 Chapter 49a of The Golden Bough This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Golden Bough by Sir James Fraser Chapter 49a Ancient Diaries of Vegetation as Animals 1. Dionysus, the Goat and the Bull However we may explain it, the fact remains that in peasant folklore the corn spirit is very commonly conceived and represented in animal form. May not this fact explain the relation in which certain animals stood to the ancient diaries of vegetation, Dionysus, Demeter, Adonis, Attis and Osiris? To begin with Dionysus, we have seen that he was represented sometimes as a goat and sometimes as a bull. As a goat he can hardly be separated from the minor divinities, the pans, satires and silanuses, all of whom are closely associated with him, and are represented more or less completely in the form of goats. Thus Pan was regularly portrayed in sculpture and painting with the face and legs of a goat. The satires were depicted with pointed goat ears and sometimes with sprouting horns and short tails. They were sometimes spoken of simply as goats, and in the drama their parts were played by men dressed in goat skins. Silanus is represented in art clad in a goat skin. Further the fawns, the Italian counterpart of the Greek pans and satires, are described as being half goats with goat feet and goat horns. Again all these minor goat formed divinities partake more or less clearly of the character of woodland diaries. Thus Pan was called by the Arcadians the Lord of the Wood. The silanuses kept company with the tree nymphs. The fawns are expressly designated as woodland diaries, and their character as such is still further brought out by their association or even identification with Sylvainus and the Sylvainuses, who as their name of itself indicates are spirits of the woods. Lastly the association of the satires with the silanuses, fawns and sylvainuses proves that the satires also were woodland diaries. These goat formed spirits of the woods have their counterparts in the folklore of northern Europe. Thus the Russian wood spirits called liestiae from liest wood are believed to appear partly in human shape but with the horns ears and legs of goats. The liestiae can alter his stature at pleasure. When he walks in the wood he is as tall as the trees. When he walks in the meadows he is no higher than the grass. Some of the liestiae are spirits of the corn as well as of the wood. Before harvest they are as tall as the corn stalks but after it they shrink to the height of the stubble. This brings out, what we have remarked before, the close connection between tree spirits and corn spirits and shows how easily the former may melt into the latter. Similarly the fawns, though wood spirits, were believed to foster the growth of the crops. We have already seen how often the corn spirit is represented in folk custom as a goat. On the whole then, as Mannhardt argues, the pans, satires and fawns perhaps belong to a widely diffused class of wood spirits conceived in goat form. The fondness of goats for straying in woods and nibbling the bark of trees to which indeed they are most destructive is an obvious and perhaps sufficient reason why wood spirits should so often be supposed to take the form of goats. The inconsistency of a god of vegetation subsisting upon the vegetation which he personifies is not one to strike the primitive mind. Such inconsistencies arise when the deity, ceasing to be imminent in the vegetation, comes to be regarded as its owner or lord, for the idea of owning the vegetation naturally leads to that of subsisting on it. Sometimes the corn spirit, originally conceived as imminent in the corn, afterwards comes to be regarded as its owner who lives on it and is reduced to poverty and want by being deprived of it. Hence he is often known as the poor man or the poor woman. Occasionally the last chief is left standing on the field for the poor old woman or for the old rye woman. Thus the representation of wood spirits in the form of goats appears to be both widespread and, to the primitive mind, natural. Therefore, when we find, as we have done, that Dionysus, a tree god, is sometimes represented in goat form, we can hardly avoid concluding that this representation is simply a part of his proper character as a tree god and is not to be explained by the fusion of two distinct and independent worships, in one of which he originally appeared as a tree god and in the other as a goat. Dionysus was also figured, as we have seen, in the shape of a bull. After what has gone before, we are naturally led to expect that his bull form must have been only another expression for his character as a deity of vegetation, especially as the bull is a common embodiment of the corn spirit in northern Europe, and the close association of Dionysus with Demeter and Persephone in the mysteries of Elucis shows that he had at least strong agricultural affinities. The probability of this view will be somewhat increased if it can be shown that in other rites than those of Dionysus, the ancients slew an ox as a representative of the spirit of vegetation. This they appear to have done in the Athenian sacrifice known as the Murder of the Ox, Bufonia. It took place about the end of June or beginning of July, that is, about the time when the threshing is nearly over in Attica. According to tradition, the sacrifice was instituted to procure a cessation of drought and dearth which had afflicted the land. The ritual was as follows. Barley, mixed with wheat or cakes made of them, were laid upon the bronze altar of Zeus Polyeus on the Acropolis. Oxen were driven round the altar, and the ox which went up to the altar and ate the offering on it was sacrificed. The axe and knife with which the beast was slain had been previously whetted with water brought by maidens called water carriers. The weapons were then sharpened and handed to the butchers, one of whom felled the ox with the axe and another cut its throat with the knife. As soon as he had felled the ox, the former threw the axe from him and fled, and the man who cut the beast's throat apparently imitated his example. Meantime the ox was skinned and all present partook of its flesh. Then the hide was stuffed with straw and sewed up. Next the stuffed animal was set on its feet and yoked to a plow as if it were plowing. A trial then took place in an ancient law court presided over by the king, as he was called, to determine who had murdered the ox. The maidens who had brought the water accused the men who had sharpened the axe and knife. The men who had sharpened the axe and knife blamed the men who had handed these implements to the butchers. The men who had handed the implements to the butchers blamed the butchers, and the butchers laid the blame on the axe and knife, which were accordingly found guilty, condemned and cast into the sea. The name of this sacrifice, the murder of the ox, the pains taken by each person who had a hand in the slaughter to lay the blame on someone else, together with the formal trial and punishment of the axe or knife or both, proved that the ox was here regarded not merely as a victim offered to a god, but as itself a secret creature, the slaughter of which was sacrilege or murder. This is borne out by a statement of Varro that to kill an ox was formally a capital crime in Attica. The mode of selecting the victim suggests that the ox which tasted the corn was viewed as the corn deity taking possession of its own. This interpretation is supported by the following custom. In Bulse, in the district of Orleans, on the 24th or 25th day of April, they make a strawman called the Great Mondar. They say that the old Mondar is now dead and it is necessary to make a new one. The strawman is carried in solemn procession up and down the village and at last is placed upon the oldest apple tree. There he remains till the apples are gathered when he is taken down and thrown into the water or he is burnt and his ashes cast into water. But the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree succeeds to the title of the Great Mondar. Here the straw figure called the Great Mondar and placed on the oldest apple tree in spring represents the spirit of the tree who, dead in winter, revives when the apple blossoms appear on the boughs. Thus the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree and thereby receives the name of the Great Mondar must be regarded as a representative of the tree spirit. Primitive peoples are usually reluctant to taste the annual first fruits of any crop until some ceremony has been performed which makes it safe and pious for them to do so. The reason of this reluctance appears to be a belief that the first fruits either belong to or actually contain a divinity. Therefore when a man or animal is seen boldly to appropriate the sacred first fruits he or it is naturally regarded as the divinity himself in human or animal form taking possession of his own. The time of the Athenian sacrifice which fell about the close of the threshing suggests that the wheat and barley laid upon the altar were a harvest offering and the sacramental character of the subsequent repast all partaking of the flesh of the divine animal would make it parallel to the harvest suppers of modern Europe in which as we have seen the flesh of the animal which stands for the corn spirit is eaten by the harvesters. Again the tradition that the sacrifice was instituted in order to put an end to drought and famine is in favour of taking it as a harvest festival. The resurrection of the corn spirit enacted by setting up the stuffed ox and yoking it to the plough may be compared with the resurrection of the tree spirit in the person of his representative the wild man. The ox appears as a representative of the corn spirit in other parts of the world. At great Basam in Guinea two oxen are slain annually to procure a good harvest. If the sacrifice is to be effectual it is necessary that the oxen should weep so all the women of the village sit in front of the beasts chanting the ox will weep yes he will weep. From time to time one of the women walks around the beasts throwing manioc meal or palm wine upon them especially into their eyes. When tears roll down from the eyes of the oxen the people dance singing the ox weeps the ox weeps. Then two men seize the tails of the beasts and cut them off at one blow. It is believed that a great misfortune will happen in the course of the year if the tails are not severed at one blow. The oxen are afterwards killed and their flesh is eaten by the chiefs. Here the tears of the oxen like those of the human victims amongst the cons and the Aztecs are probably a rain charm. We have already seen that the virtue of the corn spirit embodied in animal form is sometimes supposed to reside in the tail and that the last handful of corn is sometimes conceived as the tail of the corn spirit. In the Mithraic religion this conception is graphically set forth in some of the numerous sculptures which represent Mithras kneeling on the back of a bull and plunging a knife into its flank. For uncertain of these monuments the tail of the bull ends in three stalks of corn and in one of them corn stalks instead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted by the knife. Such representations certainly suggest that the bull whose sacrifice appears to have formed a leading feature in the Mithraic ritual was conceived in one at least of its aspects as an incarnation of the corn spirit. Still more clearly does the ox appear as a personification of the corn spirit