Originally the covenant sacrifice at the threshold was with the one God
of life. But as monotheism degenerated into polytheism, the idea came to
prevail of different deities in different portions of the door, or of
different deities in different districts of country or in different
offices of life.
Each gate of an Assyrian city was dedicated to a special god, and named
after it,–as the gate of Bel, the gate of Beltis, the gate of Anu, the
gate of Ishtar. At the entrance-way of every gate gigantic winged bulls
with human heads stood on guard, accompanied by winged genii.[251] And
the central doorway to the king’s palace was similarly guarded.[252] In
every house a special deity was appealed to at different portions of the
doorway; Nergal on the top of the wall and beneath the threshold; Ea and
Merodach in the passage to the right and left of the gate.[253]
The idea of an offering, or of a dedication, to the local divinity, at
the time the threshold is laid, is of wide acceptance. In India, “the
god Vāttu, or Vāttuma [a son of Vishnoo], is said to recline and live in
the threshold, changing his position every month.... On the day when the
door-frame and threshold of a new house or temple are fixed, the
_Vāttuma santhe_ [the tribute to Vāttuma] is offered.”[254]
In China, “Shintu and Yuhlui are named as two tutelar gods to whom the
guardianship of the house is entrusted; and either the names or
grotesque representations of these ‘gods of the threshold’ are at the
gate of the house, with shrines to them upon the left of the entrance
way.”[255]
It is said of these “Chinese gods of the threshold,” that “in full
stature, and presumably in primeval strength, they flank the doors of
monasteries and the entrances to the halls of justice. Much reduced in
size and perched high on shelves, they face each other in the vestibules
of the Chinese home; and in their most diminutive aspect they become
little images, occasionally two-headed, which are carried about the
person as charms, or hang from the eaves of Chinese houses.”[256]
Over the doors of almost all the houses of Japan are to be seen small
prints of the “gigantic _Ni-o_, the Booddhist Gog and Magog,” who are
supposed to guard the entrance way of the holy places.[257] Private
buildings as well as public need this spiritual protection.
The inscriptions at the doorways of the houses of ancient Egypt showed
that every building was “placed under the protection of a tutelary
deity.” This custom “is retained by the modern Egyptians in the
protecting genius said to preside over the different quarters of
Cairo.”[258]
Tertullian, a Christian Father who wrote before the close of the second
century, in warning believers against the seducements of idolatry,
emphasized the clustering of deities at the doors and gates in the
religions of Greece and Rome.[259] He says that “among the Greeks ... we
read of Apollo Thyræus (that is, of the door), and the Antelii (or,
Anthelii) demons, as presiders over entrances;” while among the Romans
there are other “gods of entrances; Cardea (Hinge-goddess), called after
hinges; and Forculus (Door-god) after doors; and Limentinus
(Threshold-god) after the threshold; and Janus (Gate-god) himself after
the gate.”
Although a Christian might not recognize these gods as gods, he is told
to beware lest he seem to give them honor by adorning his gates with
lamps or wreaths. “Indeed, a Christian will not even dishonor his own
gate with laurel crowns,” says Tertullian, “if so be he knows how many
gods the devil has attached to doors.” And his words of warning are:
“Since there are beings who are adored in entrances [doorways], it is to
them that both the lamps and laurels will pertain. To an idol you will
have done whatever you shall have done to an entrance [or doorway].” “If
you have renounced [heathen] temples, make not your own gate a [heathen]
temple.” Yet, in proof of the prevalence of this heathen custom among
Christians, Tertullian testifies: “‘Let your works shine,’ says He; but
now all our shops and gates shine! You will now-a-days find more doors
of heathens without lamps and laurel-wreaths than of Christians.”
In Guatemala, in Central America, “the god of houses” is called
Chahalka; and the blood of sacrifices to him is sprinkled on the door of
the houses as an assurance of his protection.[260]
It was much the same in the Old World as in the New. In ancient and in
modern times, and in widely different portions of the world, there are
indications that the threshold of the home was the primitive altar; and
that the side-posts and lintel of the doorway above the threshold bore
symbols or inscriptions in proof of the sacredness of the entrance to
the family home, and in token of an accomplished covenant with its
guardian God, or gods.
-----
Footnote 1:
See Trumbull’s _Blood Covenant_, passim.
