make all the world over; but it is more interesting to observe that, in the
present case, we seem to have the equivalents of divination by teraphim,
with the aid of something like an ephod (which, however, is used to
sanctify the image and not the priest) mixed up together. Many Hebrew
archaeologists have supposed that the term "ephod" is sometimes used for an
image (particularly in the case of Gideon's ephod), and the story of Micah,
in the book of Judges, shows that images were, at any rate, employed in
close association with the ephod. If the pulling of the string to call the
attention of the god seems as absurd to us as it appears to have done to
the worthy missionary, who tells us of the practice, it should be
recollected that the high priest of Jahveh was ordered to wear a garment
fringed with golden bells.
And it shall be upon Aaron to minister; and the sound thereof shall be
heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before Jahveh, and when he
cometh out, that he die not (Exod. xxviii. 35).
An escape from the obvious conclusion suggested by this passage has been
sought in the supposition that these bells rang for the sake of the
worshippers, as at the elevation of the host in the Roman Catholic ritual;
but then why should the priest be threatened with the well-known penalty
for inadvisedly beholding the divinity?
In truth, the intermediate step between the Maori practice and that of the
old Israelites is furnished by {174} the Kami temples in Japan. These are
provided with bells which the worshippers who present themselves ring, in
order to call the attention of the ancestor-god to their presence. Grant
the fundamental assumption of the essentially human character of the
spirit, whether Atua, Kami, or Elohim, and all these practices are equally
rational.
The sacrifices to the gods in Tonga, and elsewhere in Polynesia, were
ordinarily social gatherings, in which the god, either in his own person or
in that of his priestly representative, was supposed to take part. These
sacrifices were offered on every occasion of importance, and even the daily
meals were prefaced by oblations and libations of food and drink, exactly
answering to those offered by the old Romans to their manes, penates, and
lares. The sacrifices had no moral significance, but were the necessary
result of the theory that the god was either a deified ghost of an ancestor
or chief, or, at any rate, a being of like nature to these. If one wanted
to get anything out of him, therefore, the first step was to put him in
good humour by gifts; and if one desired to escape his wrath, which might
be excited by the most trifling neglect or unintentional disrespect, the
great thing was to pacify him by costly presents. King Finow appears to
have been somewhat of a freethinker (to the great horror of his subjects),
and it was only his untimely death which prevented him from dealing with
the priest of a god, who had not returned a favourable answer to his
supplications, as Saul dealt with the priests of the sanctuary of Jahveh at
Nob. {175} Nevertheless, Finow showed his practical belief in the gods
during the sickness of a daughter, to whom he was fondly attached, in a
fashion which has a close parallel in the history of Israel.
If the gods have any resentment against us, let the whole weight of
vengeance fall on my head. I fear not their vengeance--but spare my
child; and I earnestly entreat you, Toobo Totai [the god whom he had
invoked], to exert all your influence with the other gods that I alone
may suffer all the punishment they desire to inflict (vol. i. p. 354).
So when the king of Israel has sinned by "numbering the people," and they
are punished for his fault by a pestilence which slays seventy thousand
innocent men, David cries to Jahveh:--
Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely: but these sheep, what
have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against
my father's house (2 Sam. xxiv. 17).
