Introduction to the History of Religions Part 8

The explanations given, and handed down from generation to generation, are always connected with superhuman or with extraordinary persons, ancestors, heroes, spirits. To each stone or rock a story is attached, a creation of the fancy suggested by the surroundings and by the popular traditions; and each story forms an episode in the history of the hero or spirit. The stones and rocks thus come to const.i.tute a book chronicling the history of the tribe and the deeds of its great men--a book quite legible to the man who has been taught the stories. These grow with every generation, receiving such additions as fancy and reflection dictate, and gradually taking on literary form. In the territory of the Australian Arunta every stone is connected with some incident in the careers of the mythical ancestors, and the stories taken together form the legendary history of the origin of customs.[564] In Samoa and New Guinea many stones are pointed out as having been set in place by local heroes. In North America innumerable rocks and stones are connected with the mythical ancestors and creators of the tribes.

+303+. Mountains have everywhere been regarded as abodes of spirits or deities, and therefore sacred. Their height and ma.s.siveness invested them with dignity (even as now they appeal mightily to the imagination), and their lofty summits and rugged sides were full of danger and mystery. Sacred mountains are found in North America, Bengal, Africa, and elsewhere. Naturally they are often abodes of G.o.ds of rain; they are feared on account of the spirits inhabiting them, but they are also resorted to as places where divine revelations may be obtained.[565] The Semitic, Hindu, and Greek examples are familiar: the Hebrew and Canaanite Sinai (or h.o.r.eb), Nebo, Carmel, Hermon; the Arabian Arafat, near Mecca; the Babylonian Ekur; in India, Meru, Mandara, Himavat, and other mountains; in Greece, Olympus and Parna.s.sus.

+304+. Mountains are also wors.h.i.+ped as being themselves divine.[566] The cult, however, has not been important; the physical ma.s.s is too solid, lacking in movement, and human interest naturally centered in the spirit or deity who dwelt therein.[567]

+305+. Mythological fancy has made them the abodes and places of a.s.sembly of G.o.ds and glorified saints, usually in the north. The mythical Ekur was the dwelling place of Babylonian deities.[568] In India various peaks in the Himalayas, inaccessible to men, were a.s.signed to groups of deities, and the mythical world-mountain Meru was the special abode of great G.o.ds, who there lived lives of delight.[569] On the highest peak of the Thessalian Olympus Zeus sat, surrounded by the inferior G.o.ds; here he held councils and announced his decrees.[570] The two conceptions of the home of the G.o.ds--on mountains and in the sky--existed for a time side by side, having in common the feature of remoteness and secrecy; gradually the earthly abode was ignored, and the G.o.ds were a.s.signed to the more dignified heavenly home.

WATERS

+306+. To early man waters, fire, winds, are interesting because of their relation to his life, and sacred because of their power and mysteriousness.[571] They are regarded by him not as "elements" of the world, but as individual phenomena that affect well-being. His conception of them is not cosmogonic or a.n.a.lytic, but personal; they are ent.i.ties with which he has to deal.

+307+. The mobility of ma.s.ses of water, seeming to be a sign of life, naturally procured them a definite place among sacred things. Any spring, pond, lake, or river with which a tribe was brought into intimate relations was regarded as a source of life or of healing, and of divination. Dwellers by the sea regarded it with awe; its depths were mysterious and its storms terrible.

+308+. As in the case of animals, plants, and stones, so here: the earliest conception of water ma.s.ses is that they are divine in themselves (every one, of course, having its own soul), and are potent for bodily help or harm, and for divination. The waters of the Nile, the Ganges, the Jordan, were held to heal the diseased and purify the unclean; and a similar power is now ascribed to the water of the well Zamzam in the Kaaba at Mecca. Hannibal swore, among other things, by the waters,[572] and the oath by the river Styx was the most binding of oaths, having power to control even the G.o.ds; the thing by which an oath is taken is always originally divine. In the Hebrew ordeal of jealousy the sacred water decides whether the accused woman is guilty or not.[573] The sea is treated as a living thing, whose anger may be appeased by gifts; it is a monster, a dragon.[574] The Spartan Cleomenes, about to start on a voyage, sacrifices a bull to the sea.[575] Offerings to the sea are made in the Maldive Islands.[576]

+309+. Water is abundantly employed in religious ritual as a means of purification from ceremonial defilement, and in services of initiation.

