The only difference of moment is the extent to which the supernatural agent who produces the miraculous effect at the instigation of the medicine-man, rain-maker, prophet, or priest, has diverged in ascribed nature from the primi- tive ancestral ghost.
§ 135. And now we approach another order of phenomena which has been evolving simultaneously with the orders de- scribed in this chapter and the one preceding it.
The primitive belief is that the ghosts of the dead, enter- ing the bodies of the living, produce convulsive actions, insanity, disease, and death; and as this belief develops, these original supernatural agents conceived as causing such evils, differentiate into supernatural agents of various kinds and powers. Above, we have contemplated certain sequences of this theory of possession. Along with a belief in male- ficent possession there goes a belief in beneficent posses- 270 THB DATA OP fiOCIOLOGV.
sion; which is prayed for under the forms of supernatural strength^ inspiration, or knowledge. Further, from the notion that if maleficent demons can enter they can be driyen out, there results exorcism. And then, following the idea that demons may be expelled there comes the idea that they may be otherwise controlled — ^may be called to aid: whence enchantments and miracles.
But if ghosts of the dead, or derived supernatural agents otherwise classed, can thus inflict evils on men when at enmity with them, or, when amicable, can give them help and protection, will it not be wise so to behave as to gain their good-will? Several poUcies suggest themselves. Supposed as these souls or spirits originally are, to be like living men in their perceptions and intel- ligence, they may be evaded and deceived. Or, aa in the procedures above described, they may be treated antagonis- tically— driven away and defied. Or, contrariwise, there may be adopted the course of pacifying them if angry, and pleasing them if friendly.
This last course, which originates religious observances in general, we have now to consider. We shall find that the entire aggregate of ideas and practices constituting a cult, has the same root with the aggregates of ideas and practices already described, and gradually diverges from them.
CHAPTER XIX.
SAORSB PLACES; TEMPLES, AND ALTARS; SAORIFICE, PASTING, AND PROPITIATION; PRAISE, PRATER, ETC.
§ 136. On grave-stones, inscriptions often begin with the words — " Sacred to the memory of/' The sacredness thus ascribed to the tomb, extends to whatever is, or has been, closely associated with the dead. The bedroom containing the corpse is entered with the least possible noise; words are uttered in low tones; and by the subdued manner is shown a feeling which, however variable in other elements, always includes the element of awe.
This sentiment excited in us by the dead, by the place of the dead, and by the immediate belongings of the dead, while doubtless partly unlike that of the primitive man, is in essence like it. When we read of savages in general, as of the Dakotahs, that '^ they stand in great awe of tho spirits of the dead,'' and that thinking men's ghosts haunt the places of death, many tribes, like the Hottentots, '^ leave the huts they died in standing," with all their contents untouched; we are sufficiently shown that fear is a chief component of the sentiment. Shrinking from the chamber of death, often shown among ourselves, like aversion to going through a churchyard at night, arises partly from a vague dread. Common to uncivilized and civilized, this feeling colours all the ideas which the dead arouse.
Be this as it may, however, we have abundant proof that the place where the dead are, excites in savages an emotion 272 THE DATA OP SOCIOLOGY.
of fear; is approached with awe; and acquires tlie cliaracter of sacredness. Mariner tells us that in the Tonga Islands^ the cemeteries containing the great chiefs are considered sacred. We learn from Angas that when a New Zealand chief is buried in a village, the whole village becomes im- mediately tapu: no one, on pain of death, being permitted to approach it. The Tahitians, according to Cook, never repair or live in the house of one who is dead: that, and everything belonging to him, is tabooed. Food for the de- parted is left by New Zealanders in " sacred calabashes ''; in Aneiteum, where they " worship the spirits of their ances- tors,*' the groves in which they leave offerings of food for them, are " sacred groves "; and by Ashantis, the town of Bantama '4s regarded as sacred because it contains the fetish- house, which is the mausoleum of the kings of Ashanti.'* Here the fact to be noted is, that this awe excited by the dead grows into a sentiment like that excited by the places and things used for religious purposes. The kinship is forced on our attention when we read such statements as that of Cook concerning the Sandwich Islanders, that the moved seems to be their pantheon as well as their burial- place; and his kindred statement that the morais or burying- grounds of the Tahitians are also places of worship. But we shall see this relationship most clearly on tracing the genesis of temples and altars.