in a ceremony which is observed in all the provinces and districts of China to welcome the approach of spring. On the first day of spring, usually on the third or fourth of February which is also the beginning of the Chinese New Year the governor or prefect of the city goes in procession to the east gate of the city and sacrifices to the divine husband man who is represented with a bull's head on the body of a man. A large effigy of an ox, cow or buffalo has been prepared for the occasion and stands outside of the east gate with agricultural implements beside it. The figure is made up of differently coloured pieces of paper pasted on a framework either by a blind man or according to the directions of a necromancer. The colours of the paper prognosticate the character of the coming year. If red prevails there will be many fires if white there will be floods and rain and so with the other colours. The mandarins walk slowly round the ox beating it severely at each step with rods of various hues. It is filled with five kinds of grain which pour forth when the effigy is broken by the blows of the rods. The paper fragments are then set on fire and a scramble takes place for the burning fragments because the people believe that whoever gets one of them is sure to be fortunate throughout the year. A live buffalo is next killed and its flesh is divided among the mandarins. According to one account the effigy of the ox is made of clay and after being beaten by the governor is stoned by the people till they break it in pieces from which they expect an abundant year. Here the corn spirit appears to be plainly represented by the cornfield ox whose fragments may therefore be supposed to bring fertility with them. On the whole we may perhaps conclude that both as a goat and as a bull Dionysus was essentially a god of vegetation. The Chinese and European customs which I have cited may perhaps shed light on the custom of rending a live bull or goat at the rites of Dionysus. The animal was torn in fragments as the corn victim was cut in pieces in order that the worshippers might each secure a portion of the life-giving and fertilizing influence of the god. The flesh was eaten raw as a sacrament and we may conjecture that some of it was taken home to be buried in the fields or otherwise employed so as to convey to the fruits of the earth the quickening influence of the god of vegetation. The resurrection of Dionysus related in his myth may have been enacted in his rites by stuffing and setting up the slain ox as was done at the Athenian bufonia. 2. Demeter, the pig and the horse Passing next to the corn goddess Demeter and remembering that in European folklore the pig is a common embodiment of the corn spirit we may now ask whether the pig which was so closely associated with Demeter may not have been originally the goddess herself in animal form. The pig was sacred to her. In art she was portrayed carrying or accompanied by a pig and the pig was regularly sacrificed in her mysteries. The reason assigned being that the pig injures the corn and is therefore an enemy of the goddess. But after an animal has been conceived as a god or a god as an animal it sometimes happens, as we have seen that the god slows off his animal form and becomes purely anthropomorphic and that then the animal which at first had been slain in the character of the god comes to be viewed as a victim offered to the god on the ground of its hostility to the deity. In short the god is sacrificed to himself as an enemy. This happened to Dionysus and it may have happened to Demeter also and in fact the rights of one of her festivals the Thesmophoria bear out the view that originally the pig was an embodiment of the corn goddess herself either Demeter or her daughter and double Persephone. The attic Thesmophoria was an autumn festival celebrated by women alone in October and it appears to have represented with morning rights the descent of Persephone or Demeter into the lower world and with joy her return from the dead. Hence the name descent or ascent variously applied to the first and the name Caligania, Fairborn applied to the third day of the festival. Now it was customary at the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of dough and branches of pine trees into the chasms of Demeter and Persephone which appear to have been sacred caverns or vaults. In these caverns or vaults there were said to be serpents which guarded the caverns and consumed most of the flesh of the pigs and dough cakes which were thrown in. Afterwards apparently at the next annual festival the decayed remains of the pigs the cakes and the pine branches were fetched by women called drawers who, after observing rules of ceremonial purity for three days descended into the caverns and frightening away the serpents by clapping their hands brought up the remains and placed them on the altar. Whoever got a piece of the decayed flesh and cakes and sowed it with the seed-corn in his field was believed to be sure of a good crop. The rude and ancient ritual of the Thesmophoria the following legend was told. At the moment when Pluto carried off Persephone a swine herd called Eubulius chanced to be herding his swine on the spot and his herd was engulfed in the chasm down which Pluto vanished with Persephone. Accordingly at the Thesmophoria pigs were annually thrown into caverns to commemorate the disappearance of the swine of Eubulius. It follows from this that the casting of the pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part of the dramatic representation of Persephone's descent into the lower world and as no image of Persephone appears to have been thrown in we may infer that the descent of the pigs was not so much an accompaniment of her descent as the descent itself in short that the pigs were Persephone. Afterwards when Persephone or Demeter for the two are equivalent took on human form a reason had to be found for the custom of throwing pigs into caverns at her festival and this was done by saying that when Pluto carried off Persephone there happened to be some swine browsing near which were swallowed up along with her. The story is obviously a forced and awkward attempt to bridge over the gulf between the old conception of the corn spirit pig and the new conception of her as an anthropomorphic goddess a trace of the older conception survived in the legend that when the sad mother was searching for traces of the vanished Persephone the footprints of the lost one were obliterated by the footprints of a pig originally we may conjecture the footprints of the pig were the footprints of Persephone and of Demeter herself a consciousness of the intimate connection of the corn lurks in the legend that the swine heard Eubulius was a brother of Tryptolomus to whom Demeter first imparted the secret of the corn indeed according to one version of the story Eubulius himself received jointly with his brother Tryptolomus the gift of the corn from Demeter as a reward for revealing to her the fate of Persephone further it is to be noted that at the Thesmophobia it was partly eaten swine's flesh the meal if I am right must have been a solemn sacrament or communion the worshippers partaking of the body of the god as thus explained the Thesmophobia has its analogies in the folk customs of northern Europe which have been already described just as at the Thesmophobia an autumn festival in honour of the corn goddess swine's flesh was partly eaten here when it was taken up to be sown with the seed corn in the fields for the purpose of securing a good crop so in the neighbourhood of Greno the goat killed on the harvest field is partly eaten at the harvest supper partly pickled and kept till the next harvest so at Puyi the ox killed on the harvest field is partly eaten by the harvesters partly pickled and kept till the first day of sowing in spring or eaten by the ploughman or both so at Udvahili the feathers of the cock which is killed in the last chief at harvest are kept till spring and then sown with the seed on the field so in Hesse and Miningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas and the bones are kept till sowing time when they are put into the field sown or mixed with the seed in the bag so lastly is kept till Christmas made into the Yule Boar and afterwards broken and mixed with the seed corn at sowing in spring thus to put it generally the corn spirit is killed in animal form in autumn part of his flesh is eaten as a sacrament by his worshippers and part of it is kept till next sowing time or harvest as a pledge and security for the continuance or renewal of the corn spirit's energies the bestidious taste should object that the Greeks never could have conceived Demeter and Persephone to be embodied in the form of pigs it may be answered that in the cave of Figalia in Arcadia the black Demeter was portrayed with the head and mane of a horse on the body of a woman between the portrait of a goddess as a pig and the portrait of her as a woman with a horse's head there is little to choose the legend told of the Figalian Demeter indicates that the horse was one of the animal forms assumed in ancient Greece as in modern Europe by the corn spirit it was said that in her search for her daughter Demeter assumed the form of a mare to escape the addresses of Poseidon and that offended at his importunity she withdrew in Duggen to a cave not far from Figalia in the highlands of western Arcadia there robed in black she tarried so long that the fruits of the earth were perishing and mankind would have died of famine if Pan had not soothed the angry goddess and persuaded her to quit the cave in memory of this event the Figalians set up an image of the black Demeter in the cave it represented a woman dressed in a long robe with the head and mane of a horse the black Demeter in whose absence was born free the march in the cave and the white Demeter in the cave and his body who had theback in his head and his head and he had the hands of the black Demeter the red Demeter the black Demeter the red Demeter in the cave and the white Demeter who had many head-to-head abstained from eating the flesh of swine. This appears to indicate that the pig was regarded as an embodiment of Attis, and the legend that Attis was killed by a boar points in the same direction, for after the examples of the goat Dionysus and the pig Demeter, it may almost be laid down as a rule that an animal which is said to have injured a god was originally the god himself. Perhaps the cry of Hues Attis, Hues Attis, which was raised by the worshipers of Attis, may be neither more nor less than Pig Attis, Pig Attis, Hues being possibly a Phrygian form of the Greek hoose, a pig. In regard to Adonis, his connection with the boar was not always explained by the story that he had been killed by the animal. According to another story, a boar rent with his tusk the bark of the tree in which the infant Adonis was born. According to yet another story, he perished at the hands of Hephaestus on Mount Lebanon, while he was hunting wild boars. These variations in the legend served to show that, while the connection of the boar with Adonis was certain, the reason of the connection was not understood, and that consequently different stories were devised to explain it. Certainly the pig ranked as a sacred animal among the Syrians. At the great religious metropolis of Heropolis on the Euphrates, pigs were neither sacrificed nor eaten, and if a man touched a pig, he was unclean for the rest of the day. Some people said this was