UNVERSTVO CALFOBJIIA S.N DIEGO 3 1822 02201 2983 LIBRARY UNfVWSlTY OF CALIPORNIA SAN DIEGO THE LIBRARY OF - JOHN R. RANDOLPHS Date Acquirej No Sec Shelf. IFORNIA. SAN DIEGO _, 31822022012983 Social Sciences & Humanities Library University of California, San Diego Please Note: This item is subject to recall. Date Due DEC 1 9 1997 Cl 39 (2*95) UCSD Lib. FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION LEGEND AND LAW BY SIR JAMES GEORGE FRAZER HON. D.C.L., OXFORD; HON. LL.D., GLASGOW; HON. LITT.D., DURHAM FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. II MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1919 COPYRIGHT First Edition 1918 Reprinted 1919 CONTENTS PART II THE PATRIARCHAL AGE (Continued} CHAPTER III JACOB AND THE KIDSKINS : OR THE NEW BIRTH I. The Diverted Blessing PAGH Story of Jacob's trick perhaps a reminiscence of a legal ceremony . . i How Jacob, disguised as his elder brother, obtained the blessing . . 2 Displacement of an elder by a younger son in the succession . . 4 2. Sacrificial Skins in Ritual East African tribes in relation to the Semites . 4 Fat and skin of animal in Galla rite of adoption . . . 6 Rings made from skins of sacrificial victims in East Africa . . 7 Kikuyu ceremony of the new birth , . . . .7 Assimilation of mother and child to sheep and lamb . . .10 Sacrificial skins at Kikuyu ceremony of adoption . . . .10 Sacrificial skins at circumcision in East Africa . . . .11 Sacrificial skins at marriage in East Africa . . . .12 Sacrificial skins at covenants in East Africa . . . .13 Sacrificial skins in another Kikuyu rite . . . . .15 Sacrificial skins at sacrifices in East Africa . . . .16 Sacrificial skins in sickness, etc., in East Africa . . . .18 Sacrificial skins at expiations among the Wachaga . . .20 Sacrificial skins at expiations among the Akikuyu . . 23 Sacrificial skins at expiations among the Wawanga . . .24 Sacrificial skins at transference of government in East Africa . . 25 Victim's skin intended to identify the wearer with the animal . . 26 Passing a child through a skin ring in Madagascar . . .27 vi FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 3. The New Birth PAGE Legal fiction of a new birth to effect a change of status . .27 Fiction of new birth at adoption in antiquity and the Middle Ages Fiction of new birth at adoption among Slavs and Turks . . 29 Fiction of new birth at adoption among the Klemantans . 29 Fiction of new birth at adoption among the Bahima 3 Fiction of new birth enacted in Greece and India by persons erroneously thought to be dead .... 3 l Fiction of new birth to raise a Brahman to the rank of a god . . 32 Fiction of new birth in India as expiation for breach of custom . . 33 Fiction of new birth from a metal cow as expiation in India . . 34 Fiction of new birth from a golden cow to raise Maharajahs of Travancore to Brahman rank . . . . . . -35 Fiction of new birth from a live cow in India . . . -37 Rite of new birth tends to dwindle into an abridged form . . .38 4. Conclusion Jacob and the kidskins in relation to the rite of the new birth . . 39 CHAPTER IV JACOB AT BETHEL I. Jacob's Dream Jacob sent away to Laban in Haran . . . . .40 His dream of the heavenly ladder at Bethel . . , 41 The stone at Bethel set up and anointed . . . . .41 2. Dreams of the Gods Belief that gods reveal themselves to men in dreams . . .42 Dreams in the sanctuary of Amphiaraus at Oropus . . .43 Dreams in the sanctuary of Aesculapius at Epidaurus . . .44 Dream oracle of Ino or Pasiphae in Laconia . . . .50 Dream oracles in ancient Italy . . . . . 5 J 3. The Heavenly Ladder African tales of heavenly ladders .... C2 Toradja tales of creepers connecting earth and heaven . . .52 Stories of heavenly ladder, etc., in Sumatra, Madagascar, and Russia . 53 Ladders to facilitate the descent of gods or spirits . . -55 Ladders in graves for the dead to climb up . . . -57 CONTENTS vii 4. The Sacred Stone PAGE Popularity of the sanctuary at Bethel . . . . 58 Sacred stones at Canaanite and Hebrew sanctuaries . . .59 Stones worshipped by the ancient Arabs and Greeks . . -59 Worship of stones in the Banks' Islands and New Hebrides . . 60 Worship of stones in the Torres Straits Islands . . . .63 Worship of stones in Samoa . . . . . .64 Worship of stones in Bowditch Island and Nukunau . . .64 Worship of stones in the Indian Archipelago . . . .65 Worship of stones among the Karens of Burma . . . .66 Worship of stones among the Semas of Assam . . . .66 Worship of stones in India . . . . . .67 Worship of stones in China and the Caucasus . . . .67 Worship of stones in Madagascar and Africa . . . .68 Worship of stones among the North American Indians . . .69 The Gruagach stones in the highlands of Scotland . . .72 Sacred stones anointed in Norway . . . . .72 Sacred stones anointed in classical antiquity . . .72 Sacred stones anointed in India . . . . . -73 Sacred stones anointed in the Kei Islands, Madagascar, and Africa . 74 The anointed stone at Bethel . . . . . -76 Many Bethels (baitylia) in Canaan . . . .76 The standing stones (masseboth) of Canaanite sanctuaries . . -77 CHAPTER V JACOB AT THE WELL I. Watering the Flocks Jacob's meeting with Rachel at the well . . . . .78 Watering the flocks at wells in modern Palestine . . . -79 Women as shepherdesses in Palestine and Arabia . . .81 2. Weeping as a Salutation The weeping of Jacob at meeting Rachel . . . .82 Weeping at the meeting of friends in the Old Testament . . .83 Weeping at meeting among the Maoris . . . . .84 Weeping as a salutation in the Andaman Islands and India . 86 Weeping as a salutation among the American Indians , . .87 Such salutations perhaps meant to effect a corporeal union . . 90 Initiation of a scavenger in the Punjab . . . .90 Spittle at initiation among the Baluba . ' . . 91 Spittle at covenanting and saluting in East Africa . . .92 The springs of tears and laughter . . , , -93 viii FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT CHAPTER VI JACOB'S MARRIAGE I. Jacob and his two Wives PAGE Different motives assigned for Jacob's journey to Haran . 94 Aversion of Jews to marriage with strange women . . -95 Jacob's marriage with his cousins in accordance with common custom . 97 2. The Marriage of Cousins Distinction between cross-cousins, who are marriageable, and ortho-cousins, who are not marriageable . . . . .98 3. The Marriage of Cousins in India Distinction in respect of cousin-marriage between Aryans and aborigines . 99 Marriage of cousins forbidden by Hindoo law . . . .100 Marriage of cross-cousins commonly preferred among the aborigines . 100 Marriage with mother'* brother's daughter in Southern India . 101 Cross-cousin marriage among the Dravidians . . . .102 Cross-cousin marriage in Ceylon and Cochin . . . .102 Cross-cousin marriage among the Todas . . . . .103 Cross-cousin marriage among the Tamil -speaking Dravidians . .104 Marriage with a niece in Southern India . . . . .109 Cross-cousin marriage among the Telugu-speaking Dravidians . .109 Menarikam, marriage with a mother's brother's daughter. . .no Marriage with a cross-cousin or a niece in Mysore . . .113 Cross-cousin marriage among the Canarese-speaking Dravidians . .117 Cross-cousin marriage among Oriya-speaking castes of Southern India . 117 Cross-cousin marriage among Brahmans in Southern India . .119 Cross-cousin marriage in Central and Northern India . . .120 Cross-cousin marriage among the Gonds . . . . .120 Tendency to prefer marriage with father's sister's daughter . .121 Economic motive for marriage with mother's brother's daughter . .124 Marriage with father's sister's daughter forbidden in some castes . .124 Economic motives for marriage with a cross-cousin . . .125 Preference for one of the two forms of cross-cousin marriage . .126 Cross-cousin marriage among the Kotvalias of Baroda . . .127 Cross-cousin marriage among Dravidian tribes of Mirzapur . .128 Cross-cousin marriage among Bhotiyas of Northern India . . .129 Cross-cousin marriage in the Punjab . . . . . 130 Cross-cousin marriage among Mohammedans of N.W. India . .130 Cross-cousin marriage among aboriginal tribes of Bengal . . -131 Cross-cousin marriage among Mongoloid tribes of Chittagong and Assam . 132 CONTENTS ix 4. The Marriage of Cousins in other Parts of Asia PAGE Cousin marriage practised in other parts of Asia . . .134 Cross-cousin marriage among the Chins of Burma . . 135 Cross-cousin marriage among the Singphos or Kachins of Burma . .136 Cousin marriage among the Karens of Burma . . . .138 Cousin marriage in Southern China and the Malay Peninsula . .138 Cross-cousin marriage among the Gilyaks . . . ..138 Cousin marriage among the tribes of North-Eastern Siberia . 139 5. The Marriage of Cousins in America Cousin marriage hardly recorded among American aborigines . .140 Cousin marriage among the Aleuts . . . . .141 Cousin marriage among the Eskimo . . . . .141 Cross-cousin marriage among the Western Tinnehs . . .143 Economic motive for marriage with mother's brother's daughter . .145 Cross-cousin marriage probably once common in North America . .146 Cross-cousin marriage among the Indians of the Antilles and South America . ...... 148 6. The Marriage of Cousins in Africa Cross-cousin marriage common in Africa ..... 140 Cross-cousin marriage among the Herero . . . . .150 Cousin marriage among the Bantus of South-East Africa . . .150 Cousin marriage among the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Rhodesia . ' 151 Cross-cousin marriage among the Awemba of Rhodesia . . 153 Cousin marriage forbidden among the Winamwanga . . .154 Cousin marriage forbidden in some tribes of Rhodesia . . x 5 5 Cross-cousin marriage among the Wahehe and Wagogo . . .156 Cross-cousin marriage in West Africa and Egypt . . 157 Cousin marriage in Madagascar . . . . . '57 The marriage of all first cousins forbidden among the Baganda, Banyoro, Basoga, and Bateso . . . . . 159 Cross-cousins obliged to avoid each other among the Baganda . .160 Inference from avoidance of cross-cousins among the Baganda . .161 Marriage of cousins forbidden among the Akikuyu . . .161 Expiation for marriage of cousins among the Akikuyu . . .162 Marriage of cousins forbidden among the Thonga . . .162 Expiation for marriage of cousins among the Thonga . . .163 The bond of kinship conceived as physical . . . .163 Marriage of cousins barred among Wabemba and Wahorohoro . .164 Marriage of cousins barred among the Masai . . . .164 Expiation for marriage of cousins among the Masai . . .165 Marriage of cousins barred among the Yorubas . . . .165 VOL. II h x FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 7. The Marriage of Cousins in the Indian Archipelago PAGE Cross-cousin marriage in Sumatra . . . 165 Cross-cousin marriage in the Kei Islands . . . . .167 Cross-cousin marriage in islands between New Guinea and Celebes . 167 Cousin marriage in Celebes . . . . . .169 Expiation for marriage with cousin once removed in Celebes . .170 Marriage of cousins barred among some peoples of Celebes . -171 Expiation for marriage of cousins in Celebes . . . -171 Marriage of cousins barred in Java . . . . .172 Marriage of cousins barred in British Borneo . . . .172 Expiation for marriage of cousins in Borneo . . . .173 Marriage of cousins barred in Dutch Borneo . . . .174 8. The Marriage of Cousins in New Gtiinea and the Torres Straits Islands Marriage of first cousins discountenanced in New Guinea . . T 7S Marriage of first cousins discountenanced in Torres Straits . .177 Cross-cousin marriage common in the Trobriand Islands . . .177 g. The Marriage of Cousins in Melanesia Cross-cousin marriage in New Caledonia . . . .177 Cross-cousin marriage in the New Hebrides . . . .178 Cross-cousin marriage in the Torres Islands . . . 179 Cross-cousin marriage in Fiji . . . . . .180 Ortho-cousins obliged to avoid each other in Fiji . . .181 Marriage of first cousins forbidden in the Banks' Islands . . ig 2 Marriage of first cousins forbidden in New Ireland . . .183 Cross-cousins obliged to avoid each other in New Ireland . -183 10. The Marriage of Cousins in Polynesia Marriage of cousins discountenanced in Polynesia . . . 1 84 Trace of cross-cousin marriage in Tonga . . . . jg* Second cousins allowed to marry in Rotuma . . . . 18? Marriage even of distant cousins rare in Mangaia . i g r H. The Marriage of Cousins in Australia Marriage of cousins preferred in some tribes and forbidden in others . 186 Cross-cousin marriage among the Urabunna . . . jgy Cross-cousin marriage in Victoria and New South Wales . 187 Cross-cousin marriage in Queensland and N.W. Australia 188 Marriage of children of cross-cousins among the Dieri . . 189 Contrast between Dieri and Urabunna customs . . . .190 Marriage of ortho-cousins always barred by two-class exogamy . .191 Marriage of children of cross-cousins among the Mardudhunera . .191 Marriage of all cousins forbidden in some Australian tribes . . 192 Divergence of custom in regard to cousin-marriage in Australia . . 193 CONTENTS xi 12. Why is the Marriage of Cross-Cousins favoured? PAGE Why is cross-cousin marriage favoured and ortho-cousin marriage forbidden? 193 Economic motive for cousin -marriage among the Australian aborigines . 194 Economic value of a wife among the Australian aborigines . 1 94 A wife generally obtained in exchange for a sister or daughter . .195 Exchange of sisters or daughters for wives in South Australia . .196 Exchange of sisters or daughters for wives in Victoria and New South Wales 197 Commercial value of women in aboriginal Australia . . .198 The rape of women from other tribes comparatively rare . . .199 By exchange old men get most of the young women for themselves . 200 Sisters or daughters usually given in exchange for wives . . . 202 Exchange of sisters probably older than exchange of daughters . . 203 Cross-cousin marriage a natural consequence of exchange of sisters in marriage ........ 205 Cross-cousin marriage probably older than the recognition of paternity . 205 Suggested origin of cross-cousin marriage confirmed by the practice of the Kariera ........ 206 Double-cross cousins and single-cross cousins .... 207 Cross-cousin marriage in Australia probably everywhere an effect of the exchange of sisters in marriage ..... 209 The exchange of sisters in marriage probably the source of cross-cousin marriage elsewhere ....... 209 Cross-cousin marriage and exchange of sisters in Southern India . .210 Economic advantage of exchange of sisters in marriage . . . 210 Cross-cousin marriage and exchange of sisters among the Bhotiyas . 212 Cross-cousin marriage and exchange of sisters among the Garos . .213 Cousin marriage and exchange of daughters in Baluchistan . .213 Cross-cousin marriage not a necessary effect of exchange of sisters or daughters . . . . . . . .214 Exchange of sisters in marriage in Torres Straits . . . .214 Exchange of sisters in marriage in New Guinea . . . .214 Exchange of daughters in marriage among the Santals of Bengal . .217 Exchange of daughters in marriage among the tribes of the French Sudan 218 Exchange of daughters in marriage in Sumatra . . . .218 Exchange of daughters in marriage in Palestine . _ . . .219 Probability that cross-cousin marriage originated in the exchange of sisters or daughters as wives ...... 220 13. Why is the marriage of Ortho-Cousins forbidden ? Marriage of ortho-cousins prevented by the dual organization or the system of two exogamous classes . . . . . .221 Dual organization probably everywhere at one time co-existent with cross- cousin marriage ....... 222 Prevalence of dual organization attested by totemism and the classificatory system of relationship ...... 222 Totemism as evidence of the dual organization . . . .223 xii FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PAGE Totemic exogamy prevents marriage of ortho-cousins in some cases . 223 Totemic exogamy less comprehensive than two-class exogamy . . 225 Totemic exogamy probably everywhere derived from two-class exogamy . 226 The classificatory system of relationship as evidence of the dual organiza- tion . . . 227 The classificatory system, a system of relationship between groups . 227 The classificatory system extends the choice of wives . . . 229 The classificatory system of relationship reflects a system of group marriage . . . ... . . 230 In Australia the classificatory system based 011 two-class exogamy . 231 The classificatory system not affected by the four- and eight-class exogamy found in some Australian tribes . . . . .232 Intention of successive divisions into two, four, and eight cxogamous classes ........ 232 Two-class exogamy intended to bar marriage of brothers with sisters . 233 Two-class exogamy systematized the marriage of cross-cousins . . 234 Two-class exogamy barred the marriage of ortho-cousins . . . 235 Preference for cross-cousin marriage probably older than two-class exogamy 235 Two-class exogamy derived from aversion to marriage of near kin . 236 This derivation confirmed by comparison of rules as to cross-cousin marriage among the Urabunna, Dieri, and Arunta . . . 236 Cross-cousin marriage barred by eight-class exogamy among the Arunta . 237 Marriage of parents with children barred by four-class exogamy . . 238 Cross-cousin marriage not barred by four-class exogamy . . . 239 Traces of dual organization coincident with cross-cousin marriage . . 240 The coincidence among the Dravidians of India . . . .241 The coincidence in other races of Asia and America . . .241 The coincidence in Africa . . . . . _ 242 The coincidence in the Indian Archipelago . . . .243 The coincidence in Melanesia ...... 244 The coincidence in Australia .... 244 Preference for cross-cousin marriage and prohibition of ortho-cousin marriage probably everywhere connected with dual organization . 245 Growing aversion evinced to marriage of near kin . . 24? 14. An alternative Explanation of Cross-cousin Marriage Other causes of cross-cousin marriage possible . . . 246 Different theory of cross-cousin marriage proposed by Dr. Rivers . 247 Anomalous forms of marriage in Melanesia . . 247 Dr. Rivers' explanation of these anomalous marriages . 248 Dr. Rivers derives cross-cousin marriage in Melanesia from marriage vviili mother's brother's wife ... 2 so Objections to this theory as a general explanation of cross-cousin marriage 251 Marriage with mother's brother's wife among the Garos rather effect than cause of cross-cousin marriage . . 2 r 2 Economic motive of cross-cousin marriage among the Garos 2 Survival in poets of the primitive personification of plants . 397 CHAPTER VIII THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN Jacob's return to the land of his fathers ... . 398 His dispute with Laban ........ 400 The reconciliation and covenant at the cairn . . . .401 The cairn personified as a witness . . . . .401 Rude stone monuments beyond Jordan ..... 402 Stones employed to give stability to covenants . . . 403 The stone at marriage in India ...... 404 Oaths on stones in Scotland . . . 405 Oaths on stones in Africa and India ..... 406 Religious and magical uses of stones in oaths .... 407 Twofold aspect of the cairn in Jacob's covenant .... 407 Procopius on a detection of perjury ..... 408 Cairns as witnesses in modern Syria ..... 409 CHAPTER IX JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK Jacob's descent into the glen of the Jabbok . . . .410 Jacob's wrestle with a mysterious adversary at the ford . . 4 1 1 His adversary perhaps the jinnee of the river . . . .412 The wrestling of Greek heroes with water-sprites . . .412 Shape-shifting in such encounters . . . . .413 Propitiation of water-spirits at fords . . . . .414 Rivers worshipped by Bantu tribes of South Africa . . .415 Offerings to rivers at crossing them in Africa . . . .417 Ceremonies at crossing rivers in South India . . . .419 Chiefs and kings forbidden to cross certain rivers .... 420 Ceremonies of the Angoni at crossing a river .... 420 Punishments inflicted on river-spirits . . . . .421 Punishing or fighting the spirits of the sea . . . 422 The sinew that shrank ; American Indian parallels . . . 423 Ancient Mexican parallel to Jacob's nocturnal wrestle . . . 424 CONTENTS CHAPTER X JOSEPH'S CUP PAGE Joseph's divining cup ....... 426 Divination by appearances in water in antiquity . . . 426 Divination by appearances in water or ink in modern Egypt . .427 Divination by appearances in water in Scandinavia and Tahiti . . ' 429 Divination by appearances in water in the Malay Peninsula, New Guinea, Africa, and among the Eskimo ..... 430 Vision of gods in water contrived by ancient oracle-mongers . 431 Other ways of divining by a vessel of water . . . .431 Divination by things dropped into water . . ' . . 432 Divination by tea-leaves in a cup ..... 432 Divination by molten lead or wax in water .... 433 PART III THE TIMES OF THE JUDGES AND THE KINGS CHAPTER I MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES National history of Jsrael begins with Moses . .. -437 Exposure and preservation of the infant Moses .... 438 Exposure and preservation of Semiramis . . . 440 Exposure and preservation of Gilgamus ... . 440 Exposure and preservation of Cyrus . . . . .441 Exposure and preservation of Perseus ..... 444 Exposure and preservation of Telephus ..... 445 Exposure and preservation of Aegisthus . . . 446 Exposure and preservation of Oedipus . . 446 Exposure and preservation of Romulus . . 447 Exposure and preservation of Sargon . . 450 Exposure and preservation of Prince Kama in the Mahdbharata . 45 1 Exposure and preservation of Trakhan, king of Gilgit . . 452 Water ordeal to test the legitimacy of children . . . 454 CHAPTER II THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA Passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea . . . -456 xviii FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PAGE Passage of Alexander the Great through the Pamphylian Sea . -457 Passage of a Roman storming-party through the sea at New Carthage 459 African stories of miraculous passages through water . .461 CHAPTER III THE WATERS OF MERIBAH How Moses produced water from a rock with his staff . . . 463 How Dori produced water from a rock with his spear . . . 463 CHAPTER IV GIDEON'S MEN Gideon commanded to deliver Israel from Midian . . . 465 The deliverers chosen for their mode of drinking water . . . 466 Throwing water into the mouth in Africa .... 467 Throwing water into the mouth in Cambodia, Samoa, and New Caledonia 468 Throwing water into the mouth in the New Hebrides . . . 468 Reason for this mode of drinking ..... 469 An incident in the wars of Massachusetts .... 469 CHAPTER V JOTHAM'S FABLE How Abimelech made himself king of Shechem . . . .471 How Jotham spoke to the men of Shechem . . . 471 His fable of the bramble as king of the trees .... 472 Rivalry between the trees in Aesop's fables . . . -473 Callimachus on the rivalry of the laurel and olive . . . 473 Rivalry between the trees in an Armenian fable .... 476 Rivalry between plants in a Malay story . . . . -477 Jotham's fable inserted in mediaeval collections .... 478 CHAPTER VI SAMSON AND DELILAH Incongruity of Samson among the judges .... 480 The home country of Samson . . . . 481 Samson's strength in his hair : the secret betrayed . . . 482 Belief in East Indies that a man's strength is in his hair . . . 484 CONTENTS xix PAGE Belief in Europe that the power of a witch is in her hair . . . 485 Similar belief as to witches in India and Mexico .... 486 Niasian story of king whose strength was in his hair . . . 486 Ballad of Lord Soulis and his charmed life .... 488 Ancient Greek stories like that of Samson and Delilah . . . 490 Russian story of Koshchei the Deathless . . . 49 1 Serbian story of the warlock True Steel ..... 493 Serbian story of the dragon of the mill ..... 494 Islay story of the giant and the egg . . . . 495 Argyleshire story of the giant and the thorn .... 496 Indian story of the ogre king of Gilgit ..... 497 Resemblance of all these stones to the Samson legend . . .501 Transposition of the hero and the villain . . . .501 The harlequins of history . . . . . . 502 CHAPTER VII THE BUNDLE OF LIFE The wilderness of Judea ...... 503 David and Abigail . . .. . . . 504 " The bundle of life ". . . . . . . 505 Belief that souls can be abstracted from their bodies . . . 506 Souls extracted to keep them out of harm's way .... 507 Bundles of sticks and stones as receptacles of souls in Central Australia . 508 Analogy of these bundles to " the bundle of life" . . .510 Ezekiel on women who hunt and catch souls . . . .510 The art of hunting and catching souls . . . . .511 Trapping souls in Celebes . . , . . .512 " Houses of the soul" denounced by Isaiah . . . 513 " Houses, of the soul " perhaps scent-bottles ; . . 515 Folk-lore and poetry . . . . , .516 CHAPTER VIII THE WITCH OF ENDOR Saul and Samuel ....... 517 The character of Saul . . . . . . -51? The eve of battle . * . . . . .519 Saul resolves to consult the ghost of Samuel . . . 519 Saul and the witch of Endor . . . . . .520 Necromancy among the ancient Hebrews .... 522 Necromancy in the Gilgamesh epic . . . . . 525 Necromancy among the ancient Greeks ..... 525 The oracles of the dead ..... . 526 The oracle of Aornum in Thesprotis .... 526 xx FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PAGE Oracles imparted by the dead in dreams . . . 528 Dream oracle of the dead in Italy . . . . -529 Dream oracles on graves in North Africa . . -53 Dream oracles on graves in Celebes ..... 530 Evocation of the ghosts of Darius, Achilles, and Homer . . -53 Lucan on the evocation of the dead . . . . 53 1 Horace and Tibullus on the evocation of the dead . . . 532 Evocation of the dead by Nero and Caracalla . . . .532 Necromancy in Africa . . . . . . 533 Oracles of dead kings among the Baganda . . . 533 Oracles of dead kings among the Banyoro . 534 Oracles of dead chiefs among the Basoga . . -534 Oracles of dead chiefs among the Bantu tribes of Rhodesia . -535 Oracles of dead kings among the Barotse .... 536 Evocation of the dead among the negroes of West Africa . -537 Consultation of the dead by means of their images . . -537 Evocation of the dead among the Maoris .... 538 Evocation of the dead in Nukahiva . . . . .541 Evocation of the dead in New Guinea and Celebes . . . 542 Evocation of the dead in Borneo ..... 542 Evocation of the dead among the Bataks of Sumatra . . . 545 Evocation of the dead among the Eskimo .... 546 Necromancy and evocation of the dead in China .... 546 Evocation of the dead among the Mordvins . . . 551 Wide diffusion of necromancy . . . . . -554 CHAPTER IX THE SIN OF A CENSUS Aversion of Jehovah to the numbering of Israel . . . -555 Aversion of Congo peoples to count themselves or their children . -556 Aversion of East African tribes to count themselves or their cattle 556 Aversion of the Hottentots to be counted . . . r eg Aversion to numbering people and things in North Africa . ccg Mode of counting measures of grain in Palestine . . . ccg Aversion to counting leaves in the Shortlands . . . -559 Aversion to counting fruit or people among American Indians . . ceo Superstitious objection to counting in Europe . . . e6o Jewish objection to a census probably superstitious . . eft? Later relaxation of the rule . . . . . ,-63 CHAPTER X SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OF SHEBA Riddles propounded to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba . . 1-64 Contest of wit between Solomon and Hiram 566 CONTENTS xxi PAGE Contests of wit between two Rajahs of Celebes .... 566 Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and the crystal floor . . . 567 King Duryodhana and the crystal floor in the Mahabharata . . 568 CHAPTER XI THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON Solomon's test of motherhood . . . . . 57 Repetition of the story in Jain literature ..... 570 PART II THE PATRIARCHAL AGE (CONTINUED) 2 JACOB AND THE KID SKINS PART n by Jacob for the purpose of serving himself heir to his father ; for if the custom of ultimogeniture was still in full vogue in his day, he was the legal heir, and no special ceremony was needed to invest him with those rights to which he was entitled in virtue of his birth. But at a later time, when ultimogeniture had been replaced by primogeni- ture, Jacob's biographer may have deemed it necessary to justify the traditionary succession of his hero to the estate by attributing to him the observance of a ceremony which, in the historian's day, was occasionally resorted to for the sake of giving a legal sanction to the preference of a younger son. At a still later time the editor of the biography, to whom the ceremony in question was unfamiliar, may have overlooked its legal significance, and represented it as merely a cunning subterfuge employed by Jacob at the instigation of his mother to cheat his elder brother out of the blessing which was his due. It is in this last stage of misunder- standing and misrepresentation that, on the present hypo- thesis, the narrative in Genesis has come down to us. It runs as follows : The " And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau narrative. J HOW Isaac his elder son, and said unto him, My son : and he said unto him . Here am L And he said > Behold now, I am old, I eider son know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison ; and make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat ; that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now, there- fore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I com- mand thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats ; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth : and thou shalt bring 1 Genesis xxvii. 1-29. CHAP, in THE DIVERTED BLESSING 3 it to thy father, that he may eat, so that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, HOW the Behold Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth s^^ob man. My father perad venture, will feel me, and I shall seem instigated to him as a deceiver ; and I shall bring a curse upon me, n [ oth s er and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon Rebekah, me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. And he went, and fetched, and brought them to the likeness his mother : and his mother made savoury meat, such as his receivedthe father loved. And Rebekah took the goodly raiment of P aternal Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and which was put them upon Jacob her younger son : and she put the l f nte h lde< ; 1 d skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the brother. smooth of his neck : and she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father : and he said, Here am I : who art thou, my son ? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn : I have done according as thou badest me : arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son ? And he said, Because the Lord thy God sent me good speed. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father ; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands : so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau ? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat : and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him : and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed : and God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine : let peoples serve, and nations bow The dis- placement of an elder by a younger son, and the means by which it was effected. 4 JACOB AND THE KID SKINS PART n down to thee: be lord over thy v brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee : cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be every one that blesseth thee." The points in this narrative to which I would call attention are first, the displacement of the elder by the younger son, and, second, the means by which the displace- ment was effected. The younger son pretended to be his elder brother by dressing in his elder brother's clothes and by wearing kidskins on his hands and neck for the purpose of imitating the hairiness of his elder brother's skin ; and to this pretence he was instigated by his mother, who actively assisted him in the make-believe by putting his elder brother's garments on his body and the kidskins on his hands and neck. In this way Jacob, the younger son, succeeded in diverting to himself the paternal blessing which was intended for his elder brother, and thus he served himself heir to his father. It seems possible that in this story there may be preserved the reminiscence of a legal ceremony whereby a younger son was substituted for his elder brother as rightful heir to the paternal inheritance. Tribes in East Africa whose customs resemble in some points those of the Semites. 2. Sacrificial Skins in Ritual In Eastern Africa there is a group of tribes, whose customs present some curious points of resemblance to those of Semitic peoples, and may help to illustrate and explain them ; for in the slow course of social evolution these African tribes have lagged far behind the Semitic nations, and have accordingly preserved, crisp and clear, the stamp of certain primitive usages which elsewhere has been more or less effaced and worn down by the march of civilization. The tribes in question occupy what is called the eastern horn of Africa, roughly speaking from Abyssinia and the Gulf of Aden on the north to Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria Nyanza on the south. They belong neither to the pure negro stock, which is confined to Western Africa, nor to the pure Bantu stock, which, broadly speaking, occupies the whole of Southern Africa from the equator to the Cape of Good Hope. It is true that among them are tribes, such as the Akamba and Akikuyu, who speak Bantu CHAP. Ill SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL languages and perhaps belong in the main to the Bantu family ; but even in regard to them it may be doubted how far they are true Bantus, and how far they have been trans- formed by admixture or contact with tribes of an alien race. 1 On the whole the dominant race in this part of Africa is the one to which modern ethnologists give the name of Ethiopian, and of which the Gallas are probably the purest type. 2 Their farthest outpost to the west appears to be formed by the pastoral Bahima of Ankole, in the Uganda Protecto- rate, to whom the royal families of Uganda, Unyoro, and Karagwe are believed to be allied. 3 Among the other tribes of this family the best - known perhaps are the kindred Masai and Nandi, as to whom we are fortunate enough to possess two excellent monographs by an English ethnologist, Mr. A. C. Hollis. 4 On the affinity of these tribes to the Gallas he tells us : "I do not consider that the part which the Galla have played in building up the Masai, Xandi-Lumbwa, and other races, such as perhaps the 1 "In dealing with the Akikuyu people it is as yet impossible to speak definitely on the subject of race. On this matter, as on that of their more recent origin and history, much yet remains to be learnt. They speak un- doubtedly a Bantu language, but Mr. McGregor informs me that they possess another language in addition to that in common use " (W. Scoresby Routledge and Katharine Routledge, With a Pre- historic People, the Akikuyu of British East Africa, London, 1910, p. 19). The Akikuyu say that their nation is derived from the Akamba, and in the opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Routledge the statement is probably correct, " as an examination of the two languages will show, although certain evidence points to the fission as being remote ; the Akamba are to-day their neighbours to the south - east " (of. cit. pp. 2 sq. ). If this view of the derivation of the Akikuyu from the Akamba is well founded, it will follow that the same doubt as to the ethnical affinity of the Akikuyu will apply to the Akamba, though according to Mr. C. W. Hobley, " the A-Kamba are probably the purest Bantu race in British East Africa" {Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes, Cambridge, 1910, p. 2). According to the Hon. K. R. Dundas, the present Akikuyu have been formed by the fusion of many different tribes, as appears from the numerous physical types which are to be seen among them, and which a practised eye can readily distinguish. Among these types he mentions the Masai, the Kamba, and the Dorobo. See Hon. K. R. Dundas, " Notes on the Origin and History of the Kikuyu and Dorobo tribes." Man, viii. (1908) pp. 136 sqq. See also Sir Charles Eliot, in M. W. H. Beech, The Suk (Oxford, 1911), p. xi. 2 J. Deniker, The Races of Man (London, 1900), pp. 436 sqq. 3 J. H. Speke, Journal of the Dis- covery of the Source of the Nile (Lon- don, 1912), ch. ix. pp. 2OI sqq., 421, 430 ; Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, Second Edition (London, 1904), ii. 484 sqq., 600 sqq. ; John Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 1 86 sq. 4 The Masai, their Language and Folklore (Oxford, 1905); The Nar.di, their Language and Folklore (Oxford, 1909). 6 JACOB AND THE KIDSKINS PART n Bahima of Uganda, has been sufficiently realized or taken into account in the past. The influence of their Galla ancestors is frequently shown in the personal appearance, religion, customs, and, in a lesser degree, in the languages of many of these tribes." l Now the home of the Gallas in Africa is separated only by a narrow sea from Arabia, the cradle of the Semitic race, and intercourse between the two countries and the two peoples must have been frequent from a remote antiquity. Hence it is not so surprising as might at first appear, if we should find resemblances between Semitic and Ethiopian customs. The cry from Mount Zion to Kilimanjaro is indeed far, but it may have been passed oh through intermediate stations along the coasts of Arabia and Africa. In saying this I do not wish to imply any opinion as to the question whether similarities of Semitic and Ethiopian usage are to be explained by derivation from a common source or by the influence of similar circumstances acting independently on the minds of different races. I only indicate the hypothesis of a common origin as an alternative which should not be lightly rejected. 2 Having said so much to guard myself against the sus- picion of fetching my comparisons from an unreasonable distance, I will now adduce some 'of the facts which sug- gest that an ancient legal formality underlies the story of the deceit practised by Jacob on his father. Use of Among the Gallas it is customary for childless couples faTancT 1 to a( ^ o P t children ; and so close is the tie formed by adoption skin at the that even if the couple should afterwards have offspring of Ceremony ^ eir own ^ e adopted child retains all the rights of the 1 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, p. i has at all events been modified by note 2 . Mr. C. W. Hobley inclines to intermarriage with immigrants from regard the Nandiasablendof the Nilotic Arabia. See J. H. Speke, yiwrwa/ of and Hamitic stocks (Eastern Uganda, the Discovery of the Source of the Nile London, 1902, p. 10). Sir Harry (London, 1912), ch. viii. pp. 201 sqq.; Johnston finds in the Masai language j. Deniker, The Races of Man, p. "distinct though distant signs of re- 429. The Galla language, though it lationship " to the Galla. See his is not Semitic, is said to present article, " The people of Eastern Equa- points of resemblance to the Semitic tonal Africa, "Journal of the Anthropo- family of speech in respect of conjuga- logical Institute, xv. (1886) p. 15. tion, pronouns, numerals, and so forth. See Ernest Renan, Histoire Gtni'rale 2 Some respectable authorities are et Systeme compart des Langues Shni- of opinion that this group of African liques^ (Paris, 1878), pp. 91 sq., 338 tribes is either of Arabian origin or sqq. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 7 firstborn. In order to transfer a child from its real to its adoptive parents, the following ceremony is performed. The child, who is commonly about three years old, is taken from its mother and led or carried away into a wood. There the father formally relinquishes all claim to it, by declaring that thenceforth the child is dead to him. Then an ox is killed, its blood is smeared on the child's forehead, a portion of its fat is put round the child's neck, and with a portion of its skin the child's hands are covered. 1 The resemblance of this ceremony to Jacob's subterfuge is obvious : in both" cases the hands and neck of the person concerned are covered with the skin or fat of a slain animal. But the meaning of the ceremony is not yet apparent. Perhaps we may discover it by examining some similar rites observed on various occasions by tribes of East Africa. Among these tribes it is a common practice to sacrifice Ceremonial an animal, usually a goat or a sheep, skin it, cut the skin use . J made from into strips, and place the strips round the wrists or on the the skins of fingers of persons who are supposed in one way or other to vktimstn benefit thereby ; it may be that they are rid' of sickness or East rendered immune against it, or that they are purified from ceremonial pollution, or that they are invested with mysteri- ous powers. 2 Thus, among the Akamba, when a child is born, a goat is killed and skinned, three strips are cut from the skin, and placed on the wrists of the child, the mother, and the father respectively. 3 Among the Akikuyu, on a like occasion, a sheep is slaughtered, and a strip of skin, taken from one of its fore-feet, is fastened as a bracelet on the infant's wrist, to remove the ill-luck or ceremonial pollution (tha/iu] which is supposed to attach to new-born children. 4 Again, a similar custom is observed by the Akikuyu at the Kikuyu curious rite of "being born again" (ko-cld-a-ru-o ke-ri) OY " born of a goat " (ko-chi-a-re-i-ru-o mbor-f), as the natives birth. call it, which every Kikuyu child had formerly to undergo 1 Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographic tory of ~K\\.v.\," Journal of t/ie Royal An- Nordost-Afrikas, die materielle Cultur thropological Institute, xliii. (1913) p. der Dandktl, Galla und Somdl (Berlin, 528. 1893), PP- J 93 S 1- '> id-i Beitrcige zur 3 Hon. Ch. Dundas, op. cit. p. 546. Ethnographie und Anfhropologie der 4 C. W. Hobley, "Kikuyu Customs Somdl, Galla und Harari (Leipsic, and Beliefs,"_/ R out l e dge, the ceremony of the new birth is child to deferred until several years after the real birth. But the essence of the rite appears to be the same : it is a pretence that the mother is a sheep, and that she has given birth to a lamb. However, we must note the inconsistency of using, for the purpose of this legal fiction, a ram instead of a ewe. Kikuyu .Having described the ceremony of the new birth in the ofa e dop"ion. two forms in which it is observed by the two guilds of the Akikuyu, Mr. Hobley proceeds to describe another Kikuyu ceremony, which is similar in form to the rite of the new birth and is designated by a similar, though not identical, name (Ku-ckiaruo kungi instead of Ku-chiaruo ringi}. It is a ceremony of adoption and is said to resemble the Swahili rite called ndugu Kuchanjiana. " If a person has no brothers or parents he will probably try to obtain the protection of some wealthy man and his family. If sucha man agrees to 1 C. W. Hobley, " Kikuyu Customs thropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. and Belie fs, " Jo urnal of the Royal An- 441. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL II adopt him, he will take a male sheep and slaughter it, and the suppliant takes another one. The elders are assembled and slaughter these sheep, and strips of the skin (rukwaru} from the right foot and from the chest of each sheep are tied round each person's hand, each is decorated with strips of skin from the sheep of the other party. The poor man is then considered as the son of the wealthy one, and when the occasion arises the latter pays out live stock to buy a wife for his adopted son." 1 In this ceremony there can hardly be any pretence of a new birth, since both the per- formers are males ; but on the analogy of the preceding customs it seems fair to suppose that the two parties, the adopting father and the adopted son, pretend to be sheep. Further, a similar ritual is observed before the Kikuyu Cere- ceremony of circumcision. On the morning of the day which precedes the rite of circumcision, a he-goat is killed by being circumci strangled ; it is then skinned, and the skin having been cut ^kik into strips, a strip of the skin is fastened round the right Wash- wrist and carried over the back of the hand of each male wa candidate, after which the second ringer of the candidate's and hand is inserted through a slit in the strip of skin. 2 A G similar custom is observed by the Washamba, another tribe of East Africa. Before the rite of circumcision is performed, they sacrifice a goat to an ancestral spirit, and cut wristlets from its skin for the boys who are to be circumcised, as well as for their parents and kins- folk. In sacrificing the goat the father of the boy prays to the ancestor, saying, " We are come to tell thee that our son is to be circumcised to-day. Guard the child and be gracious, be not wrathful ! We bring thee a goat." s Here, by binding strips of the skin on their own bodies, the members of the family seem to identify themselves with the goat which they offer to the ancestral ghost. Among the Wachaga of Mount Kilimanjaro, about two months after circumcision the lads assemble at the chief's village, where the sorcerers or medicine-men are also gathered together. Goats are killed and the newly circumcised lads cut thongs 1 C. W. Hobley, op. cit. pp. 441 sq. 3 A. Karasek, " Beitrage zur Kennt- niss der Waschamba," Baessler-Archiv, - C. W. Hobley, op. cit. p. 442. i. (1911) p. 191. 12 JACOB AND THE KID SKINS I-ART n from the hides and insert the middle fingers of their right hands through slits in the thongs. Meantime the sorcerers com- pound a medicine out of the contents of the stomachs of the goats, mixed with water and magical stuffs. This mixture the chief sprinkles on the lads, perhaps to complete the magical or sacramental identification of the lads with the animal.' Next day the father of each lad makes a feast for his relations. A goat is killed, and every guest gets a piece of the goat's skin, which he puts round the middle finger of his right hand. 1 We may compare a ceremony observed among the Bvvorana Gallas when lads attain their majority. The ceremony is called ada or forehead, but this is explained by a word jam, which means circumcision. On these occasions the young men, on whose behalf the rite is celebrated, assemble with their parents and elder relatives in a hut built for the purpose. A bullock is there sacrificed, and every person present dips a finger into the blood, which is allowed to flow over the ground ; the men dab the blood on their foreheads, and the women on their windpipes. Further, the women smear themselves with fat taken from the sacrificial victim, and wear narrow strips of its hide round their necks till the next day. The flesh of the bullock furnishes a banquet. 2 Ceremonial A similar use of sacrificial skins is made at marriage in sacrificial some f these African tribes. Thus among the Wawanga skins at of the Elgon District, in British East Africa, a part of the marriage - ., . . , , . , -,, , in East marriage ceremony is this. A he-goat is killed, and a long Africa. strip of skin is cut from its belly. The bridegroom's father, or some other elderly male relative, then slits the skin up lengthwise and passes it over the bride's head, so that' it hangs down over her chest, while he says, " Now I have put this skin over your head ; if you leave us for any other man, may this skin repudiate you, and may you become barren." 3 Again, among the Theraka, a tribe who live on both sides 1 M. Merker, fiethtsverhattm'ssg und graphical Society, N.S. vi. (1884) p. Sitien der Wadschagga (Gotha, 1902), 271. pp. 14 sq. (Petermanns Mitteilungen, Ergiinziingsheft, No. 138). 3 Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, "The - E. G. Ravenstein, " Somal and Wawanga and other tribes of the Elgon Galla land; embodying information District, British East Africa, "Journal collected by the Rev. Thomas Wake- of the Royal Anthropological Institute, field," Proceedings of the Royal Geo- xliii. (1913) p. 39. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 13 of the Tana River in British East Africa and closely resemble the Akikuyu in appearance and language, when a husband brings his bride to his village, he kills a goat and carries it before the girl into the hut ; accord- ing to others, the goat is laid before the door of the hut and the girl must jump over it. A strip of the goat's skin is then put on the bride's wrist. 1 Again, among the Wa-giriama, a Bantu tribe of British East Africa, on the day after marriage the husband kills a goat, and cutting off a piece of skin from its forehead makes it into an amulet and gives it to his wife, who wears it on her left. arm. The flesh of the goat is eaten by the persons present. 2 In these cases the goat's skin is applied only to the bride, but among the Nandi of British East Africa it is applied to the bridegroom also. On the marriage day a goat, specially selected as a strong, healthy animal from the flock, is anointed and then killed by being strangled. Its entrails are extracted and omens drawn from their condition. Afterwards the animal is skinned, and while the women roast and eat the meat, the skin is rapidly dressed and given to the bride to wear. Moreover, a ring and a bracelet are made out of the skin ; the ring is put on the middle finger of the bride- groom's right hand, and the bracelet is put on the bride's left wrist. 3 Again, rings made from the skin of a sacrificed goat are Ceremonial placed :^on the fingers of persons who form a covenant of sacrificial friendship with each other. The custom appears to be skins at common among the tribes of British East Africa. Thus, among the Wachaga " friendships are formed by the Africa. Ktskong'o ceremony, which consists in taking the skin from the head of a goat, making a slit in it, and putting it upon the middle finger in the form of a ring." 4 Similarly, among the Akamba, the exchange of rings made out of the skin of a sacrificial victim, which has been eaten in common, cements 1 Hon. Charles Dundas, "History Institute, xli. (1911) p. 21. of Kitui," Journal of the Royal An- 3 A. C. Hoi! is, The Nandi (Oxford, thropological Institute, xliii. (1913) pp. 1909)^.63. Such rings are described 541 sg.j 546. by Mr. Hollis as amulets (op. cit. p. 2 Captain W. E. H. Barrett, " Notes 87). on the Customs and Beliefs of the Wa- * Charles New, Lije, Wanderings giriama, etc., British East Africa," and Labours in Eastern Africa (Lon- Journal of the Royal Anthropological don, 1873), p. 458. I 4 JACOB AND THE KIDSKINS PART n the bond of friendship. 1 For example, when Baron von der Decken was in Dafeta, the chief or sultan Maungu formed a league of friendship by means of the following ceremony. A goat was brought and both parties spat on its forehead. The animal was next killed, the skin of its forehead removed, and cut into thin strips, each with a slit in it. The chief then put one of these strips of skin on the middle finger of the traveller's right hand, and the traveller did the same to the chief. Afterwards a piece of the flesh of the goat was roasted, each of the parties spat upon it, and then ate, or was supposed to eat, the portion upon which the other had spat. However, the Baron contrived to slip his morsel aside without being detected. 2 In this ceremony the union effected by wearing rings cut from the skin of the same goat is further cemented by partaking of the animal's flesh and by swallowing each other's spittle ; for since the spittle is a portion of a man, an exchange of spittle is like an exchange of blood and forms a binding covenant, each party to the compact being thus put in possession of a physical part of the other, by means of which he can exercise a magical control over him and so hold him to the terms of agreement. 3 An English traveller has described how in like manner he made friendship with a chief or sultan of the Wachaga in East Africa. He says : " On the day after our arrival, a Swahili runaway came as a messenger of the chief to make friends and brothers with me. A goat was brought, and, taking it by one ear, I was required to state where I was going, to declare that I meant no evil, and did not work in uchawi (black magic), and finally, to promise that I would do no harm to the country. The other ear was then taken by the sultan's ambassador, and he made promise on his part that no harm would be done to us, that food would be given, and all articles stolen returned. The 1 J. M. Hildebrandt, " Ethno- fur Religionswissenscliaft, x. (1907) graphische Notizen iiber Wakamba pp. 274 sq. und ihre Nachbarn," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, x. (1878) p. 386. 3 For examples, see J. Raum, "Blut- 2 Baron Carl Claus von der Decken, und Speichelbiinde bei den Wad- Reisen in Osl-Afrika (Leipsic and schagga," Archiv fiir Religions-wissen- Heidelberg, 1869-1871), i. 262 sq. schaft, x. (1907) pp. 290 sq. ; H. Compare T. Raum, "Blut- und Speichel- Trilles, Le Totimisme chez fes fan biinde bei den Wadscliagga," Archiv (funster i, W. 1912), p. 462. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 15 goat was then killed, and a strip of skin cut off the forehead, in which two slits were made. The M-swahili, taking hold of this, pushed it on my finger by the lower slit five times, finally pushing it over the joint. I had next to take the strip, still keeping it on my own finger, and do the same for the M-swahili, through the upper slit. This operation finished, the strip had to be cut in two, leaving the respective portions on our fingers, and the sultan of Shira and I were sworn brothers." l Among the Akikuyu a similar, but somewhat more Ceremonial elaborate, ceremony is observed when a man leaves his own ! district and formally joins another. He and the representa- skins in tive of the district to which he is about to attach himself each provide a sheep or, if they are well off, an ox. The rite - animal is killed, "and from the belly of each a strip is cut, and also a piece of skin from a leg of each animal. Blood from each of the two animals is put into one leaf and the contents of the two bellies into another leaf. The elders (ki-d-md] slit the two pieces of skin from the leg and the two strips from the belly, and make four wristlets ; the two coming from the beast of one party are placed on the right arm of the other party, and vice versa. The elders then take the two leaves containing blood, and both parties to the transaction extend their hands ; the elders pour a little blood into all the four palms, and this is passed from the palms of the one person to those of the other. All round are called to see that the blood is mingled, and hear the proclamation that the two are now of one blood." ~ This last example is instructive, since it shows clearly that the intention of the rite is to make the two contracting parties of one blood ; hence we seem bound to explain on the same principle the custom of encircling their wrists with strips of skin taken from the same animals which furnished the blood for the ceremony. We have seen that the same custom of wearing wristlets Variation made from the skin of a sacrificial victim is observed by the ^acha a Wachaga of Mount Kilimanjaro when they sacrifice a goat rite at cir- cumcision. 1 Joseph Thomson, Through Masai erine Routledge, With a Prehistoric Land (London, 1885), p. 158. People, the Akikuyu of British East - \\. Scoresby Koutledge and Kath- Africa (London, 1910), pp. 176^. 16 JACOB AND THE KIDS KINS PART n to an ancestral spirit at circumcision. The ritual varies some- what according as the spirit is an ancestor in the paternal or the maternal line. If he is a paternal ancestor, the strip of skin is worn on the middle finger of the right hand ; if he is a maternal ancestor, it is worn on the middle finger of the left hand. If the sacrifice was offered to an undefined ancestor on the father's side, the strip is worn on the big toe of the right foot ; if it was offered to an undefined ancestor on the mother's side, it is worn on the big toe of the left foot. 1 Ceremonial In the same tribe, when a childless couple desire to obtain use of offspring, or a couple whose children have died one after the victim's r skin at other wish to ensure the life of the rest, they sacrifice a goat sacrifices to God (Ruwd] or to an ancestral spirit, with a peculiar ritual. among the ^ ' * Wachaga. All the married couples of the family assemble at the house of the afflicted couple ; a goat is laid on its back at the entrance of the house, so that its body is half within the door and half without it ; the husband spits four times between the horns of the animal, and afterwards he and his wife leap four times over its body. Then just at noon the goat is killed by an old woman, who stabs it with a knife. If the sacrifice is offered to an ancestral spirit, a prayer is addressed to him, begging him to behold the tears of his grandson and grant him a child, while the ghost is at the same time invited to accept the goat and eat it with his friends in his house. At the conclusion of the ceremony all the participants put rings on their fingers, which have been made out of the goat's skin. The ring is put on the husband's finger by the oldest male member of the family, who in doing so prays that the man's wife may give birth to a male child. Then the husband puts the ring on his wife's finger with a similar prayer. 2 Again, among the Wachaga, on the eighth day after a death, a goat is sacrificed to the ancestral spirits, and rings made from the skin of its head are given to all' the surviving female relations to wear. This is believed to avert all evil consequences of the death. 3 Among the 1 M. Merker, Rechtsverhaltnisse und der Wadschagga, " Zeitschrift fiir Eth- Sitten der Wadschagga (Gotha, 1902), nologie, xlv. (1913) pp. 509 sq. p. 2O (Petermanns Mitteilungen, Er- 3 B. Guttmann, "Trauer undBegrab- ganzungsheft, No. 138). nissitten der Wadschagga," Globus, 2 Bruno Guttmann, " Feldbausitten Ixxxix. (1906) p. 198. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 17 YVagogo, another tribe of East Africa, a different use is Ceremonial made of the victim's skin in sacrificing at the grave of a chief. The victim is a black ox or sheep ; it is stifled, and skin at its skin is cut in strips, which are laid round the grave, 1 no am0 ng the doubt to indicate the consecration of the animal to the ghost. Wagogo, Nandi But in sacrificing a black ox to God for rain they cut the wawanga, hide into strips and every person present wears one of them and . . Njamus. on his arm. When disease breaks out in a herd, the Nandi kindle a great bonfire and drive the cattle to it. A pregnant sheep is then brought and anointed with milk by an elder, who prays, " God ! give us the belly which is good." After- wards two men belonging to clans that may intermarry seize the sheep and strangle it. The intestines are inspected, and if the omens are good, the meat is roasted and eaten, whilst rings are made of the skin and worn by the cattle-owners. 3 Among the Wawanga of the Elgon District, in British East Africa, various sacrifices have to be offered before the people are allowed to sow their millet. Among the rest, a black ram is strangled before the hut of the king's mother, after which the carcass is taken into the hut and placed by the bedside facing towards the head of the bed. Next day it is taken out and cut up, and the king, his wives, and children, tie strips of its skin round their fingers. 4 The Njamus, a mixed people of British East Africa, water their plantations by means of ditches cut in the dry season. When the time is come to irrigate the land by opening the dam and allowing the water to flow into the fields, they kill a sheep of a particular colour by smothering it, and then sprinkle its melted fat, dung, and blood at the mouth of the furrow and in the water. Then the dam is opened, and the flesh of the sacrificed sheep is eaten. For two days afterwards the man who performed the sacrifice, and who must belong to -one particular clan (the II Mayek), has to wear the skin of the sheep bound about his head. Later in the season, if the crops are not doing well, recourse is again had to sacrifice. Two elders of the same officiating clan, who may be compared to the Levites of Israel, repair 1 H. Glaus, Die Wagogo (Leipsic * Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, "The and Berlin, 1911), p. 49. Wawanga and other tribes of the Elgon 2 H. Claus, Die Wagogo, p. 42. District, British East Africa, "Journal 3 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1909), pp. 45 sq. xliii. (1913) p. 48. VOL. II C i8 JACOB AND THE KIDSKINS TART n to the plantations along with two elders from any other clan. They take with them a sheep of the same colour as before ; and having killed and eaten it, they cut up the skin, and each man binds a strip of it round his head, which he must wear for two days. Then separating, they walk in opposite direc- tions round the plantation, sprinkling fat, honey, and dung on the ground, until they meet on the other side. 1 Ceremonial The Masai sacrifice to God for the health of man and victim's beast at frequent intervals, in some places almost every skin at month. A great fire is kindled in the kraal with dry wood, amongThe and fed with certain leaves, bark, and powder, which yield a Masai. fragrant smell and send up a high column of thick smoke. God smells the sweet scent in heaven and is well pleased. Then a large black ram is brought forward, washed with honey beer, and sprinkled with the powder of a certain wood. Next the animal is killed by being stifled ; after- wards it is skinned and the flesh cut up. Every person present receives a morsel of the flesh, which he roasts in the ashes and eats. Also he is given a strip of the skin, which he makes into rings, one for himself and the others for the members of his family. These rings are regarded as amulets which protect the wearers from sickness of every kind. Men wear them on the middle finger of the right hand ; women wear them fastened to the great spiral-shaped necklaces of iron wire by which they adorn, or disfigure, their necks. 2 Ceremonial Again, similar sacrificial customs are observed in cases sacrificial ^ sickness. For example, among the Wawanga it some- victim's times happens that a sick man in a state of delirium calls cases of ou ^ ^ ne name of a departed relative. When he does so, the sickness sickness is at once set down at the door of the ghost, and other steps are taken to deal effectually with him. A poor old occasions man j s bribed to engage in the dangerous task of digging: among the r , , Wawanga. up the corpse, after which the bones are burnt over a nest of red ants, and the ashes swept into a basket and thrown into a river. Sometimes the mode of giving his quietus to the ghost is slightly different. Instead of digging up his bones, his relatives drive a stake into the head of the 1 Hon. K. R. Dundas, "Notes on xl. (1910) pp. 54^. the Tribes inhabiting the Baringo Dis- trict, East Africa Protectorate, "Journal z M. Merker, Die Masai (Berlin, of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1904), pp. 200 sq. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 19 grave, and, to make assurance doubly sure, pour boiling water down after it. Having thus disposed of the ghost in a satisfactory manner, they kill a black ram, rub dung from the stomach of the animal on their chests, and tie strips of its skin round their right wrists. Further, the head of the family, in which the sickness occurred, binds a strip of the skin round the second finger of his right hand, and the sick man himself fastens a strip round his neck. 1 In this case we cannot regard the sacrifice of the black ram as intended to soothe and propitiate the ghost who had just had a stake thrust through his head and boiling water poured on his bones. Rather we must suppose that the sacrifice is due to a lingering suspicion that even these strong measures may not be wholly effectual in disarming him ; so to be on the safe side the sick man and his friends fortify themselves against ghostly assaults by the skin of a sacrificial victim, which serves them as an amulet. Again, among these same people a man accused of theft will sometimes go with his accuser to a tree of a particular kind (Erythrina foment osa) and the two will thrust their spears into it. After that the guilty party, whether the thief or his wrongful accuser, falls sick. The cause of the sickness is not alleged, but we may suppose that it is the wrath of the tree-spirit, who naturally resents being jabbed with spears and, with a discrimination which does him credit, vents his anguish on the criminal only. So the bad man sickens, and nothing can cure him but to dig up the tree, root and branch ; for that, we may suppose, is the only way of settling accounts with the tree-spirit. Accordingly the friends of the sufferer repair to the tree and root it up ; at the same time they sacrifice a sheep and eat it on the spot, with some medicinal concoction. After that every one ties a strip of the sheep's skin round his right wrist ; and the sick man, for whose benefit the ceremony is performed, binds a strip of the skin round his neck, and rubs some of the dung of the slaughtered beast on his chest. 2 1 Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, " The 43. Sometimes, instead of the Ery- Wawanga and other tribes of the Elgon thrina tomentosa, a tree of a different District, British East Africa.," Journal kind, called by the natives mvrumba of the Royal Anthropological Institute, (the bark-cloth tree of Uganda), is used xliii. (1913) p. 38. for this purpose. 2 Hon. K. R. Dundas, op. cit. p. 20 JACOB AND THE KID SKINS Use of skins of sacrificial victims as a preventive of sickness among the Akikuyu. Ceremonial use of skins of sacrificial victims at expiations among the Wachaga, Here again the sacrifice of the sheep can hardly be regarded as propitiatory ; rather it is designed to protect the patient and his friends against the natural indignation of the tree- spirit, in case they should not have succeeded in radically destroying him. Once more, the Wawanga are acquainted with a form of witchcraft which consists in burying a dead rat at the door of a hut. This causes the inmates to fall sick, and they may even die, if the proper remedy is not resorted to, which is to kill a red or a white cock and pour its blood on the spot where the rat was found. However, if they venture to apply this remedy without consulting a licensed practitioner, that is, a witch-doctor, they will again fall sick and will not recover till they have called in the man of skill, who kills a sheep, ties a piece of the skin round each person's hand, and rubs dung on their chests. The whole of the mutton, except one shoulder, is given to the doctor as his fee. 1 Here again the intention of the sacrifice is clearly protective, not propitiatory. Some years ago the Akikuyu rejoiced in the possession of a prophet, who was favoured with revelations from the Supreme Being. In April 1911 he predicted that the young people would suffer greatly from dysentery in the course of the year, and to guard against the danger he recommended that sheep should be sacrificed at the sacred fig trees, and that the women and children should put bracelets from the skins of the sacrificed sheep on their wrists. Many did so in the confident hope of escaping the visitation. 2 Further, the custom of wearing portions of the skins of sacrificial victims is commonly observed among these East African tribes at expiatory ceremonies. For example, among the Wachaga, if a husband has beaten his wife and she comes back to him, he cuts off a goat's ear and makes rings out of it, which they put on each other's fingers. Till he has done this, she may neither cook for him nor eat with him. 3 Further, like many other African tribes, the Wachaga 1 Hon. K. R. Dundas. op. cit. p. xli. (1911) pp. 437-439- 44- 2 C. W. Hobley, "Further re- searches into Kikuyu and Kamba re- ligious beliefs and customs," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 3 J. Raum, " Die Religion der Landschaft Moschi am Kilimandjaro," Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft, xiv. (1911) p. 189. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 21 look upon a smith with superstitious awe as a being invested with mysterious powers, which elevate him above the level of common men. This atmosphere of wonder and mystery extends also to the instruments of his craft, and particularly to his hammer, which is supposed to be endowed with magical or spiritual virtue. Hence he must be very careful how he handles the hammer in presence of other people, lest he should endanger their lives by its miraculous in- fluence. For example, if he merely points at a man with the hammer, they believe that the man will die, unless a solemn ceremony is performed to expiate the injury. Hence a goat is killed, and two rings are made out of its skin. One of the rings is put on the middle finger of the smith's right hand, the other is put on the corresponding finger of the man whose life he has jeopardized, and expiatory formulas are recited. A similar atonement must be made if the smith has pointed at any one with the tongs, or has chanced to hit any one with the slag of his iron. Again, when he is hammering a piece of iron for somebody, and the head of the hammer flies off, the smith says to the owner of the iron, who commonly sits by watching the operation, " The chief wants you. I must keep your iron and cannot work it until you have given him satisfaction." So the owner of the iron must bring a goat, and they kill the animal and eat its flesh together. Next they cut rings out of the skin of the goat's head and place the rings on each other's fingers with mutual good wishes and blessings. Moreover, another ring, made out of the goat's skin, is put on the handle of the hammer ; and with the hammer thus decorated, or rather guarded against the powers of evil, the smith resumes and completes his task of hammering the iron into the desired shape. 1 1 B. Gutmann, " Der Schmied und Bakongo (London, 1914), pp. 93, 240, seine Kunst im animistischen Denken," 249; C. G. Seligmann, "A note on Zeit:chrift fur Ethnologie, xliv. (1912) the magico- religious aspect of iron pp. 82-84. As to the superstitions working in Southern Kordofan," An- attaching to smiths and smithcraft in nals of Archaeology and Anthropology, Africa and elsewhere, see Richard issued by the Liverpool Institute of Andree, Ethnographische Farallelen Archaeology, vi (1914) pp. 119 sq. ; und Vergleiche (Stuttgart, 1878). pp. and the authorities referred to in Taboo 153-164; Giinter Tessmann, Die and the Perils of the Soul, p. 236 Pangwe (Berlin, 1913), i. 224-226; note 5 (The Golden Bough, Third John H. Weeks. Among the Primitive Edition, Part ii.). 22 JACOB AND THE KIDSKINS PART n Fin-trier Again, among the Wachaga on the eastern side of Mount emomai jjij man j arOj it i s a custom that a newly married woman may skins of not drink the milk of a cow belonging to her husband which Sm^at nas J ust calved, unless she makes the following expiation, expiations Her husband kills a goat or an ox and cuts off one of the fore- Wacfcaga. legs together with the breast. These pieces are put on the young wife's head and she is sent away to her own people, with the words, " Go home (to your mother's people). Do not quarrel with your husband. May your cows give plenty of milk, may your goats cast good kids, may your beans not be eaten by mice, nor your corn by birds. When you go to market, may you be well received and find a chance of cheating. But be careful, not to cheat so as to be found out and be taken to law." With these good wishes the young wife is sent away to her parents, who receive her solemnly, take the flesh from her head, and lay it on the ground. Then they take the leg of the goat or ox and cut out of the skin a ring large enough to be pushed over the woman's left hand. There they fasten it, and then push four small morsels of flesh between the ring and her hand. These pieces she must eat, a fifth piece, which they after- wards push through, she allows to fall on the ground. Finally her mother's people utter good wishes like those which her husband's people uttered when they sent her with the goat's flesh and skin to her old home. That ends the ceremony, and after it is over, the young wife is free to drink the milk of the cow at her husband's house. 1 The exact meaning of this ceremony in all its details is no longer understood even by the natives themselves, and we can hardly hope to divine it ; but the general intention appears to be to expiate the breach of a taboo which forbade a young wife to partake of the milk of a cow that had just calved on her husband's farm. As we shall see later on, the drinking of milk among these East African tribes is hedged round by many curious restrictions, the object of which is to guard, not the drinker of the milk, but the cow, against certain evil consequences believed to flow from con- tact of the fluid with tabooed persons or things. In the 1 Bruno Guttmann, " Feldbausitten der Wadschagga," Zeitschrift fur Ethno- logic, xlv. (1913) pp. 507 sq. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 23 present case we may conjecture that if the young wife were to drink of the cow's milk without first performing the cere- mony of expiation, she would be supposed thereby to endanger the cow's milk and perhaps even its life. Expiatory ceremonies involving the use of the skin of a Ceremonial sacrificial victim are performed by the Akikuyu on a variety ^f n f of of occasions. For example, if two men, who have been cir- sacrificial cumcised at the same time, fight each other and blood is spilt, expiations ceremonial pollution is incurred, and a medicine-man must be among the called in to remove it. He kills a sheep, and the elders put ' a strip of its skin on the wrist of each of the two men. This removes the pollution and reconciles the adversaries. 1 Again, among the Akikuyu, the wives of smiths usually wear armlets of twisted iron. If a man enters the hut of a smith and cohabits with a woman so decorated, a state of ceremonial pollution is incurred, which can only be expiated by another smith, who kills a sheep, and, cutting strips from its skin, puts them on the wrists of the man, his wife, and any children she may have. The bracelet is placed on the left wrist of a woman, on the right wrist of a man. 2 Again, in the same tribe, if the side pole of a bedstead breaks, the person lying on the bed incurs a state of ceremonial pollution. A sheep must be killed, and a bracelet made from its skin must be placed on the arm of the person whose bed gave way ; other- wise he or she might die. 3 Again, among the Akikuyu, if a man strikes another who is herding sheep or cattle, so that blood is drawn, the flock or herd is thereby brought into a state of ceremonial pollution. The offender must give a sheep, and the elders kill it, and place a strip of its skin on the wrist of the culprit. 4 Again, when a Kikuyu child has been circumcised, and leaves the village for the first time after the ceremony, if it should happen that in the evening the goats and sheep return from pasture and enter the village before the child has come back, then that child is ceremoni- ally unclean, and may not return to the village till the usual ceremony of expiation has been performed. His father must kill a sheep, and place a strip of its skin on his child's 1 C. W. Hobley, "Kikuyu Customs 2 C. W. Hobley, I.e. and Beliefs," Tournal of the Royal ., ^ ,,, TT , , ., .,,.'./,..,. " C. W. Hobley, op. at. p. 435. Anthropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. 432. * C. W. Hobley, op. cit. p. 436. 24 JACOB AND THE KIDS KINS PART n arm. Till that is done the child may not return to the village, but must sleep at a neighbouring village, where some of the boys live who went through the ceremony of circum- cision along with him. 1 Again, if a Kikuyu man or woman has been bitten by a hyena or a dog, he or she is unclean, and must be purified in the usual way by a medicine-man, who kills a sheep and puts a strip of its skin on the patient's wrist. 2 Further, if a Kikuyu man strikes a woman who is with child, so that she miscarries, the culprit must bring two sheep, which are killed and eaten, the one by the villagers and the elders, the other by the woman and visitors. More- over, bracelets are made out of the skin of the first of these sheep and placed on the wrists of all persons present who are nearly related either to the offender or to the woman. 3 Ceremonial Expiatory ceremonies of the same kind are performed skins^f ky the Wawanga, in the Elgon District of British East sacrificial Africa. For example, if a stranger forces his way into a expiations ^ut, anc ^ * n doing so his skin cloak falls to the ground, or if among the he be bleeding from a fight, and his blood drips on the floor, ancTthe 8 one f * ne inmates of the hut will fall sick, unless proper Bantu measures are taken to prevent it. The offender must produce Kavirondo. a g a t- The animal is killed, and the skin, having been removed from its chest and belly, is cut into strips ; these strips are stirred round in the contents of the goat's stomach, and every person in the hut puts one of them round his right wrist. If any person in the hut should have fallen sick before this precaution was taken, the strip of skin is tied round his neck, and he rubs some of the goat's dung on his chest. Half of the goat is eaten by the occupants of the hut, and the other half by the stranger in his own village. The same procedure is resorted to by the Wawanga in case the artificial tail which a woman wears has been torn off her, or she should be guilty of the gross impropriety of entering a hut without that appendage. Indeed, the Wawanga believe that a woman may cause her husband's death simply by walking abroad without her tail. To avert the catastrophe the husband demands a goat from her people, and eats it in 1 C. W. Hobley, op. cit. p. 437. searches into Kikuyu and Kamba Re- 2 r W H hi / ligious Beliefs and Customs, ''''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, s C. W. Hobley, "Further Re- xli. (1911) p. 425. CHAP, in SACRIFICIAL SKINS IN RITUAL 25 company with his wife, who further ties a strip of skin from the goat's belly round her neck and rubs some of the contents of its stomach on her chest. This saves her husband's life. Again, a man of this tribe, returning from a raid on which he " has killed one of the enemy, may not enter his own hut till he has purified himself by the sacrifice of a goat ; and he must wear a strip of skin taken from the goat's forehead for the next four days. 1 Once more, the Wawanga, like many other savages, believe that a woman who has given birth to twins is in a very parlous state, and a variety of purificatory cere- monies must be performed before she can leave the hut ; otherwise there is no saying what might not happen to her. Among other things they catch a mole and kill it by driving a wooden spike into the back of its neck. Then the animal's belly is split open and the contents of the stomach removed and rubbed on the chests of the mother and the twins. Next, the animal's skin is cut up, and strips of it are tied round the right wrist of each of the twins, and round the mother's neck. They are worn for five days, after which the mother goes to the river, washes, and throws the pieces of skin into the water. The mole's flesh is buried in a hole under the verandah of the hut, before the door, and a pot, with a hole knocked in the bottom, is placed upside down over it. 2 Among the Bantu tribes of Kavirondo, at the north- eastern corner of Lake Victoria Nyanza, it is a rule that only very near relations are allowed to penetrate beyond the first of the two fireplaces which are found, one behind the other, in every hut. Any person who transgresses this rule must kill a goat, and all the occupants of the hut wear small pieces of the skin and smear a little of the dung on their chests. 3 Lastly, it may be noticed that a similar use of sacrificial Ceremonial skins is made by some of these East African tribes at certain "khisof solemn festivals which are held by them at long intervals sacrificial determined by the length of the age grades into which the transfer- whole population is divided. For example, the Nandi are ence of govern- 1 Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, " The pp, 67, sq. one Wawanga and other Tribes of the Elgon generation District, British East Africa, "Journal 3 C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda to another. of the Royal Anthropological Institute, (London, 1902), p. 15; Sir Harry xliii. (1913) pp. 46 sq. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate^ 2 Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, op. cit. (London, 1904), ii. 732. 26 JACOB AND THE KIDSKINS PART n divided into seven such age grades, and the festivals in ques- tion are held at intervals of seven and a half years. At each of these' festivals the government of the country is transferred from the men of one age grade to the men of the age grade next below it in point of seniority. The chief medicine-man attends, and the proceedings open with the slaughter of a white bullock, which is purchased by the young warriors for the occasion. After the meat has been eaten by the old men, each of the young men makes a small ring out of the hide and puts it on one of the fingers of his right hand. Afterwards the transference of power from the older to the younger men is formally effected, the seniors doffing their warriors' skins and donning the fur garments of old men. 1 At the corresponding ceremony among the Akikuyu, which is held at intervals of about fifteen years, every person puts a strip of skin from a male goat round his wrist before he returns home. 2 The On a general survey of the foregoing customs we may skin'Teems conclude that the intention of investing a person with a portion intended to o f a sacrificial skin is to protect him against some actual or wearer by threatened evil, so that the skin serves the purpose of an identifying amulet. This interpretation probably covers even the cases in him with L J the animal, which the custom is observed at the ratification of a covenant, since the two covenanters thereby guard against the danger which they apprehend from a breach of contract. Similarly, the strange rite of the new birth, or birth from a goat, which the Akikuyu used to observe as a preliminary to circumcision, may be supposed to protect the performers from some evil which would otherwise befall them. As to the mode in which the desired object is effected by this particular means, we may conjecture that by wearing a portion of the animal's skin the man identifies himself with the sacrificial victim, which thus acts as a sort of buffer against the assaults of the evil powers, whether it be that these powers are persuaded or cajoled into taking the beast for the man, or that the blood, flesh, and skin of the victim are thought to be endowed with a certain magical virtue which keeps 1 A. C Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, searches into the Kikuyu and Kamba I 99)> PP- 12 sf. Religious Beliefs and Customs, "Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2 C. W. Hobley, "Further Re- xli. (1911) pp. 419 sf., 421. CHAP, in THE NEW BIRTH 27 malignant beings at bay. This identification of the man with the animal comes out most clearly in the Kikuyu rite of the new birth, in which mother and child pretend to be a she-goat and her newborn kid. Arguing from it, we may suppose that in every case the attachment of a piece of sacrificial skin to a person is only an abridged way of wrapping him up in the whole skin for the purpose of identifying him with the beast. With these rites we may compare a ceremony performed Malagasy by certain clans in south-eastern Madagascar for the sake of averting the ill-luck with which a child born under an evil a child , . . 1-11 * \ -f through a destiny is supposed to be threatened. An ox is sacrificed, ring cut and its blood rubbed on the brow and behind the ears of fr , om { ^ e skin of a the infant. Moreover, a sort of hoop or large ring is made sacrificial with a thong cut from the victim's hide, and through this ^v hoop the mother passes with the child- in her arms. 1 The luck. custom of passing through a hoop or other narrow opening in order to give the slip to some actual or threatened calamity is widespread in the world ; 2 but a special signifi- cance attaches to the practice when the aperture is formed by the skin of a sacrificial victim. Like the rite of passing between the pieces of a slaughtered animal, 3 the act of pass- ing through a ring of its hide may perhaps be interpreted as an abridged form of entering into the victim's body in order to be identified with it and so to enjoy the protection of its sacred character. 3. The New Birth The quaint story of the Diverted Blessing, with its im- plication of fraud and treachery practised by a designing new birth mother and a crafty son on a doting husband and father, employed wears another and a far more respectable aspect, if we sup- by many pose that the discreditable colour it displays has been im- [hTpuTpose ported into it by the narrator, who failed to understand the exchanging true nature of the transaction which he described. That status. 1 Alfred Grandidier et Guillaume 2 Balder the Beautiful, ii. 1 68 sqq. Grandidier, Ethnographic de JMadagas- {The Golden Bozigh, Third Edition, car, ii. (Paris, 1914) p. 278 (Histoire Part vii.). 'Physique, Naturelle et Politique de Madagascar, vol. iv.). 3 Above, vol. i. pp. 392 sqq. 2 8 JACOB AND THE KIDS KINS PART n transaction, if I am right, was neither more nor less than a legal fiction that Jacob was born again as a goat for the purpose of ranking as the elder instead of the younger son of his mother. We have seen that among the Akikuyu of East Africa, a tribe possibly of Arabian, if not of Semitic, descent, a similar fiction of birth from a goat or a sheep appears to play an important part in the social and religious life of the people. It will be some confirmation of our hypothesis if we can show that the pretence of a new birth, either from a woman or from an animal, has been resorted to by other peoples in cases in which, for one reason or another, it has been deemed desirable that a man should, as it were, strip himself of his old personality and, assuming a new one, make a fresh start in life. In short, at an early stage in the history of law the legal fiction of a new birth has often been employed for the purpose of effecting and marking a change of status. The following instances may serve to illustrate this general proposition. The fiction In the first place, then, the fiction of a new birth has blrth^r been made use of, not unnaturally, in cases of adoption for adoption in the sake of converting the adopted child into the real child IncUhe^ ^ his adopting mother. Thus the Sicilian historian Diodorus Middle informs us that when Hercules was raised to the rank of the gods, his divine father Zeus persuaded his wife Hera to adopt the bastard as her own true-born son, and this the complacent goddess did by getting into bed, clasping Hercules to her body, and letting him fall through her garments to the ground in imitation of a real birth ; and the historian adds that in his own day the barbarians fol- lowed the same procedure in adopting a son. 1 During the Middle Ages a similar form of adoption appears to have been observed in Spain and other parts of Europe. The adopted child was taken under the mantle of his adopting father or mother ; sometimes he was passed through the folds of the flowing garment. Hence adopted children were called " mantle children." 2 " In several manuscripts of the 1 Diodorus Siculus, iv. 39. 2. 254 sq. See particularly Surita Jib. 2 Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Rechts- I ind. rer. aragon. ad a. 1032, allerthumer 3 (Gottingen, 1881;, pp. quoted by J. Grimm, op. cit. p. 464, 160 sy., 464^.; J. J. Bachofen, Das " Adoption-is jus illorum temporunt Mutterrecht (Stuttgart, 1 86 1), pp. institute more rite sancitum tnidunt, CHAP, in THE NEW BIRTH 29 Cronica General it is told how, on the day when Mudarra was baptized and dubbed a knight, his stepmother put on a very wide shirt over her garments, drew a sleeve of the same over him, and brought him out at the opening for the head, by which action she acknowledged him for her son and heir." This procedure is said to have been a regular form of adoption in Spain, 1 and it is reported to be still in vogue among certain of the Southern Slavs. Thus in some parts The fiction of Bulgaria the adoptive mother passes the child under her birth^ dress at her feet and brings it out at the level of her breast ; 2 adoption and among the Bosnian Turks it is said that " the adoption southern C of a son takes place thus : the future adoptive mother pushes Slavs and the adoptive child through her hose, and in that way imitates the act of birth." 3 And of the Turks in general we are told that " adoption, which is common among them, is carried out by causing the person who is to be adopted to pass through the shirt of the person who adopts him. That is why, to signify adoption in Turkish, the expression is employed, ' to cause somebody to pass through one's shirt.' " 4 In Borneo "some of the Klemantans (Barawans and The fiction Lelaks in the Baram) practise a curious symbolic ceremony ^h"^ on the adoption of a child. When a couple has arranged adoption to adopt a child, both man and wife observe for some weeks K^fJ. * before the ceremony all the prohibitions usually observed tan s of during the later months of pregnancy. Many of these prohibitions may be described in general terms by saying that they imply abstention from every action that may suggest difficulty or delay in delivery ; e.g. the hand must not be thrust into any narrow hole to pull anything out of it ; no fixing of things with wooden pegs must be done ; qtii is inoleverat, ut qui adoptaret, per * Felix Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde stolae fltientis stmts enm qui adopta- (Heilbronn, 1879), p. 432. retur traduceret " ; also Du Cange, 2 Stanislaus Ciszewski, Kiinstliche Glossarium ad Scriplores Mediae et Verwandtschap bei den Sudslaven(Levp- Infimae Latinitatis (Paris, 1733-1736), sic, 1897), p. 104. v. 63, s.v. " Pallia cooperire, " " Ctijus 3 S. Ciszewski, op. cit. p. 103, ritus initium fluxisse arbilror ab eo, referring to I. F. Jukic, Bosanski qiiiinadoptionibusobservabatur: quippe prijatelj (Sisak, 1870), iv. 175- adoptivos pallia ac stola propria adop- * B. d'Herbelot, Bibliotheqtie Orien- tanfes quodammodo involvebant, tit ab tale (The Hague, 1777 1779), i- 156, Us quasi prognatos indicarent." s.v. " Akhrat." 30 JACOB AND THE KID SKINS PART n there must be no lingering on the threshold on entering or leaving a room. When the appointed day arrives, the woman sits in her room propped up and with a cloth round her, in the attitude commonly adopted during delivery. The child is pushed forward from behind between the woman's legs, and, if it is a young child, it is put to the breast and encouraged to suck. Later it receives a new name. It is very difficult to obtain admission that a particular child has been adopted and is not the actual offspring of the parents ; and this seems to be due, not so much to any desire to conceal the facts as to the complete- ness of the adoption, the parents coming to regard the child as so entirely their own that it is difficult to find words which will express the difference between the adopted child and the offspring. This is especially the case if the woman has actually suckled the child." l Here it is to be observed that both the adopting parents participate in the legal fiction of the new birth, the pretended father and mother observing the same rules which, among these people, real fathers and mothers observe for the sake of facilitating the real birth of children ; indeed, so seriously do they play their parts in the little domestic drama that they have almost ceased to distinguish the pretence from the reality, and can hardly find words to express the difference between the child they have adopted and the child they have begotten. The force of make-believe could scarcely go farther. The fiction Among the pastoral Bahima of Central Africa, "when a birtrTaT man mner i ts children of a deceased brother, he takes the adoption children and places them one by one in the lap of his chief B^Mma! 6 wl '^ e > w ^ receives them and embraces them and thus accepts them as her own children. Her husband after- wards brings a thong, which he uses for tying the legs of restive cows during milking and binds it round her waist in the manner a midwife binds a woman after childbirth. After this ceremony the children grow up with the family and are counted as part of it." 2 In this ceremony we may detect the simulation of childbirth both in the placing of 1 Charles Hose and William 2 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of (Cambridge, 1915), p. 114. Borneo (London, 1912), i. 78 sq. CHAP, in THE NEW BIRTH 31 the children on the woman's lap and in the tying of a thong round her waist after the manner of midwives, who do the same for women in actual childbed. Further, the pretence of a new birth has been enacted The fiction for the benefit of persons who have erroneously been binn"^ supposed to have died, and for whom in their absence enacted in funeral rites have been performed for the purpose of laying Greece and their wandering ghosts, who might otherwise haunt and India b 7 trouble the survivors. The return of such persons to the W ho were bosom of their family is embarrassing, since on the prin- erroneously thought to ciples of imitative magic or make-believe they are theo- be dead, retically dead, though practically alive. The problem thus ai ? d for created was solved in ancient Greece and ancient India by funerairites the legal fiction of a new birth ; the returned wanderer had had been ' performed. solemnly to pretend to come to life by being born again of a woman before he might mix freely with living folk. Till that pretence had been enacted, the ancient Greeks treated such persons as unclean, refused to associate with them, and excluded them from all participation in religious rites ; in particular, they strictly forbade them to enter the sanctuary of the Furies. Before they were restored to the privi- leges of civil life, they had to be passed through the bosom of a woman's robe, to be washed by a nurse, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and suckled at the breast. Some people thought that the custom originated with a certain Aristinus, for whom in his absence funeral rites had been performed. On his return home, finding himself shunned by all as an outcast, he applied to the Delphic oracle for advice, and was directed by the god to perform the rite of the new birth. Other people, however, with great probability believed that the rite was older than the time of Aristinus and had been handed down from remote antiquity. 1 In ancient India, under the like circumstances, the supposed dead man had to pass the first night after his return in a tub filled with a mixture of fat and water. When he stepped into the tub, his father or next of kin pronounced over him a certain verse, after which he was supposed to have attained to the stage of an embryo in the womb. In that character he sat silent in the tub, with clenched fists, 1 Plutarch, Qttaestiones Romanac, 5 ; Hesychius, s.v. AeiTepdiror/uos. 32 JACOB AND THE KIDS KINS PART n while over him were performed all the sacraments that were regularly celebrated for a woman with child. Next morn- ing he got out of the tub, at the back, and went through all the other sacraments he had formerly partaken of from his youth upwards ; in particular he married a wife or espoused his old one over again with due solemnity. 1 This ancient custom appears to be not altogether obsolete in India even at the present day. In Kumaon a person supposed to be dying is carried out of the house, and the ceremony of the remission of sins is performed over him by his next of kin. But should he afterwards recover, he must go through all the ceremonies previously performed by him from his birth upwards, such as putting on the sacred thread and marrying wives, though he sometimes marries his old wives over again. 2 The fiction But in ancient India the rite of the new birth was also birth neW enacted for a different and far more august purpose. A enacted in Brahman householder who performed the regular half- ImJkby a monthly sacrifices was supposed thereby to become himself Brahman a god for the time being, 3 and in order to effect this transi- p u r rpo e seof tion from the human to the divine, from the mortal to the raising immortal, it was necessary for him to be born again. For himself to ; . . , the rank of this purpose he was sprinkled with water as a symbol of a god. seed. He feigned to be an embryo and as such was shut up in a special hut representing the womb. Under his robe he wore a belt, and over it the skin of a black antelope ; the belt stood for the navel-string, and the robe and the black antelope skin typified the inner and outer membranes (the amnion and chorion) in which an embryo is wrapped. He might not scratch himself with his nails or a stick, because he was an embryo, and were an embryo scratched with nails or a stick, it would die. If he moved about in the hut, it was because a child moves about in the womb. If he kept his fists clenched, it was because an unborn babe 1 W. Caland, Die altindischen ii. p. 74, 452 (February, 1885). Todten- rind Bestattungsgebrauchen 3 Satapatha-Brahmana, translated (Amsterdam, 1896), p. 89 (Verhande- by J. Eggeling, Part ii. (Oxford, 1885) lingen der Koninklrke Akademie van pp. 4, 20, 29, 38, 42, 44 (The Sacred Wttenschappen te Amsterdam, Afdeel- Books of the East, vol. xxvi.) ; H. ing Letterkunde, Deel i. No. 6). Hubert et M. Mauss, " Essai sur le 2 Major Reade, " Death Customs Sacrifice," UAnnte Sociologique, ii. Kumaun," Panjab Notes and Queries, (1897-1898) pp. 48 sqq. CHAP, in THE NEW BIRTH 33 does the same. If in bathing he put off the black antelope skin but retained his robe, it was because the child is born with the amnion but not with the chorion. By these observances he acquired, besides his old natural and mortal body, a new and glorified body, invested with superhuman powers and encircled with an aureole of fire. Thus by a new birth, a regeneration of his carnal nature, the man became a god. 1 Thus we see that the ceremony of the new birth may The fiction serve different purposes, according as it is employed to raise a supposed dead man to life or to elevate a living employed man to the rank of a deity. In modern India it has been, as an and indeed still is, occasionally performed as an expiatory ex P' ation J r , J to atone for rite to atone for some breach of ancestral custom. The train the breach of thought which has prompted this use of the ceremony is ofancestral r r J custom. obvious enough. The sinner who has been born again becomes thereby a new man and ceases to be responsible for the sins committed by him in his former state of existence ; the process of regeneration is at the same time a process of purification, the old nature has been put off and an entirely new one put on. For example, among the Korkus, an aboriginal tribe of the Munda or Kolarian The fiction stock in the Central Provinces of India, social offences b[ r ^ h new of an ordinary kind are punished by the tribal council, observed which inflicts the usual penalties, but " in very serious cases, such as intercourse with . a low caste, it causes the for breach offender to be born again. He is placed inside a large custom earthen pot which is sealed up, and when taken out of am ong the ...... . r i Korkus of this he is said to be born again from his mothers womb. India. He is then buried in sand and comes out as a fresh incar- nation from the earth, placed in a grass hut which is fired, and from within which he runs out as it is burning, immersed in water, and finally has a tuft cut from his scalp-lock and is fined two and a half rupees." ' Here the ceremony of 1 Sylvain Levi, La Doctrine dit 23 sq. (The Sacred Books of the East, Sacrifice dans les Br&hmanas (Paris, vols. xxvi. and xliv.). Compare The 1898), pp. 102-107; H. Hubert et Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, M. Mauss, " Essai sur le Sacrifice," i. 380 sq. (The Golden Bough, Third UAnnee Sociologique, ii. (1897-1898) Edition, Parti.). pp. 48 sqq. ; Satapatha Brdhmana, - R. ' V. Russell, The Tribes and Part ii. (Oxford, 1885) pp. 18-20, 25- Castes of the Central Provinces of India 35> 73> P art v - (Oxford, 1900) pp. (London, 1916), iii. 568. VOL. II D 34 JACOB AND THl^ KID SKINS PART n the new birth seems clearly intended to relieve the culprit from all responsibility for his former acts by converting him into an entirely new 'person. With what show of reason could he be held to account for an offence committed by somebody else before he was born ? The fiction Far more elaborate and costly is the ceremony of the birth^rom new birth when the sinner who is to be regenerated is a a golden or person of high birth or exalted dignity. In the eighteenth enacted" 5 century " when the unfortunate Raghu-Nath-Raya or Ragoba, as an sent two Brahmens as embassadors to England, they went expiation _ _ by persons by sea as far as Suez, but they came back by the way of of high rank p ers j a an( j o f course crossed the Indus. On their return in India. they were treated as outcasts, because they conceived it hardly possible for them to travel through countries in- habited by MleJKhas or impure tribes, and live . according to the rules laid down in their sacred books : it was also alledged, that they had crossed the Attaca. Numerous meet- ings were held in consequence of this, and learned Brahmens were convened from all parts. The influence and authority of Raghu-Nath-Raya could not save his embassadors. How- ever, the holy assembly decreed, that in consideration of their universal good character, and of the motive of their travelling to distant countries, which was solely to promote the good of their country, they might be regenerated and have the sacerdotal ordination renewed. For the purpose of regeneration, it is directed to make an image of pure gold of the female power of nature ; in the shape either of a woman or of a cow. In this statue the person to be regener- ated is enclosed and dragged through the usual channel. As a statue of pure gold and of proper dimensions would be too expensive, it is sufficient to make an image of the sacred Yoni, through which the person to be regenerated is to pass. Raghu-Nath-Raya had one made of pure gold and of proper dimensions : his embassadors were regenerated, and the usual ceremonies of ordination having been per- formed, and immense presents bestowed on the Brahmens, they were re-admitted into the communion of the faithful." 1 1 Captain Francis Wilford, " On Charles Culeman's Mythology of the MountjCaucasus," Asiatick Researches, Hindus (London, 1832), pp. 150 sq. vi. (London, 1801) pp. 537 sq. (octavo Raghu-Nath-Raya or Ragoba (Raghu. edition). The passage is reprinted in nath Rao or Raghuba) was an unsuc. CHAP, in THE NEW BIRTH 35 Again, " it is on record that the Tanjore Nayakar, having betrayed Madura and suffered for it, was told by his Brah- man advisers that he had better be born again. So a colossal cow was cast in bronze, and the Nayakar shut up inside. The wife of his Brahman guru [teacher] acted as nurse, received him in her arms, rocked him on her knees, and caressed him on her breast, and he tried to cry like a baby." 1 In India the fiction of a new birth has further been The fiction employed for the purpose of raising a man of low caste into bLrtifronr a social rank higher than the one to which his first or real golden cow birth had consigned him. For example, the Maharajahs of 5^ Travancore belong to the Sudra caste, the lowest of the four Maha- great Indian castes, but they appear regularly to exalt them- Travancore selves to a level with the Brahmans, the highest caste, by for the being born again either from a large golden cow or from raising a large golden lotus-flower. Hence the ceremony is called themselves Hiranya Garb/iam, " the golden womb," or Patma Garbha rank of Ddnam, " the lotus womb-gift," according as the effigy, from Brabmans - which the Maharajah emerged new-born, represented a cow or a lotus-flower. When James Forbes was at Travancore, the image through which the potentate passed was that of a cow made of pure gold ; and after his passage through it the image was broken up and distributed among the Brah- mans. But when the ceremony was performed by the Rajah Martanda Vurmah in July 1854, the image was cast in the form of a lotus-flower and was estimated to have cost about ^6000. Inside the golden vessel had been placed a small quantity of the consecrated mixture, composed of the five products of the cow (milk, curd, butter, urine, and dung) ; which suggests that the proper rebirth for the Maharajah is rather from the sacred cow than from the sacred lotus. After entering the vessel, His Highness remained within it for the prescribed time, while the officiating priests repeated prayers appropriate to the occasion. 2 cessful claimant for the Peshwaship of * Edgar Thurston, Ethnographic the Marathas, and his claims were Notes in Southern India (Madras, supported by the British. His son 1906), pp. 271 sq. succeeded to the office in 1796. See 2 James Forbes, Oriental Afemoin The Imperial Gazetteer of India, The (London, 1813), i. 378; Samuel Indian Empire, ii. (Oxford, 1909) pp. Mateer, The Land of Charity (London, 44 2 S 1- 1871), pp. 169-171. 36 JACOB AND THE KID SKINS PART n Later From later notices of the ceremony we may infer that accounts ^g Maharajahs have since reverted to the other, and perhaps ceremony more orthodox, form of the new birth, namely the birth of the new f rom a cow Thus in the year 1860 it was announced that birth from ' a cow as "another not less curious ceremony, called Emjagherpum, P erfo ^ med will take place next year, whereat His Highness (the Maha- Maharajahs rajah of Travancore) will go through a golden cow, which thereupon will also become the property of the priests." ] Again, we read that " the Maharaja of Travancore, a Native State in the extreme South of India, has just completed the second and last of the costly ceremonies known as ' going through the golden cow,' which he has to perform in order to rank more or less on the same footing as a Brahman his original caste being that of Sudra. The first of these ceremonies is known as Thulapurusha danam Sanskrit Thula, scales ; purusha, man ; and danam, gift of a religious character. The ceremony consists in the Maharaja entering the scales against an equal weight of gold coins, which are afterwards distributed among Brahmans. . . . The second ceremony is known as the Hirannya garb ham Sanskrit hirannya, gold ; and garbham, womb and constitutes the process known as going through the golden cow. A large golden vessel is constructed, ten feet in height and eight feet in circumference. This vessel is half filled with water, mixed with the various products of the cow, and Brahmans perform the prescribed rites over it. The Maharaja next enters the vessel by means of a specially constructed orna- mental ladder. The cover is then put on, and the Raja immerses himself five times in the contained fluid, while the Brahmans keep up a chanted accompaniment of prayers and Vedic hymns. This portion of the ceremony lasts about ten minutes, after which time the Maharaja emerges from the vessel and prostrates himself before the image of the deity of the Travancore kings. The high priest now places the crown of Travancore on the Raja's head, and after this he is considered to have rendered himself holy by having passed through the golden cow. The previous ceremony of 1 Felix Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde Augsb. Allgem. Zeitung, 1869, No. (Heilbronn, 1879), p. 397, referring 255, S. 394 i. b to the Madras Mail, as quoted by the CHAP, in THE NEW BIRTH 37 being weighed against gold simply fitted him for performing the more exalted and more costly ceremony of going through the golden cow. The cost of these curious ceremonies is very great ; for quite apart from the actual value of the gold, much expenditure is incurred in feasting the vast con- course of Brahmans who assemble in Trevandrum on these occasions. From time immemorial, however, the Rajas of Travancore have performed these ceremonies, and any omission on their part to do so would be regarded as an offence against the traditions of the country, which is a very stronghold of Hindu superstition." l If none could be born again save such as can afford At the to provide a colossal cow of pure gold for the ceremony, it new^binh* seems obvious that the chances of regeneration for the from a cow human race generally would be but slender, and that prac- ^i"^* * tically none but the rich could enter into the realms of bliss cowis i i i . i T-, , , sometimes through this singular aperture. Fortunately, however, the employed expedient of employing a real cow instead of a golden image inst . ead of places the rite of the new birth within the reach even of the poor and lowly, and thus opens to multitudes a gate of paradise which otherwise would have been barred and bolted against them. Indeed we may with some probability con- jecture, that birth from a live cow was the original form of the ceremony, and that the substitution of a golden image for the real animal was merely a sop thrown to the pride of Rajahs and other persons of high degree, who would have esteemed it a blot on their scutcheon to be born in vulgar fashion, like common folk, from a common cow. Be that as it may, certain it is that in some parts of India a real live cow still serves as the instrument of the new birth. Thus in the Himalayan districts of the North-Western Pro- vinces " the ceremony of being born again from the cow's mouth (gomukkaprasava) takes place when the horoscope foretells some crime on the part of the native or some deadly calamity to him. The child is clothed in scarlet and tied on a new sieve, which is passed between the hind-legs of a cow forward through the fore-legs to the mouth and again in the reverse direction, signifying the new birth. The usual 1 North Indian Notes and Queries, quoting the Pioneer, but without giving iii. p. 215, 465 (March, 1894), the date of flie paper. The elaborate rite of the new birth from an animal tends to dwindle into an abridged form. 38 worship, aspersion, etc., takes place, and the father smells his son as the cow smells her calf." x Here, though it is necessarily impossible to carry out the simulation of birth completely by passing the child through the body of the living cow, the next best thing is done by passing it back- wards and forwards between the cow's legs ; thus the infant is assimilated to a calf, and the father acts the part of its dam by smelling his offspring as a cow smells hers. Similarly in Southern India, when a man has for grave cause been expelled from his caste, he may be restored to it after passing several times under the belly of a cow. 2 Though the writer who reports this custom does not describe it as a ceremony of rebirth, we may reasonably regard it as such in the light of the foregoing evidence. A further extenuation of the original ceremony may perhaps be seen in the practice of placing an unlucky child in a basket before a good milch cow with a calf and allowing the cow to lick the child, " by which operation the noxious qualities which the child has derived from its birth are removed." 3 If the rite of birth from a cow could thus dwindle down into one of which, without a knowledge of the complete ceremony, we could hardly divine the true meaning, it seems not improbable that the rite of birth from a goat may have similarly dwindled from its full form, such as we find it among the Akikuyu, 4 into a greatly abridged form, such as the practice of putting the animal's skin on the hands of the person who is to be regenerated. Consistently with this hypothesis we see that this latter practice is commonly observed on a variety of occasions by the Akikuyu, 5 the very people who on solemn occasions observe the ceremony -of the new birth at full length. Is it not natural to suppose that in the hurry and bustle of ordinary existence, which does not admit of tedious ceremonial, the people have con- tracted the sovereign remedy of the new birth, with its 1 Edwin T. Atkinson, The Hima- (Paris, 1825), i. 42. layan Districts oj the North- Western Provinces of India, ii. (Allahabad, 1884), p. 914. Compare Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, liii. (1884) Part i. p. 101. 2 J. A. Dubois, Mceurs, Institutions et Ceremonies des Peuptes de CInde 3 Alexander Mackintosh, Account of the Origin and Present Condition of the Tribe of Rainoosies (Bombay, 1833), p. 124. * Above, pp. 7 sqq. 5 Above, pp. 10 sq., 15, 20, 23 sq. CHAP, in CONCLUSION 39 elaborate details, into a compendious and convenient shape which they can apply without needless delay in the lesser emergencies of life ? 4. Conclusion To return now to the point from which we started, I i | h; s conjecture that the story of the deception practised by form/the Jacob on his father Isaac contains a reminiscence of an ceremony i of the new ancient legal ceremony of new birth from a goat, which it birth may was deemed necessary or desirable to observe whenever a P^hapsbc , . . . - , - detected in younger son was advanced to the rights of the firstborn at the story the expense of his still living brother ; just as in India to ^ a t c h e b this day a man pretends to be born again from a cow when kidskins. he desires to be promoted to a higher caste or to be restored to the one which he has forfeited through his misfortune or misconduct. But among the Hebrews, as among the Akikuyu, the quaint ceremony may have dwindled into a simple custom of killing a goat and placing pieces of its skin on the person who was supposed to be born again as a goat. In this degenerate form, if my conjecture is well founded, the ancient rite has been reported and misunder- stood by the Biblical narrator. CHAPTER IV JACOB AT BETHEL I. Jacob's Dream Jacob sent THE treachery of Jacob to Esau, as it is represented in the wTmoUier Biblical narrative, naturally led to an estrangement between to her the brothers. The elder brother smarted under a sense of LabaTin intolerable wrong, and his passionate nature prompted him Haran. to avenge it on his crafty younger brother, who had robbed him of his heritage. Jacob therefore went in fear of his life, and his mother, who had been his accomplice in the deceit, shared his fears and schemed to put him in a place of safety till the anger of his hot-tempered, but generous and placable, brother had cooled down. So she hit upon the device of sending him away to her brother, Laban, in Haran. 1 Memories of the far home beyond the great river, from which in the bloom of her youthful beauty she had been brought to be the bride of Isaac, rose up before her mind and perhaps touched her somewhat hard and worldly heart. How well she remembered that golden evening when she lighted from her camel to meet yon solitary figure pacing meditatively in the fields, and found in him her husband ! 2 That manly form was now a blind bedridden dotard ; and only last even- ing, when she looked into the well, she saw mirrored there in the water a wrinkled face and grizzled hair a ghost and shadow of her former self! Well, well, how time slips by! It would be some consolation for the ravages of years if her 1 Genesis xxvii. 41-45. This pass- the wish of the parents to marry age is part of the Jehovistic narrative. their son to one of their own kinsfolk ; A different explanation of Jacob's de- thus the writer ignores as unedifying parture to Haran is given by the the story of the quarrel between the Priestly writer (Genesis xxvii. '46- brothers, xxviii. 5), who assigns for its" motive a Genesis xxiv. 40 CHAP, iv JACOB'S DREAM 41 favourite son should bring back from her native land a fair young wife in whom she might see an image of her own lost youth. This thought may have occurred to the fond mother in parting with her son, though, if we may trust the Jehovistic writer, she said not a word of it to him. 1 So Jacob departed. From Beer-Sheba, on the verge of Jacob's the desert in the extreme south of Canaan, he took his his dream journey northward. He must have traversed the bleak at Bethel, uplands of Judea, and still pursuing his northward way by a rough and fatiguing footpath he came at evening, just as the sun was setting, to a place where, weary and footsore, with the darkness closing in upon him, he decided to pass the night. It was a desolate spot. He had been gradually ascending and now stood at a height of about three thou- sand feet above sea-level. The air was keen and nipping. Around him, so far as the falling shadows permitted him to judge, lay a wilderness of stony fields and grey rocks, some of them piled up in weird forms of pillars, menhirs, or cromlechs, while a little way off a bare hill loomed dimly skyward, its sides appearing to rise in a- succession of stony terraces. It was a dreary landscape, and the traveller had little temptation to gaze long upon it. He laid himself down in the centre of a circle of great stones, resting his head on one of them as a pillow, and fell asleep. As he slept, he dreamed a dream. He thought he saw a ladder The reaching from earth to heaven and angels plying up and l^er^ down it. And God stood by him and promised to give all that land to him and to his seed after him. But Jacob woke from his sleep in terror and said, " How dreadful is this place ! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." He lay still, trembling till morning broke over the desolate landscape, revealing the same forbidding prospect of stony fields and grey rocks on which his eyes had rested the evening before. Then he The stone arose, and taking the stone on which he had laid his head he set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it, and called the place Bethel, that is, the House of God. 2 Over- 1 Genesis xxvii. 41-45. able circle of stones, which tradition 2 Genesis xxviii. 10-22. Bethel is probably identified with the spot where the modern village of Beitin. A little Jacob slept and dreamed his dream, to the north of the village is a remark- As to the place and the scenery see JACOB AT BETHEL PART II awed though he was by the vision of the night, we may suppose that he pursued his journey that day in better spirits for the divine promise which he had received. As he went on, too, the landscape itself soon began to wear a more smiling and cheerful aspect in harmony with the new hopes springing up in his breast. He left behind him the bleak highlands of Benjamin and descended into the rich lowlands of Ephraim. For hours the path led down a lovely glen where the hill-sides were terraced to the top and planted with fig-trees and olives, the white rocks tapestried with ferns and embroidered with pink and white cyclamens and crocuses, while woodpeckers, jays, and little owls laughed, tapped, or hooted, each after its kind, among the boughs. 1 So with a lighter heart he sped him on his way to the far country. 2. Dreams of the Gods As critics have seen, the story of Jacob's dream was probably told to explain the immemorial sanctity of Bethel, pers in dreams. Belief that reveal* 13 themselves which may well have been revered by the aboriginal in- worship- habitants of Canaan long before the Hebrews invaded and conquered the land. The belief that the gods revealed themselves and declared their will to mankind in dreams was widespread in antiquity ; and accordingly people re- sorted to temples and other sacred spots for the purpose of sleeping there and holding converse with the higher powers in visions of the night, for they naturally supposed that the deities or the deified spirits of the dead would be most likely to manifest themselves in places specially dedicated to their worship. For example, at Oropus in Attica there was a Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, Second Edition (Lon- don, 1856), i. 448-451; A. P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, Second Edition (London, 1856), pp. 217 sq. ; C. R. Conder, Tent Work in Pales- tine (London, 1885), pp. 251 sq. ; (Sir) George Adam Smith, in Encyclopaedia Biblica, i. col. 552, s.v. "Bethel"; id. , Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1894), pp. 289 sqq. ; H. B. Tristram, The Land of Israel, Fourth Edition (London, 1882), pp. 162 sq. ; K. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, Fourth Edition (Leipsic and London, 1906), p. 213; S. R. Driver, The Book of Genesis, Tenth Edition (London, 1916), p. 264; Principal J. Skinner, Commentary on Genesis, P- 378. 1 H. B. Tristram, The Land of Israel, Fourth Edition (London, 1882), p. 161. CHAP, iv DREAMS OF THE GODS 43 sanctuary of the dead soothsayer Amphiaraus, where in- Dreams quirers used to sacrifice rams to him and to other divine sanctuary beings, whose names were inscribed on the altar ; and having of Amphi- offered the sacrifice they spread the skins of the rams on the oropus in ground and slept on them, expecting revelations in dreams. 1 Attica - The oracle appears to have been chiefly frequented by sick people who sought a release from their sufferings, and, when they had found it, testified their gratitude by dropping gold or silver coins into the sacred spring. 2 Livy tells us that the ancient temple of Amphiaraus was delightfully situated among springs and brooks, 3 and the discovery of the site in modern times has confirmed his description. The place is in a pleasant little glen, neither wide nor deep, among low hills partially wooded with pine. A brook flows through it and finds its way between banks fringed by plane-trees and oleanders to the sea, distant about a mile. In the distance the high blue mountains of Euboea close the view. The clumps of trees and shrubs, which tuft the sides of the glen and in which the nightingale warbles, the stretch of green meadows at the bottom, the stillness and seclusion of the spot, and its sheltered and sunny aspect, all fitted it to be the resort of invalids, who thronged thither to consult the healing god. So sheltered indeed is the spot that even on a May morning the heat in the airless glen, with the Greek sun beating down out of a cloudless sky, is apt to be felt by a northerner as somewhat overpowering. But to a Greek it was probably agreeable. 4 The oracle indeed appears to The con- have been open only in summer, for the priest was bound to be in attendance at the sanctuary not less than ten days a month from the end of winter till the ploughing season, which fell at the time of the setting of the Pleiades in November ; and during these summer months he might not absent himself for more than three days at a time. Every patient who sought the advice of the god had, first of all to pay a fee of not less than nine obols (about a shilling) of 1 Pausanias i. 34. 5. As to the * I have described the site as I saw it mode in which Amphiaraus is said to on a day in May many years ago. For have acquired his power of divination, an account of the ruins of the sanctuary, see Pausanias ii. 13. 7. which have been excavated in modern 2 Pausanias i. 34. 2-5. times, I may refer to my notes on Pau- 3 Livy xlv. 27. sanias i. 34 (vol. ii. pp. 463 sqq.). 44 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n Dream? sanctuary ofAescu- good silver into the treasury, in presence of the sacristan, who thereupon entered his name and the name of his city in a public register. When the priest was in attendance, it was his duty to pray over the sacrificial victims and lay their flesh on the altar ; but in his absence the person who presented the sacrifice might perform these offices himself. The skin and a shoulder of every victim sacrificed were the priest's perquisites. None of the flesh might be removed from the precinct. Every person who complied with these rules was allowed to sleep in the sanctuary for the purpose of receiving an oracle in a dream. In the dormitory the men and women slept apart, divided by the altar, the men on the east and the women on the west. 1 There was a similar dormitory for the use of patients w ^ came to consult the Good Physician in the great sanctuary of Aesculapius near Epidaurus. The ruins of the . sanctuary, covering a wide area, have been excavated in modern times, and together form one of the most impressive monuments of ancient Greek civilization. They stand in a fine open valley encircled by lofty mountains, on the north- west rising into sharp peaks of grey and barren rock, but on the south and . east of softer outlines and verdurous slopes. In spring the level bottom of the valley, interspersed with clumps of trees and bushes, is green with corn. The whole effect of the landscape is still and solemn, with a certain pleasing solitariness ; for it lies remote from towns. A wild, romantic, densely wooded glen leads down to the ruins of the ancient Epidaurus, beautifully situated on a rocky pro- montory, which juts out into the sea from a plain covered with lemon groves and backed by high wooded mountains. 2 Patients who had slept in the sanctuary of Aesculapius at Epidaurus, and had been healed of their infirmities through The votive the revelations accorded to them in dreams, used to corn- tablets at .. ,11,1-1 , i Epidaurus. memorate the cures on tablets, which were set up in the holy place as eloquent testimonies to the restorative powers 1 These particulars we learn from an inscription discovered on the spot. See Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum Graeciae Septentrionalis , vol. i. (Berlin, 1892) pp. 70 sqq., No. 235 ; 'Efirj/j.epls 'Apxcuo\oyiicri, 1885, pp. 93 sqq. ; Ch. Michel, Recueil a* Inscriptions Grecqucs (Brussels, 1900), pp. 604 sq., No. 698. 2 I have described these scenes from personal observation. The reader will find fuller particulars in my Pausanias, vol. iii. 236 sqq., vol. v. 570 sqq. CHAP, iv DREAMS OF THE GODS 45 of the god and to the saving faith of those who put their trust in him. The sacred precinct was crowded with such tablets in antiquity, 1 and some of them have been discovered in modern times. The inscriptions shed a curious light on institutions which in some respects answered to the hospitals of modern times. For example, we read how a man whose fingers were Records at all paralysed but one, came as a suppliant to the god. of^e 5 But when he saw the tablets in the sanctuary and the effected miraculous cures recorded on them, he was incredulous. dreanf s h However, he fell asleep in the dormitory and dreamed a c^e of a dream. He thought he was playing at dice in the temple, j^an/ 1 and that, as he was in the act of throwing, the god appeared, pounced on his hand, and stretched out his fingers, one after the other, and, having done so, asked him whether he still disbelieved the inscriptions on the tablets in the sanctuary. The man said no, he did not. " Therefore," answered the god, " because you disbelieved them before, your name shall henceforth be Unbeliever." Next morning the man went forth whole. Again, Ambrosia, a one-eyed lady of Athens, Cure of a came to consult the god about her infirmitv. Walking one -eyed lady. about the sanctuary she read the cures on the tablets and laughed at some of them as plainly incredible and impossible. " How could it be," said she, " that the lame and the blind should be made whole by simply dreaming a dream?" In this sceptical frame of mind she composed herself to sleep in the dormitory, and as she slept she saw a vision. It seemed to her that the god stood by her and promised to restore the sight of her other eye, on condition that she should dedicate a silver pig in the sanctuary as a memorial of her crass infidelity. Having given this gracious promise, he slit open her ailing eye and poured balm on it. Next day she went forth healed. Again, Pandarus, a Thessalian, The case of came to the sanctuary in order to get rid of certain scarlet ancTtheT letters which had been branded on his brow. In his dream letters he thought that the god stood by him, bound a scarf about h^ his brow, and commanded him, when he went forth from 1 Strabo viii. 6. 15, p. 374, ed. second century of our era, only six of Casaubon ; Pausanias ii. 27. 3. When these tablets were left. Pausanias visited the sanctuary in the 46 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n the dormitory, to take off the scarf and dedicate it in the temple. Next morning Pandarus arose and unbound the scarf from his head, and on looking at it he saw that the infamous letters were transferred from his brow to the scarf. So he dedicated the scarf in the temple and The case of departed. On his way home he stopped at Athens, and Tnd e the' US despatched his servant Echedorus to Epidaurus with a pres- letters ent of money, which he was to dedicate as a thank-offering h[ s a brow n in the tem P le - Now Echedorus, too, had letters of shame branded on his brow, and when he came to the sanctuary, instead of paying the money into the treasury of the god, he kept it and laid himself down to sleep in the dormitory, hoping to rid himself of the marks on his forehead, just as his master had done. In his dream the god stood by him and asked whether he had brought any money from Pandarus to dedicate in the sanctuary. The fellow denied that he had received anything from Pandarus, but promised that, if the god would heal him, he would have his portrait painted and would dedicate it to the deity. The god bade him take the scarf of Pandarus and tie it round his forehead ; and when he went out of the dormitory he was to take off the scarf, wash his face in the fountain, and look at himself in the water. So, when it was day, the rascal hurried out of the dormitory, untied the scarf and scanned it eagerly, expecting to see the brand - marks imprinted on it. But they were not there. Next he went to the fountain, and, looking at his face reflected in the water, he saw the red letters of Pandarus printed on his brow in addition to his Cure of own. Again, we hear of Euphanes, a boy of Epidaurus, who suffered from stone. As he slept and dreamed in the sanctuary, the god appeared to him and said, " What will you give me if I make you whole ? " " I'll give you ten knuckle - bones," said the boy. The god laughed, and promised to cure him. Next day the boy went out whole. Cure of a Again, there came a man to the sanctuary so blind of one man? ye e Y e ^ na ^ nothing was left of it but the empty socket and eyelid. Some even of the temple officials thought his case hopeless, and said that he was a fool to fancy he could ever see again with an empty socket. Nothing daunted, he slept in the dormitory, and in his dream he thought the CHAP, iv DREAMS OF THE GODS 47 god boiled a certain drug, and then, raising the lid of the blind eye, poured it into the empty socket. Next day the man went out of the sanctuary seeing with both his eyes. Again, a certain man named Aeschines, curious to behold the sick folk sleeping in the sanctuary, climbed up a tree and peeped over the wall. But craning his neck to get a better view of them he lost his balance, and falling on two stakes put out both his eyes. Nevertheless, he prayed to the god, slept in the sanctuary, and recovered his sight. Then we read of a certain Euippus, who had a Surgical splinter of a spear sticking in his jaw for six years. As he panned slept, the god came, drew the splinter from his jaw, and byAescu- placed it in his hands. Next morning he walked out of the p^entsln dormitory with the splinter, sure enough, in his hands. Again, dreams. a man from Torone, in Macedonia, suffered from intestinal worms, which his stepmother had administered to him in a posset. In his dream, he thought that the god cut open his chest with a knife, took out the worms, and having put them in his hands, sewed up the wound in his breast. Next morning he in like manner walked out of the sanctuary with the worms in his hands. Again, we read of a man ulcer who suffered from a grievous ulcer .on one of his toes, The attendants carried him out and set him on a bench. It was broad day, but sitting there on the bench he fell fast asleep, and as he slept, a serpent crawled out of the dormitory, licked his ulcer, and healed it. When he awoke from his nap, the man said that he had dreamed of a comely youth who had laid a healing balm on the sore. Again, we hear of a blind man named Alcetas, from the town Cure of a of Halice, in Argolis, who saw in his dream the god opening his blind eyes with his own divine fingers, so that he could see the trees in the sanctuary. Next day he went forth with his sierht restored. Further, the case is recorded of a certain Cure of a bald- Heraeus of Mytilene, who had no hair on his head but a long headed beard on his chin. Ashamed of the ridiculous contrast, maa - which subjected him to a fire of raillery, he slept in the sanc- tuary, and in his dream it seeemd ,to him that the god rubbed his bald pate with an ointment, which produced a crop of hair. 1 1 'E^ijuepJs 'Ap-x.aio\oyiKT?i, Athens, F. Bechtel, Sammlung der griechischen 1883, coll. 197-228; H. Collitz und Dialekt-Inschriften, iii. Erste Halfte 48 JA COB AT BE THEL PART 1 1 Other All these cases are recorded on a single tablet which Epi^aurus. was f un d among the ruins of the sanctuary, and which appears to have been " seen there by the Greek traveller Pausanias in the second century of our era. 1 On another tablet, which has been recovered on the site, we read of a Cure of a Laconian woman named Arata who suffered from a dropsy. dropsy. g o fo er mother made a pilgrimage on her behalf to the sanctuary of Aesculapius at Epidaurus. There she slept and dreamed a dream, and in her dream she thought that the god cut off her daughter's head and hung up the head- less body neck downwards, so that all the water ran out ; then he took down the body, and clapped on the head again. When the mother returned to Lacedaemon, she found that her daughter had dreamed the same dream and was now An opera- perfectly cured. Again, the case of Aristagora of Troezen presents some remarkable features. She suffered from an intestinal worm, and in order to be cured she slept and dreamed a dream in the local precinct of Aesculapius at Troezen. It seemed to her that in the absence of the god, O * who was away at Epidaurus, his sons cut off her head to extract the worm, but that, being unable to fit the head on the trunk again, they sent a messenger to Epidaurus to fetch their divine father. At that point the lady awoke, and when the day dawned, the priest, to whom no doubt she had told her dream, averred that he saw with his waking eyes the severed and gory head. However, next night the lady had another dream : she thought she saw the god, who had come from Epidaurus, putting her head on her body and then slitting open her stomach, extracting the worm, and (Gottingen, 1,899) PP- I S I - I 57) No. other authentic document in which 3339 5 Ch. Michel, Recueil d' ' Inscrip- mention is made of the town or its in- tions Grecques (Brussels, 1900), pp. habitants." We have just seen that 823-827, No. 1069 ; Dittenberger, the case of a blind man from Halice Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum 2 is recorded on one of the recovered (Leipsic, 1898-1901), ii. pp. 649- tablets, and we shall meet with (p. 49) 656, No. 802. another case of a patient from Halice of which the record has survived the wreck 1 Pausanias il. 36. i, "Though of ages. In modern times the accuracy Halice in our day is deserted, it was and good faith of Pausanias have once inhabited. Mention is made of been rashly impugned by some German natives of Halice on the Epidaurian critics, but the stones of Greece have tablets, which record the cures wrought risen up to refute them and to justify by Aesculapius ; but I know of no him. CHAP, iv DREAMS OF -THE GODS 49 stitching up the wound. After that she was quite cured. Again, a boy named Aristocritus, of Halice, 1 dived into the Rec v eryof / a drowned sea, and being entangled among the rocks never came to boy. the surface again. His sorrowing father slept on his behalf in the sanctuary of Aesculapius, and in his dream he thought that the god led him to a certain place and told him that his lost son was there. Next day, on quitting the sanctuary, he went straight to the spot, and having caused the rock to be cut open, found his son there after seven days. Again, we read of a man who was afflicted with an internal ulcer. He slept in the sanctuary and Cure of an dreamed a dream. In his dream it seemed to him that the god commanded his 'servants to take and hold him, that he might cut open his belly ; at that he fled, but the servants of the god laid hold on him and tied him to a post, where- upon Aesculapius slit open his belly, removed the ulcer, and sewed up the wound, after which he was released from his bonds. Next morning he went forth whole, but the floor of the dormitory was full of blood. Again, a Theban named Clinatas suffered from a plague of lice, with which Cure of lice his body swarmed. So he came to the sanctuary and slept there. And in a dream he thought that the god stripped him naked, set him up, and swept the lice from his body with a broom. Next morning he went forth from the dormitory perfectly cured. Again, a certain Agestratus used to suffer from headache, so that he could not Cure f sleep at night for the pain. However, when he entered the dormitory he fell fast asleep, and in his dream he thought that the god healed his headache, stripped him naked, and taught him the rough-and-tumble (pancratium}. When day broke he went forth cured, and not long after he won a prize at Nemea in the rough-and-tumble. Again, Gorgias of Heraclea was wounded in a battle by Cure of a an arrow, the point of which remained sticking in one i ng WOU nd. of his lungs. The wound suppurated to such an extent, that in eighteen months the discharged matter filled sixty- seven pans. Well, he slept in the sanctuary and dreamed that the god extracted the point of the arrow from his lung. Next day he went forth cured, with the point of the arrow 1 See above, p. 48, note 1 . VOL. H E 50 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n in his hands. Another man, who had lost both his eyes by Cure of a the thrust of a spear in a battle, carried about the head of blind man. the speaf j n hjs f orehea( j f or a w ho\e year. When he slept in the sanctuary he dreamed that the god drew out the blade and replaced his eyeballs in the sockets. Next day he went forth with both his eyes as good as ever. Again, a certain Diaetus suffered from a weakness of the knees, Cure of which prevented him from standing upright. Sleeping in the sanctuary he dreamed that the god commanded his servants to take him up, carry him forth from the dormitory, and set him down in front of the temple. Then the god mounted a chariot and drove round the temple, trampling the body of poor Diaetus under the" hoofs of his horses. Strange to say, this effected a complete cure, for next morning Diaetus walked out as firm on his legs as anybody. Again, we read of two childless women who came to the Serpent sanctuary in the hope that the god would grant them children on ff" s P rm g- O ne f them, Andromeda of Ceos, dreamed women in that a serpent crawled forth and lay upon her ; after which she bore five children. The other woman, Nicasibula a Messenian, dreamed that the god brought a great serpent and made it lie down beside her. She fondled the reptile, and in a year from that time she was delivered of twin boys. 1 In these last cases, as in the case of the man whose ulcer was healed by a serpent, 2 the reptile is the animal embodiment of the god himself; for Aesculapius was often conceived and represented in the form of a snake. 3 Dream Again, on the wild ironbound coast of Laconia, where Ine> * ne S rea t ran b e f Taygetus descends in naked crags to the Pasiphaein sea, there was an oracular shrine, where a goddess revealed their hearts' desires to mortals in dreams. Different opinions prevailed as to who the goddess was. The Greek traveller Pausanias, who visited the place, thought that she was Ino, 'Apxauo\oyiic/i, Athens, 1901), ii. pp. 656-663, No. 803. 1885, coll. 1-28; H. Collitz und F. T, i i ( - / j i i See above, p. 47. Bechtel, Sammlttng aer grtechischen Dialekt-Inschrijten, iti. Erste Halfte 3 Pausanias ii. 10. 3. In a note on (Gottingen, 1899), pp. 157-162, No. that passage (vol. iii. p. 65) I have 3340 ; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip- collected more evidence of the relation tionum Graeearum* (Leipsic, 1898- of Aesculapius to serpents. CHAP, iv DREAMS OF THE GODS 51 a marine goddess ; but he acknowledged that he could not see the image in the temple for the multitude of garlands with which it was covered, probably by worshippers who thus expressed their thanks for the revelations vouchsafed to them in sleep. The vicinity of the sea, with the solemn lullaby of its waves, might plead in favour of Ino's claim to be the patroness of the shrine. Others, however, held that she was Pasiphae in the character of the Moon ; and they may have supported their opinion, before they retired at nightfall to the sacred dormitory, by pointing to the silvery orb in the sky and her shimmering reflection on the moonlit water. Be that as it may, the highest magistrates of Sparta appear to have frequented this sequestered spot for the sake of the divine counsels which they expected to receive in slumber, and it is said that at a momentous crisis of Spartan history one of them here dreamed an ominous dream. 1 Ancient Italy as well as Greece had its oracular seats, Dream where anxious mortals sought for advice and comfort from ancient" 1 the gods or deified men in dreams. Thus the soothsayer Italy. Calchas was worshipped at Drium in Apulia, and persons who wished to inquire of him sacrificed a black ram and slept on the skin. 2 Another ancient and revered Italian oracle was that of Faunus, and the mode of consulting him was similar. The inquirer sacrificed a sheep, spread out its skin on the ground, and sleeping on it received an answer in a dream. If the seat of the oracle was, as there is reason to think, in a sacred grove beside the cascade at Tibur, the solemn shade of the trees and the roar of the tumbling waters might well inspire the pilgrim with religious awe and mingle with his dreams. 3 The little circular shrine, which 1 Pausanias iii. 26. I ; Plutarch, Casaubon. Agis, 9; id. , Cleomenes, 7; Cicero, 3 Virgil, Aen. vii. 8 1 sqq., with De divinatione, i. 43. 96. As to the Conington's commentary on verse 82 ; site of the oracle and the character of Ovid, Fasti, iv. 649 sqq. For more the scenery I may refer the reader to evidence of divination by dreams in my ncte on Pausanias (vol. iii. p. 400). antiquity, see B. Buchsenschiitz, Traum Cicero was mistaken in thinking that und Traumdeutung im Alterthume the shrine was near the city of Sparta. (Berlin, 1868) ; A. Bouche-Leclercq, The whole rugged and lofty range of Histoire de la Divination dans rAnti- Taygetus lay between. quitt (Paris, 1879), i. 280 sqq. ; L. Deubner, De Incubatione (Leipsic, 2 Strabo vi. 3. 9, p. 284, ed. 1900). 52 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n f still overhangs the waterfall, may have been the very spot where the rustic god was believed to whisper in the ears of his slumbering votaries. Stories of ladders leading from earth to heaven. African tales of heavenly ladders. Toradja tales of creepers that led from earth to heaven. S 3. The Heavenly Ladder Far different from these oracular seats in the fair land- scapes of Greece and Italy was the desolate stony hollow among the barren hills, where Jacob slept and saw the vision of angels ascending and descending the ladder that led from earth to heaven. The belief in such a ladder, used by divine beings or the souls of the dead, meets us in other parts of the world. Thus, speaking of the gods of West Africa, Miss Kingsley tells us that " in almost all the series of native traditions there, you will find accounts of a time when there was direct intercourse between the gods or spirits that live in the sky, and men. That intercourse is always said to have been cut off by some human error ; for example, the Fernando Po people say that once upon a time there was no trouble or serious disturbance upon earth because there was a ladder, made like the one you get palm-nuts with, ' only long, long ' ; and this ladder reached from earth to heaven so the gods could go up and down it and attend personally to mundane affairs. But one day a cripple boy started to go up the ladder, and he had got a long way up when his mother saw him, and went up in pursuit. The gods, horrified at the prospect of having boys and women invading heaven, threw down the ladder, and have since left humanity severely alone." ] The Bare'e-speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes say that in the olden time, when all men lived together, sky and earth were connected with each other by a creeper. One day a handsome young man, of celestial origin, whom they call Mr. Sun (Lasaeo), appeared on earth, riding a white buffalo. He found a girl at work in the fields, and falling in love with the damsel he took her to wife. They lived together for a time, and Mr. Sun taught people to till the ground and supplied them with buffa- loes. But one day it chanced that the child, which Mr. 1 Mary H. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (London, 1897), p. 507. CHAP, iv THE HEAVENLY LADDER . 53 Sun had by his wife, misbehaved in the house and so offended his father that, in disgust at mankind, he re- turned to heaven by the creeper. His wife attempted to clamber up it after him, but he cut the creeper through, so that it and his wife together fell down to earth and were turned to stone. They may be seen to this day in the form of a limestone hill not far from the river Wimbi. The hill is shaped like a coil of rope and bears the name of the Creeper Hill (Tamoengkoe mBaloegai)} Further, in Toradja stories we hear of a certain Rolled-up Rattan, by which mortals can ascend from earth to heaven. It is a thorny creeper growing about a fig-tree and adding every year a fresh coil round the bole. Any person who would use it must first waken it from sleep by shattering seven cudgels on its tough fibres. That rouses the creeper from its slumber ; it shakes itself, takes a betel-nut, and asks the person what he wants. When he begs to be carried up to the sky, the creeper directs him to seat himself either on its thorns or on its upper end, taking with him seven bamboo vessels full of water to serve as ballast. As the creeper rises in the air, it heels over to right or left, where- upon the passenger pours out some water, and the creeper rights itself accordingly. Arrived at the vault of heaven, the creeper shoots through a hole in the firmament, and, grappling fast by its thorns to the celestial floor, waits patiently till the passenger has done his business up aloft and is ready to return to earth. In this way the hero of the tale makes his way to the upper regions and executes his purpose there, whatever it is, whether it be to recover a stolen necklace, to storm and pillage a heavenly village, or to have a dead man restored to life by the heavenly smith. 2 The Battas or Bataks of Sumatra say that at the middle stories of of the earth there was formerly a rock, of which the top reaching*" reached up to heaven, and by which certain privileged rock, cable beings, such as heroes and priests, could mount up to the sky. In heaven there grew a great fig-tree (waringiri) which Sumatra, gascar, 1 N. Adrian! en A. C. Kruijt, De * N. Adriani en A. C. Kruijt, De and Russia. Bare" e-sprekende Toradja's van Midden- Bare'e-sprekende Toradja's van Midden- Celebes (The Hague, 1912-1914), i. 23 Celebes, iii. 396 sq., 433 sy., 436 sq., ty., 273. 440. 54 JA COB AT BE THEL PART 1 1 sent down its roots to meet the rock, thus enabling mortals to swarm up it to the mansions on high. But one day a man out of spite cut down the tree, or perhaps rather severed its roots, because his wife, who had come down from heaven, returned thither and left him forlorn. 1 The Betsimisaraka of Madagascar think that the souls of the dead ascend to the sky by climbing up a silver cable, by which also celestial spirits come and go on their missions to earth. 2 According to the Cheremiss of Russia, in the beginning of things men knew not God, who dwelt apart in his heavenly house. He had a beautiful daughter, but no servant, so he had to work hard for his living, and his daughter kept his flocks and herds. However, grass did not grow in heaven; hence God was obliged to send his flocks and herds down to earth to pasture, and his daughter accompanied them in the capacity of shepherdess or herd-girl. For that purpose God opened the gate of heaven and let down a long scarf of felt ; his daughter slid down it, and on reaching the earth called out, " Dokh> dokJi, dokh ! " where- upon the horses slid down the scarf after her. In like manner she called the cows and the sheep, and they also slid down the scarf to earth. When the evening was come, she would cry, " Father, let down the scarf ; I must return home." So God opened the gate of heaven and let down the scarf, and the shepherdess, followed by her flocks, ascended by it to the sky. But one day, when she had come down to earth, she saw a young man and gave him her handkerchief and her hand. For two years they hid their marriage from her divine father, but at last they acknow- ledged it to him. God celebrated the wedding with a grand feast and gave his daughter a handsome dowry. Since that time men have known God ; but what has become of the scarf, which used to serve as a ladder between heaven and earth, the story does not relate. 3 Again, " a Mazovian 1 W. Kodding, "Die batakschen 2 A. et G. Grandidier, "De la Cotter und ihr Verhaltnis zum Brah- religion des Malgaches," L'Antkro- manismus," Allgemeine Missions- Zeit- pologie, xxviii. (1917) p. in. schrift, xii. (1885), p. 404; Alb. C. Kruijt, Het Animisme in den Indischen 3 J. N. Smirnov, Les Populations Archipel (The Hague, 1906), pp. 494 Finnoises des Bassins de la Volga et sq. The former of these writers does de la Kama, Premiere Partie (Paris, not mention the fig-tree. 1898), p. 202. CHAP, iv THE HEAVENLY LADDER 55 legend tells how a certain pilgrim, on his way to worship at the Holy Sepulchre, became lost in a rocky place from which he could not for a long time extricate himself. At last he saw hanging in the air a ladder made of birds' feathers. Up this he clambered for three months, at the end of which he reached the Garden of Paradise, and entered among groves of gold and silver and gem-bearing trees, all of which were familiar with the past, the present, and the future." l Different from these imaginary ladders are the real Ladders to ladders which some people set up to facilitate the descent the'descent of gods or spirits from heaven to earth. For example, the of gods or natives of Timorlaut, Babar, and the Leti Islands in the Indian Archipelago worship the sun as the chief male god, who fertilizes the earth, regarded as a goddess, every year at the beginning of the rainy season. For this beneficent purpose the deity descends into a sacred fig-tree (waringin), and to enable him to alight on the ground the people place under the tree a ladder with seven rungs, the rails of which are decorated with the carved figures of two cocks, as if to announce the arrival of the god of day by their shrill clarion. 2 When the Toradjas of Central Celebes are offering sacrifices to the gods at the dedication of a new house, they set up two stalks of plants, adorned with seven strips of white cotton or barkcloth, to serve the gods as ladders whereby they may descend to partake of the rice, tobacco, betel, and palm- wine provided for them. 3 Among the Dyaks of Dusun, in Southern Borneo, when a medicine-man is called into a house to heal a sick person, an altar with offerings is set up in the middle of the room, and from it a light ladder, made of reeds, is stretched to the ridge of the roof. In response to an invocation the spirits alight on the roof, and descending the ladder enter into the medicine-man, who, thus possessed 1 W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of as to this ceremony of the annual the Russian People, Second Edition fertilization of the earth by the sun, (London, 1872), p. in. see The Magic Art and the Evolu- 2 G. W. W. C. Baron van Hoevell, tion of Kings, ii. 98 sq. (The Golden " Einige weitere Notizen liber die Bough, Third Edition, Part i.). Formen der Gotterverehrung auf den Slid- wester undSud-osterInseln,"/ter- 3 N. Adriani en A. C. Kruijt, De nationales Archiv fur Ethnographie, Barje-sprekende Toradjds van AJidden- viii. (1895) p. 134. For more details Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), ii. 163. 56 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n by them, dances wildly about and then sucks the sickness out of the patient's body. 1 Ladders in Again, some peoples both in ancient and modern times graves for h ave imagined' that the souls of the dead pass up from earth the souls of the dead to to heaven by means of a ladder, and they have even placed climb up. miniature ladders in the graves in order to enable the ghosts to swarm up them to the abode of bliss. Thus in the Pyramid Texts, which are amongst the oldest literature of the world, mention is often made of the ladder up which dead Egyptian kings climbed to the sky. Generally this celestial ladder appears to be made by the Sun-god, Ra or Atum. Thus we read that " Atum has done that which he said he would do for this king Pepi II., binding for him the rope-ladder, joining together the (wooden) ladder for this king Pepi II. ; (thus) this king is far from the abomina- tion of men." Or it is the four sons of Horus who " bind a rope-ladder for this king Pepi II. ; they join together a (wooden) ladder for king Pepi II. They send up king Pepi II: to Khepri (the Sun-god) that he may arrive on the east side of the sky. Its timbers are hewn by Shesa, the ropes that are in it are joined together with cords of Gasuti, the Bull of the Sky (Saturn) ; the uprights at its sides are fastened with leather." 2 Again, the dead man is told that Ra and Horus set up a ladder for him : " One of them stands on this side and the other on that side : thou ascendest on it up to heaven. The gate of heaven is opened for thee, and the great bolts are withdrawn for thee. There wilt thou find Ra standing ; he will take thee by the hand and lead thee into the sanctuary (?) of heaven, and will set thee on the throne of Osiris, on that throne of thine that thou mayest rule over the Blessed." s In many Egyptian graves there has been found a ladder, which may have been intended to enable the ghost to scramble up out of the grave, perhaps even to ascend up to heaven, like the kings of old. 4 The Mangars, a righting tribe of Nepaul, are careful to 1 P. te Wechel, " Erinnerungen aus (London, 1912), pp. ursf., compare den Ost- und West - Dusun - landern pp. l$3 sg. (Borneo)," Internationales Archiv fur , . . .. ... , ,, .. . , V.i ^7- , ,1 d A. Erman. Dte agyptische Religion* Ethnography xxn. (1915) pp. 45 sq. R ,. ' TV* 2 J. H. Breastead, Development of hn> I H. Vin- free from doubt, since the ordinary cent, Canaan dapres I Exploration word for "stones "is absent from the recente (Paris, 1914), pp. 102 sqq. Hebrew text. See the commentaries 2 Hosea iii. 4, x. I. of Aug. Dillmann (Der Prophet JesaiaJ* 3 Exodus xxiii. 24, xxxiv. 13 ; Leipsic, 1890, p. 486), Principal J. Leviticus xxvi. j : Deuteronomy vii. Skinner {Cambridge Bible for Schools 5, xvi. 22. and Colleges}, and O. C. Whitehouse 1 Genesis xxviii. 22. ( The Century Bible} on the passage. 60 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n olden time all the Greeks worshipped unwrought stones instead of images. In the market-place of Pharae, in Achaia, there were thirty square stones, to each of which the people gave the name of a god. 1 'At Megara there was a stone in the shape of a pyramid, which was called Apollo Carinus ; 2 on coins of the city it is represented as an obelisk standing between two dolphins. 3 Near Gythium in Laconia there was an unwrought stone which went by the name of Zeus Cappotas ; legend ran that the matricide Orestes had been cured of his madness by sitting on it. 4 In a temple of Hercules at Olmones in Boeotia the god was represented, not by an image, but in the old fashion by an unwrought stone. 5 The inhabitants of Thespiae, in Boeotia, honoured Love above all the gods ; and the great sculptors Lysippus and Praxiteles wrought for the city glorious images of the amorous deity in bronze and marble. Yet beside these works of refined Greek art the people paid their devotions to an uncouth idol of the god in the shape of a rough stone. 6 The Aenianes of Thessaly worshipped a stone, sacrificing to it and covering it with the fat of victims. They explained its sanctity by a story, that in days of old one of their kings had slain another king in single combat by hurling this stone at him. 7 Worship of The worship of rude stones has been practised all over Melanesia ^e wor ^> nowhere perhaps more systematically than in Sacred Melanesia. Thus, for example, in the Banks' Islands and stones m ^ . N or thern New Hebrides the spirits to whom food is the Banks islands offered are almost always connected with stones on which Hebrides ^ e ff erm g s are made. Certain of these stones have been sacred to some spirit from ancient times, and the knowledge of the proper way of propitiating the spirit has been handed down, generation after generation, to the particular man who is now the fortunate possessor of it. " But any man may find a stone for himself, the shape of which strikes his fancy, or some other object, an octopus in his hole, a shark, a snake, an eel, which seems to him something unusual, and 1 Pausanias vii. 22. 4. 4 Pausanias iii. 22. i. 2 Pausanias i. 44. 2. B Pausanias ix 2A i 3 F.Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias, Pausanias ix. 27. 1-3. p. 6, with plate A viii. 7 Plutarch, Quaestiones Graecae, 13. CHAP, iv THE SACRED STONE 61 therefore connected with a spirit. He gets money and scatters it about the stone, or on the place where he has seen the object of his fancy ; then he goes home to sleep. He dreams that some one takes him to a place and shews him the pigs or money he is to have because of his connexion with the thing that he has found. This thing in the Banks' Islands becomes his tano-oloolo, the place of his offering, the object in regard to which offering is made to get pigs or money. His neighbours begin to know that he has it, and that his increasing wealth has its origin there ; they come to him, therefore, and obtain through him the good offices of the spirit he has come to know. He hands down the know- ledge of this to his son or nephew. If a man is sick he gives another who is known to have a stone of power the spirit connected with which it is suggested that he has offended a short string of money, and a bit of the pepper root, gea, that is used for kava ; the sick man is said to oloolo to the possessor of the stone. The latter takes the things offered to his sacred place and throws them down, saying, ' Let So-and-So recover.' When the sick man recovers he pays a fee. If a man desires to get the benefit of the stone, or whatever it is, known to another, with a view to increase of money, pigs, or food, or success in fighting, the possessor of the stone will take him to his sacred place, where probably there are many stones, each good for its own purpose. The applicant will supply money, perhaps a hundred strings a few inches long. The introducer will shew him one stone and say, 'This is a big yam,' and the worshipper puts money down. Of another he says it is a boar, of another that it is a pig with tusks, and money is put down. The notion is that the spirit, vui^ attached to the stone likes the money, which is allowed to remain upon or by the stone. In case the oloolo> the sacrifice, succeeds, the man benefited pays the man to whom the stones and spirits belong." * From this instructive account we learn that in these A islands a regular sanctuary may originate in the fancy of a man who, having noticed a peculiar-looking stone and dreamed about it, concludes that the stone must contain a powerful spirit, who can help him, and whom he and his 1 R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), pp. 140 sq. 62 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n descendants henceforth propitiate with offerings. Further, we see how such a sanctuary, as it rises in reputation, may attract more and more worshippers, and so grow wealthy through the offerings which the gratitude or the cupidity of the devotees may lead them to deposit at the shrine. Have we not here a Melanesian counterpart of the history of Bethel ? An older mode of interpretation might see in it a diabolical counterfeit of a divine original. Worship of Again, speaking of the natives of Aneityum, one of the Aneftyum Southern New Hebrides, Dr. George Turner tells us that " smooth stones apparently picked up out of the bed of the river were regarded as representatives of certain gods, and wherever the stone was, there the god was supposed to be. One resembling a fish would be prayed to as the fisherman's god. Another, resembling a yam, would be the yam god. A third, round like a bread-fruit, the bread-fruit god, and so on." l Similarly, referring to the same island, another mis- sionary writes, " Many Natmases or spirits were worshipped ; these were appealed to and propitiated by small offerings of food, hung in small baskets on the branches of trees, or laid on the top of sacred stones, where certain of these spirits were supposed to have their habitation." 2 Worship of Again, describing the religion of Futuna, an island of the Futuna" New Hebrides, another missionary writes, " Some gods wor- shipped by the natives inhabited trees and stones, and thus their religion descended to fetishism. Further, they possessed sacred or magical stones, to make the fruits of the earth grow. The stones resembled in form the yams, or fruits, over which their magic influence was used. The stones for causing bread-fruit to grow were almost exactly like the fruit ; but in others the resemblance between the stones and the objects represented was fanciful. These stones were very numerous, and common people as well as chiefs pos- sessed them. Some were used for catching fish ; others were love-charms to help the possessor in obtaining a wife or 1 George Turner, Samoa (London, - Rev. J. Lawrie, " Aneityum, New 1884), p. 327. These "smooth stones Hebrides," Report of the Fourth Meet- apparently picked up out of the bed of ' ing of the Australian Association for the river " answer to the similar stones the Advancement of Science, held at worshipped by the Israelites. See Hobart, Tasmania, in January 1892 above, p. 59. (Sydney), p. 712. CHAP, iv THE SACRED STONE 63 husband ; others were used in war to give a steady aim in throwing the spear, or in warding off blows of enemies. The sorcerers used them in making disease, and the sacred men in causing drought, hurricanes, rain, etc." l The natives of the Torres Straits Islands used to worship Worship of round painted stones, which they believed could help them in fishing or procure them a fair wind, and so forth. 2 For Straits example, some of these stones were supposed to give success in turtle-fishing ; accordingly their assistance was invoked and offerings made to them. Live turtles were often buried beside these stones, their heads only projecting from the earth and their flappers tied securely to prevent their escape. A Christian native who stole, or rather released, two such votive turtles for the purpose of consecrating them to the pot, excited the rage of the islanders, who predicted the speedy death of the impious thief. 3 Again, in the island of Tauan there used to be a large, perfectly round stone, painted red, which could give success in hunting dugong, the large marine mammal, something like a porpoise, with a pig's head and a horse's mouth, which abounds in these seas. The stone was supposed to represent a dugong, and a white streak encircling it stood for the rope with which the dugong-hunter hoped to bind his prey. When a man resolved to go dugong- hunting, he used to present an offering of fish and coco-nuts to the stone, and in approaching it he mimicked the paddling of a canoe. Then coming near, he would rush at the stone and clasp it in his arms, all the while uttering a prayer for success. The firmer he gripped the mock dugong, the surer he was to catch a real one. 4 In this ceremony elements of religion and magic are clearly combined. The prayer and offering to the stone are purely religious, being apparently intended to propitiate a spirit resident in the stone. On the other hand the simulation of a dugong-hunt, by going through the actions of paddling a canoe and clasping a dugong in the arms, are pure pieces of mimetic magic designed to ensure the desired end by imitating it. In one of the Samoan Islands the god Turia had his 1 W. Gunn, The Gospel in Futuna ern Isles ( London, N.D.), p. 217. (London, 1914), pp. 221 sq. 3 W. Wyatt Gill, op. tit. p. 293. 2 W. Wyatt Gill, Life in the South- * W. Wyatt Gill, op. cit. p. 302. 64 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n Worship of shrine in a very smooth stone, which was kept in a sacred grove. The priest was careful to weed all round about, and covered the stone with branches to keep the god warm. When prayers were offered on account of war, drought, famine, or epidemic, the branches were carefully renewed. Nobody dared to touch the stone, lest a poisonous and deadly influence should radiate from it on the transgressor. 1 In another Samoan village two oblong smooth stones, stand- ing on a platform, were believed to be the parents of Saato, a god who controlled the rain. When the chiefs and people were ready to go off for weeks to the bush for the sport of pigeon-catching, they laid offerings of cooked taro and fish on the stones, accompanying them with prayers for fine weather and no rain. Any one who refused an offering to the stones was frowned upon ; and if rain fell, he was blamed and punished for bringing down the wrath of the fine-weather god and spoiling the sport of the season. Moreover, in time of scarcity, when people were on their way to search for wild yams, they would give a yam to the two stones as a thank- offering, supposing that these gods caused the yams to grow, and that they could lead them to the best places for finding such edible roots. Any person casually passing by with a basket of food would also stop and lay a morsel on the stones. When such offerings were eaten in the night by dogs or rats, the people thought that the god became temporarily incarnate in these animals in order to consume the victuals. 2 . Worship of j n Fakaofo, or Bowditch Island, South Pacific, the great Bowditch native god was called Tui Tokelau, or king of Tokelau. He island and was thought to be embodied in a stone, which was kept care- Nukunau. fully wrapt up in fine mats, and never seen by any one but the king, and that only once a year, when the decayed mats were stripped off and thrown away. In time of sickness fine mats were brought as offerings and rolled round the sacred stone, which thus became busked up to a prodigious size ; but as the idol stood exposed to the weather under the open sky, the mats soon rotted. No one dared to appropriate what had been offered to the god ; so the old mats, as they were taken off, were heaped in a place by themselves and left to decay. 1 G. Turner, Samoa (London, 1884), p. 62. 2 G. Turner, Samoa, pp. 24 sy. CHAP, iv THE SACRED STONE 65 Once a year, about the month of May, a great festival was held there in honour of the god. It lasted a whole month. All work was laid aside. The people assembled from the islands of the group and feasted and danced, praying for life, health, and a plentiful supply of coco-nuts. 1 In Nikunau, an island of the Gilbert Group in the South Pacific, the gods and goddesses were represented by sandstone slabs or pillars. If the stone slab represented a goddess it was not set up erect, but laid down on the ground, the natives thinking that it would be cruel to make the divine lady stand so long. 2 The natives of Timor, an island of the Indian Archipelago, Worship of are much concerned about earth-spirits, which dwell in rocks the^dian and stones of unusual- and striking shape. Not all such Archipei- rocks and stones, however, are haunted, and when a man ago * has found one of them he must dream upon it, in order to ascertain whether a spirit dwells in it or not. If in his dream the spirit appears to him and demands a sacrifice of man, or beast, or betel, he has the stone removed and set up near his house. Such stones are worshipped by whole families or villages and even districts. The spirit who resides in the stone cares for the welfare of the people, and requires to receive in return betel and rice, but sometimes also fowls, pigs, and buffaloes. Beside the stone there often stand pointed stakes, on which hang the skulls of slain foes. 3 The Bare'e-speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes tell of a time when all their tribes dwelt together about Lake Posso. At last under the leadership of six brothers and a sister they broke up into seven bands and parted. But before they separated they set up seven stones, called the Stones of Parting, of which three are standing to this day. When a Toradja passes the stones, he strews yellow-dyed rice on them, invokes his forefathers, and begs them to give him rice and fish. 4 The Dyaks of Dusun, in the south of Borneo, believe that the souls of dead ancestors sometimes lodge in certain stones. A man will dream that the ghost of a departed kinsman has appeared to him, and on awaking 1 G. Turner, Samoa, pp. 268 sq. Archiv fur Anthropofogie, N.F. xii. 2 G. Turner, Samoa, p. 296. (l ^ PP' 1 "/?- 4 N. Adnani en A. C. Kruyt, De 3 T- Wanner, " Ethnologische Noti- Barfe-sprekende Toradja' s van Midden- zen iiber die Inseln Timor und Misol," Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), i. 5- VOL. II F 66 JACOB AT BETHEL PART n he will engage a sorcerer to discover the stone in which the spirit resides. When the stone has been found, it is carefully preserved and sacrifices are regularly offered to it. 1 Worship of In Burma "all the Karens, but especially the wilder among the Bghai tribes, hold certain stones in great reverence as pos- Karens of sessing superhuman powers. I do not know exactly what ma * spirits are supposed to dwell in them, but rather fancy they are regarded more as amulets or magic stones than as gods. Yet sacrifices of hogs and fowls are offered, and the blood poured on the stones. These stones have the wonderful property of always returning to the owner if lost or taken away. They are generally private property, though in some villages there are stones so sacred and powerfulthat none but certain of the wisest elders dare look on them. These stones are generally pieces of rock-crystal, or curiously strati- fied rock ; anything that strikes the poor ignorant Karen as uncommon is regarded as necessarily possessing occult powers." 2 The worship of stones appears to be common among t ^ ie Naga tr ib es of Assam. 3 For instance, on a ridge near the Sema village of Champini, there may be seen a large solitary stone, about nine feet long by two feet wide ; one end of the stone is split off and lies close by. The place is surrounded by a circle of trees. The stone is the god Puzzi, but he is dead, because Tukko, the god of the Angamis, a neighbouring hill tribe, came and fought him, knocked him down, and cut his head off. One of the god's ears, too, was severed from his head, and lies in the valley below, where the natives point it out to strangers. Long ago, they say, before the English came to the hills, Puzzi was not broken, but stood erect, and so bright and shining was he, that nobody could approach him within many paces. Yet though Puzzi is unfortunately dead, the spot where his body lies is still hallowed ground, and is kept free of weeds and undergrowth. When the villagers make 1 P. te Wechel, " Erinnerungen aus p. 295. den Ost- und West - Dusun - landern (Borneo)," In 'ertiationales Archiv fur 3 W. H. Furness, "The Ethno- Ethnographie, xxii. (1915) p. 19. g*aphy of the Nagas of Eastern Assam," ' 2 Capt. C. J. F. S. Forbes, British Journal of the Anthropological Insti- Burma and its People (London, 1878), tute, xxxii. (1902) pp. 457 sqq. CHAP, iv THE SACRED STONE 67 their clearings for rice-fields in front of Puzzi's corpse, they sacrifice a fowl, and from its entrails they read the omens for the harvest. The body of the fowl may not be eaten, but must be hung on one of the neighbouring trees, and some of its feathers tied to stakes near Puzzi's head. 1 There is hardly a village in Northern India which has Worship of not its sacred stone. Very often the stone is not appropri- ated to any one deity in particular, but represents the aggre- gate of the local divinities who have the affairs of the com- munity under their charge. 2 In Chhattisgar, for example, a division of the Central Provinces, the village god, Thakur Deo, is represented by a collection of oddly shaped stones, which usually lie on a platform under a shady tree. In the Drug subdivision the sacred stones are shaped like two-legged stools. Every village worships Thakur Deo twice a year, in the months of Paus and Chaitra, and on these occasions they sacrifice goats and fowls to him and have a feast. 3 Among the tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, " in every village in which Shins are in the majority, there is a large stone which is still more or less the object of reverence. Each village has its own name for this stone, but an oath taken or an engagement made over it, is often held more binding than where the Koran is used. In several villages goats are still annually sacrificed beside the stone, which is sprinkled with blood, and in other places the practice has only lately been discontinued." 4 The Miao-kia of Southern China revere certain natural 1 W. H. Furaess, "The Ethno- 3 P. N. Bose, "Chhattisgar: notes graphy of the Xagas of Eastern Assam," on its tribes, sects and castes, "Journal Journal of 'the Anthropological Institute, of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, lix. xxxii. (1902) pp. 458 sq. As to the Part i. (Calcutta, 1891), p. 275. The Semas, who worship this stone, Sir E. village god Thakur Deo seems to be A. Gait tells us that they are " the specially concerned with cultivation, most barbarous and savage tribes with The Baigas and Bhainas worship him which we have yet come into contact before they sow their crops ; on these in these hills. But four years ago the occasions the village priest sows a few custom of head-taking was in full swing seeds in the earth before Thakur Deo, amongst all the villages to the east of who among the Baigas lives in a tree the Doyang river, and the use of money instead of a stone. See R. V. Russell, was unknown to almost every village The Tribes and Castes of the Central of the tribe." See Census of India, Provinces of India (London, 1916), ii. i8qr, Assam, vol. i. Report, by (Sir) 85, 231. E. A. Gait (Shillong, 1892), p. 247. 2 W. Crooke, The Popular Religion * Major J. Biddulph, Tribes of the and Folk-lore of Northern India (West- Hindoo Koosh (Calcutta, 1 880), pp. minster, 1896), ii. 163 sq. 114 sq. 68 JACOB AT BETHEL Worship of stones among the Miao-kia of China and the Ingouch of the Caucasus. Sacred stones in Madagas- car and Africa. stones of more or less geometrical shape. These they enclose in little wooden shrines roofed with tiles or thatch, and from time to time they offer sacrifices before them. Like the Chinese, they also burn sticks of incense before oddly shaped rocks or boulders. 1 The Ingouch tribe of the Caucasus regard certain rocks as sacred and offer costly sacrifices to them, especially at funerals. And if an Ingouch is alleged to owe money to a Tchetchense, and cannot or will not pay it, he .may be compelled to deny his debt on oath in presence of the sacred rock. For this purpose the bones and dung of dogs are mixed up together, and the mixture having been carried before the holy rock, the two parties take their stand at the same place, and the debtor says aloud, " If I am not speaking the truth, I consent to the dead of my family carrying on their backs the dead of So and So's family, on this very road, after the rain shall have fallen and the sun shall have shone thereupon." * Here the sacred rock seems to be regarded as a witness who will ensure the fulfilment of the oath or avenge its breach. Other examples of the use of stones in swearing solemn oaths will be given later on. 3 Among the tribes of northern and eastern Madagascar, who bury their dead in deep woods or desert places, far from the abodes of man, it is customary to erect stones by the wayside in memory. of the illustrious or the wealthy departed. Some of these stones measure from sixteen to nearly twenty feet in height. They serve as altars on which offerings to the shades are deposited, and before which people address their prayers to the spirits on solemn occasion. 4 The king of Karagwe, in Central Africa, to the west of Lake Victoria Nyanza, used to set beer and grain before a large stone on the hillside, hoping to be favoured with better crops for doing so, although in conversation with Speke he admitted that the stone could not eat the food or indeed make any use of it. 5 In Busoga, a district of Central Africa, to the north of 1 La Mission Lyonnaise cFExplora- 4 A. et G. Grandidier, " De la tion Commercials en Chine (Lyons, religion des Malgaches," L'Anthro- 1898), p. 361. 2 Potocki, Voyage dans les Steps d" Astrakhan et du Caucase (Paris, 1829), i. 124, 126. 3 See below, pp. 405 sqq. pologie, xxviii. (1917) p. 120. 6 J. H. Speke, Journal of the Dis- covery of the Source of the Nile (London, 1912), ch. viii. _p. 197 (Everyman 's Library}. CHAP, iv THE SACRED STONE 69 Lake Victoria Nyanza, " each piece of rock and large stone is said to have its spirit, which is always active in a district either for good or for evil. Various kinds of diseases, especi- ally plague, are attributed to the malevolence of rock-spirits. When sickness or plague breaks out, the spirit invariably takes possession of some person of the place, either a man or a woman ; and, under the influence of the spirit, the person mounts the rock and calls from it to the people. The chief and the medicine-men assemble the people, make an offering of a goat or a fowl to the spirit, and are then told how to act in order to stay the disease. After making known its wishes to the people, the spirit leaves the person and returns to the rock, and the medium goes home to his or her ordinary pursuits and may possibly never be used again by the spirit." l Hence there are many sacred rocks and stones in Busoga. They are described as local deities ; and to them the people go under all manner of circum- stances to pray for help. 2 The Menkieras of the French Sudan, to the south of the Niger, offer sacrifices to rocks and stones. For example, at Sapo the village chief owns a great stone at the door of his house. Any man who can- not procure a wife, or whose wife is childless, will offer a fowl to the stone, hoping that the stone will provide him with a wife or child. He hands over the bird to the chief, who sacrifices and eats it. If his wishes are granted, the man will present another fowl to the stone as a thank-offering. 3 The Huron Indians of Canada worshipped certain rocks, Worship to which they offered tobacco. Of these the most celebrated jjjjj 1 ^ was one called Tsanhohi Arasta, that is, the abode of Huronsjof Tsanhohi, which was a kind of bird of prey. It seems to have stood on the bank of a river, perhaps the St Lawrence, down which the Indians paddled on their way to Quebec. They told marvellous stories of this rock. They said it had once been a man, and they fancied they could still dis- tinguish his head, arms, and body. Yet the rock was so huge that the arrows which they shot at it could not rise to the top. The Hurons thought that in the hollow of the 1 J. Roscoe, The Northern Bantu 3 Louis Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan (Cambridge, 1915), p. 250. (Paris, 1912), p. 105. 2 J. Roscoe, op. cit. p. 251. 70 JACOB AT BETHEL PART 11 great crag there dwelt a demon, who could make their voyage prosperous. So in passing they used to stop padd- ling and offer him tobacco, depositing it in one of the clefts of the rock, and praying, " O demon, who dost inhabit this place, here is some tobacco which I offer to you. Help us, save us from shipwreck, defend us from our enemies, cause us to do good business and to return safe and sound to our The village." l The great oracle of the Mandan Indians was a stonefofthe tmc k porous stone some twenty feet in circumference, whose Mandan miraculous utterances were believed with implicit confidence by these simple savages. Every spring, and on some occa- sions during the summer, a deputation waited on the holy stone and solemnly smoked to it, alternately taking a whiff themselves and then passing the pipe to the stone. That ceremony duly performed, the deputies retired to an adjoin- ing wood for the night, while the stone was supposed to be left to his unassisted meditations. Next morning the ripe fruit of his reflections was visible in the shape of certain white marks on the stone, which some members of the deputation had the less difficulty in deciphering because they had themselves painted them there during the hours of darkness, while their credulous brethren were The plunged in sleep. 2 The Minnetarees, another Indian tribe stoneoTthe f tne Missouri, revered the same or a similar oracular stone, Minne- an( j consulted it in like manner. The wonderful stone " is a large, naked, and insulated rock, situate in the midst of a small prairie, at the distance of about two days' journey, southwest of the village of that nation. In shape it resembles the steep roof of a house. The Minnetarees resort to it, for the purpose of propitiating their Man-ho-pa or Great Spirit, by presents, by fasting, and lamentation, during the space of from three to five days. An individual, who intends to perform this ceremony, takes some presents with him, such as a gun, horse, or strouding, and also provides a smooth skin upon which hieroglyphics may be drawn, and repairs to the rock accompanied by his friends and magi. On his arrival, he deposits the presents there, and after smoking 1 Relations des Jtsuites (Quebec, to the Source of the Missouri River 1858), i. 1636, pp. 108 sq. (London, 1815), i. 224 (i. 225 sq., 3 M. Lewis and W. Clark, Travels London, 1905). CHAP, iv THE SACRED STONE 71 to the rock, he washes a portion of the face of it clean, and retires with his fellow -devotees to a specified distance. During the principal part of his stay, he cries aloud to his god to have pity on him ; to grant him success in war and in hunting ; to favour his endeavours to take prisoners, horses, and scalps from the enemy. When the appointed time for lamentation and prayer has elapsed, he returns to the rock ; his presents are no longer there, and he believes them to have been accepted and carried off by the Manhopa himself. Upon the part of the rock, which he had washed, he finds certain hieroglyphics traced with white clay, of which he can generally interpret the meaning, particularly when assisted by some of the magi, who were no doubt privy to the whole transaction. These representations are supposed to relate to his future fortune, or to that of his family or nation ; he copies them off with pious and scrupu- lous exactness upon the skin which he brought for the purpose, and returns to his home, to read from them to the people, the destiny of himself or of them. If a bear be represented, with its head directed towards the village, the approach of a war party, or the visitation of some evil, is apprehended. If, on the contrary, the tail of the bear be towards the village, nothing but good is anticipated, and they rejoice." l Again, we are told of the Dacota Indians Worship that a man " will pick up a round stone, of any kind, and amon^Th paint it, and go a few rods from his lodge, and clean away Dacotas. the grass, say from one to two feet in diameter, and there place his stone, or god, as he would term it, and >make an offering of some tobacco and some feathers, and pray to the stone to deliver him from some danger that he has probably dreamed of" or imagined. 2 1 Edwin James, Account of an Ex- instruments ; they represented the foot- pedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky prints of men and animals, and also Mountains (London, 1823), i. 252^. dogs with sledges. Offerings of kettles, Compare Maximilian Prinz zu Wied, blankets, guns, knives, axes, pipes, and Reise in das Innere Nord- America so forth might be seen lying beside the (Coblenz, 1839-1841), ii. 186 sq. holy stone. According to the Prince of Wied, who, however, wrote only from hearsay,. the 2 Philander Prescott, "TheDacotahs oracular stone of the Mandans and or Sioux of the Upper Mississippi," in Minnetarees was one and the same, H. R. Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes of and the marks on it were permanent, the United States (Philadelphia, 1853- being apparently engraved by cutting 1856), iii. 229. JACOB AT BETHEL PART II The Highlanders of Scotland used to believe in a certain fairy called the Gruagach, sometimes regarded as male and sometimes as female, who looked after the herds and kept them from the rocks, haunting the fields where the cattle were at pasture. A Gruagach was to be found in every gentleman's fold, and milk had to be set apart for him every evening in the hollow of a particular stone, which was kept in the byre and called the Gruagach stone. If this were not done, the cows would yield no milk, and the cream would not rise to the surface in the bowls. Some say that milk was poured into the Gruagach stone only when the people were going to or returning from the summer pastures, or when some one was passing the byre with milk. At Holm, East-Side, and Scorrybreck, near Portree in Skye, the stones on which the libations were poured may still be seen. However, these stones are perhaps to be regarded rather as the vessels from which the Gruagach lapped the milk than as the houses in which he lived. Generally he or she was conceived as a well-dressed gentleman or lady with long yellow hair. 1 In some mountain districts of Norway down to the end of the eighteenth century the peasants used to keep round stones, which they washed every Thursday evening, and, smearing them with butter or some other grease before the fire, laid them on fresh straw in the seat of honour. Moreover, at certain seasons of the year they steeped the stones in ale, believing that they would bring luck and com- fort to the house. 2 This Norwegian custom of smearing the stones with butter reminds us of the story that Jacob poured oil on the stone which he set up to commemorate his vision at Bethel. The legend is the best proof of the sanctity of the stone, 1 John Gregorson Campbell, Super- stitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 184- 186. Compare Th. Pennant, "Tour in Scotland," in J. Pinkerton's General Collection of Voyages and Travels (Lon- don, 1808-1814), iii- 33 * kissing." 2 Weepingas Again, among the aborigines of the Andaman Islands salutation " relatives, after an absence of a few weeks or months, testify among the their joy at meeting by sitting with their arms round each islanders" other's necks, and weeping and howling in a manner which and in would lead a stranger to suppose that some great sorrow had befallen them ; and, in point of fact, there is no difference observable between their demonstrations of joy and those of grief at the death of one of their number. The crying chorus is started by women, but the men speedily, chime in, and groups of three or four may thus be *seen 'weeping in concert until, from sheer exhaustion, they^are compelled to desist." a Among the people of Mungeli Tahsil, in the Bilaspore district of India, " it is an invariable practice 'when relatives come together who have not met for a long while, for the womenfolk to weep and wail loudly. A son has been away for months and returns to his parents' house. He will first go and touch the feet of his father t and mother. When he has been seated, the mother and sisters come to him and each in turn, placing both hands on his 1 shoulders, 1 Chevalier Capt. P. Dillon, Narra- or New Zealand and its Inhabitants, tive and Successful Result of a Voyage Second Edition (London, 1870), p. 222. to the South Seas (London, 1829), i. 211 sq. 3 E. H. Man, On the Aboriginal 2 A. S. Thomson, The Story of Neiv Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, Zealand (London, 1859), i. 200. Second Edition (London, N.D.), pp. Compare R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, 79 sf. CHAP, v WEEPING AS A SALUTATION 87 weeps loudly and in a wailing tone narrates anything special that has taken place in his absence." l Among the Chauhans of the Central Provinces in India etiquette requires that women should weep whenever they meet relatives from a distance. "In such cases when two women see each other they cry together, each placing her head on the other's shoulder and her hands at her sides. While they cry they change the position of their heads two or three times, and each addresses the other according to their relationship, as mother, sister, and so on. Or if any member of the family has recently died, they call upon him or her, exclaiming ' O my mother ! O my sister ! O my father ! Why did not I, unfortunate one, die instead of thee ? ' A woman when weeping with a man holds to his sides and rests her head against his breast. The man exclaims at intervals, ' Stop crying, do not cry.' When two women are weeping together it is a point of etiquette that the elder should stop first and then beg her companion to do so, but if it is doubtful which is the elder, they sometimes go on crying for an hour at a time, exciting the younger spectators to mirth, until at length some elder steps forward and tells one of them to stop." 2 The custom of shedding floods of tears as a sign of Weepingas welcome seems to have been common among the Indian sjj^jn tribes of both South and North America. 3 Among the among the Tupis of Brazil, who inhabited the country in the neighbour- south' 33 hood of Rio de Janeiro, etiquette required that when a America, stranger entered the hut where he expected to receive hospitality, he should seat himself in the hammock of his host and remain there for some time in pensive silence. Then the women of the house would approach, and sitting down on the ground about the hammock, they would cover their faces with their hands, burst into tears, and bid the stranger welcome, weeping and paying him compliments in the same breath. While these demonstrations were proceed- ing, the stranger on his part was expected to weep in 1 Rev. E. M.Gordon, " Notes con- Castes of the Central Provinces of India earning the people of Mungeli Tahsil, (London, 1916), ii. 428. Bilaspore District,'' Journal and Pro- s Much evidence of the custom is col- ceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, lected by G. Friederici, "Dertranen- New Series, i. (1905) p. 184. gruss der Indianer," Globus, Ixxxix. 8 R. V. Russell, The Tribes and (1906) pp. 30-34. 88 JACOB AT THE WELL sympathy, or if he could not command real tears, the least he could do was to heave deep sighs and to look as lugubrious as possible. When these formalities, exacted by the Tupi code of good manners, had been duly complied with, the host, who had hitherto remained an apparently indifferent and unconcerned spectator, would approach his guest and enter into conversation with him. 1 The Lenguas, an Indian tribe of the Chaco, " employ among themselves a singular form of politeness when they see again any one after some time of absence. It consists in this : the two Indians shed some tears before they utter a word to each other ; to act other- wise would be an insult, or at least a proof that the visit was not welcome." 2 Weeping In the sixteenth century the Spanish explorer, Cabega ^aiutation ^ e Vaca, describes a similar custom observed by two tribes among the o f Indians who inhabited an island off what seems to be North* 8 C now the coast of Texas. " On the island," he says, " there America, dwell two peoples speaking different languages, of whom the one are called Capoques and the other Han. They have a custom that when they know each other and see each other from time to time, they weep for half an hour before they speak to one another. Then the one who receives the visit rises first and gives all he possesses to the other, who accepts it and soon afterwards goes away ; sometimes even, after the gift has been 'accepted, they go away without speaking a word." 3 In the seventeenth century the French missionary, L. Hennepin, has recorded a custom of the same sort among the Sioux, though apparently he mistook these conventional 1 J. Lerius (Lery), Historia Naviga- tionis in Brasiliam quae et America dicitur (1586), pp. 251-253; Andre Thevet, Les Singularity de la France Antarctique, Nouvelle Edition (Paris, 1878), pp. 225 sq. (fol. 85). Accord- ing to Thevet, the host himself also wept in sign of welcome, sitting in his hammock. Compare Pero de Magal- hanes de Gandavo, Histoire de la pro- vince de Sancta- Cruz que nous nommons ordinairement le Bresil (Paris, 1837), pp, 113 sq. (in H. Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, Relations et Mfmoires origin- aux pour servir a r Histoire de la De'cou- verte de PAmerique] ; Yves d'Evreux, Voyage dans le Norddti Bresil (Leipsic and Paris, 1864), pp. 37, 90, 220; Franois Coreal, Voyages aux hides Occidentals (Amsterdam, 1722), i. 236-238. ' 2 F. de Azara, Voyages dans FAmerique Meridionale (Paris, 1809), ii. 151. 3 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, "Naufragos yRelacion," in E. deVedia, Historiadores Primitives de Indias (Madrid, 1852-1853), vol. i. p. 529, cap. xv. ; id. in H. Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, Relations et Mf moires Origin- aux pour servir a F Histoire de la Dd- couverte de FAmtriqiie (Paris, 1837), CHAP, v WEEPING AS A SALUTATION 89 tears at greeting for genuine expressions of sorrow. He tells us how, during his captivity among the Indians, old men came and wept copiously, putting their hands on his head and rubbing his arms and the whole of his body. He did not know what to make of it, but thought the old men might be moved to compassion by the sight of the ill-treatment to which he and his fellow-captives were subjected. He received similar marks of regard on several occasions while he resided with the Sioux. 1 Another Frenchman, Nicolas Perrot, who lived among the Indians for many years in the latter part of the seventeenth century, describes how a party of Sioux, visiting a village of their friends the Ottawas, " had no sooner arrived than they began, in accordance with custom, to weep over all whom they met, in order to signify to them the sensible joy they felt at having found them." ' Indeed, the Frenchman himself was more than once made the object, or rather the victim, of the like doleful demonstrations. Being sent by the governor of New France to treat with the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi, he took up his quarters on the banks of that river, and there received an embassy from the Ayeos, the neighbours and allies of the Sioux, whose village lay some days to the westward, and who wished to enter into friendly relations with the French. A French historian has described the meeting of these Indian ambassadors with poor Perrot. They wept over him till the tears ran down their bodies ; they beslobbered him with the filth which exuded from their mouths and their noses, smearing it on his head, his face, and his clothes, till he was almost turned sick by their caresses, while all the time they shrieked and howled most lamentably. At last the present of a few knives and awls had the effect of checking these noisy pp. 116 sq. Compare G. Friederici, 1731-1738), ix. 313^., 327. Hennepin " Der Tranengruss der Indianer," calls the Indians, among whom he was Globus, Ixxxix. (1906) p. 32. From captive, the Nadouessiou or Nadousiouz, the mishaps which they suffered on it, and of this name the ordinary form the Spaniards named the island the Isle Sioux is merely an abbreviation. See of Misfortune (Isla del Malhado}. F. W. Hodge, Handbook of American 1 Le R. P. Louis Hennepin, De- Indians North of Mexico (Washington, scription de la Louisiane (Paris, 1688), 19071910), ii. 9, s.v. "Nadowa." pp. 229 sq., 242, 245, 247. Compare 2 Nicolas Perrot, Memoire sur les " Decouverte d'un pays plus grand que Mceurs, Coustumes et Relligion des 1'Europe situe dans 1'Amerique," Re- Sauvages de F Ameriqtie Septentrionale cueil de Voiages au Nord (Amsterdam, (Leipsic and Paris, 1864), p. 86. 90 JACOB AT THE WELL PART n Such intended co/poreal union with Baluted!" Ceremony initiation of a scavenger Punjab. effusions ; but having no interpreter with them, they were quite unable to make themselves intelligible, and so had to return the way they came without effecting their purpose. A few days later four other Indians arrived, one of whom spoke a language understood by the French. He explained that their village was nine leagues up the river, and he invited the French to visit it. The invitation was accepted. At the approach of the strangers the women fled to the woods and the mountains, weeping and stretching out their arms to the sun. However, twenty of the chief men appeared, offered Perrot the pipe of peace, and carried him on a buffalo's skin into the chief's hut. Having deposited him there, they and the chief proceeded to weep over him in the usual way, bedewing his head with the moisture which dripped from their eyes, their mouths, and their noses. When that indispensable ceremony was over, they dried their eyes and their noses, and offered him the pipe of peace once more. " Never in the world," adds the French historian, " were seen such people for weeping ; their meetings are accompanied by tears, and their partings are equally tearful." 1 Disgusting as such forms of salutation may seem to us > * is not im P ossible that the application of all these exudations to the person of the stranger was not a mere accident, the effect of uncontrollable emotion, but that it may have been seriously intended to form a corporeal as we ^ as a spiritual union with him by joining parts of their body to his. At least this is suggested by a similar ceremony which the Chuhras, the sweepers or scavengers of ^g p un jab, perform over a candidate for admission to their ignoble order. " Over a rectangular pit is put a chdrpdi, and 1 De la Potherie, ii. 182-184, quoted by J. Tailhan, in his notes to Nicolas Perrot, Memoire sur les Mceurs, Cous- tumes et Relligion des Sauvages de PAmerique Septentrionale (Leipsic and Paris, 1864), pp. 197 sq. In the account of the first interview which Perrot had with these savages we read : " I Is aborderent le Francois [Perrof] en pleurant a chaudes larmes qu'ilsfais- -oient couler dans leurs mains avec de la salwe et outre salett qui leur sortait du #z, dont Us leur frottoient la t$te, le visage et les habits. Toutes ces caresses luifaisoient bondir le cceur. " Here the context suggests that " Us leur frot- tmentla tele," etc., is a mistake for "Hi lui frottoient la tte" etc., and this is confirmed by the account of Perrot's second interview with the Indians : " ce chef se mit a pleiirer sur la tete en la mouillant de ses larmes et des eaujc, gut distilloient de sa bouche et du nes." Accordingly I have so understood and paraphrased the first passage in the text. CHAP, v WEEPING AS A SALUTATION 91 beneath it the candidate is seated in the pit, while the Chuhras sit on the chdrpdi. Each bathes in turn, clearing his nose and spitting, so that all the water, etc., falls on to the man in the pit. He is then allowed to come out and seated on the chdrpdi. After this all the Chuhras wash his body and eat with him, and then ask him to adopt their profession." In explanation of this ceremony we are told that " Chuhras think that the dirt of their own bodies purifies others, and they so remove it with their own hands. If a man follows their occupation but does not undergo the ordeal described above, they do not treat him as a Chuhra or effect any relationship with him." l On this explanation it may be observed that, while ideas of purification no doubt differ widely in different peoples, it is difficult to believe that a very high degree of ceremonial cleanliness can be regarded as indispensable to any man who would engage in the business of scavenging and sweeping the streets. It seems more probable that the process of bedewing the candidate with the dirty water, spittle, and nasal excretion of other scavengers is intended not so much to purge him from all uncleanness as, on the contrary, to dirty him with the dirt of his future colleagues, and, by sinking him to their level, to make him one with them. Certainly spittle has been employed as a bond of Use of union by other peoples besides these Indian scavengers. ^"ation For example, among the Baluba, a tribe of the Belgian imoasecret Congo, a ceremony performed at initiating a candidate among the into the secret order of sorcerers is as follows. A new Baiubaof pot is produced, containing beer, flour, and two kinds of bark. Each sorcerer then spits into the pot, and the candidate must swallow the contents of the pot without wincing or pulling a wry face. When he has gulped it down, the grand master addresses him, saying, " You have drunk something of ourselves. Know that henceforth you will be powerless to injure us by your charms, since after our death we should be able to take vengeance and to come and seize you." So saying he breaks the pot. 2 Here the notion is 1 H. A. Rose, Glossary of the Tribes 2 H.Tri\les,LeTot/misme<:Aez/esFdti and Castes of the Punjab and North- (Mlinster i. W. 1912), p. 462, quoting West Frontier Province^ ii. (Lahore, P. Colle, in Bulletin des Peres Blancs, 1911) p. 192. Anveis, 15 Aout 1908, pp. 229 sgg. 9 2 JACOB AT THE WELL PART n that spittle, being part of a man, confers on the spitter a magical power over him who has swallowed it. The case thus falls under the general head of Contagious Magic. 1 Hence it is natural that spittle, as a part of -the person, should be used like blood to form the cement of a binding covenant. It is so used, for example, by Use of the Wachaga of East Africa. When two persons of that covenant- tribe wish to make a solemn agreement which will be ing and obligatory on both parties, they sit down on a hide with among 5 a vessel of milk or beer between them. Each of them tnbes of then utters the oath, waving a stick in a circle over the East Africa . , liquid. Having done so, each ot them takes a mouthful of the milk or beer and spits it into the mouth of the other, or they both spit the mouthful back into the vessel, and then drink the contents of the vessel together. They believe that should either of them forswear himself, the liquid which he has swallowed will kill him. If the matter is pressing and there is no time for these formalities, the two covenanters will simply spit into each other's mouths, and this answers the purpose of giving a guarantee of good faith equally well. In whichever form the covenant is concluded, the spittle which passes from the body of the one covenanter into the body of the other is conceived as the magical substance which ensures the fulfilment of the agreement. 2 The Nandi of British East Africa similarly make use of spittle in ratify- ing agreements and imparting blessings. Thus in con- cluding a covenant of peace or arranging a marriage, both parties spit to make sure that the pact will be kept ; and when a man has sold cattle, grain, or household utensils, he spits to show that the sale is complete. Again, old people and warriors often spit on children when they greet them ; and a dying father, uncle, or elder will spit in a boy's hand when the lad comes to bid him farewell, and the grateful youth will rub the dying man's spittle on his face. 3 So among the Masai of British East Africa, when small children salute very old men, the greybeards spit on them, 1 The Magic Art and the Evolution fur Religionswissenschaft, x. (1907) of Kings, i. 53 sq., 174 sqq. (The pp. 290^. Golden Bough, Third Edition, Part i.). 2 J. Raum, " Blut- und Speichel- 3 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford., biinde bei den Wadschagga," Archiv 1909), pp. 78 sq. CHAP, v WEEPING AS A SALUTATION 93 saying, " May God give you long life and grey hairs like mine." * Among the Suk, another tribe of British East Africa, before a man shakes hands with you he spits on his hands. 2 " Not only amongst the Masai, but in the allied Nandi and Suk peoples, to spit at a person is a very great compliment. The earlier travellers in Masailand were astonished, when making friendship with old Masai chiefs and head-men, to be constantly spat at. When I entered the Uganda Protectorate and met the Masai of the Rift Valley for the first time, every man, before extending his hand to me, would spit on the palm." a At Orango, in the Bissagos Archipelago, when two men wish to make friends, they spit into each other's hands, 4 probably as a guarantee of mutual confidence and good faith, since in so doing each of them, on the principles of sympathetic magic, places himself at the mercy of the other by entrusting him with a vital portion of himself. Such modes of salutation, and of cementing friendship, Thesprings however kindly meant, appear at least as strange to ki Europeans as the tears which the demonstrative savage sheds at meeting and parting. Perhaps they cannot be fully understood till science has determined more exactly the laws, based on our physical and mental constitution, which govern the expression of the emotions and the different degrees of emotional susceptibility in the different races of man. But to engage in such an inquiry would be to outstep the limits of folk-lore, and to trespass on the spheres of those other, though kindred, studies which take for their provinces the human body and mind. The springs of tears and laughter, we are told, lie not far apart, yet they remain enveloped in a mystery more baffling than that which so long shrouded the sources of the Nile. In truth, it is easier for man to ascertain the facts and operations of external nature than to understand himself. 1 A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford, Protectorate, Second Edition (London, I95)> P- 3i6. 1904), n. 833. - Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk, their Language and Folklore (Oxford, * C. de Mensignac, Recherches 1911), p. 25. Ethnographiques sur la Salive et le 3 Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Crachat (Bordeaux, 1892), p. 22. CHAPTER VI Different motives assigned by the Biblical writers for Jacob's journey to Haran. JACOB'S MARRIAGE I . Jacob and his tzvo Wives OF the motives which induced Jacob to undertake the long journey to Haran, two very different accounts are given in Genesis. According to one account, which we owe mainly or entirely to the Jehovistic writer, Jacob fled to his uncle Laban in Haran in order to escape the vengeance of his brother Esau, whom he had angered by supplanting him in the inheritance and the blessing of their father Isaac, and he purposed to stay only a few days with his kinsfolk in the far country till his brother's hot anger against him had cooled. 1 According to the other account, which we owe to the Priestly writer alone, Jacob was sent by his parents to find a wife for himself among his kinsfolk in Haran, because they did not wish him to marry one of the strange Hittite women of Canaan. 2 As the Priestly writer composed his history of the patriarchal age several centuries after the Jehovistic writer, 3 it is reasonable to suppose that, viewing the old narratives from the standpoint of a higher morality, he was shocked at the cheat said to have been practised by Jacob on his elder brother, and that he endeavoured to put a more favourable colour on the patriarch's journey to Haran by representing it, not as a flight to escape the just anger of an injured brother, but as a mission to fulfil a pious 1 Genesis xxv. 29-34, xxvii. 1-45. sources. S. R. Driver held that "the The latter narrative is commonly sup- posed by critics to be a compilation from the Jehovistic and Elohistic docu- ments, but there is no general agree- ment as to the analysis of the two narrative belongs chiefly, if not entirely, to J " (The Book of Genesis, 10 p. 255). 2 Genesis xxvii. 46-xxviii. 7. 3 See above, vol. i. p. 131. 94 CHAP, vi JACOB AND HIS TWO WIVES 95 duty, on which he was sent with the approval and blessing of his parents. . Whatever may have been the feeling in earlier days, we Aversion of know that after the Babylonian captivity the current of/ e , ws !" J J later times popular opinion among the Jews ran strongly against mar- to marriage riages with women of foreign blood, particularly with women ^J, ge of the old Canaanite stock, whom now, perhaps, more than women, ever, they viewed askance as heathens and enemies of the women of y national God Jehovah. After the return of the exiles to the old Jerusalem it was a matter of bitter self-reproach to them St0 ck. that many of their number had married " strange women of the peoples of the land " ; and in a national assembly, held in the great square before the ruined temple, the repentant sinners made public confession of their guilt, and resolved to put away their foreign wives and the children whom they had by them. It was a strange scene. The return of the banished people fell at the beginning of the rainy season in autumn ; and as the multitude sat crowded there together in the vast square, surrounded by the blackened ruins of the temple and of the city, the sky above them was dark with clouds, and the rain descended in sheets. Drenched and chilled they wept and shivered, less at the cold and the wet than at the thought of the divine wrath which they had incurred by their imprudent marriages, and which manifested itself even to the most sceptical in the nipping air and the driving rain. Many, perhaps most, of the exiles had never seen Jerusalem before ; they had been born and bred by the broad, willow- fringed waters of Babylon, and coming straight from the burning heat and cloudless summer sky of that foreign, yet, to many of them, native land, they must have been sadly disenchanted by the first view of Zion, the city of which their fathers had told them so much, and to which their thoughts and hearts had longingly turned for so many years. It had been pictured to them as a sort of earthly paradise, the chosen home of God himself, the joy and pride of the whole earth. And this was the reality ! this was Jerusalem ! Those fallen walls ! those blackened and crumbling ruins ! yon bleak and frowning mountains ! that lowering sky ! that torrential rain ! How many of the exiles may not have secretly yearned to return to the land of their banishment and 96 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n of their birth, on whose willow-trees they had hung their harps, and perhaps, though they hardly knew it, their hearts also. 1 The In these days of national humiliation and repentance, writer's when the Jews ascribed the disasters that had overwhelmed account of their country to the defilement which they had contracted marriage ^7 contamination with the Canaanites, the Priestly writer coloured by composed the history of his nation ; and the whole work Jewish reflects the current spirit of the age. It was the time when, aversion to smarting under the bitter disappointment of their secular marriage , . , ir .... with ambitions, the people sought for consolation in the spiritual sphere by dedicating themselves wholly to the worship of God and separating themselves more sharply than ever from the alien races which surrounded them, and in which the leaders of the people beheld the source of all their misfortunes. No wonder that, writing in such an age, the Priestly his- torian should have remembered that Jacob in Palestine, like Abraham and Isaac before him, was a sojourner in a strange land, and believing that his parents must have been loath to see him .wedded to a native wife, should have assigned that reluctance as their true motive for sending him away for a time to their kinsfolk in Haran. The ascription of this motive to Isaac and Rebekah was all the more natural, because the Priestly writer did not invent the marriage of Jacob with his cousins Leah and Rachel, but found it recorded in the earlier sources on which he drew. For the beautiful narrative of Jacob's love and marriage is from the pen of the much earlier Jehovistic and Elohistic writers ; the dull Priestly historian has accepted the narrative at their hand,s, and has merely done his best to spoil the romantic colouring of the story by representing the marriage, not as one of love at first sight, but as a mere mariage de convenance which Jacob contracted, not as an ardent lover, but as a dutiful son acting in obedience to the wishes of his parents. It is thus that a tincture of ethical theory, infused into the magic glass of old romance, can precipitate the prismatic hues of poetry into a grey powder of prose at the bottom. Still, whatever motive may have led Jacob to Haran, * ] Ezra ix.-x. CHAP, vi JACOB AND HIS TWO WIVES 97 whether the fear of an angry brother, or the prospect of a The story blooming bride, we may take it as certain that according to of 11- marriage Israelitish tradition he married his two cousins, Leah and reflects Rachel, the daughters of Laban, his mother's brother, and that he had these two sisters to wife simultaneously, in marriage their lifetime, having first wedded the elder, whom he did not love, and afterwards the younger, whom he did love, m any parts because the custom of the country forbade a younger sister world. to marry before her elder sister. Further, we learn that Jacob served Laban, his mother's brother and his father-in- law in one, for many years in the capacity of a shepherd and goatherd ; and that he regarded his two wives and their children as the wages which he received for his long period of service. 1 In all these respects the story of Jacob's marriage, whether strictly historical or not, reflects the customs which have been observed at marriage by many more or less primitive peoples in many parts of the world ; and accordingly we may fairly suppose that at an early stage of their history similar customs were practised by the Israelites, although in later ages they fell into abeyance. The customs in question may conveniently be distinguished as three in number, namely : first, marriage with a cousin, and in particular the marriage of a man with his mother's brother's daughter, or, to put it conversely, the marriage of a woman with her father's sister's son ; second, the marriage of a man with two sisters in their lifetime, the elder sister being married before the younger ; and third, the prac- tice of a son-in-law serving his father-in-law for a wife. All three customs I propose to illustrate by examples, and afterwards to inquire into their origin and mean- ing. Although in doing so we shall wander far from our immediate subject, which is the folk-lore of ancient Israel, the excursion may be pardoned if it sheds a sober light on the exquisite pictures of the patriarchal age in Genesis, and thereby helps to reveal the depth and solidity of the human background against which the figures of the patriarchs are painted. In this inquiry we shall begin with the marriage of cousins. 1 Genesis xxix. -xxxi. VOL. II H JACOB'S MARRIAGE Many races distinguish between cross- cousins (the children of a brother and a sister respect- ively), who are marriage- able, and ortho- cousins (the children of two brothers or of two sisters), who are not marriage- able. Further distinction drawn by some races between cross- cousins. 2. The Marriage of Cousins Many races draw what may seem to Europeans a curi- ous and superfluous distinction between cousins. They think that cousins who are the offspring of either two brothers or of two sisters stand on a wholly different footing from cousins who are the offspring of a brother and a sister, that is, cousins so related that the father of the one cousin is the mother's brother of the other cousin, or, to put it conversely, cousins so related that the mother of the one cousin is the father's sister of the other cousin. And on the sharp distinction drawn between these two classes of cousins the same races generally found a correspond- ing distinction in respect of marriageability ; for while they strictly forbid marriage between cousins who are the chil- dren of two brothers or of two sisters, they allow or even strongly recommend marriage between cousins who are the children of a brother and a sister respectively, in other words, between cousins who are so related that the father of the one cousin is the mother's brother of the other cousin, or, to put it conversely, between cousins so related that the mother of the one cousin is the father's sister of the other cousin. It is convenient to have names to distinguish the two classes of cousins, the marriageable and the unmarriage- able, from each other ; and accordingly it has become customary to call the marriageable cousins cross-cousins, because, being the children of a brother and a sister respect- ively, the related parents are of opposite or cross sexes. There has hithero been no special name for the unmarriage- able cousins, the children of two brothers or of two sisters, but for convenience I propose to call them ortho-cousins to distinguish them from cross-cousins. In the case of ortho- cousins the related parents are of the same sex, whether both male or both female ; whereas in the case of cross- cousins the related parents are of opposite sexes, the one being male and the other female. Even among cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, certain races draw a distinction in respect of marriageability ; for some people allow a man to marry his mother's brother's daughter but forbid him to CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 99 marry his father's sister's daughter, whereas, conversely, some people allow a man to marry his father's sister's daughter but forbid him to marry his mother's brother's daughter. Where this distinction is drawn, it is usually the mother's brother's daughter who is allowed, and the father's sister's daughter who is forbidden. More com- monly, however, no such distinction is drawn between cross- cousins, and all are allowed to marry each other indiffer- ently ; in other words, a man is free to marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, and a woman is free to marry the son either of her father's sister or of her mother's brother. 3 . TJte Marriage of Cousins in India l When the Aryans entered India from the north-west and Distinction gradually spread over the vast plains of the Punjab and ^f cousin Bengal, they encountered and drove before them southward marriage . .. . . , , between into the mountains those races ot swarthier complexion and the Aryans coarser features whose descendants still occupy a great part and the , . .' , ., aborigines of the peninsula. Among these aboriginal tribes the con- O f India, quering immigrants observed the custom of marriage between cross-cousins. For in an ancient law-book, drawn up some centuries before our era for the use of the Aryans of India, a sharp distinction is drawn between the customs pre- valent in the north and in the south, and among the usages characteristic of the south are mentioned the practices of eating in the company of uninitiated persons, of eating in the company of a man's wife, and of marrying a cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister. The comments of the writer who records these customs seem, to show that in his age opinions differed as to the legality of the practices in question, for while some people held them to be lawful within the countries where they prevailed, others condemned them everywhere. 2 At a later time Hindoo 1 The subject of cousin marriages in 2 Baudhayana., I. i. 2, in The Sacred India has been discussed by Dr. Laws of the Aryas, translated by G. W. H. R. Rivers in a very lucid and Buhler, Part ii. (Oxford, 1882) pp. instructive essay, "The Marriage of 146-149 (Sacred Books of the East, Cousins in India, " Journal of the Royal vol. xiv. ). Professor Biihler would Asiatic Society ', July 1907, pp. 6n- apparently date Baudhayana some- 640. where between 700 and 550 B.C. See JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n Marriage fbrbkiden by Hindoo modem. Among the of India lo this day with across- cousin, the daughter of a mother's brother or of a father s sister, is C referredto ail others, opinion as to the marriage of cousins hardened and crystal- ^ ze ^ mto an absolute condemnation. In the great metrical law-book known as The Laws of Manu, which may have assumed its final form about two hundred years after the beginning of our era, 1 it is expressly laid down that " he who has approached the daughter of his father's sister, (who is almost equal to) a sister, (the daughter) of his mother's sister, or of his mother's full brother, shall perform a lunar penance. A wise man should not take as his wife any of these three ; they must not be wedded because they are (Sapinda-} relatives, he who marries (one of them) sinks low." ^ So to this day among Hindoos the marriage of all first cousins is strictly barred by the rule recorded in a common formula : chacherd, mameru, p/iuphera, musem, ye char ndtd bachdke sJiadi hotl hai, " the line of paternal uncle, maternal uncle, paternal aunt, maternal aunt, these four relationships are to be avoided in marriage." J The line of cleavage in this respect between the invading Aryans and the aboriginal races persists to a great extent to this day ; for among many of these aborigines the mar- riage of a man with his cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, is still not only allowed but even preferred to all others ; in some tribes and castes the has a right to marry the girl, and can claim compensa- tion if she is given in marriage to anybody else. And while t ^ ie preference wavers in different places between the mother's brother's daughter and the father's sister's daughter as the most suitable wife for a man, on the whole the balance of opinion appears to preponderate decidedly in favour of union his discussion, op. cit. pp. xxxv sqq. ; and The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, Part i. (Oxford, 1879) pp. xxii, xliii (Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii.). A somewhat later date (500-200 B.C.) is assigned by Professor A. A. Macdonell to the class of legal works to which Baudhayana's book belongs. See The Imperial Gazetteer of India, The Indian Empire (Oxford, 1909), ii. 232. 1 A. A. Macdonell, in The Imperial Gazetteer of India, The Indian Empire (Oxford, 1909), ii. 262. 2 'The Laws of Mann, xi. 172 sq., translated by G. Blihler (Oxford, 1886), p. 466 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv.). 3 Sir Herbert Risley, The People of India, Second Edition, edited by W. Crooke (Calcutta, Simla, and London, 1915), p. 162. The use of this for- mula, as a reminder of the prohibited degrees, seems to be widespread in Northern India. See W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North- Western Provinces and Otidh (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 217, iii. 417 CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 101 with the mother's brother's daughter, the match of which Jacob's marriage with his mother's brother's daughters, Leah and Rachel, is the typical instance. And since on the whole the Aryan invasion has been confined to the north of India, while the great mass of the black aboriginal population remains entrenched in the south, it is in the south that the marriage of cousins continues to prevail ; indeed it has there gained a footing even among classes which claim, rightly or wrongly, to be Brahmans. On this subject Mr. Edgar Thurston observes, " It is a prevalent custom through- out Southern India that a girl's father's sister's son has the first right to her hand in marriage. This obtains not only among the Dravidian peoples, but also among Brahmans. The Malayalam word for son-in-law (marumakari) means nephew. If a stranger should marry a girl, he also is called nephew. But the unmarried nephew, having the first admitted right to the girl, must be paid eight annas, or two fanams, before he will allow her to be taken away. The argument is said to be as follows. A sister pays forty-two fanams as kanam for her brother's wife. When the product, i.e. a daughter, is transferred to a stranger, the son claims compensation on his mother's investment at the same rate as that at which a coco-nut tree is valued eight annas. At all events, the nephew has the first right to a girl, and must be compensated before she can be taken away by another." l Too much stress need not be laid on the commercial Marriage theory which equates a girl to a coco-nut tree ; for it is wth a , obviously the afterthought of a business age which seeks to brother's reduce the old ties of blood to their exact equivalents in ^e^uenti pounds, shillings, and pence, or rather in annas and fanams. Southern The calculation may be neglected, but the fact should be borne in mind that, broadly speaking, all over Southern India a man has a right to the hand of his mother's brother's daughter, and must be compensated if she is given to another ; and that in this region the custom in question is not confined to the aboriginal population, but extends to classes who, claiming to rank as Brahmans, implicitly assert their descent from the Aryan race. 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras, 1909), vii. 60. 102 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Cross- cousin marriage among the Dravidians. Conspicuous among the indigenous tribes of India who still favour the marriage of cross-cousins, are the Dravidians, the short, black, long-headed, broad-nosed people who occupy a large part of Southern and Central India from Ceylon to the valley of the Ganges and probably represent the earliest inhabitants of the peninsula of whom we have any know- ledge. 1 To this ancient stock appear to belong the Veddas, a primitive tribe of hunters now greatly reduced in numbers and rapidly dying out, who roam the dense jungles and forests of Ceylon. 2 Now kinship among the Veddas is based on the marriage of cross-cousins, that is, on the marriage of a man either with the daughter of his mother's brother or with the daughter of his father's sister ; and while both forms of marriage occur, there is some evidence to show that marriage with the mother's brother's daughter is pre- ferred ; according to one statement, the most correct marriage of all is that with the daughter of the mother's younger brother. 3 Among the Singhalese of Ceylon the most proper marriage which a man can contract is that with his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister. On the other hand he may not marry his first cousin, the daughter of his father's brother ; such a union would be accounted incestuous. 4 Similarly among the Mohammedans of Ceylon preference is given to marriage with the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister. 5 In the State of Cochin, near the southern extremity of India, "the best form of marriage, among all castes below Brahmans, is where a young man marries the daughter of his maternal uncle, over whom he has a preferential claim." c 1 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, The Indian Empire (Oxford, 1909), i. 296-299. 2 In the opinion of Dr. and Mrs. C. G. Seligmann, who have made a careful study of the tribe, the Veddas belong to "the same race as the so- called Dravidian jungle tribes of Southern India," though they have long lost the Dravidian language and speak a dialect of Singhalese. See C. G. Seligmann and Brenda Z. Selig- mann, The Veddas (Cambridge, 1911), pp. 380 sqq., 413 sqq. 3 C. G. Seligmann and Brenda Z. Seligmann, The Veddas, pp. 64 sq. 4 J. Bailey, "An Account of the Wild Tribes of the Veddahs of Ceylon," Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S. ii. (London, 1863) p. 294. 5 " The Marriage Customs of the Moors of Ceylon," The Folk-lore Journal, vi. (1888) p. 140. 6 L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, The Cochin Tribes and Castes (Madras, 1909-1912), i. 282. The writer is here speaking particularly of the Izhu- vans, Illavans, or Tiyyans, a tribe widely spread in Malabar, Cochin, and CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 103 For example, among the Kadars or Kadirs, a very primitive tribe in the forests and jungles of Cochin and Travancore, who speak a Dravidian dialect but may have negrito- blood in their veins, " marriage between persons descended in a direct line from the same parents is forbidden, if the relation- ship can be traced, but to some extent the custom prevails among them of a man's marrying the daughter of his maternal uncle." At the same time, while he is allowed or encouraged to marry the daughter of his mother's brother, he is forbidden to marry the daughter of his father's sister. 1 Similar customs in regard to the marriage of cousins Cross- prevail among the Todas, a primitive pastoral tribe of the ^rriaee Neilgherry Hills in Southern India, who resemble the primi- among the tive Kadars in speaking- a Dravidian tongue, but differ from th aJ them very widely in physical type, mode of life, and natural Neilgherry surroundings. In this remarkable tribe, whose racial affinities southern are still very obscure, a man's proper wife, the woman whom India - he ought to marry, is his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother or of his father's sister. But he is forbidden to marry his other first cousins, what I have called his ortho- cousins, namely the daughters of his father's brothers or of his mother's sisters. These latter cousins he includes under the general term piiliol, which he applies to all the relatives with whom, by the custom of the tribe, he is prohibited from contracting marriage. And because he commonly marries the daughter of his mother's brother, he applies one and the same term (inmi) to his mother's brother and to his father- in-law, even in cases where his father-in-law happens not to be his actual mother's brother. And similarly, because he commonly marries the daughter of his father's sister, he applies the same term (mumi) to his father's sister and to his mother-in-law. 2 It may be objected that though a man may Travancore, but his remark appears 2 W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas to apply to all the tribes of Cochin. (London, 1906), pp. 487 sq. , 502, 509, Compare further his work, vol. i. p. $12 sq. Compared. " The Marriage 74, vol. ii. pp. 105, 349, 367, 376, of Cousins in India," Journal of the 380. Royal Asiatic Society, July. 1907, pp. 1 L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, The 612, 619 sq. As to the language of Cochin Tribes and Castes, \. 4 sq. As the Todas and the difficult question of to this tribe see further E. Thurston, their racial affinity, see \V. H. R. Castes and Tribes of Southern India Rivers, The Todas, pp. 602 sqq., 693 (Madras, 1909), iii. 6 sqq. sqq. 104 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n marry either his mother's brother's daughter or his father's sister's daughter, he does not marry them both, and that accordingly he ought not at the same time to call his father- in-law his mother's brother and his mother-in-law his father's sister. The answer to this is that, in a case of fundamental importance for the understanding of the whole subject, a man's father-in-law and mother-in-law are simultaneously his mother's brother and his father's sister. The case is that in which two men exchange their sisters in marriage, and the cousins, the offspring of these two marriages, again intermarry ; for in that case the male cousin marries a female cousin who is at once the daughter of his mother's brother and the daughter of his father's sister. In other words, his wife is simultaneously his mother's brother's daughter and his father's sister's daughter; and simultane- ously his father-in-law is his mother's brother, and his mother-in-law is his father's sister. Later on we shall see reason to believe that this exchange of sisters in marriage is the root from which the whole widely ramified system of cross-cousin marriage springs. Cross- The practice of marriage between cross -cousins is maiThUe common in both the great branches of the Dravidian race common to which speak the Tamil and Telugu languages respectively. andTehTgu Tamil is, roughly speaking, the language of the northern branches part of Ceylon and the southern part of India, as far north Dravidian as Mysore and the Ghauts on the west and the city of race. Madras or somewhat beyond it on the east. Telugu is the principal form of speech in the eastern part of the Indian peninsula from Madras to near Orissa. It is also spoken in the east of the Nizam's dominions and in the extreme south of the Central Provinces, extending into Berar. 1 I will give examples of cross-cousin marriage among both these branches of the Dravidian family, beginning with the Tamil-speaking people. Cross- The Kalians of Madura and Tinnevelly, in the extreme south-east of India, are a Tamil caste who used to be notori- among the ous for their robberies and other crimes of violence. With The regard to their marriage customs, " the most proper alliance Kalians. 1 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, The Indian Empire (Oxford, 1909), i. 380 sq, CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 105 in the opinion of a Kalian is one between a man and the daughter of his father's sister ; and if an individual have such a cousin, he must marry her, whatever disparity there may be between their respective ages. A boy of fifteen must marry such a cousin, even if she be thirty or forty years old, if her father insists upon him so doing. Failing a cousin of this sort, he must marry his aunt or his niece or any near relative." l We shall meet with other instances of Indian castes in which marriage with a niece, the daughter of a sister, is an alternative to marriage with a cross-cousin and is even sometimes preferred to it. Not only has a Kalian t^he first claim to the hand of his father's sister's daughter in marriage, but if she is given to wife to any one else, he can exact as compensation from her mother, his father's sister, the sum which the mother received as dowry at her own marriage. 2 Similarly among the Nattamans or The Udaiyans, a caste of Tamil cultivators in Tanjore, Trichino- or poly, and Madura, " a man has a right to marry the daughter Udaiyans. of his father's sister, and if she is given to another man the father's sister has to return to her father or brother the dowry which she received at the time of her marriage, and this is given to the man who had the claim upon the girl." s Again, among the Vallambans, a small caste of Tamil culti- The vators in the Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Madura districts of Southern India, a boy may claim as his right the hand either 1 J. H. Nelson, The Madura Country, or "his father's sister's husband," a Manual compiled by Order of the though this involves a mere repetition Madras Government (Madras, 1 868), of the statement which the writer had Part ii. pp. 50 sq. Compare Edgar already made as to the obligation laid Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern on a man to marry his father's sister's India (Madras, 1909), iii. 76 sq. Mr. daughter, " if her father insists upon Nelson adds, " If his father's brother him so doing." Compare E. Thur- has a daughter, and insists upon him ston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern marrying her, he cannot refuse : and India (Madras, 1906), p. 53 ; and as this whatever may be the woman's age," to the Kalians, see id. , Castes and But marriage with the daughter of a Tribes of Southern India, iii. 53 sqq. father's brother stands on a totally 2 Census of India, 1901, vol. xv. different footing from marriage with Madras, Part i. Report, by \V. Francis the daughter of a father's sister; and (Madras, 1902), p. 158. people who permit or even encourage 3 Census of India, 1901, vol. xv. the latter marriage, generally prohibit Madras, Part i. Report, by W. Francis the former. Hence we may suppose (Madras, 1902), p. 169. As to the that in the passage which I have just Nattamans or Udaiyans, see E. Thurs- quotedthe words "his father's brother" ton, Castes and Tribes of Southern are a mistake for "his father's sister" India, vii. 206 sqq. io6 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n of his father's sister's daughter or of his mother's brother's daughter, so that a boy of ten may be wedded to a mature woman of twenty or twenty-five years, if she happens to be unmarried and without issue. In case of such a great dis- crepancy of age between husband and wife, any elderly male member of the youthful bridegroom's family his elder brother, uncle, or even his father will have intercourse with the bride and beget children by her, and these children the boy, when he comes of age, will accept as his own and TheKonga legitimatize. 1 Similarly among the Konga Vellalas, a caste Veiiaias. Q f famil cultivators in Trichinopoly, " the most desirable match for a boy is his maternal uncle's daughter. ,To such an extent is the preference for such unions carried out, that a young boy is often married to a grown-up woman, and it is admitted that, in such cases, the boy's father takes upon himself the duties of a husband until his son has reached maturity, and that the wife is allowed to consort with any one belonging to the caste whom she may fancy, provided that she continues to live in her husband's house." 5 Among The the Nanchinad Vellalas of Travancore, the extreme southern Vei'iaias" 3 country of India, a man's legitimate wife is either the daughter of his father's sister or the daughter of his mother's brother. 3 TheNatm- Again, among the Nattukottai Chettis, a wealthy caste of Chettis &c money-lenders in Madura, who have been called the Jews of South India, every man " is said to have the inviolable right to claim the hand of his paternal aunt's daughter. This being so, ill-assorted marriages are quite common, the puta- tive father being often but a child." 4 The right to marry the daughter of a father's sister is also recognized among the 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of India, 1901, vol. xv. Madras, Part i. Southern India, vii. 300 sq., quoting Report, by W. Francis (Madras, 1902), Manual of the Madura District. Com- p. 183. ^id.^EthnographicNotesinSouthern 3 R Thurs Cas(S and Tribes . India pp. 53 *9- ., . Southern India, v. 244- 2 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, iii. 4 1 8. The Vellalas, 4 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of of whom the Kongas are a branch, " are Southern India, v. 265. As to this the great cultivating caste of the Tamil caste, see Census of India, 1901, vol. country, and by general consent the xv. Madras, Part i. Report, by W. first place in social esteem among the Francis (Madras, 1902), pp. 149 sq. Tamil Siidra castes is awarded to them." It is not expressly said that the caste is They number over two and a quarter Tamil, but from its geographical posi- millions, and are dispersed all over the tion in the heart of the Tamil country, Madras Presidency. See Census of I assume that it is so. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 107 Pudunattu Idaiyans, a Tamil caste of shepherds in the Madura district, 1 among the Kottai Vellalas of Tinne- velly, 2 among the Uppilyans, a Tamil caste of salt-makers, found all over the Madras Presidency, 3 and among the Vannans, the washermen of the Tamil and Malayalam countries. 4 The Gurukkals or Kurukkals, who are priests of Tamil Cross- origin in Travancore, consider that the most proper wife for cousm r marriage a man is his cousin, the daughter either of his mother's among the brother or of his father's sister. 5 Among the Mondis, a Tamil-speaking class of mendicants, " in the North Arcot district, it is customary for a man to marry his maternal uncle's daughter, and in the Madura district a man can claim his paternal aunt's daughter in marriage." 6 Thus, some of these beggars seem to prefer marriage with a mother's brother's daughter, while others look upon a father's sister's daughter as a man's proper wife. The Maravars or The Maravans are a turbulent Dravidian tribe of Madura and Maravars or Tinnevelly, who have been little affected by Brahmanical Maravans. influence and were formerly notorious for their crimes of violence and cattle-lifting, at which they were and are ex- tremely expert. Among them cousins, the children of two brothers, are not allowed to marry each other ; but on the other hand cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, not only may but should marry each other, if it can be arranged. 7 The Paraiyans are a low caste of The agricultural labourers, widely spread over the Tamil country, Paraivans - from North Arcot to Tinnevelly, and inhabiting the southern extremity of the Native State of Travancore. Among them it is a rule that " the bridegroom must be older than the bride. Subject to this condition, it is usual for a youth to marry his father's sister's daughter, or his mother's brother's daughter. A girl should be married to her mother's brother's son if he is old enough, but not, as among the Konga 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of 6 E. Thurston, op. cit. \. 73. Southern India, ii. 356. 7 F. Fawcett, "The Kondayam- 2 E. Thurston, op. cit. iv. 35. kottai Maravars, a Dravidian tribe of 3 E'. Thurston,' op. cit. vii. 228 sqq., T T^\ Sou 7 ther " J n . dia >" >^ of the Anthropological Institute, xxxin. (1903) p. 62. As to the tribe see E. Thurston, op. at. vn. 317. further E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes 6 E. Thurston, op. cit. ii. 311. of Southern India, v. 22 sqq. lo8 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART n Vellalas and some Reddis, if he is a child. In short, Paraiyans follow the usual Tamil custom, but it is often neglected." ] Cross- The Koravas, Kuravas, Koramas, Korachas, Yerkalas, or marriage Yerukalas are a ubiquitous set of vagrant and light-fingered among the gentry, found all over the Tamil country, who earn their Korachas, bread by the precarious resources of fortune-telling, tattooing, or quack medicine, and petty larceny. When railways spread Yerukalas. over India, the Koravas seized the opportunity to extend the scope of their professional operations to other parts of the country, and reaped a golden harvest by reliev- ing the sleeping passengers of their luggage, appearing suddenly in places where they were least expected, and departing, without leaving any address, when the hue and cry was hot behind them. Their origin is uncertain, but probably they belong to one of the aboriginal tribes, or at least have a large proportion of aboriginal blood in their veins. They speak a corrupt Tamil dialect, interlarded with Telugu and Canarese words ; but they always know more than one language colloquially and can converse with the people of the countries through which they wander. 2 In their marriage customs the Koravas seem to prefer the union of a man with his father's sister's daughter, or, in other words, the union of a woman with her mother's brother's son ; for we read that among them " a girl's mother's brother's son has the right to have her to wife, and, if his right is abrogated by giving her to another, he (or his father?) receives a penalty from the man to whom she is given. The girl's maternal uncle disposes of the girl." However, in some parts of India, including Vizagapatam and Mysore, these vagrants allow a man to marry either with his father's sister's daughter or with his mother's brother's 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of sqq. (who calls them Kouravers or Southern India, vi. 94. Kouroumarous) ; J. Shortt, "On the 2 Full and interesting accounts of Wild Tribes of Southern India," this criminal caste are given by E. Transactions of the Ethnological Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern Society of London, N.S., vii. (1869) India, iii. 438 sqq. ; and H. V. Nan- pp. 186 sqq. ; Census of India, 1901, jundayya, The Ethnographical Survey vol. xv. Madras, Part i. Report, by of Mysore, vii. Koracha Caste (Banga- W. Francis (Madras, 1902), pp. 164. lore, 1906). Compare J. A. Dubois, 3 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes Maturs, Institutions et CMmonies des of Southern India, iii. 482, quoting Peuples de r Inde (Paris, 1825), i. 74 Fawcett. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 109 daughter. 1 But the orthodox marriage certainly seems to be with the daughter of the father's sister. For we read that " a custom prevails among them by which the first two daughters of a family may be claimed by the maternal uncle as wives for his sons. The value of a wife is fixed at twenty pagodas. The maternal uncle's right to the first two daughters is valued at eight out of twenty pagodas, and is carried out thus : If he urges his preferential claim, and marries his own sons to his nieces, he pays for each only twelve pagodas ; and, similarly, if he, from not having sons, or any other cause, forgo his claim, he receives eight pagodas of the twenty paid to the girl's parents by anybody else who may marry them. The value of a wife differs in different places : in some places they are very much less, and in others again only nominal." 2 But the Korava uncle who gets his niece, the daughter Custom of of his sister, at a reduced price, is not obliged to hand her ^f : over to his son ; he may keep her to himself, thus getting a niece, the wife at a bargain ; for in this tribe, as in a number of other tribes of Southern India, a man has the option of marrying -sister, in some tribes his niece, always provided that she is* the daughter of his fSouthem elder sister ; the daughter of his younge'r sister he may not India - take to wife, unless indeed he should happen to be a widower. 3 This permission to marry a niece, the daughter of an elder sister, as an alternative to marrying a cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, appears to be particularly common in the Telugu-speaking branch of the Dravidian race, in which indeed marriage with such a niece is often preferred to marriage with such a cousin. Instances will meet us in our survey of cousin marriage among Telugu-speaking peoples, to whom we now turn. The marriage of a man with the daughter of his mother's Cross- brother, and correspondingly -of a girl with the son of her marr iag e among the 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of confirmed by Mr. H. V. Nanjundayya, Telugus. Southern India, iii. 484 ; H. V. Nand- who puts the value of a wife and the jundayya, The Ethnographical Survey reduced price offered to her uncle at of Mysore, vii. Koracha Caste (Banga- the same figures (twenty and twelve lore, 1906), p. 7- pagodas respectively). See H. V. 2 T- Shortt, "The Wild Tribes of Nanjundayya, The Ethnographical Sur- Southern India," Transactions of the vey of Mysore, vii. Koracha Caste Ethnological Society of London, New (Bangalore, 1906), p. 7. Series, vii. (1869) pp. 187 sq. The writer's statement as to the practice is 3 H. V. Nanjundayya, l,e. no JACOBS MARRIAGE PART n father's sister, seems to be common among the Telugu people, who have a special name (menarikam} for it. 1 It is observed The with particular strictness by the Komatis, the great Telugu trading caste of the Madras Presidency, who are found, not only in almost all districts of Madras, but also in Mysore, the Bombay Presidency, Berar, the Central Provinces, and as far north-west as Baroda. They are devoted to their mother- tongue, and they have a common proverb that " Telugu is easy and Tamil is wretched." " Of all Dravidian languages," says an English writer, " Telugu is the sweetest and most musical. It is exceedingly mellifluous, and sounds harmoni- ous even in the mouth of the most vulgar and illiterate. It has justly been called the Italian of the East."" Among the Komatis a boy is obliged to marry his mother's brother's daughter, however unattractive she may be ; and conversely the mother's brother must give his daughter in marriage to Thecustom his sister's son, however poor he may be. The custom is ousi SS ~ called menarikam? The holy book of the caste, known as marriage the Kanyaka Purana, is an eloquent and lasting monument kam) f the inflexible rigidity with which the custom is, or ought recom- to be, observed by all who believe in the inspiration of the in the sacred volume. We there read how a lovely maid received an o fjf er o f marriage from a neighbouring king, but sternly Purana, , * the sacred rejected the noble wooer, because he was no relation of hers, book of the no j. even h er se cond cousin twice removed. But the king, Komatis. inflamed by love of her indescribable beauty, pressed his suit, and threatened, if he did not lead her to the altar, that he would besiege the city, clap the inhabitants into dark dungeons, and carry off the young lady in a palanquin. The dreadful threat produced a great impression. The members of the caste, to which the damsel belonged, met in council and deliberated whether they should give her to the king or not. The spiritual head of the caste took the chair at the meeting, and a resolution was passed to the effect, that rather than submit to the king's demands and 1 Rev. J. E. Padfield, The Hindu Caste (Bangalore, 1906), p. 8 ; Censtis at Home (Madras, 1896), p. 113. of India, 1901, vol. xv. Madras, Parti. 2 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes Report, by W. Francis (Madras, 1902), of Southern India, iii. 306, 307 sg., p. 162; E. Thurston, Ethnographic quoting Mr. Henry Morris. Notes in Southern India (Madras, 3 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- 1906), p. 54 ; id., Castes and Tribes graphical Survey of Alysore, vi. Koniati of Southern India, iii. 314. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA in abandon the good old custom of marrying their mothers' brothers' daughters, they would perish in the flames. Although the resolution appears to have been carried by acclamation, when they came to the point of putting it in practice the courage of many failed them, and deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, they laid legs to the ground and fled from the city. A few stalwarts, however, persisted in their noble resolve, and among them was the beauteous maid who, though she had seen but some seven summers, nevertheless preferred death by fire to marriage with a king who was not the son of her mother's brother. Accordingly one hundred and three fire-pits were made ready for the accommodation of these martyrs to duty. Before they descended into them, they addressed their children, giving them solemn instruc- tions as to how they were to behave when they too should be grown up and should have marriageable sons and daughters. " Do not," they charged them, " ask a bride-price for the marriage of your daughters. Do not communicate secrets to females. Do not allow rulers, infidels, and village accountants to set foot in your houses. Be sure to give your daughters in marriage to the sons of their fathers' sisters, even though the young men should be black - skinned, plain, blind of one eye, senseless, of vicious habits, and though their horoscopes should not agree, and the omens be inauspicious. However, should the young man in question, the son of the father's sister, be blind of both eyes, deaf, insane, stricken with disease, a eunuch, thief, idiot, leper, dwarf, or immoral, or should he be an old man or younger than the girl, you need not give her to him to wife." When they had thus taught their children the way they should go, the lovely maid, who scorned to wed a king, came forward in her turn and addressed the spectators gathered about the fire-pits. She solemnly blessed the few choice spirits of her caste who had resolved to follow her to the death rather than be false to the great principle of marrying their mothers' brothers' daughters ; as for the cravens who had fled away, she cursed them, and prayed that Brahma would create no more beautiful girls among their descendants, but that for the future their daughters might be dumpy, with gaping mouths, dispro- portionate legs, broad ears, crooked hands, red hair, sunken 112 JACOB'S MARRIAGE The custom of cross- cousin marriage still generally observed among the Komatis. Cross- cousin marriage among the Tottiyans. eyes, dilated eye-balls, insane looks, broad noses, wide nostrils, hairy bodies, black skin, and protruding teeth. With these last words, and in this charitable frame of mind, she jumped into the fire-pit prepared for her ; the other stalwarts with their wives did the same into the pits made ready for them respectively, and all were soon reduced to ashes. 1 The same great principle, which is illustrated by the death of these noble martyrs, is the theme of a touching ballad sung all over the northern districts of Madras, which relates how a husband murdered his own wife rather than give their daughter in marriage to anybody but his sister's son. The custom thus sanctified by immemorial usage, by poetry, and by the holy book, retains to this day a strong hold on the hearts of the Komatis. Even yet a man who violates it in the caste, or indeed in any caste addicted to the custom, is looked down upon. Such conduct is usually described as bending the twig from its natural course ; and it is believed that just as such a twig must waste away and die, so the parties who contract such marriages cannot prosper. 2 True it is, that of late years some Komatis have broken away from the ancient custom ; but common folk look at them askance, and allege that these transgressors have suffered for their sin in the death of their sons-in-law and in other misfortunes. 3 Among the Tottiyans, a caste of Telugu cultivators, " the custom of marrying boys to their paternal aunt's or maternal uncle's daughter, however old she may be, also obtains, and in such cases the bridegroom's father is said to take upon himself the duty of begetting children to his own son." 4 According to another account, in this caste " a man has the usual claim to his paternal aunt's daughter, and so rigorously is this rule followed that boys of tender years are frequently married to grown women. These latter are allowed to consort with their husband's near relations, and the boy is held to be the father of any children which may be born." 5 From these accounts we gather that a Tottiyan may marry 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, iii. 314-319. 2 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, iii. 325. 3 E. Thurston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 54. 4 Census of India, 1901, vol. xv. Madras, Part i. Report, by W. Francis (Madras, 1902), p. 181 ; E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vii. 184. 5 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vii, 191, quoting the Gazetteer of the Madura District. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 113 either the daughter of his father's sister or the daughter of his mother's brother ; but that marriage with the father's sister's daughter is preferred, her male cousin, the son of her mother's brother, being held to have a legitimate claim to her hand. On the contrary, among the Medas or Medaras, The Medas a caste of workers in bamboo in the Telugu, Canarese, orMedaras ' Oriya, and Tamil countries, a man most frequently marries the daughter of his mother's brother, and less frequently the daughter of his father's sister. 1 Among the Silavantulus of The siiav- Vizagapatam, a religious sect who seem to be an offshoot of antulus - the Pattu Sales, Telugu-speaking weavers, the custom of menarikam is observed, in virtue of which a man usually marries the daughter of his mother's brother ; indeed so strong is his claim on the hand of this particular cousin, that if his mother's brother happens to have no daughter, he is bound to find another wife for his nephew. 2 Similarly among the Muka Doras, a Telugu-speaking class of culti- The Muka vators, who are traditionally regarded as one of the primitive Doras> hill tribes, " the menarikam system is in force, according to which a man should marry his maternal uncle's daughter." 3 The same rule which prescribes marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother as the most proper that a man can contract is observed also by the Telugu castes of the Bagatas, Gudalas, Kamsalas, Malas, Nagaralus, Salapus, and Viramushtis. 4 Among the Telugu- or Canarese-speaking castes of Custom in Mysore marriage with a niece, the daughter of a sister, is m aryh)g often allowed as an alternative, or even preferred to, marriage either a with a cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or cousin or a of a father's sister. Thus among the Agasas, who speak niece - the either Telugu or Canarese according to their place of resi- a sister, dence, in marriages " the relationship of maternal uncle's or The Agasas. paternal aunt's daughter is preferred. Marriage with an elder sister's daughter is not only allowed, but it is specially favoured. . . . Marriage with a younger sister's daughter is The prohibited." 5 Similarly among the Vaddas, a rude, illiterate, 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of 4 E. Thurston, op. cit. i. 129 sq., Southern India, v. 52, 55. ii. 301, iii. 146, iv. 371, v. 136, vi. 2 E. Thurston, op. cit. vi. 387. As 264, vii. 407. , to the Pattu Sales, see E. Thurston, 5 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- op. cit. vi. 265. graphical Survey of Mysore, iv. Agasa 3 E. Thurston, op. cit. v. 103, 104. Caste (Bangalore, 1906), pp. 5 sq. VOL. II I JACOB'S MARRIAGE The Nayindas. The Morasu Okkalus. The Sanyasis. The Madigas, Telugu-speaking caste of Mysore, in choosing a wife preference is given to a near relation, such as the daughter of the father's sister, the daughter of the mother's brother, or the daughter of an elder sister. 1 Again, among the Nayindas, who speak Telugu in some parts of Mysore and Canarese in others, a man is free to wed the daughter of his mother's brother, or the daughter of his father's sister, or the daughter of his own elder sister ; but of these three marriages the third, with a niece, is the most popular. But the niece whom a man marries should be, as usual, the daughter of his elder sister ; only in cases of extreme necessity, such as that of a widower who cannot find a suitable mate, is marriage with a younger sister's daughter tolerated. " When a man has married a daughter of his sister, his son is not allowed to marry either a daughter of that sister or of other sisters, for though before the father's marriage they were eligible as his paternal aunt's daughters, they become the equals of his mother's sisters after that event." 2 So among the Morasu Okkalus, who speak both Telugu and Canarese, marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother, or the daughter of a father's sister, or the daughter of a man's own elder sister is specially favoured ; but except in extreme cases, such as that of widowers, a man may not marry his younger sister's daughter. 3 Among the Sanyasis, a Telugu-speaking caste of itinerant mendicants, an elder sister's daughter is preferred as a wife to any other ; but if a man has no such niece to wed, he puts up with a cousin, the daughter either of his father's sister or of his mother's brother, as second best. 4 The Madigas, who, along with the Holeyas, are sometimes called " black people," are a low caste of Mysore, and are believed to represent the earliest stratum of the inhabitants of the country, who have settled in towns and villages. In appear- ance they are short, dark, and muscular, with somewhat flattened noses. They speak either Telugu or Canarese according to the place of their abode. Among them, the 1 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- graphical Survey of Mysore, xi. Vadda Caste (Bangalore, 1907), pp. I, 4. 2 H. V. Nanjuudayya, The Ethno- graphical Survey of Mysore, xii. Nayinda Caste (Bangalore, 1907), pp. 5 sq. 3 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- graphical Survey of Mysore, xv. Morasu Okkalu (Bangalore, 1908), p. 13. 4 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- graphical Sui~vey of Mysore, xvi. San yasi Caste (Bangalore, 1908), pp. i, 2. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 115 most suitable marriage which a man can contract is that with the daughter of his own elder sister, or with the daughter of his mother's brother, or with the daughter of his father's sister. But while marriage with these cousins is thought most suitable, marriage with other cousins, the daughters either of a father's brother or of a mother's sister, is absolutely prohibited, for these cousins are counted equivalent to a man's sisters. 1 Among the Holeyas, an The outcaste race of Mysore, who rank, however, a little above the Madigas, the marriage rule is similar. A man gener- ally marries either the daughter of his own elder sister, or the daughter of his father's sister, or the daughter of his mother's brother. But he may not marry his younger sister's daughter, unless no other wife can be found for him. 2 The Gollas are an illiterate caste of Mysore, whose original TheGoiias. language seems to have been Telugu, though some of them now speak Canarese. Their original calling appears to have been the tending of cattle and the sale of milk and other dairy produce. But most of them have abandoned their ancestral vocation, and now earn their livelihood as farmers or day-labourers. They allow marriage with a cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister ; but they forbid marriage with a cousin, the daughter either of a father's brother or of a mother's sister, for they regard such a cousin as equal to a sister and marriage with her as incestuous. 3 Similarly among the Devangas, a caste of The weavers in Mysore, some of whom speak Telugu and others ' Canarese, a man may marry his cousins, the daughters of his mother's brother or the daughters of his father's sister ; but he may not marry his cousins, the daughters of his father's brother or the daughters of his mother's sister, for these cousins are esteemed his sisters. However, in this caste the most proper wife for a man is his niece, the 1 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- of Tamil origin (id. pp. 4 sq. ), As to graphical Survey of Mysore, xvii. the social superiority of the Holeyas Madiga Caste (Bangalore, 1909), pp. to the Madigas, see id., The Ethtio- i, 2, 3, II. graphical Survey oj Mysore, xvii. 2 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- Madiga Caste, p. I. graphical Survey of Mysore, ii. Holey a Caste (Bangalore, 1906), pp. i, 7. 3 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- Some groups of Holeyas speak Telugu, graphical Survey of Mysore, xx. Golla others speak Canarese, and some are Caste (Bangalore, 1910), pp. I, 4, 6. JACORS MARRIAGE The Nagartas and Upparas. The Mondarus. The Kurubas. The Milas. The Gavaras. daughter of his elder sister ; but the daughter of a younger sister he is forbidden to marry. 1 Similarly among the Nagartas and Upparas, two other castes of Mysore, some of whom speak Telugu and others Canarese, marriage with an elder sister's daughter is allowed, but marriage with a younger sister's daughter is prohibited. Some of the Nagartas even prefer an elder sister's daughter as a wife to any other. 2 The Mondarus, a Telugu caste of beggars in Mysore, allow marriage, to all appearance indifferently, either with the daughter of an elder sister, or with the daughter of a mother's brother, or with the daughter of a father's sister. 3 The Kurubas, a large shepherd caste of Mysore, whose native language is Canarese, particularly recommend marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother, but marriage with the daughter of a mother's sister they, as usual, forbid. They also permit a man to marry his niece, the daughter of his elder sister ; nay, in some places, such as Kolar and Bowringpet, they allow him to marry the daughter of a younger sister, which is quite contrary to the ordinary rule. 4 Among the Milas, a fishing caste in Ganjam and Vizagapatam, the custom of menartkam, according to which a man should marry his mother's brother's daughter, is in force ; but he is also free to marry his own sister's daughter. 5 Whether he is at liberty to marry the daughter of his younger sister, we are not told. To judge by analogy, his choice is probably restricted to the daughters of his elder sister. Similarly, among the Gavaras, a Telugu-speak- ing caste in the Vizagapatam district, " the custom of menarikani, by which a man marries his maternal uncle's daughter, is in force, and it is said that he may also marry his sister's daughter," 6 and exactly the same customs as to marriage with a cousin or a niece are reported to prevail 1 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- graphical Survey of Mysore, xxxiv. Devdngas (Bangalore, 1914), pp. I, 5. 2 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- graphical Survey of Mysore, xxi. Uppara Caste (Bangalore, 1910), p. 4 ; id., The Ethnographical Survey of Mysore, xxx. Nagartas (Bangalore, 1913), p. 6. 3 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- graphical Survey of Mysore, xxiii. Mondaru Caste (Bangalore, 1911), pp. I, 2. * H. V. Nanjundayya, 7"he Ethno- graphical Survey of Mysore, i. Kuruba Caste (Bangalore, 1906), pp. I, 8. 6 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, v. 63. 6 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, ii. 278. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 117 among the Chinna Kondalus, a caste of hill cultivators in The Vizagapatam, who appear to be related to the Khonds, though they speak the Telugu language and have adopted Telugu customs. 1 But whether in these cases a man is free to take to wife the daughter of his younger sister, or is limited to the daughter of his elder sister, we are not informed. From many of the foregoing instances it appears that Cross- the custom of marriage with a cross-cousin, the daughter of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, is not confined to in the those branches of the Dravidian race which speak the Tamil spea king and Telugu languages, but that it is also practised by castes branch which speak the Canarese or, as it is sometimes called, Dravidian the Kannada tongue. 2 Among the Kappiliyans, who are" "f e - Canarese-speaking farmers in Madura and Tinnevelly, a man's Kappiii- right to marry his cousin, the daughter of his father's sister, yans- is so rigorously insisted upon that, as among the Tottiyans, ill-assorted matches are common. A woman, whose cousin husband is too young to perform his marital duties, is allowed to consort with his near relations, and the children begotten by such intercourse are treated as his. 3 Precisely the same custom is observed, with the same results as to the paternity of the children fathered on the youthful husband, among the Anuppans, another caste of Canarese farmers, who are found The chiefly in the districts of Madura, Tinnevelly, and Coim- Anu PP ans - batore. 4 In Southern India the practice of marriage with a cross- Cross- cousin is not limited to those aboriginal castes and tribes ^j.'^ e which speak one or other of the languages belonging to the among Dravidian family. It is observed also by a number of castes SJ ^| n , or tribes which speak Oriya, an Indo-Aryan language con- castes of fined to Orissa and the adjoining parts of Madras and the i n di a . en Central Provinces. 5 For example, among the Godagulas, a The 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Like Tamil and Telugu, it possesses Southern India, iii. 351. an ancient literature. 2 On Canarese (Kannada), as a 3 E . Thurston, Castes and Tribes of branch of Dravidian speech, see The Sout hern India, iii. 215, 217. Imperial Gazetteer of India, The In- dian Empire, i. (Oxford, 1909) pp. * E - Thurston, Castes and Tribes of 380 sq. It is the language of Mysore Southern India, i. 49, 50. and of the neighbouring portion of the 5 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Ghaut country, including the southern The Indian Empire (Oxford, 1909), L corner of the Bombay Presidency. 376. Ii8 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n caste of workers in bamboo who speak Oriya, " the custom of menarikam, according to which a man should marry his maternal uncle's daughter, is so rigidly enforced that, if the uncle refuses to. give his daughter in marriage, the man has a right to carry her off, and then pay a fine, the amount of which is fixed by the caste council. A portion thereot is given to the girl's parents, and the remainder spent on a caste feast. If the maternal uncle has no daughter, a man may, according to the eduru (or reversed) menarikam custom, marry his paternal aunt's daughter." ] This account is in- structive, since it shows that in this caste marriage with the daughter of a father's sister is only permitted in default of a daughter of a mother's brother, who is regarded as a man's The proper wife. Among the Bavuris or Bauris, a low class of Bavuris. Oriya basket-makers living in Ganjam, a man is forbidden to marry the daughter of his father's sister, while he is allowed, as usual, to marry the daughter of his mother's brother. 2 ThePaidis. Again, among the Paidis, a class of cultivators and traders in Vizagapatam, who speak a corrupt dialect of Oriya, " the menarikam custom is in force, according to which a man should marry his maternal uncle's daughter. If he does so, the bride-price (volt} is fixed at five rupees ; otherwise it is Economic ten rupees." 3 Thus a man gets his cousin, the daughter of advantage ^ mo ther's brother, at half-price, which no doubt to a thrifty of marriage with a man is a great inducement to marry her. However, regarded cousin as a Dar g am > even this reduction in price compares dis- advantageously with the practice, or at least, the theory of the Komatis, who, according to the injunction of their scriptures, should let a man have his cousin for nothing. 4 We may suspect that this represents the original practice in the marriage of cousins, and that one great secret of the immense popularity of such marriages was their cheapness ; for any other woman a man had to pay more or less heavily, but for a female cousin of the proper 'kind he had to pay 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Hayavadana Rao, whose account of Southern India, ii. 282. According the caste is reproduced by Mr. E. to the Indian Census Report of 1901 Thurston. (vol. xv. Madras, Part i. Report, by 2 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of W. Francis, p. 154), the Godagulas Southern India, \. I75> 177- (Godugalas) are identified with the 3 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Gudalas, a Telugu caste of basket- Southern India, v. 455- makers. But this is denied by Mr. C. 4 See above, p. HI. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 119 little or nothing. In her case the passion of love was reinforced by the spirit of economy. Other Oriya castes prefer marriage with the daughter of Cross- a father's sister to marriage with the daughter of a mother's c< marriage brother. Thus, among the Bhumias, Bottadas, Bodo, Malis, in other Omanaitos, and Pentiyas, all cultivators, a man has the ca ^'f e ^ right to claim the hand of his father's sister's daughter in marriage. 1 In Southern India the practice of marriage with a cross- Cross- cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a COUSI . n marriage father's sister, seems to have spread even to Brahmans, or among at all events to classes which claim to rank as Brahmans. We are told that " the custom has apparently been copied India. by the Desasta Brahmans of Southern India, in whom it would, but for modern enlightenment, have almost been crystallised into law. The Ayyar Brahmans have adopted it in order to keep the family property intact within it." 2 The adoption of cousin-marriage by the Desasta or Deshasth Brahmans of Southern India is all the more remarkable, because in the Deccan these Brahmans " form a community believed to represent the oldest stock that migrated to the south and got mixed in various ways with the Dravidian races by long intercourse extending over centuries. They retain the oldest records of the Hindu texts and speak a language closely allied to Sanskrit. Their rules of exogamy are so complicated that it would be difficult to believe in them except for the assurance that any breach directly involves excommunication from the parent stock." a Among the Shivalli Brahmans of South Canara " a maternal uncle's daughter can be married without consulting any horoscope, and during the marriage ceremonies it is customary for a bridegroom's sister to obtain from him a formal promise 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of uncle's " is almost certainly a mistake Southern India, i. 238, 265, iv. 441, either for "paternal aunt's " or for v. 444, vi. 190. This may be the "maternal uncle's," more probably, custom also among the Ronas, another perhaps, for the former. Oriya caste of cultivators, as to whom 9 _, ., ,, . _ . . , , . 2 E. Thurston, Ethnographic Notes we are told that amone them " it is . ,. . , ' , , . in southern India, p. 54- customary for a man to many his . paternal uncle's daughter " (E. Thurs- 3 Census j>f India, ryoi, vol. i. ton, Castes and Tribesof Southern India, India, Ethnographic Appendices (Cal- vi. 258). In this passage "paternal cutta, 1903), p. 114. JACOB'S MARRIAGE Cross- cousin marriage in Central and Northern India. Cross- cousin marriage among the Gonds. that, if he has a daughter, he will give her in marriage to her son." l Among the Konkani Brahmans of Cochin, " the marriage to a paternal aunt's daughter or to a maternal uncle's daughter, though not sanctioned by the Smritis and though not prevalent among other branches of Gauda Saraswata Brahmans, has in imitation of the Dravida Brahmans been introduced. But such marriages do not at all amount to an injunction. The marriage to one's sister's daughter, which obtains among Desastha and Karnataka Brahmans, is not in vogue among the Gauda Saraswata Brahmans." 2 In the South Maratha country of the Bombay Presidency thirty -one castes allow a man to marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister ; three allow him to marry also the daughter of his mother's sister ; and fifteen allow him to marry the daughter of his mother's brother, but no other first cousins. 3 When we pass from Southern to Central and Northern India we find that the custom of cross-cousin marriage, though by no means so prevalent, is still practised in these regions by some tribes, particularly by those of Dravidian or other non-Aryan origin. Thus among the Gonds of the Central Provinces, who are the principal tribe of the Dravidian family, and perhaps the most important of the non-Aryan or forest tribes in India, 4 " the marriage of first cousins is considered especially suitable. Formerly, perhaps, the match between a brother's daughter and a sister's son was most common ; this is held to be a survival of the matriarchate, when a man's sister's son was his heir. But the reason has now been generally forgotten, and the union of a brother's son to a sister's daughter has also become customary, while, as girls are scarce and have to be paid for, it is the boy's father who puts forward his claim. Thus in Mandla and Bastar a man thinks he has a right to his sister's daughter for his son on the ground that his family 1 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, i. 382, quoting H. A. Stuart, Manual of the South Canara District. 2 L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, The Cochin Tribes and Castes (Madras, 1909-1912), ii. 349. 3 Census of India, ign, vol. vii. Bombay, Part i. Report, by P. J. Mead and G. Laird Macgregor (Bom- bay, 1912), p. 122. 4 In 1911 the Gonds numbered three millions and were increasing rapidly. See R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India (London, 1916), iii. 41. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 121 has given a girl to her husband's family, and therefore they should give one back. This match is known as Diidh lautana or bringing back the milk ; and if the sister's daughter marries any one else her maternal uncle some- times claims what is known as ' milk money,' which may be a sum of Rs. 5, in compensation for the loss of the girl as a wife for his son. This custom has perhaps developed out of the former match in changed conditions of society, when the original relation between a brother and his sister's son has been forgotten and girls have become valuable. But it is said that the dudh or milk money is also payable if a brother refuses to give his daughter to his sister's son. In Mandla a man claims his sister's daughter for his son and sometimes even the daughter of a cousin, and considers that he has a legitimate grievance if the girl is married to some- body else. Frequently, if he has reason to apprehend this, he invites the girl to his house for some ceremony or festival, and there marries her to his son without the consent of her parents." * Similarly among the Gonds of the Madras Presidency, in the Eastern Ghauts, " the most usual thing for a man is to marry his own paternal aunt's daughter," and the writer who reports the custom adds that " one reason of this is possibly the incurring of less marriage expenses, a bride amongst these tribes and castes being rated at very heavy prices." 2 From these accounts we may perhaps infer that, while Growing Gonds allow and even favour marriage with the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, there is a Gonds to growing tendency among them to prefer the marriage with marriage the daughter of a father's sister, because, in the scarcity of with a father s marriageable girls, who have ordinarily to be paid for, a sister's father is more anxious to get his niece for nothing for his son than to give his daughter for nothing to his nephew. Thus purely economic considerations appear to exercise a strong influence on the change from the one form of cousin marriage to the other. Among the Bhunjias, a small Dravidian tribe of the 1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes 2 C. Hayavadana Rao, " The Gonds of the Central Provinces of India, iii. of the Eastern Ghauts, India," An- 71. tkropos, v. (1910) p. 794. 122 JACOB'S MARRIAGE *>ART H Cross- Central Provinces, both forms of cross-cousin marriage are cousm allowed ; for we read that in the tribe " a special tie exists marriage among the between a man and his sister's children. The marriage of tunjias. a Bother's son or daughter to a sister's daughter or son is considered the most suitable. A man will not allow his sister's children to eat the leavings of food on his plate, though his own children may do so. This is a special token of respect to his sister's children. He will not chastise his sister's children, even though they deserve it. And it is considered especially meritorious for a man to pay for the wedding ceremony of his sister's son or daughter." l The Similarly among the Kamars, a small Dravidian tribe who claim to be aborigines of the Central Provinces, " as among some of the other primitive tribes, a man stands in a special relation to his sister's children. The marriage of his children with his sister's children is considered as the most suitable union. If a man's sister is poor he will arrange for the wedding of her children. He will never beat his sister's children, however much they may deserve it, and he will not permit his sister's son or daughter to eat from the dish from which he eats. This special connection between a maternal uncle and his nephew is held to be a survival of the matriarchate, when a man stood in the place a father now occupies to his sister's children, the real father having nothing to do with them." ' 2 The Sonjharas or The Jharas, a small caste of gold - washers in the Central Sonjharas. Provinces, " permit the intermarriage of the children of a brother and a sister, but not of those of two sisters, though their husbands may be of different septs." 3 Similarly among the Dhobas, an offshoot of a primitive tribe in the The Central Provinces, whose facial features resemble those of Dhobas. t he Gonds, " the children of brothers and sisters may marry, but not those of two sisters, because a man's maternal aunt or mausi is considered as equivalent to his mother." 4 1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes H. R. Rivers, "The Marriage of of the Central Provinces of India, ii. Cousins in India, " Journal of the Royal 326 sq. Asiatic Society, July 1907, pp. 629 sqq. 2 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 325. 3 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes On the close relationship in India of the Central Provinces of India, iv. between a man and his sister's children, 510. especially in connexion with the mar- * R. V. Russell, op. cit. ii. 515, riage of the sister's children, see W. 516. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 123 So, too, among the Gandas, a servile and impure caste The in the Central Provinces, marriage between cousins, the children of two sisters, is forbidden, but marriage between cousins, the children of brothers and sisters, is permitted. 1 In all these cases, apparently, a man is free to marry either the daughter of his mother's brother or the daughter of his father's sister, and no indication is given of a preference for the one marriage over the other. The Bhatras, a primitive Dravidian tribe, akin to the Cross- Gonds, in the Bastar State of the Central Provinces, think cousi ." ma. mage that a man has a right to marry the daughter of his mother's among the brother, and in former days, if the girl was refused by her parents, he carried her off and married her by force. 2 Among the Manas, a Dravidian caste of cultivators and The labourers in the Central Provinces, " the practice of marry- Manas - ing a brother's daughter to a sister's son is a very favourite one, being known as Mahunchar, and in this respect the Manas resemble the Gonds." 3 Similarly among the Halbas, The a mixed caste of cultivators and farm -servants in the K Central Provinces, " a match which is commonly arranged where practicable is that of a brother's daughter to a sister's son. And a man always shows a special regard and respect for his sister's son, touching his feet as to a superior, while, whenever he desires to make a gift as an offering of thanks or atonement or as a meritorious action, the sister's son is the recipient. At his death he usually leaves a substantial legacy, such as one or two buffaloes, to his sister's son, the remainder of the property going to his own family. This recognition of a special relationship is probably a sur- vival of the matriarchate, when property descended through women, and a sister's son would be his uncle's heir. Thus a man would naturally desire to marry his daughter to his nephew in order that she might participate in his property, and hence arose the custom of making this match, which is still the most favoured among the Halbas and Gonds, though the reasons which led to it have been forgotten for several centuries." 4 1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes 274. of the Central Provinces of India, m. ,__,._ ., . . J R. V. Russell, op. ctt.\\. 175. 2 R. V. Russell, op. cit. ii. 271, * R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 189 sq. 124 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Economic motive for preferring marriage with a mother's brother's daughter. Marriage with a father's sister's daughter forbidden in some castes of the Central Provinces. Among the Kunbis, while marriage with a father's sister's daughter is forbidden, marriage with a mother's brother's daughter is almost obligatory. Thus, whereas among the Gonds a man may marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, but the marriage with the father's sister's daughter is apparently coming into vogue, the Bhatras, Manas, and Halbas, on the other hand, still prefer the marriage of a man with his mother's brother's daughter, or, in other words, the marriage of a woman with her father's sister's son, and this preference may, as Mr. Russell points out, date from a time when a man's heir was his sister's son, and when, accord- ingly, a father might naturally desire to give his daughter in marriage to his sister's son as his heir, in order that she might share the property which would descend to her husband from his maternal uncle, her father. Hence it appears that under the particular form of mother-kin in which a man's heir is his sister's son, a father has an economic motive for marrying his daughter to his sister's son. In not a few castes or tribes of the Central Provinces the preference for marriage with the daughter of the mother's brother is so decided that they positively forbid marriage with the daughter of the father's sister ; and as marriages with other cousins, the daughters of a mother's sister or of a father's brother, are regularly barred, it follows that in these tribes the only marriage between cousins which is tolerated is that between a brother's daughter' and a sister's son. This rule holds good, for example, of the Kunbis, the great agricultural caste of Berar and the Central Provinces, whose internal structure seems to show that they are a mixed body recruited from different classes of the com- munity, but with Gond blood in their veins. Among them marriages between first and second cousins are prohibited, " except that a sister's son may be married to a brother's daughter. Such marriages are also favoured by the Maratha Brahmans and other castes, and the suitability of the match is expressed in the saying A to ghari bhdsi sun, or ' At a sister's house her brother's daughter is a daughter- in-law.' The sister claims it as a right and not unfrequently there are quarrels if the brother decides to give his daughter to somebody else, while the general feeling is so strongly in favour of these marriages that the caste committee some- CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 125 times imposes a fine on fathers who wish to break through the rule. The fact that in this single case the marriage of near relatives is not only permitted but considered almost as an obligation, while in all other, instances it is strictly prohibited, probably points to the conclusion that the custom is a survival of the matriarchate, when a brother's property would pass to his sister's son. Under such a law TWO of inheritance he would naturally desire that his heir should be united to his own daughter, and this union might motives for gradually become customary and at length almost obligatory, marriage 8 The custom in this case may survive when the reasons which witn a justified it have entirely vanished. And while formerly brother's it was the brother who would have had reason to desire daughter. the match for his daughter, it is now the sister who insists on it for her son, the explanation being that among the Kunbis as with other agricultural castes, to whom a wife's labour is a valuable asset, girls are expensive and a con- siderable price has to be paid for a bride." J From Mr. Russell's instructive account of cousin mar- The same riages in the Gond and Kunbi castes respectively, we gather moTive"' that among the Gonds a father desires and claims the viz., the marriage of his son with his sister's daughter, and that adaughter- among the Kunbis a mother desires and claims the marriage in - law of her son with her brother's daughter, the desire and the induces a claim in both cases being based on the economic motive of father to ,., . . , i i , favour the bringing that expensive article, a daughter-in-law, into the one form family for nothing. Thus, while interest moves a father ofcross - . _ cousm- to promote one form of cross-cousin marriage, namely, the marriage marriage of a man with his father's sister's daughter, 2 it (^ W1 , th a father s simultaneously moves a mother to promote the other form sister's of cross-cousin marriage, namely, the marriage of a man with a j his mother's brother's daughter ; so that the same motives a mother pulling brother and sister in opposite directions in a sense "balance each other and tend to produce an equilibrium form of between the two forms of cross-cousin marriage. For it is cousin to be observed that, where the economic motive is in play, marr 'age 7> (that with a it will not act in one way in one tribe, and in another way mother's brother's 1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes 2 See above, p. 120, in regard to the dau g hter )- of the Central Provinces of India, iv. Gonds. 22 sq. 126 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II In the Central Provinces marriage with a mother's brother's daughter is preferred to marriage with a father's sister's daughter. in another tribe ; in every tribe the pecuniary interests of brother and sister in respect of the marriage of their children will be diametrically opposed to each other, the brother always seeking his sister's daughter as a wife for his son, and the sister always seeking her brother's daughter as a wife for her son, so that within the limits of the same tribe similar motives will draw brother and sister in opposite directions and tend to balance each other. The result will be that both forms of cross-cousin marriage (the marriage with a mother's brother's daughter and the marriage with a father's sister's daughter) will probably survive for a long time side by side in the same tribe without the one being able to oust the other. And this is exactly what is observed to happen among many castes or tribes of India at the present day. 1 The Gowaris are the herdsman or grazier caste of the Maratha country in the Central Provinces. They appear to be of mixed origin, being sprung from a union of forest Gonds with Ahirs, a caste of cowherds and milkmen, who are believed to have been descended from a tribe which entered India from Central Asia about the beginning of the Christian era. Among the Gowaris the rule is, that a man may marry his daughter to his sister's son, but may not take her daughter as a wife for his son. 2 In other words, the Gowaris allow a man to marry his cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, but forbid him to marry his cousin, the daughter of his father's sister. Thus they permit the one form of cross-cousin marriage but not the other. A similar permission, accompanied by a similar prohibition, is found among other castes or tribes of the Central Provinces, such as the Agharias, Andhs, Bahnas, Kaikaris, Kharias, Kohlis, Chandnahe Kurmis, Mahars, and Marathas. 3 Taken to- 1 After noticing some cases in which the marriage with a mother's brother's daughter is allowed, and other cases in which the marriage with a father's sister's daughter is allowed, Dr. Rivers observes, " Much more frequently marriage is allowed with the daughter either of the maternal uncle or of the paternal aunt, though, as we have seen, there is sometimes in these cases a pre- ference for the former." See W. H. R. Rivers, "The Marriage of Cousins in India, " Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1907, p. 627. 2 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, iii. 160 sg. t 162. As to the Ahirs, see R. V. Russell, op. cit. ii. 1 8 sqq. 3 R. V. Russell, op. cit. ii. 10, 39, 71, iii. 298, 447 sq., 495, iv. 60, 133, 203. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 127 gether with the foregoing evidence, this seems to indicate that in the Central Provinces the balance of opinion in- clines decidedly in favour of marrying a mother's brother's daughter rather than a father's sister's daughter. However, the Gonds appear not to be the only people of But the these provinces among whom the balance of opinion is appar- Gollas of the Central ently swinging in the opposite direction, namely, in favour Provinces of marriage with a father's sister's daughter. The Gollas or prefe . r marriage Golars are the great shepherd caste of the Telugu country, with a numbering a million and a half of persons in Madras and s ^ te e r ^ s s Hyderabad. 1 We have seen that in Mysore they allow daughter. marriage either with the daughter of the mother's brother or with the daughter of the father's sister. 2 There are some thousands of them in the Central Provinces, where they still follow their ancestral vocation, living as nomadic herdsmen in the large pasture lands of the Balaghat district. Here they seem, like the Gonds, to tend towards a preference for marriage with the father's sister's daughter ; at least this is suggested by Mr. Russell's account of cousin marriage among them. He says, " The children of brothers and sisters are allowed to marry, but not those of two sisters, the reason stated for this prohibition being that during the absence of the mother her sister nurses her children ; the children of sisters are therefore often foster brothers and sisters, and this is considered as equivalent to the real relationship. But the marriage of a brother's son to a sister's daughter is held, as among the Gonds, to be a most suitable union." 3 In this account the reason assigned for prohibiting the marriage between cousins who are the children of sisters is no doubt an afterthought ; the original motive for the prohibition, as we shall see presently, lies much deeper. The Kotvalias, a dark non-Aryan tribe of Baroda, allow cross- marriage with the daughter either of a mother's brother or of cousm i /- i -11 marriage a father s sister, but forbid marriage with the daughter either among the of a mother's sister or of a father's brother. 4 Among the ^ otvalias of Baroda. 1 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 35. of the Central Provinces of India, iii. Compare E. Thurston, Castes and 35 sq. Tribes of Southern India, ii. 284 sqq. 4 Census of India, 1901, vol. xviii. 2 Above p. 115 Baroda, Part i. Report, by Jamshedji Ardeshir Dalai (Bombay, 1902), p. 3 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes 508. 128 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Cross- cousin marriage among Mirzapur. Mohammedans, Parsees, and Christians of Baroda there is no prejudice against marriages between first cousins, indeed, an orthodox Parsee deems it a duty to bring about such marriages in his household ; but a Hindoo looks upon such connexions with horror. 1 Passing still farther north, we find the marriage of cross- cousins allowed, if not favoured, among a few castes or tribes of Mirzapur, which appear to be mostly of Dravidian origin. Thus, among the Ghasiyas, a Dravidian tribe in the hill country of Mirzapur, a man may marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister. 2 On the other hand, the Cheros, a Dravidian race of labourers and cultivators in the hill country of Mirzapur, according to one account seem to allow of marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother, but forbid marriage with the daughter of a father's sister. 3 The same permission and the same prohibition are recorded of the Irakis and Kunjras, two other castes of Mirzapur. 4 Among the Manjhis, or Maj fa- wars, an aboriginal tribe of Dravidian origin in the hill country of South Mirzapur, the more primitive members of the community " adhere to the old Gond rule by which first cousins, provided they are not the offspring of two sisters, by preference intermarry." 5 This statement is, perhaps, to be corrected, so as to run, " first cousins, pro- vided they are not the offspring of two sisters or of two brothers " ; since the prohibition for cousins, the children of two brothers, to marry each other commonly goes with the prohibition for cousins, the children of two sisters, to marry each other. If the statement thus corrected be accepted, it will follow that the more primitive members of this Dravidian 1 Census of India, 190 1, vol. xviii. Baroda, Part i. Report, by Jamshedji Ardeshir Dalai (Bombay, 1902), p. 490. 2 W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North- Western Provinces and Oudh (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 412. 3 W. Crooke, op. cit. ii. 217. Mr. Crooke's statement is not clear. He says, " Their custom of exogamy even is uncertain. By one account first cousins on the father's side cannot intermarry, while marriage of cousins on the mother's side is permitted, and a paternal uncle's son can marry a maternal uncle's daughter, but not vice versa." Here "a paternal uncle's son" seems to be a mistake for "a paternal aunt's son." Dr. Rivers understands the passage as I do (" The Marriage of Cousins in India, "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1907, p. 626). 4 W. Crooke, op. cit. iii. 2, 345. 6 W. Crooke, op. cit. iii. 417. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 129 tribe follow the old custom which allows, or rather recom- mends and enjoins, a man to marry his cross-cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister. Further inquiry in the tribe might perhaps elicit a preference for one or other of these two forms of cross-cousin marriage. The practice of cross-cousin marriage is in vogue among Cross- the Bhotiyas, who inhabit the Almora district of the United Carriage Provinces, not far from the borders of Nepaul and Tibet, among the These people speak a language allied to Tibetan, and the cast th/Aimora of their countenances is plainly Mongolian : but though they District in , , . ,. e ~., r J . . * ' \ the United are undoubtedly of Tibetan origin, they have to a great Provinces, extent adopted Brahman customs and the Brahman religion. They draw a sharp distinction between ortho-cousins (the children of two brothers or of two sisters) and cross-cousins (the children of a brother and a sister respectively), and they apply quite different names to them. A man regards his brother's children as his own and calls them his sons and daughters ; and a woman regards her sister's children as her own and calls them her sons and daughters. Consistently with this view and this nomenclature the sons of two brothers call each other, not cousins, but brothers ; and the sons of two sisters call each other, not cousins, but brothers. Hence the children of two brothers may not marry each other, since they are related to each other as brothers and sisters ; and the children of two sisters may not marry each other, since in like manner they are related to each other as brothers and sisters. But cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, stand on quite a different footing : a man does not look on his sister's children as his own, nor call them his sons and daughters ; a woman does not look on her brother's children as her own, nor call them her sons and daughters ; and these cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, are quite free to marry each other, indeed such marriages are the rule among the Bhotiyas of the Almora district. 1 In the Punjab cases of cousin marriage seem to be few 1 Panna Lall, "An enquiry into the xl. (1911) pp. 191, 193-196. As to Birth and Marriage customs of the the Bhotiyas, see further, W. Crooke, Khasiyas and the Bhottiyas of Almora Tribes and Castes of the North- district, U. P.," The Indian Antiquary r , Western Provinces and Oudh, ii. 6 1 sqq. VOL. II K 1 3 o JACOB'S MARRIAGE Cross- cousin marriage in the Punjab. Cousin - marriage among the Moham- medans of the North- West Frontier Province. and far between ; nor is this to be wondered at, when we remember that the Punjab was in all probability the part of India which the immigrant Aryans first occupied, and from which they expelled most thoroughly those aboriginal tribes who observed the custom of cousin marriage. However, the custom of marrying either the daughter of a mother's brother or the daughter of a father's sister is very common in Kulu, a Himalayan district of the Punjab. 1 Among the Orakzais, who are Pathans by race and Mohammedans by religion, " it is a common practice for a man to marry his first cousin, in which case an exchange of betrothals is generally effected." 2 Again, among the Khands, an agricultural clan in Shahpur, who are Mohammedans, marriage " is permissible between cousins german." 5 How- ever, in these latter cases it may well be that the marriage of cousins is a recent institution, due to Mohammedan influence rather than an ancient custom which has survived from a time before the invasion of India by the Aryans. In the North- West Frontier Province, which borders the Punjab on the north-west, and in which Mohammedans are in a great majority and Hindoos in a small minority, " the Moham- medan Law provides a wide field for selection among rela- tions, and close marriages are very common. Throughout the Province marriages are usually determined by considera- tions of family convenience. For instance, a man wanting to marry his son arranges to take for him the daughter of his brother or his cousin, agreeing to give his own daughter in exchange after a year or two." 4 Among the Brahuis of Baluchistan marriage with a cousin, the daughter of a father's 1 W. H. R. Rivers, " The Marriage of Cousins in India," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1907, p. 628 (referring to Ibbetson, Rep. Pan- jab Census, 1881, vol. i. p. 366); Census of India, 191 I, vol. i. India, Part i. Report, by (Sir) E. A. Gait (Cal- cutta, 1913), p. 256. 2 H. A. Rose, Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North- West Frontier Province, iii. (Lahore, 1914) p 180. 3 H. A. Rose, op. cit. ii. (Lahore, 1911) p. 492. 4 Census of India, IQIT, vol. xiii. North- West Frontier Province, by C. Latimer (Peshawar, 1912), p. 141. " The Hindus in the Province (and in speaking of Hindus I refer also to Sikhs) forma small community, isolated, though to a less degree than in the past, from the great body of their co- religionists to the East and South " (op. cit. p. 143). Marriage with all cousins is permitted by the Koran (chapter iv. vol. i. pp. 75 sq. of E. H. Palmer's translation, Oxford, 1880, Sacred Books of the East, vol. vi. ). As to cousin marriage among the Arabs, see below, pp. 255 sqq. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 131 brother, is deemed the best of all. 1 And among the Moham- medans of India in general the marriage of first cousins, whether they are the children of two brothers or of two sisters, or of a brother and a sister, is considered very suit- able ; in default of a cousin, an alliance is preferred with some family with which there have already been marriage relations. 2 On the contrary, in the North-West Frontier Province, " with the Hindus the objection to close marriages seems to be particularly strong. Among Mohammedans such marriages, as we have seen, are very common ; but the Hindu speaks with the greatest contempt of their practice in this respect. One may conjecture, therefore, that the objec- tion is something racial, something too deep-seated to be affected by accidents of environment." s When we leave the north-west of India, the earliest seat Cross- of the Aryan race in the peninsula, and move eastward to cousl . n J marriage Bengal, we again find the practice of cross-cousin marriage among the surviving among some of the aboriginal tribes. For example, among the Khoras, a small caste of Chota Nagpur, who, Bengal. though Hindoos by religion, appear to be Gonds, and there- fore Dravidians by blood, a man is free to marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, a custom which Sir Herbert Risley, contrasting it with the ordinary Hindoo usage, describes as "a departure from the ordinary rules which strikes one as curious." * Again, the Kaurs of Chota Nagpur, whose dark complexion, broad noses, wide mouths, and thick lips appear to betray their Dravidian origin, observe much the same prohibited degrees as the Hindoos, but nevertheless allow a man to marry the daughter of his mother's brother. 5 Further, among the Karans, an indigenous caste of writers in Orissa, " prohibited degrees are reckoned by the method in vogue among the higher Hindu castes, with the curious exception that a man is permitted to marry his 1 Denys Bray, The Life-History of North-West Frontier Province, by C. a Brahui (London, 1913), p. 34. The Latimer (Peshawar, 1912), p. 145. reason assigned by the writer for the 4 ^.^ ^ custom ,s that so the stock ,s kept pure. ] > (Calcutta, 1892), i. 2 Census of India, 1911, vol. i. India, Part i. Report, by (Sir) E. A. j47 ' Gait (Calcutta, 1913), p. 252. 6 (Sir) H. H. Risley, Tribes and 3 Census of India, jgu, vol. xiii. Castes of Bengal, i. 435, 436. 132 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n maternal uncle's daughter, an alliance distinctly forbidden by the ordinary rules." ] The Rabhas, of the Goalpara district in Eastern Bengal, allow a man to marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister. 2 These instances suggest that the old custom of cross-cousin marriage, especially the marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother, was too firmly implanted in the blood of the abori- ginal tribes to be at once extirpated by the influence of an alien race, whose matrimonial customs in other respects they adopted. Cross- Passing still eastward we leave the Dravidian race behind, marriage anc ^ approaching the eastern borders of India, we come to among the the outlying tribes of the great Mongolian family, which on this s ^ e have effected a lodgment on the hills within the Chittagong Indian frontier, without being able to penetrate into the heart and Assam. ., , 11- i i r of the country or to descend into the sweltering plains 01 the Ganges. Thus, among the Maghs of the Hill Tracts of Chittagong, whose physical features stamp them unmistake- ably as Mongolians, the ordinary Hindoo rules as to prohibited degrees are observed, with the exception that " a man may marry the daughters of his father's sister and of his mother's brother a connexion which would not ordinarily be allowed." 3 Among the Mikirs, one of the most numerous and homo- geneous of the many Tibeto-Burman tribes inhabiting Assam, a man is free to marry his mother's brother's daughter ; indeed, in former days he was compelled to marry her, and his maternal uncle might beat him to his heart's content if the young scapegrace was ungallant enough to refuse the hand of his fair first cousin. 4 Again, among the Garos of Assam, another tribe of Mongolian origin 6 " there is an exception to the rule that a girl may choose her husband. This exception occurs when one daughter of a family is given in marriage to the son of her father's sister. Should she not have such a cousin, she must marry a man of her father's ' motherhood/ who is chosen for a substitute." ( In 1 (Sir) H. H. Risley, Tribes and 4 The Alikirs, from the papers of the Castes of Bengal, i. 425. late Edward Stack, edited, arranged, 2 Census of India, 191 /, vol. i. and supplemented by Sir Charles Lyall India, Part i. Report, by (Sir) E. A. (London, 1908), pp. i, 17, 18. Gait (Calcutta, 1913), p. 256. 5 See above, vol. i. p. 462. 3 (Sir) H. H. Risley, Tribes and 6 Major A. Playfair, The Garos Castes of Bengal, ii. 29 sq. (London, 1909), p. 68. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN INDIA 133 this tribe a man is expected to marry his mother's brother's daughter. 1 Here again, therefore, as among the Mikirs, a decided preference seems to be given to the marriage of a woman with the son of her father's sister, or, in other words, to the marriage of a man with the daughter of his mother's brother. Again, among the Nagas of Assam, " marriage is contracted with near relatives, such as cousins, in preference to other women," and among his cousins a young man generally chooses as his wife the daughter of his mother's brother. 2 Among the Khasis of Assam a man may marry either cross- the daughter of his mother's brother or the daughter of his cousln marriage father's sister, but on one curious condition, which we have among the not yet met with in our investigation of cousin marriages. Khasis a nd * other tribes A man may not marry his mother's brother's daughter while of Xorth- her father is alive ; he may not marry his father's sister's daughter while his own father is alive. However, even when a man's father is dead, the marriage with the father's sister's daughter, though permitted, is looked on with disfavour by the Khasis ; whereas there seems to be no objection to marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother, always provided that her father is dead. 3 Here, again, therefore, as in so many cases, it would appear that marriage with a mother's brother's daughter is preferred to marriage with a father's sister's daughter. But while among the Khasis a man may marry either of his cross-cousins, that is, either the daughter of his mother's brother or the daughter of his father's sister, he is forbidden to marry his 'ortho-cousin, the daughter of his father's brother, for she is called his " birth sister " {para kha)? We may conjecture that for a similar reason he is forbidden to marry his other ortho-cousin, the daughter of his mother's sister. Among the Paihtes or Vuites, a clan in south-western Manipur and the adjoining portions of the Lushai Hills, " the marriages of paternal first cousins are allowed ; in fact, among chiefs they are the rule " The expression " paternal cousins " is ambiguous, 1 Major A. Playfair, op. cit. p. "J2. The Khasis, Second Edition (London, 2 A Sketch of Assam, with some 1914), p- 78. account of the Hill Tribes, by an Officer * P. R. T. Gurdon, I.e. [John Butler] (London, 1847), pp. 165, 5 Lt. -Colonel J. Shakespeare, The 167. Lushei Ktiki Clans (London, 1912), 3 Lieut. -Colonel P. R. T. Gurdon, p. 143. 