Chapter XI: Diluvian Traditions in Africa and America (1)

Boulanger (1722-59), a freethinker, and the friend and correspondent of Voltaire, was so dominated by his belief in the universal Deluge as a fact, that he made its consequences the foundation of all his theories. Writing in the midst of a scepticism very much resembling that of the present day, he says, "What! you believe in the Deluge?" Such will be the exclamation of a certain school of opinion, and this school a very large one. Nevertheless, this profound writer, by the exigencies of his theory, was irresistibly brought to the recognition of the fact. "We must take," he continues, "a fact in the traditions of mankind, the truth of which shall be universally recognised. What is it? I do not see any, of which the evidence is more generally attested, than those which have transmitted to us that famous physical revolution which, they tell us, has altered the face of our globe, and which has occasioned a total renovation of human society: in a word, the Deluge appears to me the true starting-point (_la veritable epoque_) in the history of nations. Not only is the tradition which has transmitted this fact the most ancient of all, but it is moreover clear and intelligible; it presents a fact which can be justified and confirmed." He proceeds, and the drift and animus of the writer will be sufficiently apparent in the passage--"It is then by the Deluge that the history of the existing nations and societies has commenced. If there have been false and pernicious religions in the world it is to the Deluge that I trace them back as to their source; if doctrines inimical to society have been broached, I see their principles in the consequences of the Deluge; if there have existed vicious legislations and innumerable bad governments, it will be upon the Deluge that I lay the charge." It is, then, only in attestation of the fact that I adduce this author; and in his proof he has accumulated a large mass of indirect evidence, which a certain school of opinion find it convenient altogether to ignore in reference to this subject. In this class are the various institutions among different nations to preserve the memory of the Deluge, as for instance, the "Hydrophories ou la fête du Deluge à Athenes," and at Ægina, the feast of the goddess of Syria at Hierapolis, both having strange resemblances with the Jewish feasts of "Nisue ha Mâim, or the effusion of waters," and the tabernacles, in their traditional aspects, _i.e._ in their observances _not_ commanded by Moses; the "effusion des eaux a Ithome ... et de Siloe;" the feast of the Deluge (of Inachus) at Argos; a feast, the effusion of water, in Persia, anterior to its Mahometanism; similar festivals in Pegu, China, and Japan; in the mysteries of Eleusis; in the "peloria," "anthisteria," and "_Saturnalia_;" and finally in the pilgrimages to rivers in India[201] and other parts of the world; "of the multitude of traditions preserved in the diluvian festivals and commemorative usages of the gulphs, apertures, and abysses which have at one time or another vomited forth or absorbed waters" (i. 84); again, the pilgrimages to the summits of mountains in India, China, Tartary, the Caucasus,[202] Peru, &c. "It is easy to see," he adds (p. 320), "that this veneration is based upon a corrupted tradition, which has taught these people that their fathers formerly took refuge on the top of this mountain at the time of the Deluge, and subsequently descended from it to inhabit the plains."

[201] Dionysius Periegesis says the women of the British Amnitæ
celebrated the rites of Dionysos:--

"As the Bistonians on Apsinthus banks
Shout to the clamorous Eiraphiates;
Or as the Indians on dark-rolling Ganges
Hold revels to Dionysos the noisy,
So do the British women shout Evoë."
(v. 375.) (_Qy_. Enoë.)
_Vide_ "The Bhilsa Topes," by Major A. Cunningham, p. 6.

[202] I would specially draw attention to the instances of temples
constructed upon the model of ships, concerning which _vide_
Bryant's "Mythology," ii. 221, 226, 227, 240; and compare with
Plate XVIII. in Montfauçon, ii.

I shall have occasion to refer again more in detail to some of these customs[203] when drawing attention to the resemblances which I shall presently point out; but I wish previously to give, more _in extenso_, his description of the Hydrophoria at Athens:--

"This name denoted the custom which the Athenians had on the day
of this feast of carrying water in ewers and vases with great
ceremony; in memory of the Deluge, they proceeded each year to
pour this water into an opening or gulf, which was found near the
temple of Jupiter Olympus, and on this occasion they recalled the
sad memory of their ancestors having been submerged. This ceremony
is simple and very suitable to its subject; it was well calculated
to perpetuate the memory of the catastrophe caused by the waters of
the Deluge. Superstition added some other customs.... They threw
into the same gulf cakes of corn and honey; it was an offering
to appease the infernal deities.... The Greeks placed it in the
rank of their unlucky days (also 'un jour triste et lugubre');
and thus they remarked that Sylla had taken their city of Athens
the very day that they had made this commemoration of the Deluge.
Superstition observes everything, not to correct itself, but to
confirm itself more and more in its errors. It was, according to
the fable, by the opening of this gulf that the waters which had
covered Attica had disappeared; it was also said that Deucalion
had raised near to this place an altar which he had dedicated to
Jove the Preserver. 'Tradition also attributed to Deucalion the
temple of Jupiter Olympus,' in which these mournful ceremonies were
performed. 'This temple was celebrated and respected by the pagan
nations as far as we can trace history back.' It was reconstructed
on a scale of magnificence by Pisistratus; every town and prince
in Greece contributed to its adornment; it was completed by the
Emperor Adrian in 126 of our era. The antiquity of this monument,
the respect which all nations have shown it, and the character of
the traditions which they have of its origin, ought to establish
for the festival of the Hydrophoria a great antiquity. The feasts,
in general, are more ancient than the temples."--_Boulanger_, i.
38-40.

[203] Compare Bryant.

I will now ask the reader, if he has not read (and seen the illustrations in) Mr Catlin's "O-kee-pa,"[204] to compare the following extract with the preceding:--

"The O-kee-pa, an annual ceremony to the strict observance of which
those ignorant and superstitious people attributed not only their
enjoyment in life but their very existence; for traditions, their
only history, instructed them in the belief that the singular forms
of this ceremony produced the buffaloes for their supply of food,
and that the omission of this annual ceremony, _with its sacrifices
to the waters_, would bring upon them a repetition of _the
calamity_ which their traditions say once befell them, destroying
_the whole human race_ excepting one man, who landed from his canoe
on a high mountain in the west.[205] This tradition, however, was
not peculiar to the Mandan tribe, for among one hundred and twenty
different tribes that I have visited in North, South, and Central
America, not a tribe exists that has not related to me distinct
or vague traditions of such a calamity in which one or three or
_eight_ persons were saved above the waters on the top of a high
mountain. Some of them, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and
in the plains of Venezuela and the Pampa del Sacramento in South
America, _make annual pilgrimages_ to the _fancied summits_ where
the antediluvian species were saved in canoes or otherwise, and
under the mysterious regulations of their medicine (mystery) men
tender their prayers and sacrifices to the Great Spirit to ensure
their exemption from a similar catastrophe."--P. 2.

[204] "O-kee-pa, a Religious Ceremony, and other Customs of the
Mandans," Trübner & Co. London, 1867. Mr Catlin's statements
are attested by the certificates of three educated and
intelligent men who witnessed the ceremonies with him, and is
further corroborated by a letter addressed to Mr Catlin by
Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, the celebrated traveller among
the North American Indians, who had previously referred to
them (he spent a winter among the Mandans).

[205] I read in the _Times_, March 6, 1871, that "The American
papers state that workmen in Iowa, excavating for the
projected Dubuque and Minnesota railroad, in the limestone
at the foot of a bluff, discovered recently _some caves and
rock chambers_, and, on raising a foot slab, a vault filled
with human skeletons of unusual size, the largest being seven
feet eight inches high. A figured sun on the walls is taken
as indicating that the skeletons belonged to a people who
worshipped that luminary [compare _supra_, p. 152] _and the
representation of a man with a dove stepping out of a boat_,
as an allusion to a tradition of the Deluge. The fingers of
the largest skeleton clasped a pearl ornament, and traces of
cloth were found crumbled at the feet of the remains. Many
copper implements were found, and it is thought that the Lake
Superior mines may have been worked at an early period. The
remains were to be removed to the Iowa Institute of Arts and
Sciences at Dubuque."

Yet, strange to say, this is _no_ proof to Mr Catlin of the universal Deluge recorded in Scripture. "If," he says, "it were shown that inspired history of the Deluge and of the Creation restricted those events to one continent alone, then it might be that the American races came from the Eastern continent, bringing these traditions with them, for until that is proved, the American traditions of the Deluge are no evidence whatever of an eastern origin. If it were so, and the aborigines of America brought their traditions of the Deluge from the East, why did they not bring inspired history of the Creation?"[206]--P. 3. (_Vide_ pp. 134, 135.)

[206] Compare account of Mandan tradition of the Creation, from
"Hist. des Ceremonies Religieuses," _supra_, p. 191.

The "O-kee-pa," Mr Catlin says, "was a strictly religious ceremony, ... with the solemnity of religious worship, with abstinence, with sacrifices, with prayer; whilst there were three other distinct and ostensible objects for which it was held,--1. As an annual celebration of the '_subsiding of the waters_' of the Deluge. 2. For the purpose of dancing what they call the Bull-dance, to the strict performance of which they attributed the coming of buffaloes. 3. For purpose of conducting the young men through _an ordeal of privation and bodily torture_, which, while it was supposed to harden their muscles and prepare them for extreme endurance, enabled their chiefs ... to decide upon their comparative bodily strength, endurance," &c.--P. 9.

The torture no doubt subserved this subsidiary purpose, but it appears to me that the original intention and idea was torture for the purpose of expiation, as in the ceremonies in ancient Greece.[207] Sundry incidents narrated by Catlin seem to establish this. They prepare themselves by fasting (p. 25); after having sunk under the infliction of these horrible tortures (and from every point of view they are truly horrible), "no one was allowed to offer them aid when they lay in this condition. They were here enjoying their inestimable privilege of voluntarily intrusting their lives to the keeping of the Great Spirit, and chose to remain there until the Great Spirit gave them strength to get up and walk away" (p. 28); and when so far recovered, "in each instance" they presented the little finger of the left hand, and some also the forefinger of the same hand and the little finger of the right hand (all tending to make them _pro tanto_ inefficient warriors) "as an offering to the Great Spirit, as a sacrifice for having listened to their prayers, and protected their lives in what they had just gone through" (p. 28).

[207] _Supra_, p. 35. These tortures have their exact counterpart
in India, _e.g._ the ceremony of the _Pota_ (compare
Sanscrit, "pota" = boat), thus described by Hunter ("Rural
Bengal," 1868, p. 463):--"Pota (hook-swinging), now stopped
by Government, but still practised (1865) among the Northern
Santals [who have the distinct tradition of the Deluge and
dispersion referred to, _supra_] in _April
or May_. Lasted about one month. Young men used to swing with
hooks through their back [as seen in Catlin's illustrations],
as in the Charak Puja of the Hindus. The swingers used _to
fast_ the day preceding and the day following the operation,
and to sleep the intermediate night on thorns."

"On pleuroit et l'on s'attristoit dans les fêtes _les plus
gayes et plus dissolues_; les cultes d'Isis et d'Osiris, ainsi
que ceux _de Bacchus_, de Céres, d'Adonis, d'Atys, &c., étoient
_accompagnés de macérations et de larmes_."--_Boulanger_, iii.
355.

For the description of the _bull_-dance,[208] and for the subsequent history and final extinction of the Mandans, I must refer my readers to Mr Catlin's valuable testimony to the truth of Scripture, and important contributions to ethnological science.

[208] Bryant ("Myth." ii. 432) says, "There were many arkite"
(_i.e._ commemorative of ark) "ceremonies in different
parts of the world, which were generally styled _Taurica_
sacra" (from taurus = _bull_). These mysteries were of old
attended with acts of _great cruelty_. Of these "I have given
instances, taken from different parts of the world; from
Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily."

I shall now proceed to show analogies in what will be admitted to be most unlikely ground--in the King of Dahome's celebrated "So-sin customs," described by Captain Richard Burton.

Before, however, proceeding further, I must point out the following features in the ceremonies or customs as common to Grecian and antique pagan; to the Mandan (Indian of North America), and to the tropical African.[209] In the first place they are cyclical; they are all of a mournful character; all are interrupted at intervals by processions, dances, and songs of a traditional character; they all close in scenes of rejoicing or rather in Bacchanalian (yet still traditionally [_vide_ page 247, note Boulanger] Bacchanalian) scenes of riot and debauchery. The duration of the festivals varies from three and four to five days; the days have fantastic names, which, although different, still in their very peculiarity, and also in the drift and meaning of the names so far as it can be gathered, are suggestive of a common origin, _e.g_. the first day of the Anthesteria, at Athens was called "[Greek: Pithoigia, apo tou pithous oigein]," "because they tapped their casks." The fourth day of the King of Dahome's customs is named "So (horse) nan-wen (will break) _kan_ (rope) 'gbe (to-day)."--Burton, ii. 8. One part of the Mandan ceremony is called "Mee-ne-ro-ka-Ha-sha," or "the _settling down of the waters_," which name again closely corresponds to the ceremonies at Athens and at Hierapolis in Syria (_ante_), where water was poured into the opening where the waters of the Deluge were supposed to have disappeared. The fifth day of the Dahome customs is named "Minai afunfun khi Uhun-jro men Dadda Gezo"="we go to the small mat tent under which the king sits."--Burton, ii. 27. This approximates to the scene described by Catlin (p. 20) at the close of the bull-dance (fourth day), when "the master of ceremonies (corresponding to the king at Dahome) cried out for all the dancers, musicians," and "the representatives of _animals_ and _birds_," "to gather again around him." He is described as coming out of the mystery lodge and collecting them round "the big canoe."

[209] Let the following points of resemblance be noted also
in the "Panathenæa." The lesser, and it is supposed the
annual festival, was celebrated on the 20th of Thargelion,
corresponding to the 5th May (compare Catlin). Every citizen
contributed olive branches and an ox (_vide_ Catlin) at the
greater festival. "In the ceremonies without the city there
was an engine built _in the form of a ship_, on purpose for
this solemnity;" upon this the sacred garment of Minerva
"was hung in the manner of a _sail_," "the whole conveyed
to the temple of _Ceres Elusinia_." "This procession was
led by _old men_, together, as some say, with old women
carrying _olive branches_ in their hands." "After them came
the men of full age with shields and spears, being attended
by the [Greek: Metoikoi], or sojourners, who carried _little
boats_ as a token of their being foreigners, and were called
on that account _boat-bearers_; then followed the women
attended by the sojourner's wives, who were named [Greek:
hydriaphoroi], from _bearing water pots_."--Compare Burton,
Catlin. Then followed select virgins, covered with millet,
"called _basket-bearers_," the baskets containing necessaries
for the celebration. "These virgins were attended by the
sojourner's daughters, who carried _umbrellas_ (_vide_ Pongol
Festival, appendix), _little seats_, whence they were
called _seat-carriers_."--Compare Burton (_vide_ Potter's
"Antiquities," i. 419.)

Compare also the following in the "Dionysia" or festivals
in honour of Bacchus (_ante_, p. 215) with Catlin. "They
carried thyrsi, _drums_, pipes, flutes, and _rattles_, and
crowned themselves with garlands of _trees_ sacred to Bacchus,
ivy, vine, &c. Some imitated Silenus, Pan, and the Satyrs,
exposing themselves in _comical dresses_ and antic motions;"
and in this manner ran about the hills "invoking Bacchus."
"At Athens this frantic rout was followed by persons carrying
certain sacred vessels, the first of which was _filled with
water_."

Bryant ("Mythology," ii. 219) speaking of Egypt ("the
priests of Ammon who at _particular seasons_ used to carry
in procession a boat," concerning which refer to page 254),
says--"Part of the ceremony in most of the ancient mysteries
consisted in carrying about a kind of ship or boat, which
custom upon due examination will be found to relate to nothing
else but Noah and the Deluge." He adds that the name of "the
navicular shrines was _Baris_, which is very remarkable; for
it is the very name of the mountain, according to Nicolaus
Damascenus, on which the ark of Noah rested, the same as
Ararat in Armenia." Herodotus speaks of "_Baris_" as the
Egyptian name of a ship, l. 2, 96; Eurip. "Iphig. in Aulis,"
v. 297; Æschylus, Persæ, 151; Lycophron, v. 747, refer to
names of ships in connection with Noah. _Sup._, p. 196.
Query--is our word barge a corruption of baris? or perhaps of
_baris_ in connection with "_argus_," also a term for the ark.
(With reference to this etymology _vide_ my remark, p. 116,
and d'Anselme, p. 196, and Bryant, ii. 251.)

But the closest connection is in the nature and order of the ceremonies on the fourth day at Dahome and among the Mandans. Among the latter, interrupting the bull-dance on that day, there is an apparition of "the evil spirit,"[210] graphically described by Mr Catlin (p. 22), and at Dahome (Burton, ii. 18), there intervenes between the fourth and fifth days' ceremonies what is called "the evil night" (there are two "evil nights") which is the night of the horrible massacre. But on this night also, at the close of the fourth day's ceremonies among the Mandans, the infliction of tortures (very horrible, but mild in comparison with the African butchery) commence. Now, I have already ventured the opinion that these tortures were originally of an expiatory character, and this gains confirmation by the assurance made to Captain R. Burton that the victims on "the evil night" were only "criminals" and prisoners of war, the people of Dahome, on all occasions (_vide infra_), preferring a vicarious mode of expiation. Captain R. Burton (ii. 19) says of these massacres:--"The king takes no pleasure in the tortures and death or in the sight of blood, as will presently appear. The 2000 killed in one day, _the canoe_[211] paddled in a pool of gore, and other grisly nursery tales, must be derived from Whydah, where the slave-traders invented them, probably to deter Englishmen from visiting the king. It is useless to go over the ground of human sacrifice from the days of the wild Hindu's Naramadha to the burnings of the Druids, and to the awful massacres of Peru and Mexico. In Europe the extinction of the custom _began_ from the time of the polite Augustus," _i.e._ commenced with the advent of our Lord. [_Vide_ a reference to MS. of Sir J. Acton in Mr Gladstone's address to the University of Edinburgh, 1865, from which it would appear that the final extinction was not until the triumph of Christianity.]

[210] Compare the "Bhain-sasur" or _buffalo_-demon at Usayagiri,
carrying a trident. _Vide_ "The Bhilsa Tope," Major Alex.
Cunningham, 1854.

[211] It is as well to note, however, that the Dahomans have
recently altered their customs. The one Captain Burton
witnessed (ii. 34) was a "mixed custom," and elsewhere
allusion is made to "the new" ceremony.

Without carrying rashness to the excess of disputing the interpretation of Dahoman words with Captain Burton, I may yet demur to accepting his explanation of the term "So-sin" (the "So-sin customs") _absolute et simpliciter_. He says (i. 315), "The Sogan ('So' = horse, 'gan' captain) opens the customs by taking all the chargers from their owners and by tying them up, whence the word _So-sin_. The animals must be redeemed in a few days with a bag of cowries."[212] This is certainly a very likely definition, and although secondary, is no doubt the explanation current among the present generation of Dahomans. All I shall venture to do is to supplement it. But may not the old and primitive idea still lurk in the name? At i. 242, I perceive Captain Burton says "so" and "sin" mean _water_,[213] and the compound word "amma-sin" means "medicine" = "leaf-water," and again at 244 the same word "Sin" is twice used to signify liquid. If so, in the very name of the feast we find the word _water_, which links it into connection with "the Mandan custom" and the festivals of ancient Greece.

[212] Analogies may perhaps be discovered in the representations of
the procession escorting a relic casket on the architraves
of the western gate at Sanchi. (_Vide_ "The Bhilsa Tope," by
Major Alex. Cunningham, p. 227.)

"Street of a city on the left, houses on each side filled
with spectators,... a few horsemen heading a procession,
... immediately outside the gate are four persons bearing
either trophies or some peculiar instruments of office. Then
follows a _led horse_, ... a soldier with a bell-shaped
shield, two fifers, three _drummers_, and two men blowing
_conches_. Next comes the king on an elephant, carrying the
holy relic casket on his head and supporting it with his right
hand. Then follows two peculiarly dressed men on horseback,
perhaps prisoners. They wear a kind of cap (now only known
in Barmawar, on the upper course of the Ravi) and boots or
leggings. The procession is closed by two horsemen (one either
the minister or a member of the royal family) and by an
elephant with two riders."

It may have had connection with the _As_warnedha or horse
sacrifice (Cunningham, p. 363.) Boulanger (i. 109) says,
"That after the winter solstice the ancient inhabitants of
India descended with their king to the banks of the Indus;
they there sacrificed _horses_ and _black bulls_, signs of a
funeral ceremony; they then threw a bushel measure into the
water without their assigning any reason for it." Compare the
throwing the cakes into the gulf at Athens, and the hatchets
into the water at the Mandan custom. Could it be that at the
Dahoman ceremony the horses were redeemed because the wretched
victims were substituted, carrying out the idea of vicarious
sacrifice and expiation?

Sir John Lubbock ("Origin of Civilization," p. 199) says,
speaking of _water_ worship, "The kelpie or spirit of the
_waters assumed_ various forms, those of a man, woman,
_horse_, or _bull_ being the most common." Compare _supra_,
pp. 196, 202, 204, Manou, Bacchus.

Homer (Hom. Il., Heynii, xxi. 130, Lord Derby, 145), says--

"Shall aught avail ye, though to him (the river Scamander)
In sacrifice, the blood of countless _bulls_ you pay,
And living _horses_ in his waters sink;"

and (210) Asteropoeus is called "river-born," because
the son of Pelegon, who "to broadly flowing Axius owed his
birth." Remembering the belief of certain tribes of Indians
(supra, p. 137) that they were "created under the water,"
which I have construed to mean, that they were created on
the other side of the Deluge, so we may take in a similar
sense the traditions of these Homeric heroes that they were
"river-born;" and does the expression, son of Pelegon (compare
"son of Prometheus," _supra_, p. 232), imply more than
that he was the descendant of Phaleg, or, if not in the line
of descent, the descendant of progenitors who had retained the
tradition that Phaleg was so called, "because in his days the
earth was divided"?--Gen. ch. x. 25. Compare ancient Welsh
ballad (Davies' "Mythology of British Druids," p. 100)--

"Truly I was in the ship
With Dylan (Deucalion), son of the sea....
When ... the floods came forth
From heaven to the great deep."

[213] The name for _river_ in the Chitral or Little Kashghar
vocabulary (Vigne, "Travels in Kashmir") is river = _sin_;
also in the Dangon, on the Indus, voc. (_id._) river = _sin_;
in the Affghan (Kalproth) the sea = _sin_d. _Sind_hu is the
Sanscrit name for river (Max Müller, "Science of Lang.," 1st
series, 215); and has also its equivalent in ancient Persian.
In Danish, river or lake = _so_; in Icelandic, sjor (sjo);
in Bultistan, touh; German, see; English, sea; in Kashmir,
sar = marse; Icelandic, saus. Compare Rivers Saar, Soane,
Seine, Irish Suir; perhaps also Esk and Usk (Vigne, "Trav. in
Kashmir"). Horse = shtah, in Bultistan. Has not _so_ analogy
with eau, augr (Chittral), _water_? _Sara_ = water in Sanscrit
(Max Müller, "Chips," ii. 47); Sanscrit, vari, more generic
term for water; Latin, mare; Gothic, marie; Slavonic, more;
Irish and Scotch, muir (_id._) Compare Chinese "ma" = horse;
Mongol, "mon" = horse; German, machre; English, _mare_.
Conclusion, either there is the same word for horse and water
in certain languages, which may have occurred in the way of
secondary derivation from these "mysteries," or if _so_ means
water, then "So-sin" may only be a reduplication, as in the
names of some of our rivers--_e.g._ Dwfr-Dwy = water, of Deva
= Dee-river (_Archæol. Journal_, xvii. 98). Bryant ("Myth."
ii. 408) says "The [Greek: hippos], hippus (horse), alluded
to in the early mythology was certainly a _float_ or _ship_,
the same as the ceto." There is, moreover, the analogy in the
Latin of _aqua_ and _equus_. Another Sanscrit word for water,
"ap" (Max Müller, Sc. of L., 103) has analogy with the Greek
[Greek: hippos] = horse. It appears (Sc. of L., 2nd series,
p. 36), that the Tahitians have substituted the word "pape"
for "vai" = water; but both words "pape," to _ap_, "vai," to
_vari_, seem to have analogies to Sanscrit as above. Plato
("Cratylus," c. 36, Sc. of L., 1st series, p. 116) mentions
that the name for water was the same in Phrygian and Greek. At
p. 235, 1st series, Mr Max Müller says that Persian Harôya is
the same as Sanscrit Saroya; which latter "is derived from a
root 'sar' or 'sri,' to go, to run; from which 'saras,' water,
'sarit,' river, and 'Sarayu,' the proper name of the river
near Oude."

Here at any rate in the Sanskrit "sar," to run, we may, if
the above conjecture is rejected, start the words "horse" and
"water" from a common root.

The word, "So" = horse, will therefore still remain, and may perhaps stand in the same relation to the "water" celebration, that the "bull" does to the Mandan celebration of the Deluge. Captain Burton, for instance, tells us (ii. 15), a "So" was brought up to us (on the fourth day of the So-sin custom, and on the fourth day of the Mandan custom "the bull-dance" was performed sixteen times round "the big canoe"); but I will place the two descriptions side by side.

CAPTAIN BURTON, ii. 15.

"A 'So' was brought up to us, a _bull-face mask_ of natural size, painted black, with glaring eyes and _peep-holes_, the horns were hung with _red_ and _white_ rag _strips_, and beneath was a dress of bamboo fibre covering the feet, and ruddy at the ends. It danced with head on one side and swayed itself about, to the great amusement of the people." _Vide_ also p. 93, "Four tall men singularly dressed, and with bullocks' tails," &c.

MR CATLIN, p. 16.

"The chief actors in these
strange scenes (bull-dance) were
eight men, with the entire skins
of buffaloes thrown over them,
enabling them closely to imitate
the appearance and motions of
those animals, as the bodies were
kept in as horizontal a position,
the horns and tails of the animals
remaining on the skins, and the
skins of the animals' heads served
as _masks_ through the eyes of
which the _dancers were looking_."
The legs of the dancers were
painted _red_ and _white_" (plate 6.)

If we might (on the strength of so many words of primary necessity being in common) connect "So" = horse, with the Saxon "soc" or plough (as in the soc and service tenure), we could then see a way in which the same word might apply indifferently to ox or horse; and we would, moreover, see through the common relation to Noah how the water ceremony came to be associated with the worship of Ceres in the mysteries of Eleusis. _Vide_ Boulanger, i. 70-107.[214]

[214] Compare (Klaproth, "Mem. Asiat." ii. 12)--Eng. _ox_; Mongol,
char; Hebrew, chor; French, charrue (plough.) Klaproth, ii.
405, "Les cheveux en Thou Khin (whom he identifies with the
Turks) portaient le nom de _Sogo_ ou _so_ko; cest le même
nom que le Turc sâtch ou sadg." Can it have affinity with
Chinese _sa_ (Chinese szu = boeuf sauvage); German, säen;
Swedish, _sá_; French, semer; English = to _sou_; Peruvian,
sara = maize; also French, _cou_dre, to sow with English
corn; Sanscrit, go; High German, chus; Sclavonic, _go_ws
(Max Müller, "Chips," ii. 27); and Kashmir and Dongan,
gau; Icelandic, ku? In Affghan a bull = _sak_hendar and
_souk_handar. In the extinct Tartar Coman (_vide_ Klaproth) ox
= _ogus_ or _seger_ = Turkish, okus; Sanscrit, oukcha; German,
ochse. Plough = Sanscrit, sinam; Irish, serak; Persian, siar.
Horse = _as_p, Persian; _ess_, Sclavonic = English _ass_; and
in Chittral on Indus (_vide_ horse or bull used in ceremonies
on banks of Indus, _infra_) horse = _astor_. (Has not _tor_
here affinity with _taur_eau.) Corn = _As_lek (Kirghish)
and Ashlyk (?) Turkish. Max Müller (Science of Language, p.
231), says--"Aspa was the Persian name for horse, and in the
Scythian names, Aspabota, Aspakara, and Asparatha, we can
hardly fail to recognise the same element." Also, p. 242, "The
comparison of ploughing and sowing is of frequent occurrence
in ancient language." Eng., plough; Sclav., ploug = Sanscrit,
plava, ship = Gk. [Greek: ploion], ship. "In English dialects,
plough is used as a waggon or conveyance. In the Vale of
Blackmore, a waggon is called a plough, or plow, and _Zull_
(A.-S., syl) is used for aratrum."--Barnes, "Dorset Dialect,"
p. 369, ap. Max Müller.

The above enumeration does not exhaust the points of resemblance. Compare the following:--

BURTON, ii. 23.

"Conspicuous objects on the left of the pavilion were two Ajalela or fetish pots made by the present king (according to the customs.) _Vide_ note 16. Both are lamp black, shaped like amphoræ (amphoræ, for holding wine) about 4 feet high, and planted on tripods. The larger was solid, the smaller callendered with many small holes, and both were decorated with brass and silver crescents, stars, and similar ornaments. The second, when filled _with water and medicine_ allows none to escape, so great is its fetish power; an army guarded by it can never be defeated, and it will lead the way to Absokuta." Compare Pongol ceremony, p. 275.

CATLIN, p. 8.

"In an open area in the centre of the village
stands the ark or 'big canoe,' around which
a great proportion of the ceremonies were
performed. This rude symbol, of 8 or 10 feet in
height, was constructed of planks and hoops,
having somewhat the appearance of a large
hogshead standing on its end, and containing some
mysterious things, which none but the _medicine_
(mystery) men were allowed to examine."

This must be considered in connection with the following.

BURTON.

In the opening procession of the third day's customs, Captain Burton tells us (ii. 2), "First came a procession of eighteen Tansi-no or fetish women, who have charge of the last monarch's grave.... They were preceded by bundles of matting, eight _large stools_, calabashes, pipes, _baskets_ of _water_, grog, and meat with segments of _gourd_ above and below, tobacco bags, and other commissariat articles; and they were followed by a band of horns and _rattles_."[215]

[215] Compare the procession in the Panathenæa
and Dionysia, _supra_, p. 248.

In another procession (ii. 47), "The party was brought up by slave girls carrying baskets and calabashes. (Query, of water?) These, preceded by six bellowing horns, stalked in slowly, and with measured gait the _eight_ Tansi-no, who serve and pray for the ghosts of dead kings. (Query, eight dead kings?) In front went _their_ ensign, a copper measuring rod 15 feet long and tapering to a very fine end; behind it were two chauris and seven mysterious pots and calabashes wrapped in _white_ and _red_ checks," and presently "three brass, four copper, and six iron pots, curiosities on account of their great size.... _Eight_ images, of which three were apparently _ship's figureheads_ whitewashed, and the rest very hideous efforts of native art."[216]

[216] "Eight men representing eight buffalo
bulls," in Mandan celebration, "took their
positions on the four sides of the ark or
'big canoe.'"--Catlin, p. 17. "The _chief
actors_ in these strange scenes were
_eight_ men with skins of buffaloes," &c.
p. 16. Four images were suspended on poles
above the mystery lodge, p. 8.

CATLIN.

In Captain Burton's account of the articles
paraded in the procession, the pipes (to which
great mystery is attached), the _horns_ and
_rattles (vide pl.)_, and _the baskets of water_
are common to the Mandan ceremony. May not the
eight stools be representative of the eight
diluvian survivors. _Vide supra_, 197, Cabiri?
Let us, however, confine our attention to the
"baskets of water." Compare with the following
account in Catlin.

"In the medicine (mystery) lodge ... there were
also four articles of _veneration_ and importance
lying on the ground, which were _sacks_
containing each some three or four gallons of
_water_. These seemed to be objects of great
superstitious regard, and had been made with
much labour and ingenuity, being constructed of
the skins of the _buffaloes'_ neck, and sewed
together in the forms of large _tortoises_ lying
on their backs (comp. p. 138; also p. 269),
each having a sort of tail made of _raven's_
quills and a stick like a drumstick lying on
it, with which, as will be seen in a subsequent
part of the ceremony, the musicians beat upon
the _sacks_ as instruments of music for their
_strange dances_. By the sides of these sacks,
which they called Ech-tee-ka (drums), there
were two other articles of equal importance
which they called Ech-na-da (rattles) made of
undressed skins shaped into the form of _gourd_
shells," &c. (Note the segments of _gourd_
accompanying the _water_ baskets in the Dahome
procession, _supra_.) Catlin adds--"The sacks of
water had the appearance of great antiquity, and
the Mandans pretended that the water had been
contained in them ever since the Deluge."--pp.
15, 16.[217]

[217] In the _Japanese_ (_vide_ p. 269)
version of the legend of the _bull_
breaking the mundane egg (_vide_ p.
396), a _gourd_ or pumpkin is also broken
which contained the first man.--_Vide_
Bryant's "Mythology," iii. 579. "I have
mentioned that _the ark_ was looked
upon as the mother of mankind, and
styled Da-Mater, and it was on this
account figured under the semblance of
a _pomegranate_," "as it abounds with
seed"--Bryant, ii. 380. _Vide_ also
plate (Bryant, ii. 410), where Juno
(_vide_, p. 395) holds a _dove_ in one
hand and a _pomegranate_ in the other.

BURTON, ii. 35.

It must be remembered that at Dahome, royalty as there represented has absorbed and monopolized the most important parts of the ceremonial: it is natural, therefore, to expect that the conspicuous figures in the original (or in the Mandan), which conflicted or would not consort with royalty, would be thrown into the background. Accordingly I am only able to get a glimpse of the conspicuous figures opposite in the following passage:--"The jesters were followed by a dozen _pursuivants_ armed with gong-gongs, who advanced bending towards the throne, and shouted the 'strong names' or titles. Conspicuous amongst them was an _oldster_ in a crimson sleeveless tunic and yellow shorts: his head was red with dust, he carried a large _bill-hook_,[218] and he went about attended by _four_ drums and one cymbal."

[218] Compare also _sup._, p. 210, with
Saturn. "Ipsius autem canities," &c., and
"cum falce messis insigne."

It will be remembered (if my readers have read Mr Catlin, p. 11, 12) that the first thing "the aged white man" does on entering the mystery lodge is to call on the chiefs "to furnish him with _four_ men," and the next is to "receive at the door of every Mandan's wigwam _some edged tool_ to be given to the water as a sacrifice, as it was with _such tools_ that the "big canoe" was built.[219]

[219] Compare again these two figures, one
figuring in the Dahoman procession, the
other in the Mandan bull dance.

CATLIN, p. 10.

The opening scene in the Mandan customs,
effectively described by Mr Catlin, begins
with "a solitary human figure descending the
prairie hills and approaching the village," "in
appearance a very _aged_ man," "a centenarian
white man," dressed in a robe of four white
wolves' skins." He was met by the head chief and
the council of chiefs, and addressed by them
as "Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah" (the _first_ and only
man.) "He then harangued them for a few minutes,
reminding them that every human being on the
surface of the earth had been destroyed by the
water excepting himself, who had landed on a high
mountain in the west in his canoe, where he still
resided, and from whence he had come to open the
medicine (mystery) lodge, that the Mandans might
celebrate the _subsiding of the waters_, and make
the proper sacrifices to the water, lest the same
calamity should again happen to them."

BURTON, ii. 38.

"The ministers ... they were conducted by a 'Lali' or half-head, with right side of his pericranium clean shaven, and the left in a casing of silver that looked like a cast or a half melon."

* * * * *

Burton says (ii. 87), "One of the Dahoman monarch's peculiarities is that he is double, not merely binonymous, nor dual, like the spiritual Mickado and temporal Tycoon of Japan, but two in one. Gelele, for instance, is king of the city and addo-kpon of the 'bush'; _i.e._ of the farmer folk and the country as opposed to the city. This country ruler has his _official_ mother, the Dank-li-ke.... Thus Dahome has two points of interest to the ethnologist--the distinct precedence of women and the double king."--_Vide_ also p. 80.

CATLIN, p. 30.

Compare with the two athletic young men (_vide_
Plate XIII.) assigned to each of the young men
who underwent the torture--"their bodies painted
_one half red_ and the other blue, and carrying a
bunch of willow-boughs in one hand."

Here two or three questions suggest themselves.
If this ceremony is primitive, will not dual
royalty give a clue to the duality we find so
commonly in mythology, assuming the basis of
mythology to be historical? 2d, Is there no clue
in the name, _official_ name, of Dank-li-ke? What
does the reader guess the meaning to be? (p. 58.)
Mr Burton tells us it means, "Dank (the rainbow),
li (stand), and ke (the world)." Is it a forced
paraphrase to construe this to mean--The rainbow
is the sign that the world shall stand?

Upon the point of the precedence of woman, to which the Dahoman ceremony testifies, but to which it gives no clue, I shall, as it is so very important in more bearings than one, give at some length the following scene from Catlin:--

"When 'the evil spirit' enters the camp during the ceremony,
he proceeds to make various attacks, which are defeated by the
intervention of the master of the ceremonies. In several attempts
of this kind the evil spirit was thus defeated, after which he
came wandering back amongst the dancers, apparently much fatigued
and disappointed.... In this distressing dilemma he was approached
by an old matron, who came up slyly behind him, with both hands
full of yellow dirt, which (by reaching around him) she suddenly
dashed in his face, covering him from head to foot, and changing
his colour, as the dirt adhered to the undried bear's grease on his
skin; ... at length _another_ snatched his _wand_ from his hand and
broke it across her knee ... his power was thus gone ... bolting
through the crowd, he made his way to the prairies."--P. 24.

We shall not be surprised to learn, then, that when the "Feast of the Buffaloes" (distinct from the bull-dance) commences (p. 33), several old men perambulated the village in various directions, in the character of criers, with rattles in their hands, proclaiming that "the _whole government of the Mandans_ was then in the hands of one woman--she who had disarmed the evil spirit ... that the chiefs that night were old women; that they had nothing to say; that no one was allowed to be out of their wigwams excepting the favoured ones whom 'the governing woman' had invited," &c. Will not this give a clue to the precedence in Dahome, _probandis probatis_, and is not the precedence in Dahome thus interpreted, and the interlude above described evidence of the tradition, that the _woman_ should break the head of the _serpent_? (Gen. iii. 15). It is of great significance, and, if so many points of comparison had not occurred, ought to have been stated at the outset, that at Dahome "the Sin-kwain ("sin," water--"kwain," sprinkling), or water-sprinkling custom follows closely upon the "So-sin or Horse-tie rites."--_Vide_ Burton, ii. 167.

Now, if the reader will turn to Boulanger, i. 90, 91, he will find this identical custom in Persia, Pegu, China, and Japan. But I relinquish the details, as I fear I shall have exhausted the patience of the few readers I shall have carried with me to this point; and because the King of Dahome has a custom perhaps still more demonstrably cognate to not only the ancient Grecian ceremonies on the shores of the ocean and on the banks of rivers, but with widely diffused tradition. I shall here place four writers in juxtaposition, and with this testimony I shall conclude:--

BOULANGER.

The ancient inhabitants of Italy repaired once a year to the Lake
Cutilia, where they made sacrifices and celebrated secret mysteries
or ceremonies (Dion. Halicarnassus, i. 2).

The pontiffs in ancient Rome also went annually to the banks of the
Tiber, "là ils faisoient des sacrifices _expiatoires_ à Saturne, ce
Dieu chronique," &c. (Dion. Hal. i. 8.)

In the kingdom of Saka in Africa their greatest solemnity was
celebrated on the banks of the rivers; the king himself presides at
it (Hist. Gener. des Voy., iii. 639).

The same custom has been already (_supra_, p. 252) noticed on the
Indus.

In all these cases human sacrifices were offered, or
substitutes.--Boulanger, i. pp. 110-11. Compare _supra_, p. 243,
lines from Dionysius Periegesis.

BURTON.

At Whydat the youngest brother of their triad is Hu, the ocean or
sea. [Compare with Assyrian Hoa, _supra_, p. 194, and Chinese
Yu, p. 68.] "The Hu-no, or ocean priest, is now considered the
highest of all.... At times the king sends as an ocean sacrifice
from Agborne a man carried in a hammock, with the dress, the stool,
and the umbrella of a Caboceer; a canoe takes him out to sea, where
he is thrown to the sharks. The custom for this element is made at
Whydat, in a place near the greater market, and called Hu-kpa-man.
It is a _round_ hut, with thatch and chalked walls: outside is a
heap of bones, whilst _skulls_, carapaces of the _tortoise_, and
similar materials, cumber the _interior_. The priest is a fetish
woman, who _offers water_ and kola nuts to, and expects rum from,
white visitors."--ii. p. 141.

Compare also _supra_, in Preface, extract from Davies' "Celtic
Researches" on the Celtic god Hu.

CATLIN.

The water ceremonies in Catlin's account have already been
sufficiently adverted to. He thus describes the medicine or mystery
lodge in which they took place. Exteriorly, with the exception of
the four images, it differed only in dimensions from the other
wigwams, which are thus described? "They were covered with earth.
They were all of one form; the frames or shells constructed of
timbers, and covered with a thatching of willow boughs, and over
and on that with a foot or two in thickness of a concrete of tough
clay and gravel, which became so hard as to admit the whole group
of inmates to recline on _their tops_. They varied in size from
thirty to sixty feet, and _were perfectly round_." For extract
describing _interior_, _vide supra_, p. 257, noting (_vide_ Plate
iii. in Catlin) the four human and four ox _skulls_; "the sacks of
water in the form of large _tortoises_ lying on their backs."

_N.B._--With reference to the tortoise, _vide ante_ p. 257.

Compare the "Buddhist Topes" in Major Cunningham's "Bhilsa Tope,"
_vide_ p. 243.

HUNTER.

Hunter ("Annals of Rural Bengal," p. 153) says of the Santals:
"The only stream of any consequence in their present country--the
Damouda--is regarded with a veneration altogether disproportionate
to its size. Thither the superstitious Santal repairs to consult
the prophets and diviners, and once a year the tribes make a
pilgrimage to its banks in commemoration of their forefathers....
However remote the jungle in which the Santal may die, his nearest
kinsman carries a little relic of the deceased to the river, and
places it in the current to be conveyed to the far-off eastern land
from which his ancestors came."

In connection with the above, it must be remembered (_vide_
Appendix G, p. 480, "Santal Traditions") that they have, although
confused with the Creation, an unmistakable tradition of the
Deluge, the intoxication of Noah, and the dispersion.

If, then, I have shown that the custom, for the preservation of which from oblivion, so far as the Mandans (now extinct) are concerned, we are indebted to Mr Catlin, and which so plainly tells its own tale, is common to Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as America, I shall have established it as a tradition, not of a local American, but of an universal Deluge; and if the tradition of the universal Deluge is proved, then, according to Mr Catlin's narrative itself, there is tradition of the Creation also (_vide_ pp. 7, 13, 42).[220]

[220] I allude to the opening of the ceremony by the centenarian
_white_ man, "the first and only man." Mr Catlin is of opinion
that this incident was introduced and superadded by some
missionaries, though he adds it would be still more strange
if the (Jesuit) missionaries had instructed them "in the
other modes." This, however, is understating the case. It is
conceivable that missionaries should have come among them, but
in this case we should have expected some trace of Christian
practices and dogmas; it is difficult to conjecture what
set of missionaries could have indoctrinated them with the
recondite pagan mysteries of Eleusis and Hierapolis.

I have replied more fully, in chap. vii., to Mr Catlin's objection--that though they have a tradition of a deluge, it is not the tradition of the Deluge, because they have not also the tradition of the Creation.

Mr Catlin argues upon the view that the American race "were created upon the ground on which they were found" ("Last Rambles," p. 321, 1868); and (p. 319) adds, "I can find nothing in history, sacred or profane, against this."

He takes his stand (in "O-kee-pa") upon this--that there is nothing in the Mandan tradition which can be brought in proof of their migration from another continent. In reply I shall adduce their very name.

The American continent may have been peopled by way of Behring's Straits, or from Europe in the East by way of Greenland, or by the connection of the Pacific Islands from the opposite coasts of Japan, China, and the Corea, or from the Polynesian groups in the south. The population may have poured in by all these routes. It is said (Prescott, "Conquest of Mexico," ii. 473)[221] that MSS. exist at Copenhagen proving that the American coast was visited by the Northmen in the eleventh century. The Polynesian route we may leave out of consideration, as it will not probably have been the one by which the Mandans came. As to the route by Behring's Straits, Mr Catlin admits "it is a possibility, and therefore they say it is probable" (p. 217, "Last Rambles"). But if, as there appears to me reason to think, they came from the opposite coast of the Corea, it might as reasonably be conjectured that the migration took the route of Behring's Straits, or by way of the Sandwich Islands. The possibility of the former is conceded. I will confine my attention, therefore, to the latter, which Mr Catlin pronounces absolutely impossible. In the first place, the distance between the Sandwich Islands and America is not greater than between Otaheite and New Zealand.[222] Now it is admitted that New Zealand was peopled from Otaheite. Moreover (_vide_ Sir J. Lubbock, "Pre-historic Times," p. 390), the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, at two thousand miles distance, belong to the same race as those of Tahiti (Otaheite) and New Zealand, and resemble them "in religion, languages, canoes, houses, weapons, food, habits, &c."[223] The canoes of the Pacific islanders generally (_vide_ Captain Cook _passim_) were of considerable size, and of very perfect workmanship. But also Prescott ("Conquest of Mexico," ii. 473, quoting Beechey's "Voyage to Pacific," 1831, p. 2 Appendix, Humboldt's "Examen. Critique de l'Hist. de la Geog." and Nuov. Cont. ii. 55) says, "It would be easy for the inhabitant of Eastern Tartary or Japan to steer his canoe from islet to islet quite across to the American shore, without ever being on the ocean more than two days at a time."[224]

[221] _Vide_ also Giebel, "Tagesfragen," p. 91; _apud_ Reusch, p.
500.

[222] _Vide_ "Cook's Voyages," i. 199; Prescott, ii. 476.

[223] "There have been recent instances of Japanese vessels having
been thrown by shipwreck upon the coasts of the Sandwich
Islands, and even on the mouth of the Columbia."--Reusch, "La
Bible et la Nature," p. 499.

"Since the north-west coast of America and the north-east of
Asia have been explored, little difficulty remains on this
subject.... Small boats can safely pass the narrow strait.
Ten degrees farther south, the _Aleutian_ and Fox islands
form a continuous chain between Kamschatka and the peninsula
of Alaska in such a manner as to leave the passage across a
matter of no difficulty."--Warburton's "Conquest of Canada,"
i. 194.

Ellis ("Polynesian Researches," ii. 46) says: "There are also
_many_ points of _resemblance_ in language, manners, and
customs between the South Sea Islanders and the inhabitants of
Madagascar in the west; the inhabitants of the _Aleutian_ and
_Kurile_ islands in the north, which stretch along the mouth
of Behring's Straits, and forms the chain which connects the
old and new worlds," &c.

[224] "The Sandwich Islands, with a population of 500,000, are more
than two thousand miles from the coast of South America. How
did the population of those islands get there? Certainly
not in canoes over ocean waves of two thousand miles. But I
am told 'the Sandwich islanders are Polynesians;' not a bit
of it; they are two thousand miles north of the Polynesian
group, with the same impossibility of canoe navigation, and
are as different in _physiological traits_ of character and
_language_ from the Polynesian, as they are different from the
American races.--"Last Rambles" (Catlin), p. 317. 1868.

Captain King, "Transactions on returning to Sandwich Islands,"
&c., continuation of Cook's voyages, Pinkerton (xi. 730) says
on the contrary: "The inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands
are undoubtedly of the same race with those of New Zealand,
the Society and Friendly Islands, Easter Islands, and the
Marquesas. This fact, which, extraordinary as it is, might be
thought sufficiently proved by the _striking_ similarity of
their _manners_ and _customs_, and the general resemblance of
their _persons_ is established beyond all controversy by the
_absolute identity_ of their language."

Shortland says that the New Zealanders, "when speaking of any
old practice, regarding the origin of which you may inquire,
have the expression constantly in their mouths, 'E hara i te
mea poka hou mai; no Hawaika mai ano.'--It is not a modern
invention; but a practice brought from Hawaiki, Sandwich
Islands)."--Shortland's "Traditions of the New Zealanders," p.
61.