because the pigs were unclean, others said it was because the pigs were sacred. This difference of opinion points to a hazy state of religious thought in which the ideas of sanctity and uncleanniness are not yet sharply distinguished, both being blent in a sort of vaporous solution to which we give the name of taboo. It is quite consistent with this, that the pigs should have been held to be an embodiment of the divine Adonis, and the analogies of Dionysus and Demeter make it probable that the story of the hostility of the animal to the God was only a late misapprehension of the old view of the God as embodied in a pig. The rule that pigs were not sacrificed or eaten by worshipers of Attis and presumably of Adonis does not exclude the possibility that in these rituals the pig was slain on solemn occasions as a representative of the God and consumed sacramentally by the worshipers. Indeed, the sacramental killing and eating of an animal implies that the animal is sacred, and that, as a general rule, it is spared. The attitude of the Jews to the pig was as ambiguous as that of the heathen Syrians towards the same animal. The Greeks could not decide whether the Jews worshipped swine or abominated them. On the one hand they might not eat swine, but on the other hand they might not kill them. And if the former rule speaks for the uncleanness, the latter speaks still more strongly for the sanctity of the animal. For whereas both rules may, and one rule must, be explained on the supposition that the pig was sacred, neither rule must, and one rule cannot, be explained on the supposition that the pig was unclean. If therefore we prefer the former supposition, we must conclude that, originally at least, the pig was revered rather than abhorred by the Israelites. We are confirmed in this opinion by observing that down to the time of Isaiah some of the Jews used to meet secretly in gardens to eat the flesh of swine and mice as a religious rite. Doubtless this was a very ancient ceremony dating from a time when both the pig and the mouse were venerated as divine, and when their flesh was partaken of sacramentally on rare and solemn occasions as the body and blood of gods. And in general it may perhaps be said that all so-called unclean animals were originally sacred. The reason for not eating them was that they were divine. End of chapter 49a chapter 49b of the golden bow. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. The Golden Bow by Sir James Fraser. Chapter 49b. Ancient deities of vegetation as animals. 4. Osiris, the pig, and the bull. In ancient Egypt, within historical times, the pig occupied the same dubious position as in Syria and Palestine, though at first sight its uncleanness is more prominent than its sanctity. The Egyptians are generally said by Greek writers to have abhorred the pig as a foul and loathsome animal. For man so much as touched a pig in passing, he stepped into the river with all his clothes on to wash off the taint. To drink pig's milk was believed to cause leprosy to the drinker. Swineherds, though natives of Egypt, were forbidden to enter any temple, and they were the only men who were thus excluded. No one would give his daughter in marriage to a swineherd or marry a swineherd's daughter. The swineherds married amongst themselves. Yet once a year the Egyptians sacrificed pigs to the moon and to Osiris, and not only sacrificed them but ate of their flesh, though on any other day of the year they would neither sacrifice them nor taste of their flesh. Those who were too poor to offer a pig on this day baked cakes of dough and offered them instead. This can hardly be explained except by the supposition that the pig was a sacred animal which was eaten sacramentally by his worshippers once a year. The view that in Egypt the pig was sacred is borne out by the very facts which, to moderns, might seem to prove the contrary. Thus the Egyptians thought, as we have seen, that to drink pig's milk produced leprosy, but exactly analogous views are held by savages about the animals and plants which they deem most sacred. Thus in the island of Weta, between New Guinea and Salibis, people believed themselves to be variously descended from wild pigs, serpents, crocodiles, turtles, dogs and eels. A man may not eat an animal of the kind from which he is descended. If he does so, he will become a leper and go mad. Amongst the Omaha Indians of North America, men whose totem is the elk, believe that if they ate the flesh of the male elk, they would break out in boils and white spots in different parts of their bodies. In the same tribe, men whose totem is the red maize, think that if they ate red maize, they would have running sores all round their mouths. The Bush Negroes of Suriname, who practiced totemism, believe that if they ate the capii, an animal like a pig, it would give them leprosy. Perhaps the capii is one of their totems. The Syrians in antiquity, who esteemed fish sacred, thought that if they ate fish, their bodies would break out in ulcers and their feet and stomach would swell up. The chassas of Orissa, believe that if they were to injure their totemic animal, they would be attacked by leprosy, and their lion would die out. These examples prove that the eating of a sacred animal is often believed to produce leprosy or other skin diseases. So far, therefore, they support the view that the pig must have been sacred in Egypt, since the effect of drinking its milk was believed to be leprosy. Again, the rule that, after touching a pig, a man had to wash himself and his clothes, also favours the view of the sanctity of the pig, for it is a common belief that the effect of contact with a sacred object must be removed by washing or otherwise, before a man is free to mingle with his fellows. Thus the Jews wash their hands after reading the sacred scriptures. Before coming forth from the tabernacle after the sin offering, the high priest had to wash himself and put off the garments which he had worn in the holy place. It was a rule of Greek ritual that in offering an expiatory sacrifice, the sacrificer should not touch the sacrifice, and that, after the offering was made, he must wash his body and his clothes in a river or spring before he could enter a city or his own house. The Polynesians felt strongly the need of ridding themselves of the sacred contagion, if it may be so called, which they caught by touching sacred objects. Various ceremonies were performed for the purpose of removing this contagion. We have seen, for example, how in Tonga a man who happened to touch a sacred chief, or anything personally belonging to him, had to perform a certain ceremony before he could feed himself with his hands, otherwise it was believed that he would swell up and die, or at least be afflicted with scroffula or some other disease. We have seen, too, what fatal effects are supposed to follow and do actually follow from contact with a sacred object in New Zealand. In short, Primitive Man believes that what is sacred is dangerous. It is pervaded by a sort of electrical sanctity, which communicates a shock to, even if it does not kill, whatever comes in contact with it. Hence, the savage is unwilling to touch, or even to see, that which he deems peculiarly holy. The betuanas of the crocodile clan think it hateful and unlucky to meet or see a crocodile. The sight is thought to cause inflammation of the eyes. Yet the crocodile is their most sacred object. They call it their father, swear by it, and celebrate it in their festivals. The goat is the sacred animal of the Madinassana Pushman. Yet, to look upon it would be to render the man for the time impure, as well as to cause him undefined uneasiness. The elk clan, among the Omaha Indians, believe that even to touch the male elk would be followed by an eruption of boils and white spots on the body. Members of the reptile clan in the same tribe think that if one of them touches or smells a snake, it will make his hair white. In Samoa, people whose god was a butterfly believed that if they caught a butterfly, it would strike them dead. Again, in Samoa, the reddish-seared leaves of the banana tree were commonly used as plates for handing food. But if any member of the wild pigeon family had used banana leaves for this purpose, it was supposed that he would suffer from rheumatic swellings or an eruption all over the body like chickenpox. The mori clan of the pills in Central India worshiped the peacock as their totem and make offerings of grain to it. Yet members of the clan believe that were they even to set foot on the tracks of a peacock, they would afterwards suffer from some disease, and if a woman sees a peacock, she must veil her face and look away. Thus the primitive mind seems to conceive of holiness as a sort of dangerous virus, which a prudent man will shun as far as possible, and of which, if he should chance to be infected by it, he will carefully disinfect himself by some form of ceremonial purification. In the light of these parallels, the beliefs and customs of the Egyptians touching the pig are probably to be explained as based on an opinion of the extreme sanctity, rather than of the extreme uncleanness of the animal, or rather, to put it more correctly, they imply that the animal was looked on not simply as a filthy and disgusting creature, but as a being endowed with high supernatural powers, and that as such it was regarded with that primitive sentiment of religious awe and fear in which the feelings of reverence and aborance are almost equally blended. The ancients themselves seem to have been aware that there was another side to the horror with which swine seemed to inspire the Egyptians. For the Greek astronomer and mathematician Eudoxus, who resided fourteen months in Egypt and conversed with the priests, was of opinion that the Egyptians spared the pig not out of aborance, but from a regard to its utility in agriculture, for, according to him, when the Nile had subsided, herds of swine were turned loose over the fields to tread the seed down into the moist earth. But when a being is thus the object of mixed and implicitly contradictory feelings, he may be said to occupy a position of unstable equilibrium. In course of time, one of the contradictory feelings is likely to prevail over the other, and according as the feeling which finally predominates is that of reverence or aborance, the being who is the object of it will rise into a god or sink into a devil. The latter on the whole was the fate of the pig in Egypt, for in historical times the fear and horror of the pig seemed certainly to have outweighed the reverence and worship of which he may once have been the subject, and of which even in his fallen state he never quite lost trace. He came to be looked on as an embodiment of Set or Typhon, the Egyptian devil and enemy of Osiris, for it was in the shape of a black pig that Typhon injured the eye of the god Horus who burnt him and instituted the sacrifice of the pig, the sun god Ra having declared the beast abominable. Again the story that Typhon was hunting a boar when he discovered and mangled the body of Osiris, and that this was the reason why pigs were sacrificed once a year is clearly a modernized version of an older story that Osiris like Adonis and Attis were slain or mangled by a boar, or by Typhon in the form of a boar. Thus the annual sacrifice of a pig to Osiris might naturally be interpreted as vengeance inflicted on the hostile animal that had slain or mangled the god, but in the first place when an animal is thus