134 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n since it includes the children of two brothers as well as the children of a brother and a sister, in other words, it includes both ortho - cousins and cross - cousins ; but the statement probably means that among the Paihtes a man is allowed or encouraged to marry the daughter of his father's sister. " The Tibetans and Lepchas forbid cousins- german to marry, but the Bhotias confine the prohibition to cousins on the father's side, and more particularly to the children of the father's brother. The reason given is that bone descends from the father's side, and the flesh from the mother's, and should cousins on the father's side marry, the bone is pierced, resulting in course of time in various infirmities." l Here the expression " cousins on the father's side," like the equivalent expression " paternal cousins," is ambiguous, since it includes the children of two brothers as well as the children of a brother and a sister, in other words, it includes both ortho-cousins and cross-cousins. But from the statement which I have quoted we may probably infer that, while the Bhotias positively forbid a man to marry the daughter of his father's brother, and also forbid him, though less decidedly, to marry the daughter of his father's sister, they allow him freely to marry the daughter of his mother's brother. Here again, therefore, as in many other tribes, marriage with a mother's brother's daughter is the solitary exception to the rule which forbids cousins to marry each other. To sum up, we may say broadly that in India marriage with a first cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or o f a father's sister, but especially with the daughter of a . mothers brother, has been, as a rule, permitted and even favoured among all races except the Aryan. 4. The Marriage of Cousins in other Parts of Asia Cousin The custom of cousin marriage is also practised by other'^rtT tribes in other parts of Asia, though details concerning the of Asia. custom are .generally wanting, the writers who record it being for the most part apparently unaware of the important dis- 1 Census of India, iqn, vol. i. India, Part i. Report, by (Sir) E. A. Gait (Calcutta, 1913), pp. 252 sq. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN ASIA 135 tinctions which many peoples draw between those different classes of relations whom Europeans confound under the general name of cousins. Among the Burmese the marriage of cousins of all kinds Cross- is very common. 1 The Chins, a hill tribe of the Tibeto-Bur- Carriage man stock, who are scattered widely over the wild mountains of among th Arakan and the adjoining districts of Burma, habitually marry Burma, their cousins and tell a legend to account for the origin of the custom. They say that in the beginning the earth produced a woman called Hlee-neu, who laid a hundred eggs, from which sprang the various races of men. One egg, which failed to hatch with the rest, she threw away ; but a bird found it and sat on it and hatched it, and from the egg were born a boy and a girl. These two were separated before they grew up ; and the boy, having no mate, took a bitch to wife. After a time, however, he met the girl and wished to marry her ; but as they were brother and sister, they went and consulted their great mother Hlee-neu, who is believed to be the author of all Chin laws and customs. " She ordered that the bitch which the man had married should be killed, and then they should marry, and that among their descendants in all time brothers' sons shduld intermarry with brothers' daughters. This they give as the origin of two of their peculiar customs the sacrificing of dogs to the spirits (and eating them afterwards), and the right a man has to claim his cousin on the father's side as a wife." ~ The expression " his cousin on the father's side," is ambiguous, since it includes the father's sister's daughter as well as the father's brother's daughter ; but from the preceding sentence, " in all time brothers' sons should intermarry with brothers' daughters," we naturally infer that the cousin whom a Chin man has the right to claim in marriage is the daughter of his father's brother. But as that woman is his ortho-cousin, it is contrary to general usage that he should be allowed to marry her. Accordingly we may conjecture that the cousin whom a Chin man has a right to marry is the daughter, not of his father's brother but of his father's sister ; and this 1 Census of India, 1911, vol. i. 2 Captain C. J. F. S. Forbes, India, Part i. Report, by (Sir) E. A. British Burma (London, 1878), p. Gait (Calcutta, 1913), p. 252. 254. 136 JACOBS MARRIAGE PART n conjecture is rendered highly probable by another statement of the same writer on the next page, that " another fixed rule is that the eldest son must marry the youngest daughter of his father's eldest sister." l Hence we may suppose that the sentence, " in all time brothers' sons should intermarry with brothers' daughters " is a mistake for, " in all time brothers' sons should intermarry with sisters' daughters " ; and consequently that the Chins conform to the usual practice of allowing, or rather enjoining, the marriage of cross-cousins and forbidding the marriage of ortho-cousins. Thus interpreted, the Chin custom of cousin marriage agrees better with the story told to account for its origin, since according to that not wholly con- vincing narrative mankind are descended from the offspring of a brother and a sister, not from the offspring of two brothers. Cross- Among the Singphos or Kachins of Upper Burma " it cousm seems to be a general rule that a man should marry a first marriage rt among the cousin on the female side, or more precisely the daughter of a motner ' s brother. He 'may not, however, marry his of Upper father's sister's child, who is regarded as closely related. Blood connection is generally traced through the female, which may or may not be a reminiscence of polyandry. This rule seems much relaxed among the Southern Kachins, but it is said that farther north, if there is a marriageable first cousin whom a man does not want to marry, he can marry elsewhere only after paying a fine to the injured parents of the damsel. The parents are injured because they are robbed of a certainty in the price of the girl. The forbidden degrees of consanguinity are (i) Parents and grand-parents ; (2) children and grand-children ; (3) father's sister's child ; (4) father's brother's child (because of the same name) ; (5) mother's sister's child." * According to this account all marriages of cousins* are barred among the Singphos or Kachins, with the single exception of marriage with a mother's brother's daughter, which is so far from being prohibited that, at least among the Northern Kachins, a 1 C. J. F. S. Forbes, British Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma Burma, p. 255. and the Shan States (Rangoon, 1900- 2 (Sir) J. George Scott and J. P. 1901), Part i. vol. i. p. 404. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN ASIA 137 man who refuses to marry that particular cousin must pay a fine to her parents. On the other hand Sir Edward Gait tells us that " in Burma the Khyengs and Kachins regard a woman's daughters as the most suitable brides for her brothers' sons " ; l in other words, a man's proper wife is the daughter of his father's sister, which contradicts Sir George Scott's statement that a man is forbidden to marry his father's sister's daughter. In this conflict of authorities Sir George Scott seems to be supported by the testimony of Major C. R. Macgregor, who, writing from personal observa- tion, says, " The marriage customs of the Singphos are simple. A youth should marry his cousin, his mother's niece if possible. Should a cousin not be available, the maternal uncle should arrange for a girl of his class. Should he be unable to procure one, the uncle goes to another family and says, ' If you give me a girl for my nephew, I will pay you back in kind when one of your family requires a bride.' The father of the youth then gives a feast and presents to the girl's family. Should the bridegroom's father not be in a position to give presents, he gives or sells one of his daughters to the other family in lieu of presents." ' In this account the expression "his mother's niece" is ambiguous, as it might mean either his mother's brother's daughter or his mother's sister's daughter ; but the reference to the maternal uncle makes it practically certain that according to Major Macgregor the cousin whom a Kachin ought to marry is the daughter of his mother's brother and not the daughter of his father's sister. As Sir George Scott had the best opportunities for informing himself as to the usages of the Kachins, we may perhaps accept this confirmation of his evidence as conclusive ; unless indeed we prefer to suppose, as is quite possible, that the custom varies in different parts of the tribe, some of the Kachins recommending marriage with the mother's brother's daughter, and others preferring marriage with the father's sister's daughter. In any case, our authorities agree that among the Kachins cross-cousin 1 Census of India, iqu, vol i. Woodthorpe, R.E., from Upper Assam India, Part i., Report by (Sir) E. A. to the Irawadi and return over the Gait (Calcutta, 1913), p. 256. , Patkoi Range," Proceedings of the 2 Major C. R. Macgregor, "Jovrney Royal Geographical Society, N.S. ix. of the Expedition under Colonel (1887) p. 23. 138 JACOBUS MARRIAGE Cousin Karens of Cousin Southern" 1 China and peninsula' marriage, in one form or another, is the favourite sort of matrimonial union. With regard to the Zayeins or Sawng-tung Karens, ^ Upper Burma, we are told that "the marriage customs of the race are very singular, and are so strictly adhered to that it seems certain that the race must in process of time become extinct. There are many grey - haired bachelors in the haws, and many aged spinsters in the villages, whom Sawng - tung custom has prevented from marrying. Marriages are only permitted between near relations, such as cousins, and then only when the union is approved by the elders. . . . This limitation of marriage to near relations only, results frequently in unions where husband and wife are very unequal in age the husband fifteen and the wife seventy, or the reverse." ] Among the Bghais, a tribe of Karens in Burma, marriages " ought to be always con- tracted among relatives. First cousins marry, but that rela- tion is considered undesirably near. Second cousins are deemed most suitable for marriage. Third cousins may marry without impropriety, though that relation is considered as undesirably remote. Beyond third cousins marriages are prohibited." ' Among the Miaos, an aboriginal race of Southern China, it is said that girls are compelled to marry their first cousins, the sons of their mother's brothers ; 3 in otner words, a man has a right to marry the daughter of his father's sister. Among the Sabimba, an aboriginal tribe of the Orang Laut stock in the Malay Peninsula, first cousins who were the children of two brothers might not marry each other ; but, on the other hand, marriage was allowed between first cousins who were the children either of two sisters or of a brother and a sister. 4 Among the Gilyaks, who inhabit the lower valley of the 1 (Sir) J. George Scott and J. P. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, Part i. vol. i. p. 540, compare p. 547- 9 ,, r-i T-V TII i 2 F. Mason, D.D., "Physical /-u r ^ v T 7 Character of the Karens, Journal of ., , . , . ,-, . , ,. r, , vr the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series No cxxxi (1866) DD 18 so ies ' JN - C ** q - 3 J. Kohler, "Kleinere Skizzen aus der ethnolog. Jurisprudenz," Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft, vi. (Stuttgart, 1 886) p. 406, referring to Neumann, Asiatische Studien, i. 74, whose information is drawn from a Chinese work. . T -, T _, _, _ ]' R- Logan. "The Orang Sa- , . . ' . & . ' , _ .. , * bimba. fournaloT the Indian Archtpel- . ago> 1- ( Sin g a P ore ' l8 47), P- 297 ; W. W. Skeat and Ch. O. Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula (London, 1906), ii. 84. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN ASIA 139 Amoor and the northern part of the island of Saghalien, the Cross- most proper marriage which a man can contract is with his marriage first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother ; and such among the marriages are still the commonest in the tribe. A man Iy ^ applies to all such cousins the name of wife, and he has the right to marry any of them. If any of them is given in marriage to another man, her first cousin, the son of her father's sister, still retains his marital rights over her. On the other hand a man is forbidden to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his father's sister. 1 Thus our information concerning the Gilyaks is precise ; they strongly favour marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother, and posi- tively forbid marriage with the daughter of a father's sister. But when we pass to the other tribes of North-Eastern Cousin Siberia, we have to put up with vague statements as to the marna & e 1 r r t> among the marriage of cousins in general, without any indication of the tribes of particular sort of cousins to which the statements apply, jj^em The Ainos of Japan " marry their cousins very often, and in Siberia, some cases their nieces even." 2 Among the Kamchadales we are told by a writer of the eighteenth century that " the nearest cousins commonly marry each other." 3 The Chuk- chee, who inhabit the north-eastern extremity of Siberia, " have several methods of securing brides and concluding marriages. One of these is through marriage between relatives, if possible in the same family, or at least in the same camp, or in the neighboring camp, where families of the same blood reside. Most frequent are marriages be- tween cousins. Marriage between uncle and niece is con- sidered incestuous." 4 On the other hand, marriage with cousins is reported to be forbidden at the present day among the Koryaks, the neighbours of the Chukchee ; 5 though a writer of the eighteenth century tells us that the Koryaks 1 Miss M. A. Czaplicka, Aboriginal 3 Stephan Krascheninnikow, Be- Siberia (Oxford, 1914), p. 99; Leo schreibung des Landes Kamtschatka Sternberg, "The Turano-Ganowanian (Lemgo, 1766), p. 259. System and the Nations of North-East * Waldemar Bogoras, The Chukchee Asia," Proceedings of the Eighteenth (Leyden and New York, 19041909), International Congress of Americanists, p. 576 (The Jesup North Pacific Ex- p. 324. Miss Czaplicka's authority pedition, vol. vii.). appears to be L. Sternberg, The Gilyak 6 W. Jochelson, The Koryak (Ley- (1905), a work which I have not seen. den and New York, 1908), p. 736 2 J. Batchelor, The Ainu and their {The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Folk-lore (London, 1901), p. 228. vol. vi.). 140 JACOBUS MARRIAGE generally married relations, and that a man might take to wife any woman except his mother and his sister. 1 Among the Yukaghirs of Siberia marriages between first cousins were prohibited, but marriages between second cousins were allowed, and they seem to be still occasionally contracted, though such unions are forbidden by the statutes of the Greek Church, to which the miserable remnant of the tribe professes its conversion. 2 Among the Ostiaks it is said to be lawful for a man to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his father's sister, provided that his wife's mother (his father's sister) has been married into a tribe or family different from her own. In that case, her brother is also allowed to marry her daughter, his niece. 3 It is to be hoped that future researches among the Asiatic tribes outside of India may elicit fuller and more exact information on the subject of cousin marriage, which is of great importance for the history of marriage in general. Cousin marriage probably once common, though little recorded, among the aborigines ofAmerica. 5. The Marriage of Cousins in America Among the aborigines of America the custom of cousin marriage appears to be very seldom recorded ; but from the silence of the record it would be rash to infer the absence of the institution, since the custom may be widespread without attracting the attention of observers unfamiliar with primi- tive systems of kinship, and in particular with the funda- mental distinction which many of these systems draw between different classes of cousins in respect of marriage- ability. However, a few indications allow us to conjecture that the custom, though almost unrecorded, was once common among the aboriginal races, both Indian and Eskimo, of America, and that inquiries conducted at an earlier time, when the tribes were as yet but little influenced by an alien civilization, might have brought ample evidence of it to light. 1 S. Krascheninnikow, Beschreibung des Landes Kamtschatka, p. 280. vol. ix. Part i.). 3 P. S. Pallas, Reise durch verschie- 2 W. Jochelson, The Yukaghir and dene Provinzen des Rnssischen Reichs the Yukaghirized Tungus (Leyden and New York, 19.10), pp. 79 sq., 82, 84 ( The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, (St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), iii. 51. Compare Miss M. A. Czaplicka, Abori- ginal Siberia, p. 1 26. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AMERICA 141 The Atkha Aleuts, who inhabit the Andreianof, Rat, Cousin and Bering islands, between Alaska and Kamtchatka, ^"t g t " allowed intermarriage between all relatives, with the ex- Aleuts, ception of a brother to a sister, father with his daughter, and a son with his mother ; and in the case of the death of one brother, the other was obliged to marry the widow." l This information was communicated by Father Yakoff to Father Innocentius Veniaminoff, our principal authority on the old customs of the Aleutian Islanders, as these were observed in the days before intercourse with Europeans had profoundly modified the natives. Of Father Veniaminoff, afterwards Bishop of Kamtchatka, we are told that " he alone of the Greek missionaries to Alaska has left behind him an undying record of devotion, self-sacrifice, and love, both to God and man, combined with the true missionary fire. To him also we owe the first detailed account of the modern Aleutian character and mode of life." 2 Now, Father Veniaminoff " mentions that among the Aleut the daughter of one's uncle was most frequently elected for one's bride." 3 Here the expression uncle is, as usual, ambiguous, since it covers both the father's brother and the mother's brother ; but judging by the analogy of cousin marriage in India and elsewhere, we may conclude, with a fair degree of prob- ability, that the marriage which the Aleutians preferred to all others was marriage with a first cousin, the daughter of a mother's brother. The statements of our authorities as to the marriage of Cousin cousins among the Eskimo are contradictory. With regard ^mon^t to the Eskimo about Bering Strait, one of our best authori- Eskimo ties, Mr. E. W. Nelson, tells us that they "frequently marry by some first cousins or remote blood relatives with the idea that in writers, such a case a wife is nearer to her husband. One man said that in case of famine, if a man's wife was from another family she would steal food from him to save her own life, while the husband would die of starvation ; but should a 1 Ivan Petroff, Report on the Papula- 3 Notes on the Islands of Unalashka tion, Industries and Resources of Alaska, District, Part iii. p. 76, quoted by W. p. 158. Bogoras, The Chukchee (Leyden and New York, 1904-1909), p. 576 note 1 2 William H. Ball, Alaska and its (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Resources (London, 1870), p. 385. vol. vii.). 142 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n woman be; of his own blood, she would share fairly with him. The wife is considered to become more a part of the hus- band's family than he of hers. However, brothers and sisters, and step -brothers and step -sisters, do not inter- marry." 1 Again, of the Eskimo who live between Igloolik on the north and Noowook on the south we are told by Captain G. F. Lyon, who resided among them, that "cousins are allowed to marry, but a man will not wed two sisters." 5 Cousin On the other hand, the Danish writer H. Ririk, a high mong g the authority on the Eskimo, says that " the Eskimo disapprove Eskimo of marriages between cousins," 3 and speaking of the Central other y Eskimo, the eminent American ethnologist Dr. Franz Boas writers. affirms that " marriages between relatives are forbidden : cousins, nephew and niece, aunt and uncle are not allowed to intermarry. There is, however, no law to prevent a man from marrying two sisters. It is remarkable that Lyon states just the reverse. I am sure, however, that my statements are correct in reference to the Davis Straits tribes." 4 Again, Hans Egede, who was a missionary for twenty-five years among the Eskimo of Greenland, affirms that " they refrain from marrying their next relations, even in the third degree, taking such matches to be unwarrantable and quite un- natural." 5 However, another high authority on the Green- landers is by no means so categorical in his denial of the marriage of near relatives among them. He says, "They seldom marry first cousins, or even persons that are no relations, if they have been bred up together in one house as adopted children." 6 Perhapsthe Perhaps we may reconcile these apparent discrepancies forbiduhe ^y supposing that, while the Eskimo strictly forbid marriage marriage between first cousins, the children either of two brothers or cousinTand f two sisters, they permit the marriage of first cousins the allow the marriage i jr \y. Nelson, "The Eskimo their Distribution and Characteristics of cross- a bout Bering Strait," Eighteenth (Copenhagen, 1887), p. 23.' cousins. Annual Report of the Bureau of 4 Franz Boas, "The Central Es- American Ethnology, Part i. (Wash- kimo," Sixth Annual Report of the ington, 1899) p. 291. Biireau of Ethnology (Washington, 2 Captain G. F. Lyon, Private 1888), p. 579. Journal during the recent Voyage of 6 Hans Egede, A Description of Discovery iinder Captain Parry (Lon- Greenland (London, 1818), p. 143. don, 1824), p. 353. 6 David Crantz, History of Great- 3 H. Rink, The Eskimo Tribes, land (London, 1767),!. 159. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AMERICA 143 children of a brother and of a sister respectively ; and that the writers who deny the practice of cousin marriage among the Eskimo have been misled by attending only to the instances of it which are forbidden and overlooking the instances of it which are permitted. The extremely hard conditions of life in the Arctic regions necessitate the dis- persion of a scanty population over a wide extent of territory ; hence the local groups are inevitably small, and it is difficult to imagine how they could continue to exist without a considerable degree of comparatively close in- breeding. 1 Under these circumstances, and with this im- portant limitation, the witnesses who affirm the practice of cousin marriages among the Eskimo seem entitled to more credence than those who deny it. 2 Among the Western Tinnehs, a branch of the great Cross- Tinneh stock, which occupies a large part of North-Western n^ e America, the marriage of certain first cousins was common among the and in some cases almost obligatory ; and the particular form of cousin marriage which was allowed or even enforced appears to have been the one with the daughter of the mother's brother. This may be inferred from the following account of the marriage customs of the Western Tinnehs, written by an experienced Catholic missionary who lived in the tribe for many years and made an accurate study of its customs. His account deserves to be read with attention, because it shows how a strong aversion to consanguineous marriages in general may coexist in the same tribe with an exceptional permission of, and even preference for, a par- ticular form of cousin marriage ; and from this again we may gather how easy it would be, even for an intelligent 1 Compare V. Stefansson, My Life be observed that, according to the with the Eskimo (London, 1913), p. writer, these terms of relationship 401, "As Eskimo communities are refer to spiritual, not physical, affinity, small and the people are necessarily 2 I am thus compelled to differ from usually related in one way or another, my friend M. Marcel Mauss, who in it is common to find a child addressed his study of Eskimo society accepts the as a relative by every person in the denials, and rejects the affirmations, of village. It is one of the child's cousin marriage among the Eskimo, earliest tasks to learn to recognize all See M. Mauss, " Essai sur les Varia- these people and to address them by tions Saisonnieres des Societes Es- the proper terms of relationship, deal- kimos, Etude de Morphologic Sociale," ing with them in this matter entirely 1} Annie Sociolo^ique, Neuvieme Annee with reference to their relation to his (1904-1905) (Paris, 1906), pp. 107 guardian spirit." However f jt is to sqq. 144 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Father A. G. Morice on the aversion of the Western Tinnehs to consan- guineous marriages. Marriage with a mother's brother's daughter favoured by the Western Tinnehs. inquirer, to observe the general rule without noting the exception, and hence to affirm, quite erroneously, that all marriages of cousins in a certain tribe are prohibited. After explaining that the Western Tinnehs or, as he calls them, Dane's, are divided into a number of totemic clans, Father A. G. Morice proceeds as follows : " Now from time immemorial, a fundamental law in their social constitu- tion has been for individuals of the same clan never to inter- marry. So it is that endogamy is looked upon with horror among them. Indeed, I think I am warranted in affirming that marriage with a consanguine, unless a very close one, was preferred to matrimonial union with a co-clansman. As it is, agnation and consanguinity in the direct or collateral line on the paternal side were considered powerful barriers to sexual relations, males and females descended from the same stock being always regarded as brothers and sisters. But at what particular point the offspring of a common or collateral (on the father's side) branch would be deemed sufficiently distant to admit of matrimonial union is more than I can say, none among the natives themselves being able to satisfactorily solve that question. All I can say is that as long as the common ancestors of two individuals were remembered, the latter were easily dissuaded from contract- ing marriage together, even to the fourth and perhaps the fifth degree of consanguinity, especially if in the direct line. I do not mean to say that there never were tacitly allowed deviations from this law, nor absolutely any intermarriage in the same clan. But the repugnance which such unions inspired only goes to show that in this case, as in others, the exception confirms or proves the rule. " Such was not the case, however, with consanguinity in collateral lines by the mother's side, cousins of that class, even as near as the first degree, being by a time-honored custom almost bound to intermarry. And here it is as well to state at once that, in common with nearly all primitive people, mother-right is the supreme law regulating succession among the Western Dene's, and I may add that here (at Stuart's Lake) it admits of no exception whatever. On the other hand, another ordinance of their social code forbids titles as well as landed property to pass by heredity into a CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AMERICA 145 different clan. Therefore children of a notable among them belonging to their mother's clan, could never inherit from their father. But if the latter had nephews by a sister, one of them was de jure his successor, this nephew belonging through his mother to his uncle's clan. Now, by way of compensation, and to permit the notable's children, who could not otherwise inherit from him, to enjoy at least as much as was lawful of their father's succession, one of his daughters would be united in marriage with her inheriting maternal first cousin." a From this account we learn that under the rule of Economic mother-kin, which the Tinnehs or Dens observe, a man's ^.^h heir is not his own son but his sister's son, and hence that induces the in order to give his own children some share of his property f av0 ur after his death, a man seeks to marry his daughter to his marriage > !! T-I i -i with a sisters son, who is his heir. Ihus through marriage with mother's her first cousin, the son of her father's sister, a woman enjoys brother's J J daughter. to some extent the paternal estate which descends from her father to her husband. On these grounds every Tinneh Indian who has property to bequeath and desires that his children should benefit by it, has a direct interest in promot- ing the marriage of his daughter with her first cousin, the son of her father's sister. So far, therefore, the proper marriage for a Tinneh woman is with the son of her father's sister ; and the proper marriage for a Tinneh man is with the daughter of his mother's brother. It is, therefore, apparently to these cousins that Father Morice refers when he says that they are, " by a time-honored custom, almost bound to inter- marry," and it is this form of cousin marriage that Father Morice has in mind when in another passage he writes tha,t " marriage between even first cousins, if on the mother's side, was quite common, and, in some cases, almost obligatory." 2 1 Rev. Father A. G. Morice, Canada for the year 1892, x. (Ottawa, O.M.I., Stuart's Lake, B.C., "The 1893), Transactions, Section ii. p^ Western Denes, their Manners and 112. In the light of the foregoing Customs," Proceedings of the Canadian passages we must interpret another of Institute, Toronto, Third Series, vol. Father Morice's statements concerning vii. Fasciculus No. I (October 1889), cousin marriages which at first sight pp. 118 sq. seems to contradict the statement last 2 Father A. G. Morice, "Are the quoted. He says, " First cousins mar- Carrier Sociology and Mythology in- ried each other without any scruple if digenous or exotic?" Proceedings and related only through the father's side" Transactions of the Royal Society of (" The Canadian Denes," Annual VOL. II L 146 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II The same marriage is favoured for like reasons by some Dravidian tribes of India. Cross- cousin marriage probably is or was commoner among the American Indians than appears from the record. It is interesting and instructive to observe Indians of Western Canada desiring and promoting the marriage of a man with his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, for the same economic reasons which have appar- ently led some Dravidian tribes of Central India to favour, though probably not to originate, the very same kind of marriage between cousins. 1 To suppose that in preferring such a marriage the red Indian has copied from the black Dravidian, or the black Dravidian from the red Indian, would be absurd ; both act independently in obedience to similar economic motives operating similarly on men in distant countries who live under similar social institutions. To say this, however, is not to prejudge the question whether these social institutions themselves have or have not a common origin. So far as I am aware, this is the only clear case of pre- ference for marriage with a first cousin, the daughter of a mother's brother, which has been recorded in the whole of North America. 2 But the case is so typical and it fits in so Archaeological Report, 7905, Toronto, 1906, p. 201). Here Father Morice seems to have been thinking of the marriage from the side of the woman, who marries her paternal aunt's son. But the expressions "cousin on the father's side " and " cousin on the mother's side " are both ambiguous and apt to lead to confusion. In exact discussions of marriage customs they should, therefore, be strictly avoided. Compare Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 349 sq. Mr. C. Hill-Tout under- stands Father Morice's meaning as I do (British North America, the Far West, the Home of the Salts h and Dtnt, Lon- don, 1907, pp. 145 sq.}. 1 See above, pp. 123 sq. 2 Speaking of the marriage of cross- cousins in America, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers observes, " So far as I am aware, the only people among whom it has been recorded are the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island" (Kinship and Social Organisation, London, 1914, pp. 54 $?) He seems to have over- looked the case of the Western Tinnehs, to which I had called attention in Totemism and Exogamy (London, 1910), iii. 348 sq. For the marriage of cross-cousins among the Haidas he refers to J. R, Swanton, Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida (Leyden and New York, 1905), p. 62 (The Jesitp North Pacific Expedition, vol. v. ). But in that passage Mr. Swanton clearly uses the terms "fathers' sisters' daughters" and "mothers' brothers' daughters " in the classificatory sense, so that there is no necessary implica- tion of marriage between cousins in our sense of the term. Dr. Rivers adds, " Miss Freire-Marreco tells me that the cross-cousin marriage occurs among some of the Hopi Indians." Though he does not say whether the marriage is with a mother's brother's daughter or with a father's sister's daughter, the statement is very im- portant, since it proves the occurrence of the cross-cousin marriage among the Southern Indians. Finding such mar- riages in the far South and the far North of North America, we may con- fidently conjecture that it was once widespread in the intermediate area. CHAP, vi . THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AMERICA 147 well, as we shall see presently, with the classificatory system of relationship which appears to be universally observed by the American Indians, that it is hardly rash to conjecture that such marriages are or were formerly very much com- moner among the Indian tribes of America than appears from such a meagre record, and that they have only escaped observation because inquirers have not attended to the fundamental distinction between the classes of marriageable and not-marriageable cousins. Hence we may legitimately receive with distrust the statements even of otherwise com- petent observers as to the general prohibition of marriage between cousins in certain tribes. Thus, for example, with regard to the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, Mr. James Teit, to whom we are indebted for a very valuable account of their customs, observes, " Cousins were forbidden to marry, because they were of one blood, similar to sister and brother ; and the union of distant blood relations was discountenanced. Even if second -cousins married, they were laughed at and talked about." l Similarly we are told that the Cherokees " do not marry their first or second cousins." 2 We may accept these statements as to first cousins, the children of two brothers or of two sisters, who are commonly regarded as brothers and sisters even by people who permit and encourage the marriage of other first cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respect- ively : on the other hand, we may doubt the statements in their application to cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively. Again, with regard to the Shuswaps, another Indian AH general tribe of British Columbia, Mr. Teit tells us that " blood- statetll ts as to the relations did not marry, not even second-cousins." " Yet absence of another high authority, Dr. Franz Boas, speaking of the ^&n? same tribe, affirms that " marriages between cousins were not among the forbidden." 4 On the hypothesis here suggested both these 1 lames Teit, The Thompson Indians Jesup North Pacific Expedition, .vol. of British Columbia (New York, 1900), ii. Part vii.). p. 325 (The Jesup North Pacific Ex- * Franz Boas, in "Sixth Report of caut j on pedition}. the Committee on the North -Western 2 James Adair, History of the Amcri- Tribes of Canada," p. 91 (separate can Indians (London, 1775), p. 190. reprint from Report of the British 3 James Teit, The Shtiswap (Leyden Association for the Advancement of and New York, 1909), p. 591 (The Science, Leeds Meeting, 1890). 148 JACOB'S MARRIAGE eminent anthropologists were right and both were wrong ; for the affirmation and the denial of cousin marriage were both alike true as to one class of cousins and false as to another. Both would have escaped the error into which, on my supposition, they fell, if only they had attended to the fundamental distinction between cousins who are marriageable and cousins who are not. If that is so, it follows that all general statements as to the absolute prohibition of cousin marriages among the Indians of America l are to be received with doubt, if not with scepticism. How well founded is that doubt or that scepticism, will appear more clearly when we have considered the classificatory system of relationship, on which the whole marriage system of the American Indians is built up. There is some ground for thinking that the marriage of 1 See, for example, W. M. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (London, 1870), p. 196, " Cousins do not marry among the Ingaliks " ; G. M. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life (London, 1868), p. 99, "By the old custom of the Aht tribes, no marriage was permitted within the degree of second - cousin " ; L. Farrand, in "Twelfth Report of the Committee on the North-Western Tribes of Canada," Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Bristol Meeting, 1898, p. 645, among the Cliilcotin Indians of British Columbia " recognised blood relationship was and is always an absolute bar to marriage, and at present this recognition seems to extend no further than first cousins " ; A. F. Chamberlain, in " Eighth Report of the Committee on the North-Western Tribes of Canada," Report of the British Association for the Advance- merit of Science, Edinburgh Meeting, 1892, p. 13 (of the separate re- print), among the Kootenay Indians of British Columbia " intermarriage of first cousins appears not to have been allowed " ; H. R. Schoolcraft, The Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 655, the Indians of Oregon " never will (or but rarely) marry a cousin ; thus that mode of degeneration is avoided " ; W. H. Keating, Narrative of an Ex- pedition to the Source of St. Peter's River (London, 1825), ii. 167, among the Ghippewas, " cousins german are considered in the same light as brothers and held to be bound by the same rules ; relationship is not felt beyond this degree " ; Stephen Powers, Tribes of California (Washington, 1877), p. 192, with regard to the Gualalas of California, " in marriage they observe strictly the Mosaic table of prohibited affinities, accounting it ' poison,' as they say, for a person to marry a cousin, or an avuncular relative " ; W. M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876), pp. 496 sq., "Cousins, even to a remote degree, are called brother and sister, and are most strictly pro- hibited from intermarriage. The law, or custom, is not an introduced one, but one handed down from remote times. The penalty for its violation was originally very severe ; nothing less than the burial alive of both parties " ; E. Westermarck, History of Human Marriage (London, 1891), p. 299, among the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego, " no marriage, no intercourse ever takes place among blood-relations, even to second cousins" (on the author- ity of Mr. Bridges). CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 149 cross-cousins was in full vogue among the Caribs of the Cousin Antilles, for we read that " when our savages desire to marna & e & among the marry they have the right to take all their female cousins- Indians of german ; they have nothing to do but to say that they take *Vrf liUeS them to wife, whereupon the women are naturally acquired South by them, and they may carry them off to their houses with- out ceremony, and thenceforth the women are looked upon as their legitimate wives." l Another old writer tells us that among the Caribs a man's female cousins-german on the mother's side are his " born wives," and that the Caribs "are born married, so to say, in virtue of the rule laid down by their law and of the right which male cousins have over their female cousins-german." 2 Among the Arawaks of Guiana it is reported to be the rule that cousins " on the father's side " may marry each other, but that cousins " on the mother's side " may not. On the other hand among the Caribs cousins, both on the paternal and on the maternal side, are free to marry each other. 3 The expressions " on the father's side " and " on the mother's side " are ambiguous. Perhaps the writer who reports these rules meant to say that among the Arawaks a man may marry his first cousin the daughter of his father's sister, but not his first cousin the daughter of his mother's brother, and that among the Caribs marriage with both these cousins was permitted. Again, with regard to the Indians of the Isanna River, a tributary of the Rio Negro in North- Western Brazil, we are told that " they marry one, two, or three wives, and prefer relations, marrying with cousins, uncles with nieces, and nephews with aunts, so that in a village all are connected." 4 6. The Marriage of Cousins in Africa Among the black races of Africa, including both the Cross- Bantus and the pure negroes, the marriage of a man with Carriage his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother common in Africa. 1 De Rochefort, Histoire Naturelle LandenVolkvanSuriname," Bijdragen et Morale des lies Antilles (Rotterdam, tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van 1665), p. 544. Nederlandsch- Indie, Iv. (1903) p. 503. 2 T- F. Lafitau, Maurs des Sauvages Ameriquains (Paris, 1724), i. 557, 4 A. R. Wallace, Narrative of 560. Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro 3 C. van Coll, " Gegevens over (London, 1889), p. 353- 150 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Cross- cousin marriage among the Herero of South- West Africa. Cousin marriage among the Bantu tribes of South-East Africa. or of his father's sister, is frequently permitted and some- times preferred, while on the contrary the marriage of a man with his first cousin, the daughter either of his father's brother or of his mother's sister, is generally prohibited. In short, as a rule, the marriage of cross-cousins is allowed, and the marriage of ortho-cousins is disallowed. However, there are exceptions to the rule. In some tribes, as we shall see, all marriages of first cousins are absolutely prohibited. Thus,' to begin with the Bantu tribes of South Africa, among the Herero of South-West Africa " marriages be- tween relations are so much preferred that marriages between persons who are not related to each other are actually a rarity. Again, among relations marriages between cousins are especially preferred, but only between children of a brother and a sister, not between the children of two brothers or of two sisters, because the Herero assert that children of such blood relations are weak and die. . . . Such a marriage is not only improper, but is actually regarded as a horror, because the children of two brothers or of two sisters are themselves brothers and sisters according to Herero law, and sexual intercourse between them is viewed as incest and even subjects the culprits to the consequences of the blood-feud." However, the custom which directs a man to marry his cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, is often broken through, but even then the wife is still sought among the kinsfolk of her husband. 1 Again, " the Bechuanas and the Caffres acknowledge and respect the same degrees of consanguinity as we do. They do not reckon relationship beyond the degree of second cousin. Marriages between brothers and sisters, uncles and nieces, nephews and aunts are disapproved of. Those between cousins frequently take place, but there are some tribes who condemn them as incestuous." a Speaking of the Bantu tribes of South-East Africa, Dr. G. McCall Theal 1 E. Dannert, Zwn Rechte der Herero (Berlin, 1906), pp. 33 sq,, 37. Compare H. Schinz, Deuisch-Sudwest- Afrika (Oldenburg and Leipsic, preface dated 1891), p. 177 ; Bensen, quoted by Prof. J. Kohler, " Das Recht der Herero," Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Rechts'Mtssenschaft, xiv. (1900) pp. 300 sq. 2 Rev. E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1 861), p. 191. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 151 observes, " Every man of a coast tribe regarded himself as the protector of those females whom we would call his cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and so forth, on the father's side, while some had a similar feeling towards the same relatives on the mother's side as well, and classified them all as sisters. Immorality with one of them would have been considered incestuous, something horrible, some- thing unutterably disgraceful. Of old it was punished by the death of the male, and even now a heavy fine is inflicted upon him, while the guilt of the female must be atoned by a sacrifice performed with due ceremony by the tribal priest, or it is believed a curse will rest upon her and her issue. ... In contrast to this prohibition the native of the interior almost as a rule married the daughter of his father's brother, in order, as he said, to keep property from being lost to his family. This custom more than anything else created a disgust and contempt for them by the people of the coast, who term such intermarriages the union of dogs, and attribute to them the insanity and idiocy which in recent times has become prevalent among the inland tribes." l This preference for marriage with a first cousin, the daughter of the father's brother, is rare ; however, we shall meet it again in Madagascar and among the Arabs. Among the Hlubis and others commonly called Fingos, in this part of Africa, a man is free to marry his mother's brother's daughter, 2 which we have seen reason to regard as the most popular form of cousin marriage, the one of which Jacob's marriage with Leah and Rachel is the type. Among the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoni- land, in North-Eastern Rhodesia, including the Achevva and 1 G. McCall Theal, Records of South- on that side, but not on father's side. Eastern Africa, vii. (1901) pp. 431, " Basuto, Batlaro, Batlapin, and 432. In a note (p. 432) the writer Barolong: very frequently marry cousins adds, "Among the tribes within the on father's side, and know of no re- Cape Colony at the present time the strictions beyond actual sisters." differences are as follows : As I have already remarked, the " Xosas, Tembus, and Pondos : expressions "cousins on the father's marry no relative by blood, however side" and "cousins on the mother's distant, on either father's or mother's side " are ambiguous and should be side. avoided. " Hlubis and others commonly called Fingos : may marry the daughter 2 See G. McCall Theal, quoted in of mother's brother and other relatives the preceding note. 152 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART n Cousin Angoni tribes, it appears that a man is everywhere free to mamage marry his cross-cousin, the daughter either of his mother's among the * Nyanja- brother or of his father's sister. Further, he may, under tribes'of certain conditions, marry his ortho-cousin, the daughter of North- his mother's sister ; and he may, under certain other con- Rhodesia ditions, marry his ortho-cousin, the daughter of his father's Permission brother. The permission and the prohibition of marriage " between ortho- cousins, the children of two sisters or of cousins, the t wo brothers, vary according as the descent of the totem is of a reckoned in the paternal or in the maternal line. In tribes, mother's sucn as the Angonis, which reckon the descent of the sister or of a father's totem in the paternal line, the children of two brothers can whenThe never marry each other, because they necessarily have, like intermarry- their fathers, the same totem. But in these tribes the children of two sisters may marry each other, if the two different sisters married men of different totems ; for in that case the cousins would have, like their fathers, different totems. In tribes, such as the Achewas, which reckon the descent of the totem in the maternal line, the rule is just the converse. In such tribes the children of two sisters can never marry each other, because they necessarily have, like their mothers, the same totem. But in these tribes the children of two brothers may marry each other, if the two brothers married women of different totems ; for in that case the cousins would have, like their mothers, different totems. 1 In totemic society it is a general rule that identity of totems is a bar to marriage. Accordingly among these tribes of British Central Africa the marriage of cousins is barred when it conflicts, but is permitted when it does not conflict, with that general rule. But the marriage with a cross- cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, never conflicts with that general rule, since the cross - cousins have always different totems, whether descent of the totem be reckoned in the paternal or in the 1 R. Sutherland Rattray, Some Folk- line, amongst the Achewa in the female lore Stones and Songs in Chinyanja line "), 29. As to the Tumbuka of (London, 1907), p. 202. Compare this region we are told that "people Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 399 sq. ; of the same clan name were not sup- J. C. C. Coxhead, The Native Tribes posed to marry, but cousins who were , of North - Eastern Rhodesia (London, children of a brother and sister might." 1914), pp. 19 note 1 ("Succession See D. Fraser, Winning a Primitive amongst the Angoni is in the male People (London, 1914), p. 153. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 153 maternal line ; hence in these tribes cross-cousin marriages are always lawful. 1 The principles which regulate the marriage of cousins, Cross allowing some and prohibiting others, are similar among the J^! e Awemba, another Bantu tribe of North-Eastern Rhodesia, among the In that tribe, a man may marry his cross-cousin, the North-* daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's Eastern sister, because her totem is always different from his ; but he is forbidden to marry his ortho-cousin, the daughter either of his mother's sister or of his father's brother, because she is regarded as his sister. This is the gist of the marriage regulations set forth by Messrs. Gouldsbury and Sheane in the following instructive passage : " Among the Awemba we find two main principles Messrs. regulating the laws of marriage affinities. The first is that p oulds- b bury a man may not marry a woman of his mother's totem ; for andsheane instance an ' Elephant ' man may not marry an ' Elephant' cousin* girl. The Awemba, it is true, are known by both the marriage totems of their father and mother; but, in marriage, the Awemba. totem of the father is not considered, that of the mother Fi |" st . being the determining factor. Thus, female cousins, who marriage' bear the totem of his mother, are taboo to the young suitor. Wlth a TU u <.u r r woman of Though the marriage of cousins is of common occurrence, the same yet we cannot assert that marriages are made within the tote . . prohibited. totem. A man may, for instance, marry the daughter of his maternal uncle, or the children of his paternal aunt, because the totems of their respective mothers are alien to his own, which he derived from the distaff side. The Wemba elders say that even marriages of cousins were prohibited in the olden days, and deprecate the present universal system of cousin marriage. It is, undoubtedly, one of the main reasons which render the Wemba women less prolific than the wives of the .Wiwa and other tribes where such close unions are prohibited. " The second principle is that a man may not marry 1 What is here said of the marriage maternal line, and in which, moreover, rules of these totemic tribes of Central the marriage of all first cousins is Africa would not apply to certain barred by a curious social machinery, totemic tribes of Central Australia, in which appears to have been specially which the totems do not descend devised for the purpose. See below, either in the paternal or in the pp. 237 sq. 154 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Second principle : marriage with the daughter of a "potential" father or mother prohibited. Cousin marriage forbidden among the Winam- wanga. The father's brother is ranked as father, and the mother's sister is ranked as mother ; hence marriage with the daughter of the father's brother or of the mother's sister is forbidden. the daughter of his ' potential ' mother or father. On his father's decease the uncle [father's brother] inherits, and, owing to the generic system of nomenclature, takes the title of 'father.' The daughters of this paternal uncle are, there- fore, always taboo to the prospective suitor, who is called their 'brother.' In the same way, since his aunt on the mother's side, in the event of the latter's death, assumes the title of ' mother,' he cannot marry any of the children of his maternal aunt, who are called his ' sisters.' " We may here contrast the marriage laws of the neighbouring Winamwanga, where descent is reckoned on the father's side, and where the son can inherit in default of a brother. They absolutely prohibit marriage with first cousins on either the fatheFs or the mother's side. Yet the son takes over his father's wives as a matter of course. . . . To give a concrete instance : a man Kafyume, a polygamist, has a male child Kachinga. On his father's death* Kachinga will inherit and live with his father's wives, with the natural exception of his own mother, who is pensioned off. The Awemba express their disgust at a man marrying his father's wives, while the Winamwanga retaliate by asserting that the Awemba are so shameless in wedding their cousins that they would, no doubt, like to espouse their own sisters ! " l In this account the reasons assigned for barring the marriage of ortho-cousins, the children of two brothers or of two sisters, deserve to be noted. It is not that the two cousins have the same totem, as, .with maternal descent of the totem, would necessarily happen if they were children of two sisters, and as would happen also, with the same descent of the totem, if they were children of two brothers, provided that the brothers had married women of the same totem, for in that case their children would also have the same totem and therefore could not marry each other. Yet though the usual rule of totemic exogamy supplies a sufficient rule for prohibiting in this tribe all marriages between the children of sisters, and some marriages between the children of brothers, it is 1 Cullen Gouldsbury and Hubert Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1911), pp. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 155 not adduced as a reason for banning these unions. The reason alleged is quite different : it is that in the case of the children of two brothers, both the brothers are called " father " by the children, who therefore are related to each other as brothers and sisters and cannot intermarry ; and that in the case of the children of two sisters, both the sisters are- called " mother " by the children, who therefore are related to each other as brothers and sisters and cannot intermarry. Later on we shall see that this nomenclature for a father's brother and a mother's sister is characteristic of the classificatory or group system of relationship, with which the whole practice of cousin marriage is intimately bound up. From the account which Messrs. Gouldsbury and Sheane Cousin give we learn that among the Winamwanga all marriages ^^\^ y of first cousins are absolutely prohibited. Their testimony forbidden is confirmed in less explicit terms by other witnesses. tr jbe s O f Thus Dr. J. A. Chisholm tells us that in this tribe " a man North - .. ... Eastern cannot marry into his own family, however distant the Rhodesia, relationship. Marriage with a cousin would be looked on as marriage with a sister," l and Mr. J. C. C. Coxhead reports that " a man is prohibited from marrying any female of his cwn family of the same totem, and cousin marriages (allowed amongst the Wemba) are strictly forbidden. Within the totem no sexual intercourse is allowed. If a brother and sister, or two cousins descended from males of the same totem, had intercourse, they were burnt to death in the olden time."' A prohibition, more or less complete, of cousin marriage is reported of other Bantu tribes in North-Eastern Rhodesia. Thus among the Awisa, who are divided into totemic clans with descent of the totem in the maternal line, "this is the main rule of relationship and marriage, and it is strictly observed. It is also considered wrong for near relations on the male side (half-brother and half-sister, or even cousins) to marry." J Again, among the 1 Dr. James A. Chisholm, "Notes Tribes of North-Eastern Rhodesia on the Manners and Customs of the (London, 1914), p. 51 (Royal Anthro- \Yinamwanga and Wiwa," Joiirnal of pological Institute, Occasional Papers, the African Society, No. 36 (July No. 5). 1910), p. 383. * J. C. C. Coxhead, The Native 3 J. C. C. Coxhead, op. cit. p. 34. I 5 6 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Cross- cousin marriage in East Africa. Alungu, " the prohibition from marriage with blood relations is stronger than that which exists amongst the Awemba, cousins not being allowed to marry until the fourth genera- tion. The totem prohibition was never knowingly over- ridden, though a man could expiate his fault by throwing some small present on to the mat when he married a woman of his own totem in ignorance. If the woman accepted the present, there was no bar to the validity of the marriage." ] However, in these latter cases the reports of the custom are too indefinite to allow us to decide whether among the Awisa and the Alungu all marriages of first cousins without exception are barred, or whether the prohibition applies only to marriages between the children of two brothers or of two sisters. Among the Wahehe, a tribe of German East Africa, a man may not marry his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's sister or of his father's brother ; but he is free to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, indeed such marriages are very common ; in short, he is allowed to marry his cross- cousin, but forbidden to marry his ortho-cousin. 2 So with the Wagogo, another tribe of German East Africa, marriage is forbidden between ortho- cousins, the children of two brothers or of two sisters, but it is permitted between cross- cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively. But at the weddings of such cousins it is customary for the father of the bride to kill a sheep and put on a leathern armlet, otherwise the marriage, it is believed, would prove unfruitful. 3 Similarly, among the Sangos, another tribe of the same region, the marriage of ortho-cousins is for- bidden and the marriage of cross-cousins is permitted, but 1 J. C. C. Coxhead, The Native Tribes of North-Eastern Rhodesia, p. 41. 2 E. Nigmann, Die Wahehe (Berlin, 1908), p. 60 ; O. Dempwolff, " Bei- trage zur Volksbeschreibung der Hehe," Baessler-Archiv, iv. Heft 3 (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913), p. 103. The latter writer mentions the prohibition to marry an ortho-cousin, but not the permission to marry a cross-cousin. 3 Heinrich Claus, Die Wagogo (Leip- sic and Berlin, 1911), p. 58 (Baessler- Archiv, Beiheft ii. ). The leathern armlet is probably made from the skin of the slaughtered sheep, though this is not mentioned by the writer. See above, pp. 6 sqq. We should expect the armlet to be worn by the bride rather than by her father ; but the writer's words (" ist es iiblich, dass der Vater der Frau ein Sc/iaf schlachtet utut ein Lederarinband anlegt ") seem not to admit of this interpretation. CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 157 not favoured, the people preferring to take their wives from families with which they are not related. 1 Among the Ba- Cross- fioti, a Bantu people of West Africa, in the lower valley of the ^mia Congo, a man may not marry his ortho-cousin, the daughter in West of his father's brother ; but he may marry his cross-cousin, the daughter of his father's sister. Apparently he is for- bidden to marry his other cross-cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, for we are told that " a man may not marry any of his mother's family or relations whom he terms Mama." 2 Among the Ewe-speaking people of West Africa, who are pure negroes and do not belong to the Bantu race, marriage is forbidden between first cousins, the children either of two brothers or of two sisters ; but it is allowed between two first cousins who are the children of a brother and a sister respectively. In other words, a man is free to marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister ; in short, the marriage of cross-cousins is allowed, and the marriage of ortho-cousins is forbidden. 3 Among the Yan Gido, a Hausa clan in Katsina (Northern Nigeria) the rule as to the marriage of cousins is precisely similar. 4 Among the Susu of Sierra Leone cross-cousin marriage is the rule. 5 Marriages with the daughter either of a father's brother Cousin or of a mother's brother are especially popular in modern mar y ia s e m Egypt. Egypt. This preference for marriage with the daughter of a father's brother has met us already among some Bantu tribes of South Africa. 7 It occurs also among the Malagasy who, Cousin while they prefer the marriage of first cousins who are the children of two brothers, on the other hand regard with horror gascar. the marriage of first cousins who are the children of two sisters. On this subject Mr. James Sibree, one of our best authori- 1 Missionar Heese, " Sitte und from information kindly supplied by Brauch der Sango," Archiv fiir An- Mr. H. R. Palmer, Resident in Charge thropologie, N.F. xii. (1913) p. 134. of Katsina. 2 R. E. Dennett, At the Back of 6 Northcote w . ThomaSj Anthro . the Black Man's Mind ( London, 1 906), p olcgica i Report on Sierra Leone ^ Part P- 3- j. Law and Custom (London, 1916), 3 G. Zlindel, "Land und Leute der IQI< Eweer auf der Sclavenkliste in West- tSnW Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir 6 W - H - R - Rivers, Kinship and Erdkunde at Berlin, xii. (1877) p. Social Organisation (London, 1914), o O p. 79. See further below, p. 258. * Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 607, 7 Above, p. 151. 158 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART u Marriage ties on Madagascar, writes as follows : " Marriage between between brothers' children is exceedingly common, and is looked upon cousins, the children of as the most proper kind of connection, as keeping property brothers, together in the same family (the marriage of two persons nearly related to each other is called Ibva-tsi-miflndra, i.e. ' inheritance not removing'); and there does not seem to result from such marriages any of those consequences in idiocy and mental disorder of the offspring which are fre- quently seen in European nations as arising from the marriages of first cousins. It is possible, however, that to this marrying in and amongst tribes and families is due, in part at least, the sterility so frequent in Malagasy women. . . . Marriage between brothers' and sisters' children is also allowable on the performance of a slight prescribed ceremony, supposed to remove any impediment from con- sanguinity ; but that of sisters' children, when the sisters have the same mother, is regarded with horror as incest, being emphatically fady or tabooed, and not allowable down to the fifth generation, that is, to the great- great-great-grandchildren of such two sisters." 3 To the same effect Messrs. Alfred and Guillaume Grandidier, in their authoritative work on Madagascar, report as follows : " We shall insist on the fact, to which we have already called attention, that if marriage between children and descendants of two sisters, that is, between uterine cousins who are collaterals on the mother's side, was fadibe (formally forbidden, incestuous in the highest degree), mandokd (a crime against nature), marriage between children and descendants of two brothers, that is, between consanguine cousins who are collaterals on the father's side, was considered desirable, especially among the Merina, and was often contracted after a sort of exorcism to manala ondrand, to remove the obstacles presented by consan- guinity or, as is said in the South, to manafaka tonony, to avert the misfortunes which such an union might entail." '' 1 Rev. James Sibree, The Great Anthropological Institute, ix. (1880) African Island, Chapter son Madagascar p. 39. Compare A. van Gennep, (London), 1880, pp. 248 sq. ; id., Tabou et Tottmistne a Madagascar " Relationships and the names used for (Paris, 1904), pp. 162^. them among the peoples of Madagascar, 2 Alfred Grandidier et Guillaume chiefly the Hovas," Journal of the Grandidier, Ethnographie de Madagas- CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE 'OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 159 Elsewhere the same writers inform us that among the Expiation Malagasy marriage between cousins, the children of a brother ^ rria e and of a sister respectively, as well as between cousins, the between children of two brothers, was permissible on the performance of a sacrifice intended to remove the impediment to such unions. The sacrifice took place in the village of the bride's parents, and the victim was an ox, a sheep, or a fowl, according to the degree of relationship between the bridal pair and their wealth or poverty ; for blood is deemed necessary to ensure the blessing of God and of the ancestors on a marriage of this sort. In some of the northern clans the newly wedded couple are sprinkled with cow's dung, mixed with boiled rice, as a means of removing the impedi- ment to their union ; and they believe that, if they did not undergo this aspersion, they would die young or would fall innocent victims to the poison ordeal, whenever a false charge should be brought against them. 1 But while the custom of marriage with certain first cousins in some is widespread among the aborigines of Africa, especially among those of the Bantu stock, it is not universal ; dn the contrary especially there are some tribes which prohibit more or less strictly all l t ^Jk., the" marriages whatsoever between cousins. Some prohibitions, marriage of , r . . , - . . all first apparently universal, or cousin marriages in Africa have cousins is already been recorded : 2 but, as I have indicated, in these absolutely . i -i prohibited. cases it is not clear whether the prohibitions are really universal or only apply to certain cases of cousin marriage, particularly to marriages between the children of brothers or the children of sisters. However, there are a certain number of Bantu tribes in which all marriages between cousins, without distinction, appear to have been positively forbidden. Thus in the Uganda Protectorate there is a compact group The of four tribes, the Baganda, the Banyoro, the Basoga, and ^i"^ 6 the Bateso, in which the marriage of all first cousins was cousins unlawful. At the same time all four tribes allowed marriage amo^the between second cousins in certain cases, namely, when the Baganda, Banyoro, - Basoga, car, ii. (Paris, 1914), p. 167 (Histoire Societt d 1 Anthropologie de Paris, vi. Physique, Naturelle et Politique de Serie iv. (1913), p. 23. Madagascar, vol. iv. ) Compare G. J A. et G. Grandidier, Ethnographic Grandidier, " Le Manage a Mada- de Madagascar, ii. 149 sq. gascar," Bulletins et Memoires de la 2 See above, pp. 151, 154, 155 sq. l6o JACOB'S MARRIAGE Cross- cousins obliged to avoid each other among the Baganda. second cousins were the grandchildren of a brother and sister respectively, and when, moreover, the father of one of the second cousins was a son of that brother, and the mother of the other second cousin was a daughter of that sister. In short, a man's children might not marry his sister's children, but a man's son's children might marry his sister's daughter's children. 1 Amongst the Baganda so stringent was the pro- hibition of marriage between cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, that the punishment for a breach of it was death. 2 This certainly is a striking contrast to the usage of other Bantu tribes, who regularly permit or even specially favour such unions between cousins. But among the Baganda cross-cousins were not only forbidden to marry each other under pain of death ; they might not even enter the same house nor eat out of the same dish ; a man's first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, was not allowed to approach him or to hand him anything. If the cousins failed to observe these restrictions, it was believed that they would fall ill, so that their hands would tremble and they would be unfit for any work. But these rules of avoidance did not apply to ortho- cousins, the children either of two brothers or of two sisters ; these cousins were regarded as brothers and sisters and might intermingle freely with each other. 3 This distinction between the behaviour to each other of different classes of cousins is very significant. The custom of mutual avoidance between persons of opposite sexes is almost certainly in origin a precaution intended to prevent improper 1 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 460 sq., 463, 508, 522, from information furnished by the Rev. John Roscoe ; J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 128 sq., 131, 132; id., The Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 38 (the Banyoro), 209 (the Basoga), p. 263 (the Bateso). The general prohibition of marriage between first cousins is mentioned by Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Pro- tectorate (London, 1904), ii. 688, 695. 2 J. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 129, 13*. J 32. 3 Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, ii. 695 ; J. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 128 sq. Sir Harry Johnston mentions the rules of avoid- ance between cousins in,general, without noticing that these rules apply only to cross -cousins. Mr. Roscoe does not expressly say that cousins, who are. the children of two brothers might inter- mingle freely with each other, but he apparently implies it by saying (p. 129) that the father's brothers' childien ' ' were brothers and sisters to his children," and that "the mother's sisters' children were brothers and sisters to her own children, and might intermingle freely with them." CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 161 relations between persons who might conceivably be betrayed into them. 1 Accordingly when we find that among the Baganda such rules of avoidance are observed between cross- Themutual cousins (children of a brother and a sister respectively), but *f ^os- not between ortho-cousins (children of two brothers or of two cousins sisters), the inference to be drawn from the distinction is that Baganda G sexual intercourse is thought to be possible, though very seems to undesirable, between cross-cousins, but impossible between t ^ e ortho- cousins, who are put on a level with brothers and prohibition T-. ,. . . ..... of marriage sisters, rrom this again we may infer that the distinction between between cross-cousins and ortho-cousins is extremely ancient, then ? lsof much more and that the prohibition of sexual intercourse between ortho- recent cousins had been so long in force that the observance of it ^ a the had grown into an instinct which, like the similar prohibition prohibition of sexual intercourse between brothers and sisters, needed no extraneous safeguard among normal persons ; but that, on ortho- the other hand, the prohibition of sexual intercourse between cross-cousins was so comparatively recent that it had not yet subject to acquired the force of a long-established custom, and therefore restrictions needed to be guarded by the special precaution of a strict m their social mutual avoidance between the cross-cousins. If this inference intercourse is correct, it will follow that among the Baganda, as among w " h eacb many other Bantu tribes of Africa, the marriage of cross- cousins had continued to be lawful, and perhaps popular, long after the marriage of ortho-cousins had been strictly forbidden. Later on we shall find a precisely similar rule of avoidance observed for similar reasons among the aborigines of New Ireland. 2 The Akikuyu of British East Africa appear to carry the Among the prohibition of cousin marriage still further than the Baganda, the for they are reported to bar the marriage of second cousins marriage as well as the marriage of first cousins ; whereas the Baganda, fi rst and as we have seen, allow the marriage of second cousins in ofsecond , . ~, . - - , . . cousins is certain cases. I he marriage of first and second cousins, forbidden, the children and grandchildren of brothers and sisters, is regarded by the Akikuyu as a grave sin, and they believe that, if it has been knowingly contracted, the children begotten of such an unhallowed union will surely die ; 1 Totemism and Exogamy, iv. 108 (London, 1913), pp. 88 sqq. sqq. ; Psyche's Task, Second Edition 2 See below, p. 183. VOL. II M 162 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Expiation for the marriage of cousins. Marriage of cousins prohibited among the Thonga. Expiation for the marriage of cousins ' ' killing the rela- tionship." for in their judgment the sin is visited on the innocent offspring and not on the guilty parents, and no blood of sheep or other ceremonial detergent can wash out the deep stain (thahu] that rests on the misbegotten brats. On the other hand, if the sin of the parents has been committed unwittingly, that is in ignorance of the relation- ship between them, the defilement- (thahu"}, which would otherwise prove fatal to the children, can be removed as follows. The elders take a sheep, place it on the shoulders of the guilty wife, and there and then butcher the animal. While its warm blood gushes over her body, the elders draw out the guts from the carcass, and solemnly sever them with a sharp splinter of wood cut from a bush of a particular kind, while they announce that they are severing the bond of blood relationship which exists between the pair. 1 Again, among the Thonga, a Bantu tribe of Portuguese East Africa, the marriage of cousins, even in the fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth degrees, is prohibited ; indeed two persons are forbidden to marry each other if it can be shown that they have a single common ancestor, however remote. The prohibition is particularly stringent when the relationship is traced through males ; it is sometimes relaxed after four generations when the relationship is traced through women. In such cases the husband has to pay a sum in addition to the customary bride -price for the purpose, as they say, of " killing the relationship " (dlaya shilongo), after which the tie of consanguinity is supposed to be severed. 2 But in 1 C. W. Hobley, " Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs, " Journal of the Royal An- thropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. 438. 2 Henri A. Junod, Les Ba-Ronga (Neuchatel, 1898), pp. 84-86; com- pare id. , Life oj a South African Tribe (Neuchatel, 1912-1913), i. 241 sqq. The Ba-Ronga are the portion of the Thonga tribe who are settled about Delagoa Bay. Mr. Junod's exposition of the subject in his earlier work is clearer than that in his later work, and I have followed it in the text. It seems to apply particularly to the Ba-Ronga branch of the Thonga tribe. In his later work (Life of a South African Tribe, i. 241) he says, -'Amongst the Ba-Ronga, it is taboo for a boy to marry a girl when both can lay claim to a common ancestor in the paternal line. It seems that the rule is not so stringent in the Northern clans. According to Mankhelu, marriage is absolutely pro- hibited between all the descendants of a grandfather, viz. between first cousins. Between second cousins it is permitted conditionally, 'by killing the family tie,' and between third cousins it is allowed. . . . On the mother's side, this absolute prohibition extends to first cousins when mothers are sisters." CHAP, vi THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AFRICA 163 order to sever the bond of blood and so permit the cousins to marry, it is not enough to pay a ransom, an expiatory sacrifice must be offered ; otherwise the marriage would be unlucky and the wife could not bear children. To avert these evils a goat is sacrificed, and the couple, sitting on the same mat, are anointed with the green liquid extracted from the half-digested grass in the animal's stomach. Thert the goat's skin is taken and put on the heads of the two cousins, and through a hole cut in the middle of the skin the raw liver of the animal is handed down to them ; they must tear it out with their teeth and swallow it ; they may not use a knife to cut the liver. The word for liver (sliibindji) means also " patience, determination." So they say to the pair, " You have acted with strong determination. Eat the liver now. It will be an offering to the gods." Then the priest of the family prays, saying, " You, our gods, so and so, look ! We have done it in the daylight. It has not been done by stealth. Bless them, give them children." When the priest has done praying, the assistants take all the half-digested grass from the animal's stomach and place it on the wife's head, saying, " Go and bear children." * This ceremony and the accompanying prayer prove that The in the opinion of the Thonga the marriage of near relations, including cousins, is apt to be infertile, unless means are thought to taken to sever the tie of kinship between the parties, and so to place them in the position of unrelated persons. The bond of kinship is clearly conceived in a concrete, material The bond sense, since it is represented by the goat's liver, which the conceived couple sever with their teeth. Similarly, as we saw, the as physical Akikuyu identify the bond of relationship with sheep's guts, and think that by cutting the guts they simultaneously sever the tie of blood which unites the cousins. And as the 1 Henri A. Junod, Life of a South ship" (dlaya shilongo) is somewhat African Tribe, i. 243-245. This de- different ; in Mr. Junod's description scription applies to the ceremony as of it nothing is said about the use of it is performed by the northern clans the goat's skin in the ritual. He of the Thonga tribe, among whom the tells us that the aim of the ceremony prohibition of cousin marriage is appar- " is to lawfully kill one kind of rela- ently not so stringent as among the tionship and to replace it by another, Ba-Ronga to the south (see the preced- because the two are not compatible." ing note). Among the Ronga clans See Henri A. Junod, Life of a South the ceremony of " killing the relation- African Tribe, i. 245 sq. 164 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Thonga imagine that, without the performance of the expiatory rite, the marriage of the cousins would prove infertile, so the Akikuyu believe that, without a similar atonement, the offspring of the cousins could not live. So, too, the Wagogo hold that the marriage of cousins would be unfruitful, unless a sheep were killed and apparently an armlet made from its skin to be worn by the bride's father. 1 Among the Wabemba and the Wahorohoro, two tribes, apparently Bantu, to the west of Lake Tanganyika, even the most distant cousinship forms a bar to marriage. More than that, among the Wahorohoro a man is bound to avoid his female cousin. He may not speak to her nor remain in her company. If she enters a house where he happens to be, he will at once depart. 2 We have seen that among the Baganda cousins have to observe similar rules of mutual avoidance. 3 Another African people who bar all marriages both of first and of second cousins are the Masai, the well-known tribe of herdsmen and warriors, who were long the terror of their neighbours in East Africa. They do not belong to the Bantu stock, but are members of the family to which the name Nilotic is now commonly given, because many of the tribes included in it have their seats in the upper valley of the Nile. 4 Among the Masai, " first cousins and second cousins may not marry, but there is no objection to third cousins marrying if the relation- ship is no nearer than ol-le 'sotwa (or en-e- 'sotwa). Thus a man's son's son's son may not marry the man's brother's son's son's daughter, nor may a man's son's son's son marry the sister's son's son's daughter, but there would be no objection to a man's son's son's son marrying the brother's daughter's daughter's daughter or the sister's daughter's daughter's daughter. Likewise though a man's son's son- may not marry the man's maternal uncle's son's son's daughter, he may marry the maternal uncle's son's 1 Above, p. 156. 3 Above, p. 160. 2 Charles Delhaise, Notes Ethno- graphiques sur quelques peuplades du 4 Sir Charles Eliot's " Introduction " Tanganika (Brussels, 1905), pp. 10, to A. C. Hollis's The Masai (Oxford, 35. 1905), pp. xi sqq. CHAP, vi COUSIN MARRIAGE IN INDONESIA 165 daughter's daughter. These unions are always contingent on the two parties not belonging to the same sub-clan." l If a Masai man knowingly commits incest by marrying a Expiation cousin whom he ought not to marry, he is punished by his ^!^ relations, who flog him and slaughter some of his cattle. If of cousins: the crime has been committed unwittingly, as may easily happen, for example, when distant cousins live in different districts, the man must present a cow to the girl's kinsfolk in order to " kill the relationship " (a-ar eng-anyif)? On the analogy of the Kikuyu and Thonga parallels, we may con- jecture that the "killing of the relationship" is effected by killing the cow and severing its guts or other internal organs with which the bond of blood uniting the two cousins is assumed, for the purpose of the ceremony, to be identified. Among the Yorubas, a large and important race of pure negroes in \Yest Africa, marriage with blood relations is for- bidden, both on the father's and on the mother's side, so far among the as the relationship can be traced ; but in practice the pro- hibition appears not to be extended beyond second cousins. 3 7. The Marriage of Cousins in the Indian Archipelago Among the peoples of the Indian Archipelago, who may Cousin be designated by the general name of Indonesians, there marna g e 3 . among the are some who permit or even encourage marriage with a indo- first cousin, particularly with the daughter of a mother's n< brother, while there are others who strictly forbid such unions as incestuous. Thus, among the Bataks or Battas of Central Sumatra a Cross- man is not allowed to marry his first cousin, the daughter of cousln J ' marriage his father's sister, but on the other hand he is under a moral among the obligation to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his Sumatra* mother's brother. Such marriages of men with the daughters of their mothers' brothers, or, in other words, of women with 1 A. C. Hollis, "A Note on the Masai System of Relationship, "Journal Masai System of Relationship and of the Roy at Anthropological Institute, other matters connected therewith," xl. (1910) p. 480. Journal of the Royal Anthropological 3 (Sir) A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba- Institute, xl. (1910) p. 479. speaking peoples of the Slave Coast of A. C. Hollis, "A Note on the West Africa (London, 1894), p. 188. 166 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n the sons of their fathers' sisters, are so interwoven, we are told, into the Batak ideas of family life, on which the whole fabric of their social life is based, that a girl seldom seeks to evade the union which custom assigns to her. A damsel has been known to refuse several good offers and to accept the hand of her cousin, the son of her father's sister, though the young man had nothing to recommend him and was in fact inferior both in person and in wealth to the suitors whom she had rejected. Asked why she had chosen such an undesirable bridegroom, when she might have made a much better match, she simply answered, " It is our custom. What else would you do ? " On the other hand, if a young man were so ungallant as to jilt his cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, in favour of another girl, there might be bad blood between him and his uncle, the father of the rejected damsel ; indeed, some people say that the gods themselves would be angry at such a breach of traditionary usage. Thus among the Bataks the union of a man with his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, is the normal and most orthodox form of marriage. On the other hand, marriage with a first cousin, the daughter of a father's sister, is not only forbidden but punishable. Of such a marriage the Bataks say, " How is it possible that water can flow up to its source?" Only in the third generation may the descendants of such cousins marry each other ; in other words, the great-grandchildren of such cousins can contract a lawful marriage, being themselves fourth cousins. 1 So sharp a distinction do the Bataks draw between a mother's brother's daughter and a father's sister's daughter. Cross- Similarly among the Looboos, a primitive tribe of unknown cousm origin in Mandailing, a western district of Sumatra, custom marriage ' among the requires that a man should by preference marry a daughter and b OS of his mother ' s brother. The formalities attending the Rejangs of wedding of these first cousins are very small. The people regard such a marriage as a matter of course, and they say 1 J. B. Neumann, "Het Pane- en dam, 1886), p. 243, No. 3, p. 492; Bila-stroomgebied op het eiland Su- M. Joustra, "Het leven, de zeden en matra," Tijdschrift van. het Neder- gewoonten der Bataks," Mededeelingen landsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, van wege het Nederlandsehe Zende- Tweede Serie, iii. Afdeeling, Meer linggenootschap, xlvi. (1902) p. 390. uitgebreide Artikelen, No. 2 (Amster- CHAP, vj COUSIN MARRIAGE IN INDONESIA 167 of it that " the leech rolls towards the open wound." l In- deed this preference for marriage with such a cousin seems to be general in Mandailing, for we are told that in this part of Sumatra marriage with the daughter of a mother's brother is deemed very desirable, whereas marriage with the daughter of a father's sister is forbidden. 2 Similarly among the Rejangs of Sumatra the rule" is that " of two brothers, the children may not intermarry. A sister's son may marry a brother's daughter ; but a brother's son may not marry a sister's daughter." ' Again, in the Kei Islands a youth of a rich family is Cross- bound to marry a girl of his mother's family, by preference ^^ e a first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, to whom, in the Kei indeed, he has usually been betrothed since childhood. If his mother's brother has no daughter, he must adopt one and give her to his sister's son to wife. If he has a daughter, but she is still too young to wed, her cousin must wait for her till she is nubile. If he fails to carry out his obligation to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, he or his family has to pay a heavy fine. On the other hand, a similar fine would be inflicted on him if he were to marry a girl of his father's family, say a first cousin, a daughter of his father's sister, for such a marriage is re- garded as incest. 4 Again, in the islands of Saparua, Haruku, Cross- and Nussa Laut. and on part of the southern coast of Ceram, COUS1 ? J r ' mamage a man's daughters and his sister's sons are marriageable ; in the indeed marriages between such first cousins would seem to { be customary. Even before marriage these cousins may take New all sorts of liberties with each other, laughing, joking, romping, Celebes?"' and so forth, without being checked for it by their parents. And should a man marry another woman, he may still after 1 J. Kreemer, "De Loeboes in Batang - natal," Tijdschrift van het Mandailing," Bijdragen tot de Taal- Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genoot- Land- en Volkenkunde van Neder- schap, Tweede Serie, xiv. (1897) pp. landsch- Indie, Ixvi. (1912) p. 321. 245 sq., 257. 2 H. Ris, " De onderafdeeling Klein , ,,. ,, , ,,. . , ,, j -i- r\ i * W. Marsden, History of Sumatra Mandailing Oeloe en Pahantan en , T , , , . j . (London, loll), p. 220. hare bevolking met uitzondenng van de Oeloes," Bijdragen tot de Taal- * C. M. Pleyte, " Ethnographische Land- en Volkenkitnde van Neder- beschrijving der Kei-Eilanden," Ttj'd- landsch- Indie, xlvi. (1896) p. 508; schrift van het Nederlandsch Aardrijks- Th. A. L. Heyting, " Beschrijving der kundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, x. Onderafdeeling Groot- Mandailing en (1893) P- 808. 1-68 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n marriage use the same freedom with his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, and his wife ought not to take it ill, nay, she should encourage him so to do. Such cousins have a special name (anakh makaien) ; and a man usually calls such a cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, " my wife." On the other hand, a man's sons and his sister's daughters are thought to stand in a near relationship to each other, like brothers and sisters, and they may not intermarry ; in other words, a man is forbidden to take to wife his first Cross- cousin, the daughter of his father's sister. 1 Similarly the ^riage in Alfoors of Nusawele in the island of Ceram forbid marriage Ceram. between the children of two brothers, between the children of two sisters, and between a man's son and his sister's daughter, but they allow a man's daughter to marry his sister's son ; in other words, they bar the marriage of all first cousins except the marriage of a man with the daughter of his mother's brother ; indeed marriages of this last sort are much favoured. On the other hand, in the neighbouring district of Mansela, marriage is allowed between the children of brothers and also between the children of sisters, but this permission appears to be an innovation on ancient custom ; at least we are told that formerly in Mansela the rule seems to have been different and to have conformed Cross- to the present practice of Nusawele. 2 Again, in Endeh, cousm a district of the island of Flores, the marriage of cross- marnage in Flores. cousins is very common, and is permissible in both forms ; that is, a man may marry either the daughter of his mother's brother or the daughter of his father's sister. On the other hand, ortho-cousins, the children of two brbthers or of two sisters, are not marriageable ; in other words, a man may not marry the daughter of his father's brother or the daughter of his mother's sister. 3 In Central Manggarai, a district of 1 Van Schmid, " Aanteekeningen 2 M. C. Schadee, " Heirats und nopens de zeden, gewoonten en ge- andere Gebrauche bei den Mansela und bruiken, benevens de vooroordeelen en Nasawele Alfuren in der Unterabteilung bijgeloovigheden der bevolking van de Wahasi der Insel Seram (Ceram)," In- eilanden Saparoea, Haroekoe, Noessa ternationales Archiv fur Ethnographic, Laut, en van een gedeelte van de zuid- xxii. (1915) p. 134. kust van Ceram, in vroegeren en lateren tijd," Tijdschrift voor Neir- 3 S. Roos, "lets over Endeh," lands Indie, Vijfde Jaargang, Tweede Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- Deel (Batavia, 1843), PP- 59^ sq. en Volkenkunde, xxiv. (1878) p. 523. CHAP, vi COUSIN MARRIAGE IN INDONESIA 169 Western Flores, we are told that people, so far as possible, should marry within the family, that is cousin with cousin ; l but though no distinction of cousins is mentioned, we may conjecture that the rule in Central Manggarai is subject to the same limitation as in Endeh, cross-cousins being allowed, or rather expected, to marry each other, while ortho-cousins are forbidden to do so. Again, in the island of Keisar or Cross- Makisar, cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister Carriage respectively, are allowed to marry ; indeed, they are betrothed in Keisar, in their, childhood, between the ages of five and seven, and the brother and sister seal this compact of marriage between etc - their children by drinking arrack out of the same glass. Should either of them afterwards break the covenant, he or she must pay a fine. But on the other hand, ortho-cousins, the children either of two brothers or of two sisters, are forbidden to marry each other ; in other words, a man may not marry the daughter of his father's brother or of his mother's sister. 2 In the Aru Islands first cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, are free to marry each other, but first cousins, the children of two brothers, are not. 3 Again, in the islands of Leti, Moa, and Lakor first cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, are at liberty to marry each other, but this privilege is denied to first cousins, the children of two sisters. 4 The Macassars and Bugineeze of Southern Celebes Cousin permit marriage between full cousins. 5 So, too, among the Bare'e-speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes marriage between cousins of all grades is unconditionally allowed ; but a male cousin may not marry his female cousin once removed, who 1 J. W. Meerburg, " Proeve einer of two brothers) are allowed to marry beschrijving van land en volk van each other. Midden - Mangearai (West Flores), , T . , , ., A/-J i- T>- TT-J j -^ I- G. F, Riedel, op. ctt. p. 305. Afdeehng Bima," Ttidschnft voor In- J < t u ,. , , / , J T /, L , , From a note on p. 474 of the same dische Taal- Land- en Volkenkundt, . . T ., . , , / c \ ,,. work it appears that in these islands :xiv. (J59I) p 4 0b Ae hi]dren of t brothers (though 2 I- G. F. Riedel. De slutk- en . , -, , c , , not of two sisters) are allowed to kroeshartge rassen tusschen Celebes en . , r> j. fr>u tr o ' r> * R- W. Williamson, "Some un- 1 H. Zahn. " Die Jabim, in K. , , , . ' , ., , ,.. , , , T ^ . IT> ,. recorded customs of the Mekeo people Nevhzuss, DetttscA Weu-Gutnta (Berlin, , . . , ,., . , f F< . 200 of British New Guinea, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. 3 K. Vetter, in Nachrichten iiber (1913) p. 275. 176 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART H the Koiari, a Melanesian tribe near Port Moresby, in British New Guinea, " relatives do not marry, as they say it is one blood. Cousins of several degrees are called brothers and sisters." Again, among the Koita, a neighbouring tribe who also belong to the Melanesian stock, " the regulation of marriage depends on the avoidance of marriage within the forbidden degrees, which extend to third cousins." ' The Mafulus, an inland tribe of the Mekeo district, "have their prohibitive rules of consanguinity ; but these are based merely upon the number of generations between either party and the common ancestor. The number of degrees within which prohibition applies in this way is two, thus taking it to the grandparent ; and the result is that no man or woman may properly marry any descendant of his or her paternal or maternal grandfather or grandmother, however distant the actual relationship of the persons concerned may be. Mar- riages within the prohibited degree do in fact occur ; but they are discountenanced, and are rare." Thus among the Mafulus the blood-relationship which serves as a bar to marriage " only extends, as between people of the same generation, to first cousins. But a Mafulu native who was grandson of the common ancestor would be prohibited from marrying his first cousin once removed (great-granddaughter of that ancestor), or his first cousin twice removed (great- great-granddaughter of that ancestor) " 3 These Mafulus appear to belong neither to the Melanesian nor to the Papuan stock, which between them inhabit the greater part of New Guinea. They are believed to be a pygmy or Negrito people, who have been modified by Papuan and perhaps Melanesian influence. 4 In the island of Tubetube, which lies off the south-eastern extremity of New Guinea, and is inhabited by people of the same stock as their neighbours on the main- land, " the nearest consanguineous marriage permitted is between the children of Nubaili (the third generation), and 1 Rev. James Chalmers, " Report of British New Guinea (Cambridge, on New Guinea, Toaripi and Koiari 1910), p. 82. tribes," Report of the Second Meeting of 3 Robert W. Williamson, The the Australasian Association for the Ad- Mafulu, Mountain People of British vancement of Science, held at Melbourne, New Guinea (London, 1912), p. 169. Victoria, in January 1890 (Sydney), 4 A. C. Haddon, " Introduction " p. 320. to R. W. Williamson, The Mafulu, 2 C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians p. xxiii. CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN MELANESIA 177 even then the grandchildren of two sisters, their Tubuli (grandmothers), cannot intermarry. But the grandchildren of two brothers can marry the grandchildren of two sisters if they do not belong to the same totem." l From this we gather that in Tubetube no marriage between first cousins is permissible, but that second cousins may marry each other, provided that they are the grandchildren of a brother and a sister respectively ; whereas they might not marry each other if they were the grandchildren of two sisters. The inhabitants of the western islands of Torres Straits, Similar immediately to the south of New Guinea, appear to share [Jft^f 5 the aversion to marriages between near relations. On this marriage of subject the statements of the natives and the results of a genealogical record taken among them are in agreement, islands of and seem to show that in these islands marriages between straits. first cousins never, or very rarely, occur, while marriages between distant cousins, such as third cousins or second cousins once removed, are permitted, and not infrequent ; nevertheless " in nearly all these marriages the relationship is either very remote (third cousins or second cousins once removed) or there are extenuating circumstances." 2 On Cross the other hand in the Trobriand Islands, to the east of New Carriage Guinea, the marriage of cross-cousins is fairly frequent and in ^ e . , 11. . ^ i i * Trobriand is considered distinctly desirable. islands. 9. The Marriage of Cousins in Melanesia Among the Melanesians, the swarthy race of the Pacific, Cross- who inhabit the long chain of archipelagoes stretching from Jn^iagein the Admiralty Islands on the north to New Caledonia on the Melanesia. south, and to Fiji on the east, the preference for marriage with a first cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, meets us in several islands far distant from each other. Thus, among the natives of New Caledonia, in the extreme south, first cousins who are the children of a 1 C. G. Seligmann, The Melan- 1904) p. 239. esians of British New Guinea, p. 508, 3 Bronislaw Malinowski, " Bal- quoting the Rev. J. T. Field. oma ; the Spirits of the Dead in the 2 Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, in Reports of Trobriand Islands," Journal of the the Cambridge Anthropological Expedi- Royal Anthropological Institute, xlvL tion to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge. (1916) p. 389 note 2 . VOL. II N JACOB'S MARRIAGE The marriage of cross-" cousins favoured and the marriage of ortho- cousins forbidden in New Caledonia. The marriage of cross- cousins favoured and the marriage of ortho- cousins forbidden in Futuna, one of the New Hebrides. brother and sister respectively are free to marry each other ; indeed, such a relationship is thought to form a special reason why the cousins should wed. But, on the contrary, first cousins who are the children of two sisters or of two brothers are regarded as themselves brothers and sisters, and therefore they are forbidden to intermarry ; more than that, they must avoid each other in ordinary life ; they may not even look at each other, and if the two meet by chance, the girl will throw herself into the bushes or the water or anywhere else, to avoid her male cousin, and he will pass by without turning his head. 1 In Futuna, one of the Southern New Hebrides, " male and female children of two or more brothers, or of two or more sisters, were, in native language, called brothers and sisters. It was, accordingly, against native law for them to intermarry. The children called their father's brothers ' father,' and the sisters of their mother they called ' mother ' ; while the so-called parents called the children ' my son ' or ' my daughter.' This relationship and consequently the prohibition to intermarry extended even to the grand- children or great-grandchildren of brothers or sisters. . . . Male and female children of brothers and sisters were cousins and eligible by native law for marriage with each other. The children called the brothers of their mother ' uncle,' and the sisters of their father ' aunt,' as with us ; while the uncle and aunt called the children ' my nephew ' or ' my niece.' The cousins of opposite sex were betrothed from birth ; and a male, while yet a child, called his female cousin ' my wife,' while she called him ' my husband.' If, however, the boy on growing up did not care for his betrothed, his friends sought him another wife. But no one could take his first betrothed without his sanction or without paying him for her in full." 2 Here the distinction drawn between 1 Le Pere Lambert, Mcetirs et Super- stitions des Neo- Caledoniens (Noumea, 1900), pp. 114 sq. 2 William Gunn, The Gospel in Futuna (London, 1914), pp. 205 sq. But the writer adds, "There were ex- ceptions to these general rules. For example, in Aneityum [another island of the Southern New Hebrides], one calls his father's sister ' mother,' not ' aunt.' In Erromanga the sons and daughters of a brother and sister are not 'cousins,' but 'brothers' and ' sisters,' in the same way as if they were the children of brothers or of sisters ; and therefore marriage between those brothers and sisters was 'tapu,' or improper" (op. cit. pp. 206 sq. ). CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN MELANESIA 179 ortho-cousins (the children of brothers or the children of sisters) and cross-cousins (the children of a brother and of a sister respectively) is very marked : the former call each other " brother " and " sister," and may never marry, the latter call each other " husband " and " wife " and are betrothed to each other from birth. In Tanna, a neighbouring island of the Southern The New Hebrides, the custom is precisely similar : " the law n ' arna & e * J of cross- of marriage is that the children of two brothers or two cousins sisters do not marry ; they are counted as brothers and f^d Aef sisters. But the children of brothers and sisters marry. The marriage children are betrothed in infancy, and are expected to wed cousKns~ when grown up sufficiently." l In other words, a man may forbidden not marry his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's oneofthe sister or of his father's brother, for he regards such a cousin as New . his sister. But he may, and should marry his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister; for he regards such a cousin as his proper wife, and the two have been betrothed from infancy. In short, cross-cousins are expected to marry each other, and ortho-cousins are forbidden to do so. In Hiw, one of the Torres Islands, marriage with a in Hiw, mother's brother's daughter appears to be particularly favoured ; Torres' 116 the father of the girl desires specially to have his nephew, islands, the son of his sister, for his son-in-law, and if he gets him, he ^n"^ 6 will not look for any payment from him. Thus, by wedding mother's his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, a man daughter is gets a wife for nothing, which is naturally a strong induce- favoured, ment to marry in the family. Further, in this island a man marriage may also marry his first cousin, the daughter of his father's Wlth the 7 . father's sister ; but curiously enough this marriage with his cousin sister's seems to be regarded as a sort of imperfect substitute for dau g hter )S r allowed, as marriage with his aunt, the girl's mother, custom or public a substitute opinion favouring the union of a nephew with his aunt, his ^ air - l father's sister, always provided that his venerable bride is not with the too aged and decrepit. Should she, however, be so far gone auntie in the sere and yellow leaf that he is compelled reluctantly e irl 's mother. 1 Rev. Win. Gray, " Some notes on for the Advancement of Science, held at the Tannese," Report of the Fourth Hobart, Tasmania, in January 1892 Meeting of the Australasian Association (Sydney), p. 677. i8o JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Cross- cousin marriage in Loh. In Fiji the marriage of ortho- cousins is forbidden, but cross- cousins are regarded as each other's proper mates. to relinquish her faded charms and wed her blooming daughter, he will thenceforth strictly avoid the ord lady, his mother-in- law, whom he had refused to lead to the altar ; he will not speak to her nor even come near her, although before his marriage with her daughter he had been under no such restrictions in his relations with the ancient dame. Similarly, if a man has married his other first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, custom requires that after the marriage he should adopt a like cold and distant demeanour, not to his mother-in-law, but to his father-in-law, his maternal uncle. In Loh, another of the Torres Islands, marriage with the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, also takes place, though probably it is far less habitual than in Hiw. Moreover, in Loh such marriages are subject to certain restrictions. It is said that a man will only marry such a cousin if she has two elder sisters. In other words, if a man has only two daughters, they will not marry their cross-cousins ; but if he has more than two daughters, the third daughter may marry either the son of her father's sister or the son of her mother's brother. 1 In Fiji the distinction between cross-cousins (the children of a brother and of a sister respectively) and ortho-cousins (the children of two brothers or of two sisters) is very sharply marked ; and whereas ortho-cousins are regarded as brothers and sisters, and are therefore not marriageable with each other, cross-cousins are not only marriageable with each other, but are regarded as each other's proper mates. Accord- ingly, the two classes of cousins, which we confound under that general name, are distinguished among the Fijians by epithets signifying that the one class (cross-cousins) is marriageable, and that the other class (ortho-cousins) is not marriageable. The epithet applied to cross-cousins is veindavolani, which means " marriageable," literally " concubitants " ; the epithet applied to ortho-cousins is veinganeni, which means " not marriageable," literally " those who shun each other." 2 " The 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society (Cambridge, 1914), i. 184 sq. - L. Fison and Basil H. Thomson, "The Classificatory System of Rela- tionship," Journal of the Anthropolo- gical Institute, xxiv. (1895) pp. 360 *?> 37 r -373 > Basil Thomson, The Fijians (London, 1908), pp. 182 sqq. Compare Totemism and Exogamy, ii, 141 sqq. CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN MELANESIA 181 young Fijian is from his birth regarded as the natural husband of the daughters of his father's sister and of his mother's brother. The girls can exercise no choice. They were born the property of their male concubitant if he desire to take them." ] Cross-cousins, called veindavolani, or " con- cubitants," " are born husband and wife, and the system assumes that no individual preference could hereafter destroy that relationship ; but the obligation does no more than limit the choice of a mate to one or the other of the females who are concubitants with the man who desires to marry. It is thus true that in theory the field of choice is very large, for the concubitant relationship might include third or even fifth cousins, but in practice the tendency is to marry the con- cubitant who is next in degree generally a first cousin the daughter of a maternal uncle." 2 This last statement seems to imply that, while a man is free to marry either the daughter of his mother's brother or the daughter of his father's sister, marriage with the mother's brother's daughter is generally preferred. But whereas a Fijian has thus the right, if not the in Fiji a obligation, to marry any of his cross-cousins, the daughters ^ n ni y either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, all of forbidden whom he calls his " concubitants," he regards his ortho- but is cousins, the daughters either of his mother's sister or of his bound to father's brother, as his sisters, and as such he is bound to O rtho- shun every one of them as scrupulously as if she were in cousins - truth his very sister, the daughter of his own father and mother. " He will nganena (avoid) her as carefully as if she were the daughter of his own mother. If she enter a house in which he is sitting with his legs extended, he will draw up his feet and look away from her. If he meets her in the path he will ignore her existence. It would be indecent for him to be alone with her, to touch her, or even to speak to her. If he must speak of her, he will not use the term of relationship between them ; he will not say ' my ngane ' (my sister) he will refer to her as ' one of my kinsfolk.' 1 Basil H. Thomson, " Concubit- 2 Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. ancy in the Classificatory System of 186 sq. ; id., " Concubitancy in the Relationship, "Journal of the Anthro- Classificatory System of Relationship," pological Institute, xxiv. (1895) P- 373 : Journal of the Anthropological Institute, id., The Fijians, p. 184. xxiv. (1895) p. 375. 182 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II But in some parts of Fiji there is a tendency to discounte- nance the marriage of cross- cousins. All marriages of first cousins forbidden in the Banks' Islands. In short, he makes no distinction between her and his own sister, the daughter of his own father and mother." l It would hardly be possible to draw the line of demarcation between cross-cousins and ortho-cousins more broadly and deeply than it is drawn in Fiji. But if cross-cousins, the children of a brother and of a sister respectively, are generally regarded in Fiji as the proper mates for each other, " in Lau, Thakaundrove, and in the greater portion of Vanualevu, the offspring of a brother and sister respectively do not become concubitant until the second generation. In the first generation they are called tabu, but marriage is not actually prohibited." 5 Thus in these parts of Fiji there appears to be a growing aversion to the marriage of first cousins, and a tendency, not yet fully developed, to forbid such unions and only to permit of marriage between second or still more remote cousins. In some Australian tribes, as we shall see pres- ently, this tendency has been carried out to its logical conclusion by prohibiting all marriages of first cousins and even devising a special and somewhat cumbrous piece of social machinery for the purpose of preventing them. In parts of Melanesia itself the aversion to cousin mar- riages has been carried to the pitch of prohibiting them all indiscriminately. Thus, in the Banks' Islands cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, are for- bidden by custom to marry each other, because they are considered to be too nearly related by blood ; if they married, they would be said to " go wrong." s And as in these islands a man is debarred from marrying his ortho- cousins, the daughters of his mother's sister or of his father's brother because, in virtue of the bisection of the community into two exogamous classes with descent of the class in the maternal line, all these female cousins belong to the same 1 Lorimer Fison, " The Classifica- tory System of Relationship," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. (1895) p. 363. Mr. Fison is here speaking of second cousins, but the rule would apply a fortiori to first cousins who are -veinganeni (not mar- riageable) to each other. 2 Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. 190 sq. ; id., " Concubitancy in the Classificatory System of Relation- ship," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. (1895) p. 379. 3 R. H. Codrington, The Melan- esians (Oxford, 1891), pp. 29. Com- pare Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 75 sq CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN MELANESIA 183 exogamous class as himself, 1 it follows that in the Banks' Islands no man may marry his first cousin, whether she be his mother's brother's daughter, his father's sister's daughter, his mother's sister's daughter, or his father's brother's daughter. In short, all marriages between first cousins without distinction are barred. In the central districts of New Ireland, one of the AH largest of the Melanesian islands, the rules which forbid the marriage of all first cousins are exactly similar to those cousins which prevail in the Banks' Islands. There, too, the com- ^New 6 " munity is divided into two exogamous classes with descent Ireland. of the class in the maternal line. This of itself suffices to exclude the marriage of all ortho-cousins, the children either of two sisters or of two brothers, since it ensures that all such cousins belong to the same exogamous class and are therefore forbidden to marry each other, in virtue of the law of exogamy which prohibits all matrimonial unions between persons of the same class. But, on the other hand, cross-cousins, the children of a brother and of a sister re- spectively, necessarily belong to different exogamous classes, and are therefore so far marriageable. Yet custom forbids Mutual such cousins to marry each other ; more than that, just as of crols^ among the Baganda, 2 such cousins are bound scrupulously cousins in N^cw to avoid each other in the ordinary intercourse of daily life ; i re iand. they may not approach each other, they may not shake hands or even touch each other, they may not give each other presents, they may not mention each other's names. But they are allowed to speak to each other at a distance of several paces. 3 Here, as elsewhere, these rules of mutual avoidance observed between persons of the opposite sex are clearly precautions to prevent them from entering into sexual relations which are condemned by public opinion, though they are not barred by the law of exogamy. 1 As to exogamy in these islands see 3 P. G. Peckel, "Die Verwant- R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians, schaftsnamen des mittleren Neumeck- pp. 21 sqq . ; Totemism and Exogamy, lenburg," Anthropos, iii. (1908) pp. ii. 67 sqq. 467, 470 sq. Compare Tote?aism and 2 See above, pp. 160 sq. Exogamy t ii. 127 sq. 184 JACOBUS MARRIAGE The marriage of cousins generally discounte- nanced in Polynesia. Trace of the custom of cross- cousin marriage in Tonga. I o. The Marriage of Cousins in Polynesia While the custom of marriage with a first cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, is permitted arid even favoured in some parts of Melanesia, though forbidden in others, it seems to have found little or no favour among the Polynesians, who, akin to the Melanesians in language and perhaps in blood, occupy the numerous small islands scattered broadcast over the Pacific to the east of Melanesia, together with the large islands of New Zealand to the south. On this subject, Mr. Basil Thomson, who has carefully investigated the custom of cousin marriage in Fiji, reports as follows : " Inquiries that have been made among the natives of Samoa, Futuna, Rotuma, Uea, and Malanta (Solomon Group), 1 have satisfied me that the practice of concubitant marriage is unknown in those islands ; indeed, in Samoa and Rotuma, not only is the marriage of cousins-german forbidden, but the descend- ants of a brother and sister respectively, who in Fiji would be expected to marry, are there regarded as being within the forbidden degrees as long as their common origin can be remembered. This rule is also recognised throughout the Gilbert Islands, with the exception of Apemama and Makin, and is there only violated by the high chiefs. In Tonga, it is true, a trace of the custom can be detected. The union of the grandchildren (and occasionally even of the children) of a brother and sister is there regarded as a fit and proper custom for the superior chiefs, but not for the common people. In Tonga, other things being equal, a sister's children rank above a brother's, and therefore the concubitant rights were vested in the sister's grandchild, more especially if a female. Her parents might send for her male cousin to be her takaifala {lit., ' bedmaker ') or consort. The practice was never, however, sufficiently general to be called a national custom. So startling a variation from the practice of the other Polynesian races may be accounted for by the suggestion that the chiefs, more autocratic in Tonga than elsewhere, having founded 1 Of these islands, Futuna and Malanta belong to Melanesia ; the rest are Polynesian. CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN POLYNESIA 185 their authority upon the fiction of their descent from the gods, were driven to keep it by intermarriage among them- selves, lest in contaminating their blood by alliance with their subjects their divine rights should be impaired. A similar infringement of forbidden degrees by chiefs has been noted in Hawaii, where the chief of Mau'i was, for reasons of state, required to marry his half-sister. It is matter of common knowledge that for the same reason the Incas of Peru married their full-sister, and that the kings of Siam marry their half-sisters at the present day." ] The testimony of other well-informed writers confirms Second the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Basil Thomson. Thus in c !' lhe regard to Rotuma we are told by Professor J. Stanley children of Gardiner that " a grandchild of a man and wife might ^sister, marry his or her hoisasiga, second cousin, if he or she was allowed to descended from the seghoni, the man's sister, or the segvevene, Rotmna! the woman's brother, but not, it was distinctly stated, if the descent \vas from the man's brother or the woman's sister, both of which relationships are expressed by the term sosoghi. The same terms I understand to have been used of first cousins to one another, in accordance with the relationships . of their parents." ~ In other words, second cousins were allowed to marry each other, if they were the grandchildren of a brother and a sister respectively, but not if they were the grandchildren of two brothers or of two sisters. Nothing is expressly said as to the marriage of first cousins, the children of two brothers or of two sisters ; but as we are told that even second cousins, the children of such first cousins, are forbidden to intermarry, we may safely assume, that the same prohibition applies a fortiori to their parents, the first cousins. Again, with regard to the natives of Mangaia, one of the The Hervey Islands, we are informed by the Rev. W. Wyatt STo? e Gill, who knows these people intimately, that among them distant " distant cousins sometimes (though rarely) marry ; but must be of the same generation, i.e. descended in the same degree (fourth or fifth or even more remotely) from the 1 Basil Thomson, The Fijians (Lon- pological Institute, xxiv. (1895) p. 379. don, 1908), p. 191; id., "Concubit- 2 J. Stanley Gardiner, " The Natives ancy in the CL.-..rlf:?a'ory System of of Rotuma," Journal of the Anthro- Relation ship, "Journal of the Anthro- pological Institute, xxvii. (1898) p. 478. 1 86 JACOB* S MARRIAGE PART n common ancestor. That the male branch should thus invade the female is a far more pardonable offence than the converse, but even then, should misfortune or disease over- take these related couples, the elders of the tribe would declare it to be the anger of the clan-god." ] What the writer here means by the male branch invading the female, or the female branch invading the male, is far from clear ; perhaps the meaning may be that when, let us say, third cousins, the great-grandchildren of a brother and sister respect- ively, marry each other, it is more usual for a great-grandson of the brother to marry a great-granddaughter of the sister, than for a great-grandson of the sister to marry a great-grand- daughter of the brother. Be that as it may, we may infer from Mr. Gill's statement that in Mangaia first cousins never marry each other ; that even remote cousins, such as fourth or fifth, rarely do so ; and that a cousin never marries a cousin who is in a different generation from his own, reckon- ing their descent from their common ancestors ; for example, a third cousin might not marry his third cousin once re- moved, though he might marry his third cousin herself. We have found the same objection to overstepping the limit of a generation in cousin marriages among the Toradjas of Central Celebes, 2 and the Mafulus of New Guinea. 3 11. The Marriage of Cousins in Australia in Australia Among the aborigines of Australia, the lowest savages as prefer The 65 to whose social organization we possess comparatively full marriage and accurate information, we find the same striking contrast cousTnTto m regard to cousin marriages which has met us in other any other ra ces ; for while in some Australian tribes the marriage of marriage; . . _ , ,, .. other tribes certain cousins is preferred to all other marriages, in others prohibit ail on ^g con trary all marriages of cousins without exception marriages . between are prohibited, and an elaborate social machinery has been cousins. devised apparently for the express purpose of barring those very forms of cousin marriage which other tribes regard as the most desirable of all matrimonial unions. An examina- 1 Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, " Mangaia Melbourne, Victoria, in January 1890 (Hervey Islands)," Report of the Second (Sydney), p. 330. Meeting of the Australasian Association 2 See above, pp. 169^. for the Advancement of Science, held at 3 See above, p. 176. CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AUSTRALIA 187 tion of the Australian practice in this respect is particularly important and instructive, because, occupying the lowest rung on the social ladder, the Australian aborigines appear to retain more completely than elsewhere those primitive usages out of which the widespread custom of cousin marriage has been evolved, but which in more advanced communities have been partially or wholly obliterated by the progress of civilization. Among the Urabunna, a tribe of Central Australia who in the are divided into two exogamous classes with descent of the class from the mother, not from the father, to the children, a Central , ..... , . . Australia man s proper wife is always one of those women whom we a man is should call his first cousins, being the daughter either of his expected to mother's brother or of his father's sister. In other words, he is expected and enjoined to marry one of his cross-cousins. cousin . the On the other hand, he is strictly forbidden to marry certain either of his other first cousins, whom I have called ortho-cousins, namely, elder the daughter of his mother's sister and the daughter of his brother father's brother ; and the reason why both these cousins are r r t j! r ^ ls prohibited to him is that they belong to the same exogamous elder sister. class as himself, and are therefore barred to him by the fundamental law which forbids a man to marry a woman of his own exogamous class. But even among his cross-cousins, the daughters either of his mother's brothers or of his father's sisters, the choice of an Urabunna man is not unlimited ; for he may only take to wife a daughter of his mother's elder brother or a daughter of his father's elder sister ; the daughters of his mother's younger brothers and the daughters of his father's younger sisters are forbidden to him in marriage. Thus a man's wife must always belong to the senior side of the house, so far as he is concerned ; and a woman's husband must always belong to the junior side of the house, so far as she is concerned. 1 This is the first time that such a limitation of choice between cross-cousins has met us in our survey of cousin marriage ; an explanation of it will be suggested later on. 2 Again, among the Ya-itma-thang and the Ngarigo, two tribes on the borders of Victoria and New South Wales, 1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Australia (London, 1904), pp. 73 sq. ; Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Totemism and Exogamy, i. 177 sqq. Australia (London, 1899), pp. 61-65; id., The Northern Tribes of Central 2 Below, pp. 337 sq. i88 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Cross - cousin marriage in tribes of Victoria and New South Wales. Cross- cousin marriage among the Kabi of Queens- land and the Kariera of North- Western Australia. who, like the Urabunna, were divided into two exogamous classes with descent of the class in the maternal line, a man's proper wife was his cross-cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother ; T but he might not marry any of his ortho-cousins, the daughters either of his mother's sisters or of his father's brothers, because they belonged to the same exogamous class as himself, and were therefore barred to him by the funda- mental law which forbade a man to marry a woman of his own exogamous class. 2 Among the Yuin, a tribe on the southern coast of New South Wales, who traced descent in the male line, a man was free to marry the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister ; but we are not told that, as among the Urabunna, he was expected to do so. 3 Again, among the Wolgal, a tribe which inhabited the tablelands of the highest Australian Alps, a man's proper wife was the daughter of. his mother's brother. The rule was the same in the Omeo tribe. 4 In the Kabi tribe of South -Eastern Queensland, who were divided into four exogamous classes, a man might marry either the daughter of his mother's brother or the daughter of his father's sister ; but apparently marriage with the former was preferred. Again, in the Kariera tribe of North-Western Australia, who are divided into four exogam- ous classes, " a man may marry the daughter of his own mother's brother, or of his own father's sister. Such mar- riages of the children of a brother with those of his sister are common in this tribe. Indeed we may say that the proper person for a man to marry, if it be possible, is his own first cousin. In the genealogies collected by me I found that in nearly every case where such a marriage was possible, it had taken place. . . . Consequently the woman who is pre-eminently a man's fiuba 6 is the daughter of his own mother's brother, or 1 A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes South-East Australia, p. 262, "Mar- of South - East Australia (London, 1904), pp. 77, 101, 196, 197, 198; Totemism and Exogamy, i. 392 sq. 2 This prohibition of marriage with ortho-cousins in the Ya-itma-thang tribe is not expressly mentioned by Dr. Howitt (lice.), but it follows necessarily from the organization of the tribe in two exogamous classes. 3 A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of riage was permitted between the father's sister's child and the mother's brother's child " ; Totemism and Exogamy, i. 49 1 . 4 A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South- East Australia, p. 197; Totem- ism and Exogamy, i. 395. 5 John Mathew, Two Representative Tribes of Queensland (London and Leipsic, 1910), pp. 156 sq. 8 Potential wife. CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AUSTRALIA 189 failing this, of his own father's sister. It is this woman to whom he has the first right as a wife." ] But in this tribe on the other hand a man is, as usual, prohibited from marrying his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's sister or of his father's brother, 2 because all such cousins belong to the same exogamous class as himself and are therefore barred to him by the law of exogamy. In short, among the Kariera a man ought to marry his cross-cousin, but he may not marry his ortho-cousin. Again, with regard to the tribes of the East Pilbara Cross- district, in North-Western Australia, who are also divided e into four exogamous classes, we are told that "cross-cousin in the East (first cousin) marriages are permitted in the above tribes, district of own mother's brothers' sons and own father's sisters' daughters North- being betrothed to each other." 3 Strictly speaking, this state- Australia. ment only implies that one form of cross-cousin marriage is permitted, namely, that in which a man marries the daughter of his father's sister. But we may conjecture that the writer intended to include the other form of cross-cousin marriage also, namely that in which a man marries the daughter of his mother's brother ; for it would be contrary to all A us-, tralian analogy to find in the same tribe the first of these marriages permitted and the second barred. But while the marriage of certain cousins is permitted or The Dieri even preferred in some Australian tribes, it is absolutely pro- A f u f t ra hibited in others. For example, among the Dieri, a tribe of forbade Central Australia, who were divided into two exogamous classes with descent of the class in the maternal line, cross- to marry, cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, thechiidren were expressly forbidden to marry each other, although the of cross- cousins to 1 A. R. Brown, "Three Tribes of the children of a brother and a sister, certam m Western Australia," Journal of the to marry each other, is mentioned by cases Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. Mr. Clement (I.e. ), but he does not (1913) pp. 155 sq. indicate that decided preference for 2 E. Clement, " Ethnographical such marriages which is recorded by Notes on the Western Australian ab- Mr. A. R. Brown. origines," Internationales Archiv fiir 3 Mrs. D. M. Bates, "Social organ - Ethnographie, xvi. (1904) p. 12. One ization of some Western Australian of the tribes here described by Mr. tribes," Report of the Fourteenth Meet- Clement is what he calls the Kaierra, ing of the Australasian Association for which seems to be identical with the the Advancement of Science, held at Kariera described by Mr. A. R. Brown, Melbourne, /9/J (Melbourne, 1914), The permission given to cross-cousins, p. 391. JACOB'S MARRIAGE Remark- able contrast between the customs of the Dieri and the Urabunna in regard to the marriage of cross- cousins. rule of class exogamy interposed no barrier to their union. But the children of such first cousins were permitted, at least in certain cases, to marry each other ; indeed they were regarded as each other's proper mates. Thus among the Dieri a man might not marry his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister ; but he was free to marry his second cousin, in the cases in which she was his mother's mother's brother's daughter's daughter, or his mother's father's sister's daughter's daughter ; indeed such second cousins were the proper mates for each other. In other words, husband and wife should always be second cousins, descended through their mothers from a brother and a sister respectively. 1 This rule of marriage presents a re- markable contrast to the rule observed by the Urabunna, the neighbours of the Dieri on the north-west ; and the contrast is all the more striking because the social organization of the two tribes is similar, consisting of two exogamous classes with descent of the class in the maternal line. Yet with this similarity of social organization the two neighbouring tribes observe quite different rules with regard to the marriage of cousins ; for whereas the Urabunna permit or rather enjoin the marriage of cross-cousins, the children of a brother and of a sister respectively, the Dieri positively forbid the marriage of such first cousins, and only permit or rather enjoin, mar- riage between their children, that is, between second cousins in the particular case in which the two are both descended through their mothers from a brother and a sister. We cannot doubt that of the two customs, the one which forbids the marriage of first cousins is later than the one which per- mits or rather enjoins it ; for an attentive examination of the marriage systems of the Australian aborigines points unmis- takeabty to the conclusion that among these tribes there has been a steady tendency to extend the list of forbidden degrees, in other words, to prevent more and more the marriage of near blood relations. Of this tendency the contrast between the usages of the two neighbouring tribes, the Urabunna and the Dieri, furnishes a conspicuous example ; for here we have 1 A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South -East Australia, pp. 164 sq., 189; id., in Folk-lore, xviii. (1907) pp. 172 sqq. Compare Totemism and Exogamy, \. 346. CHAP, vi MARRIAGE OF COUSINS IN AUSTRALIA 191 two tribes living side by side under precisely similar circum- stances and under precisely similar social organizations ; yet the one enjoins the marriage of certain cousins, and the other positively forbids it. Of the two tribes, therefore, we may say without hesitation that the Dieri, who forbid the marriage, stand one rung higher up the social ladder than the Urabunna, who enjoin it. 1 When we speak of the express permission or the ex- The press prohibition of cousin marriage in these two tribes, the reader must always bear in mind that the marriage in cousins question is that between cross -cousins, the children of a baTredin brother and of a sister respectively. The marriage between tribes with ortho-cousins, the children of two brothers or of two sisters, is glmous barred by the system of exogamous classes, since these cousins classes - necessarily belong to the same exogamous class and are there- fore not marriageable with each other; consequently no special prohibition is required to prevent their union. The regular machinery of the social system suffices to keep them apart. Among the Mardudhunera of North- Western Australia, Among the who are divided into four exogamous classes, the rule as to ^ ardu - dhunera of the marriage of cousins agrees exactly with that of the Dieri ; North- for among them also a man is bound to marry his second ^f^a cousin, in the particular cases in which she is either his the rules in mother's mother's brother's daughter's daughter, or his to^thtf mother's father's sister's daughter's daughter ; indeed he is marriage not allowed to marry any woman who does not stand in cousinTare one of these relations to him. But of the two relations it th esameas would seem as if the mother's mother's brother's daughter's Dieri! g daughter were preferred to the mother's father's sister's daughter's daughter. In short, among the Mardudhunera, just as among the Dieri, husband and wife should always be second cousins, descended through their mothers from a brother and a sister respectively. Such second cousins are betrothed to each other in infancy, or rather before they were born, the match having been arranged in the families before the birth or even the conception of the infants. 2 1 This was the opinion of Dr. A. W. Australia, p. 189). Compare his obser Howitt, who says, "The Dieri rule is vations in Folk-lore, xviii. (1907) pp. evidently a development of that of the 173 sq. Urabunna, and is therefore the later 2 A. R. Brown, "Three Tribes of one" (The Native Tribes of South-East Western Australia," Journal of the 192 JACOB'S MARRIAGE The marriage of all cousins forbidden in some Australian tribes. The Wotjobaluk tribe of Victoria, whose class system was anomalous, carried the objection to cousin marriage still further than the Dieri and the Mardudhunera ; for not only did they strictly forbid cross-cousins, the children of a brother and of a sister respectively, to marry each other, but they forbade the descendants of these cousins, so far as the re- lationship could be traced, to unite in marriage ; in short, they prohibited the marriage of all cousins, both near and distant. On this prohibition they laid great stress, saying that such persons " could not mix their flesh, because their flesh {yauerin) was too near." J Again, in the Kulin tribes of Victoria, which were divided into two exogarnous classes with descent of the class in the paternal line, " marriages not only between the children of two brothers, or of two sisters, but also between those of a brother on one side and of a sister on the other side, were absolutely prohibited, it being held that they were too near to each other." z The Banger- ang, a tribe at the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers, who were divided into two exogamous classes with paternal descent of the class, went still further ; for among them " not only was it forbidden to the children of a brother on the one side, and a sister on the other, to marry, but their descendants, as far as they could be reckoned, were equally debarred. It was held that they were ' too near,' and only a little removed from ' brother and sister.' " The Narrinyeri, a tribe of South Australia, who were divided into exogamous totem clans with paternal descent of the totem, were equally scrupulous with regard to the marriage of near kin. Of them Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. (1913) pp. 184 sq. After mentioning a man's marriage with his mother's mother's brother's daughter's daughter, Mr. Brown adds (p. 184), "He may not marry any woman who does not bear this relation to him." Yet he goes on to say (p. 185) that a man, A, and his wife may ask the woman's father's sister to promise her daughter to be the wife's mother of the man A's still unborn son. In this latter case, when the children are born and marry, the man's wife is his mother's father's sister's daughter's daughter. From this I infer that, while the latter relationship (mother's father's sister's daughter's daughter) is allowed, the former re- lationship (mother's mother's brother's daughter's daughter) is preferred. 1 A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, pp. 241, 243. Yauerin means flesh, but is also applied to the exogamous class and to the totem (Howitt, op. cit. p. 241). 2 A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 254. 3 A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 257. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 193 we are told by an observer who knew them intimately that " the aversion of the natives to even second cousins marrying is very great. They are extremely strict in this matter. The first inquiry with regard to a proposed marriage is, whether there is any tie of kindred between the parties, and if there be it prevents the match, and if the couple should cohabit afterwards they will be always looked upon with dishonour." l Again, throughout North-Western Queensland generally, " a man cannot marry his father's sister's daughter, his mother's brother's daughter, or his daughter's daughter, while a woman must carnally avoid her mother's brother's son, her father's sister's son, or her son's son, etc., notwithstanding the fact that these particular relationships are necessarily located in the same exogamous groups which otherwise would be allowed to join in permanent sexual partnership." 5 Thus, while some Australian tribes prefer the marriage Thus of cross-cousins to any other form of matrimonial union. amon s the J ' aboriginal many others disapprove of and forbid it. Indeed so wide- tribes of spread is this disapprobation of cousin marriage in aboriginal ^erefe'si Australia, that Mr. E. M. Curr, who did much for the study difference of the Australian natives, could even affirm in general that and P of' among them " the union of blood-relations is forbidden, and practice in held in abhorrence ; so that a man may not marry his theT^ mother, sister, half-sister, daughter, grand - daughter, aunt, marr >age . q -.,..,.. of cousins. niece, first or second cousin. - But m the light of some of the foregoing facts this statement . is seen to be an exaggeration. S 12. Why is the Marriage of Cross-Cousins favoured ? We have now traced the practice of cousin marriage Why is the through a considerable part of the lower races of mankind and found it in full vogue among some of the aboriginal cousins so tribes of Australia, who rank at or near the bottom of the faTourecf? social scale. But we have still to ask, Why is the marriage Wh y is the marriage 1 Rev. Geo. Taplin, "The Narrin- logical Studies of the North- West- ofortho- yeri," in J. D. Woods' Native Tribes of Central Queensland Aborigines (Bris- cousins so i'0M/A^Mtf;-a/ffl( Adelaide, 1879), p. 12. bane and London, 1897), p. 182. generally "- Walter E. Roth, "Marriage Cere- forbidden? monies and Infant Life," North Queens- 3 E. M. Curr, The Australian Race land Ethnography, Bulletin No. 10 (Melbourne and London, 1886-1887), (1908), p. 2. Compare id., Ethno- i. 106. VOL. II O I 9 4 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n The of cross-cousins so often favoured ? Why is the marriage of for cross^ ortho-cousins so uniformly prohibited ? The comparatively cousin primitive condition of society in aboriginal Australia holds totie fast out a hope that there, if anywhere, we may detect the motives considered, which first led men to favour the one form of marriage and to forbid the other. It will be convenient to consider the two questions separately. We shall begin with the question, Why is the marriage of cross-cousins so often favoured ? in In aboriginal Australia the primary motive which led to aboriginal a preference for cousin marriage appears to have been an the primary economic one. We must bear in mind that the Australian for'the savages neither till the ground nor rear cattle ; that for the preference most part they possess no permanent abode, but roam over the country in search of the wild animals and wild iiietri idge appears plants on which they subsist ; and that they own hardly any economic personal property except a few simple tools and weapons, one. On rudely fashioned out of wood and stone, for in their natural account of . ... /- 1 A the extreme state they are totally ignorant of the metals. Among P f v u rty people living in this primitive fashion a man's most valuable Australian possession is his wife ; for not only does she bear him aborigines children, who help him and are a source of gain to him in a wife is among various ways, but she also does most of the hard work for lanVmost ^ m > carrying the baggage as well as the infants on the valuable march, constructing the temporary shelter of branches in which they pass the night, collecting firewood, fetching water, and procuring the whole of the vegetable food of the family ; for it is the woman's business to dig the roots and gather the seeds and fruits which furnish these wandering savages with a great, sometimes perhaps the greater, part of their means of subsistence. " After marriage," says a writer who knew the Australian aborigines well in the old days, " the women are compelled to do all the hard work of erect- ing habitations, collecting fuel and water, carrying burdens, procuring roots and delicacies of various kinds, making baskets for cooking roots and other purposes, preparing food, and attending to the children. The only work the men do, in time of peace, is to hunt for opossums and large animals of various kinds, and to make rugs and weapons." 1 Accord- 1 James Dawson, Australian Abort- laide, 1881), pp. 36 sq. See further W. gines (Melbourne, Sydney, and Ade- E. Stanbridge, " Tribes in the Central CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 195 ingly we are told that " as the women perform all the labour, they are the most important part of the property of an Australian native, who is rich in proportion to the number of wives he possesses." ] How then does an Australian native procure that most Having no valuable of all his possessions, his wife ? He cannot, like ^"property people at a somewhat higher stage of social evolution, pur- to give for chase her from her parents by giving them an equivalent in Australian property of some kind, whether it be goods, or cattle, or aboriginal money. Accordingly he is generally reduced to bartering one woman for another ; in order to get a wife for himself s et her in , 11 i 11 exchange or his son, he is compelled to give a daughter, a sister, or f or a female some other female relative to the man from whom he obtains relatlve - usually a his bride or his daughter-in-law. The voluntary interchange sister or of women, especially of daughters or of sisters, appears to be dau s hter - the ordinary way of supplying the demand for wives in the matrimonial market of aboriginal Australia. " It may be safely laid down as a broad and general proposition," says the late Dr. A. W. Howitt, one of our best authorities on the natives of Australia, " that among these savages a wife was obtained by the exchange of a female relative, with the alternative possibility of obtaining one by inheritance (Levirate), by elopement, or by capture. ... It seems to me that the most common practice is the exchange of girls by their respective parents as wives for each other's sons, or in some tribes the exchange of sisters, or of some female relatives by the young men themselves." 2 Again, we are told that " the Australian male almost invariably obtains his wife or wives, either as the survivor of a married brother, or in exchange for his sisters, or later on in life for his daughters. Occasionally also an aged widow whom the rightful heir does not claim is taken possession of by some bachelor ; but for Part of Victoria," Transactions of the lected by B. Malinowski, The Family Ethnological Society of London, New among the Australian Aborigines (Lon- Series, i. (1861) pp. 290 sq. ; R. don, 1913), pp. 275 sqq. Brou^h Smyth, The Aborigines of , T , ,. ~ ., , rr- /nr iv j T j * CL Lumholtz, AtHong CaHtn&atS, Victoria (Melbourne and London, , 1 88 1), i. 85 ; E. M. Curr, The Aus- tralian Race (Melbourne and London, 2 A. W. Howitt, "On the Organ- 18861887), i. 99; C. Lumholtz, isation of Australian Tribes," Trans- Among Cannibals (London, 1889), pp. actions of the Royal Society of Victoria^ 160 ; and the copious evidence col- 1889, pp. 1151 116. 196 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n - the most part those who have no female relatives to give in exchange have to go without wives." a " It is not uncommon for an Australian to inherit a wife ; the custom being that a widow falls to the lot of the brother of the deceased husband. But the commonest way of getting a wife is by giving a sister or a daughter in exchange." 2 Wives In the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia, the exchange' 11 marriage ceremony " is very simple, and with great propriety forsistersor ma y be considered an exchange, for no man can obtain a amongThe wife unless he can promise to give his sister or other relative tribes of m exchange. . . Should the father be living he may give South Australia, his daughter away, but generally she is the gift of the brother." 3 In this tribe, " if a man has several girls at his disposal, he speedily obtains several wives, who, however, very seldom agree well with each other, but are continually quarrelling,, each endeavouring to be the favourite. The man, regarding them more as slaves than in any other light, employs them in every possible way to his own advantage. They are obliged to get him shell-fish, roots, and eatable plants. If one from another tribe should arrive having anything which he desires to purchase, he perhaps makes a bargain to pay by letting him have one of his wives for a longer or shorter period." 4 Among the Narrinyeri, another tribe of South Australia, " it is regarded by the females as very disgraceful not to be given aivay in exchange for another. A young woman who goes away with a man and lives with him as his wife without the consent of her relatives is regarded as very little better than a prostitute. She is always open to the taunt that she had nothing given for her. When a man has a sister or daughter whom it is his right to give away, he will often sell that right to a man who wants a wife for either money, clothes, or weapons, and then the purchaser will give the woman away in exchange for a wife for himself." ' However, in this tribe " in most instances 1 E. M. Curr, The Australian Race Encounter Bay Tribe," in J. D. (Melbourne and London, 1886-1887), Woods, The Native Tribes of South i. 107. Australia (Adelaide, 1879), p. 190. 2 C. Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, 4 H. E. A. Meyer, op. cit. p. 191. p. 164. 5 Rev. George Taplin, "The Nar- 3 H. E. A. Meyer, " Manners and rinyeri,'' in J. D. Woods, The Native Customs of the Aborigines of the Tribes of South Australia, pp. 1 1 sq. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 197 a brother or first cousin gives a girl away in exchange for a wife for himself." ] Among the tribes which occupy, or rather used to occupy, Wives the great flat lands of the Lower Murray, Lower Lachlan, and Lower Darling Rivers in Victoria and New South forsistersor Wales, " polygamy is allowed to any extent, and this law is generally taken advantage of by those who chance to be tribes of J . . J . Victoria rich in sisters, daughters, or temale wards, to give in ex- a nd New change for wives. No man can get a wife unless he has a South Wales. sister, ward, or daughter, whom he can give in exchange. Fathers of grown-up sons frequently exchange their daughters for wives, not for their sons, however, but for themselves, even although they already have two or three. Cases of this kind are indeed very hard for the sons, but being aboriginal law they must bear it as best they can, and that too without murmur ; and to make the matter harder still to bear, the elders of a tribe will not allow the young men to go off to other tribes to steal wives for themselves, as such measures would be the certain means of entailing endless feuds with their accompanying bloodshed, in the attempts that would surely be made with the view of recovering the abducted women. Young men, therefore, not having any female relatives or wards under their control must, as a consequence of the aboriginal law on the subject, live all their lives in single blessedness, unless they choose to take up with some withered old hags whom nobody owns, merely for the pur- pose of having their fires cared for, their water-vessels filled, and their baggage carried from camp to camp." 2 To the same effect another writer observes that " a man who has no female relations that can be exchanged for a young woman of another tribe leads an unhappy life. Not only must he attend to his own wants, and share the discomforts of the bachelors' quarters, but he is an object of suspicion to the older men, who have perhaps two or three young wives to watch. There is the fear also that he may violently seize a girl of a neighbouring tribe, and thus provoke a war. There 1 Rev. George Taplin, in E. M. Murray, Lower Murrumbidgee, Lower Curr, The Australian Race, ii. 245. Lachlan, and Lower Darling, "Journal 2 P. Beveridge, " Of the Aborigines and Proceedings of the Royal Society inhabiting the Great Lacustrine and of New South Wales, xvii. (1883) p. Riverine Depression of the Lower 23. 198 JACOBUS MARRIAGE I-ART n is the discontent and unrest of such a life, which makes him a dull companion, a quarrelsome friend, and a bitter enemy. Sometimes a wife is given to him by some old man who is tired of keeping her ; but most often a warrior will steal a woman from another tribe, if he cannot inspire an affection and lead her to elope with him. Any such act brings about a conflict. As soon as the girl is missed, a search is insti- tuted, and the guilty pair are invariably tracked to their hiding-place. When the discovery is made, the tribe to which the man belongs is informed of it, and there is a gathering of the old men of both tribes, and much talk and wrangling follows ; but the main questions to be decided are these : Can a girl of the man's tribe be given in ex- change for the woman that has been stolen ? Is the man's tribe willing that the thief shall stand a form of trial some- what resembling the ordeal of the ancient rude nations of Europe ? If the first question is not settled satisfactorily by some generous creature offering a female relative in ex- change, the second question is debated, but always on the understanding that the solemn obligation cannot be avoided." ] since Thus it appears that among the Australian - aborigines a Au^traii^n woman ' ls prized not merely as a breeder of children, a nurse, aborigines a labourer, and a porter, but also as an article of barter ; for Thigh 1 m ^is last capacity she possesses a high commercial value, economic being exchangeable, either temporarily or permanently, for commercial another woman or for other valuable commodities such as value, a rugs and boomerangs. Hence a man who is rich in man who , . ...... T . had many daughters or sisters is rich indeed. In truth, among these sisters or savages the female sex answers in some measure the purpose daughters was rich, of a medium of exchange ; they are the nearest native repre- sentative of the coin of the realm. So a man who has no who had none was daughters, sisters, or other exchangeable females at his miRht a be command, is reduced to the lowest depth of penury ; and unable to if he would supply his deficiency, he can as a rule only do wife aTaU. so by f rau d or violence, in other words, either by inducing somebody else's wife, sister, or daughter to elope with him, or by forcibly carrying off a woman from a neighbouring tribe. Like a rogue elephant, banned from female society, he puts himself outside the pale of the law ; he becomes a 1 R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, i. 79. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 199 criminal and a robber, and as such he is punished by the persons he has wronged, whether they be of his own or of a neighbouring tribe, unless indeed some generous man, who has a superfluity of wives, consents to sacrifice one of them to meet the demands of justice. Hence it seems probable The rape that the rape of women from neighbouring tribes, which f^ ^ some writers have apparently regarded as the normal way tribes was of obtaining a wife in aboriginal Australia, was in fact an ^y^ e exceptional proceeding, a crime committed for the most and was part by poor and desperate bachelors, who, having no sisters n ^^ C to barter, were compelled to resort to this irregular mode of because of procuring a consort. But such rapes were condemned and to em broii punished even by the members of the criminal's own tribe, the tribes because they were likely to embroil them in war with their neighbours. " On rare occasions," says Mr. E. M. Curr, " a wife is captured from another tribe, and carried off. There are strong reasons for believing, that when the continent was only partially occupied, elopements from within the tribe were frequent, and that those who eloped proceeded into the unpeopled wilds, and there established themselves. I have no doubt the Darling Blacks and the Narrinyeri owe their origin to proceedings of this sort, and also the Bangerang tribes. At present, as the stealing of a woman from a neighbouring tribe would involve the whole tribe of the thief in war for his sole benefit, and as the possession of the woman would lead to constant attacks, tribes set themselves very generally against the practice. As a consequence, women surprised by strange Blacks are always abused and often massacred ; for murder may be atoned for, but unauthorized possession cannot be acquiesced in. Within the tribe, lovers occasion- ally abscond to some corner of the tribal territory, but they are soon overtaken, and the female cruelly beaten, or wounded with a spear, the man in most tribes remaining unpunished. Very seldom are men allowed to retain as wives their partners in these escapades." l " Marriage by capture," say Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, " is again, at the present day, whatever it may have been in the past, by no means the rule in Australian tribes, and too much stress has been laid upon this method. It is only comparatively rarely 1 E. M. Curr, 7'Ae Australian Race, i. 108. 200 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II The practice of elopement within a tribe was not uncommon among the Australian aborigines. Among the Australian aborigines the old men availed themselves of the system of exchange in order to procure a number that a native goes and seizes upon some lubra in a neigh- bouring tribe ; by far the most common method of getting a wife is by means of an arrangement made between brothers or fathers of the respective men and women, whereby a particular woman is assigned to a particular man. Marriage by capture may indeed be regarded as one of the most exceptional methods of obtaining a wife amongst the natives at the present day." ] On the other hand, the practice of elopement within the tribe, as distinguished from capture from without the tribe, would seem to have been fairly common, and to have been due to the difficulty which some young men had in obtain- ing wives by the normal and legal methods of betrothal or exchange. Marriage by elopement, according to Dr. A. W. Howitt, " obtains in all tribes in which infant betrothal occurs, and where the young men, or some of them, find more or less difficulty through this practice, or by there being no female relative available for exchange, or indeed wherever a couple fall in love with each other and cannot obtain consent to their marriage. Marriage by elopement occurs so frequently, that although it is always regarded as a breach of the law and custom, yet, as it is under certain circumstances a valid union, it may be considered a recog- nised form of marriage." 2 The scarcity of women available as wives for young men was caused in large measure by the selfish action of the older men, who, availing themselves of the system of exchange, used their daughters and other female relatives to purchase wives for themselves instead of for their sons and nephews. The result was a very unequal distribution of wives between the males of the community, the old men often possessing many spouses, while the young men had to 1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Atts- tralia (London, 1899), p. 104; compare id., pp. 554 sq., "Indeed the method of capture, which has been so frequently described as characteristic of Australian tribes, is the very rarest way in which a Central Australian secures a wife." Compare E. Palmer, " Notes on some Australian Tribes," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiii. (1884) p. 301, "Seldom was a woman taken by violence, or knocked on the head and dragged away, as has been said very often." 2 A. W. Howitt, " On the Organi- sation of Australian Tribes,'' Trans- actions of the Royal Society of Victoria, 1889, pp. 118 sq. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 201 go without any, or to put up with the cast-off wives of their of wives for elders. Among the tribes. of Western Victoria, for example, Jro^ selves " a young man, who belongs to the chiefs family, very among reluctantly seeks the consent of the head of the family to women 8 his marriage, for it frequently ends in the old chief taking while the the young woman himself. To such an extent is this havh^o" tyrannical system of polygamy carried on by the old chiefs. women to give in that many young men are compelled to remain bachelors, exchange, the native word for which means ' to look out.' while an old w ^ e J ften obliged to warrior may have five or six of the finest young women of remain other tribes for his wives." l " Polygamy," says another writer on the Australian aborigines, "is universal ; but it is the cast-off generally the old men of the tribe who have the greatest ^^ number of wives. The reason of this is that they exchange their young daughters for young wives for themselves. Many of the young men are consequently without any, and the result is perpetual fights and quarrels about the women." 2 In South Australia "the females, and especially the young ones are kept principally among the old men, who barter away their daughters, sisters, or nieces, in ex- change for wives for themselves or their sons. Wives are considered the absolute property of the husband, and can be given away, or exchanged, or lent, according to his caprice. A husband is denominated in the Adelaide dialect, Yongarra martanya (the owner or proprietor of a wife.)" 3 In Western Australia " the old men manage to keep the females a good deal amongst themselves, giving their daughters to one another, and the more female children they have, the greater chance have they of getting another wife, by this sort of exchange ; but the women have generally some favourite amongst the young men, always looking forward to be his wife at the death of her husband." 4 In Queensland " it is, as a rule, difficult for young men to 1 James Dawson, Australian Ab- * (Sir) George Grey, Journals of Two origines, p. 35. Expeditions of Discovery in North- West 2 Albert A. C. Le Souef, "Notes and Western Australia (London, 1841), on the Natives of Australia," in R. ii. 230. Compare to the same effect Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of E. M. Curr, The Australian Race, i. Victoria, ii. 291. 298, ii. 332, iii. 163 ; John Mathew. 3 E. J. ~&yre, Journal of Expeditions Two Representative Tribes of Queens- of Discoverv into Central Australia land (London and Leipsic, 1910), p. (London, 1845), ii. 318 sg. 162. 202 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Among the Australian aborigines the women whom men gave in exchange for wives were usually either their sisters or their daughters. marry before they are thirty years old. The oldest men have the youngest and best-looking wives, while a young man must consider himself fortunate if he can get an old woman." l The two commonest forms of barter in the Australian matrimonial market were the exchange of daughters and the exchange of sisters, and it is not clear which of the two forms was the more prevalent, for our authorities differ on the subject, some of them assigning the palm in point of popularity to the one form, and some to the other. 2 Prob- ably the usage varied somewhat in different tribes. In general it seems likely that in the rivalry between the older and the younger men for the possession of wives the older men would favour the exchange of daughters, because it gave them the chance of adding to their own harem, while the younger men would as naturally prefer the exchange of sisters, because it placed their matrimonial destiny in their .own hands instead of in the hands of their venerable parents, the old bucks, whose personal designs on the youthful brides they had in many cases only too good reason to suspect. In some tribes, for example, in those of Western Victoria, " the rule is that a father alone can give away his daughter. If the father is dead the son can dis- pose of the daughter, with the consent of the uncle." ; Similarly among some tribes of South Australia " brothers 1 C. Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 163. 2 We have seen (p. 195) that accord- ing to Dr. Howitt "the most common practice is the exchange of girls by their respective parents as wives for each other's sons '' : and this con- clusion seems on the whole to be borne out by the particular cases enumerated by Dr. Howitt in his Native Tribes of South-East Australia (pp. 177, 178, 217, 222, 242, 243, 244, 249, 253), though he also mentions cases of the exchange of sisters by their brothers (op. cit. pp. 211, 243, 252, 260, 262, 263). On the other hand the exchange of sisters by theif brothers is some- times mentioned as if it were the ordinary practice. See R. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 77 note * (John Bulmer quoted), 84 ; F. H. Wells, "The Habits, Customs, and Ceremonies of the Aboriginals on the Diamentina, Herbert, and Eleanor Rivers, in East Central Queensland," Report of the Fifth Meeting of the Aus- tralasian Association for the Advance- ment of Science, held at Aaelaide, South Australia, September 1893, p. 515 ; Walter E. Roth, Ethnological Studies among the North- West- Central Queens- land Aborigines, p. 181 ; id. " Mar- riage Ceremonies and Infant Life," North Queensland Ethnography, Bulle- tin No. jo, p. ii. Other writers men- tion the exchange both of daughters and of sisters as if they occurred in- differently. See above, pp. 195, 196, 197 ; and further E. M. Curr, The Aus- tralian If ace, ii. 401, 474, iii. 122, 139. 3 James Dawson, Australian Ab- origines, p. 34. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 203 often barter their sisters for wives for themselves, but it can only be done with the parents' consent, or after their death." l On the other hand among the Narrinyeri, a tribe of South Australia, " a girl was given in marriage, usually at an early age, sometimes by her father, but generally by her brother, and there was always an exchange of a sister, or other female relative, of the man to whom she was promised." So common, indeed, among the Australian aborigines was this custom of bartering sisters at marriage that in some tribes of Southern Queensland men who had no sisters to offer in exchange had hardly any chance of being married at all. 3 Of the two forms of barter, the exchange of sisters by Of the two their brothers was probably older than the exchange of j^^the daughters by their fathers, since the latter implies the exchange recognition not only of paternity but of a father's right to probably ' S dispose of his offspring, and there are strong grounds for older believing that in aboriginal Australia and probably else- exchangeof where the relations between the sexes were at one time so daughters, i i 11- i'ii since the loose and vague that no man knew his own children or exchangeof possessed any authority over them. On the other hand, daughters implies the even under such conditions, the relationship between brothers recognition and sisters, the children of the same mother, must have been of P aternit y and a well known, and the recognition of that relationship prob- father's ably conferred on brothers a degree of authority which Dispose 10 enabled them to exchange their sisters or their sisters' of his daughters for other women, whom they either married whereas 2 ' themselves or gave in marriage to their sisters' sons. Thus there is in Australia, and perhaps in fnany other places, the right of think" disposing of a woman's hand in marriage may have been that m i i i 11111 r aboriginal enjoyed by her brother or her mothers brother long before Australia it devolved on her father. But as society progressed from P atermt y J r was group marriage, or from still laxer forms of commerce formerly between the sexes, 4 to individual marriage, in other words, u ^ nown father had 1 E.J. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions Australia, p. 10, "Should the father po author- of Discovery into Central Australia be living he may give his daughter lt y ver ls (London, 1845), 3*9- away, but generally she is the gift of c 2 A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of her brother." South-East Australia, p. 260. Simi- 3 E. M. Curr, The Australian larly G. Taplin, " The Narrinyeri," in Race, iii. 272. J. D. Woods, Native Tribes of South * See below, pp. 229 sqq. 204 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART n as sexual relations were more and more narrowed and confined to the cohabitation .of single pairs, a man would gradually acquire an interest in, and an authority over, his wife's children, even before he became aware of the share he had had in begetting them ; for the social position which he occupied as the husband, protector, and in some sense the owner of their mother, would give him rights over her off- spring analogous to those which the owner of a cow pos- sesses over her calves. Indeed to this day the very fact of physical paternity is unknown to many Australian tribes, 1 but their ignorance on that point does not prevent these savages from recognizing the mutual rights and duties of fathers and children, since these social rights and duties are both in theory and in practice perfectly distinct from, and independent of, the bond of blood between the persons. Hence to a superficial observer the position of a father to his children in these tribes might well appear not to differ materially from the corresponding position of a father to his children in Europe, although in point of fact the physical relationship between them, on which alone, to our thinking, the social relationship is based, has not so much as entered into the mind of the aborigines. 2 For these reasons we may fairly suppose that, with the progressive 1 To the evidence collected by me 2 Similarly in regard to the natives elsewhere (Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Third of the Trobriand Islands, to the east Edition, i. 99 sqq.) I may add Mrs. of New Guinea, an acute observer D. M. Bates, "Social Organization of tells us that they "are entirely ignor- some Western Australian Tribes," ant of the existence of physiolo- Report of the Fourteenth Meeting of gical impregnation," and that " in the Australasian Association for the f the native mind, the intimate rela- Advancement of Science, held at Mel- tionship between husband and wife, bourne, 1913, pp. 389 sq. ; (Sir) Baldwin and not any idea, however slight or Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern remote, of physical fatherhood, is the Territory of Australia (London, 1914), reason for all that the father does for pp. 263 sqq, " This belief in rein- his children. It must be clearly under- carnation, and in procreation not being stood that social and psychological actually the result of sexual intercourse, fatherhood (the sum of all the ties, has been shown to be prevalent over emotional, legal, economic) is the the whole of the Central and Northern result of the man's obligations to his part of the continent that is, over an wife, and physiological fatherhood area four and a half times the size of does not exist in the mind of the Great Britain amongst many Queens- natives." See Bronislaw Malinowski, land tribes and in a large part of West " Baloma ; the Spirits of the Dead in Australia . . . and I have little doubt the Trobriand Islands," Journal of the but that at one time it was universally Royal Anthropological Institute, xlvi. held amongst Australian tribes" (Sir (1916) pp. 406, 410. Baldwin Spencer, op. cit. pp. 263 sq.). CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 205 substitution of individual for group marriage, the right of disposing of a woman in marriage was gradually transferred from her brother or her maternal uncle to her father. But in whichever way the exchange of women in Thecustom marriage was originally effected, whether by the brothers or oug, ss ~ by the fathers of the women, it is certain that the custom marriage has been exceedingly common among the aborigines of a natural Australia, and from it the custom of cross-cousin marriage conse- might very easily arise. For when two men had thus married each other's sisters, their children would be cross- exchange , 1111 of sisters in cousins, and what more natural than that these cross-cousins marriage, should in their turn marry each other when they came to maturity, as their parents had done before them ? It is to be observed that such cross-cousins are related to each other by a twofold tie of consanguinity, since they are connected not, like ordinary cross-cousins, through one father and one mother only, but through both fathers and both mothers. For the father of each cousin is the brother cf the other cousin's mother, and the mother of each cousin is the sister of the other cousin's father. In fact, the cousins are cross- cousins twice over, or what we may call double-cross cousins. It follows from this double-cross relationship that the female cousin stands to her male cousin in the relation both of mother's brother's daughter and of father's sister's daughter ; hence their marriage combines the two forms of cross-cousin marriage which are usually distinguished, namely the mar- riage with a mother's brother's daughter and the marriage with a father's sister's daughter. Such a marriage is therefore a very close form of consanguineons union. But if the custom of exchanging sisters in marriage if cousin .. r i i -i marriage is preceded not only the recognition of physical paternity but an effect even the establishment of permanent social relations between of l ^ e . exchange a man and his offspring, it seems probable that the custom of sisters in of marrying cousins, as a direct consequence of the inter- " f^ It change of sisters in marriage, also preceded both the re- older than cognition of paternity and the exercise of any authority by ^J^f" a father over his children. For if a man had the right of paternity exchanging a sister for a wife, there seems to be no reason fa the ' s a why he should not have effected the exchange as readily rights over with a cousin as with any other man, Hence we need not, children. 2O6 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART II The origin of cross- cousin marriage in the in- terchange of sisters is confirmed by the present practice of the Kariera tribe. with Dr. Rivers, 1 suppose that the authority of a father over his children was established before the practice of marrying cousins arose. The view that the custom of cross-cousin marriage originated in the interchange of sisters is supported by the present practice of the Kariera tribe, whose marriage system has been accurately observed and described by Mr. A. R. Brown. For in that tribe not only do men commonly exchange sisters in marriage, but the double-cross-cousins who result from such unions are also allowed and even encouraged to marry each other. The Kariera custom of cross-cousin marriage has already been noticed; 2 their custom of exchanging sisters in marriage, with its natural effect, the marriage of double-cross-cousins, may be best described in the words of Mr. A. R. Brown. 3 He says, " A common custom in this as in most Australian tribes is the exchange of sisters. A man, A, having one or more sisters finds a man, B, standing to him in the relation of kumbali* who also possesses a sister. These men each take a sister of the other as wife. As a result of this practice it often happens that a man's father's sister is at the same time the wife of his mother's brother. If these two have a daughter she will in the ordinary course of events become the man's wife. As the natives themselves put it to me, a man must look to his kaga 5 to provide him with a wife by giving him one or more of his daughters. The relative who is most particularly his kaga? in the same sense that his own father is most particularly his mama* is his mother's brother, who may or may not be at the same time the husband of his 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society (Cambridge, 1915), ii. 327, "The cross-cousin marriage arises through a man giving his daughter to his sister's son in place of his wife, and this implies the presence, not only of individual marriage, but of the definite right of the father over his daughter which would thus enable him to bestow her upon his sister's son." 2 See above, pp. 188 sq. 3 A. R. Brown, " Three Tribes of Western Australia," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. (1913) p. 156. 4 That is, his mother's brother's son, father's sister's son, sister's husband, or wife's brother. See A. R. Brown, op. cit. p. 140. This and the following native terms of relationship are used in the wide classificatory or group sense. See below, pp. 227 sq. 5 That is, his mother's brother, father's sister's husband, or wife's father. See A. R. Brown, op. cit. p. 149. (i That is, his father, father's brother, mother's sister's husband, or wife's mother's brother. See A. R. Brown, op. cit. p. 149. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 207 father's sister. It is to this man that he looks first for his wife. If his own mother's brother has no daughter, or if she is already disposed of, he must apply to other persons who stand to him in the relation of kaga^ to the husband of his father's sister, for example. He may have to go much farther afield and apply to some distant kaga} but this is only the case when there are available no nearer relatives. Thus we may say that the man who is pre- eminently kaga l (as his own father is pre-eminently mama) 2 is his mother's brother ; the woman who is pre-eminently toa 3 is his own father's sister, who should be the wife of the kaga ; l consequently the woman who is pre-eminently a man's iiuba 4 is the daughter of his own mother's brother, or failing this, of his own father's sister. It is this woman to whom he has the first right as a wife." From this account we learn that among the Kariera the When two most proper marriage that can be contracted is that between nie ? have , exchanged first cousins who are doubly related to each other by blood, sisters in that is, both through the father and through the mother, JJ^JJ since the husband's father is the wife's mother's brother, and cousins the husband's mother is the wife's father's sister. In other m r a ges words, a man marries a woman who is at the same time the are doubly daughter of his father's sister and of his mother's brother ; each other and a woman marries a man who is at the same time the bcth son of her mother's brother and of her father's sister ; in short, their husband and wife in such cases are double-cross-cousins. This f f thers L and through double relationship by blood between the pair arises from the their interchange of sisters as wives between their two fathers. ^ In the cases, which sometimes occur, when an inter- wife is the change of sisters did not take place between the parents botifofhis of the intermarrying cousins, the husband and wife are niother's related to each other only through the mother or through * the father, not through both parents ; the wife may stand fat her's to her husband in the relationship either of mother's brother's the daughter or of father's sister's daughter ; but she does woman ' s i i 1 t i i - i i husband not stand to him in both relationships simultaneously ; is the son both of her 1 See note 5 , p. 206. A. R. Brown, op. cil. p. 149. father's 2 6 ,- 4 That is, his niother's brother's sister and daughter, father's sister's daughter, of her 3 That is, his father's sister, mother's wife, or wife's sister. See A. R. mother's brother's wife, or wife's mother. See Brown, op. cit. p. 149, brother. 208 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II In such marriages a man's father-in- law is at once his mother's brother and the husband of his father's sister, and his mother- in-law is at once his father's sister and the wife of his mother's brother. When an inter- change of sisters has not taken in short, husband and wife in such cases are single-cross- cousins instead of double-cross-cousins. When the relation- ship of mother's brother's daughter is thus disjoined from the relationship of father's sister's daughter, the former is preferred by the Kariera as the ground of marriage ; in other words, a man marries his mother's brother's daughter in preference to his father's sister's daughter. But if neither his mother's brother nor his father's sister has a daughter available as a wife for him, he is compelled to wed a more distant kinswoman, to whom, however, under the classifica- tory or group system of relationship he applies the same kinship term which he applies to his full cousin, the daughter either of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, or of both his mother's brother and his father's sister. Lastly, it may be observed that in the case in which an interchange of sisters has taken place between the fathers of the intermarrying cousins, a man's father-in-law is at once his mother's brother and the husband of his father's sister ; and his mother-in-law is at once his father's sister and the wife of his mother's brother. Conversely, under the same circumstances, a woman's father-in-law is at once her mother's brother and the husband of her father's sister ; and her mother-in-law is at once her father's sister and the wife of her mother's brother. On the other hand, when no such interchange of sisters has taken place between the fathers of the intermarrying cousins, and the relationship between the cousins is consequently single, not double, namely either through the father or through the mother, but not through both parents simultaneously, then in that case a man's father- in-law is either his mother's brother or the husband of his father's sister, and his mother-in-law is either his father's sister or the wife of his mother's brother ; and conversely a woman's father - in - law is either her mother's brother or the husband of her father's sister, and her mother-in- law is either her father's sister or the wife of her mother's brother. In the Kariera tribe, as in many other Australian tribes, marriages are arranged by the older people while the future spouses are still small children. Thus, when a boy is grow- ing up, he learns what girl is to be his wife. To the father CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 209 of the girl he owes certain duties, of which the chief is that place he must make him presents from time to time. 1 This man, the boy's future father-in-law, ought to be in strictness, as the inter- we have just seen, both his mother's brother and his father's sister's husband rolled into one, though, in the imperfect the man's state of things which is characteristic of this sublunary i aw j s world, a young man may have to put up with a father-in- either ^ is law who is either his mother's brother or his father's sister's brother husband, but not both at the same time ; while he has to r the . husband of make shift with a mother-in-law who is in like manner his father's either his father's sister or the wife of his mother's brother, but not both at the same time. He may sigh for the once. double relationship, but he takes up his cross and bears the single relationship as best he can. Thus in the Kariera tribe the marriage of cross-cousins in ail flows directly and simply, in the ordinary course of events, from the interchange of sisters in marriage. Given that which interchange and the intermarriage of the resulting offspring, and we have cross-cousin marriage in its fullest form, namely the the marriage of first cousins who are doubly related to each oTcToss- 6 other both through their fathers and through their mothers ; cousins, in short, we have the marriage of double-cross-cousins. But marriages the interchange of sisters in marriage was common, we may wer , e , , ' J probably almost say universal, in aboriginal Australia, while the the direct marriage of cross-cousins was permitted or specially favoured conse - J quence in some tribes. It seems reasonable to suppose that in all of the Australian tribes which permitted or favoured the marriage ofs^tefs^ of cross-cousins, such marriages were the direct consequence marriage. of the interchange of sisters in marriage and of nothing else. And that interchange of sisters flowed directly from the economic necessity of paying for a wife in kind, in other words of giving a woman in return for the woman whom a man received in marriage. Having found in aboriginal Australia what appears to The be a simple and natural explanation of cousin marriage, we sist are next led to inquire whether the same cause may not marriage have had the same effect elsewhere ; in other words, whether ^trT'and in other regions, where the marriage of cross -cousins is maybe 1 A. R. Brown, " Three Tribes of Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. Western Australia," Journal of the (1913) p. 156. VOL. II P 2io JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n the cause of. cross- cousin marriage in Australian, Thus the marriage witlTcross- cousin Southern 1 " India. Case of the Madigas. Economic advantage exchange of sisters m marriage : a man gets without payment, permitted or favoured, such unions may not flow directly f rom the interchange of sisters in marriage. There is some reason to think that it has been so. At all events we can snow ^at the custom of interchanging sisters in marriage occurs in some of those regions where the custom of cross- cousin marriage prevails ; and since in Australia these two customs appear to be related to each other as cause and effect, it is natural to suppose that the same causal relation obtains between the two customs when they are found con- joined elsewhere. Let us turn to what may be called the classic land ^ cousm marriage, Southern India, from which our first and most numerous instances of the custom were drawn. Among the Madigas of Mysore, a Dravidian caste who are believed to represent " the earliest stratum among the inhabitants of this country who have settled in towns an( j villages," " exchange of daughters Fin marriage] is not . ' only practised but is most commonly in use, the reason being the saving of the bride price by both parties." l Further, the Madigas, as we have already seen, 2 not only permit but favour the marriage of cross-cousins, thinking that a man's most suitable wife is his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother or of his father's sister, though at the same time they deem a marriage with his niece, the daughter of his elder sister, equally appropriate. Finding the custom of the exchange of daughters in marriage thus practised along with the custom of the marriage of cross-cousins, we may reasonably infer that here, as in Australia, the practice of exchanging daughters in marriage is the direct source of the practice of uniting cross-cousins in marriage. And with the Madigas we are positively told that the motive for exchanging daughters in marriage is the p ure ]y economic one of saving the bride price, one woman being simply bartered for another instead of being paid for j Cas j 1 or o t ner valuable equivalent. Thus in India as in n Australia the interchange of daughters in marriage, together with its natural sequel, the interchange of these daughters' daughters in marriage, in other words, the marriage of cross- 1 H. V. Ntinjundayya, The Ethno- gra/hical Survey of Afysore, xvii. Madiga Caste (Bangalore, 1 909), p. n. 2 Above, pp. 114 sq. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 211 cousins, appears to originate in the simplest of economic motives, the wish and the necessity to pay for a woman in kind. Similarly, among the Idigas, another Dravidian caste of Exchange Mysore, " exchange of daughters [in marriage] is allowed and daughters practised. When two families exchange daughters, the tera in marriage or bride price is not, as a rule, paid by either party." l In other words, each of the two men gets a bride for nothing, castes f for whom otherwise he would have had to pay a price. The cheapness of such a wedding cannot but constitute its great charm for poor or frugally -minded bridegrooms. Among the Dravidian castes of Mysore in general, who commonly permit or positively encourage the marriage of cross-cousins, the rule apparently is, that the interchange of daughters is also permitted but not much favoured ; indeed, some castes positively discourage it on the ground that one of the two marriages which are thus contracted will prove unhappy. 2 The reason for this unfortunate result of the marriage is not alleged. We may conjecture that the objection is based on a fear of bringing together in marriage persons too near akin in blood, and therefore that, strictly speaking, the objection should only hold good against the interchange of daughters who are first cousins ; for in that case each wife would stand 1 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- Vadda Caste, p. 4 (not considered ob- graphical Survey of Mysore, xviii. Idiga jectionable, though only rarely prac- Caste (Bangalore, 1910), p. 6. We tised on account of the superstition that are not told that the Idigas practise one of the married couples meets with cousin marriage, but we may perhaps bad luck) ; id. xii. Nayinda Caste, p. 6 infer it from the statement (I.e.) that (allowed, but it is believed that one of "they observe the usual rules about the two marriages will be unhappy); the prohibited degrees of marriage." id. xiii. Dombar Caste, p. 5 (no objec- Apart from that, the marriage of cross- tion) ; id. xiv. Kadu-Gollas, p. 5 (per- cousins is so general among the Dra- mitted, but not encouraged, from the vidian castes of Southern India, that in belief that one of the wives will not the absence of indications to the con- prosper); id. xv. Morasu Okkalu, p. 13 trary it may with a high degree of (permitted, but some think it unlucky); probability be assumed for any one of id. xxi. Uppara Caste, p. 4 (no objec- them. tion) ; id. xxiv. Kumbdras Caste, p. 4 2 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- (allowed, but not common) ; id. xxv. graphical Survey of Mysore, i. Kuruba Banjaras Caste, p. 1 1 (allowed, but not Caste, p. 8 (exchange of daughters per- much favoured ; six months should mitted but not common, the belief being elapse between the two marriages) ; that one or the other of the couples will id. xxvi. Helavas, p. 2 (allowed) ; id. not prosper) ; id. ii. Holeya Caste, p. 7 xxvii. Gangadikara Okkalu, p. 3 (allowable) ; id. iv. Agasa Caste, p. 6 (allowed, but not much favoured) ; id. (permitted) ; id. viii. Bili Magga, p. 2 xxxiii. Gdnigds, p. 4 (permissible, but (allowed); id. ix. Tigali Caste, p. 3 rarely takes place) ; id. xxxiv. Devdngds, (recognized but discouraged) ; id. xi. p. 5 (allowed and practised). 212 JACOB'S MARRIAGE to her husband in the relation both of mother's brother's daughter and of father's sister's daughter, and conversely her husband would stand to her in the relation both of mother's brother's son and of father's sister's son. In short, husband and wife would be double-cross-cousins to each other, each of them being related to the other through both father and mother ; and though the Dravidians undoubtedly, as a rule, think that the marriage of single-cross-cousins is a very good thing, since they commonly prefer it, they may have scruples at the marriage of double-cross-cousins. Of course, in cases where daughters are interchanged between families which are unrelated to each other, there is no possible objection to the match on the ground of nearness of kin between the parties ; and if my explanation of the Dravidian disinclination to the exchange of daughters is correct, the Dravidians should, in strict logic, have no scruple to such an exchange whenever the women are unrelated by blood. Perhaps, if we had fuller information as to the marriage customs of the Dravidians, we might find that it is so ; in other words, that they only boggle at the exchange of daughters who are first cousins to each other, and that they feel no scruple at the exchange of daughters who are not so related. But since among the Dravidians the marriage of unrelated persons is the exception rather than the rule, it would be easy even for a careful and accurate observer to record the rule without noticing the exception. 1 Again, among the Bhotiyas of the Almora district in t ^ ie United Provinces, who practise the marriage of cross- cousins, the exchange of sisters in marriage is said to be tne ru ^ e 5 kut t ^ ie custom ' ls not confined to them, it exists all over the djstrict, and is not unknown even among the Khas Rajputs and Brahmans, though it is repugnant to the higher Hindoos of the plains of India. 2 1 Exchange of daughters is practised also among some tribes of the Central Indian Agency. See Captain C. E. Luard, The Ethnographical Survey of the Central India Agency, Monograph No. II. The Jungle Tribes of Malwa (Lucknow, 1909), p. 70 (the Mankar Bhils of Barwani), p. 7 1 (the Tarvi Bhils of Barwani) ; id., Monograph IV. Miscellaneous Castes (Lucknow, I 99). P- 9 (the Jats of Barwani), p. 13 (the Khalpia Chamars of Barwani). 3 Panna Lall, ' ' An enquiry into the Birth and Marriage Customs of the Khasiyas and the Bhottiyas of Almora District, U. P. ," The Indian Antiquary, xl. (1911) pp. 193 sq. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 213 Another Indian people among whom we find the custom Exchange of the interchange of daughters in marriage coexisting with a^cross the custom of cross-cousin marriage are the Garos. As we cousin have seen, 1 the Garos belong to a totally different ethnical stock from the Dravidians ; it is, therefore, all the more Garos. important to note the coexistence of the two customs among them. The rule of marriage among them is that " a man's sister should marry a son of the house of which his wife is daughter, his son may marry a daughter of that sister, and his daughter may marry his sister's son, who, in such case, comes to reside with his father-in-law and succeeds to the property in right of his wife and her mother," 2 since among the Garos, as we saw, property descends through women instead of through men. From this clear and definite statement of a good authority we learn that among the Garos, as among the Australian aborigines, it is not only permissible but customary for a man to give his sister in marriage to the man whose sister he himself takes to wife ; and further, that the double-cross-cousins born of these two pairs are free to marry each other, the male cousin marrying a girl who is the daughter both of his mother's brother and of his father's sister ; while conversely the female cousin marries a young man who is the son both of her mother's brother and of her father's sister. Here again is it not natural to regard the marriage of the cousins as the direct effect of the interchange of sisters in marriage ? Again, among the tribes of Baluchistan, who favour the Exchange marriage of cousins, the practice of exchanging daughters in *f marriage is much in vogue. Though among them the in marriage commonest, or at least the most characteristic, mode of procuring a wife is to pay for her, nevertheless "a much older form of marriage in Baluchistan, I fancy, is marriage by exchange, which under many names . . . flourishes in one form or another among all races to this day. . . . Even nowadays the family that has the least bother in finding brides for its sons is the family with an equal number of daughters to give in exchange." 3 1 Above, vol. i. p. 462. Assam, by (Sir) E. A. Gait, vol. L 2 E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethiw- Report (Shillong, 1892), p. 229. lgy of Bengal (Calcutta, 1872), p. 63. 3 Census of India, H)il, vol. iv. Compare Census of India, 1891, Baluchistan, by Denis Bray (Calcutta, 214 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n But the But while the marriage of cross-cousins is a natural, it is of sistenfor not a necessary consequence of the interchange of daughters daughters or sisters in marriage. That interchange may be customary neexTrurt^ even among tribes which discourage or forbid the marriage necessarily o f a \\ fi rs t cousins. For example, among the natives of the practice of Western Islands in Torres Straits, as we have seen, marriages cross- between first cousins rarely or never took place. Yet with cousin ,,-... -r marriage, these people the usual mode of obtaining a wife was to give Case of the a s { s t er j n exchange for her, and a man who happened to islanders have no exchangeable sister might remain celibate all his ^ tr T rre life, unless he were rich enough to buy a wife, or unless his father were both rich and liberal enough to purchase one for him. If, however, a man had no sister whom he could barter, his mother's brother might come forward and give his nephew one of his daughters to exchange for a wife ; indeed, it seems to have been the duty of the maternal uncle thus to step into the breach when a man's own father could do nothing for him. The price paid for a wife in these islands was heavy, hence a man had a strong pecuniary motive for procuring a bride by giving or promising a sister in exchange to the man whose sister he married ; for in this way he got a wife practically for nothing. The natives whom Dr. Rivers questioned as to the practice of exchanging sisters in marriage " seemed to think that the custom was connected with that of payment for the bride " ; and they were probably right in so thinking. 1 Exchange At Mawatta or Mowat, in British New Guinea, the marriage regular mode of obtaining wives was in like manner by the at Mawatta exchange of sisters, and here also the economic advantage of in British ., , .. New getting a wife for nothing apparently helped to maintain, if Guinea. j t did no f- originate, the practice. We are told that in this district " it is a fixed law that the bridegroom's sister, if he has one unmarried, should go to the bride's brother or nearest male relative ; she has no option. . . . Except in cases where the bridegroom has no sister no payment is made to I 9 I 3)> P- IO1 - The cousins whose affected by the particular kind of cousin- marriage the native of Baluchistan speci- ship existing between the spouses, ally favours are not cross-cousins but 1 Reports of the Cambridge Anthro- ortho-cousins, the children of two pological Expedition to Torres Straits, brothers. See above, pp. 130.57. How- v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 231 sq., ever, the principle of exchange is not 241 sq. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 215 the parents of the bride until a child is bom, when the husband presents his wife's father with a canoe or arm-shells, tomahawks, etc. ... In these comparatively civilized days at Mawatta and elsewhere, it is becoming customary for men and women to marry without the exchange of sisters or pay- ment. The customs above stated, however, generally prevail in the district." ] From this account we gather that if a man gave a sister in exchange to his brother-in-law, he got his wife for nothing, though afterwards he had to make a present to his parents-in-law on the birth of his first child. On the other hand, if he had no sister to barter, he had to pay for his wife. Another and somewhat earlier account of the marriage customs at Mawatta confirms this inference and adds a few fresh details. " I cannot find out for a certainty," says the writer, " what are the forbidden degrees of consan- guinity in relation to marriage, but, as far as practicable, the members of one family or descendants of one forefather, however remote, may not intermarry. Polygamy, but not polyandry, is practised ; their reason for this custom is that the women do the principal part of the work in pro- curing vegetable or fish food. Marriage is arranged by the respective parents when the children are growing up, or in infancy and by exchange, thus : if a man has sisters and no brother, he can exchange a sister for a wife, but in the case of both brothers and sisters in a family, the eldest brother exchanges the eldest sister, and the brothers as they are old enough, share equally, but if the numbers are unequal, the elder takes the preference. It sometimes happens that a man has no sister and he cannot obtain a wife. Some- times a wife is procured by purchase." '' Here, again, it 1 B. A. Hely, "Native Habits and as he grows up will exchange a sister Customs in the Western Division," for a wife in order of seniority ; but Annual Report on British New Guinea, that if there are more brothers than 1892-1893 (Brisbane, 1894), p. 57. sisters, the elder brothers will give the sisters in exchange for wives, and the 2 E. Beardmore, " The Natives of younger brothers, having no sisters to Mowat, Daudai, New Guinea," Journal give in exchange, will have to go with- of the Anthropological Institute, xix. out wives, or perhaps to get them by (1890) pp. 460 sq. The writer's state- purchase. He cannot mean, as his ment as to the exchange of sisters in words might seem to imply, that in the case of a family in which there are such a case the younger brothers share several brothers is not clear. He seems the wives of their elder brothers, since to mean that if there are as many sisters he expressly affirms that polyandry is as brothers in a family, each brother not practised in the district. 216 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n appears that, as in aboriginal Australia, a man who has no sister to give in exchange may have to go without a wife, and here, too, as in aboriginal Australia, a wife has a high economic value as a labourer and a food purveyor. It seems reasonable, therefore, to conclude that here, as apparently in aboriginal Australia, the primary motive for the exchange of daughters or sisters in marriage is an economic one, the desire to get a valuable article at the cheapest possible rate. But apparently at Mawatta, as in the Western Islands of Torres Straits, the exchange of daughters or sisters in marriage has not as a necessary consequence the exchange of these women's children in marriage ; in other words, it does not lead to the marriage of cross-cousins, since we are told that all consanguineous marriages are, as far as possible, avoided. Exchange In the Pededarimu tribe of Kiwai, an island off the coast of women New Guinea, the practice of exchanging women as as wives in Kiwai, off wives also prevails, but a different motive is assigned for it. o^New 51 A woman at marriage takes her husband's totem, and " for Guinea. this reason a man when he marries has to give to the brother, or nearest male relative to the bride, his sister, foster-sister, or a female relative, to keep up the strength of the sept from which he takes his wife." : No doubt the practice of exchanging women in marriage may be observed from a variety of motives, one of which in certain cases may well be the desire to keep up a sept at full strength by only parting with women on condition of receiving an equal number of women in exchange. But such a motive of public policy seems less simple and primitive than the purely economic motive which I take to be at the base of the custom ; for while the economic motive appeals directly to every man in his individual capacity, the public motive appeals to men in their collective capacity as members of a community, and therefore is likely to affect only that enlightened minority who are capable of subordinating their private interest to the public good. Whatever the causes which have contributed to its popularity, the practice of exchanging daughters in marriage 1 Reports of the Cambridge Anthro- v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 189, quoting pological Expedition to Torres Straits, B. A. Hely. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 217 would seem to be widespread in New Guinea. Thus among Exchange the Banaros, who inhabit the middle course of the Keram dau hters River in German New Guinea, the custom is in full opera- in marriage tion and is elaborately worked out in every detail. When a girl has reached the age of puberty and has passed through the initiation ceremonies, she consults with her mother as Guinea. to which of the marriageable youths suits her best. Her mother discusses the matter with her husband, and if they agree, she prepares a pot of boiled sago, which they then carry in a basket to the parents of the chosen bridegroom. The families concerned confer with each other and come to a formal agreement. But as compensation for the girl who is given to be the bride of a young man of the one family, a sister of the bridegroom must be married to the bride's brother. 1 Again, the natives of the northern coast of Dutch New Guinea are said to regard their marriageable daughters as wares which they can sell without consulting the wishes of the girls themselves ; and similarly a man is reported to look on his wife as a piece of property which has been bought and paid for, and adultery is thought equivalent to theft, because it infringes the proprietary rights of the husband. But on Djamma and the surrounding islands a mode of contracting marriage is in vogue which allows the parties, in the language of the writer who reports it, " to pay each other without opening their purses." When a man has a nubile daughter, and another man asks the hand of the damsel for his son, the father of the bridegroom must give a daughter to be the wife of the bride's brother ; and if he has no daughter, he must give a niece instead. But should it happen that he has neither daughter nor niece to provide as an equivalent, the projected marriage falls through. 2 The economic motive for such marriages, here implied Exchange rather than expressed, is stated without ambiguity in an dauKhters account of the connubial customs of the Santals, a primitive in marriage tribe of Bengal, among whom the commonest and most s n tafs of 6 Bengal. 1 Richard Thurnwald, " Banaro regeling voor de Papoesche Chris- Society," Memoirs of the American tenen, op Noord - Nieuw - Guinea," Anthropological Association, vol. iii. Mededeelingen van ivege het Neder- No. 4, Oct. -Dec. 1916 (Lancaster, landsche Zendelinggenootschap, Iviii. Pa., U.S.A.), pp. 258 sq. (Rotterdam, 1914) p. 215. 8 F. J. F. vanHasselt, "Dehuwelijks- 218 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n honourable way to get a wife is to buy her. " A man who has a son and a daughter of marriageable age, and who is not in a position to pay the pon or price for a wife for his son, calls in a go-between and commissions him to look out for a family in a like position, so that they may exchange daughters for wives to their sons. In such cases the sister must be younger than her brother, otherwise a marriage of this sort cannot take place. As there is a fair exchange of one daughter for another, there is no pon or compulsory Exchange giving of presents." ] Again, in the French Sudan by far dau hters ^ Q commonest way of getting a wife is by paying for her ; in marriage " but among the Senoufos the price of purchase is often 6 replaced by a woman ; this is what is called ' marriage by the French exchange.' Instead of a ' dowry ' the bride's brother receives a wife, who is generally the own sister of the bridegroom ; in certain provinces this custom has disappeared, but it is understood that when once the son-in-law is married and has become a father, he will give his parents-in-law the first daughter born of the marriage." 2 So, too, among the Mossis of the French Sudan the usual way of obtaining a bride is to give presents to her parents, but they also practise the exchange of daughters. A family will promise one of its girls to another family as a bride for one of their sons, and the family who receives her provides in return a daughter to marry a son of the other family. But if a young man gets a girl to wife without paying for her, and without giving a sister or other woman in exchange, the father of the girl has the right to dispose of the first daughter born of the marriage ; he may take her to his house as soon as she is weaned and may marry her to whom he likes afterwards. 3 The strictly mercantile, not to say mercenary, character of these connubial transactions lies on the surface. Exchange The economic motive which prompts the exchange of dau hters women > an d particularly of sisters, in marriage is put clearly in marriage forward by Marsden, the historian of Sumatra, in the account natives of 6 wn i cn he gives of marriage customs in that great island. Sumatra. j Hon. and Rev. A. Campbell, D.D., 2 Maurice Delafosse, Haut-Senegal- " Santal Marriage Customs," Journal Niger, Premiere Serie, iii. Les Cimlisa- of the Bihar and Orissa Research tions (Paris, 1912), pp. 68 sq., 70 note 1 . Society, ii. (Bankipore, 1916) op. 306, 3 Louis Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan 331.' (Paris, 1912), pp. 544 sq. CHAP, vi WHY CROSS-COUSINS MARRY 219 He tells us that among the Sumatrans there are three modes of contracting marriage, of which one is by jnjur : " The jujur is a certain sum of money, given by one man to another, as a consideration for the person of his daughter, whose situation, in this case, differs not much from that of a slave to the man she marries, and to his family. ... In lieu of paying the jujur, a barter transaction, called libet, some- times takes place, where one gadis (virgin) is given in exchange for another ; and it is not unusual to borrow a girl for this purpose, from a friend or relation, the borrower binding himself to replace her, or pay her Jujur y when required. A man who has a son and daughter, gives the latter in exchange for a wife to the former. The person who receives her, disposes of her as his own child, or marries her himself. A brother will give his sister in exchange for a wife, or, in default of such, procure a cousin for the pur- pose." J Here the giving of a daughter or a sister in ex- change for a wife is definitely described as a form of barter which is substituted for the payment of a bride price. Among the peasantry of Palestine to this day the ex- Exchange change of sisters as wives is practised for the same simple of daughters economic reason which has everywhere recommended that in marriage form of marriage to indigent or niggardly suitors. " In most amon s the 3 J peasantry cases," we are informed, " the girls are virtually sold by their of parents, the dowry going to the father, and it is this which P makes the birth of a girl so much more welcome among the Fellahin than among the townspeople, where the dowry does not go to the parents. Considerable sums are paid for girls who are good-looking, well-connected, or clever at any of the Fellahin industries. ... In cases where a man has little or no money, or his credit is not good enough to enable him to borrow sufficient to pay the dowry of an unmarried girl, he will marry a widow, as a much smaller sum is required in such cases, especially if she have children. Another device is not unfrequently resorted to by poor people. Yakub, for instance, wants to marry, but has no prospect whatever of raising even a moderate sum of money. He has, however, an unmarried sister, Latifeh, so he looks about for a family similarly circumstanced to his own, and 1 William Marsden, The History of Sumatra (London, 1811), pp. 257, 259. 220 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n finds another man, Salameh, who is also desirous of enter- ing the married state, but who, like Yakub, is too poor to do so. He, too, has an unmarried sister, Zarifeh, and so an exchange is arranged between the two families, Yakub marrying Zarifeh, and Salameh Latifeh, no dowry being paid on either side." l Thecustom On the whole, then, it seems probable that the practice ing^sterf" ^ exchanging daughters or sisters in marriage was every- or where at first a simple case of barter, and that it originated kfnfarriage m a ^ ow state of savagery where women had a high economic might value as labourers, but where private property was as yet at naturally so rudimentary a stage that a man had practically no equi- lead to the yalent to give for a wife except another woman. The same cross- economic motive might lead the offspring of such unions, cousin W j 10 would De cross-cousins, to marry each other, and thus marriage. in the easiest and most natural manner the custom of cross- cousin marriage would arise and be perpetuated. If the history of the custom could be followed in the many different parts of the world where it has prevailed, it might be possible everywhere to trace it back to this simple origin ; for under the surface alike of savagery and of civilization the economic forces are as constant and uniform in their operation as the forces of nature, of which, indeed, they are merely a peculiarly complex manifestation. 2 1 Rev. C. T. Wilson, Peasant Life exchanged," it follows that the excep- in the Holy Land (London, 1906), pp. tion to the rule is more apparent than 109 sq. As an exception to the general real. If two men pay each other rule I note that in the Buin district of half-a-crown, the net result is precisely Bougainville, one of the Solomon the same as if they had neither paid Islands, the exchange of women, which nor received anything, is considered the regular form of 2 A different explanation of cross- marriage, appears not to supersede the cousin marriage, though one that is also need of paying for them. " In the based on economic considerations, has ideal case the brother of the bride been suggested by Mr. F. J. Richards, takes the sister of the bridegroom. He supposes that the custom arose On such an occasion the buying is not under a system of mother-kin, which eliminated, but the payment of an prevented a man from transmitting his equal amount of money and wares is property to his own children, and carefully executed, so that the price obliged him to transmit it to his sister's for the brides is evenly exchanged." son, his legal heir. Under such a See R. Thurnwald, " Banaro Society," system, when paternity came to be Memoirs of the American Anthropo- recognized, a man would naturally logical Association, iii. No. 4, Oct. wish to make some provision for his Dec. 1916 (Lancaster, Pa., U.S.A.), own children, and this he could do for pp. 285 sq. But since we are told his daughter by marrying her to his that ' ' the price of the brides is evenly legal heir, his sister's son ; for thus the CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 221 13. Why is the Marriage of Ortho-Cousins forbidden ? But if we have found an answer to the question, Why is But we the marriage of cross -cousins so commonly favoured? we ^^ tl] have still to find an answer to the question, Why is the why is the marriage of ortho-cousins so commonly forbidden ? On the theory which I have suggested for the marriage of cross- cousins cousins, there is no apparent reason for prohibiting the marriage of ortho-cousins. If a man marries the daughter. of his mother's brother or of his father's sister in preference to any other woman because he can get her for nothing, why should he not marry the daughter of his mother's sister or of his father's brother for precisely the same reason ? Re- garded from the purely economic point of view there seems to be no difference between the women. A partial or preliminary answer to the question has The incidentally been given in describing the rules as to the "f'ortho- marriage of cousins in some parts of Melanesia and Aus- cousins is tralia. We have seen that when a community is divided into two exosramous classes, ortho-cousins, the children of . tion or two brothers or of two sisters, necessarily belong to the same system of exogamous class and are therefore forbidden to marry each two exo ' gamous girl would enjoy a share of her father's daughter, it does not account for the inheritance through marriage with her other form, namely, the marriage of a cross-cousin, the son of her father's man with his father's sister's daughter. sister. In this way, on Mr. Richards' In fact, while it shows how under a hypothesis, the custom of the cross- system of mother -kin a man might cousin marriage arose ; it was an provide for his daughter, it omits to attempt to combine the conflicting show how he might provide for his claims of mother-kin and father-kin ; son, which he would probably be at or, as Mr. Richards puts it with special least as anxious to do. In the second reference to Southern India, it was " a place, assuming as it does the practical, sort of compromise between matrilineal though not the legal, recognition of succession and Brahmanic law." See paternity, and the accumulation of F. J. Richards, " Cross Cousin Marriage heritable property, the theory appears in South India," Man, xiv. (1914) pp. to place the origin of the cross-cousin 194-198. But this view is open to marriage far too late in the history serious objections. In the first place, of society ; for, as I have already while it might explain why a man indicated, the custom of marriage should wish to marry his daughter to between cross-cousins probably dates his sister's son, it does not explain why from a time when physical paternity and he should wish to marry his son to his the accumulation of heritable property sister's daughter ; thus, though it might were both alike unknown ; in short, it account for the one form of the cross- originated in extreme ignorance and cousin marriage, namely, the marriage extreme poverty, if not in absolute of a man with his mother's brother's destitution. 222 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II classes, which prevails among the aborigines of Australia and to a less extent in Melan- esia. The dual organiza- tion has probably existed and created the custom of cross - cousin marriage wherever that custom is found. The evidence for the prevalence of the dual other by the fundamental law which prohibits all members of the same exogamous class to unite in marriage with each other. As the division into two or more exogamous classes is practically universal among the aborigines of Australia, it follows that in these tribes the marriage of ortho-cousins, the children of two sisters or of two brothers, is everywhere barred. On the other hand under the system of two exogamous classes or, as it may be called for short, the dual organization, cross-cousins, the children of a brother and a sister respectively, always belong to different exogamous classes and are therefore so far marriageable, although some tribes, such as the Dieri, forbid the union of such relatives by a special law superadded to the exogamous prohibitions. In Melanesia the division of society into two or more exogamous classes is by no means so uniform and regular as it is in Australia, but it is sufficiently prevalent to render it probable that the dual organization, that is, the division of the community into two exogamous classes, once prevailed universally in this region, 1 and that the prohibition of the marriage of ortho-cousins among the Melanesians is a direct consequence of that social system. But we have found the same prohibition enforced in many other parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, and America. Are we to suppose that among all these widely scattered peoples the prohibition of the marriage of ortho- cousins is everywhere a relic of a dual organization, that is, of the division of society into two exogamous and intermarrying classes ? At first sight the answer to this question might be in the negative ; for with the ex- ception of a few tribes in North America, and of a few doubtiful traces in India, 2 the dual organization is not positively known to have prevailed anywhere outside 1 This is the view of Dr. W. H. R. pose of marriage rather than the effect Rivers, than whom no one is more competent to express an opinion on the subject. See his History of Mela- nesian Society (Cambridge, 1915), ii. 314. I differ, however, from Dr. Rivers in thinking that in Melanesia, as to all appearance in Australia, the dual organization was probably the result of a voluntary and deliberate bisection of the community'for the pur- of an accidental fusion of two different peoples. For Dr. Rivers's arguments in favour of the production of the dual organization by 1 fusion rather than by fission, see his History of Melanesian Society, ii. 556 sqq. 2 See R. V. Russell, The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India (London, 1916), i. 144, "In one part of Bastar all the Gond clans CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 223 Australia and Melanesia. Yet there are strong reasons organiza- for believing that it was at one time universal through- ^^ d out these vast regions, in fact that it once overspread first, a half or more than a half of the habitable globe. The 2d, grounds for thinking so are mainly two : first, the existence tne dassi- of totemism throughout a large part of the area in question ; S ystemof and, second, the existence of what is called the classificatory reiation- or, as I should prefer to call it, the group system of relation- ship throughout the whole of the area. Let us look at these grounds separately. First, with regard to totemism. In totemic society, if First, in we leave out of account a large group of tribes in Central f e f ar< ? to totemism as Australia, the rule of exogamy is nearly universal ; l in other evidence of words, no man is allowed to marry a woman of his own pr e v f aiece totemic clan. This fundamental law of course prohibits the of the dual marriage of brothers and sisters, because they necessarily ^o^The belong to the same hereditary clan, whether they take it exogamy of from their mother or from their father. But as a woman's c ia ns children always belong to a different totemic clan from that P revents of her brother's children, it follows that these children, who marriage are cross-cousins, are always marriageable with each other, ofor . tho ; 7 cousins in so far as the law of exogamy is concerned. On the other certain hand, the children of two brothers commonly belong to the same exogamous clan and are therefore not marriageable Hketheduai with each other ; and the children of two sisters commonly ^^' belong to the same exogamous clan, and are therefore not system of marriageable with each other. Thus it follows directly from exogamy, the law of totemic exogamy that the marriage of cross- prevent it cousins is universally permitted and the marriage of ortho- cousins is commonly barred. So far there might seem to be little or no difference between the law of totemic exogamy and the law of class exogamy in their effect on the permis- sion or the prohibition of marriage between cousins. Yet there is an important difference between the two. For whereas under the dual organization a community is divided are divided into two classes without six -god and seven -god worshippers names, and a man cannot marry a among whom the same rule obtains." woman belonging to any clan of his Compare id. iii. 64 sqq. own class, but must take one from a l There are a few exceptions to the clan of the other class. Elsewhere the rule. See Totemism and Exogamy^ Gonds are divided into two groups of iv. 8 sqq. 224 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART n into two exogamous sections only, under totemism a com- munity is commonly divided into a much larger number of exogamous sections or totemic clans, and as a rule a man, instead of being restricted in his choice of a wife to a single clan, is free to choose his wife from several clans. From this it follows that under the normal totemic system two brothers may marry women of two different totemic clans, and if descent of the totemic clan is in the female line, the children of the one brother will in that case belong to a different totemic clan from the children of the other brother, and thus the children of these two brothers will be marriage- able with each other. Similarly, under the normal totemic system two sisters may marry men of two different totemic clans, and if descent of the totem is in the male line, the children of the one sister will in that case belong to a different totemic clan from the children of the other sister, and thus the children of these two sisters will be marriage- able with each other. Hence totemism of the usual heredi- tary type, by giving a considerable range of choice of wives, renders it possible for ortho-cousins, the children of two brothers or of two sisters, to be marriageable with each other ; only it must be observed that both classes of ortho- cousins cannot under any circumstances be marriageable in the same totemic community ; and in any particular com- munity it will depend on the mode of reckoning descent whether the children of two brothers or the children of two sisters can become marriageable with each other. If descent is traced in the female line, the children of two sisters can never be marriageable, because they must necessarily have the same totem, namely, the totem of their mothers ; but the children of two brothers will be marriageable, if the brothers had married women of two different totemic clans, because in that case the children will have different totems, namely, the totems of their mothers. Conversely, if descent is traced in the male line, the children of two brothers can never be marriageable, because they must necessarily have the same totem, namely, the totem of their fathers ; but the children of two sisters will be marriageable, if the sisters had married men of two different totemic clans, because in that case the children will have different totems, namely, the CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 225 totems of their fathers. Thus totemism of the normal type opens the door to the marriage of one sort of ortho-cousins, but not to the marriage of both sorts of ortho-cousins simul- taneously. With female descent of the totem, the door is opened to the marriage of the children of two brothers, but not to the marriage of the children of two sisters ; with male descent, conversely, the door is opened to the marriage of the children of two sisters, but not to the marriage of the chil- dren of two brothers. On the other hand, under the dual organization or two-class system of exogamy, all marriages of ortho-cousins, the children alike of two brothers and of two sisters, are universally barred. Thus, the system of totemic exogamy is far less com- The system prehensive than the system of two-class exogamy ; for when ' once the two exogamous classes are broken up into a much less number of exogamous fragments or clans, each independent of the other, opportunities are afforded for evading some of hensive the prohibitions which were enforced under the dual organi- system of zation. In fact, whereas under totemism, compared with the two-class i i r i i exogamy. dual organization, the law of exogamy might seem to be tightened through the 'multiplication of the exogamous sections, it is in reality relaxed, except in the very rare cases in which a man is limited in the choice of his wife to the women of a single totemic clan. Such a limitation, which prevailed in the Urabunna tribe of Central Australia, 1 un- doubtedly stretches the prohibitions of marriage far beyond the limits which they reach under the dual organization, since it confines a man to the women of a small fraction of the community instead of allowing him one- half of the women to pick and choose from ; but as a general rule totemism, when it has once shaken off the trammels of the exogamous classes, opens up to every man a much larger matrimonial field than he commanded under the dual organi- zation ; the totemic clans, instead of serving as fresh bars to shut him up in the exogamous prison, are really so many doors thrown open to facilitate his escape from it. Thus, the broad principle of exogamy, which stands out with a 1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Northern J^ribes of Central Australia Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Aus- (London, 1904), p. 71. tralia (London, 1899), p. 61 ; id., VOL. II O 226 JA COB'S MA RRIA GE FART 1 1 sort of massive grandeur in the dual organization, is frittered away, as it were, into small pieces under totemism of the normal type. Of this process of detrition the new licence granted in certain cases to the marriage of ortho-cousins is a conspicuous instance. it seems I have spoken of two-class exogamy or the dual organi- probabie za tion as if it preceded totemic exogamy in order of time that the exogamy of and was afterwards superseded by it. The evidence in danTever' - favour of tnat conclusion I believe to be strong. In fact, where totemic exogamy would seem to have been a parasitic in'fhe^ 6 organism which fastened upon and finally killed its host, system of namely, class exogamy. If we may judge from the totemic exogam S y, system and traditions of Central Australia, where totemism whichithas j s found in its most primitive form, what happened was this. 1 agreatpart Originally the rule of exogamy was unknown in the totemic of the clans ; indeed, far from being forbidden to marry women of area now . -111 'occupiedby his own totemic clan, men married them by preference. totemism. Afterwards the growing aversion to the marriage of near kin resulted in a practical reform, which divided the whole tribe into two exogamous classes, with a rule, as the name exo- gamous implies, that no man might marry a woman of his own class but that every man might marry a woman of the other class only. In pursuance of this division of the tribe some of the totemic clans were placed in the one exogamous class and some in the other, with the necessary result that all of them became thenceforth exogamous, which they had not been before. In time the exogamous rule of the two classes was found to be burdensome, since it cut off every man in the tribe, roughly speaking, from half the women of the community. Hence it came more and more to be neglected, and men were content to observe the exogamous rule of their own particular totemic clan, which, if there were many totemic clans, only cut them off from a comparatively small fraction of the women. Thus the yoke of the exo- gamous prohibitions was immensely lightened by substituting the rule of totemic exogamy for the rule of class exogamy, in fact by gradually dropping the exogamous classes alto- gether. Thus it has come about that while totemism, with 1 With what follows compare sq., 162 sq., 165 sqq., 256 sqq., iv. Totemism and Exogamy, i. *IO3, 123 127 sqq. CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 227 its rule of exogamy applied to the totemic clans, has con- tinued to survive down to modern times over a considerable part of the world, the two-class system of exogamy, which was the parent of totemic exogamy, has totally disappeared over a great portion of that vast area, having been eaten up by its unnatural offspring. But wherever we find totemism with its characteristic rule of exogamy applied to the totemic clans, we may strongly suspect that there was once the two-class system of exogamy, in other words, the dual organization of society. Thus totemism, wherever it exists, affords a presumption Second. of the former existence of the dual organization or the m ^fs ard division of a community into two exogamous and inter- ciassifi- marrying classes. But I have said that a second argument ca ^ or in favour of the former existence of the dual organization system of is afforded by the classificatory or group system of relation- ^vjdence ship, wherever that system of relationship is found. To a of the consideration of that system we must now turn for a short prevalence time. The system is well worthy of attention, for it of the dual forms one of the great landmarks in the history of mankind, tion. The distinction between the classificatory and the descriptive Coiiec- systems of relationship, or as I should prefer to put it, the tlvlsr distinction between the system of group relationship and versus indi- the system of individual relationship, coincides, broadly speaking, with the distinction between savagery and civiliza- civilization. tion ; the boundary between the lower and the higher strata of humanity runs approximately on the line between the two different modes of counting kin, the one mode counting it by groups, the other by individuals. 1 Reduced to its most general terms, the line of cleavage is between collectivism and individualism : savagery stands on the side of collect- ivism, civilization stands on the side of individualism. The classificatory or group system of relationship, which The ciassi- the evidence tends more and more to prove to be practically ficatoi r r J system of universal among savages and even among some peoples who relation- have advanced considerably beyond the stage of savagery, ^P^^ is essentially a system of relationship between groups. 2 relation- ship 1 Compare Totemism and Exogamy , xxiv. (1895) p. 367; (Sir) Baldwin between iv. 151 sq. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Northern groups of - Compare Lorimer Fison, " The Tribes of Central Australia (London, peopte Ckssificatory System of Relationship," 1904), p. 95 ; Totemism and Exogamy, f| Journal of the Anthropological Institute, i. 286 sqq., 289 sqq. df vT 228 JA COS'S MA RRIA GE PART 1 1 Under it every man applies the term father to a whole group of men, only one of whom begat him ; he applies the term mother to a whole group of women, only one of whom bore him ; he applies the term brother to a whole group of men with most or even all of whom he may have no blood relationship ; he applies the term sister to a whole group of women with most or even all of whom he may in like manner have no blood relationship ; he applies the name wife to a whole group of women, with none of whom he need have marital relations, since he applies the term to all of them even before it is physically possible for him to marry any one of them ; he applies the term son to a whole group of men, not one of whom he may have begotten, and many of whom may be much older than himself ; and he applies the name daughter in like manner to a whole group of women, not one of whom he may have begotten, and many of whom may be much older not only than himself but than his mother. And similarly with the terms express- ive of more distant relationships ; they too are stretched so as to include whole groups of persons of both sexes with whom the speaker need not have a drop of blood in common. This extraordinary elasticity in the use of terms of relation- ship is at first very bewildering to a European, accustomed to the rigidity of his own system of individual relationship, and he is apt to mistake the elasticity for vagueness and confusion. But that is not so. - On the contrary, where the system exists in full force, as among the aborigines of Australia, it is much more precise and definite than ours ; under it every man knows to a hair's breadth the exact relationship in which he stands to all the other men and all the women of the community. More than that, when a stranger comes into an Australian tribe, the first thing his hosts do is to ascertain precisely the various degrees of kin- ship which can be traced between him and them all ; and if he cannot furnish the necessary particulars he stands a very fair chance of being summarily knocked on the head. 1 1 Compare A. R. Brown, " Three to a camp that he has never visited Tribes of Western Australia," Journal before, he does not enter the camp, of the Royal Anthropological Institute, but remains at some distance. A xliii. (1913) pp. 150 sq., who says few of the older men, after a while, (p. 151), "When a stranger comes approach him, and the first thing they CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MAY NOT MARRY 229 This extremely elastic system of relationship possesses The ciassi- at least one conspicuous advantage in that, by greatly ex- o^^up tending the group of women in which a man is compelled system of , . rt* relation- to seek a wife, it relieves him to some extent from the ship greatly limitations imposed on his matrimonial freedom by the extends the numerous and often burdensome rules which he deems him- wom en self bound to observe in choosing a mate, and which, but whom * man is free for the relief thus afforded him, might frequently doom him to marry. to a life of celibacy for want of any woman whom he might legitimately marry. For example, when it is prescribed that a man ought to marry a particular sort of first or second cousin, it may often happen that he has no woman who stands to him in that relationship by blood, and that consequently he might, on our European system of kinship, be reduced to the alternative of breaking the law or remain- ing a bachelor for the rest of his days. In this painful dilemma the classificatory or group system of relationship comes to his rescue by pointing out to him that he need not confine his young affections to- the narrow circle of his blood cousins, which indeed, in the case supposed, has con- tracted to the vanishing point, but that he may extend them to a very much larger circle of classificatory or group cousins, to any one of whom, nay to all of them, he is at perfect liberty to offer his heart and his hand. In this way the shrewd savage contrives to slip through the meshes of the matrimonial net which his elaborate system of marriage restrictions casts about his feet. While he lays a burden on his back with one hand, he manages to lighten it consider- ably with the other. What is the origin of this remarkable system of classi- ficatory or group relationship, which appears from one point of view so rigid, and from another point 6f view so elastic, proceed to do is to find out who the men and women are pointed out to him stranger is. The commonest question and their relation to him defined. . . . that is put to him is, ' Who is your If I am a blackfellow and meet another maeli ? ' (father's father). The discus- blackfellow, that other must be either sion proceeds on genealogical lines until my relative or my enemy. If he is all parties are satisfied of the exact rela- my enemy I shall take the first oppor- tion of the stranger to each of the tunity of killing him, for fear he will natives present in the camp. When this kill me. This, before the white man point is reached, the stranger can be came, was the aboriginal view of one's admitted to the camp, and the different duty towards one's neighbour." 230 JACOB'S MARRIAGE at once so exacting and so accommodating? It appears to have originated in, and to reflect as in a mirror, a system of group marriage, that is, the marital rights exercised by a definite group of men over a definite group of women at a time when individual marriage, or the appropriation of one woman by one man, was still unknown. 1 The relations constituted by the rights of the groups of men over the groups of women are expressed and, as it were, crystallized in the system of group relationship, which has survived in many parts of the world long after the system of group marriage has disappeared. The system of group relation- ship may be compared to a cast taken of the living system of group marriage : that cast represents the original in all the minute details of its organic structure, and continues to record it for the instruction of posterity long after the organism itself is dead and mouldered into dust. In Central Australia the system of group marriage persisted, along with the system of group relationship, down to our own time ; 2 1 Compare Lorimer Fison, " The Classificatory System of Relationship," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. (1895) pp. 360^^.; (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 55 sqq. ; rid., Northern Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 95, 140 sqq. ; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South- East Australia, pp. 156 sqq. ; id., "Australian Group- Relationships, "Journal of the Royal A n- thropological Institute, xxxvii. (1907) p. 284; W. H. R. Rivers, "On the Origin of the Classificatory System of Relationship," Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor (Oxford, 1907), pp. 309 sqq. ; Totemism and Exogamy, i. 303 sqq., iv. 121 sqq. " The features of the Classificatory system of relationship as we find them at the present time have arisen out of a state of group-marriage. . . . The kind of society which most readily accounts for its chief features is one characterized by a form of marriage in which definite groups of men are the husbands of definite groups of women " (Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, op. cit. p. 323). This relation of a definite group of husbands to a definite group of wives is concisely and accurately described by the term "group marriage," which implies, first, the limitation of sexual relations to groups, and second, the recognition of these relations as legi- timate. Yet Dr. Rivers has since discarded it for the clumsier and less definite phrase " organized sexual com- munism " (Kinship and Social Organi- sation, London, 1914, p. 86), which fails to indicate that very limitation of sexual relations to definite groups on which Dr. Rivers himself justly lays emphasis, and which is clearly indicated by the term " group marriage." Hence it seems to me that the state of things in which, with Dr. Rivers, I believe the Classificatory system of relationship to have originated, is both more exactly and more conveniently described by the term "group marriage" than by the phrase " organized sexual com- munism/' 2 Particularly in the Dieri and Ura- bunna tribes. See A. W. Howitt, "The Dieri and other kindred tribes of Central Australia," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xx. (1891) pp. 53 sqq. ', id., Native Tribes of South- East Australia, pp. 175 sqq. ; (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT 'MARRY 231 and it is perhaps the only part of the world where the original and the cast have been found together, the one still superposed, as it were, on the other and fitting it to some extent, though not with perfect exactness ; for even here the living system of group marriage had shrunk and was probably wasting away. From a study of the Australian tribes, which have pre- in served both the cast and something of the original, in other Australia words, both the system of group relationship and the system the ciassi- / . * /- i 1 ft ficatory of group marriage, more perfectly than any other known or group race of men, we can define with some approach to exactness s y stem of relation- the nature and extent of the intermarrying groups on which ship is the terms of group relationship were modelled. Among the b ^ se Australian aborigines, these intermarrying groups are regu- of the larly two, four, or eight in number, according to the tribe ; ^ t 1^o lty for some tribes have two such exogamous groups, others exogamous have four, and others again have eight. 1 Where the system Carrying" is in full working order and has not fallen into obvious decay, groups or the number of the exogamous classes is invariably two or a Thef 63 multiple of two, never an odd number. This suggests, what division of the all the evidence tends to confirm, that these various groups Australian have been produced by the deliberate and repeated bisection communu y 1 ' L into two, of a community, first into two, then into four, and finally four, or into eight exogamous and intermarrying groups or classes ; eight for no one, so far as I know, has yet ventured to maintain classes that society is subject to a physical law, in virtue of which communities, like crystals, tend automatically and uncon- deliberate sciously to integrate or disintegrate, along rigid mathematical lines, into exactly symmetrical units. The effect of these suc- cessive dichotomies is of course to limit more and more the number of women with whom a man may lawfully have sexual relations. By the division of the community into two groups or classes, he is restricted in his choice, roughly speaking, to one half of the women ; by the division into four he is restricted to one fourth of the women ; and by the division into eight he is restricted to one eighth. It is not of course implied that a man has now, or indeed ever pp. 62 sq. ; fid., Northern Tribes of 363-373. Central Australia, pp. 72 sq. ; Totem- l On this subject see Toleniism and ism and Exogamy, i. 155, 308 sqq., Exogamy, i. 272 sqq., iv. 112 sqq. 232 JACOB'S MARRIAGE I-ART u had, sexual relations with all the women of the group into which he is allowed to marry ; but he calls all these women his wives, and while he now regularly has one or more women with whom he cohabits to the practical exclusion of others, it seems probable that this limitation has resulted from the same gradual shrinkage of the intermarrying groups which appears most conspicuously in the successive divisions of the community into two, four, and eight intermarrying classes. To put it otherwise, we may suppose that formerly the sexual relations between groups of men and women were much looser than they are now, that in fact men of one group much oftener exercised those marital rights over the women of the corresponding group which in theory they still possess, though practically they have to a great extent allowed them to fall into abeyance. The classi- It is important to observe that the classificatory or group systemof system of relationship appears to be based on the first of relation- these successive bisections, and on it alone. 1 There is no shin seems not to be sig n j so ^ ar as I know, that the system of relationship has affected been modified by the later subdivisions of the community divisions into four and eight classes ; and this conclusion is confirmed of the ky ^g observation that, while the classificatory or group community * _ _ into four system of relationship is found diffused over a large part exogamous ^ t ^ ie wor ^> tne system of four or eight exogamous classes classes has been discovered nowhere but in Australia, occur in ^ we see ^ to ascertain more definitely what marriages Australia, between persons of near kin these successive subdivisions The of the community were intended to bar, it will appear on successive division examination highly probable that the first division into two of the exogamous classes was intended primarily to bar the marriage community J into two, of brothers with sisters ; that the second division into four eight ai exogamous classes was intended primarily to bar the exogamous marriage of parents with children ; and that the third seems to division into eight exogamous classes was intended primarily have been to bar the marriage of cross-cousins, the children of a brother to bar the an< ^ f a sister respectively. 2 At least these were certainly mamage amongst the effects produced by the successive divisions, of various degrees of Compare Lorimer Fison, "The Exogamy, iv. 122 sqq. kin. Classificatory System of Relationship," 2 On this and what follows, compare Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Totemism and Exogamy, i. 271 sqq. t xxiv. (1895) p. 364; Totemism and iv. 112^. CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 233 and from the effects it is legitimate to argue back to the intentions. To take the first of these divisions, the evidence The points to the conclusion that the dual organization, or division of a community into two exogamous and inter- of the marrying classes, was introduced for the purpose of prevent- ing the marriage of brothers with sisters, which presumably exogamous classes had hitherto been lawful, though no doubt the feeling seems to against it had been growing long before it took definite have been * , intended shape in the dual organization. 1 hat organization, which to bar the may perhaps be described as the first great moral reforma- } l of brothers tion of which we have any record, absolutely prevented with sisters, these objectionable unions for the future by the very simple w expedient of assigning all the brothers and sisters of a been family to the same exogamous class and prohibiting all marriages between members of the same exogamous class. Henceforth, instead of marrying their own sisters, as men Henceforth had probably often, if not regularly, done before, they now |^^ d of ~ exchanged them in marriage for the sisters of men who marrying belonged to the other exogamous class : the exchange of sisters between the two exogamous and intermarrying exchanged classes became the regular mode of obtaining wives under marriage the new dual organization of society. No doubt the sister for the , ....... . sisters of whom a man gave m exchange lor a wife was sometimes m en of not his own sister, but his sister in the classificatory or the other i i 11 exogamous group sense, who might sometimes be what we should call class. his first cousin, the daughter either of his mother's sister or of his father's brother ; for these women would always belong to his own exogamous class, he would call them all sisters, and while he could not marry them, he was free to give them in exchange for wives, provided he obtained the con- sent of their blood relations, particularly of their own brothers, own fathers, or own mothers' brothers. But naturally a man who had sisters of his own to give away would exchange them rather than cousins or more distant relatives, since as a brother he could dispose of them with- out asking the leave of anybody, at all events when his father and mother's brother were dead. When the exchange of women in marriage was effected by their betrothal in infancy, it would usually be the girl's own father or own 234 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n mother's brother who would arrange to give her away and to get in return a girl of the other exogamous class as a wife for his son or his nephew; for though under the classifi- catory system a man would apply the name of daughter to all the women of the generation below his own either in his own or in his wife's exogamous class, according as descent was traced in the male or the female line, he would naturally have more power over his own daughters or over his own sister's daughters than over women who were more distantly related to him. Hence even under the classifi- catory system, which extends the notions of brothers and sisters, of fathers and daughters, far beyond those limits of consanguinity within which we confine them, it would generally be the own brother or the own father who would give his sister or daughter in exchange for a girl to be his own or his son's or his sister's son's wife. But even when the exchange is regularly arranged by a girl's father or mother's brother rather than by her own brother, the resulting matches are still in effect based on an exchange of sisters ; since each of the two men who gets a wife resigns a sister to be the wife of the other man. From the Thus the exchange of sisters, whether sisters in the full exchange Qr j n ^ e g rou p sense of the word, appears to have been marriage, the very pivot on which turned the great reform initiated formed the ^Y tne dual organization of society. Instead of marrying pivot of the their sisters, as they had often, perhaps regularly, done system or before, men now gave them away to other men, and received dual the sisters of these men as wives in return. But I have given tiojToT* reasons for thinking that the preference for the marriage of society, cross-cousins flowed directly from the custom of exchanging: probably T r i r flowed sisters in marriage. If that is so, the preference may well date directly the f rom {f ft jj^ no t precede, the remote time when the custom custom of * cross- of exchange was first systematized as the fundamental base of the new organization of society in two exogamous classes. marriage. * The nearness of blood between the married cousins was, perhaps, regarded at first rather as an advantage than other- wise ; it continued in a mitigated form that fusion of kindred blood which had been effected in a far stronger i form by the old marriage of brothers with sisters ; it was a compromise between the views of the conservatives, who CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 235 preferred the old marriage with sisters, and the views of the liberals, who preferred the new marriage with cousins. But On the it was only the marriage of cross-cousins which the new hLkithe system permitted ; the marriage of ortho-cousins was barred marriage from the very foundation of that system by the rule which ousins placed the children of brothers in the same exogamous class, wa s barred and the children of sisters in the same exogamous class, and beginning therefore forbade the children of one brother to marry the b y the children of another brother, and the children of one sister to system marry the children of another sister. Thus the preference ordual J t . -. ' organ iza- for some marriages of cousins and the prohibition of others tion. are probably at least as old as the first institution of a marri- age system based upon prohibited degrees of consanguinity. But here a distinction must be drawn between the The preference and the prohibition ; for while the prohibition is preference perhaps not older than the dual organization, it is possible marriage and indeed probable that the practice of cousin marriage ofcross -. *= cousins is and the preference for it long preceded the two - class probably system of exogamy. For doubtless it would be a mistake to ^l^ n imagine that the formal introduction of that system made a class great and sudden break in the marriage customs of the exogamy, people who adopted it ; that the day before the new code which became law, everybody had married his sister, and that the day after it became law, everybody married his cross-cousin a cu stom 7 ,, . which had instead. That is not the way in which legislative changes long been are effected either in savage or in civilized society. Every- sr wm s m . favour, and where a new law, which has been passed, not by the arbitrary forbade a fiat of a despot, but with the general consent of the people, ^ merely expresses, defines, and prescribes a certain course of of brothers action which has long been voluntarily pursued by many "'h individuals and which is in harmony with the general senti- long been ments of the community. The new law simply renders d^sfav^ur' obligatory and universal a practice which before had been and disuse. optional and partial or even general : it converts the usage of many into a rule for all, and in doing so it punishes as a crime what till then had been only a fault or indiscretion, condemned by public opinion but not repressed by public authority. Hence, to take the particular case with which we are here concerned, we must suppose that the prohibition of the marriage of brothers with sisters, which the two-class 236 JACOB'S MARRIAGE system of exogamy involves, merely followed instead of leading the general current of popular sentiment which had long been running against these close consanguineous unions. Such marriages, we may assume, had for generations excited the reprobation of the community and had been gradually falling more and more into desuetude before they were finally abolished by the dual organization. And just as, in the ages which preceded that great era in the history of society, the marriage of brothers with sisters had been steadily growing rarer and rarer, so on the other hand it is reason- able to suppose that the exchange of sisters in marriage and its natural sequence, the marriage of cross-cousins, had been becoming commoner and commoner, till at last with the institution of two-class exogamy the marriage with sisters was absolutely prohibited and the marriage with cross- cousins was raised to the preferential position which it still occupies among many races. The view that the dual organization or division of a community into two exogamous and intermarrying classes sprang from an aversion to the marriages of brothers with sisters and a deliberate attempt to prevent them, is strengthened by a consideration of the customs with regard to cousin marriages in Australia, the country where, on account of the backward state of the aborigines, the ancient dual organization survived in its fullest form down to our own time, and where consequently the early history of marriage can be studied to the best advantage. We have seen that in two tribes, the Urabunna and Dieri, who live side by side under entirely similar physical conditions and with precisely the same form of social organization, the rule as to the marriage of cousins is very different ; for while the one tribe (the Urabunna) enjoins a man to marry his cross- cousin, the other tribe (the Dieri) absolutely forbids him to marry her, but enjoins him to marry his second cousin, or rather one particular kind of second cousin. In comparing this remarkable difference of usage between the two tribes, I said that the Dieri custom of prohibiting the marriages of cross-cousins was doubtless later than the Urabunna custom of encouraging them, and -that it marked a step upward on the ladder of social progress. It may have occurred to some CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 237 of my readers to question that statement, and to ask whether For the the change may not have taken place in the opposite direc- en ^ ir |^ h tion. Why, it may be asked, should not the Dieri custom marriages, of prohibiting the marriage of first cousins be the original f r bid ieri practice, and the Urabunna custom of encouraging it be a them . and later relaxation of the strict old rule ? Why should not the ha e ve ru Urabunna have taken a step down the ladder in the direc- devised an tion of encouraging consanguineous marriages, instead of the system of Dieri taking a step up the ladder in the direction of for- ei s ht exogamoiiF bidding such marriages ? I think that a very good reason classes to can be given for holding that the Dieri rule is the later and P"" event them. more advanced, the Urabunna the earlier and more primitive. It is to be observed, in the first place, that the marriage of cross-cousins is not barred by the class system of the Dieri, which is identical with that of the Urabunna ; the prohibi- tion of such unions is a fresh restriction on the freedom of marriage superadded by the Dieri to the restrictions of their class system but not yet incorporated in that system. But in a large group of tribes in Central Australia, of whom the Arunta may be regarded as typical, this scruple as to the marriage of cross-cousins is carried much further, for it is actually incorporated in their system of exogamous classes, which have been multiplied to eight in number, apparently for the purpose, as I have already indicated, of preventing the marriage of cross-cousins. This purpose is effected by the division of the community into eight exogamous and intermarrying classes, combined with rules of descent which ensure that cross-cousins never fall into classes that are marriageable with each other. Now it is as certain as any- thing of the kind can be that the elaborate system of eight exogamous classes, with its intricate rules of descent, is later in origin than the simple two-class system and has been developed out of it through an intermediate system of four classes, which is still found in many Australian tribes. Hence if, as seems probable, this complicated system of eight exo- gamous classes was ingeniously devised for the special purpose of prohibiting those marriages of cross - cousins which it unquestionably prevents, we may fairly infer that the Arunta and all the other tribes, who have adopted the eight-class system, represent a further advance from con- 238 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Thus in the Urabunna, the Dieri, and the Arunta we see three successive stages in the evolution of social laws forbidding the marriage of near kin. The four- class system of exogamy, which is inter- mediate between the two-class system and the eight-class System in certain Australian tribes, appears to have been devised sanguineous marriage than the Dieri, who, adhering to the old two-class system, are content simply to prohibit the marriage of cross-cousins without incorporating the prohibi- tion in their exogamous system, which would have had to be completely recast to receive it. Thus in the Urabunna, the Dieri, and the Arunta, three neighbouring tribes of Central Australia, we can discern three distinct and successive stages in the evolution of the social laws discountenancing and forbidding the marriage of near kin. In the Urabunna the marriage of brothers and sisters is prevented by their class system, but the marriage of cross-cousins is left open by their system and positively encouraged by custom. In the Dieri, the marriage of cross-cousins is still left open by the class system, but is prohibited by custom. In the Arunta the marriage of cross -cousins is prohibited not only by custom but by the class system, which has been profoundly modified and elaborated in order to include the prohibition. Thus the three tribes form a series in which the successive stages of social and moral progress are clearly marked. And as the system of eight exogamous classes extends among the Australian tribes from the Arunta in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north, we may infer that the objection to the marriage of cross-cousins is strongly felt by all the aborigines over that wide area. Having said so much about the two-class system and the eight-class system of exogamy in Australian tribes, I may add a few words about the intermediate system of four classes, though it is not immediately connected with the marriage of cousins. As the two-class system seems to have been introduced primarily to prevent the marriage of brothers with sisters, so the four-class system seems to have been introduced primarily to prevent the marriage of parents with children. 1 The two-class system, while it was apparently directed in the first place against the marriage of brothers with sisters, incidentally prevented the marriage of a child with one parent, but not with both ; it prevented the marriage of a mother with her son when descent was traced 1 This was clearly pointed out long a S ^y tne l a t e Dr. A. W. Howitt, in his important paper, "Notes on the Australian Class Systems," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xii. (1883) pp. 496 sqq. CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 239 in the female line, because the son thus belonged to his for the mother's exogamous class, and therefore the two, as members P 111 "? 056 of completely of one and the same exogamous group, could not unite in preventing marriage. But the two- class system with descent in the the J marriage female line presented no obstacle to the marriage of a father of parents with his daughter, since she belonged to her mother's class, Children which was the very one into which he might and must marry, which had On the other hand, when descent was traced in the male line, par [j a i"/ the effects were just the converse. A father was prevented prevented from marrying his daughter, because she belonged to his own two-dass exogamous class, and the two were therefore not marriageable. s )' stem - But the mother was free to marry her son, since he belonged to his father's class, which was the very one into which she might and must marry. It seems probable, therefore, that cases of marriage between parents and children, in the one form or the other, may have occurred not infrequently even after the introduction of the two-class system, which, whethei combined with male or with female descent of the class, could only bar one half of such incestuous unions. The introduction of the four-class system barred all such marriages. The fundamental defect of the two-class system was that by always placing children in the exogamous class into which one of the parents was bound to marry, it left the door open to marriage either of a father with his daughter or of a mother with her son, according as descent of the class was reckoned in the female or in the male line. This door to incest the four-class system closed neatly and effectively by ordaining that children should never belong to the class either of their father or of their mother, but that they should always belong to a class into which neither their father nor their mother might marry. Henceforward, so long as the class laws were observed, incest between parents and children, either in the one form or in the other, was rendered impossible. Bm the But the four-class system, while it barred all marriages four-class between parents and children, did not bar the marriage of ^5^,. t ' he cross-cousins. Hence to stop that form of union, to which marriage the growing scruple as to the marriage of near kin created cousins- to a serious objection, it was necessary to subdivide the class effect that system still further. The result was the creation of the eight-class eight-class system, the most elaborate form of social organiza- s y stem yas * created m some tribes 240 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II If the dual organiza- tion was the source of the systematic distinction between cross- cousins and ortho- cousins in respect of marriage, we should expect to find traces of it, in the form either of totemic exogamy or of the classifica- tory system, wherever that dis- tion is recog- nized. The facts conform to this expecta- tion. tion known in aboriginal Australia and, perhaps, in the world. The whole complicated structure was produced, we can hardly doubt, by a series of successive divisions and subdivisions into two, four, and eight exogamous classes, with rules of descent of increasing intricacy, in order to meet the growing demands of popular opinion by suppressing, one after another, forms of marriage which, in the earlier stages, had been allowed or even expressly encouraged and enjoined. In its higher developments of the four-class and eight-class systems this remarkable institution seems to be, as I have said, peculiar to aboriginal Australia ; at least it has not so far been discovered elsewhere in any part of the world. On the other hand the comparatively simple dual organization or two-class system has probably, as we saw, prevailed over at least half the globe. From the foregoing discussion we conclude that wherever totemic exogamy and the classificatory or group system of relationship are found, either separately or in conjunction, they point to the former existence of the dual organization or two- class system of exogamy in the people who possess one or both of these institutions. But the dual organization, if I am right, was the source both of the systematic preference for the marri- age of cross-cousins and of the systematic prohibition of the marriage of ortho-cousins. Hence wherever the dual organiza- tion exists or has formerly existed, we may expect to find the preference for the marriage of cross-cousins and the prohibi- tion of the marriage of ortho-cousins. At the beginning of our inquiry we mapped out roughly the geographical and racial area in which such marriages are preferred or prohibited. It remains to compare that area with the area in which, to judge from the presence either of totemic exogamy or of the classifi- catory system of relationship, the dual- organization may be supposed to have formerly prevailed. If the area of cousin marriage should be found to coincide more or less closely with the area of the dual organization, it will furnish a strong addi- tional reason for believing that the two institutions are vitally connected. Accordingly I shall briefly compare the two areas ; and to anticipate the result of the comparison I may say that, so far as the imperfect evidence at our disposal per- mits us to judge, the two areas appear to coincide exactly. CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 241 In the first place we found the marriage of cross-cousins Cousin regularly favoured, and the marriage of ortho-cousins regularly ^ prohibited among the indigenous races of Southern and exogamy, Central India, particularly among the peoples of the Dravidian ciLsifica- stock. Now the Dravidians are in possession of a complete tory system and typical system of the classificatory or group system of Dravidians relationship ; l and totemism, in its ordinary exogamous form, of Iudia - is recorded of so many of their tribes and castes 2 that it may safely be regarded as characteristic of the race. Here, then, the areas of cousin marriage and of the dual organization, as attested both by totemism and by the classificatory system of relationship, absolutely coincide. Further, we saw that the marriage of cross-cousins is Cousin favoured above all other forms of marriage by the Singhalese ^e 1 ? 6 ' and Veddas of Ceylon, and by the Todas of Southern India, 3 exogamy, and all these three peoples possess the classificatory or group ciLsifka- system of relationship, though not totemism. 4 Again, we tory system have seen that the marriage of cross-cousins is allowed, or race s O f even preferred, among some of the Mongoloid tribes of Asia and Assam, such as the Mikirs, the Garos, and the Khasis. Of these tribes the Khasis and the Garos exhibit some traces of totemism, and the Mikirs show some traces of the classifi- catory or group system of relationship. 6 But if one of these tribes possesses the classificatory or group system of relation- ship, it is probable that all of them do so, though demonstra- tion on this important point is still lacking. 7 Again, we have 1 L. H. Morgan, Systems of Con- and B. Seligmann, The Veddas (Cam- sanguinity and Affinity of the Human bridge, 1911), pp. 63 sqq. Family (Washington City, 1871), pp. 5 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 321 385 sqq. (Smithsonian Contributions to sq., 323 sq. Knowledge, No. 218); Totemism and 6 The Mikirs, from the papers of the Exogamy, ii. 330 sqq. late Edward Stack, edited by Sir Charles 2 Tolemism and Exogamy, ii. 218 Lyall (London, 1908), pp. 20 sq. sqq. More evidence is to be found in Among the traces are separate names the late R. V. Russell's valuable Tribes for elder brother and younger brother, and Castes of the Central Provinces of for elder sister and younger sister. The India (London, 1916), which has pro- same term (osa) is applied to a sister's vided us with much evidence as to the son and a son-in-law, which points to prevalence of cousin marriage among the popularity of marriages between the same tribes (above, pp. 1 20 sqq.). cross-cousins. 3 Above, pp. 102, 103. 7 In order to ascertain the systems * Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 266 of relationship among the hill tribes sqq. (Todas), 333 sq. (Singhalese) ; W. of Assam, Sir Charles Lyall was so H. R. Rivers, The Todas (London, good as to write for me to Colonel 1906), pp. 483-494 ; C. G. Seligmann P. R. T. Gurdon, Commissioner of the VOL. II R 242 JACOB'S MARRIAGE TARTU seen that the marriage of cousins is very, common among the Burmese and almost compulsory among the Karens. 1 Now both these peoples possess the classificatory or group system of relationship, 2 though not totemism. Further, we found that the marriage of cousins, particularly of cross-cousins, flourishes, or has flourished, among the tribes of North- Eastern Asia, such as the Gilyaks, Kamchadales, Chukchee, and Koryaks ; 3 and among these tribes the classificatory or group system of relationship appears to be universally prevalent. 4 Among the aboriginal races of North America, both of the Eskimo and of the Indian stock, we found some evidence of the custom of cousin marriage, but I gave reasons for thinking that the custom has probably been much commoner among these peoples than appears from the very scanty information we possess on the subject. 5 Now both the Eskimo and the Indians possess the classificatory or group system of relationship, and among the Indians totemism is very general, though not universal. 6 Cous . in In Africa we found the custom of marriage between first totemism, or second cousins widely spread among the black races both and the o f fa e Bantu and of the true negro stock. Now among classifica- tory system Bantu tribes at the present time both totemism and the m Africa, classificatory or group system of relationship are so prevalent Assam Valley Districts, who promptly J Above, pp. 135 sqq. instituted inquiries accordingly. Asa 2 Lewis H. Morgan, Systems of Con- result the terms of relationship in use sanguinity and Affinity of the Human among many of the tribes have been Family (Washington City, 1871), pp. recorded and will soon, I hope, be pub- 517 sqq. lished. In the meantime Colonel 3 Above, pp. 138 sqq. Gurdon has generously placed his manu- 4 Leo Sternberg, "The Turano- script collections in my hands, with Ganowanian System and the nations permission to use them. From a of North-East Asia," pp. 328 sqq. (re- cursory inspection I gather some indi- printed from the Proceedings of the cations of the classificatory system of Eighteenth International Congress of relationship in several of the tribes. Americanists}. Thus there are distinct terms for elder 6 Above, pp. 140 sqq. and younger brother, and for elder and 6 As to totemism and the classifica- younger sister in the Khasl, Garo, tory or group system of relationship Synteng, and Kachari languages, as among the Indians of North America, well as in the Mikir ; and a father's see Totemism and Exogamy ', iii. i sqq. elder and younger brothers are called As to the American Indian system of great fathers and little fathers respect- relationship, see Lewis H. Morgan, ively in the Khasl, Synteng, and Kuki Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity languages. In the Kuki language the of the Human Family, pp. 131 sqq.; terms for these relatives are Bara Bap as to the Eskimo system of relationship, and Chuta Bap. see id. , pp. 275 sqq. CHAP, vi WHY OR 777<9- CO US INS MA Y NOT MARR Y 243 that they may safely be regarded as characteristic of the Bantu family. 1 Among the true negroes totemism is very common, but there is very little evidence that any of them have the classificatory or group system of relationship. 2 Again, we found the marriage of cross-cousins permitted or enjoined in various parts of Indonesia. One of the peoples who particularly encourage that form of marriage are the Bataks of Sumatra ; and they certainly have totemism, and apparently the classificatory or group system of relationship also. 3 Traces more or less clear of the same two institu- 1 For the evidence, see Totemism ana Exogamy, ii. 354 sqq. The evidence for the prevalence of totemism among the Bantus could now be considerably increased. See Henri A. Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe (Neu- chatel, 1912-1913), i. 335 sq. ; H. S. Stannus, "Notes on some tribes of. British East Africa," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xl. (1910) pp. 307 sq. ; J. A. Chisholm, " Notes on the manners and customs of the Winamwanga and Wiwa," Journal of the African Society, No. xxxvi. (July 1910) pp. 383 sq. ; C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1911), pp. 93 sqq., 172 sq. ; Mgr. Lechaptois, Aux Rives du Tanganika (Algiers, 1913), pp. 131 sqq.; H. Rehse, Kiziba, Land und Leute (Stutt- gart, 1910), pp. 4-7 ; H. Claus, Die Wagogo (Leipsic and Berlin, 1911), pp. 48 sq. (Baessler-Archiv] ; Otto Dempwolff, " Beitrage zur Volks- beschreibung der Hehe," Baessler- Archiv, iv. (1914) pp. 100 sqq. ; C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A-Kamba (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 4 sqq., IO2, 157, 161, 170; M. W. H. Beech, The Suk, their Language and Folklore (Oxford, 1911), p. 5 ; A. C. Cham- pion, " The Atharaka," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xlii. (1912) pp. 88 sq. ; Hon. Kenneth R. Dundas, "The Wawanga and other tribes of the Elgon District, British East Africa," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. (1913) pp. 30 sq. , 59 sqq. ; John Roscoe, 7 he Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 27 sqq., 116 sq., 148, 204^^., 261 sq.; M. A. Condon, "Contri- butions to the Ethnography of the Basoga-Batamba, Uganda Protector- ate," Anthropos, vi. {1911) pp. 380 sq. ; Rev. J. H. Weeks, ' ' Notes on the Bangala of the Upper Congo River, " Journal of the Royal Anthropo- logical Institute, xl. (1910) pp. 365 sq. ; id., Among Congo Cannibals (London, 1913), pp. 131 sq., 294^^. ; H. Trilles, Le 7*ottmisme chez les Fan (Miinster-i.-W., 1912). For further evidence of the prevalence of the classi- ficatory system of relationship among Bantu tribes, see Rev. Herbert Barnes, Nyanja-English Vocabulary (London, 1902), pp. 86 sq. ; Otto Dempwolff, ' ' Beitrage zur Volksbeschreibung der Hehe," Baessler-Archiv, iv. (1914) pp. 103 sq. ; John H. Weeks, Among the Primitive Bakongo (London, 1914), pp. 306 sq. ; John Roscoe, The North- ern Bantu, pp. 32 sqq., 118, 273 sq., 292 sq. 2 As to totemism among the negroes, see Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 543 sqq. For more evidence, see H. Bazin, " Les Bambara et leur langue," Anthropos, i. (1906) p. 688 ; J. Brun, " Le Tote"misme chezquelques peuples du Soudan Occidental," Anthropos, v. (1910) pp. 843-869 ; Fr. Wolf, " Totemismus, soziale Gliederung und Rechtspflege bei einigen Stammen Togos (Westafrika)," Anthropos, vi. (1911) pp. 449-462; A. J. N. Tre- mearne, The Ban of the Bori (London, N. D.), pp. 32 sqq. For traces of the classificatory or group system of rela- tionship among the negroes, see Totem- ism and Exogamy, ii. 575 sq. 3 Totemism and 'Exogamy, ii. Cousin marriage, totemism, and the classifica- tory system in the Indian Archi- pelago, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Australia. 244 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n tions meet us in other parts of Sumatra and elsewhere in the Indian Archipelago. 1 Further, we saw that in various parts of Melanesia, including Fiji, cross-cousins are allowed or even expected to marry each other. Now throughout Melanesia the classificatory or group system of relationship appears to be universally prevalent ; the system is known to flourish in a very characteristic form in Fiji, and traces more or less distinct of totemism have been discovered in Fiji and other Melanesian islands. 2 In Polynesia, on the other hand, we saw that the marriage of all" first cousins is gener- ally prohibited, and only in very exceptional cases permitted. Yet, when we consider the example of Australia, where the marriage of cross-cousins is encouraged by some tribes and absolutely forbidden by others, we may reasonably conjecture that among the Polynesians also the marriage of cross-cousins was formerly regarded as very suitable, and that it was only barred at a later time in consequence of that growing aversion to consanguineous marriages which is so clearly traceable among the aborigines of Australia. With this hypothesis it is entirely consistent that the classificatory or group system of relationship appears to be universally prevalent in Poly- nesia, and that more or less distinct traces of totemism can be detected among some branches of the widely scattered Poly- nesian race, particularly among the Samoans. 3 Lastly, among the Australian aborigines, some of whom encourage 1 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 190 Report of the Eleventh Meeting of the sqq. As to the classificatory or group Australasian Association for the Ad- system of relationship in Indonesia, vancement of Science, held at Adelaide, see F. D. E. van Ossenbruggen's note iqoj, pp. 209 sqq. ; Rev. W. E. in G. A.^Wilken, De verspreide Ge- Bromilow, "Some Manners and Cus- schriften (The Hague, 1912), i. 141 toms of the Dobuans of South-East note '. Papua," Report of the Twelfth Meeting 2 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 63 of the Australasian Association for the sqq. For more evidence of totemism Advancement of Science, held at Bris- in Melanesia, see R. Thurnwald, " Im bane, 1909, p. 475 ; George Brown, Bismarckarchipel und auf den Salomo- D.D., Melanesians and Polynesians Inseln," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, (London, 1910), pp. 27 sqq. W. H. xlii. (1910) p. 124; id. , Forschungen R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian auf den Salomo-Inseln iind dem Bis- Society (Cambridge, 1914), ii. 75 sqq. marckarchipel, iii. (Berlin, 1912) pp. As to the classificatory or group system 6 1 sq. ; C. E. Fox and F. H. Drew, of relationship in Melanesia, see further, "Beliefs and Tales of San Cristoval W. H. R. Rivers, The History of (Solomon Islands)," Journal of the Melanesian Society, ii. qsqq., \T$sqq. Royal Anthropological Institute, xlv. (1915) pp. 132 sq., 161 sqq. ; R. 3 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 151 Parkinson, " Totemism in Melanesia," sqq. CHAP, vi WHY ORTHO-COUSINS MA Y NOT MARRY 24$ and others forbid the marriage of cross-cousins, the institu- tions of totemism and' the classificatory or group system of relationship appear to have been universally prevalent. 1 Thus, finding the preference for cross-cousin marriage and Thus the the prohibition of ortho-cousin marriage almost everywhere Across - 6 associated either with totemic exogamy, or with the classi- cousin ficatory system of relationship, or with both of them together, ^^hf e we may infer with some probability that the three institutions prohibition are vitally connected with each other ; and if I am right in cousin thinking that totemic exogamy and the classificatory system marna s e of relationship flow directly from the organization of society flow in two exogamous classes, 2 it will follow that the preference Directly for cross-cousin marriage and the prohibition of ortho-cousin the dual marriage are also vitally connected with the dual organiza- tion. What the exact nature of that connexion was, I have which, or endeavoured to indicate. If I am right, the preference for of'^j^ 065 the marriage of cross-cousins was a direct consequence of they are that interchange of sisters in marriage which formed the associated. 6 corner-stone of the dual organization of society in two exogamous and intermarrying classes ; and the interchange, first of sisters and afterwards of cross-cousins in marriage, was prompted by the simplest of economic motives, the need of bartering one woman for another, since in the general poverty characteristic of low savagery a man had practically no other lawful mode of obtaining a wife. Finally, the marriage of ortho-cousins, who, regarded from the purely economic point of view, do not differ at all from cross-cousins, was barred by the dual organization from the very moment of its institution, because under that organization all such cousins necessarily fall into the same exogamous class, and are, therefore, prohibited from marrying each other. The general cause which I have assumed for the sue- The cessive changes in marriage customs which we have now p^ s ^ s in passed under review is a growing aversion to the marriage review of persons nearly related to each other by blood. Into the growing* aversion 1 Totemism and Exogamy, i. 175 tion. In my view, totemism existed to the sqq. before, probably long before, the intro- marriage of 2 I would ask the reader to observe duction of exogamy in the form of the near kin. that it is only totemic exogamy, and not two-class system. See Totemism and totemism itself, which I believe to be a Exogamy, i. 162 sqq., 251 sg, t 256 sqq., direct consequence of the dual organiza- iv. 8 sq., 74 sq., 127 sqq. 246 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II origin of that aversion I shall not here inquire ; the problem is one of the darkest and most difficult in the whole history of society. I shall merely point out that, so far as the custom of cousin marriage is concerned, this explanation is confirmed by the theory and practice of some of the peoples who object to such unions. Thus we have seen that several Australian tribes forbid the marriage of certain cousins for the express reason that these relatives are " too near " in flesh to marry. 1 Still more striking is the evidence furnished by some African tribes which, as we saw, expiate the mar- riage of certain cousins by severing the entrails of a sacrificial victim, in the belief that thereby they sever the tie of blood between the cousins. 2 Such practices prove that these people conceive the relationship between the cousins in the most concrete form as a bond of actual flesh and blood, which must be cut before the two persons may lawfully cohabit as husband and wife. In some places the custom of the cross- cousin marriage may have resulted from causes other than the exchange of sisters as wives. 14. An alternative Explanation of Cross-Cousin Marriage Thus far we have found what seems to be a simple and probable explanation of cross-cousin marriage in the custom of exchanging sisters as wives. But in this as in all in- quiries into the origin of institutions we must bear in mind that the simplest and most obvious explanations are by no means always the truest ; the evolution of custom and belief has often been extremely complex, and we may fall into serious error if we seek to unravel the tangled skein by a single clue. In particular, it is well to remember that customs which appear or are really alike may have had very different origins, since dissimilar causes may and often do produce similar effects. Hence it does not follow that, because the explanation which I have suggested of cross- cousin marriage is simple, it is necessarily true, nor even if it is true for some places, does it follow that it is true for all. We should be prepared to admit, in fact, that people may have arrived at the custom of marrying their cross-cousins by quite other roads than by the exchange of sisters. One such possible road has been pointed out by Dr. 1 Above, pp. 192 sq. 2 See above, pp. 162 sf., 165. CHAP, vi A THEORY O'F CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE 247 W. H. R. Rivers for Melanesia, in some parts of which, as A different we saw, the custom of cross - cousin marriage is much Jheorigin favoured. 1 The authority with which Dr. Rivers writes not of cross- only on Melanesia but on all questions of primitive marriage marriage in and relationship entitles his opinion to the most respectful Melanesia consideration. He was led to his explanation of cross- suggested cousin marriage in Melanesia by an examination of certain b y Dr - , * Rivers on anomalous terms of relationship which point, with great the ground probability, to correspondingly anomalous forms of marriage ; f certain ^ since we have good reason for believing that the classifi- forms of catory system of relationship, to which the Melanesian ^icTexLt systems conform, reflects accurately a system of marriage, in that whether present or past. The anomalous forms of marriage ^are thus indicated for Melanesia are marriage with a grand- traceable daughter, marriage with a grandmother, and marriage with O f re iatio- the wife of a mother's brother. 2 In speaking of marriage shi P- with a grandmother or a granddaughter we must remember that these terms are here used in the classificatory or group sense, and therefore do not necessarily denote the blood relations whom we should designate by them. Hence, the woman whom a man calls his granddaughter and whom he marries, need not be his actual granddaughter ; she may be, for example, his brother's granddaughter, in other words, his own grandniece. Similarly, the woman whom a man calls his grandmother and whom he marries, need not be his actual grandmother ; she may be, for example, another wife of his grandfather, in other words, his own step-grandmother. Nor are we left to infer the former prevalence of these Marriage anomalous marriages in Melanesia merely from the corre- ^ &n ^. spending terms of relationship ; strange as such unions mother, a appear to us, they are said to survive to some extent in daughter, and a 1 Above, pp. 177 sqq. mother. For marriage with either a mo ther's 2 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of son's daughter or with a mother's mother brother's Melanesian Society (Cambridge, 1914), is excluded by the two-class system of wife in i. 48, 185, 196 sqq., ii. 38, 46 sqq., exogamy with female descent, which Melanesia. 104, 326 ; id. " Melanesian Geronto- at present prevails in some parts of cracy," Meat, xv. (1915) pp. 145-147. Melanesia, and probably prevailed there To be exact, the marriage with a grand- universally at the time when these daughter is the marriage with a marriages were in vogue. Under that daughter's daughter, not with a son's system a son's daughter and a mother's daughter ; and the marriage with a mother always belong to a man's own grandmother is the marriage with a exogamous class, and therefore he is father's mother, not with a mother's prohibited from marrying them. 248 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART n popular custom or at all events tradition. For example, Dr. Rivers was definitely told that in the island of Pentecost, one of the New Hebrides, a man may and sometimes does marry the granddaughter of his brother, who would be his own granddaughter in the classificatory sense of the term, though not in ours. 1 Again, in several parts of Melanesia, particularly in the islands of Ambrym and Malo and at least two places in Espiritu Santo, Dr. Rivers found that a man marries the widow of his father's father, whom under the classificatory system of relationship he calls his grandmother, whether she is his actual grand- mother or not. 2 Finally, the custom of marriage with the widow of a mother's brother is still observed in various parts of Melanesia, such as the Banks' Islands, Hiw (Torres Islands), and several of the New Hebrides, including Pente- cost, Sandwich Island (Efate), and Espiritu Santo ; indeed, Dr. Rivers was informed that in more than one of these places men give their wives to their sisters' sons in their lifetime, in other words, a man sometimes marries his mother's brother's wife in the lifetime of his maternal uncle. 3 Thus there is good ground for believing that marriages with a granddaughter, a grandmother, and the wife of a maternal uncle either are or were formerly customary in some parts of Melanesia, though we must remember that in saying so we use the terms of relationship in the wide classificatory or group sense, which includes many persons not really related by blood. Dr.Rivers's To explain these curious forms of marriage Dr. Rivers expfana* 1 suggests the following hypothesis. He supposes that in tions of Melanesia, as in Australia, old men formerly contrived to anomalous appropriate the, women to a large extent, so that young men marriages, had often to go without wives or to put up with the widows or cast-off wives of their elders. The case is indeed not purely hypothetical ; it is said to be a regular feature of 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Rivers on the spot. Melanesian Society, \. 199,203^. The 2 W. H. R. Rivers, " Melanesian statement was made to Dr. Rivers by Gerontocracy," Man, xv. (1915) p. John Pantutun, a native of the Banks 146. Islands, who had lived for some time 3 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of in Pentecost. But it was not con- Melanesian Society, i. 48, 185, 206 ; firmed by the Rev. H. N. Urummond, id. " Melanesian Gerontocracy," JITan, who inquired into the subject for Dr. xv. (191 5) p. 146. CHAP, vi A THEORY OF CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE 249 society in many parts of the New Hebrides, where all young women capable of work are bought up by the old men,' and a young man, if he marries at all, must mate with an old widow. 1 In such a state of things, his partiality for female society, especially for the society of young women, might often lead an old man to marry his own granddaughter or his brother's granddaughter, instead of bestowing her hand on a youthful lover. This would explain the first of the anomalous forms of Melanesian marriage, namely, the mar- riage of a man with his granddaughter or with a woman whom under the classificatory system of relationship he would call his granddaughter. But sometimes, we may suppose, an old man so far yielded to the promptings of nature or to the urgent solicitations of his grandson as to resign one of his own numerous wives to the young man ; in fact, he might exchange one of his wives for the young man's sister. Thus the old man would be provided with a young wife, and the young man with an old one, as often happens in savage society. This would explain the second of the anomalous forms of marriage in Melanesia, namely, the marriage of a man with his grandmother, or at all events with an old woman whom he called his grandmother in the classificatory sense of the word. Lastly, since in primitive society a man stands in a specially close relationship to his sister's son, who indeed in some parts of Melanesia enjoys extraordinary privileges as against his maternal uncle, it would be natural for the uncle to pass on one of his super- fluous wives to his nephew, the son of his sister, as indeed is said to be done in some parts of the New Hebrides to this day. The custom, still observed in some parts of Melanesia, of marrying the widow of a mother's brother would thus be derived from an older custom of marrying a maternal uncle's wife in the lifetime of the uncle. This would explain the third of the anomalous forms of marriage in Melanesia, namely, the marriage of a man with the wife of his mother's brother. 2 It will be noticed that according to this theory, while the 1 W. H. R. Rivers, "Melanesian pp. 68, 81, 216. Gerontocracy," Man, xv. (1915) p. 147, referring to Felix Speiser, Sudsee, ' 2 W. H. R. Rivers, The History rf Unpaid, Kannibalen (Leipsic, 1913), Melanesian Society, ii. 46 sqq. 250 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Why a Melanesian father may not transfer his wives to his sons or to his daughter's sons. obliging old man accommodates his grandson or his sister's son with one of his cast-off wives, he makes no similar provision for his own son. A sufficient reason for the omission is that under the two-class system of exogamy with female descent, which at one time was probably universal in Melanesia, a man belongs to the same exogamous class as his mother and all the other wives of his father ; hence by the fundamental law of exogamy, which prohibits marriage between members of the same exogamous class, the father is prohibited from passing on any of these women to his son to be his wife. On the other hand, under the same system, a son's son always belongs to the same class as his paternal grandfather ; hence the two take their wives from the same class, and, so far as the law of exogamy is concerned, there is no objection to a grandfather bestowing one of his wives on his son's son. But he could not bestow her on his daughter's son, since that young man would belong to the same exogamous class as his maternal grand- mother and would therefore be debarred from the privilege of marrying the old lady or any other wife of his maternal grandfather. That is why in Melanesia a man might transfer his wives to his son's sons or to his sister's sons, but not to his own sons or to his daughter's sons. It is from the third of these anomalous marriages, namely, from the marriage with the wife of the mother's brother, that Dr. Rivers proposes to deduce the custom of cross -cousin marriage in Melanesia. He supposes that in course of time, when a man's relationship to his own children was generally recognized, and he had acquired the right of disposing of his daughters in marriage, it occurred to him that instead of passing on one of "his own wives to his sister's son he might give one of his daughters to that young man, the damsel's cross-cousin. If the same idea occurred to many men and were commonly acted upon, a custom of cross-cousin marriage would be the result. Once started, the new custom would prob- ably soon grow popular, since, compared with the preceding practice, it offered an attraction both to uncle and nephew ; the uncle was not obliged to sacrifice any of his wives, and the nephew secured a young wife instead of an old one. 1 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society, ii. 57 sqq., in sqq. t (21 sqq., 326 sqq. CHAP, vi A THEORY OF CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE 251 It cannot be denied that, given the conditions of society Objections as they are or may be inferred to have formerly been in | e ^. IS Melanesia, this ingenious hypothesis accounts for the origin a general of cousin marriage in a plausible manner ; the facts and the tbn^oT" inferences dovetail neatly into each other, and their corre- cross- spondence so far lends a degree of probability to the theory. Carriage. The evolution of cousin marriage may have followed this course in Melanesia, and Dr. Rivers is careful to point out that his speculations only apply to the institutions of Oceania, which includes Melanesia and Polynesia ; he leaves entirely open the question of the origin of cross - cousin marriage elsewhere, adding that in other parts of the world the custom may have originated in some simpler fashion than that which is suggested by his theory. 1 Regarded as a general explanation of cross-cousin marriage the theory would be open to the objections, first, that it assumes as its basis an anomalous form of marriage (the marriage with the mother's brother's wife) which appears to have been rare and exceptional in other parts of the world, 2 and which is there- fore unlikely to have been the source of a custom so common 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of 51). Thus the two cases are not Melanesian Society, ii. 123. really parallel, since in the Australian 2 As to marriage with the mother's case there is no question of a man brother's widow among the Garos, see voluntarily resigning his wife to his below, pp. 252 sqq. Among the tribes sister's son. There are traces of mar- of the Northern Territory of Australia riage with the mother's brothers wife "there is one method of allotment of among the Baronga and Baganda ol wives which is, so far as I am aware, Africa, and among the Pawnees, Minne- peculiar to this nation of tribes. I tarees, and Choctaws of North America, have not met with it in any of the Among the Baronga a man seems still Central tribes, nor does it seem to to possess marital rights over his have been noted elsewhere in Aus- mother's brother's wife ; in the other tralia. This method consists in the tribes the traces of such rights survive allotment to a man of a woman who only in the terms of the classificatory belongs to the generation immediately system. See Totemism and Exogamy, senior to himself, and who stands to ii. 387, 510 sq., iii. 149, 175 sq. ; and him in the relationship of Koiyu, that as to the American evidence, W. H. R. is, father's wife, or Ngaila, mother's Rivers, Kinship and Social Organiza- brother's wife. The Koiyu women, of tion (London, 1914), pp. 52 sq. In course, include his own actual mother, Totemism and Exogamy (ii. 511) I but that particular woman may not be remarked that the terms for cousins in allotted to him " (Sir Baldwin Spencer, the Mota form of the classificatory Native Tribes of the Northern Territory system suggest the exercise of marital of Australia, London, 1914, p. 47)- rights by a man over his mother's However, this allotment is not made, brother's wife, and that the suggestion as in the case supposed by Dr. Rivers, is confirmed by the extraordinary privi- by the woman's husband, but always leges which in Fiji a man enjoys as by her mother's brothers (pp. tit. p. against his mother's brother. 252 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Marriage with the mother's brother's wife regu- larly occurs among the Garos, but there it appears to be the effect rather than the cause of cross- cousin marriage. and widespread as the marriage of cross -cousins ; second, that it implies a combination of conditions which we can hardly suppose to have been independently repeated in many distant lands ; and, third, that it assumes the marriage of cross-cousins to have originated at a comparatively late time when the power of a father to dispose of his daughters had been fully established, whereas there is a good deal to suggest, as I have attempted to show, that the marriage of cross-cousins is exceedingly old, dating perhaps from a time even before the establishment of the dual organization or system of two exogamous and intermarrying classes. Be that as it may, there appears to be some ground for thinking that elsewhere than in Melanesia marriage with the mother's brother's wife, which Dr. Rivers regards as the source of the cross-cousin marriage, has been rather the consequence than the cause of that institution. We have seen that the cross-cousin marriage is in vogue among the Garos of Assam, a man being regularly expected- to marry the daughter of his mother's brother. 1 If he does so, he takes up his abode with his parents-in-law, and on the death of his father-in-law he is obliged to marry his widowed mother-in-law, his mother's brother's wife, who should also be his paternal aunt ; since among the Garos it is not only allowed but expected that men should exchange their sisters in marriage, and a neces- sary effect of this exchange is, as we saw, 2 that a man's paternal aunt is at the same time the wife of his mother's brother. Hence in this tribe a man is often the husband simultaneously of his mother's brother's wife and of her daughter, his cross-cousin ; but he marries his cross-cousin first and her mother afterwards as a consequence of his previous marriage with her daughter. In this case, there- fore, marriage with the mother's brother's wife is not the cause but the effect of marriage with the cross-cousin. And the motive for marrying the mother's brother's wife, who is at the same time the mother-in-law, is extremely simple. It appears to be neither more nor less than a wish to enjoy the old lady's property, which can only be got by marrying her. Among the Garos mother-kin prevails in one of its most typical forms, and under it no man can legally inherit 1 See above, pp. 132 sq. 2 Above, p. 208. CHAP, vi A THEORY OF CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE 253 property under any circumstances whatever. All property passes by inheritance from women to women ; but by a merciful dispensation of Providence, which tempers the wind to the shorn ram, a husband is permitted to enjoy, though he cannot own, the family estate which, in the eye of the law, belongs to his wife alone. Accordingly, when the husband dies, the enjoyment, though not the legal ownership, of the estate, passes to the man who is so fortunate as to marry the widow, and under Garo law the lucky man is her son-in-law, who is at the same time the son of her late husband's sister and succeeds to her hand and to the enjoy- ment of her property in virtue of his capacity of sister's son to the deceased ; since under the system of mother-kin a man's successor is not his own son but the son of his sister. Only it is to be observed that in this system of mother-kin pure and simple the sister's son is not, properly speaking, the heir of his maternal uncle, because the uncle, as a mere man, had nothing to leave, and the nephew, as a mere man, had therefore nothing to inherit. That is why under Garo law a man is regularly reduced to the painful necessity either of marrying his mother-in-law or of forfeiting the enjoyment of the estate. Most men apparently submit to their fate and marry their mothers-in-law ; hence it is common enough to see a young Garo introducing as his wife a woman who is old enough to be his mother, and is in fact his mother-in- law and his aunt, both in one. Occasionally, however, a young man seems to think that the game is not worth the candle and positively refuses to unite with his mother-in-law in holy matrimony. In that case there is no help for it but he must lose the estate. We read, for example, of a case in which a recalcitrant son-in-law flatly declined to lead his aged mother-in-law to the altar, whereupon the old lady in a huff bestowed not only her own hand but that of her daughter to boot on another man, thus depriving her ungallant son-in-law of an estate and two wives at one fell swoop. In vain the un- fortunate man appealed to the law to award him the goods, if not the ladies ; the verdict ran that, having failed to do his duty by his mother-in-law, he must abide by the consequences. 1 1 E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethno- Hunter, Statistical Account of Assam logy of Bengal, p. 63 ; (Sir) W. W. (London, 1879), ii. 154 ; Census of 254 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II The simple economic motive at the base of the cross- cousin marriage comes out very clearly in Garo customary law. Distinction between marrying the mother's brother's wife before and after the death of the maternal uncle. Thus among the Garos marriage with a mother's brother's widow appears to be a simple consequence of previous mar- riage with her daughter ; in other words, it is the effect, not the cause of the cross-cousin marriage, and is determined by the purely economic, not to say mercenary, motive of obtain- ing those material advantages which are inseparably attached to the hand of the widow. Hence a study of Garo customary law seems peculiarly well fitted to explain the origin and meaning of cross-cousin marriage ; for it enjoins, first, the exchange of sisters in marriage, second, the marriage of a man with his cross -cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, and, third, marriage with the widow of the mother's brother. If I am right, these three customs are related to each other in a chain of cause and effect. The exchange of sisters in marriage produced as its natural consequence the marriage of cross-cousins ; and the marriage of cross-cousins in its turn produced by a natural consequence the marriage with the mother's brother's widow. All three customs arose simply and naturally through economic motives. Men ex- changed their sisters in marriage because that was the cheapest way of getting a wife ; men married their cross- cousins for a similar reason ; and men married their widowed mothers-in-law because that was the only way of enjoying the old ladies' property. However, while this theory suggests an adequate reason for a man's marriage with the widow of his mother's brother, it does not account for a practice of marrying her in the uncle's lifetime. Accordingly, if that practice has really been widespread, a different explanation of it must be looked for, and the one proposed by Dr. Rivers may possibly be correct. Still I would remark, first, that the evidence for the actual observance of such a custom is both scanty and uncertain, amounting indeed to hardly more than hearsay; and, second, that the inference to be drawn from certain classificatory terms for cousins, 1 which do unques- India, / at any rate in North Africa." l The statement is not perfectly clear, but the writer seems to mean, that, while a Mohammedan Hausa is free to marry any of his first cousins, even the daughter of his mother's sister, the only one of them whom he has the right to marry, and whom he can buy cheaper than any other woman, is the daughter of his 'father's brother. Preference Taken together, the foregoing testimonies appear to for . evince among the Arabs and peoples who have derived marriage r r with the their law from them a decided preference for the marriage brother's ^ a man with his ortho-cousin, the daughter of his father's daughter brother ; the general rule seems to be that a man has a ArabTand P rlor right to the hand of his father's brother's daughter among the an d can obtain her in marriage for a smaller sum than he have 6 would pay for any other wife. The question arises, what derived [ s the origin of this preference for marriage with the father's from them, brother's daughter ? Why can she be had cheaper than any other wife ? The One thing at least is plain : the preference cannot, like preference t ^ preference for marriage with a cross-cousin, be traced cannot be derived directly to the dual organization of society, that is, to the theTduai division of a community into two exogamous and inter- organiza- marrying classes, since under such a system the children bars such ^ two brothers would always belong to the same exo- marriages. gamous class, whether descent were traced in the paternal or in the maternal line, and therefore they would not be marriageable with each other. Hence if, as I have endeavoured to show, the whole custom of exogamy sprang from the dual organization, it seems to follow that the preference for marriage with the father's brother's daughter, which was barred by that primitive system, must have originated later than the marriage with a cross-cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, 1 Major A. J. N. Tremearne, The Ban of the Bori (London, N.D., preface dated 1914), p. 121. CHAP, vi COUSIN MARRIAGE AMONG THE ARABS 261 since marriage with a cross-cousin, far from being barred, was directly favoured by the dual organization. With this inference it tallies that while the preference for marriage with a cross-cousin is very general, the preference for marriage with an ortho-cousin, the daughter of a father's brother, is comparatively rare and exceptional. What, then, is the ground of the preference for marriage wuken's with the daughter of a father's brother ? How did it come Jjj^ e about that some people should prefer a marriage which flatly preference contradicted the fundamental principle of exogamy ? It is ^arrfages not enough to say that the motive was an economic one, originated the daughter of the father's brother costing less than any ^cf"^" other wife ; for we have still to ask, why should she cost paternity, less than any other wife ? and in particular why should she cost less than a cross-cousin, the daughter of a mother's brother or of a father's sister, marriage with whom, instead of being forbidden, was directly encouraged by the funda- mental principle of exogamy as embodied in the dual organization ? I cannot see that any clear and satisfactoiy answer to these questions has been given. The Dutch ethnologist, G. A. Wilken, thought that the preference for marriage with the father's brother's daughter dates from a time when paternity, as a physical relation, was as yet un- known, and when consequently the children of two brothers were not recognized as blood relations to each other. 1 The explanation seems inadequate. It would explain why such marriages were allowed, it does not explain why they were preferred to any other. Indeed, closely regarded, the theory is self-contradictory ; for if no relationship were recognized between the children of two brothers, how could a preference for the union of these children possibly have occurred to anybody ? Surely, the mere fact of the preference is a proof that a relation of some sort was known or believed to exist between the persons whose marriage was deemed desirable. A different explanation of the preference for marriage Robertson with the daughter of a father's brother was put forward by ^^ s W. Robertson Smith. He supposed that the preference that such marriages 1 G. A. Wilken, " Het Matriarchaat bij de oude Arabieren," De verspreide originated Geschriften (The Hague, 1912), ii. 45 sg. ' in f rate >; nal polyandry. 