food till they have given the dead his due, in {303} order to
show that they do not wish to keep him waiting longer than is
necessary and thus make him kindly disposed towards them.[91]
This explanation presupposes that the fast is immediately
followed by offerings or a feast for the dead. In some instances
this is expressly said to be the case;[92] the ancient Chinese,
for instance, observed a special fast as an introductory rite to
the sacrifices which they offered to the manes at regular periods
after the demise and even after the close of the mourning.[93]
But generally there is no indication of the mourning fast being
an essential preliminary to a sacrifice to the dead, and in an
instance mentioned above the funeral feast regularly precedes it.[94]
[Footnote 91: Wilken, in _Revue colonials internationale_, iv.
347, 348, 350 _sq._ n. 32.]
[Footnote 92: Selenka, _Sonnige Welten_, p. 90 (Dyaks). Black,
'Fasting,' in _Encyclopædia Britannica_, ix. 44.]
[Footnote 93: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 656.]
[Footnote 94: _Supra_, ii. 299.]
It seems that Sir J. G. Frazer comes much nearer the truth when
he observes that people originally fasted after a death "just in
those circumstances in which they considered that they might
possibly in eating devour a ghost."[95] Yet I think it would
generally be more correct to say that they were afraid of
swallowing, not the ghost, but food polluted with the contagion
of death. The dead body is regarded as a seat of infection, which
defiles anything in its immediate neighbourhood, and this
infection is of course considered particularly dangerous if it is
allowed to enter into the bowels. In certain cases the length of
the mourning fast is obviously determined by the belief in the
polluting presence of the ghost. The six days' fast of the
Paressí coincides with the period after which the dead is
supposed to have arrived in heaven no longer to return; and they
say that anybody who should fail to observe this fast would "eat
the mouth of the dead" and die himself.[96] Frequently the
fasting lasts till the corpse is buried; and burial is a common
safeguard against the return of the ghost.[97] The custom {304}
of restricting the fast to the daytime probably springs from the
idea that a ghost cannot see in the dark, and is consequently
unable to come and pollute the food at night. That the object of
the fast is to prevent pollution is also suggested by its
resemblance to some other practices, which are evidently intended
to serve this purpose. The Maoris were not allowed to eat on or
near any spot where a dead body had been buried, or to take a
meal in a canoe while passing opposite to such a place.[98] In
Samoa, while a dead body is in the house, no food is eaten under
the same roof; hence the family have their meals outside, or in
another house.[99] The Todas, who fast on the day when a death
has taken place, have on the following day their meals served in
another hut.[100] In one of the sacred books of India it is said
that a Brâhmana "shall not eat in the house of a relation within
six degrees where a person has died, before the ten days of
impurity have elapsed"; in a house "where a lying-in woman has
not yet come out of the lying-in chamber"; nor in a house where a
corpse lies;[101] and in connection with this last injunction we
are told that, when a person who is not a relation has died, it
is customary to place at the distance of "one hundred bows" a
lamp and water-vessel, and to eat beyond that distance.[102] In
one of the Zoroastrian books Ormuzd is represented as saying, "In
a house when a person shall die, until three nights are completed
. . . nothing whatever of meat is to be eaten by his
relations";[103] and the obvious reason for this rule was the
belief that the soul of the dead was hovering about the body for
the first three nights after death.[104] Closely related to this
custom is that of the modern Parsis, which forbids for three days
all cooking under a roof where a death has occurred, but allows
the inmates to obtain food from their neighbours {305} and
friends.[105] Among the Agariya, a Dravidian tribe in the hilly
parts of Mirzápur, no fire is lit and no cooking is done in the
house of a dead person on the day when he is cremated, the food
being cooked in the house of the brother-in-law of the
deceased.[106] In Mykonos, one of the Cyclades, it is considered
wrong to cook in the house of mourning; hence friends and
relatives come laden with food, and lay the "bitter table."[107]
Among the Albanians there is no cooking in the house for three
days after a death, and the family are fed by friends.[108] So
also the Maronites of Syria "dress no victuals for some time in
the house of the deceased, but their relations and friends supply
them."[109] When a Jew dies all the water in the same and
adjoining houses is instantly thrown away;[110] nobody may eat in
the same room with the corpse, unless there is only one room in
the house, in which case the inhabitants may take food in it if
they interpose a screen, so that in eating they do not see the
corpse; they must abstain from flesh and wine so long as the dead
body is in the house;[111] and on the evening of mourning the
members of the family may not eat their own food, but are
supplied with food by their friends.[112] Among the Arabs of
Morocco, if a person has died in the morning, no fire is made in
the whole village until he is buried, and in some parts of the
country the inmates of a house or tent where a death has
occurred, abstain from making fire for two or three days. In
Algeria "dès que quelqu'un est mort, on ne doit pas allumer de
feu dans la maison pendant trois jours, et il est défendu de
toucher à de la viande rôtie, grillée ou bouillie, à moins
qu'elle ne vienne de quelqu'un de dehors."[113] In China, for
seven days after a death "no food is cooked in the house, and
friends {306} and neighbours are trusted to supply the common
necessaries of life."[114] There is no sufficient reason to
assume that this practice of abstaining from cooking food after a
death is a survival of a previous mourning fast, but the two
customs seem partly to have a similar origin. The cooking may
contaminate the food if done in a polluted house, or by a
polluted individual. The relatives of the dead, or persons who
have handled the corpse, are regarded as defiled; hence they have
to abstain from cooking food, as they have to abstain from any
kind of work,[115] and from sexual intercourse.[116] Hence, also,
they are often prohibited from touching food; and this may in
some cases have led to fasting, whilst in other instances they
have to be fed by their neighbours.[117]
[Footnote 95: Frazer, 'Certain Burial Customs as illustrative of
the Primitive Theory of the Soul,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xv.
94. See also Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, pp. 270, 590.]
[Footnote 96: von den Steinen, _op. cit._ p. 434 _sq._]
[Footnote 97: _Infra_, on Regard for the Dead.]
[Footnote 98: Polack, _Manners ani Customs of the New
Zealanders_, i. 239.]
[Footnote 99: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 228.
_Idem_, _Samoa_, p. 145.]
[Footnote 100: Thurston, in the Madras Government Museum's
_Bulletin_, i. 174.]
[Footnote 101: _Âpastamba_, i. 5. 16. 18 _sqq._]
[Footnote 102: Haradatta, quoted by Bühler, in _Sacred Books of
the East_, ii. 59, n. 20.]
[Footnote 103: _Shâyast Lâ-Shâyast_, xvii. 2.]
[Footnote 104: West, in _Sacred Books of the East_, v. 382, n. 3.]
[Footnote 105: West, _ibid._ v. 382, n. 2.]
[Footnote 106: Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western
Provinces_, i. 7.]
[Footnote 107: Bent, _Cyclades_, p. 221.]
[Footnote 108: von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_, p. 151.]
[Footnote 109: Dandini, 'Voyage to Mount Libanus,' in Pinkerton,
_Collection of Voyages_, x. 290.]
[Footnote 110: Allen, _Modern Judaism_, p. 435.]
[Footnote 111: Bodenschatz, _Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen
Juden_, iv. 177.]
[Footnote 112: Buxtorf, _Synagoga Judaica_, p. 707.]
[Footnote 113: Certeux and Carnoy, _L'Algérie traditionelle_,
p. 220.]
[Footnote 114: Gray, _China_, i. 287 _sq._]
[Footnote 115: _Supra_, ii. 283 _sq._]
[Footnote 116: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 331 (Upper Thompson Indians).
Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 139 (Stlatlumh of British
Columbia). Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, pp. 578, 590;
Caland, _Die Altindischen Todten- und Bestattungsgebräuche_, p.
81. de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 609 (Chinese).
Wilken, in _Revue internationale coloniale_, iv. 352, n. 41.]
[Footnote 117: Turner, _Samoa_, p. 145; _Idem_, _Nineteen Years
in Polynesia_, p. 228 (Samoans). Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_,
i. 403 (Tahitians). Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 323 (Maoris).
Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 169. Among the Upper Thompson
Indians the persons who handled the dead body would not touch the
food with their hands, but must put it into their mouths with
sharp-pointed sticks (Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 331).]
However, an unclean individual may be supposed to pollute a piece
of food not only by touching it with his hand, but in some cases
by eating it; and, in accordance with the principle of _pars pro
toto_, the pollution may then spread to all victuals belonging to
the same species. Ideas of this kind are sometimes conspicuous in
connection with the restrictions in diet after a death. Thus the
Siciatl of British Columbia believe that a dead body, or anything
connected with the dead, is inimical to the salmon, and therefore
the relatives of a deceased person must abstain from eating
salmon in the early stages of the run, as also from entering a
creek where salmon are found.[118] Among the Stlatlumh, a
neighbouring people, not even elderly widowers, for whom the
period of abstention is comparatively {307} short, are allowed to
eat fresh salmon till the first of the run is over and the fish
have arrived in such numbers that there is no danger of their
being driven away.[119] It is not unlikely that if the motives
for the restrictions in diet after a death were sufficiently
known in each case, a similar fear lest the unclean mourner
should pollute the whole species by polluting some individual
member of it would be found to be a common cause of those rules
which prohibit the eating of staple or favourite food.[120] But
it would seem that such rules also may spring from the idea that
this kind of food is particularly sought for by the dead and
therefore defiled.
[Footnote 118: Tout, 'Ethnology of the Siciatl of British
Columbia,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxiv. 33.]
[Footnote 119: Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 139.]
[Footnote 120: In the Arunta tribe, Central Australia, no
menstruous woman is allowed to gather the Irriakura bulbs, which
form a staple article of diet for both men and women, the idea
being that any infringement of the restriction would result in
the failure of the supply of the bulb (Spencer and Gillen,
_Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 615).]
Moreover, unclean individuals are not only a danger to others,
but are themselves in danger. As Sir J. G. Frazer has shown, they
are supposed to be in a delicate condition, which imposes upon
them various precautions;[121] and one of these may be
restrictions in their diet. Among the Thlinkets and some peoples
in British Columbia the relatives of the deceased not only fast
till the body is buried, but have their faces blackened, cover
their heads with ragged mats, and must speak but little,
confining themselves to answering questions, as it is believed
that they would else become chatterboxes.[122] According to early
ideas, mourners are in a state very similar to that of girls at
puberty, who also, among various peoples, are obliged to fast or
abstain from certain kinds of food on account of their
uncleanness.[123] Among the Stlatlumh, for instance, {308} when a
girl reaches puberty, she fasts for the first four days and
abstains from fresh meats of any kind throughout the whole period
of her seclusion. "There was a two-fold object in this
abstention. First, the girl, it was thought, would be harmed by
the fresh meat in her peculiar condition; and second, the game
animals would take offence if she partook of their meat in these
circumstances," and would not permit her father to kill them.[124]
[Footnote 121: Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 343, &c.]
[Footnote 122: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 41.]
[Footnote 123: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 40 _sqq._ (various tribes in
British Columbia). Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxiv. 33
(Siciatl). Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_, p. 93
_sq._ (Ahts). Bourke, 'Medicine-Men of the Apache,' in _Ann. Rep.
Bur. Ethn._ ix. 501. Du Tertre, _Histoire générale des Antilles_,
ii. 371. Schomburgk, 'Natives of Guiana,' in _Jour. Ethn. Soc.
London_, i. 269 _sq._ von Martius, _Beiträge zur Ethnographie
Amerika's_, i. 644 (Macusis). Seligmann, in _Reports of the
Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. 200 _sqq._ (Western
Islanders). Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,'
in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 94. See Frazer, _op. cit._ iii. 205
_sqq._]
[Footnote 124: Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 136.]
It should finally be noticed that, though the custom of fasting
after a death in the main has a superstitious origin, there may
at the same time be a physiological motive for it.[125] Even the
rudest savage feels afflicted at the death of a friend, and grief
is accompanied by a loss of appetite. This natural disinclination
to partake of food may, combined with superstitious fear, have
given rise to prohibitory rules, nay, may even in the first
instance have suggested the idea that there is danger in taking
food. The mourning observances so commonly coincide with the
natural expressions of sorrow, that we are almost bound to assume
the existence of some connection between them, even though in
their developed forms the superstitious motive be the most prominent.
[Footnote 125: _Cf._ Mallery, 'Manners and Meals,' in _American
Anthropologist_, i. 202; Brinton, _Religions of Primitive
Peoples_, p. 213; Schurtz, _Urgeschichte der Kultur_, p. 587.]
An important survival of the mourning fast is the Lent fast. It
originally lasted for forty hours only, that is, the time when
Christ lay in the grave.[126] Irenaeus speaks of the fast of
forty hours before Easter,[127] and Tertullian, when a Montanist
disputing against the Catholics, says that the only legitimate
days for Christian fasting were those in which the Bridegroom was
taken away.[128] Subsequently, however, the forty hours were
extended to forty {309} days, in imitation of the forty days'
fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Christ.[129]
[Footnote 126: _Cf._ _St. Matthew_, ix. 15; _St. Mark_, ii. 20;
_St. Luke_, v. 35.]
[Footnote 127: Irenaeus, quoted by Eusebius, _Historia
ecclesiastica_, v. 24 (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, Ser. Graeca,
xx. 501). _Cf._ Funk, 'Die Entwicklung des Osterfastens,' in
_Theologische Quartalschrift_, lxxv. 181 _sqq._; Duchesne,
_Christian Worship_, p. 241.]
[Footnote 128: Tertullian, _De jejuniis_, 2 (Migne, _op. cit._
ii. 956).]
[Footnote 129: St. Jerome, _Commentarii in Jonam_, 3 (Migne, _op.
cit._ xxv. 1140). St. Augustine, _Epistola LV (alias CXIX)_, 'Ad
inquisitiones Januarii,' 15 (Migne, xxxiii. 217 _sq._). Funk,
_loc. cit._ p. 209.]
Not only on a death, but on certain other occasions, food is
supposed to pollute or injure him who partakes of it, and is
therefore to be avoided. In Pfalz the people maintain that no
food should be taken at an eclipse of the sun;[130] and all over
Germany there is a popular belief that anybody who eats during a
thunderstorm will be struck by the lightning.[131] When the Todas
know that there is going to be an eclipse of the sun or the moon,
they abstain from food.[132] Among the Hindus, while an eclipse
is going on, "drinking water, eating food, and all household
business, as well as the worship of the gods, are all
prohibited"; high-caste Hindus do not even eat food which has
remained in the house during an eclipse, but give it away, and
all earthen vessels in use in their houses at the time must be
broken.[133] Among the rules laid down for Snâtakas, that is,
Brâhmanas who have completed their studentship, there is one
which forbids them to eat, travel, and sleep during the
twilight;[134] and in one of the Zoroastrian Pahlavi texts it is
said that "in the dark it is not allowable to eat food, for the
demons and fiends seize upon one-third of the wisdom and glory of
him who eats food in the dark."[135] Many Hindus who revere the
sun do not break their fast in the morning till they catch a
clear view of it, and do not eat at all on days when it is
obscured by clouds[136]--a custom to which there is a parallel
among some North American sun-worshippers, the Snanaimuq Indians
belonging to the Coast Salish, who must not partake of any food
until the sun is well up in the sky.[137] Brahmins {310} fast at
the equinoxes, solstices, conjunctions of planets, and on the
days of the new and full moon.[138] The Buddhist Sabbath, or
_Uposatha_, which, as we have noticed above, occurs on the day of
full moon, on the day when there is no moon, and on the two days
which are eighth from the full and new moon, is not only a day of
rest, but has also from ancient times been a fast-day. He who
keeps the Sabbath rigorously abstains from all food between
sunrise and sunset, and, as no cooking must be done during the
_Uposatha_, he prepares his evening meal in the early morning
before the rise of the sun.[139]
[Footnote 130: Schönwerth, _Aus der Oberpfalz_, iii. 55.]
