Chapter 56. The Public Expulsion of Evils.
Section 1. The Omnipresence of Demons.
IN THE FOREGOING chapter the primitive principle of the transference of
ills to another person, animal, or thing was explained and illustrated. But
similar means have been adopted to free a whole community from diverse
evils that afflict it. Such attempts to dismiss at once the accumulated
sorrows of a people are by no means rare or exceptional; on the contrary
they have been made in many lands, and from being occasional they tend
to become periodic and annual. 1
It needs some effort on our part to realise the frame of mind which prompts
these attempts. Bred in a philosophy which strips nature of personality and
reduces it to the unknown cause of an orderly series of impressions on our
senses, we find it hard to put ourselves in the place of the savage, to
whom the same impressions appear in the guise of spirits or the handiwork
of spirits. For ages the army of spirits, once so near, has been receding
farther and farther from us, banished by the magic wand of science from
hearth and home, from ruined cell and ivied tower, from haunted glade and
lonely mere, from the riven murky cloud that belches forth the lightning,
and from those fairer clouds that pillow the silvery moon or fret with flakes
of burning red the golden eve. The spirits are gone even from their last
stronghold in the sky, whose blue arch no longer passes, except with
children, for the screen that hides from mortal eyes the glories of the
celestial world. Only in poets' dreams or impassioned flights of oratory is it
given to catch a glimpse of the last flutter of the standards of the retreating
host, to hear the beat of their invisible wings, the sound of their mocking
laughter, or the swell of angel music dying away in the distance. Far
otherwise is it with the savage. To his imagination the world still teems with
those motley beings whom a more sober philosophy has discarded. Fairies
and goblins, ghosts and demons, still hover about him both waking and
sleeping. They dog his footsteps, dazzle his senses, enter into him, harass
and deceive and torment him in a thousand freakish and mischievous
ways. The mishaps that befall him, the losses he sustains, the pains he has
to endure, he commonly sets down, if not to the magic of his enemies, to
the spite or anger or caprice of the spirits. Their constant presence wearies
him, their sleepless malignity exasperates him; he longs with an
unspeakable longing to be rid of them altogether, and from time to time,
driven to bay, his patience utterly exhausted, he turns fiercely on his
persecutors and makes a desperate effort to chase the whole pack of them
from the land, to clear the air of their swarming multitudes, that he may
breathe more freely and go on his way unmolested, at least for a time.
Thus it comes about that the endeavour of primitive people to make a
clean sweep of all their troubles generally takes the form of a grand
hunting out and expulsion of devils or ghosts. They think that if they can
only shake off these their accursed tormentors, they will make a fresh start
in life, happy and innocent; the tales of Eden and the old poetic golden
age will come true again. 2
Section 2. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils.
WE can therefore understand why those general clearances of evil, to
which from time to time the savage resorts, should commonly take the form
of a forcible expulsion of devils. In these evil spirits primitive man sees the
cause of many if not of most of his troubles, and he fancies that if he can
only deliver himself from them, things will go better with him. The public
attempts to expel the accumulated ills of a whole community may be
divided into two classes, according as the expelled evils are immaterial
and invisible or are embodied in a material vehicle or scape-goat. The
former may be called the direct or immediate expulsion of evils; the latter
the indirect or mediate expulsion, or the expulsion by scapegoat. We begin
with examples of the former. 1
In the island of Rook, between New Guinea and New Britain, when any
misfortune has happened, all the people run together, scream, curse,
howl, and beat the air with sticks to drive away the devil, who is supposed
to be the author of the mishap. From the spot where the mishap took place
they drive him step by step to the sea, and on reaching the shore they
redouble their shouts and blows in order to expel him from the island. He
generally retires to the sea or to the island of Lottin. The natives of New
Britain ascribe sickness, drought, the failure of crops, and in short all
misfortunes, to the influence of wicked spirits. So at times when many
people sicken and die, as at the beginning of the rainy season, all the
inhabitants of a district, armed with branches and clubs, go out by
moonlight to the fields, where they beat and stamp on the ground with wild
howls till morning, believing that this drives away the devils; and for the
same purpose they rush through the village with burning torches. The
natives of New Caledonia are said to believe that all evils are caused by a
powerful and malignant spirit; hence in order to rid themselves of him they
will from time to time dig a great pit, round which the whole tribe gathers.
After cursing the demon, they fill up the pit with earth, and trample on the
top with loud shouts. This they call burying the evil spirit. Among the Dieri
tribe of Central Australia, when a serious illness occurs, the medicine-men
expel Cootchie or the devil by beating the ground in and outside of the
camp with the stuffed tail of a kangaroo, until they have chased the demon
away to some distance from the camp. 2
When a village has been visited by a series of disasters or a severe
epidemic, the inhabitants of Minahassa in Celebes lay the blame upon the
devils who are infesting the village and who must be expelled from it.