A bathing-place often stood by a shrine (as in pre-Islamic Arabia and in Islam now), and immersions came to play a prominent part in highly developed systems (Jewish, Christian, Mithraic). The purification was generally symbolic, but in some forms of Christian belief the water of baptism is held to have regenerating power[577]--a survival of the ancient conception of the divinity of water.

+310+. It is often hard to say whether a body of water is regarded simply as itself a living thing, or is conceived of as the dwelling place of an isolated or independent spirit. In savage systems the details on this point are hardly ever recorded or obtainable; but the beliefs involved in later folk-lore make it probable that this latter stage of the construction of creeds is pa.s.sed through in savage life.

The water maidens of Greek mythology and the Germanic nixies and water kelpies are developed forms of spirits. Sacred springs and wells are still believed to be inhabited by beings that are not G.o.ds, but possess superhuman power.

+311+. While wells and streams of a domestic character (such as are freely used by human beings) are generally friendly, they have their unfriendly side. The spirits that dwell in them are sometimes regarded as being hostile to man. They drag the incautious wanderer into their depths, and then nothing can save him from drowning. Fear of these malignant beings sometimes prevents attempts to rescue a drowning person; such attempts are held to bring down the vengeance of the water-demon on the would-be rescuer.[578]

+312+. In the course of time true water-G.o.ds appear. In Greece every river had its deity, and in India such deities are found in the Mahabharata.[579] When in the Iliad the river Xanthos rises to seize and drown Achilles, it may be a question whether the stream or the G.o.d of the stream is the actor. Nor is it always possible to say whether the extrahuman Power inhabiting a water ma.s.s is a true G.o.d or a spirit; the latter form may pa.s.s by invisible gradations into the former.

+313+. Waters originally divine tend to become the abodes of the deity of the place, or sacred to him, and healing or other power is ascribed to his presence or agency.[580] Sacred water, being unwilling to retain anything impure, thus becomes a means of detecting witches and other criminals, who, when thrown in, cannot sink, but are rejected by the divine Power.

+314+. Deities of streams and springs do not play an important part in wors.h.i.+p or in mythology; their physical functions are not definite enough, and their activities are naturally merged in or subsumed under those of the greater or more definite local G.o.ds. If, for example, the Canaanite Baals are G.o.ds or lords of underground irrigation,[581] this is because they, as divine lords of the particular regions, control all phenomena; they are, in fact, also G.o.ds of rain and thunderstorms, harvests and war. So rain-G.o.ds in general are to be regarded as local deities, among whose functions that of bestowing rain was regarded as specially important. In the lowest systems the rain-giver may be a sacred stone, dipped in a stream,[582] or a royal or priestly magician who is held responsible and is punished if the expected result is not attained.[583] In such cases the procedure is often one of imitative magic.[584]

+315+. If there be, in the next higher stratum of belief, a local or tribal G.o.d, it is he who is looked to for the rain supply; so the early Hebrews looked to Yahweh,[585] and the Canaanites, doubtless, to the Baals. The economic importance of rain led, even in low tribes, to the conception of a special deity charged with its bestowal.[586] In more elaborate mythologies various deities are credited with rain-making power. In India, for example, Dyaus, the Maruts, Parjanya, Brihaspati, Indra, Agni,[587] all concerned with rain, have, all except Agni, evidently grown from local figures with general functions; this appears from the great variety of parts they play. The same thing is true, perhaps, of Zeus and Jupiter in their character of rain-G.o.ds--as all-sufficient divine patrons they would be dispensers of all blessings, including rain; they seem, however, to have been originally G.o.ds of the sky, and thus naturally the special guardians of rain.[588]

+316+. Great ma.s.ses of water have given rise to myths, mostly cosmogonic. The conception of a watery ma.s.s as the primeval material of the world (in Egypt, Babylonia, India, Greece, Rome) belongs not to religion but to science; in a relatively advanced period, however, this ma.s.s was represented as a monster, the antagonist of the G.o.ds of light and order, and from this representation has come a whole literature of myths. In Babylonia a great cosmogonic poem grew up in which the dragon figures of the water chaos (Tiamat, Mummu, Kingu) play a great part,[589] and echoes of this myth appear in the later Old Testament books.