262 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Marriage with the father's brother's daughter is apparently much later in origin than marriage with a cross- cousin : it probably implies a system of father-kin, and is based on a wish to allow daughters to share the family inheritance. originated in a system of fraternal polyandry, under which several brothers are married to one wife, and the children accordingly, unable to distinguish their individual fathers, regard all the brothers indifferently as their common fathers. 1 But this answer also fails to meet the difficulty ; for under such a system the children of the various brothers naturally regard each other as brothers and sisters, as indeed they all are on the mother's side and as some of them may be on the father's side also ; hence, as brothers and sisters, they would not be marriageable with each other. And even when the polyandrous family split up into several families, each brother with a wife and children of his own, the old view of the relation between the children of the several brothers as themselves brothers and sisters would be likely to persist and to form a bar to marriage between them. It seems, therefore, difficult to understand how a preference for marriage with the daughter of a father's brother could originate in a system of fraternal polyandry. On the. whole it appears to be probable that, contrary to the opinion both of Wilken and of Robertson Smith, the preference for marriage with a father's brother's daughter originated, not in the uncertainty, but in the certainty of fatherhood, and therefore that, as I have already argued on other grounds, it is of much later origin than the preference for marriage with a cross-cousin, which, if I am right, probably dates from a time when physical paternity was as yet unknown. Further, the preference for marriage with the father's brother's daughter probably everywhere, as with the Arabs, coexists with and implies a system of father- kin, that is, a system of relationship which traces descent from the father instead of from the mother ; and that co- existence and implication in turn furnish a fresh reason for regarding the preference in question as a comparatively late development, since as a general rule the system of father- kin is later than the system of mother-kin, which it every- where tends to replace. 2 On the whole, these considerations 1 W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, New Edi- tion (London, 1903), pp. 163 sq. 8 On this subject see E. Sidney Hartland, " Matrilineal Kinship, and the Question of its Priority,-'' Memoirs of the American Anthropological Associa- tion, vol. iv. No. I (Jan. -March, 1917). CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 263 point to the conclusion that the preference for marriage with the father's brother's daughter arose at a time when the relation of children to their father was not only re- cognized but regarded as more important than the relation to their mother, and when consequently, property descend- ing* in the male line, men had an economic motive for marrying their daughters to their brothers' sons in order to allow them to share the family inheritance. Under such circumstances it would be natural that a father should ask less for the hand of his daughter from his brother's son than from a stranger or even from his sister's son, who, under the system of father-kin, would inherit none of his mother's brother's property and would not therefore have any advantage to offer as a match to his mother's brother's daughter. Thus we can perhaps understand how the sub- stitution of father-kin for mother-kin should lead in time to a corresponding substitution of marriage with an ortho- cousin, the father's brother's daughter, for the old marriage with a cross-cousin, the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister. Among the Arabs, with whom the system of father-kin has long been established, the preference for marriage with the ortho-cousin, the father's brother's daughter, is decided and is perhaps gaining ground ; but the evidence I have adduced suffices to prove that even among them this" comparatively new form of marriage has not yet entirely ousted that old marriage with a cross-cousin, the daughter of a mother's brother, of which the classical in- stance is Jacob's marriage with Leah and Rachel. 1 6. The S or or ate and Levirate We set out to explain why Jacob married his cousins, the Jacob's daughters of his mother's brother, and we have found an ex- ^hh^ planation which fits very well with his thrifty and frugal, not cousins. to say grasping and avaricious, nature ; for it appears that similar marriages with the daughter either of a mother's brother or of a father's sister have been widely popular throughout the world, and that they owe their popularity in large measure to their cheapness, a man having a claim on the hands of such cousins and getting them to wife, either 264 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n for nothing, or at a lower rate than he would have had to pay for wives who were not so related to him. But we have still to consider a remarkable feature in Jacob's marriage. He married two sisters in their lifetime, one after the other ; for having fallen in love with the younger sister, he was told that he might not wed her unless he first wedded her elder sister, since it was contrary to the custom of the country for a younger sister to marry before an elder. Accordingly, Jacob complied with the custom ; he married the elder sister Leah first, and a week later he married her younger sister Rachel also. 1 In these respects the marriage of Jacob corresponded with customs which have been observed in many parts of marrying the world ; for many races have allowed a man to marry all his wife's sisters and have even given him a prior claim to their hands, provided that he marries them one after the other in order of seniority, beginning with the eldest and working his way down to the youngest. Accordingly we may surmise that, in acting as he did, Jacob merely followed an old well-established usage of his people, though in later time Jewish law forbade a man to marry two sisters in their lifetime. 2 The prohibition implies that it was still lawful to marry a deceased wife's sister, and it points to an earlier practice of marrying two or more sisters in their lifetime after the example of Jacob, whose conduct in this respect was apparently deemed blameless by the sacred historian. The surmise that marriage with two sisters in their lifetime was an ancient Semitic custom is confirmed by Babylonian practice, which is known to have sanctioned such unions. 3 While many peoples allow or even encourage a man to marry several sisters in their lifetime, others only permit him to marry them successively, each after the death of her pre- decessor ; but we may assume that this restriction is a later modification of the older rule which sanctioned marriage with several sisters simultaneously. In this later form the custom is parallel to the common usage which allows or enjoins a man to marry the widow of his deceased brother. The 1 Genesis xxix. 15-30. (Edinburgh, 1904), pp. 138 sqq. ; A. 2 Leviticus xviii. 18. jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte 3 C. H. W. Johns, Babylonian and des Alien Orients' 2 ' (Leipsic, 1906), p. Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters 358. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEV1RATE 265 practice of marriage with a deceased wife's sister is in a sense the counterpart of the practice of marriage with a deceased brother's wife ; the two are often observed by the same people, and it is reasonable to suppose that they are vitally connected and admit of a similar explanation. The custom of marriage with a deceased brother's wife is commonly called the levirate ; it is best known from the Hebrew usage, which required that when a man died without sons, his brother should marry the widow and beget a son, who was to be counted the son of the dead man and not of his real father. 1 The corresponding custom of marriage with a deceased wife's sister has no generally recognized name ; hence for the sake of convenience I have adopted the term sororate, from the Latin soror, to designate all marriages with a wife's sister, whether in the lifetime of the first wife or after her death. 2 Thus the term sororate answers to the term levirate from the Latin levir, " a husband's brother." While the custom of marrying a deceased wife's sister Distinction answers on the whole to the custom of marrying a deceased between the sororate brother's wife, a remarkable distinction is nevertheless com- and the " monly made between them. For whereas a man is usually ^^7^ allowed to marry only his deceased wife's younger sister, he seniority, is generally permitted to marry only the widow of his de- ceased elder brother. The reason for this distinction does not lie on the surface ; perhaps it may emerge in the course of our inquiry. Of the two customs, the levirate has attracted much The attention and been discussed at length by eminent writers, 3 l^^f but the corresponding custom of the sororate has been almost levirate are wholly overlooked and consequently has remained nameless, ^mary Yet if the two customs are really complementary, it must customs, obviously be futile to seek an explanation of the one without taking account of the other. Accordingly, in what follows I shall treat of the two together, dwelling, however, more especially on the sororate, because it is less familiar and has 1 Genesis xxxviii. 8 sq. ; Deuter- tion (London, 1886), pp. 108 sqq. onomy xxv. 5-10. id., The Patriarchal Theory (London, , _ 1885), pp. 156 sag. ; A. H. Post, Afri- 2 Totemtsm and Exogamy, iv. 139 \ T + j /,-MJ u J7 kamsche Jurtspriidenz (Oldenburg and s &' Leipsic, 1887), i. 419 sqq. ; E. Wester- 3 See, for example, J. F. McLennan, marck, The History of Human Mar- Studies in Ancient History, New Edi- riage (London, 1891), pp. 510 sqq. 266 JACOB'S MARRIAGE The sororate and the levirate common among the Indian tribes of North America. The sororate among the Osages. The sororate and levirate among the Kansas. been far less copiously illustrated than the twin custom of the levirate. 1 t The custom of the sororate was widely prevalent among the Indian tribes of North America, both in its original form of marriage with several sisters in their lifetime and in its later form of marriage with a deceased wife's sister ; and the custom of the levirate was also common among the Redskins. The great American ethnologist, Lewis H. Morgan, who spent years of research among the Indians of North America, informs us that the sororate in its full original form was recognized in at least forty of their tribes. " Where a man married the eldest daughter of a family he became entitled by custom to all her sisters as wives when they attained the marriageable age. It was a right seldom enforced, from the difficulty on the part of the individual of maintaining several families, although polygamy was re- cognized universally as a privilege of the males." 2 Simi- larly, another good authority writes that " with the plains tribes, and perhaps with others, the man who marries the eldest of several daughters has prior claim upon her un- married sisters." 3 For example, among the Osages " poly- gamy is usual ; for it is a custom that, when a savage asks a girl in marriage and gets her to wife, not only she but all her sisters belong to him and are regarded as his wives. It is a great glory among them to have several." 4 Among the Kansas, a tribe closely allied to the Osages in blood and language, " when the eldest daughter marries, she com- mands the lodge, the mother, and all the sisters ; the latter are to be also the wives of the same individual. . . . They have, in some instances, four or five wives ; but these are 1 The two customs have already and all of her sisters as wivjs when been discussed and explained by me in Tolemism and Exogamy, iv. 139 sqq. As that work is probably in the hands of few of my readers, I here re- produce much of the evidence, adding some fresh examples. 2 Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society (London, 1877), p. 432. Compare id. , Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (Washington City, 1871), pp. 477 sq., "When a man marries the eldest daughter he becomes by that act entitled to each they severally attain the marriageable age. The option rests with him, and he may enforce the claim, or yield it to another." 3 J. Mooney, " Myths of the Chero- kee," Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 491. 4 Annales de F Association de la Propagation de la Foi, No. v. (Mars, 1825) (Second Edition, Lyons and Paris, 1829) p. 56. CHAP, vi THE SO RO RATE AND LE VI RATE 267 / mostly sisters ; if they marry into two families the wives do not harmonize well together, and give the husband much in- quietude." Further, among the Kansas, " after the death of the husband the widow scarifies herself, rubs her person with clay, and becomes negligent of her dress, until the expiration of a year, when the eldest brother of the deceased takes her to wife without any ceremony, considers her children as his own, and takes her and them to his house ; if the deceased left no brother, she marries whom she pleases." ] Thus the Kansas observe the customs both of the sororate and of the levirate. So, too, among the Omahas, The a kindred tribe of the Missouri valley, "polygamy is extremely sororate 3 1 r /& / - and levirate common, the individual who weds the eldest daughter, among the espouses all the sisters successively, and receives them into Omahas - his house when they arrive at a proper age." z And in this tribe, upon the death of the husband, " if the deceased has left a brother, he takes the widow to his lodge after a proper interval, and considers her as his wife, without any prepara- tory formality." 3 Thus the Omahas practise, or rather used to practise, both the sororate and the levirate. Similarly among the Hidatsas or Minnetarees, a tribe of the Upper The Missouri valley, " polygamy is practised, but usually with a [e v f rate certain restrictions. A man who marries the eldest of among the several sisters has a claim to the others as they grow up ; Minne^ and in most cases marries them, unless they, in the mean- tarees. 1 Edwin James, Account of an Ex- C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, pedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky " The Omaha Tribe," Twenty-Seventh Mountains under the Command of Annual Report of the Bureau of Ameri- Major S. H. Long (London, 1823), i. can Ethnology, K)o^-igo6( Washington, 115, 116. By " the eldest brother of 1911), p. 326. Both the sororate and the deceased " is probably meant "the .the levirate seem to have fallen into eldest surviving brother," who may be decay when the Rev. J. Owen Dorsey younger than the deceased. For the investigated the tribe in the second usual rule is, as I have said, that only half of the nineteenth century. He a younger brother may marry his tells us that a man sometimes married deceased brother's widow. his deceased wife's sister at the express 2 Edwin James, op. cit. i. 209. wish of the dying woman, and that a Later observers, writing at a time man married his deceased brother's when the old tribal customs had been widow in order to become the "little modified or abolished, report that father " of his brother's children. See among the Omahas " polygamy existed, J. Owen Dorsey, "Omaha Socio- although it was not the rule ; in the logy," Third Annual Report of the majority of families there was but one Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, wife. A man rarely had more than 1884), p. 258. two wives, and these were generally sisters or aunt and niece.'' See Alice. 8 Edwin James, op. cit. \. 222 sq. 268 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n time, form other attachments and refuse to live with him. As certain female cousins are regarded as younger sisters, a man has often much latitude in selecting wives under this law. A man usually takes to wife the widow of a brother, unless she expresses an unwillingness to the arrangement, and he may adopt the orphans as his own children." ] The extension of the term " sister " to certain cousins is an effect of the classificatory or group system of relationship which the Hidatsas or Minnetarees possess in common with most, if not all, Indian tribes of North America. Under the Minnetaree form of that system a woman calls her female ortho-cousins (the daughters of her father's brother and of her mother's sister) her " sisters " ; 2 and when we speak of marriage with several sisters among peoples who observe the classificatory or group system of relationship, we must always allow for a similar latitude in the use of the term " sisters." The Again, among the Apaches of Arizona polygamy is sororate customary, but it is subject to certain restrictions. A man and levirate .< i / > , f ,1 among the w "' marry his wife s younger sisters as fast as they grow to Apaches, maturity, or, if his first wife has no sisters, he will try to marry a woman of the same clan, because " there will be less danger of the women fighting." Further, an Apache marries his deceased brother's widow ; but he must exercise his right within a year of his brother's death, otherwise the widow is free to marry whom she pleases. 3 Thus the Apaches observe the customs both of the sororate and of the levirate. As to the Indians of these south - western deserts, among whom the Apaches are included, we are told that " in general, when an Indian wishes to have many wives he chooses above all others, if he can, sisters, because he thinks he can thus secure more domestic peace." 4 The Again, among the Blackfoot Indians of the northern sororate plains all the younger sisters of a man's wife were re- and levirate r among the i Washington Matthews, Ethno- the Gentile Organization of the Blackfoot graphy and Philology of the Hidatsa Apaches of Arizona," Journal of Indians. Indians (Washington, 1877), p. 53. American Folk-lore, iii. (1890) p. 118. 2 Lewis H. Morgan, Systems of Con- sanguinity and Affinity of the Human 4 E. Domenech, Seven Years' Family (Washington City, 1871), pp. Residence in the Great Deserts 0} 1 88 sq. , 316 sq. North America (London, 1860), ii. 3 John G. Bourke, " Notes upon 306. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 269 garded as his wives if he chose to take them, and they could not be disposed of to any other man without his consent. And when a man died, his widows became the wives of his oldest brother, if he wished to marry them. 1 Here, again, therefore, we find the sororate and the levirate practised by the same tribe. The same combination The meets us also in the large northern tribe of the Ojib- ^d levirate ways or Chippewas. Among them a man might marry among the as many wives as he could support, but they generally chose J1 1 sisters, " from an idea that they will be more likely to live together in peace, and that the children of the one would be loved and cared for by the other more than if the wives were not related." ' In this tribe " the relation of fraternity is strongly marked ; a man is held to be bound to marry the widow of his deceased brother, yet he ought not to do it until after a year of widowhood. He is likewise con- sidered as obliged to provide for his brother's offspring, but this care not unfrequently devolves upon the grand- father." a As to the Pottawatamies, an Indian tribe in the The region of the Great Lakes, we are told that " it was usual for them, when an Indian married one of several among the sisters, to consider him as wedded to all ; and it became incumbent upon him to take them all as wives. The marrying of a brother's widow was not interdicted, but was always looked upon as a very improper connexion." 4 Thus the Pottawatamies practised the sororate and discouraged, though they did not forbid, the levirate. This divergence in regard to the two forms of marriage appears to be rare and exceptional. Speaking of the Indian tribes near the Great Lakes, a writer of the eighteenth century observes that " it is not uncommon for an Indian to marry two sisters ; sometimes, if there happen to be more, the whole number ; and notwithstanding this (as it appears to civilized nations) unnatural union, they all live in the greatest harmony."' Amongst the Mandans, when a man married an eldest The sororate 1 G. B. Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Expedition to the Source of St. Peters j^ Tales (London, 1893), PP- 2I 7> 2I 8. River (London, 1825), ii. 166 sq. and Crows 2 Rev. Peter Jones, History of the 4 W. H. Keating, op. cit. i. in. Ojebway Indians (London, N.D.), p. 5 J. Carver, Travels through the 8 1. Interior Parts of North America, 3 W. H. Keating, Narrative of an Third Edition (London, 1781), p. 367. 270 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART n daughter he had a right to all her sisters. 1 Similarly among the Crows, if a man married the eldest daughter of a family he had a right to marry all her younger sisters when they grew up, even in the lifetime of his first wife, their eldest sister. He might waive his right, but if he stood upon it, his superior claim would be acknowledged by The the woman's kinsfolk. 2 Among the Arapahoes, an Algonquin anTiTvfrate tribe inhabiting the country about the head waters of the among the Arkansas and Platte rivers, " a wife's next younger sister, if of marriageable age, is sometimes given to her husband if his brother-in.-law likes him. Sometimes the husband asks and pays for his wife's younger sister. This may be done several times if she 'has several sisters. If his wife has no sister, a cousin (also called ' sister ') is sometimes given to him. When a woman dies, her husband marries her sister. When a man dies, his brother sometimes marries his wife. He is expected to do so. Sometimes she marries another man." 3 From this account it seems, that among the Arapahoes both the sororate and the levirate are falling into decay. A man can no longer claim the hands of his wife's younger sisters as a right in her lifetime, though apparently after her death he marries one or more of them as a matter of course. Again, he is expected to marry his deceased brother's widow, though he has not an absolute right to do so. The In some tribes of American Indians the sororate appears ancUhe to survive only in its later form as a right or an obligation sororate, to marry a deceased wife's sister. For example, among of marriage the Assiniboins, a northern tribe, " polygamy was frequent, with a The levirate was also commonly practised. A married deceased . _ i -r wife's woman will still wait on her brothers-in-law as if they were sister, ker husbands, though there is no sexual intercourse between among the Indians of them. If a man's wife dies, he has a pre-emptive right to America ^ er V un g er sister, and if the girl is still immature she is kept for him until puberty." 4 Among the Iroquois 1 Maximilian Prinz zu Wied, Reise the American Museum of Natural in das Innere Nord- America (Coblenz, History, vol. xviii. Part i.). 1839-1841), ii. 130. 4 Robert H. Lowie, The Assini- 2 L. H. Morgan, Ancient Society, boine (New York, 1909), p. 41 (An- p. 1 60. thropological Papers of the American 3 Alfred L. Kroeber, The Arapako Museum of Natural History, vol. iv. (New York, 1902), p. 14 (Bulletin of Part i.). CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 271 polygamy was forbidden and never became a practice ; 1 hence with them there was no question of a man marrying several sisters in their lifetime. Nevertheless, when his wife died, an Iroquois was regularly obliged to marry her sister, or, "in default of a sister, such other woman as the family of his deceased wife might provide for him. A man who should refuse to wed his deceased wife's sister would, we are told, expose himself to all the abuse and vitupera- tion which the injured woman chose to heap on his devoted head, and a sense of his moral delinquency compelled him to submit to the torrent of invective in silence. Similarly, a childless widow was compelled to marry one of her deceased husband's brothers or other of his relations, in order to bear a child to the dead man. 2 Among the Biloxi, a small tribe of the Siouan or Dacotan stock in what is now the State of Mississippi, a man might marry his deceased wife's sister, and a woman might marry her deceased husband's brother ; 3 but it does not appear that there was any obligation to contract either of these unions. Among the Pima Indians of Arizona it was customary for a widower to marry his deceased wife's sister. 4 However, it seems probable that among these southern Indians the sororate was once practised in its full form. An anonymous French writer, who appears to have lived and written not later than the early years of the eighteenth century, tells us that among the tribes of the lower Mississippi valley " a savage marries as many women as he wishes ; he is even in some manner obliged to in certain cases. If the father and mother of his wife die and if she has many sisters, he marries them all, so that nothing is more common than to see four or five sisters the wives of a single husband." 6 1 Lewis H. Morgan, League of the 1897), p. 244. Iroquois (Rochester, 1851), p. 324. 4 Frank Russell, "The Pima 9 . . TT . . . j r *T Indians," Twenty-sixth Annual Re- 2 Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nou- , ' _c * TS^I port of the Bureau of American hthno- velle Prance (Pans, 1744), v. 419; r t /,, 7 ,. . c T t- T c.. \f logy (Washington, 1908), p. 184. compare J. F. Lafitau, Macitrs aes ~f i, ' T ? '' ^ c * J . . . ,-n . & Quoted by John K. b wanton, sauva?es Ameriquatns (Paris, 1724), , ..* . .. ' f. , ,,. . . ' , Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent coast of the Gulf 3 J.Owen Dorsey, "Siouan Socio- of Mexico (Washington, 1911), p. 95 logy,'' Fifteenth Annual Report of the (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bui- Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, letin 43). 272 JACOB'S MARRIAGE The Thus far we have been dealing with the Indian tribes sororate to the east Q f the R oc k y Mountains. But both the sororate andlevirate among the and the levirate are, or were, observed by many tribes on the Pacific slopes of that great range. Perhaps the rudest of all the Indian tribes of North America were the aborigines of the Californian Peninsula, and among them, " before they were baptized, each man took as many wives as he liked, and if there were several sisters in a family he married them all together." 1 Farther to the north, at Monterey in California, it was likewise customary for a man to marry all the sisters of one family. 2 Still farther to the north, among the Northern Maidus, another Cali- fornian tribe, a man had a right to marry his wife's sisters, and if he did not choose to exercise his right, it passed, very significantly, to his brother. The full meaning of this transference of marital rights from one brother to another will appear in the sequel. In this tribe, also, a man usually married his deceased brother's widow ; in other words, the levirate was customary but not obligatory. 3 Passing still farther northward, we come to the tribes of Oregon, the Flat- heads, Nez Percys, Spokans, Walla-wallas, Cayuse, and Was- kows, and " with all of them, marrying the eldest daughter entitles a man to the rest of the family, as they grow up. If a wife dies, her sister or some of the connexion, if younger than the deceased, is regarded as destined to marry him. Cases occur in which, upon the death of a wife (after the period of mourning referred to below expires), her younger sister, though the wife of another man, is claimed, and she deserts her husband and goes to the disconsolate widower. The right of a man is recognised to put away his wife, and take a new one, even the sister of the discarded one, if he thinks proper. The parents do not seem to object to a man's turning off one sister, and taking a younger one the lordly prerogative, as imperious as that of a sultan, being a custom 1 J. Baegert, "An Account of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Cali- fornian Peninsula," Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1863, p. 368. " La Perouse, Voyage, ii. 303, quoted by H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States of North America (London, 1875-1876), i. 388, note 321 . 3 Roland E. Dixon, The Northern Maidu (New York, 1905), pp. 239, 241 (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. xvii. Part iii.). CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LE VI RATE 273 handed down from time immemorial." The right to marry a wife's sister must indeed be a strong one when it can thus supersede the existing right of the husband in possession. Further, we see that among these Indians of Oregon the right to marry a deceased wife's sister is merely a consequence of the right to marry them in the wife's lifetime. Still farther to the north the sororate occurs, in conjunc- The tion with the levirate, in several tribes of British Columbia, Thus among the Lkungen, when a man's wife died, he among the married her sister or cousin ; and when a woman's husband died, she married his brother or cousin. 2 Again, among the North- Thompson Indians polygamy flourished, very many men America. having from two to four wives, all of whom were sometimes sisters. When a man's wife died, he was expected to seek another wife among the sisters or relatives of the dead woman. And correspondingly, when a husband died, the widow became the property of the dead man's nearest male kin, generally of the brother next in seniority. The right of a man to the widow of his deceased brother was in- contestable, and the widow had an equal right to demand from him the privileges of a husband ; moreover, he was bound to support her children. 3 The marriage customs of the neighbouring Shuswap were similar. When a man's wife died, the period of mourning was no sooner over than he was obliged to marry the sister or other nearest relative of his departed spouse ; indeed, during the days of mourn- ing he was kept a prisoner in the house of his brother-in-law, so that even if he wished to shirk the obligation of marrying his deceased wife's sister, his chances of succeeding in the unmanly attempt were hardly worth considering. He was only let out of the house of mourning to enter the house of marriage. Similarly, when a man died, his widow married 1 Major B. Alvord, "Concerning the Advancement of Science, Leeds the manners and customs, the super- Meeting, 1890, p. 24 (of the separate stitions, etc., of the Indians in Oregon," reprint). in H. R. Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 3 James Teit, The Thompson Indians 1853-1856), v. 654 sq. of British Columbia, pp. 325, 326 2 Franz Boas, in "Sixth Report on (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, the North-Western Tribes of Canada," Memoir of the American Museum of in Report of the British Association for Natural History, April, 1900). VOL . II T 274 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n her deceased husband's brother or other nearest relative ; and she, too, had to remain in the house of bondage as well as of mourning with her brother-in-law till the time came for her to doff her widow's weeds and don her bridal attire. 1 However, it seems that her brother-in-law was not under the same rigorous obligation to marry her ; for if he did not care to take her to wife, he might call all the people together and say, " I wish you all to know that I do not take my brother's widow to wife, and I herewith give her to my friend " (mentioning his name), " who will henceforth be the same to me as my deceased brother was. Now it will be the same as if my brother were alive. My friend " (men- tioning his name) " and I will henceforth be the same as brothers until one of us dies." The man then gave a feast to the people, and the widow took her place with the husband chosen for her. As a rule, the woman's consent to the arrangement was asked beforehand. 2 Among the Crees or Knisteneaux, " when a man loses his wife, it is considered as a duty to marry her sister, if she has one ; or he may, if he pleases, have them both at the same time." s Again, among the Northern Tinnehs, who border on the Eskimo in the far North, men made no scruple of having two or three sisters as wives at one time ; 4 and similarly among the Kaviaks of Alaska " two or three wives, often sisters, are taken by those who can afford to support them." The The marriage customs of the Indians of South America amnTvTrate have never been accurately studied, but they appear to among the include both the sororate and the levirate. Thus among the Roucouyen Indians of French Guiana, when a man's wife South dies, he marries her sister or sisters ; and when a woman's husband dies, she marries his eldest brother or, in default of brothers, his father. The right of marriage in both cases is 1 Franz Boas, in " Sixth Report on Natural History, New York). the North-Western Tribes of Canada," 3 A. Mackenzie, Voyages from Mon- in Report of the British Association for treal through the Continent of North the Advancement of Science, Leeds America (London, 1801), pp. xcvi sq. Meeting, r8go, p. 9 1 (of the separate 4 S. Hearne, Journey from Prince reprint). of Wales' 's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the 2 James Teit, The Shuswap (Leyden Northern Ocean. (London, 1795), P- and New York, 1909), pp. 591 sq. 130. (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, ' W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Memoir of the American Museum of Resources (London, 1870), p. 138. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 275 undisputed, but it is sometimes renounced by the claimant. 1 Among the Caribs " very often the same man will take to wife three or four sisters, who will be his cousins-german or his nieces. They maintain that, having been brought up together, the women will love each other the more, will live in a better understanding, will help each other more readily, and, what is most advantageous for him, will serve him better." 2 Among the Macusis of British Guiana polygamy seems to be rare, but Sir Richard Schomburgk met with one man who had three sisters to wife. 3 Among the Onas and Yahgans, two tribes of Tierra del Fuego, both the sororate and the levirate seem to be in vogue. In both tribes it is said to be a common practice for a man to marry two sisters, and in both tribes a man often marries his brother's widow. 4 The custom of the levirate appears to be more frequently reported than the custom .of the sororate among the Indian tribes of South America, 5 and it is possible that .it may really be more commonly observed by them ; but our knowledge of these aborigines is too meagre to warrant us in laying down any general propositions on the subject. In Africa the customs both of the sororate and of the The levirate seem to be widely spread, especially among tribes of the Bantu stock. Thus Kafir law permits a man to in Africa, marry two sisters in their lifetime, 6 and it is the ordinary The custom for a man to marry his deceased brother's wife. 7 and levirate Among the Zulus, for example, marriages with two sisters among the , Zulus and in their lifetime are common ; and the brother or next of other Kafir 1 Henri Coudreau, Chez nos Indiens, Goajira Peninsula," Proceedings of the ^ v,_p Quatre Annees dans la Guyane Fran- Royal Geographical Society, New Series, Africa. fat'se (Paris, 1895), p. 128. vii. (1885) p. 792), arid by many - Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux Isles tribes of Brazil (C. F. Ph. von Martius, Je /'4merigue,Nouvelle Edition (Paris, Zur Ethnographic Amerikd's sumal 1742), ii. 77 sq. Brasiliens, Leipsic, 1867, p. 117). 3 R. Schomburgk, ReiseninBritisch- 6 Col. Maclean, Compendium of Guiana (Leipsic, 1847-1848), ii. 318. Kafir Laws and Customs (Cape Town, 4 John M. Cooper, Analytical and 1866), pp. 6l, 112, 159. Critical Bibliography of the Tribes of 7 J. Shooter, The Kafirs of Natal Tierra del Fuego and adjacent territory and the Zulu Country (London, 1.857), (Washington, 1917), p. 165 (Smith- pp. 46, 86. sonian Institution, Bureau of American 8 F. Speckmann, Die Hermanns- Ethnology, Bulletin 63). burger Mission in Aftika (Hermanns- 5 It is practised by the Warraus of burg, 1876), p. 135. Compare J. British Guiana (R. Schomburgk, op. cit. Shooter, The Kafirs of Natal and the ii. 447), by the Goajiros (F. A. A. Zulu Country, p. 46, "A man, for Simons, " An Exploration of the example, may marry two sisters." 276 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n kin cohabits with the widow in order to raise up seed to the dead. The same custom of the levirate is observed also by the Swazies and Pondos, two other Kafir tribes of South- East Africa, but curiously enough it is utterly at variance with the usages of the Tembus and Gaikas, two other Kafir tribes of the same region. 1 In regard to the levirate as practised by the Zulus, we read that " when a man dies and leaves wives, it is the custom that his younger brother goes to the dead man's wives and begets children for him ; for the children whom the wives get by the brother of the deceased belong to the latter and not to the former. How- ever, the custom seems not to be obligatory but simply voluntary. If the younger brother dies, it is not at all customary for the elder brother to go to the wives of the deceased ; it is only the younger who begets children for the elder." 5 So, too, among the Fingoes it is a younger brother who marries his deceased elder brother's The wife. 3 The levirate is observed with the same limitation by levirate and t h e Thonga, a Bantu tribe of Mozambique. Among them sororate among the a man has a prior right to inherit his deceased elder brother's Thonga of w jf e . even during her husband's life a woman is very free Mozam- . bique. in her manners with her husband's younger brothers, and they will play with her because they have the right of in- heriting her, one after the other, when her first husband is dead. On the other hand, a man may only inherit the wife of his deceased younger brother if she is old and past the age of child-bearing. To marry a younger brother's widow, who might still give birth to a child, would be strongly opposed to the feelings of the tribe, though in exceptional cases it may be done, if no one else has a claim to her. Hence a man carefully avoids the wives of his younger brother, while his younger brother is still alive, which is quite contrary to the freedom he uses with his elder brother's wives in the lifetime of his elder brother. 4 A similar sharp 1 Rev. J. Macdonald, " Manners, burger Mission in Afrika (Hermanns- Customs, Superstitions, and Religions burg, 1876), pp. 135 sq. of South African Tribes." Tournal of /- i i ....... r ... . 3 Col. Maclean, Compendium of the Anthropological Institute, xix. ... , , . T\ 11 T^-J T-I Kafir Laws and Customs, p. 159. (1890) p. 272; Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir (London, 1904), p. 4 Henri A. Junod, The Life of a 226. South African Tribe (Neuchatel, 1912 2 . Speckmann, Die Hermanns- 1913), i. 236, 248. CHAP, vi THE SORORA TE AND LE VIRA TE 277 distinction is drawn for a similar reason by the Thonga between a wife's elder and younger sisters. A man may play and romp with his wife's younger sisters, because they are his presumptive wives ; he has a preferential right to marry them either in his first wife's life or after her death. But he may not play with his wife's elder sisters, because he cannot marry them. With the Thonga, as with Laban's kinsfolk, it is the law that an elder sister must always marry before her younger sisters. A father would not consent to give away the younger before the elder. There is a special term (nhlantsd) applied to a younger sister married to the same husband as her elder sister, while the elder sister is still alive. The term is thought to come from a verb " to wash " (hlantsd), because the younger sister in such a household washes the dishes for her elder sister and works more or less as her servant. 1 " Among the Bechuanas the daughter is considered to The be the property of her father, and if he sells her, it is in order to procure an establishment for his male children, or among the to provide for his future needs in old age, should he be abandoned by his family. Like Laban and like the Hindoos, a father does not give the second daughter in marriage before the elder. If the elder dies without leaving children, the husband has the right to demand her sister or to get back the bride-price. If he dies before her, his brother succeeds him. He makes his father-in-law a small present and kills an ox, with the gall of which he and his bride besprinkle themselves in token of purification ; but there is not, properly speaking, any marriage ceremony. A man is not compelled to marry his brother's widow ; in that case she is quite free to return to her father or to take another husband." ~ Thus we see that the Bechuanas observe both the levirate and the sororate, and that among them, as among the Thonga, a younger sister may not marry before an elder. Among the Basutos " the death of the husband 1 Henri A. Junod, The Life of a Esperance (Paris, 1842), p. 76. Com- South African Tribe, i. 234 sq., 252. pare E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), p. 184, "The custom which 2 T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, Rela- forbade the marriage of Rachel before tioncfun Voyaged 1 Exploration auNord- Leah still exists in full force among Est de la Colonie du Cap de Bonne- the Bechuanas." 278 The among the Basutos. The sororate and levirate among the Herero. The amomfthe Matabele, Bantu and Nilotic Kavirondo. does not liberate the wife. She falls by law to one of the brothers or to the nearest relation of the deceased. There, the institution of the levirate is not subject to the wise re- strictions made by Moses for the people of Israel. Although the children of this second union bear the name of the first husband, and are understood to belong to him and to in- herit his possessions, while they have very small claim to the succession of their real father, the fact that the widow is compelled to remain in the family, although she has already borne children to the deceased, proves that the purchase of which she was the object is the chief obstacle to her liberation." ] Among the Herero, a Bantu tribe of South-West Africa, \)Q\h t ^ e sorO rate and the levirate are in vogue. In order to marry a certain woman, a Herero man is often obliged, j^g j aco ^ to begin by marrying her sister, and when his wife dies he marries her sister instead. 2 It is a rule of Herero law that the principal heir inherits the widow of the deceased ; and as the heir is usually a younger brother, it follows that such- marriages conform to the levirate custom. 3 In the powerful Bantu tribe of the Matabele, when a wife ^ ies soon after marriage or remains barren, her husband has a right to claim her sister or nearest relation in place of her. 4 Among the Bantu tribes of Kavirondo a man has the right to marry all his wife's younger sisters as they come of age : they ma 7 not be given in marriage to any one until he has declined their hands. When a wife dies childless, her husband can reclaim the amount he paid for her to her father ; but if the father happens to have another daughter the widower, instead of exacting repayment, generally con- soles himself by marrying his deceased wife's sister, who costs him nothing beyond a few goats slaughtered for 1 Rev. E. Casalis, 77ie Basutos (London, 1861), p. 190. 2 J. Irle, Die Herero (Giitersloh. 1906), p. 109. The reason why, in order to marry a certain woman, a , 3 ,. ,. man must often nrst marry her sister, ,, J .,. ,,, is not mentioned by the writer. We may conjecture that among the Herero, as among the Thonga and the Bechu- anas, a younger sister may not marry before her elder sister ; hence a man who loves the younger sister will, like Jacob, marry the elder in order to ob- tain the right of marrying 'the younger. , 3 E. Dannert, Zum Rechte der /T> ,. ,., Herero (Berlin, 1906), p. 38. 4 Lionel Decle, Three Years iu Savage Africa (London, 1898), p. 158. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 279 the marriage feast. 1 Among the Nilotic tribes of Kavir- ondo, when a wife is proved to be barren, her parents send her sister to be the man's wife ; but he does not divorce his first spouse, both sisters live together with him as his wives. 2 Among the Basoga, a Bantu tribe of the Uganda Pro- The tectorate, a bride is attended to her new home by a sister, anTiTvirate who remains with her and attends to her wants during the among the period of seclusion which is incumbent on Basoga women after marriage. Often the sister does not return home, but remains with the bride and becomes a second wife to the bridegroom. He must pay a marriage-fee for her, but in the case of such a second wife the preparatory ceremonies are dispensed with, and she falls into her place in the household at once. 3 In this tribe, when a man dies, his brother may marry the widow or widows, provided he is chosen heir to the deceased ; or if the brother is not heir, he may still receive from the heir one of the widows to wife. But except in these cases a man has no right to marry the widows of his deceased brother. 4 Thus it appears that among the Basoga the custom of the levirate is falling into decay. The Bagesu, a Bantu tribe of Mount Elgon, in the .Uganda The Protectorate, practise polygamy, and a man is free to marry ^0^^ several sisters. A wife never objects to her husband marry- Bagesu and ing as many wives as he can afford to keep, whether they be her sisters or other women. 5 Among the Baganda, when a wife dies, her brother provides another sister to supply her place and marry the widower. 6 Among the Banyoro, another Bantu tribe of the Uganda The Protectorate, there are no restrictions on a man's marrying ^dTevir ate 1 C. W. Hobley, Eastern Uganda, p. 210. among the _ . . . , J . T , Bauyoro. m Ethnological Survey (iMBdan, l<)03,), i Totemism and Exogamv, ii. 461, pp. 17 sq. ; Sir Harry Johnston, The from information furnished by the Rev. Uganda Protectorate (London, 1904), j ohn R oscoe . j n his own book, sub- ii. 747 ; Max Weiss, Die Volkerstamme sequently published ( The Northern im Norden Deutsch Ost-Afrikas(Ber\m, Bantu, Cambridge, 1915), Mr. Roscoe 1910), p. 226 (who calls these people has om i tte d this account of the sncces- \\ageia). s ; on ^ o widows among the Basoga. 2 T. Roscoe, The Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), p. 282. Compare 6 J- Roscoe > The ^rthern Bantu, G. A. S. Northcote, "The Nilotic PP' X 73 ^ Kavirondo,"y07- the chief of the tribe inherits. But when inheritance there are sons, the eldest inherits all that is left by his father, place to t^ 6 w ' lves included, who, with the exception of his own sons, is mother, become his wives. The younger sons receive two innovation 11 women, two cows, and as much of the other property as the on an principal heir will give them." ' From this it would appear which that among the Banyoro a brother only succeeds to his gave the dead brother's widows in default of sons, who, if there are inheritance . ...,,. first to any, enjoy a prior right. This succession of sons to the brothers' w j ves o f their dead father is common in Africa ; 3 but we can and next to sisters' sons ' Tottmtsm and Exogamy, \\. 522, dies during a visit to her rather s house, from information furnished by the Rev. the husband either demands a wife a John Roscoe. This account of the sister of thedeceased in compensation, sororate. and levirate among the Ban- or receives two cows " (Emin Pasha in yoro has been omitted by Mr. Roscoe Central Africa, London, 1888, p. 86). in The Northern Bantu, The practice of the sororate among the Banyoro is 2 Emin Pasha in Central Africa also attested by Emin Pasha. "If a (London, 1888), p. 86. man marries, and his wife falls ill and 3 See above, vol. i. p. 541, note 3 . CHAP, vi THE SO RO RATE AND LEVIRATE 281 scarcely doubt that it is an innovation on older custom of the succession of brothers, which still survives in many parts of the continent. For it may be laid down as a general rule, that in the evolution of law the first heirs to be called to the succession are a man's brothers, the next his sister's sons, 1 and the last his own sons ; since the recognition of physical paternity, with the rights and obligations which it confers and imposes, has been reached at a comparatively late date in the history of our species, whereas the recognition of maternity, which carries with it the perception of relation- ship to brothers and to sisters' sons, must derive from the very origin of human society. But once the relationship of fatherhood was clearly understood, it was natural that a father should desire to transmit his estate, including his wives, to the sons whom he had begotten and whom he justly regarded as in a real sense parts of himself, rather than to his brothers or his sisters' sons, with whom he now perceived that his relationship was more remote. Hence it has come about that in not a few African tribes the ancient custom of the levirate has given way to the more recent practice of passing on a dead man's wives to his own sons. Among the Boloki or Bangala, a Bantu tribe of the The Upper Congo, a barren wife will take her sister to be a sor r ^ te second wife to her husband, that he may have a child by her. 2 levirate Among the Wabemba or Awemba, a Bantu tribe of the J? the Congo Free State and North- Eastern Rhodesia, the sororate and the is practised both in the lifetime and after the death of the first or A W emba. sister. When a man's wife dies, he has the right to marry her younger sister, if she is still unmarried. Should the girl be under puberty, her father will send her to the widower along with a nubile female slave, who will replace her until she is 1 For example, among most of the 1867), p. 429. Similarly, among the tribes of the Gaboon investigated by Kunamas, on the borders of Abyssinia, Du Chaillu, a man's heirs were his a man's widow is married by his brother; brothers, and only in default of brothers but if the deceased left no brother, his did the eldest son of the eldest sister widow is taken to wife by his sister's inherit. Only in one of the tribes son. See Werner Munzinger, Ost- known to Du Chaillu (the Bakalai) afrikanische Studien (Schaffhausen. did sons inherit the property of their 1864), p. 488. fathers. See Paul B. du Chaillu, 2 John H. Weeks, Among Congo Journey to Ashango-land (London, Cannibals (London, 1913), p. 130. 282 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n Taking old enough to marry her brother-in-law, the widower. But if the death a j| ^j s deceased wife's sisters are married, the widower sends a off the body " of a present to the husband of his late wife's younger sister, and the widower. woman j s ceded to him by her husband for one or two nights, in order that by cohabiting with him she may, as the phrase runs, " take the death off his body." Unless she performed this ceremony, the widower could never marry again ; no woman would have him. When the death has thus been " taken off his body," he returns the woman to her husband and looks out for another wife ; but before he can marry her, he must appease the spirit of his dead wife by scraping with his fingers a little hole at the head of the grave and filling it with beer, doubtless to slake the thirst of the ghost. Further, when a wife has grown old and her husband is still comparatively young and vigorous, it is customary for the wife to go to her father and obtain from him her younger sister, whom she brings to her husband as a second wife. If she has no sister, she will probably procure a niece to take her place; but she herself is not divorced, the two sisters are wives simultaneously of the same man. Further, the Wabemba practise the levirate ; for when a man dies, his eldest brother or, in his default, the son of the eldest brother, inherits the "Taking property and the wives of the deceased. And the heir, off the* whether he be the brother of the deceased or another kins- body" of a man, must " take the death off the body" of his predecessor's rid her widow by cohabiting with her. Even if he declines to marry of her h er he is still obliged to " take the death off her body " in husband's ghost. this manner before the woman is free to marry any one else. Should the woman refuse to marry her late husband's brother or other heir, and to let him " take the death off her body," she would be pointed out as an adulteress and accused of having caused the death of her former husband. It would be considered unlucky for any one else to marry her, for the ghost of her dead husband would be supposed to haunt or kill any one who married her. 1 Thus among the Wabemba 1 Charles Delhaise, Notes Ethno- Coxhead, The Native Tribes of North- graphiques sur quelques peuplades du ern Rhodesia, their Laws and Cus- Tanganika (Brussels, 1905), pp. 18 sq. ; toms (London, 1914), pp. 9 sq., 15. Cullen Gouldsbury and Hubert Sheane, I have ventured to assume the identity The Great Plateau of Northern Nigeria of the Wabemba of the Congo Free (London, 1911), pp. 171 sq.; J. C. C. State with the Awemba of North- CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LE VI RATE 283 or Awemba the cohabitation of the heir with the widow would seem to be intended to rid her of the jealous ghost of her departed spouse, who might otherwise haunt or kill his living rival. The cohabitation of the deceased wife's sister with the widower in this tribe is probably designed in like manner to relieve him from the unwelcome attentions of his late wife's wraith. Among the Hausas a Mohammedan may marry a The younger sister after the death of her elder sister, his wife, but he may not marry an elder sister after the death of a Hausasand younger. 1 In harmony with this is the rule, reported by one th g French Hausa informant, that during his wife's lifetime a man should Sudan, avoid meeting her elder but not her younger sister ; 2 for the discrimination which he thus makes between the sisters probably springs from the consideration that he may one day marry the younger but never the elder. We have seen that in the Thonga tribe of South Africa a man discriminates in the same way between his wife's elder and younger sisters and for the same reason. In the French Sudan, where wives are generally bought, a reduction in the price used sometimes to be made when a man married several sisters. For example, among the Nounoumas a man got a second sister for one fifth less than he paid for the first; and if he chose to marry the third sister, he got her for nothing. 3 Among the Menkieras the calculation of the relative value of the sisters is rather more intricate. A husband who had married an elder sister might afterwards marry her second sister on paying only four head of cattle instead of five, which was the price he had paid for his first Eastern Rhodesia, partly on account l A. J. N. Tremearne, The Ban of of the similarity of the names, but still the Bori (London, [1914]), p. 121. more on account of the close resem- 2 A. J. N. Tremearne, The Ban of blance of their marriage customs, which the Bori, p. 1 24. According to another in some respects amounts to identity ; of Major Tremearne's informants, a the account given by Messrs. Goulds- man should avoid both the elder and bury and Sheane of the Awemba customs the younger sisters of his wife in her might almost be a translation of the lifetime ; and Major Tremearne thinks account which Delhaise gives of the this account the more likely. For the Wabemba customs. That the widower reason indicated in the text I am actually cohabits with his deceased inclined to accept the other account wife's married sister is not expressly as the more probable, affirmed by Delhaise ; but his words 3 Louis Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan seem clearly to imply it. (Paris, 1912), p. 139. 284 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n wife. If he afterwards married a third sister, there was no reduction in price ; but if he married a fourth sister, he again got an abatement of one head of cattle out of five. At the present day the relative price of sisters in the tribe is the same, but it is now paid in cowries instead of in cattle. 1 From the foregoing survey it appears that both the soror- ate and the levirate are characteristic institutions of the Bantu stock, while the sororate is found among the Nilotic tribes The of Kavirondo and the black races of the Sudan. In Mada- andTevirate gascar, the native population of which belongs to the in Mada- Malayan or Indonesian and not to the African stock, it is said to be customary for a man to receive, along with his wife, her younger sisters in marriage, 2 but the statement lacks confirmation. However, if it is doubtful whether the sororate was customary in Madagascar, it is certain that the levirate was so. The widow formed part of her husband's inheritance, and his eldest surviving brother had the right to marry her, but should he abstain from exercising his right, he was bound formally to repudiate her before she might marry again. If the deceased left no brother, his widow went to a nephew or cousin, as it was deemed very desirable to keep the property within the family. Also when a man died childless it was held to be very important that his widow should have offspring by a kinsman, and the children begotten by him on her were reputed, as in ancient Israel, the children of the dead man. 3 Among the Before quitting Africa to turn to Asia, it may be well to ounger n te that the Thonga and Bechuana rule, which forbids a brothers younger sister to marry before an elder sister, has its parallel marry ' ln a K ar * r ru \ e which forbids younger brothers to marry before before the their eldest brother. Among the Kafirs, we are told, it is " a common custom not to allow any younger brother to marry until his elder brother has at least one wife. The reason of 1 Louis Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, Grandidier, Ethnographic de Madagas- p. 95. car, i. (Paris, 1908), pp. I sqq. (His- 2 Th. Waitz, Anthropologie der toire Physique, Nalurelle et Politique Naturvolker (Leipsic, 1860-1877), ii. de Madagascar, vol. iv. ). 438. The view that the bulk of the Malagasy are of African origin, though 3 A. et G. Grandidier, Ethnographie it has been held by many writers, de Madagascar, ii. (Paris, 1914), pp. appears to be erroneous. See A. et G. 240 sq. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LE VI RATE 285 this is very simple. A father usually helps his sons to marry, giving them a number of cattle to pay as dowry. If a younger brother married first he might do an in- justice to the elder brother, who might not be able to get help from his father. But once the elder brother has one wife the other brothers may marry as soon as they like, and may buy as many wives as they wish." 1 The parallelism with the custom which forbids a younger sister to marry before her elder sister suggests a doubt whether this simple economic motive suffices to explain the rule. To this point we shall return later on. Whatever may be the true explanation of the rule The rule which enjoins both brothers and sisters to marry in order of enjoins seniority, the custom in its application to both sexes appears both to be generally observed in India. Thus with regard to the an d sisters various peoples of the Punjab we read that, " when the f man ~y ...... . r i / t ' n order of children live under the protection of the father or some seniority is other guardian, the custom regarding the order in which commonl y observed in they are married is that the sons are generally married in India, the order of seniority, i.e. the eldest being married first and the youngest last. Similarly in the case of daughters, the eldest must be married before the next younger sister. In the absence of special reasons, it is considered a disgrace to marry the younger son or daughter before the elder one. So far, the custom is general amongst the Hindus, Muham- madans, and Sikhs. Exceptions are only made when, owing to some physical defect or for other reasons, it is not possible to find a match for the elder son or daughter, while a suit- able alliance can be arranged for a younger member to the advantage of one or both parties, if contracted without delay. The younger son or daughter is also sometimes married before the elder, if convenient, provided that the elder son or daughter has been betrothed. Amongst the . Hindus, the rule has been to marry all children, i.e. both boys and girls in the order of seniority, and a score of years ago no one would accept the hand of a girl if her elder brother remained unmarried. The age of marriage for boys 1 Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir in Col. Maclean's Compendium of Kafir (London, 1904), p. 211. The same Laws and Customs (Cape Town, 1866), rule, with the same explanation, is re- p. 45. corded by the Rev. H. H. Dugmore 286 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n is, however, being raised gradually, and consequently the objection to the younger sister being married before the elder brother is losing its force. Among the Muham- madans and Sikhs generally, the marriageable age of boys being higher, the marriage of girls is not put off in favour of the elder boys. When sons grow independent of the father a or if the brothers separate at the death of the father, they marry at their own discretion, usually without regard to precedence by birth." 1 Among the Santals of Bengal " the custom is to marry the young folks according to their ages, and it is very seldom that a younger is married before an elder. Should a younger sister be married before an elder, the latter claims a solatium known as taram gande, which amounts to about two rupees." 2 Ancient Among the Aryans of India this custom of marrying stdctiy laW both sons and daughters strictly in the order of seniority is enjoined ve ry ancient. In the Laws of Manu t a curious jumble of and sisters l aw > religion, and metaphysics, which in its present form may to marry ^ate from about the second century of our era, 3 we read in order of 11111 / i seniority, that the elder brother who marries after the younger, the younger brother who marries before the elder, the female with whom such a marriage is contracted, he who gives her away, and the sacrificing priest, as the fifth, all fall into hell." 4 An older code of law, which bears the name of Baudhayana, and may perhaps date from the sixth or fifth century before our era, is more merciful ; for while it acknowledges that all these five sinners naturally " sink to a region of torment," it holds out to them the hope of escaping this dreadful doom by the simple performance of a penance proportioned to the gravity of their offence, the male culprits being sentenced to a penance of twelve days, and the female offender to a fast of three days. 8 It will be 1 Census of India, 1911, vol. xiv. i. 332, 334, ii. 262. Punjab, Parti. Report, by Pandit 4 The Laws of Manu, iii. 172, p. Harikishan Kaul (Lahore, 1912), p. 108 of G. Biihler's translation (The 268. Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv., 2 Hon. and Rev. A. Campbell, Oxford, 1886). D.D., " Santal Marriage Customs," 6 The Sacred Laws of the Arvas, Journal of the Bihar and Orissa translated by G. Biihler, Part ii. Research Society, ii. (Bankipore, 1916) (Oxford, 1882) p. 217 (The Sacred p. 308. Books of the East, vol. xiv.). As to 3 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, the date of Baudhayana's code, see G. The Empire of India (Oxford, 1909), Biihler's Introduction, p. xliii ; also CHAP, vi THE SO RO RATE AND LE VI RATE 287 observed that while the penalty of damnation is thus de- nounced against the sinner who marries before his elder brother, nothing is said about the fate of him who marries a younger before an elder sister. However, a felon of the latter sort by no means escaped scot-free. The code which goes by the name of Vasishtha lays down the rules to be followed for the repression of all such offences against the order of nature. An elder brother who suffers a younger brother to wed before him is to perform a penance and marry the woman. The younger brother who married before his elder brother is to perform a double penance, to give up his wife to his elder brother, marry again, and then take back the woman whom he had married first. A man who marries a younger before an elder sister is to perform a penance for twelve days and then to marry the elder sister. A man who marries an elder sister after her younger sister is to perform a double penance, give up his wife to the husband of the younger sister, and marry again. 1 Another Indian code, which passes under the name of Vishnu and seems to be not earlier than the beginning of the third century of our era, prescribes a uniform penance for " an unmarried elder brother whose younger brother is married, a younger brother married before the elder, an unmarried elder sister whose younger sister is married, the relative who gives such a damsel in marriage, and the priest who officiates at such a marriage." 2 The ancient Aryan custom recorded in these Indian The lawbooks is still to a certain extent followed by the South Slavs, who have preserved many relics of early law and in order of usage which have long vanished among the Western nations stm n of Europe. " Serbian custom requires that the eldest son observed should marry before his younger brothers. A single excep- south tion is admitted for the case in which he renounces marriage, Slavs - his Introduction to The Sacred Laws is not " comparatively late " (Intro- of the Aryas, Part i. (Oxford, 1879) duction, p. xxvi), from which we may pp. xxii, xliii {The Sacred Books of perhaps infer that it is not later than the East, vol. ii. ). the beginning of the Christian era. 1 The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, 2 The Institutes of Vishnu, trans- translated by G. Buhler, Part ii. lated by Julius Jolly (Oxford, 1880), (Oxford, 1882) p. 103 (The Sacred p. 1 7 7 ( The Sacred Books of the East, Books of the East, vol. xiv. ). The vol. vii. ). As to the date of this work, date of the laws of Vasishtha is un- see The Imperial Gazetteer of India, The certain. The translator thinks that it Indian Empire (Oxford, 1909), ii. 262. 288 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n either voluntarily or compulsorily, by reason of some bodily infirmity ; but he must, expressly give his brother permission to marry. The daughters always precede their brothers in marriage. However, when one of the sisters is married, and the other still a child, the brother is not obliged to wait till his younger sister is nubile. The same order is rigorously Reminis- observed in Bulgaria. A man who should violate it would cences of b e severely excluded from the community." 1 Even in our the custom . . in England own country a reminiscence of the old rule seems to survive !; nd , in the custom which prescribes that when a younger sister Scotland. J marries before her elder sisters these damsels should all dance at the wedding barefoot or at least without shoes : "this will counteract their ill-luck, and procure them husbands." *' The custom is alluded to by Shakespeare, 3 and appears to be still observed in Shropshire and the north of England. 4 In Wales, " if the youngest of a family was married before the eldest, the seniors had to dance shoeless for penance to the company." 5 From this it appears that elder brothers had also to dance without shoes at the weddings of their younger brothers. In the west of England the rule is said to be that at the wedding of a younger sister the elder sister should dance in green stockings. 6 Appar- ently in some parts of Scotland the custom was similar, for there is a saying that when a girl marries before her elder sisters " she has given them green stockings." 7 In the north-east of Scotland a younger sister on such an occasion gave her elder sister green garters, 8 in which we may suppose that the elder was formerly expected to dance at her younger 1 F. Demelic, Le Droit Coutumier 1883), pp. 290 sq. ; W. Henderson, des Slaves Mtridionaux cPapres les Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern recherches de M. V. Bogilic (Paris, Counties of England and the Borders 1877), p. 52. (London, 1879), p. 41. 2 Francis Grose, A Provincial Glos- 5 Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and sary, -with a Collection of Local Pro- Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), verbs and Popular Superstitions (Lon- p _ 2 -, don, 1811), p. 293; T. Brand, Popular ,, D , , .. ... \, ~ ' v, ... . ;, , B R. Chambers, The Book of Days Antiquities of Great Britain (London, /T , 1882-1883), ii. 169. < London ' I886 >' ' ^ 3 The Taming of the Shrew, Act II, ' Robert Chambers, Popular Rhymes Scene i, line 33, where Katharina says f Scotland (London and Edinburgh, of her younger sister, Bianca, "I must N.D.), p. 342. dance bare-foot on her wedding-day." 8 Walter Gregor, Notes on the Folk- 4 Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. lore of the North - East of Scotland Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore (London, (London, 1881), p. 90. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEV/RATE 289 sister's wedding. Among the mining folk of Fife at a mar- riage " a dance would be held and ' the green garters ' (which had been knitted in anticipation by the best maid) were pinned surreptitiously on to the clothing of the elder unmarried brother or sister of the bride. When discovered they were removed and tied round the left arm and worn for the rest of the evening. The green garters are still in evidence." 1 The use of green for the stockings or garters of the elder sister on such occasions is all the more remarkable because in general green is thought a very unlucky colour at marriage. Down to the present time in the north of Scotland no young woman would wear green on her wedding-day ; and we hear of an old lady who attributed all her misfortunes in life to her imprudence in being married in a green gown instead of a blue. 2 The prejudice against green at weddings is equally strong in Yorkshire ; a bride who was rash enough to be married in green is said to have contracted a severe illness in consequence ; and in that part of the country a bridal dress of blue is thought to be very little better, for they say, "If dressed in blue, she's sure to rue." 3 It is a popular saying in Shropshire and Suffolk that an elder unmarried brother or sister should dance at his or her younger brother's or sister's wedding in a hog's trough. 4 In the year 1881 a man in the Bridgenorth neighbourhood was heard to observe gravely, with reference to the marriage of the second son of the local squire, that Mr. M - (the elder brother, still unmarried) would have to dance in a pig- trough on the wedding-day. 5 In Yorkshire there is a saying that an unmarried elder brother or sister must dance " in the half-peck " at the marriage of his or her younger brother 1 D. Rorie, M.D., in County Folk- collected by Mrs. Gutch (London, lore, vii. Fife, collected by J. E. 1901), p. 290; County Folk-lore, vol- Simpkins (London, 1914), p. 393- vi. East Riding of Yorkshire, by Mrs- Green garters seem to have been Gutch (London, 1912), p. 128. similarly used at weddings in Lincoln- 4 EUrabeth M Wri ht Rustic shire See County Folk-lore vol v ^> ^ ^ Lincolnshire, by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel < are Peacock (London, 1908), p. 232, com- ^^ ^^ ^ fa of * pare p. 233. { 2 Robert Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 342. 6 Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. 3 County Folk-lore, vol. ii. 'North Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore (London, Riding of Yorkshire, York and Ainsty, 1883), p. 291. VOL. II U 290 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n or sister. 1 We have seen, too, that among the mining folk of Fife an elder unmarried brother has to wear green garters, apparently as a badge of infamy, at the marriage of his Reminis- younger sister. At Ventron, in the Vosges, a girl who tbeTcustotn marr i es before her elder sisters must give them a white in France, goat ; but the demand of justice is generally satisfied with a goat cut out of wood or of cardboard or simply of turnip. 2 Thus popular custom in England, Scotland, and France still reflects that prejudice against the marriage of younger before elder children which is recorded in the ancient lawbooks of India. Marriage The Chinese also are wont to marry their children in of children orc j er o f seniority ; 3 and in China the bridal chair which is in order of * ' seniority carried at marriage processions is frequently decofated with the C East' a P a ^ r ^ trousers hung over the door. This singular orna- indies, and ment is explained as follows. " It would appear that if a man marries before his elder brother, or a woman before her elder sister, it is the correct thing to hang this article of clothing both over the door of the house where the marriage takes place and over that of the bride's chair. The trowsers represent the elder brother and sister." 4 We may conjec- ture that the intention is to hold up the old bachelor or old maid to public derision, which after all is a lighter penalty than that of damnation denounced by the Laws of Manu against unmarried elder brothers. The modern Javanese and the modern Egyptians are also reluctant to marry their daughters except in the order of seniority. 5 Among the Bataks of Sumatra a younger brother may not marry before an elder brother. 6 In the East Indian island of Halmahera a younger sister may not marry before an elder sister, 7 and 1 Elizabeth Mary Wright, Rustic Deel (Batavia, 1843), p. 566 ; E. W. Speech and Folk-lore (Oxford Univer- Lane, Manners and Customs of the sity Press, 1913), p. 276. Modern Egyptians (Paisley and Lon- 2 L. F. Sauve, Le Folk-lore des don, 1895), P- J 7 2 - Hantes.Vo*gei ^(Paris 1889), p. 9 8. 6 G A wuk Plechti heden en 3 T. H. Gray, China (London, , ., ,.. ,' . g . gebruiken bij verlovmgen en nuwelij- 7 '* ' , .' , . i /TT ken bij de volken van den Indischen 4 The China Review, vol. i. (Hone;- . , . J . . , ,, , .. _.. Archipel, De verspreiae Geschnften Kong, July i872-June 1873), p. 272. ,, , . ^ - ^ ' . T , IK (The Hague, 1912), i. 450 jv. C. F. W inter, " Instelhngen gewoonten ert gebruiken der Javanen 7 J. G. F. Kiedel, " Galela und te Soerakarta," Tijdschrift voor Neer- Tobeloresen," Zeitschrift fur Ethno lands Indie, Vijfde Jaargang, Eerste logic, xvii. (1885) p. 76, CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 291 the same rule applies to sisters in the island of Nias, a departure from the rule being permitted only when the elder sister, by reason of chronic ill-health, deformity, or other bodily defect, is not likely to find a suitor. 1 Among the Toboongkoos and Tomoris of Central Celebes, when a young man asks the hand of a girl whose elder sister is still unmarried, her father urges him to marry the elder sister first ; but if the suitor will not hear of it, he must pay the eider sister or sisters a fine for marrying their younger sister before them. Should the suitor be rich, he will have to give each of the slighted damsels a slave or four buffaloes ; should he be poor, the amount of the fine will be proportionately less. 2 Fines for similar transgressions of what is deemed the natural order of marriage are exacted from bridegrooms among some of the Bare'e-speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes. 3 Similarly in some parts of Sumatra a man is allowed to marry a younger before an elder sister on payment of a small sum of money to the elder sister or her mother* Among the Sangos of German East Africa a younger sister ought not to marry before her elder sister, and she may not do so unless the elder is more than twenty years old and has no prospect of finding a husband. We have seen that a similar custom of precedence accorded to elder sisters in marriage is observed by other African tribes, the Thonga and Bechuanas. 6 In India at the present day the custom of the sororate is The common, and sometimes it is expressly laid down that the elder sister must be married before the younger. Thus among idia: rule the Assamese a man may marry two sisters, but he must marry youn g e r sister may 1 J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. Bare'e-sprekende Toradjd 1 s van Midden- ?, marr y von Rosenberg, " Verslag omtrent het Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), ii. 16. eiland Nias ;," ' Verhandelingen van het 4 wil]iam Marsden, History of Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten Sumatra (London, 1811), p. 229; enWetemchappen, xxs :. (Batavia ,1863), G A Wi]k Plechtigheden en p. 39; H. von Rosenberg Der Malay- bruiken bij ver lovingen en huwe- ische Archipel (Leipsic, 1 878), p. 1 5 5. Hjken Wj de vojken v . m den Indischen A. C. Kruijt, "Een.ge ethno- Archipel De vers p reidi; Geschrifien, i. grafiscne aanteekeningen omtrent de AC\ Toboengkoe en de Tomori," Mededeel- ingen van wege het Nederlandsche Missionar Reese, Sitte und Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (1900) p. B 7 rauch der San >" ^chiv fur An- 234 . thropologie, N.F., xn. (1913) p. 134. 3 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De 6 See above, p. 277. 292 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n the elder before the younger. 1 Among the Garos of Assam the custom is the same. 2 So in the Uppara caste of Mysore, two sisters may be taken in marriage by the same man, pro- vided that he does not marry the younger before the elder sister. But while the Upparas allow the sororate, they forbid the levirate, in other words, they do not allow a widow to marry her deceased husband's brother. 3 Other castes of Mysore allow a man to marry several sisters in their lifetime, sometimes simultaneously ; but where he is only permitted to marry them successively, we may surmise that he has to observe the custom enjoined by the Upparas of marrying the elder before the younger sister. 4 For example, among the Nagartas " two sisters may be married by one man but at different times, especially when the first wife is barren or is suffering from an incurable disease ; and to avoid the quarrels in the family if a stranger girl is married, the sister of the living wife is preferred." 5 So among the Kurubas of North Arcot a man may marry two sisters either on the death of one of them, or if his first wife is childless or suffers from an incurable disease. 6 Similarly, among the Medaras of Southern India marriage with two living sisters is common, especially when one of the wives is diseased ; and marriage with a deceased wife's sister is regarded with special favour. 7 The Kachhis, an important caste of cultivators in the Central Provinces, allow a man to have two sisters as wives at the same time ; indeed at their weddings a piece of pantomime is enacted which seems to indicate a preference for marriage with two sisters simultaneously. At a certain point of the ceremony the bride is hidden somewhere in the house, and the bridegroom has to search for her. Sometimes the bride's younger sister is dressed up in the bride's clothes, and the bridegroom catches her in mistake for his wife ; whereupon 1 A Sketch of Assam, with some Caste, p. 3 ; id, xiii. Dombar Caste, Account of the Hill Tribes, by an p. 5 ; id. xv. Morasu Okkalu, p. 13 ; Officer [John Butler] (London, 1847), id. xvi. Sanyasi Caste, p. 2. p. 142. 6 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- 2 Major A. Play fair, The Garos graphical Survey of Mysore, xxx. Na- (London, 1909), p. 69. gartcts (Bangalore, 1913), p. 6. 3 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of graphical Survey of Mysore, xxi. Uppara Southern India (Madras, 1909), iv. Caste (Bangalore, 1910), pp. 4, 7. 147. 4 H. V. Nanjundayya, op. cit. ii. ? ]? Thurston, Castes and Tribes of floleya Caste, p. 7 ; id. ix. Tigala Southern India, v. 55. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 293 the old women laugh and say to him, " Do you want her also?" In some castes, however, a man may not have two sisters to wife at the same time, but is free to marry the second sister after the death of the first. Thus among the Sunars, who are the goldsmiths and silversmiths of the Central Provinces, " a man is forbidden to marry two sisters while both are alive, and after his wife's death he may espouse her younger sister, but not her elder one." 2 So, too, among the Oswals, a wealthy and respectable trading class of the North-Western Provinces, a man may marry his deceased wife's younger sister, but is forbidden to marry her elder sister. 3 In India the custom of the sororate is very commonly The practised in conjunction with the levirate. Thus among the Veddas of Ceylon " second marriages are, and always have levirate been frequent, a man often marrying a sister of his deceased conjunc- ' wife and a woman marrying one of her dead husband's tionin brothers. We believe that such unions were rearded as both a privilege and a duty, though according to Handuna The of Sitala Wanniya a man married his dead wife's sister principally because if he married any one else his children would not be looked after so well." 4 The Besthas, a large The caste of Mysore, do not allow a man to be married to two B sisters at the same time, but they permit him to marry the one after the death of the other ; indeed a deceased wife's sister is generally preferred as a second wife. Further, a widow may marry her deceased husband's elder brother, but such marriages are rare. 5 Among the Saoras, a tribe of The industrious cultivators inhabiting a rugged mountainous region in northern Madras, it is said to be common for a man to marry his wife's sister in the lifetime of the first, and the two sisters so married live together until a child is born, after which they must separate ; for each wife has a separate house and a separate patch of ground to till on the 1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes lifetime of both is here rather implied of the Central Provinces of India (Lon- than expressed. don, 1916), iii. 286 sq. 4 C. G. Seligmann and Brenda Z. 2 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iv. 520. Seligmann, The Veddas (Cambridge, 3 W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of 1911), p. 69. the. North- Western Provinces and Oudh 5 H. V. Nanjundayya, The Ethno- (Calcutta, 1896), iv. 99. The pro- graphical Survey of Mysore, v. Bestha hibition to marry two sisters in the Caste (Bangalore, 1906), pp. 4, 8. 294 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART 11 The Ahirs. The Kawars. hill-side. A widow is bourld to marry her late husband's younger brother ; if he is too young to wed, she waits till he is grown up. If her deceased husband has no younger brothers living, she marries a son of one of his brothers. A reason assigned for marrying a wife's sister is that the mar- riage is inexpensive ; probably she is to be had cheaper than another woman. Thus with the Saoras, as with many other peoples, the passion of love tends to flow in the channel of economy. 1 Among the Ahirs, a large caste of cowherds and milkmen in the Central Provinces, a man may marry his wife's younger but not her elder sister, while his first wife is still living ; and a widow is often expected to marry her deceased husband's younger brother. 2 The Kawars, a primitive hill tribe of the Central Provinces, observe similar customs. A man may not marry his wife's elder sister, but he can take her younger sister to wife in the lifetime of his first wife ; and the marriage of a widow with her late husband's younger brother is deemed the most suitable match. 3 So The Tells, with the Telis, a large caste of oil-pressers in the Central Provinces, a man may marry his wife's younger sister while she herself is alive, but he may never marry her elder sister. In Chhattisgarh a Teli widow is always kept in the family, if it can be done ; and when her late husband's brother is only a boy, she is sometimes induced to put on the bangles and wait for him. In Chanda, on the other hand, some Telis do not permit a widow to marry her deceased husband's 'younger brother at all, and others allow the marriage only when he is a bachelor or a widower. 4 The Korkus, a Munda or Kolarian tribe of the Central Provinces, practise polygamy on a very liberal scale, a husband sometimes having twelve wives all living at one time. But he " must not marry his wife's younger sister if she is the widow of a member of his own sept nor his elder brother's widow if she is his wife's elder sister." 5 This implies that he may marry his wife's younger sister, if she is not the 1 Fred. Fawcett, "On the Saoras of the Central Provinces of India (Lon- The Korkus. (or Savaras), an aboriginal Hill People of the Eastern Ghats of the Madras Presidency, "Journal of the Anthropo- logical Society of Bombay, i. (Bombay, 1886-1887) PP- 2 3 S( l-i 2 34 S( l- 2 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes don, 1916), ii. 26, 27. 3 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 395- 4 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iv. 548. 6 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 559. 393. 547, CHAP, vi THE SO RO RATE AND LE VI RATE 295 widow of a member of his own sept ; and that he may marry his elder brother's widow, provided that she is not his wife's elder sister. The Gonds of the Central Provinces The appear to practise the sororate with the usual restriction ; Gonds - for we are told that among them " a man cannot marry his wife's elder sister," * which implies that he can marry her younger sister. They commonly observe the levirate also with the usual limitation, for we read that, while the re- marriage of a widow is freely permitted, " as a rule it is con- sidered suitable that she should marry her deceased husband's younger brother, but she may not marry his elder brother, and in the south of Bastar and Chanda the union with the younger brother is also prohibited. In Mandla, if she will not wed the younger brother, on the eleventh day after the husband's death he puts the tarkhi or palm-leaf ear-rings in her ears, and states that if she marries anybody else he will claim dawa-bunda or compensation. Similarly in Bastar, if an outsider marries the widow, he first goes through a joint ceremony with the younger brother, by which the latter relinquishes his right in favour of the former." 2 Among the Ramaiyas, a pedlar class of the North - Western The Provinces, a man may not have two sisters to wife R at the same time, but there is no rule against his marry- ing his deceased wife's younger sister ; and a widow may marry her deceased husband's younger brother, if he is unmarried. Should her brother-in-law not claim her hand, she is free to bestow it upon somebody else. 3 Among the Hindoos of the Punjab a man who has married an elder The sister will seldom marry her younger sister in the lifetime : of the first ; but when the elder sister dies, he will often Punjab, take her younger sister to wife. Indeed, among ruling chiefs, instances of two sisters being given in marriage at the same time to the same man are not uncommon. In those castes of the Punjab which permit a woman to marry again, she must be taken to wife by her deceased husband's 1 R. V. Russell, op. cif. iii. 72. to take to wife the widow of an elder- 2 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 80 sq. The converse is not, however, pejr Compare Captain J. Forsyth, The milled." Highlands of Central India (London, 2 W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of 1871), p. 150, "Among ihe Gonds it the North-Western Provinces and Ondh is even the duty of a younger brother (Calcutta, 1896), iv. 224. 296 JACOBUS MARRIAGE FART n brother. Contrary to the usual rule, there is no objection to her wedding her dead husband's elder brother ; but if there is a younger brother, a union with him is deemed preferable. 1 T he Among the inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall a sororate rnan is free to marry his wife's sisters and the widow of his levirate elder brother. 2 Among the Kacharis of Assam " a widower am ng j he may marry his deceased wife's younger sister, but not the Assam. elder, whom he is taught to regard conventionally in the light of a mother. Much the same principle holds good in the case of the re-marriage of widows, which is freely per- mitted, the one limitation being that a widow may marry her deceased husband's younger brother, but not the elder." s So among the Kachcha Nagas, in the North Cachar Hills, " the younger brother may marry the deceased elder brother's wife, but not the widow of a younger brother. A man may marry his wife's younger sister, but not the elder." 4 With the Kuki-Lushai tribes of the same region the rules are similar. " A man, if not already married, is bound to marry the widow of a deceased elder brother. Even if he be a mere child, he will, on coming of age, marry the woman, however old she may be. An elder brother may not marry the widow of the younger. A man may many his wife's younger sister, but not the elder." Distinction Thus many Indian castes or tribes draw a sharp dis- inres P ectof tinction in respect of marriageability between the elder and marriage- J ability the younger sisters of a wife, and between the elder and y un g er brothers of a husband : in the one case a man may younger marry his wife's younger but not her elder sister, in the andsisTers otner case a woman may marry her deceased husband's younger but not his elder brother. The reasons for such distinctions of age will be discussed later on. The customs of the sororate and the levirate are observed 1 Census of India, 1911, vol. xiv. don, 1911), p. 29. Punjab, Part i. Report, by Pandit 4 C. A. Soppitt, A Short Accoitnt Havikshan Kaul (Lahore, 1912), pp. of the Kachcha Ndga (Empeo) Tribe in 289 sq. the North Cachar Hills (Shillong, 1885), 2 Lieutenant Thomas Shaw, " On p. 8. the Inhabitants of the Hills near Raja- 5 C. A. Soppitt, A Short Account mahall," Asiatic Researches, iv. (Lori- of the Krtki-Lnshai Tribes on the don, 1807), pp. 59, 60. North- East Frontier (Shillong, 1887), 3 Sidney Endle, The Kacharis (Lon- pp. ~L$ sq. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 297 by other Asiatic peoples. Thus in Siam a man is allowed The to marry two sisters, either simultaneously or successively ; but if he has married the younger sister first, he may not levirate afterward marry the elder. 1 Among the Rodes, a savage Q^" S tribe of hunters in the mountains of Cambodia, polygamy is Asiatic in vogue, and a man who has married the eldest daughter ** of a family has an acknowledged right to marry all her younger sisters ; they may not wed any one else without his consent. 2 Among the Kachins, Chingpaws, or Singphos of Upper Burma " polygamy is permissible. For a man to have more than two wives is rare. Sometimes, however, he cannot help himself, since successive brothers must marry a deceased elder brother's widows. Occasionally, when many brothers die and one brother is saddled with more wives than he is able to support, it is permissible to arrange for a still younger brother or even a stranger to take the widow ; the widow in any case has to be taken care of and fed by her husband's family even if none of them will formally become her husband." 3 Among the Kamchadales a man often married t\vo sisters either at the same time or one after the death of the other ; and when a husband died, his surviving brother married the widow, whether he already had a wife or not. 4 With the Koryaks of North-Eastern Siberia it is a rule that a man may not marry the sister of his living wife, but on the other hand he is obliged to marry his deceased wife's younger sister, though he is forbidden to marry her elder sister. Similarly, a Koryak widow is bound to marry her deceased husband's younger brother, but is forbidden to marry his elder brother. 5 The heathen Ostiaks marry as many wives as they can afford to keep, and they prefer to take several 1 Turpin, " History of Siam," in can only marry again outside her John Pinkerton's General Collection of husband's household with their con- Voyages and Travels (London, 1808 sent." Compare also John Anderson, 1814), ix. 585; E. Aymonier, Notes Afandalay to Momien (London, 1867), sur le Laos (Saigon, 1885), p. 268. p. 142. 2 J. Moura, Le Royatime du Cam- * G. W. Steller, Beschreibung von bodge (Paris, 1883), i. 426, 427, 428. dem Lande Kamtschatka (Frankfort 3 (Sir) J- George Scott and J. P. and Leipsic, 1774), p. 347- Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma 5 W. Jochelson, The Koryak (Leyden and the Shan States (Rangoon, 1900 and New York, 1908), pp. 73 7> 74&- 1901), Part i. vol. i. p. 405 ; compare ( The Je sup North Pacific Expedition, id. p. 407, " A widow, as has been vol. vi. Memoir of the American noted, is usually taken by her husband's Mziseum of Natural History, New brothers. She has no option and York.) 298 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n Marriage deceased wife's sister and Mordvins of Russia, The amHevirate in the chipeiago. sisters to wife, not only because they deem marriage with a wife's sister lucky, but also because they get the subsequent sisters at half price, a large reduction being made by the father of the girls to the man who takes a number of them off his hands. Further, an Ostiak may lawfully wed his deceased brother's widow. 1 The heathen Cheremiss of Russia practise polygamy, anc ^ though they may not marry two sisters at the same time, they are pleased to marry them one after the other. 2 Among the Mordvins of Russia the practice of marrying a deceased wife's sister was common as late as the eighteenth _ . , -111 , century. Indeed, we are told that the widower .had a right to the hand of the lady, and if her father refused his consent, the importunate suitor could extort it by the following ceremony. Snatching a morsel of bread from the bin, he would lay it on the table and run away, crying, " Behold the bread and salt ! Watch over my betrothed." After that his father-in-law could no longer withhold from him the hand of his second daughter. 3 Among the Bataks of Sumatra, if a wife dies childless, ner husband has the right to marry her sisters successively, one after the other, without having to pay another bride- price for them to the parents ; if the parents refuse their consent to the new marriage, the widower may demand the restitution of the price he paid for his first wife. 4 Further, it is a rule of Batak law that on a man's death his wives pass with his property to his heir, who is his younger brother or eldest son. If the brother desires to marry them, the women have no right to refuse ; but if he will not have them, it is open to them to marry other men. If, at the time of her husband's death, his younger brother is under age, the widows must wait for him till he is grown up. 5 But while a Batak woman 1 P. S. Pallas, Reise ditrch verschie- dene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), iii. 51. 2 J. G. Georgi, Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg, 1776-17810), i. 31. 3 Jean N. Smirnov, Les Popiilalions Finnoises des bassins de la Volga et de la Kama, Premiere Partie (Paris, 1898), P. 34- * C. J. Temminck, Coup tf ceil general stir les possessions Neerlandaises dans CInde Archipelagique (Leyden, 1847), ii. 55 ; F. Warneck, " Das Eherecht bei den Toba-Batak," Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkundevan Neder- lands ch- Indie, liii. (1901), p. 535. > J. B. Neumann, " Het Pane- en Bilastroomgebied op het eiland Sum- atra," Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 299 is bound to marry her deceased husband's younger brother, if he will have her, she is forbidden to marry his elder brother; such a union is regarded as incest, and is punished by killing the culprits and devouring their bodies. 1 The Menangkabaw Malays of Sumatra regard it as a meritorious deed when a man marries his deceased wife's sister or his deceased brother's widow, because in this way the bond between the families is not broken by death. 2 In the island of Engano, to the south-west of Sumatra, a widower usually marries his deceased wife's sister ; but if he fails to do so, he has not to pay a fine for culpable negligence. 3 In the Mansela and Nusawele districts of Ceram a man may lawfully marry two wives, but the men who avail themselves of this privilege are not numerous. However, in the comparatively rare cases of polygamy the wives are nearly always sisters, and the custom is defended on the ground that if the wives were not sisters, there would be constant bickering in the house. 4 The natives of the Western Islands of Torres Straits The observed both the sororate and the levirate. Among them, when a man married a second wife, either in the lifetime of in the his first wife or after her death, he commonly espoused her sister (tukoiab]. But the sister need not be a full sister in Torres our sense, since the native term for sister (tiikoiab] is used in js,- ew the classificatory or group sense of the term, so as to include Guinea - half-sisters and certain first and second cousins. However, Lousiades. in a considerable proportion of the recorded cases the second wives whom a man married were the own sisters of his first wife. In regard to the levirate, a widow among these people was not compelled to marry her deceased husband's brother, Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede bij de Minangkabausche Maleiers," Serie, iii. Afdeeling, Meer uitgebreide Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Artikelen, No. 3 (Amsterdam, 1 886), Volkenkunde, xliv. (1901) p. 394. pp. 487 sq. ; F. Warneck, "Das 3 J. Winkler, " Bericht iiber die Eherecht bei den Toba-Batak," Bij- zweite Untersuchungsreise nach der dragen totde Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde Insel Engano," Tijdschrift voorlndische van Nederlandsch- Indie, liii. (1901) Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, 1. (1908) PP- 540 sq. p. 152. 1 G. A. Wilken, "Over de ver- 4 M. C. Schadee, " Heirats- und wantschap en het huwelijks- en erfrecht andere Gebrauche bei den Mansela bij de volken van het maleische ras," und Nusawele Alfuren in der Unter- De verspreide Geschriften (The Hague, abteilung Wahasi der Insel Seram 1912), i. 328^. (Ceram)," Internationales Archiv fur - J. C. van Eerde, " Een huwelijk Ethnographic, xxii. (1915) p. 135. 300 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n but apparently in most cases she did so. Only here again we must remember that the native term for brother (tukoiaV) is used in the class! ficatory or group sense, so as to include certain first and second cousins. In these islands permission to marry a widow seems not to have been limited, as usually in India and sometimes in Africa, to the younger brothers of the deceased husband. 1 Among the Yabim of German New Guinea a man may marry his deceased wife's sister, but he is expected to earn her hand by first avenging the death of one of her kinsfolk. 2 Again, in the Louisiade Archi- pelago, to the east of New Guinea, when a woman dies, her husband may take her unmarried sister to wife without any fresh payment, and she may not refuse him. But if he does not care to marry her, and she marries somebody else, her husband must pay the bride-price to her dead sister's husband instead of to her own people. Yet though a man may, and indeed should, marry his deceased wife's sister, he ought not to approach her closely or hold prolonged conversation with her during his wife's lifetime, nor should he speak to her alone in the forest ; if he does so, she might tell her sister, his wife, who would thereupon think she had cause for jealousy, and a domestic quarrel might be the result. In this case the ceremonial avoidance of the wife's sister in the lifetime of the wife is clearly a precaution to prevent an im- proper intimacy between the two. Further, in the Louisiade Archipelago the correlative custom of the levirate is also in vogue ; that is, a man has a right to marry his deceased brother's widow, after she has completed her term of mourning. 3 The Similarly, in the New Hebrides, a widower marries his ancUevirate deceased wife's sister, and a widow marries her deceased in the New husband's brother. " All these substitutions are explained Hebrides. 1 Dr. W. H. R. Rivers in Reports of brothers had the right of marrying his the Cambridge Anthropological Expedi- widow, the eldest brother having the tion to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, first claim. See Reports of the Cai- 1904) pp. 244 sq. As to the native bridge Expedition to Torres Straits, term tukoiab, which includes both vi. (Cambridge, 1908) pp. 124 sq. brothers and sisters, see id., pp. 130 2 H. Zahn, "Die Jabim," in R. sqq. As to the classificatory or group Neuhauss,Zte/.re\\\'n, system of relationship, see above, pp. 1911); iii- 307. 227 sqq. The natives of the Eastern 3 C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians Islands of Torres Straits also observed of British Neio Guinea (Cambridge, the levirate. Among them a man's 19^0), pp. 738 sq. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 301 by the fact that the native pays for his wife. Since she is a slave, it is a gain for the brother who inherits her. In case this second marriage does not take place, the parents are obliged to restore the pigs paid by the first husband." ] A like testimony to the strictly economic basis of the levirate in the New Hebrides and in Melanesia generally is borne by Dr. Codrington. " The levirate," he says, " obtains as a matter of course. The wife has been obtained for one member of a family by the contributions of the whole, and if that member fails by death, some other is ready to take his place, so that the property shall not be lost ; it is a matter of arrangement for convenience and economy whether a brother, cousin, or uncle of the deceased shall take his widow. The brother naturally comes first ; if a more distant relation takes the woman he probably has to give a pig. In Lepers' Island if a man who is a somewhat distant cousin of the deceased wishes to take the widow, he adds a pig to the^ death-feast of the tenth or fiftieth day to signify and support his pretensions, and he probably gives another pig to the widow's sisters to obtain their good-will. If two men contend for the widow she selects one, and the fortunate suitor gives a pig to the disappointed. In fact a woman, when once the proper payment has been made for her, belongs to those who have paid, the family generally." ' In Futuna, one of the Southern New Hebrides, " a husband called each of his wife's sisters ' my wife.' They were all in the same relationship to him as his own wife, and if she died he took one of her unmarried sisters. The wife spoke of her husband's brothers as ' my husbands.' " The significance of such terms for a wife's sister and a husband's brother will appear presently. In Samoa polygamy was practised, and it often happened The in former days that a bride was accompanied to her new s< * and levirate home by her younger sister or sisters, who became secondary in wives or concubines to the husband. 4 Or, at a later time, if a d yne 1 A. Hagen et A. Pineau, " Les 4 George Brown, D.D., Melanesians Micronesia. Nouvelles Hebrides," Revue cTEthno- and Polynesians (London, 1910), p. graphic, vii. (1889) pp. 330 sq. 123; Rev. S. Ella, "Samoa, etc.," ~ ~. ,, Report of the Fourth Meeting of the 2 R. H. Codrington, D.D., Ike * . , t - / ,1 A j ,,, . ,^ r j o Australasian Association for the Aa- Melanesians (Oxford, loQi), p. 244. , ,, . , ,, . ? vancement of Science, held at Hoban, 3 William Gunn, The Gospel in Tasmania, in January 1892 (Sydney), Fiitiuia (London, 1914), p. 206. p. 628. 302 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n a man was resolved on adding to his harem, " the principal wife often selected her own sister or sisters, and endeavoured to get them added to the family roll of wives, so that she might have some control over them. This plan was fre- quently adopted to avoid strangers being brought into the family." ] Further, the Samoans observed the levirate as well as the sororate. " The brother of a deceased husband considered himself entitled to have his brother's wife, and to be regarded by the orphan children as their father. If he was already married, she would, nevertheless, live with him as a second wife. In the event of there being several brothers, they met and arranged which of them was to act the part of the deceased brother. The principal reason they alleged for the custom was a desire to prevent the woman and her children returning to her friends, and thereby diminishing the number and influence of their own family. And hence, failing a brother, some other relative would offer himself, and be received by the widow." 2 In Mangaia, one of the Hervey Islands, " in general, if a man of position married the eldest girl of a slave family, the younger sisters became his as a matter of course, being only too glad to have a protector. Even amongst those of equal rank a man often had two or three sisters to wife at the same time. Even now, in Christian times, a woman feels herself to be deeply injured if her brother-in-law does not, on the death of his wife, ask her to become a mother to his children." J -In the Mortlock Islands custom assigned to a husband, along with his wife, all her free sisters, but only chiefs availed themselves of the privilege. 4 In Puynipet, one of the Caroline Islands, both the sororate and the levirate are in vogue ; for a man marries his deceased wife's sister and his deceased brother's widow, even though, in the latter case, he is already married. 5 1 Rev. John B. Stair, Old Samoa (Sydney), p. 331. (London, 1897), p. 175- 4 j. Kubary, "Die Bewohner der 2 George Turner, Samoa a hundred ,, J . . T ; , f -.., -, , . . ,. ,T j Moruock-Inseln, Mittlieilnngen der years ago and long bejore (London, ,,. , /, ,, , ... . , flft V 8 geographischen Gesellschajt in Hamburg, , 4 ,'' P ' 9 . ., . . 1878-70. p. 37 (separate reprint). 3 W. Wyatt Gill, "Mangaia (Hervey Islands)," Report of the Second Meeting 5 K. Scherzer, Narrative of the of the Australasian Association for the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Advancement of Science, held at Mel- Austrian Frigate " Novara" (London, bourne, Victoria, in January i8qo 1861-1863), ii. 581. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LE VI RATE 303 Some tribes of Queensland and North- West Australia The allow a man to marry two or more sisters at once. 1 Thus anTiTvfrate in the Kariera tribe of North-Western Australia, "where inAustraiia. there are several sisters in a family, they are all regarded as the wives of the man who marries the eldest of them. He may, if he chooses, waive his right in favour of his younger brother, with the consent of the father of the girls. If a family ' contained four girls, and a man took the two oldest, but per- mitted his younger brother to marry the third, the youngest daughter thereby also becomes the wife of the younger brother, and the older brother cannot claim any right to her. When a man dies, his wives pass to his younger brother or to the man who stands nearest to him in the relation of margara. This man marries the widow and adopts the children." 2 Thus the Kariera practise both the sororate and the levirate, and with them, as with many peoples, the levirate is restricted by the rule that it is only a younger brother who may inherit his deceased brother's widow. This transmission of a widow to a younger, but never to an elder, brother of the deceased husband is reported to be a very characteristic feature of the northern tribes of Central Australia, 3 and it is customary in the Kakadu tribe of Northern Australia. 4 Among the aborigines of South-West Victoria a man might marry his deceased wife's sister or his brother's widow ; indeed, when a married man died leaving a family, it was the" duty of his surviving brother to marry the widow and rear his deceased brother's children. 5 The custom of the levirate has been more commonly reported in Australia 6 than the custom of the sororate. 1 The Bishop of Queensland (Dr. than the speaker (jib. p. 149). Frodsham), quoted in Folk-lore, xx. 3 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. (1909) p. 352, and in Man, ix. (1909) Gillen, The Northern Tribes of Central p. 147 ; E. Clement, "Ethnographical Australia (London, 1904), p. 510. Notes on the Western Australian Abo- * (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, Nativt rigines," Internationales Archiv fiir Tribes of the Northern Territory of Ethnographie, xvi. (1904) p. 12. Australia (London, 1914), pp. 51 sq. 2 A. R. Brown, " Three Tribes of 6 James Dawson, Australian Abori- Western Australia," Journal of the gines (Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, Royal Anthropological Institute, xliii. 1881), p. 27. (1913) p. 158. The term margara is 6 For examples see A. \V. Howitt, applied to younger brothers in the Native Tribes of South- East Australia classificatory or group sense, which in- (London, 1904), pp. 217, 220, 224, eludes the father's brother's son and the 227, 250, 257, 258, 266 ; R. Brough mother's sister's son, if he is younger Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria 34 JACOB'S MARRIAGE The sororate and levitate seem to have originated in the marriage of a. group of brothers to a group of sisters. Such a form of group marriage, in which all the husbands are brothers and all the wives are sisters, actually occurs in Australia, and among the Todas and Santals of India. The general conjunction of the sororate and the levirate in the usage of so many peoples renders it probable that, as I have already said, the two customs are correlative and admit of a similar explanation. " Taken together, the two customs seem to indicate the former prevalence of marriage between a group of husbands who were brothers to each other, and a group of wives who were sisters to each other. In practice the custom which permits a man to marry several sisters has diverged in an important respect from the custom which permits a woman to marry several brothers ; for whereas the permission granted to a man to marry several sisters simultaneously in their lifetime has survived in many races to this day, the permission granted to a woman to marry several brothers has generally been restricted by the provision that she may only marry them successively, each after the death of his predecessor. We may conjecture that the cause of the divergence between the two customs was the greater strength of the passion of jealousy in men than in women, sisters being more willing to share a husband between them than brothers to share a wife." l The same cause may in large measure account for the great frequency of polygamy contrasted with the great rarity of polyandry in the human species. Thus the two customs of the sororate and the levirate seem traceable to a common source in a form of group marriage, in which all the husbands were brothers and all the wives were sisters. Nor are we left entirely to conjecture the former existence of such group marriages ; instances of them (Melbourne and London, 1878), i. 87 ; E. M. Curr, The Australian Race (Melbourne and London, 1886-1887), i. 107; F. Bonney, " On some Customs of the Aborigines of the River Darling, New South Wales," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiii. (1884) p. 135 ; E. Palmer, "Notes on some Australian Tribes, " Journal of the An- thropological Institute, xiii. (1884) p. 298 ; Carl Lumholtz, Among Cannibals (London, 1889), p. 164. 1 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 144. This explanation of the sororate and the levirate is not altogether novel ; for L. H. Morgan explained the sororate by group marriage in which the wives were sisters, and A. W. Howitt ex- plained the levirate by group marriage in which the husbands were brothers. See L. H. Morgan, Ancient Society (London, 1877), p. 432 ; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South- East Australia (London, 1904), p. 281. But it does not appear to have occurred to these eminent writers that the two hypotheses are complementary, and point to a form of group marriage in which all the wives were sisters and all the husbands were brothers. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LE VI RATE 305 have been noted by modern observers in several parts of the world. Among the tribes of North Queensland " a feature of more than ordinary interest is the right of marital relation- ship between a husband and his wife's blood sisters on the Pennefather and Tully Rivers, and between a wife and her husband's blood brothers on the Tully River. Cases of this nature, coupled with the handing over of the widow to her late husband's brother, bear strong evidence of communal marriage in a very primitive condition, before the distinction had come to be made between the blood- and group-members of the different class-systems." ] Thus, on the Tully River a group of men, who are blood brothers, have marital rela- tions with a group of women who are blood sisters. This is exactly the form of group marriage in which, on my hypo- thesis, both the sororate and the levirate took their rise. Again, among the Todas of Southern India, " if there be four or five brothers, and one of them, being old enough, gets married, his wife claims all the other brothers as her husbands, and as they successively attain manhood, she consorts with them ; or if the wife has one or more younger sisters, they in turn, on attaining a marriageable age, become the wives of their sister's husband or husbands, and thus in a family of several brothers there may be, according to circumstances, only one wife for them all, or many ; but, one or more, they all live under one roof, arid cohabit promiscuously, just as fancy or taste inclines." '' Again, the Santals, a primitive tribe of Bengal, " not only allow a husband's younger brothers to share his wife's favours, but permit the husband in his turn to have access to his wife's younger sisters. This latter custom is an approach to the Hawaiian group marriages of brothers and sisters, which formed the foundation for Morgan's theory of a Punaluan family. To a modified extent it has its counterpart in Ladakh, where the wife of several brothers can bring in her sister as a co-wife." 3 "A Santal's wife is common property with him and all his younger brothers as 1 Walter E. Roth, North Queens- Transactions of the Ethnological Society land Ethnography, Bulletin No. 10, of London, New Series, vii. (London, Marriage Ceremonies and Infant Life 1869), p. 240. (1908), p. 3. 3 Census of India, 1911, vol. i. 2 J. Shortt, M.D., "An Account of India, Part i. Report, by (Sir) E. A. the Hill Tribes of the Xeilgherries," Gait (Calcutta, 1913), p. 240. VOL. II X 306 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n regards conjugal relations, even after the younger brothers marry for themselves. Similarly, a Santal woman's younger sisters legitimately share without marriage all her conjugal privileges with her husband. The above relations were quite common thirty-five years ago, and are still in vogue, though they are, perhaps, not quite so openly indulged in now." ] The Santal The Santal custom which thus permits conjugal relations marriage between a group of brothers and a group of sisters has been between a described more fully by Mr. C. H. Craven, Assistant Settle- brothers ment Officer at Dumka, and his description deserves to be and a group quoted in full, since it illustrates not only the general working of this form of group marriage, but also those special features of the sororate and the levirate which depend on a distinc- tion of age between elder brothers and younger brothers, between elder sisters and younger sisters. Mr. Craven's account runs as follows : " Traces of fraternal Polyandry amongst the Santals. Among the Santals, the wife of a younger brother is treated most deferentially by the elder brother. To quote a familiar saying, ' the bokot bahu (younger brother's wife) is like a bonga (god).' From the day of her marriage, when the bokot bahu catches the elder brother round the ankles and demands a present (a ceremony known as katkom)* the bokot bahu and the elder brother must never so much as touch one another. The relations between them become very strict ; they cannot enter into the same room or remain together in the courtyard unless others are present. Should the bokot bahu come in from work in the fields and find the elder brother sitting alone in the raca, or courtyard, she must remain in the village street or in the outer verandah of the house till some other people enter the house. " The bokot bahu cannot usually sit down in the presence of the dadat (elder brother), and it is absolutely improper for her to take a seat on a parkom, or bed, while he is close at hand. Should it be necessary for the bokot bahu to sit down while the elder brother is close by, she must use a gando, or low stool. She can never loosen or comb her hair before 1 Rev. L. O. Skreefsrud (Sonthal 2 "The literal meaning of katkovi Parganas), in Journal of the Asiatic is ' crab,' which is supposed to indicate Society of Bengal, Ixxii. Part iii. No. 2, the firmness of the girl's grip." 1903, p. 90. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 307 the elder brother. To do so would be considered highly improper, and would imply that the relations between them had become much too familiar. " The intercourse, on the other hand, between the elder brother's wife (Jiilz] and the unmarried younger brothers is remarkably free and easy. They can flirt and jest together quite openly, and until the younger brothers find suitable helpmates of their own it is not improper for them to share their elder brother's wife, so long as they respect his dignity and feelings and do not indulge in amorous dalliance in his presence. Subject to this condition the elder brother and the village community do not consider that the matter specially concerns them. Santal women often complain that their husband's younger brothers are carrying on intrigues with other girls when they can get all they want at home. " When an elder brother dies, his widow very frequently takes up her abode with one of the younger brothers as a kind of elder wife, and this almost invariably happens in cases where the widow has been left badly off. This relic of polyandry is not confined to the Santals or to tribes low down in the social scale. It is common to Goalas, Kalwars, and to some septs of Rajputs. " The relations between husbands and their wives' younger sisters (erwel kurikd] are perhaps even less restricted, and it is considered quite legitimate for a man to carry on an intrigue with his wife's younger sister, provided the damsel is agreeable, the only stipulation being that if she became enceinte her brother-in-law (tenay) must take her to wife per- manently. Santal wives are usually frantically jealous, but they seldom fail to tolerate, and have been known to encourage, improper relations between their consorts and their younger sisters. It is often urged as an excuse for the practice that the latter are thus kept from going wrong with other young men. " The improper relations usually cease when the younger brothers and younger sisters get married. They are more- over limited very considerably by the natural temperament of the members of a famHy. All elder brothers do not submit tamely to their wives being enjoyed in common ; all wives are not complacent, nor do all younger brothers and 3 o8 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n younger sisters conform to what is asked of them. Families often become divided in consequence of an indulgence in these practices, but the fact that they are recognized and form a part of the social system of the Santal is incontest- able." 1 Thus among the Santals a group of brothers is permitted to exerc i se marital rights over a group of sisters ; and when one of the brothers dies, his widow very often, in some cases invariably, is taken as an elder wife by his younger brother. Hence the Santals practise both the sororate and the levirate, and among them these customs are the outcome of what is, to all intents and purposes, a form of group marriage con- tracted between a group of brothers on the one hand and a group of sisters on the other. Yet this union is by no means absolutely loose and indiscriminate ; it is subject to certain definite rules which concern in particular the respec- tive ages of the persons who compose the groups. A man who has married a wife obtains thereby a right of access to her younger unmarried sisters, but apparently not to her elder sisters ; and if we ask, Why not to her elder sisters ? the answer would probably be that, in accordance with the common rule which prescribes that an elder sister must marry before a younger, the elder sisters are already married and therefore appropriated to other men. For a like reason, when a wife's younger sisters marry, the man who married their elder sister usually ceases to exercise marital rights over them, because by their marriage they are appropriated to other men. Again, a younger unmarried brother exer- cises marital rights over his elder brother's wife ; but as soon as he marries a wife of his own, he usually ceases to have access to his elder brother's wife, 2 and his elder brother is from the first strictly debarred not only from conjugal but even from ordinary social relations with his younger brother's wife. The stringent rules of mutual avoidance which are incumbent on an elder brother and his younger brother's wife are clearly nothing but precautions to prevent improper relations between the two ; and the same explana- 1 C. H. Craven, Assistant Settle- 90. tnent Officer, Dumka, in Journal of 2 So Mr. Craven reports (above, p. the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 307) ; but Mr. Skreefsrud's account is Ixxii. Part* iii. No. 2, 1903, pp. 88- different (above, pp. 305 sq.). CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 309 tion, as I have already pointed out, 1 probably applies to every similar case of ceremonial avoidance practised between persons of opposite sexes in rude society. We see then that among the Santals the communal in such a groups consist of an elder married brother and a number of communal unmarried younger brothers on the one hand, an'd an elder groups are married sister and a number of unmarried younger sisters on the other hand. When one of the younger brothers or younger bein sisters marries, he or she normally falls out of the group ; when all the younger brothers and sisters have married, the P osed and old communal groups are dissolved and either replaced by pos ed. single couples or, more probably, recomposed into fresh com- munal groups by the new marital relations which on his marriage each younger brother contracts with his wife's younger sisters, and which on her marriage each younger sister contracts with her husband's younger brothers. On this showing, the social system of the Santals consists of a series of communal groups which are constantly being dis- solved and recomposed in fresh forms, the dissolution being effected by the desire of each man to appropriate a wife to himself, and the recomposition being effected by his desire to enlarge the circle ef his women. Thus the centripetal force of sexual communism, which tends to collect the whole of society into a single aggregate, is perpetually counteracted by the centrifugal force which tends to break up that aggregate into a series of isolated couples ; the same antagonism which we see at work in the macro- cosm of the physical world is at work in the microcosm of the social world, producing a perpetually shifting kaleidoscope of molecules now meeting, now parting, now integrating, now disintegrating, always in motion, never at rest. The Santal system of group marriage, in accordance Parallel with which a group of brothers cohabits with a group of t he^-"ai sisters, subject only to certain restrictions in regard to age, system may be compared with the Thonga system, 2 which exactly resembles it except that among the Thonga the brothers no and the , , . . ....... . Thonga longer share each others wives in their lifetime, but only system, succeed to them, one after the other, as each brother dies ; m w |" cn one feature to put it otherwise, in the Thonga system fraternal com- has dis- 1 Above, pp. 1 60 sq. 2 Above, pp. 276 sq. 310 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n munism in wives has been replaced by the levirate, but the sororate in its original form remains intact, since a man has the right of marrying his wife's younger sisters either in her lifetime or after her death. Thus the full communal mar- riage of a group of brothers with a group of sisters, which survives among the Santals, has been reduced among the Thonga by the disappearance of all the male partners but one, while the female partners still muster in undiminished number. The equipoise between the sexes has been dis- turbed to the advantage of the male, who now enjoys all the females, and to the corresponding disadvantage of the female, who is now reduced to the enjoyment, so to say, of only a fraction of a single male. The change is probably due in great measure to the superior strength and fiercer jealousy of the male, who in time refuses to share his females with a rival. But in the broken-down Thonga system both sexes continue to observe the very same restrictions in regard to age which are observed in the still full-blown Santal system of communal marriage. For while the husband may make free with his wife's younger sisters, because they can become his wives, he is forbidden to take liberties with her elder sisters, because they cannot become his wives ; and on the other hand he carefully avoids the wives of his younger brothers, because under ordinary circumstances he cannot inherit them, whereas he is free to dally with the wives of his elder brother, because he will inherit them after his brother's Common death. So exact a correspondence between the Thonga Thonga ar) d the Santal systems points to a common basis in custom, and Santal and that basis is found in a conjugal group composed of in S grou S p husbands who are brothers and of wives who are sisters, marriage. Such a conjugal group exists practically intact among the Santals ; it survives in a mutilated, one-sided form among the Thonga. Another imperfect survival of such a conjugal Survival group is found among the Bhuiyas, a large and important of group aboriginal tribe of Bengal, Orissa, and the Central Provinces. marriage _ & among the With them " a widow -is often taken by the younger brother f n h d U i'a Vas " f f ^e deceased husband, though no compulsion is exerted over her. But the match is common because the Bhuiyas have the survival of fraternal polyandry, which consists in allowing unmarried younger brothers to have access to an CHAP, vi THE SO RO RATE AND LE VI RATE 311 elder brother's wife during his lifetime." l Thus among the Bhuiyas the levirate appears to be a relic of polyandry, that is, of the one-sided form of group marriage in which a single wife is shared by a group of brothers. This is clearly just the converse of the Thonga system, in which a single husband is shared by a group of sisters. The two systems, the Thonga and the Bhuiya, are complementary, and together represent that full or symmetrical system of group marriage in which a group of brothers is married to a group of sisters. The theory which deduces both the sororate and the The theory levirate from a common source in the marriage of a group of brothers with a group of sisters may be confirmed by an and levirate examination of the terms for husband and wife which are i^'fh"^ employed in the classificatory or group system of relation- marriage of 1 T /- 1 1 /- /- I 1 a g rOU P f ship. If the classincatory or group system of relationship brothers accurately reflects, as I have argued, a system of group with a marriage, it ought to contain a record of that particular form sisters is of group marriage, which consists in the marriage of a group c of brothers to a group of sisters, on the supposition that such examina- a marriage was a widespread and characteristic feature in " c t a i the relations of the sexes at a certain stage of social evolu- classifica- tion. Should the classificatory or group system of relation- 77eiation- ship be found on examination to contain terms which appear sh 'P- to be only explicable on the hypothesis of such marriages of groups of brothers to groups of sisters, the discovery will furnish a strong argument in favour of the view that this particular form of group marriage has prevailed widely, and consequently that it may be the source both of the sororate and of the levirate, which appear to be its detached halves produced by fission of the original group. On the other hand, should the classificatory or group system of relationship be found to contain no terms corresponding to such a form of group marriage, the absence of the corresponding terms would raise a presumption of the absence of the institution. 1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes brother ; she is strictly forbidden to of the Central Provinces of India marry his elder brother. See (Sir) H. (London, 1916), ii. 317. As usual, H. Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal a Bhuiya widow is only allowed to (Calcutta, 1892), i. 114. marry her deceased husband's younger 312 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II If the theory is right, there should be one and the same term for wife, wife's sister, and brother's wife ; and there should be one and the same term for husband, husband's brother, and sister's husband. Now this identity of terms, pointing to the marriage of a group of brothers with a group of sisters, is found in various forms of the classifica- tory or group system of relation- ship. What then are the classificatory or group terms of relationship which would correspond to and express the marriage of a group of brothers to a group of sisters? First, let us look at this supposed marriage from the point of view of the man. In such a marriage he exercises marital rights equally over a group of sisters ; therefore he calls all the sisters his wives. Again, he exercises marital rights equally over all his brothers' wives ; therefore he calls all his brothers' wives his wives. Hence he applies the term wife to the whole group of sisters and to the whole group of his brothers' wives, since these two groups of women are in fact one and the same. Second, let us look at this supposed marriage from the point of view of the woman. In such a marriage she enjoys conjugal rights equally over a group of brothers ; therefore she calls all the brothers her husbands. Again, she enjoys conjugal rights equally over all her sisters' husbands; therefore she calls all her sisters' husbands her husbands. Hence she applies the term husband to the whole group of brothers and to the whole group of her sisters' husbands, since these two groups of men are in fact one and the same. To sum up, on the hypothesis of a form of group marriage in which all the husbands are brothers and all the wives are sisters, we should expect to find the following equations : wife = wife's sister = brother's wife (man speaking) husband = husband's brother = sister's husband (woman speaking]. Now if we examine the actual systems of classificatory or group relationship we shall find that a number of them contain terms for husband and wife which conform exactly to these equations, the term for wife including the wife's sister and the brother's wife, and the term for husband in- cluding the husband's brother and the sister's husband. Systems of relationship containing these equations are par- ticularly common in Australia, where the forms of marriage approximate more closely than elsewhere to that system of group marriage on which the classificatory or group system of relationship is founded. Hence the frequency with which in aboriginal Australia the term for wife coincides with the CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 313 terms for wife's sister and brother's wife, and the term for husband coincides with the terms for husband's brother and sister's husband, raises a strong presumption in favour of the view that these communal terms originally corresponded to and expressed the communal marriage of a group of brothers to a group of sisters. Thus to take instances, in the Kurnai tribe of south- identity of eastern Victoria a man applies the same term (maiari) to his ^ s if e r wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a wife'ssister, woman applies the same term (bra} to her husband, to her wife ^ husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 1 In the Yuin (*)husband tribe of south-eastern New South Wales a man applies the brother, same term (nadjanduri) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and and sister's ....... .. husband, to his brothers wife; and a woman applies the same term i n many (tarramd) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 2 In the Wotjobaluk tribe of Victoria a man applies the same term (tnatjuri) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a wife applies the same term (nanitcJi) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 3 In the Wurunjeri tribe of Victoria a man applies the same term (bimbang) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (iiangurung) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 4 In the Watu-Watu or Wathi-Wathi tribe of Victoria a man applies the same term (iwpui) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (nopui) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 5 In the Northern Kamilaroi tribe of New South Wales a man applies the same term (ungind] to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (golid^ to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 6 In the Kaiabara tribe of south-eastern Queensland a man applies 1 A. W. Howitt, "Australian Group- Howitt calls the tribe Watu-Watu. relationships," Journal of the Royal Elsewhere he calls it Wathi-Wathi Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. ( 1 907) (Native Tribes of South- East Australia, p. 287. p. 50, etc.). 2 A. W. Howitt, I.e. 6 A. W. Howitt, "Australian Group- 3 A. W. Howitt, I.e. relationships," Journal of the Royal 4 A. W. Howitt, I.e. Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. (1907) 5 A. W. Howilt, I.e. Here Dr. p. 287. 314 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n the same term (inalem&ngari) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (malaume] to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 1 In the Kuinmurbura tribe of eastern Queensland a man applies the same term {gingil} to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (nupa} to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 2 In the Kurnandaburi tribe of southern Queensland a man applies the same term (abaija} to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (abaija} to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 3 In the Dieri tribe of Central Australia a man applies the same term (iioa] to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (noa) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 4 In the Urabunna tribe of Central Australia a man applies the same term (nupa} to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (nupa} to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 5 In the Arunta tribe of Central Australia a man applies the same term (unawa) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (iinawa} to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 6 In the Warramunga tribe of Central Australia a man applies the same term (katunungd] to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (kulla-kulla} to her husband and to her husband's brother. 7 In the Binbinga tribe of Northern Australia a man applies the same term (karina) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (kaikai) to her husband, to her hus- band's brother, and to her sister's husband. 8 In the Port 1 A. W. Howitt, I.e. Australia (London, 1904), p. 79. The 2 A. W. Howitt, I.e. writers do not say, but we may conjec- 3 A. W. Howitt, I.e. ture, that a woman applies the same term 4 A. W. Howitt, I.e. (kulla-kulla) to her sister's husband. fi A. W. Howitt, I.e. 8 A. W. Howitt, "Australian Group- 6 A. W. Howitt, I.e. relationships," Journal of the Royal 7 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. (1907) Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central p. 287. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 315 Essington tribe of Northern Australia a man applies the same term (angban or ilkuma} to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (ilkuma) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 1 In the Melville Island tribe of Northern Australia a man applies the same term (yamoaniya) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (yabmuneinga) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's hus- band. 2 In the Kariera tribe of North-Western Australia a man applies the same term (nuba) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (nuba} to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 3 In the Mardudhunera tribe of North-Western Australia a man applies the same term {yagari) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (yagan) to her husband, -to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 4 Thus the use of communal terms for husband and wife The extends across the whole length and breadth of Australia, lc * entlt y ' of terms from south-east to north-west. The terms themselves points to vary almost from tribe to tribe, yet their application is identical, pointing clearly to an identical system, whether marriage. present or past, of communal or group marriage. That system appears to be based on the marriage of a group of brothers to a group of sisters, since the terms expressive of conjugal relations are exactly such as would necessarily arise from the existence of such marriages. A similar use of communal terms for husband and wife identity of occurs among other peoples who possess the classificatory f^JJjfc" or group system of relationship. Thus in the Melanesian wife's 1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, Native 2 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, Native brother's Tribes of the Northern Territory of Tribes of the Northern Territory of Aus- wife, and Australia (London, 1914), pp. 70, 71. tralia, pp. 71, 73. ()husband, " Angban is the general term for 3 A. R. Brown^ " Three Tribes of husband's mother's brother's daughters, all of Western Australia," Journal of the brother, whom are eligible as wives to a man ex- Koyal Anthropological Institute, xliii. and sister's cept the daughters of his mother's actual (1913) p. 149. husband blood brothers. Ilkuma is the name 4 A. R. Brown, "Three Tribes of in some applied to the actual woman or women Western Australia," Journal of the P? r . a man marries. Before marriage he Koyal Anthropological Institute, xliii. x ^ an calls them angban"' (ib. p. 70 note ') (1913) P- J 7^>- Polynesia. JACOB'S MARRIAGE Similar communal terms for husband and wife among the Gilyaks. island of Vanua Lava, one of the Banks' Islands, a man applies the same term (rengoma) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (amanmd) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 1 Again, a like use of communal terms for husband and wife is found in Poly- nesia. Thus in Hawaii a man applies the same term (wa-hee-nd] to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (ka-na) to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 2 Again, in Tonga a man applies the same term (hoku unoho) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (hoku unoko] to her husband, to her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 3 And in general, with very few exceptions, the Polynesian forms of the classificatory or group system of relationship " agree in the feature that a man and his wife's sister or his brother's wife address and speak of one another as if they were man and wife." 4 Indeed, in some parts of Polynesia " marital relations between those who call one another husband and wife have been permitted till com- paratively recent times." 5 Thus among the Polynesians group marriage survived in fact as well as in name not so long ago. This coincidence of terms indicative of group marriage with the existence of the institution itself strongly confirms the conclusion that the use of communal terms to denote conjugal relations is everywhere based ultimately on a system of communal or group marriage. Lastly, among the Gilyaks of the Amoor River, who have the classificatory or group system of relationship, \ve find precisely the same use of communal terms for husband and wife. A man applies the same term (dngef) to his wife, to his wife's sister, and to his brother's wife ; and a woman applies the same term (pu} to her husband, to 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society (Cambridge, 1915), i. 31. 2 Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society (London, 1877), pp. 422 sq. 3 Lewis H. Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (Washington City. 1871), p. 576. 4 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society, ii. 33. 5 W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society, ii. 34. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 317 her husband's brother, and to her sister's husband. 1 Here again, therefore, we may infer the existence, present or past, of a system of communal marriage based on the union of a group of brothers with a group of sisters. If we ask what was the origin of a form of group This form marriage which would seem to have prevailed so widely, of g rou P we may conjecture that it rested on a system of exchange may have like that which appears to lie at the root of the cross- , n n fn Dated cousin marriage. We have seen that as a matter of fact exchange men commonly exchange their sisters in marriage, because that is the easiest and cheapest way of obtaining a wife. For similar reasons in a society where group marriage was in vogue, it would be natural for a group of brothers to exchange their sisters for the sisters of another group of brothers, each set of men thereafter using the sisters of the other set of men as their common wives. In this way, on the simple principle of bartering women between families, a system of group marriage might easily arise in which all the husbands of each group were brothers and all the wives of each group were sisters to each other, though not to their husbands. Thus, if I am right, the sororate and the levirate are The offshoots from one common root, a system of group andTel-u-ate marriage in which all the husbands were brothers and all derived the wives were sisters to each other, though not to their husbands ; and that system in its turn originated in a simple desire to get wives as easily and cheaply as possible. But there still remain features in the sororate and the The levirate of which no complete explanation has yet been suggested. Why may a man marry his wife's younger limited in but not her elder sister? Why may a man marry the seniority widow of his elder but not of his younger brother ? Or to and put the same questions from the other side, why may a Jl woman marry the husband of her elder but not of her younger sister ? Why may a widow marry her late husband's younger but not his elder brother ? Such definite rules 1 Leo Sternberg, ''The Turano- the XVIII. International Congress of Ganowanian System and the Nations Americanists, p. 323. of North-East Asia," Proceedings of 3i8 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n must have had definite causes, and it is worth while to try to discover them. Other These are not the only distinctions dependent on age oTmarria^ which have met us in the present inquiry. We have seen in regard to that in some parts of India a man is allowed and even and ** encouraged to marry his niece, the daughter of his elder juniority, sister, but that he is strictly forbidden to marry his other niece, the daughter of his younger sister. 1 Further, we have seen that among the Urabunna of Central Australia a man is allowed and even encouraged to marry his cross-cousins, the daughters of his mother's elder brother or of his father's elder sister, but that he is strictly forbidden to marry his other cross-cousins, the daughters of his mother's younger brother or of his father's younger sister. 2 We may sur- mise that all these rules permitting or prohibiting marriage according to seniority or juniority are referable to one common principle. What was that principle ? Rule that A starting-point in the inquiry is perhaps furnished by Droh"r g or tne ru ^ e tnat a younger brother or sister may not marry sister may before his elder brother or sister. That rule appears to be before Us D th widespread and ancient ; and the penalty of damna- orher tion, with which Indian lawgivers threatened all breaches of senior. ... -11 the statute, seems to show that in their minds the practice rested on a foundation much deeper than mere propriety. Division of Perhaps the custom of not allowing a younger brother or communi- s i s t er to marry before an elder may go back to a system of ties into age-grades such as still exists in some savage tribes, notably in a group of East African tribes of which the Masai may be regarded as typical. Under such a system the whole community is divided into a series of groups according to age, and the transition from one group to another is com- monly marked by certain ceremonies, which at the transi- tion from youth to adult years often take the form of severe and painful ordeals undergone by the young people of both sexes before they are admitted to the full rights of man- hood and womanhood, above all to the right of marriage. 3 Age-grades For example, among the Kaya-Kaya or Tugeri, a large among the Kaya- 1 Above, pp. 109, 113 sqq. Miinnerbunde (Berlin, 1902), pp. 125 Kaya or 2 Above, p. 187. sqq. ; Hutton Webster, Primitive Tugeri of 3 On these age-grades in general, Secret Societies (New York, 1908), pp. Dutch New see H. Schurtz, Altersklassen nnd 83 sqq. Guinea. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 319 and notorious tribe of head-hunters in the south-east corner of Dutch New Guinea, there are seven such classes or age- grades for the males and six for the females. Each class - or age-grade has its distinctive badges and mode of wearing the hair. Amongst the males the first age-grade (patur) The age- comprises all boys up to puberty. These live with their | des of parents in the village and are free to go anywhere. But as Kayamen. soon as signs of puberty appear on their persons, they pass into the second age-grade (aroi-patur) and are banished from the village, which they are forbidden to enter unless they fall ill. In that case they are carried to their father's house in the village, but must shun the presence of women and girls. Otherwise they live with the young men in the bachelors' hall or men's house (gotad\ which is built by itself behind the village in the forest or under the shadow of coco-nut palms. There may be more than one such bachelors' hall. Women may never enter one of these build- ings when there are people in it, but the men often gather there. When the lad is fully developed he passes into the third age-grade (wokravid or bokravid). He may still not enter the village, and the presence of women and girls is absolutely forbidden to him. If he sees one of them afar off on the path, he must hide himself or go round about to avoid her. The fourth age-grade (ewati\ which may last three or four years, is the hey-day of life for a Kaya-Kaya man. In the prime of youthful vigour, he struts about with dandified airs, admired by the world in general and ogled by the girls in particular. He must still avoid women, but when he knows they are passing the bachelors' hall, which he graces with his presence, he will make a loud noise to attract their attention, and they will say admiringly in his hearing, " That's he ! What a young buck it is ! " Now, too, is the time for him to choose a wife, if a girl has not been already reserved for him. He makes presents to the damsel of his choice, and if she accepts them, the two are regarded as betrothed. The young man thus enters the fifth age-grade (iniakini), which is that 'of the betrothed men. He is now free to return to the village and to live there, and he ceases to avoid women, though good manners require him to appear somewhat shy and bashful in their presence. When he 320 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART 11 marries he passes into the sixth age-grade (amnatigib\ which is that of the married men. He is now master of himself and of his wife ; he is accountable to no man for his actions, for there are no chiefs and no judges. He lives a free man among his peers. When he grows old he passes into the seventh and last age-grade (ines-miakim\ which is that of the old men. He now receives a title (somb-anem\ which may be translated " signior " or " great man," and his opinion carries weight in council. Every man, if he lives to old age, must pass through all of these age-grades ; he may not omit any of them. The transition from one age-grade to another is always an occasion of feasting and dancing. The age- The six age-grades of the Kaya-Kaya women corre- Kaya- spond to the seven of the men, except that there is none Kaya among them which answers to the second age-grade of the men. In the first age-grade (kivazum\ which lasts to the age of ten or eleven, a girl plays freely with the boys in their less noisy games ; she follows her mother and the other women to the plantations or to the seashore to gather shells. She is at liberty to roam the village, but may not enter the young men's house (gotad). Arrived at the second age -grade (wa/Mtku\ she begins to wear a scanty covering and to assume a certain reserve ; in particular she ceases to associate with the boys. She now helps her mother in the plantation, learns to pound sago, and to carry burdens. The third age-grade (kivazum-iwag) answers to the fourth of the men. It is for a girl the time of the roses if roses could bloom under the tropical sun of New Guinea the time when she blossoms out in the pride of youthful beauty, the admired of all admirers, the cynosure of neighbouring eyes. In the fourth age-grade (iwag) she is generally betrothed, and may either stay in the village or work in the plantations with the other women. But she is spared the heavy burdens and the hard toil ; for care is taken to preserve the fresh bloom and grace of her youth till marriage. Hence the girls are for the most part plump and buxom. Strangers may not tamper with them in presence of the men. The head of more than one Chinaman and Malay, who has made too free with a Kaya- Kaya maiden, now adorns the collection of skulls in a Kaya- Kaya village. The fifth age-grade (saf} is that of the married CHAP, vi THE SO RO RATE AND LEVIRATE 321 women. A wife is the slave of her husband. It is she who bends under the heavy load, while he saunters jauntily behind her with his bow and arrows and perhaps a basket. However, he relieves her of the hardest field labour, hoeing the ground himself while she weeds it ; and husband and wife may be seen side by side mending the ditches and cutting sago - palms and banana - trees. It is' the wife's business to pound the sago and bake it_into cakes ; and she cooks the venison. The sixth age-grade (ines-iwag) is that of the old women. If she is hale and hearty, an old woman will still go out to the plantations to help her husband or her gossips ; while the feeble old crones potter about in the village, weaving mats, mending nets, or making cradles to rock their infant grandchildren. 1 It is perhaps not irrele- vant to add that the Kaya-Kaya are divided into totemic and exogamous clans with descent in the paternal line ; in other words, no man may marry a woman of his own totemic clan, and children take their totem from their father. 2 Again, the natives about Bartle Bay, in the extreme Age-grades south-east of British New Guinea, are divided into age- * v n j; the grades. All the individuals of the same sex, who are about approximately of the same age, having been born within JQ British* about two years of each other, are considered to belong to Ne the same class (called a kimtd}. Members of the same class or age-grade are entitled to each other's fellowship and help. The men hunt together and work together at the irrigation dams and ditches ; the women fish together in the river. A child would call all the male members of his father's age- grade his fathers ; and he would call all the women of his mother's age-grade his mothers. The members of an age- grade are not all congregated in the same village, but dis- persed among villages to a distance of twenty or thirty miles or more. From all of them a man may expect to receive hospitality and assistance, but between him and the members of his own age-grade in his own village the social bond is 1 H. Nollen, " Les differentes Sitzungsberichte der mathematisch- Classes d'Age dans la Societe kaia- naturwissenschaftlichen Klasse det kaia, Merauke, Nouvelle Guinea Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen- Neerlandaise," Anthropos, iv. (1909) schaften (Vienna), cxv. (1906), Abtei- pp. 553-573. lung i. p. 900 ; Totemism and Exo- 2 R. Poch, " Vierter Bericht tiber gamy, iv. 285 sq. meine Reise nach Neu - Guinea," VOL. II Y 322 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART H particularly close. Such mates are called eriam to each other. They keep together in war, borrow each other's fishing-nets, take food, in case of need, from each other's gardens, and freely exercise marital rights over each other's wives, except so far as these women are barred to them by the laws of consanguinity or totemic exogamy ; for the people are divided into totemic and exogamous clans with descent of the totem in the female line. Naturally enough, therefore, a child applies the name of father to all the men of his or her father's age-grade who reside in the village ; and logically, though perhaps less naturally, he or she applies the name of mother to all the wives of these men. But the children of members of the same age-grade, residing in the same village, may not marry nor have sexual relations with each other. The right of access which a man has to the wives of his mates (ineriani) is, moreover, subject to a limitation. If he has only one wife, and his mate has several, he has only rights over one of these women ; the principle of group marriage is thus regulated by the principle of an equitable exchange ; it would clearly be unjust for a man who can only lend one woman to expect to borrow several in return. 1 Further it deserves to be noticed that among these people in former times there seem to have been clubhouses for men of different ages ; one for old men, one for men rather past middle age, one for men in the prime of life, and one for young unmarried men. 2 But obviously these distinctions of age do not coincide with the age-grades, if the age-grades are separated from each other by short intervals of two years. Age-grades The system of age-grades is found well developed in a tribes 8 ^ 6 l ar & e g rou P f tribes in British East Africa, which appear for BritishEast the most part to belong to the Nilotic and not to the Bantu Africa. 