HUMAN ANIMALS
HUMAN ANIMALS
BY
FRANK HAMEL
AUTHOR OF
"THE DAUPHINES OF FRANCE," "FAIR WOMEN AT FONTAINEBLEAU,"
ETC., ETC.
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES Co.
PUBLISHERS
PREFACE
From the abundant records and traditions dealing with the curious
belief that certain men and women can transform themselves into
animals I have collected a number of instances and examples which
throw fresh light on the subject both from the point of view of
folk-lore and occultism. The causes of transformation are various:
contact with a wer-animal, touching what he has touched, wearing an
animal skin, rubbing the body with ointment, slipping on a girdle,
buckling on a strap, and many other expedients, magical and otherwise,
may bring about the metamorphosis. Removing the skin, burning it, or
piercing it with the stab of a knife, or the shot from a gun, so that
blood is drawn, are among the best-known methods for causing the human
shape to be resumed, but the stab should be on the brow or between the
eyes, and the bullet should be made of silver and is all the better
for having been blessed in a chapel of St. Hubert, otherwise the
attempt to break the enchantment may fail. The penalty for being a
wer-animal is death, but sentence is not passed until after some
ordeal has been gone through, such as dipping the finger into boiling
resin, innocence being established if the finger be drawn out unhurt.
Any wound inflicted on the transformed animal is simultaneously
inflicted on the human body, and in many other characteristics the
nature of the wer-animal is similar to that of the witch or wizard.
In "Balder the Beautiful" Dr. J. G. Frazer, after telling many typical
stories, endeavours to establish a parallelism between witches and
wer-animals, the analogy appearing to confirm the view that the reason
for burning a bewitched animal alive is a belief that the human being
is in the animal, and that by burning you compel him to assume another
shape. Since the sum of energy in the universe is held to be constant
and invariable, the chain of transformation is thus continued, and
form follows form, endlessly linked together. By some such theory the
phenomena of life and death may be explained and the doctrine of
immortality, usually applied only to the soul of man, can be
reasonably extended to animals.
The belief that human and animal souls possess power and entity when
externalised and apart from the living body is less widely held than
that of persistence after death. It is one that bears strongly on the
subject of animal transformation, as well as on the affinity which
certain animals possess for some families, an affinity that is akin to
totemism.
These preliminary suggestions will enable readers to grasp the scope
of my book, which is intended to provide a comprehensive view of the
subject and to familiarise them with the nature of the phenomena, even
though it has been well-nigh impossible to classify and tabulate them
fully, or to explain them satisfactorily.
I wish to express my thanks to Miss J. A. Middleton, author of "The
Grey Ghost Book," for her kindness in reading my work in MS., and to
her and others for suggesting interesting material.
FRANK HAMEL
_London_, 1915
TO
C. A. W.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE vii
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. TRANSFORMATION 5
III. THE BUSH-SOUL 15
IV. HUMAN SOULS IN ANIMAL BODIES 23
V. ANIMAL DANCES 28
VI. MAN-ANIMAL AND ANIMAL-MAN 39
VII. SCAPEGOAT AND SAINT 45
VIII. THE WER-WOLF TRIALS 54
IX. THE WER-WOLF IN MYTH AND LEGEND 65
X. LION- AND TIGER-MEN 78
XI. WER-FOX AND WER-VIXEN 88
XII. WITCHES 103
XIII. FAMILIARS 120
XIV. TRANSFORMATION IN FOLK-LORE AND FAIRY-TALE 131
XV. TRANSFORMATION IN FOLK-LORE AND FAIRY-TALE
(_continued_) 143
XVI. FABULOUS ANIMALS AND MONSTERS 159
XVII. HUMAN SERPENTS 173
XVIII. CAT AND COCK PHANTOMS 189
XIX. BIRD-WOMEN 202
XX. FAMILY ANIMALS 215
XXI. ANIMAL GHOSTS 236
XXII. THE PHANTASMAL DOUBLE 261
XXIII. ANIMAL ELEMENTALS 270
XXIV. ANIMAL SPIRITS IN CEREMONIAL MAGIC 283
XXV. CONCLUSION 293
HUMAN ANIMALS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
The belief that men can change into animals and animals into men is as
old as life itself. It originates in the theory that all things are
created from one substance, mind or spirit, which according to
accident or design takes a distinctive appearance, to mortal eye, of
shape, colour, and solidity. Transformation from one form to another
then becomes a thinkable proposition, especially if it be admitted
that plastic thought in the spirit world takes on changed forms and
conditions more readily than in the world of matter. The belief of
primitive races that all created beings have an immortal soul dwelling
in a material body applies equally to the brute creation and to the
human race. "In the beginning of things," says Leland, "men were as
animals and animals as men."[1] The savage endows brutes with similar
intelligence and emotions to his own. He does not distinguish between
the essential nature of man, of various beasts, and even of inanimate
objects, except where outward form is concerned; and he senses, even
more clearly than his civilised brother, the psychic bonds which unite
man and the animals. Folk-lore abounds in incidents which are based on
the impermanence of form and which tell of people changing into
animals or animals changing into human beings.
The scientific problems of to-day which deal with the theory of
breaking up matter into electrons may quite possibly have a bearing on
this subject and may not be so far removed, as appears at first sight
to be the case, from the intuitive beliefs of the savage.
Transformation was held to be accomplished in various ways, a
sorcerer, a witch or the evil one himself being the agent through whom
the change was effected. Certain people have had ascribed to them the
power of self-transformation, a curious psychical gift which to this
day appeals to imaginative people, and which may be regarded as a
projection of mind in animal form.
Changes may be voluntary or involuntary, self-transformation belonging
more frequently to the former class and transformation by sorcery,
witchcraft or black magic more often to the latter class. The motives
of a human being who wishes to change into an animal are naturally
regarded with suspicion. Greed, cruelty, and cannibalism are
accusations brought against those who were tried in the Middle Ages
for the crime of lycanthropy, the transformation into a wolf or other
wild beast. The desire to taste human flesh is a horrible but not
improbable reason for the offence. The wish to inspire fear or to gain
personal power over others are motives for impersonating wild and
fearsome animals, as effective where superstitious people are
concerned as the less common faculty of transforming actual flesh.
Savage races do not necessarily connect the idea of transformation with
any thought of evil. They find the plan of impersonating an animal in
its lair, for the sake of safety, say, extremely useful. They have also
the best of reasons for developing a special attribute, such as the keen
scent of the hound, the long sight of the eagle, the natural protective
power against cold possessed by the wolf and so forth, imitative
suggestion which occurs in many of their primitive customs. Thus the
Cherokee Indian when starting on a winter's journey endeavours by
singing and other mimetic action to identify himself with the wolf, the
fox, the opossum or other wild animal, of which the feet are regarded by
him as impervious to frost-bite. The words he chants mean, "I become a
real wolf, a real deer, a real fox, and a real opossum."[2] Then he
gives a long howl to imitate the wolf or barks like a fox and paws and
scratches the ground. Thus he establishes a belief in transformation by
sympathetic or homœopathic magic, and starts forth on his difficult
journey in perfect confidence, the power of auto-suggestion aiding him
on his way. Such customs are closely allied with the superstitions of
the dark ages, when it was assumed without question that bodily
transformation took place.
Involuntary change into animal shape was thought to occur as a
punishment for crime, and was looked upon as a judgment of the gods.
