| Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden
Bough. 1922. |
§ 5. Killing the
Sacred Bear |
| |
| DOUBT also hangs at first sight over the
meaning of the bear-sacrifice offered by the Aino or Ainu, a
primitive people who are found in the Japanese island of Yezo or
Yesso, as well as in Saghalien and the southern of the Kurile
Islands. It is not quite easy to define the attitude of the Aino
towards the bear. On the one hand they give it the name of
kamui or “god”; but as they apply the same word to strangers,
it may mean no more than a being supposed to be endowed with
superhuman, or at all events extraordinary, powers. Again, it is
said that “the bear is their chief divinity”; “in the religion of
the Aino the bear plays a chief part”; “amongst the animals it is
especially the bear which receives an idolatrous veneration”; “they
worship it after their fashion”; “there is no doubt that this wild
beast inspires more of the feeling which prompts worship than the
inanimate forces of nature, and the Aino may be distinguished as
bear-worshippers.” Yet, on the other hand, they kill the bear
whenever they can; “in bygone years the Ainu considered bear-hunting
the most manly and useful way in which a person could possibly spend
his time”; “the men spend the autumn, winter, and spring in hunting
deer and bears. Part of their tribute or taxes is paid in skins, and
they subsist on the dried meat”; bear’s flesh is indeed one of their
staple foods; they eat it both fresh and salted; and the skins of
bears furnish them with clothing. In fact, the worship of which
writers on this subject speak appears to be paid chiefly to the dead
animal. Thus, although they kill a bear whenever they can, “in the
process of dissecting the carcass they endeavor to conciliate the
deity, whose representative they have slain, by making elaborate
obeisances and deprecatory salutations”; “when a bear has been
killed the Ainu sit down and admire it, make their salaams to it,
worship it, and offer presents of inao”; “when a bear is
trapped or wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic
or propitiatory ceremony.” The skulls of slain bears receive a place
of honour in their huts, or are set up on sacred posts outside the
huts, and are treated with much respect: libations of millet beer,
and of sake, an intoxicating liquor, are offered to them; and
they are addressed as “divine preservers” or “precious divinities.”
The skulls of foxes are also fastened to the sacred posts outside
the huts; they are regarded as charms against evil spirits, and are
consulted as oracles. Yet it is expressly said, “The live fox is
revered just as little as the bear; rather they avoid it as much as
possible, considering it a wily animal.” The bear can hardly,
therefore, be described as a sacred animal of the Aino, nor yet as a
totem; for they do not call themselves bears, and they kill and eat
the animal freely. However, they have a legend of a woman who had a
son by a bear; and many of them who dwell in the mountains pride
themselves on being descended from a bear. Such people are called
“Descendants of the bear” (Kimun Kamui sanikiri), and in the
pride of their heart they will say, “As for
me, I am a child of the god of the mountains; I am descended from
the divine one who rules in the mountains,” meaning by “the god of
the mountains” no other than the bear. It is therefore possible
that, as our principal authority, the Rev. J. Batchelor, believes,
the bear may have been the totem of an Aino clan; but even if that
were so it would not explain the respect shown for the animal by the
whole Aino people. |
1 |
| But it is the bear-festival of the Aino which
concerns us here. Towards the end of winter a bear cub is caught and
brought into the village. If it is very small, it is suckled by an
Aino woman, but should there be no woman able to suckle it, the
little animal is fed from the hand or the mouth. During the day it
plays about in the hut with the children and is treated with great
affection. But when the cub grows big enough to pain people by
hugging or scratching them, he is shut up in a strong wooden cage,
where he stays generally for two or three years, fed on fish and
millet porridge, till it is time for him to be killed and eaten. But
“it is a peculiarly striking fact that the young bear is not kept
merely to furnish a good meal; rather he is regarded and honoured as
a fetish, or even as a sort of higher being.” In Yezo the festival
is generally celebrated in September or October. Before it takes
place the Aino apologise to their gods, alleging that they have
treated the bear kindly as long as they could, now they can feed him
no longer, and are obliged to kill him. A man who gives a bear-feast
invites his relations and friends; in a small village nearly the
whole community takes part in the feast; indeed, guests from distant
villages are invited and generally come, allured by the prospect of
getting drunk for nothing. The form of invitation runs somewhat as
follows: “I, so and so, am about to sacrifice the dear little divine
thing who resides among the mountains. My friends and masters, come
ye to the feast; we will then unite in the great pleasure of sending
