones play a +much greater part in American than in other mythologies. An +emerald was worshipped in the temple of Pachacamac, who was, +according to Garcilasso, the supreme and spiritual deity of the +Incas. The creation legend of the Cakchiquels of Guatemala[1] +makes much of a mysterious, primeval and animated obsidian stone. +In the Iroquois myths[2] stones are the leading characters. Nor +did Aztec myth escape this influence. + + +[1] Brinton, Annals of the Cakchiquels. + +[2] Erminie Smith, Bureau of Ethnol. Report, ii. + + +There was a god in heaven named Citlalatonac, and a goddess, +Citlalicue. When we speak of "heaven" we must probably think of +some such world of ordinary terrestrial nature above the sky as +that from which Ataentsic fell in the Huron story. The goddess +gave birth to a flint-knife, and flung the flint down to earth. +This abnormal birth partly answers to that of the youngest of the +Adityas, the rejected abortion in the Veda, and to the similar +birth and rejection of Maui in New Zealand. From the fallen flint- +knife sprang our old friends the magnified non-natural beings with +human characteristics, "the gods," to the number of 1600. The gods +sent up the hawk (who in India and Australia generally comes to the +front on these occasions), and asked their mother, or rather +grandmother, to help them to make men, to be their servants. +Citlalicue rather jeered at her unconsidered offspring. She +advised them to go to the lord of the homes of the departed, +Mictlanteuctli, and borrow a bone or some ashes of the dead who are +with him. We must never ask for consistency from myths. This +statement implies that men had already been in existence, though +they were not yet created. Perhaps they had perished in one of the +four great destructions. With difficulty and danger the gods stole +a bone from Hades, placed it in a bowl, and smeared it with their +own blood, as in Chaldea and elsewhere. Finally, a boy and a girl +were born out of the bowl. From this pair sprang men, and certain +of the gods, jumping into a furnace, became sun and moon. To the +sun they then, in Aztec fashion, sacrificed themselves, and there, +one might think, was an end of them. But they afterwards appeared +in wondrous fashions to their worshippers, and ordained the ritual +of religion. According to another legend, man and woman (as in +African myths) struggled out of a hole in the ground.[1] + + +[1] Authorities: Ixtlil.; Kingsborough, ix. pp. 205, 206; Sahagun, +Hist. Gen., i. 3, vii. 2; J. G. Muller, p. 510, where Muller +compares the Delphic conception of ages of the world; Bancroft, +iii. pp. 60, 65. + + +The myths of the peoples under the empire of the Incas in Peru are +extremely interesting, because almost all mythical formations are +found existing together, while we have historical evidence as to +the order and manner of their development. The Peru of the Incas +covered the modern state of the same name, and included Ecuador, +with parts of Chili and Bolivia. M. Reville calculates that the +empire was about 2500 miles in length, four times as long as +France, and that its breadth was from 250 to 500 miles. The +country, contained three different climatic regions, and was +peopled by races of many different degrees of culture, all more or +less subject to the dominion of the Children of the Sun. The three +regions were the dry strip along the coast, the fertile and +cultivated land about the spurs of the Cordilleras, and the inland +mountain regions, inhabited by the wildest races. Near Cuzco, the +Inca capital, was the Lake of Titicaca, the Mediterranean, as it +were, of Peru, for on the shores of this inland sea was developed +the chief civilisation of the new world. + +As to the institutions, myths and religion of the empire, we have +copious if contradictory information. There are the narratives of +the Spanish conquerors, especially of Pizarro's chaplain, Valverde, +an ignorant bigoted fanatic. Then we have somewhat later +travellers and missionaries, of whom Cieza de Leon (his book was +published thirty years after the conquest, in 1553) is one of the +most trustworthy. The "Royal Commentaries" of Garcilasso de la +Vega, son of an Inca lady and a Spanish conqueror, have often +already been quoted. The critical spirit and sound sense of +Garcilasso are in remarkable contrast to the stupid orthodoxy of +the Spaniards, but some allowance must be made for his fervent +Peruvian patriotism. He had heard the Inca traditions repeated in +boyhood, and very early in life collected all the information which +his mother and maternal uncle had to give him, or which could be +extracted from the quipus (the records of knotted cord), and from +the commemorative pictures of his ancestors. Garcilasso had +access, moreover, to the "torn papers" of Blas Valera, an early +Spanish missionary of unusual sense and acuteness. Christoval de +Moluna is also an excellent authority, and much may be learned from +the volume of Rites and Laws of the Yncas.[1] + + +[1] A more complete list of authorities, including the garrulous +Acosta, is published by M. Reville in his Hibbert Lectures, pp. +136, 137. Garcilasso, Cieza de Leon, Christoval de Moluna, Acosta +and the Rites and Laws have all been translated by Mr. Clements +Markham, and are published, with the editor's learned and ingenious +notes, in the collection of the Hakluyt Society. Care must be +taken to discriminate between what is reported about the Indians of +the various provinces, who were in very different grades of +culture, and what is told about the Incas themselves. + + +The political and religious condition of the Peruvian empire is +very clearly conceived and stated by Garcilasso. Without making +due allowance for that mysterious earlier civilisation, older than +the Incas, whose cyclopean buildings are the wonder of travellers, +Garcilasso attributes the introduction of civilisation to his own +ancestors. Allowing for what is confessedly mythical in his +narrative, it must be admitted that he has a firm grasp of what the +actual history must have been. He recognises a period of savagery +before the Incas, a condition of the rudest barbarism, which still +existed on the fringes and mountain recesses of the empire. The +religion of that period was mere magic and totemism. From all +manner of natural objects, but chiefly from beasts and birds, the +various savage stocks of Peru claimed descent, and they revered and +offered sacrifice to their totemic ancestors.[1] Garcilasso adds, +what is almost incredible, that the Indians tamely permitted +themselves to be eaten by their totems, when these were carnivorous +animals. They did this with the less reluctance as they were +cannibals, and accustomed to breed children for the purposes of the +cuisine from captive women taken in war.[2] Among the huacas or +idols, totems, fetishes and other adorable objects of the Indians, +worshipped before and retained after the introduction of the Inca +sun-totem and solar cult, Garcilasso names trees, hills, rocks, +caves, fountains, emeralds, pieces of jasper, tigers, lions, bears, +foxes, monkeys, condors, owls, lizards, toads, frogs, sheep, maize, +the sea, "for want of larger gods, crabs" and bats. The bat was +also the totem of the Zotzil, the chief family of the Cakchiquels +of Guatemala, and the most high god of the Cakchiquels was +worshipped in the shape of a bat. We are reminded of religion as +it exists in Samoa. The explanation of Blas Valera was that in +each totem (pacarissa) the Indians adored the devil. + + +[1] Com. Real., vol. i., chap. ix., x. xi. pp. 47-53. + +[2] Cieza de Leon, xii., xv., xix., xxi., xxiii., xxvi., xxviii., +xxxii. Cieza is speaking of people in the valley of Cauca, in New +Granada. + + +Athwart this early religion of totems and fetishes came, in +Garcilasso's narrative, the purer religion of the Incas, with what +he regards as a philosophic development of a belief in a Supreme +Being. According to him, the Inca sun-worship was really a +totemism of a loftier character. The Incas "knew how to choose +gods better than the Indians". Garcilasso's theory is that the +earlier totems were selected chiefly as distinguishing marks by the +various stocks, though, of course, this does not explain why the +animals or other objects of each family were worshipped or were +regarded as ancestors, and the blood-connections of the men who +adored them. The Incas, disdaining crabs, lizards, bats and even +serpents and lions, "chose" the sun. Then, just like the other +totemic tribes, they feigned to be of the blood and lineage of the +sun. + +This fable is, in brief, the Inca myth of the origin of +civilisation and of man, or at least of their breed of men. As M. +Reville well remarks, it is obvious that the Inca claim is an +adaptation of the local myth of Lake Titicaca, the inland sea of +Peru. According to that myth, the Children of the Sun, the +ancestors of the Incas, came out of the earth (as in Greek and +African legends) at Lake Titicaca, or reached its shores after +wandering from the hole or cave whence they first emerged. The +myth, as adapted by the Incas, takes for granted the previous +existence of mankind, and, in some of its forms, the Inca period is +preceded by the deluge. + +Of the Peruvian myth concerning the origin of things, the following +account is given by a Spanish priest, Christoval de Moluna, in a +report to the Bishop of Cuzco in 1570.[1] The story was collected +from the lips of ancient Peruvians and old native priests, who +again drew their information in part from the painted records +reserved in the temple of the sun near Cuzco. The legend begins +with a deluge myth; a cataclysm ended a period of human existence. +All mankind perished except a man and woman, who floated in a box +to a distance of several hundred miles from Cuzco. There the +creator commanded them to settle, and there, like Pund-jel in +Australia, he made clay images of men of all races, attired in +their national dress, and then animated them. They were all +fashioned and painted as correct models, and were provided with +their national songs and with seed-corn. They then were put into +the earth, and emerged all over the world at the proper places, +some (as in Africa and Greece) coming out of fountains, some out of +trees, some out of caves. For this reason they made huacas +(worshipful objects or fetishes) of the trees, caves and fountains. +Some of the earliest men were changed into stones, others into +falcons, condors and other creatures which we know were totems in +Peru. Probably this myth of metamorphosis was invented to account +for the reverence paid to totems or pacarissas as the Peruvians +called them. In Tiahuanaco, where the creation, or rather +manufacture of men took place, the creator turned many sinners into +stones. The sun was made in the shape of a man, and, as he soared +into heaven, he called out in a friendly fashion to Manco Ccapac, +the Ideal first Inca, "Look upon me as thy father, and worship me +as thy father". In these fables the creator is called +Pachyachachi, "Teacher of the world". According to Christoval, the +creator and his sons were "eternal and unchangeable". Among the +Canaris men descend from the survivor of the deluge, and a +beautiful bird with the face of a woman, a siren in fact, but known +better to ornithologists as a macaw. "The chief cause," says the +good Christoval, "of these fables was ignorance of God." + + +[1] Rites and Laws of the Yncas, p. 4, Hakluyt Society, 1873. + + +The story, as told by Cieza de Leon, runs thus:[1] A white man of +great stature (in fact, "a magnified non-natural man") came into +the world, and gave life to beasts and human beings. His name was +Ticiviracocha, and he was called the Father of the Sun.[2] There +are likenesses of him in the temple, and he was regarded as a moral +teacher. It was owing apparently to this benevolent being that +four mysterious brothers and sisters emerged from a cave--Children +of the Sun, fathers of the Incas, teachers of savage men. Their +own conduct, however, was not exemplary, and they shut up in a hole +in the earth the brother of whom they were jealous. This incident +is even more common in the marchen or household tales than in the +regular tribal or national myths of the world.[3] The buried +brother emerged again with wings, and "without doubt he must have +been some devil," says honest Cieza de Leon. This brother was +Manco Ccapac, the heroic ancestor of the Incas, and he turned his +jealous brethren into stones. The whole tale is in the spirit +illustrated by the wilder romances of the Popol Vuh. + + +[1] Second Part of the Chronicles of Peru, p 5. + +[2] See Making of Religion, pp. 265-270. Name and God are much +disputed. + +[3] The story of Joseph and the marchen of Jean de l'Ours are well- +known examples. + + +Garcilasso gives three forms of this myth. According to "the old +Inca," his maternal uncle, it was the sun which sent down two of +his children, giving them a golden staff, which would sink into the +ground at the place where they were to rest from wandering. It +sank at Lake Titicaca. About the current myths Garcilasso says +generally that they were "more like dreams" than straightforward +stories; but, as he adds, the Greeks and Romans also "invented +fables worthy to be laughed at, and in greater number than the +Indians. The stories of one age of heathenism may be compared with +those of the other, and in many points they will be found to +agree." This critical position of Garcilasso's will be proved +correct when we reach the myths of Greeks and Indo-Aryans. The +myth as narrated north-east of Cuzco speaks of the four brothers +and four sisters who came out of caves, and the caves in Inca times +were panelled with gold and silver. + +Athwart all these lower myths, survivals from the savage stage, +comes what Garcilasso regards as the philosophical Inca belief in +Pachacamac. This deity, to Garcilasso's mind, was purely +spiritual: he had no image and dwelt in no temple; in fact, he is +that very God whom the Spanish missionaries proclaimed. This view, +though the fact has been doubted, was very probably held by the +Amautas, or philosophical class in Peru.[1] Cieza de Leon says +"the name of this devil, Pachacamac, means creator of the world". +Garcilasso urges that Pachacamac was the animus mundi; that he did +not "make the world," as Pund-jel and other savage demiurges made +it, but that he was to the universe what the soul is to the body. + + +[1] Com. Real., vol. i. p. 106. + + +Here we find ourselves, if among myths at all, among the myths of +metaphysics--rational myths; that is, myths corresponding to our +present stage of thought, and therefore intelligible to us. +Pachacamac "made the sun, and lightning, and thunder, and of these +the sun was worshipped by the Incas". Garcilasso denies that the +moon was worshipped. The reflections of the sceptical or +monotheistic Inca, who declared that the sun, far from being a free +agent, "seems like a thing held to its task," are reported by +Garcilasso, and appear to prove that solar worship was giving way, +in the minds of educated Peruvians, a hundred years before the +arrival of Pizarro and Valverde with his missal.[1] + + +[1] Garcilasso, viii. 8, quoting Blas Valera. + + +From this summary it appears that the higher Peruvian religion had +wrested to its service, and to the dynastic purposes of the Incas, +a native myth of the familiar class, in which men come ready made +out of holes in the ground. But in Peru we do not find nearly such +abundance of other savage origin myths as will be proved to exist +in the legends of Greeks and Indo-Aryans. The reason probably is +that Peru left no native literature; the missionaries disdained +stories of "devils," and Garcilasso's common sense and patriotism +were alike revolted by the incidents of stories "more like dreams" +than truthful records. He therefore was silent about them. In +Greece and India, on the other hand, the native religious +literature preserved myths of the making of man out of clay, of his +birth from trees and stones, of the fashioning of things out of the +fragments of mutilated gods and Titans, of the cosmic egg, of the +rending and wounding of a personal heaven and a personal earth, of +the fishing up from the waters of a tiny earth which grew greater, +of the development of men out of beasts, with a dozen other such +notions as are familiar to contemporary Bushmen, Australians, +Digger Indians, and Cahrocs. But in Greece and India these ideas +coexist with myths and religious beliefs as purely spiritual and +metaphysical as the belief in the Pachacamac of Garcilasso and the +Amautas of Peru. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +INDO-ARYAN MYTHS--SOURCES OF EVIDENCE. + + +Authorities--Vedas--Brahmanas--Social condition of Vedic India-- +Arts--Ranks--War--Vedic fetishism--Ancestor worship--Date of Rig- +Veda Hymns doubtful--Obscurity of the Hymns--Difficulty of +interpreting the real character of Veda--Not primitive but +sacerdotal--The moral purity not innocence but refinement. + + +Before examining the myths of the Aryans of India, it is necessary +to have a clear notion of the nature of the evidence from which we +derive our knowledge of the subject. That evidence is found in a +large and incongruous mass of literary documents, the heritage of +the Indian people. In this mass are extremely ancient texts (the +Rig-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda), expository comments of a date so +much later that the original meaning of the older documents was +sometimes lost (the Brahmanas), and poems and legendary collections +of a period later still, a period when the whole character of +religious thought had sensibly altered. In this literature there +is indeed a certain continuity; the names of several gods of the +earliest time are preserved in the legends of the latest. But the +influences of many centuries of change, of contending philosophies, +of periods of national growth and advance, and of national +decadence and decay, have been at work on the mythology of India. +Here we have myths that were perhaps originally popular tales, and +are probably old; here again, we have later legends that certainly +were conceived in the narrow minds of a pedantic and ceremonious +priesthood. It is not possible, of course, to analyse in this +place all the myths of all the periods; we must be content to point +out some which seem to be typical examples of the working of the +human intellect in its earlier or its later childhood, in its +distant hours of barbaric beginnings, or in the senility of its +sacerdotage. + +The documents which contain Indian mythology may be divided, +broadly speaking, into four classes. First, and most ancient in +date of composition, are the collections of hymns known as the +Vedas. Next, and (as far as date of collection goes) far less +ancient, are the expository texts called the Brahmanas. Later +still, come other manuals of devotion and of sacred learning, +called Sutras and Upanishads; and last are the epic poems +(Itihasas), and the books of legends called Puranas. We are +chiefly concerned here with the Vedas and Brahmanas. A gulf of +time, a period of social and literary change, separates the +Brahmanas from the Vedas. But the epics and Puranas differ perhaps +even still more from the Brahmanas, on account of vast religious +changes which brought new gods into the Indian Olympus, or elevated +to the highest place old gods formerly of low degree. From the +composition of the first Vedic hymn to the compilation of the +latest Purana, religious and mythopoeic fancy was never at rest. + +Various motives induced various poets to assign, on various +occasions the highest powers to this or the other god. The most +antique legends were probably omitted or softened by some early +Vedic bard (Rishi) of noble genius, or again impure myths were +brought from the obscurity of oral circulation and foisted into +literature by some poet less divinely inspired. Old deities were +half-forgotten, and forgotten deities were resuscitated. Sages +shook off superstitious bonds, priests forged new fetters on +ancient patterns for themselves and their flocks. Philosophy +explained away the more degrading myths; myths as degrading were +suggested to dark and servile hearts by unscientific etymologies. +Over the whole mass of ancient mythology the new mythology of a +debased Brahmanic ritualism grew like some luxurious and baneful +parasite. It is enough for our purpose if we can show that even in +the purest and most antique mythology of India the element of +traditional savagery survived and played its part, and that the +irrational legends of the Vedas and Brahmanas can often be +explained as relics of savage philosophy or faith, or as novelties +planned on the ancient savage model, whether borrowed or native to +the race. + +The oldest documents of Indian mythology are the Vedas, usually +reckoned as four in number. The oldest, again, of the four, is the +Sanhita ("collection") of the Rig-Veda. It is a purely lyrical +assortment of the songs "which the Hindus brought with them from +their ancient homes on the banks of the Indus". In the +manuscripts, the hymns are classified according to the families of +poets to whom they are ascribed. Though composed on the banks of +the Indus by sacred bards, the hymns were compiled and arranged in +India proper. At what date the oldest hymns of which this +collection is made up were first chanted it is impossible to say +with even approximate certainty. Opinions differ, or have +differed, between 2400 B.C. and 1400 B.C. as the period when the +earliest sacred lyrics of the Veda may first have been listened by +gods and men. In addition to the Rig-Veda we have the Sanhita of +the Sama-Veda, "an anthology taken from the Rik-Samhita, comprising +those of its verses which were intended to be chanted at the +ceremonies of the soma sacrifice".[1] It is conjectured that the +hymns of the Sama-Veda were borrowed from the Rig-Veda before the +latter had been edited and stereotyped into its present form. Next +comes the Yajur-Veda, "which contains the formulas for the entire +sacrificial ceremonial, and indeed forms its proper foundations," +the other Vedas being devoted to the soma sacrifice.[2] The Yajur- +Veda has two divisions, known as the Black and the White Yajur, +which have common matter, but differ in arrangement. The Black +Yajur-Veda is also called the Taittirya, and it is described as "a +motley undigested jumble of different pieces".[3] Last comes +Atharva-Veda, not always regarded as a Veda properly speaking. It +derives its name from an old semi-mythical priestly family, the +Atharvans, and is full of magical formulae, imprecations, folk-lore +and spells. There are good reasons for thinking this late as a +collection, however early may be the magical ideas expressed in its +contents.[4] + + +[1] Weber, History of Indian Literature, Eng. transl., p. 63. + +[2] Ibid., p. 86. + +[3] Ibid, p. 87. The name Taittirya is derived from a partridge, +or from a Rishi named Partridge in Sanskrit. There is a story that +the pupils of a sage were turned into partridges, to pick up sacred +texts. + +[4] Barth (Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 6) thinks that the existence +of such a collection as the Atharva-Veda is implied, perhaps, in a +text of the Rig-Veda, x. 90, 9. + + +Between the Vedas, or, at all events, between the oldest of the +Vedas, and the compilation of the Brahmanas, these "canonised +explanations of a canonised text,"[1] it is probable that some +centuries and many social changes intervened.[2] + + +[1] Whitney, Oriental and Linguistic studies, First Series, p. 4. + +[2] Max Muller, Biographical Essays, p. 20. "The prose portions +presuppose the hymns, and, to judge from the utter inability of the +authors of the Brahmanas to understand the antiquated language of +the hymns, these Brahmanas must be ascribed to a much later period +than that which gave birth to the hymns." + + +If we would criticise the documents for Indian mythology in a +scientific manner, it is now necessary that we should try to +discover, as far as possible, the social and religious condition of +the people among whom the Vedas took shape. Were they in any sense +"primitive," or were they civilised? Was their religion in its +obscure beginnings or was it already a special and peculiar +development, the fruit of many ages of thought? Now it is an +unfortunate thing that scholars have constantly, and as it were +involuntarily, drifted into the error of regarding the Vedas as if +they were "primitive," as if they exhibited to us the "germs" and +"genesis" of religion and mythology, as if they contained the +simple though strange utterances of PRIMITIVE thought.[1] Thus Mr. +Whitney declares, in his Oriental and Linguistic Studies, "that the +Vedas exhibit to us the very earliest germs of the Hindu culture". +Mr. Max Muller avers that "no country can be compared to India as +offering opportunities for a real study of the genesis and growth +of religion".[2] Yet the same scholar observes that "even the +earliest specimens of Vedic poetry belong to the modern history of +the race, and that the early period of the historical growth of +religion had passed away before the Rishis (bards) could have +worshipped their Devas or bright beings with sacred hymns and +invocations". Though this is manifestly true, the sacred hymns and +invocations of the Rishis are constantly used as testimony bearing +on the beginning of the historical growth of religion. Nay, more; +these remains of "the modern history of the race" are supposed to +exhibit mythology in the process of making, as if the race had +possessed no mythology before it reached a comparatively modern +period, the Vedic age. In the same spirit, Dr. Muir, the learned +editor of Sanskrit Texts, speaks in one place as if the Vedic hymns +"illustrated the natural workings of the human mind in the period +of its infancy".[3] A brief examination of the social and +political and religious condition of man, as described by the poets +of the Vedas, will prove that his infancy had long been left behind +him when the first Vedic hymns were chanted. + + +[1] Ibid., Rig-Veda Sanhita, p. vii. + +[2] Hibbert Lectures, p. 131. + +[3] Nothing can prove more absolutely and more briefly the late +character of Vedic faith than the fact that the faith had already +to be defended against the attacks of sceptics. The impious denied +the existence of Indra because he was invisible. Rig-Veda, ii. 12, +5; viii. 89, 3; v. 30, 1-2; vi. 27, 3. Bergaigne, ii. 167. "Es +gibt keinen Indra, so hat der eine und der ander gesagt" (Ludwig's +version). + + +As Barth observes, the very ideas which permeate the Veda, the idea +of the mystic efficacy of sacrifice, of brahma, prove that the +poems are profoundly sacerdotal; and this should have given pause +to the writers who have persisted in representing the hymns as the +work of primitive shepherds praising their gods as they feed their +flocks.[1] In the Vedic age the ranks of society are already at +least as clearly defined as in Homeric Greece. "We men," says a +poet of the Rig-Veda,[2] "have all our different imaginations and +designs. The carpenter seeks something that is broken, the doctor +a patient, the priest some one who will offer libations. . . . The +artisan continually seeks after a man with plenty of gold. . . . I +am a poet, my father is a doctor, and my mother is a grinder of +corn." Chariots and the art of the chariot-builder are as +frequently spoken of as in the Iliad. Spears, swords, axes and +coats of mail were in common use. The art of boat-building or of +ship-building was well known. Kine and horses, sheep and dogs, had +long been domesticated. The bow was a favourite weapon, and +warriors fought in chariots, like the Homeric Greeks and the +Egyptians. Weaving was commonly practised. The people probably +lived, as a rule, in village settlements, but cities or fortified +places were by no means unknown.[3] As for political society, +"kings are frequently mentioned in the hymns," and "it was regarded +as eminently beneficial for a king to entertain a family priest," +on whom he was expected to confer thousands of kine, lovely slaves +and lumps of gold. In the family polygamy existed, probably as the +exception. There is reason to suppose that the brother-in-law was +permitted, if not expected, to "raise up seed" to his dead brother, +as among the Hebrews.[4] As to literature, the very structure of +the hymns proves that it was elaborate and consciously artistic. +M. Barth writes: "It would be a great mistake to speak of the +primitive naivete of the Vedic poetry and religion".[5] Both the +poetry and the religion, on the other hand, display in the highest +degree the mark of the sacerdotal spirit. The myths, though +originally derived from nature-worship, in an infinite majority of +cases only reflect natural phenomena through a veil of ritualistic +corruptions.[6] The rigid division of castes is seldom recognised +in the Rig-Veda. We seem to see caste in the making.