 51. Homeopathic magic of a flesh diet. The practice of killing a god has now been traced amongst peoples who have reached the agricultural stage of society. We have seen that the spirit of the corn, or of other cultivated plants, is commonly represented either in human or in animal form, and that in some places a custom has prevailed of killing annually either the human or the animal representative of the god. One reason for thus killing the corn spirit in the person of his representative has been given implicitly in an earlier part of this work. We may suppose that the intention was to guard him, or her, for the corn spirit is often feminine, from the enfeeblement of old age, by transferring the spirit, while still hair and hearty, to the person of a youthful and vigorous successor. Apart from the desirability of renewing his divine energies, the death of the corn spirit may have been deemed inevitable under the sickles or the knives of the reapers, and his worshippers may accordingly have felt bound to acquiesce in the sad necessity. But further, we have found a widespread custom of eating the god sacramentally, either in the shape of the man or animal who represents the god, or in the shape of bread made in human or animal form. The reasons for thus partaking of the body of the god are, from the primitive standpoint, simple enough. The savage commonly believes that by eating the flesh of an animal or man, he acquiesce not only the physical, but even the moral and intellectual qualities which were characteristic of that animal or man. So when the creature is deemed divine, our simple savage naturally expects to absorb a portion of its divinity, along with its material substance. It may be well to illustrate by instances, this common faith in the acquisition of virtues or vices of many kinds through the medium of animal food, even when there is no pretense that the vians consist of the body or blood of a god. The doctrine forms part of the widely ramified system of synthetic or homeopathic magic. Thus, for example, the creeks Cherokee and Kindred tribes of North American Indians believe that nature is possessed of such a property as to transfuse into men and animals the qualities, either of the food they use, or of those objects that are presented to their senses. He who feeds on venison is, according to their physical system, swifter, and more sagacious than the man who lives on the flesh of the clumsy bear, or helpless dunghill fowls, the slow-footed tame cattle, or the heavy, wallowing swine. This is the reason that several of their old men recommend and say that formerly their greatest chieftains observed a constant rule in their diet, and seldom ate of any animal of a gross quality, or heavy motion of body. Fans think it conveyed a dullness through the whole system, and disabled them from exerting themselves with proper vigor in their martial, civil, and religious duties. The Zaparo Indians of Ecuador will, unless from necessity, in most cases not eat any heavy meats, such as tepia and peccary, but confine themselves to birds, monkeys, deer, fish, etc. Principally, because they argue that the heavier meats make them unwieldy, like the animals who supply the flesh, impeding their agility and unfitting them for the chase. Similarly, some of the Brazilian Indians would eat no beast, bird, or fish that ran, flew, or swam slowly. Lest, by partaking of its flesh, they should lose their ability and be unable to escape from their enemies. The caribs abstained from the flesh of pigs, lest it should cause them to have small eyes like pigs. And they refused to partake of tortoises, from the fear that if they did so, they would become heavy and stupid like the animal. Among the fans of West Africa, men in the prime of life never eat tortoises for a similar reason. They imagined that if they did so, their vigor and fleetiness of foot would be gone. But old men may eat tortoises freely, because having already lost the power of running, they can take no harm from the flesh of the slow-footed creature. While many savages thus fear to eat the flesh of slow-footed animals, lest they should themselves become slow-footed, the bushmen of South Africa purposely ate the flesh of such creatures. And the reason which they gave for doing so exhibits a curious refinement of savage philosophy. They imagined that the game which they pursued would be influenced sympathetically by the food in the body of the hunter, so that if he had eaten of swift-footed animals, the quarry would be swift-footed also and would escape him. Whereas if he had eaten of slow-footed animals, the quarry would also be slow-footed, and he would be able to overtake and kill it. For that reason, hunters of gemspok particularly avoided eating the flesh of the swift and agile springbok. Indeed, they would not even touch it with their hands, because they believed the springbok to be a very lively creature which did not go to sleep at night. And they thought that if they ate springbok, the gemspok which they hunted would likewise not be willing to go to sleep, even at night. How then could they catch it? The namakwas abstained from eating the flesh of hares, because they think it would make them faint-hearted as a hair. But they eat the flesh of the lion, or drink the blood of the leopard or lion, to get the courage and strength of these beasts. The bushmen will not give their children a jackal's heart to eat, lest it should make them timid like the jackal. But they give them a leopard's heart to eat, to make them brave like the leopard. When a rogogo man of East Africa kills a lion, he eats the heart in order to become brave like a lion. But he thinks that to eat the heart of a hen would make him timid. When a serious disease has attacked a zulu kral, the medicine man takes the bone of a very old dog, or the bone of an old cow, bull, or other very old animal, and administers it to the healthy as well as to the sick people, in order that they may live to be as old as the animal of whose bone they have partaken. So to restore the aged ison to youth, the witch-media infused into his veins a decoction of the liver of the long-lived deer, and the head of a crow that had outlived nine generations of men. Amongst the diacs of northwest Borneo, young men and warriors may not eat venison, because it would make them as timid as deer. But the women and very old men are free to eat it. However, among the caeans of the same region, who share the same view as to the ill effect of eating venison, men will partake of the dangerous viand, provided it is cooked in the open air, for then the timid spirit of the animal is supposed to escape at once into the jungle, and not to enter into the eater. The aeno believe that the heart of the water-ousel is exceedingly wise, and that in speech the bird is most eloquent. Therefore, whenever he is killed, he should be at once torn open, and his heart wrenched out and swallowed, before it has time to grow cold or suffer damage of any kind. If a man swallows it thus, he will become very fluent and wise, and will be able to argue down all his adversaries. In northern India, people fancy that if you eat the eyeballs of an owl, you will be able, like an owl, to see in the dark. When the Kansas Indians were going to war, a feast used to be held in the chief's hut, and the principal dish was dog's flesh. Because, said the Indians, the animal who is so brave that he will let himself be cut in pieces in defence of his master, must needs inspire valor. Men of the Buru and Aru Island, see Stindies, eat the flesh of dogs in order to be bold and nimble in war. Amongst the papuans of the Port Moresby and Motumoto districts, New Guinea, young lads eat strong pig, wallaby, and large fish, in order to acquire the strength of the animal or fish. Some of the natives of northern Australia fancy that by eating the flesh of the kangaroo or emu, they are enabled to jump or run faster than before. The mirries of Assam price tiger's flesh as food for men. It gives them strength and courage, but it is not suited for women. It would make them too strong minded. In Korea, the bones of tigers fetch a higher price than those of leopards as a means of inspiring courage. A China man in Seoul bought and ate a whole tiger to make himself brave and fierce. In Norse legend, Ingeald, son of King Ornand, was timid in his youth, but after eating the heart of a wolf, he became very bold. Hielto gained strength and courage by eating the heart of a bear and drinking its blood. In Morocco, lethargic patients are given ants to swallow, and to eat lion's flesh will make a coward brave, but people abstain from eating the hearts of fowls, lest thereby they should be rendered timid. When a child is late in learning to speak, the Turks of Central Asia will give it the tongues of certain birds to eat. A North American Indian thought that brandy must be a decoction of hearts and tongues, because, said he, after drinking it, I fear nothing and I talk wonderfully. In Java, there is a tiny earthworm, which now and then utters a shrill sound, like that of the alarm of a small clock. Hence, when a public dancing girl has screamed herself hoarse in the exercise of her calling, the leader of the troop makes her eat some of these worms, in the belief that thus she will regain her voice and will after swallowing them, be able to scream as shrilly as ever. The people of Darfur in Central Africa think that the liver is the seat of the