Chapter XIX: Human Sacrifice (3)

[Footnote 281: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 125 _sq._ Brenchley, _op. cit._ p. 208 (natives of Tana). Williams and Calvert, _op. cit._ p. 161 _sq._ (Fijians). Lisiansky, _op. cit._ p. 81 (Nukahivans). Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 220 _sq._ (Tonga Islanders). Taylor, _Te Ika a Maui_, p. 218 (Maoris). von Kotzebue, _op. cit._ iii. 247 (Sandwich Islanders).]

[Footnote 282: Rowley, _Africa Unveiled_, p. 127. _Idem_, _Religion of the Africans_, p. 102 _sq._ Schneider, _Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker_, p. 118 _sqq._ Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 125. Ramseyer and Kühne, _Four Years in Ashantee_, p. 50. Mockler-Ferryman, _British Nigeria_, pp. 235, 259 _sqq._ Burton, _Mission to Gelele_, ii. 19 _sqq._ (Dahomans). _Idem_, _Abeokuta_, i. 220 _sq._ _Idem_, _Lake Regions of Central Africa_, i. 124 (Wadoe); ii. 25 _sq._ (Wanyamwezi). Wilson, _Western Africa_, pp. 203, 219. Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 159 _sqq._ _Idem_, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, pp. 117, 118, 121 _sqq._ Nachtigal, _Sahara und Sudan_, ii. 687 (Somraï and Njillem). Baker, _Ismaïlia_, p. 317 _sq._ (Wanyoro). Casati, _Ten Years in Equatoria_, i. 170 (Mambettu). Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 212 _sq._]

[Footnote 283: Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i. 204. Dorman, _op. cit._ p. 210 _sqq._ Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 125. Macfie, _Vancouver Island and British Columbia_, p. 448. Charlevoix, _Voyage to North America_, ii. 196 _sq._ (Natchez). Rochefort, _Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles_, p. 568 _sq._ (Caribs).]

[Footnote 284: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 461. Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i. 205. Dorman, _op. cit._ p. 212 _sqq._ Acosta, _op. cit._ ii. 313, 314, 344 (Peruvians).]

[Footnote 285: Wiedemann, _Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul_, p. 62 n.]

[Footnote 286: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 721.]

[Footnote 287: _Ibid._ (vol. ii. book) i. 724.]

[Footnote 288: _Ibid._ (vol. ii. book) i. 735, 754, 748.]

[Footnote 289: Schrader, _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, p. 391.]

[Footnote 290: Hopkins, _op. cit._ p. 274.]

[Footnote 291: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 465 _sqq._ Zimmer, _Altindisches Leben_, p. 331.]

[Footnote 292: _Rig-Veda_, x. 18. 8 _sq._ Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, p. 165. Hillebrandt, 'Eine Miscelle aus dem Vedaritual,' in _Zeitschr. d. Deutschen Morgenländ. Gesellsch._ xl. 711. Oldenberg, _Religion des Veda_, p. 587.]

[Footnote 293: Euripides, _Supplices_, 1000 _sqq._]

[Footnote 294: Pausanias, iv. 2. 7.]

[Footnote 295: Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, p. 451.]

[Footnote 296: Procopius, _op. cit._ ii. 14.]

[Footnote 297: Dithmar of Merseburg, _Chronicon_, viii. 2 (Pertz, _Monumenta Germaniæ historica_, v. 861). Zimmer, _op. cit._ p. 330.]

[Footnote 298: Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 327 _sq._]

[Footnote 299: Grimm, _op. cit._ p. 344.]

[Footnote 300: Cæsar, _De bello gallico_, vi. 19. In the ancient annals of the Irish there is one trace of human sacrifice being offered as a funeral rite (Cusack, _History of the Irish Nation_, p. 115 n.*).]

[Footnote 301: _Iliad_, xxiii. 175.]

