M' THE MYSTIC ROSE A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE BY ERNEST CRAWLEY, M.A. rb /j.vffrrjpioi' tovto fuya iariv Sacramentum hoc magnum est fLonfcoti MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1902 All rig Jits reserved IFFITT TO J. G. FRAZER IN- GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION PREFACE The present theory was outlined about seven years ago, and a preliminary portion was published in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for 1895 (vol. xxiv.). In that paper the main lines of the vargument were laid down, and it was suggested that the explanation of marriage ceremonies and systems was to be developed thereon. The subsequent loss of a good deal of my materials, not yet all recovered, has been balanced by the publication of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's valuable researches amongst the Central Australian natives, which confirm my conclusions in many ways. These conclusions were originally completed without reference to the prevalent doctrines, originated by Bachofen and McLennan, and developed by Morgan, Bastian, Lubbock, G. A. Wilken, Robertson Smith, Giraud-Teulon, Fison, Howitt, Tylor, Post, Lippert, and others, concerning the origin and development of marriage, such as the Matriarchate (Bachofen), Marriage by Capture (McLennan), Primitive Promis- cuity and Communal Marriage, comprising the a 2 vin THE MYSTIC ROSE hypotheses that some marriage ceremonies are intended to make the husband and wife of the same tribal or blood - kinship, and that others are "expiation for marriage " (Sir J. Lubbock) ; that is to say, these ceremonies are a compensation to the tribe or kin, individual marriage being an infringement of communal rights. These theories had to be taken into considera- tion. Previous study of the psychology of the lower races, starting from Professor Tylor's Primitive Culture, and Dr. Frazer's Golden Bough, to both of which I owe a great intellectual debt, made it evident that these prevalent theories of marriage origins were based on an imperfect understanding of primitive custom and , thought. It also appeared a mistake, in view of the undifferentiated character of early thought, to separate the study of marriage systems and marriage ceremonies. I have here attempted to supply a more adequate basis' for the enquiry by an analysis of the simplest and most elemental aspects in which the individual appears in relation to society. The ultimate appeal in these questions is to universal facts of human physiology and psychology. In illustration, it is perhaps worth mentioning that I was led from a general study of primitive culture to the study of marriage, by an investigation into the curious custom of exchange of dress between men and women, which occurs in the most dissimilar connections and the strangest places. I found that all cases of the custom yielded on analysis PREFACE IX the same psychological components as do the relations of the sexes generally, and marriage in particular. In 1889 Professor E. B. Tylor first applied statistics to the study of these questions (Journ. Anthrop. Inst. vol. xviii.). This was an important departure. It is^ first necessary, however, thoroughly to analyse every custom and its adhesions in the light not only of the whole culture of the given peoples, but of all primitive and elemental psychology ; otherwise, tabulation leads to the pruning of facts, and a resulting neglect of essential characteristics which are apparently accidents./ As MM. Langlois and Seignobos, our highest authorities on the methods of history, observe, the defect of statistical methods is that " they do not rest on a knowledge of the whole of the conditions under which the facts occur " {Introduction to the Study of History, p. 291, Eng. Trans.). So far as the data are correctly assigned and analysed, Professor Tylor's main results are, that there is a causal connection between ( 1 ) the mother-in-law avoidance custom and residence of the husband with the wife's family, (2) these and the custom of teknonymy (naming the parents after the child), (3) the couvade (the custom by which the husband pretends to lie-in) and temporary residence of the husband with the wife's family, (4) this temporary residence and marriage by capture. The cause, however, which he provisionally assumes is still the old Maternal system, arising out of communism, with marriage by x THE MYSTIC ROSE capture intervening to produce individual marriage. As will be seen, the cause which I suggest also serves to explain all these connections, and these statistical results, so far as they correctly represent the facts, supply a corroboration of the present theory. Many of the tables, however, when the customs are analysed, present a very different appearance. The valuable series of fresh data, collected from the Dutch East Indies, did not lead the distinguished Dutch ethnologist, the late Professor G. A. Wilken, to any new line of enquiry. The late Professor Robertson Smith in 1885 first put one part of the problem, the question of the origin of bars to marriage, in a new light, by suggesting that whatever their origin, they are very early associated with the idea that it is not decent for housemates to intermarry {Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia). In 1 8 90 Dr. J. G. Frazer, in his monumental work The Golden Bough (second edition, 1900), which, like Professor Tylor's Primitive Culture, marks an epoch in the study of man, referred to the existence of a mass of facts showing that the origin of the marriage system was to be found in some primitive conception of danger attaching to the sexual act. This statement is the most important contribution yet made to the study of these questions. As will be seen, however, I do not confine the issue so narrowly. /In 1 89 1 appeared Dr. E. Westermarck's History of PREFACE xi Human Marriage (third edition, 1901), which revolu- tionised the study of the origins and development of marriage. His most valuable contributions are that he weakened or destroyed several positions of the old theory of primitive communism and the matriarchate, and gave an excellent account of human marriage in it biological aspects. He, however, carries the biologica method too far when he "applies biological analogie (selection, struggle for existence, inherited habits, an so on) to the explanation of social evolution, which is not produced by the operation of the same causes as animal evolution " (Langlois and Seignobos, op. cit p. 321), and not only takes no account of primitive psychology but neglects the importance of marriage ceremonies, of which he treats in one short chapter,] without connecting them with other data. The general study not only of marriage ceremonies as a whole, which hitherto has not been systematically attempted, but of the whole question of marriage origins, is to be developed, as I have suggested, from that primitive religious mental habit, the characteristics of which have been so well analysed by Professor Tylor and in further issues by Dr. Frazer. I am much indebted to my friend Mr. A. L. Bowley, one of our highest authorities on the methods of statistics, for working out for me some ^statistical problems. E. C. C0NTENT5 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Method of enquiry — Typical problems — Primitive thought and culture — Religion in the relations of the sexes, both in ordinary life, marriage ceremonial, and sexual crises — Taboo pp. I — 14 THE TABOO IMPOSED, CHAPTERS II.— IX. CHAPTER II TABOO Taboo — Social and sexual taboo — Evil influences — The unknown and abnormal — The strange and new — The supernatural character of death and sickness, of functions, of pain, of emotions, and of irregular bodily and mental states — Super- natural danger in human relations . . pp. 15 — 32 CHAPTER III SEXUAL TABOO Man and woman — Sexual taboo — Solidarity of sex — Antagonism of sex — Sex in religion — Influence of sex upon language — Sexual taboos on names — Sex and occupations — Sexual taboo in social life and at sexual crises — Preliminary analysis of sexual taboo ..... pp. 33 — 58 xiv THE MYSTIC ROSE CHAPTER IV HUMAN RELA TIONS Evil spirits and material evil influences not distinguished — Anthro- pomorphism — Possession — Personification — The real and the ideal not distinguished — The memory-image — Human and spiritual influence not distinguished — Human influence under- lies spiritual, in social and sexual relations . pp. 59 — 75 CHAPTER V HUMAN RELA TIONS Contact the test of human relations, both social and sexual — Sub- stance and accidents — Material transmission of states and properties — Basis of social and sexual taboo — Contagion of various human qualities and states — Sin' and death are contagious — Destruction of property — Death and evil conducted by the soil — Human properties transmitted — Cannibalism — Transmission of qualities by means of flesh and blood, various parts of the body, functional emanations, garments, food, milk, and by various forms of contact, stepping over or walking round a person, by the touch, shadow, sight, and mere proximity — The intention — Transmission of ill-will and of love — Oaths — Magic use of anything that has been in connection with a person . . . pp. 76 — 132 CHAPTER VI HUMAN RELATIONS Care of functions and organs — The mutilation of organs — Disgust, uncleanness, and shame in connection with social and sexual taboo — Summary of the conceptions which underlie human relations — Their result in primitive morality and etiquette ..... pp. 133 — 147 CONTENTS xv CHAPTER VII COMMENSAL RELATIONS Contact by means of food — Importance of nutrition — The custom of eating in solitude — Contagion by food and drink — Fasting — Forbidden food — Transmission of properties by food — Magic by means of food — Taboos against eating with others — Taboos against eating with the opposite sex, both at critical times and in ordinary life .... pp. 148 — 178 CHAPTER VIII SEXUAL RELATIONS Contact by sexual intercourse — Intercourse in secret — Magic and the sexual organs — Love-charms — Contagion of effeminacy and weakness — Sexual intercourse regarded as enervating — Loss of strength — Rules of continence — The seed is the strength — The rupture of the hymen — Beliefs as to the origin of men- struation — The serpent — Seduction by evil spirits in human form — Sun - taboos and their origin — Sexual taboo and purification ..... pp. 179 — 201 CHAPTER IX SEXUAL RELATIONS Transmission of male and female properties — Woman regarded as weak and timid — Priests dressing as women — Transmission of female weakness by contact — Customs of dressing weak, effeminate, and impotent men in women's clothes — Trans- mission by blood cannot account for all the phenomena — Summary of sexual taboo — Its results in separating the young, both within and without the house — Incest and pro- miscuity ..... pp. 202 — 223 xvi THE MYSTIC ROSE THE TABOO REMOVED, CHAPTERS X— XIV. CHAPTER X THE BREAKING OF TABOO The breaking of taboo — Avoidance of the dangers of taboo — The use of barriers, veils, dummies, and substitutes — The sacrifice of a part to preserve the whole — Fasting — Purifica- tion from taboo — Methods of removing taboo — Inocu- lation ..... pp. 224. — 235 CHAPTER XI THEORY OF UNION Mutual inoculation and union — The relation of ngia ngiampe — Its use in love, hospitality, and friendship, for making peace and settling disputes — Exchange of wives — Guilds — Its results in mutual respect and assistance — The basis of the ngia ngiampe relation — The taboo resulting from it — Summary of the ngia ngiampe relation — The categories of union and identity — The primitive conception of relationship — Bars to marriage ..... pp. 236 — 266 CHAPTER XII THEORY OF CHANGE AND EXCHANGE Disguise — Wearing the dress of the opposite sex — Change of name and of identity — The idea of new life, after sickness, at puberty, at periodic festivals — Newfood— Representatives — Newdress — Disguise and change pass into exchange — Exchange of identity — Saturnalia — Exchange of wives — The breaking of taboo — Union — Duplicates and proxies — Promiscuity — Funeral festivals — Scapegoats — War-dances — The principle of make- believe in custom, etiquette, and punishment pp. 267 — 293 CONTENTS xvii CHAPTER XIII CONFIRMATION AND ENGAGEMENT § I. Puberty and initiation — The dangers of puberty — Taboos against the opposite sex — Change of identity — Initiation — The gift of strength — Food-taboos and ; fasting — Woman's food — Tutelar deities — The use of the bullroarer — Physical pre- paration for marriage — Inoculation and introduction to the other sex — Sympathetic practices — Connection of initiation and marriage. §2. Taboos between engaged couples — Betrothal by proxy pp. 294—317 CHAPTER XIV MARRIAGE AND ITS CEREMONIES Marriage ceremonies, their meaning and origin — Marriage an in- dividualistic not a tribal or communistic act — Neutralisation ot danger — Purification — Weddings at night — Customs of hiding and seclusion — The bride and bridegroom may not see each other — The bridal veil — Seclusion of bride and bridegroom — Sympathy between those of the same sex — Disguise and change of identity — The False Bride — Doubles — Groomsmen and bridesmaids — Marriage by proxy — Marriage to trees — Various forms of abstinence — Deferring of consummation — Ceremonial defloration — The carrying of bride and bridegroom — Sexual antagonism — Sexual resistance and complementary violence the basis of connubial and formal capture — The Flight and the Return — Destruction of property — Criticism of the theory of " marriage by capture " — Marriage customs of assimilation — Mutual inoculation and union — Criticism of the blood - kinship theory — Eating and drinking to- gether — Bridal gifts — Criticism of "marriage by pur- chase " . . . pp. 318 — 390 xviii THE MYSTIC ROSE SECONDARY TABOO, CHAPTERS XV.— XVII. CHAPTER XV HUSBAND, WIFE, AND MOTHER-IN-LAW Marriage as a state of ngia ngiampe — Analysis of its duties and their sanctions — The custom of avoidance between a man and his mother-in-law — Criticism of theories — Meaning and origin of the custom . . . . .pp. 391 — 414 CHAPTER XVI PARENTS AND CHILD Sexual taboo at child-birth — Saturnalia — Twins — The Couvade — True and false Couvade — Criticism of theories — The meaning and origin of the custom — Connected customs — Teknonymy — Criticism of explanations — Meaning and origin of the custom — Renewal of marriage — Customs allied t'o Teknonymy — The giving of the name — Taboos between the father and mother and child — Godparents — Other people's children . . . . pp. 414 — 441 CHAPTER XVII THE MARRIAGE SYSTEM The Marriage System — Exogamy — Marriage of near kin — Criticism of theories — Prohibition of incest the origin of exogamy — Terms of relationship — Relationships — The Matriarchal theory — Temporary residence with the wife's family — Reasons for it — Classificatory systems — Criticism of the theory of " group- marriage " — Individual Marriage — Deities of Mar- riage . . . . pp. 442—485 Index ...... pp. 487 — 492 CHAPTER I All study of the origins of social institutions must be*** based on what Jgthnolog y can tea j:hji^ftjie j)sy chology of the lower races and on the primitive conceptions of human relations which are thus established. It is only in early modes of thought that we can find the explana- tion of ceremonies and systems which originated in primitive society ; and, if ceremony and system are the concrete forms in which human relations are expressed, an examination, ethnological and psychological, of human relations, is indispensable for enquiry intO/^ human institutions. It is necessary to lay stress upon this principle, for students of the history of marriage have hitherto ignored it, or rather, while using the facts of ethnology, have shown no sympathy with primitive thought. They have interpreted primitive custom by ideas which are far from primitive, which, in fact, are relatively late and belong to the legal stage of human culture. The attribution of legal conceptions to primi- tive thought has had the usual effect of a priori theory, and has checked enquiry. In his History of Human Marriage 1 Dr. Wester- marck made a much-needed protest, and refuted several of these pseudo-syntheses. In the constructive portion of his work he uses the biological argument. This was 1 E. Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage (1891). B 2 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. also necessary ; the facts of biology must supply the preliminaries of investigation. But he goes too far with biology in one direction, and in another not far enough. The latter line of enquiry is sex. One of the most remarkable defects of the legal school of anthropology is its neglect to take sexual relations into account when discussing a sexual relation like that of marriage. s\\\ the following pages I have followed the principle that marriage, both in ceremony and in system, is grounded in primitive conceptions of sexual relations. iVIany collateral phenomena will be discussed, which illustrate and are themselves explained by these concep- tions ; and though the lines of the argument lead from human relations through sexual relations to meet in marriage, yet by the way they will touch upon the connection of morality and religion with the social life of mankind. At the outset it may be well to bring forward a few striking facts of custom, as types of the problems to be solved, and as a help towards clearness. Such are the following, which may be put, after the fashion of Plutarch, as questions : — (i) Why, according to a very general custom, are husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, respectively, required to avoid each other in one or more ways, and, in particular, may not eat together ? (2) Why do engaged couples also, as is frequently the case, avoid each other with religious caution ? (3) Why, again, do men and women generally, practise the same religious avoidance of each other ? (4) Why, according to a common custom, is it necessary for the bridegroom to take his bride by violence ? (" Marriage by capture.") i QUESTIONS 3 (5) Why are the bride and bridegroom in Bengal first married to two trees ? (6) Why did the bride in ancient Argos wear a beard in the bridal chamber, and why in Kos was the bridegroom arrayed in women's clothes when he received his bride ? (7) Why, according to a widely spread custom, which, like the next, has excited the laughter of man- kind, should a man and his mother-in-law religiously avoid each other, to the extent of hiding the face and of being " ashamed " ? (8) Why, as is the practice in several parts of the world, and as was reported of the Tibarenoi by Greek writers and of the King of Torelore by the jogleor who wrote Cest Daucassin et Nicolete, does the husband lie- in and pretend to be a mother when his wife is confined ? (Couvade.) The primitive mental habit in its general features is best described negatively by the term unscientific, and positively by religious, in the ordinary connotation of that term. Superstitious would be preferable, were it not too narrow ; as to magic, I do not here distinguish — magic being simply the superstitious or religious method as opposed to the scientific. This primitive thinking does not distinguish between the natural and the supernatural, between subjective and objective reality. Primitive man regards the creations of his own imagination as being no less real than the exist- ences for which he has the evidence of sense-perception, in a sense more real, precisely because they elude sense- perception, though dealt with in the same way as objective reality ; and, while the latter is always chang- ing, these ideal existences, like the ideas of Plato, never pass away. ObjeiKive reality also takes on some 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. properties of ideal reality, so that for primitive man the supernatural an I the natural interchange, or rather, are not distinguished. This philosophy is truly monistic, and is neither materialist nor idealist, but undiffer- entiated. "Matter" is spiritual, and "spirit'" is material, though sometimes invisible. Primitive logic corresponds to this metaphysic ; it is likewise undiffer- entiated, and is chiefly guided by " material fallacies " and a Realism more pronounced than that of the School- men. Such inference necessarily includes true results, inductive and deductive, but no less necessarily these results were not distinguished from the false ; inex- tricably confused with fallacy, which often owed its continuance to the association, truth was held but was not recognised as a distinct species. As to " survivals " /of primitive speculation and custom into civilised periods, the term is misused when it is implied that these are dead forms, surviving like fossil remains or rudimentary organs ; the fact is that human nature remains potentially primitive, and it is not easy even for those most favoured by descent to rise above these -) J primitive ideas, precisely because these ideas " spring x eternally " from permanent functional causes. Every one would still be primitive were it not for education, and the importance of education in the evolutiolPofThe soul can hardly be over-estimated. The undifferentiated character of primitive culture, its reference of all departments of thought and practice to one psychological habit, the superstitious or religious, may be illustrated from higher stages. " The political and religious Governments of the Kaffir tribes are so intimately connected that the one cannot be overturned without the other ; they must stand or fall together." l 1 Maclean, Compendium of Kaffir Lazvs and Customs, 107. r i PRIMITIVE CL f RE 5 The great pagan civilisations sho vactly the same homogeneity. The ideal society .>f early Christians and Puritans alike, was one where thei bhou^J. be no separa- tion between Church and State, where puolic and private life and thought, politics and domestic affairs, individual and social morality, speculation and science, should all be subsumed under religion, and directed by the religious method. Such an ideal differs in degree only from the actual condition of primitive society ; whatever term be used to describe this, it is homogeneous and monistic in practice and theory ; one method is applied to its philosophy of nature and of man, its politics and public life, its sociology and human relations, domestic and social, its medical science and practice, its ethics and morality, its ordinary thought and action in every- day life, its behaviour and etiquette. Thus, as will also be shown by the way, there is a religious meaning inherent in the primitive conception and practice of all human relations, which is always ready to become actualised ; and the same is true of all individual pro- cesses of sense and emotion and intellection and, in especial, of those functional processes that are most easily seen in their working and results. Not only " the Master knot of Human Fate," but all human actions and relations, all individual and social pheno- mena, have for primitive man, always potentially and often actually, a full religious content. So it is with that sub-division of human nature and human life caused by sex ; all actions and relations, all individual and social phenomena conditioned by sex, are likewise filled with a religious meaning. Sexual relations and sexual processes, as all human relations and human processes, are religious to the primitive mind. The conception of danger, neither material nor spiritual, but 6 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. both, which is the chief haracteristic of early religious thought and practice, ivd is due to the unscientific character of early speculation, is here intensified by the importance, psychical and physiological, of the sexual life. As we proceed, this characteristic of sexual re- lations and sexual life will be made clear ; it is seen in the phenomena of the individual life and of social relations, both in ordinary circumstances and, naturally intensified, in sexual crises. Thus, birth and baptism, confirmation and marriage, are attended by religious ceremonies. There is indeed a tendency amongst enquirers, due to the legal method of investigation, to ignore the religious character of the marriage ceremony ; but it is only in later culture that marriage is a " civil act," and though in early Catholic times marriage was not necessarily performed by the Church, it was still in essence a religious rite, and had been so before Chris- tianity, as it was so in the earliest ages. One of the crudest modes of marriage known, that of the Arunta and other Central Australian tribes, is proved by a note of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen to be a religious act, 1 though to all appearance this would seem impossible. As we shall see, even the ordinary intercourse of man with woman has for primitive man this religious meaning. The primitive conception of danger, which leads to those precautions, religious or superstitious, so char- acteristic of early ritual, appears in two main forms, the predication of evil influences and the imposition of taboos. Let us take a few instances, from ordinary life and sexual crises. In the Marquesas Islands, the use of canoes is pro- hibited to the female sex by tabu ; the breaking of the '. 1 B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, 93. i SEX AND RELIGION 7 rule is punished with death. Tapa-making belongs exclusively to women ; and it is tabu for men to touch it. 1 The Kaffirs will not from superstitious motives allow women to touch their cattle. 2 Amongst the Dacotas custom and superstition ordain that the wife must carefully keep away from all that belongs to her husband's sphere. 3 In New Zealand, a man who has any important business on hand, either in peace or war, is tapu, and must keep away from the female sex. 4 The fear of evil spirits shows itself from time to time during the long and wearisome marriage cere- monies of South Celebes, and methods are used to frustrate their evil intentions against the happiness of the young pair. There is also a fear that the soul of the bridegroom may fly away for sheer happiness. 5 In China, a new bride is apt to be attacked by evil spirits causing her to be ill ; hence the figure of " a great magician " (a Taoist priest), brandishing a sword, is painted on the sedan-chair she uses on the wedding- day. The sedan-chair in which a Manchu bride goes to the house of the bridegroom is " disinfected " with incense, to drive away evil spirits, and in it is placed a calendar containing the names of idols who control the spirits of evil. 7 The Druses " have a superstition that leads them to suppose that Gins or evil spirits are more than usually busy on the occasion of marriage " and may interfere with the happiness of the pair. 8 In English folklore " the malevolence of witchcraft seems to have taken the greatest pleasure in subtle assaults 1 H. Melville, The Marquesas Islands, 13, 245. 2 "Journal of the Anthropological Institute, x. 1 1 ; xvi. 119. 3 Waitz-Gerland, Anthropologic der Natmrvolier, iii. 100. 4 Id. vi. 349. 5 B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethnologic -van Zuid-Celebes, 30, 39, 33 ; van Eck, in De Indische Gids for 1 88 1, 1038. 6 Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese, i. 95. * Lockhart, in Folklore, i. 487. 8 G. W. Chasseaud, The Druses of the Lebanon, 168. 8 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. upon those just entering the married state." * In Russia, all doors, windows, and even the chimney, are closed at a wedding, to prevent malicious witches fly- ing in and hurting the bride and bridegroom. 2 The Chuvashes honour their wizards (iemzyas) and always invite them to weddings, for fear that an offended iemzya might destroy the bride and bridegroom. 3 Savages and barbarians, and, we may add, mankind in general, are very secretive concerning their functional life. This attitude is naturally emphasised when the sexual act is in question. Thus amongst the natives of the Ceramlaut Archipelago, between Celebes and Papua, where there is a veneer of Islam, it is the custom for both man and wife to say the well-known formula of good Moslems before the sexual act. 4 This is a general rule in Islam, especially on the first night of marriage. 5 The old Romans similarly invoked Dea Virginensis, while ceremonially loosing the zone. 6 The natives of Amboina believe in a witch, Pontianak, who steals away not only infants, but the genital organs of men. 7 In South Celebes, the evil spirit most feared by the male sex is one that makes a man incapable of performing his marital duties. s A similar belief is very common in European folklore. Again, as soon as a Nicobarese woman shows signs of pregnancy, dancing and singing are interdicted in the village. 9 Pregnant women in the island Kisar, or Makiser, take a knife with them, when they leave the 1 Brand, Popular Antiquities, iii. 305. 2 W. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, 381. 3 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. 156. 4 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 173. 5 A. Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. 293. 6 Augustine, De Ciiiitate Dei, iv. 11. 7 Riedel, op. cit. 58. 8 Matthes, op. cit. 97. 9 A. Featherman, Social History of the Races of Mankind, ii. 246. i SEX AND RELIGION J 9 house, in order to frighten away evil spirits. 1 The same practice is found in Amboina, and the Watubella Islands. 2 In the Ceramlaut Islands, pregnant women use charms to protect themselves against evil influences, and in Ceram (Nusaina) they dread the evil spirit Putiana or Pontianak. 3 Among the Basutos pregnant women are subject to witchcraft, and they wear skin- aprons to protect them. 4 In New Zealand and New Caledonia, for instance, they are tabu ,• 5 amongst the latter people also, and in Siam, the Marianne, Gilbert and Marshall Islands, amongst the Pshawes and some Transcaucasian tribes they are "unclean," i.e. taboo. Turning to the other side of the taboo state, we find that amongst the natives of Costa Rica, a woman who is for the first time pregnant, " infects the whole neigh- bourhood " ; all deaths are laid to her charge, and the husband pays the damages. This remarkable influence " seems to be an evil spirit, or rather a property acquired " by women in that state. 7 At child-birth, more than at any other functional crisis, woman is taboo, and in that state where religion develops evil spirits. Amongst the Alfoers, before a birth, the husband sets a naked sword in front of the house, to keep off evil spirits who might bring ill-luck to the delivery. 8 In the Philippine Islands, there is an evil spirit, which causes painful labour. It is to be recognised by its voice, and when the husband hears it, he locks up the house, closing every chink, and goes round with a sword thrusting and parrying all night. In the morning he takes a well-earned rest, because "he 1 Riedel, op. cit. 417. - Id. 72, 207. 3 Id. I73"74i '34- 4 E. Casalis, The Basutos, 251. 5 H. Ploss, Das Kind, i. 20. 6 H. Ploss u. M. Bartels, Das Weib, ii. 603. 7 W. M. Gabb, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society for 1875, 505. 8 J. G. F. Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie for 1871, 403. io THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. has saved his wife." l Amongst the Ovaherero the woman at child-birth, and the special hut which she occupies, are both zera, holy. 2 More often, women in child-bed and for some time after, are called " unclean," frequently tabu, but " holy," tabu and unclean are so far not differentiated. Amongst peoples who use special terms like tapu, as the Polynesians, she is tafu ; elsewhere, as a rule, " unclean." Especially is this the case after child-birth. The infant also is taboo, and comes under the same category. 3 In the islands Amboina and Uliasser the new-born babe is subject to the attacks of evil spirits, and is put by the fire to protect him. 4 In East Central Africa, when the child is seven days old, the parents believe that it is past its greatest dangers, and in order to prevent evil spirits from doing it further mischief, they strew the place with dressed victuals by way of appeasing them. 3 At puberty also, religious ideas are found. Amongst the Kurnai of Gippsland " the initiatory ceremony, which introduced the young of both sexes to member- ship in the community, is a commemoration — even a species of rude worship — by the tribe, of the eponymous ancestors, Yeerung and Djeetgun. It forms the great central idea of Kurnai society." 6 Amongst the Narrin- veri boys at initiation are narumbe y sacred in a special sense, of which more hereafter. 7 Amongst the Chiri- guanos the girl at puberty fasts, and is secluded, while women beat the floor and walls with sticks, by way of 1 Bowring, The Philippines, 120 ; A. Bastian, Die Volkern des Ostlichen Asien, v. 270. 2 South African Folklore Journal, ii. 63. 3 Ploss, Das Kind, i. 51. 4 Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 73. 5 D. Macdonald, Africana, i. 224. 6 L. Fison and A. W. Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, 199. 7 Native Tribes of South Australia, 18. i SEX AND RELIGION n finding and driving away " the snake that has wounded the girl." 1 The Siamese, who imagine that evil spirits swarm in the air, believe that these enjoy the first fruits of their girls, and that they cause the " wound " which renews itself every month. 2 On the religious state of girls at puberty Dr. Frazer gives many details. 3 The same religious fears are connected with men- struation generally. Amongst the Vedahs of Travan- core the wife at her monthly periods is secluded for five days in a hut, a quarter of a mile away, which is also used by her at child-birth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half-way between the first and the house. On the ninth day the husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends. Until this evening he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by " the devil." 4 Here, as in the next case, the dangerous side of taboo is prominent. Amongst the Maoris, if a man touched a menstruous woman, he would be tapu ; if he had connection with her, or ate food cooked by her, he would be "tapu an inch thick." 5 In all these relations and functional crises connected with sex, a religious state is, as it were, entered upon. There is not needed, to prove this, the major premiss, that all primitive practice and belief are essentially religious ; the particular instances themselves point clearly to a connection with religion. Though further evidence of this is to be found in most races from China to Peru, and even in higher civilisations, while European folklore is full of such evidence, yet a few typical examples may suffice. 1 Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, viii. 333 j J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough 2 , iii. 214. - Loubere, Siam, i. 203. 3 Frazer, op. c;t. iii. 204 ff. 4 F. Jagor, in Zeitsckrift fi'r Ethnologic, xi. 164. 5 E. Tregear, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xix. 101. 12 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. It may be objected that the presence of evil spirits in some of the above cases proves nothing. But all I wish to point out just now is the actual presence of evil or danger. I am far from wishing to imply that the evil spirits or dangerous influences present on all these occasions are those against which the ceremonies of marriage, baptism, and the like were instituted as safe- guards. In some of these cases the evil influence stated is that which has caused the rite or the taboo ; in others it is not so ; other cases again are selected as examples of a belief in the process of crystallisation into cere- mony, superimposed upon an already crystallised cere- mony of similar origin, such as the cases of marriage taken from South Celebes, Manchuria, and Russia ; whilst others show an original ceremony in the process of development from belief, as in the case of the Indian girl at puberty and the Vedahs at menstruation, and in those of the Muhammadan and Roman bridegrooms, where the Roman ceremony is obviously the crystallisa- tion of an idea similar to the Muhammadan. In the higher stages of culture it is hardly necessary to quote instances to prove that marriage, baptism, confirmation, and " the churching of women ' : are religious cere- monies, but it is important to mark the continuity of these with the ritual of early man. A long array of facts might be given to show that the main line of development in ritual is from the propitiation or insula- tion of evil influences to the conciliation of beneficent powers. The change is effected in this way : the dangers feared are originally insulated before and during the progress of the function, as is the natural course, then at the end of the function, the expulsion of the dangers is performed for the last time, and often shows a twofold character, purification and propitiation, i ANIMISM AND TABOO 13 such as, to take the case of child-birth, the purification of the woman with water, and the propitiation of the spirits by food. The practice of performing the chief ceremony at the end of a functional crisis was more sure of continuance, precisely because the danger is then usually over, and the ceremony therefore cannot be discredited. Further, keeping the same instance, puri- fication after child-birth, the deliverance from danger is naturally ascribed to some beneficent spirit, and the water with which the woman is purified of that danger takes on the character of " holy " accordingly. The examples drawn from the Vedahs, and from an East Central African tribe, are here instructive, as showing the necessary components of a ceremony and illustrating its origin. We must next point out the fact that the rules and restrictions (taboos) imposed in these sexual relations or sexual crises, some of which are expressly called tabu, are identical with those imposed in other tabu states, such as hunting, war and the preparation therefor, mourning, also in the case of those sacred persons, priest-kings, incarnate gods, at once more and less than man, of whom Dr. Frazer treats in his great work. But the plurality of causes, which makes it unsafe to infer similarity of cause from similar effects, necessitates an analysis of particular results. The ideas underlying the above-cited examples of taboo are in some cases connected with " spiritual ' dangers, and, to that extent, are religious. In the further analysis of these and other cases, the religious character of practice and belief will be made more clear, and the precise nature of the danger will be investigated. For the present, let us take one or two of the above cases, which might be multiplied indefinitely, to show i 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap, i the identity of the ideas underlying Polynesian tabu and similar religious states elsewhere. A Maori woman at menstruation is tapu, and any one touching her is tapu. Now, according to the Siamese belief about this function, the danger is due to evil spirits which cause a wound, of which the menstrual blood is the result and proof, and it is contact with this blood of which the Maori male is so afraid. Add to this the fact that the Maoris themselves not only identify menstrual blood with an evil spirit, Kahukahu, but also hold that the tapu state generally is due to the influence of ancestral spirits, 1 and identification of taboo and " spiritual " influence is so far complete. S Now, if behind any sexual relation or sexual func- / tional crisis and the relations between the sexes resulting in connection with it, there are found ideas identical with those underlying any taboo or religious condition, we may infer for all such ideas in primitive thought, not only correlation but identity of origin. \ As we proceed we shall find evidence not only for identifying this religious state of " spiritual " danger with the dangers underlying taboo, and with those pro- ceeding from evil agencies, material, spiritual, or both, but also for ascribing this state to the functional crises of sex and the ensuing sexual attitude, and even to the ordinary relations of the sexes. 1 E. Shortland, Southern Districts of New Zealand, 67, 68. CHAPTER II We have seen reason to suppose that men and women at marriage, women during menstruation, pregnancy, and child-birth, infants, boys and girls at puberty, not to mention other critical conditions, are regarded by early man as being in that mysterious religious state which necessitates the imposition of restrictions and safe- guards, or taboos, and to which mourners and kings, warriors and priests alike are called. In the last case cited from the Maoris we see very clearly the twofold nature of the state in which these sacr as it may have been tapu, that is, potentially dangerous. 8 When an Australian tribe approaches another that is unknown, they carry burning sticks " to purify the air." 9 Strange meats, such as are for instance non- indigenous, are feared by the Indians of Guiana, and they are rendered eatable by the peaiman, or even occasion- ally an old woman blowing on them certain times, so as to expel the "spirit." 10 In German folklore there is the custom of blowing thrice into a strange spoon, before eating with it. 11 The Indians of Guiana are afraid of the food of strangers, or of anything belonging 1 Shooter, op. at, 218. 2 Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu, 299 ; Shooter, 191. 3 Riedel, op. cit. 378. 4 South African Folklore Journal, ii. 32. 5 Dobrizhoffer, The Abipones, 163. 6 D'Albertis, op. cit. i. 53. 7 G. Turner, Samoa a Hundred Tears Ago, 291. 8 Shortland, Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders, 103. 9 R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, i. 134. 10 im Thurn, op. cit. 36S. 11 F. Panzer, Beitrag z-ur Deutschen Mythologie, 257. II THE NEW 25 to such. 1 The Zulus taboo all foods that are strange or unknown. 2 A similar idea underlies the common diffidence about beginning an act or doing something for the first time, or handselling a new object. Before shooting a cataract for the first time, on the first sight of any new place, striking rocks, etc., the Guiana Indian arrests the ill-will of the spirits. The dreaded objects are not mentioned, are not looked at more than is necessary, and artificial means of blinding the eyes with pepper juice are used to avoid the dreaded sight. 3 The Sandwich Islanders prayed before they ate, before tilling the ground, before building houses, launching boats, or casting nets. 4 Before starting on a hunting expedition, the Hurons consulted their tutelar spirits to ascertain whether the time was propitious. 5 This kind of thing is world-wide. In the Luang Sermata Islands enquiries are made as to whether the new house will be unlucky. In the Babar Islands, before entering a new house, offerings are thrown inside, that the spirit, Orlou, may not make the inmates ill. 6 In the Sandwich Islands, before the owner entered a new house, the priest performed ceremonies and slept in it, to prevent evil spirits resorting thereto, and to secure the inmates from the effects of incantation. 7 A similar practice is found in Persia and China. s Amongst the Nicobarese sorcerers are employed to drive away evil spirits from the site selected for the building of a house. When a new boat is launched, a fire is lighted round it to expel the evil spirits. 9 Similarly, when an interval has elapsed, 1 W. H. Brett, The Indian Tribes cf Guiana, 363. 2 D. Leslie, Among the Zulus and Amatongas, 197. 3 im Thurn, op. cit. 380. 4 W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 350. 5 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 54. 6 Riedel, op. cit. 318, 343. 7 W. Ellis, A Tour in Hawaii, 293 ; Polynesian Researches, iv. 322. s Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, ix. 260; Doolittle, op. cit. ii. 325. 9 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 250. 26 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. dwelling-houses become dangerous. Thus the Bashkirs, on returning from their nomadic life of the summer to their winter -quarters, approach these dwellings with reluctance, believing that Sheitan has taken up his abode there. The women therefore are sent forward first, armed with sticks, with which they strike the doors, uttering curses ; when they have made their round, the men ride forward at full speed, with terrific shouts, to banish the dreaded demon from his hiding-place. 1 We may also compare the common belief that danger attaches to the first of any fruits or meats, as in the ceremony of first-fruits amongst the Kaffirs 2 and many other peoples, such " holiness " as attaches thereto being undistinguished from any kind of potential danger. Again, there is an almost universal belief that sickness and death are unnatural and abnormal. Being strange conditions of which the savage cannot solve the mystery, he often attributes them to the influence of evil spirits. Amongst the Zulus no one is believed to die a natural death except in battle or a row. 3 Among most Congo tribes death is seldom regarded in the light of a natural event. 4 Amongst the Dieri and neigh- bouring tribes of South Australia, " no native contracts a disease or complaint from natural causes ; the disease is supposed to be caused by some enemy." In any serious case, the Koonkies or doctors are called in, to beat " the devil " out of the camp. " This is done by the stuffed tail of a kangaroo, by beating the ground in and out of the camp, chasing him away for some distance." 5 The Kurnai could not conceive of death by disease. It was regarded as due to the magical 1 A. Erman, Reise urn die Erde, i. 103. 2 Shooter, op. cit. 25, 27. 3 Leslie, op. cit. 48. 4 H. Ward, in Jcurn. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 287. 5 S. Gason, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xsiv. 170. ii DEATH SUPERNATURAL 27 influence of enemies or evil spirits. Death, according to their ideas, could only occur through accident, open violence, or secret magic. 1 Amongst the tribes of Central Australia " no such thing as natural death is realised by the native ; a man who dies has of necessity been killed by some other man, or perhaps even by a woman, and sooner or later that man or woman will be attacked. However old or decrepit a man or woman may be when death takes place, it is at once supposed that it has been brought about by the magic influence of some enemy." 