skin is covered with indelible marks, representing trees, animals, and
flowers of grotesque forms.”—(“Universal Geography,” American edition,
Philadelphia, 1832, vol. ii. lib. 43, p. 79, article “China.”)
“The practice of marking the skin with the figures of animals, flowers,
or stars, which was in existence before the time of Mahomet, has still
left traces among the Bedouin women.”—(Idem, vol. i. lib. 30, p. 395.)
Speaking of the Persian ladies, the same authority says: “They stain
their bodies with the figures of trees, birds, and beasts, sun, moon, and
stars.”—(Idem, vol. i. lib. 33, p. 428, article “Persia.”)
In the “Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London,” vol. vi., it
is stated that the “Oraon boys (India) are marked when children on the
arms by a rather severe process of puncturation, which they consider it
manly to endure.”
“Mojave girls, after they marry, tattoo the chin with vertical blue
lines.”—(Palmer, quoted by H. H. Bancroft in “Native Races,” vol. i. p.
480.)
In the cannibal feast of the Tupis of the Amazon, Southey says, “The
chief of the clan scarified the arms of the Matador above the elbow, so
as to leave a permanent mark there; and this was the Star and Garter
of their ambition, the highest badge of honor. There were some who cut
gashes in their breast, arms, and thighs on these occasions, and rubbed
a black powder in, which left an indelible stain.”—(Quoted by Herbert
Spencer in “Descriptive Sociology.”)
“A savage man meets a savage maid. She does not speak his language, nor
he hers. How are they to know whether, according to the marriage laws of
their race, they are lawful mates for each other? This important question
is settled by an inspection of their tattoo marks. If a Thlinkeet man, of
the Swan stock, meets an Iroquois maid, of the Swan stock, they cannot
speak to each other, and the ‘gesture language’ is cumbrous. But if both
are tattooed with the Swan, then the man knows that this daughter of the
Swan is not for him.... The case of the Thlinkeet man and the Iroquois
maid is extremely unlikely to occur, but I give it as an example of the
practical use among savages of representative art.”—(“Custom and Myth,”
Andrew Lang, New York, 1885, p. 292.)
“Tattooing is fetichistic in origin. Among all the tribes, almost
every Indian has the image of an animal tattooed on his breast or arm,
which can charm away an evil spirit or prevent harm to them.”—(Dorman,
“Primitive Superstition,” New York, 1881, p. 156.)
“The Eskimo wife has her face tattooed with lamp-black, and is regarded
as a matron in society.”—(“Schwatka’s Search,” William H. Gilder, New
York, 1881, p. 250.) “I never saw any attempt at figure or animal drawing
for personal ornamentation. The forms are generally geometrical in design
and symmetrical in arrangement.... None of the men are tattooed.”—(Idem,
p. 251.)
“The Mojaves of the Rio Colorado tattoo, but the explanation of the marks
was exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory. The women, upon attaining
puberty, are tattooed upon the chin, and there seem to be four different
patterns followed, probably representing as many different phratric or
clan systems in former times.”—(See the author’s article in the “Journal
of American Folk-Lore,” Cambridge, Mass., July-September, 1888, entitled
“Notes on the Cosmogony and Theogony of the Mojaves.”)
Swan, in his notes upon the Indians of Cape Flattery, contents himself
with observing that their tattooing is performed with coal and human
urine.
“In order that the ghost may travel the ghost road in safety, it is
necessary for each Lakota during his life to be tattooed either in the
middle of the forehead or on the wrists. In that event, his spirit will
go directly to the ‘Many Lodges.’ ... An old woman sits in the road, and
she examines each ghost that passes. If she cannot find the tattoo-marks
on the forehead, wrists, or chin, the unhappy ghost is pushed from a
cloud or cliff, and falls to this world.”—(Dr. J. Owen Dorsey, in the
“Journal of American Folk-Lore,” April, 1889.)