[7] The +Rishis and priests of the princely families were on their way to +becoming the all-powerful Brahmans. The kings and princes were on +their way to becoming the caste of Kshatriyas or warriors. The +mass of the people was soon to sink into the caste of Vaisyas and +broken men. Non-Aryan aborigines and others were possibly +developing into the caste of Sudras. Thus the spirit of division +and of ceremonialism had still some of its conquests to achieve. +But the extraordinary attention given and the immense importance +assigned to the details of sacrifice, and the supernatural efficacy +constantly attributed to a sort of magical asceticism (tapas, +austere fervour), prove that the worst and most foolish elements of +later Indian society and thought were in the Vedic age already in +powerful existence. + + +[1] Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 27. + +[2] ix. 112. + +[3] Ludwig, Rig-Veda, iii. 203. The burgs were fortified with +wooden palisades, capable of being destroyed by fire. "Cities" may +be too magnificent a word for what perhaps were more like pahs. +But compare Kaegi, The Rig-Veda, note 42, Engl. transl. Kaegi's +book (translated by Dr. Arrowsmith, Boston, U.S., 1886) is probably +the best short manual of the subject. + +[4] Deut. xxv. 5; Matt. xxii. 24. + +[5] Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, i. 245. + +[6] Ludwig, iii. 262. + +[7] On this subject see Muir, i. 192, with the remarks of Haug. +"From all we know, the real origin of caste seems to go back to a +time anterior to the composition of the Vedic hymns, though its +development into a regular system with insurmountable barriers can +be referred only to the later period of the Vedic times." Roth +approaches the subject from the word brahm, that is, prayer with a +mystical efficacy, as his starting-point. From brahm, prayer, came +brahma, he who pronounces the prayers and performs the rite. This +celebrant developed into a priest, whom to entertain brought +blessings on kings. This domestic chaplaincy (conferring peculiar +and even supernatural benefits) became hereditary in families, and +these, united by common interests, exalted themselves into the +Brahman caste. But in the Vedic age gifts of prayer and poetry +alone marked out the purohitas, or men put forward to mediate +between gods and mortals. Compare Ludwig, iii. 221. + + +Thus it is self-evident that the society in which the Vedic poets +lived was so far from being PRIMITIVE that it was even superior to +the higher barbarisms (such as that of the Scythians of Herodotus +and Germans of Tacitus), and might be regarded as safely arrived at +the threshold of civilisation. Society possessed kings, though +they may have been kings of small communities, like those who +warred with Joshua or fought under the walls of Thebes or Troy. +Poets were better paid than they seem to have been at the courts of +Homer or are at the present time. For the tribal festivals special +priests were appointed, "who distinguished themselves by their +comprehensive knowledge of the requisite rites and by their +learning, and amongst whom a sort of rivalry is gradually +developed, according as one tribe or another is supposed to have +more or less prospered by its sacrifices".[1] In the family +marriage is sacred, and traces of polyandry and of the levirate, +surviving as late as the epic poems, were regarded as things that +need to be explained away. Perhaps the most barbaric feature in +Vedic society, the most singular relic of a distant past, is the +survival, even in a modified and symbolic form, of human +sacrifice.[2] + + +[1] Weber, p. 37. + +[2] Wilson, Rig-Veda, i. p. 59-63; Muir, i. ii.; Wilson, Rig-Veda +i. p. xxiv., ii. 8 (ii. 90); Aitareya Brahmana, Haug's version, +vol. ii. pp. 462, 469. + + +As to the religious condition of the Vedic Aryans, we must steadily +remember that in the Vedas we have the views of the Rishis only, +that is, of sacred poets on their way to becoming a sacred caste. +Necessarily they no more represent the POPULAR creeds than the +psalmists and prophets, with their lofty monotheistic morality, +represent the popular creeds of Israel. The faith of the Rishis, +as will be shown later, like that of the psalmists, has a noble +moral aspect. Yet certain elements of this higher creed are +already found in the faiths of the lowest savages. The Rishis +probably did not actually INVENT them. Consciousness of sin, of +imperfection in the sight of divine beings, has been developed (as +it has even in Australia) and is often confessed. But on the whole +the religion of the Rishis is practical--it might almost be said, +is magical. They desire temporal blessings, rain, sunshine, long +life, power, wealth in flocks and herds. The whole purpose of the +sacrifices which occupy so much of their time and thought is to +obtain these good things. The sacrifice and the sacrificer come +between gods and men. On the man's side is faith, munificence, a +compelling force of prayer and of intentness of will. The +sacrifice invigorates the gods to do the will of the sacrificer; it +is supposed to be mystically celebrated in heaven as well as on +earth--the gods are always sacrificing. Often (as when rain is +wanted) the sacrifice imitates the end which it is desirable to +gain.[1] In all these matters a minute ritual is already observed. +The mystic word brahma, in the sense of hymn or prayer of a +compelling and magical efficacy, has already come into use. The +brahma answers almost to the Maori karakia or incantation and +charm. "This brahma of Visvamitra protects the tribe of Bharata." +"Atri with the fourth prayer discovered the sun concealed by unholy +darkness."[2] The complicated ritual, in which prayer and +sacrifice were supposed to exert a constraining influence on the +supernatural powers, already existed, Haug thinks, in the time of +the chief Rishis or hymnists of the Rig-Veda.[3] + + +[1] Compare "The Prayers of Savages" in J. A. Farrer's Primitive +Manners, and Ludwig, iii. 262-296, and see Bergaigne, La Religion +Vedique, vol. i. p. 121. + +[2] See texts in Muir, i. 242. + +[3] Preface to translation of Aitareya Brahmana, p. 36. + + +In many respects the nature of the idea of the divine, as +entertained by the Rishis of the Rig-Veda, is still matter for +discussion. In the chapter on Vedic gods such particulars as can +be ascertained will be given. Roughly speaking, the religion is +mainly, though not wholly, a cult of departmental gods, originally, +in certain cases, forces of Nature, but endowed with moral +earnestness. As to fetishism in the Vedas the opinions of the +learned are divided. M. Bergaigne[1] looks on the whole ritual as, +practically, an organised fetishism, employed to influence gods of +a far higher and purer character. Mr. Max Muller remarks, "that +stones, bones, shells, herbs and all the other so-called fetishes, +are simply absent in the old hymns, though they appear in more +modern hymns, particularly those of the Atharva-Veda. When +artificial objects are mentioned and celebrated in the Rig-Veda, +they are only such as might be praised even by Wordsworth or +Tennyson--chariots, bows, quivers, axes, drums, sacrificial vessels +and similar objects. They never assume any individual character; +they are simply mentioned as useful or precious, it may be as +sacred."[2] + + +[1] La Religion Vedique, vol. i. p. 123. "Le culte est assimilable +dans une certaine mesure aux incantations, aux pratiques magiques." + +[2] Hibbert Lectures, p. 198. + + +When the existence of fetish "herbs" is denied by Mr. Max Muller, +he does not, of course, forget Soma, that divine juice. It is also +to be noted that in modern India, as Mr. Max Muller himself +observes, Sir Alfred Lyall finds that "the husbandman prays to his +plough and the fisher to his net," these objects being, at present, +fetishes. In opposition to Mr. Max Muller, Barth avers that the +same kind of fetishism which flourishes to-day flourishes in the +Rig-Veda. "Mountains, rivers, springs, trees, herbs are invoked as +so many powers. The beasts which live with man--the horse, the +cow, the dog, the bird and the animals which imperil his existence-- +receive a cult of praise and prayer. Among the instruments of +ritual, some objects are more than things consecrated--they are +divinities; and the war-chariot, the weapons of defence and +offence, the plough, are the objects not only of benedictions but +of prayers."[1] These absolute contradictions on matters of fact +add, of course, to the difficulty of understanding the early Indo- +Aryan religion. One authority says that the Vedic people were +fetish-worshippers; another authority denies it. + + +[1] Barth, Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 7, with the Vedic texts. + + +Were the Rishis ancestor-worshippers? Barth has no doubt whatever +that they were. In the pitris or fathers he recognises ancestral +spirits, now "companions of the gods, and gods themselves. At +their head appear the earliest celebrants of the sacrifice, +Atharvan, the Angiras, the Kavis (the pitris, par excellence) +equals of the greatest gods, spirits who, BY DINT OF SACRIFICE, +drew forth the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun and lighted +the stars,"--cosmical feats which, as we have seen, are sometimes +attributed by the lower races to their idealised mythic ancestors, +the "old, old ones" of Australians and Ovahereroes. + +A few examples of invocations of the ancestral spirits may not be +out of place.[1] "May the Fathers protect me in my invocation of +the gods." Here is a curious case, especially when we remember how +the wolf, in the North American myth, scattered the stars like +spangles over the sky: "The fathers have adorned the sky with +stars".[2] + + +[1] Rig-Veda, vi. 52,4. + +[2] Ibid., x. 68, xi. + +Mr. Whitney (Oriental and Linguistic Studies, First Series, p. 59) +gives examples of the ceremony of feeding the Aryan ghosts. "The +fathers are supposed to assemble, upon due invocation, about the +altar of him who would pay them homage, to seat themselves upon the +straw or matting spread for each of the guests invited, and to +partake of the offerings set before them." The food seems chiefly +to consist of rice, sesame and honey. + + +Important as is the element of ancestor-worship in the evolution of +religion, Mr. Max Muller, in his Hibbert Lectures, merely remarks +that thoughts and feelings about the dead "supplied some of the +earliest and most important elements of religion"; but how these +earliest elements affect his system does not appear. On a general +view, then, the religion of the Vedic poets contained a vast number +of elements in solution--elements such as meet us in every quarter +of the globe. The belief in ancestral ghosts, the adoration of +fetishes, the devotion to a moral ideal, contemplated in the +persons of various deities, some of whom at least have been, and +partly remain, personal natural forces, are all mingled, and all +are drifting towards a kind of pantheism, in which, while +everything is divine, and gods are reckoned by millions, the +worshipper has glimpses of one single divine essence. The ritual, +as we have seen, is more or less magical in character. The general +elements of the beliefs are found, in various proportions, +everywhere; the pantheistic mysticism is almost peculiar to India. +It is, perhaps, needless to repeat that a faith so very composite, +and already so strongly differentiated, cannot possibly be +"primitive," and that the beliefs and practices of a race so highly +organised in society and so well equipped in material civilisation +as the Vedic Aryans cannot possibly be "near the beginning". Far +from expecting to find in the Veda the primitive myths of the +Aryans, we must remember that myth had already, when these hymns +were sung, become obnoxious to the religious sentiment. "Thus," +writes Barth, "the authors of the hymns have expurgated, or at +least left in the shade, a vast number of legends older than their +time; such, for example, as the identity of soma with the moon, as +the account of the divine families, of the parricide of Indra, and +a long list might be made of the reticences of the Veda. . . . It +would be difficult to extract from the hymns a chapter on the loves +of the gods. The goddesses are veiled, the adventures of the gods +are scarcely touched on in passing. . . . We must allow for the +moral delicacy of the singers, and for their dislike of speaking +too precisely about the gods. Sometimes it seems as if their chief +object was to avoid plain speaking. . . . But often there is +nothing save jargon and indolence of mind in this voluntary +obscurity, for already in the Veda the Indian intellect is deeply +smitten with its inveterate malady of affecting mystery the more, +the more it has nothing to conceal; the mania for scattering +symbols which symbolise no reality, and for sporting with riddles +which it is not worth while to divine."[1] Barth, however, also +recognises amidst these confusions, "the inquietude of a heart +deeply stirred, which seeks truth and redemption in prayer". Such +is the natural judgment of the clear French intellect on the +wilfully obscure, tormented and evasive intellect of India. + + +[1] Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 21. + + +It would be interesting were it possible to illuminate the +criticism of Vedic religion by ascertaining which hymns in the Rig- +Veda are the most ancient, and which are later. Could we do this, +we might draw inferences as to the comparative antiquity of the +religious ideas in the poems. But no such discrimination of +relative antiquity seems to be within the reach of critics. M. +Bergaigne thinks it impossible at present to determine the relative +age of the hymns by any philological test. The ideas expressed are +not more easily arrayed in order of date. We might think that the +poems which contain most ceremonial allusions were the latest. But +Mr. Max Muller says that "even the earliest hymns have sentiments +worthy of the most advanced ceremonialists".[1] + + +[1] History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 556. + + +The first and oldest source of our knowledge of Indo-Aryan myths is +the Rig-Veda, whose nature and character have been described. +The second source is the Atharva-Veda with the Brahmanas. The +peculiarity of the Atharva is its collection of magical incantations +spells and fragments of folklore. These are often, doubtless, of +the highest antiquity. Sorcery and the arts of medicine-men are +earlier in the course of evolution than priesthood. We meet them +everywhere among races who have not developed the institution of an +order of priests serving national gods. As a collection, the +Atharva-Veda is later than the Rig-Veda, but we need not therefore +conclude that the IDEAS of the Atharva are "a later development of +the more primitive ideas of the Rig-Veda". Magic is quod semper, +quod ubique, quod ab omnibus; the ideas of the Atharva-Veda are +everywhere; the peculiar notions of the Rig-Veda are the special +property of an advanced and highly differentiated people. Even in +the present collected shape, M. Barth thinks that many hymns of the +Atharva are not much later than those of the Rig-Veda. Mr. Whitney, +admitting the lateness of the Atharva as a collection, says, "This +would not necessarily imply that the main body of the Atharva hymns +were not already in existence when the compilation of the Rig-Veda +took place".[1] The Atharva refers to some poets of the Rig (as +certain hymnists in the Rig also do) as earlier men. If in the Rig +(as Weber says) "there breathes a lively natural feeling, a warm +love of nature, while in the Atharva, on the contrary, there +predominates an anxious apprehension of evil spirits and their +magical powers," it by no means follows that this apprehension is +of later origin than the lively feeling for Nature. Rather the +reverse. There appears to be no doubt[2] that the style and +language of the Atharva are later than those of the Rig. Roth, who +recognises the change, in language and style, yet considers the +Atharva "part of the old literature".[3] He concludes that the +Atharva contains many pieces which, "both by their style and ideas, +are shown to be contemporary with the older hymns of the Rig-Veda". +In religion, according to Muir,[4] the Atharva shows progress in the +direction of monotheism in its celebration of Brahman, but it also +introduces serpent-worship. + + +[1] Journal of the American Oriental Society. iv. 253. + +[2] Muir, ii. 446. + +[3] Ibid., ii. 448. + +[4] Ibid., ii. 451. + + +As to the Atharva, then, we are free to suppose, if we like, that +the dark magic, the evil spirits, the incantations, are old parts +of Indian, as of all other popular beliefs, though they come later +into literature than the poetry about Ushas and the morality of +Varuna. The same remarks apply to our third source of information, +the Brahmanas. These are indubitably comments on the sacred texts +very much more modern in form than the texts themselves. But it +does not follow, and this is most important for our purpose, that +the myths in the Brahmanas are all later than the Vedic myths or +corruptions of the Veda. Muir remarks,[1] "The Rig-Veda, though +the oldest collection, does not necessarily contain everything that +is of the greatest age in Indian thought or tradition. We know, +for example, that certain legends, bearing the impress of the +highest antiquity, such as that of the deluge, appear first in the +Brahmanas." We are especially interested in this criticism, +because most of the myths which we profess to explain as survivals +of savagery are narrated in the Brahmanas. If these are +necessarily late corruptions of Vedic ideas, because the collection +of the Brahmanas is far more modern than that of the Veda, our +argument is instantly disproved. But if ideas of an earlier +stratum of thought than the Vedic stratum may appear in a later +collection, as ideas of an earlier stratum of thought than the +Homeric appear in poetry and prose far later than Homer, then our +contention is legitimate. It will be shown in effect that a number +of myths of the Brahmanas correspond in character and incident with +the myths of savages, such as Cahrocs and Ahts. Our explanation +is, that these tales partly survived, in the minds perhaps of +conservative local priesthoods, from the savage stage of thought, +or were borrowed from aborigines in that stage, or were moulded in +more recent times on surviving examples of that wild early fancy. + + +[1] Muir, iv. 450. + + +In the age of the Brahmanas the people have spread southwards from +the basin of the Indus to that of the Ganges. The old sacred texts +have begun to be scarcely comprehensible. The priesthood has +become much more strictly defined and more rigorously constituted. +Absurd as it may seem, the Vedic metres, like the Gayatri, have +been personified, and appear as active heroines of stories +presumably older than this personification. The Asuras have +descended from the rank of gods to that of the heavenly opposition +to Indra's government; they are now a kind of fiends, and the +Brahmanas are occupied with long stories about the war in heaven, +itself a very ancient conception. Varuna becomes cruel on +occasion, and hostile. Prajapati becomes the great mythical hero, +and inherits the wildest myths of the savage heroic beasts and +birds. + +The priests are now Brahmans, a hereditary divine caste, who +possess all the vast and puerile knowledge of ritual and +sacrificial minutiae. As life in the opera is a series of songs, +so life in the Brahmanas is a sequence of sacrifices. Sacrifice +makes the sun rise and set, and the rivers run this way or that. + +The study of Indian myth is obstructed, as has been shown, by the +difficulty of determining the relative dates of the various +legends, but there are a myriad of other obstacles to the study of +Indian mythology. A poet of the Vedas says, "The chanters of hymns +go about enveloped in mist, and unsatisfied with idle talk".[1] +The ancient hymns are still "enveloped in mist," owing to the +difficulty of their language and the variety of modern renderings +and interpretations. The heretics of Vedic religion, the opponents +of the orthodox commentators in ages comparatively recent, used to +complain that the Vedas were simply nonsense, and their authors +"knaves and buffoons". There are moments when the modern student +of Vedic myths is inclined to echo this petulant complaint. For +example, it is difficult enough to find in the Rig-Veda anything +like a categoric account of the gods, and a description of their +personal appearance. But in Rig-Veda, viii. 29, 1, we read of one +god, "a youth, brown, now hostile, now friendly; a golden lustre +invests him". Who is this youth? "Soma as the moon," according to +the commentators. M. Langlois thinks the sun is meant. Dr. +Aufrecht thinks the troop of Maruts (spirits of the storm), to +whom, he remarks, the epithet "dark-brown, tawny" is as applicable +as it is to their master, Rudra. This is rather confusing, and a +mythological inquirer would like to know for certain whether he is +reading about the sun or soma, the moon, or the winds. + + +[1] Rig-Veda, x. 82, 7, but compare Bergaigne, op. cit., iii. 72, +"enveloppes de nuees et de murmures". + + +To take another example; we open Mr. Max Muller's translation of +the Rig-Veda at random, say at page 49. In the second verse of the +hymn to the Maruts, Mr. Muller translates, "They who were born +together, self-luminous, with the spotted deer (the clouds), the +spears, the daggers, the glittering ornaments. I hear their whips +almost close by, as they crack them in their hands; they gain +splendour on their way." Now Wilson translates this passage, "Who, +borne by spotted deer, were born self-luminous, with weapons, war- +cries and decorations. I hear the cracking of their whips in their +hands, wonderfully inspiring courage in the fight." Benfey has, +"Who with stags and spears, and with thunder and lightning, self- +luminous, were born. Hard by rings the crack of their whip as it +sounds in their hands; bright fare they down in storm." Langlois +translates, "Just born are they, self-luminous. Mark ye their +arms, their decorations, their car drawn by deer? Hear ye their +clamour? Listen! 'tis the noise of the whip they hold in their +hands, the sound that stirs up courage in the battle." This is an +ordinary example of the diversities of Vedic translation. It is +sufficiently puzzling, nor is the matter made more transparent by +the variety of opinion as to the meaning of the "deer" along with +which the Maruts are said (by some of the translators) to have been +born. This is just the sort of passage on which a controversy +affecting the whole nature of Vedic mythological ideas might be +raised. According to a text in the Yajur Veda, gods, and men, and +beasts, and other matters were created from various portions of the +frame of a divine being named Prajapati.[1] The god Agni, Brahmans +and the goat were born from the mouth of Prajapati. From his +breast and arms came the god Indra (sometimes spoken of as a ram), +the sheep, and of men the Rajanya. Cows and gods called Visvadevas +were born together from his middle. Are we to understand the words +"they who were born together with the spotted deer" to refer to a +myth of this kind--a myth representing the Maruts and deer as +having been born at the same birth, as Agni came with the goat, and +Indra with the sheep? This is just the point on which the Indian +commentators were divided.[2] Sayana, the old commentator, says, +"The legendary school takes them for deer with white spots; the +etymological school, for the many-coloured lines of clouds". The +modern legendary (or anthropological) and etymological (or +philological) students of mythology are often as much at variance +in their attempts to interpret the traditions of India. + + +[1] Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 16. + +[2] Max Muller, Rig-Veda Sanhita, trans., vol. i. p. 59. + + +Another famous, and almost comic, example of the difficulty of +Vedic interpretation is well known. In Rig-Veda, x. 16, 4, there +is a funeral hymn. Agni, the fire-god, is supplicated either to +roast a goat or to warm the soul of the dead and convey it to +paradise. Whether the soul is to be thus comforted or the goat is +to be grilled, is a question that has mightily puzzled Vedic +doctors.[1] Professor Muller and M. Langlois are all for "the +immortal soul", the goat has advocates, or had advocates, in +Aufrecht, Ludwig and Roth. More important difficulties of +interpretation are illustrated by the attitude of M. Bergaigne in +La Religion Vedique, and his controversy with the great German +lexicographers. The study of mythology at one time made the Vedas +its starting-point. But perhaps it would be wise to begin from +something more intelligible, something less perplexed by +difficulties of language and diversities of interpretation. + + +[1] Muir, v. 217. + + +In attempting to criticise the various Aryan myths, we shall be +guided, on the whole, by the character of the myths themselves. +Pure and elevated conceptions we shall be inclined to assign to a +pure and elevated condition of thought (though such conceptions do, +recognisably, occur in the lowest known religious strata), and we +shall make no difficulty about believing that Rishis and singers +capable of noble conceptions existed in an age very remote in time, +in a society which had many of the features of a lofty and simple +civilisation. But we shall not, therefore, assume that the hymns +of these Rishis are in any sense "primitive," or throw much light +on the infancy of the human mind, or on the "origin" of religious +and heroic myths. Impure, childish and barbaric conceptions, on +the other hand, we shall be inclined to attribute to an impure, +childish, and barbaric condition of thought; and we shall again +make no difficulty about believing that ideas originally conceived +when that stage of thought was general have been retained and +handed down to a far later period. This view of the possible, or +rather probable, antiquity of many of the myths preserved in the +Brahmanas is strengthened, if it needed strengthening, by the +opinion of Dr. Weber.[1] "We must indeed assume generally with +regard to many of those legends (in the Brahmanas of the Rig-Veda) +that they had already gained a rounded independent shape in +tradition before they were incorporated into the Brahmanas; and of +this we have frequent evidence in the DISTINCTLY ARCHAIC CHARACTER +OF THEIR LANGUAGE, compared with that of the rest of the text." + + +[1] History of Indian Literature, English trans., p. 47. + + +We have now briefly stated the nature and probable relative +antiquity of the evidence which is at the disposal of Vedic +mythologists. The chief lesson we would enforce is the necessity +of suspending the judgment when the Vedas are represented as +examples of primitive and comparatively pure and simple natural +religion. They are not primitive; they are highly differentiated, +highly complex, extremely enigmatic expressions of fairly advanced +and very peculiar religious thought. They are not morally so very +pure as has been maintained, and their purity, such as it is, seems +the result of conscious reticence and wary selection rather than of +primeval innocence. Yet the bards or editors have by no means +wholly excluded very ancient myths of a thoroughly savage +character. These will be chiefly exposed in the chapter on "Indo- +Aryan Myths of the Beginnings of Things," which follows. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN. + +Comparison of Vedic and savage myths--The metaphysical Vedic +account of the beginning of things--Opposite and savage fable of +world made out of fragments of a man--Discussion of this hymn-- +Absurdities of Brahmanas--Prajapati, a Vedic Unkulunkulu or Qat-- +Evolutionary myths--Marriage of heaven and earth--Myths of Puranas, +their savage parallels--Most savage myths are repeated in +Brahmanas. + + +In discussing the savage myths of the origin of the world and of +man, we observed that they were as inconsistent as they were +fanciful. Among the fancies embodied in the myths was noted the +theory that the world, or various parts of it, had been formed out +of the body of some huge non-natural being, a god, or giant, or a +member of some ancient mysterious race. We also noted the myths of +the original union of heaven and earth, and their violent +separation as displayed in the tales of Greeks and Maoris, to which +may be added the Acagchemem nation in California.[1] Another +feature of savage cosmogonies, illustrated especially in some early +Slavonic myths, in Australian legends, and in the faith of the +American races, was the creation of the world, or the recovery of a +drowned world by animals, as the raven, the dove and the coyote. +The hatching of all things out of an egg was another rude +conception, chiefly noted among the Finns. The Indian form occurs +in the Satapatha Brahmana.[2] The preservation of the human race +in the Deluge, or the creation of the race after the Deluge, was +yet another detail of savage mythology; and for many of these +fancies we seemed to find a satisfactory origin in the exceedingly +credulous and confused state of savage philosophy and savage +imagination. + + +[1] Bancroft, v. 162. + +[2] Sacred Books of the East, i. 216. + + +The question now to be asked is, do the traditions of the Aryans of +India supply us with myths so closely resembling the myths of +Nootkas, Maoris and Australians that we may provisionally explain +them as stories originally due to the invention of savages? This +question may be answered in the affirmative. The Vedas, the Epics +and the Puranas contain a large store of various cosmogonic +traditions as inconsistent as the parallel myths of savages. We +have an Aryan Ilmarinen, Tvashtri, who, like the Finnish smith, +forged "the iron vault of hollow heaven" and the ball of earth.