soul, and that a man may enlarge his soul by eating the liver of an animal. Whenever an animal is killed, its liver is taken out and eaten, but the people are most careful not to touch it with their hands, as it is considered sacred. It is cut up in small pieces and eaten raw, the bits being conveyed to the mouth on the point of a knife or the sharp point of a stick. Anyone who may accidentally touch the liver is strictly forbidden to partake of it, which prohibition is regarded as a great misfortune for him. Women are not allowed to eat liver because they have no soul. Again, the flesh and blood of dead men are commonly eaten and drunk to inspire bravery, wisdom or other qualities for which the men themselves were remarkable, or which are supposed to have their special seat in the particular part eaten. Thus among the mountain tribes of southeastern Africa there are ceremonies by which the youths are formed into guilds or lodges, and among the rites of initiation there is one which is intended to infuse courage, intelligence and other qualities into the novices. Whenever an enemy who has behaved with conspicuous bravery is killed, his liver, which is considered the seat of valor, his ears, which are supposed to be the seat of intelligence, the skin of his forehead, which is regarded as the seat of perseverance, his testicles, which are held to be the seat of strength, and other members, which are viewed as the seat of other virtues, are cut from his body and baked to cinders. The ashes are carefully kept in the horn of a ball, and during the ceremonies observed at circumcision are mixed with other ingredients into a kind of paste which is administered by the tribal priests to the youths. By this means the strength, valor, intelligence, and other virtues of the slain are believed to be imparted to the eaters. When basutos of the mountains have killed a very brave foe they immediately cut out his heart and eat it, because this is supposed to give them his courage and strength in battle. When Sir Charles McCarthy was killed by the Ashantis in 1824 it is said that his heart was devoured by the chiefs of the Ashanti army who hoped by this means to imbibe his courage. His flesh was dried and parceled out among the lower officers for the same purpose and his bones were long kept at Kumasi as national fetishes. The Noras Indians of New Grenada ate the hearts of Spaniards when they had the opportunity, hoping thereby to make themselves as dauntless as the dreaded Castilian chivalry. The Sioux Indians used to reduce to powder the heart of the valiant enemy and swallow the powder, hoping thus to appropriate the dead man's valor. But while the human heart is thus commonly eaten for the sake of imbuing the eater with the qualities of its original owner, it is not, as we have already seen, the only part of the body which is consumed for this purpose. Thus warriors of the Thedora and Angarago tribes of southeastern Australia used to eat the hands and feet of their slain enemies, believing that in this way they acquired some of the qualities and courage of the dead. The Camilla Roy of New South Wales ate the liver as well as the heart of a brave man to get his courage. In Tonquin, also, there is a popular superstition that the liver of a brave man makes brave any who partake of it. With a like intent, the Chinese swallow the bile of notorious baddits who have been executed. The Dyaks of Sarawak used to eat the palms of the hands and the flesh of the knees of the slain in order to steady their own hands and strengthen their own knees. The Tololaki, notorious headhunters of central Celebes, drink the blood and eat the brains of their victims that they may become brave. The Italones of the Philippine islands drink the blood of their slain enemies, and eat part of the back of their heads and of their entrails raw, to acquire their courage. For the same reason, the Ethul Gauls, another tribe of the Philippines, suck the brains of their foes. In like manner, the Kai of German New Guinea eat the brains of the enemies they kill in order to acquire their strength. Among the Kimbunda of Western Africa, when a new king succeeds to the throne, a brave prisoner of war is killed in order that the king and nobles may eat his flesh and so acquire his strength and courage. The notorious Zulu chief Metawana drink the gall of 30 chiefs, whose people he had destroyed, in the belief that it would make him strunk. It is a Zulu fancy that by eating the center of the forehead and the eyebrow of an enemy, they acquire the power of looking steadfastly at a foe. Before every warlike expedition, the people of Minahassa in Celebes used to take the locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in boiling water to extract the courage. This infusion of bravery was then drunk by the warriors. In New Zealand, the chief was an Atua, God, but there were powerful and powerless gods. Each naturally sought to make himself one of the former. The plan, therefore, adopted was to incorporate the spirits of others with their own. Thus, when a warrior slew a chief, he immediately gouged out his eyes and swallowed them. The Atua Tonga, or divinity, being supposed to reside in that organ. Thus he not only killed the body, but also possessed himself of the soul of his enemy, and consequently the more chiefs he slew, the greater did his divinity become. It is now easy to understand why a savage should desire to partake of the flesh of an animal or man whom he regards as divine. By eating the body of the God, he shares in the God's attributes and powers. And when the God is a corn God, the corn is his proper body. When he is a vine God, the juice of the grape is his blood, and so by eating the bread and drinking the wine, the worshipper partakes of the real body and blood of his God. Thus the drinking of wine in the rites of a vine God, like Dionysus, is not an act of reverie. It is a solemn sacrament. Yet a time comes when reasonable men find it hard to understand how anyone in his senses can suppose that by eating bread or drinking wine he consumes the body or blood of a deity. When we call corn series and wine backers, says Cicero, we use a common figure of speech, but do you imagine that any body is so insane as to believe that the thing he feeds upon is a God? End of chapter 51. In the preceding chapters we saw that many communities which have progressed as far as to subsist mainly by agriculture, have been in the habit of killing and eating their farinaceous deities, either in their proper form of corn rice and so forth, or in the borrowed shapes of animals and men. It remains to show that hunting and pastoral tribes, as well as agricultural peoples, have been in the habit of killing the beings whom they worship. Among the worshipful beings or gods, if indeed they desire to be dignified by that name, whom hunters and shepherds adore and kill, are animals pure and simple, not animals regarded as embodiments of other supernatural beings. A first example is drawn from the Indians of California, who living in a fertile country under a serene and temperate sky, nevertheless rank near the bottom of the savage scale. The Achag Chemimp tribe adored the great buzzard, and once a year they celebrated a great festival called Panis, a bird feast in its honor. The day selected for the festival was made known to the public on the evening before its celebration, and preparations were at once made for the erection of a special temple, one quirk, which seems to have been a circular or oval enclosure of stakes, with the stuffed skin of a coyote or prairie wolf set up on a hurdle to represent the god Chinig Chinig. When the temple was ready, the bird was carried into it in a solemn procession, and later an altar erected for the purpose. Then all the young women, whether married or single, began to run to and fro as if distracted, some in one direction and some in another, while the elders of both sexes remained silent spectators of the scene, and the captains, tricked out in paint and feathers, danced around their adored bird. These ceremonies being concluded, they seized upon the bird and carried it to the principal temple, all the assembly uniting in the grand display, and the captains dancing and singing at the head of the procession. Arrived at the temple, they killed the bird without losing a drop of its blood. The skin was removed entirely and preserved with the feathers as a relic, all for the purpose of making the festal garment or pilt. The carcass was buried in a hole in the temple, and the old women gathered round the grave, weeping and moaning bitterly, while they threw various kinds of seeds or pieces of food upon it, crying out, Why did you run away? Would you not have been better with us? You would have made Pinole a kind of gruel, as we do, and if you had not run away, you would have not become a panes, and so on. When this ceremony was concluded, the dancing was resumed and kept up for three days and nights. They said that Panes was a woman who had run off to the mountains and had been changed into a bird by the god Chinik Chinik. They believed that though they sacrificed the bird annually, she came to life again and returned to her home in the mountains. Moreover, they thought that as often as the bird was killed, it became multiplied, because every year all the different Capitanes celebrated the same feast of Panes, and were firm in the opinion that the birds sacrificed were but one and same