§ 137. Concerning the cave-inhabiting Veddahs, Bailey tells us that until very recently the dead man was left where he died: the survivors sought some other cave, leaving that in which the death occurred to the spirit of the deceased. Schweinfurth gives evidence, already named in connection with another belief, that the Bongo people could not be got to enter a certain cave which they said was haunted by the spirits of fugitives who had died in it. And in another case, Livingstone tells us that "no one dared to enter the Lohaheng, or cave, for it was the common belief that it BACBED PIACIfiB^ TEMPLES^ AND ALTARS; STC. 278 ^as the habitation of the Deity/' On recalling the fact that primitiye men lived in caves at the same time that they interred their dead in them; on adding the fact that when they ceased to use caves as residences they continued to use them as cemeteries; and on rememberings further^ the general custom of carrying repeated offerings to the places where the departed lie; we see how there arises the sacred cave or cave-temple. That the cave-temples of Egypt thus originated^ is tolerably clear. In various parts of the world are found natural caverns with rude frescoes daubed on their sides: and. similarly, these artificial caverns in wluch some EgyptiLi ki;g8 were buried, had their long passages and sepulchral chambers covered with paintings. If we assume that to the preserved bodies of these kings, as to those of Egyptians generally, offerings were made; we must infer that the sacred burial-cave had become a cave- temple. And on learning that elsewhere in Egypt are found cave-temples of a more developed kind that were not sepul- chral, we may properly regard these as derivative; for it is not to be supposed that men commenced cutting their places of worship out of the solid rock, without having a preceding habit to suggest it.
For another class of temples we have another origin caused by another mode of burial. Already reference has been made to the widely-prevalent custom of burying a dead man in his own house. The Arawaks, Schomburgh says, place the corpse in a ^' small corial (boat) and bury it in the hut.*' Humboldt tells us that by the Guiana tribes, ''a hole is dug in the hut and there the body is laid''; and among the Creeks, the habitation of a dead warrior becomes his place of interment. Similarly in Africa. By the Fantees " the dead person is buried in his own house"; the Daho- mans bury in the deceased's '' own house or in the abode of certain ancestors"; and there is house-burial among the Fulahs, the Bagos, and the Gold Coast people. Whether the house thus used tends to become a temple, depends on 274 THB DATA OF SOCIOUMT.
whether it is or is not abandoned. In cases like those cited in § 117^ where the survivors continue to inhabit it after one or more interments^ the acquirement of the sacred cha- racter is prevented. When Landa tells us of the Central Americans of Yucatan^ that^ '^ as a rule^ they abandoned the house and left it uninhabited after the burial^ unless there were many people living in it who overcame the fear of death by company *'; we are shown the rise of the senti- ment and what results from it if not checked. Hence^ on reading of the Caribs that^ ''burying the corpse in the centre of his own dwelling " [if the master of the house] the relations '' quitted the house altogether^ and erected another in a distant situation ^^; and on reading of the Brazilian Indians that a dead man '' is buried in the hut which^ if he was an adult^ is abandoned^ and another built in its stead '^; and on reading that '' the ancient Peruvians frequently buried their dead in their dwellings and then removed ''; the manifest implication is seen to be that the abandoned house^ thus left to the ghost of the deceased^ becomes a place regarded with awe. Moreover^ as repeated supplies of food are commonly taken to it; and as along with offerings there go other propitiatory acts; the original dwelling-house^ turned into a mortuary house^ acquires the attributes of a temple.
Where house-burial is not practised, the sheltering struc- ture raised above the grave or above the stage bearing the corpse, becomes the germ of the sacred building. Earl tolls us that by the New Guinea people there is " a roof of atass erected over '^ the burial-place. When found by him. Cook said the Tahitians placed the bodies of their dead upon a kind of bier supported by sticks and under a roof; and the use of such a protecting roof continued to the time when Ellis described them. So, too, in Sumatra, where " a shed is built over ' ' the grave; and so, too, in Tonga, where the burial-place includes the grave, the mound in which it is Bunk, and a sort of shed over it. Of course, this shed 8ACRSD PLACISy TKMPLIS^ AND ALTABS; ITO. 275 admits of enlargement and finish. Brooke tells us tliat the Djaks in some places build monuments for the dead like houses, 18 ft. high, ornamentally carved, hollow inside, con- taining the goods of the departed — sword, shield, paddle, etc. When, therefore, we read in the United States Explor- ing Expedition that the Fijians deposit the bodies of their chiefs and persons of note in small mbures or temples; we shall not err in concluding that these so-called temples are simply more-developed sheltering structures. The observ- ances maintained in these buildings inclosing the dead, yield further proofs of their essential nature. Ellis, describing the funeral rites of a Tahitian chief, placed under a pro- tective shed, says that the corpse was clothed, '^ and placed in a sitting posture; a small altar was erected before it, and offerings of fruit, food, and flowers, daily presented by the relatives, or the priest appointed to attend the body.^' Here the shed has become a place of worship.
