Chapter 21. Tabooed Things.
Section 1. The Meaning of Taboo.
THUS in primitive society the rules of ceremonial purity observed
by divine kings, chiefs, and priests agree in many respects with the
rules observed by homicides, mourners, women in childbed, girls at
puberty, hunters and fishermen, and so on. To us these various
classes of persons appear to differ totally in character and
condition; some of them we should call holy, others we might
pronounce unclean and polluted. But the savage makes no such
moral distinction between them; the conceptions of holiness and
pollution are not yet differentiated in his mind. To him the common
feature of all these persons is that they are dangerous and in
danger, and the danger in which they stand and to which they
expose others is what we should call spiritual or ghostly, and
therefore imaginary. The danger, however, is not less real because
it is imaginary; imagination acts upon man as really as does
gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid.
To seclude these persons from the rest of the world so that the
dreaded spiritual danger shall neither reach them nor spread from
them, is the object of the taboos which they have to observe.
These taboos act, so to say, as electrical insulators to preserve the
spiritual force with which these persons are charged from suffering
or inflicting harm by contact with the outer world. 1
To the illustrations of these general principles which have been
already given I shall now add some more, drawing my examples,
first, from the class of tabooed things, and, second, from the class
of tabooed words; for in the opinion of the savage both things and
words may, like persons, be charged or electrified, either
temporarily or permanently, with the mysterious virtue of taboo, and
may therefore require to be banished for a longer or shorter time
from the familiar usage of common life. And the examples will be
chosen with special reference to those sacred chiefs, kings and
priests, who, more than anybody else, live fenced about by taboo
as by a wall. Tabooed things will be illustrated in the present
chapter, and tabooed words in the next. 2
Section 2. Iron tabooed.
IN THE FIRST place we may observe that the awful sanctity of
kings naturally leads to a prohibition to touch their sacred persons.
Thus it was unlawful to lay hands on the person of a Spartan king:
no one might touch the body of the king or queen of Tahiti: it is
forbidden to touch the person of the king of Siam under pain of
death; and no one may touch the king of Cambodia, for any
purpose whatever, without his express command. In July 1874 the
king was thrown from his carriage and lay insensible on the
ground, but not one of his suite dared to touch him; a European
coming to the spot carried the injured monarch to his palace.
Formerly no one might touch the king of Corea; and if he deigned
to touch a subject, the spot touched became sacred, and the
person thus honoured had to wear a visible mark (generally a cord
of red silk) for the rest of his life. Above all, no iron might touch the
king's body. In 1800 King Tieng-tsong-tai-oang died of a tumour
in the back, no one dreaming of employing the lancet, which would
probably have saved his life. It is said that one king suffered terribly
from an abscess in the lip, till his physician called in a jester,
whose pranks made the king laugh heartily, and so the abscess
burst. Roman and Sabine priests might not be shaved with iron but
only with bronze razors or shears; and whenever an iron
graving-tool was brought into the sacred grove of the Arval
Brothers at Rome for the purpose of cutting an inscription in stone,
an expiatory sacrifice of a lamb and a pig must be offered, which
was repeated when the graving-tool was removed from the grove.
As a general rule iron might not be brought into Greek sanctuaries.
In Crete sacrifices were offered to Menedemus without the use of
iron, because the legend ran that Menedemus had been killed by
an iron weapon in the Trojan war. The Archon of Plataea might not
touch iron; but once a year, at the annual commemoration of the
men who fell at the battle of Plataea, he was allowed to carry a
sword wherewith to sacrifice a bull. To this day a Hottentot priest
never uses an iron knife, but always a sharp splint of quartz, in
sacrificing an animal or circumcising a lad. Among the Ovambo of
South-west Africa custom requires that lads should be circumcised
with a sharp flint; if none is to hand, the operation may be
performed with iron, but the iron must afterwards be buried.
Amongst the Moquis of Arizona stone knives, hatchets, and so on
have passed out of common use, but are retained in religious
ceremonies. After the Pawnees had ceased to use stone
arrow-heads for ordinary purposes, they still employed them to
slay the sacrifices, whether human captives or buffalo and deer.
Amongst the Jews no iron tool was used in building the Temple at
Jerusalem or in making an altar. The old wooden bridge (Pons
Sublicius) at Rome, which was considered sacred, was made and
had to be kept in repair without the use of iron or bronze. It was
expressly provided by law that the temple of Jupiter Liber at Furfo
might be repaired with iron tools. The council chamber at Cyzicus
was constructed of wood without any iron nails, the beams being
so arranged that they could be taken out and replaced. 1
This superstitious objection to iron perhaps dates from that early
time in the history of society when iron was still a novelty, and as
such was viewed by many with suspicion and dislike. For
everything new is apt to excite the awe and dread of the savage. "It
is a curious superstition," says a pioneer in Borneo, "this of the
Dusuns, to attribute anything-whether good or bad, lucky or
unlucky-that happens to them to something novel which has
arrived in their country. For instance, my living in Kindram has
caused the intensely hot weather we have experienced of late."
The unusually heavy rains which happened to follow the English
survey of the Nicobar Islands in the winter of 1886-1887 were
imputed by the alarmed natives to the wrath of the spirits at the
theodolites, dumpy-levellers, and other strange instruments which
had been set up in so many of their favourite haunts; and some of
them proposed to soothe the anger of the spirits by sacrificing a
pig. In the seventeenth century a succession of bad seasons
excited a revolt among the Esthonian peasantry, who traced the
origin of the evil to a watermill, which put a stream to some
inconvenience by checking its flow. The first introduction of iron
ploughshares into Poland having been followed by a succession of
bad harvests, the farmers attributed the badness of the crops to the
iron ploughshares, and discarded them for the old wooden ones. To
this day the primitive Baduwis of Java, who live chiefly by
husbandry, will use no iron tools in tilling their fields. 2
The general dislike of innovation, which always makes itself
strongly felt in the sphere of religion, is sufficient by itself to
account for the superstitious aversion to iron entertained by kings
and priests and attributed by them to the gods; possibly this
aversion may have been intensified in places by some such
accidental cause as the series of bad seasons which cast discredit
on iron ploughshares in Poland. But the disfavour in which iron is
held by the gods and their ministers has another side. Their
antipathy to the metal furnishes men with a weapon which may be
turned against the spirits when occasion serves. As their dislike of
iron is supposed to be so great that they will not approach persons
and things protected by the obnoxious metal, iron may obviously
be employed as a charm for banning ghosts and other dangerous
spirits. And often it is so used. Thus in the Highlands of Scotland
the great safeguard against the elfin race is iron, or, better yet,
steel. The metal in any form, whether as a sword, a knife, a
gun-barrel, or what not, is all-powerful for this purpose. Whenever
you enter a fairy dwelling you should always remember to stick a
piece of steel, such as a knife, a needle, or a fish-hook, in the
door; for then the elves will not be able to shut the door till you
come out again. So, too, when you have shot a deer and are
bringing it home at night, be sure to thrust a knife into the carcase,
for that keeps the fairies from laying their weight on it. A knife or
nail in your pocket is quite enough to prevent the fairies from lifting
you up at night. Nails in the front of a bed ward off elves from
women "in the straw" and from their babes; but to make quite sure it
is better to put the smoothing-iron under the bed, and the
reaping-hook in the window. If a bull has fallen over a rock and
been killed, a nail stuck into it will preserve the flesh from the
fairies. Music discoursed on a Jew's harp keeps the elfin women
away from the hunter, because the tongue of the instrument is of
steel. In Morocco iron is considered a great protection against
demons; hence it is usual to place a knife or dagger under a sick
man's pillow. The Singhalese believe that they are constantly
surrounded by evil spirits, who lie in wait to do them harm. A
peasant would not dare to carry good food, such as cakes or roast
meat, from one place to another without putting an iron nail on it to
prevent a demon from taking possession of the viands and so
making the eater ill. No sick person, whether man or woman, would
venture out of the house without a bunch of keys or a knife in his
hand, for without such a talisman he would fear that some devil
might take advantage of his weak state to slip into his body. And if
a man has a large sore on his body he tries to keep a morsel of
iron on it as a protection against demons. On the Slave Coast when
a mother sees her child gradually wasting away, she concludes
that a demon has entered into the child, and takes her measures
accordingly. To lure the demon out of the body of her offspring, she
offers a sacrifice of food; and while the devil is bolting it, she
attaches iron rings and small bells to her child's ankles and hangs
iron chains round his neck. The jingling of the iron and the tinkling
of the bells are supposed to prevent the demon, when he has
concluded his repast, from entering again into the body of the little
sufferer. Hence many children may be seen in this part of Africa
weighed down with iron ornaments. 3
Section 3. Sharp Weapons tabooed.