female. The unity in multiplicity, thus postulated by the Californians, is very noticeable and helps to explain their motive for killing the divine bird. The notion of the life of a species as distinct from that of an individual, easy and obvious as it seems to us, appears to be one which the Californian savage cannot grasp. He is unable to convince the life of the species otherwise than as an individual life, and therefore as exposed to the same dangers and calamities, which menace and finally destroy the life of the individual. Apparently, he imagines that the species left to itself will grow old and die like an individual, and that therefore some step must be taken to save from extinction the particular species which he regards as divine. The only means he can think of to avert the catastrophe is to kill a member of the species in whose reigns the tide of life is still running strong, and has not yet stagnated among the fence of old age. The life thus diverted from one channel will flow, he fancies, more freshly and freely in a new one. In other words, the slain animal will revive and enter on a new term of life with all the spring and energy of youth. To us this reasoning is transparently absurd, but so too is the custom. A similar confusion, it may be noted, between the individual life and the life of the species was made by the Samuans. Each family had for its god a particular species of animal, yet the death of one of these animals, for example an owl, was not the death of the god. He was supposed to be yet alive and incarnate in all the owls in existence. 2. Killing the Sacred Ram The rude Californian rite, which we have just considered, has a close parallel in the religion of ancient Egypt. The Thebans and all other Egyptians who worshiped the Theban god Amon held rams to be sacred and would not sacrifice them. But once a year at the festival of Amon, they killed a ram, skinned it and clothed the image of the god in the skin. Then they mourned over the ram and buried it in a sacred tomb. The custom was explained by a story that Zeus had once exhibited himself to Hercules, clad in the fleece and wearing the head of a ram. Of course the ram in this case was simply the beast god of Tebis, as the wolf was the beast god of Lycopolis, and the goat was the beast god Mendes. In other words, the ram was Amon himself. On the monuments it is true, Amon appears in a semi-human form with the body of a man in the head of a ram, but this only shows that he was in the usual chrysalis state through which beast gods regularly pass before they emerge as full-blown anthropomorphic gods. The ram therefore was killed not as a sacrifice to Amon, but as the god himself, whose identity with the beast is mainly shown by the custom of clothing his image in the skin of the slain ram. The reason for thus killing the ram god annually may have been that which I have assigned for the general custom of killing god and for the special Californian custom killing the divine buzzard, as applied to Egypt. This explanation is supported by the analogy of the bull god Apis, who has not suffered to outlive a certain term of years. The intention of thus putting a limit to the life of a human god was, as I have argued, to secure him from the weakness and frailty of age. The same reasoning would explain the custom, probably an older one, of putting the beast god to death annually, as was done with the ram of Thebes. One point in the Theban ritual, the application of the skin to the image of the god, deserves particular attention. If the god was at first the living ram, his representation by an image must have originated later, but how did it originate? One answer to this question perhaps furnished by the practice of preserving the skin of the animal which is slain as divine. The Californians, as we have seen, preserve the skin of the buzzard and the skin of the goat, which is killed on the harvest field as a representative of the corn spirit, is kept for various superstitious purposes. The skin, in fact, was kept as a token or memorial of the god, or rather as containing in it part of divine life, and it had only to be stuffed or stretched upon a frame to become a regular image of him. At first an image of this kind would be renewed annually, the new image being provided by the skin of the slain animal, but from annual images to permanent images the transition is easy. We have seen that the older custom of cutting a new maypole every year was superseded by the practice of maintaining a permanent maypole, which was, however, annually decked with fresh flowers and leaves, and even surmounted each year by a fresh young tree. Similarly, when the stuffed skin, as a representative of the god, was replaced by a permanent image of him in wood, stone or metal, the permanent image was annually clad in the fresh skin of the slain animal. On this stage had been reached, the custom of killing the ram came naturally to be interpreted as a sacrifice offered to the image, and was explained by a story like that of Almond and Hercules. Three, killing the sacred serpent. West Africa appears to furnish another example of the annual killing of a sacred animal and the preservation of its skin. The negroes of Isapu, in the island of Fernandapur, regard the Cobra Capella as their guardian deity, who can do them good or ill, bestow riches or inflict disease and death. The skin of one of these reptiles is hung tail downwards from a branch of the highest tree in the public square, and the placing of it on the tree is an annual ceremony. As soon as the ceremony is over, all children born within the past year are carried out and their hands made to touch the tail of the serpent's skin. The latter custom is clearly a way of placing the infants under the protection of the tribal god. Similarly, in Senegambio, a python is expected to visit every child of the python clan within eight days after birth, and the psilly, a snake clan of ancient Africa, used to expose their infants to snakes in the belief that the snakes would not harm trueborn children of the clan. 4. Killing the Sacred Turtles In the Californian, Egyptians and Fernandapur customs, the worship of the animal seems to have no relation to agriculture, and may therefore be presumed to date from the hunting or pastoral stage of society. The same may be said of the following custom. Though the Tune Indians of New Mexico, who practice it, are now settled in world villages or towns of a peculiar type and practice agriculture and the arts of pottery and weaving. But the Tune custom is marked by certain features which appear to place it in a somewhat different class from the preceding cases. It may be well, therefore, to describe it at full length in the words of an eyewitness. With Midsummer, the heat became intense. My brother, that is adopted Indian brother, and I sat, day after day, in the cool underrooms of our house. The latter, busy with his quaint forge and crude appliances, working Mexican coins in the bangles, girdles, earrings, buttons, and whatnot, for savage ornaments. Though his tools were wonderfully rude, the work he turned out by dint of combined patience and ingenuity was remarkably beautiful. One day, as I sat watching him, a procession of fifty men went hastily down the hill and off the westwards over the plain. They were solemnly led by a painted and shelled bedecked priest, and followed by the torch-bearing Shulu Witsi, or God of Fire. After they had vanished, I asked old brother what it all meant. They are going, said he, to the city of Kaka and the home of our others. Four days after, toward sunset, costume and mask in the beautiful paraphernalia of the Kakoshi, or Good Dance, they returned in file up the same pathway, each peering in his arms, a basket filled with living, squirming turtles, which he regarded and carried as tenderly as a mother would her infant. Some of the wretched reptiles were carefully wrapped in soft blankets, their heads and forefeet protruding, and mounted on the backs of the plume bedecked pilgrims, made ludicrous but solemn caricatures of little children in the same position. While I was at supper upstairs that evening, the governor's brother-in-law came in. He was welcomed by the family as if a messenger from heaven. He bore in his tremulous fingers one of the much abused and rebellious turtles. Pain still adhered to his hands and bare feet, which led me to affirm that he had formed one with the sacred embassy. So you went to Katlu Elon, did you, I asked. I replied the weary man, in a voice husky with long chanting, as he sank, almost exhausted on a roll of skins which had been placed for him, and tenderly led the turtle on the floor. No sooner did the creature find itself at liberty than it made off as fast as its lame legs would take it. Of one accord, the family forsook dish, spoon, and drinking cup, and grabbing from a sacred meal bowl whole handfuls of the contents hurriedly followed the turtle about the room, in the dark corners, around water jars, behind the grinding throes, and out in the middle of the floor again, praying and scattering meal on its back as they went. At last, strange to say, it approached the foot sore man who had brought it. Ha! he exclaimed with emotion. See, it comes to me again. Ah, what great favours the fathers of all grant me this day. In passing his hand gently over the sprawling animal, he inhaled from his palm deeply and long, at the same time evoking the favour of the