1 C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians when he reaches his fourteenth or of British New Guinea (Cambridge, fifteenth year, and he is promoted to 1910), pp. 470-476. Astothetotemism a higher grade every five or eight of these people, see id. pp. 446 sqq. years. The elder men, belonging to the higher age-grade, exercise control 2 C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians over social matters. See Shinji Ishii, of British New Guinea, p. 495. In The Island of Formosa and its Primi- the Ami tribe of Formosa there is a tive Inhabitants, p. 13 (reprinted from system of ten or twelve age-grades for The Transactions of the Japan Society males. A boy joins the lowest grade of London, vol. xiv.). CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 323 / stock. Thus among the Masai all males belong to an age- Age-grades grade (poror or boror\ which includes all men who have tT 100 ^ the been circumcised within a period of seven and a half years. When leave has been granted by the medicine-man to hold the circumcision festivals, one such feast is held in every sub-district every year for four years in succession, and all males who have been circumcised at any one of these four successive feasts are members of the same age-grade.. Then follows an interval of about three and a half years during which no circumcision feast is held. Hence the period of time covered by an age-grade is about seven and a half years. Two successive age-grades are known as " the right- hand circumcision " and " the left-hand circumcision " respec- tively ; together they constitute a generation, which is thus a period of about fifteen years. Each of the two age-grades, " the right-hand circumcision " and " the left-hand circum- cision," has to observe certain rules which forbid the pro- nunciation of certain words and the eating of certain foods. Thus men of " the right-hand circumcision " may eat neither the heads nor the tails of slaughtered cattle, and they must use special words for heads and tails, and also for a goat's fold. Men of " the left-hand circumcision " may not eat pumpkins and cucumbers, and they may not call arrow- poison by its ordinary name. To do or say any of these things in the presence of a man who is forbidden by custom to say or do it, is an insult which often provokes retaliation on the spot. As a rule, boys are circumcised when they are between thirteen and seventeen years old. Orphans and the children of poor parents often wait until they are twenty. Women do not, strictly speaking, belong to an age-grade, because they are not circumcised, like the men, in groups at regular intervals ; the operation is performed on them at odd times as they grow up and before they marry. However, they are reckoned to the age-grade which happens to coincide with the time at which they are circumcised. 1 Between men and women of the same age-grade among the Masai sexual communism or group marriage appears to 1 A. C. Hollis, The Masai (Oxford, Kamba and other East African Tribes 1905), pp. 261-263 ; M. Merker, Die (Cambridge, 1910), p. 122. As to Masai (Berlin, 1904), pp. 70 sq. ; the circumcision of girls, see A. C. C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of a A- Hollis, The Masai, p. 299. 324 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n Sexual prevail, subject only to the restrictions that a man may not ism" or" 1 ' rnarry or cohabit with a woman of his own sub-clan, nor group with a woman who is more nearly related to him by blood between 6 than third cousin. But while with these exceptions he has members of f ree access to the women of his own age -grade, he is age-grade debarred from sexual relations with women of the age-grades among the corresponding to those of his son and his father ; to cohabit TVTocqj * with a Woman of either of these age -grades is a serious offence, which renders the offender liable to severe punish- ment. On this important point it may be well to quote the evidence of Mr. A. C. Hollis, our principal authority on the Masai. He says : A. c. Hollis "Though individual marriage is recognised, sexual com- commun- niunism or something very like it prevails between all the ism among men of one age-grade and the women of the corresponding age-grade, subject to the rules of exogamy and relationship, which forbid a man to marry or have sexual intercourse with a woman of his own clan or with a near relative. In other words the Masai may be said to live in a state of group marriage, based on the organisation of the whole com- munity in age-grades, and restricted by the exogamy of the sub-clans and the rules regarding incest. If a man is know- ingly guilty of incest, or has sexual intercourse with a daughter of his own sub-clan, he is punished by his relations, who flog him and slaughter some of his cattle. If he fornicates or commits adultery with a daughter of a member of his own age-grade, he is punished by the members of his age-grade. His kraal is destroyed, he is severely beaten, and a number of his oxen are slaughtered. If a warrior or boy commits adultery with a wife of a man belonging to his father's age-grade, he is solemnly cursed by the members of that age-grade. Unless he pays the elders two oxen, one for them to eat and the other to enable them to buy honey wine, and prays them to remove the curse, it is supposed he will die." l To a certain extent the system of age-grades exists 1 A. C. Hollis, "A Note on the C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A- Kamba Masai System of Relationship and and other East African Tribes (Cam- other matters connected therewith," bridge, 1910), p. 122, "A man can- Jotirnal of the Royal Anthropological not marry the daughter of a man of Institute, xl. (1910) p. 480. Compare his own age he must marry the CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEV/RATE 325 among the Wataveta, a tribe of British East Africa, whose Age-grades territory borders on that of the Masai. They are a mixed wau^ta 6 race of Hamitic and Bantu stock, who inhabit the rich and of British fertile district of Taveta at the foot of the mighty snow- capped Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. With them an age-grade (irikd) comprises a period of fifteen years, and every age-grade has a special name. Thus the age- grade of the Wataveta is equal to two age-grades or one generation of the Masai. The government of the country is entrusted for one such period of about fifteen years to the men of one of these age-grades, at whose head are four middle-aged chiefs. It is said that the members of a par- ticular age-grade come into power whenever they can kid- nap the daughter of one of the ruling chiefs or one of his contemporaries. In this they are aided and abetted by the elders of the former age-grade, who were themselves turned out of office in the same manner by their juniors some fifteen years before, and are now glad to serve their sup- planters as their supplanters once served them. In olden times the reigning chiefs and their fellows never succumbed without a battle royal, and it was not without difficulty that the younger men snatched the reins of power from the hands of their elders. Formerly it was a matter of no small consequence to belong to the reigning age-grade, for two- thirds of the spoils of war and of the duty levied on all caravans passing through the country were appropriated by the chiefs and their contemporaries, while the rest went to the witch-doctors and the other old men. 1 The Wataveta, like the Masai, are divided into clans daughter of a man of a previous age of East Africa, also possess a system of to his own," where by " age " the age-grades, of which there are five for writer means age-grade (poror). Though the males. See J. L. Krapf, Travels, in the passage quoted above Mr. A. C. Researches, and Missionary Labours Hollis speaks in one place of the clans during an Eighteen Years' Residence as if they were exogamous, he tells us in Eastern Africa (London, 1860), p. expressly (p. 479 note J ) that the dans 363 ; C. C. von der Decken, Reisen in are not exogamous, but that the sub- Ost-Afrika (Leipsic and Heidelberg, clans into which the clans are divided 1869-1871), ii. 25. are exogamous ; and he adds that "no 1 Claud Hollis, "Notes on the man may marry a nearer relation than History and Customs of the people of a third cousin." Taveta, East Africa," Journal of the The Wakuafi, a tribe akin to the African Society, No. I (October, 1901), Masai, and inhabiting the same region pp. 98, 104 sqq. 326 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Sexual com- munism between members of the same age-grade among the Wataveta. Sexual relations regulated by age- grades among the Wataveta. which are not exogamous, though the sub-clans are so ; in other words, a man may marry a woman of his own clan, provided that she does not belong to the same sub-clan as himself. 1 They practise polygamy and among them, as among the Masai, both sexes must be circumcised before marriage, but marriage does not always follow immediately on circumcision. When they have passed through that ordeal, the young people are free' to consort with each other in a sort of kraal or assemblage of low, kennel-like huts erected for them in the woods, where they pass the night. No restriction appears to be placed on their intercourse, but all children born in that kraal are put to death at birth. After the operation of circumcision " the youths join one of the groups of the coming generation, according to the number of summers they have seen, or, if no ' age ' has yet been formed, they 1 'do their utmostf'to kid- nap a daughter of one of the reigning chiefs or one of the latters' contemporaries, and until this has been accomplished they are unable to pass their nights in that haven of bliss, the Maniata" that is, in the kraal of the young folk in the woods. 2 Thus it seems that among the Wataveta, as among the Masai, the age-grade to which a man belongs is determined by the time at which he is circumcised. The age-grades apparently regulate sexual relations among the Wataveta in much the same way as among the Masai ; for while a degree of licence approaching to group marriage prevails between men and women of corresponding age-grades, members of different age-grades are forbidden to cohabit with each other under pain of penalties which increase in proportion to the difference between their age- grades. Thus adultery is only punishable when the adulterer is not of the same age-grade as the husband of the adulteress ; and if a man were to rape the wife of a member of his own age-grade, he could at the most be fined one goat for assault. If the offender belongs to the age-grade immedi- ately subsequent to that of the husband whose wife he has 1 Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 418 2 Claud Hollis, "Notes on the sq., from information furnished by Mr. History and Customs of the people of A. C. Hollis in a letter dated Nairobi, Taveta, East Africa," Journal of the East Africa Protectorate, June I5th, African Society, No. i (October, 1901), 1909. pp. 110-113. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 327 wronged, he is fined a goat ; but if the culprit belongs to a later age-grade, say to an age-grade two degrees junior to that of the injured husband, it is considered a serious crime, and the criminal must give the old man an ox. On the other hand, if a member of a senior age-grade commits adultery with the wife of a reigning chief or of one of his contemporaries, he is deprived of all his cattle. And were a member of a senior age-grade to commit fornication with a girl of an age-grade one or two degrees junior to his own, while the girl was resident in the maniata or kraal of the young folk in the woods, he would have to atone for his sin by pre- senting the members of the damsel's age-grade with an ox, which they would slaughter and eat If he does, not pay the fine promptly, the young men of the injured age-grade pro- phesy that his sin will soon find him out ; and so it does, for the sinner's body is commonly discovered a few days later stabbed with a hundred spears. 1 To this account of sexual morality among the Wataveta our informant adds : " I am informed by natives of Moschi and by the Rev. A. R. Steggall that one finds both there and in other Chaga states in Kilima Njaro, situated but a few miles from Taveta, examples of polyandry in which the husbands are all brothers. It is therefore of some interest that almost in the same district in different sections of the population there exist two forms of polyandry ; at Taveta a man lends his wives to a comrade of his ' age ' ; at Moschi, a man's brothers only have an equal right to his women," '' The care which the Wataveta take to prevent the The cohabitation of men and women belonging to different age- ^seiiXL** grades may account for a very remarkable custom which children they practise. Every child that a woman bears after her a woma n daughter's marriage is put to death. 3 No reason is assigned after her daughter's marriage. 1 Claud Hollis, " Notes on the brothers, who are too poor to keep a History and Customs of the people of wife apiece, sometimes club together to Taveta, East Africa," Journal of the keep one in common. See J. Koscoe, African Society, No. I (October, The. Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1901), p. 124. I9I5)> P- I21 - 2 Claud Hollis, l.<. Fraternal poly- 3 Claud Hollis, " Notes on the His- andry seems to be exceedingly rare in tory and Customs of the people of Africa, but it occasionally happens Taveta, East Africa," Journal of the among the pastoral Bahima of Ankole, African Society, No. I (October, 1901), in the Uganda Protectorate, where p. no. 328 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n for this massacre of the innocents, but we may conjecture that the motive for the murder is as follows. The children which a woman bears after her daughter's marriage will be contemporary with her daughter's children ; in other words, her younger children and her grandchildren will be of the same age, and hence will fall into the same age-grade. But if a woman's daughter and granddaughter are thus placed in the same age-grade, it would obviously be open to any man of the corresponding age-grade to marry or cohabit with them both, thus confounding that distinction between the genera- tions which it seems a principal object of the age-grades to maintain. Whatever the object of this cruel law, a natural effect of it is that a woman delays the marriage of her daughter as long as possible, at least so long as she herself is still capable of bearing children, because she knows that her daughter's wedding may prove a sentence of death on the infant which she herself carries, or hopes to carry, in her womb. Hence she resorts to stratagem to divert the attentions of suitors from her daughter, hanging a leaden bracelet, the sign of betrothal, on the girl's arm long before she is actually betrothed. 1 Age-grades The system of age-grades occurs also among the Nandi, N^ndfof 16 another tribe of British East Africa, who seem, like the BritishEast- Wataveta, to be of mixed origin, combining elements of the Bantu and the Nilotic negro with a dash of pygmy and perhaps of Galla blood. 2 They possess the classificatory system of relationship and are divided into totemic clans, but these clans are not exogamous ; in other words, a man is free to marry a woman of his own totemic clan. 3 According to the social system of the Nandi, the male sex is divided into boys, warriors, and elders, the female sex into girls and married women. The first stage is con- tinued till circumcision, which may be performed between the ages of ten and twenty. A circumcision festival for boys should take place, as among their neighbours the Masai, every seven and a half years, but since their removal to a reserve 1 Claud Hollis, I.e. sqq-, 92 sq. Similarly we have seen * A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, T^J -\r j- tt Evolution of Kings, i. Q2 sqq. (The 2 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, p. 66. ~ , , n z TU- A B-J-*J i> \ (jolden Bough, imrd Edition, Part i.). 3 For evidence as to the diffusion 6 Compare (Sir) E. B. Tylor, Primi- of circumcision among many races, tive Culture, Second Edition (London, see Richard Andree, Ethnographische 1873), ii. 3 sqq.; Taboo and the Perils Parallelen und Vergleiche, Neue Folge of the Soul, pp. 365 sqq. ; Totemism (Leipsic, 1889), pp. 166-212. and Exogamy, iii. 297 sqq. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 331 his childhood with the prefix or title Laki, and the custom seems to be connected with this belief or hope." l Here the grandfather only anticipates matters by bestowing in his lifetime his name on the grandchild in whose person his soul is to be reborn after his death. 2 In Nukahiva, one of the Marquesas Islands, every one believes, or rather used to believe, " that the soul of a grandfather is transmitted by Nature into the body of his grandchildren ; and that, if an unfruitful wife were to place herself under the corpse of her deceased grandfather, she would be sure to become pregnant." 8 Similarly we have seen that among the Nandi a barren woman is supposed to conceive through attending at the second part of a boy's circumcision ; apparently the operation is thought to have the effect of liberating a human soul, which will seek to be born again in the first disengaged woman it may encounter. But to inquire into the origin and meaning of circum- circum- cision would lead us too far from our present subject. We cisionin , -111 i -H.T relation to must be content with the observation that among the Nandi age-grades and other kindred tribes the age -grade to which a man belongs is determined by the time at which he is circumcised. The operation is therefore of fundamental importance for fixing the social position, rights, and duties of all members of the community. At intervals of about seven and a half years the guardian- Transfer, ship of the Nandi country is solemnly transferred from the ence of govern- men of one age-grade, now grown old, to the men of the m ent from age-grade immediately succeeding. The ceremony at which one , age ~ the transference takes place is one of the most important in another the Nandi annals. All the adult male population, so far as *? ll possible, gather at a certain spot ; but no married warrior may attend, nor may he or his wife leave their houses while the ceremony is being performed. The Chief Medicine Man (Orkoiyof) must be present ; and the ceremony opens with the sacrifice of a white bullock, which is purchased by the young warriors for the occasion. After the meat has been 1 Charles Hose and W. McDougall, with the belief in the transmigration of The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London, souls, see Tottmism and Exogamy, iii. 1912), ii. 47. 298 sq. 2 On the practice of naming children 3 U. Lisiansky, A Voyage round the after their grandparents, in connexion World (London, 1814), p. 89. 332 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n eaten by the old men, each of the young men makes a small ring out of the hide, and puts it on one of the fingers of his right hand. A circle is then formed round the Chief Medicine Man, who stands near a stool, about which is heaped cow dung studded with the fruit of the lapotuet shrub (Solatium campy lanthuni). All the old men and the members of the age-grade immediately preceding the one in power stand up, whilst the warriors who are going to receive the control of the country sit down. On a sign from the Chief Medicine Man the members of the preceding age-grade strip themselves of their warrior's garments and don the fur robes of old men. The warriors of the age in power, that is, those who were circumcised about four years before, are then solemnly in- formed that the safety of the country and the welfare of the people are committed to their hands, and they are exhorted to guard the land of their fathers. After that the people disperse to their homes. 1 Age-grades Age -grades also occur among the Akamba and the Akamba^ Akikuyu, two large tribes of British East Africa, but appar- and ently in both tribes the system is in decay, since admission BritishEast to tne various grades is conditional on the payment of fees. 2 Africa. Both tribes practise circumcision as a necessary preliminary to the attainment of full membership of the tribes. 3 Among the Akikuyu the rite used to be combined with a solemn pretence of a new birth, the candidate for initiation making believe to be born again from his mother or from another woman, if his real mother happened to be dead. Girls as well as boys had to submit to the ceremony of the new birth, which has now been detached from the rite of circum- cision, but it is still compulsory and universal in all the clans, as a stage through which every man and woman must pass 1 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, pp. 12 id. , "The Organization and Laws of sq. some Tribes in East Africa, " Journal 2 H. R. Tate, "Notes on the of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Kikuyu and Kamba tribes of British xlv. (1915) pp. 241 sqq. ; W. Scoresby East Africa," Journal of the Royal An- Routledge and K. Routledge, With a thropological Institute, xxxiv. (i9O4)pp. Prehistoric People (London, 1910), pp. 133, 138; C. W. Hobley, Ethnology 197 sqq. of A-Kamba and other East African 3 C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A- Tribes (Cambridge, 1910), p. 49; Kamba and other East 'African Tribes, Hon. Ch. Dundas, " History of Kitui," pp. 68 sqq. ; W. Scoresby Routledge Journal of the Royal Anthropological and K. Routledge, With a Prehistoric Institute, xliii. (1913) pp. 539-541; People,^. 154 sqq. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 333 at some period of their life. Any one who has not gone through it is debarred from inheriting property or taking any part in the religious rites of the country ; a man, for example, who has not been born again may not assist in the disposal of his father's body after death nor help to carry him out into the wilds to breath his last. This sacrament, as we may call it, of the new birth appears to be generally partaken of at about the age of ten, but sometimes it is administered to infants. 1 Another tribe of British East Africa which is divided Age-grades into age-grades is the Suk. They are a people of mixed sSTof th origin, closely akin to the Nandi in language and customs. British East Their system of age-grades in particular resembles that of the Nandi, as will appear from the following account : " Socially the Suk are roughly divided into Kara-chon-a, or ' boys ' ; Muren, or full-grown circumcised men ; and Pot, or old men. There are a number of agfes, Pen, the duration of each being a generation, or roughly fifteen years. These ages, as with the Nandi, run in cycles. Circumcision takes place whenever there are sufficient candidates, generally about once in three years, but any one circumcised during the generation of fifteen years is said to belong to the same age. Nor can a man be said to belong to an age at all until he has been circumcised. Thus Maina is the age of those most recently circumcised, and comprises" youths between the ages of about fifteen and thirty. Nyongu, the next age, con- sists of comparatively old men between the ages of thirty and forty-five ; while the oldest men living probably belong to the age of Merkutwa. Any one older than sixty would belong to Kablelach. Besides these, four other ages are still spoken about in narrating tales, folklore, etc. Thus the generation older than Kablelach, i.e. older than seventy-five years, of whom there would almost, certainly be no one living, is spoken of as Kip-koimet. Prior to that is Karongoro ; prior to that Soiva ; and most ancient of all, Jumo. After Junto the age cycle begins again with Maina. The seniors of each age are called Nerkau or CJiagen-opero, those in the 1 W. Scoresby Routledge and K. Royal Anthropological Institide, xl. Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, (1910) pp. 440 sq. On the rite of the pp. 151 sqq. ; C. \V. Hobley, " Kikuyu new birth see above, pp. ^ S 39- Customs and Beliefs," Journal of the 334 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n middle Ngiru, and the juniors Nimur. Once circumcised, a youth remains a ' warrior ' until the day of his death or incapacity to fight further. The care of the country is not entrusted to any particular age ; consequently there is no elaborate handing-over ceremony as with Masai and Nandi. Women are circumcised at irregular intervals, and become included in the ' age ' of the men they marry." l Cone- Thus among the Suk, as among the Nandi and Masai, ofhe e ! the " te f circumcision forms, as it were, the pivot on age-grades which the system of age-grades revolves ; the period of an among t e a g e _g rac j ej a bout fifteen years, corresponds to one age-grade Nandi, and o f the Nandi and two age-grades or one generation of the Masai; and each age -grade falls into three subdivisions according to seniority and juniority. One curious feature in the age-grades of the Suk is their multiplication beyond the ordinary, and perhaps even the extraordinary, limits of human life. The motive for such an extension is not obvious. As these superhuman ages are said to occur in tales and folk-lore, they may perhaps be related, whether as cause or effect, to a belief, like that of the Hebrews, that the patriarchs of old attained to degrees of longevity far exceed- ing the short span of existence enjoyed by men in modern times. Totemism The Suk are divided into clans, which are both totemic and and exogamous, with paternal descent of the totem ; in among the other words, each clan has its totem, no man may marry a woman of his own clan, and children take their clan and their totem from their father, not from their mother. 2 Age-grades Yet another people of British East Africa who possess a T in k V^f s y s te m f age-grades are the Turkana. They are a tribe of British East very mixed origin who speak a language like that of the Masai, but have little in common with their neighbours the Suk, though the two tribes are often classed together as closely allied. Each sex among the Turkana is divided into three age-grades. The first age-grade of the males is that of the young boy (iiidue) ; the second is that of the 1 Mervyn W. H. Beech, The Suk, the Tribes inhabiting the Baringo their Language and Folklore (Oxford, District, East Africa Protectorate," 1911), pp. 5 sq. Journal oj the Royal Anthropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. 59 ; Mervyn 2 Hon. K. R. Dundas, " Notes on W. H. Beech, The Suk, p. 5. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 335 warrior (egile) ; and the third is that of the old man (kasikoti). The corresponding age-grades of the women are called apesur, aberu, and agemat. The generations of warriors are called asavanissia. Each generation, as it attains the warrior's age, is given a distinctive name. Apparently a new age is created about every four or five years. Unlike all the other tribes of this region which possess the system of age-grades, the Turkana do not practise circumcision. They are divided intp exogamous clans, but there is no evidence that the clans are totemic. 1 Some traces of a system of age - grades have been Age-grades recorded among the Gallas. 2 *Jf the At a much higher stage of culture the system of age- Age-grades grades is found among the Mohammedan population of fj"^ the Wadai, in the Central Sudan. The males are there divided medansof according to age into five grades, and in the larger villages Wadai - there are public huts set apart for the use of old men and mature men respectively. 3 But in the stage of a survival from savagery among civilized or semi-civilized people the institution cannot be expected to retain its primitive features, and an examination of it can hardly throw light on the origin of the custom. From this survey of the system of age-grades it appears Age-grades that both in New Guinea and among the wilder tribes of w Africa the institution is associated with a form of sexual commun- , , , . . ism both communism, all the members of an age-grade exercising or j n New claiming; marital rights over women of their own age-grade, Guinea and Africa. with the exception of such women as are barred to them by the laws of consanguinity or of exogamy. Finding this association of sexual communism with age -grades among comparatively primitive tribes in distant parts of the world, 1 Hon. K. R. Dundas, " Notes on Sudosten. Deutsch-Ostafrikas (Berlin, the Tribes inhabiting the Baringo 1898), pp. 115 sq. District, East Africa Protectorate," 2 Ph. Paulitschke, Ethnographic Journal of the Royal Anthropological Nordost-Afrikas, die Materielle Cultur Institute, xl. (1910) pp. 66 sq. The der Dandkil, Galla und Som&l (Berlin, Makonde of German East Africa are 1893), P- X 94 5 H . Schurtz, Alttrs- reported to possess the system of age- klassen und Mdnnerbiinde (Berlin, grades, the males being divided into 1902), pp. 135 sqq. five classes according to their age, from 3 Gustav Nachtigal, Sah&ra und infancy to old age. See Karl Weule, Sudan, iii. (Leipsic, 1889), pp. 245 Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse meiner sqq. ; H. Schurtz, Altersklassen mid cthnographischen Forschungsreise in den Mdnnerbiinde,^. 139^. 336 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART II Converging evidence of former sexual com- munism on a large scale in the human race. Social conditions which regulate marriage according to seniority and juniority. The rule that a younger brother or sister may not marry before his or her elder brother or sister seems to point to a social disappro- bation of seniors, whether men or women, who remain unmarried. we may with some probability infer that the association has been at some time or another a universal characteristic of age-grades, wherever that classification of society is found among savages. Thus by a third line of evidence we are led to infer the existence, present or past, of sexual com- munism or group marriage on a great scale in a large portion of the human race. The three lines of evidence which point to that conclusion are, first, the classificatory or group system of relationship ; second, the combination of the sororate with the levirate ; and, third, the institution of age- grades. The convergence of three distinct lines of argument naturally strengthens our confidence in the con- clusion to which they all point. Perhaps, too, we can now frame to ourselves a clearer idea of the social conditions which regulated marriage according to the seniority or juniority of the parties concerned. Among the lower races it appears to be the general, indeed almost invariable, rule that men and women marry at the earliest opportunity afforded them by age and the customs of the society in which they live. The practice of deferring marriage from purely prudential motives is characteristic of the civilized races, it is practically unknown among the uncivilized ; it implies on the material side an accumulation of property, on the intellectual side a foresight and on the moral side a self-control, which are only to be found in wealthy, intelligent, and temperate communities, but which we should vainly look for among poor, improvi- dent, and intemperate savages, as well as among those members of civilized communities who most nearly resemble savages in their lack not only of wealth but of intelligence and self-restraint. Accordingly in primitive society, where almost every man marries as soon as he can, the unmarried state is looked upon with astonishment and disfavour as something abnormal and reprehensible, not only because it seems to run counter to one of the strongest instincts of our animal nature, but because it tends to weaken the com- munity by depriving it of the recruits which it requires for its maintenance and defence against enemies. Hence we can understand the disapproval with which the marriage of younger brothers and sisters before their elders has been CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 337 visited by so many races. In ail such cases the real culprit, we may surmise, is not the younger brother or sister who marries, but the elder brother or sister who neglects the promptings of nature and the claims of society by remaining, unmarried ; and his negligence is all the more conspicuous under social conditions which subject him to ordeals and observances of various kinds specially designed as a prepara- tion for marriage. For example, in tribes which compel all their members, male and female, to be circumcised, there is no doubt that the rite of circumcision is regarded as a necessary preliminary to the married state ; and if after submitting to the operation, as he must do, a man continues unmarried when he might have taken to himself a wife, he is naturally looked upon by his fellows as a sort of anomaly or contradiction, bearing the badge of marriage on his person but failing to enjoy the privileges and to discharge the duties which that badge imports. And a like verdict of condemnation is passed for similar reasons on any woman who, after passing through the prescribed ordeal, persists in celibacy, though she is both legally and physically capable of being a wife and a mother. The same considerations perhaps suffice to explain the Urabunna rule that a man should marry his cross-cousin, the daughter either of his mother's elder brother or of his father's bation of ... , , . -111 -i ,. seniors who elder sister, but not his cross-cousin, the daughter either of remain his mother's younger brother or of his father's younger sister. 1 unmarried , . i i i r mayexplain For under ordinary circumstances the daughters of a mothers the elder brother or of a father's elder sister will be older than u bu " na rule of their cross -cousins, the daughters of a mother's younger marriage brother or of a father's younger sister ; and in virtue cf the dTugiuer rule, practically universal among savages, that women should eitherofthe marry at the earliest opportunity, it seems clearly incumbent d er er on a man to marry his elder cross-cousins before his younger brother or fe of the cross-cousins, just as it is incumbent on him to marry an father's elder sister before a younger sister. Hence it would com- elder sister, monly happen that a man would be expected to marry the daughters of his mother's elder brother or of his father's elder sister in preference to the daughters of his mother's younger brother or of his father's younger sister ; and this 1 See above, p. 187. VOL. II Z 338 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n preference for marriage with the senior branch of the family might develop into the absolute injunction of marriage with the senior branch and the absolute prohibition of marriage with the junior branch of the mother's or the father's family. The Again, the prohibition to marry a wife's elder sisters toma b rry 0n ma y rest on t ^ ie assum pti n that these women already have a wife's husbands and therefore cannot be taken to wife by another perhaps^ 3 man 5 while on the other hand the permission to marry any rests on the O r all of a wife's younger sisters is most naturally derived, as thaTthese" I have attempted to show, from a system of communal mar- sisters are r iage in which a group of brothers is married to a group of already _^ , .... . .. . . married to sisters. On that theory, it is obvious, the prohibition and other men. ^ e permission to some extent clash with each other; for if a man is bound to marry an elder sister first, and has the right to marry all her younger sisters afterwards, how comes it that any of these sisters can be married to another man ? The answer is implicitly given in some of the cases which came before us : l though a man in many tribes has the right to marry ,his wife's younger sisters, he does not always exercise the right, but is sometimes willing to transfer it to other men, perhaps on receipt of a valuable consideration. Suggested Lastly, we have to explain, why a man is commonly explanation a u owe( j or even obliged to marry the widow of his deceased of the rules J regulating elder brother, but is commonly forbidden to marry the widow withT of his deceased younger brother. The explanation both of brother's the permission and of the prohibition is perhaps to be sought in that form of communal marriage which I suppose to lie at the base of the levirate as well as of the sororate, namely, the marriage of a group of brothers to a group of sisters. Why a man On that supposition, as fast as a man's younger brothers is^eider'^ g row U P they join the group of husbands formed by their brother's elder brothers ; and as fast as younger sisters grow up they join the group of wives formed by their elder sisters. Thus a younger brother is entitled to use his elder brother's wife in the lifetime of his elder brother, and naturally continues to enjoy her after his elder brother's death. When with the growth of sexual jealousy men refused any longer to share their wives with their brothers, the elder brother claimed for himself all the sisters whom he had formerly held in common 1 Above, pp. 266, 270, 272, 278, 297, 300, 302, 303. CHAP, vi THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE 339 with his younger brothers, but on his death he allowed his wives to pass by inheritance to his next younger brother, who on his death passed the women on to his next younger brother, and so on, until all the brothers in turn, one after the other in order of seniority, had married the wives of their eldest brother. In this manner we can conceive the custom of the levirate to have originated. But if in this way we can account for the permission to Whyamai marry an elder brother's widow, how are we to explain the marry "bis prohibition to marry a younger brother's widow ? The rule younger is to be compared with the Santal rule which forbids a man w idow. rS to take any liberties with a younger brother's wife in the lifetime of the younger brother, while it allows "him to take any liberties with an elder brother's wife in the lifetime of the elder brother. 1 Together the two rules point to the conclusion, that when a younger brother marries a wife-. who is not one of the group of sisters over whom his elder brother has full marital rights, that wife does not join the group of communal wives composed of sisters, and that con- sequently the eldest brother may neither have intercourse with her during his younger brother's life nor marry her after his death. On this view, while the permission to marry an elder brother's widow is a relic of group marriage, the prohibition to marry a younger brother's widow marks an early step in the disintegration of group marriage, having been brought about by the growth of sexual jealousy and the consequent reluctance of brothers to share their wives with each other. This explanation of the prohibition to marry a younger brother's widow is purely conjectural, but it may be allowed to stand till a better has been suggested. On this view the levirate, like the sororate, originated in Two later a particular form of group marriage, namely in the marriage {gyrate. th< of a group of brothers to a group of sisters. But when the economic levirate survived, as it often did, among peoples who had left re ii g ious. group marriage far behind them, it would naturally assume a different character with its changed surroundings. Thus wherever the rights of property and the practice of purchas- ing wives had become firmly established, the tendency would be to regard the widow as a valuable part of the inheritance, 1 Above, pp. 306 sq. 340 JACOBUS MARRIAGE PART n who, having been bought and paid for, could not be allowed to pass out of the family but must go to the heir, whether he be a brother, a son, or other relation of the deceased husband. This, for example, appears to be the current view of the levirate in Africa, where the custom is commonly observed. 1 Again, wherever it came to be supposed that a man's eternal welfare in the other world depends on his leaving children behind him, who will perform the rites necessary for his soul's salvation, it naturally became the pious duty of the survivors to remedy, as far as they could, the parlous state of a kinsman who had died without off- spring, and on none would that duty appear to be more incumbent than on the brother of the deceased. In such circumstances the old custom of the levirate might be con- tinued, or perhaps revived, with the limitation which we find in Hebrew and Hindoo law, namely that a brother must marry his brother's widow only in the case where the deceased died childless, and only for the purpose of beget- ting on the widow a son or sons for him who had left none of his own. Hence what had at one time been regarded as a right of succession to be enjoyed by the heir, might after- wards come to be viewed as a burdensome and even repul- sive obligation imposed upon a surviving brother or other kinsman, who submitted to it reluctantly out of a sense of duty to the dead. This is the light, in which the levirate was considered by Hindoo legislators. 2 1 A. H. Post, Afrikanische Juris- schen Philologie und Altertumskunde) ; prudenz (Oldenburg and Leipsic, 1887), J. F. McLennan and D. McLennan, The i. 419-425. So, too, in Melanesia Patriarchal Theory (London, 1885), (above, pp. 300 sq.). pp. 156^^., 266 sqq. The distinction 2 Laws of Manu, ix. 59"68 (G. between what may be called the religious Biihler's translation, pp. 337-339, and the economic types of levirate is Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv. drawn very clearly in the following Oxford, 1886) ; Gautama, Institutes passage, from which we learn that the of the Sacred Law, xviii. 4-14 (G. religious levirate is now extinct in Biihler's translation, The Sacred Laws India, while the economic levirate of the Aryas, Part i. pp. 267 sq. continues to flourish there : " Niyoga Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii. Ox- was an ancient custom among the ford, 1879) ; Vasishtha, xviii. 55-65 Hindus, by which a childless widow (G. Biihler's translation, The Sacred often raised a son to her dead husband Laws of the Aryas, Part ii. pp. 89-91, through the agency of her dead hus- Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiv. Ox- band's brother, or sometimes a Rishi. ford, 1882); Julius Jolly, Recht und . . . The idea was to have a son (putra) Sitte (Strasburg, 1896), pp. 70 sq. (in to offer libations to the dead husband G. Biihler's Grundriss der Indo-Ari- to save him from the terrible hell (put}. THE SORORATE AND LEVIRATE Thus, according to the predominance of purely economic or of purely religious motives, the levirate may dwindle or develop either into a mercenary transaction, as in modern Africa, or into a pious duty, as in ancient India. But that neither the mercenary nor the religious aspect of the custom is original and fundamental seems to follow from the nature of the levirate as it is practised by the aborigines of Australia, the lowest savages about whose institutions we possess exact informa- tion ; for these people neither buy their wives and transmit them like chattels to their heirs, nor do they believe in a heaven in which the dead can only secure and keep a foot- ing through the good offices of their living descendants. Accordingly we must look for another ^explanation of their custom of handing over a widow to her deceased husband's brother, and such an explanation lies to our hand in the old custom of group marriage, which still survives, or survived down to recent years, in some backward tribes. In its original form the levirate is directly derived from a form of group marriage, in which the husbands were brothers. Hence ( I ) Niyoga was only allowed to a childless widow ; (2) not more than one son was' allowed; and (3) the son belonged not to his real father but to the dead husband of his mother. No trace of' this custom in its entirety is found anywhere in India now. . . But a brother's taking to wife his elder brother's wife is looked upon as a matter of course, and the children of the union are treated as legitimate. And this 'is a younger brother's special right ; for, if a widow goes to live with some other man (as concubine, for re- marriage is not permitted), the younger brother can demand payment of the bride-price from the new husband. This custom, however, cannot have been derived from Niyoga, for there is no idea of raisingVchildren to the dead husband the children of the union belong to the begetter, and therefore, even widows having sons can become the wives of their dead husband's brothers. Nor is union with a stranger permitted, as in Niyoga. The custom is far more probably a survival of polyandry, at least in the hills, for the widow does not ' marry ' the brother there is no ceremony but she simply begins to live with him as his wife. And even during the lifetime of her husband, a woman's liaison with her husband's younger brother is not visited with the same punishment as with a third person." See Panna Lall, " An enquiry into the Birth and Mar- riage Customs of the Khasiyas and the Bottiyas of Almora District, U.P.," The Indian Antiquary, xl. (Bombay, 1911), pp. 191 sq. McLennan proposed to derive the levirate from fraternal polyandry of the sort which is practised in Tibet. Against this it is to be said, that while the levirate is very common, fraternal polyandry is very rare ; for example, it appears to be totally absent from aboriginal Aus- tralia and very exceptional in Africa, in both of which regions the levirate is widespread. Accordingly we must look for the cause of the levirate, not in an exceptional institution like frater- nal polyandry, but in an institution of wide prevalence such as group mar- riage appears to have been. Compare Tot em ism and Exogamy, i. 501 sqq. 342 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n 17. Serving for a Wife, HOW Jacob Although Jacob may have had a prior claim on the Laban his ^ anc ^ s f ms cousins Leah and Rachel, the daughters of his father-in- mother's brother Laban, he might not marry them for two' wives' 5 notnm g ; far from it, he had to serve his father-in-law as a shepherd and a goatherd for seven years for each of his cousins, making a period of fourteen years of service in all for the two. At the end of the time, having earned his wives and his children by his services, Jacob desired to return with them from Haran to his own country ? the land of his father Israel. But his father-in-law had found him to be^a valuable servant, and was unwilling to let him go ; so he persuaded Jacotf to stay with him and serve as a shepherd and goatherd for another period of years. During this third period of service, which lasted six years, the patriarch by his craft as well as his skill acquired immense flocks of sheep and goats, with which he returned a rich man to his native land. 1 His period From this narrative it clearly follows that Jacob was equivalent believed to have earned his wives >in exactly the same way topayment. as he earned his flocks, namely by serving his father-in-law for them. The fourteen years' service was reckoned equal to the value of two wives, just as six years' service was reckoned equal to so many heads of sheep and goats. In other words, Jacob paid for his wives in labour instead of in money or in kind. The affair, apart from the genuine love which Jacob felt for one of his wives, was substantially a commercial transaction between two sharp men, each of whom attempted successfully to cheat the other. The virtuous indignation which each of the two rogues felt, or affected, at the rascality of the other is a delicate stroke of satire in the manner of Moliere. The If any doubt could subsist as to the true light in which earning a Jacob's service for his wives is to be regarded, it may be wife by dispelled by a comparison with the marriage customs of serving her . c , u r *.- c parents peoples in many parts of the world ; for an examination of instead of these customs will satisfy us that it is a common practice them for for the parents of a girl to accept the services of a son-in- her is , . . . common in Genesls XX1X " XXX1 - the world. SERVING FOR A WIFE 343 law instead of a direct payment for their daughter's hand. We have to bear in mind that at a certain stage of social evolution a wife is valued, not merely as a companion and a mother of children, but also as a labourer, who contributes in large measure to the support of the family. Hence her parents naturally refuse to part with her except for a valu- able consideration, which may take the form of a woman given in exchange, or of a payment in money, or of services rendered for a longer or shorter period by the man who marries the daughter. The practice of bartering women as wives has been illustrated by the custom of exchanging sisters or daughters in marriage. 1 It remains to illustrate the practice of procuring wives by service as a substitute for the payment of a bride price. 2 Thus among the Gonds of the Central Provinces of Serving for India " polygamy is not forbidden ; but, women being costly ^^ j he chattels, it is rarely practised. The father of the bride is Gonds of always paid a consideration for the loss of her services, as is provinces* usually the case among poor races where the females bear a of India, large share in the burden of life. The Biblical usage of the bridegroom, when too poor to pay this consideration in cash, serving in the house of his future father-in-law for a certain time, is universal among the tribes. The youth is then called a lamjan ; and it frequently happens that he gets tired of waiting, and induces his fair one to make a moonlight flitting of it." 2 To the same effect a more recent authority on the Gonds tells us " the practice of Lamsena, or serving for a wife, is commonly adopted by boys who cannot afford to buy one. The bridegroom serves his prospective father-in -law for an agreed period, usually three to five or even six years, and at its expiry he should be married to the girl without expense. During this time he is not supposed to have access to the girl, but frequently they become intimate, and if this happens 1 Above, pp. 195 sqq., 210 sqq. Grundriss der ethnologischen Juris- 2 With what follows compare A. H. prudenz (Oldenburg and Leipsic, 1894- Post, Die Anfdnge des Staats- und 1895), i. 318 sqq. ; E. Westermarck, Rechtslebens (Oldenburg, 1878), pp. History of Human Marriage (London, 28 sqq. ; id., Bausteinefiir eine allge- 1891), pp. 390-392. meine Rechts-wissenschaft (Oldenburg, 1880-1881), L 113 sqq. ; id., Afri- 3 Captain ]. Forsyth, The High- kanische Jurisprudenz ( Oldenburg lands of Central India ( Lond on, 1871). and Leipsic, 1887), i. 378 sg. ; id., pp. 1485^. 344 , JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n the boy may either stay and serve his unexpired term or take his wife away at once ; in the latter case his parents should pay the girl's father five rupees for each year of the bridegroom's unexpired service. The Lamsena custom does not work well as a rule, since the girl's parents can break their contract, and the Lamsena has no means of redress. Sometimes if they are offered a .good bride price they will marry the girl to another suitor when he has served the greater part of his term, and all his work goes for nothing." l Here the exact equivalence of the service to the bride price, and the purely mercenary character of the whole transaction, are sufficiently obvious. Serving for Again, among the Kawars, a primitive hill tribe of the awlfe Central Provinces of India, a man normally pays for his among j r j other tribes bride, but "it is permissible for two families to effect an Central exchange of girls in lieu of payment of the bride price, this Provinces practice being known as gunrdwat. Or a prospective bride- groom may give his services for three or four years instead of a price. The system of serving for a wife is known as gharjidn " ; it is generally favoured by widows who have daughters to dispose of. 2 This case is instructive, for it shows the equivalence of purchase, exchange, and service as modes of procuring a wife. Among the Khonds, a Dravidian tribe of the Central Provinces of India, notorious for the human sacrifices which they used to offer for the sake of the crops, wives are usually bought and sold. The price of a bride used to be very high, as much as from twelve to twenty head of cattle, but in some places it has now fallen very consider- ably. If a man cannot afford to purchase a bride, he may, like Jacob, serve his prospective father-in-law for seven years as the condition of obtaining her hand. 3 Among the Korkus, a Munda or Kolarian tribe of the Central Provinces of India, who used to live by hunting and a migratory system of cultivation, if a man has only one daughter, or if he requires some one to help him on the farm, he will often make his future son-in-law serve for his wife for a period varying from five to twelve years, at the end of which he bestows his 1 R. V. Russell, Tribes and Castes 2 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 395. of the Central Provinces of India (Lon- don, 1916), iii. So. 3 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 467. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 345 .daughter on the faithful suitor, liberally celebrating the wedding at his own expense. Should, however, the swain tire of the long period of service, and run away with the girl before its expiry, his parents must pay the girl's father five rupees for each year of the unexpired term. 1 Among the Mahars, a menial caste of the Central Provinces of India, the custom of serving for a wife is recognized and bears a special name (Lamjhand) ; the expectant son-in-law lives with his future father-in-law, and works for him for a period varying from one to five years. 2 Again, in the same province " the Marars of Balaghat and Bhandara have the lamjhana form of marriage, in which the prospective husband serves for his wife ; this is a Dravidian custom and shows their connection with the forest tribes." J Similarly, among the Patlias, a jungle tribe of the Central India Agency, " it is not uncommon for a man to work for his bride, acting as the servant of his father-in-law. Seven years is the usual period. No pay- ment is made for the bride in this case. After seven years the couple are given a separate house and means to cultivate, whereas, up to then, clothing and food only are given them." If a man prefers to buy his wife rather than to work for her, he must pay her father a sum of money, which comes usually to about fourteen rupees. 4 Among the Gonds of the Eastern Ghauts, in the Madras Serving for Presidency, a poor man who cannot afford to pay the usual *^f ' rts price for a wife will agree to work instead for a fixed of India, period in the house of his future father-in-law. Such a man is called in the Oriya language ghorojavai or " house son-in- law." The term of years for which he labours usually does not exceed three. During that time he helps his father-in- law in agriculture and other work, but he holds no intercourse with his future bride, and he lives in a separate hut adjoining her father's house. At the end of the period that has been agreed upon the marriage is performed in the house of the bride's parents and at their expense. After that, the couple continue to reside for another year with the bride's family, the husband working for his father-in-law as before. Then 1 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iii. 558 sq. graphical Survey of the Central India 2 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iv. 133^. Agency, Monograph II., The Jungle 3 R. V. Russell, op. cit. iv. 166. Tribes of Malwa (Lucknow, 1909), * Captain C. E. Luard, The Ethno- pp. 46, 47. 346 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n they set up a house of their own, generally in the husband's village, to which they repair. At their departure it is customary to present them with new clothes, rice, a pot of liquor, and any cash that the young wife's parents can spare. 1 Among the Santals of Bengal brides are usually purchased from their parents ; but if for any reason a daughter has not been sought in marriage, her father will sometimes procure for her what is called a " Home Bridegroom " (gJiardi j'aivae). For this purpose he employs a go-between to look out for a needy young man, who will be glad to get a wife without having to pay for her. If the youth consents to the arrangement, he takes up his abode in the house of his parents-in-law and is married very quietly and unostenta- tiously, for such a marriage is thought to reflect unfavourably on the personal charms of the bride. The young couple live with the wife's parents for five years, receiving food and clothing in return for their labour. When the period has expired, the son-in-law receives a present of a yoke of oxen, a cow and a calf, a bundle of rice, and an axe, and with these and the wife's savings the two set up as farmers in a small way on their own account. 2 Again, among the Kirantis of the Central Himalayas the practice is to buy wives, usually at from five-and-twenty to thirty rupees a head ; but if a man has neither the money nor the copper utensils which are often accepted instead of cash, he will go and earn his bride by labouring in her father's family. 3 Similarly, among the Mandadan Chettis of Southern India, between the Neilgherry District and Malabar, a young man is sometimes made to work for his bride for a period varying from one to five years, the precise length of which is settled by the council. In such a case the father-in-law defrays the cost of the wedding, and sets up the young couple with a house and some land. 4 1 C. Hayavadana Rao, " The Gonds id., " Santal rules of Succession and of the Eastern Ghauts, India," Anthro- Partition," Journal of the Bihar and pos, v. (1910) pp. 794 sq. Orissa Research Society, i. (Bankipore, 2 Hon. and Rev. A. Campbell, D.D., 1915) p. 24. " Santal Marriage Customs," Journal 3 Brian Houghton Hodgson, Mis- of the Bihar and Orissa Research cellaneous Essays relating to Indian Society, ii. (Bankipore, 1916) pp. 328 Subjects (London, 1880), i. 402. sq. ; compare id. , " Position of Women * T&dguTh'0.rston,CasfesandT'ri&es0f among the Santals," ibid. pp. 245 sq. ; Southern India ( Madras, 1909), iv. 445. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 347 i Thus the custom of serving for a wife appears to be not TheAbt>< uncommon in India, particularly among the Dravidian tribes. to^ustom One good authority, the Abbe Dubois, even speaks of the of serving custom as if it were generally practised by all men who are too ^indla. 6 poor to purchase a wife. His observations refer chiefly to Southern India, especially to the Madras Presidency ; but, even so limited, they are probably not of universal application. He says, " As the marriage expenses are considerable, we find in all castes a number of young men destitute of the means of defraying them who, in order to procure a wife, resort to the same expedient which Jacob employed with Laban. Like that holy patriarch, an Indian who has no fortune enters the service of one of his relations or of any other person of his caste who has marriageable daughters, and he engages to serve him gratuitously for a number of years on condition that at the end of the time he obtains the hand of one of the daughters. When the term agreed upon has expired, the father fulfils his engagement, pays all the expenses of the marriage, and then allows the wedded pair to retire where they please. In sending them away he gives them a cow, a yoke of oxen, two copper vases, one for drinking and the other for eating, and a quantity of grain sufficient to support them during the first year of their married life. But the remarkable thing is, that the number of years -of service required in India in order to get a wife on these conditions is the same as that for which Jacob engaged to serve Laban, that is, seven years." ] However, the examples I have quoted sufficiently prove that the period of serving for a wife is by no means uniform in modern India, whatever it may have been in ancient Israel. The custom of serving for a wife instead of paying for Serving for her is common also among the Mongoloid tribes of North- a Wlfe , among the Eastern India. Thus, among the Lepchas of Sikhim Lepchas marriages " are not contracted in childhood, as among the ^imboos Hindoos, nor do the men generally marry young. This ofSikhim arises principally from the difficulty of procuring means of paying the parents of the bride the expected douceur on giving the suitor his daughter to wife ; this sum varies from 1 J. A. Dubois, Mteurs, Institutions et CMmonies des Peuples de Plnde (Paris' 1825), i. 295 sq. 348 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n 40 rupees to 400 or 500, according to the rank of the parties. It is not customary to allow the bride to leave her parents' home for that of her husband until the sum agreed on has been paid in full ; hence as the consummation of the marriage is permitted while the female is still under her father's roof, it is by no means uncommon to find the husband the tem- porary bondsman of his father-in-law, who exacts, Jewish fashion, labour from his son in lieu of money until he shall have fairly won his bride." ] Here, again, the nature of the transaction is obvious ; service rendered by a son-in-law to his father-in-law is merely a substitute for the pecuniary payment which the suitor is too poor to make for his bride. Among the Limboos of Sikhim and Nepaul the price of a wife rarely exceeds ten or twelve rupees, yet a bridegroom is often too poor to pay even this paltry sum, and he is obliged to remain with his father-in-law and work for him until he has redeemed his bride. 2 Serving for Again, among the Kuki-Lushais of Assam, " the pre- arr^ong the li 1 113 - 68 to an ordinary marriage are as follows : A man Kuid- having taken a fancy to a girl, offers a present of liquor to f the parents and talks the matter over. Should they be will- ing to accept him as a son-in-law, he takes up his abode with them for three years, working in the jhiims, and practically becoming a bondservant. At the end of this period he is allowed to marry the girl, but even then is not free, as he has to remain on another two seasons, working in the same manner as he did before. At the completion of the five years he is free to build a separate house and start life on his own account. Two rupees is the sum ordinarily paid the parents of the girl, a sum paid evidently more for the purpose of proving a contract than for anything else, the long period of servitude being the real price paid." : However, among 1 A. Campbell, " Note on the Lep- undescribed," Journal of the Asiatic chas of Sikhim, " Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, ix. Part i. (January Society of Bengal, ix. Part i. (January to June, 1840) pp. 602 sq. Compare to June, 1840), p. 384. Compare Sir E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Joseph Dalton Hooker, Himalayan Bengal, p. 104. Journals (London, 1891), p. 91; E. 3 C. A. Soppitt, A Short Account of T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of the Kuki-Lushai Tribes on the North- Bengal (Calcutta, 1872), p. 102. East Frontier (Shillong, 1887), pp. 2 A. Campbell, " Note on the Lim- 14 sq. Compare Major John Butler, boos, and other Hill Tribes hitherto T'ravels and Adventures in the Pro- CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 349 the Kukai-Lushai tribes the custom varies somewhat. The Thadoi tribes prefer marriage by purchase, and the price of a wife varies from 20 to over 200 rupees, according to the means of the parents. On the other hand, the Rangkhol tribe prefers marriage by service ; the bridegroom resides from three to seven years in his future father-in-law's house, during which time he is allowed free access to the girl of his choice. 1 In the Bodo group of tribes in Assam marriage is by Serving for purchase or servitude, and sometimes also by capture. The awife , . J * among the price paid for a bride usually varies from 60 to I oo rupees, Bodos and but when the suitor is too poor to pay the sum demanded, he frequently enters the house of his parents-in-law and works for them for three or four years. 2 So among the Assamese, " it is not uncommon, when a man is poverty stricken, to engage to live and work for several years for the father of the girl he wishes to marry. He is then called a ckapunea, a kind of bondsman, and is entitled to receive bhat kupper y food and clothing, but no wages ; and at the expiration of the period of servitude, if the girl does not dislike him, the marriage takes place. The man is looked on in the family as a khanu dauiad (or son-in-law), and is treated kindly." 3 Among the Mikirs of Assam the mode of marriage " depends upon the wealth and standing of the parties. If the wedding is dkejoi that is, if no payment is to be made for the bride the girl goes with her husband next day to her new home. Her parents accompany her, and are entertained with food and drink, returning the following day. If the wedding is dkemen (literally ripe, pakka), the lad stays in his father-in-law's house. He rests one day, and then works for his father-in- law for one year, or two years, or even it may be for life, according to agreement. There is no money payment in any case. If the girl is an heiress or only daughter, the vince of Assam (London, 1855), pp. (Shillong, 1892)^.251. 82 sq. ; E. T. Dalton, Descriptive z Census of India, 1891, Assam, by Ethnology of Bengal, p. 47. The (Sir) E. A. Gait, vol. i.v Report jkiims are the clearings made in the (Shillong, 1892), p. 225. Compare forest and temporarily cultivated. See R. G. Latham, Descriptive Ethnology above, vol. i. pp. 442 sqq. (London, 1859), i. 103. 1 Census of India, 1891, Assam, by 3 [John Butler], Sketch of Assam (Sir) E. A. Gait, vol. i. Report (London, 1847), p. 142. 35 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Serving for a wife among the Nagas and Tunings of Assam and the Tipperahs and Mrus ot Chitta- gong. Serving for a wife among the Mishmees of North- Eastern India. marriage is usually akemen, but in the great majority of cases it is dkejoi" ] Among the wild tribes of the Naga Hills in Assam, when a young man takes a fancy to a girl either of his own or of a neighbouring village, he must serve in her parents' house for a certain time, varying from one to two or more years, according to agreement, before he may marry her. 2 According to another account a price is paid for a Naga bride, and it is only when a suitor cannot pay it that he is reduced to serving his father-in-law for the maiden ; at the end of his period of servitude the young man is provided for and set up in the world by the damsel's father. 3 Among the Turungs of Assam the usual form of marriage is by purchase, and the price of a wife ranges from 40 to 80 rupees. But marriage by servitude is also not uncommon ; the time during which the bridegroom has to work in the bride's house -varies from three to four years. 4 Among the Tipperahs, a tribe inhabiting the Hill Tracts of Chittagong, when a match is made with the consent of the parents, the young man must serve three years in his father-in-law's house before he obtains his wife or is formally married. But during his time of servitude or probation the girl is really, though not nominally, his wife. 5 Similarly among the Mrus, another tribe of the same region, a wooer has to serve three years for his wife in his father-in-law's house ; but if he be wealthy, he can dispense with this service by paying 200 or 300 rupees down. 6 Here, again, we see that service rendered for a wife to a father-in-law is merely a substitute for payment. Among the Mishmees, who inhabit the mountains at the extreme north-eastern corner of India, on the border of Burma, " women are priced at from fifty to five hundred 1 Sir Charles Lyall, The Mikirs, from the papers of the late Edward Stack (London, 1908), pp. 18 sq. 2 Lieut. -Col. R. G. Woodthorpe, " Notes on the Wild Tribes inhabiting the so-called Naga Hills, on our North- East frontier of India, " Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xi. (1882) p. 204. 3 E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethno- logy of Bengal, p. 41. 4 Census of India, iSqi, Assam, by (Sir) E. A. Gait, vol. i. Report (Shil- long, 1892), p. 284. 6 Capt. T. H. Lewin, Wild Races of Sotith- Eastern India (London, 1870), p. 202. 6 Capt. T. H. Lewin, op. cit. p. 234- CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 351 heads, and a large family of daughters are very valuable, especially if they be well-favoured." l But " poor younger sons have to work very hard for a wife, for they get no help ' from their fa/her, but have to trade sometimes for years before they can bring their wives home to a house of their own ; but on payment of a part of the purchase-money the youth may marry and visit his wife at her father's house, though she and her children can never leave it until every head is paid. This custom is a great stimulus to the young men in their musk-hunting and trading excursions, for until they pay for their wives they hold no position, and their wives and children have to work for the benefit of the wife's family." ' In this case, apparently, the husband only visits his wife occasionally at her father's house, and he does not serve his father-in-law directly ; but he works in order to earn the money which will enable him to buy his wife and children. The economic principle is therefore the same as in the other cases which we are considering ; in all of them a wife and her children are treated practically as valuable pieces of property which a man cannot procure without giving an equivalent for them, whether in kind, or in labour, or in payment of some sort. The " heads " which the Mish- mees give in exchange for a wife are, properly speaking, the heads of slain animals, such as buffaloes, bears, tigers, deer, and so forth, which are hung up in the houses and form a kind of currency, being exchanged for slaves and other valuables. But the word " head " in the Mishmee tongue is also used in a more general sense as equivalent to " money." 3 In Burma " after marriage the couple almost always live Serving for two or three years in the house of the bride's parents, the ^Bu^na son-in-law becoming one of the family and contributing to andSiam. its support. Setting up a separate establishment, even in Rangoon, where the young husband is a clerk in an English office, is looked upon with disfavour as a piece of pride and ostentation. If the girl is an only daughter she and her husband stay on till the old people die." 4 Similarly among 1 T. T. Cooper, The Mishmee Hills, 2 T. T. Cooper, op. cit. pp. 236 sq. an Accottnt of a Journey made in an 3 T. T. Cooper, op. cit. pp. 189 sq- attempt to penetrate Thibet from Assam * Shway Yoe [Sir J. George Scott], (London, 1873), p. 235. The Burman^ h,is Life arid Notions 352 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Serving for a wife among the aboriginal races of Indo- China. the Karens of Burma a young man usually lives with his wife's parents for two or three years after marriage. 1 In Siam a house is built for a newly wedded pair near the house of the wife's parents ; hence a young married man is hardly ever to be found living with his own father, but generally with his father-in-law and in a state of dependence on him. But from the birth of their first child the young people are allowed to shift for themselves. 2 So in the Siamese province of Laos and in Cambodia a newly married pair generally resides for some time with the wife's parents and under their tutelage ; the husband cannot take his wife away without their consent. 3 In Cambodia the residence may last for years or even for life, and a popular tale is told to account for the origin of the custom. 4 Similar customs are observed by various aboriginal races of Indo-China. Among the Hka Muks, Hka Mets, and Hka Kwens, three forest tribes on the borders of Burma, who are believed to be aborigines, a young man has to serve in the house of his wife's parents for a longer or shorter time. 5 Again, " amongst the Mois marriage should perhaps be regarded as a mitigated form of slavery. In fact, a daughter who marries does not quit her parents ; on the contrary, it is the husband who comes to dwell in his wife's house, unless he is rich enough to furnish a male slave by way of compensation to replace her. But it is to be under- stood that in no case does this species of slavery permit of the sale of the man who accepts it. Hence the number of his daughters is for the Moi a real source of wealth." e So among the Stiengs " daughters above all constitute the honour (London, 1882), i. 70. Compare Sangermano, Description of the Bur- mese Empire (Rangoon, 1885), p. 133 ; Capt. C. J. F. S. Forbes, British Burma (London, 1878), p. 62. 1 Rev. F. Mason, D.D., "Physical Character of the Karens," Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1866, Part ii. No. I, p. 18. 2 Carl Bock, Temples and Elephants (London, 1884), pp. 183, 186. Com- pare De la Loubere, Du royaume de Siam (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 156 sq. 5 E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos (Saigon, 1885), p. 186 ; J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge (Paris, 1883), i. 409. . 4 E. Aymonier, Notice sur le Cam- bodge (Paris, 1875), p. 54. 5 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardi- man, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, Part i. vol. i. (Ran- goon, 1900) p. 522. 6 A. Gautier, "Voyage au pays des Moi's," Cochinchine Frattfaise, Excur- sions et Reconnaissances, No. 14 (Saigon, 1882), p. 246. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 353 and the riches of a house, for to the mind of a Stieng the daughter seems nobler than the son, because at her marriage the nubile daughter rarely quits the paternal home ; it is the son-in-law who, obliged to submit to a sort of miti- gated slavery, takes up his abode with his father-in-law and thus increases the household and the number of hands avail- able for work in the rice -fields. In consequence of this custom, which has the force of law, a young man, who would take his betrothed bride to his own home, is bound to give his father-in-law a strong healthy male slave. That is, among the Stiengs, the dowry which in such a case the young man must provide ; only the dowry does not accompany the young wife to her new home, it replaces her in the house of her father." ] Here, again, the economic value of the husband's services is brought out in the clearest way by the stipulation, that if he deprives his father-in-law of them, he must provide a sturdy male slave as a substitute. The practice of serving for a wife instead of paying for Serving for her is found in some parts of the Indian Archipelago. Thus in Lampong, the district at the southern extremity of Sumatra, when a man cannot pay the bride price, he is obliged to live with his parents-in-law and work for them until he has dis- charged his debt. Sometimes the period during which he is to reside with them and work for them is stipulated before- hand ; it is usually seven years. . The husband's labour is reckoned towards the payment of the bride price. In Palem- bang, another district in the south of Sumatra, the custom is simila-. A poor suitor binds himself to live with his parents- in-law and to labour for them until he has paid for his wife. Sometimes it happens that he is unable all his life long to discharge the debt ; in that case the debt is transmitted to his children, who continue like their father in a state of bondage until the daughters, by the bride prices which are paid for them at their marriage, at length succeed in paying the sum which is still owing for the marriage of their mother. 8 Similarly among the Gayos, a people who inhabit an inland 1 Le Pere Azemar (Missionnaire 2 G. A. \Vilken, "Over het hu- apostolique), " Les Stiengs de Brolam," welijks-en erfrecht bij de volken van Cochinchine Franfaise, Excursions et Zuid-Sumatra," De verspreide Gesfkrift- Reconnaissantes, No. 28 (Saigon, en (The Hague, 1912), ii. 232 sq. 1886), pp. 220 sq. VOL. II 2 A 354 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n district of Achin, in the north of Sumatra, if a man cannot pay for his wife, he works for her family until he is able to discharge his debt, when he is free to remove her to his own house. His period of servitude may last for years. Indeed the girl's father will sometimes not consent to such a marriage unless his son-in-law binds himself not to pay the full bride price before a certain time. So long as the price is not* paid, the children belong to the clan of the father-in-law, but as soon as it is settled in full, they pass into the clan of their father. 1 Again, among the Looboos, a primitive tribe of Mandailing in Sumatra, a man is obliged to serve his prospective parents-in-law for two years before marriage, during which he has to perform all kinds of drudgery for them. Even after his marriage, the custom of the country imposes on him many obligations as to field labour for the benefit of his wife's father and mother. 2 Another In another form of marriage, which is practised in Sumatra marriage an< ^ bears the name of ambel anak, a man transfers himself by service permanently to the house of his father-in-law, where he lives in Sumatra. . i / it in a state between that ot a son and a debtor, partaking of what the house affords, but himself entirely destitute of property. His own family renounce all right to, or interest in, him ; should he rob or murder, his wife's family pay the fine, and if he is murdered, it is his wife's family who receive the blood-wit. They, too, .are responsible for all debts that he may contract after marriage. Further, they are free to divorce him at any time and to send him away ; in that case he departs empty-handed as he came, leaving his children behind him. Sometimes his wife's family indulge him so far as to let him remove with his wife to a house of his own, but he, his children, arid his goods, are still their property. Nevertheless, if he has not daughters by his marriage, he may redeem himself and his wife on paying her bride price (j'ufur) ; but if there are daughters, the difficulty of emanci- pation is enhanced, because his wife's family are entitled to compensation for them also. However, on payment of an additional fine he may insist on his release, whilst his 1 C. Snouck Hurgronje, Het Gajo- dailing," Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- land en zijne Bewoners (Batavia, 1903), en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch- pp. 270 sq. Indie, Ixvi. (1912) p. 321. " 2 J. Kreemer, " De Loeboes in Man- CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 355 daughters are not marriageable. 1 This form of marriage is recognized by the Bataks or Battas of Central Sumatra, though it is much less frequent among them than marriage by purchase, which confers on the husband full rights over the wife whose price he has paid. 2 A similar form of marriage is usually observed by the Serving Bare'e-speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes. Among them for a Wlfe . . , among the a married man regularly lives with his wife's parents, who Bare'e- lodge him and feed him. In return he has to work for them in the rice-fields and elsewhere. Only after the lapse of Central of two, three, or four years, when the wife has become a mother, may the young couple lay out a rice-field of their own. In rare instances the wife is allowed, some years after marriage, to follow her husband to his own village, but she may never do so in her mother's lifetime, unless the mother accompanies her. And if the husband falls sick while he is living with his wife's family, he is permitted to return to his own people, and in that case his wife often goes with him to nurse him in his sickness ; but such a stay in her husband's family is only temporary. During his residence with his wife's people a man is bound to behave respectfully, not only to her parents, but also, to her brothers and sisters and more distant members of the family. He must address them all with the polite komi (" ve ") instead of with the familiar siko ('' you ") ; and he may never mention the names of his wife's parents, uncles, and aunts. If their names happen to be those of common objects, he may not call these objects by their common names, but must substitute other wjords or phrases for them ; for example, if his father-in-law bears a name which in the native tongue means " horse," then his son-in-law may not call a horse a horse, but must allude to it delicately in the phrase, " some one with a long face." When the Toradjas are. asked why they treat, their wives' parents with such punctilious respect, they say that it is from fear lest their parents-in-law should dissolve the marriage. But though a man usually lives with his wife's family and works 1 W. Marsden, History of Sumatra 1882), pp. 291 sq. (London, 1811), pp. 262 sq. Com- pare A. L. van Hasselt, Volksbeschrijv- 2 Franz Junghuhn, Die Battatiinder ing van Midden Sumatra (Leyden, auf Sumatra (Berlin, 1847), ii. 131 sq, 356 JA COB^S MARRIA GE PART II The bride price paid for the children rather than for the wife. Serving for a wife in South- Eastern Celebes. for them, he has nevertheless to pay a price for her, or rather his blood relations have to do so for him. The price is generally not paid at marriage but some time afterwards. When a child has been born of the marriage, the payment of the bride price should no longer be delayed. The primary object of the payment is said to be " to make the eyes of the children hard," that is to prevent them from being ashamed. For if the bride price is not paid, the child has no father, and the father has no rights over the child, who in that case belongs to his mother alone. 1 Thus it would seem that among the Toradjas the bride price is really paid for the children, not for the wife ; a man earns his wife by serving her parents, he earns his children by paying for them. Both acquisitions are made on a business footing ; in each case the transaction is strictly commercial ; neither wife nor child may be had by him who is not pre- pared to give a full equivalent for them either in labour or in goods. Similarly in some African tribes the bride price paid at marriage appears to be intended to buy the children who are to be born rather than the wife -who is to bear them. Hence in these tribes, if a man pays nothing for his wife, his children do not belong to him but to his wife's father or maternal uncle, and he can only obtain possession of his own offspring by paying for them. 2 Among the natives of South-Eastern Celebes, when a 1 N. Adrian! en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bare'e-sprekende Toradjdsvan Midden- Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), ii. 23 sqq., 27 sqq. 2 For example, among the Banyoro of Central Africa, "when a poor man is unable to procure the cattle required for his marriage at once, he may, by agreement with the bride's father, pay them by instalments ; the children, however, born in the meantime belong to the wife's father, and each of 'them must be redeemed with a cow." See Emin Pasha in Central Africa (London 1888), p. 86. Again, the Matabele " do not buy the wife from her father, but after the first child is born the husband has to pay its value, or else the wife's father "has the right to take the child away." See Lionel Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (Lon- don, 1898), p. 158. Again, among the Bambala of the Congo valley, " the position of the children of a marriage varies according as the mother has been purchased or betrothed. In the latter case they belong to the maternal uncle, and the purchase price of the girls goes to him. The children of the purchased wife, on the other hand, belong to the father." See E. Torday, Camp and Tramp in African Wilds (London, I 9 I 3)> P- 95- Again, among the Bakundu of the Cameroons, if a man marries a woman without paying for her, the children of the marriage belong to the wife's father. See Missionar Bufe (Kamerun), "Die Bakundu," Archiv fur Anthropologie, N.F. xii. (1913) p. 236. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 357 young man desires to marry, his father goes to the parents of the girl on Whom his son has set his heart, and says, " My son would like to come and help you with the house-work and the field-work ; but you must not be angry with him if he does not work well." Should the implied offer of marriage be favourably received, the young man goes to live with the damsel's parents, and if after a period of probation they are satisfied with him, and the girl returns his affection, he marries her, but he must pay for her hand a price which varies from fifty to a hundred guilders. After the marriage he continues to reside for some time, generally a year, in the house of his wife's parents. Not till later does he take his wife away to a place of his own. 1 Among the Tenggeres, who inhabit a mountainous region Serving in the east of Java, men seldom marry outside their own ^on^he village, and no price is paid for a wife ; but after marriage Tenggeres the young couple take up their abode in the house of the wife's father, whom the husband now regards as his own father, being bound to obey him and to help him in his work. If there are several daughters in the family, all the sons-in-law reside with their children in the house of their father-in-law, until one of them, generally the eldest, has become rich enough to build a house for himself. When only one son-in-law is left in the house, he must remain with his wife's parents until either a new son-in-law takes his place or the parents are dead ; in the latter case the whole inheritance falls to him. However, when there are many sons-in-law with their children and none of them is well enough off to make a home of his own, indigence reigns in the house by reason of the many mouths that there are to feed ; and in that case one of the sons-in-law is permitted to remove to the home of his own father, if his father is wealthier or has a larger house. 2 However, a form of marriage under which a man is permanently transferred to his wife's family, with only the possibility, 1 F. Treffers, " Het landschap 2 J. H. F. Kohlbrugge, " Die Teng- Laiwoei in Z. O. Celebes," Tijdschrift geresen, ein alter Javanische Volks- van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aar- staam," Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- drijkskttndig Genootschap, Tweede en Volkenkunde -van Nederlandsch- Serie, xxxi. (Leyden, 1914) PP- Indie, liii. (1901) p. 116 209 sq. 358 JACOBUS MARRIAGE Serving for a wife among the Kayans of Borneo. Serving for a wife in Amboyna, Ceram, Ceramlaut, and the Watubela Islands. under certain conditions, of ultimately returning to his own family, is to be distinguished from the form of marriage under which a man serves his father-in-law for a limited time for the wife whom he will afterwards regularly take away with him to his own home. Among all the Kayans or Bahaus of Central Borneo a young husband usually goes at first to reside in the house of his parents-in-law, and only after three or four years may he remove with his wife to a house of his own or to his parents' house. However, if the wife is delivered of a child in her parents' house, she may follow her husband to his home before the expiry of this period. A breach of the custom is permitted only on the payment of a very heavy fine. An exception to the rule is made when an only son marries a girl who is one of a large family ; for in that case the parents often agree to let the bride accompany the bridegroom at once to his own house. 1 The custom of serving for a wife is observed in other parts of the Indian Archipelago. Thus in Amboyna, when two young people have been publicly betrothed, the young man settles in the house of his future parents-in-law and cohabits secretly with their daughter, as if she really were his wife. During this time he must help his wife's parents in their daily work and bring them a part of his earnings. This state of things may last for years, and the children born in the course of it to the young pair follow their mother or remain in her family. 2 Similarly in Ceram, when a young man is betrothed, he takes up his abode in the house of his future parents-in-law, is treated as one of the family, and may cohabit freely with their daughter, though the couple are not yet married. The marriage does not take place for some time, and it may not be celebrated till the young husband has paid the full price for his wife. In some villages of Ceram the custom is that all children born before the payment of the bride price remain with the 1 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 85. The practice in regard to the residence of young married couples seems to vary a good deal among the tribes of Borneo. Sarawak and British North Borneo (London, 1896), i. 124 sq. 2 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tnssehen Selebes en See H. Ling Roth, The Natives of Papua (The Hague, 1886), pp. 67 sq. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 359 wife's parents. Men in indigent circumstances are allowed to pay for their wives by service, and sometimes it is agreed that some of the children born to a poor man shall be accepted by his parents-in-law instead of a bride price or of part of it. 1 In Ceramlaut the custom is similar. On his betrothal a young man goes to live with his future parents- in-law, and he is bound to help them and to give his betrothed a part of his earnings. If he cannot pay the bride price, his children belong to their mother's family. 2 In the Watubela Islands marriage is contracted in one of two ways. -Either a man pays for his wife and takes her to live with him in his parents' house ; or without paying anything he goes to live in her parents' house and works for them and for her. In the latter case the children whom he begets belong not to him but to their mother ; should he afterwards, however, pay the bride price, the children belong to him and he has the same rights over them which he would have acquired by paying for his wife at the beginning. 3 Among the Tagales of the Philippine Islands it was Serving formerly the custom for a young man to take up his abode amo^the in the house of his future wife's family ; there he laboured Tagales like a bondsman for his father-in-law for three or four years, ^besofthe at the end of which he received the girl to wife, and his Philippine family provided him with a hut and clothes 4 Among the Bisayas, of the Samar and Leyte islands, in the Philippines, " the suitor has to serve in the house of the bride's parents two, three, and even five years, before he takes his bride home ; and money cannot purchase exemption from this onerous restrictipn. He boards in the house of the bride's parents, who furnish the rice, but he has to supply the vegetables himself. At the expiration of his term of service he builds, with the assistance of his relations and friends, the house for the family which is about to be newly established." 5 Among the Bagobos of Mindanao a man generally does not 1 J. G. F. Riedel, op. cit. pp. 131 * Ferd. Blumentritt, Versuch eincr sq. Ethnographic der Philippinen (Gotha, 2 J. G. F. Riedel, op. cit. pp. 171, 1882), p. 14 (Petcrmanrfs Mitthei- 173. lungen, Ergdnzungskeft, No. 67). 3 J. G. F. Riedel, op. cit. pp. 205 5 F. Jagor, Travels in the Pbilip- sq. pines (London, 1875), p. 296. 3 6o JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n marry his wife for a year or more after the marriage settlement has been concluded, and in the interval he serves his future father-in-law. Even after marriage, when the young couple are established in their new home, the bride's family will exact a certain amount of service from the bridegroom for several years. 1 With the Kulamans, another tribe of Mindanao, it is customary for a youth to serve his future father-in-law for two or three years before marriage, but once he receives his wife he is released from service. 2 Serving The custom of serving for a wife is practised also by for a wife some tribes of Northern Asia. Thus, for example, " when among the Kamchad- a Kamchadale decides to marry, he looks about in a neigh- bouring village, seldom in his own, for a bride, and when he has found one to his mind, he discloses his intention to her parents and offers to serve them for a time. The per- mission is readily granted, and during his service he endeavours, with uncommon diligence, to satisfy his new masters, so far as lies in his power. When his period of service has expired, he requests leave to carry away his bride, and if he has earned the approbation of the parents, of the bride, and of her relations, the leave is granted him at once ; but if he has incurred their displeasure, he receives a small compensation for his services and is sent empty away. It sometimes happens that such suitors hire themselves out in a village where they are complete strangers, without giving the least intimation of their intentions, and though everybody can at once guess what they have come for, the people pretend to know nothing about it, till the suitor or one of his friends announces his purpose." Immediately after the consummation of the marriage, the husband takes his wife away to his own house, but after some time the young couple return to the house of his wife's father, and there celebrate a wedding feast. 3 However, according to other accounts, even after a Kamchadale had earned his bride by serving her father for a period of time varying from one to four years, he was not free to depart with his wife, but must take up his abode permanently with his wife's father ; 1 Fay-Cooper Cole, The Wild Tribes 2 Fay-Cooper Cole, op. cit. p. 157. of Davao District, Mindanao (Chicago, 3 S. Krascheninnikow, Beschrcibung I 9 I 3)> PP- J l S( I- {Field Mttseum des Landes Kamtschatka (Lemgo, of Natural History, Publication 170). 1766), pp. 256 sq. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 361 and if his wife died, and her parents liked him, they would give him another daughter to wife, without requiring him to serve for her. 1 In like manner among the Koryaks, the neighbours of Serving the Kamchadales on the north, a suitor brings presents to for a Wlfe , ' among the the man whose daughter he wishes to marry, and if his Koryaks. presents are accepted he takes service with his future father- in-law. In this service, which may last three, five, or even ten years, the hardest tasks are laid on him, such as fetch-^ ing wood and tending the reindeer. If he succeeds in pleasing his taskmaster, he gets the girl to wife as the reward of his long and incessant labours ; but if he fails to win the favour of the damsel's father, he is sent about his business, and all his pains are wasted. 2 Generally, when a husband has at last won his wife, he takes her away to live with him in his parents' house, but sometimes he settles permanently in the house of his wife's father ; this happens particularly when there are no sons in his wife's family, for in that case his father-in-law may ask him to stay with him altogether and take the place of a son. In modern times the period of serving for a bride would seem to be reduced, for we are told that it lasts from six months to three years, and that its termination depends on. the pleasure of the bride's father, or elder brother. Often the girl's mother will say to the father or, in his absence, to the elder son, that the young man has been tortured long enough. 3 Among the Chukchee, who inhabit the north-eastern Serving extremity of Siberia, " the usual method of getting a bride is amoniTthe the so-called naund-6 urgin (literally 'for wife herdsman Chukchee. being ' ; i.e., the custom of serving as a herdsman of the future father-in-law, in payment for the bride). This in- stitution, as its name indicates, evidently originated under the conditions of nomadic life, and the necessity of having 1 G. W. Steller, Beschreibung von burg, 1862), " Peuples de la Sibdrie dem Lande Kamtschatka (Frankfort Orientate," p. 10. and Leipsic, 1774). PP- 343*346; Peter Dobell, Travels in Kamtchatka 3 W. Jochelson, The Koryak (Ley- and Siberia (London, 1830), i. 82. den and New York, 1908), pp. 739- 2 S. Krascheninnikow, Beschreibung 744 (The Jesrip North Pacific Ex- des Landes Kamtschatka, p. 281 ; T. pedition, Memoir of the American de Pauly, Description Ethnographique Museum of Natural History, des Peuples de la Kussie (St. Peters- York, vol. vi. ). 362 . JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART n young men care for the reindeer-herd. It reminds us of Laban, whose herd Jacob tended for years, first for Leah, and then for Rachel. The term applied to this custom is so firmly established that it is used also even among the Mari- time Chukchee, though they have no herds, and the bride- groom simply lives in the house of the girl's father and works for him during a certain period. Among the Reindeer Chukchee the term has acquired a broader meaning, and is applied to all marriages in which the young man obtains his bride, not through his family connections, but exclusively through his own efforts." Hard lot of Generally, a young ,Chukchee announces his suit by aChukchee bringing a heavy load of fuel from the woods to the man whose daughter he intends to court. " Then begins his trial, which lasts one summer, two or even three summers. All this time the suitor leads a very hard life. He rises first in the morning, and retires last at night. Often he is not even given a place in the sleeping-room, but stays in the outer tent or in the open air. Most of his time is spent with the herd. He carries burdens, hauls heavily -loaded sledges, mends and repairs broken utensils. He has to please the girl's father, her elder brothers, and other male members of the family. If one of the old people reproaches him and calls him names, he has to bear it patiently, and is even expected to agree. When the old people are ill- tempered, as many Chukchee are, they may decline food and shelter to the poor suitor. Then he has to endure the pangs of hunger and cold while performing his work. If the girl likes him, she will try to give him some meat ; or he may steal some food and devour it in haste, lest some- body should see it and report him to the father. Even then, after two or three months of continual toil, he may be driven away without any apparent reason. ' This is no cause of resentment,' I was told by the Chukchee, ' but only a weak- ling consents to go. A good strong man remains and works on without food, without place in the sleeping -room, and even without hope.' To desist, and return home without a bride, is considered a humiliation for a young man. His father will say, ' So you are really bad. If you were good, you would not be sent away thus.' CHAF. vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 363 " After the first few months the father of the bride usually somewhat relents, and the conditions of life of the suitor become less severe. From that time on, it is not thought becoming to send him away without serious reason. The suitor also begins to insist on his matrimonial rights. Often he acquires them after several months of struggle. Of course, this depends largely upon the woman herself. Some fathers, however, keep guard over their daughters. . . . " As soon as the bridegroom becomes the actual husband, A his thoughts naturally turn back to his own home and herd, J^n!^ and he plans to take his wife home. For this reason the receives girl's father delays the marriage as long as possible, especi- ^ther-in- 5 ally when he is rather short of herdsmen and the help of the law>s herd ... -/-it i T of reindeer bridegroom is of much value to him. In some tales, the bridegroom who came from afar,' usually after having over- come all the obstacles put in his way, stays for a long time with his wife's family ; and only after several years, when the couple have children, does he begin to think about return- ing to his own country. At this time his father-in-law usually gives him a part of his herd, and assists in taking him back to his own country. Even now, the Chukchee consider it proper for the young husband to stay with his father-in-law two or three years, ' as long as his joy in his wife is still fresh.' The inconsiderate young man stays with his father- in-law half a year, and then leaves him. He will stay longer only if the father-in-law has a large herd and there is any likelihood of his succeeding to part of it. "When the son-in-law takes his wife home without quarrelling with her father, he is usually given some reindeer, the number of which depends partly upon the quality of work the young man has done while serving for his bride. The better his service, the larger the reward he receives from his father-in-law. The woman also will take a few reindeer, which from her childhood on were marked for her with her own private ear -mark. I was told that a rich reindeer- breeder sometimes gives to his son-in-law the ' freedom of one day ' ; i.e., during this one day the young man may catch reindeer from the herd and put his mark on their ears. All these become his property. " When a rich man wants to marry a girl of a poor 364 JACOB'S MARRIAGE Time of service for a wife shortened for a rich man among the Chukchee. Parallel between a Chukchee wooing and that of Jacob. family, the time of service is much shortened, and even dwindles down to nothing. Especially a second wife is rarely acquired through service in her family ; for the man who has a wife and children, and who is often of middle age, will find it difficult to leave his own herd and home, and undertake service for a second wife a custom suited only to young suitors. If he is rich, he arranges the mar- riage with the girl's father in an easier way. According to Chukchee ideas, however, it is improper to pay for a bride ' as if she were a reindeer.' The Chukchee always criticise the Tungus and Yakut, who ask and receive pay for their brides in reindeer, skins, and money. Rich reindeer-breeders arrange the terms of a marriage with the girl's father in a more decent form. The suitor gives to the girl's father a few reindeer, but he does not call them pay for the bride, but a 'joyful gift,' meaning the joy it gives him to marry the young girl ; or more frequently he invites the poor family of his new wife to come to his camp and to live there on his own herd. If they do not want to live in his camp, because of the possibility of quarrels with the first wife, they may stay close by, and from time to time receive from him presents of live or slaughtered reindeer. Still I know of rich men of middle age who had families, and who served for several months in the families of young girls whom they wanted to marry, undergoing all the usual hardships of the bridegroom's life." l The hardships which a Chukchee wooer undergoes in tending the reindeer of his future father-in-law remind us of the hardships which Jacob suffered in tending the flocks of Laban ; " in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night ; and my sleep fled from mine eyes." 2 And the reindeer which a Chukchee receives from his father-in-law when, after years of hard service, he departs with his wife and children to his own land, remind us of the flocks which Jacob received from Laban, and which he carried off with him when he, in like manner, returned with his wives and children to his own home. 3 So similar may life be under 1 Waldemar Bogoras, The Chuck- the American Museum of Natural chee (Leyden and New York, 1904- History, Neu> York, vol. vii.). 1909), pp. 579) 584-586 { The Jesup 2 Genesis xxxi. 40. North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of 3 Genesis xxx, 25 sqq., xxxi. 17 sqq. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 365 circumstances outwardly so different ; for few contrasts can be greater than that between the bleak steppes and icy seas of Chukchee-land and the green pastures and sunny skies of Syria. Another Siberian people who retain the custom of serving Sen-ing for a wife are the Yukaghirs. Among them, when a young foraw man wishes to marry a girl, he begins by working voluntarily Yukaghirs for her family. For example, he will bring them the pro- Barabinze= duce of his hunt, chop wood for them, mend the sledge or f Siberia. the gun of his prospective father-in-law, bind up his nets for him, and so forth. These attentions are services for the bride ; they last for a longer or shorter time according to circumstances. If the suitor is accepted, the marriage is consummated, and the bridegroom takes up his residence in his father-in-law's house, where, he occupies a very sub- ordinate position. " In fact, he appears to be ' serving ' for his wife as long as any members of the family older than her are alive. He has to do the bidding of his father-in-law, his wife's elder brothers, and other elder members of the family ; but after the death of his father-in-law, his wife's uncle, and her elder brothers, or after the latter marry and go away to live with their fathers-in-law, he himself becomes the head of the family." On the other hand, his attitude to the younger members of his wife's family is not at all that of a subordinate ; on the contrary, under certain circum- stances, he assumes paternal authority over them. Thus with the Yukaghirs the rule is that a man makes his per- manent home in the house of his father-in-law. But there are exceptions to the rule. For example, two families may agree to exchange daughters, and then the sons remain in their respective homes ; and sometimes a man will allow his son-in-law to go and live with his parents, if these have no other children and he himself has offspring. When the husband has had children born to him, he may take his wife and children and depart ; but public opinion blames a man who thus deserts his father-in-law. Again, among the Yukaghirs of the tundra or steppe, it is customary for a man, after serving from one to three years in his father-in- law's house, to carry off his wife to his own home ; but before he does so, he must pay a certain number of reindeer 366 and Indians of America. for her. These customs of purchasing a bride and taking her away from the house of her parents are said to have been borrowed from the Tungus by the Yukaghirs of the steppe. Their practice thus exhibits a combination of service and payment for a wife ; a suitor must work for his bride as well as pay for her. 1 The Barabinzes, a Tartar people of Western Siberia, between the Obi and the Irtish Rivers, buy their wives for sums varying from two to fifty rubels ; but many of them, instead of paying for their brides, give their services in fishing, hunting, and agriculture to their fathers-in-law as an equivalent for the bride price (kalym}? Serving In America the custom of serving for a wife is found among the both among Eskimos and Indians. Thus among the Kenai, Eskimo an Eskimo people of Alaska, a man must perform a year's service for his bride. He goes to the house of his intended father-in-law, and there, without speaking a word, proceeds to bring water, to prepare food, and to heat the bath-room. Questioned as to his intentions, he explains that he desires the daughter of the house to wife. At the end of a year's service he is free to take his wife home with him. 3 Again, among the Naudowessies, an Indian tribe in the region of the Great Lakes, it was customary for a young man to reside for a year as a menial servant in the tent of the Indian whose daughter he wished to marry ; during that time he hunted and brought all the game he killed to the family of his future wife, and when the year expired the marriage was celebrated. But this servitude was only undergone by a man in his youth for his first wife ; it was not repeated for any other woman whom he might after- wards marry. 4 Among the Indians of Yucatan a man used to serve his father-in-law four or five years for his wife ; if he failed to complete his term of service, he was turned 1 Waldemar Jochelson, The Yuka- ghir and the Yukaghirized Fungus (Leyden and New York, 1910), pp. 87 sq., 91-93 (Thejesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, vol. ix. Part i. ). 2 J. G. Georgi, Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg, 1776), pp. 188, 195. 3 H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875- 1876), i. 134; T. de Pauly, Descrip- tion Ethnographique des Peuples de la Russie (St. Petersburg, 1862), "Peuples de PAmerique Russe," p. 10. 4 J. Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, Third Edition (London, 1781), p. 373. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 367 adrift and the woman given to another. 1 Among the Arawaks of British Guiana " the wife's father expects the bridegroom to work for him in clearing the forest, and in other things, and the young couple often remain with him until an increasing family renders a separate establish- ment necessary." ~ However, it would seem that among the Indians of Guiana, even when a man has earned his wife by service, he does not remove her from the house, or at least the vicinity, of her father, but that on the contrary he goes to live permanently with her people. On this subject Sir Everard F. Im Thurn writes as follows : " The nature of the bargain for a wife is another obscure point. It is certainly sometimes, if not always, by purchase from the parents. . . . Sometimes, again, a girl is given by her parents to a man in recompense for some service done. The marriage once arranged, the husband immediately transports his possessions to the house of his father-in-law, and there he lives and works. The head of his family, for whom he is bound to work, and whom he obeys, is not his own father, but his wife's. A complete and final separation between husband and wife may be made at the will of the former at any time before the birth of children ; after that, if the husband goes away, as very rarely happens, it is con- sidered not lawful separation, but desertion. When the family of the young couple become too large to be con- veniently housed underneath the roof of the father-in-law, the young husband builds a house for himself by the side of that of his wife's father ; and to this habit is probably due the formation of settlements." 3 Among the Indians of Brazil, besides the method of Serving violence, " the savage acquires his wife with the express j^^'^,, consent of her father in two different ways ; first, by work Indians of in the house of the father-in-law (this takes place especially among the larger, settled hordes and tribes), and, second, by purchase. The young man devotes himself, like Jacob 1 A. de Herrera, The General His- Tribes of Guiana (London, 1868), p. tory of the Vast Continent and Islands 101. of America, commonly called the West Indies, translated by Captain John 3 (Sir) Everard F. Im Thurn, Among Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iv. 172. the Indians of Guiana (London, 1883), - Rev. VV. H. Brett, The Indian pp. 221 sy. 368 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Serving for a wife in Africa, on the Gold Coast, in Southern Nigeria, and the French Sudan. with Laban, often for several years, to services and work of all kinds in the house of his prospective father-in-law, labour- ing with indefatigable diligence. He goes out hunting and fishing for his father-in-law ; he helps him to build the hut, to clear the forest, to carry wood, to make canoes, to fashion weapons, to twine nets, and so on. It is true that he generally lives with his own relations, but he spends the whole day in his sweetheart's house. There several suitors often meet Among the small tribes on the Amazon he is during this time allowed the so-called ' bosom privilege,' as is often the case among Siberian peoples ; in other tribes stricter principles prevail, and the father would punish with death any attempt on the virginity of his daughter. If the lover is at last fortunate enough to obtain the consent of the father, he at first takes a place and a hearth in the hut of his parents-in-law, or he at once occupies a hut of his own, apart from the parents. Among the Guaycurus the son-in- law remains always in the house of his parents-in-law, but from thenceforth they abstain from speaking with him. Sometimes the wooer hires himself to the family of a strange horde, or even of a strange tribe, and after marriage he generally remains among them. That is one cause of the common mixture of languages." 1 The custom of serving for a wife is occasionally reported from Africa, but it appears to be comparatively rare among the tribes of that continent. Thus amongst the Tshi-speak- ing people of the Gold Coast, the usual way of obtaining a wife is to buy her from her relations by the payment of a sum which varies, in English money, from eighteen shillings to seven pounds five shillings. But when a man is too poor to scrape together even the smallest of these sums, he will live with his wife without paying anything for her, unless it be a bottle or two of rum ; but in that case he generally resides with his wife's family and gives them his services towards their common support. 2 Again, among the Ekoi of Southern Nigeria a man who has set his affections on a particular woman and desires to marry her, must serve her 1 C. F. Ph. v. Martius, Zur Ethno- graphie Amerika's, zumal Brasiliens (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 107 sq. 2 (Sir) A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speak- ing Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa (London, 1887), p. 281. CHAP, vi SERVING FOR A WIFE 369 family for some considerable time, usually from two to three years. His work mostly consists in helping to clear the bush for the next season's farms, but other services may be required of him, and during his time of service he is expected to make presents to the relations of his future wife. After marriage the wife becomes a member of her husband's family, and goes to live in his dwell- ing. 1 Among the Zangas of the French Sudan a man does not pay for his wife, but he works instead once a year for three years on the fields of his father-in-law, or rather of the head of the family group to which his father-in-law belongs. 2 Among the Boobies or Edeeyahs of Fernando Po " the Serving system of betrothal observed among Eastern nations here for a Wlf ^ J & among the obtains in the case of the first wife. It must continue at Boobies of least for two years, during which time the aspirant to p ^ rri Edeeyah beauty is obliged to perform such labour as would otherwise fall to the lot of his intended wife ; carrying the palm-oil to the market, water for household purposes, plant- ing yams, etc., thus realizing in part, Jacob's servitude for his loved Rachel, ' And they seemed but a few days for the love he had to her.' The girl is kept in a hut concealed from the public gaze as much as possible. The courtship or betrothal commences at thirteen or fourteen years of age, but connexion is not permitted until the conclusion of the two years, and should frail nature yield before the specified time, the offence is treated as seduction, the youth severely punished, as well as heavy fines exacted from his relatives ; indeed to seduce an Edeeyah is one 01 the greatest crimes against their social system. The period of betrothal having expired, the girl is still detained in the hut until there are unequivocal symptoms of her becoming a parent, which failing, the term is prolonged until eighteen months. On her first appearance in public as a married woman, she is surrounded by all the young maidens of the tribe, who dance and 'sing round her, and a feast is held by the friends and relatives. The probationary system of betrothal is only observed for 1 P. Amaury Talbot, In the Shadow 2 Louis Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan of the Bush (London, 1912), pp. 105, (Paris, 1912), pp. 366 sq. 109. VOL. II 2 B 37 JACOB'S MARRIAGE PART II Serving for a wife among the Tumbuka of British Central Africa. Serving for a wife among the Banyais of the Zambesi. the first wife, who keeps all the others in order, polygamy being universally permitted." * Among the Tumbuka of British Central Africa, when a young man's suit was accepted, he had to go and build a house in the village of his future father-in-law and help him to hoe his garden in the rainy season. When all arrangements were completed, the marriage took place and the husband became a member of his wife's village. Yet there he had to observe a number of taboos. He might not call his wife's parents by their names, nor might he eat with them. Yet he was bound to obey and respect them more strictly than his own father and mother, and if he treated them harshly, he would be driven from the village and compelled to leave his wife and children behind him. Should he desire, after the lapse of some years, to return to his own people, he might do so on condition of presenting a slave or a cow to his parents-in-law to redeem himself. But his children he could never redeem. They might go with him and his wife to his old home, but when they grew up they must return to the village of their maternal grandparents and build houses for themselves there as members of that community. 2 Among the Banyais of the Zambesi River, " when a young man takes a liking to a girl of another village, and the parents have no objection to the match, he is obliged to come and live at their village. He has to perform certain services for the mother-in-law, such as keeping her well supplied with firewood ; and when he comes into her presence he is obliged to sit with his knees in a bent position, as putting out his feet towards the old lady would give her great offence. If he becomes tired of living in this state of vassalage, and wishes to return to his own family, he is obliged to leave all his children behind they belong to the wife. This is only a more stringent enforcement of the law from which emanates the practice which prevails so very extensively in Africa, known to Europeans as ' buying wives.' Such virtually it is, but it does not appear quite in that 1 Captain W. Allen, R.N., and T. (London, 1848), ii. 203 sq. R. H. Thomson, M.D., Narrative of 2 Donald Fraser, Winning a Primi- the Expedition sent by Her Majesty's tive People (London, 1914), pp. 153, Government to the River Niger in 1841 155. CHAP, vi CONCLUSION 371 light to the actors. So many head of cattle or goats are given to the parents of the girl, ' to give her up,' as it is termed, i.e. to forego all claim on her offspring, and allow an entire transference of her and her seed into another family. If nothing is given, the family from which she has come can claim the children as part of itself: the payment is made to sever this bond. In the case supposed, the young man has not been able to advance anything for that purpose." 1 Hence among the Banyais, as among the Toradjas of Celebes, 2 the bride price seems to be paid for the purchase of the children rather than of the wife ; the mere begetting of children, in the eyes of these people, apparently gives the father no claim over them ; if he desires to own them, he must pay for them as for any other article of property. This implicit denial of the father's vital con- nexion with his offspring may perhaps date from a time when the mere fact of physical paternity was unknown. 1 8. Conclusion The foregoing examples suffice to prove that marriages The like that of Jacob have been and still are practised in many ^ different parts of the world. In marrying his cross-cousins, marriage the daughters of his mother's brother, in wedding the elder th e rm sister before the younger, and in serving his father-in-law customs of for a term of years for each of his wives, the patriarch con- formed to customs which are fully recognized and strictly observed by many races. It is reasonable, therefore, to sup- pose that they were also recognized and observed by the Semites in the patriarchal age, and that, though they were discarded by later ages, the historian who attributes the observance of them to Jacob had good authority for doing so, whether he described the customs from personal observa- tion or merely from oral tradition. To say this is not to prejudice the vexed question of the historical reality of the Hebrew patriarchs, but it is to affirm that the portraiture of manners in Jacob's biography is no mere fancy picture but drawn from the life. 1 David Livingstone, Missionary (London, 1857), pp. 622 sq. Travels and Researches in South Africa 2 Above, p. 356, with note 2 . CHAPTER VII JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES HOW ON a day in May, when the reapers were busy among the Reuben wheat, 1 the child Reuben had followed them into the fields, found mandrakes and straying along the hillside, he observed growing on the brou ht ground a plant which attracted his attention both by its them to his appearance and its smell. Its great broad leaves, like those ^ a P r i mrose , but more than twice as large, lay flat on the earth and radiated from a centre, where grew a round yellow fruit about the size of a large plum. The plant emitted a peculiar but not unpleasant odour, which had guided the child to the spot. He plucked the fruit and tasted it, and finding it juicy and sweet, he gathered his lapful of the yellow berries and carried them home to his mother Leah. The fruit was what we call mandrakes, and what the Hebrews called " love-apples " (dudaiin), apparently because the taste of it was thought to cause barren women to conceive. 2 Now, 1 Genesis xxx. 14. Throughout of "the insipid, sickish taste" of the Palestine the wheat harvest is at its fruit (W. M. Thomson, The Land and height at the end of May, except in the Book, London, 1859, p. 577), and the highlands of Galilee, where it is of the "ill savour" of the plant (H. about a fortnight later. See H. B. Maundrell, Journey from Aleppo to Tristram, The Land of Israel ^ (London, Jerusalem, Perth, 1800, p. 96, under 1882), pp. 583 sq. Compare I. Ben- date March 24th, Old Style). The zinger, Hebra'ische Archdologie^ (Tiibin- Hebrew name of the plant (o'jnn gen, 1907), p. 141 ; C. T. Wilson, dudaint) is derived from TR 'dod, Peasant Life in the Holy Land (London, "beloved," " love." See Fr. Brown, 1906), pp. 205 sq. The barley harvest s> R Driver> and Ch A BriggSj is earlier; in the neighbourhood of Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford, Jerusalem it is usually in full swing by fi x lS?> lg8 That by dudaim the end of April or the beginning of are meant mandrakes i s made certain May (C. T. Wilson, op. cit. p. 205). , the rendering of the Septuagint 2 As to the plant (Mandragora offici- ( - Xa 3 3,,), of Josephus (^v- 5 , ^ Antiquit . Jud . * . (Lon- 8)i and of the Vu ]gate (mandragoras). don,z 898), pp. 466-468. Others speak M y learned and ingenious friend, Dr. 372 CHAP, vii JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES 373 when Rachel saw the love-apples that the boy Reuben had brought home, the sight of them stirred in her a longing to be, like her sister Leah, the happy mother of children ; for Leah had four sturdy boys, but Rachel was childless, though her husband Jacob loved her and consorted with her more than with Leah. So Rachel begged Leah to give her of the love-apples that she, too, might conceive and bear a son. But Leah, jealous of the preference shown by her husband to her sister, was angry and answered, saying, "Is it a small matter that thou hast taken away my husband ? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also ? " Nevertheless, Rachel urged her to give her of the apples, saying, " Give me of them, and to-night Jacob shall sleep with thee instead of with me." To this Leah consented and gave her sister some of the love-apples. And at evening, when the sun was setting and the asses, HOW almost buried under corn-sheaves, like moving ricks, were Rach ^ conceived seen returning from the harvest fields along the narrow path Joseph on the mountain side, 1 Leah, who had been watching for ^ t hg tlng them, went out to meet her husband as he plodded wearily mandrakes. home from the reaping, and there in the gloaming, with an arch or a wistful smile, she told him of the bargain she had struck with her sister. So he turned in to her that night, and she conceived and bare Jacob a fifth son. But Rachel ate of the mandrakes which her sister had given her, and having eaten of them, she also conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Joseph. 2 Such appears to have been the original Hebrew tradition The belief as to the birth of Joseph : his mother got him by eating of |j ^drake a mandrake. But the pious editor of Genesis, shocked at the can fertilize intrusion of this crude boorish superstition into the patriarchal narrative, drew his pen through the unedifying part of the current in __ Palestine. Rendel Harris, would deduce the Greek (Manchester, 1917), pp. 131^^. goddess of love, Aphrodite, from the * I have ventured to transfer to superstition as to the fertilizing virtue antiquity the description of the return of the mandrake, and he proposes to from the harvest field, as it may be derive the name of the goddess from witnessed in Palestine at the present pri CTS) and dudai (~?i), so that the time. In the East such scenes have compound name pridudai would mean probably altered but little since the "fruit of the mandrake." See Rendel days of Jacob. See C. T. Wilson, Harris, "The Origin of the Cult of Peasant Life in the Holy Land, p. 206. Aphrodite," The Ascent of Olympus 2 Genesis xxx. 14-24. 374 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES PART n story which traced Rachel's first pregnancy to the eating of the yellow berries, replacing it by the decorous phrase, " God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb." l Nevertheless, though this curious piece of folk- lore was struck out of the text of Genesis some thousands of years ago, the popular belief in the magical virtue of the man- drake to ensure conception was by no means thereby eradicated, for it has survived among the natives of Palestine to the present time. When Henry Maundrell visited the high priest of the Samaritans at Nablus, the ancient Shechem, in 1697, he inquired into the story of Rachel and the mandrakes. " I demanded of him," he says, " what sort of plant or fruit the dudaim or (as we translate it) -mandrakes were, which Leah gave to Rachel, for the purchase of her husband's embraces ? He said they were plants of a large leaf, bearing a certain sort of fruit, in shape resembling an apple, growing ripe in harvest, but of an ill savour, and not wholesome. But the virtue of them was to help conception, being laid under the genial bed. That the women were often wont to apply it, at this day, out of an opinion of its prolifick virtue. Of these plants I saw several afterwards in the way to Jerusalem ; and if they were so common in Mesopotamia, as we saw them hereabout, .one must either conclude that these could not be the true mandrakes (dudaim\ or else it would puzzle a good critick to give a reason, why Rachel should purchase such vulgar things at so beloved and contested a price." 2 And again, the late Canon Tristram, one of our principal authorities on the natural history of Palestine, tells us that " the mandrake is universally distributed in all parts of Palestine, and its fruit is much valued by the natives, who still hold to the belief, as old as the time of Rachel, that when eaten it ensures concep- tion. It is a very striking-looking plant, atid at once attracts 1 Compare The Century Bible, as far as she is concerned. We read Genesis, edited by W. H. Bennett, instead, in verse 22, the more seemly D.D., p. 293, "Probably in the statement of the Elohist, ' God opened original form of the story Rachel con- her womb.'" The view taken by H. ceived through the help of the man- Gunkel is similar ( Genesis iibersetzt und drakes ; but this seemed to the more erkldrt, 3 Gottingen, 1910, p. 335). enlightened editors of later days a piece 2 Henry Maundrell, A Journey from of heathen superstition. Hence it was Aleppo to Jemsalein at Easter, A.D. omitted, and there is no sequel to i(x)7 (Perth, 1800), p. 96 (under date Rachel's acquisition of the mandrakes, March 24th). CHAP, vii JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES 375 attention from the size of its leaves and the unusual appear- ance of its blossom. We found it in flower at Christmas in warm situations, and gathered the fruit in April and May. Wheat harvest is, therefore, the period of its ripening gener- ally." : The blossoms of the plant are cup-shaped and of a rich purple hue. 2 We can now understand why, in the exquisite picture of love and springtime in the Song of Songs, the lover should blend the smell of the mandrakes with the budding of the vines and the flowering of the pomegranates to lure his beloved out with him at morning into the vernal fields. 3 The ancient Greeks in like manner ascribed to the man- Amatory drake the power of exciting the passion of love, and perhaps, ascribed though this is not directly stated, of promoting conception in to the 3 mandrake women ; but for this purpose they used, not the fruit, but the by the root of the plant, which they steeped in wine or vinegar. 4 P re ^ ks> And because the root was thus used in love charms, they ancientand called the mandrake the plant of Circe, after the famous modern - sorceress who turned men into swine through a magic draught. 5 Indeed, so well recognized was the association of the plant with the mysteries of love, that the great goddess of love herself, Aphrodite, was known by the title of Mandra- goritis, or " She of the Mandragora." ( Special precautions were thought by the Greeks to be necessary at cutting or digging up the wizard plant. To secure the first specimen you should trace a circle thrice round the mandrake with a sword, then cut it while you faced westward ; and to get a 1 H. B. Tristram, The Natural tarum, ix. 9. I. It is to be observed History of the Bible 9 (London, 1898), that elsewhere Theophrastus bestows p. 468. Compare Mrs. Hans H. the same name of mandragora (man- Spoer (A. Goodrich - Freer), " The drake) on an entirely different plant, Powersof Evil in Jerusalem," Folk-lore, which may be the deadly nightshade xviii. (1907) p. 67, "I have seen (Atropa belladonna). See Theo- Jewish and Moslem women seeking phrastus, Enquiry into Plants, with an for mandrakes, but more likely with English translation by Sir Arthur Hort an eye to their alleged therapeutic (London and New York, 1916), ii. 463 properties (e.g. Gen. xxx. 14, etc.) (identificationsbySirWilliamThiselton- than for the sake of their roots, which, Dyer). however, they hang in their houses, 6 Dioscorid De materia medic(l ^ ' but whether as curiosities or for pur- . y fi p]i ^ ffisf xxy poses of witchcraft, I cannot ascertain. Q R od X- 2 H. B. Tristram, op. cit. p. 467. 3 Song of Songs vii. 11-13. * Theophrastus, De Historia Plan- 6 Hesychius, s.v. 376 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES I>ART n second you were recommended to dance round it, talking of love matters all the time. 1 As an additional precaution, you were advised to keep to windward in digging up the root, no doubt, lest the stench should knock you down ; for some people found the smell of the mandrake very unpleasant. 2 The amatory properties of the plant are still an article of popular belief in Greece, for in Attica young men carry pieces of mandrake about with them in satchels as love-charms. 3 The The same superstition long survived in Italy, for Machiavelli's fe'ru^mg comedy Mandragola turns on the power which the mandrake barren was supposed to possess of rendering barren women fruitful. 4 ascribed N r were such notions confined to the south of Europe. In the to the seventeenth century the English herbalist John Gerarde wrote mandrake , ,_ ... in Italy, that great and strange effects are supposed to be m the England, mandrakes to cause women to be fruitfull and to beare and among the jews of children, if they shall but carry the same neere unto their America, bodies." 5 Indeed, the Jews still believe in the power of the mandrake to induce fertility; and in America they import roots of it from the East for that purpose. " Here, in Chicago," we are told, " is a man of wealth and influence among the Orthodox Jews ; he mourns the fact that no child perpetuates his line ; he has been interested in the return of the Jews to Palestine, and has given largely to the cause. The Jews of Jerusalem, knowing of his family sorrow and appreciative of his sympathy, sent him a mandrake with their best wishes. At first this merely indicated to me that the mandrake super- stitions still live in Syria, a fact already well known. But questioning soon showed that mandrakes imported from the Orient are still in demand here among Orthodox Jews. They are rarely sold for less than four dollars, and one young man whose wife is barren recently paid ten dollars for a specimen. They are still thought to be male and female ; they are used remedially, a bit being scraped into water and 1 Theophrastus, De Historia Flan- Elis and the Greek islands. It flowers tarum, ix. 8. 8. in late autumn. See J. Sibthorp, 2 Pliny, Nat. Hist., xxv. 148. op. cit. iii. 26. 3 J. Sibthorp, Flora Graeca, iii. 4 W. Hertz, " Die Sage vom Gift- (London, 1819) p. 27, " Radicis frus- madchen," Gesammelte Abhandlungen tula, in sacculis gesta, pro amuleto (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1905), pp. 2595-^. amatorio hodie, apud juvenes Atticos, 6 John Gerarde, The Herball or in usu sunt." The plant (Atropa man- General Historic of Planles (London, dragora) is found near Athens, also in 1633), p. 353. CHAP. VII JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES 377 taken internally ; they are valued talismans, and they ensure fertility to barren women." ] So persistent among the Jews is that superstition touching the magical virtue of the plant, which first appears under a decent but transparent veil in the story of Jacob and the mandrakes. The superstitions which have clustered thick about the mandrake or mandragora in ancient and modern times 2 are partly explicable by the shape of the root, which is often forked and otherwise shaped so as to present a rude resem- blance to a human figure. 3 Hence the Pythagoreans, whose so-called philosophy was to a great extent simply folk-lore, 4 called the mandrake the anthropomorphic or man-like plant, 5 and Columella speaks of it as semi-human. 6 The Arabs call it the " face of an idol," or the " man-plant," on account of the strong resemblance of the root to the human form. 7 An Frederick Starr, " Notes on the Man- dragora," The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, xxiii. (1901) pp. 258-268 ; W. Hertzj Gesammelte Abhandlungen (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1905), pp. 273-275; Ch. Brewster Randolph, " The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-lore and Medicine," Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xl. No. 12, January 1905, pp. 487-53? ; E. S. Hartland, Primitive Paternity (Lon- don, 1909), i. 44-47 ; Rendel Harris, " The Origin of the Cult of Aphro- dite," The Ascent of Olympus (Man- chester, 1917), pp. 107-140. Our word mandrake is a corruption of the Greek mandragoras. 3 See the coloured plate (No. 232) in J. Sibthorp's Flora Graeca, vol. iii., facing p. 26. The plate is reproduced, without colours, in Rendel Harris's The Ascent of Olympus, plate facing p. 107. 4 On this subject I may refer to my article, "Some Popular Superstitions of the Ancients," Folk-lore, i. (1890) pp. 147 sqq. 6 Dioscorides, De materia medica, iv. 76. 6 Columella, De re rustica, x. 19 sq. 7 John Richardson, Dictionary, Per- sian, Arabic and English (Oxford, 1777-1780), i. col. 104, s.v. isterenk. 1 Frederick Starr, " Notes upon the Mandrake," The American Anti- quarian and Oriental Jottrnal, xxiii. (Chicago, 1901) p. 267. 2 Much has been. written on the folk- lore of the mandrake. Among modern writings on the subject it may suffice to refer to Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudo- doxia Epidemica, bk. ii. chap. vi. pp. 72-74 (in 714* Works of Sir Thomas Browne, London, 16.86) ; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie* (Berlin, 1875- 1878), ii. 1005 syg.,,iu. 352 sq. ; F. Liebrecht, Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia (Hanover, 1856), p. 70 note** ; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaubc* (Berlin, 1869), pp. 98 sq., 131 ; A. de Gubernatis, La Mythologie des Plantes (Paris, 1878- 1882), ii. 213 sqq. ; Andrew Lang, Custom and Afyth (London, 1884), pp. 143 sqq., " Moly and Mandra- gora " ; Hilderic Friend, Flowers and Flower Lore (London, 1886), pp. 291 sqq., 532 sqq., 647; F. von Luschan, I'. Ascherson, R. Beyer, and J. G. Wetzstein, in Verhandlungen der Ber- liner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, Ethnologic und Urgeschichte, iSgi (Berlin, 1891). pp. (726)-(746), (890)- (892) (appended to the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, xxiii. 1891) ; P. J. Veth, " De Alruin en de Heggerank," Inter- nationales Archiv fiir Ethnographic, vii. (1894) pp. 81-88, 199-205; The super- stitions concerning the mandrake partly explicable by the human . shape of the root, which has earned for the plant the epithet of man-like. 378 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES PART n old writer tells us that the mandrake was fashioned out of the same earth whereof God created Adam, and that its likeness to a man is a wile of the devil which distinguishes it above all other plants ; for that reason, when a mandrake is dug up, it should be placed for a day and a night in a running stream, 1 no doubt in order to wash out the taint of its diabolic association. It is the Greek medical writer Dioscorides who tells us of the epithet " man-like " applied to the mandrake by the Pythagoreans ; and in a manuscript of his treatise, which is preserved at Vienna, the epithet is appropriately illustrated by two drawings which represent the plant in human shape with leaves growing out of the head. In one of the drawings the goddess Invention is represented handing the man-like mandrake to Dioscorides, who is seated in a chair ; while immediately beneath the mandrake a dog is seen rearing itself on its hind-quarters. An inscription beneath the picture sets forth that the dog is " dragging' up the mandragora and then dying." The mean- ing of this picture and inscription will be explained im- mediately. In early printed herbals the mandrake is similarly portrayed in human form, sometimes male and sometimes female, with a bunch of leaves growing out of the top of his Distinction or her head. 2 The distinction of sex in the mandrake is as of sexes .old as Dioscorides, who says that the male mandrake was mandrake, white and the female mandrake black. 3 In English folk-lore the two sorts are known as Mandrakes and Womandrakes respectively. 4 Artificial In modern times the high value set on the mandrake as mandrakes a po tent charm, especially useful for its power of fertilizing produced . and sold barren women, has given rise to a trade in counterfeit man- as charms Brakes carved in human form out of bryony and other roots. m modern ' Europe. The use of substitutes for the mandrake was all the more necessary in northern countries, because the plant grows wild only in lands about the Mediterranean, including Syria, Cilicia, Crete, Sicily, Spain, and North Africa. 5 The most 1 Hildegard, Phys. ii. 102, quoted 76. The same distinction is made by by J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie^ ii. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxv. 147), who here 1007. copies from Dioscorides. 2 J. Rendel Harris, The Ascent of 4 John Parkinson, Theatrum Botani- Olympui, p. 115, with the annexed aim (London, 1640), p. 343. plates. 6 Encyclopedia Brifannica, Ninth 3 Dioscorides, De materia medico, iv. Edition, xv. 476, s.v. ".Mandrake." CHAP, vii JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES 379 northerly point where it has been certainly found is Mount Vicentin, on the southern edge of the Venetian Alps. Specimens are reported to have been found in the Tyrol, but these reports seem to be disputed. 1 A Tuscan doctor of the sixteenth century, by name Andrea Matthioli, who wrote a Latin commentary on Dioscorides, and whose New Herbal was translated into German and published at Prague in 1563, learned the secret of these forgeries from a mounte- bank and quack, whom he had cured in a hospital at Rome. The fellow told the doctor that his practice was to take roots of canes, bryony, or other plants, carve them into the shape of a man or woman, stick grains of barley or millet into the parts of the figures where hair should grow, and then bury them under sand for twenty days or so until the grain had sprouted, when he dug them up and trimmed the sprouts with a sharp knife into the likeness of hair and beards. These false mandrakes he then palmed off on childless women, some of whom gave him as much as five, twenty, or even thirty gold pieces for a single figurine, fondly ex- pecting by its means to become the joyful mothers of children. 2 Bacon was acquainted with such magical effigies, Bacon on though it does not appear that he suspected the mode in mandrake which art assisted nature to invest them with a rich growth of beard. He says, " Some plants there are, but rare, that have a mossy or downy root ; and likewise that have a number of threads, like beards ; as mandrakes ; whereof witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving it the form of a face at the top of the root, and leave those strings to make a broad beard down to the foot." a John Parkinson, herbalist to Charles I., writes that " those idle forms of the Mandrakes and Womandrakes, as they are foolishly so called, which have been exposed to publike view both in ours and 1 R. Beyer, in Verhandlungen der (739) sq. ; Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudo- Berliner Gesellschaft fur Antkropologie, doxia Epidemica, bk. ii. chap. vi. p. 83 Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, 1891, p. (The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, (738) (appended to Zeitschrift fur London, 1 686). Compare F. Panzer, Ethnologie, xxiii., 1891). Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie - A. de Gubernatis, La Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 250 sq., des Plantes, ii. 216; Rendel Harris, quoting Tabernaemontanus, Kraitier- The Ascent of Olympus, pp. 116 sq. ; buck (1687), p. 979. R. Beyer, in Verhatidlungen der Ber- 3 "Natural History," Cent. vii. 616 liner Gesellschaft fiir Antkropologie, (The Works of Francis Bacon, London, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, 1891, pp. 1740, vol. iii. p. 123). 380 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES PART n other lands and countries, are utterly deceitfull, being the work of cunning knaves onely to get money by their forgery." l Two such effigies, covered all over their bodies with mock hair, l\ave been preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna since 1680 ; they formerly belonged to the Emperor Rudolph II., a great patron of all so-called occult sciences. They used to be bathed regularly, and if the bath chanced to be omitted, it is said that they would scream like children till they got it 2 Artificial To this day there are artists in the East who make a, "reduced 65 DUsm ess of carving genuine roots of mandrakes in human and palmed form and putting them on the market, where they are pur- creduious chased for the sake of the marvellous properties which popular in the East, superstition attributes to them. Antioch in Syria and Mersina in Cilicia particularly excel in the fabrication of these curious talismans. Sometimes the desired form is imparted simply by cutting and pressing the roots while they are still fresh and juicy, or while they are in process of desiccation. But sometimes, when a root has been thus moulded into the proper shape, it is buried again in the ground, until the scars on it have healed, and the parts which had been tied together have coalesced. When such 'an effigy is finally unearthed and allowed to dry and shrivel up, the traces of the manipulation which it has undergone are often hard to detect. A skilful artist will in this way turn out man- drake roots which look so natural that no native would dream of questioning their genuineness. The virtues ascribed to these figures are not always the same. Some act as in- fallible love-charms, others make the wearer invulnerable or invisible ; but almost all have this in common that they reveal treasures hidden under the earth, and that they can relieve their owner of chronic illness by absorbing it into themselves. This last property, however, has its dark as well as its bright side, for the new owner of the talisman is apt to contract the malady which the previous owner had transferred to it. So popular are these artificial mandrakes in Syria that hardly anybody will look at the natural roots. The Turkish name 1 John Parkinson, Tkeatruin Botani- Ethnologic, und Urgeschichte, /&?/, p. cum (London, 1640), p. 343. (74O) (appended to Zeitschrift fur 2 R. Beyer, in Verhandhmgen der Ethnologic, xxiii., 1891). Berliner Gesellschaftfiir Anthropologie, CHAP, vii JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES 381 for the root is the " man-root " (Adam-Kdku) ; the Arabic name is the " servant of health " (Abdul-seldnt)} The human shape of the mandrake root has probably Belief helped to foster, if it did not originate, the weird notion that the plant springs from the drippings of a man hanged on a grows gallows. Hence in Germany the plant bears the popular drippings name of the Little Gallows Man. It is, or used to be, of a man believed in that country that when a hereditary thief, born allows" of a family of thieves, or one whose mother stole while he was in her womb, is hanged on a gallows, and his seed or urine falls on the ground, the mandrake or Little Gallows Man sprouts on the spot Others, however, say that the human progenitor of the plant must be, not a thief, butian innocent and chaste youth who has been forced by torture falsely to declare himself a thief and has consequently ended his days on a gallows. Be that as it may, the one thing about which all are agreed is that the Little Gallows Man grows under the gallows tree from the bodily droppings of a hanged man. It is a plant with broad leaves and yellow fruit But there is great danger in digging it up, for while HOW to it is being uprooted it moans, and howls, and shrieks so horribly that the digger dies on the spot. Therefore if you wit would get it you must proceed as follows : Go to the gallows dog. hill on a Friday evening before the sun has set, having stopped your ears fast with cotton or wax or pitch, and taking with you a black dog that has no patch of white on his body. When you come to the plant make three crosses over it and dig the soil away round its roots, till they remain attached to the earth only by a few slender fibres. Now bring up the black dog ; take a string, and tie one end of the string to the animal's tail and the other end to the mandrake. Next hold out a piece of bread to the dog, taking care to keep beyond its reach, and retreating rapidly as you do so. In its eagerness TO snatch the bread the dog will strain 'and tug at the string, and thus wrench the mandrake out of the ground. At the awful yell which the plant utters in the process, the poor dog drops dead to the ground, but you 1 F. von Luschan, in Verhandlungen 1891, pp. (726) -(728) (appended to der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthro- Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, xxiii., 1891). polagie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte, 382 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES Valuable properties ascribed to the mandrake. Transmis- sion of the mandrake to the youngest son. have got the mandrake. All you have now to do is to pick up the plant, wash it clean in red wine, wrap it in white and red silk, and lay it in a casket. But you must not forget to bathe it every Friday and to give it a new white shirt every new moon. If you only observe these precautions, the man- drake will answer any question you like to put to it con- cerning all future and secret matters. Henceforth you will have no enemies, you can never be poor, and if you had no children before, you will have your quiver full of them after- wards. Would you be rich ? All you need do is to lay a piece of money beside the mandrake over- night ; next morning you will find the coin doubled. But if you would keep the Little Gallows Man long in your service, you must not overwork him, otherwise he will grow stale and might even die. You may safely go the length of half a thaler every night, and you must not exceed a ducat, and even that a prudent man will not lay down every night but only now and then. When the owner of the Little Gallows Man dies, the precious heirloom passes not to his eldest but to his youngest son, who must in return place a piece of bread and a coin in his father's coffin to be buried with him in the grave. Should the youngest son die in his father's lifetime, the mandrake goes to the eldest son ; but the youngest son must be buried with bread and money in the grave, just as if he had owned the mystic plant. 1 Some think that the proper time for grubbing up the wondrous root is at dead of night on Midsummer Eve 2 -the witching hour when the year is on the turn and many plants are invested with mystic but evanescent virtues. 1 Grimm (die Bruder), Deutscks Sag-en 2 (Berlin, 1865-1866), vol. i. No. 84, pp. 117 sq. ; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,* ii. 1006 ; F. Panzer, Beilrag zur deutschen My- thologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 250 sq. , quoting Tabernaemontanus, Krciu- terbuch (1687), pp. 250 sq. Similar superstitions as to the origin, virtues, and mode of obtaining the mandrake or Little Gallows Man prevail in Lower Austria, Bohemia, and Silesia. See Th. Vernaleken, Mythen und Brduche des Volkes in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1859), pp. 253 sqq. ; J. V. Grohmann, Aber- glauben ttnd Gebrduche aits Bohmen und Mdhren (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 88, 622, compare id. pp. 19, 94, 95. 82, 659, 662 ; P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch, und Volks- glaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903- 1906), ii. 212 sq., 585. 2 K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz (Leipsic, 1862-1863), i- 64 sq., No. 66 ; P. Drechsel, Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube in Schlesien, ii. 212. As to the magic plants of Midsummer Eve, see Balder the Beautiful, ii.. 45 sqq. {The Golden Bough, Third Edition, Part vii.). CHAP, vii JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES 383 Thus in German folk-lore the mandrake root is treated The as a tamiliar spirit, who brings treasures both of wisdom "^e^Tas and of wealth to his fortunate owner. This mystical aspect a familiar of the plant is expressed by its ordinary German name of * alraun, which, derived from a word identical with our word wealth to " rune," means " the all wise one," with the connotation of ' " witch " or " wizard." ] In some parts of North Germany the name (alruii) is applied to a helpful elf or goblin ; hence of a rich man they will say that he possesses such an elf, and of a lucky gamester that he has one of them in his pocket. A woman in Nordmohr has been heard to observe that the goblin is a little man about a foot high, who must be kept in a cupboard and fed on milk and biscuit ; on that diet he grows so strong that he can bring a whole wagon- load of rye in his mouth to his owner. 2 Dr. Faust and all wizards and witches were supposed to possess such a familiar spirit. 3 Hence in trials for witchcraft the Inquisition used to inquire whether the alleged culprit owned a familiar of this sort ; and many a woman is said to have been burnt as a witch because she kept a puppet carved out of a root (alriinckeri) and laid it under her pillow at night to dream upon. 4 In 1603 the wife of a Moor was hanged as a witch at Romorantin, near Orleans, because she kept and daily fed a mandrake-goblin in the likeness of a female ape. 5 One joan of Arc of the articles of accusation against Joan of Arc was that ^ " the said Joanna was once wont to carry a mandrake in her bosom, hoping by means of it to enjoy prosperity in riches and temporal things, alleging that the said mandrake had such a power and effect." This accusation the Maid utterly denied. Being asked what she did with her man- drake, she replied that she never had one, but she had heard say there was one near her town, though she had never 1 J. Grimm, Detdschc Mythologie,^ \. 65, 66. L 334 sq. t ii. 1005 sq. Compare Da , R Bartsch s Mdrchcn und Cange Glossawmad Scrrplores Medze Gebrduche aus Meck i enburg (Vienna, et Infinue Latttntatts (Pans 1733- l879 _ l88 o), ii. , 9 a , 9 b - Com- 1736), .. coll. 346, 362, n. Alraun* R s and Alyrum**. g^. d B H IOIO _ IOI3) m. - A. Kuhn und \V. Schwartz, Nord- V j6 JT^ ,g dsutsche Sagen, Mdrchen, und Ge- brauche (Leipsic, 1848), p. 423, 220. Hilderic Friend, Flowers and 3 K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz, Flower I^ore (London, 1886), p. 532. 384 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES Super- stitions touching the mandrake in Wales and England. The shrieks of the mandrake when uptorn seen it. Moreover, she had been told that a mandrake is a dangerous thing and difficult to keep ; she did not know what it was used for. Questioned further about the par- ticular mandrake which she admitted to have heard about, she answered that she had been told it was in the ground under a hazel-tree, but the exact spot she did not know. Interrogated as to the use to which a mandrake is put, she repljed that she had heard that it causes money to come, but she did not believe it, and the voices which spoke to her had never said anything to her on the subject. 1 These quaint superstitions touching the mandrake, or any plant which served as a substitute for it, appear to have been widely distributed over Europe. " In many parts of Wales the black bryony, with its dark green and glossy leaves and brilliant red berries, which clings to trees and shrubs and has no tendrils, was known as the mysterious and uncanny mandrake. The leaves and fruit were called ' charnel food,' and formerly it was supposed only to grow beside the gallows - tree or near cross - roads. Witches gathered the leaves and flowers, and uprooted the plant for magical purposes. When uprooted it shrieked and groaned like a sensible human being, and its agony was dreadful to hear. From its stalk a sweat like blood oozed, and with each drop a faint scream was heard. There was an old saying that people who uprooted the mandrake would die within a year. They would die groaning as the man- drake died, or approach their death raving, or uttering penitent prayers for having uprooted the unholy plant. Witches kept the mandrake, and were said to sell portions of it to people who wanted to find out secrets, to wives who desired offspring, and to people who wished for wisdom." 