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Transactions of the third 
International congress for ... 



Percy Stafford Allen, John de Monins Johnson 



COLLECTION 



University of Virginia 

Libraries 



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TRANSACTIONS OF THE THIRD 

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 

FOR THE 

HISTORY OF RELIGIONS 



VOLUME I 



OXFORD 

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 

MCMVIII 



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HENRY FROWDE, M.A. 

FUBUSHBB TO THB uimnmsiTr ov OXIO&D 

LONDOK, xdikbxjboh; nxw tobk 

TOBOmX) AND MXLBOUBNB 



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NOTE 

The Transactions comprised in these volumes have 
been edited under the general direction of the Papers 
Committee by Mr. P. S. Allen, M.JL, of Merton College, 
assisted by Mr. J* de M. Johnson, B.A., of Exeter 
College. 

The spelling of proper names and other words is in 
almost all cases that of the authors, no attempt having 
been made to impose a imif orm system upon contributors. 



a2 



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CONTENTS 

VOLUME I 

PAGE 

List of Offiosbs v 

List of Mbmbebs vi 

Rules of the Congbess xix 

PbOGBAMME XX 

FmsT General Meeting xxxiii 

President's Address 1 

Papers, Sections I-IV 19-327 

VOLUME II 

Papers, Sections V-IX 1-449 

Last General Meeting 450 

Index of Authors 453 

Index of Papers 455 



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THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS FOR 
THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS 

The International Congress for the History of Religions was 
founded in Paris in 1900 under the Presidency of the late Pro£ Albert 
R^ville. Its Second Meeting was held in Basel in 1904, under the 
Presidency of Prof. Conrad C. von Orelli. The Third Congress was 
held at Oxford on Sept. 15-18, 1908. By the kindness of the Council 
of the University the Meetings took place in the Examination Schools. 

Hanorofy Pttsident : Pro£ E. B. T^lob, Hon. D.C.L. 
PreiidefU: The Right Hon. Sir A. C. Lvall, K.C.B., D.C.L. 
Chairman of the Local Committee : ^^Prof. Pescy Gabdher, Latt D. 

Local CommiUee. 

H. Balfoub, M.A. Prof. A. A. Macdonell, M.A. 

Rev. C. J. Ball, M*A. W. McDouoall, M.A« 

Rev. J. Veenon Bajitlet, D.D. fR. R. Marett, M.A. 

Ptof. L. T. Bullock, M. A. ^Bbv. Pro£ Margoliouth, D.Litt. 

Edward Caird, Hon. D.C.L. Prof. W. R. Morfill, M.A. 

Rev. R. H. Charles, D.Iitt Gilbert Murray, M.A., ULD. 

Rev. ProtT. K. Cheyne, D.Litt. Pro£ J. L. Myres, M.A. 

F. C. CoNTBEARE, M.A. Rcv. J. Edwin Odgers, M*A. 

*A. E. Cowley, D.Litt. Rev. H. Rashdall, D.Litt. 

Rev. Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D. Prof. Sir John Rh*s, D.Litt 

Rev. James Drummond, LL.D. 'fRerv. Prof. W. Sanday, D.D. 

A. J. Evans, DXitt. Rev. Prof. A. H. Sayce, Hon. 

Rev. A. M. Fairbairn, D.Litt. D.Litt 

W. Warde Fowler, M.A. Arthur Sidgwick, M.A., LL.D. 

*Prof. Percy Gaedner, LittD. Prof. E. B. Tylor, Hon. D.C.L. 
♦Hev.G. Buchanan Gray, D.Litt C. C. J. Webb, M.A. 
*tProf. B. P. Grenkeu, D.Litt 

F. Ll. Grifptth, M.A. 'i^tJ.E6TLiNCARPENT£R,D.Litt llTan. 

tA. F. R. HoERNLi, Ph.D. *tL. R. Farnell, D.Litt ' Sees. 

* Member of the Executive Committee, f Member of the Papers Sub-Committee. 



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LIST OF MEMBERS 

Abiahams, Mr. Israel, Melbourne House, St. Barnabas Boad, Cam- 
bridge. 

Abrlkossoff, Mons. Nioolas, Milutinski 22, app. 4D, Moscow. 

Adair, Miss Helen, 2 Linton Boad, Oxford. 

Adler, Mr. Marcus N., 22 Graven Boad, London. 

Ali, Syed Amir, The Lambdens, Beenham, near Beading. 

Alinda, Mons. FEv^ue d', 30 Bue Lhomond, Paris. 

Allen, Miss E. M., Woodberrie Hill, Loughton, Essex. 

Allen, Mr. H. J., 10 The Norton, Tenby. 

Allen, Mrs. and Miss J. B., The Mount, Winterboume, near Bristol. 

Allwork, Mr. F. A., 19 Bradmore Boad, Oxford. 

Alphand6ry, Prof, and Mme., 2 Bue Guy de Maupassant, Paris. 

Alviella, Count Goblet d\ Ch&teau de Gourt-St.-Etienne, Belgium. 

Anderson, Mr. J. D., 17 Blakesley Avenue, Ealing. 

Andrews, Mr. J. B., Beform dub, London. 

Anesaki, Prof. M., Lnperial University, Tokyo. 

Anitchkoff, Prof. E., St. Petersburg. 

Anwyi, Prof. Edward, 62 Marine Terraoe, Aberystwyth. 

Arnold, Prof. T. W. and Mrs., 28 Thornton Boad, Wimbledon. 

Assagioli, Mr. Bobert G., 46 Via degli Alfani, Florence. 

AsUey, Bev. Dr. and Mrs. H. J. D., East Budham Vicarage, King's 
Lynn. 

Babut, Prof. E. C, The University, Montpellier* 

Bagby, Mrs. G. W. and Miss, U.S.A. 

Bailey, Mr. C, Balliol College, Oxford. 

Baker, Miss Lloyd, Hardwicke Court, Gloucester. 

Baldwin, Prof. J. M., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A. 

Balfour, Mr. H., Langley Lodge, Headington Hill, Oxford. 

Ballingal, Bev. Dr. J., Bhynd, Perth. 

Barker, Mrs., 19 Bradmore Boad, Oxford. 

Barlow, Miss, 135 Woodstock Boad, Oxford. 

Bamett, Prof. Lionel D., 16 Avenue Crescent, Mill Hill Park; Acton. 

Bartlet, Bev. Dr. J. Vernon, 35 Museum Boad, Oxford. 

Batty, Miss, 77 Banbury Boad, Oxford. 

Baughan, Miss, 95 High Street, Oxford. 

Bell, Miss Courtney, Old Headington, Oxford. 

Bell, Miss Gertrude, 95 Sloane Street, London. 



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List of Members vii 

Bellows, Miss Marion, Walden, Denmark Road, Gloucester. 

Beniinck-Smith, Miss, St. Andrews. 

Berg, Miss Naimi, Portavala, Finland. 

Bertholet, Prof. Dr. and Frau, 8 Leonhardstr., Basel. 

Bertin, Mile. H. G., 38 Blomfield Road, Maida Hill, Ixmdon. 

Bevan, Prof. A. A., Trinity College, Cambridge. 

Bevan, Mr. E. B., Corfe Castle, Kempstone, Dorset. 

BhabhBi, Rev. Dr. S. D., 8 Drakefell Road, St. Catherine's Park, 

London. 
fBikelas, Dr. D., Athens. 
Birch, Miss, Belmont, Nasoot Road, Watford. 
Bisslng, Prof. Ereiherr F. W. von, 10 Geoigenstr., Munich. 
Blessig, Miss J., 107 IflSey Road, Oxford. 
Bode, Mrs. K. M., 4 Cambridge Place, London. 
Bond, Mrs. F. L., 9 Bardwell Road, Oxford. 
Bonet-Maury, Prof. G., 32 Rue du Bac, Paris. 
Bonnor, Mrs. and Miss, 16 Park Crescent, Oxford. 
Bouvier, Mr. T., Ore Place, Ore, Hastings. 
Bradley, Mr. W. G., 77 James Street, Oxford. 
Braithwaite, Mr. W. Chas., 2 Dashwood Road, Banbuiy. 
Bratt, Miss, 2 Clarendon Villas, Oxford. 
Bridges, Mr. Robert, Mrs. and Miss, Chilswell, Oxford. 
Briggs, Rev. Prof. C. A., Union Theological Seminary, New York. 
Brodm, Mons. T. A. Ren6, 146 Gr. H. Laan, The H^e. 
Brooke, Col. C. R., Army and Navy Club^ London. 
Brown, Dr. and Mrs. F., Union Theological Seminary, New York. 
Brown, Mr. J. 8., 15a Pembridge Crescent, Notting Hill, London. 
Buchanan, Miss F., D.Se., The Museum, Oxford. 
Budd, Mrs. E., Mount View, IfSey, Oxford* 

Bullock, Prof, and Miss M. A., Wood Lawn, Banbury Road, Oxford. 
Bunsen, Mrs. de. Green Hammerton Hall, York. 
Burkitt, Prof, and Mrs. F. C, Westroad Comer, Cambridge. 
Bumey, Rev. Dr. C. F., St. John's College, Oxford. 
Burrows, Mrs. and Miss, St. Hilda's Hall, Oxford. 
Burrows, Prof. R. M., 131 Habershon Street, East Moors, Cardiff. 

Caldecott, Rev. Prof. A., 1 Longton Avenue, Sydenham, London. 

Calderon, Mr. George, Heathland Lodge, Hampstead Heath, London 

Camerlynck, Mons. H.^ 11 Rue Mazagran, Amiens. 

Campbell, Rev. H., Chiengmai, Siam. 

Campbell, Prof, and Mrs. Lewis, 39 Half Moon Street, London. 

Campbell-Lang, Miss, 118 West Regent Street, Glasgow. 

Capart, Mons. J., Pare du Cinquantenaire, Brussels. 

Cardew, Col. Sir F., Tudor Cottage, Whitchurch. 



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viii Internatumal Congress for tJie History of Religions 

Carpenter, Dr. and Mrs. J. E., 109 Banbnry Boad, Oxford. 

Carter, Miss, The Cottage, Headington Hill, Oxford. 

Cams, Dr. Paul, 1322 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. 

Cesaresoo, Countess E. Martinengo, Sal6, Lago di Garda, Italy. 

Chambers, Miss Beatrice A., 61yn-y-mel, Fishguard. 

Charles, Rev. Dr. B. H. and Mrs., 24 Bardwell Road, Oxford. 

Charles, Miss Madeleine, 24 Bardwell Road, Oxford. 

Chauvet, Mons. P^ul, 61 Bue Denfert, Bochereau, Pftris. 

Chen, Mr. Ivan, Chinese Legation, 49 Portland Place, London. 

Chu, Mr. T. K., 153 Highbury New Park, London. 

Clarke, Mrs. Helena and Miss, 8 Wells Boad, North Gate, Begent's 

Park, London. 
Clayton, Miss Emily. 

dodd, Mr. Edward, Strafford House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk. 
Coleman, Mr. A. Mainwaring, Victoria Chambers, Huntriss Bow, 

Scarborough. 
Colinet, Prof. P., The University, Louvain. 
Conybeare, Mr. and Mrs. F. C, 17 Bradmore Boad, Oxford. 
Cook, Mr. A. B., Queens' College, Cambridge. 
Cook, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley A., 26 Lensfield Boad, Cambridge. 
Coomaraswamy, Dr. and Mrs. Ananda, Broad Campden, dos. 
Cooper, Mr. Nasarvanji Maneckji, 164 High Boad, Qford. 
Copeman, Miss C. H., 82 St. John's Boad, Oxford. 
Corbett, Mr. W. H., Nakuru, via Mombasa, British East Africa. 
Corry, Capt. J. B. and Miss, Bosenheim, Park Hill Boad, Croydon. 
Corwin, Miss B., 2354 55th Stoeet, S.E., Qeveland, Ohio. 
Cowley, Dr. A. E., Magdalen College, Oxford. 
Cox, Miss Boalfe, 80 Oirlide Mansions, Westminster, London. 
Crawley, Mr. A. E., Derby School, Derby. 
Crewdson, Miss Gwendolen, Homewood, Wobum Sands. 
Crombie, Mr. J. E., Parkhill House, Dyce, Aberdeen. 
Cumont, Prof. Franz, 75 Bue Montoyer, Brussels. 

Daking, Miss. 

Dandoy, Mr. G. G., Stonyhurst College, Blackburn. 

Daniel, Miss, South Elms, Parks Boad, Oxford. 

Davids, Prof, and Mrs. T. W. Bhys, Harboro' Grange, Ashton-on- 

Mersey. 
Davidson, Miss, Dover. 
Da vies. Prof. T. Witton, Bryn Haul, Bangor. 
Davies, Bev. J. P., Snowdon Villa, Graigwen, Pontypridd. 
Davis, Bev. V. D., 9 Nightingale Square, Balham, London, 
de Brisay, Miss, 11 Bradmore Boad, Oxford, 
de Groot, Prof. Dr. J. J. M., The University, Leiden. 



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Last of Members ix 

de Silva, Dr. and Mrs., Colombo. 
Deussen, Prof, and Mrs., 39 Beselerallee, Kiel. 
Dicey, Prof. A. V., The Orchard, Banbury Road, Oxford. 
Dixson, Mr. W. H., 13 Crick Road, Oxford. 
Doan, Prof. Dr. F. C, Meadville, Pennsylvania. 
DobschQtz, Prof. E. von, 24 Vogesenstr., Strassburg. 
Donaldson, Mrs., Hawthorn House, Kensington. 
DougaO, Miss LSy, East Underoliff, Exmouth. 
Drage, Captain Gilbert, North Place, Hatfield, Herts. 
Drakooles, Mr. and Mrs. P. E., 14 Ptok Square, London. 
Drew, Mr. E., Madras. 

Dreyfus, Mons. H., 21 Boulevard Beaus^jour, Paris. 
Driver, Rev. Dr. S. R., Christ Church, Oxford. 
Drummcmd, Rev. Dr., 18 Rawlinson Road, Oxford. 
Drununond, Rev. R. B., Edinburgh. 
Dnunmond, Miss Margaret, Edinburgh. 
Duhn, Prof. F. von. The University, Heidelberg. 
Duncan, Dr. D., 3 Fauconberg Mansions, Sutton Court, Chiswick. 
Dunnill, Mrs. E. J., 12 East Ptoade, Harrogate. 
tDyer, Mr. Louis, d8 Banbury Road, Oxford. 
I^rson, Rev. Francis J., 19 New Inn Hall Street, Oxford. 

Eokenstein, Miss Lina, 34 Greencroft Gardens, 8. Hampstead. 

Eisler, Dr. Robert, Fddafing, Bavaria. 

Eliot, Sir Chaiiee, Endcliffe Holt, Enddiffe Crescent, Sheffield. 

EDis, Mr. A. G., British Museum, London. 

Elsdale, Miss, 2 Clarence Parade, Southsea. 

Emmet, Rev. C. W.^ The Vicarage, West Hendred, Berks. 

E«ngert, Dr. Joseph, 4 Nidd View, Bilton Lane, Harrogate. 

Evans, Dr. A. J., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 

Evans, Miss, 3 Stow Ptok Avenue, Newport, Mon. 

Evel^^, Mrs., Elder Wick, Shotover, near Oxford. 

Ewig, Frau and Frl. M., 24 Wallstr., Basel. 

FameO, Dr. and Mrs. L. R., 191 Woodstock Road, Oxford. 

Farquharson, Miss, 20 Howard Place, Edinburgh. 

Fenger, Mr. Svea, c/o Rev. R. Hansen, Thorsagen, Denmark. 

Fenwick, Mrs. G. B., 141 Banbury Road, Oxford. 

Iledler, Prof. H. G. and Mrs., The Lane House, Norham Road, Oxford. 

Keld, Miss D., 05 Talbot Road, Highgate. 

Fisher, Mr. W. E., 1 Mayflower Road, Clapham, S.W. 

Foda, Mr. Ragheb Hassan, SimbeUawin. 

Forbes, Dr. H. O., Free Public Museum, Liverpool. 

Forbes, Mr. W. H., 61 St. John Street, Oxford. 



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X International Congress for the History of Religions 

Foanidre, Mons. TAbM E., Moislaina, Somme, France* 

Fowler, Miss E., 20 Bardwell Road, Oxford. 

Fowler, Deaconess Mary, Foxholme, Hale, Famham, Surrey. 

Fowler, Mr. W. Warde, Lincoln College, Oxford. 

Franchetti, Signora Baronessa Alice, Villa Wolkonsl^, 38 Conte Rosso, 

Rome. 
Frazer, Prof, and Mrs. J. G., 24 Aberoromby Square, Liverpool. 
French, Miss, 136 Elgin Avenue, London* 
Frew, Rev. David, The Manse of Urr, Dalbeattie, N.B. 
Frothingham, Rev. P. R. and Mrs., 294 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass* 

Gabrielsson, Rev. S., Sweden. 

Galloway, Rev. Dr. G., The Manse of Eelton, Castle Douglas, N.B. 

Gardiner, Mr. Alan H. and Mrs., 11"' Matthaikirchstr., Berlin. 

Gardner, Miss Alice, Newnham College, Cambridge. 

Gardner, Prof, and Mrs. Percy, 12 Canterbury Road, Oxford. 

Garratt, Rev. and Mrs. C. F., 16 Rawlinson Road, Oxford. 

Garvie, Rev* Principal Alfred E., New College, Hampstead, London. 

Gaster, Dr. M., 193 Maida Vale, London* 

Gautier, Prof. Lucien, Cologny, Geneva. 

Geden, Rev. Prof. A. S., Wesleyan College, Richmond, Surrey. 

Gem, Rev. S. H., 2 Keble Road, Oxford. 

Gennadius, Dr. J. and Mme., 14 De Vere Gardens, Kensington Palace, 

London. 
Giles, Prof, and Mrs. Herbert A* and Miss, Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge* 
Gillespie, Rev. James H., The Manse of Dundonald, Kilmarnock. 
Gilroy, Rev. Dr. James and Mrs., 46 Don Street, Old Aberdeen. 
Glover, Mr. T. R., St. John's CoU^e, Cambridge. 
Goad, Mr. H. E., Rome. 

Goldberg, Mr. and Mrs. Edward C, Hill Side, Tonbridge. 
Goldziher, Prof. Dr. Ignatius, Hollo-utcza 4, Buda-Pest. 
Goodwin, Miss, 99 Iffiey Road, Oxford. 
Gotch, Prof, and Mrs., The Lawn, Banbury Road, Oxford. 
Granger, Prof, and Mrs. F., University College, Nottingham. 
Gray, Rev. Dr. G. B. and Mrs., 23 Norham Road, Oxford. 
Gray, Rev. John, St. Peter's, Falcon Avenue, Momingside Road, 

Edinburgh. 
Grenfell, Prof. B. P., Queen's College, Oxford* 
Grenfell, Mrs., 62 Holywell, Oxford. 

Grieg, Miss Phyllis, Goathland, Tower Road, Bournemouth. 
Grierson, Dr. Geo. A. and Mrs., Rathfamham, Camberley, Surrey. 
Griesswein, Canon Alex., Szentkir&lyiu 28, Buda-Pest. 
Grieve, Rev. A. J., The Manse, Romsey, Hants. 
Griffith, Mr. F. LI., 11 Norham Gardens, Oxford* 



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List of Members xi 

Griffith, HifiB, 11 Noriiam Gardens, Oxford. 
Grimley, Rev. H., Norton Rectory, Bnry St. Edmunds. 
Goimet, Mons., Muste Guimet, Paris. 
Gattmann, Dr. B., 10 Bedford Place, London. 

Hackin, Mons. J., Muste Gnimet, Paris. 

Haokmann, Bev. H., 16 Windsor Road, Denmark Hill, Iiondon. 
Haddon, Dr. A. C, Inisfail, Hill's Road, Cambridge. 
HaU, Mr. J. C, British Consulate General, Yokohama, Japan. 
Hance, Mr. Edward M., lisbum, Irdand. 

Handley, Rev. H., St. Thomas's Vicarage, Camden Town, London. 
Hardcastle, Miss A. L. B., Waterloo Hotel, Wellington College, Berks. 
Hare, Mr. W. Loftus, 52 Belper Road, Derby. 
Harper, Miss E. B., 39 Half Moon Street, London. . 
Harris, Dr. J. Rendel, Chetwynd House, Selly Oak, Birmingham. 
Harris, Mr. and Mrs. W., 1 Rue Delambre, Paris. 
Harrison, Miss Jane, Newnham College, Cambridge. . 
Hart, Mr. and Mrs. Percival, and Miss E. M., Grove Lodge, Highgate. 
Hartland, Miss E. M., 90 Abingdon Road, Kensington, London. 
Hartland, Mr. E. S., Highgarth, Gloucester. 
Hastings, Dr. James, St. Cyrus, Montrose. 
Hatton, Mrs., Edinburgh. 

Haupt, Prof. Paul, 2511 Madison Avenue, Baltimore, U.S.A. 
Hawkins, Rev. Sir John C, Kelston Lodge, Banbury Road, Oxford* 
Hayllar, Miss Florence, The Hostel, Headington. 
Heath, Mrs. L. 

Heberden, Mr. C. B., Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. 
Herford, Prof. C. H., The University, Manchester. 
Herford, Miss Brooke, 137 Banbury Road, Oxford. 
Herford, Rt. Rev. and Mrs. Vernon, 137 Banbury Road, Oxford. 
tHewitt, Mr. J. F., Holton Cottage, Wheatley. 
Hill, Miss F. Davenport, Hillstow, Headington, Oxford. 
Hillebrandt, Prof. Dr. A., 14 Monhauptstr., Breslau. 
Hinxman, Miss C. A., Hardown, Charmouth, Dorset. 
Him, Prof. Trjo, 6 Estn&sgatan, Helsingf ors, Finland. 
Hitchings, Dr., Headington, Oxford. . 
HoUiouse, Prof. L. T., 2 Lansdowne Road, Wimbledon. 
Hodgson, Mr. T. V., 54 Kingsley Road, Plymouth. 
Hodson, Mr. T. C, East London College, Mile End Road, London. 
Hoeml6, Dr. and Mrs. A. F. R., 8 Northmoor Road, Oxford. 
Hoeml^, Rev. E., 8 Northmoor Road, Oxford. 
Hoey, Dr. and Mrs. W., 11 Linton Road, Oxford. 
Hogg, Prof. Hope W., 30 ftrook Road, Fallowfield, Manchester. 
HoUis, Mr. A. C, Nairobi, East Africa. 



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xii International Congress for the History of Religions 

Hommel, Dr. Er., The University, Munich. 

Hoekyns-Abrahally Mrs. W. and Miss, The Hostel, Headington. 

Howell, Miss, Hill Stow, Headington, Oxford. 

Howorth, Sir Henry, 30 CoUingham Place, London. 

Howson, Mrs. Moss, Harrogate. 

Hudson, Miss, Newington House, Wallingf ord. 

Hunt, Dr. A. S., Queen's College, Oxford. 

Hunt, Mrs. Holman, Sonning Acre, Sonning, Berks. 

Irvine, Mr. W. and Miss. ML L., HoUiscroft, 49 Castekiau, Barnes, 
London. 

Jackson, Prof. A. V. Williams, Columbia University, New York. 

Jacobi, Prof. Dr. H., 59 Niebuhrstr., Bonn. 

James, Mrs., 181 Woodstock Boad, Oxford. 

Jarret, Mrs. Hanson, Kensington, London. 

Jastrow, Prof, and Mrs. Morris, jun., 2483 23rd Street, Philadelphia. 

Jefferson, Mr. and Mrs. 6. D., 22 Bardwell Boad, Oxford. 

Jennings, Miss, 2 Clarendon Villas, Oxford. 

Jevons, Principal F. B. and Mrs., Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham. 

Johansson, Prof. Dr. K. F., Upsala. 

Johnson, Mr. J. de M., Brocklesby Bectory, Lincolnshire. 

Jolly, Prof. Dr. J., 5 Sonnenstr., Wiirzburg. 

Jones, Mrs. WiUiatt, 30 Norham Boad, Oxford. 

Jordan, Bev. L. H., Toronto. 

Kahnweiler, Miss, 3 Bradmore Boad, Oxford. 
Kane, Mr. 6. N., St. John's Mission, Cowley, Oxford. 
Keightley, Dr. Archibald and Mrs., 46 Brook Street, London. 
Keith, Mr. A. B. and Mrs., 2 Prince of Wales's Mansions^ London. 
Keller, Mr. Siegmund, Bois-gentil, Plaines du Loup, Lausanne. 
Euempson, Miss L. E., Somerville College, Oxford. 
Kendrick, Miss E. H., 45 Hunnewell Avenue, Newton, Mass. 
Kennedy, Bev. Prof. A. B. S., Whitburgh Mains, Ford, Midlothian, N.B. 
Kennedy, Mr. J., 14 Frognal Lane, Finchley Boad, London. 
Klingenstein, Miss N., London. 

Knevett, Mons. and Mme. Edgar de, 18 Bue le Titien, Brussels. 
ELrebs, Dr. H. and Miss L., Taylorian Institute, Oxford. 
ELreyUnger, Mons. B., 275 Chausste de Malines, Antwerp. 

Lake, Bev. Prof. Kirsopp and Mrs., The University, Leiden. 
Langdon, Dr. Stephen, 17 Northmoor Boad, Oxford. 
Lanman, Prof. Charles B., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
Lardner-Clarke, Miss, 56 St. Giles's, Oxford. 



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List of Members xiii 

Laycock, Mr. W. F., 10 Webster Gardens, Ealing. 

Legge, Mrs. J. 6., Liverpool. 

Legge, Miss, 2 Long Wall Street, Oxford. 

Leuba, Prof. J. H., Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia. 

Leveson, Mr. H. G. A, and Wiea P. K., Quny, Anerley, S.E. 

Levi, Mme. R., 20Wi Avenue de Neuilly, Neuilly-sur-Seine. 

Lewis, Mr. A. L., 35 Beddington Gardens, WiJlington,' Surrey. 

Lewis, Mrs. and Miss, 13 Bawlinson Road, Oxford. 

Lincke, Dr. K., 1 Haeckelplatz, Jena. 

Lindesay, Miss E., 22 Queen's Gardens, St. Andrews. 

Lloyd, Rev. Dr. A. and Mrs., Imperial University, Tokyo. 

Lloyd, Miss M. J., Farm Sparkbrook, Birmingham. 

Lobb, Mrs., The Peacocks, Filkins, Oxon. 

Loofe, Prof. F., 6 Lafontainestr., Halle. 

Lorimer, Miss, Somerville College, Oxford. 

Loveday, Mr. Thomas, 2 Moorgate Avenue, Sheffield. 

Lowber, Dr. James, Austin, Texas, U.S.A. 

Lucas, Mr. H., Hilver, St. Agnes Road, Birmingham. 

Lyall, Right Hon. Sir A. C, Aldworth, Haslemere. 

Macauliffe, Mr. M., 10 Sinclair Gardens, London. 

MacCulloch, Rev. Canon J. A., Portree Rectory, Isle of Skye. 

MacDonald, Prof, and Mrs. Duncan B., Hartford, Conn. 

Macdonell, Prof. A. A., 107 Banbury Road, Oxford. 

McDougall, Mr. W., Boar's Hill, Oxford. 

Mace, Mr. and Mrs. A. C, Cairo. 

Mack, Miss H. N. and Miss M., Quin, Henfield, Sussex. 

Mackintosh, Rev. Prof. H. R., 81 Colinton Road, Edinburgh. 

Macmillan, Mrs., 33 Barrington Road, Brixton. 

MacRitchie, Mr. David, 4 Archibald Place, Edinburgh. 

Malortie, Baroness de, 204 Iffley Road, Oxford. 

Marcel, M. and Mme. Pierre, 258 Boulevard Saint Germain, Paris. 

Marett, Mr. and Mrs. R. R., Westbury Lodge, Norham Road, Oxford. 

Margoliouth, Prof., and Mrs. D. S., 88 Woodstock Road, Oxford. 

Marielle, li^e., Cannes. 

Markby, Sir WiUiam, Headington Hill, Oxford. 

Marshall, Mr. John, 3 Caroline Place, London. 

Mazumdar, Mr. B. C, Sambalpur, India. 

Menzies, Rev. Prof., The University, St. Andrews. 

Merrill, Miss B. E., Scarritt Bible Training School, ELansas City, 

Missouri. 
Metteyya, Rev. B. A., 101 Elm Grove Road, Barnes. 
Meyer, Dr. R. M. and Frau, 16 Vossstr., Berlin. 
Milbnm, Rev. R. G., Bishop's College, Calcutta. 



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xiv International CoTigressfor the History of Religions 

Millingen, Dr. A. van, Constantinople. 

Milne, Mr. and Mrs. J. O., Dunoroft, Leatherhead. 

Minohin, Mrs., 149 Banbury Boad, Oxford. 

Minchin, Rev. C. H., The Rectory, Woodstock. 

Mitchell, Rev. Joseph, The Manse, Manchline, Ayrshire, N.B. 

Molony, Miss, 15 Ordnance Road, Southamptcm. 

Monsenr, Prof. E., The University, Brussels* 

Montefiore, Mr. Claude O. and Mrs., Coldeast, SouthamptcHi. 

Montet, Prof. Edouard, The University, Geneva. 

Montgomery, Rev. W., 14 Brunswick Walk, Cambridge. 

Moor, Miss Ursula P., St. Clement's, Truro. 

Moret, Prof. A. and Mme., 22 Avenue Camot, Paris. 

Moss, MIbs Mary, U.S.A. 

Moulton, Rev. Prof. J. H., Didsbury College, Manchester. 

Muhleisen, Mr. W., c/o Miss Hooper, Crescent Lodge, Parktown, Oxford. 

MuUer, Mr. E. B. Ivan, Chelsea Court, Chelsea, 

Muller, Mrs. Max, 7 Norham Gardens, Oxford. 

Murray, Miss M. A., University College, London. 

Myree, Prof. J. L., The University, LiverpooL 

Myres, Rev. M. W., 26 Leckford Road, Oxford. 

Newberry, Prof. P. E. and Mrs., 36 Parkfield Road, Liverpool. 

Nicholson, Miss M., 21 Talgarth Road, West Kensington. 

Nicholson, Mr. and Mrs. R. A., 61 Bateman Street, Cambridge. 

Nordberg, Miss, 48 Wellington Square, Oxford. 

Nordhoff, Mrs. W, 

Norman, Prof. H. C, Queen's College, Benares. 

Nuttall, Mrs. Z., Bemer's Hotel, Bemer's Street, London. 

Oakeley, Miss, 15 Launceston Place, Kensington. 

Odeh, Rev. and Mrs. N., 30 Holywell, Oxford. 

Odgers, Rev. Dr. J. E. and Mrs., 9 Marston Ferry Road, Oxford. 

Oertel, Mr. F. O., Benares. 

Oesterley, Rev. Dr. W. O. E., Glen Roy, Hatch End. 

Oldham, Mr. C. F., The Lodge, Great Bealings, Woodbridge, 

Oltramare, Prof, and Mme. Paul, Avenue de Bosquet, Geneva. 

Oman, Mr. J. Campbell, 38 Greenham Road, Muswell Hill, London. 

Omori, Mr. Z., Japan. 

Orelli, Prof. C. and Miss von, The University, Basel. 

Ormerod, Mr. Henry A., 26 Upper Wimpole Street, London. 

Osier, Prof. W., 13 Norham Gardens, Oxford. 

Oung, Mrs. M. H., 101 Elm Grove Road, Barnes. 

Owen, Mrs. A. A., Surbiton, Warwick Drive, Hale, Cheshire. 

Owen, Miss Mary A., 306 North Nmth Street, St. Joseph, Mo.. U.S.A. 



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List of Members xv 

FEurgiter, Mr. F. E., 12 Charlbury Road, Oxford. 

P^iTSons, Boy. B. G., University College, Oxford. 

Peabody, Prof. P. G., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 

Peach, Miss M., Langley, Cheltenham. 

Peake, Prof. A, S., Didsbury College, Manchester. 

Penny, BGss, 1 Holywell, Oxford. 

Penrose, BGss, Somerville College, Oxford. 

P^rdval, Mrs. Philip, Kidlington, near Oxford. 

Perreau, Mrs. J. C, 22 Clarence Parade, Southsea. 

Peto, Miss, 11 St. Cross Boad, Oxford. 

Petrie, Prof, and Mrs. W. M. Flinders, University College, London, 

Pickard, Mrs., 5 Canterbury Boad, Oxford. 

Pickard-Cambridge, Mr. and Mrs. A. W., St. Catherine's, Headington 

Hm, Oxford. 
Pierantony, Mme., Cartrev, South Park Boad, Oxford. 
PQcher, Mr. G. T., Treryn, Frith Hill, Godahning. 
Pinches, Dr. Theophilus and Mrs., 38 Blomfield Boad, Maida Hill, 

London. 
Flomptree, Miss C. E., 36 Hamilton Terrace, London. 
Pochin, Miss, The ICanor House, Wigston, Leicester. 
PoUook, Sir Frederick, 21 Hyde Park Place, London. 
Porter, Prof. F. C, Yale University, Newhaven, U.S.A. 
Porter, Bev, Prof, and Mrs. H., Syrian Protestant College, Beyrout* 
Poussin, Prof, de la Vall^, The University, Ghent. 
Poynter, Miss, 15 Park Terrace, Oxford. 
Preuss, Dr. K., 110 Schlossstr., StegUtz, Berlin. 
Probsthain, Mr. Arthur A., 41 Great Bussell Street, London. 
Pollen-BurTy, Miss, Lyceum Club, Piccadilly, London. 

Quemer, Miss H., 40 Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool. 

Baby, Mr. J. P., 117 Woodstock Boad, Oxford. 

Badiguet, Bev. Dr. J., St. Ursanne, Switzerland. 

Bae, Mrs. J., Glenelly, Chislehurst. 

Bahman, Mr. M. A., 138 Walton Street, Oxford. 

Baleigh, Sir Thomas, All Souls College, Oxford. 

Bashdall, Bev. Dr. and Mrs., 18 Long Wall Street, Oxford. 

Bausoher, Pfarrer, 30 Hegelstrasse, Stuttgart. 

Bawlence, Miss E., c/o Miss BeU, Old Headington. 

Beinach, M. Salomon, Paris. 

BeuterskiSd, Dr. Edgar, Upsala. 

Bevon, Prof. Michel, Le Moutier d'Orgerus, Seine-et-Oise. 

Bh^, Prof. SirJIJohn and Miss, Jesus College, Oxford. 

Bidding, Miss C. M., Cambridge. 



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xvi International Congress for the History of Religions 

Bipon, Right Boy. the Lord Bishop of, Bipon. 

Boe, Sir Charles, 1 Holjrwell, Oxford. 

Bogers, Miss, 26 Woodstock Boad, Oxford. 

Bose, Miss, Edinburgh. 

Bosenberg, Miss Ethel, 2 Luxembourg Gardens, Brook Green, London. 

Boss, Mrs. Alex., 18 Upper Westboume Terrace, London. 

Bost, Major E. B., 101 Ekn Grove Boad, Barnes. 

Bouse, Prof. W. H. D., Persse School, Cambridge. 

Boutledge, Mr. and Mrs. W. S. 

Buete, Mrs. B. Said, Combe Bank, near Sevenoaks. 

Bussell, Hon. Mrs. B., Bagley Wood, Oxford. 

Sanday, Bev. Prof. W., Christ Church, Oxford. 

Sands, Miss, Newington House, Wallingford. 

Saunders, Mr. T. Bailey, Fern Lodge, Milnthorpe Boad, Eastbourne. 

Sayce, Bev. Prof. A. H., Queen's College, Oxford. 

Scatcherd, Miss, Blgmore House, Hastings. 

Schiller, Dr. F. C. S., Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 

Schmidt, Prof. Karl, The University, Berlin. 

Schmidt, Prof. Waldemar, National Museum, Copenhagen. 

Schuster, Mrs. Edgar, 110 Banbury Boad, Oxford. 

Scott, Mr. Walter and Miss, 6 Lathbury Boad, Oxford. 

ScuUard, Bev. Dr. H. H., Cardington, Station Boad, Hendon. 

Segal, Bev. M. H., 6 Tackley Place, Oxford. 

Selenka, Madame, 9" Leopoldstr., Munich. 

Seligmann, Dr. C. G. and Mrs., 15 York Terrace, Begent's Park, London. 

Sharpe, Miss E. M. C, Woodroffe, Portarlington Boad, Bournemouth. 

Sheavyn, Miss, Ashbum House, Victoria Park, Manchester. 

Shields, Mr. Cuthbert, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 

Shrubsole, Mr. 0. A., 40 Craven Boad, Beading. 

Sidgwick, Mrs. A., 64 Woodstock Boad, Oxford. 

Sieveking, Mr. A. Forbes, 12 Seymour Street, Portman Square, London. 

Simpson, Mrs. A., 14 Cadogan Street, Draycott Avenue, London. 

Sinclair, Miss. 

Skeat, Mr. W. W., Bomeland Cottage, St. Albans. 

Skipwith, Mr. G. H., 21 Lenton Avenue, The Park, Nottingham. 

Skrine, Bev. J. H., 4 South Park Boad, Oxford. 

Smith, Miss A. B., 26 Kildare Terrace, Westboume Grove, London. 

Smith, Miss E. Toulmin, 1 The Terrace, Park Town, Oxford. 

Smith, Miss L. Toulmin, 1 The Terrace, Park Town, Oxford. 

Smith, Mr. L. Pearsall, Court Place, Iffley. 

Smith, Mr. Vincent A., Hazelwood, The Park, Cheltenham. 

Snow, Mr. T. C, St. John's College, Oxford. 

Soderblom, Prof. Dr. N., Upsala. 



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A 



IJst of Members xvii 

Spencer, Be v. F. A. M. and Miss, 38 Beaumont Street, Oxford. 

Spencer, Miss Marianne, 8 Osberton Road, Oxford* 

Spilsbury, Rev. Dr. J. H. Gybbon, St. John's Parsonage, Stansted, 
Essex. 

Stable, Mr. Ernest R., 135 Divinity Road, Oxford, 

Stables, Mrs. Hervey, Mr. H. R. and Miss, Apsley Paddox, Summer- 
town, Oxford. 

Staehlin, Pfarrer W., Nuremberg. 

Stafforth, Rev. J., 16 White Lion Street, London. 

Stannard, Mrs. Jane, London. 
-^ Stephens, Mr. H. C, Cholderton, near SaUsbury. 

Stock, Mr. St. George, 16 Museum Road, Oxford. 

Streeter, Rev. B. H., Queen's College, Oxford. 

Strong, Mrs. S. A., 38 New Cavendish Street, London. 

Suzuki, Mr. D. T., Chicago. 

Swann, Miss, 141 Woodstock Road, Oxford. 

Symonds, Ihr. H. P., 35 Beaumont Street, Oxford. 

Tao, Mr. Lul Ti, Chinese Legation, 49 Portland Place, London* 

Tappan, Miss, U.S.A. 

Teano, Prince of, Palazzo Castari, Rome. 

Teape, Rev. W. M., South Hylton Vicarage, Sunderland. 

Temple, Sir R. C, The Nash, Worcester. 

Temple, Mrs., 8 Keble Road, Oxford. 

Thackeray, Miss, The Orchard, Banbury Road, Oxford. 

Thatcher, Rev. G. W., Mansfield College, Oxford. 

Thibaut, Prof. G., Mrs., and Misses, Calcutta. 

Thirlwall, Miss B. K. C, The Grange, Timperley, Altrincham, Cheshire. 

Thomas Miss, 8 South Park Road, Oxford. 

Thomas, Rev. A. H., Penrhos, Elm Road, Leicester. 

Thompson, Miss S., Glenelly, Chislehurst. 

Thompson, Mr. Maurice S., Garthlands, Reigate Heath, Surrey. 

Tiddeman, Mrs. R. H., 175 Banbury Road, Oxford. 

Tims, Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Marett, King's College, Cambridge. 

Titius, Prof, and Erau, The University, Gottingen. 

Tomkinson, Miss, Franche Hall, Kidderminster. 

Toth, Mr. Lewis, L6va, Szepesi u. B., Hungary. 

Toutain, Prof, and Mme, 25 Rue du Four St. Germain, Paris. 

Tojmbee, Mrs. A., 10 Norham Gardens, Oxford. 

Troup, Mr. James, 53 Abingdon Court, London. 

Tupper, Sir L., Crosswood House, Mottam Road, East Molesey. 

Tyau, Mr. P. K. C, 153 Highbury New Park, London. 

Tylor, Prof, and Mrs. E. B., Museum House, Oxford. 

Tyndale, Mrs., 8 Fyfield Road, Oxford. 



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xviii International Congress for the History of Religions 

Vernon, Rev. Prof. A. W., Yale University, Newhaven, U.S.A. 
Vrooman, Mr. and Mrs. F. B., 1717 8. Street, Washington, U.S.A. 

Waoe, Mr. A. J. B., Calverton House, Stony Stratford. 

Waoha, Mr. D. E., 84 Hornby Road, Bombay. 

Waidale, Miss, 3 Norham Road, Oxford. 

Warrilow, Mr. H. C. and Miss, 51 Banbury Road, Oxford. 

Wateon, Miss, Invermore, Oxford. 

Watflon, Rev. E. W., CJhrist CJhurch, Oxford. 

Webb, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. J., Holywell Ford, Oxford. 

Weld, Miss A. O., 119 Iffley Road, Oxford. 

Whinfield, Mr. £. H., St. Margaret's, Beulah Hill, Norwood, London. 

Whitehouse, Rev. Dr. Owen C, Morley Lodge, Brooklands Avenue, 

Cambridge. 
Whitmarsh, Mrs., 139 Woodstock Road, Oxford. 
Whittuck, Rev. C. A., St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. 
Whittuok, Mr. £. A., Glaverton Manor, Bath. 
Whitwell, Vi. and Mrs. R. J., 70 Banbury Road, Oxford. 
Wiokremasinghe, Don M. de Z., Indian Institute, Oxford. 
Williams, Colonel 0., 18 Lathbury Road, Oxford. 
Wood, Rev. Fergus, The Vicarage, Caterham Valley. 
Woods, Miss, 125 Victoria Street, Westminster. 
Wordsworth, Miss, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. 
Worthington, Miss £. M., 20 Gayton Rood, Hampstead. 

Yoshimoto, Mr. Tadasu, Tokyo, Japan, 
Young, Mr. G. W., 33 Beaumont Street, Oxford. 

Zmigrodski, Dr. M. de, Sucha, bei Krakau, Galicia, Austria. 



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RULES OF THE CONGRESS 

I. The course of the Congress, with the selection of papers to be 
read, shall be regulated by the Executive Committee. The Com- 
mittee shall also undertake financial arrangements. 

n. On the opening of the Congress, the President of the Congress 
and the Presidents of Sections shall ex officio become members of the 
Executive Committee, but without pecuniary liability. 

m. On each day of the Congress the Executive Committee shall 
meet at 1.0 p.m., in the Examination Schools, Room 18. 

rV. In each Section there shall be a President, one or more Vice- 
Presidents, and a Secretary. The President shall arrange for chair- 
manship of sectional meetings with the Vice-Presidents. The 
Secretary shall keep minutes of meetings and secure the MS. or ap 
abstract of all papers read. 

V. Papers can be read or brought before the Congress only by 
Members. 

VI. English, French, Grerman, and Italian are the recognized 
languages of the Congress. 

VII. After the reader of a paper has proceeded for thirty minutes, 
the Chairman shall interpose and ask him to complete the paper 
within five minutes. 

VIIL Discussions shall be allowed at sectional meetings only. 
No one taking part in such discussions shall speak for more than 
five minutes. 

IX. If any reader or speaker contravenes the fundamental rule of 
the Congress which excludes confessional and dogmatic discussions, 
the Chairman of the meetigg shffll promptly intervene. 

X. The Addresses of Presidents of Sections shall be printed in 
full in the Transactions* Other papers shall be printed in abstract at 
a length not exceeding 2,000 words, except by special invitation of 
the Papers Sub-Committee. 

XI. Papers by members who are prevented from being present by 
illness, or by absence from England, may be read at the discretion of 
the President of the Section, who shall have regard to the circum- 
stances of each day^s proceedings. 

b2 



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PROGRAMME 

SECTION I. RELIGIONS OF THE 
LOWER CULTURE 

President, Mb. E. S. Habtland. Secretary, Mb. B. B. Mabstt 

Sbftbbcbbb 15 

Mom. Mr. E. S. Habtland (Gloucester) : President's Address p. 21 
Mr. EowABD Glodd (London): ' Pre-animistic Stages in 

Beligion' p. 33 

Discussion by Messrs. CSalderon, Marett, Hodson, Hartland, 

Sir F. PoUock, and Mrs. Nuttall. 

Aft. Dr. K. Th. Pbbuss (Berlin) : ' Die Astralreligion in Mexiko 

in Torspanischer Zeit und in der Qegenwart ' « p. 36 

Mr. David MaoBitohib (Edinburgh): ' Idol- Worship among 

the Arctic Baces of Europe and Asia ' , • • p. 41 

Sxptbmbbb 16 

Mom. Mr. B. B. Mabstt (Oxford) : * The Ck)nception of Mana ' p. 46 
Discussion by Messrs. Jevons, Preuss, HoUis, Seligmann, 
CSalderon, and Hartland. 
Mr. T. C. HoDSON (London): 'Funerary Customs and Eschato- 
logical Beliefs of the Assam Hill Tribes' • . p. 58 

Discussion by Messrs. Dickson, Levison, Marett, Seligmann» 
and Hartland. 
Aft. Prof. W. M. FuNDEBS Pbtbib (London) : Exhibition of Prayer- 
Tablets with Ears, from Memphis. 
Dr. C. O. SxuGHANK (London) : 'The Vedda Cult of the 
Dead* ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ • . • p. 5» 
No discussion. Madame Selenka exhibited gramophone 
records of Veddah songs. 

Ssftbmbsb 17 

Mom. Principal F. B. Jxygns (Durham) : 'Magic' • . p. 71 
Discussion by Gount d'Alviella, Messrs. Marett, Calderon, 
Hobhouse, Preuss, M<!Dougall, Hartland, and Mrs. Colby. 
Miss L. Eokbnstbin (London) : 'Personal Amulets' . p. 7d 
Discussion by Messrs. Marett, Gaster, and Calderon. 



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"^1 



Programme xxi 

Aft. ^ Mr. £. S. Habtlaih) (Olouoester) : * Cult of Executed Criminals 

in Sicily' (lAntem Dlustrations) . . p. 83 

Mifls PuixsK-BuBBY (London) : 'Data with regard to the Belief 

of some South Sea Savages' p. 84 

Discussion by Messrs. Nutt and Hartland. 
Prof. Dr. A. Tmus (GK>ttingen) : 'Prof. Scheppig's Forschungen 

iiber die Naturvolker' p. .85 

Discussion by Messrs. Pteuss and Maiett. 
Mr. A. C.HoLLis (Mombasa): 'The Religion of the Nandi' p. 87 
Discussion by Messrs. Hommel, Prouss, Marett, Hodson, 
and Seligmann. 

Seftembbb 18 

Mom. Bev.^ J. H..Gybpon ^pilsbuby (London) j 'Religious Beliefs 

of the Principal Native Tribes of South America' p. 91 

Discussion by Messrs. Driver, Preuss, Marett, Tflor, and 

Hartland. 

Mf . W. W. Skbat (Okmbridge) : * Vestiges of Totemism in the 

Malay Peninsula* • ' . • • • p. 95 

Discussion by Messrs. Preuss, Levison, Marett, Marshall, 

and Hartland. 

Miss Maby a. Owbn (St. Joseph) : ' The Messiah Beliefs of 

the American Indians ' p. 101 



SECTION II. RELIGIONS OF CHINA AND 

JAPAN 

Pre&idetU, Pbof. H. A. Gilbs. Secretary, Lie. H. Hackmaiyn 

Seftembbb 15 

Mom. Mr. H. J. Allen (Leamington) : * The Connexion between 

Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism in early Days ' p. 115 

Mr. D. T. Suzuki (Chicago) : * The Doctrine of the Bodhisat- 

tva' p. 119 

Discussion by Miss Campbell-Lang and Messrs. Assagioli, 

de Groot, and Hackmann» 

Aft. Ptof . M. Anesaki (Tokyo) : ' Honen, the Pietist Saint of 

Japanese Buddhism ' (read by Dr. Carpenter) • p. 122 

Ms. Zbvkai X)mobi (Japan) : ' A History -of the Zen Shu in 

Japan * (read by Dr. Carpenter) . • • .p. 128 



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xxU International Congress for the History of Riligions 



Sbptbmbeb 16 

Horn. Rev. Prof. A. Lloyd (Tokyo) : * The Ophite Gnostics and the 

Pure Land Sect in Japan ' p. 132 

Discussion by Sir C. Eliot. 
Lie. H. Haokmank (London) : ' Pai Chang Ch'ing Kuei, the 
Rules of Buddhist Monastic Life in China ' . .p. 137 
Discussion by Messrs. de Groot, Hare, and Sir C. Eliot. 
Aft. Ptof . Dr. J. J. M. de Gboot (Leiden) : ^ On the Origin of the 

Taoist Church ' p. 138 

Discussion by Messrs. Allen, Hackmann, and Assagioli. 
Mr. Zbkkai Omobi (Japan) : * Principles of Practice and 
EnUghtenment of the Soto Zen Shu ' (read by Dr. Car- 
penter) ^•••^•« •P* 1^ 

SSPTBMBBB 17 

Mom. Prof. H. A. Giles (Cambridge) : President's Address • p. 105 

Prof. M. Anbsaki (Tokyo): * Buddhist Influence upon the 

Japanese ' (read by Dr. Carpenter) • • .p. 154 

Sbptembbb 18 

Morn. Mr. J. Cabby Hall (Yokohama): 'A Japanese Philosopher 

on Shinto ' p. 158 

M. MiOHBL Bbvon (Le Moutier d'Orgerus) : ^ Les Anciens 
Rituels du Shinto consid6r6s comme Formules Ma- 
giques * ••••••••p. 165 



SECTION III. EGYPTIAN RELIGION 

President, Pbof. W. M. Flindbbs Pbtbib. Secretary, Mb. A. H. 

Gabdikbb 

Septbmbbb 15 

Mom. M. J. Capabt (Brussels)^ *A propos des Statuettes de 

Meuniers -«••••• »«p. 201 

Discussion by Messrs.. Oardiner, Newberry, Moret, and 

Petrie. 

Mr.) Alan H. Oabdinbb (London) : ' Notes on Egyptian 

Magic *« •p. 208 

J>iscu06ion^by Messrs. Newberry, Petrie, and Miss Eokenstein. 



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Programme xxiii 

SlPTBMBBB 16. 

Horn. Prof. Pbbot £. Nbwbbbby (Liverpool) : ' BemarkB on some 

Early Egyptian Cults* p. 211 

J>iflo«s8ion by MesscB. Ghkrdiner and Petrie. 
Prof. Waldibmab Schmidt (Copenhagen) : ' The Treatment of 

the Dead in Egypt ' p. 213 

Discussion by Messrs. Qardiner and Petrie. 

