CHAPTER III. THE PUBLIC EXPULSION OF EVILS.

§ 1. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils.

(M83) We can now understand why those general clearances of evil, to which

from time to time the savage resorts, should commonly take the form of a

forcible expulsion of devils. In these evil spirits primitive man sees the

cause of many if not of most of his troubles, and he fancies that if he

can only deliver himself from them, things will go better with him. The

public attempts to expel the accumulated ills of a whole community may be

divided into two classes, according as the expelled evils are immaterial

and invisible or are embodied in a material vehicle or scapegoat. The

former may be called the direct or immediate expulsion of evils; the

latter the indirect or mediate expulsion, or the expulsion by scapegoat.

We begin with examples of the former.

(M84) In the island of Rook, between New Guinea and New Britain, when any

misfortune has happened, all the people run together, scream, curse, howl,

and beat the air with sticks to drive away the devil (_Marsába_), who is

supposed to be the author of the mishap. From the spot where the mishap

took place they drive him step by step to the sea, and on reaching the

shore they redouble their shouts and blows in order to expel him from the

island. He generally retires to the sea or to the island of Lottin.(313)

The natives of New Britain ascribe sickness, drought, the failure of

crops, and in short all misfortunes, to the influence of wicked spirits.

So at times when many people sicken and die, as at the beginning of the

rainy season, all the inhabitants of a district, armed with branches and

clubs, go out by moonlight to the fields, where they beat and stamp on the

ground with wild howls till morning, believing that this drives away the

devils; and for the same purpose they rush through the village with

burning torches.(314) The natives of New Caledonia are said to believe

that all evils are caused by a powerful and malignant spirit; hence in

order to rid themselves of him they will from time to time dig a great

pit, round which the whole tribe gathers. After cursing the demon, they

fill up the pit with earth, and trample on the top with loud shouts. This

they call burying the evil spirit.(315) Among the Dieri tribe of Central

Australia, when a serious illness occurs, the medicine-men expel Cootchie

or the devil by beating the ground in and outside of the camp with the

stuffed tail of a kangaroo, until they have chased the demon away to some

distance from the camp.(316) In some South African tribes it is a general

rule that no common man may meddle with spirits, whether good or bad,

except to offer the customary sacrifices. Demons may haunt him and make

his life a burden to him, but he must submit to their machinations until

the matter is taken up by the proper authorities. A baboon may be sent by

evil spirits and perch on a tree within gunshot, or regale itself in his

maize-field; but to fire at the beast would be worse than suicide. So long

as a man remains a solitary sufferer, he has little chance of redress. It

is supposed that he has committed some crime, and that the ancestors in

their wrath have sent a demon to torment him. But should his neighbours

also suffer; should the baboon from choice or necessity (for men do

sometimes pluck up courage to scare the brutes) select a fresh field for

its depredations, or the roof of another man’s barn for its perch, the

case begins to wear a different complexion. The magicians now deal with

the matter seriously. One man may be haunted for his sins by a demon, but

a whole community infested by devils is another matter. To shoot the

baboon, however, would be useless; it would merely enrage the demon and

increase the danger. The first thing to do is to ascertain the permanent

abode of the devil. It is generally a deep pool with overhanging banks and

dark recesses. There the villagers assemble with the priests and magicians

at their head, and set about pelting the demon with stones, men, women,

and children all joining in the assault, while they load the object of

their fear and hate with the foulest abuse. Drums too are beaten, and

horns blown at intervals, and when everybody has been worked up to such a

frenzy of excitement that some even fancy they see the imp dodging the

missiles, he suddenly takes to flight, and the village is rid of him for a

time. After that, the crops may be protected and baboons killed with

impunity.(317)

(M85) When a village has been visited by a series of disasters or a severe

epidemic, the inhabitants of Minahassa in Celebes lay the blame upon the

devils who are infesting the village and who must be expelled from it.

Accordingly, early one morning all the people, men, women, and children,

quit their homes, carrying their household goods with them, and take up

their quarters in temporary huts which have been erected outside the

village. Here they spend several days, offering sacrifices and preparing

for the final ceremony. At last the men, some wearing masks, others with

their faces blackened, and so on, but all armed with swords, guns, pikes,

or brooms, steal cautiously and silently back to the deserted village.

Then, at a signal from the priest, they rush furiously up and down the

streets and into and under the houses (which are raised on piles above the

ground), yelling and striking on walls, doors, and windows, to drive away

the devils. Next, the priests and the rest of the people come with the

holy fire and march nine times round each house and thrice round the

ladder that leads up to it, carrying the fire with them. Then they take

the fire into the kitchen, where it must burn for three days continuously.

The devils are now driven away, and great and general is the joy.(318) The

Alfoors of Halmahera attribute epidemics to the devil who comes from other

villages to carry them off. So, in order to rid the village of the

disease, the sorcerer drives away the devil. From all the villagers he

receives a costly garment and places it on four vessels, which he takes to

the forest and leaves at the spot where the devil is supposed to be. Then

with mocking words he bids the demon abandon the place.(319) In the Kei

Islands to the south-west of New Guinea, the evil spirits, who are quite

distinct from the souls of the dead, form a mighty host. Almost every tree

and every cave is the lodging-place of one of these fiends, who are

moreover extremely irascible and apt to fly out on the smallest

provocation. To speak loudly in passing their abode, to ease nature near a

haunted tree or cave, is enough to bring down their wrath on the offender,

and he must either appease them by an offering or burn the scrapings of a

buffalo’s horn or the hair of a Papuan slave, in order that the smell may

drive the foul fiends away. The spirits manifest their displeasure by

sending sickness and other calamities. Hence in times of public

misfortune, as when an epidemic is raging, and all other remedies have

failed, the whole population go forth with the priest at their head to a

place at some distance from the village. Here at sunset they erect a

couple of poles with a cross-bar between them, to which they attach bags

of rice, wooden models of pivot-guns, gongs, bracelets, and so on. Then,

when everybody has taken his place at the poles and a death-like silence

reigns, the priest lifts up his voice and addresses the spirits in their

own language as follows: “Ho! ho! ho! ye evil spirits who dwell in the

trees, ye evil spirits who live in the grottoes, ye evil spirits who lodge

in the earth, we give you these pivot-guns, these gongs, etc. Let the

sickness cease and not so many people die of it.” Then everybody runs home

as fast as their legs can carry them.(320)

(M86) In the island of Nias, when a man is seriously ill and other

remedies have been tried in vain, the sorcerer proceeds to exorcise the

devil who is causing the illness. A pole is set up in front of the house,

and from the top of the pole a rope of palm-leaves is stretched to the

roof of the house. Then the sorcerer mounts the roof with a pig, which he

kills and allows to roll from the roof to the ground. The devil, anxious

to get the pig, lets himself down hastily from the roof by the rope of

palm-leaves, and a good spirit, invoked by the sorcerer, prevents him from

climbing up again. If this remedy fails, it is believed that other devils

must still be lurking in the house. So a general hunt is made after them.

All the doors and windows in the house are closed, except a single

dormer-window in the roof. The men, shut up in the house, hew and slash

with their swords right and left to the clash of gongs and the rub-a-dub

of drums. Terrified at this onslaught, the devils escape by the

dormer-window, and sliding down the rope of palm-leaves take themselves

off. As all the doors and windows, except the one in the roof, are shut,

the devils cannot get into the house again. In the case of an epidemic,

the proceedings are similar. All the gates of the village, except one, are

closed; every voice is raised, every gong and drum beaten, every sword

brandished. Thus the devils are driven out and the last gate is shut

behind them. For eight days thereafter the village is in a state of siege,

no one being allowed to enter it.(321)

(M87) The means adopted in Nias to exclude an epidemic from a village

which has not yet been infected by it are somewhat similar; but as they

exhibit an interesting combination of religious ritual with the purely

magical ceremony of exorcism, it may be worth while to describe them. When

it is known that a village is suffering from the ravages of a dangerous

malady, the other villages in the neighbourhood take what they regard as

effective measures for securing immunity from the disease. Some of these

measures commend themselves to us as rational and others do not. In the

first place, quarantine is established in each village, not only against

the inhabitants of the infected village, but against all strangers; no

person from outside is allowed to enter. In the second place, a feast is

made by the people for one of their idols who goes by the name of

_Fangeroe wõchõ_, or Protector from sickness. All the people of the

village must participate in the sacrifice and bear a share of the cost.

The principal idol, crowned with palm-leaves, is set up in front of the

chief’s house, and all the inhabitants who can do so gather about it. The

names of those who cannot attend are mentioned, apparently as a substitute

for their attendance in person. While the priest is reciting the spells

for the banishment of the evil spirits, all persons present come forward

and touch the image. A pig is then killed and its flesh furnishes a common

meal. The mouth of the idol is smeared with the bloody heart of the pig,

and a dishful of the cooked pork is set before him. Of the flesh thus

consecrated to the idol none but priests and chiefs may partake. Idols

called _daha_, or branches of the principal idol, are also set up in front

of all the other houses in the village. Moreover, bogies made of black

wood with white eyes, to which the broken crockery of the inhabitants has

freely contributed, are placed at the entrances of the village to scare

the demon and prevent him from entering. All sorts of objects whitened

with chalk are also hung up in front of the houses to keep the devil out.

When eight days have elapsed, it is thought that the sacrifice has taken

effect, and the priest puts an end to the quarantine. All boys and men now

assemble for the purpose of expelling the evil spirit. Led by the priest,

they march four times, with a prodigious noise and uproar, from one end of

the village to the other, slashing the air with their knives and stabbing

it with their spears to frighten the devil away. If all these efforts

prove vain, and the dreaded sickness breaks out, the people think it must

be because they have departed from the ways of their fathers by raising

the price of victuals and pigs too high or by enriching themselves with

unjust gain. Accordingly a new idol is made and set up in front of the

chief’s house; and while the priest engages in prayer, the chief and the

magnates of the village touch the image, vowing as they do so to return to

the old ways and cursing all such as may refuse their consent or violate

the new law thus solemnly enacted. Then all present betake themselves to

the river and erect another idol on the bank. In presence of this latter

idol the weights and measures are compared, and any that exceed the lawful

standard are at once reduced to it. When this has been done, they rock the

image to and fro to signify, or perhaps rather to ensure, thereby that he

who does not keep the new law shall suffer misfortune, or fall sick, or be

thwarted in some way or other. Then a pig is killed and eaten on the bank

of the river. The feast being over, each family contributes a certain sum

in token that they make restitution of their unlawful gains. The money

thus collected is tied in a bundle, and the priest holds the bundle up

towards the sky and down towards the earth to satisfy the god of the upper

and the god of the nether world that justice has now been done. After that

he either flings the bag of money into the river or buries it in the

ground beside the idol. In the latter case the money naturally disappears,

and the people explain its disappearance by saying that the evil spirit

has come and fetched it.(322) A method like that which at the present day

the people of Nias adopt for the sake of conjuring the demon of disease

was employed in antiquity by the Caunians of Asia Minor to banish certain

foreign gods whom they had imprudently established in their country. All

the men of military age assembled under arms, and with spear-thrusts in

the air drove the strange gods step by step from the land and across the

boundaries.(323)

(M88) The Solomon Islanders of Bougainville Straits believe that epidemics

are always, or nearly always, caused by evil spirits; and accordingly when

the people of a village have been suffering generally from colds, they

have been known to blow conch-shells, beat tins, shout, and knock on the

houses for the purpose of expelling the demons and so curing their

colds.(324) When cholera has broken out in a Burmese village the

able-bodied men scramble on the roofs and lay about them with bamboos and

billets of wood, while all the rest of the population, old and young,

stand below and thump drums, blow trumpets, yell, scream, beat floors,

walls, tin pans, everything to make a din. This uproar, repeated on three

successive nights, is thought to be very effective in driving away the

cholera demons.(325) The Shans of Kengtung, a province of Upper Burma,

imagine that epidemics are brought about by the prowling ghosts of wicked

men, such as thieves and murderers, who cannot rest but go about doing all

the harm they can to the living. Hence when sickness is rife, the people

take steps to expel these dangerous spirits. The Buddhist priests exert

themselves actively in the beneficent enterprise. They assemble in a body

at the Town Court and read the scriptures. Guns are fired and processions

march to the city gates, by which the fiends are supposed to take their

departure. There small trays of food are left for them, but the larger

offerings are deposited in the middle of the town.(326) When smallpox

first appeared amongst the Kumis of South-Eastern India, they thought it

was a devil come from Aracan. The villages were placed in a state of

siege, no one being allowed to leave or enter them. A monkey was killed by

being dashed on the ground, and its body was hung at the village gate. Its

blood, mixed with small river pebbles, was sprinkled on the houses, the

threshold of every house was swept with the monkey’s tail, and the fiend

was adjured to depart.(327) During the hot summer cholera is endemic in

Southern China, and from time to time, when the mortality is great,

vigorous attempts are made to expel the demons who do all the mischief.