killed as a solemn sacrifice once and once only in the year it generally or always means that the animal is divine, that he is spared and respected the rest of the year as a god, and slain when he is slain also in the character of a god. In the second place the examples of Dionysus and Demeter if not of Attis and Adonis have taught us that the animal which is sacrificed to a god on the ground that he is the god's enemy may have been and probably was originally the god himself. Therefore the annual sacrifice of a pig to Osiris coupled with the alleged hostility of the animal to the god tends to show first that originally the pig was a god and second that he was Osiris. At a later age when Osiris became anthropomorphic and his original relation to the pig had been forgotten the animal was first distinguished from him and afterwards opposed as an enemy to him by mythologists who could think of no reason for killing a beast in connection with the worship of a god except that the beast was the god's enemy or as Plutarch puts it not that which is dear to the gods but that which is the contrary is fit to be sacrificed. At this later stage the havoc which a wild boar notoriously makes amongst the corn would supply a plausible reason for regarding him as the foe of the corn spirit though originally if I am right the very freedom with which the boar ranged at will through the corn led people to identify him with the corn spirit to whom he was afterwards opposed as an enemy. The view which identifies the pig with Osiris derives not a little support from the sacrifice of pigs to him on the very day on which according to tradition Osiris himself was killed for thus the killing of the pig was the annual representation of the killing of Osiris just as the throwing of the pigs into the caverns at the Thesmaphoria was an annual representation of the descent of Persephone into the lower world and both customs are parallel to the Egyptian practice of killing a goat, cock and so forth at harvest as a representative of the corn spirit. Again the theory that the pig originally Osiris himself afterwards came to be regarded as an embodiment of his enemy Typhon is supported by the similar relation of red haired men and red oxen to Typhon for in regard to the red haired men who were burnt and whose ashes were scattered with winnowing fans we have seen fair grounds for believing that originally like the red haired puppies killed at Rome in spring they were representatives of the corn spirit himself that is of Osiris and were slain for the express purpose of making the corn turn red or golden yet at a later time these men were explained to be representatives not of Osiris but of his enemy Typhon and the killing of them was regarded as an act of vengeance inflicted on the enemy of the god. Similarly the red oxen sacrificed by the Egyptians were said to be offered on the ground of their resemblance to Typhon though it is more likely that originally they were slain on the ground of their resemblance to the corn spirit Osiris we have seen that the ox is a common representative of the corn spirit and is slain as such on the harvest field Osiris was regularly identified with the bull Apis of Memphis and the bull Nevis of Heliopolis but it is hard to say whether these bulls were embodiments of him as the corn spirit as the red oxen appear to have been or whether they were not in origin entirely distinct deities who came to be fused with Osiris at a later time. The universality of worship of these two bulls seems to put them on a different footing from the ordinary sacred animals whose worships were purely local but whatever the original relation of Apis to Osiris may have been there is one fact about the former which ought not to be passed over in a disquisition on the custom of killing a god although the bull Apis was worshipped as a god with much pomp and profound reverence he was not suffered to live beyond a certain length of time which was prescribed by the sacred books and on expiry of which he was drowned in a holy spring the limit according to Plutarch was 25 years but it cannot always have been enforced for the tombs of the Apis bulls have been discovered in modern times and from the inscriptions on them it appears that in the 22nd dynasty two of the holy steers lived more than 26 years five Virbius and the horse we are now in a position to hazard a conjecture as to the meaning of the tradition that Virbius the first of the divine kings of the wood at Arisia had been killed in the character of Hippolytus by horses having found first that spirits of the corn are not infrequently represented in the form of horses and second that the animal which in later legends is said to have injured the god was sometimes originally the god himself we may conjecture that the horses by which Virbius or Hippolytus was said to have been slain were really embodiments of him as a deity of vegetation the myth that he had been killed by horses was probably invented to explain certain features in his worship amongst others the custom of excluding horses from his sacred grove for myth changes while custom remains constant men continue to do what their fathers did before them though the reasons on which their fathers acted have been long forgotten the history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason to find a sound theory for an absurd practice in the case before us we may be sure that the myth is more modern than the custom and by no means represents the original reason for excluding horses from the grove from their exclusion it might be inferred that horses could not be the sacred animals or embodiments of the god of the grove but the inference would be rash the goat was at one time a sacred animal or embodiment of Athena as may be inferred from the practice of representing the goddess clad in a goat skin Aegis yet the goat was neither sacrificed to her as a rule nor allowed to enter her great sanctuary the acropolis at Athens the reason alleged for this was that the goat injured the olive the sacred tree of Athena so far therefore the relation of the goat to Athena is parallel to the relation of the horse to Virbius both animals being excluded from the sanctuary on the ground of injury done by them to the god but from Varro we learned that there was an exception to the rule which excluded the goat from the acropolis once a year he says the goat was driven onto the acropolis for unnecessary sacrifice now as has been remarked before when an animal is sacrificed once and once only in the year it is probably slain not as a victim offered to the god but as a representative of the god himself therefore we may infer that if a goat was sacrificed on the acropolis once a year it was sacrificed in the character of Athena herself and it may be conjectured that the skin of the sacrificed animal was placed on the statue of the goddess and formed the Aegis which would thus be renewed annually similarly at Thebes in Egypt rams were sacred and were not sacrificed but on one day in the year a ram was killed and its skin was placed on the statue of the god Amon now if we knew the ritual of the Eurystian Grove better we might find that the rule of excluding horses from it like the rule of excluding goats from the acropolis at Athens was subject to an annual exception a horse being once a year taken into the grove and sacrificed as an embodiment of the god Virbius by the usual misunderstanding the horse thus killed would come in time to be regarded as an enemy offered up in sacrifice to the god whom he had injured like the pig which was sacrificed to Demeter and Osiris or the goat which was sacrificed to Dionysus and possibly to Athena it is so easy for a writer to record a rule without noticing an exception that we need not wonder at finding the rule of the Eurystian Grove recorded without any mention of an exception such as I suppose if we had only had the statements of Atheneus and Pliny we should have known only the rule which forbade the sacrifice of goats to Athena and excluded them from the acropolis without being aware of the important exception which the fortunate preservation of Varro's work has revealed to us the conjecture that once a year a horse may have been sacrificed in the Eurystian Grove as a representative of the deity of the grove derives some support from the similar sacrifice of a horse which took place once a year at Rome on the 15th of October in each year a chariot race was run on the field of Mars stabbed with a spear the right-hand horse of the victorious team was then sacrificed to Mars for the purpose of ensuring good crops and its head was cut off and adorned with a string of loaves there upon the inhabitants of two wards the sacred way and the Saburra contended with each other who should get the head if the people of the sacred way got it they fastened it to a wall of the king's house if the people of the Saburra got it they fastened it to the mammalian tower the horse's tail was cut off and carried to the king's house with such speed that the blood dripped on the hearth of the house further it appears that the blood of the horse was caught and preserved till the 21st of April when the Vestal Virgins mixed it with the blood of the unborn calves which had been sacrificed six days before the mixture was then distributed to shepherds and used by them for fumigating their flocks in this ceremony the decoration of the horse's head with a string of loaves and the alleged object of the sacrifice namely to procure a good harvest seems to indicate that the horse was killed as one of those animal representatives of the corn spirit of which we have found so many examples the custom of cutting off the horse's tail is like the African custom of cutting off the tails of the oxen and sacrificing them to obtain a good crop in both the roman and the african custom the animal apparently stands for the corn spirit and its fructifying power is supposed to reside especially in its tail the latter idea occurs as we have seen in european folklore again the practice of fumigating the cattle in spring with the blood of the horse may be compared with the practice of giving the old wife the maiden or the claiac sheaf as fodder to the horses in spring or the cattle at christmas and giving the yule boar to the plowing oxen or horses to eat in spring all these usages aim at ensuring the blessing of the corn spirit on the homestead and its inmates and storing it up for another year the roman sacrifice of the october horse as it was called carries us back to the early days when the sabbara afterwards a low and squalid quarter of the great metropolis was still a separate village whose inhabitants engaged in a friendly contest on the harvest field with their neighbors of rome then a little rural town the field of mars on which the ceremony took place lay beside the tiber and formed part of the king's domain down to the abolition of the monarchy for tradition ran that at the time when the last of the kings was driven from rome the corn stood ripe for the sickle on the crown lands beside the river but no one would eat the accursed grain and it was flung into the river in such heaps that the water being low with the summer heat it formed the nucleus of an island the horse sacrifice was thus an old autumn custom observed upon the king's cornfields at the end of the harvest the tail and blood of the horse as the chief parts of the corn spirits representative were taken to the king's house and kept there just as in germany the harvest cock is nailed on the