CHAPTER VII

INCARNATE HUMAN GODS

[Sidenote: The conception of gods has been slowly evolved.

As religion grows, magic declines into a black art.]

The instances which in the preceding chapters I have drawn from the

beliefs and practices of rude peoples all over the world, may suffice

to prove that the savage fails to recognise those limitations to his

power over nature which seem so obvious to us. In a society where every

man is supposed to be endowed more or less with powers which we should

call supernatural, it is plain that the distinction between gods and

men is somewhat blurred, or rather has scarcely emerged. The conception

of gods as superhuman beings endowed with powers to which man possesses

nothing comparable in degree and hardly even in kind, has been slowly

evolved in the course of history.​[1315] By primitive peoples the

supernatural agents are not regarded as greatly, if at all, superior to

man; for they may be frightened and coerced by him into doing his will.

At this stage of thought the world is viewed as a great democracy; all

beings in it, whether natural or supernatural, are supposed to stand on

a footing of tolerable equality. But with the growth of his knowledge

man learns to realise more clearly the vastness of nature and his own

littleness and feebleness in presence of it. The recognition of his

helplessness does not, however, carry with it a corresponding belief in

the impotence of those supernatural beings with which his imagination

peoples the universe. On the contrary, it enhances his {p374}

conception of their power. For the idea of the world as a system of

impersonal forces acting in accordance with fixed and invariable laws

has not yet fully dawned or darkened upon him. The germ of the idea he

certainly has, and he acts upon it, not only in magic art, but in much

of the business of daily life. But the idea remains undeveloped, and

so far as he attempts to explain the world he lives in, he pictures it

as the manifestation of conscious will and personal agency. If then he

feels himself to be so frail and slight, how vast and powerful must he

deem the beings who control the gigantic machinery of nature! Thus as

his old sense of equality with the gods slowly vanishes, he resigns

at the same time the hope of directing the course of nature by his

own unaided resources, that is, by magic, and looks more and more to

the gods as the sole repositories of those supernatural powers which

he once claimed to share with them. With the advance of knowledge,

therefore, prayer and sacrifice assume the leading place in religious

ritual; and magic, which once ranked with them as a legitimate equal,

is gradually relegated to the background and sinks to the level of a

black art. It is now regarded as an encroachment, at once vain and

impious, on the domain of the gods, and as such encounters the steady

opposition of the priests, whose reputation and influence rise or fall

with those of their gods. Hence, when at a late period the distinction

between religion and superstition has emerged, we find that sacrifice

and prayer are the resource of the pious and enlightened portion of

the community, while magic is the refuge of the superstitious and

ignorant. But when, still later, the conception of the elemental forces

as personal agents is giving way to the recognition of natural law;

then magic, based as it implicitly is on the idea of a necessary and

invariable sequence of cause and effect, independent of personal will,

reappears from the obscurity and discredit into which it had fallen,

and by investigating the causal sequences in nature, directly prepares

the way for science. Alchemy leads up to chemistry.

[Sidenote: The conception of a man-god or deity incarnate in human form

belongs to an early stage of religious history.]

The notion of a man-god, or of a human being endowed with divine or

supernatural powers, belongs essentially to that earlier period of

religious history in which gods and {p375} men are still viewed as

beings of much the same order, and before they are divided by the

impassable gulf which, to later thought, opens out between them.

Strange, therefore, as may seem to us the idea of a god incarnate in

human form, it has nothing very startling for early man, who sees in

a man-god or a god-man only a higher degree of the same supernatural

powers which he arrogates in perfect good faith to himself. Nor does

he draw any very sharp distinction between a god and a powerful

sorcerer. His gods, as we have seen,​[1316] are often merely invisible

magicians who behind the veil of nature work the same sort of charms

and incantations which the human magician works in a visible and

bodily form among his fellows. And as the gods are commonly believed

to exhibit themselves in the likeness of men to their worshippers,

it is easy for the magician, with his supposed miraculous powers, to

acquire the reputation of being an incarnate deity. Thus beginning

as little more than a simple conjurer, the medicine-man or magician

tends to blossom out into a full-blown god and king in one. Only in

speaking of him as a god we must beware of importing into the savage

conception of deity those very abstract and complex ideas which we

attach to the term. Our ideas on this profound subject are the fruit

of a long intellectual and moral evolution, and they are so far from

being shared by the savage that he cannot even understand them when

they are explained to him. Much of the controversy which has raged as

to the religion of the lower races has sprung merely from a mutual

misunderstanding. The savage does not understand the thoughts of the

civilised man, and few civilised men understand the thoughts of the

savage. When the savage uses his word for god, he has in his mind a

being of a certain sort: when the civilised man uses his word for

god, he has in his mind a being of a very different sort; and if, as

commonly happens, the two men are equally unable to place themselves

at the other’s point of view, nothing but confusion and mistakes can

result from their discussions. If we civilised men insist on limiting

the name of God to that particular conception of the divine nature

which we ourselves have formed, then we must confess that {p376} the

savage has no god at all. But we shall adhere more closely to the

facts of history if we allow most of the higher savages at least to

possess a rudimentary notion of certain supernatural beings who may

fittingly be called gods, though not in the full sense in which we use

the word. That rudimentary notion represents in all probability the

germ out of which the civilised peoples have gradually evolved their

own high conceptions of deity; and if we could trace the whole course

of religious development, we might find that the chain which links our

idea of the Godhead with that of the savage is one and unbroken.

[Sidenote: Examples of incarnate human deities.

The incarnation either temporary or permanent.]

With these explanations and cautions I will now adduce some examples

of gods who have been believed by their worshippers to be incarnate

in living human beings, whether men or women. The persons in whom a

deity is thought to reveal himself are by no means always kings or

descendants of kings; the supposed incarnation may take place even

in men of the humblest rank. In India, for example, one human god

started in life as a cotton-bleacher and another as the son of a

carpenter.​[1317] I shall therefore not draw my examples exclusively

from royal personages, as I wish to illustrate the general principle

of the deification of living men, in other words, the incarnation of a

deity in human form. Such incarnate gods are common in rude society.

The incarnation may be temporary or permanent. In the former case,

the incarnation—commonly known as inspiration or possession—reveals

itself in supernatural knowledge rather than in supernatural power.

In other words, its usual manifestations are divination and prophecy

rather than miracles. On the other hand, when the incarnation is not

merely temporary, when the divine spirit has permanently taken up its

abode in a human body, the god-man is usually expected to vindicate

his character by working miracles. Only we have to remember that by

men at this stage of thought miracles are not considered as breaches

of natural law. Not conceiving the existence of natural law, primitive

man cannot {p377} conceive a breach of it. A miracle is to him merely an

unusually striking manifestation of a common power.

[Sidenote: Temporary incarnation of gods in human form among the

Polynesians.]

The belief in temporary incarnation or inspiration is world-wide.

Certain persons are supposed to be possessed from time to time by a

spirit or deity; while the possession lasts, their own personality

lies in abeyance, the presence of the spirit is revealed by convulsive

shiverings and shakings of the man’s whole body, by wild gestures and

excited looks, all of which are referred, not to the man himself, but

to the spirit which has entered into him; and in this abnormal state

all his utterances are accepted as the voice of the god or spirit

dwelling in him and speaking through him. Thus, for example, in the

Sandwich Islands, the king personating the god, uttered the responses

of the oracle from his concealment in a frame of wicker-work. But

in the southern islands of the Pacific the god “frequently entered

the priest, who, inflated as it were with the divinity, ceased to

act or speak as a voluntary agent, but moved and spoke as entirely

under supernatural influence. In this respect there was a striking

resemblance between the rude oracles of the Polynesians, and those

of the celebrated nations of ancient Greece. As soon as the god was

supposed to have entered the priest, the latter became violently

agitated, and worked himself up to the highest pitch of apparent

frenzy, the muscles of the limbs seemed convulsed, the body swelled,

the countenance became terrific, the features distorted, and the eyes

wild and strained. In this state he often rolled on the earth, foaming

at the mouth, as if labouring under the influence of the divinity by

whom he was possessed, and, in shrill cries, and violent and often

indistinct sounds, revealed the will of the god. The priests, who were

attending, and versed in the mysteries, received, and reported to the

people, the declarations which had been thus received. When the priest

had uttered the response of the oracle, the violent paroxysm gradually

subsided, and comparative composure ensued. The god did not, however,

always leave him as soon as the communication had been made. Sometimes

the same _taura_, or priest, continued for two or three days possessed

by the spirit or deity; a piece of a native cloth, of a peculiar kind,

worn round one arm, was an indication {p378} of inspiration, or of the

indwelling of the god with the individual who wore it. The acts of the

man during this period were considered as those of the god, and hence

the greatest attention was paid to his expressions, and the whole of

his deportment. . . . When _uruhia_, (under the inspiration of the

spirit,) the priest was always considered as sacred as the god, and was

called, during this period, _atua_, god, though at other times only

denominated _taura_ or priest.”​[1318]

[Sidenote: Temporary incarnation of gods in Mangaia, Fiji, Bali, and

Celebes.

Temporary incarnation of gods in human form.]

In Mangaia, an island of the South Pacific, the priests in whom the

gods took up their abode from time to time were called “god-boxes”

or, for shortness, “gods.” Before giving oracles as gods, they drank

an intoxicating liquor, and in the frenzy thus produced their wild

whirling words were received as the voice of the deity.​[1319] In

Fiji there is in every tribe a certain family who alone are liable to

be thus temporarily inspired or possessed by a divine spirit. “Their

qualification is hereditary, and any one of the ancestral gods may

choose his vehicle from among them. I have seen this possession, and

a horrible sight it is. In one case, after the fit was over, for

some time the man’s muscles and nerves twitched and quivered in an

extraordinary way. He was naked except for his breech-clout, and on

his naked breast little snakes seemed to be wriggling for a moment or

two beneath his skin, disappearing and then suddenly reappearing in

another part of his chest. When the _mbete_ (which we may translate

‘priest’ for want of a better word) is seized by the possession, the

god within him calls out his own name in a stridulous tone, ‘It is I!

Katouivere!’ or some other name. At the next possession some other

ancestor may declare himself.”​[1320] In Bali there are certain persons

called _pĕrmas_, who are predestined or fitted by nature to become

the temporary abode of the invisible deities. When a god is to be

consulted, the villagers go and compel some of these mediums to lend

their services. Sometimes the medium leaves his consciousness at home,

and is then conducted with marks of honour to the temple, ready to

{p379} receive the godhead into his person. Generally, however, some

time passes before he can be brought into the requisite frame of body

and mind; but the desired result may be hastened by making him inhale

the smoke of incense or surrounding him with a band of singing men or

women. The soul of the medium quits for a time his body, which is thus

placed at the disposal of the deity, and up to the moment when his

consciousness returns all his words and acts are regarded as proceeding

not from himself but from the god. So long as the possession lasts he

is a _dewa kapiragan_, that is, a god who has become man, and in that

character he answers the questions put to him. During this time his

body is believed to be immaterial and hence invulnerable. A dance with

swords and pikes follows the consultation of the oracle; but these

weapons could make no impression on the ethereal body of the inspired

medium.​[1321] In Poso, a district of Central Celebes, sickness is

often supposed to be caused by an alien substance, such as a piece of

tobacco, a stick, or even a chopping-knife, which has been introduced

unseen into the body of the sufferer by the magic art of an insidious

foe. To discover and eject this foreign matter is a task for a god, who

for this purpose enters into the body of a priestess, speaks through

her mouth, and performs the necessary surgical operation with her

hands. An eye-witness of the ceremony has told how, when the priestess

sat beside the sick man, with her head covered by a cloth, she began

to quiver and shake and to sing in a strident tone, at which some one

observed to the writer, “Now her own spirit is leaving her body and a

god is taking its place.” On removing the cloth from her head she was

no longer a woman but a heavenly spirit, and gazed about her with an

astonished air as if to ask how she came from her own celestial region

to this humble abode. Yet the divine spirit condescended to chew betel

and to drink palm-wine like any poor mortal of earthly mould. After she

had pretended to extract the cause of the disease by laying the cloth

from her head on the patient’s stomach and pinching it, she veiled her

face once more, sobbed, {p380} quivered, and shook violently, at which

the people said, “The human spirit is returning into her.”​[1322]

[Sidenote: Deification of the sacrificer in Brahman ritual.

The new birth.]

A Brahman householder who performs the regular half-monthly sacrifices

is supposed thereby to become himself a deity for a time. In the words

of the _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, “He who is consecrated draws nigh to the

gods and becomes one of the deities.”​[1323] “All formulas of the

consecration are _audgrabhana_ (elevatory), since he who is consecrated

elevates himself (_ud-grabh_) from this world to the world of the

gods. He elevates himself by means of these same formulas.”​[1324]

“He who is consecrated indeed becomes both Vishnu and a sacrificer;

for when he is consecrated, he is Vishnu, and when he sacrifices, he

is the sacrificer.”​[1325] After he has completed the sacrifice he

becomes man again, divesting himself of his sacred character with the

words, “Now I am he who I really am,” which are thus explained in the

_Satapatha-Brâhmana_: “In entering upon the vow, he becomes, as it

were, non-human; and as it would not be becoming for him to say, ‘I

enter from truth into untruth’; and as, in fact, he now again becomes

man, let him therefore divest himself (of the vow) with the text: ‘Now

I am he who I really am.’”​[1326] The means by which the sacrificer

passed from untruth to truth, from the human to the divine, was a

simulation of a new birth. He was sprinkled with water as a symbol of

seed. He feigned to be an embryo, and shut himself up in a special hut,

which represented the womb. Under his robe he wore a belt, and over

it the skin of a black antelope; the belt stood for the navel-string,

and the robe and the black antelope skin represented the inner and

outer membranes (the amnion and the chorion) in which an embryo is

wrapt. He might not scratch himself with his nails or a stick because

he was an embryo, and were an embryo scratched with nails or a stick

it would die. If he moved about in {p381} the hut, it was because the

child moves about in the womb. If he kept his fists doubled up, it was

because an unborn babe does the same. If in bathing he put off the

black antelope skin but retained his robe, it was because the child is

born with the amnion but not with the chorion. By these practices he

acquired, in addition to his old natural and mortal body, a new body

that was sacramental and immortal, invested with superhuman powers,

encircled with an aureole of fire. Thus, by a new birth, a regeneration

of his carnal nature, the man became a god. At his natural birth, the

Brahmans said, man is born but in part; it is by sacrifice that he is

truly born into the world. The funeral rites, which ensured the final

passage from earth to heaven, might be considered as a phase of the new

birth. “In truth,” they said, “man is born thrice. At first he is born

of his father and mother; then when he sacrifices he is born again; and

lastly, when he dies and is laid on the fire, he is born again from

it, and that is his third birth. That is why they say that man is born

thrice.”​[1327]

[Sidenote: Temporary incarnation or inspiration produced by drinking

blood.]

