Chapter 53. The Propitiation of Wild Animals By Hunters.
THE EXPLANATION of life by the theory of an indwelling and practically
immortal soul is one which the savage does not confine to human beings
but extends to the animate creation in general. In so doing he is more
liberal and perhaps more logical than the civilised man, who commonly
denies to animals that privilege of immortality which he claims for himself.
The savage is not so proud; he commonly believes that animals are
endowed with feelings and intelligence like those of men, and that, like
men, they possess souls which survive the death of their bodies either to
wander about as disembodied spirits or to be born again in animal form. 1
Thus to the savage, who regards all living creatures as practically on a
footing of equality with man, the act of killing and eating an animal must
wear a very different aspect from that which the same act presents to us,
who regard the intelligence of animals as far inferior to our own and deny
them the possession of immortal souls. Hence on the principles of his rude
philosophy the primitive hunter who slays an animal believes himself
exposed to the vengeance either of its disembodied spirit or of all the other
animals of the same species, whom he considers as knit together, like men,
by the ties of kin and the obligations of the blood feud, and therefore as
bound to resent the injury done to one of their number. Accordingly the
savage makes it a rule to spare the life of those animals which he has no
pressing motive for killing, at least such fierce and dangerous animals as
are likely to exact a bloody vengeance for the slaughter of one of their
kind. Crocodiles are animals of this sort. They are only found in hot
countries, where, as a rule, food is abundant and primitive man has
therefore little reason to kill them for the sake of their tough and unpalatable
flesh. Hence it is a custom with some savages to spare crocodiles, or rather
only to kill them in obedience to the law of blood feud, that is, as a
retaliation for the slaughter of men by crocodiles. For example, the Dyaks
of Borneo will not kill a crocodile unless a crocodile has first killed a man.
"For why, say they, should they commit an act of aggression, when he and
his kindred can so easily repay them? But should the alligator take a
human life, revenge becomes a sacred duty of the living relatives, who will
trap the man-eater in the spirit of an officer of justice pursuing a criminal.
Others, even then, hang back, reluctant to embroil themselves in a quarrel
which does not concern them. The man-eating alligator is supposed to be
pursued by a righteous Nemesis; and whenever one is caught they have a
profound conviction that it must be the guilty one, or his accomplice." 2
Like the Dyaks, the natives of Madagascar never kill a crocodile "except
in retaliation for one of their friends who has been destroyed by a
crocodile. They believe that the wanton destruction of one of these reptiles
will be followed by the loss of human life, in accordance with the principle
of lex talionis." The people who live near the lake Itasy in Madagascar
make a yearly proclamation to the crocodiles, announcing that they will
revenge the death of some of their friends by killing as many crocodiles in
return, and warning all well-disposed crocodiles to keep out of the way, as
they have no quarrel with them, but only with their evil-minded relations
who have taken human life. Various tribes of Madagascar believe
themselves to be descended from crocodiles, and accordingly they view
the scaly reptile as, to all intents and purposes, a man and a brother. If one
of the animals should so far forget himself as to devour one of his human
kinsfolk, the chief of the tribe, or in his absence an old man familiar with the
tribal customs, repairs at the head of the people to the edge of the water,
and summons the family of the culprit to deliver him up to the arm of justice.
