The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Part 4

[Footnote 41: A. Grandidier, "Madagascar," _Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie_ (Paris), Sixieme Serie, iii. (1872) pp. 399 _sq._ The talismans (_ahouli_) in question consist of the horns of oxen stuffed with a variety of odds and ends, such as sand, sticks, nails, and so forth.]

[Footnote 42: Major A. J. N. Tremearne, _The Tailed Head-hunters of Nigeria_ (London, 1912), pp. 171 _sq._; _id._, "Notes on the Kagoro and other Headhunters," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xlii. (1912) pp. 160, 161.]

[Footnote 43: E. Hurel, "Religion et vie domestique des Bakerewe,"

_Anthropos_, vi. (1912) pp. 85-87.]

[Footnote 44: Father Campana, "Congo Mission Catholique de Landana,"

_Missions Catholiques_, xxvii. (1895) pp. 102 _sq_.]

[Footnote 45: Th. Masui, _Guide de la Section de l'etat Independant du Congo a l'Exposition de Bruxelles--Tervueren en 1874_ (Brussels, 1897), p. 82.]

[Footnote 46: See for example O. Lenz, _Skizzen aus Westafrika_ (Berlin, 1878), pp. 184 _sq._; C. Cuny, "De Libreville au Cameroun," _Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie_ (Paris), Septieme Serie, xvii. (1896) p. 341; Ch. Wunenberger, "La mission et le royaume de Humbe, sur les bords du Cunene," _Missions Catholiques_, xx. (1888) p. 262; Lieut. Herold, "Bericht betreffend religiose Anschauungen und Gebrauche der deutschen Ewe-Neger," _Mittheilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten_, v. (1892) p. 153; Dr. R. Plehn, "Beitrage zur Volkerkunde des Togo-Gebietes,"

_Mittheilungen des Seminars fur Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin_, ii.

Dritte Abtheilung (1899), p. 97; R. Fisch, "Die Dagbamba,"

_Baessler-Archiv_, iii. (1912) p. 148. For evidence of similar beliefs and practices in other parts of Africa, see Brard, "Der Victoria-Nyanza," _Petermann's Mittheilungen_, xliii. (1897) pp. 79 _sq._; Father Picarda, "Autour du Mandera," _Missions Catholiques_, xviii. (1886) p. 342.]

[Footnote 47: Rev. R. H. Na.s.sau, _Fetichism in West Africa_ (London, 1904), pp. 241 _sq._]

[Footnote 48: "Strange Adventures of Andrew Battel," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_, xvi. (London, 1814) p. 334.]

[Footnote 49: _Gouvernement General de l'Afrique Occidentale Francaise, Notices publiees par le Gouvernement Central a l'occasion de l'Exposition Coloniale de Ma.r.s.eille, La Cote d'Ivoire_ (Corbeil, 1906), pp. 570-572.]

[Footnote 50: Hugh Goldie, _Calabar and its Mission_, New Edition (Edinburgh and London, 1901), pp. 34 _sq._, 37 _sq._]

[Footnote 51: Above, p. 35.]

[Footnote 52: E. R. Smith, _The Araucanians_ (London, 1855), pp. 236 _sq._]

[Footnote 53: Father Trilles, "Milles lieues dans l'inconnu; a travers le pays Fang, de la cote aux rives du Djah," _Missions Catholiques_, x.x.xv. (1903) pp. 466 _sq._, and as to the poison ordeal, _ib._ pp. 472 _sq._]

[Footnote 54: R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), p.

194.]

[Footnote 55: Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), pp. 133 _sq._]

[Footnote 56: In like manner the Baganda generally ascribed natural deaths either to sorcery or to the action of a ghost; but when they could not account for a person's death in either of these ways they said that Walumbe, the G.o.d of Death, had taken him. This last explanation approaches to an admission of natural death, though it is still mythical in form. The Baganda usually attributed any illness of the king to ghosts, because no man would dare to practise magic on him. A much-dreaded ghost was that of a man's sister; she was thought to vent her spite on his sons and daughters by visiting them with sickness. When she proved implacable, a medicine-man was employed to catch her ghost in a gourd or a pot and throw it away on waste land or drown it in a river.

See Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 98, 100, 101 _sq._, 286 _sq._, 315 _sq._]

LECTURE III

MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF DEATH

[Sidenote: Belief of savages in man's natural immortality.]

In my last lecture I shewed that many savages do not believe in what we call a natural death; they imagine that all men are naturally immortal and would never die, if their lives were not cut prematurely short by sorcery. Further, I pointed out that this mistaken view of the nature of death has exercised a disastrous influence on the tribes who entertain it, since, attributing all natural deaths to sorcery, they consider themselves bound to discover and kill the wicked sorcerers whom they regard as responsible for the death of their friends. Thus in primitive society as a rule every natural death entails at least one and often several deaths by violence; since the supposed culprit being unknown suspicion may fall upon many persons, all of whom may be killed either out of hand or as a consequence of failing to demonstrate their innocence by means of an ordeal.

[Sidenote: Savage stories of the origin of death.]

Yet even the savages who firmly believe in man's natural immortality are obliged sorrowfully to admit that, as things are at the present day, men do frequently die, whatever explanation we may give of so unexpected and unnatural an occurrence. Accordingly they are hard put to it to reconcile their theory of immortality with the practice of mortality.

They have meditated on the subject and have given us the fruit of their meditation in a series of myths which profess to explain the origin of death. For the most part these myths are very crude and childish; yet they have a value of their own as examples of man's early attempts to fathom one of the great mysteries which encompa.s.s his frail and transient existence on earth; and accordingly I have here collected, in all their naked simplicity, a few of these savage guesses at truth.

[Sidenote: Four types of such stories.]

Myths of the origin of death conform to several types, among which we may distinguish, first, what I will call the type of the Two Messengers; second, the type of the Waxing and Waning Moon; third, the type of the Serpent and his Cast Skin; and fourth, the type of the Banana-tree. I will ill.u.s.trate each type by examples, and will afterwards cite some miscellaneous instances which do not fall under any of these heads.

[Sidenote: I. The tale of the Two Messengers. Zulu story of the chameleon and the lizard. The same story among other Bantu tribes.]

First, then, we begin with the type of the Two Messengers. Stories of this pattern are widespread in Africa, especially among tribes belonging to the great Bantu family, which occupies roughly the southern half of the continent. The best-known example of the tale is the one told by the Zulus. They say that in the beginning Unkulunkulu, that is, the Old Old One, sent the chameleon to men with a message saying, "Go, chameleon, go and say, Let not men die." The chameleon set out, but it crawled very slowly, and it loitered by the way to eat the purple berries of the _ubukwebezane_ tree, or according to others it climbed up a tree to bask in the sun, filled its belly with flies, and fell fast asleep. Meantime the Old Old One had thought better of it and sent a lizard posting after the chameleon with a very different message to men, for he said to the animal, "Lizard, when you have arrived, say, Let men die." So the lizard went on his way, pa.s.sed the dawdling chameleon, and arriving first among men delivered his message of death, saying, "Let men die." Then he turned on his heel and went back to the Old Old One who had sent him.

But after he was gone, the chameleon at last arrived among men with his glad tidings of immortality, and he shouted, saying, "It is said, Let not men die!" But men answered, "O! we have heard the word of the lizard; it has told us the word, 'It is said, Let men die.' We cannot hear your word. Through the word of the lizard, men will die." And died they have ever since from that day to this. That is why some of the Zulus hate the lizard, saying, "Why did he run first and say, 'Let people die?'" So they beat and kill the lizard and say, "Why did it speak?" But others hate the chameleon and hustle it, saying, "That is the little thing which delayed to tell the people that they should not die. If he had only brought his message in time we should not have died; our ancestors also would have been still living; there would have been no diseases here on the earth. It all comes from the delay of the chameleon."[57] The same story is told in nearly the same form by other Bantu tribes, such as the Bechuanas,[58] the Basutos,[59] the Baronga,[60] and the Ngoni.[61] To this day the Baronga and the Ngoni owe the chameleon a grudge for having brought death into the world, so when children find a chameleon they will induce it to open its mouth, then throw a pinch of tobacco on its tongue, and watch with delight the creature writhing and changing colour from orange to green, from green to black in the agony of death; for thus they avenge the wrong which the chameleon has done to mankind.[62]

[Sidenote: Akamba story of the chameleon and the thrush.]

