THE CHILD AS SHAMAN AND PRIEST.
Nearer the gates of Paradise than we
Our children breathe its air, its angels see;
And when they pray, God hears their simple prayer,
Yea, even sheathes his sword, in judgment bare.
--_R. H. Stoddard._
The youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is nature's priest.--_Wordsworth_.
_Priestly Training_.
Instruction in the priestly art in Africa begins sometimes almost at
birth. Bastian informs us (529. 58):--
"Women who have been long barren, or who have lost their children, are
wont to dedicate to the service of the fetich the unborn fruit of the
womb, and to present to the village priest the new-born babe. He
exercises it, at an early age, in those wild dances with deafening
drum-accompaniment, by means of which he is accustomed to gain the
requisite degree of spiritual exaltation; and in later years he
instructs his pupil in the art of understanding, while his frame is
wracked with convulsions, the inspirations of the demon and of giving
fitting responses to questions proposed."
Of the one sex we read (529. 56):--
"Every year the priests assemble the boys who are entering the state of
puberty, and take them into the forest. There they settle and form an
independent commonwealth, under very strict regulations, however; and
every offence against the rules is sternly punished. The wound given in
circumcision commonly heals in one week, yet they remain in the woods
for a period of six months, cut off from all intercourse with the
outside world, and in the meanwhile each receives separate instruction
how to prepare his medicine-bag. Forever after, each one is mystically
united with the fetich who presides over his life. Even their nearest
relatives are not allowed to visit the boys in this retreat; and women
are threatened with the severest punishment if they be only found in the
neighbourhood of a forest containing such a boy-colony. When the priest
declares the season of probation at an end, the boys return home and are
welcomed back with great rejoicings."
Concerning the other, Bosman, as reported by Schultze, says that among
the negroes of Whida, where snake-worship prevails (529. 80)--
"Every year the priestesses, armed with clubs, go about the country,
picking out and carrying away girls of from eight to twelve years of
age, for the service of the god. These children are kindly treated and
instructed in songs and dances _in majorem gloriam_ of his
snakeship. In due time they are consecrated by tattooing on their bodies
certain figures, especially those of serpents. The negroes suppose it is
the snake himself that marks his elect thus. Having received their
training and consecration, which are paid for by the parents according
to their means, the children return home; and when they attain their
majority are espoused to the Serpent."
In Ashanti, according to Ellis, the children of a priest or of a
priestess "are not ordinarily educated for the priestly profession, one
generation being usually passed over [a curious primitive recognition of
the idea in our common saying, "genius skips a generation"], and the
grand-children selected" (438. 121). At the village of Suru several
children (male and female) and youths are handed over to the priests and
priestesses to be instructed in the service of the gods, when the
goddess was thought to be offended, and in the ceremonials when the new
members are tested, youths and children take part, smeared all over with
white (438. 130).
Among the natives of the Andaman Islands, as Mr. Man informs us,
sometimes even "a young boy is looked upon as a coming
_oko-paiad_." The word signifies literally "dreamer," and such
individuals are "credited with the possession of supernatural powers,
such as second sight" (498. 28).
Captain Bourke, in his detailed account of the "medicine-men" of the
Apaches, speaking of the Pueblos Indians, says: "While I was at Tusayan,
in 1881, I heard of a young boy, quite a child, who was looked up to by
the other Indians, and on special occasions made his appearance decked
out in much native finery of beads and gewgaws, but the exact nature of
his duties and supposed responsibilities could not be ascertained." He
seems to have been a young "medicine-man" (406. 456).
Into the "medicine-society" of the Delaware Indians "the boys were
usually initiated at the age of twelve or fourteen years, with very
trying ceremonies, fasting, want of sleep, and other tests of their
physical and mental stamina." Of these same aborigines the missionary
Brainerd states: "Some of their diviners (or priests) are endowed with
the spirit in infancy; others in adult age. It seems not to depend upon
their own will, nor to be acquired by any endeavours of the person who
is the subject of it, although it is supposed to be given to children
sometimes in consequence of some means which the parents use with them
for that purpose" (516. 81).
Among the Chippeway (Ojibwa), also, children are permitted to belong to
the "Midéwewin or 'Grand Medicine Society,'" of which Dr. W. J. Hoffman
has given so detailed a description--Sikassige, a Chippeway of Mille
Lacs, having taken his "first degree" at ten years of age (473.172).
_The Angakok_.
