DANCING AS A MOURNING AND BURIAL RITE
I. THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THIS TYPE OF DANCE 194
II. THE RITE AMONG MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN JEWS 198
III. THE RITE AMONG THE EGYPTIANS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 202
IV. THE RITE AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS 207
V. THE RITE AMONG UNCULTURED RACES 209
SUMMARY AND CONSIDERATIONS 219
INDEX 223
ABBREVIATIONS
_DB._ Hastings’ _Dictionary of the Bible_.
_EB._ Cheyne’s _Encyclopaedia Biblica_.
_ERE._ Hastings’ _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.
_GB._ Frazer’s _The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and
Religion_ (3rd edition).
_JE._ _The Jewish Encyclopaedia._
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
I
Our study is concerned with the “sacred” dance; that this epithet applied
to the dance, at any rate during the earlier phases of its history and as
still practised among many uncultured and even some semi-cultured peoples
to-day, is more than justified, the following pages will, it is hoped,
show.
Its extreme importance in the eyes of early man, who regarded it as
indispensable at all the crises of life—initiation, puberty, marriage,
burial—who used it as one of the essentials in worship, who saw in
it a means of propitiating whatever supernatural powers he believed
in, a means of communion with the deity, a means of obtaining good
crops, fruitful marriages, and of communicating with the departed—to
mention only its more important uses, shows that it is a subject worth
investigating though the domain it occupies is but a modest one in the
great sphere of the history of Religion.
Probably one of the most instructive first-hand pieces of information
which we have on the subject is contained in the answers given to
Chalmers in reply to questions which he addressed to some natives of New
Guinea. He asked “_What does the dance signify?_” and he got two replies
from the natives of the two most important districts of this big island
respectively; the first ran thus:
When they dance all the spirits rejoice, as do all the people.
When dancing, all food grows well; but when not dancing, food
grows badly. No drums are beaten uselessly [the drum-beating
is the invariable accompaniment to dancing, one implies the
other]. When anyone dies drums are beaten to comfort friends.
The second was this:
Drum-beating and dancing are a sign of rejoicing and
thanksgiving, in order that by so doing there may be a large
harvest. If the dancing is not given there will be an end to
the good growth; but if it is continued, all will go well.
People come in from other villages and will dance all night.
There will be several feasts during the time, and each leader
of the dance will pray and thank the spirits for the good
harvest.
Among other questions he also asked: “_Is there any useless dancing?_”
and the two replies were: “No, the drum is never beaten uselessly”; and:
“Dances are never merely useless[1].”
* * * * *
The study of the subject brings out without a shadow of doubt that these
answers illustrate what were, and still are to a great extent, the
beliefs held in regard to the sacred dance by numbers of peoples in an
undeveloped stage of culture. It is a good illustration of what, within
a circumscribed area, holds good of the wider study of religions in
general, that, as Farnell has so well put it,
all through the present societies of savage men there prevails
an extraordinary uniformity, in spite of much local variation,
in ritual and mythology, a uniformity so striking as to suggest
belief in an ultimately identical tradition, or, perhaps more
reasonably, the psychologic theory that the human brain-cell in
different races at the same stage of development responds with
the same religious speech or the same religious act to the
same _stimuli_ supplied by its environment[2].
A survey over the whole field produces the conviction that the _stimuli_
which, in its beginnings, induced the sacred dance appear to have been
what we should now describe as the two prime spiritual and material
needs, respectively, of man, viz. the response to his “god,” and the
obtaining of food. To early savage man it was not, of course, a god as we
understand the word, nor yet even as it would have been understood for
millenniums among uncivilized men in remote ages; we merely use the word
as a convenient term for expressing a supernatural power, or powers, at
first vague, impersonal, “mana[3],” or something of that kind; at any
rate, some power beyond the ken of man, of whose existence he had no
doubt whatsoever, and to which he was impelled to respond to the best of
his very feeble powers. Why he should have chosen this form of response
(we are not contending that it was the only form) is a difficult, perhaps
an impossible, question to answer, though we shall make the attempt to do
so (see pp. 15 ff.); but that he did choose this form all the available
evidence goes to show. That the sacred dance should have been believed to
be the means of obtaining food is less difficult to understand when one
remembers the universal belief in the efficacy of imitative magic among
uncivilized men. The natives of New Guinea dance as a means of obtaining
a good harvest; but there is evidence for the presumption that early man
did the same thing for obtaining food long before harvests existed.
As a means of response to supernatural powers the dance was obviously
a sacred act; but the epithet may also be applied, though perhaps in a
modified way, to the dance as a means of obtaining food; for the belief
in the existence of supernatural powers once attained, the conviction of
their intrusion into all the affairs of life would naturally follow, as
indeed we know to have been the case. But this implies that savage man
believed that these supernatural powers were, in some sense, the givers
of food; and this is hardly compatible with the idea that the dance as an
act of imitative magic was the means of procuring food—an idea which is
abundantly proved by the evidence to exist. If an act of imitative magic,
such as the dance, is _ipso facto_ the means of bringing out what it
imitates, how can it be said that supernatural powers have anything to do
with the matter? And how can the dance in this case be called sacred? It
is a question, however, whether there was not a subconscious intention of
setting in motion the “machinery” which brought about the thing imitated
every time an act of imitative magic was performed. By the “machinery”
we mean the active intervention of supernatural powers in an undefined,
mysterious way. In this case the dance as a means of obtaining food would
likewise be, strictly speaking, a sacred act.
However this may be, there is a large consensus of opinion that the dance
in its origin was sacred, and that every other subsequent form of dance
was ultimately derived from this. It is true to say that “the ritual
or worship dance is the source of all others[4].” One of the earliest
modern writers on the subject, de Cahusac, likewise says: “Aussi la
danse sacrée est-elle la plus ancienne, et la source dans laquelle on a
puisé dans les suites toutes les autres[5].” This point is particularly
emphasized because it is only the dance in its _sacred_ aspect that will
be dealt with in the following pages.
II
As soon as one attempts to define what dancing in its essence is one
realizes the difficulty of doing so. It can be defined in such a number
of ways, all of which contain elements of truth; so much depends upon
the point of view taken in regard to it. The recording of a number of
definitions would be wearisome, Voss alone gives dozens by different
people[6]. But one thing which these various definitions teach must be
noted and insisted upon: they show that the term “dancing” connotes a
great deal more than is attached to it now-a-days. When, for example, de
Cahusac rightly defines dancing as “l’art des gestes[7],” it is obvious
that these cannot be restricted to the feet or legs. A number of the
Egyptian inscriptions make it clear that the arms played as important a
part in the dance as the legs; representations of it on Greek pottery
show that the motions of the head, and even more of the whole body, are
necessary parts in the movements of the dance; among some savages the
sacred dance is performed while the legs are more or less still, but the
arms and the body are constantly in motion. To make but one reference
to modern dancing: in some of the figures of the quadrille the dancers
simply advance and recede, and at times they are stationary, merely
bowing; yet this all belongs to the dance, and comes under the category
of dancing. Crawley truly says that “dancing is an instinctive mode of
muscular expression of feeling[8].” If, then, the feelings are restrained
the muscular expression may take the form of a staid procession, as seems
to be characteristic of the Assyrian sacred dance. We must, therefore,
include under the many forms of the sacred dance such as range from a
formal procession, stately and measured, to those of the wild orgy in
the Dionysiac ritual. As we shall see, the _intention_ which prompts the
dance will have a great deal to do with its external form; a fact which
gives point to Giraudet’s phrase that “la danse a été l’expression d’un
état d’âme[9].”
The wide connotation which must be accorded to the word “dancing” is
illustrated by what the Bedouin Arabs understand by it. They are a
race which, as is well known, has retained many beliefs, customs, and
practices which have been handed down from time immemorial; therefore
the evidence afforded by them is valuable. By dance, which they call
_raḳṣ_, they understand every rhythmic movement of hands or feet, whether
remaining on the same spot or not[10]. Of them as of all other peoples
rhythm is as inseparable from the movements of the dance “as it is from
other bodily functions, and therefore belongs to it without saying[11]”;
but, as the Arabs show, rhythmic movements can be performed while
standing on one spot; emotions can be expressed by the rhythmic movements
of the arms and of the body and of the head while the legs may be more or
less motionless.
“The human instinct of play,” says Crawley, “is closely
connected with the human love of excitement. The dance
satisfies both, and its rhythmical character also makes it
suitable for the expression of the most solemn and controlled
emotions. It is at once the servant of Apollo and of
Dionysus[12].”
The close, one may almost say the inseparable, connexion between the
dance and music is as marked in its sacred as in its secular character.
In the first instance it is the rhythmic instinct which demands this,
so that among many savages the “music” which accompanies the dance is
the mere clapping of hands, or the striking together of pieces of wood,
or the beating of the tom-tom, all in rhythmical time. The same is also
found among some peoples more advanced on the path of culture, though
they usually add the sound of other instruments, among which the flute
figures prominently. Singing is, of course, and always has been, another
favourite accompaniment to the dance. The Bedouin Arabs accompany their
dances by the beating of cymbals or of hand-drums, or by clapping of
hands; sometimes singing accompanies the dancing[13]. This was also the
case among the Israelites.
III
In the following discussion on the sacred dance we have made the Old
Testament our starting-point. In spite of some drawbacks which will
become very apparent, this course has its advantages. The Old Testament
offers, either explicitly or implicitly, as we hope to show, evidence
of the existence among the ancient Israelites of most of the typical
sacred dances of antiquity. By “typical” we do not mean dances in their
outward form, but in the intention and object for which they were
performed. In dealing with sacred dances it is only by considering their
intention and purpose that a classification of them can be attempted.
The Old Testament gives within the compass of its pages certain _points
d’appui_ which afford convenient starting-points for the consideration
of these different types of the sacred dance. Then, in each case we go
on to the further investigation of these among various other races. From
this we are often able to discern, with tolerable probability, the early
underlying ideas which prompted the performance of the type of dance in
question; for, as may well be supposed, it is not from the Israelites
that we can expect to discover, excepting in the one case of the ecstatic
dance, the root motives of the different types of the sacred dance.
The most promising sphere for the discernment of these is among the
uncivilized races; their _naïve_ and unsophisticated naturalness reveals
things which a gradually developing civilization obscures. Hence the
devoting of a good deal of attention to the sacred dance among savages in
the following pages.
Another advantage of using the Old Testament for our various
starting-points is that the Israelites were in that stage of culture
in which a people still retains many more or less primitive rites and
customs while pushing forward on the path of cultural development; so
that among them we are in touch with the past and yet experiencing
the upward trend that is taking place. Crawley truly says that “it is
in the middle stages of culture that dancing is seen at its highest
development[14]”; that applies to the Israelites. It is like standing on
an eminence and looking behind and before. That has its advantages.
At the same time, we are not blind to the drawbacks involved. For in some
important instances the Old Testament is silent. We give reasons which
we believe are sufficient to explain this silence. But when a particular
type of the sacred dance is not mentioned in the Old Testament it must
not be supposed that it did not exist; indirect evidence is forthcoming
which makes it highly probable that the reverse is the case. For this
reason we shall often refer to post-biblical Jewish custom and practice.
Such a thing as the sacred dance is not likely, from the very nature of
things, to have been an innovation of later ages; so that its existence
in post-biblical times may well be regarded as the continuance of
traditional custom; and if so, its existence among the Israelites of Old
Testament times may be taken for granted.
Still, we realize the precariousness of seeming, in some cases, to build
upon an apparently non-existing foundation; but the risk must be taken,
and, as we hope to show, the evidence from subsequent times justifies the
risk.
IV
A few words must be said about the sources from which information
regarding the sacred dance is to be gained.
(1) There are a certain number of ancient inscriptions of various kinds
upon which dancing is represented. On these the dancing is not always
of a religious character; but it is not difficult to discern when it
is religious and when secular. For example, there is a very valuable
fragment of an Egyptian fresco belonging to the 18th dynasty (B.C.
1600-1450) in the British Museum[15], on which two nude women dancers
are depicted; the dancing is accompanied by other women, some clapping
their hands, and others playing the flute. But another part of the fresco
shows clearly enough that the scene represents a banquet during which
professional dancing is being performed for the entertainment of the
guests. Though it is secular dancing that we have here the inscription
is important from the present point of view, because the dancing, which
is so graphically depicted, does not differ greatly from that shown on
other Egyptian inscriptions, where it is unmistakably sacred. Egyptian
inscriptions are those which offer most material here; one or two Hittite
and Assyrian inscriptions are also available, and will be described
later; but otherwise there is but little to be obtained from this source.