But examples of such temporary inspiration are so common in every part

of the world and are now so familiar through books on ethnology that it

is needless to multiply illustrations of the general principle.​[1328]

It may be well, however, to refer to two particular modes of producing

temporary inspiration, because they are perhaps less known than some

others, and because we shall have occasion to refer to them later on.

One of these modes of producing inspiration is by sucking the fresh

blood of a sacrificed victim. In the temple of Apollo Diradiotes at

Argos, a lamb was sacrificed by night once a month; a woman, who had

to observe a rule of chastity, tasted the blood of the lamb, and thus

being inspired by the god she prophesied or divined.​[1329] At Aegira

in Achaia the priestess of Earth drank the fresh blood of a {p382} bull

before she descended into the cave to prophesy.​[1330] In southern

India a devil-dancer “cuts and lacerates his flesh till the blood

flows, lashes himself with a huge whip, presses a burning torch to his

breast, drinks the blood which flows from his own wounds, or drinks the

blood of the sacrifice, putting the throat of the decapitated goat to

his mouth. Then, as if he had acquired new life, he begins to brandish

his staff of bells, and to dance with a quick but wild unsteady step.

Suddenly the afflatus descends. There is no mistaking that glare, or

those frantic leaps. He snorts, he stares, he gyrates. The demon has

now taken bodily possession of him; and, though he retains the power

of utterance and of motion, both are under the demon’s control, and

his separate consciousness is in abeyance. The bystanders signalize

the event by raising a long shout, attended with a peculiar vibratory

noise, which is caused by the motion of the hand and tongue, or of the

tongue alone. The devil-dancer is now worshipped as a present deity,

and every bystander consults him respecting his disease, his wants,

the welfare of his absent relatives, the offerings to be made for the

accomplishment of his wishes, and, in short, respecting everything

for which superhuman knowledge is supposed to be available.”​[1331]

Similarly among the Kuruvikkarans, a class of bird-catchers and beggars

in Southern India, the goddess Kali is believed to descend upon the

priest, and he gives oracular replies after sucking the blood which

streams from the cut throat of a goat.​[1332] At a festival of the

Alfoors of Minahassa, in northern Celebes, after a pig has been killed,

the priest rushes furiously at it, thrusts his head into the carcase,

and drinks of the blood. Then he is dragged away from it by force and

set on a chair, whereupon he begins to prophesy how the rice-crop will

turn out that year. A second time he runs at the carcase and drinks

of the blood; a second time {p383} he is forced into the chair and

continues his predictions. It is thought that there is a spirit in

him which possesses the power of prophecy.​[1333] At Rhetra, a great

religious capital of the Western Slavs, the priest tasted the blood of

the sacrificed oxen and sheep in order the better to prophesy.​[1334]

The true test of a Dainyal or diviner among some of the Hindoo Koosh

tribes is to suck the blood from the neck of a decapitated goat.​[1335]

The Takhas on the border of Cashmeer have prophets who act as inspired

mediums between the deity and his worshippers. At the sacrifices the

prophet inhales the smoke of the sacred cedar in order to keep off evil

spirits, and sometimes he drinks the warm blood as it spouts from the

neck of the decapitated victim before he utters his oracle.​[1336] The

heathen of Harran regarded blood as unclean, but nevertheless drank it

because they believed it to be the food of demons, and thought that

by imbibing it they entered into communion with the demons, who would

thus visit them and lift the veil that hides the future from mortal

vision.​[1337]

[Sidenote: Temporary incarnation or inspiration produced by means of a

sacred tree or plant.]

The other mode of producing temporary inspiration, to which I shall

here refer, consists in the use of a sacred tree or plant. Thus in the

Hindoo Koosh a fire is kindled with twigs of the sacred cedar; and

the Dainyal or sibyl, with a cloth over her head, inhales the thick

pungent smoke till she is seized with convulsions and falls senseless

to the ground. Soon she rises and raises a shrill chant, which is {p384}

caught up and loudly repeated by her audience.​[1338] So Apollo’s

prophetess ate the sacred laurel and was fumigated with it before she

prophesied.​[1339] The Bacchanals ate ivy, and their inspired fury was

by some believed to be due to the exciting and intoxicating properties

of the plant.​[1340] In Uganda the priest, in order to be inspired by

his god, smokes a pipe of tobacco fiercely till he works himself into a

frenzy; the loud excited tones in which he then talks are recognised as

the voice of the god speaking through him.​[1341] In Madura, an island

off the north coast of Java, each spirit has its regular medium, who is

oftener a woman than a man. To prepare herself for the reception of the

spirit she inhales the fumes of incense, sitting with her head over a

smoking censer. Gradually she falls into a sort of trance accompanied

by shrieks, grimaces, and violent spasms. The spirit is now supposed to

have entered into her, and when she grows calmer her words are regarded

as oracular, being the utterances of the indwelling spirit, while her

own soul is temporarily absent.​[1342]

[Sidenote: Inspired victims.]

It is worth observing that many peoples expect the victim as well

as the priest or prophet to give signs of inspiration by convulsive

movements of the body; and if the animal remains obstinately steady,

they esteem it unfit for sacrifice. Thus when the Yakuts sacrifice

to an evil spirit, the beast must bellow and roll about, which is

considered a token that the evil spirit has entered into it.​[1343]

Apollo’s prophetess could give no oracles unless the sacrificial victim

trembled in every limb when the wine was poured on its head. But for

ordinary Greek sacrifices it was enough that the victim should shake

its head; to make it do so, water was poured on it.​[1344] Many other

peoples (Tonquinese, {p385} Hindoos, Chuwash, and so forth) have

adopted the same test of a suitable victim; they pour water or wine on

its head; if the animal shakes its head it is accepted for sacrifice;

if it does not, it is rejected.​[1345] Among the Kafirs of the Hindoo

Koosh the priest or his substitute pours water into the ear and all

down the spine of the intended victim, whether it be a sheep or a

goat. It is not enough that the animal should merely shake its head to

get the water out of its ear; it must shake its whole body as a wet

dog shakes himself. When it does so, a kissing sound is made by all

present, and the victim is forthwith slaughtered.​[1346]

[Sidenote: Divine power acquired by temporary inspiration.]

The person temporarily inspired is believed to acquire, not merely

divine knowledge, but also, at least occasionally, divine power. In

Cambodia, when an epidemic breaks out, the inhabitants of several

villages unite and go with a band of music at their head to look for

the man whom the local god is supposed to have chosen for his temporary

incarnation. {p386} When found, the man is conducted to the altar of the

god where the mystery of incarnation takes place. Then the man becomes

an object of veneration to his fellows, who implore him to protect

the village against the plague.​[1347] A certain image of Apollo,

which stood in a sacred cave at Hylae near Magnesia, was thought to

impart superhuman strength. Sacred men, inspired by it, leaped down

precipices, tore up huge trees by the roots, and carried them on their

backs along the narrowest defiles.​[1348] The feats performed by

inspired dervishes belong to the same class.

[Sidenote: Human gods, or men permanently possessed by a deity.

Human gods in the Pacific.]

Thus far we have seen that the savage, failing to discern the limits

of his ability to control nature, ascribes to himself and to all men

certain powers which we should now call supernatural. Further, we have

seen that, over and above this general supernaturalism, some persons

are supposed to be inspired for short periods by a divine spirit, and

thus temporarily to enjoy the knowledge and power of the indwelling

deity. From beliefs like these it is an easy step to the conviction

that certain men are permanently possessed by a deity, or in some other

undefined way are endued with so high a degree of supernatural power as

to be ranked as gods and to receive the homage of prayer and sacrifice.

Sometimes these human gods are restricted to purely supernatural or

spiritual functions. Sometimes they exercise supreme political power in

addition. In the latter case they are kings as well as gods, and the

government is a theocracy. Thus in the Marquesas or Washington Islands

there was a class of men who were deified in their lifetime. They were

supposed to wield a supernatural power over the elements; they could

give abundant harvests or smite the ground with barrenness; and they

could inflict disease or death. Human sacrifices were offered to them

to avert their wrath. There were not many of them, at the most one

or two in each island. They lived in mystic seclusion. {p387} Their

powers were sometimes, but not always, hereditary. A missionary has

described one of these human gods from personal observation. The god

was a very old man who lived in a large house within an enclosure. In

the house was a kind of altar, and on the beams of the house and on the

trees round it were hung human skeletons, head down. No one entered

the enclosure except the persons dedicated to the service of the god;

only on days when human victims were sacrificed might ordinary people

penetrate into the precinct. This human god received more sacrifices

than all the other gods; often he would sit on a sort of scaffold in

front of his house and call for two or three human victims at a time.

They were always brought, for the terror he inspired was extreme. He

was invoked all over the island, and offerings were sent to him from

every side.​[1349] Again, of the South Sea Islands in general we are

told that each island had a man who represented or personified the

divinity. Such men were called gods, and their substance was confounded

with that of the deity. The man-god was sometimes the king himself;

oftener he was a priest or subordinate chief.​[1350] Tanatoa, king of

Raiatea, was {p388} deified by a certain ceremony performed at the

chief temple. “As one of the divinities of his subjects, therefore,

the king was worshipped, consulted as an oracle and had sacrifices and

prayers offered to him.”​[1351] This was not an exceptional case. The

kings of the island regularly enjoyed divine honours, being deified

at the time of their accession.​[1352] At his inauguration the king

of Tahiti received a sacred girdle of red and yellow feathers, “which

not only raised him to the highest earthly station, but identified him

with their gods.”​[1353] A new piece, about eighteen inches long, was

added to the belt at the inauguration of every king, and three human

victims were sacrificed in the process.​[1354] The king’s houses were

called the clouds of heaven; the rainbow was the name of the canoe in

which he voyaged; his voice was spoken of as thunder, and the glare

of the torches in his dwelling as lightning; and when the people saw

them in the evening, as they passed near his house, instead of saying

the torches were burning in the palace, they would remark that the

lightning was flashing in the clouds of heaven. When he moved from one

district to another on the shoulders of his bearers, he was said to be

flying.​[1355] The natives of Futuna, an island in the South Pacific,

“are not content with deifying the evils that afflict them; they place

gods everywhere, and even go so far as to suppose that the greatest of

all the spirits resides in the person of their prince as in a living

sanctuary. From this belief springs a strange mode of regarding their

king, and of behaving under his authority. In their eyes the sovereign

is not responsible for his acts; they deem him inspired by the divine

spirit whose tabernacle he is; hence his will is sacred; even his

whims and rages are revered; and if it pleases him to play the tyrant,

his subjects submit from conscientious motives to {p389} the vexations

he inflicts on them.”​[1356] The gods of Samoa generally appeared in

animal form, but sometimes they were permanently incarnate in men, who

gave oracles, received offerings (occasionally of human flesh), healed

the sick, answered prayers, and so on.​[1357] In regard to the old

religion of the Fijians, and especially of the inhabitants of Somosomo,

it is said that “there appears to be no certain line of demarcation

between departed spirits and gods, nor between gods and living men,

for many of the priests and old chiefs are considered as sacred

persons, and not a few of them will also claim to themselves the right

of divinity. ‘I am a god,’ Tuikilakila would say; and he believed it

too.”​[1358] In the Pelew Islands it is thought that every god can take

possession of a man and speak through him. The possession may be either

temporary or permanent; in the latter case the chosen person is called

a _korong_. The god is free in his choice, so the position of _korong_

is not hereditary. After the death of a _korong_ the god is for some

time unrepresented, until he suddenly makes his appearance in a new

Avatar. The person thus chosen gives signs of the divine presence by

behaving in a strange way; he gapes, runs about, and performs a number

of senseless acts. At first people laugh at him, but his sacred mission

is in time recognised, and he is invited to assume his proper position

in the state. Generally this position is a distinguished one and

confers on him a powerful influence over the whole community. In some

of the islands the god is political sovereign of the land; and hence

his new incarnation, however humble his origin, is raised to the same

high rank, and rules, as god and king, over all the other chiefs.​[1359]

[Sidenote: Human gods in ancient Egypt.

Human gods in ancient Greece.]

The ancient Egyptians, far from restricting their {p390} adoration

to cats and dogs and such small deer, very liberally extended it to

men. One of these human deities resided at the village of Anabis,

and burnt sacrifices were offered to him on the altars; after which,

says Porphyry, he would eat his dinner just as if he were an ordinary

mortal.​[1360] In classical antiquity the Sicilian philosopher

Empedocles gave himself out to be not merely a wizard but a god.

Addressing his fellow-citizens in verse he said:—

“_O friends, in this great city that climbs the yellow slope_

_Of Agrigentum’s citadel, who make good works your scope,_

_Who offer to the stranger a haven quiet and fair,_

_All hail! Among you honoured I walk with lofty air._

_With garlands, blooming garlands you crown my noble brow,_

_A mortal man no longer, a deathless godhead now._

_Where e’er I go, the people crowd round and worship pay,_

_And thousands follow seeking to learn the better way._

_Some crave prophetic visions, some smit with anguish sore_

_Would fain hear words of comfort and suffer pain no more._”

He asserted that he could teach his disciples how to make the wind to

blow or be still, the rain to fall and the sun to shine, how to banish

sickness and old age and to raise the dead.​[1361] When Demetrius

Poliorcetes restored the Athenian democracy in 307 B.C., the Athenians

decreed divine honours to him and his father Antigonus, both of them

being then alive, under the title of the Saviour Gods. Altars were set

up to the Saviours, and a priest appointed to attend to their worship.

The people went forth to meet their deliverer with hymns and dances,

with garlands and incense and libations; they lined the streets and

sang that he was the only true god, for the other gods slept, or dwelt

far away, or were not. In the words of a contemporary poet, which were

chanted in public and sung in private:— {p391}

“_Of all the gods the greatest and the dearest_

_To the city are come._

_For Demeter and Demetrius_

_Together time has brought._

_She comes to hold the Maiden’s awful rites,_

_And he joyous and fair and laughing,_

_As befits a god._

_A glorious sight, with all his friends about him,_

_He in their midst,_

_They like to stars, and he the sun._

_Son of Poseidon the mighty, Aphrodite’s son,_

_All hail!_

_The other gods dwell far away,_

_Or have no ears,_

_Or are not, or pay us no heed._

_But thee we present see,_

_No god of wood or stone, but godhead true._

_Therefore to thee we pray._”​[1362]

[Sidenote: Human goddesses among the ancient Germans.]