[1] +Again, the earth is said to have sprung, as in some Mangaian +fables, "from a being called Uttanapad".[2] Again, Brahmanaspati, +"blew the gods forth like a blacksmith," and the gods had a hand in +the making of things. In contrast with these childish pieces of +anthropomorphism, we have the famous and sublime speculations of an +often-quoted hymn.[3] It is thus that the poet dreams of the days +before being and non-being began:-- + + +[1] Muir, v. 354. + +[2] Rig-Veda, x. 72, 4. + +[3] Ibid., x. 126. + + +"There was then neither non-entity nor entity; there was no +atmosphere nor sky above. What enveloped [all]? . . . Was it +water, the profound abyss? Death was not then, nor immortality: +there was no distinction of day or night. That One breathed calmly, +self-supported; then was nothing different from it, or above it. +In the beginning darkness existed, enveloped in darkness. All this +was undistinguishable water. That One which lay void and wrapped +in nothingness was developed by the power of fervour. Desire first +arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind [and which] sages, +searching with their intellect, have discovered to be the bond +which connects entity with non-entity. The ray [or cord] which +stretched across these [worlds], was it below or was it above? +There were there impregnating powers and mighty forces, a self- +supporting principle beneath and energy aloft. Who knows? who here +can declare whence has sprung, whence this creation? The gods are +subsequent to the development of this [universe]; who then knows +whence it arose? From what this creation arose, and whether [any +one] made it or not, he who in the highest heaven is its ruler, he +verily knows, or [even] he does not know."[1] + + +[1] Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., v. 357. + + +Here there is a Vedic hymn of the origin of things, from a book, it +is true, supposed to be late, which is almost, if not absolutely, +free from mythological ideas. The "self-supporting principle +beneath and energy aloft" may refer, as Dr. Muir suggests, to the +father, heaven above, and the mother, earth beneath. The "bond +between entity and non-entity" is sought in a favourite idea of the +Indian philosophers, that of tapas or "fervour". The other +speculations remind us, though they are much more restrained and +temperate in character, of the metaphysical chants of the New +Zealand priests, of the Zunis, of Popol Vuh, and so on. These +belong to very early culture. + +What is the relative age of this hymn? If it could be proved to be +the oldest in the Veda, it would demonstrate no more than this, +that in time exceedingly remote the Aryans of India possessed a +philosopher, perhaps a school of philosophers, who applied the +minds to abstract speculations on the origin of things. It could +not prove that mythological speculations had not preceded the +attempts of a purer philosophy. But the date cannot be ascertained. +Mr. Max Muller cannot go farther than the suggestion that the hymn +is an expression of the perennis quaedam philosophia of Leibnitz. +We are also warned that a hymn is not necessarily modern because it +is philosophical.[1] Certainly that is true; the Zunis, Maoris, and +Mangaians exhibit amazing powers of abstract thought. We are not +concerned to show that this hymn is late; but it seems almost +superfluous to remark that ideas like those which it contains can +scarcely be accepted as expressing man's earliest theory of the +origin of all things. We turn from such ideas to those which the +Aryans of India have in common with black men and red men, with +far-off Finns and Scandinavians, Chaldaeans, Haidahs, Cherokees, +Murri and Maori, Mangaians and Egyptians. + + +[1] History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 568. + + +The next Vedic account of creation which we propose to consider is +as remote as possible in character from the sublime philosophic +poem. In the Purusha Sukta, the ninetieth hymn of the tenth book +of the Rig-Veda Sanhita, we have a description of the creation of +all things out of the severed limbs of a magnified non-natural man, +Purusha. This conception is of course that which occurs in the +Norse myths of the rent body of Ymir. Borr's sons took the body of +the Giant Ymir and of his flesh formed the earth, of his blood seas +and waters, of his bones mountains, of his teeth rocks and stones, +of his hair all manner of plants, of his skull the firmament, of +his brains the clouds, and so forth. In Chaldean story, Bel cuts +in twain the magnified non-natural woman Omorca, and converts the +halves of her body into heaven and earth. Among the Iroquois in +North America, Chokanipok was the giant whose limbs, bones and +blood furnished the raw material of many natural objects; while in +Mangaia portions of Ru, in Egypt of Set and Osiris, in Greece of +Dionysus Zagreus were used in creating various things, such as +stones, plants and metals. The same ideas precisely are found in +the ninetieth hymn of the tenth book of the Rig-Veda. Yet it is a +singular thing that, in all the discussions as to the antiquity and +significance of this hymn which have come under our notice, there +has not been one single reference made to parallel legends among +Aryan or non-Aryan peoples. In accordance with the general +principles which guide us in this work, we are inclined to regard +any ideas which are at once rude in character and widely +distributed, both among civilised and uncivilised races, as +extremely old, whatever may be the age of the literary form in +which they are presented. But the current of learned opinions as +to the date of the Purusha Sukta, the Vedic hymn about the +sacrifice of Purusha and the creation of the world out of fragments +of his body, runs in the opposite direction. The hymn is not +regarded as very ancient by most Sanskrit scholars. We shall now +quote the hymn, which contains the data on which any theory as to +its age must be founded:--[1] + + +[1] Rig-Veda, x. 90; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 9. + + +"Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. +On every side enveloping the earth, he overpassed (it) by a space +of ten fingers. Purusha himself is this whole (universe), whatever +is and whatever shall be. . . . When the gods performed a +sacrifice with Purusha as the oblation, the spring was its butter, +the summer its fuel, and the autumn its (accompanying) offering. +This victim, Purusha, born in the beginning, they immolated on the +sacrificial grass. With him the gods, the Sadhyas, and the Rishis +sacrificed. From that universal sacrifice were provided curds and +butter. It formed those aerial (creatures) and animals both wild +and tame. From that universal sacrifice sprang the Ric and Saman +verses, the metres and Yajush. From it sprang horses, and all +animals with two rows of teeth; kine sprang from it; from it goats +and sheep. When (the gods) divided Purusha, into how many parts +did they cut him up? What was his mouth? What arms (had he)? +What (two objects) are said (to have been) his thighs and feet? +The Brahman was his mouth; the Rajanya was made his arms; the being +(called) the Vaisya, he was his thighs; the Sudra sprang from his +feet. The moon sprang from his soul (Mahas), the sun from his eye, +Indra and Agni from his mouth, and Yaiyu from his breath. From his +navel arose the air, from his head the sky, from his feet the +earth, from his ear the (four) quarters; in this manner (the gods) +formed the world. When the gods, performing sacrifice, bound +Purusha as a victim, there were seven sticks (stuck up) for it +(around the fire), and thrice seven pieces of fuel were made. With +sacrifice the gods performed the sacrifice. These were the +earliest rites. These great powers have sought the sky, where are +the former Sadhyas, gods." + +The myth here stated is plain enough in its essential facts. The +gods performed a sacrifice with a gigantic anthropomorphic being +(Purusha = Man) as the victim. Sacrifice is not found, as a rule, +in the religious of the most backward races of all; it is, +relatively, an innovation, as shall be shown later. His head, like +the head of Ymir, formed the sky, his eye the sun, animals sprang +from his body. The four castes are connected with, and it appears +to be implied that they sprang from, his mouth, arms, thighs and +feet. It is obvious that this last part of the myth is subsequent +to the formation of castes. This is one of the chief arguments for +the late date of the hymn, as castes are not distinctly recognised +elsewhere in the Rig-Veda. Mr. Max Muller[1] believes the hymn to +be "modern both in its character and in its diction," and this +opinion he supports by philological arguments. Dr. Muir[2] says +that the hymn "has every character of modernness both in its +diction and ideas". Dr Haug, on the other hand,[3] in a paper read +in 1871, admits that the present form of the hymn is not older than +the greater part of the hymns of the tenth book, and than those of +the Atharva Veda; but he adds, "The ideas which the hymn contains +are certainly of a primeval antiquity. . . . In fact, the hymn is +found in the Yajur-Veda among the formulas connected with human +sacrifices, which were formerly practised in India." We have +expressly declined to speak about "primeval antiquity," as we have +scarcely any evidence as to the myths and mental condition for +example, even of palaeolithic man; but we may so far agree with Dr. +Haug as to affirm that the fundamental idea of the Purusha Sukta, +namely, the creation of the world or portions of the world out of +the fragments of a fabulous anthropomorphic being is common to +Chaldeans, Iroquois, Egyptians, Greeks, Tinnehs, Mangaians and +Aryan Indians. This is presumptive proof of the antiquity of the +ideas which Dr. Muir and Mr. Max Muller think relatively modern. +The savage and brutal character of the invention needs no +demonstration. Among very low savages, for example, the Tinnehs of +British North America, not a man, not a god, but a DOG, is torn up, +and the fragments are made into animals.[4] On the Paloure River a +beaver suffers in the manner of Purusha. We may, for these +reasons, regard the chief idea of the myth as extremely ancient-- +infinitely more ancient than the diction of the hymn. + + +[1] Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 570. + +[2] Sanskrit Texts, 2nd edit., i. 12. + +[3] Sanskrit Text, 2nd edit., ii. 463. + +[4] Hearne's Journey, pp. 342-343. + + +As to the mention of the castes, supposed to be a comparatively +modern institution, that is not an essential part of the legend. +When the idea of creation out of a living being was once received +it was easy to extend the conception to any institution, of which +the origin was forgotten. The Teutonic race had a myth which +explained the origin of the classes eorl, ceorl and thrall (earl, +churl and slave). A South American people, to explain the +different ranks in society, hit on the very myth of Plato, the +legend of golden, silver and copper races, from which the ranks of +society have descended. The Vedic poet, in our opinion, merely +extended to the institution of caste a myth which had already +explained the origin of the sun, the firmament, animals, and so +forth, on the usual lines of savage thought. The Purusha Sukta is +the type of many other Indian myths of creation, of which the +following[1] one is extremely noteworthy. "Prajapati desired to +propagate. He formed the Trivrit (stoma) from his mouth. After it +were produced the deity Agni, the metre Gayatri, . . . of men the +Brahman, of beasts the goat; . . . from his breast, and from his +arms he formed the Panchadasa (stoma). After it were created the +God Indra, the Trishtubh metre, . . . of men the Rajanya, of beasts +the sheep. Hence they are vigorous, because they were created from +vigour. From his middle he formed the Saptadasa (stoma). After it +were created the gods called the Yisvadevas, the Jagati metre, . . . +of men the Vaisya, of beasts kine. Hence they are to be eaten, +because they were created from the receptacle of food." The form +in which we receive this myth is obviously later than the +institution of caste and the technical names for metres. Yet +surely any statement that kine "are to be eaten" must be older than +the universal prohibition to eat that sacred animal the cow. +Possibly we might argue that when this theory of creation was first +promulgated, goats and sheep were forbidden food.[2] + + +[1] Taittirya Sanhita, or Yajur-Veda, vii. i. 1-4; Muir, 2nd edit., +i. 15. + +[2] Mr. M'Lennan has drawn some singular inferences from this +passage, connecting, as it does, certain gods and certain classes +of men with certain animals, in a manner somewhat suggestive of +totemism (Fornightly Review), February, 1870. + + +Turning from the Vedas to the Brahmanas, we find a curiously savage +myth of the origin of species.[1] According to this passage of the +Brahmana, "this universe was formerly soul only, in the form of +Purusha". He caused himself to fall asunder into two parts. +Thence arose a husband and a wife. "He cohabited with her; from +them men were born. She reflected, 'How does he, after having +produced me from himself, cohabit with me? Ah, let me disappear.' +She became a cow, and the other a bull, and he cohabited with her. +From them kine were produced." After a series of similar +metamorphoses of the female into all animal shapes, and a similar +series of pursuits by the male in appropriate form, "in this manner +pairs of all sorts of creatures down to ants were created". This +myth is a parallel to the various Greek legends about the amours in +bestial form of Zeus, Nemesis, Cronus, Demeter and other gods and +goddesses. In the Brahmanas this myth is an explanation of the +origin of species, and such an explanation as could scarcely have +occurred to a civilised mind. In other myths in the Brahmanas, +Prajapati creates men from his body, or rather the fluid of his +body becomes a tortoise, the tortoise becomes a man (purusha), with +similar examples of speculation.[2] + + +[1] Satapatha Brahmana, xiv. 4, 2; Muir, 2nd edit., i. 25. + +[2] Similar tales are found among the Khonds. + + +Among all these Brahmana myths of the part taken by Prajapati in +the creation or evoking of things, the question arises who WAS +Prajapati? His role is that of the great Hare in American myth; he +is a kind of demiurge, and his name means "The Master of Things +Created," like the Australian Biamban, "Master," and the American +title of the chief Manitou, "Master of Life",[1] Dr. Muir remarks +that, as the Vedic mind advances from mere divine beings who +"reside and operate in fire" (Agni), "dwell and shine in the sun" +(Surya), or "in the atmosphere" (Indra), towards a conception of +deity, "the farther step would be taken of speaking of the deity +under such new names as Visvakarman and Prajapati". These are +"appellatives which do not designate any limited functions +connected with any single department of Nature, but the more +general and abstract notions of divine power operating in the +production and government of the universe". Now the interesting +point is that round this new and abstract NAME gravitate the most +savage and crudest myths, exactly the myths we meet among +Hottentots and Nootkas. For example, among the Hottentots it is +Heitsi Eibib, among the Huarochiri Indians it is Uiracocha, who +confers, by curse or blessing, on the animals their proper +attributes and characteristics.[2] In the Satapatha Brahmana it is +Prajapati who takes this part, that falls to rude culture-heroes of +Hottentots and Huarochiris.[3] How Prajapati made experiments in a +kind of state-aided evolution, so to speak, or evolution +superintended and assisted from above, will presently be set forth. + + +[1] Bergaigne, iii. 40. + +[2] Avila, Fables of the Yncas, p. 127. + +[3] English translation, ii. 361. + + +In the Puranas creation is a process renewed after each kalpa, or +vast mundane period. Brahma awakes from his slumber, and finds the +world a waste of water. Then, just as in the American myths of the +coyote, and the Slavonic myths of the devil and the doves, a boar +or a fish or a tortoise fishes up the world out of the waters. +That boar, fish, tortoise, or what not, is Brahma or Vishnu. This +savage conception of the beginnings of creation in the act of a +tortoise, fish, or boar is not first found in the Puranas, as Mr. +Muir points out, but is indicated in the Black Yajur Veda and in +the Satapatha Brahmana.[1] In the Satapatha Brahmana, xiv. 1, 2, +11, we discover the idea, so common in savage myths--for example, +in that of the Navajoes--that the earth was at first very small, a +mere patch, and grew bigger after the animal fished it up. +"Formerly this earth was only so large, of the size of a span. A +boar called Emusha raised her up." Here the boar makes no pretence +of being the incarnation of a god, but is a mere boar sans phrase, +like the creative coyote of the Papogas and Chinooks, or the musk- +rat of the Tacullies. This is a good example of the development of +myths. Savages begin, as we saw, by mythically regarding various +animals, spiders, grasshoppers, ravens, eagles, cockatoos, as the +creators or recoverers of the world. As civilisation advances, +those animals still perform their beneficent functions, but are +looked on as gods in disguise. In time the animals are often +dropped altogether, though they hold their place with great +tenacity in the cosmogonic traditions of the Aryans in India. When +we find the Satapatha Brahmana alleging[2] "that all creatures are +descended from a tortoise," we seem to be among the rude Indians of +the Pacific Coast. But when the tortoise is identified with +Aditya, and when Adityas prove to be solar deities, sons of Aditi, +and when Aditi is recognised by Mr. Muller as the Dawn, we see that +the Aryan mind has not been idle, but has added a good deal to the +savage idea of the descent of men and beasts from a tortoise.[3] + + +[1] Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 52. + +[2] Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 54. + +[3] See Ternaux Compans' Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, lxxxvi. p. +5. For Mexican traditions, "Mexican and Australian Hurricane +World's End," Bancroft, v. 64. + + +Another feature of savage myths of creation we found to be the +introduction of a crude theory of evolution. We saw that among the +Potoyante tribe of the Digger Indians, and among certain Australian +tribes, men and beasts were supposed to have been slowly evolved +and improved out of the forms first of reptiles and then of +quadrupeds. In the mythologies of the more civilised South +American races, the idea of the survival of the fittest was +otherwise expressed. The gods made several attempts at creation, +and each set of created beings proving in one way or other unsuited +to its environment, was permitted to die out or degenerated into +apes, and was succeeded by a set better adapted for survival.[1] +In much the same way the Satapatha Brahmana[2] represents mammals +as the last result of a series of creative experiments. "Prajapati +created living beings, which perished for want of food. Birds and +serpents perished thus. Prajapati reflected, 'How is it that my +creatures perish after having been formed?' He perceived this: +'They perish from want of food'. In his own presence he caused +milk to be supplied to breasts. He created living beings, which, +resorting to the breasts, were thus preserved. These are the +creatures which did not perish." + + +[1] This myth is found in Popol Vuh. A Chinook myth of the same +sort, Bancroft, v. 95. + +[2] ii. 5, 11; Muir, 2nd edit., i. 70. + + +The common myth which derives the world from a great egg--the myth +perhaps most familiar in its Finnish shape--is found in the +Satapatha Brahmana.[1] "In the beginning this universe was waters, +nothing but waters. The waters desired: 'How can we be +reproduced?' So saying, they toiled, they performed austerity. +While they were performing austerity, a golden egg came into +existence. It then became a year. . . . From it in a year a man +came into existence, who was Prajapati. . . . He conceived progeny +in himself; with his mouth he created the gods." According to +another text,[2] "Prajapati took the form of a tortoise". The +tortoise is the same as Aditya.[3] + + +[1] xi. 1, 6, 1; Muir, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1863. + +[2] Satapatha Brahmana, vii. 4, 3, 5. + +[3] Aitareya Brahmana, iii. 34 (11, 219), a very discreditable +origin of species. + + +It is now time to examine the Aryan shape of the widely spread myth +about the marriage of heaven and earth, and the fortunes of their +children. We have already seen that in New Zealand heaven and +earth were regarded as real persons, of bodily parts and passions, +united in a secular embrace. We shall apply the same explanation +to the Greek myth of Gaea and of the mutilation of Cronus. In +India, Dyaus (heaven) answers to the Greek Uranus and the Maori +Rangi, while Prithivi (earth) is the Greek Gaea, the Maori Papa. +In the Veda, heaven and earth are constantly styled "parents";[1] +but this we might regard as a mere metaphorical expression, still +common in poetry. A passage of the Aitareya Brahmana, however, +retains the old conception, in which there was nothing metaphorical +at all.[2] These two worlds, heaven and earth, were once joined. +Subsequently they were separated (according to one account, by +Indra, who thus plays the part of Cronus and of Tane Mahuta). +"Heaven and earth," says Dr. Muir, "are regarded as the parents not +only of men, but of the gods also, as appears from the various +texts where they are designated by the epithet Devapatre, 'having +gods for their children'." By men in an early stage of thought +this myth was accepted along with others in which heaven and earth +were regarded as objects created by one of their own children, as +by Indra,[3] who "stretched them out like a hide," who, like Atlas, +"sustains and upholds them"[4] or, again, Tvashtri, the divine +smith, wrought them by his craft; or, once more, heaven and earth +sprung from the head and feet of Purusha. In short, if any one +wished to give an example of that recklessness of orthodoxy or +consistency which is the mark of early myth, he could find no +better example than the Indian legends of the origin of things. +Perhaps there is not one of the myths current among the lower races +which has not its counterpart in the Indian Brahmanas. It has been +enough for us to give a selection of examples. + + +[1] Muir, v. 22. + +[2] iv. 27; Haug, ii. 308. + +[3] Rig-Veda, viii. 6, 5. + +[4] Ibid., iii. 32, 8. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +GREEK MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND MAN. + +The Greeks practically civilised when we first meet them in Homer-- +Their mythology, however, is full of repulsive features--The +hypothesis that many of these are savage survivals--Are there other +examples of such survival in Greek life and institutions?--Greek +opinion was constant that the race had been savage--Illustrations +of savage survival from Greek law of homicide, from magic, +religion, human sacrifice, religious art, traces of totemism, and +from the mysteries--Conclusion: that savage survival may also be +expected in Greek myths. + + +The Greeks, when we first make their acquaintance in the Homeric +poems, were a cultivated people, dwelling, under the government of +royal families, in small city states. This social condition they +must have attained by 1000 B.C., and probably much earlier. They +had already a long settled past behind them, and had no +recollection of any national migration from the "cradle of the +Aryan race". On the other hand, many tribes thought themselves +earth-born from the soil of the place where they were settled. The +Maori traditions prove that memories of a national migration may +persist for several hundred years among men ignorant of writing. +Greek legend, among a far more civilised race, only spoke of +occasional foreign settlers from Sidon, Lydia, or Egypt. The +Homeric Greeks were well acquainted with almost all the arts of +life, though it is not absolutely certain that they could write, +and certainly they were not addicted to reading. In war they +fought from chariots, like the Egyptians and Assyrians; they were +bold seafarers, being accustomed to harry the shores even of Egypt, +and they had large commercial dealings with the people of Tyre and +Sidon. In the matter of religion they were comparatively free and +unrestrained. Their deities, though, in myth, capricious in +character, might be regarded in many ways as "making for +righteousness". They protected the stranger and the suppliant; +they sanctioned the oath, they frowned on the use of poisoned +arrows; marriage and domestic life were guarded by their good-will; +they dispensed good and evil fortune, to be accepted with humility +and resignation among mortals. + +The patriarchal head of each family performed the sacrifices for +his household, the king for the state, the ruler of Mycenae, +Agamemnon, for the whole Achaean host encamped before the walls of +Troy. At the same time, prophets, like Calchas, possessed +considerable influence, due partly to an hereditary gift of second- +sight, as in the case of Theoclymenus,[1] partly to acquired +professional skill in observing omens, partly to the direct +inspiration of the gods. The oracle at Delphi, or, as it is called +by Homer, Pytho, was already famous, and religion recognised, in +various degrees, all the gods familiar to the later cult of Hellas. +In a people so advanced, so much in contact with foreign races and +foreign ideas, and so wonderfully gifted by nature with keen +intellect and perfect taste, it is natural to expect, if anywhere, +a mythology almost free from repulsive elements, and almost purged +of all that we regard as survivals from the condition of savagery. +But while Greek mythology is richer far than any other in beautiful +legend, and is thronged with lovely and majestic forms of gods and +goddesses, nymphs and oreads ideally fair, none the less a very +large proportion of its legends is practically on a level with the +myths of Maoris, Thlinkeets, Cahrocs and Bushmen. + + +[1] Odyssey, xx. 354. + + +This is the part of Greek mythology which has at all times excited +most curiosity, and has been made the subject of many systems of +interpretation. The Greeks themselves, from almost the earliest +historical ages, were deeply concerned either to veil or explain +away the blasphemous horrors of their own "sacred chapters," poetic +traditions and temple legends. We endeavour to account for these +as relics of an age of barbarism lying very far behind the time of +Homer--an age when the ancestors of the Greeks either borrowed, or +more probably developed for themselves, the kind of myths by which +savage peoples endeavour to explain the nature and origin of the +world and all phenomena. + +The correctness of this explanation, resting as it does on the +belief that the Greeks were at one time in the savage status, might +be demonstrated from the fact that not only myths, but Greek life +in general, and especially Greek ritual, teemed with surviving +examples of institutions and of manners which are found everywhere +among the most backward and barbarous races. It is not as if only +the myths of Greece retained this rudeness, or as if the Greeks +supposed themselves to have been always civilised. The whole of +Greek life yields relics of savagery when the surface is excavated +ever so slightly. Moreover, that the Greeks, as soon as they came +to reflect on these matters at all, believed themselves to have +emerged from a condition of savagery is undeniable. The poets are +entirely at one on this subject with Moschion, a writer of the +school of Euripides. "The time hath been, yea, it HATH been," he +says, "when men lived like the beasts, dwelling in mountain caves, +and clefts unvisited of the sun. . . . Then they broke not the +soil with ploughs nor by aid of iron, but the weaker man was slain +to make the supper of the stronger," and so on.[1] This view of +the savage origin of mankind was also held by Aristotle:[2] "It is +probable that the first men, whether they were produced by the +earth (earth-born) or survived from some deluge, were on a level of +ignorance and darkness".[3] This opinion, consciously held and +stated by philosophers and poets, reveals itself also in the +universal popular Greek traditions that men were originally +ignorant of fire, agriculture, metallurgy and all the other arts +and conveniences of life, till they were instructed by ideal +culture-heroes, like Prometheus, members of a race divine or half +divine. A still more curious Athenian tradition (preserved by +Varro) maintained, not only that marriage was originally unknown, +but that, as among Australians and some Red Indians, the family +name, descended through the mother, and kinship was reckoned on the +female side before the time of Cecrops.[4] + + +[1] Moschion; cf. Preller, Ausgewahlte Aufsatze, p. 206. + +[2] Politics, ii. 8-21; Plato, Laws, 667-680. + +[3] Compare Horace, Satires, i. 3, 99; Lucretius, v. 923. + +[4] Suidas, s.v. "Prometheus"; Augustine, De Civitate Dei, xviii. 9. + + +While Greek opinion, both popular and philosophical, admitted, or +rather asserted, that savagery lay in the background of the +historical prospect, Greek institutions retained a thousand birth- +marks of savagery. It is manifest and undeniable that the Greek +criminal law, as far as it effected murder, sprang directly from +the old savage blood-feud.