(2) Very prolific, on the other hand, is the second source, in the main,
Greek. There are large numbers of vessels of different kinds—vases,
bowls, cups, dishes, flasks, jugs, bottles, jars, pitchers, etc., on
which dancing is depicted[16]; many of these represent secular dancing;
some give dances of a quasi-religious kind, _e.g._ the dances of
satyrs; but most of them depict religious dances, sometimes of gods and
goddesses, at others of worshippers dancing in their honour; a very
favourite subject is the dancing of Maenads. Belonging to this source are
a variety of other kinds of vessels on which sacred dancing is depicted;
sometimes the vessel itself is in the form of a sacred dance. Excavations
in Cyprus have yielded some interesting material to which more detailed
reference will be made below. Some coins have also been found which throw
light on the subject. This source is, above all, valuable for showing us
the kind of dances in vogue among the ancient Greeks, and bears out the
truth of the remark that “the Greek dances may be divided and subdivided
_ad infinitum_[17].”
(3) Our third source also offers abundance of material, viz. ancient
literature; this source includes Egyptian literature (the Book of the
Dead); the Old Testament and post-biblical Jewish literature; ancient
Arabic literature; some of the ancient Church writers; and, above all,
Greek and Latin classical authors, quotations from whom would alone fill
a small volume.
(4) Lastly, there is modern literature. This must be divided into two
classes. The first is a small and very unsatisfactory class: treatises
which deal specifically with dancing. We have found this class of
literature unsatisfactory for two reasons; first, because there is,
comparatively, so little information of a tangible character to be gained
from it; and, secondly, because no references are given to authorities,
even when cited. Nevertheless, it is only fair to the respective authors
to say that they are mainly concerned with modern dancing. As Crawley
says, “there are no treatises written on any scientifically comprehensive
lines[18].” With one exception, moreover, we have found the articles on
the subject in all the well-known English and German Bible Dictionaries
of extraordinarily little help. The exception is Hastings’ _ERE_; here
articles by Crawley, Farnell and Blackman have been of real help, and the
writer gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to them.
As to the other class of modern literature, it can only be described as
limitless; we refer to the vast number of volumes dealing with uncultured
races. To mention even a tithe of those which have been used would be out
of the question; references to a good many will be found in the following
pages. But it is impossible for the present writer not to say how much he
owes to the works of Sir J. G. Frazer; without their stimulus these pages
would never have been written.
The material contained in this source would fill a number of volumes; we
have restricted ourselves to a certain number of more or less typical
illustrations chosen from a great mass.
* * * * *
More than a hundred and fifty years ago de Cahusac wrote in the Preface
to his _Historical Treatise on Dancing_: “J’ai traité assez sérieusement
un sujet qu’on ne regardera peut-être que comme très-futile.” The present
writer hopes and believes that his effort will not be regarded as
“très-futile”; for we in these days have come to realize more fully than
was possible in the eighteenth century the significance of the well-known
words of Terence:
_Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto._
CHAPTER II
THE ORIGIN AND PURPOSES OF THE SACRED DANCE
I
In his thoughtful and very suggestive volume, _The Threshold of
Religion_, Marett makes the assumption that
an inductive study of the ideas and customs of savagery will
show, firstly, that an awareness of a fundamental aspect of
life and of the world, which aspect I shall provisionally term
“supernatural,” is so general as to be typical, and, secondly,
that such an awareness is no less generally bound up with a
specific group of vital reactions (p. 124).
Every student of such ideas and customs must know how thoroughly
justified this assumption is. In studying the particular custom, and
the ideas connected with it, with which we are here concerned, we find
that this “awareness of the supernatural,” together with the “vital
reactions,” are, at any rate in the earlier stages of its history,
invariably present. That much, at all events, we have to go upon in
seeking a theory as to the origin of the sacred dance. To account for its
origin is, however, difficult; that is fully realized; and the present
writer would desire to lay stress on the fact that as in seeking such
origin he is largely in the domain of speculation and theory, nothing
is further from his mind than to be dogmatic. The whole subject of the
sacred dance has been so little dealt with excepting as a mere rite, that
one is to a great extent on new ground; one must, therefore, be quite
prepared to be convicted of fallacies.
That the sacred dance originated in prehistoric times goes without
saying; but this means that no _proofs_ can be adduced in support of
any theory as to its origin; it must be a question of probabilities;
perhaps only of possibilities. What is, however, certain is that since
the sacred dance originated at a time when man was in a very primitive
stage of culture, what first induced him to perform it must have been
something very _naïve_ and childlike. That, presumably, everyone would
agree with. Now, there is no sort of doubt that one of the most ingrained
characteristics of human nature is the imitative propensity. This is more
pronounced in the child than in the grown man; and what holds good of the
individual applies also to the race; the more uncultured man is, the more
does he, mentally, approximate to the child; so that the further back we
go in the history of the race, the more pronounced and childlike will
be that imitative propensity. As Crawley has reminded us[19], Aristotle
maintained that dancing is imitative; and in all its forms it is an
artistic imitation of physical movement expressive of emotions or ideas.
Rightly or wrongly, then, we believe that the sacred dance owes its
origin to this imitative propensity in man.
Now, in the animistic stage what first suggested the presence of life in
anything was movement. The cause of the movement was neither understood
nor enquired into. A tree, swayed by the wind, moved; therefore it was
alive. But it would not strike a more or less primitive savage that it
was the wind which caused the movement. What he would instinctively have
recognized was that here was something which he did not understand;
and therefore there was a mystery about it which inspired awe. So,
too, with streams, and rivers, and the sea; they were alive because
they had motion. In course of time this would be modified in so far
that the belief arose that the tree or stream contained life because
of an indwelling spirit which caused the movement, thus indicating its
presence; but even so, it would have been difficult for the savage to
draw a distinction between the two at first. Whether the same course of
savage “reasoning” will apply in regard to the sun, moon, and, later,
to the stars, in the earlier stages of the period when he first began
to take “reasoning” note of his surroundings, is doubtful; for it is
probable that he looked around and downwards before he looked upwards.
At any rate, sooner or later he would have realized that they too moved,
and that therefore they were alive, either themselves, or animated by
something, more probably by somebody. Thus motion, movement, which, on
the analogy of man himself, was believed to denote life, was the first
thing which the savage mind connected with supernatural powers[20].
We suggest, then, that the origin of the sacred dance was the desire
of early man to imitate what he conceived to be the characteristic of
supernatural powers. Not that this was, in the first instance, a dance
in the generally accepted sense of the word; but merely a movement,
whether in the form of the swaying of the body in imitation of trees,
or a single-file running in imitation of a stream, or a more boisterous
movement in imitation of the waves of the sea or of a storm-swept lake.
The innate tendency to rhythmic motion would soon have asserted itself,
and primitive dance, in the more usual sense, would result. But it would
be a _sacred_ dance in so far that it was performed in imitation of some
supernatural power, vague and originally impersonal, as it undoubtedly
was; to honour such by an imitative dance denotes a religious intention.
The reasonable objection will be urged that it was not only things which
“moved” that early man regarded as living or as indwelt by a spirit, but
that stones, for example, were among the very early things which were
treated with veneration because they were believed to be the abodes of
spirits; these did not move, so that the suggested theory of the origin
of the sacred dance breaks down here. But when one seeks to penetrate
the mind of uncultured man and to get behind his mental outlook, and
especially when one contemplates the working of the child-mind which
offers so many analogies with, and illustrations of that of the mentally
immature savage, one becomes convinced that this veneration of stones,
early as it was in the history of religion, was later than that of things
which move. And the reason of this is simple; a moving thing attracts
attention before that which does not move; that lies in the nature of
things alike with the child and the savage mind. When once the moving
things are believed to be the abodes of spirits, and the existence of
these is universally recognized, then the further step that they exist in
other things follows easily and naturally. We are thinking of the time
when as yet early man was only impressed by those things which, because
of their motion, attracted his attention.
Réville says that
the dance was the first and chief means adopted by prehistoric
humanity of entering into active union with the deity adored.
The first idea was to imitate the measured movements of the
god, or at any rate what were supposed to be such. Afterwards
this fundamental motive was forgotten, like so many other
religious forms which tradition and habit sustained even when
the spirit was gone[21].
We entirely agree; but the question is whether this does not represent
a later stage in the religion of prehistoric humanity. Must there not
have been a prior stage in which a less concrete idea of supernatural
powers obtained? What induced the supposition that the god performed
“measured movements”? And what would have been thought to be the form
of these movements? Mr Marett, in the first essay of the volume already
referred to, brings forward incontrovertible arguments, as it seems to
us, for believing that there was a stage in the mental and religious
development of man in which he was not yet capable of other than a vague
sense of the supernatural; in which he had not yet associated definite
spirits or ghosts with what he conceived to be supernatural phenomena;
but in which the sense of mystery and consequently of awe in face of
these supernatural phenomena filled his heart. This is also dealt with
in the fourth essay: “The Conception of Mana.” It is in this stage that
we would locate the origin of the sacred dance, performed in imitation
of what were the movements of supernatural powers, but powers of the
vaguest kind; merely a something, unknown, mysterious, and therefore to
be feared; but associate yourself with it, and already you are in an
indefinable way in communion with it; you have in some sense made friends
with it, which makes things safer. “Given the supernatural in any form
there are always two things to note about it: firstly, that you are to
be heedful in regard to it; secondly, that it has power[22].” So that
what Réville says is true, but it must be referred to a later stage of
religious development.
Another consideration in connexion with the origin of the sacred dance
must be briefly dealt with. Many savage peoples trace the origin of their
sacred dances to various animals by which, as they maintain, they were
taught to dance; therefore they imitate, in their dances, the movements
of these animals. Thus, for example, we have kangaroo-dances, dog-dances,
and cassowary-dances among the Monumbo of New Guinea[23]; bear-dances
among the Carrier Indians[24], the Gilyaks (in Eastern Siberia), the
women of Kamtchatka[25], and others. It may, therefore, be urged that
the sacred dance originated in this way. But apart from other arguments,
it will suffice to point out that to early man the sight of animals was
probably so much in the natural order of things that there was nothing
about them to strike him; in any case there was nothing supernatural
or mysterious about them, nothing to be afraid about in the sense of
fear inspired by the unknown. Such being the case there would have been
no reason to imitate their movements, as there was in the case of what
were to early man those mysterious powers whose movements he could not
explain. The connexion of animals with gods, and the belief in descent
from animals belong to subsequent ages; such conceptions necessitate
reflexion during long periods of time. Therefore it cannot have been in
imitation of animals that the sacred dance took its origin.
The theory as to the origin of the sacred dance suggested may or may
not commend itself; but that it took its rise from supernatural powers
of some sort seems certain; and this is supported by the belief of many
savage peoples that their sacred dances were originally taught them by
their gods[26]. The ancient Greeks also held that their sacred dances
were performed in imitation of gods and goddesses. The Pyrrhic dance
was said to have been the invention of the Dioscuri by some; others
attributed it to Athena. Again, Artemis, Dionysos, and Zeus himself, were
all believed to have set men the example of dancing. Ḥatḥor among the
Egyptians and Baal-Marqôd among the Phoenicians are other examples. Is it
not quite conceivable that this echoes what obtained in more primitive
times?
II
We come now to consider the purposes of the sacred dance.
The whole idea and object of dancing, among civilized peoples, has now
become so purely a matter of pastime and enjoyment that it is, at first,
difficult to realize its very serious aspect among men in past ages, and
among uncivilized races to-day. It may be true enough that dancing has
always been a means of exercise and pleasure[27]; but from the earliest
historical times—and, judging from what can be gathered from its very
widespread practice among all known races of uncivilized men, the same
is probably true of remote prehistoric times—this purpose has always
been subordinated to religious uses primarily. There are, it is true,
many instances among savages at the present day of dances being nothing
more than a means of exercise and enjoyment; but it is not too much to
assert that in every case the elimination of the religious element is due
to extraneous influences. This is vividly illustrated in Polynesia, for
example.
“Polynesian dancing,” writes Mr Macmillan Brown, “has advanced
far on the road to conventionalism. It has shed much of its
pantomimic purpose and its religious meaning, and in this it
reveals the collision of two or more cultures. In a region
marked by so much that is so highly primitive, nothing but the
clash of different religious systems could explain its divorce
from rites and ceremonies and its appearance as an almost
purely secular art, intended to amuse and delight an assembly
of spectators.”
The same writer shows that the character of the dancing among them
presents the proof of its originally purely religious purpose; for
it is not like European dancing, a harmony of “twinkling feet.”
It is wholly occupied in posturing, waving the arms and bending
the body, as if before a shrine. It is the upper part of the
body that is chiefly engaged. Where the feet come in, it is
only to effect the occasional advances or retreats, as if to or
from the altar, or in the resounding thud of the war-dance. The
Polynesian dance is oftenest stationary[28].
At the same time it would be a mistake to suppose that all religious
dancing was necessarily of this more or less stationary character; we
shall refer to examples of a very different kind below; but it is well to
emphasize the truth that all dancing was originally religious, and was
performed for religious purposes.