For this salutary purpose processions parade the streets by night; images

of the gods are borne in them, torches waved, gongs beaten, guns fired,

crackers popped, swords brandished, demon-dispelling trumpets blown, and

priests in full canonicals trot up and down jingling hand-bells, winding

blasts on buffalo horns, and reciting exorcisms. Sometimes the deities are

represented in these processions by living men, who are believed to be

possessed by the divine spirit. Such a man-god may be seen naked to the

waist with his dishevelled hair streaming down his back; long daggers are

stuck in his cheeks and arms, so that the blood drips from them. In his

hand he carries a two-edged sword, with which he deals doughty blows at

the invisible foes in the air; but sometimes he inflicts bloody wounds on

his own back with the weapon or with a ball which is studded with long

sharp nails. Other inspired men are carried in armchairs, of which the

seat, back, arms, and foot-rest are set with nails or composed of rows of

parallel sword-blades, that cut into the flesh of the wretches seated on

them: others are stretched at full length on beds of nails. For hours

these bleeding votaries are carried about the city. Again, it is not

uncommon to see in the procession a medium or man-god with a thick needle

thrust through his tongue. His bloody spittle drips on sheets of paper,

which the crowd eagerly scrambles for, knowing that with the blood they

have absorbed the devil-dispelling power inherent in the man-god. The

bloody papers, pasted on the lintel, walls, or beds of a house or on the

bodies of the family, are supposed to afford complete protection against

cholera. Such are the methods by which in Southern China the demons of

disease are banished the city.(328)

(M89) In Japan the old-fashioned method of staying an epidemic is to expel

the demon of the plague from every house into which he has entered. The

treatment begins with the house in which the malady has appeared in the

mildest form. First of all a Shinto priest makes a preliminary visit to

the sick-room and extracts from the demon a promise that he will depart

with him at his next visit. The day after he comes again, and, seating

himself near the patient, beseeches the evil spirit to come away with him.

Meanwhile red rice, which is used only on special occasions, has been

placed at the sufferer’s head, a closed litter made of pine boughs has

been brought in, and four men equipped with flags or weapons have taken

post in the four corners of the room to prevent the demon from seeking

refuge there. All are silent but the priest. The prayer being over, the

sick man’s pillow is hastily thrown into the litter, and the priest cries,

“All right now!” At that the bearers double with it into the street, the

people within and without beat the air with swords, sticks, or anything

that comes to hand, while others assist in the cure by banging away at

drums and gongs. A procession is now formed in which only men take part,

some of them carrying banners, others provided with a drum, a bell, a

flute, a horn, and all of them wearing fillets and horns of twisted straw

to keep the demon away from themselves. As the procession starts an old

man chants, “What god are you bearing away?” To which the others respond

in chorus, “The god of the pest we are bearing away!” Then to the music of

the drum, the bell, the flute, and the horn the litter is borne through

the streets. During its passage all the people in the town who are not

taking part in the ceremony remain indoors, every house along the route of

the procession is carefully closed, and at the cross-roads swordsmen are

stationed, who guard the street by hewing the air to right and left with

their blades, lest the demon should escape by that way. The litter is thus

carried to a retired spot between two towns and left there, while all who

escorted it thither run away. Only the priest remains behind for half an

hour to complete the exorcism and the cure. The bearers of the litter

spend the night praying in a temple. Next day they return home, but not

until they have plunged into a cold bath in the open air to prevent the

demon from following them. The same litter serves to convey the evil

spirit from every house in the town.(329) In Corea, when a patient is

recovering from the smallpox, a farewell dinner is given in honour of the

departing spirit of the disease. Friends and relations are invited, and

the spirit’s share of the good things is packed on the back of a

hobby-horse and despatched to the boundary of the town or village, while

respectful farewells are spoken and hearty good wishes uttered for his

prosperous journey to his own place.(330) In Tonquin also a banquet is

sometimes given to the demon of sickness to induce him to go quietly away

from the house. The most honourable place at the festive board is reserved

for the fiend; prayers, caresses, and presents are lavished on him; but if

he proves obdurate, they assail him with coarse abuse and drive him from

the house with musket-shots.(331)

(M90) When an epidemic is raging on the Gold Coast of West Africa, the

people will sometimes turn out, armed with clubs and torches, to drive the

evil spirits away. At a given signal the whole population begin with

frightful yells to beat in every corner of the houses, then rush like mad

into the streets waving torches and striking frantically in the empty air.

The uproar goes on till somebody reports that the cowed and daunted demons

have made good their escape by a gate of the town or village; the people

stream out after them, pursue them for some distance into the forest, and

warn them never to return. The expulsion of the devils is followed by a

general massacre of all the cocks in the village or town, lest by their

unseasonable crowing they should betray to the banished demons the

direction they must take to return to their old homes. For in that country

the forest grows so thick or the grass so high that you can seldom see a

village till you are close upon it; and the first warning of your approach

to human habitations is the crowing of the cocks.(332) At Great Bassam, in

Guinea, the French traveller Hecquard witnessed the exorcism of the evil

spirit who was believed to make women barren. The women who wished to

become mothers offered to the fetish wine-vessels or statuettes

representing women suckling children. Then being assembled in the fetish

hut, they were sprinkled with rum by the priest, while young men fired

guns and brandished swords to drive away the demon.(333) When smallpox

breaks out in a village of the Cameroons, in West Africa, the spirit of

the disease is driven out of the village by a “bushman” or member of the

oppressed Bassa tribe, the members of which are reputed to possess high

magical powers. The mode of expulsion consists in drumming and dancing for

several days. Then the village is enclosed by ropes made of creepers in

order that the disease may not return. Over the principal paths arches of

bent poles are made, and fowls are buried as sacrifices. Plants of various

sorts and the mushroom-shaped nests of termite ants are hung from the

arches, and a dog, freshly killed, is suspended over the middle of the

entrance.(334) The Gallas try to drive away fever by firing guns,

shouting, and lighting great fires.(335) When sickness was prevalent in a

Huron village, and all other remedies had been tried in vain, the Indians

had recourse to the ceremony called _Lonouyroya_, “which is the principal

invention and most proper means, so they say, to expel from the town or

village the devils and evil spirits which cause, induce, and import all

the maladies and infirmities which they suffer in body and mind.”

Accordingly, one evening the men would begin to rush like madmen about the

village, breaking and upsetting whatever they came across in the wigwams.

They threw fire and burning brands about the streets, and all night long

they ran howling and singing without cessation. Then they all dreamed of

something, a knife, dog, skin, or whatever it might be, and when morning

came they went from wigwam to wigwam asking for presents. These they

received silently, till the particular thing was given them which they had

dreamed about. On receiving it they uttered a cry of joy and rushed from

the hut, amid the congratulations of all present. The health of those who

received what they had dreamed of was believed to be assured; whereas

those who did not get what they had set their hearts upon regarded their

fate as sealed.(336)

(M91) Sometimes, instead of chasing the demon of disease from their homes,

savages prefer to leave him in peaceable possession, while they themselves

take to flight and attempt to prevent him from following in their tracks.

Thus when the Patagonians were attacked by smallpox, which they attributed

to the machinations of an evil spirit, they used to abandon their sick and

flee, slashing the air with their weapons and throwing water about in

order to keep off the dreadful pursuer; and when after several days’ march

they reached a place where they hoped to be beyond his reach, they used by

way of precaution to plant all their cutting weapons with the sharp edges

turned towards the quarter from which they had come, as if they were

repelling a charge of cavalry.(337) Similarly, when the Lules or Tonocotes

Indians of the Gran Chaco were attacked by an epidemic, they regularly

sought to evade it by flight, but in so doing they always followed a

sinuous, not a straight, course; because they said that when the disease

made after them he would be so exhausted by the turnings and windings of

the route that he would never be able to come up with them.(338) When the

Indians of New Mexico were decimated by smallpox or other infectious

disease, they used to shift their quarters every day, retreating into the

most sequestered parts of the mountains and choosing the thorniest

thickets they could find, in the hope that the smallpox would be too

afraid of scratching himself on the thorns to follow them.(339) When some

Chins on a visit to Rangoon were attacked by cholera, they went about with

drawn swords to scare away the demon, and they spent the day hiding under

bushes so that he might not be able to find them.(340)

§ 2. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils.

