Section 2. Mourners tabooed.
THUS regarding his sacred chiefs and kings as charged with a mysterious
spiritual force which so to say explodes at contact, the savage naturally
ranks them among the dangerous classes of society, and imposes upon
them the same sort of restraints that he lays on manslayers, menstruous
women, and other persons whom he looks upon with a certain fear and
horror. For example, sacred kings and priests in Polynesia were not
allowed to touch food with their hands, and had therefore to be fed by
others; and as we have just seen, their vessels, garments, and other
property might not be used by others on pain of disease and death. Now
precisely the same observances are exacted by some savages from girls at
their first menstruation, women after childbirth, homicides, mourners, and all
persons who have come into contact with the dead. Thus, for example, to
begin with the last class of persons, among the Maoris any one who had
handled a corpse, helped to convey it to the grave, or touched a dead
man's bones, was cut off from all intercourse and almost all communication
with mankind. He could not enter any house, or come into contact with any
person or thing, without utterly bedevilling them. He might not even touch
food with his hands, which had become so frightfully tabooed or unclean as
to be quite useless. Food would be set for him on the ground, and he would
then sit or kneel down, and, with his hands carefully held behind his back,
would gnaw at it as best he could. In some cases he would be fed by
another person, who with outstretched arm contrived to do it without
touching the tabooed man; but the feeder was himself subjected to many
severe restrictions, little less onerous than those which were imposed upon
the other. In almost every populous village there lived a degraded wretch,
the lowest of the low, who earned a sorry pittance by thus waiting upon the
defiled. Clad in rags, daubed from head to foot with red ochre and stinking
shark oil, always solitary and silent, generally old, haggard, and wizened,
often half crazed, he might be seen sitting motionless all day apart from the
common path or thoroughfare of the village, gazing with lack-lustre eyes
on the busy doings in which he might never take a part. Twice a day a dole
of food would be thrown on the ground before him to munch as well as he
could without the use of his hands; and at night, huddling his greasy tatters
about him, he would crawl into some miserable lair of leaves and refuse,
where, dirty, cold, and hungry, he passed, in broken ghost-haunted
slumbers, a wretched night as a prelude to another wretched day. Such
was the only human being deemed fit to associate at arm's length with one
who had paid the last offices of respect and friendship to the dead. And
when, the dismal term of his seclusion being over, the mourner was about
to mix with his fellows once more, all the dishes he had used in his
seclusion were diligently smashed, and all the garments he had worn were
carefully thrown away, lest they should spread the contagion of his
defilement among others, just as the vessels and clothes of sacred kings
and chiefs are destroyed or cast away for a similar reason. So complete in
these respects is the analogy which the savage traces between the
spiritual influences that emanate from divinities and from the dead, between
the odour of sanctity and the stench of corruption. 1
The rule which forbids persons who have been in contact with the dead to
touch food with their hands would seem to have been universal in
Polynesia. Thus in Samoa "those who attended the deceased were most
careful not to handle food, and for days were fed by others as if they were
helpless infants. Baldness and the loss of teeth were supposed to be the
punishment inflicted by the household god if they violated the rule." Again,
in Tonga, "no person can touch a dead chief without being taboo'd for ten
lunar months, except chiefs, who are only taboo'd for three, four, or five
months, according to the superiority of the dead chief; except again it be
the body of Tooitonga [the great divine chief], and then even the greatest
chief would be taboo'd ten months... . During the time a man is taboo'd he
must not feed himself with his own hands, but must be fed by somebody
else: he must not even use a toothpick himself, but must guide another
person's hand holding the toothpick. If he is hungry and there is no one to
feed him, he must go down upon his hands and knees, and pick up his
victuals with his mouth: and if he infringes upon any of these rules, it is
firmly expected that he will swell up and die." 2
Among the Shuswap of British Columbia widows and widowers in
mourning are secluded and forbidden to touch their own head or body; the
cups and cooking-vessels which they use may be used by no one else.
They must build a sweat-house beside a creek, sweat there all night and
bathe regularly, after which they must rub their bodies with branches of
spruce. The branches may not be used more than once, and when they
have served their purpose they are stuck into the ground all round the hut.
No hunter would come near such mourners, for their presence is unlucky. If
their shadow were to fall on any one, he would be taken ill at once. They
employ thorn bushes for bed and pillow, in order to keep away the ghost of
the deceased; and thorn bushes are also laid all around their beds. This
last precaution shows clearly what the spiritual danger is which leads to the
exclusion of such persons from ordinary society; it is simply a fear of the
ghost who is supposed to be hovering near them. In the Mekeo district of
British New Guinea a widower loses all his civil rights and becomes a
social outcast, an object of fear and horror, shunned by all. He may not
cultivate a garden, nor show himself in public, nor traverse the village, nor
walk on the roads and paths. Like a wild beast he must skulk in the long
grass and the bushes; and if he sees or hears any one coming, especially
a woman, he must hide behind a tree or a thicket. If he wishes to fish or
hunt, he must do it alone and at night. If he would consult any one, even
the missionary, he does so by stealth and at night; he seems to have lost
his voice and speaks only in whispers. Were he to join a party of fishers or
hunters, his presence would bring misfortune on them; the ghost of his dead
wife would frighten away the fish or the game. He goes about everywhere
and at all times armed with a tomahawk to defend himself, not only against
wild boars in the jungle, but against the dreaded spirit of his departed
spouse, who would do him an ill turn if she could; for all the souls of the
dead are malignant and their only delight is to harm the living. 3