SBPmCBBB 17 

Mom. Prof. A. Mobxt (Paris) : ' Sur un Texte Belatif au Colte du 

BoienEgypte' p. 216 

Discussion by Messrs. Capart, Petrie, G^ardiner, and Newberry. 
IGss MxTBaAY (London) : ' Priesthoods of Women in 

• Egypt' p. 220 

Discussion by Messrs. Newberry, Gardiner, and Petrie. 

Sbptbmbbb 18 

Mom. Prof. W. M. Fundbbs Petkib (London) : President's 

Address p. 185 

Prof. W. M. Fundbbs Pxtbib (London) : ' Historical Refer- 
ences in Hermetic Writings' p. 224 

Discussion by Sir. H. Howorth. 
Prof. W. M. Flindbbs Pbtbib (London) : * Outline of a 
Treatise on Egyptian Asceticism ' (not printed). 
Discussion by Sir H. Howorth, Mr. Odgers, and Miss Ecken- 
stein. 
Freiherr W. VOK Bissino (Munich) : * Notes on some Paintings 
from Pompeii referring to the Cult of Lus ' (read by Prof. 

OrenfeU) p. 225 

Discussion by Messrs. Milne and Petrie. , 



SECTION IV. RELIGIONS OF THE SEMITES 

PreBidenJty Pbof. Morris Jastrow, jun. Secretary, Rev. 6. W. 

Thatcher 

Sbptsmbbr 15 

Mom. Prof. Morris Jastrow, jun. (Philadelphia) : * Hepatoscopy 
and Astrology in Ancient Babylonia ' (not printed). 
Discussion by Messrs. Hommel, Eisler, and Sir H. Howorth. 



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xxiv International Congress for the History of Religions 

Br. Stbphbn Langdon (Oxford) : ^ A Chapter from the 
Babylonian Books of Private Penance * • • .p. 249 
Disoossion by Br. Hommel. 
Prof. J. G. Frazbb (Liverpool) : * Two Notes on Hebrew Polk- 

Lore ' « • « p. 255 

Biscussion by Messrs. Hommel and Hogg. 
Aft. Prof. MoBKis Jastbow, jun. (Philadelphia) : President's 

Address p. 231 

Mr. Stanley A. Ck>OK (Cambridge) : * The Religion of Canaan 

at the Time of the Israelite Invasion ' . . .p. 259 

Bev. Br. H. J. Bttkinfiblb Astley (East Budham) : * Traces 

of Animism and Totemism in the Old Testament * p. 263 

Biscussion by Messrs. Bumey and Gray. 

Sbptembbb 16 

Mom. Prof. Paul Haupt (Baltimore) : ' The Religion of the Hebrew 

Prophets* p. 268 

Biscussion by Messrs. Hogg and Porter. 
Mr. G. H. Skipwith (Bordighera) : ' The Genesis of Israel * 
(not printed). 
Biscussion by Messrs. Haupt, Gray, Hogg, S. A. Cook, and 
Driver. 
Aft. Ptof . Br. A. Bebtholbt (Basel) : * The Religious-Historical 

Problem of Later Judaism * p. 272 

Biscussion by Messrs. Petrie and Gaster. 
Rev. Br. Owen C. Whitbhouse (Cambridge) : * Some Problems 
suggested by the Recent Biscoveries of Aramaic Papyri at 
Syene (Assuftn) « . • • • • « p. 280 

Biscussion by Messrs. Gaster and Kennedy 

Septembeb 17 

Mom. (General Meeting.) Prof. Br. Conbad von Obelli (Basel) : 
' Religious Wisdom as cultivated in Old Israel in common 

with Neighbouring Peoples ' p. 284 

Rev. Prof. B. S. Mabgoliouth (Oxford) : * Notice of the 
Writings of Abu 'Abdallah Al-Hftrith b. Asad Al-MuhfisibI, 

the Krst Soft Author p. 292 

Biscussion by Br. Gaster. 
Mr. R. A. Nicholson (Cambridge) : * The Oldest Persian 

Manual of Sufiism ' p. 293 

Biscussion by Messrs. Margoliouth, Porter, Hare, Mrs. 
Stannard, and Miss Rosenberg. 



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Programme xxv 

Aft. Dr. M. Gastbb (London) : * Popular Judaism at the Time of 
the Second Temple in the light of Samaritan Tradi- 
tions ' • « « p. 298 

Discussion by Prof. Davies. 
Ptof . PaulHIuft (Baltimore) : 'The Ethnology of Galilee* p. 302 
Discussion by Messrs. Calderon, Saunders, Whitehouse, 
Burkitt, Astley, and Gaster. 

Sbptbmbxb 18 

Mom. (General Meeting.) Bev. Dr. B. H. Chablxs (Oxford) : 
' Man's Forgiveness of his Neighbour — a Study in Beligious 

Development • p. 305 

Prof. T. W. Abnold (London) t * Survivals of Hinduism among 

the Muhammadans of India * • • • .p. 314 

Discussion by Messrs Orelli, Porter, Irvine, Margoliouth, 

Grierson, and Mrs. Stannard. 

Miss E. BosBNBXBO (London) : ' Bahaism : its Ethical and 

Social Teachings' «, p. 321 

Discussion by Messrs. Porter and Margoliouth. 
Prof. H. W. Hogg (Manchester) : ' The Starting-point of the 
Beligious Message of Amos ' .... p. 325 
Discussion by Mr. S. A. Cook. 



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xxvi International Congress for the History ofReUgions 



VOLUME II 

SECTION V. RELIGIONS OF INDIA AND 

IRAN 

PresidefUy Peop. T. W. Rhys Davids, Secretory,' Pbop. A. A, 

Macdonell 

ssptbmbsb 15 

Mom. Prof. A. HiLLEBltANDT (Breslau) : * What to learn from Vedic 

Mythology' p. 10 

Discussion by Messrs. Grierson, Mazumdar, Oertel, and 
Rhys Davids. 
Aft. IVof . Dr. Paul Dbus^en (Kiel) : * tJber die Chronologie der 

Upanishadtexte ' p. 19 

Discussion by Prof. Hillebrandt and Mrs. Rhys Davids. 
Prof. Dr. Juuus Jolly (Wiirzburg) : * On the Systematic Study 
and Religious Importance of Eastern, particularly Indian, 

Lawbooks' p. 25 

Discussion by Messrs. Mazumdar and Pargiter. 

Septebcbeb 16 

Mom. Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids (Manchester) : President's 

Address p. 3 

Prof. L. DE LA VallAe Poussin (Gand) : ' Faith and Reason 

in Buddhism' p. 32 

Mrs. Foley Rhys Davids (Manchester) : ' Knowledge and 

Intuition in Buddhism' p. 43 

Joint discussion by Messrs. Poussin, Carpenter, Hoey, 

Deussen, Mazumdar, and Mrs. Rhys Davids. 

Aft. Dr. G. A. Gbiebson (Camberley) : * The Monotheistic Religion 

of Ancient India, and its Descendant the Modem Hindu 

Doctrine of Faith ' . • . • . . p. 44 

Prof. L. D. Babkett (London) : * Some Notes on the History 

of the Religion of Love in India' • • • p. 48 

Joint discussion by Mr. Mazumdar, continued next morning 

by Messrs. Kane, Pargiter, Coomaraswamy, Bhys Davids, 

and Thibaut. 



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Programme xxvii 

SiPTBBCBEB 17 

Mom. (General Meeting.) Dr. J. Gbnnadius (London) : * Demetrius 

GalanoB, the Greek Indologist * . . p. 106 

Mr. A. Bbbsiedalb Kbith (London) : ' The Vedic Mahft- 

vrata* p, 49 

(Abstract read by Prof. Macdonell.) 
Discussion by Messrs. Hillebrandt, Grierson, and Pargiter. 
Prof. Chablbs Lanman (Harvard) : ' Buddhaghosa and '' the 

Way of Purity " (Visuddhi-Magga) ' (not printed). 
Prof. Dr. H. Jaoobi (Bonn) : ' The Metaphysics and Ethics of 

the Jainas ' p. 59 

Discussion by Prof. Poussin. 
M. H. Cajobblynok (Amiens ): *Le Nirvana' (not read) p. 66 
Afk (a) Prof. Paul Oltbamabb (Geneva) : ' Pisychologie Beligieuso 

et Bouddhisme' p. 67 

Discussion by Prof, and Mrs. Rhys Davids. 
Bhikkhu Ananda Msttbyya (Ceylon) : ^ Religious Experience 

in Buddhism ' (not printed). 
(6) Dr. ANAi!n>A K. Coomabaswamt (Broad Campden) : * The 
Relations of Art and Religion in Lidia' . . • p. 70 
Discussion by Messrs. Vincent Smith and P. Gkurdn«r. 
Mr. B. C. Mazumdab (Sambalpur) : ' Two Problems relating 
to the History of Lidian Religions ' • • • p. 74 
Discussion by Messrs. Coomaraswamy and Jolly. 
Even. (General Meeting.) Prof. A. A. Maodonbll (Oxford) : ' Buddhist 

ReUgious Art' p. 74 

(General Meeting.) Prof. P. Gabdneb (Oxford) : * Greek 
Influ^ices on the Religious Art of North Lidia ' p. 79 
(General Meeting.) Prof.W. M. Flindhbs Petbib (London): 
Exhibition of Indian Figures from Memphis. 

SBFTBBiBBB 18 

Mom. (a) Dr. W. A. db Silva (Colombo) : * A Note on some Sermons 

of early Buddhist Missionaries' . . . p. 85 

Prof. H. C. NoBMAN (Benares) : ' The Kalki Avatara of Vifnu ' 

(read by Prof. Macdonell) • • • • • p. 85 

(&X Rd^ Pro(. Jasp» HpFBl^oxTLTOK (Manchester) : * Syncretism 

in Religion as illustrated in the History of Parsism ' p. 89 

Discussion by Messrs. Davies, Soderblom, Rhys Davids, and 

. JoUy.M* 

Mr. Nasabvakji Manbgkji Goopbb (Df ord) : * The Zoroastrian 

Code of Gentlehood ' p. 100 

Discussion by Prof. Moulton. 



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xxviii International Congress for the History of Religions 



SECTION VI. RELIGIONS OF THE GREEKS 
AND ROMANS 



President, M. Salomon Beinagh. Secretary, Me. A. B. Cook 
Sbptbmbbb 15 

Mom. Prof. J. Toutain (Paris) : * L'Histoire des Religions et le 

ToWmisme ' p. 121 

Discussion by Messrs. Fourriere, Granger, and Famell. 

Principal F. B. Jbvons (Durham) : 'Defixionum Tabellae' p. 131 

Discussion by Messrs. Odgers and Bouse. 

Aft. M. Salomon Bbinaoh (Paris) : President's Address » p. 117 

Dr. L. B. Fabnell (Oxford) : ^ Questions concerning the 

Dionsnsdac Bites of Sacrifice ' .... p. 139 

Discussion by Messrs. Beinach, Frazer, and Sir H. Howorth. 

Sbptembbb 16 

Mom. Prof. Lewis Campbell (London) : ' The Beligious Element in 

Plato' p. 140 

Miss Jane Ellen Habbison (Cambridge) : ' Bird and Pillar 

Worship in Connexion with Ouranian Divinities* (read 

by Mr. A. B. Cook) , . . . p. 164 

Discussion by Messiis. Duhn, Evans, Eisler, and Hommel* 

Aft. Mr. St. Gbobge Stock (Oxford) : * The Daemon in 

Stoicism '........ p. 164 

Discussion by Messrs. A. B. Cook, Beinach, and Eisler. 
Mr. T. B. Gloveb (Cambridge) : * Daemons in the Bevival of 

Paganism ' p. 165 

Discussion by Messrs. Beinach, Moulton, Miss Murray, and 
Miss Eckenstein. 

Septembeb 17 

Mom. Mr. W» Wabde Fowleb (Oxford) : * The Latin History of the 
Word "Beligio"* • • • • • • p. 169 

Discussion by Prof. Toutain. 
Dr. J. Bendel Habbis (Birmingham) : * Some Points in the 
Cult of the Heavenly Twins ' • • J • . p. 176 
Discussion by Messrs. Hommel, Pinches, Fraz^, Hogg, 
A. B. Cook, and Moulton. 



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Programme xxix 

Aft, Mr. P. C. CoNYBBARE (Oxford) : ' The Baetul in Damas^i 

oius ...«••••• p. 177 

M. E. FouRBiiBE (Moislains) : ' Le Culte du Soleil et les 

Saorifiees Humains chez les Grecs ' « .p. 183 

SsPTBliBEB 18 

Mom. Mr. A. B. Cook (Cambridge) : * The Cretan Axe-Cult oataide 
Crete* . . . . « ^ « <» « p. 184 
Disousdon by Messrs. Beinach, Hommel, Frazer, Evans, and 
Famell. 
Dr. BoBBBT EiSLBB (Feldafing) : ' Orpheus and the Fish-Cult 
and Legend ' (not printed). 
Discussion by Messrs. Beinach and A. B. Cook. 
Aft. (General Meeting.) Dr. A. J. Evans (Oxford) : * New Lights 
on the Cult and Sanctuaries of Minoan Crete ' • p. 195 
(Gttieral Meeting.) Prof. Fbakz Cumont ((3and) : * L'Lifluence 
Beligieuse de I'Astrologie dans le Monde Bomain ' p. 197 



SECTION VII. RELIGIONS OF THE GERMANS, 
CELTS, AND SLAVS 

PruiderU, Peof. Sir John Bhys. Secretary^ Prof. Akwyl 
Sbptembeb 15 

Mom. Bev. Canon MaoCullooh (Isle of Skye) : ' The Druids in the 

Light of Becent Theories ' . . « . « p. 226 

Mr. A. L. Lxwis (Wallington) : ^ The Beligion of the Makers of 

the Stone Circles in Britain ' (Lantern Illustrations) p. 231 

Discussion by Sir J. Bhys, Messrs Anwyl, Eisler, and Mitchell. 

SEFTBliBBB 16 

Mom. Prof. Sir John Bhys (Oxford) : President's Address • p. 201 

Prof. K Anwyl (Aber3rstwyth) : ' The Value of the Mabinogion 

for the Study of Celtic Beligion ' . , • « p. 234 

Discussion by Sir J. Bhys and Sir H. Howorth. 

Aft. E. Anitchkoff (St. Petersburg) : ' Old Bussian Pagan Cults * 

(read by Dr. Famell) p. 244 

M; E. FouBBiiBB (M6islains) : ' Ctude^philologique sur les 
Noms propres de Plrlande et de la Grande-Bretagne ' p. 25^ 
Discussion by Sir J. Bhys and Prof. Anwyl. 



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XXX International Congress for the History of Religions 

Sbftembbb 17 

Horn. M. Salomon Bbinaoh (Paris) : ' Qoelia and Epona * • p. 260 
Discussion by Messrs. Frazer and Anwyl. 
Prof. Dr. W.' Golthbb (Rostock) : * Outlines of Early Teutonic 
Religion ' (read by Dr. Famell ; not printed). 
Discussion by Sir J. Rhys, Messrs. Famell, Shrubsole, Mar- 
shall, and Mitchell. 



SECTION VIII. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Preaidenty Pbof. Sanday. Secretary, Db. Babtlett 

SSPTBMBBB 15 

Mom. Prof. F. C. Pobteb (Yale) : * The Place of the Sacred Book in 

the CSiristian Religion ' p. 283 

Prof. Dr. Fbibdbich Loofs (Halle) : * CSirist's Descent into 

HeU' p. 290 

Aft. (General Meeting.) Rev. Prof. Sanday (Oxford) : President's 

Address p. 263 

M. E. GuiMBT (Paris) : ' Les Chretiens d'Antinoe ' . p. 301 

Prof. T. WiTTON Davibs (Bangor) : * The Relation between 

Judaism and Christianity ' p. 303 

Seftbmbbb 16 

Mom. Rev. Prof. Feanois Gbbbnwood Pbabody (Harvard) : * New 
Testament Eschatology and New Testament Ethics * p. 306 
Prof. Dr. E^ST von DobsghOtz (Strassburg) : ' The Signifi- 
cance of Early Christian Eschatology ' • . .p. 312 
Joint discussion by Messrs. Burkitt, P. Gardner, Lake, 
Montefiore, ELane, and Mackintosh. 
Aft. Prof. F. C. BuBKiTT (CJambridge) : ' The Parable of the Wicked 
Husbandmen '.««••«• p. 321 
Discussion by Messrs. Lake and Dobschiitz. 
Dr. K. LmoKB (Jena) : ' Jesus in Jerusalem ' « • « p. 328 
Discussion by Prof. Loofs. 

Seftbmbbb 17 

Mom. The Pbingb of Tbano (Rome) : ' Observations on the Great 
Church of Damascus ' « . • • • p. 333 

Discussion by Messrs. Sanday, Burkitt, Abrahams, and 
Miss Bell. 



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Programme xxxi 

Miss OsBTBUBB LowTHiAiT BsLL (Northallerton) : *' Monasteries 
and Monasticism in Central Asia Minor ' (Lantern Illustra- 
tions) p. 334 

Discussion by M. Beinach. 
Prof. G. BoiifBT-MAURY (Paris) : * Les Confr^es Bdigieuses 
dans llslamisme et les Ordres Ifilitaires dans le CathoU- 

cisme * p. 339 

Aft. Prof. E. Ch. Babut (Montpellier) : *L' Authenticity des Canons 

de Sardique ' p. 345 

Discussion by Prof. Loofs. 
Dr. BoBXBT EiSLBB (Feldafing) : ' The Origins of the Euchar- 
ist' p. 362 

Discussion by the Rev. Prof. Sanday. 
M. H. Cambblyngk (Amiens) : 'L'Origine du Christia- 
nisme' . . . '. '. . . . p. 363 

SSFTBBfBER 18 

Mom. (d) Prof. P. ALPHANDt&Y (Paris) : * Remarques sur le Type 

- Seetaire dans TH^rMologie MMi^vale Latine * • p. 364 

(6) Prof. TbiO HntN (Helsingfors) : ' Sacred Shrines of Catholic 

Art* p. 368 

Discussion by Messrs. DobschQtz, Bonet-Maury, and Burldtt. 
Mr. F. C. OomrBBABB (Oxford) : 'The Use kA Sacred 

Names ' p. 368 

Discussion by Messrs. Lake, Abrahams, Montgomery, Emmet, 
Dobsohiite, and Miss Scatcherd. 



SECTION IX, METHOD AND SCOPE OF 
THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS 

President, Count Goblbt d'Alviblla. Secretary, Mb. C. C. J. Wbbb 

Sbptembeb 15 

Mom. Prof. Jambs H. Lbuba (Philadelphia) : ' The Psychological 

Origm of Religion ' p. 380 

Prof. Dr. P. Dbussbn (Kiel) : ' Materlalismus, Kantianismus 

und Religion ' p. 383 

Discussion by Messrs. Saunders and Oalloway. 
Aft. Mr. I. Abrahams (Cambridge) : ' A Pragmatic View of Com- 
parative Religion ' p. 388 

Discussion by the Rev. L. H. Jordan. 
Prof. J. Mabx Baldwin (Baltimore) : ' The Genetic Study of 
Religion ' (read by Mr. Webb) . . • . p. 389 



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xxxii International Congress for the Histm^ of Religions 

Sbptbmbbb 16 

Morn. (General Meeting.) Count Goblet d'Alviella (Brussels): 

President's Address p. 365 

Prof. Dr. Nathan Sodbbblom (Upsala) : * The Place of the 
Christian Trinity and the Buddhist Triratna amongst Holy 

Triads' p. 391 

Discussion by Count d'Alviella and Mr. Webb. 
Prof. BiCHABD M. Mbybb (Berlin) : ' Mythologische Studien 

aus der Neueren Zeit ' p. 411 

Aft. Prof. Dr. A. Tmns (Gottingen) : ' Das Verhaltnis von Religions- 

geschichte und Beligionspsychologie ' . .p. 412 

Mr. C. C. J. Wbbb (Oxford) : ' On Some Recent Movements in 

Philosophy considered in Relation to the Philosophy of 

Religion' ^ p. 416 

Sbptbmbbb 17 

Mom. Rev. Principal Alfbbd E. Gabvib (London) : ' The Develop- 
ment of the Conception of God ' » . » p. 424 
Discussion by the Rev. Dr. Gralloway. 
Rev. Loins H. Jobdan (Toronto) : ' The Relation of Com- 
parative Religion to the History of Religions . p. 427 
Discussion by Count d'Alviella, Messrs. Garvie, and Saunders. 

Sbptbmbbb 18 

Mom. Prof. L. T. Hobhousb (London) : ' Comparative Religion and 

Sociology ' p. 433 

Discussion by Count d'Alviella, Messrs. Hodson, and Calderon. 
Mr. A. Ebnbst Cbawlby (Derby) : ' The Social Djmamics 

of Religion ' p. 445 

Discussion by Rev. Principal Garvie. 



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FIRST GENERAL MEETING 

Thb Congress was opened with a General Meeting on the 
morning of September 15. After Professor P. Gardner » as Chair- 
man of the Local Committee, had formally declared the Congress 
open, the Pro-Vicb-Chanobllob (the Principal of Brasenose) 
said : ' On behalf of the University, I desire to offer a hearty 
welcome to the Congress. I am very sorry that the Vice- 
Chancellor is not able to be present to receive you, as I am sure 
he would have wished to be. To those who are members of 
the University no explanation of his absence is necessary ; but 
perhaps I may say to those who do not know the University 
so well, that Dr. Warren is the hardest-worked man in the 
University, and it is quite necessary for him to take such Uttle 
holiday as he can. That is the sole reason why he is not here to 
welcome you. 

There are some special reasons why we welcome this Congress 
in Oxford. This is an age of congresses and conferences ; and 
hardly a year passes now without some sort of congress, con- 
ference, or association meeting here. But I do not think we have 
ever had a congress so thoroughly international as this is, and 
that in itself is a reason why we should regard it with interest. 
There is, however, a reason of a more special kind. The im- 
portance of the subjects which this Congress has met to promote 
has long been recognized in Oxford. More than fifty years ago 
Jowett, in his famous book on certain Epistles of St. Paul, had 
an essay on natural religion, in which he pointed out the great 
value of the study of the religions of the world in many ways ; 
and in particular, he said, that the scientific study of the Jewish 
and Christian religions was hardly possible, taken by themselves, 
that it must be taken in connexion with the histories of the 
other religions of the world. This is a statement which would 
be generally accepted nowadays, but it was a notable observation 
at the time it was made ; and that Jowett kept it in his mind 
was evident, for later in his life he was engaged in writing, on 
the various religions of the world, an essay which unfortunately 
never came to completion. What Jowett foreshadowed and 
desired was carried out on a large scale by another Oxford man. 
Max Miiller, who, in his writings on comparative religion, did 



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xxxiv International Congress for the History of Religions 

much to familiarize people with the importance of the subject ; 
but still more in his editions of sacred books, which he began 
exactly sixty years ago with his edition of the Rig Veda, and 
by the publication of the great series of the sacred books of the 
Elast, of which he was the editor, and to which he largely con- 
tributed. I hope we in Oxford may feel a legitimate pride in 
the fact that the University Press has issued fifty sacred books 
of the East, covering the religions of India, China, Persia, and 
the Semitic religions. It was fitting that when, twenty years 
ago, the Gifford lectures were founded, Max Miiller was one of 
the first four lecturers appointed, one for each of the Scottish 
Universities. 

Another of those four was an Oxford man, the Hon. President 
of this Congress, Dr. Tylor, who has represented the study of 
anthropology in Oxford for the last quarter of a century ; and 
to him is due the position which anthropology now occupies in 
the studies of the University. There is one other thing to which 
I would refer ; it is a happy coincidence that the year in which 
the Congress has met in Oxford has also seen the foundation 
of our first lectureship in natural and comparative religion, which 
we owe to the renewed generosity of Dr. Henry Wilde. We are 
glad to have among us the first lecturer in that subject, Dr. Famell, 
who has taken a leading part in organizing this Congress. 

I hope that you who are attending the Congress, many of you, 
perhaps, visiting Oxford for the first time, will carry away with 
you pleasant memories, not only of the papers and discussions 
and of the social intercourse which must form a large and profit- 
able part of any such gathering, but also, so far as you will have 
the opportunity of seeing it, of Oxford itself.' 

A further welcome was given by Professor Gabdnbb, who 
said : ' In very kindly terms the Principal of Brasenose College 
has welcomed the members of the Congress on behalf of the 
University. It is my pleasant duty to add a few words of welcome 
on behalf of the local Committee. 

I hope it will not be of evil omen if I begin by regretting the 
absence from our assembly of some whom we should have 
esi>ecially wished to see. Among these are some Oxford men, 
of whom the Principal has spoken : but I wish to mention one 
more name. Our valued and regretted friend, Professor Henry 
Pelham, was at first the President of the local Committee, and 
his death has been a great loss to us, as to so many causes and 
committees in Oxford. Among continental scholars, three whose 



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First General Meeting xxxv 

presence we were confidently expecting, M, Jean RAville of Paris, 
Professor Dieterich, and Professor Pfleiderer, have quite lately 
passed away. M. B^ville in particular, as the prime mover in 
the institution of these Congresses, we deeply lament, nor can 
we hope altogether to fill his place. Other scholars who had 
intended to join us have been kept away by illness or by domestic 
troubles. But in spite of these sad lacunae, I feel that we to-day 
welcome many of the first authorities of Europe and America 
on the history of religion ; and I know that there is prepared for 
us a rare intellectual treat in the numerous papers and addresses 
which will be brought before us. 

As regards the organization of the Congress, our Conmiittee 
has done its best, I think, with a single eye to the scientific 
value of the Congress and the satisfaction of the members. If 
in some respects our rules may seem somewhat hard and rigid, 
members must remember that decision was necessary, and that 
a few definite rules may be of great advantage in easing the 
course of our proceedings, and may further the general good. 

May I say a few words as to the history of these Congresses, 
and their purpose, as we understand them? Their originator 
was, I believe, M. Jean B^ville, whom to-day we so r^retfully 
miss. At the Paris Exposition of 1900, there was quite a debauch 
of congresses on all possible subjects, from the greatest to the 
least. When I was present there at the first Congress of the 
History of Religions, two other congresses were proceeding, 
a feminist congress, and one on postage stamps ; and it shows 
the inveterate smallness of the human mind that the last was 
the best attended of the three. There may, however, be some- 
thing in the opinion that a congresa with limited scope is more 
likely to prove of use than one which includes a vast field ; and 
on this ground I think it not impossible that our smaller Congress 
may serve as useful a purpose as the larger Historical Congress 
held in August at Berlin. However that be, the Congress of 
the History of Religions held in Paris at the Exposition was 
successful, and has become the first of a series. 

The second Congress was held at Basel in 1904, and was well 
attended. The Swiss city showed the members the kindliest 
hospitality. At the concluding meeting, a wish was expressed 
that the next meeting should be held in Oxford ; and I need 
not tell you that the wish has reached fruition. The Committee 
formed to receive you in Oxford welcomes you with friendliest 
regard. 

c2 



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xxxvi International Congress for the History of Religions 

If there is one thing in our days which tends to the bringing 
together of people of different nationalities, it is the spread of 
science. I am, of course, using the word science in its broader 
and more proper sense, as including the studies concerned with 
history and with man, as well as those concerned with nature. 
Science is rapidly becoming more international. Here there may 
be rivaliy between nations, but there is no hostility ; and there 
is no readier bond between men of different nations than the 
pursuit of similar studies. Sallust long ago said that the best 
foundation for friendship was to desire and to dislike the same 
things. We may add, that to study the same things in the 
same scientific spirit is an admirable basis for fellow-feeling. 

As regards the particular subject of this Congress, I do not 
know the views of all my colleagues on the Committee. But 
I am sure that I express the opinions of others besides myself 
when I put matters thus : — Of all the subjects which can exercise 
the human mind, religion is the most important. And if this 
be the case, considering that in all religions there is a great 
historic element, the study of the history of religion outweighs 
in interest all other branches of history. The modem view of 
history is that it is not like a kaleidoscope of variously coloured 
elements, mingled without law and shifting without method, but 
it is an evolution. Every fact stands in close relation to other 
facts» both contemporary and preceding. All religions, however 
much they may differ in value, have certain features in common, 
and owe their power over mankind to the relations which they 
bear to some sides and faculties of the human spirit. We each 
have a country of our own, but we cannot understand its history 
apart from that of other countries. Most of us have a religion 
which we treasure ; but we cannot fully understand it unless 
we have investigated other religions which in one point or another 
bear analogies to it. And it is the natural and logical sequel 
of the primary ideas of this Congress that the Committee have 
found it desirable to bring the sections together by instituting 
a new section of methodology, to deal more expressly with what 
is common to all religions, as the other sections deal with that 
which various religions have of their own. In so doing I think 
we have added a needed coping-stone to the construction, which 
now stands complete. The Committee invites all members of 
the Congress to enter it, to deposit what they have to give, 
and in return to select what each may find most suited to his 
tastes and his needs.' 



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First General Meeting xxxvii 

Dr. Cabpbntbb then read the Ust of representatiyes delegated to 
attend the CJongress : — 

Oovemmenta : 
France : M. Gkdmet, Paris. 
Belgium : M. Jean Gapart, Brussels. 
Sweden : Profs. Karl Ferdinand Johansson and Nathan Soderblom, 

Upsala. 
n.S.A. : Profs. Paul Haupt, Baltimore, and Morris Jastrow, Jun., 

Philadelphia. 
China : Messrs. Ivan ChSn and Lui Ti Tao. 
Japan : Prof. M. Anesaki, Tokyo. 

VniversiUes : 
Cambridge : Prof. J. 6. Frazer. 
Durham : Principal Dr. Jevons. 
London : Lord Avebury. 

Manchester : Profs. T. W. Rhys Davids and Hope W. Hogg. 
Oxford : Rev. Prof. W. Sanday. 
Sheffield : Vice-Chancellor Sir Charles EUot. 
Edinburgh : Rev. Prof. Paterson cuid Rev. Prof. A. R. S. Kennedy. 
Glasgow : Rev. Prof. H. M. Beckwith Reid. 
Wales : Prof. T. Witton Davies. 
Basel : Profe. C. von OreUi and Dr. A. Bertholet. 
Geneva : Prof. Paul Oltramare. 
Gottingen : Prof. A. Titius. 
Helfiingfors : Prof. Yrjo Him. 
I>ons : Profs. Loret and ViroUeaud. 
MontpeUier : Prof. £. Babut. 
Strassburg : Prof. £. von Dobschiitz. 
Upsala : Prof. N. Soderblom. 
Columbia, New York : Dr. Richard Gottheil and Prof. A. V. Williams 

Jackson. 
Yale : Profs. F. C. Porter and Ambrose W. Vernon. 
Cape of Good Hope : Mr. Thomas Loveday. 
Calcutta : Prof. 6. Thibaut. 
Madras : Dr. D. Duncan. 
Sydney: Mr. H. E. Barff. 
Tokyo, Japan : Prof. M. Anesaki. 

Academies : 

British Academy : Profs. F. C. Burkitt and T. W. Rhys Davids. 
EScole des Hautes-£tudes : Profs. Alphand^ and Toutain. 
Acad6mie Royale, Brussels : Count Goblet d'AlvieUa and Prof. 

Franz Cumont. 
Royal Bavarian Academy : Prof. Julius Jolly, Wiirzburg. 
SyUogos of Constantinople : Dr. J. Gennadius. 
American Academy: Prof . G. F. Moore. 
Aoadem7 of Etschmiadzin : Dr. Erwand Ter-Minassiantz. 
Syrian College of Beiriit : Rev. Prof. Harvey Porter. 

Museum: 
Mus6e Guimet, Paris : Prof. Alexandre Moret. 



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xxxviii International Congress for the History of Religions 

On behalf of the Bepresentatiyes of Foreign Governments, 
M. GuncET replied : 

' Mbsdambs, Mbssibubs — 
Vous venez d'entendre la brillante liste des d616gu6s envoy^ 
au Congr^s par les Gouvernements Strangers, et vous devez vous 
demander, pourquoi oe n'est pas un de ces savants qui a dt6 
charge de parler ce matin. Je crois que c'est justement leur 
valeur qui a causd I'embarras, il 6tait di£Scile de cr6er une pr6s6ance 
entre les nations ; il dtait dangereux de faire nattre des jalousies 
entre les savants, et Ton a eu recours k un amateur, k un dilettante 
en sciences, k un, comment dirai-je ? . . . un docteur es-ignorance, 
qui n'a pas d'autres m^rites que de vouloir s'instruire, d'aimer 
la science et de vouloir surtout instruire les autres. 

C'est une belle science que vous cultivez, Messieurs ; elle est 
noble, elle est digne, elle est 61ev6e et elle est aussi utilitaire. 

Votre President vient de vous le dire : "les fondateurs de 
religions ont produit un effet imm6diat sur leurs contemporains/' 
Us ont pens6 que la morale 6tait Tart de rendre les gens heureux, 
et ils se sont prSoccup^ d'am^liorer les moeurs et d'organiser 
la prosp^rit^ ! 

Lao-Tzen a voulu que le peuple trouvat les solutions. II disait 
''le bonheur est dans la perfection" et Thomme en se faisant 
parfait, grace k I'exemple et aux conseils, rend parfaits ceux qui 
Tentourent ; il les rend heureux. 

Confucius ^tait un organisateur, un prof esseur de gouvemement. 
"Aime le prochain comme ton fils,'' disait-il. H organiaa la 
famille, voulut que le respect f At une vertu. II a donn6 k la 
Chine des sidcles et des sidcles de paix sociale et de richesse. 

Sakia-Mouni prechait la charit6, I'amour de I'humanit^ et de 
toutes les cr^tures. H 6tait plein de mansu^tude, et par sa 
douceur il a bris6 les castes. 

J^sus a lib^r^ les esclaves, il nous a dit de nous aimer les uns 
les autres ; il s'est adress6 aux humbles pour les exalter ; il 
a r^volutionn^ le monde. 

A cdt6 des dogmes, au-dessous des transcendances mais plus 
prds de nous, il y a le d6sir d'etre utile et de faire le bien. Par 
consequent, Messieurs, en ^tudiant le pass^, vous pr^parez I'avenir. 

C'est une heureuse pens^e qu'a eu votre comit^ permanent 
de choisir Oxford pour y tenir nos assises scientifiques. Dans 
cette university Ton s'est de tout temps occup6 des Etudes 
religieuses. H serait trop long de vous donner la liste des savants 
qui ont illustr^ ces recherches. C'est ici qu'on a public The 



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First General Meeting xxxix 

Sacred Books of the Easty c'est ioi qu'a travaill^ llax Muller 
aveo Benan ; ils ont 6t^ les vulgarisateurs de la science des 
religions ; ils ont attir6 les foules par un verbe impeccable, une 
litt^rature dl6gante, c'^taient des savants et des artistes. 

Au nom des d^l^gu^ envoy^ ici par les Gouvemements 
6tarangers je salue la ville d'Oxford, je salue TUniversit^ d'Oxford, 
je salue les membres du Congr^s, et je salue enfin les aimables 
organisateurs qui nous refoivent avec tant de cordiality.' 

Professor von Orelli also replied on behalf of the Representa- 
tives of Universities and Academies : 

' The Universities and Academies which sent delegates to this 
(Congress, wished to show what importance they attribute to the 
development of the History of Religion. This science, which 
was said to be a child yesterday, has grown a giant to-day and 
is increasing continually. Our systems and theories are over- 
thrown every day by new researches and discoveries ; our ideas 
prove to be too narrow ; in our learned books and schools there 
are always some '" idola tribus '' and *' idola specus ", as Francis 
Bacon called them, of which we have to get rid. We have to 
learn from one another. 

Thus it opened a joyful prospect when at the last Congress 
the British delegates showed some willingness to continue the 
series of these assemblies in their country ; and we were all 
delighted when we received your kind invitation to come to 
Oxford this year. I do not speak now about the wonderful 
charms of your city nor of the attractive power of British hos- 
pitality. What I wish to say is this : It seems to me that your 
nation was predestined long ago to take a leading part in this 
kind of studies — ^by the treasures of monuments and manuscripts 
which are in your possession, by your colonial relations and your 
great missionary work throughout the whole world, by the learning 
and sagacity of your scholars, and — ^last, but not least — by the 
wideness of the British mind and the power of its religious belief. 

Certainly these interests are by no means new for you. When 
I came to Oxford for the first time as a young man many years 
ago, the late Max Miiller talked to me in his study about these 
matters. He was a good Oxford man, but at the same time 
an international master and, I venture to say, one of the fathers 
of the comparative study of religion. The only thing I regret 
to-day is not to see in this assembly the happy face of Max 
Miiller, who would have enjoyed this Congress more than any one. 



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xl International Congress for the History of Religions 

But I shall not take up your precious time by personal remini- 
scences. I have to deliver to this assembly special greetings 
from Basel, where the Congress met four years ago. In Switzer- 
land, at our national feasts, we have a custom that the Federal 
banner is brought by the former committee from the place where 
the last feast was celebrated. Now we have no banner of silk 
to bring you. But we have a spiritual one, which has grown 
dear to, us, as we passed, beneath its shadow, many hours both 
instructive and precious. This banner bears the inscription 
'^ International research into the history of religion *' on one side, 
and on the other " Personal intercourse of lovers of reUgious 
inquiry '*. 

We are happy to plant this banner to-day on this noble plat- 
form, this venerable stronghold of British learning. We con- 
fidently hope that this Oxford Congress will give a fresh impetus 
to our scientific work, and will encourage us all together to pay 
more attention to the sacred ties which unite humanity, and to 
study, with a new zeal the innumerable reflections of that light, 
which ever descends from heaven into this world of ours.' 

The Honorary President, Professor E. B. Tylor, then intro- 
duced the President, the Right Hon. Sir A. C. Lyall ; who 
delivered his Presidential Address. 

At a General Meeting held the same afternoon, the President 
read a telegram from The Chakcellob op the Univbbsity : 

To Sib Alfbed Lyall, Cokobess of Beligioks, Oxfobd 
May I, as Chancellor of the University of Oxford, join in the 
welcome being given to the many distinguished persons assembled 
in your important Congress. I greatly regret that being confined 
to bed by an accident I am unable to take any practical part 
in reception. Wish you successful gathering. 

CuBZON OP Kedleston. 

It was resolved to send the following reply : 

To LoBD CxTBZON OP Kedlestok, Basingstoke 
I have read your kindly message before a General Meeting of 
the Congress. The members very highly appreciate the Chan- 
cellor's action in associating himself with welcome given to them 
by the University, and greatly regret the accident which has 
deprived them of the honour of your presence. 

Lyall. 



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PRESIDENTS ADDRESS 

By the Right Hon. Sib A. C. LYALL 

It was only after much serious hesitation that I deferred to the 
wish of your Committee to confer upon me the honour of presiding 
over this Congress; for my doubts whether I am competent to 
undertake the duties of the office, are real and unfeigned. And, 
in considering the subject of my opening Address, I have been 
confronted by this difficulty — ^that in the Sections which r^u- 
late the order of our proceedings, we have a list of papers 
ranging over all the principal religions, ancient and modem, 
that have existed and still exist in the world. They are to be 
treated and discussed by experts whose scholarship, particular studies, 
and close research entitle them all to address you authoritatively. 
I have no such special qualifications ; and in any case it would be 
most presumptuous in me to trespass upon their ground. All that 
I can venture to do, therefore, in the remarks which I propose 
to address to you to-day, is to attempt a brief general survey of 
the history of religions from a standpoint which may possibly not 
fifidl within the scope of these separate papers. 

The four great religions now prevailing in the world, which are 
historical in the sense that they have been long known to history, I 
take to be — Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Having 
r^ard to their origin and derivation, to their history and 
character, I may be permitted, for my present purpose, to class the 
two former as the Religions of the West, and the two latter as the 
Beligions of the East. These are the faiths which still maintain a 
mig^ity influence over the minds of mankind. And my object is to 
compare the political relations, the attitude, maintained toward them, 
from time to time, by the States and rulers of the people over which 
these religions have established their spiritual dominion. 

There has evidently been a fore-time, though it is prehistorical, 
when, so far as we know, mankind was universally polytheistic, 



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2 International Congress for the History of Religions 

when innumerable rites and worships prevailed without restraint, 
springing up and contending with each other like the trees in 
a primeval forest, reflecting a primitive and precarious condition of 
human society. I tfiJce polytheism to have been, in this earliest 
stage, the wild growth of superstitious imagination, varied indefinitely 
by the pressure of circumstance, by accident, by popular caprice, or 
by the good or evil fortunes of the community. In this stage it can 
now be seen among barbarous tribes — ^as, for instance, in Central 
Africa. And some traces of it still survive, under diflerent pretexts 
and disguises, in the lowest strata of civilized nations, where it 
may be said to represent the natural reluctance of the vagrant 
human fancy to be satisfied with higher forms and purer conceptions 
that are alwajrs imperfectly assimilated by the multitude. 

Among primitive societies the spheres of human and divine affairs 
were intermixed and identical ; they could not be dis^itangled. 
But with the growth of political institutions came gradual separation, 
or at any rate th6 subordination of religion to the practical necessities 
of orderly government and public morals. That polytheism can 
exist and flourish in the midst of a highly intellectual and civilized 
society, we know from the history of Greece and Rome. But in 
ancient Greece its direct influence upon political affairs seems to have 
been slight ; though it touched at some points upon morality. The 
function of the State, according to Greek ideas, was to legislate for 
all the departments of human life and to uphold the moral standard. 
The law prohibited sacrilege and profemity ; it punished open impiety 
that might bring down divine wrath upon the people at large. 
The philosophers taught rational ethics ; they regarded the popular 
superstitions with indulgent contempt ; but they inculcated the duty 
of honouring the gods, and the observance of public ceremonial. 
Beyond these limits the practice of local and customary worship was, 
I think, free and unrestrained; though I need hardly add that 
toleration, as understood by the States of antiquity, was a very 
different thing from the modem principle of religious neutrality. 
Under the Roman government the connexion between the State and 
religion was much closer, as the dominion of Rome expanded and 
its power became centralized. The Roman State maintained a strict 
control and superintendence over the ofiicial rituals and worships, 
which were regulated as a department of the administration, to 
bind the people together by established rites and worships, in order 
to cement political and social unity. It is true that the usages 
of the tribes and principalities that were conquered and annexed 
were left undisturbed; for the Roman policy, like that of the 



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Presidenfs Address: Sir A. C. LyaU 8 

English in India, was to avoid giving offence to religion ; and 
undoubtedly this policy, in both instances, materially facilitated the 
rapid building up of a wide dominioa Nevertheless, there was 
a tendency to draw in the worship toward a common centre. The 
deities of the conquered provinces were respected and conciliated ; 
the Roman generals even appealed to them for protection and 
&vour, yet they became absorbed and assimilated imder Roman 
names ; they were often identified with the gods of the Roman 
pantheon, and frequently superseded by the victorious divinities of 
the new rulers — the strange deities, in fact, were Romanised as well 
as the foreign tribes and cities. After this manner the Roman 
empire, that greatest monument of human power, as Dean Church 
has called it, combined the tolerance of great religious diversity with 
the supremacy of a centralized government. Political amalgamation 
brought about a fusion of divine attributes ; and latterly the emperor 
was adored as the symbol of manifest power, ruler and pontiff; he 
was the visible image of supreme authority. 

This r^me was easily accepted by the simple unsophisticated 
paganism of Europe. The Romans, with all their 'Statecraft, had as 
yet no experience of a high religious temperature, of enthusiastic 
devotion and divine mysteries. But as their conquest and com- 
merce spread eastward, the invasion of Asia let in upon Europe 
a flood of Oriental divinities, and thus Rome came into contact with 
much stronger and deeper spiritual forces. The European polytheism 
might be utilized and administered, the Asiatic deities could not be 
domesticated and subjected to regulation; the Oriental orgies and 
strange rites broke in upon the organized State worship ; the new 
ideas and practices came backed by a profound and fervid spiritualism. 
Neverthel^s, the Roman policy of bringing religion under authorita- 
tive control was more or less successful in the Asiatic provinces of 
the empire ; the privil^es of the temples were restricted ; the priest- 
hoods were placed under the general superintendence of the pro- 
consular officials ; and Roman divinities gradually found their way 
into the Asiatic pantheon. 

But we all know that the religion of the Roman empire was falling 
into nnJtitudinous confusion when Christianity arose — an austere ex- 
clusive faith, with its army of saints, ascetics, and unflinching martyrs, 
proclaiming worship to be due to one God only, and sternly refusing 
to acknowledge the divinity of the emperor. Against such a faith 
an incoherent disorderly polytheism could make no better stand than 
tribal levies against a disciplined army. The new religion struck 
directly at the sacrifices that symbolized imperial unity ; the passive 

B 2 



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4 International Congress for tJie History of Religions 

resistance of Christicms was necessarily treated as rebellion, the State 
made implacable war upon them. Yet the spiritual and moral forces 
won the victory, and Christianity established itself throughout the 
empire. Universal religion, following upon universal civil dominion, 
completed the leveUing of local and national distinctions. The 
Churches rapidly grew into authority superior to the State within 
their own jiuisdiction ; they called in the temporal government to 
enforce theological rulings and to put down heresies ; they founded 
a powerful hierarchy. The earlier Roman constitution had made 
religion an instrument of administration. When one religion became 
universal, the Churches enlisted the civil ruler into the service of 
orthodoxy ; they converted the State into an instrument for enforcing 
religion. The pagan empire had issued edicts against Christianity 
and had suppressed Christian assemblies as tainted with disaffection ; 
the Christian emperors enacted laws against the rites and worships of 
paganism, and closed temples. It was by the supreme authority of 
Constantine that, for the first time in ilie religious history of the 
world, uniformity of belief was defined by a creed, and sanctioned by 
the ruler^s assent. 

Then came, in Western Europe, the time when the empire at Rome 
was rent asimder by the inrush of barbarians ; but upon its ruins was 
erected the great Catholic Church of the Papacy, which preserved in 
the ecclesiastical domain the autocratic imperial tradition* The 
primacy of the Roman Church, according to Hamack, is essentially 
the transference to her of Rome^s central position in the religions of 
the heathen world ; the Church united the western races, disunited 
politically, under the common denomination of Christianity. Yet 
Christianity had not long established itself throughout all the lands, 
in Europe and Asia, which had once been under the Roman sovereignty, 
when the violent irruptions of Islam upset not only the temporal but 
also the spiritual dominion throughout Western Asia, and along the 
southern shores of the Mediterranean. The empire at Constanti- 
nople had been weakened by bitter theological dissensions and 
heresies among the Christians; the votaries of the new, simple, 
unswerving faith of Mohammed were ardent and unanimous. In 
Egjrpt and Syria they were speedily victorious; the Latin Church 
and even the Latin language were swept out of North Africa. In 
Persia the Sassanian dynasty was overthrown, and although there 
was no immediate and total conversion of the people, Mohammedanism 
superseded the ancient Zoroastrian cultus as the religion of the 
Persian State. It was not long before the armies of Islam had 
triumphed from the Atlantic coast to the Jaxartes river in Central 



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Presidents Address: Sir A. C. LyaU 5 

Asia; and conversion followed, speedily or slowly, as the direct 
result of conquest. Moreover, the Mohammedans invaded Europe, 
in the south-west they subdued almost all Spain ; and in the south- 
east they destroyed, some centuries lateiyiihe Greek empire, though 
not the Greek Church, and consolidated a mighty rulership at Con- 
stantinople. 

With this prolonged conflict between Islam and Christianity along 
tl^ borderlands of Europe and Asia began the era of those religious 
wars that have darkened the history of the western nations, and 
have perpetuated the inveterate antipathy between Asiatic and 
European races, which the spread of Christianity into both conti- 
nents had softened and might have healed. In the end Christianity 
has fixed itself permanently in Europe, while Islam is strongly 
established throughout half Asia. But the sharp collision between 
the two fiedths, the clash of armies bearing the cross and the crescent, 
generated fierce fanaticism on both sides. The Crusades kindled a 
fiery militant and missionary spirit previously unknown to religions, 
whereby religious propagation became the mainspring and declared 
object of conquest and colonization. Finally, in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries the great secession from the Roman Church 
divided the nations of Western Europe into hostile camps, and 
throughout the long wars of that period political jealousies and 
ambitions were inflamed by religious animosities. 

The history of Europe and Western Asia records, therefore, a close 
connexion and community of interests between the States and the 
orthodox faiths; a combination which has had a very potent in- 
fluence, during many centuries, upon the course of civil affairs, upon 
the fortunes, or misfortunes, of nations. Up to the sixteenth century 
it was universally held, by Christianity emd by Islam, that the State 
was bound to enforce orthodoxy ; conversion and the suppression or 
expulsion of heretics were public duties. Unity of creed was thought 
necessary for national unity — a government could not undertake to 
maintain authority, or preserve the alliance of its subjects, in a realm 
divided and distracted by sectarian controversies. On these prin- 
ciples Christianil^ and Islam were consolidated, in union with the 
States or in close alliance with them ; and since the great religious 
wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the geographical 
boundaries of these two Faiths, and of their internal divisions re- 
spectively, have not materially changed. 

Let me now turn to the history of religion in those countries of 
further Asia, which were never reached by Greek or Roman conquest 



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6 International Congress for the History of Religions 

or civilization, where the ancient forms of worship and conceptions of 
divinity, which existed before Christianity and I^Iam, still flourish. 
And here I shall only deal with the relations of the State to religion 
in India and China and their dependencies, because these vast and 
populous empires contain the two great religions, Hinduism and 
Buddhism, of purely Asiatic origin and character, which have 
assimilated to a large extent, and in a certain degree elevated, the 
indigenous polytheism, and which still exercise a mighty influence 
over the spiritual and moral condition of many millions. 

We know what a tremendous power religion has been in the wars 
and politics of the West. I submit that in Eastern Asia, beyond 
the pale of Islam, the history of religion has been very different. 
Religious wars — I mean wars caused by the conflict of militant 
faiths contending for superiority, were, I believe, unknown on any 
great scale to the ancient civilizations everywhere. I think they 
were unknown in Eastern Asia, until Islam invaded India. It seems 
to me that the great religious movements and changes in that region 
have seldom or never been the consequence of, have not been 
materially affected by, wars, conquests, or political revolutions. 

Throughout Europe and Mohammedan Asia the indigenous deities 
and their temples have disappeared centuries ago ; they have been 
swept away by the forces of Church and State combined to extermi- 
nate them; they have all yielded to the lofty overruling ideal of 
monotheism. But the tide of Mohammedanism reached its limit in 
India ; the people, though conquered, were but partly converted, and 
eastward of India there have been no important Mohammedan ruler-* 
ships. On this side of Asia, therefore, two great religions. Buddhism 
and Brahmanism, have held their ground from times far anterior to 
Christianity ; they have retained the elastic comprehensive character 
of polytheism, purified and elevated by higher conceptions, developed 
by the persistent competition of diverse ideas and forms among the 
people, unrestrained by attempts of superior organized fiedths to 
obliterate the lower and weaker species. In that r^on political 
despotism has prevailed immemorially ; religious despotism, in the 
sense of the legal establishment of one faith or worship to the 
exclusion of all others, of uniformity imposed by coercion, proselytism 
by persecution, is unknown to history : the governments have been 
absolute and personal; the religions have been popular and demo- 
cratic They have never been identified so closely with the ruling 
power as to share its fortunes, or to be used for the consolidation 
of successful conquest. Nor, on the other hand, has a ruler ever 
found it necessary, for the security of his throne, to conform to the 



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Ptesidenfs Address: Sir A. C. Lyall 7 

reiigioii of his subjects, and to abjure all others. The political maxim, 
that the sovereign and his subjects should be of one and the same 
reli^<Hi, has never prevailed in this part of the world. And although 
in India, the land of their common origin. Buddhism widely displaced 
and overlaid Brahmanism, while it was in its turn, after several 
centuries, overcome and ejected by a Brahmanic revival, yet I believe 
that history records no violent contests or collisions between them ; 
nor do we know that the armed force of the State played any decisive 
part in these spiritual revolutions. 