The ancient Germans believed that there was something holy in women,

and accordingly consulted them as oracles. Their sacred women, we are

told, looked on the eddying rivers and listened to the murmur or the

roar of the water, and from the sight and sound foretold what would

come to pass.​[1363] But often the veneration of the men went further,

and they worshipped women as true and living goddesses. For example, in

the reign of Vespasian a certain Veleda, of the tribe of the Bructeri,

was commonly held to be a deity, and in that character reigned over

her people, her sway being acknowledged far and wide. She lived in a

tower on the river Lippe, a tributary of the Rhine. When the people

of Cologne sent to make a treaty with her, the ambassadors were not

admitted to her presence; the negotiations were conducted through a

minister, who acted as the mouthpiece of her divinity and reported her

oracular utterances.​[1364] The {p392} example shews how easily among

our rude forefathers the ideas of divinity and royalty coalesced. It is

said that among the Getae down to the beginning of our era there was

always a man who personified a god and was called God by the people. He

dwelt on a sacred mountain and acted as adviser to the king.​[1365]

[Sidenote: Human gods in South-East Africa.]

An early Portuguese historian informs us that the Quiteve or king

of Sofala, in south-eastern Africa, “is a woolly-haired Kaffir, a

heathen who adores nothing whatever, and has no knowledge of God;

on the contrary he esteems himself the god of all his lands, and is

so looked upon and reverenced by his subjects.” “When they suffer

necessity or scarcity they have recourse to the king, firmly believing

that he can give them all that they desire or have need of, and can

obtain anything from his dead predecessors, with whom they believe

that he holds converse. For this reason they ask the king to give

them rain when it is required, and other favourable weather for their

harvest, and in coming to ask for any of these things they bring him

valuable presents, which the king accepts, bidding them return to their

homes and he will be careful to grant their petitions. They are such

barbarians that though they see how often the king does not give them

what they ask for, they are not undeceived, but make him still greater

offerings, and many days are spent in these comings and goings, until

the weather turns to rain, and the Kaffirs are satisfied, believing

that the king did not grant their request until he had been well

bribed and importuned, as he himself affirms, in order to maintain

them in their error.”​[1366] The Zimbas, or Muzimbas, another people

of south-eastern Africa, “do not adore idols or recognise any god, but

instead they venerate and honour their king, whom they regard as a

divinity, and they say he is the greatest and best in the world. And

the said king says of himself that he alone is god of the earth, for

which reason if it rains when he does not wish it to do so, or is too

hot, he shoots arrows at the sky for not obeying him.”​[1367] Amongst

the Barotse, a tribe on the upper Zambesi, “there is an old but waning

{p393} belief that a chief is a demigod, and in heavy thunderstorms the

Barotse flock to the chief’s yard for protection from the lightning.

I have been greatly distressed at seeing them fall on their knees

before the chief, entreating him to open the water-pots of heaven and

send rain upon their gardens.” “The king’s servants declare themselves

to be invincible, because they are the servants of God (meaning _the

king_).”​[1368]

[Sidenote: Human gods in South Africa.]

The Maraves of South Africa “have a spiritual head to whom they ascribe

supernatural powers, revering him as a prophet and designating him

by the name of Chissumpe. Besides a considerable territory, which

he owns and rules, he receives tribute from all, even from the king

(_unde_). They believe that this being is invisible and immortal, and

they consult him as an oracle, in which case he makes himself heard.

He is personified by a _Fumo-a-Chissumpe_, that is, by an intimate of

the Chissumpe, whose dignity is hereditary and who is revered exactly

like the supposed Chissumpe, with whom he is naturally identical.

As he names his own successor, disputes as to the succession do not

arise. His oracles are as unintelligible and ambiguous as can well

be imagined. He derives great profit from impostors of both sexes,

who purchase the gift of soothsaying from him. In the settlement

(_Muzinda_) of the Chissumpe there are women whom the people regard

as his wives, but who, according to the universal belief, cannot bear

children. If these women are convicted of an offence with a man, they

are burnt along with the partner of their guilt.”​[1369] The Mashona of

southern Africa informed their bishop that they had once had a god, but

that the Matabeles had driven him away. “This last was in reference to

a curious custom in some villages of keeping a man they called their

god. He seemed to be consulted by the people and had presents given to

him. There was one at a village belonging to a chief {p394} Magondi, in

the old days. We were asked not to fire off any guns near the village,

or we should frighten him away.”​[1370] This Mashona god was formerly

bound to render an annual tribute to the king of the Matabeles in the

shape of four black oxen and one dance. A missionary has seen and

described the deity discharging the latter part of his duty in front

of the royal hut. For three mortal hours, without a break, to the

banging of a tambourine, the click of castanettes, and the drone of a

monotonous song, the swarthy god engaged in a frenzied dance, crouching

on his hams like a tailor, sweating like a pig, and bounding about with

an agility which testified to the strength and elasticity of his divine

legs.​[1371]

[Sidenote: Human god of the Makalakas.]

“In the Makalaka hills, to the west of Matabeleland, the natives all

acknowledge there dwells a god whom they name Ngwali, much worshipped

by the bushmen and Makalakas, and feared even by the Matabele:

even Lo Bengula paid tribute and sent presents to him often. This

individual has only been seen by a few of those who live close by,

and who doubtless profit by the numberless offerings made to this

strange being; but the god never dies; and the position is supposed

to be hereditary in the one family who are the intermediaries for and

connexion between Ngwali and the outer world.”​[1372] This Makalaka

god “resides in the depth of a cave, in the midst of a labyrinth.

Nobody has ever seen him, but he has sons and daughters, who are

priests and priestesses and dwell in the neighbourhood of the grotto.

It is rather odd that not long ago three sons of this god were put to

death like common mortals for having stolen wheat from the king. Lo

Bengula probably thought that they should practise justice even more

strictly than other folk. . . . In the middle of the cavern, they

say, there is a shaft, very deep and very black. From this gulf there

issue from time to time terrible noises like the crash of thunder. On

the edge of the abyss the worshippers tremblingly lay flesh and {p395}

wheat, fowls, cakes, and other presents to appease the hunger of the

dreadful god and secure his favour. After making this offering the

poor suppliants declare aloud their wishes and the object of their

application. They ask to know hidden things, future events, the names

of those who have cast a spell on them, the issue of such and such an

enterprise. After some moments of profound silence there are heard,

amid the crash of subterranean thunder, inarticulate sounds, strange

broken words, of which it is hard to make out the sense, and which the

medicine-men (_amazizis_), who are hand in glove with the makers of

thunder, explain to these credulous devotees.”​[1373]

[Sidenote: Human gods in Central and East Africa.]

The Baganda of Central Africa believed in a god of Lake Nyanza, who

sometimes took up his abode in a man or woman. The incarnate god was

much feared by all the people, including the king and the chiefs. When

the mystery of incarnation had taken place, the man, or rather the god,

removed about a mile and a half from the margin of the lake, and there

awaited the appearance of the new moon before he engaged in his sacred

duties. From the moment that the crescent moon appeared faintly in the

sky, the king and all his subjects were at the command of the divine

man, or _Lubare_ (god), as he was called, who reigned supreme not only

in matters of faith and ritual, but also in questions of war and state

policy. He was consulted as an oracle; by his word he could inflict

or heal sickness, withhold rain, and cause famine. Large presents

were made him when his advice was sought.​[1374] The chief of Urua,

a large region to the west of Lake Tanganyika, “arrogates to himself

divine honours and power and pretends to abstain from food for days

without feeling its necessity; and, indeed, declares that as a god he

is altogether above requiring food and only eats, drinks, and smokes

for the pleasure it affords him.”​[1375] Among the Gallas, when a woman

grows tired of the cares of housekeeping, she {p396} begins to talk

incoherently and to demean herself extravagantly. This is a sign of

the descent of the holy spirit Callo upon her. Immediately her husband

prostrates himself and adores her; she ceases to bear the humble title

of wife and is called “Lord”; domestic duties have no further claim on

her, and her will is a divine law.​[1376]

[Sidenote: Human gods in West Africa.]

The king of Loango is honoured by his people “as though he were a

god; and he is called Sambee and Pango, which mean god. They believe

that he can let them have rain when he likes; and once a year, in

December, which is the time they want rain, the people come to beg of

him to grant it to them.” On this occasion the king, standing on his

throne, shoots an arrow into the air, which is supposed to bring on

rain.​[1377] Much the same is said of the king of Mombasa.​[1378] Down

to a few years ago, when his spiritual reign on earth was brought to an

abrupt end by the carnal weapons of English marines and bluejackets,

the king of Benin was the chief object of worship in his dominions. “He

occupies a higher post here than the Pope does in Catholic Europe; for

he is not only God’s vicegerent upon earth, but a god himself, whose

subjects both obey and adore him as such, although I believe their

adoration to arise rather from fear than love.”​[1379] The king of

Iddah told the English officers of the Niger Expedition, “God made me

after his own image; I am all the same as God; and he appointed me a

king.”​[1380] In the language of the Hos, a Ewe tribe of Togoland, the

word for god is _Mawu_ and the Great God is _Mawu gã_. They personify

the blessing of god and say that the Great God dwells {p397} with a

rich man. “From the personification of the divine blessing to the

deification of the man himself the step is not a long one, and as a

matter of fact it is taken. The Hos know men in whose life are to be

seen so many resemblances to the Great God that they call them simply

_Mawu_. In the neighbourhood of Ho there lived a good many years ago

a man who enjoyed an extraordinary reputation in the whole of the

neighbourhood, and who accordingly named himself _Wuwo_, that is,

‘more than the others.’ The people actually paid him divine honours,

not indeed in the sense that they sacrificed to him, but in the sense

that they followed his words absolutely. They worked on his fields

and brought him rich presents. On the coast there lived a respected

old chief, who called himself _Mawu_. He was richer than all the

other chiefs, and the inhabitants of twenty-seven towns rendered him

unconditional obedience. In the circumstance that he was richer and

more honoured than all the other chiefs he saw his resemblance to the

deity.”​[1381]

[Sidenote: Divinity of kings and chiefs in Madagascar.]

Among the Hovas and other tribes of Madagascar there is said to be a

deep sense of the divinity of kings; and down to the acceptance of

Christianity by the late queen, the Hova sovereigns were regularly

termed “the visible God” (_Andriamánitra híta màso_) and other terms

of similar import were also applied to them.​[1382] The chiefs of the

Betsileo in Madagascar “are considered as far above the common people

and are looked upon almost as if they were gods.” “For the chiefs are

supposed to have power as regards the words they utter, not, however,

merely the power which a king possesses, but power like that of God;

a power which works of itself on account of its inherent virtue, and

not power exerted through soldiers and strong servants.”​[1383] “The

_Ampandzaka-mandzaka_ or sovereign whom the Sakkalava of the north

often call {p398} also _Zanahari ântani_, God on earth, is surrounded

by them with a veneration which resembles idolatry, and the vulgar are

simple enough to attribute the creation of the world to his ancestors.

The different parts of his body and his least actions are described by

nouns and verbs which are foreign to the ordinary language, forming

a separate vocabulary called _Voûla fâli_, sacred words, or _Voûla

n’ ampandzâka_, princely words. The person and the goods of the

_Ampandzaka-mandzaka_ are _fali_, sacred.”​[1384]

[Sidenote: Divine kings in the Malay region.

Miraculous powers attributed to regalia.]

The theory of the real divinity of a king is said to be held strongly

in the Malay region. Not only is the king’s person considered sacred,

but the sanctity of his body is supposed to communicate itself to his

regalia and to slay those who break the royal taboos. Thus it is firmly

believed that any one who seriously offends the royal person, who

imitates or touches even for a moment the chief objects of the regalia,

or who wrongfully makes use of the insignia or privileges of royalty,

will be _kĕna daulat_, that is, struck dead by a sort of electric

discharge of that divine power which the Malays suppose to reside

in the king’s person and to which they give the name of _daulat_ or

sanctity.​[1385] The regalia of every petty Malay state are believed to

be endowed with supernatural powers;​[1386] and we are told that “the

extraordinary strength of the Malay belief in the supernatural powers

of the regalia of their sovereigns can only be thoroughly realised

after a study of their romances, in which their kings are credited

with all the attributes of inferior gods, whose birth, as indeed every

subsequent act of their after-life, is attended by the most amazing

prodigies.”​[1387]

[Sidenote: Divine kings and men in the East Indies.]

Among the Battas of Central Sumatra there is a prince who bears the

hereditary title of Singa Mangaradja and is worshipped as a deity. He

reigns over Bakara, a village on the south-western shore of Lake Toba;

but his worship is diffused among the tribes both near and far. All

sorts of strange stories are told of him. It is said that {p399} he

was seven years in his mother’s womb, and thus came into the world a

seven-year-old child; that he has a black hairy tongue, the sight of

which is fatal, so that in speaking he keeps his mouth as nearly shut

as possible and gives all his orders in writing. Sometimes he remains

seven months without eating, or sleeps for three months together. He

can make the sun to shine or the rain to fall at his pleasure; hence

the people pray to him for a good harvest, and worshippers hasten to

Bakara from all sides with offerings in the hope of thereby securing

his miraculous aid. Wherever he goes, the gongs are solemnly beaten

and the public peace may not be broken. He is said to eat neither pork

nor dog’s flesh.​[1388] The Battas used to cherish a superstitious

veneration for the Sultan of Minangkabau, and shewed a blind submission

to his relations and emissaries, real or pretended, when these persons

appeared among them for the purpose of levying contributions. Even

when insulted and put in fear of their lives they made no attempt at

resistance; for they believed that their affairs would never prosper,

that their rice would be blighted and their buffaloes die, and that

they would remain under a sort of spell if they offended these sacred

messengers.​[1389] In the kingdom of Loowoo the great majority of the

people have never seen the king, and they believe that were they to

see him their belly would swell up and they would die on the spot.

The farther you go from the capital, the more firmly rooted is this

belief.​[1390] In time of public calamity, as during war or pestilence,

some of the Molucca Islanders used to celebrate a festival of heaven.

If no good result followed, they bought a slave, took him at the next

festival to the place of sacrifice, and set him on a raised place

under a certain bamboo-tree. This tree represented heaven, and had

been honoured as its image {p400} at former festivals. The portion

of the sacrifice which had previously been offered to heaven was now

given to the slave, who ate and drank it in the name and stead of

heaven. Henceforth he was well treated, kept for the festivals of

heaven, and employed to represent heaven and receive the offerings in

its name.​[1391] Every Alfoor village of northern Ceram has usually

six priests, of whom the most intelligent discharges the duties of

high priest. This man is the most powerful person in the village;

all the inhabitants, even the regent, are subject to him and must do

his bidding. The common herd regard him as a higher being, a sort

of demi-god. He aims at surrounding himself with an atmosphere of

mystery, and for this purpose lives in great seclusion, generally in

the council-house of the village, where he conceals himself from vulgar

eyes behind a screen or partition.​[1392] However, in this case the god

seems to be in process of incubation rather than full-fledged.

