| Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden
Bough. 1922. |
LIII. The Propitiation of Wild Animals By
Hunters |
| |
| THE EXPLANATION of
life by the theory of an indwelling and practically immortal soul is
one which the savage does not confine to human beings but extends to
the animate creation in general. In so doing he is more liberal and
perhaps more logical than the civilised man, who commonly denies to
animals that privilege of immortality which he claims for himself.
The savage is not so proud; he commonly believes that animals are
endowed with feelings and intelligence like those of men, and that,
like men, they possess souls which survive the death of their bodies
either to wander about as disembodied spirits or to be born again in
animal form. |
1 |
| Thus to the savage, who regards all living creatures
as practically on a footing of equality with man, the act of killing
and eating an animal must wear a very different aspect from that
which the same act presents to us, who regard the intelligence of
animals as far inferior to our own and deny them the possession of
immortal souls. Hence on the principles of his rude philosophy the
primitive hunter who slays an animal believes himself exposed to the
vengeance either of its disembodied spirit or of all the other
animals of the same species, whom he considers as knit together,
like men, by the ties of kin and the obligations of the blood feud,
and therefore as bound to resent the injury done to one of their
number. Accordingly the savage makes it a rule to spare the life of
those animals which he has no pressing motive for killing, at least
such fierce and dangerous animals as are likely to exact a bloody
vengeance for the slaughter of one of their kind. Crocodiles are
animals of this sort. They are only found in hot countries, where,
as a rule, food is abundant and primitive man has therefore little
reason to kill them for the sake of their tough and unpalatable
flesh. Hence it is a custom with some savages to spare crocodiles,
or rather only to kill them in obedience to the law of blood feud,
that is, as a retaliation for the slaughter of men by crocodiles.
For example, the Dyaks of Borneo will not kill a crocodile unless a
crocodile has first killed a man. “For why, say they, should they
commit an act of aggression, when he and his kindred can so easily
repay them? But should the alligator take a human life, revenge
becomes a sacred duty of the living relatives, who will trap the
man-eater in the spirit of an officer of
justice pursuing a criminal. Others, even then, hang back, reluctant
to embroil themselves in a quarrel which does not concern them. The
man-eating alligator is supposed to be pursued by a righteous
Nemesis; and whenever one is caught they have a profound conviction
that it must be the guilty one, or his accomplice.” |
2 |
| Like the Dyaks, the natives of Madagascar never kill
a crocodile “except in retaliation for one of their friends who has
been destroyed by a crocodile. They believe that the wanton
destruction of one of these reptiles will be followed by the loss of
human life, in accordance with the principle of lex
talionis.” The people who live near the lake Itasy in Madagascar
make a yearly proclamation to the crocodiles, announcing that they
will revenge the death of some of their friends by killing as many
crocodiles in return, and warning all well-disposed crocodiles to
keep out of the way, as they have no quarrel with them, but only
with their evil-minded relations who have taken human life. Various
tribes of Madagascar believe themselves to be descended from
crocodiles, and accordingly they view the scaly reptile as, to all
intents and purposes, a man and a brother. If one of the animals
should so far forget himself as to devour one of his human kinsfolk,
the chief of the tribe, or in his absence an old man familiar with
the tribal customs, repairs at the head of the people to the edge of
the water, and summons the family of the culprit to deliver him up
to the arm of justice. A hook is then baited and cast into the river
or lake. Next day the guilty brother, or one of his family, is
dragged ashore, and after his crime has been clearly brought home to
him by a strict interrogation, he is sentenced to death and
executed. The claims of justice being thus satisfied and the majesty
of the law fully vindicated, the deceased crocodile is lamented and
buried like a kinsman; a mound is raised over his relics and a stone
marks the place of his head. |
3 |
| Again, the tiger is another of those dangerous
beasts whom the savage prefers to leave alone, lest by killing one
of the species he should excite the hostility of the rest. No
consideration will induce a Sumatran to catch or wound a tiger
except in self-defence or immediately after a tiger has destroyed a
friend or relation. When a European has set traps for tigers, the
people of the neighbourhood have been known to go by night to the
place and explain to the animals that the traps are not set by them
nor with their consent. The inhabitants of the hills near
Rajamahall, in Bengal, are very averse to killing a tiger, unless
one of their kinsfolk has been carried off by one of the beasts. In
that case they go out for the purpose of hunting and slaying a
tiger; and when they have succeeded they lay their bows and arrows
on the carcase and invoke God, declaring that they slew the animal
in retaliation for the loss of a kinsman. Vengeance having been thus
taken, they swear not to attack another tiger except under similar
provocation. |
4 |
| The Indians of Carolina would not molest snakes when
they came upon them, but would pass by on
the other side of the path, believing that if they were to kill a
serpent, the reptile’s kindred would destroy some of their brethren,
friends, or relations in return. So the Seminole Indians spared the
rattlesnake, because they feared that the soul of the dead
rattlesnake would incite its kinsfolk to take vengeance. The
Cherokee regard the rattlesnake as the chief of the snake tribe and
fear and respect him accordingly. Few Cherokee will venture to kill
a rattlesnake, unless they cannot help it, and even then they must
atone for the crime by craving pardon of the snake’s ghost either in
their own person or through the mediation of a priest, according to
a set formula. If these precautions are neglected, the kinsfolk of
the dead snake will send one of their number as an avenger of blood,
who will track down the murderer and sting him to death. No ordinary
Cherokee dares to kill a wolf, if he can possibly help it; for he
believes that the kindred of the slain beast would surely avenge its
death, and that the weapon with which the deed had been done would
be quite useless for the future, unless it were cleaned and
exorcised by a medicine-man. However, certain persons who know the
proper rites of atonement for such a crime can kill wolves with
impunity, and they are sometimes hired to do so by people who have
suffered from the raids of the wolves on their cattle or fish-traps.
