Chapter XLV: Regard for the Dead (2)

[Footnote 165: Turner, 'Ethnology of the Ungava District,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 192 (Hudson Bay Eskimo), 269 _sq._ (Hudson Bay Indians). de Brebeuf, 'Relation de ce qui s'est passé dans le pays des Hurons,' in _Relations des Jésuites_, i. 1636, p. 129. Roth, _North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines_, p. 161. Tregear, 'Niue,' in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ ii. 14 (Savage Islanders). Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 204 _sq._ Romilly, _From my Verandah in New Guinea_, p. 45 (Solomon Islanders). Georgi, _op. cit._ iii. 266 (Siberian shamans). Monrad, _op. cit._ p. 23 (Negroes of Accra). Brinton, _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 166: _E.g._, the Kalmucks (Bergmann, _Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken_, ii. 318 _sqq._) and the ancient Caribs (Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 215).]

[Footnote 167: Dunbar, 'Pawnee Indians,' in _Magazine of American History_, viii. 742. Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, p. 203. Bergmann, _op. cit._ ii. 318. Bosman, _Description of the Coast of Guinea_, p. 327 (Negroes of Fida). Du Chaillu, _Explorations in Equatorial Africa_, p. 338. Kropf, _Das Volk der Xosa-Kaffern_, p. 155. For other instances of savages' great fear of death, see Bridges, in _A Voice for South America_, xiii. 211 (Fuegians); Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 215 (Caribs); Dunbar, in _Magazine of American History_, v. 334 (various North American tribes); Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 238; Georgi, _op. cit._ ii. 400 (Jakuts); Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 130 (Gold Coast natives).]

[Footnote 168: Dorman, _op. cit._ p. 22 (North American Indians). von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 502 (Bororó). Hyades and Deniker, _Mission scientifique du Cap Horn_, vii. 379 (Fuegians). Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 44. Fraser, _Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 82. Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 498. Worcester, _Philippine Islands_, p. 496 (Tagbanuas of Busuanga). Bailey, 'Veddahs of Ceylon,' in _Trans. Ethn. Soc._ N. S. ii. 296; Deschamps, _Carnet d'un voyageur_, p. 383 (Veddahs). Decle, _op. cit._ p. 79 (Barotse). von Düben, _Lappland_, pp. 241, 249.]

[Footnote 169: Hyades and Deniker, _op. cit._ vii. 379 (Fuegians). Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, p. 222 _sq._ Worcester, _op. cit._ p. 108 _sq._ (Tagbanuas of Palawan). Butler, _Travels in Assam_, p. 228. Fawcett, _Saoras_, p. 50 _sq._ Cunningham, _Uganda_, p. 130 (Bavuma).]

[Footnote 170: Howard, _op. cit._ p. 197 (Ainu). Selenka, _Sonnige Welten_, p. 89 (Dyaks). The rapid pace of the funeral procession among the Bataks (von Brenner, _Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras_, p. 235) probably belongs to the same class of facts.]

[Footnote 171: von Brenner, _op. cit._ p. 235 (Bataks). Fawcett, _Saoras_, p. 46 _sq._]

[Footnote 172: von Brenner, _op. cit._ p. 235 (Bataks). von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube der Magyaren_, p. 134.]

[Footnote 173: Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces_, i. 45 (Aheriya, in Duâb), 287 (Bhangi, the sweeper tribe of Hindustan). Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 320 (ancient Bohemians).]

[Footnote 174: Dorsey, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 420 (Omahas). Crooke, _op. cit._ i. 44 (Aheriya, in Duâb).]

[Footnote 175: Zimmer, _Altindisches Leben_, p. 402 (Vedic people). Turner, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 191 (Hudson Bay Eskimo). Yarrow, _ibid._ i. 98 (Pimas of Arizona). Southey, _History of Brazil_, i. 248 (Tupinambas). Of the trussing and tying of the dead body which is practised in various Australian tribes the blacks themselves say that it is done "to prevent the spirit of the deceased from wandering in the night from its bed, and disturbing the living and doing them harm" (Fraser, _Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 79 _sq._; see also Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 44, 87).]

[Footnote 176: _Supra_, ii. 256. Hyltén-Cavallius, _Wärend och Wirdarne_, i. 472 (Middle Ages).]