[Sidenote: Divine kings in Burma and Siam.

Divine men in Tonquin.

Divine head of the Babites.]

A peculiarly bloodthirsty monarch of Burma, by name Badonsachen, whose

very countenance reflected the inbred ferocity of his nature, and under

whose reign more victims perished by the executioner than by the common

enemy, conceived the notion that he was something more than mortal,

and that this high distinction had been granted him as a reward for

his numerous good works. Accordingly he laid aside the title of king

and aimed at making himself a god. With this view, and in imitation

of Buddha, who, before being advanced to the rank of a divinity, had

quitted his royal palace and seraglio and retired from the world,

Badonsachen withdrew from his palace to an immense pagoda, the largest

in the empire, which he had been engaged in constructing for many

years. Here he held conferences with the most learned monks, in which

he sought to persuade them that the five thousand years assigned for

the observance of the law of Buddha were now elapsed, and that he

himself was the god who was destined to appear after that period, and

to abolish the old law by {p401} substituting his own. But to his great

mortification many of the monks undertook to demonstrate the contrary;

and this disappointment, combined with his love of power and his

impatience under the restraints of an ascetic life, quickly disabused

him of his imaginary godhead, and drove him back to his palace and his

harem.​[1393] The king of Siam “is venerated equally with a divinity.

His subjects ought not to look him in the face; they prostrate

themselves before him when he passes, and appear before him on their

knees, their elbows resting on the ground.”​[1394] There is a special

language devoted to his sacred person and attributes, and it must be

used by all who speak to or of him. Even the natives have difficulty in

mastering this peculiar vocabulary. The hairs of the monarch’s head,

the soles of his feet, the breath of his body, indeed every single

detail of his person, both outward and inward, have particular names.

When he eats or drinks, sleeps or walks, a special word indicates

that these acts are being performed by the sovereign, and such words

cannot possibly be applied to the acts of any other person whatever.

There is no word in the Siamese language by which any creature of

higher rank or greater dignity than a monarch can be described; and

the missionaries, when they speak of God, are forced to use the native

word for king.​[1395] In Tonquin every village chooses its guardian

{p402} spirit, often in the form of an animal, as a dog, tiger, cat, or

serpent. Sometimes a living person is selected as patron-divinity. Thus

a beggar persuaded the people of a village that he was their guardian

spirit; so they loaded him with honours and entertained him with their

best.​[1396] At the present day the head of the great Persian sect of

the Babites, Abbas Effendi by name, resides at Acre in Syria, and is

held by Frenchmen, Russians, and Americans, especially by rich American

ladies, to be an incarnation of God himself. The late Professor S. I.

Curtiss of Chicago had the honour of dining with “the master,” as he

is invariably called by his followers, when the incarnation expressed

a kindly hope that he might have the pleasure of drinking tea with the

professor in the kingdom of heaven.​[1397]

[Sidenote: Human gods in India.

Divine dairymen among the Todas.]

But perhaps no country in the world has been so prolific of human

gods as India; nowhere has the divine grace been poured out in a more

liberal measure on all classes of society from kings down to milkmen.

Thus amongst the Todas, a pastoral people of the Neilgherry Hills of

southern India, the dairy is a sanctuary, and the milkman who attends

to it has been described as a god. On being asked whether the Todas

salute the sun, one of these divine milkmen replied, “Those poor

fellows do so, but I,” tapping his chest, “I, a god! why should I

salute the sun?” Every one, even his own father, prostrates himself

before the milkman, and no one would dare to refuse him anything. No

human being, except another milkman, {p403} may touch him; and he gives

oracles to all who consult him, speaking with the voice of a god.​[1398]

[Sidenote: Kings and Brahmans considered as gods in India.

Other human gods in India.]

Further, in India “every king is regarded as little short of a present

god.”​[1399] The Hindoo law-book of Manu goes farther and says that

“even an infant king must not be despised from an idea that he is a

mere mortal; for he is a great deity in human form.”​[1400] As to the

Brahmans it is laid down in the same treatise that a Brahman, “be he

ignorant or learned, is a great divinity, just as the fire, whether

carried forth (for the performance of a burnt-oblation) or not carried

forth, is a great divinity.” Further, it is said that though Brahmans

“employ themselves in all sorts of mean occupations, they must be

honoured in every way; for each of them is a very great deity.”​[1401]

In another ancient Hindoo book we read that “verily, there are two

kinds of gods; for, indeed, the gods are the gods; and the Brahmans who

have studied and teach sacred lore are the human gods. The sacrifice

of these is divided into two kinds: oblations constitute the sacrifice

to the gods; and gifts to the priests that to the human gods, the

Brahmans who have studied and teach sacred lore.”​[1402] The spiritual

power of a Brahman priest is described as unbounded. “His anger is

as terrible as that of the gods. His blessing makes rich, his curse

withers. Nay, more, he is himself actually worshipped as a god. No

marvel, no prodigy in nature is believed to be beyond the limits of his

power to accomplish. If the priest were to threaten to bring down the

sun from the sky or arrest it in its daily course in the heavens, no

villager would for a moment doubt his ability to do so.”​[1403] As to

the _mantras_, or sacred texts by means of which the Brahmans exercise

{p404} their miraculous powers, there is a saying everywhere current in

India: “The whole universe is subject to the gods; the gods are subject

to the Mantras; the Mantras to the Brahmans; therefore the Brahmans

are our gods.”​[1404] There is said to have been a sect in Orissa

some years ago who worshipped the late Queen Victoria in her lifetime

as their chief divinity. And to this day in India all living persons

remarkable for great strength or valour or for supposed miraculous

powers run the risk of being worshipped as gods. Thus, a sect in the

Punjaub worshipped a deity whom they called Nikkal Sen. This Nikkal

Sen was no other than the redoubted General Nicholson, and nothing

that the general could do or say damped the ardour of his adorers. The

more he punished them, the greater grew the religious awe with which

they worshipped him.​[1405] At Benares a few years ago a celebrated

deity was incarnate in the person of a Hindoo gentleman who rejoiced

in the euphonious name of Swami Bhaskaranandaji Saraswati, and looked

uncommonly like the late Cardinal Manning, only more ingenuous. His

eyes beamed with kindly human interest, and he took what is described

as an innocent pleasure in the divine honours paid him by his confiding

worshippers.​[1406]

[Sidenote: Lingayat priests worshipped as gods.

Human incarnations of the elephant-headed god Gunputty.]

The Lingayats are the Unitarians of Hindooism, for they believe in only

one god, Siva, rejecting the other two persons of the Hindoo Trinity.

Yet “they esteem the _Jangam_ or priest as superior even to the deity.

They pay homage to the _Jangam_ first and to Siva afterwards. The

_Jangam_ is regarded as an incarnation of the deity. . . . In practice

the _Jangam_ is placed first and, as stated above, is worshipped

as {p405} god upon earth.”​[1407] In 1900 a hill-man in Vizagapatam

gave out that he was an incarnate god, and his claims to divinity

were accepted by a following of five thousand people, who, when a

sceptical government sent an armed force to suppress the movement,

which threatened political trouble, testified to the faith that was in

them by resisting even to the shedding of their blood. Two policemen

who refused to bow the knee to the new god were knocked on the head.

However, in the scuffle the deity himself was arrested and laid by

the heels in gaol, where he died just like a common mortal.​[1408]

At Chinchvad, a small town about ten miles from Poona in western

India, there lives a family of whom one in each generation is believed

by a large proportion of the Mahrattas to be an incarnation of the

elephant-headed god Gunputty. That celebrated deity was first made

flesh about the year 1640 in the person of a Brahman of Poona, by name

Mooraba Gosseyn, who sought to work out his salvation by abstinence,

mortification, and prayer. His piety had its reward. The god himself

appeared to him in a vision of the night and promised that a portion of

his, that is, of Gunputty’s holy spirit should abide with him and with

his seed after him even to the seventh generation. The divine promise

was fulfilled. Seven successive incarnations, transmitted from father

to son, manifested the light of Gunputty to a dark world. The last of

the direct line, a heavy-looking god with very weak eyes, died in the

year 1810. But the cause of truth was too sacred, and the value of the

church property too considerable, to allow the Brahmans to contemplate

with equanimity the unspeakable loss that would be sustained by a world

which knew not Gunputty. Accordingly they sought and found a holy

vessel in whom the divine spirit of the master had revealed itself

anew, and the revelation has been happily continued in an unbroken

succession of vessels from that time to this. But a mysterious law of

spiritual economy, whose operation in the history of religion we may

deplore though we cannot alter, has decreed that the miracles {p406}

wrought by the god-man in these degenerate days cannot compare with

those which were wrought by his predecessors in days gone by; and it

is even reported that the only sign vouchsafed by him to the present

generation of vipers is the miracle of feeding the multitude whom he

annually entertains to dinner at Chinchvad.​[1409]

[Sidenote: Worship of the Maharajas as incarnations of Krishna.]

A Hindoo sect, which has many representatives in Bombay and Central

India, holds that its spiritual chiefs or Maharajas, as they are

called, are representatives or even actual incarnations on earth of the

god Krishna. Hence in the temples where the Maharajas do homage to the

idols, men and women do homage to the Maharajas, prostrating themselves

at their feet, offering them incense, fruits, and flowers, and waving

lights before them, as the Maharajas themselves do before the images of

the gods. One mode of worshipping Krishna is by swinging his images in

swings. Hence, in every district presided over by a Maharaja, the women

are wont to worship not Krishna but the Maharaja by swinging him in

pendulous seats. The leavings of his food, the dust on which he treads,

the water in which his dirty linen is washed, are all eagerly swallowed

by his devotees, who worship his wooden shoes, and prostrate themselves

before his seat and his painted portraits. And as Krishna looks down

from heaven with most favour on such as minister to the wants of his

successors and vicars on earth, a peculiar rite called Self-devotion

has been instituted, whereby his faithful worshippers make over their

bodies, their souls, and, what is perhaps still more important, their

worldly substance to his adorable incarnations; and women are taught to

believe that the highest bliss for themselves and their families is to

be attained by yielding themselves to the embraces of those beings in

whom the divine nature {p407} mysteriously coexists with the form and

even the appetites of true humanity.​[1410]

[Sidenote: Pretenders to divinity among Christians.]

Christianity itself has not uniformly escaped the taint of these

unhappy delusions; indeed it has often been sullied by the

extravagances of vain pretenders to a divinity equal to or even

surpassing that of its great Founder. In the second century Montanus

the Phrygian claimed to be the incarnate Trinity, uniting in his single

person God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.​[1411]

Nor is this an isolated case, the exorbitant pretension of a single

ill-balanced mind. From the earliest times down to the present day many

sects have believed that Christ, nay God himself, is incarnate in every

fully initiated Christian, and they have carried this belief to its

logical conclusion by adoring each other. Tertullian records that this

was done by his fellow-Christians at Carthage in the second century;

the disciples of St. Columba worshipped him as an embodiment of Christ;

and in the eighth century Elipandus of Toledo spoke of Christ as “a

god among gods,” meaning that all believers were gods just as truly

as Jesus himself. The adoration of each other was customary among the

Albigenses, and is noticed hundreds of times in the records of the

Inquisition at Toulouse in the early part of the fourteenth century. It

is still practised by the Paulicians of Armenia and the Bogomiles about

Moscow. The Paulicians, indeed, presume to justify their faith, if not

their practice, by the authority of St. Paul, who said, “It is not I

that speak, but Christ that dwelleth in me.”​[1412] Hence the members

of this Russian sect are known as the Christs. “Among them men and

women alike take upon themselves the calling of teachers and prophets,

and in this character they lead a strict, ascetic life, refrain from

the most ordinary and innocent pleasures, exhaust themselves by

long fasting {p408} and wild ecstatic religious exercises, and abhor

marriage. Under the excitement caused by their supposed holiness and

inspiration, they call themselves not only teachers and prophets, but

also ‘Saviours,’ ‘Redeemers,’ ‘Christs,’ ‘Mothers of God.’ Generally

speaking, they call themselves simply Gods, and pray to each other as

to real gods and living Christs or Madonnas.”​[1413]

[Sidenote: Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit.

Incarnation of the Holy Ghost.]

In the thirteenth century there arose a sect called the Brethren

and Sisters of the Free Spirit, who held that by long and assiduous

contemplation any man might be united to the deity in an ineffable

manner and become one with the source and parent of all things, and

that he who had thus ascended to God and been absorbed in his beatific

essence, actually formed part of the Godhead, was the Son of God in

the same sense and manner with Christ himself, and enjoyed thereby

a glorious immunity from the trammels of all laws human and divine.

Inwardly transported by this blissful persuasion, though outwardly

presenting in their aspect and manners a shocking air of lunacy and

distraction, the sectaries roamed from place to place, attired in

the most fantastic apparel and begging their bread with wild shouts

and clamour, spurning indignantly every kind of honest labour and

industry as an obstacle to divine contemplation and to the ascent of

the soul towards the Father of spirits. In all their excursions they

were followed by women with whom they lived on terms of the closest

familiarity. Those of them who conceived they had made the greatest

proficiency in the higher spiritual life dispensed with the use of

clothes altogether in their assemblies, looking upon decency and

modesty as marks of inward corruption, characteristics of a soul that

still grovelled under the dominion of the flesh and had not yet been

elevated into communion with the divine spirit, its centre and source.

Sometimes their progress towards this mystic communion was accelerated

by the Inquisition, {p409} and they expired in the flames, not merely

with unclouded serenity, but with the most triumphant feelings of

cheerfulness and joy.​[1414] In the same century a Bohemian woman named

Wilhelmina, whose head had been turned by brooding over some crazy

predictions about a coming age of the Holy Ghost, persuaded herself and

many people besides that the Holy Ghost had actually become incarnate

in her person for the salvation of a great part of mankind. She died at

Milan in the year 1281 in the most fragrant odour of sanctity, and her

memory was held in the highest veneration by a numerous following, and

even honoured with religious worship both public and private.​[1415]

[Sidenote: Modern incarnations of Jesus Christ.]