[Footnote 131: Haberland, in _Zeitschr. f. Völkerpsychologie_,
xviii. 258.]
[Footnote 132: Rivers, _op. cit._ p. 592 _sq._]
[Footnote 133: Crooke, _Popular Religion of Northern India_, i.
21 _sq._]
[Footnote 134: _Laws of Manu_, iv. 55.]
[Footnote 135: _Shâyast Lâ-Shâyast_, ix. 8.]
[Footnote 136: Wilson, _Works_, i. 266. Hunter, _Annals of Rural
Bengal_, ii. 285. Crooke, _Things Indian_, p. 214.]
[Footnote 137: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 51.]
[Footnote 138: Dubois, _Description of the People of India_, p.
160. See also _supra_, ii. 297.]
[Footnote 139: Childers, _Dictionary of the Pali Language_, p.
535. Kern, _Der Buddhismus_, ii. 258.]
Among the Jews there are many who abstain from food on the day of
an eclipse of the moon, which they regard as an evil omen.[140]
We have also reason to believe that the Jews were once in the
habit of observing the new moons and Sabbaths not only as days of
rest, but as fast-days; and the Hebrew Sabbath, as we have seen,
in all probability owes its origin to superstitious fear of the
changes in the moon.[141] Or how shall we explain the curious
rule which forbids fasting on a new moon and on the seventh
day,[142] if not as a protest against a fast once in vogue among
the Jews on these occasions, but afterwards regarded as an
illegitimate rite?[143] This theory is not new, for Hooker in his
'Ecclesiastical Polity' observes that "it may be a question,
whether in some sort they did not always fast on the Sabbath." He
refers to a statement of Josephus, according to which the sixth
hour "was wont on the Sabbath always to call them home unto
meat," and to certain pagan writers who upbraided them with
fasting on that day.[144] In Nehemiah there is an indication that
it was a custom to fast on the first day of the seventh
month,[145] {311} which is "holy unto the Lord";[146] and on the
tenth day of the same month there was the great fast of
atonement, combined with abstinence from every kind of work.[147]
I venture to think that all these fasts may be ultimately traced
to a belief that the changes in the moon not only are
unfavourable for work, but also make it dangerous to partake of
food. The fact of the seventh day being a day of rest established
the number seven as a sabbatical number. In the seventh month
there are several days, besides Saturdays, which are to be
observed as days of rest,[148] and in the seventh year there
shall be "a sabbath of rest unto the land."[149] In these
Sabbatarian regulations the day of atonement plays a particularly
prominent part. The severest punishment is prescribed for him who
does not rest and fast on that day "from even unto even";[150]
and it is on the same day that, after the lapse of seven times
seven years, the trumpet of the jubilee shall be caused to sound
throughout the land.[151] Most of the rules concerning the day of
atonement are undoubtedly post-exilic. But the fact that no other
regular days of fasting but those mentioned by Zechariah are
referred to by the prophets or in earlier books, hardly justifies
the conclusion drawn by many scholars that no such fast existed.
It is extremely probable that the fast of the tenth day of the
seventh month _as a fast of atonement_ is of a comparatively
modern date; but it is perhaps not too bold to suggest that the
idea of atonement is a later interpretation of a previously
existing fast, which was originally observed for fear of the
dangerous quality attributed to the number seven. Why this fast
was enjoined on the tenth day of the seventh month remains
obscure; but it seems that the order of the month was considered
more important than that of the day. Nehemiah speaks of a fast
which {312} was kept on the twenty-fourth day of the seventh
month.[152]
[Footnote 140: Buxtorf, _op. cit._ p. 477.]
[Footnote 141: _Supra_, ii. 286 _sq._]
[Footnote 142: _Judith_, viii. 6. _Schulchan Aruch_, i. 91, 117.]
[Footnote 143: See Jastrow, 'Original Character of the Hebrew
Sabbath,' in _American Journal of Theology_, ii. 325.]
[Footnote 144: Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, v. 72, vol. ii. 338.]
[Footnote 145: _Nehemiah_, viii. 2, 10:--"Then he said unto them,
Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions
unto them _for whom nothing is prepared_."]
[Footnote 146: _Nehemiah_, viii. 9 _sqq._ See also _Leviticus_,
xxiii. 24 _sq._; _Numbers_, xxix. 1. Among the Babylonians, too,
the seventh month had a sacred character (]astrow, _Religion of
Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 681, 683, 686).]
[Footnote 147: _Leviticus_, xvi. 29, 31; xxiii. 27 _sqq._
_Numbers_, xxix. 7.]
[Footnote 148: _Leviticus_, xxiii. 24, 25, 35, 36, 39. _Numbers_,
xxix. 1, 12, 35.]
[Footnote 149: _Leviticus_, xxv. 4. See also _Exodus_,
xxiii. 10 _sq._]
[Footnote 150: _Leviticus_, xxiii. 29 _sq._]
[Footnote 151: _Ibid._ xxv. 9.]
[Footnote 152: _Nehemiah_, ix. 1.]
In other Semitic religions we meet with various fasts which are
in some way or other connected with astronomical changes.
According to En-Nedîm, the Harranians, or "Sabians," observed a
thirty days' fast in honour of the moon, commencing on the eighth
day after the new moon of Adsâr (March); a nine days' fast in
honour of "the Lord of Good Luck" (probably Jupiter),[153]
commencing on the ninth day before the new moon of the first
Kânûn (December); and a seven days' fast in honour of the sun,
commencing on the eighth or ninth day after the new moon of
Shobâth (February).[154] The thirty days' fast seems to have
implied abstinence from every kind of food and drink between
sunrise and sunset,[155] whereas the seven days' fast is
expressly said to have consisted in abstinence from fat and
wine.[156] In Manichæism--which is essentially based upon the
ancient nature religion of Babylonia, though modified by
Christian and Persian elements and elevated into a
gnosis[157]--we meet with a great number of fasts. There is a
continuous fast for two days when the sun is in Sagittarius
(which it enters about the 22nd November) and the moon has its
full light; another fast when the sun has entered Capricornus
(which it does about the 21st December) and the moon first
becomes visible; and a thirty days' fast between sunrise and
sunset commencing on the day "when the new moon begins to shine,
the sun is in Aquarius (where it is from about the 20th January),
and eight days of the month have passed," which seems to imply
that the fast cannot begin until eight days after the sun has
entered Aquarius and that consequently, if the new moon {313}
appears during that period, the commencement of the fast has to
be postponed till the following new moon. The Manichaeans also
fasted for two days at every new moon; and our chief authority on
the subject, En-Nedîm, states that they had seven fast-days in
each month. They fasted on Sundays, and some of them, the
_electi_ or "perfect ones," on Mondays also.[158] We are told by
Leo the Great that they observed these weekly fasts in honour of
the sun and the moon;[159] but according to the Armenian Bishop
Ebedjesu their abstinence on Sunday was occasioned by their
belief that the destruction of the world was going to take place
on that day.[160] There can be little doubt that the Harranian
and Manichæan fasts were originally due, not to reverence, but to
fear of evil influences; reverence can never be the primitive
motive for a customary rite of fasting. The thirty days' fast
which the Harranians observed in the month of Adsâr finds perhaps
its explanation in the fact that, according to Babylonian
beliefs, the month Adar was presided over by the seven evil
spirits, who knew neither compassion nor mercy, who heard no
prayer or supplication, and to whose baneful influence the
popular faith attributed the eclipse of the moon.[161] But it may
also be worth noticing that the Harranian fast took place about
the vernal equinox--a time at which, as we have seen, the
Brahmins of India are wont to fast, though only for a day or two.
[Footnote 153: Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier_, ii. 226, n. 247.]
[Footnote 154: En-Nedîm, _Fihrist_, (book ix. ch. i.) i. 4; v. 8,
11 _sq._ (Chwolsohn, _op. cit._ ii. 6, 7, 32, 35 _sq._). See also
Chwolsohn, i. 533 _sqq._; ii. 75 _sq._]
[Footnote 155: Chwolsohn, _op. cit._ ii. 71 _sq._ _Cf._ Abûlfedâ,
6 (_ibid._ ii. 500).]
[Footnote 156: En-Nedîm, _op. cit._ v. 11 (Chwolsohn, _op. cit._
ii. 36).]
[Footnote 157: Kessler, 'Mani, Manichäer,' in Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyclopädie f. protestantische Theologie_, xii. 198 _sq._
Harnack, _History of Dogma_, iii. 330. _Idem_, 'Manichæism,' in
_Encyclopædia Britannica_, xv. 485.]
[Footnote 158: En-Nedîm, _Fihrist_, in Flügel, _Mani_, pp. 95,
97. Flügel, p. 311 _sqq._ Kessler, _loc. cit._ p. 212 _sq._]
[Footnote 159: Leo the Great, _Sermo XLII. (al. XLI.)_ 5 (Migne,
_op. cit._ liv. 279).]
[Footnote 160: Flügel, _op. cit._ p. 312 _sq._]
[Footnote 161: Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_,
pp. 263, 276, 463.]
It is highly probable that the thirty days' fast of the
Harranians and Manichæans is the prototype of the Muhammedan fast
of Rama[d.]ân. During the whole ninth month of the Muhammedan
year the complete abstinence from food, drink and cohabitation
from sunrise till sunset is enjoined upon every Moslem, with the
exception of young children and idiots, as also sick persons and
travellers, who are allowed to postpone the {314} fast to another
time.[162] This fast is said to be a fourth part of Faith, the
other cardinal duties of religious practice being prayer,
almsgiving, and pilgrimage. But, as a matter of fact, modern
Muhammedans regard the fast of Rama[d.]ân as of more importance
than any other religious observance;[163] many of them neglect
their prayers, but anybody who should openly disregard the rule
of fasting would be subject to a very severe punishment.[164]
Even the privilege granted to travellers and sick persons is not
readily taken advantage of. During their marches in the middle of
summer nothing but the apprehension of death can induce the
Aeneze to interrupt the fast;[165] and when Burton, in the
disguise of a Muhammedan doctor, was in Cairo making preparations
for his pilgrimage to Mecca, he found among all those who
suffered severely from such total abstinence only one patient who
would eat even to save his life.[166] There is no evidence that
the fast of Rama[d.]ân was an ancient, pre-Muhammedan
custom.[167] On the other hand, its similarity with the Harranian
and Manichæan fasts is so striking that we are almost compelled
to regard them all as fundamentally the same institution; and if
this assumption is correct, Muhammed must have borrowed his fast
from the Harranians or Manichæans or both. {315} Indeed, Dr.
Jacob has shown that in the year 623, when this fast seems to
have been instituted, Rama[d.]ân exactly coincided with the
Harranian fast-month.[168] In its Muhammedan form the fast
extending over a whole month is looked upon as a means of
expiation. It is said that by the observance of it a person will
be pardoned all his past venial sins, and that only those who
keep it will be allowed to enter through the gate of heaven
called Rayyân.[169] But this is only another instance of the
common fact that customs often for an incalculable period survive
the motives from which they sprang.
[Footnote 162: _Koran_, ii. 180, 181, 183.]
[Footnote 163: _Cf._ Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 106.]
[Footnote 164: von Kremer, _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, i. 460.]
[Footnote 165: Burckhardt, _Bedouins and Wahábys_, p. 57.]
[Footnote 166: Burton, _Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah_, i. 74.]
[Footnote 167: We can hardly regard as such the passage in the
Koran (ii. 179) where it is said, "O ye who believe! There is
prescribed for you the fast as it was prescribed for those before
you; haply ye may fear." The traditionists say that Muhammed was
in the habit of spending the month of Rama[d.]ân every year in
the cave at Hirâ, meditating and feeding all the poor who
resorted to him, and that he did so in accordance with a
religious practice which the Koreish used to perform in the days
of their heathenism. Others add that [(]Abd al-Mu[t.][t.]alib
commenced the practice, saying "that it was the worship of God
which that patriarch used to begin with the new moon of
Rama[d.]ân, and continue during the whole of the month" (Muir,
_Life of Mahomet_, ii. 56, n.* Sell, _Faith of Islám_, p. 316).
But, as Muir remarks (_op. cit._ ii. 56, n.*), it is the tendency
of the traditionists to foreshadow the customs and precepts of
Islam as if some of them had existed prior to Muhammed, and
constituted part of "the religion of Abraham." See Jacob, 'Der
muslimische Fastenmonat Rama[d.]ân,' in _VI. Jahresbericht der
Geographischen Gesellsch. zu Greifswald_, pt. i. 1893-96, p. 2,
_sqq._]
[Footnote 168: Jacob, _loc. cit._ p. 5.]
[Footnote 169: Sell, _op. cit._ p. 317.]
In various religions we meet with fasting as a form of penance,
as a means of appeasing an angry or indignant God, as an
expiation for sin.[170] The voluntary suffering involved in it is
regarded as an expression of sorrow and repentance pleasing to
God, as a substitute for the punishment which He otherwise would
inflict upon the sinner; and at the same time it may be thought
to excite His compassion, an idea noticeable in many Jewish
fasts.[171] Among the Jews individuals fasted in cases of private
distress or danger: Ahab, for instance, when Elijah predicted his
downfall,[172] Ezra and his companions before their journey to
Palestine,[173] the pious Israelite when his friends were
sick.[174] Moreover, fasts were instituted for the whole
community when it believed itself to be under divine displeasure,
when danger threatened, when a great calamity befell the land,
when pestilence raged or drought set in, or there was a reverse
in war.[175] Four {316} regular fast-days were established in
commemoration of various sad events that had befallen Israel
during the captivity;[176] and in the course of time many other
fasts were added, in memory of certain national troubles, though
they were not regarded as obligatory.[177] The law itself
enjoined fasting for the great day of atonement only.
[Footnote 170: Wasserschleben, _Die Bussordnungen der
abendländischen Kirche_, _passim_ (Christianity). _Koran_, ii.
192; iv. 94; v. 91, 96; lviii. 5. Jolly, 'Recht und Sitte,' in
Bühler, _Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie_, p. 117; Dubois,
_Description of the Character, &c. of the People of India_, p.
160 (Brahmanism). Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, i. 285. On the
occasion of any public calamity the Mexican high-priest retired
to a wood, where he constructed a hut for himself, and shut up in
this hut he passed nine or ten months in constant prayer and
frequent effusions of blood, eating only raw maize and water
(Torquemada, _Monarchia Indiana_, ix. 25, vol. ii. 212 _sq._).]