the god away. Come.” When all the people are assembled in front of
the cage, an orator chosen for the purpose addresses the bear and
tells it that they are about to send it forth to its ancestors. He
craves pardon for what they are about to do to it, hopes it will not
be angry, and comforts it by assuring the animal that many of the
sacred whittled sticks (inao) and plenty of cakes and wine
will be sent with it on the long journey. One speech of this sort
which Mr. Batchelor heard ran as follows: “O thou divine one, thou
wast sent into the world for us to hunt. O thou precious little
divinity, we worship thee; pray hear our prayer. We have nourished
thee and brought thee up with a deal of pains and trouble, all
because we love thee so. Now, as thou hast grown big, we are about
to send thee to thy father and mother. When thou comest to them
please speak well of us, and tell them how kind we have been; please
come to us again and we will sacrifice thee.” Having been secured
with ropes, the bear is then let out of the cage and assailed with a
shower of blunt arrows in order to arouse it to fury. When it has
spent itself in vain struggles, it is tied up to a stake, gagged and
strangled, its neck being placed between two poles, which are then violently compressed, all the people
eagerly helping to squeeze the animal to death. An arrow is also
discharged into the beast’s heart by a good marksman, but so as not
to shed blood, for they think that it would be very unlucky if any
of the blood were to drip on the ground. However, the men sometimes
drink the warm blood of the bear “that the courage and other virtues
it possesses may pass into them”; and sometimes they besmear
themselves and their clothes with the blood in order to ensure
success in hunting. When the animal has been strangled to death, it
is skinned and its head is cut off and set in the east window of the
house, where a piece of its own flesh is placed under its snout,
together with a cup of its own meat boiled, some millet dumplings,
and dried fish. Prayers are then addressed to the dead animal;
amongst other things it is sometimes invited, after going away to
its father and mother, to return into the world in order that it may
again be reared for sacrifice. When the bear is supposed to have
finished eating its own flesh, the man who presides at the feast
takes the cup containing the boiled meat, salutes it, and divides
the contents between all the company present: every person, young
and old alike, must taste a little. The cup is called “the cup of
offering” because it has just been offered to the dead bear. When
the rest of the flesh has been cooked, it is shared out in like
manner among all the people, everybody partaking of at least a
morsel; not to partake of the feast would be equivalent to
excommunication, it would be to place the recreant outside the pale
of Aino fellowship. Formerly every particle of the bear, except the
bones, had to be eaten up at the banquet, but this rule is now
relaxed. The head, on being detached from the skin, is set up on a
long pole beside the sacred wands (inao) outside of the
house, where it remains till nothing but the bare white skull is
left. Skulls so set up are worshipped not only at the time of the
festival, but very often as long as they last. The Aino assured Mr.
Batchelor that they really do believe the spirits of the worshipful
animals to reside in the skulls; that is why they address them as
“divine preservers” and “precious divinities.” |
2 |
| The ceremony of killing the bear was witnessed by
Dr. B. Scheube on the tenth of August at Kunnui, which is a village
on Volcano Bay in the island of Yezo or Yesso. As his description of
the rite contains some interesting particulars not mentioned in the
foregoing account, it may be worth while to summarize it. |
3 |
| On entering the hut he found about thirty Aino
present, men, women, and children, all dressed in their best. The
master of the house first offered a libation on the fireplace to the
god of the fire, and the guests followed his example. Then a
libation was offered to the house-god in his sacred corner of the
hut. Meanwhile the housewife, who had nursed the bear, sat by
herself, silent and sad, bursting now and then into tears. Her grief
was obviously unaffected, and it deepened as the festival went on.
Next, the master of the house and some of the guests went out of the
hut and offered libations before the bear’s cage. A few drops were
presented to the bear in a saucer, which he
at once upset. Then the women and girls danced round the cage, their
faces turned towards it, their knees slightly bent, rising and
hopping on their toes. As they danced they clapped their hands and
sang a monotonous song. The housewife and a few old women, who might
have nursed many bears, danced tearfully, stretching out their arms
to the bear, and addressing it in terms of endearment. The young
folks were less affected; they laughed as well as sang. Disturbed by
the noise, the bear began to rush about his cage and howl
lamentably. Next libations were offered at the inao
(inabos) or sacred wands which stand outside of an Aino hut.