Accordingly, early one morning all the people, men, women, and children,
quit their homes, carrying their household goods with them, and take up
their quarters in temporary huts which have been erected outside the
village. Here they spend several days, offering sacrifices and preparing for
the final ceremony. At last the men, some wearing masks, others with their
faces blackened, and so on, but all armed with swords, guns, pikes, or
brooms, steal cautiously and silently back to the deserted village. Then, at
a signal from the priest, they rush furiously up and down the streets and
into and under the houses (which are raised on piles above the ground),
yelling and striking on walls, doors, and windows, to drive away the
devils. Next, the priests and the rest of the people come with the holy fire
and march nine times round each house and thrice round the ladder that
leads up to it, carrying the fire with them. Then they take the fire into the
kitchen, where it must burn for three days continuously. The devils are
now driven away, and great and general is the joy. 3
The Alfoors of Halmahera attribute epidemics to the devil who comes from
other villages to carry them off. So, in order to rid the village of the
disease, the sorcerer drives away the devil. From all the villagers he
receives a costly garment and places it on four vessels, which he takes to
the forest and leaves at the spot where the devil is supposed to be. Then
with mocking words he bids the demon abandon the place. In the Kei
Islands to the south-west of New Guinea, the evil spirits, who are quite
distinct from the souls of the dead, form a mighty host. Almost every tree
and every cave is the lodging-place of one of these fiends, who are
moreover extremely irascible and apt to fly out on the smallest provocation.
They manifest their displeasure by sending sickness and other calamities.
Hence in times of public misfortune, as when an epidemic is raging, and
all other remedies have failed, the whole population go forth with the priest
at their head to a place at some distance from the village. Here at sunset
they erect a couple of poles with a cross-bar between them, to which they
attach bags of rice, wooden models of pivot-guns, gongs, bracelets, and
so on. Then, when everybody has taken his place at the poles and a
death-like silence reigns, the priest lifts up his voice and addresses the
spirits in their own language as follows: "Ho! ho! ho! ye evil spirits who
dwell in the trees, ye evil spirits who live in the grottoes, ye evil spirits
who lodge in the earth, we give you these pivot-guns, these gongs, etc.
Let the sickness cease and not so many people die of it." Then everybody
runs home as fast as their legs can carry them. 4
In the island of Nias, when a man is seriously ill and other remedies have
been tried in vain, the sorcerer proceeds to exorcise the devil who is
causing the illness. A pole is set up in front of the house, and from the top
of the pole a rope of palm-leaves is stretched to the roof of the house.
Then the sorcerer mounts the roof with a pig, which he kills and allows to
roll from the roof to the ground. The devil, anxious to get the pig, lets
himself down hastily from the roof by the rope of palm-leaves, and a good
spirit, invoked by the sorcerer, prevents him from climbing up again. If this
remedy fails, it is believed that other devils must still be lurking in the
house. So a general hunt is made after them. All the doors and windows in
the house are closed, except a single dormer-window in the roof. The
men, shut up in the house, hew and slash with their swords right and left to
the clash of gongs and the rub-a-dub of drums. Terrified at this onslaught,
the devils escape by the dormer-window, and sliding down the rope of
palm-leaves take themselves off. As all the doors and windows, except the
one in the roof, are shut, the devils cannot get into the house again. In the
case of an epidemic, the proceedings are similar. All the gates of the
village, except one, are closed; every voice is raised, every gong and
drum beaten, every sword brandished. Thus the devils are driven out and
the last gate is shut behind them. For eight days thereafter the village is in
a state of siege, no one being allowed to enter it. 5
When cholera has broken out in a Burmese village the able-bodied men
scramble on the roofs and lay about them with bamboos and billets of
wood, while all the rest of the population, old and young, stand below and
thump drums, blow trumpets, yell, scream, beat floors, walls, tin pans,
everything to make a din. This uproar, repeated on three successive
nights, is thought to be very effective in driving away the cholera demons.