I do not maintain that Buddhism has owed nothing to State 
influence. It represents certain doctrines of the ancient Indian 
theosophy, incarnate, as one might say, in the figure of a spiritual 
Master, who was the type and example of ascetic quietism; it 
embodies the idea of salvation, or emancipation, attainable by man^s 
own efforts, without aid from priests or divinities. Buddhism is the 
earliest, by many centuries, of the Faiths that claim descent fix>m a 
personal founder, the Indian prince, Sakya Gotama. It emerges into 
authentic history with the empire of Asoka, who ruled over the greater 
part of India some 250 years before Christ, and its propagation over 
his realm and the countries adjacent is undoubtedly due to the influ- 
ence, example, and authority of that devout monarch. According to 
Mr. Vincent Smith, from whose valuable work on the Early History 
of India I take the description of Asoka^s religious policy, the king, 
roiouncing after one necessary war all further military conquest, made 
it the business of his life to employ his autocratic power in directing 
the preaching and teaching of the Law of Piety, which he had leamt 
from his Buddhist priesthood. All his high officers were commanded 
to instruct the people in the way of salvation ; he sent missions to 
foreign countries; he issued edicts promulgating ethical doctrines, 
and the rules of a devout life ; he made pilgrimages to the sacred 
places ; and finally he assumed the yellow robe of a Buddhist monk« 
Asoka elevated, so Mr. Smith has said, a sect of Hinduism to the 
rank of a world-religion. Nevertheless, I think it may be affirmed 
that the emperor consistently refrained from the forcible conversion 
of his subjects, and indeed the use of compulsion would have appar- 
ently been a breach of his own edicts, which insist on the principle of 
toleration, and declare the propagation of the Law of Piety to be his 
sole object. Asoka made no attempt to persecute Brahmanism, and 
it seems dear that the extraordinary success of Buddhism in India 
cannot be attributed to war or to conquest. To imperial influence 
and example much must be ascribed, yet I think Buddhism owed much 
more to its spiritual potency, to its superior faculty of transmuting 



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8 International Ccmgressjor the History of Religions 

and assimilating, instead of abolishing, the elementary instincts and 
worships, endowing them with a higher significance, attracting and 
stimulating devotion by impressive rites and ceremonies, impressing 
upon the people the dogma of the soul^s transmigration and its escape 
fix>m the miseries of sentient existence by the operation of merits. 
And of all religions it is the least political, for the practice of asceti- 
cism and quietism, of monastic seclusion from the working world, is 
necessarily adverse to any active connexion with mundane affiurs. 

I do not know that the mysterious disappearance of Buddhism 
from India can be accounted for by any great political revolution, 
like that which brought Islam into Indicu It seems to have vanished 
before the Mohammedans had gained any footing in the country. 
Meanwhile Buddhism is said to have penetrated into the Chinese 
empire by the first century of the Christian era. Before that time 
the doctrines of Confucius and Laotze were the dominant philoso- 
phies ; rather moral than religious, though ancestral worship and 
the propitiation of spirits were not disallowed, and were to a 
certain extent enjoined. Laotze, the apostle of Taoism, appears to 
have preached a kind of Stoicism — the observance of the order of 
Nature in searching for the right way of salvation, the abhorrence 
of vicious sensuality, and the cultivation of humility, self-sacrifice, 
and simplicity of life. He condemned altogether the use of force in 
the sphere of religion or morality ; though he admitted that it might 
be necessary for the purposes of civil government. The system of 
Confucius inculcated justice, benevolence, self-control, obedience and 
loyalty to the sovereign — all the civic virtues ; it was a moral code 
without a metaphysical background ; the popular worships were 
tolerated, reverence for ancestors conduced to edification ; the gods 
were to be honoured, though it was well to keep aloof from them, 
he disliked religious fervour, and of things beyond experience he had 
nothing to say. 

Buddhism, with its contempt for temporal affairs, treating life as 
a mere burden, and the souPs liberation from existence as the end and 
object of meditative devotion, must have imported a new and disturb- 
ing element into the utilitarian philosophies of ancient China. For 
many centuries Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are said to 
have contended for the patronage and recognition of the Chinese 
emperors. Buddhism was edtemately persecuted and protected, 
expelled and restored by imperial decree. Priesthoods and monastic 
orders are institutions of which governments are naturally jealous ; 
the monasteries were destroyed or rebuilt, sacerdotal orders and 
celibacy suppressed or encouraged by imperial decrees, according 



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President's Address: Sir A. C. Lyall 9 

to views and prepossessions of successive dynasties or emperors. 
Nevertheless, the general policy of Chinese rulers and ministers 
seems not to have varied essentially. Their administrative principle 
was that religion must be prevented from interfering with affairs of 
State, that abuses and superstitious extravagances are not so much 
ofiences against orthodoxy as matters for the police, and as such 
must be put down by the secular arm. 

Upon this policy successive dynasties appear to have acted con- 
tinuously up to the present day in China, where the relations of the 
State to religion are, I think, without parallel elsewhere in the 
modem world. One may find some resemblance to the attitude of 
the'lRoman emperors towards rites and worships among the popula- 
tion in the Chinese emperor^s reverent observance and regulation 
of the rites and ceremonies performed by him as the religious chief 
and representative before Heaven of the great nationcd interests. 
The deification of deceased emperors is a solemn rite ordained by 
proclamation. As the lus sacrum^ the body of rights and duties 
in the matter of religion, was regarded in Rome as a department 
of the Iu8 publicum^ belonging to the fundamental constitution of 
the State, so in China the ritual code is incorporated into the 
statute books, and promulgated with imperial sanction. Now we 
know that in Rome the established ritual was legally prescribed, 
though otherwise strange deities and their worships were admitted 
indiscriminately. But the Chinese government goes much further. 
It appears to regard all novel superstitions, and especially foreign 
worships, as the hotbed of sedition and disloyalty. Unlicensed 
deities and sects are put down by the police; magicians and 
sorcerers are arrested; and the peculiar Chinese practice of 
canonizing deceased officials and paying sacrificicd honours to 
local celebrities after death is strictly reserved by the Board of 
Ceremonies for imperial consideration and approval. The Censor, 
to whom any proposal of this kind must be entrusted, is admonished 
that he must satisfy himself by inquiry of its validity. An ofiicial 
who performs sacred rites in honour of a spirit or holy personage 
not recognized by the Ritual Code, is liable to corporal punishment; 
and the adoration by private families of spirits whose worship is 
reserved for public ceremonial is a heinous offence. No such rigorous 
control over the multiplication of rites and deities has been instituted 
elsewhere. On the other hand, while in other countries the State 
has recognized no more than one established religion, the Chinese 
government formally recognizes three denominations. Buddhism has 
been sanctioned by various edicts and endowments, yet the State 



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10 International Congress for the History of Religions 

divinities belong to the Taoist pantheon, and their worship is 
r^ulated by public ordinances; while Confucianism represents 
official orthodoxy, and its precepts embody the latitudinarian spirit 
of the intellectual classes. We know that the Chinese people make 
use, so to speak, of all three religions indiscriminately, according 
to their individual whims, needs, or experience of results. So also 
a politic administration countenances these divisions and probably 
finds some interest in maintaining them. The morality of the people 
requires some religious sanction; and it is this element with which 
the State professes its chief concern. One of the functions of high 
officials is to deliver public lectures fi^eely criticizing and discouraging 
indolent monasticism and idolatry from the standpoint of rati6nal 
ethics, as follies that are reluctantly tolerated. Yet the government 
has never been able to keep down the fistnatics, mystics, and heretical 
sects that are incessantly springing up in China, as elsewhere in Asia ; 
though they are treated as pestilent rebels and law-breakers, to be 
exterminated by massacre and cruel punishments; and bloody 
repression of this kind has been the cause of serious insurrections. 
It is to be observed that all religious persecution is by the direct 
action of the State, not instigated or insisted upon by a powerful 
orthodox priesthood. But a despotic administration which under- 
takes to control and circumscribe all forms and manifestations 
of superstition in a vast poljrtheistic multitude of its subjects, is 
inevitably driven to repressive measures of the utmost severity. 
Neither Christianity nor Islam attempted to r^ulate polytheism, 
their mission was to exterminate it, and they succeeded mainly because 
in those countries the State was acting with the support and under 
the uncompromising pressure of a dominant church or faith. 

Some writers have noticed a certain degree of resemblance between 
the policy of the Roman empire and that of the Chinese empire 
toward religion. We may read in Gibbon that the Roman magis- 
trates regarded the various modes of worship as equally useful, that 
sages and heroes were exalted to immortality and entitled to reverence 
and adoration, and that philosophic officials, viewing with indulgence 
the superstitions of the multitude, diligently practised the ceremonies 
of their fathers. So far, indeed, his description of the attitude of 
the State toward polytheism may be applicable to China; but 
although the Roman and the Chinese emperors both assumed the 
rank of divinity, and were supreme in the department of worships, 
the Roman administration never attempted to regulate and restrain 
polytheism at large on the Chinese system. 

The religion of the gentiles, said Hobbes, is a part of their 



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Presidents Address: Sir A. C. Lyall 11 

policy ; and it may be said that this is still the policy of Oriental 
monarchies, who admit no separation between the secular and 
the ecclesiastic jurisdiction. They would agree with Hobbes that 
temporal and spiritual government are but two words brought into 
the world to make men see double and mistake their lawful sovereign. 
But while in Mohammedan Asia the State upholds orthodox 
uniformity, in China and Japan the mainspring of all administrative 
action is political expediency. It may be suggested that in the 
mind of these far-Eastern people religion has never been conceived 
as something quite apart from human experience and the affairs of 
the visible world ; for Buddhism, with its metaphysical doctrines, is 
a foreign importation, corrupted and materialized in China and 
Japan. And we may observe that from among the Mongolian 
races, which have produced mighty conquerors and founded famous 
dynasties from Constantinople to Pekin, no mighty prophet, no 
profound spiritual teacher, has arisen. Yet in China, as throughout 
all the countries of the Asiatic mainland, an enthusiast may still 
gather together ardent proselytes, and fresh revelations may create 
among the people unrest that may ferment and become heated up to 
the degree of fematicism, which may explode against attempts made 
to suppress it. The Taeping insurrection, which devastated cities 
and provinces in China, and nearly overthrew the Manchu dynasty, 
is a striking example of the volcanic fires that underlie the surface of 
Asiatic societies. It was quenched in torrents of blood after lasting 
some ten years. And very recently there has been a determined 
revolt of the Lamas in Eastern Tibet, which the imperial troops 
crushed with unrelenting severity. These are the perilous ex- 
periences of a philosophic government that assiunes charge and 
control over the religions of some 800 millions of Asiatics. 

I can only make a hasty reference to Japan. In that country 
the relations of the State to religions appear to have followed the 
Chinese model. Buddhism, Confucianism, Shintoism, are impartially 
recognized. The emperor presides over official worship as high 
priest of his people, the liturgical ordinances are issued by imperial 
rescripts not differing in form from other public edicts. The 
dominant article of futh is the divinity of Japan and its emperor; 
and Shinto, the worship of the gods of nature, is understood to be 
patronized chiefly with the motive of preserving the national 
traditions. But in Japan the advance of modem science and en- 
lightened scepticism may have diminished the importance of the 
religious department. Shinto, says a recent writer, still embodies 
the religion of the people ; yet in 1877 a decree was issued declcuing 



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12 International Cmigressfor the History of Religions 

it to be no more than a convenient system of State ceremonial. 
And in 1889 an article of the constitution granted freedom of 
belief and worship to all Japanese subjects, without prejudice to 
peace, order, and loyalty. 

In India the religious situation is quite different. I think it is 
without parallel elsewhere in the world. Here we are at the fountain- 
head of metaphysical theology, of ideas that have flowed eastward 
and westward across Asia. And here, also, we find every species of 
primitive polytheism, unlimited and multitudinous; we can survey 
a confused medley of divinities, of rites and worships incessantly 
varied by popular whim and fancy, by accidents, and by the pressure 
of changing circumstances. Hinduism permits any doctrine to be 
taught, any sort of theory to be held regarding the divine attributes 
and manifestations, the forces of nature, or the functions of mind or 
body. Its tenets have never been circumscribed by a creed ; its free 
play has never been checked or regulated by State authority. 

Now, at first sight, this is not unlike the popular polytheism of the 
ancient world, before the triumph of Christianity. There are passages 
in St. Augustine's CivitcLS Deij describing the worship of the uncon- 
verted pagans among whom he lived, that might have been written 
yesterday by a Christian bishop in Indicu And we might ask why 
all this paganism was not swept out from among such a highly 
intellectual people as the Indians, with their restless pursuit of divine 
knowledge, by some superior faith, by some central idea. Un- 
doubtedly the material and moral conditions, and the course of events 
which combine to stamp a particular form of religion upon any great 
people, cure complex €tnd manifold ; but into this inquiry 1 cannot go. 
I can only point out that the institution of caste has riveted down 
Hindu society into innumerable divisions upon a general religious 
basis, and that the sacred books separated the Hindu theologians 
into different schools, preventing imiformity of worship or of creed. 
And it is to be observed that these books are not historical ; they 
give no account of the rise and spread of a faith. The Hindu 
theologian would say, in the words of an early Christian father, that 
the objects of divine knowledge are not historical, that they can 
only be apprehended intellectually, that within experience there 
is no reality. And the fact that Brahmanism has no authentic 
inspired narrative, that it is the only great religion not concen- 
trated round the life and teachings of a person, may be one reason 
why it has remained diiluse and incoherent. All ways of salvation 
are still open to the Hindus; the canon of their scripture has 
never been authoritatively closed. New doctrines, new sects, fresh 



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Presidents Address: Sir A. C. Lyall 18 

theological controversies, are incessantly modifying and superseding 
the old scholastic interpretations of the mysteries, for Hindus, like 
Asiatics everywhere, are still in that condition of mind when a fresh 
spiritual message is eagerly received. Vishnu and Siva are the 
realistic abstractions of the understanding from objects of sense, from 
observation of the destructive and reproductive operations of nature; 
they represent among educated men separate systems of worship, 
which, again, are parted into different schools or theories regarding 
the proper ways and methods of attaining to spiritual emancipation. 
Yet the higher philosophy and the lower polytheism are not mutually 
antagonistic; on the contrary, they support each other; for 
Brahmanism accepts and allies itself with the popular forms of 
idolatry, treating them as outward visible signs of an inner truth, as 
indications of all-pervading pantheism. The peasant and the philo- 
sopher reverence Uie same deity, perform the same rite ; they do not 
mean the same thing, but they do not quarrel on this account. 
Nevertheless, it is certainly remarkable that this inoiganic medley of 
ideas and worships should have resisted for so many ages the invasion 
and influence of the coherent faiths that have won ascendancy, 
complete or predominant, on either side of India, the west and the 
east ; it has thrown off Buddhism, it has withstood the triumphant 
advance of Islam, it has as yet been little affected by Christianity. 
Probably the political history of India may account in some 
degree for its religious disorganization. I may propound the theory 
that no religion has obtained supremacy, or at any rate definite 
establishment, in any great country except with the active co^ 
operation, by force or favour, of the rulers, whether by conquest, as 
in Western Asia, or by patronage and protection, as in China. 
The direct influence and recognition of the State has been an 
indispensable instrument of religious consolidation. But until the 
nineteenth century the whole of India, fit>m the mountains to the 
sea, had never been united under one stable government ; the country 
was for ages parcelled out into separate principalities, incessantly 
contending for territory. And even the Moghul empire, which was 
always at war upon its frontiers, never acquired universal dominion. 
The Moghul emperors, except Aurungzeb, were by no means bigoted 
Mohammedans; and their obvious interest was to abstain from 
meddling with Hinduism. Yet the irruption of Islam into India seems 
rather to have stimulated religious activity among the Hindus, for 
during the Mohammedan period various spiritual teachers arose, new 
sects were formed, and theological controversies divided the in- 
tellectual classes. To these movements the Mohammedan govem- 



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14 International Congress for the. History of Religions 

ments must have been for a long time indifferent ; and among the 
new sects the principle of mutual toleration was universal. Towards 
the close of the Moghul empire, however, Hinduism, provoked by the 
bigotry of the emperor Aiuimgzeb, became a serious element of 
political disturbance. Attempts to suppress forcibly the followers of 
Nanak Guru, and the execution of the spiritual leader of the Sikhs, 
turned the Sikhs from inoffensive quietists into fanatical warriors; 
and by the eighteenth century they were in open revolt against the 
empire. They were, I think, the most formidable embodiment of 
militant Hinduism known to Indian history. By this time, also, 
the Marathas in South- West India were declaring themselves the 
champions of the Hindu religion against Mohammedan oppression, 
and to the Sikhs and Marathas the dislocation of the Moghul empire 
may be very largely attributed. We have here a notable example of 
the dynamic power upon politics of revolts that are generated by 
religious fermentation ; and a proof of the strength that can be 
exerted by a pacific inorganic polytheism in self-defence, when 
ambitious rebels proclaim themselves defenders of a faith. The 
Marathas and the Sikhs founded the only rulerships whose armies 
could give the English serious trouble in the field during the 
nineteenth century. 

On the whole, however, when we survey the history of India, and 
compare it with that of Western Asia, we may say that although the 
Hindus are perhaps the most intensely religious people in the world, 
Hinduism has never been, like Christianity, Islam, and to some extent 
Buddhism, a religion established by the State. Nor has it suffered much 
from the Staters power. It seems strange, indeed, that Mohammedanism, 
a compact proselytizing fisuth, closely united with the civil rulership, 
should have so slightly modified, during seven centuries of dominion, this 
infinitely divided poljrtheism. Of course Mohammedanism made many 
converts, and annexed a considerable number of the population — yet 
the effect was rather to stiffen than to loose the bonds that held the mass 
of the people to their traditional divinities, and to the institution of 
castes. Moreover, the antagonism of the two reli^ons, the popular and 
the d3niastic, was a perpetual element of weakness in a Mohammedan 
empire. In India polytheism could not be crushed, as in Western 
Asia, by Islam ; neither could it be controlled and administered, as in 
Eastern Asia ; yet the Moghul emperors managed to keep on good 
terms with it, so long as they adhered to a policy of toleration. 

To the Mohammedan empire has succeeded another foreign 
dominion, which practised not merely tolerance, but complete religious 
neutrality. Looking back over the period of 100 years, from 1767 to 



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Presidents Address: Sir A. C. LycM 16 

1867, during which the British dominion was gradually extended over 
India, we find that the British empire, like the Roman, met with 
little or no opposition from religion. Hindus and Mohammedans, 
divided against each other, were equally willing to form alliances with, 
and to fight on the side of, the foreigner who kept religion entirely 
outside politics. And the British government, when established, has 
8o carefully avoided oflence to caste or creed that on one great 
occasion only, the Sepoy Mutiny of 1867, have the smouldering fires 
of credulous fanaticism broken out against our rule. 

I believe the British-Indian position of complete religious neutrality 
to be unique among Asiatic governments, and almost unknown 
in Europe. The Anglo-Indian sovereignty does not identify itself 
with the interests of a single fiedth, as in Mohammedan kingdoms, 
nor does it recognize a definite ecclesiastical jurisdiction in things 
q>iritual, as in Catholic Europe. Still less has our government 
adopted the Chinese system of placing the State at the head of 
di£Rerent rituals for the purpose of controlling them all, and 
proclaiming an ethical code to be binding on all denominations. The 
British ruler, while avowedly Christian, ignores all religions ad- 
ministratively, interfering only to suppress barbarous or indecent 
practices when the advance of civilization has rendered them obsolete. 
Public instruction, so far as the State is concerned, is entirely 
secular ; the universal law is the only authorized guardian of morals ; 
to expound moral duties officially, as things apart from religion, 
has been found possible in China, but not in India. But the Chinese 
government can issue edicts enjoining public morality and rationalism 
because the State takes part in the authorized worship of the people, 
and the emperor assumes pontifical office. The British govemmait 
in India, on the other hand, disowns official connexion with any 
religion. It places all its measures on the sole ground of reasonaUe 
.expediency, of efficient administration ; it seeks to promote industry 
and commerce, and matericd civilization generally ; it carefully avoids 
giving any religious colour whatever to its public acts; and the result 
is that our government, notwithstanding its sincere professions of 
absolute neutrality, is sometimes suspected of r^arding all religion 
with cjmical indifference, possibly even with hostility. 

Moreover, religious neutrality, though it is right, just, and the only 
policy which the English in India could possibly adopt, has certain 
political disadvantages. The two most potent influences which still 
unite and divide the Asiatic peoples,, are race and religion ; a 
govenmient which represents both these forces, as, for instance, in 
A^^ianistan, has deep roots in a country. A dynasty that can rely on 



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16 International Congress for the History of Religions 

the support of an organized religion, and stands forth as the champion 
of a dominant faith, has a powerful political power at its command. 
The Turkish empire, weak, ill-governed, repeatedly threatened with 
dismemberment, embarrassed internally by the conflict of races, has 
been preserved for the last hundred years by its incorporation with the 
fiedth of Islam, by the Sultanas claim to the Caliphate. To attack it 
is to assault a religious citadel ; it is the bulwark on the west of 
Mohammedan Asia, as Afghanistan is the frontier fortress of Islam 
on the east. A leading Turkish politician has very recently said : 
^ It is m Islam pure and simple that lies the strength of Turkey as 
an independent State ; and if the Sultanas position as religious chief 
were encroached upon by constitutional reforms, the whole Ottoman 
empire would be in danger/ We have to remember that for ages 
religious enthusiasm has been, and still is in some parts of Asia^ 
one of the strongest incentives to military ardour and fidelity to 
a standard on the battle-field. Identity of creed has often proved 
more efiective, in war, thim territorial patriotism ; it has surmounted 
racial and tribal antipathies; while religious antagonism is still in 
many countries a standing impediment to political consolidation. 

When, therefore, we survey the history of religions, though this 
sketch is necess6urily very imperfect and inadequate, we find Mohamme- 
danism still identified with the fortunes of Mohammedan rulers ; and 
we know that for many centuries the relations of Christianity to 
European States has been very close. In Europe the conflicting 
ardour and intellectual superiority of great theologians, of ecclesiastical 
statesmen supported by autocratic rulers, have hardened and beat out 
mto form doctrines and liturgies that it was at one time criminal to 
disr^^ard or deny, dogmatic articles of futh that were enforced by law. 
By these processes orthodoxy emerged compact, sharply defined, irre- 
sistible, out of the strife and confusion of heresies ; the early record 
of the Churches has pages spotted with tears and stained with bloody 
But at the present time the European States seem inclined to 
dissolve their alliance with the Churches, and to arrange a kind 
of judicial separation between the altar and the throne, though 
in very few cases has a divorce been made absolute. No State, in 
civilized countries, assists in the propagation of doctrine; and 
ecclesiastical influence is of very little service to a government. The 
civil law, indeed, makes continual encroachments on the ecclesiastical 
domain, questions its authority, and usurps its jurisdiction. Modem 
erudition criticizes the historical authenticity of the scriptures, 
philosophy tries to undermine the foundations of belief; the govern* 
ments find no interest in propping up edifices that are shaken by 



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President's Address : Sir A. C. Lyall 17 

internal controversies. In Mohammedan Asia, on the other hand, 
the connexion between the orthodox &ith and the States is firmly 
maintained, for the solidarity is so dose that disruptions would 
be dangerous, and a Mohammedan rulership over a majority of 
unbelievers would still be perilously unstable. 

From this condition of things I have endeavoured to show that the 
historical relations of Buddhism and Hinduism to the State have 
been in the past, and are still in the present time, very different. 
There has always existed, I submit, one essential distinction of 
principle. Religious propagation, forcible conversion, aided and 
abetted by the exeaitive power of the State, and by laws against 
heresy or dissent, have been defended in the west by the doctors of 
Islam, and formerly by Christian theologians, by the axiom that all 
means are justifiable for extirpating false teachers who draw souls to 
perdition. The right and duty of the civil magistrate to maintain 
truth, in regard to which Bossuet declared all Christians to be 
unanimous, and which is still affirmed in the Litany of our Church, is 
a principle fix>m which no government, three centuries ago, dissented in 
theory, though in practice it was necessary to handle it cautiously. 
I do not think that this principle ever found its way into Hinduism 
or Buddhism ; I doubt, that is to say, whether the civil government was 
at any time called in to assist propagation of those religions as part 
of its duty. Nor do I know that the States of Eastern Asia, beyond 
the pale of Islam, claim or exercise the right of insisting on certain 
doctrines, because they are true. The erratic manifestations of the 
religious spirit throughout Asia, constantly breaking out in various 
forms and figures, in thaumaturgy, mystical inspiration, in orgies 
and secret societies, have always disquieted Asiatic States, yet, so far 
as I can ascertain, the employment of force to repress them has 
always been justified on administrative or political grounds, as 
distinguishable from theological motives pure and simple. Sceptics 
and agnostics have been particularly marked out for persecution in 
the west, but I do not think that they have been molested in India, 
China, or Japan, where they abound, because they seldom meddle 
with politics. It may perhaps be admitted, however, that a govern- 
ment which undertakes to regulate impartiaUy all rites and worship 
among its subjects is at a disadvantage by comparison with a govern- 
ment that acts as the representative of a great church or an exclusive 
faith. It bears the sole undivided responsibility for measures of 
repression ; it cannot allege divine command or even the obligation of 
punishing impiety for the public good. 

To conclude. In Asiatic States the superintendence of religious 



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18 InternatiimaJ Conffress for the History of Religi^ 

affidrs is an int^ral attribute of the sovereignty, which no government, 
except the English in India, has yet ventured to relinquish ; and even 
in India this is not done without some risk, for religion and politics 
are still intermingled throughout the world ; they act and react upon 
each other elsewhere. They are still tar from being disentangled 
in our own country, where the theory that a government in its collective 
character must profess and ev«i propagate some religion has not been 
very long obsolete. It was maintained seventy years ago by a great 
statesman who was already rising into prominence, by Mr. Gladstone. 
The text of Mr. Gladstone's argument, in his book on the relations of 
the State with the Church,' was Hooker's saying, that the religious 
duty of kings is the weightiest part of their sovereignty; while 
Macaulay, in criticizing this position, insisted that the main, if not 
the only, duty of a government, to which all other objects must be 
subordinate, was the protection of persons and property. These two 
eminent politicians were, in fact, the champions of the ancient and 
the modem ideas of sovereignty, for the theory that a State is bound 
to propagate the religion that it professes was for many centuries the 
accepted theory of all Christian and Mohammedan rulerships, though 
I think this theory now survives only in Mohammedan kingdoms. 

As the influence of religion in the sphere of politics declines, the 
State becomes naturally less concerned with the superintendence of 
religion ; and the tendency of constitutional governments seems to be 
towards abandoning it. The States that have completely dissolved 
connexion with ecclesiastical institutions are the two great republics, 
the United States of America, and France. We can even discern at 
this moment a movement toward constitutional reforms in Moham- 
medan Asia, and if it succeeds it will be most interesting to observe 
the effect which liberal reforms will produce upon the relation of 
Mohammedan governments with the dominant £uth, and on which 
side the religious teachers will be airayed. It is certain, however, 
that for a long time to come religion will continue to be a potent 
factor in Asiatic polities ; and I may add that the reconciliation of 
civil with religious liberty is one of the most arduous of the many 
problems that confront civilized dominion in Asia. 



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SECTION I 
RELIGIONS OF THE LOWER CULTURE 



02 



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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 
By E. S. HARTLAND 

Ik no field of knowledge has scientific research made greater 
progress during the past half-century than in anthropology. And 
among all the subdivisions of anthropology none is more fascinating, 
or has yielded more important results, than the examination and 
comparison of the religions of the lower culture. The chapters on 
Mythology and Animism in Primitive CuUiire, published thirty-six 
years ago, were the first serious and well-grounded attempt to analyse 
what was then known about the ideas of mankind in early stages of 
dyilization. The publication of that work gave an impetus to 
research that has never slackened. But with all the knowledge since 
accumulated, and the various debates to which it has given rise, 
nothing has yet been discovered to invalidate Professor Tylor^s 
method ; nor, though some details have been questioned, have his 
gaieral conclusions been shaken. This is emphatic testimony to the 
learning and judgement — ^in a word, to the genius — ^that found 
expression in his book and made it a model for subsequent students. 

Starting^ then, firom the ground he won for science in these fieunous 
duqiters, research has tak^i during the last few years, with ever- 
increasing assiduity, two principal directions. Inquiry has been 
addressed first to the relations between magic and religion, and 
secondly to the question of belief in ^ a relatively Supreme Being \ 

In the former direction it has been particularly fruitful. Dr. Frazer 
has enunciated a theory of the essential opposition of magic, the 
attempt to control and use natural forces . by means which we 
recognize as unscientific and futile, and religion, the conciliation of 
superior beings. According to this theory, magic preceded religion ; 
religion was only resorted to when magic was found to fieul, when the 
conviction was brought home to more sagacious minds ^that magical 
ceremonies and incantations did not really effect the results which 
they. were designed to produce and which the majority of their 
simpler fellows still believed that they did actually produce \ The 
theory is alluring both on account of its definiteness and its sim- 



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22 J. Religions of the lArvoer CvJture 

plicity. This is not the occasion to examine it in detail ; but one 
or two observations may be permitted by the way. 

The rise of religion by way of opposition to magic can, of course, 
never be historically proved : ex hypoihesi it occurred during times 
when the written record was not as yet. So &r as it rests on any 
living example of peoples still destitute of religion, it is concerned 
mainly with a group of tribes in Central Australia. Unfortunatdy, 
the explorers who report the case nowhere tell us how far they are 
acquainted with the dialects spoken, or through what medium their 
communications were made. The beliefs of the tribes in question are 
the subject of omtroversy ; and it is not impossible, as Messrs. 
Spencer and Gillen themselves intimate^ that their special circum- 
stances may be largely responsible for an unusual development of 
magical practices. On the whole, it seems to me that no general 
theory can be safely built, in the present state of our knowledge, on 
the bdiefii and customs of the Arunta and their neighbours. 

Meanwhile, the close connexion between magic and religion at all 
stages of civilization becomes more and more apparent, the further 
research is carried. It is abundantly illustrated by Dr. Froser. 
It has been illustrated in some detail for the religion of andoit 
Mexico by Dt. Preuss, who is also of opinion that the true reading 
of the &cts requires the conclusion that magic preceded animism, 
and therefore preceded worship. According to this theory, if I 
understand it aright, the chief ceremonies of the Mexican religioa 
were intended to have a magical effect upon the gods. The gods 
were nature-gods. They were dep^ident upon those ceremonies for 
the preservation, the renewal, and the increase of their power. At 
first men performed ceremonies intended to operate directly upon 
external phenomena, or to augmait their own magical power. But 
when animism appeared and the conception of gods arose, men 
thereafter performed those ceremonies, or others like them, for the 
b^iefit of the gods. The end was the same — ^the continuance of the 
round of the seasons, and the increase of food and other things 
necessary to human life. Only the means were changed. Instead of 
striving after those objects directly, men strove to enable the gods to 
I»t)duce them. Without the assistance of mankind the gods would 
become powerless ; unless the renewal of their youth and strength 
were wrought by the magical rite of sacrifice they would grow old 
and wither away, if not disappear outright; and with them the 
world would sink into night and the human race be extinguished. 

Dr. Preuss has more recently been prosecuting his researches 
among the tribes of modem Mexico. Those of us who have followed 



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1. Prmdenfs Address: E. S. Hartland 28 

the reports he has been able to s^kI home, know that he has found 
many remams of the old paganism yet vigorous, even among the 
superficially Christianized peoples. We are anticipating hearing 
something of his discoveries from his own lips in this section. We 
await with still more interest the more complete account hereafter, in 
which he will doubtless develop his theory and bring into fiill light 
the numerous points at present dark to us. 

Other inquirers — and h^:e Mr. Andrew Lang has led the way — 
have found salvation in the theory of *a relatively Supreme Being \ 
evolved at an early stage of human speculation, and subsequently 
overlaid by animism, or the belief in spirits. This in substance, it 
is needless to point out, has been the theory of the Fathers of the 
Christian Church ftom the remotest pmod, and of others who have 
had theological axes to grind, only substituting divine revelation for 
human speculation as the true source of the belief in the Supreme 
Being in question. Remains of this belief have been supposed to 
be found everywhere in the lower culture; but serious controversy 
has diiefly raged of late years around the Australian evidence. That 
evidence, is to a great extent conflicting and uncertain ; and where 
it is practically certain it is extremely difficult to interpret. Anumg 
the central tribes fully equipped scientific explorers like Messrs. 
Spencer and Gillen have fisdled to detect any actual belief in a 
* relatively Supreme Being \ except in a single tribe, the Kaitisb. 
The most they fbund in other tribes was a bogey named Twanyirika^ 
with which the women and children were gulled: the boys were 
undeceived at initiation into manhood* The explorers were treated 
as fuUy initiated men. It is probable, therefore, that they pene- 
trated the secret beliefe as well as the ceremonies of the tribes as 
deeply as their knowledge of the languages (the ext^it of. which we 
do not know) permitted. On the other hand, German missionaries 
conversant with the Arunta language, and after a residence of many 
years in the country, have given us a widely divergent report They 
tell us that the Arunta definitely believe in the existence of a Supreme 
Beings em HknmeUgoU^ and that they have in addition raised their 
own forefathers to the dignity of gods. The contradiction between 
these two statements is such that it is not to be accounted for by 
merely supposing that while Messrs. Spencer and Gillen visited 
one branch of the Arunta, Mr. Strehlow and his colleagues, settled 
among anothar branch a few miles ofi^, have drawn their infbrmation 
exclusively from the latter. This information presents the super- 
normal beings believed in by the Arunta and the Luritja as apotheo- 
sized to a dqpree beyond anything recognised by anthropologics 



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24 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

elsewhere in Australia. It is true that elsewhere in Australia earlier 
settlers and missionaries reported the belief in supernatural personages 
dignified by name or implication as supreme gods; but later and 
more accurate inquiries, such as those of Dr. Howitt, to which I 
am about to refer, have shown that those reports are not to be wholly 
relied on. It is not diflScult to assign a cause for this. In no case 
probably was the European reporter initiated into the tribal mysteries. 
Accordingly he did not obtain full disclosure of the fects ; and such 
fects as he did learn were not properly understood owing to his own 
preconceptions. The same causes may have been operative in the 
case of Mr. Strehlow and his colleagues. They have certainly not 
been initiated; their character as missionaries would be likely to 
prevent a free communication to them of the teaching associated with 
the puberty ceremonies; and there are few missionaries who can 
divest themselves as completely as Callaway or Codrington of pre- 
possessions in their inquiries into savage belief. They may, of course, 
have conquered these impediments. It is feir to say that as yet 
we have only fragmentuy statements from them. A connected 
account is, however, in course of publication, and we must await its 
completion before being in a position to judge of its value. 

Throughout Australia the material culture of the tribes is singu- 
larly uniform. But in the south-east many of the tribes exhibit 
*a clearly-marked advance* in their social institutions.^ In this 
region, though not confined to the socially advanced tribes, the belief 
is found in a supernatural being who is spoken of as ^ Father \ He 
is the guardia n of the institutions and ceremonies of the tribe, some 
of which he established. His origin is generally unknown ; and 
since he still lives it has been concluded that he is definitely regarded 
as etamal. There are traditions of his having formerly lived on the 
earth and performed various marvels. Now he usually, but not 
always, dwells in the sky, where he is sometimes pointed out as a star ; 
but he still visits the earth from time to time. In considering this 
conception it is first of all necessary to understand what the native 
idea of Father is. It is by no means the same as ours. It is not 
an individual relationship : it is the title of a class. If I am an 
Australian child I call ^father* not only my mother^s husband 
(or all her husbands if she have /mrotiru-mates) but all his brothers, 
whether children of the same parents or more remote relations whom 
he regards, in accordance with tribal reck<Hung, as brothers. Moreover, 

^ I camiot^ as at present advised^ subscribe to Father Schmidt's opinion 
(iiL Anthropoi, 812 sqq.) that these tribes represent the oldest and most 
primitive stratum of the Australian population and culture. 



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1. Presidenfs Address: E. S. Hartland 25 

it includes all those who were initiated into manhood at the same 
cesKsanmy as my mother^s husband. It will be seen, therefore, that 
Father is a very comprehensive term. It does not, however, neces- 
sarily — ^perhi^ does not in any case — include the idea predominant 
in our minds of B^etter. It seems, so £Bur as we can translate it into 
Knglifth words, to mean all those men who have a special precedence 
and anthoriiy over the person using it. In many cases if the child 
be young (or later, particularly if a girl), the mother's husband may 
have spmal rights almost amounting, subject to tribal usage, to 
ownership of the child. But it is frequently merely honorific, for 
it is common to address all elder men indifferently as ^Father". 
Dr. Howitt recognizes in the traditions relating to this superhuman 
Father the ideal of a tribal Headman, skilful in the use of weapons, 
all-powerful in magic, generous and liberal to his own people, who 
does no injury or violence to any one, yet treats with severity any 
breach of custom or tribal morality. No actual prayers are addressed 
to him, but sometimes his name is invoked in ceremonies, a figure 
of mud or clay is made representing him, and dances take place 
around it. Where these occur we have not exactly worship, but the 
germ from which worship might easily develop. Eternity does 
not seem to be affirmed of him. His origin, it is true, is involved 
in characteristic vagueness ; and he does not die, because nobody dies 
unless by violence or magic. In the sky he is out of reach of violence ; 
and his magic is superior to all other. 

Such a being cannot fairly be described as a god, unless we enlarge 
the meaning of that term to include every being above the common 
human plane, whether worshipped or not. Nor does he look like a 
personage who had been a god once and had retired from the business. 
He has not been superseded by the worship of spirits. Various kinds 
of spirits are believed in. The spirits of the dead seem in regard to 
him like the elders of the tribe around their headman. These and 
other supernatural beings often receive the flattery of fear ; but none 
of them are worshipped. The * tribal All-father \ as Dr. Howitt calls 
him, is much more probably a mythical medicine-man, waiting, like 
Bomai-Malu, the culture-hero of tiie Murray Islanders, for the crown 
of apotheosis. That crown will now never encircle his brows : it would 
have required a further development of native culture which the 
intrusicHi of the white man and the consequent break-up of native 
society have rendered impossible. 

The same may be said of the Eaitish Atnatu, the nearest analogue 
in. Central Australia to the tribal All-father of the south-east. He 
is conceived as a gigantic native Irving beyond the sky with a liberal 



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26 /. Religions of the Lower Ctdture 

supply of wives, who are the stars, and consequ^itly of children, from 
some of whom the Eaitish are descended. He is said to have made 
himself far back in the past. The workmanship was clumsy, for a 
most important part of his anatomy had been forgotten. Perhaps, 
however, the statement that he made himself is no more than a vague 
guess — even, it may be, a guess made on the spur of the moment by 
a native or a group of natives to whom the question of his origin had 
never been presented before. 

It would not be at all remarkable that such a question should nevar 
have occurred to them previously, or if it had that they should never 
have followed up the speculation. We make a mistake in tr3dng to 
measure out and systematize the beliefs of uncivilized humanity. 
Travellers, missionaries, scientific students, we are all trained in 
schools in which the objects of our particular studies are carefully 
sorted, labelled, and pigeon-holed ; and we eicpect to find the same 
process in minds nourished entirely on tradition, strange to our 
methods, and chiefly concentrated on totally different objects. We 
forget that their ideas are not like Christian dogmas formulated in 
written creeds of which every word has been the subject of centuries 
of scholastic disputation. On the contrary, the vagueness of savage 
ideas is one of the chief difficulties experienced in the attempt to 
probe the depths of the savage mind. It is not merely an unwilling- 
ness to communicate to the white man their beliefs ; nor is it merely 
the observer's unfieuniliarity with the trains of thought evolved by men 
in the lower culture that hinders his design to grasp, assimilate, and 
reproduce their creed. It is, above all, the cloudy and elusive charac- 
ter of the creed itself, if that may be called a creed which is often no 
more than a congeries of contradictory tales and formless, half-uncon- 
scious speculations. The testimony, express or implied, from every part 
of the world is the same. I do not know that it can be summed up 
better than in the words published forty years ago of an acute and 
trustworthy writer who had lived for six or seven years among the 
Ahts of Vancouver Island. He says: ^Generally speaking, it is 
necessary, I think, to view with suspicion any very r^ular account 
given by travellers of the religion of savages ; their real religious 
notions cannot be separated from the vague and unformed as well as 
bestial and grotesque mythology with which they £u*e intermixed. 
The faint struggling efforts of our natures in so early or so little 
advanced a stage of moral and intellectual cultivation can produce 
only a medley of opinions and beliefs not to be dignified by the epi- 
thet religious, which are held loosely by the people themselves, and 
are neither very easily discovered nor explained. In a higher stage 



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!• Presidenfs Address: E. S. Hartland 27 

aceoiBte systematiziiig, in a more or less acceptable and reasonable 
form, of the midefined notions which frequently accompany and form 
a part of human appreciation respecting objects supposed to be more 
than human, is the work, not of barbarous, but of intellectual and 
civilised minds.^ Then, recalling the &ct that he was two years 
among the Ahts with his attention constantly directed towards the 
subject of their religious beliefs, before he could discover that they 
possessed any ideas as to an overruling power or a future state of 
exist^ice, he goes on: — ^The people are extremely unwilling to 
q>eak of what is mysterious or akin to the spiritual in their ideas ; 
not, it appears, from a sense of the sacredness of the ideas, but from 
a notion that evil will result from any free communication on such 
subjects with foreigners. Even after long acquaintance it is only now 
and thai, when ^ T the vein ^, that the sullen, suspicious natures of 
these people will relax and permit them to open a comer of their 
minds to a foreigner who possesses their confidence. They generally 
begin by saying that no white man is able to understand the mys- 
teries of which they will speak. ^ You know nothing about such 
things ; only old Indians can appreciate them,^ is a common remark. 
And in ninecasesout of ten so many lies and misstatements are mixed 
up with the account, either directly for the purpose of mystifying the 
inquirer, or owing to the unenlightened confusion of the savage in 
thinking upon religious subjects, that little reliance can be placed 
upon it. Also the opinions expressed by some of the natives are 
found on examination to differ on so many points from those of 
oth»« that it is hardly possible to ascertain the prevailing opinions 
of any tribe.' ^ 

If this be commonly true — as I believe it is in substance— of 
peoples in the lower culture, it enables — nay, it compels — us to dis- 
count many of the definite statements made concerning their beliefs. 
It accounts for many of the contradictions with which anthropologists 
are only too familiar. It exhibits a condition of mind incompatible 
with the existence of a ^ relatively Supreme Being ' as a savage dogma, 
but holding in solution possibilities which an elevation of culture may 
precipitate in more or less definite and systematic form. 

To this condition of mind I venture to appeal as a strong reason for 
accepting a theory of the origin of religion and the mutual relations 
of magic and religion quite different from either of those previously 
mentioned. I refer to the theory which lays primary emphasis on 
two factors : the sense of personality and the sense of mystery. To 
set forth this theory at length is impossible and probably needless, 
^ Sproat, Seenes and Studies qf Savage Lifb, 204 sqq. 



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28 I. Religions of the Lower Culture 

Let it suffice to say ^ that early man surrounded by the unknown 
would be oppressed by awe and wonder and the feelmg of power 
which lay behind external phenomena. Interpreting those pheno- 
mena in the terms of his own consciousness he would regard them 
as manifestations of personality. Every personality thus manifested 
would be possessed of needs and potentialities akin to those he felt 
within himself. It would be inevitable that he should endeavour to 
conciliate or to control these personalities. Fortunately he possessed 
in his own potentiality the means of accomplishing to a very large 
extent this object. Such inherent potentiality is called by the Iro- 
quoian tribes of North America orenda^ by the Siouan waJuMj by the 
Algonquin maniiawi. In one form or other it is probably known 
throughout the lower culture. 

It is difficult to render the concept embodied in these words 
orendOf wakanj manUawif by any one English word. The word I 
have used, potentiality, perhaps expresses it best ; but even that is 
inadequate for a concept including such various notions as will, 
magic, luck, sacredness, mjrstery. Its importance in the religion and 
philosophy of the North American Indians was, I think, first pointed 
out by Miss Alice Fletcher, in a paper read before the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science in 1897. It was more 
fully discussed five years later by Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, in the 
American AfUhropohgist.^ It was recognized by Messrs. Hubert and 
Mauss in VAtmU Sociologique for 1904, and identified with the 
Melanesian mofia, and with similar conceptions elsewhere. They had 
been largely anticipated in this by Mr. R. R. Marett, in a striking 
paper read to the British Association in 1899, and subsequently 
printed in FoOchre, We shall have the advantage of hearing him 
at length on the subject by and by. 

Meanwhile, the only point to which I need direct attention is 
the vagueness of this potentiality, this ortnda. Both in direction 
and in ext^it, it is undefined, mysterious. True, different personalities, 
real and imaginary, are not equally endowed with it. But it is an 
atmosphere^ an influence, exhaled more or less by every one of than, 
and like an odour sometimes pervasive, sometimes subtle, some- 
times faint, it is impossible to assign limits to it. Man^s relations 

^ For a fuller statement of the theory I venture to refer to my Presidential 
Address to the Anthropological section of the British Association Meeting at 
York, 1906. 

* And more recently hy Mr. Arthur Lovejoy in The MonUt, voL zii. He 
describes the * energy ' or potentiality in question as ' a pervasive^ life-giving, 
impersonal energy ', inhering in everything, not merely in every personality. 
I am not convinced that the evidence will bear this construction. 



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1. Presidents Address: E. S. Hartland 29 

with all non-human personalities aie conceived as analogous with 
the relations of men among themselves. Beings more powerful 
than himself he must invoke and conciliate ; others he may direct, 
control, subdue, or even destroy. In either case his end is gained by 
acts and words; these are tilie expression of his will, his mystic 
potentiality, in a word, his orenda. They are rites either magical 
or religious. Directed to the transcendent beings whom he believes 
to surround him, and whom he must approach with fear and 
rev^ience, we call them religious. Directed to beings who may be 
coerced, we call them magicaL But here, again, the line is by no 
means drawn with precision. Man^s orenda^ or at least the orenda of 
some men, reaches often even to the coercion of the transcendent 
beings of his imagination. Hence magical procedure is found 
interwoven with the most solemn religious rites. 

Thus, according to this theory, magic and religion spring from the 
same root. Nay, I should hardly be wrong if I changed the metaphor 
and said : Magic and religion are the two fistces of one medal. From 
the lowest stage of culture to the highest they may be described as 
inseparable. Gods were not invented because man proved unequal 
to the strain of arranging the affairs of the universe by himself; nor 
has the age of religion been everywhere preceded by the age of magic 
Yet the aigument which points to the notable development of magic 
and the feebleness or abscaice of religion among the Australian tribes, 
is not without force. While I cannot admit the all^^ation that 
religion does not exist, I must admit that its development is far 
exceeded by that of magic. To some extent the allegation of the 
absence of religion depends upon our definition of religion. If we 
ware all of us agreed exactly what we meant by religion, and exactly 
what we meant by a god, a fetish, and so forth, we might not find 
the problem of the origin of religion less difficult to solve^ but we 
should at all events have a clearer notion of its conditions and of the 
direction in which we were to seek a solution. I cannot help feeling 
that in these debates we are very often not ad idem. One anthro- 
pologist, for example, is unable to see anything religious in the rites 
of the Arunta : they are all pure magic to him. Another, basing his 
opinion on the same evidence (that of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen), 
holds that there is a strong and unmistakable religious element in 
than. Both students cannot be using the term Religion in the same 
way. It seems to me a fair inference from much of the literature 
of the discussion that we are not so far from real agreement as we 
seem, and the possibility of a reconciliation between the theory that 
magic preceded religion and the theory that they grew up together 



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80 I. Religions of the Lavoer Culture 

from a common root, will increase as we become conscious of the 
precise meanings we attach to the phrases we use, and careful to use 
them always in the same sense. I am aware that this remark must 
strike you as painfiilly obvious. I am not sure that it is superfluous 
on that account. Many things conceal themselves most successfully 
by their very obviousness. A man has been known to stumble over 
his own doormat. 

I am going to suggest another possibility of reconciliation. Vague, 
uncertain, and contradictory the savage may be in his beliefs, sluggish 
his mind may be in r^;ard to matters of speculation: in matters 
of practical importance, the provision of food and shelter, the 
protection of his women and children, and the defence of his little 
community against aggression by human foes or the wild beasts, 
he is bound to be on the alert and to act. His wits are therefore 
sharpened for action. Action is natural to him, and thought which 
has no immediate objective in action is strange. The energies 
remaining when the body is satisfied with food, whai shelter is 
assured, and hostilities against his fellow-man or the lower animals 
are for the moment forgotten, must be expended in other kinds 
of action. Accordingly, ritual is evolved long before belief has 
become definite and cogent. Ritual governs his social relations 
as it does ours. He applies analogous ritual to his relations with 
his non-human surroundings. Hence the North American Pawnee 
summoned with song and dance and other elaborate rites the buffaloes 
which were the mainstay of his existence; and he believed that 
his orenda^ put into action in the ritual, compelled them to come 
in answer to his call. Hence the Toradja of Middle Celebes, before 
he taps a tree for palm-wine, politely expresses his joy at finding 
it, so long desired, so long sought, pretends to be a lover, holds 
a conversation with it, and woos it to be his bride. He solemnly 
gives it a pledge of his love in the shape of a rotan-lea^ which 
he winds around it. He strains it in a dose embrace. This is 
no mummery to him, whatever it may seem to us. It is the 
appointed manner of approaching a being who has power to give 
or to withhold the liquor he desires. It binds the tree to him and 
engages it to render him the service he needs. When the time comes 
for the palm-wine to be tapped, he takes his bamboo vessel, pretends 
to be the palm-tree^s child, and asks his mother for the drink for which 
he is thirsty* He answers as before for the tree, telling himself to 
drink to satiety, for the mother^s breasts are full to overflowing. But 
at first he only hangs up a small vessel for fear the tree should 
be frightened and the sap fetil. Later he will hang up a bigger 



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1. President's Address: E. S. Hartland 81 

vessel, with suitable explanations and prayers for drink addressed 
to the tree.^ The Toradjas are Mohammedans, and the cere- 
monies described may have suffered by the change of faith. Once 
they perhi^ expressed more plainly the relation of dq)endence in 
which the man stood to the tree. Whether they did so or not 
matters little for my present purpose, since it is manifest that while 
on the one hand the tree is treated as a sentient and sympathetic 
being, on the other hand the words and acts employed have a value 
and force of their own which are necessary to ensure the acquiescence 
of the tree and the gratification of the suppliant^s requirements. 