In Jebel-Nuba, a district of the Eastern Sudan, it is forbidden to
touch the nests or remove the young of a species of black birds,
resembling our blackbirds, because the people believe that the
parent birds would avenge the wrong by causing a stormy wind to
blow, which would destroy the harvest. |
5 |
| But the savage clearly cannot afford to spare all
animals. He must either eat some of them or starve, and when the
question thus comes to be whether he or the animal must perish, he
is forced to overcome his superstitious scruples and take the life
of the beast. At the same time he does all he can to appease his
victims and their kinsfolk. Even in the act of killing them he
testifies his respect for them, endeavours to excuse or even conceal
his share in procuring their death, and promises that their remains
will be honourably treated. By thus robbing death of its terrors, he
hopes to reconcile his victims to their fate and to induce their
fellows to come and be killed also. For example, it was a principle
with the Kamtchatkans never to kill a land or sea animal without
first making excuses to it and begging that the animal would not
take it ill. Also they offered it cedarnuts and so forth, to make it
think that it was not a victim but a guest at a feast. They believed
that this hindered other animals of the same species from growing
shy. For instance, after they had killed a bear and feasted on its
flesh, the host would bring the bear’s head before the company, wrap
it in grass, and present it with a variety of trifles. Then he would
lay the blame of the bear’s death on the Russians, and bid the beast
wreak his wrath upon them. Also he would ask the bear to inform the
other bears how well he had been treated, that they too might come
without fear. Seals, sea-lions, and other
animals were treated by the Kamtchatkans with the same ceremonious
respect. Moreover, they used to insert sprigs of a plant resembling
bear’s wort in the mouths of the animals they killed; after which
they would exhort the grinning skulls to have no fear but to go and
tell it to their fellows, that they also might come and be caught
and so partake of this splendid hospitality. When the Ostiaks have
hunted and killed a bear, they cut off its head and hang it on a
tree. Then they gather round in a circle and pay it divine honours.
Next they run towards the carcase uttering lamentations and saying,
“Who killed you? It was the Russians. Who cut off your head? It was
a Russian axe. Who skinned you? It was a knife made by a Russian.”