2 All deaths, sicknesses, and calamities are attributed by the Andamanese to evil spirits. 3 The Navajos ascribe death to Chinde, " the devil," who remains in the vicinity of the dead. Those who per- form the burial protect themselves from the evil in- fluence by smearing their naked bodies with tar. 4 Death has always been a mystery, and it is no wonder that savage and barbarous peoples should have regarded it as an abnormal event. This conception is illustrated by the numerous myths invented to explain the abnormality of death. An interesting case, repeating the idea of "death and his brother sleep," is the myth of the Yaos and Wayisa of East Central Africa. They say that death is largely caused by wizards ; it was originally brought into the world by a woman, who taught two men to go to sleep. One day, while they slumbered, she held the nostrils of one of them, till his breath ceased and he died. 5 Sickness, in a lesser degree, is also mysterious. With such unusual states, as is gener- ally the case, we find connected evil spirits or taboo or both, and may trace these predications back to man's 1 Fison and Howitt, op. cit. 251, 258. 2 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 48, 476. 3 E. H. Man, in Jown. Anthrop. Inst. xi. 288, 289. 4 First Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington), 123. 5 J. Macdonald, in Jown. Anthrop. Inst. xxii. ill, 112. 28 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. conceptions of what is unusual and not understood, in combination with his instinctive desire for life, health, and strength. All illness and bodily evil in British Guiana is the work of spirits, occasionally supposed to act in human form, but generally not, "therefore disease is more common than assault by bodily foes." 1 Amongst the Basutos sickness is attributed to ill- wishers who bewitch one. 2 In the last examples, we see how human and supernatural agencies may meet. Again, in the case of normal functions, which are unusual in so far as they are periodic, it is natural that danger from spiritual agencies should be thought of chiefly when the crisis is worse than usual. Thus in the Aru Islands it is at difficult labour that means are taken against evil spirits, for instance, the banging of drums ; so in the island Wetar and the Ceramlaut Archipelago. 3 If labour is difficult, the Chinese suppose it is due to an evil spirit that prevents the child's appearance ; 4 and in the Philippines, when the birth is delayed, witches are supposed to be responsible, and are driven away by exploding gunpowder from a mortar improvised out of a bamboo. 5 If the new-born child howls, the Babar natives attribute it to the influence of an evil spirit, and food is spread for it outside the house. 6 This case is somewhat surprising, but perhaps it is excessive squalling that is referred to. More naturally, if a Chinese child will not suck nor cry and appears lifeless, the belief is that it is exposed to evil influences. 7 The Andamanese and Maoris ascribe internal pains to evil spirits ; and amongst the latter people, when a 1 im Thurn, op. cit. 366. 2 Casalis, op. cit. 277. 3 Riedel, op. cit. 265, 449, 175. 4 Doolittle, op. cit. i. 118. 5 Bowring, op. cit. 144. 6 Riedel, op. cit. 354. 7 Doolittle, op. cit. i. 120. ii EMOTIONS SUPERNATURAL . 29 chief is in pain, he is thereby accounted tapu. 1 Also when a Maori warrior was afraid, the tohunga invoked a friendly spirit to repulse the evil spirit causing the fear. 2 It will be remembered that the Maori tapu implies that one is under the influence of the ancestral spirits ; and the apparent inconsistency, that a Maori gentleman, who is always tapu, can become tapu at various crises, and, as will be seen later, can contract such tapu as to injure his inherent tapu, is quite natural and needs no explanation. Further, the Battas attri- bute not only diseases, but such phenomena as anger, to evil spirits, which also force men to do murder and commit crimes. 3 Such states as idiocy, hysteria, and various forms of neurosis are, as is well known, ex- plained by savages in the same way. We still have the phrase " an inspired idiot." Intoxication is similarly explained, also such apparently irregular conditions as ecstasy and enthusiasm. In the same way, popular thought and language prove this to be so with love, no less than with other periodic emotional crises. Both the Yoruba and the Ewe -speaking peoples attribute sexual desire to possession by the god of love {Legba)} It is very natural that savage ignorance should ascribe to possession by supernatural influences those strong impulses which carry a man away and render him for the moment a blind automaton. The very word " passion " preserves the primitive idea that such states are due to external agency ; yet these facts limit still further primitive man's knowledge of himself. Again, if we survey the whole of human life and human relations, we find that all states in which there 1 Man, op. cit. xi. 84 ; Shortland, op. cit. 82 ; W. Yate, New Zealand, 104. 2 Shortland, Southern Districts of New Zealand, 67, 68. 3 F. Junghuhn, Die Battaldnder cuf Sumatra, ii, 156. 4 A. B. Ellis, The Eive-speaking Peoples of West Africa, 41. t 3° THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. is danger to be apprehended or something unusual or unusally important to be done or suffered are taboo. Every one is taboo in time of war, at the arrival of strangers, at the planting of the new seed, and at other periodic performances. Dr. Frazer has given examples of these. We shall also find later that occasions, where the performance of bodily functions is in question, are frequently taboo, and practically always when the functions are sexual or nutritive. We have also seen that even emotional states, such as pain, anger, fear, and love, which are apparently so abnormal, are ascribed to supernatural agencies and are taboo states ; and at last the remarkable fact becomes clear, that in primitive thought, most of what a man or woman does is actually, and all is potentially taboo. It is not merely the in- carnate god, the king and the priest, the sick and the mourner, the warrior and hunter, the boy and girl at puberty, the infant, the mother in child-bed, and the like, that are in this religious condition, but all human beings, as such, are potentially taboo, dangerous and in danger, all alike are, as it were, kings and priests. This tendency arising from subjective conceptions as to the danger of acts and things unfamiliar, out of the routine, or not understood, grows out of man's egoistic sensi- bility, that animal form of the instinct of self-preserva- tion and the will to live, which causes the individual to insulate himself from potential danger. Such danger centres in particular upon the organs of sense and function, the mysterious and complex working of which produces in the thinking organism a subconscious impulse, in the ratio of their importance and com- plexity, towards their preservation, and thereby the - preservation of the individual himself. This sub- conscious impulse develops into ideas, which are ii BASIS OF TABOO 31 religious in their character, and in their turn suggest the various methods of taboo. These ideas are religious in their content of " spiritual," as not distinguished from material danger, and these dangers are conceived of materially and dealt with as such. In all these facts, also, the identity of the taboo state and the dangerous condition caused by evil spirits can be seen between the lines. Turning now to the other side of these states, in which the person concerned is dangerous as well as in danger, we are told by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen that they " were constantly impressed with the idea that one black fellow will often tell you that he can and does do something magical, whilst all the time he is perfectly well aware that he cannot, and yet firmly believes that some other man can really do it. In order that his fellows may not be considered in this respect as superior to himself, he is obliged to resort to what is really a fraud ; but in course of time he may even come to lose sight of the fact that it is a fraud which he is practising upon himself and his fellows." ' In fact amongst savages it is not only professional sorcerers who possess magic power and influence, every man has this more or less. For instance, most of the old men amongst Australian natives are sorcerers, and a sorcerer " is able both to cause and cure, disease, rain, wind, thunder, and hail." 2 Thus, all persons are potentially dangerous to others, " as well as potentially in danger, in virtue simply of the distinction between a man and his fellows. The individual qua individual is potentially in danger from other individuals and dangerous to them. This egoistic sensibility and caution is intensified when things or 1 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 130. 2 E. J. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Disco-very into Central Australia, ii. 359, 384. 32 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap, ii persons present some unexplained strangeness, and we may conclude that the mere fact of sexual differentia- [ tion is enough to form the basis of a similar religious caution between men and women. In the second place, functional crises are accentuated forms of this sexual j differentiation, and their apparent abnormality causes i„uneasiness to the individual and to the other sex also. The following case sums up the argument ; the Indians of Costa Rica believe that the ceremonial " unclean- ness " called bu-ku-ru is very virulent. It is most dangerous from a woman in her first pregnancy. " She infects the whole neighbourhood, and all deaths are laid at her door." Also, " a place which has not been visited for a long time, or one approached for the first time, is infected with bu-ku-ru." 1 Here then we have an ultimate origin for the religious precautions used not only at birth, puberty, and pregnancy, but at the entering upon a new relation, and that a sexual rela- tion, such as marriage. The whole series of phenomena, as may especially be seen in the ideas and practices concerned with things new and unusual, with the handselling of such, and with the entering upon strange or important acts and functions, illustrates well a characteristic of early man / 1/ in the anirmstic_sta^e, which may be described as 'v ' diffidence, lack of initiative and incapacity for responsi- bility, and is the general result of ignorance and inex- perience. This mental and moral habit has, as the material on which it works, the very ignorance with which it is associated in origin. Later, this interesting \f' stage of human development will be shown to have J developed moral ideas which have profoundly influenced - f the progress j)fjnan. 1 W. M. Gabb. op. cit. 504. "/ CHAPTER III " In the beginning, when Twashtri came to the creation of woman, he found that he had exhausted his materials in the making of man, and that no solid elements were left. In this dilemma, after profound meditation, he did as follows. He took the rotundity of the moon, and the curves of creepers, and the clinging of tendrils, and the trembling of grass, and the slenderness of the reed, and the bloom of flowers, and the lightness of leaves, and the tapering of the elephant's trunk, and the glances of deer, and the clustering of rows of bees, and the joyous gaiety of sunbeams, and the weeping of clouds, and the fickleness of the winds, and the timidity of the hare, and the vanity of the peacock, and the softness of the parrot's bosom, and the hardness of adamant, and the sweetness of honey, and the cruelty of the tiger, and the warm glow of fire, and the cold- ness of snow, and the chattering of jays, and the cooing of the koki/a, and the hypocrisy of the crane, and the fidelity of the chakrazvdka, and compounding all these together, he made woman and gave her to man. But after one week, man came to him and said : Lord, this creature that you have given me makes my life miser- able. She chatters incessantly and teases me beyond endurance, never leaving me alone ; and she requires incessant attention, and takes all my time up, and cries about nothing, and is always idle ; and so I have come D h' 34 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. to give her back again, as I cannot live with her. So Twashtri said : Very well ; and he took her back. Then after another week, man came again to him and said : Lord, I find that my life is very lonely, since I gave you back that creature. I remember how she used to dance and sing to me, and look at me out of the corner of her eye, and play with me, and cling to me ; and her laughter was music, and she was beautiful to look at, and soft to touch ; so give her back to me again. So Twashtri said : Very well ; and gave her back again. Then after only three days, man came back to him again and said : Lord, I know not how it is ; but after all I have come to the conclusion that she is more of a trouble than a pleasure to me ; so please take her back again. But Twashtri said : Out on you ! Be off! I will have no more of this. You must manage how you can. Then man said : But I cannot live with her. And Twashtri replied : Neither could you live without her. And he turned his back on man, and went on 1 1 with his work. Then man said : What is to be done ? I for I cannot live either with her or without her." * This extract from a beautiful Sanscrit story illustrates a conception of the relations of man and woman, which often recurs in literature. The same conception, due /ultimately to that difference of sex and of sexual (characters which renders mutual sympathy and under- standing more or less difficult, is characteristic of i^nankind in all periods and stages of culture. Woman is one of the last things to be understood by man ; though the complement of man and his partner in health and sickness, poverty and wealth, woman is different from man, and this difference has had the same religious results as have attended other things which 1 A Digit of the Moon, trans, by F. W. Bain, 13-15. Ill SEXUAL TABOO 35 man does not understand. The same is true of woman's attitude to man. In the history of the sexes there have been always at work the two complementary physical forces of attraction and repulsion ; man and woman may be regarded, and not fancifully, as the highest sphere in which this law of physics operates ; in love the two sexes are drawn to each other by an irresistible sympathy, while in other circumstances there is more or less of segregation, due to and enforced by human ideas of human relations. -J ""The remarkable facts which follow show the primitive theory and practice of this separation of the sexes. Both in origin and results the phenomena are those of Taboo, and hence I have applied to these facts the specific term of Sexual Taboo. At first sight this early stage of the relations of men and women may cause surprise, but when one realises the continuity of human ideas, and analyses one's own consciousness, one may find there in potentiality, if not actualised by prejudice, the same con- ception, though perhaps emptied of its religious content. In Nukahiva if a woman happens to sit upon or even pass near an object which has become tabu by contact with a man, it can never be used again, and she is put to death. 1 In Tahiti a woman had to respect those places frequented by men, their weapons and fishing implements ; the head of a husband or father was sacred from the touch of woman, nor might a wife or daughter touch any object that had been in contact with these \ tabued heads, or step over them when their owners were asleep. 2 In the Solomon Islands a man will never pass under a tree fallen across the path, because a woman may have stepped over it before him. 3 In Siam it is 1 D'Urville, Voyage pittoresque autcur du Monde, i. 505. 2 C. Letourneau, Sociologie, 173. 3 H. B. Guppy, T/ic Salomon Islands, i. 4. 36 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. considered unlucky to pass under women's clothes hung out to dry. 1 It is degrading to a Melanesian chief to go where women may be above his head ; boys also are forbidden to go underneath the women's bed-place. 2 Amongst the Karens of Burmah going under a house when there are females within is avoided ; and in Burmah generally it is thought an indignity to have a woman above the head ; to prevent which the houses are never built with more than one storey. 3 This explanation of an architectural peculiarity is doubtless ex post facto. Amongst the people of Rajmahal, if a man be detected by a woman sitting on her cot and she complains of the impropriety, he pays her a fowl as fine, which she returns ; on the other hand, if a man detects a woman sitting on his cot, he kills the fowl which she produces in answer to his complaint, and sprinkles the blood on the cot to purify it, after which she is pardoned. 4 In Cambodia a wife may never use the pillow or mattress of her husband, because " she would hurt his happiness thereby." 5 In Siam the wife has a lower pillow " to remind her of her inferiority." 6 This reason is possibly late. Amongst the Barea man and wife seldom share the same bed, the reason they give is, that if they sleep together the breath of the *%ife will render her husband weak. 7 Amongst the Lapps no grown woman may touch the hinder part of the house, which is sacred to the sun. 8 No woman 1 Bastian, op. cit. Hi. 230. 2 R. H. Codrington, The Melanesia™, 233. 3 Journal of the American Oriental Society, iv. 312 ; Bastian, op. cit. ii. 150. 4 Colebrooke in Asiatick Researches, iv. 88. 5 E. Aymonier, Les coutumes et croyances super stitieuses des Cambodgiens, 162. The Cambodians also say that a used pillow should be washed at once, or taken care of, for sorcery is easily performed by its means against one who has used it. 6 Pinkerton, op. cit. ix. 585. 7 W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, 526. 8 Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 435. in SEXUAL TABOO may enter the house of a Maori chief. 1 Amongst the Kaffas of East Africa husband and wife see each other only at night, never meeting during the day. She is secluded in the interior portion of the house, while he occupies the remainder. " A public resort is also set apart for the husband, where no woman is permitted to appear. A penalty of three years' imprisonment attaches to an infringement of this rule." 2 Observers have noted " the haughty contempt " shown by Zulus for their wives. Men and women rarely are seen together ; if a man and his wife are going to the same place, they do not walk together. 3 In some Redskin tribes and amongst the Indians of California a man never enters his wife's wigwam except under cover of the darkness ; and the men's club-house may never be entered by women. 4 The Bedouin tent is divided into two compartments for the men and women respectively. No man of good reputation will enter the women's part of the tent or even be seen in its shadow. 5 In Nukahiva the houses of important men are not accessible to their own wives, who live in separate huts. 6 Amongst the Samoyeds and Ostyaks a wife may not tread in any part of the tent except her own corner ; after pitching the tent she must fumigate it before the men enter. 7 In Fiji husbands are as frequently away from their wives as with them ; it is not, in Fijian society, thought well for a man to sleep regularly at home. 8 Another account 1 R. Taylor, Tc ika a Maul, 165 ; Tregear, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xix. 1 18 ; id. Maori Comparative Dictionary, s.v. Kahukahu ; Shortlanci, Maori Religion, 101 } id. Southern Districts of New Zealand, 295. 2 J. L. Krapf, Eighteen Tears in Eastern Africa, 58. 3 Shooter, of. cit. 81, 82. 4 Lafitau, Mceurs des sawvages Ame'riquains, i. 576 ; S. Powers, The Tribes of California, 24.. 6 Featherman, op. cit. v. 357. 6 D'Urville, op. cit. i. 504. 7 J. Georgi, Les nations Samoyedes, 15, 137. 8 T. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 137. 38 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. states that " it is quite against Fijian ideas of delicacy that a man ever remains under the same roof with his wife or wives at night." He may not take his night's repose anywhere except at one of the public bures of his town or village. The women and girls sleep at home. " Rendezvous between husband and wife are arranged in the depths of the forest, unknown to any but the two." All the male population, married and unmarried, sleep at the bures, or club-houses, of which there are generally two in each village. Boys till of age have a special one. 1 From another account we learn that women are not allowed to enter a bure, which is also used as a lounge by the chiefs. 2 In New Caledonia a peculiarity of conjugal life is that men and women do not sleep under the same roof. The wife lives and sleeps by herself in a shed near the house. " You rarely see the men and women talking or sitting together. The women seem perfectly content with the companionship of their own sex. The men, who loiter about with spears in a most lazy fashion, are seldom seen in the society of the opposite sex. 3 No Hindu female may enter the men's apartments. 4 In New Guinea the women sleep in houses apart, near those of their male relatives. The men assemble for conversa- tion and meals in the marea, a large reception-house, which women may not enter. 5 Amongst the Nubians each family has two dwelling-houses, one for the males, the other for the females. 6 In the Sandwich Islands there were six houses connected with every great estab- lishment ; one for worship, one for the men to eat in, 1 B. Seeman, Viti, no, 191. 2 Wilkes, U.S. Exploring Expedition, iii. 97, 352. 3 J. Gamier, Oce'anie, 186 ; J. W. Anderson, Fiji and New Caledonia, 232. 4 Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 441. 5 D'Albertis, op. cit. i. 282, 320, 390, 391. 6 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. ii. 485. Ill SEXUAL TABOO 39 another for the women, a dormitory, a house for kapa- beating, and one where at certain intervals the women might live in seclusion. 1 In the Caroline Islands a chief's establishment has one house for the women, a second for eating, and a third for sleeping. 2 In the Admiralty Islands there is a house reserved in each village for the use of women, both married and single, while the single men live together in a separate building. 3 The Shastika Indians of California have a town-lodge for men and another for women. Other Californian tribes possess the first institution ; the women may not enter the men's lodges. 4 The centre of Bororo life is the Baito, the men's house, where all the men really live ; the family huts are nothing more than a residence for the women and children. Amongst the Bakairi and the Schingu tribes generally, women may never enter the men's club-house, where the men spend most of their time. 5 In the Solomon Islands women may not enter the men's tambu house, nor even cross the beach in front of it. In Ceram women are forbidden to enter the men's club-house. 7 In New Britain there are two large houses in each village, one for men, the other for women : neither sex may enter the house of the other. 8 In the Marquesas Islands the ti where the men congregate and spend most of their time is taboo to women, and protected by the penalty of death from the imaginary pollution of a woman's presence ; the chiefs never trouble about any domestic affairs. 9 In the Pelew Islands there is " a remarkable 1 J - J - J arves * TAe Hawaiian or Sandzuick Island:, 208. 2 C. E. Meinicke, Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans, ii. 370. 3 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. vi. 4 1 3. 4 Powers, op. cit. 244, 24. 5 K. von den Steinen, Unter den Natur-Volkern Zentral-Brasiliens, 480. 6 Guppy, op. cit. i. 67. 7 Riedel, op. cit. no. 8 W. Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, 84. 9 Melville, op. cit. 10 1, 210. 4 o THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. separation of the sexes." Men and women hardly live together, and family life is impossible. The segrega- tion is political as well as social. 1 In the Society and Sandwich Islands the female sex was isolated and humiliated by tabu, and in their domestic life the women lived almost entirely by themselves. 2 In Uripiv (New Hebrides) there is a curious segregation of the sexes, beginning, at least in one respect, soon after a boy is born. 3 In Rapa (Tubuai Islands) all men are tabu to women. 4 In Seoul, the capital of Corea, " they have a curious curfew law called ■pem-ya. A large bell is tolled at about 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily, and between these hours only are women supposed to appear in the streets. In the old days men found in the streets during the hours allotted to women were severely punished, but the rule has been greatly relaxed of late years." " Family life, as we have it, is utterly un- known in Corea." 5 The Ojebway, Peter Jones, thus writes of his own people : "I have scarcely ever seen anything like social intercourse between husband and wife, and it is remarkable that the women say little in the presence of the men." 6 In Senegambia the negro women live by themselves, rarely with their husbands, and their sex is virtually a clique. 7 In Bali to speak tete-a-tete with a woman is absolutely forbidden. s In Egypt a man never converses with his wife, and in the tomb they are separated by a wall, though males and females are not usually buried in the same vault. 9 1 J. S. Kubary, Journal des Museum Godeffroy, iv. 43, 53 ; id. Die socialen Einrich- tungen der Pelauer, 33, 148 ; Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 380 ; K. Semper, Die Palau Inseln, 318, 319, 366. 2 W. Ellis, op. cit. i. 129 ; id. Tour Through Hawaii, 369. 3 B. T. Somerville, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 4. 4 Letourneau, op. cit. 174. 6 H. S. Saunderson, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 305, 306. 6 P. Jones, History of the Ojebivay Indians, 60. 7 L. J. B. Berenger-Ferautl, Les peuplades de la Se'ne'gambie, 373. 8 Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 340. 9 Ploss, op. cit. ii. 455. in SEXUAL SOLIDARITY 41 Some cases of this complementary result, solidarity of sex, have been noticed, and others will occur in various connections. It is practically universal in all stages of culture, even the highest. Amongst the Bedouins of Libya women associate for the most part with their own sex only. 1 In Morocco women are by no means reserved when by themselves, nor do they seek to cover their faces. 2 Amongst the Gauchos of Uruguay women show a marked tendency to huddle together. 3 Sexual solidarity is well brought out in the following. Amongst the extinct Tasmanians, if a wife was struck by her husband, the whole female population would come out and bring the " rattle of their tongues to bear upon the brute." 4 When ill- treated, the Kaffir wife can claim an asylum with her father, till her husband has made atonement. " Nor would many European husbands like to be subjected to the usual discipline on such occasions. The offending husband must go in person to ask for his wife. He is instantly surrounded by the women of the place, who cover him at once with reproaches and blows. Their nails and fists may be used with impunity, for it is the day of female vengeance, and the belaboured delinquent is not allowed to resist. He is not permitted to see his wife, but is sent home, with an intimation of what cattle are expected from him, which he must send before he can demand his wife again." 5 Amongst the Kunama the wife has an agent who protects her against her husband, and fines him for ill-treatment. She possesses considerable authority in the house, and is on equal 1 Featherman, cp. cit. v. 645. 2 A. Leared, Morocco and the Moors, 119. 3 D. Christison, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xi. 43. 4 J. Bonwiclc, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, 73. 5 Maclean, op. cit. 53. 42 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. terms with her husband. 1 Amongst the Beni-Amer women enjoy considerable independence. To obtain marital privileges, the husband has to make his wife a present of value. He must do the same for every harsh word he uses, and is often kept a whole night out of doors in the rain, until he pays. The women have a strong esprit de corps ; when a wife is ill-treated the other women come in to help her ; it goes without saying that the husband is always in the wrong. The women express much contempt for the men, and it is considered disgraceful in a woman to show love for her husband. 2 The first of these examples shows the length to which' religious ideas may carry this segregation, the last is one of many cases in which the solidarity of sex is seen. This is well brought out in examples of club- life, and there is here a close parallel to be found, not merely humorous, in the institution and etiquette of the modern club. The same biological tendency is behind both the modern and the primitive institution, though the later one is no longer supported by religious ideas. Again, sexual differentiation often develops into real antagonism. The attempts of the Indians of California to keep their women in check show how the latter were struggling up to equality. 3 An account of the Hottentots represents that the women, though ill- treated and forced to do harder work, can defend them- selves and avenge their wrongs. 4 A Poul (Fulah) governs his wives by force, but they recoup themselves when they get the chance. 5 The Indian of Brazil has a wholesome dread of his wives, and " follows the 1 Munzinger, op. tit. 387. 2 Id. 324, 325. 3 Powers, op. cit. 406. 4 Waitz-Gerland, cp. cit. ii. 341. 5 Histoire un'rverscile de: -voyages, xxviii. 439. in SEXUAL ANTAGONISM 43 maxim of laissez faire with regard to their intrigues." 1 Amongst the Wataveita fire-making is not revealed to women, " because," say the men, " they would then become our masters." 2 The Miris will not allow their women to eat tiger's flesh, lest it should make them too strong-minded. 3 The Fuegians celebrate a festival, Kina, in commemoration of their revolt against the women, " who formerly had the authority, and possessed the secrets of sorcery." 4 In the Dieri tribe of South Australia men threaten their wives, should they do any- thing wrong, with the " bone," the instrument of sorcery, which, when pointed at the victim, causes death ; " this produces such dread among the women, that mostly instead of having a salutary effect, it causes them to hate their husbands." 5 The Porno Indians of California "find it very difficult to maintain authority over their women." A husband often terrifies his wife into submission by personating an ogre ; after this she is usually tractable for some days. 6 Amongst the Tatu Indians of California, the men have a secret society, which gives periodic dramatic performances, with the object of keeping the women in order. The chief actor, disguised as a devil, charges about among the assembled squaws. 7 The Gualala and Patwin Indians have similar dances, performed by the assembled men, to show the women the necessity of obedience. 8 In I Africa the anxious attempts of the men to keep the women down have been noted. 9 The adult males in South Guinea have a secret association, Nda, whose object is to keep the women, children, and slaves in 1 Ploss u. Battels, Das Weib, ii. 42+. 2 Journ. Anthrof. Inst. xv. 10. 3 E. T. Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, 33. 4 Giraud-Teulon, Les origines du mariage et de la famille, 448. 5 Native Tribes of South Australia, 276. 6 Powers, op. cit. 154, 161. 7 Id. 141. 8 Id. 193, 224. 9 Bastian, San Salvador, 182. r ! 1 44 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. order. 1 The Mumbo-Jumbo of the Mandingos is well known. The same performer, who represents Mumbo- Jumbo, has also the duty of keeping the sexes apart for the forty days after circumcision. 2 Other instances of associations to keep the women in subjection are the Egbo in Calabar, Oro in Yoruba, the Purro, Semo, and varieties of Egbo on the west coast, the Bundu amongst the Bullamers. 3 Women in their turn form similar associations amongst themselves, in which they discuss their wrongs and form plans of revenge. Mpongwe women have an institution of this kind, which is really feared by the men. 4 Similarly amongst the Bakalais and other African tribes. 5 The way in which each sex is self-centred is also illustrated by the natural practice that women worship female, and men male deities. This needs no illustra- tion, but a very instructive. case may be quoted, which comes from ancient Roman life. When husband and wife quarrelled, they visited the shrine of the goddess Viriplaca on the Palatine. After opening their hearts in confession, they would return in harmony. This " appeaser of the male sex " was regarded as domestic . clt. ii. 388. 2 Guppy, op. cit. i. 47. 3 J. S. Kubary in Bastian's Allerlei aus Volks- und Menschenkunde, i. 20 ; id. Die sociahn Einrichtungen der Pelauer, 90. 4 Marshall, A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 73. 5 Maxwell in Folklore, ii. 71. 8 Powers, op. cit. 315. 7 J. Jr. Frazer, The Golden Bough' 1 , i. 403 sq. in SEX IN OCCUPATIONS 49 Evidence drawn from the respective occupations of the two sexes throws further light upon sexual taboo. Sexual differentiation in primary and secondary sexual " characters necessitates 'some difference' of occupation, and the religious ideas of primitive man have emphasised * the biological separation. Amongst the Dacotas custom and superstition ordain that the wife must carefully keep away from all that belongs to her husband's sphere of action. 1 The Bechuanas never allow women to touch their cattle, accordinglv the men have to plough themselves. 2 So amongst the Kaffirs, " because of some superstition." 3 Amongst the Todas women may not approach the tirieri, where the sacred cattle are kept, nor the sacred paldls. 4 In Guiana no women may go near the hut where ourali is made. 5 In the Marquesas Islands the use of canoes is prohibited to the female sex by tabu ; the breaking of the rule is punished with death. Con- versely, amongst the same people, tapa-mzk'mg belongs exclusively to women ; when they are making it for their own head-dresses it is tabu for men to touch it. 6 In Nicaragua all the marketing was done by women. A man might not enter the market or even see the proceedings, at the risk of a beating. 7 In New Cale- donia it is considered infra dig. for the men to perform manual labour, at any rate in the neighbourhood of the settlement ; such work is done by women only. 3 In Samoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted solely to the women, it is a degradation for a man to engage in any detail of the process. 9 In the Andaman Islands 1 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. ioo. 2 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. x. II. 3 Id. xvi. 119. 4 Marshall, op. cit. 137. 5 im Thurn, op cit. 311. 6 Melville, op. cit. 13, 245. 7 H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, iii. 145. 8 Anderson, op. cit. 231. 9 W. T. Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences, 13:. E 50 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. the performance by men of duties supposed to belong to women only, is regarded as infra dig} An Eskimo thinks it an indignity to row in an umiak, the large boat used by women. The different offices of husband and wife are also very clearly distinguished ; for ex- ample, when he has brought his booty to land, it would be a stigma on his character if he so much as drew_a_ seal ashore, and, generally, it is regarded as scandalous for a man to interfere with what is the work of women. 2 In British Guiana cooking is the province of the women ; on one occasion when the men were perforce compelled to bake, they were only persuaded to do so with the utmost difficulty, and were ever after pointed at as old women. 3 Exactly the same feelings subsist in the highest civilisations. fmm Y The chief occupations of the male sex in those }/stages_pf culture with which we have principally to deal i.Na^re hunting and war. The supreme importance of these occasions has been referred to above, and is expressed by such terms as the Polynesian tabu. These terms generally imply rules and precautions intended to secure the safety and success of the warrior or hunter, which form sometimes a sort of system of "training." Among these regulations the most constant is that which prohibits every kind of intercourse with the female sex. Thus in New Zealand a man who has any important business on hand, either in peace or war, is tapu and must keep from women. On a war party men are tapu to women, and may not go near their wives until the fighting is over. 4 In South Africa before and during an expedition men may have no 1 Man, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xii. 286. 2 F. Nansen, The First Crossing of Greenland, 192 ; Cranz, op. cit. i. 138, 154.. 3 im Thurn, op. cit. 256. 4 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vi. 349 ; Tregear, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xix. 111. Ill SEXUAL TABOO 51 connection with women. 1 Nootka Indians before war abstain from women. 2 In South-East New Guinea for some days before fighting the men are " sacred," helega, and are not allowed to see or approach any woman. 3 A Samoyed woman is credited with the power of spoiling the success of a hunt. 4 Amongst the Ostyaks harm befalls the hunter either from the ill-wishes of an enemy or the vicinity of a woman. 5 Amongst the Ahts whale- fishers must abstain from women. 6 A Motu man before hunting or fishing is helega ; he may not see his wives, else he will have no success. 7 North American Indians both before and after war refrain "on religious grounds" from women. " Contact with females makes a warrior laughable, and injures, as they believe, his bravery for the future." Accordingly the chiefs of the Iroquois, for instance, remain as a rule unmarried until they have retired from active warfare. s The Damaras may not look upon a lying-in woman, else they will become weak and consequently be killed in battle. 9 In the Booandik tribe if men see women's blood they will not be able to fight. 10 In some South American tribes the presence of a woman lately confined makes the weapons of the men weak, 11 and the same belief extends amongst the Tschutsches to hunting and fish- ing implements. 12 Amongst the Zulus women may not go near the army when about to set out. Old women, however, who are past child-bearing may do so ; for such " have become men ' : and " no longer 1 Macdonald, in J cum. Anthrop. Inst. xix. 2S4. 2 Bancroft, op. cit. i. 189. 3 Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea, 65. 4 Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. ii. 433. B Erman, op. cit. ii. 55. 6 G. M. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, zzj. 7 Chalmers, op. cit. 186. 8 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. 158, 159. 9 South African Folklore Journal, ii. 63. 10 J. Smith, The Booandik Tribe, 5. 1 Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. ii. 26. 12 Id., op. cit. loc. cit. I 52 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. observe the customs of hlonipa in relation to the " 1 men. : Woman has generally been debarred more or less from the public life and civil rights of men. This is an extension of the biological difference of occupation, sometimes exaggerated into seclusion amongst poly- gamous races, and into somewhat of inferiority in martial and feudal societies. We may instance, to go no further, the Australian natives, the Fijians, who have religious grounds for the exclusion, the Sumatrans, the Hindus and Muhammadans, and most civilised nations. 2 Again, women are more often than not, excluded from the religious worship of the community. The Arabs of Mecca will not allow women religious instruc- tion, because " it would bring them too near their masters." According to some theologians of Islam, they have no place in Paradise. 3 The Ansayrees con- sider woman to be an inferior being without a soul, and " therefore compel her to do all the drudgery and exclude her from religious services." 4 In the Sandwich Islands women were not allowed to share in worship or festivals, and their touch " polluted " offerings to the gods. 5 If a Hindu woman touches an image, its divinity is thereby destroyed and it must be thrown away. 6 The Australians are very jealous lest women or strangers should intrude upon their sacred mysteries : it is death for a woman to look into a bora. 1 In Fiji women are kept away from all worship ; dogs are excluded from some temples, women from all. 8 In the 1 Callaway, of. cit. 441-43. 2 Waitz-Gerland, of. cit. vi. 775, 627 ; Junghuhn, of. cit. ii. 97. 3 Letourneau, of. cit. 180. 4 Featherman, of. cit. v. 495. 5 W. Ellis, of. cit. i. 129 ; Meinicke, of. cit. ii. 300. 6 Ward, of. cit. ii. 13. 7 Ridley, in 'Journ. Anthrof. Inst. ii. 271. 8 Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 232, 238 ; Waitz-Gerland, of. cit. vi. 627. in SEXUAL TABOO $3 Gilbert and Marshall Islands and in Tonga, women are excluded from worship. 1 The women of the hill tribes near Rajmahal may not sacrifice nor appear at shrines, nor take part in religious festivals. 2 Amongst the Tschuwashes women dare not assist at sacrifices. 3 Bayeye women may not enter the place of sacrifice, which is the centre of tribal life. 4 Amongst the Gallas women may not go near the sacred tvoda-tree. where worship is celebrated. 5 On the east of the Gulf of Papua women are not allowed to approach the temple. 6 In New Ireland women may not enter the temples. 7 In the Marquesas Islands the hoolah-hoolah ground, where festivals are held, is tabu to women, who are killed if they enter or even touch with their feet the shadow of the trees. 8 Festivals and feasts, dances and entertainments of various character, are similarly often prohibited to women. In the Schingu tribes of Brazil women may not be present at the dances and feasts. 9 In New Britain women are not allowed to be present at the festivals, and when men are talking of things which women may not hear, the latter must leave the hut. 10 Amongst the Ahts women are never invited to the great feasts. 11 Amongst the Aleuts the women have dances from which the men are excluded ; the men have their dances and exclude women. It is regarded as a fatal mischance to see on these occasions 1 Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 338 ; Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vi. 348. 2 Asiatick Researches, iv. 51, 101. 3 M. P. S. Pallas, Voyages, i. 135. * South African Folklore Journal, ii. 36. 5 W. C. Harris, The Highlands of Ethiopia, iii. 56. 8 Chalmers and Gill, Nezv Guinea, 140, 150. 7 H. H. Romilly, The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 44. 8 Melville, op. cit. 100. 9 Von den Steinen, op. cit. 214. 10 R. Parkinson, Im Bismarck Archipelago, 300 j Romilly, op. cit. 29. 11 G. M. Sproat, op. cit. 60. 54 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. one of the opposite sex. 1 Similar exclusion of women from what is regarded as not being their sphere is indeed very widely spread, and is of course found in the highest civilisations. Where the prohibition is not needed to be carried out, the ideas which underlie these customs are satisfied by separating the sexes, as is the case still in many Catholic churches. Much in the same way the sexes never mingle together at the dances in the Hervey Islands. 2 Amongst the Nufoers of New Guinea men and women are separated on the same occasions ; 3 and at entertainments of every kind amongst the Green- landers men and women sit apart. 4 r In the next place we have to consider the very widely spread rule which insists upon the separation of the sexes, so far as is possible, at those functional crises with which sex is concerned. It is a special result of the ideas of sexual taboo applied to the most obvious sexual differences, primary sexual characters. During pregnancy there is sometimes avoidance between the wife and the husband, as in the Caroline Islands, where men may not eat with their wives during pregnancy, 5 and in Fiji where a pregnant woman may not wait upon her husband. 6 Lenape women as soon as they were pregnant separated from their husbands. 7 So also amongst the Coroados, Puris, and Coropos. 8 At birth, though there are a few cases where the husband attends or assists his wife, the general rule throughout the peoples of the world is that only the 1 W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources, 389 ; Bancroft, op. cit. iii. 145. 2 W. W. Gill, Life in the Southern Isles, 65. 3 Van Hasselt, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, viii. 186. 4 Cranz, op. cit. i. 158. 5 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vii. 106. 6 Williams, op. cit. i. 137. " Featherman, op. cit. iii. 107. 8 Spix and Martius, Travels in Brazil, 247. V ) in SEXUAL CRISES SS female sex may be present. Thus in Buru only old women may be in the room. 1 In South Africa the husband may not see his wife while she is lying-in. 2 Amongst the Basutos the father is separated from mother and child for four days, and may not. see^them until the medicine man has performed the religious ceremony of " absolution of the man and wife." If this were neglected, it is believed that he would die when he saw his wife. 3 At puberty it is a widespread rule that neither sex may see the other. Amongst the Narrinyeri boys during initiation are called narumbe, i.e. sacred from the touch of women, and everything that they possess or obtain becomes narumbe also. 4 Amongst the Basutos no woman may come near the boys during initiation. 5 In New Ireland girls may not be seen by any males except relatives from puberty to marriage, during which time they are kept in cages. 6 No man may come near the girls of Ceram while they are being subjected to the ceremonies necessary at puberty. 7 During menstruation generally, the separation of the sexes is most prominent, and is most widely spread. As examples, there are the Pueblo Indians, amongst whom women must separate from the men at menstrua- tion, and before delivery, because if a man touch a woman at those times he will fall ill. 8 An Australian, finding that his wife had lain on his blanket during menstruation, killed her, and died of terror in a fortnight. 