THE COMPASS POINTS
Guided by my own personal experience, now extending over a good deal
more than threescore and ten years, the Benjamites of Saul’s host,
who could hurl stones with equal facility by either hand, seem to
me greatly more surprising and exceptional than the left-handed
company of seven hundred, every one of whom could sling stones at a
hair’s-breadth and not miss. It is contrary to the nearly universal and
almost inevitable preferential use of one hand. It naturally followed
on such preference that this unvarying employment led not only to its
receiving a distinctive appellation, but that the term so used came to
be associated with ideas of dignity, honour, and trust; and as such
is perpetuated in the languages both of civilised and savage races.
But this suggests another inquiry of important significance in the
determination of the results. The application of the Latin _dexter_
to “right-handedness” specifically, as well as to general dexterity
in its more comprehensive sense, points, like the record of the old
Benjamites, to the habitual use of one hand in preference to the other;
but does it necessarily imply that _their_ “right hand” was the one
on that side which we now concur in calling dexter or right? In the
exigencies of war or the chase, and still more in many of the daily
requirements of civilised life, it is necessary that there should be
no hesitation as to which hand shall be used. Promptness and dexterity
depend on this, and no hesitation is felt. But, still further, in many
cases of combined action it is needful that the hand so used shall be
the same; and wherever such a conformity of practice is recognised the
hand so used, whichever it be, is that on which _dexterity_ depends,
and becomes practically the _right_ hand. The term _yamin_, “the right
hand,” already noted as the root of the proper name Benjamin, and of
the tribe thus curiously distinguished for its left-handed warriors
and skilled marksmen, is derived from the verb _yāmăn_, to be firm,
to be faithful, as the right hand is given as a pledge of fidelity,
_e.g._ “The Lord hath sworn by his right hand” (Isa. lxii. 8). So in
the Arabic form, _bimin Allah_, by the right hand of Allah. So also
with the Hebrews and other ancient nations, as still among ourselves,
the seat at the right hand of the host, or of any dignitary, was the
place of honour; as when Solomon “caused a seat to be set for the
king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand” (1 Kings ii. 19). Again,
the term is frequently used in opposition to _semol_, left hand; as
when the children of Israel would pass through Edom; “We will go by the
king’s high way; we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left”
(Num. xx. 17).
But a further use and significance of the terms helps us to the fact
that the Hebrew _yamin_ and our _right hand_ are the same. In its
secondary meaning it signified the “south,” as in Ezekiel xlvii. 1:
“The forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came
down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of
the altar.” The four points are accordingly expressed thus in Hebrew:
_yamin_, the right, the south; _kedem_, the front, the east; _semol_,
the left, the north; _achor_, behind, the west. To the old Hebrew,
when looking to the east, the west was thus behind, the south on his
right hand, and the north on his left. This determination of the right
and left in relation to the east is not peculiar to the Hebrews. Many
nations appear to have designated the south in the same manner, as
being on the right hand when looking to the east. Its origin may be
traced with little hesitation to the associations with the most ancient
and dignified form of false worship, the paying divine honours to the
Sun, as he rises in the east, as the Lord of Day. Thus we find in the
Sanskrit _dakshina_, right hand, south; _puras_, in front, eastward;
_apara_, _paçchima_, behind, west; _uttara_, northern, to the left.
The old Irish has, in like manner, _deas_ or _ders_, on the right,
southward; _oirthear_, in front, east; _jav_, behind, west; _tuath_,
north, from _thuaidh_, left. An analogous practice among the Eskimos,
though suggested by a different cause, illustrates a similar origin
for the terms “right” and “left.” Dr. H. Fink in a communication to
the Anthropological Institute (June 1885) remarks: “To indicate the
quarters of the globe, the Greenlanders use at once two systems.
Besides the ordinary one, they derive another from the view of the
open sea, distinguishing what is to the left and to the right hand.
The latter appears to have been the original method of determining the
bearings, but gradually the words for the left and the right side came
to signify at the same time ‘south’ and ‘north.’”
