CHAPTER XI.

_DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN AFRICA AND AMERICA._

Boulanger (1722-59), a freethinker, and the friend and correspondent

of Voltaire, was so dominated by his belief in the universal Deluge

as a fact, that he made its consequences the foundation of all his

theories. Writing in the midst of a scepticism very much resembling

that of the present day, he says, "What! you believe in the Deluge?"

Such will be the exclamation of a certain school of opinion, and this

school a very large one. Nevertheless, this profound writer, by the

exigencies of his theory, was irresistibly brought to the recognition

of the fact. "We must take," he continues, "a fact in the traditions

of mankind, the truth of which shall be universally recognised. What

is it? I do not see any, of which the evidence is more generally

attested, than those which have transmitted to us that famous physical

revolution which, they tell us, has altered the face of our globe,

and which has occasioned a total renovation of human society: in a

word, the Deluge appears to me the true starting-point (_la veritable

epoque_) in the history of nations. Not only is the tradition which

has transmitted this fact the most ancient of all, but it is moreover

clear and intelligible; it presents a fact which can be justified and

confirmed." He proceeds, and the drift and animus of the writer will

be sufficiently apparent in the passage--"It is then by the Deluge

that the history of the existing nations and societies has commenced.

If there have been false and pernicious religions in the world it is

to the Deluge that I trace them back as to their source; if doctrines

inimical to society have been broached, I see their principles in the

consequences of the Deluge; if there have existed vicious legislations

and innumerable bad governments, it will be upon the Deluge that I

lay the charge." It is, then, only in attestation of the fact that

I adduce this author; and in his proof he has accumulated a large

mass of indirect evidence, which a certain school of opinion find it

convenient altogether to ignore in reference to this subject. In this

class are the various institutions among different nations to preserve

the memory of the Deluge, as for instance, the "Hydrophories ou la fête

du Deluge à Athenes," and at Ægina, the feast of the goddess of Syria

at Hierapolis, both having strange resemblances with the Jewish feasts

of "Nisue ha Mâim, or the effusion of waters," and the tabernacles, in

their traditional aspects, _i.e._ in their observances _not_ commanded

by Moses; the "effusion des eaux a Ithome ... et de Siloe;" the feast

of the Deluge (of Inachus) at Argos; a feast, the effusion of water,

in Persia, anterior to its Mahometanism; similar festivals in Pegu,

China, and Japan; in the mysteries of Eleusis; in the "peloria,"

"anthisteria," and "_Saturnalia_;" and finally in the pilgrimages to

rivers in India[201] and other parts of the world; "of the multitude

of traditions preserved in the diluvian festivals and commemorative

usages of the gulphs, apertures, and abysses which have at one time

or another vomited forth or absorbed waters" (i. 84); again, the

pilgrimages to the summits of mountains in India, China, Tartary, the

Caucasus,[202] Peru, &c. "It is easy to see," he adds (p. 320), "that

this veneration is based upon a corrupted tradition, which has taught

these people that their fathers formerly took refuge on the top of this

mountain at the time of the Deluge, and subsequently descended from it

to inhabit the plains."

[201] Dionysius Periegesis says the women of the British Amnitæ

celebrated the rites of Dionysos:--

"As the Bistonians on Apsinthus banks

Shout to the clamorous Eiraphiates;

Or as the Indians on dark-rolling Ganges

Hold revels to Dionysos the noisy,

So do the British women shout Evoë."

(v. 375.) (_Qy_. Enoë.)

_Vide_ "The Bhilsa Topes," by Major A. Cunningham, p. 6.

[202] I would specially draw attention to the instances of temples

constructed upon the model of ships, concerning which _vide_

Bryant's "Mythology," ii. 221, 226, 227, 240; and compare with

Plate XVIII. in Montfauçon, ii.

I shall have occasion to refer again more in detail to some of these

customs[203] when drawing attention to the resemblances which I shall

presently point out; but I wish previously to give, more _in extenso_,

his description of the Hydrophoria at Athens:--

"This name denoted the custom which the Athenians had on the day

of this feast of carrying water in ewers and vases with great

ceremony; in memory of the Deluge, they proceeded each year to

pour this water into an opening or gulf, which was found near the

temple of Jupiter Olympus, and on this occasion they recalled the

sad memory of their ancestors having been submerged. This ceremony

is simple and very suitable to its subject; it was well calculated

to perpetuate the memory of the catastrophe caused by the waters of

the Deluge. Superstition added some other customs.... They threw

into the same gulf cakes of corn and honey; it was an offering

to appease the infernal deities.... The Greeks placed it in the

rank of their unlucky days (also 'un jour triste et lugubre');

and thus they remarked that Sylla had taken their city of Athens

the very day that they had made this commemoration of the Deluge.

Superstition observes everything, not to correct itself, but to

confirm itself more and more in its errors. It was, according to

the fable, by the opening of this gulf that the waters which had

covered Attica had disappeared; it was also said that Deucalion

had raised near to this place an altar which he had dedicated to

Jove the Preserver. 'Tradition also attributed to Deucalion the

temple of Jupiter Olympus,' in which these mournful ceremonies were

performed. 'This temple was celebrated and respected by the pagan

nations as far as we can trace history back.' It was reconstructed

on a scale of magnificence by Pisistratus; every town and prince

in Greece contributed to its adornment; it was completed by the

Emperor Adrian in 126 of our era. The antiquity of this monument,

the respect which all nations have shown it, and the character of

the traditions which they have of its origin, ought to establish

for the festival of the Hydrophoria a great antiquity. The feasts,

in general, are more ancient than the temples."--_Boulanger_, i.

38-40.

[203] Compare Bryant.

I will now ask the reader, if he has not read (and seen the

illustrations in) Mr Catlin's "O-kee-pa,"[204] to compare the following

extract with the preceding:--

"The O-kee-pa, an annual ceremony to the strict observance of which

those ignorant and superstitious people attributed not only their

enjoyment in life but their very existence; for traditions, their

only history, instructed them in the belief that the singular forms

of this ceremony produced the buffaloes for their supply of food,

and that the omission of this annual ceremony, _with its sacrifices

to the waters_, would bring upon them a repetition of _the

calamity_ which their traditions say once befell them, destroying

_the whole human race_ excepting one man, who landed from his canoe

on a high mountain in the west.[205] This tradition, however, was

not peculiar to the Mandan tribe, for among one hundred and twenty

different tribes that I have visited in North, South, and Central

America, not a tribe exists that has not related to me distinct

or vague traditions of such a calamity in which one or three or

_eight_ persons were saved above the waters on the top of a high

mountain. Some of them, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and

in the plains of Venezuela and the Pampa del Sacramento in South

America, _make annual pilgrimages_ to the _fancied summits_ where

the antediluvian species were saved in canoes or otherwise, and

under the mysterious regulations of their medicine (mystery) men

tender their prayers and sacrifices to the Great Spirit to ensure

their exemption from a similar catastrophe."--P. 2.

[204] "O-kee-pa, a Religious Ceremony, and other Customs of the

Mandans," Trübner & Co. London, 1867. Mr Catlin's statements

are attested by the certificates of three educated and

intelligent men who witnessed the ceremonies with him, and is

further corroborated by a letter addressed to Mr Catlin by

Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, the celebrated traveller among

the North American Indians, who had previously referred to

them (he spent a winter among the Mandans).

[205] I read in the _Times_, March 6, 1871, that "The American

papers state that workmen in Iowa, excavating for the

projected Dubuque and Minnesota railroad, in the limestone

at the foot of a bluff, discovered recently _some caves and

rock chambers_, and, on raising a foot slab, a vault filled

with human skeletons of unusual size, the largest being seven

feet eight inches high. A figured sun on the walls is taken

as indicating that the skeletons belonged to a people who

worshipped that luminary [compare _supra_, p. 152] _and the

representation of a man with a dove stepping out of a boat_,

as an allusion to a tradition of the Deluge. The fingers of

the largest skeleton clasped a pearl ornament, and traces of

cloth were found crumbled at the feet of the remains. Many

copper implements were found, and it is thought that the Lake

Superior mines may have been worked at an early period. The

remains were to be removed to the Iowa Institute of Arts and

Sciences at Dubuque."

Yet, strange to say, this is _no_ proof to Mr Catlin of the universal

Deluge recorded in Scripture. "If," he says, "it were shown that

inspired history of the Deluge and of the Creation restricted those

events to one continent alone, then it might be that the American

races came from the Eastern continent, bringing these traditions

with them, for until that is proved, the American traditions of the

Deluge are no evidence whatever of an eastern origin. If it were

so, and the aborigines of America brought their traditions of the

Deluge from the East, why did they not bring inspired history of the

Creation?"[206]--P. 3. (_Vide_ pp. 134, 135.)

[206] Compare account of Mandan tradition of the Creation, from

"Hist. des Ceremonies Religieuses," _supra_, p. 191.

The "O-kee-pa," Mr Catlin says, "was a strictly religious ceremony,

... with the solemnity of religious worship, with abstinence, with

sacrifices, with prayer; whilst there were three other distinct and

ostensible objects for which it was held,--1. As an annual celebration

of the '_subsiding of the waters_' of the Deluge. 2. For the purpose

of dancing what they call the Bull-dance, to the strict performance

of which they attributed the coming of buffaloes. 3. For purpose of

conducting the young men through _an ordeal of privation and bodily

torture_, which, while it was supposed to harden their muscles and

prepare them for extreme endurance, enabled their chiefs ... to decide

upon their comparative bodily strength, endurance," &c.--P. 9.

The torture no doubt subserved this subsidiary purpose, but it appears

to me that the original intention and idea was torture for the purpose

of expiation, as in the ceremonies in ancient Greece.[207] Sundry

incidents narrated by Catlin seem to establish this. They prepare

themselves by fasting (p. 25); after having sunk under the infliction

of these horrible tortures (and from every point of view they are truly

horrible), "no one was allowed to offer them aid when they lay in this

condition. They were here enjoying their inestimable privilege of

voluntarily intrusting their lives to the keeping of the Great Spirit,

and chose to remain there until the Great Spirit gave them strength to

get up and walk away" (p. 28); and when so far recovered, "in each

instance" they presented the little finger of the left hand, and some

also the forefinger of the same hand and the little finger of the right

hand (all tending to make them _pro tanto_ inefficient warriors) "as

an offering to the Great Spirit, as a sacrifice for having listened to

their prayers, and protected their lives in what they had just gone

through" (p. 28).