+317+. In the more elaborate pantheons the local deities of streams and springs tend to disappear, and G.o.ds of ocean appear: in Babylonia, Ea; in Greece, Okeanos and Poseidon; in Rome, Neptune; and along with these are numerous subordinate figures--attendants on the great G.o.ds, and intrusted with various particular duties.

FIRE

+318+. There was, doubtless, a time when man had not learned to produce fire, and there may now be tribes unacquainted with its domestic uses.

But such ignorance, if it exists, is rare; savages generally know how to make fire, and to use it for warmth and for the preparation of food.

When men began to reflect on the origin of things, fire seemed to them so wonderful that they supposed it must have been discovered or invented, and the knowledge of it bestowed on men by higher beings, G.o.ds or demiG.o.ds; such benefactors are Hastsezini (of the Navahos), Lightning (of the p.a.w.nees), the Beaver and the Eagle (of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia), Maui (of the Maoris), Agni, Prometheus.[590]

+319+. Though, like other mysterious things, it has been regarded generally (perhaps universally) as sacred, there is no clear proof that it has been wors.h.i.+ped as divine. What may have been the case in remote ages we cannot tell, but, according to the information we possess, it has been, and is, merely revered as in itself mysterious or sacred,[591]

or as the abode or production of a spirit or a deity. Possibly in the early stages of culture known to us there is a fusion of the element with the indwelling or controlling G.o.d or spirit.[592] The divine patrons of fire are found in all parts of the world, varying in form and function according to the degrees of advancement of the various communities, from the beast-G.o.ds of the Redmen to the departmental deities of the Maoris, Babylonians, Mexicans, and others, and to the more complicated G.o.ds of Hindus, Greeks, and Romans.[593]

+320+. The most elaborate and most interesting of all fire-cults is the Persian. The ritual of the Avesta appears at times to describe a wors.h.i.+p of the element itself: in Fargard xviii the fire implores the householder to rise, wash his hands, and put pure wood on the flame; Yacna lxi is a hymn of homage and pet.i.tion addressed to the fire, which is called the son of Ahura Mazda--the householder asks that all the blessings of life may be his as a reward for his sacrifice. The numerous temples devoted to the fire-cult, mentioned by later writers,[594] might seem to look in the same direction. But a comparison of other parts of the Avesta makes it doubtful whether in the pa.s.sages just cited anything more is meant than that the fire, as a creation of Ahura Mazda and sacred to him, is for his sake worthy of reverence and through him a source of blessing. Thus Yacna xvii is a hymn in honor of Ahura Mazda and all his creatures, among which are mentioned the law of Zarathustra, the fire (and five different fires are named), the soul of the ox, and pure deeds, along with the Amesha-Spentas, the heavenly bodies, and good men. This collection shows vagueness in the conception of the divine and the sacred, and, to say the least, leaves it uncertain whether the singer does not think of the fire simply as a symbol of the Supreme G.o.d.

+321+. The relation of fire to the G.o.ds, and especially its use in sacrifice, have led to a number of religious ceremonies in which it plays a princ.i.p.al part.[595] Certain fires must be kindled by specially appointed sacred persons: among the Todas of Southern India, when a new dairy is visited or an old dairy is reconsecrated;[596] among the Lacandones of Central America, on the occasion of the renewal of the incense-bowls;[597] in the Peruvian temple at the feast of Raymi, when the flame was intrusted to the care of the Virgins of the Sun, and was to be kept up during the year;[598] in the temples of Hestia and Vesta; throughout Greece, when the fires had been polluted by the presence of the Persians, it was ordered that they should be put out and rekindled from the sacred fire at Delphi.[599]

+322+. The purificatory power of fire was, doubtless, a fact of early observation.