Among the Eskimo the _angakok_, or shaman, trains his child from
infancy in the art of sorcery, taking him upon his knee during his
incantations and conjurations. In one of the tales in the collection of
Rink we read (525. 276): "A great _angakok_ at his conjurations
always used to talk of his having been to Akilinek [a fabulous land
beyond the ocean], and his auditors fully believed him. Once he forced
his little son to attend his conjurations, sitting upon his knee. The
boy, who was horribly frightened, said: 'Lo! what is it I see? The stars
are dropping down in the old grave on yonder hill.' The father said:
'When the old grave is shining to thee, it will enlighten thy
understanding.' When the boy had been lying in his lap for a while, he
again burst out: 'What is it I now see? The bones in the old grave are
beginning to join together.' The father only repeating his last words,
the son grew obstinate and wanted to run away, but the father still kept
hold of him. Lastly, the ghost from the grave came out, and being called
upon by the _angakok_, he entered the house to fetch the boy, who
only perceived a strong smell of maggots, and then fainted away. On
recovering his senses, he found himself in the grave quite naked, and
when he arose and looked about, his nature was totally altered--he found
himself able at a sight to survey the whole country to the farthest
north, and nothing was concealed from him. All the dwelling-places of
man appeared to be close together, side by side; and on looking at the
sea, he saw his father's tracks stretching across to Akilinek. When
going down to the house, he observed his clothes flying through the air,
and had only to put forth his hands and feet to make them cover his body
again. But on entering the house he looked exceedingly pale, because of
the great _angakok_ wisdom he had acquired down in the old grave.
After he had become an _angakok_ himself, he once went on a flight
to Akilinek."
Besides this interesting account of an _angakok_ séance, the same
authority, in the story of the _angakok_ Tugtutsiak, records the
following (525. 324): "Tugtutsiak and his sister were a couple of
orphans, and lived in a great house. It once happened that all the
grown-up people went away berry-gathering, leaving all children at home.
Tugtutsiak, who happened to be the eldest of them, said: 'Let us try to
conjure up spirits'; and some of them proceeded to make up the necessary
preparations, while he himself undressed, and covered the door with his
jacket, and closed the opening at the sleeves with a string. He now
commenced the invocation, while the other children got mortally
frightened, and were about to take flight. But the slabs of the floor
were lifted high in the air, and rushed after them. Tugtutsiak would
have followed them, but felt himself sticking fast to the floor, and
could not get loose until he had made the children come back, and
ordered them to uncover the door, and open the window, on which it again
became light in the room, and he was enabled to get up."
Girls, too, among the Eskimo, could become _angakoks_ or shamans.
Rink tells of one who visited the under-world, where she received
presents, but these, while she was carrying them home, "were wafted out
of her hands, and flew back to their first owners."
Of the Pawnee Indians, Mr. Grinnell informs us that the legend of their
wanderings tells of a boy in whose possession was the sacred
"medicine-bundle" of the tribe, and who was regarded as the
oracle-interpreter (480 (1893). 125).
_Witches_.
As Dr. Mackay has remarked, in all the woeful annals of the
witch-persecutions, there is nothing so astounding and revolting as the
burning and putting to death of mere children for practising the arts of
the devil. Against innocents of both sexes counting no more than ten or
twelve years, there appear on the records the simple but significant
words _convicta et combusta_--convicted and burned. Here the
degradation of intellect and morals reaches its lowest level; it was
Satan and not Jesus who bade the children come unto him; their portion
was the kingdom of hell, not that of heaven. In Würzburg, between 1627
and 1629, no fewer than 157 persons suffered death for witchcraft
(guilty and innocent), and among these were included "the prettiest girl
in the town"; two mere boys; a wandering boy of twelve; a maiden of nine
and her sister, younger in years; two boys of twelve; a girl of fifteen;
a boy of ten and a boy of twelve; three boys of from ten to fifteen
years of age. At Lille, in 1639, a whole school of girls--fifty in
number--barely escaped burning as witches (496 a. II. 266-287).
Everywhere the maddened, deluded people made sacrifice of their dearest
and holiest, tainted, they thought, with the touch of the evil one (496
a. II. 285). It is a sad comment upon civilization that the last
execution for witchcraft in England, which took place in 1716, was that
of "Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, _a child nine years of age_, who
were hung at Huntingdon, for 'selling their souls to the devil; and
raising a storm, by pulling off their stockings and making a lather of
soap'" (191. 344).
