Philosophiæ et Medicinæ calumniatores,” at Bononiae (Bologna), 1582,
uses only this expression, “Quamvis humanis corporis excrementa
conspicienda considerandaque esse præcipiat non tamen propter hoc aliquid
suæ nobilitati et proestantiæ detrahitur,” p. 190. He means that the
nobility of the medical profession is in no manner impaired by the fact
that the good physician examines the egestæ of his patient. “However
disgusting the subject may appear to such readers who do not consider
it in the light of science, the article is a fair specimen of the maxim
that, for a scientific mind, nothing is too abject or insignificant
for consideration; and it also illustrates the other principle, that
to the pure everything is pure. Many of the rites described in these
pages show how deeply engraved in the human mind is the tendency of
symbolizing, anthromorphizing, and deifying abstract ideas and phenomena
of nature.”—(Extract from review by Dr. Alfred Gatchett, Bureau of
Ethnology, in “Folk-Lore Journal,” Boston, Mass.)
[2] Mr. Cushing’s reputation as an ethnologist is now so firmly
established in two continents that no further reference to his
self-sacrificing and invaluable labors in the cause of science seems to
be necessary.
[3] “There are three secret orders in Zuñi,—the “Zuñi,” the “Knife,”
and the “Nehue-Cue.” The object of the latter is said to be to teach
fortitude to its members, as well as to teach them the therapeutics of
stomachic disorders, etc. In their dances they resort to the horrible
practice of drinking human urine, eating human excrement, animal
excrement, and other nastiness which can only be believed by seeing
it.”—(Extract from the Personal Notes of Captain Bourke, November 16,
1881.)
[4] “There must, I think, be some mistake about the fanatical dance of
Arabian Bedouins; probably one of the wild practices of Moslem Dervishes
was described in the source you have mislaid. These practices are
Turkish or Persian, not Arabian, in origin. The Rifar Dervishes eat live
serpents and scorpions, and, I dare say, perform still more disgusting
acts.”—(Personal letter from Professor W. Robertson Smith, Christ’s
College, Cambridge, England.)
[5] See in Dictionary of French and English Language, by Ferdinand E. A.
Gasc, London, Bell and Daldy, York Street, Covent Garden, 1873.
Littré, whose work appeared in 1863, gives as one of his definitions,
“anything that is shaped like a sausage.”
Bescherelle, Spiers and Surenne, and Boyer, do not give Gasc’s definition.
[6] And very probably a phallic symbol also.
[7] Faber advances the opinion that the “mummers” or clowns who figured
in the pastimes of “the abbot of unreason,” etc., bear a strong
resemblance to the animal-headed Egyptian priests in the sacred dances
represented on the Bembine or Isiac table. (See Faber’s “Pagan Idolatry,”
London, 1816, vol. ii. p. 479.)
[8] “However horrible was this profanation, I could quote a passage
where in part of a curious penance actions most indecent were to be
publicly performed upon the altar-table; and therefore our ancestors had
plainly not the same ludicrous ideas of these mummeries as ourselves.
They were the mere coarse festivities of the age which delighted in low
humor.”—(Fosbroke, “British Monachism,” 2d edition, London, 1817, quoted
principally from Ducange.)
[9] “Ils mangent des araignées, des œufs de fourmis, des vers, des
lézards, des salamandres, des couleuvres, de la terre, du bois, de la
fiente de cerfs, et bien d’autres choses.”—(Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca,
in “Ternaux,” vol. vii. p. 144.)
[10] “Comen arañas, hormigas, gusanos, salamanquesas, lagartijas,
culebras, palos, tierra, y cagajones y cagarrutas.”—(Gómara, “Historia de
las Indias,” p. 182.) He derives his information from the narrative of
Vaca. The word “cagajon” means horse-dung, the dung of mules and asses;
“cagarruta,” the dung of sheep, goats, and mice.
[11] “Algunas veces se juntan varios Indios y á la redonda va corriendo
el bocado de uno en otro.”—(Orozco y Berra, “Geografia de las lenguas de
Mejico,” Mexico, 1854, p. 359.)
[12] “Peuplé de sauvages qui vont tous nus, et qui mangent leurs propres
ordures.”—(Castañeda, in Ternaux, vol. ix. p. 156.)