[207] _Supra_, p. 35. These tortures have their exact counterpart

in India, _e.g._ the ceremony of the _Pota_ (compare

Sanscrit, "pota" = boat), thus described by Hunter ("Rural

Bengal," 1868, p. 463):--"Pota (hook-swinging), now stopped

by Government, but still practised (1865) among the Northern

Santals [who have the distinct tradition of the Deluge and

dispersion referred to, _supra_] in _April

or May_. Lasted about one month. Young men used to swing with

hooks through their back [as seen in Catlin's illustrations],

as in the Charak Puja of the Hindus. The swingers used _to

fast_ the day preceding and the day following the operation,

and to sleep the intermediate night on thorns."

"On pleuroit et l'on s'attristoit dans les fêtes _les plus

gayes et plus dissolues_; les cultes d'Isis et d'Osiris, ainsi

que ceux _de Bacchus_, de Céres, d'Adonis, d'Atys, &c., étoient

_accompagnés de macérations et de larmes_."--_Boulanger_, iii.

355.

For the description of the _bull_-dance,[208] and for the subsequent

history and final extinction of the Mandans, I must refer my readers to

Mr Catlin's valuable testimony to the truth of Scripture, and important

contributions to ethnological science.

[208] Bryant ("Myth." ii. 432) says, "There were many arkite"

(_i.e._ commemorative of ark) "ceremonies in different

parts of the world, which were generally styled _Taurica_

sacra" (from taurus = _bull_). These mysteries were of old

attended with acts of _great cruelty_. Of these "I have given

instances, taken from different parts of the world; from

Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily."

I shall now proceed to show analogies in what will be admitted to

be most unlikely ground--in the King of Dahome's celebrated "So-sin

customs," described by Captain Richard Burton.

Before, however, proceeding further, I must point out the following

features in the ceremonies or customs as common to Grecian and antique

pagan; to the Mandan (Indian of North America), and to the tropical

African.[209] In the first place they are cyclical; they are all of a

mournful character; all are interrupted at intervals by processions,

dances, and songs of a traditional character; they all close in scenes

of rejoicing or rather in Bacchanalian (yet still traditionally

[_vide_ page 247, note Boulanger] Bacchanalian) scenes of riot

and debauchery. The duration of the festivals varies from three and

four to five days; the days have fantastic names, which, although

different, still in their very peculiarity, and also in the drift and

meaning of the names so far as it can be gathered, are suggestive of

a common origin, _e.g_. the first day of the Anthesteria, at Athens

was called "[Greek: Pithoigia, apo tou pithous oigein]," "because

they tapped their casks." The fourth day of the King of Dahome's

customs is named "So (horse) nan-wen (will break) _kan_ (rope) 'gbe

(to-day)."--Burton, ii. 8. One part of the Mandan ceremony is called

"Mee-ne-ro-ka-Ha-sha," or "the _settling down of the waters_," which

name again closely corresponds to the ceremonies at Athens and at

Hierapolis in Syria (_ante_), where water was poured into the opening

where the waters of the Deluge were supposed to have disappeared. The

fifth day of the Dahome customs is named "Minai afunfun khi Uhun-jro

men Dadda Gezo"="we go to the small mat tent under which the king

sits."--Burton, ii. 27. This approximates to the scene described by

Catlin (p. 20) at the close of the bull-dance (fourth day), when "the

master of ceremonies (corresponding to the king at Dahome) cried out

for all the dancers, musicians," and "the representatives of _animals_

and _birds_," "to gather again around him." He is described as coming

out of the mystery lodge and collecting them round "the big canoe."

[209] Let the following points of resemblance be noted also

in the "Panathenæa." The lesser, and it is supposed the

annual festival, was celebrated on the 20th of Thargelion,

corresponding to the 5th May (compare Catlin). Every citizen

contributed olive branches and an ox (_vide_ Catlin) at the

greater festival. "In the ceremonies without the city there

was an engine built _in the form of a ship_, on purpose for

this solemnity;" upon this the sacred garment of Minerva

"was hung in the manner of a _sail_," "the whole conveyed

to the temple of _Ceres Elusinia_." "This procession was

led by _old men_, together, as some say, with old women

carrying _olive branches_ in their hands." "After them came

the men of full age with shields and spears, being attended

by the [Greek: Metoikoi], or sojourners, who carried _little

boats_ as a token of their being foreigners, and were called

on that account _boat-bearers_; then followed the women

attended by the sojourner's wives, who were named [Greek:

hydriaphoroi], from _bearing water pots_."--Compare Burton,

Catlin. Then followed select virgins, covered with millet,

"called _basket-bearers_," the baskets containing necessaries

for the celebration. "These virgins were attended by the

sojourner's daughters, who carried _umbrellas_ (_vide_ Pongol

Festival, appendix), _little seats_, whence they were

called _seat-carriers_."--Compare Burton (_vide_ Potter's

"Antiquities," i. 419.)

Compare also the following in the "Dionysia" or festivals

in honour of Bacchus (_ante_, p. 215) with Catlin. "They

carried thyrsi, _drums_, pipes, flutes, and _rattles_, and

crowned themselves with garlands of _trees_ sacred to Bacchus,

ivy, vine, &c. Some imitated Silenus, Pan, and the Satyrs,

exposing themselves in _comical dresses_ and antic motions;"

and in this manner ran about the hills "invoking Bacchus."

"At Athens this frantic rout was followed by persons carrying

certain sacred vessels, the first of which was _filled with

water_."

Bryant ("Mythology," ii. 219) speaking of Egypt ("the

priests of Ammon who at _particular seasons_ used to carry

in procession a boat," concerning which refer to page 254),

says--"Part of the ceremony in most of the ancient mysteries

consisted in carrying about a kind of ship or boat, which

custom upon due examination will be found to relate to nothing

else but Noah and the Deluge." He adds that the name of "the

navicular shrines was _Baris_, which is very remarkable; for

it is the very name of the mountain, according to Nicolaus

Damascenus, on which the ark of Noah rested, the same as

Ararat in Armenia." Herodotus speaks of "_Baris_" as the

Egyptian name of a ship, l. 2, 96; Eurip. "Iphig. in Aulis,"

v. 297; Æschylus, Persæ, 151; Lycophron, v. 747, refer to

names of ships in connection with Noah. _Sup._, p. 196.

Query--is our word barge a corruption of baris? or perhaps of

_baris_ in connection with "_argus_," also a term for the ark.

(With reference to this etymology _vide_ my remark, p. 116,

and d'Anselme, p. 196, and Bryant, ii. 251.)

But the closest connection is in the nature and order of the ceremonies

on the fourth day at Dahome and among the Mandans. Among the latter,

interrupting the bull-dance on that day, there is an apparition of "the

evil spirit,"[210] graphically described by Mr Catlin (p. 22), and at

Dahome (Burton, ii. 18), there intervenes between the fourth and fifth

days' ceremonies what is called "the evil night" (there are two "evil

nights") which is the night of the horrible massacre. But on this night

also, at the close of the fourth day's ceremonies among the Mandans,

the infliction of tortures (very horrible, but mild in comparison

with the African butchery) commence. Now, I have already ventured the

opinion that these tortures were originally of an expiatory character,

and this gains confirmation by the assurance made to Captain R.

Burton that the victims on "the evil night" were only "criminals"

and prisoners of war, the people of Dahome, on all occasions (_vide

infra_), preferring a vicarious mode of expiation. Captain R. Burton

(ii. 19) says of these massacres:--"The king takes no pleasure in the

tortures and death or in the sight of blood, as will presently appear.

The 2000 killed in one day, _the canoe_[211] paddled in a pool of gore,

and other grisly nursery tales, must be derived from Whydah, where the

slave-traders invented them, probably to deter Englishmen from visiting

the king. It is useless to go over the ground of human sacrifice from

the days of the wild Hindu's Naramadha to the burnings of the Druids,

and to the awful massacres of Peru and Mexico. In Europe the extinction

of the custom _began_ from the time of the polite Augustus," _i.e._

commenced with the advent of our Lord. [_Vide_ a reference to MS. of

Sir J. Acton in Mr Gladstone's address to the University of Edinburgh,

1865, from which it would appear that the final extinction was not

until the triumph of Christianity.]

[210] Compare the "Bhain-sasur" or _buffalo_-demon at Usayagiri,

carrying a trident. _Vide_ "The Bhilsa Tope," Major Alex.

Cunningham, 1854.

[211] It is as well to note, however, that the Dahomans have

recently altered their customs. The one Captain Burton

witnessed (ii. 34) was a "mixed custom," and elsewhere

allusion is made to "the new" ceremony.

Without carrying rashness to the excess of disputing the interpretation

of Dahoman words with Captain Burton, I may yet demur to accepting

his explanation of the term "So-sin" (the "So-sin customs") _absolute

et simpliciter_. He says (i. 315), "The Sogan ('So' = horse, 'gan'

captain) opens the customs by taking all the chargers from their owners

and by tying them up, whence the word _So-sin_. The animals must be

redeemed in a few days with a bag of cowries."[212] This is certainly

a very likely definition, and although secondary, is no doubt the

explanation current among the present generation of Dahomans. All

I shall venture to do is to supplement it. But may not the old and

primitive idea still lurk in the name? At i. 242, I perceive Captain

Burton says "so" and "sin" mean _water_,[213] and the compound word

"amma-sin" means "medicine" = "leaf-water," and again at 244 the same

word "Sin" is twice used to signify liquid. If so, in the very name of

the feast we find the word _water_, which links it into connection with

"the Mandan custom" and the festivals of ancient Greece.

[212] Analogies may perhaps be discovered in the representations of

the procession escorting a relic casket on the architraves

of the western gate at Sanchi. (_Vide_ "The Bhilsa Tope," by

Major Alex. Cunningham, p. 227.)