Human sacrifices were extremely common in Polynesia; and, in Tonga, the
"devotion" of a child by strangling was a favourite method of averting the
wrath of the gods. The well-known instances of Jephthah's sacrifice of his
daughter and of David's giving up the seven sons of Saul to be sacrificed
by the Gibeonites "before Jahveh," appear to me to leave no doubt that the
old Israelites, even when devout worshippers of Jahveh, considered human
sacrifices, under certain circumstances, to be not only permissible but
laudable. Samuel's hewing to pieces of the miserable captive, sole survivor
of his nation, Agag, "before Jahveh," can hardly be viewed in any other
light. The life of Moses is redeemed from Jahveh, who "sought {176} to slay
him," by Zipporah's symbolical sacrifice of her child, by the bloody
operation of circumcision. Jahveh expressly affirms that the first-born
males of men and beasts are devoted to him; in accordance with that claim,
the first-born males of the beasts are duly sacrificed; and it is only by
special permission that the claim to the first-born of men is waived, and
it is enacted that they may be redeemed (Exod. xiii. 12-15). Is it possible
to avoid the conclusion that immolation of their first-born sons would have
been incumbent on the worshippers of Jahveh, had they not been thus
specially excused? Can any other conclusion be drawn from the history of
Abraham and Isaac? Does Abraham exhibit any indication of surprise when he
receives the astounding order to sacrifice his son? Is there the slightest
evidence that there was anything in his intimate and personal acquaintance
with the character of the Deity, who had eaten the meat and drunk the milk
which Abraham set before him under the oaks of Mamre, to lead him to
hesitate--even to wait twelve or fourteen hours for a repetition of the
command? Not a whit. We are told that "Abraham rose early in the morning"
and led his only child to the slaughter, as if it were the most ordinary
business imaginable. Whether the story has any historical foundation or
not, it is valuable as showing that the writer of it conceived Jahveh as a
deity whose requirement of such a sacrifice need excite neither
astonishment, nor suspicion of mistake, on the part of his devotee. Hence,
when the incessant human {177} sacrifices in Israel, during the age of the
kings, are put down to the influence of foreign idolatries, we may fairly
inquire whether editorial Bowdlerising has not prevailed over historical
truth.
An attempt to compare the ethical standards of two nations, one of which
has a written code, while the other has not, is beset with difficulties.
With all that is strange and, in many cases, repulsive to us in the social
arrangements and opinions respecting moral obligation among the Tongans, as
they are placed before us, with perfect candour, in Mariner's account,
there is much that indicates a strong ethical sense. They showed great
kindliness to one another, and faithfulness in standing by their comrades
in war. No people could have better observed either the third or the fifth
commandment; for they had a particular horror of blasphemy, and their
respectful tenderness towards their parents and, indeed, towards old people
in general, was remarkable.
It cannot be said that the eighth commandment was generally observed,
especially where Europeans were concerned; but nevertheless a well-bred
Tongan looked upon theft as a meanness to which he would not condescend. As
to the seventh commandment, any breach of it was considered scandalous in
women and as something to be avoided in self-respecting men, but among
unmarried and widowed people chastity was held very cheap. Nevertheless the
women were extremely well treated, and often showed themselves capable of
great devotion and entire faithfulness. In the matter of cruelty,
treachery, and {178} bloodthirstiness, these islanders were neither better
nor worse than most peoples of antiquity. It is to the credit of the
Tongans that they particularly objected to slander; nor can covetousness be
regarded as their characteristic; for Mariner says:--
When any one is about to eat, he always shares out what he has to those
about him, without any hesitation, and a contrary conduct would be
considered exceedingly vile and selfish (vol. ii. p. 145).
In fact, they thought very badly of the English when Mariner told them that
his countrymen did not act exactly on that principle. It further appears
that they decidedly belonged to the school of intuitive moral philosophers,
and believed that virtue is its own reward; for
Many of the chiefs, on being asked by Mr. Mariner what motives they had
for conducting themselves with propriety, besides the fear of
misfortunes in this life, replied, the agreeable and happy feeling
which a man experiences within himself when he does any good action or
conducts himself nobly and generously as a man ought to do; and this
question they answered as if they wondered such a question should be
asked (vol. ii. p. 161).
One may read from the beginning of the book of Judges to the end of the
books of Samuel without discovering that the old Israelites had a moral
standard which differs, in any essential respect (except perhaps in regard
to the chastity of unmarried women), from that of the Tongans. Gideon,
Jephthah, Samson, and David are strong-handed men, some of whom are not
outdone by any Polynesian chieftain in the matter of murder and treachery;
{179} while Deborah's jubilation over Jael's violation of the primary duty
of hospitality, proffered and accepted under circumstances which give a
peculiarly atrocious character to the murder of the guest; and her
witch-like gloating over the picture of the disappointment of the mother of
the victim--
The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice,
Why is his chariot so long in coming? (Jud. v. 28).