Few beliefs are more common among savages than that reincarnation in a
lower form is the result of sin in a previous existence. Bats
especially are held to be the abode of the souls of the dead, and to
some races they are sacrosanct for this reason. Most animals have been
looked upon as a possible receptacle of man's soul, and many primitive
tribes believe that man can choose in which animal body he prefers to
dwell. In the Solomon Islands, for instance, a dying man informs the
members of his family in what sort of animal shape he expects to live
again. One among hundreds of similar superstitions is that if a cat
jumps over a corpse, the soul of the deceased enters its body.
Murder of what is holy, and the offering of human sacrifices are two
offences punishable by transformation, but once transformed, the
soul-animal wins respect rather than contempt, and care is taken that
no injury shall befall it, lest a relative or friend should suffer. A
savage avoids harming his own family animal, but does not hesitate to
kill the soul-animal into which a member of a hostile tribe has
entered. Should such an animal die, the soul is thought by many races
to pass into another body of the same type, but other tribes,
especially in Madagascar, believe that the death of the animal
releases the human soul that had lodged within it.
A more original idea is that certain human beings possess animal
doubles and that the soul-animal roams at large while the man remains
visible in his ordinary form, and many of the vampire and wer-wolf
stories are traceable to this belief. The Toradjas of Central Celebes
believe that the inside parts only of the man take on the animal
shape, a state which they term _lamboyo_. The _lamboyo_ may be
distinguished from an ordinary animal by being misshapen to some
extent, for instance, a buffalo may have only one horn, or a dog may
have a pig's snout. The _lamboyo_, like the vampire, has a preference
for human victims, whom he grievously tortures and maims.
Far more beautiful is the myth of _tanoana_, the divine essence in man
which goes forth from his body, as in sleep, and, being of the same
nature as the soul of the animal, allows of interchange to take place
between the human and the animal bodies.
Even amongst the most practical and enlightened people of to-day
psychic experiences in which animals have played a part are of common
enough occurrence, and a survey of the grounds on which man and animal
shapes and spirits meet may help them to understand things which, to
our limited human intelligence, appear at least strange, if not
altogether inexplicable.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Leland, C. G., "Algonquin Legends of New England," Boston 1884, p.
31.
[2] Frazer, J. G., "The Golden Bough," "The Magic Art," 1911, Vol. I,
pp. 155-6.
CHAPTER II
TRANSFORMATION
How did man come to change into an animal? Folklore and superstition
describe a number of ways. The most common method appears to have been
the wearing of the skin of the animal in question. One drew it over
one's shoulders, mask and all, and awaited results. These were not
always satisfactory, and if any delay occurred it was better to strip
off the clothes, rub the limbs with a potent ointment and murmur a
long incantation. Such things, if we may believe tradition, invariably
did the trick. But there were many other ways of bringing about the
desired state. According to Grimm,[3] transformation could be effected
by tying a strap of human skin round the body; others say the skin
must be a girdle made from the animal's hide.... It also sufficed to
shift the buckle of a certain strap to the ninth hole. To drink water
out of the footprint made by the animal, to partake of its brains, to
drink from certain enchanted streams, to haunt the lair of a wer-wolf,
to eat his food or come into personal contact with him or his
belongings were all means of voluntary or involuntary transformation
which, according to its nature, might be permanent or merely
transitory. Livonian wer-wolves were initiated by drinking a cup of
beer of a special character accompanied by a particular incantation.
Other countries had magical procedure which differed in detail, if not
in the main features. As a rule the devil was supposed to have had a
hand in the transformation process, and one man accused of the crime
declared that a female devil had presented him with a belt and
whenever he buckled it he was changed into a wolf spontaneously. This
gentleman, when he was back in human shape, was always heard to remark
in surprise that he had not the faintest idea where the bristles went
which had adorned him when in wolfish form.
A return to human body was sometimes easy, sometimes extremely
difficult. The girdle or skin being removed was often sufficient to
remove the enchantment too. Plunging into water or rolling over and
over in dew were said to be equally efficacious. A considerably slower
method was to kneel in one spot for a hundred years, long enough, one
would imagine to deter anyone from ill-judged ambitions to prowl
around the world in animal shape. Other cures, however, were simpler,
such as being saluted with the sign of the cross, or to be called
three times loudly by the baptismal name, or to be struck three blows
on the forehead by a knife, or to have three drops of blood drawn from
some part of the body. In many cases one other person besides the
transformed man was in possession of certain formulæ necessary for
restoring him to a normal appearance, and if by any accident this
person was killed or otherwise removed from the sphere of action, woe
betide him in animal shape, for he probably had to retain it during
the rest of his natural existence.
There is a legend in Lorraine that if stalks of grass are pulled up,
blessed and thrown against a tree, wolves spring forth, being
transformed from the men who threw the grass. To become a she-bear it
is only necessary to put a slip of wood into one's mouth; when the
wood is taken out human shape returns.
Another myth, mentioned by Grimm, is that at certain times of night
wer-wolves turn into three-legged dogs and can only be freed by
someone crying out "wer-wolf."
Seven and nine are important numbers in transformation. When seven
girls are born of one marriage, one is thought to turn into a wer-wolf
and the seventh child of the seventh child is predestined to the same
fate. The spell is said to last nine days. Anyone who puts on a
wolf-shirt is transformed into a wolf for this period and returns to
human shape on the tenth day. Grimm says the seal is supposed to doff
his fishy skin every ninth day and for one day become a man, and there
is a common saying that a cat twenty years old turns into a witch, and
a witch of a hundred turns back into a cat.
Having taken the body of a beast, man becomes known as a wer-animal,
wer being probably derived from the Latin _vir_.[4] He then assumes
the characteristics of the natural animal, with additional strength,
agility, and ferocity.
In mediæval times powers of transformation seem to have been sought
after and were even regarded as a privilege. Although often acquired for
evil purposes, among primitive peoples to change into an animal did not
necessarily imply a descent in the scale of being. To them there is but
a slight line of demarcation between the animal world and mankind. They
are not influenced so much by the idea of human degradation as by a
beautiful belief in the brotherhood and fellowship of all creation.
Lycanthropy is the technical name for the pathological condition of a
man who believes he has become an animal. The word means literally
wolf-man, the wolf being chosen as the most dangerous animal known in
European countries, though the tiger, hyæna, or any other wild animal
serves the purpose equally well.
The symptoms exhibited by the wer-animal are at first extreme
restlessness and anxiety. He develops, sometimes instantaneously,
sometimes by degrees, the instincts of the kind of creature into which
he has been transformed, often acquiring enormous strength and the
special characteristics of the animal. If it be carnivorous by nature
he has a lust to kill, and he can do what the animal does as well as
what he was naturally capable of doing. His body is in the shape of an
animal, but his eyes, according to some accounts, remain unchanged,
and the human being looks out of these windows of his soul. His
intelligence will probably, however, be darkened by the shadow of
malignity or passion usual to the lower creation.
As early as 1579, Wierius described lycanthropia as a disease, and
declared the Arabs called it _Chatrap_, after an animal. Another name
was _Tipule_. (Latin race.) The victims had sunken eyes and could not
see well, the tongue was dry and they were thirsty, the saliva being
dried up. To cure them they had to be well-fed, much bathed, and given
drugs which were used in melancholic diseases. Before an attack the
head was rubbed with soporific herbs, opium was applied to the nose
and the patient was dosed with a narcotic.
When under the delusion that he is changed into a wolf the wer-animal
gives vent to a long howl and starts off with a rush to the nearest
forest, where he prowls about through the night seeking his victims.
These he kills in the ordinary manner of a wild beast, tearing asunder
their limbs and feasting on their flesh. In some countries his method
is more elaborate and it is supposed that the wer-wolf, having chosen
his victim, exerts certain occult powers to numb his faculties and,
cutting up the body, extracts the liver, which he eats and then joins
the parts of the body together again so that the friends of the dead
man know not how he came to lose his life.