gods. Then he leaned his chin upon his hand, and with large wistful eyes regarded his ugly captive, as it sprawled about, blinking its meal-bedimmed eyes, and clawing the smooth floor in memory of its native element. At this juncture I ventured a question. Why do you not let him go or give him some water? Slowly the man turned his eyes towards me, and all the mixture of pain, indignation, and pity on his face, while the worshipful family stared at me with holy horror. Poor young brother, he said at last. No, you not how precious it is. It die. It will not die. I tell you it cannot die. But it will die if you don't feed it and give it water. I tell you it cannot die. It will only change houses tomorrow, and go back to the home of its brothers. Ah, well, how should you know, he mused. Turning to the blinded turtle again. Ah, my poor dear lost child or parent. My sister or brother to have been. Who knows which, may be my own great-grandfather or mother. With this he fell to weeping most pathetically, and tremulous with sobs, which were echoed by the women and children. He buried his face in his hands. Filled with sympathy for his grief, however mistaken, I raised the turtle to my lips and kissed its cold shell. Then depositing it on the floor, hastily left the grief-stricken family to their sorrows. Next day, with prayers and tender beseechings, blooms and offerings, the poor turtle was killed, and its flesh and bones were removed and deposited in the little liver, that it might return once more to eternal life among its comrades in the dark waters of the lake of the dead. The shell, carefully scraped and dried, was made into a dance rattle, and covered by a piece of buckskin, it still hangs from the smoke-stained rafters of my brother's house. Once a Navajo tried to buy it for a ladle, loaded with indignant reproaches, he was turned out of the house. Were anyone to venture the suggestion that the turtle no longer lived, his remark would cause a flood of tears, and he would be reminded that it had only changed houses and gone to live forever in the home of our lost others. In this custom we find expressed in the clearest way a belief in the transmigration of human souls into the bodies of turtles. The theory of transmigration is held by the Mokwi Indians, who belong to the same race as the Tsunis. The Mokwis are divided into totem clans, the bear clan, deer clan, wolf clan, hare clan and so on. They believe that the ancestors of the clans were bears, deer, wolves, hares and so forth, and that at death the members of each clan become bears, deer and so on, according to the particular clan to which they belonged. The Tsuni are also divided into clans, the totems of which I agree closely with those of the Mokwis, and one of their totems is the turtle. Thus their belief in transmigration into the turtle is probably one of the regular articles of their totem faith. What then is the meaning of killing a turtle in which the soul of a kinsman is believed to be present? Apparently the object is to keep up communication with the other world in which the souls are departed are believed to be assembled in the form of turtles. It is a common belief that the spirits of the dead return occasionally to their old homes, and accordingly the unseen visitors are welcomed and feasted by the living, and then sent upon their way. In the Tsuni ceremony the dead are fetched home in the form of turtles, and killing their turtles is the way of sending back the souls to the spirit land. Thus the general explanation given above of the custom of killing a god seems inapplicable to the Tsuni custom, the true meaning of which is somewhat obscure. Nor is the obscurity which hangs over the subject entirely dissipated by a later and fuller account which we possess of the ceremony. From it we learned that the ceremony forms part of the elaborate ritual which these Indians observe at the mid-summer solstice for the purpose of ensuring an abundant supply of rain for the crops, and voiced her dispatch to bring their other selves the tortoises from the sacred lake Kutlu Valaba to which the souls of the dead are believed to repair. When the creatures have thus been solemnly brought to Tsuni, they are placed in a bowl of water and dances are performed beside them by men in costume who postulate gods and goddesses. After the ceremony all the tortoises are taken home by those who caught them, and are hung by their necks through the rafters till morning, when they are thrown into pots of boiling water. The eggs are considered a great delicacy. The meat is seldom touched except as a medicine, which is curative for cutaneous diseases. Part of the meal is deposited in the river with kohakua, white shell beads, and turkish beads as offerings to the council of the gods. This account, at all events, confirms the inference that the tortoises are supposed to be in the incarnations of the human dead, for they are called the other selves of the Tsuni. Indeed, what else should they be, and the souls of the dead in the bodies of tortoises, seeing that they come from the haunted lake? As the principal objects of the prayers uttered and of the dances performed at these Midsummer ceremonies appear to be to procure rain from the crops, it may be that the intention of bringing the tortoises to Tsuni and dancing before them is to intercede with the ancestral spirits, incarnate the animals, that they may be pleased to exert their powers over the waters of heaven for the benefit of their living descendants. Five. Killing the sacred bear. Doubt also hangs at first sight over the meaning of the bear sacrifice offered by the Ainu or Ainu, a primitive people who are found in the Japanese island of Yeso or Yeso, as well as in Sakhalin and the southern of the Kuril Islands. It is not quite easy to define the attitude of the Ainu towards the bear. On the one hand, they give it the name of Kamui or God, but as they apply the same word to strangers, it may mean no more than a being supposed to be endowed with superhuman, or at all events, extraordinary powers. Again, it is said that the bear is their chief divinity. In the religion of Ainu, the bear plays a chief part. Amongst the animals it is especially the bear which receives an idolatrous veneration. They worship it after their fashion. There is no doubt that this wild beast inspires more of the feeling which prompts worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and the Ainu may be distinguished as bear worshippers. Yet, on the other hand, they kill the bear whenever they can. In bygone years the Ainu considered bear hunting the most manly and useful way in which a person could possibly spend his time. The men spend their autumn, winter and spring in hunting deer and bears. Part of their tribute or taxes is paid in skins. They subsist on the dried meat. Bear's flesh is indeed one of their staple foods. They eat it both fresh and salted, and the skins of bears furnish them with clothing. In fact, the worship of which writers on this subject speak appears to be paid chiefly to the dead animal. Thus, although they kill a bear whenever they can, in the process of dissecting the carcass, they endeavour to reconciliate the deity, whose representative they have slain by making elaborate obeisances and deprecatory salutations. When a bear has been killed, Ainu sit down and admire it, make their salams to it, worship it, and offer presents we now. When a bear is trapped or wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or proper theory ceremony. The skulls of slain bears receive a place of honor in their huts, or are set up on sacred posts outside the huts, and are treated with much respect. Libations of millet beer and of sake and intoxicating liquor are offered to them, and they are addressed as divine preservers or precious divinities. The skulls of foxes are also fastened to the sacred posts outside the huts. They are regarded as charms against evil spirits, and are consulted as oracles. Yet it is expressly said that the live foxes revered just as little as the bear, rather they avoided as much as possible considering it a wily animal. The bear can hardly, therefore, be described as a sacred animal of the Ainu, nor yet as a totem, for they do not call themselves bears, and they kill and eat the animal freely. However, they have a legend of a woman who had a son by a bear, and many of them who dwell in the mountains pride themselves on being descended from a bear. Such people are called descendants of the bear, Kimunukamu Isanikiri, and in the pride of their heart, they will say, as for me, I am a child of the god of the mountains, I am descended from the divine one who rules in the mountains, meaning by the god of the mountains, no other than the bear. It is therefore possible that, as our principal authority, the Reverend J. Bachelor believes, the bear may have been the totem of the Ainu clan. But even if that were so, it would not explain the respect shown for the animal but whole Ainu people. But it is the bear festival of the Ainu which concerns us here. Towards the end of winter, a bear cub is caught and brought into the village. If it is very small, it is suckled by an Ainu woman. But should there be no woman able to suckle it, the little animal is fed from the hand or the mouth. During the day it plays about in the hut with the children that is treated with great affection. But when the cub grows big enough to pain people by hugging or scratching