When smallpox first appeared amongst the Kumis of South-Eastern India,
they thought it was a devil come from Aracan. The villages were placed in
a state of siege, no one being allowed to leave or enter them. A monkey
was killed by being dashed on the ground, and its body was hung at the
village gate. Its blood, mixed with small river pebbles, was sprinkled on the
houses, the threshold of every house was swept with the monkey's tail,
and the fiend was adjured to depart. 6
When an epidemic is raging on the Gold Coast of West Africa, the people
will sometimes turn out, armed with clubs and torches, to drive the evil
spirits away. At a given signal the whole population begin with frightful
yells to beat in every corner of the houses, then rush like mad into the
streets waving torches and striking frantically in the empty air. The uproar
goes on till somebody reports that the cowed and daunted demons have
made good their escape by a gate of the town or village; the people stream
out after them, pursue them for some distance into the forest, and warn
them never to return. The expulsion of the devils is followed by a general
massacre of all the cocks in the village or town, lest by their unseasonable
crowing they should betray to the banished demons the direction they must
take to return to their old homes. When sickness was prevalent in a Huron
village, and all other remedies had been tried in vain, the Indians had
recourse to the ceremony called Lonouyroya, "which is the principal
invention and most proper means, so they say, to expel from the town or
village the devils and evil spirits which cause, induce, and import all the
maladies and infirmities which they suffer in body and mind." Accordingly,
one evening the men would begin to rush like madmen about the village,
breaking and upsetting whatever they came across in the wigwams. They
threw fire and burning brands about the streets, and all night long they ran
howling and singing without cessation. Then they all dreamed of
something, a knife, dog, skin, or whatever it might be, and when morning
came they went from wigwam to wigwam asking for presents. These they
received silently, till the particular thing was given them which they had
dreamed about. On receiving it they uttered a cry of joy and rushed from
the hut, amid the congratulations of all present. The health of those who
received what they had dreamed of was believed to be assured; whereas
those who did not get what they had set their hearts upon regarded their
fate as sealed. 7
Sometimes, instead of chasing the demon of disease from their homes,
savages prefer to leave him in peaceable possession, while they
themselves take to flight and attempt to prevent him from following in their
tracks. Thus when the Patagonians were attacked by small-pox, which
they attributed to the machinations of an evil spirit, they used to abandon
their sick and flee, slashing the air with their weapons and throwing water
about in order to keep off the dreadful pursuer; and when after several
days' march they reached a place where they hoped to be beyond his
reach, they used by way of precaution to plant all their cutting weapons
with the sharp edges turned towards the quarter from which they had
come, as if they were repelling a charge of cavalry. Similarly, when the
Lules or Tonocotes Indians of the Gran Chaco were attacked by an
epidemic, they regularly sought to evade it by flight, but in so doing they
always followed a sinuous, not a straight, course; because they said that
when the disease made after them he would be so exhausted by the
turnings and windings of the route that he would never be able to come up
with them. When the Indians of New Mexico were decimated by smallpox
or other infectious disease, they used to shift their quarters every day,
retreating into the most sequestered parts of the mountains and choosing
the thorniest thickets they could find, in the hope that the smallpox would
be too afraid of scratching himself on the thorns to follow them. When some
Chins on a visit to Rangoon were attacked by cholera, they went about
with drawn swords to scare away the demon, and they spent the day
hiding under bushes so that he might not be able to find them. 8
Section 3. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils.
THE EXPULSION of evils, from being occasional, tends to become
periodic. It comes to be thought desirable to have a general riddance of
evil spirits at fixed times, usually once a year, in order that the people may
make a fresh start in life, freed from all the malignant influences which
have been long accumulating about them. Some of the Australian blacks
annually expelled the ghosts of the dead from their territory. The ceremony
was witnessed by the Rev. W. Ridley on the banks of the River Barwan. "A
chorus of twenty, old and young, were singing and beating time with
boomerangs... . Suddenly, from under a sheet of bark darted a man with his
body whitened by pipeclay, his head and face coloured with lines of red
and yellow, and a tuft of feathers fixed by means of a stick two feet above
the crown of his head. He stood twenty minutes perfectly still, gazing
upwards. An aboriginal who stood by told me he was looking for the ghosts
of dead men. At last he began to move very slowly, and soon rushed to
and fro at full speed, flourishing a branch as if to drive away some foes
invisible to us. When I thought this pantomime must be almost over, ten
more, similarly adorned, suddenly appeared from behind the trees, and the
whole party joined in a brisk conflict with their mysterious assailants. ... At
last, after some rapid evolutions in which they put forth all their strength,
they rested from the exciting toil which they had kept up all night and for
some hours after sunrise; they seemed satisfied that the ghosts were driven
away for twelve months. They were performing the same ceremony at
every station along the river, and I am told it is an annual custom." 1
Certain seasons of the year mark themselves naturally out as appropriate
moments for a general expulsion of devils. Such a moment occurs towards
the close of an Arctic winter, when the sun reappears on the horizon after
an absence of weeks or months. Accordingly, at Point Barrow, the most
northerly extremity of Alaska, and nearly of America, the Esquimaux
choose the moment of the sun's reappearance to hunt the mischievous
spirit Tuña from every house. The ceremony was witnessed by the
members of the United States Polar Expedition, who wintered at Point
Barrow. A fire was built in front of the council-house, and an old woman
was posted at the entrance to every house. The men gathered round the
council-house while the young women and girls drove the spirit out of
every house with their knives, stabbing viciously under the bunk and
deer-skins, and calling upon Tuña to be gone. When they thought he had
been driven out of every hole and corner, they thrust him down through
the hole in the floor and chased him into the open air with loud cries and
frantic gestures. Meanwhile the old woman at the entrance of the house
made passes with a long knife in the air to keep him from returning. Each
party drove the spirit towards the fire and invited him to go into it. All were