These wands are about a couple of feet high, and are whittled at the
top into spiral shavings. Five new wands with bamboo leaves attached
to them had been set up for the festival. This is regularly done
when a bear is killed; the leaves mean that the animal may come to
life again. Then the bear was let out of his cage, a rope was thrown
round his neck, and he was led about in the neighbourhood of the
hut. While this was being done the men, headed by a chief, shot at
the beast with arrows tipped with wooden buttons. Dr. Scheube had to
do so also. Then the bear was taken before the sacred wands, a stick
was put in his mouth, nine men knelt on him and pressed his neck
against a beam. In five minutes the animal had expired without
uttering a sound. Meantime the women and girls had taken post behind
the men, where they danced, lamenting, and beating the men who were
killing the bear. The bear’s carcase was next placed on the mat
before the sacred wands; and a sword and quiver, taken from the
wands, were hung round the beast’s neck. Being a she-bear, it was
also adorned with a necklace and ear-rings. Then food and drink were
offered to it, in the shape of millet-broth, millet-cakes, and a pot
of sake. The men now sat down on mats before the dead bear,
offered libations to it, and drank deep. Meanwhile the women and
girls had laid aside all marks of sorrow, and danced merrily, none
more merrily than the old women. When the mirth was at its height
two young Aino, who had let the bear out of his cage, mounted the
roof of the hut and threw cakes of millet among the company, who all
scrambled for them without distinction of age or sex. The bear was
next skinned and disembowelled, and the trunk severed from the head,
to which the skin was left hanging. The blood, caught in cups, was
eagerly swallowed by the men. None of the women or children appeared
to drink the blood, though custom did not forbid them to do so. The
liver was cut in small pieces and eaten raw, with salt, the women
and children getting their share. The flesh and the rest of the
vitals were taken into the house to be kept till the next day but
one, and then to be divided among the persons who had been present
at the feast. Blood and liver were offered to Dr. Scheube. While the
bear was being disembowelled, the women and girls danced the same
dance which they had danced at the beginning—not, however, round the
cage, but in front of the sacred wands. At this dance the old women,
who had been merry a moment before, again shed tears freely. After
the brain had been extracted from the bear’s head and swallowed with salt, the skull,
detached from the skin, was hung on a pole beside the sacred wands.
The stick with which the bear had been gagged was also fastened to
the pole, and so were the sword and quiver which had been hung on
the carcase. The latter were removed in about an hour, but the rest
remained standing. The whole company, men and women, danced noisily
before the pole; and another drinking-bout, in which the women
joined, closed the festival. |
4 |
| Perhaps the first published account of the
bear-feast of the Aino is one which was given to the world by a
Japanese writer in 1652. It has been translated into French and runs
thus: “When they find a young bear, they bring it home, and the wife
suckles it. When it is grown they feed it with fish and fowl and
kill it in winter for the sake of the liver, which they esteem an
antidote to poison, the worms, colic, and disorders of the stomach.
It is of a very bitter taste, and is good for nothing if the bear
has been killed in summer. This butchery begins in the first
Japanese month. For this purpose they put the animal’s head between
two long poles, which are squeezed together by fifty or sixty
people, both men and women. When the bear is dead they eat his
flesh, keep the liver as a medicine, and sell the skin, which is
black and commonly six feet long, but the longest measure twelve
feet. As soon as he is skinned, the persons who nourished the beast
begin to bewail him; afterwards they make little cakes to regale
those who helped them.” |
5 |
| The Aino of Saghalien rear bear cubs and kill them
with similar ceremonies. We are told that they do not look upon the
bear as a god but only as a messenger whom they despatch with
various commissions to the god of the forest. The animal is kept for
about two years in a cage, and then killed at a festival, which
always takes place in winter and at night. The day before the
sacrifice is devoted to lamentation, old women relieving each other
in the duty of weeping and groaning in front of the bear’s cage.
Then about the middle of the night or very early in the morning an
orator makes a long speech to the beast, reminding him how they have
taken care of him, and fed him well, and bathed him in the river,
and made him warm and comfortable. “Now,” he proceeds, “we are
holding a great festival in your honour. Be not afraid. We will not
hurt you. We will only kill you and send you to the god of the
forest who loves you. We are about to offer you a good dinner, the
best you have ever eaten among us, and we will all weep for you
together. The Aino who will kill you is the best shot among us.