Of the islands of the South Pacific, Kotzebue says, “I believe that
tattooing in these islands is a religious custom; at least, they refused
it to several of our gentlemen at Otdia, assuring them that it could only
be done in Egerup.”—(“Voyages,” vol. ii. pp. 113, 135, London, 1821.)
“Tattooing is by no means confined to the Polynesians, but this ‘dermal
art’ is certainly carried by them to an extent which is unequalled by any
other people.... It is practised by all classes.... By the vast number of
them it is adopted simply as a personal ornament, though there are some
grounds for believing that the tattoo may, in a few cases and to a small
extent, be looked upon as a badge of mourning or a memento of a departed
friend. Like everything else in Polynesia, its origin is related in a
legend which credits its invention to the gods, and says it was first
practised by the children of Tharoa, their principal deity. The sons of
Tharoa and Apouvarou were the gods of tattooing, and their images were
kept in the temples of those who practised the art as a profession, and
to them petitions are offered that the figures might be handsome, attract
attention, and otherwise accomplish the purpose for which they submitted
themselves to this painful operation.... To show any signs of suffering
under the operation is looked upon as disgraceful.”—(“World,” New York,
May 10, 1890, quoting from “The Peoples of the World.”)
“In the Tonga and Samoan Islands, the young men were all tattooed upon
reaching manhood; before this, they could not think of marriage....
Tattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a regular
profession.... There are two gods, patrons of tattooing,—Taema and
Tilfanga.”—(See Turner’s “Samoa.”)
“One of the features of the Initiation among the Port Lincoln tribe was
the tattooing of the young man and the conferring of a new name upon
him.”—(“The Native Tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, received
through the kindness of the Royal Society, New South Wales, T. B.
Kyngdon, Secretary.)
It is well to observe that each tribe in a given section has not only its
own pattern of tattooing, but its own ideas of the parts of the person
to which the tattooing should be applied. Thus, among the Indians of
the northwest coast of British Columbia, “Tattooings are found on arms,
breast, back, legs, and feet among the Haidas; on arms and feet among the
Tshimshian, Kwakiutl, and Bilqula; on breast and arms among the Nootka;
on the jaw among the coast Salish women.”—(“Report on the Northwestern
Tribes of Canada,” Franz Boas, in “Trans. Brit. Assoc. Advancement of
Science,” Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889, p. 12.)
Sullivan states that the custom of tattooing continued in England
and Ireland down to the seventh century; this was the tattooing with
woad.—(See his Introduction to O’Curry’s “Manners and Customs of the
Ancient Irish,” p. 455.)
The Inuits believe that “les femmes bien tatouées” are sure of felicity
in the world to come.—(See “Les Primitifs,” Réclus, Paris, 1885, p. 120.)
“Although the practice of the art is so ancient that we have evidence of
its existence in prehistoric times, and that the earliest chronicles of
our race contain references to it, yet the term itself is comparatively
modern.... The universality as well as the great antiquity of the custom
has been shown by a French author, Ernest Berchon, ‘Histoire Médicale
du Tatouage,’ Paris, 1869, which begins with a quotation from Leviticus
xiv., which in the English version reads thus: ‘Ye shall not make any
cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.’ Don
Calmet, in commenting upon this passage, says that the Hebrew literally
means ‘a writing of spots.’ Many Italians have been tattooed at Loretto.
Around this famous shrine are seen professional tattooers, ‘Marcatori,’
who charge from half to three quarters of a lire for producing a design
commemorative of the pilgrim’s visit to the shrine of Our Lady of
Loretto. A like profitable industry is pursued at Jerusalem.... Religion
has some influence (in the matter of tattooing) from its tendency to
preserve ancient customs. At Loretto and Jerusalem tattooing is almost
a sacred observance.”—(“Tattooing among Civilized People,” Dr. Robert
Fletcher, Anthropological Society, Washington, D. C., 1883, pp. 4, 12,
and 26.)