by this time drawn up in a semicircle round the fire, when several of the
leading men made specific charges against the spirit; and each after his
speech brushed his clothes violently, calling on the spirit to leave him and
go into the fire. Two men now stepped forward with rifles loaded with blank
cartridges, while a third brought a vessel of urine and flung it on the
flames. At the same time one of the men fired a shot into the fire; and as the
cloud of steam rose it received the other shot, which was supposed to
finish Tunña for the time being. 2
In late autumn, when storms rage over the land and break the icy fetters
by which the frozen sea is as yet but slightly bound, when the loosened
floes are driven against each other and break with loud crashes, and
when the cakes of ice are piled in wild disorder one upon another, the
Esquimaux of Baffin Land fancy they hear the voices of the spirits who
people the mischief-laden air. Then the ghosts of the dead knock wildly at
the huts, which they cannot enter, and woe to the hapless wight whom
they catch; he soon sickens and dies. Then the phantom of a huge
hairless dog pursues the real dogs, which expire in convulsions and
cramps at sight of him. All the countless spirits of evil are abroad striving to
bring sickness and death, foul weather and failure in hunting on the
Esquimaux. Most dreaded of all these spectral visitants are Sedna,
mistress of the nether world, and her father, to whose share dead
Esquimaux fall. While the other spirits fill the air and the water, she rises
from under ground. It is then a busy season for the wizards. In every house
you may hear them singing and praying, while they conjure the spirits,
seated in a mystic gloom at the back of the hut, which is dimly lit by a lamp
burning low. The hardest task of all is to drive away Sedna, and this is
reserved for the most powerful enchanter. A rope is coiled on the floor of a
large hut in such a way as to leave a small opening at the top, which
represents the breathing hole of a seal. Two enchanters stand beside it,
one of them grasping a spear as if he were watching a seal-hole in winter,
the other holding the harpoon-line. A third sorcerer sits at the back of the
hut chanting a magic song to lure Sedna to the spot. Now she is heard
approaching under the floor of the hut, breathing heavily; now she
emerges at the hole; now she is harpooned and sinks away in angry
haste, dragging the harpoon with her, while the two men hold on to the line
with all their might. The struggle is severe, but at last by a desperate
wrench she tears herself away and returns to her dwelling in Adlivun.
When the harpoon is drawn up out of the hole it is found to be splashed
with blood, which the enchanters proudly exhibit as a proof of their
prowess. Thus Sedna and the other evil spirits are at last driven away, and
next day a great festival is celebrated by old and young in honour of the
event. But they must still be cautious, for the wounded Sedna is furious
and will seize any one she may find outside of his hut; so they all wear
amulets on the top of their hoods to protect themselves against her. These
amulets consist of pieces of the first garments that they wore after birth. 3
The Iroquois inaugurated the new year in January, February, or March
(the time varied) with a "festival of dreams" like that which the Hurons
observed on special occasions. The whole ceremonies lasted several
days, or even weeks, and formed a kind of saturnalia. Men and women,
variously disguised, went from wigwam to wigwam smashing and throwing
down whatever they came across. It was a time of general license; the
people were supposed to be out of their senses, and therefore not to be
responsible for what they did. Accordingly, many seized the opportunity of
paying off old scores by belabouring obnoxious persons, drenching them
with ice-cold water, and covering them with filth or hot ashes. Others
seized burning brands or coals and flung them at the heads of the first
persons they met. The only way of escaping from these persecutors was to
guess what they had dreamed of. On one day of the festival the ceremony
of driving away evil spirits from the village took place. Men clothed in the
skins of wild beasts, their faces covered with hideous masks, and their
hands with the shell of the tortoise, went from hut to hut making frightful
noises; in every hut they took the fuel from the fire and scattered the
embers and ashes about the floor with their hands. The general confession
of sins which preceded the festival was probably a preparation for the
public expulsion of evil influences; it was a way of stripping the people of
their moral burdens, that these might be collected and cast out. 4
In September the Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Situa, the
object of which was to banish from the capital and its vicinity all disease
and trouble. The festival fell in September because the rains begin about
this time, and with the first rains there was generally much sickness. As a
preparation for the festival the people fasted on the first day of the moon
after the autumnal equinox. Having fasted during the day, and the night
being come, they baked a coarse paste of maize. This paste was made of
two sorts. One was kneaded with the blood of children aged from five to
ten years, the blood being obtained by bleeding the children between the
eyebrows. These two kinds of paste were baked separately, because they
were for different uses. Each family assembled at the house of the eldest
brother to celebrate the feast; and those who had no elder brother went to
the house of their next relation of greater age. On the same night all who
had fasted during the day washed their bodies, and taking a little of the
blood-kneaded paste, rubbed it over their head, face, breast, shoulders,
arms and legs. They did this in order that the paste might take away all
their infirmities. After this the head of the family anointed the threshold with
the same paste, and left it there as a token that the inmates of the house
had performed their ablutions and cleansed their bodies. Meantime the
High Priest performed the same ceremonies in the temple of the Sun. As
soon as the Sun rose, all the people worshipped and besought him to
drive all evils out of the city, and then they broke their fast with the paste
that had been kneaded without blood. When they had paid their worship
and broken their fast, which they did at a stated hour, in order that all
might adore the Sun as one man, an Inca of the blood royal came forth
from the fortress, as a messenger of the Sun, richly dressed, with his
mantle girded round his body, and a lance in his hand. The lance was
decked with feathers of many hues, extending from the blade to the socket,
and fastened with rings of gold. He ran down the hill from the fortress
brandishing his lance, till he reached the centre of the great square, where
stood the golden urn, like a fountain, that was used for the sacrifice of the
fermented juice of the maize. Here four other Incas of the blood royal
awaited him, each with a lance in his hand, and his mantle girded up to
run. The messenger touched their four lances with his lance, and told them
that the Sun bade them, as his messengers, drive the evils out of the city.