THERE is a priestly king to the north of Zengwih in Burma, revered
by the Sotih as the highest spiritual and temporal authority, into
whose house no weapon or cutting instrument may be brought. This
rule may perhaps be explained by a custom observed by various
peoples after a death; they refrain from the use of sharp instruments
so long as the ghost of the deceased is supposed to be near, lest
they should wound it. Thus among the Esquimaux of Bering Strait
"during the day on which a person dies in the village no one is
permitted to work, and the relatives must perform no labour during
the three following days. It is especially forbidden during this period
to cut with any edged instrument, such as a knife or an axe; and
the use of pointed instruments, like needles or bodkins, is also
forbidden. This is said to be done to avoid cutting or injuring the
shade, which may be present at any time during this period, and, if
accidentally injured by any of these things, it would become very
angry and bring sickness or death to the people. The relatives must
also be very careful at this time not to make any loud or harsh
noises that may startle or anger the shade." We have seen that in
like manner after killing a white whale these Esquimaux abstain from
the use of cutting or pointed instruments for four days, lest they
should unwittingly cut or stab the whale's ghost. The same taboo is
sometimes observed by them when there is a sick person in the
village, probably from a fear of injuring his shade which may be
hovering outside of his body. After a death the Roumanians of
Transylvania are careful not to leave a knife lying with the sharp
edge uppermost so long as the corpse remains in the house, "or
else the soul will be forced to ride on the blade." For seven days
after a death, the corpse being still in the house, the Chinese
abstain from the use of knives and needles, and even of
chopsticks, eating their food with their fingers. On the third, sixth,
ninth, and fortieth days after the funeral the old Prussians and
Lithuanians used to prepare a meal, to which, standing at the door,
they invited the soul of the deceased. At these meals they sat silent
round the table and used no knives and the women who served up
the food were also without knives. If any morsels fell from the table
they were left lying there for the lonely souls that had no living
relations or friends to feed them. When the meal was over the priest
took a broom and swept the souls out of the house, saying, "Dear
souls, ye have eaten and drunk. Go forth, go forth." We can now
understand why no cutting instrument may be taken into the house
of the Burmese pontiff. Like so many priestly kings, he is probably
regarded as divine, and it is therefore right that his sacred spirit
should not be exposed to the risk of being cut or wounded
whenever it quits his body to hover invisible in the air or to fly on
some distant mission. 1
Section 4. Blood tabooed.
WE have seen that the Flamen Dialis was forbidden to touch or even name
raw flesh. At certain times a Brahman teacher is enjoined not to look on
raw flesh, blood, or persons whose hands have been cut off. In Uganda
the father of twins is in a state of taboo for some time after birth; among
other rules he is forbidden to kill anything or to see blood. In the Pelew
Islands when a raid has been made on a village and a head carried off,
the relations of the slain man are tabooed and have to submit to certain
observances in order to escape the wrath of his ghost. They are shut up in
the house, touch no raw flesh, and chew betel over which an incantation
has been uttered by the exorcist. After this the ghost of the slaughtered
man goes away to the enemy's country in pursuit of his murderer. The
taboo is probably based on the common belief that the soul or spirit of the
animal is in the blood. As tabooed persons are believed to be in a perilous
state-for example, the relations of the slain man are liable to the attacks of
his indignant ghost-it is especially necessary to isolate them from contact
with spirits; hence the prohibition to touch raw meat. But as usual the taboo
is only the special enforcement of a general precept; in other words, its
observance is particularly enjoined in circumstances which seem urgently
to call for its application, but apart from such circumstances the prohibition
is also observed, though less strictly, as a common rule of life. Thus some
of the Esthonians will not taste blood because they believe that it contains
the animal's soul, which would enter the body of the person who tasted the
blood. Some Indian tribes of North America, "through a strong principle of
religion, abstain in the strictest manner from eating the blood of any animal,
as it contains the life and spirit of the beast." Jewish hunters poured out
the blood of the game they had killed and covered it up with dust. They
would not taste the blood, believing that the soul or life of the animal was
in the blood, or actually was the blood. 1
It is a common rule that royal blood may not be shed upon the ground.