They explain, too, that the feathers which sped the arrow on its
flight came from the wing of a strange bird, and that they did
nothing but let the arrow go. They do all this because they believe
that the wandering ghost of the slain bear would attack them on the
first opportunity, if they did not thus appease it. Or they stuff
the skin of the slain bear with hay; and after celebrating their
victory with songs of mockery and insult, after spitting on and
kicking it, they set it up on its hind legs, “and then, for a
considerable time, they bestow on it all the veneration due to a
guardian god.” When a party of Koryak have killed a bear or a wolf,
they skin the beast and dress one of themselves in the skin. Then
they dance round the skin-clad man, saying that it was not they who
killed the animal, but some one else, generally a Russian. When they
kill a fox they skin it, wrap the body in grass, and bid him go tell
his companions how hospitably he has been received, and how he has
received a new cloak instead of his old one. A fuller account of the
Koryak ceremonies is given by a more recent writer. He tells us that
when a dead bear is brought to the house, the women come out to meet
it, dancing with firebrands. The bear-skin is taken off along with
the head; and one of the women puts on the skin, dances in it, and
entreats the bear not to be angry, but to be kind to the people. At
the same time they offer meat on a wooden platter to the dead beast,
saying, “Eat, friend.” Afterwards a ceremony is performed for the
purpose of sending the dead bear, or rather his spirit, away back to
his home. He is provided with provisions for the journey in the
shape of puddings or reindeer-flesh packed in a grass bag. His skin
is stuffed with grass and carried round the house, after which he is
supposed to depart towards the rising sun. The intention of the
ceremonies is to protect the people from the wrath of the slain bear
and his kinsfolk, and so to ensure success in future bear-hunts. The
Finns used to try to persuade a slain bear that he had not been
killed by them, but had fallen from a tree, or met his death in some
other way; moreover, they held a funeral festival in his honour, at
the close of which bards expatiated on the homage that had been paid
to him, urging him to report to the other bears the high
consideration with which he had been treated, in order that they
also, following his example, might come and be slain. When the Lapps
had succeeded in killing a bear with
impunity, they thanked him for not hurting them and for not breaking
the clubs and spears which had given him his death wounds; and they
prayed that he would not visit his death upon them by sending storms
or in any other way. His flesh then furnished a feast. |
6 |
| The reverence of hunters for the bear whom they
regularly kill and eat may thus be traced all along the northern
region of the Old World from Bering’s Straits to Lappland. It
reappears in similar forms in North America. With the American
Indians a bear hunt was an important event for which they prepared
by long fasts and purgations. Before setting out they offered
expiatory sacrifices to the souls of bears slain in previous hunts,
and besought them to be favourable to the hunters. When a bear was
killed the hunter lit his pipe, and putting the mouth of it between
the bear’s lips, blew into the bowl, filling the beast’s mouth with
smoke. Then he begged the bear not to be angry at having been
killed, and not to thwart him afterwards in the chase. The carcase
was roasted whole and eaten; not a morsel of the flesh might be left
over. The head, painted red and blue, was hung on a post and
addressed by orators, who heaped praise on the dead beast. When men
of the Bear clan in the Ottawa tribe killed a bear, they made him a
feast of his own flesh, and addressed him thus: “Cherish us no
grudge because we have killed you. You have sense; you see that our
children are hungry. They love you and wish to take you into their
bodies. Is it not glorious to be eaten by the children of a chief?”
Amongst the Nootka Indians of British Columbia, when a bear had been
killed, it was brought in and seated before the head chief in an
upright posture, with a chief’s bonnet, wrought in figures, on its
head, and its fur powdered over with white down. A tray of
provisions was then set before it, and it was invited by words and
gestures to eat. After that the animal was skinned, boiled, and
eaten. |
7 |
| A like respect is testified for other dangerous
creatures by the hunters who regularly trap and kill them. When
Caffre hunters are in the act of showering spears on an elephant,
they call out, “Don’t kill us, great captain; don’t strike or tread
upon us, mighty chief.” When he is dead they make their excuses to
him, pretending that his death was a pure accident. As a mark of
respect they bury his trunk with much solemn ceremony; for they say
that “the elephant is a great lord; his trunk is his hand.” Before
the Amaxosa Caffres attack an elephant they shout to the animal and
beg him to pardon them for the slaughter they are about to
perpetrate, professing great submission to his person and explaining
clearly the need they have of his tusks to enable them to procure
beads and supply their wants. When they have killed him they bury in
the ground, along with the end of his trunk, a few of the articles
they have obtained for the ivory, thus hoping to avert some mishap
that would otherwise befall them. Amongst some tribes of Eastern
Africa, when a lion is killed, the carcase is brought before the
king, who does homage to it by prostrating himself on the ground and rubbing his face on the muzzle
of the beast. In some parts of Western Africa if a negro kills a
leopard he is bound fast and brought before the chiefs for having
killed one of their peers. The man defends himself on the plea that
the leopard is chief of the forest and therefore a stranger. He is
then set at liberty and rewarded. But the dead leopard, adorned with
a chief’s bonnet, is set up in the village, where nightly dances are
held in its honour. The Baganda greatly fear the ghosts of buffaloes
which they have killed, and they always appease these dangerous
spirits. On no account will they bring the head of a slain buffalo
into a village or into a garden of plantains: they always eat the
flesh of the head in the open country. Afterwards they place the
skull in a small hut built for the purpose, where they pour out beer
as an offering and pray to the ghost to stay where he is and not to
harm them. |
8 |
| Another formidable beast whose life the savage
hunter takes with joy, yet with fear and trembling, is the whale.