There he is, he weeps and asks your forgiveness; you will feel
almost nothing, it will be done so quickly. We cannot feed you
always, as you will understand. We have done enough for you; it is
now your turn to sacrifice yourself for us. You will ask God to send
us, for the winter, plenty of otters and sables, and for the summer,
seals and fish in abundance. Do not forget our messages, we love you
much, and our children will never forget you.” When the bear has
partaken of his last meal amid the general
emotion of the spectators, the old women weeping afresh and the men
uttering stifled cries, he is strapped, not without difficulty and
danger, and being let out of the cage is led on leash or dragged,
according to the state of his temper, thrice round his cage, then
round his master’s house, and lastly round the house of the orator.
Thereupon he is tied up to a tree, which is decked with sacred
whittled sticks (inao) of the usual sort; and the orator
again addresses him in a long harangue, which sometimes lasts till
the day is beginning to break. “Remember,” he cries, “remember! I
remind you of your whole life and of the services we have rendered
you. It is now for you to do your duty. Do not forget what I have
asked of you. You will tell the gods to give us riches, that our
hunters may return from the forest laden with rare furs and animals
good to eat; that our fishers may find troops of seals on the shore
and in the sea, and that their nets may crack under the weight of
the fish. We have no hope but in you. The evil spirits laugh at us,
and too often they are unfavourable and malignant to us, but they
will bow before you. We have given you food and joy and health; now
we kill you in order that you may in return send riches to us and to
our children.” To this discourse the bear, more and more surly and
agitated, listens without conviction; round and round the tree he
paces and howls lamentably, till, just as the first beams of the
rising sun light up the scene, an archer speeds an arrow to his
heart. No sooner has he done so, than the marksman throws away his
bow and flings himself on the ground, and the old men and women do
the same, weeping and sobbing. Then they offer the dead beast a
repast of rice and wild potatoes, and having spoken to him in terms
of pity and thanked him for what he has done and suffered, they cut
off his head and paws and keep them as sacred things. A banquet on
the flesh and blood of the bear follows. Women were formerly
excluded from it, but now they share with the men. The blood is
drunk warm by all present; the flesh is boiled, custom forbids it to
be roasted. And as the relics of the bear may not enter the house by
the door, and Aino houses in Saghalien have no windows, a man gets
up on the roof and lets the flesh, the head, and the skin down
through the smoke-hole. Rice and wild potatoes are then offered to
the head, and a pipe, tobacco, and matches are considerately placed
beside it. Custom requires that the guests should eat up the whole
animal before they depart; the use of salt and pepper at the meal is
forbidden; and no morsel of the flesh may be given to the dogs. When
the banquet is over, the head is carried away into the depth of the
forest and deposited on a heap of bears’ skulls, the bleached and
mouldering relics of similar festivals in the past. |
6 |
| The Gilyaks, a Tunguzian people of Eastern Siberia,
hold a bear-festival of the same sort once a year in January. “The
bear is the object of the most refined solicitude of an entire
village and plays the chief part in their religious ceremonies.” An
old she-bear is shot and her cub is reared, but not suckled, in the
village. When the bear is big enough he is
taken from his cage and dragged through the village. But first they
lead him to the bank of the river, for this is believed to ensure
abundance of fish to each family. He is then taken into every house
in the village, where fish, brandy, and so forth are offered to him.
Some people prostrate themselves before the beast. His entrance into
a house is supposed to bring a blessing; and if he snuffs at the
food offered to him, this also is a blessing. Nevertheless they
tease and worry, poke and tickle the animal continually, so that he
is surly and snappish. After being thus taken to every house, he is
tied to a peg and shot dead with arrows. His head is then cut off,
decked with shavings, and placed on the table where the feast is set
out. Here they beg pardon of the beast and worship him. Then his
flesh is roasted and eaten in special vessels of wood finely carved.
They do not eat the flesh raw nor drink the blood, as the Aino do.