A story of the same type, but with some variations, is told by the Akamba, a Bantu tribe of British East Africa; but in their version the lizard has disappeared from the legend and has been replaced by the _itoroko_, a small bird of the thrush tribe, with a black head, a bluish-black back, and a buff-coloured breast. The tale runs thus:--Once upon a time G.o.d sent out the chameleon, the frog, and the thrush to find people who died one day and came to life again the next. So off they set, the chameleon leading the way, for in those days he was a very important personage. Presently they came to some people lying like dead, so the chameleon went up to them and said, _Niwe, niwe, niwe_. The thrush asked him testily what he was making that noise for, to which the chameleon replied mildly, "I am only calling the people who go forward and then came back again," and he explained that the dead people would come to life again. But the thrush, who was of a sceptical turn of mind, derided the idea. Nevertheless, the chameleon persisted in calling to the dead people, and sure enough they opened their eyes and listened to him. But here the thrush broke in and told them roughly that dead they were and dead they must remain. With that away he flew, and though the chameleon preached to the corpses, telling them that he had come from G.o.d on purpose to bring them to life again, and that they were not to believe the lies of that shallow sceptic the thrush, they obstinately refused to pay any heed to him; not one of those dead corpses would budge. So the chameleon returned crestfallen to G.o.d and reported to him how, when he preached the gospel of resurrection to the corpses, the thrush had roared him down, so that the corpses could not hear a word he said. G.o.d thereupon cross-questioned the thrush, who stated that the chameleon had so bungled his message that he, the thrush, felt it his imperative duty to interrupt him. The simple deity believed the thrush, and being very angry with the chameleon he degraded him from his high position and made him walk very slow, lurching this way and that, as he does down to this very day. But the thrush he promoted to the office of wakening men from their slumber every morning, which he still does punctually at 2 A.M. before the note of any other bird is heard in the tropical forest.[63]

[Sidenote: Togo story of the dog and the frog.]

In this version, though the frog is sent out by G.o.d with the other two messengers he plays no part in the story; he is a mere dummy. But in another version of the story, which is told by the negroes of Togoland in German West Africa, the frog takes the place of the lizard and the thrush as the messenger of death. They say that once upon a time men sent a dog to G.o.d to say that when they died they would like to come to life again. So off the dog trotted to deliver the message. But on the way he felt hungry and turned into a house, where a man was boiling magic herbs. So the dog sat down and thought to himself, "He is cooking food." Meantime the frog had set off to tell G.o.d that when men died they would like not to come to life again. n.o.body had asked him to give that message; it was a piece of pure officiousness and impertinence on his part. However, away he tore. The dog, who still sat watching the h.e.l.l-broth brewing, saw him hurrying past the door, but he thought to himself, "When I have had something to eat, I will soon catch froggy up." However, froggy came in first and said to the deity, "When men die, they would like not to come to life again." After that, up comes the dog, and says he, "When men die, they would like to come to life again."

G.o.d was naturally puzzled and said to the dog, "I really do not understand these two messages. As I heard the frog's request first, I will comply with it. I will not do what you said." That is the real reason why men die and do not come to life again. If the frog had only minded his own business instead of meddling with other people's, the dead would all have come to life again to this day.[64] In this version of the story not only are the persons of the two messengers different, the dog and the frog having replaced the chameleon and the lizard of the Bantu version, but the messengers are sent from men to G.o.d instead of from G.o.d to men.

[Sidenote: Ashantee story of the goat and the sheep.]

In another version told by the Ashantees of West Africa the persons of the messengers are again different, but as in the Bantu version they are sent from G.o.d to men. The Ashantees say that long ago men were happy, for G.o.d dwelt among them and talked with them face to face. For example, if a child was roasting yams at the fire and wanted a relish to eat with the yams, he had nothing to do but to throw a stick in the air and say, "G.o.d give me fish," and G.o.d gave him fish at once. However, these happy days did not last for ever. One unlucky day it happened that some women were pounding a mash with pestles in a mortar, while G.o.d stood by looking on. For some reason they were annoyed by the presence of the deity and told him to be off; and as he did not take himself off fast enough to please them, they beat him with their pestles. In a great huff G.o.d retired altogether from the world and left it to the direction of the fetishes; and still to this day people say, "Ah, if it had not been for that old woman, how happy we should be!" However, after he had withdrawn to heaven, the long-suffering deity sent a kind message by a goat to men upon earth to say, "There is something which they call Death. He will kill some of you. But even if you die, you will not perish completely. You will come to me in heaven." So off the goat set with this cheering intelligence. But before he came to the town he saw a tempting bush by the wayside and stopped to browse on it. When G.o.d in heaven saw the goat thus loitering by the way, he sent off a sheep with the same message to carry the glad tidings to men without delay. But the sheep did not give the message aright. Far from it: he said, "G.o.d sends you word that you will die and that will be an end of you." Afterwards the goat arrived on the scene and said, "G.o.d sends you word that you will die, certainly, but that will not be the end of you, for you will go to him." But men said to the goat, "No, goat, that is not what G.o.d said. We believe that the message which the sheep brought us is the one which G.o.d sent to us." That was the beginning of death among men.[65]

However, in another Ashantee version of the tale the parts played by the sheep and the goat are reversed. It is the sheep who brings the tidings of immortality from G.o.d to men, but the goat overruns him and offers them death instead. Not knowing what death was, men accepted the seeming boon with enthusiasm and have died ever since.[66]

[Sidenote: II. The story of the Waxing and Waning Moon. Hottentot story of the Moon, the hare, and death.]

So much for the tale of the Two Messengers. In the last versions of it which I have quoted, a feature to be noticed is the perversion of the message by one of the messengers, who brings tidings of death instead of life eternal to men. The same perversion of the message reappears in some examples of the next type of story which I shall ill.u.s.trate, namely the type of the Waxing and Waning Moon. Thus the Namaquas or Hottentots say that once the Moon charged the hare to go to men and say, "As I die and rise to life again, so shall you die and rise to life again." So the hare went to men, but either out of forgetfulness or malice he reversed the message and said, "As I die and do not rise to life again, so you shall also die and not rise to life again." Then he went back to the Moon, and she asked him what he had said. He told her, and when she heard how he had given the wrong message, she was so angry that she threw a stick at him and split his lip, which is the reason why the hare's lip is still split. So the hare ran away and is still running to this day. Some people, however, say that before he fled he clawed the Moon's face, which still bears the marks of the scratching, as anybody may see for himself on a clear moonlight night. So the Hottentots are still angry with the hare for bringing death into the world, and they will not let initiated men partake of its flesh.[67] There are traces of a similar story among the Bushmen.[68] In another Hottentot version two messengers appear, an insect and a hare; the insect is charged by the Moon with a message of immortality or rather of resurrection to men, but the hare persuades the insect to let him bear the tidings, which he perverts into a message of annihilation.[69] Thus in this particular version the type of the Two Messengers coincides with the Moon type.

[Sidenote: Masai story of the moon and death.]

A story of the same type, though different in details, is told by the Masai of East Africa. They say that in the early days a certain G.o.d named Naiteru-kop told a man named Le-eyo that if a child were to die he was to throw away the body and say, "Man, die, and come back again; moon, die, and remain away." Well, soon afterwards a child died, but it was not one of the man's own children, so when he threw the body away he said, "Man, die, and remain away; moon, die, and return." Next one of his own children died, and when he threw away the body he said, "Man, die, and return; moon, die, and remain away." But the G.o.d said to him, "It is of no use now, for you spoilt matters with the other child." That is why down to this day when a man dies he returns no more, but when the moon dies she always comes to life again.[70]

[Sidenote: Nandi story of the moon, the dog, and death.]