gable or over the door of the farmhouse and as the last chief in the form of the maiden is carried home and kept over the fireplace in the highlands of scotland thus the blessing of the corn spirit was brought to the king's house and half and through them to the community of which he was the head similarly in the spring and autumn customs of northern europe the maypole is sometime set up in front of the house of the mayor or burger master and the last chief at harvest is brought to him as the head of the village but while the tail and blood fell to the king the neighboring village of the sabora which no doubt once had a similar ceremony of its own was gratified by being allowed to compete for the prize of the horse's head the mammalian tower to which the saburans nailed the horse's head when they succeeded in carrying it off appears to have been a peal tower or keep of the old mammalian family the magnate of the village the ceremony thus performed on the king's fields and at his house on behalf of the whole town and of the neighboring village presupposes a time when each township performed a similar ceremony on its own fields in the rural districts of latham the villages may have continued to observe the custom each on its own land long after the roman hamlets had merged their separate harvest homes in the common celebration on the king's lands there is no intrinsic improbability in the supposition that the sacred grove of Arisia like the field of mars at Rome may have been the scene of a common harvest celebration at which a horse was sacrificed with the same rude rites on behalf of the neighboring villages the horse would represent the fructifying spirit both of the tree and of the corn for the two ideas melt into each other as we see in customs like the harvest may and of chapter 49 chapter 50 of the golden bow this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the golden bow by Sir James Frazier chapter 50 eating the god section one the sacrament of first fruits we have now seen that the corn spirit is represented sometimes in human sometimes in animal form and that in both cases he is killed in the person of his representative and eaten sacramentally to find examples of actually killing the human representative of the corn spirit we had naturally to go to savage races but the harvest suppers of our European peasants have furnished unmistakable examples of the sacramental eating of animals as representatives of the corn spirit but further as might have been anticipated the new corn is itself eaten sacramentally that is as the body of the corn spirit environment Sweden the farmer's wife uses the grain of the last sheaf to bake a loaf in the shape of a little girl this loaf is divided amongst the whole household and eaten by them here the loaf represents the corn spirit conceived as a maiden just as in Scotland the corn spirit is similarly conceived and represented by the last sheaf made up in the form of a woman and bearing the name of the maiden as usual the corn spirit is believed to reside in the last sheaf and to eat a loaf made from the last sheaf is therefore to eat the corn spirit itself similarly at La Passe in France a man made of dough is hung upon the fir tree which is carried on the last harvest wagon the tree and the dough man are taken to the mayor's house and kept there till the vintage is over then the close of the harvest is celebrated by a feast at which the mayor breaks the dough man in pieces and gives the pieces to the people to eat in these examples the corn spirit is represented and eaten in human shape in other cases though the new corn is not baked in loaves of human shape still the solemn ceremonies with which it is eaten suffice to indicate that it is partaken of sacramentally that is as the body of the corn spirit for example the following ceremonies used to be observed by the Lithuanian peasants at eating the new corn about the time of the autumn sowing when all the corn had been got in and the threshing had begun each farmer held a festival called Sabarios that is the mixing or throwing together he took nine good handfuls of each kind of crop wheat barley oats flax beans lentils and the rest and each handful he divided into three parts the 27 portions of each grain were then thrown on a heap and all mixed together the grain used had to be that which was first the rest and winnowed and which had been set aside and kept for this purpose a part of the grain thus mixed was employed to bake little loaves one for each of the household the rest was mixed with more barley or oats and made into beer the first beer brewed from this mixture was for the drinking of the farmer his wife and children the second brew was for the servants the beer being ready the farmer chose an evening when no stranger was expected then he knelt down before the barrel of beer drew a jug full of the liquor and poured it on the bung of the barrel saying oh fruitful earth make rye and barley at all kinds of corn to flourish next he took the jug to the parlor where his wife and children awaited him on the floor of the parlor lay bound a black or white or speckled not a red cock and a hen of the same color and of the same brood which must have been hatched within the year then the farmer knelt down with the jug in his hand and thanked god for the harvest and prayed for a good crop next year next all lifted up their hands and said oh god and thou oh earth we give you this cock and hen as a free will offering with that the farmer killed the fowls with the blows of a wooden spoon for he might not cut their heads off after the first prayer and after killing each of the birds he poured out a third of the beer then his wife boiled the fowls in a new pot which had never been used before after that a bushel was set bottom upwards on the floor and on it were placed the little loaves mentioned above and the boiled fowls next the new beer was fetched together with the ladle and three mugs none of which was used except on this occasion when the farmer had ladled the beer into the mugs the family knelt down around the bushel the father then uttered a prayer and drank off the three mugs of beer the rest followed his example then the loaves and the flesh of the fowls were eaten after which the beer went round again till everyone had emptied each of the three mugs nine times none of the food should remain over but if anything did happen to be left it was consumed next morning with the same ceremonies the bones were given to the dog to eat and if he did not eat them all up the remains were buried under the dung in the cattle stall this ceremony was observed at the beginning of december on the day on which it took place no bad word might be spoken such was the custom about 200 years or more ago at the present day lithuania when new potatoes or loaves made from the new corn are eaten all the people at table pull each other's hair the meaning of this last custom is obscure but a similar custom was certainly observed by the heathen lithuanians at their solemn sacrifices many of the estonians on the island of ocel will not eat bread baked of the new corn till they have first taken a bite at a piece of iron the iron is here plainly a charm intended to render harmless the spirit that is in the corn in sutherland shire at the present day when the new potatoes are dug all the family must taste them otherwise quote the spirits in them the potatoes take offense and the potatoes would not keep close quote in one part of yorkshire it is still customary for the clergyman to cut the first corn and my informant believes that the corn so cut is used to make the communion bread if the latter part of the custom is correctly reported and analogy is all in its favor it shows how the christian communion has absorbed within itself a sacrament which is doubtless far older than christianity the i know or i knew of japan are said to distinguish various kinds of millet as male and female respectively and these kinds taken together are called quote the divine husband and wife cereal therefore before millet is pounded and made into cakes for general eating the old men have a few made for themselves first to worship when they are ready to pray to them very earnestly and say oh thou cereal deity we worship thee thou hast grown very well this year and thy flavor will be sweet thou art good the goddess of fire will be glad and we shall rejoice greatly oh thou god oh thou divine cereal do thou nourish the people i now partake of thee i worship thee and give thee thanks after having thus prayed they the worshipers take a cake and eat it and from this time the people may all partake of the new millet and so with many gestures of homage and words of prayer this kind of food is dedicated to the well-being of the i knew no doubt the cereal offering is regarded as a tribute paid to a god but that god is no other than the seed itself and it is only a god in so far as it is beneficial to the human body close quote at the close of the riced harvest in the east indian island of buru each clan meets at a common sacramental meal to which every member of the clan is bound to contribute a little of the new rice this meal is called eating the soul of the rice a name which clearly indicates the sacramental character of the repast some of the rice is also set apart and offered to the spirits amongst the alfours of minihasa in celibus the priest sows the first rice seed and plucks the first ripe rice in each field this rice he roasts and grinds into meal and gives some of it to each of the household shortly before the rice harvest in boland mongando another district of celibus an offering is made of a small pig or a fowl then the priest plucks a little rice first on his own field and next on those of his neighbors all the rice thus plucked by him he dries along with his own and then gives it back to the respective owners who have it ground and boiled when it is boiled the women take it back with an egg to the priest who offers the egg and sacrifice and returns the rice to the women of this rice every member of the family down to the youngest child must partake after this ceremony everyone is free to get in his rice amongst the burgers or bedagas a tribe of the neil gary hills in southern india the first handful of seed is sown and the first sheaf reaped by a kurambar a man of a different tribe and members of which the burgers regard as sorcerers the grain contained in the first sheaf quote is that day reduced to meal made into cakes and being offered as a first fruit ablation is together with the remainder of the sacrificed animal partaken of by the burger and the whole of his family as the meat of a federal offering and sacrifice close quote among the hindus of southern india the eating of the new rice is the occasion of a family festival called pongol the new rice is boiled in a new pot on a fire which is kindled at noon on the day when according to hindu astrologers the sun enters the tropic of capricorn the boiling of the pot is watched with great anxiety by the whole family for as the milk boils so will the coming year be if the milk boils rapidly the year will be prosperous but it will be the reverse if the milk boils slowly some of the new boiled rice is offered to the image of ganessa then everyone partakes of it in some parts of northern india the festival of the new crop is known as nevan that is new grain when the crop is ripe the owner takes the omens goes to the field plucks five or six ears of barley in the spring crop and one of the millets in the