It is not my affair to defend Dr. Oldenberg, whose comparisons of Vedic
with savage rites I have never read, I am sorry to say. One is only
arguing that the _method_ of making such comparisons is legitimate. Thus
(i. 232) controversy, it seems, still rages among scholars as to 'the
object of the Eleusinian Mysteries.' 'Does not the scholar's conscience
warn us against accepting whatever in the myths and customs of the Zulus
seems to suit our purpose'--of explaining features in the Eleusinia? If
Zulu customs, and they alone, contained Eleusinian parallels, even the
anthropologist's conscience would whisper caution. But this is not the
case. North American, Australian, African, and other tribes have
mysteries very closely and minutely resembling parts of the rites of the
Eleusinia, Dionysia, and Thesmophoria. Thus Lobeck, a scholar, describes
the Rhombos used in the Dionysiac mysteries, citing Clemens Alexandrinus.
{114} Thanks to Dr. Tylor's researches I was able to show (what Lobeck
knew not) that the Rhombos (Australian turndun, 'Bull-roarer') is also
used in Australian, African, American, and other savage religious
mysteries. Now should I have refrained from producing this well-attested
matter of fact till I knew Australian, American, and African languages as
well as I know Greek? 'What century will it be when there will be
scholars who know the dialects of the Australian blacks as well as we
know the dialects of Greece?' (i. 232) asks our author. And what in the
name of Eleusis have dialects to do with the circumstance that savages,
like Greeks, use Rhombi in their mysteries? There are abundant other
material facts, visible palpable objects and practices, which savage
mysteries have in common with the Greek mysteries. {115} If observed by
deaf men, when used by dumb men, instead of by scores of Europeans who
could talk the native languages, these illuminating rites of savages
would still be evidence. They have been seen and described often, not by
'a casual native informant' (who, perhaps, casually invented Greek rites,
and falsely attributed them to his tribesmen), but by educated Europeans.