Of course it often happens that the different objects of the dance
coalesce; religious and secular, or religious and utilitarian, or more
than one religious purpose, being combined in the same dance; this, as
we shall see, is illustrated in Israelite practice. Nevertheless, it is
very certain that in numberless instances all feelings of enjoyment had
ceased though the dance continued hour after hour because it was believed
that a sacred duty was being performed thereby. The young North American
Dakotahs, for example, did not go on dancing for a couple of days because
they were so enamoured of it; nor was it for pastime that the Thyiads
danced on madly in honour of Dionysos until they dropped to the ground
unconscious. The reasons which made this sort of thing necessary are
absurd to us, but from the point of view of antique thought it was a very
serious and solemn matter.
It is this serious aspect of our subject upon which stress must be laid
because now-a-days we naturally think of dancing as mere enjoyment and
pastime. Some of the dances and their objects, and the ways in which they
are performed, among savages are so funny that they would, we imagine,
provoke a smile on the face of a sphinx, were it capable of doing such a
thing; but while, at times, we cannot resist a laugh, we shall do well
to remember that it was far from being a laughing matter to the savage;
to do him justice we must seek to get to the back of his mind, to enter
into his feelings, and to look at things through his eyes; then it
will be realized what the sacred dance meant to him, and its essential
seriousness will become apparent.
What the sacred dance meant not only to uncivilized men, but also to the
most cultured races of antiquity, will be seen from the purposes for
which it was performed. These we will now briefly enumerate.
(_a_) It was, first and foremost, performed for the purpose of honouring
what were regarded as supernatural powers[29]. In the pre-animistic
stage these powers were entirely vague and undefined; in the animistic
stage they developed into spirits, some benevolent, others maleficent,
powerful for good or evil. Later they became gods and goddesses. _Why_
dancing was a means of honouring these supernatural, later superhuman,
powers was for these reasons: It was supposed to be an act of imitation,
and therefore flattering to the higher power (the imitative propensity
in man has already been referred to). Secondly, by “taking it out of
yourself” in the presence of the power or deity you were offering
something in the nature of a propitiation, whether as a gift or as an
act of self-sacrifice; in either case it would be honouring the higher
power. This taking it out of oneself in honour of a spirit or a god is an
interesting phenomenon, and in one form or another has asserted itself
throughout the history of religion. It is the earliest form of what in
course of time showed itself in such things as self-castigation and
self-mortification; its extreme form being the love of martyrdom; for to
whatever degree the cult of self may have entered into these things, it
would be grossly unfair not to recognize that they were believed to be
pleasing in the sight of the deity, and that they were, therefore, done
with a view to honouring him.
(_b_) Psychologically connected with the foregoing we have as another
purpose of the sacred dance that of “showing-off” before a higher power.
One must enter into the child-mind in order to grasp what a real thing
this is. The close analogy between the way-of-thinking in the child and
in the more or less primitive savage has already been referred to, and
is recognized on all hands. Here are two cases of great interest which
vividly illustrate the point under consideration. The present writer
vouches for the literal truth of each. A little girl, not exceeding five
years, was dancing before a picture of the Madonna and Child; after her
dance she turned to her mother and said: “Do you think the Baby Jesus
liked to see me dance?” It is not quite easy to say in this case in
how far the purpose was to please the “Baby Jesus,” and in how far the
perfectly natural and innocent purpose was to “show off” before Him;
probably both motives were combined. But the second is purely one of
“showing off.” A child of about three, a boy this time, kept on jumping
as high as he could in the fields; presently his father heard him say:
“See, God, how high I can jump!” We could hardly have more delightful and
instructive illustrations of the innate desire, common to the child and
to man of immature mental development, to show what they can do in the
sight of their betters. So that we may justly reckon among the purposes
of the sacred dance this desire to “show off” before a superhuman power,
or what is conceived to be such.
(_c_) Next; the honour done to the higher power by means of imitation
had, in the eyes of uncivilized man, some important consequences which
offer further reasons why the sacred dance was performed. Just as in
imitative magic the thing imitated was thereby effected, so by imitating
the supernatural power the imitator conceived himself to be making
himself one with him who was imitated. This purpose of the sacred
dance would not, however, have belonged to the earliest stage, for it
presupposes the recognition of personality in the supernatural power,
and that points to a distinct advance; and the possibility is worth
contemplating as to whether, and in how far, the sacred dance may have
contributed to this advance. At any rate, this idea that an undefined
union was brought about by means of the sacred dance seems to be the
precursor of the more developed form of the same idea that union could
be brought about by personating a god or a goddess. When, for example,
men and women, by disguising themselves as horses, cats, pigs, or hares,
personated Demeter and Persephone, and danced in their honour, they
believed that they were, in some inexplicable way, united with these
goddesses. In the earlier stage, by imitating what a god _does_, _i.e._
dancing, union with him is effected; in the later stage, the like result
is achieved by imitating what he is, and dancing in that guise. At the
bottom of all this lies the principle which looms so large in savage
philosophy that “like produces like,” _i.e._ sympathetic magic which
assumes that
things act on each other at a distance through a secret
sympathy, the impulse being transmitted from one to the other
by means of what we may conceive as a kind of invisible ether,
not unlike that which is postulated by modern science for a
precisely similar purpose, namely, to explain how things can
physically affect each other through a space which appears to
be empty[30].
As is well known, a more pronounced and realistic means of union was
that of eating the flesh or drinking the blood of a sacrificial victim
which represented the god; by receiving the god into himself a man became
identified with the god. So that we have in the course of the development
of religious thought and practice, in a materialistically ascending
scale, three means whereby union with a supernatural power was believed
to be effected: imitation, personation, and the act which produced
identification. But the important point for our present purpose, and it
is one which needs emphasis, is that over and over again it is found that
the two latter rites (_i.e._ those of personation and of absorbing the
god) are accompanied by the sacred dance as a necessary adjunct. It may
be argued that this is merely done on the principle of making certainty
doubly certain; but it is at least possible that we have here a case of
the retention of the earliest rite simply because it _is_ the earliest.
We are bound to look for great _naïveté_ in considering the ideas and
practices of backward races—and, indeed, not only backward races where
religious rites are concerned;—and if, in course of time, new means
suggested themselves of uniting oneself with a god or goddess, it is
quite in accordance with what we know of uncivilized man to suppose that
he continued the older method side by side with the newer ones, even
though there was not much meaning attached to it.
This theory that one of the earliest purposes of the sacred dance was
to imitate what supernatural powers did, and that this imitation was
believed to be the means of union with this supernatural being (as it
came to be), receives some support and confirmation from what we know to
have been the purpose of the ecstatic dance.
(_d_) Uncultured man believed that by dancing to such an extent that he
became unconscious he was not only doing something that was honouring
to the deity, not only offering something in the nature of sacrifice,
but that, he was, above all, making his body a fit temporary abode
for his god. He did not enquire how this came about. Conceivably, the
earliest idea, though unexpressed, was that by honouring the god to this
extent the god showed his approval by uniting himself with his dancing
worshipper. The earlier widespread belief that the deity took up his
abode at certain times in trees, stones, etc., may well have suggested
the possibility of the same thing occurring in men, but more especially
in those more intimately and directly dedicated to his worship. The
question would have arisen as to the means to be employed whereby this
end could be achieved in the case of men; and as dancing was the earliest
form of worship this would have been the most natural means to suggest
itself. The dance would then proceed; during it the performers would
be anxiously awaiting some inner indication of the entrance of the
deity; nothing, of course, would happen until the long-continued dance
would induce first giddiness, then semi-consciousness, and finally a
state of semi-delirium ending not infrequently in total unconsciousness
for some time. But it is easy to understand that the first signs of
semi-consciousness would have been interpreted as the advent of the
deity and the beginnings of the divine overpowering. Given belief in the
possibility of divine indwelling in a man, the further belief that the
god utilized his worshipper as his mouthpiece was a natural and easy
transition. Natural, because it could not be supposed that the god would
take up his abode in a man without some purpose, and what more obvious
purpose than that of making his will known? Easy, because the mechanism,
if one may so call it, of utterance was all ready to hand. Other things
would follow, also in the natural course; for if, on the one hand, the
god utilized the body of his worshipper as the vehicle for making his
will known, the worshipper could, on the other hand, utilize the divine
power with which he was suffused for other purposes. Thus, for example,
we have the Hebrew prophet who, in an ecstatic state, utters the will of
Jahwe, or gives an oracle; or, as illustrating the other side, we have
the Bodo-priest “devil-dancer” of Southern India who utilizes the divine
power within him for working cures.
But whatever the result might be, the important thing from our present
point of view is that the requisite state required for the accomplishment
of these things was brought about by the performance of the sacred dance.
The ecstatic dance will receive a good deal of notice below (pp. 107
ff.), so that we need not say more about it here.
(_e_) Another purpose of the sacred dance was to make the crops grow, or
of helping, or inducing the god to do so. From one point of view here the
sacred dance was an act of imitative magic. Thus, by a dance in which the
chief characteristic was high leaps it was believed by many peoples that
the corn would grow high. It is probable, as Frazer suggests, that this
was at any rate one of the purposes with which the Salii, the priests
of the old Italian god of vegetation, danced high and leapt. As an act
of imitative magic, again, the sacred dance had among some peoples the
purpose of helping the sun to run his course. For example, this was
probably at one time of its history the object of “Ariadne’s Dance”;
and the dance known by the name of the “Labyrinth” may well have been
believed to assist the stars in their courses. These, and many other
examples, are dealt with in the following pages.
(_f_) Further, there are instances on record of the sacred dance having
the purpose of hallowing or consecrating a victim for sacrifice, as in
the case of the Arabs performing a processional dance round a camel
destined for sacrifice, or of the Israelites making the circuit round the
altar, or of the Kayans of Sarāwak circling round their sacrificial pigs.
In all such cases it is an act of consecration by means of the magic
circle.
(_g_) As an adjunct to initiation ceremonies the sacred dance was also
believed to serve some useful purpose. Presumably it was an act of homage
to the god or goddess who was supposed to be present. This is suggested
by the dancing at the Brauronian ceremonies of Artemis which, according
to Farnell, was a kind of initiation ceremony by which young girls were
consecrated to the service of this goddess.
(_h_) There are some grounds for the belief that the sacred dance was
sometimes performed with the purpose of assisting warriors to gain a
victory in battle; here, too, it was an act of imitative magic. It had,
in this connexion, the further purpose of appeasing the spirits of slain
enemies.
(_i_) As a marriage rite the sacred dance, at any rate during some
time of its history, fulfilled, as was believed, one or two important
purposes. The reference to the “Sword-dance” in the Old Testament is in
all probability a relic of the antique custom of combating the vague
dangers which were supposed to menace those entering upon the marriage
state. These dangers, undefined but nevertheless very real to those who
believed in their existence, arose not only from the fact of the new
conditions of life that were beginning, but also because of a reciprocal
fear on the part of the sexes, and a close contact between them
emphasized this. Another way of combating, or at least averting these
dangers, was by means of a change of identity; hence the once world-wide
custom, still in existence in some countries, of the bridal couple
assuming “royal” state, and being treated as king and queen during the
period of the wedding festivities.
Further, there are some reasons for thinking that the sacred dance as
a marriage rite sometimes had the purpose of bringing about a fruitful
marriage; there are certain ceremonies during the period of celebration
in which the dance figures prominently which point to this, and the
analogy of the dance for making the crops grow offers some corroboration.
(_j_) There are special purposes for which the sacred dance was performed
as a mourning or a burial rite. At times these are of a curiously
contradictory character. The ghosts of the dead number among them those
who are kindly disposed towards the living, and those who are malevolent
in their attitude towards them; the latter are supposed to be able to
do harm. Speaking quite generally, it appears, upon the whole, that the
less advanced the cultural stage the greater the tendency to regard the
spirits of the departed as malevolent. Since the various races from which
illustrations of the sacred dance as a mourning rite are gathered were,
or are (as the case may be), in different stages of civilization, it
follows that the purposes of the rite vary; for the belief regarding the
attitude of the dead towards the living has a good deal to do with the
purpose for which the sacred dance was performed. Thus we find that it
sometimes has the object of driving away the ghost of the departed; or
else there will be a dance on the grave for the purpose of preventing the
ghost from roaming. At other times it is the means of scaring away evil
spirits who are believed to congregate in the vicinity of a corpse. Very
strange, but interesting, is the custom among some races of personating
the dead in the sacred dance; this is supposed to be a potent means of
bringing him back, and he is believed to join the survivors in the dance;
he is present, but invisible, in the man who personates him. This reminds
one of the union with a supernatural spirit by imitating him in the
dance, to which reference has been made above; the same idea underlies
each. But the purpose of the sacred dance as a mourning or burial rite
which appears as the most usual is that of honouring the departed. This
is doubtless very frequently simply a mark of affection; but at other
times it is in the nature of a propitiatory act whereby the spirit of the
departed is persuaded to refrain from molesting the living.