Having satisfied his thirst for blood, the man-wolf, at the wane of
his madness, once more seeks human shape, and then it is probable that
he suffers for his abnormal appetites. Reaction leaves him weak and
debilitated, with dry throat and tongue, feeble vision, hollow and
discoloured cheeks, and sore places where he was hurt by his victim
struggling for life.
Some subjects of lycanthropia, or imitative madness, endure still
greater horrors, and the case of a patient who trembled with terror at
his own condition is quoted by M. Morel in his "Études Cliniques."[5]
"See this mouth," he cried, touching his lips with his fingers, "it is
the mouth of a wolf, and see the long hairs which cover my body and my
paws. Let me bound away into the woods so you may shoot me there!"
When his family endeavoured to caress him, he cried out that they were
embracing a wolf. He asked for raw meat, the only food he could touch,
but on tearing it apart he found it not to his liking as it had not
been freshly killed. Thus he went through the tortures of the damned
until released by death.
Another victim of the disease is mentioned by Fincelius in his second
Book of Wonders. He says that "at Padua in the year 1541 a certain
husbandman did seem to himself wolf, and did leap upon many in the
fields, and did kill them. And that at last he was taken not without
much difficulty, and did confidently affirm that he was a true wolf,
only that the difference was in the _skin turned in with the hairs_.
And therefore that, having put off all humanity and being truly
truculent and voracious, he did smite and cut off his legs and arms,
thereby to try the truth of the matter, but the innocency of the man
being known, they committed him to the chirurgeon's to be cured, but
that he died not many days after. Which instance is sufficient to
overthrow the vain opinion of those men that believe that a man or
woman may be really transubstantiated into a wolf, dog, cat, squirrel
or the like without the operation of an omnipotent power."
In spite of the unpleasant consequences with which lycanthropy seems
to be connected there is little doubt that transformation used to be
regarded as a useful and sometimes even profitable relaxation. Those
who were already initiated into its mysteries were generally willing
to help others to obtain proficiency, and a draught from the hand of
an expert was considered enough to produce the desired condition in
the novice.
Predestination to become a wer-animal is thought to be distinguished
by some peculiarity in the appearance, such as the meeting of the
eyebrows, and the tendency to transform is believed to wax and wane
with the seasons and to be subject to the influence of the moon.
The head, claws, and hairy skin of a wer-wolf are like those of a real
wolf, but the great test of identity lies in his lack of tail, and in
his clothes, which are sure to be found not far from the scene of
slaughter.
When doubt is felt whether a wer-wolf is a human being or a real wolf,
steel or iron is thrown at the animal under suspicion. When this is
done to a genuine wer-wolf the skin is said to split crosswise on the
forehead and the naked man comes out through the opening. Sometimes
the wer-wolf is frozen with the cold and then he is invulnerable to
ordinary weapons. The only way to wound him is to shoot at him with
balls of elder pith or bullets of inherited silver.
When the victim is attacked by a human animal the injured person's
clothes are stripped from his body. The genuine animal tears them in
shreds. If the wer-animal has been transformed by means of a strap of
human skin, his tail is then certain to be truncated.
In the following Hessian folk-story, which concerns a poverty-stricken
married couple, a large ring was used to bring about the metamorphosis.
The wife always contrived to have meat for every meal and the husband
never knew how she managed it. After much questioning she agreed to tell
him, and taking him to a field where sheep were grazing she threw a ring
over herself and became a wer-wolf. She seized one sheep and was running
off with it when the man, who had promised not to call her by name
during the performance, cried out, "Oh, Margaret!" and as he did so the
wolf disappeared and the woman stood there with no clothes on.
A very similar story is told of a nobleman who fell short of food
while traversing a wide tract of country in Russia with a party of
friends. He transformed himself into a wolf and caught several sheep,
which provided an excellent meal for the travellers.
In India a story is current that there was once a man who was able to
change himself into a tiger, but who found it very difficult to resume
his normal shape. When he wished to become human again, it was
necessary for a particular friend of his to cite a certain formula.
The friend died and as this catastrophe limited the tiger-man's powers
he determined to teach the proper formula to his wife.
A few days later, having enjoyed a glorious hunt and devoured several
antelopes, he trotted up to his wife in the disguise of a tiger, hoping
she would not forget how to work the spell. When she saw the dangerous
monster approaching her she began to scream. The animal jumped round
about her, trying to remind her by dumb show of what she had to do, but
the greater efforts he made the more frightened she grew and the louder
became her cries. So annoyed was the man-tiger by her aggravating
stupidity that he thought, "This is the most irritating woman I ever
saw," and, flying into a terrible passion, he attacked and slew her.
Then to his regret he remembered that no other human being knew the
incantation necessary for his release and that he would have to remain a
tiger for the rest of his days. He grew to hate all human beings after
that and killed men whenever the chance occurred.
In the Sanjor and Nerbudda territories there is a saying that if a tiger
has killed a man he will never slay another, because the dead man's
spirit rides on his head and forces him to seek more lawful prey.
Some African tribes believe that tailless tigers are transformed men,
probably because the wer-animal is frequently said to have no tail.
In early Christian times the wer-wolf was often regarded as a victim
of the evil machinations of a sorcerer. There is a story in the
seventh century of a man-wolf who defended the head of St. Edward the
Martyr from the onslaught of other wild beasts. The apostles Peter and
Paul, according to a Russian folk-tale, turned an evil-minded husband
and wife into bears as a judgment for their sins.
An object which may have been an inducement to transformation was the
hope of acquiring second sight, a gift with which many animals are
thought to be endowed.
In the last century in France a connection of the old _loup-garou_
existed in the person of the _meneur des loups_, who was said to have
the gift of charming or taming wolves, which followed him across waste
lands on midnight rambles after the style in which the rats followed
the piping of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The _loup-garou_ of the French is found in Italy under the name of the
_lupo manaro_ or _versiero_. The _lupo manaro_ of the Middle Ages was
a witch dressed as a wolf, but the same term was applied to a certain
hobgoblin who was peculiar to the city of Blois and whose chief
occupation seems to have been to inspire deadly fear in young
children. The _lupo marino_, which might be thought to be another kind
of wolf, is the name of a most ravenous fish, which does not appear to
have had human attributes.
The great Gaston de Foix, known as Phœbus, who is famed for his book
on the chase, expresses his opinion that the term _garou_ in
_loup-garou_ is an ellipse of the phrase _gardez-vous_.
When wolves grew scarce in England it became the fashion for those who
wished to be transformed to change into cats, weasels, or harmless
hares; rather a mild amusement after the adventuresome exploits of the
man-attacking beasts of prey, but one which led to some extraordinary
proceedings akin to black magic.
In some old French Records the account is given of a man who buried a
black cat in a box at a spot where four cross-roads met. In the box he
placed bread soaked in holy water and holy oil, sufficient to keep the
animal alive for three days. His intention was to dig up his innocent
victim, slay him, and make a girdle of his skin, by which means he
expected to be able to transform himself into an animal and gain the
gift of clairvoyance. Unfortunately for his projects, however, the
buried animal was exhumed by hounds. The whole affair came to public
knowledge and ended in the courts, where the guilty man was condemned
for sorcery.
Another man whose friend threw doubts on his power to change into
animal shape, quickly turned into a wolf to prove that his comrade was
wrong and, being set upon by a pack of dogs, was deprived by them of
one eye before he could resume his normal appearance.
