Because the threshold of the doorway is the primitive altar of the
household, the doorway itself is, as it were, a framework above the
altar; and the side-posts and lintel of the doorway fittingly bear
tokens or inscriptions in testimony to the sacredness of the passage
into the home sanctuary. It would seem that originally the blood poured
out in sacrifice on the threshold was made use of for marking the
door-posts and lintel with proofs of the covenant entered into between
the in-comer and the host; and that afterwards other symbols of life,
and appropriate inscriptions, were substituted for the blood itself.
There are survivals in the East, at the present time, of the original
method of blood-marking the frame of the doorway; and there are traces
of its practice in ancient times in both the East and the West.
President Washburn, of Robert College, Constantinople, says:[183] “I
remember, after the great fire in Stamboul, in 1865, going over the
ruins, and coming to a house that the fire had spared; a sheep had been
sacrificed on the threshold, and a hand dipped in the blood and struck
upon the two door-posts.”
This appears, also, in the installing of a Chief Rabbi in modern
Jerusalem. In the welcome to the Hakham Bâshi, or the “First in
Zion,”[184] “the multitude of those gathered together accompany him to
his house, but before he sets the sole of his foot upon the threshold of
the outer gate [or court] one of the shokheteem [or official
slaughterers] slays a perfect beast, and pronounces the sacrificial
blessing, and all those present answer, Amen. Then the rabbi, the Hakham
Bâshi, steps over the beast which has been slain, and the shokhet dips
the two palms of his hands into the blood, and marks first the vessels
of the rabbi’s house. And, with his hands stained with blood, he forms
the semblance of a hand above the lintel of the door;–in their trust
that this thing is good [the proper thing] for the evil eye;–and the
flesh of the beast they distribute to the poor.”[185]
A custom in this same line is noted among the Jews in Morocco, in
connection with wedding observances. “Whilst the bullock, or other
animal, is being slaughtered for the evening’s festivities, a number of
boys dip their hands in the blood, and make an impression of an
outspread hand on the door-posts and walls of the bride’s house;”
supposedly “for the purpose of keeping off the ‘evil eye,’ and thus
ensuring good luck to the newly married couple.”[186]
There are indications of such a custom in ancient times. Layard says of
his researches in Assyria: “On all the slabs forming entrances in the
oldest palaces of Nimroud, were marks of a black fluid resembling blood,
which appeared to be daubed on the stone. I have not been able to
ascertain the nature of this fluid; but its appearance cannot fail to
call to mind the Jewish ceremony of placing the blood of the sacrifice
on the lintel of the doorway.”[187]
In ancient Egypt there were inscriptions, together with the name of the
owner, on the side-posts and lintels of the dwellings. “Besides the
owner’s name,” says Wilkinson,[188] “they sometimes wrote a lucky
sentence over the entrance of the house, for a favorable omen, as ‘The
Good Abode,’ the _múnzel mobárak_ of the modern Arabs, or something
similar; and the lintels and imposts of the doors in the royal mansions
were frequently covered with hieroglyphics, containing the ovals and
titles of the monarch. It was, perhaps, at the dedication of the house,
that these sentences were affixed; and we may infer, from the early
mention of this custom among the Jews, that it was derived from
Egypt.”[189]
When it is understood that the inscribing, on the doorways, of
dedications to protecting deities, was common among primitive peoples,
it would seem to be in accordance with that custom that the Hebrews were
commanded to dedicate their doorways to the one living God. It is said
of the words of the covenant of God with his people, as recorded in
Deuteronomy 6 : 4–9 and 11 : 13–21, “Thou shalt write them upon the door
posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.” To this day, among stricter
Jews, these covenant words inscribed on parchment, and enclosed in a
cylinder of glass, or a case of metal or of wood, are affixed to the
side-posts of every principal door in the house. This case and
inscription are called the “mezuza.” On the outside of the written
scroll, the divine name, _Shaddai_,–“the Almighty,”–is so inscribed that
it may be in sight through an opening in the case or cylinder. This name
stands for “the Guardian of the dwellings of Israel,” whose protection
is thus invoked above the primitive altar of the household on the
threshold of the entrance way.[190]
“Every pious Jew, as often as he passes the mezuza, touches the divine
name with the finger of his right hand, puts it to his mouth and kisses
it, saying in Hebrew, ‘The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy
coming in, from this time forth, and for evermore;’[191] and when
leaving on a business expedition he says, after touching it, ‘In thy
name, _kuzu bemuchsaz kuzu_ (=God), I go out and shall prosper.’”[192]
In some cases the covenant words are inscribed directly upon the
door-posts, instead of being written on parchment and enclosed in a
case.