them, he is shut up in a strong wooden cage, where he stays generally for two or three years, fed on fish and millet porridge, till it is time for him to be killed and eaten. But it is a peculiarly striking fact that the young bear is not kept merely to furnish a good meal, rather he is regarded and honored as a fetish, or even as a sort of higher being. In Yetso, the festival is generally celebrated in September or October. Before it takes place, the Ainu apologize to their gods, alleging that they have treated the bear kindly as long as they could. Now they can feed him no longer and are obliged to kill him. A man who gives a bear feast invites his relations and friends. In a small village, nearly the whole community takes part in the feast. Indeed, guests from distant villages are invited and generally come, alert by the prospect of getting drunk for nothing. The form of invitation runs somewhat as follows. I, so and so, am about to sacrifice the dear little divine thing who resides among the mountains. My friends and masters, come ye to the feast. We will then unite in the great pleasure of sending the good away. Come! When all the people are assembled in front of the cage, an orator, chosen for the purpose, addresses the bear, and tells it that they are about to send it forth to its ancestors. He cribs pardon for what they are about to do to it, hopes it will not be angry and comforts it by assuring the animal that many of the sacred whittle sticks he now, and plenty of cakes and wine will be sent with it on the long journey. One speech of this sort, which Mr. Bachelor heard and as follows, although divine one, though was sent into the world for us to hunt, although precious little divinity, we worship thee, please hear our prayer. We have nourished thee and brought thee up with a deal of pains and trouble, all because we love thee so. Now, as though hast grown big, we are about to send thee to thy father and mother. When thou comest to them, please speak well of us, and tell them how kind we have been. Please come to us again, and we will sacrifice thee. Having been secured with ropes, the bear is then let out of the cage and the sail with the shower of blunt arrows in order to rouse it to fury. When it has spent itself in vain struggles, it is tied to a stake, gagged and strangled, its neck being placed between two poles, which are then violently compressed, all the people eagerly helping to squeeze the animal to death. An arrow is also discharged into the bear's heart by a good marksman, but so as not to shed blood, for they think that it would be very unlucky if any of the blood were to drip on the ground. However, the men sometimes drink the warm blood with the bear, that the courage and other virtues it possesses may pass into them, and sometimes they besmay themselves in their clothes with the blood in order to ensure success in hunting. When the animal has been strangled to death, it is skinned and its head is cut off and set into east window of the house, where a piece of its own flesh is placed under its snout, together with a cup of its own meat, boiled, some millet dumplings and dried fish. Prayers are then addressed to the dead animal. Amongst other things it is sometimes invited, after going way to its father and mother, to return into the world in order that it may again be reared for sacrifice. When the bear is supposed to have finished eating his own flesh, the man who presides that the feast takes the cup containing the boiled meat, salutes it and divides the contents between all the company present, each person, young and old alike, must taste a little. The cup is called the cup of offering, because it has just been offered to the dead bear. When the rest of the flesh has been cooked, it is shared out in a like manner among all the people, everybody partaking of at least a morsel, not the partake of the feast would be equivalent to excommunication, it would be to place the recreate outside the pale of Ainu fellowship. Formerly every particle of the bear except the bones had to be eaten up at the banquet, but this rule is now relaxed. The head, on being detached from the skin, is set up on a long pole beside the sacred wands, inow, outside of the house, where it remains still nothing but the bear white skull is left. Skulls so set up are worshipped not only at the time of the festival, but very often as long as they last. The Ainu assured Mr. Bachelor that they really do believe the spirits of the worshipful animals to reside in the skulls, that is why they addressed them as divine preservers and precious divinities. The ceremony of killing the bear was witnessed by Dr. Beishoube on the 10th of August at Kunnui, which is a village on Volcano Bay in the island of Jesu or Jesu. As his description of the ride contains some interesting particulars not mentioned in the foregoing count, it may be worthwhile to summarize it. On entering the hut he found about 30 Ainu present, men, women and children, all dressed in their best. The master of the house first offered a libation on the fireplace to the god of the fire, and the guests followed his example. Then a libation was offered to the house god in his sacred corner of the hut. Meanwhile the housewife, with nurse the bear, sat by herself, silent and sad, bursting now and then into tears. Her grief was obviously unaffected, and it deepened as the festival went on. Next the master of the house and some of the guests went out of the hut and offered libations before the bear's cage. A few drops were presented to the bear in the saucer, which he had once upset. Then the women and girls danced around the cage, their faces turned towards it, their knees slightly bent, rising and hopping on their toes. As they danced they clapped their hands and sang a monotonous song. The housewife and a few old women, who might have nursed many bears, danced tearfully, stretching out their arms to the bear and addressing it in terms of endearment. The young folks were less affected, they laughed as well as sang. Disturbed by the noise, the bear began to rush about his cage and howl lamentably. Next libations were offered at the innow, innabos, or sacred ones which stand outside of an Ainu hut. These ones are about a couple of feet high, and are whittled at the top into spiral shavings. Five new ones with bamboo leaves attached to them had been set up for the festival. This is regularly done when a bear is killed. The leaves mean that the animal may come to life again. Then the bear was let out of the cage, a rope was thrown around his neck, and he was let about in the neighborhood of the hut. While this was being done the man, headed by a chief, shot at the beast with arrows tipped with wooden buttons. Dr. Shebi had to do so also. Then the bear was taken before the sacred ones, a stick was put in his mouth, nine men knelt on him and pressed his neck against the bean. In five minutes, the animal had expired without uttering a sound. Meantime the women and girls had taken posts behind the men, where they danced, lamenting and beating the men who were killing the bear. The bear's caucus was next placed on the mat before the sacred ones, and a sword in the quiver, taken from the ones, were hung round the beast's neck. Being a she-bear, it was also adorned with a necklace and earrings. Then food and drink were offered to it in the shape of millet broth, millet cakes and a pot of sake. The men now sat down on mats before the dead bear, offered libations to it and drank deep. Meanwhile the women and girls had laid aside all marks of sorrow, and danced merrily, none more merrily than the old women, when the mirth was at its height, too young I know, who had let the bear out of his cage, mounted the roof over the hut and threw cakes of millet among the company, who all scrambled for them without distinction of age or sex. The bear was next skinned and disemboweled, and the trunk severed from the head to which the skin was left hanging. The blood caught in cups was eagerly swallowed by the men. None of the women or children appeared to drink the blood, though custom did not forbid them to do so. The liver was cut in small pieces and eaten raw, with salt, the women and children getting their share. The flesh and the rest of the vitals were taken into the house to be kept till the next day but one, and then to be divided among the persons who had been present at the feast. Blood and liver were offered to Dr. Shebe. While the bear was being disemboweled, the women and girls danced the same dance which they had danced at the beginning, not however round the cage but in front of the sacred ones. At this dance the old women would be merry a moment before, again shed tears freely. After the brain had been extracted from the bear's head and swallowed with salt, the skull detached from the skin was hung on a pole beside the sacred ones. The stick with which the bear had been gagged was also fastened to the pole, and so were the sword and quiver which had been hung on the caucus. The latter were removed in about an hour, but the rest remained standing. The whole company, men and women, danced noisily before the pole, and another drinking bout in which the women joined closed the festival. Perhaps the first published account of the bear feast of the Ainu is one which was given to the world by a Japanese writer in 1652. It has been translated into French and runs thus. When they find a young bear they bring it home and the