I need not illustrate the process further. From such ritual as this 
it is merely a step to the ritual addressed to weapons or tools, to the 
spirits of the dead, or to the loftier beings who may control man^s 
destiny. In short, the whole of magic and worship is here in 
germ. Man is a creature of habit. These practices easily become 
traditional. They are performed because it is the custom: the 
custom of the fathers handed on to the children must not be broken. 
This is the only reason commonly given by men in the lower culture when 
questioned. They know no other reason : they do not think about it. 
Whatever thought originally preceded the action concerned the prac- 
tical question how to deal with beings imagined (so £Eur as any concept 
had been formed of them) in anthropomorphic terms, rather than 
speculative questions on their nature, their origin, or the extent of 
their powers. These are left undefined ; they are unknown or are 
the subject of individual opinion, fluctuating and contradictory, because 
it is not the outcome of sustained and earnest reasoning. Action 
thus grew up in advance of speculation. In the prepotaicy of action 
I find the cause of the vivid development of ritual in the lower culture 
as contrasted with the feebleness of speculative thought. Man acted 
because he must act : because he must act he believed in the eflScacy 
of his acts. We may call certain of his acts magical and certain 
others religious. He himself drew no such line between them. On 
the contrary, not merely did he employ both kinds of ceremonies as 
they suited his purpose, but one and the same ceremony was often 
made up of some elements which according to the definition were 
magical and of other elements which were religious. I am not aware 
of any savage tribe whose ceremonies are destitute of religious 
elements. We are all familiar with assertions by travellers of the 
existence of tribes absolutely without religion. Wherever those 
assertions have been investigated, they have turned out to be founded 
upon imperfect information, misunderstanding, or a narrow definition 
^ Kmijt^ Het Animisme in den Indisehen ArcMpei, 152, quoting Wilken. 



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82 1. Religions of the Lower Culture 

of religioD. But the predominance of ritual over speculation in the 
lower culture does tend towards an earlier development of magic 
than of what we should call religion. In a sense, therefore, it is true 
that, among some tribes at least, an age of magic may have preceded 
the age of religion. Not that religious elements were ever wholly 
wanting; they were merely overshadowed for a time by the more 
vigorous growth of magic. 

In the same way, to come back to the theory of a ^relatively 
Supreme Being \ it may very well be that of the Powers or Person- 
aHties imagined all around primitive man, one may sometimes in the 
process of ages have acquired a more or less assured predominance. 
In such a case, according as the rest receded into the background, 
the predominant Power may have appropriated their attributes and 
attracted and given form to many floating myths and superstitions, 
as a mountain peak gathers round its head the clouds and condenses 
the vapours of the circumambient air. To it then would tend to be 
ascribed whatever struck the imagination or needed explanation in 
the external world or the institutions and customs of the tribe. It 
might thus develop into a Bunjil or a Puluga. But our information 
does not at present enable us to assert that this was by any means 
the invariable course of human thought. 

In opening the sessions of this section of the Congress I do not ofier 
these remarks in any dogmatic spirit, or with intent to prejudge 
any subsequent discussion. That it should be unnecessary to say 
in a scientific assembly. But, in reviewing the recent progress of 
inquiry on some of the most vital anthropological problems relating 
to the religions of the lower culture, I have been struck with the 
strength of the cases presented by scholars wlio have approached the 
subject from difierent sides. It has occurred to me that I might per-^ 
chance make some small contribution to the solution of the problems 
in question, by pointing out (very briefly indeed and imperfectly, and 
certainly with much diffidence) where the theories that have been 
evolved seem to converge, and what has been hitherto gained by their 
discussion. How far I have been successful I mustleaveto the judge- 
ment of those who are in a better position than I am to form an opinion, 
especially to those who have been in actual contact with man in 
the lower culture. 



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PREANIMISTIC STAGES IN RELIGION 

By EDWARD CLODD^ (Abstract) 

Man's reluotanoe to include himself in the results of the processes 
of evoluticm was due to the persistence of traditional beliefs, based 
on assumed revelation, as to his origin. Barely fifty years ago, when 
Darwin published his Origin of Species, he threw out only a brief 
hint that the theory of natural selection would ^ throw light on the 
history of man % because, as he afterwards explained, he ^ did not 
wish to add to the prejudices' against his views. But from that 
time, (1) the demonstration of fundamental physical identity between 
man and the higher mammalfl ; (2) the discovery, in ancient river* 
gravels, of artifidally-chipped stone tools and weapons evidencing 
man's great antiquity and primitive savagery, confirmed since then 
t^ the unearthing of corresponding implements in every quarter of 
the globe ; and (3) the proofs of continuity of mental development 
throughout the organic world, established by comparative psychology, 
have made it clear that to study man apart from the universe is to 
misconceive him ; it is to refuse to apply the master key to inter- 
pretation of the story of his intellectual and spiritual history. 

The question follows : Is there a period in that history on which 
we can put a finger and say. Here the higher mammals and man 
show faculties in common, wherein the potential elements of religion 
are present : a stage prior to the animistic ? 

For help as answer no direct evidence is forthcoming ; we have 
only inferences drawn from animal behaviour and possible survivals 
of primitive human conceptions. No clue to these latter is given by 
the remotest known proto-human, fragments of whose skeleton were 
found in Java sixteen years ago ; nor can imagination, except in 
unwarranted licence, envisage the cults of the PalaeoUthic races. 
Modem psychology asserts that Hhe development of mind in its 
early stages and in certain of its directions of progress, is reveided 
most adequately in the animal '• The anecdotal method of inquiry 
into the reasoning power of animals has given helpful results, but 
it must yield to the experimental, whereby, in seeking to bring a 
variety of acts under a general law, more certainty is secured. Of 
this also we are sure, that between man in the making — shall we say. 
Homo aialua. as the intermediate between Pithecanthropus ereckts and 



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84 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

Homo aapiena ? — and the higher TnammalB of the Tertiary Period* 
there was in common the similarity of the impressions of the outer 
world mado npon them through their sensory apparatus. That outer 
world, full of movements, sights, and sounds whose nature and signi- 
ficance neither man nor brute could know, was the one exciting cause 
of emotions among which a£Eright had largest play. The animal, the 
child, and the ignorant adult, alike tremble before the unknown and 
the unusual ; fearing, yet not knowing why, or what, they fear. At 
the stage assumed, man had not conceived of phenomena as divided 
into the natural and the supernatural, or of himself as compound of 
material and spiritual. Thete was only the inchoate sense of sur- 
rounding power, and of powerlessness to cope with it ; hence, the 
feeling of inferiority and dependence; and, withal, the dominant 
primary instincts of lust and hunger which impelled him to be ever 
on the watch, ever equipped for the struggle for existence. 

Thus much may be lawfully assumed ; for the rest, some help 
comes from the extant lower culture. The psychical unity of man 
being proven, it is obvious that the nearer we can get to the mental 
standpoint of the savage, the nearer we are to primitive identities 
which have become blurred and obscured by differences arising among 
the superior races in their course along varying lines of development, 
and the more easily shall we be able to trace the origin of the higher 
in the lower psychology, and the persistent survival of embryonic 
ideas. We thus reach a stage of evolution ankrior to what is knoum 
as AninUsmy or the belief in spirits embodied in ever3rthing. 

The root-idea in this Pre-animiam is that of power everywhere, 
power vaguely apprehended, but immanent, and as yet unclothed 
with personal or supernatural attributes. A striking example of this 
is given by Sir Herbert Bisley, who, in trying to find out what the 
jungle dwellers in Chutia Nagpur really believe, bajb that, he was 4ed 
to the negative conclusion that the indefinite something which they 
fear and attempt to propitiate is not a person at all in any sense of 
the word. If one must state the case in positive terms, I should 
say that the idea which lies at the base of their religion is that of 
power, or rather, of many powers. All over Chutia Nagpur we find 
sacred groves, the abode of indeterminate beings, who are represraited 
by no symbols, and of whose form and functions no one can give an 
intelligible account. They have not yet been clothed with individual 
attributes ; they linger on as survivals of the impersonal stage of 
early religion.' ^ 

Identity with this, or near correspondence in thought, underlies 
the Melanesian and Maori belief in a power or influence called manaj 

^ People of India, pp. 215-16. Oaloutta, 1908. 



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2. Pre-Ammistic Stages in Religion: Clodd 85 

to whioh no personal qualities are attributed, and which can be con- 
veyed in almost everything. With this, in broad and indefinite 
conception, may be compared the hutchi of the Australian Dieri ; 
the agvd of the Torres islanders ; the tnanitou of the Algonkins, the 
wabmda of the Dakotans, and the oki or orenda of the Iroquois ; 
these last three having been, in each case, mistranslated Ocdy giving 
currency to the belief that the Bed Indian races had conceived the 
idea of One Great Spirit. Wakonda is ' that which makes or brings 
to pass', and the same meaning applies to manUou and old. The 
Bantu mvlungu and the Kaffir unkulunkvlu have no connexion with 
the idea of personality, and in the Masai engai Mr. Hollis suggests 
that 'we may have primitive and undeveloped religious sentiment 
where the personality of the deity is hardly separated from striking 
natural phenomena'. In early Greek religion Zeus is the thunder 
before he becomes the Thunderer; and * the characteristic appellation 
of a divine spirit in the oldest stratum of the Roman religion is not 
deu8y a god, but numen^ a power. He becomes deua when he obtains 
a name, and so is on the way to acquiring a definite personality.' ^ 
This stage of the god-idea has an illustration in Herodotus (ii. 52) : 
when speaking of the Pelasgians, he says ' they gave no titie or name 
to any of their gods, for they had not yet heard any, but they 
called them gods (0cov$) from some such notion as this, that they 
had set (tfcrrcs) in order all things, and so had the distribution of 
ever3rthing '. 

It is in these and cognate examples, too numerous to add, that 
we see adumbrations of the passage in spiritual evolution from a 
vague, abstract Naturism to a definite, concrete Animism, whioh 
must therefore be regarded as a secondary stage rather than, as is 
generally assumed, a primary stage. The main apology for this paper 
is that, if the argument be valid, speculations about the origin of 
religion as derived from nature worship, animal worship, ghost 
worship, and so forth, may be found futile, and emphasis be given 
to the fact of a psychic unity and continuity between the lowest 
and the highest life. 

^ Bailey's Rdiffion of AncietU Rome, p. 12. 



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86 7. Religions of the Lower Culture 



8 

DIE ASTRALRELIGION IN MEXIKO 

IN VORSPANISCHER ZEIT UND IN DER 

GEGENWART 

Von K. Th. PREUSS. (GBKttezr) 

DiB primitiven Beligionen weisen bei naherer Betrachtung wohl 
s&mtlioh wenigstens einige himmlischen Ziige auf . Eine Anschauung 
von der Welt, wie sie auch auf niederer Stufe vorhanden zu sein 
pflegt, erfordert zugleich eine Anschauung iiber die Grestime. Aber 
wenn diese auch nach mythischer Auffassung als lebendige Weeen 
oder in engem Zusammenhang mit solchen stehend gedacht werden, 
so gehort das noch nicht zur Religion. Erst das Gefuhl der Abhan- 
gigkeit von den Qestimwesen und das wahrscheinlich gleichzeitig 
auftretende Bestreben sie zu beeinflussen, bringen sie in den Bereich 
der Religion. Aber selbst dann darf man erst von einer Astrah-eUgion 
sprechen, wenn die grosse Menge der irdischen wirkenden Naturobjekte, 
teils als Abbilder der Grestime, teils als ihre Untergebenen, aufgefasst 
werden. Eine solche Astralreligion finden wir im alten Mexiko. Aber 
es ist nahezu unmoglioh, aus dem Nachrichtenmosaik ein anschauliches 
Bild von ihr zusammenzustellen. Schon deshalb ist das unmoglich, 
weil wir Tiere eben nur als Tiere, Pflanzen als Pflanzen, Berge ab 
Berge anzusehen gewohnt sind, und etwaigen Angaben ihrer himm- 
lischen Natur ohne plastisches Verstandms g^enuberstehen. Es 
geht einf ach fiber unser Fassungsvermogen, die Erde als ein Spiegelbild 
des Himmels anzusehen und zu denken, dass hier auf Erden niohts 
geschieht, was nicht den Himmel in Mitleidenschaft zieht. AUes das 
widerspricht auch so sehr den Ideen, die wir uns von einer Natur- 
religion machen, dass wir uns schwer darin hineindenken konnen. 
Denn obwohl es sich in einer solchen Astralreligion nur um die 
Beobachtung von Naturerscheinungen handelt, so ist doch die Bezug- 
nahme irdischer Ersoheinungen auf die himmlischen in vielen Fallen 
mehr absolute Phantasie als blosse f alsche Verkniipfung correspon- 
dierenden Geschehens am Himmel und auf Erden. 

Eine solche Auffassung der altmexikanischen Religion bekam ioh 
daher selbst erst, nachdem ich vor drei Jahren eine zweijahrige Reise 
nach Mexiko antrat und dort unter den Indianem der pacifischwi 
Sierra Madre eine Menge vollkommen unbeeinflusster religioser Feste 



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8. Astralreligion in MeanJco: Preuss 87 

mitmachte. Zugleich hatte ich dort das Gliick, eine erstaunliche 
Falle religioser Gesange, die sie an den Festen singen, und zahlreiche 
religioBe Mythen anzutreffen und in den einheimischen Sprachen der 
diei von mir besuchten Stamme, Cora, Huichol und Mezicano, auf zuneh- 
men. Von meinem gesamten, etwa 5000 Quartseiten an Texten nebst 
InterlinearubeisetKang umfassenden Material nimmt die Religion 
etwa yier Ffinftel ein. £s ist eine fiir einen primitiven Stamm 
einzig dastehende Sammlung religioser Dokumente, die im Verein 
mit den Festen eine unzweideutige Sprache aber das Wesen einer 
Astralreligion fuhren. Obwohl das von diesen drei Stammen bewohnte 
<3ebiet nioht zum altmezikanischen Beiohe gehorte, haben sie doch 
den Alten enge verwandte religiose Anschauungen. Die von mir 
besuchten Mexicano spreohen ja auoh Nahuatl, die Sprache der alten 
Mexikaner, wahrend die Ck>ra und Huichol zwei andere, bisher fast 
ganz unbekannte Sprachen reden. So mochte ich es hier unter- 
nehmen^mit einigen Strichen ein Bild der Astralreligion meinerlndianer 
za entwerf en und gleichzeitig auf die verwandten Zuge der altmezi- 
kanischen Religion hinzuweisen. 

Die Astralreligion findet bereits in der Auff assung der Tempel bei 
den Huichol und der Festplatze bei den Ck>ra einen beredten Ausdruck. 
Die Huichol haben grosse runde Tempel aus einem steinemen Unterbau 
mit einem strohgedeckten Dache (Fig. 1). Die Eingangsoffnung ist 
nach Osten gerichtet. Diese Tempel sind ein Abbild der ganzen Welt 
und beherbergen das zahllose Heer der Gotter, deren hauptsachlichste 
je em kleines Loch in der Steinmauer als privaten Aufenthaltsort 
haben. Da die Gotter bei den Festen zug^en sein mussen, so bietet 
diese Welt im Kleinen die Moglichkeit, sie hier im Dienst der Menschen 
zu vereinigen. Die Ausstattung des Innenraums entspricht ihren 
Weltideen. Im Osten, Norden, Siiden und Westen wird nach der 
Tollendung des Daches je ein langer Pfeil mit den Fedem des 
wilden Truthahns, des Sonnentieres, innen schrSg aufwarts in das 
abfaUoide Dach geschossen. Es sind die Sonnenstrahlen, die nach 
dem Aufgang der Sonne im Osten gleichsam von alien Richtungen 
die Welt uberfluten. Im Dache befinden sich oben im Osten und 
Westen zwei Nachbildungen der Mondsichel, und von ihm herab 
Ziehen sich in den vier Richtungen vier Balken mit je einer Palmblatt* 
faserschnur, die von den Gottem der aussersten Weltenden gehalten 
werden. Es ist nun das Merkwurdige, dass nicht nur diese *' Tempel 
fGr alle Gdtter ', sondem auch die fiir viele einzelne Gottheiten vor- 
handenen kleinen Hftuschen die vier Balken und die vier Schnure 
enthalten mussen, sodass auch diese Hutten stets die ganze Welt 
reprasentieren, mag der Inhaber eine Gestimgottheit wie Sonne, 
Hond und Morgenstem sein, oder eine Maisgottin, ein Feuergott, eine 
Geburtsgottheit, eine der Regengottheiten der verschiedenen Weltrioh- 



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88 1. Religions of the Lower CtUture 

tungen a. dgl. m. Daa heiaet dooh mindestoiB, die ganze Welt ist das 
Feld jeder einzelnen Gottheit, ihr Wesen besteht in der Wanderung. 

Dass sie wirklioh nicht nur horizontal, sondem aufw&rtB und abwarts 
in lebhafter Wanderung begriffen sind, dafiir geben die Opfergaben 
Kunde, die sie in den liedem verlangen, n&mlioh Leitem (tim^fiiiM). 
Eine solche Leiter der Sonne, die ich heimgebraoht babe, ist eine 
kleine f&ifstufige Pyramide: auf einer Seite steigt die Sonne am 
Himmel empor, und auf der andem herab (Fig. 2). Ist sie oban 
angelangt, so steht sie auf dem hochsten Punkt des Himmels. Es 
unterli^ gar keinem Zweifel, dass die mexikanisohen Stufenpyrami- 
den, auf deren Gipfel der Tempel der Gottheit stand, einf ach Darstd- 
lungen der hohen Himmelssitze sind, zu denen die Gotter auf Stuf en 
emporsteigen. Solche giebt es aber fur die versohiedensten Arten von 
Gottem. Nicht nur die beruhmten Pyramiden der Sonne und des 
Mondes bei Teotihuacan haben wir, sondem in Tlalteloloo stand 
z.B. die hohe Pyramide des Feuergottes Xiuhtecutli und in der Stadt 
Mexiko die etwa 30 m. hohe Pyramide mit d^i beiden Gellas Huitzi- 
lopoohtlis, des Sonnengottes, und Tlaloos, des Begengottes, dicht 
nebeneinander. 

LetztereshatteseinensinnfalligenGrund. Von dem hochsten Sonnen- 
stand namlich war die Begenzeit abh&ngig. Deshalb sagt der Sonnen- 
gott der Huichol, * unser Vater ' (taf^) : ' Wenn ihr mir nicht einen 
Hahn (aus Maisteig) opfert, so lasse ich Naariutoie (die Haupt- 
regaigottin) nicht Ziehen.' Und dann liegen auoh die Wolken dem 
EUmmel ebenso auf wie die Grestime, hat doch sogar die mexikanische 
Priesterweisheit den untersten der 13 Himmel dem Monde und Tlaloc 
gemeinsam zugewiesen* Die Cora, die keine Tempel haben, ahmen in 
der Darstellung Ihres Festplatzes dadurch die Welt und den sich dariiber 
wolbenden Himmel nach, dass sie mit Blumen geschmiickte Bogoi 
aus Zweigen uber dem Altar au&tellen. Die Blumen bedeuten die 
Sterne, die hier insofem am Platze sind, als die Feste stets in der 
Nacht stattfinden. Unter den Bogen steht die heilige jicara, die das 
Weltbild in Gestalt der sechs Richtungen ^ithalt. In einem Dorfe 
sah ioh aber auoh kurz vor der Begenzeit den Wolkenhimmel auf 
dem Altar, dargestellt durch Watte, die stets Begen und Wolken 
bedeutet und herbeizaubert, fiber einem Gewdlbe von Holzstabchea, 
darunter wie gewohnlich die jicara, die Welt, bereit, das ersehnte 
Nass zu empfangen (Fig. 3). Wenn man diese enge Zusammen- 
gehikigkeit von Stemen und Wolken bedenkt, so ist der mexikanische 
Name Mixooatl, * Wolkenschlange,' fur einen Stemgott verstindUch, 
und kann es auch nicht wundemehmen, dass die Kakauyiirite ge- 
nannten Berggotter der Huichol, die gleich den Berg- und Begengottem 
der alten Mexikaner den Begen bringen, direkt als aus der Unterwelt 
im Westen kommend, d. h. als Sterne bezeichnet werden. Sie zer- 



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Fig. 2. Opfergabe : Kleine Pyramide als Himmelsleiter fiir den Sonnengott. 
J wirkl. Gr. Berliner Museum fiir Volkerkunde. 



Fig. 3. Ceremonie der Coraindianer von S. Francisco vor dem Altar. Auf 
ihm ist der wolkenbedeckte Himmel dargestellt. Nach einer Photogr. von 
K. Th. Pr«u88. 

C.B.I, p. 38] 



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8. AgtraireUgum in Meosiko: Preuss 89 

stireaten sioh ubw das ganze Land bis Sonnwiaufgang, der eine liess 
rich hier, der andere dort nieder. Es sei ein Heer von Gottem, yiel 
sahheiohw als die Menaohen, wie die Huichol mir sagten. Aber 
obwohl sie nan sesshaft geworden sind, bringt man ihnen in dem 
Anfang der Regenzeit am Fest der Felderreinigung die aikuii genannten 
Bhombenkreose dar, Kreoze, die vom Centrum aus rundum spiralig 
mit einem Faden omzogen sind, so dass ein Rhombus entsteht. Diese 
Bhomben nMnlieh sind wiederum in ihrer Machart die Nachahmung 
der Welt, die bei d^i Cora die Erdgottin {faiix, 'unsere Mutter'), 
die sugleich der Mcmd ist, aus zwei kreuzweise ubereinander gelegten 
Pfeilen des Hoigenstems {uAd»y ^unser Slterer Brnder') and ihren 
eigenen Haaren sohuf . Es ist diese Erde in Grestalt des Rhomben- 
kreuzes aber im Grande nichts weiter als die vier Riohtungen, deren 
Ezistenz von dem Wandem der Sonne iiber den Himmel herruhrt. 
Deahalb sind solohe Rhomben und ebenso ahnliohe sechseckige Sterne 
die bevcMTzngten Opfergaben fur die Gestimgottheiten katexocheH 
der Cora, Sonne, Mond und Morgenstem, obwohl diese Formen als 
Abbilder der Welt gelten. Die Rhombenkreuze widerspreohen also 
der Sesshaftigkeit der Berggottheiten. Sie sind vielmehr die Requisi- 
ten der wandemden Sterne, und da frage ich nun : Sind nicht die 
Beirge einfach die Himmelssitze der Gotter wie die Pyramiden, und 
ist nicht die Erde ein Abbild des Himmels ? 

Die Weohselbeziehung zwischen Himmel und Erde zeigt sioh am 
beaten darin, dass die Mais- und Vegetationsgottheit ein Stem am 
Himmel ist, der im Friihjahr zur Erde herabsteigt, als Maispflanze 
geboren und bei der Emte getotet wird, um wieder an den Stem- 
himmel zuriickzugelangen. Das ist in ahnlicher Weise b6i den alten 
Hiexikanem wie bei s&mtlichen drei von mir besuohten Stftmm^i ddr 
FalL Der Tod des Maisgottes erf olgt bei den Cora und Mexicano 
dorch die Zub«*eitung des Maises uber dem Feuer. Die Huichol 
stellen die Kurbisse bei der Emte durch kleine Kinder dar und lassen 
sie am Emtef est vermittelst eines von einem Pf able herabhangenden 
Gurtels, der ihren Pfad darstellt, zum Himmel emporsteigen. Deshalb 
haben diese Kinder die schon erwahnten Rhombenkreuze als Schmuok 
aof ihrem Hut, um ihre Reise naoh den vier Richtungen anzudeuten, 
and dieselben Rhomben dienen daher ganz allgemein als Opfergaben 
for das Wohl kleiner Kinder, tlberall im alten und modemen Mexiko 
lat auch die Mondgottheit, die zugleich Emtegottheit und mit dem 
Mais identisch ist, Erdgdttin, d. h. die Erde. Der Mond ist gewisser- 
massen das com][>aote Abbild der Erde am Himmel, in die er wie alle 
Gestime tfiglich zuruckkehrt. Im alten Mexiko gebiert die Erdgottin 
als Mond am Himmel den Maisgott, den Stem, wie sie doch entspre- 
chend ab Erde in Wirklichkeit die Vegetation erzeugt, so dass wir 
also wieder ein Abbild des irdischen Vorgangs am Himmel haben. 



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40 /• Religions of the Lower Culture 

Bei n&herem Zusehen finden sich merkwurdige Angaben iiber die 
Geeamthdt der Getter, Angaben, die einfach ihre Stemnatur kond- 
than, ohne dass es bisher moglioh war, sie in vollem Umfang zu be- 
greifen. Die altmexikanischen Gotter kamen aus dem fruohtbaren 
Tamoanchan, dem Haus ^ wo man herabeteigt ', der Unterwelt im 
West^i und zugieich dem Stemhimmel. Sie kamen als Tzitzimlme, als 
Schreokgespenster, vom Himmel auf die Erde an ihre jetzigen Wohn- 
orte herab. Sie stehen in gewissem Sinne alle als Feinde der Sonne 
gegenuber, die sie des Morgens und im Fnihling bei Sonnenanfgang 
za bekampfen hat. Bei den Huichol sind es die Kakauy&rite genann- 
ten Gotter, die in gleicher Weise aus der Unterwelt im Westen kamen. 
Sie werd^i vorzugsweise als Berggotter aufgefasst, da das Land der 
Huiohol uberall gebirgig ist, sind aber im weiteren Sinn die gesamten 
an irgend welchen geographischen Punkten weilenden Gottheiten. 
Ihre Nachkommen sind die Menschen. Andererseits sind die in dem 
fruohtbaren Westen wohnenden Gotter Hirsohe, von dort kommen 
sie herauf , und das Gedeihen der Welt hftngt von ihrer Eriegung 
duroh die Sonne ab. Kakauyiirite und Hirsohe sind also in gleieher 
Weise Sterne, selbst Morgen- und Abendstem sind zwei Hirsohe, und 
das war aueh im alten Mexiko mit dem Gott des Morgenstems Mix- 
oouatl-Camaztli der Fall. Und die Hirsehjagd der Mensohen, die 
sie vomehmen, um die Hirsehopfer fiir die Feste zu erlangen, ist eine 
Nachahmung der Stem-Hirsohjagd der Sonne. Im alten Mexiko aber 
standen in der gleichen Idee an Stelleder Hirsohe Menschen als Opfer 
und als Abbilder der Sterne. 

Entsprechend erfahren wir von andem Tiergattungen, Saugetieren* 
Vogeln und Insekten, dass sie vom Himmel auf die Erde oder aus 
der Unterwelt im Westen gekommen sind, wie sie auch umgekehrt 
in vielen Mythen ihr Unwesen am Himmel treiben. Im Altmexi- 
kanischen haben Vogel hier auf Erden angeblich sogar die Stem- 
gesichtsbemalung der Stemwesen und werden mit den Toten identi- 
fidert. Dazu kommen die vielen Tiere und Pflanzen, die als Abbilder 
der einzelnen Himmelsgotter bzw. als ihnen heilig bezeichnet werden. 
Und wenn ein Tier scheinbar ohne Verbindung mit dem Himmel ist, 
so konnen die Himmelsgotter es wenigstens in seinem Treiben beein- 
flussen. So verursachen die Kliriise genannten kleinen Wassertier- 
chen der Cora die Schlafkrankheit, wenn sie aus dem Wasser zu den 
am Ufer wachsenden Pflanzen und Baumen kriechen : die Schlaf- 
krankheit in dem Sinne, dass der Mensch weniger die geheimen Krafte 
besitzt, die in der ceremoniellen Enthaltung vom Schlafe liegen. Die 
Gottheit des Morgenstems gebietet ihnen aber bei Zeiten, ins Wasser 
zuriickzukehren, so dass sie keinen Schaden anrichten konnen. 

Diese Tierchen gehoren bereits wie alle Gotter der GewEsser bei 
den Cora zur Gottin der Unterwelt, T6teuan, die in der sechsten. 



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8. AstralreUgiofi in Meooiko: Prems 41 

onteni Bichtung wohnt. Die iintem Gottheiten gelangen aber im 
Altmexikamschenalleals Stemdamonen, alsTzitzimlmeanden Himmel, 
sodass auoh in diesem Bdspiel der direkte Zosammenhang mit dem 
Himmel gewahrt bleibt. Und in dieser selben Ideenverbindung ist 
die MogHehkeit nicht von der Hand zu weisen, dass der Hang meiner 
Tndianer, for alle Gottheiten Opfergaben in Hohlen niederzul^gen, 
wad das Hineingehen der Gestime in die Erde zuruckfohrt.^ 



4 

IDOL- WORSHIP AMONG THE ARCTIC 
RACES OF EUROPE AND ASIA 

By DAVID MacRITCHIE. (Abstract) 

In his LappofUay written in 1672,' the Swedish professor, Scheffier, 
states that the Lapps at his time worshipped three principal gods : 
(1) Thor, or Tiermes, * the thonderer '—otherwise Aijeke, * the anees- 
t<Nr'; (2) Storjunkar, 'the Great Lord'; and (3) the Sun. Thor's 
image was made of wood, and he was consequently known as ' the 
wooden god' (Muora Jvbmd). Stcvjunkar was represented by a 
peculiar stmie (or seita)^ for which reason he was called ' the stone 
god '• Of the Sun there was no image, but in the worship of the 
Sun the sacrificial bones were arranged in a circle upon the altar. 
SchefiFer adds his belief that the Sun was also incorpcrate in Thor, 
and that, therefore, the worship of Thor was at the same time the 
worship of the Sun. 

The wooden image of Thor was alwa3m made of birch. * Of this 
wood,' says Scheffer, * they make so many idols as they have sacrifices, 
and when they have done, they keep them in a cave by some hill 

' tJber die altmexiksiusohe Astralrefigion s. K. Th. FteuM in Sohiele und 
Gunkel, Die Bdigum in Vergatngenheii und Oegenwartf s. v. Meziko. 

NSheres uber die Astralieligion der diei St&mme s. voriaofig in meinen drei, 
einander eigSnzenden xiiHammflnfaiMendon Beriohten, Ztachr. d, Ota, /. Srdimndef 
Berlin, 1908, S. UliZtschr.f. Ethnologie, xl, 1908, &682: Archiv f. Rdigions- 
%ci88tnachafty zi, 1908, S. 309 : und in den auf der Beise abgefassten Beriohten 
im^lo&iM,Bd.zo,S.e9, 165;Bd.xoi, S. 185; Bd. xcii, S. 155 ; Bd. xoiii, & 189 : 
Zitckr. /. Ethnd., Bd. xxxviii, 1906, S. 955 : Archiv /. Bdigianawissenachafty ix, 
190e, 8.464. 

' The eztnMts here made are taken from the Kngliwh translation, which was 
printed ' at the Theater in Oxford ' in 1674. 



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42 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

side. The shape of them is very rade ; only at the top they ace 
made to represent a man's head.' A rade block of this descriptioii 
is shown in Soheffer's book ; and also a much more elaborate picture 
in which Thor's image stands upon a table, or altar. The trunk is 
simply a block of wood, with sticks projecting on either side to 
represent arms. At the end of the right arm is fixed a mallet, intended 
for the hanmier of Thor. Across the chest are cross-belts or bandoliers. 
The head is shaped to resemble a human head, with eyes, eyebrows, 
nose, and mouth. On either side of the skull are two spikes, in 
accordance with Scheffer's words : * Into his head they drive a naO 
of iron g£ steel, and a small piece of flint to strike fire with, if he hath 
a mind to it.' On the table, in front of the figure, is a plate of birch 
bark, containing portimis of a sacrificed reindeer. Behind the figure 
are deers' antlers, and round the base of the table are branches * o£ 
birch and pine '. A Lapp kneels in adoration before the altar. 

Scheffer states that the Lapps make a new image to Thor every 
autumn, consecrating it by killing a reindeer, and smearing the idol 
with its blood and fat. llie skull, feet, and horns are placed behind 
the image. The meat is partly eaten by the Lapps, and part is buried, 
together with the bones. 

Von DUben, writing in 1873, gives a similar account. He also 
reproduces from a manuscript of 1671 a picture which is in close 
agreement with Scheffer's description. Li it are represented three 
images of Thor on one table. Each image has a mallet attached to 
either arm, and the bodies are crossed by bandoliers on the waist 
as well as the chest. The heads are surrounded by haloes.^ Whether 
the idea of Thor and his hammer, and the name of Thcnr itself, ought 
to be regarded as of Lapp origin, or as derived from more southern 
races, is a question which has been debated, but into which it is 
unnecessary to enter here. 

The rites accompanjdng the worship of * the stone god ^ <x Stor- 
junkar, are very similar to those associated with * the wooden god '• 
Storjunkar is represented by a stone — called a seiia — ^usually an 
unwcnrked stone happening to have a faint suggestion of a human 
or animal figure. Three examples of these may be cited; one taken 
from a reindeer pasture and another from a stream, while a third 
(of white marble, with a covering or cap of calcareous spar) was found 
in a small island, at a spot known to Lapp tradition as a place <d 
sacrifice, where many horns uid bones were found. Sometimes the 
upper part of these stones was carved to resemble the head of a man 
or of an animal. 

^ Dm Lapplamd och Lappame^ by Gustaf von Duben, Stockholm, 1873, 
p. 288. 



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4. Idolr Worship among Arctic Races : MacRitckie 48 

In lefemng to the worship of these wooden and stone gods, the 
Hon. J<Am Abercrcnnby remarks ^ : * The Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Voguls, 
and Lapps all smear the mouths of their idols with blood and fat/ 
The Samoyeds in particular have preserved the worship of ^ the 
wooden god% with the same rites as the Lapps* It is noteworthy 
that these two peoples are, or were, closely allied in language and 
manners. The Lapps, indeed, style themselves Sameh or SamdaU. 
From the description given by an English voyager, Stephen Burrough, 
in 1656, and from an old engraving which has come down to us from 
about the same period, it is evident that the Samoyed worship of 
* the wooden god ' corresponds exactly with that of the Lapps. Bur- 
rough recounts how, on an island near Vaygatz, he saw * a heap of 
Samoyed idols, which were in number above 300, the wcnrst and the 
most unartifidal work that ever I saw. The eyes and mouths <rf 
sundry of them were bloody, they had the shape of men, women, 
and ohildren, very grossly wrought, and that which they had made 
for other parts was also sprinkled with blood. Some of their idols 
were an old stick with two or three notches, made with a knife, in it*. 
There was one of their sleds broken, and lay by the heap of idols, 
and there I saw a deer's skin which the fowls had spoiled ; and before 
certain of their idols blocks were made as high as their mouths, being 
an Uoody. I thought that to be the table whereon they offered 
their sacrifice.' ' 

The only salient difference between the wooden gods of the Samoyeds 
9aA of the Lapps appears to be that the * hammer of Thor ' does 
not seem to be represented in any picture of the Samoyed idols, 
niis circumstance goes far to support the belief that Thor's hammer 
is a Teutonic intrusion in Lapland. 

Linschoten, in 1601, shows a specimen of a Samoyed idol which 
recalls Scheffer's account of the wooden stumps frequently worshipped 
by the seventeenth-century Lapps. * The shape of them is very 
rude,' observes Schefier (p. 40), * only at the top they are made to 
repcesent a man's head.' De la Martinidre records that, in 1658^ 
he and his ^comrades of the Danish expedition discovered, in the 
territory adjoining Vaygatz Straits, a number of tree stumps rudely 
carved to resemble men ; and, before one of these, two savages wisre 
serai kneeling in adoration. Shortly afterwards, on their way back 
to the ships, the explorers saw two other natives worshipping a similar 
idol, of which he gives a picture. 

In 1875, Nordenskidld and his comrades of the Vega came across 
a recently used sacrificial site on the west coast of Yalmal, of whicli 

' Pre- and Proto-hUtonc Finns, Nutt, London, 1898, vol. i, p. 159. 
• Voyage of (he Vega, voL i, p. 100 (Eng. Trans.). 



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44 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

he gives a picture. He thus describes the scene : ^ On the top of the 
strand-bank was found a place of sacrifice, consisting of forty-five 
bears' skulls of various ag^ placed in a heap, a large number of rein- 
deer skulls, the lower jaw of a walrus, Ac. From most of the bears' 
skulls the canine teeth were broken out, and the lower jaw was fre- 
quently entirely wanting. Some of the bones were overgrown with 
moss and lay sunk in the earth ; others had, as the adhering flesh 
showed, been placed there during the present year. In the middle 
of the heap of bones stood four erect pieces of wood. Two consisted 
of sticks a metre in length with notches cut in them, serving to bear 
up the- reindeer and bears' skulls, which were partly placed on the 
points of the sticks, or hung up by means of the notches, or spitted 
on the sticks by four-cornered holes cut in the skulls. The two 
others, which clearly were the proper idols of this place of sacrifice 
consisted of drift-wood roots, on which some carvings had been made 
to distinguish the eyes, mouth, and nose. The parts of the pieces 
of wood intended to represent the eyes and mouth had recently been 
besmeared with blood, and there still lay at the heap of bones the 
entrails of a newly-killed reindeer.' ^ 

In 1878 the Swedish explorers found a similar sacrificial heap on 
Vaygatz Island. 

In 1894 Mr. Frederick Jackson, in the course of his expedition 
to Franz-Josef Land, lecimed that the Samoyeds of Vaygatz and the 
Great Tundra, at that date, were accustomed to sacrifice a reindeer 
to their god, killing the animal by slow degrees.* 

From these references, then, it will be seen that the religious rites 
practised by the Lapps and by the Samoyeds of northern Russia 
and north-western Siberia were closely akin, if not actually identical. 
Analogous ceremonies could apparently be traced all along northern 
Asia as far as Japan. 

For example, the Giliaks of i^e Amoor region and the Ainos of 
Sakhalin and Yezo worship the bear with rites closely resembling 
those already described. Von Siebold thus pictures the bear-feast of 
the Ainos : — 

' The A!nos of Yeso usuaUy celebrate this feast on a pleasant day 
in autumn. An elegant wooden hut or bower is built outside the 
village, decked with branches, and inside on a wooden screen is 
fastened the head of a newly-killed bear. Weapons and other precious 
articles are displayed as a show in the bear's chapel, the inao [a willow- 
wand, shaved in a peculiar fashion] is set up inside and out, and in 
front of the chapel mats are spread, on which the Aino families delight 

* Op. dt., p. 207. 

* A ThauMnd Days in the Arctic, by Frederick Q. Jaokson, London, 1899, 
vol. 1, pp. 21-2. 



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4. IdolrWorsMp among Arctic Races: MacRitchie 45 

themselYeB with food and drink, and with singing and dancing. The 
IHincipal dish is soup with bear's-meat, and the pleasant Japanese 
9aH is their festal drmk.^ ^ 

There are many Japanese pictures of the Aino bear-feast. In some 
of these the head of the newly-killed bear is shown, having the fur 
on. In others we see only the skull, or sometimes several skulls, 
[daced on the top of a stick and surrounded with the sacred willow- 
wands. In these latter cases the scene recalls the Samoyed places 
of sacrifice portrayed by the Vega explorers. 

The Japanese themselves are interlinked with the A!no bear-feast; 
for Von Siebold states ' that they recognize in it a likeness to one 
of their own religious feasts. 

There are hints also that at some remote period the Japanese 
worshipped wooden pillars similar to those of Arctic Europe and 
Asia. Such is the opinion of Mr. W. 6. Aston, who finds indications 
of *' a time when the gods of Japan were wooden posts carved at the 
top into a rude semblance of the human countenance. • . • In Corea, 
closely related to Japan, there are gods of this kind. The mile-posts 
there,' he continues, *have their upper parts fashioned into the shape 
of an idol, to which some pompous title is given, and at a [certain 
specified] village * • . I have seen a group of a dozen or more of 
these pillar-gods, set up, I was told, as guardians to the inhabitants 
during an epidemic of small-pox.' ^ 

It would be possible, no doubt, to extend these comparisons much 
more widely ; to such an extent, indeed, that any definite conclusion 
with regard to them would be very difficult. The statements which 
I have quoted, however, seem to denote that a cult of pillar-worship, 
and of religious rites performed before animals' skulls fenced in by 
sacred branches, was, at one time or another, spread all over the 
northern r^ons of the Eurasian continent. 

* Quoted on p. 30 of my Ainoa, P. W. M. Trap, Leiden, 1892. 
' See p. 30 of my Ainoa, 

* Nihongi (Eng. trans.. Supplement to the Japan Society's TranaacHans, 
Ki^^ Fault London, 1896), vol. i, p. 3, note 6. 



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46 /. Religions of tlie Lower Culture 



THE CONCEPTION OF MANA 
By R. R. MARETT 

It is no part of my present design to determine, by an exhaustiYe 
anal3r8is of the existing evidence, how the conception of tnana is under- 
stood and applied within its special area of distribution, namely the 
Pacific region. Such a task pertains to DescriptiYe Ethnology ; and it 
is rather to a problem of Comparative Ethnology that I should like to 
call your attention. I propose to discuss the value — ^that is to say, the 
appropriateness and the fruitfulness— of either this conception of 
tnana or some nearly equivalent notion, such as the Huron orenda^ 
when selected by the science of Comparative Religion to serve as one 
of its cat^ories, or clctssificatory terms of the widest extension. 

Now any historical science that adopts the Comparative Method 
stands committed to the postulate that human nature is sufficiently 
homogeneous and uniform to warrant us in classifying its tendencies 
under formulae coextensive with the whole broad field of anthro- 
pological research. Though the conditions of their occurrence cause 
our data to appear highly disconnected, we claim, even if we cannot yet 
wholly make good, the right to bind them together into a single 
83rstem of reference by means of certain general principles. By 
duly constructing such theoretical bridges, as Dr. Frazer is fond of 
calling them, we hope eventually to transform, as it were, a medley 
of insecure, insignificant sandbanks into one stable and glorious 
Venice. 

So much, then, for our scientific ideal. But some sceptical champion 
of the actual may be inclined to ask : ^ Are examples as a matter of 
fact forthcoming, at any rate from within the particular department 
of Comparative Religion, of categories or general principles that, 
when tested by use, prove reasonably steadfast ? ' To this challenge 
it may be replied that, even when we limit ourselves to the case of 
what may be decrcribed as ^rudimentary ' religion — ^in regard to which 
our terminology finds itself in the paradoxical position of having 
to grapple with states of mind themselves hardly subject to fixed 
terms at all — ^there are at all events distinguishable degrees of value 
to be recognized amongst the categories in current employment. 
Thus most of us will be agreed that, considered as a head of general 
classification, ' tabu ' works well enough, but ' totem ' scarcely so well, 
whilst ' fetich ' is perhaps altogether unsatisfactory. Besides, there is 



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5. Conception of Mana : Marett 47 

at least one supreme principle that has for many years stood firm 
in the midst of these psychological quicksands. Dr. l^lor's con- 
ception of ^ animism ' is the crucial instance of a category that success- 
fully applies to rudimentary religion taken at its widest. If our 
science -is to be compared to a V^ce held together by bridges, then 
* fwiimiftni ' must be likened to its Bialto. 

At the same time, Uest one good custom should corrupt the world,' 
we need plenty of customs ; and the like holds true of categories. 
In what follows I may seem to be attacking ' animism \ in so far as 
I shall attempt to endow ^ mana ' with classificatory authority to some 
extent at the expense of the older notion. Let me, therefore, declare 
at the outset that I should be the last to wish our time-honoured 
Rialto to be treated as an obsolete or obsolescent structure. If I seek 
to divert from it some of the traffic it is not naturally suited to bear, 
I am surely offering it no injury, but a service. 

One word more by way of preface. There are those who dislike the 
introduction of native terms into our scientific nomenclature. The 
local and g^ieral usages, they object, tend to become confused. This 
may, indeed, be a real danger. On the other hand, are we not more 
likely to keep in touch with the obscure forces at work in rudimentary 
religion, if we make what use we can of the clues lying ready to hand 
in the recorded efforts of rudimentary reflection upon religion ? The 
mana of the Pacific may be said, I think, without exaggeration to 
embody rudimentary reflection — ^to form a piece of subconscious philo- 
sophy. To begin with, the religious eye perceives the presence of 
mana here, there, and everywhere. In the next place, mana has worked 
ite way into the very heart of the native languages, where it figures as 
more than one part of speech, and abounds in secondary meanings 
of all kinds. Lastly, whatever the word may originally have signified 
(as &r as I know, an unsettled question), it stands in its actual use 
for something lying more or less beyond the reach of the senses — some- 
thing verging on what we are wont to describe as the immaterial or 
unseen. All this, however, hardly amounts to a proof that mana 
has acquired in the abcHiginal mind the full status of an abstract idea. 
For instance, whereas a Codrington might decide in comprehensive 
fashion that all Melanesian religion consists in getting mana for one- 
self,^ it is at least open to doubt whether a Melanesian sage could have 
arrived, unassisted, at a generalization so abstract — ^a *' bird's eye view ' 
so detached from confusing detail. Nevertheless, we may well suspect 
s<xne such truth as this to have long been more or less inarticulately 
felt by the Melanesian mind. In fact, I take it, there would have been 
small difficulty on Bishop Codrington's part in making an intelligent 
native realize the force of his universal proposition. What is the 

^ R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), 119 n. 



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48 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

moral of this ? Surely, that the science of ComparatiYe Religion 
should strive to explicate the meaning inherent in any given phase 
of the world's religious experience in just those tenns that would 
naturally suggest themselves^ suppose the phase in question to be 
somehow quickened into self-consciousness and self-expressi<ni. Such 
terms I would denominate * sympathetic ' ; and would, further, 
hazard the judgement that, in the case of all science of the kind, its use 
of sympathetic terms is the measure of its sympathetic insight. Jf ana, 
then, I contend, has, despite its exotic appearance, a perfect right to 
figure as a scientific category by the side of tabu — a term hailing from 
the same geographical area — so long as a classificatory function of like 
importance can be found for it. That function let us now proceed, 
if so may be, to discover. 

Codrington defines mana^ in its Melanesian use, as follows : * a force 
altogether distinct from physical power, which acts in all kinds of 
ways for good and evil, and which it is of the greatest advantage to 
possess or control ' ; or again he says : ' It is a power or influence, 
not physical, and in a way supernatural ; but it shows itself in physical 
force, or in any kind of power or excellence which a man possesses/ 
It is supernatural just in this way, namely, that it is ' what works to 
effect everything which is beyond the ordinary power of men, outside 
the common processes of nature.' He illustrates his point by examples : 
* If a man has been successful in fitting, it has not been his natural 
strength of arm, quickness of eye, or readiness of resource that has won 
success ; he has certainly got the mana of a spirit or of some deceased 
warrior to empower him, conveyed in an amulet of a stone round his 
neck, or a tuft of leaves in his belt, in a tooth hung upon a finger 
of his bow hand, or in the form of words with which he brings super- 
natural assistance to his side. If a man's pigs multiply, and his 
gardens are productive, it is not because he is industrious and looks 
after his property, but because of the stones full of mana for pigs and 
yams that he possesses. Of course a yam naturally grows when 
planted, that is well known, but it will not be very large unless tnana 
comes into play ; a canoe will not be swift unless mana be brought to 
bear upon it, a net will not catch many fish, nor an arrow infiict a 
mortal wound.' ^ 

From Poljmesia comes much the same story. Tregear in his admir- 
able comparative dictionary of the Polynesian dialects * renders the 
word, which may be either noun or adjective, thus : * supernatural 
power ; divine authority ; having qualities which (»rdinary persons 
cnr things do not possess.' He seems to distinguish, however, what 

' Codrington, op. oit., 118-20. 

• K Tregear, TKt Maori-Polynesian ComparaHve Dictionary (Wellington, 
N. Z., 1891), 8.V. mafia. 



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5. Conception of Mana : Marett 49 

■ligfat be called a * secular * sense, in which the term stands generally 
for * aathority \ or, as an adjective, for ' effectual, effective \ He 
cites cc^ous instances from the various dialects to exemplify the 
sapematural mode of fnana. Thus the word is applied, in Maori, to 
a wooden sword that has done deeds so wcmderful as to possess a sanctity 
and power of its own ; in Samoan, to a parent who brings a curse on 
a disobedient child ; in Hawaiian, to the gods, cnr to a man who by 
his death gives efficacy to an idol ; in Tongan, to whoever perf onus 
nuraclee, or bewitches ; in Mangarevan, to a magic staff given to a mMi 
by his grandfather^ or, again, to divination in general ; and so forth. 
In short its range is as wide as those of divinity and witchcraft taken 
together. If, on the other hand, we turn to what I have called the 
secular sense attributed to TnaiM, as, for example, when it is used of 
a chief, a healer of maladies, a successful pleader, or the winner of a 
race, we perceive at once that the distinction of meaning holds good 
fcMT the civilized lexicographer rather than for the unsophisticated 
native. The chief who can impose to&u, the caster-out of disease- 
devils, and^ in hardly less a degree, the man who can exercise the magic 
of persuasion, or who can command the luck which the most skilled 
athlete does not despise, is for the Polynesian mind not metaphorically 
' gifted ' or * inspired ', but literally. Of course, as in Europe, so in 
Pcdynesia the coin of current usage may have become clipped with 
lapse of time. Thus Plato tells us that both the Spartans and the 
Atiienian ladies of his day used to exclaim of any male person they 
happened to admire, $€lo% dn/p, * what a divine man ! ' ^ It need not 
surprise us, therefore, that in Mangarevan you may say of any number 
over forty manamanaTM — an * awful ' lot, in fact. Such an exception, 
however, can scarcely be allowed to count against the generalization 
that, throughout the Pacific region, inana in its essential meaning 
connotes what both Codrington and Tregear describe as the super- 
naturaL 

Now mark the importance of this in view of the possible use of 
mana as a categcnry of Comparative Religion. Comparative Religion^ 
I would maintain, at all events so long as it is seeking to grapple with 
rudimentary or protoplasmic types of religious experience, must cast 
its net somewhat widely. Its interest must embrace the whole of one, 
uid, perhaps, for savagery the more considerable, of the two funda- 
mental aspects under which his experience or his universe (we may 
express it either way) reveals itself to the rudimentary intelligence of 
man. What to call this aspect, so as to preserve the flavour of the 
aboriginal notion, is a difficulty, but a difficulty of detail. The all- 
important matter is to establish by induction that such an aspect is 
actually perceived at the level of experience I have called 'rudimentary'. 

* Plato, Mtno 99 D. 



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50 /• Religions of the Lower Culture 

This, I belieYe, can be done. I have, for instance, shown elsewhere 
that even the Pygmy, a person perhaps not overburdened with ideas, 
possesses in his notion of audah^ an inkling of the difference that 
marks off the one province of experience from the other. Of course 
he cannot deal with audah abstractly ; provinces of experience and 
the like are not for him. But I found that, when confronted with 
particular cases, or rather types of case, my Fjrgmy friend could 
determine with great predsi<m whether oudah was there or not. What 
practical results, if any, would be likely to flow from this effort of 
discernment my knowledge of Pygmy customs, unfortunately, does 
not enable me to say ; but I take it that the conception is not there 
for nothing. I shidl assume, then, that an inductive study of the 
ideas and customs of savagery will show, firstly, that an awareness of 
a fundamental aspect of life and of the world, which aspect I shall 
provisionally term ^ supernatural ', is so general as to be typical, and, 
secondly, that such an awareness is no less generally bound up with 
a specific group of vital reactions. 