Castañeda de Nagera accompanied the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de
Coronado, which entered Arizona, New Mexico, and the buffalo country in
1540-1542. Part of this expedition, under Don Garcia Lope de Cardena,
went down the Colorado River, which separates California from Arizona;
while another detachment, under Melchior Diaz, struck the river closer to
its mouth, and crossed into what is now California.
[13] Harmon’s notes are of special interest at this point because he is
speaking of the Ta-cully or Carriers, who belong to the same Tinneh stock
as the Apaches and Navajoes of Arizona and New Mexico, Lipans of Texas,
Umpquas of Washington Territory, Hoopahs of California, and Slocuss of
the head-waters of the Columbia River.
[14] Lit. “de la maladie froide;” voy. O’Donovan, “Annals of the Four
Masters,” note à l’année 601, t. 1. p. 228.
[15] La mort subite est regardée comme le plus grand malheur, parce
qu’elle ne laisse pas le temps de se confesser et de recevoir
l’absolution de ses péchés.
[16] O’Donovan, “Three Fragments of Irish Annals,” Dublin, 1860, pp.
10-12. The bodies of Indian chiefs in Venezuela were incinerated, the
ashes drunk in native liquor. “Tuestanlo, muelenlo, y echado en vino lo
beben y esto es gran honra.”—Gómara, “Historia de las Indias,” p. 203.
[17] Nanacatl, que son los hongos malos que emborrachan tan bien como el
vino; y se juntaban en un llano despues de haberlo comido, donde bailaban
y cantaban de noche y de dia á su placer; y esto el primer dia porque al
dia siguiente lloraban todos mucho y decian que se limpiaban y lavaban
los ojos y caras con sus lágrimas.—(Sahagun, in Kingsborough’s “Mexican
Antiquities,” vol. vii. p. 308.)
[18] Hay unos honguillos en esta tierra que se llaman teo-nanacatl;
crianse debajo del heno en los campos ó páramos ... dañan la garganta y
emborrachan ... los que los comen ven visiones y sienten buscas en el
corazon; á los que comen muchos de ellos provocan á luxuria, y aunque
sean pocos.—(Sahagun, in Kingsborough’s “Mexican Antiquities,” vol. vii.
p. 369.)
[19] Tenian otra manera de embriaguez ... era con unos hongos ó setas
pequeñas ... que comidos crudos y por ser amargos, beben tras ellos ó
comen con ellos un poco de miel de abejas, y de alli á poco rato, veian
mil visiones y en especial culebras.—(By the author of “Ritos Antiguos,
Sacrificios é idolatrias de los Indios en Nueva España,” Kingsborough,
vol. ix. p. 17.)
This author seems to have been the Franciscan Fray Toribio de Benvento,
commonly called by his Aztec nickname of “Motolinia, the Beggar.” He is
designated by Kingsborough “the Unknown Franciscan,” because, through
motives of humility, he declined to subscribe his name to his valuable
writings.
[20] A los estranjeros, les diéron á comer hongos montesinos que se
embriagaban con ellos y con esto entráron á la danza.—(Tezozomoc,
“Crónica Mexicana,” in Kingsborough, “Mexican Antiquities,” vol. ix. p.
153.)
[21] Ivan todos á comer hongos crudos, con la cual comida salian
todos de juicio y quedaban peores que si hubieran bebido mucho vino;
tan embriagados y fuera de sentido que muchos de ellos se mataban
con propria mano; y con la fuerza de aquellos hongos vian visiones y
tenian rebelaciones de lo porvenir hablandoles el Demonio en aquella
embriaguez.—(Diego Duran, lib. 2, cap. 54, p. 564.)
[22] Rushton M. Dorman, “Primitive Superstitions,” New York, 1881, p. 295.
[23] The word “mattika” cannot be found in Forbes’ English-Hindustani
Dictionary (London, 1848). It may, perhaps, belong to an extinct dialect.
The word “matt,” meaning “drunk,” would serve a good purpose for this
article could a relationship be shown to exist between it and “mattika.”
This the author is of course unable to do, being totally ignorant of
Hindustani. Neither does “badrilata” occur in Forbes, who interprets
“mistletoe” as “banda.” The contributor to the Asiatic Researches, who
used the word, thought it meant “agaric.”