(M92) The expulsion of evils, from being occasional, tends to become

periodic. It comes to be thought desirable to have a general riddance of

evil spirits at fixed times, usually once a year, in order that the people

may make a fresh start in life, freed from all the malignant influences

which have been long accumulating about them. Some of the Australian

blacks annually expelled the ghosts of the dead from their territory. The

ceremony was witnessed by the Rev. W. Ridley on the banks of the River

Barwan. “A chorus of twenty, old and young, were singing and beating time

with boomerangs.... Suddenly, from under a sheet of bark darted a man with

his body whitened by pipeclay, his head and face coloured with lines of

red and yellow, and a tuft of feathers fixed by means of a stick two feet

above the crown of his head. He stood twenty minutes perfectly still,

gazing upwards. An aboriginal who stood by told me he was looking for the

ghosts of dead men. At last he began to move very slowly, and soon rushed

to and fro at full speed, flourishing a branch as if to drive away some

foes invisible to us. When I thought this pantomime must be almost over,

ten more, similarly adorned, suddenly appeared from behind the trees, and

the whole party joined in a brisk conflict with their mysterious

assailants.... At last, after some rapid evolutions in which they put

forth all their strength, they rested from the exciting toil which they

had kept up all night and for some hours after sunrise; they seemed

satisfied that the ghosts were driven away for twelve months. They were

performing the same ceremony at every station along the river, and I am

told it is an annual custom.”(341)

(M93) Certain seasons of the year mark themselves naturally out as

appropriate moments for a general expulsion of devils. Such a moment

occurs towards the close of an Arctic winter, when the sun reappears on

the horizon after an absence of weeks or months. Accordingly, at Point

Barrow, the most northerly extremity of Alaska, and nearly of America, the

Esquimaux choose the moment of the sun’s reappearance to hunt the

mischievous spirit Tuña from every house. The ceremony was witnessed by

the members of the United States Polar Expedition, who wintered at Point

Barrow. A fire was built in front of the council-house, and an old woman

was posted at the entrance to every house. The men gathered round the

council-house, while the young women and girls drove the spirits out of

every house with their knives, stabbing viciously under the bunk and

deer-skins, and calling upon Tuña to be gone. When they thought he had

been driven out of every hole and corner, they thrust him down through the

hole in the floor and chased him into the open air with loud cries and

frantic gestures. Meanwhile the old woman at the entrance of the house

made passes with a long knife in the air to keep him from returning. Each

party drove the spirit towards the fire and invited him to go into it. All

were by this time drawn up in a semicircle round the fire, when several of

the leading men made specific charges against the spirit; and each after

his speech brushed his clothes violently, calling on the spirit to leave

him and go into the fire. Two men now stepped forward with rifles loaded

with blank cartridges, while a third brought a vessel of urine and flung

it on the flames. At the same time one of the men fired a shot into the

fire; and as the cloud of steam rose it received the other shot, which was

supposed to finish Tuña for the time being.(342)

(M94) In late autumn, when storms rage over the land and break the icy

fetters by which the frozen sea is as yet but slightly bound, when the

loosened floes are driven against each other and break with loud crashes,

and when the cakes of ice are piled in wild disorder one upon another, the

Esquimaux of Baffin Land fancy they hear the voices of the spirits who

people the mischief-laden air. Then the ghosts of the dead knock wildly at

the huts, which they cannot enter, and woe to the hapless wight whom they

catch; he soon sickens and dies. Then the phantom of a huge hairless dog

pursues the real dogs, which expire in convulsions and cramps at sight of

him. All the countless spirits of evil are abroad, striving to bring

sickness and death, foul weather and failure in hunting on the Esquimaux.

Most dreaded of all these spectral visitants are Sedna, mistress of the

nether world, and her father, to whose share dead Esquimaux fall. While

the other spirits fill the air and the water, she rises from under ground.

It is then a busy season for the wizards. In every house you may hear them

singing and praying, while they conjure the spirits, seated in a mystic

gloom at the back of the hut, which is dimly lit by a lamp burning low.

The hardest task of all is to drive away Sedna, and this is reserved for

the most powerful enchanter. A rope is coiled on the floor of a large hut

in such a way as to leave a small opening at the top, which represents the

breathing hole of a seal. Two enchanters stand beside it, one of them

grasping a spear as if he were watching a seal-hole in winter, the other

holding the harpoon-line. A third sorcerer sits at the back of the hut

chanting a magic song to lure Sedna to the spot. Now she is heard

approaching under the floor of the hut, breathing heavily; now she emerges

at the hole; now she is harpooned and sinks away in angry haste, dragging

the harpoon with her, while the two men hold on to the line with all their

might. The struggle is severe, but at last by a desperate wrench she tears

herself away and returns to her dwelling in Adlivun. When the harpoon is

drawn up out of the hole it is found to be splashed with blood, which the

enchanters proudly exhibit as a proof of their prowess. Thus Sedna and the

other evil spirits are at last driven away, and next day a great festival

is celebrated by old and young in honour of the event. But they must still

be cautious, for the wounded Sedna is furious and will seize any one she

may find outside of his hut; so they all wear amulets on the top of their

hoods to protect themselves against her. These amulets consist of pieces

of the first garments that they wore after birth.(343)

(M95) The Koryaks of the Taigonos Peninsula, in north-eastern Asia,

celebrate annually a festival after the winter solstice. Rich men invite

all their neighbours to the festival, offer a sacrifice to

“The-One-on-High,” and slaughter many reindeer for their guests. If there

is a shaman present he goes all round the interior of the house, beating

the drum and driving away the demons (_kalau_). He searches all the people

in the house, and if he finds a demon’s arrow sticking in the body of one

of them, he pulls it out, though naturally the arrow is invisible to

common eyes. In this way he protects them against disease and death. If

there is no shaman present, the demons may be expelled by the host or by a

woman skilled in incantations.(344)

(M96) The Iroquois inaugurated the new year in January, February, or March

(the time varied) with a “festival of dreams” like that which the Hurons

observed on special occasions.(345) The whole ceremonies lasted several

days, or even weeks, and formed a kind of saturnalia. Men and women,

variously disguised, went from wigwam to wigwam smashing and throwing down

whatever they came across. It was a time of general license; the people

were supposed to be out of their senses, and therefore not to be

responsible for what they did. Accordingly, many seized the opportunity of

paying off old scores by belabouring obnoxious persons, drenching them

with ice-cold water, and covering them with filth or hot ashes. Others

seized burning brands or coals and flung them at the heads of the first

persons they met. The only way of escaping from these persecutors was to

guess what they had dreamed of. On one day of the festival the ceremony of

driving away evil spirits from the village took place. Men clothed in the

skins of wild beasts, their faces covered with hideous masks, and their

hands with the shell of the tortoise, went from hut to hut making

frightful noises; in every hut they took the fuel from the fire and

scattered the embers and ashes about the floor with their hands. The

general confession of sins which preceded the festival was probably a

preparation for the public expulsion of evil influences; it was a way of

stripping the people of their moral burdens, that these might be collected

and cast out. This New Year festival is still celebrated by some of the

heathen Iroquois, though it has been shorn of its former turbulence. A

conspicuous feature in the ceremony is now the sacrifice of the White Dog,

but this appears to have been added to the festival in comparatively

modern times, and does not figure in the oldest descriptions of the

ceremonies. We shall return to it later on.(346) A great annual festival

of the Cherokee Indians was the Propitiation, “Cementation,” or

Purification festival. “It was celebrated shortly after the first new moon

of autumn, and consisted of a multiplicity of rigorous rites, fastings,

ablutions, and purifications. Among the most important functionaries on

the occasion were seven exorcisers or cleansers, whose duty it was, at a

certain stage of the proceedings, to drive away evil and purify the town.

Each one bore in his hand a white rod of sycamore. ‘The leader, followed

by the others, walked around the national heptagon, and coming to the

treasure or store-house to the west of it, they lashed the eaves of the

roofs with their rods. The leader then went to another house, followed by

the others, singing, and repeated the same ceremony until every house was

purified.’ This ceremony was repeated daily during the continuance of the

festival. In performing their ablutions they went into the water, and

allowed their old clothes to be carried away by the stream, by which means

they supposed their impurities removed.”(347)

(M97) In September the Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Situa,

the object of which was to banish from the capital and its vicinity all

disease and trouble. The festival fell in September because the rains

begin about this time, and with the first rains there was generally much

sickness. And the melancholy begotten by the inclemency of the weather and

the sickliness of the season may well have been heightened by the

sternness of a landscape which at all times is fitted to oppress the mind

with a sense of desolation and gloom. For Cuzco, the capital of the Incas

and the scene of the ceremony, lies in a high upland valley, bare and

treeless, shut in on every side by the most arid and forbidding

mountains.(348) As a preparation for the festival the people fasted on the

first day of the moon after the autumnal equinox. Having fasted during the

day, and the night being come, they baked a coarse paste of maize. This

paste was made of two sorts. One was kneaded with the blood of children

aged from five to ten years, the blood being obtained by bleeding the

children between the eyebrows. These two kinds of paste were baked

separately, because they were for different uses. Each family assembled at

the house of the eldest brother to celebrate the feast; and those who had

no elder brother went to the house of their next relation of greater age.

On the same night all who had fasted during the day washed their bodies,

and taking a little of the blood-kneaded paste, rubbed it over their head,

face, breast, shoulders, arms, and legs. They did this in order that the

paste might take away all their infirmities. After this the head of the

family anointed the threshold with the same paste, and left it there as a

token that the inmates of the house had performed their ablutions and

cleansed their bodies. Meantime the High Priest performed the same

ceremonies in the temple of the Sun. As soon as the Sun rose, all the

people worshipped and besought him to drive all evils out of the city, and

then they broke their fast with the paste that had been kneaded without

blood. When they had paid their worship and broken their fast, which they

did at a stated hour, in order that all might adore the Sun as one man, an

Inca of the blood royal came forth from the fortress, as a messenger of

the Sun, richly dressed, with his mantle girded round his body, and a

lance in his hand. The lance was decked with feathers of many hues,

extending from the blade to the socket, and fastened with rings of gold.

He ran down the hill from the fortress brandishing his lance, till he

reached the centre of the great square, where stood the golden urn, like a

fountain, that was used for the sacrifice of the fermented juice of the

maize. Here four other Incas of the blood royal awaited him, each with a

lance in his hand, and his mantle girded up to run. The messenger touched

their four lances with his lance, and told them that the Sun bade them, as

his messengers, drive the evils out of the city. The four Incas then

separated and ran down the four royal roads which led out of the city to

the four quarters of the world. While they ran, all the people, great and

small, came to the doors of their houses, and with great shouts of joy and

gladness shook their clothes, as if they were shaking off dust, while they

cried, “Let the evils be gone. How greatly desired has this festival been

by us. O Creator of all things, permit us to reach another year, that we

may see another feast like this.” After they had shaken their clothes,

they passed their hands over their heads, faces, arms, and legs, as if in

the act of washing. All this was done to drive the evils out of their

houses, that the messengers of the Sun might banish them from the city;

and it was done not only in the streets through which the Incas ran, but

generally in all quarters of the city. Moreover, they all danced, the Inca

himself amongst them, and bathed in the rivers and fountains, saying that

their maladies would come out of them. Then they took great torches of

straw, bound round with cords. These they lighted, and passed from one to

the other, striking each other with them, and saying, “Let all harm go

away.” Meanwhile the runners ran with their lances for a quarter of a

league outside the city, where they found four other Incas ready, who

received the lances from their hands and ran with them. Thus the lances

were carried by relays of runners for a distance of five or six leagues,

at the end of which the runners washed themselves and their weapons in

rivers, and set up the lances, in sign of a boundary within which the

banished evils might not return.(349)

(M98) The negroes of Guinea annually banish the devil from all their towns

with much ceremony at a time set apart for the purpose. At Axim, on the

Gold Coast, this annual expulsion is preceded by a feast of eight days,

during which mirth and jollity, skipping, dancing, and singing prevail,

and “a perfect lampooning liberty is allowed, and scandal so highly

exalted, that they may freely sing of all the faults, villanies, and

frauds of their superiors as well as inferiors, without punishment, or so

much as the least interruption.” On the eighth day they hunt out the devil

with a dismal cry, running after him and pelting him with sticks, stones,

and whatever comes to hand. When they have driven him far enough out of

the town, they all return. In this way he is expelled from more than a

hundred towns at the same time. To make sure that he does not return to

their houses, the women wash and scour all their wooden and earthen

vessels, “to free them from all uncleanness and the devil.”(350) A later

writer tells us that “on the Gold Coast there are stated occasions, when

the people turn out _en masse_ (generally at night) with clubs and torches

to drive away the evil spirits from their towns. At a given signal, the

whole community start up, commence a most hideous howling, beat about in

every nook and corner of their dwellings, then rush into the streets, with

their torches and clubs, like so many frantic maniacs, beat the air, and

scream at the top of their voices, until some one announces the departure

of the spirits through some gate of the town, when they are pursued

several miles into the woods, and warned not to come back. After this the

people breathe easier, sleep more quietly, have better health, and the

town is once more cheered by an abundance of food.”(351)