9 1 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 24. 2 Macdonald, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xix. 267. 3 Griitzner, in Zcitschrift fur Ethnologic for 1 877, 78. 4 Native Tribes of South Australia, 69. B K. Endemann, in Zcitschrift fur Ethnologie for 1874, 37. 6 B. Danlcs, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xviii. 284. 7 Riedel, op. cit. 138. 8 Bancroft, op. cit. i. 549. 9 W. Ridley, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. ii. 268. 56 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. Even at marriage there is a good deal of separation of the sexes, and actually of the bride and bridegroom for as long as possible. Thus in Amboina none but women may enter the room where the bride sits in state. 1 In the Watubella Islands the men stand on one side with the groom and the women on the other with the bride. The feast is in two parts ; the groom and the men eat their " breakfast " separately, and then the bride and the women fall to. 2 At marriage - feasts amongst the Jews of Jerusalem the men sit on one side with the bridegroom, while the bride and the women occupy the opposite side of the room. 3 And generally, at marriage, the bride is escorted by women, and the bridegroom by men. In these cases there is avoidance between the sexes at sexual crises, as a rule more emphasised than that during ordinary life. The question may be asked — is the latter prohibition merely an extension of the former ? When we penetrate to the ideas lying behind both, we shall find these to be identical, and of such a specific character and universal extension that we must suppose \1 the sex-taboos imposed at sexual crises to be simply emphasised results of these ideas, though, as always, such results become through the very continuance of the phenomena to which they apply, further causes for the support of these ideas. Not to anticipate what will be treated of later, it may be pointed out first that perhaps the most widely spread and the most stringent of all sex-taboos has nothing to do with sexual functions — this is the prohibition against eating together. In the second place, in order rightly to estimate the whole of the evidence, it must be borne in mind that these sexual 1 A. S. Bickmore, East Indian Archipelago, 276. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 205. 3 Featherman, op. cit. v. 140. ■ in ANALYSIS OF SEXUAL TABOO 57 functions are parallel to the various occupations of the- respective sexes : in biology and in primitive thought child-bearing is as much a feminine occupation as is the preparation of meals, and the confirmation of a boy as much of a male occupation as is warfare or the chase. Also, it is clear from a survey of the various cases of sexual taboo, first, that the avoidance is of the religious and taboo character ; secondly, that men and women are afraid of dangerous results from each other — the^- fact that we see more of the man's side of the question is an instance of the way in which the male sex has practically monopolised the expression of thought ; and thirdly, that where one sex or the other is particularly liable to danger, as men at war, or women at child-birth, : more care is naturally taken to prevent injury from the other sex. In the taboos against eating together, we shall see an expression of that almost universal preference for solitude, while important physiological functions are proceeding, due ultimately to the instinct of self- preservation in the form of subconscious physiological thought arising from those functions ; and in the taboos against one or the other sex in sexual crises the same preference is seen, commuted by sexual solidarity to a preference for the presence of the same sex ; and in all forms of the taboo it is evident that to a religious regard for personal security, there has been applied a religious diffidence concerning persons who are more or less unknown, different from what is normal, different from one's self. So far, then, we may take it that the complementary difference of sex, producing by physiological laws a certain difference of life no less than of function, came^ in an early stage of mental development to be accentu- 58 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap, hi ated by religious ideas, which thus enforced more strongly such separation as is due to nature. The separation thus accentuated by religious conceptions as to sexual difference, is assisted by the natural solidarity of each sex, until there is, as we find so very generally, a prohibition or sex-taboo more or less regularly imposed j-throughout life. Man and woman, as such, are ignorant of each other, as if they were different species ; they are constantly tending to become, what they never can become, two divided castes ; every woman and every man are, as men and women, potentially taboo to each 1 other. All living religious conceptions spring from more or less constant functional origins, physiological and psycho- logical. Now when we look at mankind in general, and in particular at civilised societies, we find that men as a rule prefer to associate with men, and women with women, except on those occasions when the functional \ needs of love, for instance, call for union and sympathy between the sexes. We may thus realise that the same biological causes, working through human ideas of primary and secondary sexual difference, produce this subconscious preference which we find in the civilised man, and with more primitive expression in the modern boy, no less than the religious segregation we find amongst early peoples. CHAPTER IV Before passing on to the discussion of primitive ideas of human relations, there is the problem of the connec- tion of human persons with the spiritual agencies of taboo in its social aspect to be considered. Primitive science is materialistic, and the fact is evident in every case cited, that evil or harm — even when due to evil spirits — is of a material nature. Evil spirits in the first place are warded off by material methods. Thus the Khonds prevent the approach of Joogah Pennu, the goddess of small-pox, by barricading the paths with thorns and ditches, and boiling caldrons of stinking oil. 1 Amongst the Bechuanas, to arrest disease or prevent it from entering a village, a pointed stone is planted at the middle of the entrance, or a cross-bar smeared with " medicine." 2 In the next place, there is a vagueness as to the distinction between spirits and material evil influence. Amongst the natives of Central Australia Arungquiltha is the term applied to persons or things possessed of magical power. For instance, " a pointing stick used by a medicine man is Arungquiltha ; it is applied indis- criminately to the magical influence itself, and to the object in which it is resident. It is a vague term, and sometimes can be best expressed by saying that a thing 1 Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, 370. 2 South yJfrican Folklore Journal, i. 34. 60 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. is possessed by an evil spirit." l In the Luang Sermata Islands sickness is caused by bad food, " bad wind," the influence of evil persons or evil spirits. 2 Amongst the Indians of Costa Rica there are two kinds of ceremonial uncleanness, nya and bu-ku-ru. The former is con- nected with death, the latter, which is the more virulent, is most dangerous from a woman in her first pregnancy. She infects the whole neighbourhood, and all deaths are laid at her door. People going from her house carry the contagion with them. Arms and utensils transmit it, and therefore the people beat things with a stick before using, or sweep the house. A place which has not been visited for a long time, or one approached for the first time, is infected with bu-ku-ru. " It is an evil spirit, or rather a property acquired." 3 The personification of various evils and of diseases and plagues is so well known as to need no illustration. In the following cases there is a confusion between evil spirits and contagious matter, real or imaginary. Amongst the Dieri and neighbouring tribes of South Australia, no one is believed to contract a disease or complaint, or even to die, from natural causes. The disease or death is caused by some enemy, of their own or neighbouring tribe, and in any serious case the Koonkies or doctors are called in, to beat out the devil, Cootchie. " This is done by beating the ground in and out of the camp, chasing him away for some distance." Also, "many an innocent man has been condemned to death through this superstition, being believed to have in his possession the small bone of a human leg." 4 Amongst the Vedahs of Travancore, 1 Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, 548. - Riedel, op. cit. 327. 3 W. M. Gabb, op. cit. 504. 4 Gason, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 170. iv SPIRITS MATERIAL AND CONTAGIOUS 61 the wife at menstruation lives in a separate hut for five days, at a good distance from the home. The next five days she spends in another, half-way distant. During these ten days, the husband dares not eat in his house anything but roots, for fear of being killed by " the devil." 1 The Maoris believed that the spirits of dead ancestors could send a kahukahu to a man ; this would enter his body and feed on vital parts. In a Maori poem the statement occurs, " should the kahukahu gnaw spitefully, it will be certain death." The kahukahu is the personification of the germs of a human being, supposed to be contained in the menses, and the Maoris avoid contact with menstrual blood as if it were a poison. 2 Again, in Manchuria the sedan-chair in which the bride goes to the home of the groom is " disin- fected ' with incense, to drive away "evil spirits." 3 They seem therefore to be regarded as material influ- ences resembling germs of a disease. The properties of the taboo state are in fact always material and trans- missible, and are removed by material methods as if they were a physical secretion or emanation. Thus in Fiji, when tabu is removed, the tabooed persons wash in a stream ; they then take an animal, a pig or turtle, on which they wipe their hands, and this animal becomes sacred to the chief. The tabu is now off, and they are free to work, to feed themselves, and to live with their wives. 4 In Borneo and South Celebes evil spirits, after a funeral for instance, cling to one's body " like a burr." 5 The Friar Roman Pane described a native sorcerer in the West Indies "pulling the disease off the 1 Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 435. " Shortland, Southern Districts of New Zealand, 294-95. 3 Lockhart, in Folklore, i. 4S-. 4 Wilkes, op. cit. ii. 99. 6 M. J. F. Perelaer, Ethnographische Beschrij-vir.g der Dajais, 44, ,4, 252 j Matthes, op. cit. 49. I 62 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. patient's legs as one pulls off a pair of trousers." 1 In the New Hebrides, ceremonial " uncleanness," for instance from death or child-birth, is taken off by sweeping a branch over the body. 2 To cure a sick person, the Navajo priest pressed bundles of stuff to different parts of the body from head to foot. Each time after pressing them on the body, he "held them up to the smoke-hole, and blew on them in that direc- tion a quick puff, as if blowing away some evil influence which the bundles were supposed to draw from the body." They were then buried. 3 We see then that evil spirits are not always clearly distinguished from the transmissible properties of matter. The latter are no doubt often regarded logically enough as the emanations of the " evil spirit," the trail or slime of the serpent ; but the points to be stressed are, first, that where evil spirits are predicated of tabooed persons the evil can be transmitted by contagion and infection ; secondly, that many so-called " evil spirits " are not supernatural persons at all, but evil material properties of natural things or of human persons. Further, this latter notion is a factor in the process of anthropomorphic personification, of which more is to be said ; and the whole set of phenomena illustrates the importance of material contact as leading to transmission of material evil. In fact, the inherent materialism of human thought, which so hardly allows of progress to idealism, is even more in evidence among primitive men than it is now. Primitive man believes in the supernatural, but super- natural beings and existences are to him really material — the supernatural is a part of and obeys the laws of 1 E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture 5 , ii. 129. 2 D. Macdonald, Oceania, 184. 3 Washington Mathews, in Fifth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 420. iv ANTHROPOMORPHISM 63 nature. How difficult it is to conceive of immaterial existence, except by a negation of thought, is well seen in popular conceptions of the nature of the soul, especially those of modern spiritualism. In the last analysis of these conceptions, the soul is gener- ally found to be simply attenuated or etherealised matter. Similar are the conceptions of early man, not only of the soul, but of all supernatural beings, existences, and influences ; and they are well illus- trated by the methods used in dealing with such, being generally those that would be used in dealing with matter. In the next place, there are the familiar facts of * anthropomorphism. " Man never knows how anthropo- . i morphic he is." Goethe's epigram applies most com- pletely to early man, for he is more anthropomorphic in his ideas, and is less aware of the fact. He thinks of everything in terms of himself, and his ideal creations of supernatural beings are generally in his own image, - or in the image of animals which for him are man-like as possessing such close similarities of structure and function. The modern theory of descent would have been easily understood in its general outline by early man, who has, by the way, several conceptions which foreshadow it. The Digger Indians of California say-* 1 that their ancestors derived their existence from coyotes ; these became Indians, but as one died the body was changed into a number of little creatures which were gradually developed into deer, elks, and antelopes ; others took wings and flew about in the air. Men originally went on all fours, and gradually progressed to a higher organisation. While in a state of transition, they were in the habit of sitting upright, and from this cause, having worn off their tails, they now appear 64 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. without this appendage. 1 The Central Australians have the theory of man's descent from animals. 2 There is often a natural confusion between the person who is possessed or obsessed by spirits and the spirits themselves, as in the case of him whose name was Legion. Thus, according to the Cambodians, the Arak are spirits, dwelling in trees or houses. Grou are sorcerers, men or women, who invoke the Arak, and are possessed by them. During the period of posses- sion they are themselves called Arak, the latter being incarnate in them. 3 The Nickol Bay natives believe in an evil spirit, Juno, who kills men ; when a man of the tribe prowls about seeking to kill other blacks, he is said to be a Juno for the time. 4 A priori it would be expected that in cases where a dangerous condition or taboo state arises in close con- nection with a man's fellow-men, he should have inferred from his experience of all human relations that the danger was due to one or more of his fellows, and psychology bears this out. In the psychology of personification there are two processes to be observed. First, there are the pheno- mena of ideation, especially when visualised. The fact that the memory-image is formed below the threshold of consciousness, and suddenly emerges complete in outline, is one of great importance for the origin and development of animistic thought. As a simple illus- tration, let us take the case of a man who is in fear of another. For this, by the way, we often use the instruc- tive phrase " bodily fear." Such a man will chiefly avoid personal contact, as likely to result in personal injury, and all ill that happens to him he will ascribe to 1 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 215. 2 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 392. 3 Aymonier, op. cit. 176. 4 E. M. Curr, The Australian Race, i. 298. iv IDEATION 65 the influence of his enemy ; while in the secret depths of his soul, the image of his foe, impressed upon his brain, is lying dormant, ready at any moment to rise above the threshold. Whenever he closes his eves to shut out the thought of his enemy, the image of him appears. His brain is, in a word, " obsessed " bv the image of his foe. This memory-image, presented to complete con-, sciousness, I believe to be a factor in the origin of anthropomorphic animism, of no less importance than its subconscious appearance in sleep. The man's own * soul has thus acquired an image of his foe, a tiny but evil spirit, which appears within him, he knows not how nor whence. Its presence helps to explain " possession," and certain conceptions of personal influence and of the supernatural powers of man. The actual result to the subject, apart from actual violence at his enemy's hands, mi^ht be illness from fear. There are manv cases on record where similar fear has killed a man. If the man did fall ill in this way, he would be perfectlv justified in inferring his enemy to have caused the illness ; there are besides numerous cases where illness is attributed to potential, in default of knowledge of actual human foes. Early man knows little of bacteriology, but he has the great principle of contagion very stronglv outlined and extended all round the circle of human relations. If a man who is sick is conscious of having made an enemv, he generally attributes his sickness to him ; for to his mind man can do everything, and everything he does is potentially transmissible. In cases such as drowning, injury from lightning, and from various natural forces or objects other than man, of course other agencies are inferred, though many such are anthropomorphic ; but where a man, as in social relations is generally the case, can ascribe his troubles to human agency, he does so. F ] 66 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. Again, our supposed subject does not distinguish the , real and the ideal, and from this would arise a crowd of ideas and precautionary measures against the ubiqui- tous evil image of his foe, as well as against his actual self. And there will be thus a constant interchange between his natural and supernatural dangers. Now, fear is the main cause of the precautions of taboo, and though I do not insist that ideas concerning contact obtained a religious connotation before the creation of evil spirits, yet there is no doubt that the two sets of ideas are, in reference to human relations, correlative, and work together. Just as in artistic criticism one comes back in the end to the personality behind a work, tso in human relations the beginning and the ending is personality and personal contact. In these relations the danger, which is both real and ideal, proceeds from man and to man returns — the link between, say, the first meeting with an enemy, and the second, being that veritable Erinys, the visualised image of him in the other's brain. 1 now proceed to give actual cases from the relations of man with man, in which ideas of physical and spiritual danger combine in persons. There is a large mass of such facts, and we find that the attribution of human /ills and sicknesses to human agency is more pronounced ' in the lower and less in the higher stages of culture, while modern science brings us back to the view of the i^ylower races. In Ceram-laut sickness is caused through the influence of evil spirits or "poisoning" by evil persons, suwanggi. The two methods are practically inter- changeable, and appear throughout the islands between Celebes and New Guinea. 1 In the Aru Islands such 1 Riedel, op. at. 178, 265, 304, 305, 341. iv HUMAN INFLUENCE 67 persons are able to extract men's souls. They can make themselves invisible, or take the shape of bats, pigs, dogs, crocodiles, or birds. 1 Amongst the Dieri, Auminie, Yandrawontha, Yarawuarka, and Pilladapa tribes of Australia, " no person dies a natural death, death is supposed to be caused by some evil-disposed person of their own or neighbouring tribe ; they religiously believe this superstition, it is called ' Mookoo- elieduckunaj (translation: Mookoo, 'bone'; duckuna, ' to strike,' i.e. struck by a bone). Many an innocent man has been condemned to death through this super- stitious custom, believing that he had in his possession the small bone of a human leg." 2 Amongst the tribes of North- West Australia, no man can die unless he has been bewitched. " Some one is supposed to come at night and take away the fat out of the man's belly ; and his friends must find out who did it, to kill him." 3 The natives in the district of Powell's Creek, in the northern territory of South Australia, ascribe " death or illness to some strange biack - fellow, belonging to another tribe, who has doomed a certain man or woman to die or suffer from ill-health. It is not unusual, such is their superstitious belief, that a man, apparently in good health, will in a very short time lose condition and die, under the impression that he has been doomed by a member of some other tribe ; " 4 the people of the Belyando tribe believe that no strong man dies except as the consequence of witchcraft. " That should A and B, two strong blacks of the same tribe who were quite friendly, go out hunting together, and A, on returning to the camp, be suddenly taken ill and die, 1 Riedel, 253, 327. 2 Gason, op. cit. xxiv. 170. 3 Bassctt Smith, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 327. 4 journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 178. 68 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. the tribe would believe that B had killed him by means of witchcraft, and demand his life accordingly." * Amongst the Murray River natives, at the funeral of a dead person, some relative generally attempted to spear some one, till it was explained that the deceased did not die by sorcery. 2 Messrs. Spencer and Gillen remark of the Central Australians, " the undercurrent of anxious feeling, which, though it may be stilled, and indeed forgotten for a time, is yet always present. In his natural state the native is often thinking that some enemy is attempting to harm him by means of evil magic, and, on the other hand, he never knows when a medicine-man in some distant group may not point him out as guilty of killing some one else by magic. It is, however," they add, " easy to lay too much stress upon this. ... It is not right to say that the Australian native lives in constant dread of the evil magic of an enemy. The feeling is always, as it were, lying dor- mant7 and ready to be called up by any strange or suspicious sound." 3 " All ailments of every kind, from the simplest to the most serious, are without exception attributed to the malign influence of an enemy in either human or spirit shape." 4 " Amongst most Congo tribes death is seldom regarded in the light of a natural event. In most cases the charm doctor accuses an old person, or a slave, of having been the cause. The accused is forthwith secured, and at an appointed time is submitted to a poison ordeal." 5 In Tongareva death is ascribed to witchcraft. 6 The Kurnai believed that death only occurred from accident, open violence, or secret magic. The magical influence of enemies was 1 Curr, op. cit. iii. 27, 28. 2 Eyre, op. cit. ii. 349, 353. 3 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 53, 54. 4 Id. 53°- 5 H. Ward, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 287. 6 W. W. Gill, Jottings from the Pacific, 225. iv HUMAN INFLUENCE 69 the ordinary cause of natural death, though sometimes attributed to evil spirits. 1 The Abipones thought that no one would die if the jugglers and Spaniards were banished. They attributed every death to these. Man could only die by magic, and a sick man often suspected some person of making him ill, and accordingly would go for him. 2 Amongst the Bongos old women are especially suspected of alliance with wicked spirits, and are accused if sudden death occurs. 3 Amongst the Gonds the fear of witchcraft and the evil eye is so great, that " there is nothing they will not do to guard them- selves against these influences." 4 " So deeply rooted in the Indian's bosom is the belief concerning the origin of diseases" (from sorcery) "that they have little idea of sickness arising from other causes." The Indians of Guiana attribute all disease to sorcery. The sorcerer is credited with the power of causing as well as curing illness. 5 Amongst the Yorubas witchcraft is the chief cause of sickness and death. 6 Amongst the tribes of East Central Africa disease and sudden death are attributed to witchcraft. The notorious " smelling out' of the guilty person follows, and if found he is put to death. 7 In Hawaii disease could be caused by the prayers of an enemy. 8 The Chiquitos often attributed disease to the female "jugglers" or lady -doctors. 9 The Guarani magicians could inflict or ward off disease and death. 10 In Siam disease is attributed to sorcery. 11 When a death occurs among 1 Fison and Howitt, op. c'tt. 251, 258. 2 Dobrizhoffer, op. cit. ii. 84, 223, 227. 3 G. Schweinfurth, The Heart of Africa, 307. 4 H. B. Rowney, Wild Tribes of India, 15. 5 W. H. Brett, The Indian Tribes of Guiana, 365. 6 A. B. Ellis, The Toruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa, 1 18. 7 Macdonald, in J own. Anthrop. Inst. xxii. 104. 8 Ellis, Tour in Hawaii, 258. 9 Dobrizhoffer, op. cit. ii. 264. 10 Id. i. 71. u Loubere, op. cit. i. 206. 7 o THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. the Dacotas that cannot be reasonably accounted for, it is supposed to have been caused by the mischievous action of a neighbouring clan by sorcery. Constant feuds are thus caused. 1 When a sudden death occurs, the people of the New Hebrides ascribe it to sorcerers. 2 Amongst the Bannars every misfortune is attributed to the malice of persons who have the power of influencing their fate. 3 Among the Maoris a belief in witchcraft almost universally prevailed. If a chief, or his wife or child fell ill, it was attributed to witchcraft. Those possessing the art were often hired to bewitch people. 4 In the Babar Islands evil persons make others ill by magic. When such are found out they are put to death. 5 Reality and imagination sometimes coincide, as in East Central Africa, where " the doctor " who can kill by magic will administer real poison for a fee. 6 There are also interesting cases showing how zoo- morphism and reality correlate. In Tenimber and Timor-laut various illnesses are due to evilly disposed persons or evil spirits, taking the form of birds. 7 In the following cases, we may see the actual meeting- place and reconciliation of two theories as to the origin of the moral law, from supernatural and human sanctions. For these are cases where, behind the spiritual, there is a human agent at work. Amongst the Yorubas the god Egungun becomes incarnate from time to time, in this way : a man dressed up like the god goes about, and carries off people who are troublesome to their neighbours. " He is thus a kind of supernatural inquisitor, who appears from time to time to inquire into the conduct of people, particularly of women, and 1 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 290. a Id. ii. 77. 3 H. Mouhot, Travels in Indo-C/iina, ii. 28. 4 Yate, op. cit. 95. 5 Riedel, op. cit. 358. 6 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxii. 105. 7 Riedel, op. cit. 305. IV INCARNATION 71 to punish misdeeds. Although it is well known that Egungun is only a disguised man, yet it is popularly believed that to touch him, even by accident, causes death." 1 In British Guiana blood-revenge is closely connected with the system of sorcery. If a man dies, and it is supposed that an enemy has killed him by means of an evil spirit, they employ a sorcerer to find him. A near relative is then charged with the duty of vengeance ; he becomes a Kanaima, i.e. he is possessed by the destroying spirit so called, and has to live apart, according to strict rules, and to submit to many priva- tions, till the deed of blood is done. When the man is killed, the murderer must pass a stick through his body, to taste the victim's blood. Not until this is done does he become an ordinary man once more, but wanders about, and madness comes upon him through the agency of the disappointed spirit. The family of the victim, to prevent the Kanaima getting at the body, sometimes manage to bury it in a secret place, or take out the liver and put a red-hot axe in its place. Then, if the Kanaima visit the corpse, the heat of the axe-head will pass into his body and consume him. Sometimes they put ourali poison on the body, for the purpose of destroying the Kanaima. In cases of secret enmity poison is used, and, in consequence of all this, the Indians seldom consider themselves safe. He against whom or whose near relative wrong has been done, becomes a Kanaima, and all injury which befalls an Indian is the work of such. The Kanaima may assume any shape, often that of the jaguar (which by the way is the most dangerous animal the Indian knows), often an inanimate shape ; for instance, the peaiman will extract from his patient a stick or stone, which is the 1 Ellis, op. cit. 107. 72 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. bodily form of the Kanaima causing illness. 1 Very- similar is the practice of Kurdaitcha amongst the Central Australians. 2 Is there any similar correlation of " spirits " and human beings, or spiritual and human influence, in the relations of the one sex with the other ? We may well expect that there should be, and there are facts which show it. The Porno Indians find it difficult to maintain authority over their women. A husband often terrifies his wife into submission by personating an ogre. 3 Amongst the Tatu Indians of California the men have a secret society which gives periodic dramatic entertainments with the object of keeping the women in order. The chief actor, disguised as a devil, charges about among the assembled squaws. 4 The Mumbo Jumbo of the Mandingoes is a well-known case. The periodic impersonation is intended to frighten the women. The same performer who represents Mumbo Jumbo has also the duty of keeping the sexes apart for the forty days after circumcision. 5 Amongst the Krumen, when a wife dies, the husband is believed to have caused her death by witchcraft. 6 In Congo widows and widowers are charged with the same. 7 In Loango, when a man is ill, his wife is accused of causing the illness by witchcraft, and must undergo the cassa ordeal. 8 The Chiquitos used to kill the wife of a sick man, believing her to be the cause of his illness. 9 In Luzon wives are sometimes bewitched by their husbands. 10 In China a man's illness is often attributed to the spirit of a former wife. 11 In 1 Brett, op. cit. 357-60 ; im Thurn, op. cit. 368. 3 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 47. 3 Powers, op. cit. 154, 161. 4 Id. 14 t. 5 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. ii. 118. 6 J. L. Wilson, Western Africa, 115. " Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. ii. 120. 8 Bastian, Lcango-Kuste, i. 46. 9 Dobrizhoffer, op. cit. ii. 264, 10 De Tavera, in Globus, xlvii. 314. n Doolittle, op. cit. i. 146. iv SEXUAL INFLUENCE 73 Halmahera women who die in child-bed are supposed to become evil spirits, oputiana y who emasculate men, and cause injury to pregnant women. 1 This belief is found among the Malays.' 2 Among the Kei islanders if a woman dies in child-bed they kill the unborn babe, to prevent the woman becoming a Pontianak, in which case she would haunt her husband and emasculate him. 3 It is easy to see how this sort of belief correlates with, if it does not arise from, a common phase of sexual fear. In the next examples there is no hint of spiritual influence at all, human influence alone has the deleterious result. The Cambodians have the following belief in the case of a young married pair, neither of whom have been married before. When the wife is enceinte for the first time, the husband is able to take from her the fruit of her womb, by magic influence over her. Accordingly, the parents of the bride never trust their son-in-law, and will not let the young couple go out of their sight. In Cambodia the married pair live with or near the bride's parents. 4 When a Halmahera woman is three months pregnant, she uses protective charms to prevent evil men destroying the babe. She may not eat the remains of her husband's food, " because that would cause difficult labour." 5 In Amboina and the Aru Islands men are not allowed to see a woman confined, because " their presence would hinder the birth." G Conversely, at the feast to celebrate the birth in the Luang Sermata Islands, only women may be present. If men partook of even the slightest morsel they would be unlucky in all their 1 J. G. F. Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, xvii. S5. 2 W. W. Slceat, Malay Magic, 434. 3 Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 239. 4 Aymonier, op. cit. 187. 6 Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, xvii. 79. 6 Id. De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 73, 263. 74 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. undertakings. 1 Next there is an extension of the idea, which has had much influence upon morality in the theory that sickness is due to sin. The people of Luang Sermata believe that prolonged pains in child-birth are due to the woman having had forbidden intercourse. 2 In Cambodia, if a child is born with two locks of hair, husband and wife suspect each other of infidelity. 3 In Wetar sickness may be caused to the injured person, wife, husband, or lover, by infidelity. 4 If birth is difficult, the Samoyeds suspect the woman of adultery. 5 Lastly, this kind of magical deleterious human in- fluence is clearly seen in all the various phenomena of sexual taboo, such as those already reviewed, and others to be dealt with later. rThus in the phenomena of social taboo, human and spiritual agencies meet in persons. With the special cases described, we may compare the facts of incarnation, the evidence of ghost phenomena (in which the ghost possesses the form and characteristics of the person it once tenanted, in more or less exact resemblance), the ideas which led to the preservation of the dead body, as by the Egyptians, in order to save the soul, and the evidence of the psychology of ideation. We have r reached the conclusion, then, that in social taboo the "spiritual" dangers feared come from a man's fellow- men, and thus of the evil "spirits" or influences which surround him some are simply spiritualised persons or their qualities; and in sexual taboo the "spiritual" dangers feared come from the other sex, and the evil "spirits" or influences connected with sexual acts and functions are spiritualised persons of their own sex or l their sexual characters materialised. The connection, of 1 Riedel, 326. 2 Id. 325. 3 Aymonier, op. cit. 169. 4 Riedel, op. cit. 451. 5 Georgi, op. cit. 14.. iv SPIRITUALISED PERSONS 75 course, is mostly subconscious, but the importance of subconscious thought can hardly be over-estimated, though man cannot trace back the origin of his own ideas into their various associations. With the great mass of mankind in any age, this direct connection of sexual danger with actual living influence of the other sex, has perhaps never risen into consciousness ; with the majority of human beings such danger is and has been attributed to external vague "spiritual" agencies ; but the patent evidence of biology upon the comple- mentary nature of sex, and that of psychology as to the development of emotional attitudes from functional phenomena, especially in connection with sex, prove conclusively that we are to find the ultimate origin of 1 idea and practice relating to sex in actual sexual difference j embodied in persons. And conversely, there is the romantic fact that human persons who are mysterious ^. or not understood, as is the case with woman and man in their mutual aspect, i.e. potentially dangerous, can be regarded as spiritual persons, supernatural existences : indeed with primitive man there is often no clear distinc- tion drawn between those who are made lower than the angels and the angelic hosts themselves. These con- siderations assist us to see not only the correlation of taboo and " spiritual," or rather hylo-idealistic, danger, but also the religious character, whether magical or superstitious, of human relations in primitive thought. ! ) r CHAPTER V General ideas concerning human relations are the medium through which sexual taboo works, and these must now be examined. If we compare the facts of social taboo generally or of its subdivision, sexual taboo, we find that the ultimate test of human relations, in both genus and species, is contact. An investigation of primitive ideas concerning the relations of man with man, when guided by this clue, will lay bare the prin- ciples which underlie the theory and practice of sexual taboo. Arising, as we have seen, from sexual differen- tiation, and forced into permanence by difference of occupation and sexual solidarity, this segregation re- ceives the continuous support of religious conceptions as to human relations. These conceptions centre upon contact, and ideas of contact are at the root of all conceptions of human relations at any stage of culture ; contact is the one universal test, as it is the most elementary form, of mutual relations. Psychology bears this out, and the point is psychological rather than ethnological. As I have pointed out before and shall have occasion to do so again, a comparative examination, assisted by psychology, of the emotions and ideas of average modern humanity, is a most valuable aid to ethno- r logical enquiry. In this connection, we find that desire or willingness for physical contact is an animal emotion, ch. v CONTACT IN HUMAN RELATIONS 77 more or less subconscious, which is characteristic of similarity, harmony, friendship, or love. Throughout •* the world, the greeting of a friend is expressed by con- tact, whether it be nose -rubbing, or the kiss, the embrace, or the clasp of hands ; so the ordinary expres- sion of friendship by a boy, that eternal savage, is contact of arm and shoulder. More interesting still, for our purpose, is the universal expression by contact, of the emotion of love. To touch his mistress is the ever-present desire of the lover, and in this impulse, even if we do not trace it back, as we may without being fanciful, to polar or sexual attraction inherent in the atoms, the fytXia of Empedocles, yet we may place the beginning and ending of love. When analysed, the emotion always comes back to contact. As Clough puts it : — "Well, I know, after all, it is only juxtaposition. Juxtaposition, in short, and what is juxtaposition ? ' Further, mere willingness for contact is found univer--*" sally when the person to be touched is healthy, if not clean, or where he is of the same age or class or caste, and we may add, for ordinary humanity, the same sex. On the other hand, the avoidance of contact, whether consciously or subconsciously presented, is no less the universal characteristic of human relations, where simi- larity, harmony, friendship, or love is absent. This -» appears in the attitude of men to the sick, to strangers, distant acquaintances, enemies, and in cases of difference of age, position, sympathies or aims, and even of sex. Popular language is full of phrases which illustrate this feeling. Again, the pathology of the emotions supplies many curious cases, where the whole being seems concentrated upon the sense of touch, with abnormal desire or dis- 78 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. aust for contact ; and in the evolution of the emotions , from physiological pleasure and pain, contact plays an important part in connection with functional satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the environment. In the next place there are the facts, first, that an element of thought inheres in all sensation, while sensa- l tion conditions thought ; and secondly, that there is a close connection of all the senses, both in origin, each of them being a modification of the one primary sense of touch, and in subsequent development, where the specialised organs are still co-ordinated through tactile sensation, in the sensitive surface of organism. Again, and here we can see the genesis of ideas of contact, it is by means of the tactile sensibility of the skin and membranes of sense-organs, forming a sensitised as well as a protecting surface, that the nervous system conveys to the brain information about the external world, and this information is in its original aspect the response to ['impact. Primitive physics, no less than modern, recog- [ nises that contact is a modified form of a blow. These considerations show that contact not only plays an important part in the life of the soul, but must have had a profound influence on the development of ideas, and it may now be assumed that ideas of contact have been a universal and original constant factor in human relations, and that they are so still. The latter assump- tion is to be stressed, because we find that the ideas which lie beneath primitive taboo are still a vital part of human nature, though mostly emptied of their re- ligious content ; and also because, as I hold, ceremonies and etiquette such as still obtain, could not possess such /[vitality as they do, unless there were a living psycho- logical force behind them, such as we find in elementary ideas which come straight from functional processes. v CONTACT IN HUMAN RELATIONS 79 These ideas of contact art primitive in each sense of the word, at whatever stage of culture they appear/ They seem to go back in origin and in character to that highly developed sensibility of all animal and even organised life, which forms at once a biological monitor and a safeguard for the whole organism in relation to, its environment. From this sensibility there arise sub- jective ideas concerning the safety or danger of the environment, and in man we may suppose these sub- jective ideas as to his environment, and especially as to his fellow-men, to be the origin of his various expressions of avoidance or desire for contact. Lastly, it is to be observed that avoidance of contact is the most conspicuous phenomenon attaching to cases of taboo when its dangerous character is prominent. In taboo the connotation of " not to be touched " is the salient point all over the world, even in cases of permanent taboo such as belongs to Samoan and Maori chiefs, with whom no one dared come in contact ; and so we may infer the same aversion to be potential in all such relations. In connection with the phenomena of ideation and with the next question, there comes in the familiar piece of elementary metaphysics which has played so great a part in religion from the days of primitive man, the idea of substance and accidents. The distinction is quite familiar to savages ; they can tell you how the god eats only the essence of a sacrifice, leaving behind the properties of colour, shape, taste, and the like for the priest or worshippers. In East Central Africa the people give an offering of flour to the ancestral spirits, when a person is ill. The spirits regale themselves with the " essence " of the flour. 1 The Galelas and 1 Macdonald, in J'-urr., Antkrcf. Inst. xxii. 104. 80 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. Tobelorese of Halmahera hold that spirits eat the " essence " of food. 1 The Hill Dyaks place choice morsels before their gods, who extract the " essence " of the food. 2 Amongst the Yorubas evil spirits are supposed to cause illness in young children. They enter them and eat their food, so that they pine away. The spirit is supposed to eat the " spiritual " part of the food. 3 So with regard to man's ideas of his fellow-men. The visual image and similar appearances, such as a man's shadow, are his essence, soul or second-self, and the ideas a man forms of another's characteristics are the properties. On the other hand, the reference of all the characteristics of a man to him, as so many predicates to one subject, forms a correlative method by which the soul or essence of a man is thought of. For instance, in the New Hebrides the word for soul connotes the essence of a man ; 4 the Wetarese poeti- cally liken the soul to the smell of a flower. 6 Here again we see the materialism of early thought ; even " essence " is material, and is sometimes visible. There is no distinction between the substantial nature of "soul," a man's properties, physical and spiritual, magical influence whether of man or spirit, the con- tagious properties of disease, the mystical character of " taboo," the wholesome or deleterious influence of men and evil spirits — they are all alike material and trans- missible. Now it is this material transmissibility that makes contact of such importance, and it is transmission of 1 J. G. F. Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, xvii. 67. 2 H. Low, Sarawak, 251. 3 A. B. Ellis, op. cit. 111, 113. 4 D. Macdonald, Oceania, 180. 