A thief acted more cleverly. Being condemned to the gibbet, he saved his
skin by taking the form of a wolf directly his would-be executioners
opened the door of the cell in which he was imprisoned. During the panic
of dismay which greeted the sight of him, he escaped into the woods.
One of the most marvellous stories of wer-wolves is related by
Giraldus Cambrensis in his "Topography of Ireland."[6] A priest was
journeying from Ulster to Meath accompanied only by a single youth
when they were benighted in a wood.
They had kindled a fire when a huge wolf approached them and spoke,
telling the travellers to fear nothing.
The priest adjured him by all that was sacred not to do them harm and
begged him to say "what creature it was that in the shape of a beast
uttered human words."
The story told by the wolf is as follows:--
"There are two of us, a man and a woman, natives of Ossory, who,
through the curse of one Natalis, saint and abbot, are compelled every
seven years to put off their human form and assume that of wolves. At
the end of seven years, if they chance to survive, two others being
substituted, they return to their former shape. Now, she who is my
partner in this visitation lies dangerously sick not far from hence. I
beseech you, inspired by divine charity, to give her the consolations
of your priestly office."
The priest followed the mysterious speaker into the thicket and
performed the rites of the Church over the dying she-wolf, as far as
the last Communion. But the wolf was not satisfied, and begged him to
complete his good offices. The priest said this was impossible as he
was not provided with the wherewithal for giving the viaticum. Then
the man-wolf pointed to the priest's neck, suspended round which he
carried a missal and consecrated wafers, entreating him not to deny
the aid provided by Divine Providence. To remove the priest's doubts
he tore off the she-wolf's skin and exposed the body of an old woman.
The last Communion having been given, the wolf replaced the skin and
reverently thanked the priest for the benefit which he had conferred.
These representative incidents go far to show how deeply ingrained is
the belief in transformation among primitive people, but it is necessary
to go back still further into the origins of folk-lore to discover the
bedrock of thought in which the human-animal theory takes its rise.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] "Teutonic Mythology."
[4] This appears to be the usually adopted explanation, but on p. 67 a
suggestion is made regarding the word _versipelles_, which may throw a
different light on the derivation.
[5] Vol. II, p. 58.
[6] "The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis," 1863. Bohn's
Library p. 79 _et seq._
CHAPTER III
THE BUSH-SOUL
The animal which savage races take as a symbol of the family becomes
their totem. Many believe that their ancestors were originally
animals, fishes, or reptiles, and are so accustomed to this idea that
transformation appears simple and natural to them. They hold that the
souls of the dead pass into one or another animal form.
"Wise people," says the Bhagavad Gita, "see the same soul (Atman) in
the Brahman, in worms and in insects, in the dog and the elephant, in
beasts, cows, gadflies, and gnats."
"Nothing is more strikingly characteristic of primitive thinking than
the close community of nature which it assumes between man and brute,"
writes Fiske. "The doctrine of metempsychosis, which is found in some
shape or other all over the world, implies a fundamental identity
between the two; the Hindu is taught to respect the flocks browsing in
the meadow, and will on no account lift his hand against a cow, for
who knows but it may be his own grandmother?"[7]
The primeval worship of ancestors and the savage customs of totemism
are connected with this belief in transformation.
Primitive man cannot grasp the idea of death as final. He believes
that the man who has passed away is still capable of communicating
with the living, and the idea of the persistence of the dead is to him
the reality. Even though a dead man has thrown off the body like a
mask, his appearance remains the same and he is still possessed of
human powers, perhaps intensified by the experience he has undergone.
He can show himself to his friends, and may do so preferably after
nightfall. He is then wrapped to some extent in mystery, and connected
with strange sights, movements, and sounds.
Gifted with new powers he may appear as an animal, perhaps in order to
harm his enemies or warn people of evil. His howling may be heard
above the sound of the tempest. Perhaps he rides on the night-wind,
perhaps he comes in the form of a hound, as a messenger of death, and
bays under the window of the sick a warning that death is at hand.
Again, he may come as a ravening wolf to devour some victim of his
greed. Thus the savage mind fails to distinguish between the real and
the imaginative and, basing his beliefs on the stories about his own
tribal totem, is convinced that his ancestors may career about his
home in the form of lion, leopard, serpent or other tutelary genius.
This curious mental process expands with what it feeds on until the
shade of distinction between wolf-like ghosts and corporeal human
wolves is obliterated and the metempsychosis is complete.
In "Life Amongst the Modocs,"[8] Joaquin Miller tells a poetic story
of the descent of the Indians from the grizzly bear.
One severe spring-time many thousands of years ago there was a storm
on the summit of Mount Shasta and the Great Spirit sent his fair
daughter to speak to the storm and bid it stop, but he told her not to
look forth from the hole in the top of the mountain lest she should be
caught in the wind and come to disaster.
Curiosity, however, caused her to forget her father's instructions and
she put her head out to look at the far-distant ocean, white with
storm. As she did so the wind caught her long red hair and she was
blown down the mountain-side which was covered with ice and snow, so
that she slid to the dark belt of firs below the snow rim.
This district belonged to the grizzly bears. They were not really
beasts then, but lived in caves, walked on two legs, talked and used
clubs to fight with, instead of their teeth and claws as they do now.
An old grizzly found the red-haired girl and took her home, where she
was reared with the bears' offspring. In time she was married to the
eldest son of the family. Their children did not resemble either of
their parents exactly, but partook somewhat of the nature and likeness
of both. Thus was the red man created, for these children were the
first Indians.
The legend goes on to tell how angry the Great Spirit was when he
heard what had befallen his daughter and that he punished the
grizzlies by making them walk on all-fours like other beasts, and on
account of this legend of their origin, the Indians about Mount Shasta
never kill a bear, and if a bear kills an Indian the latter's body is
burnt and all who pass the spot cast a stone upon it till a large heap
is gathered, and Indians will point out to this day that bears are
more like men than any other animal.
The members of a totem clan call themselves by the name of the totem,
and numerous clans are connected with various animals, such, for
instance, as the Crane clan of the Ojibways who think they are
descended from a pair of cranes which settled near Lake Superior where
they became transformed by the Great Spirit into a man and a woman.
The Osages are descended from the union between a snail and a beaver.
The snail burst its shell, grew arms and legs and became a handsome
human being who wedded a beaver maiden.
In Bechuanaland when a crocodile clansman sees a crocodile he spits on
the ground and says, "There is sin," for fear the sight should give
him inflammation of the eyes. Yet the crocodile is his father, and he
celebrates it at his festivals and marks his cattle with an incision
in the ear that resembles the mouth of his totem animal.
The inhabitants of the Ellice Island in the South Pacific believe the
island was first inhabited by the porcupine fish, whose offspring became
men and women. The snake clan among the Moquis of Arizona say they are
descended from a woman who gave birth to snakes, and they indulge in
extraordinary snake dances to propitiate their tutelary genius.
In Indonesia many stories are told of women who have brought forth
animals. Sometimes the woman gives birth to twins, one being a human
being and one a beast.[9] At Balen in New Guinea a native told a
missionary that his ancestress had given birth to a boy and also to an
iguana, and since then he had had a great respect for iguanas.
The turtle clan of the Iroquois believe themselves to be descended
from a fat turtle, which, burdened by the weight of its shell in
walking, threw it off after great exertions and developed gradually
into a human being.[10]
People of the cray-fish clan of the Choctaws were said to have lived
originally underground as cray-fish, only coming to the surface of the
mud occasionally. Some kindly Choctaws captured these fish, taught
them to walk after cutting off their toe-nails and adopted them into
the tribe.