Hence when a king or one of his family is to be put to death a mode of
execution is devised by which the royal blood shall not be spilt upon the
earth. About the year 1688 the generalissimo of the army rebelled against
the king of Siam and put him to death "after the manner of royal criminals,
or as princes of the blood are treated when convicted of capital crimes,
which is by putting them into a large iron caldron, and pounding them to
pieces with wooden pestles, because none of their royal blood must be
spilt on the ground, it being, by their religion, thought great impiety to
contaminate the divine blood by mixing it with earth." When Kublai Khan
defeated and took his uncle Nayan, who had rebelled against him, he
caused Nayan to be put to death by being wrapt in a carpet and tossed to
and fro till he died, "because he would not have the blood of his Line
Imperial spilt upon the ground or exposed in the eye of Heaven and before
the Sun." "Friar Ricold mentions the Tartar maxim: `One Khan will put
another to death to get possession of the throne, but he takes great care
that the blood be not spilt. For they say that it is highly improper that the
blood of the Great Khan should be spilt upon the ground; so they cause
the victim to be smothered somehow or other.' The like feeling prevails at
the court of Burma, where a peculiar mode of execution without bloodshed
is reserved for princes of the blood." 2
The reluctance to spill royal blood seems to be only a particular case of
a general unwillingness to shed blood or at least to allow it to fall on the
ground. Marco Polo tells us that in his day persons caught in the streets of
Cambaluc (Peking) at unseasonable hours were arrested, and if found
guilty of a misdemeanor were beaten with a stick. "Under this punishment
people sometimes die, but they adopt it in order to eschew bloodshed, for
their Bacsis say that it is an evil thing to shed man's blood." In West
Sussex people believe that the ground on which human blood has been
shed is accursed and will remain barren for ever. Among some primitive
peoples, when the blood of a tribesman has to be spilt it is not suffered to
fall upon the ground, but is received upon the bodies of his
fellow-tribesmen. Thus in some Australian tribes boys who are being
circumcised are laid on a platform, formed by the living bodies of the
tribesmen; and when a boy's tooth is knocked out as an initiatory
ceremony, he is seated on the shoulders of a man, on whose breast the
blood flows and may not be wiped away. "Also the Gauls used to drink
their enemies' blood and paint themselves therewith. So also they write that
the old Irish were wont; and so have I seen some of the Irish do, but not
their enemies' but friends' blood, as, namely, at the execution of a notable
traitor at Limerick, called Murrogh O'Brien, I saw an old woman, which
was his foster-mother, take up his head whilst he was quartered and suck
up all the blood that ran thereout, saying that the earth was not worthy to
drink it, and therewith also steeped her face and breast and tore her hair,
crying out and shrieking most terribly." Among the Latuka of Central Africa
the earth on which a drop of blood has fallen at childbirth is carefully
scraped up with an iron shovel, put into a pot along with the water used in
washing the mother, and buried tolerably deep outside the house on the
left-hand side. In West Africa, if a drop of your blood has fallen on the
ground, you must carefully cover it up, rub and stamp it into the soil; if it
has fallen on the side of a canoe or a tree, the place is cut out and the
chip destroyed. One motive of these African customs may be a wish to
prevent the blood from falling into the hands of magicians, who might make
an evil use of it. That is admittedly the reason why people in West Africa
stamp out any blood of theirs which has dropped on the ground or cut out
any wood that has been soaked with it. From a like dread of sorcery
natives of New Guinea are careful to burn any sticks, leaves, or rags
which are stained with their blood; and if the blood has dripped on the
ground they turn up the soil and if possible light a fire on the spot. The
same fear explains the curious duties discharged by a class of men called
ramanga or "blue blood" among the Betsileo of Madagascar. It is their
business to eat all the nail-parings and to lick up all the spilt blood of the
nobles. When the nobles pare their nails, the parings are collected to the
last scrap and swallowed by these ramanga. If the parings are too large,
they are minced small and so gulped down. Again, should a nobleman
wound himself, say in cutting his nails or treading on something, the
ramanga lick up the blood as fast as possible. Nobles of high rank hardly
go anywhere without these humble attendants; but if it should happen that
there are none of them present, the cut nails and the spilt blood are
carefully collected to be afterwards swallowed by the ramanga. There is
scarcely a nobleman of any pretensions who does not strictly observe this
custom, the intention of which probably is to prevent these parts of his
person from falling into the hands of sorcerers, who on the principles of
contagious magic could work him harm thereby. 3
The general explanation of the reluctance to shed blood on the ground is
probably to be found in the belief that the soul is in the blood, and that
therefore any ground on which it may fall necessarily becomes taboo or
sacred. In New Zealand anything upon which even a drop of a high
chief's blood chances to fall becomes taboo or sacred to him. For
instance, a party of natives having come to visit a chief in a fine new
canoe, the chief got into it, but in doing so a splinter entered his foot, and
the blood trickled on the canoe, which at once became sacred to him. The
owner jumped out, dragged the canoe ashore opposite the chief's house,
and left it there. Again, a chief in entering a missionary's house knocked
his head against a beam, and the blood flowed. The natives said that in
former times the house would have belonged to the chief. As usually
happens with taboos of universal application, the prohibition to spill the
blood of a tribesman on the ground applies with peculiar stringency to
chiefs and kings, and is observed in their case long after it has ceased to
be observed in the case of others. 4
Section 5. The Head tabooed.
MANY peoples regard the head as peculiarly sacred; the special
sanctity attributed to it is sometimes explained by a belief that it
contains a spirit which is very sensitive to injury or disrespect.
Thus the Yorubas hold that every man has three spiritual inmates,
of whom the first, called Olori, dwells in the head and is the man's
protector, guardian, and guide. Offerings are made to this spirit,
chiefly of fowls, and some of the blood mixed with palmoil is rubbed
on the forehead. The Karens suppose that a being called the tso
resides in the upper part of the head, and while it retains its seat no
harm can befall the person from the efforts of the seven Kelahs, or
personified passions. "But if the tso becomes heedless or weak
certain evil to the person is the result. Hence the head is carefully
attended to, and all possible pains are taken to provide such dress
and attire as will be pleasing to the tso." The Siamese think that a
spirit called khuan or kwun dwells in the human head, of which it is
the guardian spirit. The spirit must be carefully protected from injury
of every kind; hence the act of shaving or cutting the hair is
accompanied with many ceremonies. The kwun is very sensitive on
points of honour, and would feel mortally insulted if the head in
which he resides were touched by the hand of a stranger. The
Cambodians esteem it a grave offence to touch a man's head; some
of them will not enter a place where anything whatever is
suspended over their heads; and the meanest Cambodian would
never consent to live under an inhabited room. Hence the houses
are built of one story only; and even the Government respects the
prejudice by never placing a prisoner in the stocks under the floor
of a house, though the houses are raised high above the ground.