[1] The Athenian law was a civilised +modification of the savage rule that the kindred of a slain man +take up his blood-feud. Where homicide was committed WITHIN the +circle of blood relationship, as by Orestes, Greek religion +provided the Erinnyes to punish an offence which had, as it were, +no human avenger. The precautions taken by murderers to lay the +ghost of the slain man were much like those in favour among the +Australians. The Greek cut off the extremities of his victim, the +tips of the hands and feet, and disposed them neatly beneath the +arm-pits of the slain man.[2] In the same spirit, and for the same +purpose, the Australian black cuts off the thumbs of his dead +enemy, that the ghost too may be mutilated and prevented from +throwing at him with a ghostly spear. We learn also from +Apollonius Rhodius and his scholiast that Greek murderers used +thrice to suck in and spit out the gore of their victims, perhaps +with some idea of thereby partaking of their blood, and so, by +becoming members of their kin, putting it beyond the power of the +ghosts to avenge themselves. Similar ideas inspire the worldwide +savage custom of making an artificial "blood brotherhood" by +mingling the blood of the contracting parties. As to the +ceremonies of cleansing from blood-guiltiness among the Greeks, we +may conjecture that these too had their primitive side; for +Orestes, in the Eumenides, maintains that he has been purified of +his mother's slaughter by sufficient blood of swine. But this +point will be illustrated presently, when we touch on the mysteries. + + +[1] Duncker, History of Greece, Engl. transl., vol. ii. p. 129. + +[2] See "Arm-pitting in Ancient Greece," in the American Journal of +Philology, October, 1885, where a discussion of the familiar texts +in Aeschylus and Apollonius Rhodius will be found. + + +Ritual and myth, as might be expected, retained vast masses of +savage rites and superstitious habits and customs. To be "in all +things too superstitious," too full of deisidaimonia, was even in +St. Paul's time the characteristic of the Athenians. Now +superstition, or deisidaimonia, is defined by Theophrastus,[1] as +"cowardice in regard to the supernatural" ([Greek text omitted]). +This "cowardice" has in all ages and countries secured the +permanence of ritual and religious traditions. Men have always +argued, like one of the persons in M. Renan's play, Le Pretre de +Nemi, that "l'ordre du monde depend de l'ordre des rites qu'on +observe". The familiar endurable sequence of the seasons of +spring, and seed-sowing, and harvest depend upon the due +performance of immemorial religious acts. "In the mystic +deposits," says Dinarchus, "lies the safety of the city."[2] What +the "mystic deposits" were nobody knows for certain, but they must +have been of very archaic sanctity, and occur among the Arunta and +the Pawnees. + + +[1] Characters. + +[2] Ap. Hermann, Lehrbuch, p. 41; Aglaophamus, 965. + + +Ritual is preserved because it preserves LUCK. Not only among the +Romans and the Brahmans, with their endless minute ritual actions, +but among such lower races as the Kanekas of New Caledonia, the +efficacy of religious functions is destroyed by the slightest +accidental infraction of established rules.[1] The same timid +conservatism presides over myth, and in each locality the mystery- +plays, with their accompanying narratives, preserved inviolate the +early forms of legend. Myth and ritual do not admit of being +argued about. "C'etait le rite etabli. Ce n'etait pas plus +absurde qu'autre chose," says the conservative in M. Renan's piece, +defending the mode of appointment of + + + The priest who slew the slayer, + And shall himself be slain. + + +[1] Thus the watchers of the dead in New Caledonia are fed by the +sorcerer with a mess at the end of a very long spoon, and should +the food miss the mouth, all the ceremonies have to be repeated. +This detail is from Mr. J. J. Atkinson. + + +Now, if the rites and myths preserved by the timorousness of this +same "cowardice towards the supernatural" were originally evolved +in the stage of savagery, savage they would remain, as it is +impious and dangerous to reform them till the religion which they +serve perishes with them. These relics in Greek ritual and faith +are very commonly explained as due to Oriental influences, as +things borrowed from the dark and bloody superstitions of Asia. +But this attempt to save the native Greek character for +"blitheness" and humanity must not be pushed too far.[1] It must +be remembered that the cruder and wilder sacrifices and legends of +Greece were strictly LOCAL; that they were attached to these +ancient temples, old altars, barbarous xoana, or wooden idols, and +rough fetish stones, in which Pausanias found the most ancient +relics of Hellenic theology. This is a proof of their antiquity +and a presumption in favour of their freedom from foreign +influence. Most of these things were survivals from that dimly +remembered prehistoric age in which the Greeks, not yet gathered +into city states, lived in villages or kraals, or pueblos, as we +should translate [Greek text omitted], if we were speaking of +African or American tribes. In that stage the early Greeks must +have lacked both the civic and the national or Panhellenic +sentiment; their political unit was the clan, which, again, +answered in part to the totem kindred of America, or Africa, or +Australia.[2] In this stagnant condition they could not have made +acquaintance with the many creeds of Semitic and other alien +peoples on the shores of the Levant.[3] It was later, when Greece +had developed the city life of the heroic age, that her adventurous +sons came into close contact with Egypt and Phoenicia. + + +[1] Claus, De Antiq. Form. Dianae, 6,7,16. + +[2] As C. O. Muller judiciously remarks: "The scenes of nine-tenths +of the Greek myths are laid in PARTICULAR DISTRICTS OF GREECE, and +they speak of the primeval inhabitants, of the lineage and adventures +of native heroes. They manifest an accurate acquaintance with +individual localities, which, at a time when Greece was neither +explored by antiquaries, nor did geographical handbooks exist, could +be possessed only by the inhabitants of these localities." Muller +gives, as examples, myths of bears more or less divine. Scientific +Mythology, pp. 14, 15. + +[3] Compare Claus, De Dianae Antiquissima Natura, p. 3. + + +In the colonising time, still later--perhaps from 900 B.C. +downwards--the Greeks, settled on sites whence they had expelled +Sidonians or Sicanians, very naturally continued, with +modifications, the worship of such gods as they found already in +possession. Like the Romans, the Greeks easily recognised their +own deities in the analogous members of foreign polytheistic +systems. Thus we can allow for alien elements in such gods and +goddesses as Zeus Asterios, as Aphrodite of Cyprus or Eryx, or the +many-breasted Ephesian Artemis, whose monstrous form had its exact +analogue among the Aztecs in that many-breasted goddess of the +maguey plant whence beer was made. To discern and disengage the +borrowed factors in the Hellenic Olympus by analysis of divine +names is a task to which comparative philology may lawfully devote +herself; but we cannot so readily explain by presumed borrowing +from without the rude xoana of the ancient local temples, the wild +myths of the local legends, the sacra which were the exclusive +property of old-world families, Butadae or Eumolpidae. These are +clearly survivals from a stage of Greek culture earlier than the +city state, earlier than the heroic age of the roving Greek +Vikings, and far earlier than the Greek colonies. They belong to +that conservative and immobile period when the tribe or clan, +settled in its scattered kraals, lived a life of agriculture, +hunting and cattle-breeding, engaged in no larger or more +adventurous wars than border feuds about women or cattle. Such +wars were on a humbler scale than even Nestor's old fights with the +Epeians; such adventures did not bring the tribe into contact with +alien religions. If Sidonian merchantmen chanced to establish a +factory near a tribe in this condition, their religion was not +likely to make many proselytes. + +These reasons for believing that most of the wilder element in +Greek ritual and myth was native may be briefly recapitulated, as +they are often overlooked. The more strange and savage features +meet us in LOCAL tales and practices, often in remote upland +temples and chapels. There they had survived from the society of +the VILLAGE status, before villages were gathered into CITIES, +before Greeks had taken to a roving life, or made much acquaintance +with distant and maritime peoples. + +For these historical reasons, it may be assumed that the LOCAL +religious antiquities of Greece, especially in upland districts +like Arcadia and Elis, are as old, and as purely national, as free +from foreign influences as any Greek institutions can be. In these +rites and myths of true folk-lore and Volksleben, developed before +Hellas won its way to the pure Hellenic stage, before Egypt and +Phoenicia were familiar, should be found that common rude element +which Greeks share with the other races of the world, and which +was, to some extent, purged away by the genius of Homer and Pindar, +pii vates et Phaebo digna locuti. + +In proof of this local conservatism, some passages collected by K. +F. Hermann in his Lehrbuch der Griechischen Antiquitaten[1] may be +cited. Thus Isocrates writes,[2] "This was all their care, neither +to destroy any of the ancestral rites, nor to add aught beyond what +was ordained". Clemens Alexandrinus reports that certain +Thessalians worshipped storks, "IN ACCORDANCE WITH USE AND +WONT".[3] Plato lays down the very "law of least change" which has +been described. "Whether the legislator is establishing a new +state or restoring an old and decayed one, in respect of gods and +temples, . . . if he be a man of sense, he will MAKE NO CHANGE IN +ANYTHING which the oracle of Delphi, or Dodona, or Ammon has +sanctioned, in whatever manner." In this very passage Plato[4] +speaks of rites "derived from Tyrrhenia or Cyprus" as falling +within the later period of the Greek Wanderjahre. On the high +religious value of things antique, Porphyry wrote in a late age, +and when the new religion of Christ was victorious, "Comparing the +new sacred images with the old, we see that the old are more simply +fashioned, yet are held divine, but the new, admired for their +elaborate execution, have less persuasion of divinity,"--a remark +anticipated by Pausanias, "The statues Daedalus wrought are +quainter to the outward view, yet there shows forth in them +somewhat supernatural".[5] So Athenaeus[6] reports of a visitor to +the shrine of Leto in Delos, that he expected the ancient statue of +the mother of Apollo to be something remarkable, but, unlike the +pious Porphyry, burst out laughing when he found it a shapeless +wooden idol. These idols were dressed out, fed and adorned as if +they had life.[7] It is natural that myths dating from an age when +Greek gods resembled Polynesian idols should be as rude as +Polynesian myths. The tenacity of LOCAL myth is demonstrated by +Pausanias, who declares that even in the highly civilised Attica +the Demes retained legends different from those of the central +city--the legends, probably, which were current before the villages +were "Synoecised" into Athens.[8] + + +[1] Zweiter Theil, 1858. + +[2] Areop., 30. + +[3] Clem. Alex., Oxford, 1715, i. 34. + +[4] Laws, v. 738. + +[5] De. Abst., ii. 18; Paus., ii. 4, 5. + +[6] xiv. 2. + +[7] Hermann, op. cit., p. 94, note 10. + +[8] Pausanias, i. 14, 6. + + +It appears, then, that Greek ritual necessarily preserves matter of +the highest antiquity, and that the oldest rites and myths will +probably be found, not in the Panhellenic temples, like that in +Olympia, not in the NATIONAL poets, like Homer and Sophocles, but +in the LOCAL fanes of early tribal gods, and in the LOCAL mysteries, +and the myths which came late, if they came at all, into literary +circulation. This opinion is strengthened and illustrated by that +invaluable guide-book of the artistic and religious pilgrim written +in the second century after our era by Pausanias. If we follow him, +we shall find that many of the ceremonies, stories and idols which +he regarded as oldest are analogous to the idols and myths of the +contemporary backward races. Let us then, for the sake of +illustrating the local and savage survivals in Greek religion, +accompany Pausanias in his tour through Hellas. + +In Christian countries, especially in modern times, the contents of +one church are very like the furniture of another church; the +functions in one resemble those in all, though on the Continent +some shrines still retain relics and customs of the period when +local saints had their peculiar rites. But it was a very different +thing in Greece. The pilgrim who arrived at a temple never could +guess what oddity or horror in the way of statues, sacrifices, or +stories might be prepared for his edification. In the first place, +there were HUMAN SACRIFICES. These are not familiar to low +savages, if known to them at all. Probably they were first offered +to barbaric royal ghosts, and thence transferred to gods. In the +town of Salamis, in Cyprus, about the date of Hadrian, the devout +might have found the priest slaying a human victim to Zeus,--an +interesting custom, instituted, according to Lactantius, by Teucer, +and continued till the age of the Roman Empire.[1] + + +[1] Euseb., Praep. Ev., iv. 17, mentions, among peoples practising +human sacrifices, Rhodes, Salamis, Heliopolis, Chios, Tenedos, +Lacedaemon, Arcadia and Athens; and, among gods thus honoured, +Hera, Athene, Cronus, Ares, Dionysus, Zeus and Apollo. For +Dionysus the Cannibal, Plutarch, Themist., 13; Porphyr., Abst., ii. +55. For the sacrifice to Zeus Laphystius, see Grote, i. c. vi., +and his array of authorities, especially Herodotus, vii. 197. +Clemens Alexandrinus (i. 36) mentions the Messenians, to Zeus; the +Taurians, to Artemis, the folk of Pella, to Peleus and Chiron; the +Cretans, to Zeus; the Lesbians, to Dionysus. Geusius de Victimis +Humanis (1699) may be consulted. + + +At Alos in Achaia Phthiotis, the stranger MIGHT have seen an +extraordinary spectacle, though we admit that the odds would have +been highly against his chance of witnessing the following events. +As the stranger approaches the town-hall, he observes an elderly +and most respectable citizen strolling in the same direction. The +citizen is so lost in thought that apparently he does not notice +where he is going. Behind him comes a crowd of excited but silent +people, who watch him with intense interest. The citizen reaches +the steps of the town-hall, while the excitement of his friends +behind increases visibly. Without thinking, the elderly person +enters the building. With a wild and un-Aryan howl, the other +people of Alos are down on him, pinion him, wreathe him with +flowery garlands, and, lead him to the temple of Zeus Laphystius, +or "The Glutton," where he is solemnly sacrificed on the altar. +This was the custom of the good Greeks of Alos whenever a +descendant of the house of Athamas entered the Prytaneion. Of +course the family were very careful, as a rule, to keep at a safe +distance from the forbidden place. "What a sacrifice for Greeks!" +as the author of the Minos[1] says in that dialogue which is +incorrectly attributed to Plato. "He cannot get out except to be +sacrificed," says Herodotus, speaking of the unlucky descendant of +Athamas. The custom appears to have existed as late as the time of +the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius.[2] + + +[1] 315, c.; Plato, Laws, vi. 782, c. + +[2] Argonautica, vii. 197. + + +Even in the second century, when Pausanias visited Arcadia, he +found what seem to have been human sacrifices to Zeus. The passage +is so very strange and romantic that we quote a part of it.[1] +"The Lycaean hill hath other marvels to show, and chiefly this: +thereon there is a grove of Zeus Lycaeus, wherein may men in nowise +enter; but if any transgresses the law and goes within, he must die +within the space of one year. This tale, moreover, they tell, +namely, that whatsoever man or beast cometh within the grove casts +no shadow, and the hunter pursues not the deer into that wood, but, +waiting till the beast comes forth again, sees that it has left its +shadow behind. And on the highest crest of the whole mountain +there is a mound of heaped-up earth, the altar of Zeus Lycaeus, and +the more part of Peloponnesus can be seen from that place. And +before the altar stand two pillars facing the rising sun, and +thereon golden eagles of yet more ancient workmanship. And on this +altar they sacrifice to Zeus in a manner that may not be spoken, +and little liking had I to make much search into this matter. BUT +LET IT BE AS IT IS, AND AS IT HATH BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING." The +words "as it hath been from the beginning" are ominous and +significant, for the traditional myths of Arcadia tell of the human +sacrifices of Lycaon, and of men who, tasting the meat of a mixed +sacrifice, put human flesh between their lips unawares.[2] This +aspect of Greek religion, then, is almost on a level with the +mysterious cannibal horrors of "Voodoo," as practised by the secret +societies of negroes in Hayti. But concerning these things, as +Pausanias might say, it is little pleasure to inquire. + + +[1] Pausanias, viii. 2. + +[2] Plato, Rep., viii. 565, d. This rite occurs in some African +coronation ceremonies. + + +Even where men were not sacrificed to the gods, the tourist among +the temples would learn that these bloody rites had once been +customary, and ceremonies existed by way of commutation. This is +precisely what we find in Vedic religion, in which the empty form +of sacrificing a man was gone through, and the origin of the world +was traced to the fragments of a god sacrificed by gods.[1] In +Sparta was an altar of Artemis Orthia, and a wooden image of great +rudeness and antiquity--so rude indeed, that Pausanias, though +accustomed to Greek fetish-stones, thought it must be of barbaric +origin. The story was that certain people of different towns, when +sacrificing at the altar, were seized with frenzy and slew each +other. The oracle commanded that the altar should be sprinkled +with human blood. Men were therefore chosen by lot to be +sacrificed till Lycurgus commuted the offering, and sprinkled the +altar with the blood of boys who were flogged before the goddess. +The priestess holds the statue of the goddess during the flogging, +and if any of the boys are but lightly scourged, the image becomes +too heavy for her to bear. + + +[1] The Purusha Sukhta, in Rig-Veda, x. 90. + + +The Ionians near Anthea had a temple of Artemis Triclaria, and to +her it had been customary to sacrifice yearly a youth and maiden of +transcendent beauty. In Pausanias's time the human sacrifice was +commuted. He himself beheld the strange spectacle of living beasts +and birds being driven into the fire to Artemis Laphria, a +Calydonian goddess, and he had seen bears rush back among the +ministrants; but there was no record that any one had ever been +hurt by these wild beasts.[1] The bear was a beast closely +connected with Artemis, and there is some reason to suppose that +the goddess had herself been a she-bear or succeeded to the cult of +a she-bear in the morning of time.[2] + + +[1] Paus., vii. 18, 19. + +[2] See "Artemis", postea. + + +It may be believed that where symbolic human sacrifices are +offered, that is, where some other victim is slain or a dummy of a +man is destroyed, and where legend maintains that the sacrifice was +once human, there men and women were originally the victims. +Greek ritual and Greek myth were full of such tales and such +commutations.[1] In Rome, as is well known, effigies of men called +Argives were sacrificed.[2] As an example of a beast-victim given +in commutation, Pausanias mentions[3] the case of the folk of +Potniae, who were compelled once a year to offer to Dionysus a boy, +in the bloom of youth. But the sacrifice was commuted for a goat. + + +[1] See Hermann, Alterthumer., ii. 159-161, for abundant examples. + +[2] Plutarch, Quest. Rom. 32. + +[3] ix. 8, 1. + + +These commutations are familiar all over the world. Even in +Mexico, where human sacrifices and ritual cannibalism were daily +events, Quetzalcoatl was credited with commuting human sacrifices +for blood drawn from the bodies of the religious. In this one +matter even the most conservative creeds and the faiths most +opposed to change sometimes say with Tartuffe:-- + + + Le ciel defend, de vrai, certains contentements, + Mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements. + + +Though the fact has been denied (doubtless without reflection), the +fact remains that the Greeks offered human sacrifices. Now what +does this imply? Must it be taken as a survival from barbarism, as +one of the proofs that the Greeks had passed through the barbaric +status? + +The answer is less obvious than might be supposed. Sacrifice has +two origins. First, there are HONORIFIC sacrifices, in which the +ghost or god (or divine beast, if a divine beast be worshipped) is +offered the food he is believed to prefer. This does not occur +among the lowest savages. To carnivorous totems, Garcilasso says, +the Indians of Peru offered themselves. The feeding of sacred mice +in the temples of Apollo Smintheus is well known. Secondly, there +are expiatory or PIACULAR sacrifices, in which the worshipper, as +it were, fines himself in a child, an ox, or something else that he +treasures. The latter kind of sacrifice (most common in cases of +crime done or suspected within the circle of kindred) is not +necessarily barbaric, except in its cruelty. An example is the +Attic Thargelia, in which two human scape-goats annually bore "the +sins of the congregation," and were flogged, driven to the sea with +figs tied round their necks, and burned.[1] + + +[1] Compare the Marseilles human sacrifice, Petron., 141; and for +the Thargelia, Tsetzes, Chiliads, v. 736; Hellad. in Photius, p. +1590 f. and Harpoc. s. v. + + +The institution of human sacrifice, then, whether the offering be +regarded as food, or as a gift to the god of what is dearest to man +(as in the case of Jephtha's daughter), or whether the victim be +supposed to carry on his head the sins of the people, does not +necessarily date from the period of savagery. Indeed, sacrifice +flourishes most, not among savages, but among advancing barbarians. +It would probably be impossible to find any examples of human +sacrifices of an expiatory or piacular character, any sacrifices at +all, among Australians, or Andamanese, or Fuegians. The notion of +presenting food to the supernatural powers, whether ghosts or gods, +is relatively rare among savages.[1] The terrible Aztec banquets +of which the gods were partakers are the most noted examples of +human sacrifices with a purely cannibal origin. Now there is good +reason to guess that human sacrifices with no other origin than +cannibalism survived even in ancient Greece. "It may be +conjectured," writes Professor Robertson Smith,[2] "that the human +sacrifices offered to the Wolf Zeus (Lycaeus) in Arcadia were +originally cannibal feasts of a Wolf tribe. The first participants +in the rite were, according to later legend, changed into wolves; +and in later times[3] at least one fragment of the human flesh was +placed among the sacrificial portions derived from other victims, +and the man who ate it was believed to become a were-wolf."[4] It +is the almost universal rule with cannibals not to eat members of +their own stock, just as they do not eat their own totem. Thus, as +Professor Robertson Smith says, when the human victim is a captive +or other foreigner, the human sacrifice may be regarded as a +survival of cannibalism. Where, on the other hand, the victim is a +fellow tribesman, the sacrifice is expiatory or piacular. + + +[1] Jevons, Introduction to the Science of Religion, pp. 161, 199. + +[2] Encyc. Brit., s. v. "Sacrifice". + +[3] Plato, Rep., viii. 565, D. + +[4] Paus., viii. 2. + + +Among Greek cannibal gods we cannot fail to reckon the so-called +"Cannibal Dionysus," and probably the Zeus of Orchomenos, Zeus +Laphystius, who is explained by Suidas as "the Glutton Zeus". The +cognate verb ([Greek text omitted]) means "to eat with mangling and +rending," "to devour gluttonously". By Zeus Laphystius, then, +men's flesh was gorged in this distressing fashion. + +The evidence of human sacrifice (especially when it seems not +piacular, but a relic of cannibalism) raises a presumption that +Greeks had once been barbarians. The presumption is confirmed by +the evidence of early Greek religious art. + +When his curiosity about human sacrifices was satisfied, the +pilgrim in Greece might turn his attention to the statues and other +representations of the gods. He would find that the modern statues +by famous artists were beautiful anthropomorphic works in marble or +in gold and ivory. It is true that the faces of the ancient gilded +Dionysi at Corinth were smudged all over with cinnabar, like +fetish-stones in India or Africa.[1] As a rule, however, the +statues of historic times were beautiful representations of kindly +and gracious beings. The older works were stiff and rigid images, +with the lips screwed into an unmeaning smile. Older yet were the +bronze gods, made before the art of soldering was invented, and +formed of beaten plates joined by small nails. Still more ancient +were the wooden images, which probably bore but a slight +resemblance to the human frame, and which were often mere +"stocks".[2] Perhaps once a year were shown the very early gods, +the Demeter with the horse's head, the Artemis with the fish's +tails, the cuckoo Hera, whose image was of pear-wood, the Zeus with +three eyes, the Hermes, made after the fashion of the pictures on +the walls of sacred caves among the Bushmen. But the oldest gods +of all, says Pausanias repeatedly, were rude stones in the temple +or the temple precinct. In Achaean Pharae he found some thirty +squared stones, named each after a god. "Among all the Greeks in +the oldest times rude stones were worshipped in place of statues." +The superstitious man in Theophrastus's Characters used to anoint +the sacred stones with oil. The stone which Cronus swallowed in +mistake for Zeus was honoured at Delphi, and kept warm with wool +wrappings. There was another sacred stone among the Troezenians, +and the Megarians worshipped as Apollo a stone cut roughly into a +pyramidal form. The Argives had a big stone called Zeus Kappotas. +The Thespians worshipped a stone which they called Eros; "their +oldest idol is a rude stone".[3] It is well known that the +original fetish-stone has been found in situ below the feet of the +statue of Apollo in Delos. On this showing, then, the religion of +very early Greeks in Greece was not unlike that of modern Negroes. +The artistic evolution of the gods, a remarkably rapid one after a +certain point, could be traced in every temple. It began with the +rude stone, and rose to the wooden idol, in which, as we have seen, +Pausanias and Porphyry found such sanctity. Next it reached the +hammered bronze image, passed through the archaic marbles, and +culminated in the finer marbles and the chryselephantine statues of +Zeus and Athena. But none of the ancient sacred objects lost their +sacredness. The oldest were always the holiest idols; the oldest +of all were stumps and stones, like savage fetish-stones. + + +[1] Pausanias, ii. 2. + +[2] Clemens Alex., Protrept. (Oxford, 1715). p. 41. + +[3] Gill, Myths of South Pacific, p. 60. Compare a god, which +proved to he merely pumice-stone, and was regarded as the god of +winds and waves, having been drifted to Puka-Puka. Offerings of +food were made to it during hurricanes. + + +Another argument in favour of the general thesis that savagery left +deep marks on Greek life in general, and on myth in particular, may +be derived from survivals of totemism in ritual and legend. The +following instances need not necessarily be accepted, but it may be +admitted that they are precisely the traces which totemism would +leave had it once existed, and then waned away on the advance of +civilisation.[1] + + +[1] The argument to be derived from the character of the Greek +[Greek text omitted] as a modified form of the totem-kindred is too +long and complex to be put forward here. It is stated in Custom +and Myth, "The history of the Family," in M'Lennan's Studies in +Early history, and is assumed, if not proved, in Ancient Society by +the late Mr. Lewis Morgan. + + +That Greeks in certain districts regarded with religious reverence +certain plants and animals is beyond dispute. That some stocks +even traced their lineage to beasts will be shown in the chapter on +Greek Divine Myths, and the presumption is that these creatures, +though explained as incarnations and disguises of various gods, +were once totems sans phrase, as will be inferred from various +examples. Clemens Alexandrinus, again, after describing the +animal-worship of the Egyptians, mentions cases of zoolatry in +Greece.[1] The Thessalians revered storks, the Thebans weasels, +and the myth ran that the weasel had in some way aided Alcmena when +in labour with Heracles. In another form of the myth the weasel +was the foster-mother of the hero.