The Masai race in Uganda have a theory that some of their ancestors
return to earth after death in the shape of serpents, generally
pythons or cobras, and when a Masai marries, he introduces his wife to
the tutelary snake of the tribe, and she is told to recognise it and
never harm it. The fetish snake is often consulted by people in
trouble, because they think they will get valuable advice based on
the experience of their ancestors[11].
The people of Miri believe themselves to be related to large deer, and
suppose that their dead relatives become deer. The Bakongs, another
group of Mohammedan Malasians, believe their friends become bear-cats
after death. The Papuans of New Guinea hold that at death souls of
human beings pass into animals such as cassowaries, fish, or pigs.
They do not eat these sacred creatures, which are taboo.
The taboos include all animals which must not be killed. They enjoy
local sanctity, and are never eaten or even touched. Taboo animals are
thought to give favourable and unfavourable omens. Death is sometimes
foretold by their means.
These instances of the supposed connection between savage races and
certain animals might be multiplied a hundredfold, and they lead to
interesting developments of the transformation theory.
The belief that beasts are the dwelling-places of the souls of
depraved men is a variation of the idea that depraved men were
inhabited by demons.
In Australia and America it is customary for savages to have what is
called "a medicine animal," something in the nature of a tutelary
genius or second soul. The natives of Central America call this animal
_nagual_, the Algonquins _manitou_, the Eskimo _tornaq_, and amongst
the last-named people it is usually a bear. Others call it simply the
bush-soul.
The young Tinkhlet Indian goes out hunting the otter, and when he has
killed his prey he cuts out its tongue, which he uses as a charm,
wearing it round his neck and believing that he now understands the
language of all animals. In other races various animals are killed in
order that part of their body may be used as a talisman. A _nagual_
may be obtained in other ways, perhaps through dreaming of the right
animal, or by having it chosen by the magician of the tribe. It then
becomes sacred, and should it die the man dies too.
The West African negroes believe that a man can have as many as four
souls, one of which lives in animal form out in the bush, and is then
called his bush-soul. If this animal soul is trapped or shot, the man
himself dies. Nor will a native kill his bush-soul, for this would
surely be the cause of his own end. Bush-souls are often regarded as
an hereditary possession, generally passing from father to son and
from mother to daughter. Among many primitive peoples the belief
exists that the human being can and does actually change into this
tutelary animal genius. In Iceland, for instance, it is believed that
various members of a family have a kind of animal double called
_fylgja_, in the shape of a dog or bird.
The Yakuts of Siberia believe that every wizard has one of his souls
incarnate in an animal. "Nobody can find my external soul," said one
famous wizard, "it lies hidden far away in the stony mountains of
Edzhigansk." Once a year at the melting of the snow, these souls
appear amongst the dwellings of men in the shape of animals, invisible
to all but the wizards themselves. Strong ones hurry about noisily,
but the weak ones move furtively as though afraid. Sometimes they
fight, and the sorcerer whose soul is worsted in the battle falls ill
and may even die. The souls of cowardly wizards are in the form of
dogs, and they give their human double no peace, but gnaw at his heart
and tear his body. Powerful wizards have souls incarnate in stallions,
elks, boars, eagles, and black bears.
The Samoyeds in the Turukhinsk region believe that sorcerers have a
familiar in the shape of a boar, and that they lead him by a magic
belt. If the boar dies the sorcerer too must die. Sometimes battles
occur between sorcerers who send forth their familiars to encounter
one another before they themselves meet in the flesh.
The Melanesians of Mota in the New Hebrides, call the soul the _atai_,
and they believe that every person has a second self which is visible
and is, in fact, the reflection in animal form of his own personality.
He and his _atai_ would rejoice or grieve, live and die together.
Some of the Melanesians also believe that they have special relation
to some animal or reptile with which their life is bound up and which
is named _tamaniu_. The _tamaniu_, like the _atai_, has an objective
and material existence.
When its owner wishes to injure anyone he sends his familiar to do so;
if an eel it would tear or bite, if a shark probably swallow him. If
the owner falls ill, he examines his familiar to discover what is
wrong. The imps or familiars of witches embody the same idea.
Dr. W. H. R. Rivers quotes the case of a man whose _tamaniu_ was a
lizard[12]. The owner was blind and asked a friend to help him with the
ceremony of examination. He told his friend to go and see the animal,
using the words "Look at me," referring to the lizard as himself. The
man went alone to the banyan tree where the lizard was to be found, but
when he came there he was too frightened to call upon the animal. He was
sent a second time in the company of the sick man's son and others, and
when they reached the tree the man called out the lizard's name,
Rosasangwowut, and the _tamaniu_ appeared. It was a very large animal,
larger than the ordinary lizards in Mota. It appeared to be sluggish and
walked as a sick man would walk. The blind man's son then asked the
_tamaniu_ if it was ill and the creature nodded its head and moved
slowly back to the tree. They went back and told the man that his
familiar was ill, and soon afterwards he died. At the same time the
banyan tree fell, which was taken as a sign that the _tamaniu_ died too.
This is an uncanny story which brings out strongly the psychic
connection between the man and his representative animal.
In Melanesia a native doctor was once attending a patient when a large
eagle hawk soared past the house and a hunter was about to shoot it
when the doctor called out in alarm, "Don't fire, that is my spirit!
If you kill it I shall die." He also said, "If you see a rat to-night,
don't drive it away, it's my spirit, or a snake may come to-night,
which will be my spirit." Apparently the doctor had the power to send
his familiar in animal form for the purpose of working a cure.
At Ongek in the Gaboon a French missionary spent the night in the hut of
a Fan chief. He was awakened before daylight by the rustling of dry
leaves and, lighting a torch, perceived a huge black poisonous serpent,
coiled and ready to strike. He was about to shoot the horrible reptile
when his arm was suddenly struck up by the chief, who, extinguishing the
torch, cried, "Don't fire, I beg of you. In killing the snake you would
kill me. That serpent is my _elangela_. Fear nothing!" Speaking thus he
seized and caressed the noisome reptile, which showed emotions of
delight rather than fear or anger. Then the chief bore away his serpent
and laid it in another hut, lying down beside it, after exhorting the
missionary never to speak of what he had seen.[13]
From this occurrence it will easily be gathered that it is highly
dangerous to kill a _tamaniu_, _nagual_, or _manitou_.
The possibility of the soul existing temporarily apart from the body
is believed by most savages, and civilised races, such as the Romans,
have held identical ideas. "The _nagual_," writes W. Northcote Thomas
in his valuable article on Animals,[14] "is the lineal ancestor of the
_genius_ of the Romans, no less than of the _guides_ of modern
spiritualism." This statement gives ample food for thought.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Fiske, J., "Myths and Myth-makers," 1873, p. 74.
[8] 1873, pp. 242-7.
[9] Frazer, "Totemism," Vol. II, p. 58.
[10] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 5.
[11] "The Uganda Protectorate," by Sir Harry Johnston, 1902, Vol. II,
p. 832.
[12] "Totemism in Polynesia and Melanesia" in "Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute," 1909, Vol. XXXIX, p. 177.
[13] Frazer, "Golden Bough," "Balder the Beautiful," 1913, Vol. II, p.
200, etc.
[14] Hastings' "Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics," 1908, Vol. I.
CHAPTER IV
HUMAN SOULS IN ANIMAL BODIES
At all periods of the world's history and in every country people have
believed in the "external soul" of a man appearing in animal form. For
instance, in the island of Florida the natives tell the story of an
alligator which used to come out of the sea and visit the village in
which the man whose ghost it was had dwelt. It was known by his name
and was on friendly terms with the natives, allowing children to ride
on its back.[15]
In Syria there are stories of girls being carried off by bears and
giving birth to human-animal offspring. The Creeks believe the
offspring to be bears which later turn into men. Japan is famous for
its white bear-god and the Tartars believe that earth spirits take the
form of bears.