A hook is then baited and cast into the river or lake. Next day the guilty
brother, or one of his family, is dragged ashore, and after his crime has
been clearly brought home to him by a strict interrogation, he is sentenced
to death and executed. The claims of justice being thus satisfied and the
majesty of the law fully vindicated, the deceased crocodile is lamented and
buried like a kinsman; a mound is raised over his relics and a stone marks
the place of his head. 3
Again, the tiger is another of those dangerous beasts whom the savage
prefers to leave alone, lest by killing one of the species he should excite
the hostility of the rest. No consideration will induce a Sumatran to catch or
wound a tiger except in self-defence or immediately after a tiger has
destroyed a friend or relation. When a European has set traps for tigers, the
people of the neighbourhood have been known to go by night to the place
and explain to the animals that the traps are not set by them nor with their
consent. The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall, in Bengal, are very
averse to killing a tiger, unless one of their kinsfolk has been carried off by
one of the beasts. In that case they go out for the purpose of hunting and
slaying a tiger; and when they have succeeded they lay their bows and
arrows on the carcase and invoke God, declaring that they slew the animal
in retaliation for the loss of a kinsman. Vengeance having been thus taken,
they swear not to attack another tiger except under similar provocation. 4
The Indians of Carolina would not molest snakes when they came upon
them, but would pass by on the other side of the path, believing that if they
were to kill a serpent, the reptile's kindred would destroy some of their
brethren, friends, or relations in return. So the Seminole Indians spared the
rattlesnake, because they feared that the soul of the dead rattlesnake would
incite its kinsfolk to take vengeance. The Cherokee regard the rattlesnake
as the chief of the snake tribe and fear and respect him accordingly. Few
Cherokee will venture to kill a rattlesnake, unless they cannot help it, and
even then they must atone for the crime by craving pardon of the snake's
ghost either in their own person or through the mediation of a priest,
according to a set formula. If these precautions are neglected, the kinsfolk
of the dead snake will send one of their number as an avenger of blood,
who will track down the murderer and sting him to death. No ordinary
Cherokee dares to kill a wolf, if he can possibly help it; for he believes that
the kindred of the slain beast would surely avenge its death, and that the
weapon with which the deed had been done would be quite useless for the
future, unless it were cleaned and exorcised by a medicine-man. However,
certain persons who know the proper rites of atonement for such a crime
can kill wolves with impunity, and they are sometimes hired to do so by
people who have suffered from the raids of the wolves on their cattle or
fish-traps. In Jebel-Nuba, a district of the Eastern Sudan, it is forbidden to
touch the nests or remove the young of a species of black birds,
resembling our blackbirds, because the people believe that the parent birds
would avenge the wrong by causing a stormy wind to blow, which would
destroy the harvest. 5
But the savage clearly cannot afford to spare all animals. He must either
eat some of them or starve, and when the question thus comes to be
whether he or the animal must perish, he is forced to overcome his
superstitious scruples and take the life of the beast. At the same time he
does all he can to appease his victims and their kinsfolk. Even in the act of
killing them he testifies his respect for them, endeavours to excuse or even
conceal his share in procuring their death, and promises that their remains
will be honourably treated. By thus robbing death of its terrors, he hopes to
reconcile his victims to their fate and to induce their fellows to come and be
killed also. For example, it was a principle with the Kamtchatkans never to
kill a land or sea animal without first making excuses to it and begging that
the animal would not take it ill. Also they offered it cedarnuts and so forth,
to make it think that it was not a victim but a guest at a feast. They believed
that this hindered other animals of the same species from growing shy. For
instance, after they had killed a bear and feasted on its flesh, the host
would bring the bear's head before the company, wrap it in grass, and
present it with a variety of trifles. Then he would lay the blame of the bear's
death on the Russians, and bid the beast wreak his wrath upon them. Also
he would ask the bear to inform the other bears how well he had been
treated, that they too might come without fear. Seals, sea-lions, and other
animals were treated by the Kamtchatkans with the same ceremonious
respect. Moreover, they used to insert sprigs of a plant resembling bear's
wort in the mouths of the animals they killed; after which they would exhort
the grinning skulls to have no fear but to go and tell it to their fellows, that
they also might come and be caught and so partake of this splendid
hospitality. When the Ostiaks have hunted and killed a bear, they cut off its
head and hang it on a tree. Then they gather round in a circle and pay it
divine honours. Next they run towards the carcase uttering lamentations
and saying, "Who killed you? It was the Russians. Who cut off your head?
It was a Russian axe. Who skinned you? It was a knife made by a Russian."
They explain, too, that the feathers which sped the arrow on its flight came
from the wing of a strange bird, and that they did nothing but let the arrow
go. They do all this because they believe that the wandering ghost of the
slain bear would attack them on the first opportunity, if they did not thus
appease it. Or they stuff the skin of the slain bear with hay; and after
celebrating their victory with songs of mockery and insult, after spitting on
and kicking it, they set it up on its hind legs, "and then, for a considerable
time, they bestow on it all the veneration due to a guardian god." When a
party of Koryak have killed a bear or a wolf, they skin the beast and dress
one of themselves in the skin. Then they dance round the skin-clad man,
saying that it was not they who killed the animal, but some one else,
generally a Russian. When they kill a fox they skin it, wrap the body in
grass, and bid him go tell his companions how hospitably he has been
received, and how he has received a new cloak instead of his old one. A
fuller account of the Koryak ceremonies is given by a more recent writer.
He tells us that when a dead bear is brought to the house, the women come
out to meet it, dancing with firebrands. The bear-skin is taken off along with
the head; and one of the women puts on the skin, dances in it, and entreats
the bear not to be angry, but to be kind to the people. At the same time they
offer meat on a wooden platter to the dead beast, saying, "Eat, friend."