The same superstition exists amongst the Malays; for an early
traveller reports that in Java people "wear nothing on their heads,
and say that nothing must be on their heads ... and if any person
were to put his hand upon their head they would kill him; and they
do not build houses with storeys, in order that they may not walk
over each other's heads." 1
The same superstition as to the head is found in full force
throughout Polynesia. Thus of Gattanewa, a Marquesan chief, it is
said that "to touch the top of his head, or anything which had been
on his head, was sacrilege. To pass over his head was an indignity
never to be forgotten." The son of a Marquesan high priest has
been seen to roll on the ground in an agony of rage and despair,
begging for death, because some one had desecrated his head
and deprived him of his divinity by sprinkling a few drops of water
on his hair. But it was not the Marquesan chiefs only whose heads
were sacred. The head of every Marquesan was taboo, and might
neither be touched nor stepped over by another; even a father
might not step over the head of his sleeping child; women were
forbidden to carry or touch anything that had been in contact with,
or had merely hung over, the head of their husband or father. No
one was allowed to be over the head of the king of Tonga. In Tahiti
any one who stood over the king or queen, or passed his hand
over their heads, might be put to death. Until certain rites were
performed over it, a Tahitian infant was especially taboo; whatever
touched the child's head, while it was in this state, became sacred
and was deposited in a consecrated place railed in for the purpose
at the child's house. If a branch of a tree touched the child's head,
the tree was cut down; and if in its fall it injured another tree so as
to penetrate the bark, that tree also was cut down as unclean and
unfit for use. After the rites were performed these special taboos
ceased; but the head of a Tahitian was always sacred, he never
carried anything on it, and to touch it was an offence. So sacred
was the head of a Maori chief that "if he only touched it with his
fingers, he was obliged immediately to apply them to his nose, and
snuff up the sanctity which they had acquired by the touch, and
thus restore it to the part from whence it was taken." On account of
the sacredness of his head a Maori chief "could not blow the fire
with his mouth, for the breath being sacred, communicated his
sanctity to it, and a brand might be taken by a slave, or a man of
another tribe, or the fire might be used for other purposes, such as
cooking, and so cause his death." 2
Section 6. Hair tabooed.
WHEN the head was considered so sacred that it might not even
be touched without grave offence, it is obvious that the cutting of
the hair must have been a delicate and difficult operation. The
difficulties and dangers which, on the primitive view, beset the
operation are of two kinds. There is first the danger of disturbing the
spirit of the head, which may be injured in the process and may
revenge itself upon the person who molests him. Secondly, there is
the difficulty of disposing of the shorn locks. For the savage
believes that the sympathetic connexion which exists between
himself and every part of his body continues to exist even after the
physical connexion has been broken, and that therefore he will
suffer from any harm that may befall the several parts of his body,
such as the clippings of his hair or the parings of his nails.
Accordingly he takes care that these severed portions of himself
shall not be left in places where they might either be exposed to
accidental injury or fall into the hands of malicious persons who
might work magic on them to his detriment or death. Such dangers
are common to all, but sacred persons have more to fear from them
than ordinary people, so the precautions taken by them are
proportionately stringent. The simplest way of evading the peril is
not to cut the hair at all; and this is the expedient adopted where
the risk is thought to be more than usually great. The Frankish kings
were never allowed to crop their hair; from their childhood upwards
they had to keep it unshorn. To poll the long locks that floated on
their shoulders would have been to renounce their right to the
throne. When the wicked brothers Clotaire and Childebert coveted
the kingdom of their dead brother Clodomir, they inveigled into their
power their little nephews, the two sons of Clodomir; and having
done so, they sent a messenger bearing scissors and a naked
sword to the children's grandmother, Queen Clotilde, at Paris. The
envoy showed the scissors and the sword to Clotilde, and bade her
choose whether the children should be shorn and live or remain
unshorn and die. The proud queen replied that if her grandchildren
were not to come to the throne she would rather see them dead
than shorn. And murdered they were by their ruthless uncle
Clotaire with his own hand. The king of Ponape, one of the
Caroline Islands, must wear his hair long, and so must his
grandees. Among the Hos, a negro tribe of West Africa, "there are
priests on whose head no razor may come during the whole of their
lives. The god who dwells in the man forbids the cutting of his hair
on pain of death. If the hair is at last too long, the owner must pray
to his god to allow him at least to clip the tips of it. The hair is in
fact conceived as the seat and lodging-place of his god, so that
were it shorn the god would lose his abode in the priest." The
members of a Masai clan, who are believed to possess the art of
making rain, may not pluck out their beards, because the loss of
their beards would, it is supposed, entail the loss of their
rain-making powers. The head chief and the sorcerers of the Masai
observe the same rule for a like reason: they think that were they to
pull out their beards, their supernatural gifts would desert them. 1
Again, men who have taken a vow of vengeance sometimes keep
their hair unshorn till they have fulfilled their vow. Thus of the
Marquesans we are told that "occasionally they have their head
entirely shaved, except one lock on the crown, which is worn
loose or put up in a knot. But the latter mode of wearing the hair is
only adopted by them when they have a solemn vow, as to
revenge the death of some near relation, etc. In such case the lock
is never cut off until they have fulfilled their promise." A similar
custom was sometimes observed by the ancient Germans; among
the Chatti the young warriors never clipped their hair or their beard
till they had slain an enemy. Among the Toradjas, when a child's
hair is cut to rid it of vermin, some locks are allowed to remain on
the crown of the head as a refuge for one of the child's souls.
Otherwise the soul would have no place in which to settle, and the
child would sicken. The Karo-Bataks are much afraid of frightening
away the soul of a child; hence when they cut its hair, they always
leave a patch unshorn, to which the soul can retreat before the
shears. Usually this lock remains unshorn all through life, or at least
up till manhood. 2
Section 7. Ceremonies at Hair-cutting.
BUT when it becomes necessary to crop the hair, measures are
taken to lessen the dangers which are supposed to attend the
operation. The chief of Namosi in Fiji always ate a man by way of
precaution when he had had his hair cut. "There was a certain clan
that had to provide the victim, and they used to sit in solemn
council among themselves to choose him. It was a sacrificial feast
to avert evil from the chief." Amongst the Maoris many spells were
uttered at hair-cutting; one, for example, was spoken to consecrate
the obsidian knife with which the hair was cut; another was
pronounced to avert the thunder and lightning which hair-cutting
was believed to cause. "He who has had his hair cut is in
immediate charge of the Atua (spirit); he is removed from the
contact and society of his family and his tribe; he dare not touch
his food himself; it is put into his mouth by another person; nor can
he for some days resume his accustomed occupations or associate
with his fellow-men." The person who cuts the hair is also tabooed;
his hands having been in contact with a sacred head, he may not
touch food with them or engage in any other employment; he is fed
by another person with food cooked over a sacred fire. He cannot
be released from the taboo before the following day, when he rubs
his hands with potato or fern root which has been cooked on a
sacred fire; and this food having been taken to the head of the
family in the female line and eaten by her, his hands are freed from
the taboo. In some parts of New Zealand the most sacred day of
the year was that appointed for hair-cutting; the people assembled
in large numbers on that day from all the neighbourhood. 1
Section 8. Disposal of Cut Hair and Nails.
BUT even when the hair and nails have been safely cut, there
remains the difficulty of disposing of them, for their owner believes
himself liable to suffer from any harm that may befall them. The
notion that a man may be bewitched by means of the clippings of
his hair, the parings of his nails, or any other severed portion of his
person is almost world-wide, and attested by evidence too ample,
too familiar, and too tedious in its uniformity to be here analysed at
length. The general idea on which the superstition rests is that of
the sympathetic connexion supposed to persist between a person
and everything that has once been part of his body or in any way
closely related to him. A very few examples must suffice. They
belong to that branch of sympathetic magic which may be called
contagious. Dread of sorcery, we are told, formed one of the most
salient characteristics of the Marquesan islanders in the old days.