About the year 1830 there appeared, in one of the states of the

American Union bordering on Kentucky, an impostor who declared that he

was the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind, and that he had reappeared

on earth to recall the impious, the unbelieving, and sinners to their

duty. He protested that if they did not mend their ways within a

certain time, he would give the signal, and in a moment the world

would crumble to ruins. These extravagant pretensions were received

with favour even by persons of wealth and position in society. At last

a German humbly besought the new Messiah to announce the dreadful

catastrophe to his fellow-countrymen in the German language, as they

did not understand English, and it seemed a pity that they should be

damned merely on that account. The would-be Saviour in reply confessed

with great candour that he did not know German. “What!” retorted the

German, “you the Son of God, and don’t speak all languages, and don’t

even know German? Come, come, you are a knave, a hypocrite, and a

madman. Bedlam is the place for you.” The spectators laughed, and went

away ashamed of their credulity.​[1416] About thirty years ago a new

sect was founded at Patiala in the Punjaub by a wretched creature named

Hakim Singh, who lived in extreme poverty and filth, gave himself out

to be a {p410} reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and offered to baptize the

missionaries who attempted to argue with him. He proposed shortly to

destroy the British Government, and to convert and conquer the world.

His gospel was accepted by four thousand believers in his immediate

neighbourhood.​[1417] Cases like these verge on, if they do not cross,

the wavering and uncertain line which divides the raptures of religion

from insanity.

[Sidenote: Transmigrations of human deities.]

Sometimes, at the death of the human incarnation, the divine spirit

transmigrates into another man. In the kingdom of Kaffa, in eastern

Africa, the heathen part of the people worship a spirit called _Deòce_,

to whom they offer prayer and sacrifice, and whom they invoke on all

important occasions. This spirit is incarnate in the grand magician

or pope, a person of great wealth and influence, ranking almost with

the king, and wielding the spiritual, as the king wields the temporal

power. It happened that, shortly before the arrival of a Christian

missionary in the kingdom, this African pope died, and the priests,

fearing lest the missionary might assume the position vacated by the

deceased prelate, declared that the _Deòce_ had passed into the king,

who henceforth, uniting the spiritual with the temporal power, reigned

as god and king.​[1418] Before beginning to work at the salt-pans in

a Laosian village, the workmen offer sacrifice to the divinity of the

salt-pans. This divinity is incarnate in a woman and transmigrates at

her death into another woman.​[1419] In Bhotan the spiritual head of

the government is a dignitary called the Dhurma Rajah, who is supposed

to be a perpetual incarnation of the deity. At his death the new

incarnate god shews himself in an infant by the refusal of his mother’s

milk and a preference for that of a cow.​[1420]

[Sidenote: Transmigrations of the divine Lamas.

Divinity of the Grand Lama of Lhasa.]

The Buddhist Tartars believe in a great number of living Buddhas,

who officiate as Grand Lamas at the {p411} head of the most important

monasteries. When one of these Grand Lamas dies his disciples do not

sorrow, for they know that he will soon reappear, being born in the

form of an infant. Their only anxiety is to discover the place of his

birth. If at this time they see a rainbow they take it as a sign sent

them by the departed Lama to guide them to his cradle. Sometimes the

divine infant himself reveals his identity. “I am the Grand Lama,” he

says, “the living Buddha of such and such a temple. Take me to my old

monastery. I am its immortal head.” In whatever way the birthplace

of the Buddha is revealed, whether by the Buddha’s own avowal or by

the sign in the sky, tents are struck, and the joyful pilgrims, often

headed by the king or one of the most illustrious of the royal family,

set forth to find and bring home the infant god. Generally he is born

in Tibet, the holy land, and to reach him the caravan has often to

traverse the most frightful deserts. When at last they find the child

they fall down and worship him. Before, however, he is acknowledged as

the Grand Lama whom they seek he must satisfy them of his identity.

He is asked the name of the monastery of which he claims to be the

head, how far off it is, and how many monks live in it; he must also

describe the habits of the deceased Grand Lama and the manner of his

death. Then various articles, as prayer-books, tea-pots, and cups, are

placed before him, and he has to point out those used by himself in his

previous life. If he does so without a mistake his claims are admitted,

and he is conducted in triumph to the monastery.​[1421] At the head of

all the Lamas is the Dalai Lama of Lhasa, {p412} the Rome of Tibet.

He is regarded as a living god, and at death his divine and immortal

spirit is born again in a child. According to some accounts the mode

of discovering the Dalai Lama is similar to the method, already

described, of discovering an ordinary Grand Lama. Other accounts speak

of an election by drawing lots from a golden jar. Wherever he is born,

the trees and plants put forth green leaves; at his bidding flowers

bloom and springs of water rise; and his presence diffuses heavenly

blessings. His palace stands on a commanding height; its gilded cupolas

are seen sparkling in the sunlight for miles.​[1422] In 1661 or 1662

Fathers Grueber and d’Orville, on their return from Peking to Europe,

spent two months at Lhasa waiting for a caravan, and they report

that the Grand Lama was worshipped as a true and living god, that he

received the title of the Eternal and Heavenly Father, and that he

was believed to have risen from the dead no less than seven times. He

lived withdrawn from the business of this passing world in the recesses

of his palace, where, seated aloft on a cushion and precious carpets,

he received the homage of his adorers in a chamber screened from the

garish eye of day, but glittering with gold and silver, and lit up by

the blaze of a multitude of torches. His worshippers, with heads bowed

to the earth, attested their veneration by kissing his feet, and even

bribed the attendant Lamas with great sums to give them a little of the

natural secretions of his divine person, which they either swallowed

with their food or wore about their necks as an amulet that fortified

them against the assaults of every ailment.​[1423]

[Sidenote: Incarnate human gods in the Chinese empire.]

But he is by no means the only man who poses as a god in these regions.

A register of all the incarnate gods in the Chinese empire is kept

in the _Li fan yüan_ or Colonial {p413} Office at Peking. The number

of gods who have thus taken out a license is one hundred and sixty.

Tibet is blessed with thirty of them, northern Mongolia rejoices in

nineteen, and southern Mongolia basks in the sunshine of no less than

fifty-seven. The Chinese government, with a paternal solicitude for the

welfare of its subjects, forbids the gods on the register to be reborn

anywhere but in Tibet. They fear lest the birth of a god in Mongolia

should have serious political consequences by stirring the dormant

patriotism and warlike spirit of the Mongols, who might rally round

an ambitious native deity of royal lineage and seek to win for him,

at the point of the sword, a temporal as well as a spiritual kingdom.

But besides these public or licensed gods there are a great many

little private gods, or unlicensed practitioners of divinity, who work

miracles and bless their people in holes and corners; and of late years

the Chinese government has winked at the rebirth of these pettifogging

deities outside of Tibet. However, once they are born, the government

keeps its eye on them as well as on the regular practitioners, and

if any of them misbehaves he is promptly degraded, banished to a

distant monastery, and strictly forbidden ever to be born again in the

flesh.​[1424]

[Sidenote: Divine head of the Taoist religion in China.]

At the head of Taoism, the most numerous religious sect of China, is

a pope who goes by the name of the Heavenly Master and is believed to

be an incarnation and representative on earth of the god of heaven.

His official title is _Chên-yen_, or “the True Man.” When one of these

pontiffs or incarnate deities departs this life, his soul passes into

a male member of his family, the ancient house of Chang. In order to

determine the chosen vessel, all the male members of the clan assemble

at the palace, their names are engraved on tablets of lead, the tablets

are thrown into a vase full of water, and the one which bears the

name of the new incarnation floats on the surface. The reputation and

power of the pope are very great. He lives in princely style at his

palace on the Dragon and Tiger {p414} mountains in the province of

Kiang-si, about twenty-five miles to the south-west of Kuei-Ki. The

road, which is kept in good repair, partly flagged, and provided at

regular intervals with stone halls for the repose of weary pilgrims,

leads gradually upward through a bleak and barren district, treeless

and thinly peopled, to the summit of a pass, from which a beautiful

prospect suddenly opens up of a wide and fertile valley watered by a

little stream. The scene charms the traveller all the more by contrast

with the desert country which he has just traversed. This is the

beginning of the pope’s patrimony, which he holds from the emperor

free of taxes. The palace stands in the middle of a little town. It is

new and of no special interest, having been rebuilt after the Taiping

rebellion. For in their march northward the rebels devastated the papal

domains with great fury. About a mile to the east of the palace lie

the ruins of stately temples, which also perished in the great rising

and have only in part been rebuilt. However, the principal temple is

well preserved. It is dedicated to the god of heaven and contains a

colossal image of that deity. The papal residence naturally swarms

with monks and priests of all ranks. But the courts and gardens of

the monasteries, littered with heaps of broken bricks and stones

and mouldering wood, present a melancholy spectacle of decay. And

the ruinous state of the religious capital reflects the decline of

the papacy. The number of pilgrims has fallen off and with them the

revenues of the holy see. Of old the pope ranked with viceroys and

the highest dignitaries of the empire; now he is reduced to the level

of a mandarin of the third class, and wears a blue button instead

of a red. Formerly he repaired every year to the imperial court at

Peking or elsewhere in order to procure peace and prosperity for the

whole kingdom by means of his ceremonies; and on his journey the gods

and spirits were bound to come from every quarter to pay him homage,

unless he considerately hung out on his palanquin a board with the

notice, “You need not trouble to salute.” The people, too, gathered

up the dust or mud from under his feet to preserve it as a priceless

talisman. Nowadays, if he goes to court at all, it seems to be not

oftener than once in three years; and his {p415} services are seldom

wanted except to ban the demons of plague. But he still exercises the

right of elevating deceased mandarins to the rank of local deities, and

as he receives a fee for every deification, the ranks of the celestial

hierarchy naturally receive many recruits. He also draws a considerable

revenue from the manufacture and sale of red and green papers inscribed

with cabalistic characters, which are infallible safeguards against

demons, disease, and calamities of every sort.​[1425]

[Sidenote: Divine kings of Peru.

Divine rulers among the Chibchas.

Divine kings of Mexico.]

From our survey of the religious position occupied by the king in

rude societies we may infer that the claim to divine and supernatural

powers put forward by the monarchs of great historical empires like

those of Egypt, China, Mexico, and Peru, was not the simple outcome of

inflated vanity or the empty expression of a grovelling adulation; it

was merely a survival and extension of the old savage apotheosis of

living kings. Thus, for example, as children of the Sun the Incas of

Peru were revered like gods; they could do no wrong, and no one dreamed

of offending against the person, honour, or property of the monarch

or of any of the royal race. Hence, too, the Incas did not, like most

people, look on sickness as an evil. They considered it a messenger

sent from their father the Sun to call them to come and rest with

him in heaven. Therefore the usual words in which an Inca announced

his approaching end were these: “My father calls me to come and rest

with him.” They would not oppose their father’s will by offering

sacrifice for recovery, but openly declared that he had called them

to his rest.​[1426] Issuing from the sultry valleys upon the lofty

{p416} table-land of the Colombian Andes, the Spanish conquerors were

astonished to find, in contrast to the savage hordes they had left

in the sweltering jungles below, a people enjoying a fair degree of

civilisation, practising agriculture, and living under a government

which Humboldt has compared to the theocracies of Tibet and Japan.

These were the Chibchas, Muyscas, or Mozcas, divided into two kingdoms,

with capitals at Bogota and Tunja, but united apparently in spiritual

allegiance to the high pontiff of Sogamozo or Iraca. By a long and

ascetic novitiate, this ghostly ruler was reputed to have acquired

such sanctity that the waters and the rain obeyed him, and the weather

depended on his will.​[1427] The Mexican kings at their accession,

as we have seen,​[1428] took an oath that they would make the sun to

shine, the clouds to give rain, the rivers to flow, and the earth to

bring forth fruits in abundance.​[1429] We are told that Montezuma, the

last king of Mexico, was worshipped by his people as a god.​[1430]

[Sidenote: Divinity of the Chinese emperors.

Divinity of the Mikado.]

In China, if the emperor is not himself worshipped as a deity, he is

supposed by his subjects to be the lord and master of all the gods.

On this subject a leading authority on Chinese religion observes: “To

no son of China would it ever occur to question the supreme authority

wielded by the emperor and his proxies, the mandarins, not only over

mankind, but also over the gods. For the gods or _shen_ are souls of

intrinsically the same nature as those existing in human beings; why

then, simply because they have no human bodies, should they be placed

above the emperor, who is no less than a son of Heaven, that is to say,

a magnitude second to none but Heaven or the Power above {p417} whom

there is none—who governs the universe and all that moves and exists

therein? Such absurdity could not possibly be entertained by Chinese

reason. So it is a first article of China’s political creed that the

emperor, as well as Heaven, is lord and master of all the gods, and

delegates this dignity to his mandarins, each in his jurisdiction. With

them then rests the decision which of the gods are entitled to receive

the people’s worship, and which are not. It is the imperial government

which deifies disembodied souls of men, and also divests them of their

divine rank. Their worship, if established against its will or without

its consent, can be exterminated at its pleasure, without revenge

having to be feared from the side of the god for any such radical

measure; for the power of even the mightiest and strongest god is as

naught compared with that of the august Celestial Being with whose

will and under whose protection the Son reigns supreme over everything

existing below the empyrean, unless he forfeits this omnipotent support

through neglect of his imperial duties.”​[1431] As the emperor of China

is believed to be a Son of Heaven, so the Emperor of Japan, the Mikado,

is supposed to be an incarnation of the sun goddess, the deity who

rules the universe, gods and men included. Once a year all the gods

wait upon him, and spend a month at his court. During that month, the

name of which means “without gods,” no one frequents the temples, for

they are believed to be deserted.​[1432]

[Sidenote: Divinity of early Babylonian kings.]

The early Babylonian kings, from the time of Sargon I. till the fourth

dynasty of Ur or later, claimed to be gods in their lifetime. The

monarchs of the fourth dynasty of Ur in particular had temples built

in their honour; they set up their statues in various sanctuaries

and commanded the people to sacrifice to them; the eighth month was

especially dedicated to the kings, and sacrifices were offered to them

at the new moon and on the fifteenth of each month.​[1433] Again, the

Parthian monarchs of the Arsacid house {p418} styled themselves brothers

of the sun and moon and were worshipped as deities. It was esteemed

sacrilege to strike even a private member of the Arsacid family in a

brawl.​[1434]

[Sidenote: Divinity of Egyptian kings.]