Footnote 2:
See Trumbull’s _Blood Covenant_, pp. 191 f., 370; also Frazer’s
_Golden Bough_, I., 183–185.
Footnote 3:
These facts I have obtained at different times in personal
conversations with intelligent natives of Syria and of Egypt. It will
be seen, later, how they are verified in the record of similar customs
elsewhere.
Footnote 4:
See Hopkins’s _Religions of India_, p. 362 f.
Footnote 5:
_Ibid._, with references to Mahabharata, II., 21, 14, 53; X., 8, 10.
Footnote 6:
_Ibid._, with references to Laws of Manu, IV., 73, and to Gaut. 9 :
32.
Footnote 7:
John 10 : 1, 2, 9, 10.
Footnote 8:
See Lund’s _Every-day Life in Scandinavia in the Sixteenth Century_,
p. 16, with note 36; also, the _Njals Saga_.
Footnote 9:
See Smith’s _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiq._, s. vv. “Athletae” and
“Olympic Games;” also Gardner’s _New Chapters in Greek History_, p.
299.
Footnote 10:
See London _Folk-Lore Journal_, I., 92.
Footnote 11:
These facts were given me by a member of the vice-consul’s family, who
witnessed the ceremony. The preparations were made before the arrival
of General Grant; and they were not prominent in the sight of himself
or party. They were simply the customs of the country.
Footnote 12:
Prof. A.H. Sayce, in London _Folk-Lore_, I., 523.
Footnote 13:
Comp. with p. 5, _supra_.
Footnote 14:
Comp. with p. 71 f., _infra_.
Footnote 15:
Bruce’s _Travels_, Bk. II., p. 514.
Footnote 16:
Baker’s _Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia_, p. 137; comp. 126 f.
Footnote 17:
On the testimony of a Liberian colored clergyman.
Footnote 18:
See, for example, Sir Robert Ker Porter’s _Travels_, p. 36 f.
Footnote 19:
Palgrave’s _Personal Narrative of a Journey through Central and
Eastern Arabia_, I., 51.
Footnote 20:
Conder’s _Heth and Moab_, pp. 290, 293.
Footnote 21:
D’Herbelot’s _Bibliothèque Orientale_, s. v. “Bab,” p. 157.
Footnote 22:
Roberts’s _Oriental Illus. of Scrip._, p. 149.
Footnote 23:
Morier’s _Second Journey through Persia_, p. 254.
Footnote 24:
Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 137.
Footnote 25:
On the testimony of a Finnish American.
Footnote 26:
Lund’s _Every-day Life in Scandinavia in the Sixteenth Century_, p. 12
f.
Footnote 27:
Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 410, note.
Footnote 28:
_Ibid._, p. 410 f.
Footnote 29:
_Ibid._, p. 259.
Footnote 30:
_Fragmenta Philosophorum Græcorum_ (ed. Mullach), I., 510.
Footnote 31:
See “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
459, note; also, Bergeron’s “Voyage de Calpin,” cap. 10, cited in
Burder’s _Oriental Customs_ (2d ed.), p. 24.
Footnote 32:
Turner’s _Samoa_, p. 37.
Footnote 33:
See Maspero’s _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_, pp. 195, 219.
Footnote 34:
Rawlinson’s _History of Herodotus_, II., 47, 48.
Footnote 35:
Mackay’s _Mackay of Uganda_, pp. 112 f., 177.
Footnote 36:
See “Sacred Laws of the Aryas,” II., 2, 4, in _Sacred Books of the
East_, II., 107.
Footnote 37:
“A _bali_ is an offering of any sort, such as a handful of rice, flung
to birds or spirits or waters, or to any supernatural beings. A
_mantra_ is a Vedic text, a verse muttered during a religious
ceremony; often used in incantations, or in legitimate services to a
god.”–PROF. DR. E.W. HOPKINS.
Footnote 38:
See “Sacred Laws of the Aryas,” V., 12, in _Sacred Books of the East_,
II., 200, 233.
Footnote 39:
See Sir Henry M. Elliot’s _Races of the Northwestern Provinces of
India_ (Beames’s ed.), I., 197.
Footnote 40:
See report of a meeting of the Bombay Anthropological Society, in
London _Folk-Lore Journal_, VI., p. 77.
Footnote 41:
Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 410 f., note.