As to the question of a name for this aspect, different views may 
be held. The term our science needs ought to express the bare mini- 
mum of generic being required to constitute matter for the experience 
which, taken at its highest, though by no means at its widest, we call 
^ religious '. * Raw material for good religion and bad religion, as well 
as for magic white or black ' — ^how are we going to designate that in a 
phrase ? It will not help us here, I am afraid, to cast about amongst 
native words. Putting aside audah as too insignificant and too little 
understood to be pressed into this high service, I can find nothing 
more nearly adapted to the purpose than the Siouan tvahan or wahanda ; 
of which McGee writes : * the term may be translated into " mystery *' 
perhaps more satisf actorify than in Iric] any other single English word, 
yet this rendering is at the same time too limited, as wahanda vaguely 
denotes also power, sacred, ancient, grandeur, animate, immortal.** 
But when vagueness reaches this pitch, it is time, I think, to resort 
to one of our own more clear-cut notions. Amongst such notions 
that of ^ the supernatural ' stands out, in my opinion, as the least 
objectionable. Of course it is our term ; that must be clearly under- 
stood. The savage has no word for ^ nature '. He does not abstractly 
distinguish between an order of uniform happenings and a higher 
order of miraculous happenings. He is merely concerned to mark 
and exploit the difference when presented in the concrete. As 
Codrington says : * A man comes by chance upon a stone which takes 

* See AnOiropological Esaaya, presenUd to Edward BumeU Tyhr (Oxford, 
1907), 227. 

* W. J. McGee, Fifiundh Annwd Report of ihe V. 8. Bureau of Eiktidogy 
(Washington, 1898), 182. 



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5. ConcepHon of Mana : Marett 51 

his fancy ; its shape is singular, it is like something, it is certainly 
not a common stone, there most be mana in it. So he argues with 
himself, and he puts it to the proof ; he lays it at the root of a tree 
to the fruit of which it has a certain resemblance, or he buries it in the 
ground when he plants his garden ; an abundant crop on the tree or 
in the garden shows that he is right, the stone is mana, has that power 
in it.' ^ Here, however, we have at all events the germs of our fOTmal 
antithesis between the natural and the supernatural ; which, by the 
way, is perhaps not so nicely suited to the taste of the advanced 
theok^QT of our day that it would have much scruple about dedicating 
the expression to the service of rudimentary religion. I should like 
to add that in any case the English word *' supernatural * seems to 
suit this context better than the word ^ sacred \ UidU du aaeri may 
be i^posite enough in French, since sacri can stand either for * holy ' 
or for * damned ' ; but it is an abuse of the English language to speak 
of the * sacredness ' of some accursed wizard. Hence, if our science 
were to take over the phrase, it must turn its back on usage in favour 
of etymology ; and then, I think, it would be found that the Latin 
sacer merely amounts to tabu, the negative mode of the supernatural — 
a point to which I now proceed. 

TabUy as I have tried to prove elsewhere,' is the negative mode 
of the supernatural, to which mana corresponds as the positive 
mode. I am not confining my attention to the use of these terms 
in the Pacific region,' but am considering them as transformed, 
on the strength of their local use, into categories of world- 
wide application. Given the supernatural in any form there are 
always two things to note about it : firstly, that you are to be 
heedful in regard to it ; secondly, that it has power. The first 
may be called its n^ative character, the second its positive. 
Perhaps stronger expressions might seem to be required. Tabu, 
it might be argued, is not so much n^ative as prohibitive or 
even minatory ; whilst mana is not merely positive but operative 
and thaumaturgic. The more colourless terms, however, are safer 
whoi it is a question of characterizing universal modes of the super- 
natural. Qiven this wide sense tabu simply implies that you must 

* Gbdringtoii, op. oit., 110. 

* Anihropological Esaays (Oxford, 1907), 219 sqq. 

* Indeed, in Melanesia at all events, rongo answers more nearly to the purpose 
than does tambu (*>tafrtt), sinoe the latter always implies human sanction and 
prohibition. A place may, in fact, be tambu without being rongop as when a 
secret society taboos the approaches to its lodge by means of certain marks* 
idiicfa are quite effectual as representing the physical force commanded by the 
association. So Codnngton, op. cit., 77. Surely, however, every secret society 
possesses, or originally possessed, a qnasi-religious character, and as such woukL 
have mana at its disposaL 

b2 



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52 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

be heedful in regard to the supernatural, not that you must be on your 
guard against it. The prohibition to have dealings Tvdth it is not 
absolute; otherwise practical religion would be impossible. The warn- 
ing is against casual, incautious, profane dealings. * Not to be lightly 
approached ' is Codrington's translation for the corresponding term 
used in the New Hebrides.^ Under certain conditions man may 
draw nigh, but it is well for him to respect those conditions. Thus 
^ prohibitive ' and ' minatory ' are too strongs Tabu, as popularly 
used, may in a given context connote something like absolute 
prohibition, but in the universal application I have given to it can 
only represent the supernatural in its negative character — ^the super- 
natural, so to speak, on the defensive. 

We come now to mana. Here, again, we must shun descriptions 
that are too specific. Mana is often operative and thaumaturgic, 
but not always. Like energy, mana may be dormant or potential. 
Mana, let us remember, is an adjective as well as a noun, ezj^ressing 
a possession which is likewise a permanent quality. The stone that 
looks like a banana is and has manay whether you set it working by 
planting it at the foot of your tree or not. Hence it seems enough 
to say that mana exhibits the supernatural in its positive capacity — 
ready, but not necessarily in act, to strike. 

At this point an importMit consideration calls for notice. Tabu 
and mana Af^ply to the supernatural solely as viewed in what I should 
Uke to call its first, or existential, dimension. With its second, or 
moral, dimension they have nothing to do whatever. They register 
judgements of fact, as philosophers would say, not judgements of 
value ; they are constitutive categories, not normative. Thus what- 
ever is supernatural is indifferently tabu — ^perilous to the unwary ; 
but as such it may equally well be holy or unclean, set apart for 
God or abandoned to devil, sainted or sinful, cloistered or quarantined. 
There is plenty of linguistic evidence to show that such distinctions 
of value are familiar to the savage mind. Nor is it hard to see how they 
arise naturally out of the tabu idea. Thus in Mdanesia everything 
supernatural is atoncetofitfrie and ron^^, words implying that it is fenced 
round by sanctions human and divine ; but there is a stronger term 
buto meaning that the sanctions are specially dreadful and thereupon 
becoming equivalent to ' abominable ',' where we seem to pass without 
a break from degree of intensity to degree of worth. Passing on to 
mana, we find exactly the same absence of moral significMice. The 
mystic potentiality is alike for good and evil. Take, for example, 
two Samoan phrases found side by side in Tregear's dictionary : ^ 

^ Codrington, op. cit., 188 ; of. 181. 

* Ibid., 31. ' Tregear, 8.y. mana. 



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5. Conception of Mana : Marett 58 

/a'a-maita, to show extraordinary power or energy, as in healing; 
fcCa-manamanay to attribute an accident or misfortune to supmnatuial 
powers. Or again, in Melanesia European medicine is called fei 
manUj but on the other hand there is likewise mafia in the poisoned 
anrow.^ Similarly, orenda is power to bless or to curse; and the 
same holds good of a host of similar native expressions, for instance, 
wakany qubcy maniiUy okiy not to go outside North America. Mean- 
\dule, in this direction also moral valuations soon make themselves 
felt. Thus in the Pacific region we haVe plehty of special words for 
witchcraft ; and in Maori mythology we even hear of a personified 
witchcraft MaktUu dwelling with the wicked goddess Miru, of whom 
Tregear writes : ' the unclean tapu was her power {mana).^ * Or again, 
in Huron there is a word otgon denoting specifically the malign and 
destructive exercise of orenda ; and Hewitt notes the curious fact that 
the former term is gradually displacing the latter — as if, he observes, 
the bad rather than the good manifestations of supernatural power 
produced a lasting impression on the native mind.^ Elsewhere^ I have 
given Australian examples of a similar distinction drawn between 
wonder-working power in general, and a specifically noxious variety 
of the same, such as, for instance, the weU-known arungquiUha of the 
Arunta. 

I have said enough, I trust, to show that there exists, deep-engrained 
in the rudimentary thought of the world, a conception of a specific 
aspect common to all sorts of things and living beings, under which 
they appear at once as needing insulation and as endowed with an 
energy of high, since extraordinary, potential, — all this without any 
reference to the bearing of these facts on human welfare. In this 
connexion I would merely add that our stock antithesis between magic 
and religion becomes applicable only when we pass from this to the 
second or moral dimension of the supernatural. Presented in its 
double character of tabu and mana the supernatural is not moral or 
immoral, but simply unmoral. It is convenient to describe its sphere 
as that of the magico-religious ; but strictly speaking it is that which 
is neither magical nor religious, since these terms of valuation have 
yet to be superinduced. I am aware that the normative function of 
these expressions is not always manifest, that it is permissible to speak 
of false religion, white magic, and so' on. But, for scientific purposes 
at any rate, an evalnatory use ought, I think, to be assigned to this 
historic disjunction, not merely in view'of the usage of civilized society, 
but as a consequence of that tendency to mark off by discriminative 

^ Codringtoa, op. cit., 198, 908. 

* Tregear, 8.vv. MahiUu^ Mint. 

» J. N. B. Hewitt, The American Anthropologist (1902), NJ3. iv. 37 n. 

* Anthropological Essays, 226 sqq. 



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54 /. ReUgions of the Lower Culture 

epithets the good and the bad supematoralisms, the kmgdoms of 
God and of the Devil, which runs right through the hierological lan- 
guage of the world. 

The rest of this paper will be concerned with a more perplexing, 
and h^ice, probably, more controversial, side of the subject. Put in 
a nutshell the problem is the following : How does * animism ' fit into 
the scheme ? Is the supernatural identical with the spiritual, and 
is mana nothing more or less than spiritual power ? Or, on the con- 
trary, are mana and * soul ' or * spirit ' categories that belong to 
r^tively distinct ssrstems of ideas— ^o the two refuse to combine ? 

As regards this latter question, our minds may quickly be set at rest. 
Somehow these categories do manage to combine freely, and notably 
in that very Pacific region where mana is at home. The Melanesian 
evidence collected by Codrington is decisive. Wherever mana is 
found — and that is to say, wherever the supernatural reveah itsdf — 
this mana is referred to one of three originating sources, namely, 
a living man, a dead man's ghost, or a ^ spirit ' ; spirits displaying 
one of two forms, that of a ghostlike appearance — as a native put it, 
* something indistinct, with no definite outline, grey like dust, vanishing 
as soon as looked at ' ^ — or that of the ordinary corporeal figure of a 
man. Other manifestations of the supernatural are explained in 
terms of these three, or rather the last two, agencies. A sacred animal, 
or again, a sacred stone, is one which belongs to a ghost or spirit, or 
in which a ghost or spirit resides.* Can we say, then, that * animism ' 
is in complete possession of the field ? With a little stretcUng of the 
term, I think, we can. Ghosts and spirits of ghostlike form are 
obviously animistic to the core. Supernatural beings of human 
and corporeal form may perhaps be reckoned by courtesy as spirits ; 
though really we have here the rudiments of a distinct and alternative 
development, namely anthropomorphic theism, a mode of conception 
that especially appeab to the mythological fancy. Finally, animism 
can be made without much trouble to cover the case of the living 
man with tnana. If aman has mana^ it resides in his ^spiritual part" 
or * soul \ which after his death becomes a ghost. Besides, it appears, 
no man has this power of himself ; you can say that he has mana 
with the use of the substantive, not that he is mana, as you can say 
of a ghost or spirit. This latter ^puts the mana into the man' (manag 
— a causative verb) or ^inspires* him ; and an inspired man will even 
in speaking of himself say not ^I' but ^wetwo'.^ There seems, how- 
ever, to be a certain fiaw in the native logic, involving what comes 

1 Codrington, op. cit., 151. 

• IhUL, nSsqq. 

» Ihid., 191. 

« Ibid., 191, 210, 153. 



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5* Conception of Mana: Marett 55 

porilotialy near to argument in a circle. Not every man has mana, 
nor every ghost ; ^ bat the soul of a man of power becomes as such 
a ghost of power, though in his capacity of ghost he has it in greater 
force than when alive.' On the ground of this capacity for earning, 
if not enjoying, during life the right to be mana^ I have ventured 
provisionally to class the living man with the ghost, and the spirit 
as an independent owner of mana ; but it is clear that, in defiance of 
logic, anJTniflm has contrived to * jump the claim '. 

Having thus shown in the briefest way that mana and ' animism ' 
can occur in combination, I proceed to the awkward task of determining 
how, if treated as categories applicable to rudimentary religion in 
general, they are to be provided each with a classificatory function 
of its own. Perhaps the simplest way of meeting, or rather avoiding, 
the difficulty is to deny that ^ animism ' is a category that belongs 
intrinsically to our science at all. Certainly it might be said to pertain 
more properly to some interest wider than the magico-religious, call 
it rudimentary philosophy or what we will. It makes no difference 
whether we take animism in the vaguer Spencerian sense of the attribu- 
tion of life and animation — an attitude of mind to which I prefer to 
give the distinguishing name of * animatism ' — or in the more exact 
Tylorian sense of the attribution of soul, ghost, or ghost-like spirit « 
In rither case we are carried far beyond the bounds of rudimentary 
religion, even when magic is made co-partner in the system. There 
is obviously nothing in the least supernatural in being merely alive. 
On the other hand, to have soul is, as we have seen, not necessarily 
to have mana here or hereafter. The rudimentary philosophy of 
Mrianesia abounds in nice distinctions of an animistic kind as f ollows» 
A yam lives without intelligence, and therefore has no tarunga or 

* soul '. A pig has a ianmga and so likewise has a man, but with 
this difference that when a pig dies he has no tindalo or * ghost *, but 
a man's tarunga at his death becomes a tindalo. Even so, however, 
only a great man's tarunga becomes a tindalo with mana, a * ghost of 
worship ', as Codrington renders it. Meanwhile, as r^ards a vui or 

* spirit ', its nature is apparently the same as that of a soul or at any 
rate a human soul, but it is never without mana.^ Thus only the 
higher grades of this animistic hierarchy rank as supernatural bdngs ; 
and you know them for what they are not by their soul-like nature, 
but by the mana that is in them. 

It remains to add that mana can come very near to meaning ^ soul ' 
or ^ spirit ', thouj^ without the connotation of wraith-like appearance* 

* Godringtoiiy op. cit., 110, 125, 258; but 176 shows that even the burying- 
plaoes ot oommoQ people are so far saored that no one will go there without due 



* Ilnd., 258. ' Ibid., 249 ; ot 123-6. 



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56 L ReKgions of the Lower Culture 

Tregear supplies abundant evidenoe from Polynesia.^ Mdna from 
meaning indwelling power naturally passes into the sense of ^intel- 
ligeho^ *, ^ energy of character,' ' spirit * ; and the kindred term 
manawa (maiuiva) expresses ^ heart ', * the interior man,' * conscience/ 
* soul' ; whilst various other compounds of mana between them yield 
a most complete psytshological vocabulary — ^words for thought, 
memory, belief, approval, affectioni, desire, and so forth. Meanwhile, 
mana iJways, I think, falls short of expressing ' individuality '. Thouj^ 
immaterial it is perfectly transmissible. Thus only last week a corre- 
spondent wrote to me from Simbo in the Solomon Islands to say 
that a native has no objection to imparting to you the words of a mana 
song. The mere knowledge will not enable you to perform miracles. 
You must pay him money, and then ipso facto he will transmit the 
mana to you — as we should say, the ' gbodwiU ' of the concern. On the 
other hand, animism lends itself naturally to this purpose. It is true 
that there is often very little individuality attaching to the nameless 
spirit (wi) that may enter into a man. But the ghost (iinialo) that 
inspires you is apt to retain its full selfhood, so that the possessed one 
speaks of * we two — so-and-so and I '. 

I conclude, then, that mana^ or rather the Ujibvrmana formula, has 
solid advantages over animism, when the avowed object is to found 
what Dr. l^lor calls * a minimum definition ot religion '. Mwna is 
coextensive with the supernatural ; animism is far too wide. Mana 
is always maria, supernatural power, differing in intensity — ^in voltage, 
so to speak — 'but never in essence ; animism splits up into more ot 
less irreducible kinds, notably ' soul ', ' spirit,' and * ghost '. Finally, 
mana, whilst fully adapted to express the inunaterial — the unseen 
force at work behind the seen — ^yet, conformably with the incoherent 
state of rudimentary reflection, leaves in solution the distinction 
between personal and impersonal, and in particular does not allow 
any notion of a high individuality to be precipitated. Animism, on 
the oth^ hand, tends to lose touch with the supernatural in its more 
impersonal forms, and is not well suited to express its transmissibility 
nor indeed its immateriality ; but, by way of compensation, it can 
in a specialized form become a means of representing supernatural 
agents of high individuality, whenever the social condition of mankind 
is advanced enough to foster such a conception. 

This last consideration paves the way for a concluding observation. 
Throughout I have been in search of classificatory categqries applic- 
able to rudimentary religion as a whole. In other words, I have 
assumed that the subject is to be treated as if it represented a single 
level of experience, and, moreover, that the treatment is to limit 
itself to the work of classifying — ^that is, arranging the facts under 
* Tregear, op. oit., s.vv. mana, manatoo. 



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5, Conception of Mana : Marett 57 

synoptic headings. Now such, I think, must be the prime object of 
our science at its present stage of development. We most not try 
to move too fast. Some day, however, when our knowledge is fuller 
and better organisced, we may hope to be able to deal with the history 
of religion genetically — ^to exhibit the successive stages of a continuous 
process of orthogenic or central evolution, whilst making at the same 
time full allowance for the thousand and one side-shoots of the wide- 
spreading family-tree of human culture. Now when it comes to 
exhibiting genesis, it may well be, I think, that, along certain lines 
of growth, and perhaps along the central line itself, mana will at 
a certain point have to give way to one or another type of animistic 
conception. Where marked individualities tend to be lacking in 
society, as in Australia, there it will be found that the supernatural 
tttids normally to be apprehended under more or less impersonal 
fiHrms. This holds true even within the strict hMUU of the mana 
doctrine. Thus in the New Hebrides, where the culture is relatively 
backward, the prevailing animistic conception is that of the wU or 
* spirit ', a being often nameless, and, at the best, of vague personality. 
On the other hand, in the Solomon Islands, where the culture is more 
advanced, the religious interest centres in the tindah mana or ghost 
of power — ^the departed soul of some well-known individual.^ In 
e£Feot, hero-worship has, with the evolution of the hero, superinduced 
itself upon some sort of polydaemonism redolent of democracy. But 
I refrain from further speculations about religious evolution. They 
are tempting, but, in the present state of our knowledge, hardly edifying. 
I would merely add, glancing forwards for a moment from rudimentary 
religion to what we call * advanced \ that to the end animism never 
manages to drive the more impersonal conceptions of the supernatural 
clean out of the field. The * ghost ', clearly, does not hold its own 
for long. Anthropomorphic theism, on the other hand, a view that 
is bred from animatism rather than from animism proper, dominates 
many of the higher creeds, but not all. Buddhism is a standing 
example of an advanced type of religion that exalts the impersonal 
aspect of the divine. It is, again, especially noticeable how a thinker 
such as Plato, with all his interest in soul, human personality, and 
the subjective in general, hesitates between a personal and an imper- 
sonal r^idering of the idea of God. Thus the ambiguity that lies 
sleeping in mana would seem to persist to some extent even when 
religious experience is at its most self-conscious. In the meantime 
all rdigions, low and high, rudimentary and advanced, can join in 
saying with the Psalmist that * power belongeth unto God *• 

* Codrington, op. cit., 122. 



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58 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 



6 

FUNERARY CUSTOMS AND ESCHATO- 
LOGICAL BELIEFS OF THE ASSAM HILL 

TRIBES 

By T. C. HODSON. (Abstract) 

Thb methods of dispoeing of the dead as observed among the Hill 
Tribes of Assam (Naga, Kuki, and Khasi) include cremation, sepulture, 
mummification, simple and elaborate desiccatory processes, and tree 
exposure. Combinations of these methods are found, and mortuary 
ritual is notably affected by considerations (I) of the social status of 
the deceased, and (2) of the manner of his death. Death, whatever 
its mode, puts the tribal nerves on the stretch, and affects the com- 
munal life, as is proved by the correlated variations of the gennas 
or communal tabus. The genna ordinances, which constitute the 
unwritten code of these forms of society, rtst upon vague indefinite 
fear of mysterious misfortunes that ensue, automatically, without 
animistic intermediaries, from their violation. In anotiier aspect 
they rest also upon the thought that not alwaj^ nor of necessity does 
the sinner bear the consequences of his sin, thus making it the business 
of each to see that his neighbour keeps the law. These features are 
characteristic and s3rmptomatic of a stage of religious thought prior 
to that of animism as defined by Dr. Tylor. The dominant feature is 
a haunting fear of the mysterious, the extra-natural, a fear which 
draws examples from experience of the essential connexion between 
sin (in the s^ise of breaches, by accident or intent, of the communal 
law) and sickness and death. The occurrence of one such misfortune, 
of one such ^ extra-natural ' case of death, excites in their minds a 
lively dread of an immediate repetition of the event, even, perhaps, 
with some superadded terror. Thus, in this area with its extra- 
ordinary>ange of cultural development, mortuary ritual on the one 
hand and eschatological belief on the other are alike informed by pre- 
animistic as well as by animistic concepts. Those and only those 
are immediately severed from the living (as is effected or symbolized 
by 8 solenm conmiunal rite), are believed to be for ever immured in 
safe keeping elsewhere, and denied all hope of rebirth — ^in a word, 
are treated as and believed to be really dead — ^whose manner of 
death is due to an extra-natural, yet none the less to them intelligible, 
cause. Hence at a stage of religious experience where pre-animistic 
elements are conspicuous, we discern the root of the vivifying doctrine 
that ^ the wages of sin is death '. 



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7 

THE VEDDA CULT OF THE DEAD 

By a G. SELIGMANN 

Thb basis of the Vedda religion is the colt of the dead, and the 
Vedda jKiint of view can be best approached by considering the 
customs observed when a death takes place. When a man, woman, 
or child dies, the body is left in the cave or rock shelter in which death 
from sickness occurs. The body is not washed, dressed, or ornamented 
in any way whatever, but is allowed to lie in the natural supine 
position and is covered over with leaves and branches. One group 
of Veddas, the wildest, agreed that a large stone was placed upon 
the chest of the dead man. This was said to be an old custom, and 
no reason could be given for it. As soon as these matters were attended 
to — and it seemed that they were carried through as quickly as possible 
after death — ^the small community would leave the cave in which 
tiie death had occurred, and avoid it for along time. It was sometimes 
stated that they would never return, but I know of at least two 
cases in which sons returned after many years to the cave in which 
their fathers died. It was always difficult to obtain even a crude 
estimate of the lapse of time between events, but there was some 
reason to believe that in one of these two instances the shelter in 
which the death occurred was left untenanted for about twelve years. 
In any event it is certain that Veddas did in time return to caves 
in which a death had occurred, and that, if any bones were left, no 
difficulty was made about pickiag these up and casting them into 
the jungle.^ 

It should be mentioned that no fire was lit near the corpse nor water 
left by it when the living deserted the cave. 

Among tiie majority of Veddas, including the two wildest groups, 
there is no avoidance of any of the property of the dead man, and 

^ This aocOTds with what the Drs. Saraain say of partially oivilised 
Veddas: 'We never found the least diffioulty when ooUecting skeletonB. They 
[the Veddas] were alwayg ready to show ns the place in which . • . they had 
boriad. When we proceeded to dig up the skeleton* they for the most part 
looked oa with interest and without showing the least sign of excitement, and 
iHien it was necessary to pick all the small hand and feet bones out of the sandy 
soU, they were perfectly ready to assist in this. We were always willingly told who 
the person ^o was buried in a particular spot was. The place ol burial was 
always shown us hy the relatives of the deceased . . . Thus in Mudugala, near 
Omun^ a fttther showed us the grave of his daughter, and in the Nilgala district 
a son led us to the grave of his father.*— />»< Weddaa von Ceyhn^p. 494. 



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60 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

the contents of his betel bag would be eaten directly after his death ; 
but among the members of another group of Veddas, who must be 
regarded as pure blooded although their system of magic shows 
Sinhalese influence, the betel bag, unless it were a very good and 
new one, would be left with the corpse, and in any case its contents 
would not be eaten, but left near the dead man. The betel-nut cutter 
and lime box which during life were always carried in the bag, would 
not be left in the cave with the corpse, but, before they were used by the 
living, measures were taken of which the avowed design was to render 
them harmless when used by the surviving relatives. Thus the old 
headman of the Henebedda Veddas exposed his father's lime box 
and betel cutters under a bush for a period which was certainly longer 
than ten but prbbably less than thirty days. It was necessary to do 
this since, if these objects had been used immediately, the individuals 
using them might and probably would have contracted the same 
illness as that from which the dead man suffered ; and, on further 
questioning, the old man explained that the yaka producing the illness 
from which his father had died, would, for some time and in some 
way which he could not define, remain connected with the chewing 
apparatus which the dead man had used constantly during his last 
illness. 

Among the village Veddas of Omuni (who have much Sinhalese 
blood in their veins though in culture they appear to owe more to 
the Tamils of the Ecist coast than to the Sinhalese), it was stated 
that the betel pouch and its contents would be buried beneath the 
head of the dead man and a coconut shell of water placed by his side. 
These people, who — as Tennent records — settled down some seventy 
years ago, knew only of leaving the body in the cave as a custom 
practised long ago by their ancestors; and there is no doubt that the 
adults of the present generation have seen nothing except burial in 
graves, probably conducted in much the same manner as that practised 
by the surrounding peasant Sinhalese.^ 

The Omuni Veddas mentioned two interesting points as regards 
this burial. It should not take place in the immediate neighbourhood 
of any of their scanty and primitive cheim cultivations, and the grave 
should be beyond shouting distance from the village. 

To sum. up : the speed with which the site of death is deserted 
must be taken to indicate that, apart from the disgust aroused by 
decomposition, there is something noxious to the living about the 
process of dissolution ; but so far the nature of this noxious element 
is not clear. 

When attempt is made to discover the nature of the noxious influence, 
the usual answer given is to the effect that ' if we stayed where a 
* Tennent, Ceffion, London, 1869, vol. ii, pp. 446-7. 



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7. V^edda Cult of the Dead: SeUgniann 61 

death has oooarred we should be pelted with stones'. Further 
questions made it clear that in many instances there was no definite 
idea that some part of the dead man was the active agent in the stone* 
throwing; on the other hand some Veddas — and these as far as 
I could judge were some of the least contaminated — definitely believed 
that it was the spirit or yaka (fem. yahini, pi. ydlcu) of the dead man- 
who would cause stones to rain on anybody staying near the corpse. 
It must, however, be noted that stone-throwing was on many occasions 
deseribed as the method by which these yaka (using the term in 
its broadest sense, and by no means limiting it to the spirits of the 
recent dead) showed their displeasure. I may cite an example which 
occurred in that part of the Uva jungle known as Henebedda. One 
night between eleven and twelve I was startled by a deep groaning 
sound of very considerable volume, which was immediately followed 
by an outcry from the caves some two hundred yards away, in which 
the Veddas were living. Neither then nor the next day could I ascer- 
tain the cause of the noise. The Veddas, however, had no doubt on 
the subject, but described it as stone-throwing and stated that a 
number of yaku must have been annoyed with our proceedings on. 
the previous day, when, after going through the kirikoraha ceremony 
over a fine buck which one of them had shot the night before, they 
were tempted to show us some part of the kolamadva ceremony without 
providing the proper gifts for the yahu invoked on that occasion. 
They pointed out that it was these — the yaku of long-dead Veddas — 
who had manifested their displeasure by stone-throwing, though they 
all admitted that no one had seen the stones thrown or could point 
out the stones with which the alleged bombardment had been effected. 
This, combined with the fact that a minority of Veddas frankly admit 
that the cause of leaving the site where death has occurred is fear 
of the yaka of the deceased, seems to point to the whole process of 
desertion being due to fear of the spirit of the recently dead, which 
for a short but indefinite time seems to be thought of as existing 
near the body it has left, though it was never possible to discover 
that this was a clearly formulated belief. 

It appeared that, properly speaking, the word yaka should not 
be applied to the spirit of the dead for the first four or five days after 
death. At times the word prarui kariya would be used for the spirit 
of a recently dead person, before it had attained the condition impUed 
by the term yaka. Among Veddas who had come to some slight 
extent under Sinhalese or Tamil influence, there was no doubt as to 
how the spirit spent the greater part of the first five or seven days 
after death. This matter will shortly be alluded to ; but to make 
clear this part of the yaka beliefs of the Veddas it is first necessary to 
consider some of the ceremonies in which yaku are invoked. 



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62 /. ReUgions of the Lower Culture 

The attitude of the Veddas to the spiritB of their departed, when 
these have assumed the condition of yaku, may be first considered. 
As each Vedda community consists of a small numb^ of families 
who, since cousin marriage prevails, are doubly related by blood and 
marriage, the yahi of the recent dead, called collectively tiie Ne Tahu, 
are supposed to stand towards the surviving members of the group 
in the light of friends and relatives who, if well treated, will continue 
to show lovingkindness to their survivors, and only, if neglected, 
will show disgust and anger by withdrawing their assistance or even 
becoming actively hostile. Hence it is generally considered necessary 
to present an offering to the newly dead, usually within a we^ or 
two of a death having taken place ; but a few Veddas dtated that 
they woidd not hold a Ne Tabu ceremony until they spedidly required 
the help of the yaku, or until misfortune threatened or had overtak^i 
them. 

Among most Veddas the offering must consist of cooked rice and 
coconut milk, the food that every Vedda esteems above all other; 
but betel leaves and areca nut are often added, and the oldest survivor 
of a small group of ' wild * Veddas stated that this offering would in 
the old days have consisted of yams and water, if, as was often the 
case, coconuts and rice could not be obtained. In each community 
there is one man, called hapwale or dugganawa, who has the power 
and knowledge requisite to call the ydku; and in the cer^nony of 
presenting the offering called Ne Taku Natanatca (Uterally, the dancing 
of the Ne Taku) this man calls upon the yaka of the recently dead 
man to come and take the offering. The kapurcLk (who may con- 
veniently be spoken of as the shaman; I shall use this term during 
the rest of the paper) becomes possessed by the yaka of the dead 
man, who speaks through the mouth of the shaman in hoarse, guttural 
accents, stating that he approves the offering, that he will assist his 
kinsfolk in hunting, and often stating the direction in which the next 
hunting party should go. Besides the shaman, one or more of the near 
relatives of the dead man may become possessed; but this, though 
common, is not invariable. The yaka leaves the shaman soon after he 
has promised his favour and success in hunting, the shaman often col- 
lapsing as the spirit goes, and in any case appearing in an exceedingly 
exhausted state for a few minutes. He soon, however, comes round; 
whereupon he and all those present, constituting the men, women, 
and children of the group, eat the offering, usually on the spot on which 
the invocation took place, though this is not absolutely necessary. 
It was clear that this eating of food which had been offered to the 
yaku was an act of communion, and an essential part of the ceremony 
which was thought to bring health and good fortune ; for some com- 
munities even anointed the heads of their dogs with the milk of the 



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7. Vedda Ctdt of the Dead: Seligmann 68 

4>ffering, explaining that this was done because of their value. In one 
Ne Taku ceremony the shaman fed the nearest relatives of the dead 
man immediately after the ycJca left him, holding the bowl containing 
the offering to their mouths; while, among the wildest Veddas we 
encountered, not only did the shaman while still possessed feed the 
children of the group from the bowl and smear the milk over their 
faees, but a number of members of the group, including the grand- 
children of the dead man whose yaka possessed the shaman at the 
time, placed a small portion of the offering in the shaman's mouth. 

The above account is an outline of the simplest (and probably a 
degmerate) form of death ceremony, but usiuiUy the matter is com- 
plicated by an invocation of certain yaku other than the Ne Ttiku. 
Many generations ago there lived a Vedda called Kande Wanniya, 
a mighty hunter, who on his death became Kande Yaka and under 
this name is constantly invoked to give success in hunting. With 
Kande Yaka is also associated his younger brother, Bilinde Yaka, 
who was killed by Kande Yaka in a fit of temper, and who, according 
to another version, is not the brother but the brother-in-law of Kande 
Yaka. Now Kande Yaka and often Bilinde Yaka are usually invoked 
at the beginning of a Ne Taku ceremony, and it was pointed out at 
differait times by a number of our informants that the Ne Taku 
eould not come to the offering unless accompanied by Kande Yaka, 
who was even spoken of as bringing the Ne Taku with him; in fact 
many Veddas stated that the Ne Taku go to Kande and become his 
attendants. This was borne out by the fact that in two death dances 
seen (one held for a man who had died seven days previously, the 
other performed to show us the ceremony) Kande and Bilinde Yaka 
were invoked and possessed the shaman and gave signs of their favour 
to the group of Veddas present, before the shaman became possessed 
l^ the Ne Taku. Further, many of my informants, especially the 
lees sophisticated, pointed out that soon after death the spirits of the 
-deceased resorted to Kande Yaka in order to obtain his permission 
to accept offerings from their living relatives, and to obtain power 
from him to assist them in return for their offerings or to injure them 
in the event of their bad behaviour. Thus Kande Yaka, who is of 
special assistance in hunting, becomes lord of the dead; but in spite 
of this it was clear that as regards help in getting game Kande Yaka 
i>he spirit scarcely differed from Kande Wanniya, the mighty hunter, 
still living and showing kindness and helpfulness towards the people 
among whom he dwelt. 

The method of invocation of the yaku is essentially the same in 
all Vedda ceremonies ; an invocation is sung by the shaman and often 
by the onlookers, while the shaman slowly dances, usually round 
;the offering that has been prepared for the yaku. Sometimes the 



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64 /. Religions of the Lower Culture , 

invooations are quite appropriate and consist either of straight- 
forward appeals to the yaka invoked for help, or recite the deeds 
and prowess of the yaka when he too was a man, as when Kande Yaka 
is addressed as ' continuing to go from hill to hill [who] follows up the 
traces from footprint to footprint of excellent sambhur deer '. But 
at other times the charms seem singularly inappropriate ; probably in 
many of these instances they are merely the remains of old Sinhalese 
charms that are not only displaced from their proper position and 
function, but have become mangled in the process, and have become 
incomprehensible in the course of time. As the charm is recited over 
and over again, the shaman dances more and more quickly, his voice 
becomes hoarse, and he soon becomes possessed by the yaka; and 
although he does not lose consciousness and can co-ordinate his move- 
ments, he nevertheless does not retain any clear recollection of what 
he says and only a general idea of the movements he has performed. 
Most sincere practitioners whom I have interrogated agreed that, 
although they never entirely lost consciousness, they were at times 
near doing so, and that they never fully appreciated what they said 
when possessed, while at both the beginning and end of possession 
they experienced a sensation of nausea and vertigo, and the ground 
seemed to rock and sway beneath their feet. Again, I do not think 
there could be apy doubt as to the non- volitional nature of the posses- 
sion by the yaka of the bystanders — ^near relatives of the dead man — 
which took place during the Ne Taku ceremony; although there was 
nothing about the general behaviour of any of the Veddas with whom 
I came in contact that suggested a specially neurotic or hysterical 
tendency. 

The strong desire for, and the belief in the possibility of, companion- 
ship and communion with the kindly dead on appropriate occasions 
seems sufficient to explain the phenomepa of possession among the 
Veddas, especially as it was also thought that in a general way the 
shamans might be expected to be hxdky on account of their communion 
with the yaku. Many instances occurred which showed how stax>ng 
was the feeling of good fellowship which the living had for the spirits 
of their dead. Thus at Sitalawanniya, on the occasion of the perform- 
ance of a Ne Taku ceremony got up at our request, Handuna, the 
shaman and leading man in the small community, volunteered the 
statement that he and his people were delighted to hold the ceremony, 
since it was seldom that they were able to offer their Ne Taku such food 
as that provided by us. Again, after his own father had been invoked 
and had expressed his unqualified pleasure at the good things provided 
for him, there was some discussion as to further dancing, because the 
dancer really felt exhausted, but all urged the continuation of the 
ceremony, since therei were other yaku who might well be invoked 



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7. Vedda Cult of the Dead: SeUgmann 65 

on im occasion when an nnusually plenteous supply of food was pro- 
vided for them. Again, in the ceremony which ensured the safe taking 
of rock honey it was explained that every male member of the little 
community must perform this dance, since only thus could they 
certainly expect to share in the benefits to be reaped from the goodwill 
of the yaku ; but the best example of the feeling of affectionate regard 
and of kindly good fellowship existing between the living and the 
dead is the end of the invocation on the occasion of the Ne Taku 
ceremony at Sitalawanniya; for surely there can be no closer com- 
munion between the quick and the dead than that implied in the 
invocation, which is fuUy carried into effect by every member of the 
community sharing in the food that has been offered to the yaku: — 

Salutation ! Salutation ! Part [of our] relatives ! Kinsfolk ! 
Having called [you] in time (i.e. at the right time) [we] gave you 
white rice. [You] eat [and] drink. Do not think any wrong (i.e. do 
not form an unfavourable opinion of us). We also eat and drink 
[the same food]. 

The favours asked of the yaku are primarily their assistance in the 
quest for game and honey, in return for which, besides being given 
the food to which they are called, they are promised a share of the 
kill or of the honey they have assisted to procure. Thus at Galmede 
the Ne Taku were invoked as follows for success in hunting : — 

Salutation ! Malpennae wanna.^ To-day [I] have no livelihood. 
[Tou] must give to-day binbatu (i.e. wild bringal). [You] must allow 
the four-footed persons (i.e. dogs) to catch iguanas. Having roasted 
hpart] of them in an hour (i.e. the Sinhalese hour of twenty minutes) 
1 will make [and] give [you] in proof [of it] a charcoal meat altar 
(i.e. meat roasted over charcoal will be offered). This very night 
[you] must grant [me] power to obtain livelihood ! 

Again before seeking honey the assistance of the yaku was a3ao 
sought : — 

Lord ! New Goddess ! to-day [you] must show [me] a beehive. 
Having chopped [it out] I will mde it. 

This was understood as a promise of honey to the yakini whose aid 
is sought, and seems to hint that the hunter and the ycMni will share 
the comb. It is not usual to speak of the Ne Taku as new gods, 
but they are often spoken of as alutyaku (new yaku), and among some 
Veddas the bower built for them is styled the alutyakoffama (town- 
ship of the new yaka). 

At Bambani among the Village Veddas the appeal was even simpler 
and more direct : — 

Our father who went to the other world, come to this world* 

* The meaning of these words is quite uncertain. 



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66 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

Accept (?) rice. Place [for us] the sambhur, place [for us] the axis 
deer, aocept(?) this basil leaf. Come very quickly, accept (?) [this] 
rice, accept (?) [this] rock honey, accept (?) [this] betel leaf. Place 
for us the sambhur, place [for us] the axis deer. Come very quickly.^ 

Arrows play a considerable part in the Vedda cult, but, on account 
of the time limit, I shall restrict myself to describing the use of the 
ceremonial arrows, called aude, employed in the invocation of Kande 
Yaka, Bilinde Yaka, and the Ne Taku. These ceremonial arrows 
have a blade some 8 to 18 inches long, which is usually hafted into 
a handle often considerably shorter than the blade, and which is some- 
times covered with incisions so roughly executed that they scarcely 
form a pattern. These, though possibly to some extent decorative 
in intention, are certainly not so in fact; so that perhaps they are 
only there to serve the useful purpose of preventing the hand from 
slipping.' Such ceremonial arrows are generally heirlooms, not 
necessarily passing from father to son, but rather being handed down 
in apostoUc succession from shaman to shaman ; and among the ViUage 
Veddas of the Bintenne I have handled one such blade with a history 
running back for five generations. These arrows are carefully preserved 
by the shaman ; and just as he himself observes certain dietetic rules, 
avoiding eating pig and fowl, which are supposed to be particularly 
repulsive to the yoiu, so among those more sophisticated communities 
who beheve in the periodical uncleannees of women, special precau- 
tions are taken to avoid the possible contamination of the audcy as 
these arrows are called.' This is generally done by keeping them in 
some comparatively remote spot such as a cave or in the roof thatch. 
It is necessary that the shaman should hold one of these arrows in his 
hand when invoking Kande Yaka; he should also have one for Bilinde 
Yaka, though as a matter of practice Kande Yaka and Bilinde Yaka 
were often invoked using the same aude^ another aude being reserved 
for invoking the Ne Tahu. Both arrows were, however, commonly 
held in the hands during the whole of the Nt Taku ceremony; but in 
spite of this no confusion seemed to arise, nor had the observers the 
least difficulty in saying which aude belonged to Kande Yaka whenever 
they were ai^ed. 

The offering of rice in the pot would be stirred with the aude^ betel 
leaves might be ceremonially transfixed with it, and among the 
Mudugala Veddas the testing of the quality of the food provided for 

^ The meaning of the word translated ' accept ' is not quite certain. 

' These ceremonial arrows are doubtless identical with the large blades de- 
scribed by TariouB authors as formerly used in shooting elephants. 

* The belief in the periodical uncleanness of women has been borrowed from ihe 
Sinhalese. It did not exist in the ' wildest ' group met with, on the other hand 
we found it among all the more sophisticated Veddas, attaining a maximum where 
these had come most under foreign influence* 



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7. Vedda Cult of the Dead: SeSgmann ' 67 

the yote was perfonned with the help of the atfde, the shaman possessed 
by Kande Yaka using it to remove from the pot a few grains of rice, 
which the f^aka in the person of the shaman several times smelt before 
expressing his approval of the offering provided. 

An extract from an account of the Ne Taku dance performed at 
Banderaduwa, in the Eastern Province, will make clear the important 
port played by these aude in that ceremony : — 

The shaman Tissahame . . . placed two aude on the kirikoraha^ 
and salaamed to the bowl, and then began to dance in the usual 
manner, first holding one arrow and then holding both, one in each 
hand ; that in the right hand being for Ka^de Yaka, that in the 
left for the ffoka of Tuta, the recently dead man. • . . Ab the shaman 
danced, he stabbed at the kirikoraha with the aude; in this way the 
ne ^aka by whom he was possessed was pleased to show his power. . . . 
Soon the shaman began to shake and bend his head forwara, and was 
immediately supported by one of the onlookers, into whose arms he 
f eU back. After remaining still a few seconds he b^an to dance wildly, 
stabbing the aude in the air. . . . Leaping awav ... he tracked an 
imaginary sambhur round the dancing-ground, holding the two aude 
crosswise to represent the bow and arrow. However, he made no 
feint to shoot, and put the aude on the kirikoraha. Supported by 
one of the Veddas he again danced round the kirikoraha . . • and 
then bending over the kirikoraha fell back • • . but he soon revived 
and took the aude and approached the dead man's brothers in turn, 
who both became possessed by the ne yaka and fell back uncon- 
scious. Then the shaman smeared their bodies with coconut milk, 
throwing some into their mouths, and . . • then took the arrows and 
struck a betel leaf on each and danced . • . but the men who were 
not relatives of the dead man he threatened to stab with the aude. 

It is now possible to consider the condition of the spirit of the 
deceased for the first few days after death, among those Veddas who 
state that there is a definite time before the spirit prana kariya becomes 
a yaka. Among the least sophisticated who held this belief it was 
thought that the prana kariya resorted to Kande Yaka a few days, 
perhaps three or five, after death, and then obtained permission from 
him to accept offerings from the living and thus become numbered 
among his attendants, the Ne Taku ; but beyond a vague idea that 
the spirit might perhaps exist for a short time at the site where death 
had occurred, these folk had no knowledge of its state before it reached 
Kande Yaka. Veddas who had come more under Sinhalese infiuence 
asserted that it spent some three days in the neighbourhood of the 
death scene, which it only left to seek the Kateragam god and obtain 
his permission to become a yaka and pass into the train of the atten- 
dants of Kande Yaka, and so become a Ne Taka capable of accepting 
offerings from the living and helping and injuring them. 

* literally milk-bowl, the name applied to the bowl containing the ooconut 
milk and other food offered to the yaku. 

f2 



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68 ' /• Religions of the Lower CtUture 

BesideB the important part in the Vedda cult of the dead played 
by the propitiation of the ^e Taku and of the yaku of certain other 
Veddas, such as Kande Wanniya, who as ycdm have attained to special 
importance (approaching that of culture heroes in other forms of 
belief), there is a certain feeling of reverence for a host of unnamed 
yaku. Little attention is paid to these, but since it is stated that 
they too were once men, the suggestion may be hazarded that they 
represent the yaku of the forgotten dead* These yaku, although aXL 
around in the jungle, are in some instances thought of as vaguely 
attached to special localities, especially to glades in the forest, unusually 
large trees, and above all large rocks and rocby hilltops. The yaku 
of rocks and hilltops indeed tend to become named, taking the name 
of the hill they inhabit, and even among the less civilized Veddas 
are sometimes identified with the yaku of Vedda headmen who have 
lived on or near the hills. On the other hand among the more sophis- 
ticated Veddas these yaku tend to become less and less the spirits 
of dead Veddas, and finally, under Tamil influence, are thought of 
as dangerous spirits, immigrants from beyond the Ocean, who each 
with a female of his own species haunt the hilltops and send disease. 
Somewhat akin to these yaku in their less dangerous forms are the 
Kiriamma (literally, milk-mothers), the yakuot Vedda women, generally 
the wives of Vedda headmen or ohiefe, many of whom are especially 
thought of as existing on the sides and tops of hills where there are 
rocks and springs. They are sometimes jealous of people gathering 
honey — ^indeed there is a tendency to avoid rocky mountain tops on 
their account; but they may be placated by a charm, or sometimes 
a little honey is left for them with a muttered kapau Kiriammala — 
'eat, Kiriamma.' They not infrequently send sickness, at least 
among the more sophisticated Veddas, and retain the fondness for 
children which they felt in their lifetime, to the extent of sometimes 
stealing them; and it is especially to avert this danger from the 
Kiriamma that an arrow is often struck into the ground by the side of 
a sleeping child. 

A few kiriamma have become rather important yaku, notably an 
old woman of the Unapane clan now known as Unapane Kiriamma, 
but such kiriamma do not appear to be especially associated with 
rocky or hilly sites. 

I have now outlined the leading features of the Vedda cult of the 
dead. But it must not be thought that the whole matter is as simple 
as the above description indicates ; for the beliefe of the Veddas have 
been complicated by Sinhalese and, to a less extent, by Tamil influence, 
nor are these factors always or entirely of recent introduction. Three 
or four centuries ago there were thriving communities of Village 
Veddas spread over the Matale district and occupying both sides of the 



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7. Vedda Cult of the Dead: Seligmann 69 

Mahawelllganga below Alutnuwera; indeed the villag^^ on both sides 
of the river still claim to be descendants of Veddas, although at the 
present day the inhabitants of a number of them belong to the rather 
low caste of potters and the only remains of their former condition 
appears to be their somewhat unusual keenness as hunters. Mr. 
H. Parker — ^whom I take this opportunity of thanking for much assis- 
tance in the preparation of this paper, as well as for the translation 
of the invocations akeady given — ^tells me that a sixteenth-century MS. 
records the appointment of a Vedda chief as Bandara Mudiyanse 
(a Sinhalese title applied only to high caste chiefs).^ His name was 
Panikki Vedda, i.e. Panikki the Vedda ; he was especially famous 
for capturing elephants, and took some to the king (Bhuvanaika Bckhu 
of Kotta) with another Vedda chief called Liyana Vedda. Other 
chiefs expressly said to be Veddas of the Vedda Wasagama are men- 
tioned in an early seventeenth-century MS. But in the present argu- 
ment special interest attaches to Panikki Vedda; for Panikkia Yaka, 
said to be the yaka of a long-dead Vedda chief who was especially famed 
for his knowledge of cattle and his skill in capturing buffalo and 
elephant, is invoked by some of the less ' wild ' Veddas in the Kola- 
madua ceremony, which confers prosperity on villages and cattlefolds, 
averts pestilence, cures sick folk, and, by bringing success in jungle 
craft, confers safety in the jungles. Mr. Parker agrees with me that 
the Vedda Panikkia Yaka of to-day may safely be identified with the 
sixteenth-century chief Panikki Vedda. Now Panikkia Yaka is one 
of many yaku of dead chiefs known to certain of the less wild 
Veddas, Other groups which have come equally under Sinhalese 
influence do not know many of these yaku^ including Panikkia Yaka, 
but know of other yaku whom they say are the yaku of dead Vedda 
chiefs; so that it seems clear that, through the agency of the more 
civilized and settled Veddas of a few centuries ago, a number of yaku 
of men whose lives had been passed under Sinhalese influence have 
been gradually introduced to the less civilized Veddas. The cult of 
these yaku — so long as they retained, as we know they did, the charac- 
teristics they possessed while living— cannot but have spread Sinhalese 
influence ; and, as we know that the worship of these yaku has spread at 
the present day to groups of Veddas who, if not the wildest, are yet 
less sophisticated than Village Veddas, it is only reasonable to suppose 
that this process accounts for a number of foreign elements which 
have been introduced into the Vedda cult of the dead. The whole 

' There is abimdant evidenoe that centuries ago there were thriving Vedda 
communities— or at least communities with enough Vedda blood to be called 
Veddas by their contemporaries — ^politically organized, having as headmen 
chiefs who exercised considerable influence and were in constant relation with 
the Sinhalese court. 



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70 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

process must have been much facilitated by two facts. Firstly the 
Sinhalese recognized the Veddas as belonging to a caste equivalent 
to the highest of their own, and even their chiefe did not hesitate to 
intermarry with them ; indeed many Sinhalese chiefs at the present 
day trace their genealogy back to Veddas, and are still proud of their 
distant kinship with the present-day Veddas. In the second place 
the Sinhalese^ have at the present day — ^though under another 
name— « cult of the dead which is comparable to that of the Veddas.^ 
The other intrusive element in the Vedda cult of the dead is the 
adoption of more or less of the Sinhalese and Tamil demonology and 
even of certain of the Sinhalese gods. The explanation of this is 
the same as that already given in the case of the foreign yaku pro- 
pitiated by the more or less civilized Veddas, and suggests immediately 
that lists of the names of demons known to different groux>s of Veddas 
should be compared together. When this is done, it is found that, 
the wilder the group of Veddas, the fewer are the demons known. 
The matter is thus to be explained by a gradual and long-continued 
infiltration of foreign influence through the more sophisticated 
Veddas to the wilder groups. Although I am unable to adduce any 
evidence as to the length of time the process has been going on, there 
seems no reason to limit it to recent times; indeed the well-defined 
Vedda characteristics that some Sinhalese demons have assumed among 
the wilder groups of Veddas suggest that the process has been going 
on for an indefinite time. Thus among practically all Veddas, except 
the most sophisticated Village groups, the Sinhalese demons become 
ydbtt, expressly stated to be the spirits of dead Veddas ; and they may 
be attached to the train of a really Vedda yaka. So among one group 

^ This refers to the Kandyans, not to the Sinhalese of the low southern and 
western districts of the island. 