[Footnote 171: _Cf._ Benzinger, 'Fasting,' in _Encyclopædia
Biblica_, ii. 1508; Schwally, _Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den
Vorstellungen des alten Israel_, p. 26.]
[Footnote 172: _1 Kings_, xxi. 27.]
[Footnote 173: _Ezra_, viii. 21.]
[Footnote 174: _Psalms_, xxxv. 13.]
[Footnote 175: _Judges_, xx. 26. _1 Samuel_, vii. 6. _2
Chronicles_, xx. 3. _Nehemiah_, ix. 1. _Jeremiah_, xxxvi. 9.
_Joel_, i. 14; ii. 12.]
[Footnote 176: _Zechariah_, viii. 19.]
[Footnote 177: Greenstone, in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, v. 347.]
It may be asked why this particular kind of self-mortification
became such a frequent and popular form of penance as it did both
in Judaism and in several other religions. One reason is, no
doubt, that fasting is a natural expression of contrition, owing
to the depressing effect which sorrow has upon the appetite.
Another reason is that the idea of penitence, as we have just
observed, may be a later interpretation put upon a fast which
originally sprang from fear of contamination. Nay, even when
fasting is resorted to as a cure in the case of distress or
danger, as also when it is practised in commemoration of a
calamity, there may be a vague belief that the food is polluted
and should therefore be avoided. But in several cases fasting is
distinctly a survival of an expiatory sacrifice. The sacrifice of
food offered to the deity was changed into the "sacrifice"
involved in the abstinence from food on the part of the
worshipper. We find that among the Jews the decay of sacrifice
was accompanied by a greater frequency of fasts. It was only in
the period immediately before the exile that fasting began to
acquire special importance; and the popular estimation of it went
on increasing during and after the exile, partly at least from a
feeling of the need of religious exercises to take the place of
the suspended temple services.[178] Like sacrifice, fasting was a
regular appendage to prayer, as a means of giving special
efficacy to the supplication;[179] fasting and praying became in
fact a constant combination of words.[180] And equally close is
the {317} connection between fasting and almsgiving--a
circumstance which deserves special notice where almsgiving is
regarded as a form of sacrifice or has taken the place of
it.[181] In the penitential regulations of Brahmanism we
repeatedly meet with the combination "sacrifice, fasting, giving
gifts";[182] or also fasting and giving gifts, without mention
being made of sacrifice.[183] Among the Jews each fast-day was
virtually an occasion for almsgiving,[184] in accordance with the
rabbinic saying that "the reward of the fast-day is in the amount
of charity distributed";[185] but fasting was sometimes declared
to be even more meritorious than charity, because the former
affects the body and the latter the purse only.[186] And from
Judaism this combination of fasting and almsgiving passed over
into Christianity and Muhammedanism. According to Islam, it is a
religious duty to give alms after a fast;[187] if a person
through the infirmity of old age is not able to keep the fast, he
must feed a poor person;[188] and the violation of an
inconsiderate oath may be expiated either by once feeding or
clothing ten poor men, or liberating a Muhammedan slave or
captive, or fasting three days.[189] In the Christian Church
fasting was not only looked upon as a necessary accompaniment of
prayer, but whatever a person saved by means of it was to be
given to the poor.[190] St. Augustine says that man's
righteousness in this life consists in fasting, alms, and prayer,
that alms and fasting are the two wings which enable his prayer
to fly upward to God.[191] But fasting without almsgiving "is not
{318} so much as counted for fasting";[192] that which is gained
by the fast at dinner ought not to be turned into a feast at
supper, but should be expended on the bellies of the poor.[193]
And if a person was too weak to fast without injuring his health
he was admonished to give the more plentiful alms.[194]
Tertullian expressly calls fastings "sacrifices which are
acceptable to God."[195] They assumed the character of reverence
offerings, they were said to be works of reverence towards
God.[196] But fasting, as well as temperance, has also from early
times been advocated by Christian writers on the ground that it
is "the beginning of chastity,"[197] whereas "through love of
eating love of impurity finds passage."[198]
[Footnote 178: Benzinger, in _Encyclopædia Biblica_, ii. 1508.
Nowack, _Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie_, ii. 271.]
[Footnote 179: Löw, _Gesammelte Schriften_, i. 108. Nowack, _op.
cit._ ii. 271. Benzinger, in _Encyclopædia Biblica_, ii. 1507.]
[Footnote 180: _Judith_, iv. 9, 11. _Tobit_, xii. 8.
_Ecclesiasticus_, xxxiv. 26. _St. Luke_, ii. 37.]
[Footnote 181: _Supra_, i. 565 _sqq._]
[Footnote 182: _Gautama_, xix. 11. _Vasishtha_, xxii. 8.
_Baudhâyana_, iii. 10. 9.]
[Footnote 183: _Vasishtha_, xx. 47.]
[Footnote 184: Kohler, 'Alms,' in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, i. 435.
Löw, _op. cit._ i. 108. _Cf._ _Tobit_, xii. 8; Katz, _Der wahre
Talmudjude_, p. 43.]
[Footnote 185: _Ibid._ fol. 6 b, quoted by Greenstone, in _Jewish
Encyclopedia_, v. 349.]
[Footnote 186: _Berakhoth_, fol. 32 b, quoted by Hershon,
_Treasures of the Talmud_, p. 124.]
[Footnote 187: Sell, _op. cit._ p. 251.]
[Footnote 188: _Ibid._ p. 281. This opinion is based on a
sentence in the Koran (ii. 180) which has caused a great deal of
dispute. It is said there that "those who are fit to fast may
redeem it by feeding a poor man." But the expression "those who
are fit to fast" has been understood to mean those who can do so
only with great difficulty.]
[Footnote 189: _Koran_, v. 91. Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 313
_sq._ See also _Koran_, ii. 192; iv. 94; v. 96; lviii. 5.]
[Footnote 190: Harnack, _History of Dogma_, i. 205, n. 5. Löw,
_op. cit._ i. 108.]
[Footnote 191: St. Augustine, _Enarratio in Psalmum XLII._ 8
(Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, xxxvi. 482).]
[Footnote 192: St. Chrysostom, _In Matthæum Homil. LXXVII. (al.
LXXVIII.)_ 6 (Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, lviii. 710). St.
Augustine, _Sermones supposititii_, cxlii. 2, 6 (Migne, xxxix.
2023 _sq._).]
[Footnote 193: St. Augustine, _Sermones supposititii_, cxli. 4
(Migne, _op. cit._ xxxix. 2021). See also _Canons enacted under
King Edgar_, 'Of Powerful Men,' 3 (_Ancient Laws of England_, p.
415); _Ecclesiastical Institutes_, 38 (_ibid._ p. 486).]
[Footnote 194: St. Chrysostom, _In Cap. I. Genes. Homil. X._ 2
(Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, liii. 83). St. Augustine,
_Sermones supposititii_, cxlii. 1 (Migne, xxxix. 2022 _sq._).]
[Footnote 195: Tertullian, _De resurrectione carnis_, 8 (Migne,
_op. cit._ ii. 806).]
[Footnote 196: Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, v. 72, vol. ii. 334.]
[Footnote 197: St. Chrysostom, _In Epist. II. ad Thessal. Cap. I.
Homil. I._ 2 (Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Gr. lxii. 470).]
[Footnote 198: Tertullian, _De jejuniis_, 1 (Migne, _op. cit._
ii. 953). See also Manzoni, _Osservazioni sulla morale
cattolica_, p. 175.]
CHAPTER XXXVIII
RESTRICTIONS IN DIET (_concluded_)
BESIDES the occasional abstinence from certain victuals, which
was noticed in the last chapter, there are restrictions in diet
of a more durable character.
Thus among the Australian aborigines the younger members of a
tribe are, as it seems universally, subject to a variety of such
restrictions, from which they are only gradually released as they
grow older.[1] In the Wotjobaluk tribe in South-Eastern
Australia, for instance, boys are forbidden to eat of the
kangaroo and the padi-melon, being told that if they transgress
these rules they will fall sick, break out all over with
eruptions, and perhaps die. If a man under forty eats the tail
part of the emu or bustard, he will turn grey, and if he eats the
freshwater turtle he will be killed by lightning. If young men or
women of the Wakelbura tribe eat emu, black-headed snake, or
porcupine, they will become sick and probably die, uttering the
sounds peculiar to the creature in question, the spirit of which
is believed to have entered into their bodies.[2] In the
Warramunga tribe in Central Australia a man is usually well in
the middle age before he {320} is allowed to eat wild turkey,
rabbit-bandicoot, and emu.[3] According to certain writers, the
object of these restrictions is to reserve the best things for
the use of the elders, and, more especially, of the older men;[4]
but, on the other hand, it has been remarked that, in looking
over the list of animals prohibited, one fails to see any good
reasons for the selection, unless they may be assumed to have
chiefly sprung from superstitious beliefs.[5] Among the Land
Dyaks the young men and warriors are debarred from venison for
fear it should render them as timid as the hind.[6] The Moors
believe that if a young person before the age of puberty eats
wolf's flesh he will have troubles afterwards.
[Footnote 1: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 81. Fraser,
_Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 53. Howitt, _Native Tribes of
South-East Australia_, p. 769 _sq._ Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of
Victoria_, i. p. xxxv. Taplin, 'Narrinyeri,' in Woods, _Native
Tribes of South Australia_, p. 137. Jung, 'Die Mündungsgegend des
Murray und ihre Bewohner,' in _Mittheil. d. Vereins f. Erdkunde
zu Halle_, 1877, p. 32. Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of
Central Australia_, p. 470 _sqq._ _Iidem_, _Northern Tribes of
Central Australia_, p. 611 _sq._ Eyre, _Expeditions of Discovery
into Central Australia_, ii. 293.]
[Footnote 2: Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 769.]
[Footnote 3: Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 612.]
[Footnote 4: _Iidem_, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p.
470 _sq._ _Iidem_, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p.
613. Jung, in _Mittheil. d. Vereins f. Erdkunde zu Halle_, 1877,
p. 32.]
[Footnote 5: Brough Smyth, _op. cit._ i. 234.]
[Footnote 6: St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_,
i. 186.]
There are, further, numerous instances of certain kinds of food
being permanently forbidden to certain individuals. In Unyamwezi,
south of Victoria Nyanza, women are not permitted to eat fowl, a
food which is reserved for the men.[7] Among the Mandingoes of
Teesee no woman is allowed to eat an egg, and this prohibition is
so rigidly adhered to that "nothing will more affront a woman of
Teesee than to offer her an egg"; the men, on the other hand, eat
eggs without scruple, even in the presence of their wives.[8]
Among the Bayaka, a Bantu people in the Congo Free State, both
fowls and eggs are forbidden to women; "if a woman eats an egg
she is supposed to become mad, tear off her clothes and run away
into the bush."[9] The Bahima of Enkole, in the Uganda
Protectorate, allow men to eat beef and the meat of certain
antelopes and of buffalo, whereas women are generally allowed to
eat beef only.[10] The people of Darfur, in Central Africa,
prohibit their women from eating an animal's liver, because they
think {321} that a person may increase his soul by partaking of
it, and women are believed to have no souls.[11] The Miris of
Northern India prize tiger's flesh as food for men, but consider
it unsuitable for women, as "it would make them too
strong-minded."[12] In the Australian tribes some articles of
food are entirely interdicted to females.[13] The natives
inhabiting the neighbourhood of Cape York forbid women to eat
various kinds of fish, including some of the best, "on the
pretence of causing disease in women, although not injurious to
the men."[14] In the Sandwich Islands, again, women were not
allowed to eat hog's flesh, turtle, and certain kinds of fruit,
as cocoa and banana.[15] Many of these prohibitions have been
represented as signs of the low condition of the female sex; but
a more intimate knowledge of the facts connected with them would
perhaps show that they have some other foundation than the mere
selfishness of the men. For sometimes the latter also are subject
to very similar restrictions. Among the Bahuana, in the Congo
Free State, "women are forbidden to eat owls or other birds of
prey, but are permitted to eat frogs, from which men are obliged
to abstain under penalty of becoming ill."[16] With reference to
the natives of New Britain, Mr. Powell states that, whilst in one
place the women are prohibited from eating pigs or tortoises, the
men are, in another place, prohibited from eating anything but
human flesh, fowls, or fish.[17] In the Caroline Islands the men
are forbidden to eat a common blackbird, _Lamprothornis_--which
is a favourite food of the women--because it is believed that
anyone who did so, and afterwards climbed a cocoa-tree, would
fall down and perish.[18] In some Dyak tribes on the Western
branch {322} of the river of Sarawak, goats, fowls, and the fine
kind of fern (_paku_), which forms an excellent vegetable, are
forbidden food to the men, though the women and boys are allowed
to partake of them.[19]
[Footnote 7: Reichard, 'Die Wanjamuesi,' in _Zeitschr. d.
Gesellsch. f. Erdkunde zu Berlin_, xxiv. 321.]
[Footnote 8: Park, _Travels in the Interior of Africa_, i. 114.]
[Footnote 9: Torday and Joyce, 'Ethnography of the Ba-Yaka,' in
_Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi. 41, 42, 51.]
[Footnote 10: Roscoe, 'Bahima,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvii. 101.]
[Footnote 11: Felkin, 'Notes on the For Tribe,' in _Proceed. Roy.
Soc. Edinburgh_, xiii. 218.]
[Footnote 12: Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 33.]
[Footnote 13: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 81. Brough Smyth,
_op. cit._ i. xxxv.]
[Footnote 14: Macgillivray, _Voyage of Rattlesnake_, ii. 10.]
[Footnote 15: von Kotzebue, _Voyage of Discovery into the South
Sea_, iii. 249, note. Cook, quoted by Buckle, _Miscellaneous and
Posthumous Works_, iii. 355.]
[Footnote 16: Torday and Joyce, 'Ethnography of the Ba-Huana,' in
_Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi. 279.]
[Footnote 17: Powell, _Wanderings in a Wild Country_, p. 173.]
[Footnote 18: von Kittlitz, _Reise nach dem russischen Amerika,
&c._ ii. 103 _sq._]
[Footnote 19: Low, _Sarawak_, p. 266.]
Among various peoples certain foods are forbidden to priests or
magicians. The priests of the ancient Egyptians were not allowed
to eat fish,[20] nor to meddle with the esculent or potable
substances which were produced out of Egypt;[21] and, according
to Plutarch, they so greatly disliked the nature of
excrementitious things that they not only rejected most kinds of
pulse, but also the flesh of sheep and swine, because it produced
much superfluity of nutriment.[22] The lamas of Mongolia will
touch no meat of goats, horses, or camels.[23] Among the Semang
of the Malay Peninsula the medicine-men will not eat goat or
buffalo flesh and but rarely that of fowl.[24] The dairymen of
the Todas may drink milk from certain buffaloes only, and are
altogether forbidden to eat chillies.[25] These and similar
restraints laid upon priests or wizards are probably connected
with the idea that holiness is a delicate quality which calls for
special precautions.[26] Schomburgk states that the conjurers of
the British Guiana Indians partake but seldom of the native hog,
because they consider the eating of it injurious to the efficacy
of their skill.[27] And the Ulád Bu [(]Azîz in Morocco believe
that if a scribe or a saint eats wolf's flesh the charms he
writes will have no effect, and the saliva of the saint will lose
its curative power.