Afterwards a ceremony is performed for the purpose of sending the dead
bear, or rather his spirit, away back to his home. He is provided with
provisions for the journey in the shape of puddings or reindeer-flesh
packed in a grass bag. His skin is stuffed with grass and carried round the
house, after which he is supposed to depart towards the rising sun. The
intention of the ceremonies is to protect the people from the wrath of the
slain bear and his kinsfolk, and so to ensure success in future bear-hunts.
The Finns used to try to persuade a slain bear that he had not been killed
by them, but had fallen from a tree, or met his death in some other way;
moreover, they held a funeral festival in his honour, at the close of which
bards expatiated on the homage that had been paid to him, urging him to
report to the other bears the high consideration with which he had been
treated, in order that they also, following his example, might come and be
slain. When the Lapps had succeeded in killing a bear with impunity, they
thanked him for not hurting them and for not breaking the clubs and spears
which had given him his death wounds; and they prayed that he would not
visit his death upon them by sending storms or in any other way. His flesh
then furnished a feast. 6
The reverence of hunters for the bear whom they regularly kill and eat
may thus be traced all along the northern region of the Old World from
Bering's Straits to Lappland. It reappears in similar forms in North America.
With the American Indians a bear hunt was an important event for which
they prepared by long fasts and purgations. Before setting out they offered
expiatory sacrifices to the souls of bears slain in previous hunts, and
besought them to be favourable to the hunters. When a bear was killed the
hunter lit his pipe, and putting the mouth of it between the bear's lips, blew
into the bowl, filling the beast's mouth with smoke. Then he begged the bear
not to be angry at having been killed, and not to thwart him afterwards in
the chase. The carcase was roasted whole and eaten; not a morsel of the
flesh might be left over. The head, painted red and blue, was hung on a
post and addressed by orators, who heaped praise on the dead beast.
When men of the Bear clan in the Ottawa tribe killed a bear, they made him
a feast of his own flesh, and addressed him thus: "Cherish us no grudge
because we have killed you. You have sense; you see that our children
are hungry. They love you and wish to take you into their bodies. Is it not
glorious to be eaten by the children of a chief?" Amongst the Nootka
Indians of British Columbia, when a bear had been killed, it was brought in
and seated before the head chief in an upright posture, with a chief's
bonnet, wrought in figures, on its head, and its fur powdered over with
white down. A tray of provisions was then set before it, and it was invited
by words and gestures to eat. After that the animal was skinned, boiled,
and eaten. 7
A like respect is testified for other dangerous creatures by the hunters
who regularly trap and kill them. When Caffre hunters are in the act of
showering spears on an elephant, they call out, "Don't kill us, great
captain; don't strike or tread upon us, mighty chief." When he is dead they
make their excuses to him, pretending that his death was a pure accident.
As a mark of respect they bury his trunk with much solemn ceremony; for
they say that "the elephant is a great lord; his trunk is his hand." Before the
Amaxosa Caffres attack an elephant they shout to the animal and beg him
to pardon them for the slaughter they are about to perpetrate, professing
great submission to his person and explaining clearly the need they have
of his tusks to enable them to procure beads and supply their wants. When
they have killed him they bury in the ground, along with the end of his
trunk, a few of the articles they have obtained for the ivory, thus hoping to
avert some mishap that would otherwise befall them. Amongst some tribes of
Eastern Africa, when a lion is killed, the carcase is brought before the king,
who does homage to it by prostrating himself on the ground and rubbing his
face on the muzzle of the beast. In some parts of Western Africa if a negro
kills a leopard he is bound fast and brought before the chiefs for having
killed one of their peers. The man defends himself on the plea that the
leopard is chief of the forest and therefore a stranger. He is then set at
liberty and rewarded. But the dead leopard, adorned with a chief's bonnet,
is set up in the village, where nightly dances are held in its honour. The
Baganda greatly fear the ghosts of buffaloes which they have killed, and
they always appease these dangerous spirits. On no account will they
bring the head of a slain buffalo into a village or into a garden of plantains:
they always eat the flesh of the head in the open country. Afterwards they
place the skull in a small hut built for the purpose, where they pour out beer
as an offering and pray to the ghost to stay where he is and not to harm
them. 8
Another formidable beast whose life the savage hunter takes with joy, yet
with fear and trembling, is the whale. After the slaughter of a whale the
maritime Koryak of North-eastern Siberia hold a communal festival, the
essential part of which "is based on the conception that the whale killed
has come on a visit to the village; that it is staying for some time, during
which it is treated with great respect; that it then returns to the sea to repeat
its visit the following year; that it will induce its relatives to come along,
telling them of the hospitable reception that has been accorded to it.