[Footnote 177: _Cf._ _supra_, ii. 303. For the contagion of death see also Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, p. 95 _sqq._]

[Footnote 178: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 26 _sq._ Frazer, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xv. 69 _sq._ Trumbull, _Threshold Covenant_, p. 23 _sqq._ Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_, pp. 372, 373, 414 _sq._ Lippert, _Christenthum, Volksglaube und Volksbrauch_, p. 391 _sq._ Egede, _Description of Greenland_, p. 152 _sq._; Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 245 _sq._ (Greenlanders). Turner, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 191 (Hudson Bay Eskimo). McNair Wright, _Among the Alaskans_, p. 313. Jochelson, 'Koryak Religion', in _Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, vi. 110 _sq._ Georgi, _op. cit._ iii. 26 _sq._; Jackson, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxiv. 406 (Samoyedes). Ramseyer and Kühne, _Four Years in Ashantee_, p. 50. Kålund, 'Skandinavische Verhältnisse,' in Paul, _Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_, ii. pt. ii. 227 (ancient Scandinavians).]

[Footnote 179: _Vendîdâd_, viii. 14 _sqq._ Darmesteter, in _Sacred Books of the East_, iv. p. lxxiv. _sq._]

[Footnote 180: Trumbull, _op. cit._ p. 24.]

[Footnote 181: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 644.]

[Footnote 182: Boas, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 42 _sqq._]

[Footnote 183: _Idem_, quoted by Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 341 _sq._ Among the Bhuiyâr, a Dravidian tribe in South Mirzapur, each house has two doors, one of which is only used by menstruous women; and when such a woman has to quit the house "she is obliged to creep out on her hands and knees so as to avoid polluting the house thatch by her touch" (Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces_, ii. 87). Among the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia meat was only taken into the hunting lodge through a hole in the back of the structure, because the common door was used by women and women were regarded as unclean (Teit, 'Thompson Indians,' in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_, 'Anthropology,' i. 347). In other instances ordinary people are prohibited from using a door through which a sacred person has passed, obviously because contact with his sanctity is looked upon as dangerous. In some of the South Sea Islands, where the first-born, whether male or female, was especially sacred, no one else was allowed to pass by the door through which he or she entered the paternal dwelling (Gill, _Life in the Southern Isles_, p. 46). "In some parts of the Pacific, the door through which the king or queen passed in opening a temple was shut up, and ever after made sacred" (Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 328). Ezekiel (xliv. 2 _sq._) represents the Lord as saying:--"This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince; . . . he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same." Among the Arabs in olden days those who returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca entered their houses not by the door but by a hole made in the back wall (Palmer, in _Sacred Books of the East_, vi. 27, n. 1). This practice was forbidden by Muhammed (_Koran_, ii. 185).]

[Footnote 184: Frazer, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xv. 76 _sqq._]

[Footnote 185: It should be added, however, that. Sir J. G. Frazer's important essay on 'Burial Customs' was published many years ago and therefore perhaps does not exactly represent the author's present views on the subject.]

It is obvious that the beliefs held as regards the character, activity, and polluting influence of the dead greatly affect the conduct of the survivors. They are {539} naturally anxious to gain the favour of the disembodied soul, to avert its ill-will, to keep it at a distance, and to avoid the defilement of death. Self-interest is often a conspicuous motive for acts and omissions which are regarded as duties to the dead, and prudence also has a very large share in their being enjoined as obligatory. This is obviously true of the offerings made to the dead. The Thompson River Indians of British Columbia threw some food on the ground near the grave of the deceased, "that he might not visit the house in search of food, causing sickness to the people."[186] Among the Iroquois, "on the death of a nursing child two pieces of cloth are saturated with the mother's milk and placed in the hands of the dead child so that its spirit may not return to haunt the bereaved mother."[187] The Negroes of Accra, when asked why they slaughtered animals at the tombs of their departed friends, answered that they did so in order to prevent the ghosts from walking.[188] The Monbuttu place some oil and other victuals in the little hut which is erected for the dead in the forest, so that his spirit shall not return to his old home in search of food.[189] For the same reason the Bataks of Sumatra put various things into the graves of their deceased friends, ask the dead to be quiet and not to long for the company of the living, and finish their address with the words, "Here you have still some _sirih_ and tobacco, and every year, at harvest time, we shall give you some rice."[190] Among the Chuvashes the son says to his departed father, "We remember you with a feast, here are bread and different kinds of food for you, everything you have before you, do not come to us."[191] It is considered particularly dangerous to keep back and make use of articles which belonged to the dead. The Gypsies burn on the grave all those chattels which the deceased was in the habit of using during his lifetime, "because his soul would otherwise {540} return to torment his relatives and claim back his property."[192] A Saora gave the following reason for the custom of burning all the belongings of a dead person:--"If we do not burn these things with the body, the Kulba (soul) will come and ask us for them and trouble us."[193] The Kafirs believe that, after his death, "a man's personality haunts his possessions."[194] Among the Brazilian Tupinambas "whoever happened to have any thing which had belonged to the dead produced it, that it might be buried with him, lest he should come and claim it."[195] When a Navaho Indian dies within a house the rafters are pulled down over the remains and the place is usually set on fire; after that nothing would induce a Navaho to touch a piece of the wood or even approach the immediate vicinity of the place, the shades of the dead being regarded "as inclined to resent any intrusion or the taking of any liberties with them or their belongings."[196] The Greenlanders, as soon as a man is dead, "throw out every thing which has belonged to him; otherwise they would be polluted, and their lives rendered unfortunate. The house is cleared of all its movables till evening, when the smell of the corpse has passed away."[197]

[Footnote 186: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 329.]

[Footnote 187: Smith, _Myths of the Iroquois_, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ii. 69.]

[Footnote 188: Monrad, _op. cit._ p. 26.]

[Footnote 189: Burrows, _op. cit._ p. 103.]

[Footnote 190: von Brenner, _op. cit._ p. 234 _sqq._]

[Footnote 191: Castrén, _op. cit._ iii. 123 _sq._]

[Footnote 192: von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube der Zigeuner_, p. 100.]

[Footnote 193: Fawcett, _op. cit._ p. 47.]

[Footnote 194: Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, p. 83.]

[Footnote 195: Southey, _op. cit._ i. 248. _Cf._ von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 502 (Bororó).]

[Footnote 196: Mindeleff, 'Navaho Houses,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xvii. 487.]

[Footnote 197: Cranz, _op. cit._ i. 217.]

The fear of the dead has also taught men to abstain from robbing or violating their tombs. The Omahas believe that, if anybody touched an article of food exposed at a grave, "the ghost would snatch away the food and paralyse the mouth of the thief, and twist his face out of shape for the rest of his life; or else he would be pursued by the ghost, and food would lose its taste, and hunger ever after haunt the offender."[198] The Brazilian Coroados "avoid disturbing the repository of the dead, for fear they should appear to them and torment them."[199] {541} The Maoris suppose that the violation of a burial place would bring disease and death on the criminal.[200] The extreme dislike of the Chinese to disturbing a grave is based on the supposition that the spirit of the person buried will haunt and cause ill-luck or death to the disturber.[201] According to the popular beliefs of the Magyars, he who seizes upon anything belonging to a tomb, even if it were only a flower, will be unhappy for the rest of his life.[202] The Rumanians of Transylvania think that a person who picks a flower which grows on a grave will die in consequence, and that he who smells at such a flower will lose his sense of smell.[203]

[Footnote 198: La Flesche, 'Death and Funeral Customs among the Omahas,' in _Jour. American Folk-Lore_, ii. 11. _Cf._ Reid, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ iii. 112 (Chippewas).]

[Footnote 199: von Spix and von Martius, _Travels in Brazil_, ii. 251.]

[Footnote 200: Polack, _op. cit._ i. 112.]

[Footnote 201: Dennys, _op. cit._ p. 26. de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. iv. book) ii. 446 _sq._]

[Footnote 202: von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube der Magyaren_, p. 135. _Cf._ _Idem_, _Volksglaube der Zigeuner_, p. 96 _sq._]

[Footnote 203: Prexl, 'Geburts- und Todtengebräuche der Rumänen in Siebenbürgen,' in _Globus_, lvii. 30.]

The transgression of ancestral custom, as we have already seen, is supposed to be punished by the spirits of the dead; and the sacredness of a will largely springs from superstitious fear. The South Slavonian belief that, if a son does not fulfil the last will of his father the soul of the father will curse him from the grave,[204] has its counterpart in the denunciatory clause in Anglo-Saxon landbooks, which usually curses all and singular who attack the donee's title.[205]

[Footnote 204: _Supra_, i. 624.]

[Footnote 205: Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law before the Time of Edward I._ ii. 251 _sq._]

The custom of praising the dead, again, is mainly flattery, and the lamentations over them are not altogether sincere.[206] By their excessive demonstrations of grief the Andaman Islanders hope to conciliate the spirits of the departed, and to be preserved from many misfortunes which might otherwise befall them.[207] The Central Australian native fears "that, unless a sufficient amount of grief be displayed, he will be harmed by the offended _Ulthana_ or spirit of the dead man."[208] The Angmagsaliks {542} on the East Coast of Greenland say that they cry and groan and perform other mourning rites "in order to prevent the dead from getting angry."[209] But the loud wailing of mourners may also, like the shouting after a death,[210] be intended to drive away the ghost, or perhaps death itself.