(M99) The ceremony as it is practised at Gatto, in Benin, has been

described by an English traveller. He says: “It was about this time that I

witnessed a strange ceremony, peculiar to this people, called the time of

the ‘grand devils.’ Eight men were dressed in a most curious manner,

having a dress made of bamboo about their bodies, and a cap on the head,

of various colours and ornamented with red feathers taken from the

parrot’s tail; round the legs were twisted strings of shells, which made a

clattering noise as they walked, and the face and hands of each individual

were covered with a net. These strange beings go about the town, by day

and by night, for the term of one month, uttering the most discordant and

frightful noises; no one durst venture out at night for fear of being

killed or seriously maltreated by these fellows, who are then especially

engaged in driving the evil spirits from the town. They go round to all

the chief’s houses, and in addition to the noise they make, perform some

extraordinary feats in tumbling and gymnastics, for which they receive a

few cowries.”(352)

(M100) At Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast, the ceremony was witnessed

on the ninth of October 1844 by an Englishman, who has described it as

follows: “To-night the annual custom of driving the evil spirit, Abonsam,

out of the town has taken place. As soon as the eight o’clock gun fired in

the fort the people began firing muskets in their houses, turning all

their furniture out of doors, beating about in every corner of the rooms

with sticks, etc., and screaming as loudly as possible, in order to

frighten the devil. Being driven out of the houses, as they imagine, they

sallied forth into the streets, throwing lighted torches about, shouting,

screaming, beating sticks together, rattling old pans, making the most

horrid noise, in order to drive him out of the town into the sea. The

custom is preceded by four weeks’ dead silence; no gun is allowed to be

fired, no drum to be beaten, no palaver to be made between man and man.

If, during these weeks, two natives should disagree and make a noise in

the town, they are immediately taken before the king and fined heavily. If

a dog or pig, sheep or goat be found at large in the street, it may be

killed, or taken by anyone, the former owner not being allowed to demand

any compensation. This silence is designed to deceive Abonsam, that, being

off his guard, he may be taken by surprise, and frightened out of the

place. If anyone die during the silence, his relatives are not allowed to

weep until the four weeks have been completed.”(353)

(M101) At Onitsha, on the Niger, Mr. J. C. Taylor witnessed the

celebration of New Year’s Day by the negroes. It fell on the twentieth of

December 1858. Every family brought a firebrand out into the street, threw

it away, and exclaimed as they returned, “The gods of the new year! New

Year has come round again.” Mr. Taylor adds, “The meaning of the custom

seems to be that the fire is to drive away the old year with its sorrows

and evils, and to embrace the new year with hearty reception.”(354) Of all

Abyssinian festivals that of Mascal or the Cross is celebrated with the

greatest pomp. During the whole of the interval between St. John’s day and

the feast a desultory warfare is waged betwixt the youth of opposite sexes

in the towns. They all sally out in the evenings, the boys armed with

nettles or thistles and the girls with gourds containing a filthy solution

of all sorts of abominations. When any of the hostile parties meet, they

begin by reviling each other in the foulest language, from which they

proceed to personal violence, the boys stinging the girls with their

nettles, while the girls discharge their stink-pots in the faces of their

adversaries. These hostilities may perhaps be regarded as a preparation

for the festival of the Cross. The eve of the festival witnesses a

ceremony which doubtless belongs to the world-wide class of customs we are

dealing with. At sunset a discharge of firearms takes place from all the

principal houses. “Then every one provides himself with a torch, and

during the early part of the night bonfires are kindled, and the people

parade the town, carrying their lighted torches in their hands. They go

through their houses, too, poking a light into every dark corner in the

hall, under the couches, in the stables, kitchen, etc., as if looking for

something lost, and calling out, ‘Akho, akhoky! turn out the spinage, and

bring in the porridge; Mascal is come!’... After this they play, and poke

fun and torches at each other.” Next morning, while it is still dark,

bonfires are kindled on the heights near the towns, and people rise early

to see them. The rising sun of Mascal finds the whole population of

Abyssinia awake.(355)

(M102) Sometimes the date of the annual expulsion of devils is fixed with

reference to the agricultural seasons. Thus at Kiriwina, in South-Eastern

New Guinea, when the new yams had been harvested, the people feasted and

danced for many days, and a great deal of property, such as armlets,

native money, and so forth, was displayed conspicuously on a platform

erected for the purpose. When the festivities were over, all the people

gathered together and expelled the spirits from the village by shouting,

beating the posts of the houses, and overturning everything under which a

wily spirit might be supposed to lurk. The explanation which the people

gave to a missionary was that they had entertained and feasted the spirits

and provided them with riches, and it was now time for them to take their

departure. Had they not seen the dances, and heard the songs, and gorged

themselves on the souls of the yams, and appropriated the souls of the

money and all the other fine things set out on the platform? What more

could the spirits want? So out they must go.(356) Among the Hos of

Togoland in West Africa the expulsion of evils is performed annually

before the people eat the new yams.(357) The chiefs meet together and

summon the priests and magicians. They tell them that the people are now

to eat the new yams and to be merry, therefore they must cleanse the town

and remove the evils. For that purpose they take leaves of the _adzu_ and

_wo_ trees, together with creepers and ashes. The leaves and creepers they

bind fast to a pole of an _adzu_ tree, while they pray that the evil

spirits, the witches, and all the ills in the town may pass into the

bundle and be bound. Then they make a paste out of the ashes and smear it

on the bundle, saying, “We smear it on the face of all the evil ones who

are in this bundle, in order that they may not be able to see.” With that

they throw the bundle, that is, the pole wrapt in leaves and creepers, on

the ground and they all mock at it. Then they prepare a medicine and take

the various leaf-wrapt poles, into which they have conjured and bound up

all mischief, carry them out of the town, and set them up in the earth on

various roads leading into the town. When they have done this, they say

that they have banished the evils from the town and shut the door in their

face. With the medicine, which the elders have prepared, all men, women,

children and chiefs wash their faces. After that everybody goes home to

sweep out his house and homestead. The ground in front of the homesteads

is also swept, so that the town is thoroughly cleansed. All the stalks of

grass and refuse of stock yams that have been swept together they cast out

of the town, and they rail at the stock yams. In the course of the night

the elders assemble and bind a toad to a young palm-leaf. They say that

they will now sweep out the town and end the ceremony. For that purpose

they drag the toad through the whole town in the direction of Mount

Adaklu. When that has been done, the priests say that they will now remove

the sicknesses. In the evening they give public notice that they are about

to go on the road, and that therefore no one may light a fire on the

hearth or eat food. Next morning the women of the town sweep out their

houses and hearths and deposit the sweepings on broken wooden plates. Many

wrap themselves in torn mats and tattered clothes; others swathe

themselves in grass and creepers. While they do so, they pray, saying,

“All ye sicknesses that are in our body and plague us, we are come to-day

to throw you out.” When they start to do so, the priest gives orders that

everybody is to scream once and at the same time to smite his mouth. In a

moment they all scream, smite their mouths, and run as fast as they can in

the direction of Mount Adaklu. As they run, they say, “Out to-day! Out

to-day! That which kills anybody, out to-day! Ye evil spirits, out to-day!

and all that causes our heads to ache, out to-day! Anlo and Adaklu are the

places whither all ill shall betake itself!” Now on Mount Adaklu there

grows a _klo_ tree, and when the people have come to the tree they throw

everything away and return home. On their return they wash themselves with

the medicine which is set forth in the streets; then they enter their

houses.(358)

(M103) Among the Hos of North-Eastern India the great festival of the year

is the harvest home, held in January, when the granaries are full of

grain, and the people, to use their own expression, are full of devilry.

“They have a strange notion that at this period, men and women are so

overcharged with vicious propensities, that it is absolutely necessary for

the safety of the person to let off steam by allowing for a time full vent

to the passions.” The ceremonies open with a sacrifice to the village god

of three fowls, a cock and two hens, one of which must be black. Along

with them are offered flowers of the Palas tree (_Butea frondosa_), bread

made from rice-flour, and sesamum seeds. These offerings are presented by

the village priest, who prays that during the year about to begin they and

their children may be preserved from all misfortune and sickness, and that

they may have seasonable rain and good crops. Prayer is also made in some

places for the souls of the dead. At this time an evil spirit is supposed

to infest the place, and to get rid of it men, women, and children go in

procession round and through every part of the village with sticks in

their hands, as if beating for game, singing a wild chant, and shouting

vociferously, till they feel assured that the evil spirit must have fled.

Then they give themselves up to feasting and drinking rice-beer, till they

are in a fit state for the wild debauch which follows. The festival now

“becomes a saturnale, during which servants forget their duty to their

masters, children their reverence for parents, men their respect for

women, and women all notions of modesty, delicacy, and gentleness; they

become raging bacchantes.” Usually the Hos are quiet and reserved in

manner, decorous and gentle to women. But during this festival “their

natures appear to undergo a temporary change. Sons and daughters revile

their parents in gross language, and parents their children; men and women

become almost like animals in the indulgence of their amorous

propensities.” The festival is not held simultaneously in all the

villages. The time during which it is celebrated in the different villages

of a district may be from a month to six weeks, and by a preconcerted

arrangement the celebration begins at each village on a different date and

lasts three or four days; so the inhabitants of each may take part in a

long series of orgies. On these occasions the utmost liberty is given to

the girls, who may absent themselves for days with the young men of

another village; parents at such times never attempt to lay their

daughters under any restraint. The Mundaris, kinsmen and neighbours of the

Hos, keep the festival in much the same manner. “The resemblance to a

Saturnale is very complete, as at this festival the farm labourers are

feasted by their masters, and allowed the utmost freedom of speech in

addressing them. It is the festival of the harvest home; the termination

of one year’s toil, and a slight respite from it before they commence

again.”(359)

(M104) Amongst some of the Hindoo Koosh tribes, as among the Hos and

Mundaris, the expulsion of devils takes place after harvest. When the last

crop of autumn has been got in, it is thought necessary to drive away evil

spirits from the granaries. A kind of porridge called _mool_ is eaten, and

the head of the family takes his matchlock and fires it into the floor.

Then, going outside, he sets to work loading and firing till his

powder-horn is exhausted, while all his neighbours are similarly employed.