Footnote 42:
Leland’s _Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition_, p. 282.
Footnote 43:
_Ibid._, p. 321 f.
Footnote 44:
Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 332 f.
Footnote 45:
Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 136 f.
Footnote 46:
See “Death Week in Russia,” in _The Spectator_ (London), for June 18,
1892.
Footnote 47:
Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 332.
Footnote 48:
On the testimony of a native Roumanian.
Footnote 49:
See, for example, Turner’s _Samoa_, pp. 21, 56 f., 74 f., 216, 241;
also Strack’s _Der Blutaberglaube_ (4th ed.), p. 39.
Footnote 50:
Griffis’s _Mikado’s Empire_, pp. 467, 470; also, Isabella Bird’s
_Untrodden Tracks in Japan_, I., 392.
Footnote 51:
St. John’s _Life in the Far East_, I., 64, 157 f.
Footnote 52:
See London _Folk-Lore Journal_, II., 330 f.
Footnote 53:
Dr. Strean in Mason’s _Statistical Account, or Parochial Survey of
Ireland_, II., 75.
Footnote 54:
See J.G. Owens on “Folk-Lore from Buffalo Valley, Central
Pennsylvania,” in _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, IV., 126.
Footnote 55:
B. Biaz’s “Memoirs:” cited in Spencer’s _Descriptive Sociology_, II.,
23.
Footnote 56:
See pp. 51, 55, _infra_.
Footnote 57:
See Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120.
Footnote 58:
See Du Bois’s _Description of the Character, Manners, and Customs of
the Peoples of India_, II., 27. Compare pp. 5–7, _supra_.
Footnote 59:
Nevius’s _China and the Chinese_, p. 60.
Footnote 60:
Landor’s _Corea or Cho-sen_, p. 118.
Footnote 61:
See Ralston’s _Russian Folk-Tales_, p. 28 f.
Footnote 62:
On the testimony of Professor Dr. A.L. Frothingham, Jr.
Footnote 63:
Julia McNair Wright’s _Among the Alaskans_, p. 313.
Footnote 64:
Comp. Plutarch’s _Roman Questions_, Q. 5.
Footnote 65:
Rev. 6 : 9–10.
Footnote 66:
On the testimony of an eye-witness.
Footnote 67:
Palmer’s _Desert of the Exodus_, I., 90.
Footnote 68:
Burckhardt’s _Bed. u. Wahaby_, p. 214, note.
Footnote 69:
Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, II., 293.
Footnote 70:
Garnett’s _Women of Turkey and their Folk-Lore_ (“Christian Women”),
p. 239.
Footnote 71:
Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 101.
Footnote 72:
Capt. King’s “Notes” in London _Folk-Lore Journal_, VI., 121, 123.
Footnote 73:
Capt. King’s “Notes” in London _Folk-Lore Journal_, VI., 121, 123.
Footnote 74:
Shooter’s Kafirs of Natal, pp. 71–78; and Andersson’s _Lake Ngami_, p.
220 f.
Footnote 75:
On the testimony of a native eye-witness. See, also, Conder’s _Heth
and Moab_, p. 285.
Footnote 76:
See article by P.J. Baldensperger, in _Quarterly Statement_ of
Palestine Exploration Fund for April, 1894, p. 136.
Footnote 77:
Heuzey’s _Le Monte Olympe et L’Acarnanie_, p. 278.
Footnote 78:
See citations from Donatus, on the “Hecyra” of Terence, I., 2, 60, and
Servius on Virgil’s “Aeneid,” IV., 459, in Heuzey’s _Le Monte Olympe
et Acarnanie_, p. 278; also, Marquardt’s _Privatleben der Römer_, p.
53.
Footnote 79:
Garnett’s _Women of Turkey_ (“Christian Women”), p. 82.
Footnote 80:
Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 95 f.
Footnote 81:
Rodd’s _Customs and Love of Modern Greece_, p. 99 f.
Footnote 82:
_Ibid._, p. 102.
Footnote 83:
Wood’s _Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries_, II., 46.
Footnote 84:
See Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 277 f.
Footnote 85:
See “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
422–427; also P. von Stenin, in _Globus_, LXV., 181–183.
Footnote 86:
Wood’s _Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries_, II., 13.
Footnote 87:
On the testimony of Dr. H.V. Hilprecht.