After the slaughter of a whale the maritime Koryak of North-eastern
Siberia hold a communal festival, the essential part of which “is
based on the conception that the whale killed has come on a visit to
the village; that it is staying for some time, during which it is
treated with great respect; that it then returns to the sea to
repeat its visit the following year; that it will induce its
relatives to come along, telling them of the hospitable reception
that has been accorded to it. According to the Koryak ideas, the
whales, like all other animals, constitute one tribe, or rather
family, of related individuals, who live in villages like the
Koryak. They avenge the murder of one of their number, and are
grateful for kindnesses that they may have received.” When the
inhabitants of the Isle of St. Mary, to the north of Madagascar, go
a-whaling, they single out the young whales for attack and “humbly
beg the mother’s pardon, stating the necessity that drives them to
kill her progeny, and requesting that she will be pleased to go
below while the deed is doing, that her maternal feelings may not be
outraged by witnessing what must cause her so much uneasiness.” An
Ajumba hunter having killed a female hippopotamus on Lake Azyingo in
West Africa, the animal was decapitated and its quarters and bowels
removed. Then the hunter, naked, stepped into the hollow of the
ribs, and kneeling down in the bloody pool washed his whole body
with the blood and excretions of the animal, while he prayed to the
soul of the hippopotamus not to bear him a grudge for having killed
her and so blighted her hopes of future maternity; and he further
entreated the ghost not to stir up other hippopotamuses to avenge
her death by butting at and capsizing his canoe. |
9 |
| The ounce, a leopard-like creature, is dreaded for
its depredations by the Indians of Brazil. When they have caught one
of these animals in a snare, they kill it and carry the body home to
the village. There the women deck the carcase with feathers of many
colours, put bracelets on its legs, and weep over it, saying, “I
pray thee not to take vengeance on our little ones for having been
caught and killed through thine own
ignorance. For it was not we who deceived thee, it was thyself. Our
husbands only set the trap to catch animals that are good to eat;
they never thought to take thee in it. Therefore, let not thy soul
counsel thy fellows to avenge thy death on our little ones!” When a
Blackfoot Indian has caught eagles in a trap and killed them, he
takes them home to a special lodge, called the eagles’ lodge, which
has been prepared for their reception outside of the camp. Here he
sets the birds in a row on the ground, and propping up their heads
on a stick, puts a piece of dried meat in each of their mouths in
order that the spirits of the dead eagles may go and tell the other
eagles how well they are being treated by the Indians. So when
Indian hunters of the Orinoco region have killed an animal, they
open its mouth and pour into it a few drops of the liquor they
generally carry with them, in order that the soul of the dead beast
may inform its fellows of the welcome it has met with, and that they
too, cheered by the prospect of the same kind reception, may come
with alacrity to be killed. When a Teton Indian is on a journey, and
he meets a grey spider or a spider with yellow legs, he kills it,
because some evil would befall him if he did not. But he is very
careful not to let the spider know that he kills it, for if the
spider knew, his soul would go and tell the other spiders, and one
of them would be sure to avenge the death of his relation. So in
crushing the insect, the Indian says, “O Grandfather Spider, the
Thunder-beings kill you.” And the spider is crushed at once and
believes what is told him. His soul probably runs and tells the
other spiders that the Thunder-beings have killed him; but no harm
comes of that. For what can grey or yellow-legged spiders do to the
Thunder-beings? |
10 |
| But it is not merely dangerous creatures with whom
the savage desires to keep on good terms. It is true that the
respect which he pays to wild beasts is in some measure proportioned
to their strength and ferocity. Thus the savage Stiens of Cambodia,
believing that all animals have souls which roam about after their
death, beg an animal’s pardon when they kill it, lest its soul
should come and torment them. Also they offer it sacrifices, but
these sacrifices are proportioned to the size and strength of the
animal. The ceremonies which they observe at the death of an
elephant are conducted with much pomp and last seven days. Similar
distinctions are drawn by North American Indians. “The bear, the
buffalo, and the beaver are manidos [divinities] which furnish food.
The bear is formidable, and good to eat. They render ceremonies to
him, begging him to allow himself to be eaten, although they know he
has no fancy for it. We kill you, but you are not annihilated. His
head and paws are objects of homage… . Other animals are treated
similarly from similar reasons… . Many of the animal manidos, not
being dangerous, are often treated with contempt—the terrapin, the
weasel, polecat, etc.” The distinction is instructive. Animals which
are feared, or are good to eat, or both, are treated with
ceremonious respect; those which are neither formidable nor good to
eat are despised. We have had examples of reverence paid to animals which are both feared and eaten. It remains
to prove that similar respect is shown to animals which, without
being feared, are either eaten or valued for their skins. |
11 |
| When Siberian sable-hunters have caught a sable, no
one is allowed to see it, and they think that if good or evil be
spoken of the captured sable no more sables will be caught. A hunter
has been known to express his belief that the sables could hear what
was said of them as far off as Moscow. He said that the chief reason
why the sable hunt was now so unproductive was that some live sables
had been sent to Moscow. There they had been viewed with
astonishment as strange animals, and the sables cannot abide that.