Still more clearly are we shown that the structure erected over the dead body develops into a temple, by the prac- tices of the Peruvians. Acosta tells us that " the treasures, estates, and revenues of each Ynca king remained his after death, to maintain the chapel where his body was placed, the large number of servants and all his family dedicated to his worship.''
Nor is it among these inferior races alone that we trace this genesis of the temple out of the specially-provided house for the dead. That which early Spanish travellers tell us about the Peruvians, ancient Greek travellers tell us about the Egyptians. Gieza expresses his astonishment "to see how little the CoUas cared for having large and hand- some houses for the living, while they bestowed so much care on the tombs where the dead were interred"; and similarly, Diodorus, giving a reason for the meanness of the Egyptians' dwellings as contrasted with the splendour of their tombs, says — " they call the houses of the living inns, because they stay in them but a little while; but the 276 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOOT.
Bepulclires of the dead they call eyerlasting habitations.^ As these Egyptian tombs, like their houses in type though so superior in quality^ were places in which offerings to the dead were made, they were essentially temples. Not unfrequently in the East, these mortuary structures united the characters of the cave-temple and the dwelling-house temple. As in parts of Eg3rpt, as at Petra, as at Cyrene, so in Etruria, the tombs were arranged along a cliff '' like houses in a street,'' and " were severally an imitation of a dwelling chamber." So, too, the tomb of Darius, cut in the rock, '^ is an exact reproduction'' of his palace on the same scale. Just noting this variation, I may end with the remark of Mr. Fergusson, who, writing of the Chaldean temples, and indicating the likendss of the tomb of Cyrus to a temple, says '' the most celebrated example of this form is as often called [by an- cient writers] the tomb as the temple of Belus, and among a Turanian people the tomb and the temple may be con- sidered as one and the same thing."
In later times there have been manifest tendencies to such a genesis of the temple, de novo. In the oases of the Sahara, are chapels built over the remains of marabouts, or Mahometan saints; and to these chapels the pious make pilgrimages and take offerings. Obviously, too, a chapel covering the tomb of a saint within a Eoman Catholic cathedral, is a small temple within a large one. And every detached mausoleum containing the bones of a distinguished man, is visited with feelings akin to the religious, and is an incipient place of worship.
§ 138. When, from tracing the origin of the sacred chamber, be it cave, or deserted house, or special mortuary house, or temple, we proceed to trace the origin of the sacred structure within it — the altar — ^we come first to something intermediate. In India there are highly-developed sacred structures uniting the attributes of the two.
The grave-heap growing into the tumulus, which in- SACRED PLACBSj TKMPLES^ AND ALTARS; ETC. 277 creases in size with the dignity of the deceased^ deyeiops also from a simple mound of earth into a mound partly of stone and partly of earthy and finally into a stone structure^ still solid like a mound, and still somewhat mound-shaped, but highly elaborated architecturally. Instead of a sacred edifice evolved from the sepulchral chamber, we have, in the Indian Tope, a sacred edifice evolved from the grave-heap itself. '' The Tope is the lineal descendant of the tumulus," says Mr. Pergusson; or, as defined by Mr. Cunningham in his elaborate work, it is "a regularly -buiU cairn," as its name implies. Of these Indian Topes, some contain relics of Sakyd-muni; and others contain relics of his principal disciples, priests, and saints: relics only, because in the case of Sakyi-muni, parts of his remains were carried to diffe- rent places, and because, in the other cases, burning of the dead having been adopted by the Indian Buddhists, '^ the tomb became not the receptacle of a body but of a relic." As nearly as this change of practice permits, therefore, the Tope is a tomb; and the prayers offered at Topes, the pro- cessions made round them, and the adorations paid to them (as shown in the sculptures on their own surfaces), prove that they are simply solid temples instead of hollow temples. Their kinship is further implied by the significant fact that the name given to certain of them, Ohaitya, means, in Sanskrit, " an altar, a temple, as well as any monument raised on the site of a funeral pile."
Betuming from this special development of the grave- heap, to the grave-heap in its original form, we have first to recall the fact (§ 85) that among savages who bury, and who take supplies of food to the dead, the grave-heap is thereby made a heap on which offerings are placed. Here of earth or turf, there partly of stones, elsewhere of stones entirely, it has the same relation to offerings for the dead that an altar has to offerings for a deity.