[Footnote 20: Herodotus, ii. 37. Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_,
7. Porphyry, _De abstinentia ab esu animalium_, iv. 7.]
[Footnote 21: Porphyry, _op. cit._ iv. 7.]
[Footnote 22: Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 5.]
[Footnote 23: Prejevalsky, _Mongolia_, i. 56.]
[Footnote 24: Skeat and Blagden, _Pagan Races of the Malay
Peninsula_, ii. 226.]
[Footnote 25: Rivers, _Todas_, p. 102 _sq._ For some other
instances see Landtman, _Origin of Priesthood_, p. 161 _sq._]
[Footnote 26: _Cf._ Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 391.]
[Footnote 27: Schomburgk, 'Expedition to the Upper Corentyne,' in
_Jour. Roy. Geograph. Soc. London_, xv. 30.]
There are still other cases in which certain persons are
permanently required to abstain from certain kinds of food. Thus
in the Andaman Islands every man and woman "is prohibited all
through life from eating some {323} one (or more) fish or animal:
in most cases the forbidden dainty is one which in childhood was
observed (or imagined) by the mother to occasion some functional
derangement; when of an age to understand it the circumstance is
explained, and cause and effect being clearly demonstrated, the
individual, in question thence forth considers that particular
meat his _yât-t[=u]b_, and avoids it carefully. In cases where no
evil consequences have resulted from partaking of any kind of
food, the fortunate person is privileged to select his own
_yât-t[=u]b_, and is, of course, shrewd enough to decide upon
some fish, such as shark or skate, which is little relished, and
to abstain from which consequently entails no exercise of
self-denial." It is believed that the god P[=u]luga would punish
severely any person who might be guilty of eating his
_yât-t[=u]b_, either by causing his skin to peel off, or by
turning his hair white, and flaying him alive.[28] In Samoa each
man had generally his god in the shape of some species of animal;
and if he ate one of these divine animals it was supposed that
the god avenged the insult by taking up his abode in the eater's
body and there generating an animal of the same kind until it
caused his death.[29] The members of a totem clan are usually
forbidden to eat the particular animal or plant whose name they
bear.[30] Thus among the Omaha Indians men whose totem is the elk
believe that if they ate the flesh of the male elk they would
break out in boils and white spots in different parts of their
bodies; and men whose totem is the red corn think that if they
ate red corn they would have running sores all round their
mouths.[31] Yet, however general, prohibitions of this kind
cannot be said to be a universal characteristic of totemism.[32]
Sir J. G. Frazer even suggests that the original custom was
perhaps to eat the totem and the {324} latter custom to abstain
from it.[33] But this is hardly more than a guess.
[Footnote 28: Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman
Islands.' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 354.]
[Footnote 29: Turner, _Samoa_, p. 17 _sq._]
[Footnote 30: Frazer, _Totemism_, p. 7 _sqq._ _Idem_, _Totemism
and Exogamy_, iv. 6.]
[Footnote 31: Dorsey, 'Omaha Sociology,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur.
Ethn._ iii. 225, 231. _Idem_, 'Siouan Folk-Lore,' in _American
Antiquarian_, vii. 107.]
[Footnote 32: Frazer, _Totemism_, p. 19. _Idem_, _Totemism and
Exogamy_, iv. 6. _sq._]
[Footnote 33: Frazer, _Totemism and Exogamy_, iv. 6 _sq._]
There are, finally, restrictions in eating which refer to the
whole people or tribe. In early society certain things which
might serve as food are often not only universally abstained
from, but actually prohibited by custom or law. The majority of
these prohibitions have reference to animals or animal products,
which are naturally more apt to cause disgust than is vegetable
food--probably because our ancestors in early days, by instinct,
subsisted chiefly on a vegetable diet, and only subsequently
acquired a more general taste for animal nourishment.[34] Certain
animals excite a feeling of disgust by their very appearance, and
are therefore abstained from. This I take to be a reason for the
aversion to eating reptiles. It is said that snakes are avoided
as food because their flesh is supposed to be as poisonous as
their bite;[35] but this explanation is hardly relevant to
harmless reptiles, which are likewise in some cases forbidden
food.[36] The abstinence from fish seems generally to have a
similar origin, though some peoples say that they refuse to eat
certain species because the soul of a relative might be in the
fish.[37] The Navahoes of New Mexico "must never touch fish, and
nothing will induce them to taste one."[38] The Mongols consider
them unclean animals.[39] The South Siberian Kachinzes are said
to refrain from them because they believe that "the evil
principle lives in the water and eats fish."[40] The Káfirs on
the North-Western frontier of India "detest fish, though their
rivers abound in them."[41] The same aversion is common in the
South {325} African tribes[42] and among most Hamitic peoples of
East Africa;[43] when asked for an explanation of it, they say
that fish are akin to snakes. Fish, or at least certain species
of fish, were forbidden to the ancient Syrians;[44] and the
Hebrews were prohibited from eating all fish that have not fins
and scales.[45] It is curious to note that various peoples who
detest fish also abstain from fowl.[46] The Navahoes are strictly
forbidden to eat the wild turkey with which their forests
abound;[47] and the Mongols dislike of fowl is so great that one
of Prejevalsky's guides nearly turned sick on seeing him eat
boiled duck.[48] Some peoples have a great aversion to eggs,[49]
which are said to be excrements, and therefore unfit for
food.[50] There may be a similar reason for the abstinence from
milk among peoples who have domesticated animals able to supply
them with it.[51] The Dravidian aborigines of the hills of {326}
Central India, who never use milk, are expressly said to regard
it as an excrement.[52] The ancient Caribs had a horror of eggs
and never drank milk.[53] The Ashantees are "forbidden eggs by
the fetish, and cannot be persuaded to taste milk."[54] The
Kimbunda in South-Western Africa detest milk, and consider it
inconceivable how a grown-up person can enjoy it; they believe
that the Kilulu, or spirit, would punish him who partook of
it.[55] The Dyaks of Borneo, the Javanese, and the Malays abstain
from milk.[56] To the Chinese milk and butter are insupportably
odious.[57]
[Footnote 34: _Cf._ Schurtz, _Die Speiseverbote_, p. 17.]
[Footnote 35: Skeat and Blagden, _Pagan Races of the Malay
Peninsula_, i. 130 (Berembun). Schurtz, _op. cit._ p. 22.]
[Footnote 36: _Leviticus_, xi. 29 _sq._ Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures
on the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, p. 83.]
[Footnote 37: Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 430, 432.]
[Footnote 38: Stephen, 'Navajo,' in _American Anthropologist_,
vi. 357.]
[Footnote 39: Prejevalsky, _op. cit._ i. 56.]
[Footnote 40: von Strümpell, 'Der Volksstamm der Katschinzen,' in
_Mittheil. d. Vereins f. Erdkunde zu Leipzig_, 1875, p. 23.]
[Footnote 41: Fosberry, 'Some of the Mountain Tribes of the N.W.
Frontier of India,' in _Jour. Ethn. Soc. London_, N.S. i. 192.]
[Footnote 42: Fritsch, _Drei Jahre in Süd-Afrika_, p. 338.
Shooter, _Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_, p. 215 (Zulus).
Kropf, _Das Volk der Xosa-Kaffern_, p. 102. Campbell, _Second
Journey in the Interior of South Africa_, ii. 203 (Bechuanas).
The Hottentots, however, eat fish (Fritsch, p. 339).]
[Footnote 43: Hildebrandt, 'Wakamba und ihre Nachbarn,' in
_Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ x. 378. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie
Nordost-Afrikas_, i. 155 (Somals, Gallas). Schurtz, _op. cit._
p. 23.]
[Footnote 44: Porphyry, _op. cit._ iv. 15. Plutarch, _De
superstitione_, 10.]
[Footnote 45: _Leviticus_, xi. 10 _sqq._]
[Footnote 46: Hildebrandt, in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ x. 378
(Gallas, Wadshagga, Waikuyu, &c.). Paulitschke, _op. cit._ i. 153
_sqq._ (Gallas, Somals). Burton, _Two Trips to Gorilla Land_, i.
95 (Somals). Meldon, 'Bahima of Ankole,' in _Jour. African Soc._
vi. 146; Ashe, _Two Kings of Uganda_, p. 303 (Bahima). Kropf,
_Das Volk der Xosa-Kaffern_, p. 102. Among the Zulus domestic
fowls are eaten by none except young persons and old (Shooter,
_op. cit._ p. 215). For other peoples who abstain from fowl, see
Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste_, i. 185;
Casati, _Ten Years in Equatoria_, i. 165 (Monbuttu); Salt,
_Voyage to Abyssinia_, p. 179 (Danakil); Skeat and Blagden,
_Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula_, i. 135 (Sabimba), 136
(Orang Muka Kuning); _Globus_, l. 330 (inhabitants of Hainan);
Ehrenreich, quoted by Schurtz, _op. cit._ p. 20 (Karaya of
Goyaz); von den Steinen, _Durch Central-Brasilien_, p. 262
(Yuruna); Cæsar, _De bello Gallico_, v. 12 (ancient Britons).]
[Footnote 47: Stephen, in _American Anthropologist_, vi. 357.]
[Footnote 48: Prejevalsky, _op. cit._ i. 56.]
[Footnote 49: The Kafirs formerly abstained from eggs (Kropf,
_op. cit._ p. 102). Among the Zulus eggs are eaten by young and
old persons only (Shooter, _op. cit._ p. 215). The Bahima refuse
this kind of food (Ashe, _op. cit._ p. 303), and so do generally
the Waganda, especially the women (Felkin, 'Notes on the Waganda
Tribe,' in _Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, xiii. 716; Ashe,
p. 303). See also Andree, _Ethnographische Parallelen_, p. 126
_sq._; Schurtz, _op. cit._ p. 23 _sq._]
[Footnote 50: Reichard, 'Die Wanjamuesi,' in _Zeitschr. d.
Gesellsch. f. Erdkunde zu Berlin_, xxiv. 321. Hildebrandt,
'Wakamba und ihre Nachbarn,' in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ x. 378.]
[Footnote 51: See Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_,
p. 484.]
[Footnote 52: Crooke, _Things Indian_, p. 92.]
[Footnote 53: Du Tertre, _Histoire générale des Antilles_,
ii. 389.]
[Footnote 54: Bowdich, _Mission to Ashantee_, p. 319.]
[Footnote 55: Magyar, _Reisen in Süd-Afrika_, i. 303, 321.]
[Footnote 56: Low, _op. cit._ p. 267.]
[Footnote 57: Huc, _Travels in Tartary_, i. 281. Westermarck,
_op. cit._ p. 484.]
The meat of certain animals may also be regarded with disgust on
account of their filthy habits or the nasty food on which they
live. In the Warramunga tribe, in Central Australia, there is a
general restriction applying to eagle-hawks, and the reason
assigned for it is that this bird feeds on the bodies of dead
natives.[58] It seems that the abstinence from swine's flesh, at
least in part, belongs to the same group of facts. Various tribes
in South Africa hold it in abomination.[59] In some districts of
Madagascar, according to Drury, the eating of pork was accounted
a very contemptible thing.[60] It is, or was, abstained from by
the Jakuts of Siberia, the Votyaks of the Government of
Vologda,[61] and the Lapps.[62] The disgust for pork has likewise
been met with in many American tribes. The Koniagas will eat
almost any digestible substance except pork.[63] The Navahoes of
New Mexico abominate it "as if they were the devoutest of
Hebrews";[64] it is not forbidden by their religion, but "they
say they will not eat the flesh of the hog simply because the
animal is filthy in {327} its habits, because it is the scavenger
of the town."[65] In his description of the Indians of the
South-Eastern States Adair writes:--"They reckon all those animals
to be unclean that are either carnivorous, or live on nasty food,
as hogs, wolves, panthers, foxes, cats, mice, rats. . . . When
swine were first brought among them, they deemed it such a
horrid abomination in any of their people to eat that filthy
and impure food, that they excluded the criminal from all
religious communion in their circular town-house. . . . They
still affix vicious and contemptible ideas to the eating of
swine's flesh; insomuch that _Shúkàpa_, 'swine eater,' is the
most opprobrious epithet that they can use to brand us with; they
commonly subjoin _Akang-gàpa_, 'eater of dunghill fowls.' Both
together signify 'filthy, helpless animals.'"[66] So also those
Indians in British Guiana who have kept aloof from intercourse
with the colonists reject pork with the greatest loathing.
Schomburgk tells us that an old Indian permitted his children to
accompany him on a journey only on the condition that they were
never to eat any viands prepared by his cook, for fear lest pork
should have been used in their preparation. But this objection
does not extend to the native hog, which, though generally
abstained from by wizards, is eaten by the laity indiscriminately,
with the exception of women who are pregnant or who have just
given birth to a child.[67] This suggests that the aversion to
the domestic pig partly springs from the fact that it is a
foreign animal. Indeed, the Guiana Indians refuse to eat the
flesh of all animals that are not indigenous to their country,
but were introduced from abroad, such as oxen, sheep, and fowls,
apparently on the principle "that any strange and abnormal object
is especially likely to be possessed of a harmful spirit."[68]
The Kafirs, also, abstain {328} from the domestic swine, though
they eat the wild hog.[69] Some writers maintain that pork has
been prohibited on the ground that it is prejudicial to health in
hot countries;[70] but, as we have seen, this prohibition is
found among various northern peoples as well, and it seems
besides that the unwholesomeness of pork in good condition has
been rather assumed than proved. Sir J. G. Frazer, again,
believes that the ancient Egyptians, Semites, and some of the
Greeks abstained from this food not because the pig was looked
upon simply as a filthy and disgusting creature, but because it
was considered to be endowed with high supernatural powers.[71]
In Greece the pig was used in purificatory ceremonies.[72] Lucian
says that the worshippers of the Syrian goddess abstained from
eating pigs, some because they held them in abomination, others
because they thought them holy.[73] The heathen Harranians
sacrificed the swine and ate swine's flesh once a year.[74]
According to Greek writers, the Egyptians abhorred the pig as a
foul and loathsome animal, and to drink its milk was believed to
cause leprosy and itchy eruptions;[75] but once a year they
sacrificed pigs to the moon and to Osiris and ate of the flesh of
the victims, though at any other time they would not so much as
taste pork.[76]
[Footnote 58: Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 612.]
[Footnote 59: Fritsch, _Drei Jahre in Süd-Afrika_, p. 339. Kropf,
_op. cit._ p. 102 (Kafirs).]
[Footnote 60: Drury, _Madagascar_, p. 143.]
[Footnote 61: Latham, _Descriptive Ethnology_, i. 363.]
[Footnote 62: Leem, _Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper_, p. 501.]
[Footnote 63: Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i. 75.]