According to early notions, men require wives and servants not only during their life-time, but after their death. The surviving relatives want to satisfy their needs, out of affection or from fear of withholding from the dead what belongs to them--their wives and their slaves. The destruction of innocent life seems justified by the low social standing of the victims and their subjection to their husbands or masters. However, with advancing civilisation this sacrifice has a tendency to {475} disappear, partly, perhaps, on account of a change of ideas as regards the state after death, but chiefly, I presume, because it becomes revolting to public feelings. It then dwindles into a survival. As a probable instance of this may be mentioned a custom prevalent among the Tacullies of North America: the widow is compelled by the kinsfolk of the deceased to lie on the funeral pile where the body of her husband is placed, whilst the fire is lighting, until the heat becomes intolerable.[302] In ancient Egypt little images of clay, or wood, or stone, or bronze, made in human likeness and inscribed with a certain formula, were placed within the tomb, presumably in the hopes that they would there attain to life and become the useful servants of the dead.[303] So also the Japanese[304] and Chinese, already in early times, placed images in, or at, the tombs of their dead as substitutes for human victims; and these images have always been considered to have no less virtual existence in the next world than living servitors, wives, or concubines. In China the original immolations were, moreover, replaced by the custom of allowing the nearest relatives and slaves of the deceased simply to settle on the tomb, instead of entering it, there to sacrifice to the manes, and by prohibiting widows from remarrying.[305]

[Footnote 302: Wilkes, _U.S. Exploring Expedition_, iv. 453.]

[Footnote 303: Wiedemann, _Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul_, p. 63.]

[Footnote 304: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 463.]

[Footnote 305: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 794 _sqq._]

The practice of sacrificing human beings to the dead is not exclusively based on the idea that they require servants and companions. It is extremely probable that the funeral sacrifice of men and animals in many cases involves an intention to vivify the spirits of the deceased with the warm, red sap of life.[306] This seems to be the meaning of the Dahoman custom of pouring blood over the graves of the ancestors of the king.[307] So, also, in Ashanti "human sacrifices are frequent and ordinary, to {476} water the graves of the Kings."[308] In the German folk-tale known under the name of 'Faithful John,' the statue said to the King, "If you, with your own hand, cut off the heads of both your children, and sprinkle me with their blood, I shall be brought to life again."[309] According to primitive ideas, blood is life; to receive blood is to receive life; the soul of the dead wants to live, and consequently loves blood. The shades in Hades are eager to drink the blood of Odysseus' sacrifice, that their life may be renewed for a time.[310] And it is all the more important that the soul should get what it desires as it otherwise may come and attack the living. The belief that the bloodless shades leave their graves at night and seek renewed life by drawing the blood of the living, is prevalent in many parts of the world.[311] As late as the eighteenth century this belief caused an epidemic of fear in Hungary, resulting in a general disinterment, and the burning or staking of the suspected bodies.[312] It is also possible that the mutilations and self-bleedings which accompany funerals are partly practised for the purpose of refreshing the departed soul.[313] The Samoans called it "an offering of blood" for the dead when the mourners beat their heads with stones till the blood ran.[314]

[Footnote 306: _Cf._ Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i. 288 _sq._; Rockholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 55; Sepp, _Völkerbrauch bei Hochzeit, Geburt und Tod_, p. 154; Trumbull, _Blood Covenant_, p. 110 _sqq._]

[Footnote 307: Reade, _Savage Africa_, p. 51 _sq._]

[Footnote 308: Bowdich, _Mission from Cape Castle to Ashantee_, p. 289.]

[Footnote 309: Grimm, _Kinder- und Hausmärchen_, p. 29 _sq._]

[Footnote 310: _Odyssey_, xi. 153.]

[Footnote 311: Trumbull, _Blood Covenant_, p. 114 _sq._]

[Footnote 312: Farrer, _Primitive Manners and Customs_, p. 23 _sq._]

[Footnote 313: _Cf._ Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i. 181 _sq._]

[Footnote 314: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 227.]

Finally, as offenders are sacrificed to gods in order to appease their wrath, so manslayers are in many cases killed in order to satisfy their victims' craving for revenge. In the next chapter we shall see that the execution of blood-revenge largely falls under the heading of "human sacrifice for the dead."