According to the Koryak ideas, the whales, like all other animals, constitute
one tribe, or rather family, of related individuals, who live in villages like
the Koryak. They avenge the murder of one of their number, and are
grateful for kindnesses that they may have received." When the inhabitants
of the Isle of St. Mary, to the north of Madagascar, go a-whaling, they
single out the young whales for attack and "humbly beg the mother's
pardon, stating the necessity that drives them to kill her progeny, and
requesting that she will be pleased to go below while the deed is doing,
that her maternal feelings may not be outraged by witnessing what must
cause her so much uneasiness." An Ajumba hunter having killed a female
hippopotamus on Lake Azyingo in West Africa, the animal was decapitated
and its quarters and bowels removed. Then the hunter, naked, stepped into
the hollow of the ribs, and kneeling down in the bloody pool washed his
whole body with the blood and excretions of the animal, while he prayed to
the soul of the hippopotamus not to bear him a grudge for having killed her
and so blighted her hopes of future maternity; and he further entreated the
ghost not to stir up other hippopotamuses to avenge her death by butting at
and capsizing his canoe. 9
The ounce, a leopard-like creature, is dreaded for its depredations by the
Indians of Brazil. When they have caught one of these animals in a snare,
they kill it and carry the body home to the village. There the women deck
the carcase with feathers of many colours, put bracelets on its legs, and
weep over it, saying, "I pray thee not to take vengeance on our little ones
for having been caught and killed through thine own ignorance. For it was
not we who deceived thee, it was thyself. Our husbands only set the trap to
catch animals that are good to eat; they never thought to take thee in it.
Therefore, let not thy soul counsel thy fellows to avenge thy death on our
little ones!" When a Blackfoot Indian has caught eagles in a trap and killed
them, he takes them home to a special lodge, called the eagles' lodge,
which has been prepared for their reception outside of the camp. Here he
sets the birds in a row on the ground, and propping up their heads on a
stick, puts a piece of dried meat in each of their mouths in order that the
spirits of the dead eagles may go and tell the other eagles how well they
are being treated by the Indians. So when Indian hunters of the Orinoco
region have killed an animal, they open its mouth and pour into it a few
drops of the liquor they generally carry with them, in order that the soul of
the dead beast may inform its fellows of the welcome it has met with, and
that they too, cheered by the prospect of the same kind reception, may
come with alacrity to be killed. When a Teton Indian is on a journey, and
he meets a grey spider or a spider with yellow legs, he kills it, because
some evil would befall him if he did not. But he is very careful not to let the
spider know that he kills it, for if the spider knew, his soul would go and tell
the other spiders, and one of them would be sure to avenge the death of
his relation. So in crushing the insect, the Indian says, "O Grandfather
Spider, the Thunder-beings kill you." And the spider is crushed at once
and believes what is told him. His soul probably runs and tells the other
spiders that the Thunder-beings have killed him; but no harm comes of that.
For what can grey or yellow-legged spiders do to the
Thunder-beings? 10
But it is not merely dangerous creatures with whom the savage desires to
keep on good terms. It is true that the respect which he pays to wild beasts
is in some measure proportioned to their strength and ferocity. Thus the
savage Stiens of Cambodia, believing that all animals have souls which
roam about after their death, beg an animal's pardon when they kill it, lest
its soul should come and torment them. Also they offer it sacrifices, but
these sacrifices are proportioned to the size and strength of the animal. The
ceremonies which they observe at the death of an elephant are conducted
with much pomp and last seven days. Similar distinctions are drawn by
North American Indians. "The bear, the buffalo, and the beaver are
manidos [divinities] which furnish food. The bear is formidable, and good to
eat. They render ceremonies to him, begging him to allow himself to be
eaten, although they know he has no fancy for it. We kill you, but you are
not annihilated. His head and paws are objects of homage... . Other animals
are treated similarly from similar reasons... . Many of the animal manidos,
not being dangerous, are often treated with contempt-the terrapin, the
weasel, polecat, etc." The distinction is instructive. Animals which are
feared, or are good to eat, or both, are treated with ceremonious respect;
those which are neither formidable nor good to eat are despised. We have
had examples of reverence paid to animals which are both feared and
eaten. It remains to prove that similar respect is shown to animals which,
without being feared, are either eaten or valued for their skins. 11
When Siberian sable-hunters have caught a sable, no one is allowed to
see it, and they think that if good or evil be spoken of the captured sable
no more sables will be caught. A hunter has been known to express his
belief that the sables could hear what was said of them as far off as
Moscow. He said that the chief reason why the sable hunt was now so
unproductive was that some live sables had been sent to Moscow. There
they had been viewed with astonishment as strange animals, and the
sables cannot abide that. Another, though minor, cause of the diminished
take of sables was, he alleged, that the world is now much worse than it
used to be, so that nowadays a hunter will sometimes hide the sable which
he has got instead of putting it into the common stock. This also, said he,
the sables cannot abide. Alaskan hunters preserve the bones of sables and
beavers out of reach of the dogs for a year and then bury them carefully,
"lest the spirits who look after the beavers and sables should consider that
they are regarded with contempt, and hence no more should be killed or
trapped." The Canadian Indians were equally particular not to let their dogs
gnaw the bones, or at least certain of the bones, of beavers. They took the
greatest pains to collect and preserve these bones, and, when the beaver
had been caught in a net, they threw them into the river. To a Jesuit who
argued that the beavers could not possibly know what became of their
bones, the Indians replied, "You know nothing about catching beavers and
yet you will be prating about it. Before the beaver is stone dead, his soul
takes a turn in the hut of the man who is killing him and makes a careful
note of what is done with his bones. If the bones are given to the dogs, the
other beavers would get word of it and would not let themselves be caught.