[Footnote 64: Stephen, in _American Anthropologist_, vi. 357.]
[Footnote 65: Matthews, 'Study of Ethics among the Lower Races,'
in _Jour. American Folk-Lore_, xii. 5.]
[Footnote 66: Adair, _History of the American Indians_, p. 132 _sqq._]
[Footnote 67: Schomburgk, in _Jour. Roy. Geograph. Soc. London_,
xv. 29 _sq._]
[Footnote 68: Im Thurn, _Indians of Guiana_, p. 368. Dr. Schurtz
suggests (_op. cit._ p. 19 _sqq._) that some other peoples, as
the Indians of Brazil, abstain from fowls because they are not
indigenous to their country.]
[Footnote 69: Müller, _Allgemeine Ethnographie_, p. 189.]
[Footnote 70: Ramsay, _Historical Geography of Asia Minor_, p.
32. Wiener, 'Die alttestamentarischen Speiseverbote,' in
_Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ viii. 103. See also Buckle, _Miscellaneous
and Posthumous Works_, iii. 354 _sq._]
[Footnote 71: Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 304 _sqq._ _Idem_,
_Pausanias's Description of Greece_, iv. 137 _sq._]
[Footnote 72: Ramsay, _op. cit._ p. 31 _sq._ Frazer, _Pausanias's
Description of Greece_, iii. 277, 593.]
[Footnote 73: Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 54.]
[Footnote 74: Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 290.
_Cf._ _Isaiah_, lxv. 4, and lxvi. 3, 17, where this sacrifice is
alluded to as a heathen abomination.]
[Footnote 75: Herodotus, ii. 47. Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_,
8. Aelian, _De natura animalium_, x. 16.]
[Footnote 76: Herodotus, ii. 47. Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 8.]
Of the abhorrence of cannibalism I shall speak in a separate
chapter, but in this connection it is worth noticing that the
eating of certain animals is regarded with horror or disgust
either because they are supposed to be metamorphosed
ancestors[77] or on account of their resemblance to men. Various
peoples refrain from {329} monkey's flesh;[78] and European
travellers mention their own instinctive repugnance to it and
their aversion to shooting monkeys.[79] The Indians of Lower
California will eat any animal, except men and monkeys, "the
latter because they so much resemble the former."[80] According
to an ancient writer quoted by Porphyry, the Egyptian priests
rejected those animals which "verged to a similitude to the human
form."[81] The Kafirs say that elephants are forbidden food
because their intelligence resembles that of men.[82]
[Footnote 77: Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 430 _sqq._ St. John,
_op. cit._ i. 186 (Land Dyaks).]
[Footnote 78: Shooter, _op. cit._ p. 215 (Zulus). Schurtz, _op.
cit._ p. 28 (Abyssinians). Skeat and Blagden, _op. cit._ i. 134
(Orang Sletar). In the _Institutes of Vishnu_ (li. 3) the eating
of apes is particularly stigmatised.]
[Footnote 79: Schurtz, _op. cit._ p. 28. _Infra_, on Regard for
the Lower Animals.]
[Footnote 80: Bancroft, _op. cit._ i. 560.]
[Footnote 81: Porphyry, _op. cit._ iv. 7.]
[Footnote 82: Müller, _Ethnographie_, p. 189.]
Moreover, intimacy with an animal easily takes away the appetite
for its flesh. Among ourselves, as Mandeville observes, "some
people are not to be persuaded to taste of any creatures they
have daily seen and been acquainted with, whilst they were alive;
others extend their scruple no further than to their own poultry,
and refuse to eat what they fed and took care of themselves; yet
all of them will feed heartily and without remorse on beef,
mutton, and fowls, when they are bought in the market."[83] Among
other races we meet with feelings no less refined. Mencius, the
Chinese moralist, said:--"So is the superior man affected towards
animals, that, having seen them alive, he cannot bear to see them
die; having heard their dying cries, he cannot bear to eat their
flesh. Therefore he keeps away from his slaughter house and
cook-room."[84] The abstinence from domestic fowls and their
eggs, as also from the tame pig, may occasionally have sprung
from sympathy. Dr. von den Steinen states that the Brazilian
Yuruna cannot be induced to eat any animal which they have bred
themselves, and that they apparently considered it very immoral
when he and his party ate hen-eggs.[85] In the {330} sacred books
of India it is represented as a particularly bad action to eat
certain domestic animals, including village pigs and tame cocks;
a twice-born man who does so knowingly will become an
outcast.[86] Among the Bechuanas in South Africa dogs and tame
cats are not eaten, though wild cats are.[87] The Arabs of
Dukkâla in Morocco eat their neighbours' cats but not their own.
Among the Dinka only such cows as die naturally or by an accident
are used for food; but a dead cow is never eaten by the bereaved
owner himself, who is too much afflicted at the loss to be able
to touch a morsel of the carcase of his departed beast.[88]
Herodotus says that the Libyans would not taste the flesh of the
cow, though they ate oxen;[89] and the same rule prevailed among
the Egyptians and Ph[oe]nicians, who would sooner have partaken
of human flesh than of the meat of a cow.[90] The eating of cow's
flesh is prohibited by the law of Brahmanism.[91] According to
Dr. Rájendralála Mitra, the idea of beef as an article of food
"is so shocking to the Hindus, that thousands over thousands of
the more orthodox among them never repeat the counterpart of the
word in their vernaculars, and many and dire have been the
sanguinary conflicts which the shedding of the blood of cows has
caused."[92] In China "the slaughter of buffaloes for food is
unlawful, according to the assertions of the people, and the
abstaining from the eating of beef is regarded as very
meritorious."[93] It is said in the 'Divine Panorama' that he who
partakes of beef or dog's flesh will be punished by the
deity.[94] In Japan neither cattle nor sheep were in former days
killed for food;[95] and in the rural districts many people still
think it wrong to eat beef.[96] In Rome the slaughter of {331} a
labouring ox was in olden days punished with excommunication;[97]
and at Athens and in Peloponnesus it was prohibited even on
penalty of death.[98] Indeed, the ancient idea has survived up to
modern times in Greece, where it has been held as a maxim that
the animal which tills the ground ought not to be used for
food.[99] These prohibitions are no doubt to some extent
expressions of kindly feelings towards the animals to which they
refer.[100] A Dinka is said to be fonder of his cattle than of
his wife and children;[101] and according to classical writers,
the ploughing ox is not allowed to be slaughtered because he is
himself an agriculturist, the servant of Ceres, and a companion
to the labourer in his work.[102] But at the same time the
restrictions in question are very largely due to prudential
motives. Peoples who live chiefly on the products of their cattle
show a strong disinclination to reduce their herds, especially by
killing cows or calves;[103] and agricultural races are naturally
anxious to preserve the animal which is used for work on the
field. With reference to the Egyptian and Ph[oe]nician custom of
eating bulls but abstaining from cows, Porphyry observes that
"for the sake of utility in one and the same species of animals
distinction is made between that which is pious and that which is
impious," cows being spared on account of their progeny.[104]
Until quite recently in Egypt no one was allowed to kill a calf,
and permission from the government was required for the slaughter
of a bull.[105] Moreover, domestic animals are frequently
regarded as sacred in consequence of their utility, and for that
reason also abstained from. The Dinka pay a {332} kind of
reverence to their cattle.[106] In Egypt, according to Herodotus,
the cow was sacred to Isis.[107] In India she has been the object
of a special worship.[108]
[Footnote 83: Mandeville, _Fable of the Bees_, p. 188.]
[Footnote 84: Mencius, i. 1. 7. 8.]
[Footnote 85: von den Steinen, _Durch Central-Brasilien_, p. 262.
See also Juan and Ulloa, _Voyage to South America_, i. 426
(Indians of Quito).]
[Footnote 86: _Institutes of Vishnu_, li. 3. _Laws of Manu_, v. 19.]
[Footnote 87: Campbell, _Second Journey in the Interior of South
Africa_, ii. 203.]
[Footnote 88: Schweinfurth, _Heart of Africa_, i. 163 _sq._]
[Footnote 89: Herodotus, iv. 186.]
[Footnote 90: _Ibid._ ii. 41. Porphyry, _op. cit._ ii. 11.]
[Footnote 91: _Institutes of Vishnu_, li. 3.]
[Footnote 92: Rájendralála Mitra, _Indo-Aryans_, i. 354.]
[Footnote 93: Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, ii. 187.]
[Footnote 94: Giles, _Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_, ii. 376.]
[Footnote 95: Reed, _Japan_, i. 61.]
[Footnote 96: Griffis, _Mikado's Empire_, p. 472.]
[Footnote 97: Pliny, _Historia naturalis_, viii. 70.]
[Footnote 98: Varro, _De re rustica_, ii. 5. 3. _sq._ Aelian,
_Varia historia_, v. 14.]
[Footnote 99: Mariti, _Travels through Cyprus_, i. 35.]
[Footnote 100: See _infra_, on Regard for the Lower Animals.]
[Footnote 101: Schweinfurth, _op. cit._ i. 164.]
[Footnote 102: Aelian, _Varia historia_, v. 14. Varro, _De re
rustica_, ii. 5. 3.]
[Footnote 103: Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's_, p. 86;
Kropf, _op. cit._ p. 102 (Kafirs). Merker, _Die Masai_, p. 169.
Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas_, i. 153. Ratzel,
_History of Mankind_, ii. 411 (pastoral races of Africa). Erman,
_Reise um die Erde_, i. 515 (Kirghiz). Andree, _Ethnographische
Parallelen_, p. 122 _sq._ Robertson Smith, _Religion of the
Semites_, p. 297. Schurtz, _op. cit._ p. 30 _sq._]
[Footnote 104: Porphyry, _op. cit._ ii. 11.]
[Footnote 105: Wilkinson, in Rawlinson's translation of
Herodotus, ii. 72 _sq._ n. 7.]
[Footnote 106: Schweinfurth, _op. cit._ i. 163.]
[Footnote 107: Herodotus, ii. 41.]
[Footnote 108: Barth, _Religions of India_, p. 264.]
Certain foods, then, are generally abjured, not merely because
they excite disgust, or as the case may be, because they have a
disagreeable taste, but also from utilitarian considerations. To
the instances just mentioned may be added the custom prevalent
among the Tonga Islanders of setting a temporary prohibition or
taboo on certain eatables in order to prevent them from growing
scarce.[109] But the most important prudential motive underlying
the general restrictions in diet is no doubt fear lest the food
should have an injurious effect upon him who partakes of it. The
harm caused by it may only be imaginary; indeed, forbidden food
is commonly regarded as unwholesome, whatever be the original
ground on which it was prohibited.[110] The Negroes of the Loango
Coast say that they abstain from goat-flesh because otherwise
their skin would scale off, and from fowl so as not to lose their
hair.[111] Some tribes of the Malay Peninsula refuse to eat the
flesh of elephants under the pretext that it would occasion
sickness.[112] The tribes inhabiting the hills of Assam think
that "the penalty for eating the flesh of a cat is loss of
speech, while those who infringe a special rule forbidding the
flesh of a dog are believed to die of boils."[113] The
worshippers of the Syrian goddess maintained that the eating of
sprats or anchovies would fill the body with ulcers and wither up
the liver.[114] In Russia veal is considered by many to be very
unwholesome food, and is entirely rejected by pious people.[115]
It is not probable that these ideas are in the first instance
derived from experience; but there can be no doubt that fear of
evil consequences is in many cases a {333} primary motive for the
abstinence from a certain kind of food. Mr. Im Thurn supposes
that the Guiana Indian avoids eating the flesh of various animals
because he thinks they are particularly malignant.[116] Animals
that present some unusual or uncanny peculiarity are rejected
because they are objects of superstitious fear. The Egyptian
priests, we are told, did not eat oxen which were twins or which
were speckled, nor animals that had only one eye.[117] The North
American Indians of the South-Eastern States abstained from all
birds of night, believing that if they ate them they would fall
ill.[118] Another cause of rejecting the flesh of certain animals
is the idea that anybody who partook of it would at the same time
acquire some undesirable quality inherent in the animal.[119] The
Záparo Indians of Ecuador "will, unless from necessity, in most
cases not eat any heavy meats such as tapir and peccary, but
confine themselves to birds, monkeys, deer, fish, &c.,
principally because they argue that the heavier meats make them
also unwieldy, like the animals who supply the flesh, impeding
their agility and unfitting them for the chase."[120] For a
similar reason the ancient Caribs are said to have refrained from
turtles;[121] and some North American Indians state that in
former days their greatest chieftains "seldom ate of any animal
of gross quality, or heavy motion of body, fancying it conveyed a
dullness through the whole system, and disabled them from
exerting themselves with proper vigour in their martial, civil,
and religious duties."[122] The Namaquas of South Africa, again,
pretend not to eat the flesh of the hare, because they think it
would make them as faint-hearted as that animal.[123] Among the
Kafirs only children may eat hares, whereas the men partake of
the flesh of the {334} leopard in order to get its strength.[124]
Among some other peoples the hare is forbidden food,[125]
possibly owing to a similar superstition. The blood of an animal
is avoided because it is believed to contain its life or soul. We
meet with this custom in several North American tribes,[126] as
well as in the Old Testament;[127] and from the Jews it passed
into early Christianity.[128]
[Footnote 109: Mariner, _Natives of the Tonga Islands_, ii. 233.]
[Footnote 110: _Cf._ Schurtz, _op. cit._ p. 23.]
[Footnote 111: Bastian, _Die deutsche Expedition an der
Loango-Küste_, i. 185.]
[Footnote 112: Skeat and Blagden, _op. cit._ i. 132.]
[Footnote 113: Hodson, 'The "Genna" amongst the Tribes of Assam,'
in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi. 98.]
[Footnote 114: Plutarch, _De superstitione_, 10.]
[Footnote 115: Erman, _Reise um die Erde_, i. 515.]
[Footnote 116: Im Thurn, _op. cit._ p. 368.]
[Footnote 117: Porphyry, _op. cit._ iv. 7.]
[Footnote 118: Adair, _op. cit._ p. 130 _sq._]
[Footnote 119: See Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 353 _sqq._]
[Footnote 120: Simson, _Travels in the Wilds of Ecuador_, p. 168.]
[Footnote 121: Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, iii. 384.]
[Footnote 122: Adair, _op. cit._ p. 133.]
[Footnote 123: Hahn, _Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_, p. 106.]
[Footnote 124: Kropf, _op. cit._ p. 102.]
[Footnote 125: _Leviticus_, xi. 6, 8. Cæsar, _De bello Gallico_,
v. 12 (ancient Britons). The Chinese have a deep-rooted prejudice
against eating the flesh of the hare, which they have always
regarded as an animal endowed with mysterious properties (Dennis,
_Folk-Lore of China_, p. 64). With reference to the Biblical
prohibition of eating camel's flesh, old exegetes observed that
the camel is a very revengeful animal, and that its
vindictiveness would be transferred to him who partook of its
meat (Wiener, in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ viii. 104); but whether
the prohibition in question originated in such a belief is open
to doubt.]
[Footnote 126: Adair, _op. cit._ p. 134. Frazer, _Golden Bough_,
i. 353.]