The kings of Egypt were deified in their lifetime, sacrifices were

offered to them, and their worship was celebrated in special temples

and by special priests. Indeed the worship of the kings sometimes cast

that of the gods into the shade. Thus in the reign of Merenra a high

official declared that he had built many holy places in order that the

spirits of the king, the ever-living Merenra, might be invoked “more

than all the gods.”​[1435] “It has never been doubted that the king

claimed actual divinity; he was the ‘great god,’ the ‘golden Horus,’

and son of Ra. He claimed authority not only over Egypt, but over ‘all

lands and nations,’ ‘the whole world in its length and its breadth, the

east and the west,’ ‘the entire compass of the great circuit of the

sun,’ ‘the sky and what is in it, the earth and all that is upon it,’

‘every creature that walks upon two or upon four legs, all that fly

or flutter, the whole world offers her productions to him.’ Whatever

in fact might be asserted of the Sun-god, was dogmatically predicable

of the king of Egypt. His titles were directly derived from those of

the sun-god.”​[1436] “In the course of his existence,” we are told,

“the king of Egypt exhausted all the possible conceptions of divinity

which the Egyptians had framed for themselves. A superhuman god by

his birth and by his royal office, he became the deified man after

his death. {p419} Thus all that was known of the divine was summed up

in him.”​[1437] “The divinity of the king was recognised in all the

circumstances of the public life of the sovereign. It was not enough

to worship Pharaoh in the temple; beyond the limits of the sanctuary

he remained the ‘good god’ to whom all men owed a perpetual adoration.

The very name of the sovereign was sacred like his person; people swore

by his name as by that of the gods, and he who took the oath in vain

was punished.”​[1438] In particular the king of Egypt was identified

with the great sun-god Ra. “Son of the sun, decked with the solar

crowns, armed with the solar weapons, gods and men adored him as Ra,

defended him as Ra from the attacks which menaced in him the divine

being who, in his human existence, knew the glory and the dangers of

being ‘an incarnate sun’ and ‘the living image on earth of his father

Tum of Heliopolis.’”​[1439] Even the life of the gods depended on

the divine life of the king. Gods and men, it is said, “live by the

words of his mouth.”​[1440] “O gods,” said the king before celebrating

divine worship, “you are safe, if I am safe. Your doubles are safe if

my double is safe at the head of all living doubles. All live, if I

live.”​[1441] The king was addressed as “Lord of heaven, lord of earth,

sun, life of the whole world, lord of time, measurer of the sun’s

course, Tum for men, lord of well-being, creator of the harvest, maker

and fashioner of mortals, bestower of breath upon all men, giver of

life to all the host of gods, pillar of heaven, threshold of the earth,

weigher of the equipoise of both worlds, lord of rich gifts, increaser

of the corn,” and so forth.​[1442] Yet, as we should expect, the

exalted powers thus ascribed to the king differ in degree rather than

in kind from those which every Egyptian claimed for himself. Professor

Tiele observes that “as every good man at his death became Osiris, as

every one in danger or need could by the use of magic sentences assume

the form of a deity, it is quite comprehensible how the king, not only

after {p420} death, but already during his life, was placed on a level

with the deity.”​[1443]

[Sidenote: Evolution of sacred kings out of magicians.

Magicians or medicine-men the oldest professional class.]

We have now completed our sketch, for it is no more than a sketch, of

the evolution of that sacred kingship which attained its highest form,

its most absolute expression, in the monarchies of Peru and Egypt,

of China and Japan. Historically, the institution appears to have

originated in the order of public magicians or medicine-men; logically

it rests on a mistaken deduction from the association of ideas. Men

mistook the order of their ideas for the order of nature, and hence

imagined that the control which they have, or seem to have, over their

thoughts, permitted them to exercise a corresponding control over

things. The men who for one reason or another, because of the strength

or the weakness of their natural parts, were supposed to possess

these magical powers in the highest degree, were gradually marked off

from their fellows and became a separate class, who were destined to

exercise a most far-reaching influence on the political, religious,

and intellectual evolution of mankind. Social progress, as we know,

consists mainly in a successive differentiation of functions, or, in

simpler language, a division of labour. The work which in primitive

society is done by all alike and by all equally ill, or nearly so, is

gradually distributed among different classes of workers and executed

more and more perfectly; and so far as the products, material or

immaterial, of this specialised labour are shared by all, the whole

community benefits by the increasing specialisation. Now magicians or

medicine-men appear to constitute the oldest artificial or professional

class in the evolution of society.​[1444] For sorcerers are found in

every savage tribe known to us; and among the lowest savages, such as

the Australian aborigines, they are the only professional class that

exists. As time goes on, and the process of differentiation continues,

{p421} the order of medicine-men is itself subdivided into such classes

as the healers of disease, the makers of rain, and so forth;​[1445]

while the most powerful member of the order wins for himself a position

as chief and gradually develops into a sacred king, his old magical

functions falling more and more into the background and being exchanged

for priestly or even divine duties, in proportion as magic is slowly

ousted by religion. Still later, a partition is effected between the

civil and the religious aspect of the kingship, the temporal power

being committed to one man and the spiritual to another. Meanwhile

the magicians, who may be repressed but cannot be extirpated by the

predominance of religion, still addict themselves to their old occult

arts in preference to the newer ritual of sacrifice and prayer; and in

time the more sagacious of their number perceive the fallacy of magic

and hit upon a more effectual mode of manipulating the forces of nature

for the good of man; in short, they abandon sorcery for science. I

am far from affirming that the course of development has everywhere

rigidly followed these lines: it has doubtless varied greatly in

different societies. I merely mean to indicate in the broadest outline

what I conceive to have been its general trend. Regarded from the

industrial point of view the evolution has been from uniformity to

diversity of function: regarded from the political point of view,

it has been from democracy to despotism. With the later history of

monarchy, especially with the decay of despotism and its displacement

by forms of government better adapted to the higher needs of humanity,

we are not concerned in this enquiry: our theme is the growth, not the

decay, of a great and, in its time, beneficent institution.

{p423}

APPENDIX

HEGEL ON MAGIC AND RELIGION

My friend Professor James Ward has pointed out to me that the view

which I have taken of the nature and historical relations of magic and

religion was anticipated by Hegel in his _Lectures on the Philosophy of

Religion_.​[1446] So far as I understand the philosopher’s exposition,

the agreement between us amounts to this: we both hold that in the

mental evolution of humanity an age of magic preceded an age of

religion, and that the characteristic difference between magic and

religion is that, whereas magic aims at controlling nature directly,

religion aims at controlling it indirectly through the mediation of a

powerful supernatural being or beings to whom man appeals for help and

protection. That I take to be the substance of Hegel’s meaning in the

following passages which I extract from his lectures on the philosophy

of religion.

Speaking of what he calls the religion of nature he observes: “Fear

of the powers of nature, of the sun, of thunder-storms, etc., is here

not as yet fear which might be called religious fear, for this has its

seat in freedom. The fear of God is a different fear from the fear of

natural forces. It is said that ‘fear is the beginning of wisdom’; this

fear cannot present itself in immediate religion. It first appears in

man when he knows himself to be powerless in his particularity, when

his particularity trembles within him. . . . It is not, however, fear

in this higher sense only that is not present here, but even the fear

of the powers of nature, so far as it enters at all at this first stage

of the religion of nature, changes round into its opposite, and becomes

magic.

“The absolutely primary form of religion, to which we give the name

of magic, consists in this, that the Spiritual is the ruling power

over nature. This spiritual element does not yet exist, {p424} however,

as Spirit; it is not yet found in its universality, but is merely the

particular, contingent, empirical self-consciousness of man, which,

although it is only mere passion, knows itself to be higher in its

self-consciousness than nature—knows that it is a power ruling over

nature. . . . This power is a direct power over nature in general, and

is not to be likened to the indirect power, which we exercise by means

of implements over natural objects in their separate forms. . . . Here

the power over nature acts in a direct way. It thus is magic or sorcery.

“As regards the external mode in which this idea actually appears, it

is found in a form which implies that this magic is what is highest in

the self-consciousness of those peoples. But in a subordinate way magic

steals up to higher standpoints too, and insinuates itself into higher

religions, and thus into the popular conception of witches, although in

that form it is recognised as something which is partly impotent, and

partly improper and godless.

“There has been an inclination on the part of some (as, for example,

in the Kantian philosophy) to consider prayer too as magic, because

man seeks to make it effectual, not through mediation, but by starting

direct from Spirit. The distinction here, however, is that man appeals

to an absolute will, for which even the individual or unit is an object

of care, and which can either grant the prayer or not, and which in so

acting is determined by general purposes of good. Magic, however, in

the general sense, simply amounts to this,—that man has the mastery as

he is in his natural state, as possessed of passions and desires.

“Such is the general character of this primal and wholly immediate

standpoint, namely, that the human consciousness, any definite human

being, is recognised as the ruling power over nature in virtue of

his own will. The natural has, however, by no means that wide range

which it has in our idea of it. For here the greater part of nature

still remains indifferent to man, or is just as he is accustomed to

see it. Everything is stable. Earthquakes, thunder-storms, floods,

animals, which threaten him with death, enemies, and the like, are

another matter. To defend himself against these recourse is had to

magic.​[1447] Such is the oldest mode of religion, the wildest, most

barbarous form. . . .

“By recent travellers, such as Captain Parry, and before him Captain

Ross, this religion has been found among the Esquimaux, wholly without

the element of mediation and as the crudest consciousness. Among other

peoples a mediation is already present. {p425}

“Captain Parry says of them​[1448]: ‘. . . They have not the slightest

idea of Spirit, of a higher existence, of an essential substance as

contrasted with their empirical mode of existence. . . . On the other

hand, they have amongst them individuals whom they call _Angekoks_,

magicians, conjurers. Those assert that they have it in their power to

raise a storm, to create a calm, to bring whales near, etc., and say

that they learnt these arts from old _Angekoks_. The people regard them

with fear; in every family, however, there is at least one. A young

_Angekok_ wished to make the wind rise, and he proceeded to do it by

dint of phrases and gestures. These phrases had no meaning and were

directed toward no Supreme Being as a medium, but were addressed in an

immediate way to the natural object over which the _Angekok_ wished to

exercise power; he required no aid from any one whatever.’ . . .

“This religion of magic is very prevalent in Africa, as well as among

the Mongols and Chinese; here, however, it is no longer found in the

absolute crudeness of its first form, but mediations already come in,

which owe their origin to the fact that the Spiritual has begun to

assume an objective form for self-consciousness.

“In its first form this religion is more magic than religion; it is

in Africa among the negroes that it prevails most extensively. . . .

In this sphere of magic the main principle is the direct domination

of nature by means of the will, of self-consciousness—in other words

that Spirit is something of a higher kind than nature. However bad this

magic may look regarded in one aspect, still in {p426} another it is

higher than a condition of dependence upon nature and fear of it. . . .

“Such, then, is the very first form of religion, which cannot indeed

as yet be properly called religion. To religion essentially pertains

the moment of objectivity, and this means that spiritual power shows

itself as a mode of the Universal relatively to self-consciousness,

for the individual, for the particular empirical consciousness. This

objectivity is an essential characteristic, on which all depends. Not

until it is present does religion begin, does a God exist, and even in

the lowest condition there is at least a beginning of it. The mountain,

the river, is not in its character as this particular mass of earth,

as this particular water, the Divine, but as a mode of the existence

of the Divine, of an essential, universal Being. But we do not yet

find this in magic as such. It is the individual consciousness as this

particular consciousness, and consequently the very negation of the

Universal, which is what has the power here; not a god in the magician,

but the magician himself is the conjurer and conqueror of nature. . . .

Out of magic the religion of magic is developed.”​[1449]

NOTES

CHAPTER I—The King of the Wood

[1] Strictly speaking, _nemus_ is a natural opening or glade in a

forest. Thus Lucan says (_Pharsal._ i. 453 _sq._) that the Druids

inhabited “deep glades in sacred groves far from the haunts of men”

(“_nemora alta remotis incolitis lucis_”), as the words are rendered

by Haskins in his edition, who compares Propertius v. 9. 24, “_lucus

ubi umbroso fecerat orbe nemus_.” But commonly _nemus_ means no more

than a wood or grove. See for example Lucan, _Pharsal._ iii. 396,

“_procumbunt nemora et spoliantur robora silvae_.” At Nemi the sacred

grove (_lucus_) formed part of the woodlands (_nemus_), as we learn

from Cato, quoted by Priscian, _Inst._ iv. 21 (vol. i. p. 129, ed. M.

Hertz), “_lucum Dianium in nemore Aricino_,” etc. As to the thick woods

of Nemi in antiquity see Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 263 _sq._; _id._, _Metam._

xv. 485.

[2] Cato, _loc. cit._; Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 756; Statius, _Sylvae_, iii.

1. 56; Philostratus, _Vit. Apollon._ iv. 36. A loose expression of

Appian (_Bellum Civile_, v. 24) has sometimes given rise to the notion

that there was a town called Nemus. But this is a mistake. See E.

Desjardins, _Essai sur la Topographie du Latium_ (Paris, 1854), p. 214,

and on the other side, A. Bormann, _Altitalische Chorographie_ (Halle,

1852), pp. 135 _sq._

[3] The site was excavated in 1885 and 1886 by Sir John Savile Lumley,

now Lord Savile, who was then English ambassador at Rome. Further

excavations were conducted in 1886–1888 by Signor Luigi Boccanera,

and again in 1895 by Signor Eliseo Borghi. See _Notizie degli Scavi_,

1885, pp. 159 _sq._, 192 _sq._, 227 _sq._, 254 _sq._, 317–321, 344,

428 _sq._, 478 _sq._; _id._ 1887, pp. 23–25, 120 _sq._, 195–198; _id._

1888, pp. 193 _sq._, 392 _sq._; _id._ 1889, pp. 20–22; _id._ 1895,

pp. 106–108, 206, 232, 324, 424–438; _Bulletino dell’ Instituto di

Corrispondenza Archeologica_, 1885, pp. 149–157, 225–242; R. Lanciani,

in the _Athenaeum_, October 10, 1885, pp. 477 _sq._; R. P. Pullan, in

_Archaeologia: Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity_, l. (1887)

pp. 58–65; O. Rossbach, in _Verhandlungen der vierzigsten Versammlung

deutscher Philologen und Schulmänner in Görlitz_ (Leipsic, 1890), pp.

147–164; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue of Classical Antiquities

from the Site of the Temple of Diana, Nemi, Italy_ (preface dated

1893). The temple measured 30 metres in length by 15.90 in breadth

(_Notizie degli Scavi_, 1885, p. 193). It had columns on either side

of the _pronaos_ (Vitruvius, iv. 7. 4). A few votive offerings found

on the site in earlier times are described in Graevius’s _Thesaurus

Antiquitatum Romanarum_, xii. col. 752–757, 808. For the inscriptions

of Nemi and Aricia see _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv. Nos.

2156–2226, 4180–4210, 4268–4275a; W. Henzen, in _Hermes_, vi. (1872)

pp. 6–13; G. Tomassetti, in _Museo Italiano di Antichità Classica_, ii.

(1888) coll. 481 _sqq._ Among these inscriptions the many dedications

to Diana serve to identify the site beyond a doubt. The evidence of

ancient writers is collected by Cluverius, _Italia Antiqua_, ii. pp.