* It must be remembered that — as pointed out to me by Mr. Parker — ^it is in 
aooordanoe with Sinhalese Buddhist teaching that the spirits of the deoeased 
may become yaku. Further, Mr. Parker says in a letter : ' It is a common 
practice of the Kandian Sinhalese of the North- West Province to make offerings 
to the spirits of deceased chiefs and important ancestors. • . . They are called 
Bandaras. They are all classed as Yakas by the Sinhalese, and are generally 
hurtful; but some have certain protective functions and protect cattle and 
coconut trees and crops.* I have myself collected notes of a recent canonization 
of this kind. Soon after the death, about 1872, of an influential Ratemahatmays 
of the Wellasse district, a number of unusual happenings suggested that one 
of the dead was trying to attract the attention of the living. A magical ceremony 
showed that the dead man responsible for these uncanny events was one ci 
the recent dead, and a shamanistio rite determined that the spirit A^ving offerings 
and honour was that of the Ratemahatmaya who is now honoured as Godegedera 
Dissave Bandar. It may be pointed out that in the old days a Ratemahatmaya 
correspcmded somewhat closely with a Scotch ' Laird *. 



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7. Vedda Cult of the Dead: Seligmann 71 

of Veddas the Sinhalese demon Indigollae becomes Indigole Taka» 
one of the ^e Taku, and simply a named attendant on Kande Yaka. 
In another eonmiunity he becomes a powerful yaka who, although 
not as important as Kande Taka, gives success in hunting; while 
among yet m(»e sophisticated Veddas he has replaced Kande Yaka, 
who is no longer known, and has become Lord of the dead, the Ne 
Yain joining his following and obtaining from him permission to 
accept offerings, exactly as among the wilder Veddas the ^e Tdku 
resort to Kande Yaka. 

Ab regards the fairly numerous Sinhalese gods adopted into the 
Vedda cult, among Village Veddas Kateragam Deyo — ^the Kateragam 
god, 80 spoken of; for curiously his name seems unknown to the 
majority of his Vedda worshippers — ^has become the Lord of the 
dead to whom the Ne Taku resort ; while silver charms dedicated to 
him may be worn to remove sickness, these being given subsequently 
to pilgrims bound for his shrine to be offered there to the god. 



8 

MAGIC 

By p. B. JEVONS 

Thb purpose of this paper is to provoke a discussion of the question. 
What is Magic ? And I raise the question in the hope that the dis- 
cussion may lead, now or hereafter, to some definition of magic which 
can be generally accepted by those who have occasion to use the term. 

In the first place, I would ask you whether magic necessarily implies 
a magician. To some, I suppose, magic would seem to imply a magi- 
dm, exactly as witchcraft necessarily impUes a witch : if there were 
no witch there could be no witchcraft, and so, too, it may be held 
that, if there were no magician, there could be no magic. But it is 
possible, as against this view, to quote instances of magic in which 
no magician appears or can appear. For instance, it may be believed, 
and has been beUeved, that the yellow eye of the stone-curlew is 
capable of drawing out the yellow jaundice from a man. Here we 
have a proceeding of a magical nature in which no magician appears 
and to which no magician is necessary. This, I need hardly say, is 
but one instance of a very large number of such cases. So numerous 
and important are the instances of this belief that like produces hke, 
that Dr. Frazer, in his History of the Kingship (p. 38), is inoUned to 
say that any definition of magic which suggests or impUes * a con- 



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72 /. Religions of the Lower Ctdture 

sciouB agent * as neceesary to magic ' limits the scope of m:agic too 
narrowly'. In other words, then, on this view magic does not 
necessarily imply any magician. And it is this view to which I wish 
first to call your attention and on which I wish to invite your opinioa. 

On this view, though in some acts of magic a magician appears^ 
in others he does not. And the questions at once arise, Which of 
these two varieties of magic is to be regarded as the earher ? Which 
of them contains the root-idea ? Is a conscious personal agent essential 
to magic, or is he not ? In The Odlden Bough (2nd ed., i. 61) Dr. Frazer 
inclined to think that the coniscious personal agent is not essential, 
and that in the earUest and simplest forms of magic no magician 
was believed in : wherever magic, he says, ' occurs in its pure un- 
adulterated form, it assumes that in nature one event follows another 
necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual 
or personal agency.' Dr. Frazer would, of course, not deny that in 
the later, less pure, and more adulterated forms of magic, the events 
which originally had been conceived to occur without the intervention 
of any personal agency came to be ascribed to the personal agency 
of a magician : but the root-idea, the pure unadulterated form, of 
ma^c was the assumption that in nature one event follows another 
necessarily and invariably. The yellow eye of the stone-curlew 
naturally and necessarily draws the yellow jaundice out of a man : 
the intervention of a magician or of any spiritual or personal agency 
is unnecessary. 

This view of the nature and origin of magic is, however, open to 
some objections. For instance, it imphes the beUef that things act 
upon one another ; and that such action, or such necessary and 
invariable succession of one event upon another, is magical. But in 
the period of Animism the things that act upon one another are 
conceived to be not inanimate things but animated, acting from 
much the same motives and in much the same way as men do : the 
only agency which man then conceives of is personal agency. And 
if the Animistic period be the earliest period of human evolution, 
then the magic of that period cannot have been supposed to occur 
* without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency ' ; for 
nothing was then beUeved to occur without the agency of some spirit 
or personality. Again, not every action which every man or child 
performed can have been regarded as magical : there was no magic 
about the ordinary, commonplace actions of everyday life. In fine, 
in the Animistic period, ever3rthing which happened was ascribed to 
personal agency ; and of personal actions, as of personal experiences, 
only the minority were regarded as magical in their nature. 

These considerations may incUne us to beUeve that at the outset, 
in the Animistic period, magic, like everything else, must have been 



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8. Magic: Jeoons 78 

regarded as tbe work ci a conscious agent. That, indeed, is a possi- 
bility which does not escape the notice of Dr. Fraser : he says that 
Practical Magic is ' a set of precepts which human beings observe 
in order to compass their ends' (Kingskip, p. 39). This seems to 
admit, or imply, that from the very b^^inning there could be no 
* practical magic ' without a c(xiscious agent, a human being, having 
an end in view which he wished to compass. It is, then, from this 
alternative starting-point, afforded to us by Dr. Frazer, that it seems 
preferable for us to set out : magic is one of the means whereby 
human beings seek to compass their ends. 

Without a magician there could be no magic, just as there can be 
no witchcraft without a witch. 

Taking this as our starting-point, and bearing in mind that it was 
only remarkable and extraordinary proceedings which were regarded 
as magical, we have now to inquire how a man comes to be regarded 
as a magician, that is to say, as having power to do remarkable and 
extraordinary things, such as ordinary persons could not do. The 
first point to recognize is that a thing must happen before it can 
call for explanation ; and that it is only extraordinary things which 
arrest attention and provoke the mind to attempt to explain them. 
The next point is that, in the Animistic period, the only explanation 
which could be afforded of anything that required explanation was 
that somebody did it ; and, the more extraordinary the thing, the 
more extraordinary must have been the person who had the power 
to do it. Now, to the savage, illness and death from illness are 
amongst the most mysterious of things that happen ; and the only 
explanation that is entertained, or is possible then, is that the sick- 
ness has been produced by somebody ; and the first practical question 
accordingly is. Who did it ? Whoever did this unpleasant thing, in 
this mysterious manner, evidently had a mysterious power of acting, 
and of producing unpleasant results, from a distance. In a word, 
such a person was a magician or witch. From this point of view, 
therefore, magic may be roughly defined as the mysterious power of 
a human being to cause injury to some other person, who is at a 
distance. 

In the next place, where the assumption is made that illness, and 
death following on illness, must be due to the action of somebody 
who has the power to produce illness, and to produce it secretly, 
mysteriously, and from a distance, an attempt will naturally be made 
to discover who is the person at work causing the illness ; and, inas- 
much as no person has in fact caused the illness, suspicion will fall 
cm some one who has not caused it, but who appears the sort of person 
likriy to have produced it. Among the persons who are surmised 
to possess the mysterious power to do things of this kind are old 



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74 /• Religions of the Lower Culture 

w<Miien, persons with the evil eye, and persons possessing mesmeric 
or hypnotic power. 

Here, perhaps, some one may be inclined to suggest — and it is for 
you to consider the suggestion — ^that if, as is probably the case, 
mesmerism or hypnotism was at least as conmion in the Animistic 
period as it is at the present day, the belief in magic may have 
originated in simple observation of the facts of hypnotism. The 
mesmerist was apparently seen to throw the patient into a swoon. 
The power of the magician, therefore, on this view was not a matter 
of indirect and uncertain inference, but of direct observation. It was 
not action from a distance and in secret, but an acticm performed 
in the presence of bystanders and witnessed by them. First of all 
the mesmerist or magician was seen to throw his patient into a trance ; 
and then it was easy and natural to ascribe to him things, such as 
sickness or death, which he neither caused nor was capable of causing. 
Now, I am far from denying that here we have a set of most important 
facts which are contributing causes to the extension and maintenance 
of the belief in magic. But, for all that, I venture to press the view 
that in them we have not the origin of that belief. Sickness and 
death from sickness are much more often met with than persons 
possessing and exercising mesmeric power. An explanation of sick- 
ness, therefore, would be sought everywhere, even where nobody 
possessed, or where no one was known to possess, hypnotic power ; 
and, in the Animistic period, the explanation would necessarily be 
that the sickness or death was caused by some one who had the power, 
mjrsterious though it was, to produce it secretly and at a distance. 
The universality of the behef in magic seems to require a more wide- 
spread cause than is afforded by hypnotic power, which is exceptional 
rather than general. And a more widespread cause than death it 
is not necessary to seek. From this point of view we can admit 
that a person who believes himself to have been bewitched may fall 
sick and die in ccmsequenoe ; and yet we may safely hold that most 
cases of fatal sickness amongst savages are due to other causes, even 
though all such cases are, after the event, ascribed by the savage 
to the operation of witchcraft. 

We have, then, to inquire what is the operation or rather the modus 
operandi of the perscm who is believed, and who therefoie beUevee 
himself, to possess the power of causing people to fall ill and die. 
In the behef both of himself and of those who employ him, he possesses 
the power to do this thing. All that is necessary, therefoie, is that 
he should exert his power. A person with the evil eye has but to 
fix his glance npaa his victim ; or the hypnotist has but to command 
the patient to fall into a trance. In these cases the magician is face 
to face with the person on whom he operates. In most oases of 



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8. Magic: Jeoons 75 

magic, however, the magioian operates on a person who is not face 
to face with him, but at a distance. Here too, however, the modus 
operandi is the same : the magician or witch has but to exercise his 
power — ^if he is an Australian blackfellow, he has but to ^ point ' 
his stick — ^and the victim falls. He has but to say the word, and 
the thing is done. What he wills, that he does, there and then, by 
the power which he possesses and in virtue of which he is a magician. 

Now, if the modus operandi of magic were never more complicated 
than that, there would be no possibility of ascribing the effect pro- 
duced (or supposed to be produced) to anything but the power exercised 
by ot issuing from the magician. But, as a matter ci fact, the modus 
operandi tends to become more complicated, because the magician 
desires to make assurance doubly sure. Not only does he point 
his stick : he also makes an image of the victim. Not only does he 
indicate the blow : he deals it. And his magic has, therefore, been 
described as ' mimetic ' or ' imitative ' magic. The essence of it 
has been supposed to consist in the fact that the magician imitates 
the result which he wishes to produce. On that supposition it has 
been inferred that the principle on which the magician, consciously 
or semi-consciously, acts, is the principle that like produces like. 
Vtom that it is but one step further to draw the inference that, if 
like is believed to produce Uke, if things are assumed ^ to act on each 
other at a distance, through a secret sympathy ' (Frazer, Kingship, 
p. 40), then the result is not behoved to be produced by the magician, 
nor is any power of producing it behoved to be his ; but what is 
assumed is ^ that in nature one event follows another necessarily and 
invariably without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency ' 
whatever (Frazer, Oolden Bough, 2nd ed., i. 61). 

AU this argument follows naturally enough from the original pre- 
miss that the modus operandi of the magician is ' mimetic ' or ^ imita- 
tive '. But I venture to suggest that it is not discovered or realized 
in the Animistic period that the action d the magician is mimetic. 
U we assume — ^mistakenly, in my opinion — ^that from the very 
beginning every magical rite was beUeved to be effective of itself, 
and without regard to the person who perf carmed it, then it is indeed 
clear that from the beginning men held ^ that in nature one event 
f dlows another necessarily and invariably ' ; and that no magician 
was required to make one event to follow upon another. But it is, 
as a matter of fact, undeniable that magicians and witches do exist, 
and are firmly behoved to have the mysterious power of doing evil 
at a distance. And if we examine more carefully the modus operandi 
of such magicians as are beUeved to have this power, we shall find 
that it is not either intended or understood to be mimetic. When 
a magioian makes an image of his enemy — or of his cUent's enemy — 



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76 /. Religions of tJte Loicer Culture 

and sticks a knife into it, the belief is that the enemy feels the knife 
go in, then and there. To us, indeed, who distinguish between the 
categories of likeness and identity, it is clear that sticking the knife 
into the image is only like sticking it into the enemy. But to the 
magician and to those who believe in magic, the one thing is not like 
the other, but identical with it. In other words, the categories of 
likeness and identity, which to us are distinguishable and distinct, 
were (as "Mi. L. T, Hobhouse points out in his Morals in Evolviian, 
n, chaps, i, ii) for primitive thought ' interwoven in wild confusion *. 

No interval of time elapses between the waving of the magician's 
wand, or the pointing of the Australian's stick, and the production 
of the result. He strikes with his staff, or he utters the word, and 
the thing is done. The plunging of the knife into the image of the 
enemy is not — ^in the belief of those who fail to distinguish between 
the categories of likeness and identity — ^followed subsequently by 
the plunging of an imaginary knife into the body of the enemy. The 
one thing is not followed by the other ; there is no sequence in which 
the one event follows the other necessarily and invariably ; the one 
thing is not like the other — ^it is the other. Likeness and identity 
are not discriminated. It is not at all necessary that the image 
should be like the victim — ^likeness is not sought when identity is 
assumed. It is not even necessary that there should be an image 
at all : the Australian blackfellow simply points his stick in the 
direction of his distant enemy, and the injury is thereby, there and 
then, inflicted. To point the stick is to inflict the injury : the two 
things are not different but identical. To melt the image is to con- 
sume the enemy : the two things are not like but identical. They 
are not two things : they are one. The action indicated — ^by pointing 
the stick or melting the wax — is the action willed. There are not 
two actions of which one is like the other, and of which one is followed 
by the other. There is one action which the magician wills and 
which he indicates, whether by his look, or his gesture, or by his 
words. 

In the earliest stage of witchcraft, then, I submit, the magician 
does not mimic or imitate that which he wishes to do : he does it. 
If , as is sometimes the case, he is a mesmerist or hypnotist, he does 
not imitate a swo<»i or a trance : he produces it. If he has the evil 
eye, he does not imitate or mimic anything : the evil falls with his 
glance upon the victim. And the injury is done, not because of 
any rite which he performs, but because he has the power, in the 
belief of himself, of the bystanders, and the victim, to inflict it. The 
cases are well attested in which the victim dies as soon as he learns 
that he has been bewitched. 

But though the Australian blackfellow need only point his stick 



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8* Magic: Jevons 77 

to bring his enemy down — ^just as the hypnotist need only indicate 
his willy and the patient swoons — ^the more clearly and carefully the 
magician expresses his will» the m<»re surely his power will take effect. 
Hence, he not only i>oints his weapon, he drives it into something 
which represents the victim. The something at first need not resemble 
his victim* But if it does, it makes assurance doubly sure. The 
image then made is indeed like — and to us it is only like — ^the victim ; 
and the action of the magician is <xily Uke the effect he purposes to 
produce. But for the performer the categiuies of likeness and identity 
are confused : this blow which he deals is not merely like, it is the 
blow which he wishes to deal. At this stage, however, in the growth 
of magic, it may become at times apparent that it is both like and 
identical. This stage may be illustrated by the use of masks in sacred 
ceremonies all over the world : the wearer of a mask which represents 
a deceased ancestor, or a divinity, is made by the wearing of the 
mask not only Uke the person it portrays : he is genuinely believed 
by all to be identical with the perscmality portrayed, just as the 
stabbing ci the victim's image is unfeignedly believed to be the 
stabbing of the victim himself — ^likeness is not discriminated from 
identity. The mask-wearing is not in all cases conscious fraud, any 
mxx% than the practice of witchcraft is. The belief — even of the 
performers — ^is in many cases undoubtedly genuine. 

What helps forward the discrimination of the two categories is the 
discovery of the fact that the operaticn of magic is not in all cases 
immediate : the stick is pointed, but the victim does not fall ill until 
he is told he has been bewitched, and that may be some time later. The 
interval of time which elapses or may elapse between the rite and its 
fulfilment tends to cause the victim's illness or death to be regarded 
as the result of the rite ; but it would be, I think, a mistake to imagine 
that the victim's illness or death is ever supposed to be due simfdy 
or solely to the rite. It is true that the magician may ascribe his 
f ulures to the fact that he failed to perform some detail in the rite 
properly. But it is also true, and in this connexion it is more im- 
pcNrtant, that, when the magic comes off, the success is accepted 
both by the magician, and by those who witness it, as due to the 
personal, mysterious power of the magician himself. 

There remains, however, the class, the large class, of instances 
known under the name of sympathetic magic. In them no magician 
whatever appears. Wearing the feathers of a bald-headed buzzard 
produces baldness, or the sight of a squirrel causes rheumatism ; or 
the glance (A the stone-curlew extracts jaundice from a man. Here 
it may be alleged, and as a matter of fact it is aUeged, that we have 
things believed to be acting on each other through a secret sympathy, 
or one ev^it following upon another, necessarily and invariably. 



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78 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency, or of 
any magician's power. But once m<»re we have to bear in mind 
that in the period of Animism every event whatever, which arrests 
attention and demands explanation, is explained as being due to 
personal agency and personal power. If anything unpleasant — 
rheumatism or what not— occurs, somebody must have done it. The 
question never is. What caused this event ? It always is. Who did 
this thing? The answer may be. This man; or it may be. This animal, 
or That bird. And the reason why the buzzard or the squirrel arrests 
attention, as being the guilty agent, is the likeness or rather the 
identity of the cramped attitude of the squirrel and of the sufferer 
from rheumatism, or of the baldness conmion to buzzard and man 
alike. Just as the magician points his stick and his victim falls, so 
the st<Hie-curlew eyes the sufferer from jaundice, and the jaundice 
comes out : magician and curlew alike possess a power which is 
mysterious and personal; and it is, I submit, a misunderstanding 
to conceive that, in the case of either, the result is supposed by 
Animistic man to take place * without the intervention of any spiritual 
or personal agency'. The squirrel or bird is as much a person as 
the magician, is equally regarded as ' a conscious agent', and is 
believed as such to possess the same power to work disagreeable 
wonders as the magician. The squirrel operates by its cramped 
movements in exactly the same way as the magician by pointing 
his stick, or stabbing an image. Where we see likeness, the savage 
feels identity. 

For the purpose, therefore, of raising discussion of the question. 
What is magic ? — ^I submit as a rough definition that magic is the 
mysterious i>ower of a person or conscious agent to cause injury — 
or, secondarily it may be, benefit — ^to another person, who may be 
at a distance ; a power which when exerted is accompanied by, or 
ascribed to, an exclamation, gesture, or action indicating and effecting 
what is willed. To us the exclamatioi or gesture only indicates 
what is willed. In the opinion of the savage, who fails to discriminate 
between the categories of likeness and identity, the action he performs 
not merely resembles, but is the action which he wills. 



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9 
PERSONAL AMULETS IN EUROPE 

By L. ECKENSTEIN. (Abstract) 

Thx personal amulets of Europe are the tools of a primitive faith, 
which, I think, preceded the practice of magic, in the sense that things 
that have a certain likeness react on one another. The use of amulets 
has aooompanied man from a remote period, and their choice and 
the ways of treating them afford additional material for the study 
of primitive belief. 

Many amulets are identical with those that have come out of ancient 
burial-places, others have survived as attributes of heathen divinities 
and as emblems of the saints. Their use under different aspects 
illustrates the continuity of human conceptions and the transforma- 
tions which these conceptions undergo. 

The giant accepted a stone or an egg as his external self or alier ego. 
On the same basis the owner of an amulet accepted a counterpart or 
aUer ego of some part of his body. He did so owing to the observed 
likeness between the two, which might be in shape or in colour. 
Blood-stones, or other stones, that are flecked with red are accepted 
as staying spontaneous bleeding, as is shown by examples cited in 
history and recovered in different parts of Europe in recent years. 
One of these in Italy had the shape of a drop of blood; others were 
suspended by a red ribbon. This addition of like to like intensified 
the presumed power of the amulet. 

Some amulets are peculiar to men, others to women. Pendants are 
heirs to the phallic emblems : in Italy men still wear a branch of red 
coral; while in northern latitudes a seal or other pendant, often 
made of heliotrope, is worn attached to the watch-chain. Women, 
on the other hand, wear beads. Many such beads come out of the 
oldest British and other women's graves. Italian women at the 
present time wear a white bead as the aUer ego of the breast while 
they are nursing, which is often of agate having the appearance of 
milk diluted with water. The use of the stone in this connexion 
recalls the cult oi the * Agatha Mater' whose breasts were processionally 
carried round in Sicily, and of the Christian Saint, Agatha of Catania, 
whose breasts were cut off in martyrdom. Again, Italian women 
wear a red bead as a saf^uard to their health, while the German 
woman ties a red thread round her little finger. Men also, by pre- 
ference, wear the signet ring, often of blood-stone, on the little finger* 
Their doing so hangs together with the fact that the little finger was 



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80 /. ReUgiom of the Lower Culture 

ritually bled in divination, as is shown by familiar phrases, and by 
the nursery rhyme on the fingers, current in almost every country of 
Europe, according to which the little finger ' tells ' or ' goes squeak'. 
The connexion between red amulets and sacrificial bleeding is shown 
by the rites observed at the fox-hunt and at the horse-race; one horse- 
amulet consists of a horse's head sewn on a scarlet lappet. Scraps 
of red or pieces of wood tied with red are worn by cattle from a similar 
association of ideas. Such wood is often of the rowan tree, the yew, 
or the holly, which are credited with a peculiar power in different 
parts of Europe on account of their berries being red. Such toees 
are planted near Druidical circles and in churchyards, their wood is 
put to various ceremonial uses, and children wear their berries as 
a protective necklet. 

Bed amulets, consisting for the most part of berries or beads, are 
the ornament of women and children, probably because these were 
chosen for sacrifice by preference, as is shown by the statements of 
various historians. The semblance of a sacrificial celebration con- 
tinues at Trevi in Umbria, at which red coral necklets are hung cm 
a child who is dressed up as an angel. The red coral worn by the 
CSirist child, and the coral that is used in teething, are credited with 
a protective power from a like association of ideas. 

An ordinary amulet used in teething consists of the actual tooth 
of a wolf or a dog. Examples have been found in ancient graves, 
which are provided with a hole lot suspension, exactly like those in 
use at the present day. The tusk of the boar and the half-claw of the 
crab serve the same purpose. The antiquity of these conoepticms is 
shown by Pliny's recommendation, as an aid in dentition, of the 
canine tooth of the wolf on the right side, which also serves as a handle 
for a modem German rattle. 

Stones of green colour, often consisting of jade, sometimes of an 
actual axe of the Stone Age, serve as the alter e^ of an internal organ 
which causes pain — ^probably the liver ; hence jade is called spleen- 
stone. These amulets were tied on the back, on the place where the 
organ was supposed to lie. The olivine of lona is treasured as a 
curing-stone presumably on account of its green colour. 

Again, the use of amber as an amulet illustrates primitive ways of 
thinking. It affords protection to the eyesight, and acts as the aUer 
ego of the tears by which the human eye relieves itself of pain caused 
by a particle or insect flying into it. This coimexion gave rise to 
the myth of the sisters of Phaethon who wept tears of electrum, and to 
the golden tears of the goddess Freya. Olemm was the old Qerman 
word for amber. Glass nowadays serves as a protectioi to the eye- 
sight in Italy. Another amulet was the fossilized shark's tooth, 
which served as a protection against snake-bite owing to its likeness 



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9, Personal Amvlets: Eckenstdn 81 

to a serpent's tongue, with which the serpent was formerly supposed 
to sting. This fossil gloasapdra, or lingua di San Paolo, according 
to Pliny drqpped from heaven during the eclipse at the moon. A 
miraculous origin was claimed also for the toad-stone» the swallow- 
stone, the ea^^e-stone, and others. The toad-stone was accepted as 
a protection against i>oison, owing to the current belief that the toad 
was a venomous animal. 

The peculiarity of the ea^^e-stone or aetitea, known as St. Maiy's 
Nut in the West Hebrides, lies in the fact that a small object, a stone 
or seed, is loosely enclosed in an outer shell or capsule, so that it rattles 
if it is shaken. This suggested the relation of parent and ofiEspring 
to the {nrimitive mind, and the amulet was worn by women in child- 
bearing, or was tied oa the cow to protect the calf, or on the tree to 
prevent the fruit from dropping. Such a stone was recently lent 
out in an Italian village at the price of five francs for the nine months, 
exactly in the same way as was formerly done with a stone in the 
-poBBmeioa of Christ Church, Canterbury. Caution was enjoined in 
the use of the latter stone, owing to the power it conferred on' the 
midwife of transferring the ills of the sufferer to an animal, another 
wcnnan, or to the husband. 

Some amulets serve to baflOe the machinations of the witch who 
uses the counterpart of a heart and covers it with pricks in order to 
bring about a person's death. Her efforts are baflSed by wearing 
a piece cl madreporite, which is naturally speckled, or a small bag 
of millet or other seed. Some of these amulets of madreporite have 
the shape of a heart. The heart amulet commonly worn by cart- 
horses, which are especially subject to witchcraft, is surrounded by 
a number of perforations which simulate these pin-pricks, and the 
protective power of the pricked heart survives in the cult of the heart 
of the Virgin which is pierced by seven swords or schtows. 

Stone axes and arrow-heads ward off the dangers that threaten 
from on high, since it is thought that sparks lurk in these stones, as 
lightning lurks in the thunder-cloud. The presence of the lurking 
spark must have been a fact of conmion observation to the worker 
of such weapons in the Stone Age. It was an ordinary practice to 
impose like with like, and the lightning that might fall from heaven 
was anticipated by hurling weap<ms at the gathering st<»rm. The 
Thraoians, the Qoths, and the Qauls discharged a volley of arrows 
at the thunder-cloud, and guns and small cannon are used to dispel 
the hail nowadays. In order to protect the homestead stone axes 
were walled into the house or placed at its foundation. Others were 
hung up near the chimney and were periodically greased or anointed 
in order to add to the efficacy of the cold stone, on which a film of 
moisture was seen to gather, this moisture b^ng interpreted as per- 

CJU I Q 



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82 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

spiration on the part of the stone. The washings and scrapings of 
such stones were used to strengthen and purify man and beast ; from 
an early period, according to northern Sagas, scraped runes were 
drunk in mead, while Pythagoras, on his arrival in Crete, was purified 
by the priest by means of a thunder-stone ; probably he was sprinkled 
with water in which the stone axe had been steeped. The stones 
that had fallen from heaven in ancient temples were probably stone 
axes that originally protected these buildings from lightnings and 
were subsequently made into an attribute of Zeus and Thor and 
the other gods who dwelt on mountain-tops and rode in the gathering 
storm. 

The hammer of Thor returned to his hand, as did the arrow-heads 
of Guse, king at the Lapps. These myths reflect the custom of shoot- 
ing at the thunder-cloud and of subsequently recovering and treasuring 
the weapon as a thunder-stone. 

Flint arrow-heads, pierced with a hole for suspension, or set in silver, 
have served as a protective amulet for many centuries. Some form the 
centre-piece of gold Etruscan necklets, others have been found in 
ancient burial-places. Besides serving as an amulet for man, they 
are put to various ceremonial usages to protect cows and the flow 
of milk, which is apt to be turned by thunder. The value attached 
to such an amulet is shown by the Lee-penny, which, if not an actual 
arrow-head, has all the appearance of one. Some arrow-head amulets 
are marked with the rune T^A^, which was a mark of sacrifloe and 
corresponds with our letter T. This explains the superstitious value 
attaching to this letter, which was also the mar^ of the sacrificial cake 
(' Pater, pater cake ') and is used in the milking charm C Cushy cow 
bonny '). The sign of the broad arrow in Christian times became the 
emblem of the three holy nails of the Cross that are joined together 
at the tips. Perhaps it is identical with the broad- arrow sign used 
by the Grovemment and put on prison clothes. 

Other amulets include the key, which is used to loosen the grip 
of epilepsy by being forced into the clenched hand ; and knots, the 
untying of which sets the wind loose, or makes an undertaking pros- 
perous. This idea is expressed in the myths ot King Aeolus and in 
that of the Gordian knot. There are also bones, plants, medals, 
medallions, the modem Agnus Dei which is heir to the bvJla of classic 
antiquity, and many objects, the acceptance of which is instructive 
from the point of view of primitive belief. 

Thus the use of these amulets admits of a reasonable explanatioiu 
They are accepted on a basis which carries their use far back in human 
history^ This use does not imply the belief in a personal deity which 
we owe to the Semitic race, nor the belief in spirits which seems to 
be an heirloom of the Turanian race. On the face of it, amulets were 



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9. Personal Amulets: JEckensteiu 88 

accepted by peoples of a race the supremacy of which belongs to an 
earlier period in history. For, as in the case of the external self of 
the giant, amtdets were primarily int^ided to secure safety to the 
individuaL Their use being aUied to human sacrifice and to the 
transference of evil, the stage of moral and mental development to 
which they can be traced is relatively low. Still their use may 
reasonably claim to have added to the sense of personal responsibility 
in the individual as distinct from that of the herd, while the likeness 
for which they were accepted sharpened the wits of humankind. 
Aa tangible tools they have, lived on in heathen and Christian belief, 
and have contributed their share to the acceptance of emblems in 
the later forms of foith. It is for this reason that amulets claim 
a place, I think, in the histcry of the study of religions. 



10 

THE CULT OF EXECUTED CRIMINALS IN 

SICILY 

By E. SIDNEY HARTLAND. (Abstract) 

NsAB the Ponte dell' Ammiraglio, otherwise called the Ponte delle 
Teste, at Palermo, is a little church of no architectural pretensions 
and described in no guide-book, called the Chiesa dei Decollati. The 
Decollati are executed criminals, many of whom were formerly buried 
in the little churchyard attached. The church is the centre of a cult 
of which they are the objects. Having died reconciled to the Church, 
they are invoked to intercede especially on behalf of persons who 
are exposed to accidents by land or water or to murderous violence, 
and on behalf of those who suffer from haemoptysis. Their inter- 
cession is also frequently invoked in other cases. Pilgrimages are 
made to the church, where the souls of the Decollati are believed 
to congregate beneath a certain stone and to give audible answers 
to prayer. Various shrines of Decollati also exist in other parts of 
Sicily. They may also be invoked by suppliants who are unable to 
make pilgrimages to their shrines. Sometimes they appear to the 
faithful and render direct assistance. The cult is a product of the 
state of society in Sicily during many centuries. 



o2 



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84 /• Religions of the Lower CuUvre 



11 

,DATA WITH REGARD TO THE BELIEF OF 
SOME SOUTH SEA SAVAGES 

By B. PULLEN-BURRY, (Abstract) 

Thb inhabitants of the Gazelle Peninsula in the north of New 
Britain believe in a desirable place called Tingenalabaran, which the 
spirit of the departed may enter if sufficiently endowed with taniboo 
(shell money), strings of which are wound round the corpse. If there 
is not enough to satisfy the god who permits souls to enter, the spirit 
has to go to a cold, bleak, undesirable place called Jakwpia. It is 
therefore indispensable for the savage to acquire as much tamboo as 
possible in his lifetime. The attendant ceremonies connected with 
the passing of the spirit illustrate their beliefs, especially the 
dread of eoil which unfriendly spirits may cause, which underlies all 
native thought and action in these parts. German settlers, however, 
explain that these cannibals rarely eat the bodies of the white men 
they kill, from fear of bringing upon themselves the vengeance of 
the white man's unknown spirits, which they consider stronger than 
their own. The lately discovered Bainings of the mountains in the 
north-west of the peninsula are an exception to the rule in their belief 
in the power of the spirits of the dead. Admittedly the lowest race 
in the Bismarck Archipelago, they possess an elementary belief only 
in an impersonal spirit-life which surrounds them. 

The heaven of the Sultkas on the south coast of New Britain is 
called Mlol, and is supposed to be in the middle of the earth. At 
the entrance are two rocks, where the spirit's advance is stopped, 
and, unless it can prove its earthly life to have been satisfactory, it 
is denied admission and wanders southward. The Sultkas have 
interesting beliefis concerning meteors ; they regard earthquakes, 
thunder, and Ughtning as proceeding from an unfriendly spirit called 
Kot. 



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12 

PROFESSOR SCHEPPIG'S FORSCHUNGEN 
tTBER DIE NATURVOLKER 

Von a. TITIUS: (GBKtJRzr) 

BiGHABD SCHEPPIG (1845-1903), ein Schiller des Leipziger Histori- 
kers Wuttke, ist mit Arbeitoi ethnologiBcher Art znerst 1874 hervor- 
getreten, ak er fiir Herbert Spencer's Descriptive Sociology den Ab- 
schnitt liber die alten Mexikaner, Peru, Gentralamerika, die Chibchas 
und alt^i Peruaner bearbeitete* Dazu trat 1880 ein Abschnitt iiber 
die Hebraer und Phomcier. Seit 1876 in arbeitsreicher Stellung in 
Kiel, verwaltete er seit 1888 das Museum fur Volkerkunde. Auoh 
in dieser Zeit bewiesen zahlreicjie kleinere Publikationen, unter denen 
zwei Abhandlungen fiber die Saule von ELap Gross, sowie seine Jahres- 
berichte liber Volkerkunde im Archiv f&r AtUhropologie (1883-1887) 
und liber die Urgeschichte der Menschheit in den Jahresberichien der 
OeacJUchiawissenachaft (1888-9) erwahnt werden mogen, seine dauemde 
Jebhafte Anteilnahme an den Forschungen iiber primitive Eultur. 
Die eigentumliche Bichtung aber, die seine Studien nahmen, zeigen 
•ewei weitere Abhandlungen : Der VdUeergedanke im Aufbau einer 
Wiasenschaft vom Menachen {Verhandlungen der Oes. f. Erdkunde, 
Berlin, 1883) und Eine Studie zur Oeachichte der Portugiesi&chen EtU- 
dedcungen an der weMafrihanischen Kuste, mit Beitrdgen zur Kenntma 
der OeachiehU Martin Behaima und seines Cfktms. Die nachgelassenen 
Manuskripte Scheppigs zeigen ihn aufs intensivste beschaftigt mit 
ider Verwertung der altesten Quellen, der Entdeckungsgeschichte, fiir 
die Kenntnis der Primitiven. Noch wichtiger aber ist ein zwar noch 
unvoUendeter, aber in wichtigen Teilen bereits ausgearbeiteter Versuch 
der Beschreibung der Familien und Gemeinschaftsverhaltnisse alter 
Primitiven. Dies Werk seiner VoUendung zuzufiihren, ware eine 
lohnende Aufgabe, die aber die Kraft eines Einzelnen iiberstdgen 
wurde. Ich beabsichdge hier nicht Mitteilungen iiber Einzelheiten 
zu machen, obwohl sein Entwurf sehr viel Lehrreiches auch fiir die 
Beligionsforsohung bringt, sondem nur seine Methode hervorzuheben 
wdl sie mir mustergiltig erscheint fiir eine streng exakte Erf orschung 
der primitiven Kultur. Gemass seiner Abhandlung iiber den Volker- 
.gedanken hat er seine soziologischen Studien so eingerichtet, dass er 
mit alien Mitteln des geschulten Ethnologen die Gesamtheit aUer 
primitiven Stanmie in ihrer natiirUchen nationalen und geographischen 
Gliederung zu beschreiben untemimmt, in diesem Gesamtbilde aber 
jeden Stamm fiir sich betrachtet und alle Nachrichten, die ihm zufliessen 



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86 /. ReUgions of tJie L(mier Culture 

lokalisiert, auf den besondem Stamm bezieht, den der Beobachter 
beechreibt. So sind die Gefahren der vorsohneUen Verallgemeinerung 
der Beobachtung und der Zersplitterung der Einzelf orschung gleich- 
massig vermieden* 

Der zweite leitende Gesichtspunkt Scheppigs ist dieser, alle wirklich 
samtlieh vorhandenen Nachrichten und Beobachtungen iiber die ein- 
zehien Stamme heranzuziehen. Dem geschulten Beobachter ergibt 
rich dabei von selbst die kritifiche Verwertung der Berichte, die 
Ausscheidung der erst aus der Beriihrung mit einer hohem Kultur 
stammenden Memente ; mit Becht hat daher Scheppig den altesten 
Nachrichten, soweit sie aus kundiger Hand stammen, einen besonders 
hohen Wert beigelegt. 

Es sei gestattety im Anschluss an diese Mitteilungen eine Anregung 
zu geben ; mir scheint, dass die Erforschung der primitiven Kultur 
und BeUgicm nur dann eine wirklich feste wissenschaftliche Basis 
gemnnen kann, wenn sie sich entschliesst, den miihsamen Weg zu 
gehen, den Scheppig einzuschlagen den Mut hatte* IMe Aufgabe ist 
gross; es miisste in umfassender und planmassig geleiteter Arbeit 
eine Gesamtdarstellung der primitiven Kultur und Religion (denn 
nur im Gesamtgefiige der Kultur kann die Religion und Mythologie 
.verstandlich werden) in Angriff genommen werden. Ethnologen, 
Sprachforscher» Religionshistoriker, Missionare miissten sich dabei 
Hand in Hand arbeiten ; samtliche aus alterer Beobachtung stammen- 
den Nachrichten miissten, soweit als gegenwartig noch angangig, 
durch die lebendige Anschauung an Ort und Stelle kontroUiert, erganzt 
und verbessert werden. IMese Aufgabe planmassig in Angriff zu 
nehmen, ist um so wichtiger, da die SSeit nicht mehr fern ist, in der 
man primitive Kultur in ihrer Abgeschlossenheit und Unberiihrtheit 
von fremden Einfliissen iiberhaupt nicht mehr wird beobachten konnen* 
Es versteht sich von selbst, dass eine solche Aufgabe von einem Ein* 
zelnen uberhaupt nicht in Angriff genommen werden kam^ Vielmehr 
miisste sich ein Internationales Comit6bilden,das die Arbeit anzuregen, 
zu leiten und zu centralisieren untemahme* Manner aller Kultur- 
nationen miissten sich daran beteiUgen ; besonders wichtig ware es 
bei der weltumspannenden Kraft der Angelsachsen, dass England und 
Amerika neben Deutschland im Comit6 vertreten wiirden, femer 
Russland, Erankreich, Holland, Belgien, Danemark, Portugal und die 
Nationen des femen Osten, China und Japan. Nur durch lebendige 
Fiihlung mit den Kolonien aller Lander und Zusammenfassung aller 
wissenschaftlichen Forschung lasst sich hier zum Ziele gelangen. 
Unser intemationaler Kongress aber erscheint mir als die geeignete 
Statte, um diese Arbeit anzuregen. 



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18 
THE RELIGION OF THE NANDI 

By a. a HOLUS. (Abstract) 

The Nandi tribe inhabit a part of the highlands known as the 
Nandi plateau, which is situated to the east of the Victoria Nyanza 
in British East Africa. 

The religious beliefs of the Nandi are somewhat vague and unfor* 
mulated. The supreme deity is Aaistay the sun, who dwells in the 
sky: he created man and beast, and the world belongs to him ; prayers 
are addressed to him ; he is acknowledged to be a benefactor and the 
giver of all good things ; and offerings are at times made to him in 
return. 

Besides Asista, there are two other superhuman beings, the kindly 
and malevolent Thunder gods called respectively Ilei ne-mie and Iki 
ne-ya. The crashing of thunder near at hand is said to be the bad 
Hei tTjing to come to earth to kill people, whilst the distant rumbling 
is the good Ilet, who is protecting them and driving away his name- 
sake. The Thunder gods are not worshipped, nor are offerings made 
to them. 

The Oiiky i.e. the spirits of departed ancestors and adult relations, 
are held to be responsible for sickness and death, and they are appealed 
to and propitiated with milk, beer, and food whenever necessary. The 
human soul is embodied in a person's shadow, and it is firmly believed 
that after death the shadows of both good and bad people go under- 
ground and live there. 

There is also a devil called Chemoeit, who is supposed to live on4he 
earth and to prowl round searching to devour people. He is said 
to be half man» half bird, to have only one leg but nine buttocks, 
and his mouth, which is red, is supposed to shine at night time like 
a lamp* He propels himself by means of a stick which resembles 
a spear and which he uses as a crutch. 

The prayers of the Nandi, like their religious beliefis, are somewhat 
vague. The commonest form of prayer, which is supposed to be 
recited by all adult Nandi twice a day^ but which is more particularly 
used by old men when they rise in the morning, especially if they 
have had a bad dream, is addressed to both Asista and to the spirits 
of deceased ancestors. The foUowing is a translation : 

God, I have prayed to thee, guard my children and cattle. 
I have approach<3d thee morning and evening. 
Ood, I have prayed to thee whuiBt thou didst sleep and whilst thou 
wentest. 



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88 /• Religions of the Lower Culture 

God, I have prayed to thee. Do not now say : * I am tired.* 
O our spirits, guard us who live on the earth, and do not say : * We 
were killed by human beings.' 

War, When warriors have gone to the wars, the men's mothers 
spit towards the sun every morning and say : 
God, give us health. 
The fathers meet together regularly and, before drinking their 
beer, sing: 

€rod, guard our children. 
That we may greet them. 

They then sprinkle some of the beer on the ground and on the walls 
of the hut, and say : 

O our spirits, we pray to you. 
Regard this beer, and give us health. 

On the return of a war party a thankoffering is made if the expedi- 
tion has been a success, and a war dance is held at which curiously 
enough a song is sung in Masai. It is simply : 

I pray to eng-Ai (the Masai Bain-god) 

And I pray to MJ^tian (a former powerful Masai chief). 

When the captured cattle enter the cattle kraals, they are welcomed 
as follows : 

The raided cattle, ho ! 
Gkxl hath given us health. 

If the expedition has not been successful and a number of warriors 
have been killed, the survivors must all go to a river on their return 
to their homes and bathe. They then hold a dance at which the 
women wail and cry at intervals. Afterwards an old man stands 
amongst the seated warriors and says : 

€rod, we admit ourselves beaten. 
We pray thee, give us peace. 

CaMe. When cattle have been raided by an enemy or kiUed by 
lightning, a procession is formed and the cattle that have been left 
are driven to the nearest river, where each animal is sprinkled with 
water. One old man then recites these lines, all present repeating 
them after him : 

€rod, guard these that are left. 

We pray thee, guard these that are left. 

When disease breaks out in a herd, a large bonfire is made and 
the sick herd is driven to the fire. A pregnant sheep is killed and 
eaten, and the herd is driven roimd the fire, each beast being sprinkled 
with milk, whilst the following prayer is offered up : 

Gk)d, we pray thee. 
Guard these that are here. 



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18. Religion qf the Nandi: HoUis 89 

If cattle are poisoned at a ' salt-lick ', a fflmilar ceremony is performed, 
but the prayer is slightly difFerent. The elders say : 

(3od, make good the salt-lick for us, 

So that if the oxen eat of the salt they may like it« 

Harvesi. During the ripening of the eleusine grain and after the 
grain has been reaped, the harvest ceremonies are held. Porridge is 
made from the first basketful of grain out, and all the members of the 
family take some of the food and dab it on the walls and roo& of the 
huts. They also put a little in their mouths and spit it out towards 
the east. The following prayer is then recited : 

Gkxl, give us health, 

And may we be given strength, 

And may we be given milk. 

If any man eats of this com, may he like it. 

And if a pregnant woman eats it, may she like it. 

After the harvest has been gathered in, a large bcmfire is made by 
each division, and when there is a big blaze an erection like a door 
of a cattle kraal is built near the fire. The warriors then file past, 
and the elders, who stand by the door-posts, take a little milk and 
beer in their mouths and spit it on them whilst singing as follows : 

Grod, give us health. 

Ood, give us raided cattle. 

Grod, give us the offspring of men and cattle. 

Drought. When there is a protracted drought, the old men coUect 
together and take a black sheep with them to a river. Having tied 
a fur doak on to the sheep's back, they push it into the water, and 
take beer and milk into their mouths, which they spit out in the 
direction of the rising sun. When the sheep scrambles out of the 
water and shakes itself, they recite the following prayer : 

Grod, we pray thee give us rain. 

B^ard this milk and beer. 

We are suffering Uke women labouring with child. 

Guard our pregnant women and cows. 

Building. When the erection of a house is commenced, a short 
inaugural ceremony is performed. The elders of the family pour 
milk and beer and put some salt into the hole that has been prepared 
for the reception of the central pole and say : 

Grod, give us health. 

Grod, give us milk. 

Grod, give us power. 

Gk)d, give us com. 

Grod, give us everything that is good. 

Grod, guard our children and our cattle. 

Birth. Four months after the birth of a child a feast is held. An 



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90 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

oz or goat is slaughtered, and after the mother, child, and animal 
have been anointed with milk by. one of the elders of the clan, the 
child's face is washed in the undigested food in the animal's stomach. 
The elder then prays as follows : 

€rod, give us health. 

Ood, protect us. 

O our spirits, guard this child. 

O belly, guard this child. 

Potters. When the potters, who are always women, bake their 
wares, they recite the following prayer : 

Gkxl, give us strength. 

So that, when we cook in the pots, men may like them. 

Smiths. When smiths search for iron ore they pray and say : 

Gkxl, give us health. 
God, give us iron. 

Children. Children do not as a rule pray, but when the two middle 
incisor teeth of the lower jaw are extracted, they throw the teeth 
away towards the rising sun and say : 

Ood, take these brown teeth and give me white (»ies. 
So that I may drink calf s milk. 

It is impossible to refer in this paper to the totems, tabus, clan 
peculiarities, rites, ceremonies, magic, and witch-craft, and the folk 
and cattle-lore of the Nandi, although these matters are all. intimately 
connected with their religion. From the foregoing, however, it will 
be seen that the Nandi beUeve in a sky-god whose name, as already 
stated, is synonymous with the sun. The Nandi also, like the sur- 
rounding Bantu peoples and unlike the Masai, worship and proptiate 
the spirits of deceased ancestors. As a general rule it may, I think, 
be said that prayer and sacrifice to the sun or deities in tiie sky are 
unknown amongst the Buitu tribes of Eastern Africa, whilst this 
form of worship is followed by all the Nilotic or Hamitic tribes. The 
Bantu Kikuyu, it is true, acknowledge a sky-god whom they call 
Ngai, but both the name and the worship are obviously borrowed 
from the Masai* The Chaga, too, who sometimes pray to a sun-god 
called Iruwa, and spit towards the east when they leave their huts in 
the morning, have probably taken these customs from the D<^obo» 
who are nearly atdn to the Nandi. 

I have been asked to add a few words on the subject of eng-Ai^ the 
Masai term for Gkxl. 

Eng-Al, i. e. Al with the feminine article prefixed, means literally 
* the rain \ and though one occasionally hears other words used as 
the equivalent of God, e. g. Parmasis and Paraai^ there is no other 
word for rain. 



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18. Religion of the NaruU: HolUs 91 

To the Masai eng-A! is of much the same general pattern as the 
sky-god, e.g. Zeus, was to the ancients. Joseph Thom8<ni^ states 
that their conception of the deity, whom he called Ngai, was mar- 
vellously vague, and that whatever struck them as strange or incom- 
prehensible they at once assumed had some connexi<ni with Ngai. 
Thus, his lamp was Ngai, he himself was Ngai, Ngai was in the steaming 
holes, and his house in the eternal snows of Kilima Njaro. But 
Thomson was incorrect. It is conceivable that the Masai alluded to 
him, to his lamp, or to the steaming holes as e-^'ng-Ai or le-'ng-Al, i. e. 
of God, as this is the only term they have, so far as I am aware, to ex- 
press an3rthing supernatural or sacred. Sickness, grass, the only active 
volcano in Masailand, can all be, and indeed are, referred to as 
e-'ng-Ai or le-'ng-Al, according to the gender of the substantive which 
precedes the expression. ^ Grod gave us cattle and grass,' the Masai 
say, ^ we do not sejMirate the things that Grod has given us.' Cattle 
are sacred, and grass is consequently also sacred, i. e. it is of €rod. 
The volcano which Thomson and others called Donyo Ngai is known 
to the Masai as 01-doinyo le-'ng-Al, the Mountain of God, or the sacred 
mountain. I am glad to see that in the newest maps the change in 
<»rthography has been made. 

That eng-AI is personified is apparent from the prayers given in my 
book,* which are all authentic, as well as in the forms of blessing and 
cursing. In <nie instance, it will be remembered, it is said : ' The Gk)d 
to whom I pray and He hears.' 

Eng-AI can also be used to express the sky or heavens, but the 
Masai equivalent for clouds, fog, cold, &c., may also be used in this 
sense. ^Heaven' in the expression ^Heaven help you' would be 
translated by eng-Ai, whilst ing-aUinibOy the clouds, would be required 
in a sentence like * The heavens are overcast.' 



14 

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE PRINCIPAL 
NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH AMERICA 

By J. H. GYBBON SPILSBURY. (Abstract) 

The subject-matter of this paper is the result of over thirty years' 
residence and travel among the chief indigenous tribes of South 
America, supplemented by constant research among the old writings 
of the Jesuit Fathers and historians of the Conquest. I have been 

' Through Masailand. * The Masai. 



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92 /• Religions of t/ie Lower Culture 

very careful to discriminate between traditions anterior to the arrival 
of the Spaniards and those influenced by subsequent Giristian teaching, 
and even to eliminate all m3rths which may appear doubtfuL 

As the subject is very vast, I have been obliged to confine my remarks 
.to the following points: (1) The idea of God; (2) Worship; (3) The 
Existence of the Soul and a future state ; (4) The Deluge ; [closing with 
a few m3rths concerning the creation of the moon, and the re-peopling 
of the earth. 

. .It is necessary also at the very outset to make a sharp line of de- 
marcati<ni between the civilized and organized nations at the time of 
the Conquest, and those which were still in a savage and barbarous 
state. The former comprise the vast empire of the Incas, which ex- 
tended from Ecuador to Chile, the Muiscas of Colombia, the Guaranis 
of South Brazil, and the Caras of Ecuador. To the latter belong the 
numerous tribes of the Gran Chaoo, the Indians of the Pampas and of 
Patagonia, the Onas and Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego, the Araucanos 
of Chile, the BraziUan Tupis and Botocudos, and the vast tribes of 
the Amazonian districts. 