In the _London Times_ for Dec. 8, 1845, appeared the following
extract from the _Courier_, of Inverness, Scotland: "Our Wick
contemporary gives the following recent instance of gross ignorance and
credulity: 'Not far from Louisburg there lives a girl who, until a few
days ago, was suspected of being a witch. In order to cure her of the
witchcraft, a neighbour actually put her into a creed half-filled with
wood and shavings, and hung her above a fire, setting the shavings in a
blaze. Fortunately for the child and himself, she was not injured, and
it is said that the gift of sorcery has been taken away from her. At all
events, the intelligent neighbours aver that she is not half so
witch-like in appearance since she was singed" (408. III. 14).
Concerning the sect of the Nagualists or "Magicians" of Mexico and
Central America Dr. Brinton tells us much in his interesting little book
(413). These sorcerers recruited their ranks from both sexes, and "those
who are selected to become the masters of these arts are taught from,
early childhood how to draw and paint these characters and are obliged
to learn by heart the formulas, and the names of the ancient Nagualists,
and whatever else is included in these written documents" (413. 17).
We learn that "in the sacraments of Nagualism, woman was the primate and
hierophant," the admission of the female sex to the most exalted
positions and the most esoteric degrees being a remarkable feature of
this great secret society (413. 33). Indeed, Aztec tradition, like that
of Honduras, speaks of an ancient sorceress, mother of the occult
sciences, and some of the legends of the Nagualists trace much of their
art to a mighty enchantress of old (413. 34).
In 1713, the Tzendals of Chiapas rose in insurrection under the American
Joan of Arc, an Indian girl about twenty years of age, whose Spanish
name was Maria Candelaria. She was evidently a leader of the Nagualists,
and after the failure of the attempt at revolution disappeared in the
forest and was no more heard of (413. 35). Dr. Brinton calls attention
to the fact that Mr. E. G. Squier reports having heard, during his
travels in Central America, of a "_sukia_ woman, as she was called
by the coast Indians, one who lived alone amid the ruins of an old Maya
temple, a sorceress of twenty years, loved and feared, holding death and
life in her hands" (413. 36). There are many other instances of a like
nature showing the important position assigned to girls and young women
in the esoteric rites, secret societies, magic, sorcery, and witch-
craft of primitive peoples.
"_Boy-Bishop_."
A curious custom attached itself to the day of St. Nicholas, of Patara
in Lycia (died 343 A.D.), the patron saint of boys, after whom the
American boys' magazine _St. Nicholas_ is aptly named. Brewer, in
his _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, has the following paragraph
concerning the "Boy-Bishop," as he is termed: "The custom of choosing a
boy from the cathedral choir, etc., on St. Nicholas day (6th December),
as a mock bishop is very ancient. The boy possessed episcopal honour for
three weeks, and the rest of the choir were his prebends. If he died
during the time of his prelacy, he was buried _in pontificalibus_.
Probably the reference is to Jesus Christ sitting in the Temple among
the doctors while he was a boy. The custom was abolished in the reign of
Henry Eighth" (p. 110). Brand gives many details of the election and
conduct of the "Boy-Bishops," and the custom seems to have been in vogue
in almost every parish and collegiate church (408. I. 415-431). Bishop
Hall thus expresses himself on the subject: "What merry work it was here
in the days of our holy fathers (and I know not whether, in some places
it may not be so still), that upon St. Nicholas, St. Katherine, St.
Clement, and Holy Innocents' Day, children were wont to be arrayed in
chimers, rochets, surplices, to counterfeit bishops and priests, and to
be led with songs and dances from house to house, blessing the people,
who stood grinning in the way to expect that ridiculous benediction.
Yea, that boys in that holy sport were wont to sing masses, and to climb
into the pulpit to preach (no doubt learnedly and edifyingly) to the
simple auditory. And this was so really done, that in the cathedral
church of Salisbury (unless it be lately defaced) there is a perfect
monument of one of these Boy-Bishops (who died in the time of his young
pontificality), accoutred in his episcopal robes, still to be seen. A
fashion that lasted until the later times of King Henry the Eighth, who,
in 1541, by his solemn Proclamation, printed by Thomas Bertlet, the
king's printer, _cum privilegio_, straitly forbad the practice."
When King Edward First was on his way to Scotland, in 1299, we are told,
"he permitted one of these Boy-Bishops to say vespers before him in his
Chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and made a considerable
present to the said bishop, and certain other boys that came and sang
with him on the occasion, on the 7th of December, the day after St.
Nicholas's Day" (408. I. 422).
The records of the churches contain many particulars of the election,
duties, and regalia of these boy-bishops, whence it would appear that
expense and ceremony were not spared on these occasions.