--would not have been out of place in the choral service of the most
sanguinary god in the Polynesian pantheon.
With respect to the cannibalism which the Tongans occasionally practised,
Mariner says:--
Although a few young ferocious warriors chose to imitate what they
considered a mark of courageous fierceness in a neighbouring nation, it
was held in disgust by everybody else (vol. ii. p. 171).
That the moral standard of Tongan life was less elevated than that
indicated in the "Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi.-xxiii.) may be freely
admitted. But then the evidence that this Book of the Covenant, and even
the ten commandments as given in Exodus, were known to the Israelites of
the time of Samuel and Saul, is (to say the least) by no means conclusive.
The Deuteronomic version of the fourth commandment is hopelessly discrepant
from that which stands in Exodus. Would any later writer have ventured to
alter the commandments as given from Sinai, if he had had before him that
which professed to be an accurate statement of the "ten words" in Exodus?
And if the writer of {180} Deuteronomy had not Exodus before him, what is
the value of the claim of the version of the ten commandments therein
contained to authenticity? From one end to the other of the books of Judges
and Samuel, the only "commandments of Jahveh" which are specially adduced
refer to the prohibition of the worship of other gods, or are orders given
_ad hoc_, and have nothing to do with questions of morality.
In Polynesia, the belief in witchcraft, in the appearance of spiritual
beings in dreams, in possession as the cause of diseases, and in omens,
prevailed universally. Mariner tells a story of a woman of rank who was
greatly attached to King Finow, and who, for the space of six months after
his death, scarcely ever slept elsewhere than on his grave, which she kept
carefully decorated with flowers:--
One day she went, with the deepest affliction, to the house of Mo-oonga
Toobo, the widow of the deceased chief, to communicate what had
happened to her at the _fytoca_ [grave] during several nights, and
which caused her the greatest anxiety. She related that she had dreamed
that the late How [king] appeared to her and, with a countenance full
of disappointment, asked why there yet remained at Vavaoo so many
evil-designing persons: for he declared that, since he had been at
Bolotoo, his spirit had been disturbed[47] by the evil machinations of
wicked men conspiring against his son; but he declared that "the youth"
should not be molested nor his power shaken by the spirit of rebellion;
that he therefore came to her with a warning voice to prevent such
disastrous consequences (vol. i. p. 424).
On inquiry it turned out that the charm of _tattao_ had been performed on
Finow's grave, with the view {181} of injuring his son, the reigning king,
and it is to be presumed that it was this sorcerer's work which had
"disturbed" Finow's spirit. The Rev. Richard Taylor says in the work
already cited: "The account given of the witch of Endor agrees most
remarkably with the witches of New Zealand" (p. 45).
The Tongans also believed in a mode of divination (essentially similar to
the casting of lots) by the twirling of a cocoa-nut.
The object of inquiry ... is chiefly whether a sick person will
recover; for this purpose the nut being placed on the ground, a
relation of the sick person determines that, if the nut, when again at
rest, points to such a quarter, the east for example, that the sick man
will recover; he then prays aloud to the patron god of the family that
he will be pleased to direct the nut so that it may indicate the truth;
the nut being next spun, the result is attended to with confidence, at
least with a full conviction that it will truly declare the intentions
of the gods at the time (vol. ii. p. 227).
Does not the action of Saul, on a famous occasion, involve exactly the same
theological presuppositions?
Therefore Saul said unto Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, Shew the right.
And Jonathan and Saul were taken _by lot_: but the people escaped. And
Saul said, Cast _lots_ between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was
taken. And Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what thou hast done.... And
the people rescued Jonathan so that he died not (1 Sam. xiv. 41-45).