The brain and entrails are eaten last; and the skull, still decked
with shavings, is placed on a tree near the house. Then the people
sing and both sexes dance in ranks, as bears. |
7 |
| One of these bear-festivals was witnessed by the
Russian traveller L. von Schrenck and his companions at the Gilyak
village of Tebach in January 1856. From his detailed report of the
ceremony we may gather some particulars which are not noticed in the
briefer accounts which I have just summarised. The bear, he tells
us, plays a great part in the life of all the peoples inhabiting the
region of the Amoor and Siberia as far as Kamtchatka, but among none
of them is his importance greater than among the Gilyaks. The
immense size which the animal attains in the valley of the Amoor,
his ferocity whetted by hunger, and the frequency of his appearance,
all combine to make him the most dreaded beast of prey in the
country. No wonder, therefore, that the fancy of the Gilyaks is
busied with him and surrounds him, both in life and in death, with a
sort of halo of superstitious fear. Thus, for example, it is thought
that if a Gilyak falls in combat with a bear, his soul transmigrates
into the body of the beast. Nevertheless his flesh has an
irresistible attraction for the Gilyak palate, especially when the
animal has been kept in captivity for some time and fattened on
fish, which gives the flesh, in the opinion of the Gilyaks, a
peculiarly delicious flavour. But in order to enjoy this dainty with
impunity they deem it needful to perform a long series of
ceremonies, of which the intention is to delude the living bear by a
show of respect, and to appease the anger of the dead animal by the
homage paid to his departed spirit. The marks of respect begin as
soon as the beast is captured. He is brought home in triumph and
kept in a cage, where all the villagers take it in turns to feed
him. For although he may have been captured or purchased by one man,
he belongs in a manner to the whole village. His flesh will furnish
a common feast, and hence all must contribute to support him in his
life. The length of time he is kept in captivity depends on his age.
Old bears are kept only a few months; cubs are kept till they are full-grown. A thick layer of
fat on the captive bear gives the signal for the festival, which is
always held in winter, generally in December but sometimes in
January or February. At the festival witnessed by the Russian
travellers, which lasted a good many days, three bears were killed
and eaten. More than once the animals were led about in procession
and compelled to enter every house in the village, where they were
fed as a mark of honour, and to show that they were welcome guests.
But before the beasts set out on this round of visits, the Gilyaks
played at skipping-rope in presence, and perhaps, as L. von Schrenck
inclined to believe, in honour of the animals. The night before they
were killed, the three bears were led by moonlight a long way on the
ice of the frozen river. That night no one in the village might
sleep. Next day, after the animals had been again led down the steep
bank to the river, and conducted thrice round the hole in the ice
from which the women of the village drew their water, they were
taken to an appointed place not far from the village, and shot to
death with arrows. The place of sacrifice or execution was marked as
holy by being surrounded with whittled sticks, from the tops of
which shavings hung in curls. Such sticks are with the Gilyaks, as
with the Aino, the regular symbols that accompany all religious
ceremonies. |
8 |
| When the house has been arranged and decorated for
their reception, the skins of the bears, with their heads attached
to them, are brought into it, not, however, by the door, but through
a window, and then hung on a sort of scaffold opposite the hearth on
which the flesh is to be cooked. The boiling of the bears’ flesh
among the Gilyaks is done only by the oldest men, whose high
privilege it is; women and children, young men and boys have no part
in it. The task is performed slowly and deliberately, with a certain
solemnity. On the occasion described by the Russian travellers the
kettle was first of all surrounded with a thick wreath of shavings,
and then filled with snow, for the use of water to cook bear’s flesh
is forbidden. Meanwhile a large wooden trough, richly adorned with
arabesques and carvings of all sorts, was hung immediately under the
snouts of the bears; on one side of the trough was carved in relief
a bear, on the other side a toad. When the carcases were being cut
up, each leg was laid on the ground in front of the bears, as if to
ask their leave, before being placed in the kettle; and the boiled
flesh was fished out of the kettle with an iron hook, and set in the
trough before the bears, in order that they might be the first to
taste of their own flesh. As fast, too, as the fat was cut in strips
it was hung up in front of the bears, and afterwards laid in a small
wooden trough on the ground before them. Last of all the inner
organs of the beasts were cut up and placed in small vessels. At the
same time the women made bandages out of parti-coloured rags, and
after sunset these bandages were tied round the bears’ snouts just
below the eyes “in order to dry the tears that flowed from them.” |
9 |
| As soon as the ceremony of wiping away poor bruin’s
tears had been performed, the assembled
Gilyaks set to work in earnest to devour his flesh. The broth
obtained by boiling the meat had already been partaken of. The
wooden bowls, platters, and spoons out of which the Gilyaks eat the