wife suckles it. When it is grown they feed it with fish and faul and kill it in winter for the sake of the liver which they esteem and antedote to poison, the worms, colic and disorders of the stomach. It is of a very bitter taste and is good for nothing if the bear has been killed in summer. This butchery begins in the first Japanese month. For this purpose they put the animal's head between two long poles which are squeezed together by 50 or 60 people, both men and women. When the bear is dead they eat his flesh, keep the liver as a medicine, and sell the skin which is black and commonly six feet long, but the longest measure 12 feet. As soon as he is skinned the persons who nourish the beast begin to bewail him. Afterwards they make little cakes to regale those who helped them. The Ainu of Sakhalin rare bear cubs and kill them with similar ceremonies. We are told that they do not look upon the bear as a god but only as a messenger whom they dispatch with various commissions to the godhood forest. The animal is kept for about two years in a cage and then killed at the festival which always takes place in winter and at night. The day before the sacrifice is devoted to lamentation, all women relieving each other in the duty of weeping and groaning in the front of the bear's cage. Then about the middle of the night or very early in the morning an orator makes a long speech to the beast reminding him how they have taken care of him and fed him well and bathed him in the river and made him warm and comfortable. Now he proceeds. We are holding a great festival in your honor. Be not afraid, we will not hurt you. We will only kill you and send you to the godhood forest who loves you. We are about to offer you a good dinner, the best you have ever eaten amongst us and we will all weep for you together. The Ainu who will kill you is the best shot amongst us. There he is, he weeps and asks your forgiveness. You will feel almost nothing, it will be done so quickly. We cannot feed you always as you will understand. We have done enough for you. It is now your turn to sacrifice yourself for us. We will ask god to send us for the winter. Plenty of otters and sables and for the summer, seals and fish in abundance. Do not forget our messages. We love you much and our children will never forget you. When the bear has partaken of his last meal and the general emotion of the spectators, the old women weeping afresh and the men uttering stifled cries is strapped, not without difficulty and danger. Being let out of the cage is led on leash or dragged according to the state of his temper. Thrice round his cage, then round his master's house and lastly round the house of the orator. Thereupon he is tied up to a tree which is decked with sacred wittles sticks, you know of usual sort. And the orator again dresses him in a long harangue which sometimes lasts till the day is beginning to break. Remember, he cries, remember, I remind you of your whole life and of the services we have rendered you. It is now for you to do your duty. Do not forget what I have asked of you. You will tell the gods to give us riches, that our hunters may return from the forest laden with refers and animals good to eat, that our fishers may find troops of seals on the shore and in the sea, and that their nets may crack under the weight of the fish. We have no hope but in you. The evil spirits laugh at us and too often they are unfavorable and malignant to us, that they will bow before you. We have given you good food and joy and health. Now we kill you in order that you may return to send riches to us and to our children. To this discourse there be a more and more surly and agitated listens without conviction. Round and round the tree he paces and howls lamentably, till just as the first beams of the rising sunlight up the scene, an archer speeds an arrow to his heart. No sooner has he done so than the marksman throws away his bow and flings himself on the ground and the old men and women do the same, weeping and sobbing. Then they offer the dead beasts the repast of rice and wild potatoes, and having spoken to him in terms of pity and thanked him for what he has done and suffered, they cut off his head and pulse and keep them as sacred things. A banquet on the flesh and blood of the bear follows. Women were formally excluded from it, but now they share with the men. The blood is drunk warm by all present, the flesh is boiled, custom forbids it to be roasted. And as the relics of the bear may not enter the house by the door, the iron houses in Sakhalin have no windows. A man gets up on the roof and lets the flesh, the head and the skin down through the smoke hole. Dries and wild potatoes are then offered to the head and the pipe, tobacco and matches are considerably placed beside it. Custom requires that the guests should eat up the whole animal before they depart. The use of salt and pepper at the meal is forbidden, and no more slow the flesh may be given to the dogs. When the banquet is over, the head is carried away into the depths of the forest and deposited on a heap of bear skulls, the bleached and mouldering relics of similar festivals in the past. The Giliaks, a Tungusian people of eastern Siberia, hold a bear festival of the same sort once a year in January. The bear is the object of the most refined solicitude of an entire village and plays the chief part in their religious ceremonies. An old she-bear is shot at her cup is reared, but not suckled in the village. When the bear is big enough, he is taken from his cage and dragged through the village, but first they lead him to the bank of the river. For this is believed to ensure abundance of fish to each family. He is then taken into each house in the village, where fish, brandy and so forth are offered to him. Some people prostrate themselves before the beast. His entrance into the house is supposed to bring a blessing, and if he sniffs at the food offered to him, this is also a blessing. Nevertheless, they tease and worry, poke and tickle the animal continually, so that he is surly and snappish. After being thus taken to every house, he is tied to a peg and shot dead with arrows. His head is then cut off, decked with shavings and placed on the table where the feast is set out. Here they beg pardon of the beast and worship him. Then his flesh is roasted and eaten in special vessels of wood finely carved. They do not eat the flesh raw, nor drink the blood as they I know do. The brain and the entrails are eaten last, and the skull, still decked with shavings, is placed on a tree near the house. Then the people sing and both sexes dance in ranks, as bears. One of these bear festivals was witnessed by the Russian traveler El von Schrenk and his companions at the Giliak village of Tiberk in January 1856. From his detailed report of the ceremony, we may gather some particulars which are not noticed in the brief recounts which I have just summarized. The bear, he tells us, plays a great part in the life of all the people's inhabitants, the region of the Amur and Siberia as far as Kamchatka, but among none of them is his importance greater than among the Giliaks. The immense size which the animal attains in the valley of the Amur is ferocity wetted by hunger and the frequency of his appearance all combine to make him the most dreaded beast of prey in the country. No wonder, therefore, that the fancy of the Giliaks is busyed with him and surrounds him, both in life and in death, with a sort of halo of superstitious fear. Thus, for example, it is thought that if a Giliak falls in combat with a bear, his soul transmigrates into the body of the beast. Nevertheless, his flesh has an irresistible attraction for the Giliak palette, especially when the animal has been kept in captivity for some time and fattened on fish, which gives the flesh, in the opinion of the Giliaks, a particularly delicious flavour. But in order to enjoy this dainty with impunity, the deem it needful to perform a long series of ceremonies of which the intention is to delude the living bear by a show of respect and to appease the anger of the dead animal by the homage paid to his departed spirit. The marks of respect begin as soon as the beast is captured. He is brought home in triumph and kept in a cage, where all villagers take it in turns to feed him. For although he may have been captured or purchased by one man, he belongs in a manner to the whole village. His flesh will furnish a common feast, and hence all must contribute to support him in his life. The length of time he is kept in captivity depends on his age. Old bears are kept only a few months, cubs are kept till they are full grown. A thick layer of fat on the captive bear gives the signal of the festival, which is always held in winter, generally in December but sometimes in January or February. At the festival witnessed by the Russian travellers, which lasted a good many days, three bears were killed and eaten. More than once the animals were led about in procession and compelled to enter every house in the village, where they were fed as a mark of honour, and to show that they were welcome guests. But before the beast set out on this round of visits, the Gileaks played at skipping rope in presence, and perhaps as El von Schrenk inclined to believe in honour of the animals. The night before they were killed, the three bears were led by moonlight a long way on the eyes of the frozen river. That night no one in