autumn harvest this is brought home parched and mixed with coarse sugar butter and curds some of it is thrown on the fire in the name of the village gods and deceased ancestors the rest is eaten by the family the ceremony of eating the new yams at onicha on the Niger is thus described quote each headman brought out six yams and cut down young branches of palm leaves and placed them for his gate roasted three of the yams and got some colon nuts and fish after the yam is roasted the libya or country doctor takes the yam scrapes it into a sort of meal and divides it into halves he then takes one piece and places it on the lips of the person who is going to eat the new yam the eater then blows up the steam from the hot yam and afterwards pokes the hole into his mouth and says i thank god for being permitted to eat the new yam he then begins to chew it heartily with fish likewise close quote among the nandy of british east africa when the yule sign grain is ripening in autumn every woman who owns a cornfield goes out into it with her daughters and they all pluck some of the ripe grain each of the women then fixes one grain in her necklace and chews another which she rubs on her forehead throat and breast no mark of joy escapes them sorrowfully they cut a basket full of the new corn and carrying home place it in the loft dry as the ceiling is of wicker work a good deal of the grain drops through the crevasses and falls into the fire where it explodes with a crackling noise the people make no attempt to prevent this waste for they regard the crackling of the grain in the fire as a sign that the souls of the dead are partaking of it a few days later porridge is made from the new grain and is served up with milk at the evening meal all the members of the family take some of the porridge and dab it on the walls and roofs of the huts also they put a little in their mouths and spit it out towards the east and on the outside of the huts then holding up some of the grain in his hand the head of the family prays to god for health and strength and likewise for milk and everybody present repeats the words of the prayer after him among the cofferace of natal and zululand no one may eat of the new fruits till after a festival which marks the beginning of the cofferay year and falls at the end of december or the beginning of january all the people assemble at the king's crawl where they feast and dance before they separate the dedication of the people takes place various fruits of the earth as corn mealies and pumpkins mixed with the flesh of a sacrificed animal and with medicine are boiled in great pots and a little of this food is placed in each man's mouth by the king himself after this partaking of the sanctified fruits a man is himself sanctified for the whole year and may immediately get in his crops it is believed that if any man were to partake of the new fruits before the festival he would die if he were detected he would be put to death or at least all his cattle would be taken from him the holiness of the new fruits is well marked by the rule that they must be cooked in a special pot which is used only for this purpose and on a new fire kindled by a magician through the friction of two sticks which are called husband and wife among the bekuanas it is a rule that before they partake of the new crops they must purify themselves the purification takes place at the commencement of the new year on a day in january which is fixed by the chief it begins in the great crawl of the tribe where all the adult males assemble each of them takes in his hand leaves of a gourd called by the natives letroce described as something between a pumpkin and a vegetable marrow and having crushed the leaves he anoints with the expressed juice his big toes and his navel many people indeed apply the juice to all the joints of their body but the better informed say that this is a vulgar departure from ancient custom after the ceremony in the great crawl every man goes home to his own crawl assembles all the members of his family men women and children and smears them all with the juice of the letroce leaves some of the leaves are also pounded mixed with milk in a large wooden dish and given to the dogs to lap up then the porridge plate of each member of the family is rubbed with the letroce leaves when this purification has been completed but not before the people are free to eat of the new crops the bororo indians of brazil think it would be certain death to eat the new maze before it has been blessed by the medicine man the ceremony of blessing it is as follows the half ripe husk is washed and placed before the medicine man who by dancing and singing for several hours and by incessant smoking works himself up into a state of ecstasy where upon he bites into the husk trembling in every limb and uttering shrieks from time to time a similar ceremony is performed whenever a large animal or a large fish is killed the bororo are firmly persuaded that were any man to touch unconsecrated maze or meet before the ceremony had been completed he and his whole tribe would perish amongst the creek indians of north america the busk or festival of first fruits was the chief ceremony of the year it was held in july or august when the corn was ripe and marked the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one before it took place none of the indians would eat or even handle any part of the new harvest sometimes each town had its own bus sometimes several towns united to hold one in common before celebrating the busk the people provided themselves with new clothes and new household utensils and furnitures they collected their old clothes and rubbish together with all the remaining grain and their old provisions cast them together in one common heap and consumed them with fire as a preparation for the ceremony all the fires in the village were extinguished and the ashes swept clean away in particular the hearth or altar of the temple was dug up and the ashes carried out then the chief priest put some roots of the button snake plant with some green tobacco leaves and a little of the new fruits at the bottom of the fireplace which he afterwards commanded to be covered up with white clay and wetted over with clean water a thick arbor of green branches of young trees was then made over the altar meanwhile the women at home were cleaning out their houses renewing the old hearths and scouring all the cooking vessels that they might be ready to receive the new fire and the new fruits the public or sacred square was carefully swept of even the smallest crumbs of previous feasts quote for fear of polluting the first fruit offerings close quote also every vessel that had contained or had been used about any food during the expiring year was removed from the temple before sunset then all the men who were not known to have violated the law of the first fruit offering and that of marriage during the year were summoned by a crier to enter the holy square and observe a solemn fast but the women except six old ones the children and all who had not attained the rank of warriors were forbidden to enter the square sentinels were also posted at the corners of the square to keep out all persons deemed impure and all animals a strict fast was then observed for two nights and a day the devotees drinking a bitter concoction of button snake root quote in order to vomit and purge their sinful bodies close quote that the people outside the square might also be purified one of the old men laid down a quantity of green tobacco at a corner of the square this was carried off by an old woman who distributed to the people without who chewed and swallowed it quote in order to afflict their souls close quote during this general fast the women children and men of weak constitution were allowed to eat after midday but not before on the morning when the fast ended the women brought a quantity of the old years food to be outside of the sacred square these provisions were then fetched in and set before the famished multitude but all traces of them had to be removed before noon when the sun was declining from the meridian all the people were commanded by the voice of a crier to stay within doors to do no bad act and to be sure to extinguish and throw away every spark of the old fire universal silence now reigned then the high priest made the new fire by the friction of two pieces of wood and placed it on the altar under the green arbor this new fire was believed to atone for all past crimes except murder next a basket of new fruits was brought the high priest took a little of each sort of fruit rubbed it with bear's oil and offered it together with some flesh quote to the bountiful holy spirit of fire as a first fruit offering and an annual ablation for sin close quote he also consecrated the sacred emetics the button snake root and the casino or black drink by pouring a little of them into the fire the persons who had remained outside now approached without entering the sacred square and the chief priest thereupon made a speech exhorting the people to observe their old rites and customs announcing that the new divine fire had purged away the sins of the past year and earnestly warning the women that if any of them had not extinguished the old fire or had contracted any impurity they must forthwith depart quote lest the divine fire should spoil both them and the people close quote some of the new fire was then set down outside the holy square the women carried it home joyfully and laid it on their unpluted hearths when several towns had united to celebrate the festival the new fire might thus be carried for several miles the new fruits were then dressed on the new fires and eaten with bear's oil which was deemed indispensable at one point of the festival the men rubbed the new corn between their hands then on their faces and breasts during the festival which followed the warriors dressed in their wild marshal array their heads covered with white down and carrying white feathers in their hands danced around the sacred arbor under which burned the new fire the ceremonies lasted eight days during which the strictest countenance was practiced towards the conclusion of the festival the warriors fought a mock battle then the men and women together in three circles danced around the sacred fire lastly all the people smeared themselves with white clay and bathed in running water they came out of the water believing that no evil could now befall them for what they had done amidst in the past so they departed in joy and peace to this day also the remnant of the seminal indians of florida a people of the same stock as the creeks hold an annual purification and festival called the green corn dance at which the new corn is eaten on the evening of the first day of the festival they quaff a nauseous black drink as it is called which acts both as an enemic and a purgative they believe that he who does not drink of this liquor cannot safely eat the new green corn and besides that he will be sick at some time in the year while the liquor is being drunk the dancing begins and the medicine men join in next day they eat of the green corn the following day they fast probably from fear of polluting the sacred food in their stomachs by contact with common food but the third day they hold a great feast even tribes which do not till the ground sometimes observe analogous ceremonies when they gather the first wild fruits or dig the first roots of the season thus among the salish and the tina indians of northwest