The next day is spent in rejoicings. In Chitral this festival is called

“devil-driving.”(360) On the other hand the Khonds of India expel the

devils at seed-time instead of at harvest. At this time they worship

Pitteri Pennu, the god of increase and of gain in every shape. On the

first day of the festival a rude car is made of a basket set upon a few

sticks, tied upon bamboo rollers for wheels. The priest takes this car

first to the house of the lineal head of the tribe, to whom precedence is

given in all ceremonies connected with agriculture. Here he receives a

little of each kind of seed and some feathers. He then takes the car to

all the other houses in the village, each of which contributes the same

things. Lastly, the car is conducted to a field without the village,

attended by all the young men, who beat each other and strike the air

violently with long sticks. The seed thus carried out is called the share

of the “evil spirits, spoilers of the seed.” “These are considered to be

driven out with the car; and when it and its contents are abandoned to

them, they are held to have no excuse for interfering with the rest of the

seed-corn.” Next day each household kills a hog over the seed for the

year, and prays to Pitteri Pennu, saying, “O Pitteri Pennu! this seed we

shall sow to-morrow. Some of us, your suppliants, will have a great

return, some a small return. Let the least favoured have a full basket,

let the most favoured have many baskets. Give not this seed to ant, or

rat, or hog. Let the stems which shall spring from it be so stout that the

earth shall tremble under them. Let the rain find no hole or outlet

whereby to escape from our fields. Make the earth soft like the ashes of

cow-dung. To him who has no iron wherewith to shoe his plough, make the

wood of the _doh_-tree like iron. Provide other food than our seed for the

parrot, the crow, and all the fowls and beasts of the jungle. Let not the

white ant destroy the roots, nor the wild hog crush the stem to get at the

fruit; and make our crops of all kinds have a better flavour than that of

those of any other country.” The elders then feast upon the hogs. The

young men are excluded from the repast, but enjoy the privilege of

waylaying and pelting with jungle-fruit their elders as they return from

the feast. Upon the third day the lineal head of the tribe goes out and

sows his seed, after which all the rest may do so.(361)

(M105) In Ranchi, a district of Chota Nagpur in Bengal, a ceremony is

performed every year by one of the clans to drive away disease. Should it

prove ineffectual, all the villagers assemble by night and walk about the

village in a body armed with clubs, searching for the disease. Everything

they find outside of the houses they smash. Hence on that day the people

throw out their chipped crockery, old pots and pans, and other trash into

the courtyard, so that when the search party comes along they may belabour

the heap of rubbish to their heart’s content; the crash of shattered

crockery and the clatter of shivered pans indicates, we are told, that the

disease has departed; perhaps it might be more strictly accurate to say

that they have frightened it away. At all events a very loud noise is made

“so that the disease may not remain hidden anywhere.”(362) In a village of

the Mossos, an aboriginal tribe of south-western China, a French traveller

witnessed the annual ceremony of the expulsion of devils. Two magicians,

wearing mitres of red pasteboard, went from house to house, attended by a

troop of children, their faces smeared with flour, some of whom carried

torches and others cymbals, while all made a deafening noise. After

dancing a wild dance in the courtyard of the house, they entered the

principal room, where the performers were regaled with a draught of ardent

spirits, of which they sprinkled a few drops on the floor. Then the

magicians recited their spells to oblige the evil spirits to quit the

chamber and the good spirits to enter it. At the end of each phrase, the

children, speaking for the spirits, answered with a shout, “We go” or “We

come.” That concluded the ceremony in the house, and the noisy procession

filed out to repeat it in the next.(363)

(M106) The people of Bali, an island to the east of Java, have periodical

expulsions of devils upon a great scale. Generally the time chosen for the

expulsion is the day of the “dark moon” in the ninth month. When the

demons have been long unmolested the country is said to be “warm,” and the

priest issues orders to expel them by force, lest the whole of Bali should

be rendered uninhabitable. On the day appointed the people of the village

or district assemble at the principal temple. Here at a cross-road

offerings are set out for the devils. After prayers have been recited by

the priests, the blast of a horn summons the devils to partake of the meal

which has been prepared for them. At the same time a number of men step

forward and light their torches at the holy lamp which burns before the

chief priest. Immediately afterwards, followed by the bystanders, they

spread in all directions and march through the streets and lanes crying,

“Depart! go away!” Wherever they pass, the people who have stayed at home

hasten, by a deafening clatter on doors, beams, rice-blocks, and so forth,

to take their share in the expulsion of devils. Thus chased from the

houses, the fiends flee to the banquet which has been set out for them;

but here the priest receives them with curses which finally drive them

from the district. When the last devil has taken his departure, the uproar

is succeeded by a dead silence, which lasts during the next day also. The

devils, it is thought, are anxious to return to their old homes, and in

order to make them think that Bali is not Bali but some desert island, no

one may stir from his own abode for twenty-four hours. Even ordinary

household work, including cooking, is discontinued. Only the watchmen may

shew themselves in the streets. Wreaths of thorns and leaves are hung at

all the entrances to warn strangers from entering. Not till the third day

is this state of siege raised, and even then it is forbidden to work at

the rice-fields or to buy and sell in the market. Most people still stay

at home, striving to while away the time with cards and dice.(364)

(M107) The Shans of Southern China annually expel the fire-spirit. The

ceremony was witnessed by the English Mission under Colonel Sladen on the

thirteenth of August 1868. Bullocks and cows were slaughtered in the

market-place; the meat was all sold, part of it was cooked and eaten,

while the rest was fired out of guns at sundown. The pieces of flesh which

fell on the land were supposed to become mosquitoes, those which fell in

the water were believed to turn into leeches. In the evening the chief’s

retainers beat gongs and blew trumpets; and when darkness had set in,

torches were lit, and a party, preceded by the musicians, searched the

central court for the fire-spirit, who is supposed to lurk about at this

season with evil intent. They then ransacked all the rooms and the

gardens, throwing the light of the torches into every nook and corner

where the evil spirit might find a hiding-place.(365) In some parts of

Fiji an annual ceremony took place which has much the aspect of an

expulsion of devils. The time of its celebration was determined by the

appearance of a certain fish or sea-slug (_balolo_) which swarms out in

dense shoals from the coral reefs on a single day of the year, usually in

the last quarter of the moon in November. The appearance of the sea-slugs

was the signal for a general feast at those places where they were taken.

An influential man ascended a tree and prayed to the spirit of the sky for

good crops, fair winds, and so on. Thereupon a tremendous clatter, with

drumming and shouting, was raised by all the people in their houses for

about half an hour. This was followed by a dead quiet for four days,

during which the people feasted on the sea-slug. All this time no work of

any kind might be done, not even a leaf plucked nor the offal removed from

the houses. If a noise was made in any house, as by a child crying, a

forfeit was at once exacted by the chief. At daylight on the expiry of the

fourth night the whole town was in an uproar; men and boys scampered

about, knocking with clubs and sticks at the doors of the houses and

crying “Sinariba!” This concluded the ceremony.(366) The natives of

Tumleo, a small island off German New Guinea, also catch the sea-slug in

the month of November, and at this season they observe a curious ceremony,

which may perhaps be explained as an expulsion of evils or demons. The

lads, and sometimes grown men with them, go in troops into the forest to

search for grass-arrows (_räng_). When they have collected a store of

these arrows, they take sides and, armed with little bows, engage in a

regular battle. The arrows fly as thick as hail, and though no one is

killed, many receive skin wounds and are covered with blood. The Catholic

missionary who reports the custom could not ascertain the reasons for

observing it. Perhaps one set of combatants represents the demons or

embodied evils of the year, who are defeated and driven away by the

champions of the people. The month in which these combats take place

(November and the beginning of December) is sometimes named after the

grass-arrows and sometimes after the sea-slug.(367)

(M108) On the last night of the year there is observed in most Japanese

houses a ceremony called “the exorcism of the evil spirit.” It is

performed by the head of the family. Clad in his finest robes, with a

sword, if he has the right of bearing one, at his waist, he goes through

all the rooms at the hour of midnight, carrying in his left hand a box of

roasted beans on a lacquered stand. From time to time he dips his right

hand into the box and scatters a handful of beans on a mat, pronouncing a

cabalistic form of words of which the meaning is, “Go forth, demons! Enter

riches!”(368) According to another account, the ceremony takes place on

the night before the beginning of spring, and the roasted beans are flung

against the walls as well as on the floors of the houses.(369) While the

duty of expelling the devils should, strictly speaking, be discharged by

the head of the house, it is often delegated to a servant. Whether master

or servant, the performer goes by the name of year-man (_toshi-otoko_),

the rite being properly performed on the last day of the year. The words

“Out with the devils” (_Oni ha soto_) are pronounced by him in a loud

voice, but the words “In with the luck” (_fuku ha uchi_) in a low tone. In

the Shogun’s palace the ceremony was performed by a year-man specially

appointed for the purpose, who scattered parched beans in all the

principal rooms. These beans were picked up by the women of the palace,

who wrapped as many of them in paper as they themselves were years old,

and then flung them backwards out of doors. Sometimes people who had

reached an unlucky year would gather these beans, one for each year of

their life and one over, and wrap them in paper together with a small

copper coin which had been rubbed over their body to transfer the

ill-luck. The packet was afterwards thrown away at a cross-road. This was

called “flinging away ill-luck” (_yaku sute_).(370) According to Lafcadio

Hearn, the casting-out of devils from the houses is performed by a

professional exorciser for a small fee, and the peas which he scatters

about the house are afterwards swept up and carefully kept until the first

peal of thunder is heard in spring, when it is customary to cook and eat

some of them. After the demons have been thoroughly expelled from a house,

a charm is set up over the door to prevent them from returning: it

consists of a wooden skewer with a holly leaf and the dried head of a fish

like a sardine stuck on it.(371)

(M109) On the third day of the tenth month in every year the Hak-Ka, a

native race in the province of Canton, sweep their houses and turn the

accumulated filth out of doors, together with three sticks of incense and

some mock money made of paper. At the same time they call out, “Let the

devil of poverty depart! Let the devil of poverty depart!” By performing

this ceremony they hope to preserve their homes from penury.(372) Among

some of the Hindoos of the Punjaub on the morning after Diwali or the

festival of lamps, at which the souls of ancestors are believed to visit

the house, the oldest woman of the family takes a corn-sieve or winnowing

basket and a broom, to both of which magical virtues are ascribed, and

beats them in every corner of the house, exclaiming, “God abide, and

poverty depart!” The sieve is then carried out of the village, generally

to the east or north, and being thrown away is supposed to bear away with

it the poverty and distress of the household. Or the woman flings all the

sweepings and rubbish out of doors, saying, “Let all dirt and wretchedness

depart from here, and all good fortune come in.”(373) The Persians used

annually to expel the demons or goblins (_Dives_) from their houses in the

month of December. For this purpose the Magi wrote certain words with

saffron on a piece of parchment or paper and then held the writing over a

fire into which they threw cotton, garlic, grapes, wild rue, and the horn

of an animal that had been killed on the sixteenth of September. The spell

thus prepared was nailed or glued to the inside of the door, and the door

was painted red. Next the priest took some sand and spread it out with a

knife, while he muttered certain prayers. After that he strewed the sand

on the floor, and the enchantment was complete. The demons now immediately

vanished, or at least were deprived of all their malignant power.(374)

(M110) For ages it has been customary in China to expel the demons from

house and home, from towns and cities, at the end of every year. Such

general expulsions of devils go by the name of _no_. They are often

mentioned and described in Chinese literature. For example, under the Han

dynasty, in the second century of our era, “it was ordered that

_fang-siang shi_ with four eyes of gold, masked with bearskins, and

wearing black coats with red skirts, bearing lances and brandishing

shields, should always perform at the end of the year in the twelfth month

the _no_ of the season, in the rear of hundreds of official servants and

boys, and search the interior of the palace, in order to expel the demons

of plague. With bows of peach wood and arrows of the thorny jujube they

shoot at the spectres, and with porcelain drums they drum at them;

moreover they throw red balls and cereals at them, in order to remove

disease and calamity.”(375) Again, in a poem of the same period we read

that “at the end of the year the great _no_ takes place for the purpose of

driving off all spectres. The _fang-siang_ carry their spears, _wu_ and

_hih_ hold their bundles of reed. Ten thousand lads with red heads and

black clothes, with bows of peach wood and arrows of thorny jujube shoot

at random all around. Showers of potsherds and pebbles come down like

rain, infallibly killing strong spectres as well as the weak. Flaming

torches run after these beings, so that a sparkling and streaming glare

chases the red plague to all sides; thereupon they destroy them in the

imperial moats and break down the suspension bridges (to prevent their

return).”(376) At a later period Chinese historians inform us that the

house of Tsi caused the annual expulsion of demons to be performed on the

last day of the year by two groups, each of one hundred and twenty lads,

and twelve animals headed by drums and wind instruments. The gates of the

wards and of the city walls were flung open, and the emperor witnessed the

ceremony seated on his throne in the midst of his officers. With rolling

drums the procession entered the palace through the western gate, and

passed through all parts of it in two divisions, even ascending the

towers, while they hopped, jumped and shrieked; and on quitting the palace

they spread out in six directions till they reached the city walls.(377)

At the present time it is customary in every part of China to fire off

crackers on the last day and night of the year for the purpose of

terrifying and expelling the devils: enormous quantities of the explosives

are consumed at this season: the people seem to vie with one another as to

who shall let off the most crackers and make the most noise. Sometimes

long strings of these fireworks hang from balconies and eaves and keep up

a continuous crackling for half an hour together or more; in great cities

the prolonged and ear-splitting din is very annoying to foreigners. To the

ears of the Chinese the noise appears to be agreeable, if not for its own

sake, at least for the beneficial effect it is supposed to produce by

driving demons away. Indeed they seem to be of opinion that any noise,

provided it be sufficiently harsh and loud, serves this useful purpose.

