John Gomez the Wizard and Man-tiger--Lopez the
Man-lion--Vermilion Marks rendered the Devil
powerless--Sacrificing Children--Offerings to the
Ganges--A Rajah offering himself as a
Sacrifice--Preventatives against Disease--Various
Superstitious Ceremonies--Sacrificing to the Gods of
the Four Winds--How the Devil was kept away--King's
Wives and Retainers going with the Dead Monarch into
the other World--An eternal Succession of Worlds--Apes
supposed to have Human Souls--Worshipping
Demons--Drinking Blood--Prognosticating from the Cries
of Beasts--Witchcraft and Magic--Singular Opinions and
Customs--Watching Graves, and providing for the
Dead--Foretelling Future Events at the New
Moon--Method of discovering a False Swearer--Offerings
to the Sea and Winds--Superstition in China--Chinese
Genealogy and Worship--Opinion of their Gods and
Goddesses--Sacrifices--Beggars--Magical Arts--False
Worship--Comfort of the Dead provided
for--Superstition in
Japan--Fortune-telling--Idols--Gods and
Goddesses--Five Hundred Children hatched from
Eggs--Human Souls supposed to reside in Inferior
Animals--Beasts held in great esteem--Statues of
Witches and Magicians placed in Temples in
Japan--Charms sold by Priests--Value of
Charms--Fortunate and Unfortunate Days--A Fairy in the
likeness of a Fox--A valuable Charm.
The gentleman (a clergyman) who told the story of John Gondalez, gives
another tale equally interesting. John Gomez, the chief of an Indian
town, was nearly eighty years of age, and reputed to be possessed of
more than ordinary shrewdness. His advice was preferred to that of all
other chiefs. He seemed to be a very godly Indian, and very seldom
missed morning and evening prayers in the church. "He was suddenly
taken ill," proceeds the clergyman; "and one of his friends, fearing
that he might die without making confession, called me up at midnight,
desiring me to go presently to John Gomez to help him to die. I
therefore visited Gomez, who lay with his face muffled. He confessed,
wept, and showed a willingness to die. I comforted him, after which I
returned home to refresh myself. Scarcely had I crossed the threshold
of my house than I was called on to visit the sick man a second time,
and give him extreme unction. As I anointed him on his nose, lips,
hands, eyes, and feet, I perceived he was swollen black and blue. I
went home again, and after I had rested a little, an Indian called to
buy candles to offer up for the soul of John Gomez, who, he told me,
had departed. I went to the church, and found the grave being prepared
for the deceased. Two Spaniards, to whom I spoke, told me of a great
stir being made in the town concerning the death of Gomez. Amused at
the information received, I desired a full and particular account of
the whole circumstances. They told me that Gomez was the chief wizard
of the town--that he was often changed into a tiger, and in that form
walked about the mountains. Wondering at this statement, I went
straight to the prison, where, I was told, I might obtain information
on the subject. At the stronghold the officers communicated to me the
whole matter. There were witnesses, they said, who saw a lion and a
tiger fighting, and presently lost sight of them, but saw in their
places Gomez and a man named Lopez. Gomez returned home much bruised,
and on his deathbed declared to his friends that Lopez had killed him.
Lopez was therefore taken into custody, and put in irons. The crown
officers investigated the case with great care, and found that the
body of Gomez was all bruised and torn in various places. Lopez, upon
this, was taken to Guatemala, and there hanged, the evidence against
him, in the estimation of the judges and people, being conclusive that
he had fatally injured Gomez while the former was in the shape of a
tiger, and the latter in the likeness of a lion."
The inhabitants of Bisnagar, Deccan, and elsewhere believed that the
moment a priest marked any one on the forehead with vermilion, the
devil had no power over the person thus distinguished. At Samorin
there was a statue to which children were sacrificed. It was of brass,
and, when heated by a furnace underneath it, the children were thrown
into its mouth and consumed. Flowers were scattered upon the altars
during the sacrifices, and herbs, steeped in the blood of a cock,
perfumed the idol. The cock's throat was cut with a silver knife
dipped in the blood of a hen. At the conclusion of the barbarous
ceremony, the priest walked backwards from the altar to the middle of
the chapel, where he threw a handful of corn over his head.