the village might sleep. Next day after the animals had again been led down the steep bank to the river, and conducted thrice around the hole in the eyes from which the women of the village do their water. They were taken to an appointed place not far from the village, and shot to death with arrows. The place of sacrifice or execution was marked as holy by being surrounded with whittled sticks on the tops of which shavings hung in curls. Such sticks are with the Gileaks, as with the Ainu, the regular symbols that accompany all religious ceremonies. When the house has been arranged and decorated for the reception, the skins of the bears, with their heads attached to them, are brought into it. Not however by the door, but through a window, and then hung on a sort of scaffold opposite the hearth on which the flesh is to be cooked. The boiling of the bear's flesh among the Gileaks is done only by the eldest men, whose high privilege it is. Women and children, young men, and boys have no part in it. The task is performed slowly and deliberately, with a certain solemnity. On the occasion described by the Russian travellers, the kettle was first of all surrounded by a thick wreath of shavings, and then filled with snow, for the use of water to cook bear's flesh is forbidden. Meanwhile, a large wooden throw, richly adorned with arabesques and carvings of all sorts, was hung immediately under the snouts of the bears. On one side of the throw was carved in the relief of bear, on the other side a toad. When the carcasses were being cut up, each leg was laid on the ground in front of the bears, as if to ask their leave before being placed in the kettle. When the boiled flesh was fished out of the kettle with an iron hook, and set in the throw before the bears, in order that they might be the first to taste of their own flesh. As fast, too, as the fat was cut in strips, it was hung up in front of the bears, and afterwards laid in a small wooden throw on the ground before them. Last of all, the inner organs of the beasts were cut up and placed in small vessels. At the same time, the women made bandages out of particoloured rags, and after sunset these bandages were tied around the bear's snouts just below the eyes, in order to dry the tears that flowed from them. As soon as the ceremony of wiping away poor Bruins tears had been performed, the assembled Giliaks set to work in earnest to devour his flesh. The broth obtained by boiling the meat had already been partaken on. The wooden bowls, platters and spoons of which the Giliaks eat the broth and flesh of the bears on these occasions, are always made specially for the purpose at the festival, and only then, they are elaborately ornamented with carved figures of bears and other devices that refer to the animal of the festival, and the people have a strong superstitious scruple against parting with them. After the bones had been picked clear, they were put back in the kettle in which the flesh had been boiled. And when the festival meal was over, an old man took his stand at the door of the house, with the branch of fur in his hand, with which, as the people passed out, he gave a light blow to everyone who had eaten of the bear's flesh or fat, perhaps as a punishment for their treatment of the worshipful animal. In the afternoon, the women performed a strange dance. Only one woman danced at a time, throwing the upper part of her body in the oddest postures, where she held in her hands a branch of fur or a kind of wooden castanets. The other women, meanwhile, played in accompaniment by drumming on the beams of the house with clubs. Von Schrenk believed that after the feast of the bear had been eaten, the bones in the skull are suddenly carried out by the eldest people to a place in the forest not far from the village. There all the bones, except the skull, are buried. After that, the young trees fell a few inches above the ground, its stump cleft, and the skull wedged into the cleft. When the grass grows over the spot, the skull disappears from view, and that is the end of the bear. Another description of the bear festival, so the Gileax, has been given to us by Mr. Leo Sternberry. It agrees substantially with the foregoing accounts, but a few particulars of it may be noted. According to Mr. Sternberry, the festival is usually held in honour of a deceased relation. The next token either buys or catches a bear cub and nurtures it for two or three years till it is ready for the sacrifice. Only certain distinguished guests, Narcien, are privileged to partake over the bear's flesh, but the host and members of his clan eat the broth made from the flesh. Great quantities of this broth are prepared and consumed on the occasion. The guests of honour, Narcien, must belong to the clan into which the host's daughters and the other women of his clan are married. One of these guests, usually the host's son-in-law, is entrusted with the duty of shooting the bear dead with an arrow. The skin, head and flesh of the slain bear are brought into the house not through the door, but through the smoke hole. A quiver full of arrows is laid under the head, and beside it are deposited tobacco, sugar and other food. The soul of the bear is supposed to carry off the souls of these things with it on the far journey. A special vessel is used for cooking the bear's flesh, and the fire must be kindled by a sacred apparatus of flint and steel, which belongs to the clan and is handed down from generation to generation, but which is never used to light fires except on these solemn occasions. Of all the many vines cooked for the consumption of the assembled people, a portion is placed in a special vessel and set before the bear's head. This is called feeding the head. After the bear has been killed, dogs are sacrificed in couples of male and female. Before being throttled, they are fed and invited to go to their lord on the highest mountain to change their skins and to return next year in the form of bears. The soul of the dead bear departs to the same lord, who is also the lord of the primeval forest. It goes away laden with the offerings that have been made to it, and attended by the souls of the dogs and also by the souls of the sacred wittled sticks, which figure prominently at the festival. The goldie, neighbors of the Gileaks, treat the bear in much the same way. They hunt and kill it, but sometimes they capture a live bear and keep him in a cage feeding him well and calling him their son and brother. Then, at the great festival he is taken from his cage, paraded about with marked consideration and afterwards killed and eaten. The skull, jawbones and ears are then suspended on the tree as an antidote against evil spirits, but the flesh is eaten and much relished, for they believe that all who partake of it acquire a zest for the chase and become courageous. The Orochis, another Tungusian people of the region of the Amur, hold bear festivals of the same general character. Anyone who catches a bear cub considers it his bound and duty to rear it in a cage for about three years, in order, at the end of that time, to kill it publicly and eat the flesh with his friends. The feasts being public, though organized by individuals, the people try to have one in each Orochi village every year in turn. When the bear is taken out of his cage, he is led about by means of ropes to all the huts accompanied by people armed with lances, bows and arrows. At each hut, the bear and bear leaders are treated to something good to eat and drink. This goes on for several days until all the huts, not only in the village but also in the next, have been visited. The days are given up to sport and noise and jollity. Then the bear is tied to a tree, a wooden pillar and shot to death by the arrows of the crowd, after which its flesh is roasted and eaten. Among the Orochis of the Tunga River, women take part in the bear feasts, while among the Orochis of the River V, the women will not even touch bear's flesh. In the treatment of the captive bear by these tribes, there are features which can hardly be distinguished from worship. Such, for example, are the prayers offered to it both alive and dead, the offerings of wood, including portions of its own flesh laid before the animal skull, and the Gileic custom of leading the living beast to the river in order to ensure a supply of fish, and of conducting him from house to house in order that every family may receive his blessing. Just as in Europe, a matri or a personal representative of the tree spirit used to be taken from door to door in spring, for the sake of diffusing among all and sundry the fresh energies of a reviving nature. Again, the Solomon participation in his flesh and blood, and particularly the Aino custom of sharing the contents of the cup which had been consecrated by being set before the dead beast, are strongly suggestive of a sacrament, and the suggestion is confirmed by the Gileic practice of reserving special vessels to hold the flesh and cooking it on a fire candle by a sacred apparatus, which is never employed, except on these religious occasions. Indeed, our principal authority on Aino religion, the Reverend John Batchelor, frankly describes as worshiped as a harmonious respect which the Aino paid to the bear, and he affirms that the animal is undoubtedly one of their gods. Certainly, the Aino appear to apply their name for good, Kaamui freely to the bear, but as Mitch Batchelor himself points out, that