The four Incas then separated and ran down the four royal roads which led
out of the city to the four quarters of the world. While they ran, all the
people, great and small, came to the doors of their houses, and with great
shouts of joy and gladness shook their clothes, as if they were shaking off
dust, while they cried, "Let the evils be gone. How greatly desired has this
festival been by us. O Creator of all things, permit us to reach another
year, that we may see another feast like this." After they had shaken their
clothes, they passed their hands over their heads, faces, arms, and legs,
as if in the act of washing. All this was done to drive the evils out of their
houses, that the messengers of the Sun might banish them from the city;
and it was done not only in the streets through which the Incas ran, but
generally in all quarters of the city. Moreover, they all danced, the Inca
himself amongst them, and bathed in the rivers and fountains, saying that
their maladies would come out of them. Then they took great torches of
straw, bound round with cords. These they lighted, and passed from one to
the other, striking each other with them, and saying, "Let all harm go
away." Meanwhile the runners ran with their lances for a quarter of a
league outside the city, where they found four other Incas ready, who
received the lances from their hands and ran with them. Thus the lances
were carried by relays of runners for a distance of five or six leagues, at
the end of which the runners washed themselves and their weapons in
rivers, and set up the lances, in sign of a boundary within which the
banished evils might not return. 5
The negroes of Guinea annually banish the devil from all their towns with
much ceremony at a time set apart for the purpose. At Axim, on the Gold
Coast, this annual expulsion is preceded by a feast of eight days, during
which mirth and jollity, skipping, dancing, and singing prevail, and "a
perfect lampooning liberty is allowed, and scandal so highly exalted, that
they may freely sing of all the faults, villanies, and frauds of their superiors
as well as inferiors, without punishment, or so much as the least
interruption." On the eighth day they hunt out the devil with a dismal cry,
running after him and pelting him with sticks, stones, and whatever comes
to hand. When they have driven him far enough out of the town, they all
return. In this way he is expelled from more than a hundred towns at the
same time. To make sure that he does not return to their houses, the
women wash and scour all their wooden and earthen vessels, "to free
them from all uncleanness and the devil." 6
At Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast, the ceremony was witnessed
on the ninth of October, 1844, by an Englishman, who has described it as
follows: "To-night the annual custom of driving the evil spirit, Abonsam,
out of the town has taken place. As soon as the eight o'clock gun fired in
the fort the people began firing muskets in their houses, turning all their
furniture out of doors, beating about in every corner of the rooms with
sticks, etc., and screaming as loudly as possible, in order to frighten the
devil. Being driven out of the houses, as they imagine, they sallied forth
into the streets, throwing lighted torches about, shouting, screaming,
beating sticks together, rattling old pans, making the most horrid noise, in
order to drive him out of the town into the sea. The custom is preceded by
four weeks' dead silence; no gun is allowed to be fired, no drum to be
beaten, no palaver to be made between man and man. If, during these
weeks, two natives should disagree and make a noise in the town, they
are immediately taken before the king and fined heavily. If a dog or pig,
sheep or goat be found at large in the street, it may be killed, or taken by
anyone, the former owner not being allowed to demand any compensation.
This silence is designed to deceive Abonsam, that, being off his guard, he
may be taken by surprise, and frightened out of the place. If anyone die
during the silence, his relatives are not allowed to weep until the four
weeks have been completed." 7
Sometimes the date of the annual expulsion of devils is fixed with
reference to the agricultural seasons. Thus among the Hos of Togoland, in
West Africa, the expulsion is performed annually before the people partake
of the new yams. The chiefs summon the priests and magicians and tell
them that the people are now to eat the new yams and be merry, therefore
they must cleanse the town and remove the evils. Accordingly the evil
spirits, witches, and all the ills that infest the people are conjured into
bundles of leaves and creepers, fastened to poles, which are carried
away and set up in the earth on various roads outside the town. During the
following night no fire may be lit and no food eaten. Next morning the
women sweep out their hearths and houses, and deposit the sweepings on
broken wooden plates. Then the people pray, saying, "All ye sicknesses
that are in our body and plague us, we are come to-day to throw you out."
Thereupon they run as fast as they can in the direction of Mount Adaklu,
smiting their mouths and screaming, "Out to-day! Out to-day! That which
kills anybody, out to-day! Ye evil spirits, out to-day! and all that causes
our heads to ache, out to-day! Anlo and Adaklu are the places whither all
ill shall betake itself!" When they have come to a certain tree on Mount
Adaklu, they throw everything away and return home. 8
At Kiriwina, in South-Eastern New Guinea, when the new yams had
been harvested, the people feasted and danced for many days, and a
great deal of property, such as armlets, native money, and so forth, was
displayed conspicuously on a platform erected for the purpose. When the
festivities were over, all the people gathered together and expelled the
spirits from the village by shouting, beating the posts of the houses, and
overturning everything under which a wily spirit might be supposed to lurk.