The sound of brass instruments is particularly terrifying to devils; hence

the great use which the Chinese make of gongs in rites of exorcism. The

clash of gongs, we are told, resounds through the Chinese empire daily,

especially in summer, when a rise in the death-rate, which ignorant

Europeans attribute to mere climatic influences, stimulates the people to

redouble their efforts for the banishment of the fiends, who are the real

cause of all the mischief. At such times you may see and hear groups of

benevolent and public-spirited men and women banging gongs, clashing

cymbals, and drubbing drums for hours together. No protest is made by

their neighbours, no complaint that they disturb the night’s rest of the

sick and the tired. People listen with resignation or rather with

gratitude and complacency to the deafening uproar raised by these generous

philanthropists, who thus devote their services gratuitously to the cause

of the public health.(378) In Corea, also, the devils are driven out of

the towns on New Year’s Eve by the firing of guns and the popping of

crackers.(379)

(M111) In Tonquin a _theckydaw_ or general expulsion of malevolent spirits

commonly took place once a year, especially if there was a great mortality

amongst men, the elephants or horses of the general’s stable, or the

cattle of the country, “the cause of which they attribute to the malicious

spirits of such men as have been put to death for treason, rebellion, and

conspiring the death of the king, general, or princes, and that in revenge

of the punishment they have suffered, they are bent to destroy everything

and commit horrible violence. To prevent which their superstition has

suggested to them the institution of this _theckydaw_, as a proper means

to drive the devil away, and purge the country of evil spirits.” The day

appointed for the ceremony was generally the twenty-fifth of February, one

month after the beginning of the new year, which fell on the twenty-fifth

of January. The intermediate month was a season of feasting, merry-making

of all kinds, and general licence. During the whole month the great seal

was kept shut up in a box, face downwards, and the law was, as it were,

laid asleep. All courts of justice were closed; debtors could not be

seized; small crimes, such as petty larceny, fighting, and assault,

escaped with impunity; only treason and murder were taken account of and

the malefactors detained till the great seal should come into operation

again. At the close of the saturnalia the wicked spirits were driven away.

Great masses of troops and artillery having been drawn up with flying

colours and all the pomp of war, “the general beginneth then to offer meat

offerings to the criminal devils and malevolent spirits (for it is usual

and customary likewise amongst them to feast the condemned before their

execution), inviting them to eat and drink, when presently he accuses them

in a strange language, by characters and figures, etc., of many offences

and crimes committed by them, as to their having disquieted the land,

killed his elephants and horses, etc., for all which they justly deserve

to be chastised and banished the country. Whereupon three great guns are

fired as the last signal; upon which all the artillery and musquets are

discharged, that, by their most terrible noise the devils may be driven

away; and they are so blind as to believe for certain, that they really

and effectually put them to flight.”(380)

(M112) In Cambodia the expulsion of evil spirits took place in March. Bits

of broken statues and stones, considered as the abode of the demons, were

collected and brought to the capital. Here as many elephants were

collected as could be got together. On the evening of the full moon

volleys of musketry were fired and the elephants charged furiously to put

the devils to flight. The ceremony was performed on three successive

days.(381) In Siam the banishment of demons is annually carried into

effect on the last day of the old year. A signal gun is fired from the

palace; it is answered from the next station, and so on from station to

station, till the firing has reached the outer gate of the city. Thus the

demons are driven out step by step. As soon as this is done a consecrated

rope is fastened round the circuit of the city walls to prevent the

banished demons from returning. The rope is made of tough couch-grass and

is painted in alternate stripes of red, yellow, and blue.(382) According

to a more recent account, the Siamese ceremony takes place at the New Year

holidays, which are three in number, beginning with the first of April.

For the feasting which accompanies these holidays a special kind of cake

is made, “which is as much in demand as our own Shrove-Tuesday pancakes or

our Good-Friday hot cross-buns. The temples are thronged with women and

children making offerings to Buddha and his priests. The people inaugurate

their New Year with numerous charitable and religious deeds. The rich

entertain the monks, who recite appropriate prayers and chants. Every

departed soul returns to the bosom of his family during these three days,

freed from any fetters that may have bound him in the regions of

indefinable locality. On the third day the religious observances

terminate, and the remaining hours are devoted to ‘the world, the flesh,

and the devil.’ Gambling is not confined to the licensed houses, but may

be indulged in anywhere. Games of chance hold powerful sway in every house

as long as the licence to participate in them lasts. Priests in small

companies occupy posts at regular intervals round the city wall, and spend

their time in chanting away the evil spirits. On the evening of the second

day, the ghostly visitors from the lower realms lose the luxury of being

exorcised with psalms. Every person who has a gun may fire it as often as

he pleases, and the noise thus made is undoubtedly fearful enough in its

intensity to cause any wandering traveller from the far-off fiery land to

retrace his steps with speed. The bang and rattle of pistols, muskets,

shot-guns, and rifles cease not till the break of day, by which time the

city is effectually cleared of all its infernal visitors.”(383) From this

account we learn that among the spirits thus banished are the souls of the

dead, who revisit their living friends once a year. To the same effect,

apparently, Bishop Bruguière, writing from Bangkok in 1829, tells us that

“the three first days of the moon of April are days of solemn festivity

for the pious Siamese. That day Lucifer opens all the gates of the abyss,

the souls of the dead, which are shut up there, come forth and partake of

a repast in the bosom of their family. They are treated splendidly. One of

these three days a monk repairs to the palace to preach before the king.

At the end of the sermon a preconcerted signal is given, and in a moment

the cannons are fired in all the quarters of the city to chase the devil

out of the walls or to kill him, if he dares to resist. On the first day a

temporary king is named, who bears the title of _phaja-phollathep_; during

these three days he enjoys all the royal prerogatives, the real king

remaining shut up in his palace.”(384)

(M113) A similar belief and a similar custom prevail in Japan. There, too,

the souls of the departed return to their old homes once a year, and a

festival called the Feast of Lanterns is made to welcome them. They come

at evening on the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the old calendar,

which falls towards the end of August. It is needful to light them on

their way. Accordingly bamboos with pretty coloured lanterns attached to

them are fastened on the tombs, and being thickly set they make an

illumination on the hills, where the burying-grounds are generally

situated. Lamps of many hues or rows of tapers are also lit and set out in

front of the houses and in the gardens, and small fires are kindled in the

streets, so that the whole city is in a blaze of light. After the sun has

set, a great multitude issues from the town, for every family goes forth

to meet its returning dead. When they come to the spot where they believe

the souls to be, they welcome the unseen visitors and invite them to rest

after their journey, and to partake of refreshments which they offer to

them. Having allowed the souls time enough to satisfy their hunger and

recover from their fatigue, they escort them by torchlight, chatting gaily

with them, into the city and to the houses where they lived and died.

These are also illuminated with brilliant lanterns; a banquet is spread on

the tables; and the places of the dead, who are supposed to absorb the

ethereal essence of the food, are laid for them as if they were alive.

After the repast the living go from house to house to visit the souls of

their dead friends and neighbours; and thus they spend the night running

about the town. On the evening of the third day of the festival, which is

the fifteenth day of the month, the time has come for the souls to return

to their own place. Fires again blaze in the streets to light them on the

road; the people again escort them ceremoniously to the spot where they

met them two days before; and in some places they send the lanterns

floating away on rivers or the sea in miniature boats, which are laden

with provisions for the spirits on their way to their long home. But there

is still a fear that some poor souls may have lagged behind, or even

concealed themselves in a nook or corner, loth to part from the scenes of

their former life and from those they love. Accordingly steps are taken to

hunt out these laggards and send them packing after their fellow-ghosts.

With this intention the people throw stones on the roofs of their houses

in great profusion; and going through every room armed with sticks they

deal swashing blows all about them in the empty air to chase away the

lingering souls. This they do, we are told, out of a regard for their own

comfort quite as much as from the affection they bear to the dead; for

they fear to be disturbed by unseasonable apparitions if they suffered the

airy visitors to remain in the house.(385)

(M114) Thus in spite of the kindly welcome given to the souls, the fear

which they inspire comes out plainly in the pains taken to ensure their

departure; and this fear justifies us in including such forced departures

among the ceremonies for the expulsion of evils with which we are here

concerned. It may be remembered that the annual banishment of ghosts has

been practised by savages so low in the scale of humanity as the

Australian aborigines.(386) At the other end of the scale it was observed

in classical antiquity by the civilized Greeks and Romans. The Athenians

believed that at the festival of the Anthesteria the souls of the dead

came back from the nether world and went about the city. Accordingly ropes

were fastened round the temples to keep out the wandering ghosts; and with

a like intention the people chewed buckthorn in the morning and smeared

the doors of their houses with pitch, apparently thinking that any rash

spirits who might attempt to enter would stick fast in the pitch and be

glued, like so many flies, to the door. But at the end of the festival the

souls were bidden to depart in these words: “Out of the door with you,

souls. The Anthesteria is over.”(387) Yet for the entertainment of the

unseen guests during their short stay earthenware pots full of boiled food

appear to have been everywhere prepared throughout the city; but probably

these were placed in the street outside the houses, in order to give the

ghosts no excuse for entering and disturbing the inmates. No priest would

eat of the food thus offered to the dead,(388) but prowling beggars

probably had no such scruples. Similarly when the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak

celebrate their great Festival of Departed Spirits at intervals which vary

from one to three or four years, food is prepared for the dead and they

are summoned from their far-off home to partake of it; but it is put

outside at the entrance of the house. And before the general arrival of

the souls, while the people are busy brewing the drink for the feast, each

family takes care to hang an earthenware pot full of the liquor outside of

the single room which it occupies in the large common house, lest some

thirsty soul should arrive prematurely from the other world, and, forcing

his way into the domestic circle, should not merely slake his thirst but

carry off one of the living.(389) During three days in May the Romans held

a festival in honour of the ghosts. The temples were shut, doubtless to

keep out the ghostly swarms; but, as in Japan, every house seems to have

been thrown open to receive the spirits of its own departed. When the

reception was over, each head of a family arose at dead of night, washed

his hands, and having made with fingers and thumb certain magic signs to

ward off ghosts, he proceeded to throw black beans over his shoulder

without looking behind him. As he did so, he said nine times, “With these

beans I redeem me and mine”; and the ghosts, following unseen at his

heels, picked up the beans and left him and his alone. Then he dipped his

hands again in water, clashed bronze vessels together to make a din, and

begged the ghosts to depart from his house, saying nine times, “Go forth,

paternal shades!” After that he looked behind him, and the ceremony was

over: the ghosts had taken their leave for another year.(390)

(M115) Annual expulsions of demons, witches, or evil influences appear to

have been common among the heathen of Europe, if we may judge from the

relics of such customs among their descendants at the present day. Thus

among the heathen Wotyaks, a Finnish people of Eastern Russia, all the

young girls of the village assemble on the last day of the year or on New

Year’s Day, armed with sticks, the ends of which are split in nine places.