[Footnote 127: _Leviticus_, iii. 17; vii. 25 _sqq._; xvii. 10
_sqq._; xix. 26. _Deuteronomy_, xii. 16, 23 _sqq._; xv. 23.]
[Footnote 128: Haberland, 'Gebräuche und Aberglauben beim Essen,'
in _Zeitschr. f. Völkerpsychologie_, xvii. 363 _sq._]
The general abstinence from certain kinds of food has thus sprung
from a great variety of causes. Of these I have been able to
point out only some of the more general and obvious. As Sir J. G.
Frazer justly remarks, to explain the ultimate reason why any
particular food is prohibited to a whole tribe or to certain of
its members would commonly require a far more intimate knowledge
of the history and beliefs of the tribe than we possess.[129]
Even explanations given by the natives themselves may be
misleading, since the original motive for a custom may have been
forgotten, while the custom itself is still preserved. But I
think that, broadly speaking, the general avoidance of a certain
food may be traced to one or several of the following sources:
its disagreeable taste; disgust caused, in the case of animal
food, either by the external appearance of the animal, or by its
unclean habits, or by sympathy, or by associations of some kind
or other, or even by the mere fact that it is commonly abstained
from; the disinclination to kill an animal for food, or,
generally, to reduce the supply of a certain kind of victuals;
the idea, whether correct or false, that the food would injure
{335} him who partook of it. From what has been said in previous
chapters it is obvious that any of these factors, if influencing
the manners of a whole community and especially when supported by
the force of habit, may lead not only to actual abstinence but to
prohibitory rules the transgression of which is apt to call forth
moral disapproval. This is particularly the case at the earlier
stages of culture, where a people's tastes and habits are most
uniform, where the sway of custom is most powerful, where
instinctive aversion most readily develops into moral
indignation, and where man in almost every branch of action
thinks he has to be on his guard against supernatural dangers.
And in this, as in other cases of moral concern, the prohibition
may easily be sanctioned by religion, especially when the
abstinence is due to fear of some mysterious force or quality in
the thing avoided. The religious aspect assumed particular
prominence in Hebrewism and Brahmanism. It is said in the
'Institutes of Vishnu' that the eating of pure food is more
essential than all external means of purification; "he who eats
pure food only is truly pure, not he who is only purified with
earth and water."[130] The Koran forbids the eating of "what is
dead, and blood, and flesh of swine, and whatsoever has been
consecrated to other than God."[131] Mediæval Christianity
prohibited the eating of various animals, especially horses,
which were not used as food in the South of Europe, but which the
pagan Teutons sacrificed and ate at their religious feasts.[132]
The idea that it is "unchristian" to eat horseflesh has survived
even to the present day, and has, together with the aversion to
feeding on a pet animal, been responsible for the loss of
enormous quantities of nourishing food. Among ourselves the only
eatable thing the partaking of which is generally condemned as
immoral is human flesh. But there are a considerable number of
people who think {336} that we ought to abstain from all animal
meat, not only for sanitary reasons, but because man is held to
have no right to subject any living being to suffering and death
for the purpose of gratifying his appetite.
[Footnote 129: Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 391 _sq._]
[Footnote 130: _Institutes of Vishnu_, xxii. 89.]
[Footnote 131: _Koran_, ii. 168.]
[Footnote 132: Langkavel, 'Pferde und Naturvölker,' in
_Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_, i. 53. Schurtz, _op.
cit._ p. 32 _sq._ Maurer, _Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes
zum Christenthume_, ii. 198.]
On similar grounds vegetarianism has been advocated as a moral
duty among Eastern races, as also in classical antiquity. The
regard for life in general, which is characteristic of Taouism,
Buddhism, Jainism, and Brahmanism,[133] led to the condemnation
of the use of animals as food. It is a very common feeling among
the Chinese of all classes that the eating of flesh is sensual
and sinful, or at least quite incompatible with the highest
degree of sincerity and purity.[134] In Japan many persons
abstain from meat, owing to Buddhistic influence.[135] In India
animal food was not avoided in early times; the epic characters
shoot deer and eat cows.[136] Even in the sacred law-books the
eating of meat is permitted in certain circumstances:--"On
offering the honey-mixture to a guest, at a sacrifice and at the
rites in honour of the manes, but on these occasions only, may an
animal be slain."[137] Nay, some particular animals are expressly
declared eatable.[138] The total abstinence from meat is in fact
represented as something meritorious rather than as a strict
duty;[139] it is said that "by avoiding the use of flesh one
gains a greater reward than by subsisting on pure fruit and
roots, and by eating food fit for ascetics in the forest."[140]
But on the other hand we also read that "there is no greater
sinner than that man who, though not worshipping the gods or the
manes, seeks to increase the bulk of his own flesh by the flesh
of other beings."[141] As a matter of fact, meat is nowadays
commonly, though by no means universally, abstained from by high
caste Hindus, whereas {337} most low caste natives are only
vegetarian when flesh food is not within their reach;[142] and we
are told that the views which many Hindus entertain of people who
indulge in such food are not very unlike the opinions which
Europeans have about cannibals.[143] The immediate origin of
these restrictions seems obvious enough. They were not
introduced--as has been supposed--either as mere sumptuary
measures,[144] or because meat was found to be an aliment too
rich and heavy in a warm climate,[145] but they were the natural
outcome of a system which enjoins regard for life in general and
kindness towards all living beings. In the 'Laws of Manu' it is
expressly said that the use of meat should be shunned for the
reason that "meat can never be obtained without injury to living
creatures, and injury to sentient beings is detrimental to the
attainment of heavenly bliss."[146] That the prohibition of
eating animals resulted from the prohibition of killing them is
also suggested by other facts. If Hindu Pariahs eat the flesh of
animals which have died naturally, it "is not visited upon them
as a crime, but they are considered to be wretches as filthy and
disgusting as their food is revolting."[147] Buddhism allows the
eating of fish and meat if it is pure in three respects, to
wit--if one has not seen, nor heard, nor suspected that it has
been procured for the purpose;[148] and among the Buddhists of
Burma even the most strictly religious have no scruples in eating
the flesh of an animal killed by another person, "as then, they
consider, the sin of its destruction does not rest upon them, but
on the person who actually caused it."[149]
[Footnote 133: See _infra_, on Regard for the Lower Animals.]
[Footnote 134: Doolittle, _op. cit._ ii. 183.]
[Footnote 135: Chamberlain, _Things Japanese_, p. 175 _sq._]
[Footnote 136: Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 200.]
[Footnote 137: _Laws of Manu_, v. 41. See also _Vasishtha_, iv. 5.]
[Footnote 138: _Institutes of Vishnu_, li. 6. _Laws of Manu_, v. 18.]
[Footnote 139: See Jolly, 'Recht und Sitte,' in Bühler,
_Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie_, ii. 157.]
[Footnote 140: _Laws of Manu_, v. 54. See also _ibid._ v. 53, 56.]
[Footnote 141: _Ibid._ v. 52.]
[Footnote 142: Kipling, _Beast and Man in India_, p. 6. Crooke,
_Things Indian_, p. 228.]
[Footnote 143: Percival, _Land of the Veda_, p. 272.]
[Footnote 144: Hopkins, _op. cit._ p. 200.]
[Footnote 145: Dubois, _Description of the Character, &c. of the
People of India_, p. 120.]
[Footnote 146: _Laws of Manu_, v. 48. See also _ibid._ v. 45, 49.]
[Footnote 147: Dubois, _op. cit._ p. 121.]
[Footnote 148: Kern, _Manual of Indian Buddhism_, p. 71, n. 5.]
[Footnote 149: Fytche, _Burma Past and Present_, ii. 78.]
Vegetarianism is, further, said to have been practised by the
first and most learned class of the Persian Magi, who, according
to Eubulus, neither slew nor ate anything {338} animated;[150]
and many of the Egyptian priests are reported to have abstained
entirely from animal food.[151] In ancient legends we are told
that the earliest men, who were pure and free from sin, killed no
animal but lived exclusively on the fruits of the earth.[152] In
Greece the Pythagoreans opposed the killing and eating of
animals, "as having a right to live in common with mankind,"[153]
or in consequence of their theory that the souls of men after
death transmigrate into animals.[154] According to Porphyry, a
fleshless diet not only contributes to the health of the body and
to the preservation of the power and purity of the mind, but is
required by justice. Animals, he said, are allied to men, and he
must be considered an impious person who does not abstain from
acting unjustly towards his kindred.[155]
[Footnote 150: Porphyry, _op. cit._ iv. 16.]
[Footnote 151: _Ibid._ iv. 7.]
[Footnote 152: _Genesis_, i. 29. _Bundahis_, xv. 6 _sqq._; _cf._
Windischmann, _Zoroastrische Studien_, p. 212. Hesiod, _Opera et
dies_, 109 _sqq._ Plato, _Politicus_, p. 272. Porphyry, _op.
cit._ iv. 2.]
[Footnote 153: Diogenes Laertius, _Vitæ philosophorum_, viii. 1.
12 (13). Plutarch, _De carnium esu oratio I._ 1.]
[Footnote 154: Seneca, _Epistulæ_, cviii. 19.]
[Footnote 155: Porphyry, _op. cit._ i. 2; iii. 26 _sq._]
* * * * *
There still remains a group of restrictions in diet which call
for our consideration, namely, such as refer to the use of
intoxicating drinks, either only prohibiting immoderation or also
demanding total abstinence.
Among a large number of peoples drunkenness is so common that it
can hardly be looked upon as a vice by the community; on the
contrary, it is sometimes an object of pride, or is regarded
almost as a religious duty. An old traveller on the West African
Gold Coast says that the natives teach their children drunkenness
at the age of three or four years, "as if it were a virtue."[156]
The Negroes of Accra, according to Monrad, take a pride in
getting drunk, and praise the happiness of a person who is so
intoxicated that he can hardly walk.[157] In ancient Yucatan he
who dropped down senseless from drink in a banquet was allowed to
remain where he fell, {339} and was regarded by his companions
with feelings of envy.[158] Among the Pueblo Indians in New
Mexico, who are otherwise a sober people, drunkenness forms a
part of their religious festivals.[159] So also in the hill
tribes of the Central Provinces of India a large quantity of
liquor is an essential element in their religious rites, and
their acts of worship invariably end in intoxication.[160] Of the
Ainu in Japan we are told that "to drink for the god" is their
chief act of worship; the more _saké_ they drink the more devout
they are, whereas the gods will be angry with a person who
abstains from the intoxicating drink.[161] The ancient
Scandinavians regularly concluded their religious ceremonies with
filling and emptying stoops in honour of their gods; and even
after their conversion to Christianity they were allowed to
continue this practice at the end of their services, with the
difference that they were now required in their toast-drinking to
substitute for the names of their false deities those of the true
God and his saints.[162] Of the Germans Tacitus states that "to
pass an entire day and night in drinking disgraces no one";[163]
and this habit of intoxication the Anglo-Saxons brought with them
to England, where it was nourished by a damp climate and a marshy
soil. In the seventh and eighth centuries some efforts were made
to check drunkenness on the initiative of Theodore, archbishop of
Canterbury, and Egbert, archbishop of York, and these exertions
were supported by the kings from a political desire to prevent
riots and bloodshed.[164] The Penitentials tell us the tale of
universal intemperance more effectively than any description of
it could do. A bishop who was so drunk as to vomit while
administering the holy sacrament was condemned to eighty or
ninety days penance, a presbyter to {340} seventy, a deacon or
monk to sixty, a clerk to forty;[165] and if a person was so
intoxicated that, pending the rite, he dropped the sacred
elements into the fire or into a river, he was required to chant
a hundred psalms.[166] A bishop or priest who persevered in the
habit of drunkenness was to be degraded from his office;[167]
whilst single cases of intoxication, if accompanied by vomiting,
incurred penance for a certain number of days--forty for a
presbyter or deacon,[168] thirty for a monk,[169] fifteen for a
layman.[170] However, these rules admitted of exceptions: if
anybody in joy and glory of our Saviour's natal day, or of
Easter, or in honour of any saint, vomited through being drunk,
and in so doing had taken no more than he was ordered by his
elders, it mattered nothing; and if a bishop had commanded him to
be drunk he was likewise innocent, unless indeed the bishop was
in the same state himself.[171] If these attempts to encourage
soberness produced any change for the better, it could only have
been temporary; for some time afterwards intemperance was carried
to its greatest excess through the practice and example of the
Danes.[172] Under the influence of the Normans, who were a more
temperate race, drunkenness, for a time decreased in England; but
after a few reigns the Saxons seem rather to have corrupted their
conquerors than to have been benefited by their example.[173] As
late as the eighteenth century drunkenness was universal among
all classes in England. It was then as uncommon for a party to
separate while any member of it remained sober {341} as it is now
for any one in such a party to degrade himself through
intoxication. No loss of character was incurred by habitual
excess. Men in the position of gentlemen congratulated each other
upon the number of bottles emptied; and it would have been
considered a very frivolous objection to a citizen who aspired to
the dignity of Alderman or Mayor that he was an habitual
drunkard.[174]
[Footnote 156: Bosman, _Description of the Coast of Guinea_, p. 107.]
[Footnote 157: Monrad, _Skildring af Guinea-Kysten_, p. 242.]
[Footnote 158: Bancroft, _op. cit._ ii. 725.]
[Footnote 159: _Ibid._ i. 555.]
[Footnote 160: Hislop, _Aboriginal Tribes of the Central
Provinces_, p. 1. Campbell, _Wild Tribes of Khondistan_, p. 164
_sq._ (Kandhs).]
[Footnote 161: Bird, _Unbeaten Tracks in Japan_, ii. 68, 96.
_Cf._ Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, p. 31.]
[Footnote 162: Maurer, _op. cit._ ii. 200. Bartholinus,
_Antiquitates Danicæ_, i. 8, p. 128 _sqq._ Mallet, _Northern
Antiquities_, p. 196.]
[Footnote 163: Tacitus, _Germania_, 22.]
[Footnote 164: _Laws of Hlothhære and Eadric_, 12 _sq._ Thrupp,
_The Anglo-Saxon Home_, p. 297.]
[Footnote 165: _P[oe]nitentiale Pseudo-Theodori_, xxvi. 4
(Wasserschleben, _Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche_,
p. 594). _P[oe]nitentiale Egberti_, xi. 7 (Wasserschleben, p. 242).]
[Footnote 166: _P[oe]nitentiale Pseudo-Theodori_, xxvi. 5
(Wasserschleben, _op. cit._ p. 594). _P[oe]nitentiale Egberti_,
xi. 9 (Wasserschleben, p. 242).]
[Footnote 167: _P[oe]nitentiale Theodori_, i. 1. 1
(Wasserschleben, _op. cit._ p. 184). _P[oe]nitentiale Egberti_,
xi. 1 (Wasserschleben, p. 242).]
[Footnote 168: _P[oe]nitentiale Theodori_, i. 1. 3
(Wasserschleben, _op. cit._ p. 184). _P[oe]nitentiale Egberti_,
xi. 3 (Wasserschleben, p. 242).]