broth and flesh of the bears on these occasions are always made
specially for the purpose at the festival and only then; they are
elaborately ornamented with carved figures of bears and other
devices that refer to the animal or the festival, and the people
have a strong superstitious scruple against parting with them. After
the bones had been picked clean they were put back in the kettle in
which the flesh had been boiled. And when the festal meal was over,
an old man took his stand at the door of the house with a branch of
fir in his hand, with which, as the people passed out, he gave a
light blow to every one who had eaten of the bear’s flesh or fat,
perhaps as a punishment for their treatment of the worshipful
animal. In the afternoon the women performed a strange dance. Only
one woman danced at a time, throwing the upper part of her body into
the oddest postures, while she held in her hands a branch of fir or
a kind of wooden castanets. The other women meanwhile played an
accompaniment by drumming on the beams of the house with clubs. Von
Schrenk believed that after the flesh of the bear has been eaten the
bones and the skull are solemnly carried out by the oldest people to
a place in the forest not far from the village. There all the bones
except the skull are buried. After that a young tree is felled a few
inches above the ground, its stump cleft, and the skull wedged into
the cleft. When the grass grows over the spot, the skull disappears
from view, and that is the end of the bear. |
10 |
| Another description of the bear-festivals of the
Gilyaks has been given us by Mr. Leo Sternberg. It agrees
substantially with the foregoing accounts, but a few particulars in
it may be noted. According to Mr. Sternberg, the festival is usually
held in honour of a deceased relation: the next of kin either buys
or catches a bear cub and nurtures it for two or three years till it
is ready for the sacrifice. Only certain distinguished guests
(Narch-en) are privileged to partake of the bear’s flesh, but
the host and members of his clan eat a broth made from the flesh;
great quantities of this broth are prepared and consumed on the
occasion. The guests of honour (Narch-en) must belong to the
clan into which the host’s daughters and the other women of his clan
are married: one of these guests, usually the host’s son-in-law, is
entrusted with the duty of shooting the bear dead with an arrow. The
skin, head, and flesh of the slain bear are brought into the house
not through the door but through the smoke-hole; a quiver full of
arrows is laid under the head and beside it are deposited tobacco,
sugar, and other food. The soul of the bear is supposed to carry off
the souls of these things with it on the far journey. A special
vessel is used for cooking the bear’s flesh, and the fire must be
kindled by a sacred apparatus of flint and steel, which belongs to
the clan and is handed down from generation to generation, but which
is never used to light fires except on these solemn occasions. Of
all the many viands cooked for the
consumption of the assembled people a portion is placed in a special
vessel and set before the bear’s head: this is called “feeding the
head.” After the bear has been killed, dogs are sacrificed in
couples of male and female. Before being throttled, they are fed and
invited to go to their lord on the highest mountain, to change their
skins, and to return next year in the form of bears. The soul of the
dead bear departs to the same lord, who is also lord of the
primaeval forest; it goes away laden with the offerings that have
been made to it, and attended by the souls of the dogs and also by
the souls of the sacred whittled sticks, which figure prominently at
the festival. |
11 |
| The Goldi, neighbours of the Gilyaks, treat the bear
in much the same way. They hunt and kill it; but sometimes they
capture a live bear and keep him in a cage, feeding him well and
calling him their son and brother. Then at a great festival he is
taken from his cage, paraded about with marked consideration, and
afterwards killed and eaten. “The skull, jaw-bones, and ears are
then suspended on a tree, as an antidote against evil spirits; but
the flesh is eaten and much relished, for they believe that all who
partake of it acquire a zest for the chase, and become
courageous.” |
12 |
| The Orotchis, another Tunguzian people of the region
of the Amoor, hold bear-festivals of the same general character. Any
one who catches a bear cub considers it his bounden duty to rear it
in a cage for about three years, in order at the end of that time to
kill it publicly and eat the flesh with his friends. The feasts
being public, though organised by individuals, the people try to
have one in each Orotchi village every year in turn. When the bear
is taken out of his cage, he is led about by means of ropes to all
the huts, accompanied by people armed with lances, bows, and arrows.
At each hut the bear and bear-leaders are treated to something good
to eat and drink. This goes on for several days until all the huts,
not only in that village but also in the next, have been visited.
The days are given up to sport and noisy jollity. Then the bear is
tied to a tree or wooden pillar and shot to death by the arrows of
the crowd, after which its flesh is roasted and eaten. Among the
Orotchis of the Tundja River women take part in the bear-feasts,
while among the Orotchis of the River Vi the women will not even
touch bear’s flesh. |
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| In the treatment of the captive bear by these tribes
there are features which can hardly be distinguished from worship.