5 J. G. F. Riedel, Dc duik-en b-oesharige rassen tusschert Seleles en Papua, 453. v TRANSMISSION OF PROPERTIES 81 properties, whether of nature, man, or spirits, that lies behind the avoidance or desire for contact. Potentially always and actually often, it is true of all men and conditions of men and natural objects, that their properties can be transmitted by all possible material methods, and even by actio in distans. For practical purposes we may speak of contagion, and in so far as the properties transmitted are evil, all contact is contagion. The wide generalisation of early man, ol course, covered real cases of infection of disease, or transmission of strength, and the affirmative instances, as usual, helped to perpetuate the negative, though what Messrs. Spencer and Gillen state of the Central Australians, applies to all early peoples. In connection with the disease Erkincha and its contagion, the natives do not reason " from a strictly medical point of view ; their idea in a case of this kind is, that a man suffering from Erkincha conveys a magic evil influence, which they call Arungquiltha, to the women, and by this means it is conveyed as a punishment to other men." This Arungquiltha is a typical example of the primitive ideas of contact, and may preface a set of cases which show the meaning and application of these ideas. The same people say when the sun is eclipsed, that "Arung- quiltha has got into it," this being an "evil or malignant influence, sometimes regarded as personal and at other times as impersonal." Here the idea is applied to a strange, unusual phenomenon. They have also a tradi- tion of a thin, emaciated man ; " where he died arose a stone, the rubbing of which may cause emaciation in other people. This stone is charged with Arungquiltha, or evil influence." Again, there is a myth of an old man who plucked boils from his body, each of which turned into a stone. This group of stones is still to be G 82 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. seen, and they are called stone-sores. Men who desire to harm others, hit these stones with spears ; which are then thrown in the direction of the victim. The spears carry away with them Arungquiltha from the stones, and this produces an eruption of painful boils in the victim. And similarly, any stones marking the spot where men died from magical influence, are themselves credited with magical powers. 1 This principle may be illustrated from Maori and Red Indian science. The latter say that " Nature has the property to transfuse the qualities of food, or of objects presented to the senses, into men." 2 The former hold that anything placed in contact with a sacred object acquires the sacred nature of that object, and anything thus made sacred cannot be eaten or used for cooking. 3 " Unclean- ness " attaches to mourners, enchanters, and murderers, amongst the Kaffirs. The murderer washes to remove the contagion of his guilt, the mourner to remove the contagion of death, and the enchanter washes when he renounces his art. 4 This " uncleanness " is the con- tagious property of taboo and is not distinguished from " sacredness," whether in the case of kings, priests, Maori gentlemen, infants, women during pregnancy, child-birth, and menstruation, boys and girls at puberty, or other especially taboo characters. The Polynesian word parapara means, " first, a sacred place ; secondly, the first fruits of fish ; thirdly, a tree ; fourthly, defiled or unclean, from having touched sacred food ; cf. para, dross, sediments ; parapara, dirt, soilure, stain ; parare, food." 5 It is noticeable that Kaffir words for " un- 1 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 412, 566, 441, 550, 552. 2 J. Adair, History of the American Indian:, 133. 3 Shortland, Southern Districts of New Zealand, 292-94. 4 H. Lichtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa, i. 257. 6 E. Tregear, Maori Dictionary, s.v. v TRANSMISSION OF PROPERTIES 83 cleanness" connote "rubbing" and that which is "rubbed off." 1 Lucian, speaking of the sacred pigs of Hierapolis, the touch of which rendered one " un- clean," says that some thought they were " unclean," others " sacred." 2 In other words, they were taboo. When lightning strikes a Ka ^raal or individual or object, the persons co therewith are " un- clean." Animals struck - n i n g are never eaten. 3 Amongst the Malays "not only is the king's person considered sacred, but the sanctity of his body is believed to commu: ;>elf to his regalia, and to slay those who breA the royal taboos." Again, "the theory of the king ?s the divine man, is held perhaps as strongly in * .ay region as in any other part of the world, a fact which is strikingly emphasised by the allegv i right of Malay monarchs to slay at pleasure wi f :>ut being guilty of a crime." 4 So with the materict' se 'gnity of chiefs and the like persons. No one i). 10a dared come in contact with a chief, 5 and in New Zealand such contact caused transmission of tapu.^ .1, in Melanesia, where we see ideas of taboo at- to men generally, a fact which shows its deri n from subjective conceptions of a man's own im e and power, and in more primitive form, his eo-. ;aution, mana, which combines personal ability, .-nee, strength, and luck, is the regular term ny result of such, and is of a supernatural character. Mana comes from communication with I spiriis and from eating human flesh. All men of any imp rr:mce have large supplies of mana. To give a .u-Kaffir Dictionary. - Lucian, De dca Syria, 54. 3 W, f. cit. 86, 121. 4 W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, 23. 5 V\ ; Ic 9 -p. cit. ii. 103. 6 R. Taylor, Te ika a Maui, 165 ; Shortland, Scuthcrn Districts cf New Zealand, 292-94. 1 84 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. boy a start in the world, a kind man will put his hand .^on the boy's head to impart the mysterious force. 1 The transmission of "virtue" ends in the laying -on of hands, as it began in an's ideas connected with con- tact. The civilised m: n still subconsciously gains solace, comfort, arid strength, from the contact ot a friend, and at the other end of the chain, the same is true of animals. In the Solomon Islands again, inland people are thought to have more mana I in coast people. When they go down to the coast ; thej avoid spreading out their fingers, for to point the s at a man is to shoot him with a charm. 2 In example, we may note the extension of the idea that a man's qualities are transmitted by touch ; the outstretched hand and spread- ing of the fingers signify " intentic ' and the hand is the organ of touch, -par excellence. The last religious phase of this idea is seen in the Ca gesture of benediction. " Badi is the name given to the evil prir le which, according to the view of Malay medicii 1, attends (like an evil angel) everything that has fe, ir-d inert objects also, for these are regarded as ai innate.' It is also described as " the enchanting or destroying influence which issues from anything, e.g. from a tiger which one sees, from a poison-tree which one passes under^from the saliva of a mad dog, from an action vs ich one has performed ; the contagious principle of morbid matter." It is applied to " all kinds of evil influences or principles such as may have entered into a man wi un- guardedly touched a dead animal or bird, . eh the badi has not yet been expelled, or who 1 is me he R. H. Codrington, in Jcurn. Anthrop. Inst. 279, 285, 3 2 Id. op. cit. 301. v TRANSMISSION OF PROPERTIES 85 Wild Huntsman in the forest." There are one hundred and ninety of these " mischiefs." Mr. Skeat compares the English word " mischief" in the phrase " it has the mischief in it." Illness is ascribed by the Malays to accidental contact with badi. A man also contracts badi when another practises magic on him by means of a wax image. 1 In Malay medicine neutralis- ing ceremonies are used to destroy the evil principle, and also expulsory ceremonies to cast it out. The Malays also use counter-charms to neutralise the active principle of poison, and this is " extended to cover all cases where any evil principle (even for instance a familiar spirit) is believed to have entered the sick person's system." 2 Amongst the Arunta, when a man is ill, " he will sometimes have a stone churinga belonging to his totem brought from the storehouse. With the flint flake of his spear-thrower, he will scrape off some of the edge of the churinga, mix the dust with water and drink it, the mixture being supposed to be very strengthening. The idea evidently is, that in some way he absorbs part of the essence of the stone, there- by gai'iing strength, as it is endowed with the attributes of the individual whom it represents." 3 The Iroquois believed that sorcerers used an impalpable, invisible poison that carried infection through the air and pro- duced death. 4 The Kurnai were afraid of white men, and believed that their eyes possessed a supernatural power. One would say to another, " Don't look, or he will kill you ! " A white man could " flash death " upon a man. Death could only occur from accident, o :n violence, or secret magic. The last was met by c inter-charms. " Every individual, though doubtful 1 Skeat, op. cit. 427-29, 430. 2 Id. 410, 425. 3 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 135. 4 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 43. 86 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. of his own magic powers, has no doubt about the possible powers of any other person. If the individual himself fails, he supposes that he is not strong enough. Nearly every one carries a round black pebble of magic power. For instance, if it is buried with a man's excreta, that person receives the magic bulk in his intestines and dies. The touch of it is supposed to be highly injurious to any but its owner. It is believed that a bulk has the power of motion ; for instance a man once saw a bulk, in the shape of a bright spark of fire, cross over a house. From all this we may infer that some secret influence passes from the magic sub- stance to the victim." Further, the magic influence, " may, they suppose, be communicated from this to some other substance, as a throwing-stick, spear, or club. Death also occurred through a combination of sorcery and violence : this combination was called barn.''' It is clear from the above that subjective hate and malice, the influence or will of a person, is regarded as materalised and visible. 1 The material character of these properties is evident in all cases, and the last quotation gives a remarkable instance of magical property or human " intention " being visible. The common method of curing illness by cupping, or sucking out the " bad " blood, as used by the people of the Kei Islands, 2 is scientific in a way, but not to be distinguished from other early methods. Some curious developments of the materialistic concep- tion are these. The Laplanders attributed disease to spiritual birds. They flew to the shaman (noid) and shook out of their feathers a multitude of poisonous insects, like lice, called magic flies, Ian. If these flies 1 Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, 248-49, 251-52. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 419. v VARIETIES OF CONTAGION 87 fell on men or beasts, they brought sickness and other misfortunes. The noids carefully gathered up these insects, but never touched them with bare hands ; they kept them in boxes, using them to do injury. 1 This is a curious coincidence with the fact that germs of disease are known to be carried about by flies. They also used a magic axe, with which they touched people, and a disease thus caused could only be cured by the noid who caused it. 2 In the same way, the Encounter Bay tribes believed that if a person was lightly tapped upon the breast with the magic knobbed-stick, he would sicken and die. A similar magic weapon was a hatchet of black stone, of which the sharp end was used to bewitch men, and the obtuse end was only efficacious when women were the victims. 3 Again, Australian sorcerers extract from their own bodies by passes and manipulations a magical essence called boylya, which they can make to enter the patient's body. 4 The East Central Africans practice counter-irritation by making incisions in which ashes and roots are rubbed. This is called "killing the disease." 5 These ideas have pro- duced the " sucking cure," with which the " cupping " of the Kei Islanders may be compared, and the concep- tion, such as is found in Australia, that pain in any part of the body is due to the presence of some foreign substance. The Central Australians not only project into a sick man crystals to counteract the evil influence, but extract things from his body by sleight-of-hand. Avengers carry churinga like those kept as sacred objects, filled with souls of ancestors ; " they are supposed, as usual, to impart to them strength, courage, accuracy 1 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 149. 2 Id. l.c. 3 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 179. 4 E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture 3 , ii. 146. 5 "Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxii. 104. 88 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. of aim, and also to render them invisible to their enemies, and in addition they act as charms to prevent their wearers being wounded." A man injured by an avenger, was cured by a doctor extracting from his body a number of pieces of a ckuringa, which is used as the magical weapon, actually thrown. The stick has been " sung over " and is charged with magic and evil influence {Arungquiltha). 1 Again, amongst the Maoris, a slave entering a sacred place, wahi tapu, had to take off his clothes first, else they would be rendered useless. 2 In this case we see that the sanctity of taboo is contagious, but does not agree with one of low rank. In Efate (one of the New Hebrides) the word namim means ceremonial " unclean- ness." One sort is of death, another of child-birth. If a " sacred man ' comes in contact with namim, it destroys his own " sacredness." 3 Again, amongst the modern Egyptians, if any one in a state of religious " uncleanness " enters a room where there is a person afflicted with ophthalmia, the incident aggravates the disease. 4 Many other cases of this cross- contagion could be mentioned. All the various sorts are the taboo force, while the fact that there are different varieties and that these sometimes cross, gives an opportunity of inferring their special origin. The Indians of Costa Rica, as we have noted before, know two kinds of ceremonial " uncleanness," nya and bu-ku-ru. Death and its concomitants are nya. Bu-ku-ru is the more dangerous and can kill. The worst kind of bu-ku-ru is that of a woman in her first pregnancy. She infects the whole neighbourhood. People think of it as an 1 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 531, 480, 486-88, 489. 2 Shortland, op. cit. 293. 3 Macdonald, Oceania, 1S1. 4 Lane, op. cit. i. 333. c v VARIETIES OF CONTAGION 89 evil spirit, or a property acquired. Any one going from her house carries the infection, and all deaths are laid to her charge ; her husband pays the damages. Bu-ku-ru is also found in new houses and places visited after an interval, or for the first time. 1 The Zulu word unesisila means " you have dirt "' or " are dirty," that is to say, you have done or said something, or some one has said or done something to you, which has bespattered you with metaphorical filth. Mr. Leslie compares the Scriptural " defile," and our expression " his hands are not clean." If a woman has been called the worst possible thing, viz. omka ninazala, i.e. " you will bear children to your father-in-law," she makes a great to-do ; she goes to the hut of the person who used the phrase, and kills an animal, which is eaten by old women or little children, but by none of marriageable age. It takes over the insila which has now left the woman who was abused. 2 The Zulus, again, use two kinds of " medicine," black and white. Black wipes off" " the black," which causes a man to be disliked, white causes him to be " bright," and therefore liked. The black is drunk and the body washed with it. It is emetic, and is vomited into a fire, and thus the " badness " is burnt and consumed. Or the contents of the stomach may be ejected on pathways, that others may walk over it, and take away the " filth " that is the cause of the offence. The " white " is thus used : if a man has been rejected by a girl, he adds to it something which she has worn next her skin, especially beads. Then he drinks it after sprinkling it on his head and over his body. Homce- pathy is the principle of this method. 3 We can clearly 1 Gabb ot>. cit. I.e. - Leslie, op. cit. 169, 174-75. 3 Callaway, op. cit. 142-43 r }• ( 9 o THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. see from this case how personal properties are regarded as transmissible. In these miscellaneous examples there are combined many features of contact which will be developed here- after, and it will be noticed that these various " influ- ences" are essentially of the kind which underlies the phenomena of taboo; whether they are ceremonial " uncleanness," evil influence of man or spirit, or " sacredness," each may be the property of the taboo character, either in its specialised form or as belonging to the ordinary individual. All are simply results of human characteristics, properties, and states. Personal properties are what others suppose them to be, according to their estimate of the person in question ; or, on the other hand, they are what their possessor supposes them or himself to be. He believes that he can transmit himself or his properties to others, with results according to the estimate he holds of his character at the time, and either with or without "intention" ; and his fellowmen also believe that he can transmit himself to them, with results according to their estimate of him. Thus, in love-charms we find that the lover believes he can transmit his feelings or rather himself, full of love as he is, to his mistress, an idea arising straight from animal contact and ideas about it ; and in sorcery, we find that men transmit their feelings of envy, hatred, and malice to the person concerned. These ideas are justified to their holders by such phenomena of contact as are scientifically true. Accord- ingly, a man can transmit his strength, his ability, and his personal influence, his crimes and his degradation, his splendour or his shame, voluntarily or involun- tarily. As illustrating the continuity of culture we may point v PERSONAL CONTAGION 91 out that similar ideas exist now, though considerably- lightened of their crude religious materialism, which, however, is preserved in language. When we say that A and B cannot abide each other, we are at the bottom of such institutions as Caste, Club, Clique, and such emotional attitudes as prejudice and insularity. We avoid the company of " publicans and sinners " ; we say, we do not wish to be contaminated by their presence ; we speak of moral influence in terms which are still materialistic ; we talk of being poisoned by a man or by a book. Such constant human ideas need only to be accentuated by religion to produce exactly the same results of subjective feeling which gave rise to the phenomena of social taboo. Using the language of contagion, as more convenient, for primitive man does not distinguish between trans- mission of disease and transmission of all other states t and properties, we find that practically every human quality or condition can be transferred to others. Where evil influence or dangerous properties are not f differentiated, we have seen many cases of their con- tagion and infection. Very often the force of taboo, 1 when thus vaguely conceived, has correspondingly vague results in transmission, such as sudden death, sickness, tor other supernatural visitations. Similar vague results ; follow the ill-wishes of an enemy, unless he specifies the 1 effect he desires, but this will, of course, be sickness or ! death as a rule. This vagueness of result is naturally 1 found most in the conception of the persons who receive the contagion, as they do not know the " intention," to use the term in its liturgical sense, of the dangerous • person. Degradation, as is well seen in Caste countries, is I :ontagious. Thus, in ancient India, a Brahmin became 92 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. an outcast by using the same carriage or seat or by eat- ing with an outcast. 1 The touch of an inferior still contaminates a high-caste Hindoo. 2 In Burma a man may be denied by sitting or eating with a low-caste Sandala. 3 The black Jews of Loango are so despised that no one will eat with them. 4 In Travancore courtiers must cover the mouth with the right hand, lest their breath should pollute the king or other superior. Also at the temples, a low-caste man must wear a broad bandage over his nose and mouth, that his breath may not pollute the idols. 5 In Egypt the Jews are regarded as so unclean by the Moslems that their blood would defile a sword, and therefore they are never beheaded. 6 The name of the Rodiya caste in Ceylon means " filth." No recognised caste could deal or hold intercourse with a Rodiya. Their contact was shunned as " pollution," and they themselves acquiesced. On the approach of a traveller they would shout, to warn him to stop till they could get ofF the road, and allow him to pass without the risk of too close proximity to their persons. " The most dreadful of all punish^ ments under the Kandyan dynasty was to hand over the offender, if a lady of high rank, to the Rodiyas. She was ' adopted ' by the latter thus : a Rodiya took betel from his own mouth, placed it in hers, and after this till death her degradation was indelible. As if to demonstrate that within the lowest depths of degrada- tion there may exist a lower still, there are two races of outcasts in Ceylon who are abhorred and avoided, even by the Rodiyas." The latter would tie up their dogs, to prevent them prowling in search of food to the 1 Laws ofManu (ed. Biihler), xi. 181. 2 Ward, op. cit. ii. 149 ; Colebrooke, in Asiatick Researches, vii. 277. 3 D'Urville, op. cit. i. 173. 4 Bastian, Loango- Ku'ste, i. 278. 5 S. Mateer, Native Life in Travancore, 129. 6 Lane, op. cit. ii. 346. v CONTAGIOUS PROPERTIES 93 dwellings of these wretches. 1 Dulness can be trans- mitted ; thus the Red Indians will not eat animals of a gross quality, because such food conveys " dulness " to the system. 2 The Indians of Equador believe that eat- ing " heavy " meats produces unwieldiness. 3 Timidity can be transferred, as amongst the Dyaks, where young men are forbidden to eat venison, because it would make them timid as deer. 4 The Hottentots will not eat the flesh of hares, because it would make them faint-hearted. 5 Stupidity, according to the people of Morocco, is the chief characteristic of the hyaena. A dull man is said to have eaten the brains of an hyaena. A woman can make her husband stupid by giving him hyaena meat. 6 Weakness is transmissible ; amongst the Barea man and wife seldom share the same bed. The reason they give ; is, " that the breath of the wife weakens her husband." 7 Effeminacy is transmissible ; amongst the Omahas if a boy plays with girls he is dubbed "hermaphrodite" ; 8 iri the Wiraijuri tribe boys are reproved for playing [with girls — the culprit is taken aside by an old man, [who solemnly extracts from his legs some " strands of the woman's apron " which have got in. 9 Pain, also, I can be transmitted or transferred. Thus the Australians [ apply a heated spear-thrower to the cheek of one who is L suffering from toothache, and then throw it away, be- [ lieving that the toothache is transferred to it. 10 In old 1 Greek folklore, if one who had been stung by a scorpion |i sat on an ass, the pain was supposed to be transferred 1 J. E. Tennent, Ceylon, 188-91. 2 Adair, op. cit. 133. 3 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. vii. 503. 4 Spenser St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i. 186. 5 T. Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, 106. 6 Leared, op. cit. 304. 7 Munzinger, op. cit. 526. 8 J. O. Dorsey, Third Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 266. 9 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xiii. 448. 10 Dawson, op. cit. 59. 94 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. from him to the ass. 1 The taboo state resulting from sin and crime has material properties. At the purifica- tion ceremony of the Cherokees, they threw their old clothes into the river, supposing thus their impurities to be removed. 2 Similarly the Incas shook their clothes for the same purpose, and passed the hands over head and face, arms and legs, as if washing. It was« done to drive evil and maladies away. 3 At the installation of a king in the Sandwich Islands, the priest struck him on the back with a sacred branch, by way of purifying him from all defilement and guilt he may have contracted. 4 Consequently, it is transmissible by contagion. Thus in East Central Africa, when a wife has been guilty of unchastity, her husband will die if he taste any food she has salted ; when preparing his food, she asks a little girl to put the salt in it. A guilty wife may be forgiven by her husband, but in this case he cannot live with the faithless one till a third party has been with her. 5 Amongst the Falashas a visit to an unbeliever's dwelling is considered a sin, and subjects the transgressor to the penance of submitting to a thorough ablution before he is permitted to enter his home. 6 A Brahman embraced the Rajah of Travancore, undertaking to bear his sins and diseases. 7 The idea is well brought out in the familiar practice of " sin-eating." It is well known that the highest religions have found it difficult, and in view of the materialism of human thought not altogether desirable, to rise beyond a material conception of " sin." The savage conceives of the results of sin, such as break- ing of taboo, as material, and clinging to his person, and 1 Geoponica, xiii. 9 ; xv. 1. 2 Frazer, op. cit. 2 , iii. 74. 3 Id. I.e. i Ellis, Polynesian Researches, iii. no. s Macdonald, Africana, i. 173 ; j'ourn. Anthrop. Inst. xxii. no. 6 Featherman, op. cit. v. 635. 7 Mateer, op. cit. 136. v SIN AND DEATH CONTAGIOUS 95 at both ends of the chain of culture sin is washed away by water, and can be transmitted by " contagion " in early culture, by " influence " in later. Early man is only too well aware of the contagion and infection of certain sicknesses and diseases. Of sickness we need no instances, but of the interesting fact that death not only causes sickness but is in itself contagious, we may cite illustrations. Beginning with the correlation of evil spirits and dangerous human properties, we find that where spirits are thought of, the fear is that others may be attacked by them in the same way as the dead man. They are naturally supposed to hang about their quarry, and often the dead man is identified with the angel of death who killed him. In Halmahera after a death, fire is set [round the house to keep the evil spirits from the body. 1 In Cambodia a dead body is carried away feet foremost that it may not see the house, in which event other sicknesses and other deaths would result. 2 On Teressa Island, one of the Nicobars, the mourners shave their heads, and drown their grief by drinking hard. On the day of death they are not allowed to go to the jungle, lest they might be killed by the demons, and they abstain from the food which was most relished by the deceased in his lifetime. 3 Amongst the Yorubas death is generally attributed to witchcraft. Enquiry is made whether any other member of the family is threatened with the like I fate, and also whether the soul of the dead is likely to [be further molested by the evil spirits. 4 The Navajos {ascribe death to the devil, Chinde, who remains about :he dead man. Those who bury him, protect their uodies from the evil influence by smearing themselves 1 Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, xvii. 84. " Aymonier, op. cit. 202. 3 Featherman, of. cit. ii. 247. * A. B. Ellis, op. cit. 155. 9 6 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. with tar. 1 The Kamchadales abandoned the cabin in which a man died, because the judge of the under- world had been there and might cause the death of others. Those who buried a corpse feared being pursued by death, and to avoid him they took certain precautions. 2 At Batta funerals men march behind the coffin brandish- ing swords to drive away the begus or demons. 3 Amongst the Clallams and Twanas there is a superstitious fear about going near the dead body, for fear the evil spirit who killed the man may kill them also. 4 Here we see how the idea of the contagion of death is connected with evil spirits. Men fear that they may meet with the same fate as the dead man. Amongst the Koosa Kaffirs there is a general fear that illness or misfortune- may fall upon others if a dying person is not removed from the kraal. From the same motive if they see a person drowning, or in danger of his life in any way, particularly if he should utter a scream of terror, they always run away from him. 5 The latter idea is world- wide and obtains amongst ourselves. Passing to transmission of the state or influence of death, we find that immediately after a death has occurred the Karalits carry out every movable article, " that it may not be contaminated and rendered unclean." 6 There is a Swiss superstition that the dress of a child that dies will kill any child it is given to. 7 Amongst the Talmud Jews "whenever a death occurs in a house, all the water is poured out ; for it is supposed that the Angel of Death defiles the water by washing off the poison drops that adhere to his sword." The corpse is carefully 1 First Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 123. 2 Georgi, op. cit. 91, 92. 3 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 330. 4 First Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 176. 5 Lichtenstein, op. cit. i. 258. 6 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 437. 7 Ploss, Das Kind, i. 240. v DEATH CONTAGIOUS 97 washed ; and after the funeral the mourners wash their hands. 1 At a death all members of a Zulu kraal eat " medicine " to protect them from evil influences. When the king's mother died he was begirt with charms " to keep the evil from him." 2 " To prevent death from entering " the food and drink iron used to be put in them by the Northern Scots. Whisky has been spoiled by neglect of this. 3 In the Babar Islands after a burial no one may go back to his house until he has washed his hands and eaten some food. 4 The Northern Indians were " unclean " after murder ; all concerned in it could not cook any kind of victuals for themselves or others. They could not drink out of any other dish, or smoke out of any other pipe than their own, and none other would drink or smoke out of theirs. For a long time they would not kiss their wives or children. 5 In Samoa those who attended upon a dead person were careful not to handle any food, and for days were fed by others, as if they were helpless infants ; while the dead body was in the house, no food was eaten inside, the family took their meals out of doors. 6 Amongst the Central Eskimo, " when a child dies, women who carried it in their hands must throw their jackets away if the child has urinated on them." 7 "Among the Navajos of New Mexico and Arizona the person who touches or carries the dead body takes off his clothes afterwards, and washes his body before mingling with the living. s The Ilavars of Travancore ascribe "pollution" to the house after a death. 9 The Greenlanders believe that if a man when whale-fishing 1 Featherman, op. cit. v. 156. 9 Leslie, op. cit. 197, 252. 3 W. Gregor, Folklore of the North-East of Scotland, 206. 4 T. G. F. Riedel, De siuik-en iroesharige rassen tusschen Seiches en Papua, 360. 5 S. Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, 204-5. 6 Turner, op. cit. 145. 7 F. Boas, The Central Eskimo, 612. 8 First Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 123. 9 Mateer, op. cit. 90. H 9 8 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. wears a dirty dress, especially one that is contaminated by touching a corpse, the whales will retire. 1 Amongst the Bechuanas death is believed liable to come upon all the cattle when a widow is mourning her husband. 2 In the Aru Islands the humours of a decaying corpse are used sometimes to make a man ill, by the help of the soul of the dead man. During the first night after getting rid of the dead body, no one will sleep in the house for fear of being made sick by meeting the soul of the dead man in their dreams. 3 The ceremonial " un- cleanness," then, so generally ascribed to the dead, is the property of taboo, and is based on the ideas of contact which underlie social taboo. Hence the custom of destroying the personal property of the dead. The Zulus burn this " because they are afraid to wear anything belonging to a dead man." 4 The Nicobarese never use any object belonging to one who has been murdered, unless it has been previously purified by the sorcerer. 5 The Greenlanders throw out of the house everything belonging to the dead man, else they would be polluted and their lives unfortunate ; the danger remains until the smell of the corpse has passed away. 6 Here, as in other examples, there is seen the obvious connection of the idea of contagion with smell. The practice of cremation originated in the same way. Another reason for this destruction of property, namely, to provide the dead man with utensils and furniture in the next world, is well known, and often combines with the present explanation, though probably it is later in origin. Another result is the common practice of deserting 1 Cranz op. cit. i. 120. 2 South African Folklore "Journal, i. 34. 3 Riedel, op. cit. 267. 4 Callaway, of. cit. 13. 5 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 250. 6 Cranz, op. cit. i. 217. y THE SOIL A CONDUCTOR 99 the house, or destroying it, after sickness or death. A common reason for this practice in sickness is to mislead the evil spirits by removing the sick man to another house. With this may be compared the custom of pretending that the sick man is dead, by performing funeral rites over a dummy corpse. Burial places are notoriously of evil omen, because they are infected by death and by the dead. The Gorngai and Tungu are afraid to visit the places where the dead are buried, for fear the spirits may make them ill. 1 The ground is often regarded as a good conductor of evil and disease. In Tenimber and Timorlaut strangers are not buried, for fear that sickness may thus spread over the country. 2 From this idea comes the common objection to burial among early peoples, no less than in modern times when cremation is becoming fashionable. The Masai do not bury people, because, as they say, the body would poison the soil. 3 Exactly the same practice and belief is found in East Central Africa. 4 This idea, com- bined with fear of ghosts, has helped to form the relatively late phenomena of ancestral and Chthonian hierology. It is also one factor in the formation of the common idea that the ground is dangerous. We shall not, perhaps, be wrong in adding the multifarious dangers in the shape of snakes, scorpions, and other things that creep upon the ground. On this hypothesis we may explain the rule that people in certain taboo states may not touch the ground, because there is the abode of evil, material and spiritual. Combined with this is the other side of the idea, namely, that " virtue '" is apt to be conducted into the soil by contact, as has been worked out by Dr. Frazer. 5 As to spirits there residing, in 1 Riedel, op. cit. 271. - Id. 306. 3 Thomson, op. cit. 21 1, 259. 4 jfourn. Anthrop. Inst. xxii. 113. c Op. cit. iii. 202 sqq. ioo THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. Ethiopia you should never throw fluid on the ground, lest you hurt the dignity of some unseen elf. 1 The natives of Kola and Kobroor fear the spirit who lives in the ground. 2 The Bedouins never throw an object to the ground without saying Tesdur, "Permission." 3 In the Punjab spirits are thought to be in the habit of upsetting bedsteads ; accordingly, bride and groom may not sleep on bedsteads for several days before and after marriage. 4 In spiritualistic seances held by Guiana sorcerers, the rule is that one must not put one's feet to the ground, for the spirits are swarming there. 5 From the belief in the contagion and infection of death, combined with the belief in and fear of the ghosts of the dead, the origin of which I would explain on the lines used above in the account of personal agents, arises the taboo upon mourners, who are, from their proximity, in danger from the dead and also dangerous to others. I would also attribute to this contagion of death the rule of the ancient Romans, that patrimi and matrimi only, boys and girls whose parents respectively both live, may be acolytes in ceremonies. Turning to the beneficent side of the taboo state, where the individual is benevolent : he can transmit his beneficence or good qualities, and others believe that they can receive them from him, with the same limita- tions connected with " intention." Rajah Brooke was regarded by the Dyaks, because of what he had done for them, as a supernatural being. He was believed " to shed influence over them." Whenever he visited a village, the people used to bring some of the padi seed they were going to sow, for him to make it produc- 1 Harris, op. cit. ii. 296. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 271. 3 Featherman, op. cit. v. 424. * Par.jab Notes and Queries, i. 214. 3 im Thurn, op. cit. 335. v TRANSMISSION OF PROPERTIES 101 tive ; and women bathed his feet, preserving the water to put on the fields and make them fertile. 1 Here is the vague sort of beneficent influence materially trans- mitted. In Melanesia, mana, which is a man's character, ability, influence, and power combined, in other words, himself and his attributes materialised, can be transferred to young men or others by the laying- on of hands. 2 Amongst love-charms, the transmission by the lover of his loving qualities, of himself impregnated with love, to his mistress, to inspire her with affection, is world-wide. Thus in European folk-custom, a lover applies a piece of his hair, drops of his blood or sweat, or water in which he has washed his hands, to the garments of the girl whose affection he desires. 3 In this kind of thing we reach down to the origin of ideas of contact in physiological thought. Similarly, friend- ship and friendly feelings are transmissible, as will be seen in the ceremonies common at making peace or consolidating friendship. Again, world-wide customs attest the belief that properties such as strength, courage, swiftness, and the like, can be transmitted by contact with those possessing them, or by assimilating separable parts of such persons. Hence, as is at last becoming well known, the origin and chief meaning of cannibalism. The flesh and blood, of a man are, by a natural fallacy, regarded as the best means for transmission of his properties. The flesh ot a slain enemy is eaten and his blood drunk by the savage in order to acquire his strength and courage. The Bechuanas have a solemn ceremony of eating the flesh of an enemy killed, " following the ancient super- stition that eating human flesh inspires courage, and by 1 Low, op. c'lt. 247, 259. ! 2 Codrington, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst., I.e. 3 Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. ii. 442 ff. 102 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. degrees renders the warrior invincible. So far from liking it, they feel abhorrence, and yield to it only from superstition." l The flesh of a slain enemy is eaten in Timorlaut to cure impotence.' 2 The New Caledonians eat slain enemies to acquire courage and strength. 3 Before battle the Zulus " ceremoniously eat cattle to get their qualities, that they may be brave." 4 The Amaxosa drink the gall of an ox to make themselves fierce. 5 The notorious Matuana drank the gall of thirty chiefs, believing it would render him strong. 6 The Pinya, or armed band of the Dieri, by whom offences are punished, after putting a man to death, wash their weapons, " and, getting all the gore and flesh adhering to them off, mix it with some water ; a little of this is given to each to swallow, and they believe that thereby they will be inspired with courage and strength. The fat of the murdered man is cut off and wrapped round the weapons of all the old men." 7 The people of Halmahera drink the blood of slain enemies, in order to become brave. s In Amboina warriors drink the blood of enemies they have killed, to acquire their courage. 9 The Muskogees ate the hearts of enemies to get courage, and their brains to get intellect. 10 The Battas greedily drink the blood and eat the flesh of prisoners of war and condemned criminals. 11 The people of Celebes drink the blood of enemies to make themselves strong. 12 The idea is further generalised amongst the natives 1 Lichtenstein, op. cit. ii. 290. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 279. 3 Gamier, Nowvelle Cal/donie, 347. ' Callaway, op. cit. 438. 5 Shooter, op. cit. 216. 6 Id. I.e. ' Curr, op. cit. ii. 53. 8 Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, xvii. 86. 9 Id. Dt sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 52. 10 J. Adair, op. cit. 135. u Featherman, op. cit. ii. 335. 12 Riedel, in Bijdragen tot de Taal Land en Volkenkunde uatorze Am aux lies Sandiuich, 13. 6 Slceat, op. cit. 575 ; W. Reade, Savage Africa, 539. 7 Erman, op. cit. ii. 318. 8 Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 434. 9 Arbousset and Daumas, Tour to the North-East Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 214. 10 Schwaner, Borneo, ii. 167. II DAlbertis, op. cit. 53. 12 im Thurn, op. cit. 369. v VEHICLES OF TRANSMISSION 115 Similar phenomena are connected with the sense of sight throughout the world. As are all the senses, so sight is a form of contact, both in modern physics, primitive belief, and still to some extent in ordinary civilised ideas. The " power of the human eye " is a case of this, and we still fear " influence " by being looked at or by seeing persons and things. We prevent a child from seeing a dead person for sentimental reasons — early man did so for the more practical purpose of avoiding contagion. 1 So I would explain the common rule which forbids one to look back after performing a dangerous thing or visiting a dangerous place. An interesting feature of these beliefs appears in the above-cited cases ; to the savage, the same result ensues from seeing a dangerous thing and from being seen by it. The sense of sight is both active and passive, and contact through it can be effected from either end. The myth of the ostrich, which is supposed to bury its head in the sand in the idea that it thus becomes invisible, is repeated in human thought, both when the savage shuts his eyes to avoid seeing a dreaded thing, as an equivalent to not being seen by it, and 'when we shut our eyes to escape from a sight we are afraid of, or a thought that we would expel. The jworld-wide belief in the " evil eye," and the fact that sychical influence is most easily exerted by the look, llustrate these ideas. It is especially envy that is here ransmitted. Lane mentions the case of an Egyptian efusing to buy meat from a well-patronised butcher's hop, because it would be poisonous to eat meat which bad hung in the street before the eyes of the public, so mat every beggar who passed envied it. 2 Lastly, a man's words — heard, reported, or read — can 1 Riedel, op. cit. 361. 2 Lane, op. cit. i. 326. n6 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. transmit his " influence," both in our sense and in the primitive material sense of the word ; and here we have another curious illustration of the really scientific materialism of earlv men. A man's kind words trans- mit his kind feelings ; the civilised man and the uncivilised alike recognise the result in their own consciousness when they hear such words, but in the latter case material transmission has been effected. In the same way, a man's hatred is projected by a curse, and a man's general character can be transmitted, as will be seen hereafter, by taking his name. The name in savage thought is a real part of a man, or rather it is his " essence," 'the "real" sum of his characteristics. But so it is to us, if we consider the matter ; the only difference is that to the savage the idea is " real " in the scholastic sense, to us it is " nominal." Modern Egyptians cure sickness by writing a pas- sage from the Koran on the inside of an earthern bowl ; water is poured in and stirred till the writing is worked off ; the patient drinks the water with the sacred words thus infused. 1 The Malays write charms on paper or cloth and wear them on the person ; sometimes they are written on the body itself, especially on the part to be affected ; occasionally they are written on a cup, which is then used for drinking purposes. 2 These cases serve to show what is a natural extension, trans- mission of properties effected from objects such as fetishes and charms, which are endowed by man's ideas with virtue and power, a conception well illustrated by the people of Surinam who wear iron, the " strong sub- stance," in order to acquire strength, 3 or from things 1 Lane, of. cit. i. 328. " Skeat, of. cit. 567. 3 Martin, in Bijcragen tot de Taa! Lander. Vclkenkur.de -van Nederlar.dxh b:die, xxxv. 5, 1. 24 A v VEHICLES OF TRANSMISSION 117 which have a connection with gods or sacred objects, such as holy water and consecrated substances. The Andamanese, before leaving home, get a medicine man to give them charms to keep off harm at the hands of those they are going to visit. He applies an ointment to their bodies and weapons. Hence they bear a charmed life, and their weapons are sure to kill. 1 When going to war, the Tenimberese are sprinkled with holy water ; they also eat snakes in order to be brave. As charms against danger in war, they wear the vertebra of a slain foe, as a necklace ; also they steep this in water, then drink, and wash their bodies with it. 2 Transmission of properties can thus be effected by any portion of the organism, or by anything that, in the wide view taken by the savage, belongs to the personality ; but, conversely, as each and all of these are instinct with the life and character of the possessor, it ^follows that any result produced upon any of them, is regarded as done to the whole man. In primitive thought, the individualistic conception of personality is so sensitive, and so materialistic, that anything which has once formed part of the man, or anything that has been in but momentary contact with him, is held to retain its connection, and, when acted upon, to affect the original owner, whose substance it still preserves. From this derive two widely spread ideas, which are, like so many early thoughts, complementary to each other. The first is that of the external soul, as to" which I need but refer to Dr. Frazer's account ; s the second is the common belief that a part of one's self may be used as a substitute for the whole, or sacrificed to preserve the rest of the personality. The Fijians 1 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xii. 275. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 298. 