The Ganges, as is well known, was, and still is, worshipped by a large
number of people. Vast numbers of pilgrims continually visit this
great river. Formerly, if not now, they bathed in it in a peculiar
fashion, holding short straws in their hands while they were
performing their ablutions. Gold and silver were often thrown into the
stream, in testimony of admiration.
At Quailacara a remarkable ceremony took place once every twelve
years. On the morning of the important day, the rajah, who was both
high priest and sovereign, offered himself a sacrifice to the gods. He
first delivered an oration, and then with a sharp instrument cut off
his nose, lips, and ears, and concluded the tragical event by cutting
his throat. Similar ceremonies were performed in the same district by
scores of deluded devotees, who bent their steps to the most
celebrated temples, where they cut off their flesh, piece by piece,
and then stabbed themselves to death. Their bodies were burned, and
the ashes sold by the priests at high sums, as preservatives against
disease. When the people came to bathe in the Ganges in the month of
May, they erected piles of cows' dung, on which were placed baskets of
rice, roots, and every description of vegetables. These were
surrounded with wood besmeared with butter, and set on fire. From the
appearance of the smoke and flame, those present pretended to discover
whether the harvest was to be abundant or otherwise. At seed-time the
priests took branches from trees, and walked in procession with them,
going three times round the temples. A hole was then dug in the
ground, and water from the Ganges poured into it. In this hole cows'
dung and the branches were put and set on fire, and from the
appearance of the flames the arch-priest was enabled to foretell what
was to happen during the year. When a person was dying, he was carried
to a river and dipped into it, that his soul and body might be
purified. Happy was the individual who could be conveyed to the
Ganges, because its waters were supposed to be possessed of virtues
that did not exist in other rivers. Sometimes the hands of the dying
person were tied to a cow's tail, and the invalid dragged through the
water. If the cow emitted urine upon the person, it was considered a
most salutary purification. If the fluid fell plentifully upon the
expiring man, his friends testified their joy by loud acclamation,
believing he was about to be numbered among the blessed. But when the
cow did not supply the purifying liquid, the relatives showed their
grief, for they thought their dying friend was going to a place of
punishment.
At Assam and elsewhere, when a person was sick, sacrifices were
offered to the god of the four winds. If the patient died, servants
were kept beating on instruments of copper to keep away evil spirits,
supposed to be hovering round the corpse. There was a belief that if
an evil spirit passed over a dead body, the soul would return to the
inanimate remains. At a funeral procession, men surrounded the coffin
with drawn scimitars, to drive the devil away and help to confine him
to his home of darkness. At a king's death, all his wives, ministers
of state, and retainers surrounded the grave, and poisoned themselves,
in order to accompany him into the other world. Horses, camels,
elephants, and hounds were also interred along with his majesty, to be
useful to him in the world of bliss.
In Pegu, the people believed in an eternal succession of worlds, and
imagined that, as soon as one would be burned, another would spring
out of its ashes. They thought that people devoured by crocodiles went
to a place of perpetual happiness. The people believed that asses had
human souls, and, reversing the theory of Darwin that human beings
were the offspring of inferior animals, thought they were formerly
men; but, to punish them for crimes they had been guilty of, the gods
transformed them into their present shape. White elephants were much
esteemed by the people. As the devil was worshipped, altars were
erected in honour of him, and sacrifices were daily offered to appease
his wrath and obtain his favour. Devout persons refused to taste food,
before throwing part of it behind them for the dogs or devils to eat;
for they imagined that every dog was possessed with evil spirits, if
the animal was not Satan himself. It sometimes happened that a man
left his house, swept clean and genteelly furnished, for the devil to
take possession of it for a whole month.
On entering into a solemn agreement, the natives of Siam drank each
other's blood. They attentively listened to the groans and cries of
wild beasts, and prognosticated from them, and believed in witchcraft.