[Footnote 169: _P[oe]nitentiale Theodori_, i. 1. 2
(Wasserschleben, _op. cit._ p. 184). _P[oe]nitentiale Egberti_,
xi. 2 (Wasserschleben, p. 242).]
[Footnote 170: _P[oe]nitentiale Theodori_, i. 1. 5
(Wasserschleben, _op. cit._ p. 184).]
[Footnote 171: _P[oe]nitentiale Theodori_, i. 1. 4
(Wasserschleben, _op. cit._ p. 184).]
[Footnote 172: Thrupp, _op. cit._ p. 299 _sqq._]
[Footnote 173: _Ibid._ p. 301 _sq._]
[Footnote 174: Porter, _Progress of the Nation_, p. 239. Pike,
_History of Crime in England_, ii. 587. Massey, _History of
England during the Reign of George III._ ii. 60.]
Though of late years drunkenness has been decreasing among those
European nations who have been most addicted to it, and is
nowadays generally recognised as a vice, our civilisation is
still, as it has always been, the great source from which the
poison of intoxication is pouring over the earth in all
directions, infecting or killing races who previously knew
nothing of alcohol or looked upon it with abhorrence. Eastern
religions have emphatically insisted upon sobriety or even total
abstinence from intoxicating liquors. In the sacred law-books of
Brahmanism thirteen different kinds of alcoholic drinks are
mentioned, all of which are forbidden to Brâhmanas and three to
Kshatriyas and Vaisyas;[175] yet, though there be no sin in
drinking spirituous liquor, "abstention brings greater
reward."[176] A twice-born man who drinks the liquor called Surâ
commits a mortal sin, which will be punished both in this life
and in the life to come;[177] the most proper penalty for such a
person is to drink that liquor boiling-hot, and only when his
body has been completely scalded by it is he freed from his
guilt.[178] Among the modern Hindus drunkenness is said to be
detested by all but the very lowest castes in the agricultural
districts and some high caste people residing in the great towns,
who have learned it from Europeans; it is supposed to be
destructive of caste purity; hence a notorious drunkard is, or at
least {342} used to be, expelled from his caste.[179] Buddhism
interdicts altogether the use of alcohol;[180] "of the five
crimes, the taking of life, theft, adultery, lying, and drinking,
the last is the worst."[181] Taouism condemns the love of
wine.[182] In Zoroastrianism the holy Sraosha is represented as
fighting against the demon of drunkenness,[183] and it is said
that the sacred beings are not pleased with him who drinks wine
more than moderately;[184] but it seems that the ancient Persians
nevertheless were much addicted to intoxication.[185] According
to classical writers, some of the Egyptian priests abstained
entirely from wine, whilst others drank very little of it;[186]
and before the reign of Psammetichus the kings neither drank
wine, nor made libation of it as a thing acceptable to the
gods.[187] The use of wine and other inebriating drinks is
forbidden by Islam,[188] and was punished by Muhammed with
flogging.[189] It may also be said of his followers that they for
the most part have obeyed this command, at least in country
districts,[190] and that the exceptions to the rule are directly
or indirectly attributable to the influence of Christians.
[Footnote 175: _Institutes of Vishnu_, xxii. 82, 84. _Gautama_,
ii. 20. _Laws of Manu_, xi. 94 _sq._]
[Footnote 176: _Laws of Manu_, v. 56.]
[Footnote 177: _Ibid._ ix. 235, 237; xi. 49, 55; xii. 56.]
[Footnote 178: _Ibid._ xi. 91.]
[Footnote 179: Caldwell, _Tinnevelly Shanars_, p. 38. Dubois,
_op. cit._ p. 116. Samuelson, _History of Drink_, p. 46.]
[Footnote 180: Oldenberg, _Buddha_, p. 290. Monier-Williams,
_Buddhism_, p. 126.]
[Footnote 181: Hardy, _Manual of Budhism_, p. 491.]
[Footnote 182: Douglas, _Confucianism and Taouism_, p. 266.]
[Footnote 183: _Vendîdâd_, xix. 41.]
[Footnote 184: _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_, xvi. 62.]
[Footnote 185: Herodotus, i. 133.]
[Footnote 186: Porphyry, _op. cit._ iv. 6. Plutarch, _De Iside et
Osiride_, 6.]
[Footnote 187: Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 6.]
[Footnote 188: _Koran_, ii. 216.]
[Footnote 189: Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 122.]
[Footnote 190: Burton, _Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah_, ii.
118. Blunt, _Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates_, ii. 213. Polak,
_Persien_, ii. 268. Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 298 _sq._ Pool,
_Studies in Mohammedanism_, p. 283.]
The condemnation of drunkenness is, of course, in the first place
due to its injurious consequences. The Basutos of South Africa
say that "there is blood in the dregs"--that is, intoxication
ends in bloody quarrels.[191] The Omaha Indians made drunkenness
a crime punishable with flogging and loss of property, because it
often led to murders.[192] Sahagun tells us of a Mexican king who
severely admonished his people to abstain from intoxication, as
being the cause of troubles and disorders in villages and {343}
kingdoms, of misery, sorrow, and poverty.[193] Of him who drinks
immoderately it is said in one of the Pahlavi texts that infamy
comes to his body and wickedness to his soul.[194] According to
Ecclesiasticus, "drunkenness increaseth the rage of a fool till
he offend: it diminisheth strength and maketh wounds."[195] We
read in the Talmud, "Drink not, and you will not sin."[196]
Muhammed said that in wine there is both sin and profit, but that
the sin is greater than the profit.[197] Buddhism stigmatises
drinking as the worst of crimes because it leads to all other
sins; from the continued use of intoxicating drink six evil
consequences are said to follow--namely, the loss of wealth; the
arising of disputes that lead to blows and battles; the
production of various diseases, as soreness of the eyes and
others; the bringing of disgrace, from the rebuke of parents and
superiors; the exposure to shame, from going hither and thither
unclothed; the loss of the judgment required for the carrying on
of the affairs of the world.[198] That drunkenness, in spite of
the evils resulting from it, nevertheless so frequently escapes
censure, is due partly to the pleasures connected with it, partly
to lack of foresight,[199] and in a large measure to the
influence of intemperate habits. Why such habits should have
grown up in one country and not in another we are often unable to
tell. The climate has no doubt something to do with it, although
it is impossible to agree with the statement made by Montesquieu
that the prevalence of intoxication in different parts of the
earth is proportionate to the coldness and humidity of the
air.[200] A gloomy temperament and a cheerless life are apt to
induce people to resort to the artificial pleasures produced by
drink. The dreariness of the Puritan Sunday has much to answer
for; the evidence given by a spirit merchant before the
Commission on the Forbes Mackenzie Act was "that there is a great
{344} demand for drink on Sunday," and that "this demand _must_
be supplied."[201] _Ennui_ was probably a cause of the prevailing
inebriety in Europe in former days, when there was difficulty in
passing the time not occupied in fighting or hunting;[202] and
the monotony of life in the lower ranks of an industrial
community still tends to produce a similar effect. Other causes
of drunkenness are miserable homes and wretched cooking. Mr.
Lecky is of opinion that if the wives of the poor in Great
Britain and Ireland could cook as they can cook in France and in
Holland, a much smaller proportion of the husbands would seek a
refuge in the public-house.[203]
[Footnote 191: Casalis, _Basutos_, p. 307.]
[Footnote 192: Dorsey, 'Omaha Sociology,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur.
Ethn._ iii. 370.]
[Footnote 193: Sahagun, _Historia general de las cosas de Nueva
España_, ii. 94 _sqq._]
[Footnote 194: _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_, xvi. 63.]
[Footnote 195: _Ecclesiasticus_, xxxi. 30.]
[Footnote 196: Deutsch, _Literary Remains_, p. 58.]
[Footnote 197: _Koran_, ii. 216.]
[Footnote 198: Hardy, _op. cit._ p. 491 _sq._]
[Footnote 199: _Cf._ _supra_, i. 281, 309 _sq._]
[Footnote 200: Montesquieu, _De l'esprit des lois_, xiv. 10
(_[OE]uvres_, p. 303 _sq._).]
[Footnote 201: Hessey, _Sunday_, p. 378.]
[Footnote 202: _Cf._ Spencer, _Principles of Ethics_, i. 445.]
[Footnote 203: Lecky, _Democracy and Liberty_, ii. 138.]
The evil consequences of intoxication have led not only to the
condemnation of an immoderate use of alcoholic drink, but also to
the demand for total abstinence, in consideration of the
difficulty many people have in avoiding excess. But this hardly
accounts in full for the religious prohibition of drink which we
meet with in the East. Wine or spirituous liquor inspires
mysterious fear. The abnormal mental state which it produces
suggests the idea that there is something supernatural in it,
that it contains a spirit, or is perhaps itself a spirit.[204]
Moreover, the juice of the grape is conceived as the blood of the
vine[205]--in Ecclesiasticus the wine which was poured out at the
foot of the altar is even called "the blood of the grape";[206]
and in the blood is the soul. The law of Brahmanism not only
prohibits the drinking of wine, but also commands that "one
should carefully avoid red exudations from trees and juices
flowing from incisions."[207] That spirituous liquor is believed
to contain baneful mysterious energy is obvious from the
statement that if the Brahman (the Veda) which dwells in the body
of a Brâhmana is even once deluged with it, his Brahmanhood
forsakes him, and he becomes a Sûdra;[208] holy persons are, of
{345} course, most easily affected by the mysterious drink, owing
to the delicate nature of holiness. Muhammedans likewise regard
wine as "unclean" and polluting;[209] some of them dread it so
much that if a single drop were to fall upon a clean garment it
would be rendered unfit to wear until washed.[210] In Morocco it
is said that by drinking alcohol a Muhammedan loses the _baraka_,
or holiness, of "the faith" and a scribe the memory of the Koran,
and that if a person who drinks alcohol has a charm on him, its
_baraka_ is spoiled. The fact that wine was forbidden by the
Prophet might perhaps by itself be a sufficient reason for the
notion that it is unclean. But already in pre-Muhammedan times it
seems to have been scrupulously avoided by some of the
Arabs,[211] though among others it was much in use and was highly
praised by their poets.[212]
[Footnote 204: See _supra_, i. 278, 281; _infra_, on the Belief
in Supernatural Beings; Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 359.]
[Footnote 205: Frazer, _op. cit._ i. 358 _sq._]
[Footnote 206: _Ecclesiasticus_, l. 15.]
[Footnote 207: _Laws of Manu_, v. 6.]
[Footnote 208: _Ibid._ xi. 98.]
[Footnote 209: Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 299.]
[Footnote 210: Winterbottom, _Native Africans in the
Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone_, i. 72.]
[Footnote 211: Diodorus Siculus, _Bibliotheca historica_, xix.
94. 3. Zöckler, _Askese und Mönchtum_, i. 93.]
[Footnote 212: Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, i. 21 _sqq._]
As for the Muhammedan prohibition of wine, the suggestion has
been made by Palgrave that it mainly arose from the Prophet's
antipathy to Christianity and his desire to broaden the line of
demarcation between his followers and those of Christ. Wine was
raised by the founder of Christianity to a dignity of the highest
religious import. It became well-nigh typical of Christianity and
in a manner its badge. To declare it "unclean," an "abomination,"
and "the work of the devil," was to set up for the Faithful a
counter-badge.[213] This view derives much probability from the
fact that there are several unequivocal indications of the same
bent of policy in Muhammed's system, showing a distinct tendency
to oppose Islam to other religions. But at the same time both a
desire to prevent intoxication and the notion that wine is
polluting may very well have been co-operating motives for the
prohibition.
[Footnote 213: Palgrave, _Journey through Central and Eastern
Arabia_, i. 428 _sqq._]
CHAPTER XXXIX
CLEANLINESS AND UNCLEANLINESS--ASCETICISM IN GENERAL
IT seems that man, like many other animals, is naturally endowed
with a certain tendency to cleanliness or aversion to filth. Of
Caspar Hauser--the boy who had been kept in a dungeon separated
from all communication with the world from early childhood to
about the age of seventeen--Feuerbach tells us that
"uncleanliness, or whatever he considered as such, whether in his
own person or in others, was an abomination to him."[1] And the
savage boy of Aveyron, though filthy at first, soon became so
scrupulously clean in his habits that "he constantly threw away,
in a pet, the contents of his plate, if any particle of dirt or
dust had fallen upon it; and, after he had broken his walnuts
under his feet, he took pains to clean them in the nicest and
most delicate manner."[2]
[Footnote 1: Feuerbach, _Caspar Hauser_, p. 62.]
[Footnote 2: Itard, _Account of the Discovery and Education of a
Savage Man_, p. 58.]
Many savages are praised for their cleanliness.[3] The Veddahs of
Ceylon wash their bodies every few days, as opportunity
occurs.[4] Among the South Sea Islanders {347} bathing is a very
common practice; the Tahitians bathe in fresh water once or twice
a day,[5] and the natives of Ni-afu, in the Tonga Islands, are
said to spend half their life in the water.[6] So, also, many
Indian tribes both in North, Central, and South America are very
fond of bathing.[7] The Omahas generally bathe every day in warm
weather, early in the morning and at night, and some of them also
at noon.[8] Among the Guiana Indians it is a custom for men and
women to troop down together to the nearest water early in the
morning and many times during the day.[9] The Tehuelches of
Patagonia not only make morning ablutions and, when encamped near
a river, enjoy bathing for hours, but are also scrupulously
careful as to the cleanliness of their houses and utensils, and
will, if they can obtain soap, wash up everything they may be
possessed of.[10] The Moquis and Pueblos of New Mexico are
remarkable both for their personal cleanliness and the neatness
of their dwellings.[11] Cleanliness is a common characteristic of
many natives of Africa.[12] The Negroes of the Gold Coast wash
their whole persons once, if not oftener, during the day.[13] The
Megé, a people subject to the Monbuttu, wash two or three times a
day, and when engaged in work constantly adjourn to a
neighbouring stream to cleanse themselves.[14] The
Marutse-Mabundas, rather than lose their bath, are always ready
{348} to run the risk of being snapped up by crocodiles, and they
are in the habit of keeping their materials in well-washed wooden
or earthenware bowls or in suitable baskets or calabashes.[15]
The cleanliness of the Dinka in every thing that concerns the
preparation of food is said to be absolutely exemplary.[16] Among
the Bari tribes the dwellings "are the perfection of
cleanliness."[17] So also the Bachapins, a Bechuana tribe, are
remarkable for the cleanliness of their dwellings, showing the
greatest carefulness to remove all rubbish and everything
unsightly; but at the same time they are lacking in personal
cleanliness.[18]
[Footnote 3: Colquhoun, _Amongst the Shans_, p. 298 _sq._ Man,
_Sonthalia and the Sonthals_, p. 84. Foreman, _Philippine
Islands_, p. 189 (domesticated natives). Boyle, _Dyaks of
Borneo_, p. 242. Erskine, _Cruise among the Islands of the
Western Pacific_, pp. 110 (Samoans; _cf._ Turner, _Nineteen Years
in Polynesia_, p. 205), 262, 264 (Fijians). Percy Smith,
'Futuna,' in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ i. 35. Markham, _Cruise of
the "Rosario,"_ p. 136 (Polynesians).]
