Chapter VIII: Appendix (6)

And now that we have before us this extended array of related facts, concerning the sacred uses and the popular estimates of blood, in all the ages, it will be well for us to consider what we have learned, in the line of blood-rights and of blood-customs, and in the direction of their religious involvings. Especially is it important for us to see, where and how all this bears on the primitive and the still extant ceremony of covenanting by blood, with which we started in this investigation.

From the beginning, and everywhere, blood seems to have been looked upon as preeminently the representative of life; as, indeed, in a peculiar sense, life itself. The transference of blood from one organism to another, has been counted the transference of life, with all that life includes. The inter-commingling of blood by its inter-transference, has been understood as equivalent to an inter-commingling of natures. Two natures thus inter-commingled, by the inter-commingling of blood, have been considered as forming, thenceforward, one blood, one life, one nature, one soul--in two organisms. The inter-commingling of natures, by the inter-commingling of blood, has been deemed possible between man and a lower organism; and between man and a higher organism,--even between man and Deity, actually or by symbol;--as well as between man and his immediate fellow.

The mode of inter-transference of blood, with all that this carries, has been deemed practicable, alike by way of the lips, and by way of the opened and inter-flowing veins. It has been also represented, by blood-bathing, by blood-anointing, and by blood-sprinkling; or, again, by the inter-drinking of wine--which was formerly commingled with blood itself in the drinking. And the yielding of one’s life by the yielding of one’s blood has often been represented by the yielding of the blood of a chosen and a suitable substitute. Similarly the blood, or the nature, of divinities, has been represented, vicariously, in divine covenanting, by the blood of a devoted and an accepted substitute. Inter-communion between the parties in a blood-covenant, has been a recognized privilege, in conjunction with any and every observance of the rite of blood-covenanting. And the body of the divinely accepted offering, the blood of which is a means of divine-human inter-union, has been counted a very part of the divinity; and to partake of that body as food has been deemed equivalent to being nourished by the very divinity himself.

Blood, as life, has been looked upon as belonging, in the highest sense, to the Author of all life. The taking of life has been seen to be the prerogative of its Author; and only he who is duly empowered, for a season and for a reason, by that Author, for blood-taking in any case, has been supposed to have the right to the temporary exercise of that prerogative. Even then, the blood, as the life, must be employed under the immediate direction and oversight of its Author. The heart of any living organism, as the blood-source and the blood-fountain, has been recognized as the representative of its owner’s highest personality; and as the diffuser of the issues of his life and nature.

A covenant of blood, a covenant made by the inter-commingling of blood, has been recognized as the closest, the holiest, and the most indissoluble, compact conceivable. Such a covenant clearly involves an absolute surrender of one’s separate self, and an irrevocable merging of one’s individual nature into the dual, or the multiplied, personality included in the compact. Man’s highest and noblest outreachings of soul have, therefore, been for such a union with the divine nature, as is typified in this human covenant of blood.

How it came to pass, that men everywhere were so generally agreed on the main symbols of their religious yearnings and their religious hopes, in this realm of their aspirations, is a question which obviously admits of two possible answers. A common revelation from God, may have been given to primitive man; and all these varying yet related indications of religious strivings and aim, may be but the perverted remains of the lessons of that misused, or slighted, revelation. On the other hand, God may originally have implanted the germs of a common religious thought in the mind of man, and then have adapted his successive revelations to the outworking of those germs. Which ever view of the probable origin of these common symbolisms, all the world over, be adopted by any Christian student, the importance of the symbolisms themselves, in their relation to the truths of revelation, is manifestly the same.