Another, though minor, cause of the diminished take of sables was,
he alleged, that the world is now much worse than it used to be, so
that nowadays a hunter will sometimes hide the sable which he has
got instead of putting it into the common stock. This also, said he,
the sables cannot abide. Alaskan hunters preserve the bones of
sables and beavers out of reach of the dogs for a year and then bury
them carefully, “lest the spirits who look after the beavers and
sables should consider that they are regarded with contempt, and
hence no more should be killed or trapped.” The Canadian Indians
were equally particular not to let their dogs gnaw the bones, or at
least certain of the bones, of beavers. They took the greatest pains
to collect and preserve these bones, and, when the beaver had been
caught in a net, they threw them into the river. To a Jesuit who
argued that the beavers could not possibly know what became of their
bones, the Indians replied, “You know nothing about catching beavers
and yet you will be prating about it. Before the beaver is stone
dead, his soul takes a turn in the hut of the man who is killing him
and makes a careful note of what is done with his bones. If the
bones are given to the dogs, the other beavers would get word of it
and would not let themselves be caught. Whereas, if their bones are
thrown into the fire or a river, they are quite satisfied; and it is
particularly gratifying to the net which caught them.” Before
hunting the beaver they offered a solemn prayer to the Great Beaver,
and presented him with tobacco; and when the chase was over, an
orator pronounced a funeral oration over the dead beavers. He
praised their spirit and wisdom. “You will hear no more,” said he,
“the voice of the chieftains who commanded you and whom you chose
from among all the warrior beavers to give you laws. Your language,
which the medicine-men understand perfectly, will be heard no more
at the bottom of the lake. You will fight no more battles with the
otters, your cruel foes. No, beavers! But your skins shall serve to
buy arms; we will carry your smoked hams to our children; we will
keep the dogs from eating your bones, which are so hard.” |
12 |
| The elan, deer, and elk were treated by the American
Indians with the same punctilious respect, and for the same reason.
Their bones might not be given to the dogs nor thrown into the fire,
nor might their fat be dropped upon the fire, because the souls of
the dead animals were believed to see what
was done to their bodies and to tell it to the other beasts, living
and dead. Hence, if their bodies were illused, the animals of that
species would not allow themselves to be taken, neither in this
world nor in the world to come. Among the Chiquites of Paraguay a
sick man would be asked by the medicine-man whether he had not
thrown away some of the flesh of the deer or turtle, and if he
answered yes, the medicine-man would say, “That is what is killing
you. The soul of the deer or turtle has entered into your body to
avenge the wrong you did it.” The Canadian Indians would not eat the
embryos of the elk, unless at the close of the hunting season;
otherwise the mother-elks would be shy and refuse to be caught. |
13 |
| In the Timor-laut islands of the Indian Archipelago
the skulls of all the turtles which a fisherman has caught are hung
up under his house. Before he goes out to catch another, he
addresses himself to the skull of the last turtle that he killed,
and having inserted betel between its jaws, he prays the spirit of
the dead animal to entice its kinsfolk in the sea to come and be
caught. In the Poso district of Central Celebes hunters keep the
jawbones of deer and wild pigs which they have killed and hang them
up in their houses near the fire. Then they say to the jawbones, “Ye
cry after your comrades, that your grandfathers, or nephews, or
children may not go away.” Their notion is that the souls of the
dead deer and pigs tarry near their jawbones and attract the souls
of living deer and pigs, which are thus drawn into the toils of the
hunter. Thus the wily savage employs dead animals as decoys to lure
living animals to their doom. |
14 |
| The Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco love to hunt
the ostrich, but when they have killed one of these birds and are
bringing home the carcase to the village, they take steps to outwit
the resentful ghost of their victim. They think that when the first
natural shock of death is passed, the ghost of the ostrich pulls
himself together and makes after his body. Acting on this sage
calculation, the Indians pluck feathers from the breast of the bird
and strew them at intervals along the track. At every bunch of
feathers the ghost stops to consider, “Is this the whole of my body
or only a part of it?” The doubt gives him pause, and when at last
he has made up his mind fully at all the bunches, and has further
wasted valuable time by the zigzag course which he invariably
pursues in going from one to another, the hunters are safe at home,
and the bilked ghost may stalk in vain round about the village,
which he is too timid to enter. |
15 |
| The Esquimaux about Bering Strait believe that the
souls of dead sea-beasts, such as seals, walrus, and whales, remain
attached to their bladders, and that by returning the bladders to
the sea they can cause the souls to be reincarnated in fresh bodies
and so multiply the game which the hunters pursue and kill. Acting
on this belief every hunter carefully removes and preserves the
bladders of all the sea-beasts that he kills; and at a solemn
festival held once a year in winter these bladders, containing the
souls of all the sea-beasts that have been killed throughout the
year, are honoured with dances and
offerings of food in the public assembly-room, after which they are
taken out on the ice and thrust through holes into the water; for
the simple Esquimaux imagine that the souls of the animals, in high
good humour at the kind treatment they have experienced, will
thereafter be born again as seals, walrus, and whales, and in that
form will flock willingly to be again speared, harpooned, or
otherwise done to death by the hunters. |
16 |
| For like reasons, a tribe which depends for its
subsistence, chiefly or in part, upon fishing is careful to treat
the fish with every mark of honour and respect. The Indians of Peru
“adored the fish that they caught in greatest abundance; for they
said that the first fish that was made in the world above (for so
they named Heaven) gave birth to all other fish of that species, and
took care to send them plenty of its children to sustain their
tribe. For this reason they worshipped sardines in one region, where
they killed more of them than of any other fish; in others, the
skate; in others, the dogfish; in others, the golden fish for its
beauty; in others, the crawfish; in others, for want of larger gods,
the crabs, where they had no other fish, or where they knew not how
to catch and kill them. In short, they had whatever fish was most
serviceable to them as their gods.” The Kwakiutl Indians of British
Columbia think that when a salmon is killed its soul returns to the
salmon country. Hence they take care to throw the bones and offal
into the sea, in order that the soul may reanimate them at the
resurrection of the salmon. Whereas if they burned the bones the
soul would be lost, and so it would be quite impossible for that
salmon to rise from the dead. In like manner the Ottawa Indians of
Canada, believing that the souls of dead fish passed into other
bodies of fish, never burned fish bones, for fear of displeasing the
souls of the fish, who would come no more to the nets. The Hurons
also refrained from throwing fish bones into the fire, lest the
souls of the fish should go and warn the other fish not to let
themselves be caught, since the Hurons would burn their bones.
Moreover, they had men who preached to the fish and persuaded them
to come and be caught. A good preacher was much sought after, for
they thought that the exhortations of a clever man had a great
effect in drawing the fish to the nets. In the Huron fishing village
where the French missionary Sagard stayed, the preacher to the fish
prided himself very much on his eloquence, which was of a florid
order. Every evening after supper, having seen that all the people
were in their places and that a strict silence was observed, he
preached to the fish. His text was that the Hurons did not burn fish
bones. “Then enlarging on this theme with extraordinary unction, he
exhorted and conjured and invited and implored the fish to come and
be caught and to be of good courage and to fear nothing, for it was
all to serve their friends who honoured them and did not burn their
bones.” The natives of the Duke of York Island annually decorate a
canoe with flowers and ferns, lade it, or are supposed to lade it,
with shell-money, and set it adrift to compensate the fish for their
fellows who have been caught and eaten. It
is especially necessary to treat the first fish caught with
consideration in order to conciliate the rest of the fish, whose
conduct may be supposed to be influenced by the reception given to
those of their kind which were the first to be taken. Accordingly
the Maoris always put back into the sea the first fish caught, “with
a prayer that it may tempt other fish to come and be caught.” |
17 |
| Still more stringent are the precautions taken when
the fish are the first of the season. On salmon rivers, when the
fish begin to run up the stream in spring, they are received with
much deference by tribes who, like the Indians of the Pacific Coast
of North America, subsist largely upon a fish diet. In British
Columbia the Indians used to go out to meet the first fish as they
came up the river: “They paid court to them, and would address them
thus: ‘You fish, you fish; you are all chiefs, you are; you are all
chiefs.’” Amongst the Tlingit of Alaska the first halibut of the
season is carefully handled and addressed as a chief, and a festival
is given in his honour, after which the fishing goes on. In spring,
when the winds blow soft from the south and the salmon begin to run
up the Klamath river, the Karoks of California dance for salmon, to
ensure a good catch. One of the Indians, called the Kareya or
God-man, retires to the mountains and fasts for ten days. On his
return the people flee, while he goes to the river, takes the first
salmon of the catch, eats some of it, and with the rest kindles the
sacred fire in the sweating house. “No Indian may take a salmon
before this dance is held, nor for ten days after it, even if his
family are starving.” The Karoks also believe that a fisherman will
take no salmon if the poles of which his spearing-booth is made were
gathered on the river-side, where the salmon might have seen them.