+323+. As the physical means of sacrifice, fire acquired a certain symbolic significance; in the Hebrew ritual "fire-offerings" are regarded as specially important. By Carthaginians, Moabites, and Hebrews children were devoted to the deity by fire.[600]

+324+. By reason of its brightness fire connects itself in religious imagery with the sun, with lightning, and with light in general, and so appears frequently as a representation of the glory of the deity.[601]

+325+. Light is sometimes regarded as an independent thing, and as sacred.[602]

WINDS

+326+. Traces of an early cult of the physical wind may be found, perhaps, in certain customs that survive in modern communities; as, for example, in the offering of food to the wind that it may be placated and do no harm.[603] The belief of sailors that wind may be called up by whistling rests on a process of imitative magic that may be connected with an early cult. Wind is said to be regarded as a divine being in some American tribes.[604] But generally it is the spirit or G.o.d of a wind (and usually of a definite wind) that is invoked. Examples of wind-G.o.ds are found in all parts of the world.[605] A wind may be the vehicle or the messenger of a deity.[606]

+327+. As in the cases of other elements, referred to above, it is often hard to say whether it is the thing or the deity that is invoked: Achilles's appeal, for instance, seems to be to the physical winds, but Iris, who goes to summon them, finds them carousing like men, and they act like G.o.ds.[607] It must be borne in mind, however, that in early thought all active things are conceived of as being anthropomorphic, and there is the difficulty, just mentioned, of determining where the anthropomorphic object stops and the spirit or G.o.d begins.

HEAVENLY BODIES

+328+. The heavenly bodies seem to have been regarded at first merely as objects somehow thrown up into the sky or in some other way fixed there by G.o.ds or men.[608] Later, under the general anthropomorphizing tendency, they are conceived of as manlike beings, and their characters and histories are worked out in accordance with local ideas. Their origin is ascribed at first to such creative beings as appear in the various early communities; for example, among the Navahos to the First Man, the First Woman, and the coyote.[609]

+329+. In half-civilized peoples elaborate cosmogonies arise, in which the sky is introduced along with sun, moon, and stars. The most noteworthy of these representations of the origin of the sky is one that occurs in almost identical forms in Egypt and New Zealand, among the Masai of Central East Africa, and elsewhere: two beings lie in marriage embrace--one is lifted up and stretches from horizon to horizon as the sky, the other remains as the earth.[610] The sun is commonly male but sometimes female,[611] and there is also diversity of views as to the s.e.x of the moon. The stars are often called the children of the sun and moon.

+330+. Savage fancy sees in the groups of stars resemblances to human persons and objects.[612] Such resemblances are worked out by civilized peoples, a descriptive science of constellations arises, and stories are invented to explain the origin of their names. These stellar myths, brought into connection with others, play a great part in developed mythologies.

+331+. Among higher communities there are diverse conceptions of the s.e.x of the great luminaries. The word for 'sun' is feminine in Sanskrit, Anglo-Saxon, German, and often in Hebrew; masculine in Babylonian, a.s.syrian, Greek, and Latin. 'Moon' is masculine in Anglo-Saxon and German, and generally in Sanskrit and the Semitic languages; feminine in Greek and Latin. The reasons for these differences are to be sought in the economic relations of the communities to sun and moon, and in the play of imagination, but the history of the variations is not clear. One proposed explanation is that to those who traveled by night on land or on sea the moon was the strong guide and patron, and by day the sun appeared as a splendidly beautiful woman. Other explanations have been offered, but no general determining principle can be stated.[613]

+332+. The early anthropomorphic figures of sun and moon appear to be on the verge of becoming true G.o.ds. It is, however, often difficult to decide whether in the widespread veneration of the sun it is to be regarded as a living thing (it is frequently represented as a man, a great chief,[614] dwelling in the sky), or a physical object inhabited by a spirit, or a fully developed G.o.d.[615] The transition to the higher conception is gradual, and will be discussed below,[616] along with the representations of the moon and the stars.