On this point, Kurtz has said, forcefully: “A comparison of the religious symbols of the Old Testament with those of ancient heathendom, shows that the ground and the starting point of those forms of religion which found their appropriate expressions in symbols, was the same in all cases; while the history of civilization proves that on this point, priority cannot be claimed by the Israelites. But when instituting such an inquiry, we shall also find that the symbols which were transferred from the religions of nature to that of the spirit, first passed through the fire of divine purification, from which they issued as the distinctive theology of the Jews; the dross of a pantheistic deification of nature having been consumed.”[423] And as to even the grosser errors, and the more pitiable perversions of the right, in the use of these world-wide religious symbolisms, Kurtz says, again: “Every error, however dangerous, is based on some truth misunderstood, and ... every aberration, however grievous, has started from a desire after real good, which had not attained its goal, because the latter was sought neither in the right way, nor by right means.”[424] To recognize these truths concerning the outside religions of the world, gives us an added fitness for the comparison of the symbolisms we have just been considering, with the teachings of the sacred pages of revelation, on the specific truths involved.

Proofs of the existence of this rite of blood-covenanting, have been found among primitive peoples of all quarters of the globe; and its antiquity is carried back to a date long prior to the days of Abraham. All this, outside of any indications of the rite in the text of Bible itself. And now we are in a position to turn intelligently to that text for fuller light on the subject.

FOOTNOTES:

[190] _Egypt’s Place_, V. 188.

[191] This is illustrated by Ebers, in his romance of “Uarda;” where the surgeon, Nebsecht, finds such difficulty in obtaining a human heart, in order to its anatomical study. See, also, Birch’s statement, in _Egypt’s Place_, V., 135, and Pierret’s _Dict. d’Arch. Égypt._, s. v. “Cœur.”

[192] _Anc. Egypt._, III., 472, note 6.

[193] _Ibid._, III., 466, note 3.

[194] In the Book of the Dead, Chapter xxxvi. tells “How a Person has his Heart made (or given) to him in the Hades.” And in preparing the mummy, a scarabæus,--a symbol of the creative or life-giving god--was put in the place of the heart. (See Rubric, chapter xxx., Book of the Dead; _Anc. Egypt._, III., 346, 486; also, note in _Uarda_, I., 305 f.).

[195] _Egypt’s Place_, V., 14.

[196] _Ibid._, V., 283.

[197] _Anc. Egypt._, II., 27, note.

[198] Prov. 4 : 23.

[199] _Anc. Egypt._, II., 27, 31; III., 409.

[200] _Ibid._, II., 32, Plate No. 300.

[201] _Ibid._, II., 27 note 1.

[202] Comp. _Ibid._, III., 409, 416 f.

[203] See _Egypt’s Place_, V., 254.

[204] _Rec. of Past_, II., 137-152.

[205] See Lynd’s _Hist. of Dakotas_, p. 73.

[206] See citations from various original sources, in Bancroft’s _Native Races of Pacific Coast_, II., 306-310, 707-709.

[207] The Nahuas were “skilled ones,” or “experts,” who had emigrated Northward from the Maya land (Réville’s _Native Religions_, p. 20).

[208] Clavigero’s _Anc. Hist. of Mex._, II., 45-49, cited in Bancroft’s _Native Races_, II., 307.

[209] The proper centre of the Maya nations lay in Yucatan (Réville’s _Native Religions of Mexico and Peru_, p. 18).

[210] Gomara, cited in Bancroft’s _Native Races_, II., 310 f.

[211] Herrera, cited in Bancroft’s _Native Races_, II., 706 f.

[212] _Native Religions of Mexico and Peru_ (Hibbert Lectures, 1884), p. 43 f. See, also, pp. 45, 46, 82, 99.

[213] See Pindar’s _Olympian Odes_, Ode 1, line 146; Sophocles’ _Trachiniæ_, line 766; Virgil’s _Æneid_, Bk. XI., line 81 f.

[214] Homer’s _Odyssey_, Bk. III., lines 11, 12, 461-463; _Iliad_, Bk. II., lines 427, 428.

[215] Cicero’s _De Divinatione_, Bk. I., chap. 52, § 119.

[216] See Sanchoniathon’s references to blood libations, in Cory’s _Ancient Fragments_, pp. 7, 11, 16.

[217] See “The Hindu Pantheon,” in Birdwood’s _Indian Arts_, p. 96.