america quote before the young people eat the berries or roots of the season they always addressed the fruit or plant and begged for its favor and aid in some tribes regular first fruit ceremonies were annually held at the time of picking the wild fruit or gathering the roots and also among the salinating tribes when the run of the sockeye salmon began these ceremonies were not so much thanksgivings has performances to ensure a plentiful crop or supply of the particular object desired for if they were not properly and reverently carried out there was danger of giving offence to the spirits of the objects of being deprived of them close quote for example these indians are fond of the young shoots or suckers of the wild raspberry and they observe a solemn ceremony of eating the first of them in season the shoots are cooked in a new pot the people assemble and stand in a great circle with closed eyes while the presiding chief or medicine man invokes the spirit of the plant begging that it will be propitious to them and grant them a good supply of suckers after this part of the ceremony is over the cooked suckers are handed to the presiding officer in a newly carved dish and a small portion is given to each person present who reverently and decorously eats it the Thompson indians of british columbia cook and eat the sunflower root both see more he's a soggy tata but they use to regard it as a mysterious beam and observed a number of taboos in connection with it for example women who are engaged in digging or cooking the root must practice continents and no man might come near the oven while the women were baking the root when young men ate the first berries roots or other products of the season they addressed a prayer to the sunflower root as follows quote i inform thee that i intend to eat the mayest thou always helped me to ascend so that i may always be able to reach the tops of the mountains and may i never be clumsy i ask this from the sunflower root thou art the greatest of all in mystery close quote to omit this prayer would make the eater lazy and cause him to sleep long in the morning these customs of the Thompson and other Indian tribes of the northwest america are instructive because they clearly indicate the motive or at least one of the motives which underlies the ceremonies observed in eating the first fruits of the season that motive in the case of these Indians is simply a belief that the plant itself is animated by a conscious and more or less powerful spirit who must be propitiated before the people can safely partake of the fruits or roots which are supposed to be part of his body now if this is true of wild fruits and roots we may infer with some probability that it is also true of cultivated fruits and roots such as yams and in particular that it holds good of the cereals such as wheat barley oats rice and maize in all cases it seems reasonable to infer that the scruples which savages manifest at eating the first fruits of any crop and the ceremonies which they observe before they overcome their scruples are due at least in large measure to a notion that the plant or tree is animated by a spirit or even a deity whose leave must be obtained or whose favor must be sought before it is possible to partake with safety of the new crop this indeed is plainly affirmed of the inal they call the millet the divine cereal the cereal deity and they pray to and worship him before they will eat of the cakes made from the new millet and even where the indwelling divinity of the new fruits is not expressly affirmed it appears to be implied both by the solemn preparations made for eating them and by the danger supposed to be incurred by persons who venture to partake of them without observing the prescribed ritual in all such cases accordingly we may not improperly describe the eating of the new fruits as a sacrament or communion with a deity or at all events with a powerful spirit among the usages which point to this conclusion are the custom of employing either new or specially reserved vessels to hold the new fruits and the practice of purifying the persons of the communicants before it is lawful to engage in the solemn act of communion with the divinity of all the modes of purification adopted on these occasions none perhaps brings out the sacramental virtue of the right so clearly as the greek and seminal practice of taking a purgative before swallowing the new corn the intention is thereby to prevent the sacred food from being polluted by contact with common food in the stomach of the eater for the same reason Catholics partake of the Eucharist fasting and among the pastoral messiah of eastern africa the young warriors who live on meat and milk exclusively are obliged to eat nothing but milk for so many days and then nothing but meat for so many more and before they pass from the one food to the other they must make sure that none of the old food remains in their stomachs this they do by swallowing a very powerful purgative and emetic in some of the festivals which we have examined the sacrament of first fruits is combined with a sacrifice or presentation of them to gods or spirits and in course of time the sacrifice of first fruits tends to throw the sacrament into the shade if not to supersede it the mere fact of offering the first fruits to the gods or spirits comes now to be thought a sufficient preparation for eating the new corn the higher powers having received their share man is free to enjoy the rest this mode of viewing the new fruits implies that they are regarded no longer as themselves instinct with divine life but merely as a gift bestowed by the gods upon man who was bound to express his gratitude and homage to his divine benefactors by returning to them a portion of their bounty section to eating the God among the Aztecs the custom of eating bread sacramentally as the body of a god was practiced by the Aztecs before the discovery and conquest of mexico by the spaniards twice a year into may and december an image of the great mexican god witzilu poltley or witzilu putzley was made of dough then broken in pieces and solemnly eaten by his worshipers the may ceremony is thus described by the historian acosta quote the mexicans in the month of may made their principal feast to their god witzilu putzley and two days before this feast the virgins whereof i have spoken that which were shut up and secluded in the same temple and whereas it were religious women did mingle a quantity of the seed of beets with roasted maize and then they did mold it with honey making an idol of that paste in bigness like to that of wood putting instead of eyes grains of green glass of blue or white and for teeth grains of maize set forth with all the ornament and furniture that i have said this being finished all the nobleman came and brought it an exquisite and rich garment like unto that of the idol wherewith they did attire it being thus clad and decked they did set it in an azure chair and in a litter to carry it on their shoulders the morning of this feast being come an hour before day all the maidens came forth attired in white with new ornaments that which that day were called the sisters of their god of bitzilu putzley they came crowned with garlands of maize roasted and parched being like unto as a hair or the flower of orange and about their necks they had great chains of the same which went baldric wise under their left arm their cheeks were dyed with vermilion their arms from the elbow to the wrist were covered with red parrot's feathers close quote young men dressed in red robes and crowned like the virgins with maize then carried the idol in its litter to the foot of the great pyramid shaped temple up the steep and narrow steps of which it was drawn to the music of flutes trumpets cornets and drums quote while they mounted up the idol all the people stood in the court with much reverence and fear being mounted to the top and that they had placed it in a little lodge of roses which they held ready presently came the young men which strewed many flowers of sundry kinds wherewith they filled the temple both within and without this done all the virgins came out of their convent bringing pieces of paste compounded of beets and roasted maize which was of the same paste whereof their idol was made and compounded and they were of the fashion of great bones they delivered them to the young men who carried them up and laid them at the idols feet wherewith they filled the whole place that it could receive no more they called these morsels of paste the flesh and bones of viziluputsli having laid abroad these bones presently came all the ancients of the temple priests levites and all the rest of the ministers according to their dignities and antiquities for herein there was a strict order amongst them one after another with their veils of diverse colors and works everyone according to his dignity and office having garlands upon their heads and chains of flowers about their necks after them came their gods and goddesses whom they worshiped of diverse figures attired in the same livery then putting themselves in order about those morsels and pieces of paste they used certain ceremonies with singing and dancing by means whereof they were blessed and consecrated for the flesh and bones of this idol this ceremony and a blessing whereby they were taken for the flesh and bones of the idol being ended they honored those pieces in the same sort as their god all the city came to this goodly spectacle and there was a commandment very strictly observed throughout all the land that the day of the feast of the idol of viziluputsli they should eat no other meat but this paste with honey whereof the idol was made and this should be eaten at the point of day and they should drink no water nor any other thing till afternoon they held it for an ill sign yay for sacrilege to do the contrary but after the ceremonies ended it was lawful for them to eat anything during the time of the ceremony they hid the water from their little children admonishing all such as had the use of reason not to drink any water which if they did the anger of god would come upon them and they should die which they did observe very carefully and strictly the ceremonies dancing and sacrifice ended they went to unclothe themselves and the priests and superiors of the temple took the idol of paste which they spoiled of all the ornaments it had and made many pieces as well of the idol itself as of the truncians which they consecrated and then they gave them to the people in manner of a communion beginning with the greater and continuing unto the rest both men women and little children who received it with such tears fear and reverence as it was an admirable thing saying that they did eat the flesh and bones of god wherewith they were grieved such as had any sick folks demanded thereof for them and carried it with great reverence and veneration close quote from this interesting passage we learn that the ancient mexicans even before the arrival of christian missionaries were fully acquainted with the doctrine of transubstantiation and acted upon it in the solemn rites of their religion they believed that by consecrating bread their priests could turn it into the very body of their god so that all who thereupon partook of the consecrated bread entered into a mystic communion with the deity by receiving a portion of his divine substance into themselves the doctrine of transubstantiation or the magical conversion of bread into flesh was also familiar to