Many illustrations of these various purposes of the sacred dance will be
offered in the following pages.
CHAPTER III
THE SACRED DANCE AMONG THE ISRAELITES
I
So far as the Old Testament is concerned this subject of the dance
in religious ritual illustrates a fact which biblical study, on the
comparative basis, is bringing more and more into prominence, and which
needs to be recognized both in the interests of truth and in order to
realize more fully the evolutionary development of religion as an eternal
principle in the divine economy. The original aims and objects of the
sacred dance were, as we have seen, “primitive”; the continuance of
the rite throughout the ages, even to comparatively recent times among
practically all peoples, does not in any way detract from the truth of
this, for everyone knows with what persistency religious custom and
ritual continues, not only after the original object and meaning has been
forgotten, but even when it has no meaning at all. Its existence among
the Israelites, therefore, shows them to have been and to have acted
throughout their religious history as other races did in this respect
(and it is only one of many other illustrations that could be given), in
spite of what we rightly believe to have been special opportunities for
more exalted forms of worship.
It must be confessed that the religious uniqueness of the Israelites, as
a nation, has been, and often still is, exaggerated to an undue extent.
Certainly there were among them those who may well be described as
unique, _sui generis_; but they were the great exceptions. The nation as
a whole was for many centuries no better and no worse than others; and
what stronger evidence for this could be afforded than that given in the
prophetical books of the Old Testament? Its ultimate emergence from the
religious norm of the world to a position of isolated superiority was due
to a mere handful of men who offered the greatest example that the world
had hitherto seen of what could be accomplished by subordinating will and
personality to the influence and guidance of the Divine Creator.
True, it was among some of these very prophets that the most interesting
kind of sacred dance—the ecstatic dance—was in vogue, with its wildness
and extravagances; in this they, or at least the earliest of them, did
not differ from certain classes of “holy men” all the world over; where
they did differ was in their development of the conception which underlay
the purpose of the ecstatic dance, _i.e._ union with the deity; and it is
just here that they stand out in such bold relief from all others. The
earliest prophets believed that this sacred dance was the means whereby
the divine spirit came upon them; this belief they shared with others;
but they rose to the higher belief that _this_ means was not necessary
for achieving the purpose for which it was used. It had served a useful
purpose; but having served its purpose it was dropped. The prophets came
to the realization that there were more spiritual means whereby union
with the deity was brought about; then the sacred dance found no further
place among them. They shed the husk, but retained the kernel. It was
the same principle upon which St Paul acted in later days in regard to
the Law. The sacred dance, too, was in its way a “school-master” (Gal.
iii. 24), leading men to better things. When, centuries later, the far
more cultured Greeks were still “raving” in honour of Dionysos, the
Hebrew prophets had long since learned that it is God Himself Who puts
His spirit upon men (cp. Isa. xlii. 1), and that this is not a thing to
be effected by the will or act of man. “Who hath directed the Spirit of
Jahwe?” asks one of them in fine irony (Isa. xl. 13).
Thus the history of the ecstatic dance among the Hebrew prophets is one
of many illustrations showing their uniqueness.
It is not, however, with these extraordinarily gifted prophets that we
are now concerned. We are thinking of the very ordinary and very human
Israelites as a whole who, like innumerable men and women of other races,
were endowed with emotions and aspirations which were common to humanity.
And it is a curious but interesting phenomenon that the sacred dance
was among the Israelites, as among all other peoples, one of the means
whereby these emotions and aspirations were expressed.
The fact that in the Mosaic legislation no provision is made for ritual
dancing when so many other minute details of ritual are given might seem
to suggest that such a thing was discountenanced. Without question it
is true to say that “the priestly historians and legislators resolutely
excluded, as far as possible, everything that could infer any similarity
between the worship of Jahwe and that of heathen deities[31].” But it
is doubtful whether the subject of the sacred dance would have come
into consideration in such a connexion; it was a practice too deeply
ingrained in human nature as a means of expressing religious emotion to
suggest that it implied assimilation to heathen worship. The bringing
of oblations, the offering of sacrifices, were also common to Israelite
and heathen worship, but that similarity would never have struck the
Israelite legislators as derogatory, because these, too, were means of
expressing religious emotion which, in one form or another, were common
to all races. The Mosaic legislation makes no provision for the posture
to be assumed in the presence of the deity, nor does it say anything
about singing in worship; but it is difficult to believe that there
were not fixed modes in regard to these which had been in vogue from
time immemorial; and therefore they needed no mention. The same may
be postulated in the case of the sacred dance. A thing which all the
evidence shows to have been a world-wide means of expressing religious
emotion and of honouring the deity during a long period in the history
of religious development, was not likely to have been wanting among the
Israelites.
In those passages in the Old Testament in which religious dancing is
recorded there is no hint of disapproval, let alone prohibition. It
is, therefore, evident that it must have been looked upon as a usual
and integral part of worship. It must also be remembered that the
sacred dance continued to be an important element in worship on special
occasions among the Jews in post-biblical times; the evidence will be
considered later. That this could have been an innovation is out of the
question; it was merely the continuation, in some cases quite possibly an
elaboration, of a rite familiar to the people from time immemorial.
The comparatively rare mention, therefore, of the sacred dance in
the Old Testament must not mislead us; the reasons for that are very
natural. And when it is realized what a number of words there are in
Hebrew for dancing (see pp. 44 ff.), and that only once is there a
possible reference to secular, as distinct from religious, dancing, the
conclusion will be forced upon us that it played a much larger _rôle_ in
the religious life of the people than first appearances would seem to
indicate.
As far as can be gathered, religious dancing among the Israelites was,
as a general rule, performed by the sexes separately; in the account of
the worship of the Golden Calf, however, it must be allowed that the
possibility of promiscuous dancing is not excluded, see especially Exod.
xxxii. 2, 3. Among other peoples it is found that, mostly, the sacred
dance was performed by men and women separately; but there are notable
exceptions among the Egyptians as well as the Syrians, also among the
Greeks; and the same applies to the uncultured races.
II
When all the _data_ in the Old Testament have been gathered it is
possible to discern certain types of the sacred dance; by this we
do not necessarily mean varieties of mode, not but that these also
occur; the type is indicated rather by the connexion in which the
dance occurs. Therefore, although it is not to be supposed that there
was, generally speaking, any idea of having particular kinds of dance
reserved for different occasions, it is possible to attempt some kind
of classification. At any rate, it is a convenient method to adopt in
reviewing the evidence.
Emphasis must again be laid on the fact that when one is speaking of
the “sacred dance” in past ages one has to allow to the term a wide
connotation. We have come to use the word “dance” in a very restricted
sense; in antiquity it was different; included in it are modes varying
from a staid, march-like rhythmic step, to the wilder movements of the
ecstatic dance.
(1) We draw attention first to the sacred _processional dance_. A cursory
reference to one or two examples will suffice here as a more detailed
examination of each type of dance will be found in the chapters to
follow. Judging from the few _data_ offered by the Old Testament, the
sacred processional dance among the Israelites was always performed in
honour of Jahwe. In the well-known instance of David and the Israelites
dancing in procession before the Ark, it is really in the presence of
Jahwe that it takes place since He is conceived as being present in the
Ark. The dance assumes various forms according to the degree of religious
excitement engendered. It is spoken of as being dancing of the ordinary
kind, _i.e._ the common Hebrew word for dancing is used; but presently
it takes on the character of a rotating dance, then there is jumping
followed by something in the nature of skipping, and it is also spoken
of as a whirling movement. It will be noticed that five different words
are used here to express the different ways in which the dancing was
performed. Although the occasion on which this took place was a very
special one, it would be a mistake to suppose that the sacred dance was
only reserved for such special occasions. It is rather to be gathered
from the incidental way in which the dancing is mentioned that the rite
was usual, and was only of a more elaborate character because of the
special occasion. A single mention of this kind must, it may be safely
asserted, imply a well-known and usual custom, otherwise it would be
commented upon as something out of the ordinary.
(2) The sacred dance also takes the form of _encircling a sacred object_,
either an idol, or a sacrificial victim, or an altar; in this last case
the sacrificial victim would, of course, be included. The form of this
type of dance was either a march-like step or a running step or else
the worshippers held hands and danced round. This latter is nowhere
specifically mentioned in the Old Testament; but it is such an obvious
form for a dance to take that we can scarcely doubt its having existed
among the Israelites. Besides, interesting examples of a concrete kind
have been found depicting this form of dance round sacred objects which
quite possibly owe their origin to Semitic inspiration; some of these are
described in Chapter VI below. This encircling dance was undoubtedly an
act of worship; it is also possible that in some cases it was intended
to have a consecrating effect either upon the worshippers or upon the
sacrificial victim; in the example given by Nilus (see p. 95) the latter
would seem to have been the case. The theory of some scholars that
the circle dance was a symbolic representation of the movement of the
heavenly bodies has also a good deal to commend it. As a funeral rite
this form of the sacred dance served some other purposes (see below).
(3) The _ecstatic dance_ is that which has received most attention from
scholars, and deservedly, for it is one of the most curious phenomena in
the history of religious ritual. In the exuberance of emotion engendered
by it the performers experienced what appeared to them to amount, for
the time being, almost to a metamorphosis; they believed themselves to
be infused and permeated by the influence—perhaps it would be truer to
say the essence—of the deity in whose honour they were dancing. Thus came
about what was conceived to be in some mystic, but wholly inexplicable
way, a union with the deity adored. In the Old Testament we have the
well-known example of the prophets performing this dance in 1 Sam. x.
5 ff.; its contagious character is graphically illustrated by the case
of Saul, whose condition becomes such that the people ask: “Is Saul
also among the prophets?” and he is spoken of as having been “turned
into another man” because as a result of the ecstatic dance the spirit
of Jahwe came mightily upon him. The language implies that when once
the required condition has been reached it is then Jahwe Who takes the
initiative; the body as such remains a passive instrument, but it becomes
a Beth-el, a temporary house of God from which He speaks forth through
the medium of the voice of the possessed.
As in the case of other types of the sacred dance, there cannot be
anything unique about this even though it is only referred to once or
twice in the Old Testament; its incidental mention without further
comment stamps it as being nothing out of the ordinary.
Another form of this ecstatic type of dance is mentioned in the Old
Testament, also in connexion with prophets, though not Israelite
prophets. There was a peculiar kind of limping dance performed, as it
would appear, on special occasions by the prophets of Baal. This began
with a limping step round the altar as though the performers were
lame, but soon developed into a wild jumping about on the altar, and
culminated in self-laceration with knives and the like. In how far a
state of semi-consciousness or total unconsciousness was attained is not
indicated; but in the light of analogous cases (referred to in Chapter
VII) it may be gathered that the loss of the physical sensation of pain
inflicted by the self-laceration must imply to some extent a loss of
consciousness so far as external surroundings were concerned. In writing
about the prophetic ecstasy of Syrian as well as Israelite prophets, Dr
T. H. Robinson well expresses the state in saying that it was
a peculiar psychic condition in which the subject seemed to be
possessed of powers, indeed of a whole sphere of consciousness,
which was denied to the ordinary individual, and to the prophet
himself in normal states. He did not cease to be conscious
of the world as it appeared to others, but he heard and saw
things which were beyond their range. There were a number of
well-marked physical phenomena connected with the condition of
ecstasy, though these were not invariable. The subject might be
affected with a certain constriction of the muscles, in which
case the state resembled that of a trance. On the other hand,
muscular activity might be largely increased. Leaping, bodily
contortions, and loud cries resulted, which, as they tended to
become regular and rhythmical, developed into dancing and song.
The subject frequently experienced a kind of anaesthesia, and
would slash wildly at his own body with knife or whip, without
showing any signs of physical pain[32].
We shall find all this illustrated in the examples, to be given in
Chapter VII, of this type of dance among a number of races.
Various means were employed to bring about this ecstatic state, such as
alcohol, and other drugs; but there can be little doubt that the most
frequent, and certainly the most primitive, means adopted was that of
dancing.
