Chapter I: Primitive Family Altar (3)

“By reference to the paintings (and writings, to some extent) of such men as Catlin and Stanley, and to the works of Schoolcraft, Matthews, Bourke, and others, you will find that the red-hand symbol was painted on the lodges, sometimes on the clothing and person, and sometimes on the shields of various of the hunter tribes of the plains,–as, for example, of the Ioways, Sauks and Foxes, Sioux, Arickarees, Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Comanches. Precisely what the significance of the symbol was, with these peoples and others like them, I am not able to say, save that in some cases it was connected with war, in others with treaties, and in yet others as expressive of power. There were yet other meanings attached to the sign; but neither the former significances nor these latter were, I take it, as definite or fixed [with the hunter tribes] as with the more advanced and settled tribes of the farther south.

“Of these tribes, the typical Pueblos and the peoples more or less directly influenced by them–such as the Jicarillas on the north and east, and the Apaches to the south and west[247]–made frequent use of not only the red-hand symbol, but also of the black-hand symbol. I have seen both, not only in the modern but also in the very ancient pueblos–as those of the Pecos, and those of the great cliff-dweller towns in the Chelly and other canyons. In the Pecos ruins, to give a special example, I copied beautiful hand-paintings and prints from the rafters, as well as from the walls of ordinary dwelling-rooms. Sometimes these paintings were in red, but more often in black. They invariably represented the hands of women, as could be seen by their delicacy and smallness of outline and by their shapeliness. There was, I think, a reason for this, which the following facts will explain.

“It was my good fortune to witness, early in the eighties, a ceremonial celebrating the attainment to puberty, or womanhood, of a young girl of the Jicarilla Apaches. The latter people are not to be confounded with the Apaches proper. They are a mixed people, descended not only from the Apaches, but also the Comanches, and in large part also from the Pueblos of the north, the so-called Tañoans of whom the Pecos people were a branch. It was clear from the character of the masks and other paraphernalia used in the ceremonials I witnessed, that the latter were almost, if not quite, wholly derived from the pueblo, rather than from the wilder, ancestry of the Jicarillas who performed them.

“The ceremonial in question was performed by four medicine-men, or priests, as one might call them, within and around a rectangular enclosure of evergreen boughs set in the plain near to the village. Inside of this enclosure, which was designed to screen from view the more secret operations of the priest dancers in question, stood a little conical skin lodge, the snow-white top of which appeared above the screen of evergreen, and within which the young girl, over whom these rites were being enacted, was ensconced, together with one or two old women of the tribe. As I have said before, each of the priests, on appearing (and this they did successively; that is, the first on the first day, the second on the second day, and so on), wore a conical mask or helmet, which entirely concealed, not only the face, but also the head. This mask was painted black or red, and upon the face of it appeared one of these hand symbols. Unfortunately, I did not see the mask as worn by the first priest, but, as worn by the second priest on the morning of the second day, it bore upon its face the symbol of the red hand; and as worn upon the third day, this symbol recurred, but, if I remember aright, was surrounded by an outline of another color, either black or yellow, whilst the hand painted on the mask as worn on the fourth day was black surrounded by white, that it might stand out more conspicuously; and in turn, below it, were two or more dots alternating with dotted circles.

“My means of communicating with these people were but limited, but on learning that the ceremonials they were performing were designed to celebrate the attainment to maturity, or womanhood, of a virgin, I had little difficulty in understanding the significance of the succession of these various hand symbols. I recognized in the ceremonial as a whole the dramatic epitomization, to state it briefly, of the four ages of a woman’s life. Thus the white hand (which I was told had been painted on the mask of the first day) symbolized her infancy and girlhood, the consummation of which was effected by the first day’s ceremonial performed by the medicine-man of the white hand.

“The red hand was obviously significant of this girl’s attainment to young womanhood, the color in this case symbolizing the blood of her perfected life. I imagine that the black hand painted on the mask as worn during the third day’s ceremonial was significant of not only the betrothal of the girl, which was said to have taken place during that day of the ceremonial, but also of her prospective maternity; the change of color, in the hand, from red to black, being naturally a symbolic representation of the change from red to black in blood that has been exposed to the sunlight and dried, and has thus become black, and is no longer virgin. Likewise the hand painted on the mask as worn during the fourth day’s ceremonial, which was wholly black, doubtless represented the fuller life of not only a matron but a grandmother. From this I would infer that the signs of the red and black hands found in the ruined pueblos like those of Pecos, and on the cliffs at the mouths of caves, or in the houses of the cliff villages, symbolized respectively virginity, and maternity or betrothal.

“What would seem to indicate the correctness of this conclusion is the fact that, as I have mentioned before, there were below the signs of the black hand of the last day’s ceremonial of the Jicarillas dots and dotted circles. It is well known that these dots and dotted circles represent, primarily, grains of corn, male and female; and, secondarily, children, male and female. Their occurrence, then, below the painted black hand or symbol of maternity, would indicate that in this case they represented the children and perhaps grandchildren, male and female, of the matron it was hoped this young girl might become.