Whereas, if their bones are thrown into the fire or a river, they are quite
satisfied; and it is particularly gratifying to the net which caught them."
Before hunting the beaver they offered a solemn prayer to the Great
Beaver, and presented him with tobacco; and when the chase was over,
an orator pronounced a funeral oration over the dead beavers. He praised
their spirit and wisdom. "You will hear no more," said he, "the voice of the
chieftains who commanded you and whom you chose from among all the
warrior beavers to give you laws. Your language, which the medicine-men
understand perfectly, will be heard no more at the bottom of the lake. You
will fight no more battles with the otters, your cruel foes. No, beavers! But
your skins shall serve to buy arms; we will carry your smoked hams to our
children; we will keep the dogs from eating your bones, which are so
hard." 12
The elan, deer, and elk were treated by the American Indians with the
same punctilious respect, and for the same reason. Their bones might not
be given to the dogs nor thrown into the fire, nor might their fat be dropped
upon the fire, because the souls of the dead animals were believed to see
what was done to their bodies and to tell it to the other beasts, living and
dead. Hence, if their bodies were illused, the animals of that species would
not allow themselves to be taken, neither in this world nor in the world to
come. Among the Chiquites of Paraguay a sick man would be asked by the
medicine-man whether he had not thrown away some of the flesh of the
deer or turtle, and if he answered yes, the medicine-man would say, "That
is what is killing you. The soul of the deer or turtle has entered into your
body to avenge the wrong you did it." The Canadian Indians would not eat
the embryos of the elk, unless at the close of the hunting season; otherwise
the mother-elks would be shy and refuse to be caught. 13
In the Timor-laut islands of the Indian Archipelago the skulls of all the
turtles which a fisherman has caught are hung up under his house. Before
he goes out to catch another, he addresses himself to the skull of the last
turtle that he killed, and having inserted betel between its jaws, he prays
the spirit of the dead animal to entice its kinsfolk in the sea to come and be
caught. In the Poso district of Central Celebes hunters keep the jawbones
of deer and wild pigs which they have killed and hang them up in their
houses near the fire. Then they say to the jawbones, "Ye cry after your
comrades, that your grandfathers, or nephews, or children may not go
away." Their notion is that the souls of the dead deer and pigs tarry near
their jawbones and attract the souls of living deer and pigs, which are thus
drawn into the toils of the hunter. Thus the wily savage employs dead
animals as decoys to lure living animals to their doom. 14
The Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco love to hunt the ostrich, but when
they have killed one of these birds and are bringing home the carcase to
the village, they take steps to outwit the resentful ghost of their victim. They
think that when the first natural shock of death is passed, the ghost of the
ostrich pulls himself together and makes after his body. Acting on this sage
calculation, the Indians pluck feathers from the breast of the bird and strew
them at intervals along the track. At every bunch of feathers the ghost stops
to consider, "Is this the whole of my body or only a part of it?" The doubt
gives him pause, and when at last he has made up his mind fully at all the
bunches, and has further wasted valuable time by the zigzag course which
he invariably pursues in going from one to another, the hunters are safe at
home, and the bilked ghost may stalk in vain round about the village, which
he is too timid to enter. 15
The Esquimaux about Bering Strait believe that the souls of dead
sea-beasts, such as seals, walrus, and whales, remain attached to their
bladders, and that by returning the bladders to the sea they can cause the
souls to be reincarnated in fresh bodies and so multiply the game which the
hunters pursue and kill. Acting on this belief every hunter carefully removes
and preserves the bladders of all the sea-beasts that he kills; and at a
solemn festival held once a year in winter these bladders, containing the