They imagined, as spiritualists of the present time do, that answers
were received from deceased friends or relations. Natives of the
Philippine Islands had a notion that they could know, from seeing the
first objects that presented themselves to them in the morning,
whether they would be successful or unsuccessful in their undertakings
during the day. If one of them happened to tread upon an insect when
setting out on a journey, he would proceed no further. The islanders
of the Moluccas watched the graves of their deceased relations seven
nights, for fear the devil would steal the body away, and during that
time the bed of the deceased was made as if he were alive. Further,
victuals were prepared for him, lest he should return to earth and
require nourishment. Many of the people wore bracelets, and on the
appearance of the new moon a hen's neck was cut, and the bracelets
dipped into the blood. From the appearance of the ornaments after
being taken out, future events were brought to light. When the people
of Ceylon were called upon to make oath, they wrapped their right
hands in a cloth the previous night, and when they appeared in court,
a caldron, containing a mixture of cows' dung and water, kept boiling
over a strong fire, was in readiness for the deponents, subsequent to
removing the bandages, to immerse their hands therein. This being
done, their hands were again wrapped up until next day, when the
fingers were rubbed with a linen cloth. He whose skin peeled off
first, was declared to have spoken falsehoods; and he not only lost
his cause, but was compelled to pay a penalty to the king. At the
Maldive Islands, offerings were made to the sea when a voyage was
about to be undertaken. Sacrifices were also offered to the winds,
which was done by setting fire to a new boat, and consuming it to
ashes. But if one was too poor to offer a boat, he threw into the
ocean several cocks and hens; for it was the opinion that there was in
the water a god that ate such things as were offered in sacrifice. One
was warned not to spit against the wind when at sea. The ships and
other vessels belonging to the people of these islands were
consecrated to the gods of the sea and the winds.
Superstition in China was, and still is, both general and absurd in
the extreme. The Chinese profess to have an uninterrupted genealogy of
their kings for a period of twenty-four thousand years; but,
notwithstanding their pretensions to antiquity, learned men suppose
that these people are descendants of the Egyptians. On this difficult
question, however, we do not propose to enter, and therefore proceed
to notice a few of their ridiculous customs and notions. They have
been idolaters for ages, and pay divine honours to numerous
gods--particularly to Fo, who was deified and worshipped for more than
a thousand years before the Christian era. The Chinese say that Fo was
a king's son. As soon as the infant god was born, he could speak and
walk. When young, he had four philosophers to instruct him, and at the
age of thirty he began to work miracles. Report has it that he was
born eight thousand times, and that his soul had passed through the
bodies of many different animals. The doctrine of transmigration of
souls was part of the people's creed, and this doctrine is still
believed in by the people generally. Cang-y was the god of the lower
heavens, and had power over life and death. He had three spirits
constantly attending him, the first of whom sent rain to refresh and
nourish the earth; the second was the god of the sea, to whom all
their navigators made vows before going away with ships, and performed
them on their return home; and the third presided over births and war.
The great Chinese reformer, Confucius, was born four hundred and fifty
years before Christianity was preached. As soon as he was born, two
dragomans came to guard him against harm, and the stars bowed
themselves before him. He married a wife, but, finding that she
hindered him in his pursuit of knowledge, he put her away. He lived to
the age of seventy years, when he died of a broken heart at beholding
the evils around him. The highest honours were paid to him after
death.
Hogs were offered in sacrifice to the gods. Wine was poured on the
animals' ears, and if they shook their heads at this operation they
were deemed proper objects to be offered, but if they remained
motionless they were rejected.
On the 14th August of every year sacrifices were offered by the people
to their ancestors, and all who assisted them at the solemn ceremonies
were assured that they would receive particular favours from their
dead relatives. Vast numbers of beggars constantly went about the
country. If those mendicants were refused alms, they told the people
that their souls would pass into the bodies of rats, mice, snakes,
toads, and such other creatures as they knew the Chinese abhorred.
Those mendicants told fortunes, and, if report speaks true, could
raise the wind by striking the earth with a hammer of magical virtue.
A ship captain, on going to sea, might have a fair wind and a
prosperous voyage for a moderate sum. Divination was practised by
means of household gods, of which there were many in the empire.
Conjurers and fortune-tellers were by law forbidden to frequent the
houses of civil or military officers under the pretence of prophesying
impending national calamities or successes, but the prohibition was
not understood to prevent them telling fortunes and casting nativities
by the stars in the usual manner. Whenever signs of calamity were
observed in the heavens by the officers of the astronomical board, and
they failed to give faithful notice thereof; they were punished with
one hundred and twenty blows and two years' banishment. In later times
a law was passed against sorcerers and magicians, prohibiting them,
under pain of death, from employing spells and incantations,
calculated to agitate and influence the minds of the people. Killing
by magic was by statute placed among the most serious classes of
offences. Magicians who raised evil spirits by means of magical books
and dire imprecations, or who burned incense in honour of the images
of their worship when they assembled by night to instruct their
followers, were strangled.