I. Thb Idba of God 

It is now generally acknowledged that the conception of one Great 
Spirit, the Creator of all things, was universally spread among the 
aboriginal tribes, both civilized and barbarous, which inhabited the 
vast c<nitinent of South America. 

But while recognizing the existence of this concepti<ni of a God, 
it is extremely difficult to arrive at a complete knowledge of how 
far this idea influenced the lives of the peoples, and to what practical 
results it attained. Too far have the simple conceptions of these 
primitive men been moulded and twisted by both traveller and 
missionary, until they have emerged under a more definite shape, 
strongly tinged by preconceived religious beliefs and modes of thought. 

And this difficulty is still further increased by the fact that there 
are found but few practical results of this belief in a God, even among 
the more civilized nations of the Incas, the Muiscas, and the Caras, 
although the whole polity and social existence of these three empires 
were based upon a religious foundation. 

The Supreme Gkxl whom they all acknowledged as. the Universal 
Creator was, to them, a far-off Being, unable to be understood, too 
majestic, too just to be influenced by the desires or aspirations of 
men ; so that their real worship was offered to representatives of the 
Supreme One, or to attributes of his goodness. 

The Incas called this shadowy being Pachacamac, Creator of the 
World, a name borrowed from an older civilization of the Yungas^ 



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14. Tribes of South America : Spilsbury 98 

whose monumental temples they appropriated and used for the 
worship of Ynti, the Sun, as representative of Pachacamac. Garcilaso 
de la Vega is more careful to prove that his ancestors considered 
Pachacamac as an unknown, unrepresentable god, whose name they 
never uttered without extending the palms of the hand upwards. 

The primitive apostle of the Muiscas, named Bochica, taught them 
to believe in a Supreme Being, of whom they were forbidden to make 
any figure. Their worship was directed to natural objects, and their 
country teemed with sanctuaries and temples, filled with idols, whom 
they invoked as intercessors before the great €rod. 

The same idea of God existed among the savage tribes. The 
Araucanos, for example, believed in an immaterial God, whom they 
called HuiUhuembOf creator of the universe. But their worship was 
directed to two of his attributes, viz. Almighty Power (called HuilU 
papUbo) and Eternity (MoUquechigdn). 

The Chiquitos of the Gran Chaco acknowledged the Creator under 
the name of Omequeturiqui, to whom they gave no form or shape, 
but their worship was offered to his son Urasana, whom they repre- 
sented under the form of an ugly, misshapen dwarf. 



II. Worship 

Among the uncivilized tribes, worship was of the most elementary 
form, and the offerings of the simplest kind or most easily obtained : 
grains of maize, leaves of coca, feathers of birds, strangely shaped 
stcmee or pebbles, a mouthful of smoke, teeth or claws of animals,, 
a lock of hair, ko. 

But as worship was made more elaborate, not only were offerings 
multiplied in quantity, but their character was gradually changed^ 
and they took rough symbolical forms, and were coupled with sacrifices 
of indigenous animals and birds. If we except the Caribs of the 
northern shores, who came from the Western Isles, and a few tribes 
of the Amazonian watershed, who had also migrated from the same 
islands, we find no traces that human sacrifices were offered to their 
gods. Human sacrifices were only employed to celebrate a victory 
over public enemies. 

And in this respect we are now able to clear the character of the 
enlightened Incas from the imputation of this stain, due to the 
apocryphal accounts of some of the Jesuit Fathers of the sixteenth 
century. The first Spaniard -who ascribes to the Incas the use of 
human sacrifices was Cieza de Leon, in the second part of his Crdnica 
dd Peru; but he only obtained the information second hand from 
a rather doubtful passage in a work written by Santa Cruz de Pachacuti, 
who spoke only of rejoicings for a victory ; and this error has been 



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94 /• Religions of the Lower Culture . 

copied in a modified form by Montesinos and Santillan, -without any 
attempt to jprove the assertion. 

Among most tribes of savage Indians, even to within the last thirty 
years, the principal worship was offered to GuaUchu, the Spirit of 
Evil, to keep him in a good temper and induce him not to annoy them. 

III. Thb Existence of the SouIi and a Futijbb State 

The hope of immortality was general among all the tribeft of South 
America, who had, however, no definite idea of rewards or punish- 
ments. The present life was to be continued, only under different 
and happier conditions. Hence arose the general custom of preserving 
or embalming the body ; as also, in accordance with that belief, they 
placed within reach of the dead such articles of food, arms, or imple- 
ments as would be suitable for the immediate necessities of the life 
in the ^ happy regions '. 

Cremation was almost unknown, except on the victims of war. 

Among many tribes, the body, when embalmed, was bent into the 
po6iti<ni of a babe in the womb, and was then wrapped in rich and 
costly garments Or skins ; or among the poorer, encased in huge 
straw mats, or in clay coverings and then buried in caves or huacaa. 
Qarcilaso de la Vega, writing in the year 1660, afBrms that in the 
house of Polo Ondegardo in the city ol Cuzco, he saw the mummies 
of three Incas, Huirakcocha, Tupac Inca Yupanqui, and Huayna 
Kcapac, with two queens, so well preserved that they lacked neither 
hair nor eye-lashes. Cieza de Leon relates that the Chiriguanos, an 
important tribe of the Pilcomayo, after doubling up the body like 
the Incas, encased it in a clay pot, with a movable lid also made 
of clay. 

As another consequence of their belief in a future state of like 
character to the life on earth, we find the custom of sacrificing upon 
the tomb llamas and dogs for the chase, and of slaves and attendants 
to wait up<ni their masters. At times also wives were sacrificed in 
like manner. Montesinos says that on the death of the Inca Huayna 
Kcapac, more than four thousand people voluntarily offered themselves 
as victims on his tomb. 

IV. Traditions of the Deluge 

Myths of the deluge are abundant, but all have special local features, 
which are a proof of their authenticity. 

The Inca tradition speaks of a deluge of water which rose up from 
the plains to near the summit of the highest peaks of the Andes, 
washing away the abodes of men, as a punishment for their wicked* 
ness. In the region of Lake liticaca, seven persons took refuge in 



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14. Tribes of South America: Spihhury 95 

a large cave, in which they found many animals had sought for safety. 
When the waters receded, the seven persons came forth and re-peopled 
the wh<de earth. Various m3rths and legends are to be found bearing 
oa the same subject. 

But the natives of South America not only believed these traditions 
of the deluge, but they also asserted that the rainbow was a sign 
that the earth would not be again destroyed by water. Balboa in 
his MisceUanea Antarctica relates that Manco Kcapac, the founder 
of the Inca dynasty, on coming forth from Lake Titicaca with his 
wife Mama Oello, ^ journeyed on until a mountain, now called Guana- 
cauri, presented itself to their view, when on a certain meaning they 
beheld the rainbow rising above the mountain, with one extremity 
resting upon it. Immediately Manco Kcapac turned to his com- 
pani<Mi and said : ^'This is a propitious sign that the earth will not be 
again destroyed by water." ' 

Among many tribes, this influence of the rainbow is explained 
physically, by asserting that the two extremities of the bow rested 
on the waters, and by their weight prevented them from rising above 
a special level. 

The Tupis and Guaranis also have legends relating to the deluge 
and the rainbow, while sundry interesting myths of the Botoendos, 
and other kindred tribes of Brazil, treat of the creation of the moon, 
and the re-peopling of the earth after the deluge. 



15 

VESTIGES OF TOTEMISM IN THE MALAY 
PENINSULA 

By W. W. SKEAT. (Abstract) 

Thb descriptive ethnologist, as distinguished from those who are 
working at the comparative side of the subject, is confronted with 
certain difficulties arising from the (perhaps inevitable) incompleteness 
of theoretic formulae. I have endeavoiured to show, in this paper, 
what some of these difficulties are in the case of Totemism, the incom- 
plete and divergent theories about which render the task of classifying 
an important section of native beliefs more than usually perplexing. 

In order, to deal with this, one of the chief problems with which 
I am faced» I have attempted to construct, out of the writings of 
Andrew. Lang and other authorities, a working idea of Totemism, 



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96 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

in relation to what I may call its pre-totemistio elements, which would 
serve my turn for the purposes of classification. At the same time, 
since I have stated in Pagan Bacea of the Malay Peninsula that there 
is no totemism among the Semang, I have necessarily to consider the 
question of kinlees totemism, recently attributed to the Semang of 
the Malay Peninsula by Mr. Laurence Gomme; and though there are 
difficulties in the way of accepting that attribution, there are also 
several important considerations which complicate the general question, 
and lead me to ask, not what constitutes true totemism, but what 
are the relative status and sequence of the elements 6t which it is com- 
posed. I do not suggest that the practice of relying upon a pretended 
kinship with animals, plants, or things, for the protection or help of 
their mana, or for strategic or other purposes, should be provisionally 
classed as totemism ; but I wish to know whether some broad dassifica- 
tory scheme cannot be formulated, in which all the instances of 
transcendental relations between men and animals, at least, will be 
equally considered, and whether particular practices under such a 
scheme should be classified as resulting from totemism itself, or from 
ideas eventually interwoven with the totemic system — as modem 
representatives of an archaic stratum of beliefs, from which the totem 
system, as we know it, has sprung. 

The first and naturally the most important question is : — Of what 
do the foundations of the totemic idea really consist ? Andrew 
Lang's work suppUes the answer. Li formulating his hypothesis as to 
the origin of totemism, in the Secret of the Toteniy he regarded it as 
having sprung, partly from the naming of savage societies, and partly 
from a species of * natural exogamy \ * We guess that for the sake of 
distinction, groups gave each other animal and plant names. These 
became stereotyped, we conjecture, and their origin was forgotten. 
The belief that there must necessarily be some connexion between 
animals and men of the same names led to speculation about the 
nature of the connexion. The usual reply was that men and animals 
of the same name were akin by blood. The kinship mth animals 
being particularly mysterious was particularly sacred. From these 
ideas arose tabus, and among others that of totemic exogamy.* Hence 
Mr. Lang postulates (1) a group animal name of unknown origin, 
(2) belief in a transcendental connexion between all bearers of the same 
name, and (3) belief in the blood superstitions (the * mystically sacred 
quality of the blood as life ') ; these were all that was needed to ' give 
rise to all the totemic creeds and practices, including exogamy \ 

This is as clear and definite a description of totemism conceived as 
at a certain stage of development, as we are likely to see. Yet it is 
perhaps not unfair to ask whether Mr. Lang has, in this instance, 
pushed his arguments to their fullest legitimate conclusions. What 



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15* Vestiges of Malay Totemisnt: Skeat 97 

he seems to imply, though he does not actually say so, is that totemism 
is not, as it were, an elemental product of the human mind, insus- 
oeptiUe of further analysis, but rather of the nature of a conglomerate. 
If this is his view, it seems impossible to take exception to it. K, 
however, exogamy and tabus *grew out of the aforesaid elements, 
there must have been, at some point or other, a pre-exogamic stage 
of totemism. But, as we have seen, Mr. Lang's true position is that 
there was an early tendency to marry out, existing prior to the 
tabu arising from the superstitions engendered by these names. In 
otherwords natural exogamy preceded totemism. We must therefore 
suppose that Mr. Lang is thinking, in these two passages, of two different 
kinds of exogamy, the one natural, the other a formally recognized 
institution. 

Again, Lang's rare and valuable hint, in Social Origins, that there is 
nothing necessarily religious about early forms of totemism, shows 
that a belief in the * mystically sacred quaUty of the blood as life' 
is also a later element. Several considerations confirm this. ' Con- 
oeptional ignorance' would surely be opposed, toto cado, to the order of 
things that a recognized kinship would establish, and hence would point 
back to pre-totemistic times. In the Malay Peninsula these traditions 
are strikingly strong and significant, including legends of children 
bom in various impossible ways, the legend of the advice given by the 
monkey and the dove to the first parents of the race, of the Semang 
women whose only spouse was the evening wind, and so forth. Even 
the formal avoidance, by the mother-in-law, of her daughter's husband 
may belong to the pre-, or at least proto-totemistic stage, since their 
relationship did not come within the scope of the prohibited d^rees. 
Besides, there is pre-totemic exogamy already mentioned. Hence 
beUef in kinship must be a later development of the totemic era, 
and this would bring us by a different chain of argument to the kinless 
totemism of Mr. Gomme. 

As to the two elements not yet considered, it seems more reasonable 
to suppose that beUef in a transcendental connexion between all 
bearers of the same name could lead to group animal names than 
vice versa, since for the former sequence of development there is 
adequate reason, for the latter there is not. What has not been 
shown us, is (as Mr. Marett has kindly pointed out) how the 
' magic of the name ' could lead on to the ^ one sacred blood '. All 
that is clear is that if there was at an early stage among a number 
of human groups, any general practice of giving each other animal 
names, this can only have been due to some clear motive acting 
throughout all the groups. Food and fighting-power, got by working 
on anthropomorphic or * heteromorphic ' principles, would be two of 
the most likely objects, and as such should be considered. Leaving, 



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98 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

therefore, this question to be decided by others, and merely remarking 
that if this were so, it would leave the case of the belief in a trans- 
cendental connexion between men and animals alone to be dealt with, 
we come to the fact that beliefs of this kind are open to consideration 
from two points of view, i.e. from the anthropomorphic, and the 
heteromorphic. 

This cleavage of ideas actually occurs in the savage mind. Some 
men mimic beasts and even eat them to acquire their qualities ; 
others mimic them with the idea of deceiving even the game itself. 
Many trainsof thought might lead them to assume the names of animals , 
in order to set up, as it were, a make-believe kinship with them, 
just as the Dogrib Indian in deer-stalking, or the ostrich hunter, for 
a similar purpose, adopts the disguise of his intended victim's head and 
skin. This tendency to adopt a make-believe kinship with animals 
would be combined, no doubt from the earliest times, with the growing 
practice of expelling the younger males from the family dwelling, formal 
exogamy based on kinship would follow, and thus by gradual stages 
the various elements of totemism would be built up. 

To sum up, Mr. Lang has told us what are the elements of the 
complex of which totemism is composed, and we may accept it as a fact 
that at this point, which he has defined for us, totemism splits into 
its component parts. Anterior and subsequently to this there are, of 
course, totemistio elements, but they are not blended into the form 
of totemism. What is important for us to know is : in what relation 
to each other, to totemism itself, and to other allied beliefs do 
these elements of totemism stand ? What are we to say of the 
relation between totemistic beliefs and the belief in the embodiment 
of dead ancestors in certain animals ? And what of the a£Snity 
between a man (i.e. an individual man) and a species, if the man 
hands on the cult to his descendants ? Wherein does it differ at 
the oviaei from a similar afiBnity, in the case of which the man does 
not hand on the cult ? 

With regard to the classification of beliefs bearing on savage ideas 
of a transcendental connexion between men and animals, we must 
take into account the fact that savage races regard various species 
of animals almost as if they were neighbouring tribes : thus African 
natives told Livingstone that they * looked on cattle as human, and 
living at home like men '• The Malay accounts are even morestrikingly 
complete. To them the tigers are human beings who assume, for 
purposes of their own, the tiger's shape, and who have, moreover, 
in various parts of the Peninsula (Mount Ophir, for instance) settlements 
of their own ; the houses of which have their framework of human 
bones, covered over with human skin, and €ure thatched with women's 
hair. They even have a chief who, unlike his followers, never adopts 



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15. Vestiges of Malay Totemism: Skeat 99 

what may be called the tiger disgoise, but always appears in his own 
8ha]>e as a man. They are, besides, credited with having established 
a regular form of government, and are believed to be under an injunc- 
tion, or * curse * which prevents them from taking the life of any of 
their human neighbours, unless it has been ^ given them'. The 
fulfilment of this condition they are driven to ascertain by means of 
divination, for which purpose they *gaze' at a leaf until, in the event 
of their desire being granted, it takes the shape of theur proposed 
victim, minus the head. 

Here I may remark in passing that any Malay of the old school, 
now fast disappearing, who sought a human victim or proposed to 
engage in any other at all important or hazardous enterprise, would 
be sure to employ divination in some one of the many forms in which 
it is known to him. The avoidance of the word Higer', and the 
substitution for it of such titles as * Chief of the Forest ' or * Grand- 
father of the Forest', &c., by Malays passing through the jungle, 
as well as the language of the charms used against tigers, and the 
practice of craving the tiger's forgiveness when a trap has to be set 
to catch him, are facts that all point in the same direction. Space 
fails me to describe in equally full detail the Malay point of view 
with regard to other animals. It will perhaps suffice to say that these 
tiger-beliefs are not in any way exceptional, that there is an Mephant- 
dty, for instance, just as there is a city of the tigers ; and that the 
rhinoceros, crocodile, wild deer, wild hog, and dog, among animals, and 
wild pigeon among birds, are all strong examples of the power and 
extent of the anthropomorphic idea among the Malays. Thus the 
invitation of the deer wizard to the wild stag and doe, the former 
of whom he addresses as a * Crown Prince * with his ^Speckled Princess', 
to enter the toils runs as follows : *' If you wish for bracelets and rings, 
stretch forward your forefeet.' And the conjuration of the wild 
pigeon is a wonderful blending of the two standpoints : 

Let those which have eggs leave their eggs. 

And those which are blind come led by others, 

And those which have broken limbs come on crutches. 

The birds are invited to assemble in the * entrance-hall of King Solomon ' , 
no imaginary place but the conical leaf-hut of the decoyer ; and three 
different kinds of pigeon are addressed respectively as the Queen, 
a Princess, and their Handmaid. The anthropomorphic ideas of the 
Malaj^ with regard to the rice-plant have been dealt with by Mr. Frazer 
with such erudition and exhaustive wealth of illustration, that I need 
do no more than mention them here. Suffice it to say that the birth 
of the Bice-Child, or Rice-Soul, is simulated in the field, the first seven 
ears taken from the mother-sheaf (which represent it) being laid in 
a small basket-cradle, and taken home under the shade of an umbrella 

h2 



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100 /. Religions of the Lower CtUture 

to the house, where it is received as if it were a new-bom infant. 
Anthropomorphic ideas similarly extend to fruit-trees; of which 
the best examples are perhaps the durian and the coco-nut-palm. It 
now only remains to mention inanimate objects, and the personality 
attributed to these comes out with convincing clearness in the following 
lines, taken from charms addressed to the grains of tin-ore under- 
ground. 

* Peace be unto you, Tin-ore! Ck)me forth from this matrix of 
solid rock ! If you do not come forth, you shall be rebels in the sight 
of God.' This is no solitary case, for elsewhere we have ' Assemble 
yourselves together, Rice-grains and Spinach-eeed, Tobacco-seed, 
Millet, and Wild-ginger-seed. [All these are allusions to the different 
shapes and sizes of the tin-grains.] If ye do not assemble yourselves 
together, I shall curse you ; you shall be turned into dust, into air, 
you shall be turned into water ! ' It is obvious even from the fore- 
going examples — and many more are available — ^that there are degrees 
of anthropomorphism as well as of heteromorphism, if we look at them 
from the native standpoint ; and the matter would repay further 
investigation. The beliefs about the tiger, for instance, must not 
be considered without reference to the were-tiger beliefs, as to which 
the convictions of the Malay up-country peasant are held with remark- 
able tenacity. 

Witness Mr. Hugh Clifford on this point : * The Malay knows it 
is true. Evidence, if it be needed, may be had in plenty ; the evidence, 
too, of sober-minded men, whose words in a court of justice would 
bring conviction to the most obstinate of jurymen, and be more than 
sufficient to hang the most innocent of prisoners. The Malays know 
well how Haji Abdullah, the native of the little state of Korinchi 
in Sumatra, was caught naked in a tiger-trap, and purchased his 
liberty at the price of the buffaloes he had slain while he marauded in 
the likeness of a beast. They know of the countless Korinchi men who 
have vomited feathers, after feasting upon fowls when for the nonce 
they had assumed the form of tigers, and they know, too, of those 
other men of the same race who have left their garments and trading 
packs in thickets, whence presently a tiger has emerged.' 

This may be paralleled in England ; for if we go back three centuries,^ 
we find cases in which animals, such as pigs and rats, were solemnly 
charged, tried, and even executed, for causing the death of human 



Even an analysis of the beliefs and practices of totemism itself (as 
formulated by so great an authority as Dr. Frazer), will give us the 
two main classes (of belief and practice) already indicated. Under the 
first of these (the anthropomorphic), the totem is treated as a member 
of the kin ; under the second, the kin affects characteristics of th& 



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15. Vestiges of Malay Totemisnt : Skeat 101 

totem— dresses like it, perhaps even assumes its name, and so forth. 
Again, should the Irish seal-olan, the were-wolves of Ossory and else- 
where, and the Malay and Semang were-tigers, be classified, or not 
classified, with the pre-totemistio elements of what afterwards became 
totemism ? 

Looking at the matter from a purely native (e.g. Malay) standpoint, 
there seems to be no insuperable difficulty in the way of formulating 
a scheme Tdiich should include plants as well as animals, and with 
regard to inanimate objects, Mr. HartJand has shown, in his York 
address, that ^ churinga ' are believed to make the yams or grassHseed 
grow, as well as to scare animals or help to secure the game. 

Examples, showing any characteristics of true totemism, already 
recorded from the Malay Peninsula, are few, and owing to the Malays 
being an immigrant race, the disjecta membra of the system are all 
that we find, the result being that (as Blagden has shown) mother-right 
only occurs in some districts, and exogamy in others. The examples 
are (1) that of the Rajas of Raman, forbidden to partake of the bamboo 
shoots whence they sprang, and the members of whose royal house were 
called by the names of certain v^etables, (2) the Malay tribe of 
hereditary bards sprung from foam vomited by a bull, (3) the Prince 
of Malacca who was saved from drowning by the ahndu fish and the 
flower gandastdi. There is also the tradition of a Foam-bom Princess 
who in some traditions enters into an exogamic alliance with the 
Bamboo Prince. 

Coming to Mr. Gomme's suggestion as to the existence of kinless 
totemism among the Semang, this depends mainly on the statement 
made by Vaughan-Stevens, that the Semang named their children 
after plants. But Vaughan-Stevens, unchecked and uncorroborated, 
is not a safe authority for any fact of such importance, and in this 
particular instance, an analysis of over one hundred names, collected 
by myself tends to prove the contrary. 



16 

In Messiah Beliefs of ihe American IndiansWaa Maby Alicia Owbn 
showed that whenever a nation or a tribe stands in desperate need 
of a deliverer, its agonized desire becomes in time idealized hope quick- 
ening into fervid expectation. Sometimes this hope takes the shape 
of a shamed remembrance of an unappreciated hero who has been 
martyred or driven away, and is thus expected to return in majesty 
as a god. Such were the culture-heroes Quetzalcoatl, Pachacamac- 
Viraoocha, Glooscap, Hiawatha. 



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102 /. Religions of the Lower Culture 

Not all the Indian Moflaiahfl are oulture-heroes and demigods. In 
many tribes a jMUBsionate patriot has arisen who, after long fasts and 
frenzied prayers, has come to eonsider himself a divinely appointed 
leader. This belief grows in strength with each successive vigil. 
His weaker brethren are hypnotized until they yield him a ready 
obedience. Such were Pop6 the Pueblo medidne-man, who headed 
a revolt against the Spaniards in 1680, the Peruvian Condorcanqui, 
the Delaware Pontiac, and other North American leaders; of whom 
the most recent have been Nakai-doklini the Apache, the Wanapum 
SmohoUa, Squ-sacht-un, called by the whites John Slocum, among the 
Indians of Puget Sound, and the Paiute Wovoka, the Messiah of the 
Ghost-dance Religion. Many of these men have been greatly influenced 
by Christianity. It is for the good of the individual, the tribe, and the 
world at large, wh&a the Messiah or teacher counsels patience, Icmg* 
suffering, kindness, chastity, honesty, with a hope of better things 
in future to make the present endurable, instead of uttering the male- 
volent and brutish oracles of the old shamans. 



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SECTION II 
RELIGIONS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 

By H. a. GILES 

It is perhaps not too much to say that any attempt to deal 
satisfactorily with the history of religion in China and Japan has 
only become possible within comparatively recent years. The struggle 
with the written language of China used formerly to absorb so much 
of the student^s time, that his career was often finished before he had 
leisure to make practical use of the vehicle he had so laboriously 
acquired. Place-names, personal names, plant-names ; dates, some- 
times cyclical and sometimes dynastic; and especially, bewildering 
allusions to incidents and episodes in history, poetry, and general 
literatinre, often of the vaguest and most shadowy description ; all 
these were formerly insuperable barriers to rapid advance in any 
given direction. 

But times are changing ; and the student has now at his control 
a variety of works, the consultation of which enables him to pass 
lightly over ground where his predecessors would have been arrested 
at every step. It is true that before research of any kind can be 
attempted, the student is still faced with the difficulty of acquiring an 
adequate knowledge of the written language ; no mean task in itself, 
but a trifle compared with the labour which, as indicated above, con- 
fronted the pioneers of Chinese studies in early days. 

The same is true of Japanese studies. Professor Revon, whose 
absence here to-day is a matter of sincere regret, excuses the erroneous 
conclusions of a distinguished Japanese scholar on the ground that he 
had 'consacr^ sa vie ^ T^tude de la langue,^ and had not enjoyed 
leisure for comparative research. 

We are now, however, in a better position than ever before, to pass 
from general to special studies ; and it is extremely desirable that the 
student of the future, instead of wandering at random over the novel 
and deeply interesting field which Chinese literature opens to his 
gaze, should devote himself more and more to some particular route, 
the rough clearing of which has already been done for him in such 
a way that he may begin where his predecessor left ofl: We have 
reached a point in Chinese studies at which it may be said that only 



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106 //. Religions of China and Japan 

by specialization can any further real progress be made. As an 
earnest of what can be done in the direction which particularly 
interests us at this Congress, I need only allude to the volumes 
already published of a monumental work, 7^ Religious System 
ofChma^ by Professor de Groot, of the University of Leiden. 

At this date, we still cannot really be said to know cmything at all 
of the origin of the Chinese people. Various surmises have from time 
to time been brought forw€urd ; and chief amongst these is the theory 
that Akkadia (mentioned in Genesis x. 10), the south-eastern division 
of ancient Babylonia, was tlie cradle of the Chinese race and the 
source of their marvellous civilization. The evidence, however, for 
this view can scarcely be said to convince, consisting as it does mostly 
of mere coincidences ; and as such it has already been set aside 
by Professor Hirth in his recently published Ancient History of 
Chtna^ and by others among those best qualified to judge. 

The origin of religion in China is equally hidden from us behind 
what has hitherto proved to be an impenetrable veil. In the very 
earliest records of Chinese civilization, — ^records which hand down the 
traditions of a still more remote and more dimly-outlined antiquity, — 
we find the Chinese people living under cm established government, 
with advanced laws and institutions for their political and social 
well-being. It was not, however, only by judicial enactments and 
penalties that individuals were restrained from such courses as would 
operate against the common weal. It had been fully recognized 
for ages past that there was a Power, to whom evil of any kind was 
displeasing, and fi^m whom pimishment might be expected for any 
form of wrong-doing. 

This Power was called 'Pieny which also means sky, heaven ; and it 
was represented in the pictorial script of primeval times by the rude 
figure of a man. It is not suggested that the idea of an cmthropo- 
morphic God preceded the idea of the sky in which He was placed ; 
but merely that in the Chinese script the character for T^ien empha- 
sized pictorially the sense of God rather than that of sky, the latter 
being nevertheless the original meaning of the spoken word T^ieny 
and still the more common meaning of the two, further extended 
in colloquial to a revolution of the sky, signifying the period of a day, 
and even to the weather. An earlier symbol for the visible heavens, 
belonging to the days of pictorial writing, but now no longer in use, 
is said to have been three horizontal lines. 

The personality of T^ien was extremely vague, and may be com- 
pared with that of Jehovah of the Old Testament, the God of Grods 
of the Psalms. We may continue the parallel by sa3ring that just as 



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1. Presidenfs Address: Criles 107 

evil was displeasing, so was good acceptable to T^ien. Human con- 
duct received its due rewfiurd ; to quote the actual words of the Canon, 

The way of God (T^itn) is to bless the good, and punish the bad. 

With the due ordering of the seasons, the insistence on right 
conduct between man and man, and the punishments and rewards to 
be meted out, the functions of T'ien seem to have hegan and ended. 
There is no suggestion that T^ien called the universe into being, 
though associated in another sense with Ti, earth, — 'the bridal 
of the earth and sky,^ — in the constant renewal of animal cmd 
vegetable life ; nor is it suggested that T^ien had anything to do with 
the appearance of the human race, or claimed any love or gratitude, 
or even reverence, beyond the fear inspired by the swift and open 
punishment of evil-doers. Cases of cruelty and injustice on the part 
of Tien were from time to time recorded ; but, generally speaking, if 
a man led a moral life, he needed not to concern himself with this 
Power, unless indeed some particular favour were required, in which 
case sacrifice and prayer would be called into requisition. Burnt 
offerings were fi^y made; and a recent writer has endeavoured 
to show, with much plausibility, that the candle lighted at the 
modem shrine is but a survival of the victim^s fat. 

It is not indeed clear that in the earliest ages there was any notion 
of a place of departed spirits, though the spirits enjoyed honour and 
worship at the hands of their descendants. The idea of a heaven 
was a later development. Neither does it appear that there was 
any Evil One, envious of the power of God, or desirous of tempting 
the human race away from the path of rectitude. The personality 
of the Devil is foreign to Chinese ideas on the subject of sin. 

After a certain interval of time, — how long a time we cannot 
say, — this simple monotheism underwent an extraordinary change. 
Tienj God, came to be called by another name, and was invested 
under the new title with a more marked personality, which hitherto 
had been wanting; thus bringing Him into a closer relationship 
with mankind. There were in fact two Gods, — who were still One,— 
a Duality in Unity, — two Persons but one substance. The new 
conception was called Ti or Shcmg Tiy the Supreme Ruler. His 
anthropomorphic nature was more strongly accentuated than that 
of Tien. He enjoyed the flavour of sacrifices, was pleased with 
music and dancing in His honour, took sides in warfare, walked and 
talked, and thus satisfied the aspirations of the Chinese people 
for contact, so to speak, with a more personal Grod. Yet these two 
Persons were actually one and the same ; the more abstract Tien^ 



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108 //. Religions of China and Japan 

God Passive, and the more concrete Shang 1% God Active, are 
really, according to Chinese interpretation, one indivisible Power, in 
which two separate and distinct Personalities co-exist. In the Canon 
of Filial Piety, Vien is made to rtmk above Shang Ti ; but practically 
the status of the two Persons is equal. 

The Chinese conception of Grod has taken several forms in addition 
to the original anthropomorphism which prevailed in the earliest 
ages. God has been understood to mean precisely that mysterious 
agency personified in the West as Nature. As such. He is often 
called Tsao Hua, the Maker-Transformer, and He is occupied, 
as in the case of Tien^ already mentioned, in the production and 
development of all terrestrial life, animal tmd vegetable. Yet, even 
to this Power — scarcely a Being — human attributes are irresistibly 
assigned. Thus we read, 

God {Tsao Hud) does not work in winter, but stops the machine 
by which all created things are produced. 

It is often said, and with much reason, that the Chinese have not 
very marked religious instincts; still, many Chinese are shocked 
by the absence of a reverential attitude towards the Unseen. Among 
the surnames of the Chinese we find the word T*5en, God, just as in 
Portugal, for instance, the word Jesus is familiarly employed as 
a ncune. At < least two individuals, eminent enough to be mentioned 
in the Dynastic Histories, have possessed this name ; from which it is 
fair to infer that there have been many, of whom there is no record. 
In A. D. 1117 a Censor memorialized the Throne, that it should 
be forbidden in future to use the term *God' as a surname. He 
obtained a favourable Rescript; but not much attention seems to 
have been paid to it, for again in 1506 we find a similar application. 
I am unable to say if the surname is still in use in China or not. 

The monotheism, of which the above gives but a faint outline, 
comprises really all the religion which supplied the spiritual needs of 
the Chinese people in early ages. What worship there may have 
been of the sun, moon, and stars, of the deities of hill and stream, 
and even of ancestors, consequent perhaps upon the development of 
Shang Tij seems to have gradually clustered around the monotheistic 
stem. But on most of these points we are still imperfectly informed ; 
the vast masses of Chinese literature on this subject remain to 
be scientifically explored. 

And so things went on until the advent of Confucius, five and 
a half centuries before the Christian era. Confucius, though amply 
recognizing a Supreme Power of some kind, declared plainly that God 
merely required man to do his duty towards his neighbour, and that 



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1, Presidents Address: Criles 109 

with such a consummation He would rest completely satisfied. 
Confucius positively discouraged any attempt to deal with the 
problem of a future state ; and it may fairly be said that the modem 
agnosticism of the educated classes in China is entirely due to 
the teachings of the Sage, reinforced later on by those of his great 
disciple, Chu Hsi (twelfth century a.d.). In one passage the latter 
uses language which will not bear misconstruction : — 

The blue empjrrean, which we call T'few, and which revolves 
unceasingly, is that cmd nothing more. To declare, as people do, 
that it contains a Being, who awards punishment for crimes, is 
impossible; such statements are without authority, and there is 
no evidence to that effect. 

It is, however, a mistake — and one which I have made myself — to 
think that Chu Hsi denied altogether the existence of an unseen 
Power. When speaking of the occurrence of the term T^ien in the 
Confucian Canon, he says that— 

it must sometimes be interpreted as the sky, sometimes as a Chu- 
isaiy a Ruler or Governor, and sometimes as a principle. 

And in another place he says that all unseen powers or influences 
may be gathered under the heading T'ien. To one who asked him if 
there was any return after death, he replied categorically. 

When we go, that is all ; how can matter which has once been 
dissipated, ever be brought together again ? 

It is interesting to note that the term employed by Confucius for 
Grod was the older one, Tien. 

He who offends against T^ien, has none to whom he can pray. 

I do not murmur against Tien ; I do not grumble against man. 
My studies are here below ; my thoughts mount upwards. 

I can only discover one instance in which Shang Ti is put into the 
mouth of Confucius, though as editor of the Odes he must have found 
it in constant use. 

Meanwhile, many philosophers and others had begun to speculate 
on the very problem which Confucius had set aside as beyond the 
province of mankind, and also on the question of man in relation to 
the Universe. 

Among the most curious of the documents which have been handed 
down to us, is a poem of the fourth century b. c, in which the writer, 
Ch*u P'ing, asks a number of questions about the Universe and 
its traditions, leaving the reader to find the answers for himself. 
The poem opens thus : — 



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110 //. Religions of China and Japan 

At the banning of antiquity, who was there to hand down the 
story ? 

When heaven and earth were without form, who examined and 
found them so ? 

When matter was without form, how could it be recognized ? 

How were the periodical changes of light and darkness brought 
about ? 

The nine layers of the round sky, — who has measured them ? 

By whose skill were they constructed ? 

Where is the sky joined to the earth ? and who divided out the 
twelve signs of the zodiac ? 

How are the sun and moon fastened on ? how are the stars laid 
out? 

What virtue is there in the moon, by which it dies and is bom 
again P 

With reference to the arrangement of the heavens in nine layers, 
one above the other, it may be interesting to recall the Ptolemaic 
system of the universe, as set forth to the Chinese people so late 
as 1614 by Emmanuel Diaz, the famous Jesuit missionary. The 
learned Father, in a diagram which has survived, placed the earth in 
the middle of twelve concentric circles or layers, each df which was 
appropriated to the orbit of some planet, to the twenty-four zodiacal 
constellations, &c. The fourth layer, for instance, was assigned 
to the Sun ; and the twelfth, which, we are told, 

remains ever motionless, while all the others revolve, 

was labelled. 

Heaven, the abode of God, and of all His angels and saints. 

The views of Chuang Tzu (third century b. c.\ the leading philo- 
sopher of the Taoist or Mystic school of thought, are interesting 
as exhibiting a by-path into which the ancient monotheism was 
diverted. To Chuang Tzu, T^ietij God, became a mere abstraction, — 
Unity, which he describes as 

the Centre at which all Infinities converge, and where Positive and 
N^ative alike blend into One. 

God is the source of life, and to that source all life sooner or later 
returns. We are not the arbiters of our own fortunes. 

Suppose, says Chuang Tzu, that the boiling metal in a smeltins- 
pot were to bubble up and say. Make of me an Excalibur ; I think 
the (»ster would reject that metal as uncanny. And if a sinner like 



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1. Presidents Address: Giles 111 

myself were to say to Grod, Make of me a man, make of me a man, 
I think He too would reject me as uncanny. The universe is the 
smelting-pot, and God is the caster. I shall go whithersoever I am 
sent, to wake unconscious of the past, as a man wakes from a dream- 
less sleep. 

Again, in the words of Chuang Tzu, 

The ultimate end is God. He is manifested in the laws of Nature. 
He is the hidden spring. At the b^inning^ He was. 

Hsun Tzu, a so-called heterodox writer of the third century, has a 
good deal to say about T^itn^ Grod, and His attributes. He is one of 
those philosophers who, as before mentioned, identify Grod to a great 
extent with the creative and r^ulative physical Force which we call 
Nature, and which we commonly personify as a female being. With 
Hsiin Tzu, God is a Power working upon eternal lines, without 
reference to good or evil, and sending rain upon the just and the un- 
just alike ; the difference being that the man who responds obediently 
to Nature^s laws will find himself better off in the end than the man 
who acts in opposition to these laws. 

When meteors fidl, says Hsiin Tzu, or when trees shriek, the 
people are all afraid, and ask. What are these thin^ ? I say that 
they are nothing, — nothing more than phenomena mcidental to the 
ordinary operations of Nature, at which we may be astonished, 
but not frightened. 

Chang Tsai, a philosopher of the eleventh century, who wrote 
a work on the Theory of the Umverte^ has some interesting remarks 
bearing on his conception of the Deity. Here are four short 
examples : — 

The inscrutable part of Grod is His Divinity ; and it is because 
this Divinity is everlasting that He is Grod. 

God never speaks, yet we trust Him ; the spirits are never angiy , 
yet we fear them. This is because God is perfectly sincere, and 
the spirits are entirely just. 

Grod^s knowledge of this world does not reach Him by ears, eyes, 
or mind; yet it is more profound than if ears, eyes, or mind 
were employed. 

Grod is immanent in all things without exception, just as the 
principle of goodness is immanent in all affairs. 

The idea that God is above us, in the sky, is one that has mostly 
prevailed in China, at any rate, before the time of Chu Hsi. Evidence 
of this may be gathered from many sources. The poet Yang i 



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112 //. Religions of China and Japan 

(a.d. 974-1080), when still a child, was taken up to the top of 
a pagoda, and was so impressed that he burst into verse, as follows : — 

Upon this tall pagoda^s peak 

My hands can nigh the stars enclose ; 

I dare not raise my voice to speak, 
For fear of startling God's repose. 

Another poet, Sung Po-jen of the twelfth century, wrote the 
following lines on seeing a boy fly a paper kite made in the form of 
the bird of that name : — 

A bird, yet not a bird, it soars 

High up above the land. 
Its wind-borne movements to and fro 

Checked by a single strand . . . 
Ah, shame on me that this poor thing — 

While I cling to the sod — 
Held by the grip of a boyish hand 

Should rise so near to God ! 

However, in the search after God, carried on for so many centuries 
by Chinese philosophers, it is scarcely strange to find that He has 
been located where indeed Christ Himself placed the Kingdom of 
Heaven, — within the heart of man (St. Luke xvii. 21). Thus, the 
author of the Pi cKou says. 

That azure sky is not God. God is an aurOy which abides 
alway in man's heart, and informs and influences all creation 
without cease. To seek for a Gt>d in the blue void above, is to 
be pragmatical ; to ignore the God in your heart, is to be remiss. 
How in such case can God be expected to answer your prayers ? 

Then there is the well-known verse by the philosopher Shao Yung 
who flourished a.d. 1011-10T7, 

The heavens are still: no sound. 
Where then shall Grod be found? . . . 
Search not in distant skies : 
In man's own heart He lies. 

This thought is traced by Professor Revon, in the last words of his 
exhaustive work on Shintoism, to a poem revealed in a dream to the 
Emperor S^iwa (a. d. 859-^76) ; but it is much more probable that 
Japan borrowed it from China. 

Turning now to Japan<, the student of the History of Religion has 
ample cause to congratulate himself on the clearances, so to speak, 
which have recently been effected by Professor Revon and Dr. Aston 
in their comprehensive and valuable works on Shinto. It is a small 
confession to make, that for many years I was unable to obtain any 
precise conception of the meaning of this term. Even those who 



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1. Presidenfs Address: Giles 118 

then made a close study of Shinto came to conclusions which must 
now be consigned to the limbo of the Inexact. Thanks to the 
labours of the two eminent scholars above-mentioned, and in spite of 
their divergence on certain more or less material points, we are now 
justified in making several assertions which it would have been 
impossible to make, with authority, a short generation ago. 

Shinto, the Way of the Gods, is a primitive religion, in which 
magic plays a conspicuous part. It existed, in its earliest stages of 
development, without a name ; and only so late as the sixth century 
of our era did it come to be known by the Chinese term shSn taOy the 
Way of the Grods, to distinguish it from the Way of Buddha. We 
may dismiss the unsupported view that Shinto is a purely Chinese 
system, drawn at a comparatively late date from the Book of Changes 
and the Too Ti Ching, The name, which, as I have said, is Chinese, 
was no doubt adopted by the Japanese, as being a well-known equiva- 
lent for the idea of * religion,' in which sense, as well as in that of * the 
black art,' &c., it has been used in Chinese literature. 

The original Shinto was heavily loaded, so soon as a knowledge of 
Chinese philosophy began to spread in Japan, with oosmogonical and 
other notions which belong strictly to China ; but Professor Revon 
seems to have made it dear that such notions were merely like grafts 
of tissue transplanted to another organism. 

Shinto teaches morality, not perhaps of a very high order, but such 
as it would be reasonable to look for in association with a primitive 
religion. Monotheism seems never to have found a home in Japan, 
and is known only in connexion with Chinese studies ; on the other 
hand^ the sun and moon have been deified by the Japanese in 
a manner which finds no parallel in China. The number of gods 
recognized in Shinto extends to unthinkable figures. Shinto is not, 
and never has been. Ancestral Worship ; neither does it hold out the 
promise of a life after death in a world to come. 

Such are a few of the leading features of this interesting religion, 
which may now be fiilly studied in the writings of Dr. Aston and 
Professor Revon. I would conclude with a hope that some scholars 
may ere long come forward to deal with the various phases of the 
religions of China by the same exhaustive method as that adopted by 
those writers, and by Professor de Groot in his great work already 
mentioned. 

Would it be pro£Emation, i^ in this particular University, beneath 
the shadow of which I was bom, and where I imbibed the first 
elements of the two classical languages upon which I nourished 
a youth sublime, — would it, I say, be profanation if I were to suggest 



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114 11. Religions of Cfuna and Japan 

that sonie of the annual batch of graduates in the Greek and Latin 
languages, in view of the comparative exhaustion of these spheres of 
research, should turn their attention to the almost virgin fields 
of Far Eastern literatures ? The problems to be solved in that 
direction are many and interesting; the Chinese language, merely 
from the point of view of pure scholarship, is fascinating cmd absorb- 
ing in the extreme ; and it has the undeniable advcmtage of being 
a living language, in daily use among about one-fifth of the human 
race. The Djmastic Histories of China, to which no one, not even a 
satirist, with or without reason, has ever applied such a contemptuous 
term as 'Graecia mendax,^ remain to be translated into some 
European tongue ; — a gigantic task, upon which Professor Chavannes, 
of the College de France, has already made a beginning ; but of which 
only a mere tithe could possibly be completed by cmy one worker. 

And History is only a single branch of the giant tree of Chinese 
literature. The works of philosophers of various schools of thought, 
of poets, of writers on religion^ on politics, on economics, on archae- 
ology, and what not, crowd the shelves of an ordinary Chinese library ; 
but these are not yet available in translations to the general reading 
public. 

Finally, in this connexion I should like to recall with gratitude the 
labours of a famous Chinese scholar, to whom this University oflered 
shelter in his declining years. Among those who have smoothed the 
path for future students of the History of Religion in China, and 
whose works have enabled them to attain to a point in scholarship 
which otherwise might have been long delayed, first and foremost, by 
the common consent of all, must be placed the honoured name of 
James Legge. 



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THE CONNEXION BETWEEN TAOISM, CON- 
FUCIANISM, AND BUDDHISM IN EARLY 
DAYS 

By H. J. ALLEN. (Abstract) 

The antiquity of the Chinese race, prior to B.C. 200, has not been 
confirmed by contemporary records, and is quite untrustworthy* 
Their UUrtUi have always regarded the books of History and Poetry 
and their other classics with such reverence that it seems sacril^ous 
for them to doubt that they date from remote antiquity, or that 
the Emperors Yao, Shun, and Yu, whose date is put at about B.C. 
2400, were not real personages ; but the European student should 
look at these statements with a critical eye, and he will then perceive 
that all the stories contained in the classics are evidently^ fabulous. 
We obtain our earliest accounts from Ssiima Ch*ien ; for, although he 
appears to be quoting from the book of History, his version is given 
in simpler language and was probably penned first. His work, com- 
pleted about B.C. 98, was not published until fifty years later. 
In it we are informed that in the year B.C. 213, in obedience to an 
Imperial decree, all the ancient literature of China was destroyed 
by fire, except books treating of medicine, agriculture, divination, 
and the records of the Ch'in dynasty, and further excepting copies 
in charge of the Board of Erudite Scholars; but when ancient books 
were sought for, the Board in question does not seem to have been 
applied to, and the books were mysteriously discovered in holes in 
walls. The truth of the story has therefore been questioned, and 
it is more reasonable to suppose that as rewards were offered about 
B.C. 160 for the discovery of ancient books, persons would ^discover * 
many which had not previously existed. Again the historian does 
not supply fuller details of the records of the Ch'in dynasty than of 
those of the previous dynasty of Chou; and the strangest fact of all 
is that there are many lacunae in the history of the Han dynasty 
between B.C. 208 and 158, or only a few years before the historian's 
own time. But allowing for the moment that certain Confucian 
classics were, as alleged, discovered in a hole of a wall to the accom- 
paniment of mjrsterious music, or, according to another account, 
repeated from memory by an old man named Hidden Scholar through 
the medium of an interpreter, there is nothing of the sort stated as 
to the discovery of religious books. Now the historian states that 
the reputed founder of the Taoist religion, LaotzQ (old one, or man 

i2 



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116 //. Religions of China and Japan 

of the Lao tribes), who lived, as Dr. Giles says, nobody knows when, 
was bom in the village of ' Tortuous-benevolence ', ' Cruelty ' parish, 
^ Misery ' district, ' Suffering ' state, and that he was called Li-eax, 
Heavy-ear, Ear-without-rim, or Weighted ear; and in this connexion 
we know that the aboriginal Li tribesmen of Hainan wear weights 
in their ears, an old name for the island being Tan-irh (Weighted 
Ears). Laotzii is stated to have written a book called the classic 
of the Virtue of the Way at the request of the Keeper of the pass 
Joy {Ktuinryin-hsi), — a name which if the last two characters are 
reversed is suspiciously like Kuan-ahi-yin (AvaldkiUshvara) ; after which 
he departed, and it is not known where he died. It is added that 
as he attained longevity by cultivating Too he might have lived to 
the age of 200, that he taught that by inaction one may be trans- 
formed, and that rectification results from the doctrines of purity 
and stillness. In the Account of the Immortals we read that Laotzti 
descended from heaven in the form of a white elephant and entered 
the womb of his mother, who gave him birth painlessly under the 
bough of a tree; but this legend is also told of the birth of Oautama 
Buddha. A few quotations from the Tao-ti-ching will show its 
Buddhistic style : e.g. ' The perfect man attains the condition of 
inaction, and follows the doctrine of silence.' 'Attain complete 
vacuity, and sedulously preserve a state of repose.' ' Too is eternally 
inactive, yet it leaves nothing undone.' ' Merit achieved (Karma) is 
not to be assumed, and not being assumed it will never leave.' ' The 
sage is free from self -display, and therefore he shines forth.' *' Desire 
not to desire, and you will not value things difficult to obtain.' 

Chuangtzii, another 'Taoist' sage, represents Confucius in the 
classic of Nanhua as quoting from the Tcuy-ti-ching, and giving utter- 
ance to what are called Taoist views ; and this fact seems to have 
puzzled the Sinologists. Mr. Lionel Giles says that ChuangtztL's 
philosophy to a certain extent 'resembles the Buddhist', and he 
thinks that by his time (usually put at 330 B. o.) Buddhism may have 
filtered into Qiina, as ' we find in the Chinese philosopher such striking 
X>oints of similarity to Brahmanism as can hardly be explained as 
mere coincidences of thought '. Mr. Giles, however, thinks it ' sheer 
audacity in Chuangtzii harnessing Confucius to his own doctrines', and 
doubts whether the latter spoke in that way at all. Dr. Giles speaks 
of the incident as a literary coup de main; but the Be v. Aubrey Moore, 
who wrote a long note to Dr. Giles's fine translation of Chuangtzii, 
considered that there was no hint of this in the text, and supposed 
that Laotzii and Confucius were nearer to each other philosophically 
than Chuangtzii and Mencius, their respective disciples, who are 
supposed to have lived 200 years later than their masters. Mr. Moore 
compared Chuangtzii to Heraclitus, and quoted sayings of the Greek 



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2. TaxAsm^ Confudamsmy and BvddMsm: Allen 117 

philosopher practically identical with those of Chuangtzii, yet he 
rejected the notion that the characteristics of Greek thought could 
be ascribed to Oriental influence. Now Chuangtzti says (ch. ziii), 
*The Too (law) of Heaven revolves ceaselessly, and aXL things are 
perfected * ; and again, ' We are embraced in the obliterating unity 
of God. Take no heed of time, nor of right and wrong, but passing 
into the realm of the Infinite take your final rest therein.' Here* 
we cannot help thinking of the doctrine of ' absorption into Buddha '. 

I would draw attention to the expression ^ Huang Lao yen \ usually 
rendered *' Words of Huangti and Laotzii ', which Ssilma tells us the 
Empress Tou delighted in, circa B. o. 140. In the History of the After 
Han, chapter Ixxii, we read, • Ying, king of Ch'u, when young, liked 
to idle about with boon-companions, but later in life he rdformed 
and delighted in Huang Lao. Learning to become Fourtu (a Buddhist), 
he fasted, abstained from animal food, and offered sacrifice.' Again 
the same historian in his 118th chapter says, after relating the story 
of the Emperor Ming's dream of the * golden man ', ^ Ying, King of 
Ch'u, first believed in this doctrine, and so in the middle Kingdom 
there were some who became converts. Subsequently Emperor Huan 
(147-167 A.D.) approved of the divinity, and frequently sacrificed to 
Fou-fu Laotzu (Buddha the Lao man), and as the people gradually 
became converts the religion spread considerably.' It is probable 
that Buddhist priests with yellow robes first came to China through 
the Lao country, and were therefore called 'Yellow Lao'. No doubt 
Sstima met many of them in Western China. 