(4) The kind of sacred dance which was the most common among the
Israelites, as among other peoples, was that proper to _Vintage and
Harvest Festivals_. That it seems, from the scanty references to it
which we have in the Old Testament, as well as from many indications
in regard to its performance among other races, largely to have lost
its sacred character will not deceive us as to its originally religious
purpose. It was a characteristic of Israelite worship that the note of
joy should sound during its celebration; the command: “Ye shall rejoice
before Jahwe your God” sufficiently bears this out. Apart, therefore,
from the original purpose of this kind of sacred dance to which reference
will be made in Chapter VIII, there is no reason to doubt that Vintage
and Harvest dances among the Israelites were essentially of a religious
character, although the rejoicing, of which dancing was one of the
most natural modes of expression, might not always appeal to some of
the more austere prophets, see, _e.g._, Amos v. 21-23. The very rare
specific mention in the Old Testament of the festival dances is quite
comprehensible, for what was obviously proper to the celebration of a
feast it would be superfluous to speak about. Moreover, there is ample
evidence in post-biblical Jewish literature of the existence of the
sacred dance at festivals.
(5) _Dances in celebration of victory_ in battle are referred to several
times in the Old Testament. Taking the passages in which these are
mentioned by themselves the custom of which they speak is nothing more
than a simple and natural expression of joy and thanksgiving for victory.
But all such customs have a long history behind them; and when analogous
customs among other, less civilized, peoples are considered, some points
of interest and significance emerge which suggest the possibility of the
custom being, in its origin, due to a different and more practical cause.
There are some grounds for believing that the custom of which the Old
Testament speaks was a remnant of what was originally a dance performed
by women which had for its object the helping of the men to gain a
victory by means of imitative magic. In the Old Testament there is, of
course, no trace of this beyond the fact that the dance was performed
by women; and it has become simply an act of joyful thanksgiving to God
and a tribute to the returning victors. It is necessary to consider
the analogous rite in its earlier forms as seen among peoples of lower
civilization to estimate what justification there may be for this
supposition. If it should be the fact that this type of dance was,
in its origin, a means of effecting victory by magic, it would be an
interesting illustration of magic being, as Marett says, “part and parcel
of the ‘god-stuff’ out of which religion fashions itself.”[33] Indeed,
when dealt with in detail, this subject of the sacred dance in the Old
Testament receives its chief interest and importance from the fact that
at all events some of the types there mentioned are illustrations of the
development of religion out of magic.
(6) There is some reason to believe that the sacred dance had a part to
play during _the rite of circumcision_; late Rabbinic tradition seems to
imply as much. It had its place among the Arabs on such occasions; and at
initiation ceremonies all the world over the sacred dance was essential.
(7) Once more, the sacred dance during the _Wedding ceremony_, though
only once implied in the Old Testament, was in all probability a regular
institution; post-biblical Jewish literature offers presumptive evidence
of its existence in earlier times among the Israelites.
(8) And lastly, we have the sacred dance as a _Burial rite_. As in
other cases we have to rely, firstly, on the evidence of later Jewish
literature, and, secondly, upon the analogous practice among other
peoples. As we shall show, the emotions of fear, honour, and love, which
according to the cultural stages of uncivilized men are felt for the
spirits of the departed, are such as are common to mankind; and these
emotions are expressed, among other ways, by means of the sacred dance.
What cultural stage, or stages, are represented in the Old Testament
as that, or those, through which the Israelites passed may well be a
matter of difference of opinion; but that in both thought and practice
they were, as a whole, in many respects no more advanced than other
contemporary peoples does not admit of doubt. So that when we find
this rite in existence at burials or during the mourning period among
other Semites, and among the Egyptians, not to mention the Greeks, the
presumption is justified that the Israelites practised it too.
* * * * *
In regard to much that has been said we are prepared for the objection
that the evidence of the Old Testament does not offer sufficient
justification for the assumptions made. We agree that this is so if we
are to rely upon the Old Testament alone. But the object of the whole of
our investigation will be to show that the beliefs and practices of any
one race of people must, to do them full justice, be studied in the light
of analogous beliefs and practices of other peoples. Only so can one fill
up the _lacunae_ which inevitably exist in the records of the races of
antiquity. We have chosen as our illustration a rite which may, likely
enough, be regarded as of very secondary importance; yet it is one which
the evidence shows was at one time regarded as essential to man. It is
therefore a study worth undertaking; for apart from its interest as a
mere antiquarian investigation, we hope that it may be found to throw
some modest side-lights on various other subjects.
CHAPTER IV
THE OLD TESTAMENT TERMS FOR “DANCING”
I
How large a _rôle_ dancing in its various forms must have played among
the Israelites is shown by the fact that, either in the restricted or in
the more extended sense, no less than eleven Hebrew roots are used to
describe its different characteristics. This in what is a relatively poor
language is not without significance.
Before saying something about the meaning of these roots it will be well
to give a list of them:
_Sāḥaq_ and _tzāḥaq_, used in the intensive _piel_ form.
_Ḥūl_.
_Kārar_, used in the _pilpel_ form, also intensive.
_Pāzaz_, used in the _piel_ form.
_Rāqad_, used in the _piel_ form.
_Sābab_, used in the _hiphil_, causative, form.
_Qāphatz_, used in the _piel_ form.
_Dālag._
_Tzālaʿ_, occurs only once.
_Ḥāgag_.
_Pāsaḥ_, used in the _piel_ form.
The first thing to notice here is that most of these roots, when used in
reference to dancing, occur only in intensive forms; this is significant
as pointing to the nature and character of the sacred dance. Of the
exceptions, _ḥūl_ “to whirl” is intensive in its root-meaning; it has
no _piel_, and its other forms occur only rarely, and almost entirely
in the later poetical books. The roots _dālag_ and _tzālaʿ_, refer to a
particular kind of ritual step; and as to _ḥāgag_ more will be said in a
moment.
Now as to the meaning of these different words for dancing:
The root _sāḥaq_, in its intensive form _siḥēq_, means in the first
instance “to laugh,” and it is also used in the sense of “playing” (Job
xl. 29) and “merry-making” (Jer. xv. 17, xxx. 19, xxxi. 4, Zech. viii.
5; cp. also Judg. xvi. 25). In the specific sense of “dancing” it occurs
in 1 Sam. xviii. 7: “... and the dancing women answered one another
and said ...” (see also 1 Chron. xv. 29). Equivalent to this root is
_tzāḥaq_, also used in the intensive form _tziḥēq_, which occurs, _e.g._,
in Exod. xxxii. 6: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to
dance.” It is also used of “playing” or “sporting,” _e.g._ Gen. xxi. 9,
Judg. xvi. 25, but in the second of these passages its obvious meaning
is “to dance,” for as we shall see later this was the custom at feasts.
This root, therefore, presents dancing in the aspect of a pleasant and
enjoyable pastime. Further, in various passages this root is used as
a parallel to other words for dancing. For example, in 1 Sam. xviii.
6, 7 just cited, it occurs as a parallel to the root which is the one
most frequently used in the Old Testament for dancing, viz. _ḥūl_. This
root expresses the “whirl” of the dance (_e.g._ Judg. xxi. 21, 23, Ps.
lxxxvii. 7). It is the word used of the “writhing” or “twisting” of a
woman in travail, _e.g._ Isa. xxvi. 17, xlv. 10, or of one in great pain,
Isa. xiii. 8, xxiii. 5, Jer. li. 29; so that when used in the sense of
dancing, contortions of the body are thought of, which suggests something
of a rather wild character.
The “whirling” idea is also contained in the root _kārar_ (in its
intensive _pilpel_ form, _kirkēr_), “to whirl about,” or “rotate.” It
occurs, in this sense, only once in the Old Testament, 2 Sam. vi. 14-16,
of David dancing before Jahwe[34]; and in this passage we have another
root which does not occur elsewhere in the sense of dancing, viz. _pāzaz_
(again in the intensive form _pizzēz_); this expresses the idea of agile
leaping as part of the dance[35], the cognate Arabic root means “to be
excited.” The idea of leaping is also contained in another root _rāqad_
(in its intensive form _riqqēd_) which in its ordinary sense means “to
skip about[36]”; as applied to dancing it occurs in the passage last
mentioned, and see further, Isa. xiii. 21, Job xxi. 11, Joel ii. 5,
Eccles. iii. 4, 1 Chron. xv. 29; in Ps. xxix. 6 it is used of a calf
“skipping.”
The root _sābab_, used of “going round” the altar, is spoken about below
(pp. 93 f.), so that we can leave this for the present.
So far, then, we have briefly touched on words used in reference to
dancing which either express or suggest the ideas of its being something
enjoyable, of its involving the bending about of the body, whirling
about, leaping, and skipping; as well as that of forming a circle,
perhaps round the altar, but in any case encircling something, or going
round about it.
Now we come to some rather special words. In including _dālag_ in our
category we realize that this is only justified because we are using
the word “dancing” in its extended, as well as in its more restricted,
sense; and we have shown above that this is not only permitted, but
necessary in view of the general ideas underlying the whole subject.
This word is used of the “leaping” of a hart in Isa. xxxv. 6, just as
the word _rāqad_ is used, as we have seen, of the “skipping” of a calf;
the latter, as already pointed out, occurs in several passages in the
sense of “dancing”; _dālag_ may, therefore, be regarded as in some sense
parallel to it. In Cant. ii. 8 _dālag_ certainly seems to refer to some
form of dancing. But in two other passages the word has a special sense;
in these, though the reference is not to dancing in the strict meaning
of the term, it is used of a ritual step of a leaping character, and may
justifiably be applied to dancing in the more extended sense. Thus, in 1
Sam. v. 5 it is said that no one ever treads on the threshold of Dagon’s
house in Ashdod. This is explained in the Septuagint by the addition
of the words “leaping over they leap over”; this is probably only an
explanatory gloss (though it is conceivable that they represent a text in
which _dālōg yidlōgū_ occurred), but it witnesses, at any rate, to what
was a well-known custom, for in the other passage, Zeph. i. 9, punishment
is pronounced against “all those who leap over the threshold,” without
further explanation, showing that something quite familiar is being
referred to. There was a similar Persian custom which forbad stepping
on the threshold, one had to leap over it with the right foot first.
The custom was due to the belief that evil spirits crouched down on the
threshold, and the leaping over it prevented coming into contact with
them, and the consequent risk of harm. The action implied the recognition
of an alien cult, hence its prohibition[37]. In Cant. ii. 8 the root
_qāphatz_ is used as a parallel to _dālag_, and also means “to jump,” or
the like; but this is the only passage in which the word is used in this
sense.
We come now to two roots of which rather more must be said. The first
is _ḥāgag_. In 1 Sam. xxx. there is the account of David’s attack on an
Amalekite troop who had carried off all the women from Ziklag, among them
his two wives; the Egyptian slave of an Amalekite, who had been abandoned
by his master because he had fallen sick, is asked by David to lead him
to the spot where the Amalekites were encamped; this he undertakes to
do on condition that no harm comes to him; then we read in verse 16:
“And when he had brought him down, behold, they were sprawling about all
over the ground, eating and drinking and feasting” (_hōgĕgim_); that
is how the Revised Version renders this last word. To render it thus,
however, is pleonastic, for if they were eating and drinking they were
quite obviously “feasting”; the word, therefore, cannot well have this
meaning here. The more natural rendering would be “dancing”; and, indeed,
this would be the meaning that we should expect, for, as will be shown
below, “dancing” is almost synonymous with “feasting,” because it was
characteristic of feasts. Driver, in discussing this passage, says in
reference to the word:
Whether, however, the sense of _dancing_ is really expressed by
the word is very doubtful. Modern lexicographers only defend
it by means of the questionable assumption that _ḥāgag_ may
have had a similar signification to _ḥūg_, which, however, by
no means itself expresses the sense of _to dance_, but _to
make a circle_ (Job xxvi. 10).... It is best to acquiesce
in the cautious judgement of Nöldeke[38], who declares that
he cannot with certainty get behind the idea of a _festal
gathering_ for the common Semitic _ḥag_. Here then the meaning
will be “behaving as at a _ḥag_ or gathering of pilgrims,” i.e.
enjoying themselves merrily[39].
Nowack is of a similar opinion; he says that the word here can hardly
mean more than “to celebrate a feast”; but he adds: “perhaps the word is
originally used of the sacred dance[40].” But apart from the question
of the relationship between _ḥāgag_ and _ḥūg_, if the Arabic _Ḥagg_,
“the going round in a circle,” is the word from which the Hebrew _ḥag_
is derived, and presumably there is little doubt about that, then the
root-meaning of _ḥāgag_ will be “to go round in a circle,” and this was
the essence of the sacred dance—or of one type of the sacred dance—among
the Semites. Wellhausen points out that the central and most important
part of the _cultus_ of the ancient Arabs was the circuit round the
sanctuary, or, when this was offered, round the sacrifice. It is from
this fact, he says, that the _Ḥagg_, which means really “the sacred
dance,” is so called. He points out, further, that this original meaning
of the word has not even yet been entirely lost in Arabic, for the verb
still often has as its transitive object the stone or the “house.” The
holy stone is itself called _Davar_ “the object of the encirclement”
because of the custom of performing the sacred dance round it. Evidence
is forthcoming that this was done not only round the sacred stone, the
_Kaaba_, but also in all sanctuaries generally[41]. König gives as the
primary meaning of _ḥāgag_ “to make dancing movements,” “to turn,” and
regards the sense of “celebrating a feast” as secondary[42]. This is
borne out by the use of the word in Ps. cvii. 27, where it means “to go
round in a circle,” like a drunken man.