With these they beat every corner of the house and yard, saying, “We are

driving Satan out of the village.” Afterwards the sticks are thrown into

the river below the village, and as they float down stream Satan goes with

them to the next village, from which he must be driven out in turn. In

some villages the expulsion is managed otherwise. The unmarried men

receive from every house in the village groats, flesh, and brandy. These

they take to the fields, light a fire under a fir-tree, boil the groats,

and eat of the food they have brought with them, after pronouncing the

words, “Go away into the wilderness, come not into the house.” Then they

return to the village and enter every house where there are young women.

They take hold of the young women and throw them into the snow, saying,

“May the spirits of disease leave you.” The remains of the groats and the

other food are then distributed among all the houses in proportion to the

amount that each contributed, and each family consumes its share.

According to a Wotyak of the Malmyz district the young men throw into the

snow whomever they find in the houses, and this is called “driving out

Satan”; moreover, some of the boiled groats are cast into the fire with

the words, “O god, afflict us not with sickness and pestilence, give us

not up as a prey to the spirits of the wood.” But the most antique form of

the ceremony is that observed by the Wotyaks of the Kasan Government.

First of all a sacrifice is offered to the Devil at noon. Then all the men

assemble on horseback in the centre of the village, and decide with which

house they shall begin. When this question, which often gives rise to hot

disputes, is settled, they tether their horses to the paling, and arm

themselves with whips, clubs of lime-wood, and bundles of lighted twigs.

The lighted twigs are believed to have the greatest terrors for Satan.

Thus armed, they proceed with frightful cries to beat every corner of the

house and yard, then shut the door, and spit at the ejected fiend. So they

go from house to house, till the Devil has been driven from every one.

Then they mount their horses and ride out of the village, yelling wildly

and brandishing their clubs in every direction. Outside of the village

they fling away the clubs and spit once more at the Devil.(391) The

Cheremiss, another Finnish people of Eastern Russia, chase Satan from

their dwellings by beating the walls with cudgels of lime-wood. For the

same purpose they fire guns, stab the ground with knives, and insert

burning chips of wood in the crevices. Also they leap over bonfires,

shaking out their garments as they do so; and in some districts they blow

on long trumpets of lime-tree bark to frighten him away. When he has fled

to the wood, they pelt the trees with some of the cheese-cakes and eggs

which furnished the feast.(392)

(M116) In Christian Europe the old heathen custom of expelling the powers

of evil at certain times of the year has survived to modern times. Thus in

some villages of Calabria the month of March is inaugurated with the

expulsion of the witches. It takes place at night to the sound of the

church bells, the people running about the streets and crying, “March is

come.” They say that the witches roam about in March, and the ceremony is

repeated every Friday evening during the month.(393) Often, as might have

been anticipated, the ancient pagan rite has attached itself to church

festivals. For example, in Calabria at Eastertide every family provides

itself in time with a supply of holy water, and when the church bells

proclaim the resurrection of Christ the people sprinkle the house with the

water, saying in a loud voice, “_Esciti fora sùrici uorvi, esciti fora

tentaziuni, esca u malu ed entri u bene_.” At the same time they knock on

doors and windows, on chests and other articles of furniture.(394) Again,

in Albania on Easter Eve the young people light torches of resinous wood

and march in procession, swinging them, through the village. At last they

throw the torches into the river, crying, “Ha, Kore! we throw you into the

river, like these torches, that you may never return.”(395) Silesian

peasants believe that on Good Friday the witches go their rounds and have

great power for mischief. Hence about Oels, near Strehlitz, the people on

that day arm themselves with old brooms and drive the witches from house

and home, from farmyard and cattle-stall, making a great uproar and

clatter as they do so.(396)

(M117) The belief in the maleficent power and activity of witches and

wizards would seem to have weighed almost as heavily on the heathen of

Central and Northern Europe in prehistoric times as it still weighs on the

minds of African negroes and other savages in many parts of the world. But

while these unhallowed beings were always with our forefathers, there were

times and seasons of the year when they were supposed to be particularly

mischievous, and when accordingly special precautions had to be taken

against them. Among such times were the twelve days from Christmas to

Twelfth Night, the Eve of St. George, the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis

Night), and Midsummer Eve.(397)

(M118) In Central Europe it was apparently on Walpurgis Night, the Eve of

May Day, above all other times that the baleful powers of the witches were

exerted to the fullest extent; nothing therefore could be more natural

than that men should be on their guard against them at that season, and

that, not content with merely standing on their defence, they should

boldly have sought to carry the war into the enemy’s quarters by attacking

and forcibly expelling the uncanny crew. Amongst the weapons with which

they fought their invisible adversaries in these grim encounters were holy

water, the fumes of incense or other combustibles, and loud noises of all

kinds, particularly the clashing of metal instruments, amongst which the

ringing of church bells was perhaps the most effectual.(398) Some of these

strong measures are still in use among the peasantry, or were so down to

recent years, and there seems no reason to suppose that their magical

virtue has been at all impaired by lapse of time. In the Tyrol, as in

other places, the expulsion of the powers of evil at this season goes by

the name of “Burning out the Witches.” It takes place on May Day, but

people have been busy with their preparations for days before. On a

Thursday at midnight bundles are made up of resinous splinters, black and

red spotted hemlock, caperspurge, rosemary, and twigs of the sloe. These

are kept and burned on May Day by men who must first have received plenary

absolution from the Church. On the last three days of April all the houses

are cleansed and fumigated with juniper berries and rue. On May Day, when

the evening bell has rung and the twilight is falling, the ceremony of

“Burning out the Witches” begins. Men and boys make a racket with whips,

bells, pots, and pans; the women carry censers; the dogs are unchained and

run barking and yelping about. As soon as the church bells begin to ring,

the bundles of twigs, fastened on poles, are set on fire and the incense

is ignited. Then all the house-bells and dinner-bells are rung, pots and

pans are clashed, dogs bark, every one must make a noise. And amid this

hubbub all scream at the pitch of their voices,

“_Witch flee, flee from here,_

_Or it will go ill with thee._”

Then they run seven times round the houses, the yards, and the village. So

the witches are smoked out of their lurking-places and driven away.(399)

(M119) The custom of expelling the witches on Walpurgis Night is still, or

was down to thirty or forty years ago, observed in many parts of Bavaria

and among the Germans of Bohemia. Thus in the Böhmerwald Mountains, which

divide Bavaria from Bohemia, all the young fellows of the village assemble

after sunset on some height, especially at a cross-road, and crack whips

for a while in unison with all their strength. This drives away the

witches; for so far as the sound of the whips is heard, these maleficent

beings can do no harm. The peasants believe firmly in the efficacy of this

remedy. A yokel will tell his sons to be sure to crack their whips loudly

and hit the witches hard; and to give more sting to every blow the

whip-lashes are knotted. On returning to the village the lads often sing

songs and collect contributions of eggs, lard, bread, and butter. In some

places, while the young fellows are cracking their whips, the herdsmen

wind their horns, and the long-drawn notes, heard far-off in the silence

of night, are very effectual for banning the witches. In other places,

again, the youth blow upon so-called shawms made of peeled willow-wood in

front of every house, especially in front of such houses as are suspected

of harbouring a witch.(400) In Voigtland, a bleak mountainous region of

Central Germany(401) bordering on the Frankenwald Mountains, the belief in

witchcraft is still widely spread. The time when the witches are

particularly dreaded is Walpurgis Night, but they play their pranks also

on Midsummer Eve, St. Thomas’s Eve, and Christmas Eve. On these days they

try to make their way into a neighbour’s house and to borrow or steal

something from it; and woe betide the man in whose house they have

succeeded in their nefarious errand! It is on Walpurgis Night and

Midsummer Eve that they ride through the air astride of pitchforks and

churn-dashers. They also bewitch the cattle; so to protect the poor beasts

from their hellish machinations the people on these days chalk up three

crosses on the doors of the cattle-stalls or hang up St. John’s wort,

marjoram, and so forth. Very often, too, the village youth turn out in a

body and drive the witches away with the cracking of whips, the firing of

guns, and the waving of burning besoms through the air, not to mention

shouts and noises of all sorts.(402) Such customs appear to be observed

generally in Thüringen, of which Voigtland is a part. The people think

that the blows of the whip actually fall on the witches hovering unseen in

the air, and that so far as the cracking of the whips is heard, the crops

will be good and nothing will be struck by lightning,(403) no doubt

because the witches have been banished by the sound.

(M120) In Bohemia many are the precautions taken by the peasantry, both

German and Czech, to guard themselves and their cattle against the witches

on Walpurgis Night. Thorny branches are laid on the thresholds of

cow-houses and dwellings to keep out the infernal crew, and after sunset

boys armed with whips and guns drive them from the villages with a

prodigious uproar and burn them in bonfires on the neighbouring heights.

It is true that the witches themselves are not seen, though effigies of

them are sometimes consumed in the bonfires. This “Burning of the

Witches,” as it is called, protects the crops from their ravages. German

lads also employ goats’ horns as a means of driving away the witches at

the moment when they issue forth from kitchen-chimneys on their way to the

witches’ Sabbath.(404) Some minor variations in the mode of expelling the

witches on Walpurgis Night have been noted in the German villages of

Western Bohemia. Thus in Absrot the village youth go out to cross-roads

and there beat the ground with boards, no doubt for the purpose of

thrashing the witches who are commonly supposed to assemble at such spots.

In Deslawen, after the evening bells have rung, people go through the

houses beating the walls or floors with boards; then they issue forth into

the roads, headed by a boy who carries the effigy of a witch made up of

rags. Thereupon grown-up folk crack whips and fire shots. In Schönwert the

young people go in bands through the village and the meadows, making a

great noise with bells, flutes, and whips, for the more noise they make

the more effectual is the ceremony supposed to be. Meantime the older men

are busy firing shots over the fields and the dungheaps. In Hochofen

troops of children go from house to house on Walpurgis Evening, making a

great clatter with tin cans and kettles, while they scream, “Witch, go

out, your house is burning.” This is called “Driving out the

Witches.”(405) The German peasants of Moravia, also, universally believe

that on Walpurgis Night the witches ride through the air on broomsticks

and pitchforks in order to revel with Satan, their master, at the old

heathen places of sacrifice, which are commonly on heights. To guard the

cattle and horses from their insidious attacks it is usual to put knives

under the thresholds and to stick sprigs of birch in the dungheaps.