[24] Higgins believes that the ancient Egyptians had discovered a
similarity between the coats of an onion and the planetary spheres, and
says that “it was called (by the Greeks), from being sacred to the father
of ages, oionoon—onion.... The onion was adored (as the black stone in
Westminster Abbey is by us) by the Egyptians for this property as a type
of the eternal renewal of ages.... The onion is adored in India, and
forbidden to be eaten.”—(Quoting “Forster’s Sketches of Hindoos,” p. 35.
Higgins’ “Anacalypsis,” vol. ii. p. 427.)
[25] But on the sixth day of the moon’s age “women walk in the forests
with a fan in one hand, and eat _certain vegetables_, in hope of
beautiful children. See the account given by Pliny of the Druidical
mistletoe or viscum, which was to be gathered when the moon was six days
old, as a preservative from sterility.”—(Sir William Jones in “Asiatic
Researches,” Calcutta, 1790, vol. iii. art. 12, p. 284, quoted by Edward
Moor, “Hindu Pantheon,” London, 1810, p. 134.)
[26] As has already been shown on page 93, the sacrificial mistletoe was
gathered by the Druids when the moon was six days old, that day being the
first of the month, year, and cycle among the Druids.
[27] It was the only plant in the world which could harm Baldur, the son
of Odin and Friga. When a branch of it struck him he fell dead.—(See in
“Bulfinch’s Mythology,” revised by Rev. E. E. Hale, Boston, 1883, p. 428.)
[28] Lenormant speaks of “certain enchanted drinks, ... which doubtless
contained medicinal drugs, as a cure for diseases.”—(“Chaldean Magic,”
London, 1877, p. 41.)
[29] See also Ellen Russell Emerson, “Indian Myths,” Boston, 1884, p.
331, wherein Pidgeon is quoted.
[30] “Legends of the Sioux,” Eastman, New York, 1849, p. 210. Readers
interested in the subject of Indian altars will find descriptions, with
colored plates, in “The Snake Dance of the Moquis” (London and New York,
1884), by the author of this volume; and in the elaborate monograph
by Surgeon Washington Matthews, in the Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, Washington, D. C., 1888.
[31] “Neypachtly quiere decir ‘mal ojo;’ es una yerva que nace en
los arboles y cuelga de ellos, parda con la humedad de las aguas,
especialmente se cria en los encinales y robles.”—(Diego Duran, vol. iii.
cap. 16, p. 391½, manuscript copy in the Library of Congress, Washington,
D. C.)
[32] Après avoir donné du riz en pot, à manger aux vaches ils vont
fouiller dans la bouze et en retirent les grains qu’ils trouvent entiers.
Ils font sécher ces grains et les donnent à leurs malades, non seulement
comme un remède mais encore comme une chose sainte.—(Picart, “Coûtumes et
Cérémonies religieuses,” etc., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. vii. p. 18.)
This is neither better nor worse than the custom of the Indians of Texas,
Florida, and California, herein before described.
Chez les Indiens, la bouze de la vache est très-sainte.—(Picart, _idem_,
vol. vi. part 2, pp. 191-193.)
Picart also discloses that the Banians swear by a cow.—(_Idem_, vol. vii.
p. 16.)
A small quantity of the urine (of the cow) is daily sipped by some (of
the Hindus.)—(Asiatic Researches, Calcutta, 1805, vol. viii. p. 81.)
[33] “Les moines de Chivem sont nommés Pandarones. Ils se barbouillent
le visage, la poitrine, et les bras avec des cendres de bouse de vache;
ils parcourent les rues, demandent l’aumône et chantent les louanges de
Chivem, en portant un paquet de plumes de paon à la main et le lingam
pendu au cou.”—(Dulaure, “Des Divinités Génératrices,” Paris, 1825, p.
105.)
[34] “Les Hébreux sacrifiaient et faisaient brûler la vache rousse, dont
les cendres mêlées avec de l’eau servaient aux expiations.”—(_Idem_, cap.
i. pp. 23, 24.)
“They shall burn in the fire their dung.”—(Levit. xvi. 27.)