[2] Other Thessalians, the +Myrmidons, claimed descent from the ant and revered ants. The +religious respect paid to mice in the temple of Apollo Smintheus, +in the Troad, Rhodes, Gela, Lesbos and Crete is well known, and a +local tribe were alluded to as Mice by an oracle. The god himself, +like the Japanese harvest-god, was represented in art with a mouse +at his foot, and mice, as has been said, were fed at his shrine.[3] +The Syrians, says Clemens Alexandrinus, worship doves and fishes, +as the Elians worship Zeus.[4] The people of Delphi adored the +wolf,[5] and the Samians the sheep. The Athenians had a hero whom +they worshipped in the shape of a wolf.[6] A remarkable testimony +is that of the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, ii. 124. "The +wolf," he says, "was a beast held in honour by the Athenians, and +whosoever slays a wolf collects what is needful for its burial." +The burial of sacred animals in Egypt is familiar. An Arab tribe +mourns over and solemnly buries all dead gazelles.[7] Nay, flies +were adored with the sacrifice of an ox near the temple of Apollo +in Leucas.[8] Pausanias (iii. 22) mentions certain colonists who +were guided by a hare to a site where the animal hid in a myrtle- +bush. They therefore adore the myrtle, [Greek text omitted]. In +the same way a Carian stock, the Ioxidae, revered the asparagus.[9] +A remarkable example of descent mythically claimed from one of the +lower animals is noted by Otfried Muller.[10] Speaking of the swan +of Apollo, he says, "That deity was worshipped, according to the +testimony of the Iliad, in the Trojan island of Tenedos. There, +too, was Tennes honoured as the [Greek text omitted] of the island. +Now his father was called Cycnus (the swan) in an oft-told and +romantic legend.[11] . . . The swan, therefore, as father to the +chief hero on the Apolline island, stands in distinct relation to +the god, who is made to come forward still more prominently from +the fact that Apollo himself is also called father of Tennes. I +think we can scarcely fail to recognise a mythus which was local at +Tenedos. . . . The fact, too, of calling the swan, instead of +Apollo, the father of a hero, demands altogether a simplicity and +boldness of fancy which are far more ancient than the poems of +Homer." + + +[1] Op. cit., i. 34. + +[2] Scholiast on Iliad, xix. 119. + +[3] Aelian, H. A., xii. 5; Strabo, xiii. 604. Compare "Apollo and +the Mouse, Custom and Myth, pp. 103-120. + +[4] Lucian, De Dea Syria. + +[5] Aelian, H. A., xii. 40. + +[6] Harpocration, [Greek text omitted]. Compare an address to the +wolf-hero, "who delights in the flight and tears of men," in +Aristophanes, Vespae, 389. + +[7] Robertson Smith, Kinship in Early Arabia, pp. 195-204. + +[8] Aelian, xi. 8. + +[9] Plutarch, Theseus, 14. + +[10] Proleg., Engl. trans., p. 204. + +[11] [Canne on Conon, 28.] + + +Had Muller known that this "simplicity and boldness of fancy" exist +to-day, for example, among the Swan tribe of Australia, he would +probably have recognised in Cycnus a survival from totemism. The +fancy survives again in Virgil's Cupavo, "with swan's plumes rising +from his crest, the mark of his father's form".[1] Descent was +claimed, not only from a swan Apollo, but from a dog Apollo. + + +[1] Aeneid, x. 187. + + +In connection with the same set of ideas, it is pointed out that +several [Greek text omitted], or stocks, had eponymous heroes, in +whose names the names of the ancestral beast apparently survived. +In Attica the Crioeis have their hero (Crio, "Ram"), the Butadae +have Butas ("Bullman"), the Aegidae have Aegeus ("Goat"), and the +Cynadae, Cynus ("Dog"). Lycus, according to Harpocration (s. v.) +has his statue in the shape of a wolf in the Lyceum. "The general +facts that certain animals might not be sacrificed to certain gods" +(at Athens the Aegidae introduced Athena, to whom no goat might be +offered on the Acropolis, while she herself wore the goat skin, +aegis), "while, on the other hand, each deity demanded particular +victims, explained by the ancients themselves in certain cases to +be hostile animals, find their natural explanation" in totemism.[1] +Mr. Evelyn Abbott points out, however, that the names Aegeus, +Aegae, Aegina, and others, may be connected with the goat only by +an old volks-etymologie, as on coins of Aegina in Achaea. The real +meaning of the words may be different. Compare [Greek text +omitted], the sea-shore. Mr. J. G. Frazer does not, at present, +regard totemism as proved in the case of Greece.[2] + + +[1] Some apparent survivals of totemism in ritual will be found in +the chapter on Greek gods, especially Zeus, Dionysus, and Apollo. + +[2] See his Golden Bough, an alternative explanation of these +animals in connection with "The Corn Spirit". + + +As final examples of survivals from the age of barbarism in the +religion of Greece, certain features in the Mysteries may be noted. +Plutarch speaks of "the eating of raw flesh, and tearing to pieces +of victims, as also fastings and beatings of the breast, and again +in many places abusive language at the sacrifices, and other mad +doings". The mysteries of Demeter, as will appear when her legend +is criticised, contained one element all unlike these "mad doings"; +and the evidence of Sophocles, Pindar, Plutarch and others +demonstrate that religious consolations were somehow conveyed in +the Eleusinia. But Greece had many other local mysteries, and in +several of these it is undeniable the Greeks acted much as +contemporary Australians, Zunis and Negroes act in their secret +initiations which, however, also inculcate moral ideas of +considerable excellence. Important as these analogies are, they +appear to have escaped the notice of most mythologists. M. Alfred +Maury, however, in Les Religions de la Grece, published in 1857, +offers several instances of hidden rites, common to Hellas and to +barbarism. + +There seem in the mysteries of savage races to be two chief +purposes. There is the intention of giving to the initiated a +certain sacred character, which puts them in close relation with +gods or demons, and there is the introduction of the young to +complete or advancing manhood, and to full participation in the +savage Church with its ethical ideas. The latter ceremonies +correspond, in short, to confirmation, and they are usually of a +severe character, being meant to test by fasting (as Plutarch says) +and by torture (as in the familiar Spartan rite) the courage and +constancy of the young braves. The Greek mysteries best known to +us are the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinia. In the former the rites +(as will appear later) partook of the nature of savage "medicine" +or magic, and were mainly intended to secure fertility in husbandry +and in the family. In the Eleusinia the purpose was the +purification of the initiated, secured by ablutions and by standing +on the "ram's-skin of Zeus," and after purifications the mystae +engaged in sacred dances, and were permitted to view a miracle play +representing the sorrows and consolations of Demeter. There was a +higher element, necessarily obscure in nature. The chief features +in the whole were purifications, dancing, sacrifice and the +representation of the miracle play. It would be tedious to offer +an exhaustive account of savage rites analogous to these mysteries +of Hellas. Let it suffice to display the points where Greek found +itself in harmony with Australian, and American, and African +practice. These points are: (1) mystic dances; (2) the use of a +little instrument, called turndun in Australia, whereby a roaring +noise is made, and the profane are warned off; (3) the habit of +daubing persons about to be initiated with clay or anything else +that is sordid, and of washing this off; apparently by way of +showing that old guilt is removed and a new life entered upon; (4) +the performances with serpents may be noticed, while the "mad +doings" and "howlings" mentioned by Plutarch are familiar to every +reader of travels in uncivilised countries; (5) ethical instruction +is communicated. + +First, as to the mystic dances, Lucian observes:[1] "You cannot +find a single ancient mystery in which there is not dancing. . . . +This much all men know, that most people say of the revealers of +the mysteries that they 'dance them out'" ([Greek text omitted]). +Clemens of Alexandria uses the same term when speaking of his own +"appalling revelations".[2] So closely connected are mysteries +with dancing among savages, that when Mr. Orpen asked Qing, the +Bushman hunter, about some doctrines in which Qing was not +initiated, he said: "Only the initiated men of that dance know +these things". To "dance" this or that means to be acquainted with +this or that myth, which is represented in a dance or ballet +d'action[3] ([Greek text omitted]). So widely distributed is the +practice, that Acosta, in an interesting passage, mentions it as +familiar to the people of Peru before and after the Spanish +conquest. The text is a valuable instance of survival in religion. +When they were converted to Christianity the Peruvians detected the +analogy between our sacrament and their mysteries, and they kept up +as much as possible of the old rite in the new ritual. Just as the +mystae of Eleusis practised chastity, abstaining from certain food, +and above all from beans, before the great Pagan sacrament, so did +the Indians. "To prepare themselves all the people fasted two +days, during which they did neyther company with their wives, nor +eate any meate with salt or garlicke, nor drink any chic. . . . +And although the Indians now forbeare to sacrifice beasts or other +things publikely, which cannot be hidden from the Spaniardes, yet +doe they still use many ceremonies that have their beginnings from +these feasts and auntient superstitions, for at this day do they +covertly make their feast of Ytu at the daunces of the feast of the +Sacrament. Another feast falleth almost at the same time, whereas +the Christians observe the solempnitie of the holy Sacrament, which +DOTH RESEMBLE IT IN SOME SORT, AS IN DAUNCING, SINGING AND +REPRESENTATIONS."[4] The holy "daunces" at Seville are under Papal +disapproval, but are to be kept up, it is said, till the peculiar +dresses used in them are worn out. Acosta's Indians also had +"garments which served only for this feast". It is superfluous to +multiply examples of the dancing, which is an invariable feature of +savage as of Greek mysteries. + + +[1] [Greek text omitted], chap. xv. 277. + +[2] Ap. Euseb., Praep. Ev., ii, 3, 6. + +[3] Cape Monthly Magazine, July, 1874. + +[4] Acosta, Historie of the Indies, book v. chap. xxviii. London, +1604. + + +2. The Greek and savage use of the turndun, or bribbun of Australia +in the mysteries is familiar to students. This fish-shaped flat +board of wood is tied to a string, and whirled round, so as to +cause a peculiar muffled roar. Lobeck quotes from the old scholia +on Clemens Alexandrinus, published by Bastius in annotations on St. +Gregory, the following Greek description of the turndun, the "bull- +roarer" of English country lads, the Gaelic srannam:[1] [Greek text +omitted]". "The conus was a little slab of wood, tied to a string, +and whirled round in the mysteries to make a whirring noise. As +the mystic uses of the turndun in Australia, New Zealand, New +Mexico and Zululand have elsewhere been described at some length +(Custom and Myth, pp. 28-44), it may be enough to refer the reader +to the passage. Mr. Taylor has since found the instrument used in +religious mysteries in West Africa, so it has now been tracked +almost round the world. That an instrument so rude should be +employed by Greek and Australians on mystic occasions is in itself +a remarkable coincidence. Unfortunately, Lobeck, who published the +Greek description of the turndun (Aglaophamus, 700), was +unacquainted with the modern ethnological evidence. + + +[1] Pronounced strantham. For this information I am indebted to my +friend Mr. M'Allister, schoolmaster at St. Mary's Loch. + + +3. The custom of plastering the initiated over with clay or filth +was common in Greek as in barbaric mysteries. Greek examples may +be given first. Demosthenes accuses Aeschines of helping his +mother in certain mystic rites, aiding her, especially, by +bedaubing the initiate with clay and bran.[1] Harpocration +explains the term used ([Greek text omitted]) thus: "Daubing the +clay and bran on the initiate, to explain which they say that the +Titans when they attacked Dionysus daubed themselves over with +chalk, but afterwards, for ritual purposes, clay was used". It may +be urged with some force that the mother of Aeschines introduced +foreign, novel and possibly savage rites. But Sophocles, in a +fragment of his lost play, the Captives, uses the term in the same +ritual sense-- + + + [Greek text omitted]. + + +[1] De Corona, 313. + + +The idea clearly was that by cleansing away the filth plastered +over the body was symbolised the pure and free condition of the +initiate. He might now cry in the mystic chant-- + + + [Greek text omitted]. + Worse have I fled, better have I found. + + +That this was the significance of the daubing with clay in Greek +mysteries and the subsequent cleansing seems quite certain. We are +led straight to this conclusion by similar rites, in which the +purpose of mystically cleansing was openly put forward. Thus +Plutarch, in his essay on superstition, represents the guilty man +who would be purified actually rolling in clay, confessing his +misdeeds, and then sitting at home purified by the cleansing +process ([Greek text omitted]).[1] In another rite, the cleansing +of blood-guiltiness, a similar process was practised. Orestes, +after killing his mother, complains that the Eumenides do not cease +to persecute him, though he has been "purified by blood of +swine".[2] Apollonius says that the red hand of the murderer was +dipped in the blood of swine and then washed.[3] Athenaeus +describes a similar unpleasant ceremony.[4] The blood of whelps +was apparently used also, men being first daubed with it and then +washed clean.[5] The word [Greek text omitted] is again the +appropriate ritual term. Such rites Plutarch calls [Greek text +omitted], "filthy purifications".[6] If daubing with dirt is known +to have been a feature of Greek mysteries, it meets us everywhere +among savages. In O-Kee-Pa, that curiously minute account of the +Mandan mysteries, Catlin writes that a portion of the frame of the +initiate was "covered with clay, which the operator took from a +wooden bowl, and with his hand plastered unsparingly over". The +fifty young men waiting for initiation "were naked and entirely +covered with clay of various colours".[7] The custom is mentioned +by Captain John Smith in Virginia. Mr. Winwood Reade found it in +Africa, where, as among the Mandans and Spartans, cruel torture and +flogging accompanied the initiation of young men.[8] In Australia +the evidence for daubing the initiate is very abundant.[9] In New +Mexico, the Zunis stole Mr. Cushing's black paint, as considering +it even better than clay for religious daubing.[10] + + +[1] So Hermann, op. cit., 133. + +[2] Eumenides, 273. + +[3] Argonautica, iv. 693. + +[4] ix. 78. Hermann, from whom the latter passages are borrowed, +also quotes the evidence of a vase published by Feuerbach, +Lehrbuch, p. 131, with other authorities. + +[5] Plutarch, Quaest. Rom., 68. + +[6] De Superstitione, chap. xii. + +[7] O-Kee-Pa, London, 1867, p. 21. + +[8] Savage Africa, case of Mongilomba; Pausanias, iii. 15. + +[9] Brough Smyth, i. 60. + +[10] Custma and Myth, p. 40. + + +4. Another savage rite, the use of serpents in Greek mysteries, is +attested by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Demosthenes (loc. cit.). +Clemens says the snakes were caressed in representations of the +loves of Zeus in serpentine form. The great savage example is that +of "the snake-dance of the Moquis," who handle rattle-snakes in the +mysteries without being harmed.[1] The dance is partly totemistic, +partly meant, like the Thesmophoria, to secure the fertility of the +lands of the Moquis of Arizonas. The turndum or [Greek text +omitted] is employed. Masks are worn, as in the rites of Demeter +Cidiria in Arcadia.[2] + + +[1] The Snake-Dance of the Moquis. By Captain Jobn G. Bourke, +London, 1884. + +[2] Pausanias, viii. 16. + + +5. This last point of contact between certain Greek and certain +savage mysteries is highly important. The argument of Lobeck, in +his celebrated work Aglaophamus, is that the Mysteries were of no +great moment in religion. Had he known the evidence as to savage +initiations, he would have been confirmed in his opinion, for many +of the singular Greek rites are clearly survivals from savagery. +But was there no more truly religious survival? Pindar is a very +ancient witness that things of divine import were revealed. "Happy +is he who having seen these things goes under the hollow earth. He +knows the end of life, and the god-given beginning."[1] Sophocles +"chimes in," as Lobeck says, declaring that the initiate alone LIVE +in Hades, while other souls endure all evils. Crinagoras avers +that even in life the initiate live secure, and in death are the +happier. Isagoras declares that about the end of life and all +eternity they have sweet hopes. + + +[1] Fragm., cxvi., 128 H. p. 265. + + +Splendida testimonia, cries Lobeck. He tries to minimise the +evidence, remarking that Isocrates promises the very same rewards +to all who live justly and righteously. But why not, if to live +justly and righteously was part of the teaching of the mysteries of +Eleusis? Cicero's evidence, almost a translation of the Greek +passages already cited, Lobeck dismisses as purely rhetorical.[1] +Lobeck's method is rather cavalier. Pindar and Sophocles meant +something of great significance. + + +[1] De Legibus ii. 14; Aglaophamus, pp. 69-74. + + +Now we have acknowledged savage survivals of ugly rites in the +Greek mysteries. But it is only fair to remember that, in certain +of the few savage mysteries of which we know the secret, +righteousness of life and a knowledge of good are inculcated. This +is the case in Australia, and in Central Africa, where to be +"uninitiated" is equivalent to being selfish.[1] Thus it seems not +improbable that consolatory doctrines were expounded in the +Eleusinia, and that this kind of sermon or exhortation was no less +a survival from savagery than the daubing with clay, and the [Greek +text omitted], and other wild rites. + + +[1] Making of Religion, pp. 193-197, 235. + + +We have now attempted to establish that in Greek law and ritual +many savage customs and usages did undeniably survive. We have +seen that both philosophical and popular opinion in Greece believed +in a past age of savagery. In law, in religion, in religious art, +in custom, in human sacrifice, in relics of totemism, and in the +mysteries, we have seen that the Greeks retained plenty of the +usages now found among the remotest and most backward races. We +have urged against the suggestion of borrowing from Egypt or Asia +that these survivals are constantly found in local and tribal +religion and rituals, and that consequently they probably date from +that remote prehistoric past when the Greeks lived in village +settlements. It may still doubtless be urged that all these things +are Pelasgic, and were the customs of a race settled in Hellas +before the arrival of the Homeric Achaeans, and Dorians, and +Argives, who, on this hypothesis, adopted and kept up the old +savage Pelasgian ways and superstitions. It is impossible to prove +or disprove this belief, nor does it affect our argument. We +allege that all Greek life below the surface was rich in institutions +now found among the most barbaric peoples. These institutions, +whether borrowed or inherited, would still be part of the legacy +left by savages to cultivated peoples. As this legacy is so large +in custom and ritual, it is not unfair to argue that portions of it +will also be found in myths. It is now time to discuss Greek myths +of the origin of things, and decide whether they are or are not +analogous in ideas to the myths which spring from the wild and +ignorant fancy of Australians, Cahrocs, Nootkas and Bushmen. + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +GREEK COSMOGONIC MYTHS. + +Nature of the evidence--Traditions of origin of the world and man-- +Homeric, Hesiodic and Orphic myths--Later evidence of historians, +dramatists, commentators--The Homeric story comparatively pure--The +story in Hesiod, and its savage analogues--The explanations of the +myth of Cronus, modern and ancient--The Orphic cosmogony--Phanes +and Prajapati--Greek myths of the origin of man--Their savage +analogues. + + +The authorities for Greek cosmogonic myth are extremely various in +date, character and value. The most ancient texts are the Iliad +and the poems attributed to Hesiod. The Iliad, whatever its date, +whatever the place of its composition, was intended to please a +noble class of warriors. The Hesiodic poems, at least the +Theogony, have clearly a didactic aim, and the intention of +presenting a systematic and orderly account of the divine +genealogies. To neither would we willingly attribute a date much +later than the ninth century of our era, but the question of the +dates of all the epic and Hesiodic poems, and even of their various +parts, is greatly disputed among scholars. Yet it is nowhere +denied that, however late the present form of some of the poems may +be, they contain ideas of extreme antiquity. Although the Homeric +poems are usually considered, on the whole, more ancient than those +attributed to Hesiod,[1] it is a fact worth remembering that the +notions of the origin of things in Hesiod are much more savage and +(as we hold) much more archaic than the opinions of Homer. + + +[1] Grote assigns his Theogony to circ. 750 A.D. The Thegony was +taught to boys in Greece, much as the Church Catechism and Bible +are taught in England; Aeschines in Ctesiph., 135, p. 73. +Libanius, 400 years after Christ (i. 502-509, iv. 874). + + +While Hesiod offers a complete theogony or genealogy of deities and +heroes, Homer gives no more than hints and allusions to the stormy +past of the gods. It is clear, however, that his conception of +that past differed considerably from the traditions of Hesiod. +However we explain it, the Homeric mythology (though itself +repugnant to the philosophers from Xenophanes downwards) is much +more mild, pure and humane than the mythology either of Hesiod or +of our other Greek authorities. Some may imagine that Homer +retains a clearer and less corrupted memory than Hesiod possessed +of an original and authentic "divine tradition". Others may find +in Homer's comparative purity a proof of the later date of his +epics in their present form, or may even proclaim that Homer was a +kind of Cervantes, who wished to laugh the gods away. There is no +conceivable or inconceivable theory about Homer that has not its +advocates. For ourselves, we hold that the divine genius of Homer, +though working in an age distant rather than "early," selected +instinctively the purer mythical materials, and burned away the +coarser dross of antique legend, leaving little but the gold which +is comparatively refined. + +We must remember that it does not follow that any mythical ideas +are later than the age of Homer because we first meet them in poems +of a later date. We have already seen that though the Brahmanas +are much later in date of compilation than the Veda, yet a +tradition which we first find in the Brahmanas may be older than +the time at which the Veda was compiled. In the same way, as Mr. +Max Muller observes, "we know that certain ideas which we find in +later writers do not occur in Homer. But it does not follow at +all that such ideas are all of later growth or possess a secondary +character. One myth may have belonged to one tribe; one god may +have had his chief worship in one locality; and our becoming +acquainted with these through a later poet does not in the least +prove their later origin."[1] + + +[1] Hibbert Lectures, pp. 130, 131. + + +After Homer and Hesiod, our most ancient authorities for Greek +cosmogonic myths are probably the so-called Orphic fragments. +Concerning the dates and the manner of growth of these poems +volumes of erudition have been compiled. As Homer is silent about +Orpheus (in spite of the position which the mythical Thracian bard +acquired as the inventor of letters and magic and the father of the +mysteries), it has been usual to regard the Orphic ideas as of late +introduction. We may agree with Grote and Lobeck that these ideas +and the ascetic "Orphic mode of life" first acquired importance in +Greece about the time of Epimenides, or, roughly speaking, between +620 and 500 B.C.[1] That age certainly witnessed a curious growth +of superstitious fears and of mystic ceremonies intended to +mitigate spiritual terrors. Greece was becoming more intimately +acquainted with Egypt and with Asia, and was comparing her own +religion with the beliefs and rites of other peoples. The times +and the minds of men were being prepared for the clear philosophies +that soon "on Argive heights divinely sang". Just as, when the old +world was about to accept Christianity, a deluge of Oriental and +barbaric superstitions swept across men's minds, so immediately +before the dawn of Greek philosophy there came an irruption of +mysticism and of spiritual fears. We may suppose that the Orphic +poems were collected, edited and probably interpolated, in this +dark hour of Greece. "To me," says Lobeck, "it appears that the +verses may be referred to the age of Onomacritus, an age curious in +the writings of ancient poets, and attracted by the allurements of +mystic religions." The style of the surviving fragments is +sufficiently pure and epic; the strange unheard of myths are unlike +those which the Alexandrian poets drew from fountains long lost.[2] +But how much in the Orphic myths is imported from Asia or Egypt, +how much is the invention of literary forgers like Onomacritus, how +much should be regarded as the first guesses of the physical poet- +philosophers, and how much is truly ancient popular legend recast +in literary form, it is impossible with certainty to determine. + + +[1] Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. 317; Grote, iii. 86. + +[2] Aglaophamus, i. 611. + + +We must not regard a myth as necessarily late or necessarily +foreign because we first meet it in an "Orphic composition". If +the myth be one of the sort which encounter us in every quarter, +nay, in every obscure nook of the globe, we may plausibly regard it +as ancient. If it bear the distinct marks of being a Neo-platonic +pastiche, we may reject it without hesitation. On the whole, +however, our Orphic authorities can never be quoted with much +satisfaction. The later sources of evidence for Greek myths are +not of great use to the student of cosmogonic legend, though +invaluable when we come to treat of the established dynasty of +gods, the heroes and the "culture-heroes". For these the +authorities are the whole range of Greek literature, poets, +dramatists, philosophers, critics, historians and travellers. We +have also the notes and comments of the scholiasts or commentators +on the poets and dramatists. Sometimes these annotators only +darken counsel by their guesses. Sometimes perhaps, especially in +the scholia on the Iliad and Odyssey, they furnish us with a +precious myth or popular marchen not otherwise recorded. The +regular professional mythographi, again, of whom Apollodorus (150 +B.C.) is the type, compiled manuals explanatory of the myths which +were alluded to by the poets. The scholiasts and mythographi often +retain myths from lost poems and lost plays. Finally, from the +travellers and historians we occasionally glean examples of the +tales ("holy chapters," as Mr. Grote calls them) which were +narrated by priests and temple officials to the pilgrims who +visited the sacred shrines. + +These "chapters" are almost invariably puerile, savage and obscene. +They bear the stamp of extreme antiquity, because they never, as a +rule, passed through the purifying medium of literature. There +were many myths too crude and archaic for the purposes of poetry +and of the drama. These were handed down from local priest to +local priest, with the inviolability of sacred and immutable +tradition. We have already given a reason for assigning a high +antiquity to the local temple myths. Just as Greeks lived in +villages before they gathered into towns, so their gods were gods +of villages or tribes before they were national deities. The local +myths are those of the archaic village state of "culture," more +ancient, more savage, than literary narrative. Very frequently the +local legends were subjected to the process of allegorical +interpretation, as men became alive to the monstrosity of their +unsophisticated meaning. Often they proved too savage for our +authorities, who merely remark, "Concerning this a certain holy +chapter is told," but decline to record the legend. In the same +way missionaries, with mistaken delicacy, often refuse to repeat +some savage legend with which they are acquainted. + +The latest sort of testimony as to Greek myths must be sought in +the writings of the heathen apologists or learned Pagan defenders +of Paganism in the first centuries during Christianity, and in the +works of their opponents, the fathers of the Church. Though the +fathers certainly do not understate the abominations of Paganism, +and though the heathen apologists make free use of allegorical (and +impossible) interpretations, the evidence of both is often useful +and important. The testimony of ancient art, vases, statues, +pictures and the descriptions of these where they no longer +survive, are also of service and interest. + +After this brief examination of the sources of our knowledge of +Greek myth, we may approach the Homeric legends of the origin of +things and the world's beginning. In Homer these matters are only +referred to incidentally. He more than once calls Oceanus (that +is, the fabled stream which flows all round the world, here +regarded as a PERSON) "the origin of the gods," "the origin of all +things".