“Father Mathias G. says that in Oceania every royal or princely family
has a family of tattooers especially devoted to their service, and that
none other can be permitted to produce the necessary adornment.”—(Idem,
p. 24.)
“Tatowiren, Narbenzeichnen und Korperbemalen” (Tattooing, Cicatricial
Marking and Body Painting), by Wilhelm Joest, Berlin, 1887, a superbly
illustrated volume, has been reviewed by Surgeon Washington Matthews,
U. S. Army, in the “American Anthropologist,” Washington, D. C., ending
in these words, “The author’s opinion, however, that ‘tattooing has
nothing to do with the religion of savages, but is only a sport or means
of adornment, which, at most, has connection with the attainment of
maturity,’ is one which will not be generally concurred in by those who
have studied this practice as it exists among our American savages.”
AGRICULTURE.
In the interior of China, travellers relate that copper receptacles
along the roadsides rescue from loss a fertilizer whose value is fully
recognized.
These copper receptacles recall the “Gastra,” of the Romans, already
referred to under the heading of “Latrines.”
“Les Chinois fument leurs terres autant que cela est en leur pouvoir;
ils emploient à cet usage toutes sortes d’engrais, mais principalement
les excréments humains, qu’ils recueillent à cet effet avec grand soin.
On trouve dans les villes, dans les villages, et sur les routes, des
endroits faits exprès pour la commodité des passans, et dans les lieux où
il n’y a pas de semblables facilités, des hommes vont ramasser soir et
matin les ordures et les mettent dans des panniers à l’aide d’un croc de
fer à trois pointes.
“On traffique dans ce pays de ce qu’on rejette ailleurs avec horreur et
celui qui reçoit d’argent en France pour nettoyer une fosse, en donne
au contraire en Chine pour avoir la liberté d’en faire autant. Les
excréments sont portés dans de grands trous bien mastiqués, faits en
pleine campagne, dans lesquels on les délaye avec de l’eau et de l’urine
et on les répand dans les champs à mesure qu’on a besoin. On rencontre
souvent sur la rivière à Quanton des bateaux d’une forme particulière
destinés au transport de ces ordures et ce n’est pas sans surprise qu’on
en voit les conducteurs être aussi peu affectés qu’ils le paroissent
de l’odeur agréable d’une pareille marchandise.”—(“Voyage à Pekin,” De
Guignes, Paris, 1808, vol. iii. p. 322.)
“The dung of all animals is esteemed above any other kind of manure.
It often becomes an article of commerce in the shape of small cakes,
which are made by mixing it with a portion of loam and earth, and then
thoroughly drying them. These cakes are even brought from Siam, and
they also form an article of commerce between the provinces. They are
never applied dry, but are diluted with as much animal water as can be
procured.”—(“Chinese Repository,” Canton, 1835, vol. iii. p. 124.)
“They even make sale of that which is sent privately to some distance in
Europe at midnight.” (Du Halde, “History of China,” London, 1736, vol.
ii. p. 126.) This statement of Father Du Halde can be compared with what
Bernal Diaz says of the markets of the city of Mexico at the time of
Cortés: “There are in every province a great number of people who carry
pails for this purpose; in some places they go with their barks into the
canals which run on the back side of the houses, and fill them at almost
every hour of the day.”—(Du Halde, idem, p. 126.)
Rosinus Lentilius, in “Ephemeridum Physico-Medicorum,” Leipsig, 1694,
states that the people of China and Java buy human ordure in exchange for
tobacco and nuts. This was probably on account of its value in manuring
their fields, which, he tells us (p. 170), was done three times a year
with human ordure. This leads him to make the reflection that man runs
back to excrement,—“Unde stercus in alimentum et hoc rursum in stercus.”
“The Japanese manure their fields with human ordure.”—(See Kemper’s
“History of Japan,” in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 698.)