Where corpses are supported on platforms, which also bear the refreshments provided for the dead, these platforms 278 THI DATA OF SOCIOLOGFT.
become practically altars; and we have eyidence that in fiome cases the altars used in the worship of deities are de- riyed from them. Cook tells us that in Tahiti^ the altars on which the natives place their offerings to the gods, are similar to the biers on which they place their dead: both are small stages^ raised on wooden pillars^ from five to seven feet high. And in the Sandwich Islands a like struc- ture was used to support the provisions taken to the grave of one of Cook's sailors. Elsewhere, neither the grave-heap simply nor the raised stage, plays the part of a stand for offerings. Ximenez tells us of the Central Americans that ''if, after the slaves had been laid in the sepulchre beside their master, any space was left, they filled it up with earth, and levelled it. They afterwards erected an altar upon the grave, a cubit high, of lime and rock, on which generally much incense was burnt, and sacrifices offered.' ' And then, among peoples who enlarge the grave-heap, this structure carrying food and drink is placed by its side; as it is before the vast tumulus of a Chinese Emperor.
Among ancient orientals the altar had a like origin. A ceremony at one of the Egyptian festivals was '' crowning the tomb of Osiris with flowers "; and in like manner they placed garlands on the sarcophagi of dead persons. Further, we read in Wilkinson that the Egyptians had altars '' outside the doors of the catacombs at Thebes." Upon these altars " are carved in bas-relief the various offerings they bore, which are the same as those represented in the paintings of tombs '': an illustration showing us that where it became developed into a support for offerings placed in front of the dead, the altar still bore traces of having origin- ally been the receptacle for the dead. One more case. As made known by their earliest recorded traditions, the Hebrews show us only modified forms of their primitive habits; but though, along with their advance from the pre-pastoral state, there was probably some divergence from their original observances of burial and sacrificej ) BiLCBSD PLACBS^ TSHFLSS^ AND ALTABS,' ETC. 279 tlieir altars as described suggest the origin here alleged. They were either of turf, and in so far like a grave^heap^ or they were of undressed stones, and in so far also like a grave-heap. Bearing in mind that, as illustrated in the use of the flint-knife for circumcision, religious usages are those which remain longest unchanged, we may suspect the cause of the restriction to undressed stones was that the use of them had persisted from the time when they formed the primitive cairn. It is true that the earliest Hebrew legends imply cave-burials, and that later burials were in artificial caves or sepulchres; but pastoral tribes, wandering over wide plains, could not constantly have buried thus. The common mode was probably that still practised by such wild Semites as the Bedouins, whose dead, Burk- faardt tells us, have " stones piled over the grave,'^ and who, Palgrave says, '' make sacrifices in which sheep or camels are devoutly slaughtered at the tombs of their dead kinsmen:'' the piled stones being thus clearly made an altar.
The usages of European races also yield evidence of this de- rivation. Here, partly from Blunt's Dictionary of Theologi/, and partly from other sources, are some of the proofs. The most ancient altar known is '' a hollow chest, on the lid or mensa of which the Eucharist was celebrated." This form was associated with '' the early Christian custom of placing the relics of martyred saints" under altars; and it is still a standing rule in the Catholic Church to enclose the relics of a saint in an altar. '^ Stone was ordered by councils of the fourth century, from an association of the altar with the sepulchre of Christ.'' Moreover, "the primitive Christians chiefly held their meetings at the tombs of the martyrs, and celebrated the mysteries of religion upon them." And to Mr. Fergusson's statement, that ^'in mediaoval Europe the sarcophagus became a stone altar," may be joined the fact that our churches still contain " altar-tombs."
Thus what we are clearly shown by the practices of pri- mitive men, is indicated also by the practices of civilized 280 THK DATA CMP 80CIOLOOT.
men. The original altar is that which supports food for the dead; and hence its yarions forms — a heap of turf, a pile of stones^ a raised stage, a stone coffin.
§ 139. Altars imply sacrifices; and we pass naturally from the genesis of the one to the genesis of the other.