[1] That Ocean is considered a person, and that he is not +an allegory for water or the aqueous element, appears from the +speech of Hera to Aphrodite: "I am going to visit the limits of the +bountiful earth, and Oceanus, father of the gods, and mother +Tethys, who reared me duly and nurtured me in their halls, when +far-seeing Zeus imprisoned Cronus beneath the earth and the +unvintaged sea".[2] Homer does not appear to know Uranus as the +father of Cronus, and thus the myth of the mutilation of Uranus +necessarily does not occur in Homer. Cronus, the head of the +dynasty which preceded that of Zeus, is described[3] as the son of +Rhea, but nothing is said of his father. The passage contains the +account which Poseidon himself chose to give of the war in heaven: +"Three brethren are we, and sons of Cronus whom Rhea bare--Zeus and +myself, and Hades is the third, the ruler of the folk in the +underworld. And in three lots were all things divided, and each +drew a domain of his own." Here Zeus is the ELDEST son of Cronus. +Though lots are drawn at hazard for the property of the father +(which we know to have been customary in Homer's time), yet +throughout the Iliad Zeus constantly claims the respect and +obedience due to him by right of primogeniture.[4] We shall see +that Hesiod adopts exactly the opposite view. Zeus is the YOUNGEST +child of Cronus. His supremacy is an example of jungsten recht, +the wide-spread custom which makes the youngest child the heir in +chief.[5] But how did the sons of Cronus come to have his property +in their hands to divide? By right of successful rebellion, when +"Zeus imprisoned Cronus beneath the earth and the unvintaged sea". +With Cronus in his imprisonment are the Titans. That is all that +Homer cares to tell about the absolute beginning of things and the +first dynasty of rulers of Olympus. His interest is all in the +actual reigning family, that of the Cronidae, nor is he fond of +reporting their youthful excesses. + + +[1] Iliad, xiv. 201, 302, 246. + +[2] In reading what Homer and Hesiod report about these matters, we +must remember that all the forces and phenomena are conceived of by +them as PERSONS. In this regard the archaic and savage view of all +things as personal and human is preserved. "I maintain," says +Grote, "moreover, fully the character of these great divine agents +as persons, which is the light in which they presented themselves +to the Homeric or Hesiodic audience. Uranus, Nyx, Hypnos and +Oneiros (heaven, night, sleep and dream) are persons just as much +as Zeus or Apollo. To resolve them into mere allegories is unsafe +and unprofitable. We then depart from the point of view of the +original hearers without acquiring any consistent or philosophical +point of view of our own." This holds good though portions of the +Hesiodic genealogies are distinctly poetic allegories cast in the +mould or the ancient personal theory of things. + +[3] Iliad, xv. 187. + +[4] The custom by which sons drew lots for equal shares of their +dead father's property is described in Odyssey, xiv. 199-212. Here +Odysseus, giving a false account of himself, says that he was a +Cretan, a bastard, and that his half-brothers, born in wedlock, +drew lots for their father's inheritance, and did not admit him to +the drawing, but gave him a small portion apart. + +[5] See Elton, Origins of English History, pp. 185-207. + + +We now turn from Homer's incidental allusions to the ample and +systematic narrative of Hesiod. As Mr. Grote says, "Men habitually +took their information respecting their theogonic antiquities from +the Hesiodic poems." Hesiod was accepted as an authority both by +the pious Pausanias in the second century of our era--who protested +against any attempt to alter stories about the gods--and by moral +reformers like Plato and Xenophanes, who were revolted by the +ancient legends,[1] and, indeed, denied their truth. Yet, though +Hesiod represents Greek orthodoxy, we have observed that Homer +(whose epics are probably still more ancient) steadily ignores the +more barbarous portions of Hesiod's narrative. Thus the question +arises: Are the stories of Hesiod's invention, and later than +Homer, or does Homer's genius half-unconsciously purify materials +like those which Hesiod presents in the crudest form? Mr. Grote +says: "How far these stories are the invention of Hesiod himself it +is impossible to determine. They bring us down to a cast of fancy +more coarse and indelicate than the Homeric, and more nearly +resemble some of the holy chapters ([Greek text omitted]) of the +more recent mysteries, such, for example, as the tale of Dionysus +Zagreus. There is evidence in the Theogony itself that the author +was acquainted with local legends current both at Krete and at +Delphi, for he mentions both the mountain-cave in Krete wherein the +newly-born Zeus was hidden, and the stone near the Delphian temple-- +the identical stone which Kronos had swallowed--placed by Zeus +himself as a sign and marvel to mortal men. Both these monuments, +which the poet expressly refers to, and had probably seen, imply a +whole train of accessory and explanatory local legends, current +probably among the priests of Krete and Delphi." + + +[1] Timaeeus, 41; Republic, 377. + + +All these circumstances appear to be good evidence of the great +antiquity of the legends recorded by Hesiod. In the first place, +arguing merely a priori, it is extremely improbable that in the +brief interval between the date of the comparatively pure and noble +mythology of the Iliad and the much ruder Theogony of Hesiod men +INVENTED stories like the mutilation of Uranus, and the swallowing +of his offspring by Cronus. The former legend is almost exactly +parallel, as has already been shown, to the myth of Papa and Rangi +in New Zealand. The later has its parallels among the savage +Bushmen and Australians. It is highly improbable that men in an +age so civilised as that of Homer invented myths as hideous as +those of the lowest savages. But if we take these myths to be, not +new inventions, but the sacred stories of local priesthoods, their +antiquity is probably incalculable. The sacred stories, as we know +from Pausanias, Herodotus and from all the writers who touch on the +subject of the mysteries, were myths communicated by the priests to +the initiated. Plato speaks of such myths in the Republic, 378: +"If there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a very few +might hear them in a mystery, and then let them sacrifice, not a +common pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; this would have +the effect of very greatly diminishing the number of the hearers". +This is an amusing example of a plan for veiling the horrors of +myth. The pig was the animal usually offered to Demeter, the +goddess of the Eleusinian mysteries. Plato proposes to substitute +some "unprocurable" beast, perhaps a giraffe or an elephant. + +To Hesiod, then, we must turn for what is the earliest complete +literary form of the Greek cosmogonic myth. Hesiod begins, like +the New Zealanders, with "the august race of gods, by earth and +wide heaven begotten".[1] So the New Zealanders, as we have seen, +say, "The heaven which is above us, and the earth which is beneath +us, are the progenitors of men and the origin of all things". +Hesiod[2] somewhat differs from this view by making Chaos +absolutely first of all things, followed by "wide-bosomed Earth," +Tartarus and Eros (love). Chaos unaided produced Erebus and Night; +the children of Night and Erebus are Aether and Day. Earth +produced Heaven, who then became her own lover, and to Heaven she +bore Oceanus, and the Titans, Coeeus and Crius, Hyperion and +Iapetus, Thea and Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, "and +youngest after these was born Cronus of crooked counsel, the most +dreadful of her children, who ever detested his puissant sire," +Heaven. There were other sons of Earth and Heaven peculiarly +hateful to their father,[3] and these Uranus used to hide from the +light in a hollow of Gaea. Both they and Gaea resented this +treatment, and the Titans, like "the children of Heaven and Earth," +in the New Zealand poem, "sought to discern the difference between +light and darkness". Gaea (unlike Earth in the New Zealand myth, +for there she is purely passive), conspired with her children, +produced iron, and asked her sons to avenge their wrongs.[4] Fear +fell upon all of them save Cronus, who (like Tane Mahuta in the +Maori poem) determined to end the embraces of Earth and Heaven. +But while the New Zealand, like the Indo-Aryan myth,[5] conceives +of Earth and Heaven as two beings who have never previously been +sundered at all, Hesiod makes Heaven amorously approach his spouse +from a distance. This was the moment for Cronus,[6] who stretched +out his hand armed with the sickle of iron, and mutilated Uranus. +As in so many savage myths, the blood of the wounded god fallen on +the ground produced strange creatures, nymphs of the ash-tree, +giants and furies. As in the Maori myth, one of the children of +Heaven stood apart and did not consent to the deed. This was +Oceanus in Greece,[7] and in New Zealand it was Tawhiri Matea, the +wind, "who arose and followed his father, Heaven, and remained with +him in the open spaces of the sky". Uranus now predicted[8] that +there would come a day of vengeance for the evil deed of Cronus, +and so ends the dynasty of Uranus. + + +[1] Theog., 45. + +[2] Ibid., 116. + +[3] Ibid., 155. + +[4] Ibid., 166. + +[5] Muir, v. 23, quoting Aitareya Brahmana, iv. 27: "These two +worlds were once joined; subsequently they separated". + +[6] Theog., 175-185. + +[7] Apollod., i, 15. + +[8] Theog., 209. + + +This story was one of the great stumbling-blocks of orthodox +Greece. It was the tale that Plato said should be told, if at all, +only to a few in a mystery, after the sacrifice of some rare and +scarcely obtainable animal. Even among the Maoris, the conduct of +the children who severed their father and mother is regarded as a +singular instance of iniquity, and is told to children as a moral +warning, an example to be condemned. In Greece, on the other hand, +unless we are to take the Euthyphro as wholly ironical, some of the +pious justified their conduct by the example of Zeus. Euthyphro +quotes this example when he is about to prosecute his own father, +for which act, he says, "Men are angry with ME; so inconsistently +do they talk when I am concerned and when the gods are concerned".[1] +But in Greek THE TALE HAS NO MEANING. It has been allegorised in +various ways, and Lafitau fancied that it was a distorted form of +the Biblical account of the origin of sin. In Maori the legend is +perfectly intelligible. Heaven and earth were conceived of (like +everything else), as beings with human parts and passions, linked in +an endless embrace which crushed and darkened their children. It +became necessary to separate them, and this feat was achieved not +without pain. "Then wailed the Heaven, and exclaimed the Earth, +'Wherefore this murder? Why this great sin? Why separate us?' But +what cared Tane? Upwards he sent one and downwards the other. He +cruelly severed the sinews which united Heaven and Earth."[2] The +Greek myth too, contemplated earth and heaven as beings corporeally +united, and heaven as a malignant power that concealed his children +in darkness. + + +[1] Euthyphro, 6. + +[2] Taylor, New Zealand, 119. + + +But while the conception of heaven and earth as parents of living +things remains perfectly intelligible in one sense, the vivid +personification which regarded them as creatures with human parts +and passions had ceased to be intelligible in Greece before the +times of the earliest philosophers. The old physical conception of +the pair became a metaphor, and the account of their rending +asunder by their children lost all significance, and seemed to be +an abominable and unintelligible myth. When examined in the light +of the New Zealand story, and of the fact that early peoples do +regard all phenomena as human beings, with physical attributes like +those of men, the legend of Cronus, and Uranus, and Gaea ceases to +be a mystery. It is, at bottom, a savage explanation (as in the +Samoan story) of the separation of earth and heaven, an explanation +which could only have occurred to people in a state of mind which +civilisation has forgotten. + +The next generation of Hesiodic gods (if gods we are to call the +members of this race of non-natural men) was not more fortunate +than the first in its family relations. + +Cronus wedded his sister, Rhea, and begat Demeter, Hera, Hades, +Poseidon, and the youngest, Zeus. "And mighty Cronus swallowed +down each of them, each that came to their mother's knees from her +holy womb, with this intent that none other of the proud sons of +heaven should hold his kingly sway among the immortals. Heaven and +Earth had warned him that he too should fall through his children. +Wherefore he kept no vain watch, but spied and swallowed down each +of his offspring, while grief immitigable took possession of +Rhea."[1] Rhea, being about to become the mother of Zeus, took +counsel with Uranus and Gaea. By their advice she went to Crete, +where Zeus was born, and, in place of the child, she presented to +Cronus a huge stone swathed in swaddling bands. This he swallowed, +and was easy in his mind. Zeus grew up, and by some means, +suggested by Gaea, compelled Zeus to disgorge all his offspring. +"And he vomited out the stone first, as he had swallowed it +last."[2] The swallowed children emerged alive, and Zeus fixed the +stone at Pytho (Delphi), where Pausanias[3] had the privilege of +seeing it, and where, as it did not tempt the cupidity of barbarous +invaders, it probably still exists. It was not a large stone, +Pausanias says, and the Delphians used to pour oil over it, as +Jacob did[4] to the stone at Bethel, and on feast-days they covered +it with wraps of wool. The custom of smearing fetish-stones (which +Theophrastus mentions as one of the practices of the superstitious +man) is clearly a survival from the savage stage of religion. As a +rule, however, among savages, fetish-stones are daubed with red +paint (like the face of the wooden ancient Dionysi in Greece, and +of Tsui Goab among the Hottentots), not smeared with oil.[5] + + +[1] Theog., 460, 465. + +[2] Theog., 498. + +[3] x. 245. + +[4] Gen. xxviii. 18. + +[5] Pausanias, ii. 2, 5. "Churinga" in Australia are greased with +the natural moisture of the palm of the hand, and rubbed with red +ochre.--Spencer and Gillen. They are "sacred things," but not +exactly fetishes. + + +The myth of the swallowing and disgorging of his own children by +Cronus was another of the stumbling-blocks of Greek orthodoxy. The +common explanation, that Time ([Greek text omitted]) does swallow +his children, the days, is not quite satisfactory. Time brings +never the past back again, as Cronus did. Besides, the myth of the +swallowing is not confined to Cronus. Modern philology has given, +as usual, different analyses of the meaning of the name of the god. +Hermann, with Preller, derives it from [Greek text omitted], to +fulfil. The harvest-month, says Preller, was named Cronion in +Greece, and Cronia was the title of the harvest-festival. The +sickle of Cronus is thus brought into connection with the sickle of +the harvester.[1] + + +[1] Preller, Gr. Myth., i. 44; Hartung, ii. 48; Porphyry, Abst., +ii. 54. Welcker will not hear of this etymology, Gr. gott., i. 145, +note 9. + + +The second myth, in which Cronus swallows his children, has +numerous parallels in savage legend. Bushmen tell of Kwai Hemm, +the devourer, who swallows that great god, the mantis insect, and +disgorges him alive with all the other persons and animals whom he +has engulphed in the course of a long and voracious career.[1] The +moon in Australia, while he lived on earth, was very greedy, and +swallowed the eagle-god, whom he had to disgorge. Mr. Im Thurn +found similar tales among the Indians of Guiana. The swallowing +and disgorging of Heracles by the monster that was to slay Hesione +is well known. Scotch peasants tell of the same feats, but +localise the myth on the banks of the Ken in Galloway. Basutos, +Eskimos, Zulus and European fairy tales all possess this incident, +the swallowing of many persons by a being from whose maw they +return alive and in good case. + + +[1] Bleek, Bushman Folk-lore, pp. 6, 8. + + +A mythical conception which prevails from Greenland to South +Africa, from Delphi to the Solomon Islands, from Brittany to the +shores of Lake Superior, must have some foundation in the common +elements of human nature.[1] Now it seems highly probable that +this curious idea may have been originally invented in an attempt +to explain natural phenomena by a nature-myth. It has already been +shown (chapter v.) that eclipses are interpreted, even by the +peasantry of advanced races, as the swallowing of the moon by a +beast or a monster. The Piutes account for the disappearance of +the stars in the daytime by the hypothesis that the "sun swallows +his children". In the Melanesian myth, dawn is cut out of the body +of night by Qat, armed with a knife of red obsidian. Here are +examples[2] of transparent nature-myths in which this idea occurs +for obvious explanatory purposes, and in accordance with the laws +of the savage imagination. Thus the conception of the swallowing +and disgorging being may very well have arisen out of a nature- +myth. But why is the notion attached to the legend of Cronus? + + +[1] The myth of Cronus and the swallowed children and the stone is +transferred to Gargantua. See Sebillot, Gargantua dans les +Traditions Populaires. But it is impossible to be certain that +this is not an example of direct borrowing by Madame De Cerny in +her Saint Suliac, p. 69. + +[2] Compare Tylor, Prim. Cult., i. 338. + + +That is precisely the question about which mythologists differ, as +has been shown, and perhaps it is better to offer no explanation. +However stories arise--and this story probably arose from a +nature-myth--it is certain that they wander about the world, that +they change masters, and thus a legend which is told of a princess +with an impossible name in Zululand is told of the mother of +Charlemagne in France. The tale of the swallowing may have been +attributed to Cronus, as a great truculent deity, though it has no +particular elemental signification in connection with his legend. + +This peculiarly savage trick of swallowing each other became an +inherited habit in the family of Cronus. When Zeus reached years +of discretion, he married Metis, and this lady, according to the +scholiast on Hesiod, had the power of transforming herself into any +shape she pleased. When she was about to be a mother, Zeus induced +her to assume the shape of a fly and instantly swallowed her.[1] +In behaving thus, Zeus acted on the advice of Uranus and Gaea. It +was feared that Metis would produce a child more powerful than his +father. Zeus avoided this peril by swallowing his wife, and +himself gave birth to Athene. The notion of swallowing a hostile +person, who has been changed by magic into a conveniently small +bulk, is very common. It occurs in the story of Taliesin.[2] +Caridwen, in the shape of a hen, swallows Gwion Bach, in the form +of a grain of wheat. In the same manner the princess in the +Arabian Nights swallowed the Geni. Here then we have in the +Hesiodic myth an old marchen pressed into the service of the higher +mythology. The apprehension which Zeus (like Herod and King +Arthur) always felt lest an unborn child should overthrow him, was +also familiar to Indra; but, instead of swallowing the mother and +concealing her in his own body, like Zeus, Indra entered the +mother's body, and himself was born instead of the dreaded +child.[3] A cow on this occasion was born along with Indra. This +adventure of the [Greek text omitted] or swallowing of Metis was +explained by the late Platonists as a Platonic allegory. Probably +the people who originated the tale were not Platonists, any more +than Pandarus was all Aristotelian. + + +[1] Hesiod, Theogonia, 886. See Scholiast and note in Aglaophamus, +i. 613. Compare Puss in Boots and the Ogre. + +[2] Mabinogion, p. 473. + +[3] Black Yajur Veda, quoted by Sayana. + + +After Homer and Hesiod, the oldest literary authorities for Greek +cosmogonic myths are the poems attributed to Orpheus. About their +probable date, as has been said, little is known. They have +reached us only in fragments, but seem to contain the first guesses +of a philosophy not yet disengaged from mythical conditions. The +poet preserves, indeed, some extremely rude touches of early +imagination, while at the same time one of the noblest and boldest +expressions of pantheistic thought is attributed to him. From the +same source are drawn ideas as pure as those of the philosophical +Vedic hymn,[1] and as wild as those of the Vedic Purusha Sukta, or +legend of the fashioning of the world out of the mangled limbs of +Purusha. The authors of the Orphic cosmogony appear to have begun +with some remarks on Time ([Greek text omitted]). "Time was when +as yet this world was not."[2] Time, regarded in the mythical +fashion as a person, generated Chaos and Aether. The Orphic poet +styles Chaos [Greek text omitted], "the monstrous gulph," or "gap". +This term curiously reminds one of Ginnunga-gap in the Scandinavian +cosmogonic legends. "Ginnunga-gap was light as windless air," and +therein the blast of heat met the cold rime, whence Ymir was +generated, the Purusha of Northern fable.[3] These ideas +correspond well with the Orphic conception of primitive space.[4] + + +[1] Rig-Veda, x. 90. + +[2] Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. 470. See also the quotations from +Proclus. + +[3] Gylfi's Mocking. + +[4] Aglaophamus, p. 473. + + +In process of time Chaos produced an egg, shining and silver white. +It is absurd to inquire, according to Lobeck, whether the poet +borrowed this widely spread notion of a cosmic egg from Phoenicia, +Babylon, Egypt (where the goose-god Seb laid the egg), or whether +the Orphic singer originated so obvious an idea. Quaerere ludicrum +est. The conception may have been borrowed, but manifestly it is +one of the earliest hypotheses that occur to the rude imagination. +We have now three primitive generations, time, chaos, the egg, and +in the fourth generation the egg gave birth to Phanes, the great +hero of the Orphic cosmogony.[1] The earliest and rudest thinkers +were puzzled, as many savage cosmogonic myths have demonstrated, to +account for the origin of life. The myths frequently hit on the +theory of a hermaphroditic being, both male and female, who +produces another being out of himself. Prajapati in the Indian +stories, and Hrimthursar in Scandinavian legend--"one of his feet +got a son on the other"--with Lox in the Algonquin tale are +examples of these double-sexed personages. In the Orphic poem, +Phanes is both male and female. This Phanes held within him "the +seed of all the gods,"[2] and his name is confused with the names +of Metis and Ericapaeus in a kind of trinity. All this part of the +Orphic doctrine is greatly obscured by the allegorical and +theosophistic interpretations of the late Platonists long after our +era, who, as usual, insisted on finding their own trinitarian +ideas, commenta frigidissima, concealed under the mythical +narrative.[3] + + +[1] Clemens Alexan., p. 672. + +[2] Damascius, ap. Lobeck, i. 481. + +[3] Aglaoph., i. 483. + + +Another description by Hieronymus of the first being, the Orphic +Phanes, "as a serpent with bull's and lion's heads, with a human +face in the middle and wings on the shoulders," is sufficiently +rude and senseless. But these physical attributes could easily be +explained away as types of anything the Platonist pleased.[1] The +Orphic Phanes, too, was almost as many-headed as a giant in a fairy +tale, or as Purusha in the Rig-Veda. He had a ram's head, a bull's +head, a snake's head and a lion's head, and glanced around with +four eyes, presumably human.[2] This remarkable being was also +provided with golden wings. The nature of the physical arrangements +by which Phanes became capable of originating life in the world is +described in a style so savage and crude that the reader must be +referred to Suidas for the original text.[3] The tale is worthy of +the Swift-like fancy of the Australian Narrinyeri. + + +[1] Damascius, 381, ap. Lobeck, i. 484. + +[2] Hermias in Phaedr. ap. Lobeck, i. 493. + +[3] Suidas s. v. Phanes. + + +Nothing can be easier or more delusive than to explain all this +wild part of the Orphic cosmogony as an allegorical veil of any +modern ideas we choose to select. But why the "allegory" should +closely imitate the rough guesses of uncivilised peoples, Ahts, +Diggers, Zunis, Cahrocs, it is less easy to explain. We can +readily imagine African or American tribes who were accustomed to +revere bulls, rams, snakes, and so forth, ascribing the heads of +all their various animal patrons to the deity of their confederation. +We can easily see how such races as practise the savage rites of +puberty should attribute to the first being the special organs of +Phanes. But on the Neo-Platonic hypothesis that Orpheus was a seer +of Neo-Platonic opinions, we do not see why he should have veiled +his ideas under so savage an allegory. This part of the Orphic +speculation is left in judicious silence by some modern commentators, +such as M. Darmesteter in Les Cosmogonies Aryennes.[1] Indeed, if we +choose to regard Apollonius Rhodius, an Alexandrine poet writing in +a highly civilised age, as the representative of Orphicism, it is +easy to mask and pass by the more stern and characteristic +fortresses of the Orphic divine. The theriomorphic Phanes is a much +less "Aryan" and agreeable object than the glorious golden-winged +Eros, the love-god of Apollonius Rhodius and Aristophanes.[2] + + +[1] Essais Orientaux, p. 166. + +[2] Argonautica, 1-12; Aves, 693. + + +On the whole, the Orphic fragments appear to contain survivals of +savage myths of the origin of things blended with purer +speculations. The savage ideas are finally explained by late +philosophers as allegorical veils and vestments of philosophy; but +the interpretation is arbitrary, and varies with the taste and +fancy of each interpreter. Meanwhile the coincidence of the wilder +elements with the speculations native to races in the lowest grades +of civilisation is undeniable. This opinion is confirmed by the +Greek myths of the origin of Man. These, too, coincide with the +various absurd conjectures of savages. + +In studying the various Greek local legends of the origin of Man, +we encounter the difficulty of separating them from the myths of +heroes, which it will be more convenient to treat separately. This +difficulty we have already met in our treatment of savage +traditions of the beginnings of the race. Thus we saw that among +the Melanesians, Qat, and among the Ahts, Quawteaht, were heroic +persons, who made men and most other things. But it was desirable +to keep their performances of this sort separate from their other +feats, their introduction of fire, for example, and of various +arts. In the same way it will be well, in reviewing Greek legends, +to keep Prometheus' share in the making of men apart from the other +stories of his exploits as a benefactor of the men whom he made. +In Hesiod, Prometheus is the son of the Titan Iapetus, and perhaps +his chief exploit is to play upon Zeus a trick of which we find the +parallel in various savage myths. It seems, however, from Ovid[1] +and other texts, that Hesiod somewhere spoke of Prometheus as +having made men out of clay, like Pund-jel in the Australian, Qat +in the Melanesian and Tiki in the Maori myths. The same story is +preserved in Servius's commentary on Virgil.[2] A different legend +is preserved in the Etymologicum Magnum (voc. Ikonion). According +to this story, after the deluge of Deucalion, "Zeus bade Prometheus +and Athene make images of men out of clay, and the winds blew into +them the breath of life". In confirmation of this legend, +Pausanias was shown in Phocis certain stones of the colour of clay, +and "smelling very like human flesh"; and these, according to the +Phocians, were "the remains of the clay from which the whole human +race was fashioned by Prometheus".