3 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough", iii. 353 fF. n8 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. performed acts of devotion at mourning. They cut their hair short, burned the skin, and lopped off the end joints of the little toe and little finger. 1 To secure success in an undertaking the Mandans lop off one of the phalanges of their fingers, and preserve it in a bundle of absinthium. 2 The idea that detachable portions of the organism retain the substance and life of the possessor, and, as such, bring upon him any injury they may receive, explains a common set of beliefs and practices con- cerned with the placenta, umbilical cord, and the " caul." In Amboina the placenta is hidden away in a tree. 3 In the Babar Islands women hang it in a tree ; on their way they carry weapons, " because evil spirits might, if they got hold of the placenta, make the child ill." 4 The remains of the umbilical cord are sacred in New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, and many parts of the world. 5 In Iceland the caul is supposed to contain a part of the child's soul. It is kept safe, therefore, and sometimes buried under the threshold. "Whoever destroys it, "robs the child of its soul." 6 The sacred character of the caul is well known in European folklore. 7 A particular point in connection with these appurtenances of the new-born child is, that as they preserve the sub- stance of the possessor, they can give him health and strength in after-life. If a child is born with a caul, Amboinese women preserve this, and when the child is ill, dip it in water and give this water to the child to drink. s In Ceram the remains of the umbilical cord are kept, and hung round the child's neck to keep- off sickness, or are otherwise used when the child is ill. 9 1 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 205. 2 Id. op. cit. iii. 303. 3 Riedel, op. cit. 23. 4 Id. 355. 5 Ploss, Das Kind, i. 15. a Id. i. 13. 7 Id. i. 14. 8 Riedel, ot>. cit. 74. 9 Id. 135. v THE BROTHER AND SISTER 119 In the Watubela Islands the placenta is buried under a tree. The remains of the umbilical cord are preserved, to be used as medicine for the child. 1 In the islands Leti, Moa, and Lakor the child's navel-string is kept, and used by him later as an amulet in war or when travelling. 2 It is used as an amulet by the Somalis, Kalmucks, Chinese, Soongars, and Alfoers of Celebes. 3 In Greenland it cures the child's sicknesses. In ancient Peru and modern Europe it cures the child to whom it is given to suck. 4 Similarly with the " caul " with which an infant is sometimes born. 5 The Central Australians work the navel-string into a necklace which the child wears round its neck. " This makes it grow, keeps it quiet, and averts illness." The connec- tion, already noticed, between these appurtenances and the idea of the external soul, is also seen in the follow- ing cases : the Fijians buried the umbilical cord with a cocoa-nut, the last being intended to grow up by the time the child reached maturity. 7 It is interesting to compare the modern custom of planting a tree as a record of the birth of a child. The navel-string and the placenta are in South Celebes called the " brother " and " sister " of the child. 8 We have seen the transmission, chiefly involuntary, of a man's properties through contact with him or with any part of him, or object that has had connection with him, and we now come to what is a development of these ideas of contact, in cases where the individual transmits his own properties or his feelings by means of contact with himself or by putting detachable parts of himself in contact with others, by an act of will or 1 Id. 208. - Id. 391. 3 Ploss, Das Kind, i. 16, 17. 4 Id. 17, 18. 5 Id. 392. 6 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 461. 7 Williams, op. cit. i. 175. 8 Matthes, op. cit. 57. 120 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. " intention." To impart " virtue " or ability, the Melanesian who is full of it {rnand) lays his hands on the recipient. 1 The latter, of course, consciously or subconsciously would here perform an act of faith. So the lover imparts his love to his mistress by all kinds of methods — he sends a lock of hair, or food he has touched, in the hope that his personality contained therein will soften her heart, that is, that she may be assimilated to him by contact with him. Enemies, on the other hand, can do the same by all these methods, but it is not surprising that they seldom use them. The reason is that they would thus put themselves in the power of the very man they wish to hurt, by giving to him a part of themselves, for he may injure them by magic treatment of it, which his own virus contained in the part might not be strong enough to overcome. The best course is then naturally found to be, either to use the mere act of will, or to get hold of some detachable part of the man, or anything that has been in contact with him, and by working the " intention" on that, to do him hurt. The idea is, as stated above, a man is not distinguished from his separate parts, and injury done to them is done to him. The easy analogy which leads the savage to " make- believe," assists him here. It will be convenient to give to this widely spread method and theory the name it has in Australia, where its development is very complete, that of ngadhungi. Both the act of will, assisted sometimes by a make-believe process, and also the method of ngadhungi are, as will be obvious, developments of the ideas of contact ; and both, it is hardly necessary to premise, are often used for benevolent purposes. The following cases show how 1 Supra, 83, 84. v THE INTENTION 121 the " intention ".or subjective attitude may produce the various results connected with taboo. In order to ward off" a danger from themselves, or to send evil to another person, the Zulus squirt water containing medicine from the mouth. 1 To cause a person to become thin and weak, the Arunta puts spittle on the tips of his fingers, which are then bunched together and jerked in the direction of the victim. This is called Puliliwuma or spittle-throwing. 2 A string-whip associated with magic is carried by Central Australian men. " The sight of one is alone enough to cause the greatest fright to a woman who has offended her husband, while the stroke is supposed to result in death, or at least in maiming for life. In addition to this use, the ililika is sometimes unwound and cracked like a whip in the direction of any individual whom it is desired to injure, when the evil influence is supposed to travel through the air, and so to reach the victim." 3 In many Amboina villages there are persons who anoint their eyes daily with certain ingredients, in order to increase their keenness of sight, and to acquire "a warm eye." Such are greatly feared, for they can by con- centration of a look make any one ill and poison food. 4 Amongst the Nicobarese there are sorcerers, who possess the power not only of curing diseases but of afflicting people with various ailments, and can j even cause death by a mere act of power. 5 Sorcerers . are very dangerous in Cambodia, in that they can en- ; chant people by a mere act of will. 6 Hidatsa sorcerers i can injure persons at a distance. 7 In Tenimber and Timor-laut a common method of causing a man to be 1 Callaway, op. cit. 435. 2 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 552. 3 Id. 540. * Riedel, op. cit. 61. 5 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 248. 6 Aymonier, op. cit. 182. 7 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 322. 122 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. ill is to place objects, such as thorns and sharp stones, on the ground where he is likely to pass. Over these curses have been muttered. The person walking over these objects will fall ill. Another method is to use curses, and blow in a special way under a man's house. 1 This illustrates a principle of savage " make-believe," viz. a fear of direct action. Amongst the Orang Benuas are sorcerers who have the art of tuju, which is the power of killing an enemy at a distance ; this is done by pointing a dagger or a sumpitan in his direc- tion. 2 The Australians have a well-known method of injuring persons at a distance, by pointing a bone at them. 3 Being the bone of a dead man, it has in it both human qualities and the contagion of death, but apart from these accidents, the essence of the practice is this ; the man first sings curses and evil wishes over it, e.g. " may your heart be rent asunder," and his will or " intention " of hatred and malice enters materially into the bone, and veritably " informs " it. As the natives explain, " any bone, stick, spear, etc., which has been ' sung,' is endowed with Arungquiltha, magical poisonous properties," but these are the man's tempor- ary characteristics of hate materially conceived. 4 There are actual cases where a man who has been hit by a " sung " spear, or knows that a man has pointed " the bone " at him, has pined away and died of fear. 5 For a very different object, that of inspiring love, the same method is used. Women " sing " over necklets of fur, which they place round the man's neck, or "sing" over some food which they then give him to eat. 6 They transfuse, in fact, their "intention" of love 1 Riedel, op. cit. 304. 2 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 441. 3 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 188. 4 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 534, 537. 5 Id. I.e. 6 Id. 548. v TAKING THE OATH 123 into the substance, and thus it passes to the person intended. The same conception is the essential feature of a common class of oaths and ordeals, which in primitive practice are identical. The formula of the oath passes materially into the thing sworn by, which, as Greek reminds us, was the original oath, and as the following cases show, is of such a character as to do that injury to the perjurer which he invokes upon himself. The " oath " is held, or eaten or drunk, so as to ensure assimilation, and if perjury or treachery results, the wish has its effect and renders the substance of the " oath " deleterious. Thus in Madagascar parties taking an oath pray that the liquor drunk, which is the material " oath," may turn into poison for him who breaks it. 1 In Ceram an oath is taken by eating food in which a sword has been placed. 2 In Tenimber the oath-taker invokes death, and drinks his own blood in which a sword has been dipped. 3 The Tunguses drink the blood of a dog, which is then burned, and the wish made is " may I burn as this dog if I break my oath." 4 When the Timorese take an oath they drink water mixed with gunpowder and earth, saying, " May I die of sickness, by powder or the sword, if I swear falsely." 5 Amongst the Malays, when swearing fidelity, alliance, etc., water in which daggers, spears, or bullets have been dipped, is drunk, the drinker saying, " If I turn traitor, may I be eaten up by this dagger or spear." 6 A Balinese when giving evidence takes in his hand a basin of water, and pronounces these words, " May I perish with my whole generation if what I say is not true," and in confirmation of this sacramental 1 D'Urville, op. cit. 181. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 129. 3 Id. 284. 4 Georgi, op. cit. 48. 5 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 466. 6 Skeat, op. cit. 528. i2 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. declaration he drinks the water. 1 The terms of a Sumatran oath are, " If what I now declare is truly and really so, may I be freed and cleared from my oath ; if what I assert is wittingly false, may my oath be the cause of my destruction." 2 The same material trans- mission of " intention " is the motive power behind the practice of setting tabu-marks on property. The in- dignation of the injured party informs the notice, just as the power of the law is behind the name on a modern warning to trespassers. For the security of property in the Luang -Sermata Islands, they place marks thereon to warn people from trespassing. Any person found trespassing, becomes ill or dies. They are of various kinds : a notice made of hen-feathers causes pains in the thief's back ; one sort causes him to be struck by lightning, another to be eaten by sharks. 3 Similarly, sickness follows trespassers on property thus protected in the island Makiser. 4 The method of ngadhungi is well known. On the principle stated above, a man can work injury or any result according to his " intention '' on another, by treating parts of him in various ways. It will be remembered that a man's food is especially connected with him, from the mere fact of the important results of food to the organism, and it will be noticed that such detachable portions of personality as food, hair, nail-parings, clothes, and the like, are peculiarly easy to get hold of. Amongst the aborigines of Queensland any food left over from the meal is always burnt, to prevent the possibility of sorcerers getting hold of it and injuring them by means of the food. 5 The western tribes of Victoria " believe that if an enemy gets 1 Featherman, op. clt. ii. 408. 2 W. Marsden, Sumatra, 238. s Riedel, op. c'lt. 317. 4 Id, 414. 5 C. Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, 298. v NGADHUNGI 125 possession of anything that has belonged to them, even such things as bones of animals which they have eaten, broken weapons, feathers, portions of dress, pieces of skin, or refuse of any kind, he can employ it as a charm to produce illness in the person to whom they belonged. They are, therefore, very careful to burn up all rubbish or uncleanness before leaving a camping-place. Should anything belonging to an unfriendly tribe be found at any time, it is given to the chief, who preserves it as a means of injuring the enemy. This wuulon is lent to any one of the tribe who wishes to vent his spite against any one belonging to the unfriendly tribe. When used as a charm, the wuulon is rubbed over with emu fat mixed with red clay, and tied to the point of a spear- thrower, which is stuck upright in the ground before the camp-fire. The company sit round watching it, but at such a distance that their shadows cannot fall on it. They keep chanting imprecations on the enemy till the spear-thrower turns round and falls in his direction." 1 "The whole community of the Narrinyeri is influenced by disease -makers. Their method is called ngadhungi, and is practised in the following manner. Every adult black-fellow is constantly on the look-out for bones of ducks, swans, or other birds, or fish, the flesh of which has been eaten by anybody. When a man has obtained a bone, he supposes that he possesses the power of life and death over the man, woman, or child who ate its flesh. Should circumstances arise calculated to excite the resentment of the disease- maker towards the person who ate the flesh of the animal from which the bone was taken, he immediately sticks the bone in the ground near the fire, firmly believing that it will produce disease in the person for 1 Dawson, cf>. clt. 54. 126 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. whom it was designed, however distant he may be. Death also may result. All the natives, therefore, are careful to burn the bones of the animals which they eat, so as to prevent their enemies from getting hold of them. When a person is ill, he generally regards his sickness as a result of ngadhungi, and tries to discover who is the disease-maker. When he thinks that he has discovered him, he puts down a ngadhungi to the fire, for the purpose of retaliating, that is, if he possesses one made of an animal from which his enemy has eaten. I And if he has not, he tries to borrow one. Frequently, when a man has got the ngadhungi of another, he will go to him and say, ' I have your ngadhungi, what will you give me for it ? ' Perhaps the other man will say that he has one belonging to the person who asks him, and in that case they will make an exchange, and each destroy the ngadhungi. The constant seeking for revenge caused by this belief produces an atmosphere of suspicion among the natives. It is often the case that they will trust none but relatives ; all others are regarded as possible enemies." l In the Encounter Bay tribe the same superstition is rampant. If a man has not been able to get a bone of an animal eaten by his foe, he takes an animal, and cooks and offers the meat in a friendly manner to his intended victim, having previously taken from it a piece of bone. 2 In Tanna the disease-makers injure a man by burning his nahak, that is, the refuse of his food, or any article that has been in close contact with his body. When a person is taken ill, he believes that it is occasioned by some one who is burning his nahak ; and if he dies, his friends ascribe it to the disease-maker as having burnt the refuse to the end. All the Tannese carry small baskets about with 1 Native Tribes of South Australia, 24, 25, 26, 136. 2 Id. 196. v NGADHUNGI 127 them, into which they put banana skins, cocoanut husk, or any refuse from that which they may have been eating, in order to avoid its discovery by an enemy, until reaching and crossing a stream of running water, which alone has the power of annulling such con- tingency. "It is surprising how these men are dreaded, and how strong the belief is that they have in their hands the power of life and death." The belief " has so strong a hold in Tanna that all the continual fights and feuds are attributable to it." 1 The practice of burning a man's food in order to injure him flourishes in New Britain ; the islanders are therefore careful to hide or burn their leavings. 2 In the Banks Islands one man can injure another by charming some bit of food, hair, or nail-parings, anything in fact that has been in close connection with his body ; they are consequently at pains to hide all such. 3 In Pululaa (Solomon Islands) guests bring their own food to feasts, as they may not eat the food set out. The belief is that if a visitor should purposely or accidentally retain a morsel of food of his host, he can thereby exercise a mysterious influence over the giver of the feast. In such a contingency the host will redeem the lost fragment at as high a figure as he can afford. 4 In the Solomon Islands, again, an enemy will throw scraps of his victim's food into a sacred pool, of which he knows the spirit or Tindalo. If the food is eaten by a fish or snake the man will die. 5 Through- out Melanesia it is believed that one man may harm another by taking bits of his food into a sacred place, upon which the victim's lips will swell and his body break out with ulcers. 6 In the New Hebrides, when 1 G. Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, 89 ; B. T. Somerville, in Journ. Anthrop. hist, xxiii. 19, 20. 2 W. Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, 171. 3 'Journ. Anthrop. Inst. x. 283. 4 Coote, Wanderings South and East, 177. 5 Journ, Anthrop. Inst. x. 309. 6 R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians, 188. 128 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. the mae snake carries away a fragment of food into the place sacred to a spirit, a man who has eaten of that will sicken as the fragment decays. 1 The Malays take great care in disposing of the clippings of hair, as they believe that "the sympathetic connection which exists between himself and every part of his body continues to exist, even after the physical connection has been severed, and that he will suffer from any harm that may befall the severed parts of his body, such as the clippings of his hair or the parings of his nails. Accordingly he takes care that these severed portions of himself shall not be left in places where they might either be exposed to accidental injury or fall into the hands of malicious persons who might work magic on them to his detriment or death." Charms are used by the Malays for an infinity of purposes. They are worked by "direct contact, sometimes by indirect, sometimes without." To charm a person, take soil from the centre of the foot-print of the person you wish to charm, and " treat it ceremonially" for about three days. Another Malay method of charming a person is to scrape off some of the wood of the floor from the place where your intended victim has been sitting ; then mould it with wax into a figure resembling him ; the figure is scorched over a lamp, while the following words are repeated, " It is not wax that I am scorching, it is the liver, heart, and spleen of so-and-so that I scorch." The Malays use clippings of the victim's hair, his saliva, and parings of his nails, etc., in making the well-known wax image, into which pins are stuck, and " which is still believed by all Malays to be a most effective method of causing the illness or death of an enemy." To work dissension between a husband and wife, a Malay makes 1 R. H. Codrington, The Me/anesians, 203. v NGADHUNGI 129 two wax figures resembling them ; he breathes upon them, and puts them back to back, so that they look away from one another. 1 The Mandans believe that a person at a distance may be injured or killed by sticking a needle in the heart of a figure made of clay or wood representing him. 2 In Luang-Sermata one can cause swellings of the head or hands of an enemy by burning his hair. 3 In Buru, as a love-charm, one " speaks over " oil the woman uses for her hair, or over a hair of her one finds. Or one buries a piece of ginger where she will pass. 4 The natives of the Mary River and Bunya-Bunya country believe that if you can procure some hair or excrement of an enemy, his life will decay while they are in your possession. 5 In the Babar Islands the method is used to make people ill, of burning their hair or sirih they have used. This is also done by rejected lovers. 6 Witchcraft prevailed amongst the Tasmanians. They procured some object belonging to the person, and, having enveloped it in I fat, they laid it before the fire, and they supposed that as the fat was gradually melting, the health of their enemy would by degrees decline and that he would thus be doomed to perish. 7 The Cambodians say that a traveller must not throw away fragments of his garments when in a foreign country. If he does not ' wish to be unlucky, he must keep them. 8 The Gipps- • land tribes " practised sorcery, with a view to taking the lives of their enemies. The mode of proceeding was to obtain possession of something which had 1 Slceat, op. cit. 44, also quoting Frazer's Go! Jen BougA 1 , i. 193 ; Skeat, 569, 570, 45, 573. The words of the Malay charm are identical with those used by the sorceress I in Theocritus ii. 2 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 303. 3 Riedel, op. cit. 328. 4 Id. op. cit. 10, II. 5 Curr, op. cit. iii. 179. 6 Riedel, op. cit. 377. 7 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 109. 8 Aymonier, op. cit. 166. K 130 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. belonged to the person whose death was desired, such as some of his hair, excrement, or food ; or to touch him with an egg-shaped piece of stone which was called bulk, and was thought to be possessed of magic powers. At other times they would charm by means of the makthar (real name of the person) ; or several of them, retiring to some lonely spot, and drawing on the ground a rude likeness of the victim, would sit around it and devote him to destruction with cabalistic ceremonies. Such was their dread of proceedings of this sort that, not unfrequently, men and women who learnt that they had been made the subjects of incantation, quickly pined away and died of fright." 1 The Central Australians use the method of drawing a portrait of the intended victim, and stabbing it. 2 In Wetar one can make a man ill by getting hold of some of his saliva, hair, betel he has chewed, a piece of his clothes, or anything belonging to him. These objects are put in a place haunted by evil spirits, who are then called upon to kill the man or make him ill. 3 Sorcerers amongst the Karalits injure or slay persons by magic use of any part of the victim's body, or part of an animal killed by such. 4 Before a battle, a Zulu chief sits on a circlet of " medicines," containing some object belonging to the hostile chief, and he says, " I am overcoming him ; I am now treading him down ; he is now under me. I do not know by what way he will escape." 5 The Zulus also use a vessel of medicines which one churns like a Chinese praying-machine. A young man will use it as a love-charm ; if it froths, he knows he has prevailed over the girl. Something belonging to her is 1 Curr, op. at. iii. 547. 2 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 550. 3 Riedel, op. cit. 451. 4 Featherman, cp. cit. iii. 437. 5 Callaway, op. cit. 342. v NGADHUNGI 131 put in it. The churn is used before war, with some- thing in it belonging to the hostile chief, so as to kill or weaken him. Any disease may be caused by walk- ing over " medicines " placed, to that end, in the path. 1 Another account of the Zulus says that before the army sets out, the king makes " medicine " in which is some personal article belonging to his enemy. " The belief in this is so strong, that when a chief is forced to retreat, the floor of his hut is scraped, and for this reason Dingan, when he fled from the Boers, burnt his hut." 2 The method is used with saliva, as well as other vehicles, in Ceylon and Nukahiva ; 3 and throughout the islands between Celebes and New Guinea the method flourishes in many forms, both for injury and for producing love. 4 A very common form is the injuring of a person by means of his name. To injure a person, the Amboinese juse some of his sirih he has thrown away, a piece of his hair, or clothing ; also one writes his name on a piece :of paper, which is put in a gun and fired off, or else one puts it in the highest branch of a tree. 5 The Gippsland blacks objected strongly to let any one outside the tribe know their names, lest their enemies, learning them, should make them vehicles of incantation, and so charm their lives away. As children were not thought to have enemies, they used to speak of a man as "the father, uncle, or cousin of so-and-so," naming B child, but on all occasions abstained from mentioning the name of a grown-up person. 6 In many Australian* tribes " the belief obtains that the life of an enemy may 'be taken by the use of his name in incantations. The :onsequence of this idea is, that in the tribes in which 1 Callaway op. cit. 343, 346, 35. 2 Shooter, op. cit. 343. 3 Tennent, op. cit. ii. 544 j D'Urville, op. cit. i. 502. 4 Riedel, op. cit. passim. 5 Id. op. cit. 61, 79. 6 Curr, op. cit. iii. 545. 132 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap, v it obtains, the name of the male is given up for ever at the time when he undergoes the first of a series of ceremonies which end in conferring the rights of man- hood. In such tribes a man has no name, and, instead of calling a man by name, one addresses him as brother, nephew, or cousin, as the case may be, or by the name I of the class to which he belongs." 1 Sorcery is one of the most heinous crimes in Bali. A man is guilty of it if he writes the name of any one on the winding-sheet of a corpse, or on a dead man's bier, or if he makes an image of paste of the person he intends to bewitch, or if he hangs from a tree a slip of paper on which his name is written, or if he buries such a paper in the ground, or in a haunted place. 2 In Abyssinia it is believed that the sorcerer can cause no injury to a person unless he knows his true name, and it is the custom for mothers to conceal the baptismal name of their children, and to substitute for it, Son of St. George, Slave of the Virgin, Daughter of Moses, and the like. 3 In modern Europe there is still to be found, especially amongst children, some diffidence about revealing the Christian name. 1 Curr, op. cit. i. 46. 2 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 408. 3 Id. v. 6, 8. CHAPTER VI With this sensibility to contact there is always closely-, connected the instinctive care of functions and organs, which are, of course, but specialised channels of contact, both in use and origin, and this care is common to all highly organised life. It is a good instance of,- physiological thought. Throughout the world it is the general rule for the performance of human functions to take place in secret, and this secrecy is closer in primi- tive than in civilised custom. 1 As will be shown later, one important function, that of eating and drinking, though no longer secret in civilised periods, was so in early society. Prayer before such functions testifies to this caution, and the custom of the Babar islanders, who pray to the ancestral spirits before eating, drinking, and sleeping, or of the people of Timorlaut, who pray to Dudilaa before such functions as sexual intercourse, eating, and drinking, is typical of the generality of mankind. 2 Hence also the general ascription of the taboo character to the various functions, especially the nutritive and sexual. When called "unclean," th term originally is equivalent to taboo, still undiffer- entiated, though later it becomes specialised by other associations. The Hindu and Muhammadan rules of " uncleanness " in connection with physical functions, 1 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rasscn tusschen Sehbe: en Papua, 96, 406. 2 Id. 338, 281. i i 3 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. are examples of a general human practice. 1 The /universal desire for solitude during the performance of certain physical functions, shared by man with the higher animals, is an extension of the organic instinct Jbr safety and self-preservation. These functions, especially the nutritive, sexual, and excretory, are not only of supreme importance in organic life, but their performance exposes the individual to danger, by ren- dering him defenceless for the time being. Ideas formed straight from this instinct invest such functions at once with a potential sacredness, and assist towards a religious concealment of them. Again, this impulse for solitude is emphasised, as psychology proves, in illness and in critical states, a fact which shows the origin of many taboos on their subjective side. In the development of these ideas, each principle of contact has its share, and the biological caution is intensified by religious conceptions. The very com- plexity and importance of functions intensifies both the biological and the religious care of them. The indi- vidual avoids, in the first place, the dangers resulting to himself from contact with others ; and secondarily, from knowledge of these dangers, he concludes that the material secretions and emanations are in every case dangerous, even apart from personal properties, and accordingly avoids his own, for his own sake and, altruistically, for the sake of his fellows. This altru- istic feeling is later, and is connected with disgust. While it is the functions and external organs con- nected with nutrition and sex that are most guarded, and the senses of taste and touch that are here most r sensitive, yet the instinct to preserve and insulate from • danger all the channels of sense is seen in savage custom. 1 Vambery, Sketches of Central Asia, 190. vi CARE OF FUNCTIONS *3S This insulation is effected sometimes by wearing amulets upon the external organs, sometimes by means of the painful processes of tattooing, boring, and scarification. It is erroneous to attribute these practices to the desire for ornament. There is ample evidence that " savage mutilation " is never due to this desire ; the savage does not hold with the maxim — il faut souffrir pour etre belle ; on the contrary, he is extremely averse to pain, except for the purpose of preserving his life, health, and strength. Accordingly, when we find that the mouth and lips, the teeth, nose, eyes, ears, and genital organs are subjected to such processes, we may infer that the object is to secure the safety of these sense-organs, by what is practically a permanent amulet or charm. The idea behind the mutilation of organs is complex. Let us take the common practices of piercing an organ, filing the teeth, knocking out a tooth, circumcision, and perforation of the hymen. The first part of the idea is to obviate possible difficulty in function, sug gested by an apparent closure of the organ ; this possi bility of difficulty is to the savage a potentiality of evil, and is connected with the fear of doing a thing for the first time, a fear which, as we have seen, creates a material dangerous substance attaching to the thing in question, and needing removal before contact can safely take place. The Pepos state that the object of knock- ing out one or more teeth at puberty is to assist breath- ing. 1 Shortly after a birth the Malays administer to the child " the mouth-opener " ; " first you take a green cocoa-nut, split it in halves, put a grain of salt inside one half of the shell, and give it to the child to drink, counting up to seven, and putting it up to the child's 1 Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 424. " 136 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. mouth at the word seven." l This account is important as suggesting that the first taking of food, the first employment of the mouth, is a dangerous crisis. When we take into account the importance of food in savage life, and the care of the mouth and teeth resulting, also the fact that this knocking out of teeth, like the similar process of teeth-filing, is regularly performed at puberty, when as a rule there are certain food taboos removed,- and a boy is initiated to " man's food," it is a fair conjecture that its object is to secure in some way the safety of that important function. When a Dieri boy has had the teeth knocked out, he may not look at the men who performed the operation, or " his mouth would close up and he would be unable to eat." 2 Mr. Skeat was invariably told that the Malay practice of teeth- filing not only beautified but preserved the teeth from decay. 3 The idea of ornament is later. With the particular imaginary danger already mentioned all danger of material contact of course combines, includ- ing that of disease in the wide range of reality and imagination with which early man regards disease. Amongst the Cadiacks a hole is bored through the septum of the child's nose, when it is washed after birth. These people have also the practice of piercing the septum in cases where venereal disease attacks the nose. 4 The connection is obvious. The Yorubas call circum- cision " the cutting that saves." 5 Amongst the Central Australians there is a causal connection between the practice of sub -incision and the common disease Erkincha. It is not, as has been proved, intended to prevent impregnation, nor does it have this result. 1 Skeat, op. cit. 337. 2 Howitt, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xx. 80. 3 Skeat, op. cit. 359.5 * U. Lisiansky, op. cit. 200, 201. 5 A. B. Ellis, op. cit. 66. 6 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 405, 264. 6 VI MUTILATION 137 The ceremony of head-biting performed on Central Australian boys at puberty is supposed to make the hair grow strong. 1 Now it is prevention of future harm, illness and weakness, and transmission of strength and life that are one special object of ceremonies at puberty. Again, it has been conclusively proved that circumcision does not prevent disease, and it is probable that there was no sanitary intention in its origin, except such as forms part of the explanation here given. 2 The ceremony amongst the Semites was originally "religious" in the primitive sense, but here, as elsewhere, when the religious habit becomes rational, the fallacy of sanitary intention in circumcision became prominent, and may often have been the reason for the continuance of the practice. The last factor in the principle behind these mutilations is one very closely connected with ideas of contact, and applies especially to such practices as circum- cision. The deleterious emanation from strange or new things is identical in theory with human emanations, not only from strange or unhandselled beings, but from characteristic parts of such, and in later thought, from such parts of one's own personality. This dangerous emanation is any physical secretion religiously regarded, and its retention is prevented by cutting away separable parts which would easily harbour it, as the teeth retain morsels of food. This primitive notion is the same with those of personal cleanliness and of the removal of separable parts of a tabooed person. Dr. Frazer points out the idea of destroying separable parts of tabooed persons ; thus, in Roti the first hair of a child " is not his own, and unless cut off will make him ill." When the part is cut off, there result the ideas, first of securing 1 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 251. 2 Joseph Jacobs, in Journ. Ant hrop. Intt. xv. 32. 138 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. the safety of the rest by sacrificing a part, a practice well illustrated by the custom of cutting off the little finger ; and secondly, of sacrificing such part to a deity so as to consecrate the rest, by making it less " impure " or '"'■taboo.''' Thus, Sir A. B. Ellis infers that circum- cision amongst the Yorubas and Ewe peoples is a sacri- fice of a portion of the organ, which the god inspires, to ensure the well-being of the rest. The rite is there connected with the worship of Elegbra} And for the earlier notion, the Jews and Egyptians regarded it as a " cleansing." 2 Circumcision and artificial hymen-perforation thus originated in the intention both to obviate hylo-idealistic danger resulting from apparent closure, and to remove a separable part of a taboo organ, on the above-stated principles. This removal also explains the practice of excision. The other ideas follow later, and the safety both of the individual and of those who will have con- tact is the more necessary because that contact is with the other, the dangerous sex. As to the insertion of plugs and sticks and the like, in the nose, lips, and ears, it is probable that the original object was to keep off evil from the organs by a mark, an idea connected with the widely spread belief that the attention of the evil influence is thus diverted from the organ as lightning is diverted from an object by the lightning-rod. Here is to be considered the psychology of disgust. The emotion in its origin is caused by the presence or contact of what is dangerous or useless to the individual organism, chiefly in connection with the nutritive and sexual functions. It is part of the natural law of 1 A. B. Ellis, op. cit. 66. 2 Ploss, Das Kind, i. 345 ; Trusen, Die Sitten u. Gebrduche der alten Hebraer, 115. vi DISGUST— IMPURITY 139 economy, ultimately chemical, which produces an im- pulse for what one needs and an avoidance of what one does not need, or has cast away. Food that is needed is the object of man's fiercest desire, and, on the other hand, food after satiety or the excreta from food pro- duce the strongest loathing ; in each case the feeling is part of the primary nutritive impulse. The same desire and loathing belong to the sexual functions and emotions, the development and complement of the nutritive. The sensitive instinct of self-preservation and of self-realisa- tion which insulates a man from other organisms, ac- centuates the emotion of disgust when the cast-off sub- stances are from others, and makes those from himself more tolerable. Further, where there is no desire, there is potential disgust, especially at the sight of another's function. Disgust correlates with satiety and is the opposite pole to desire and satisfaction, and ultimately its connection is with the alimentary functions alone, from which the sexual and other are developed. Desire and disgust are the final expression of chemical laws of combination and rejection. Desire and disgust are curiously blended when with one's own desire unsatis- fied one sees the satisfaction of another ; and here we may see the altruistic stage beginning ; this has two sides, the fear of causing desire in others, and the fear of causing disgust, in each case personal isolation is the psychological result. The ideas of impurity and ceremonial " uncleanness " are closely connected with these phenomena, and in primitive thought are concerned with the nutritive no less than with other functions. Theoretically, if we carry primitive ideas to their logical conclusion, the perfectly " pure " person is one who should not only avoid contact with the functional effluvia of others, but 140 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. all contact with persons also ; and moreover, to obviate pollution from his own functions, should abstain not only -from sexual but from nutritive processes as well. It is the ascetic ideal of the perfect Buddhist. This ■practice (ao-Ktiais) has probably assisted man considerably towards attaining a higher than animal culture. Again, the feeling of shame is closely connected with these functional phenomena ; it is produced by ideas which arise from the importance and sensibility of functions, tending towards diffidence and mistrust of them, and is expressed originally upon any external interference with a function. Later it becomes altruistic. We may also observe that amongst early men it is also to an important extent concerned with alimentary pro- cesses. It is at first sight surprising to read the follow- ing statement, but a slight acquaintance with primitive habit shows how inevitable such facts are, and observa- tion of the lower classes in modern times reveals the same phenomenon. Amongst the Bakairi every man eats by himself; when one eats in the presence of another, it is the custom to do so with head averted, while the other turns his back and does not speak till the meal is over. When the German explorer, not knowing of this, ate his lunch without giving notice, they hung their heads and showed on their faces real shame. 1 All these emotions and the ideas connected there- with are part of the foundation of social and of sexual taboo. Closely connected as they are with contact and with functional sensitiveness, they at once, when in the altruistic stage in which one conceals or refrains from functions to avoid causing others to feel disgust or shame, vary in intensity according to the distance of the person whose feelings are being considered. A man 1 K. von den Steinen, Unter den Natur-V'6lkern Zentral-Braulien;, 66. vi SHAME— PERSONAL ISOLATION 141 certainly would avoid performing such acts as involve these emotions before an entire stranger, for to primitive thought a stranger is a potential foe, and in such a case we see the original cause of such secrecy ; but on the other hand, amongst acquaintances and friends, he is less ready to insist upon secrecy than he is with closer connections, such as those with whom he lives. The reason is the accentuation, first of the danger, and later of altruistic consideration, produced in each case by the very closeness of the contact. Add to this the religious caution between the two sexes, and we get a potential avoidance of all such functions in the presence of the other sex generally, and especially in the presence of those with whom a man is in closest daily contact. Not only civilised ideas and habits of decency and personal cleanliness, but human systems and institutions of the most important character are built on these founda- tions. These ideas of contact, which are found all over the world, give to human relations generally a religious meaning, such as we can hardly realise by imagination. Every individual, as such, is surrounded by a taboo of personal isolation ; and for communication between him and his fellows there is in theory needed a go- between. A type of this may be seen in the New Jj Hebridean custom, where the last man to " take the book" (i.e. turn Christian), was a "sacred man," whose sanctity was such that anything given to him by a white man had to be passed through the hands of a go-between. 1 Secondly, to take the dangerous side of the taboo character, all human and sexual properties, states of mind and of emotion, even acts and thoughts, are so material that they exude, sans phrase, from the skin. 1 jfcurn, Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 12. 1 i 4 2 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. In civilised stages of society, moral and social systems which are themselves closely connected in origin with this early view of contact, have so defined and safeguarded human relations that these ideas have almost disappeared. They exist still, however, in one or two special forms, as in the still rampant belief in the evil eye throughout Southern Europe, and in the refinement always kept in civilisation, which reveals its material origin in more or less dainty avoidance of the lower classes, of " publicans and sinners." Primitive man has some differences in his code of morals, but on the whole, he is more moral in the social sense than is civilised man. A few examples will illustrate this basis of early morality. The immaturity of the human " will " is a characteristic of early man. What is said of the Fijians applies still more to earlier peoples. "We have to bear in mind the absolute help- lessness of the Fijian, in fact, the Polynesian generally, when anybody has acquired a moral ascendancy over him." l Death often occurs from this moral fear. Sorcery is so dreaded by Australians that individuals have been known to die through fear of it. 2 As we have seen, amongst the Australians a great motor power is the belief in sorcery or witchcraft. In the everyday life of the black, a pressure originating in this source may be said to be always at work. 3 Of the Kurnai it is said that " the gratification of self is choked in them, as in us, by a sense of duty or by affection. Speaking to a Kroatun young man about the food prohibited during initiation, I said, ' But if you were hungry and caught a female opossum, you might eat it if the old men were not there ' ; he replied, ' I could not do that : it would not be right.' Although I 1 Seemann, of. at. 190. 2 Curr, of. cit, i. 49. 3 Id. i. 45, 46. vi PRIMITIVE MORALITY 143 tried to find out from him some other reason, he could give no other than that it would be wrong to disregard the customs." 1 In New South Wales the universal reprobation which followed a breach of ancient customs, preserved a strict observance of morality. 