word is used with many different shades of meaning and is applied to a great variety of objects, so that from its application to the bear we cannot safely argue that the animal is actually regarded as a deity. Indeed, we are expressly told that the Aino of Sakhalin do not consider the bear to be a god, but only a messenger to the gods, and the message with which they charge the animal at its death bears out the statement. Apparently the Gileacs also look on the bear in the light of an envoy dispatched with presence to the lord of the mountain, on whom the welfare of the people depends. At the same time they treat the animal as a being of a higher order than man, in fact as a minor deity whose presence in the village, so long as he is captain fed, diffuses blessings, especially by keeping at bay the swarms of evil spirits who are constantly lying in wait for people, stealing their goods and destroying their bodies by sickness and disease. Moreover, by partaking of the flesh, blood or broth of the bear, the Gileacs, the Aino and the Gouldi are all of opinion that they acquire some portion on the animal's mighty powers, particularly his courage and strength. No wonder therefore that they should treat so great a benefactor with marks of the highest respect and affection. Some light may be thrown on the ambiguous attitude of the Aino by comparing the similar treatment which they accord to other creatures. For example, they regard the eagle owl as a good deity who by his hooting warns men of threatened evil and defends them against it, hence his love trusted and devoutly worshipped as a divine mediator between man and the creator. The various names applied to him are significant to both of his divinity and of his mediatorship. Whenever an opportunity offers, one of these divine birds is captured and kept in a cage, where he is greeted with the endearing titles of beloved god and dear little divinity. Nevertheless, the time comes when the dear little divinity is throttled and sent away in his capacity of mediator to take a message to the superior gods or to the creator himself. The following is a formal prayer addressed to the eagle owl when it is about to be sacrificed. Beloved deity, we have brought you up because we loved you, and now we are about to send you to your father. We herewith offer you food, enow, wine and cakes. Take them to your parent and he will be very pleased. I have lived a long time among the Aino, where an Aino father and an Aino mother reared me. I have now come to thee, I have brought a variety of good things. I saw while living in Aino land a great deal of distress. I observed that some of the people were possessed by demons, some were wounded by wild animals, some were hurt by landslides. Others suffered shipwreck, and many were attacked by disease. The people are in great straits. My father hear me and hasn't looked upon the Aino and helped them. If you do this, your father will help us. Again, the Aino keep eagles in cages, worship them as divinities, and ask them to defend the people from evil. Yet they offer the bird in sacrifice, and when they are about to do so, they pray to him, saying, O precious divinity, O though divine bird, pray listen to my words, though dost not belong to this world, for thy home is with the Creator and his golden eagles, this being so. I present thee with these Aino and cakes and other precious things. Do thou ride upon the Aino and descend to thy home in the glorious heavens? When thou arriveest, assemble the deities of thy own kind together, and thank them for us, for having governed the world. Do thou come again, I beseech thee, and rule over us, O my precious one, go thou quickly. Once more, the Aino reveal hawks, keep them in cages, and offer them in sacrifice. At the time of killing one of them, the following prayers should be addressed to the bird. O divine hawk, though art an expert hunter, please cause thy cleverness to descend on me. If a hawk is well-treated in captivity and prayed to after this fashion, when he is about to be killed, he will surely send help to the hunter. Thus the Aino hopes to profit in various ways by slaughtering the creatures, which nevertheless he treats as divine. He expects them to carry messages for him to their kindred, or to the gods in the upper world. He hopes to partake of their virtues by swallowing parts of their bodies, or in other ways, and apparently he looks forward to their bodily resurrection in this world, which will enable him again to catch and kill them, and again to reap all the benefits which he has already derived from their slaughter. For in the prayers addressed to the worshipful bear and the worshipful eagle, before they are knocked on the head, the creatures are invited to come again, which seems clearly to a point to a fate in their future resurrection. If any doubt could exist on this head, it would be dispelled by the evidence of Mr. Bachelor, who tells us that the Aino are firmly convinced that the spirits of birds and animals killed in hunting were offered in sacrifice. Calm and live again upon the earth clothed with the body, and they believe further that they appear here for the special benefit of men, particularly Aino hunters. The Aino Mr. Bachelor tells us, Confessedly slays and eats the beast that another may come in its place and be treated in liked manner. And at the time of sacrificing the creatures, prayers are said to them which form a request that they would come again and furnish vines for another feast, as if it were an honor to them to be thus killed and eaten, and a pleasure as well. Indeed, such is the people's idea. These last observations, as the context shows, refer especially to the sacrifice of bears. Thus among the benefits which the Aino anticipates from the slaughter of the worshipful animals, not the least substantial is that of gorging himself on their flesh and blood, both on the present and on many a similar occasion hereafter. And that pleasing prospect again is derived from his firm faith in the spiritually mortality and bodily resurrection of the dead animals. A like faith is shared by many savage hunters in many parts of the world, and has given rise to a variety of quaint customs, some of which will be described presently. Meanwhile, it is not unimportant to observe that the solemn festivals at which the Aino, the Gileaks, and other tribes slaughter the tame, caged bears with demonstrations of respect and sorrow, are probably nothing but an extension or glorification of similar rites which the hunter performs over any wild bear which he chances to kill in the forest. Indeed, with regard to the Gileaks, we are expressly informed that this is the case. If we were understanding the meaning of the Gileak ritual, says Mr. Sternberry, we must above all remember that the bear festivals are not, as is usually by falsely assumed, celebrated only at the killing of a house bear, but are held on every occasion when a Gileak succeeds in slaughtering a bear in the chase. It is true that in such cases, the festival assumes less imposing dimensions, but in its essence, it remains the same. When the head and skin of a bear killed in the forest are brought into the village, they are recording a triumphal reception with music and solemn ceremonial. The head is laid on a consecrated scaffold, fed and treated with offerings, just as at the killing of a house bear, and the guests of honor and urchin are also assembled. So too dogs are sacrificed, and the bones of the bear are preserved in the same place and with the same marks of respect as the bones of a house bear. Hence, the Great Winter Festival is only an extension of the rite which is observed at the slaughter of every bear. Thus, the apparent contradiction in the practice of these tribes, who venerate the normal deified animals which they habitually hunt, kill and eat, is not so flagrant as at first sight it appears to us. The people have reasons, and some very practical reasons, for acting as they do. For the savage is by no means so illogical and unpractical as the superficial observers, he is apt to seem. He has thought deeply on questions which immediately concern him, he reasons about them, and though his conclusions often diverge very widely from ours, we ought not to deny him the credit of patience and prolonged meditation on some fundamental problems of human existence. In the present case, if he treats bears in general as creatures wholly subservient to human needs and yet signals out certain individuals of the species for homage, which almost amounts to deification, we must not hastily set him down as irrational and inconsistent, but must endeavour to place ourselves at his point of view, to see things as he sees them, and to divest ourselves of the prepossessions with tinge so deeply our own views of the world. If we do so, we shall probably discover that, however absurd his conduct may appear to us. The savage nevertheless generally acts on a train of reasoning which seems to him in harmony with the facts of his limited experience. This I propose to illustrate in the following chapter, where I shall attempt to show that the solemn ceremonial of the bear festival among the Ainos and other tribes of north eastern Asia is only a particularly striking example of the respect which on the principles of his rude philosophy, the savage habitually pays to the animals which he kills and eats. End of chapter 52, Recording by Monsbru, Helsingfors, Finland