The explanation which the people gave to a missionary was that they had
entertained and feasted the spirits and provided them with riches, and it
was now time for them to take their departure. Had they not seen the
dances, and heard the songs, and gorged themselves on the souls of the
yams, and appropriated the souls of the money and all the other fine things
set out on the platform? What more could the spirits want? So out they must
go. 9
Among the Hos of North-Eastern India the great festival of the year is the
harvest home, held in January, when the granaries are full of grain, and
the people, to use their own expression, are full of devilry. "They have a
strange notion that at this period, men and women are so overcharged with
vicious propensities, that it is absolutely necessary for the safety of the
person to let off steam by allowing for a time full vent to the passions." The
ceremonies open with a sacrifice to the village god of three fowls, a cock
and two hens, one of which must be black. Along with them are offered
flowers of the palas tree (Butea frondosa), bread made from rice-flour, and
sesamum seeds. These offerings are presented by the village priest, who
prays that during the year about to begin they and their children may be
preserved from all misfortune and sickness, and that they may have
seasonable rain and good crops. Prayer is also made in some places for
the souls of the dead. At this time an evil spirit is supposed to infest the
place, and to get rid of it men, women, and children go in procession
round and through every part of the village with sticks in their hands, as if
beating for game, singing a wild chant, and shouting vociferously, till they
feel assured that the evil spirit must have fled. Then they give themselves
up to feasting and drinking rice-beer, till they are in a fit state for the wild
debauch which follows. The festival now "becomes a saturnale, during
which servants forget their duty to their masters, children their reverence
for parents, men their respect for women, and women all notions of
modesty, delicacy, and gentleness; they become raging bacchantes."
Usually the Hos are quiet and reserved in manner, decorous and gentle to
women. But during this festival "their natures appear to undergo a
temporary change. Sons and daughters revile their parents in gross
language, and parents their children; men and women become almost like
animals in the indulgence of their amorous propensities." The Mundaris,
kinsmen and neighbours of the Hos, keep the festival in much the same
manner. "The resemblance to a Saturnale is very complete, as at this
festival the farm labourers are feasted by their masters, and allowed the
utmost freedom of speech in addressing them. It is the festival of the
harvest home; the termination of one year's toil, and a slight respite from it
before they commence again." 10
Amongst some of the Hindoo Koosh tribes, as among the Hos and
Mundaris, the expulsion of devils takes place after harvest. When the last
crop of autumn has been got in, it is thought necessary to drive away evil
spirits from the granaries. A kind of porridge is eaten, and the head of the
family takes his matchlock and fires it into the floor. Then, going outside,
he sets to work loading and firing till his powder-horn is exhausted, while
all his neighbours are similarly employed. The next day is spent in
rejoicings. In Chitral this festival is called "devil-driving." On the other
hand the Khonds of India expel the devils at seed-time instead of at
harvest. At this time they worship Pitteri Pennu, the god of increase and of
gain in every shape. On the first day of the festival a rude car is made of a
basket set upon a few sticks, tied upon the bamboo rollers for wheels. The
priest takes this car first to the house of the lineal head of the tribe, to
whom precedence is given in all ceremonies connected with agriculture.
Here he receives a little of each kind of seed and some feathers. He then
takes the car to all the other houses in the village, each of which
contributes the same things. Lastly, the car is conducted to a field without
the village, attended by all the young men, who beat each other and strike
the air violently with long sticks. The seed thus carried out is called the
share of the "evil spirits, spoilers of the seed." "These are considered to be
driven out with the car; and when it and its contents are abandoned to
them, they are held to have no excuse for interfering with the rest of the
seed-corn." 11
The people of Bali, an island to the east of Java, have periodical
expulsions of devils upon a great scale. Generally the time chosen for the
expulsion is the day of the "dark moon" in the ninth month. When the
demons have been long unmolested the country is said to be "warm," and
the priest issues orders to expel them by force, lest the whole of Bali
should be rendered uninhabitable. On the day appointed the people of the
village or district assemble at the principal temple. Here at a cross-road
offerings are set out for the devils. After prayers have been recited by the
priests, the blast of a horn summons the devils to partake of the meal which
has been prepared for them. At the same time a number of men step
forward and light their torches at the holy lamp which burns before the
chief priest. Immediately afterwards, followed by the bystanders, they
spread in all directions and march through the streets and lanes crying,
"Depart! go away!" Wherever they pass, the people who have stayed at
home hasten, by a deafening clatter on doors, beams, rice-blocks, and so
forth, to take their share in the expulsion of devils. Thus chased from the
houses, the fiends flee to the banquet which has been set out for them; but
here the priest receives them with curses which finally drive them from the
district. When the last devil has taken his departure, the uproar is
succeeded by a dead silence, which lasts during the next day also. The
devils, it is thought, are anxious to return to their old homes, and in order
to make them think that Bali is not Bali but some desert island, no one may
stir from his own abode for twenty-four hours. Even ordinary household
work, including cooking, is discontinued. Only the watchmen may show