2 Amongst the Maoris tapu was law, and far more observed and feared than the latter, as such, ever has been in higher culture. 3 So it has been said of the Fijian tambu; "the taboo is a religion in itself, and without doubt has helped to prevent savages from allowing their naturally depraved natures to have full scope to carry out their intentions. The law-givers who introduced the tambu must have done so with the idea of promoting the happiness of the community, and of encouraging morality among the people." 4 The Leh-tas, according to the Karens, have no laws or rulers, and do not require any, as they never commit any evil among themselves or against other people. "The sense of shame amongst this tribe is so acute, that on being accused of any evil act by several of the community, the person so accused retires to a desolate spot, digs his grave and strangles himself." 5 Amongst the Hill Dyaks crime is so rare, that its punishments are only known from tradition. They have a complete system similar to the Polynesian tabu. 6 In New Britain marriage within the totem-clan would bring instant destruction upon the woman, and the man's life would never be secure. Her relatives would be so ashamed, that only her death could satisfy them. " However, such a case never occurs in a thickly populated district. If a man should be accused of adultery or fornication with a woman, he would at 1 Fison and Howitt, op. cit. 256, 257. 2 Wilkes, op. cit. ii. 193. 3 Id. ii. 383. ' Anderson, op. cit. 89. 5 A. R. Colquhoun, Among the Shafts, 76. 6 Low, op. cit. 247, 248. i 4 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. once be acquitted by the public voice, if he could say ' she is one of us' ; i.e. she belongs to my totem." l In Timor "the custom of pomali is general, fruit-trees, houses, crops, and property of all kinds being protected from depredation by this ceremony, the reverence for which is very great. A palm branch stuck across an open door, showing that the house is tabooed, is a more effectual guard against robbery than any amount of locks and bars." 2 The same is true of most primitive races. In Hawaii a " wicked person " was one who broke tabu? Amongst the Indians of Guiana any breach of the marriage system is "wicked." 4 Amongst the Zulus umtakati means "witch, wizard, or evil-doer," i.e. murderers, adulterers, one who violates rules of consanguinity ; also one who does secret injury to another, by using " medicine," e.g. human remains, or poison. Evil-doers can injure health, destroy life, cause cows to become dry, prevent rain, occasion lightning. 5 Turning to the question of deterrents, amongst the Bangerang it was believed that the sorcery of other tribes could be counteracted by their own incantations. On the other hand, they sometimes feel that the incan- tations of their own doctors can be neutralised by stronger ones on the part of their enemies ; and so they " frequently revenge a death in the tribe — which is of course attributed to sorcery, though in effect the result of sickness or accident — by attacking at night a hostile camp and massacring the sleepers." 6 In Hawaii violators of taboo were seized by the priests and killed. 7 Mr. Curr says of the Australian tribes with which he was 1 B. Danks, in Journ. Anthrcp. Inst, xviii. 282, 283. 2 A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, 450. 3 Ellis, Tour in Hawaii, 279. 4 Brett, op. cit. 98. 5 Shooter, op. tit. 141. 6 Curr. op. cit. i. 47, 49. 7 Wilkes, op. cit. iv. 40. vi SANCTIONS OF MORALITY 145 acquainted, " we find our blacks, male and female, submitting for years loyally and without exception to a number of irksome restraints, especially in connection with food, just as we Roman Catholics do to the fasts and abstinences imposed by the Church. Now the question is, what is the hidden power which secures the black's scrupulous compliance with custom in such cases? What is it, for instance, which prompts the hungry black boy, when out hunting with the white man, to refuse (as I have often seen him do) to share in a meal of emu flesh, or in some other sort of food forbidden to those of his age, when he might easily do so without fear of detection by his tribe ? What is it that makes him so faithfully observant of many trying customs ? The reply is, that the constraining power in such cases is not government, whether by chief or council, but education ; that the black is educated from infancy in the belief that departure from the customs of his tribe is inevitably followed by one at least ot many evils, such as becoming grey, ophthalmia, skin eruptions, or sickness ; but above all, that it exposes the offender to the danger of death from sorcery." ' The Luang Sermata islanders hold that sickness is due to " sin " ; - and this is a common human idea, a phase of which is the belief that evil physical results follow breaches of the system or principle of marriage, and, ;we may add, of sexual taboo generally. Amongst the Australians old people are mostly sorcerers; "and custom holds the weak and the young in willing sub- jection to the old." 3 In speaking of the power of the old men, and the enforcing of moral laws by them, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen show that the influence which supports custom is far from being impersonal. 1 Curr, op. cit. i. 54, 55. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 325. s Eyre, op. cit. ii. 3S4. L 146 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. In the Central Australian tribes which they examined, they found that offenders were regularly dealt with by the elder men, and that offending natives were perfectly well aware that they would " be dealt with by some- thing much more real than an impersonal power." In reference to the dying -out of native races upon contact with Europeans, they remark of the Central Australian tribes, that " the young men under the new influence become freed from the wholesome restraint of the older men, who are all-powerful in the normal condition of the tribe. The strict moral code, which is certainly enforced in their natural state, is set on one side, and nothing is adopted in place of it." 1 Early men have also an elaborate etiquette based on these ideas. Amongst the Northern Indians when two people met, they would stop when within twenty yards, and generally sit or lie down, without speaking for some minutes. 2 The origin of such may be seen in the Australian practice ; when a tribe approaches another, that is unknown to it, they carry burning sticks to purify the air. 3 In the Dieri and neighbouring tribes, when a man reaches home, no notice at first is taken, until he sits down ; then " the friends or relations sit around, and the news is whispered, whatever it may be, and repeated in a loud voice to the whole camp." Also, when an influential native arrives, he is received thus : — " On approaching the camp, the inmates close in with raised arms, as in defence ; then the person of note rushes at them, making a faint blow as if to strike them, they warding it off with their shields ; immediately after they embrace him and lead him into the camp, where 1 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 15, 8. 2 Hearne, op. cit. 332. 3 Brough Smyth, op. cit. i. 134. vi PRIMITIVE ETIQUETTE 147 the women bring him food." 1 The Malay, says Mr. Wallace, is " particularly sensitive to breaches of etiquette, or any interference with the personal liberty of himself or another. As an example, I may mention that I often found it very difficult to get one Malay servant to waken another. He will call as loud as he can, but will hardly touch, much less shake his companion." 2 In the islands of Leti, Moa, and Lakor, and the Babar Islands no one may without important reason wake a sleeping man. 3 The greatest possible insult to a man in Tenimber and Timorlaut is to spit in his face, or to step over his body when on the ground. 4 In New Caledonia there is an elaborate system of etiquette. Politeness requires one to walk in front of the person to whom respect is due ; to enter first on introducing him ; to pass in front and not behind him. 5 The Fijians observe scrupulously certain rules of etiquette. The Javanese are distinguished for the formal observance of etiquette. 7 The Tagalas of Luzon and Mindanao are remarkable for a sentiment of personal shamefulness, called hya, which renders them very susceptible of insult, and causes them to respect the feelings of others. 8 The same results of the taboo of personal isolation are constant in all stages of culture. The whole series of phenomena, lastly, helps to disprove the common idea that early society possessed a communistic and socialistic character. The "rights" of the individual in property, marriage, and everything else, were never more clearly defined than by primitive man. 1 Gason, in Journ. Jlnthrop. Inst. xxiv. 173 ; id. in Curr, op, cit. ii. 50. 2 Wallace, op. cit. 443. 3 Riedel, op. cit. 378. 4 Id. 295. B Featherman, op. cit. ii, 85. 6 Id. ii. 200. 7 Id. ii. 382. * Id. ii. 481. CHAPTER VII There are still to be described the two most im- portant forms of contact, contact by means of food and by sexual intercourse. I have deferred their description because they have so close a connection with sexual taboo, the further developments of which chiefly take the lines marked out by ideas concern- ing these two functions of eating and of sexual con- gress. Biologically, the sexual impulse is a development from the nutritive, and the primary cjpse connection of the two functions is continued in thought, subconscious and physiological, and appears sometimes above the threshold of consciousness. We find further, that many primary human conceptions are not only based on the connection but express it clearly. One of the most obvious links between the two is the kiss, and much popular thought and language preserves similar concep- tions. Various rules attest the importance of " man's bread and oil and wine." The natives of the Baram district of Borneo feed alone ; " they are very particular about being called away from their meals, and it takes a great deal to make a man set about doing anything before he has concluded his repast." To such an extent is this practice observed that it is considered wrong to attack even an enemy whilst he is eating, but the moment he chap, vii EATING AND DRINKING 149 has finished it is legitimate and proper to fall upon him. 1 The custom of eating in silence is found amongst the Ahts, Maoris, Siamese, and the ancient Hindoos. 2 The Arabs of Syria mutter a bismillah before eating, and take their meals in silence. 3 In Siam it is a maxim of the Buddhist priests that " to eat and talk at the same time is a sin." 4 The Tahitians offered a prayer before they ate their food. 5 The Mois of Cochin China invoke a superior power before eating and drinking. 6 The Malayalam Sudras of Travancore bathe and put sacred ashes on the forehead before each meal. 7 In origin, the custom of prayer before eating was not an expression of thankfulness. The object was to avert any deleterious influence that the food might possess. On this is super- imposed the wish that the food may be good and bene- , ficial, may be " blessed," which passes into an invocation to a superior power to so bless it, and also, for the older ; idea often remains, to cleanse the food from harmful properties. The savage realises better than most civilised men that his life, his health and strength, and general well- being depend chiefly upon what is ultimately the most necessary of human functions. It is not surprising, therefore, that so many customs and beliefs attach to the processes of eating and drinking. " The procuring [•of food is the great business of the Australian's life," says a good observer, " and forms one of the principal jtopics of his conversation." Custom and belief in this connection are based upon the egoistic physical 1 journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 160. 2 Sproat, op. cit. 61 ; Thomson, Neiu Zealand, 160 ; Bowring, Siam, i. 1 10 ; i Manu, iii. 236, 237. :! Featherman, op. cit. v. 448, 451. 4 Bowring, op. cit. i. 328. •' Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 350.' 6 Cochinchine francaise, viii. 12. 7 Mateer, op. cit. 112. 8 Curr, op. cit. i. 81. 150 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. sensibility of man, applied to the object of his fiercest desires, and with this there combine later all his concep- tions of matter and of material and human contact. Thus the savage as a rule prefers to eat alone, as he prefers to be alone for the performance of similar func- tions, from egoistic caution and fear of interruption. The Karajas always eat by themselves, with back turned. 1 Amongst the Bakairi every man eats by himself ; when one has to eat in the presence of another it is the custom to do so with head averted, while the other turns his back and does not speak till the meal is over. When von den Steinen ate before them they hung their heads and were " ashamed." 2 The Zafimanelos of Madagascar eat alone with locked doors. 3 The Maori gentleman eats in solitude. 4 The rule is common in Polynesia and Africa. It is naturally still more emphasised in the case of kings and chiefs. The King of Abyssinia always dines alone. 5 Amongst the Niam-niam the king takes his meals in private ; no one may see the contents of his dish, and everything that he leaves is carefully thrown into a pit, set apart for the purpose. All that he handles is held as " sacred," and may not be touched ; and a guest, though of higher rank, may not so much as light his pipe with embers from the king's fire. 6 A carved and gilt wooden screen was always placed in front of Montezuma at his meals, that no one might see him while eating. 7 In Loango the king is sacred ; from his birth he is forbidden to eat with any one, and various foods are prohibited to him. He eats and drinks alone, in huts devoted to the purpose. The covered dishes containing his food are preceded by a crier, at whose 1 K. von den Steinen, Unter den Natur-Volkern Zentral-Brasiliens, 67. 2 Id. 66. 3 Antananarivo Annual, ii. 219. 4 Yate, op. cit. 20. 5 Harris, Highlands of Ethiopia, iii. 171, 172, 322. 6 Schweinfurth, ot>. cit. ii. 98. ' Bancroft, op. cit. iii. 129. vii EATING IN SECRET 151 proclamation all get out of the way and bolt their doors ; for any person seeing the king eat is put to death. A privileged few may be present, but they are bound to conceal their faces, or the king places a robe over his head. All that leaves his table is at once buried. 1 A crier proclaimed when the King of Cacongo was about to eat or drink, that the people might cover their faces or fall to the ground with down-turned eyes. 2 When the King of Canna was offered a glass of rum by Mr. Winwood Reade, he hid his face and the glass under a Turkish towel. 3 In Dahomey it is death to see the king eat ; if he drinks in public, a curtain is held up to con- ceal him. 4 The King of Susa at meals is concealed by a curtain from his guests. 5 The King of the Mon- buttoo always takes his meals in private, and no one may see the contents of his dish. The King of Congo eats and drinks in secret. If a dog should enter the I house while he is at table, it is killed. On one occasion the king's son having accidentally seen his father drink- ing was executed on the spot. 7 A Pongo chief never ! drinks in the presence of others without a screen to J conceal him ; on the Pongo coast it is believed that one I is more liable to witchcraft when eating, drinking, or sleeping. 8 In Ashantee a man of consequence never drinks before his inferiors without hiding his face from them. The belief is that an enemy can then " impose a spell on the faculties " of the man who is drinking. 9 So in Tonga no one may see the king eat ; therefore those present turn their backs upon him. Nor may 1 Bastian, An tier Loango Kiitte, i. 220, 262, 263. 3 Id. San Salvador, 58. :< W. Reade, Savage AJrica, 184. 4 J. L. Wilson, op. cit. 202 ; Reade, op. cit. 53 ; Burton, Dahomey, i. 244. 5 Harris, op. cit. iii. 78. s Schweinfurth, op. cit. ii. 98 7 Reade, op. cit. 359. 8 Wilson, op. cit. 308, 310. 9 Bowdich, Cape Coast Castle to Ashanti, 438. 152 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. one eat in his presence without averting the face. It is also forbidden to eat in the presence of a superior relation without turning the back. 1 The basis of this preference for eating in solitude is the animal egoistic impulse ; later it becomes altruistic, and also is combined, as we have seen this egoistic sensi- bility always combined, with general ideas about contact and transmission of properties. The modern small boy who eats his cake in a corner still shows the most primitive form of the custom. The savage is extremely careful that what he eats and drinks shall be free from deleterious properties, inherent or acquired. Such properties are all those which, as we have seen, the savage attributes to material substances, and especially to dangerous persons, and are neither spiritual nor material but both, and can be im- parted by all possible forms of material transmission. In this wide generalisation there would of course occur from time to time cases in which food possessed some harmful property, whether of poison or disease, and such cases corroborated the general precautions. The people of Kumaun use a special room for eating, into which nothing " unclean " may come. The cook has to put on clean clothes before cooking, and he is not allowed to touch any one after he has begun, nor to leave the room. No one is allowed to touch him when at work. 2 Maoris do not eat inside the house. 3 Bulgarians before drinking make the sign of the cross, to prevent the devil entering the body with the liquor. 4 Similarly, devout Russians have been observed to blow on the glass in order to neutralise " the Satanic opera- 1 W. Mariner, The Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 235 ; Cook and King, Voyage, i- 232. 2 Panjab Notes and Queries, iii. 2. 454. 3 D'Urville, op. cit. ii. 411. 4 Sinclair and Brophy, A Residence in Bulgaria, 14. vii TAKING OFF THE FETISH 153 tion of spirituous liquors. ' ' * Amongst the Eskimo, when a new spring of water is found, it is usual for the oldest man present, failing an angekok, to drink first, in order to rid the water of any evil influence it may possess. - In Eastern Central Africa, when a chief has a beer- drinking, his priest or captain brings out the beer to the guests and tastes it to show that it is not poisoned. 3 So amongst the Damaras the chief must first taste the provisions before they are eaten by the rest of the assembly. 4 Amongst the Iddahs 5 the same custom is found, and amongst the Zulus it is not etiquette to offer beer without first tasting it ; " it is meant to ensure the receiver against death in the pot ; ' while another is eating, it is wrong to spit. 6 Amongst the Krumen at a palm wine-drinking the goodwife of the house has to take the first and last draught herself, to show the guests that she has not been dealing in poison or witchcraft. This is called " taking off the fetish." ~ Amongst the Basutos, when food or drink is offered to a man, and he is not sure that it is not poisoned, he lets the host taste it first. 8 These customs are widely spread in Africa. In the Banks Islands on presenting food to a visitor the host first takes a bite himself to show that it is not charmed, or to take the risk upon himself. 9 In New Guinea it is a mark of friendship to offer water to a stranger. Before presenting it, the natives first drink themselves to prove that the water is not poisoned. 10 These cases show the idea that things new or strange possess a dangerous property. The history of fasting forms a curious chapter in the 1 Erman, Siberia, i. 416. 2 Cranz, op. cie. i. 193. 3 Macdonaltl, Africana, i. 191. 4 C. J. Anderson, Lake Ngami, 224. 5 Schon and Crowther, Expedition up the Niger, 82. 6 Leslie, op. cit. 205. 7 J. L. Wilson, op. cit. 124. 8 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, vi. 34. 9 Codrington, op. cit. 204. 10 Rosenberg, Der Malayhche Archipel, 470. i 5 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. development of the human soul. In origin it was a method used by primitive man to avoid the possibility of any injurious influence entering his body. The savage never fasts because he likes it, but simply to avoid danger. This painful process is not gone through unless for some very important reason ; for instance, when a primitive crisis is at hand, when the food-supply is to be coaxed by magic, or the success of a hunt or a war to be secured, or a dangerous period of life to be passed through, such as puberty and mourning. In some of these cases the mere practice develops the further idea that fasting is useful as a training of the body and a discipline for the nerves. It is worth noting that the practice of fasting was referred to a primitive reason by the early Christians, namely, to prevent " evil spirits" entering the body. 1 The subject of taboos upon certain foods is a large one. The practice of forbidding certain kinds of food during a dangerous state is very widely spread ; it includes cases of real dietetic science, embedded in fallacious instances based on analogy. Sometimes the choice is arbitrary, as it often is in an interesting extension of the custom, according to which an individual is throughout life, or for some particular period, forbidden a certain food. Thus, amongst the Bakalai, to every man some particular food is roondah ; if he were to eat it, his wives would give birth to children resembling it. 2 Every man and woman in the Andaman Islands is prohibited all through life from eating some one or more fish or animal. It is generallv one which in childhood was observed or imagined by the mother to occasion some functional derangement. When the child is old enough, the 1 Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, i. 116, 262. 2 Du Chaillu, of. cit. 308 ; cf. Bosman, Description of Guinea, 400. vii FASTING AND FOOD TABOOS 155 reason is explained, and, cause and effect being clearly- demonstrated, the individual avoids it carefully. 1 The principle behind this custom is that of savage make- believe. If a particular food is taboo to a man, he believes that thereby his ordinary food will never hurt him. The practice correlates in principle with the arbitrary selection of fetishes and the like, and is con- nected with the beliefs and customs concerning external souls. The following cases are instructive in this connection ; in Halmahera and Wetar sickness is often ascribed to eating forbidden foods. 2 Icthyosis and leprosy are regarded in Halmahera as due to eating forbidden food ; and one may become a suzvanggi by eating it. These suwanggis have the power of sorcery, and were often killed by the community for causing death. ; Ordinary illness is ascribed in the Luang Sermata Islands to " bad winds " and bad food. Severe illnesses are ascribed to evil spirits. 4 Malay like modern European medicine is chiefly concerned with dieting. 5 Further, the principles of primitive thought con- cerned with contact and material transmission find full development here, in all the forms of custom and belief relating to human relations and social taboo. Material contact leaves its impress for good or bad upon food, as upon everything else. Food that a man has touched is permeated by his properties, and accordingly can transmit these to others ; it is also on the same principle a part of himself, and any injury done to it is believed to affect himself. The belief extends to any food, not that he has touched, but of the same kind as he usually 1 Man, in Journ. Anthrop. In it. xii. 354. 2 Riedel, in Zeitichr'ift fur Ethnologie, xvii. 83 j and in De iluik-en krotiharige ratun tuachen Selebet en Papua, 452. 3 Id. I.e. and 66. 4 Id. op. cit. 327. 5 Slceat, op. eit. 408. 156 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. eats. The connection of food with human attributes is well seen in the following example. The natives of the Mary River and Bunya-Bunya country have many idioms attributing the passions to the state of the stomach. 1 This is true of many languages, and in all ages men have more or less realised the fact, but early man realises this connection most keenly. It is natural that the nearer man is to his animal ancestors, the more his life should be guided by the chief process of animal life. Food possesses the characteristics of that from which it is taken, and the savage avoids foods that are thus harmful, and prefers those that are thus nutritious. The Masai eat beef to make them strong, and a man will eat bullock's flesh for a whole day to get up courage for a battle. 2 We have seen how this obvious principle is extended to the eating of human flesh in order to acquire human courage and strength. The method of injuring a man by magic use of remnants of his food is an extension of ideas of contact already described. In Tanna, as we saw, the disease- makers injure a man by burning his nahak, that is the refuse of his food, or any article that has been in close contact with his body. When a person is taken ill, he believes that it is occasioned by some one who is burning his nahak ; and if he dies, his friends ascribe it to the disease-maker as having burnt the refuse to the end. 3 In the next phase, that of involuntary transmission, the specific contagion of human influences is the object of precaution. Uncivilised man regards strangers with feelings of hostility and suspicion. These feelings ex- tend to food that they have touched or tasted. Thus 1 Curr, cp. cit. iii. 191. ' 2 Thomson, op. cit. 264. 3 Supra, 126. vii DANGERS OF EATING 157 the Papuans of Humboldt Bay would not touch any food which their European visitors had previously tasted, nor even drink the water offered to them. This aversion was " due to superstitious ideas." a The Yule islanders refused to accept a share of anything which their visitors ate.' 2 The black-fellows of Victoria regard as wholesome any food that is not poisonous or connected with superstitious beliefs, but they will not touch any food which has been partaken of by a stranger. 3 The Basutos were afraid to eat anything which a white man had touched. 4 The Poggi islanders would not touch the food offered them by Europeans until it had first been tasted by one of the ship's company. 5 This instance is a link with the last set of customs. Hence the Atiu islanders refused to eat with the missionaries, 6 and the Indians with the Prince of Wied. 7 We have now arrived at the prohibition against eating with certain persons. In Tanna no food is accepted if offered with the bare hands, " as such contact might give the food a potency for evil." In New Zealand one can be "bewitched' by eating or drinking from the calabash of an ill-wisher, or by smoking his pipe. Personal misfortunes are attributed to such indiscretions. "When a man is sick, he is in- variably questioned by the doctor, for example, whose pipe he smoked last. 9 In ancient India a Brahmin might not eat the food of an enemy or an ungrateful man, or that offered by an angry, sick, or intoxicated : person. 10 In the Mulgrave Islands those who are not 1 Rosenberg, op. cit. 478. 2 D'Albertis, op. cit. i. 261. 3 Dawson, op. cit. 18. * Arbousset, op. cit. 149. 5 Crisp, in Asiatick Researches, vi. Si. 6 Gill, Jottings from the Pacific, $Z. 7 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. 166. s Featherman, op. cit. ii. 76. 9 Polack, Ne-iv Zealand, i. 280, 263. 10 Manu, iv. 213, 214, 207. i 5 3 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. initiate ought never to drink from the same cup with sorcerers. 1 In Fiji persons who suspect others of plotting against them avoid eating in their presence. 2 The Fijians consider it objectionable, just as we do, for several persons to drink out of the same vessel. 3 No respectable Zulu would eat in the company of Ama- tongas, who are regarded as "evil-doers" (wizards). 4 In New Zealand no one dare eat the food of a " tapued person " (gentleman), " for this is equivalent to eating his sacredness." On one occasion a slave ate his chief's dinner by mistake ; when told of what he had done he was seized with convulsions and cramp in the stomach, and died at sundown. 5 Similarly, if any one ate the Mikado's food, his mouth and throat would swell up and death would ensue. 6 Cadiack whalers are con- sidered " unclean," and no one will eat out of the same dish with them, or even approach them, for that reason. 7 In Fiji the sick are credited with malignant properties; they are supposed to "pollute'' objects which they touch, and food, by means of their saliva. Great care is always taken that no one touches the king's cup-bearer. s In Tahiti, all who were employed in embalming the dead were during the process care- fully avoided by every one, as " the guilt of the crime for which the deceased had died was supposed in some degree to attach to such as touched the body. They did not feed themselves, lest the food, denied by the touch of their polluted hands, should cause their own death, but were fed by others." 9 In New Zealand 1 D'Urville, op. cit. ii. 408. 2 Williams and Calvert, Fiji, i. 249. 3 Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 349. 4 Shooter, op. cit. 115. 5 Shortland, Maori Religion, 26 ; Neiv Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori, 114. 6 D'Urville, op. cit. i. 386. 7 Lisiansky, op. cit. 174. 8 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 620 ; Wilkes, cp. cit. iii. 115. 9 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, iv. 388 ; so in Fiji, Meinicke, op. cit. iii. 40, Hawaii and Samoa, id. ii. 300, 276. vii CONTAGION BY FOOD 159 one who has touched a dead body may not use his hands to eat, but is either fed by others or picks up his food with his teeth from the ground or the food- basket. Those who feed such a person offer the food with outstretched arm, and are careful not to touch him. 1 In Samoa, while a dead body is in the house, no food may be eaten under the same roof ; meals are taken outside or in another house. Those who attend upon the dead dare not handle their food, but are fed for some days by others. The penalty for breaking this rule is baldness and loss of teeth. 2 In Fiji any one who has touched a chief, living or dead, becomes tabu ; he cannot handle food, but must be fed by others. Hence barbers are continually in this case. 3 In Tonga, when a man has touched a superior chief, or anything belonging to him, he may not feed himself with his own hands. Should he do so, he will infallibly swell up and die. 4 To take examples of another sort of contagion. In Burma one is denied by sitting or eating with the " impure " caste of Sandalas. The ancient Brahmin who ate the food of "outcasts" be- came thereby an "outcast" himself. In modern India members of different castes will not eat food cooked in the same vessel ; if a person of another caste touch a cooking vessel, it must be thrown away. 7 The food of a Fijian chief may not be carried by boys who have not been tattoed, lest the meat be rendered "unclean" ; boys being " unclean " until then. 8 A New Zealand gentleman must eat apart from his friends in solitude. 9 The Tuitonga might not eat in the presence of older 1 Brown, New Zealand, 1 1. - Turner, Samoa, 145 ; id. Nineteen Tears in Polynesia, 22S. 8 Erskine, Western Pacific, 254. * Mariner, op. cit. i. 150, ii. 80. 5 D'Urville, op. cit. i. 173. 6 Manu, xi. 176, 181 ; Ward, Hindoos, ii. 149. 7 Ward, op. cit. ii. 317. 8 D'Urville, op. cit. i. 166. 9 Vate, cp. cit. 20. 160 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. members of his family. 1 The King of Loango from his birth may never eat with any one. 2 On the Loango coast, among numerous restrictions upon food, occurs a prohibition against eating in company with others. 3 Amongst the Alfoers of Celebes the priest who is responsible for the growth of the rice may not during his office eat or drink with any one, nor drink out of another's cup. 4 In Cambodia people will not eat with a priest. 5 In the Sandwich Islands no one could eat with the chief, who was "sacred."' 3 In Tonga inferiors and superiors may not eat together. 7 In New Zealand a slave may not eat with his master, nor even eat of the same food or cook at the same fire. 8 In some parts of Polynesia a man will never eat with another out of the same basket. 9 It is extremely unusual for Nubians and the Niam-niam to take any meals in common. 10 This taboo is the main feature in certain systems of caste. In Tonga there are ranks and orders that can neither eat nor drink together. 11 In Uripiv (New Hebrides) the males are divided into ten " castes " corresponding to age in life. Promotion is marked by a change of name. The members of each " caste " mess together and may not eat with others. Unmarried mess-mates also sleep together. 12 In India "eating to- gether is one of the grand tests of identity of caste." A Hindoo must take precautions " to insulate himself, as it were, during his meal, lest he be contaminated by the touch of some undetected sinner who may be present." 13 In Ceylon, under the Kandyan dynasty, I D'Urville, op. tit. ii. JJ. ' 2 Bastian, Loango- Ku'ste, i. 172. 3 Id. I.e. 4 Mededeelingen "van ivege het Nederiandsch Zendeling-Genootsehap, xi. 126. 5 Aymonier, op. cit. 170. 6 Varigny, op. ch. 13. 7 D'Urville, op. tit. I.e. 8 Shortland, Traditions and Superstitions of'Neiv Zealand, 106. 9 Waitz-Gerlind, op. cit. v. 54. 10 Schweinfurth, op. cit. 447. II Mariner, op. cit. ii. 234. 12 Somerville, in "Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 6, 7. 13 Mateer, op. tit. 331 ; Colebrooke, op. cit. vii. 277. vii CONTAGION BY FOOD 161 the most dreaded punishment for erring ladies was to hand them over to the low-caste Rodiyas. A Rodiya thereupon was ordered to put betel from his mouth into the mouth of the delinquent, after which her " degradation " was indelible. There were two lower castes than the Rodiyas, who were so despised that no human being would touch rice cooked in their houses. 1 The Black Jews of Loango are so despised that no one will eat with them. 2 The Santhals hate the Hindus, and will not receive food which comes from their hands. 3 The Paharias regard themselves as superior to the Keriahs, with whom they may neither eat nor drink. 4 We next are met by familiar extensions of the principle of contagion. The prohibition against eating and drinking before the eyes of others is an outcome of that universal appreciation of the power of the human gaze which has reached its most superstitious development in the belief in the Evil Eye. The idea is still that of contagion, for facts show the belief that malignance and other properties can be conveyed by a look as certainly as by other methods of infection, and thus taint the food and drink of the individual who fears. The Oriental belief that food is rendered poisonous by the Evil Eye is a luminous instance. In Abyssinia, the doors are carefully barred before meals to exclude the Evil Eye, and a fire is lighted, otherwise " devils " will enter, and " there will be no blessing on the meat." The king always dines alone. 5 Amongst the Nubians no food is carried without being carefully covered, for fear of the Evil Eye. No one is ever seen 1 Tennent, op. cit. ii. 189. 2 Bastian, of. cit. i. 278. 3 Rowney, Wild Tribes of India, 74. 4 V. Ball, Jungle Life of India, 89. 5 Harris, op. cit. iii. 171, 172, 322. M 1 62 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. eating. 1 The Zafimanelo of Madagascar lock the doors before every meal, and no one ever sees them eat. 2 A Khol will leave off eating if a man's shadow passes across the dishes. 3 It is clear that men believe human properties to be transmitted not only by contact with the food of others, but by eating with them or in their presence. The same idea lurks subconsciously in the modern mind ; the objection against eating with "publicans and sinners" is still strong, and is based on the same " primitive " conception. The altruistic development of these ideas is to be observed in such practices as the following. The Niam-niam are very particular at their meals, and when several are drinking together, they may be observed to wipe the rim of the cup before passing it on. 4 As always in connection with contact, the tendency is for any human emanation to be regarded as in itself un- desirable, and with the growth of intellect and refine- ment such are, as animal characteristics, brought into the sphere of disgust, not only altruistic but individual- istic also. Amongst the Natchez it was considered a great offence to drink out of the same cup or eat out of the same dish set apart for the chief. 5 It is for- bidden in Wetar to eat or drink anything out of vessels used by the chiefs. 6 Young Bedouin boys show defer- ence to their father by never presuming to eat out of the same dish, nor even in his presence. 7 The altruistic form is in principle, it will be observed, closely con- nected with the ideas of ngadhungi ; to eat another's food is a real injury to him, in all the primitive sense 1 Schweinfurth, op. cit. ii. 326. " Antananarivo Annual, ii. 219. 3 Rowney, of. cit. 65. 4 Schweinfurth, cp. cit. ii. 19. 5 Featherman, cp. cit. iii. 138. 6 Riedel, cp. cit. 455. 7 Featherman, op. cit. v. 363. vii EATING WITH OTHERS 163 of the word " real." In New Zealand to eat a man's food was a gross insult, it was equivalent to eating the man himself, or his " sacredness." l In sexual as in social taboo generally these beliefs have had a remarkable influence. The widely spread rule of sexual taboo that men and women may not eat together, is, as are taboos of commensality generally, in origin a form of egoistic sensitiveness with regard to the most important vital function ; sexual separation and sexual solidarity build upon this, and the general ideas of contact applied to sexual relations develop a superstitious fear that the contact, whether by contagion or infection, or otherwise, of food with the person, or influence of the female, transmits to the male the pro- perties of woman, and, though this is not so much in evidence, food " infected " by males transmits to the female the properties of the male, and the rule becomes a complete taboo. It is to be observed that the prohibition has several variations : for instance, women may not enter the cooking-house of the men, and men may not eat those kinds of food used by women, in some cases, by a natural extension, not even female animals. To begin with some special circumstances — In Ceram men during mourning may not eat the females of deer and certain other animals.- Amongst the Motu of New Guinea when a man is helega, for example after touching a dead body, he lives apart from his wife, and may not eat food that she has cooked. 3 A Yucatan " Captain " during his three years of office, might know no woman, nor might his food be served by women. 4 The cook of the King of Angoy was 1 Shortland, Maori Religion, 26. - Riedel, op. cit. 142. * Lawes, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. viii. 3-0. 4 Bancroft, of. cit. ii. 741. 164 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. expected to keep himself pure, and might not even live with a wife. 1 Algonkin priests, who are ordained to a life of chastity, may not even eat food prepared by a married woman." Buddhist monks in Burma may not eat food cooked by female hands ; if a female offers rice, they may accept but not eat. 3 Individuals in a state of danger or solemn service, in other words " under taboo," have especial reasons to avoid female contagion. The fact that the prohibition occurs at puberty serves to bring into relief the idea that danger from the other sex is apprehended at this period. Amongst the Kurnai of Gippsland a " novice " may not eat female animals ; he becomes free of the forbidden food by degrees, in this way : an old man suddenly comes behind him and without warning smears the fat of the cooked animal over his face. 4 Amongst the Narrin- yeri boys during the progress of " initiation," which is not complete until the beard has been pulled out three times, and each time has been allowed to grow to the length of two inches, are forbidden to eat any food which belongs to women. Everything that they possess or obtain becomes narumbe, sacred from the touch of women, a term also which is applied to themselves. They are forbidden to eat with women, " lest they grow ugly or become grey." 5 This belief is in- structive, as showing how the superstitious fear of the other sex may exist side by side with a desire to please, or even give rise to means thereto. The prohibition also applies to young men generally. The Dyaks of North- West Borneo forbid their young 1 Bastian, Loango-Kiiste, i. 216. 2 Bancroft, of. cit. ii. 212. 3 Shway Yoe, The Burman, i. 136. 4 Journ. Anthrof. Inst. xiv. 316. 5 Native Tribes of South Australia, 17, 69. vii SEXUAL TABOO IN EATING 165 men and warriors to eat vension, which is the food of women and old men, because it would make them as timid as deer. 1 In the tribes of Western Victoria boys are not allowed to eat any female quadruped. If they are caught eating a female opossum, for instance, they are severely punished ; the reason given is that such food makes them peevish and discontented," in other words, it gives them the failings which a black-fellow ascribes to the female sex. In the Andamans bachelors may only eat with the male sex, and spinsters with females. 3 Amongst the Kurnai of Gippsland men may only eat the males of the animals which they use for food. 4 The Port Lincoln tribe observes certain laws about animal food, the general principle of which is this : that the male of any animal should be eaten by grown- up men, the female by women, and the young animal by children only. 5 In special circumstances, here as elsewhere, the in- tensified sexual property then acquired is believed to be transmissible by the agency of food. In Western Victoria a menstruous woman may not take any one's food or drink, and no one will touch food that has been touched by her, " because it will make them weak." 6 In Queensland menstruous women are " un- clean," and no one will touch a dish which they have used. 7 Amongst the Maoris, if a man touched a men- struous woman, he would be tapu ; if he had connection with her or ate food cooked by her, he would be " tapu an inch thick." s In the Aru Islands menstruous 1 St. John, op. cit. i. 186, 206. - Dawson, op. cit. 52. :! Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xi. 344. " Fison and Howitt, op. cit. 197. 5 Native Tribes of South Australia, 220, H Dawson, op. cit. ci. cii. 7 Lumholtz, op. cit. 119. 8 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xix. 101. 1 66 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. women may not plant, cook, or prepare any food. 1 In Ceram-laut and Gorong, amongst the Samoyeds and Kalundas, wives at the catamenia may not prepare their husband's food. 2 At menstruation a Chippeway wife may not eat with her husband ; she must cook her food at a separate fire, since any one using her fire will fall ill. The same rule is enforced at child-birth. 3 A Kaniagmut woman is " unclean ' : ' for some days both after delivery and menstruation ; no one in either case may touch her, and she is fed with food at the end of a stick. 4 Amongst the Omahas and Ponkas women during the monthly periods may not eat with their husbands. These tribes have a belief that if one eats with a menstruous woman, the lips dry up, the blood turns black, and consumption is the final result. It is but fair to add that it is mainly children who believe this, the old people have no fear of the kind. 5 A Brahmin might not allow himself to be touched by a menstruous woman, or eat food offered by a woman. Amongst the Vedahs of Travancore the wife at men- struation is secluded for five days, in a hut a quarter of a mile away, which is also used by her at child-birth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half-way between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm -wine. Until this evening he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the " devil." On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the women, his and her sister, have bathed his wife, escorted her home and eaten rice 1 Riedel, op. cit. 178. 2 Id. op. cit. 209 ; Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. i. 273. '" Id. ii. 354. 4 Dall, op. cit. 403 ; Bancroft, op. at. i. in. 5 Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. ii. 275. B Manu, iv. 208, 211. vn SEXUAL TABOO IN EATING 167 together. For four days after his return, moreover, he may not eat rice in his own house, nor have connection with his wife. 1 In Fiji a wife when pregnant may not wait upon her husband. 2 In the Caroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, though small boys are allowed to do so. 3 The Indians of Guiana believe that if a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds they will never be able to hunt again. 4 Amongst the tribes on the Amazon, if a pregnant woman eat any particular meat, it is believed that any animal partaking of the same will suffer ; a domestic animal will die, a hound will be rendered incapable of hunting, and a man who eats such food will never again be able to shoot that particular animal. 5 Amongst the Chippe- ways a lying-in woman may not eat with her husband, and must cook her food at a separate fire ; ° a Kirgis woman when lying-in is " unclean "' and may not give her husband his food. 7 In the islands Luang and Sermata the husband gives a feast after a birth, at which only women may be present. It is believed that any man tasting the food will be unlucky in all his undertakings. 8 Amongst the tribes of the Oxus valley the mother is " unclean " for seven days, and no one will eat from her hand, nor may she suckle her infant during that period. 9 The examples of the prohibition in ordinary life are arranged geographically. The Warua of Central Africa, when offered a drink, put up a cloth before the face while they swallow. 1 Jagor, in Zeitschrift fir Ethnohgie, xi. 164. " Williams, op. at. i. 137. 8 Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. i. 514. 4 im Thurn, op. cit. 233. 5 Wallace, The Ama-zons, 501. 6 Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. ii. 353. 7 Id. ii. 351. s Riedel, op. cit. 326. 9 Biddulph, The Tribes cf the Hindoo Koosh,?,i. 168 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. They will not allow any one to see them eat or drink, especially those of the opposite sex. "I could not," says Cameron, " make a man let a woman see him drink." Hence every person has his own fire, and every man and woman must cook for themselves. 