2 The English herbalist, John Gerarde, mentions, only to ridicule as old wives' fables, the belief that the plant grew under a gallows from the drippings of a corpse, that it 1 Jules Quicherat, Proces de Con- damnation et de Rehabilitation de Jeanne a" Arc, i. (Paris, 1841) pp. " Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), pp. 92 sq. After mentioning the be- lief that the mandrake grew from the tears of an innocent man hanged on the gallows, the writer adds, " It was also supposed to grow mysteriously near the cross-roads where suicides were buried." But whether this last belief was general or peculiar to Wales does not appear. CHAP, vii JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES 385 shrieked when it was torn from the earth, and that it should be extracted by being tied to a dog. 1 Shakespeare was Shake- clearly familiar with the fantastic story, for he speaks of ^ re on mandrake. " Shrieks like mandrakes 1 torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, run mad." 2 and again, " Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan ?" 3 He was acquainted also with the soporific property which popular opinion ascribed to the plant. Thus in the absence of her lover Cleopatra is made to cry : " Give me to drink mandragora . . . That I might sleep out this great gap of time My Antony is away." 4 And again, at sight of the victim whom his vile insinuations had for ever robbed of his peace of mind, the villain lago mutters : " Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the "world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which you owedst yesterday" 5 The belief in the soporific and narcotic quality of Soporific mandragora or mandrake is very old : the ancient Greeks and * narcotic held it so firmly that they administered the drug as an quality anaesthetic to patients undergoing surgical operations, 6 and this practice was continued into the Middle Ages, being mandrake recommended, for example, by the Arabian physician antiquity. Avicenna in the eleventh century. 7 Allusions to the drowsy effect of the plant are not uncommon in Greek writers. 1 John Gerarde, The Herball or 5 Othello, Act iii. Scene iii. General Historie of Plantes (London, 6 Dioscorides, De materia medica, 1633), p. 351. iv. 76. Compare Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2 Romeo and Juliet, Act iv. Scene xxv. 150; Isidore, Origines, xvii. iii. Dray ton also speaks of " the 9. 30. mandrake's dreadful groans." See 7 Ch. Brewster Randolph, "The the poem quoted in "The Folk-lore Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk- of Drayton," The Folk-lore Journal, iii. lore and Medicine," Proceedings of the (1885) p. 153. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 3 Second Part of Henry VI. Act vol. xl. No. 12 (January 1905), pp. iii. Scene ii. SI 3 sqq. Compare John Parkinson, 4 Antony and Cleopatra, Act i. Theatrum Botanicum (London, 1640), Scene v. p. 345. VOL. II 2 C 386 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES Belief of the French peasantry that the mandrake is an inex- haustible source of wealth. Xenophon represents Socrates as saying that wine lulls care to sleep as mandragora lulls men's bodies. 1 Plato compares the philosopher among common men to the master of a ship whom his crew have reduced to a state of torpor by wine or mandragora. 2 Inveighing against Philip of Macedon, and attempting to rouse his countrymen to a sense of their danger, Demosthenes declared that they were as lethargic as men who had drunk mandragora or some other soporific. 3 Aristotle includes mandragora with poppies and darnel among the things that induce slumber and heaviness. 4 The Carthaginian general Maharbal is said to have captured or slain a host of rebels whom he had contrived to drug with a mixture of mandragora and wine ; 5 and Caesar is reported to have overcome by a similar stratagem the Cilician pirates by whom he had been captured. 6 Lucian describes the city of Sleep surrounded by a wood in which the trees were tall poppies and mandragoras, with a multitude of bats perched on the boughs. 7 The notion that the mandrake, if properly treated, was an inexhaustible source of wealth to its lucky owner, must doubtless have greatly contributed to enhance the popularity of the plant with that indolent and credulous portion of mankind who are always on the look-out for shorter cuts to riches than the tedious and roundabout road of honest industry. In this capacity the mandrake appears to have appealed strongly to the saving and thrifty disposition of the French peasantry. " The Journal of a Citizen of Paris, written in the fifteenth century, speaks of this superstition. ' At that time,' says the anonymous author, ' Brother Richard, a Franciscan, caused to be burned certain madagfoires (mandragoras, mandrakes), which many foolish people kept and had such faith in that rubbish as to believe firmly for a truth that so long as they had it they should never be poor, provided that it was wrapt up in fine cloths v of silk or linen.' This superstition lasted into the eighteenth century. ' There has long prevailed in France,' says Sainte-Palaye, 'an 1 Xenophon, Convivium, ii. 24. ed. Im. Bekker (Berlin, 1831-1870). 2 Plato, Republic, vi. 4. p. 488 c. 6 Frontinus, Stratagem, ii. 5. 12. 3 Demosthenes, Philipp. iv. 6, pp. I32 ^ fl Polyaenus, Strateg. vm. 23. i. 4 Aristotle, De somnio, 3, p. 456 B 30, 7 Lucian, Vera ffistoria, ii. 33. CHAP, vii JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES ; 387 almost general superstition concerning mandragora ; a relic of it still lingers among the peasants. One day, when I asked a peasant why he gathered mistletoe, he said that at the foot of the oaks which bore mistletoe there was a hand of glory (main degloire, that is, in their language, mandragora)\ that it was as deep in the earth as the mistletoe was high on the tree ; that it was a sort of mole ; that he who found it was obliged to give it food, whether bread, or meat, or any- thing else, and that what he had given it he must give it every day and in the same quantity, otherwise it would kill those who failed to do so. Two men of his country, whom he named to me, had perished in that way, but to make up for it the hand of glory gave back twofold next day what any one had given it the day before. If to-day it received food to the value of a crown, he who had given it would receive two crowns next day, and so with everything else ; such and such a peasant, whom he named to me, and who had become very rich, was thought to have found one of these hands of glory' " French fishermen used to wear necklaces or bracelets of mandrakes as talismans which would protect them against accidents of all sorts. 2 The belief concerning the danger of uprooting the man- The use of drake, and the expediency of deputing the perilous task to uproot'the a dog, is not confined to the centre and north of Europe, for mandrake, it occurs also in the Abruzzi, where the season recommended for culling the mysterious plant is Midsummer Day, the day which the Catholic Church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist. 3 In modern Greece also it is believed that any man who dug a mandrake clean out of the earth would die, and that to get it you must tether a dog to the root. 4 Nor is the device of employing a dog for such a purpose a modern invention. It is recommended by a late writer of 1 A. Cheruel, Dictionnaire Histo- 3 Antonio di Nino, Usi Abruzzesi rique des Institutions, Mceurs, et Cott- (Florence, 1879-1883), i. 86 sq.; A. tumes de la France, Sixieme Edition de Gubernatis, La Mythologie des (Paris, 1884), ii. 726 sq. Compare Plantes, ii. 215 note 1 . P. Sebillot, Le Folk-lore de France 4 P. Ascherson, in Verhandlungen (Paris, 1904-1907), iii. 487, quoting der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthro- Les Evangiles des Quenoutlles, ii. 2. pologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte, 2 J. L. M. Nogues, Les Mceurs iSgi, p. (732) note, quoting Th. v. d'Autrefois en Saintonge et en Aitnis Heldreich, Niitzpfl. Griechenl., pp. (Saintes, 1891), pp. 147 sq. 36 sq. 388 JACOB AND THE MANDRAKES Apuleius Platonicus on the uprooting of the mandrake by a dog. The use of a dog to uproot the aglaophotis or peony. antiquity, who bore or assumed the name of Apuleius Platonicus and composed a treatise on herbs, perhaps in the fifth century of our era. The last chapter of his Work is devoted to the mandrake, and describes how the plant is to be uprooted by a hungry dog, who has been tied to it and drags the plant out of the earth in his efforts to get at a piece of meat placed beyond his reach. This work was translated into Anglo-Saxon, and the manuscripts of the translation are adorned with illustrations which represent, among other things, the extraction of the mandrake by the dog. In one of these pictures the plant is delineated in human form with leaves and berries growing out of the head, while the dog is seen tugging at a chain by which his neck is fastened to the left arm of the figure. On the other side of the mandrake are two human figures carrying implements of some sort, perhaps for the purpose of digging up the mandrake. The manuscript which contains this illustration was originally in the Cottonian Library, but is now in the British Museum. Though sadly damaged by fire, it must once have been a splendid volume, beautifully written and decorated with a large number of coloured figures of plants and animals. In another Anglo-Saxon manuscript of Apuleius the mandrake is represented with a human trunk and limbs, but with vegetable extremities, the human head being replaced by a bunch of leaves, and the hands and feet by branching roots ; the dog is seen fastened by his tail to the roots which stand for the left hand of the mandrake. 1 But the use of a dog to uproot a plant, which it would be fatal for a man to extract, can be traced still farther back than the fifth century of our era. In the second century A.D. the Roman writer Aelian, author of a gossipy work in Greek on the nature of animals, gave a similar account of the way to obtain a certain plant which he calls aglaophotis, or " bright shining," because it was said to shine like a star or like fire by night, but to be hardly visible, or 1 J. F. Payne, M.D., English (Herbarium} is not to be confounded Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times with the far more famous writer of the (Oxford, 1904), pp. 62 sy., 72 s CHAP, vni THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN 403 inhabitants erected these dolmens in many other situations, but that they have been removed by the subsequent agri- cultural races, who left them undisturbed only on these bare hill-sides, which can never have been utilized in any degree for cultivation. Still it is worthy of notice that the three .classes of primaeval monuments in Moab the stone circles, dolmens, and cairns exist, each in great abundance, in three different parts of the country, but never side by side : the cairns exclusively in the east, on the spurs of the Arabian range ; the stone circles south of the Callirrhoe ; and the dolmens, north of that valley. . This fact would seem to indicate three neighbouring tribes, co-existent in the prehistoric period, each with distinct funeral or religious customs. Of course the modern Arab attributes all these dolmens to the jinns." l We have seen that when Jacob and Laban had raised a stones cairn, they ate together, sitting on the stones. 2 The eating 0^***' of food upon the stones was probably intended to ratify the principle of covenant. How it was supposed to do so may perhaps be thetkT" gathered from a Norse custom described by the old Danish magic, historian, Saxo Grammaticus. He tells us that " the ancients, wei ^ht and when they were to choose a king, were wont to stand on stability to .... covenants. stones planted in the ground, and to proclaim their votes, in order to foreshadow from the steadfastness of the stones that the deed would be lasting." 3 In fact, the stability of the stones may have been thought to pass into the person who stood upon them and so to confirm his oath. Thus we read of a certain mythical Rajah of Java, who bore the title of Rajah Sela Perwata, " which in the common language is 1 H. B. Tristram, The Land of position in question (ty) is certainly Moab' 1 ' (London, 1874), pp. 300- jba. "upon," and there is no reason to Compare H. Vincent, Canaan (Tapres depart from it in the present passage. f exploration recente (Paris, 1914), pp- 408 sag. 3 The First Nine Books of the Danish 2 In Genesis 'xxxi. 46 the Revised History of Saxo Grammaticus, trans- Version translates "and they did eat lated by Oliver Elton (London, 1894), there by the heap," where the Authorized p. 16. The original runs thus : " Lee- Version renders " and they did eat turi regent veteres affixis humo saxis there upon the heap." The parallels insistere su/ragiaque promere consul- which I adduce in the text make it verant subjectorum lapidum firmitate probable that the Authorized Version facti constantiam ominaturi" (Historia is here right and the Revised Version Danica, lib. i. p. 22, ed. P. E. Miiller, wrong. The primary sense of the pre- Copenhagen; 1839). 404 THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN PART n the same as Watu Gunung, a name conferred upon him from his having rested on a mountain like a stone, and obtained his strength and power thereby, without other aid or assistance." ] At a Brahman marriage in India the bride- groom leads the bride thrice round the fire, and each time he does so he makes her tread with her right foot on a mill- stone, saying, " Tread on this stone ; like a stone be firm. Overcome the enemies ; tread the foes down." 2 This ancient rite, prescribed by the ritual books of the Aryans in Northern India, has been adopted in Southern India out- side the limits of the Brahman caste. The married couple " go round the sacred fire, and the bridegroom takes up in his hands the right foot of the bride, and places it on a mill- stone seven times. This is known as saptapadi (seven feet), and is the essential and binding portion of the marriage ceremony. The bride is exhorted to be as fixed in constancy as the stone on which her foot has been thus placed." * Similarly at initiation a Brahman boy is made to tread with his right foot on a stone, while the words are repeated, " Tread on this stone ; like a stone be firm. Destroy those who seek to do thee harm ; overcome thy enemies." 4 Among the Kookies of Northern Cachar at marriage " the young couple place a foot each upon a large stone in the' centre of the village, and the Ghalim [headman] sprinkles them with water, and pronounces an exhortation to general virtue and conjugal fidelity, together with a blessing and the expression of hopes regarding numerous progeny."' In the Kalian caste of Madura, Trichinopoly, and Tanjore, patterns are drawn with rice-flour on a bride's back at marriage, her husband's sister decorates a grinding-stone in the same way, invokes blessings on the woman, and expresses the hope that she may have a male child as strong as a stone. 6 In 1 T. S. Raffles, History of Java age aux hides Orientales et a la Chine (London, 1817), i. 377. (Paris, 1782), i. 81. 2 The Gnhya-Sutras, translated by 4 > he Grihy a- Sutras, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. (Oxford, 1886) H. Oldenberg, Part ii. p. 146. pp. 13, 1 68, 282 sq., 381; Part ii. 5 Lieut. R. Stewart, "Notes on (Oxford, 1892) pp. 45, 188, 260 sq. Northern Cachar," Journal of the (Sacred Books of the East, vols. xxix., Asiatic Society of Bengal, xxiv. (1855) xxx.). pp. 620 sq. 3 Edgar Thurston, Ethnographic 6 Census of India, 1901, vol. xv. Notes in Southern India (Madras, Madras, Part i. Report, by W. Francis 1906), p. i. Compare Sonnerat, Voy- (Madras, 1902), p. 138. CHAP, viii THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN 405 Madagascar it is believed that you can guard against the instability of earthly bliss by burying a stone under the main post or under the threshold of your house. 1 On the same principle we can explain the custom of Oaths swearing with one foot or with both feet planted on a stone. taken upon r stones in The idea seems to be that the solid enduring quality of the Scotland, stone will somehow pass into the swearer and so ensure that the oath will be kept. 2 Thus there was a stone at Athens on which the nine archons stood when they swore to rule justly and according to the laws. 3 A little to the west of St. Columba's tomb in lona " lie the black stones, which are so called, not from their colour, for that is grey, but from the effects that tradition says ensued upon perjury, if any one became guilty of it after swearing on these stones in the usual manner ; for an oath made on them was decisive in all controversies. Mac-Donald, King of the Isles, delivered the rights of their lands to his vassals in the isles and continent, with uplifted hands and bended knees, on the black stones; and in this posture, before many witnesses, he solemnly swore that he would never recall those rights which he then granted : and this was instead of his great seal. Hence it is that when one was certain of what he affirmed, he said positively, I have freedom to swear this matter upon the black stones." 4 Again, in the island of Fladda, another of the Hebrides, there was formerly a round blue stone on which people swore decisive oaths. At the old parish church of Lairg, in Sutherlandshire, there used to be built into an adjoining wall a stone called the Plighting Stone. "It was known far and wide as a medium one might almost say, as a sacred medium for the making of bargains, the pledging of faith, and the plighting of troth. By grasping hands through this stone, the parties to an 1 Father Abinale, " Astrologie Mai- (Stuttgart, 1908), pp. 41 sqq. gache," Les Missions Catholiques, xi. 3 Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, (1879) p. 482, " Qui va enterrer un 7 and 55 ; Plutarch, Solon, 25 ; Julius caillou au pied du grand poteau de la Pollux, Onomasticon, viii. 26. case ou sons le seuil de laporte, a Peffe* * M. Martin, "Description of the de se donner un destin de poids et de Western Islands of Scotland," in John fidMte", apres s'Stre lavf d'urt destin Pinkerton's General Collection of Voy- d^inconstance." ages and Travels (London, 1808- 2 For many examples of swearing on 1814), iii. 657. stones, see Richard Lasch, Der Eid 5 M. Martin, op. cit. pp. 627 sq. 4o6 THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN PART n agreement of any kind bound themselves with the inviol- ability of a solemn oath." ] Oaths Similar customs are observed by rude races in Africa and SonesT" India - When two B g s of Eastern Africa, on the border of Africa and Abyssinia, have a dispute, they will sometimes settle it at a certain stone, which one of them mounts. His adversary calls down the most dreadful curses on him if he forswears himself, and to every curse the man on the stone answers " Amen ! " Among the Akamba of British East Africa solemn oaths are made before an object called a kitJiito, which is believed to be endowed with a mysterious power of killing perjurers. In front of the object are placed seven stones, and the man who makes oath stands so that his heels rest on two of them. 3 At Naimu, a village of the Tang- khuls of Assam, there is a heap of peculiarly shaped stones upon which the people swear solemn oaths. 4 At Ghosegong, in the Garo hills of Assam, there is a stone on which the natives swear their most solemn oaths. In doing so they first salute the stone, then with their hands joined and up- lifted, and their eyes steadfastly fixed on the hills, they call on Mahadeva to witness to the truth of what they affirm. After that they again touch the stone with all the appearance of the utmost fear, and bow their heads to it, calling again on Mahadeva. And while they make their declaration they look steadfastly to the hills and keep their right hand on the stone. 5 The Garos also swear on meteoric stones, say- ing, " May Goera (the god of lightning) kill me with one of these if I have told a lie." In this case, however, the use of the stone is retributive rather than confirmatory ; it is designed, not so much to give to the oath the stability of the stone, as to call down the vengeance of the lightning- god on the perjurer. The same was perhaps the intention of a Samoan oath. When suspected thieves swore to their 1 Folk-lore, viii. (1897) p. 399. * T. C. Hodson, The Naga Tribes 2 W. Munzinger, Sitten und Recht of Manipur (London, 1911), p. no. der Bogos (Winterthur, 18159), pp. ^ , 6 J. Eliot, " Observations on the , a TT /-i T-V j inhabitants of the Garrow hills." a Hon. C. Dundas. " Ihe organiza- . . . . , ... -^-r, ^,. , . , . ., Asiatic Researches, in. r nth Edition tion and laws of some Bantu tribes in /T East Africa," Journal of the Royal (London > l8 7) PP' 3 ** Anthropological Institute, xlv. (1915) Major A. Playfair, The G ros p. 252. (London, 1909), p. 75. CHAP, vni THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN 407 innocence in the presence of chiefs, they " laid a handful of Samoan grass on the stone, or whatever it was, which was supposed oath ' to be the representative of the village god, and, laying their hand on it, would say, " In the presence of our chiefs how assembled, I lay my hand on the stone. If I stole the thing may I speedily die." 1 In this last case, and perhaps in some of the others, the Distinction stone appears to be conceived as instinct with a divine life ^iMcus 1 ' which enables it to hear the oath, to judge of its truth, and and the to punish perjury. Oaths sworn upon stones thus definitely pfc C t a of conceived as divine are clearly religious in character, since stones they involve an appeal to a supernatural power who visits ratification transgressors with his anger. But in some of the preceding ofoaths - instances the stone is apparently supposed to act purely through the physical properties of weight, solidity, and inertia ; accordingly in these cases the oath, or whatever the ceremony may be, is purely magical in character. The man absorbs the valuable properties of the stone just as he might absorb electrical force from a battery ; he is, so to say, petrified by the stone in the one case just as he is electrified by the electricity in the other. The religious and the magical aspects of the oath on a stone need not be mutually exclusive in the minds of the swearers. Vague- ness and confusion are characteristic of primitive thought, and must always be allowed for in our attempts to resolve that strange compound into its elements. These two different strains of thought, the religious and Twofold the magical, seem both to enter into the Biblical account of fheTairn the covenant made by Jacob and Laban on the cairn. For in the ... . . , .1 covenant on the one hand the parties to the covenant apparently of j acob attribute life and consciousness to the stones by solemnly andLaban. calling them to witness their agreement, 2 just as Joshua called on the great stone under the oak to be a witness, because the stone had heard all the words that the Lord spake unto Israel. 3 Thus conceived, the cairn, or the pillar which stood in the midst of it, was a sort of Janus-figure with heads facing both ways for the purpose of keeping a sharp eye on both the parties to the covenant. And on the 1 George Turner, Samoa (London, 1884), p. 184. - Genesis xxxi. 47-52. 3 Joshua xxiv. 26 sf. 48 THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN PART n other hand the act of eating food together on the cairn, if I am right, is best explained as an attempt to establish a sympathetic bond of union between the covenanters by partaking of a common meal, while at the same time they strengthened and tightened the bond by absorbing into their system the strength and solidity of the stones on which they were seated. How the If any reader, afflicted with a sceptical turn of mind, quality of st '^ doubts whether the ground on which a man stands can an oath affect the moral quality of his oath, I would remind him of affected by a passage in Procopius which should set his doubts at rest the nature That veracious historian tells how a Persian king contrived ground on to wring the truth from a reluctant witness, who had every which it is m otive and desire to perjure himself. When Pacurius illustrated reigned over Persia, he suspected that his vassal, Arsac.es, by a . king of Armenia, meditated a revolt. So he sent for him passage of Procopius. and taxed him to his face with disloyalty. The king of Armenia indignantly repelled the charge, swearing by all the gods that such a thought had never entered his mind. Thereupon the king of Persia, acting on a hint from his magicians, took steps to unmask the traitor. He caused the floor of the royal pavilion to be spread with muck, one half of it with muck from Persia, and the other half of it with muck from Armenia. Then on the floor so prepared he walked up and down with his vassal, reproaching him with his treacherous intentions. The replies of the culprit were marked by the most extraordinary discrepancies. So long as he trod the Persian muck, he swore with the most dreadful oaths that he was the faithful slave of the Persian king ; but as soon as he trod the Armenian muck his tone changed, and he turned fiercely on his liege-lord, threatening him with vengeance for his insults, and bragging of what he would do when he regained his liberty. Yet the moment he set foot again on the Persian muck, he cringed and fawned as before, entreating the mercy of his suzerain in the most pitiful language. The ruse was successful : the murder was out : the traitor stood self-revealed. Yet being one of the blood-royal, for he was an Arsacid, he might not be put to death. So they did to him what was regularly done to erring princes. They shut him up for life in a prison called CHAP, vin THE COVENANT ON THE CAIRN 409 the Castle of Oblivion, because whenever a prisoner had passed within its gloomy portal, and the door had grated on its hinges behind him, his name might never again be mentioned under pain of death. There traitors rotted, and there the perjured king of Armenia ended his days. 1 The custom of erecting cairns as witnesses is apparently Cairns as not extinct in Syria even now. One of the most famous -^ shrines of the country is that of Aaron on Mount Hor. Syria. The prophet's tomb on the mountain is visited by pilgrims, who pray the saint to intercede for the recovery of sick friends, and pile up heaps of stones as witnesses (ineshhad) of the vows they make on behalf of the sufferers. 2 1 Procopius, De bello Persico, i. 5. Religion To-day (Chicago, 1902), pp. 2 S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic 79 sq. CHAPTER IX JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK Jacob's AFTER parting from Laban at the cairn, Jacob, with his wives an< ^ children, his flocks and his herds, pursued his way south- mountains ward. From the breezy, wooded heights of the mountains into the f Gilead he now plunged down into the profound ravine of deepgienof t ne Jabbok thousands of feet below. The descent occupies several hours, and the traveller who accomplishes it feels that, on reaching the bottom of the deep glen, he has passed into a different climate. From the pine-woods and chilly winds of the high uplands he descends first in about an hour's time to the balmy atmosphere of the village of Burmeh, embowered in fruit-trees, shrubs, and flowers, where the clear, cold water of a fine fountain will slake his thirst at the noonday rest. Still continuing the descent, he goes steeply down another two thousand feet to find himself breathing a hothouse air amid luxuriant semi-tropical vegetation in the depths of the great lyn of the Jabbok. The gorge is, in the highest degree, wild and picturesque. On either hand the cliffs rise almost perpendicularly to a great height ; you look up the precipices or steep declivities to the skyline far above. At the bottom of this mighty chasm the Jabbok flows with a powerful current, its blue-grey water fringed and hidden, even at a short distance, by a dense jungle of tall oleanders, whose crimson blossoms add a glow of colour to the glen in early summer. The Blue River, for such is its modern name, runs fast and strong. Even in ordinary times the water reaches to the horses' girths, and sometimes the stream is quite unfordable, the flood washing grass and bushes high up the banks on either hand. On the opposite or southern side the 410 CHAP, ix JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 411 ascent from the ford is again exceedingly steep. The path winds up and up ; the traveller must dismount and lead his horse. 1 It was up that long ascent that Jacob, lingering Jacob alone bv the ford in the gloaming, watched the camels labour- remains alone at ing, and heard the cries of the drivers growing fainter and the ford, fainter above him, till sight and sound of them alike were lost in the darkness and the distance. The scene may help us to understand the strange adven- Jacob ture which befell Jacob at the passage of the river. He had ?%** sent his wives, his handmaids, and his children, riding on ous person- camels, across the river, and all his flocks and herds had fa^nd 6 preceded or followed them. So he remained alone at the wrestles ford. It was night, probably a moonlight summer night ; t iii break for it is unlikely that with such a long train he would have of day- attempted to ford the river in the dark or in the winter when the current would run fast and deep. Be that as it may, in the moonlight or in the dark, beside the rushing river, a man wrestled with him all night long, till morning flushed the wooded crests of the ravine high above the struggling pair in the shadows below. The stranger looked up and saw the light and said, " Let me go, for the day breaketh." So Jupiter tore himself from the arms of the fond Alcmena before the peep of dawn ; 2 so the ghost of Hamlet's father faded at cockcrow ; so Mephistopheles in the prison warned Faust, with the hammering of the gallows in his ears, to hurry, for the day Gretchen's last day was breaking. But Jacob clung to the man and said, " I will not let thee go, 1 W. M. Thomson, The Land and given by Sir George Adam Smith's the Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and eloquent description. (Historical Geo- beyond Jordan, pp. 583 sqq. ; H. B. graphy of the Holy Land, London, Tristram, The Land of Israel* (London, 1894, p. 584), which probably applies 1882), p. 549. The ford here described mainly either to the upper or the is that of Mukhadat en Nusrantyeh, lower reaches of the river, before it has " the ford of the Christian Woman," on entered the great canon or after it has the road between Reimun and Shihan. emerged from it into the broad strath of It is the ford on the regular road from the Jordan. In these districts, accord- north to south, and is probably, there- 'ng'y } it would seem that the aspect of fore, the one at which tradition placed the river and its banks is one of pastoral the passage of Jacob with his family peace and sweet rural charm, a land- and his flocks. In describing the gorge scape of Constable rather than of and the ford I have followed closely Salvator Rosa, the accounts of Thomson and Tristram, who both passed that way and wrote as 2 Plautus, Amphitryo, $$2sq. t "Car eye-witnesses. A very different im- me tenes ? Te mpiis : exire ex urbe pression of the scenery of the Jabbok is prius quam lucescat volo. " 412 JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK PART n except thou bless me." The stranger asked him his name, and when Jacob told it he said, " Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel : for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed." But when Jacob inquired of him, " Tell me, I pray thee, thy name," the man refused to mention it, and having given the blessing which Jacob had extorted, he vanished. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, that is, the Face of God ; " For," said he, " I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Soon afterwards the sun rose and shone on Jacob, and as it did so he limped ; for- in the struggle his adversary had touched him on the hollow of the thigh. " Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip." ] Jacob's The story is obscure, and it is probable that some of its was 6 "" 5 original features have been slurred over by the compilers of perhaps the Genesis because they savoured of heathendom. Hence any thTrfver. explanation of it must be to a great extent conjectural. But taking it in connexion with the natural features of the place where the scene of the story is laid, and with the other legends of a similar character which I shall adduce, we may, perhaps, provisionally suppose that Jacob's mysterious adver- sary was the spirit or jinnee of the river, and that the struggle was purposely sought by Jacob for the sake of obtaining his blessing. This would explain why he sent on his long train of women, servants, and animals, and waited alone in the darkness by the ford. He might calculate that the shy river-god, scared by the trampling and splashing of so great a caravan through the water, would lurk in a deep pool or a brake of oleanders at a safe distance, and that when all had passed and silence again reigned, except for the usual mono- tonous swish of the current, curiosity would lead him to venture out from his lair and inspect the ford, the scene of all this hubbub and disturbance. Then the subtle Jacob, lying in wait, would pounce out and grapple with him until The ,. he had obtained the coveted blessing. It was thus that wrestling of Greek Menelaus caught the shy sea-god Proteus sleeping at high heroes with water- J Genesis xxxi. 54-xxxii. For the camels on which Jacob's family rode, sprites. see id. xxxi. 17. CHAP, ix JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 413 noon among the seals on the yellow sands, and compelled him reluctantly to say his sooth. 1 It was thus that Peleus caught the sea-goddess Thetis and won her, a Grecian Undine, for his wife. 2 In both these Greek legends the supple, slippery water-spirit writhes in the grip of his or her captor, slipping through his hands again and again, and shifting his or her shape from lion to serpent, from serpent to water, and so forth, in the effort to escape ; not till he is at the end of all his shifts and sees no hope of evading his determined adversary does he at last consent to grant the wished-for boon. So, too, when Hercules wrestled with the river-god Achelous for the possession of the fair Dejanira, the water- sprite turned himself first into a serpent and then into a bull in order to give the brawny hero the slip ; but all in vain. 3 These parallels suggest that in the original form of the Jacob's tale Jacob's adversary may in like manner have shifted his ^^"have shape to evade his importunate suitor. A trace of such shiftedhis metamorphoses, perhaps, survives in the story of God's revela- the tussle. tion of himself to Elijah on Mount Horeb ; the wind, the earthquake, and the fire in that sublime narrative may in the first version of it have been disguises assumed, one after the other, by the reluctant deity until, vanquished by the prophet's perseverance, he revealed himself in a still small voice. 4 For it is to be observed that water-spirits are not the only class of supernatural beings for whom men have laid wait in order to wring from them a blessing or an oracle. Thus the Phrygian god Silenus is said, in spite of his dissi- HOW Midas pated habits, to have possessed a large stock of general stilus information which, like Proteus, he only imparted on com- and how pulsion. So Midas, king of Phrygia, caught him by mixing' wine with the water of a spring from which, in a moment of picus and weakness, the sage had condescended to drink. When he woke from his drunken nap, Silenus found himself a prisoner, and he had to hold high discourse on the world and the vanity of human life before the king would let him go. Some of the gravest writers of antiquity have bequeathed to us a more or less accurate report of the sermon which the jolly 1 Homer, Odyssey, iv. 354-570. 3 Ovid, Metamorph. ix. 62-86; com- 2 Apollodorus, Bibliotkeca, in. 13. pare Sophocles, Trcuhiniae, 9-21. 5 ; Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. iii. 60. 4 I Kings xix. 8-13. 414 JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK PART n Custom of spirits at toper preached beside the plashing wayside spring, or, accord- ing to others, in a bower of roses. 1 By a stratagem like that of Midas it is said that Numa caught the rustic deities Picus and Faunus, and compelled them to draw down Jupiter him- self from the sky by their charms and spells. 2 The view that Jacob's adversary at the ford of the J aD bok was the river-god himself may perhaps be confirmed by the observation that it has been a common practice with many peoples to propitiate the fickle and dangerous spirits of the water at fords. Hesiod says that when you are about to ford a river you should look at the running water and pray and wash your hands ; for he who wades through a stream with unwashed hands incurs the wrath of the gods. 3 When the Spartan king Cleomenes, intending to invade Argolis, came with his army to the banks of the Erasinus, he sacrificed to the river, but the omens were unfavourable to his crossing. Thereupon the king remarked that he admired the patriotism of the river-god in not betraying his people, but that he would invade Argolis in spite of him. With that he led his men to the seashore, sacrificed a bull to the sea, and transported his army in ships to the enemy's country. 4 When the Persian host under Xerxes came to the river Strymon in Thrace, the Magians sacrificed white horses and performed other strange ceremonies before they crossed the stream. 5 Lucullus, at the head of a Roman army, sacri- ficed a bull to the Euphrates at his passage of the river. 6 " On the river-bank, the Peruvians would scoop up a handful of water and drink it, praying the river-deity to let them cross or to give them fish, and they threw maize into the stream as a propitiatory offering ; even to this day the Indians of the Cordilleras perform the ceremonial sip before they will pass a river on foot or horseback." 7 Old Welsh 741. As to the Greek worship of rivers, see the evidence collected by R. Karsten, Studies in Primitive Greek Religion (Helsingfors, 1907), pp. 29 1 Xenophon, Anabasis, i. 2. 13 ; Pausanias i. 4. 5 ; Herodotus viii. 138; Plutarch, Consol. ad Apollon. 27 ; Aelian, Var. Hist. iii. 18 ; Philostratus, Vit. Apollon. vi. 27 ; Himerius, EC log. xvi. 5 ; Cicero, Tuscul. Disput. 5. 48, 1145 Virgil, Eclog. VL 13 sqq., with the comment- ary of Servius on the passage. 2 Ovid, Fasti, iii. 289-348. 3 Hesiod, Works and Days, 737- sqq. 4 Herodotus vi. 76. 5 Herodotus vii> J Plutarch, Lucullus, 24. 7 (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture' 1 (London, 1873), ii. 210. CHAP, ix JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 415 people " always spat thrice on the ground before crossing water after dark, to avert the evil influences of spirits and witches." ] A Zulu story relates how a man named Ulangalasenzantsi Rivers went to fetch his children, taking ten oxen with him. His way was barred by ten swollen rivers, to each of which he Bantu sacrificed an ox, whereupon the river divided and allowed him aou^ to pass through. As to this we are told that " it is a custom Africa, among native tribes of South Africa to pay respect to rivers, which would appear to intimate that formerly they were worshipped, or rather that individual rivers were supposed to be the dwelling-place of a spirit. Thus, when a river has been safely crossed, it is the custom in some parts to throw a stone into its waters, and to praise the itongo. . . . When Dingan's army was going against Umzilikazi, on reaching the banks of the Ubulinganto, they saluted it, saying, 'Sa ku bona, bulin- ganto} and having strewed animal charcoal (umsizt) on the water, the soldiers were made to drink it. The object of this was to deprecate some evil power destructive to life, which was supposed to be possessed by the river. It is a custom which cannot fail to recall what is recorded of Moses under somewhat different circumstances. 2 There can be little doubt that Ulangalasenzantsi threw the oxen into the rivers as a sacrifice to the amatongo (ancestral spirits), or more probably to river-gods." 2 From another writer we learn that Kafirs spit on the stones which they throw into the water at crossing a river. He tells us that " the natives in olden days were in the habit of either sacrificing some animal or offering some grain to appease ancestral spirits living in the river. The bushmen used to offer up some game they had killed, or in the absence of that would offer up an arrow. It is very doubtful whether the natives have any fully formed con- ception of what we call a river-spirit ; it seems more probable, The water- on the whole, that they imagined some ancestral spirit to be spl r "j^ s living in the river, or that some fabulous animal had its home identical with 1 Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and powder, and strewed it upon the water, a Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), and made the children of Israel drink ' p. 6. of it." 2 Exodus xxxii. 20, " And he took 3 Henry Callaway, Nursery Tales, the calf which they had made, and Traditions, and Histories of the 'Zulus burnt it with fire, and ground it to (Natal and London, 1868), p. 90. 416 JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK PART n in the water." ] The view that these water-spirits are essen- tially spirits of ancestors is confirmed by another good authority on the Bantu tribes of South Africa. Speaking of the Thonga, who inhabit Mozambique about Delagoa Bay, Mr. Henri A. Junod says, " Some lakes and rivers are believed to be inhabited by spirits, but not in the ordinary fetichistic way, as if they were a special spiritual being incorporated with the natural object ; these spirits are psikwembo, spirits of the deceased ancestors of the owners of the land, and they are propitiated by their descendants. Should another clan have invaded the territory where those lakes are, should crocodiles threaten fishermen, they will call some one belonging to the clan of the old possessors of the country and ask him to make an offering to appease his gods. This is the ordinary course, and the more you search the better you identify these lake and river spirits with ancestor gods." ; The Bantu Another writer tells us that in the belief of the Bantu South-East tr ibes of South-East Africa " rivers are inhabited by demons Africa or malignant spirits, and it is necessary to propitiate these river- on crossing an unknown stream, by throwing a handful of spirits as corn or some other offering, even if it is of no intrinsic value, nd r into the water. Of these spirits, the incanti corresponds to propitiate t h e Greek Python, while the Hili has the appearance of a them with n ' j i u j T-U offerings, very small and ugly old man, and is very malevolent. These spirits are never seen except by magicians. To an ordinary person it is certain death to see an incanti. When any one is drowned, the magicians say, ' He was called by the spirits,' and this call no one can resist, nor is it safe to interfere in order to save one who is ' called ' from drowning. After a death by drowning the doctors prescribe a formal sacrifice to be offered, but the animal is not killed ; it is simply driven * into the water, and this is deemed sufficient, or it may happen that the form prescribed shall only include the casting of a few handfuls of corn into the water at the spot where the accident happened. At other times the magicians direct the people to assemble at the river and pelt the spirit with stones, and this is done with great good will, every man and woman 1 Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir South African TV/A? (Neuchatel, 1912- (London, 1904), pp. 9 sq. 1913), 3 2 - z Henri A. Junod, The Life of a CHAP, ix JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 417 shouting the most abusive epithets at the demon. This can only be done when a magician is present to avert evil conse- quences." ] The spirit who is treated in this disrespectful fashion can hardly be conceived as an ancestor. When the Masai of East Africa cross a stream they Offerings throw a -handful of grass into the water as an offering; for grass, the source of life to their cattle, plays an important and part in Masai superstition and ritual. 2 Among the Baganda of Central Africa, before a traveller forded any river, he at crossing would ask the spirit of the river to give him a safe crossing, and would throw a few coffee-berries as an offering into the water. When a man was carried away by the current his friends would not try to save him, because they feared that the river -spirit would take them also, if they helped the drowning man. They thought that the man's guardian spirit had left him to the mercy of the river-spirit, and that die he must. 3 At certain spots on the rivers Nakiza and Sezibwa, in Uganda, there was a heap of grass and sticks on either bank, and every person who crossed the river threw a little grass or some sticks on the one heap before crossing, and on the other heap after crossing ; this was his offering to the spirit of the river for a safe passage through the water. From time to time more costly offerings were made at these heaps ; the worshipper would bring beer, or an animal, or a fowl, or some bark-cloth, tie the offering to the heap, and leave it there, after praying to the spirit. The worship of each of these rivers was cared for by a priest, but there was no temple. The Bean Clan was especially addicted to the worship of the river Nakiza, and the father of the clan was the priest. When the river was in flood, no member of the clan would attempt to ford it ; the priest strictly forbade them to do so under pain of death. 4 In Uganda, as in in Uganda ancient Greece, the spirit of a river is sometimes conceived e er ~ in the form of an animal. Thus the river Manyanja was sometimes worshipped under the shape of a leopard, and some people in the form 1 Rev. James Macdonald, Light in 2 S. L. and H. Hinde, The Last of of animals Africa, Second Edition (London, 1890), the Masai (London, 1901), pp. 1035^. pp. 20? so. Compare id.. "Manners. * T L TI r> j n X . ' y c , -r> ,- ! John Roscoe, 7 he Baganda (Lon- Customs. Superstitions, and Religions , J c c~ ^ r T -u )> T / f don, 1911), p. ^19. of South African Tribes," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xx. 4 John Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. (1891) p. 125. 163, 318. VOL. II 2 E 4i8 JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK PART n Sacrifice by The Banyoro Sacrifices offered at crossing rivers in Southern Nigeria. accounted for this by saying that a leopard had been drowned in the river. From time to time the ghost of the animal took possession of a man, who, under its inspiration, gave oracles in gruff tones and imitated the noises of a leopard. Similarly the rivers Wajale and Katonga were worshipped under the form of a lion, and the human medium who per- sonated them roared like a lion when the fit of inspiration was on him. 1 At a place on the Upper Nile, called the Karuma Falls, ^ ie ^ ow ^ t ^ ie f i ver i s broken by a line of high stones, and the water rushes down a long slope in a sort of sluice to a depth of ten feet. The native tradition runs, that the stones were placed in position by Karuma, the agent or familiar of a great spirit, who, pleased with the barrier thus erected by his servant, rewarded him by bestowing his name on the falls. A wizard used to be stationed at the place to direct the devotions of such as crossed the river. When Speke and his companions were ferried over the Nile at this point, a party of Banyoro, travelling with them, sacrificed two kids, one on either side of the river, flaying them with one long cut each down their breasts and bellies. The slaughtered animals were then laid, spread-eagle fashion, on their backs upon grass and twigs, and the travellers stepped over them, that their journey might be prosperous. The place of sacrifice was chosen under the directions of the wizard of the falls. 2 The Ituri river, one of the upper tributaries of the Congo, f orms the dividing-line between the grass land and the great forest. " When my canoe had almost crossed the clear, rapid waters, a hundred and fifty yards wide, I noticed on the opposite bank two miniature houses built close to the edge and re- sembling in every feature the huts of the villagers. The old chief was loth to explain the object of these houses, but at length I was told that they were erected for the shade of his predecessor, who was told that he must recompense them for their labours by guarding the passage of those crossing the river. From that time, whenever a caravan was seen to 1 John Roscoe, The Baganda, p. 318. 2 John Hanning Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (London, 1912), ch. xix. pp. 446, 447 sq. (Everyman's Library). CHAP, ix JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 419 approach the bank, a little food would be carried down to the ghost-houses, as a warning that the shade's protection was needed for the caravan about to cross." ] Among the Ibos of the Awka district, in Southern Nigeria, when a corpse is being carried to the grave and the bearers have to cross water, a she-goat and a hen are sacrificed to the river. 2 The Badagas, a tribe of the Neilgherry Hills in Southern Offerings India, believe in a deity named Gangamma, " who is supposed ^ de by to be present at every stream, and especially so at the Koonde Badagas of and Pykar rivers, into which it was formerly the practice for In ^ l a * every owner of cattle, which had to cross them at their height, crossing to throw a quarter of a rupee, because their cattle used fre- " quently to be carried away by the current and destroyed. It is enumerated amongst the great sins of every deceased Badaga, at his funeral, that he had crossed a stream without paying due adoration to Gangamma." 3 Again, the Todas, Ceremonies another smaller but better-known tribe of the same hills, jj^! 1 "* 1 regard two of their rivers, the Teipakh (Paikara) and the Todas at Pakhwar (Avalanche), as gods or the abodes of gods. Every . person in crossing one of these streams must put his right arm outside of his cloak in token of respect. Formerly these rivers might only be crossed on certain days of the week. When two men who are sons of a brother and a sister respectively pass in company over either of the sacred streams they have to perform a special ceremony. As they approach the river they pluck and chew some grass, and each man says to the other, " Shall I throw the river (water) ? Shall I cross the river?" Then they go down to the bank, and each man dips his hand in the river and throws a handful of water away from him thrice. After that they cross the river, each of them with his arm outside of his cloak in the usual way. But if the day is a Tuesday, Friday, or Saturday they will not throw the water, but only chew the grass. Also, if the funeral ceremonies of a person belonging to the clan of 1 Major P. H. G. Powell-Cotton, Burial Customs, "Journal of the Royal "A Journey through the Eastern Por- Anthropological Institute, xlvii. (1917) tion of the Congo State," The Geo- p. 165. graphical Journal, xxx. (1907) pp. 3 F. Metz, The Tribes inhabiting 374 sq. the Neilgherry Hills, Second Edition 2 N. W. Thomas, " Some Ibo (Mangalore, 1864), p. 68. 420 JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK PART n Chiefs and kings forbidden to cross certain rivers. Cere- monies observed by the Angoni at crossing a river. Attempt of the Toradjas to deceive water- spirits. either of the two men are not complete, they will not throw the water. The sacred dairyman (palol} of the Todas may not cross either of the holy rivers at the places used by common folk. In the old days there were certain fords where ordinary people waded through the water, but the dairyman had a ford of his own. Nowadays the Todas cross the Paikara by a bridge, but the holy milkman may not make use of the profane convenience. And in the old days no Toda who had been bitten by a snake might cross any stream whatever. 1 Among the Mahafaly and Sakalava of southern Madagascar certain chiefs are forbidden to cross certain rivers, while others are bound to go and salute all the rivers of the country. 2 In Cayor, a district of Senegal, it is believed that the king would inevitably die within the year if he were to cross a river or an arm of the sea. 3 A certain famous chief of the Angoni, in British Central Africa, was cremated near a river ; and even now, when the Angoni cross the stream, they greet it with the deep-throated manly salutation which they accord only to royalty. 4 And when the Angoni ferry over any river in a canoe they make a general confession of any sins of infidelity of which they may have been guilty towards their consorts, apparently from a notion that otherwise they might be drowned in the river. 5 The Toradjas of Central Celebes believe that water- spirits, in the shape of snakes, inhabit the deep pools and rapids of rivers. Men have to be on their guard against these dangerous beings. Hence when a Toradja is about to make a voyage down a river, he will often call out from the bank, " I am not going to-day, I will go to-morrow." The spirits hear the announcement, and if there should be amongst them one who is lying in wait for the voyager, he 1 W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (Lon- don, 1906), pp. 418 sq., 500 sq. 2 A. van Gennep, Tabou et Totem- isme a Madagascar (Paris, 1904), p. US- 8 J. B. L. Durand, Voyage au Stntgal (Paris, 1802), p. 55. * R. Sutherland Rattray, Some Folk- lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja (London, 1907), p. 190. 5 R. Sutherland Rattray, op. dt. p. 194. As to the superstitions which primitive peoples attach to the con- fession of sins, see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 114, 191, 195, 211 sq., 214 sqq. (The Golden Bough, Third Edition, Part ii.). Apparently con- fession was originally regarded as a kind of physical purge. .CHAP, ix JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 421 will imagine that the voyage has been postponed and will defer his attack accordingly till the following day. Mean- time the cunning Toradja will drop quietly down the river, laughing in his sleeve at the simplicity of the water-sprite whom he has bilked. 1 Though the exact reasons for observing many of these Attempts customs in regard to rivers may remain obscure, the general c^" n a d n ' d motive appears to be the awe and dread of rivers conceived punish the either as powerful personal beings or as haunted by mighty 1 " 5 spirits. The conception of a river as a personal being is well illustrated by a practice which is in vogue among the Kakhyeen of Upper Burma. When one of the tribe has been drowned in crossing a river the avenger of blood repairs once a year to the banks of the guilty stream, and filling a vessel full of water he hews it through with his sword, as if he were despatching a human foe. 2 Among the Santals of Bengal, when water is fetched from a tank for the purpose of bathing a bridegroom at marriage, a woman shoots an arrow into the water of the tank and another woman slashes it with a sword. Then two girls dip up the water in pots and carry it home in procession. 3 The intention of thus shooting and cutting the water before drawing it off may perhaps be to weaken the water-spirit whom you are about to rob. When the Meinam River at Bangkok has attained its highest point, and the flood begins to subside, the king of Siam deputes, or used to depute, some hundreds of Buddhist monks to accelerate the subsidence. Embarking on state barges, these holy men command the waters in the king's name to retire, and by way of reinforcing the royal commands they chant exorcisms. However, in spite of His Majesty's orders and the incantations of the monks, the rebellious river has been known to rise instead of to fall. 4 It is said that once on a time, when the Nile had flooded the land of Egypt to a depth of eighteen cubits, and the waters 1 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De riage Customs," Journal of the Bihar Bare'e-sprekende Toradja' 's van Midden- and Orissa Research Society, ii. (1916) Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), i. 276. p. 313. . * Mgr. Pallegoix, Description du * Clement Williams, J hrough ttzirma ' _, . fc ' .-. . . tir * f^-L /T-J- i. i_ j T Royaume That ou Siam (Fans, i54)> to Western China (h-dinburgh and Lon- / o- T i T> T-r *j ,- , 11. 56 ; Sir John Bownng, J he King- don. 1868), pp. 91 sq. ' , . & /T , d dom and People of Siam (London, 3 A. Campbell, D.D., " Santal Mar- 1857), i. 9. 422 JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK PART n Attempts to punish, fight, and wound the spirits of the sea. were lashed into waves by a strong wind, the Egyptian King Pheron seized a dart and hurled it into the swirling current ; but for this rash and impious act he was punished by ' the loss of his eyesight. 1 Again, we read that when Cyrus, marching against Babylon, crossed the River Gyndes, one of the sacred white horses, which accom- panied the march of the army, was swept away by the current and drowned. In a rage at this sacrilege, the king threatened the river to bring its waters so low that a woman would be able to wade through them without wetting her knees. Accordingly he employed his army in digging channels by which the water of the river was diverted from its bed, and in this futile labour the whole summer, which should have been devoted to the siege of Babylon, was wasted to gratify the childish whim of a superstitious despot. 2 Nor are the spirits of rivers the only water-divinities which bold men have dared to fight or punish. When a storm swept away the first bridge by which Xerxes spanned the Hellespont for the passage of his army, the king in a rage sentenced the straits to receive three hundred lashes and to be fettered with chains. And as the executioners plied their whips on the surface of the water, they said, " O bitter water, thy master inflicts this punishment on thee because thou hast wronged him who did no wrong to thee. But King Xerxes will cross thee, willy nilly. And it serves thee right that no man sacrifices to thee, because thou art a treacherous and a briny river." 3 The ancient Celts are said to have waded into the billows as they rolled in upon the shore, hewing and stabbing them with swords and spears, as if they could wound or frighten the ocean itself. 4 Irish legend tells of a certain Tuirbe Tragmar who, standing " on Telach Bela (the Hill of the Axe), would hurl a cast of his axe in the face of the floodtide, so that he 1 Herodotus ii. Ill; Diodorus Siculus ' 59- 2 Herodotus i. 189. However, Sir Henry Rawlinson inclined ' ' to regard the whole story as a fable, embodying some popular tradition with regard to the origin of the great hydraulic works on the Diydlah [Gyndes] below the Hamaran hills, where the river has been dammed across to raise the level of the water, and a perfect network of canals have been opened out from it on either side" (note in George Rawlin- son's Herodotus, Fourth Edition, vol. i. p. 3")- 3 Herodotus vii. 35. 4 Aelian, Varia Historia, xii. 23. CHAP, ix JACQB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 423 forbade the sea, which then would not come over the axe." l The Toradjas of Central Celebes relate that one of their tribes, which is proverbial for stupidity, once came down to the sea-shore when the tide was fut. Immediately they built a hut on the beach below high-water mark. When the tide rose and threatened to wash away the hut, they regarded it as a monster trying to devour them, and sought to appease it by throwing their whole stock of rice into the waves. As the tide still continued to advance, they next hurled their swords, spears, and chopping-knives into the sea, apparently with the intention of wounding or frightening the dangerous creature and so compelling him to retreat. 2 Once on a time, when a party of Arafoos, a tribe of mountaineers on the northern coast of Dutch New Guinea, were disporting themselves in the surf, three of them were swept out to sea by a refluent wave and drowned. To avenge the death their friends fired on the inrolling billows for hours with guns and bows and arrows. 3 Such personifications of the water as a personal being who can be cowed or overcome by physical violence, may help to explain the weird story of Jacob's adventure at the ford of the Jabbok. The tradition that a certain sinew in Jacob's thigh was The sinew strained in the struggle with his nocturnal adversary is clearly an attempt to explain why the Hebrews would not eat the Parallels corresponding sinew in animals. Both the tradition and the custom have their parallels among some tribes of North American i Indians. American Indians, who regularly cut out and throw away the hamstrings of the deer they kill. 4 The Cherokee Indians assign two reasons for the practice. One is that " this tendon, when severed, draws up into the flesh ; ergo, any one who 1 Whitley Stokes, "The Edinburgh Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), i. 37. Dinnshencha S /'^-/^,iv. (I893)P. 3 R E . Moolenburgh, " Enkele t, Compare StandishH.OGrady, ethn fische byzonderheden van de Silva Gadehca .Translation and notes ^.^ ^^ Nieuw . Guineaj (London and Edinburgh, 1892) p. 518. Tijdschrift V van het Kon inklijk Neder- These Celtic, Persian, and Egyptian * j i. * j / / j- /~ / r, j. . & /^ . , landsch Aardnikskunai? Genootscnap, parallels have already been cited, with , ,.-'. T , , * . - . J Tweede Sene, xix. (Leyden, 1902) p. more legends of the same sort, by Mr. , E. S. Hartland, in his essay, "The Boldness of the Celts," Ritual and 4 I have collected the evidence in Belief^ London, 1914), pp. 161 sqq. Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 2 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De 264 sqq. ( The Golden Bough, Third Bare'e-sprekende Toradjas van Midden- Edition, Part v.). 424 JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK PART n should unfortunately partake of the hamstring would find his limbs draw up in the same manner." ] The other reason is that if, "instead of cutting out the hamstring and throwing it away the hunter were to oat it, he would thereafter easily grow tired in travelling. 2 Both reasons assume the principle of sympathetic magic, though they apply it differently. The one supposes that, if you eat a sinew which shrinks, the corre- sponding sinew in your own body will shrink likewise. The other seems to assume that if you destroy the sinew without which the deer cannot walk, you yourself will be incapacitated from walking in precisely the same way. Both reasons are thoroughly in keeping with savage philosophy. Either of them would suffice to account for the Hebrew taboo. On this theory the narrative in Genesis supplies a religious sanc- tion for a rule which was originally based on sympathetic magic alone. The story of Jacob's wrestling with the nocturnal phantom and extorting a blessing from his reluctant adversary at the break of dawn has a close parallel in the superstition of the ancient Mexicans. They thought that the great god Tezcatlipoca used to roam about at night in the likeness of a gigantic man wrapt in an ash-coloured sheet and carry- ing his head in his hand. When timid people saw this dreadful apparition they fell to the ground in a faint and died soon afterwards, but a brave man would grapple with the phantom and tell him that he would not let him go till the sun rose. But the spectre would beg his adversary to release him, threatening to curse him if he did not. Should the man, however, succeed in holding the horrible being fast till day was just about to break, the spectre changed his tune and offered to grant the man any boon he might ask for, such as riches or invincible strength, if only he would unhand him and let him go before the dawn. The human victor in this tussle with a superhuman foe received from his vanquished enemy four thorns of a certain sort as a token of victory. Nay, a very valiant man would wrench the heart from the breast of the phantom, wrap it up in a 1 J. Mooney, " Sacred Formulas of 2 James Mooney, "Myths of the the Cherokees," Seventh Annual Re- Cherokee," Nineteenth Annual Report port of the Bureau of Ethnology (Wash- of the Bureau of American Ethnology ington, 1891), p. 323. (Washington, 1900), Part i. p. 263. CHAP, ix JACOB AT THE FORD OF THE JABBOK 425 cloth, and carry it home. But when he undid the cloth to gloat over the trophy, he would find nothing in it but some white feathers, or a thorn, or it might be only a cinder or an old rag. 1 1 Juan de Torquemada, Monarquia Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et Indiana (Madrid, 1723), ii. 578. Com- Remi Simeon (Paris, 1880), pp. 297- pare Bernardino de Sahagun, Histoire 299, 304 so. GfnfraU des. (hoses de la Nouvelk CHAPTER X Joseph's divining cup. Divination by means of images in water in classical antiquity. JOSEPH'S CUP WHEN his brethren came to Egypt to procure corn during the famine, and were about to set out on their homeward journey to Palestine, Joseph caused his silver drinking-cup to be hidden in the mouth of Benjamin's sack. Then when the men were gone out of the city and were not yet far off, he sent his steward after them to tax them with theft in having stolen his cup. A search was accordingly made in the sacks, and the missing cup was found in Benjamin's sack. The steward reproached the brethren with their ingratitude to his master, who had treated them hospitably, and whose kindness they had repaid by robbing him of the precious goblet. " Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good ? " he asked. "Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby he indeed divineth ? ye have done evil in so doing." And when the brethren were brought back and confronted with Joseph, he repeated these reproaches, saying, " What deed is this that ye have done ? know ye not that such a man as I can indeed divine ? " l Hence we may infer that Joseph piqued himself in particular on his power of detecting a thief by means of his divining cup. The use of a cup in divination has been not uncommon both in ancient and modern tin>es, though the particular mode of employing it for that purpose has not always been the same. Thus in the life of the Neoplatonic philosopher Isidorus we read that the sage fell in with a sacred woman, who possessed a divine talent of a remarkable kind. She used to pour clean water into a crystal cup, and from the appearances in the water she predicted the things that should 1 Genesis xliv. 1-15- 426 CHAP, x JOSEPH'S CUP 427 come to pass. 1 Such predictions from appearances in water formed a special branch of divination, on which the Greeks bestowed the name of hydromantia ; sometimes a particular sort of gem was put in the water for the sake of evoking the images of the gods. 2 King Numa is said to have divined by means of the images of the gods which he saw in water, but we are not told that he used a cup for the purpose ; more probably he was supposed to have beheld the divine figures in a pool of the sacred spring Egeria, to the spirit of which he was wedded. 3 When the people of Tralles, in Caria, desired to ascertain what would be the result of the Mithridatic war, they employed a boy, who, gazing into water, professed to behold in it the image of Mercury and, under the inspiration of the divine manifestation, chanted the coming events in a hundred and sixty verses. 4 The Persians are related to have been adepts in the art of water- divination ; 5 indeed the art is said to have been imported into the West from Persia. 6 The report may have been merely an inference from the place which the reverence for water held in the old Persian religion. 7 How Joseph used his magic cup for the detection of a Divination thief or for other purposes of divination we do not know, O f images but we may conjecture that he was supposed to draw his in water inferences from figures which appeared to him in the water. Certainly this mode of divination is still practised in Egypt, mode and it may have been in vogue in that conservative country from remote antiquity. Its modern name is the Magic Mirror. " The magic mirror is much employed. A pure innocent boy (not more than twelve years of age) is directed to look into a cup filled with water and inscribed with texts, while under his cap is stuck a paper, also with writing on it, so as to hang over his forehead ; he is also fumigated with 1 Damascius, " Vita Isidori," in Dei, vii. 35. Photius, Bibliotheca, ed. Im. Bekker 4 Apuleius, De Magia, 42, referring (Berlin, 1824), p. 347 B. Compare to Varro as his authority. JamblichuS, De Mysteriis, iii. 14. 5 Strabo xvi. 2. 39, p. 762, ed. 2 Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxvii. 192, Casaubon. " Anancitide in hydromantia dicunt 6 Varro, in Augustine, De civitate evocari imagines de&rum." What kind Dei, vii. 35. of stone the ananciiis may have been 7 Thomas Hyde, Historia Religioms appears to be unknown. veterum Persarum (Oxford I7o), cap. 3 Varro, in Augustine, De civitate vi. pp. 137 sqq. 428 JOSEPH'S CUP Divination by means of images in ink in modern Egypt. incense, while sentences are murmured by the conjuror. After a little time, when the boy is asked what he sees, he says that he sees persons moving in the water, as if in a mirror. The conjuror orders the boy to lay certain commands on the spirit, as for instance to set* up a tent, or to bring coffee and pipes. All this is done at once. The conjuror asks the inquisitive spectators to name any person whom they wish to appear on the scene, and some name is mentioned, no matter whether the person is living or dead. The boy com- mands the spirit to bring him. In a few seconds he is pres- ent, and the boy proceeds to describe him. The description, however, according to our own observation, is always quite wide of the mark. The boy excuses himself by saying that the person brought before him will not come right into the middle, and always remains half in the shade ; but at other times he sees the persons really and in motion. When a theft is committed the magic mirror is also sometimes questioned, as we ourselves were witnesses on one occasion. (This is called darb el mandel.} The accusations of the boy fell upon a person who was afterwards proved to be quite innocent, but whom the boy, as it appeared, designedly charged with the crime out of malevolence. For this reason such experiments, formerly much in vogue, were strictly pro- hibited by the government, though they are still practised." ] Sometimes in Egypt the magic mirror used in divination is formed, not by water in a cup, but by ink poured into the palm of the diviner's hand, but the principle and the mode of procedure are the same in both cases. The diviner pro- fesses to see in the ink the figures of the persons, whether alive or dead, whom the inquirer desires him to summon up. The magic mirror of ink, like the magic mirror of water, is resorted to for the detection of a thief and other purposes. The persons who can see in it are a boy under puberty, a virgin, a black female slave, and a pregnant woman, but apparently a boy under puberty is most commonly employed. A magic square is drawn with ink in the palm of his hand, and in the centre of the square a little pool of ink serves as the magic mirror. While the diviner 1 C. B. Klunzinger, Upper Egypt, its People and its Products (London, 1878), pp. 387 sq. CHAP, x JOSEPH'S CUP 429 is gazing into it, incense is burnt, and pieces of paper with charms written on them are consumed in the fire. 1 When Kinglake was in Cairo he sent for a magician and invited him to give a specimen of his skill. The magician, a stately old man with flowing beard, picturesquely set off by a vast turban and ample robes, employed a boy to gaze into a blot of ink in his palm and there to descry the image of such a person as the Englishman might name. Kinglake called for Keate, his old headmaster at Eton, a ferocious dominie of the ancient school, short in figure and in temper, with shaggy red eyebrows and other features to match. In response to this call the youthful diviner professed to see in the inky mirror the image of a fair girl, with golden hair, blue eyes, pallid face, and rosy lips. When Kinglake burst into a roar of laughter, the discomfited magician declared that the boy must have known sin, and incontinently kicked him down stairs. 2 Similar modes of divination have been practised in Divination other parts of the world. Thus, in Scandinavia people used b x means of images. to go to a diviner on a Thursday evening in order to see in in water in a pail of water the face of the thief who had robbed them. 3 Scandl - navia and The Tahitians " have a singular mode of detecting a thief, in Tahiti, any case of stolen goods, by applying to a person possess- ing the spirit of divination, who, they observe, is always sure to show them the face of the thief reflected from a calabash of clear water." ' This latter oracle has been described more fully by another writer. The natives of Tahiti, he tells us, " had also recourse to several kinds of divination, for discover- ing the perpetrators of acts of injury, especially theft. Among these was a kind of water ordeal. It resembled in a great degree the wai haruru of the Hawaiians. When the parties who had been robbed wished to use this method of discover- ing the thief, they sent for a priest, who, on being informed of the circumstances connected with the theft, offered 1 E. W. Lane, Account of the 3 Sven Nilsson, The Primitive In- Manners and Customs of the Modern habitants of Scandinavia, Third Edition Egyptians (Paisley and London, 1895), (London, 1868), p. 241. chap. xii. pp. 276-284. 2 A. W. Kinglake, Eothen, ch.,xviii. * John Turnbull, A Voyage round pp. 216-218 (Temple Classics edition, the World, Second Edition (London, London, 1901). ^IS), p. 343. 430 JOSEPH'S CUP PART i prayers to his demon. He now directed a hole to be dug in the floor of the house, and filled with water ; then, taking a young plantain in his hand, he stood over the hole, and offered his prayers to the god, whom he invoked, and who, if propitious, was supposed to conduct the spirit of the thief to the house, and place it over the water. The image of the spirit, which they imagined resembled the person of the man, was, according to their account, reflected in the water, and being perceived by the priest, he named the individual, or the parties, who had committed the theft, stating that the god had shewn him the image in the water." l Divination When Sir Frank Swettenham had been robbed in by means fa e Malay Peninsula, he was introduced to an Arab, who of images * in water in asserted that he would be able to tell him all about the Prah^ufa r bbery, provided he might fast in solitude for three days in New an empty house, but that without such a preparation he Africa?'and cou ld not see what he sought. "He told me that after his among the vigil, fast, and prayer, he would lay in his hand a small piece of paper on which there would be some writing ; into this he would pour a little water, and in that extemporised mirror he would see a vision of the whole transaction. He declared that, after gazing intently into this divining-glass, the inquirer first recognised the figure of a little old man ; that having duly saluted this Jin, it was only necessary to ask him to conjure up the scene of the robbery, when all the details would be re-enacted in the liquid glass under the eyes of the gazer, who would there and then describe all that he saw." 2 Some diviners in South-Eastern New Guinea profess to descry the face of a culprit in a pool of water into which coco-nut oil has been squeezed. 3 Among the Mossi, a nation of the French Sudan, in the upper valley of the Niger, the royal pages, who are boys under puberty, are bound to observe strict continence. Once a year their chastity is tested as follows. Each page must look at his reflection in a cala- bash of water, and from the appearance of the reflection it is judged whether he has been chaste or not. In former days, 1 William Ellis, Polynesian Re- New York, 1895), PP- 201-203 > W. searches, Second Edition (London, W. Skeat, Malay Magic (London, 1832-1836), i. 378 sq. 1900), pp. 538 sq. a (Sir) Frank Athelstane Swetten- 3 Henry Newton, In Far New ham, Malay Sketches (London and Guinea (London, 1914), pp. 89 sq. CHAP, x JOSEPH'S CUP 431 before the French occupation of the country, any page thus convicted of unchastity was executed on the spot. Every year the faithfulness of the king's wives was tested by a similar ordeal, and all who were found guilty were put to death. 1 Among the Eskimo, when a man has gone out to sea and has not returned in due time, a wizard will under- take to ascertain by means of the magic mirror whether the missing man is alive or dead. For this purpose he lifts up the head of the nearest relation of the missing man with a stick ; a tub of water stands under, and in this mirror the wizard professes to behold the image of the absent mariner either overset in his canoe or sitting upright and rowing. Thus he is able either to comfort the anxious relatives with an assurance of the safety of their friend or to confirm their worst fears by the tidings of his death. 2 An early Christian writer has let us into the secret of Vision of the tricks to which ancient oracle-mongers resorted for the ^^. m purpose of gratifying their dupes with a vision of the gods revealed to in water. They had a closed chamber built, the roof of andem' 7 which was painted blue. In the middle of the floor they oracle- set a vessel full of water which, reflecting the blue roof, presented the appearance of the sky. The vessel was made of stone, but it had a glass bottom, and beneath it was an opening into a secret chamber under the floor, where the confederates of the prophet assembled and played the parts which he assigned to them immediately under the oracular chasm. Meantime the inquirers of the oracle, gazing into the water, beheld, as they thought, a miraculous vision, and accordingly believed implicitly all that the prophet told them. 3 But the magic mirror is not the only form of divination Other in which the material instrument employed for the discovery ^y^ e a s ti f n of truth is a vessel of water. An Indian mode of detecting by means a thief is to inscribe the names of all the suspected persons f * a t " el on separate balls of paste or wax, and then to throw the balls into a vessel of water. It is believed that the ball which contains the name of the thief will float on the sur- 1 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan 3 Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium (Paris, 1912), pp. 570, 572. Haeresium, iv. 35, pp, 100, 102, ed. 2 David Crantz, History of Green- L. Duncker et F. G. Schneidewin land (London, 1767),!. 214. (Gottingen, 1859). 432 JOSEPH'S CUP Divination by the position or configura- tion of things dropped into water. Divination by tea- leaves in a cup. face, and that all the others will sink to the bottom. 1 In Europe young people used to resort to many forms of divination on Midsummer Eve in order to ascertain their fortune in love. Thus in Dorsetshire a girl on going to bed would write the letters of the alphabet on scraps of paper and drop them in a basin of water with the letters down- wards ; and next morning she would expect to find the first letter of her future husband's name turned up, but all the other letters still turned down. 2 In Shropshire a girl will sometimes write the initials of several young men of her acquaintance on bits of paper, wrap a little ball of bread in each paper, and put the small packets in a glass of water ; the young man whose initials first rise to the surface will win her hand. 3 Sometimes the fates are ascertained by dropping sub- stances of one kind or another in a vessel of water and judg- ing of the issue by the position or configuration which the substance assumes in the water. Thus among the Bahima or Banyankole, a pastoral tribe of Central Africa, in the Uganda Protectorate, a medicine -man would sometimes take a pot of water and cast certain herbs into it, which caused a froth to rise ; then he dropped four coffee-berries into the water, marked the positions which they took up, and inferred the wishes of the gods according to the direc- tion in which the berries pointed or the side which they turned up in floating. 4 Among the Garos of Assam a priest will sometimes divine by means of a cup of water and some grains of uncooked rice. Holding the cup of water in his left hand, he drops the rice into it, grain by grain, calling out the name of a spirit as each grain falls. The spirit who chances to be named at the moment when two grains, float- ing in the water, collide with each other, is the one who must be propitiated. 5 In Scotland a tea-stalk floating on the surface of a tea-cup was supposed to betoken a stranger. 1 James Forbes, Oriental Memoirs (London, 1813), ii. 245 sg. 2 William Hone, Year Book (Lon- don, N.D.), col. 1176. 3 Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore (London, 1883), p. 179. It does not appear that this mode of divination is practised only on Midsummer Eve. 4 John Roscoe, The Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915). P- J 35- 5 Major A. Playfair, The Garos (London, 1909), p. 97. CHAP, x JOSEPH'S CUP 433 " It was taken from the cup and tested with the teeth whether soft or hard. If soft, the stranger was a female ; if hard, a male. It was then put on the back of the left hand and struck three times with the back of the right. The left hand was then held up and slightly shaken. If the tea-stalk fell off, the stranger was not to arrive ; if it stuck, the stranger would arrive." l In the Highlands of Scotland the art of divining by the tea-leaves or sediment in a tea-cup was carried out in still greater detail. Even yet, we are told, young women resort in numbers to fortune-tellers of this class, who, for the simple reward of the tea, spell out to them most excellent matches. The prediction is made from the arrangement of the sediment or tea-leaves in the cup after the last of the liquid has been made to wash the sides of the cup in the deiseal or right- hand-turn direction and then poured out. 2 In England similar prophecies are hazarded from tea-leaves and coffee- grounds left at the bottom of cups. 3 So in Macedonia people divine by coffee. " One solitary bubble in the centre of the cup betokens that the person holding it possesses one staunch and faithful friend. If there are several bubbles forming a ring close to the edge of the cup, they signify that he is fickle in his affections, and that his heart is divided between several objects of worship. The grounds of coffee are likewise observed and variously explained according to the forms which they assume : if they spread round the cup in the shape of rivulets and streams money is prognosticated, and so forth." 4 In Europe a favourite mode of divination is practised Divination by pouring molten lead or wax into a vessel of water and 1^,!^ watching the forms which the substance assumes as it cools in a vessel in the water. This way of prying into the future has been resorted to in Lithuania, Sweden, Scotland, and. Ireland. 5 1 Rev. Walter Gregor, Notes on the 5 J. Lasicius, De diis Samagitarum Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland caeterorumque Sarmatarum, reprinted (London, 1881), pp. 31 sq. in Magazin herausgegeben von der - Rev. J. G. Campbell, Superstitions Lettisch-Literdrischen Gesellschaft, xiv. of the Highlands and Islands of Scot- Part i. (Mitau, 1 868) p. 98 ; L. Lloyd, land (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 266^. Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), 3 John Brand, Popular Antiqtiities p. 187 ; J. G. Dalyell, Darker Super- of Great Britain (London, 1 882- 1 883 ), stitions of Scotland ( Edinburgh, 1 834), iii. 330. pp. 511 sq.; A. C. Haddon, " A Batch 4 G. F. Abbott, Macedonian Folk- of Irish Folk-lore," Folk-lore, iv. (1893) lore (Cambridge, 1903), p. 95. pp. 361 sq. VOL. II 2 F 434 JOSEPH'S CUP PART n Again, in Ireland a certain disease called esane was supposed to be sent by the fairies, and in order to prognosticate its course or prescribe for its treatment diviners used to inspect coals which they had dropped into a pot of clean water. 1 In one or other of these ways Joseph may be supposed to have divined by means of his silver cup. 1 William Camden, Britannia, ing into water, see N. W. Thomas, translated by Philemon Holland (Lon- Crystal Gazing (London, 1905), pp. don, 1610), "Ireland," p. 147. For 42 sqq. ; Edward Clodd, The Question other examples of divination by look- (London, 1917), pp. 155. sqq. PART III 435 CHAPTER I MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES WITH the life of Joseph the patriarchal age of Israel may The be said to end. A brilliant series of biographical sketches, vivid in colouring and masterly in the delineation of char- with acter, has described the march of the patriarchs from the banks of the Euphrates to the banks of the Nile. There national the historian leaves them for a time. The curtain descends on the first act of the drama, and when it rises again on begins with Moses. the same scene, some four hundred years are supposed to have elapsed, 1 and the patriarchal family has expanded into a nation. From this point the national history begins, and the first commanding figure in it is that of Moses, the great leader and lawgiver, who is said to have delivered his people from bondage in Egypt, to have guided them in their / wanderings across the Arabian desert, to have moulded their institutions, and finally to have died within sight of the Promised Land, which he was not to enter. There seems to be no sufficient reason to doubt that in these broad outlines the tradition concerning him is correct. In the story of his exploits, as in that of so many national heroes, later ages unquestionably embroidered the sober tissue of fact with the gay threads of fancy ; yet the change thus wrought in the web has not been so great as to dis- guise the main strands beyond recognition. We can still trace the limbs of the man under the gorgeous drapery of 1 Four hundred years, according to is compared with the reckoning by Genesis xv. 1 3 ; four hundred and generations. On this subject the corn- thirty years, according to Exodus xii. mentators on Exodus, particularly 40 sq. Either number creates a Dillmann, Bennett, and Driver, may serious chronological difficulty when it be consulted. 437 438 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in The element of the marvellous in the story of Moses. The birth and exposure of Moses and his fortunate preserva- tion. the magician who confronted Pharaoh and wrought plagues on all the land of Egypt ; we can still perceive the human features through the nimbus of supernatural glory which shone on the features of the saint and prophet as he descended from the mountain, where he had conversed with God and had received from the divine hands a new code of law for his people. It is indeed remarkable that, though Moses stands so much nearer than the patriarchs to the border line of history, the element of the marvellous and the miraculous enters much more deeply into his story than into theirs. While from time to time they are said to have communed with the deity, either face to face or in visions, not one of them is represented as a worker of those signs and wonders which occur so frequently in the career of Moses. We see them moving as men among men, attend- ing to the common business and sharing the common joys and sorrows of humanity. Moses, on the other hand, from the beginning to the end of his life is represented as set apart for a great mission and moving accordingly on a higher pla'ne than ordinary mortals, with hardly any traces of those frailties which are incidental to all men, and which, touched in by a delicate brush, add so much life-like colour to the portraits of the patriarchs. That is why the simple humanity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob touches us all so much more nearly than the splendid but solitary figure of Moses. Like all the events of his life, the birth of Moses is encircled in tradition with a halo of romance. After the death of Joseph and his brethren, their descendants, the children of Israel, are said to have multiplied so fast in Egypt that the Egyptians viewed them with fear and dis- trust, and attempted to check their increase by putting them to hard service. When this harsh treatment failed to produce the desired effect, the king of Egypt issued orders that all male Hebrew children should be killed at birth, and when the cruel command was evaded by the humane subterfuge of the midwives who were charged to carry it out, he commanded all his people to fling every Hebrew man-child at birth into the river. Accordingly, on the birth of Moses, his mother hid him at first for three months, and CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 439 when she could hide him no longer she made an ark of bulrushes, or rather of papyrus, daubed it with slime and pitch, and put the child therein. Then she carried the ark out sadly and laid it in the flags by the river's brink. But the child's elder sister stood afar off to know what should become of her little brother. Now it chanced that the daughter of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, came down to bathe at the river, and spying the ark among the flags she sent one of her maidens to fetch it. When the ark was brought and opened, the princess saw the child in it, and behold, the babe wept. So she had compassion on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." While she was looking at him, the child's sister, who had been watching and had seen all that had happened, came up and said to the princess, " Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?" And Pharaoh's daughter said, "Go." And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, " Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." So the mother took her child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, " Because," she said, " I drew him out of the water." ] While this story of the birth and upbringing of Moses is Similar free from all supernatural elements, it nevertheless presents features which may reasonably be suspected of belonging to exposure the realm of folk-lore rather than of history. In order, apparently, to enhance the wonder of his hero's career, the tk>nof remarkable story-teller loves to relate how the great man or woman was person- exposed at birth, and was only rescued from imminent death a & es - by what might seem to vulgar eyes an accident, but what really proved to be the finger of Fate interposed to preserve the helpless babe for the high destiny that awaited him or her. Such incidents are probably in most cases to be regarded as embellishments due to the invention of the narrator, picturesque touches added by him to heighten the effect of a plain tale which he deemed below the dignity of his subject. 1 Exodus i., ii. 1-10. 440 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in Story of the Thus, for example, the legendary Semiramis, queen of eX d S reser Assyria, is said to have been a daughter of the Syrian vation of goddess Derceto by a mortal man. When the child was queen 3 " 5 ' born, the goddess, ashamed of her slip, exposed the infant in Assyria. a rocky place and left it to perish there of cold and hunger. But it so happened that a great multitude of doves had their nests on the spot, and they took pity on the forsaken babe. Some of them brooded over it and warmed its cold body with their soft plumage ; others brought milk in their bills from a neighbouring herd of cows and dropped it into the infant's tender mouth. In time, as it grew stronger and needed more solid food, the doves attacked the cheeses in the dairy, and nibbling off morsels they brought them and so fed the child. But the herdsmen marked how their cheeses were nibbled by the doves, and following the birds in their flight they found the fair infant. So they took her up and brought her home, and presented hqr to the master of the king's herds, who, being childless, adopted her and reared her as his own. When she had grown to marriageable age and surpassed all the maidens of the land in beauty, it chanced that one of the king's officers was sent to inspect the royal herds, and he, seeing the lovely damsel Semiramis, fell in love with and . married her. Afterwards she displayed so much military talent that she attracted the notice of Ninus himself, the king of Assyria, who, charmed alike by her beauty and her genius, obliged her husband by threats to take his own life, and then married the fair widow and made her his consort on the throne. Her name was supposed to be derived from a Syrian word for " dove," because doves had nursed her in infancy, and henceforth the birds were deemed sacred by all the Syrians. 1 Story of the A somewhat similar story was told of Gilgamesh or and S reser Gilgamus, as the Greeks called him, the legendary Babylonian vation of hero, whose deeds and sufferings form the theme of the now Gilgamesh, f amous e pj c na med after him. It is said that in the reign Giigamus, of Seuechoras, king of Babylon, the Chaldeans predicted that Babylon. tne king' 8 daughter would bear a son who should deprive his grandsire of the kingdom. Hence, in order to prevent her from fulfilling the prophecy, her royal father kept her 1 Diodorus Siculus ii. 4. CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 441 straitly shut up in the citadel. But his precautions were vain. Love found a way through the bolts and bars, and the princess was discovered to be with child by a father unknown. Her guardians, dreading the king's anger at their lack of vigilance, cast the new-born babe from the parapet of the castle wall, thinking to dash it to pieces on the rocks below. But at that moment an eagle, which had been circling overhead, swooped down, intercepted the falling infant before it could reach the ground, and bearing it on its back, deposited it gently in a garden. The gardener beheld the handsome boy with admiration, took him home, and reared him as his own. The boy was Gilgamesh, and he lived to succeed his grandfather on the throne of Babylon. 1 A real historical personage who is said to have been Story of the exposed in his infancy was Cyrus, the first king of Persia. ^^preLr- His mother was Mandace, daughter of Astyages, the king vatioaof of the Medes. Now it chanced that while Mandace was onPersia? 8 still a maid her royal father dreamed a dream, in which it seemed to him that a flood issued from his daughter's body The and overwhelmed the whole of Asia. Alarmed at the portent, minous . f dreams. he consulted the Magians, whose business it was to interpret dreams. On their advice he gave his daughter in marriage to a Persian named Cambyses, a man of good family, but of a quiet, unambitious turn of mind. From such a union of his daughter with a man of a subject race (for the Persians acknowledged the sway of the Medes) the king thought that no danger could arise to his dynasty. Nevertheless, after Mandace was married to Cambyses, her royal father dreamed another dream, and behold he saw growing out of his daughter's body a vine which overshadowed the whole of Asia. The king again betook him to the interpreters of dreams, and asked them the meaning of the dream. It betokened, they said, that his daughter would give birth to a son who should reign in his stead. So the king kept his The king's daughter, who was now with child, under watch and ward ; cc and when her infant, the future Cyrus, was born, the king sent for his grand vizier, Harpagus by name, and charged him to take away the child and destroy it. His minister promised 1 Aelian, De natura animalium, xii. 21. 442 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in The minister's disobedi- ence. The herdsman's wife has compassion on the princely babe and saves its life. The youthful prince reveals himself. to obey, and taking up the babe, arrayed in fine clothes and golden jewellery, he carried it, weeping as he went, to his house. There he told his wife the secret, but fearing the future vengeance of the printess if he put her infant to death with his own hands, he resolved to turn over the office of executioner to one of the king's own servants. Accordingly he sent for one of the king's herdsmen, by name Mitradates, who fed his flocks on high and thickly wooded mountains, the haunt of wild beasts. Into his hands the grand vizier committed the royal babe, saying, " The king commands thee to leave this child to perish in the most solitary part of the mountains. But if thou shalt save it alive, surely the king will put thee to a most painful death. And when the child is exposed, I am ordered to go and see its dead body." So the herdsman took up the babe in his arms and carried it to his cottage among the hills. Now so it was that his wife had been with child, and in his absence she had been delivered, but the infant was still-born. And when her husband returned carrying a handsome baby boy, adorned with fine raiment and jewels of gold, her heart went out to it, and she entreated her husband to give her the live child, but to take her dead child, dress it in the clothes and trinkets of the royal infant, and to expose the little corpse, thus bedecked, in a lonely place among the mountains. " Thus," said she, " our own child will receive a royal funeral, and we shall save the life of the princely infant." The advice seemed good, and her husband followed it. So when their dead child, wrapt in regal finery, had lain stark and cold on the mountains for three days, the herdsman reported to the grand vizier that his commands had been obeyed, and the vizier sent some of his trustiest guards, and they brought him word of what they had seen, and how they had buried the infant. Thus the young prince Cyrus grew up in the wild mountains as the putative son of the king's herdsman. But when he was ten years old his masterful temperament betrayed his royal lineage. For it happened that one day his playfellows chose him to be their king, and in that capacity he issued his orders to them. But one of them, the son of a noble Mede, disobeyed him, so Cyrus ordered some of the other boys to hold him down, while he himself administered a sound whipping to the small rebel. CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 443 On being released, the young nobleman hastened home to the city, and there complained bitterly to his noble father of the treatment to which he, a boy of blue blood, had been subjected by the herdsman's son. His father shared his indignation, and hurrying to court laid the matter before King Astyages himself. The monarch sent for the herdsman and his reputed son, and from the lad's likeness to himself, and from the bold answers he gave to the king's questions, he began to suspect how the land lay. At first the herdsman attempted to deny The the lad's real parentage, but the threat of torture extorted the truth from his reluctant lips. The murder, or rather the discovered, failure of the murder, was now out ; and the king had to decide what to do with his grandson, thus unexpectedly restored to life. The interpreters of dreams were again sent for, and, on weighing the whole matter in the balance of their science, they pronounced that the king's dreams had been fulfilled by the kingly title which had been bestowed on his youthful grandson by his playfellows, and by the kingly power which he had exercised over them ; he had reigned once, and could not reign a second time, so his grand- father need not fear to be ousted by him from the throne. The verdict of the sages apparently chimed in with the old king's own inclination, for he acquiesced in it and sent the boy away to live with his true parents, Cambyses and Mandace, among the Persians. But on the grand vizier The king's Harpagus, who had disobeyed him, the king took a cruel revenge ; for he caused the vizier's only son to be murdered, and his flesh to be cooked and served up to his unwitting father at a banquet. When the father learned " what wild beast's flesh he had partaken of," as the tyrant put it grimly to him, all that the accomplished courtier said in reply was, " The king's will be done." l Such is the story of the birth and upbringing of Cyrus Another as it is related by Herodotus. But the father of history t he infant appears to have omitted a not unimportant feature of the Cyrus was iii-iii 11 i_*' suckled by legend, which has been preserved by a much later historian. a bitch. According to Justin, the infant Cyrus was actually exposed by the herdsman, but afterwards rescued by him at the entreaty of his wife. When he went to recover the forsaken 1 Herodotus L 107-122. 444 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in babe in the forest, he found a bitch in the act of suckling the infant and protecting it from the attacks of wild beasts and birds ; and when he took up the child in his arms and carried it home, the bitch trotted anxiously at his heels. Hence the herdsman's wife, who nursed the youthful Cyrus, received the name of Spaco, which in the Persian language meant a bitch. 1 As Herodotus also tells us that the woman's name was Spaco, which in the Median tongue signified a bitch, 2 we may infer with some probability that he knew but disbelieved the story of the suckling of Cyrus by a bitch, accounting for its origin in a euhemeristic fashion through the name of the child's nurse. story of the In Greek legend the incident of the hero exposed in exposure infancy and wonderfully preserved for future greatness occurs and preser- J J r vation of repeatedly. Thus Acrisius, king of Argos, had a daughter kimTof ' Danae, but no son, and when he inquired of the Delphic oracle Argos. how he should obtain male offspring, he was answered that his 'daughter would give birth to a son who should kill him. To guard against this catastrophe the king caused his daughter to be shut up in a brazen underground chamber, that no man might come at her. But Zeus, in the form of a shower of gold, contrived to make his way through the roof into the maiden's cell, and she became the mother of Perseus by the god. In vain did the mother protest her innocence and tell the true, story of the infant's miraculous birth ; her father, a shallow sceptic, refused to believe in the divine parentage, and obstinately persisted in asserting, in coarse and vulgar language, that his daughter was no better than she should be. The painful altercation ended in the king's peremptorily ordering the hussy and her brat to be shut up in a chest and thrown into the sea. The stern command was obeyed. The chest with its living freight drifted to the island of Seriphus, where it was caught and drawn ashore by a fisher- man in his net. On opening the chest and beholding the mother and her child, he was touched with compassion, took them to his home, and brought up the boy, who received the name of Perseus, and, after performing many 1 Justin i. 4. in Sanscrit and Zend, in Russian under 2 Herodotus i. no. "A root spak the form of sa&ac, and in some parts of or svak is common for 'dog' in the modern Persia as aspaka." (G. Raw- Indo-European languages. It occurs linson's note on Herodotus, I.e.) CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 445 marvellous deeds, fulfilled the oracle by accidentally killing his grandsire Acrisius with a quoit, and so succeeded to his kingdom. 1 A like tale was told of another Greek hero, Telephus. story of the It is said that when Hercules was journeying through Arcadia andpreser- he lodged with Aleus, king of Tegea, and made an ill return vation of for the hospitality which he received by debauching the king's daughter Auge, and she bore him a son. Taxed by her angry father with the loss of her honour, the damsel stoutly maintained that the father of her child was no other than Hercules. As usual, the stern parent refused to believe the true but wondrous tale, which he treated as a cock and bull story vamped up by a guilty woman to cloak her sin. So he ordered his friend Nauplius to put the mother and her child into a chest and cast them into the sea. But the chest drifted to the mouth of the Caicus river in Mysia, where it was found by Teuthras, king of the country, who married Auge and brought up her son Telephus as his own. 2 Accord- ing to another account, when Auge had given birth to her son, she hid him on Mount Parthenius, that is, the Maiden's Mount, where a doe found and suckled the forsaken infant. There, too, the shepherds of King Corythus found him and brought him to their master, who adopted him and called him Telephus, because he had been suckled by a doe. When Telephus grew to manhood he repaired to Delphi and inquired of the oracle after his mother. The god directed him to go to Mysia, where he discovered his mother Auge wedded to King Teuthras. Having no male offspring, the king gave Telephus his daughter to wife and appointed him heir to the throne. 3 The suckling of Telephus by the doe was a favourite subject of ancient artists ; it was represented, for example, by a statue in the grove of the Muses on Mount Helicon, 4 and it was particularly popular at Pergamus in Mysia, where Telephus was a national hero. Hence the scene of his nurture by the doe figures on coins of the city, 1 Pherecydes, quoted by the scholiast 3 Diodorus Siculus iv. 33 ; Apollo- on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, iv. dorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 7. 4, iii. 9. i ; 1091 ; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 4. Pausanias viii. 48. 7, viii. 54. 6 ; Horace converted the bronze dungeon J. Tzetzes, Scholia on Lycophron, 206 ; into a bronze tower (Odes, iii. 1 6. I). Hyginus, Fab. 99 sq. 8 Strabo xiii. I. 69. 4 Pausanias ix. 31. 2. 446 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in and the same theme recurs in the series of reliefs which adorned the great altar on the acropolis, though here the animal which suckled the infant appears to be represented as Storyofthe a lioness rather than a doe. 1 Aegisthus, the murderer of andpreser- Agamemnon, is said to have been the fruit of incestuous vation of intercourse between his mother Pelopia and her father Thyestes ; when he was born his mother exposed him, but shepherds found the child and gave him to a she-goat to suckle. 2 Storyofthe Another hero of Greek legend who was said to have and S reser- ^> een exposed in his youth was Oedipus. His father Laius, vation of king of Thebes, had been warned by the Delphic oracle that king^T' nis w 'f e Jocasta would bear him a son who would slay his Thebes. father. Hence the king avoided consorting with his queen, until one fatal night, heated with wine, he forgot his caution and admitted her to his bed. She bore him a son, but within three days of his birth, to frustrate the decree of fate, she pierced and fastened the infant's ankles together with bodkins, and gave him to a shepherd to expose on the heights of Mount Cithaeron. But unwilling to leave the royal infant to perish, the herdsman passed him on to another shepherd, the servant of Polybus, king of Corinth, who drove his master's flocks every summer to the high upland pastures among the pinewoods of Cithaeron, to escape the parching heat and the withered grass of the Corinthian plains. In his turn the Corinthian shepherd bore the child to his royal mistress the queen of Corinth, who, having no son of her own, adopted the foundling and passed him off as her own offspring, giving him the name of Oedipus, or "swollen-foot," because of his ankles pierced and swollen by the bodkins. Thus Oedipus was brought up at a foreign court as the son of the king of Corinth, and lived to fulfil the oracle by slaying his true father Laius, king of Thebes, whom he encountered accidentally driving his chariot in a narrow pass of the Phocian mountains. Afterwards, by reading the riddle of the Sphinx, he succeeded to his paternal kingdom of Thebes, and married the late king's widow, his 1 Otto Jahn, Arch'dologische Aufsatze ischen A Itertums (Munich and Leipsic, (Greisswald, 1845), pp. 160 sqq. ; 1885-1888), ii. 1270, with fig. 1428. A. Baumeister, Denkmdler des klass- 2 Hyginus, Fab. 87, 88, 252. CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 447 own mother Jocasta, thus accomplishing another prediction of the Delphic Apollo. 1 According to Roman tradition, the founder of Rome story of the himself was exposed in his infancy and might have perished, ex P sure J ^ > and preser if it had not been for the providential interposition of a she- vation of wolf and a woodpecker. The story ran thus. On the slope f^ of the Alban Mountains stood the long white city of Alba Rome. Longa, and a dynasty of kings named the Sylvii or the Woods reigned over it, while as yet shepherds fed their flocks on the hills of Rome, and wolves prowled in the marshy hollows between them. It so chanced that one of the kings of Alba, by name Proca, left two sons, Numitor and Amulius, of whom Numitor was the elder and was destined by his father to succeed him on the throne. But his younger brother, ambitious and unscrupulous, contrived to oust his elder brother by violence and to reign in his stead. Not content with that, he plotted to secure his usurped power by depriving his injured brother of an heir. For that purpose he caused the only son of Numitor to be murdered, and he persuaded or compelled his brother's daughter, Rhea Silvia by name, to dedicate herself to the worship of Vesta and thereby to take the vow of perpetual virginity. But the vow was broken. The Vestal virgin was The virgin found to be with child, and in due time she gave birth r " other . and the divine to twin boys. She fathered them on the god Mars, but father. her hard-hearted uncle refused to admit the plea, and ordered the two babes to be thrown into the river. It happened that the Tiber had overflowed its banks, and the servants who were charged with the task of drowning the infants, unable to approach the main stream, were obliged to deposit the ark containing the children in shoal water at the foot of the Palatine hill. There they aban- The doned the babes to their fate, and there a she-wolf, attracted e *P sure of by their cries, found and suckled them and licked their Romulus bodies clean of the slime with which they were covered. t t , nd Remus Down to imperial times the bronze statue of a wolf suckling and the two infants stood on the spot to commemorate the tradition, and the statue is still preserved in the Capitoline Museum a wolf. 1 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 5. 7 sq. ; Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus t 711 w-> 994 *qq 448 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in at Rome. Some said that a woodpecker assisted the wolf in feeding and guarding the forsaken twins ; and as both the wolf and the woodpecker were creatures sacred to Mars, people drew from this circumstance a fresh argument in favour of the divine parentage of Romulus and Remus. Be that as it may, the children thus miraculously preserved were found by one of the king's shepherds, named Faustulus, who took them home and gave them to his wife Acca Larentia to rear. As the boys grew up to manhood they gave proof of their noble birth by their courage and valour ; for not content with tending the flocks of their putative father, they hunted the wild beasts in the woods, and attack- ing the robbers who infested the country they stripped them of their ill-gotten gains and divided the booty among the shepherds. In this way they gathered about them a troop of followers and adherents, but incurred the enmity of the The hut of freebooters. The very hut in which Romulus dwelt as a Romulus shepherd among shepherds was shown at Rome down to the Palatine reign of Augustus ; it stood on the side of the Palatine Hill facing towards the Circus Maximus ; it was built of wood and reeds, and the inevitable dilapidations wrought by time and the weather were carefully repaired in order to preserve this venerable monument of antiquity for the edification of a remote posterity. The sight of the lowly hut, over- shadowed by the marble palaces of the Caesars, was well fitted to minister to Roman pride by reminding the passers- by from what humble beginnings Rome had advanced to the dominion of the world. But the shepherds of King Amulius on the Palatine Hill had neighbours and rivals in the shepherds of his brother Numitor, who fed their flocks on the opposite Aventine Hill. Disputes as to the right of pasture led to brawls and even to fights between the herds- men of the two princes. On one occasion, when the herds- men of King Amulius were celebrating the quaint rites of the Lupercal, at which they ran naked except for a girdle made out of the skins of the sacrificed goats, their rivals lay in wait for them, and succeeded in capturing Remus and other prisoners, while Romulus cut his way through them by force of arms and escaped. Some, however, said that the capture was effected by robbers, who thus avenged them- CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 449 selves for the losses of booty which they had sustained at the hands of the two valiant brothers. However that may have been, the captive Remus was brought before his master King Amulius and charged with having encroached on the pastures belonging to Numitor. The king handed over the accused to his brother Numitor, as the injured party, to be by him examined and punished. On questioning the sup- posed culprit, Numitor learned the circumstances of the exposure and upbringing of the twins, arid by comparing their age with that which his grandchildren would have reached if they had been suffered to live, and by observing the handsome figure and princely bearing of the captive, he began to suspect the truth. Meantime Faustulus, the foster- father of the twins, had revealed the secret of their noble birth and parentage to Romulus, and, fired by the prospect thus opened up to his aspiring temperament, the young prince collected a band of comrades and hastened to the rescue of his brother. Arrived at the capital he first repaired The to the house of his grandfather Numitor, to whom he made o himself known, and after a joyful recognition on both sides by their the two young men led their tumultuary force, swelled by the fafaer. armed retainers of their grandfather, to the king's palace, and forcing the entrance slew the usurper in his den. After that they restored the kingdom to the lawful monarch, their grandfather Numitor, and returning to the scene which was endeared to them by all the memories of their youth, they founded the city of Rome on the pastoral hills by the Tiber, intending to reign over it jointly as its first kings. Some people sought to eliminate at least one miraculous element from the legend by explaining away the story of the suckling of the twins by the she-wolf. According to them, the fable arose through a simple misunderstanding of the name wolf (lupa)\ which in the Latin language denoted a strumpet as well as the animal, and was appropriately applied to Acca Larentia, the nurse of the twins, who had been a woman of loose life. 1 1 Livy i. 3-6; Ovid, Fasti, ii. 381 the twins. As to the Capitoline statue sqq. ; Plutarch, Romulus t 3-9 ; Diony- of the wolf suckling the twins, see W. sius Halicarnasensis, Antiquit. Roman. Helbig, Fiihrer durch die offentlichen i. 76-85. Plutarch is the only one of Sammlungen klassischer Altertiimer in these writers who mentions the share Jfom 2 (Leipsic, 1899), i. 429 sqq. No. of the woodpecker in the nurture of 638. VOL. II 2 Q 450 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in Thus in the case of the first king of Rome, as in that of the first king of Persia, ancient rationalism attempted to reduce myth to history by the simple expedient of converting the name of an animal into the name of a woman who nursed the hero in his infancy. The founder of the Turkish nation is similarly said to have been exposed in his childhood and saved and nourished by a she-wolf, which he afterwards married. 1 Story of the Such marvellous tales appear to have been told particu- andpreser- larly of the founders of dynasties or of kingdoms, whose \ation of parentage and upbringing were forgotten, the blank thus king'of left by memory being supplied by the fancy of the story- Babylonia, teller. Oriental history furnishes yet another instance of a similar glamour thrown over the dark beginning of a power- ful empire. The first Semitic king to reign over Babylonia was Sargon the Elder, who lived about 2600 B.C. A redoubtable conqueror and an active builder, he made a great name for himself, yet apparently he did not know the name of his own father. At least we gather as much from an inscription which is said to have "been carved on one of his statues ; a copy of the inscription was made in the eighth century before our era and deposited in the royal library at Nineveh, where it was discovered in modern times. In this document the king sets forth his own early history as follows : " Sargon, the mighty king, the king of Agade, am I, My mother was lowly, my father I knew not, And the brother of my father dwells hi the mountain. My city is Azuripanu, which lies on the bank of the Euphrates. My lowly mother conceived me, in secret she brought me forth. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she closed my door ; She cast me into the river, which rose not over me. The river bore me up, unto Akki, the irrigator, it carried me. Akki, the irrigator, with . . . lifted me out, Akki, the irrigator, as his own son . . . reared me, Akki, the irrigator, as his gardener appointed me. While I was a gardener, the goddess Ishtar loved me, And for . . . four years I ruled the kingdom. The black-headed peoples / ruled, I governed." 2 *' Stanislas Julien, Documents his- 2 R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels toriquss stir les Ton-kioue (Turcs), tra- to the Old Testament (Oxford Uni- duits du chinois (Paris, 1877), pp. 2sq., versity Press, N.D.), pp. 135 sq. Com- 25 sq. pare R. F, Harper, Assyrian and CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 451 This story of the exposure of the infant Sargon in a basket of rushes on the river closely resembles the story of the exposure of the infant Moses among the flags of the Nile, 1 and as it is to all appearance very much older than the Hebrew tradition, the authors of Exodus may perhaps have been acquainted with it and may have modelled their narrative of the episode on the Babylonian original. But it is equally possible that the Babylonian and the Hebrew tales are independent offshoots from the common root of popular imagination. In the absence of evidence pointing conclusively in the one direction or the other, dogmatism on the question would be out of place. The theory of the independent origin of the Babylonian story in the and Hebrew stories is to some extent confirmed by the \ha^,ta occurrence of a parallel legend in the great Indian epic the of the Mahabharata, since it is hardly likely that the authors of anc } p res er- that work had any acquaintance with Semitic traditions. va t' on of The poet relates how the king's daughter Kunti or Pritha Kama, was beloved by the Sun-god and bore him a son " beautiful as a celestial," " clad in armour, adorned with brilliant golden ear-rings, endued with leonine eyes and bovine shoulders." But ashamed of her frailty, and dreading the anger of her royal father and mother, the princess, " in consultation with her nurse, placed her child in a waterproof basket, covered all over with sheets, made of wicker-work, smooth, comfortable and furnished with a beautiful pillow. And with tearful eyes she consigned it to (the waters of) the river Asva." Having done so, she returned to the palace, heavy at heart, lest her angry sire should learn her secret. But the basket containing the babe floated down the river till it came to the Ganges and was washed ashore at the city of Champa in the Suta territory. There it chanced that a man of the Suta tribe and his wife, walking on the bank of the river, Babylonian Literature (New York, 1 The story of the exposure of Moses 1901), p. i; Alfred Jeremias, Das has been compared to certain stories told Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten by the Tonga-speaking tribes of North- Orients^ (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 410 sq. ; Western Rhodesia, but the resemblance H. Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte seems too slight to warrant any inference und Bilder (Tubingen, 1909), i. 79; from it. See J. Torrend, S.J., " Like- (Sir) G. Maspero, Histoire Ancienne nesses of Moses' Story in the Central des Peuples de FOrient Classique, Les Africa Folk-lore," Anthrofos, v. (1910) Origines (Paris, 1895), PP- 59^ sqq. pp. 54-70. 452 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in saw the basket, drew it from the water, and on opening it beheld a baby boy " (beautiful) as the morning sun, clad in a golden armour, and with a beautiful face adorned with brilliant ear-rings." Now the pair were childless, and when the man looked upon the fair infant, he said to his wife, " Surely, considering that I have no son, the gods have sent this child to me." So they adopted him, and brought him up, and he became a mighty archer, and his name was Kama. But his royal mother had news of him through her spies. 1 story of the A similar story is told of the exposure and upbringing andpreser- ^ Trakhan, king of Gilgit, a town situated at a height of vation of about five thousand feet above the sea in the very heart of king of" the snowy Himalayas. Enjoying a fine climate, a central Gilgit. position, and a considerable stretch of fertile land, Gilgit seems to have been from ancient times the seat of a suc- cession of rulers, who bore more or less undisputed sway over the neighbouring valleys and states. Among them Trakhan, who reigned about the beginning of the thirteenth century, was particularly famous. 2 He is said to have been the strongest and the proudest king of Gilgit, and tradition still busies itself with his fortunes and doings. The story of his birth and exposure runs thus. His father Tra-Trakhan, king of Gilgit, had married a woman of a wealthy family at Darel. Being passionately devoted to polo, the king was in the habit of going over to Darel every week to play his favourite game with the seven brothers of his wife. One day, so keen were they all on the sport, they agreed to play on condition that the winner should put the losers to death. The contest was long and skilful, but at last the king won the match, and agreeably to the compact he, like a true sportsman, put his seven brothers-in-law to death. When he came home, no doubt in high spirits, and told the queen the result of the match, with its painful but necessary sequel, she was so far from sharing in his glee that she actually resented 1 The Mahabharata, translated liter- Cheyne ( Traditions and Beliefs of ally from the original Sanskrit text, Ancient Israel, London, 1907, pp. edited by Manmatha Nath Dutt, iii. 519 jy.). Vana Parva (Calcutta, 1896), pp. 436- 440. The Indian and Babylonian 2 Major J. Biddulph, Tribes of the parallels have already been indicated Hindoo Koosh (Calcutta, 1880), pp. by the late learned scholar T. K. 19-21. CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 453 the murder, or rather the execution, of her seven brothers and resolved to avenge it. So she put arsenic in the king's food, which soon laid him out, and the queen reigned in his stead. Now so it was that, at the time when she took this strong step, she was with child by the king, and about a month afterwards she gave birth to a son and called his name Trakhan. But so deeply did she mourn the death of her brothers, that she could not bear to look on the child of their murderer ; hence she locked the infant in a wooden box and secretly threw it into the river. The current swept the box down the river as far as Hodar, a village in the Chilas District. Now it chanced that, as it floated by, two poor brothers were gathering sticks on the bank ; and, thinking that the chest might contain treasure, one of them plunged into the water and drew it ashore. In order not to excite the covetousness of others by a display of the expected treasure, they hid the chest in a bundle of faggots and carried it home. There they opened it, and what was their surprise to discover in it a lovely babe still alive. ' Their mother brought up the little foundling with every care ; and it seemed as if the infant brought a blessing to the house, for whereas they had been poor before, they now grew richer and richer, and set down their prosperity to the windfall of the child in the chest. When the boy was twelve years old, he conceived a great longing to go to Gilgit, of which he had heard much. So he went with his two foster-brothers, but on the way they stayed for a few days at a place called Baldas on the top of a hill. Now his mother was still queen of Gilgit, but she had fallen very ill, and as there was none to succeed her in Gilgit the people were searching for a king to come from elsewhere and reign over them. One morning, while things were in this state and all minds were in suspense, it chanced that the village cocks crew, but instead of saying as usual " Cock-a-doodle-do " they said " Beldas tJwm bayi" which being interpreted means, " There is a king at Baldas." So men were at once sent to bring down any stranger they might find there. The messengers found the three brothers and brought them before the queen. As Trakhan was handsome and stately, the queen addressed herself to him, and in course of conversation elicited from him his story. 454 MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES PART in To her surprise and joy she learned that this goodly boy was her own lost son, whom on a rash impulse of grief and resentment she had cast into the river. So she embraced him and proclaimed him the rightful heir to the kingdom of Gilgit. 1 stories It has been conjectured that in stories like that of of the the exposure of the infant Moses on the water we have exposure of r infants on a reminiscence of an old custom of testing the legitimacy of oontejiTa 3 ' cm ^ren by throwing them into the water and leaving them reminis- to swim or sink, the infants which swam being accepted as abater legitimate and those which sank being rejected as bastards. 2 ordeal to In the light of this conjecture it may be significant legitimacy. that m several of these stories the birth of the child is represented as supernatural, which in this connexion cynics are apt to regard as a delicate synonym for illegitimate. Thus in Greek legend the child Perseus and the child Telephus were fathered upon the god Zeus and the hero Hercules respectively; in Roman legend the twins Romulus and Remus were gotten on their virgin mother by the god Mars ; and in the Indian epic the princess ascribed the birth of her infant to the embrace of the Sun-god. In the Babylonian story, on the other hand, King Sargon, less fortunate or more honest than his Greek, Roman, and Indian compeers, frankly confessed that his father was unknown. The Biblical narrative of the birth of Moses drops no hint that his legitimacy was doubt- ful ; but when we remember that his father Amram married his paternal aunt, that Moses was the offspring of the marriage, 3 and that later Jewish law condemned all such marriages as incestuous, 4 we may perhaps, without being uncharitable, suspect that in the original form of the story the mother of Moses had a more particular reason for exposing her babe on the water than a general command of Pharaoh to cast all male children of the Hebrews into the river. 5 Be that as it may, it appears that the water ordeal has been resorted to by peoples far apart for the purpose of 1 Ghulam Muhammad, "Festivals Society cT Anthropologie de .Paris, VI. and Folklore of Gilgit," Memoirs of Serie, iii. (1912) pp. 80-88. the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i. 3 Exodus vL 2C cornpar e Numbers No. 7 (Calcutta, 1905), pp. 124 sq. xxyi 2 R. Cirilli, " Le Jugement du Rhin et la legitimation des enfants par Leviticus xvm. 12. ordalie," Bulletins et Mtmoires de la 5 Exodus i. 22. CHAP, i MOSES IN THE ARK OF BULRUSHES 455 deciding whether 'an infant is legitimate or not, and therefore Water whether it is to be saved or destroyed. Thus the Celts are undergone said to have submitted the question of the legitimacy of their by infants offspring to the judgment of the Rhine ; they threw the celts and 6 infants into the water, and if the babes were bastards the the pure and stern river drowned them, but if they were true- born, it graciously bore them up on its surface and wafted them gently ashore to the arms of their trembling mothers. 1 Similarly in Central Africa the explorer Speke was told " about Ururi, a province of Unyoro, under the jurisdiction of Kimeziri, a noted governor, who covers his children with bead ornaments, and throws them into the N'yanza, to prove their identity as his own true offspring ; for should they sink, it stands to reason some other person must be their father ; but should they float, then he recovers them." '' 1 Julian, Orat. ii. and Epist. xvi. pp. 104 si?., 495, ed. F. C. Hertlein (Leipsic, 1875-1876); Libanius, Orat. xii. 48, vol. ii. p. 26, ed. R. Foerster (Leipsic, 1905) ; Nonnus, Dionys. xxiii. 94-96, xlvi. 57-60, pp. 196, 382, ed. le Comte de Marcellus (Paris, 1856); Claudian, In Rufinum, ii. 112; Eustathius, Commentary on Dionysius, v. 294 (in Geo^raphi Graeci Minores, ed. C. Muller, Paris, 1882, vol. ii. pp. 267 sq:). - John Hanning Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (London, 1912), ch. xix. p. 444 (Every- man's Library). CHAPTER II THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA The FINDING the children of Israel useful in the capacity of passage bondsmen, Pharaoh long refused to let them depart ; but at Israelites last his resolution Was broken by a series of plagues and through the calamities which Moses, the great champion of Israel, called down with the divine assistance on the land and people of Egypt. So, turning their backs gladly on the country where they had endured oppression for so many years, the Israelites marched eastwards towards the Red Sea. But hardly were they gone when Pharaoh repented of having let them go, and pursued after them with a mighty host of chariots and horsemen to drag them back to the bondage from which they had just escaped. He came up with the long train of fugitives on the shore of the Red Sea. The Israelites were in a perilous situation. Behind them was the enemy and in front was the sea. Which way were they to turn ? A contest between the helpless and unarmed multitude on the one side and the disciplined army on the other could only end in a massacre, and to plunge into the waves appeared to be certain death. However, Moses did not hesitate. At the bidding of God he stretched out his hand over the sea, and the waters parted, leaving a broad highway in their midst, on which the children of Israel marched dryshod to the farther shore, the billows standing as it were petrified into walls of translucent blue crystal on the right hand and on the left. The Egyptians followed them along the lane of yellow sand ; but when the Israelites had reached the other bank, and their enemies were yet in the midst of the waters, Moses stretched out his hand once more over the 456 CHAP, ii THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA 457 sea, and at once the blue walls broke into sheets of curling foam, which rushing together with a thunderous roar over- whelmed the Egyptians beneath the waves ; men and horses and chariots all sank like 'stones into the depths, not one of them escaped. Thus did the Lord deliver the Israelites and smite their enemies. 1 In this narrative critics have long laboured to sift the The miraculous from the historical element, for that a kernel of ^ s t s h a e ge fact underlies the husk of fiction it would be rash to deny. Israelites There is the less reason to doubt the passage of the Israelites RecT^a.' 6 through an arm of the Red Sea because there are well- compared authenticated instances of similar passages over which later passage of generations have thrown a similar veil of mystery and Alexander . i i , the Great romance. After narrating the march of his people through and his the Red Sea, which according to him opened a way for a , rm y , J through the them miraculously on being struck by the rod of Moses, the Pamphy- Jewish historian Josephus compared an incident in the Sea " history of Alexander the Great When it was God's will, he tells us, that the Persian Empire should fall before the invader, the Pamphylian Sea drew back and allowed Alex- ander and his host to march through its bed. 2 Nor was the Jewish historian singular in his opinion of the miraculous interposition of the divinity in favour of the Macedonian conqueror. Many Greek historians shared his view, and the Greek comic poet Menander alluded to the passage of Alexander through the sea in terms which a Jew might have applied to the passage of Israel through the Red Sea. 3 It is true that Arrian, the historian of Alexander the Great, so far diminishes the marvel as to explain the drying up of the sea by a sudden change of wind from south to north, but this change of wind itself he attributes to an act of Providence. 4 Now if we had only these vague reports of Alexander's exploit to go upon, they might have been dis- 1 Exodus xiii. 17-xv. 21. The Israelites to cross the dry bed in safety narrative is believed by the critics to be (chapter xiv. 21). a compound of elements drawn from 2 Josephus, Antiquit. Jnd, ii. 1 6. 5. the Jehovistic, Elohistic, and Priestly 3 Plutarch, Alexander, 17. Corn- documents, as to which see above, vol. pare Appian, Civil Wars, ii. 149, i. pp. \T>\ sqq. The Jehovistic writer where the passage of Alexander through attempts to rationalize the miracle by the sea is spoken of as if it were mir- the help of a strong east wind which aculous (oi^rpexe 5ai/j.ovlus). drove the sea back and allowed the 4 Arrian, Anabasis, i. 26. I. 458 THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA PART in missed by a sceptical historian as purely fabulous. Never- theless we know from more sober and precise narratives that, stripped of the supernatural halo with which the lovers of the marvellous invested it, the feat was really performed. What happened was this. On his expedition against Darius and his host, Alexander had arrived with his army at Phaselis in Lycia. Here he had the choice of two routes by which to pursue his march eastward. Immediately to the north of the city the mountains, a branch of the great Taurus range, descended steeply to the sea, leaving at their foot a narrow strip of beach which, in calm weather or with a north wind blowing, was bare and passable by travellers, but which, with a south wind driving the waves on the shore, was deep under water. This was the direct road to Pamphylia. Another road lay through the mountains, but it was long, circuitous, and so steep that it went by the name of the Ladder. Alexander resolved to divide his forces, and send- ing a portion of them by the long road over the mountains he proceeded himself with a detachment by the shore road. The decision was a bold one, for it chanced that the weather was stormy, and the waves, sweeping over the narrow beach, broke in foam against the foot of the cliffs. All day long the soldiers waded through the water up to their waists, but at evening they emerged, dripping and weary, on dry land at the farther end of the pass. 1 Such was the exploit which rumour exaggerated into a passage like that of Moses and the Israelites through the Red Sea. In his own letters the conqueror mentioned his march along the beach without, apparently, making any allusion to the dangers and difficulties by which it had been beset ; 2 and a late historian affirms that the wind, providentially veering from south to north, rendered the march along the beach easy and rapid. 3 Yet it is difficult to suppose that in Alexander's adventurous career this particular feat should have attained so high a degree of renown if it had not been attended by an unusual measure of hardship and peril. We may acquiesce then in the romantic, yet probably true, tale of the hero and his 1 Strabo xiv. 3. 9, pp. 666 sq. , 3 Arrian, Anabasis, i. 26, fK vdrw ed. Casaubon ; Arrian, Anabasis, i. 26. ffK\ijpwv jSopetcu firnrvevaavTes, OVK dvev TOV deiov, . . . evfj,aprj KO.I Ta.-)(ela.v rr]v 2 Plutarch, Alexander, 17. irdpodov CHAP, ii THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA 459 soldiers wading waist-deep all day through the water, with an angry sea on the one side and the frowning cliffs above them on the other. With this daring deed of the Macedonian king may be Passage of compared an exploit of the Romans in the second Cartha- a Roman stormmg- ginian war. The centre of the Carthaginian power in Spain party was the city of New Carthage, situated on a nearly land- | h e^ h a t locked bay and naturally defended by the sea on two sides the siege and by a lagoon on the third. On his arrival in Spain as Carthage, commander-in-chief of the Roman armies, Scipio the Elder 'resolved to take the enemy's capital by storm, but before delivering the assault he carefully reconnoitred the situation of the city. The lagoon, which protected it on the west, was connected with the sea by an artificial channel, through which the tide flowed and ebbed daily. From fishermen the Roman general learned that the lagoon was fordable at ebb-tide, being no deeper than a man's waist in some places and his knees in others. Having ascertained this, he laid his plans accord- Scipio's ingly, and in a speech to the army publicly announced that P u 01 ?^ e r the sea-god Neptune had appeared to him in a dream and the sea-god promised to lend him such assistance in the attack as should l^ e ^ ne be manifest to the whole army. The announcement, accom- attack, panied by a seasonable offer of golden crowns to those who should be the first to mount the walls, was received by the army with enthusiasm. Next morning, therefore, the storm- ing parties, preceded by men with ladders, advanced with great spirit against the walls, trie trumpets sounding the charge. The ladders were planted, the Romans swarmed up them, and engaged in hand-to-hand conflict with the defenders on the battlements. But though the assault was pressed with great gallantry, it failed. The ladders were overturned and the assailants overwhelmed under showers of beams and missiles of all kinds hurled on them from the top of the wall. So the Roman trumpets sounded the retire, and the survivors fell sullenly back. By this time the day was wearing on to noon, the hour when, as Scipio had learned from the fishermen, the tide would begin to ebb in the lagoon. In anticipation of the moment he stationed five hundred men with ladders on the edge of the lagoon, and ordered fresh troops, provided with more ladders than 460 THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA PART in before, to renew the attack on the land side. Again, the trumpets sounded the charge, again the Romans advanced, planted the ladders, and swarmed up them. And now, while the whole attention of the besieged was engaged in repelling this fresh assault, the tide in the lagoon began to ebb, and, reinforced by a strong north wind, was soon running like a mill-race through the channel out to sea. Scipio gave the word : the five hundred men, preceded by the guides, plunged boldly into the flood, and struggled, splashing and flounder- ing, through the water to the farther shore. The rest of the army watched their advance with enthusiasm, remembering the promise of Neptune to their general, and believing that the sea-god himself was opening a passage through the deep for the Roman arms and leading the storming -party in person. Fired with this belief they locked their shields together and rushed at the gates to hew them .down with axes and cleavers. Meantime the five hundred had made their way through the lagoon to dry land, planted their ladders, and climbed the walls, which they found deserted, all the defenders being engaged in repelling the attack elsewhere. So, advancing unresisted through the streets, they opened the gates to their comrades, who were battering them from without. Thus the assailants obtained possession of the city, and the resistance of the defenders soon turned into a massacre. 1 Belief of This account of the Roman capture of New Carthage is the Roman ma j n iy derived from Polybius, a careful and accurate historian, soldiers in . . *' the divine who, as a friend of Scipio the Younger, had the best means tion oTt'he ^ ascerta i nm g the truth. From it we gather that the Roman sea-god. soldiers, who saw their comrades wading through the lagoon, verily believed that the sea-god was indeed opening -a way for them through the water, and if any sceptic had ventured to doubt the divine interposition in the matter, they would probably have answered that they preferred to trust the evidence of their own eyes. Indeed, we may suspect that 1 Polybius x. 9-15; Livy xxvi. 42- qui ad transitum Romanis mare ver- 46 ; Appian, Hhpan. 19-22. As for lerent et stagna auferrent viasque ante the assistance supposed to be given by nunquam initas kumano vestigia aperi- Neptune, see in particular Livy xxvi. rent, Neptunum jubebat dueeni itincris 45, "Hoc cur a ac ratione compertum sequi ac media stagno eTadere ad in prodigiuiii ac deos vert ens Scipio, moenia." CHAP. 11 THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA 461 Scipio himself was secretly more than half convinced of the sdpio's help which he publicly professed to have received from the mysticism. deity, and that as years went on this conviction was deepened by the unbroken success which attended his undertakings. Through his eminently practical nature, as through that of many men of action who have been great and fortunate, there ran a vein of mysticism, and in later life he would sometimes retire into the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and shutting the door remain closeted for some time in solitary communion with the supreme god of his people. He appears to have succeeded in impressing on his country- men a belief in his supernatural mission, for long after his death his statue enjoyed the supreme distinction of being preserved in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, from which it was brought forth on high days and holidays to be carried through the streets in procession, while the statues of humbler mortals, who had deserved well of their country, fell into their place in the procession from the Forum below, where they ordinarily stood overlooking the bustle of business in the market and the law-courts. 1 Such a union of soldiership and statesmanship with religious exaltation is eminently fitted to attract the reverence of the multitude ; it was one of the secrets of the Elder Scipio's power, and we can hardly doubt that it contributed largely to the belief of the Israelites in the divine legation of Moses. The Wafipas, an African tribe on the shores of Lake African Tanganyika, relate a story of one of their kings which bears miraculous some resemblance to the story of the passage of Israel through passages the Red Sea. Being threatened with death by his enemies the Watwakis and by some of his own tribe, who were hostile river - to him, the king fled before them, but his flight was arrested by the waters of the great lake. Then he sacrificed a sheep, dipped his staff in the blood of the victim, and struck the surface of the water with the blood-stained staff. The lake immediately opened a passage for him, and through it he escaped from his pursuers. 2 The Bayas of the French Congo, on the borders of the Cameroons, h,ave a similar tradition. They say that in the old days they were unacquainted with 1 Appian, Hispan. 23. 2 Mgr. Lechaptois, Aux rives du Tanganika (Algiers, 1913), p. 54. 462 THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA PART in the art of working iron, and sent to another tribe at a distance to learn the secret. Their messengers had to cross the river Kadei, and attempted to do so in a bark canoe, but the frail vessel capsized. So they had recourse to magic ; the river, mastered by their spells, divided in two, of which one part flowed back to its source, so that the messengers were able to traverse its bed without wetting their feet. 1 1 A. Poupon, " fitude ethnogra- du M'bimoui," L'Anthropologie, xxvi. phique des Baya de la circonscription (1915) p. 122. CHAPTER III THE WATERS OF MERIBAH AFTER their triumphant passage over the Red Sea, the HowMoses children of Israel wandered in the desert, and rinding no [^"from water to drink they murmured against Moses, saying, a rock by "Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill wTth'hfs' us and our children and our cattle with thirst ? " And staff - Moses cried to the Lord, saying, " What shall I do unto this people ? They be almost ready to stone me." And the Lord said unto Moses, " Pass on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel ; and thy rod, where- with thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so. He lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice ;.and water came forth abundantly, and the people drank, and their cattle also. And the springs which gushed from the rock at the stroke of Moses' rod were called the Waters of Meribah, that is, the Waters of Strife, because the people had striven with Moses. 1 With this story of the magical production of water from HOW an . the rock we may compare a legend told by the Bare'e- heroTn speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes. They say that an Celebes ancient hero named Dori, the son of the first man Lasaeo, wTteHVom came on his travels with two slaves to a certain place, where a rock b y he lodged for the night in a house. Now Dori was meanly wTth'hfs ' clad, but his slaves wore fine clothes. So the people of the s P ear - house took the slaves for noblemen, and their master they 1 Exodus xvii. 1-7; Numbers xx. 1-13. 463 464 THE WATERS OF ME RIB AH PART in took for a slave. Therefore they gave Dori no water to wash his hands with, and no palm-wine to drink. There- upon Dori went out and struck the rock with the butt end of his spear, making a hole in the rock, from which water gushed out. When Dori had washed his hands with the water, he struck another rock with his spear, and from the hole so made palm-wine flowed forth. Having drunk the wine, the hero closed up the hole ; but the hole from which the water flowed may be seen to this day. After that the people perceived that Dori was a great man. 1 1 N. Adrian! en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bar e-sprekende Toradja's van Midden- Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), i. 25. CHAPTER IV 'GIDEON'S MEN LONG after the children of Israel had settled in Palestine, The angel's they continued to be little more than an aggregate of inde- Charge to J Gideon to pendent tribes, whose lack of cohesion and central govern- deliver ment exposed them to the encroachments and invasions of j^fthe their warlike neighbours. Among the nomads who harried Midianites. them were the Midianites, a numerous tribe of robbers who, mounted on camels, emerged in swarms from the desert and scoured the country in all directions, sweeping it as bare of food for man and beast as if it had been traversed by an army of locusts. The miserable inhabitants fled before the raiders to the caves and dens of the mountains. 1 But when they prayed to the Lord, he sent his angel to Gideon, the son of Joash, who was threshing a little wheat with a stick in a winepress to hide it from any prowling Midianites, who might swoop down on him and rob him of his store. For the winepress, being a square or oblong vat excavated in the rock, afforded some concealment, whereas the high windy threshing-floor, where in ordinary times the wheat was trodden out by oxen, would have exposed him to the gaze of passers-by even at a considerable distance. Beside the winepress grew an oak, and under its shadow the angel sat down, glad perhaps to rest in the heat of the day and watch the thresher at his toil for a little time in silence. Then he called to Gideon and entered into conversation with him. Arid when Gideon complained to the courteous stranger, as he deemed him, of the evil plight to which the 1 Judges vi. 1-6. VOL. II 465 2 H 466 GIDEON'S MEN How Gideon mustered the tribes of Israel and chose three hundred men from the host to fight the Midianites, selecting them on the ground that they drank by scooping up water in their hands instead of, like the rest, by applying their mouths to the stream. whole country was reduced by the ravages of the Midianites, the angel revealed himself in his true character and com- manded Gideon to deliver his people Israel out of the hand of the oppressor. 1 The hero obeyed the divine call, and having mustered the tribes of Israel he led them to the valley of Jezreel, where the host of the Midianites and their Bedouin allies was encamped. All along the valley their tents lay and their camels were tethered, as multitudinous as locusts or the sand on the sea-shore for number. 2 But the Lord feared that if the whole army of Israel attacked the whole army of Midian and won the victory, the people might be puffed up with carnal pride, and forgetting the Lord, to whom alone they could owe the success, of their arms, might say, " Our own hand hath saved us." To pre- vent this deplorable illusion, the deity commanded Gideon to dismiss to their homes all the fearful and craven-hearted and to keep by him only the valiant and brave. Two-and- twenty thousand recreants gladly availed themselves of the leave of absence so unexpectedly granted them, and there remained facing the enemy just ten thousand stalwarts. Even that number, however, appeared too large to the Lord, as he foresaw that in case of a victory these gallant men would be apt to claim the credit of it for them- selves instead of ascribing it to him. This was not to be thought of, and he therefore took steps to thin the ranks to such a point that nothing but a direct inter- position of Providence could reasonably account for the triumph of battalions so depleted. The measure by which the reduction was effected was a singular one. The whole force was marched down to the river, and the word was given to drink water. Immediately a marked distinction was observed .in the manner in which the command was executed. The great majority of the men, or to be exact, nine thousand and seven hundred of them, knelt down, and applying their mouths to the water drank it in- by suction. The remainder, on the other hand, scooped the water up in their hands, and holding it to their mouths lapped it up with their tongues as dogs lap water. The three hundred were 1 Judges vi. 11-24. 2 Judges vi. 33-vii. 1-12. CHAP, iv GIDEON'S MEN 467 the men chosen to defeat the Midianites ; the remaining nine thousand and seven hundred were sent back to their tents, there to witness from a distance the discomfiture of the enemy in which they were not to share. 1 We may conjecture that the test which Gideon thus similar employed to sift out his fighting men from the non-com- dlstmctlon r J in the batants was based on some well-known distinction in the manner of manner of drinking adopted by different tribes or by the same people in different circumstances. It may there- recorded fore be helpful to note corresponding differences in the African modes of drinking observed by savage tribes. Speaking of tribes : the Ogieg or Wandorobo, a tribe of British East Africa, ' Captain C. H. Stigand observes that they " drink from a water into .... . , . the mouth stream on all fours, putting their mouths down to the water. w j t h the Practically every other tribe drink, when no vessel is avail- hand - able, with the hand. They either take up water with one hand or both, or throw up water with the right hand and catch it in the mouth. The latter is the way most caravan porters drink." ~ Among the Bambalas of the Congo valley " water is the commonest drink, and in the village cups are used for drinking purposes ; but on a march the water is thrown into the mouth with the hand ; they lie down on their stomachs and, bending the fingers, scoop up the water without spilling a drop, though the hand never touches the mouth in the process." 3 When the Namaquas, a Hottentot tribe of South-West Africa, are out hunting, they always drink by throwing water into their mouths with their fingers, and they trace the custom to the Hottentot Adam or first man, who one day, hunting a lion, saw the animal lying in wait for him under a large mimosa tree beside a pool of water. 1 Judges vii. 2-22. Commentators move the words " putting their hand have been a good deal exercised by to their mouth " (C.TS-'JK DTS) from the the attitudes respectively assumed in beginning to the end of verse 6, thus drinking by the chosen and the rejected making it apply to the men who knelt champions of Israel. The interpreta- down to drink. But the change is tion given in the text is the only one negatived by the text both of the consistent with the Hebrew and Greek Septtiagint and of Josephus. text as it stands in the manuscripts, and 2 Captain C. H. Stigand, The Land as it is confirmed by Josephus (Antiquit. O f Zinj, being an Account of British Jud. v. 6. 3), who clearly read it in the E ast Africa (London, 1913), pp. 274 same way. Some critics (G. F. Moore M in his commentary and R. Kittel in his 3 . Torday, Camp and Tramp in edition of the Hebrew text) would re- African Wilds (London, 1913), p. 85. 468 GIDEON'S MEN The custom of throwing water into the mouth with the hand observed in Cambodia, Samoa, and New Caledonia. Custom of throwing water into the mouth with the hand in the New Hebrides. The first man's dogs, on coming to the spot, lay down, lapped up the water, then shook themselves and frisked about. But the first man, more cautious, knelt down, hold- ing his spear in his left hand, and drank the water by throwing it into his mouth with two fingers, while all the time he kept a sharp eye on the lion. When man and dogs had thus refreshed themselves, they attacked the lion and soon made an end of him. Since that time the Namaquas have always drunk water in the same way when they are out hunting. 1 Again, a native of Cambodia, travelling through the forest, " ought not to drink by putting his mouth to the water, if he wishes not to be despised by tigers and other fierce animals. Let him drink by throwing water into hfs mouth with his hand, for then the denizens of the woods will respect him." 2 So, too, " a thirsty Samoan, in coming to a stream of water, stoops down, rests the palm of his left hand on his knee, and, with the right hand, throws the water up so quickly as to form a continued jet from the stream to his mouth, and there he laps until he is satisfied." 