themselves in the streets. Wreaths of thorns and leaves are hung at all the
entrances to warn strangers from entering. Not till the third day is this state
of siege raised, and even then it is forbidden to work at the rice-fields or
to buy and sell in the market. Most people still stay at home, whiling away
the time with cards and dice. 12
In Tonquin a theckydaw or general expulsion of maleyolent spirits
commonly took place once a year, especially if there was a great mortality
amongst men, the elephants or horses of the general's stable, or the cattle
of the country, "the cause of which they attribute to the malicious spirits of
such men as have been put to death for treason, rebellion, and conspiring
the death of the king, general, or princes, and that in revenge of the
punishment they have suffered, they are bent to destroy everything and
commit horrible violence. To prevent which their superstition has
suggested to them the institution of this theckydaw, as a proper means to
drive the devil away, and purge the country of evil spirits." The day
appointed for the ceremony was generally the twenty-fifth of February,
one month after the beginning of the new year, which fell on the
twenty-fifth of January. The intermediate month was a season of feasting,
merry-making of all kinds, and general licence. During the whole month
the great seal was kept shut up in a box, face downwards, and the law
was, as it were, laid asleep. All courts of justice were closed; debtors
could not be seized; small crimes, such as petty larceny, fighting, and
assault, escaped with impunity; only treason and murder were taken
account of and the malefactors detained till the great seal should come into
operation again. At the close of the saturnalia the wicked spirits were
driven away. Great masses of troops and artillery having been drawn up
with flying colours and all the pomp of war, "the general beginneth then to
offer meat offerings to the criminal devils and malevolent spirits (for it is
usual and customary likewise amongst them to feast the condemned before
their execution), inviting them to eat and drink, when presently he accuses
them in a strange language, by characters and figures, etc., of many
offences and crimes committed by them, as to their having disquieted the
land, killed his elephants and horses, etc., for all which they justly deserve
to be chastised and banished the country. Whereupon three great guns
are fired as the last signal; upon which all the artillery and musquets are
discharged, that, by their most terrible noise the devils may be driven
away; and they are so blind as to believe for certain, that they really and
effectually put them to flight." 13
In Cambodia the expulsion of evil spirits took place in March. Bits of
broken statues and stones, considered as the abode of the demons, were
collected and brought to the capital. Here as many elephants were
collected as could be got together. On the evening of the full moon volleys
of musketry were fired and the elephants charged furiously to put the
devils to flight. The ceremony was performed on three successive days. In
Siam the banishment of demons is annually carried into effect on the last
day of the old year. A signal gun is fired from the palace; it is answered
from the next station, and so on from station to station, till the firing has
reached the outer gate of the city. Thus the demons are driven out step by
step. As soon as this is done a consecrated rope is fastened round the
circuit of the city walls to prevent the banished demons from returning. The
rope is made of tough couch-grass and is painted in alternate stripes of
red, yellow, and blue. 14
Annual expulsions of demons, witches, or evil influences appear to have
been common among the heathen of Europe, if we may judge from the
relics of such customs among their descendants at the present day. Thus
among the heathen Wotyaks, a Finnish people of Eastern Russia, all the
young girls of the village assemble on the last day of the year or on New
Year's Day, armed with sticks, the ends of which are split in nine places.
With these they beat every corner of the house and yard, saying, "We are
driving Satan out of the village." Afterwards the sticks are thrown into the
river below the village, and as they float down stream Satan goes with
them to the next village, from which he must be driven out in turn. In some
villages the expulsion is managed otherwise. The unmarried men receive
from every house in the village groats, flesh, and brandy. These they take
to the fields, light a fire under a fir-tree, boil the groats, and eat of the food
they have brought with them, after pronouncing the words, "Go away into
the wilderness, come not into the house." Then they return to the village
and enter every house where there are young women. They take hold of
the young women and throw them into the snow, saying, "May the spirits
of disease leave you." The remains of the groats and the other food are
then distributed among all the houses in proportion to the amount that each
contributed, and each family consumes its share. According to a Wotyak
of the Malmyz district the young men throw into the snow whomever they
find in the houses, and this is called "driving out Satan"; moreover, some
of the boiled groats are cast into the fire with the words, "O god, afflict us
not with sickness and pestilence, give us not up as a prey to the spirits of
the wood." But the most antique form of the ceremony is that observed by
the Wotyaks of the Kasan Government. First of all a sacrifice is offered to
the Devil at noon. Then all the men assemble on horseback in the centre
of the village, and decide with which house they shall begin. When this
question, which often gives rise to hot disputes, is settled, they tether their
horses to the paling, and arm themselves with whips, clubs of lime-wood
and bundles of lighted twigs. The lighted twigs are believed to have the
greatest terrors for Satan. Thus armed, they proceed with frightful cries to
beat every corner of the house and yard, then shut the door, and spit at
the ejected fiend. So they go from house to house, till the Devil has been
driven from every one. Then they mount their horses and ride out of the
village, yelling wildly and brandishing their clubs in every direction.