“Yea, the dung of men is there sold, and not the worse merchandise, that
stink yielding sweet wealth to some who goe tabouring up and down the
streetes to signifie what they woulde buy. Two or three hundred sayle are
sometimes freighted with this lading in some Port of the Sea; whence the
fatted soyle yields three Haruests in a yeare.”—(Mendex Pinto, “Account
of China,” in Purchas, vol. i. p. 270.)
“Heaps of manure in every field, at proper distances, ready to be
scattered over the corn.”—(Turner, “Embassy to Tibet,” London, 1806, p.
62.)
The Persians used pigeon’s dung “to smoak their melons.”—(John Matthews
Eaton, “Treatise on Breeding Pigeons,” London, no date, pp. 39, 40,
quoting from Tavernier’s first volume of “Persian Travels.”)
The finest variety of melon, “the sugar melon,” “cultivated with the
greatest care with the dung of pigeons kept for the purpose.”—(“Persia,”
Benjamin, London, 1877, p. 428.)
Fosbroke cites Tavernier as saying that the King of Persia draws a
greater revenue from “the dung than from the pigeons” belonging to him
in Ispahan. The Persians are said to live on melons during the summer
months, and “to use pigeons’ dung in raising them.”—(“Cyclopædia of
Antiquities,” vol. ii.)
Human manure was best for fields, according to Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib.
17, cap. 9). Homer relates that King Laertes laid dung upon his fields.
Augeas was the first king among the Greeks so to use it, and “Hercules
divulged the practice thereof among the Italians.”—(Pliny, idem,
Holland’s translation.)
Urine was considered one of the best manures for vines. “Wounds and
incisions of trees are treated also with pigeon’s dung and swine
manure.... If pomegranates are acid, the roots of the tree are cleared,
and swine’s dung is applied to them; the result is that in the first year
the fruit will have a vinous flavor, but in the succeeding one it will
be sweet.... The pomegranates should be watered four times a year with
a mixture of human urine and water.... For the purpose of preventing
animals from doing mischief by browsing upon the leaves, they should be
sprinkled with cow-dung each time after rain.”—(Pliny, lib. 17, cap. 47.)
Schurig calls attention to the great value attached by farmers and
viticulturists to human ordure, either alone or mixed with that of
animals, in feeding hogs, in fertilizing fields, and in adding richness
to the soil in which vines grow. See “Chylologia,” p. 795.
In Germany and France, during the past century, farmers and gardeners
were generally careful of this fertilizer.
“In the valley of Cuzco, Peru, and, indeed, in almost all parts of the
Sierra, they used human manure for the maize crops, because they said it
was the best.”—(Garcillasso de la Vega, “Comentarios Reales,” Clement C.
Markham’s translation, in Hakluyt Society, vol. xlv. p. 11.)
“Conocian tambien el uso de estercolar las tierras que ellos llamaban
Vunaltu.”—(“Historia Civil del Reyno de Chile,” Don Juan Ignacio Molina,
edition of Madrid, 1788, p. 15.)
Amelie Rives, in her story “Virginia of Virginia,” relates that a certain
family of Virginia was taken down with the typhoid fever on account of
“making fertilizer in the cellar.” We may infer that this “fertilizer”
was largely composed of manure. This is the interview between Mr. Scott
and Miss Virginia Herrick: “‘The tarryfied fever’s a-ragin’ up ter
Annesville,’ he announced presently. Virginia faced about for the first
time. ‘Is it?’ she asked; ‘who’s down?’ ‘Nigh all of them Davises. The
doctor says as how it’s ’count o’ their makin’ fertilizer in their
cellar.’”—(In “Harper’s Magazine,” New York, January, 1888, p. 223.)
Animal manure was known as a fertilizer to the Jews (2 Kings ix. 37;
Jeremiah viii. 2, ix. 22, xvi. 4, and xxv. 33). Human manure also.
(Consult McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopædia, article “Dung.”)
URINE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT.
Gómara explains that, mixed with palm-scrapings, human urine served as
salt to the Indians of Bogota,—“Hacen sal de raspaduras de palma y orinas
de hombre.”—(“Hist. de las Indias,” p. 202.)