souls of all the sea-beasts that have been killed throughout the year, are
honoured with dances and offerings of food in the public assembly-room,
after which they are taken out on the ice and thrust through holes into the
water; for the simple Esquimaux imagine that the souls of the animals, in
high good humour at the kind treatment they have experienced, will
thereafter be born again as seals, walrus, and whales, and in that form will
flock willingly to be again speared, harpooned, or otherwise done to death
by the hunters. 16
For like reasons, a tribe which depends for its subsistence, chiefly or in
part, upon fishing is careful to treat the fish with every mark of honour and
respect. The Indians of Peru "adored the fish that they caught in greatest
abundance; for they said that the first fish that was made in the world above
(for so they named Heaven) gave birth to all other fish of that species, and
took care to send them plenty of its children to sustain their tribe. For this
reason they worshipped sardines in one region, where they killed more of
them than of any other fish; in others, the skate; in others, the dogfish; in
others, the golden fish for its beauty; in others, the crawfish; in others, for
want of larger gods, the crabs, where they had no other fish, or where they
knew not how to catch and kill them. In short, they had whatever fish was
most serviceable to them as their gods." The Kwakiutl Indians of British
Columbia think that when a salmon is killed its soul returns to the salmon
country. Hence they take care to throw the bones and offal into the sea, in
order that the soul may reanimate them at the resurrection of the salmon.
Whereas if they burned the bones the soul would be lost, and so it would
be quite impossible for that salmon to rise from the dead. In like manner the
Ottawa Indians of Canada, believing that the souls of dead fish passed into
other bodies of fish, never burned fish bones, for fear of displeasing the
souls of the fish, who would come no more to the nets. The Hurons also
refrained from throwing fish bones into the fire, lest the souls of the fish
should go and warn the other fish not to let themselves be caught, since
the Hurons would burn their bones. Moreover, they had men who preached
to the fish and persuaded them to come and be caught. A good preacher
was much sought after, for they thought that the exhortations of a clever
man had a great effect in drawing the fish to the nets. In the Huron fishing
village where the French missionary Sagard stayed, the preacher to the
fish prided himself very much on his eloquence, which was of a florid order.
Every evening after supper, having seen that all the people were in their
places and that a strict silence was observed, he preached to the fish. His
text was that the Hurons did not burn fish bones. "Then enlarging on this
theme with extraordinary unction, he exhorted and conjured and invited
and implored the fish to come and be caught and to be of good courage
and to fear nothing, for it was all to serve their friends who honoured them
and did not burn their bones." The natives of the Duke of York Island
annually decorate a canoe with flowers and ferns, lade it, or are supposed
to lade it, with shell-money, and set it adrift to compensate the fish for their
fellows who have been caught and eaten. It is especially necessary to treat
the first fish caught with consideration in order to conciliate the rest of the
fish, whose conduct may be supposed to be influenced by the reception
given to those of their kind which were the first to be taken. Accordingly the
Maoris always put back into the sea the first fish caught, "with a prayer that
it may tempt other fish to come and be caught." 17
Still more stringent are the precautions taken when the fish are the first of
the season. On salmon rivers, when the fish begin to run up the stream in
spring, they are received with much deference by tribes who, like the
Indians of the Pacific Coast of North America, subsist largely upon a fish
diet. In British Columbia the Indians used to go out to meet the first fish as
they came up the river: "They paid court to them, and would address them
thus: `You fish, you fish; you are all chiefs, you are; you are all chiefs.'"
Amongst the Tlingit of Alaska the first halibut of the season is carefully
handled and addressed as a chief, and a festival is given in his honour,
after which the fishing goes on. In spring, when the winds blow soft from the
south and the salmon begin to run up the Klamath river, the Karoks of
California dance for salmon, to ensure a good catch. One of the Indians,
called the Kareya or God-man, retires to the mountains and fasts for ten
days. On his return the people flee, while he goes to the river, takes the
first salmon of the catch, eats some of it, and with the rest kindles the
sacred fire in the sweating house. "No Indian may take a salmon before this
dance is held, nor for ten days after it, even if his family are starving." The
Karoks also believe that a fisherman will take no salmon if the poles of
which his spearing-booth is made were gathered on the river-side, where
the salmon might have seen them. The poles must be brought from the top
of the highest mountain. The fisherman will also labour in vain if he uses the
same poles a second year in booths or weirs, "because the old salmon will
have told the young ones about them. There is a favourite fish of the Aino
which appears in their rivers about May and June. They prepare for the
fishing by observing rules of ceremonial purity, and when they have gone
out to fish, the women at home must keep strict silence or the fish would
hear them and disappear. When the first fish is caught he is brought home
and passed through a small opening at the end of the hut, but not through
the door; for if he were passed through the door, "the other fish would
certainly see him and disappear." This may partly explain the custom
observed by other savages of bringing game in certain cases into their
huts, not by the door, but by the window, the smoke-hole, or by a special
opening at the back of the hut. 18
With some savages a special reason for respecting the bones of game,
and generally of the animals which they eat, is a belief that, if the bones
are preserved, they will in course of time be reclothed with flesh, and thus
the animal will come to life again. It is, therefore, clearly for the interest of
the hunter to leave the bones intact since to destroy them would be to
diminish the future supply of game. Many of the Minnetaree Indians
"believe that the bones of those bisons which they have slain and divested
of flesh rise again clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened with life, and
become fat, and fit for slaughter the succeeding June." Hence on the
western prairies of America, the skulls of buffaloes may be seen arranged
in circles and symmetrical piles, awaiting the resurrection. After feasting on
a dog, the Dacotas carefully collect the bones, scrape, wash, and bury
them, "partly, as it is said, to testify to the dog-species, that in feasting
upon one of their number no disrespect was meant to the species itself, and
partly also from a belief that the bones of the animal will rise and reproduce
another." In sacrificing an animal the Lapps regularly put aside the bones,
eyes, ears, heart, lungs, sexual parts (if the animal was a male), and a
morsel of flesh from each limb. Then, after eating the remainder of the flesh,
they laid the bones and the rest in anatomical order in a coffin and buried
them with the usual rites, believing that the god to whom the animal was
sacrificed would reclothe the bones with flesh and restore the animal to life
in Jabme-Aimo, the subterranean world of the dead. Sometimes, as after
feasting on a bear, they seem to have contented themselves with thus
burying the bones. Thus the Lapps expected the resurrection of the slain
animal to take place in another world, resembling in this respect the
Kamtchatkans, who believed that every creature, down to the smallest fly,
would rise from the dead and live underground. On the other hand, the
North American Indians looked for the resurrection of the animals in the
present world. The habit, observed especially by Mongolian peoples, of
stuffing the skin of a sacrificed animal, or stretching it on a framework,
points rather to a belief in a resurrection of the latter sort. The objection
commonly entertained by primitive peoples to break the bones of the
animals which they have eaten or sacrificed may be based either on a
belief in the resurrection of the animals, or on a fear of intimidating other
creatures of the same species and offending the ghosts of the slain animals.
The reluctance of North American Indians and Esquimaux to let dogs gnaw
the bones of animals is perhaps only a precaution to prevent the bones
from being broken. 19
But after all the resurrection of dead game may have its inconveniences,
and accordingly some hunters take steps to prevent it by hamstringing the
animal so as to prevent it or its ghost from getting up and running away.
This is the motive alleged for the practice by Koui hunters in Laos; they
think that the spells which they utter in the chase may lose their magical
virtue, and that the slaughtered animal may consequently come to life again
and escape. To prevent that catastrophe they therefore hamstring the beast
as soon as they have butchered it. When an Esquimau of Alaska has killed
a fox, he carefully cuts the tendons of all the animal's legs in order to
prevent the ghost from reanimating the body and walking about. But
hamstringing the carcase is not the only measure which the prudent savage
adopts for the sake of disabling the ghost of his victim. In old days, when
the Aino went out hunting and killed a fox first, they took care to tie its
mouth up tightly in order to prevent the ghost of the animal from sallying
forth and warning its fellows against the approach of the hunter. The
Gilyaks of the Amoor River put out the eyes of the seals they have killed,
lest the ghosts of the slain animals should know their slayers and avenge
their death by spoiling the seal-hunt. 20
Besides the animals which primitive man dreads for their strength and
ferocity, and those which he reveres on account of the benefits which he
expects from them, there is another class of creatures which he sometimes
deems it necessary to conciliate by worship and sacrifice. These are the
vermin that infest his crops and his cattle. To rid himself of these deadly
foes the farmer has recourse to many superstitious devices, of which,
though some are meant to destroy or intimidate the vermin, others aim at
propitiating them and persuading them by fair means to spare the fruits of
the earth and the herds. Thus Esthonian peasants, in the island of Oesel,
stand in great awe of the weevil, an insect which is exceedingly
destructive to the grain. They give it a fine name, and if a child is about to
kill a weevil they say, "Don't do it; the more we hurt him, the more he hurts
us." If they find a weevil they bury it in the earth instead of killing it. Some
even put the weevil under a stone in the field and offer corn to it. They
think that thus it is appeased and does less harm. Amongst the Saxons of
Transylvania, in order to keep sparrows from the corn, the sower begins by
throwing the first handful of seed backwards over his head, saying, "That is
for you, sparrows." To guard the corn against the attacks of leaf-flies he
shuts his eyes and scatters three handfuls of oats in different directions.