[218] Frere’s _Old Deccan Days_, p. 266.

[219] Williams’s _Middle Kingdom_, I., 194.

[220] Edkins’s _Religion in China_, p. 22.

[221] Williams’s _Mid. King._, I., 76-78.

[222] The inscription was first found, in 1875, in the tomb of Setee I., the father of Rameses II., the Pharaoh of the oppression. A translation of it appeared in the _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, Vol. 4, Part I. Again it has been found, in the tomb of Rameses III. Its earliest and its latest translations were made by M. Édouard Naville, the eminent Swiss Egyptologist. Meantime, Brugsch, De Bergmann, Lauth, Lefébure, and others, have aided in its elucidation (See _Proceed. of Soc. of Bib. Arch._, for March 3, 1885).

Is there not a reference to this legend in the Book of the Dead, chapter xviii., sixth section?

[223] Mandrakes, or “love-apples,” among the ancient Egyptians, as also among the Orientals generally, from the days of Jacob (Gen. 30 : 14-17) until to-day, carried the idea of promoting a loving union; and the Egyptian name for mandrakes--_tetmut_--combined the root-word _tet_ already referred to as meaning “arm,” or “bracelet,” and _mut_--with the signification of “attesting,” or “confirming.” Thus the blood and the mandrake juice would be a true _assiratum_. (See Pierret’s _Vocabulaire Hiéroglyphique_, p. 723.) “Belief in this plant [the mandrake] is as old as history.” (Napier’s _Folk-Lore_, p. 90.) See, also, Lang’s _Custom and Myth_, pp. 143-155.

[224] Mendieta’s _Hist. Eccl. Ind._, 77 ff.; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, II., 38; also Brinton’s _Myths of the New World_, p. 258.

[225] See Cory’s _Anc. Frag._, p. 59 f.

[226] _Ibid._, p. 15.

[227] Comp. Fabri’s _Evagatorium_, III., 218.

[228] _Beginnings of History_, p. 52, note.

[229] Bryant’s _Odyssey_, Bks. x. and xi.

[230] See Sayce’s _Anc. Emp. of East_, p. 146.

[231] Among the ancient Peruvians, there was said to be a class of devil-worshipers, known as _canchus_, or _rumapmicuc_, the members of which sucked the blood from sleeping youth, to their own nourishing and to the speedy dying away of the persons thus depleted. (See Arriaga’s _Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru_, p. 21 f.; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, II., 48.). See, also, Ralston’s _Russian Folk Tales_, pp. 311-328.

[232] Farrer’s _Primitive Manners and Customs_, p. 23 f.

[233] The primitive belief seems to have had a sound basis in scientific fact.

[234] _Transfusion of Human Blood_, pp. 2-4.

[235] _Ibid._, p. 5.

[236] See pages 85-88, _supra_.

[237] _Transf. of Blood_, p. 5.

[238] 2 Kings 5 : 1-14.

[239] _Hist. Nat._ xxvi., 5.

[240] See _Notes and Queries_, for Feb. 28, 1857; with citation from Soane’s _New Curiosities of Literature_, I., 72.

[241] _Ibid._; also Mills’s _History of Chivalry_, chap. IV., note.

[242] See citation from Soane, in _Notes and Queries_, supra.

[243] Citation from “Saturday Review,” for Feb. 14, 1857, in _Notes and Queries_, supra.

[244] See Grimm’s _Household Tales_, I., 23-30.

[245] Cox and Jones’s _Popular Romances of the Middle Ages_, pp. 85-87.

[246] Cox and Jones’s _Romances of the Middle Ages_, p. 292.

[247] Lettsom’s _Nibel. Lied_, p. 158.

[248] _Kalila wa-Dimna_, p. 315-319.

[249] Fielde’s _Pagoda Shadows_, p. 88.

[250] _Croniques de France_, 1516, feuillet c c i j, cited from Soane, in _Notes and Queries_, supra.

[251] Roussel’s _Trans. of Blood_, p. 6. A different version of this story is given in Bruys’s _Histoire des Papes_, IV., 278; but the other version is supported by two independent sources, in _Infessuræ Diarium_, and _Burchardi Diarium_. See _Notes and Queries_, 5th Series, III., 496, and IV., 38; also Hare’s _Walks in Rome_, p. 590.

[252] _Dict. Méd. et Chirurg. Prat._, Art. “Transfusion.”

[253] Shooter’s _Kafirs of Natal_, p. 117.

[254] _Ibid._, p. 216.

[255] Bonwick’s _Daily Life and Origin of Tasmanians_, p. 89; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, III., 43.

[256] _Hist._, IV., 64.

[257] _Jesuits in No. Am. in 17th Cent._, p. 389 f.

[258] Ragueneau; cited by Parkman.

[259] _Jesuits in No. Am._, Introduction, p. xxxix.

[260] _Ibid._, p. 250.

[261] _City of the Saints_, p. 117. See also Appendix.

[262] _Reisen in Brit. Guian._, II., 430; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, VI., 36.

[263] _Trans. of Ethn. Soc._ new series, III., 240, cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, III., 36.

[264] Beecham’s _Ashantee and the Gold Coast_, p. 211; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, IV., 33.

[265] See Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_, I., 459; also Bock’s _Head Hunters of Borneo_, passim.

[266] Mrs. Finn’s “Fellaheen of Palestine” in _Surv. of West. Pal._ “Special Papers,” p. 360.

[267] This is Mrs. Finn’s rendering of it; but it should be “I _sacrificed_ him with my teeth.” The Arabic word is obviously _dhabaha_ (ذبح), identical with the Hebrew _zabhakh_ (זָבַח) “to sacrifice.”

[268] Lang’s _Custom and Myth_, p. 95 f.; also Grimm’s _Household Tales_, p. lxviii.

[269] Cox and Jones’s _Pop. Rom. of Mid. Ages_, p. 310.

[270] Lettsom’s _Nibel. Lied_, p. 373.

[271] Thompson’s _Alcedo’s Geog. and Hist. Dict. of America_, I., 408; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, VI., 19.

[272] _Travels in Nubia_, p. 356.

[273] _Trans. of Ethn. Soc._ II., 246, and Angas’s _Austr. and New Zeal._ I., 73, 227, 462, cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, III., 26.

[274] See _Dict. Méd. et Chir. Prat._ Art. “Transfusion”; also Roussel’s _Transf. of Blood_, pp. 78-88.

[275] _Transf. of Blood_, p. 19.

[276] See page 20, _supra_.

[277] _Thro. Dark Cont._, I., 123-131.

[278] Thompson’s _Thro. Masâi Land_, p. 430.

[279] _Ibid._, p. 452.

[280] Shooter’s _Kafirs of Natal_, notes, p. 399.

[281] H. A. L., in _Sport in Many Lands_.

[282] See _Trans. Royal Asiat. Soc._, I., 69; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, V., 26 f.

[283] Edwards’s _Hist. of Brit. West Ind._, I., 47; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, VI., 36.

[284] Shooter’s _Kafirs of Natal_, p. 216.

[285] See Tylor’s _Prim. Cult._, II., 382, referring to Bastian’s _Psychologie_.

[286] See Anderson’s _Norse Mythol._, p. 247.

[287] _Ibid._, p. 380; Lettsom’s _Nibel. Lied_, Preface, p. ix.; Cox and Jones’s _Pop. Rom. of Mid. Ages_, p. 254 f.

[288] _Pop. Rom. of Mid. Ages_, p. 260; also _Nib. Lied_, p. x.

[289] See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, III., 150; Brinton’s _Myths of New World_, p. 274 f.; Jackson’s _Alaska_, p. 103 f.

[290] Charles F. Oldham’s “Native Faiths in the Himalayah,” in _The Contemporary Review_ for April, 1885.

[291] Napier’s _Folk-Lore of the West of Scotland_, p. 111 f.

[292] Farrer’s _Prim. Man. and Cust._, p. 276 f.

[293] Lettsom’s _Nibel. Lied_, p. 183; also Cox and Jones’s _Pop. Rom. of Mid. Ages_, p. 47 f.

[294] Benson’s _Remarkable Trials_, p. 94, note.

[295] Cobbett’s _State Trials_, XI., 1371; cited in _Anecdotes of Omens and Superstitions_, p. 47 f.

[296] _Superstition and Force_, pp. 315-323.

[297] Cited from Gamal. ben Pedahzur’s _Book of Jewish Ceremonies_, p. 11.

[298] _Religion in China_, pp. 23, 32.

[299] _The Religions of China_, p. 55.

[300] Dr. Legge here seems to use the word “sacrifice” in the light of a single meaning which attaches to it. There is surely no incompatibility in the terms “banquet” and “sacrifice,” as we find their two-fold idea in the banquet-sacrifice of the Mosaic peace-offering (see Lev. 7 : 11-15).

[301] _The Relig. of China_, Notes to Lect. I., p. 66.

[302] _The Mid. King._, II., 194. See also Martin’s _The Chinese_, p. 258.

[303] _The Relig. of China_, p. 53 f. Gray thinks differently (_China_, I., 87.)

[304] _The Mid. King._, I., 76-78; _The Chinese_, p. 99; _Relig. in China_, p. 21; _The Relig. of China_, p. 25; _Confucianism and Taouism_, p. 87.

[305] _Relig. in China_, p. 22. The same is true in sacrifices to Confucius (Gray’s _China_, I., 87).

[306] _Chow le_, cited by Douglas in _Confuc. and Taou._, p. 82 f.

[307] Edkins’s _Relig. in China_, p. 27.

[308] See page 156 f., _infra_.

[309] “The flesh of the horse is eaten both by the Chinese and the Mongolians.” (Gray’s _China_, II., 174.)

[310] See C. F. Gordon Cumming’s article “A Visit to the Temple of Heaven at Peking,” in _Lond. Quart. Rev._, for July, 1885.

[311] See Exod. 12 : 7-10.

[312] Gray’s _China_, II., 271 f.

[313] Gray’s _China_, I., 102.

[314] See Rev. 7 : 3; 9 : 4; 13 : 16; 14 : 1; 20 : 4; 22 : 4.

[315] _The Relig. of China_, p. 289.

[316] See The Rite in Burmah, in Appendix.

[317] See Dubois’s _Des. Man. and Cust. of People of India_, Part III., chap. 7; also Monier Williams’s _Hinduism_, p. 36 f.

[318] Monier Williams’s _Hinduism_, p. 35 f.

[319] _Ibid._, p. 37 f.

[320] Dubois’s _Des. of Man. and Cust. in India_, Part III., chap. vii.

[321] Heber’s _Travels in India_, II., 13 f.

[322] _Ibid._, II., 285.

[323] Dubois’s _Des. of Man. and Cust. of India_, Part II., chap. xxxi.

[324] Dubois’s _Des. of Man. and Cust. of India_, Part II., chap. xi.

[325] “The Hindu Pantheon,” in Birdwood’s _Indian Arts_, p. 76 f.

[326] _Ibid._, p. 42.

[327] 1 Cor. 11 : 29.

[328] See Roberts’s _Oriental Illus. of Scriptures_, pp. 484-489.

[329] See page 77, _supra_.

[330] See page 53, _supra_.

[331] See also page 194 ff., _infra_.

[332] See Sayce’s paper, in _Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch._, Vol. I., Part 1, pp. 25-31.

[333] See page 13 f., _supra_.

[334] “Whether he has overcome his enemies or the wild beasts, he pours out a libation from the sacred cup,” says Layard (_Nineveh and its Remains_, Vol. II., chap. 7) concerning the old-time King of Nineveh.

[335] See H. Fox Talbot’s paper, in _Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch._, Vol. IV.,