A diverse idea is illustrated by the like secondary significance of the
Greek σκαιός, left, or on the left hand; but also used as “west,” or
“westward,” as in the _Iliad_, iii. 149, σκαιαὶ πύλαι, the west gate
of Troy. The Greek augur, turning as he did his face to the north,
had the left--the sinister, ill-omened, unlucky side,--on the west.
Hence the metaphorical significance of ἀριστερός, ominous, boding ill.
But the Greeks had also that other mode of expressing the _right and
left_ already referred to, derived from their mode of bearing arms.
Ancient sculpture, the paintings on tombs and fictile ware, Egyptian,
Assyrian, and classic statuary, all illustrate the methods of carrying
the shield, and of wielding the sword or spear. Hence the shield-hand
became synonymous with the left. The word ἀριστερός has also been
interpreted as “the shield-bearing arm.”
Among the Romans we may trace some survival of the ancient practice
of worshipping towards the east, as in Livy, i. 18, where the augurs
are said to turn the right side to the south, and the left side to the
north. But the original significance of turning to the east had then
been lost sight of; and the particular quarter of the heavens towards
which the Roman augur was to look appears to have been latterly very
much at the will of the augur himself. It was, at any rate, variable.
Livy indicates the east, but Varro assigns the south, and Frontinus
the west. Probably part of the augur’s professional skill consisted in
selecting the aspect of the heavens suited to the occasion. But this
done, the flight of birds and other appearances on the right or on the
left determined the will of the gods. “Why,” asks Cicero, himself an
augur, “why should the raven on the right and the crow on the left make
a confirmatory augury?” “Cur a dextra corvus, a sinistra cornix faciat
ratum?” (_De Divin._ i.) The left was the side on which the thunder was
declared to be heard which confirmed the inauguration of a magistrate,
and in other respects the augur regarded it with special awe. But still
the right side was, in all ordinary acceptance, the propitious one, as
in the address to Hercules (_Æn._ viii. 302)--
Salve, vera Jovis proles, pecus addite divis;
Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.
The traces of a term of common origin for right (south) in so many
of the Indo-European languages is interesting and suggestive, though
the ultimate word is still open to question. How the equivalent
terms run through the whole system may be seen from the following
illustrations: Sanskrit, _dakshina_ (cf. _deccan_); Zend, _dashina_;
Gothic, _taihs-vo_; O.H. German, _zëso_; Lithuanian, _deszine_;
Gaelic, _dheas_; Erse, _dess_ (_deas_); Latin, _dexter_; Greek,
δεξιός, etc. The immediate Sanskrit stem _daksh_ means “to be right,
or fitting”; secondarily, “to be dexterous, clever,” etc. This is
evidently from a root _dek_, as the western languages show. It was
usual at an earlier period to trace the whole to the root _dik_, to
show, to point; but this is now given up. Probably the Greek δέκ-ομαι
(δέχομαι), take, receive, preserves the original stem, with the idea
primarily of “seizing, catching.” This leads naturally to a comparison
of δάκτ-υ-λος, finger, and _dig-i-tus_, δοκ-ά-νη, fork, etc. (see
Curtius’s _Outlines of Greek Etymology_).
Right-handed usages, and the ideas which they suggest, largely
influence the ceremonial customs of many nations, affect their
religious observances, bear a significant part in the marriage rites,
and are interwoven with the most familiar social usages. Among the
ancient Greeks the rites of the social board required the passing
of the wine from right to left,--or, at any rate, in one invariable
direction,--as indicated by Homer in his description of the feast
of the gods (_Iliad_, i 597, θεοῖς ἐνδέξια πᾶσιν οἰνοχόει), where
Hephæstus goes round and pours out the sweet nectar to the assembled
gods. The direction pursued by the cupbearer would be determined by his
bearing the flagon in his right hand, and so walking with his right
side towards the guests. This is, indeed, a point of dispute among
scholars. But it is not questioned that a uniform practice prevailed,
dependent on the recognition of right and left-handedness; and this
is no less apparent among the Romans than the Greeks. It is set forth
in the most unmusical of Horace’s hexameters: “Ille sinistrorsum,
hic dextrorsum abit;” and finds its precise elucidation from many
independent sources, in the allusions of the poets, in the works of
sculptors, and in the decorations of fictile ware.