1 On the Loango coast both bridegroom and bride must make a full confession of their sins at the marriage ceremony of Lemba ; should either fail to do so, or keep anything back, they will fall ill when eating together as man and wife. Only such marriages as are performed in the presence of this fetish Lemba are legitimate ; a negro dares not let any of his wives, except the one thus married, cook his food, or look after his wardrobe. This fetish also serves to keep the wives in order and to punish them for infidelity. 2 In Eastern Central Africa, when a wife has been guilty of unchastity, her husband will die if he taste any food that she has salted. As a consequence of this super- stition, a wife is very liable to be accused of killing her husband. Accordingly, when a wife prepares her husband's food, she will often get a little girl to put the salt in. 3 Amongst the Braknas of West Africa husbands and wives do not eat together. 4 Fulah women may not eat with their husbands. 5 In Ashanti and Senegambia, amongst the Niam-niam and the Barea, the wife never eats with the husband. 6 Amongst the Beni-Amer a wife never eats in the presence of her husband. 7 Amongst the Krumen the chief wife only may eat with the husband. 8 In Eastern Central Africa each village has a separate mess for males and 1 Cameron, in ycurn. Anthrop. Inst. vi. 173. - Bastian, Loango Ku'ste, i. 170, 172. 3 Macdonald, op. cit. i. 173. 4 Giraud-Teulon, op. cit. 107. 5 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. ii. 471. 6 J. L. Wilson, op. cit. 182 ; W. Reade, op. cit. 453 ; Macdonald, op. cit. i. 227 ; Munzinger, op. cit. 526. 7 Id. 325. 3 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. ii. no. vii SEXUAL TABOO IN EATING 169 females. 1 This prohibition is very general throughout Africa. In Egypt the wives and female slaves are not allowed to eat with the master. 2 Amongst the Aeneze Arabs husband and wife do not eat together. 3 Amongst the Wahabees and Syrian Arabs the women may not eat with the male members of the family. 4 So with the Druses of Lebanon. 5 The Beni-Harith would not eat or drink at the hands of a woman, and "would rather have died of hunger than break the rule." Herodotus states that Carian women did not eat with their husbands, nor would they address them as " husband." 7 Amongst the Kurds husband and wife never eat together. 8 A Samoyed woman may not eat with men, much less with her husband, whose leavings form her meals. 9 A Hindu wife never eats with her husband, " if his own wife were to touch the food he was about to eat, it would be rendered unfit for his use." 10 So in ancient India ; to quote Manu, "let him not eat in the company of his wife." u A Brahmin might not eat food given by a woman, or by those " who are in all things ruled by women," nor might he eat the leavings of women. 12 In Travancore the women must eat after the men. 13 Amongst the Khonds the wife and children wait upon the master while he eats, then they may take their meal. Women may not eat hog's flesh, and may only I Macdonald, op. cit. i. 151. - Lane, op. cit. i. 236, 243. :i Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys, i. 64. * Featherman, op. cit. v. 451, 393. 5 Chasseaud, op. cit. 77. ' W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage in .-indent Arabia, 312. 7 Herodotus, i. 146. s Pinkerton, op. cit. ix. 15. 9 Bastian, Der Mensch, iii. 295. : ' J Colebrooke, op. cit. 166. II Manu, iv. 43. 12 Id. xi. 153 ; iv. 217. 13 Mateer, op. cit. 204 : id. The Land of Charity, 65. 170 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. taste liquor at festivals. 1 The men and women of Kumaun eat separately. 2 Amongst the hill tribes near Rajmahal in Bengal the women are not allowed to eat with the men. 3 Amongst the Todas men and women may not eat together. 4 At a Santhal wedding the bride and bridegroom eat together after fasting all day ; this is the first time she has ever eaten with a man. 5 In Cochin a wife never eats with her husband. 6 A Siamese wife prepares her husband's meals, but dines after him. 7 In the Maldive Islands husband and wife may not eat together. 8 The same rule is in force amongst the Khakyens. 9 In China by marriage a woman "only changes masters" ; the wife neither eats with her husband nor with her male children ; she waits upon them at table ; she may not touch what her son leaves. 10 In Corea men and women have their meals separately, the women waiting on the men. " Family life is utterly unknown in Corea." u Amongst the Indians of Guiana husbands and wives eat separately. 12 Macusi women eat after the men. 13 Amongst the Bororo women and children eat after the men, and finish their leavings. 14 Amongst the Arau- canians only the chief wife may eat with her husband. 15 In ancient Mexico each person had a separate bowl for eating ; the men ate first and by themselves, the women and children afterwards. 16 In Yucatan men and women 1 Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, 72. 2 Panjab Notes and Queries, iii. 2. 454. 3 T. Shaw, in Asiatick Researches, iv. 59. 4 Marshall, op. cit. 82. 5 E. T. Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, 216. 6 A. Bastian, Allerlei aits Mensch- und Volkenkunde, ii. 160. 7 Pinkerton, op. cit. ix. 585. 8 fourn. Anthrop. Inst. xvi. 168. 9 Anderson, op. cit. 137. 10 Hue, L'empire chinois, i. 26S. 11 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 306. 12 im Thurn, op. cit. 256 ; Brett, op. cit. 2S. 1S Id. I.e. 34 Von den Steinen, op. cit. 215. 15 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. 516. 16 L. H. Morgan, Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines, 10 1. vii SEXUAL TABOO IN EATING 171 ate apart.J "So far as I have yet travelled," says Catlin, " in the Indian country, I have never yet seen an Indian woman eating with her husband. Men form the first group at the banquet, and women and children and dogs all come together at the next." 2 Amongst the Iroquois tribes the men ate first and by themselves, then the women and children took their meal alone. Of these people it has been said that the women " must approach their lords with reverence ; they must regard them as most exalted beings, and are not permitted to eat in their presence." 3 Mandan women may not eat with the men. 4 So amongst the Abenaques, Seminoles, and Northern Indians. 5 The Seneca Indians relate of the changes in their customs resulting from the innova- tions of the whites, " that when the proposition that man and wife should eat together, which was so contrary to immemorial usage, was first determined in the affir- mative, it was formally agreed that man and wife should sit down together at the same dish and eat with the same ladle, the man eating first and then the woman, and so alternately until the meal was finished." Amongst the Natchez the husband used a respectful attitude towards his wife, and addressed her as if he were her slave ; he did not eat with her. 7 An Eskimo wife "dares not eat with her husband." * Amongst the Indians of California husbands and wives eat separately ; they may not even cook at the same fire. 9 Karalit and Kutchin women may not eat with men. 10 1 L. H. Morgan, op. cit. 103. - Catlin, North American Indians, i. 202. 3 Morgan, op. cit. 99 ; Robertson, History of America, 178. 4 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 297. 5 Id. iii. 94, 169 ; Hearne, op. at. 90. 6 Morgan, op. cit. 100. 7 Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nowvelle France, iii. 423. 8 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. 308. 9 Bancroft, op. cit. i. 390. 10 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 420, 384. 172 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. Amongst the extinct Tasmanians husband and wife ate separately. 1 The rule is general throughout Australia ; the gin never eats till the man has finished, and then she eats his leavings. 2 In Victoria males and females have separate fires at which they cook their own food. Many of the best kinds of food are forbidden to women. 3 In Queensland also the husband reserved the best of the food for himself. 4 In Central Australia the men and women eat and camp separately. 5 Amongst the Arfaks of New Guinea the men and women eat apart. 6 Amongst the Kayans and Punans of Borneo the men feed alone, attended on by the women. 7 Amongst the Battas of Sumatra husband and wife may not eat from the same dish. s In the Mentawey Islands the man eats alone in the house ; the women are forbidden to use many kinds of food. 9 In the islands Wetar and Dama women may not eat with the men ; in Romang husband and wife take their meals at the same time but separately. 10 Men and women may not eat together in Halmahera. 11 In Melanesia generally, women may not eat with men. 12 In the Solomon Islands husband and wife do not eat together ; she prepares his meal, and when he has finished she eats what he has left. 13 In the Banks Islands all the adult males belong to the men's club, | Suqe, where they take their meals, while the women and children eat at home. 14 In Tanna women may not eat with men, they may not drink kava, nor share in 3 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 105. 2 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vi. 777. 3 Brough Smyth, op. cit. i. 134. 4 Lumholtz, op. cit. 161. 5 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 467, 469. 6 D'Albertis, op. cit. i. 218. 7 Hose, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 160. 8 Ellis, op. cit. i. 117. 9 Rosenberg, op. cit. 196. 10 Riedel, op. cit. 458, 464. 11 Id. in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, xvii. 59. 12 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vi. 676 ; Meinicke, op. cit. i. 67. 13 Guppy, op. cit. i. 41. 14 Journ. An'krop. Inst. x. 237. vii SEXUAL TABOO IN EATING 173 the kava-dnnking feasts of the men. 1 In the New Hebrides generally, women always eat apart from the men. 2 In Uripiv " the most noticeable features of domestic life will be found in the curious segregation of the sexes and the superstitious dread of eating any- thing female. A few days after birth a killing of pigs takes place and the child is ' rated a man.' Hence- forward he must cook his own meals at his own fire, and eat with men alone, otherwise death will mysteri- ously fall upon him. The fact of his being suckled, however, which often goes on for two years, is quite overlooked." 3 In Malekula men and women cook their meals separately, and even at separate fires, and all female animals, sows, and even hens and eggs are forbidden articles of diet. A native told Lieutenant Somerville that a mate of his had died from partaking of sow. 4 In New Caledonia women may not eat with the men. 5 In Fiji husband and wife may not eat together, nor brother and sister, nor the two sexes generally. Young men may not eat of food left by women. Boys, as being " unclean ' until they have been tatooed, may not carry food to the chiefs, for their touch would render it " unclean." ° In Ponape the men take their meals in the club- house. 7 In Kusaie women may not eat with men owing to the tabu? In Rarotonga the women ate apart from the men. 9 In the Hervey Islands husband and wife never eat together, and the first-born child, boy or girl, may not eat with any member of the family. 10 In Paumotu the women may not eat with 1 Turner, Nineteen Tears in Polynesia, 85. 2 Meinicke, of. cit. i. 197. 3 Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 4. 4 Id. 381. 5 Meinicke, op. cit. i. 231. 6 Williams, op. cit. i. 167, 136 ; D'Urville, op. cit. ii. 102. 7 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. v. 2. "2. 8 Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 377. 9 Id. ii. 143. 10 Gill, Life in the Southern Isles, 94. i 7 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. the men, and are not allowed to eat several kinds of food, such as large fish and turtles. These laws are enforced by the tabu} So in Tubuai tabu forbids the women to eat with men, or to use as food turtles and pigs. 2 In the Marquesas Islands to each dwelling there is attached a special eating-house for the men, which the women are forbidden to enter. 3 In Nuka- hiva, according to another account, the rich have separate buildings for dining-rooms on particular occasions of feasting which women are not permitted to enter ; so strict is the rule, that they dare not even pass near them. Women are forbidden kava and certain foods. 4 In Rurutu men and women do not eat together, " owing to superstitious fear ; they believe that in such case the wife would be destroyed by a spirit." 5 In Bow Island the men threw the remains of their meals to their wives. 6 In Rotumah the men of the family eat first ; when they have finished, the women and children begin their meal at a separate table. 7 In New Zealand, where every man eats by himself away from his friends, women and slaves may not eat with men. Men may not eat with their wives nor wives with their male children, " lest their tapu or sanctity should kill them." s In the Sandwich Islands the king's wives were not allowed to enter his eating- house. 9 In Hawaii the women were forbidden to eat in company with men, and even to enter the eating- room during meals. Three houses necessarily belonged to each family, the dwelling-house, a house for the 1 Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 219. 2 Id. ii. 199. 3 Id. ii. 249. 4 Lisiansky, op. cit. 87 ; Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 252, 247. 3 Ellis, op. cit. iii. 97, 98. 6 Beechey, op. cit. i. 242. 7 D'Urville, op. cit. ii. 44.0. 5 Thomson, The Story of New Zealand, i. 60 ; Taylor, op. cit. i. 168. '■' Kotzebue, Voyage to the South Sea, i. 305. vii SEXUAL TABOO IN EATING 175 repasts of the men, and another for the meals of the women. The residence was common ; the women's house was not closed against our sex, but a decorous man would not enter it. The eating-house of the men was tabooed to women. " We ourselves saw the corpse of a woman floating round our ship, who had been killed because she had entered the eating-house of her husband in a state of intoxication." The raison d'etre of the two eating-houses belonging to each family was because the two sexes might not eat together. Women dared not be present at the meals of the men, on pain of death. Each sex had to dress their own victuals ' over a separate fire. The two sexes were not allowed to use the flesh of the same animal. Hog's flesh, turtle, several kinds of fruit, cocoa, bananas, etc., were prohibited to the women. 1 From another account of the Sandwich Islands we gather the following : women might not eat with men ; their houses and their labours were distinct ; their aliment was prepared separately. A female child from its birth until death was allowed no food that had touched the father's dish. " From childhood onwards no natural affections were incul- pated ; no social circle existed." 2 Ellis' account of the state of things in the Society and Sandwich Islands is as follows : — " The institutes of Oro and Tane inexor- ably require not only that the wife should not eat those kinds of foods of which the husband partook, but that i|»he should not eat in the same place or prepare her kood at the same fire. This restriction applied not )nly to the wife with regard to her husband, but to .11 individuals of the female sex, from their birth to 1 Lisiansky, op. cit. 127, 126 ; Kotzebue, op. cit. iii. 249, i. 310; Meinickc, op. it. ii. 300 ; H. T. Cheever, Life in the -Sandwich Islands, 24. - Jar vis, History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, 94, 95 ; Varigny, op. cit. 42. 176 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. their death. The children of each sex always ate apart. As soon as a boy was able to eat, a basket was provided for his use, and his food was kept distinct from that of the mother. The men were allowed to eat the flesh of the pig, of fowls, every variety of fish, cocoa-nuts, and bananas, and whatever was presented as an offering to the gods ; these the females, on pain of death, were forbidden to touch, as it was supposed they would pollute them. The fires at which the men's food was cooked were also sacred, and were forbidden to be used by the females. The basket in which the provision was kept, and the house in which the men ate, were also sacred, and prohibited to the females under the same cruel penalty. Hence the inferior food for the wives and daughters was cooked at separate fires, deposited in distinct baskets, and eaten in lonely soli- tude by the females in little huts erected for the purpose." The whole custom was known as the ai tabu or " sacred eating." l Cook observed of the Sandwich islanders, that " in their domestic life, the women live almost entirely by themselves." This condition of family life was most noticeable in Tahiti. The Tahitians forbade men and women to eat together; they " had an aversion to holding any intercourse with each other at their meals, and they were so rigid in the observance of this custom that even brothers and sisters had their separate baskets of provisions, and generally sat some yards apart, when they ate, with their backs to each other, without exchanging a word." 2 To resume the previous account : " their domestic habits were unsocial and cheerless. This is probably to be attributed to the invidious distinction established by 1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 116, 129, 263, iv. 386 ; id. Tour in Haivaii, 368. 2 Cook and King, op. cit. iii. 130 ; Vancouver, Voyage of Discovery, i. 105, 139. vii SEXUAL TABOO IN EATING 177 their superstitions, and enforced by tabu between the sexes. The father and mother, with their children, never, as one social happy band, surrounded the domestic hearth, or assembling under the grateful shade of the verdant grove, partook together, as a family, of the bounties of Providence. The nameless but delight- ful emotions experienced on such occasions were un- known to them, as well as all that we are accustomed to distinguish by the endearing appellation of domestic happiness. In sickness or pain, or whatever other circumstances the mother, the wife, the sister, or the daughter, might be brought into, tabu was never re- laxed. The men, especially those who occasionally attended on the services of idol-worship in the temple, were considered ra, or sacred ; while the female sex was considered noa, or common : the most offensive and frequent imprecations which the men were accus- tomed to use towards each other, referred also to this degraded condition of the females. ' Mayest thou become a bottle, to hold salt water for thy mother,' or ' mayest thou be baked as food for thy mother,' were imprecations they were accustomed to denounce upon each other." 1 Making due allowance for mission- ary prejudice, the action of sexual taboo in these islands had considerable results, and its meaning is shown in a marked fashion. King Kamehameha " broke " the tabu by eating with his wives. 2 Cases of this taboo have even been found in modern ,Europe. At a Servian wedding the bride for the first and only time in her life eats with a man, and is served instead of serving. In Brandenburg it is believed that .lovers and married people who eat from one plate or , drink from one glass will come to dislike each other, 1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 129. 2 Varigny, cp. cit. 42. N 178 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap, vn and in the district of Fahrland, near Potsdam, there is a prohibition, which is observed, against such persons biting the same piece of bread. 1 It was suggested by Robertson Smith that the pro- hibition against husbands and wives eating together may have been due to the fact that by exogamy they were of different tribes, and therefore could not eat the same food. But on the present showing this is impossible. In later thought, this idea may occasion- ally have been developed, but that it was never original is shown not only by the present evidence but by the facts that the system of tribal, totemic, and " classifica- tory " foods is rare, while sexual taboo in eating is almost universal, and that the taboo is no less common between brothers and sisters, who are of the same tribe, and also, except in rare cases, of the same totem-clan or marriage-class. 1 Reinsberg Duringsfeld, Hochzeitsbuch, 81, 217. CHAPTER VIII If contact of the two sexes is always potentially danger- ous, owing to fear of the chief result of contact, con- tagion of properties, it is to be expected that to savage thought the dangers of contagion should be multiplied and deepened when the contact is of the most intimate kind possible. The savage regards intercourse com- mensal and sexual as the closest, and especially in marriage, of which state the sharing of mensa and thorus is the chief feature for ordinary thought. As com- mensality is regulated by this fear of contact, so is sexual intercourse. The ideas beneath each form of contact are the same. The supreme biological import- ance of the nutritive impulse, of which the sexual is an extension or complement, and the delicate mechanism of the organs of generation, have determined in the usual ratio man's psychological attitude towards this function. As all primitive psychological attitudes arise from what may be called physiological thought, the actual process of functions producing directly ideas .concerning them, more or less reflex and subconscious, so as to be practically inherent in the human mind, so the depth of such ideas varies as the importance of the function. The impulse of sex is only less strong than that of hunger. Periodicity has assisted to make its .psychological character less ordinary, and less of an .everyday concern, and hence more shrouded in secrecy ^ 1 80 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. and more surrounded by mystery and fear. The instinct, as it may be truly called, for performing important functions in secret is of course due to anxiety concerning their unimpeded performance, and to fear of interruption. This principle can be traced right down to the lower animals. The savage is far more secretive in this function than is civilised man ; what Riedel states of the Ceramese, is true of the generality of savage and barbarous peoples. In Ceram, he says, all natural functions, especially that of coitus, are per- formed in secret, by preference in the forest. 1 In Fiji, from motives of delicacy, " rendezvous between hus- band and wife are arranged in the depths of the forest, unknown to any but the two." 2 Bowdich stated that in Western Africa if a man cohabited with a woman without the house, or in the bush, they both became the slaves of the first person who discovered them, but could be redeemed by their families. 3 This less common rule presupposes more or less publicity in the forest. In the Aru Islands and Wetar intercourse is not performed in the house, but in the forest. 4 In Makisar all bodily functions are performed in secret, and exposure is reprehensible. 5 The savage is also more refined in language with regard to this subject than are most civilised men ; thus in Ceram it is for- bidden to speak of sexual matters in the presence of a third person ; 6 and obscenity, that fungus-growth of civilisation through degeneration or wrong methods of education, is either unknown amongst savages or re- garded as a heinous sin. Ethnology supplies many cases of apparent obscenity, but the expressions are not 1 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebet en Papua, 96. 2 Seeman, op. cit. no, 191. 3 Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, 259. 4 Riedel, op. cit. 250, 448. 5 Id. 406. 8 Id. 96. vni SEXUAL INTERCOURSE 181 obscene, they express a man's righteous and religious indignation, and have much the same force as " infidel " and " blasphemer " when used seriously. Again, the phenomena of modesty in the female deepen this reserve. Dr. Ellis, who has given the best account of the origin of the feeling of modesty, points out the impulse in female animals and women " to guard the sexual centres against the undesired advances of the male. The naturally defensive attitude of the female is in contrast with the naturally aggressive attitude of the male in sexual relationships." This impulse for defence is carried on into the state of desire, and female animals are known to run after the male, and " then turn to flee, perhaps only submitting with much persuasion." There is the well-known case of a hind running away from a stag, but in a circle round him. " Modesty thus becomes an invita- tion." l Sexual taboo has emphasised the ideas arising from this functional process, by filling them with a content of religious fear. As to the psychological attitude of the male sex, we often find, especially in European folklore, the fear of possible ligature or impotentia con- jugalis at marriage, an anxiety coming straight from function and closely connected with the universal , care, often passing into religious fear, about doing something for the first time, or something unusual or important. Witches are often supposed to be able to cause this, as in South Celebes. 2 This feeling of egoistic sensibility, again, connects closely with the widely spread idea underlying contact, that injury may be caused by the ill-will or dangerous 1 Haveloclc Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, ii. 29. - B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie -van Zuid-Ce/ehes, 97. 1 82 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. habit of another, either with or without intention, either by the means of sympathetic magic or of what may be called sympathy. This form of sympathetic magic to which I apply the term ngadhungi, is, as we have seen, a natural development of that simple idea of contagion which may be called sympathy, man using nature's " bacteriological " or " electrical " means for his own ends. As is the case with every physical function and organ, so against the organs of genera- tion this method can be used. In Ceram difficult labour for woman, and in men, impotence, are caused by putting disease-transmitting articles where people " may tread on them. 1 In Tanna aud Malekula " the closest secrecy is adopted with regard to the penis, not at all from a sense of decency, but to avoid narak, the sight even of that of another man being considered t-most dangerous. They therefore wrap it round with many yards of calico, winding and folding them until a preposterous bundle eighteen inches or two feet long is formed." 2 We have here the not infrequent con- verse of the " evil eye " ; to see a thing is a method by which one may contract its contagious properties. Of the Arunta Messrs. Spencer and Gillen report, " as a general rule, women are not supposed to be able to exercise much magic except in regard to the sexual organs, but we have known of a woman being speared to death by the brother of her husband, who accused her of having killed the latter by means of a pointing stick. Women exercise peculiar powers in regard to the sexual organs. To bring on a painful affection in those of men, a woman will procure the spear-like seed of a long grass (Inturkirra), and having charmed it by singing some magic chant over it, she waits an oppor- 1 Riedel, op. cit. 140. 2 Somerville, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xxiv. 368. vin THE SEXUAL ORGANS AND MAGIC 183 tunity to point and throw it towards the man whom she desires to injure. Shortly after this has been done the man experiences pain, as if he had been stung by ants, his parts become swollen, and he at once attri- butes his sufferings to the magic influence of some woman who wishes to injure him. A woman may also charm a handful of dust which she collects while out digging up yams or gathering seeds, and having ' sung ' it brings it into camp with her. She takes the opportunity of sprinkling it over a spot where the man whom she wishes to injure is likely to micturate. If he should do so at this spot he would experience a scalding sensation in the urethra, and afterwards suffer a great amount of pain. Women may also produce disease in men by ' singing ' over and thus charming a finger, which is then inserted in the vulva ; the man who subsequently has connection with her will become diseased and may lose his organs altogether, and so when a woman wishes to injure a man she will some- times after thus ' poisoning ' herself, seek an oppor- tunity of soliciting him, though he be not her proper Unawa. Syphilitic disease amongst the Arunta is, as a matter of fact, very frequently attributed to this form of magic, for it must be remembered that the native can only understand disease of any form as due to evil magic, and he has to provide what appears to him to be a suitable form of magic to account for each form of disease." 1 The disease Erkincha, as we have noticed, is transmitted in the same way. The natives do not reason " from a strictly medical point of view ; their idea in a case of this kind is that a man suffering from Erkincha conveys a magic evil influence which they call Arungquiltha to the women, and by this means it is 1 Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, 547, 548. 1 84 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. conveyed as a punishment to other men." l As in other forms of contact, so in this, the transmission of disease is included in the hylo-idealistic contagion of properties, though it is not the origin of these ideas. Similarly, amongst the Zulus, a man suspicious of his wife's fidelity gets " medicine '' from a doctor, and takes it internally. By cohabiting with his wife he gives her the seed of disease, and any one cohabiting with her afterwards, acquires it, while she remains un- injured. They have also a " medicine " which can make a man sensitive to the existence of that state in a woman which can produce disease ; it is rubbed into a scarification on the back of the left hand. If a woman whom he approaches is in this state, a spasmodic con- traction attacks his fingers when he touches her, and he therefore abstains. " It is from dread of this ' disease ' that a man will not marry a widow till she has had medical treatment to remove all possibilities of com- municating it." 2 The " intention " is in this example well illustrated, being aimed at a third party, and leaving the intermediary free, and also being clearly a man's vengeance materialised and transmitted. As has been pointed out, ngadhungi (narak) and beneficent transmission are exactly the same except in the character of the " intention," which is evil in the first case and good in the second, and love -charms proper, used to inspire love, are frequently based on this method. A man or woman in the Arunta and other tribes can charm another's love by " singing " a head- band, which is then given to the person to wear ; a man can inspire a woman's love by " singing " the shell ornament he wears from his girdle. As they express 1 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 412 2 Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu, 287, 288. vni LOVE CHARMS 185 the result, the woman sees " lightning ' : on it, and it makes "her inwards shake with emotion." The idealism of love and its physiological accompaniments are here put in a way worthy of any high culture. It is to be observed that this same method is used to cure sickness, the shell ornament being placed on the sick man's chest. 1 To inspire love, the people of Makisar place secret charms in the footprints of a man or a woman. 2 In the Kei Islands herbs mixed with women's hair and hung in a tree are used for this. The women arouse love in men by charming betel which they have themselves prepared. 3 Sympathetic charms are used by men and women in Buru to excite love. One takes some betel or tobacco, and after speaking a charm over it, places it in the betel-box. When the man or woman against whom the charm is directed makes use of this betel, he or she falls in love with the owner. The same effect is produced by muttering charms over the oil which the woman uses for her hair, or over a piece of hair one has got from a woman. The most potent method, however, is the burying of a piece of prepared ginger, with the muttering of one's desire, in some spot where the woman usually passes. 4 In Tenimber the men make considerable use of charms to engage the women's affections. To this end they place a mixture of roots and lime on some spot where the woman has urinated. It is believed that the woman after a short time will fall madly in love with the man. Young men are therefore forbidden to use lime. 5 In the Babar Islands when a quarrel occurs between lovers, the man avenges himself by keeping a piece of her hair, or some bit of betel she has thrown away. Afterwards, as a 1 Spencer and Gillen, cp. clt. 545. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 414. 3 Id. 223. * Id. II. 5 Id. 302. 1 86 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. result, her children by another man will die. Lovers in these islands have full intimacy, but it must be kept secret, for there is a fine attaching. It is believed that men, if fined, are ungallant enough to make the woman ill and unlucky by curses. 1 Lovers in the Aru Islands give each other gifts, but never a lock of hair, for fear that if they quarrelled the one might make the other ill by burning it. 2 For love-charms Arunta women also " make and ' sing ' special okinchalanina or fur-string necklets, which they place round the man's neck, or they may simply charm a food such as a witchetty-grub or lizard and give this to the man to eat." To promote desire, a man will give a woman to eat a part of the reproductive organs of a male opossum or kangaroo. In the case of a delicate woman, a husband tries to strengthen her by " singing " over such part of a male animal, which she then eats. 3 This instance shows the identity of such love-charms and the transmission of strength already described. In the love-charms quoted, there are cases not only of ngadhungi but of transmission by ordinary contact. Leaving now this transmission of evil purpose and of love, we come to the general ideas of transmission of properties by ordinary contact. As one fears the malicious intention of an enemy which results in sickness or death by transmission of his malevolence, and welcomes or disdains, as the case may be, the feelings of love transmitted by material methods, so one fears or invites the involuntary transmission of another's qualities by contact. The lover is concerned with both sides of the taboo state in its beneficent aspect, he hopes to transmit his own love to his mistress and to receive hers by contact. But if, as is generally the case with 1 Riedel, op. cit. 358, 370. 2 Id. 262. 3 Spencer and Giilen, op. cit. 548. viii CONTAGION OF WEAKNESS 187 uncivilised man, the imperious instinct of love is crossed or conditioned by presuppositions concerning female character derived from the experience of ordinary life, the caution which he shares with the animals in the satisfaction of love will be accentuated by somewhat of fear of the contagion of female properties in the closest sort of contact. We shall see that the male sex, with an unanimity which is practically universal, ascribe to the female a relative inferiority in physical strength. This is a physiological idea arising straight from a sexual secondary difference which is practically universal. If savage man then fears that in ordinary association with women he may be infected with their relative weakness, and if the more civilised fear the moral " infection ' of effeminacy, it is quite natural that in the closest form of contact this fear should be accentuated. The conception is also based on what is the comple- ment of the idea of female weakness, namely, the practically universal physiological belief that sexual intercourse is weakening. This is a conception that may be called instinctive, inasmuch as it arises straight from a peculiarity of the function. This peculiarity is the fact that sexual intercourse is followed by a temporary depression, resulting from increased blood- pressure. The idea, then, that contact with women- entails weakness, thus arises in two ways which meet by a remarkable coincidence in the sexual act. In further illustration we may note the idea, probably universal, and correlative with the above mentioned physiological conception, that strength resides in the male seminal fluid. It is an interesting case of effect put for cause. In ordinary human thought the seed is the strength, as much as the blood is the life. The folk-medicine of most countries, especially Europe, is 1 88 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. full of cases where human semen is used to cure sickness. Primitive man most practically, it is to be noted, correlates weakness and sickness ; and there are also numerous examples of semen being administered in order to produce strength. The idea is then carried on to the organs of generation, as has been already described. Zulus think the testes the seat of strength. 1 Much indirect evidence from savage custom has, already appeared showing the universal belief that sexual intercourse is enervating, a belief based on this double idea. The Seminoles believed that carnal connection with a woman exercised an enervating influence upon men and rendered them less fit for the duties of a warrior. 2 In Halmahera men must practice continence when at war, " otherwise they will lose their strength." 3 In South Africa a man when in bed must not touch his' wife with his right hand ; " if he did so, he would have no strength in war, and would surely be slain." 4 The explanation of the rule, which forbids to warriors and hunters any sort of intercourse with women before and during their expeditions, may now be completed. The main feature of such rules is the injunction of continence, and the idea which prompts this is that while contact with women transmits female weakness, the retention of a secretion, in which strength is supposed to reside, ensures vigour and strength. A Congo belief is here instructive ; when the Chitome goes out to make his judicial circuit, criers "proclaim a fast of continence, the penalty for breaking which is death. The belief is that by such continence they preserve the life of their common father." 5 Similarly in the Kei 1 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xx. 116. 2 Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v. 272. a Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, xvii. 69. 4 Macdonald, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xx. 140. 5 W. Reade, cp. cit. 362. vin THEORY OF CONTINENCE 189 Islands men before going to war may have no intercourse with women, and those who remain behind must practice the same continence. 1 In New Caledonia, to abstain from carnal connection with women is considered a meritorious act, and is strictly observed on all solemn occasions, especially when going to war. 2 Strict chastity is observed by Malays in a stockade, else the bullets of the garrison will lose their power. 3 In Ceramlaut it is a sin not to cleanse the person after intercourse with a woman, when a man is about to go to war. 4 After killing his first man, the young Natchez warrior was required to abstain for six months from all sexual intercourse, and was prohibited from tasting meat. 5 A seven-days' taboo amongst the Malays, when fishing, is the scrupulous observance of chastity. 6 During the pilgrimage to Mecca which every Mussulman must perform once in his life, he has to abstain from all sexual intercourse. 7 The celibacy of warriors was a chief feature of Zulu and Fiji militarism. Tchaka based it on an existing custom and belief. 8 The Fijians had a custom identical with that of the ancient Thebans.' J In practice, doubtless, an unmarried man may make a better soldier, precisely because there is no tie to render death more terrible. Further, just as many detachable portions of the organism are regarded as parts of a man's soul, being filled with his life and character, and sometimes, for his safety, as external souls, so those secretions which have in fact the closest connection with life and strength might naturally be regarded in thought as having 1 Rieilel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 223. 2 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 92. 3 Skeat, Malay Magic, 524. 4 Riedel, op. cit. 168. 5 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 146. 6 Skeat, op. cit. 315. ' Burckhardt, Tra-veh in Arabia, i. 163. 8 Shooter, .p. cir. 47. 9 Williams, op. cit. i. 45 ; Polyaenus, ii. 5.1. 190 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. inherent in them a considerable part of the life and soul, or sometimes as being identical therewith. The widely- spread belief that the blood is the life is well known ; it is also often regarded as containing the soul ; soul, life, and strength are essentially identical in savage thought. We also find, not only the universal idea that the seed is the strength, but, as might be expected, also cases where the soul is actually believed to be con- tained in the organs of procreation. Thus, in the islands Leti, Moa, and Lakor, when a man is very ill, a ram is killed, and its genitals given him to eat. The people believe that " the principle of life resides in those parts." 1 Similarly, the Naudowessies believe that the father gives the child its soul, the mother its body only. 2 This is quite logical from the elementary notions of procreation. Now when we apply to these ideas the physiological fact that a temporary depression follows the sexual act, we may infer as probable a more or less constant physiological idea that in that act the man transmits some of his best strength, a part of his soul or life. We have had occasion to notice how primi- tive thought often anticipates modern scientific theory in some rough generalisation, and here is a concep- tion on a par with other early conceptions, which anticipates somewhat the latest theories of the Germ- plasm. In the next place, there is the preliminary part of the function, the perforation of the hymen. Here we have an instructive instance of the diffidence, anxiety, and caution with which the savage not only approaches things and acts unfamiliar or met with for the first time, but makes preparation for the due and proper perform- ance of important functions, not by way of improving 1 Riedel, op. cit. 393. 2 Carver, North America, 378. viii RUPTURE OF THE HYMEN 191 upon Nature, but of making sure of the working of Nature's mechanism. Deferring for a moment the latter consideration, we can estimate here the female attitude. There is in the female sex a universal physiological anxiety concerning this act. Savages cannot feel so much pain or so much pleasure as men of a more complex and highly organised brain, but their precautions against, and fear of, pain are far more elaborate and anxious. Like the higher animals, the savage is very diffident and timid by nature, except when a strong physical impulse is in full progress. Now we find that the savage uses more or less direct methods to avoid this preliminary act of handselling ; the avoidance is due to a vague religious fear based on the ideas of sexual taboo, also to the anxiety about a difficulty and, doubtless, to consideration for the female. Thus in the Dieri and neighbouring tribes it is the universal custom when a girl reaches puberty to rupture the hymen} In the Portland and Glenelg tribes this is done to the bride by an old woman ; and sometimes white men are asked for this reason to deflower maidens. 2 The artificial rupture of the hymen is a very widely spread custom. In the practice we see clearly the double idea of ridding the function of such difficulty as is identified by the savage with a spiritual -material result, and of removing the first and therefore most virulent part of female contagion, as the West African " takes off the fetish " from a strange liquor by getting some one to " handsel " it. Again, ignorance of the nature of female periodicity leads man to consider it as the flow of blood from a wound, naturally, or more usually, supernaturally pro- duced. We must also bear in mind the connection 1 Journ. Anthrof. Inst., xxiv. 169. 2 Brough Smyth, op. cit. ii. 319. 192 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. often made between the menstrual flow and the blood shed at the perforation of the hymen. The two results appear so similar that man often infers more or less exact identity of cause. An obvious inference was that the menstrual blood was caused by the bite of a supernatural animal, or by congress with such or with a supernatural human agent or evil spirit. The first of these is a fairly common idea. Certain Australian tribes believe that menstrua- tion comes from dreaming that a bandicoot has scratched the parts. 1 In New Britain it is traced to the bite of a supernatural bird, 2 and in Portugal to that of a snake. 3 Messrs. Ploss and Bartels reproduce in illustrations wooden figures from New Guinea, one representing a crocodile biting a woman's vufaa, another, a crocodile shaped like a snake emerging therefrom, and a third, a snake, in shape like the male organ, at the entrance of the vagina. 4 In Portugal, according to another account, it is believed that during menstruation women are " liable to be bitten by lizards, and to guard against this risk they wear drawers during this period." 5 In Abyssinia there is a belief that if the bride leaves her home in the interval between the betrothal and the marriage she will be bitten by a snake. 6 At the first menstruation of a Chiriguano girl old women run about the hut with sticks, " striking at the snake which has wounded her." 7 " In a modern Greek folk-tale the Fates predict that in her fifteenth year a princess must be careful not to let the sun shine on her, for if this were to happen she would be turned into a lizard." 8 . 1 Journ. Ant hop. Inst. xxiv. 177. 2 Ploss u. Bartels, Das Weib*, ii. 330, 334. 3 Id. I.e. 4 Id. i.e. 5 H. Ellis, op. cit. ii. 237. 6 M. Parkyns, Life in Abyssinia, ii. 41. 7 Lettres e'difantes et curieuses, viii. 333. 8 J. G. Frazer, The Go/den Bough 2 , iii. 220. viii THE SERPENT 193 Some Australian tribes believe in a supernatural serpent which attacks women. 1 Macusi women at menstruation will not go in the forest, for fear of being loved by a snake. 2 In Rabbinical tradition the serpent is the symbol of sexual desire. 