The sorcerer took some of the hair, spittle, or other bodily refuse of
the man he wished to injure, wrapped it up in a leaf, and placed
the packet in a bag woven of threads or fibres, which were knotted
in an intricate way. The whole was then buried with certain rites,
and thereupon the victim wasted away of a languishing sickness
which lasted twenty days. His life, however, might be saved by
discovering and digging up the buried hair, spittle, or what not; for
as soon as this was done the power of the charm ceased. A Maori
sorcerer intent on bewitching somebody sought to get a tress of his
victim's hair, the parings of his nails, some of his spittle, or a shred
of his garment. Having obtained the object, whatever it was, he
chanted certain spells and curses over it in a falsetto voice and
buried it in the ground. As the thing decayed, the person to whom it
had belonged was supposed to waste away. When an Australian
blackfellow wishes to get rid of his wife, he cuts off a lock of her
hair in her sleep, ties it to his spear-thrower, and goes with it to a
neighbouring tribe, where he gives it to a friend. His friend sticks
the spear-thrower up every night before the camp fire, and when it
falls down it is a sign that the wife is dead. The way in which the
charm operates was explained to Dr. Howitt by a Wirajuri man.
"You see," he said, "when a blackfellow doctor gets hold of
something belonging to a man and roasts it with things, and sings
over it, the fire catches hold of the smell of the man, and that settles
the poor fellow." 1
The Huzuls of the Carpathians imagine that if mice get a person's
shorn hair and make a nest of it, the person will suffer from
headache or even become idiotic. Similarly in Germany it is a
common notion that if birds find a person's cut hair, and build their
nests with it, the person will suffer from headache; sometimes it is
thought that he will have an eruption on the head. The same
superstition prevails, or used to prevail, in West Sussex. 2
Again it is thought that cut or combed-out hair may disturb the
weather by producing rain and hail, thunder and lightning. We
have seen that in New Zealand a spell was uttered at hair-cutting
to avert thunder and lightning. In the Tyrol, witches are supposed to
use cut or combed-out hair to make hailstones or thunderstorms
with. Thlinkeet Indians have been known to attribute stormy weather
to the rash act of a girl who had combed her hair outside of the
house. The Romans seem to have held similar views, for it was a
maxim with them that no one on shipboard should cut his hair or
nails except in a storm, that is, when the mischief was already
done. In the Highlands of Scotland it is said that no sister should
comb her hair at night if she have a brother at sea. In West Africa,
when the Mani of Chitombe or Jumba died, the people used to run
in crowds to the corpse and tear out his hair, teeth, and nails,
which they kept as a rain-charm, believing that otherwise no rain
would fall. The Makoko of the Anzikos begged the missionaries to
give him half their beards as a rain-charm. 3
If cut hair and nails remain in sympathetic connexion with the
person from whose body they have been severed, it is clear that
they can be used as hostages for his good behaviour by any one
who may chance to possess them; for on the principles of
contagious magic he has only to injure the hair or nails in order to
hurt simultaneously their original owner. Hence when the Nandi
have taken a prisoner they shave his head and keep the shorn hair
as a surety that he will not attempt to escape; but when the captive
is ransomed, they return his shorn hair with him to his own
people. 4
To preserve the cut hair and nails from injury and from the
dangerous uses to which they may be put by sorcerers, it is
necessary to deposit them in some safe place. The shorn locks of a
Maori chief were gathered with much care and placed in an
adjoining cemetery. The Tahitians buried the cuttings of their hair at
the temples. In the streets of Soku a modern traveller observed
cairns of large stones piled against walls with tufts of human hair
inserted in the crevices. On asking the meaning of this, he was told
that when any native of the place polled his hair he carefully
gathered up the clippings and deposited them in one of these
cairns, all of which were sacred to the fetish and therefore
inviolable. These cairns of sacred stones, he further learned, were
simply a precaution against witchcraft, for if a man were not thus
careful in disposing of his hair, some of it might fall into the hands
of his enemies, who would, by means of it, be able to cast spells
over him and so compass his destruction. When the top-knot of a
Siamese child has been cut with great ceremony, the short hairs
are put into a little vessel made of plantain leaves and set adrift on
the nearest river or canal. As they float away, all that was wrong or
harmful in the child's disposition is believed to depart with them.
The long hairs are kept till the child makes a pilgrimage to the holy
Footprint of Buddha on the sacred hill at Prabat. They are then
presented to the priests, who are supposed to make them into
brushes with which they sweep the Footprint; but in fact so much
hair is thus offered every year that the priests cannot use it all, so
they quietly burn the superfluity as soon as the pilgrims' backs are
turned. The cut hair and nails of the Flamen Dialis were buried
under a lucky tree. The shorn tresses of the Vestal Virgins were
hung on an ancient lotus-tree. 5
Often the clipped hair and nails are stowed away in any secret
place, not necessarily in a temple or cemetery or at a tree, as in
the cases already mentioned. Thus in Swabia you are
recommended to deposit your clipped hair in some spot where
neither sun nor moon can shine on it, for example in the earth or
under a stone. In Danzig it is buried in a bag under the threshold. In
Ugi, one of the Solomon Islands, men bury their hair lest it should
fall into the hands of an enemy, who would make magic with it and
so bring sickness or calamity on them. The same fear seems to be
general in Melanesia, and has led to a regular practice of hiding
cut hair and nails. The same practice prevails among many tribes
of South Africa, from a fear lest wizards should get hold of the
severed particles and work evil with them. The Caffres carry still
further this dread of allowing any portion of themselves to fall into
the hands of an enemy; for not only do they bury their cut hair and
nails in a secret spot, but when one of them cleans the head of
another he preserves the vermin which he catches, "carefully
delivering them to the person to whom they originally appertained,
supposing, according to their theory, that as they derived their
support from the blood of the man from whom they were taken,
should they be killed by another, the blood of his neighbour would
be in his possession, thus placing in his hands the power of some
superhuman influence." 6
Sometimes the severed hair and nails are preserved, not to
prevent them from falling into the hands of a magician, but that the
owner may have them at the resurrection of the body, to which
some races look forward. Thus the Incas of Peru "took extreme care
to preserve the nail-parings and the hairs that were shorn off or
torn out with a comb; placing them in holes or niches in the walls;
and if they fell out, any other Indian that saw them picked them up
and put them in their places again. I very often asked different
Indians, at various times, why they did this, in order to see what
they would say, and they all replied in the same words saying,
`Know that all persons who are born must return to life' (they have
no word to express resurrection), `and the souls must rise out of
their tombs with all that belonged to their bodies. We, therefore, in
order that we may not have to search for our hair and nails at a
time when there will be much hurry and confusion, place them in
one place, that they may be brought together more conveniently,
and, whenever it is possible, we are also careful to spit in one
place.'" Similarly the Turks never throw away the parings of their
nails, but carefully stow them in cracks of the walls or of the
boards, in the belief that they will be needed at the resurrection.