the Aryans of ancient india long before the spread and even the rise of christianity the brahmans taught that the rice cakes offered in sacrifice were substitutes for human beings and that they were actually converted into the real bodies of men by the manipulation of the priest we read that quote when it the rice cake still consists of rice meal it is the hair when he pours water on it it becomes skin when he mixes it it becomes flesh for then it becomes consistent and consistent also is the flesh when it is baked it becomes bone for then it becomes somewhat hard and hard as the bone and when he is about to take it off the fire and sprinkles it with butter he changes it into marrow this is the completeness which they call the five-fold animal sacrifice close quote now to we can perfectly understand why on the day of their solemn communion with the deity the mexicans refused to eat any other food than the consecrated bread which they revered as the very flesh and bones of their god and why up till noon they might drink nothing at all not even water they feared no doubt to defile the portion of god in their stomachs by contact with common things a similar pious fear led the creek and seminal indians as we saw to adopt the more thorough going expedient of rinsing out their bodies by a strong purgative before they dared to partake of the sacrament of first fruits at the festival of the winter solstice in december the aztecs killed their god witsilopochtli in effigy first and ate him afterwards as a preparation for the solemn ceremony an image of the deity in the likeness of a man was fashioned out of seeds of various sorts which were needed into a dough with the blood of children the bones of the god were represented by pieces of acacia wood this image was placed on the chief altar of the temple and on the day of the festival the king offered incense to it early next day it was taken down and sit on its feet in a great hall then a priest who bore the name and acted the part of the god ketsakowatl took a flint tipped dart and hurled it into the breast of the dough image piercing it through and through this was called killing the god witsilopochtli so that his body might be eaten one of the priests cut out the heart of the image and gave it to the king to eat the rest of the image was divided into minute pieces of which every man great and small down to the male children even in the cradle received one to eat but no woman might taste a morsel the ceremony was called tio koalo that is god is eaten at another festival the mexicans made little images like men which stood for the cloud capped mountains these images were molded to a paste of various seeds and were dressed in paper ornaments some people fashioned five others 10 others as many as 15 of them having been made they were placed in the oratory of each house and worshiped four times in the course of the night offerings of food were brought to them in tiny vessels and people sang and played the flute before them through all the hours of darkness at break of day the priests stabbed the images with a weaver's instrument cut off their heads and tore out their hearts which they presented to the master of the house on a green saucer the bodies of the images were then eaten by all the family especially by the servants quote in order that by eating them they might be preserved from certain destepers to which those persons who were negligent of worship to those deities conceived themselves to be subject close quote section three many many at arikia we are now able to suggest an explanation of the proverb there are many many at arikia certain loaves made in the shape of men were called by the romans manne and it appears that this kind of loaf was especially made at arikia now mania the name of one of these loaves was also the name of the mother or grandmother of ghosts to whom woollen effigies of men and women were dedicated at the festival of the compitalia these effigies were hung at the doors of all the houses in Rome one effigy was hung up for every free person in the house and one effigy of a different kind for every slave the reason was that on this day the ghosts of the dead were believed to be going about and it was hoped that either out of good nature or through simple inadvertence they would carry off the effigies at the door instead of the living people in the house according to tradition these woollen figures were substitutes for a former custom of sacrificing human beings upon data so fragmentary and uncertain it is impossible to build with confidence but it seems worth suggesting that the loaves in human form which appeared to have been baked at arikia were sacramental bread and that in the old days when the divine king of the wood was annually slain loaves were made in his image like the paste figures of the gods in mexico and were eaten sacramentally by his worshipers the mexican sacraments in honor of huitzilopoxli were also accompanied by the sacrifice of human victims the tradition that the founder of the sacred grove at arikia was a man named manias from whom many many were descended would thus be an etymological myth invented to explain the name manne as applied to these sacramental loaves a dim recollection of the original connection of the loaves with human sacrifices may perhaps be traced in the story that the effigies dedicated to mania at the compitolia were substitutes for human victims the story itself however is probably devoid of foundation since the practice of putting up dummies to divert the attention of ghosts or demons from living people is not uncommon for example the debatons stand in fear of innumerable earth demons all of whom are under the authority of old mother kon ma this goddess who may be compared to the roman mania the mother or grandmother of ghosts is dressed in golden yellow robes holds a golden noose in her hand and rides on a ram in order to bar the dwelling house against the fowl fiends of whom old mother kon ma is mistress an elaborate structure somewhat resembling a chandelier is fixed above the door on the outside of the house it contains a ram skull a variety of precious objects such as gold leaf silver and turquoise also some dry food such as rice wheat and pulse and finally images or pictures of a man a woman and a house quote the object of these figures of a man wife and house is to deceive the demons should they still come in spite of this offering and to mislead them into the belief that the foregoing pictures are the inmates of the house so that they will wreak their wrath on these bits of wood and to save the real human occupants close quote when all is ready a priest prays to old mother kon ma that she would be pleased to accept these dainty offerings and to close the open doors of the earth in order that the demons may not come forth to infest and injure the household again effigies are often employed as a means of preventing or curing sickness the demons of disease either mistake the effigies for living people or are persuaded or compelled to enter them leaving the real men and women well and whole thus the alphors of manahasa in celibus will sometimes transport a sick man to another house while they leave on his bed a dummy made up of a pillow and clothes this dummy the demon is supposed to mistake for the sick man who consequently recovers cure a prevention of this sort seems to find a special favor with the natives of borneo thus when an epidemic is raging among them the jacks of catch young gal river set up wooden images at their doors in the hope that the demons of the plague may be diluted into carrying off the effigies instead of the people among the olon adju of borneo when a sick man is supposed to be suffering from the assaults of a ghost puppets of dough or rice meal are made and thrown under the house as substitutes for the patient who thus rids himself of the ghost in certain of the western district of borneo if a man is taken suddenly and violently sick the physician who in this part of the world is generally an old woman fashions a wooden image and brings it seven times into contact with the sufferer's head while she says quote this image serves to take the place of the sick man sickness pass over into the image close quote then with some rice salt and tobacco in a little basket the substitute is carried to the spot where the evil spirit is supposed to have entered into the man there it is set upright on the ground after the physician has invoked the spirit as follows quote oh devil here is an image which stands instead of the sick man release the soul of the sick man and plague the image for it is indeed prettier and better than he close quote batak magicians can't conjure the demon of disease out of the patient's body into an image made out of a banana tree with a human face and wrapped in magic herbs the image is then hurriedly removed and thrown away or buried beyond the boundaries of the village sometimes the image dressed as a man or a woman according to the sex of the patient is deposited at a crossroad or other through fare in the hope that some passerby seen it may start and cry out ah so and so is dead for such an exclamation is supposed to delude the demon of disease into a belief that he has accomplished his fell purpose so he takes himself off and leaves the sufferer to get well the my darat a Sakai tribe of the Malay Peninsula attribute all kinds of diseases to the agency of spirits which they call the nayani fortunately however the magician can induce these maleficent beings to come out of the sick person and to take up their abode and rude figures of grass which are hung up outside the houses in little bell shaped shrines decorated with peeled sticks during an epidemic of smallpox the you negroes will sometimes clear a space outside of the town where they erect a number of low mounds and cover them with as many little clay figures as there are people in the place pots of food and water are also set out for the refreshment of the spirit of smallpox who it is hoped will take the clay figures and spare the living folk and to make assurance doubly sure the road into the town is barricaded against him with these examples before us we may surmise that the woollen ethigies which at the festival of the company Talia might be seeing hanging at the doors of all the houses in ancient Rome were not substitutes for human victims who had formerly been sacrificed at this season but rather vicarious offerings presented to the mother or grandmother of ghosts in the hope that on her rounds through the city she would accept or mistake the ethigies for the inmates of the house and so spare the living for another year it is possible that the puppets made of rushes which in the month of May the pontiffs and vestal virgins annually threw into the tiber from the old sublecian bridge at Rome had originally the same significance that is that they may have been designed to purge the city from demoniac influence by diverting the attention of the demons from human beings to the puppets and then toppling the whole uncanny crew neck and crop into the river which would soon sweep them far out to sea in precisely the same way the natives of old Calabar used periodically to rid their town of the devils which infested it by luring the unwary demons into a number of lamentable scarecrows which they afterwards flung into the river the interpretation of the roman custom is supported to some extent by the evidence of Plutarch who speaks of the ceremony as the greatest of purifications end of chapter 50