[Footnote 206: See Gibbs, _loc. cit._ p. 205 (tribes of Western Washington and North-western Oregon); Wied-Neuwied, _Reise nach Brasilien_, ii. 56 (Botocudos).]

[Footnote 207: Man, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 145.]

[Footnote 208: Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 510.]

[Footnote 209: Holm, 'Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,' in _Meddelelser om Grønland_, x. 107.]

[Footnote 210: Spencer and Gillen, _op. cit._ p. 506. _Cf._ Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 432, n. 2.]

Fear is certainly a very common motive for funeral and mourning rites which have been interpreted as duties to the dead. This is the case with the various methods of disposing of the corpse. Thus the custom of leaving it as food for beasts of prey[211] is, in some instances at least, deliberately practised for the purpose of preventing the ghost from walking. The Herero who accompanied Chapman said of two of their sick comrades who formed part of the company, "You must throw them away, and let the wolves eat them; then they won't come and bother us."[212] Cremation, also, has frequently been resorted to as a means of protecting the living from unwelcome visits of the dead, or, as the case may be, of effectually getting rid of the contagion of death.[213] The Vedic people, while burning the corpses of their dead, cried aloud, "Away, go away, O Death! injure not our sons and our men."[214] In Northern India the corpses of all low caste people are either cremated or buried face downwards, in order to prevent the evil spirit from escaping and troubling its neighbours.[215] The Nâyars of Malabar not only believe that the collection and careful disposal of the ashes of the dead man gives peace to his spirit, but, "what is more important, the pacified spirit will not thereafter injure the living members of the Taravâd (house or family), cause miscarriage {543} to the women, possess the men, as with an evil spirit, and so on."[216] In Tibet a ghost which makes its presence felt in dreams or by causing deliriousness or temporary insanity is disposed of by cremation.[217] In his description of the Savage Islanders, Mr. Thomson tells us of a mother who destroyed her own daughter's grave by fire in order to burn the spirit which was afflicting her.[218] Among the ancient Scandinavians the bodies of persons who were believed to walk after death were dug up from their graves and burned.[219] And exactly the same is done in Albania to this day.[220]

[Footnote 211: For this custom see also Murdoch, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 424 _sq._ (Point Barrow Eskimo); Nordenskiöld, _Vegas färd kring Asien och Europa_, ii. 93 (Chukchi); Andersson, _Notes on Travel in South Africa_, p. 234 (Ovambo).]

[Footnote 212: Chapman, _Travels in the Interior of South Africa_, ii. 282.]

[Footnote 213: _Cf._ Rohde, _op. cit._ p. 28 _sqq._ (ancient Greeks); Preuss, _op. cit._ p. 294.]

[Footnote 214: _Rig-Veda_, x. 18. 1.]

[Footnote 215: Crooke, _Popular Religion of Northern India_, i. 269.]

[Footnote 216: Fawcett, in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, iii. 251. See also Iyer, 'Nay[=a]dis of Malabar,'_ibid._ iv. 71.]

[Footnote 217: Waddell, _op. cit._ p. 498.]

[Footnote 218: Thomson, _Savage Island_, p. 134.]

[Footnote 219: Kålund, _loc. cit._ p. 227.]

[Footnote 220: von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_, i. 163.]

Burial itself has served a similar purpose.[221] According to the Danish traveller Monrad, the Negroes of Accra expressly believe that by covering the body of a dead person with earth they keep the ghost from walking and causing trouble to the survivors; and he adds that exactly the same superstition prevails in Jutland in Denmark.[222] This belief is also preserved in the Swedish word for committing a corpse to the earth, _jordfästa_, which literally means "to fasten to the earth." In Gothland, in Sweden, there was an old tradition of a man called Takstein who in his lifetime was overbearing and cruel and after his death haunted the living, in consequence of which "a wizard finally earth-fastened him in such a manner that he afterwards lay quiet."[223] But burial has often been supplemented by other precautions against the return of the ghost. Högström says that the Laplanders carefully wrapped up their dead in cloth so as to prevent the soul from slipping away.[224] The practice of placing logs or stones immediately over the corpse may have a similar origin; in some Queensland tribes, when an individual has been killed by the whole tribe in punishment for some {544} serious crime, boomerangs are substituted for the ordinary logs, evidently for fear of the ghost.[225] The Chuvashes, again, put two stakes across the coffin of a dead man for the purpose of preventing him from lifting up the cover.[226] Graves are often provided with mounds, tombstones, or enclosures in order to keep the dead from walking.[227] The Omahas raise no mound over a man who has been killed by lightning, but bury him face downwards and with the soles of his feet split, in the belief that he will then go to the spirit-land without giving further trouble to the living.[228] The Savage Islanders pile heavy stones upon the grave to keep the ghost down.[229] The Cheremises believe that the ghosts cannot step over the fence-poles with which they surround the graves.[230] When ceremonies like that of striking the air at a funeral or the ringing of bells are represented as means of keeping off evil spirits from the dead, we have reason to suspect that their original object was to keep off the ghost from the living. At Central Australian funerals women beat the air with the palms of their hands for the express purpose of driving the spirit away from the old camp which it is supposed to haunt, and the men beat the air with their spear-throwers.[231] The Bondeis of East Africa frighten the ghosts by beating drums.[232] And at Port Moresby, in New Guinea, when the church bell was first used, the natives thanked the missionaries for having driven off numerous bands of ghosts.[233]

[Footnote 221: _Cf._ Frazer, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xv. 64 _sq._; Preuss, _op. cit._ p. 292 _sq._]

[Footnote 222: Monrad, _op. cit._ p. 13.]

[Footnote 223: Läffler, _Den gottländska Taksteinar-sägnen_, p. 5.]

[Footnote 224: Högström, _Beskrifning öfver de til Sveriges Krona lydande Lapmarker_, p. 207.]

[Footnote 225: Roth, _op. cit._ p. 165.]

[Footnote 226: Castrén, _op. cit._ iii. 121.]

[Footnote 227: _Cf._ Frazer, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xv. 65 _sq._; Preuss, _op. cit._ p. 293.]

[Footnote 228: Dorsey, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 420. La Flesche, in _Jour. American Folk-Lore_, ii. 11.]

[Footnote 229: Thomson, _Savage Island_, p. 52.]

[Footnote 230: Castrén, _op. cit._ iii. 122.]

[Footnote 231: Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 506.]

[Footnote 232: Dale, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxv. 238.]

[Footnote 233: Chalmers and Gill, _Work and Adventure in New Guinea_, p. 260.]

That the mourning fast is essentially a precaution taken by the survivors, and not a tribute to the dead, is obvious from what has been said in a previous chapter.[234] When mourners mutilate, cut, or beat themselves, the original object of their doing so seems often to be to ward off the {545} contagion of death.[235] Among the Bedouins of Morocco women at funerals not only scratch their faces, but also rub the wounds with cow-dung, and cow-dung is regarded as a means of purification. The mourning customs of painting the body and of assuming a special costume have been explained as attempts on the part of the survivors to disguise themselves;[236] but the latter custom may also have originated in the idea that a mourner is more or less polluted for a certain period and that therefore a dress worn by him then, being a seat of contagion, could not be used afterwards. Egede writes of the Greenlanders, "If they have happened to touch a corpse, they immediately cast away the clothes they have then on; and for this reason they always put on their old clothes when they go to a burying, in which they agree with the Jews."[237] There can, finally, be no doubt that the widespread prohibition of mentioning the name of a dead person[238] does not in the first instance arise from respect for the departed, but from fear. To name him is to summon him; the Indians of Washington Territory even change their own names when a relative dies, because "they think the spirits of the dead will come back if they hear the same name called that they were accustomed to hear {546} before death."[239] But apart from this, a dead man's name itself is probably felt to be defiling, or at all events produces an uncanny association of thought, which even among ourselves makes many people reluctant to mention it.[240] And to do so may also be a wrong to other persons who would be endangered thereby. Among the Goajiro Indians of Colombia, to mention a dead man before his relatives is a dreadful offence, which is often punished even with death.[241]

[Footnote 234: _Supra_, ii. 302 _sqq._]

[Footnote 235: _Cf._ Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 302.]

[Footnote 236: Frazer, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ 73. _Idem_, 'Folk-Lore in the Old Testament,' in _Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor_, p. 110.]

[Footnote 237: Egede, _op. cit._ p. 197.]

[Footnote 238: Tylor, _Researches into the Early History of Mankind_, p. 144. Nyrop, 'Navnets magt,' in _Mindre afhandlinger udgivne af det philologisk-historiske samfund_, pp. 147-151, 190 _sq._ and _passim_. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 421 _sqq._ Clodd, _Tom Tit Tot_, p. 166 _sqq._ Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 230 _sq._ (Greenlanders). Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 84 (North American Indians). Bourke, 'Medicine-Men of the Apache,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 462. Batchelor, _Ainu and their Folk-Lore_, p. 242. Georgi, _op. cit._ iii. 27, 28, 262 _sq._ (Samoyedes and shamanistic peoples in Siberia). Jackson, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxiv. 406 (Samoyedes). Rivers, _Todas_, p. 625 _sqq._ Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces_, i. 11 (Agariya, a Dravidian tribe), von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube der Zigeuner_, p. 96 (Gypsies). Yseldijk, in _Glimpses of the Eastern Archipelago_, p. 42. (Kotting, in the island of Flores). Roth, _North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines_, p. 164. Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 498. Fraser, _Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 82. Thornton, in Hill and Thornton, _Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 7. Fison and Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 249 (Kurnai). Curr, _Squatting in Victoria_, p. 272 (Bangerang). Hinde, _op. cit._ p. 50 (Masai). Duveyrier, _Exploration du Sahara_, p. 415 (Touareg). Werner, 'Custom of "Hlonipa,"' in _Jour. African Soc._ 1905, April, p. 346 (Zulus).]

[Footnote 239: Swan, _Residence in Washington Territory_, p. 189.]

[Footnote 240: I had much difficulty in inducing my teacher in Shel[h.]a, a Berber from the Great Atlas Mountains, to tell me the equivalent for "illness" in his own language; and when he finally did so, he spat immediately afterwards. Among the Central Australian Arunta the older men will not look at the photograph of a deceased person (Gillen, 'Aborigines of the McDonnell Ranges,' in _Report of the Horn Expedition_, iv. 'Anthropology,' p. 168).]

[Footnote 241: Simons, 'Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,' in _Proceed. Roy. Geograph. Soc._ N. S. vii. 791.]

By all this I certainly do not mean to assert that the funeral and mourning customs to which I have just referred have exclusively or in every case originated in fear of the dead or of the pollution of death. Burial may also be genuinely intended to protect the body from beasts or birds; and the same may be the case with mounds, tombstones, and enclosures.[242] Some savages are reported to burn the dead in order to prevent their bodies from falling into the hands of enemies,[243] which might be bad both for the dead and for their friends, as charms might be made from the corpses.[244] Moreover, cremation does away with the slow process of transformation to which a dead body is naturally subject, and this process is regarded not only as a danger to the living but also as painful to the deceased himself.[245] The same object may be achieved by exposing the corpse to wild animals. And we should also remember that the putrefactive process {547} itself, whether accompanied by any superstitious ideas or not, is a sufficient motive for disposing of the dead body in some way or other--either by burial or cremation or exposure; and if one method is held objectionable another will be resorted to. Among the Masai the custom of throwing away corpses is said to spring from the notion that to bury them would be to poison the soil;[246] and the Zoroastrian law enjoining the exposure of the dead was closely connected with the sacredness ascribed to fire and earth and the consequent dread of polluting them.

[Footnote 242: Cranz, _op. cit._ i. 217 (Greenlanders). Turner, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 192 (Hudson Bay Eskimo). Yarrow, _ibid._ i. 102 (Wichita Indians). Dunbar, in _Magazine of American History_, viii. 734 (Pawnee Indians). Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 87.]

[Footnote 243: Hyades and Deniker, _op. cit._ vii. 379 (Fuegians). Preuss, _op. cit._ p. 310 (Seminole Indians of Florida).]

[Footnote 244: Ralph, quoted by Hartland, _Legend of Perseus_, ii. 437 (Haidahs of British Columbia).]

[Footnote 245: See Hertz, _loc. cit._ p. 71.]

[Footnote 246: Thomson, _Through Masai Land_, p. 259.]

Again, as for the mutilations and self-inflicted wounds which accompany funerals, I have suggested in a previous chapter that they may be partly practised for the purpose of refreshing the departed soul with human blood;[247] or, as Dr. Hirn observes, they may be instinctive efforts to procure that relief from overpowering feelings which is afforded by pain and the subsequent exhaustion.[248] The reluctance to name the dead may, in some measure, be traced to a natural unwillingness in his old friends to revive past sorrows.[249] And with reference to the mourning apparel, Dr. de Groot believes--if rightly or wrongly I am not in a position to decide--that, so far as China is concerned, it originated in the custom of sacrificing to the dead the clothes on one's own back. He thinks that this explanation is confirmed by the fact that in the age of Confucius it was customary for the mourners to throw off their clothes as far as decency allowed when the corpse was being dressed.[250]

[Footnote 247: _Supra_, i. 476.]

[Footnote 248: Hirn, _Origins of Art_, p. 66 _sq._]

[Footnote 249: Fison and Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 249 (Kurnai). Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 422.]

[Footnote 250: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 475 _sq._]

There are several reasons why practices connected with death which originally sprang from self-regarding motives have come to be enjoined as duties. We have first to remember the various factors mentioned above[251] which tend to make self-regarding conduct a matter of moral concern. {548} But in this case the transition from the prudential to the obligatory has been much facilitated by the circumstance that all the acts which a person's self-interest induces him to perform or to abstain from have direct reference to another individual, and, indeed, to an individual who is supposed to reward benefits bestowed upon him or at all events to resent injuries and neglect. These punishments and rewards sent by the departed soul are all the more readily recognised to be well deserved, as the claims of the dead are similar in nature to those of the living and are at the same time in some degree supported by sympathetic feelings in the survivors. Nor is it difficult to explain why even such practices as are not originally supposed to comfort the dead have assumed the character of duties towards them. The dead are not only beings whom it is dangerous to offend and useful to please, but they are also very easily duped. No wonder therefore that the living are anxious to put the most amiable interpretation upon their conduct, trying to persuade the ghost, as also one another, that they do what they do for _his_ benefit, not for their own. It is better for him to have rest in his grave than to wander about on earth unhappy and homeless. It is better for him to enjoy the heat of the flames than to suffer from the cold of an arctic climate. It is better for him to be eaten by an animal--say, a beautiful dog or a hyæna sent by God--than to lie and rot in the open air. And all the mourning customs, what are they if not tokens of grief? Moreover, if the corpse is not properly disposed of or any funeral or mourning rite calculated to keep off the ghost is not observed, the dead man will easily do harm to the survivors. And does not this indicate that they have been neglectful of their duties to him?

[Footnote 251: _Supra_, ii. 266 _sq._]

The mixture of sympathy and fear which is at the bottom of the duties to the dead accounts for the fact that these duties are rarely extended to strangers. A departed stranger is not generally an object of either pity or fear. He expects attention from his own people only, he haunts his own home. But he may of course be dangerous to {549} anybody who directly offends him, for instance by inflicting an injury upon his body, or to people who live in the vicinity of his grave. We are told that the Angami Nagas bestow as much care on the tombs of foes who have fallen near their villages as on those of their own warriors.[252] So also the differences in the treatment of the dead which depend upon age, sex, and social position are no doubt closely connected with variations in the feelings of sympathy, respect, or fear,[253] although in many cases we are unable to explain those differences in detail. Among the Australian natives women and children are said to be interred with little ceremony because they are held to be very inferior to men while alive and consequently are not much feared after death;[254] and if in Eastern Central Africa the attention usually bestowed upon the dead is not extended to children which die when four or five days old, the reason seems to be that such children are hardly supposed to possess a soul.[255] We may assume that the special treatment to which the bodies of criminals are subject is due not only to indignation but, in some instances at least, to fear of their ghosts. And we have noticed above that suicides, murdered persons, and those struck with lightning are sometimes left unburied because no one dares to interfere with their bodies, or perhaps in order to prevent them from mixing with the other dead.[256]

[Footnote 252: Prain, 'Angami Nagas,' in _Revue coloniale internationale_, v. 493.]

[Footnote 253: _Cf._ Hertz, _loc. cit._ pp. 122, 132 _sqq._]

[Footnote 254: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 89.]

[Footnote 255: Macdonald, _Africana_, i. 68.]

[Footnote 256: _Supra_, ii. 238 _sq._]

It should finally be noticed that the duties to the departed become less stringent as time goes on. As Dr. Hertz has recently shown, the fear of the dead is greatest as long as the process of decomposition lasts and till the second funeral is performed, and this ceremony brings the period of mourning to an end.[257] Moreover, the dead are gradually less and less thought of, they appear less frequently in dreams and visions, the affection for them fades away, and, being forgotten, they are no longer feared. The Chinese say that ghosts are much more {550} liable to appear very shortly after death, than at any other period.[258] The natives of Australia are only afraid of the spirits of men who have lately died.[259] In the course of time savages also become more willing to speak of their dead.[260] But whilst the large bulk of disembodied souls sooner or later lose their individuality and dwindle into insignificance or sink into the limbo of All Souls, it may be that some of them escape this fate, and, instead of being ignored, are raised to the rank of gods.

[Footnote 257: Hertz, _loc. cit._ _passim_.]

[Footnote 258: Dennys, _op. cit._ p. 76.]

[Footnote 259: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 44, 87. Lumholtz, _Among Cannibals_, p. 279 (Northern Queensland aborigines).]

[Footnote 260: Tout, 'Ethnology of the Stlatlumh of British Columbia,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 138. Bourke, 'Medicine-Men of the Apache,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 462. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 431 _sqq._]

* * * * *

Progress in intellectual culture has a tendency to affect the notions of death. The change involved in it appears greater. The soul, if still thought to survive the death of the body, is more distinctly separated from it; it is rid of all sensuous desires, as also of all earthly interests. Duties to the dead which arose from the old ideas may still be maintained, but their meaning is changed.

Thus the funeral sacrifice may be continued as a mark of respect or affection. In Melanesia, for instance, at the death-meals which follow upon funerals or begin before them, and which still form one of the principal institutions of the natives, a piece of food is put aside for the dead. "It is readily denied now," says Dr. Codrington, "that the dead . . . are thought to come and eat the food, which they say is given as a friendly remembrance only, and in the way of associating together those whom death has separated."[261] In many cases the offerings made to the dead have become alms given to the poor, just as has been the case with sacrifices offered to gods;[262] and this almsgiving is undoubtedly looked upon as a duty to the dead. Among the Omahas goods are collected from the kindred of the dead between the death and the funeral, and when the body has been deposited in the grave they {551} are brought forth and equally divided among the poor who are assembled on the spot.[263] At a Hindu funeral in Sindh, on the road to the burning place, the relatives of the dead throw dry dates into the air over the corpse; these are considered as a kind of alms and are left to the poor.[264] Among some peoples of Malabar, at the _çráddha_, or yearly anniversary of a death, not less than three Brahmins are well fed and presented with money and cloth;[265] and according to Brahmanism the _çráddha_ is "a debt which is transferred from one generation to another, and on the payment of which depends the happiness of the dead in the next life."[266] Among Muhammedans alms, generally consisting of food, are distributed in connection with a death in order to confer merits upon the deceased.[267] Thus in Morocco bread or dried fruits are given to the poor who are assembled at the grave-side on the day of the funeral, as also on the third and sometimes on the fortieth day after it, on the tenth day of Mu[h.]arram, and in many parts of the country on other feast-days as well, when the graves are visited by relatives of the dead. These alms are obviously survivals of offerings to the dead themselves. While residing among the Bedouins of Dukkâla, I was told that if the funeral meal were omitted the dead man's mouth would be filled with earth; and it is a common custom among the Moors that, if a dead person appears in a dream complaining of hunger or thirst, food or drink is at once given to some poor people. Among the Christians, in former days, alms were distributed in the church when, soon after a death or on the anniversary of a death, the sacrifice of the mass was offered; and alms were also given at funerals and at graves, in the hope that their merit might be of advantage to the deceased.[268] At Mykonos, in the Cyclades, on some fixed days after the {552} burial a dish consisting of boiled wheat adorned with sugar plums or other delicacy is put on the tomb, and finally distributed to the poor at the church door;[269] and in some parts of Russia the people still believe that if the usual alms are not given at a funeral the dead man's soul will reveal itself to his relatives in the form of a moth flying about the flame of a candle.[270] The supposed conferring of merits upon the dead and the prayers on their behalf, so common both in Christianity and Muhammedanism, are the last remains of a series of customs by means of which the living have endeavoured to benefit their departed friends.

[Footnote 261: Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 271 _sq._ _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 128.]

[Footnote 262: _Supra_, i. 565 _sqq._]

[Footnote 263: La Flesche, in _Jour. American Folk-Lore_, ii. 8 _sqq._]

[Footnote 264: Burton, _Sindh_, p. 350.]

[Footnote 265: Fawcett, 'Notes on some of the People of Malabar,' in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, iii. 71.]

[Footnote 266: Barth, _Religions of India_, p. 52.]

[Footnote 267: Garnett, _Women of Turkey_, ii. 496. Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 530. Certeux and Carnoy, _L'Algérie traditionelle_, p. 220.]

[Footnote 268: Uhlhorn, _Die christliche Liebesthätigkeit_, i. 281.]

[Footnote 269: Bent, _Cyclades_, p. 221 _sq._]

[Footnote 270: Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 117.]

But even when the dead are no longer believed to be in need of human care, nay, though death be thought to put an end to existence, there are still duties, if not to the dead, at all events to those who were once alive. A person may be wronged by an act which he can no longer feel. There are rights that are in force not only during his lifetime but after his death. A given promise is not buried with him to whom it was made. A dead man's will is binding. His memory is protected against calumny. These rights have the same foundation as all other rights: the feelings of the person himself and the claims of others that his feelings shall be respected. We have wishes with regard to the future when we live no more. We take an interest in persons and things that survive us. We desire to leave behind a spotless name. And the sympathy felt for us by our fellow men will last when we ourselves are gone.