As the Israelites had great yearly feasts, so had the Polynesians; as the
Israelites practised circumcision, so did many Polynesian people; as the
Israelites had a complex and often arbitrary-seeming multitude of
distinctions between clean and unclean things, and clean and unclean states
of men, to which {182} they attached great importance, so had the
Polynesians their notions of ceremonial purity and their _tabu_, an equally
extensive and strange system of prohibitions, violation of which was
visited by death. These doctrines of cleanness and uncleanness no doubt may
have taken their rise in the real or fancied utility of the prescriptions,
but it is probable that the origin of many is indicated in the curious
habit of the Samoans to make fetishes of living animals. It will be
recollected that these people had no "gods made with hands," but they
substituted animals for them.
At his birth
every Samoan was supposed to be taken under the care of some tutelary
god or _aitu_ [ = Atua] as it was called. The help of perhaps half a
dozen different gods was invoked in succession on the occasion, but the
one who happened to be addressed just as the child was born was marked
and declared to be the child's god for life.
These gods were supposed to appear in some _visible incarnation_, and
the particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing
was, to the Samoan, an object of veneration. It was in fact his idol,
and he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One,
for instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in
the turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the
lizard; and so on, throughout all the fish of the sea and birds and
four-footed beasts and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish even,
gods were supposed to be present. A man would eat freely of what was
regarded as the incarnation of the god of another man, but the
incarnation of his own particular god he would consider it death to
injure or eat.[48]
We have here that which appears to be the origin, or one of the origins, of
food prohibitions, on the one {183} hand, and of totemism on the other.
When it is remembered that the old Israelities sprang from ancestors who
are said to have resided near, or in, one of the great seats of ancient
Babylonian civilisation, the city of Ur; that they had been, it is said for
centuries, in close contact with the Egyptians; and that, in the theology
of both the Babylonians and the Egyptians there is abundant evidence,
notwithstanding their advanced social organisation, of the belief in
spirits, with sorcery, ancestor-worship, the deification of animals, and
the converse animalisation of gods--it obviously needs very strong evidence
to justify the belief that the rude tribes of Israel did not share the
notions from which their far more civilised neighbours had not emancipated
themselves.
But it is surely needless to carry the comparison further. Out of the
abundant evidence at command, I think that sufficient has been produced to
furnish ample grounds for the belief, that the old Israelites of the time
of Samuel entertained theological conceptions which were on a level with
those current among the more civilised of the Polynesian islanders, though
their ethical code may possibly, in some respects, have been more
advanced.[49]
A theological system of essentially similar character, exhibiting the same
fundamental conceptions respecting the continued existence and incessant
interference in human affairs of disembodied spirits, prevails, or formerly
prevailed, among the whole of {184} the inhabitants of the Polynesian and
Melanesian islands, and among the people of Australia, notwithstanding the
wide differences in physical character and in grade of civilisation which
obtain among them. And the same proposition is true of the people who
inhabit the riverain shores of the Pacific Ocean, whether Dyaks, Malays,
Indo-Chinese, Chinese, Japanese, the wild tribes of America, or the highly
civilised old Mexicans and Peruvians. It is no less true of the Mongolic
nomads of Northern Asia, of the Asiatic Aryans, and of the ancient Greeks
and Romans, and it holds good among the Dravidians of the Dekhan and the
negro tribes of Africa. No tribe of savages, which has yet been discovered,
has been conclusively proved to have so poor a theological equipment as to
be devoid of a belief in ghosts, and in the utility of some form of
witchcraft in influencing those ghosts. And there is no nation, modern or
ancient, which, even at this moment, has wholly given up the belief; and in
which it has not, at one time or other, played a great part in practical
life.
This _sciotheism_,[50] as it might be called, is found in several degrees
of complexity, in rough correspondence with the stages of social
organisation, and, like these, separated by no sudden breaks.