“The hand symbol as occurring amongst the Zuñi, with whom, of course, I am much more familiar, has not only some such significances as these, but also many others,–the significance of a given symbol depending upon the ceremonial with which it is associated, and particularly upon the coloring which is given to it, the colors being as various as are the well-known seven sacramental colors employed to symbolize the seven regions of the world by the priesthood of these people.

“I will only add, that the hand symbol painted upon the walls of the estufas, or Kiva temples, or upon the little sacred sand mounds, which are made to symbolize mythic mountains of the six regions during the ceremonials of initiation performed once every four years over the new children of the pueblo, are designed to signify the various ritualistic precepts which are taught to the children according as they are held to pertain to one or another of these little sand mounds or so-called mountains of generation.

“In the case above described I was told, although I did not myself see it, that the symbol of the red hand was painted by the side of the entrance to the little tent in which the girl sat through the ceremonials, and that later the same symbol in black was added to the other side of the entrance to this tent. In the case of the Pueblos the position of the hand symbols depends, as, no doubt, you have already inferred, upon the sort of ceremonial which is being performed in connection with them.

“It would seem, however, that the placing of these symbols at the _entrance_ of the cave villages would correspond to such usages as I have above described as pertaining to the Jicarilla ceremonial, and that the painting of them on the rafters of rooms in ancient pueblos had a like connection; for it must be remembered that in the older pueblos there were no doorways proper [hence no thresholds]. The rooms were entered by means of ladders through scuttles in the roof.”[248]

A hand-print is a signature. A hand-print in blood is a pledge of life in a sacred covenant. A hand-print in the blood of life is symbolic of a covenant of life with a view to the transmission of life. When a woman of Korea is married, she affixes her sign manual to the covenanting contract by placing her hand on the paper and having “the outline drawn round the fingers and wrist with a fine brush dipped in Chinese ink,” or again she employs “the simpler process of smearing her hand with black paint, and hitting the document with it.[249]

Formal documents have often been signed by a hand stamp, or a finger stamp, in blood or in ink. The monks of the convent of St. Catharine at Mt. Sinai, for instance, show a copy of the certificate of protection given to them by the Prophet of Islam, the signature to which is an impression of Muhammad’s open hand. A letter to Muhammad Issoof, from the king of Mysore, in 1754, was sealed with the king’s seal, “and on the back was stamped the print of a hand, a form equivalent, with the Mysoreans, to an oath.”[250]

The very term “sign manual,” employed for a veritable signature, may point to an origin in this custom. Indeed, may it not be that the large red seal attached to important documents, at the present time, is a survival of the signature and seal of the bloody hand?

9. DEITIES OF THE DOORWAY.

Originally the covenant sacrifice at the threshold was with the one God of life. But as monotheism degenerated into polytheism, the idea came to prevail of different deities in different portions of the door, or of different deities in different districts of country or in different offices of life.

Each gate of an Assyrian city was dedicated to a special god, and named after it,–as the gate of Bel, the gate of Beltis, the gate of Anu, the gate of Ishtar. At the entrance-way of every gate gigantic winged bulls with human heads stood on guard, accompanied by winged genii.[251] And the central doorway to the king’s palace was similarly guarded.[252] In every house a special deity was appealed to at different portions of the doorway; Nergal on the top of the wall and beneath the threshold; Ea and Merodach in the passage to the right and left of the gate.[253]

The idea of an offering, or of a dedication, to the local divinity, at the time the threshold is laid, is of wide acceptance. In India, “the god Vāttu, or Vāttuma [a son of Vishnoo], is said to recline and live in the threshold, changing his position every month.... On the day when the door-frame and threshold of a new house or temple are fixed, the _Vāttuma santhe_ [the tribute to Vāttuma] is offered.”[254]

In China, “Shintu and Yuhlui are named as two tutelar gods to whom the guardianship of the house is entrusted; and either the names or grotesque representations of these ‘gods of the threshold’ are at the gate of the house, with shrines to them upon the left of the entrance way.”[255]

It is said of these “Chinese gods of the threshold,” that “in full stature, and presumably in primeval strength, they flank the doors of monasteries and the entrances to the halls of justice. Much reduced in size and perched high on shelves, they face each other in the vestibules of the Chinese home; and in their most diminutive aspect they become little images, occasionally two-headed, which are carried about the person as charms, or hang from the eaves of Chinese houses.”[256]

Over the doors of almost all the houses of Japan are to be seen small prints of the “gigantic _Ni-o_, the Booddhist Gog and Magog,” who are supposed to guard the entrance way of the holy places.[257] Private buildings as well as public need this spiritual protection.