Such, for example, are the prayers offered to it both alive and
dead; the offerings of food, including portions of its own flesh,
laid before the animal’s skull; and the Gilyak custom of leading the
living beast to the river in order to ensure a supply of fish, and
of conducting him from house to house in order that every family may
receive his blessing, just as in Europe a May-tree or a personal
representative of the tree-spirit used to be taken from door to door
in spring for the sake of diffusing among all and sundry the fresh
energies of reviving nature. Again, the solemn participation in his
flesh and blood, and particularly the Aino custom of sharing the
contents of the cup which had been consecrated by being set before the dead beast, are strongly
suggestive of a sacrament, and the suggestion is confirmed by the
Gilyak practice of reserving special vessels to hold the flesh and
cooking it on a fire kindled by a sacred apparatus which is never
employed except on these religious occasions. Indeed our principal
authority on Aino religion, the Rev. John Batchelor, frankly
describes as worship the ceremonious respect which the Aino pay to
the bear, and he affirms that the animal is undoubtedly one of their
gods. Certainly the Aino appear to apply their name for god
(kamui) freely to the bear; but, as Mr. Batchelor himself
points out, that word is used with many different shades of meaning
and is applied to a great variety of objects, so that from its
application to the bear we cannot safely argue that the animal is
actually regarded as a deity. Indeed we are expressly told that the
Aino of Saghalien do not consider the bear to be a god but only a
messenger to the gods, and the message with which they charge the
animal at its death bears out the statement. Apparently the Gilyaks
also look on the bear in the light of an envoy despatched with
presents to the Lord of the Mountain, on whom the welfare of the
people depends. At the same time they treat the animal as a being of
a higher order than man, in fact as a minor deity, whose presence in
the village, so long as he is kept and fed, diffuses blessings,
especially by keeping at bay the swarms of evil spirits who are
constantly lying in wait for people, stealing their goods and
destroying their bodies by sickness and disease. Moreover, by
partaking of the flesh, blood, or broth of the bear, the Gilyaks,
the Aino, and the Goldi are all of opinion that they acquire some
portion of the animal’s mighty powers, particularly his courage and
strength. No wonder, therefore, that they should treat so great a
benefactor with marks of the highest respect and affection. |
14 |
| Some light may be thrown on the ambiguous attitude
of the Aino to bears by comparing the similar treatment which they
accord to other creatures. For example, they regard the eagle-owl as
a good deity who by his hooting warns men of threatened evil and
defends them against it; hence he is loved, trusted, and devoutly
worshipped as a divine mediator between men and the Creator. The
various names applied to him are significant both of his divinity
and of his mediatorship. Whenever an opportunity offers, one of
these divine birds is captured and kept in a cage, where he is
greeted with the endearing titles of “Beloved god” and “Dear little
divinity.” Nevertheless the time comes when the dear little divinity
is throttled and sent away in his capacity of mediator to take a
message to the superior gods or to the Creator himself. The
following is the form of prayer addressed to the eagle-owl when it
is about to be sacrificed: “Beloved deity, we have brought you up
because we loved you, and now we are about to send you to your
father. We herewith offer you food, inao, wine, and cakes;
take them to your parent, and he will be very pleased. When you come
to him say, ‘I have lived a long time among the Ainu, where an Ainu
father and an Ainu mother reared me. I now come to thee. I have
brought a variety of good things. I saw while living in Ainuland a great deal of distress. I observed that
some of the people were possessed by demons, some were wounded by
wild animals, some were hurt by landslides, others suffered
shipwreck, and many were attacked by disease. The people are in
great straits. My father, hear me, and hasten to look upon the Ainu
and help them.’ If you do this, your father will help us.” |
15 |
| Again, the Aino keep eagles in cages, worship them
as divinities, and ask them to defend the people from evil. Yet they
offer the bird in sacrifice, and when they are about to do so they
pray to him, saying: “O precious divinity, O thou divine bird, pray
listen to my words. Thou dost not belong to this world, for thy home
is with the Creator and his golden eagles. This being so, I present
thee with these inao and cakes and other precious things. Do
thou ride upon the inao and ascend to thy home in the
glorious heavens. When thou arrivest, assemble the deities of thy
own kind together and thank them for us for having governed the
world. Do thou come again, I beseech thee, and rule over us. O my
precious one, go thou quietly.” Once more, the Aino revere hawks,
keep them in cages, and offer them in sacrifice. At the time of
killing one of them the following prayer should be addressed to the
bird: “O divine hawk, thou art an expert hunter, please cause thy
cleverness to descend on me.” If a hawk is well treated in captivity
and prayed to after this fashion when he is about to be killed, he
will surely send help to the hunter. |
16 |
| Thus the Aino hopes to profit in various ways by
slaughtering the creatures, which, nevertheless, he treats as
divine. He expects them to carry messages for him to their kindred
or to the gods in the upper world; he hopes to partake of their
virtues by swallowing parts of their bodies or in other ways; and
apparently he looks forward to their bodily resurrection in this
world, which will enable him again to catch and kill them, and again
to reap all the benefits which he has already derived from their
slaughter. For in the prayers addressed to the worshipful bear and
the worshipful eagle before they are knocked on the head the
creatures are invited to come again, which seems clearly to point to
a faith in their future resurrection. If any doubt could exist on
this head, it would be dispelled by the evidence of Mr. Batchelor,
who tells us that the Aino “are firmly convinced that the spirits of
birds and animals killed in hunting or offered in sacrifice come and
live again upon the earth clothed with a body; and they believe,
further, that they appear here for the special benefit of men,
particularly Ainu hunters.” The Aino, Mr. Batchelor tells us,
“confessedly slays and eats the beast that another may come in its
place and be treated in like manner”; and at the time of sacrificing
the creatures “prayers are said to them which form a request that
they will come again and furnish viands for another feast, as if it
were an honour to them to be thus killed and eaten, and a pleasure
as well. Indeed such is the people’s idea.” These last observations,
as the context shows, refer especially to the sacrifice of bears. |
17 |
| Thus among the benefits which the Aino anticipates
from the slaughter of the worshipful
animals not the least substantial is that of gorging himself on
their flesh and blood, both on the present and on many a similar
occasion hereafter; and that pleasing prospect again is derived from
his firm faith in the spiritual immortality and bodily resurrection
of the dead animals. A like faith is shared by many savage hunters
in many parts of the world and has given rise to a variety of quaint
customs, some of which will be described presently. Meantime it is
not unimportant to observe that the solemn festivals at which the
Aino, the Gilyaks, and other tribes slaughter the tame caged bears
with demonstrations of respect and sorrow, are probably nothing but
an extension or glorification of similar rites which the hunter
performs over any wild bear which he chances to kill in the forest.
Indeed with regard to the Gilyaks we are expressly informed that
this is the case. If we would understand the meaning of the Gilyak
ritual, says Mr. Sternberg, “we must above all remember that the
bear-festivals are not, as is usually but falsely assumed,
celebrated only at the killing of a house-bear but are held on every
occasion when a Gilyak succeeds in slaughtering a bear in the chase.
It is true that in such cases the festival assumes less imposing
dimensions, but in its essence it remains the same. When the head
and skin of a bear killed in the forest are brought into the
village, they are accorded a triumphal reception with music and
solemn ceremonial. The head is laid on a consecrated scaffold, fed,
and treated with offerings, just as at the killing of a house-bear;
and the guests of honour (Narch-en) are also assembled. So,
too, dogs are sacrificed, and the bones of the bear are preserved in
the same place and with the same marks of respect as the bones of a
house-bear. Hence the great winter festival is only an extension of
the rite which is observed at the slaughter of every bear.” |
18 |
| Thus the apparent contradiction in the practice of
these tribes, who venerate and almost deify the animals which they
habitually hunt, kill, and eat, is not so flagrant as at first sight
it appears to us: the people have reasons, and some very practical
reasons, for acting as they do. For the savage is by no means so
illogical and unpractical as to superficial observers he is apt to
seem; he has thought deeply on the questions which immediately
concern him, he reasons about them, and though his conclusions often
diverge very widely from ours, we ought not to deny him the credit
of patient and prolonged meditation on some fundamental problems of
human existence. In the present case, if he treats bears in general
as creatures wholly subservient to human needs and yet singles out
certain individuals of the species for homage which almost amounts
to deification, we must not hastily set him down as irrational and
inconsistent, but must endeavour to place ourselves at his point of
view, to see things as he sees them, and to divest ourselves of the
prepossessions which tinge so deeply our own views of the world. If
we do so, we shall probably discover that, however absurd his
conduct may appear to us, the savage nevertheless generally acts on
a train of reasoning which seems to him in harmony with the facts of his limited experience.
This I propose to illustrate in the following chapter, where I shall
attempt to show that the solemn ceremonial of the bear-festival
among the Ainos and other tribes of North-eastern Asia is only a
particularly striking example of the respect which on the principles
of his rude philosophy the savage habitually pays to the animals
which he kills and eats. |
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