The Gilyaks believe that if one of their race is killed by a bear, his
soul transmigrates into the animal's body. Californian Indians have
been heard to plead hard for the life of a she-bear. They said its
wrinkled face was like the withered features of a dead grandmother
whose soul had entered into the animal.
One of the Omaha clans believe they are descended from bison and the
males wear their hair in imitation of the animal which is their totem.
The Ewe negroes of Togoland ascribe to the souls of buffaloes and
leopards the power of killing the hunter who slew them, or of
misleading him in the chase so that he confuses men with animals and
gets into difficulties from being accused of murdering the former. The
souls of these dangerous animals are thought to haunt and plague the
hunter, perhaps by making him crazy, so that when he finds his way
back into the town he loses all his property and is sold into slavery.
A quaint ceremony is performed to prevent such power emanating from
the dead prey.
The Baganda natives are in deadly terror of the ghosts of the
buffaloes they have killed, believing that they may work harm to them.
The crocodile especially has played a large part in these beliefs
about human and ghostly animals.
Natives in Simbang, in German New Guinea, are convinced that their
relatives turn into crocodiles, and they recognise a certain crocodile
known by the name of "Old Butong" as head of the family. They say he
was born of a woman. Mary Kingsley tells a similar story in her
"Travels in West Africa," describing human beings, who, disguised as
alligators, swim in the creeks, attack the canoes and carry off the
crew. The natives believe in the spirit of the man actually possessing
the animal's body.
In New Guinea and the East Indies as well as in West Africa crocodiles
are thought to be the abodes of the souls of ancestors, and the victim
of this dangerous reptile is said to have incurred the vengeance of
some human being who has taken the form of the animal, while those who
kill crocodiles become themselves transformed after death. Spenser's
"cruell craftie crocodile" was held to be sacred in Egypt, and the god
Sebek was said to take its shape whenever he so desired.
The Malagasy view is that the crocodile is the ally of a magician
during his lifetime, and that he can send him forth as a familiar to
wreak harm upon his enemies.
The alligator is closely allied to the crocodile. Among the legends of
the Arawak Indians of British Guiana is one about a half human beast of
this species which received its extraordinary markings in the following
manner: Arawadi, the sun-god, coming to earth saw an alligator
disporting himself on the banks of a stream which he had preserved
specially for fish. To get rid of the enemy he seized and smote him with
a hard club upon the head and tail, but the alligator, crying out to him
to stay his hand, promised in return for clemency a beauteous
water-sprite to be his bride. Arawadi agreed to the proposal.
"The reptile's wounds were healed. Those blows
No more his hide assail;
But still their marks are seen, 'tis said,
Indented on his battered head
And notched along his tail!"
The domestic animals, bulls, cows, horses, asses, cats, and dogs, have
been regarded at one time or another as gifted with human powers, or
as suitable vehicles for the reception of human souls. The Tlaxcallans
believe that man can be transformed into a dog. The wild dog, the
coyote, according to the ideas of the Navajos, may be a bad man
transformed at death for his sins.
Armenians sacrifice an ass at the graves of people who owe them money,
their belief being that if payment is not forthcoming the ancestor's
souls will enter asses' bodies.
The Corn Spirit is supposed to take the form of a cat, and in some
places in Germany children have been warned not to go into the
corn-fields because "The cat sits there." In Silesia the reaper who
cuts the last corn is called the "Tom-cat" and is dressed up in
rye-stalks, wearing a long plaited tail. Sometimes another man
accompanies him called "the female cat."
The Lapps of the North Cape are said to consult a black cat when in
trouble, and they regard it more as a human being than as an animal.
The cat is among the soul-animals familiar to the inhabitants of the
British Islands, who, owing to this country's immunity from wild
beasts, are satisfied to "humanise" the milder species of creatures
such as the ant, butterfly, gull, moth, sparrow, and swan.
In the parish of Ballymoyer in Ireland butterflies are said to be the
souls of grandfathers, whilst the Malagasy trace their descent from a
moth, believing that a man was changed into a moth when he died. Many
races believe that moths and butterflies are the souls of the dead.
In the Solomon Islands, if a native declared he intended to transmigrate
into a butterfly, his children, on seeing one of these insects would cry
"That is Daddy" and make some suitable offering of food. Witches have
been known to have butterflies and moths as familiars.
In Cornwall ants are thought to be the souls of children who died
without baptism. Hindus also associate this insect with the souls of
the dead, and natives of New Guinea believe that a second death occurs
after the first and that the soul is transformed into an ant.
The Athabascan Dog-Ribs believe that an ant inserted beneath the skin
of the palm endows the owner of the hand with the gift of prophecy.
The Sudanese think that a wer-man has to approach an ants' nest before
being transformed into a hyæna.
Besides the ant the bat is regarded as a mysterious creature, and this
form was frequently assumed by Chamalcan, god of the Cakchiquels.
Large bats abound in an island on the Ivory Coast in West Africa and
are regarded as embodying the souls of the dead. In Tonga the same
superstition holds good. Bats and birds appear so similar when flying
at dusk that it is natural to find that birds also are often the form
in which human spirits take wing.
The Warrar races of Guiana have a very poetical belief about the
spirits of the departed. They visit the fair isle of Trinidad,
"Where souls of good men they could find,
In glittering humming-birds confined."
The Arawaks believe that vultures belong to a race which lives in a
country above the sky. When at home the vultures cease to be birds and
assume the shape and habits of human beings.
The Kalitas hold that when a man dies his soul is carried to
spirit-land by a little bird, and if he has been an evil-doer during
his lifetime, a hawk overtakes and swallows the bird.
In County Mayo swans are the souls of virgins who have been remarkable
for the purity of their lives. This idea is as beautiful as the
Bohemian tradition that children hop about the meadows in the form of
frogs is quaint.
An old Hindu story that monkeys were originally men has a distinctly
comic side to it. They contracted debts and when called upon to pay
fled from their creditors by changing into monkeys and putting their
tails between their legs. In this undignified position they made off
at full speed into the jungle.
The stories of human souls in various animal bodies would fill a
volume, and perhaps one of the most picturesque ideas of the kind is
that of the Cornish fisherfolk who say they see the spirits of their
drowning companions transformed into animal shapes as they pass away
from this earth.
FOOTNOTE:
[15] Frazer, J. G., "The Golden Bough," "Spirits of the Corn and of
the Wild," 1912, Vol. II, p. 297. See also "Balder the Beautiful,"
1913, Vol. II, pp. 196-218, "The External Soul in Animals."
CHAPTER V
ANIMAL DANCES
The ceremonial dances and festivals of primitive races in which animal
masks and skins are used are closely connected with the idea of
ancestor worship and with transformation. After careful study of the
subject it will be regarded as certain that the performers, by means
of mimic action, rhythmic and imitative sounds, as well as by narcotic
drugs and pungent or penetrating perfumes, induce in themselves an
hypnotic or excited state in which they believe they change into the
actual animal they represent.
Some of the dances are infinitely elaborate in detail, and are so
complicated in their various figures and their symbolic intention that
primitive ideas are almost lost sight of, but a certain fundamental
similarity can be found in them all which is based on root ideas of
animal worship, the desire to propitiate animals in the chase, the
belief in animal gods, or spirits of ancestors appearing in animal
form and the desire to bring about, by sacrifice and offering, the
fertility of the species.