The inscriptions at the doorways of the houses of ancient Egypt showed that every building was “placed under the protection of a tutelary deity.” This custom “is retained by the modern Egyptians in the protecting genius said to preside over the different quarters of Cairo.”[258]

Tertullian, a Christian Father who wrote before the close of the second century, in warning believers against the seducements of idolatry, emphasized the clustering of deities at the doors and gates in the religions of Greece and Rome.[259] He says that “among the Greeks ... we read of Apollo Thyræus (that is, of the door), and the Antelii (or, Anthelii) demons, as presiders over entrances;” while among the Romans there are other “gods of entrances; Cardea (Hinge-goddess), called after hinges; and Forculus (Door-god) after doors; and Limentinus (Threshold-god) after the threshold; and Janus (Gate-god) himself after the gate.”

Although a Christian might not recognize these gods as gods, he is told to beware lest he seem to give them honor by adorning his gates with lamps or wreaths. “Indeed, a Christian will not even dishonor his own gate with laurel crowns,” says Tertullian, “if so be he knows how many gods the devil has attached to doors.” And his words of warning are: “Since there are beings who are adored in entrances [doorways], it is to them that both the lamps and laurels will pertain. To an idol you will have done whatever you shall have done to an entrance [or doorway].” “If you have renounced [heathen] temples, make not your own gate a [heathen] temple.” Yet, in proof of the prevalence of this heathen custom among Christians, Tertullian testifies: “‘Let your works shine,’ says He; but now all our shops and gates shine! You will now-a-days find more doors of heathens without lamps and laurel-wreaths than of Christians.”

In Guatemala, in Central America, “the god of houses” is called Chahalka; and the blood of sacrifices to him is sprinkled on the door of the houses as an assurance of his protection.[260]

It was much the same in the Old World as in the New. In ancient and in modern times, and in widely different portions of the world, there are indications that the threshold of the home was the primitive altar; and that the side-posts and lintel of the doorway above the threshold bore symbols or inscriptions in proof of the sacredness of the entrance to the family home, and in token of an accomplished covenant with its guardian God, or gods.

-----

Footnote 1:

See Trumbull’s _Blood Covenant_, passim.

Footnote 2:

See Trumbull’s _Blood Covenant_, pp. 191 f., 370; also Frazer’s
_Golden Bough_, I., 183–185.

Footnote 3:

These facts I have obtained at different times in personal
conversations with intelligent natives of Syria and of Egypt. It will
be seen, later, how they are verified in the record of similar customs
elsewhere.

Footnote 4:

See Hopkins’s _Religions of India_, p. 362 f.

Footnote 5:

_Ibid._, with references to Mahabharata, II., 21, 14, 53; X., 8, 10.

Footnote 6:

_Ibid._, with references to Laws of Manu, IV., 73, and to Gaut. 9 :
32.

Footnote 7:

John 10 : 1, 2, 9, 10.

Footnote 8:

See Lund’s _Every-day Life in Scandinavia in the Sixteenth Century_,
p. 16, with note 36; also, the _Njals Saga_.

Footnote 9:

See Smith’s _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiq._, s. vv. “Athletae” and
“Olympic Games;” also Gardner’s _New Chapters in Greek History_, p.
299.

Footnote 10:

See London _Folk-Lore Journal_, I., 92.

Footnote 11:

These facts were given me by a member of the vice-consul’s family, who
witnessed the ceremony. The preparations were made before the arrival
of General Grant; and they were not prominent in the sight of himself
or party. They were simply the customs of the country.

Footnote 12:

Prof. A.H. Sayce, in London _Folk-Lore_, I., 523.

Footnote 13:

Comp. with p. 5, _supra_.

Footnote 14:

Comp. with p. 71 f., _infra_.

Footnote 15:

Bruce’s _Travels_, Bk. II., p. 514.

Footnote 16:

Baker’s _Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia_, p. 137; comp. 126 f.

Footnote 17:

On the testimony of a Liberian colored clergyman.

Footnote 18:

See, for example, Sir Robert Ker Porter’s _Travels_, p. 36 f.

Footnote 19:

Palgrave’s _Personal Narrative of a Journey through Central and
Eastern Arabia_, I., 51.

Footnote 20:

Conder’s _Heth and Moab_, pp. 290, 293.

Footnote 21:

D’Herbelot’s _Bibliothèque Orientale_, s. v. “Bab,” p. 157.

Footnote 22:

Roberts’s _Oriental Illus. of Scrip._, p. 149.

Footnote 23:

Morier’s _Second Journey through Persia_, p. 254.

Footnote 24:

Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 137.

Footnote 25:

On the testimony of a Finnish American.

Footnote 26:

Lund’s _Every-day Life in Scandinavia in the Sixteenth Century_, p. 12
f.

Footnote 27:

Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 410, note.

Footnote 28:

_Ibid._, p. 410 f.

Footnote 29:

_Ibid._, p. 259.

Footnote 30:

_Fragmenta Philosophorum Græcorum_ (ed. Mullach), I., 510.

Footnote 31:

See “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
459, note; also, Bergeron’s “Voyage de Calpin,” cap. 10, cited in
Burder’s _Oriental Customs_ (2d ed.), p. 24.

Footnote 32:

Turner’s _Samoa_, p. 37.

Footnote 33:

See Maspero’s _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_, pp. 195, 219.

Footnote 34:

Rawlinson’s _History of Herodotus_, II., 47, 48.

Footnote 35:

Mackay’s _Mackay of Uganda_, pp. 112 f., 177.

Footnote 36:

See “Sacred Laws of the Aryas,” II., 2, 4, in _Sacred Books of the
East_, II., 107.

Footnote 37:

“A _bali_ is an offering of any sort, such as a handful of rice, flung
to birds or spirits or waters, or to any supernatural beings. A
_mantra_ is a Vedic text, a verse muttered during a religious
ceremony; often used in incantations, or in legitimate services to a
god.”–PROF. DR. E.W. HOPKINS.

Footnote 38:

See “Sacred Laws of the Aryas,” V., 12, in _Sacred Books of the East_,
II., 200, 233.

Footnote 39:

See Sir Henry M. Elliot’s _Races of the Northwestern Provinces of
India_ (Beames’s ed.), I., 197.

Footnote 40:

See report of a meeting of the Bombay Anthropological Society, in
London _Folk-Lore Journal_, VI., p. 77.

Footnote 41:

Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 410 f., note.

Footnote 42:

Leland’s _Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition_, p. 282.

Footnote 43:

_Ibid._, p. 321 f.

Footnote 44:

Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 332 f.

Footnote 45:

Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 136 f.

Footnote 46:

See “Death Week in Russia,” in _The Spectator_ (London), for June 18,
1892.

Footnote 47:

Jones and Kropf’s _Folk-Tales of Magyars_, p. 332.

Footnote 48:

On the testimony of a native Roumanian.

Footnote 49:

See, for example, Turner’s _Samoa_, pp. 21, 56 f., 74 f., 216, 241;
also Strack’s _Der Blutaberglaube_ (4th ed.), p. 39.

Footnote 50:

Griffis’s _Mikado’s Empire_, pp. 467, 470; also, Isabella Bird’s
_Untrodden Tracks in Japan_, I., 392.

Footnote 51:

St. John’s _Life in the Far East_, I., 64, 157 f.

Footnote 52:

See London _Folk-Lore Journal_, II., 330 f.

Footnote 53:

Dr. Strean in Mason’s _Statistical Account, or Parochial Survey of
Ireland_, II., 75.

Footnote 54:

See J.G. Owens on “Folk-Lore from Buffalo Valley, Central
Pennsylvania,” in _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, IV., 126.

Footnote 55:

B. Biaz’s “Memoirs:” cited in Spencer’s _Descriptive Sociology_, II.,
23.

Footnote 56:

See pp. 51, 55, _infra_.

Footnote 57:

See Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120.

Footnote 58:

See Du Bois’s _Description of the Character, Manners, and Customs of
the Peoples of India_, II., 27. Compare pp. 5–7, _supra_.

Footnote 59:

Nevius’s _China and the Chinese_, p. 60.

Footnote 60:

Landor’s _Corea or Cho-sen_, p. 118.

Footnote 61:

See Ralston’s _Russian Folk-Tales_, p. 28 f.

Footnote 62:

On the testimony of Professor Dr. A.L. Frothingham, Jr.

Footnote 63:

Julia McNair Wright’s _Among the Alaskans_, p. 313.

Footnote 64:

Comp. Plutarch’s _Roman Questions_, Q. 5.

Footnote 65:

Rev. 6 : 9–10.

Footnote 66:

On the testimony of an eye-witness.

Footnote 67:

Palmer’s _Desert of the Exodus_, I., 90.

Footnote 68:

Burckhardt’s _Bed. u. Wahaby_, p. 214, note.

Footnote 69:

Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, II., 293.

Footnote 70:

Garnett’s _Women of Turkey and their Folk-Lore_ (“Christian Women”),
p. 239.

Footnote 71:

Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 101.

Footnote 72:

Capt. King’s “Notes” in London _Folk-Lore Journal_, VI., 121, 123.

Footnote 73:

Capt. King’s “Notes” in London _Folk-Lore Journal_, VI., 121, 123.

Footnote 74:

Shooter’s Kafirs of Natal, pp. 71–78; and Andersson’s _Lake Ngami_, p.
220 f.

Footnote 75:

On the testimony of a native eye-witness. See, also, Conder’s _Heth
and Moab_, p. 285.

Footnote 76:

See article by P.J. Baldensperger, in _Quarterly Statement_ of
Palestine Exploration Fund for April, 1894, p. 136.

Footnote 77:

Heuzey’s _Le Monte Olympe et L’Acarnanie_, p. 278.

Footnote 78:

See citations from Donatus, on the “Hecyra” of Terence, I., 2, 60, and
Servius on Virgil’s “Aeneid,” IV., 459, in Heuzey’s _Le Monte Olympe
et Acarnanie_, p. 278; also, Marquardt’s _Privatleben der Römer_, p.
53.

Footnote 79:

Garnett’s _Women of Turkey_ (“Christian Women”), p. 82.

Footnote 80:

Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 95 f.

Footnote 81:

Rodd’s _Customs and Love of Modern Greece_, p. 99 f.

Footnote 82:

_Ibid._, p. 102.

Footnote 83:

Wood’s _Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries_, II., 46.

Footnote 84:

See Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 277 f.

Footnote 85:

See “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
422–427; also P. von Stenin, in _Globus_, LXV., 181–183.

Footnote 86:

Wood’s _Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries_, II., 13.

Footnote 87:

On the testimony of Dr. H.V. Hilprecht.

Footnote 88:

Walter Gregor in London _Folk-Lore Journal_, I., 119 f.

Footnote 89:

St. John’s _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, I., 62.

Footnote 90:

See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, I., 663.

Footnote 91:

See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, I., 732–734.

Footnote 92:

“Grihya-Sutras,” or Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies, in _Sacred
Books of the East_, XXX., 193.

Footnote 93:

_Ibid._

Footnote 94:

_Ibid._, p. 263.

Footnote 95:

_Fragmenta Philosophorum Græcorum_ (ed. Mullach), I., 510.

Footnote 96:

Gwilt’s _Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio_, p. 89.

Footnote 97:

See Hughes’s _Dictionary of Islam_, art. “Masjid;” also Lane’s _Modern
Egyptians_, I., 105; and Conder’s _Heth and Moab_, p. 293 f.

Footnote 98:

Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 104.

Footnote 99:

Sibree, on “Malagasy Folk-Lore and Popular Superstition” in London
_Folk-Lore Record_, II., p. 37.

Footnote 100:

As told me by a native eye-witness.

Footnote 101:

Burckhardt’s _Arabic Proverbs_, p. 137 f.

Footnote 102:

Bruce’s “Travels,” VII., 67 (ed. 1804); cited in McLennan’s _Studies
in Ancient History_, p. 188.

Footnote 103:

On the testimony of a colored clergyman from Liberia.

Footnote 104:

See Maspero’s _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_, p. 232.

Footnote 105:

Campbell’s “Personal Narrative;” cited in McLennan’s _Studies in
Ancient History_, p. 14.

Footnote 106:

Pinkerton’s “Collection,” VI., 183; cited in _Ibid._, p. 177.

Footnote 107:

Hayes’s “Open Polar Sea,” p. 432; cited in Lubbock’s _Origin of
Civilization_ (Am. ed.), p. 78.

Footnote 108:

Rous’s _Archæologia Attica_, Lib. IV., cap. 7.

Footnote 109:

See “Roman Questions,” Q. 29, in Goodwin’s _Plutarch’s Morals_, II.,
220 f.; also Godwyn’s _Rom. Hist. Anthol._, Lib. II., § 2; citation of
authorities in Becker’s _Gallus_, p. 161, and in Marquardt’s
_Privatleben der Römer_, I., 53 f.

Footnote 110:

Douglas’s _Society in China_, p. 201. See, also, Williams’s _Middle
Kingdom_, I., 790; Gray’s _China_, I., 205; and “Marriage Ceremonies
of the Manchus,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I., 487.

Footnote 111:

Adele M. Fielde’s _Corner of Cathay_, p. 39.

Footnote 112:

“Grihya-Sutras,” or Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies, in _Sacred
Books of the East_, XXX., 193, 201.

Footnote 113:

Guhl and Koner’s _Life of the Greeks and Romans_, p. 192.

Footnote 114:

See “Roman Questions,” Q. 1, 2, in Goodwin’s _Plutarch’s Morals_, I.,
204; also authorities cited in Becker’s _Gallus_, p. 162 f., and
Marquardt’s _Privatleben der Römer_, I., 53 f.

Footnote 115:

See Coulange’s _Ancient City_, pp. 29–41, 55–58, with citations.

Footnote 116:

See “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
437. See, also, the reference to burning incense on the threshold in
Tuscany, at p. 17 f., _supra_.

Footnote 117:

See Kowalewsky’s “Marriage among the Early Slavs,” in London
_Folk-Lore_, I., 467.

Footnote 118:

From “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
423, 447.

Footnote 119:

From “Marriage Customs of the Mordvins,” in London _Folk-Lore_, I.,
434–443.

Footnote 120:

Napier’s _Folk-Lore in the West of Scotland_, p. 51; also Wood’s
_Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries_, II., 59 f.

Footnote 121:

See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, I., 662, 703, 730–734.

Footnote 122:

On the testimony of the Rev. William Ewing, a missionary in Palestine.

Footnote 123:

A daughter of a native Copt described to me this ceremony, as she
witnessed it at the building of her father’s house in 1878. He was
formerly a Coptic priest, but was now a Protestant Christian.

Footnote 124:

See Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_, I., 104–108.

Footnote 125:

Strack’s _Der Blutaberglaube_, p. 68.

Footnote 126:

Josh. 6 : 26.

Footnote 127:

1 Kings 16 : 34.

Footnote 128:

See article “On Kirk-Grims” in _The Cornhill Magazine_ for February,
1887, p. 196.

Footnote 129:

On the testimony of a native Chinese clergyman.

Footnote 130:

See article “On Kirk-Grims” in _The Cornhill Magazine_ for February,
1887.

Footnote 131:

See article “On Kirk Grims” in _The Cornhill Magazine_, for February,
1887, p. 191.

Footnote 132:

Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_, I., 104 f.

Footnote 133:

Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 128.

Footnote 134:

See article “On Kirk-Grims” in _The Cornhill Magazine_ for February,
1887, p. 191.

Footnote 135:

See Gomme’s article on “Traditions Connected with Buildings,” in _The
Antiquary_, III., 11.

Footnote 136:

See Coote’s “A Building Superstition,” in London _Folk-Lore Journal_,
I., 22 f.

Footnote 137:

See W.G. Chase’s “Notes from Alaska,” in _Journal of American
Folk-Lore_, VI., 51.

Footnote 138:

See Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_, I., 104–108.

Footnote 139:

Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 168 f.

Footnote 140:

_Ibid._

Footnote 141:

Garnett’s _Women of Turkey_ (“Christian Women”), p. 22.

Footnote 142:

Rodd’s _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_, p. 148.

Footnote 143:

See Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 126.

Footnote 144:

_Ibid._, p. 127.

Footnote 145:

Ralston’s _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 135 f.

Footnote 146:

This is the case with the Church House in Philadelphia,–the
“corner-stone” of which was laid while this page was writing.

Footnote 147:

See Erman’s _Life in Ancient Egypt_, p. 175.

Footnote 148:

See Coote’s “A Building Superstition,” in London _Folk-Lore Journal_,
I., 22.

Footnote 149:

Lanciani’s _Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_, p. 225
f.

Footnote 150:

See article “On Kirk-Grims” in _The Cornhill Magazine_ for February,
1887, p. 192.

Footnote 151:

_Ibid._, p. 195.

Footnote 152:

See Bancroft’s _Native Races_, V., 471.

Footnote 153:

See Trumbull’s _Studies in Oriental Social Life_, pp. 98, 112–131.

Footnote 154:

See Josh. 10 : 3–35; 12 : 11; 15 : 39; 2 Kings 14 : 19; 18 : 14–19,
etc.

Footnote 155:

See, for example, 1 Kings 2 : 28.

Footnote 156:

See Bliss’s _Mound of Many Cities_, p. 77 f.

Footnote 157:

See “Afghan Life in Afghan Songs,” in Darmesteter’s _Selected Essays_,
p. 117.

Footnote 158:

On the testimony of a native Syrian of wide experience in the region
referred to.

Footnote 159:

W. Robertson Smith’s _Religion of the Semites_, p. 319.

Footnote 160:

_Strassmaier Nabuchodonosor_, No. 183.

Footnote 161:

Dieulafoy’s “L’art antique de la Perse;” cited in Babelon’s _Manual of
Oriental Antiquities_, p. 152.

Footnote 162:

See _The Times_ (London) for July 12, 1894.

Footnote 163:

See Hopkins’s _Religions of India_, p. 361, note.

Footnote 164:

In a personal letter to the Author.

Footnote 165:

Exod. 32 : 26.

Footnote 166:

Judg. 19 : 25–30.

Footnote 167:

Ruth 4 : 1–10.

Footnote 168:

2 Sam. 15 : 2–4.

Footnote 169:

2 Sam. 19 : 8.

Footnote 170:

Jer. 38 : 7–9.

Footnote 171:

Dan. 2 : 49.

Footnote 172:

Prov. 8 : 34.

Footnote 173:

Amos 5 : 15.

Footnote 174:

Zech. 8 : 16.

Footnote 175:

Isa. 29 : 21.

Footnote 176:

Luke 16 : 19, 20.

Footnote 177:

Acts 3 : 3, 10.

Footnote 178:

Exod. 21 : 5, 6.

Footnote 179:

Deut. 14 : 17.

Footnote 180:

Gen. 22 : 17.

Footnote 181:

Matt. 16 : 18.

Footnote 182:

Isa. 24 : 12.

Footnote 183:

In a personal letter to the Author.

Footnote 184:

See Finn’s _Stirring Times_, I., 102 f.

Footnote 185:

A.M. Luncz, in _Jerushalayim_, p. 17.

Footnote 186:

_Home and Synagogue of the Modern Jew_, p. 30.

Footnote 187:

_Nineveh and its Remains_ (Am. ed.), II., 202.

Footnote 188:

_Ancient Egyptians_, I., 346, 361 f.

Footnote 189:

Comp. Deut. 6 : 9 and 20 : 5.

Footnote 190:

See art. “Mezuza,” by Ginsburg, in Kitto’s _Cycl. of Bib. Lit._

Footnote 191:

Psa. 121 : 8.

Footnote 192:

See art. “Mezuza,” by Ginsburg, in Kitto’s _Cycl. of Bib. Lit._

Footnote 193:

See, for example, _Memoirs of Survey of Western Palestine_, I.,
230–234, 257 f., 398–402, 407 f., 416 f.

Footnote 194:

_The Land and the Book_, I., 140 f.

Footnote 195:

See Sir Robert Ker Porter’s _Travels_, I., 440.

Footnote 196:

See, for example, Perrot and Chipiez’s _Hist. of Art in Persia_, pp.
127, 129, 294, 357; also, Benjamin’s _Persia and the Persians_, pp.
17, 58, 61.

Footnote 197:

Doolittle’s _Social Life of the Chinese_, II., 75, 310 f.

Footnote 198:

Williams’s _Middle Kingdom_, I., 731.

Footnote 199:

Adele M. Fielde’s _Pagoda Shadows_, p. 88.

Footnote 200:

Gray’s _China_, II., 271. Comp. with p. 8.

Footnote 201:

Hearn’s _Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan_, II., 397; also, Isabella
Bird’s _Unbeaten Tracks in Japan_, II., 287.

Footnote 202:

See Becker’s _Charicles_, p. 260, with citations; also, Guhl and
Koner’s _Life of the Greeks and Romans_, p. 80.

Footnote 203:

Becker’s _Charicles_, p. 487.

Footnote 204:

Theocritus, _Idyl_ II., 63.

Footnote 205:

See articles “Ara” and “Janua,” in Smith’s _Dict. of Greek and Roman
Antiquities_, with reference to classical authorities.

Footnote 206:

See Réville’s _Native Religions of Mexico and Peru_, p. 183.

Footnote 207:

See Rowan in “Ximenes,” p. 183; cited in Spencer’s _Des. Soc._, II.,
22.

Footnote 208:

Aubrey’s “Miscellanies;” cited in _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1823, Pt.
II., p. 412.

Footnote 209:

See _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1867, Pt. I., pp. 307–322.

Footnote 210:

See p. 62 f., _supra_.

Footnote 211:

_Heth and Moab_, p. 275 f.

Footnote 212:

A.M. Luncz, in _Jerushalayim_, p. 19.

Footnote 213:

On the testimony of the Rev. W. Ewing, a missionary in Palestine.

Footnote 214:

In _Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palæstina Vereins_, VIII., 335 ff.

Footnote 215:

See De Amicis’s _Constantinople_, p. 185.

Footnote 216:

One of these old-time prayer-rugs with the open hand embroidered on
it, is in the possession of Dr. Hilprecht.

Footnote 217:

See Morier’s _Second Journey through Persia_, pp. 75–184.

Footnote 218:

Rosenmüller’s _Das Alte und Neue Morgenland_, II., 92 f.

Footnote 219:

See, for example, Perrot and Chipiez’s _History of Art in Phœnicia_,
I., 54, 263.

Footnote 220:

De Hesse-Wartegg’s _Tunis: The Land and the People_, p. 127.

Footnote 221:

On the testimony of Professor Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr.

Footnote 222:

Gen. 11 : 31; 15 : 7.

Footnote 223:

Perrot and Chipiez’s _Hist. of Art in Chald. and Assy._, I., 38; see,
also, p. 84.

Footnote 224:

_Ibid._, I., 203.

Footnote 225:

Sayce’s _Social Life among the Assyrians and Babylonians_, p. 52 f.

Footnote 226:

Perrot and Chipiez’s _Hist. of Art. in Chald. and Assy._, I., p. 196.
See, also, pp. 87, 143, 212; II., 99, 111, 169, 211, 215, 227, 231,
257, 261, 266, 267, 273, 275, 279. See, also, _Collection de Clercq_,
passim.

Footnote 227:

Perrot and Chipiez’s _Hist. of Art in Phœnicia_, I., 53, 54, 69, 320;
II., 61, 113, 161, 228, 247, 248, 255, 257.

Footnote 228:

Wilkinson’s _Anc. Egypt_, III., 3, 8, 24, 48, 53, 100, 192, 208, 218,
228, 232, 235, 240, 362, 370, 425.

Footnote 229:

_Ibid._, III., 53.

Footnote 230:

Mason’s _Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland_, II.,
322.

Footnote 231:

Stephens’s _Incidents of Travel in Yucatan_, I., 177 f.

Footnote 232:

Gen. 14 : 22.

Footnote 233:

Psa. 63 : 4.

Footnote 234:

Isa. 49 : 22.