Formerly lads used to gather on the heights where the witches were

believed to assemble; and by hurling besoms, dipped in pitch and ignited,

they attempted to banish the invisible foe.(406)

(M121) In Silesia also, we are told, the belief in witchcraft still

occupies a large space in the minds of the people. It is on Walpurgis

Night that the witches are let loose and all the powers of magic have full

sway. At that time the cottagers not uncommonly see a witch astride a

hayfork or broomstick emerging from the chimney. Hence people are careful

to remove all utensils from the fireplace, or the witches would ride on

them, when they go with the Evil One to a cross-road or a gallows-hill,

there to dance wild dances in a circle on the snow or to cut capers on the

corn-fields. Steps are taken to guard village, house, and farmyard against

their incursions. Three crosses are chalked up on every door, and little

birch-trees fastened over the house-door, because the witches must count

every leaf on the tree before they can cross the threshold, and while they

are still counting, the day breaks and their power is gone. On that

evening the cattle are especially exposed to the attacks of the witches,

and prudent farmers resort to many expedients for the sake of protecting

the animals from the wiles of these malignant beings. No wise man would

sell milk or butter on Walpurgis Night; if he did, his cows would

certainly be bewitched. And all the work of the byres should be finished

and the cattle fed before sundown, which is the time when the witches

begin to swarm in the air. Besides the usual crosses chalked on the door

of the byre, it is customary to fasten over it three horse-shoes, or a

holed flint, or a goat’s horns with four branches; it is well, too, to

nail bits of buckthorn crosswise over every entrance, and to lean

pitchforks and harrows against the doors with the sharp points turned

outwards. A sod freshly cut from a meadow and sprinkled with

marsh-marigolds has likewise a very good effect when it is placed before a

threshold. Moreover in the Grünberg district young men go clanking chains

through the village and farmyards, for iron scares the witches; also they

knock at the doors and they prance through the yards astride on pitchforks

and broomsticks, all to drive away the witches, but in doing so they must

be sure not to speak a word. A very powerful means of keeping witches at

bay are the Walpurgis bonfires, which are still kindled in the Hoyerswerda

district and the Iser Mountains. The fires are fed with the stumps of old

brooms, and the people dance round them and wave burning besoms, just as

they do at the Midsummer bonfires. About Hoyerswerda they call these

fires, as usual, “Burning the Witches.”(407)

(M122) The Wends of Saxony adopt very similar precautions against witches

on the evening of Walpurgis Day. Any one who has been in Lusatia on the

last day of April must remember the fires which he saw blazing on the

mountains and in the valleys and the plains. That is the Witch-burning

(_kuzlarniče palić_). For weeks before that the boys and lads have been

collecting old brooms, and when the time comes they sally forth and dance

with the burning besoms on the fields; the fire is thought to ban the

witches and foul fiends. Also on that day people march about the fields

and meadows clinking stones on scythes; for the noise is also deemed

effectual in driving the witches away.(408) At Penzance in Cornwall boys

run about blowing horns on the thirtieth of April (Walpurgis Day), and

when questioned why they do so they say that they are “scaring away the

devil.” The horns used for this purpose are made of tin and shaped like a

herald’s trumpet; they vary in length from a foot to a yard and can give

forth a very loud blast.(409) The custom is probably a relic of a general

expulsion of witches and demons on that day.

(M123) Another witching time is the period of twelve days between

Christmas (the twenty-fifth of December) and Epiphany (the sixth of

January). A thousand quaint superstitions cluster round that mystic

season. It is then that the Wild Huntsman sweeps through the air, the

powers of evil are let loose, werewolves are prowling round, and the

witches work their wicked will. Hence in some parts of Silesia the people

burn pine-resin all night long between Christmas and the New Year in order

that the pungent smoke may drive witches and evil spirits far away from

house and homestead; and on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve they fire

shots over fields and meadows, into shrubs and trees, and wrap straw round

the fruit-trees, to prevent the spirits from doing them harm.(410) On New

Year’s Eve, which is Saint Sylvester’s Day, Bohemian lads, armed with

guns, form themselves into circles and fire thrice into the air. This is

called “Shooting the Witches” and is supposed to frighten the witches

away. While the young fellows are rendering this service to the community,

the housewives go about their houses sprinkling holy water in all the

rooms and chalking three crosses on every door,(411) no doubt to

accelerate the departure of the witches, and to prevent their return. At

Trieste on St. Sylvester’s Eve people form processions and drive the evil

spirits with sticks and brooms out of the houses, while they invite the

good spirits and good luck to come and dwell there.(412) In the town of

Biggar, in Lanarkshire, it has been customary from time immemorial to

celebrate a custom called “burning out the Old Year” on the thirty-first

of December. A large bonfire, to which all the onlookers think it their

duty to contribute fuel, is kindled in the evening at the town cross, and

fires are also lighted on the adjacent hills.(413) When we remember how

common it is in Central Europe to kindle fires at critical seasons for the

purpose of burning the witches, we may suspect that what the good people

of Biggar originally intended to burn on the last night of the year was

not the Old Year but the witches. It would have been well for Scotland and

for Europe if the practice of burning witches had always been carried out

in this harmless fashion. A visitor to Scotland in 1644 saw nine witches

of flesh and blood burned at one time on Leith Links.(414)

(M124) The last of the mystic twelve days is Epiphany or Twelfth Night,

and it has been selected as a proper season for the expulsion of the

powers of evil in various parts of Europe. Thus at Brunnen on the Lake of

Lucerne the boys go about in procession on Twelfth Night, carrying torches

and lanterns, and making a great noise with horns, cow-bells, whips, and

so forth. This is said to frighten away the two female spirits of the

wood, Strudeli and Strätteli. Of these two names Strudeli seems to mean

“witch” and Strätteli “nightmare.” The people believe that if they do not

make enough noise, there will be little fruit that year.(415) On the same

day the inhabitants of the Muota Valley, immediately to the east of

Brunnen, used to make a similar racket, no doubt for a similar purpose.

They collected chains, pots and pans, cow-bells, horns, and such like

musical instruments. He who could borrow a number of horse’s bells and

wear them on his person so that the jangling sounded afar off was deemed

uncommonly lucky. Thus equipped parties of people marched about making all

the din they could; sometimes they would meet and joining all their

efforts in one concerted burst of harmony or discord would raise such a

hubbub that the surrounding rocks rang again with the sound.(416) In

Labruguière, also, a canton of Southern France, the evil spirits are

expelled at the same season. The canton lies in the picturesque and

little-known region of the Black Mountains, which form a sort of link

between the Pyrenees and the Cevennes, and have preserved in their remote

recesses certain types of life which have long disappeared elsewhere. On

the eve of Twelfth Day the inhabitants rush through the streets jangling

bells, clattering kettles, and doing everything to make a discordant

noise. Then by the light of torches and blazing faggots they set up a

prodigious hue and cry, an ear-splitting uproar, hoping thereby to chase

all the wandering ghosts and devils from the town.(417)

(M125) With this noisy ceremony we may compare a similar custom which is

still observed year by year at the same season in the long and spacious

Piazza Navona at Rome. There on the night before Epiphany a dense crowd

assembles, and diverts itself by raising a hideous uproar. Soon after

supper troops of young folk and others march through the streets, preceded

by puppets or pasteboard figures and all making the utmost possible din.

They converge from different quarters on the Piazza Navona, there to unite

in one prolonged and deafening outburst of clangorous discord. The

favourite musical instruments employed in this cats’ concert are penny

trumpets, of which, together with tambourines, bells, and so forth, the

shops take care to provide a large stock as a preparation for the

pandemonium of the evening. The ceremony is supposed to be in honour of a

certain mythical old hag called Befana, effigies of whom, made of rags,

are put by women and children in the windows on Twelfth Night. Her name

Befana is clearly a popular corruption of Epiphany, the ecclesiastical

name of the festival; but viewed in connexion with the popular

celebrations which we have examined she may be suspected to be of heathen

rather than Christian origin. In fact we may conjecture that she was of

old a witch, and that the noisy rite in the Piazza Navona is nothing but a

relic of an annual expulsion of witches at this season.(418) A ceremony of

the same sort is annually observed on the same evening, the Eve of

Epiphany, by the peasantry who inhabit the mountains of the Tuscan

Romagna. A troop of lads parade the streets of the village making a

fiendish noise by means of bells and kitchen utensils of tin and brass,

while others blow blasts on horns and reed-pipes. They drag about a cart

containing an effigy of an old woman made up of rags and tow, which

represents Befana (Epiphany). When they come to the village square they

put fire to the effigy, which soon vanishes in smoke and flames amid a

chorus of cries, shrieks, and other forms of rustic melody.(419) Similar

ceremonies are probably observed on the same evening in other parts of

Italy.

(M126) In the Shetland Islands the Yule or Christmas holidays begin, or

used to begin, seven days before Christmas and last till Antinmas, that

is, the twenty-fourth day after Christmas. In the Shetland parlance these

holidays are known as “the Yules.” On the first night, called Tul-ya’s

e’en, seven days before Christmas, certain mischievous elves, whom the

Shetlanders name Trows, “received permission to leave their homes in the

heart of the earth and dwell, if it so pleased them, above ground. There

seemed to have been no doubt that those creatures preferred disporting

themselves among the dwellings of men to residing in their own

subterranean abodes, for they availed themselves of every permission

given, and created no little disturbance among the mortals whom they

visited. One of the most important of all Yule-tide observances was the

‘saining’ required to guard life or property from the Trows. If the proper

observances were omitted, the ‘grey-folk’ were sure to take advantage of

the opportunity.”(420) On the last day of the holidays, the twenty-fourth

day after Christmas, which in Shetland goes by the name of Up-helly-a’,

Uphellia, or Uphaliday, “the doors were all opened, and a great deal of

pantomimic chasing and driving and dispersing of unseen creatures took

place. Many pious ejaculations were uttered, and iron was ostentatiously

displayed, ‘for Trows can never abide the sight o’ iron.’ The Bible was

read and quoted. People moved about in groups or couples, never singly,

and infants were carefully guarded as well as sained by vigilant and

learned ‘wise women.’ Alas, the poor Trows! their time of frolic and

liberty was ended, and on Twenty-fourth night they retired to their gloomy

abodes beneath the sod, seldom finding opportunity to reappear again, and

never with the same licence, until the Yules returned. All that pantomime,

all that invoking of holier Powers, were but methods of ‘speeding the

parting guest,’ and mortals were rejoicing that the unbidden, unwelcome

grey-folk must depart. When day dawned after Twenty-fourth night the Trows

had vanished and the Yules were ended.”(421) Of late years Up-helly-a’ has

been celebrated in Lerwick with pompous and elaborate masquerades. The

chief event of the evening is a torch-light procession of maskers or

“guizers,” as they are called, who escort the model of a Norse galley

through the streets, and finally set it on fire by throwing their torches

into it. But in this form the celebration seems to date only from the

latter part of the nineteenth century; in former times an old boat filled

with tar and ignited was dragged about and blazing tar-barrels were drawn

or kicked through the streets.(422) The fire, however procured, was

probably in origin intended to chase away the lingering Trows from the

town at the end of the holidays.

(M127) Thus it would seem that the custom of annually banishing witches

and demons on a day or night set apart for the purpose has not been

confined to Central Europe, but can be traced from Calabria and Rome in

the south to the Shetland Islands in the far north.