3 Similarly, the New Caledonians stoop till their head is a few inches above the water, and then throw the liquid into their mouth with one hand till their thirst is quenched. 4 Commenting on the story of Gideon's men, a missionary to Melanesia observes that "this lapping of the water like a jiog by Gideon's army was unintelligible to me until I came to the New Hebrides. Standing one day by a stream I heard a noise behind me like a dog lapping w.ater. I turned and saw a woman bowing down and throwing the water rapidly into her mouth with her hand. This satis- factorily explained the action of Gideon's men. It showed' care and watchfulness ; for they could walk along the stream lapping the water as they went ; and an enemy was 1 Theophilus Hahn, " Die Nama- faise, Excursions et Reconnaissances > Hottentoten," Globus, xii. No. 9, p. 277 ; id., Tsuni-\\ Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi - Khoi (London, 1881), p. 71. 2 E. Aymonier, " Notes sur les Coutumes et Croyances superstitieuses des Cambodgiens," Cochinchine Fran- No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), p. 165. 3 George Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia (London, 1861), p. 332. 4 Labillardiere, Relation du Voyage a la Recherche de la Ptrouse (Paris, 1800), ii. 196. CHAP, iv GIDEON'S MEN 469 less likely to take them unawares than if they bent on their knees to drink. Most of the natives, however, bend down and touch the water with their lips as the rejected men of Gideon's army did." ] These examples suggest that the custom of drinking Thecustom water by throwing it into the mouth with the hand, instead ^f of kneeling or lying down to drink with the lips placed the mouth close to the stream, has been adopted by certain classes of Jyf n ^down men, such as hunters or porters, whose occupation renders to drink it either unsafe or difficult to adopt the other posture in men who quenching their thirst. It seems, therefore, not impossible must be on the alert. that Gideon s men were selected on the same principle, because by standing instead of lying down to drink they showed themselves more watchful and ready to meet any sudden emergency. With the manner in which the God-fearing Gideon Gideon's strengthened his army by reducing its numbers to a mere Q^ 011011 skeleton, we may compare an incident in a war which the God- fighting fearing colonists of Massachusetts waged with their deadly co and still dangerous enemies the Indians. " The different with an , . , , , A . ., incident in colonies had agreed to unite against the common enemy, the wars of each furnishing a quota of men in proportion to its numbers. Massa- The troops of Connecticut, which lay most exposed to w ; t h the danger, were soon assembled. The march of those from Indians - Massachusetts, which formed the most considerable body, was retarded ' by the most singular cause that ever in- fluenced the operations of a military force. When they were mustered previous to their departure, it was found that some of the officers, as well as of the private soldiers, were still under a covenant of works ; and that the blessing of God could not be implored or expected to crown the arms of such unhallowed men with success. The alarm was general, and many arrangements necessary in order to cast out the unclean, and to render this little band sufficiently pure to fight the battles of a people who enter- tained high ideas of their own sanctity." 2 Not the least remarkable feature in this curious narrative 1 William Gunn, The Gospel in History of America, Eleventh Edition Futuna (London, 1914), p. 276. (London, 1806-1808), iv. 308^. 2 William Robertson, D.D., The 47 GIDEON'S MEN PART in is the inability of the reverend narrator, in whom the learning of an historian would seem to have outweighed the piety of a divine, to conceive why any force of armed men should delay their march against the enemy for a reason so manifestly absurd as a scruple of religion. CHAPTER V JOTHAM'S FABLE WHEN Gideon had delivered Israel out of the hand of the HOW Midianites, the grateful people asked him to be their King, and to bequeath the kingdom after him to his son and his ail his , i-ii i -11 brothers son s son. But the magnanimous hero, content with the save deliverance he had wrought, and unmoved by the prompt- J thara and /v f * ings of vulgar ambition, declined the offer of a crown, and, himself retiring to his own house at Ophrah, lived there to a good ^ old age. At his death he left behind him seventy sons, whom he had by his many wives, as well as a son named Abimelech; whom he had by a concubine in Shechem. 1 When he came to man's estate, Abimelech gave proof of exorbitant ambition and the most ruthless temper. With the help of his mother's family at Shechem he intrigued with the men of that city to elect him their king, and having received a loan of money from them he hired a band of ruffians, with whom he hastened to his father's house at Ophrah and there murdered all his brothers but one on the same stone ; only Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, escaped the massacre by hiding himself. Having thus removed his possible rivals, Abimelech returned to Shechem and was there crowned king beside a sacred oak. 2 When Jotham, the youngest son, heard in his place of How concealment that the men of Shechem had made Abimelech their king, he went and stood on Mount Gerizim, which spoke to rises on the south side of the city, and there he lifted up sh^chem his voice and addressed the people in a parable. For from the Shechem, the modern Nablus, lies in a deep valley hemmed Mount Gerizim. 1 Judges viii. 22-32. 2 Judges ix. 1-6. 471 472 JOTHAM' S FABLE PART in' in by Mount Gerizim on the south and by Mount Ebal on the north, which rise so steeply and are so near each other, that standing on the top of Gerizim it is possible to hear distinctly every word a man speaks on the opposite moun- tain. 1 Indeed people in these mountainous districts, it is said, are able, from long practice, so to pitch their voices as to be clearly audible at almost incredible distances. They will converse with each other across enormous gullies, giving the most minute directions, which are perfectly understood, and in doing so they seem hardly to raise their voices above their usual tone. There is, therefore, no difficulty in sup- posing that, speaking from one of the overhanging crags of Gerizim, as from a natural pulpit, Jotham might easily be heard by the greater part of the inhabitants of Shechem. 2 The parable which he addressed to them ran as follows : jotham's " The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over fable of the them ; and they said unto the olive-tree, Reign thou over trees which * asked the us. But the olive-tree said unto them, Should I leave my reign over fetness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and them. go to wave to and fro over the trees ? And the trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig- tree said unto them, Should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave to and fro over the trees ? And the trees said unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to wave to and fro over the trees ? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow : and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon." The This fable of the trees Jotham then proceeded to apply aprnca i n to ^ e base-born and villainous Abimelech, who had clutched fable to the crown which his noble father Gideon had refused. Abimelech TT . r i iii<-i-iir and the Having fitted the cap to the crowned head of his half- men of brother, and hjnted darkly at the righteous doom which Shechem. * would yet overtake both the wicked king and his subjects, 1 H. B. Tristram, 7^he Land of the Book (London. 1859), pp. 473 sq. Israel^ (London, 1882), p. 149. 2 W. M. Thomson, The Land and 3 Judges ix. 7-15. CHAP, v JOTHAM'S FABLE 473 Jotham turned on his heel and fled, before the men of Shechem could climb up the steep mountain and lay hands on him. 1 In the mouth of Jotham the fable of the trees would The fable seem to be a democratic or perhaps rather theocratic satire s a fj e mcal on kingship, for according to him all the noble and useful trees declined the office, so that in despair the trees were driven to offer the crown to the meanest and most useless of their number, who only accepted it on a condition which practically involved the destruction of the aristocracy of the woods, the cedars of Lebanon. The distrust of monarchy which the parable implies was natural enough in the honest son of an honest patriot, who had refused to rule over his people, and had declared that the rule of God was better than the rule of man ; 2 and the same distrust of kings and the same preference for a theocracy are expressed still more plainly by the Hebrew historian who records, with evident reluctance ^nd regret, the institution of the monarchy under Saul. 3 But apart from any political application the story Rivalry of the rivalry between the trees for the primacy would seem ^ to have been popular in antiquity. It occurs more than Aesop's once in the fables of Aesop. Thus the fir-tree, we read, one day said boastfully to the bramble, " You are good for nothing, but I am useful in roofs and houses." To which the bramble replied, " O wretched creature, if you only remembered the axes and the saws that will chop and cut you, glad enough would you be to be a bramble instead of a fir." 4 Again, a pomegranate and an apple-tree disputed with each other as to which was the more fruitful, and when the dispute was at its height, a bramble called out from a neighbouring hedge, " O my friends, do let us stop fighting." 5 In both these fables, as in the fable of Jotham, the bramble intervenes in the discussion between the trees of higher social pretensions. The same theme was treated much more elaborately by Poem of the Alexandrian poet Callimachus in a poem, of which a m a c hus on 1 Judges ix. 16-21. fable was versified by Babrius (Fab. O f tne 2 Judges viii. 23. 64, pp. 63 sq., ed. W. G. Rutherford, i aurel and 3 I Samuel viii. 4-22. London, 1883). the olive. 4 Fabitlae Aesopicae, ed. C. Halm Fabulae Aesopicae, ed. C. Halm, (Leipsic, 1881), p. 63, No. 125. The p. 187, No. 385. 474 JO THAMES FABLE PART in copy, written on papyrus, was discovered in Egypt during the winter of 19051906. The verses unfortunately are mutilated and incomplete, but so far as they go they describe a contest for supremacy between a laurel and an olive-tree, in which, up to the point where the manuscript breaks off, the olive-tree appears to get much the better of the argument. So far as the lines can be read or probably restored, the fable runs as follows : l " Hear, then, the fable. The ancient Lydians say that once on a time the laurel contended with the olive on Mount Tmolus. For the laurel was a tall tree and fair, and fluttering her branches thus she spoke : ' What house is there at whose doorposts I am not set up ? What sooth- sayer or what sacrificer bears me not ? The Pythian prophetess, too, she sits on laurel, eats of laurel, 2 lies on laurel. O foolish olive, did not Branchus heal Ionia's sons with but a stroke of laurel and a few muttered words, what time Phoebus was wroth with them ? I go to feasts and to the Pythian choral dance, I am given as a prize in games, and the Dorians cut me at Tempe on the mountain tops and bear me thence to Delphi, whene'er Apollo's rites are solemnized. O foolish olive, no sorrow do I know, nor mine the path that the corpse-bearer treads. For I am pure, and men tread me not under foot, for I am holy. But with thee they crown themselves whene'er they are about to burn a corpse or lay it out for burial, and thee they duly spread under the dead man's ribs.' " So spake she boasting ; but the mother of the oil answered her calmly : ' O laurel, barren of all the things I bear, thou hast sung like a swan at the end. ... I attend to the grave the men whom Ares slays, and (under the 1 The Oxyrrhynchus Papyri, Part i-io). In his translation Professor vii., edited with translations and notes Diels to some extent tacitly supplements by Arthur S. Hunt (London, 1910), and corrects the Greek text, and in my pp. 39 sqq. The poem has been trans- version I have availed myself of some lated into German and accompanied of his suggestions. with instructive parallels and notes by 2 The Greek is Sd(f>vrjv d' deidei, my learned friend Professor Hermann "sings of laurel." But this should Diels, who has kindly given me a copy probably be corrected with Professor H. of his paper (" Orientalische Fabeln in Diels. The prophetess chewed laurel griechischem Gewande," Internationale as a mode of inspiration. See Lucinn, Wochenschrift fiir Wissenscliaft Knnst Bis Accusatns, i ; J. Tzetzes, Scholia und Tecknik, 6th August 1910, coll. on Lycophron, 6. CHAP, v JOTHAM'S FABLE 475 heads am spread) of heroes who (died gloriously). And when children bear to the tomb their white-haired grandam or Tithonus old, I go with them and on the path am laid, (helping them) more than thou (doest help) the men who bring thee from Tempe's dale. But as for that thou spakest of, am not I a better prize than thou ? for are not the games at Olympia greater than the games at Delphi ? 1 But silence is best. Not a word more concerning thee shall I so much as mutter, neither good nor bad. Yet lo ! the birds that perch among my leaves are twittering thus : "Who found the laurel j> It was the earth who brought it forth as she brings forth the ilex, the oak, the galingale, or other woodland things. But who found the olive ? Pallas it was, when she contended for the shore with him who dwells amid the sea-weed, and the ancient one gave judg- ment, he the man with snaky limbs below. 2 That is one fall for the laurel ! But of the immortals, who honours the olive, and who the laurel ? Apollo honours the laurel, and Pallas honours the olive, which she found. In that they are alike, for I distinguish not between the gods. But what is the laurel's fruit ? How shall I use it ? It is good neither to eat nor to drink nor to anoint one's self with. But pleasing is the olive's fruit in many ways, both as a food and as an unguent. . . . That is, I think, the laurel's second fall. And then what is the tree whose leaves the suppliants hold out ? The olive's leaves. That is the laurel's third fall." But plague on these birds, will they never stop ? They must still be chattering ! Impudent crow, is thy beak not sore with croaking ? " Whose trunk is it that the Delians preserve ? It is the olive's, which gave a seat to Leto." ' ... So spake the olive. But the laurel's rage swelled at the words, and the smart struck deeper than before. (And now an ancient spreading thorn-bush 3 ) spoke 1 An olive-wreath was the prize at the usual version of the story, as to Olympia, a laurel-wreath at Delphi. which I may refer to my note on Pau- 2 An allusion to the contest of sanias i. 24. 3. Athena and Poseidon for possession of 3 So Professor H. Diels restores the Attica; according to the version of meaning ("Da sprach ein altes, weit- the legend followed by the poet it seems verranktes Dornstrauchlein "). But the that Erichthonius, half-man, half-ser- corresponding line in the Greek text is pent, acted as arbiter and gave judg- very fragmentary, and any emendation ment in the dispute. But this was not must be more or less uncertain. 476 JO THAMES FABLE The poem incom- plete : probable triumph of the olive. Rivalry between the trees in an Armenian fable. up, for she was not far from the trees. ' O my poor friends, 3 quoth she, ' do let us cease, lest we carry the quarrel too far. Come, let's give over bickering.' But the laurel glared daggers at the thorn, and thus she spake : ' O cursed wretch, don't preach patience to me, as if thou wert one of us. Thy very neighbourhood chokes me. By Phoebus, by Persephone, talk not of reconciliation ! Slay me rather ! ' ' At this point the poem breaks off in the manuscript, and we cannot say how the quarrel between the trees ended, but from the poet's evident partiality for the olive, we may con- jecture that the subsequent verses described the triumph of that pacific, fruitful, and useful tree over the bellicose, barren, and boastful laurel. What tree or shrub it was that attempted to intervene as peacemaker in the strife, and got small thanks for its pains from one at least of the disputants, we cannot say for certain, since the Greek text at this point is mutilated ; but the analogy of one of Aesop's fables, in which a bramble attempts to end a dispute between a pomegranate and an apple-tree, 1 suggests that the humble bush may have played the same benevolent but thankless part in the poem of Calli- machus, and the suggestion is borne out by the. sharp way in which the proud laurel turns on the would-be mediator, whose claim to meddle in a quarrel between trees she contemptu- ously rejects (" as if thou wert one of us "). The rivalry between the trees appears to be a favourite theme of Armenian fables. For example, in one of them it is said that the plants held a council to decide which of them deserved to reign over the rest. Some proposed the date-palm, because he is tall and his fruits are sweet. But the vine resisted the proposal, saying, " It is I who diffuse joy ; it is I who deserve to reign." The fig-tree said, " It is I, for I am sweet to the taste." The thorn said, " The honour should be mine, because I prick." Each of them thought himself better than the rest, and imagined that he could dispense with them. As for the date-palm, on reflection he per- ceived that the trees would not let him reign, because they were loth to share their honours with others. He said, " It belongs to me rather than to anybody else to be king." The other trees admitted his claim to a certain 1 Above, p. 473. CHAP, v JOTHAArS FABLE 477 extent. They said, " Thou art tall and thy fruits are sweet, but thou lackest two things. Thou dost not bear fruit at the same time that we do, and thou art not suitable for building. Besides, thou art so tall that it is impossible for many people to enjoy thy fruit." He answered, " I shall become king and make you princes, and after accomplishing my time I shall still reign over your sons." He set the kingdom in order, naming the rest to various offices. The vine he made chief cupbearer, the fig-tree consul, the thorn head executioner, the pomegranate head physician ; other plants were to serve for medicines, the cedars for building, the forests for fuel, the bushes for prison ; each was assigned its special task. 1 A Malay story tells of a dispute between the plants as to Malay their respective claims to precedence. Once upon a time, a^Lme we are informed, the maize-plant boasted, saying, " If rice between should cease to exist, I alone should suffice to sustain man- oifthe kind." But the liane and the jungle yam each made a like question of boast, and as the parties could not agree, the case was between 1 " brought before King Solomon. Said Solomon, " All three them - of you are perfectly right, albeit it were perhaps better that the maize-plant should sustain mankind because of his comradeship with the bean." Thereat the wrath of the liane and the yam waxed hot against the maize-plant, and they went off together to hunt for a fruit-spike of the jungle fig- tree whereon to impale him, but found none. And mean- while the maize-plant, hearing news of their quest, set to work to find arrow-poison. And when he found it he poisoned the jungle yam therewith, wherefore to this day the jungle yam has narcotic properties. Then the jungle yam, being wroth thereat, speared the maize-plant in his turn, wherefore to this day the cobs of the maize are perforated. And the maize-plant, reaching out in turn, seized the pointed shoot of a wilang (?) stem and wounded the liane therewith. At this juncture the parties to the quarrel went before the 1 F. Macler, " Choix de fables Ar- lection of Armenian fables there are meniennes attributes a MkhitharGoch," stories of disputes between a thorn and Journal Asiatiqite, Neuvieme Serie, xix. a vine, between an apple and a pear, (Paris, 1902) pp. 467 sq. This fable between a fig and a pomegranate, has already been cited by Professor H. between a mulberry and an olive, etc. Diels, op. cit. col. 10. In the same col- 478 JOTHAM'S FABLE PART III prophet Elias, who said, " This matter is too great for me, take ye it before Solomon." And Solomon said, " Let them fight it out between them, that the rage of their hearts may be appeased." Wherefore there was battle between them for twice seven days. And when the twice seven days were ended, the battle being still undecided, the combatants were parted, and a space was set between them by Solomon. And the jungle yam he made to sit down, and the liane to lie down. But the maize-plant and the bean he made to stand together. 1 jotham's During the Middle Ages the fable of the trees, which the inserted in Book of Judges puts in the mouth of Jotham, appears to have mediaeval been popular, for we find it detached from its Biblical setting of fables" 5 and inserted in miscellaneous collections of fables which were derived, directly or indirectly, from Phaedrus. In some of these collections the story is taken with but slight verbal changes from the Vulgate, 2 but in a Latin version of the fables which pass under the name of the mediaeval French poetess Marie de France, the writer has handled the theme more freely. The trees, so runs the fable, once assembled and consulted about choosing a king. A tall and spreading tree proposed the vine for the kingly office, but the vine refused on the ground that he was weak and could do nothing without a support. So the trees offered to choose the white- thorn, saying that he deserved to reign because he was strong and handsome. But the whitethorn declined the offer, declaring that he was not worthy to reign because he bore no fruit. Several other trees were proposed, but they all excused themselves for various reasons. At last, when no tree could be found that would consent to be king, the broom got up and said, " The sceptre is mine by rights, because I desire to reign and I ought to be king, for my family is most opulent and noble." But the other trees answered the broom, " In the whole family of trees we know none meaner or poorer than thee." The broom replied, " If I am not made king, never will I honour him whom ye shall elect, neither will I love those who appoint another than me." The trees 1 Walter Skeat, Fables and Folk- Tales from an Eastern Forest (Cam- bridge, 1901), pp. 13-15. I have slightly abridged the story. 2 L. Hervieux, Les Fabulistes Latins, Phedre et ses Anciens Imitatt'ttrs, (Paris, 1884), ii. 589 ^.,761. CHAP, v JOTHAM'S FABLE 479 said to him, " What, then, will you be N able to do to us if you do not love our king or us ? " The broom answered, " Though I seem to you mean and needy, yet could I do that which I had thought to do if I were king." And they all asked him what that was. He said to them, " I had thought to prevent any tree from growing that stands under me or over me." " It is likely enough," replied the others, " that thou couldst do that to us if thou wert king and powerful ; but what thinkest thou canst thou do when we are stronger than thou ? " But the broom did not answer the question, he only said, " I cannot harm you without injuring myself. Yet I will carry out my intention. I can cause," said he, " that any herb or tree that is under me shall cease to grow, and that any that is above me shall wither. But to do that it is necessary that I myself should burn. Therefore I wish to be consumed with fire, with all my kindred that are about me, in order that those trees which deem themselves great and noble may perish with me in the flames." 1 This fable is plainly nothing but a feeble expansion of the fable of Jotham. 1 L. Ilervieux, Les Fabulistes Latins, Phedre et ses Anciens Inritateurs* ii, 581 sq. CHAPTER VI SAMSON AND DELILAH AMONG the grave judges of Israel the burly hero Samson cuts a strange figure. That he judged Israel for twenty years we are indeed informed by the sacred writer, 1 but of the judgments which he delivered in his judicial character not one has been recorded, and if the tenor of his pronounce- ments can be inferred from the nature of his acts, we may be allowed to doubt whether he particularly adorned the bench of justice. His talent would seem to have lain rather in the direction of brawling and fighting, burning down people's corn-ricks, and beating up the quarters of loose women ; in short, he appears to have shone in the character of a libertine and a rakehell rather than in a strictly judicial capacity. Instead of a dull list of his legal decisions we are treated to an amusing, if not very edifying, narrative of his adventures in love and in war, or rather in filibustering ; for if we accept, as we are bound to do, the scriptural account of this royster- ing swashbuckler, he never levied a regular war or headed a national insurrection against the Philistines, the oppressors of his people ; he merely sallied forth from time to time as a solitary paladin or knight-errant, and mowed them down with the jawbone of an ass or any other equally serviceable weapon that came to his hand. And even on these predatory expedi- tions (for he had no scruple about relieving his victims of their clothes and probably of their purses) the idea of deliver- ing his nation from servitude was to all appearance the last thing that would have occurred to him. If he massacred the Philistines, as he certainly did in great profusion and with 1 Judges xv. 20, xvi. 31. 480 CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 481 hearty good will, it was from no high motive of patriotism or policy, but purely from a personal grudge which he bore them for the wrongs which they had done to himself, to his wife, and to his father-in-law. From first to last his story is that of an utterly selfish and unscrupulous adventurer, swayed by gusts of fitful passion and indifferent to everything but the gratification of his momentary whims. It is only redeemed from the staleness and vulgarity of commonplace rascality by His the elements of supernatural strength, headlong valour, and a certain grim humour which together elevate it into a sort of burlesque epic after the manner of Ariosto. But these features, while they lend piquancy to the tale of his exploits, hardly lessen the sense of incongruity which we experience on coming across the grotesque figure of this swaggering, hectoring bully side by side with the solemn effigies of saints and heroes in the Pantheon of Israel's history. The truth seems to be that in the extravagance of its colouring the picture of Samson owes more to the brush of the story-teller than to the pen of the historian. The marvellous and divert- ing incidents of his disreputable career probably floated about loosely as popular tales on the current of oral tradition long before they crystallized around the memory of a real man, a doughty highlander and borderer, a sort of Hebrew Rob Roy, A Hebrew whose choleric temper, dauntless courage, and prodigious bodily strength marked him out as the champion of Israel in many a wild foray across the border into the rich lowlands of Philistia. For there is no sufficient reason to doubt that a firm basis of fact underlies the flimsy and transparent super- structure of fancy in the Samson saga. The particularity with which the scenes of his life, from birth to death, are laid in definite towns and places, speaks strongly in favour of a genuine local tradition, and as strongly against the theory of a solar myth, into which some writers would dissolve the story of the brawny hero. 1 The home country of Samson, about Zorah, on the The home Philistine border, has been described by Sir George Adam 1 H. Steinthal, "The Legend of Orients z (Leiys\c, 1906), pp. 478-482 ; Samson," in Ignaz Goldziher's Mytho- Paul Carus, The Story of Samson logy among the Hebrews (London, (Chicago, 1907) ; A. Smythe Palmer, 1877), pp.-392-446 ; A. Jeremias, Das D.D., The Samson-Saga (London, Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten 1913). VOL. II 21 482 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART in Smith with characteristic sympathy and grace. " It is as fair a nursery for boyhood as you will find in all the land a hillside facing south against the sunshine, with corn, grass, and olives, scattered boulders and winter brooks, the broad valley below with the pebbly stream and screens of oleanders, the south-west wind from the sea blowing over all. There the child Samson grew up ; and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him in the camp of Dan between Zorali and Eshtaol. Across the valley of Sorek, in full view is Beth-Shemesh, now 'Ain Shems, House and Well of the Sun, with which name it is so natural to connect his own Shimshon, ' Sun-like.' Over the low hills beyond is Timnah, where he found his first love and killed the young lion. Beyond is the Philistine plain, with its 'miles upon miles of corn, which, if as closely sown then as now, would require scarce three, let alone three hundred foxes, with torches on their tails, to set it all afire. The Philistine cities are but a day's march away, by easy roads. And so from these country braes to yonder plains and the highway of the great world from the pure home and the mother who talked with angels, to the heathen cities, their harlots and their prisons we see at one sweep of the eye all the course in which this uncurbed strength, at first tumbling and sporting with laughter like one of its native brooks, like them also ran to the flats and the mud, and, being darkened and befouled, was used by men to turn their mills." ] The hand of the storyteller reveals itself most clearly in the account of the catastrophe which befel his hero through the wiles of a false woman, who wormed from him the secret of his great strength and then betrayed him to his enemies. The account runs as follows : HOW " And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman S rlat n * in the valle 7 f Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the strength lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, 1 (Sir) George Adam Smith, The interpret them as phases or influences Historical Geography of the Holy Land of the sun, or to force them into a cycle (London, 1894), pp. 221 sq. While like the labours of Hercules, have he mentions the possible connexion of broken down." Nevertheless the break- Samson's name with the Hebrew word down has not deterred subsequent for sun, Sir George Adam Smith rightly writers from attempting to set the rejects the solar theory of his adven- mythical Humpty-Dumpty up again., tures. " The attempts," he says, "to CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 483 ' Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by was in his what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind h ^ ir , ; , how him to afflict him : and we will give thee every one of us Delilah eleven hundred pieces of silver.' And Delilah said to Samson, ^ rmed r ' the secret ' Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and from him, wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.' And ^eToff 1 Samson said unto her, ' If they bind me with seven green his hair, withes that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and hinTto his be as another man.' Then the lords of the Philistines brought enemiesthe . up to her seven green withes which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had Hers in wait abiding in the inner chamber. And she said unto him, ' The Philis- tines be upon thee, Samson.' And he brake the withes, as a string of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known. And Delilah said unto Samson, ' Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies : now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.' And he said unto her, ' If they only bind me with new ropes wherewith no work hath been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.' So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, ' The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.' And the Hers in wait were abiding in the inner chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread. And Delilah said unto Samson, ' Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies : tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, ' If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web, and makest (tlie whole) fast with the pin, then shall I become weak and like any other man! And Delilah made him sleep, and wove the seven locks of his head with tlie web^ and she fastened 1 The words printed in italics have that she pegged them into the earth been accidentally omitted from the ("Si septem crines capitis mei cum Hebrew text, but they can be restored lido plexueris, el flavum his circum- from the Greek versions. See the ligatum terrae fixeris "). But what she commentaries of G. F. Moore (The really did was to weave his hair, like International Critical Commentary') threads, into the web on the loom, so and G. W. Thatcher ( The Century that every single hair was fastened Bible], and R. Kittel's critical edition separately. This gave a far stronger of the Hebrew text (Leipsic, 1905- hold on Samson than if his hair had 1906). The Greek translator seems been pegged in a bunch into the wall to have thought that Delilah pegged or the earth ; and in wrenching it away Samson's locks into the wall (lir^e 7$ he wrenched with it the web and the 7ra anc * that to shave the long shaggy 4ocks, a person's which flowed down on his shoulders and had remained un- Lntdifor 18 snorn from infancy, would suffice to rob him of his super- her hair, human vigour and reduce him to impotence. In various parts of the world a similar belief has prevailed as to living men and women, especially such as lay claim, like Samson, to powers above the reach of common mortals. Thus the natives of Amboyna, an island in the East Indies, used to think that their strength was in their hair and would desert them if their locks were shorn. A criminal under torture in a Dutch court of that island persisted in denying his guilt xvi. 4-22. CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 485 till his hair was cut off, when he immediately confessed, One man, who was tried for murder, endured without flinch- ing the utmost ingenuity of his torturers till he saw the surgeon standing by with a pair of shears. On asking what they were for, and being told that it was to shave his hair, he begged that they would not do it, and made a clean breast. In subsequent cases, when torture failed to wring a confession from a prisoner, the Dutch authorities made a practice of cutting off his hair. 1 The natives of Ceram, another East Indian Island, still believe that if young people have their hair cut they will be weakened and enervated thereby. 2 Here in Europe it used to be thought that the maleficent Belief in powers* of witches and wizards resided in their hair, and that t^lbe nothing could make any impression on these miscreants so maleficent long as they kept their hair on. Hence in France it was customary to shave the whole bodies of persons charged with wizards irii-i i ii/r-ii resides in sorcery before handing them over to the tormentor. Millaeus their hair. witnessed the torture of some persons at Toulouse, from whom no confession could be wrung until they were stripped and completely shaven, when they readily acknowledged the truth of the charge. A woman also, who apparently led a pious life, was put to the torture on suspicion of witchcraft, and bore her agonies with incredible constancy, until complete depilation drove her to admit her guilt. The noted inquisitor Sprenger contented himself with shaving the head of the suspected witch or warlock ; but his more thoroughgoing colleague Cumanus shaved the whole bodies of forty-one women before committing them all to the flames. He had high authority for this rigorous scrutiny, since Satan himself, in a sermon preached from the pulpit of North Berwick church, comforted his many servants by assuring them that no harm could befall them " sa lang as their hair wes on, and 1 Frar^ois Valentyn, Oud en Niettw Most of the following parallels have Oost-Indien (Dordrecht and Amster- already been cited by me elsewhere dam, 1724-1726), ii. 143 sq. These {Balder the Beautiful, ii. 1035^., 108 facts and other of the folk-lore parallels ^.-113, 126-129, 148, 158;?.; fas- cited below were first adduced in illus- sages of the Bible chosen for their liter- tration of the Samson story by the late ary beauty and interest, Second Edition, Dutch scholar, G. A. Wilken. See his London, 1909, pp. 471 sq.), instructive essay " De Simsonsage," De Gids, No. 5, reprinted in his col- 2 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en lected writings, De verspreide Geschrif- kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en ten (The Hague, 1912), iii. 551-579. Papua (The Hague, 1886), p. 137. 486 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART m similar sould newir latt ane teir fall fra thair ene." ] Similarly in wftdiesand Bastar, a province of India, " if a man is adjudged guilty of wizards in witchcraft, he is beaten by the crowd, his hair is shaved, the Mexko" na ^ r being supposed to constitute his power of mischief, his front teeth are knocked out, in order, it is said, to prevent him from muttering incantations. . . . Women suspected of sorcery have to undergo the same ordeal ; if found guilty, the same punishment is awarded, and after being shaved, their hair is attached to a tree in some public place." 2 So among the Bhils, a rude race of Central India, when a woman was convicted of witchcraft and had been subjected to various forms of persuasion, such as hanging head downwards from a tree and having pepper rubbed into her eyes, a lock of hair was cut from her head and buried in the ground, " that the last link between her and her former powers of mischief might be broken." 3 In like manner among the Aztecs of Mexico, when wizards and witches " had done their evil deeds, aftd the time came to put an end to their detestable life, some one laid hold of them and cropped the hair on the crown of their heads, which took from them all their power of sorcery and enchantment, and then it was that by death they put an end to their odious existence." 4 Story told It is no wonder that a belief so widespread should find island of * ts wav mto ^ r Y tales which, for all the seeming licence of Nias about fancy, reflect as in a mirror the real faith once held by the whose life people among whom the stories circulated. The natives of was in his Nias, an island off the west coast of Sumatra, relate that whose fatal once upon a time a certain chief named Laubo Maros was secret was driven by an earthquake from Macassar, in Celebes, and betrayed . by his migrated with his followers to Nias. Among those who treacherous followed his fortunes to the new land were his uncle and daughter to his his uncle s wife. But the rascally nephew fell in love with enemies. ^ unc j e ' s w jf e anc j contrived by a stratagem to get possession of the lady. The injured husband fled to Malacca and besought the Sultan of Johore to assist him in avenging his 1 J.G.Dalyell, The Darker Supersti- Folk-lore of Northern India (West- tions of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1834), minster, 1896), ii. 281. pp. 637-639 ; C. de Mensignac, Re- 3 W. Crooke, op. cit. ii. 281 sq. cherches ethnographiques sur la Salive * B. de Sahagun, Histoire des chases et le Crachat (Bordeaux, 1892), p. 49 de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par note. D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 2 W. Crooke, Popular Religion and 1880), p. 274. CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 487 wrongs. The Sultan consented and declared war on Laubo Maros. Meanwhile, however, that unscrupulous chief had fortified his settlement with an impenetrable hedge of prickly bamboo, which defied all the attempts of the Sultan and his troops to take it by storm. Defeated in open battle, the wily Sultan now had recourse to stratagem. He returned to Johore and there laded a ship with Spanish mats. Then he sailed back to Nias, and anchoring off his enemy's fort he loaded his guns with the Spanish mats instead of with shot and shell, and so opened fire on the place. The mats flew like hail through the air and soon were lying thick on the prickly hedge of the fort and on the shore in its neighbour- hood. The trap was now set and the Sultan waited to see what would follow. He had not long to wait. . An old woman, prowling along the beach, picked up one of the mats and saw the rest spread out temptingly around her. Overjoyed at the discovery she passed the good news among her neighbours, who hastened to the spot, and in a trice the prickly hedge was not only stripped bare of the mats but torn down and levelled with the ground. So the Sultan of Johore and his men had only to march into the fort and take possession. The defenders fled, but the wicked chief himself fell into the hands of the victors. He was condemned to death, but great difficulty was experienced in executing the sentence. They threw him into the sea, but the water would not drown him ; they laid him on a blazing pyre, but the fire would not burn him ; they hacked at every part of his body with swords, but steel would not pierce him. Then they perceived that he was an enchanter, and they consulted his wife to learn how they might kill him. Like Delilah, she revealed the fatal secret. On the chief's head grew a hair as hard as a copper wire, and with this wire his life was bound up. So the hair was plucked out, and with it his spirit fled. 1 In this and some of the following tales it is not merely the strength but the life of the hero which is supposed to have its seat in his hair, so that the loss of the hair in- volves his death. 1 J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. en Wetenschappen, xxx. (Batavia, 1863) von Rosenberg, "Verslag omtrent het pp. nosg. Compare H. Sundermann, eiland Nias," Verhandelingen van het Die Insel Nias (Barmen, 1905), p. "]\. Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten 488 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART in Scottish With the vain attempts to kill the wizard and the fruit- about 1( the ^ ess e ff rts to bind Samson, so long as the fateful hair was wizard unshorn, we may compare the Scottish tradition as to the Souiis death of the wicked Lord Soulis, a wizard who bore a charmed and his ijf e an d h a d j n hjg service a familiar spirit called Redcap. life. The story is told in a ballad by John Leyden, from which the following verses are extracted : " Lord Soulis he sat in Hermitage Castle, And beside him Old Redcap sly ; ( Noiv tell me, thou spiite, who art meikle of might, The death that I must die ? ' While thou shalt bear a charmed life, And hold that life of me, 'Gainst lance and arrow, sword and knife, I shall thy warrant be. ' Nor forged steel, nor hempen band, Shall e'er thy limbs confine, Till threefold ropes of sifted sand Around thy body twine? ' Ay, many may come, but few return,' Quo 1 Soulis, the lord of gramarye ; ' No warriot 's hand in fair Scotland Shall ever dint a wound on me ! ' 4 Now by my sooth,'' quo 1 bold Walter, ' If that be true we soon shall see} His bent bow he drew, and his arrow was true, But never a wound or scar had he. Then up bespake him true Thomas, He was the lord of Ersyltoun ; ' The wizard's spell no steel can quell, Till once your lances bear him down' They bore hitn down with lances brig/if, But never a wound or scar had he ; With hempen bands they bound him tight, Both hands and feet, on the Nine-stane lee. That wizard accurst, the bands he burst ; 7*hey moulder' d at his magic spell; And neck and heel, in the forged steel, They bound him against the charms of hell. CHAI-. vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 489 That wizard acctirst, the bands he burst; No forged steel his charms could bide ; Then up bespake him true Thomas, ' We'll bind him yet, whatever betide? The black spae-book from his breast he took, And turned the leaves with a curious hand; No ropes, did he find, the wizard could bind, But threefold ropes of sifted sand. They sifted the sand from the Nine-stane burn, And shaped the ropes sae curiouslie ; But the ropes would neither twist nor twine, For Thomas true and his gramarye" At last, so the ballad proceeds to tell, when even the HOW the hopeful plan of binding the enchanter with ropes of twisted '^ w s ere sand, reinforced by barley chaff, had failed disappointingly, overcome. true Thomas discovered from his black spae-book that the only way of quashing the wizard's spells was by boiling him in lead. So they heated a cauldron, wrapped the foul magician in a sheet of lead, and heaved him in. This had the desired effect ; the body and bones of Lord Soulis were soon melted down, and that was the miserable end of the enchanter. 1 The ruins of the wicked lord's stronghold, the Castle of Lord Hermitage, still stand in a hollow of the hills of Liddesdale, and the circle of stones where he is said to have been boiled personage, alive is still pointed out on a declivity which descends from the hills to the Water of Hermitage and bears the name of tradition f U' the Nine-stane Rig. Yet the story of his tragic death, like dca ^ h is that of his invulnerability, has no foundation in fact. William, fabulous. Lord Soulis, a powerful baron and the owner of great estates, entered into a conspiracy against King Robert the Bruce, but the plot was discovered by the Countess of Strathern, and the traitor was seized at Berwick. Having confessed his guilt in full Parliament he received his life at the king's hand, but his domains were forfeited, and he was confined in the castle of Dumbarton, a strong fortress which crowns the summit of a huge isolated rock situated at the point 1 Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the the collected edition of Scott's Poetical Scottish Border, iv. 244, 255-257 (in Works, Edinburgh, 1833). 490 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART III where the Vale of the Leven joins the Vale of the Clyde. There the traitor died in prison, and with him the noble family of Soulis ceased to make a figure in Scottish history. 1 This instance serves to show how rash it may be to infer the mythical character of the hero of a folk-tale from the mythical nature of the incidents which are related of him. The magical powers ascribed to Lord Soulis and the traditional manner of his death, in spite of the circumstantial local evidence by which the tradition appears to be supported, are purely fabulous ; yet the man was an historical person- age, who played a notable part in his time, and for that very reason became the theme of fable, popular fancy weaving its many-coloured web about his tragic figure, so as to disguise and almost obliterate its true outlines. His example warns us against discrediting the historical reality of Samson on account of the unhistorical elements in his story. Tales like that of Samson and Delilah were current in storks like tne legendary lore of ancient Greece. It is said that Nisus, king of Megara, had a purple or golden hair on the middle of his head, and that he was doomed to die whenever that hair should be plucked out. When Megara was besieged by the Cretans, the king's daughter Scylla fell m love with Minos, their king, and pulled out the fatal hair from her father's head. So he died. 2 According to one account it was not the life but the strength of Nisus that was in his golden hair ; when it was pulled out, he grew weak and was slain by Minos. 3 In this form the story of Nisus resembles still more closely the story of Samson. Again, Poseidon is said to have made Pterelaus immortal by giving him a golden hair on his head. But when Taphos, the home of Pterelaus was besieged by Amphitryo, the daughter of Pterelaus fell in love with Amphitryo and killed her father by plucking out the golden hair with which his life was bound up. 4 In a modern Greek folk-tale a man's strength Ancient Greek those of Samson and Delilah. 1 Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh, 1833), iv. 239 sqq. 2 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 15. 8 ; Aeschylus, Choeph. 6l2 sqq. ; Pau- sanias, i. 19. 4 ; C?'rts, 1 16 sqq. ; Ovid, Metainorph. viii. 8 sqq. 3 J. Tzetzes, Scholia on Lycophron. 650. 4 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 4. 5 and 7. CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 491 lies in three golden hairs on his head. When his mother pulls them out, he grows weak and timid and is slain by his enemies. 1 Another Greek story, in which we may perhaps detect a reminiscence of Nisus and Scylla, relates how a certain king, who was the strongest man of his time, had three long hairs on his breast. But when he went to war with another king, and his own treacherous wife had cut off the three hairs, he became the weakest of men. 2 The story how Samson was befooled by his false leman Parallels Delilah into betraying the secret of his strength has close parallels in Slavonic and Celtic folk-lore, with this difference, and however, that in the Slavonic and Celtic tales the strength Slavonic or the life of the hero is said to reside, not in his hair, but and in some external object such as an egg or a bird. Thus a Russian story relates how a certain warlock called Kashtshei Russian or Koshchei the Deathless carried off a princess and kept her prisoner in his golden castle. However, a prince made the Deathless, up to her one day as she was walking alone and disconsolate whose in the castle garden, and cheered by the prospect of escaping death was in an egg. with him she went to the warlock and coaxed him with false and flattering words, saying, " My dearest friend, tell me, I pray you, will you never die ? " " Certainly not," says he. " Well/' says she, " and where is your death ? Is it in your dwelling ? " " To be sure it is," says he, " it is in the broom under the threshold." Thereupon the princess seized the broom and threw it on the fire, but although the broom burned, the deathless Koshchei remained alive ; indeed not so much as a hair of him was singed. Balked in her first attempt, the artful hussy pouted and said, " You do not love me true, for you have not told me where your death is ; yet I am not angry, but love you with all my heart." With these fawning words she besought the warlock to tell her truly where his death was. So he laughed and said, " Why 1 J. G. von Hahn, Griechische und and that it vanished whenever these albanestsche Marchen (Leipsic, 1864), hairs were cut ; but if the hairs were i. 217; a similar story, op. cit. ii. 282. allowed to grow again their strength 2 B. Schmidt, Griechische Marchen, returned (B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben Sagen und Volkslieder (Leipsic, 1877), der Neugriechen, Leipsic, 1871, p. pp. 91 sq. The same writer found in 206). Similarly the strength of Sara- the island of Zacynthus a belief that son is said to have returned as his hair the whole strength of the ancient Greeks grew again after being cut (Judges xvi. resided in three hairs on their breasts, 22 sqg.). 492 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART in do you wish to know ? Well then, out of love I will tell you where it lies. In a certain field there stand three green oaks, and under the roots of the largest oak is a worm, and if ever this worm is found and crushed, I shall die." When the princess heard these words, she went straight to her lover and told him all ; and he searched till he found the oaks and dug up the worm and crushed it. Then he hurried to the warlock's castle, but only to learn that the warlock was still alive. Then the princess fell to wheedling and coaxing Koshchei once more, and this time, overcome by her wiles, he opened his heart to her and told her the truth. " My death," said he, " is far from here and hard to find, on the wide ocean. In that sea is an island, and on the island grows a green oak, and beneath the oak is an iron chest,* and in the chest is a small basket, and in the basket is a hare, and in the hare is a duck, and in the duck is an egg ; and he who finds the egg and breaks it, kills me at the same time." The prince naturally procured the fateful egg and with it in his hands he confronted the deathless warlock. The monster would have killed him, but the prince began to squeeze the egg. At that the warlock shrieked with pain, and turning to the false princess, who stood smirking and smiling, " Was it not out of love for you," said he, " that I told you where my death was ? And is this the return you make to me ? " With that he grabbed at his sword, which hung from a peg on the wall ; but before he could reach it, the prince had crushed the egg, and sure enough the deathless warlock found his death at the same moment. 1 Another In another version of the same story, when the cunning version of w&r \ oc ]^ deceives the traitress by telling her that his death is the story of Koshchei in the broom, she gilds the broom, and at supper the warlock sees ^ shining under the threshold and asks her sharply, " What's that ? " " Oh," says she, " you see how I honour you." " Simpleton ! " says he, " I was joking. My death is out there fastened to the oak fence." So next day, when the warlock was out, the prince came and gilded the whole fence ; and in the evening, when the warlock was at supper, he looked out of the window and saw the fence glistering 1 Anton Dietrich, Russian Popular Tales (London, 1857), pp. 21-24. CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH . 493 like gold. " And pray what may that be ? " said he to the princess. " You see," said she, " how I respect you. If you are dear to me, dear too is your death. That is why I have gilded the fence in which your death resides." The speech pleased the warlock, and in the fulness of his heart he revealed to her the fatal secret of the egg. When the prince, with the help of some friendly animals, obtained possession of the egg, he put it in his bosom and repaired to the warlock's house. The warlock himself was sitting at the window in a very gloomy frame of mind ; and when the prince appeared and showed him the egg, the light grew dim in the warlock's eyes, and he became all of a sudden very meek and mild. But when the prince began to play with the egg and to throw it from one hand to the other, the deathless Koshchei staggered from one corner of the room to the other, and when the prince broke the egg Koshchei the Deathless fell down and died. 1 A Serbian story relates how a certain warlock called Serbian True Steel carried off a prince's wife and kept her shut up ^li ^ a in his cave. But the prince contrived to get speech of her, called True and told her that she must persuade True Steel to reveal to w h^ s ' e her where his strength lay. So when True Steel came home, strength the prince's wife said to him, " Tell me, now, where is your b j rd . great strength ? " He answered, " My wife, my strength is in my sword." Then she began to pray and turned to his sword. When True Steel saw that, he laughed and said, " O foolish woman ! my strength is not in my sword, but in my bow and arrows." Then she turned towards the bow and arrows and prayed. But True Steel said, " I see, my wife, you have a clever teacher who has taught you to find out where my strength lies. I could almost say that your husband is living, and it is he who teaches you." But she assured him that nobody had taught her. When she found he had deceived her again, she waited for some days and then asked him again about the secret of his strength. He answered, " Since you think so much of my strength, I will tell you truly where it is. Far away from here there is a very high mountain ; in the mountain there is a fox ; in the 1 Jeremiah Curtin, Myths and Folk- and Magyars (London, 1891), pp.. 119- tales of the Russians, Westerii Slavs, 122. 494 SAMSON AND DELILAH Serbian story of a dragon whose strength was in a pigeon. fox there is a heart ; in the heart there is a bird, and in this bird is my strength. It is no easy task, however, to catch the fox, for she can transform herself into a multitude of creatures." Next day, when True Steel went forth from the cave, the prince came and learned from his wife the true secret of the warlock's strength. So away he hied to the mountain, and there, though the fox, or rather the vixen, turned herself into various shapes, he contrived, with the help of some friendly eagles, falcons, and dragons, to catch and kill her. Then he took out the fox's heart, and out of the heart he took the bird and burned it in a great fire. At that very moment True Steel fell down dead. 1 In another Serbian story we read how a dragon resided in a water-mill and ate up two king's sons, one after the other. The third son went out to seek his brothers, and coming to the water-mill he found nobody in it but an old woman. She revealed to him the dreadful character of the being that kept the mill, and how he had devoured the prince's two elder brothers, and she implored him to go away homt before a like fate should overtake him. But he was both brave and cunning, and he said to her, " Listen well to what I am going to say to you. Ask the dragon whither he goes and where his great strength is ; then kiss all that place where he tells you his strength is, as if you loved it dearly, till you find it out, and afterwards tell me when I come." So when the dragon came home the old woman began to question him, " Where in God's name have you been ? Whither do you go so far? You will never tell me whither, you go." The dragon replied, " Well, my dear old woman, I do go far." Then the old woman coaxed him, saying, " And why do you go so far ? Tell me where your strength is. If I knew where your strength is, I don't know what I should do for love ; I would kiss all that place." Thereupon the dragon smiled and said to her, " Yonder is my strength in that fire- place." Then the old woman began to kiss and fondle the fireplace ; and the dragon on seeing it burst into a laugh. " Silly old woman," he said, " my strength is not there. It is 1 Madame Csedomille Mijatovich, Serbian Folk-lore, edited by the Rev. W. Denton (London, 1874), pp. 167- 172; F. S. Krauss, Sagen itttd Mdrchen der Siidslaven (Leipsic, 1883-1884), i. 164-169. CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 495 in the tree-fungus in front of the house." Then the old woman began to fondle and kiss the tree ; but the dragon laughed again and said to her, " Away, old woman ! my strength is not there." " Then where is it ? " asked the old woman. " My strength," said he, " is a long way off, and you cannot go thither. Far in another kingdom under the king's city is a lake ; in the lake is a dragon ; in the dragon is a boar ; in the boar is a pigeon, and in the pigeon is my strength." The secret was out ; so next morning, when the dragon went away from the mill to attend to his usual busi- ness of gobbling people up, the prince came to the old woman and she let him into the mystery of the dragon's strength. Needless to say that the prince contrived to make his way to the lake in the far country, where after a terrible tussle he slew the water-dragon and extracted the pigeon, in which was the strength of the other unscrupulous dragon who kept the mill. Having questioned the pigeon, and ascertained from it how to restore his two murdered brothers to life, the prince wrung the bird's neck, and no doubt the wicked dragon perished miserably the very same moment, though the story- teller has omitted to mention the fact. 1 Similar incidents occur in Celtic stories. Thus a tale, Celtic told by a blind fiddler in the island of Islay, relates how a f giant carried off a king's wife and his two horses, and kept of a giant them in his den. But the horses attacked the giant and was In an* mauled him so that he could hardly crawl. He said to the egg- queen, " If I myself had my soul to keep, those horses would have killed me long ago." " And where, my dear," said she, " is thy soul ? By the books I will take care of it." " It is in the Bonnach stone," said he. So on the morrow when the giant went out, the queen set the Bonnach stone in order exceedingly. In the dusk of the evening the giant came back, and he said to the queen, " What made thee set the Bonnach stone in order like that ? " " Because thy soul is in it," quoth she. " I perceive," said he, " that if thou didst know where my soul is, thou wouldst give it much respect." " That I would," said she. " It is not there," said he, " my soul is ; it is in the threshold." On the morrow she set the 1 A. H. Wratislaw, Sixty Folk-Tales from exclusively Slavonic Sources (London, 1889), pp. 224-231. 496 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART in threshold in order finely, and when the giant returned he asked her, " What brought thee to set the threshold in order like that ? " " Because thy soul is in it," said she. " I perceive," said he, " that if thou knewest where my soul is, thou wouldst take care of it." " That I would," said she. " It is not there that my soul is," said he. " There is a great flagstone under the threshold. There is a wether under the flag ; there is a duck in the wether's belly, and an egg in the belly of the duck, and it is in the egg that my soul is." On the morrow when the giant was gone, they raised the flagstone and out came the wether. They opened the wether and out came the duck. They split the duck, and out came the egg. And the queen took the egg and crushed it in her hands, and at that very moment the giant, who was coming home in the dusk, fell down dead. 1 Argyieshire Once more, in an Argyleshire story we read how a big a'giant gi ant > King of Sorcha, stole away the wife of the herdsman whose life o f Cruachan, and hid her in the cave in which he dwelt. But thereof by the help of some obliging animals the herdsman contrived blackthorn. to discover the cave and his own lost wife in it. Fortunately the giant was not at home ; so after giving her husband food to eat, she hid him under some clothes at the upper end of the cave. And when the giant came home he sniffed about and said, " The smell of a stranger is in the cave." But she said no, it was only a little bird she had roasted. " And I wish you would tell me," said she, " where you keep your life, that I might take good care of it." " It is in a grey stone over there," said he. So next day when he went away, she took the grey stone and dressed it well, and placed it in the upper end of the cave. When the giant came home in the evening he said to her, " What is it that you have dressed there ? " " Your own life," said she, " and we must be careful of it." " I perceive that you are very fond of me, but it is not there," said he. " Where is it ? " said she. " It is in a grey sheep on yonder hillside," said he. On the morrow, when he' went away, she got the grey sheep, dressed it well, and placed it in the upper end of the cave. When he came home in the evening, he said, " What is it that you 1 J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, New Edition (Paisley and London, 1890), i. 7-11. CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 497 have dressed there ? " " Your own life, my love," said she. " It is not there as yet," said he. " Well ! " said she, " you are putting me to great trouble taking care of it, and you have not told me the truth these two times." He then said, " I think that I may tell it to you now. My life is below the feet of the big horse in the stable. There is a place down there in which there is a small lake. Over the lake are seven grey hides, and over the hides are seven sods from the heath, and under all these are seven oak planks. There is a trout in the lake, and a duck in the belly of the trout, an egg in the belly of the duck, and a thorn of blackthorn inside of the egg, and till that thorn is chewed small I cannot be killed. Whenever the seven grey hides, the seven sods from the heath, and the seven oak planks are touched, I shall feel it wherever I shall be. I have an axe above the door, and unless all these are cut through with one blow of it, the lake will not be reached ; and when it will be reached I shall feel it." Next day, when the giant had gone out hunting on the hill, the herdsman of Cruachan contrived, with the help of the same friendly animals, which had assisted him before, to get possession of the fateful thorn, and to chew it before the giant could reach him ; and no sooner had he done so than the giant dropped stark and stiff, a corpse. 1 A story of the same sort is told by the natives of Gilgit Indian in the highlands of North- Western India. They say that once on a time Gilgit was ruled by an ogre king named of Gilgit Shri Badat, who levied a tax of children on his subjects and was mat j e had their flesh regularly served up to him at dinner. Hence of butter - he went by the surname of the Man-Eater. He had a daughter called Sakina or Miyo Khai, who used to spend the summer months at a pleasant spot high up in the mountains, while Gilgit sweltered in the sultry heat of the valley below. One day it chanced that a handsome prince named Shamsher was hunting in the mountains near the summer quarters of the princess, and being fatigued by the chase he and his men lay down to sleep beside a bubbling spring under the grateful shade of trees ; for it was high noon and the sun was hot. As chance or fate would have it, a handmaid of the princess came just then to draw water at the spring, and 1 Rev. D. Maclnnes, Folk and Hero Tales (London, 1890), pp. 103-121. VOL. II 2 K 498 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART in seeing the strangers sleeping beside it she returned and reported the matter to her mistress. The princess was very angry at this intrusion on her chace, and caused the intruders to be brought before her. But at sight of the handsome prince, her anger fled ; she entered into conversation with him, and though the day wore on to afternoon and even- ing, and the prince requested to be allowed to descend the mountains, the princess detained him, hanging on his lips as he recounted to her his adventures and deeds of valour. At last she could hide her feelings no longer ; she told her love and offered him her hand. He accepted it not without hesitation, for he feared that her cruel father the king would never consent to her union with a stranger like himself. So they resolved to keep their marriage secret, and married they were that very night. HOW the But hardly had the prince won the hand of the princess treacherous than his ambition took a higher flight, and he aimed at daughter making himself master of the kingdom. For that purpose wormed ,...,..,. ... from him he instigated his wife to murder her father and to raise a the secret rebellion against him. Infatuated by her love of her husband, of his soul. . the princess consented to plot against her royal father's life. But there was an obstacle to the accomplishment of their design ; for Shri Badat, the king, was a descendant of the giants, and as such had no fear of being attacked by sword or arrow, because these weapons could make neither scratch nor dint on his body, and nobody knew what his soul was made of. Accordingly the first thing the ambitious prince had to do was to learn the exact nature of his father-in-law's soul ; and who so well able to worm the king's secret from him as his daughter ? So one day, whether to gratify a whim or to prove his wife's fidelity, he told her that no sooner should the leaves of a certain tree fade and turn yellow than she should see her father no more. Well, that autumn for summer was now passing- it chanced that the leaves of the tree faded and turned yellow earlier than usual ; and at sight of the yellow leaves the princess, thinking that her father's last hour was come, and touched perhaps with remorse for the murder she had been revolving in her heart, went down the hill lamenting, and so returned to Gilgit. But in the castle, to her surprise, she found her CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 499 royal sire in the enjoyment of his usual robust health and cannibal appetite. Taken somewhat aback, she excused her abrupt and unexpected return from her summer quarters in the hills by saying that a holy man had foretold how with the fading leaves of a certain tree her dear father also would fade and die. " This very day," she said, " the leaves turned yellow, and I feared for you, and came to throw myself at your feet. But I thank God that the omen has not come true, and that the holy man has proved a false prophet." The paternal heart of the ogre was touched by this proof of filial affection, and he said, " O my affectionate daughter, nobody in the world can kill me, for nobody knows of what my soul is made. How can it be injured until some tne knows its nature ? It is beyond a man's power to inflict harm on my body." To this his daughter replied that her happiness depended on his life and safety, and as she was dearest to him in all the wide world, he ought not to fear to tell her the secret of his soul. If she only knew it, she would be able to forestall any evil omens, to guard against any threatened danger, and to prove her love by devoting herself to the safety of her kind father. Yet the wary ogre distrusted her, and, like Samson and the giants of the fairy tales, tried to put her off by many false or evasive answers. But at last, overcome by her importunity or mollified by her cajoleries, he revealed the fatal secret. He told her that his soul was made of butter, and that whenever she should see a great fire burning in or around the castle, she might know that his last day was come ; for how could the butter of his soul hold out against the heat of the conflagration ? Little did he wot that in saying this he was betraying himself into the hands of a weak woman and an ungrateful daughter who was plotting against his life. After passing a few days with her too confiding sire, the HOW the traitress returned to her abode in the hills, where she found treac ^ erous ' daughter her beloved spouse Shamsher anxiously expecting her. and her Very glad was he to 'learn the secret of the king's soul, for h " s t ^ d to he was resolved to spare no pains in taking his father-in- melt her law's life, and he now saw the road clear to the accomplish- ^^l ment of his design. In the prosecution of the plot he butter. counted on the active assistance of the king's own subjects, 500 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART in who were eager to rid themselves of the odious ogre and so to save the lives of their remaining children from his ravening maw. Nor was the prince deceived in his calculation ; for on learning that a deliverer was at hand, the people readily gave in their adhesion to him, and in collusion with them the plot was laid for bearding the monster in his den. The plan had the merit of extreme simplicity. A great fire was to be kindled round about the royal castle, and in the heat of it the king's soul of butter was expected to melt away and dissolve. A few days before the plot was to be put into execution, the prince sent down his wife to her father at Gilgit, with strict injunctions to keep their secret and so to lull the doating ogre into a sense of false security. All was now ready. At dead of night the people turned out of their homes with torches and bundles of wood in their hands. As they drew near the castle, the king's soul of butter began to feel uneasy ; a restlessness came over him, and late as the hour was he sent out his daughter to learn the source of his uneasiness. The undutiful and faithless woman accord- ingly went out into the night, and after tarrying a while, to let the rebels with their torches draw nearer, she returned to the castle and attempted to reassure her father by telling him that his fears were vain, and that there was nothing the matter. But now the presentiment of coming evil in the king's mind was too strong to be reasoned away by his wheedling daughter ; he went out from his chamber himself only to see the darkness of night lit up by the blaze of fires surrounding the castle. There was no time to hesitate or loiter. His resolution was soon taken. He leaped into the air and winged his way in the direction of Chotur Khan, a region of snow and ice among the lofty mountains which encircle Gilgit. There he hid himself under a great glacier, and there, since his butter soul could not melt in ice, he The remains down to this day. Yet still the people of Gilgit annual believe that he will come back one day to rule over them cominemo- _ * ration of and to devour their children with redoubled fury ; hence flight 8 ^ every year on a night in November the anniversary of the day when he was driven from Gilgit they keep great fires burning all through the hours of darkness in order to repel his ghost, if he should attempt to return. On that night no CHAP, vi SAMSON AND DELILAH 501 one would dare to sleep ; so to while away the time the people dance and sing about the blazing bonfires. 1 The general conformity of this Indian story to the Resem- Samson legend and the Slavonic and Celtic tales is sufficiently obvious. Its resemblance to them would probably be still to the closer if the story-teller had recorded the false and evasive answers which the ogre gave to his daughter in regard to tales and the secret of his soul ; for on the analogy of the Hebrew, Samson Slavonic, and Celtic parallels we may suppose that the legend. wily monster attempted to deceive her by pretending that his soul was stowed away in things with which in reality it had no connexion. Perhaps one of his answers was that his soul was in the leaves of a certain tree, and that when they turned yellow it would be a sign of his death, though as the story now runs this false prediction is put in the mouth of a third person instead of in that of the ogre himself. While these Slavonic, Celtic, and Indian tales resemble the But in the story of Samson and Delilah in their general scheme or plot, Celtic, . J ' Slavonic, they differ from it in at least one important respect. For in and Indian the Samson story the reader's sympathy is all enlisted on the St a 5 r r t !^ ) f he side of the betrayed warlock, who is represented in an amiable the hero light as a patriot and champion of his people : we admire his marvellous feats ; we pity his sufferings and death ; we transposed: abhor the treachery of the artful hussy whose false protesta- the tions of affection have brought these unmerited calamities on betrayed /-NI i i i i r*i < i warlock her lover. On the other hand, in the Slavonic, Celtic, and a nd Indian stories the dramatic interest of the situation is exactly betrayer. reversed. The betrayed warlock is represented in a very unamiable light as a wretch who abuses his great power for wicked purposes ; we detest his crimes, we rejoice at his downfall, and we applaud or condone the cunning of the woman who betrays him to his doom, because in doing so she merely avenges a great wrong which he has done to her or to a whole people. Thus in the two different renderings of the same general theme the parts of the villain and the victim are transposed : in the one rendering 1 Ghulam Muhammad, "Festivals No. 7 (Calcutta, 1905), pp. 114 sg., and Folklore of Gilgit," Memoirs of 115-118. I have considerably abridged the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i. the story. 502 SAMSON AND DELILAH PART in the part of the innocent victim is taken by the warlock, and the part of the artful villain by the woman ; in the other rendering it is the warlock who figures as the artful villain, and it is the woman who plays the part of the innocent victim, or at all events, as in the Indian tale, of the fond wife and national deliverer. There can be little doubt that if we had the Philistine version of the story of Samson and Delilah, we should find in it the parts of the villain and the victim transposed : we should see Samson figuring as the unscrupulous villain who robbed and murdered the defenceless Philistines, and we should see Delilah appearing as the innocent victim of his brutal violence, who by her quick wit and high courage con- trived at once to avenge her own wrongs and to deliver her people from the monster who had so long and so cruelly The afflicted them. It is thus that in the warfare of nations and ^ f act i ns the parts of the hero and the villain are apt to shift according to the standpoint from which we view them : seen from one side the same man will appear as the whitest of heroes ; seen from the other side he will appear as the blackest of villains ; from the one side he will be greeted with showers of roses, from the other side he will be pelted with volleys of stones. We may almost say that every man who has made a great figure in the turbulent scenes of history is a harlequin, whose parti-coloured costume differs according as you look at him from the front or the back, from the right or the left. His friends and his foes behold him from opposite sides, and they naturally see only that particular hue of his coat which happens to be turned towards them. It is for the impartial historian to contemplate these harle- quins from every side and to paint them in their coats of many colours, neither altogether so white as they appeared to their friends nor altogether so black as they seemed to their enemies. CHAPTER VII THE BUNDLE OF LIFE THE traveller who, quitting the cultivated lands of central The Judea, rides eastwards towards the Dead Sea, traverses at * of Judea. first a series of rolling hills and waterless valleys covered by broom and grass. But as he pursues his way onward the scenery changes ; the grass and thistles disappear, and he gradually passes into a bare and arid region, where the wide expanse of brown or yellow sand, of crumbling limestone, and of scattered shingle is only relieved by thorny shrubs and succulent creepers. Not a tree is to be seen ; not a human habitation, not a sign of life meets the eye for mile after mile. Ridge follows ridge in monotonous and seem- ingly endless succession, all equally white, steep, and narrow, their sides furrowed by the dry beds of innumerable torrents, and their crests looming sharp and ragged against the sky above him as the traveller ascends from the broad flats of soft white marl, interspersed with flints, which divide each isolated ridge from the one beyond it. The nearer slopes of these desolate hills look as if they were torn and rent by waterspouts ; the more distant heights present the aspect of gigantic dustheaps. In some places the ground gives out a hollow sound under the horse's tread ; in others the stones and sand slip from beneath the animal's hoofs ; and in the frequent gullies the rocks glow with a furnace heat under the pitiless sun which beats down on them out of the cloudless firmament. Here and there, as we proceed eastward, the desolation of the landscape is momentarily lightened by a glimpse of the Dead Sea, its waters of a deep blue appearing in a hollow of the hills and con- 503 504 THE BUNDLE OF LIFE trasting refreshingly with the dull drab colouring of the desert foreground. - When the last ridge is surmounted and he stands on the brink of the great cliffs, a wonderful panorama bursts upon the spectator. Some two thousand feet below him lies the Dead Sea, visible in its whole length from end to end, its banks a long succession of castellated crags, bastion beyond bastion, divided by deep gorges, with white capes running out into the calm blue water, while beyond the lake rise the mountains of Moab to melt in the far distance into the azure of the sky. If he has struck the lake above the springs of Engedi, he finds himself on the summit of an amphitheatre of nearly vertical cliffs, down which a rugged winding track, or rather staircase, cut in the face of the precipice, leads to a little horse-shoe shaped plain sloping to the water's edge. It is necessary to dis- mount and lead the horses carefully down this giddy descent, the last of the party picking their steps very warily, for a single slip might dislodge a stone, which, hurtling down the crag, and striking on the travellers below, would precipitate them to the bottom. At the foot of the cliffs the copious warm fountain of Engedi, " the spring of the kid," bursts in a foaming cascade from the rock amid a verdurous oasis of luxuriant semi-tropical vegetation, which strikes the wayfarer all the more by contrast with the dreary waterless wilderness through which he has been toiling for many hours. That wilderness is what the ancient Hebrews called Jeshimmon, or desolation, the wilderness of Judea. From the bitter but brilliant water of the Dead Sea it stretches right up into the heart of the country, to the roots of the Mount of Olives, to within two hours of the gates of Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. 1 David and To these dismal wilds the hunted David fled for refuge Abigail. f rom the pursuit of his implacable enemy Saul. 2 While he was in hiding there with the band of broken men he had gathered round him, he was visited by Abigail, the wise and 1 (Sir) George Adam Smith, 71ie Second Edition (London, 1874), pp. Historical Geography of the Holy Land 23 sqq.; R. C. Conder, Tent Work (London, 1894), pp. 269 sqq., 312 in Palestine, New Edition (London, sqq. ; H. B. Tristram, The Land of 1885), pp. 262 sqq. Israel, Fourth Edition (London, 1882), 2 I Samuel xxiii. 14 sq., 24 sq., pp. 193 sqq.; id., The Land of Moab, 29, xxiv. i, CHAP, vii THE BUNDLE OF LIFE 505 beautiful wife of the rich sheep-farmer Nabal, whom the gallant outlaw had laid under a deep obligation by not stealing his sheep. Insensible of the services thus rendered to him by the caterans, the surly boor refused with con- tumely a request, couched in the most polite terms, which the captain of the band had sent in for the loan of pro- visions. The insult touched the captain's nice sense of honour to the quick, and he was marching over the hills at the head of four hundred pretty fellows, every man of them with his broadsword buckled at his side, and was making straight for the farm, when the farmer's wife The met him on the moor. She had soft words to soothe eetin s on the moor. the ruffled pride of the angry chieftain, and, better perhaps than words, a train of asses laden with meat and drink for the sharp-set brigands. David was melted. The beauty of the woman, her gentle words, the sight of the asses with their panniers, all had their effect. He received the wife, pleading for her husband, with the utmost courtesy, promised his protection, not without dark hints of the sight that the sun would have seen at the farm next morning if she had not met him, and so dismissed her with a blessing. The word was given. The outlaws faced to the right-about, and, followed no doubt by the asses with their panniers, marched off the way they had come. As she watched those stalwart, sunburnt figures stepping out briskly till the column disappeared over the nearest ridge, Abigail may have smiled and sighed. Then, turning homeward, she hastened with a lighter heart to the house where her boorish husband and his hinds, little wotting of what had passed on the hills, were drinking deep and late after the sheepshear- ing. That night over the wine she wisely said nothing. But next morning, when he was sober, she told him, and his heart died within him. The shock to his nervous system, or perhaps something stronger, was too much for him. Within ten days he was a dead man, and after a decent interval the widow was over the hills and far away with the captain of the brigands. 1 Among the compliments which the charming Abigail The bundle paid to the susceptible David at their first meeting, there is of 1 I Samuel xxv. 1-42. 506 THE BUNDLE OF LIFE PART in one which deserves our attention. She said, " And though man be risen up to pursue thee, and- to seek thy soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God ; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling." ] No doubt the language is metaphorical, but to an English writer the metaphor is strange and obscure. It implies that the souls of living people could be tied up for safety in a bundle, and that, on the contrary, when the souls were those of enemies, the bundle might be undone and the souls scattered to the winds. Such an idea could hardly have occurred to a Hebrew even as a figure of speech, unless he were familiar with an actual belief that souls could thus be treated. To us, who conceive of a soul as immanent in its body so long as life lasts, the idea conveyed by the verse in question is naturally preposterous. But it would not be so to many peoples whose theory of life differs widely from wide- ours. There is in fact a widespread belief among savages beifefthat that the soul can be, and often is, extracted from the body souiscanbe d ur iripr the lifetime of its owner without immediately causing extruded from their his death. Commonly this is done by ghosts, demons, or evil-disposed persons, who have a grudge at a man and steal of their his soul for the purpose of killing him ; for if they succeed owners. j n t jj e j r f e \\ intent and detain the truant soul long enough, the man will fall ill and die. 2 For that reason people who identify their souls with their shades or reflections are often in mortal terror of a camera, because they think that the photographer who has taken their likeness has abstracted their souls or shades along with it. To take a single instance out of a multitude. At a village on the lower Yukon River, in Alaska, an explorer had set up his camera to get a picture of the Eskimo as they were moving 1 i Samuel xxv. 29. I have to thank editors, to he changed into nu my dear and lamented friend, the late ("balm"). See Professor A. A". Professor J. H. Moulton, D.D., for Be van, in Journal of Theological directingmy attention to this passage and Studies, October, 1899, p. 140. suggesting what I believe to be its true interpretation. The same expression 2 Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, "bundle of life" (o"n -ins) is applied pp- y> S qq. (The Golden Bough, Third to a faithful friend in the Hebrew Edition, Part ii.) ; A. C. Kruijt, Het text of Ecclesiasticus vi. 16, where Animisme in den Indischen Archipel ira ("bundle") ought not, with some (The Hague, 1906), pp. 77 sqq. CHAP, vii THE BUNDLE OF LIFE 507 about among their houses. While he was focussing the instrument, the headman of the village came up and insisted on peeping under the cloth. Being allowed to do so he gazed agog for a minute at the moving figures on the ground-glass ; then jerking his head from under the cloth he bellowed out to his people, " He has got all your shades in this box." A panic ensued among the group, and in a twinkling they disappeared helter-skelter into their houses. 1 On this theory a camera or a packet of photographs is a box or bundle of souls, packed ready for transport like sardines in a tin. But sometimes souls are extracted from their bodies Souls with a kindly intention. The savage seems to think that f nobody can die properly so long as his soul remains intact, bodies at whether in the body or out of the body ; hence he infers 3eas ons in that if he can contrive to draw out his soul and stow it order to , , . . ....., keep them away in some place where nothing can injure it, he will be out of for all practical purposes immortal so long as his soul re- harm ' s mains unharmed and undisturbed in its haven of refuge. Hence in time of danger the wary savage will sometimes carefully extract his own soul or the soul of a friend and leave it, so to say, at deposit account in some safe place till the danger is past and he can reclaim his spiritual property. For example, many people regard the removal to a new house as a crisis fraught with peril to their souls ; hence in Minahassa, a district of Celebes, at such critical times a priest collects the souls of the whole family in a bag, and keeps them there till the danger is over, when he restores them to their respective owners. 2 Again, in Southern Celebes, when a woman's time is near, the messenger who goes to fetch the doctor or midwife takes with him a chopping-knife or something else made of iron. The thing, whatever it is, represents the woman's soul, which at this dangerous time is believed to be safer outside of her body than in it. Hence the doctor must take great care of the thing, 1 E. W. Nelson, "The Eskimo kennis van de zeden en gewoonten der about Behring Straits," Eighteenth Alfoeren in de Minahassa," Mededeel- Annual Report of the Bureau of ingen van wege het Nederlandsche American Ethnology, Part i. (Wash- Zendelinggenootschap, vii. (1863) pp. ington, 1899) p. 422. 146 sq. 2 P. N. Wilken, " Bijdragen tot de 508 THE BUNDLE OF LIFE PART in for were it lost the woman's soul would with it be lost also. So he keeps it in his house till the confinement is over, when he gives back the precious object in return for a fee. 1 In the Kei Islands a hollowed-out coco-nut, split in two and carefully pieced together, may sometimes be seen hanging up. This is a receptacle in which the soul of a newly -born infant is kept lest it should -fall a prey to demons. For in those parts the soul does not permanently lodge in its tabernacle of clay, until the clay has taken a firm consistency. The Eskimo of Alaska adopt a similar precaution for the soul of a sick child. The medicine-man conjures it into an amulet and then stows the amulet in his medicine-bag, where, if anywhere, the soul should be out of harm's way. 2 In some parts of South- Eastern New Guinea, when a woman walks abroad carrying her baby in a bag, she " must tie a long streamer of vine of some kind to her skirt, or better still to the baby's bag, so that it trails behind her on the ground. For should, by chance, the child's spirit wander from the body it must have some means of crawling back from the ground, and what so convenient as a vine trailing on the path ? " Bundles of But perhaps the closest analogy to the " bundle of life " sticks and ' ls furnished by the bundles of churinga, that is, flattened stones and elongated stones and sticks, which the Arunta and with^wMch other tribes of Central Australia keep with the greatest care the spirits anc j secrecy in caves and crevices of the rocks. Each of of the . ...... . Central these mysterious stones or sticks is intimately associated Australian w {^ the spirit of a member of the clan, living or dead ; for aborigines are thought as soon as the spirit of a child enters into a woman to be born, one of these holy sticks or stones is dropped on the associated, spot where the mother felt her womb quickened. Directed by her, the father searches for the stick or stone of his child, and having found it, or carved it out of the nearest hard-wood tree, he delivers it to the headman of the dis- trict, who deposits it with the rest in the sacred store-house among the rocks. These precious sticks and stones, closely bound up with the spirits of all the members of the clan, 1 B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Insehvelt des Banda-Meeres (Berlin, Ethnologic van Zuid - Celebes (The 1896), p. 199. Hague, 1873), p. 54. 3 Henry Newton, In Far New 2 J. A. Jacobsen, Reisen in die Guinea (London, 1914), p. 186. CHAP, vii THE BUNDLE OF LIFE , 509 are often carefully tied up in bundles. They constitute the most sacred possession of the tribe, and the places where they are deposited are skilfully screened from observation, the entrance to the caves being blocked up with stones arranged so naturally as to disarm suspicion. Not only the spot itself but its surroundings are sacred. The plants and trees that grow there are never touched : the wild animals that find their way thither are never molested. And if a man fleeing from his enemies or from the avenger of blood succeeds in reaching the sanctuary, he is safe so long as he remains within its bounds. The loss of their churinga, as they call the sacred sticks and stones thus associated with the spirits of all the living and all the dead members of the community, is the most serious evil that can befall a tribe. Robbed of them by inconsiderate white men, the natives have been known to stay in camp for a fort- night, weeping and wailing over their loss and plastering their body with white pipeclay, the emblem of mourning for the dead. 1 In these beliefs and practices of the Central Australians in these with regard to the churinga we have, as Messrs. Spencer saa " ed sticks and and Gillen justly observe, "a modification of the idea which stones the finds expression in the folklore of so many peoples, and of t^ 10 * according to which primitive man, regarding his soul as a Central concrete object, imagines that he can place it in some secure spot apart, if needs be, from his body, and thus, if the latter seem , . ,, .. r i -11 formerly be in any way destroyed, the spirit part of him still persists to have unharmed. " 2 Not that the Arunta of the present day deposited believe these sacred sticks and stones to be the actual recep- spirits. tacles of their spirits in the sense that the destruction of one of the sticks or stones would of necessity involve the destruc- tion of the man, woman, or child whose spirit is associated with it. But in their traditions we meet with clear traces of a belief that their ancestors did really deposit their spirits in these sacred objects. For example, we are told that some men of the Wild Cat totem kept their spirits in their / (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. 1904), pp. 257-282. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (London, 1899), pp. 128- 2 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. 136. Compare id., The Northern Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Trides of Central Australia (London, Australia, p. 137. 5io THE BUNDLE OF LIFE Analogy between a bundle of these sacred sticks and stones and " the bundle of life." Ezekiel's denuncia- tion of the women who hunt and catch souls. churinga, which they used to hang up on a sacred pole in the camp when they went out to hunt ; and on their return from the chase they would take down the churinga from the pole and carry them about as before. 1 The intention of thus hanging up the churinga on a pole when they went out hunting may have been to put their souls in safe keeping till they came back. Thus there is fair ground to think that the bundles of sacred sticks and stones, which are still treasured so carefully in secret places by the Arunta and other tribes of Central Australia, were formerly believed to house the souls of every member of the community. So long as these bundles remained securely tied up in the sanctuary, so long, might it be thought, was it well with the souls of all the people ; but once open the bundles and scatter their precious contents to the winds, and the most fatal consequences would follow. It would be rash to assert that the primitive Semites ever kept their souls for safety in sticks and stones which they deposited in caves and crannies of their native wilderness ; but it is not rash to affirm that some such practice would explain in an easy and natural way the words of Abigail to the hunted outlaw, " And though man be risen up to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God ; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling." Be that as it may, the Hebrews would seem even down to comparatively late times to have been familiar with a form of witchcraft which aimed at catching and detaining the souls of living persons with the intent to do them grievous hurt. The witches who practised this black art were formally denounced by the prophet Ezekiel in the following terms : " And thou, son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart ; and prophesy thou against them, and say, Thus saith the Lord God : Woe to the women that sew fillets upon all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons 1 (Sir) Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 138. CHAP, vii THE BUNDLE OF LIFE 511 of every stature to hunt souls ! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves? 'And ye have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hearken unto lies. Wherefore thus saith the Lord God : Behold I am against your fillets, wherewith ye hunt the souls, and I will tear them from your arms ; and I will let the souls which ye hunt go free like birds. Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord." l The nefarious practices of these women, which the The art of prophet denounces, apparently consisted in attempts to catch ^ tmg stray souls in fillets and cloths, and so to kill some people catching by keeping their souls in durance vile, and to save the ^sand lives of others, probably of sick people, by capturing their snares vagabond souls and restoring them to their bodies. Similar fn^arious devices have been and still are adopted for the same purpose parts of the by sorcerers and witches in many parts of the world. For example, Fijian chiefs used to whisk away the souls of criminals in scarves, whereupon the poor wretches, deprived of this indispensable part of their persons, used to pine and die. 2 The sorcerers of Danger Island, in the Pacific, caught Trapping the souls of sick people in snares, which they set up near !? uls in the houses of the sufferers, and watched till a soul came island. fluttering into the trap and was entangled in its meshes, after which the death of the patient was, sooner or later, inevitable. The snares were made of stout cinet with loops of various sizes adapted to catch souls of all sizes, whether 1 Ezekiel xiii. 17-21. Many years and omit the first nirriB^ (" like birds ") ago my friend W. Robertson Smith as a doublet of the second, if indeed suggested to- me the true interpretation both should not be omitted as a gloss. of this passage, which seems to have The word (rns) is Aramaic, not Heb- escaped the commentators. Robertson rew Further, for C'MJ rm ("the Smith's explanation accepted by A SQul an unheard . of p ] ura f of ^ Lods, La Croyance a la Vte future et , , h Culte des Marts dans VAntiquitt J, rea * D '^? ^ < them free ) wlth Israelite (Paris, 1906), i. 47 sg. In verse 20, following I. W. Rothstein (in R. Kittel's Biblia Hebraica, ii. 2 Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, 761), I read ca for DP ("there") Second Edition (London, 1860), i. 250. 512 THE BUNDLE OF LIFE PART III Trapping souls in West Africa. Trapping souls in Celebes. large or small, whether fat or thin. 1 Among the negroes of West Africa " witches are continually setting traps to catch the soul that wanders from the body when a man is sleep- ing ; and when they have caught this soul, they tie it up over the canoe fire and its owner sickens as the soul shrivels. This is merely a regular line of business, and not an affair of individual hate or revenge. The witch does not care whose dream-soul gets into the trap, and Will restore it on payment. Also witch-doctors, men of unblemished professional reputa- tion, will keep asylums for lost souls, i.e. souls who have been out wandering and found on their return to their body that their place had been filled up by a Sisa, a low-class soul. . . . These doctors keep souls, and administer them to patients who are short of the article." - Among the Baoules of the Ivory Coast it happened once that a chief's soul was ex- tracted by the magic of an enemy, who succeeded in shutting it up in a box. To recover it, two men held a garment of the sufferer, while a witch performed certain enchantments. After a time she declared that the soul was now in the garment, which was accordingly rolled up and hastily wrapped about the invalid for the purpose of restoring his spirit to him. 3 Malay wizards catch the souls of women whom they love in the folds of their turbans, and then go about with the dear souls in their girdles by day and sleep with them under their pillows by night. 4 Among the Toradjas of Central Celebes the priest who accompanied an armed force on an expedition used to wear a string of sea- shells hanging down over his breast and back for the purpose of catching the souls of the enemy ; the shells were branched and hooked, and it was supposed that, once the souls were conjured into the shells, the branches and hooks would pre- vent them from escaping. The way in which the priest set and baited this soul-trap was as follows. When the 1 W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London, 1876), p. 171 ; id., Life in the Southern Isles (London, N.D.), pp. 181 sqq. Cinet is cordage made from the dried fibre of coco-nut husk. See Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, 2 i. 69. - Miss Mary H. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (London, 1897), pp. 461 sg. 3 Maurice Delafosse, "Sur ; des traces probables de civilisation 6gyp- tienne et d'hommes de race blanche a la Cote d'lvoire," L'Anthropologie, xi. (1900) p. 558. 4 W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic (Lon- don, 1900), pp. 576 sq. CHAP, vii THE BUNDLE OF LIFE 513 warriors had entered the hostile territory, the priest went by night to the village which they intended to attack, and there, close by the entrance, he laid down his string of shells on the path so as to form a circle, and inside of the circle he buried an egg and the guts of a fowl, from which omens had been drawn before the troop set out from their own land. Then the priest took up the string of shells and waved it seven times over the spot, calling quietly on the souls of the enemy and saying, " Oh, soul of So-and-So," mentioning the name of one of the inhabitants of the village, " come, tread on my fowl ; thou art guilty, thou hast done wrong, come ! " Then he waited, and if the string of shells gave out a tinkling sound, it was a sign that the soul of an enemy had really come and was held fast by the shells. Next day the man, whose soul had thus been ensnared, would be drawn, in spite of himself, to the spot where the foes who had captured his soul were lying in wait, and thus he would fall an easy prey to their weapons. 1 Such practices may serve to explain those proceedings Hebrew of the Hebrew witches against which Ezekiel fulminated. Wltches caught These abandoned women seem to have caught vagrant souls souls in in kerchiefs which they threw over the heads of their victims, kerc and to have detained their spiritual captives in fillets which they sewed to their own elbows. Thus the Hebrews apparently retained down to his- "Houses torical times the conception of the soul as a separable ^0^"^ thing, which can be removed from a man's body in his life- by Isaiah, time, either by the wicked art of witches, or by the owner's voluntary act in order to deposit it for a longer or shorter time in a place of safety. If one great prophet reveals to us the Hebrew witch at her infernal business of decoying the souls of others, another great prophet perhaps affords us a glimpse of a fine lady of Jerusalem carrying her own soul about with her in a little casket. After describing, in a strain of Puritan invective and scorn, the haughty daughters of Zion who tripped about with languishing eyes, mincing steps, and tinkling feet, Isaiah proceeds to give a long cata- logue of the jewels and trinkets, the robes and shawls, the 1 N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), i. 233 Bare'e-sprekende Toradjds van Midden- sq., 236 sq. VOL. II 2 L THE BUNDLE OF LIFE veils and turbans, all the finery and frippery of these fashion- able and luxurious dames. 1 In his list of feminine gauds he mentions " houses of the soul." 2 The expression thus literally translated is unique in the Old Testament. Modern translators and commentators, following Jerome, render it " perfume boxes," " scent-bottles," or the like. 3 But it may well be that these " houses of the soul " were amulets in which the soul of the wearer was supposed to lodge. 4 The commentators on the passage recognize that many of the trinkets in the prophet's list were probably charms, just as personal ornaments often are in the East to the present day. 5 (London, 1914), p. 128; The Last Journals of David Livingstone (Lon- don, 1874), i. 156, 168, 353. Among the Iban or Sea Dyaks of Borneo it is customary to erect a miniature house on the grave one or two years after the death, and to place in this miniature house miniature hats, mats, and baskets for the use of the dead. See L. Nyuk, " Religious Rites and Customs of the Iban or Dyaks of Sarawak," Anthropos, i. (1906) pp. 171 sq. Among the Bare 'e- speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes, when a new house is being dedicated, the priestesses make a little model of a house for the souls of the dead and hang it up in a corner of the new dwelling. See N. Adriani en Alb. C. Kruijt, De BarJe-sprekende Toradjrfs van Midden-Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), i. 281. In the island of Gaman, off Western New Guinea, miniature houses are placed on the graves, and food is set beside them for the spirits of the dead. See J. W. van Hille, " Reizen in West-Nieuw- Guinea,'' Tijdschrift van het Neder- landsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, xxiii. (1906) p. 482. However, all such little houses for the souls of the dead stand on a different footing from houses for the souls of the living. 6 Dillmann, Skinner, and White- house, on Isaiah iii. 18 and 20. Com- pare B. Winer, Biblisches Realworter- buch* (Leipsic, 1833-1838), i. 65, s.v. " Amulete." The peoples of the eastern horn of Africa (the Somali, Gallas, and Danakil), especially the Mohammedan part of them, wear many ornaments 1 Isaiah iii. 16-24. 2 Isaiah iii. 20, B>S|n "52. 3 " Perfume boxes " (English Re- vised Version). Similarly Kautsch, Dillmann, Dvihrn, Skinner, Whitehouse. Jerome's rendering in the Vulgate is olfactoriola. 4 The Egyptians placed little models of houses, made of pottery, on the tombs for the souls of the dead to lodge in. Many of these miniature houses of the soul were discovered by Pro- fessor W. M. Flinders Petrie at Rifeh, in Upper Egypt. See W. M. Flinders Petrie, Gizeh and Rifeh (London, 1907), pp. 14-20, with Plates I., XV.-XXII. The hut-urns containing the ashes of the dead, which have been found in ancient Italian, German, and Danish graves, were probably in like manner intended to serve as nouses of the soul. See W. Helbig, Die Italiker in der Poebene (Leipsic, 1879), p. 50; O. Schrader, Reallexikon der Indoger- manischen Altertumsknnde (Strasburg, 1901), pp. 337, 339. The custom of erecting small huts or shrines for the souls of the dead appears to be common in African tribes. See J. Roscoe, " Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,"y^wra/ of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 41 ; id., The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 123, 286; id., The Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 130, 229; L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan (Paris, 1912), pp. 104, 189, 236, 269, 322, 356; E. Torday, Camp and Tramp in African Wilds (London, 1913), p. 137 ; Donald Fraser, Winning a Primitive People CHAP, vii THE BUNDLE OF LIFE 515 The very word which follows " houses of the souls " in the text is rendered " amulets " in the English Revised Version ; it is derived from a verb meaning " to whisper," " to charm." l But this view of the " houses of the soul " does not " Houses necessarily exclude their identification with scent-bottles, ^baps" In the eyes of a people who, like the Hebrews, identified scent- the principle of life with the breath, 2 the mere act of smell- ing a perfume might easily assume a spiritual aspect ; the scented breath inhaled might seem an accession of life, an addition made to the essence of the soul. Hence it would be natural to regard the fragrant object itself, whether a scent-bottle, incense, or a flower, as a centre of radiant spiritual energy, and therefore as a fitting place into which to breathe out the soul whenever it was deemed desirable to do so for a time. Far-fetched as this idea may appear to us, it may seem natural enough to the folk and to their best interpreters the poets : " / sent thee late a rosy wreath, Not so much honouring thee As giving it a hope that there It could not wither 3 d be ; But thou thereon didst only breathe And senfst it back to me; Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, Not of itself but thee ! " 3 which, at the same time, serve as of a spell," where we must read pps amulets. See Ph. Paulitschke, Ethno- for ;ips with many critics. See Brown, graphieNordost-Afrikas,Diematerielle Driver, and Briggs, op. cit. pp. 538, Culttir der Dandkil, Galla, und g*g Somdl (Berlin, 1893), pp. 95 sq. 2 Genesis ii. 7. Compare C. Grunei- Compare F. Stuhlmann, Mil Emin ^^ Der Ahnenkultus und die Ur- Pascha ins Hertz von Afrika {Berlin, religion Israels (Halle, a. S., 1900), 1894), P- 5i8. On the relation of pp _ 33 sqq. ; B. Stade, Biblische Theo- jewellery to magic, see Professor W. f ogie des A i ten Testaments, i. (Tiibin- Ridgeway, in Report of the British gen> I9O5 j pp , jgj sq . ; A. Lods, Association for the Advancement of LaJCroyance a la Vie Future et le Culte Science, Meeting held at Southport, ^ ^ Iorts ^ WJ /> Antiquitl Israelite igos, pp. 815 sq. (Paris, 1906), i. 51 sqq. The last of 1 Fr. Brown, S. R. Driver, and Ch. these writers appears, however, to be A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon r ight in holding that the Hebrews had (Oxford, 1906). p. 538. Similarly no single consistent theory as to the Kautsch in his German translation, and nature of the soul. Dillmann and Skinner in their com- 3 "Jonson's learned sock" was on mentaries on Isaiah. In another pas- when he wrote these beautiful verses, sage (xxvi. 16) Isaiah uses the same See Philostratus, Epist. 2, Yiivofj.nS) in the phrase " compulsion vrt^xLvov poduv, ov at rifuav, KCU TOVTO 516 THE BUNDLE OF LIFE PART in Or again : " Ihr "verbliihet, susse Rosen, Meine Liebe trug euch nicht." Folk-lore But if beauty can thus be thought to give of her life, her soul, to the soul of the rose to keep it fadeless, it is not extravagant to suppose that she can breathe her soul also into her scent-bottle. At all events these old-world fancies, if such indeed they are, would explain very naturally why a scent-bottle should be called a " house of the soul." But the folk-lore of scents has yet to be studied. In investigat- ing it, as every other branch of folk-lore, the student may learn much from the poets, who perceive by intuition what most of us have to learn by a laborious collection of facts. Indeed, without some touch of poetic fancy, it is hardly possible to enter into the heart of the people. A frigid rationalist will knock in vain at the magic rose-wreathed portal of fairyland. The porter will not open to Mr. Gradgrind. fi.ti> yap, dXX' avrois TI x a P l ft JLVOS rpoff&powra irXripov ipiXij/j-druv rd HK- TOIS p65otj, 'iva. (id) na.pa.v6TJ. And again, Trw/^a na.1 oiVws 5idov rots 5fo/j.{vois. Epist. 46, EC TreTro^Tj/cas ffrpu/j.vrj \pr}ffa.- Elsewhere Philostratus whose fancy, /Aevos rot's p6dois . . . el 8 jBovXet TI like that of Herrick, seems to have i\({) xap'feff^c", TO. Xetyava avru>i> avrl- run much on love and roses, plays on ire/j.\f>ov /J.IJKTI irvtovTo. p6dwv fj.6vov, dXXa the same thoughts {Epist. 60 and 63). Kal ffov. And the thought of the first Another passage in his letters (^/z>A 55, stanza of the same song, fj.apaiverai Kal yvvi] /xera pbSwv, a.v fipaduvr]. Mr; /^XXe, w caXr) ' ffv/M- ' ' Drink to me only with thine eyes, irai^u/j.fv, ffretfmvwffwfMeda rots f>6Sois, And I will pledge with mine ; ^wSpd/j.u/j.ev') might have served as a Or leave a kiss but in the cup text for Herrick's And I'll not look for wine," > " Gather ye rose-buds while ye may. is also borrowed from the same elegant But without doubt the English poet writer. See Philostratus, Epist. 33, drew his inspiration from living roses 'E/tcoi 5 /j.6vois irptnrtve rots 8fj./jLaffii> .... in English gardens and English hedges, el Se fiov\ei, rbv [t.tv olvov /ULTJ irapairoXXve, not from dead Greek roses in the dusty fibvov 5' fyflaXovffa CSaros /cat rotj x e ^ effl P a g es of Philostratus. CHAPTER VIII THE WITCH OF ENDOR ONE of the most tragic figures in the history of Israel is Saul and that of Saul, the first king of the nation. Dissatisfied with SamueL the rule of pontiffs who professed to govern them in the name and under the direct guidance of the deity, the people had clamoured for a civil king, and the last of the pontiffs, the prophet Samuel, had reluctantly yielded to their im- portunity and anointed Saul king of Israel. The revolution thus effected was such as might have taken place in the Papal States, if ever the inhabitants, weary of ecclesiastical oppression and misgovernment, had risen against the Popes, and compelled the reigning pontiff, while he still clutched the heavenly keys, to resign the earthly sceptre into the hands of a secular monarch. A shrewd man of affairs as well as an ecclesiastic of the most rigid type, Samuel had dexterously contrived not only to anoint but to nominate the new king on whom the hopes of Israel now centred. The man of his choice was well fitted to win the admiration The and attract the homage of the crowd. His tall and stately form, his gallant bearing, his skilful generalship and daunt- less courage on the field of battle, all marked him out as a natural leader of men. Yet, under a showy exterior, this dashing and popular soldier concealed some fatal infirmities, a jealous and suspicious disposition, a choleric temper, a weak- ness of will, a vacillation of purpose, and, above all, a brooding melancholy under which his intellect, never of a high order, sometimes trembled on the verge of insanity. In such dark hours the profound dejection which clouded his brain could only be lightened and dispelled by the soothing strains of Si? 5i8 THE WITCH OF ENDOR PART in solemn music ; and one of the most graphic pictures painted for us by the Hebrew historian is that of the handsome king sitting sunk in gloom, while the minstrel boy, the ruddy- cheeked David, stood before him discoursing sweet music on the trembling strings of the harp, till the frown passed from the royal brow and the sufferer found a truce to his uneasy thoughts. Saul the Perhaps with his keen eye Samuel had detected and Samuel. even counted on these weaknesses when, bowing to the popular will, he ostensibly consented to be superseded in the supreme direction of affairs. He may have reckoned on setting up Saul as an ornamental figure-head, a florid mask, which, under the martial features of the brave but pliable soldier, should conceal the stern visage of the inflexible prophet ; he may have expected to treat the king as a crowned and sceptred puppet, who would dance on the national stage to the tune played by his ghostly adviser behind the scenes. If such were his calculations when he raised Saul to the throne, they were fully justified by the event. For so long as Samuel lived, Saul, was little more than a tool in hands far stronger than his own. The prophet was indeed one of those masterful natures, those fanatics cast in an iron mould, who, mistaking their own unbending purpose for the will of heaven, march forward unswervingly to their goal, trampling down all opposition, their hearts steeled against every tender emotion of humanity and pity. While Saul was content to do the bidding of this imperious mentor, committing his conscience to him as to a father confessor, he was graciously permitted to strut before the eyes of the vulgar wearing his shadowy crown ; but no sooner did he dare to diverge by a hair's breadth from the ruthless commands laid The on him by his spiritual director, than Samuel broke his puppet between king and threw him away as an instrument that had ceased Saul and to serve his purpose. The prophet secretly appointed a successor to Saul in the person of the minstrel David, and indignantly turning his back on the now repentant and con- science-stricken king, he refused to see him again and con- tinued to mourn over him as dead till the end of his life. 1 After that, things went ill with Saul. Deprived of the 1 I Samuel xv., compare xiii. 8-14. CHAI>. via THE WITCH OF ENDOR 519 strong arm on which he had long trustfully leaned, he followed Moral a course ever more wayward and erratic. His melancholy deteno deepened. His suspicions multiplied. His temper, always Saul, uncertain, became uncontrollable. He gave way to outbursts of fury. He attempted the life, not only of David, but of his own son Jonathan, and though these fits of passionate anger were sometimes followed by fits of as passionate re- morse, the steady deterioration of his once noble nature was unmistakeable. While the clouds thus gathered thick about his setting The eve of sun, it happened that the Philistines, against whom he had waged a lifelong war, invaded the land in greater force than ever. Saul mustered the militia of Israel to oppose them, and the two armies encamped on opposite hill-slopes with the broad valley of Jezreel lying between them. It was the eve of battle. The morrow would decide the fate of Israel. The king looked forward to the decisive struggle with deep misgiving. A weight like lead hung on his drooping spirits. Saul's He deemed himself forsaken of God, for all his attempts to dlsc i ulet - lift the veil and pry into the future by means of the legiti- mate forms of divination had proved fruitless. The prophets were silent : the oracles were dumb : no vision of the night brightened with a ray of frope his heavy and dreamless sleep. Even music, which once could charm away his cares, was no longer at his command. His own violence had banished the deft musician, whose cunning hand had so often swept the strings and wakened all their harmonies to lap his troubled soul in momentary forgetfulness of sorrow. In his despair He resolves the king's mind reverted irresistibly to Samuel, the faithful ^host 1 counsellor to whom in happier days he had never looked in of Samuel, vain for help. But Samuel was in his grave at Ramah. Yet a thought struck the king. Might he not summon up the dead seer from the grave and elicit words of hope and comfort from his ghostly lips ? The thing was possible, but difficult ; for he had himself driven into exile all the practi- tioners of the black art. He inquired of his servants, and learned from them that a witch still lived at the village of Endor, not many miles away to the north, among the hills on the farther side of the valley. The king resolved to con- sult her and, if possible, to set his harassing doubts and fears 5 20 THE WITCH OF ENDOR PART in at rest. It was a hazardous enterprise, for between him and the witch's home lay the whole army of the Philistines. To go by day would have been to court death. It was necessary to wait for nightfall. Saul sets Having made all his dispositions for battle, the king Endor retired to his tent, but not to sleep. The fever in his blood forbade repose, and he impatiently expected the hour when he could set out under cover of darkness. At last the sun went down, the shadows deepened, and the tumult of the camp subsided into silence. The king now laid aside the regal pomp in which he had but lately shown himself to the army, and muffling his tall figure in a common robe he lifted the flap of the tent and, followed by two attendants, stole out into the night. Around him in the starlight lay the slumbering forms of his soldiers, stretched in groups on the bare ground about their piled arms, the dying embers of the fires casting here and there a fitful gleam on the sleepers. On the opposite hillside, far as the eye could see, twinkled the watch-fires of the enemy, and the distant sounds of revelry and music, borne across the valley on the night wind, told of the triumph which the insolent foe anticipated on the morrow. Saul and Striking straight across the plain the three adventurers of Endor. came to the foot of the hills, and giving a wide berth to the last outpost of the Philistine camp, they began the ascent. A desolate track led them over the shoulder of the hill to the miserable village of Endor, its mud-built hovels stuck to the side of the rocks on the bare stony declivity. Away to the north Mount Tabor loomed up black and massive against the sky, and in the farthest distance the snowy top of Hermon showed pale and ghost-like in the starlight. But the travellers had neither leisure nor inclination to survey the nocturnal landscape. The king's guide led the way to a cottage ; a light was burning in the window, and he tapped softjy at the door. It seemed that the party was expected, for a woman's voice from within bade them enter. They did so, and closing the door behind them, they stood in the presence of the witch. The sacred writer has not described her appearance, so we are free to picture her according to our fancy. She may have been young and fair, with raven CHAP, vin THE WITCH OF ENDOR 521 locks and lustrous eyes, or she may have been a wizened, toothless hag, with meeting nose and chin, blear eyes and grizzled hair, bent double with age and infirmity. We cannot tell, and the king was doubtless too preoccupied to pay much attention to her aspect. He bluntly told her the object of his visit. " Divine unto me," he said, " I pray thee, by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee." But the beldame protested, and reminded her visitor, in whom she did not recognize the king, of the royal proclamation against witches and warlocks, asserting that it was as much as her life was worth to comply with the request. Only when the tall stranger, with an air between entreaty and command, assured her on his honour that no harm should befall her, did she at last consent to exert her uncanny powers on his behalf. She asked, " Whom shall I bring up unto thee ? " And he said, " Bring me up Samuel." The demand The ghost startled the necromancer, and looking hard at her visitor she announces discerned him to be the king. In great alarm, believing she the had been caught in a trap, she cried out, " Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul." But the king pacified her ofSaui. with an assurance of his royal clemency and bade her pro- * ceed with her incantations. She settled herself to her task accordingly, and gazing intently into what seemed to her visitors mere vacancy, it was soon manifest by her wild and haggard look that she saw something invisible to them. The king asked her what she saw. " I see," said she, " a god coming up out of the earth." Saul asked, " What form is he of?" And she answered, " An old man cometh up ; and he is covered with a robe." So the king perceived that it was the ghost of Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. But the ghost asked sternly, " Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up ? " The king replied, " I am sore distressed ; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams : therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do." But the unhappy monarch found the ghost as hard and implacable as the living prophet had been when he turned his back in anger on the king who had presumed to disobey his behest. In pitiless tones the inexorable old 522 THE WITCH OF ENDOR man demanded of the trembling suppliant how he dared, he the forsaken of God, to consult him, the prophet of God ? He upbraided him once more with his disobedience : he reminded him of ( his prophecy that the kingdom should be rent from him and given to David : he announced the fulfil- ment of the prediction ; and he wound up his fierce invective by declaring that to-morrow should witness the defeat of Israel by the Philistines, and that before another sun had set Saul and his sons should be with him in the nether world. With these dreadful words the grim spectre sank into the earth, and Saul fell to the ground in a faint. 1 From this graphic narrative we learn that the practice of necromancy, or the evocation of the spirits of the dead for the purpose of consulting them oracularly, was familiar in ancient Israel, and that severe legislative prohibitions were unable wholly to suppress it. How deeply rooted the custom was in the popular religion or superstition of the people we can see from the behaviour of Saul, who in his dire distress did not hesitate to call in the services of the very same necromancers whom in the days of his prosperity he had laid under a ban. His example is typical of that tendency to relapse into heathenism which the prophets of Israel observed (Sir) G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1894), pp. 379 sqq. I have ventured to transfer to antiquity the modern de- scriptions of Endor. Compare in parti- cular H. B. Tristram, op. cit. pp. 124 sq. : " It might be fancy, but the place has a strange, weird-like aspect a miserable village on the north side of the hill, without a tree or a shrub to relieve the squalor of its decaying heaps. It is full of caves, and .the mud-built hovels are stuck on to the sides of the rocks in clusters, and are, for the most part, a mere continuation and enlargement of the cavern behind, which forms the larger portion of this human den. The inhabitants were the most filthy and ragged we had seen, and as the old crones, startled at the rare apparition of strangers strolling near their holes, came forth and cursed us, a Holman Hunt might have im- mortalised on canvas the very features of the necromancer of Israel." 1 I Samuel xxviii. 3-20. In verse 12 it seems that we must read "And when the woman saw Saul " with six manuscripts of the Septuagint and some modern critics, instead of "And when the woman saw Samuel." See S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, Second Edition (Oxford, 1913), p. 215 ; A. R. S. Kennedy, Samuel (Edinburgh and London, 1905), pp. 178 sq. (The Century Bible}. The change is approved by R. Kittel in his edition of the Hebrew text (Biblia Hebraica, Leipsic, 1905-1906, i. 411). As to the topography of the battlefield and of Endor, see A. P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, Second Edition (London, 1856), pp. 331 sqq. ; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book (London, 1859), pp. 445 sqq. ; H. B. Tristram, The Land of Israel, Fourth Edition (London, 1882), pp. 123 sqq. ; C. R. Conder, Tent Work in Palestine, New Edition (London, 1885), pp. 62 sqq. ; CHAP, vni THE WITCH OF EN DOR 523 and deplored in their countrymen, and which always mani- fested itself most prominently in seasons of extraordinary calamity or danger when the ordinances of the orthodox religion appeared to be unavailing. A law of Israel, which in its existing form is probably much later than the time of Saul but may nevertheless embody a very ancient usage, denounced the penalty of death by stoning against all who had familiar spirits or were wizards, that is, apparently, against all who professed to evoke the souls of the dead for the sake of consulting them oracularly. 1 Yet among the pagan practices revived long after the days of Saul by King Manasseh was that of necromancy ; from the holes and corners into which the practitioners of that black art had been driven by the terror of the law, the superstitious monarch brought them forth and established them publicly in the light of day. 2 However, in his sweeping reformation of the national religion the pious King Josiah soon afterwards relegated all necromancers, witches, and wizards to the criminal classes, from which they had for a short period emerged. 3 The account of the interview of Saul with the ghost of The voice Samuel clearly implies that the phantom was visible only to the witch, but that the king, though he did not see it, was able to hear its voice and to answer it directly. We may safely conclude that this was one of the regular ways in which Israelitish witches and wizards professed to hold converse with the dead ; they pretended to conjure up and to see the ghost, while their dupes saw nothing but heard 1 Leviticus xx. 27, compare xix. 31, duction to the Literature of the Old xx. 6. The words which in these Testament, Ninth Edition (Edinburgh, verses are translated "familiar spirit" 1913), pp. 47 sqq., 145 sqq.; A. R. S. (aix) and "wizard" ('jjrr) are the same Kennedy, Leviticus and Numbers, pp. with those similarly translated in Samuel 25-28 ( The Century Bible}. xxviii. 3, 7, 8, 9, where the reference 2 2 Kings xxi. 6. The verb (nsry) is clearly to necromancers. This pro- should be translated "appointed," the hibition of necromancy in Leviticus marginal rendering of the English Re- forms part of what the critics call the vised Version, rather than "dealt with." Holiness Code, a body of law which The words for necromancers in this probably included the ancient usages passage are the same as ia Leviticus of the local sanctuaries before the great xix. 31, xx. 6, 27, and in Samuel xxviii. Deuteronomic reformation of King 3, 7, 8, 9. Josiah in 621 B.C., though the com- 3 Deuteronomy xviii. 10-12. That pilation of the code probably fell some- the book of Deuteronomy embodies the what later, near the end of the Jewish legislation of Josiah is now generally monarchy. See S. R. Driver, Intro- recognized by the critics. 524 THE WITCH OF ENDOR PART in a voice speaking, which, in their simplicity, they took to be that of the spirit, though in reality it would commonly be the voice either of the wizard himself or of a confederate. In such cases, whatever the source of the sound, it appeared to proceed not from the mouth of the wizard, but from a point outside him, which the credulous inquirer supposed to be the station of the invisible ghost. Such audible effects could easily be produced by ventriloquism, which has the advantage of enabling the necromancer to work without the assistance of a confederate, and so to lessen the chance of detection. The place The witch told Saul that the ghost of Samuel rose out thevoTceof ^ t ^ ie earth, and through the exertion of her vocal talent she the ghost may have caused to issue apparently from the ground a ^proceed, hollow and squeaky voice which the king mistook for the accents of the deceased seer ; for in such hollow, squeaky tones were ghosts commonly supposed to discourse from the ground. 1 However, the necromancer did not always take the trouble of projecting his voice out of himself ; he was often content to bring it up from his own inside and to palm it off on his gullible hearers as the voice of his familiar spirit or of the worshipful ghost. Hence the familiar spirit or the ghost was said to be inside the necromancer : 2 the super- natural accents appeared to issue from his stomach. 3 But wherever the voice may have seemed to come from, whether from the bowels of the earth or from the bowels of the conjuror, it is probable that the ghost himself always modestly kept in the background ; for we can hardly suppose that in the rudimentary state of Hebrew art Hebrew wizards were able, like their brethren of a later age, to astonish and terrify 1 Isaiah xxix. 4. Hebrew modes of consulting the dead, 2 Leviticus xx. 27, rprr '3 ntt ; K IK t?'tn compare W. Robertson Smith, "On ':J;T IK aiR ona "a man also or a the forms of Divination and Magic woman in whom is a ghost or a familiar enumerated in Deut. xviii. 10, n," spirit." However, the phrase might Journal of Philology, xiv. (1885) pp. be otherwise rendered, "a man or a I2 7 s 'l- 5 S. R. Driver, Critical and woman, if there should be among them Exegetical Commentary on Deutero- a necromancer or wizard," as the words norny, Third Edition (Edinburgh, 1902), are translated in the Oxford Hebrew pp.225^?.; C.Griineisen,Z?*r^*f- and English Lexicon, s.v. aiK, p. 15. kulttis und die Urreligion Israels ( Halle, 3 Isaiah viii. 19 (Septuagint), )s a - S -> '9). PP; 148 sqq. ; A. Lods, fyyeurrpifiAeovs xal rob &irb TT?S yrjs La Cr y an a la Vie Future et le (jxavowras TOVS KevoXoyowras ot p. 83. CHAP, vin THE WITCH OF EN DOR 537 milk, which is poured into the hole ; more solid offerings, such as flesh, clothes, and glass beads, become the property of the priest after they have lain for a decent time beside the sacred aperture. The spirits of dead kings are thus consulted on matters of public concern as well as by private persons on their own affairs. All over the country these temple-tombs may be seen, each in its shady grove ; hence no man need have far to go to seek for ghostly counsel at an oracle of the dead. 1 Among the Ewe-speaking negroes of South Togoland, Evocation when the funeral celebration is over, it is customary to among the summon up the soul of the deceased. His relations take negroes of cooked food to the priest and tell him that they wish to Africa. bring water for the spirit of their departed brother. The priest accordingly receives food, palm-wine, and cowry-shells at their hands, and with them retires into his room and shuts the door behind him. Then he evokes the ghost, who on his arrival begins to weep and to converse with the priest, sometimes making some general observations on the difference between life in the upper and in the under world, sometimes entering into particulars as to the manner of his own death ; often he mentions the name of the wicked sorcerer who has killed him by his enchantments. When the dead man's friends outside hear the lamentations and complaints of his ghost proceeding from the room, they are moved to tears and cry out, " We pity you ! " Finally, the ghost bids them be comforted and takes his departure. 2 Among the Kissi, a tribe of negroes on the border of Consuita- Liberia, the souls of dead chiefs are consulted as oracles by means of the statuettes which are erected on their graves, means of For the purpose of the consultation the statuettes are placed j ma ges. on a board, which is carried by two men on their heads ; if the bearers remain motionless, the answer of the spirit is assumed to be " No " ; if they sway to and fro, the answer is " Yes." s In the island of Ambrym, one of the New Hebrides, wooden statues representing ancestors are simi- 1 Eugene Beguin, Les Ma-rot st in Siid-Togo (Leipsic, 1911), p. 238. (Lausanne and Fontaines, 1903), pp. 3 Dr. H. Neel, "Note sur deux 120-123. peuplades de la frontiere Liberienne, les Kissi et les Toma," UAnthropologie, - J. Spieth, Die Religion der Eweer xxiv. (1913) p. 461. 538 THE WITCH OF ENDOR larly employed as a means of communicating with the souls of the dead. When a man is in trouble, he blows a whistle at nightfall near the statue of an ancestor, and if he hears a noise, he believes that the soul of the dead kinsman has entered into the image ; thereupon he recounts his woes to the effigy and prays the spirit to help him. 1 The Maoris of New Zealand feared and worshipped the spirits of their dead kinsfolk, especially dead chiefs and warriors, who were believed to be constantly watching over the living tribesmen, protecting them in war and marking any breach of the sacred law of taboo. These spirits dwelt normally below the earth, but they could return to the upper air at pleasure and enter into the bodies of men or even into the substance of inanimate objects. Some tribes kept in their houses small carved images of wood, each of which was dedicated to the spirit of an ancestor, who was supposed to enter into the image on particular occasions in order to hold converse with the living. Such an ancestral spirit (atua) might communicate with the living either in dreams or more directly by talking with them in their waking hours. Their voice, however, was not like that of mortals, but a mysterious kind of sound, half whistle, half whisper. The English writer, to whom we owe these particulars, was privileged thus to converse with the souls of two chiefs who had been dead for several years. The interview took place through the agency of an old woman, a Maori witch of Endor, at whose bidding the ancestral spirits of the tribe were supposed to appear. She dwelt in a solitary hut, where the English- man, accompanied by two Maoris, found her seated com- posedly by a blazing fire, while two female slaves opposite her were busy talking and weaving potato baskets. It was night, and when the witch, after making some objections, consented to exert her necromantic powers, she began by removing all the blazing sticks from the fire, till only the glowing embers spread a dim light through the room. Then she sat quite still, and the two slave women imitated her example, ceasing to ply both their fingers and their tongues. In the silence which ensued a sound was heard, as if some- 1 Felix Speiser, Two Years tuith the Natives in the Western Pacific (London, 1913), p. 206. CHAP, vni THE WITCH OF ENDOR 539 thing heavy had fallen on the roof of the hut, and then a rustling noise, such as might have been made by a rat, crept along the thatch till it stopped just over the heads of the inmates. The old woman now covered her head and face in her blanket, and bent herself nearly double, with her head resting on her knees. And immediately from the spot where the rustling noise had ceased there issued sounds imitative of a voice, but whistled instead of being articulated in ordinary tones. The moment it was heard, it was recognized as the voice of a certain dead chief, the father of one of the two Maoris who had accompanied the Englishman to the witch's cottage. The ghost welcomed the stranger after the usual manner of the tribe. But when at the whispered suggestion of the chiefs son, who was a Christian, the Englishman had clapped his hand on the witch's mouth, the whistling voice demanded, " Who has put his hand to touch me ? " This seemed to the sceptical Englishman a proof that the voice came from the mouth of the old woman ; and he noticed that whenever the whistling voice was heard, he could not distinguish her breathing, but that immediately on the voice ceasing her breathing was heard accelerated, as if after an exertion. However, concealing his doubts, he gravely addressed the supposed owner of the voice, and requested him to enter the hut and allow himself to be seen as well as heard. But the voice replied that he was a lizard, and could not come nearer for fear of injuring the inquirer. Neither persuasions nor taunts could move him from his fixed resolution not to harm his son's friend, which was the only reason he assigned for not revealing himself to the eyes of the doubting Englishman ; and he changed the subject of discourse by observing, " Now that you have given me the trouble to come so far to visit you, it is surely your intention to make me a fine present a cask of tobacco, or perhaps a coat." " Of what possible service will a coat be to a spirit ? " rejoined the ghost's son, laughing, " how will you be able to put it on ? " To this pointed question the ghost made no reply, and presently took his leave, promising to send another spirit, who might feel less scruple at exhibit- ing himself to the gaze of the stranger. After a short pause of silent expectation, something was heard to fall plump 540 THE WITCH OF ENDOR PART in like a stone on the roof of the hut. Then there was again a rustling noise, as before, which, after travelling along the roof and down the walls, reascended the roof and halted nearly over the old woman. Being entreated to enter the hut and show himself, this second spirit declined to comply with the request, alleging that he was a spider and that he could not do as requested without danger to the inquirer. After a conversation in which the ghost's supernatural know- ledge did not save him from telling a direct falsehood, he too departed, and in a few minutes a small squeaking voice, like that of an infant, was heard, which, after perpetrating and laughing at a ribald jest, appeared to retreat and die away till it was lost in the distance. No more spirits spoke after that, and the old woman, removing her blanket from her face, and raising her head, as though she had just awaked from a trance, asked the Englishman if he was satisfied. 1 Evocation An Irishman, who lived long among the Maoris and of^liaor? knew them intimately, witnessed many such exhibitions of chief. necromancy, and has described one of them in detail. The priests, he tells us, undertook to call up the spirit of any dead person for a proper fee. On this particular occasion the ghost evoked was that of a very popular young chief (ranga- tira\ whom the Irishman had known intimately, and who had been killed in battle. At the request of his nearest friends, a priest engaged to call up the dead man's spirit to speak to them and answer certain questions which they wished to put. The interview took place at night in a large house common to the whole population, where fires cast a flicker- ing light through the gloom. The priest retired to the darkest corner. All was expectation, and the silence was broken only by the sobbing of the sister and other female relations of the dead man. About thirty persons were seated on the rush-strewn floor. At last, when the fire had died down, leaving only a heap of glowing charcoal, a voice issued from the darkness solemnly saluting the assembly. It was answered by a cry of affection and despair from the dead chief's sister, a fine handsome young woman, who 1 Edward Shortland, Traditions and Second Edition (London, 1856), pp. Superstitions of the New Zealanders, 81-96. CHAP, vin THE WITCH OF ENDOR 541 rushed, with both arms distended, into the darkness from which the voice proceeded. She was instantly seized round the waist and restrained by main force by her brother, till, moaning and fainting, she lay still on the ground. At the same instant another female voice was heard from a young girl, who was held by the wrists by two young men, her brothers, " Is it you ? is it you ? truly is it you ? ane ! ane I they hold me, they restrain me ; wonder not that I have not followed you ; they restrain me, they watch me, but I go to you. The sun shall not rise, the sun shall not rise, ane I ane I " Here she fell insensible on the floor, and with the sister was carried out. Afterwards the ghost conversed with his brother in strange melancholy tones, like the sound of the wind blowing into a hollow vessel, and he answered a woman's inquiry about her dead sister. Having satisfied her affectionate anxiety, the ghost next requested that his tame pig and his double-barrelled gun might be given to the priest. The Irishman now struck in and questioned the ghost as to a book which the dead chief had left behind him. The ghost indicated correctly the place where the volume had been deposited, but on being pressed to mention some of its contents he took an abrupt leave of the assembly, his Jarewell sounding first from the room, next from deep beneath the ground, then from high in air, and finally dying away in the darkness of night. The company broke up after midnight, and the Irishman retired to rest. But he was soon wakened by the report of a musket, followed by the shouts of men and the screams of women. Hastening in the direction from which the sounds proceeded, he saw in the midst of a crowd, by the light of a burning house, the lifeless and bleeding body of the young girl who had said that she would follow the spirit to the spirit land. She had kept her word, having secretly procured a loaded musket and blown herself to pieces. The voice of the priest said, close to the Irishman, " She has followed her rangatira" ] In Nukahiva, one of the Marquesas Islands, the priests Evocation and priestesses claimed to possess the power of evoking the Nukahiva, 1 Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Earl of Pembroke (London, 1884), pp. O ne of the Maori, with an Introduction by the 122-128. Marquesas Islands. 542 THE WITCH OF ENDOR Evocation of the dead in New Guinea and Celebes. Evocation of the dead among the Sea Dyaks and Kayans of Borneo. spirits of the dead, who took up their abode for the time being in the bodies of the mediums and so conversed with their surviving relatives. The occasion for summoning up a ghost was usually the sickness of a member of the family,' on whose behalf his friends desired to have the benefit of ghostly advice. A French writer, who lived in the island in the first half of the nineteenth century, was present at one of these interviews with a departed spirit and has described it. The meeting took place at night in the house of a sick man, for the purpose of ascertaining the issue of his illness. A priestess acted as medium, and by her direc- tion the room was darkened by the extinction of the fires. The spirit invoked was that of a lady who had died a few years before, leaving no less than twelve widowed husbands to mourn her loss. Of these numerous widowers the sick man was one ; indeed he had been her favourite husband, but her ghost now announced to him his approaching death without the 'least ambiguity or circumlocution. Her voice appeared at first to come from a distance and then to approach nearer and nearer, till it settled on the roof of the house. 1 At the initiation ceremonies, which they observe every year, the Marindineeztj, a tribe on the southern coast of Dutch New Guinea, summon up the souls of their fore- fathers from the underworld by knocking hard on the ground with the lower ends of coco-nut leaves for an hour together. The evocation takes place by night 2 Similarly at their festivals the Bare'e-speaking Toradjas of Central Celebes evoke the souls of dead chiefs and heroes, the guardian spirits of the village, by beating on the floor of the temple with a long stick. 3 The Sea Dyaks of Borneo believe that the souls of their dead friends live and revisit them on earth. They are 1 Max Radiguet, Les Demiers Sau- vages, la Vie et les Mceurs aux lies Marquises, Nouvelle Edition (Paris, 1882), pp. 226-232. The writer first went to the Marquesas Islands in 1842. 2 Jos. Viegen, " Oorsprongs- en Af- stammingslegenden van den Marindinees (Zuid Nieuw-Guinea)," Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijks- kundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, xxix. (1912) p. 149; A. J. Gooszen, " De Majo-mysterien ter Nieuw- Guinea's Zuidkust," Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- enVolkenkundevan Nederlandsch- Indie, Ixix. (1914) p. 377. 3 N. Adrian! en Alb. C. Kruijt, De Bare^e-sprekende Toradjtfsvan Midden- Celebes (Batavia, 1912-1914), i. 330. CHAP, vin THE WITCH OF ENDOR 543 invoked in times of peril and distress ; and on the hilltops or in the solitude of the jungle a man will often go by himself and spend the night, hoping that the spirit of a dead relative may visit him and reveal to him in a dream some charm by which he may extricate himself from his difficulties and grow rich and great. 1 Among the Kayans of Borneo, when a dispute has arisen concerning the division of a dead man's property, recourse is sometimes had to a professional wizard or witch, who summons up the ghost of the deceased and questions him as to his intentions in the disposal of his estate. The evocation, however, cannot take place until after the harvest which follows upon the death. When the time comes for it, a small model of a house is made for the temporary accommodation of the ghost and is placed in the gallery of the common house, beside the door of the dead man's chamber. For the refreshment of the spirit, moreover, food, drink, and cigarettes are laid out in the little house. The wizard takes up his post beside the tiny dwelling and chants his invocation, calling upon the soul of the deceased to enter the soul-house, and mention- ing the names of the members of his family. From time to time he looks in, and at last announces that all the food and drink have been consumed. The people believe that the ghost has now entered the soul-house ; and the wizard pretends to listen to the whispering of the soul within the house, starting and clucking from time to time. Finally, he declares the will of the ghost in regard to the distribu- tion of the property, speaking in the first person and mimicking the mode of speech and other peculiarities of the dead man. The directions so obtained are usually followed, and thus the dispute is settled. 2 Among the Milanos of Sarawak, a few days or weeks Evocation after a death an old man or woman will sometimes dream the that the soul of the deceased lacks food or clothing, which Milanos of appear to be as necessary in the other world as they are in this. Accordingly a medium, in the shape of a medicine- man or medicine-woman, is called in to communicate with 1 Edwin H. Gomes, Seventeen Years * Charles Hose and William among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo (Lon- McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of don, 1911). p. 142. Borneo (London, 1912), ii. 38 sq. 544 THE WITCH OF ENDOR PART HI the poor ghost and to supply his wants. The ceremony takes place after sunset in the presence of a number of friends. An Englishman, who witnessed one such ghostly interview, has described it for us. On this occasion there were two mediums, both men. With their heads completely shrouded in a cloth, they took up their position side by side Thevoyage on a small mat, on which they were supposed to float down River Ji the Ri ver f Death in the nether world. Each of them Death. had provided himself with a paddle for the voyage, and sitting on the mat went through all the motions of paddling. As they paddled, they talked, remarking on the swiftness of the stream, noticing the overhanging trees past which they shot, and hurriedly warning each other of sunken rocks. Then came an upset ; the two men, amid the excite- ment of the spectators, swam for their lives, splashing about real water which had been introduced into the room for the purpose. However, they succeeded in righting the bark, and resumed the voyage with nothing worse than a wetting. At last they landed in the under world. Then the tenor of their conversation changed. They now remarked on the departed spirits whom they recognized and some of whom they accosted. " There goes So-and-So," they would say, " as lame as ever." " What an awful wound Such-and-Such a man has ! " And from time to time they would grasp at some imaginary object in the air and exhibit a little tobacco or sireh leaf to the wondering and credulous onlookers. After about half an hour of this pantomime they dropped on their knees and went groping about the room, clutching at various things, till one of them announced that he had caught the soul they were looking for. Having secured the . spirit between his hands, he went and clapped it on the head of the nearest relative of the deceased, tying a cloth on the man's head to prevent the fluttering thing from escaping. Thus the most difficult part of the task imposed on the mediums was now accomplished they had captured the ghost ; to converse with the captive was comparatively easy, and though his replies were not audible to the assembly, they were perfectly so to the mediums. " So sorry to see you ill," one of them would remark to the spirit, " is there anything we can do for you ? " or again, CHAP, viii THE WITCH OF ENDOR 545 " What sort of a time have you had latterly ? " and so forth. Finally, the mediums unmuffled their heads and informed the relatives concerning the welfare of the deceased, in- structing them to lay a garment, a cooking-pot, or perhaps still better some dollars on the grave for the use of their departed kinsman in the other world, after which his spirit would rest in peace. 1 The Bataks of Central Sumatra believe that the souls Evocation of the dead, being incorporeal, can only communicate with among the the living through the person of a living man, and for the Bataks of purpose of such communication they choose an appropriate medium, who, in serving as a vehicle for the ghostly message, imitates the voice, the manner, the walk, and even the dress of the deceased so closely, that his surviving relations are often moved to tears by the resemblance. By the mouth of the medium the spirit reveals his name, mentions his relations, and describes the pursuits he followed on earth. He dis- closes family secrets which he had kept during life, and the disclosure confirms his kinsfolk in the belief that it is really the ghost of their departed brother who is conversing with them. When a member of the family is sick, the ghost is consulted as to whether the patient will live or die. When an epidemic is raging, the ghost is evoked and sacrifices are offered to him, that he may guard the people against the infection. When a man is childless, he inquires of a ghost through a medium, how he can obtain offspring. When something has been lost or stolen, a ghost is conjured up to tell whether the missing property will be recovered. When any one has missed his way in the forest or elsewhere and has not returned home, it is still to a ghost, through the intervention of a medium, that the anxious friends apply in order to learn where the strayed wayfarer is to be sought. If a medium is questioned as to how the ghost takes possession of him, he says that he sees the ghost approaching and feels as if his body were being dragged away, his feet grow light and leap about, human beings seem small and reddish in colour, the houses appear to be turning round. But the 1 Rev. Fr. Bernard Mulder and John Journal of the Straits Branch of the Hewitt, "Two religious Ceremonies in Royal Asiatic Society. Nc. 57. January, vogue among the Milanos of Sarawak," 1911 (Singapore, 1911), pp. 179 sq. VOL. II 2 N 546 THE WITCH OF ENDOR PART in Evocation Eskimo. possession is not continuous ; from time to time during the fit the ghost leaves the medium and plays about. When the fit is over, the medium is often sick and sometimes dies. 1 Necromancy has been practised by man amid Arctic snow an d ice as well as in tropical forests and jungles. Among the Eskimo of Labrador we read of a shaman who used to oblige his friends by calling up the spirits of the dead, whenever the living desired to inquire concerning the welfare of the departed, or the whereabouts of absent relatives at sea. He would first blindfold the questioner, and then rap thrice on the ground with a stick. On the third rap the spirit appeared and answered the shaman's questions. Having supplied the information that was wanted, the ghost would be dismissed to his own place by three more raps on the ground. This sort of necromancy was called " conjuring with a stick " (kilu'xin}. A similar method of evoking the souls of the dead is employed by the Eskimo of Alaska. They believe that the spirits ascend from the under world and pass through the body of the shaman, who converses audibly with them and, having learned all he desires, sends them back to their subterranean abode by a stamp of his foot. The answers of the ghosts to his questions are supposed by sceptics to be produced by ventriloquism. 2 In China, where the worship of the dead forms a principal part of the national religion, the practice of necromancy is naturally common, and the practitioners at the present day appear to be chiefly old women. Such necromancers, for example, abound in Canton and Amoy. Evocation During his residence at Canton, Archdeacon Gray witnessed of the dead manv exhibitions of their skill, and he describes one of them as follows : "One day, in the month of January 1867, I was the guest of an old lady, a widow, who resided in the western suburb of the city. She desired to confer with her departed husband, who had been dead for several years. The witch who was called in, was of prepossessing appear- ance and well-dressed ; and she commenced immediately to discharge the duties of her vocation. Her first act was to 1 Job. Warneck, Die Religion der Eskimo (Ottawa, 1916), p. 132 Batak (Leipsic, 1909), pp. 89 sq. {Canada, Department of Alines, Gco- 2 E. W. Hawes, J^he Labrador logical Survey, Memoir