The chief original Hebrew term for a religious dance was
doubtless _ḥag_. The rendering “feast” or “festival” will
indeed suffice in most cases, but only because religious
festivals necessarily included the sacred dance, at least as
long as the sacred stones remained in the sanctuaries[43].
There is thus sufficient justification for reckoning this root among
those which are used for “to dance” in the Old Testament.
Then as to the root _pāsaḥ_ (in its intensive form _pisseaḥ_). According
to Exod. xii. 13, 23 the root-meaning of this word would appear to be “to
spare,” for we read there: “... and when I see the blood _I will pass
over_ you, and there shall be no plague upon you”; and again: “... and
when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, Jahwe
_will pass over_ the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into
your houses to destroy you.” Both Zimmern[44] and Schrader[45] hold that
the word is derived from the Assyrian _pasâḥu_, “to pacify,” which would
support the _Exodus_ interpretation. Robertson Smith, on the other hand,
thinks it by no means clear that this was the original meaning;
“there is,” he says, “no certain occurrence of the name before
_Deuteronomy_ (in Exod. xxxiv. 25 it looks like a gloss),
and the corresponding verb denotes some kind of religious
performance, apparently a dance, in 1 Kings xviii. 26. A
nocturnal ceremony at the consecration of a feast is already
alluded to in Isa. xxx. 29, who also perhaps alludes to
the received derivation of _pāsaḥ_ in xxxi. 5[46]. But the
Deuteronomic passover was a new thing in the days of Josiah (2
Kings xxiii. 21 f.). It underwent further modification in the
exile...[47].”
So that the opinion is worth hazarding as to whether _Pesaḥ_, the
Passover, did not originally get its name from the particular form of
limping dance peculiar to it, just as the ordinary feast got its name
from the sacred dance, the _Ḥagg_, which was characteristic of it. See
further p. 92.
A ritual dance of a somewhat similar character is mentioned in Gen.
xxxii. 31, 32, where Jacob, as he passed over Penuel, “limped upon his
thigh.” Here the root used is _tzālaʿ_, which in this sense occurs here
only[48]; but there is the place-name _tzēlaʿ_, Saul’s ancestral home (2
Sam. xxi. 14), which was possibly an ancient sanctuary where this special
kind of limping dance was performed.
These, then, are the words used in the Old Testament for “dancing” in its
various forms; they will come before us again and their meanings will be
more fully illustrated when we deal in the following chapters with the
nature of the sacred dance.
II
It will be appropriate if we add here a word or two about the musical
accompaniment (if this can in all cases be called “musical”) to dancing
so far as can be gathered from the Old Testament.
In its earliest and simplest form this accompaniment consisted of
the rhythmic beating of what is translated “timbrel” in the Revised
Version; the word is _tôph_ in Hebrew, and it was probably the most
primitive instrument among the Hebrews. It would be better described as
a hand-drum, or “tom-tom,” being made of a circular (though also square
and sometimes probably three-sided) piece of wood over which the skin of
an animal, after preparation, was tightly drawn and fastened with a thin
thong of skin. It was held in one hand and struck with the open palm of
the other. In addition to this two other instruments of percussion are
mentioned as accompanying dancing, namely “cymbals,” _tzeltzĕlim_, and
what are called _metziltaim_, evidently also cymbals in some form or
another as both words come from the same root; the latter must clearly
have been held one in each hand and struck together, the dual form of the
word shows this. Wind instruments for accompaniment were represented by
the _ḥalîl_, “flute,” and the _ʿugâb_, perhaps something in the nature of
a Pan’s-pipe, though this is quite uncertain; it is mentioned in Gen. iv.
21, where the Revised Version renders it “pipe.” Stringed instruments as
an accompaniment to dancing were a later development, though of course
used in what are to us early times, among the Israelites; the simplest
of these were the _kinnôr_, “lyre” and the _nēbel_, “harp.” For the
accompaniment to dancing of all three types of instruments, percussion,
wind, and string, see Job xxi. 11, 12. We also read of “rattles,”
_mĕnaʿnĕʿim_, probably something equivalent to the _sistrum_ of the
Egyptians[49].
Besides instrumental, there was also vocal accompaniment, and doubtless
the rhythmic clapping of hands, the most primitive form of accompaniment,
and the beating of the thighs, though neither of these is mentioned in
the Old Testament.
It has been truly said that
music is rarely divorced from dancing in the early stages of
culture, and seldom advances beyond mere rhythm into melody or
harmony. To a modern European ear it sounds not much more than
rhythmic noise, a mere marking of time for concerted movement
of the limbs, monotonous and unattractive, if heard without its
origin and inspiration—the dance[50].
But the writer is mistaken in his mention of harmony here; such a thing
was quite unknown in “the early stages of culture,” if he means by that
“culture” among uncivilized men[51].
The normal accompaniment to the sacred dance, then, among the Hebrews was
the beating of the drum and the blowing of the flute; this, as will be
seen in the following chapters, is true of all peoples. The accompaniment
of stringed instruments is, as we have said, a later development.
CHAPTER V
THE SACRED PROCESSIONAL DANCE, AND DANCES IN HONOUR OF SUPERHUMAN POWERS
I
An illustration of the processional type of dance among the Israelites
which immediately suggests itself is that of “David and all the house of
Israel dancing before Jahwe with all their might” (2 Sam. vi. 5)[52].
The picture is that of an imposing procession, headed by the king going
in front of the Ark into Jerusalem. The entire body of those forming
the procession is described as dancing, but special attention is drawn
to David, and the words used in reference to his mode of dancing are
instructive; he not only dances in the ordinary sense of the word
(_sāḥaq_), but he “rotates (_kārar_) with all his might” (verse 14),
and “jumps” (_pāzaz_, verse 16), and “whirls round” (_ḥūl_); and in
the parallel passage 1 Chron. xv. 29, his dancing is described as
“skipping” (_rāqad_) or the like; it is the word used in Isa. xiii. 21
of the “hopping” of satyrs, and also of “galloping” horses (Joel ii.
5) and “jolting” chariots (Nah. iii. 2). The self-abandonment of this
dancing can be imagined in the light of Michal’s jibe that the king had
shamelessly uncovered himself. Nevertheless, the religious character
of the processional dance is obvious, and is emphasized by the phrase
“before Jahwe,” and by the fact that David “was girded with a linen
ephod” (verse 14), the officiating priest’s dress (see 1 Sam. ii. 18).
It is probable that the sacred processional dance is again referred to,
though one cannot say so positively, in such passages as Ps. cxlix.
3: “Let them praise His name in the dance; let them sing praises unto
Him with timbrel (_tôph_) and lyre”; cl. 4: “Praise Him with timbrel
and dance,” etc.; and although in Ps. lxviii. 24, 25 (25, 26 in Hebr.)
there is no special mention of the dance, it is clearly implied by the
reference to the damsels playing on the timbrel, which was the usual
accompaniment to dancing; the passage runs: “They see Thy goings forth
[_i.e._ processions in honour of Jahwe], O God, the goings forth of my
God, my King, into the sanctuary; the singers go before, behind (are)
those playing stringed instruments, in the midst (are) damsels playing
timbrels,” see also Ps. lxxxvii. 7.
Further quotations are unnecessary, for it is clear that the sacred
processional dance formed a normal adjunct to worship among the
Israelites.
In studying these types of the sacred dance among other peoples we are
faced with the same difficulty that meets us in the case of various
passages where the dance is mentioned in the Old Testament, viz. it is by
no means always possible to say whether a _processional_ dance is meant
or not. It is, therefore, inevitable that some uncertainty should exist
in the case of some of the illustrations to be offered; but if not always
of the processional type, the examples to be given will all illustrate
the sacred dance as an act of honour to some superhuman power.
II
As to those peoples most closely allied to the Israelites, namely
the Syrians and Arabs, our _data_, so far as processional dances are
concerned, are very scanty, though we are not without information on
the general subject of the sacred dance among them. In one of the
inscriptions found in Deir el-Ḳala near Beirut there is a reference
to Θεω Βαλμαρκωδι; he is called upon as Βαλμαρκως κοίρανε κώμων; this
witnesses to the existence of a Phoenician god known as _Baal-Marqôd_,
according to the Semitic form, _i.e._ the “Baal, or Lord, of
dancing[53].” He was either thought of as the originator of the sacred
dance among the Phoenicians, just as the Greeks and others ascribed the
origin of dancing to certain gods and goddesses; or else he was so called
“because of a bacchanalian dance which was performed in his honour[54]”;
or because he was the god, _par excellence_, to whom dancing was due
as an act of homage[55]. The name shows that among the Phoenicians the
sacred dance had its place.
We shall come, later on, to other types of the sacred dance among the
Syrians and Arabs. Here we may, in passing, point to the fact that the
Bedouin Arabs of the Syrian Desert even at the present day perform dances
in honour of exalted personages; this may confidently be regarded,
especially in view of other evidence to be given below, as pointing to
similar dances being performed in earlier times in honour of gods; for
divinities were honoured in this way for ages before men were. Thus
Ritter describes the dancing of the Bedouin Arabs which he witnessed,
adding that the far-travelled sailors who were with him told him that
this mode of dancing was strikingly similar to that which they had seen
performed by the savage South Sea islanders[56]. Dancing in honour of
the newly married couple, regarded as king and queen, is interestingly
described by Wetzstein[57]. Such dances, though not now strictly sacred,
deserve a passing reference, for they have a long history behind them,
and at one time were certainly connected with religion.
In many Babylonian psalms and hymns which were sung in procession, and
which have come down to us, there is, it is true, no mention of dancing;
but it is difficult to believe that it did not take place, especially in
view of the evidence to be given below. The silence may well be due to
the fact that it was so obvious a part of the ritual that there would
have been no point in mentioning it. One can hardly conceive of its
absence, knowing what we do of the Semitic religious temperament, during
such a great festival, for example, as that of the re-entry of Marduk
on the 11th Nisan into the temple of E-sagila. On this occasion a great
procession of priests and choir was formed, and during the re-entry of
the god into his sanctuary they sang the hymn beginning:
“O Lord, at the entering-in into thy sanctuary...[58].”
At such a time of solemn religious rejoicing it can hardly be doubted,
judging from many analogies, that some form of sacred dance formed a
striking feature of the ritual. The dance-step may well have been of a
sedate character, but, as we have seen, the steps and performance of the
sacred dance range from an almost march-like, though rhythmical, tread to
antics of the most diverse character. It is important to remember that
in Assyrian the word for “to dance” (_rakâdu_) means also “to rejoice.”
Among all the Semites the religious festivals were special times of
rejoicing. So that when we read of processions during Babylonian and
Assyrian festivals it is justifiable to assume that sacred dances were
performed as a recognized part of the ritual.
But we are not without tangible evidence on the subject. On an
inscription discovered in the palace of Asshurbanipal a procession is
depicted which is led by men playing harps; the foremost among these,
each of whom has one of his legs raised, quite obviously represent
dancers. They are followed by women with arms uplifted, and also by
children who seem to be clapping their hands, apparently in rhythmical
time with the dancers. An illustration of this is given, _e.g._, by
Jeremias[59], who quotes from the inscription the Assyrian account of
Hezekiah’s subjection to Sennacherib. In this inscription, among other
things sent by the king of Judah to Nineveh, “playing men and women” are
mentioned; the illustration represents these as both dancing and playing
instruments. It is, therefore, as Jeremias rightly emphasizes, very
important for the light it throws on the subject of the Temple music and
worship in pre-exilic times. But it also throws light on Assyrian usage
since it is obvious that the inscription reflects Assyrian ideas.
Mention may be made here, but very tentatively, of three inscriptions
found in Cyprus by Ohnefalsch-Richter. It is conceivable that these bear
witness, though indirectly, to early Mesopotamian ritual, for in style
and representation they are somewhat reminiscent of ancient Babylonian
cylinder seals. They are numbered cxxviii. 4, 5, 6 and a sacred dance
is represented on each; they are cylindrical in form, and very ancient,
pre-Homeric and pre-Mycenaean, according to Ohnefalsch-Richter, who
says also that they bear a striking similarity to later Olympic
representations[60]. The dancers wear long dresses rather like those of
priests on Assyrian cylinder seals.
III
A religious processional dance of great interest is that represented on
the well-known Hittite rock-inscription at Boghazkeui, in Cappadocia.