The Armenians do not throw away their cut hair and nails and
extracted teeth, but hide them in places that are esteemed holy,
such as a crack in the church wall, a pillar of the house, or a
hollow tree. They think that all these severed portions of themselves
will be wanted at the resurrection, and that he who has not stowed
them away in a safe place will have to hunt about for them on the
great day. In the village of Drumconrath in Ireland there used to be
some old women who, having ascertained from Scripture that the
hairs of their heads were all numbered by the Almighty, expected to
have to account for them at the day of judgment. In order to be able
to do so they stuffed the severed hair away in the thatch of their
cottages. 7
Some people burn their loose hair to save it from falling into the
hands of sorcerers. This is done by the Patagonians and some of
the Victorian tribes. In the Upper Vosges they say that you should
never leave the clippings of your hair and nails lying about, but
burn them to hinder the sorcerers from using them against you. For
the same reason Italian women either burn their loose hairs or throw
them into a place where no one is likely to look for them. The
almost universal dread of witchcraft induces the West African
negroes, the Makololo of South Africa, and the Tahitians to burn or
bury their shorn hair. In the Tyrol many people burn their hair lest
the witches should use it to raise thunderstorms; others burn or bury
it to prevent the birds from lining their nests with it, which would
cause the heads from which the hair came to ache. 8
This destruction of the hair and nails plainly involves an
inconsistency of thought. The object of the destruction is avowedly
to prevent these severed portions of the body from being used by
sorcerers. But the possibility of their being so used depends upon
the supposed sympathetic connexion between them and the man
from whom they were severed. And if this sympathetic connexion
still exists, clearly these severed portions cannot be destroyed
without injury to the man. 9
Section 9. Spittle tabooed.
THE SAME fear of witchcraft which has led so many people to hide
or destroy their loose hair and nails has induced other or the same
people to treat their spittle in a like fashion. For on the principles of
sympathetic magic the spittle is part of the man, and whatever is
done to it will have a corresponding effect on him. A Chilote Indian,
who has gathered up the spittle of an enemy, will put it in a potato,
and hang the potato in the smoke, uttering certain spells as he
does so in the belief that his foe will waste away as the potato dries
in the smoke. Or he will put the spittle in a frog and throw the
animal into an inaccessible, unnavigable river, which will make the
victim quake and shake with ague. The natives of Urewera, a
district of New Zealand, enjoyed a high reputation for their skill in
magic. It was said that they made use of people's spittle to bewitch
them. Hence visitors were careful to conceal their spittle, lest they
should furnish these wizards with a handle for working them harm.
Similarly among some tribes of South Africa no man will spit when
an enemy is near, lest his foe should find the spittle and give it to a
wizard, who would then mix it with magical ingredients so as to
injure the person from whom it fell. Even in a man's own house his
saliva is carefully swept away and obliterated for a similar
reason. 1
If common folk are thus cautious, it is natural that kings and chiefs
should be doubly so. In the Sandwich Islands chiefs were attended
by a confidential servant bearing a portable spittoon, and the
deposit was carefully buried every morning to put it out of the reach
of sorcerers. On the Slave Coast, for the same reason, whenever a
king or chief expectorates, the saliva is scrupulously gathered up
and hidden or buried. The same precautions are taken for the same
reason with the spittle of the chief of Tabali in Southern Nigeria. 2
The magical use to which spittle may be put marks it out, like
blood or nail-parings, as a suitable material basis for a covenant,
since by exchanging their saliva the covenanting parties give each
other a guarantee of good faith. If either of them afterwards
foreswears himself, the other can punish his perfidy by a magical
treatment of the purjurer's spittle which he has in his custody. Thus
when the Wajagga of East Africa desire to make a covenant, the
two parties will sometimes sit down with a bowl of milk or beer
between them, and after uttering an incantation over the beverage
they each take a mouthful of the milk or beer and spit it into the
other's mouth. In urgent cases, when there is no time to spend on
ceremony, the two will simply spit into each other's mouth, which
seals the covenant just as well. 3
Section 10. Foods tabooed.
AS MIGHT have been expected, the superstitions of the savage
cluster thick about the subject of food; and he abstains from eating
many animals and plants, wholesome enough in themselves, which
for one reason or another he fancies would prove dangerous or
fatal to the eater. Examples of such abstinence are too familiar and
far too numerous to quote. But if the ordinary man is thus deterred
by superstitious fear from partaking of various foods, the restraints
of this kind which are laid upon sacred or tabooed persons, such
as kings and priests, are still more numerous and stringent. We
have already seen that the Flamen Dialis was forbidden to eat or
even name several plants and animals, and that the flesh diet of
Egyptian kings was restricted to veal and goose. In antiquity many
priests and many kings of barbarous peoples abstained wholly from
a flesh diet. The Gangas or fetish priests of the Loango Coast are
forbidden to eat or even see a variety of animals and fish, in
consequence of which their flesh diet is extremely limited; often
they live only on herbs and roots, though they may drink fresh
blood. The heir to the throne of Loango is forbidden from infancy to
eat pork; from early childhood he is interdicted the use of the cola
fruit in company; at puberty he is taught by a priest not to partake
of fowls except such as he has himself killed and cooked; and so
the number of taboos goes on increasing with his years. In
Fernando Po the king after installation is forbidden to eat cocco
(arum acaule), deer, and porcupine, which are the ordinary foods
of the people. The head chief of the Masai may eat nothing but
milk, honey, and the roasted livers of goats; for if he partook of any
other food he would lose his power of soothsaying and of
compounding charms. 1
Section 11. Knots and Rings tabooed.
WE have seen that among the many taboos which the Flamen
Dialis at Rome had to observe, there was one that forbade him to
have a knot on any part of his garments, and another that obliged
him to wear no ring unless it were broken. In like manner Moslem
pilgrims to Mecca are in a state of sanctity or taboo and may wear
on their persons neither knots nor rings. These rules are probably
of kindred significance, and may conveniently be considered
together. To begin with knots, many people in different parts of the
world entertain a strong objection to having any knot about their
person at certain critical seasons, particularly childbirth, marriage,
and death. Thus among the Saxons of Transylvania, when a
woman is in travail all knots on her garments are untied, because it
is believed that this will facilitate her delivery, and with the same
intention all the locks in the house, whether on doors or boxes, are
unlocked. The Lapps think that a lying-in woman should have no
knot on her garments, because a knot would have the effect of
making the delivery difficult and painful. In the East Indies this
superstition is extended to the whole time of pregnancy; the people
believe that if a pregnant woman were to tie knots, or braid, or
make anything fast, the child would thereby be constricted or the
woman would herself be "tied up" when her time came. Nay, some
of them enforce the observance of the rule on the father as well as
the mother of the unborn child. Among the Sea Dyaks neither of the
parents may bind up anything with a string or make anything fast
during the wife's pregnancy. In the Toumbuluh tribe of North
Celebes a ceremony is performed in the fourth or fifth month of a
woman's pregnancy, and after it her husband is forbidden, among
many other things, to tie any fast knots and to sit with his legs
crossed over each other. 1
In all these cases the idea seems to be that the tying of a knot
would, as they say in the East Indies, "tie up" the woman, in other
words, impede and perhaps prevent her delivery, or delay her
convalescence after the birth. On the principles of homoeopathic or
imitative magic the physical obstacle or impediment of a knot on a
cord would create a corresponding obstacle or impediment in the
body of the woman. That this is really the explanation of the rule
appears from a custom observed by the Hos of West Africa at a
difficult birth. When a woman is in hard labour and cannot bring
forth, they call in a magician to her aid. He looks at her and says,
"The child is bound in the womb, that is why she cannot be
delivered." On the entreaties of her female relations he then
promises to loosen the bond so that she may bring forth. For that
purpose he orders them to fetch a tough creeper from the forest,
and with it he binds the hands and feet of the sufferer on her back.