It was enacted by the Chinese laws, that if any members of a private
family performed the ceremony of the adoration of heaven and of the
north star, and lighted the lamps of the sky and of that star, they
were guilty of profanation, and liable to be punished with eighty
blows. When a dead body was laid in the coffin, the mouth of the
deceased was filled with corn, rice, silver, and gold; and scissors,
tied up in purses, were put into the coffin, that the departed person
might cut his nails as often as he pleased.
There was a sect in Japan called Jammabugi, who studied magic chiefly
among the rocks and mountains. They procured a subsistence by
pretending to tell fortunes. They possessed an almost incredible
number of idols, one of which was Abbuto, noted for curing inveterate
diseases, and for procuring a favourable wind at sea. To secure a
quick passage, sailors and passengers were wont to throw money into
the ocean as an offering to this idol.
The Japanese had gods for almost everything. A most ridiculous account
is given of their goddess of riches. When a mortal, she had no
children by her husband, which caused her to supplicate the gods to
give her offspring. Her prayers were heard, and she produced five
hundred eggs. Being afraid that if the eggs were hatched they would
bring forth monsters, she packed them up in a box bearing a particular
mark, and threw them into a river. An old fisherman found the box,
and, seeing it full of eggs, carried it home to his wife. Not having a
sufficient number of hens to hatch so many eggs, she put them into an
oven, and, to the surprise of the aged couple, every egg produced a
child. The two old people succeeded in bringing up the strange progeny
to manhood, for they were all sons. They became robbers and beggars by
turn; and it happened, one day during their rambles, that they came to
their mother's house. From inquiries she made, it became clear that
the young ruffians were her own children. She kept them, and reared
them up to be virtuous and useful. She was afterwards taken up from
the earth to be among the gods, where she remains, attended by her
five hundred sons.
Apes and monkeys, as well as other creatures, were worshipped in
Japan. So great faith did the people of that country put in the
transmigration of souls, that they had hospitals for the reception of
animals in whose bodies souls were supposed to reside. In a wood near
Jeddo there were many sacred animals, daily fed by priests. These
animals, the priests said, were animated by the souls of the most
noble and illustrious heroes that ever lived. The people had such a
profound veneration for stags, that they were to be seen in every
street as numerous as the dogs in our country. If one killed a stag,
not only was he condemned to die, but the houses where the deed was
committed were razed to the ground. Dogs were held in great esteem.
The inhabitants of every street were obliged to support a fixed number
of them, they being quartered on the people like so many soldiers.
When a dog died, it was buried among human remains. A man who killed a
canine creature was punished with death. Fish were looked upon as
sacred. Near the capital was a river that was so plentifully stocked
with fish, that they thrust one another ashore, yet not one of them
was injured. The people believed that if they touched one of the finny
tribe, they would be smitten with leprosy, and it was considered an
unpardonable sin to eat any of them. A belief prevailed, that fish
possessed the souls of naval officers. Statues of witches, magicians,
and devils find places in the Japan temples.
Charms were sold by the priests, which were represented to possess the
virtue of curing diseases and driving away the devil. Money was
sometimes borrowed on security of charms, not to be repaid in this
world. A note was given, authorizing payment of the money in the land
of spirits; and when the holder of the document died, his relations
put it into his hand, believing that the debt would be duly paid to
the deceased. The Japanese thought certain days were more fortunate
than others. A table of their fortunate and unfortunate days was hung
up in the passage of every house, for the guidance of the family when
they went out. This table of days was prepared by a celebrated
astrologer of universal knowledge in all mysteries, whether relating
to the stars, dreams, or omens. Like other men of note in the East, he
was born in a miraculous manner. His father was a prince, and his
mother a fox. It appears that the lady fox being pursued by huntsmen,
ran to and obtained protection from his highness. The creature
discovered herself to be a fairy, and, throwing off her false
appearance, became a beautiful princess. The prince being enamoured
with her charms, married her, and had by her the celebrated astrologer
spoken of. When he grew up he invented a set of mysterious terms,
which he comprised within the compass of one verse, as a charm or
protection for such persons as were compelled to work on unlucky days;
and every one who repeated the verse reverently on the morning of an
unlucky day, was preserved from all the evils that would have
otherwise befallen him.
THE GODS AND GODDESSES OF HEATHEN NATIONS.