+333+. The view that the sky and the earth are the original progenitors of things appears among many peoples, low and high (notably among the Chinese); the two are sometimes taken for granted, but it is probable that there were always stories accounting for their origin. The sky is sometimes female, usually in the older myths (Maori, Egyptian), sometimes male (Greek, Roman).[617]

+334+. Thunder and lightning are regarded in early systems of thought as independent things, only locally or accidentally combined. They are awful and terrible to savage feeling,[618] but they have never received religious wors.h.i.+p. A quasi-scientific explanation of thunder found among certain peoples (North American, Brazilian, Bakuana, Karen, and others) is that it is produced by the flapping of the wings of a mighty bird.[619] More commonly thunder is the voice of a deity, and lightning is his arrow,[620] or these are said simply to be sent by a G.o.d.[621]

WORs.h.i.+P OF HUMAN BEINGS[622]

+335+. We might naturally suppose that human beings, as well as animals, plants, and inanimate things, would be objects of religious reverence to undeveloped communities; men, it might seem, would be thought worthier objects of wors.h.i.+p than beasts, plants, and stones. In fact, the cult of human beings has been and is widespread, but in this cult the savage mind makes a sharp distinction between the living and the dead. Living men are tangible and intelligible, affected with human frailties, and therefore offer less food for the imagination than beasts; the souls of dead men are remote, intangible, mysterious, and it is they that have most inspired religious emotion. The history of these cults is in some points obscure; though many facts have been collected, the data are not full and exact enough to furnish a complete explanation of the details of usage, diffusion, origin, and development.

THE CULT OF THE LIVING

+336+. Savages appear to put no limit to the possible powers of men. In the absence of any exact knowledge of natural law there is no reason why a man should not be thought capable of inflicting sickness and death, bringing rain, securing food, and doing all that relates to human life.

Magicians, prophets, ascetics, and saints are credited with such powers in early and later times. Polynesian chiefs are supposed to be imbued with a sacredness that makes contact with them dangerous, and everything that they touch becomes thereby taboo to the ordinary man; the same sort of sacredness clung to the Roman flamen dialis, to the emperor of j.a.pan, and to many other high officials. This reverence, however, is simply fear of the mysterious, and does not, in itself, reach the height of wors.h.i.+p, though it prepares the way for it and may sometimes be scarcely distinguishable from wors.h.i.+p proper. The magician is the mouthpiece of a G.o.d, and in popular belief is often invested with power that is practically divine.

+337+. Many cases, in fact, are reported in which living men are wors.h.i.+ped as G.o.ds; but such reports are often open to doubt and need confirmation. Travelers and other observers are not always in position to state the facts precisely; particularly they do not always distinguish between awe and religious wors.h.i.+p, and the statements of savages on this point are often vague. Frazer has collected a considerable number of examples of alleged wors.h.i.+p of living men.[623]

One of these, that of the dairyman (_palol_) of the Todas of Southern India, is not supported by the latest observer, who says that the palol is highly respected but not wors.h.i.+ped.[624] An apparently clear case of wors.h.i.+p is the Panjab G.o.d Nikkal Sen, said to be General Nicholson;[625]

and it is not improbable that in other cases mentioned by Frazer (Marquesas Islands, Raiatea, Samoa, Fiji) actual deification takes place.

+338+. Among many more-advanced communities divinity has been ascribed to living monarchs: to the kings of ancient Egypt; to many early Babylonian kings; to the emperor of China; to some of the Ptolemies and Seleucids; to certain Roman emperors; to the kings of Mexico and Peru; and in more modern times to the emperor of j.a.pan. Whether such t.i.tles involve a real ascription of divinity, or are only an a.s.sertion of kins.h.i.+p with the G.o.ds, or express nothing more than the adulation of courtiers, it may not be easy always to determine; probably all these conceptions have existed at various times. The conception that men are akin to G.o.ds, that there is no difference of nature between the two cla.s.ses, is an old one, and the ascription of divinity to a king might involve, in earlier stages of civilization or even in relatively advanced stages, no break in the order of things. The custom once established, it might continue to be observed, long accepted seriously by the ma.s.s of the people, but coming gradually to be regarded by the educated cla.s.ses as a mere form.