Then he takes a knife and calls out the woman's name, and when
she answers he cuts through the creeper with a knife, saying, "I cut
through to-day thy bonds and thy child's bonds." After that he
chops up the creeper small, puts the bits in a vessel of water, and
bathes the woman with the water. Here the cutting of the creeper
with which the woman's hands and feet are bound is a simple piece
of homoeopathic or imitative magic: by releasing her limbs from their
bonds the magician imagines that he simultaneously releases the
child in her womb from the trammels which impede its birth. The
same train of thought underlies a practice observed by some
peoples of opening all locks, doors, and so on, while a birth is
taking place in the house. We have seen that at such a time the
Germans of Transylvania open all the locks, and the same thing is
done also in Voigtland and Mecklenburg. In North-western
Argyllshire superstitious people used to open every lock in the
house at childbirth. In the island of Salsette near Bombay, when a
woman is in hard labour, all locks of doors or drawers are opened
with a key to facilitate her delivery. Among the Mandelings of
Sumatra the lids of all chests, boxes, pans, and so forth are
opened; and if this does not produce the desired effect, the anxious
husband has to strike the projecting ends of some of the
house-beams in order to loosen them; for they think that
"everything must be open and loose to facilitate the delivery." In
Chittagong, when a woman cannot bring her child to the birth, the
midwife gives orders to throw all doors and windows wide open, to
uncork all bottles, to remove the bungs from all casks, to unloose
the cows in the stall, the horses in the stable, the watchdog in his
kennel, to set free sheep, fowls, ducks, and so forth. This universal
liberty accorded to the animals and even to inanimate things is,
according to the people, an infallible means of ensuring the
woman's delivery and allowing the babe to be born. In the island of
Saghalien, when a woman is in labour, her husband undoes
everything that can be undone. He loosens the plaits of his hair
and the laces of his shoes. Then he unties whatever is tied in the
house or its vicinity. In the courtyard he takes the axe out of the log
in which it is stuck; he unfastens the boat, if it is moored to a tree,
he withdraws the cartridges from his gun, and the arrows from his
crossbow. 2
Again, we have seen that a Toumbuluh man abstains not only
from tying knots, but also from sitting with crossed legs during his
wife's pregnancy. The train of thought is the same in both cases.
Whether you cross threads in tying a knot, or only cross your legs
in sitting at your ease, you are equally, on the principles of
homoeopathic magic, crossing or thwarting the free course of
things, and your action cannot but check and impede whatever
may be going forward in your neighbourhood. Of this important truth
the Romans were fully aware. To sit beside a pregnant woman or a
patient under medical treatment with clasped hands, says the grave
Pliny, is to cast a malignant spell over the person, and it is worse
still if you nurse your leg or legs with your clasped hands, or lay
one leg over the other. Such postures were regarded by the old
Romans as a let and hindrance to business of every sort, and at a
council of war or a meeting of magistrates, at prayers and
sacrifices, no man was suffered to cross his legs or clasp his
hands. The stock instance of the dreadful consequences that might
flow from doing one or the other was that of Alcmena, who travailed
with Hercules for seven days and seven nights, because the
goddess Lucina sat in front of the house with clasped hands and
crossed legs, and the child could not be born until the goddess
had been beguiled into changing her attitude. It is a Bulgarian
superstition that if a pregnant woman is in the habit of sitting with
crossed legs, she will suffer much in childbed. In some parts of
Bavaria, when conversation comes to a standstill and silence
ensues, they say, "Surely somebody has crossed his legs." 3
The magical effect of knots in trammelling and obstructing human
activity was believed to be manifested at marriage not less than at
birth. During the Middle Ages, and down to the eighteenth century,
it seems to have been commonly held in Europe that the
consummation of marriage could be prevented by any one who,
while the wedding ceremony was taking place, either locked a lock
or tied a knot in a cord, and then threw the lock or the cord away.
The lock or the knotted cord had to be flung into water; and until it
had been found and unlocked, or untied, no real union of the
married pair was possible. Hence it was a grave offence, not only
to cast such a spell, but also to steal or make away with the
material instrument of it, whether lock or knotted cord. In the year
1718 the parliament of Bordeaux sentenced some one to be burned
alive for having spread desolation through a whole family by means
of knotted cords; and in 1705 two persons were condemned to
death in Scotland for stealing certain charmed knots which a
woman had made, in order thereby to mar the wedded happiness of
Spalding of Ashintilly. The belief in the efficacy of these charms
appears to have lingered in the Highlands of Pertshire down to the
end of the eighteenth century, for at that time it was still customary
in the beautiful parish of Logierait, between the river Tummel and
the river Tay, to unloose carefully every knot in the clothes of the
bride and bridegroom before the celebration of the marriage
ceremony. We meet with the same superstition and the same
custom at the present day in Syria. The persons who help a Syrian
bridegroom to don his wedding garments take care that no knot is
tied on them and no button buttoned, for they believe that a button
buttoned or a knot tied would put it within the power of his enemies
to deprive him of his nuptial rights by magical means. The fear of
such charms is diffused all over North Africa at the present day. To
render a bridegroom impotent the enchanter has only to tie a knot
in a handkerchief which he had previously placed quietly on some
part of the bridegroom's body when he was mounted on horseback
ready to fetch his bride: so long as the knot in the handkerchief
remains tied, so long will the bridegroom remain powerless to
consummate the marriage. 4
The maleficent power of knots may also be manifested in the
infliction of sickness, disease, and all kinds of misfortune. Thus
among the Hos of West Africa a sorcerer will sometimes curse his
enemy and tie a knot in a stalk of grass, saying, "I have tied up
So-and-so in this knot. May all evil light upon him! When he goes
into the field, may a snake sting him! When he goes to the chase,
may a ravening beast attack him! And when he steps into a river,
may the water sweep him away! When it rains, may the lightning
strike him! May evil nights be his!" It is believed that in the knot the
sorcerer has bound up the life of his enemy. In the Koran there is
an allusion to the mischief of "those who puff into the knots," and
an Arab commentator on the passage explains that the words refer
to women who practise magic by tying knots in cords, and then
blowing and spitting upon them. He goes on to relate how, once
upon a time, a wicked Jew bewitched the prophet Mohammed
himself by tying nine knots on a string, which he then hid in a well.