Footnote 88:
Walter Gregor in London _Folk-Lore Journal_, I., 119 f.
Footnote 89:
St. John’s _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, I., 62.
Footnote 90:
See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, I., 663.
Footnote 91:
See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, I., 732–734.
Footnote 92:
“Grihya-Sutras,” or Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies, in _Sacred
Books of the East_, XXX., 193.
Footnote 93:
_Ibid._
Footnote 94:
_Ibid._, p. 263.
Footnote 95:
_Fragmenta Philosophorum Græcorum_ (ed. Mullach), I., 510.
Footnote 96:
Gwilt’s _Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio_, p. 89.
Footnote 97:
See Hughes’s _Dictionary of Islam_, art. “Masjid;” also Lane’s _Modern
Egyptians_, I., 105; and Conder’s _Heth and Moab_, p. 293 f.
Footnote 98:
Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 104.
Footnote 99:
Sibree, on “Malagasy Folk-Lore and Popular Superstition” in London
_Folk-Lore Record_, II., p. 37.
Footnote 100:
As told me by a native eye-witness.
Footnote 101:
Burckhardt’s _Arabic Proverbs_, p. 137 f.
Footnote 102:
Bruce’s “Travels,” VII., 67 (ed. 1804); cited in McLennan’s _Studies
in Ancient History_, p. 188.
Footnote 103:
On the testimony of a colored clergyman from Liberia.
Footnote 104:
See Maspero’s _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_, p. 232.
Footnote 105:
Campbell’s “Personal Narrative;” cited in McLennan’s _Studies in
Ancient History_, p. 14.
Footnote 106:
Pinkerton’s “Collection,” VI., 183; cited in _Ibid._, p. 177.
Footnote 107:
Hayes’s “Open Polar Sea,” p. 432; cited in Lubbock’s _Origin of
Civilization_ (Am. ed.), p. 78.
Footnote 108:
Rous’s _Archæologia Attica_, Lib. IV., cap. 7.
Footnote 109:
See “Roman Questions,” Q. 29, in Goodwin’s _Plutarch’s Morals_, II.,
220 f.; also Godwyn’s _Rom. Hist. Anthol._, Lib. II., § 2; citation of
authorities in Becker’s _Gallus_, p. 161, and in Marquardt’s
_Privatleben der Römer_, I., 53 f.
Footnote 110:
Douglas’s _Society in China_, p. 201. See, also, Williams’s _Middle
Kingdom_, I., 790; Gray’s _China_, I., 205; and “Marriage Ceremonies
of the Manchus,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I., 487.
Footnote 111:
Adele M. Fielde’s _Corner of Cathay_, p. 39.
Footnote 112:
“Grihya-Sutras,” or Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies, in _Sacred
Books of the East_, XXX., 193, 201.
Footnote 113:
Guhl and Koner’s _Life of the Greeks and Romans_, p. 192.
Footnote 114:
See “Roman Questions,” Q. 1, 2, in Goodwin’s _Plutarch’s Morals_, I.,
204; also authorities cited in Becker’s _Gallus_, p. 162 f., and
Marquardt’s _Privatleben der Römer_, I., 53 f.
Footnote 115:
See Coulange’s _Ancient City_, pp. 29–41, 55–58, with citations.
Footnote 116:
See “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
437. See, also, the reference to burning incense on the threshold in
Tuscany, at p. 17 f., _supra_.
Footnote 117:
See Kowalewsky’s “Marriage among the Early Slavs,” in London
_Folk-Lore_, I., 467.
Footnote 118:
From “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
423, 447.
Footnote 119:
From “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
434–443.
Footnote 120:
Napier’s _Folk-Lore in the West of Scotland_, p. 51; also Wood’s
_Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries_, II., 59 f.
Footnote 121:
See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, I., 662, 703, 730–734.
Footnote 122:
On the testimony of the Rev. William Ewing, a missionary in Palestine.
Footnote 123:
A daughter of a native Copt described to me this ceremony, as she
witnessed it at the building of her father’s house in 1878. He was
formerly a Coptic priest, but was now a Protestant Christian.
Footnote 124:
See Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_, I., 104–108.
Footnote 125:
Strack’s _Der Blutaberglaube_, p. 68.
Footnote 126:
Josh. 6 : 26.
Footnote 127: