Chapter M: C. H. Gaidoz takes exception to this interpretation. In his opinion, (3)

“Pedere te mallem, namque hoc nec inutile, dicit Symmachus, et risum res movet ista simul.”—(Martial, vii. 17, 9.)

“‘Le Tonnerre, ce n’est qu’un Pet;’ c’est Aristophane qui le dit.” Βροντὴ καὶ πορδή, ὁμοίω—(“Nućes.”)

All the preceding from Bib. Scat., article, “Oratio pro Guano Humano.”

Consult Aristophanes, “The Clouds,” act v. scene 2.

“Dissertation sur le dieu Pet,” par M. Claude Terrin.—This author is stated to have cited from Clemens Romanus and Saint Cæsar.—(See Bib. Scat., p. 37.)

Suetonius has the following remarks upon the Roman Emperor Claudius: “It is said too that he intended to publish an edict ... allowing to all people the liberty of giving vent at table to any distension occasioned by flatulence.” This was upon “hearing of a person whose modesty, under such circumstances, had nearly cost him his life.”—(“Claudius,” xxxii.)

Plutarch asks the question: “Question 95. Why was it ordained that they that were to live chaste should abstain from pulse?... Or rather was it because they should bring empty and slender bodies to their purifications and expiations? For pulse are windy and cause a great deal of excrements that require purging off. Or is it because they excite lechery by reason of their flatulent and windy nature?” (“Morals,” Goodwin’s English translation, Boston, 1870, vol. ii. p. 254.)

“The fact that in honor of the arrival of friends, the house is swept and strewn with sand, and that the people bathe at such occasions, shows that cleanliness is appreciated. The current expression is that the house is so cleaned that no bad smell remains to offend the guest. For the same reason the Indian takes repeated baths before praying, ‘that he may be agreeable to the Deity.’”—(“Report on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada,” Dr. Franz Boas, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Meeting, 1889, p. 19.)

“Saul went into a cave ‘ut purgaret ventrem.’”—(Harington, “Ajax,” p. 25.)

XXII.

OBSCENE TENURES.

In close connection with this worship of Bel-Phegor, if there ever was such a worship, may be examined the obscene tenures by which certain estates in England were held in “sergeantcy.” No less an authority than Buckle, the historian, deemed an investigation of these not beneath the dignity of his intellect, as may be ascertained by a glance at his article “Contributions to the History of the Pet,” in his “Commonplace Book,” p. 472. He refers to “Miscellanea Antica Anglicana,” Blount’s “Ancient Tenures,” Luther’s “Table Talk” (as above), Dulaure’s “Des Divinités Génératrices,” Niebuhr’s “Description of Arabia,” Gifford’s edition of Ben Jonson, “The Staple of News,” by Ben Jonson, Wright’s “Political Ballads,” in vols. iii. and vii. of the Percy Society’s publications. With the exception of the first named, all the above have been examined, and a transcription made of the notes, which will be found inserted in their proper place.

“The Lord of the Manor of Essington holds tenure from the lord of the Manor of Hilton in this way. He, the first named, must bring a goose each New Year to the hall of the Manor of Hilton, and drive it at least three times around the fire, ‘while Jack of Hilton is blowing the fire.’ This Jack of Hilton is an image of brass, of about twelve inches high, kneeling on his left knee, and holding his right hand upon his head, and his left upon pego, or his viretrum, erected, having a little hole at the mouth, at which, being filled with water, and set to a strong fire, which makes it evaporate like an aelopile, it vents itself in constant blast, so strongly that it is very audible, and blows the fire fiercely.”—(Blount, “Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors,” Hazlitt’s edition, London, 1874, p. 118.)

This recalls the “mannikin” of Brussels, which may have superseded some long since forgotten local deity; it still serves political purposes occasionally.

Blount’s work was first issued under the title of “Jocular Tenures.”

The prevalence of phallic worship all over Flanders should be adverted to in mentioning the “mannikin” of Brussels.

Dulaure (“Des différens Cultes,” Paris, 1825, vol. ii. p. 272 _et seq._) describes the phallic shrines of Saints Foutin, Guerlichon _et al._ “Anne d’Autriche, épouse de Louis XIII., y alla en pélerinage,”—that is, to the shrine of Saint Foutin.

He also shows that the use of the “raclure” of these phallic saints prevailed in France until the opening years of the present century.

“Rowland, le Sarcere, holds one hundred and ten acres of land in Hemington, County of Suffolk, by serjeantcy, for which on Christmas Day, every year, before our sovereign lord the King of England, he should perform altogether and at once a leap, a puff, and a fart.”—(Idem, p. 154.)

“One Baldwin also formerly held these lands by the same service, and was called by the nickname of Baldwin le Peteur, or Baldwin the Farter.”—(Idem, p. 154.)

Dr. Fletcher, president of the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C., called attention to the fact that reference to the above tenure of Baldwin, “per saltum, sufflatum, et pettum,” is given in the Ingoldsby Legends, “The Spectre of Tappington,” based upon Blount. Ducange, in his “Glossarium,” proves the antiquity of these tenures, which go back, so far as known, to the earliest years of the fourteenth century.—(See Ducange, article “Bombus.”)

Ducange also describes the peculiar custom governing the admission of “filia communis” into the “villa Montis Lucii,” of which more anon.

“Barrington, in his ‘Observations on the Statutes,’ speaking of the people, says: ‘They were also, by the customs prevailing in particular districts, subject to services not only of the most servile, but the most ludicrous nature.’ ‘Utpote Die Nativitatis Domini coram eo saltare, buccas cum sonitu inflare, et ventrum crepitum edere.’ (Struvii Jurispr. Feud. p. 541.) Sir Richard Cox, in his ‘History of Ireland,’ likewise mentions some very ridiculous customs which continued in the year 1565.”—(Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” vol. i. p. 515, article “Fool-Plough and Sword-Dance.”)

“Monstrelet, en décrivant une fête que donna en 1453 le duc de Bourgogne, dit qu’on y voyait: une pucelle qui, de sa mamelle, versait hypocras en grande largesse; à côté de la pucelle était un jeune enfant qui, de sa broquette, rendait eau rose.”—(Chroniq. vol. iii. fol. 55 v.; Dulaure, “Traité des Différens Cultes,” vol. i. p. 324, footnote.)

That these customs, absurd, obscene, irrational, as they appear in the light of to-day, had their origin in the mists of antiquity is not at all improbable; neither is it a violent assumption to attribute a religious origin to them. It is conceded that they had all the force of legalized customs; and law was anciently part and parcel of religion’s dower.

The remarks of Ducange are inserted because they may not be readily accessible to every reader. He quotes from Camden and Spellman.

Baldwin “Qui tenuit terras in Comitatu Suffolciensi, per serjenciam pro qua debuit facere, singulis annis (die Natali Domini), coram Domino Rege, unum saltum, unum sufflatum, et unum bombulum.”

“Hemingston, wherein Baldwin le Petteur (observe the name) held land by serjeantcy (thus an ancient book expresses it), for which he was obliged every Christmas Day to perform before our lord the King of England one saltus, one sufflatus, and one bumbulus; or as it is read in another place, he held it by a saltus, a sufflus, and a pettus,—that is (if I apprehend it aright), he was to dance, make a noise with his cheeks, and let a fart. Such was the plain, jolly mirth of those days.”—(Camden, “Brittania,” edition of London, 1753, vol. i. p. 444.)

Grimm was impressed with the undeniable intermixture of the old religious doctrine with the system of law; for the latter, “even after the adoption of the new faith, would not part with certain old forms and usages.” (“Teutonic Mythol.,” introduc. p. 12.) In another paragraph he says: “I shall try elsewhere to show in detail how a good deal in the gestures and attitudes prescribed for certain legal transactions savors of priestly ceremony at sacrifice and prayer.”—(Idem, vol. i. p. 92.)

XXIII.

TOLLS OF FLATULENCE EXACTED OF PROSTITUTES IN FRANCE.

Another odd usage of which no explanation has been transmitted is thus described by Ducange, Dulaure, and others:—

“En outre, chaque fille publique qui se livre à quelque homme que ce soit, lorsqu’elle entre pour la première fois dans la ville de Montlucon, doit payer sur le pont de cette ville quatre deniers, ou y faire un pet.”—(Dulaure, “des Divin. Générat.” p. 279, quoting from Ducange, “Glossarium,” article “Bombus.”)

In a work by the Abbé Roubaud, entitled “La Pétérade, poême en quatre chants,” we are informed, “Il renvoie à Ducange pour prouver qu’en France on admettait les pets comme monnaie de cours en paiement des péages.... Bombi pro scudis valebant.”—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 48.)

If we may believe Victor Hugo, the custom of the “péage” at the bridge of Montluc was generally known to the people of France in the fifteenth century. Thus, in the first chapter of “Notre Dame,” the populace of Paris, at the Feast of Fools, are represented as indulging in much badinage,—

“Dr. Claude Choart, are you seeking Marie la Giffards?”

“She’s in the Rue de Glatigny.”

“She’s paying her four deniers,—quatuor denarios.”

“Aut unum bumbum.”

Dulaure again quotes Ducange in regard to the tolls demanded of public women first crossing the bridge at Montluc. He finds description of this peculiar toll in registers dating back to 1398; he also sees the resemblance between this toll and the tenure of the Manor of Essington.—(See “Traité des Dif. Cultes,” vol. ii. p. 315, footnote.)

Surgeon Robert M. O’Reilly, U. S. Army, states that among the Irish settlers who came to the United States in the closing hours of the last century the expression was common, in speaking of Flatulence, to term it “Sir-Reverence.”

“Sir-Reverence. In old writers, a common corruption of ‘save reverence,’ or ‘saving your reverence,’—an apologetic phrase used when mentioning anything deemed improper or unseemly, and especially a euphemism for _stercus humanum_.” “‘Cagada,’ a surreverence.”—(Stevens’s “Sp. Dict.,” 1706.)

“Siege, stool, sir-reverence, excrement.”—(Bishop Wilkins’s “Essay towards a Philosophical Language,” 1688, p. 241.)

“Thoo grins like a dog eating sir-reverence.” (Holderness, “Glossary, English Dialect Society.”) Compare Spanish _salvanor_, anus. (Stevens.)—(“Folk-Etymology,” Rev. A. Smith Palmer, London, 1882.)

THE SACRED CHARACTER OF BRIDGE-BUILDING.

It is quite within the bounds of argument and proof to show that the Romans looked upon the building of a bridge as a sacred work. Upon no other hypothesis can we make clear why their chief priest was designated “the Greatest Bridge-Builder” (the Pontifex Maximus). That this idea was transmitted to the barbarians who occupied Continental and insular Europe would be a most plausible presumption, even were historical evidence lacking.

Concerning the tolls exacted from the prostitutes who crossed certain bridges in France, and the tenures by which certain estates were held in England, we have to bear in mind that during the Middle Ages bridges were erected by bodies or associations of bridge-builders, which seem to have been secret societies. “It seems not improbable that societies or lodges of bridge-builders existed at an early period, and that they were relics of the policy of Roman times; but the history of such societies is involved in obscurity. The Church appears to have taken them up and encouraged them in the twelfth century, and then they were endowed with a certain religious character.... The order of bridge-builders at Avignon, with the peculiar love of punning which characterized the Middle Ages, were called ‘fratres pontificales,’ and sometimes ‘fratres pontis’ and ‘factores pontium.’ ... According to Ducange (Gloss. v. fratres pontis), their dress was a white vest with a sign of a bridge and cross of cloth on the breast.” (“Essays on Archæological Subjects,” Thomas Wright, London, 1861, vol. ii. p. 137 _et seq._, article “Mediæval Bridge-Builders.”) In this connection it may be just as well to remember that the Pope of Rome is still the Pontifex Maximus.

Knowing that bridges were constructed by secret societies, we have fought out half our battle; for these secret societies were undoubtedly under the patronage and protection of some god in heathen times, or of some saint in later days, reserving for the honor of the latter the same ritual which had been consecrated to the devotion of the heathen predecessor.

The following from Fosbroke is pertinent: “Plutarch derives the word ‘Pontifex’ from sacrifices made upon bridges,—a ceremony of the highest antiquity. These priests are said to have been commissioned to keep the bridges in repair, as an indispensable part of their office. This custom no doubt gave birth to the chapel on London bridge, and the offerings were of course for repairs.” In another place he mentions “the annexation of chapels to almost all our bridges of note.”—(“Cyclopædia of Antiquities,” London, 1843, vol. i. pp. 62, 146, article “Bridges.”)

“Gottling (Gesch. d. Rom. Staatsv. p. 173) thinks that ‘Pontifex’ is only another form for ‘pompifex,’ which would characterize the pontiffs only as the managers and conductors of public processions and solemnities. But it seems far more probable that the word is formed from _pons_ and _facere_, ... and that consequently it signifies the priest who offered sacrifices upon the bridge.”—(“Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,” William Smith, LL. D., Boston, 1849, article “Pontifex.”)

“Les Romains avaient réuni en collége sacerdotal leurs constructeurs de ponts.”—(“Les Primitifs,” Elie Réclus, Paris, 1885, p. 116.)

Among the Romans—who were the great architects of the European world, and whose aqueducts, baths, roads, and bridges have never been approached in strength or beauty by those of any other nation about them—it was to be expected that the title of the great priest should be Pontifex Maximus, on the same principle that among the Todas of the Nilgherris, who are pre-eminently a pastoral race, the chief medicine man or priest is called Palal, “meaning the Great Milker.”—(See for these statements “Les Primitifs,” Réclus, p. 260, article “Les Monticules des Nilgherris.”)

The legends of the Middle Ages, all over Europe, from South Germany to Scandinavia, are filled with references to bridges, mills, and churches, but especially bridges, built by the Devil exclusively or by his assistance; and in every case there is the suggestion of human sacrifice having been offered.

“As a rule, the victims were captive enemies, purchased slaves or great criminals.... Hence, in our own folk-tales, the first to cross the bridge, the first to enter the new building or the country, pays with his life, which meant falls a sacrifice.... In folk-tales we find traces of the immolation of children; they are killed as a cure for leprosy, they are walled up in basements.... Extraordinary events might demand the death of kings’ sons and daughters, nay, of kings themselves.”—(“Teutonic Mythology,” Grimm, vol. i. p. 46.)

“When the Devil builds the bridge, he is either under compulsion from men or is hunting for a soul; but he has to put up with the cock or chamois, which is purposely made to run first across the new bridge,” or “they make a wolf scamper through the door” of the new church, or a goat.—(Idem, vol. iii. p. 102.)

“When the new bridge at Halle, finished in 1843, was building the common people fancied a child was wanted to be walled into the foundations.”—(Idem, vol. iii. p. 1142.)

“In modern Greece, when the foundation of a new building is being laid, it is the custom to kill a cock, a ram, or a lamb, and to let its blood flow on the foundation-stone, under which the animal is afterwards buried. The object of the sacrifice is to give strength and stability to the building. But sometimes, instead of killing an animal, the builder entices a man to the foundation-stone, secretly measures his body or a part of it, or his shadow, and buries them under the foundation-stone, or he lays the foundation-stone on the man’s shadow. It is believed that the man will die within a year.”—(“The Golden Bough,” Frazer, vol. i. p. 144.)

It is not our purpose to carry this part of the discussion farther. The curious may consult Grimm, who shows the frequency with which human victims were walled up alive in new castles, ramparts, bridges, and other structures. As time passed on and man grew wiser, there was a substitution of a coffin as a symbol of the human victim; in stables a calf or a lamb was buried alive under the main door, sometimes a cock or a goat; under altars, a live lamb; in newly opened graveyards, a live horse. All this testimony points conclusively to the fact that every such structure was begun at least under auspices from which all traces and suggestions of heathenism had not yet been eliminated; consequently we shall not be very much in error in deciding that there was some survival of a religious rite in the peculiar ceremony insisted upon at crossing the bridge of Montluc, or that it, as all others, was built by architects who still adhered to the old cultus, and had influence enough with the rustic population to secure the incorporation of certain features of a sacred character belonging to the superseded ritual, and which have come down to us, or almost to us, in a more or less mutilated and distorted condition.

A very interesting article is to be found in “Mélusine,” Paris, May 5, 1888, which may be read with great profit at this moment; it is entitled “Les Rites de la Construction,” and relates the popular tradition of the failure to maintain a bridge at a place called Resporden, in Cornwall, as each was swept away by flood almost as soon as completed. The good people of the vicinity suspected sorcery and witchcraft, and consulted a witch, whose directions were couched in these terms: “Si les gens de Resporden veulent avoir un pont qui ne fasse plus la culbute, ils devront enterrer vivant dans les fondations un petit garçon de quatre ans.... On placera l’enfant dans une futaille défoncée, tout nu, et il tiendra d’une main une chandelle bénite, de l’autre un morceau de pain.”

An unnatural mother was found who gave her infant son for the sacrifice, receiving some compensation, and the poor victim was walled up alive as directed; the bridge was completed, and has since withstood all the ravages of storm and freshet; but the tale still repeats the last words of the hapless babe,—

“Ma chandelle est morte, ma mère,
Et de pain, il ne me reste miette.”

The unnatural mother very properly went insane in a few days after the sacrifice; and the wail of the abandoned babe is still to be heard in the moaning of the winds and the sobs of the rains that fall upon Resporden.

XXIV.

OBSCENE SURVIVALS IN THE GAMES OF THE ENGLISH RUSTICS.

The rough games of the English rustics are not altogether free from vestiges of the same nature as have been recorded of the Arabian sheik in preceding pages. For example, in Northumberland, England, there was a curious diversion called “F⸺g for the pig.” Brand gives no explanation of the custom, which may be allied to the jocular tenures mentioned by Blount, and with them to the worship of Bel-Phegor. Brand says: “The ancient grossièreté of our manners would almost exceed belief. In the stage directions to old Moralites we often find, ‘Here Satan letteth a f⸺.’”—(“Popular Antiquities,” vol. ii. p. 9, article “Country Wakes.”)

In London itself such “survivals” lingered down to very recent periods. “In former times the porters that plyed at Billingsgate used civilly to entreat and desire every man that passed that way to salute a post that stood there in a vacant place. If he refused to do this, they forthwith laid hold of him, and by main force bouped his ⸺ against the post; but if he quietly submitted to kiss the same, and paid down sixpence, then they gave him a name, and chose some one of the gang for his godfather. I believe this was done in memory of some old image that formerly stood there, perhaps of Belius or Belin.”—(Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” vol. ii. p. 433, article “Kissing the Post.”)

All these customs, absurd as they seem to us, may have been parts of the ritual of deities of the same class as Bel-Phegor, who looked after the excreta perhaps, and the organs connected therewith; some kind of a tribute was demanded, and none could be more appropriate than the offering of the parts or the submission to some pain inflicted upon them by those in charge of the shrine.

Crossing the Atlantic, a custom suspiciously like the preceding, was still to be heard of, as a rough boyish prank, in Philadelphia, Penn., thirty or more years ago. Whenever it happened that any boy was guilty of flatulence, all the party of school-boys would cry, “Touch wood!” and run to touch the nearest tree-box; those who were slow in doing this were pounded by the more rapid ones.

“Then, lads and lasses, merry be,
...
And, to make sport,
I f⸺t and snort.”

(“The Pranks of Robin Goodfellow,” supposed to be by
Ben Jonson, quoted in Hazlitt’s “Fairy Tales,”
London, 1875, p. 420.)

The following memoranda from Buckle, “Commonplace Book,” seem to have no value beyond merely filthy stories:—

“Ludlow’s f⸺ was a prophetique trump;
There never was anything so jump;
’Twas a very type of a vote of this rump,
Which nobody can deny.”

Ludlow is a stanch Republican. The incident alluded to was a subject of much merriment, and exercised the pen of some of the choicest poets of the latter half of the seventeenth century.—(“Ballad: A New Year’s Gift for the Rump,” Jan. 5, 1659, and footnote in Percy Society’s “Early English Poetry,” London, 1841, vol. iii. p. 176.)

“And then my poets,
The same that writ so subtly of the fart.”

(“The Alchemist,” Ben Jonson, act ii. scene 1.)

“Who the author alluded to should be I cannot say. In the collection of poems called ‘Musarum Deliciæ; or, The Muse’s Recreation,’ by Sir John Ennis and Dr. Smith, there is a poem called ‘The Fart censured in the Parliament House.’ It was occasioned by an escape of that kind in the House of Commons. I have seen part of this poem ascribed to an author in the time of Elizabeth, and possibly it may be the thing referred to by Jonson.” (Whalley.) But Gifford, from whose later editions I have drawn my material, comments to the effect that “this escape, as Whalley calls it, took place in 1607, long after the time of Elizabeth. The ballad is among the Harleian Manuscripts, and is also printed in the State Poems; it contains about forty stanzas of the most wretched doggerel.”—(Gifford’s edition of Jonson, London, 1816.)

“The Fool of Cornwalle.” “I was told of a humorous knight dwelling in the same countrey (that is, Cornwall), who upon a time, having gathered together in one open market-place a great assemblie of knights, squires, gentlemen, and yeomen, and whilst they stood expecting to heare some discourse or speech to proceed from him, he, in a foolish manner (not without laughter), began to use a thousand jestures, turning his eyes this way and then that way, seeming always as though presently he would have begun to speake, and at last, fetching a deepe sigh, with a grunt like a hogge, he let a beastly loud fart, and tould them that the occasion of this calling them together was to no other end but that so noble a fart might be honoured with so noble a company as there was.”—(“Jack of Dover’s Quest of Inquiry,” in Percy Society, vol. vii. p. 30, London, 1852. “Jack of Dover,” A.D. 1604.)

“The Foole of Lincoln.” “There dwelleth of late a certaine poore labouring man in Lincoln, who, upon a time, after his wife had so reviled him with tongue nettle as the whole streete rung again for weariness thereof, at last he went out of the house, and sate him downe quietly upon a blocke before his owne doore; his wife, being more out of patience by his quietness and gentle sufferaunce, went up into the chamber, and out at the window powred downe a pisse-pot upon his head; which when the poor man sawe, in a merry moode he spake these words: ‘Now, surely,’ quoth he, ‘I thought at last that after so great a thunder we should have some raine.’”—(Idem, vol. vii. p. 15.)

The preceding filthy pleasantry comes down from a very distinguished origin. Harington recalls the adventure of the “good Socrates, who, when Xantippe had crowned him with a chamber-pot, he bore it off single with his head and shoulders, and said to such as laughed at it,—

“It never yet was deemed a wonder
To see that rain should follow thunder.”

(“Ajax,” p. 94.)

“_Nathaniel._ They write from Libtzig (reverence to your ears)
The art of drawing farts from out of dead bodies
Is by the brotherhood of the Rosie Cross
Produced unto perfection, in so sweet
And rich a tincture.”

(“The Staple of News,” Ben Jonson, Gifford’s edition,
London, 1816, act iii. scene 1, p. 240.)

XXV.

URINE AND ORDURE AS SIGNS OF MOURNING.

Care should be taken to distinguish between the religious use of ordure and urine, and that in which they figure as outward signs of mourning, induced by a frenzy of grief, or where they have been utilized in the arts.

Lord Kingsborough (Mexican Antiquities, vol. viii. p. 237) briefly outlines such ritualistic defilement in the Mortuary Ceremonies of Hebrews and Aztecs, giving as references for the latter Diego Duran, and for the former the prophet Zechariah, chap. iii.: “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel,” etc.

“The nearest relations cut their hair and blacken their faces, and the old women put human excrement on their heads,—the sign of the deepest mourning.”—(“The Native Tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, pp. 200, received through the kindness of the Royal Society, New South Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)

XXVI.

URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES.

The economical value of human and animal excreta would seem to have obtained recognition among all races from the earliest ages. It is not venturing beyond limits to assert that a book could be written upon this phase of the subject alone. It is not essential to incorporate here all that could be compiled, but enough is submitted to substantiate the statement just made, and to cover every line of inquiry.

It might perhaps be well to consider whether or not the constant use of and familiarity with human urine and ordure in houses, arts, and industries of various kinds would have a tendency to blunt the sensibilities of rude races, so that in their rites we could look for the introduction of these loathsome materials; just as we find that all those races whose women are allowed to go naked place a very slight value upon chastity.

“It certainly is not possible to separate the religious uses of urine from its industrial and medical uses.... Probably nearly everywhere it has been the first soap known. Does not this aspect of the matter need to be insisted on, even from the religious point of view?... In England and France, and probably elsewhere, the custom of washing the hands in urine, with an idea of its softening and beautifying influence, still subsists among ladies, and I have known those who constantly made water on their hands with this idea.”—(Havelock Ellis, “Contemporary Science Series,” London, Personal letter.)

TANNING.

The inhabitants of Kodiak employ urine in preparing the skins of birds, according to Lisiansky.—(“Voyage round the World,” London, 1814, p. 214.)

“Les gants, articles de grand luxe, et de haute élégance, faits pour recouvrir de blanches mains et des bras dodus, sont imbibés d’un jaune d’œuf largement additionné dudit liquide ambré.”—(“Les Primitifs,” Réclus, p. 72.)

By the Eskimo urine is preserved for use in tanning skins,[58] while its employment in the preparation of leather, in both Europe and America, is too well understood to require any reference to authorities.

The Kioways of the Great Plains soaked their buffalo hides in urine to make them soft and flexible.[59]

Urine is employed by the Tchuktchi of Siberia “in curing or tanning skins.”—(“In the Lena Delta,” Melville, Boston, Mass., 1885, p. 318.)

Sauer says that the Yakuts tan deer and elk skins with cow-dung.—(“Expedition to the North parts of Russia,” London, 1802, p. 131.)

Dung is used in tanning by the Bongo of the upper Nile region.—(See Schweinfurth, “Heart of Africa,” London, 1878, vol. i. p. 134.)

Bernal Diaz, in his enumeration of the articles for sale in the “tianguez” or market-places of Tenochtitlan, uses this expression: “I must also mention human excrements, which were exposed for sale in canoes lying in the canals near this square, which is used for the tanning of leather; for, according to the assurances of the Mexicans, it is impossible to tan well without it.”—(Bernal Diaz, “Conquest of Mexico,” London, 1844, vol. i. p. 236.)

The same use of ordure in tanning bear-skins can be found among the nomadic Apaches of Arizona, although, preferentially, they use the ordure of the animal itself.

Gómara, who also tabulated the articles sold in the Mexican markets, does not mention ordure in direct terms; his words are more vague: “All these things which I speak of, with many that I do not know, and others about which I keep silent, are sold in this market of the Mexicans.”[60]

Urine figures as the mordant for fixing the colors of blankets and other woollen fabrics woven by the Navajoes of New Mexico, by the Moquis of Arizona, by the Zuñis and other Pueblos of the Southwest, by the Araucanians of Chili, by Mexicans, Peruvians, by some of the tribes of Afghanistan, and other nations, by all of whom it is carefully preserved.

BLEACHING.

“Roman fullers used human urine in their business, and Pliny says it was noticed that they never suffered from gout.”—(Pliny, “Natural History,” lib. xxviii. cap. 3: Bohn).

Urine has also been employed as a detergent in cleaning wool.—(Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Bleaching.”)

DYEING.

Urine is used in dyeing by the people of Ounalashka, according to Langsdorff, “Voyages” (vol. ii. p. 47); also, according to Sarytschew, in “Philip’s Voyages” (vol. vi. p. 72).

The same use of it has been attributed to the Irish by Camden, in “Brittania,” edition of London, 1753, vol. ii. p. 1419. His statement is quoted by Buckle: “In 1562, O’Neal, with some of his companions, came to London and astonished the citizens by their hair flowing in locks on their shoulders, on which were yellow surplices, dyed with saffron or stained with urine.”—(“Commonplace Book,” vol. ii. p. 236.)

“As a substitute for alum, urine was employed.”—(“Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania Germans,” W. J. Hoffman, M. D., in “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” 1889.)

“The preparation of blue, violet, and bluish-red coloring matters from lichens by the action of the ammonia of stale urine, seems to have been known at a very early period to the Mediterranean peoples, and the existence, down almost to the present day, of such a knowledge in the more remote parts of Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia, renders it not improbable that the art of making such dyes was not unknown to the northern nations of Europe also.”—(“The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish,” Eugene O’Curry, introduction by W. K. Sullivan, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and New York, 1873, p. 450.)

PLASTER.

As a plaster for the interior of dwellings, cow-dung has been used with frequency; that the employment of the ordure of an animal held sacred by so many peoples has a religious basis, is perhaps too much to say, but it will be shown, further on, that different ordures were kept about houses to ensure good luck or to avert the maleficence of witchcraft.

Marco Polo has the following: (In Malabar) “there are some called Gaui, who eat such oxen as die of themselves, but may not kill them, and daub over their houses with cow-dung.”—(Marco Polo, in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 162.)

The huts in Senegal were plastered “with cow-dung, which stunk abominably.”—(Adamson, “Voyage to Senegal,” in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 611.)

“The cow-dung basements around the tents” of the Mongols are spoken of by Rev. James Gilmour.—(“Among the Mongols,” London, 1883, p. 176.)

“A floor is next made of soft tufa and cow-dung.”—(Livingston, “Zambesi,” London, 1865, p. 293.)

Animal dung is used as a mortar by the inhabitants of Turkey in Asia living in the valley of the Tigris.—(See “Assyrian Discoveries,” George Smith, New York, 1876, p. 82.)

The natives of the White Nile, the tribes of the Bari, make “a cement of ashes, cow-dung, and sand,” with which “they plaster the floors and enclosures about their houses.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 58. See the same author for the Latookas, idem, p. 135; and for the statement that the Obbos plaster enclosures, walls, and floors alike, see pp. 203, 262.)

Pliny tells us that the threshing-floors of the Roman farmers were paved with cow-dung; in a footnote it is stated that the same rule obtains in France to this day.—(Pliny, lib. lxxviii. cap. 71: Bohn).

Horse-dung was considered very valuable as a luting for chemical stills and furnaces.—(See Schurig, “Chylologia,” p. 815; also, as a “Digesting medium,” idem.)

Of the Yakuts of Siberia it is related: “In dirtiness they yield to none; for a grave author assures us that the mortars which they use for bruising their dried fish are made of cow-dung hardened by the frost.”—(Maltebrun, “Universal Geography,” vol. i. p. 347.)

“The people of Jungeion ... collected the dung of cows and sheep ... dried it, roasted it on the fire, and afterwards used it for a bed.”—(Mungo Park, “Travels in Africa,” in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 834.)

“The vessels in which they (the Yakuts) stamp their dried fish, Roots and Berries, are made of dried Oxen and Cow’s dung.”—(Van Stralenberg, p. 382.)

The Index to the first volume of Purchas has “Dung bought by sound of tabor, p. 270, 1. 40;” and “Dung of Birds, a strange report of it;” but neither of these could be found in the main portion of the volume.

AS A CURE FOR TOBACCO.

The best varieties of Tobacco coming from America were arranged in bunches, tied to stakes, and suspended in privies, in order that the fumes arising from the human ordure and urine might correct the corrupt and noxious principles in the plant in the crude state.—(See Schurig, “Chylologia,” p. 776. “Ex paxillo aliquandiu suspendere in Cloacis Tabacum,” etc.)

“I heard lately from good authority that, in Havana, the female urine is used in cigar-manufacturing as a good maceration.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Gustav Jaeger, Stuttgart, August 29, 1888.)

TO RESTORE THE ODOR OF MUSK AND THE COLOR OF CORAL.

The odor of musk and the color of coral could be restored by suspending them in a privy for a time.—(See Danielus Beckherius, “Medicus Microcosmus,” London, 1600, p. 113.)

“Paracelsus scil. mediante digestione stercus humanum ad odorem Moschi redigere voluit.”—(Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” Comment. Ludovic. Lyons, 1690, vol. ii. pp. 171, 172.)

“Moschi odorem deperditum restitui posse, si in loco aliquo, ubi urina et excrementa alvina putrescunt, detineatur, apud autores legimus.”—(Schurig, “Chylologia,” p. 768.)

“Fit, ut Moschus longo tempore æmittat odorem, quem tamen recuperat si irroretur cum pueri urina, vel si suspendatur in latrina humana.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 276.)

CHEESE MANUFACTURE.

“A storekeeper in Berlin was punished some years ago for having used the urine of young girls with a view to make his cheese richer and more piquant. Notwithstanding, people went, bought and ate his cheese with delight. What may be the cause of all these foolish and mysterious things? In human urine is the Anthropin.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Gustav Jaeger, Stuttgart, August 29, 1888.)

“En certaines fermes de Suisse on se sert, m-a-t’on-dit, de l’urine pour activer la férmentation de certaines fromages qu’on y plonge.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Bernard to Captain Bourke, dated Cannes, France, July 7, 1888.)

Whether or not the use of human urine to ripen cheese originated in the ancient practice of employing excrementitious matter to preserve the products of the dairy from the maleficence of witches; or, on the other hand, whether or not such an employment as an agent to defeat the efforts of the witches be traceable to the fact that stale urine was originally the active ferment to hasten the coagulation of the milk would scarcely be worth discussion.

OPIUM ADULTERATION.

The smoker of opium little imagines that, in using his deadly drug, he is often smoking an adulterated article, the adulterant being hen manure; he is thus placed on a par with the American Indian smoking the dried dung of the buffalo, and the African smoking that of the antelope or the rhinoceros.

EGG-HATCHING.

In the description of the province of Quang-tong, it is stated that the Chinese hatch eggs “in the Oven, or in Dung.”—(Du Halde, “History of China,” London, 1741, vol. i. p. 238.) See the same statement made in Purchas, vol. i. 270.

In China “their fish is chiefly nourished with the dung of Oxen that greatly fatteth it.”—(Perera, in Purchas, vol. i. p. 205.)

TAXES ON URINE.

The Roman emperors imposed a tax and tolls upon urine because of its usefulness in many things.—(“Dreck Apotheke,” Paullini, p. 8. See previous statements in this volume and consult Suetonius “Vespasian.”)

CHRYSOCOLLON.

There was a cement for fixing the precious metals, which cement was known as “Chrysocollon,” and was made with much ceremony from the urine “of an innocent boy.” There are various descriptions, but the following, while brief, contain all the material points.

Galen describes this Chrysocollon, or Gold-Glue, as prepared by some physicians from the urine of a boy, who had to void it into a mortar of red copper while a pestle of the same material was in motion, which urine carefully exposed to the sun until it had acquired the thickness of honey, was considered capable of soldering gold and of curing obstinate diseases: “Attamen medicamentum quod ex urina pueri conficetur quod quidam vocant chrysocollon, quia eo ad auri glutinationem utuntur, ad ulcera difficilia sanatu optimum esse assero fit autem id figura phiali confecto mortario ex ære rubro habentem pistillum ejusdem materiæ in quod mejente puero pistillum circumages, identidem, ut non tantum a mortario deradedet, etc.” (“Opera Omnia,” Kuhn’s edition, vol. xii. pp. 286, 287.)

Dioscorides describes the manufacture thus: “Quinetiam ex ea (i. e. ‘pueri innocentis urina’) et ære cyprio idoneum ferruminando glutea paratur.”—(“Materia Medica,” Kuhn’s edition, vol. i. p. 227 _et seq._)

If a boy’s urine be rubbed up in a copper mortar with a copper pestle, it makes a sort of mucilage which can be used to fasten articles of gold together, as Sextus Placitus tells us: “Si pueri lotium cuprino mortario et cuprino pistello contritum fuerit, aurum solidat.”—(“De Medicamentis ex Animalibus,” edition of Lyons, 1537, pages not numbered, article, “De Puello et Puella Virgine.”)

The definition given by Avicenna, the Arabian authority, is: “Quæ fit ex urina infantium mota in mortario æro cum aceto in sole.”—(Vol. i. p. 336, a 34 _et seq._)

We also read of an “Alchymical Water,” called “Diana,” for transmuting metals into gold and silver; it was believed that this preparation was efficacious “ad mutandum Mercurium in Solem vel Lunam.” (“Sol” was gold, “Luna” was silver; see notes from Paracelsus below.) This “Diana” was employed in the preparation of “Crocus Martis,” as well as in that of “Oleum Martis,” for giving metals the color of gold, for polishing gold plate, for giving a fine temper to the best iron or steel implements, and for making the “Chrysocolla” just described.—(“Medicus Microcosmus,” Beckherius, pp. 103-108.)

Paracelsus, speaking of the metals says: “Sol, that is Gold; Luna, that is silver; Venus, that is Copper; Mercury, that is Quicksilver; Saturnus, that is Lead; Jupiter, that is Tinne; Mars, that is Iron.”—(“The Secrets of Physicke,” English translation, London, 1633, p. 117.)

FOR REMOVING INK STAINS.

Human urine was considered efficacious in the removal of ink-spots.—(See Pliny, Bohn, lib. v. and lib. xxviii.)

AS AN ARTICLE OF JEWELRY.

Fossilized excrement is used in the manufacture of jewelry, under the name of “Coprolite.”

Lapland women carry a little case made from the bark of the birch tree, “which they usually carry under the girdle” in which is to be found reindeer dung, not as an amulet but to aid in weaning the young reindeer by smearing the udders of the dams.—(See Leems’ “Account of Danish Lapland,” in Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 405.)

But, from other sources, we have learned that the Laps attached the most potent influences to ordure and urine believing that their reindeer could be bewitched, that vessels could be hastened or retarded in their course, etc., by the use of such materials. Several examples of this belief are given in this volume; see under “Witchcraft.”

TATTOOING.

Langsdorff noticed that urine entered into the domestic economy of the natives of Ounalashka. He tells us that the tattooing was performed with “a sort of coal dust mixed with urine, rubbed in” the punctures made in the skin (“Voyages,” vol. ii. p. 40). That the tattooing with which savages decorate their bodies has a significance beyond a simple personal ornamentation cannot be gainsaid, although the degree of its degeneration from a primitive religious symbolism may now be impossible to determine. Even if regarded in no other light than as a means of clan-distinction, there is the suggestion of obsolete ceremonial, because the separation into castes and gentes is in every case described by the savages concerned as having been performed at the behest of some one of their innumerable deities, who assigned to each clan its appropriate “totem.” Clan marks may be represented in the tattooing, the conventional signs of primitive races not having yet been sufficiently investigated; for example, among the Apaches three marks radiating out from a single stem represent a turkey, that being the form of the bird’s foot. At the dances of the Indians of the pueblo of Santo Domingo, on the Rio Grande, New Mexico, the bodily decorations were, in nearly every case, associated with the clan “totem;” but this fact never would have been suspected unless explained by one of the initiated. In one of the dances of the Moquis the members of the Tejon or Badger clan appeared with white stripes down their faces; that is one of the marks of the badger, as they explained.

The author does not wish to say much on this topic, since his attention was not called to it until a comparatively late period in his investigations; but he was surprised to learn that the Apaches, among whom he then was, although marking themselves very slightly, almost invariably made use of an emblemism of a sacred character; moreover, it was very generally the work of some one of the “medicine men.”

The tattooing of the people of Otaheite seen by Cook was surmised by him to have a religious significance, as it presented in many instances “squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of men and dogs.” (In Hawkesworth’s “Voyages,” London, 1773, vol. ii. p. 190.) Every one of these people was tattooed upon reaching majority. (Idem, p. 191.) It is stated that certain chiefs in New Zealand, unable to write their names to a document presented to them for signature drew lines like those tattooed upon their faces and noses.—(See “Voyage of Adventure and Beagle,” London, 1839, vol. ii. p. 586.)

Among the Dyaks of Borneo “all the married women are tattooed on the hands and feet, and sometimes on the thighs. The decoration is one of the privileges of matrimony, and is not permitted to unmarried girls.”—(“Head-Hunters of Borneo,” Carl Bock, London, 1881, p. 67.)

A recent writer has the following to say on this subject: “The tattoo marks make it possible to discover the remote connection between clans; and this token has such a powerful influence upon the mind that there is no feud between tribes which are tattooed in the same way. The type of the marks must be referred to the animal kingdom; yet we cannot discover any tradition or myth which relates to the custom. There is no reason for asserting that there is any connection between the tattoo marks and Totemism, although I am personally disposed to think that this is sometimes the case. The tattooing, which usually consists in the imitation of some animal forms, may lead to the worship of such animals as religious objects.” (“The Primitive Family,” C. N. Starcke, Ph. D., New York, 1889, p. 42.) Here is an example of putting the cart before the horse; in all cases investigation will show that the animal was a god, and for that reason was imprinted on the person of the worshipper as a vow of supplication or prayer.

In another place the same writer says that tattooing had “to be performed by a priest.”—(Idem, p. 241.)

The religious element in Totemism has been plainly revealed by W. Robertson Smith in Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Sacrifice,” and by James G. Frazer, M.A., in his “Totemism,” Edinburgh, 1887.

Andrew Lang devotes several chapters to the subject (“Myth, Ritual, and Religion,” London, 1887, vol. i. cap. 3). He says of the Australian tribes: “There is some evidence that in certain tribes the wingong or totem of each man is indicated by a tattooed representation of it upon his flesh” (p. 65). On another page, quoting from Long’s “Voyages,” 1791, he says: “The ceremony of adoption was painful, beginning with a feast of dog’s flesh, followed by a Turkish bath, and a prolonged process of tattooing.”—(Idem, p. 71.)

A traveller of considerable intelligence comments in these terms upon the bodily ornamentation of the Burmese:—

“Burmah is the land of the tattooed man.... In my visit to the great prison here, which contains more than three thousand men, I saw six thousand tattooed legs.... The origin of the custom I have not been able to find out. It is here the Burmese sign of manhood, and there is as much ceremony about it as there is about the ear-piercing of girls which chronicles their entrance upon womanhood. There are professional tattooers, who go about with books of designs.... The people are superstitious about it; and certain kinds of tattooing are supposed to ward off disease. One kind wards off the snake-bite, and another prevents a man from drowning.”—(Frank G. Carpenter, in the “Bee,” Omaha, Nebraska, May 19, 1889.)

Surgeon Corbusier, U. S. Army, says of the Apache-Yumas of Arizona Territory, that “the married women are distinguished by seven narrow blue lines running from the lower lip down to the chin.... Tattooing is practised by the women, rarely by the men.... A young woman, when anxious to become a mother, tattooes the figure of a child on her forehead.”—(In the “American Antiquarian,” November, 1886.)