“Her blood with her dung shall he burn.”—(Numbers xix. 5.)
[35] After the publication of his original pamphlet, the author became
acquainted with the views of Mr. Lang upon this subject. An examination
of them, as given in his “Myth, Ritual, and Religion,” vol. ii. p. 137,
will show that he perceives the defect in the explanation given by De
Gubernatis in much the same manner as here expressed.
“The clouds in the atmosphere being often viewed as a herd of
cows.”—(Introduction to vol. iv. of “Zendavesta,” p. 64, James
Darmesteter, edition of Oxford, 1880: “Sacred Books of the East,” edited
by Max Müller.)
A personal letter received from W. S. Wyndham, Esq., Boyne Island,
Queensland, Australia, relates that the tribes of Australia “have the
stars laid out the same as we have, only, instead of the Great Bear,
etc., they have the Emu, Kangaroo, Dog, and other things and men
introduced.”
[36] Disons un mot de la manière dont les Proselytes des Banians sont
obligés de vivre les premiers mois de leur conversion. Les Brahmines
leur ordonnent de mêler de la fiente de la vache dans tout ce qu’ils
mangent pendant ce tems de régéneration.... Que ne diroit pas ici un
commentateur subtil qui voudrait comparer la nourriture de ces proselytes
avec les ordres que Dieu donna autrefois à Ezechiel de mêler de la fiente
de vache dans ses alimens. Ezekiel iv.—(Picart, “Coûtumes et cérémonies
religieuses,” etc., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. vii. p. 15.)
[37] “Il doit manger du pain, de froment, d’orge, de fèves, de millet, et
de couvrir d’excrémens humains,” etc.—(Voltaire, “Essais sur les Mœurs,”
vol. i. p. 195, Paris, 1795).
“And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung
that cometh out of man in their sight.”—(Ezekiel iv. 12.)
[38] Such an economic tendency in the sacrificial practices of the Parsis
is shown by Tylor. The Vedic sacrifice, Agnishtoma, required that animals
should be slain and their flesh partly committed to the gods by fire,
partly eaten by sacrificers and priests. The Parsi ceremony, Izeshne,
formal successor of this bloody rite, requires no animal to be killed,
but it suffices to place the hair of an ox in a vessel, and show it to
the fire.—(“Primitive Culture,” E. B. Tylor, New York, 1874, vol. ii. p.
400.)
[39] Dubois declares that in the Atharvana Veda “bloody sacrifices of
victims (human not excepted) are there prescribed.” (“People of India,”
London, 1817, p. 341.) And in those parts of India where human sacrifice
had been abolished a substitutive ceremony was practised “by forming a
human figure of flour paste or clay, which they carry into the temple,
and there cut off its head and mutilate it in various ways, in presence
of the idols.”—(Idem, p. 490.)
[40] After the Jews had been humbled by the Lord, and made to mingle
_human_ ordure with their bread, the punishment was mitigated by
substitution. “Then he said unto me, Lo! I have given thee cow’s dung for
man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.”—(Ezekiel iv. 15.)
[41] Pallas believed “que le lamaisme des Kalmouks Mongols est originaire
des Indes.”—(Voy. de Pallas, vol. i. p. 535.)
[42] Previous notes upon the Grand Lama of Thibet, and upon the
abominable practices of the Agozis and Gurus seem to be pertinent in this
connection. See pp. 40-42.
[43] Digo que adoraban (segun San Clemente escrive á Santiago el menor),
las hediondas y sucias necesarias y latrinas; y lo que es peor y mas
abominable y digno de llorar y no de sufrir, ni nombrarle por su nombre,
que adoraban, el estruendo y crugimiento, que hace el vientre quando
despide de si alguna frialdad ó ventosidad y otras semejantes, que segun
el mismo santo es verguënza nombrarlas y decirlas.—(Torquemada, Monarchia
Indiana, lib. vi. chap. 13, Madrid, 1723.)
[44] Los Romanos ... constituieron Diosa á los hediondas necesarias ó
latrinas y la adoraban y consagraban y ofrecian sacrificios.—(Idem, lib.
vi. chap. 16, Madrid, 1723.)