Salt is made by the Latookas of the White Nile from the ashes of goat’s
dung.—(See “The Albert Nyanza,” Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869, p.
224.)
Pallas states that the Buriats of Siberia, in collecting salts from the
shores of certain lakes in their country, are careful as to the taste of
the same: “Ils n’emploient que ceux qui ont un goût d’Urine et d’alkali.”
(“Voyages,” Paris, 1793, vol. iv. p. 246.) This shows that they must
once have used urine for salt, as so many other tribes have done.
The Siberians gave human urine to their reindeer: “Nothing is so
acceptable to a reindeer as human urine, and I have even seen them run to
get it as occasion offered.”—(John Dundas Cochrane, “Pedestrian Journey
Through Siberian Tartary,” 1820-23, Philadelphia, 1824, p. 235.)
Melville also relates that he saw the drivers urinate into the mouths of
their reindeer in the Lena Delta.—(Personal letter to Captain Bourke.)
Here the intent was evident; the animals needed salt, and no other method
of obtaining it was feasible during the winter months. Cochrane is
speaking of the Tchuktchi; but he was also among Yakuts and other tribes.
He walked from St. Petersburg to Kamtschatka and from point to point
in Siberia for a total distance of over six thousand miles. His pages
are dark with censure of the filthy and disgusting habits of the savage
nomads, as, of the Yakuts, “Their stench and filth are inconceivable....
The large tents (of the Tchuktchi) were disgustingly dirty and offensive,
exhibiting every species of grossness and indelicacy.” Inside the
tents men, women, and girls were absolutely naked. “They drink only
snow-water during the winter, to melt which, when no wood can be had,
very disgusting and dirty means are resorted to,” etc. But nowhere does
he speak of the drinking of human urine, which, as has been learned from
other sources, does obtain among them.
(Tchuktchees of Siberia.) “It would be impossible, with decency, to
describe their habits, or explain how their very efforts towards
cleanliness make them all the more disgusting.... It requires
considerable habitude or terrible experience in the open air to find any
degree of comfort in such abodes. The Augean stables or the stump-tail
cow-sheds appear like Paradise in comparison.”—(“Ice-Pack and Tundra,”
Gilder, New York, 1883, p. 105.)
PREPARATION OF SAL AMMONIAC, PHOSPHORUS, SOLUTION OF INDIGO.
Diderot and D’Alembert say that the sal ammoniac of the ancients
was prepared with the urine of camels; that phosphorus, as then
manufactured in England, was made with human urine, as was also
saltpetre.—(Encyclopædia, Geneva, 1789, article “Urine.”)
Sal ammoniac derives its name from having been first made in the
vicinity of the temple of Jupiter Ammon; it would be of consequence to us
to know whether or not the priests of that temple had administered urine
in disease before they learned how to extract from it the medicinal salt
which has come down to our own times.
Schurig devotes a chapter to the medicinal preparations made from
human ordure. In every case the ordure had to be that of a youth from
twenty-five to thirty years old. This manner of preparing chemicals from
the human excreta, including phosphorus from urine, was carried to such a
pitch that some philosophers believed the philosopher’s stone was to be
found by mixing the salts obtained from human urine with those obtained
from human excrement.—(See “Chylologia,” pp. 739-742.)
The method of obtaining sal ammoniac was not known to Pliny; he knew
of gum ammoniac, which he says distilled from a tree, called metopia,
growing in the sands near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, in Ethiopia.—(Nat.
Hist. lib. 12, cap. 22.)
“A notion has prevailed that sal ammoniac was made of the sand on which
camels had staled, and that a great number going to the temple of Jupiter
Ammon gave occasion for the name of ammoniac, corrupted to armoniac.