Outside of the village they fling away the clubs and spit once more at the
Devil. The Cheremiss, another Finnish people of Eastern Russia, chase
Satan from their dwellings by beating the walls with cudgels of lime-wood.
For the same purpose they fire guns, stab the ground with knives, and
insert burning chips of wood in the crevices. Also they leap over bonfires,
shaking out their garments as they do so; and in some districts they blow
on long trumpets of lime-tree bark to frighten him away. When he has fled
to the wood, they pelt the trees with some of the cheese-cakes and eggs
which furnished the feast. 15
In Christian Europe the old heathen custom of expelling the powers of
evil at certain times of the year has survived to modern times. Thus in
some villages of Calabria the month of March is inaugurated with the
expulsion of the witches. It takes place at night to the sound of the church
bells, the people running about the streets and crying, "March is come."
They say that the witches roam about in March, and the ceremony is
repeated every Friday evening during the month. Often, as might have
been anticipated, the ancient pagan rite has attached itself to church
festivals. In Albania on Easter Eve the young people light torches of
resinous wood and march in procession, swinging them, through the
village. At last they throw the torches into the river, crying, "Ha, Kore! we
throw you into the river, like these torches, that you may never return."
Silesian peasants believe that on Good Friday the witches go their rounds
and have great power for mischief. Hence about Oels, near Strehlitz, the
people on that day arm themselves with old brooms and drive the witches
from house and home, from farmyard and cattle-stall, making a great
uproar and clatter as they do so. 16
In Central Europe the favourite time for expelling the witches is, or was,
Walpurgis Night, the Eve of May Day, when the baleful powers of these
mischievous beings were supposed to be at their height. In the Tyrol, for
example, as in other places, the expulsion of the powers of evil at this
season goes by the name of "Burning out the Witches." It takes place on
May Day, but people have been busy with their preparations for days
before. On a Thursday at midnight bundles are made up of resinous
splinters, black and red spotted hemlock, caperspurge, rosemary, and
twigs of the sloe. These are kept and burned on May Day by men who
must first have received plenary absolution from the Church. On the last
three days of April all the houses are cleansed and fumigated with juniper
berries and rue. On May Day, when the evening bell has rung and the
twilight is falling, the ceremony of "Burning out the Witches" begins. Men
and boys make a racket with whips, bells, pots, and pans; the women
carry censers; the dogs are unchained and run barking and yelping about.
As soon as the church bells begin to ring, the bundles of twigs, fastened
on poles, are set on fire and the incense is ignited. Then all the
house-bells and dinner-bells are rung, pots and pans are clashed, dogs
bark, every one must make a noise. And amid this hubbub all scream at
the pitch of their voices:
"Witch flee, flee from here, or it will go ili with thee."
Then they run seven times round the houses, the yards, and the village.
So the witches are smoked out of their lurking-places and driven away.
The custom of expelling the witches on Walpurgis Night is still, or was
down to recent years, observed in many parts of Bavaria and among the
Germans of Bohemia. Thus in the Böhmer-wald Mountains all the young
fellows of the village assemble after sunset on some height, especially at a
cross-road, and crack whips for a while in unison with all their strength.
This drives away the witches; for so far as the sound of the whips is heard,
these maleficent beings can do no harm. In some places, while the young
men are cracking their whips, the herdsmen wind their horns, and the
long-drawn notes, heard far off in the silence of night, are very effectual
for banning the witches. 17
Another witching time is the period of twelve days between Christmas
and Epiphany. Hence in some parts of Silesia the people burn pine-resin
all night long between Christmas and the New Year in order that the
pungent smoke may drive witches and evil spirits far away from house and
homestead; and on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve they fire shots
over fields and meadows, into shrubs and trees, and wrap straw round the
fruit-trees, to prevent the spirits from doing them harm. On New Year's
Eve, which is Saint Sylvester's Day, Bohemian lads, armed with guns,
form themselves into circles and fire thrice into the air. This is called
"Shooting the Witches" and is supposed to frighten the witches away. The
last of the mystic twelve days is Epiphany or Twelfth Night, and it has
been selected as a proper season for the expulsion of the powers of evil in
various parts of Europe. Thus at Brunnen, on the Lake of Lucerne, boys
go about in procession on Twelfth Night carrying torches and making a
great noise with horns, bells, whips, and so forth to frighten away two
female spirits of the wood, Strudeli and Strätteli. The people think that if
they do not make enough noise, there will be little fruit that year. Again, in
Labruguière, a canton of Southern France, on the eve of Twelfth Day the
people run through the streets, jangling bells, clattering kettles, and doing
everything to make a discordant noise. Then by the light of torches and
blazing faggots they set up a prodigious hue and cry, an ear-splitting
uproar, hoping thereby to chase all the wandering ghosts and devils from
the town. 18