[45] There is another opinion concerning Cloacina—that she was one of
the names given to a statue of Venus found in the Cloaca Maxima. Smith,
in his Dictionary of Antiquities, London, 1850, expresses this view,
and seems to be followed by the American and Britannic Encyclopædias.
Lemprière defines Cloacina: “A goddess of Rome, who presided over the
Cloacæ—some suppose her to be Venus—whose statue was found in the Cloacæ,
whence the name.”—(See, also, in Anthon’s Classical Dictionary.)
Higgins says that “the famous statue of Venus Cloacina was found in
them (the Cloacæ Maximæ) by Romulus.”—(Anacalypsis, footnote to p. 624,
London, 1836.)
Torquemada insists that the Romans borrowed this goddess from the
Egyptians: “A esta diosa llamaron Cloacina, Diosa que presidia en sus
albanares y los guardaba, que son los lugares donde van á parar todas las
suciedades, inmundicias, y vascosidades de una Republica.”—(Torquemada,
lib. vi. chap. 17.)
Torquemada, who makes manifest in his writings an intimate acquaintance
with Greek and Roman mythology, fortifies his position by references
from St. Clement, Itinerar., lib. 5; Lactantius, Divinas Ejus, lib. 1,
chap. 20; Epistle of St. Clement to St. James the Less, Eusebius, de
Preparatione Evangel., chap. 1; St. Augustine, Civ. Dei, lib. 2, chap.
22; Diod. Sic., lib. 1, chap. 2, and lib. 2, chap. 4; Lucian, Dialogues,
Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, Pliny, lib. 10, chap. 27, and lib. 11, chap. 21;
Theodoret, lib. 3, de Evangelii veritatis cognitione.
[46] “Is Maurice’s reference to Lucian correct? There is nothing of the
kind in the Deâ Syrâ, nor can I find it elsewhere in his works, though
the Index by Rentz is practically a Concordance. Still, I do not affirm
that it is not there.”—(Personal letter from Professor W. Robertson
Smith, Christ College, Cambridge, England.)
By a reference to page 36, it will be seen that Sakya-muni eats his own
excrement, and one of the Bourkans or gods of the Kalmucks is represented
as addicted to the same filthy habit.
[47] Tlaçolteotl, la déesse de l’ordure, ou Tlaçolquani, la mangeuse
d’ordure, parcequ’elle présidait aux amours et aux plaisirs
lubriques.—(Brasseur de Bourbourg, introduction to Landa, French edition,
Paris, 1864, p. 87.)
[48] El dios de los vicios y suciedades que le decian
Tlazulteotl.—(Mendieta, in Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1870, vol. i. p. 81.)
[49] According to Neumann and Baretti’s Velasquez, while, according to
the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy, the meaning is “the dirt and
refuse collected in sweeping,—the sweepings and dung of stables.” The
same idea has since been found in an extract from an ancient writer,
given in “Mélusine,” May 5, 1888.—(Paris, Gaidoz.)
“Les Esprits forts de l’Antiquité Classique. Eusèbe, dans sa ‘Préparation
Évangélique’ (XIII. 13), cite quelques vers de Xénophane de Colophone sur
l’unité et l’immortalité de Dieu qui ne peut ressembler aux hommes ni en
forme ni en esprit. Ces vers se terminent ainsi:
“‘Mais si les bœufs et les lions avaient des mains,—s’ils savaient
dessiner avec ces mains, et produire les mêmes œuvres que les hommes,—ils
(les dieux) seraient semblables aux bœufs pour les bœufs et semblables
aux chevaux pour les chevaux. Et ceux-ci dessineraient les figures
des dieux et ils leur feraient des corps semblables à ceux qu’ils ont
eux-mêmes.’—Patrologie Grecque de Migne, t. xxi. col. 1121, H. G.—Voir
aussi J. Bizouard, “Rapports de l’homme avec le démon,” Paris, 1864,
conçus dans le même esprit.”
Andrew Lang regards Tlazolteotl as the “Aphrodite of Mexico.”—(“Myth,
Rit., and Relig.” vol. ii. p. 42.)
[50] L’adorateur présentait devant l’autel son postérieur nu, soulageait
ses entrailles et faisait à l’idole une offrande de sa puante
déjection.—(Dulaure, “Des Divinités Génératrices,” Paris, 1825, p. 76.)