[Footnote 4: Nevill, 'Vaeddas of Ceylon,' in _Taprobanian_,
i. 187.]
[Footnote 5: Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_ (ed. 1829),
ii. 113 _sq._]
[Footnote 6: Romilly, _Western Pacific_, p. 145.]
[Footnote 7: Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i.
83, 696, 722, 760. Domenech, _Seven Years Residence in the Great
Deserts of North America_, ii. 337. von Humboldt, _Personal
Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New
Continent_, iii. 237 (Chaymas). von Martius, _Beiträge zur
Ethnographie Amerika's_, i. 600 (Uaupés), 643 (Macusís). Molina,
_History of Chili_, ii. 118; Smith, _Araucanians_, p. 184.
Dobrizhoffer, _Account of the Abipones_, ii. 53.]
[Footnote 8: Dorsey, 'Omaha Sociology,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._
iii. 269.]
[Footnote 9: Im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 191.]
[Footnote 10: Musters, _At Home with the Patagonians_, p. 173.]
[Footnote 11: Bancroft, _op. cit._ i. 540. See also _ibid._
i. 267 (some Inland Columbians).]
[Footnote 12: Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, ii. 86
(Negroes of Accra, Krus), 464 (Western Fulahs). Torday and Joyce,
'Ethnography of the Ba-Huana,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi.
292. Rowley, _Africa Unveiled_, p. 153. Ashe, _Two Kings of
Uganda_, p. 305; Wilson and Felkin, _Uganda_, i. 184. Casati,
_Ten Years in Equatoria_, i. 122 (Monbuttu). Holub, _Seven Years
in South Africa_, ii. 208 (Manansas).]
[Footnote 13: Cruickshank, _Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast_,
ii. 283 _sq._]
[Footnote 14: Burrows, _Land of the Pigmies_, p. 119.]
[Footnote 15: Holub, _op. cit._ ii. 309.]
[Footnote 16: Casati, _op. cit._ i. 44.]
[Footnote 17: Baker, _Albert N'yanza_, i. 89.]
[Footnote 18: Burchell, _Travels in the Interior of Southern
Africa_, ii. 521, 553.]
We commonly find that savages who are clean in certain respects
are dirty in others. The Wanyoro bathe frequently and always wash
their hands before and after eating, but their dwellings are very
filthy and swarm with vermin.[19] The Nagas of India[20] and the
natives of the interior of Sumatra,[21] though cleanly in their
persons, are very dirty in their apparel. The Mayas of Central
America make frequent use of cold water, but neither in their
persons nor in their dwellings do they present an appearance of
cleanliness.[22] So also the Californian Indians, whilst
exceedingly fond of bathing, are unclean about their lodges and
clothing.[23] The Aleuts, though they wash daily, allow dirt to
be piled up close to their dwellings, prepare their food very
carelessly, and never wash their household utensils.[24] The New
Zealander, again, whilst not over-clean in his person, is very
particular respecting his food and also keeps his dwelling in as
much order as possible.[25] On the other hand there are very many
uncivilised peoples who are described as generally filthy in
their habits--for instance, the Fuegians,[26] many {349} Indian
tribes in the Pacific States,[27] several Eskimo tribes,[28]
various Siberian peoples,[29] the Ainu of Japan,[30] most hill
tribes in India,[31] many Australian tribes,[32] the
Bushmans,[33] and, generally, the dwarf races of Africa.[34] But
although these peoples never or hardly ever wash their bodies, or
do not change their dress until it is worn to pieces, or eat out
of the same vessels as their dogs without cleaning them, or feed
on disgusting substances, or regard vermin as a delicacy--we may
assume that their toleration of filth is not absolutely boundless.
[Footnote 19: Wilson and Felkin, _op. cit._ ii. 46. Baker,
_Albert N'yanza_, ii. 58.]
[Footnote 20: Stewart, 'Northern Cachar,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc.
Bengal_, xxiv. 616.]
[Footnote 21: Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 209**.]
[Footnote 22: Bancroft, _op. cit._ i. 654.]
[Footnote 23: Powers, _Tribes of California_, p. 403. Bancroft,
_op. cit._ i. 377, 407.]
[Footnote 24: Veniaminof, quoted by Dall, _Alaska_, p. 398. See
also Bancroft, _op. cit._ i. 267 (Flatheads).]
[Footnote 25: Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 58.]
[Footnote 26: Snow, _Two Years' Cruise off Tierra del Fuego_,
i. 345.]
[Footnote 27: Bancroft, _op. cit._ i. 83, 102, 184, 231, 492, 626.]
[Footnote 28: _Ibid._ i. 51. Seemann, _Voyage of "Herald,"_ ii.
61 _sq._ (Western Eskimo). Kane, _Arctic Explorations_, ii. 116
(Eskimo of Etah). Cranz, _History of Greenland_, i. 155.]
[Footnote 29: Sarytschew, 'Voyage of Discovery to the North-East
of Siberia,' in _Collection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages_,
v. 67 (Kamchadales). Krasheninnikoff, _History of Kamschatka_,
pp. 176 (Kamchadales), 226 (Koriaks). Sauer, _Expedition to the
Northern Parts of Russia performed by Billings_, p. 125 (Jakuts).
Georgi, _Russia_, ii. 398 (Jakuts); iii. 59 (Kotoftzes), 112
(Tunguses); iv. 37 (Kalmucks), 134 (Burats). Liadov, in _Jour.
Anthr. Inst._ i. 401; Bergmann, _Nomadische Streifereien unter
den Kalmüken_, ii. 102, 123 _sq._; Pallas, quoted in Spencer's
_Descriptive Sociology_, 'Asiatic Races,' p. 29 (Kalmucks).]
[Footnote 30: Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, p. 24 _sqq._ Mac
Ritchie, _Ainos_, p. 12 _sq._]
[Footnote 31: Spencer, _Descriptive Sociology_, 'Asiatic Races,'
p. 29. Grange, 'Expedition into the Naga Hills,' in _Jour.
Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, ix. 962. Stewart, _ibid._ xxiv. 637
(Kukis). Mason, 'Physical Character of the Karens,' _ibid._ xxxv.
pt. ii. 25. Butler, _Travels in Assam_, p. 98. Anderson,
_Mandalay to Momien_, p. 131 (Kakhyens). Moorcroft and Trebeck,
_Travels in the Himalayan Provinces_, i. 321 (Ladakhis).]
[Footnote 32: Breton, _Excursions in New South Wales_, p. 197.
Barrington, _History of New South Wales_, p. 19 (natives of
Botany Bay). Angas, _Savage Life in Australia_, i. 80 (South
Australian aborigines). Chauncy, in Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of
Victoria_, ii. 284 (West Australian aborigines).]
[Footnote 33: Moffat, _Missionary Labours in Southern Africa_,
p. 15. Barrow, _Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa_,
i. 288.]
[Footnote 34: Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_,
p. 451. For other instances of uncleanliness in savages see
Crawfurd, _History of the Indian Archipelago_, i. 39; St. John,
_Life in the Forests of the Far East_, i. 147 (some of the Land
Dyaks); Andersson, _Lake Ngami_, pp. 50 (Herero), 470 (Bechuanas).]
The prevalence of cleanly or dirty habits among a certain people
may depend on a variety of circumstances: the occupations of
life, sufficiency or want of water, climatic conditions, industry
or laziness, wealth or poverty, religious or superstitious
beliefs. Castrén observes that filthiness is a characteristic of
fishing peoples; among the Ostyaks only those who live by fishing
are conspicuous for their uncleanliness, whereas the nomads and
owners of {350} reindeer are not.[35] It has been observed that
the inland negro is clean when he dwells in the neighbourhood of
rivers.[36] In West Australia those tribes only which live by
large rivers or near the sea are said to have an idea of
cleanliness.[37] Concerning the filthy habits of the Kukis and
other hill peoples in India, Major Butler remarks that they may
probably be accounted for by the scarcity of water in the
neighbourhood of the villages, as also by the coldness of the
climate.[38] Dr. Kane believes that the indifference of many
Eskimo to dirt or filth is largely due to the extreme cold, which
by rapid freezing resists putrefaction and thus prevents the
household, with its numerous dogs, from being intolerable.[39]
Their well-known habit of washing themselves with freshly passed
urine arises partly from scarcity of water and the difficulty of
heating it, but partly also from the fact that the ammonia of the
urine is an excellent substitute for soap in removing the grease
with which the skin necessarily becomes soiled.[40] A cold
climate, moreover, leads to uncleanliness because it makes
garments necessary;[41] and among some savages the practice of
greasing their bodies to protect the skin from the effects of a
parching air produces a similar result.[42] Lord Kames maintains
that the greatest promoter of cleanliness is industry, whereas
its greatest antagonist is indolence. In Holland, he observes,
the people were cleaner than all their neighbours because they
were more industrious, at a time when in England industry was as
great a stranger as cleanliness.[43] Kolben says that the general
laziness of the Hottentots accounts for the fact that "they are
in the matter of diet {351} the filthiest people in the
world."[44] Of the Siberian Burats Georgi writes that "from their
laziness they are as dirty as swine";[45] and the Kamchadales are
described as a "dirty, lazy race."[46] Poverty, also, is for
obvious reasons a cause of uncleanliness;[47] "a starving vulture
neglects to polish his feathers, and a famished dog has a ragged
coat."[48] Very commonly cleanliness is a class distinction.[49]
Thus among the Point Barrow Eskimo the poorer people are often
careless about their clothes and persons, whereas most of the
wealthier individuals appear to take pride in being well clad,
and, except when actually engaged in some dirty work, always have
their faces and hands scrupulously clean and their hair neatly
combed.[50] Dr. Schweinfurth maintains that domestic cleanliness
and care in the preparation of food are everywhere signs of a
higher grade of external culture and answer to a certain degree
of intellectual superiority.[51] But already Lord Kames pointed
out the fact indicated above, that "cleanness is remarkable in
several nations which have made little progress in the arts of
life."[52]
[Footnote 35: Castrén, _Nordiska resor och forskningar_,
i. 319 _sq._]
[Footnote 36: Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_, iii. 75.
Mr. Torday, who speaks from extensive experience, tells me the same.]
[Footnote 37: Chauncy, quoted by Brough Smyth, _op. cit._ ii. 284.]
[Footnote 38: Butler, _Travels in Assam_, p. 98 _sq._ _Cf._
Stewart, in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxiv. 616.]
[Footnote 39: Kane, _Arctic Explorations_, ii. 116.]
[Footnote 40: Murdoch, 'Ethnol. Results of the Point Barrow
Expedition,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 421. Dall, _op. cit._
p. 20.]
[Footnote 41: _Cf._ von Humboldt, _op. cit._ iii. 237.]
[Footnote 42: Burchell, _op. cit._ ii. 553 (Bachapins of Litakun).]
[Footnote 43: Kames, _Sketches of the History of Man_, i. 323,
327 _sqq._]
[Footnote 44: Kolben, _Present State of the Cape of Good Hope_,
i. 47.]
[Footnote 45: Georgi, _op. cit._ iv. 134.]
[Footnote 46: _Ibid._ iii. 152. See also Sarytschew, in
_Collection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages_, v. 67.]
[Footnote 47: See Marshall, _A Phrenologist amongst the Todas_,
p. 50; Veniaminof, quoted by Dall, _op. cit._ p. 398 (Aleuts).]
[Footnote 48: St. John, _Village Life in Egypt_, i. 187.]
[Footnote 49: Tickell, 'Memoir on the Hodésum,' in _Jour. Asiatic
Soc. Bengal_, ix. 808 (Hos). Rowlatt, 'Expedition into the
Mishmee Hills,' _ibid._ xiv. 489. Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_,
p. 117. Waitz, _op. cit._ ii. 86 (Ashantees). Arnot,
_Garenganze_, p. 76 (Barotse). Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 299.]
[Footnote 50: Murdoch, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 421.]
[Footnote 51: Schweinfurth, _Heart of Africa_, i. 156.]
[Footnote 52: Kames, _op. cit._ i. 321.]
The factors which determine the cleanliness of a people also
naturally influence the moral valuation of it. Aversion to dirt
not only leads to cleanly habits, but makes a filthy person an
object of disgust and disapprobation; indeed, this aversion is
generally stronger with reference to other individuals than with
reference to one's own person. But where for some reason or other
dirtiness becomes habitual, it at the same time ceases to be
disgusting; and it is often astonishing how soon {352} people get
used to filthy surroundings. Thus, when cleanliness is insisted
upon it is so in the first instance because dirt is directly
disagreeable to other persons, and when uncleanness is tolerated
it is so because it gives no offence to the senses of the public.
But at the higher stages of civilisation, at least, cleanliness
is besides inculcated on hygienic grounds.
In many cases cleanliness, either temporary or habitual, is also
practised and enjoined from religious or superstitious motives. A
Lappish _noaide_, or wizard, had to wash all his body before he
offered a sacrifice.[53] The Siberian shamans have compulsory
water purifications once a year, sometimes every month, as also
on special occasions when they feel themselves defiled by contact
with unclean things.[54] The Shinto priests in Japan bathed and
put on clean garments before making the sacred offerings or
chanting the liturgies.[55] Herodotus speaks of the cleanliness
observed by the Egyptian priests when engaged in the service of
the gods.[56] As a preliminary to an act of worship the ancient
Greeks washed their hands or bathed and put on clean clothes.[57]
One of the legal maxims of the Romans required that men should
approach the deity in a state of purity.[58] According to
Zoroastrianism it is the great business of life to avoid
impurity, and, when it is involuntarily contracted, to remove it
in the correct manner as quickly as possible; and by impurity is
then understood not an inward state of the soul, but mainly a
physical state of the body, everything going out of the human
body being considered polluting.[59] For a Brahmin bathing is the
chief part of the minute ceremonial of daily worship, whilst
further washings and aspersions enter into more solemn religious
acts;[60] and not only Brahmins but most Hindus regard {353} it
as a religious duty to bathe daily if this is at all
convenient.[61] Lamaism enjoins personal ablution as a sacerdotal
rite preparatory to worship, though the ceremony seldom extends
to more than dipping the tips of the fingers in water.[62] Jewish
Rabbis are compelled to wash their hands before they begin to
pray.[63] Tertullian mentions that a similar ablution was
practised by the Christians before prayer.[64] According to
Islam, the clothes and person of the worshipper should be clean,
and so also the ground, mat, carpet, or whatever else it be, upon
which he prays; and every act of worship must be preceded by an
ablution, though, where water cannot be got, sand may be used as
a substitute.[65] But a polluting influence is not ascribed to
everything which we regard as dirt. For instance, Muhammedans
consider the excrements of men and dogs defiling, but not the
dung of cows and sheep; cow-dung is even used as a means of
purification.
[Footnote 53: Friis, _Lappisk Mythologie_, p. 145 _sq._ von
Düben, _Lappland_, p. 256.]
[Footnote 54: _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxiv. 88.]