Such exercises are both religious and magical, to secure charms
against bodily ills, and for good hunting as well as for recreation.
In special family dances the performers mimic the actions and cries of
their totemic animals.
In its most primitive form the animal disguise was used by savages
when acting in the capacity of a decoy, with the object of securing
food and clothing. The early Indian when trapping buffalo went forth
carrying a dress made of the skin of a buffalo, wearing its head and
horns over his own head. As soon as he had induced the herd to pursue
him, he led them into a trap or ambush, or over a precipice which was
fatal to many of them.
The Eskimo, when hunting the seal, wears a sealskin garment which
makes him look so much like his prey that at a distance he is only
distinguished from it with difficulty. When close to the animal he
utters sounds like those of a blowing seal.
Also when hunting deer he imitates their grunt, and two hunters on the
same track carry guns on their shoulders to resemble the animal's
antlers. Zuni hunters after deer wear cotton shirts with the sleeves
rolled up to the elbow, the back and front of the shirt being coloured
so as to represent the animal's body, the arms stained to represent
the deer's forelegs. Head and antlers are carried on the shoulders,
and the stalkers approach the game, browsing as they go.
Out of the simple imitation of animal motions and cries for the
purpose of decoy, the dance grew more complicated, with wild whirling
figures and elaborate dresses and masks. From a useful and necessary
disguise for purposes of obtaining food, the wolf-robe and mask
became, in unscrupulous hands, an instrument for personal
aggrandisement and gain through intimidation. The hideous animal-mask
was first used as a shield or protection for the face in defence
against the onslaught upon an opposing force. Then it became an
instrument with which to inspire terror and fear in those who beheld
it from the point of view of its ugliness or frightfulness, and
finally it was worn as a device or symbol of superhuman agencies. At
this stage it formed an integral part of the paraphernalia used in
religious performances, and when worn during ceremonial the wearer
became imbued in some mysterious manner with the spirit of the being
represented by the mask.
To gain the characteristics of an animal a wizard attached crow and
owl plumes to his head, that he might have the eyes of a crow and
quickly become aware of the approach of man, or of the owl that he
might travel by night.
A Zuni man, hearing the hoot of an owl, yet recognising it as human,
discovered one of his own race hidden in the thicket. "Ah," he cried,
"why do you wear those plumes upon your head? Aha! you must be a
wizard!"
The Omaha coyote dance is performed by warriors to keep up their
spirits. Each dancer wears an animal skin, and imitates the action of a
coyote, trotting and glancing round. In dance and song the performers
imagine themselves to be transformed into the animal. In the Omaha
buffalo dance, four men are attired in great shaggy skins, the horns
above their heads and the hair hanging down below the chest. Other
dances are in imitation of wolves, grizzly bears, horses or tigers.
Pawnees dance the bison dance in war habit and with bison skins and
horns over their heads. The Creeks dance similarly, uttering sounds in
imitation of the bison, their bodies bent almost double and two staffs
being held to represent the animal's forelegs.
The initiation day has at its root the idea of transforming the man
into a member of the kin by giving him a share of the nature of the
animal. Dances may give magical power over the animal to be chased,
and are performed before a hunting expedition. In the dance the animal
goes down before the onslaught of the hunter, and so the real animal,
it is hoped, will fall a victim to his weapons. Dances after hunting
are of a protective nature, so that the soul of the slaughtered animal
may have no evil effect upon the slayer. Another form of animal dance
is performed with a view to increase the number of animals. Among the
Mandan Indians, for instance, an animal festival is held, at which a
man, painted black to represent the evil one, enters a village from
the prairie, chases and terrifies the women and acts the part of a
buffalo in a dance which is intended to ensure a good supply of this
valuable animal during the year to come. Other American tribes have a
similar masquerade, in which males, dressed in buffalo skins, take the
part of male buffaloes and the females personify the female animals,
with a view to bringing about an increase of the species.
Legendary animals, or spirits, are also represented in the elaborate
masked pantomimes of the Indian tribes in North West America. The
explanation given by the natives is that the ceremonial was instituted
in ancient days when man had still the form of an animal; and before
the great transformer had given him a distinctive shape. This
ceremonial, performed by man-animals, is a dramatised form of myth, in
which the actors attempt to reproduce certain trance-states by
sympathetic mimicry.
The Eskimos of Bering Strait perform remarkable dances in which
curious mythological beasts, said to inhabit sea and land, become
visible and occasionally play a part. Strange forms, probably of known
animals modified and adapted, are conjured to appear. The dance is
based on the old belief that in the early days all animate beings had
a dual existence, choosing to be men or animals as the will prompted
them. If an animal wished to be transformed into a man, the body was
drawn erect and the foreleg or wing was raised so that it pushed up
the jowl or beak, and thus changed the form and features into
something more manlike. It is still believed by these races that
animals have this power, and the form taken is called _inua_ and
represents the psychical part of the creature, at death appearing as
its shade. The wizards are said to have the power of piercing the
animal mask and recognising the human features it conceals.
Masks may also represent totemic animals, and the dancers are then
transformed into these special creatures, or at least are moved by
their spiritual essence.
Some of these masks are made with double faces, so that the muzzle of
the animal fits over and conceals the face of the _inua_ and the outer
mask is hinged on or held in place by pegs so that it may be removed
at any minute. The psychological moment when actual transformation
occurs is symbolised at a particular part of the ceremony.
The wearer of the mask then becomes imbued with the true spirit of the
animal represented, and the dance turns into a species of thanksgiving
for the hunter's success.[16]
Dancing is sometimes used as a form of exorcism.
In Abyssinia a disorder similar to that of being possessed by a
_bouda_, or sorcerer, is called _tigritiya_, and is a supposed
possession by the devil in which the victim, who is generally a woman,
believes that she has been transformed into an animal. Whatever the
patient demands must be procured, for else she becomes sulky and,
covering up her head, remains for days without eating or speaking.
Since the symptoms always include the wasting away of the attacked
person, this state is very dangerous.
Ornaments of all kinds have to be borrowed in answer to her lightest
whim. She asks for the lion's skin worn by a warrior, his silver
ornaments, or other valuable articles difficult to procure. In some
cases music is used as a means of charming away the _tigritiya_. Drums
and other instruments strike up and the patient moves her body in time
to the music and gradually increases her energy until the pace is
furious and her motions so violent that it seems likely she will
dislocate her limbs, if not her neck. Having lain on a bed of
sickness, reduced to a mere bag of bones, such fatiguing exercises
appear uncanny, but it is on this dancing and on her incantations that
the ejection of the evil spirit depends.
Some of the dances imitate the antics of bush-hogs and other animals
desirous of fun rather than of injury to human beings. In one of the
Acawoio dances, each dancer has a kind of trumpet to which a rudely
carved figure of some animal or reptile is fixed, and he impersonates
this animal for the time being.[17]
Musical instruments used in the dances are frequently made of animal
skins, and the Indians attribute special virtues to the wolf-skin.
It is said that a tom-tom or drum made of this animal's skin can
silence any similar instrument made of sheep's skin from which no man
can emit a sound while the wolf-skin vibrates.
Real animals often play a part in the ceremonial, especially snakes in
the serpent dances and sacred animals in such dances as are dedicated
to their worship.
In China a big dog is dressed up like a man and is carried round in a
palanquin to break up a drought.
Masks and animal skins worn at dances are, of course, not confined to
the use of primitive races, but have been employed since ancient days
in every kind of masque, dance, and pantomime. Much might be written
on their symbolic meaning, and attention may be drawn to the special
instance of the _festa asinaria_ of mediæval days at which dancers
wore the heads of asses.