Philo says the devotee of Baal-Peor presented to the idol all the outward
orifices of the body. Another authority says that the worshipper not only
presented all these to the idol, but that the emanations or excretions
were also presented,—tears from the eyes, wax from the ears, pus from
the nose, saliva from the mouth, and urine and dejecta from the lower
openings. This was the god to which the Jews joined themselves; and
these, in all probability, were the ceremonies they practised in his
worship.—(Robert Allen Campbell, Phallic Worship, St. Louis, 1888, p.
171.)
Still another authority says the worshipper, presenting his bare
posterior to the altar, relieved his bowels, and offered the result to
the idol: “Eo quod distendebant coram illo foramen podicis et stercus
offerebant.”—(Hargrave Jennings, Phallicism, London, 1884, quoting Rabbi
Solomon Jarchi, in his Commentary on Numbers xxv.)
These two citations go to show that the worshipper intended making not
a merely ceremonial offering of flatulence, but an actual oblation of
excrement, such as has been stated, was placed upon the altars of their
near neighbors, the Assyrians, in the devotions tendered their Venus.
[51] Ye have seen dung gods, wood and stone.—(Deut. xxix. 17. See
Cruden’s Concordance, Articles “Dung” and “Dungy,” but no light is thrown
upon the expression.)
And ye have seen their abominations and their idols (detestable things),
wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them.—(Lange’s
Commentary on Deuteronomy, edited by Dr. Philip Schaff, New York, 1879.
But in footnote one reads: “Margin—dungy gods from the shape of the
ordure, literally thin clods or balls, or that which can be rolled
about.—A. G.”)
[52] There is a reference in Martial to this use of the sponge and stick
(see Epigram XLVIII., in English translation, edition of London, 1871).
Martial also speaks of a Roman lady whose close-stool was of gold, but
her drinking-cup of glass,—
“Ventris onus puro, nec te pudet excipis auro;
Sed bibis in vitreo, chareus, ergo cacas.”—
(Epigram XXXVI., quoted by Harington, “Ajax,” p. 37.)
High officials of Corea urinate in public into brass bowls, which are
carried by attendants in a sort of net or fillet and presented when
required.—(Mr. W. W. Rockhill.)
The monasteries and nunneries of Thibet were provided with latrines.
Among the sins against which the nuns (Bhikshuni) were warned were, “Si
une bhikshuni va seule aux lieux, et est,” etc.—(“Pratimoksha Sutra,”
Thibetan version, translated by W. W. Rockhill, Paris, 1884, p. 44,
“École des langues Orientales vivantes.”)
[53] This recalls the repugnance of the Mahometans to the spray of urine
touching their persons or clothing, as already indicated.
[54] Bel-Peor. “Very little is really known of the nature of his worship,
but it is an almost universal opinion, which appears to be sustained by
Numbers xxv., that it was licentious in its character. Human sacrifice
appears to have been offered to him; and it is conjectured, from Psalms
cvi. 28, that the worshippers ate of the victims that had been offered to
him.”—(“Dictionary of Religious Knowledge,” Abbott and Conant, New York,
1875, article “Baal and Baal-Peor.”)
“In a story of Armagnac, Joan lou Pec runs after a man whom he believes
to be a sage, and asks him when he will die. The man answers: ‘Joan lou
Pec mouriras au troisième pet de toun ase,’—The ass breaks wind twice,
and the fool endeavors to prevent the third flatus. ‘Cop sec s’en angone
cerca un pau (stake) bien pounchut et l’enfouncee das un martet dans lou
cou de l’ase. Mes l’ase s’enflee tant, e hasconc tant gran effort que lou
pau sourtisconc commo no balo e tuec lou praube Joan lou Pec.’”—(“Contes
et Proverbes Populaires,” recueillis en Armagnac, par J. F. Bladé, Paris,
quoted by Angelo de Gubernatis, “Zoöl. Mythol.,” vol. i. pp. 397, 398.)
The reader will please look under the heading of “Myths” in this volume,
and will there see a similar adventure related of the Eskimo, or rather
the Kamtchatkan, god Kutka.
“Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and mine inward
parts for Kir-haresh.”—(Isaiah xvi. 11.)