The central portion of this inscription represents a company of gods and
goddesses; towards them, from either side, the procession moves; the
figures on the left hand which form the procession are almost exclusively
men, while those on the right are all women. The men all wear the
cone-shaped Hittite cap and tip-tilted shoes, and they are performing
a running-step dance, the right feet being partly raised and touching
the ground only with their toes. The inscription belongs approximately
to B.C. 1200[61]. That it represents a religious processional dance is
clear both because of the presence of gods and goddesses, and also from
the fact that in front of or over the heads of a number of the figures
there are hieroglyphic signs which denote the names of divinities.
A small inscription on a haematite cylinder, from Cyprus, also represents
a Hittite sacred processional dance. As in the previous inscription, the
procession, which is preceded and followed by a priest, moves towards
the god. Ohnefalsch-Richter thinks that the scene represents a moment at
which the dancers are resting[62].
IV
Although we find that among the Egyptians the _data_ leave something
to be desired, yet they are sufficient to suggest that dancing as a
religious ceremony formed an important feature among them. As is the case
among all other peoples the sacred dance has divine sanction.
Ḥatḥor, for example, was the goddess of music and dancing, and
is often depicted with a small boy rattling a sistrum in front
of her.... The king, in the capacity of Ḥatḥor’s son, similarly
rattles a sistrum in front of her and is called “goodly _Iḥy_
(the goddess’s child) of the golden one of the gods.”
The name _Iḥwy_, a variant form of _Iḥy_, is applied to the priests of
Ḥatḥor; they are represented as “dancing and clattering castanets[63].”
At the festivals held in honour of Ḥatḥor and Bastet dancing was an
indispensable feature; so, too, at the Apis festivals[64]. Again,
Bēs, or Bēsa, originally a dancing figure of the Sudanese type, is
represented on inscriptions as holding the youthful sun-god Harpokrates
in his left arm, and offering him food with the right hand; he also
provides for the young sun-god’s amusement, and is depicted performing
grotesque dances before him, and playing the harp and laughing. Thus he,
too, became in course of time, a god of dance, music, and merriment[65].
In dancing in honour of their gods and goddesses, therefore, the
Egyptians were employing a method of honouring which they imitated from
the gods themselves; and this seems to have been the case, at one time or
other, of their religious history, with most, if not all, races, so far
as the evidence enables us to judge.
As to processional dances Blackman says that
there is some reason for supposing that at Thebes and
elsewhere, on the occasion of the annual festival of Ḥatḥor,
that goddess’s priestesses, when the temple service and the
subsequent procession were ended, paraded the streets, and, in
company with the _Iḥwy_-priests, stopped at one house after
another in order to bestow Ḥatḥor’s blessing upon the inmates.
This they did by dancing and singing and holding out to their
audience—perhaps that they might touch them—the emblems of
their goddess, the sistra and _mnit_-necklaces[66].
Again, according to Apuleius, there was a sacred dance in connexion with
the worship of Isis. On stated days there was a great procession held in
honour of this goddess which went through the streets of the city; the
column was headed by a band of dancing masqueraders. He describes this
procession of the _Isidis Navigium_ minutely; among other details he
mentions that in one part of it there were musicians, playing on pipes
and flutes, followed by a chorus of chosen youths, clad in snowy white
garments; behind them came more musicians playing on pipes, and many
other men jingling on bronze, silver, and even golden sistra[67].
Another kind of procession, namely of barges, in which dancing also took
place, is described by Herodotus in speaking of the religious festivals
of the Egyptians. He says:
Now, when they are being conveyed to the city of Bubastis, they
act as follows,—men and women embark together, great numbers
of both sexes in every barge; some of the women have castanets
which they play, and the men play on the flute during the whole
journey; the rest of the men and women sing and clap their
hands together at the same time. When in the course of their
passage they come to any town, they lay their barge near to
the land and do as follows, some of the women do as I have
described ... some dance, and others stand up and pull up their
clothes. This they do at every town by the river-side[68].
Mention may be here appropriately made of a kind of ritual dance, though
not processional in the strict sense, which seems to be represented by
a scene very often portrayed on the doors of Egyptian temples. Here the
king is seen hastening towards the deity while performing a curious
dance-like running step in which only the fore-part of the foot touches
the ground. Kees has shown that this frequently occurring representation
on Egyptian temple-doors does in fact record a ritual dance in honour of
the god which was performed by the king when making his offerings[69].
Other types of the sacred dance among the Egyptians will come before us
later. It may be remarked here, however, that, in regard to the sacred
dance in general, it was, in the more ancient periods, of a staid and
measured character, if we may judge from the inscriptions. From the time
of the new empire onwards it assumed a form more like that of modern
times. As to the apparel worn for the sacred dance and the mode of its
performance, what held good of dancing in general applies also to this,
as may be gathered, again, from the inscriptions. In most representations
the women, like the men, wear quite short tunics, the former being decked
with all kinds of ornaments; sometimes long transparent robes are worn,
but this is exceptional. The women hold tambourines which they strike
with the open palm, others have castanets which they click. Mostly they
appear whirling about, evidently in quick time. The representations show
that there was much bending and other movements of body and limbs[70].
V
Among the Greeks dancing has from the earliest times been associated
with gods and goddesses. Thus, for example, Apollo, Ares, Dionysos,
Pan, are all described as dancers. Artemis dances with her companions,
and even Zeus and Hera do not disdain it. The “Pyrrhic Dance[71],”
accompanied by flute-players, which was performed during the festival
of _Panathenaia_[72], was said by some to be have been invented by the
Dioscuri[73], according to others it was originated by Athena. The Muses
danced on the Helicon around the altar of Zeus[74]. In the train of
Dionysos were the satyrs with their special dance, the _Sicinnis_[75].
That wherein the gods themselves delighted would, of course, delight
their worshippers; and it is true to say that there was scarcely ever
worship among the Greeks without song and dance. In his _Peri Orcheseōs_
(XV. 177) Lucian says:
... I pass over the fact that you cannot find a single ancient
mystery in which there is not dancing.... To prove this I
will not mention the secret acts of worship, on account of
the uninitiated. But this much all men know, that most people
say of those who reveal the mysteries, that they “dance them
out[76].”
There is abundant evidence to show the truth of Farnell’s statement that
“the dance and song were indispensable in Greek religious service[77].”
This fondness of the ancient Greeks for dancing necessitated suitable
places where it could be performed, whether for religious or secular
purposes. Ready-made plots for this were rarely to be looked for, since
what was wanted was a more or less circular level space. It happened far
more frequently that the ground had to be prepared artificially[78] and
a dancing-ground constructed by levelling up the soil which then had
sand strewn upon it. But wear and tear, as well as the dampness of the
ground, would soon have called for something more solid and abiding, and
therefore pavements were laid. By means of patterns formed of differently
coloured stones such pavements served also the purpose of facilitating
dance-formations. Such places for dancing were a source of pride to the
Greek cities in the time of Homer when there were as yet no open spaces
of public resort[79].
At least two inscriptions on which the sacred processional dance is
depicted have been found in Cyprus; one is a relief on limestone; it
represents a procession approaching the deity before whom an altar
stands; underneath on the left a sacred dance is vividly portrayed, and
on the right a sacred feast is taking place[80]. The other, which is of a
simpler character, shows the god seated under a tree, the worshippers are
coming towards him in solemn procession[81].
A great deal of light is thrown upon our subject by representations on
ancient Greek pottery, etc.; from a wealth of material we select the
following illustrations. On a vase-painting in the British Museum[82]
a triumphal dance procession is portrayed, it is in all probability
intended to be taking place in honour of Dionysos; men and women are
dancing, the latter playing tambourines and lyres; in the centre is
the god sitting on a camel. Some of the figures are Greek, others are
clearly oriental, thus illustrating the alien character of the cult of
Dionysos. The dancing in honour of this god is dealt with in Chapter VII;
this example of it is given here because it illustrates the processional
type of the sacred dance. Many illustrations can be seen in the British
Museum, and excellent reproductions of originals are given in various
books[83].
Our most informing source is, of course, Greek literature. In the
examples to be given we shall not restrict ourselves to processional
dances, for it is not always possible to say what formation a dance took.
Sacred dances were performed in honour of Artemis[84] at the feast of
_Tithēnidia_ which was celebrated in the temple of Artemis Koruthalia by
a stream outside Sparta; on this occasion sucking pigs and loaves were
sacrificed to the goddess. She was apparently also honoured with sacred
dance on Parnassos, for Farnell refers to a passage in the _Phoenissae_
according to which a maidens’ chorus was danced there “in honour of
the ἀθάνατoς Θεά, who, from the context, appears to be Artemis[85].” A
passage in Pausanias runs as follows:
A third cross-road leads on the right to Caryae, and to the
sanctuary of Artemis; for Caryae is sacred to Artemis and the
nymphs, and an image of Artemis Caryatis stands here under the
open sky. Here every year the Lacedaemonian maidens dance in
troops their national dance[86].
Frazer, in his notes on the passage, says that the dancing of the
Lacedaemonian maidens “is said to have been taught the Lacedaemonians by
Castor and Pollux (Lucian, _De Saltatione_, 10)....” “The name Caryae,”
he says further, “means ‘walnut-trees,’ and may have been given to the
town from the walnut-trees which grew there[87].” Further on Pausanias
tells of the Messenians who “waylaid by day the maidens who were dancing
at Caryae in honour of Artemis, and seizing the wealthiest and noblest
of them, carried them off to a village in Messenia[88].” When dancing in
honour of Artemis the maidens were dressed in short _chitôn_, and carried
a basket-like receptacle on their heads[89].
The worship of Artemis, as Curtius has observed, was peculiarly
associated with low-lying land and reed-covered marshes. The
reeds shared with men in the worship of the goddess, and moved
to the sound of the music in her festivals, or, as Strabo says,
the baskets danced, or in Laconia maidens crowned with reeds
danced[90].
At the Brauronian ceremonies of Artemis it was the custom for young
maidens to dance, in honour of the goddess, dressed in saffron robes; in
this dance both they and the priestess were called “bears.” The saffron
robe, according to Farnell, was “possibly worn in order to imitate the
tawny skin of the bear,” but he is doubtful of this; it is, however, very
probable, as he says, that in the earliest times of the rite an actual
bear-skin was worn by the dancers[91]. This dance was known by the name
of _Arkteia_; quite young girls took part in it, from the ages of five to
ten, and it appears to have been a kind of initiation by which they were
consecrated to Artemis before arriving at puberty[92].
On the dance called _Orkēsis Iōnikē_, which was performed in honour of
Artemis, see _Julii Pollucis Onomasticon_, IV. 193. Mention is also made
of the dancing in honour of this goddess at Elis, in Pisatid territory,
Pausan. VI. xxii. 1; see also Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_,
II. 445; and for other dances belonging to her worship see Gruppe, _op.
cit._ I. pp. 254, 283, 342, II. 842 and especially 1284; Lobeck, _Aglao._
II. 1085 ff.
The dancing performed at the festival of _Gymnopaediae_, also in honour
of Artemis, as well as Apollo and Latona, which was held in Sparta at
the beginning of July, is referred to by Pausanias; he says:
In the market-place at Sparta there are images of Pythaean
Apollo, Artemis, and Latona. This whole place is called
_Chorus_, because at the festival of _Gymnopaediae_, to which
the Lacedaemonians attach the greatest importance, the lads
dance choral dances in honour of Apollo[93].
Gruppe draws attention to the dancing performed in honour of Apollo
_Karneios_[94], so also Bekker[95]. Mention may also be made of the
Cretan legend of the birth of Zeus which is represented on coins from
Tralles; they have the inscription Διὸς γοναί, with Corybantes dancing in
honour of the new-born god, and striking their shields[96].
There can be no doubt that _every_ type of dance among the Greeks was in
its origin connected with religion; but in the case of some it is evident
that they quite lost their religious character. The “Pyrrhic Dance,”
which was at one time purely sacred and later lost this character, is
an instance[97]. Another is that of the dance called the “Labyrinth,”
known also as the “Game of Troy,” and “Ariadne’s Dance[98].” Réville, in
referring to it, says that
in certain mythologies it has been observed that all the stars
move, turning round the earth and following their regular
courses. Nothing more is wanted for these movements of the
stars to be likened to a rhythmic and complicated dance. The
consequence will be a religious dance in honour of the “army
of the heavens.” The dance will develop in a manner apparently
entangled, but nevertheless methodical. There were several
sacred dances having this character of imitation of the
movements of the stars; among others, that of the “Labyrinth,”
which was danced in Crete and Delos. The labyrinth itself, with
its thousand circuits, was a symbol of the starry heaven, and
the dance of the same name must have been a sort of animated
representation of it[99].
An interesting representation of this dance occurs on an Etruscan
Polledrara vase, painted by an Ionian artist, and found in Cyprus,
where the dance was at one time performed in Amathus in honour of
Aphrodite-Ariadne; according to tradition Theseus led the Attic youths
and maidens in this dance[100]. The representation is superbly executed.