Whether it ever could be made by taking up the sand and preparing it with
fire, as they do the dung at present, those who are best acquainted with
the nature of these things will be best able to judge. I was informed
that it was made of the soot which is caused by burning the dung of cows
and other animals. The hotter it is the better it produces; and for that
reason the dung of pigeons is the best; that of camels is also much
esteemed.” (Here follows a description of the method of distilling this
soot.)—(Pocock’s “Travels in Egypt,” in Pinkerton, vol. xv. p. 381.)
“Purifiée, l’Urine sert dans les arts pour dégraisser les laines,
dissoudre l’indigo, prépare le sel ammoniac.”—(Personal letter from Prof.
Frank Rede Fowke, South Kensington Museum, June 18, 1888.)
MANURE EMPLOYED AS FUEL.
The employment of manures as fuel for firing pottery among Moquis, Zuñis,
and other Pueblos, and for general heating in Thibet, has been pointed
out by the author in a former work. (“Snake Dance of the Moquis,” London,
1884.) It was used for the same purpose in Africa, according to Mungo
Park. (“Travels,” etc., p. 119.) The dung of the buffalo served the same
purpose in the domestic economy of the Plains Indians. Camel dung is the
fuel of the Bedouins; that of men and animals alike was saved and dried
by the Syrians, Arabians, Egyptians, and people of West of England for
fuel. Egyptians heated their lime-kilns with it.—(McClintock and Strong,
“Dung.” See, also, Kitto’s Biblical Encyclopædia, article “Dung.”)
Pocock says of camel dung: “In order to make fuel of it, they mix it, if
I mistake not, with chopped straw, and, I think, sometimes with earth,
and make it into cakes and dry it; and it is burnt by the common people
in Egypt; for the wood they burn at Cairo is very dear, as it is brought
from Asia Minor.”—(Pocock, in Pinkerton, vol. xv. p. 381.)
Bruce does not allude to any of the filthy customs which are detailed by
Schweinfurth, Sir Samuel Baker, and others; he does say that the Nuba
of the villages called Daher, at the head of the White Nile, Abyssinia,
“never eat their meat raw as in Abyssinia; but with the stalk of the
dura or millet and the dung of camels they make ovens under ground, in
which they roast their hogs whole, in a very cleanly and not disagreeable
manner.”—(“Nile,” Dublin, 1791, vol. v. p. 172.)
“Argol, the dried dung of camels, is the common fuel of
Mongolia.”—(“Among the Mongols,” Rev. James Gilmour, London, 1883, pp.
84, 146, 191, 296.)
The dung of camels is the fuel of the Kirghis.—(See “Oriental and Western
Siberia,” T. W. Atkinson, New York, 1865, pp. 218, 221.)
See also “From Paris to Pekin,” Meignan, London, 1885, pp. 186, 306, 310,
333; Burton’s edition of the “Arabian Nights,” vol. iii. p. 51; Father
Gerbillon’s Account of Tartary, in Du Halde, vol. iv. p. 151.
“Asses’ dung used for fuel and other purposes, such as making Joss
sticks.”—(Burton’s edition of the “Arabian Nights,” vol. ii. p. 149,
footnote.)
Cow-dung fuel and sheep-dung fuel alluded to by Huc, as used in
Thibet.—(See also Manning, Bogle, and Della Penna, in Markham’s “Thibet,”
London, 1879, p. 70.)
Friar William de Rubruquis, the Minorite, sent as ambassador to the Grand
Khan of Tartary, by Saint Louis, King of France, in 1253, speaks of
eating “Unleavened bread baked in Oxe-Dung or Horse-dung” (in Purchas,
vol. i. p. 34). Cow dung used for the same purpose in Thibet.—(See
Turner’s “Embassy to Thibet,” London, 1806, p. 202.)
“Cowe-dung fewell,” in Malta, mentioned by Master George Sandys, A.D.
1610 (in Purchas, vol. ii. p. 916).—(“Stercus bouinum,” in Egypt, idem,
vol. ii. p. 898.)
Yak manure used as fuel in Eastern Thibet, according to W. W. Rockhill in
“Border Land of China,” in “Century” Magazine, New York, 1890.