Footnote 235:

Comp. Exod. 6 : 8; Num. 14 : 30; Neh. 9 : 15.

Footnote 236:

See Tallquist’s _Die Sprache Contracte Nabû-Nâ’ido_, p. 108.

Footnote 237:

See Gesenius’s _Heb. Lex._, s. v. “Nasa.”

Footnote 238:

See, for example, Exod. 3 : 19; 13 : 3, 14, 16; 32 : 11; Deut. 3 : 24;
4 : 34; 5 : 15; 6 : 21; 7 : 8, 19; 9 : 26; 11 : 2, etc.; 2 Chron. 6 :
32; Ezek. 20 : 34; Dan. 9 : 15.

Footnote 239:

Ellis’s _Polynesian Researches_, II., 207, illustration.

Footnote 240:

Stephens’s _Incidents of Travels in Yucatan_, II., 46 f.

Footnote 241:

Stephens’s _Incidents of Travel in Yucatan_, Appendix, II., 476–478.

Footnote 242:

_Ibid._, II., 477.

Footnote 243:

See Gen. 49 : 8–17; Num. 27 : 22 f.; Acts 4 : 4; 6 : 6; 8 : 18; 13 :
3; 19 : 6; Heb. 6 : 2; 1 Tim. 4 : 14.

Footnote 244:

See, for example, “a scene in the hypostyle hall at Lûxor,” in
Maspero’s _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 111.; also, illustration in
Perrot and Chipiez’s _Hist. of Art in Anc. Egypt_, I., 45.

Footnote 245:

Catlin’s “Eight Years amongst the North American Indians,” II., pp.
5–7; cited in Donaldson’s _George Catlin Indian Gallery_, p. 263.

Footnote 246:

In a personal letter to the Author.

Footnote 247:

See Bourke’s _Medicine Men of the Apaches_, Ninth Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology.

Footnote 248:

Variae nationes, inter quas Americæ aborigines sunt, sanguinem
menstrualem sacrissimum atque in eo boni malique vim esse putant, quia
non solum modo omnis sanguinis vita ipsa sit, sed vitae humanae
germina vel ova quibus species hominum transmittuntur in se contineat.
Quod quam verum sit quantamque vim ad foedieris liminis notionem
principalem intellegendam habeat infra videtur.

For illustrations of this truth see H. Ploss’s _Das Weib in der Natur.
und Völkerkunde_ (2d ed.), I., chap. 39; Strack’s _Der Blutaberglaube_
(4th ed.), pp. 14–18; Spivak’s _Menstruation_, pp. 6–12; and Frazer’s
_Golden Bough_, I., 170; II., 225–240. These illustrations are
gathered from Asia, Africa, Europe, America, and the Islands of the
Sea; and they include citations from Pliny, the Talmud, the Christian
Fathers, medieval writers, and down to writers of this century.

“Apud populum Novæ Zelandæ creditur sanguinem utero sub tempus
menstruale effusum continere germina hominis; et secundum præcepta
veteris superstitionis panniculus sanguine menstruali imbutus
habebatur sacer (_tapu_), haud aliter quam si formam humanam
accepisset. Mulierum autem mos est hos panniculos intra juncos
parietum abdere: et hâc de causâ paries est domûs pars adeo sacra ut
nemo illi innixus sedere audeat. Opinio animis N. Zelandorum
insita–nempe sanguinem menstruum germina humanæ speciei
continere–opinionibus hodiernis convenit: multi enim physiologiæ
scientissimi credunt rumpi vesiculam gräafianam, et ex illâ ova delabi
circa tempora menstrualia.”–Shortland’s _Traditions and Superstitions
of the New Zealanders_, p. 292.

Footnote 249:

Landor’s _Corea or Cho-sen_, p. 156.

Footnote 250:

Orme’s _Hist. of Milit. Trans. of British in Indostan_, V., 348.

Footnote 251:

Maspero’s _Life in Anc. Egypt and Assyria_, pp. 198–200.

Footnote 252:

_Ibid._, p. 204.

Footnote 253:

_Ibid._, p. 220.

Footnote 254:

Roberts’s _Oriental Illustrations of the Scriptures_, p. 148 f.

Footnote 255:

Williams’s _Middle Kingdom_, I., 731.

Footnote 256:

See McDowell’s “A New Light on the Chinese,” in _Harper’s Magazine_
for Dec., 1893, with illustration of “The Gods of the Threshold.”

Footnote 257:

Isabella Bird’s _Unbeaten Tracks in Japan_, I., 117, 273.

Footnote 258:

Wilkinson’s _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_, I., 362
f., and note.

Footnote 259:

See Tertullian “On Idolatry,” and “On the Soldier’s Chaplet,” in
_Ante-Nicene Christian Library_, XI., 164 f., 353.

Footnote 260:

Tr. Rowan, in “Ximenes,” p. 183; cited in Spencer’s _Descrip. Soc._,
II., 22.

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