Having made this offering to the leaf-flies he feels sure that they will spare
the corn. A Transylvanian way of securing the crops against all birds,
beasts, and insects, is this: after he has finished sowing, the sower goes
once more from end to end of the field imitating the gesture of sowing, but
with an empty hand. As he does so he says, "I sow this for the animals; I
sow it for every thing that flies and creeps, that walks and stands, that sings
and springs, in the name of God the Father, etc." The following is a German
way of freeing a garden from caterpillars. After sunset or at midnight the
mistress of the house, or another female member of the family, walks all
round the garden dragging a broom after her. She may not look behind her,
and must keep murmuring, "Good evening, Mother Caterpillar, you shall
come with your husband to church." The garden gate is left open till the
following morning. 21
Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer aims at hitting a happy mean
between excessive rigour on the one hand and weak indulgence on the
other; kind but firm, he tempers severity with mercy. An ancient Greek
treatise on farming advises the husbandman who would rid his lands of
mice to act thus: "Take a sheet of paper and write on it as follows: `I adjure
you, ye mice here present, that ye neither injure me nor suffer another
mouse to do so. I give you yonder field' (here you specify the field); `but if
ever I catch you here again, by the Mother of the Gods I will rend you in
seven pieces.' Write this, and stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the
field before sunrise, taking care to keep the written side up." In the
Ardennes they say that to get rid of rats you should repeat the following
words: "Erat verbum, apud Deum vestrum. Male rats and female rats, I
conjure you, by the great God, to go out of my house, out of all my
habitations, and to betake yourselves to such and such a place, there to
end your days. Decretis, reversis et desembarassis virgo potens, clemens,
justitiae." Then write the same words on pieces of paper, fold them up, and
place one of them under the door by which the rats are to go forth, and the
other on the road which they are to take. This exorcism should be
performed at sunrise. Some years ago an American farmer was reported to
have written a civil letter to the rats, telling them that his crops were short,
that he could not afford to keep them through the winter, that he had been
very kind to them, and that for their own good he thought they had better
leave him and go to some of his neighbours who had more grain. This
document he pinned to a post in his barn for the rats to read. 22
Sometimes the desired object is supposed to be attained by treating with
high distinction one or two chosen individuals of the obnoxious species,
while the rest are pursued with relentless rigour. In the East Indian island of
Bali, the mice which ravage the rice-fields are caught in great numbers,
and burned in the same way that corpses are burned. But two of the
captured mice are allowed to live, and receive a little packet of white linen.
Then the people bow down before them, as before gods, and let them go.
When the farms of the Sea Dyaks or Ibans of Sarawak are much pestered
by birds and insects, they catch a specimen of each kind of vermin (one
sparrow, one grasshopper, and so on), put them in a tiny boat of bark
well-stocked with provisions, and then allow the little vessel with its
obnoxious passengers to float down the river. If that does not drive the
pests away, the Dyaks resort to what they deem a more effectual mode of
accomplishing the same purpose. They make a clay crocodile as large as
life and set it up in the fields, where they offer it food, rice-spirit, and cloth,
and sacrifice a fowl and a pig before it. Mollified by these attentions, the
ferocious animal very soon gobbles up all the creatures that devour the
crops. In Albania, if the fields or vineyards are ravaged by locusts or
beetles, some of the women will assemble with dishevelled hair, catch a
few of the insects, and march with them in a funeral procession to a spring
or stream, in which they drown the creatures. Then one of the women
sings, "O locusts and beetles who have left us bereaved," and the dirge is
taken up and repeated by all the women in chorus. Thus by celebrating the
obsequies of a few locusts and beetles, they hope to bring about the death
of them all. When caterpillars invaded a vineyard or field in Syria, the
virgins were gathered, and one of the caterpillars was taken and a girl
made its mother. Then they bewailed and buried it. Thereafter they
conducted the "mother" to the place where the caterpillars were, consoling
her, in order that all the caterpillars might leave the garden. 23