Already in § 84 I have exemplified at length the practice of leaving food for the dead; and I might, space permitting, doable the number of examples. I might, too, illostrate the various motives shown us by various peoples — ^by the Lower Calif omians, among whom ''the priest demands pro- visions for the spirit's journey;" by the Coras of Mexico, who, after a man's death, '' placed some meat upon sticks about the fields, for fear he might come for the cattle he formerly owned /' by the Damaras, who, bringing provisions to the grave of a relation, request '' him to eat and make merry,'' and in return " invoke his blessing " and aid. But it is needless to do more than remind the reader that un- civilized races in general, differing however they may do in their assigned reasons, agree in making offerings of meat and drink to the dead. A truth also before illustrated (§ 85), but which, as bearing directly on the argument, it will be well to re-illustrate here, is that these offerings are repeated at intervals: in some places for a short time; in other places for a long time. Of the Nootka-Sound people we are told that " for some days after death the relatives bum salmon or venison before the tomb;" and among the Mosquito Indians, '' the widow was bound to supply the grave of her husband with provisions for a year." These are extremes between which various degrees of persistence might be placed. And when, with practices of this kind, we join such practices and interpretations as those t)f the Karen, who thinks himself surrounded by the spirits of the departed dead, " whom he has to appease by varied and un- ceasing offerings;" we cannot fail to recognize the transition from funeral gifts to religious sacrifices.
iSACRXD PLACXS^ TSMPLSS^ AKD ALTABS; BTC. 281 The kinship becomes farther manifest on observing that in both cases there are, along with offerings of the ordinary kind, festival offerings. The Karens just named as habitually making oblations, have also annual feasts for the dead, at which they ask the spirits to eat and drink. Similarly of the Bodo and Dhimals, Hodgson tells us that '^ at harvest home, they offer fruits and a fowl to deceased parents/' Snch yearly offerings, occurring in November among the natives of the Mexican Valley, who then lay animals, edibles, and flowers on the graves of their dead relatives and friends, and occurring in August among the Pueblos, who then place corn, bread, meat, etc., in the '' haunts frequented by the dead," have prevailed widely: modem Chinese still exemplifying them, as they were exemplified by the ancient Peruvians and Aztecs.
Beyond the making of offerings to deceased persons for various periods after death, and beyond these annual feasts for the dead, we have the making of offerings on occasions specially suggesting them. St. John tells that ''when passing a burial-ground, the Sea Dyaks throw on it some- thing they consider acceptable to the departed /' and ac- cording to Anderson, the Hottentots throw an offering on passing a burial-place, and ask the protection of the spirit. In Samoa, where the spirits of the dead are supposed to roam the bush, '' people in going far inland to work, would scatter food here and there as a peace-offering to them, and utter a word or two of prayer for protection.^' Development of funeral offerings into habitual sacrifices is carried a stage further in the practice of reserving for the dead a portion of each meal. Of the Fijians, Seeman tells us that '' often when the natives eat or drink anything, they throw portions of it away, stating them to be for their departed ancestors.^' Malcome says of the Bhik that always when liquor is given them, they pour a libation on the ground before drinking any; and as their dead ancestors are their deities, the meaning of this practice is unmistakable. So, 282 THE DATA OF BOCIOLOGT.
too^ we learn from Smith tliat the Arancanians spill a litde of their drink^ and scatter a little of their food^ before eating and drinking; and^ according to Draiy^ the Yirzim- bers of Madagascar, when they sit down to meals, '' take a bit of meat and throw it over their heads, saying — ' There's a bit for the spirit/" Ancient historic races bad like ways.
The motive for these offerings, made first to the corpse of the dead man and afterwards at his grave — ^the motive for these occasional feasts and for these daily shares of meals, is everywhere the same, and is often avowed. We read in Livingstone that a Berotse having a headache said, *'' My father is scolding me because I do not give him any of the food I eat/ I asked him where his &ther was. 'Among the Barimo,' [gods] was the reply." The Elaffirs, who are described by Grardiner as attributing every untoward event to the spirit of a deceased person, and as '^ slaughtering a beast to propitiate its favour,'^ show us the same thing. So do the Amaznlu. '^ There, then, is your food," they say: *' all ye spirits of our tribe, summon one another. I am not going to say, ' So-and-so, there is your food,* for you are jealous. But thou. So-and-so, who art making this man ill, call all the spirits; come all of you to eat this food."
Alike in motive and in method, this offering of food and drink to the dead man is paralleled by the offering of food and drink to a deity. Observe the points of community. The giving of portions of meals is common to the two. Cook tells us that in the Sandwich Islands, before the priests begin a meal, they offer up a sort of prayer, and then offer some of the provisions to the deity. As with these Polynesians, so with the Homeric Greeks: '^ the share which is given to the gods of the wine that flows, and the flesh that smokes on the festal board,'' corresponds with the share cast aside by savages for the ancestral spirits. The like is true of the larger oblations on special occasions. Sacrifices made to gain Sacred places^ txmplbs^ and altabs; btc. 28S