[3] + + +[1] Ovid. Metam. i. 82. + +[2] Eclogue, vi. 42. + +[3] Pausanias, x. 4, 3. + + +Aristophanes, too, in the Birds (686) talks of men as [Greek text +omitted], figures kneaded of clay. Thus there are sufficient +traces in Greek tradition of the savage myth that man was made of +clay by some superior being, like Pund-jel in the quaint Australian +story. + +We saw that among various rude races other theories of the origin +of man were current. Men were thought to have come out of a hole +in the ground or a bed of reeds, and sometimes the very scene of +their first appearance was still known and pointed out to the +curious. This myth was current among races who regarded themselves +as the only people whose origin needed explanation. Other stories +represented man as the fruit of a tree, or the child of a rock or +stone, or as the descendant of one of the lower animals. Examples +of these opinions in Greek legend are now to be given. In the +first place, we have a fragment of Pindar, in which the poet +enumerates several of the centres from which different Greek tribes +believed men to have sprung. "Hard it is to find out whether +Alalkomeneus, first of men, arose on the marsh of Cephissus, or +whether the Curetes of Ida first, a stock divine, arose, or if it +was the Phrygian Corybantes that the sun earliest saw--men like +trees walking;" and Pindar mentions Egyptian and Libyan legends of +the same description.[1] The Thebans and the Arcadians held +themselves to be "earth-born". "The black earth bore Pelasgus on +the high wooded hills," says an ancient line of Asius. The +Dryopians were an example of a race of men born from ash-trees. +The myth of gens virum truncis et duro robore nata, "born of tree- +trunk and the heart of oak," had passed into a proverb even in +Homer's time.[2] Lucian mentions[3] the Athenian myth "that men +grew like cabbages out of the earth". As to Greek myths of the +descent of families from animals, these will be examined in the +discussion of the legend of Zeus. + + +[1] Preller, Aus. Auf., p. 158. + +[2] Virgil Aen., viii. 315; Odyssey, xix. 163; Iliad, ii. xxii. +120; Juvenal, vi. 11. Cf. also Bouche Leclerq, De Origine Generis +Humani. + +[3] Philops. iii. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +SAVAGE DIVINE MYTHS. + +The origin of a belief in GOD beyond the ken of history and of +speculation--Sketch of conjectural theories--Two elements in all +beliefs, whether of backward or civilised races--The Mythical and +the Religious--These may be coeval, or either may be older than the +other--Difficulty of study--The current anthropological theory-- +Stated objections to the theory--Gods and spirits--Suggestion that +savage religion is borrowed from Europeans--Reply to Mr. Tylor's +arguments on this head--The morality of savages. + + +"The question of the origin of a belief in Deity does not come +within the scope of a strictly historical inquiry. No man can +watch the idea of GOD in the making or in the beginning. We are +acquainted with no race whose beginning does not lie far back in +the unpenetrated past. Even on the hypothesis that the natives of +Australia, for example, were discovered in a state of culture more +backward than that of other known races, yet the institutions and +ideas of the Australians must have required for their development +an incalculable series of centuries. The notions of man about the +Deity, man's religious sentiments and his mythical narratives, must +be taken as we find them. There have been, and are, many theories +as to the origin of the conception of a supernatural being or +beings, concerned with the fortunes of mankind, and once active in +the making of the earth and its inhabitants. There is the +hypothesis of an original divine tradition, darkened by the smoke +of foolish mortal fancies. There is the hypothesis of an innate +and intuitive sensus numinis. There is the opinion that the notion +of Deity was introduced to man by the very nature of his knowledge +and perceptions, which compel him in all things to recognise a +finite and an infinite. There is the hypothesis that gods were +originally ghosts, the magnified shapes of ancestral spectres. +There is the doctrine that man, seeking in his early speculations +for the causes of things, and conscious of his own powers as an +active cause, projected his own shadow on the mists of the unknown, +and peopled the void with figures of magnified non-natural men, his +own parents and protectors, and the makers of many of the things in +the world. + +"Since the actual truth cannot be determined by observation and +experiment, the question as to the first germs of the divine +conception must here be left unanswered. But it is possible to +disengage and examine apart the two chief elements in the earliest +as in the latest ideas of Godhead. Among the lowest and most +backward, as among the most advanced races, there coexist the +MYTHICAL and the RELIGIOUS elements in belief. The rational factor +(or what approves itself to us as the rational factor) is visible +in religion; the irrational is prominent in myth. The Australian, +the Bushman, the Solomon Islander, in hours of danger and necessity +'yearns after the gods,' and has present in his heart the idea of a +father and friend. This is the religious element. The same man, +when he comes to indulge his fancy for fiction, will degrade this +spiritual friend and father to the level of the beasts, and will +make him the hero of comic or repulsive adventures. This is the +mythical or irrational element. Religion, in its moral aspect, +always traces back to the belief in a power that is benign and +works for righteousness. Myth, even in Homer or the Rig-Veda, +perpetually falls back on the old stock of absurd and immoral +divine adventures.[1] + + +[1] M. Knappert here, in a note to the Dutch translation, denies +the lowest mythical element to the Hebrews, as their documents have +reached us. + + +"It would be rash, in the present state of knowledge, to pronounce +that the germ of the serious Homeric sense of the justice and power +of the Divinity is earlier or later than the germ of the Homeric +stories of gods disguised as animals, or imprisoned by mortals, or +kicked out of Olympus. The rational and irrational aspects of +mythology and religion may be of coeval antiquity for all that is +certainly known, or either of them, in the dark backward of mortal +experience, may have preceded the other. There is probably no +religion nor mythology which does not offer both aspects to the +student. But it is the part of advancing civilisation to adorn and +purify the rational element, and to subordinate and supersede the +irrational element, as far as religious conservatism, ritual and +priestly dogma will permit." + +Such were the general remarks with which this chapter opened in the +original edition of the present work. But reading, reflection and +certain additions to the author's knowledge of facts, have made it +seem advisable to state, more fully and forcibly than before, that, +in his opinion, not only the puzzling element of myth, but the +purer element of a religious belief sanctioning morality is derived +by civilised people from a remote past of savagery. It is also +necessary to draw attention to a singular religious phenomena, a +break, or "fault," as geologists call it, in the religious strata. +While the most backward savages, in certain cases, present the +conception of a Being who sanctions ethics, and while that +conception recurs at a given stage of civilisation, it appears to +fade, or even to disappear in some conditions of barbarism. Among +some barbaric peoples, such as the Zulus, and the Red Indians of +French Canada when first observed, as among some Polynesians and +some tribes of Western and Central Africa little trace of a supreme +being is found, except a name, and that name is even occasionally a +matter of ridicule. The highest religious conception has been +reached, and is generally known, yet the Being conceived of as +creative is utterly neglected, while ghosts, or minor gods, are +served and adored. To this religious phenomenon (if correctly +observed) we must attempt to assign a cause. For this purpose it +is necessary to state again what may be called the current or +popular anthropological theory of the evolution of Gods. + +That theory takes varying shapes. In the philosophy of Mr. Herbert +Spencer we find a pure Euhemerism. Gods are but ghosts of dead +men, raised to a higher and finally to the highest power. In the +somewhat analogous but not identical system of Mr. Tylor, man first +attains to the idea of spirit by reflection on various physical, +psychological and psychical experiences, such as sleep, dreams, +trances, shadows, hallucinations, breath and death, and he +gradually extends the conception of soul or ghost till all nature +is peopled with spirits. Of these spirits one is finally promoted +to supremacy, where the conception of a supreme being occurs. In +the lowest faiths there is said, on this theory, to be no +connection, or very little connection, between religion and +morality. To supply a religious sanction of morals is the work of +advancing thought.[1] + + +[1] Prim. Cult., ii. 381. Huxley's Science and Hebrew Tradition, +pp. 346,372. + + +This current hypothesis is, confessedly, "animistic," in Mr. +Tylor's phrase, or, in Mr. Spencer's terminology, it is "the ghost +theory". The human soul, says Mr. Tylor, has been the model on +which all man's ideas of spiritual beings, from "the tiniest elf" +to "the heavenly Creator and ruler of the world, the Great Spirit," +have been framed.[1] Thus it has been necessary for Mr. Tylor and +for Mr. Spencer to discover first an origin of man's idea of his +own soul, and that supposed origin in psychological, physical and +psychical experiences is no doubt adequate. By reflection on these +facts, probably, the idea of spirit was reached, though the +psychical experiences enumerated by Mr. Tylor may contain points as +yet unexplained by Materialism. From these sources are derived all +really "animistic" gods, all that from the first partake of the +nature of hungry ghosts, placated by sacrifices of food, though in +certain cases that hunger may have been transferred, we surmise, by +worshippers to gods not ORIGINALLY animistic. + + +[1] Prim. Cult., ii. 109 + + +In answer to this theory of an animistic or ghostly origin of all +gods, it must first be observed that all gods are not necessarily, +it would seem, of animistic origin. Among certain of the lowest +savages, although they believe in ghosts, the animistic conception, +the spiritual idea, is not attached to the relatively supreme being +of their faith. He is merely a powerful BEING, unborn, and not +subject to death. The purely metaphysical question "was he a +ghost?" does not seem always to have been asked. Consequently +there is no logical reason why man's idea of a Maker should not be +prior to man's idea that there are such things as souls, ghosts and +spirits. Therefore the animistic theory is not necessary as +material for the "god-idea". We cannot, of course, prove that the +"god-idea" was historically prior to the "ghost-idea," for we know +no savages who have a god and yet are ignorant of ghosts. But we +can show that the idea of God may exist, in germ, without +explicitly involving the idea of spirit. Thus gods MAY be prior in +evolution to ghosts, and therefore the animistic theory of the +origin of gods in ghosts need not necessarily be accepted. + +In the first place, the original evolution of a god out of a ghost +need not be conceded, because in perhaps all known savage +theological philosophy the God, the Maker and Master, is regarded +as a being who existed before death entered the world. Everywhere, +practically speaking, death is looked on as a comparatively late +intruder. He came not only after God was active, but after men and +beasts had populated the world. Scores of myths accounting for +this invasion of death have been collected all over the world.[1] +Thus the relatively supreme being, or beings, of religion are +looked on as prior to Death, therefore, not as ghosts. They are +sometimes expressly distinguished as "original gods" from other +gods who are secondary, being souls of chiefs. Thus all Tongan +gods are Atua, but all Atua are not "original gods".[2] The word +Atua, according to Mr. White, is "A-tu-a". "A" was the name given +to the author of the universe, and signifies: "Am the unlimited in +power," "The Conception," "the Leader," "the Beyond All". "Tua" +means "Beyond that which is most distant," "Behind all matter," and +"Behind every action". Clearly these conceptions are not more +mythical (indeed A does not seem to occur in the myths), nor are +they more involved in ghosts, than the unknown absolute of Mr. +Herbert Spencer. Yet the word Atua denotes gods who are recognised +as ghosts of chiefs, no less than it denotes the supreme +existence.[3] These ideas are the metaphysical theology of a race +considerably above the lowest level. They lend no assistance to a +theory that A was, or was evolved out of, a human ghost, and he is +not found in Maori MYTHOLOGY as far as our knowledge goes. But, +among the lowest known savages, the Australians, we read that "the +Creator was a gigantic black, once on earth, now among the stars". +This is in Gippsland; the deities of the Fuegians and the Blackfoot +Indians are also Beings, anthropomorphic, unborn and undying, like +Mangarrah, the creative being of the Larrakeah tribe in Australia. +"A very good man called Mangarrah lives in the sky. . . . He made +everything" (blacks excepted). He never dies.[4] The Melanesian +Vui "never were men," were "something different," and "were NOT +ghosts". It is as a Being, not as a Spirit, that the Kurnai deity +Munganngaur (Our Father) is described.[5] In short, though +Europeans often speak of these divine beings of low savages as +"spirits," it does not appear that the natives themselves advance +here the metaphysical idea of spirit. These gods are just BEINGS, +anthropomorphic, or (in myth and fable), very often bestial, +"theriomorphic".[6] It is manifest that a divine being envisaged +thus need not have been evolved out of the theory of spirits or +ghosts, and may even have been prior to the rise of the belief in +ghosts. + + +[1] See Modern Mythology, "Myths of Origin of Death". + +[2] Mariner, ii. 127. + +[3] White, Ancient History of the Maoris, vol. i. p. 4; other views +in Gill's Myths of the Pacific. I am not committed to Mr. White's +opinion. + +[4] Journal Anthrop. Inst., Nov., 1894, p. 191. + +[5] Ibid., 1886, p. 313. + +[6] See Making of Religion, pp. 201-210, for a more copious +statement. + + +Again, these powerful, or omnipotent divine beings are looked on as +guardians of morality, punishers of sin, rewarders of +righteousness, both in this world and in a future life, in places +where ghosts, though believed in, ARE NOT WORSHIPPED, NOR IN +RECEIPT OF SACRIFICE, and where, great grandfathers being +forgotten, ancestral ghosts can scarcely swell into gods. This +occurs among Andamanese, Fuegians and Australians, therefore, among +non-ghost-worshipping races, ghosts cannot have developed into +deities who are not even necessarily spirits. These gods, again, +do not receive sacrifice, and thus lack the note of descent from +hungry food-craving ghosts. In Australia, indeed, while ghosts are +not known to receive any offerings, "the recent custom of providing +food for it"--the dead body of a friend--"is derided by the +intelligent old aborigines as 'white fellow's gammon'".[1] + + +[1] Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 51, 1881. + + +The Australians possess no chiefs like "Vich Ian Vohr or +Chingachgook" whose ghosts might be said to swell into supreme +moral deities. "Headmen" they have, leaders of various degrees of +authority, but no Vich Ian Vohr, no semi-sacred representative of +the tribe.[1] Nor are the ghosts of the Headmen known to receive +any particular posthumous attention or worship. Thus it really +seems impossible to show proof that Australian gods grew out of +Australian ghosts, a subject to which we shall return. + + +[1] Howitt, Organisation of Australian Tribes, pp. 101-113. +"Transactions of Royal Society of Victoria," 1889. + + +Some supporters of the current theory therefore fall back on the +hypothesis that the Australians are sadly degenerate.[1] Chiefs, +it is argued, or kings, they once had, and the gods are surviving +ghosts of these wholly forgotten potentates. To this we reply that +we know not the very faintest trace of Australian degeneration. +Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Tylor have correctly argued that the soil +of Australia has not yet yielded so much as a fragment of native +pottery, nor any trace of native metal work, not a vestige of stone +buildings occurs, nor of any work beyond the present native level +of culture, unless we reckon weirs for fish-catching. "The +Australian boomerang," writes Mr. Tylor, "has been claimed as +derived from some hypothetical high culture, whereas the +transition-stages through which it is connected with the club are +to be observed in its own country, while no civilised race +possesses the weapon."[2] + + +[1] See Prof. Menzie's History of Religion, pp. 16, 17, where a +singular inconsistency has escaped the author. + +[2] Prim. Cult., i. 57, 67. + + +Therefore the Australian, with his boomerang, represents no +degeneration but advance on his ancestors, who had not yet +developed the boomerang out of the club. If the excessively +complex nature of Australian rules of prohibited degrees be +appealed to as proof of degeneration from the stage in which they +were evolved, we reply that civilisation everywhere tends not to +complicate but to simplify such rules, as it also notoriously +simplifies the forms of language. + +The Australian people, when discovered, were only emerging from +palaeolithic culture, while the neighbouring Tasmanians were +frankly palaeolithic.[1] Far from degenerating, the Australians +show advance when they supersede their beast or other totem by an +eponymous human hero.[2] The eponymous hero, however, changed with +each generation, so that no one name was fixed as that of tribal +father, later perhaps to become a tribal god. We find several +tribes in which the children now follow the FATHER'S class, and +thus paternal kin takes the place of the usual early savage method +of reckoning kinship by the mother's side, elsewhere prevalent in +Australia. In one of these tribes, dwelling between the Glenelg +and Mount Napier, headmanship is hereditary, but nothing is said of +any worship of the ghosts of chiefs. All this social improvement +denotes advance on the usual Australian standard.[3] Of +degeneration (except when produced recently by European vices and +diseases) I know no trace in Australia. Their highest religious +conceptions, therefore, are not to be disposed of as survivals of a +religion of the ghosts of such chiefs as the Australians are not +shown ever to have recognised. The "God idea" in Australia, or +among the Andamanese, must have some other source than the Ghost- +Theory. This is all the more obvious because not only are ghosts +not worshipped by the Australians, but also the divine beings who +are alleged to form links between the ghost and the moral god are +absent. There are no departmental gods, as of war, peace, the +chase, love, and so forth. Sun, sky and earth are equally +unworshipped. There is nothing in religion between a Being, on one +hand (with a son or sons), and vague mischievous spirits, boilyas +or mrarts, and ghosts (who are not worshipped), on the other hand. +The friends of the idea that the God is an ancient evolution from +the ghost of such a chief as is not proved to have existed, must +apparently believe that the intermediate stages in religious +evolution, departmental gods, nature gods and gods of polytheism in +general once existed in Australia, and have all been swept away in +a deluge of degeneration. That deluge left in religion a moral, +potently active Father and Judge. Now that conception is +considerably above the obsolescent belief in an otiose god which is +usually found among barbaric races of the type from which the +Australians are said to have degenerated. There is no proof of +degeneracy, and, if degeneration has occurred, why has it left just +the kind of deity who, in the higher barbaric culture, is not +commonly found? Clearly this attempt to explain the highest aspect +of Australian religion by an undemonstrated degeneration is an +effort of despair. + + +[1] Tylor, preface to Ling Roth's Aborigines of Tasmania, pp. v.- +viii. + +[2] Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 231. + +[3] Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 277, 278. + + +While the current theory thus appears to break down over the +deities of certain Australian tribes and of other low savages to be +more particularly described later, it is not more successful in +dealing with what we have called the "fault" or break in the +religious strata of higher races. The nature of that "fault" may +thus be described: While the deities of several low savage peoples +are religiously regarded as guardians and judges of conduct both in +this life and in the next, among higher barbarians they are often +little, or not at all, interested in conduct. Again, while among +Australians, and Andamanese, and Fuegians, there is hardly a +verifiable trace, if any trace there be, of sacrifice to any divine +being, among barbarians the gods beneath the very highest are in +receipt even of human sacrifice. Even among barbarians the highest +deity is very rarely worshipped with sacrifice. Through various +degrees he is found to lose all claim on worship, and even to +become a mere name, and finally a jest and a mockery. Meanwhile +ancestral ghosts, and gods framed on the same lines as ghosts, +receive sacrifice of food and of human victims. Once more, the +high gods of low savages are not localised, not confined to any +temple or region. But the gods of higher barbarians (the gods +beneath the highest), are localised in this way, as occasionally +even the highest god also is. + +All this shows that, among advancing barbarians, the gods, if they +started from the estate of gods among savages on the lowest level, +become demoralised, limited, conditioned, relegated to an otiose +condition, and finally deposed, till progressive civilisation, as +in Greece, reinstates or invents purer and more philosophic +conceptions, without being able to abolish popular and priestly +myth and ritual. + +Here, then, is a flaw or break in the strata of religion. What was +the cause of this flaw? We answer, the evolution, through ghosts, +of "animistic" gods who retained the hunger and selfishness of +these ancestral spirits whom the lowest savages are not known to +worship. + +The moral divine beings of these lowest races, beings (when +religiously regarded) unconditioned, in need of no gift that man +can give, are not to be won by offerings of food and blood. Of +such offerings ghosts, and gods modelled on ghosts, are notoriously +in need. Strengthened and propitiated by blood and sacrifice (not +offered to the gods of low savages), the animistic deities will +become partisans of their adorers, and will either pay no regard to +the morals of their worshippers, or will be easily bribed to +forgive sins. Here then is, ethically speaking, a flaw in the +strata of religion, a flaw found in the creeds of ghost-worshipping +barbarians, but not of non-ghost-worshipping savages. A crowd of +venal, easy-going, serviceable deities has now been evolved out of +ghosts, and Animism is on its way to supplant or overlay a rude +early form of theism. Granting the facts, we fail to see how they +are explained by the current theory which makes the highest god the +latest in evolution from a ghost. That theory wrecks itself again +on the circumstance that, whereas the tribal or national highest +divine being, as latest in evolution, ought to be the most potent, +he is, in fact, among barbaric races, usually the most disregarded. +A new idea, of course, is not necessarily a powerful or fashionable +idea. It may be regarded as a "fad," or a heresy, or a low form of +dissent. But, when universally known to and accepted by a tribe or +people, then it must be deemed likely to possess great influence. +But that is not the case; and among barbaric tribes the most +advanced conception of deity is the least regarded, the most +obsolete. + +An excellent instance of the difference between the theory here +advocated, and that generally held by anthropologists, may be found +in Mr. Abercromby's valuable work, Pre- and Proto-Historic Finns, +i. 150-154. The gods, and other early ideas, says Mr. Abercromby, +"could in no sense be considered as supernatural". We shall give +examples of gods among the races "nearest the beginning," whose +attributes of power and knowledge can not, by us at least, be +considered other than "supernatural". "The gods" (in this +hypothesis) "were so human that they could be forced to act in +accordance with the wishes of their worshippers, and could likewise +be punished." These ideas, to an Australian black, or an +Andamanese, would seem dangerously blasphemous. These older gods +"resided chiefly in trees, wells, rivers and animals". But many +gods of our lowest known savages live "beyond the sky". Mr. +Abercromby supposes the sky god to be of later evolution, and to be +worshipped after man had exhausted "the helpers that seemed nearest +at hand . . . in the trees and waters at his very door". Now the +Australian black has not a door, nor has he gods of any service to +him in the "trees and waters," though sprites may lurk in such +places for mischief. But in Mr. Abercromby's view, some men turned +at last to the sky-god, "who in time would gain a large circle of +worshippers". He would come to be thought omnipotent, omniscient, +the Creator. This notion, says Mr. Abercromby, "must, if this view +is correct, be of late origin". But the view is not correct. The +far-seeing powerful Maker beyond the sky is found among the very +backward races who have not developed helpers nearer man, dwelling +round what would be his door, if door he was civilised enough to +possess. Such near neighbouring gods, of human needs, capable of +being bullied, or propitiated by sacrifice, are found in races +higher than the lowest, who, for their easily procurable aid, have +allowed the Maker to sink into an otiose god, or a mere name. Mr. +Abercromby unconsciously proves our case by quoting the example of +a Samoyede. This man knew a Sky-god, Num; that conception was +familiar to him. He also knew a familiar spirit. On Mr. +Abercromby's theory he should have resorted for help to the Sky- +god, not to the sprite. But he did the reverse: he said, "I cannot +approach Num, he is too far away; if I could reach him I should not +beseech thee (the familiar spirit), but should go myself; but I +cannot". For this precise reason, people who have developed the +belief in accessible affable spirits go to them, with a spell to +constrain, or a gift to bribe, and neglect, in some cases almost +forget, their Maker. But He is worshipped by low savages, who do +not propitiate ghosts and who have no gods in wells and trees, +close at hand. It seems an obvious inference that the greater God +is the earlier evolved. + +These are among the difficulties of the current anthropological +theory. There is, however, a solution by which the weakness of the +divine conception, its neglected, disused aspect among barbaric +races, might be explained by anthropologists, without regarding it +as an obsolescent form of a very early idea. This solution is +therefore in common use. It is applied to the deity revealed in +the ancient mysteries of the Australians, and it is employed in +American and African instances. + +The custom is to say that the highest divine being of American or +African native peoples has been borrowed from Europeans, and is, +especially, a savage refraction from the God of missionaries. If +this can be proved, the shadowy, practically powerless "Master of +Life" of certain barbaric peoples, will have degenerated from the +Christian conception, because of that conception he will be only a +faint unsuccessful refraction. He has been introduced by +Europeans, it is argued, but is not in harmony with his new +environment, and so is "half-remembered and half forgot". + +The hypothesis of borrowing admits of only one answer, but that +answer should be conclusive. If we can discover, say in North +America, a single instance in which the supreme being occurs, while +yet he cannot possibly be accounted for by any traceable or +verifiable foreign influence, then the burden of proof, in other +cases, falls on the opponent. When he urges that other North +American supreme beings were borrowed, we can reply that our +crucial example shows that this need not be the fact. To prove +that it is the fact, in his instances, is then his business. It is +obvious that for information on this subject we must go to the +reports of the earliest travellers who knew the Red Indians well. +We must try to get at gods behind any known missionary efforts. +Mr. Tylor offers us the testimony of Heriot, about 1586, that the +natives of Virginia believed in many gods, also in one chief god, +"who first made other principal gods, and then the sun, moon and +stars as petty gods".