Another boy-bishop was paid "thirteen shillings and sixpence for singing
before King Edward the Third, in his chamber, on the day of the Holy
Innocents" (408. I. 428).
The Boy-Bishop of Salisbury, whose service set to music is printed in
the _Processionale et usum insignis et preclare Ecclesie Sarum,_
1566, is actually said "to have had the power of disposing of such
prebends there as happened to fall vacant during the days of his
episcopacy" (408. I. 424). With the return of Catholicism under Mary, as
Brand remarks, the Boy-Bishop was revived, for we find an edict of the
Bishop of London, issued Nov. 13, 1554, to all the clergy of his
diocese, to the effect that "they should have a Boy-Bishop in
procession," and Warton notes that "one of the child-bishop's songs, as
it was sung before the Queen's Majesty, in her privy chamber; at her
manor of St. James in the Field's on St. Nicholas's Day, and Innocents'
Day, 1555, by the child-bishop of St. Paul's, with his company, was
printed that year in London, containing a fulsome panegyric on the
queen's devotions, comparing her to Judith, Esther, the Queen of Sheba,
and the Virgin Mary" (408. I. 429-430). The places at which the
ceremonies of the Boy-Bishop have been particularly noted are:
Canterbury, Eton, St. Paul's, London, Colchester, Winchester, Salisbury,
Westminster, Lambeth, York, Beverly, Rotherham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
etc. The Boy-Bishop was known also in Spain and in France; in the latter
country he was called Pape-Colas. In Germany, at the Council of
Salzburg, in 1274, on account of the scandals they gave rise to, the
_ludi noxii quos vulgaris eloquentia_ Episcopatus Puerorum
_appellat,_ were placed under the ban (408. I. 426).
It would appear from the mention of "children strangely decked and
apparelled to counterfeit priests, bishops, and women," that on these
occasions "divine service was not only performed by boys, but by little
girls," and "there is an injunction given to the Benedictine Nunnery of
Godstowe in Oxfordshire, by Archbishop Peckham, in the year 1278, that
on Innocents' Day the public prayers should not any more be said in the
church of that monastery _per parvulas, i.e._ little girls" (408.
I. 428).
Though with the Protestantism of Elizabeth the Boy-Bishop and his revels
were put down by the authorities, they continued to survive, in some
places at least, the end of her reign. Puttenham, in his _Art of
Poesie_ (1589), observes: "On St. Nicholas's night, commonly, the
scholars of the country make them a bishop, who, like a foolish boy,
goeth about blessing and preaching with such childish terms as make the
people laugh at his foolish counterfeit speeches" (408. 427). Brand
recognizes in the _iter ad montem_ of the scholars at Eton the
remnants of the ceremonies of the Boy-Bishop and his associates (408.
432); and indeed a passage which he cites from the _Status Scholæ
Etonensis_ (1560) shows that "in the Papal times the Eton scholars
(to avoid interfering, as it should seem, with the boy-bishop of the
college there on St. Nicholas's Day) elected _their_ boy-bishop on
St. Hugh's Day, in the month of November." In the statutes (1518) of St.
Paul's School, we meet with the following: "All these children shall
every Childermas Day come to Pauli's Church, and hear the Child-bishop
sermon; and after he be at the high mass, and each of them offer a
1_d_. to the Child-bishop, and with them the masters and surveyors
of the school." Brand quotes Strype, the author of the _Ecclesiastical
Memorials_, as observing: "I shall only remark, that there might be
this at least said in favour of this old custom, that it gave a spirit
to the children; and the hopes that they might one time or other attain
to the real mitre made them mind their books."
In his poem, _The Boy and the Angel_, Robert Browning tells how
Theocrite, the boy-craftsman, sweetly praised God amid his weary toil.
On Easter Day he wished he might praise God as Pope, and the angel
Gabriel took the boy's place in the workshop, while the latter became
Pope in Rome. But the new. Pope sickened of the change, and God himself
missed the welcome praise of the happy boy. So back went the Pope to the
workshop and boyhood, and praise rose up to God as of old. Somewhat
different from the poet's story is the tale of the lama of Tibet, a real
boy-pope. The Grand Lama, or Pope, is looked upon as an incarnation of
Buddha and as immortal, never suffering death, but merely transmigration
(100. 499).
Among various peoples, the child has occupied all sacerdotal positions
from acolyte to pope--priest he has been, not in barbarism alone, but in
the midst of culture and civilization, where often the jest begun has
ended in sober earnest. In the ecclesiastical, as well as in the
secular, kingdom, the child has often come to his throne when "young in
years, but in sage counsel old."