Another story of the origin of death which belongs to this type is told by the Nandi of British East Africa. They say that when the first people lived upon the earth a dog came to them one day and said: "All people will die like the moon, but unlike the moon you will not return to life again unless you give me some milk to drink out of your gourd, and beer to drink through your straw. If you do this, I will arrange for you to go to the river when you die and to come to life again on the third day." But the people laughed at the dog, and gave him some milk and beer to drink off a stool. The dog was angry at not being served in the same vessels as a human being, and though he put his pride in his pocket and drank the milk and the beer from the stool, he went away in high dudgeon, saying, "All people will die, and the moon alone will return to life." That is the reason why, when people die, they stay away, whereas when the moon goes away she comes back again after three days'

absence.[71] The Wa-Sania of British East Africa believe that in days gone by people never died, till one unlucky day a lizard came and said to them, "All of you know that the moon dies and rises again, but human beings will die and rise no more." They say that from that day people began to die and have persisted in dying ever since.[72]

[Sidenote: Fijian story of the moon, the rat, and death. Caroline Islands story of the moon, death, and resurrection. Wotjobaluk story of the moon, death, and resurrection. Cham story of the moon, death, and resurrection.]

With these African stories of the origin of death we may compare one told by the Fijians on the other side of the world. They say that once upon a time the Moon contended that men should be like himself (for the Fijian moon seems to be a male); that is, he meant that just as he grows old, disappears, and comes in sight again, so men grown old should vanish for a while and then return to life. But the rat, who is a Fijian G.o.d, would not hear of it. "No," said he, "let men die like rats." And he had the best of it in the dispute, for men die like rats to this day.[73] In the Caroline Islands they say that long, long ago death was unknown, or rather it was a short sleep, not a long, long one, as it is now. Men died on the last day of the waning moon and came to life again on the first appearance of the new moon, just as if they had awakened from a refres.h.i.+ng slumber. But an evil spirit somehow contrived that when men slept the sleep of death they should wake no more.[74] The Wotjobaluk of south-eastern Australia relate that, when all animals were men and women, some of them died and the moon used to say, "You up-again," whereupon they came to life again. But once on a time an old man said, "Let them remain dead"; and since then n.o.body has ever come to life again except the moon, which still continues to do so down to this very day.[75] The Chams of Annam and Cambodia say that the G.o.ddess of good luck used to resuscitate people as fast as they died, till the sky-G.o.d, tired of her constant interference with the laws of nature, transferred her to the moon, where it is no longer in her power to bring the dead to life again.[76]

[Sidenote: Cycle of death and resurrection after three days, like the monthly disappearance and reappearance of the moon.]

These stories which a.s.sociate human immortality with the moon are products of a primitive philosophy which, meditating on the visible changes, of the lunar orb, drew from the observation of its waning and waxing a dim notion that under a happier fate man might have been immortal like the moon, or rather that like it he might have undergone an endless cycle of death and resurrection, dying then rising again from the dead after three days. The same curious notion of death and resurrection after three days is entertained by the Unmatjera and Kaitish, two savage tribes of Central Australia. They say that long ago their dead used to be buried either in trees or underground, and that after three days they regularly rose from the dead. The Kaitish tell how this happy state of things came to an end. It was all through a man of the Curlew totem, who finding some men of the Little Wallaby totem burying a Little Wallaby man, fell into a pa.s.sion and kicked the body into the sea. Of course after that the dead man could not come to life again, and that is why nowadays n.o.body rises from the dead after three days, as everybody used to do long ago.[77] Although no mention is made of the moon in this Australian story, we may conjecture that these savages, like the Nandi of East Africa, fixed upon three days as the normal interval between death and resurrection simply because three days is the interval between the disappearance of the old and the reappearance of the new moon. If that is so, the aborigines of Central Australia may be added to the many races of mankind who have seen in the waning and waxing moon an emblem of human immortality. Nor does this a.s.sociation of ideas end with a mere tradition that in some former age men used to die with the old moon and come to life again with the new moon. Many savages, on seeing the new moon for the first time in the month, observe ceremonies which seem to be intended to renew and increase their life and strength with the renewal and the increase of the lunar light. For example, on the day when the new moon first appeared, the Indians of San Juan Capistrano in California used to call together all the young men and make them run about, while the old men danced in a circle, saying, "As the moon dieth and cometh to life again, so we also having to die will again live."[78] Again, an old writer tells us that at the appearance of every new moon the negroes of the Congo clapped their hands and cried out, sometimes falling on their knees, "So may I renew my life as thou art renewed."[79]