[1] Whence could the natives of Virginia have +borrowed this notion of a Creator before 1586? If it is replied, +in the usual way, that they developed him upwards out of sun, moon +and star gods, other principal gods, and finally reached the idea +of the Creator, we answer that the idea of the Maker is found where +these alleged intermediate stages are NOT found, as in Australia. +In Virginia then, as in Victoria, a Creator may have been evolved +in some other way than that of gradual ascent from ghosts, and may +have been, as in Australia and elsewhere, prior to verifiable +ghost-worship. Again, in Virginia at our first settlement, the +native priests strenuously resisted the introduction of Christianity. +They were content with their deity, Ahone, "the great God who +governs all the world, and makes the sun to shine, creating the moon +and stars his companions. . . . The good and peaceable God . . . +needs not to be sacrificed unto, for he intendeth all good unto +them." This good Creator, without sacrifice, among a settled +agricultural barbaric race sacrificing to other gods and ghosts, +manifestly cannot be borrowed from the newly arrived religion of +Christianity, which his priests, according to the observer, +vigorously resisted. Ahone had a subordinate deity, magisterial in +functions, "looking into all men's actions" and punishing the same, +when evil. To THIS god sacrifices WERE made, and if his name, +Okeus, is derived from Oki = "spirit," he was, of course, an +animistic ghost-evolved deity. Anthropological writers, by an +oversight, have dwelt on Oki, but have not mentioned Ahone.[2] +Manifestly it is not possible to insist that these Virginian high +deities were borrowed, without saying whence and when they were +borrowed by a barbaric race which was, at the same time, rejecting +Christian teaching. + + +[1] Prim. Cult., ii. 341. + +[2] History of Travaile into Virginia, by William Strachey, 1612. + + +Mr. Tylor writes, with his habitual perspicacity: "It is the +widespread belief in the Great Spirit, whatever his precise nature +and origin, that has long and deservedly drawn the attention of +European thinkers to the native religions of the North American +tribes". Now while, in recent times, Christian ideas may +undeniably have crystallised round "the Great Spirit," it has come +to be thought "that THE WHOLE DOCTRINE of the Great Spirit was +borrowed by the savages from missionaries and colonists. But this +view will not bear examination," says Mr. Tylor.[1] + + +[1] Prim. Cult, ii. pp. 339, 340 (1873). For some reason, Mr. +Tylor modifies this passage in 1891. + + +Mr. Tylor proceeds to prove this by examples from Greenland, and +the Algonkins. He instances the Massachusett God, Kiehtan, who +created the other gods, and receives the just into heaven. This +was recorded in 1622, but the belief, says Winslow, our authority, +goes back into the unknown past. "They never saw Kiehtan, but THEY +HOLD IT A GREAT CHARGE AND DUTY THAT ONE AGE TEACH ANOTHER." How +could a deity thus rooted in a traditional past be borrowed from +recent English settlers? + +In these cases the hypothesis of borrowing breaks down, and still +more does it break down over the Algonkin deity Atahocan. + +Father Le Jeune, S.J., went first among the Algonkins, a missionary +pioneer, in 1633, and suffered unspeakable things in his courageous +endeavour to win souls in a most recalcitrant flock. He writes +(1633): "As this savage has given me occasion to speak of their +god, I will remark that it is a great error to think that the +savages have no knowledge of any deity. I was surprised to hear +this in France. I do not know their secrets, but, from the little +which I am about to tell, it will be seen that they have such +knowledge. + +"They say that one exists whom they call Atahocan, who made the +whole. Speaking of God in a wigwam one day, they asked me 'what is +God?' I told them that it was He who made all things, Heaven and +Earth. They then began to cry out to each other, 'Atahocan! +Atahocan! it is Atahocan!'" + +There could be no better evidence that Atahocan was NOT (as is +often said) "borrowed from the Jesuits". The Jesuits had only just +arrived. + +Later (1634) Le Jeune interrogated an old man and a partly +Europeanised sorcerer. They replied that nothing was certain; that +Atahocan was only spoken of as "of a thing so remote," that +assurance was impossible. "In fact, their word Nitatohokan means, +'I fable, I tell an old story'." + +Thus Atahocan, though at once recognised as identical with the +Creator of the missionary, was so far from being the latest thing +in religious evolution that he had passed into a proverb for the +ancient and the fabulous. This, of course, is inconsistent with +RECENT borrowing. He was neglected for Khichikouai, spirits which +inspire seers, and are of some practical use, receiving rewards in +offerings of grease, says Le Jeune.[1] + + +[1] Relations, 1633, 1634. + + +The obsolescent Atahocan seems to have had no moral activity. But, +in America, this indolence of God is not universal. Mr. Parkman +indeed writes: "In the primitive Indian's conception of a God, the +idea of moral good has no part".[1] But this is definitely +contradicted by Heriot, Strachey, Winslow, already cited, and by +Pere Le Jeune. The good attributes of Kiehtan and Ahone were not +borrowed from Christianity, were matter of Indian belief before the +English arrived. Mr. Parkman writes: "The moment the Indians began +to contemplate the object of his faith, and sought to clothe it +with attributes, it became finite, and commonly ridiculous". It +did so, as usual, in MYTHOLOGY, but not in RELIGION. There is +nothing ridiculous in what is known of Ahone and Kiehtan. If they +had a mythology, and if we knew the myths, doubtless they would be +ridiculous enough. The savage mind, turned from belief and awe +into the spinning of yarns, instantly yields to humorous fancy. As +we know, mediaeval popular Christianity, in imagery, marchen or +tales, and art, copiously illustrates the same mental phenomenon. +Saints, God, our Lord, and the Virgin, all play ludicrous and +immoral parts in Christian folk-tales. This is Mythology, and here +is, beyond all cavil, a late corruption of Religion. Here, where +we know the history of a creed, Religion is early, and these myths +are late. Other examples of American divine ideas might be given, +such as the extraordinary hymns in which the Zunis address the +Eternal, Ahonawilona. But as the Zuni religion has only been +studied in recent years, the hymns would be dismissed as +"borrowed," though there is nothing Catholic or Christian about +them. We have preferred to select examples where borrowing from +Christianity is out of the question. The current anthropological +theory is thus confronted with American examples of ideas of the +divine which cannot have been borrowed, while, if the gods are said +to have been evolved out of ghosts, we reply that, in some cases, +they receive no sacrifice, sacrifice being usually a note of +ghostly descent. Again, similar gods, as we show, exist where +ghosts of chiefs are not worshipped, and as far as evidence goes +never were worshipped, because there is no evidence of the +existence at any time of such chiefs. The American highest gods +may then be equally free from the taint of ghostly descent. + + +[1] Parkman, The Jesuits in North America. p. lxxviii. + + +There is another more or less moral North American deity whose +evolution is rather questionable. Pere Brebeuf (1636), speaking of +the Hurons, says that "they have recourse to Heaven in almost all +their necessities, . . . and I may say that it is, in fact, God +whom they blindly adore, for they imagine that there is an Oki, +that is, a demon, in heaven, who regulates the seasons, bridles the +winds and the waves of the sea, and helps them in every need. They +dread his wrath, and appeal to him as witness to the inviolability +of their faith, when they make a promise or treaty of peace with +enemies. 'Heaven hear us to-day' is their form of adjuration."[1] + + +[1] Relations, 1636, pp. 106, 107. + + +A spiritual being, whose home is heaven, who rides on the winds, +whose wrath is dreaded, who sanctions the oath, is only called "a +demon" by the prejudice of the worthy father who, at the same time, +admits that the savages have a conception of God--and that God, so +conceived, is this demon! + +The debatable question is, was the "demon," or the actual expanse +of sky, first in evolution? That cannot precisely be settled, but +in the analogous Chinese case of China we find heaven (Tien) and +"Shang-ti, the personal ruling Deity," corresponding to the Huron +"demon". Shang-ti, the personal deity, occurs most in the oldest, +pre-Confucian sacred documents, and, so far, appears to be the +earlier conception. The "demon" in Huron faith may also be earlier +than the religious regard paid to his home, the sky.[1] The +unborrowed antiquity of a belief in a divine being, creative and +sometimes moral, in North America, is thus demonstrated. So far I +had written when I accidentally fell in with Mr. Tylor's essay on +"The Limits of Savage Religion".[2] In that essay, rather to my +surprise, Mr. Tylor argues for the borrowing of "The Great Spirit," +"The Great Manitou," from the Jesuits. Now, as to the phrase, +"Great Spirit," the Jesuits doubtless caused its promulgation, and, +where their teaching penetrated, shreds of their doctrine may have +adhered to the Indian conception of that divine being. But Mr. +Tylor in his essay does not allude to the early evidence, his own, +for Oki, Atahocan, Kiehtan, and Torngursak, all undeniably prior to +Jesuit influence, and found where Jesuits, later, did not go. As +Mr. Tylor offers no reason for disregarding evidence in 1892 which +he had republished in a new edition of Primitive Culture in 1891, +it is impossible to argue against him in this place. He went on, +in the essay cited (1892) to contend that the Australian god of the +Kamilaroi of Victoria, Baiame, is, in name and attributes, of +missionary introduction. Happily this hypothesis can be refuted, +as we show in the following chapter on Australian gods. + + +[1] See Tylor, Prim. Cult., ii. 362, and Making of Religion, p. +318; also Menzies, History of Religion, pp. 108,109, and Dr. +Legge's Chinese Classics, in Sacred Books of the East, vols. iii., +xxvii., xxviii. + +[2] Journ. of Anthrop. Inst., vol. xxi., 1892. + + +It would be easy enough to meet the hypothesis of borrowing in the +case of the many African tribes who possess something approaching +to a rude monotheistic conception. Among these are the Dinkas of +the Upper Nile, with their neighbours, whose creed Russegger +compares to that of modern Deists in Europe. The Dinka god, +Dendid, is omnipotent, but so benevolent that he is not addressed +in prayer, nor propitiated by sacrifice. Compare the supreme being +of the Caribs, beneficent, otiose, unadored.[1] A similar deity, +veiled in the instruction of the as yet unpenetrated Mysteries, +exists among the Yao of Central Africa.[2] Of the negro race, +Waitz says, "even if we do not call them monotheists, we may still +think of them as standing on the boundary of monotheism despite +their innumerable rude superstitions".[3] The Tshi speaking people +of the Gold Coast have their unworshipped Nyankupon, a now otiose +unadored being, with a magisterial deputy, worshipped with many +sacrifices. The case is almost an exact parallel to that of Ahone +and Oki in America. THESE were not borrowed, and the author has +argued at length against Major Ellis's theory of the borrowing from +Christians of Nyankupon.[4] + + +[1] Rochefort, Les Isles Antilles, p. 415. Tylor, ii. 337. + +[2] Macdonald, Africana, 1, 71, 72, 130, 279-301. Scott, +Dictionary of the Manganja Language, Making of Religion, pp. 230- +238. A contradictory view in Spencer, Ecclesiastical Institutions, +p. 681. + +[3] Anthropologie, ii. 167. + +[4] Making of Religion, pp. 243-250. + + +To conclude this chapter, the study of savage and barbaric +religions seems to yield the following facts:-- + +1. Low savages. No regular chiefs. Great beings, not in receipt +of sacrifice, sanctioning morality. Ghosts are not worshipped, +though believed in. Polytheism, departmental gods and gods of +heaven, earth, sky and so forth, have not been developed or are not +found. + +2. Barbaric races. Aristocratic or monarchic. Ghosts are +worshipped and receive sacrifice. Polytheistic gods are in renown +and receive sacrifice. There is usually a supreme Maker who is, in +some cases, moral, in others otiose. In only one or two known +cases (as in that of the Polynesian Taaroa) is he in receipt of +sacrifice. + +3. Barbaric races. (Zulus, monarchic with Unkulunkulu; some +Algonquins (feebly aristocratic) with Atahocan). Religion is +mainly ancestor worship or vague spirit worship; ghosts are +propitiated with food. There are traces of an original divine +being whose name is becoming obsolescent and a matter of jest. + +4. Early civilisations. Monarchic or aristocratic. (Greece, +Egypt, India, Peru, Mexico.) Polytheism. One god tends to be +supreme. Religiously regarded, gods are moral; in myth are the +reverse. Gods are in receipt of sacrifice. Heavenly society is +modelled on that of men, monarchic or aristocratic. Philosophic +thought tends towards belief in one pure god, who may be named +Zeus, in Greece. + +5. The religion of Israel. Probably a revival and purification of +the old conception of a moral, beneficent creator, whose creed had +been involved in sacrifice and anthropomorphic myth. + +In all the stages thus roughly sketched, myths of the lowest sort +prevail, except in the records of the last stage, where the +documents have been edited by earnest monotheists. + +If this theory be approximately correct, man's earliest religious +ideas may very well have consisted, in a sense, of dependence on a +supreme moral being who, when attempts were made by savages to +describe the modus of his working, became involved in the fancies +of mythology. How this belief in such a being arose we have no +evidence to prove. We make no hint at a sensus numinis, or direct +revelation. + +While offering no hypothesis of the origin of belief in a moral +creator we may present a suggestion. Mr. Darwin says about early +man: "The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe +in unseen spiritual agencies, then in fetichism, polytheism and +ultimately monotheism, would infallibly lead him, so long as his +reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various strange +superstitions and customs".[1] Now, accepting Mr. Darwin's theory +that early man had "high mental faculties," the conception of a +Maker of things does not seem beyond his grasp. Man himself made +plenty of things, and could probably conceive of a being who made +the world and the objects in it. "Certainly there must be some +Being who made all these things. He must be very good too," said +an Eskimo to a missionary.[2] The goodness is inferred by the +Eskimo from his own contentment with "the things which are made".[3] + + +[1] Darwin, Descent of Man, i. p. 66. + +[2] Cranz, i. 199. + +[3] Romans, i. 19. + + +Another example of barbaric man "seeking after God" may be adduced. + +What the Greenlander said is corroborated by what a Kaffir said. +Kaffir religion is mainly animistic, ancestral spirits receive food +and sacrifice--there is but an evanescent tradition of a "Lord in +Heaven". Thus a very respectable Kaffir said to M. Arbrousset, +"your tidings (Christianity) are what I want; and I was seeking +before I knew you. . . . I asked myself sorrowful questions. 'Who +has touched the stars with his hands? . . . Who makes the waters +flow? . . . Who can have given earth the wisdom and power to +produce corn?' Then I buried my face in my hands." + +"This," says Sir John Lubbock, "was, however, an exceptional case. +As a general rule savages do not set themselves to think out such +questions."[1] + + +[1] Origin of Civilisation, p. 201. + + +As a common fact, if savages never ask the question, at all events, +somehow, they have the answer ready made. "Mangarrah, or Baiame, +Puluga, or Dendid, or Ahone, or Ahonawilona, or Atahocan, or +Taaroa, or Tui Laga, was the maker." Therefore savages who know +that leave the question alone, or add mythical accretions. But +their ancestors must have asked the question, like the "very +respectable Kaffir" before they answered it. + +Having reached the idea of a Creator, it was not difficult to add +that he was "good," or beneficent, and was deathless. + +A notion of a good powerful Maker, not subject to death because +necessarily prior to Death (who only invaded the world late), seems +easier of attainment than the notion of Spirit which, ex hypothesi, +demands much delicate psychological study and hard thought. The +idea of a Good Maker, once reached, becomes, perhaps, the germ of +future theism, but, as Mr. Darwin says, the human mind was +"infallibly led to various strange superstitions". As St. Paul +says, in perfect agreement with Mr. Darwin on this point, "they +became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was +darkened". + +Among other imaginations (right or wrong) was the belief in +spirits, with all that followed in the way of instituting +sacrifices, even of human beings, and of dropping morality, about +which the ghost of a deceased medicine-man was not likely to be +much interested. The supposed nearness to man, and the venal and +partial character of worshipped gods and ghost-gods, would +inevitably win for them more service and attention than would be +paid to a Maker remote, unbought and impartial. Hence the +conception of such a Being would tend to obsolescence, as we see +that it does, and would be most obscured where ghosts were most +propitiated, as among the Zulus. Later philosophy would attach the +spiritual conception to the revived or newly discovered idea of the +supreme God. + +In all this speculation there is nothing mystical; no supernatural +or supernormal interference is postulated. Supernormal experiences +may have helped to originate or support the belief in spirits, +that, however, is another question. But this hypothesis of the +origin of belief in a good unceasing Maker of things is, of course, +confessedly a conjecture, for which historical evidence cannot be +given, in the nature of the case. All our attempts to discover +origins far behind history must be conjectural. Their value must +be estimated by the extent to which this or that hypothesis +colligates the facts. Now our hypothesis does colligate the facts. +It shows how belief in a moral supreme being might arise before +ghosts were worshipped, and it accounts for the flaw in the +religious strata, for the mythical accretions, for the otiose +Creator in the background of many barbaric religions, and for the +almost universal absence of sacrifice to the God relatively +supreme. He was, from his earliest conception, in no need of gifts +from men. + +On this matter of otiose supreme gods, Professor Menzies writes, +"It is very common to find in savage beliefs a vague far-off god, +who is at the back of all the others, takes little part in the +management of things, and receives little worship. But it is +impossible to judge what that being was at an earlier time; he may +have been a nature god, or a spirit who has by degrees grown faint, +and come to occupy this position." + +Now the position which he occupies is usually, if not universally, +that of the Creator. He could not arrive at this rank by "becoming +faint," nor could "a nature-god" be the Maker of Nature. The only +way by which we can discover "what that being was at an earlier +time" is to see what he IS at an earlier time, that is to say, what +the conception of him is, among men in an earlier state of culture. +Among them, as we show, he is very much more near, potent and +moral, than among races more advanced in social evolution and +material culture. We can form no opinion as to the nature of such +"vague, far-off gods, at the back of all the others," till we +collect and compare examples, and endeavour to ascertain what +points they have in common, and in what points they differ from +each other. It then becomes plain that they are least far away, +and most potent, where there is least ghostly and polytheistic +competition, that is, among the most backward races. The more +animism the less theism, is the general rule. Manifestly the +current hypothesis--that all religion is animistic in origin--does +not account for these facts, and is obliged to fly to an +undemonstrated theory of degradation, or to an undemonstrated +theory of borrowing. That our theory is inconsistent with the +general doctrine of evolution we cannot admit, if we are allowed to +agree with Mr. Darwin's statement about the high mental faculties +which first led man to sympathetic, and then to wild beliefs. We +do not pretend to be more Darwinian than Mr. Darwin, who compares +"these miserable and indirect results of our higher faculties" to +"the occasional mistakes of the instincts of the lower animals". + +The opinion here maintained, namely, that a germ of pure belief may +be detected amidst the confusion of low savage faith, and that in a +still earlier stage it may have been less overlaid with fable, is +in direct contradiction to current theories. It is also in +contradiction with the opinions entertained by myself before I made +an independent examination of the evidence. Like others, I was +inclined to regard reports of a moral Creator, who observes +conduct, and judges it even in the next life, as rumours due either +to Christian influence, or to mistake. I well know, however, and +could, and did, discount the sources of error. I was on my guard +against the twin fallacies of describing all savage religion as +"devil worship," and of expecting to find a primitive "divine +tradition". I was also on my guard against the modern bias derived +from the "ghost-theory," and Mr. Spencer's works, and I kept an eye +on opportunities of "borrowing".[1] I had, in fact, classified all +known idola in the first edition of this work, such as the fallacy +of leading questions and the chance of deliberate deception. I +sought the earliest evidence, prior to any missionary teaching, and +the evidence of what the first missionaries found, in the way of +belief, on their arrival. I preferred the testimony of the best +educated observers, and of those most familiar with native +languages. I sought for evidence in native hymns (Maori, Zuni, +Dinka, Red Indian) and in native ceremonial and mystery, as these +sources were least likely to be contaminated. + + +[1] Making of Religion, p. 187. + + +On the other side, I found a vast body of testimony that savages +had no religion at all. But that testimony, en masse, was refuted +by Roskoff, and also, in places, by Tylor. When three witnesses +were brought to swear that they saw the Irishman commit a crime, he +offered to bring a dozen witnesses who did NOT see him. Negative +evidence of squatters, sailors and colonists, who did NOT see any +religion among this or that race, is not worth much against +evidence of trained observers and linguists who DID find what the +others missed, and who found more the more they knew the tribe in +question. Again, like others, I thought savages incapable of such +relatively pure ideas as I now believe some of them to possess. +But I could not resist the evidence, and I abandoned my a priori +notions. The evidence forcibly attests gradations in the central +belief. It is found in various shades, from relative potency down +to a vanishing trace, and it is found in significant proportion to +the prevalence of animistic ideas, being weakest where they are +most developed, strongest where they are least developed. There +must be a reason for these phenomena, and that reason, as it seems +to me, is the overlaying and supersession of a rudely Theistic by an +animistic creed. That one cause would explain, and does colligate, +all the facts. + +There remains a point on which misconception proves to be possible. +It will be shown, contrary to the current hypothesis, that the +religion of the lowest races, in its highest form, sanctions +morality. That morality, again, in certain instances, demands +unselfishness. Of course we are not claiming for that doctrine any +supernatural origin. Religion, if it sanctions ethics at all, will +sanction those which the conscience accepts, and those ethics, in +one way or other, must have been evolved. That the "cosmical" law +is "the weakest must go to the wall" is generally conceded. Man, +however, is found trying to reverse the law, by equal and friendly +dealing (at least within what is vaguely called "the tribe"). His +religion, as in Australia, will be shown to insist on this +unselfishness. How did he evolve his ethics? + +"Be it little or be it much they get," says Dampier about the +Australians in 1688, "every one has his part, as well the young and +tender as the old and feeble, who are not able to get abroad as the +strong and lusty." This conduct reverses the cosmical process, and +notoriously civilised society, Christian society, does not act on +these principles. Neither do the savages, who knock the old and +feeble on the head, or deliberately leave them to starve, act on +these principles, sanctioned by Australian religion, but (according +to Mr. Dawson) NOT carried out in Australian practice. "When old +people become infirm . . . it is lawful and customary to kill +them."[1] + + +[1] Australian Aborigines, p. 62. + + +As to the point of unselfishness, evolutionists are apt to account +for it by common interest. A tribe in which the strongest +monopolise what is best will not survive so well as an unselfish +tribe in the struggle for existence. But precisely the opposite is +true, aristocracy marks the more successful barbaric races, and an +aristocratic slave-holding tribe could have swept Australia as the +Zulus swept South Africa. That aristocracy and acquisition of +separate property are steps in advance on communistic savagery all +history declares. Therefore a tribe which in Australia developed +private property, and reduced its neighbours to slavery, would have +been better fitted to survive than such a tribe as Dampier +describes. + +This is so evident that probably, or possibly, the Dampier state of +society was not developed in obedience to a recognised tribal +interest, but in obedience to an affectionate instinct. "Ils +s'entr' aiment les une les autres," says Brebeuf of the Hurons.[1] +"I never heard the women complain of being left out of feasts, or +that the men ate the best portions . . . every one does his +business sweetly, peaceably, without dispute. You never see +disputes, quarrels, hatred, or reproach among them." Brebeuf then +tells how a young Indian stranger, in a time of want, stole the +best part of a moose. "They did not rage or curse, they only +bantered him, and yet to take our meat was almost to take our +lives." Brebeuf wanted to lecture the lad; his Indian host bade +him hold his peace, and the stranger was given hospitality, with +his wife and children. "They are very generous, and make it a +point not to attach themselves to the goods of this world." "Their +greatest reproach is 'that man wants everything, he is greedy'. +They support, with never a murmur, widows, orphans and old men, yet +they kill hopeless or troublesome invalids, and their whole conduct +to Europeans was the reverse of their domestic behaviour." + + +[1] Relations, 1634, p. 29. + + +Another example of savage unselfish ethics may be found in Mr. +Mann's account of the Andaman Islanders, a nomad race, very low in +culture. "It is a noteworthy trait, and one which deserves high +commendation, that every care and consideration are paid by all +classes to the very young, the weak, the aged, and the helpless, +and these being made special objects of interest and attention, +invariably fare better in regard to the comforts and necessaries of +daily life than any of the otherwise more fortunate members of the +community."[1] + + +[1] J. A. I., xii. p. 93. + + +Mr. Huxley, in his celebrated Romanes Lecture on "Evolution and +Morality," laid stress on man's contravention of the cosmic law, +"the weakest must go to the wall". He did not explain the +evolution of man's opposition to this law. The ordinary +evolutionist hypothesis, that the tribe would prosper most whose +members were least self-seeking, is contradicted by all history. +The overbearing, "grabbing," aristocratic, individualistic, +unscrupulous races beat the others out of the field. Mr. Huxley, +indeed, alleged that the "influence of the cosmic process in the +evolution of society is the greater the more rudimentary its +civilisation. Social progress means a checking of the cosmic +process at every step and the substitution for it of another, which +may be called the ethical process. . . . As civilisation has +advanced, so has the extent of this interference increased. . . ."[1] +But where, in Europe, is the interference so marked as among +the Andamanese? We have still to face the problem of the +generosity of low savages. + + +[1] Ethics of Evolution, pp. 81-84. + + +It is conceivable that the higher ethics of low savages rather +reflect their emotional instincts than arise from tribal +legislation which is supposed to enable a "tribe" to prosper in the +struggle for existence. As Brebeuf and Dampier, among others, +prove, savages often set a good example to Christians, and their +ethics are, in certain cases, as among the Andamanese and Fuegians, +and, probably among the Yao, sanctioned by their religion. But, as +Mr. Tylor says, "the better savage social life seems but in +unstable equilibrium, liable to be easily upset by a touch of +distress, temptation, or violence".[1] Still, religion does its +best, in certain cases, to lend equilibrium; though all the world +over, religion often fails in practice. + + +[1] Prim. Cult., i. 51. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1 + diff --git a/old/1mrar10.zip b/old/1mrar10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6967586 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1mrar10.zip |