So the prophet fell ill, and nobody knows what might have
happened if the archangel Gabriel had not opportunely revealed to
the holy man the place where the knotted cord was concealed. The
trusty Ali soon fetched the baleful thing from the well; and the
prophet recited over it certain charms, which were specially
revealed to him for the purpose. At every verse of the charms a
knot untied itself, and the prophet experienced a certain relief. 5
If knots are supposed to kill, they are also supposed to cure. This
follows from the belief that to undo the knots which are causing
sickness will bring the sufferer relief. But apart from this negative
virtue of maleficent knots, there are certain beneficent knots to
which a positive power of healing is ascribed. Pliny tells us that
some folk cured diseases of the groin by taking a thread from a
web, tying seven or nine knots on it, and then fastening it to the
patient's groin; but to make the cure effectual it was necessary to
name some widow as each knot was tied. O'Donovan describes a
remedy for fever employed among the Turcomans. The enchanter
takes some camel hair and spins it into a stout thread, droning a
spell the while. Next he ties seven knots on the thread, blowing on
each knot before he pulls it tight. This knotted thread is then worn
as a bracelet on his wrist by the patient. Every day one of the knots
is untied and blown upon, and when the seventh knot is undone
the whole thread is rolled up into a ball and thrown into a river,
bearing away (as they imagine) the fever with it. 6
Again knots may be used by an enchantress to win a lover and
attach him firmly to herself. Thus the love-sick maid in Virgil seeks
to draw Daphnis to her from the city by spells and by tying three
knots on each of three strings of different colours. So an Arab
maiden, who had lost her heart to a certain man, tried to gain his
love and bind him to herself by tying knots in his whip; but her
jealous rival undid the knots. On the same principle magic knots
may be employed to stop a runaway. In Swazieland you may often
see grass tied in knots at the side of the footpaths. Every one of
these knots tells of a domestic tragedy. A wife has run away from
her husband, and he and his friends have gone in pursuit, binding
up the paths, as they call it, in this fashion to prevent the fugitive
from doubling back over them. A net, from its affluence of knots,
has always been considered in Russia very efficacious against
sorcerers; hence in some places, when a bride is being dressed in
her wedding attire, a fishing-net is flung over her to keep her out of
harm's way. For a similar purpose the bridegroom and his
companions are often girt with pieces of net, or at least with
tight-drawn girdles, for before a wizard can begin to injure them he
must undo all the knots in the net, or take off the girdles. But often a
Russian amulet is merely a knotted thread. A skein of red wool
wound about the arms and legs is thought to ward off agues and
fevers; and nine skeins, fastened round a child's neck, are deemed
a preservative against scarlatina. In the Tver Government a bag of
a special kind is tied to the neck of the cow which walks before the
rest of a herd, in order to keep off wolves; its force binds the maw
of the ravening beast. On the same principle, a padlock is carried
thrice round a herd of horses before they go afield in the spring,
and the bearer locks and unlocks it as he goes, saying, "I lock from
my herd the mouths of the grey wolves with this steel lock." 7
Knots and locks may serve to avert not only wizards and wolves
but death itself. When they brought a woman to the stake at St.
Andrews in 1572 to burn her alive for a witch, they found on her a
white cloth like a collar, with strings and many knots on the strings.
They took it from her, sorely against her will, for she seemed to
think that she could not die in the fire, if only the cloth with the
knotted strings was on her. When it was taken away, she said,
"Now I have no hope of myself." In many parts of England it is
thought that a person cannot die so long as any locks are locked
or bolts shot in the house. It is therefore a very common practice to
undo all locks and bolts when the sufferer is plainly near his end,
in order that his agony may not be unduly prolonged. For example,
in the year 1863, at Taunton, a child lay sick of scarlatina and
death seemed inevitable. "A jury of matrons was, as it were,
empanelled, and to prevent the child `dying hard' all the doors in
the house, all the drawers, all the boxes, all the cupboards were
thrown wide open, the keys taken out, and the body of the child
placed under a beam, whereby a sure, certain, and easy passage
into eternity could be secured." Strange to say, the child declined
to avail itself of the facilities for dying so obligingly placed at its
disposal by the sagacity and experience of the British matrons of
Taunton; it preferred to live rather than give up the ghost just
then. 8
The rule which prescribes that at certain magical and religious
ceremonies the hair should hang loose and the feet should be bare
is probably based on the same fear of trammelling and impeding the
action in hand, whatever it may be, by the presence of any knot or
constriction, whether on the head or on the feet of the performer. A
similar power to bind and hamper spiritual as well as bodily
activities is ascribed by some people to rings. Thus in the island of
Carpathus people never button the clothes they put upon a dead
body and they are careful to remove all rings from it; "for the spirit,
they say, can even be detained in the little finger, and cannot rest."
Here it is plain that even if the soul is not definitely supposed to
issue at death from the finger-tips, yet the ring is conceived to
exercise a certain constrictive influence which detains and
imprisons the immortal spirit in spite of its efforts to escape from the
tabernacle of clay; in short the ring, like the knot, acts as a spiritual
fetter. This may have been the reason of an ancient Greek maxim,
attributed to Pythagoras, which forbade people to wear rings.
Nobody might enter the ancient Arcadian sanctuary of the Mistress
at Lycosura with a ring on his or her finger. Persons who consulted
the oracle of Faunus had to be chaste, to eat no flesh, and to wear
no rings. 9
On the other hand, the same constriction which hinders the
egress of the soul may prevent the entrance of evil spirits; hence
we find rings used as amulets against demons, witches, and ghosts.
In the Tyrol it is said that a woman in childbed should never take
off her wedding-ring, or spirits and witches will have power over
her. Among the Lapps, the person who is about to place a corpse
in the coffin receives from the husband, wife, or children of the
deceased a brass ring, which he must wear fastened to his right
arm until the corpse is safely deposited in the grave. The ring is
believed to serve the person as an amulet against any harm which
the ghost might do to him. How far the custom of wearing
finger-rings may have been influenced by, or even have sprung
from, a belief in their efficacy as amulets to keep the soul in the
body, or demons out of it, is a question which seems worth
considering. Here we are only concerned with the belief in so far
as it seems to throw light on the rule that the Flamen Dialis might
not wear a ring unless it were broken. Taken in conjunction with the
rule which forbade him to have a knot on his garments, it points to
a fear that the powerful spirit embodied in him might be trammelled
and hampered in its goings-out and comings-in by such corporeal
and spiritual fetters as rings and knots. 10