The poles must be brought from the top of the highest mountain. The
fisherman will also labour in vain if he uses the same poles a
second year in booths or weirs, “because the old salmon will have
told the young ones about them. There is a favourite fish of the
Aino which appears in their rivers about May and June. They prepare
for the fishing by observing rules of ceremonial purity, and when
they have gone out to fish, the women at home must keep strict
silence or the fish would hear them and disappear. When the first
fish is caught he is brought home and passed through a small opening
at the end of the hut, but not through the door; for if he were
passed through the door, “the other fish would certainly see him and
disappear.” This may partly explain the custom observed by other
savages of bringing game in certain cases into their huts, not by
the door, but by the window, the smoke-hole, or by a special opening
at the back of the hut. |
18 |
| With some savages a special reason for respecting
the bones of game, and generally of the animals which they eat, is a
belief that, if the bones are preserved, they will in course of time
be reclothed with flesh, and thus the animal will come to life
again. It is, therefore, clearly for the interest of the hunter to
leave the bones intact since to destroy
them would be to diminish the future supply of game. Many of the
Minnetaree Indians “believe that the bones of those bisons which
they have slain and divested of flesh rise again clothed with
renewed flesh, and quickened with life, and become fat, and fit for
slaughter the succeeding June.” Hence on the western prairies of
America, the skulls of buffaloes may be seen arranged in circles and
symmetrical piles, awaiting the resurrection. After feasting on a
dog, the Dacotas carefully collect the bones, scrape, wash, and bury
them, “partly, as it is said, to testify to the dog-species, that in
feasting upon one of their number no disrespect was meant to the
species itself, and partly also from a belief that the bones of the
animal will rise and reproduce another.” In sacrificing an animal
the Lapps regularly put aside the bones, eyes, ears, heart, lungs,
sexual parts (if the animal was a male), and a morsel of flesh from
each limb. Then, after eating the remainder of the flesh, they laid
the bones and the rest in anatomical order in a coffin and buried
them with the usual rites, believing that the god to whom the animal
was sacrificed would reclothe the bones with flesh and restore the
animal to life in Jabme-Aimo, the subterranean world of the dead.
Sometimes, as after feasting on a bear, they seem to have contented
themselves with thus burying the bones. Thus the Lapps expected the
resurrection of the slain animal to take place in another world,
resembling in this respect the Kamtchatkans, who believed that every
creature, down to the smallest fly, would rise from the dead and
live underground. On the other hand, the North American Indians
looked for the resurrection of the animals in the present world. The
habit, observed especially by Mongolian peoples, of stuffing the
skin of a sacrificed animal, or stretching it on a framework, points
rather to a belief in a resurrection of the latter sort. The
objection commonly entertained by primitive peoples to break the
bones of the animals which they have eaten or sacrificed may be
based either on a belief in the resurrection of the animals, or on a
fear of intimidating other creatures of the same species and
offending the ghosts of the slain animals. The reluctance of North
American Indians and Esquimaux to let dogs gnaw the bones of animals
is perhaps only a precaution to prevent the bones from being
broken. |
19 |
| But after all the resurrection of dead game may have
its inconveniences, and accordingly some hunters take steps to
prevent it by hamstringing the animal so as to prevent it or its
ghost from getting up and running away. This is the motive alleged
for the practice by Koui hunters in Laos; they think that the spells
which they utter in the chase may lose their magical virtue, and
that the slaughtered animal may consequently come to life again and
escape. To prevent that catastrophe they therefore hamstring the
beast as soon as they have butchered it. When an Esquimau of Alaska
has killed a fox, he carefully cuts the tendons of all the animal’s
legs in order to prevent the ghost from reanimating the body and
walking about. But hamstringing the carcase is not the only measure
which the prudent savage adopts for the
sake of disabling the ghost of his victim. In old days, when the
Aino went out hunting and killed a fox first, they took care to tie
its mouth up tightly in order to prevent the ghost of the animal
from sallying forth and warning its fellows against the approach of
the hunter. The Gilyaks of the Amoor River put out the eyes of the
seals they have killed, lest the ghosts of the slain animals should
know their slayers and avenge their death by spoiling the
seal-hunt. |
20 |
| Besides the animals which primitive man dreads for
their strength and ferocity, and those which he reveres on account
of the benefits which he expects from them, there is another class
of creatures which he sometimes deems it necessary to conciliate by
worship and sacrifice. These are the vermin that infest his crops
and his cattle. To rid himself of these deadly foes the farmer has
recourse to many superstitious devices, of which, though some are
meant to destroy or intimidate the vermin, others aim at
propitiating them and persuading them by fair means to spare the
fruits of the earth and the herds. Thus Esthonian peasants, in the