920–935. See also H. Nissen, _Italische Landeskunde_, ii. (Berlin,

1902) pp. 588–592; and for the topography, Sir W. Gell, _The Topography

of Rome and its Vicinity_ (London, 1834), i. pp. 182–191, ii. pp.

112–117.

[4] Appian, _Bellum Civile_, v. 24.

[5] Suetonius, _Divus Julius_, 54. Serving his own gods thus, he

naturally felt no compunction at relieving the barbarous Gaulish gods

of their little savings (Suetonius, _ib._).

[6] Appian, _loc. cit._

[7] _Fasti_, iii. 267 _sq._

[8] Juvenal, _Sat._ iv. 117 _sq._; Persius, _Sat._ vi. 56, with the

scholiast’s note; Martial, _Epigr._ ii. 19. 3, xii. 32. 10. Persius

calls this part of the road the slope of Virbius. Juvenal and Martial

call it the Arician slope. But the former was probably the correct

name, for at Rome also there was a “slope of Virbius” on the Esquiline,

near a sanctuary of Diana (Livy, i. 48. 6). The double coincidence

with Aricia is probably significant, as has been acutely pointed out

by Mr. A. B. Cook (_Classical Review_, xvi. (1902) p. 380, n. 3). We

shall return to this later on. As to Virbius, we shall hear more of him

presently.

[9] W. Henzen, in _Hermes_, vi. (1872) pp. 6–12; _Corpus Inscriptionum

Latinarum_, xiv., Nos. 2215, 2216, 2218.

[10] At the place called S. Maria, in the commune of Nemi, there have

been found remains of a magnificent villa of the first or second

century, built in terraces just above the lake and adorned with

variegated marbles, frescoes, and works of art. See _Notizie degli

Scavi_, 1888, pp. 194–196, 393 _sq._ The place is near the mouth of the

ancient emissary, below the village of Genzano; the vineyards beside

the lake are here littered with fragments of fine marbles. In January

1901 I visited the site in the company of Mr. St. Clair Baddeley, who

has kindly furnished me with some notes on the subject.

[11] Cicero, _Ad Atticum_, xv. 4. 5.

[12] Suetonius, _Divus Julius_, 46. From a letter of Cicero to Atticus

(vi. 1. 25) we infer that the house was building in 50 B.C.

[13] Some of the timbers and fittings of these vessels were fished up

from the bottom of the lake in 1895. Especially remarkable are the

beautiful bronze heads of lions and wolves with mooring-rings in their

mouths. Caligula’s name (C . CAESARIS . AVG . GERMANICI) is stamped on

the leaden water-pipes, and the style of the bronzes is that of the

first century. See _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1895, pp. 361–396, 461–474;

J. C. G. Boot, in _Verslagen en Mededeelingen der kon. Akademie

van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde_, III. Reeks, xii. deel

(Amsterdam, 1895), pp. 278–285; R. Lanciani, _New Tales of Old Rome_

(London, 1901), pp. 205–214.

[14] Tacitus, _Histor._ iii. 36.

[15] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv., Nos. 2213, 2216, 4191.

Hadrian also had a monument in the grove dedicated to him by the senate

and people of Aricia (_Notizie degli Scavi_, 1895, pp. 430 _sq._). A

bust of Caesar and a statue of Tiberius have been found on the spot.

See G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, p. 31; O. Rossbach, in

_Verhandlungen der vierzig. Versamml. deutscher Philologen_, p. 159.

[16] Catullus, xxxiv. 9 _sqq._

[17] _Bulletino dell’ Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica_, 1885,

pp. 228 _sq._; _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1887, pp. 24, 195; id. 1888,

p. 393; O. Rossbach, in _Verhandl. d. vierzig. Versamml. deutscher

Philologen_, pp. 150 note, 161; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_,

pp. 4, 15, 34 _sq._

[18] _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1887, p. 195; _id._ 1888, p. 393;

_Bulletino di Corr. Archeol._ 1885, p. 230; O. Rossbach, _op. cit._,

pp. 150 note, 151 note, 163; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, pp.

35, 40. Greek hunters dedicated spears and javelins to Pan (_Anthologia

Palatina_, vi. 57, 177). Compare W. H. D. Rouse, _Greek Votive

Offerings_ (Cambridge, 1902), p. 71.

[19] W. Helbig, in _Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corr. Archeol._ 1885, pp.

231 _sq._; _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1887, p. 195; _id._ 1888, p. 393.

Helbig observes that the ancients sometimes used tridents in boar-hunts.

[20] Pliny, _Epist._ i. 6. In the second century of our era the

mountains and oak woods of Greece harboured numbers of wild boars. See

Pausanias, i. 32. 1, iii. 20. 4, v. 6. 6, vii. 26. 10, viii. 23. 9, ix.

23. 7.

[21] W. Roscoe, _Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth_,³ iv. 376.

[22] O. Rossbach, _op. cit._ pp. 157 _sq._; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated

Catalogue_, pp. 3, 31, with the plate facing p. 43.

[23] _Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corr. Archeol._ 1885, p. 153; G. H.

Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, p. 23.

[24] Polybius, _Hist._ iv. 18 and 19.

[25] Xenophon, _Anabasis_, v. 3. 4–13.

[26] Pausanias, x. 35. 7.

[27] R. Andree, _Votive und Weihegaben des Katholischen Volks in

Süddeutschland_ (Brunswick, 1904), pp. 37, 50, 152 _sqq._

[28] R. Andree, _op. cit._ p. 41.

[29] R. Andree, _op. cit._ pp. 41–50.

[30] See V. Hehn, _Kulturpflanzen und Haustiere in ihrem übergang

aus Asien_⁷ (Berlin, 1902), pp. 520 _sq._: “In the course of history

the flora of the Italian peninsula assumed more and more a southern

character. When the first Greeks landed in lower Italy the forests

consisted predominantly of deciduous trees, the beeches reached

lower down than now, when they are confined to the highest mountain

regions. Centuries later in the landscapes on the walls of Pompeii we

see nothing but evergreen trees, the _Laurus nobilis_, the olive, the

cypress, the oleander; in the latest times of the empire and in the

Middle Ages the lemon-trees and orange-trees appear, and since the

discovery of America the magnolias, the agaves, and the Indian figs.

There can be no question that this revolution has been wrought mainly

by the hand of man.”

[31] ξιφήρης οὖν ἐστιν ἀεί, περισκοπῶν τὰς ἐπιθέσεις, ἕτοιμος

ἀμύνεσθαι, is Strabo’s description (v. 3. 12), who may have seen him

“pacing there alone.”

[32] E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” _Eighteenth Annual

Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part I. (Washington, 1899)

p. 293.

[33] Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 136, “_Licet de hoc ramo hi qui

de sacris Proserpinae scripsisse dicuntur, quiddam esse mysticum

adfirment, publica tamen opinio hoc habet. Orestes post occisum regem

Thoantem_,” etc.; _id._ on Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 116; Valerius Flaccus,

_Argonaut._ ii. 304 _sq._; Strabo, v. 3. 12; Pausanias, ii. 27. 4;

Solinus, ii. 11; Suetonius, _Caligula_, 35. The custom of breaking the

branch, and its supposed connexion with the Golden Bough of Virgil, are

recorded by Servius alone (on Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 136). For the title

“King of the Wood” see Suetonius, _l.c._; and compare Statius, _Sylv._

iii. 1. 55 _sq._—

“_Jamque dies aderat, profugis cum_ regibus _aptum_

_Fumat Aricinum Triviae nemus_”;

Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 271 _sq._—

“Regna _tenent fortesque manu, pedibusque fugaces;_

_Et perit exemplo postmodo quisque suo_”;

_id._, _Ars am._ i. 259 _sq._—

“_Ecce suburbanae templum nemorale Dianae,_

_Partaque per gladios_ regna _nocente manu_”;

Valerius Flaccus, _Argon._ ii. 304 _sq._—

“_Jam nemus Egeriae, jam te ciet altus ab alba_

_Juppiter et soli non mitis Aricia_ regi.”

An archaic Greek relief, found in 1791 near the outlet of the lake,

in the Vallericcia, has been sometimes thought to portray the combat

between a priest and a candidate for the office. But the subject is

rather the murder of Aegisthus by Orestes in presence of Clytaemnestra

and Electra. See Sir W. Gell, _Topography of Rome_, ii. 116 _sq._;

O. Jahn, in _Archäologische Zeitung_, vii. (1849) coll. 113–118;

Baumeister’s _Denkmäler_, p. 1112; O. Rossbach, _op. cit._ pp. 148

_sq._; R. Lanciani, _New Tales of Old Rome_, p. 204.

[34] Thus there have been found many models of the organs of

generation, both male and female, including wombs; figures of women

with infants on their laps or on their arms; and couples seated side

by side, the woman pregnant or carrying a child. See _Bulletino dell’

Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica_, 1885, pp. 183 _sq._; _Notizie degli

Scavi_, 1885, pp. 160, 254; _id._ 1895, p. 424; O. Rossbach, _op. cit._

p. 160; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, pp. 4, 15, 17. Another

group represents a woman just after delivery, supported by the midwife,

who holds the child in her lap. See Graevius, _Thesaurus Antiquitatum

Romanarum_, xii. col. 808. As to the huntress Diana, see above, p. 6.

[35] Statius, _Sylvae_, iii. 1. 52–60; Gratius Faliscus, _Cynegeticon_,

i. 484 _sq._ As to the date we know from the calendars (W. Warde

Fowler, _The Roman Festivals of the Republic_, p. 198) and from Festus

(p. 343 ed. Müller; compare Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 100) that the

festival of Diana on the Aventine at Rome fell on the Ides, that

is, the 13th of August. Further, the Ides of August was held as the

birthday of Diana at Lanuvium (_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv.,

No. 2112; G. Wilmanns, _Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum_, No. 319; C.

G. Bruns, _Fontes Juris Romani_,⁷ ed. O. Gradenwitz, p. 389; H. Dessau,

_Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, No. 7212). Moreover, Martial (xii.

67. 2) and Ausonius (_De feriis Romanis_, 5 _sq._) speak of the Ides of

August as Diana’s day. Hence we may safely conclude that the _Hecateias

idus_ which Statius (_l.c._) mentions as the date of the festival of

Diana at Nemi were no other than the Ides of August, all the more that

the poet describes the time as the hottest of the year. Compare G.

Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_ (Munich, 1902), p. 201.

[36] O. Rossbach, _op. cit._ pp. 150 note, 161. A coin of P. Clodius

Turrinus (43 B.C.) portrays Diana with a long torch in either hand. See

E. Babelon, _Monnaies de la République Romaine_ (Paris, 1885), i. 355.

[37] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 269 _sq._; Propertius, iii. 24. (30) 9 _sq._,

ed. Paley.

[38] _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1888, p. 193 _sq._; O. Rossbach, _op. cit._

p. 164.

[39] _Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica_, 1885, p. 157;

_Notizie degli Scavi_, 1888, p. 393; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated

Catalogue_, pp. 24–26.

[40] On the dedication of burning lamps and candles in antiquity,

see M. P. Nilsson, _Griechische Feste_ (Leipsic, 1906), p. 345, note

5. As to the derivation of the Catholic from the old heathen custom,

see R. Andree, _Votive und Weihegaben des Katholischen Volks in

Süddeutschland_ (Brunswick, 1904), p. 77.

[41] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv., No. 2213; G. Wilmanns,

_Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum_, No. 1767; H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones

Latinae Selectae_, No. 3243.

[42] _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1885, p. 478; O. Rossbach, _op. cit._

p. 158; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, pp. 9 _sq._ The true

character of this circular basement was first pointed out by Mr. A. B.

Cook (_Classical Review_, xvi. (1902) p. 376). Previous writers had

taken it for an altar or a pedestal. But the mosaic pavement and the

bases of two columns which were found in position on it exclude the

hypothesis of an altar and cannot easily be reconciled with that of a

pedestal, for which, moreover, it appears to be too large. A rain-water

gutter runs round it and then extends in the direction of the larger

temple. As to the temple of Vesta at Rome see J. H. Middleton, _The

Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. 297 _sq._; O. Richter, _Topographie der

Stadt Rom_² (Munich, 1902), pp. 88 _sq._; G. Boni, in _Notizie degli

Scavi_, May 1900, pp. 159 _sqq._

[43] G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, p. 30.

[44] J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii.² 336.

[45] Juvenal, iv. 60 _sq._; Asconius, _In Milonianam_, p. 35, ed.

Kiesseling and Schoell; Symmachus, _Epist._ ix. 128 and 129 (Migne’s

_Patrologia Latina_, xviii. col. 355); _Corpus Inscriptionum

Latinarum_, vi., No. 2172, xiv., No. 4120; Wilmanns, _Exempla

Inscriptionum Latinarum_, No. 1750. The Alban Vestals gave evidence

at Milo’s trial in 52 B.C. (Asconius, _l.c._); one of them was tried

for breaking her vow of chastity late in the fourth century A.D.

(Symmachus, _l.c._).

[46] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv., Nos. 3677, 3679.

[47] Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 296; Macrobius, _Saturn._ iii. 4. 11.

[48] Statius, _Sylvae_, iii. 1. 55 _sqq._; Gratius Faliscus,

_Cynegeticon_, i. 483–492.

[49] J. Rendel Harris, _The Annotators of the Codex Bezae_ (London,

1901), pp. 93–102.

[50] See below, vol. ii. pp. 324 _sqq._

[51] _Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record_, New Series,

vii. (London, 1865), “The Departure of my Lady Mary from this

World,” p. 153. The Greek original of the treatise was discovered by

Tischendorf. This passage was kindly indicated to me by my learned

friend Mr. J. Rendel Harris. He writes to me: “In these late Syrian

calendars the festivals are simply taken over from the Greek and Roman

calendars without any adjustment at all, as a study of the detailed

saints’ days shows.”

[52] _Johanni Apostoli de transitu Beatae Mariae Virginis Liber_: ex

recensione et cum interpretatione Maximiliani Engeri (Elberfeldae,

1854), pp. 101, 103. This and the preceding passage are both cited by

the late Prof. E. Lucius in his book _Die Anfänge des Heiligenkultes

in der christlichen Kirche_ (Tübingen, 1904), pp. 488 sq., 521. From

them and from the entries in the Syrian calendars (see the next note),

Lucius rightly inferred that the Assumption of the Virgin Mary had

been assigned by the Church to the 15th of August with reference to

the ripening of the grapes and other fruits, and that the Christian

festival replaced an old heathen festival of first-fruits, which must

have been held about the same time. But he appears to have overlooked

the occurrence of Diana’s festival on the 13th of August.

[53] N. Nilles, _Kalendarium Manuale utriusque Ecclesiae Orientalis et

Occidentalis_² (Innsbruck, 1896–7), i. pp. 249, 480. Professor Nilles

compares the blessing of the herbs (_Krautweihe_), which still takes

place in various parts of German-speaking lands on August 15th for the

purpose of defeating the charms of witches.