3 Amongst the Malays to dream of being bitten by a snake portends success in love. 4 The connection of the serpent with sexual matters is very familiar, especially in European folk- lore, and is found all over the world. The explanation has been several times hinted at and is obvious when- one considers the likeness in shape of the serpent, lizard, , eel, and similar animals, to the male organ of generation. It is worth noting that the curious phallic towers of Zimbabwe are surmounted by a bird's head. 5 And, as in primitive thought similar objects produce similar results, the dangerous effect of such supernatural organs is attributed to similar things, which may not therefore be touched or eaten by women at these dangerous times. Thus in New Guinea women are not allowed to eat eels, because a god once took the form of an eel to approach a woman who was bathing. 6 Young women in the Ha4ifax Bay tribe are forbidden to eat the flesh of male animals and eels. 7 Amongst the Central Australians boys and girls may not before puberty eat large lizards, else they will acquire an abnormal craving for sexual intercourse. 8 As to the second form of the belief, by the outward projection of the idea, the agent feared becomes an anthropomorphic spirit. Subconsciously the result is attributed to the male sex, but as the agent is invisible, 1 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 175. 2 Ploss u. Bartels, cp. cit. ii. 334. 3 Ellis, I.e. * Clifford, In Cur: and K«mj.ong, 189. B T. Bent, in J cum. Anthrop. Ins:, xxii. 125. 6 Gill, op. cit. 279. " Curr, The Australian Race, ii. 425. 8 Spencer and Gillen, cp. cit. 471, 4-2. 4-3. i O 194 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. the inference is naturally to a spiritualised man. Such is also the case with the widely spread belief in incubi and succubi, which is due to a similar inference from a common phenomenon of the early days of sexual life. The result is ascribed to a supernatural nocturnal visitor. Amongst the Yorubas erotic dreams are attributed to Elegbra, a god who, either as male or female, consorts sexually with men and women in their sleep. 1 In the particular question before us, we find a link between the serpent and a human agent in a common folk-tale motive. The old Sanskrit story tells of a beautiful girl who killed a cobra to get the jewel from its head. To avenge this, the king of the snakes assumed the form of a handsome youth, and after winning the girl's affections, married her. " At last the day came, and the nuptial ceremony was over, and the bridegroom went with his bride into the nuptial chamber. And he lifted her on to the marriage-bed, and called her by her name. And as she turned towards him, he ap- proached her slowly, with a smile on his face. And she looked and saw issuing from his mouth and dis- appearing alternately, a long tongue, thin, forked, and quivering like that of a snake. And in the morning the musicians played to waken the bride and bridegroom. But the day went on, and they never came forth. Then the merchant, her father, and his friends, after waiting a long time, became alarmed, and went and broke the door, which was closed with a lock. And then they saw the bride lying dead on the bed, alone, and on her bosom were two small marks. And they saw no bridegroom. But a black cobra crept out of the bed, and disappeared through a hole in the wall. In Siam evil spirits are believed to make " the wound 1 Ellis, op. cit. 67. ~ A Digit of the Moon, 93, 94, 95. " 2 vni THE DEMON LOVER i 95 which causes the monthly flow of blood. 1 The idea is further extended. In the Aru Islands the women fear the evil spirit Bcitai, when traversing the forest, because he takes the semblance of their husbands, and has inter- course with them there, shown afterwards by bleeding from the vagina. 2 So in Kola and Kobroor the women avoid going alone in the forest, so as not to be ap- proached by sisij evil spirits, the result of which is the growth of stones in the uterus and subsequent death. 3 In the Babar Islands there are evil spirits in the shape of men who approach young women, in the form of their husbands, and make them pregnant. These are identified with the well-known suwanggi, who are actual persons versed in sorcery. 4 In the island of Wetar there is an evil spirit, named Kluantelus^ who takes the form of a handsome man, and has intercourse with women ; accordingly, women never go unaccom- panied into the forest. 5 The Jews of the East believe i that male spirits form alliances with women, while the female spirits " entangle in their cunning meshes of wedded love the young men of earth." According to the Javanese the air is peopled by wandering genii of evil. Ghostly demons often disguise themselves in human form, and appear as counterfeit husbands to wives whom they mislead by their deceptive allure- ments. 7 In Nias the seducer is fined and the woman killed. A pregnant woman often asserts that she was ravished by a spirit, and she thus saves her life and that of her child. 8 The Malays suppose that Pontianak is the ghost of a woman dying in child-birth, which presents itself at midnight to men and emasculates 1 Loubere, I.e. - Riedel, op. cit. 252. 3 Id. 271. 4 Id. 340. ° Id. 439. 6 Featherman, op. cit. v. 129. 7 Id. ii. 396. 8 Id. 356. 196 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. them. 1 The natives of Amboina and Uliase believe in evil spirits, male and female, who practise the following trick. When a man and a woman have made an assignation in the forest, one of these evil spirits is apt to take the shape and place of the man or the woman, and whoever has intercourse with such dies in a few days. These people also believe that Pontianak, who in these islands is feared by women in child-birth, steals away infants and the genital organs of men. 2 The correlation of evil spirits with human beings is here well illustrated. To these ideas is partly due the common estimate of woman as a mysterious being who has communica- tion with the world of spirits. The other factor in the belief is the hysteria which is more or less frequent in the sexual life of woman. Thus, in Buru hysterical prophetesses are believed to have had intercourse with evil spirits. 3 The idea further develops into the widely spread belief that women, especially about the time of puberty, have communication with gods, a belief emphasised by the common practice of secluding them at that time. This idea has been made much of by various systematised cults, and has resulted in many phenomena of religious parthenogenesis. In Cambodia it is sacrilege to abuse a young girl who is not of an age to marry. They are called the wives of Prah En [Indra). During the seclusion called " the shade " which is necessary at puberty, young girls are called the wives of Rea, and it is a sin to abuse them. On leaving their retreat, they become the wives of men. 4 , Another agent sometimes connected with these phenomena of periodicity is the sun. Dr. Frazer has 1 Featherman, of. cit. 434. 2 Riedel, of. cit. 57, 58. S Id. 9. 4 Aymonier, of. cit. 192, 193. " vin SUN AND MOON 197 given many examples of girls at puberty being forbidden to see the sun, or fire, in connection with the idea that the sun can cause impregnation, as in the familiar story of Danae. He also points out that boys at puberty, mourners, warriors who have slain a foe, and other tabu persons may not look upon the sun or the fire. Associated with the fear is the belief that the tabued girl might pollute the sun, as Samoyed women can pollute the fire ; i.e. make it dangerous from taboo qualities to others. This is the objective aspect of taboo. From the subjective aspect, the point of view of the person in danger, there is the belief that impreg- nation can be effected by the sun. Early thought - speculated deeply on the connection of the sun with the fertility and growth of vegetable and animal life. Not only the gentle rain from heaven, but also the kindly rays of the warm sun were credited, not un- scientifically, with the power of impregnating Mother Earth and her offspring. Inference from growth under the warm sun would naturally lead to the belief that women could thus be influenced by it. The moon also was sometimes credited with this power over women. Here we come to the interesting question how far early j man had observed the rhythmical connection of female periodicity with the moon. That monthly periodicity . belongs to women and moon alike could not fail to be marked, and there are indications that it was. Hence conceptions of an anthropomorphic kind concerning the connection of women with the moon. The " faith- ful witness in Heaven," by the way, is more often than not masculine in primitive thought. In both of these correlative ideas, as also in the case of fire, often identified more or less with the sun, as the earthly phenomenon of the heavenly idea, we have now to (fi 198 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. consider whether they connect with any functional peculiarity of women, especially at puberty. In the case of mourners and the like, the potential danger of re, as a beneficent but somewhat dangerous essence, not to be trifled with, is enough reason for the taboo, and applies also to girls and boys at the beginning of the sexual life. There is, however, a further coincid- ence arising, as so often, from a function. A peculiarity of puberty which passes on into the phenomena of love, is sudden accession of bodily heat, by which the whole frame from time to time feels filled with fire. It is in ideas arising from this functional phenomenon that we are to find the ultimate explanation of this fear of the sun. In all these taboos at puberty, it is the dangerous results of association with the other sex that are guarded against, and so characteristic a symptom as accession of heat could not fail to be noticed and avoided as far as possible. The "patient," using the primitive connotation of this term, must keep cool. Parallel ideas from savage psychology bring this out. Anger, which is physiologically connected with an accession of heat, is often attributed by savages to possession by an evil spirit, as amongst the Battas. 1 More precisely there is a universal connection, seen in • all languages, between love and heat. Malay physio- logy, for instance, states that love is made of fire. 2 We saw in a Greek folk-tale the connection between the sun at puberty and the lizard, a symbol of mascu- I Unity. A Central Australian myth of the origin of fire states that it came from the penis of a euro, which contained "very red fire." 3 Again, and the idea is natural enough in tropical countries, there is a frequent 1 Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 156. - Featherman, op. cit. ii. 427. 3 Spencer and Gillen, of. cit. 446. viii HEAT 199 connection made between heat and evil spirits. To keep cool is one of the points of savage comfort in a hot climate, a wish which naturally would pass into the spiritual life. In Ceram and Watubella a house which is filled with evil spirits is called a " warm " house ; : and sickness is often identified with heat, and the patient is before all things to be made cool ; while health and soundness are identified with coolness. For forty-four days after birth the Malay mother may not eat foods which have a heating effect on the blood, and the Malay infant is bathed with cold water every four hours " in order that it may be kept cool." a Especi- ally fever is, of course, connected with heat. In the Wyingurri tribe of West Australia the sun is Tchintu. A stone of that name contains the heat of the sun, and is used to give a man fever by placing it where he will tread. 3 Here, as in so many cases before mentioned, there comes in the interesting question whether primi- tive man observed the connection of the temperature of the body with health and illness. As before, the case stands thus ; man's unanalysed experience of temperature in sickness is included under an excessively wide generalisation, which has within it, though con- cealed in fallacy, a scientific truth, destined to emerge after a training in analysis and experiment. This connection between illness, evil spirits, and heat is an adequate explanation of the rule whereby many persons in various kinds of danger may not see the sun or fire. Pamali {tabu) amongst the Hill Dyaks is imposed on all kinds of occasions. People subjected to it are not allowed to bathe, to touch fire, or follow ordinary occupations. 4 The heir to the throne of 1 Riedel, op. at. 141, 210. - Skeat, op. at. 343. 3 Spencer and Gillen, op. ch. 541. 4 Featherman, op. cit. ii. 278. 200 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. Bogota might not see the sun, nor converse with a woman. 1 When a Pima kills a man, he has to fast sixteen days, is cut off from all social intercourse, and may not look at a fire. 2 Further, it is natural that on these ideas sexual intercourse should be especially forbidden at sexual crises, such as menstruation, pregnancy, and for some time after child-birth. Woman's subconscious physical fear of man here correlates with an instinct of physio- logical thought caused by the discomfort of the func- tion, and for the male sex, his fear of female contagion is intensified by the presence of female " disease." It is not long since the medical world gave up the primi- tive idea that menstrual blood is deleterious. In the present connection this hylo- idealistic "disease'' is identical with the property of the sexual taboo state ; on these occasions woman is more of a woman than in ordinary circumstances, and the danger of contagion is accordingly intensified. Such are the dangers connected with the sexual act in the mind of primitive man, and to remove the material contagion there was used, with more than the mere idea of cleanliness, a religious purification. The bath taken by a Cadiack bridegroom and bride after the wedding night, " for the purification of himself and his partner," is one instance of a universal practice. 3 The fear of transmission of female properties, here intensified, is also indirectly connected with female sexual secretions, such as menstrual blood, a special form of ceremonial " uncleanness." Moreover, when ideas of shame and disgust and, later, of religious purity, are brought in, the old undifferentiated spiritual- 1 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iv. 359. 2 Featherman, op. cit. Hi. 240. 3 Lisiansky, cp. cit. 199. viii SEXUAL DANGERS 201 material secretions, as they may be called, which com- bined contagion of female weakness, and imaginary disease and poison on the one hand, and on the other hand, of materialised physical fear of the male sex, in the virus which made contact dangerous, were split into specialised forms. CHAPTER IX These ideas concerning contact regulate in social taboo human relations generally, and in sexual taboo those of men and women. The sexual properties whose trans- mission renders contact dangerous or beneficent may now be recapitulated, and further proof given of their character and of the fact of their transmission. We have seen that where sympathy, desire, or love appears, contact between persons otherwise mutually dangerous becomes beneficent. Sympathy, aided by a common human impulse, which may be called allopathic, some- times regards sexual difference as in itself efficacious to cure diseased For instance, the Australians employ the urine of the opposite sex as a cure for sickness. In very serious cases blood from a woman's sexual organs is given to a man, and his body is rubbed with it ; or blood from a man is given to a woman. 1 From a similar idea comes a custom found in the Aru Islands, where a battle can be instantly stopped if a woman throws her girdle between the armies." But apart from k cases like these and the methods of contact employed in love-charms and marriage ceremonies, sexual contact is usually, on the principles of sexual taboo, regarded as deleterious. The Central Australians believe that to put a man's hair necklet or girdle near a woman would 1 Eyre, op. cit. ii. 300 ; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 464. 2 Riedel, op. cit. 261. chap, ix SEXUAL CONTAGION 203 be productive of serious evil to her. They believe that sterility may be brought about by a girl in her youth playfully or thoughtlessly tying on a man's hair waist- band. The latter so used, if only for a moment or two, has the effect of cramping her internal organs and making them incapable of the necessary expansion, and this is the most frequent explanation of sterility given by the natives. 1 Owing to the monopoly of thought by the male sex it is rarely we hear of transmission of masculine pro- perties to the female. It is more often a vague dele- terious result that is thought of; for instance, Maori men may not eat with their wives, nor may male children eat with their mothers, " lest their tapu, or ' sanctity,' should kill them." 2 This male tapu is, ot course, male characteristics, such as relative superiority of strength. The Miris will not allow their women to eat tiger's flesh, " lest it should make them too strong- minded." 3 We have noticed cases where men are not allowed to be present at lying-in, because their presence would hinder the birth. Another case is from Halma- hera, where a pregnant woman is afraid to eat food left by her husband, for it would cause painful labour. 4 European folklore illustrates this masculine contagion, and the general idea that contact produces assimilation. In Hannover- Wendland and the Altmark, if a boy and girl are baptised in the same water, the boy becomes a woman-hunter, and the girl grows a beard. In Neu- mark if a girl is baptised in water used for a boy she will have a moustache. In Lower Saxony and Meck- lenburg a boy must not be baptised in water which has been used for a girl, else he grows up beardless ; while 1 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 539, 52. 2 Taylor, op. cit. 168. 3 Dalton, op. cit. 33. 4 Riedel, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, xvii. 78. 2o 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. a girl if baptised in water used for a boy becomes mis- chievous like boys. In Scotland if Jeanie is baptised before Sandie, she grows a beard and Sandie is beardless. 1 Hessian lads think they can escape conscription by carry- ing a baby-girl's cap in their pocket. 2 Lastly, when females are of a masculine temperament they often assume male attire, an interesting practical method of assimilation. 3 What, then, are the chief female properties the transmission of which is feared as deleterious? First of all, mere difference is regarded by the savage as dangerous, simply because it is unknown. In the second place, the difference is specialised as inferiority of physical strength and stature, relatively, that is, to the male standard. It is a universal conception amongst men of all stages of culture that woman is weaker than man. As a rule, man forgets the relativity of this character- istic, and regards woman as more or less absolutely weak. That this idea is practically inherent in human male nature, as a physiological inference of the simplest kind, is proved by its regular expression in the life and literature of all ages. The use and connotation of the word " effeminate " illustrates this well. This evidence taken with that of ethnology is overwhelming. Primi- tive man agrees with the most modern of the moderns, for instance, with a Nietzsche, who regards woman as a slight, dainty, and relatively feeble creature. The ethnological evidence for this masculine belief is very extensive. 4 General inferiority is sometimes found as a secondary result. 1 Ploss, Das Kind, i. 217. - A. Wuttke, Deutsche Abcrglaube, 100. 3 Masculine females assume male attire — -Brooke, Ten Tears in Saraivak, i. 131 ; yourn. Antkrop. Inst, xxiii. 7 ; G. A. Wilken, in De Indische Gids for 188 1, 263 ; W. Reade, op. cit. 364; Bastian, San Salvador, 177 ft". 5 Giraud-Teulon, op. cit. 309 ff. (Amazons). 4 Darwin, Descent of Man, 117, 597; Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. A ix THE WEAKER VESSEL 205 In the savage mind the belief has been corroborated by the fallacies that woman's periodic loss of blood marks enfeeblement — an idea which often correlates with the notion that woman is a chronic invalid, sick- ness and weakness being identified, — and that sexual intercourse is weakening. In the next place is the relative timidity of women. 1 292; H. Ellis, Man and Woman, 395; Tasmanians, Bonwick, op. cit. 10; Aus- tralians, Eyre, cp. cit. ii. 207, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xvi. 205, Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, 100, 163, Native Tribes of South Australia, II, Waitz-Gerland, cp. cit. vi. 774, 775, Letourneau, Sociologie, 169 ; Polynesians, D'Urville, op. cit. i. 520, Beechey, op. cit. i. 238, 241, Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 219, 198, Ellis, Polynesian Re- searches, iii, 199, 293, 294, 257 j Fijians, Williams, op. cit. i. 156, 169, Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 332, Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 45, Waitz-Gerland, o^>. cit. vi. 627 ; New Caledonians, Meinicke, op. cit. i. 231, Gamier, Oceanic, 1S6, 350, 354, Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vi. 626, Anderson, Fyi and New Caledonia, 218, 232 ; New Hebrides, Meinicke, op. cit. i. 203, Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiii. 7 ; 0_ueen Charlotte Islands, Meinicke, op. cit. i. 177; Solomon Islands, id. i. 166 ; Melanesia generally, id. i. 67, Parkinson, Im Bismarck-Archipel, 98, 99, Codrington, op. cit. 233, Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, 54; Papuans, Rosenberg, op. cit. 454, 532 j Sumatra, Marsden, op. cit. 382, Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 135, 81 ; Bali, id. ii. 339 ; Nias, Tijdschrift -voor Indtsche Taal- Land-en Volkenkunde, xxxvi. 3055 Sarawak, Brooke, op. cit. i. 10 1 ; Japan, Alcock, The Capital of the Tycoon, i. 265 ; Corea, Ploss u. Bartels, op. cit. ii. 434, Griffis, op. cit. 245 ; China, M. Hue, Vempire chinois, i. 268 ; India, Missionary Records {India), xviii. D'Urville, op. cit. i. no, Asiatick Researches, iv. 95, Histoire uni- •verselle des voyages, xxxi. 352 ; Siam, Pinkerton, cp. cit. ix. 379 ; Afghans, Letourneau, op. cit. 179 ; Samoyeds, Georgi, op. cit. 14, 15 ; Circassians, Pinkerton, op. cit. ix. 142 ; Russians, Ploss, op K cit. ii. 448; Ansayree, Featherman, op. cit. v. 495 ; Egyptians, Ploss, op. cit. ii. 455, Lane, cp. cit. i. 252; Africa, Shooter, op. cit. 79, 80, 81, Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. ii. 387, 471, Ploss u. Bartels, cp. cit. ii. 426, D. Macdonald, Africana, i. 137, 141, 35, C. New, Life in Eastern Africa, 359, Ploss, Das Kind, 442, Letourneau, op. cit. 172, P. B. Du Chaillu, Equatorial Africa, 52, 3--, Harris, Highlands of Ethiopia, iii. 58, Proyart, Loango, 93, W. Bosman, Description of Guinea, 320, Bastian, San Salvador, j 1, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xiii. 465, xvi. 86, xxii. Il8, 119, xxiv. 289, C J. Anderson, Lake Ngami, 231 ; Madagascar, Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. 1 j ii. 438 ; Central and South America, Letourneau, cp. cit. 175, Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. 515, 308, 382, iv. 130, Brett, op. cit. 353, Bancroft, cp. cit. iii. 494, Dobrizhofter, I op. cit. ii. 155 ; North America, Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. 99, 101, Bancroft, op. cit. ! i. 511, Peter Jones, History of the Ojebway Indians, 60, Charlevoix, Journal, vi. 44, ' Powers, op. cit. 20, Sproat, op. cit. 91, Hearne, op. cit. 90, 310. 1 The following are typical cases: Lumholtz, cp. cit. 91 j Featherman, cp. cit. v. 495 ; Kotzebue, Voyage to the South Sea, ii. 56, Asiatick Researches, vi. 82 ; Gamier, cp. cit. 328, 349; Coote, op. cit. 163, 1645 Hearne, op. cit. 310; Waitz-Gerland, . op. cit. vi. 775 ; Melville, The Marquesas Islands, -6 ; Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 232 ; K. von : den Steinen, op. cit. 332 ; D'Albertis, cp. cit. i. 15, 189, 200, 292, 318, 337, 342. 206 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. This characteristic and that of weakness are the com- plement of masculine courage and strength, and are connected with a physical subconscious fear of men. When associated with hysterical phenomena, timidity is merged in another conception of woman, as a " mysterious " person. The mystery is based on sexual differentiation, in particular on the sexual phenomena of menstruation and child-birth. As we have seen, this mystery is deepened by further ideas it creates, such as the ascription of taboo properties to woman, and the beliefs that woman has intercourse with the spiritual world at menstruation, and that she is more or less of i a potential witch. The whole reasoning is clinched by the fact of a temporary depression, identified with loss of strength, following upon intercourse with this weak but mysterious creature, and the imperious demands of nature which enforce association with the female sex, inevitably cause a continuous repetition of sexual taboo and of the ideas which underlie it. These organic characteristics not only make woman peculiarly sus- ceptible to religious influences, but have fitted her to be a useful medium for priestcraft, and often to hold the priestly authority herself. The priestess is a frequent feature of savage worship. Here is to be found the explanation of one set of cases of priests dressing as women. For example, amongst the Sea Dyaks some of the priests pretend to be women, or rather dress as such, and like to be treated as females. 1 Patagonian sorcerers, who are chosen from children who have St. Vitus' dance, wear women's clothes. 2 Amongst the Kodyaks there are men dressed as women, who are regarded as sorcerers and are much respected. 3 1 St. John, op. at. i. 62. 2 Bastian, Der Mensch, iii. 310. 3 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. iii. 313. IX CONTAGION OF WOMAN 207 Doubtless the idea is to assume such emotional peculiari- ties of women as are useful to the priest. To the savage mind, the donning of another's dress is more than a token of the new position : it completes identity by communicating the qualities of the original owner. There is also the desire to command attention by eccen- tricity if not by mystery, for both of which ends change of sex is a time-honoured method. It remains to add direct evidence for the belief, which is the chief factor in sexual taboo, that contact with women causes transmission of female character- istics, femininity, effeminacy, weakness, and timidity In South Africa a man must not, when in bed, touch his wife with his right hand ; " if he did so, he would have no strength in war, and would surely be slain." If a man touch a woman during menstruation, " his bones become soft, and in future he cannot take part in ■ warfare or any other manly exercise." Stepping over another's person is highly improper ; while if a woman steps over her husband's stick " he cannot aim or hit any one with it. If she steps over his assegai, it will never kill or even hit an enemy, and it is at once discarded and given to the boys to play and practise with." l The Galela and Tobelorese are continent during war, " so as not to lose their strength." - The ^ Seminoles believed that " carnal connection with a woman exercised an enervating influence upon men, ■■[ and rendered them less fit for the duties of thelwarrior." 8 ' In British Guiana cooking is the province of the women. On one occasion, when the men were compelled to ! bake some bread, they were only persuaded to do so 1 J. E. Macilonald, in Jcurn. Anthrcp. Inst. xx. 140, 119, 130. L~~ 2 *J. G. F. Riedel, in ZeitscJirift fir Ethnologic, xvii. 69. 3 Schoolcraft, op. cit. v. 272. 208 THE MYSTIC ROSE CHAP. with the utmost difficulty, and were ever after pointed at as old women. 1 North American Indians, both before and after war, refrain " on religious grounds ' from women. Contact with females, some of them hold, " makes a warrior laughable, and injures his bravery for the future." 2 One of Hesiod's maxims is a prohibition against washing in water used by a / woman. 3 In Homer, Odysseus fears lest he be " unmanned," and therefore susceptible to Circe's influence if he ascend her couch. 4 Assimilation to the female character from such connection is illustrated by a Cingalese myth. 5 In the Solomon Islands a man will never pass under a tree fallen across the path, for fear a woman may have stepped over it. 6 Amongst the Bongos stools are only used by women ; the men avoid such seats as effeminate. 7 In Central Australia, during his period of initiation, a medicine-man must sleep with a fire between him and his wife ; " if he did not do this his power would disappear for ever." s Amongst the Barea man and wife seldom share the same bed ; the reason they give is " that the breath . of the wife weakens her husband." 9 In Western Victoria a menstruous woman may not take any one's food or drink, and no one will touch food that she has handled, " because it will make them weak." 10 Among the Dyaks of North- West Borneo young men are for- bidden to eat venison, which is the peculiar food of\ women and old men, " because it would render them as timid as deer." u A Zulu, newly married, dares not I im Thurn, op. cit. 256. :! Hesiod, Work 1 and Days, 798. 5 yisiatick Researches, vii. 439. 7 Schweinfurth, op. cit. i. 283. 9 Munzinger, op. cit. 526. II St. John, op. cit. i. 186. - Waitz-Gerlancl, op. cit. iii. 158. 4 Odyssey, x. 301, 339-41. 6 Guppy, op. cit. i. 4. 8 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 529. 10 Dawson, op. cit. cii. ix CONTAGION OF WOMAN 209 go out to battle, for fear he should be slain ; should he do so and fall, the men say " the lap of that woman is unlucky." 1 A Fan so weak that he could hardly move about, was supposed to have become so by seeing the blood of a woman who had been killed. " The weak spirit of the woman had got into him." 2 Amongst the Damaras men may not see a lying-in woman, " else they will become weak and will be killed in battle." 3 In Ceram menstruous women may not approach the men, lest the latter should be wounded in battle. 4 In some South American tribes the presence of a woman just confined makes the weapons of the men weak. 5 The same belief obtains among the Tschuktsches, who accordingly remove all hunting and fishing implements from the house before a birth.' 1 In the Booandik tribe if men see women's blood they will not be able to fight. 7 In the Encounter Bay tribe boys are told from infancy that if they see menstrual blood their strength will fail prematurely. 8 In the Wiraijuri tribe boys are reproved for playing with girls ; the culprit is taken aside by an old man, who solemnly extracts from his legs some " strands of the woman's apron " which have got in. 9 Amongst the Omahas, if a boy plays with girls he is contemptuously dubbed " hermaphrodite." 1 " In Brandenburg the peasants say that a baby boy must not be wrapped in an apron, else it will, when grown up, run after the girls. In Mecklenburg a new-born girl must be first kissed by the mother and a boy by the father, else the girl will grow whiskers and the 1 Callaway, op. cit. 441, 443. - M. H. Kingsley, Travels in Wat Africa, 447. 3 South African Folklore 'journal, ii. 63. 4 Riedel, De sluik-en krocsi.arige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 139. 5 Ploss u. Bartels. op. cit. ii. 26. 6 Id. I.e. 7 J. Smith, The Booandik Tribe, 5. 8 Native Tribes of South Australia, 186. 9 fourn. Anthrop. Inst. xiii. 448. 10 J. O. Dorsey, in Third Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 266. 2io THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. boy's face be hairless. 1 The Khyoungthas have a legend of a man who reduced a king and his men to a condition of feebleness by persuading them to dress up as women and perform female duties. When they had thus been rendered effeminate, they were attacked and defeated without a blow. " That," say the Khyoungthas, " is why we are not so brave as formerly." 2 The advice given to Cyrus by Crcesus was identical with that of the Hillman, and the result was the same. 3 Contempt for female timidity has caused a curious custom amongst the Gallas ; they amputate the mammae of boys soon after birth, believ- ing that no warrior can possibly be brave who possesses them, and that they should bejong to women only. 4 From such ideas is derived the custom of degrading I the cowardly, infirm, and conquered to the position i of females. At the " initiation " of a Macquarrie boy J the men stand over him with waddies, threatening , instant death if he complains while the tooth is being knocked out. He is afterwards scarified : if he shows any sign of pain, three long yells announce the fact to the camp ; he is then considered unworthy to be admitted to the rank of men, and is handed over to the women as a coward. Thenceforward he becomes the playmate and companion of children. 5 Amongst, the Lhoosais, when a man is unable to do his work, whether through laziness, cowardice, or bodily in- capacity, he is dressed in women's clothes and has toi associate and work with the women. 6 Amongst the Porno Indians of California, when a man becomes too 1 Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 202, 205. 2 Lewin, Wild Races of South- Eastern India, 136. 3 Herodotus, i. 155-57. 4 Harris, op. cit. iii.58. The cauterisation of the mamma by Amazons is to be.compared. 5 G. F. Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and Neiv Zealand, ii. 224. Lewin, op. cit. 255. ix EFFEMINACY 211 infirm for a warrior, he is made a menial and assists the squaws. 1 So in Cuba and Greenland, with the additional degradation of wearing female dress. 2 When the Delawares were denationalised by the Iroquois and prohibited from going out to war, they were, according to the Indian notion, " made women," and were henceforth to confine themselves to the' pursuits appropriate to women. 3 The connection of lack of virility with the normal estimate of woman has also led to the remarkable custom of degrading impotent men and others to the position of females. Thus, amongst the Yukis and other tribes of Cali- fornia are to be seen men dressed as women, who are called i-wa-musp, man-woman. They appear to be destitute of desire and virility ; they perform all the duties of women, and shirk all functions pertaining to men. Two reasons are given for the origin of this :lass, masturbation, or a wish to escape the responsi- Dilities of manhood. There is a ceremony to initiate such men to their chosen life ; the candidate is placed :'n a circle of fire, and a bow and " woman-stick " are offered to him, with a formal injunction to choose one or the other, and to abide by his choice for ever. 4 The ■:-.< Tsecats of Madagascar are impotents who dress as ' vomen. 5 The Higras of South India are natural hunuchs, or castrated in boyhood ; they dress in ■•jrvomen's clothes.'' Impotent Kookies dress as women. 7 :|:.Terodotus and Hippocrates describe a class of impotent xjlnen amongst the ancient Scythians who were made to lo women's work and to associate with women alone. 8 1 Powers, op. cit. 160. J Bastian, Dcr Mcnsch, iii. 313, 314 5 cf. Waitz-Gcrland, op. cit. iii. 472. 3 L. H. Morgan, The League of the Iroquois, 16. * Powers, op. cit. 132, 133. 5 Bastian, op. cit. iii. 311. ,; Journ. Anthrop. Inst. ii. 406. 7 Lewin, op. cit. 280. • 8 Herodotus, i. 105, iv. 67 ; Hippocrates, i. 561. 212 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. With regard to the particular circumstances of menstruation and child-birth, the obvious vehicle of contagion is blood. But it is not the fear of woman's blood which is the primary cause of avoidance ; this would not account, except by the most strained analogy, for most of the facts ; nor is there any flux of blood during pregnancy, when woman is regularly taboo I woman's hair, nail-parings, and occupations can hardly be avoided from a fear of woman's blood ; and there is also the female side of the question to be taken into, account. It is necessary to note this, because an attempt has been made to build up for savage thought a shrine of mystery round woman, cemented with blood, and that not her own, but ordinary human blood. 1 The savage indeed regards blood, as he does flesh and other human substance, as containing the life, but sentimental ideas of the sacredness of blood in itself, as apart from its containing human or sexual properties, are not to be found in early thought ; nor in early thought are there any such strong notions of the blood-tie of kindred, as is generally supposed.] Blood is only one of many vehicles by which contact influences relation. Blood is freely used by savages to assuage thirst, as well as to produce strength. The prohibition against letting it fall on the ground has led to an erroneous idea of its " sacredness," and in most cases may be more simply explained. When slaying a hog for a feast, the Niasese plunge the knife into the heart, so as to lose as little blood as possible. Each person cooks his piece carefully, so as to retain the blood ; some eat it raw. 2 Amongst the Karalits seal's blood is preserved 1 As by E. Durkheim, "La prohibition de l'inceste et ses origines," in L ' Anm* Sociologijue for 1898. - Featherman, op. cit. ii. 350. ix BLOOD 213 in balls, and, to prevent the escape of the blood when an animal is killed, the wound is immediately closed up. 1 To savages who do not know the use of salt, blood is an excellent substitute. In the Central Australian tribes " blood may be given by young men to old men of any degree of relationship, and at any time, with a view to strengthening the latter." Again, blood is not infrequently used to assuage thirst and hunger ; indeed, when under ordinary circum- stances a black-fellow is badly in want of water, what he does is to open a vein in his arm and drink the blood.- Other Australian tribes " have no fear of blood or of the sight of it " ; they drink it freely to acquire strength. 3 The Wachaga and Koos delight in drinking warm blood fresh from a slaughtered animal. 4 At the Dieri ceremony of Wilyaru blood drawn from men is poured on the novice's back " to infuse courage, and to show him that the sight of blood is nothing." 5 The latter reason is secondary. Woman's blood is feared or desired, just as are other parts of woman, because it is a part of woman and contains feminine properties. The contagion of woman during the sexual crises of menstruation, pregnancy, child-birth, is simply intensified, because these are occasions when woman's peculiar characteristics are accentuated, these are feminine .crises when a woman is most a woman. This is the •only difference between contact then and contact in "ordinary states, a difference of degree only. We may now conclude the description of the ideas which have produced sexual taboo. We have traced 1 Featherman, op. cit. iii. 420. a Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 461, 462. 3 Jour. Anihrop.lmt. xxiv. 172-79. 4 Id. xviii. 13 ; Rowney, op. cit. 31. 5 Howitt, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. xx. S2. 2i 4 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. its origin from sexual differentiation, difference of occupation, and a resulting solidarity in each sex ; this biological material is then informed by religious ideas concerning human relations, which are regulated by contact. Thus the usual working motive in sexual taboo is that the properties of the one sex can be transmitted to the other by all methods of contact, transmission, or contagion, and by various vehicles. Animal-like, the savage fears weakness more than any- thing else. Two remarkable facts have emerged — first, that it is dangerous, and later, wrong, for men to have anything to do with women ; intercourse commensal and sexual being especially dangerous because especially intimate, but there is a tendency against all living together ; and secondly, that sexual intercourse, even i when lawful morally and legally, is dangerous first, and . later, sinful. To primitive thought all intercourse has one connotation of material danger, which later split into ideas of sins, such as incest and fornication, for any intercourse is the breaking of a personal taboo and a sexual taboo, and the material results of such breaking develop into moral sin. Sexual taboo would seem to have had the useful i -results not only of assisting Nature's institution of the family and of producing the marriage system, by preventing licence both within and without the family limits, keeping men from promiscuity and incest, de- gradations which were never primitive — the early efforts of human religious thought being in the direction of assisting, not of checking, Nature — but I also of emphasising the characteristic qualities of each sex by preventing a mixture of male and female temperaments through mutual influence and associa- tion, and, as the complement to this, of accentuating ix SEXUAL TABOO 215 by segregation the charm each sex has for the other in love and married life, the charm of complementary difference of character. Man prefers womanliness in woman, and woman prefers manliness in man ; sexual taboo has enhanced this natural preference. Where sexual taboo is fully developed, the life of husband and wife is a sort of divorce a mensa et thoro, and the life of men and women is that of two divided castes. The segregation is naturally emphasised as between young persons of the opposite sex, most of all between those who, as living in the somewhat close contact of the family, are more strictly separated, both because parents prevent the dangerous results obviated by sexual taboo with all the more care since their own children are in danger, and because, subsequently, a feel- ing of duty in this regard is combined with the natural . affection of brothers and sisters, which is due to early association. The biological basis of this separation is the universal practice by which boys go about with the . father as soon as they are old enough, and the girls 1 remain with the mother. This is the preparatory educa- tion of the savage child, beginning about the age of i seven. Girls and boys till the age of seven or eight, and sometimes till puberty, are often classed as " children," with no distinction of sex, as amongst the Kurnai. 1 I In Leti, Moa, and Lakor children are brought up to- ■■ gether till about ten years old. The girls then begin to help the mother, and the boys go about with the I father. So in the Babar Islands." Amongst the Kaffirs, I as amongst most peoples, boys and girls till seven or eight live with the mother. As soon as they are old enough, the boys are taken under the father's charge. 3 1 Fbc:: and Houitt. op. cit. 1S9. - Riedel, op. cit. 392, 355. 3 Lichtenstein, op. cit. i. 260. 216 THE MYSTIC ROSE chap. In Samoa the boys leave their mother's care at seven years of age, and come under the superintendence of their father and male relatives. They are now circum- cised and receive a new name. 1 This case combines an " initiation " ceremony placed at a date earlier than usual. In Patagonia the sons begin to go about with the father at ten, and the girls with the mother at nine. 2 Amongst the Jaggas boys have to live together as soon as they can do without a mother's care. 3 Of some Australian tribes Mr. Curr reports that " from a very early age the boys begin to imitate their fathers, and the girls their mothers, in their everyday occupa- tions. When the boy is four or five years of age the father will make him a miniature shield, spear, and wommera, with which the little fellow fights his compeers and annoys his mother and the dogs. About seven or eight years of age commences in earnest the course of education. At eight or ten , the boy has to leave the hut of his father and sleep in one common to the young men and boys of the tribe." 4 The following cases show how sexual taboo empha- sises this. In the Society and Sandwich Islands " as soon as a boy was able to eat, his food was kept distinct from that of his mother, and brothers and sisters might not eat together from the earliest age." 5 In Uripiv boys from a few days after birth are supposed to eat with the male sex only, else " death would mysteriously fall upon them. The fact of suckling, however, is overlooked." 6 In Fiji brothers and sisters may not speak to each other, nor eat together. The boys sleep 1 Globus, xlvii. 71. - Musters, op. cit. 177. 3 Krapf, op. cit. 243. 4 Curr, op. cit. i. 71. 5 Ellis, Tour in Hawaii, 368 ; id. Polynesian Researches, i. 263 ; Cook and King, op. cit. ii. 156. fi J own. Antrop. Inst, xxiii. 4. ix BROTHER AND SISTER 217 in a separate room. The relationship between brothers and sisters is termed ngane, which means " one who shuns the other." 1 In some Australian tribes brother and sister are not allowed even to converse. 2 Amongst all the Indian tribes of California brothers and sisters scrupulously avoid living together. 3 In Melanesia there is a remarkable avoidance between a boy and his sisters and mother, beginning when he is first clothed, and in the case of the sister when she is first tatooed. He is also forbidden to go underneath the women's bed-place, just as a Melanesian chief thinks it a degra- dation to go where women may be above his head. 4 In Fiji, again, brothers and sisters may not converse, the boys' sleeping-room is separated from that of the girls, and boys may not eat with a female. 5 In New Caledonia brothers and sisters after having reached years of maturity are no longer permitted to entertain any social intercourse with each other ; they are pro- hibited from keeping each other's company, even in the presence of a third person, and if they casually meet, they must instantly go out of the way, or, if that is impossible, the sister must throw herself on the ground with her face downwards. Yet, if a misfortune should befall one of them, they assist each other to the best of their ability through the medium of a common friend. In Japan young princes are prohibited from all inter- course with the opposite sex. According to the moral code of the same country, " parents must teach their daughters to keep separate from the other sex. The old custom is : man and woman shall not sit on the same mat, nor put their clothing in the same place, 1 Williams, op. cit. i. 136, 167. - Featherman, op. cit. ii. 142. 3 Powers, op. cit. 412. 4 Codrington, op. cit. 232, 233. 5 Williams, op. cit. i. 167 ; W. Coote, Wanderings South and East, 138. 6 V.