On the lintels of the ancient synagogues in Palestine there were
sculptured symbolic figures, such as the paschal lamb, a pot of manna, a
vine, or a bunch of grapes, together with inscriptions; and the
door-posts were ornamented more or less richly.[193] Evidences of this
are still abundant.
Speaking of the writing over the door and all round the room at the
office of the consul in Sidon, Dr. Thomson says that Muhammadans “never
set up a gate, cover a fountain, build a bridge, or erect a house,
without writing on it choice sentences from the Koran, or from their
best poets. Christians also do the same.”[194] These writings are deemed
a protection against harm from evil spirits.
In Persia, both the Muhammadans and the Armenians inscribe passages from
their sacred books above their doorways, with ornamental adornings, in
“strange, fantastic patterns.”[195] The palace doorways in ancient
Persia were inscribed and ornamented in a high degree.[196]
At the present time, in China, coins are put under the door-sill at the
time of its laying, and charms are fastened above the door;[197] the
gods of the threshold are invoked at the doorway by shrines and
inscriptions, while sentences, as in ancient Egypt, are written on the
side-posts and lintel.[198] At the festival of the fifth month of the
Chinese year, “charms, consisting of yellow paper of various sizes, on
which are printed images of idols, or of animals, or Chinese characters,
are pasted upon the doors and door-posts of houses, in order to expel
evil spirits.” In times of pestilence, sentences written in human blood
are fastened on the door-posts for protection from disease.[199]
Describing a ceremony on a large Chinese junk when starting out on a
long voyage, an observer tells of the sacrifice of a fowl in honor of
the divinity called Loong-moo, or the Dragon’s Mother. A temporary altar
was erected at the bow of the vessel, as its beginning, or threshold,
and the blood of the sacrificed fowl was shed there. Pieces of silver
paper were “sprinkled with the blood [of the fowl], and then fastened to
the door-posts and lintels of the cabin.”[200] The cabin door is the
home door of the voyager.
Above the house door of almost every home, in large portions of Japan,
there is suspended the shimenawa, or a thin rope of rice straw, which is
one of the sacred symbols of ancient Shintoism. Above the doors of high
Shinto officials, this symbol is of great size and prominence. Its
presence is as a sign of a covenant with the gods.[201]
The Greeks certainly recognized the entrance of the house as the place
for an altar to the protecting deity. “Before each house stood, usually,
its own peculiar altar of Apollo Agyieus, or an obelisk rudely
representing the god himself;” and that over the house door, “for good
luck,” or as a talisman, “an inscription was often placed.”[202] And on
occasions, as when a bride entered her husband’s house, the doorway was
“ornamented with festive garlands.”[203] Theocritus refers to a Greek
custom of smearing the side-posts of the gateway with the juice of magic
herbs, as a method of appeal to the guardian deity to influence the
heart of the dweller within toward the suppliant at the door.[204]
Roman householders affixed to the lintels and side-posts of their doors
the spoils and trophies taken by them in battle. Branches, and wreaths
of bay and laurel, were hung by them in the doorway on a marriage
occasion; and lamps and torches were displayed at their doors at other
times of rejoicing; while cypresses were shown there at the time of a
death.[205]
Texts of Scripture, and other inscriptions, as a means of invoking a
blessing at the doorway, are frequently found at the present time above
the entrance of houses in South Germany.
In Central America and in South America the blood of sacrificial
offerings was smeared on the doorways of houses as well as of temples,
as a means of covenanting with the local deities. Illustrations of this
are found in the records and remains of Peru[206] and Guatemala.[207]
In both Europe and America, the practice of nailing horseshoes on the
side-posts of a doorway, for “good luck,” or as a means of guarding the
inmates of the house from evil, is very common. So lately as the
seventeenth century it was said: “Most houses of the West End of London
have the horseshoe on the threshold.”[208] Even at the threshold of
Christian churches, in recent years, the symbol of the horseshoe was to
be found as a means of protection.[209] The horseshoe is often to be
found on a ship’s mast. At the present time, horseshoes of various
sizes, for use as doorway guards against evil, are found on sale in
Philadelphia, and other centers of civilization.