The “sectarial marks” of the Hindus are possibly vestiges of a former practice of tattooing. Coleman (“Mythology of the Hindus,” London, 1832, p. 165) has a reference to them.

Squier, in his monograph upon “Manobosho,” in “American Historical Review,” 1848, says that the Mandans have a myth in which occurs the name of a god, “Tattooed Face.”

Alice Oatman stated distinctly that “she was tattooed by two of their (Mojaves) physicians,” and “marked, not as they marked their women, but as they marked their captives.” Be that as it may, the four lines on her chin, as well as can be discerned from the indifferent woodcut, are the same as can be seen upon the chins of Mojave women to-day.—(See Stratton’s “Captivity of the Oatman Girls,” San Francisco, 1857, pp. 151, 152.)

Maltebrun says of the inhabitants of the Island of Formosa: “Their skin is covered with indelible marks, representing trees, animals, and flowers of grotesque forms.”—(“Universal Geography,” American edition, Philadelphia, 1832, vol. ii. lib. 43, p. 79, article “China.”)

“The practice of marking the skin with the figures of animals, flowers, or stars, which was in existence before the time of Mahomet, has still left traces among the Bedouin women.”—(Idem, vol. i. lib. 30, p. 395.)

Speaking of the Persian ladies, the same authority says: “They stain their bodies with the figures of trees, birds, and beasts, sun, moon, and stars.”—(Idem, vol. i. lib. 33, p. 428, article “Persia.”)

In the “Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London,” vol. vi., it is stated that the “Oraon boys (India) are marked when children on the arms by a rather severe process of puncturation, which they consider it manly to endure.”

“Mojave girls, after they marry, tattoo the chin with vertical blue lines.”—(Palmer, quoted by H. H. Bancroft in “Native Races,” vol. i. p. 480.)

In the cannibal feast of the Tupis of the Amazon, Southey says, “The chief of the clan scarified the arms of the Matador above the elbow, so as to leave a permanent mark there; and this was the Star and Garter of their ambition, the highest badge of honor. There were some who cut gashes in their breast, arms, and thighs on these occasions, and rubbed a black powder in, which left an indelible stain.”—(Quoted by Herbert Spencer in “Descriptive Sociology.”)

“A savage man meets a savage maid. She does not speak his language, nor he hers. How are they to know whether, according to the marriage laws of their race, they are lawful mates for each other? This important question is settled by an inspection of their tattoo marks. If a Thlinkeet man, of the Swan stock, meets an Iroquois maid, of the Swan stock, they cannot speak to each other, and the ‘gesture language’ is cumbrous. But if both are tattooed with the Swan, then the man knows that this daughter of the Swan is not for him.... The case of the Thlinkeet man and the Iroquois maid is extremely unlikely to occur, but I give it as an example of the practical use among savages of representative art.”—(“Custom and Myth,” Andrew Lang, New York, 1885, p. 292.)

“Tattooing is fetichistic in origin. Among all the tribes, almost every Indian has the image of an animal tattooed on his breast or arm, which can charm away an evil spirit or prevent harm to them.”—(Dorman, “Primitive Superstition,” New York, 1881, p. 156.)

“The Eskimo wife has her face tattooed with lamp-black, and is regarded as a matron in society.”—(“Schwatka’s Search,” William H. Gilder, New York, 1881, p. 250.) “I never saw any attempt at figure or animal drawing for personal ornamentation. The forms are generally geometrical in design and symmetrical in arrangement.... None of the men are tattooed.”—(Idem, p. 251.)

“The Mojaves of the Rio Colorado tattoo, but the explanation of the marks was exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory. The women, upon attaining puberty, are tattooed upon the chin, and there seem to be four different patterns followed, probably representing as many different phratric or clan systems in former times.”—(See the author’s article in the “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” Cambridge, Mass., July-September, 1888, entitled “Notes on the Cosmogony and Theogony of the Mojaves.”)

Swan, in his notes upon the Indians of Cape Flattery, contents himself with observing that their tattooing is performed with coal and human urine.

“In order that the ghost may travel the ghost road in safety, it is necessary for each Lakota during his life to be tattooed either in the middle of the forehead or on the wrists. In that event, his spirit will go directly to the ‘Many Lodges.’ ... An old woman sits in the road, and she examines each ghost that passes. If she cannot find the tattoo-marks on the forehead, wrists, or chin, the unhappy ghost is pushed from a cloud or cliff, and falls to this world.”—(Dr. J. Owen Dorsey, in the “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” April, 1889.)

Of the islands of the South Pacific, Kotzebue says, “I believe that tattooing in these islands is a religious custom; at least, they refused it to several of our gentlemen at Otdia, assuring them that it could only be done in Egerup.”—(“Voyages,” vol. ii. pp. 113, 135, London, 1821.)

“Tattooing is by no means confined to the Polynesians, but this ‘dermal art’ is certainly carried by them to an extent which is unequalled by any other people.... It is practised by all classes.... By the vast number of them it is adopted simply as a personal ornament, though there are some grounds for believing that the tattoo may, in a few cases and to a small extent, be looked upon as a badge of mourning or a memento of a departed friend. Like everything else in Polynesia, its origin is related in a legend which credits its invention to the gods, and says it was first practised by the children of Tharoa, their principal deity. The sons of Tharoa and Apouvarou were the gods of tattooing, and their images were kept in the temples of those who practised the art as a profession, and to them petitions are offered that the figures might be handsome, attract attention, and otherwise accomplish the purpose for which they submitted themselves to this painful operation.... To show any signs of suffering under the operation is looked upon as disgraceful.”—(“World,” New York, May 10, 1890, quoting from “The Peoples of the World.”)

“In the Tonga and Samoan Islands, the young men were all tattooed upon reaching manhood; before this, they could not think of marriage.... Tattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a regular profession.... There are two gods, patrons of tattooing,—Taema and Tilfanga.”—(See Turner’s “Samoa.”)

“One of the features of the Initiation among the Port Lincoln tribe was the tattooing of the young man and the conferring of a new name upon him.”—(“The Native Tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, received through the kindness of the Royal Society, New South Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)