The connexion of the name of Ariadne with this dance is sufficient to
show its originally religious character, and probably it remained so
always, theoretically; but even as early as the time of Homer, according
to the following account from the _Iliad_, the religious element does not
appear prominently:
Also with cunning art he wrought a dancing-floor; like unto
that which erst, in broad Knossos, Daidalos had made for
fair-haired Ariadne. Thereon young men and comely damsels were
dancing, that clasped each other by the wrist. The damsels were
arrayed in vestures of fine linen, and the men in fine-spun
tunics, glossy with oil. And the damsels wore fair coronals,
while the men carried golden dirks hanging from baldrics of
silver. Now they would dance with cunning feet, lightly, as
when a potter sitting at his task maketh trial of the wheel
that is ready to his hands, to see if it run; now they would
dance in long lines, facing one another. And a great company
stood around the beauteous dancing-place, rejoicing; and
two tumblers, leading the dance, kept whirling through the
midst[101].
This dance was adopted by the Romans from the Greeks. Virgil compares its
complicated evolutions with the windings of the Cretan labyrinth[102]; and
that the comparison is more than a mere poetical flourish
appears from a drawing on a very ancient Etruscan vase found
at Tragliatella. The drawing represents a procession of seven
beardless warriors dancing, accompanied by two armed riders on
horseback, who are also beardless. An inscription proves that
the scene depicted is the “Game of Troy”; and attached to the
procession is a figure of the Cretan labyrinth, the pattern of
which is well known from coins of Cnossus, on which it is often
represented. The same pattern, identified by an inscription,
_Labyrinthus, hic habitat Minotaurus_, is scratched on a wall
at Pompeii, and it is also worked in mosaic on the floor of
Roman apartments, with the figures of Theseus and Minotaur in
the middle[103].
After pointing out the widespread occurrence of this labyrinth pattern,
both for the purpose of games as well as of decorations, Frazer continues:
A dance or game which has thus spread over Europe, and survived
in a fashion to modern times must have been very popular, and
bearing in mind how often with the decay of old faiths the
serious rites and pageants of grown people have degenerated
into the sports of children, we may reasonably ask whether
“Ariadne’s Dance,” or the “Game of Troy,” may not have had its
origin in religious ritual. The ancients connected it with
Cnossus and the Minotaur. Now we have reason to hold, with many
other scholars, that Cnossus was the seat of a great worship
of the sun, and that the Minotaur was a representative or
embodiment of the sun-god. May not, then, “Ariadne’s Dance”
have been an imitation of the sun’s course in the sky? And may
not its intention have been, by means of sympathetic magic,
to aid the luminary to run his race on high?... If there is
any truth in this conjecture it would seem to follow that the
sinuous lines of the labyrinth which the dancers followed in
their evolutions may have represented the ecliptic, the sun’s
apparent annual path in the sky. It is some confirmation of
this view that on the coins of Cnossus the sun or a star
appears in the middle of the labyrinth, the place which on
other coins is occupied by the Minotaur[104].
Frazer’s interesting suggestion points to the originally religious
character of “Ariadne’s Dance,” which in course of time it lost. Like
the dances at Harvest and Vintage festivals, “Ariadne’s Dance” was
one of the mediums whereby the sacred dance developed into a purely
secular amusement. The same may be said of the _Geranos_, or “Crane
Dance,” danced at Delos, which was apparently derived from “Ariadne’s
Dance[105]”; and also of the _Hormos_, or “Chain Dance,” which was
also performed by youths and maidens holding their hands in a changing
line[106].
Finally, reference may be made to a few representations of the sacred
dance found in Cyprus, in addition to those already mentioned. On a vase,
numbered cxxxii. 1 by Ohnefalsch-Richter[107], a dance is represented in
which men and women are taking part, two of the former hold semi-circular
instruments with which they accompany the dance; also, three of the men,
one of whom seems to be acting as the leader, carry small swords at
their sides; this illustrates the words of Homer in the quotation given
above (lines 597-8). Again, on two bronze vases, numbered cxxix. 2 and
cxxx. 1, the dance represented shows women only, some of whom are playing
instruments, pipe, harp, and drum[108]; a similar representation occurs
on a painted Etruscan vase (cxxxii. 4), while on a thin golden plate from
a grave near Corinth[109] women are portrayed dancing and clothed with
long garments; this is numbered xxv. 15.
VI
In turning now to the sacred dance among the Romans we find that there is
not nearly the amount of material from which to gather information that
there is among the Greeks. Cicero said: “No man who is in a sober state
and not demented would dance either privately or in decent company[110].”
If, as we may suppose was the case, this reflected the general opinion,
one can well understand why it was that dancing never played such a part
in the national life of the Romans as it did in that of the Greeks.
Cicero, however, as is clear from the context of this quotation, was
referring to dancing as a pastime, which respectable Romans regarded as
inconsistent with their dignity. The dance in worship was a different
matter. Nevertheless, even in this domain it did not play the part, nor
anything like it, that it did among the Greeks. And what there was of it
was, in the main, due to Greek influence[111]. Not altogether, however;
and the influence of oriental cults must not be overlooked. Reinach,
in speaking of the effect that eastern religions produced upon that of
Rome, pointedly contrasts the hypocrisy of the sceptical priests in Italy
(“deux aruspices, disait Coton, ne peuvent se regarder sans rire”) with
the earnestness and sincerity of the oriental priest:
Quelle différence avec le prêtre oriental qui va droit au
fidèle, l’appelle son frère et le traite en conséquence,
éveille et nourrit les élans de sa dévotion, lui enseigne
l’exstase, l’espérance d’un monde meilleur....
Then he refers to the alien influences on the religion of Rome:
Juvénal se plaint que l’Oronte de Syrie se soit déversé dans le
Tibre; il aurait pu en dire autant du Nil, du Jourdain, et de
l’Halys... L’Empire romain se remplit des adorateurs d’Attis,
d’Isis, d’Osiris, de Sérapis, de Sabazios, de Zeus Dolichenos,
de Mithra. Les pratiques les plus étranges, empreinte d’un
sombre mysticisme, remplacèrent les froides et sévères coutumes
romaines[112].
But while giving due weight to the effect of these oriental influences,
the fact remains that it is chiefly to Greece that Rome owed the entry of
new cults. Within the small domain with which we are specially concerned
we have already considered the example of the “Game of Troy,” where it
was evident that this was borrowed from Greece. Another example which may
be cited is the ritual which accompanied the processions of supplication;
a solemn dance-step was characteristic of these; such, for instance, was
that which went from the temple of Apollo before the _Porta Carmentalis_
to that of _Juno Regina_ on the Aventine; to her an offering of two
white cows was made by the _Decemviri_. These latter formed the centre
of the procession, and in front of them were twenty-seven virgins who
had to sing in honour of Juno. The singing took place during a halt
in the _forum_; here the maidens sang their song while dancing with a
measured, stately tread. As Wissowa says, the entire ritual was Greek
from beginning to end[113]. It is probable that the dancing priests who
belonged to the early Roman _cultus_[114] witness also to Greek influence.
An interesting case of what may well have been an indirect importation
from Greece, and which records one of the earliest instances of the
sacred dance among the Romans, is mentioned by Frazer:
“In the fourth century before our era,” he writes, “the city
of Rome was desolated by a great plague which raged for three
years, carrying off some of the highest dignitaries and a
great multitude of common folk. The historian who records
the calamity informs us that when a banquet had been offered
to the gods in vain, and neither human counsels nor divine
help availed to mitigate the violence of the disease, it was
resolved for the first time in Roman history to institute
dramatical performances as an appropriate means of appeasing
the wrath of the celestial powders. Accordingly, actors were
fetched from Etruria, who danced certain simple and decorous
dances to the music of a flute. But even this novel spectacle
failed to amuse or touch, to move to tears or laughter, the
sullen gods[115]....”
The means which were subsequently found to be effective do not concern us
here; the point is that the sacred dance was imported from Etruria, and
it is well known that the Etruscans were largely indebted to Greece for
their religious ideas and ritual.
It will be unnecessary to offer further illustrations of this type of
religious dance among the Romans since it was mainly derived from Greece,
and we have already devoted a section to the rite among the Greeks. It
only remains to be said that there is a marked difference in the mode
of performing the sacred dance between the two peoples. Due largely
to national temperament, but also to earlier oriental influences, the
Greeks in their sacred dances gave freer vent to natural impulse, a
characteristic which was especially pronounced in the ecstatic dance,
with which we deal below (pp. 119 ff.). The Romans, on the other hand,
were far more restrained and dignified in their performance of them.
Nevertheless, among both peoples the sacred dance was a necessary adjunct
to worship, and that is the point with which we are specially concerned.
VII
We do not propose to deal, excepting incidentally, with the sacred dance
among the Asiatic peoples; firstly, because it would greatly increase the
bulk of this volume; and secondly, because it is doubtful whether our
doing so would really throw much further light on the subject than we
gain from the study of its prevalence among the peoples here considered.
It may be said generally, that the Asiatics are like the other peoples
with whom we deal in their belief that the sacred dance comes from the
higher powers. Among them, too, the sacred dance is an important part
of the ritual of worship, it has different purposes, and it is very
widespread. That much even a superficial knowledge of the religion of the
Asiatic peoples makes clear.
In referring to the subject of Vedic and Brahman worship in India Lehmann
says that the original character of Vedic sacrifice was a friendly feast
for the gods, and among the different ways of showing honour to the
exalted guests during the sacrifices were offerings of incense, music,
and dances, which were believed to give them pleasure[116].
VIII
Lastly, we come to consider a few examples of the sacred dance in general
among some of the uncultured races.
The Dakotahs perform a sacred dance in connexion with their worship of
the sun; it is executed by two young men “in a very singular attitude,”
as Schoolcraft says. These two young worshippers perform the dance while
in a state of almost complete nudity; each has a small whistle in his
mouth with which he accompanies the dance at intervals, and each faces
the sun while dancing, that is, as long as the sun is above the horizon.
The mode of dancing is a kind of hitch of first one leg and then the
other; they do this in a rhythmic manner and keep time by beating on raw
hides of parchment.... This dance is kept up for two, and occasionally
three, days, during which time the worshippers partake of no food[117].
To take, next, an example from Central America; Lumholtz[118] relates of
the Tarahumare Indians of Mexico that they believe that by dancing they
are able to gain the favour of their gods; their dancing is “a series of
monotonous movements, a kind of rhythmical exercise,” which they keep
up sometimes for two nights. “By dint of such hard work they think to
prevail upon the gods to grant their prayers.” According to the same
writer, the Tarahumares say that the animals taught them how to dance;
that is an interesting point which will come before us again in a moment.
They regard dancing as a very serious and ceremonious matter, it is “a
kind of worship and incantation rather than amusement.” The same is true
of the ancient Peruvians, to take a South American example; the sacred
dance was the “grand form of religious demonstration among them,” and
they were very assiduous in this form of devotion[119].
The belief of the Tarahumares that the animals first taught them how
to dance is interesting, for although it points to a relatively low
religious mentality, it is a stage in advance, for example, of that of
the natives of Ponape, one of the Caroline islands, in the Pacific; among
these
the different families suppose themselves to stand in a certain
relation to animals, and especially to fishes, and believe
in their descent from them. They actually name these animals
“mothers”; the creatures are sacred to the family and may not
be injured. Great dances, accompanied with the offering of
prayers, are performed in their honour[120].
These animals are their gods whom they honour by dancing; the Tarahumares
have separated their gods from the animals, but we may well surmise that
in an earlier stage among them their gods were the animals who taught
them to dance, and in whose honour they danced. Réville is certainly
right in his conjecture that the sacred dance among uncultured races was
the earliest form of adoration[121].
A good illustration of the way in which similar forms of worship are in
vogue among different peoples where there can be no question of borrowing
is afforded by the worship of the Pleiades. This was practised by the
ancient Peruvians[122], though whether dancing was performed in their
honour (which was highly probable) we are not told; but the aborigines of
Australia “sing and dance to gain the favour of the Pleiades” (whom they
call _Mormodellick_), they are worshipped as the givers of rain[123]. The
Blackfeet Indians of North America likewise worship the Pleiades;
at the general meeting of the nation there is a dance of
warriors, which is supposed to represent the dance of the seven
young men who are identified with the Pleiades. For the Indians
say that the seven stars of the constellation were seven
brothers, who guarded by night the field of sacred seed and
danced round it to keep themselves awake during the long hours
of darkness[124].
Frazer has collected many instances of the worship of this constellation
in lands widely separated; in most cases there is no mention of dancing
in its honour, but it is difficult to believe that this did not take
place during the celebration of the Festivals held at its appearance[125].