Besides the masks and animal skins, ordinary clothing was often made
to represent special animals. For instance, at Athens, Artemis was
worshipped in ceremonies at which young maidens attired in saffron
gowns danced a particular movement and were called "bears."
The Royal family of Dahomey worship the leopard, and some of the
king's wives are distinguished by the title of "leopard wives" and
wear striped cloths to resemble the animal.
Many savages paint a rude picture of the animal they represent upon
the clothes worn, and this is a special feature of some of the
extraordinary snake dancers, especially amongst the Moquis.
These dances as well as those of the Hopis are expressions of clan
totemism rather than of snake worship. Several figures in the Maya
codices represent human beings, evidently personifying deities and
wearing the symbolic masks of animal gods. One of the human figures in
the Codex Cortesianus wears the mask of a snake. The Hopi usually
carries only the head of the animal personified, but the Mexican dresses
in the skin. In some examples the head-dress is most elaborate, the head
being painted green, with open mouth and red lips dotted with black, two
pendant white, tooth-shaped projections hanging from the upper jaw. From
the mouth a red tongue lolls. The eye is oval, with curved lines drawn
upon the pupil, and the whole is capped by a crescentic figure towering
above the head. Three triangular-shaped plumes extend from the cap, and
over the nose a red-coloured flap hangs. Though usually green, the heads
are sometimes painted white or brown, but none is red or yellow. In the
Hopi folk-tales it is said that the waters of the world come from the
breasts of the great snake, and sometimes a female figure, bearing a
snake as a head-dress, is symbolised with water flowing from her
breasts. Another symbolic figure has a snake's body with curious
markings and a head practically drawn in identical lines with that of a
human being. No doubt this represents a man transformed into, or
personifying, a snake. At any rate, he wears the mask and represents the
feathered snake ceremonially.
A number of animals are represented in Tusayan ceremonials and are then
called _Katcinas_, which means the supernatural being personified, as
well as the dance or act of personification. Besides the coyote, the
wolf, the cougar, the bear, the antelope, and the badger, which figure
largely among the supernatural beings found in the Sia ritual, the hawk,
the man eagle, the bee, butterfly, mountain sheep, and owl all play an
important part in Tusayan ceremonial. No women wear _Katcina_ masks in a
Hopi ceremony, the female _Katcinas_ being invariably represented by
men. The masked dances amongst the Pueblos, in which animal
personifications take place and masks are worn, are called _Katcina_
dances. They take place between January and August.[18]
The following strange ceremony is practised by Mexicans and is not
unlike the Hopi snake dance. It is celebrated once in every eight
years about October or November.
After fasting for some days, says one who has seen the dance, the
natives disguised themselves in all manner of animal and bird dresses,
and came up dancing to the chosen spot where the rain-god had been
placed before a pool of water in which live snakes and frogs were
swimming. The Macateca, which may be rendered "those from Deerland,"
then seized upon the wriggling reptiles with the mouth, never touching
them with the hand, and attempted to swallow them alive, dancing all
the time. He who managed to swallow the first snake cried out, "papa,
papa" and danced round about the temple. After two days of these
extraordinary exertions a procession was formed and all marched slowly
four times round the temple. Then came a feast of fruit and pastry
which had been placed ready in baskets for the purpose, and the
ceremonial was ended. The old men and women present, knowing that
there would be no repetition of the dance for eight years, wept
bitterly at the close of the performance.
In a festival in vogue among the Cholutecas, a slave of good figure,
and no personal blemish, is dressed for forty days in the same animal
skin and mask which represent the special god to be personified.
The dresses of the Moquis during their serpent dances are fashioned of
painted cotton kilts, of a reddish-yellow colour, decorated with narrow
bands of yellow and green, and bordered by a narrow black stripe. At
the bottom is a fringe of small bells of lead or tin. A snake is painted
in the folds of the kilt, covered with white spots and bordered by
narrow white lines. The arms and legs of the dancers are naked, but
dangling to their heels behind they wear skins of the fox or coyote.
Marching solemnly round a sacred stone, they begin by shaking rattles
and waving snake-wands to which eagle feathers are attached. After
some chanting, a number of women, dressed in white and red mantles,
come forward and scatter corn-meal from baskets with which they are
provided. Presently the head priest, followed by a number of male
performers, marching two and two, come forward towards the sacred
rock, carrying live snakes in their mouths and hands. Some of the
Indians tickle the heads, necks, and jaws of the wriggling serpents to
distract their attention from those who are grasping their bodies
firmly between their teeth.
When the snake-carriers reach the further end of the space cleared for
the dance they spit the snakes out upon the ground and, facing the
sacred rock, stamp the left foot twice, giving forth strange sounds,
half grunt, half wail.
For nearly an hour this mad dance of wriggling snakes, rushing
figures, and clouds of whirling corn-meal continues and then the
snakes are released, the symbolic dance is over and the performers
resume their ordinary clothes and, presumably, their natural human
proclivities. The origin of this dance lies in the belief that the
Moquis are descended from snakes and is told thus by the natives:--
"Many years ago the Moquis used to live on the other side of a high
mountain beyond the San Juan River in Colorado. The chief thought he
would take a trip down the big river, so he made himself a boat of a
hollow cottonwood log, took some provisions and started down. The
stream carried him to the sea-shore, where he found some shells. When
he arrived on the beach he saw a number of houses on the cliff in
which lived many men and women who had white under their eyes, and
below that a white mark on their cheeks. That night he took one of the
women as his wife. Shortly after his return the woman gave birth to
snakes, and this was the origin of the snake family or clan which
manages the dance. When she gave birth to these snakes they bit a
number of the children of the Moquis. The Moquis then moved in a body
to their present villages and they have this dance to conciliate the
snakes so they won't bite their children."[19]
Snake worship and ancestor or spirit worship seems here combined in
the same rite, and the Moquis evidently believe in the transmigration
of souls. The dancers belong to a Secret Society, a sort of Serpent
Brotherhood.
The peculiar qualities said to distinguish departed relatives,
reappearing in the form of snakes, from the ordinary reptiles are that
they will frequent the huts, never eat mice and show no fear of man.
"Sometimes," says Sir John Lubbock in his "Origin of Civilisation,"[20]
"a snake is recognised as the representative of a given man by some
peculiar mark or scar, the absence of an eye, or some similar point of
resemblance."
The noiseless movement and the rapid action of the serpent, combined
with its fascinating gaze and magnetic power, no doubt lead savages to
view it as a possessor of wisdom and embodiment of spirits.
The Kobena and other Indians of Brazil perform masked dances in honour
of their dead. They have a butterfly dance in which two performers
represent large blue butterflies fluttering in the sunshine. Darting
swallows are also mimicked by masked dancers, as well as vultures,
owls, fish, jaguars, and, curiously enough, the sloth, in which dance
a man hangs for a long time to the bough of a tree or the cross-beam
of a hut. Another strange sight is the sandfly dance, in which a swarm
of masked men make the air dark with their antics.
All these performances are based on certain magical formulæ. A
mysterious force permeates the dancer, beneath his mask, and for the
time being he has become a mighty animal demon or spirit, capable of
unlimited powers.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] See E. W. Nelson's "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," in
"Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology," 1899,
Part II, p. 394 _et seq._
[17] Brett, W. H., "The Indian Tribes of Guiana," 1868, pp. 374-5.
[18] _See_ Fewkes, J. W., "Comparison of Sia and Tusayan Snake
Ceremonials" and other tracts.
[19] Bourke, J. G., "The Snake-Dance of the Moquis of Arizona," 1884,
p. 177.
[20] p. 180.