[54] B. Schmidt, _Das Volksleben der Neugriechen_ (Leipsic, 1871), p.

58. My learned friend Dr. W. H. D. Rouse, who is well acquainted with

Greece, both ancient and modern, gave me similar information.

[55] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclop. d. class. Wissenschaften_, ii.

1342; Pausanias, vii. 18. 12; Xenophon, _Anabasis_, v. 3. 12. On the

other hand the very sight of the image of Artemis at Pellene was said

to render trees barren and to blight the fruits of the earth. See

Plutarch, _Aratus_, 32.

[56] A. Dieterich, “Sommertag,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_,

viii. (1905) Beiheft, pp. 108 _sqq._, with fig. 2.

[57] Furtwängler, _Die antiken Gemmen_, iii. 231, with plates XX. 66,

XXII. 18, 26, 30, 32, all cited by Mr. A. B. Cook, _Classical Review_,

xvi. (1902) p. 378, note 4. Furtwängler held that these gems portray

Diana of Nemi herself.

[58] Catullus, xxxiv. 17 _sqq._

[59] G. Pitrè, _Spettacoli e Feste popolari Siciliane_ (Palermo, 1881),

pp. 356, 358, 360, 361, 362; G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi

Abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890), p. 176; G. Amalfi, _Tradizioni ed Usi nella

peninsola Sorrentina_ (Palermo, 1890), p. 50.

[60] Olaus Magnus, _Historia de Gentium Septentrionalium variis

conditionibus_, xvi. 9.

[61] Note of Mr. F. C. Conybeare.

[62] Strabo, xi. 8. 12, xi. 14. 16, xii. 3. 37.

[63] This is inferred from entries in the ancient Celtic calendar of

which numerous fragments, engraved on bronze, were found in 1897 at

Coligny near Lyons. In this calendar the month Rivros seems to mean

“the harvest month” and to correspond to August. Sir John Rhys believes

that the harvest-god Rivos, who is only known from this calendar,

answers to the better-known Celtic god Lug. See Sir John Rhys, in

_Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History

of Religion_ (Oxford, 1908), ii. 222 _sqq._; and as to the Coligny

calendar in general see further Sir John Rhys, “Celtae and Galli,”

_Proceedings of the British Academy, 1905–1906_, pp. 71 _sqq._; _id._

“Notes on the Coligny Calendar,” _Proceedings of the British Academy_,

vol. iv.

[64] Dedications to Juno and Venus have been found in the grove

(_Notizie degli Scavi_, 1888, p. 393; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated

Catalogue_, p. 44), also a bronze statuette of Jupiter (O. Rossbach,

_op. cit._ p. 162), and a mutilated or unfinished bust supposed to

represent that deity (_Notizie degli Scavi_, 1885, p. 344; G. H.

Wallis, _op. cit._ p. 54).

[65] Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 762 _sqq._; Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 273 _sqq._;

_id._, _Metam._ xv. 482 _sqq._; Strabo, v. 3. 12. As to the stream,

see P. Rosa, in _Monumenti ed Annali pubblic. dall’ Instituto

di Corrispondenza Archeologica nel 1856_, p. 7; R. Lanciani, in

_Athenaeum_, October 10, 1885, p. 477. The water was diverted some

years ago to supply Albano.

[66] Festus, p. 77, ed. C. O. Müller.

[67] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 273 _sqq._; _id._, _Metam._ xv. 482 _sqq._;

Cicero, _De legibus_, i. 1. 4; Livy, i. 19. 5, i. 21. 3; Plutarch,

_Numa_, 4, 8, 13, 15; Dionysius Halicarn. _Antiquit. Roman._ ii. 60

_sq._; Juvenal, _Sat._ iii. 12; Lactantius, _Divin. Inst._ i. 22;

Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 35; Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ vii.

763. Ovid, Livy, Lactantius, and Augustine speak of Egeria as the

wife of Numa, whereas Juvenal and Servius call her his mistress. The

language of Plutarch is somewhat ambiguous, but he uses the phrase

γάμων θείων ἠξιωμένος (c. 4).

[68] Plutarch, _Numa_, 4.

[69] Juvenal, _Sat._ iii. 10 _sqq._; Livy, i. 21. 3. As to the position

of this grove and spring see O. Gilbert, _Geschichte und Topographie

der Stadt Rom im Altertum_, i. 109 _sqq._, ii. pp. 152 _sqq._; O.

Richter, _Topographie der Stadt Rom_² (Munich, 1902), pp. 342 _sq._

According to the latter writer, the valley of Egeria was outside the

Servian wall, at the foot of the Caelian Mount, and is now traversed

by the streets Via delle Mole di S. Sisto and Via della Ferratella.

He identifies the sacred spring with a copious source at the Villa

Fonseca. On the other hand, Statius (_Sylvae_, v. 3. 290 _sq._),

Lactantius (_Divin. Inst._ iii. 22), and Servius (on Virgil, vii.

763) held that Numa’s Egeria was not at Rome but at Nemi. The grove

of Egeria is now popularly identified with a little wood called the

_Bosco Sacro_, which stands in a commanding situation to the left of

the Appian Way, about a mile and a half from Rome (Baedeker’s _Central

Italy and Rome_,¹³ p. 378).

[70] Plutarch, _Numa_, 13. That they carried the water in pitchers on

their heads may be inferred from Propertius, v. 4. 15 _sq._; Ovid,

_Fasti_, iii. 11–14.

[71] This is the view of A. Schwegler (_Römische Geschichte_, i.

548 note), O. Gilbert (_Geschichte und Topographie der Stadt Rom im

Altertum_, i. 111), and G. Wissowa (in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der

griech. und röm. Mythologie_, _s.v._ “Egeria”).

[72] O. Rossbach, _op. cit._ p. 151. “The old bath” is mentioned in an

inscription found on the spot (_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv.,

No. 4190).

[73] _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1885, pp. 159 _sq._, 192, 254; _id._ 1888,

p. 193; _Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica_, 1885, pp.

153, 154 _sq._; O. Rossbach, _op. cit._ p. 160; _Archaeologia: or

Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity_, l. (1887), Pt. I. pp. 61

_sq._, 64; G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, pp. 2, 4, 22. Amongst

these models may be specially noted the torso of a woman clad in a long

robe, with her breast cut open so as to expose the bowels. It may be

the offering of a woman who suffered from some internal malady.

[74] For an example of the custom in modern times see J. J. Blunt,

_Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs discoverable in Modern Italy

and Sicily_ (London, 1823), p. 135. The custom is still widespread

among the Catholic population of Southern Germany. See R. Andree,

_Votive und Weihegaben des Katholischen Volks in Süddeutschland_

(Brunswick, 1904), pp. 94 _sqq._, 112 _sqq._, 123 _sqq._

[75] R. Lanciani, in _Athenaeum_, October 10, 1885, p. 477.

[76] Xenophon, _Cyneget._ i. 2 and 11; Euripides, _Hippolytus_, 10–19.

1092 _sq._

[77] Euripides, _Hippolytus_, 20 _sqq._; Apollodorus, _Epitoma_, i. 18

_sq._, ed. R. Wagner; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 47; Ovid, _Metam._ xv. 497

_sqq._

[78] Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 761 _sqq._, with the commentary of Servius;

Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 263 _sqq._, vi. 735 _sqq._; _id._, _Metam._ xv. 497

_sqq._; Scholiast on Persius, _Sat._ vi. 56, p. 347 _sq._, ed. O. Jahn;

Lactantius, _Divin. Inst._ i. 17; Pausanias, ii. 27. 4; Apollodorus,

iii. 10. 3; Scholiast on Pindar, _Pyth._ iii. 96. It was perhaps in his

character of a serpent that Aesculapius was said to have brought the

dead Hippolytus to life. See my note on Pausanias, ii. 10. 3.

[79] An inscription in the public museum at Naples mentions a

_flamen Virbialis_ (_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, x., No. 1493).

Another inscription mentions a similar priesthood at Aricia, but the

inscription is forged (Orelli, _Inscript. Latin._ No. 1457; compare

H. Dessau on _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv., No. 2213).

The same title _flamen Virbialis_ has sometimes been wrongly read

in an inscription of Gratianopolis, in Narbonensian Gaul (_Corpus

Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xii., No. 2238; Orelli, _Inscript. Latin._

Nos. 2212, 4022). For the worship of Virbius we have also the testimony

of Servius, on Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 776: “_Nam et Virbius inter deos

colitur_.”

[80] Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 779 _sq._; Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 265 _sq._

[81] Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 776. Helbig proposed to identify as

Virbius some bronze statuettes found at Nemi, which represent a young

man naked except for a cloak thrown over his left arm, holding in his

extended right hand a shallow bowl, while in his raised left hand he

seems to have held a spear or staff on which he leaned. See _Bulletino

dell’ Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica_, 1885, p. 229. But to this it has

been objected by Rossbach (_op. cit._ p. 162) that Virbius appears to

have been portrayed as an older, probably bearded man (Ovid, _Metam._

xv. 538 _sqq._).

[82] Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ vii. 761; compare _id._ on _Aen._ vii.

84. See also Ovid, _Metam._ xv. 545 _sq._—

“_Hoc nemus inde colo de disque minoribus unus_ _Nomine sub dominae

lateo atque accenseor illi._”

[83] P. Ribadeneira, _Flos Sanctorum_ (Venice, 1763), ii. 93 _sq._;

_Acta Sanctorum_, August 13, pp. 4 _sqq._ (Paris and Rome, 1867).

The merit of tracing the saint’s pedigree belongs to Mr. J. Rendel

Harris. See his _Annotators of Codex Bezae_ (London, 1901), pp. 101

_sq._ Prudentius has drawn a picture of the imaginary martyrdom which

might melt the stoniest heart (_Peristeph._ xi. p. 282 _sqq._, ed.

Th. Obbarius). According to the _Acta Sanctorum_ the saint shared

the crown of martyrdom with twenty members of his household, of whom

nineteen were beheaded, while one of them, his nurse _Concordia_, was

scourged to death (“_plumbatis caesa_”). It is an odd coincidence

that his Greek prototype Hippolytus dedicated just twenty horses to

Aesculapius (Pausanias, ii. 27. 4); and it is another odd coincidence,

if it is nothing worse, that the bones of Orestes, the other mythical

hero of Nemi, were buried beside the temple of _Concordia_ in Rome,

and that Servius, who mentions this tradition (on Virgil, _Aen._ ii.

116), should immediately afterwards quote the words “_virgine caesa_.”

If we knew why the hero Hippolytus dedicated just twenty horses to

the god who raised him from the dead, we might perhaps know why the

saint Hippolytus went to heaven attended by a glorious company of

just twenty martyrs. Bunsen courageously stood out for the historical

reality of the martyr, whom he would fain identify with his namesake

the well-known writer of the third century (_Hippolytus and his Age_,

London, 1852, i. pp. 212 _sqq._).

[84] Cato, _Origines_, i., quoted by Priscian, _Inst._ iv. 21, vol.

i. p. 129, ed. Hertz; _M. Catonis praeter librum de re rustica quae

extant_, ed. H. Jordan, p. 12.

[85] Livy, ii. 25; Dionysius Halicarnas. _Antiquit. Roman._ vi. 29.

[86] Festus, p. 145, ed. C. O. Müller.

[87] Persius, _Sat._ vi. 55 _sqq._

[88] Wissowa suggests that Manius Egerius was a half-forgotten male

counterpart of Egeria (W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. und röm.

Mythologie_, _s.v._ “Egeria”); and Dessau observes that the name

Egerius “_sine dubio cohaeret cum Egerio fonte_” (_Corpus Inscriptionum

Latinarum_, xiv. p. 204). The same view is taken by Messrs. A. B. Cook

and E. Pais. Mr. Cook holds that the original form of the names was

Aegerius and Aegeria, which he would interpret as “the Oak God” and

“the Oak Goddess.” See A. B. Cook, “The European Sky-God,” _Folk-lore_,

xvi. (1905) pp. 291 _sq._; E. Pais, _Ancient Legends of Roman History_

(London, 1906), p. 142.

[89] As Cluverius seems to do (_Italia Antiqua_, p. 931).

[90] This is substantially the view of Prof. Wissowa, who holds that

the reference is to the foundation of a common altar in the grove by

all the members of the league (_Religion und Kultus der Römer_, p. 199).

[91] Scholars are not agreed as to whether the list of confederate

Latin cities in Cato is complete, and whether the Latin dictator he

mentions was the head of the league or only of Tusculum. In regard to

the former question we must remember that the passage of Cato is known

to us only from Priscian, who seems to have quoted no more than suited

his purpose, which was merely to illustrate a grammatical termination

(_Ardeatis_ for the later _Ardeas_). Probably, therefore, the original

passage contained many more names of towns which Priscian did not

think it needful to cite. This is the view of H. Dessau (in _Corpus

Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv. p. 204). With regard to the second

question, Mommsen held that the dictatorship in question was merely the

chief magistracy of Tusculum, the presidency of the Latin league being

vested in two praetors, not in a dictator (Livy, viii. 3. 9). Most

scholars, however, appear to be of opinion that the dictator referred

to was head of the league. See H. Jordan, _M. Catonis praeter librum

de re rustica quae extant_, pp. xli. _sqq._; J. Beloch, _Der italische

Bund unter Roms Hegemonie_ (Leipsic, 1880), p. 188; H. Nissen,

_Italische Landeskunde_, ii. (Berlin, 1902) pp. 557 _sq._

[92] G. H. Wallis, _Illustrated Catalogue_, pp. 5, 36; _Corpus

Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv., No. 4186.

[93] _Bulletino di Corrisp. Archeologica_, 1885, p. 232; _Notizie

degli Scavi_, 1885, pp. 255, 320; _id._ 1895, p. 108; G. H. Wallis,

_Illustrated Catalogue_, pp. 5, 55. The use of this rude currency is

said to have been superseded in the reign of Servius Tullius, who

substituted stamped ingots of copper (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxiii. 43).

[94] Livy, xxvi. 11. 9; Tacitus, _Historiae_, iv. 53; E. Babelon,

_Monnaies de la République romaine_, i. pp. ii. _sq._

[95] Herodotus, iv. 103; Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 38 _sqq._;

Strabo, vi. 4. 2, p. 308; Pausanias, iii. 16. 7–10; K. O. Müller, _Die

Dorier_,² i. 385 _sqq._

[96] Pausanias, ii. 32. 1; Euripides, _Hippolytus_, 1423–1430, with

Paley’s comment. Diodorus Siculus speaks (iv. 62) of the “godlike

honours” accorded to Hippolytus at Troezen.