"Street of a city on the left, houses on each side filled

with spectators,... a few horsemen heading a procession,

... immediately outside the gate are four persons bearing

either trophies or some peculiar instruments of office. Then

follows a _led horse_, ... a soldier with a bell-shaped

shield, two fifers, three _drummers_, and two men blowing

_conches_. Next comes the king on an elephant, carrying the

holy relic casket on his head and supporting it with his right

hand. Then follows two peculiarly dressed men on horseback,

perhaps prisoners. They wear a kind of cap (now only known

in Barmawar, on the upper course of the Ravi) and boots or

leggings. The procession is closed by two horsemen (one either

the minister or a member of the royal family) and by an

elephant with two riders."

It may have had connection with the _As_warnedha or horse

sacrifice (Cunningham, p. 363.) Boulanger (i. 109) says,

"That after the winter solstice the ancient inhabitants of

India descended with their king to the banks of the Indus;

they there sacrificed _horses_ and _black bulls_, signs of a

funeral ceremony; they then threw a bushel measure into the

water without their assigning any reason for it." Compare the

throwing the cakes into the gulf at Athens, and the hatchets

into the water at the Mandan custom. Could it be that at the

Dahoman ceremony the horses were redeemed because the wretched

victims were substituted, carrying out the idea of vicarious

sacrifice and expiation?

Sir John Lubbock ("Origin of Civilization," p. 199) says,

speaking of _water_ worship, "The kelpie or spirit of the

_waters assumed_ various forms, those of a man, woman,

_horse_, or _bull_ being the most common." Compare _supra_,

pp. 196, 202, 204, Manou, Bacchus.

Homer (Hom. Il., Heynii, xxi. 130, Lord Derby, 145), says--

"Shall aught avail ye, though to him (the river Scamander)

In sacrifice, the blood of countless _bulls_ you pay,

And living _horses_ in his waters sink;"

and (210) Asteropoeus is called "river-born," because

the son of Pelegon, who "to broadly flowing Axius owed his

birth." Remembering the belief of certain tribes of Indians

(supra, p. 137) that they were "created under the water,"

which I have construed to mean, that they were created on

the other side of the Deluge, so we may take in a similar

sense the traditions of these Homeric heroes that they were

"river-born;" and does the expression, son of Pelegon (compare

"son of Prometheus," _supra_, p. 232), imply more than

that he was the descendant of Phaleg, or, if not in the line

of descent, the descendant of progenitors who had retained the

tradition that Phaleg was so called, "because in his days the

earth was divided"?--Gen. ch. x. 25. Compare ancient Welsh

ballad (Davies' "Mythology of British Druids," p. 100)--

"Truly I was in the ship

With Dylan (Deucalion), son of the sea....

When ... the floods came forth

From heaven to the great deep."

[213] The name for _river_ in the Chitral or Little Kashghar

vocabulary (Vigne, "Travels in Kashmir") is river = _sin_;

also in the Dangon, on the Indus, voc. (_id._) river = _sin_;

in the Affghan (Kalproth) the sea = _sin_d. _Sind_hu is the

Sanscrit name for river (Max Müller, "Science of Lang.," 1st

series, 215); and has also its equivalent in ancient Persian.

In Danish, river or lake = _so_; in Icelandic, sjor (sjo);

in Bultistan, touh; German, see; English, sea; in Kashmir,

sar = marse; Icelandic, saus. Compare Rivers Saar, Soane,

Seine, Irish Suir; perhaps also Esk and Usk (Vigne, "Trav. in

Kashmir"). Horse = shtah, in Bultistan. Has not _so_ analogy

with eau, augr (Chittral), _water_? _Sara_ = water in Sanscrit

(Max Müller, "Chips," ii. 47); Sanscrit, vari, more generic

term for water; Latin, mare; Gothic, marie; Slavonic, more;

Irish and Scotch, muir (_id._) Compare Chinese "ma" = horse;

Mongol, "mon" = horse; German, machre; English, _mare_.

Conclusion, either there is the same word for horse and water

in certain languages, which may have occurred in the way of

secondary derivation from these "mysteries," or if _so_ means

water, then "So-sin" may only be a reduplication, as in the

names of some of our rivers--_e.g._ Dwfr-Dwy = water, of Deva

= Dee-river (_Archæol. Journal_, xvii. 98). Bryant ("Myth."

ii. 408) says "The [Greek: hippos], hippus (horse), alluded

to in the early mythology was certainly a _float_ or _ship_,

the same as the ceto." There is, moreover, the analogy in the

Latin of _aqua_ and _equus_. Another Sanscrit word for water,

"ap" (Max Müller, Sc. of L., 103) has analogy with the Greek

[Greek: hippos] = horse. It appears (Sc. of L., 2nd series,

p. 36), that the Tahitians have substituted the word "pape"

for "vai" = water; but both words "pape," to _ap_, "vai," to

_vari_, seem to have analogies to Sanscrit as above. Plato

("Cratylus," c. 36, Sc. of L., 1st series, p. 116) mentions

that the name for water was the same in Phrygian and Greek. At

p. 235, 1st series, Mr Max Müller says that Persian Harôya is

the same as Sanscrit Saroya; which latter "is derived from a

root 'sar' or 'sri,' to go, to run; from which 'saras,' water,

'sarit,' river, and 'Sarayu,' the proper name of the river

near Oude."

Here at any rate in the Sanskrit "sar," to run, we may, if

the above conjecture is rejected, start the words "horse" and

"water" from a common root.

The word, "So" = horse, will therefore still remain, and may perhaps

stand in the same relation to the "water" celebration, that the "bull"

does to the Mandan celebration of the Deluge. Captain Burton, for

instance, tells us (ii. 15), a "So" was brought up to us (on the fourth

day of the So-sin custom, and on the fourth day of the Mandan custom

"the bull-dance" was performed sixteen times round "the big canoe");

but I will place the two descriptions side by side.

CAPTAIN BURTON, ii. 15.

"A 'So' was brought up to us,

a _bull-face mask_ of natural size,

painted black, with glaring eyes

and _peep-holes_, the horns were

hung with _red_ and _white_ rag

_strips_, and beneath was a dress

of bamboo fibre covering the feet,

and ruddy at the ends. It

danced with head on one side

and swayed itself about, to the

great amusement of the people."

_Vide_ also p. 93, "Four tall men

singularly dressed, and with bullocks'

tails," &c.

MR CATLIN, p. 16.

"The chief actors in these

strange scenes (bull-dance) were

eight men, with the entire skins

of buffaloes thrown over them,

enabling them closely to imitate

the appearance and motions of

those animals, as the bodies were

kept in as horizontal a position,

the horns and tails of the animals

remaining on the skins, and the

skins of the animals' heads served

as _masks_ through the eyes of

which the _dancers were looking_."

The legs of the dancers were

painted _red_ and _white_" (plate 6.)

If we might (on the strength of so many words of primary necessity

being in common) connect "So" = horse, with the Saxon "soc" or

plough (as in the soc and service tenure), we could then see a way

in which the same word might apply indifferently to ox or horse; and

we would, moreover, see through the common relation to Noah how the

water ceremony came to be associated with the worship of Ceres in the

mysteries of Eleusis. _Vide_ Boulanger, i. 70-107.[214]

[214] Compare (Klaproth, "Mem. Asiat." ii. 12)--Eng. _ox_; Mongol,

char; Hebrew, chor; French, charrue (plough.) Klaproth, ii.

405, "Les cheveux en Thou Khin (whom he identifies with the

Turks) portaient le nom de _Sogo_ ou _so_ko; cest le même

nom que le Turc sâtch ou sadg." Can it have affinity with

Chinese _sa_ (Chinese szu = boeuf sauvage); German, säen;

Swedish, _sá_; French, semer; English = to _sou_; Peruvian,

sara = maize; also French, _cou_dre, to sow with English

corn; Sanscrit, go; High German, chus; Sclavonic, _go_ws

(Max Müller, "Chips," ii. 27); and Kashmir and Dongan,

gau; Icelandic, ku? In Affghan a bull = _sak_hendar and

_souk_handar. In the extinct Tartar Coman (_vide_ Klaproth) ox

= _ogus_ or _seger_ = Turkish, okus; Sanscrit, oukcha; German,

ochse. Plough = Sanscrit, sinam; Irish, serak; Persian, siar.

Horse = _as_p, Persian; _ess_, Sclavonic = English _ass_; and

in Chittral on Indus (_vide_ horse or bull used in ceremonies

on banks of Indus, _infra_) horse = _astor_. (Has not _tor_

here affinity with _taur_eau.) Corn = _As_lek (Kirghish)

and Ashlyk (?) Turkish. Max Müller (Science of Language, p.

231), says--"Aspa was the Persian name for horse, and in the

Scythian names, Aspabota, Aspakara, and Asparatha, we can

hardly fail to recognise the same element." Also, p. 242, "The

comparison of ploughing and sowing is of frequent occurrence

in ancient language." Eng., plough; Sclav., ploug = Sanscrit,

plava, ship = Gk. [Greek: ploion], ship. "In English dialects,

plough is used as a waggon or conveyance. In the Vale of

Blackmore, a waggon is called a plough, or plow, and _Zull_

(A.-S., syl) is used for aratrum."--Barnes, "Dorset Dialect,"

p. 369, ap. Max Müller.

The above enumeration does not exhaust the points of resemblance.

Compare the following:--

BURTON, ii. 23.

"Conspicuous objects on the left of the pavilion

were two Ajalela or fetish pots made by the

present king (according to the customs.) _Vide_

note 16. Both are lamp black, shaped like

amphoræ (amphoræ, for holding wine) about 4 feet

high, and planted on tripods. The larger was

solid, the smaller callendered with many small

holes, and both were decorated with brass and

silver crescents, stars, and similar ornaments.

The second, when filled _with water and

medicine_ allows none to escape, so great is its

fetish power; an army guarded by it can never be

defeated, and it will lead the way to Absokuta."

Compare Pongol ceremony, p. 275.