island of Oesel, stand in great awe of the weevil, an insect which
is exceedingly destructive to the grain. They give it a fine name,
and if a child is about to kill a weevil they say, “Don’t do it; the
more we hurt him, the more he hurts us.” If they find a weevil they
bury it in the earth instead of killing it. Some even put the weevil
under a stone in the field and offer corn to it. They think that
thus it is appeased and does less harm. Amongst the Saxons of
Transylvania, in order to keep sparrows from the corn, the sower
begins by throwing the first handful of seed backwards over his
head, saying, “That is for you, sparrows.” To guard the corn against
the attacks of leaf-flies he shuts his eyes and scatters three
handfuls of oats in different directions. Having made this offering
to the leaf-flies he feels sure that they will spare the corn. A
Transylvanian way of securing the crops against all birds, beasts,
and insects, is this: after he has finished sowing, the sower goes
once more from end to end of the field imitating the gesture of
sowing, but with an empty hand. As he does so he says, “I sow this
for the animals; I sow it for every thing that flies and creeps,
that walks and stands, that sings and springs, in the name of God
the Father, etc.” The following is a German way of freeing a garden
from caterpillars. After sunset or at midnight the mistress of the
house, or another female member of the family, walks all round the
garden dragging a broom after her. She may not look behind her, and
must keep murmuring, “Good evening, Mother Caterpillar, you shall
come with your husband to church.” The garden gate is left open till
the following morning. |
21 |
| Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer aims at
hitting a happy mean between excessive rigour on the one hand and
weak indulgence on the other; kind but firm, he tempers severity
with mercy. An ancient Greek treatise on farming advises the
husbandman who would rid his lands of mice to act thus: “Take a
sheet of paper and write on it as follows: ‘I adjure you, ye mice
here present, that ye neither injure me nor suffer another mouse to
do so. I give you yonder field’ (here you
specify the field); ‘but if ever I catch you here again, by the
Mother of the Gods I will rend you in seven pieces.’ Write this, and
stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the field before sunrise,
taking care to keep the written side up.” In the Ardennes they say
that to get rid of rats you should repeat the following words:
“Erat verbum, apud Deum vestrum. Male rats and female rats, I
conjure you, by the great God, to go out of my house, out of all my
habitations, and to betake yourselves to such and such a place,
there to end your days. Decretis, reversis et desembarassis virgo
potens, clemens, justitiae.” Then write the same words on pieces
of paper, fold them up, and place one of them under the door by
which the rats are to go forth, and the other on the road which they
are to take. This exorcism should be performed at sunrise. Some
years ago an American farmer was reported to have written a civil
letter to the rats, telling them that his crops were short, that he
could not afford to keep them through the winter, that he had been
very kind to them, and that for their own good he thought they had
better leave him and go to some of his neighbours who had more
grain. This document he pinned to a post in his barn for the rats to
read. |
22 |
| Sometimes the desired object is supposed to be
attained by treating with high distinction one or two chosen
individuals of the obnoxious species, while the rest are pursued
with relentless rigour. In the East Indian island of Bali, the mice
which ravage the rice-fields are caught in great numbers, and burned
in the same way that corpses are burned. But two of the captured
mice are allowed to live, and receive a little packet of white
linen. Then the people bow down before them, as before gods, and let
them go. When the farms of the Sea Dyaks or Ibans of Sarawak are
much pestered by birds and insects, they catch a specimen of each
kind of vermin (one sparrow, one grasshopper, and so on), put them
in a tiny boat of bark well-stocked with provisions, and then allow
the little vessel with its obnoxious passengers to float down the
river. If that does not drive the pests away, the Dyaks resort to
what they deem a more effectual mode of accomplishing the same
purpose. They make a clay crocodile as large as life and set it up
in the fields, where they offer it food, rice-spirit, and cloth, and
sacrifice a fowl and a pig before it. Mollified by these attentions,
the ferocious animal very soon gobbles up all the creatures that
devour the crops. In Albania, if the fields or vineyards are ravaged
by locusts or beetles, some of the women will assemble with
dishevelled hair, catch a few of the insects, and march with them in
a funeral procession to a spring or stream, in which they drown the
creatures. Then one of the women sings, “O locusts and beetles who
have left us bereaved,” and the dirge is taken up and repeated by
all the women in chorus. Thus by celebrating the obsequies of a few
locusts and beetles, they hope to bring about the death of them all.
When caterpillars invaded a vineyard or field in Syria, the virgins
were gathered, and one of the caterpillars was taken and a girl made
its mother. Then they bewailed and buried it. Thereafter they
conducted the “mother” to the place where
the caterpillars were, consoling her, in order that all the
caterpillars might leave the garden. |
23 |
|
|
.gif){kind=small}