In its simplest condition, such as may be met with among the Australian
savages, theology is a mere {185} belief in the existence, powers, and
disposition (usually malignant) of ghostlike entities who may be
propitiated or scared away; but no cult can properly be said to exist. And,
in this stage, theology is wholly independent of ethics. The moral code,
such as is implied by public opinion, derives no sanction from the
theological dogmas, and the influence of the spirits is supposed to be
exerted out of mere caprice or malice.
As a next stage, the fundamental fear of ghosts and the consequent desire
to propitiate them acquire an organised ritual in simple forms of
ancestor-worship, such as the Rev. Mr. Turner describes among the people of
Tanna (_l.c._ p. 88); and this line of development may be followed out
until it attains its acme in the State-theology of China and the
Kami-theology[51] of Japan. Each of these is essentially ancestor-worship,
the ancestors being reckoned back through family groups of higher and
higher order, sometimes with strict reference to the principle of agnation,
as in old Rome; and, as in the latter, it is intimately bound up with the
whole organisation of the State. There are no idols; inscribed tablets in
China, and strips of paper lodged in a peculiar portable shrine in Japan,
represent the souls of the deceased, or the special seats which they occupy
when sacrifices are offered by their descendants. In Japan it is
interesting to observe that a national {186} Kami--Ten-zio-dai-zin--is
worshipped as a sort of Jahveh by the nation in general, and (as Lippert
has observed) it is singular that his special seat is a portable
litter-like shrine, termed the Mikosi, in some sort analogous to the
Israelitic ark. In China, the emperor is the representative of the
primitive ancestors, and stands, as it were, between them and the supreme
cosmic deities--Heaven and Earth--who are superadded to them, and who
answer to the Tangaloa and the Maui of the Polynesians.
Sciotheism, under the form of the deification of ancestral ghosts, in its
most pronounced form, is therefore the chief element in the theology of a
great moiety, possibly of more than half, of the human race. I think this
must be taken to be a matter of fact--though various opinions may be held
as to how this ancestor-worship came about. But, on the other hand, it is
no less a matter of fact that there are very few people without additional
gods, who cannot, with certainty, be accounted for as deified ancestors.
With all respect for the distinguished authorities on the other side, I
cannot find good reasons for accepting the theory that the cosmic
deities--who are superadded to deified ancestors even in China; who are
found all over Polynesia, in Tangaloa and Maui, and in old Peru, in the
Sun--are the product either of the "search after the infinite," or of
mistakes arising out of the confusion of a great chief's name with the
thing signified by the name. But, however this may be, I think it is again
merely matter of fact that, among a large portion of {187} mankind,
ancestor-worship is more or less thrown into the background either by such
cosmic deities, or by tribal gods of uncertain origin, who have been raised
to eminence by the superiority in warfare, or otherwise, of their
worshippers.
Among certain nations, the polytheistic theology, thus constituted, has
become modified by the selection of some one cosmic or tribal god, as the
only god to whom worship is due on the part of that nation (though it is by
no means denied that other nations have a right to worship other gods), and
thus results a worship of one God--_monolatry_, as Wellhausen calls
it--which is very different from genuine monotheism.[52] In ancestral
sciotheism, and in this _monolatry_, the ethical code, often of a very high
order, comes into closer relation with the theological creed. Morality is
taken under the patronage of the god or gods, who reward all morally good
conduct and punish all morally evil conduct in this world or the next. At
the same time, however, they are conceived to be thoroughly human, and they
visit any shadow of disrespect to themselves, shown by disobedience to
their commands, or by delay, or carelessness, in carrying them out, as
severely as any breach of the moral laws. Piety means minute attention to
the due performance of all sacred rites, and covers any number of lapses in
morality, just as cruelty, treachery, murder, and adultery did not bar
David's claim to the title of the man after God's own heart among the
Israelites; crimes against men may be expiated, {188} but blasphemy against
the gods is an unpardonable sin. Men forgive all injuries but those which
touch their self-esteem; and they make their gods after their own likeness,
in their own image make they them.