CATLIN, p. 8.

"In an open area in the centre of the village

stands the ark or 'big canoe,' around which

a great proportion of the ceremonies were

performed. This rude symbol, of 8 or 10 feet in

height, was constructed of planks and hoops,

having somewhat the appearance of a large

hogshead standing on its end, and containing some

mysterious things, which none but the _medicine_

(mystery) men were allowed to examine."

This must be considered in connection with the following.

BURTON.

In the opening procession of the third day's

customs, Captain Burton tells us (ii. 2), "First

came a procession of eighteen Tansi-no or fetish

women, who have charge of the last monarch's

grave.... They were preceded by bundles of

matting, eight _large stools_, calabashes,

pipes, _baskets_ of _water_, grog, and meat

with segments of _gourd_ above and below,

tobacco bags, and other commissariat articles;

and they were followed by a band of horns and

_rattles_."[215]

[215] Compare the procession in the Panathenæa

and Dionysia, _supra_, p. 248.

In another procession (ii. 47), "The party was

brought up by slave girls carrying baskets and

calabashes. (Query, of water?) These, preceded

by six bellowing horns, stalked in slowly, and

with measured gait the _eight_ Tansi-no, who

serve and pray for the ghosts of dead kings.

(Query, eight dead kings?) In front went _their_

ensign, a copper measuring rod 15 feet long

and tapering to a very fine end; behind it

were two chauris and seven mysterious pots and

calabashes wrapped in _white_ and _red_ checks,"

and presently "three brass, four copper, and six

iron pots, curiosities on account of their great

size.... _Eight_ images, of which three were

apparently _ship's figureheads_ whitewashed,

and the rest very hideous efforts of native

art."[216]

[216] "Eight men representing eight buffalo

bulls," in Mandan celebration, "took their

positions on the four sides of the ark or

'big canoe.'"--Catlin, p. 17. "The _chief

actors_ in these strange scenes were

_eight_ men with skins of buffaloes," &c.

p. 16. Four images were suspended on poles

above the mystery lodge, p. 8.

CATLIN.

In Captain Burton's account of the articles

paraded in the procession, the pipes (to which

great mystery is attached), the _horns_ and

_rattles (vide pl.)_, and _the baskets of water_

are common to the Mandan ceremony. May not the

eight stools be representative of the eight

diluvian survivors. _Vide supra_, 197, Cabiri?

Let us, however, confine our attention to the

"baskets of water." Compare with the following

account in Catlin.

"In the medicine (mystery) lodge ... there were

also four articles of _veneration_ and importance

lying on the ground, which were _sacks_

containing each some three or four gallons of

_water_. These seemed to be objects of great

superstitious regard, and had been made with

much labour and ingenuity, being constructed of

the skins of the _buffaloes'_ neck, and sewed

together in the forms of large _tortoises_ lying

on their backs (comp. p. 138; also p. 269),

each having a sort of tail made of _raven's_

quills and a stick like a drumstick lying on

it, with which, as will be seen in a subsequent

part of the ceremony, the musicians beat upon

the _sacks_ as instruments of music for their

_strange dances_. By the sides of these sacks,

which they called Ech-tee-ka (drums), there

were two other articles of equal importance

which they called Ech-na-da (rattles) made of

undressed skins shaped into the form of _gourd_

shells," &c. (Note the segments of _gourd_

accompanying the _water_ baskets in the Dahome

procession, _supra_.) Catlin adds--"The sacks of

water had the appearance of great antiquity, and

the Mandans pretended that the water had been

contained in them ever since the Deluge."--pp.

15, 16.[217]

[217] In the _Japanese_ (_vide_ p. 269)

version of the legend of the _bull_

breaking the mundane egg (_vide_ p.

396), a _gourd_ or pumpkin is also broken

which contained the first man.--_Vide_

Bryant's "Mythology," iii. 579. "I have

mentioned that _the ark_ was looked

upon as the mother of mankind, and

styled Da-Mater, and it was on this

account figured under the semblance of

a _pomegranate_," "as it abounds with

seed"--Bryant, ii. 380. _Vide_ also

plate (Bryant, ii. 410), where Juno

(_vide_, p. 395) holds a _dove_ in one

hand and a _pomegranate_ in the other.

BURTON, ii. 35.

It must be remembered that at Dahome, royalty as

there represented has absorbed and monopolized

the most important parts of the ceremonial:

it is natural, therefore, to expect that the

conspicuous figures in the original (or in

the Mandan), which conflicted or would not

consort with royalty, would be thrown into the

background. Accordingly I am only able to get

a glimpse of the conspicuous figures opposite

in the following passage:--"The jesters were

followed by a dozen _pursuivants_ armed with

gong-gongs, who advanced bending towards

the throne, and shouted the 'strong names'

or titles. Conspicuous amongst them was an

_oldster_ in a crimson sleeveless tunic and

yellow shorts: his head was red with dust, he

carried a large _bill-hook_,[218] and he went

about attended by _four_ drums and one cymbal."

[218] Compare also _sup._, p. 210, with

Saturn. "Ipsius autem canities," &c., and

"cum falce messis insigne."

It will be remembered (if my readers have read

Mr Catlin, p. 11, 12) that the first thing "the

aged white man" does on entering the mystery

lodge is to call on the chiefs "to furnish him

with _four_ men," and the next is to "receive at

the door of every Mandan's wigwam _some edged

tool_ to be given to the water as a sacrifice,

as it was with _such tools_ that the "big canoe"

was built.[219]

[219] Compare again these two figures, one

figuring in the Dahoman procession, the

other in the Mandan bull dance.

CATLIN, p. 10.

The opening scene in the Mandan customs,

effectively described by Mr Catlin, begins

with "a solitary human figure descending the

prairie hills and approaching the village," "in

appearance a very _aged_ man," "a centenarian

white man," dressed in a robe of four white

wolves' skins." He was met by the head chief and

the council of chiefs, and addressed by them

as "Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah" (the _first_ and only

man.) "He then harangued them for a few minutes,

reminding them that every human being on the

surface of the earth had been destroyed by the

water excepting himself, who had landed on a high

mountain in the west in his canoe, where he still

resided, and from whence he had come to open the

medicine (mystery) lodge, that the Mandans might

celebrate the _subsiding of the waters_, and make

the proper sacrifices to the water, lest the same

calamity should again happen to them."

BURTON, ii. 38.

"The ministers ... they were conducted by a

'Lali' or half-head, with right side of his

pericranium clean shaven, and the left in a

casing of silver that looked like a cast or a

half melon."

* * * * *

Burton says (ii. 87), "One of the Dahoman

monarch's peculiarities is that he is double,

not merely binonymous, nor dual, like the

spiritual Mickado and temporal Tycoon of Japan,

but two in one. Gelele, for instance, is king of

the city and addo-kpon of the 'bush'; _i.e._ of

the farmer folk and the country as opposed to

the city. This country ruler has his _official_

mother, the Dank-li-ke.... Thus Dahome has two

points of interest to the ethnologist--the

distinct precedence of women and the double

king."--_Vide_ also p. 80.

CATLIN, p. 30.

Compare with the two athletic young men (_vide_

Plate XIII.) assigned to each of the young men

who underwent the torture--"their bodies painted

_one half red_ and the other blue, and carrying a

bunch of willow-boughs in one hand."

Here two or three questions suggest themselves.

If this ceremony is primitive, will not dual

royalty give a clue to the duality we find so

commonly in mythology, assuming the basis of

mythology to be historical? 2d, Is there no clue

in the name, _official_ name, of Dank-li-ke? What

does the reader guess the meaning to be? (p. 58.)

Mr Burton tells us it means, "Dank (the rainbow),

li (stand), and ke (the world)." Is it a forced

paraphrase to construe this to mean--The rainbow

is the sign that the world shall stand?

Upon the point of the precedence of woman, to which the Dahoman

ceremony testifies, but to which it gives no clue, I shall, as it is

so very important in more bearings than one, give at some length the

following scene from Catlin:--

"When 'the evil spirit' enters the camp during the ceremony,

he proceeds to make various attacks, which are defeated by the

intervention of the master of the ceremonies. In several attempts

of this kind the evil spirit was thus defeated, after which he

came wandering back amongst the dancers, apparently much fatigued

and disappointed.... In this distressing dilemma he was approached

by an old matron, who came up slyly behind him, with both hands

full of yellow dirt, which (by reaching around him) she suddenly

dashed in his face, covering him from head to foot, and changing

his colour, as the dirt adhered to the undried bear's grease on his

skin; ... at length _another_ snatched his _wand_ from his hand and

broke it across her knee ... his power was thus gone ... bolting

through the crowd, he made his way to the prairies."--P. 24.

We shall not be surprised to learn, then, that when the "Feast of

the Buffaloes" (distinct from the bull-dance) commences (p. 33),

several old men perambulated the village in various directions, in

the character of criers, with rattles in their hands, proclaiming

that "the _whole government of the Mandans_ was then in the hands of

one woman--she who had disarmed the evil spirit ... that the chiefs

that night were old women; that they had nothing to say; that no one

was allowed to be out of their wigwams excepting the favoured ones

whom 'the governing woman' had invited," &c. Will not this give a

clue to the precedence in Dahome, _probandis probatis_, and is not

the precedence in Dahome thus interpreted, and the interlude above

described evidence of the tradition, that the _woman_ should break the

head of the _serpent_? (Gen. iii. 15). It is of great significance,

and, if so many points of comparison had not occurred, ought to have

been stated at the outset, that at Dahome "the Sin-kwain ("sin,"

water--"kwain," sprinkling), or water-sprinkling custom follows closely

upon the "So-sin or Horse-tie rites."--_Vide_ Burton, ii. 167.

Now, if the reader will turn to Boulanger, i. 90, 91, he will find this

identical custom in Persia, Pegu, China, and Japan. But I relinquish

the details, as I fear I shall have exhausted the patience of the few

readers I shall have carried with me to this point; and because the

King of Dahome has a custom perhaps still more demonstrably cognate to

not only the ancient Grecian ceremonies on the shores of the ocean and

on the banks of rivers, but with widely diffused tradition. I shall

here place four writers in juxtaposition, and with this testimony I

shall conclude:--

BOULANGER.

The ancient inhabitants of Italy repaired once a year to the Lake

Cutilia, where they made sacrifices and celebrated secret mysteries

or ceremonies (Dion. Halicarnassus, i. 2).

The pontiffs in ancient Rome also went annually to the banks of the

Tiber, "là ils faisoient des sacrifices _expiatoires_ à Saturne, ce

Dieu chronique," &c. (Dion. Hal. i. 8.)

In the kingdom of Saka in Africa their greatest solemnity was

celebrated on the banks of the rivers; the king himself presides at

it (Hist. Gener. des Voy., iii. 639).

The same custom has been already (_supra_, p. 252) noticed on the

Indus.

In all these cases human sacrifices were offered, or

substitutes.--Boulanger, i. pp. 110-11. Compare _supra_, p. 243,

lines from Dionysius Periegesis.

BURTON.

At Whydat the youngest brother of their triad is Hu, the ocean or

sea. [Compare with Assyrian Hoa, _supra_, p. 194, and Chinese

Yu, p. 68.] "The Hu-no, or ocean priest, is now considered the

highest of all.... At times the king sends as an ocean sacrifice

from Agborne a man carried in a hammock, with the dress, the stool,

and the umbrella of a Caboceer; a canoe takes him out to sea, where

he is thrown to the sharks. The custom for this element is made at

Whydat, in a place near the greater market, and called Hu-kpa-man.

It is a _round_ hut, with thatch and chalked walls: outside is a

heap of bones, whilst _skulls_, carapaces of the _tortoise_, and

similar materials, cumber the _interior_. The priest is a fetish

woman, who _offers water_ and kola nuts to, and expects rum from,

white visitors."--ii. p. 141.

Compare also _supra_, in Preface, extract from Davies' "Celtic

Researches" on the Celtic god Hu.

CATLIN.

The water ceremonies in Catlin's account have already been

sufficiently adverted to. He thus describes the medicine or mystery

lodge in which they took place. Exteriorly, with the exception of

the four images, it differed only in dimensions from the other

wigwams, which are thus described? "They were covered with earth.

They were all of one form; the frames or shells constructed of

timbers, and covered with a thatching of willow boughs, and over

and on that with a foot or two in thickness of a concrete of tough

clay and gravel, which became so hard as to admit the whole group

of inmates to recline on _their tops_. They varied in size from

thirty to sixty feet, and _were perfectly round_." For extract

describing _interior_, _vide supra_, p. 257, noting (_vide_ Plate

iii. in Catlin) the four human and four ox _skulls_; "the sacks of

water in the form of large _tortoises_ lying on their backs."

_N.B._--With reference to the tortoise, _vide ante_ p. 257.

Compare the "Buddhist Topes" in Major Cunningham's "Bhilsa Tope,"

_vide_ p. 243.

HUNTER.

Hunter ("Annals of Rural Bengal," p. 153) says of the Santals:

"The only stream of any consequence in their present country--the

Damouda--is regarded with a veneration altogether disproportionate

to its size. Thither the superstitious Santal repairs to consult

the prophets and diviners, and once a year the tribes make a

pilgrimage to its banks in commemoration of their forefathers....

However remote the jungle in which the Santal may die, his nearest

kinsman carries a little relic of the deceased to the river, and

places it in the current to be conveyed to the far-off eastern land

from which his ancestors came."

In connection with the above, it must be remembered (_vide_

Appendix G, p. 480, "Santal Traditions") that they have, although

confused with the Creation, an unmistakable tradition of the

Deluge, the intoxication of Noah, and the dispersion.

If, then, I have shown that the custom, for the preservation of which

from oblivion, so far as the Mandans (now extinct) are concerned, we

are indebted to Mr Catlin, and which so plainly tells its own tale,

is common to Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as America, I shall

have established it as a tradition, not of a local American, but of

an universal Deluge; and if the tradition of the universal Deluge is

proved, then, according to Mr Catlin's narrative itself, there is

tradition of the Creation also (_vide_ pp. 7, 13, 42).[220]

[220] I allude to the opening of the ceremony by the centenarian

_white_ man, "the first and only man." Mr Catlin is of opinion

that this incident was introduced and superadded by some

missionaries, though he adds it would be still more strange

if the (Jesuit) missionaries had instructed them "in the

other modes." This, however, is understating the case. It is

conceivable that missionaries should have come among them, but

in this case we should have expected some trace of Christian

practices and dogmas; it is difficult to conjecture what

set of missionaries could have indoctrinated them with the

recondite pagan mysteries of Eleusis and Hierapolis.

I have replied more fully, in chap. vii., to Mr Catlin's

objection--that though they have a tradition of a deluge, it is not the

tradition of the Deluge, because they have not also the tradition of

the Creation.

Mr Catlin argues upon the view that the American race "were created

upon the ground on which they were found" ("Last Rambles," p. 321,

1868); and (p. 319) adds, "I can find nothing in history, sacred or

profane, against this."

He takes his stand (in "O-kee-pa") upon this--that there is nothing in

the Mandan tradition which can be brought in proof of their migration

from another continent. In reply I shall adduce their very name.

The American continent may have been peopled by way of Behring's

Straits, or from Europe in the East by way of Greenland, or by the

connection of the Pacific Islands from the opposite coasts of Japan,

China, and the Corea, or from the Polynesian groups in the south.

The population may have poured in by all these routes. It is said

(Prescott, "Conquest of Mexico," ii. 473)[221] that MSS. exist at

Copenhagen proving that the American coast was visited by the Northmen

in the eleventh century. The Polynesian route we may leave out of

consideration, as it will not probably have been the one by which the

Mandans came. As to the route by Behring's Straits, Mr Catlin admits

"it is a possibility, and therefore they say it is probable" (p. 217,

"Last Rambles"). But if, as there appears to me reason to think, they

came from the opposite coast of the Corea, it might as reasonably be

conjectured that the migration took the route of Behring's Straits,

or by way of the Sandwich Islands. The possibility of the former is

conceded. I will confine my attention, therefore, to the latter, which

Mr Catlin pronounces absolutely impossible. In the first place, the

distance between the Sandwich Islands and America is not greater than

between Otaheite and New Zealand.[222] Now it is admitted that New

Zealand was peopled from Otaheite. Moreover (_vide_ Sir J. Lubbock,

"Pre-historic Times," p. 390), the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands,

at two thousand miles distance, belong to the same race as those of

Tahiti (Otaheite) and New Zealand, and resemble them "in religion,

languages, canoes, houses, weapons, food, habits, &c."[223] The canoes

of the Pacific islanders generally (_vide_ Captain Cook _passim_)

were of considerable size, and of very perfect workmanship. But also

Prescott ("Conquest of Mexico," ii. 473, quoting Beechey's "Voyage to

Pacific," 1831, p. 2 Appendix, Humboldt's "Examen. Critique de l'Hist.

de la Geog." and Nuov. Cont. ii. 55) says, "It would be easy for the

inhabitant of Eastern Tartary or Japan to steer his canoe from islet

to islet quite across to the American shore, without ever being on the

ocean more than two days at a time."[224]

[221] _Vide_ also Giebel, "Tagesfragen," p. 91; _apud_ Reusch, p.

500.

[222] _Vide_ "Cook's Voyages," i. 199; Prescott, ii. 476.

[223] "There have been recent instances of Japanese vessels having

been thrown by shipwreck upon the coasts of the Sandwich

Islands, and even on the mouth of the Columbia."--Reusch, "La

Bible et la Nature," p. 499.

"Since the north-west coast of America and the north-east of

Asia have been explored, little difficulty remains on this

subject.... Small boats can safely pass the narrow strait.

Ten degrees farther south, the _Aleutian_ and Fox islands

form a continuous chain between Kamschatka and the peninsula

of Alaska in such a manner as to leave the passage across a

matter of no difficulty."--Warburton's "Conquest of Canada,"

i. 194.

Ellis ("Polynesian Researches," ii. 46) says: "There are also

_many_ points of _resemblance_ in language, manners, and

customs between the South Sea Islanders and the inhabitants of

Madagascar in the west; the inhabitants of the _Aleutian_ and

_Kurile_ islands in the north, which stretch along the mouth

of Behring's Straits, and forms the chain which connects the

old and new worlds," &c.

[224] "The Sandwich Islands, with a population of 500,000, are more

than two thousand miles from the coast of South America. How

did the population of those islands get there? Certainly

not in canoes over ocean waves of two thousand miles. But I

am told 'the Sandwich islanders are Polynesians;' not a bit

of it; they are two thousand miles north of the Polynesian

group, with the same impossibility of canoe navigation, and

are as different in _physiological traits_ of character and

_language_ from the Polynesian, as they are different from the

American races.--"Last Rambles" (Catlin), p. 317. 1868.

Captain King, "Transactions on returning to Sandwich Islands,"

&c., continuation of Cook's voyages, Pinkerton (xi. 730) says

on the contrary: "The inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands

are undoubtedly of the same race with those of New Zealand,

the Society and Friendly Islands, Easter Islands, and the

Marquesas. This fact, which, extraordinary as it is, might be

thought sufficiently proved by the _striking_ similarity of

their _manners_ and _customs_, and the general resemblance of

their _persons_ is established beyond all controversy by the

_absolute identity_ of their language."

Shortland says that the New Zealanders, "when speaking of any

old practice, regarding the origin of which you may inquire,

have the expression constantly in their mouths, 'E hara i te

mea poka hou mai; no Hawaika mai ano.'--It is not a modern

invention; but a practice brought from Hawaiki, Sandwich

Islands)."--Shortland's "Traditions of the New Zealanders," p.

61.

We may agree, then, that the Mandans might have come by this route.

Is there anything which makes it probable that they came? Well, yes;

in the first place their name. Mr Catlin tells us ("O-kee-pa," p. 5),

"The Mandans (Nu-mak-ká-kee, _pheasants_, as they call themselves) have

been known from the time of the first visits made to them, to the day

of their destruction, as one of the most friendly and hospitable tribes

on the United States frontier." It transpires, therefore, that they are

called _pheasants_. Is the pheasant a native of America?--on the other

hand, is it not common on the opposite Asiatic continent, and on the

islands adjacent to it from New Guinea to the Corea? I have never heard

of the pheasant in the American continent;[225] but in reading the

accounts of the missionaries of the Corea (the only foreigners who have

penetrated into the country), I read, "that clouds of _pheasants_ and

birds of all kinds perch at night in the branches of the trees" ("Life

of Henri Dorie," translated by Lady Herbert; Burns & Oates, p. 77); and

if the reader will turn to p. 79 in the same Life, and will compare

the description of the Coreans, which he will find there, with the

description and portraits of the Mandans in Mr Catlin's "O-kee-pa," pp.

4, 5, he will, I think, recognise a sufficient resemblance to warrant

and sustain the presumption created by their name.[226]

[225] As far as I can ascertain, the pheasant is not a native of

America. Yarrell speaks of it as Asiatic, and that it has

been domesticated "in all parts of the _old_ continent."

So also Gould. Of the American writers, _neither_ Wilson,

Audubon, Bonaparte, Nuttall, Richardson, or Jameson include

the pheasant. Mr Catlin, however, says, p. 44: "From the

translation of their name, already mentioned (Nu-mah-ká-kee,

pheasants), an important inference may be drawn in support of

the probability of their having formerly lived much farther

to the south, as that bird does not exist on the prairies of

the Upper Missouri, and is not to be met with short of the

hoary forests of Ohio and Indiana, eighteen hundred miles

south of the last residence of the Mandans. In their familiar

name of Mandan, which is not an Indian word, there are equally

singular and important features. In the first place, that they

knew nothing of the name or how they got it; and next, that

the word Mandan in the Welsh language [Mr C.'s theory is that

they are the survivors of Prince Madoc's expedition from Wales

in the fourteenth century] means red dye, of which further

mention will be made." On the legend of the Welsh expedition,

_vide_ Warburton's "Conquest of Canada," ii., Appendix iv.

[226] "The Indians resemble the people of north-eastern Asia in form

and feature more than any other of the human race; their

population is most dense along the districts nearest to Asia;

and among the Mexicans, whose records of the past deserve

credence, there is a constant tradition that their Aztec

and Toltec chiefs came from the north-west."--Warburton's

"Conquest of Canada," i. 195.

Brace ("Manual of Ethnology," p. 115) says, after noting

that whereas the prominence in the head "is anterior in the

Chinese rather than lateral, as in the American Indians and

the Tangusic tribes," adds, "The peculiar distinguishing

characteristics are the smallness of the eyes and the

obliquity of the eyelids. The nose is usually small and

depressed, though sometimes, in favourable physical

conditions, natives are found with a slightly aquiline nose,

_giving the face a close resemblance to that of the American

Indians or New Zealanders_."

Refer to argument at p. 70, with reference to the Mozca

Indians.

To the peculiarity of name, and resemblance of feature, I shall now

proceed to add the evidence of some traces of their peculiar customs,

or at least of some trace of the tradition out of which they arose.

I am not at present in possession of evidence to show this in the

Corea itself (almost totally unknown and unexplored), but in the

island of Formosa the same mode of burial is observed, only that

among the Formosans other customs are added, which remind one of the

commemorative customs of the Mandans.

CATLIN, p. 8.

"Their (Mandan) dead, partially embalmed, are

tightly wrapped in buffalo hides softened with

glue and water, and placed on slight scaffolds,

above the reach of animals or human hands, each

body having its separate scaffold."

The Mandan dance was round "_the big canoe_,"

and a part of their ceremony on the roof of

their wigwams.

Among the Opischeschaht _Indians_ (_vide Field_,

Oct. 2, 1869) there was a dance which they

called "the roof dance." "While the dance and

song were going on below, leaped up and down

between the roof-board, pushed aside for that

purpose, making a noise like thunder.... After

the dance was finished an old Seshaaht came

forward, and remarked, that as it was a dance

peculiar to his tribe it could not be omitted,"

though "very injurious to the roof."

OGILBY'S JAPAN, p. 52.

"The manner of disposing of their (Formosans')

dead and funeral obsequies is thus: When any

one dies, the corpse being laid out, after

twenty-four hours they elevate it upon a

convenient scaffold or stage, four feet high,

matted with reeds and rushes, near which they

make a fire, so that the corpse may dry by

degrees.... They drink intoxicating liquors. One

beats on a drum made _like a chest_, but _longer_

and _broader_, and turning _the bottom upwards_;

the women get up, and two by two, back to back,

move their legs and arms in a dancing time and

measure, which pace, or taboring tread, sends

a kind of murmuring or doleful sound from the

_hollow tree_."

_N.B._--Their boats were constructed by hollowing

out a tree (_vide_ Catlin's "Last Rambles," p.

99).[227]

[227] Compare what Ogilby (p. 36) says: "Near Firando (Japan) at an

_inlet of the sea_ stands an idol, _being nothing but a chest

of wood_, about three feet high, _standing like an altar_ [the

big canoe was placed on end among the Mandans], whither women,

when they suppose they have conceived, go in pilgrimage,

offering on their knees rice or other presents." At p. 136, at

Jado, it is said, "somewhat farther stands a temple _dedicated

to all sorts of animals with a very high double roof_."

(Query, Noah's ark?)

In the _Illustrated London News_, January 13, 1872, its

correspondent from Yokohama gives a short account of

the Japanese religious festivals, in which among other

coincidences I note the following: "The most absurd," he says,

"is one in which the foul fiend is simultaneously expelled

from every house by dint of pelting him with boiled peas. The

devil is chased out of the town with a dance of derision, by

young fellows in grotesque costumes, for the public mirth."

Compare with the scene in the Mandan ceremonies, described by

Catlin, _vide supra_, p. 260.

Now, compare with the above, and also with the extracts from Burton and

Catlin, at p. 254, remembering the prominence of the ox or bull (the

ox and bull dance) in the Mandan customs, and the connection of the

bull with Nin or Ninip, p. 200, 203, and other mythological figures

of which I believe Noah to have been the antitype. The following

description of the most curious traditional representation in Japan

(Ogilby, p. 279):--

"Moreover, besides the ox temple in Meaco, there is also to be seen

the stately chapel dedicated to the Creator of all things (the

ox in the above-mentioned temple is represented as breaking the

mundane egg, _vide supra_, p. 257), who is represented in a very

strange manner. In the middle of the temple is a great pot _full

of water_ surrounded with a wall, seven feet high from the ground,

in the middle of which appears an _exceeding great tortoise_,

whose shell, feet, and head stands in the water; out of its back

rises the body of a great tree, on the top of which sits a strange

and horrible figure" ... [then follows a good deal which has its

explanation, but must be curtailed] ... "the image hath four arms"

... in one "the hand grasps a cruse, _from whence water issues

continually_; the other hand _holds a sceptre_.... The tree whereon

he sits is of brass, ... about the middle of this tree an exceeding

great serpent hath wreathed itself _twice_, whose head and body is

on the right side held fast by two horrible shapes, the remaining

part thereof to the tail, two kings and one of Japan sages stretch

forth" [evidently representing the contending influences (as in

Mandan dance), one of the kings having the duplicated Janus head,

_supra_, p. 220.][228]

[228] Compare p. 448 in "Flint Chips," (E. T. Stevens). "The Omahas

possess a _sacred shell_, which is regarded as an object of

great sanctity by the whole nation. It has been transmitted

from generation to generation, and its origin is unknown. A

skin _lodge is appropriated to it_, and in this lodge a man,

appointed as a guard to the shell, constantly resides. It

is placed upon a stand, and is _never suffered to touch the

earth_. It is concealed from sight by a _number of mats_ made

of strips of skin plaited. The whole forms a large package,

from which _tobacco_" (comp. Stevens' "Flint Chips," p. 315,

and Catlin, _supra_) "and the _roots of trees_" (comp. supra,

p. 155), "and other objects are suspended," &c. &c.

At pp. 477-78 there is perhaps a still more definite tradition of

the Deluge (confused as usual with traditions of the Creation) in

connection with the idol Topan. "Not far from Mettogamma (said the

interpreter) lies an exceeding _high mountain ... the top of which_

stand several temples which may be seen a great distance off at sea.

In these temples the Bonzies worshipped that great God which formerly

created the sun, moon, and stars, but also fifteen lesser deities which

some ages since conversed upon the earth (compare pp. 63, 97.) Then

follows their account of the Creation. "Mankind not only increased

in number but also in wickedness, differing more and more from their

heavenly extract, growing still worse and worse, mocking at thunder,

_rainbows_, and fire; nay, they blasphemed the great God himself

(whom when the interpreter named, he bowed his head to the ground),

whereupon He called His inferior deities about Him, telling them that

He resolved to destroy and ruin all things ... and make a _round_

globe, in which the four elements should be all resolved _into their

former mass_; and chiefly He commanded the idol Topan to make thunder

balls to shoot through the air and fire all the kingdoms with lightning

... so that none were saved except _one man and his family_, that had

entertained and duly worshipped the gods." Of the god Topan it had been

previously said "that some years since he saw the temple of the idol

Topan, whose image stood on a copper altar, cast like clouds, himself

armed as a warrior, a coronet helmet on his head, his hand grasping a

mighty club, and seeming to fly through the sky and moving his club to

occasion thunder. When it thundered, a Bonzi, whose head was adorned

with consecrated leaves [Query, the olive or willow?] which no thunder

could harm," offered _several fishes_." (Comp. 197, 203.) _Vide_ also

p. 94, representation of the fish-god in the person of their "god

Canon" [where we read of their "gods Canon and Camis or Chamis;" if we

were to substitute Canaan and Cham, _quid vetat_?][229]

[229] _Vide_ Japanese tradition of the Deluge (Bertrand, "Dict.

des Relig.," Gainet, i. 208; also _id._), it is said that

the Japanese commemorate this event in their third annual

festival, which takes place on the fifth day of the fifth

month. Compare with Mandan's, _supra_.

To complete the circle of evidence, as regards the general tradition,

I must add the following extracts from Captain Cook's voyages, i.

110 (London, 1846):--"In the island of Huahieine, thirty-one leagues

from Otaheite N.-W.," Captain Cook came upon an erection, of which

he says--"The general resemblance between this repository and the

ark of the Lord among the Jews is remarkable; but it is still more

remarkable that upon inquiring of a boy what it was called, he said

'Ewharre no Eatua,' it is the house of God. He could, however, give

no account of its signification or use." At p. 111, "Saw (at Uliatea)

several Ewharre-no-Eatua or houses of God, to which carriage poles were

attached as at Huahieine.... From thence we went to a long house not

far distant, where among rolls of cloth and several other things we saw

the _model of a canoe_, about three feet long, to which were tied eight

human jawbones" [eight the number saved in the ark. Compare p. 197 with

Kabiri. Compare with Ogilby (Japan, 177), where the god Canon (Canaan)

is represented with seven heads on _his_ breast, eight with himself, he

having been substituted for Noah as the head of the race.] Captain Cook

adds, however, "We had already learnt that these, like scalps among the

Indians of North America, were trophies of war," and suggests that the

canoe "may be a symbol of invasion." That I must leave to the reader

to decide, but the heads might be "trophies of conquest," and at the

same time memorial heads,--the memorial heads having necessarily been

replaced many times since the custom was first instituted.[230]

[230] Captain Cook, speaking of their dances (p. 115), says,

"Between the dances of the women the men performed a kind of

dramatic interlude, in which there was _dialogue_ as well as

dancing; but we were not sufficiently acquainted with their

language to understand the subject. Some gentlemen saw a much

more regular entertainment of the dramatic kind, which was

divided into _four acts_."

_Vide_ Abbe Gainet, "La Bible sans la Bible," i. 213, quotes

l'Abbe Domenech, who speaks of "the dance of the Deluge among

many nations of the north and west of America." Gainet also

says that there were two distinct traditions of the Deluge in

the east and west groups of the Society Islands (Otaheite).

L'Abbe Gainet (i. 211) gives an account of the _Mandans_ from

"Ceremoníes Religieuses," i. 7, which it will be interesting

to compare with Catlin, as it was written a century previous

to his visit. "The Mandans pretend that the Deluge was

formerly raised up against them by the white men to destroy

their ancestors.... Then the _first man_, whom they regard

as one of their divinities, inspired mankind with the idea

of constructing upon an eminence a _town_ and fortress in

wood, and promised them that the water should not pass that

point. They followed his advice and constructed the ark on

the banks of the Heart river. It was of a very large size,

so that a part of their nation found safety there whilst the

rest perished. In memory of this memorable event they place in

each of their villages a small model of this _edifice_ [which

may account for the erect position of 'the big canoe'], this

model still exists. The waters abated after that, and to this

day they celebrate, in memory of this ark, the fête of the

'_Okippe_,' which lasts _four days_."

This leads me to the final question, When was this custom instituted?

Up to this I have not considered whether the custom was good or bad,

demoniac or only corrupted; and as to the time of its institution I

have merely assumed from the fact of its universality that it was

primeval.

Before expressing my opinion, I must fortify myself with an extract

from the Rev. W. Smith's very able work on the Pentateuch.[231]

[231] Longmans, 1868, i. 290.

"Strange, too, though it may appear, there is much in the outward

ceremonial of the Levitical worship that indicates an Egyptian

type. The fact need startle no one. For it is derogatory neither

to the holiness of the Almighty nor to the inspiration of his

delegate, that Moses should have borrowed from others rites which

were good in themselves, and which became idolatrous only then,

when employed in the worship of false gods. The most of external

forms are in themselves indifferent and receive their determinate

value from the feeling that prompts them, and the object to which

they are directed: when given to God they are divine worship--when

given to idols, they are idolatry. Nor is inspiration jeopardised

because the material details may have come from a human source.

Care and study and observation are not dispensed with in the mind

that receives the divine communications; and Moses was instructed

in all the wisdom and learning of the Egyptians for the very

purpose of enabling him to use it to the best advantage ... as

the Church consecrated to a higher purpose the temples and the

rites and festivals found among the pagan populations at their

conversion. We need not then be scandalised if we find the _ark

of Jehovah_ to be the counterpart of the shrine of Amun. The

resemblance strikes us at once on a glance at the woodcut token

from Lepsius' Denkmäler, Ab. iii., Bl. 109."

Let the reader refer to the engravings in Rev. W. Smith's Pentateuch,

291, 292. Dr Smith does not discuss the point further, only he says (p.

294), "In Egypt it is _the canopied boat_ in which the Deity is steered

on the heavenly ocean; in Israel it is the covered chest, the form best

adapted for holding the stone tables of the law."

But if "the canopied boat" should have corresponded among the Egyptians

to "the big canoe" among the Mandans, and the other similar memorials

we have come upon, what more appropriate symbol could Moses have

incorporated? Was not the ark of the covenant, in which the law was

preserved in the widespread inundation of corruption, the counterpart

of the ark in which mankind, in the persons of Noah and his family,

were saved? and in carrying on and embodying the tradition, we may

see a motive why there may have been an intentional alteration of the

symbol--viz. in order to wean his people from the corruption into

which the whole Egyptian ceremonial had sunk?[232] And why should

it not have been so? Is there not a probability and fitness in the

conjecture of some such commemorative sacrifices and memorials among

mankind when they lived together before the dispersion in the times

immediately following the Deluge?

[232] Cardinal Wiseman in his letters to John Poynder, Esq. ("Essays

on Various Subjects," i. 257), says, "Dr Spencer, a learned

divine of the Established Church, published two folio volumes

replete with extraordinary erudition, entitled 'De Legibus

Hebræorum ritualibus et eorum ratione,' which has gone through

many editions both here and on the Continent. Now, the entire

drift and purport of this work is manifestly twofold--first,

to prove that the great design of God, in giving rites and

ceremonies to the Jews, was to prevent their falling into

idolatry; secondly, to demonstrate that almost every practice,

rite, ceremony, and act so given was directly borrowed from

the Egyptian heathens; ... that whether we speak of the more

solemn and especial injunctions, or of the minutest details

of the ceremonial law, of circumcision and of sacrifice in

all its varieties, and with all its distinctive ceremonies

of purification and lustrations and new moons; of the ark of

the covenant and the cherubim; of the temple and its oracles;

of the Urim and Thummim, and the emissary goat; of them all

Spencer has endeavoured to prove, and that to the satisfaction

of many learned men, that they pre-existed among the Egyptians

and other neighbouring nations."

I have not met with Dr Spencer's work. I may mention, however,

the pomegranates in the Levitical robe as an instance. _Vide_

references in this chapter and appendix.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI.

THE PONGOL FESTIVAL.

"The Pongol Festival in Southern India," by

Charles E. Govat. "Journal of the Royal Asiatic

Society of Great Britain and Ireland," new

series, vol. v., part i. (1870.)

"I had seen the Pongol, the touching domestic

festival it is now my chief object to describe.

It had proved by its simple pathos that the

Hindus were akin to the noblest nations of

the world, and that in their antiquity they

were worthy of the honour that has come to

them of being the best and the least altered

representatives of the 'Juventus Mundi,' which

all nations count to have been the golden age."

He contrasts it with the worship in the great

temple at Siringham near Trichinopoly, in which

there "was ample justification for every epithet

employed by Ward, Dubois, or Wilberforce."

"Yet the Pongol declared with equal force in

favour of domestic love and chastity, of simple

thanksgiving and rural contentment.... There is

much reason to suppose that the Pongol is one

of the most complete and interesting of these

remnants of primitive life. That it is primitive

is shown by the fact that the old Vedic deities

are alone worshipped. Indra is the presiding

deity. Agni is the main object of worship. A

further proof of this point is given by the

efforts that have constantly been made by the

Brahmans to corrupt the ritual, and introduce

Pauranic deities. Krishna is always declared

by the Brahmans to be the Pongol god, but the

_tradition itself_ bears witness that the feast

is older than the god. The tale is that when the

great wave of Krishna worship passed over the

Peninsula, the people were so enamoured of him

that they ceased to perform the Pongol rites

to Indra. This made the latter deity _so angry

that he poured down a flood upon the earth_. The

affrighted people ran to Krishna, who seized

the great mountain Govardhanas, wrenched it

from its place, and held it aloft on the tip of

his little finger, like some huge umbrella. The

people then ran beneath with their flocks and

were saved.... The occasion of the festival is

also primitive, for the Pongol is another feast

of ingathering, the centre of Hebrew festivals,

as this is of those of Southern India.... The

Pongol is remarkable, as will be seen, for the

strange combination of pastoral, hunting, and

agricultural life. There are 'harvest homes' in

almost every nation, but I do not know of any

other example of the combination. The _great_

days of the feast are two--one of these devoted

to the new crops, the other to the cattle alone

... while the feast winds up with a grand hunt,

first of the cattle themselves and next of a

hare." Compare ch. vii.; compare Patagonian.

"Long before the commencement of the feast an

unwonted activity pervades native society. The

Pongol is _the_ social festival of the year,

and must be celebrated with due honour, else

an ineffaceable stain will rest on the family

name. It is the Christmas and Whitsuntide of

England made into one.... So soon as the _rains

have finished_, and this may be expected by

about the first week in December, the carpenter,

the builder, and the artists are in full work

repairing the houses.... The sides of the road

in the bazaar are heaped with 'chatties' of

all sizes and shapes. Presents are bought for

children. Distant relatives have no fields of

their own from which to get their rice, so a

sack of the new grain from the ancestral acres

goes off to each. To this is added a pot of

ghee, a set of brass pots, or perhaps a jewel;

that the Pongol may not lack wherewith to make

it joyful." Creditors and debtors are often

brought then to a compromise, or the process is

postponed "till after Pongol."

"All must be ready by the early part of January,

when, according to the Hindu astrologers, the

sun enters the tropic of Capricorn. The feast

hangs upon this, and it will be seen that the

most interesting event of the celebration must

exactly coincide with the passage of the sun.

The festival commences on the previous day,

and lasts for seven days, of which the second

marks the sun's passage, and is called Mahâ (or

great) Pongol, ... the next day is Bhôgi Pongol,

or Pongol of rejoicing, equally well known by

the name of Indra, ... bonfires and torches are

illuminated (compare Boulanger, lib. i. ch.

ii.) The feast is now begun, and all turn from

the fire, as it is extinguished by the rising

sun, to the _bath_, with which every religious

rite must commence. No image is used during

the whole course of the celebration, except

that of Ganesa.... Indra is represented on

ordinary occasions as _a white man_ sitting on

an elephant. In his left hand is a bow (compare

ch. xv.), and in his right a thunderbolt,

while his body is studded with a thousand eyes.

[Query, a reference to the peacock? Compare ch.

xv.] Agni has also his special image, that

of a stout man, red and hairy as Esau, riding

on a goat [compare Bacchus, p. 214]. Sûrya

is also a red man, sitting on a water lily.

He has four arms and three eyes. But none of

these (deities) are known at Pongol any more

than they were at the time when the hymns of

the Rig Veda were composed.... The gifts are

laid out on trays,--a vase of sugar, or perhaps

an idol, _peacock_ or elephant, round which

will be grouped smaller works in sugar for the

children.... One thing may not be forgotten,

that is a lime [compare 'gourd,' p. 256]. This

must be _as large_ as money can buy, and then

be carefully encased in gold leaf till it looks

like one of the golden apples of antiquity. The

next day is Mahâ (or great) Pongol. It is often

called Sûrya Pongol. At noon the sun will cross

the equator, and bring the culminating glory of

the feast. So great a day must commence with

appropriate ceremonial, and _in this instance

it is bathing_. In country places the women run

early in the morning to the _nearest tank_ and

_plunge bodily in without undressing_." [This

is alluded to by Mr Gover as "an innovation so

uncomfortable and possibly dangerous;" but no

evidence is adduced of its being an innovation,

and its being the custom of the "country parts"

would incline us to the contrary belief.]

The men also bathe very carefully, as if the

occasion _were very solemn_. Reference is made

to the Rig Veda, i. 23, 15-24 (Wilson, i. 57);

but in these verses occur the words, "waters

take away whatever sin has been found in me."

"Dripping wet, the women proceed, without

changing their clothes, to prepare the feast,

... new chatties, or earthen vessels had been

purchased for the occasion; one of them is now

taken and is filled with rice, milk, sugar,

dholghee or clarified butter, grain, and other

substances, calculated to produce a tasty

dish.... The ingathering must be celebrated

with things that have just been garnered.

Usually Hindoos will not eat new rice, as it

is indigestible" (refer to Leviticus xxiii.

10-14). Another incident is that--"The head of

the house approaches the image (of Ganesa), and

performs pûja. Then follows a procession of

the young married couples to propitiate their

mothers-in-law.... So a present, the best the

house can provide, is carefully put together on

a tray. It may be fruit, or brass pots, or ghee,

or whatever else may be thought most acceptable.

Then a small procession is formed. In front

go three or four men, beating on tom-toms and

blowing pipes. Then follows the gift, held

aloft. Over it, if the family be respectable,

is held an umbrella, carried by a servant who

walks behind the bearer of the gift.... The

nearest relative steps forward and asks that

the daughter and her husband may come to the

'boiling,' to fill up the family circle. Then

follows the boiling of the pot; 'as the milk

boils, so will the coming year be.' The Pongol

is one long series of visits, entertainments,

and social joys." (Comp. Mandan Festival,

_supra_.)

"The third day of the feast is Mâttu Pongol, or

the Pongol _of the cattle_. It commences with

a general _wash_. They betake themselves to

the nearest _sacred_ tank, driving or dragging

with them the whole bovine possessions of

the village. They are then driven home, and

adornment commences; the horns are carefully

painted _red_, _blue_, _green_, _or yellow_,--if

the owner be rich, gold leaf is employed,--heavy

garlands of flowers placed on the horns.

Meanwhile the women have prepared another new

chatty, filling it with water, steeping within

saffron, cotton seeds, and mangora leaves. The

master of the ceremonial, usually the head of

the house, comes for it, and places himself at

the head of a procession of all the men--the

women may not see the rite we now describe. In

solemn silence they march round each animal four

times, while the first man sprinkles the bitter

water upon it and the ground as often as they

pass the four cardinal points of the compass....

This done, the women and children are again

admitted. The patient cattle are led out one by

one to receive their final adornment.... Then,

at a given signal, every rope is untied, every

tom-tom, pipe, and guitar is banged or blown to

the extreme of its endurance, and in an instant

the herd, hitherto so patient, is careering down

the street in an extremity of terror.... Any one

may possess himself of whatever is carried by

the cattle. No little skill and a vast amount of

courage are shown by the 'timid' Hindoos in this

dangerous and exciting pell-mell. The next day

is Kanen Pongol, or Pongol of the calves.

"On the evening of this day we find the only

token of corruption in the ceremonial." ... Then

follows a dance, just as is described by Catlin

as _closing_ the Mandan ceremonial, in which

very similar scenes occur.

Before adverting to the points of contrast

between the Pongol and the Mandan and Dahoman

ceremonies, I will give an extract from a

book recently published, giving an account of

a country hitherto unexplored--viz. Northern

Patagonia. Traces I think will be recognised of

the same primitive custom, though with evidences

of corruption.

"Three Years Slavery among the Patagonians," by

Guinnard (Bentley, 1871), p. 269.[233]

[233] Much doubt has been expressed as to the

veracity of M. Guinnard's narrative, but

the scenes and customs referred to are

not likely to have been invented; and on

the supposition of a fictitious narrative

(although I see nothing incredible) they

will probably have been imported from true

narratives of other tribes. In either case

they supply additional evidence.

"At certain periods of the year the Indians keep

religious festivals. The first takes place in the

summer, and is consecrated to Vita-ouènetrou (the

god of goodness) for the purpose of thanking him

for all his past favours, and of begging him to

continue them in the future. It is generally the

grand cacique who fixes the date and duration

of the festival.... The preparations are made

with all the religious pomp of which they are

capable; the Indians grease their hair and paint

their faces with greater care than usual.... At

the commencement of the ceremony the women move

their tents provisionally to the centre of the

spot chosen by the cacique. The men do not arrive

until these preparations are finished, they ride

three times round the place at full gallop,

shouting their war cry and shaking their lances.

Then, their rides ended, they range themselves

in single file, and tilt their lances with such

perfect regularity as to make it a striking

sight. The women _afterwards take the places of

their husbands_" (compare Catlin, _sup._, p.

260), "who, after dismounting and tying up their

horses, form a second rank behind them."

"The dance then commences without change of

place, except from right to left. The women sing

in a plaintive tone [laughter being expressly

forbidden during the whole continuance of the

ceremonies], accompanying themselves by striking

a _wooden drum_." Compare Catlin, _sup._, 257.

It is also said (Guinnard, p. 198), "The drum is

composed of a sort of wooden bowl, more or less

large, over which a wild-cat skin is stretched,

or a piece of the paunch of a _horse_. _This

instrument_ ... is much used by them, _especially

in their religious festivals_ and character

dances." The drum is "decorated with colours and

designs similar to those on their faces. The men

pirouette, limping upon the opposite leg to that

of the women." Compare Catlin, 254, 260. "At a

signal given by the cacique presiding over the

festival, cries of alarm are raised, the men

spring into their saddles, abruptly _interrupting

the dance_ to take part in a fantastic cavalcade

round the site of the festival, all waving their

weapons, and raising the sinister cry they utter

in their pillages."

"In the intervals of these exciting diversions

everybody _goes visiting_ in the hope of tasting

a little rotted _milk_ kept in a horse-hide."

Compare Pongol Festival, p. 280.

"At a very early hour on the fourth day, to close

the ceremony, a young _horse_, an _ox_, and two

sheep, given by the richest men amongst them, are

sacrificed to their god. The head turned towards

the east, and the heart still palpitating is hung

upon a lance and inclined towards the rising sun."

"The second festival takes place in the autumn;

it is celebrated in honour of Houacouvou

(_director of_ the evil spirits). The object

of it is to conjure him to preserve them from

all enchantment. As in the first festival, the

Indians dress themselves in their best, and

assemble by tribes only, headed by their cacique.

An assemblage of _all the cattle_ takes place

_en masse_. The men form a double circle around,

galloping unceasingly in opposite directions, so

that none of these unruly animals may escape.

They invoke Houacouvou aloud, throwing down, drop

by drop, fermented _milk_ out of _bull's horns_,

handed to them _by their wives_, while they are

riding round the cattle. After repeating this

ceremony three or _four_ times, they sprinkle

the horses and oxen with whatever remains of the

milk, with the view, they say, of preserving

them from all maladies; this done, each man

_separates his own cattle_, and _drives it to

some distance_, then returns for the purpose of

assembling round the cacique, who, in a long and

fervid address, advises them never to forget

Houacouvou in their prayers, and to lose no

time in preparing themselves to please him, by

carrying desolation amongst the Christians, and

increasing the number of their own flocks and

herds."

This festival, therefore, in its original

conception would not appear to be a worship of

the evil spirit, but of him who curbs him; the

same idea of the subordination of the evil spirit

will be seen in Catlin's account of the Mandans.

There is nothing certainly in this account which

directly connects these Patagonian ceremonies

with the diluvian commemorations, unless,

perhaps, the sacred drum; but there is much in

common with the Pongol and the Mandan which we

have seen to have been commemorative.

The prominence of sun worship will not have

escaped observation; but this discovery cannot

militate against my position, for I have already

shown (p. 160) that such admixture was

probable, and also indicated how it was likely

to have come about. Any hostile argument which

would seek to deprive those ceremonies of their

significance must be directed to the extrusion of

the diluvian symbols.

Further trace of these diluvian ceremonies

might be traced in the Buddhist systems; but

it would open out too large a question for

discussion here.