Passing to Confucianism, Europeans find it hard to solve the secret 
of the extraordinary veneration now paid to Confucius. He is stated 
to have died lamenting that his doctrines made no headway, and 
not until 479 years after his death were special honours paid to his 
memory. His name means Father Hermit or Cave-dweller, and we 
may find a clue to his designation Ghung-ni in the following passage 
from Commandant Bonifacy's book, Oroupea et langues du basain de 
la riviire Claire, * They call spirits Ni, the greatest is he of the Mone 
heaven, but he who intercedes for man is TchungneJ Two years 
before he died it is recorded that Confucius was shown a strange 
animal, bearing on its single horn a piece of blue ribbon, which marked 
it as the same animal which appeared to his mother before the birth 
of the sage. He declared it to be a ch't-Un, and this event so 
affected him that he forthwith wrote the annals of his state (GVun 
ch'iu), on which according to the book of Mencius he based his reputa- 
tion. It has, however, been repeatedly x>ointed out that this book, 
which is the only one he is credited with having written, is merely 
a series of bald, uninteresting jottings without any expression of 
opinion, good or bad. The commentary, which imparts life to the 



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118 IL Religions of China and Japan 

annals, and was written by a man named * Help-Gonfucius-to-explain ', 
— a name which appropriately describes the book — ^was not published 
until the first or second century B.C., and was revised by Liu-hsin 
B. o. 10, but its authority was not recognized till a. d. 99. At the same 
period also appeared the Sayings of Confvciua, a book which has been 
Aground and polished' by many different hands (see Chavannes, 
Mim. Hist.y i, Intr. 149). With regard to the cKi-lin we findit recorded 
in Ss&ma^s history that a one-homed antelope, stated to be a Un, 
was caught in the year B.C. 122, and this fact was considered of 
sufficient importance to cause a six-year period to be named after 
the event. Now Dzeren is the Mongolian name for the yellow goat 
{Procctpra guthiroaa), and as r becomes { in southern Chinese, we have 
a fair approximation to the name. Still there is another antelope 
called Chim {PatUholops Hodgaonii), which is sometimes seen with 
a single horn, the second horn being rudimentary or undeveloi>ed 
(Enc. BHL, ii. 101). 

The Works of Mencitts is not stated to have been one of the books 
found in a hole of the wall of Confucius's house. In my book, Early 
Chinese History, I have given reasons for concluding that Mencius 
was written during the Han dynasty. In that classic five kings of 
the Shang dynasty are mentioned by name ; but M. Chavannes {Mim. 
Hisi.^ i, Intr. 139), says that he can only find that three or four of 
the twenty-eight kings of the dynasty actually lived, and it seems 
impossible to believe that all these kings possessed names consisting 
of an epithet and a cyclical character as Great- A. It may be observed 
that the Miaotzu call themselves Ming (Siamese Muong), so that 
Mingtssa may be rendered ' Man of the Miaotzu aborigines '. 

In Ssiima's biography of Confucius we read that the sage went to 
school at 7, married at 19, and had one son ; but these statements 
are also made about Gautama Buddha. The strangest coincidence 
is that both these founders of religion had drooping ears, and a bump 
on the summit of the cranium like a coiffure of flesh concave in the 
middle. Moreover, the date of Confucius's death is almost to a year 
the same as that of the Buddha. 

In conclusion, it seems that the Chinese, like other nations, forged 
their old records. The Tao-ti-ching has already been declared to be 
an impudent forgery compiled during the Han dynasty, and the 
religion known as Taoism appears from the evidence given to have 
been originally identical with Buddhism. The word Tao was used 
by the Buddhists to designate the eightfold path or moral law, and 
it is by this latter term that Mr. Ku-hung-ming translates Tao in his 
admirable rendering of the Confucian Chung-yung treatise. Confucian 
doctrines were partly based on the teachings of Buddhist monks who 
permeated China before b.o. 150, and there seems to be some ground 



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2. Tacism^ Ccmfudarmm^ and Buddhisnu: Allen 119 

for the Ghinese assertion that the three religions (Taoism, Confucianism, 
and Buddhism) are one. 

Of the names found in the classics, Yao is a tribal name, Hsia-Jtou 
(lord of Hsia) and Rung ya (' tribute of Ta ' reversed) are names 
of Han UteraH; Po yu or Pa yi, which occurs so frequently, is the 
name which the Chinese give to the Shans ; and there are other names 
which refer to constellations. But this should not excite wonder, 
if we remember that the historian SsQma Ch'ien reformed the 
calendar B.C. 104. 



8 
THE DOCTRINE OF THE BODHISATTVA 

By D* T. SUZUKL (Abstract) 

If we divide Buddhism into two great branches, as is done by 
Buddhist philosophers of the East, Mahftyftna and Hlnayftna, the 
Bodhisattvas can be said to be the adherents of the Mahfiyftna, while 
the Qr&yakas and Pratyekabuddhas stand for the Hlnayftna. Though 
we do not yet know exactly how early in the history of Buddhism the 
conception of Bodhisattvahood came to be distinguished from that 
of Arhatship so prominently as to form a separate branch in the 
body of Buddhism, we notice in the ScMAarmapundarika a definite 
classification made between the three yanaa, that is, of the (^vakas, 
Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas. (See Kern's English translation, 
p. 80.) 

But we are not concerned here with the historical development 
of the idea of a Bodhisattva as characteristically Mahfiyftnistic; let it 
sufSce to remark that in the course of time, perhaps soon after the 
death of Buddha, Buddhist theologians began to conceive Bodhisattva- 
hood to be the true goal of their religious disciplines and made it 
supersede that of Arhatship. Those who endorsed this view called 
themselves the followers of the Grand Vehicle, Mahftyftna, in contra- 
distinction to those of the Small Vehicle, ffinayftna, who upheld 
the standard of Arhatship as the ultimate aim of the Buddhist life. 
Therefore, when we speak of the doctrine of the Bodhisattvas, we 
speak of the system of the Mahftyftna as a whole; they are almost 
identical in form as well as in contents ; if we know what the Bod- 
hisattva is, we know the heart of the Mahftyftna system. And as the 
ideal of Bodhisattvahood developed historically along the notion of 
Arhatship which composes the main point in the teaching of the 
Hlnayftna, all the Mahftyftna writers in India and in the Far East 
naturally draw a comparison between the two conceptions and 



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120 //. Religions of China and Japan 

emphasize the distinction in order to clearly delineate the outlines of 
Bodhisattvahood. It will not be out of place, therefore, to quote 
some of those statements here, and, though negatively, make them 
throw light on the essential nature of the Bodhisattvas. (See the 
Sairalamk&ra, Prof. Levi's edition, pp. 4 sq.) 

In the LankavaUtra which expounds Buddhism from the standpoint 
of the Yogacarya philosophy, Buddha is made to talk rather slight- 
ingly of the fundamental motive of the ^^ftvakas who illusively dis- 
tinguish between Nirvftna and Sams&ra as if they were essentially 
different, and seek after Nirvftna to free themselves from the sufferings 
of existence for their own selfish interests. The condemnation of the 
ideal of the ^i^&^tkkas here is rather philosophic than religious. (See 
the Chinese translation of the Lankavatara by ^^ksftnanda; the 
TripiUika, latest Jap. ed., series n, vol. i, fas. 3, p. 244.) 

From these statements we can somewhat negatively gather what 
would be the essential qualitlies of the Bodhisattva. But before 
proceeding further I wish to refer to another negative comparison 
drawn between the Qravakas and the Bodhisattvas. In the beginning 
of the OandavyUha Sutra, which forms the last book of the Chinese 
AvatatMoka StUray the writer describes many miraculous phenomena 
that accompanied the preaching of the Buddha once at a pagoda 
of great magnificence in Qrftvasti, and states that these were, how- 
ever, not at all perceived by the great 9^^&1^&8» such as Q&riputra, 
Mahftmaudgalyaya, Mahfik&9yapa, Ac, who were present at this 
great religious assembly together with the Bodhisattvas. 

In short, setting aside all the technical niceties contained in these 
statements, the plain logical conclusion we can draw from them is 
that the Bodhisattvas were able to see the miracles of all the Buddha- 
lands because they had fulfilled all the conditions of Bodhisattvahood, 
which, however, were not observed by the 9^^^^^ owing to their 
inferior stock of good karma and their non-awakening of the heart of 
wisdom (Bodhicitta). 

Now, what are the principal moral qualities of the Bodhisattvas ? 
The Bodhisattvas have distinctly their own conception of the world, 
which forms the philosophical basis of their religion, the Mahftyfina 
Buddhism ; but as we are not going to discuss this side of the question, 
let it suffice here to remark that the Buddhists, whether Mah&yftna 
or Hinay&na, have never ignored the intellectual element of their 
faith, and have always made it clear that, however sentimental is the 
motive of religion, it has its intellectual side, which must be given its 
proper place in a system of faith. 

What the Mahftyftna writers never grow tired of emphasizing, some- 
times too much, in their Suiras and Qdetraa, is the significance of 
a disinterested, all-embracing, absolutely altruistic love for all beings, 



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8. Doctrine of the Bodhisattva : Suzuki 121 

sentient as well as non-sentient. This love is ceJled fifujJhoJcarunA^ 
and made the ground-principle of all their thoughts, sentiments, and 
actions. Whatever they think, whatever they feel, however they 
bdiave — all must come out of their infinite love for all beings. They 
do not necessarily seek Nirvftna, the extinction of all their passions, 
they do not care so much for the deliverance from the pain of exis- 
tence; if their own sufferings, the postponement of their final Nirv&na, 
or even their downfall into the bottom of Naraka, help one way or 
another to benefit their fellow beings, they do not shrink from bearing 
all the possible pains of the world upon themselves. They are bent 
on benefiting others, for others' sake, and not for their own interests. 
Their motto is "paraxtha and never svdriha, to benefit others and never 
to benefit themselves. In fact, these two interests are not contra- 
dictory, for while those who think of their own interests aind pleasures 
are always suffering from their egoism and never find satisfaction in 
whatever they do, the Bodhisattvas, who endeavour to realize their 
selfhood in the interests of their fellow creatures, are always contented 
and at peace not only with themselves but with the world at large. 
(See Asanga's SiOrdlainkara, Prof. Levi's edition, pp. 18 sq.) 

This virtue of self-effacement or self-sacrifice for the sake of other 
beings is everywhere in the Mahftyftna texts most highly recom- 
mended, and made the most essential qualification of the Bodhisattva. 
(See Nfig&rjuna's TreaHse on the BodhicUta : Nanjio, No. 1904.) 

This latter aspect of Bodhisattvahood as described by Nftgftrjuna, 
that is, non-detachment from the passions, marks a very important 
departure from the ideal of Arhatship. For while the Hinayftna 
Buddhists endeavour to free themselves from passions and attach- 
ments in order to escape their curse — ^which escape is their Nirvftna — 
the Bodhisattvas retain all their passions, sentiments, impulses, desires, 
aspirations, &c., which underlie the kaleidoscopic view of human life 
on earth. The philosophy of the Bodhisattva is : Nirvftna that can 
be attained by the extinction of all human sentiments is not the 
true one ; the passions themselves are no evils, in fact they do much 
good ; only let them be guided by a rational religious insight ; the 
wantonness of passion is due to one's ignorance of its true nature. 
As the lotus-flower grows from the mire and yet retains its purity, 
so let a man retain all his human sentiments and aspirations and 
make good use of them for the welfare of all his fellow creatures. 
That which conquers a passion is not a passionless state of mind, but 
another passion, greater, purer, and nobler. Let Nirvftna grow from 
the shadow of the passions human and earthly and bloom out in the 
sunshine of infinite love for all beings. 

The whole trend of thought, here somewhat paradoxically stated, is 
that the seed of religious wisdom (Bodhi) grows only from the earthly 



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122 //. Religions of China and Japan 

manure of human passions and sufferings ; and therefore that when the 
latter are detested or shunned for the sake of a dead, cold, heartless 
state of Nirv&na, the seed of BodJU is burned to ashes, and, like the 
lotus-flower left in an arid region, the Bodhisattva loses altogether his 
vitality as a being full of love and compassion for the ^itire world. 
Bodhisattvahood is only possible in the world of birth and death, 
in the world of human a£9ictions and human hopes. The sentiment 
of love, oT^Mahakarvfnaj or infinite compassion for all beings, is not 
different in its essence from Uesa such as avarice, anger, or infatuation. 
Only the Bodhisattva's sentiment moves on the pivot of disinterested 
love for all beings, sentient and non-sentient, and never for his own 
interest ; for he sacrifices even his own attainment of Nirvftna for 
the sake of benefiting the world at large. 

The consideration of human passions as the bed in which grows 
the flowers of Buddhahood brings us to many interesting questions 
in the system of Mahftyftna, such as the * awakening of Bodhicitta,' 
* the doctrine of parinftmana,* * the power of purva-pranidhftna,' ftc. ; 
but these must await further opportunities. 

To sum up, the raiaon dCitre of the Bodhisattva is his infinite love 
for all beings, to save them from suffering, to give them utmost happi- 
ness, to destroy the curse of ignorance that envelops all existence, 
to realize a Buddha-land in this world of aamsara and klesay to 
spiritualize the meaning of existence by the purification, ennoblement, 
and enrichment of all the passions of which the human heart is 
capable. 



4 

HONEN, the pietist saint of JAPANESE 

BUDDHISM 

By M. ANESAKI 

Thb development of religious faith in the thirteenth century exhibits 
some remarkable parallelisms in Japan and Italy. Just as St. Francis 
of Assisi marked an epoch-making phase of Christian religion in 
Europe, so our sage H5nen is the man representative of the change 
worked out in Japanese Buddhism in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries. 

The spread of the teachings of Buddhism during the preceding 
centuries had inspired the people with aspirations for religious ideab 
and a demand for a deeper and everlasting faith. But the hierarchic 
institutions, however glorious and dignified they appeared, gave the 



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4, HOnen, the Buddhist Saint: ATiesaki 128 

people either an elaborate dogmatic system or a superficial and rather 
materialistic satisfaction of their yearnings. Real faith failed which 
could give profound repose to their hearts or which could bring them 
into vivid contact with the transcendental ideals taught. In addition 
to this, the social disintegrations were just ripe to stir the people's 
mind to an ardent aspiration for a final consolation and to eager 
search for its giver. Japanese Buddhism during the three hundred 
years from the tenth to the twelfth century was pre-eminently a 
religion of rituak and mysteries, taught by the hierarchic authorities 
and professed and practised by the court nobles. The Buddhist 
institutions which had contributed so much to the centralization of the 
government, corrupted the nobles and were in turn corrupted by 
them. 

The weakness of the central government and the ruling famiUes 
began to be exposed to daylight in the middle of the twelfth century. 
The Fujiwara clan, at first the major-domos of the imperial family and 
thence the actual rulers of the country, were the authors of the 
luxurious court life and the supporters of the Buddhist hierarchies. 
The internal family dissensions of the clan were seized as opportunities 
by their military subordinates, and the latter began to overpower the 
former. The military men came to power and the sumptuous court 
life came to an end. The feudal regime under a military government 
changed the aspect of the country. With the fall of the old power 
Buddhist orthodoxy lost its sway. The time was now ripe for the 
development of the aspirations of the people. 

Even during the flourishing period of the court religion, some 
pioneers were beginning the popular propaganda — ^the gospel of 
salvation by the Buddha Amita's mercy. We find in our Honen the 
man who consummated the development in this direction. He was 
bom in the province of Mimasaka ^ in 1133, and was the only son of 
a local military chief. According to the last will of his father, who 
died of a wound infiicted by his enemy, the boy of only nine years 
was sent to a Buddhist priest and later became a novice in a monastery 
on Mount Hiei. We can imagine how deeply Honen was impressed 
in his infancy by the sad fate of his family, for he shared the sorrows 
and afSictions which befell many military families of that period. We 
can see too the influence upon the boy's later life exercised by the 
last instruction of his dying father, that he should never think of 
revenge, as was usual at that time, but should become a virtuous 
monk in order to devote his whole life for the sake of the bodhi * of 
his dead father as well as that of the enemy. 

^ In the western part of central Japan. 

* For this idea and practice, see the article (No. 10, p. 154) on Buddhist 
Influence upon (he Japanese, 



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124 //. Religions of CIdna arid Japan 

An obedient novice and thereafter a studious monk, he thus passed 
many years in the centre of the Buddhist hierarchy. The history 
of these thirty years of Honen's monastic life on the Hiei are not 
known in detail. But one of his later sayings shows that he had 
gone through all the branches of learning and discipline, as they were 
taught and practised in the institution, in pious obedience and ardent 
zeal. *The mysteries of the Mantra^ religion,' he said, 'may be 
compared with sweet honey ; the intuitive contemplation with fine 
fruits ; the elaborate system of the Tendai ^ with splendid butter. 
They have their respective merits and satisfy man's various demands 
and tastes, but neither of them can be the daily food for all men. 
The simple faith in salvation by Amita's power is just like plain rice. 
Every one, even of weak stomach, can take and enjoy it and it is 
indispensable for our everyday food.' He had tasted all these 
excellent delicacies, but he hungered till he found at last an ever* 
lasting satisfaction in rice. Indeed he asked for daily bread and he 
was given it. 

In the forty-third year of his age, his final conversion to a simple 
child-like faith in Amita took place. Repeated and devoted reading 
in the Sukhavattvyiihay i.e. the gospel of salvation by Amita's power, 
prepared the way for him ; and his eager study of the treatises by 
Zendo on that gospel gave him the final clue to his faith. Honen was 
never tired of expressing his respect and gratitude toward Zendo, 
the Chinese master. He called his unseen teacher the ' Great Master ', 
and seems to have taken him as an incarnation of the Buddha Amita 
Himself. But it is almost needless to say that the faith was 
not given to him by either the scripture or the master, but that 
they gave him the occasion for the awakening of his inner voice. 
From that time on he abandoned all his former learning and prac- 
tices and devoted himself to the repetition of Amita's name in 
pious faith in the Buddha's power and in gratitude towards His 
mercy. 

The fundamental tenet of Honen's religion consisted in believing 
in the power of an all-compassionate and almighty saviour, realized 
in the person of Amita, the Lord of the Sukhftvatl, the Land of Bliss 
and Purity. He taught : ^ Perfect Bliss He (Amita) would not have, 
till He knew that all who would invoke Him might be saved. This 
is His primal vow {pranidhdna).^ Every sentient being has the chance 

* See my Bdigioua History of Japan (1907, TokyS), p. 18. 

* i. e. the teachings founded upon the Lotus. See Rdigioua History of Japans 
pp. 17-18. 

' This refers to the eighteenth of Amita's forty-eight tows, as described in 
one of the Chinese versions of the Sukhdvaiivytiha, Cf. S,B.E.y Vol. xlix. Part 11, 
p. 73. 



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4. HOnerij the Buddhist Saint: Anesaki 125 

of being saved, nnce He is living in enlightenment.^ Whoever calls 
earnestly upon his name, will enter that Realm of Purity. Amita 
Buddha, as in a vision, he shall see coming to him, and at death He 
shall welcome him with all His saints ; ^ nor shall obstacles or demons 
keep him back. There shall be no distinction, no regard to male 
or female, good or bad, exalted or lowly ; none shall fail to have 
Pure Life, after having called, with complete desire, on Amita. Just 
as a great stone, if on a ship, may complete a voyage of m3nriads of 
miles over the waters, and yet not sink ; so we, though our sins are 
heavy as giant boulders, are borne to the other shore by Amita's 
primal vows, not sinking in the sea of birth and death. Do not dream, 
therefore, of doubting, even for a moment, the unimaginably mysterious 
potency of Amita's vows.' ^ No carnal sin nor any human weakness 
can be hindrances to this faith. The absolute faith in and intent 
thought on Amita is always accepted by Him, and His power takes 
the believer in safety into the realm of the Saints. The e£Bicacy of 
the Buddha's vows is only sure when our reliance upon His promise 
does not dissolve away. And the devotion keeps us away from evil 
thoughts and vicious temptations, though a human being is exposed 
to these. The light of Amita-ftbhft (the Infinite light) pervades every 
quarter and comer of the worlds. It becomes visible to those who 
open their eyes to it. The eternal life of Amita-ftyus (the Infinite 
Life) is already realized in His Realm. It can be partaken of by 
those who desire it. This sincere desire and devotion, the human 
counterpart of the Buddha's vow, are explained, according to the 
holy scripture, as follows * : — 

' Firstly, the faithful thought means the thought that is truthful, 
the thought that has no inside, no outside. Nothing can be done 
without sincere, truthful thought. To pretend to be disgusted with 
the evil-stained world, yet not to be really disgusted with it ; or to 
make a show of aspiring toward the Pure Land without an intense 
desire thereof ; that is the hypocrisy common with worldly men.^ 
Keep out this kind of thoughts that have both an inside and an out- 
side, have a loathing for the dirt of this world as well as an aspiration 
toward the Land of Purity.' 

^ i.e. Buddhahood, not only in capacity of a teacher but a saviour, the one 
who carries all beings to the other shore of salvation and release. 

' See next page. 

' This and some other sa3ring8 cited below are taken from Honen's Catechism 
in Twdve Artides^ whioh the writer of the present artiole began to translate 
into English, conjointly with Mr. R. Morris, but has not yet finished. 

* The sixth of the Twelve Articles ; of. S,B,E,, Vol. xlix. Part II, p. 188, 

* This almost self-evident remark has its force when referred to the conditions 
of the religious practices of the courtiers of that time. 



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126 //. Religions of CMna and Japan 

^ Secondly, the profound thought refers to the faith in Buddha's 
primal vows. Though we are beings of depravity and sin, we shall 
surely be saved by the power of Buddha. Being convinced of this 
truth and believing in it, one should not have even a particle of 
doubt/ 

* Lastly, the response to Buddha's mercy is the desire to be bom 
in the Pure Land, employing all efforts in the service that looks to 
the Buddha. Never think that the birth (in Buddha's Realm) is 
attained by the efficacy of our acts or by the virtue of our minds, 
but believe that even those who are not entitled (to saintship in the 
Land of Purity on account of their own virtues) will be bom there by 
virtue of the wonderful power of Buddha's vows. The mind that is 
sure of being received by Buddha when the days of life are done, 
is like the diamond that nothing can destroy. Let the mind live in 
faith profound throughout the length of years, even to the moment 
of death.' 

Here we see how thoroughly and deeply Honen was devoted to the 
Buddha's grace and, at the same time and to the same degree, keen 
on the sincerity and assiduity of faith on man's part. This point gave 
later rise to the questions, among his disciples, as to whether Buddha's 
grace or man's faith is more fundamental to our salvation. Though 
these were questions important and significant in the later history of 
his religion, they touched Honen's mind but little. His influence and 
his significance consisted more in his saintly personality than in his 
doctrinal teachings. 

Just as Hdnen's outward life before his conversion was not rich in 
incidents and vicissitudes, so, after the establishment of faith, his life, 
both inner and outer, moved over smooth seas of devotion, and was 
passed in the bright sunshine of peace* Though he lived in seclusion, 
the fame of the Saint of Kurodani (the place where he lived) attracted 
not only the monks, who were seeking after something simpler than 
the scholastic philosophy of orthodoxy, but also men and wom^i of 
various classes, who were eager for piety and devotion, or who were 
ardent for the emancipation from their afflictions. His biographies^ 
ore full of the details of his daily life and incidents. They refer mostly 
to the various cases of conversions of men of all classes to the faith, 
many kindly sayings uttered on various occcusions to his followers, 
and some letters sent to his admirers in the provinces. Several visions 
of the Buddha and His S«nts or of the ' Great Master ', sermons 
preached to serpents-and birds, the transfiguration of the hero's body, 
a miraculous illumination of his abode, and the like, makeup another 
cat^ory of the incidents told in the biographies. The majority of 

* One written by one of his monk disciples five years after his death* and 
the other compiled by Imperial order eighty years afterwards. 



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4. HOnen^ the Buddhist Saint: Anesaki 127 

the 237 chapters of the principal biography^ tell single stories of these 
kinds without any chronological order. So these chapters may be 
brought parallel to the FioretU of St. Francis. Indeed Hdnen's life 
was a realization of what he once wrote to a lady of high dignity. 
There at the close of the letter we read : — 

^ Think, in love and sympathy, of any beings who have the earnest 
desire for the Land of Purity and utter the Buddha's name, as if 
they were your parents or children, though they may dwell in any 
place, even outside the cosmic system. Help those who are in need 
of material things in this world. Endeavom' to quicken the faith of 
any in whom a germ of it is seen. Deem all these to be services done 
to Amita.* 

The peaceful life of Honen was disturbed in its last part by a sentence 
of exile. His teaching, consisting as it did of a simple piety and 
abandonment of intricate dogmas, and, perhaps more, his fame as 
the saint of Amita-Buddhism, aroused jealousy among the ecclesiastical 
dignitaries. The government, in spite of opposition on the part of 
some high officials, was obliged, by the instigation of the hierarchy, 
to sentence the teacher of the new gospel and his leading disciples to 
banishment in remote provinces. Touching stories are told of his 
departure and his farewell to his followers. It will suffice here to 
quote a poem left by him to a devout follower of his. It reads : — 

What though our bodies, fragile as the dew. 
Melt here and there, resolved to nothingness ? 
Our souls shall meet again, in some happier day. 
In this same lotus-bed where now they grow. 

His banishment from the capital lasted from 1207 to 1211 ; it helped 
only to deepen his faith and to attract more followers in the provinces. 
But when he was released from the sentence of exile and welcomed 
by his followers in the capital, his health was beginning to dedine. 

Hdnen's death was indeed worthy of the last moments of a saint's 
life. His declining health obliged him to lie down quietly. It 
occurred on the second day of the first lunar month of 1212 (therefore 
probably in December of 1211). Aa the days passed, his sight became 
clearer than before, and his hearing sharper. His whole time in bed 
was devoted to the repetition of Amita's name and in giving instruc- 
tions to the disciples. On the eve of the 24th day the last moment 
seemed to approach. His voice became sweeter and the utterance 
of Buddha's name continued until the noon of the next day. His 
last words uttered were the famous verse in praise of Amita : — 

His li{^t pervades the worlds in ten directions, 
His grace f cnrsakes not any one who invokes Him , 

' i. e. the ooe oompiled by Imperial order. 



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128 //. Religions of China and Japan 

Surrounded by many disciples and followers, the saint died as if he 
were going to sleep. Even after he expired his lips seemed to move 
slightly and repeat Amita's name. 

It may be asked whether the light revealed by Honen will con- 
tinue to console and embrace many minds in future, as it has done 
during the seven hundred years since his death. His saintly person- 
ality will surely remain for ever a bright star of Japanese Buddhism. 
It is not accidental that the gospel promulgated by him counts as 
its followers one-third of the whole population of modem Japan. 



A HISTORY OF THE ZEN SHU IN JAPAN 
By ZENKAI OMORI. (Abstract) 

Thb Zen Shu claims to transmit the essence and spirit of Buddhism 
from its author, not by any sacred books or traditional authorities, 
but by the believer's own spiritual enUghtenment. * Look carefully 
within, and there you will find the Buddha in your own thought' 
is its principal tenet. Its scholastic name is the Sect of Buddha- 
Heart, but it is popularly known as Zen Shu, because its followers 
maintain the practice of meditation (Sanskr. dhyana^ Pali jhcma^ 
Chinese shanfUi, Japanese Zenna), Its historical beginning originated 
with the Buddha Shaka-muni, who handed down the key of the Right 
Law to the venerable Mahft-Kashyapa, who handed it on through 
numerous Patriarchs in India and China till it was received by the 
Japanese sages. 

Passing over the early history of the school, and its divisions in 
China under the T'ang dynasty (168-905 A.D.), we reach the introduc- 
tion of its teachings into Japan by a Chinese Kiraya-teacher, Do-sen 
(Chin. Dow-tsun), in 729 A.D., belonging to the northern school led 
by Shing Syu, but it did not form an independent sect. The three 
schools now existing, Rin-zai, So-to, and Obaku, are all branches 
of the southern Zen Shu which was led by the sixth patriarch, Hui- 
neng, in China. 

I. The Rin-zai Shu was first introduced into Japan by Eisai in 
1191 A.D. Eisai (from central Japan) became a neoph3rte in the 
Ten-dai Shu at fourteen, and afterwards studied in China, returning 
in 1168. Dissatisfied, however, with the teaching of the books he 
brought back with him, he sailed again in 1187, and after years of 
travel met a noted Zen leader of the Rin-zai school, Kyo-an, under 



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5. The Zen Shu in Japan: Omori 129 

whom he attained enlightenment and was authorized to teach. After 
his return (1191) the first Zen monastery was built at the old capital 
Kyoto in 1202. Threatened opposition on the part of other sects 
was disarmed by his book ' to wake the Zen and tranquillize the state '» 
still known in Japan. After his death in 1215, the Rin-zai school 
continued to spread, and the So-to Shu was introduced by his disciple 
Dogen. 

n. The So-to Shu. Dogen (1200-53) was descended from the emperor 
Murakami. He is said to have been converted by seeing the smoking 
of incense-sticks burnt on occasion of his mother's death. He joined 
the Ten-dai sect at 13, and was soon sent by his teacher to Eisai, 
because there was no one among the Ten-dai teachers who could 
answer his questions satisfactorily. In 1223 he went to China, and 
was duly authorized in the Eye of the Right Law by a famous Zen 
master, Ten-do Nyo- jo of the So-to school. Ten years later he founded 
the first Zen monastery of the So-to school at U-ji in the province 
of Yamashiro, this school acquiring great influence among the educated. 
The latter half of his life was spent in the practice of the highest 
Meditation, the highest Knowledge, and the highest Moral Law with 
his disciples. Among his numerous books the Sho-bo-gen-zo or Eye 
of the Right Law (in ninety-five volumes) is still well known in Japan. 
' The sect of the Buddha-Heart,' he said, * represents the original 
teaching of Buddha's whole life. All the sects of Buddhism that 
have developed in the far East, sprang from the Eye of the Right 
Law.' The sects of Buddhism already introduced were not sufficiently 
comprehensive ; he sought to protest against their divisions, and 
declfiured that the Bight Law of the Buddha could not be called by 
the name of any sect. After his death, the Zen Shu made steady 
progress in Japan. The Ho-jo Shogun, who was the real head of the 
feudal government at that time, greatly encouraged the dissemination 
of Zen teaching. This resulted in frequent communication between 
Japan and China. For three or four centuries the emperors as well 
as the Shpguns greatly patronized the Zen Shu, which thoroughly 
permeated every fibre of Japanese life. Not only did emperors and 
Shoguns come to see the Zen leaders, but many eminent scholars 
also, poets, statesmen, and artists, rapped at the monastery-door. 
The Zen doctrine by its very simpUcity, directness, and efficiency, 
won the heart of the people, who had grown tired of the old sects 
because of the multiplication of forms and too much philosophy* 
The Zen Shu enjoyed great prosperity through the Ho-jo (1250-1335) 
and Ashikaga (1335-1573) periods, which may be called the golden age 
of the Zen Shu. The greatest masters of Zen were almost all bom 
in this age, and the majority of the important temples and monasteries 
of the Zen Shu now existing in Japan were then founded. 

C.S.I K 



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180 //. Reunions of C/una and Japan 

At the end of the Ashikaga period, in the sixteenth century, when 
the feudal system split into fragments and the normal state of the 
country was that of civil war, the Zen teaching was growing up and 
its influence was more and more felt, especially among the military 
class. Hence the Zen Shu was called the * Bushi Bukkyo *, the 
* knight-sect ' of Buddhism. Bushi-do which has come to be much 
talked of, is considered to have owed its development to a remarkable 
extent to the 2!en Shu at that day. 

m. The Obaku School of Zen Shu was introduced into Japan as 
late as the seventeenth centurjr. This is the youngest of all the 
ects of Buddhism that have been propagated in Japan. Its founder 
was a Chinese priest, Engen, who came to Japan accompanied by 
many disciples in 1654 a.d. The Obaku-San, the first monastery of 
the Obaku school in Japan, was built for him at U-ji by a contribution 
of the Tokugawa Shogun, Jetstma, who was the fourth successor of 
the Tokugawa government in 1661 a.d. The name of the school 
was derived from the name of the place where its founder lived in 
China. Previous to his arrival in Japan there were many Chinese 
immigrants in western Japan, and many Chinese Zen priests came 
over one after another by their invitation. Of these Engen was the 
greatest. The Emperor Gomigno highly esteemed him, and gave him 
the title * Da-ko Fu-sho Koku-shi ', or ' the Teacher of Great Enlighten- 
ment ', when he was approaching the end of his life. The influence 
of his faith became at once strong, not only among the Chinese immi- 
grants, but abo among the Japanese. Aa his teaching, however, was 
not naturalized in accordance with Japanese taste, it could not flourish 
as much as the other schools of 2!en, but it undoubtedly imparted 
a certain stimulus to them. 

All the sects of Buddhism were exposed to the bloody persecutions 
of the Nobunaga Shogun ; they were gradually weakened both inter- 
nally and externally. Subsequently through the patronage of the 
Tokugawa Shogun, leyasu, who greatly encouraged the spread of 
Buddhism, they recovered their landed property and many favourable 
privileges. But they did not at once revive from their internal weak- 
ness. 

After the Obaku school was founded in Japan, the other Zen schools, 
the Rin-zai and So-to, immediately began to rise, by a spirit of emula- 
tion, out of the lethargic condition into which they had fallen. Many 
great Zen teachers were produced in this day, which may be called 
the renascent age of the Zen Shu in Japan. The great majority of 
the Bin-zal leaders, who to-day occupy the chief seats in the principal 
monasteries, are the successors of the Japanese Hakuin, who died 
in 1768 at the age of 84, and was the most eminent leader of the 
Bin-zai in that day. Gesshu (tl696) and Manzan (tl714) were 



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5. The Zen Shu in Japan: Omori 181 

the well-knoTm priests who restored the ecclesiastical system stiU 
maintained by the members of this school. Tetsngen (tl683) of the 
Obaku Shu was also a famous priest. He reprinted the 6,771 volumes 
of the Sacred Books now used by the Buddhists. It is said that 
when he purposed to collect the funds for printing the Scriptures, 
he travelled himself from province to province to obtain contributions. 
-On his return, he heard that in the province of Izumo there was 
a terrible flood. * Izumo is the province/ said he, * where the dona* 
tions of the people were the largest of all. I shall offer all the money 
that I have, to rescue them,' and he gave up the whole collection to 
the relief of the people. In a later year when there was a great 
famine at Tohoku in northern Japan, he again gave up all his second 
•collection for the general need. After waiting ten years he at last 
succeeded in his purpose by his third collection. * Three times,' said 
he, * did I make %he wooden blocks for reprinting the Sacred Books. 
The two first are truly the living Sacred Books, and the third are 
those of the dead.' 

IV. The modem development of the 2!en Shu. The Restoration 
of 1868, through which modem Japan emerged out of its feudal 
•<M*ganization, naturally disestablished all sorts of privileges conferred 
by the Tokugawa Shogun. All the sects of Buddhism which had 
been protected and privileged by the Shogun until that time, shared 
in the common fate, and their landed estates were at once seques- 
trated by the Government of the Mikado. Meanwhile the develop- 
ment of communication opened the way to the introduction of Western 
thought. These poHtical and social changes naturally brought new 
!light and movement to Buddhism. All the various sects, which had 
been comparatively conservative, and tended rather to quiescence in 
the end of the Tokugawa period, began to bestir themselves actively 
for propagation. Since 1876 they have all been organized into one 
whole system, educational, social, and deUberative. They then became 
more friendly than they ever had been, and they are furthering the 
faith and practice of Buddhism among all classes of the people. Now 
^the Zen Shu is the largest of the Buddhist sects in Japan, having 
1500 temples m<»:e than the Shin Shu, the next largest, or over 20,000 
in all. It is also one of the richest of the sects, for almost all the 
Zen Shu temples possess considerable fixed property. The Bin-zai 
: school laid more emphasis on the practice of Dhytoa, while the So-to 
rather encouraged missionary work. The latter is more liberal and 
numerically strong; the former remains still conservative and in- 
tellectually strong. The character of the Obaku bears a close resem- 
i>lance to the Rin-zai. 



k2 



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132 



//. Religions of China and Japan 



DtnofMna- 



Hos'so Shu 
SLboon Shu 
Tekdai Shu 
SmNGON Shu 
YtjztjNbn ) 
BuTsu Shu j 
JiShu 
JoDO Shtt 

^ BlK-ZAJ 
^ SO-TO 

s 

^ Obaku 

Shin Shu 
NiohibbnShu 



Ha Of 
Bodies 



1 
1 
3 

8 

1 

1 
2 

10 
1 



10 
9 



Kaiaan or 
Fownders 



Do-SHO 

DO-SBN 

Dbn-oyo 
Ko-BO 

Sho-o 

En-sho 

HO-KBN 
El-ZAI 

DO-OEN 

Ekoek 
Shin Ban 

NiOHIBEN 



lished 



653 
736 

858 
804 

1124 

1274 
1174 

1191 
1233 

1661 

1224 
1253 



Teraor 
Churches 



41 

32 

4.711 

12,717 

363 

513 
8,371 



?8" 



19,447 
5,073 



Jushoku 

or 
Abbots 



17 
12 

2,789 
7,741 

208 

408 
6,149 

s - 

16,787 
4,121 



CO 



CO 






^ Extracted from the Buddhist Year-Book 1908. 



6 

THE OPHITE GNOSTICS AND THE PURE 
LAND SECT IN JAPAN 

By a. LLOYD. (Abstract) 

I. Thb approximate date of S'&kyamuni's death, b.o. 480, showa 
that he lived at a time when Persia, newly risen on the ruins of Babylon, 
was the dominant power in Asia. His ministry must have brought 
him close to the frontiers of the Persian Empire, which included 
parts of North-west India ; and S&kyans, his kinsmen, are mentioned 
by Herodotus as taking part in the expeditions of Darius and Xerxes. 
We may therefore say that he was a contemporary of the Hebrew 
prophets of the Captivity and the Return. It is possible that, as 
a personage of considerable political importance, he was acquainted 
with the events which led to the Return of the Jews. 

II. Chief characteristics of S&kyamuni's religious teaching. It was 
a protest against the priestly and philosophical tyrannies, so far as 
the latter existed in India, at the time. He rejected caste, denied 
the necessity or efficacy of religious sacrifices as austerities, taught- 



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6. Pure Land Sect in Japan: Lloyd 188 

that fain was the universal factor of life, that the cause of pain was 
desire, that where desire ceases, pain ceases, and that desire can be 
made to cease by a life according to the noble eightfold path of right 
-conduct, right aims, &c. This leads to Nirvftna, an idea which is 
a little different from mukHy but which was ah'eady known in India,' as 
were also Karma and the Whed of Life, both of which he adopted 
into his teaching. But philosophy in his original teachings was 
reduced to a minimum, though the necessities of later years must 
have compelled the framing of a system. He made no war on the 
gods of India, who frequently came into his teaching, but he taught 
that the enlightened man was above the gods. When necessity 
arose, as in the case of Queen Vaidehi, he pointed his disciples to 
something higher even than an earthly Buddha, i.e. to Amitftbha. 
(It is possible that this may not be x)art of the * original deposit ' of 
Buddhism.) He also spoke of his teaching as the ' way of all the 
Buddhas '. 

III. Before S&kyamuni's death, his teachings seem to have been 
-accepted by his kinsmen of Sbkyan blood, and they appear to 
have crossed the western frontiers of India even during his lifetime. 
Wherever they went they carried with them the same characteristics 
that they had shown in India. They waged no war with the gods of 
the old mythologies, but treated them as they had treated the gods of 
India. ' The way of all the Buddhas ' was a phrase which enabled 
ihem to recognize and appreciate whatever was in accordance with 
their principles. They were thus never antagonistic, but passed 
freely into the religious life of the peoples among whom they lived. 
What we know them to have done in China, Tibet, Japan, and India, 
we may presume them to have done in Bactria, Parthia, and Asia Minor. 

IV. It was the age of migrations. Cimbrians and Gauls were 
already on the wing, and Strabo tells of a similar migration of Scythians 
(— Sikyans), who, having erected a great Colossus on the borders of 
their kingdom, went forth on their conquering expeditions to Media, 
Armenia, Colchis, Cappadocia and the shores of the Euxine. Strange 
to say, Fa-hian, the Chinese traveller, has the same story, but teUs 
it about the Buddhists; and Atoka's rock-inscriptions bear witness 
to the fact that Buddhism in his day had reached very far to the 
west. Buddhist remains found in the lands bordering the Black Sea 
testify to the truth of the story ; which is further corroborated by the 
incursion of the Gauls into Asia Minor about b.g. 260. Members of 
these tribes must have carried with them Buddhist doctrines, which 
were no longer purely Indian, but had been tinged by the mythological 
ideas of the countries through which they passed. It was also an 
age of commerce. Ships came and went between the Bed Sea, the 
Persian Gulf, and the western coasts of India. Buddhism was always 



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184 //. Religions of China and Japan 

a merchants* religion, and many an Indian merchant found his wajr 
to the markets of Alexandria. 

V. Many traces of this Buddhism may be found. Some of the 
later philosophical sects of the Roman Empire — ^notably Stoicism^ 
Neo-Platonism, and the later Pythagoreans — ^present many traces of 
Buddhist thought. The Essenes, with colonies, apparently, in Asia. 
Minor, Eastern Palestine and Alexandria, were likewise tinged with 
Buddhist ideas ; and Philo the Jew is a Buddhist when he maintains- 
that man, through the purification of his affections and intellect, can 
reach to the threshold of Grod, while a full knowledge of God is only 
given in a state of ecstatic contemplation. It was in such a state^ 
that Buddha himself attained to enlightenment under the bo-tree. 
But Buddhism probably also found itself at home in the new culta 
of Rome, introduced during the last two centuries of republican 
r^ime— in Serapis, the Sun-god, introduced into Egypt by Ptolemy r 
from the land of Pontus on the shores of the Black Sea, in Isis, tho 
Queen of Heaven, and Mithras, the Persian Saviour, and in the Magna 
Mater, brought to Rome in b. o. 204 ; as well as in much of the Hermetio 
literature. We have seen that Buddhists at any rate, if not Buddha, 
were not averse from personifications like Amitftbha, which gavo 
a more worthy idea of the Godhead than did the mythological deities 
of the countries to which they came; that they freely recognized 
by the phrase ' the way of all the Buddhas ' the existence and authority 
of Buddhas other than S&kyamuni ; and that they were indifferent 
to religious beliefs which did not conflict with their fundamental 
principles. The * new cults ' of Rome, all originating from a period 
later than A^ka's council, may easily have been due to Buddhist 
influence. Certainly they correspond very closely to the ideas under* 
Ijong the ideal Buddhas of the Mahfiy&na. Serapis is the Sun, so 
are Vairocana and Amit&bha ; Mithras is etymologically as well aa 
ideally the same conception as Maitreya ; and Buddhism has f emalo 
deities, like Isis, as well as male. The Magna Mater, too, is in essence 
a personified Prajnfi. 

VI. We now come to the time of Christ. The Levant was a seething 
mass of conflicting religious ideas when Christ and His Apostles began 
their work. I am myseU convinced of the historicity of the New 
Testament accounts, but I will not now appeal to these as though to 
flnal authorities. I wiU only say this, that the accounts of the Visit 
of the Magi, and of St. Peter's Sermon on the Day of Pentecost, could 
never have been imagined, had there not be^i a Christian sub-con- 
sciousness of a connexion between the Gospel and the East ; and 
every one wiU agree that Christ's Ufe was for the most part spent 
in Galilee of the Gentiles, in the land of the mixed people whom th» 
oommerce of Rome with Asia had brought to settle at some of th» 



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6. Pure Land Sect in Japan: Lloyd 185 

chief places along the trade route. We also know that Antioch was 
a chief place in the earliest Christian history, that Asia Minor was 
in the very thick of Christian evangelization, the scene of St. Peter's 
labours as well as St. Paul's, that St. Paul and St. John were both 
active in Ephesus, and that Ephesus was in close communication with 
Alexandria, and Alexandria with "Egyi^t^ The Roman satirist has also 
told us that the Orontee had for a long time been a tributary of the 
Tiber. No historian has traced for us the Acts of the Apostles who 
went to the East ; but there is enough to show that their labours^ 
though not conspicuous, were far-reaching, and that Christian ideas* 
certainly during the first century of our era, reached the very home 
of the Mahfiy&na. 

VII. Turning back to the history of Buddhism, we find that, during 
the centuries between the death of Sl&kyamuni and the beginning of 
the Christian era, it had undergone considerable modifications. The 
so-called Htnayfina Buddhism had become divided into many sects 
(generally reckoned as eighteen), and the Buddhism outside the 
purely Indian sphere had developed into what is known as the Mahfi* 
yftna, or greater Vehicle. This must have been long in forming, 
but it took its definite organized form at the great Council held 
under the Yue-chi King Eanishka, during the later years of the first 
century a.d* The Questiofia of King MiUnda show the trend of 
Buddhist thought during the period of formation, and bear some 
resemblance to the Eleatic school of Zeno and his successors : but 
the movement is more closely connected with the names of Al'vaghosha^ 
who is credited with having written, in the Buddhacarita, the first 
systematic biography of Sl&kyamuni, as well as the treatise known 
as the Atvakening of Faith in the Mahayana^ and with Nfiglbrjuna, 
whom Japan recognizes as the undoubted first patriarch of the 
Mahftyftna system. Nfigftrjuna is connected in Japan with at least 
three schools of Buddhist tiiought : the Shingon, or secret teachings, 
based not on SSEikyamuni, but on Vairocana, the Greatest Buddha 
of all ; the Zen, or contemplative school — a form of thought strangely 
similar to the Docetism of contemporary Christianity ; and the * Pure 
Land' school, which offers Amitftbha as the centre of its system* 
The Buddha Vairocana (Jap. Dainichi, the Great Sun) is known in 
Japan as common to both the Shingon and the Tendai sects, and the 
connexion between these sects and Alexandria is shown by the use 
of the word Abraxas, of which I have recently found three instances 
in Japanese literature. The connexion between the Pure Land school 
and certain forms of Ophite Gnosticism seems to be still closer. 

VIII. The Elchasaite heresy, mentioned in the PhUaaophtunena^ 
is said to have originated in the town of Serae Parthorum, in the 
third year of Trajan ; the very year, be it said, which Lrenaeus gives 



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186 //. Religions of China and Japan 

as the terminus a quo for the propagation of Gnosticism. We do not 
know the exact locality of Serae Parthorum, but the name would 
indicate a spot on the confines of China and Parthia, the very country 
over which the Yue-chi Kings, Kanishka and his successors, bore 
rule. A few years later, a.d. 147, a Parthian prince, Anshikao, who 
has strange connexions with Borne, heads a mission of Buddhists to 
China, and commences a long series of literary missions to that country, 
which went on in unbroken succession for many centuries. Anshikao, 
though not the first Buddhist missionary to China, is a most important 
X>ersonage. His translations and those of his contemporaries are still 
extant. Many of them are of a practical character, the most important 
of the more theologicid treatises introduced into China being the 
larger SukAavcUi VynJia with its elaborated teachings about Amit&bha. 
I say elaborated, because Amitftbha is no longer alone, as in the 
Amitayur Dhyani StUra : he is accompanied by his spiritual son, 
Avalokitefivara, or Kwannon, the embodiment of mercy, and by 
Mah&sthamaprftpta, or Seishi, the embodiment of strength, and the 
three thus form a kind of Trinity. Of Avalokitefivara, the son of the 
Buddha of Infinite light and Life, it is said that he assists his father 
in the work of saving sentient beings — ^for the whole creation groans 
and travails in pain, according to Buddhist doctrine: and that for 
that purpose he appears in many temporary incarnations, as man, 
woman, animal, or bird, to save the suffering. The idea was probably 
taken from Hindu thought ; but it is strange that we find a similar 
idea in the Onostics of the Ophite School. Christ, they said, was 
bom of a Virgin, but He had had many births, and not always in 
human form. The legend of St. Eustathius, reappearing in the 
legend of St. Hubert, and the well-known symbol of the I^h, seem 
to point to this connexion ; and Dr. Rendel Harris has, I believe, 
shown the acquaintance which the Chnstian apologist, Anstides, had 
with the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. 

Time fails me to develop the connexions between Alexandrine 
thought and the Saddharrna pundanka ; and it is unnecessary for me 
to speak of the well-established relations which Manichaeism bore to 
Christianity on the one hand and Buddhism on the other. I shall be 
well satisfied if I can show that there is prima facie evidence for 
believing it to be possible that we have, in the Japanese Buddhism 
of the Pure Land, a lineal descendant of the Ophite Onostics of Asia 
Minor in the first and second centuries a.d. 



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PAI CHANG CH ING KUEI, THE RULES OF 
BUDDHIST MONASTIC LIFE IN CHINA 

By H. HACKMANN. (Abstract) 

Thb Pai chang cKing bueiy with which I became acquainted on 
my joumejrs in the interior of China, is a book of great importance 
for our knowledge of practiced Buddhism. It possesses great authority 
among different sects of China, giying as it does the whole framework 
of monastic life. The introductory chapter {yUan i) of the work 
sketches the life of the author (Pai chang). The first four chapters 
deal with the ritual of festival and memorial days, and are of funda- 
mental value for the Buddhist cidendar. In the fifth chapter we 
hear of the duties of an abbot ; the si^h book (or chapter) contains 
a detailed description of all the regular offices in a monastery, eighty- 
one in all. The seventh book, divided into a first and second half, 
speaks of the rules and ritual pertaining to the whole assembly, and 
deab especially with the sacred ceremonial used in the ordination of 
a monk, and in the observance of the Upoeaiha days. The eighth book 
treats of the special occupations of the monks in the different seasons 
of the year and describes certain festivals. The ninth enumerates 
the religious instruments. An appendix gives a geographical table 
of interesting Buddhist sacred places. 

The book is indeed very comprehensive, and there seems to be no 
.feature in the life of Chinese Buddhist monks upon which light is not 
thrown. It is the best introduction into the social and practical 
aspects of Chinese Buddhism, and it is very strange that except for 
a few hints (in the books of Dr. Edkins and Dr. de Groot) it has entirely 
escaped the observation of students and has not been translated even 
partially. I am at present engaged on a translation of the book. 



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188 //. Religions of China and Japan 

8 

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TAOIST CHURCH 

By J. J. M. Db GROOT 

f It is a remarkable ooincidence in the history of religion that the 
epoch marked by the life of Christ and the establishment of His CShurch, 
was the epoch also of the development of rehgious life in eastern Asia. 
The centuries during which the Later Han dynasty bore supreme 
sway in China, that is to say» the first and the second of the Christian 
era, were characterized by the oonsoUdation of the old religious ideas 
and rites, handed down to the nation by the classical writings, into 
a so-called Confucian state religion«> That same epoch also was that 
of the first vigorous growth of Buddhism in China, the apostles of 
which had already found their way thither before the birth of Christ. 
And, at the same time, that period gave birth to the third system of 
religion, which to this day exists on Chinese soil : that of the Tao^ 
generally called by us Taoism. 

What are we to understand by this term ? We must define it as 
Universalism, a sjrstem aiming at the assimilation of man with the 
Tao or Order of the World, and the propitiation of that Order, that 
is to say, of the spirits, good and bad, which compose it. This pro- 
pitiation has actually become a eyeteia of religion, containing all the 
chief elements of pagan religions generally ; to wit, a Pandemonium 
and a Pantheon, both composed of beings which actually are parts of 
the Universe or powers working therein ; and further, exorcism of 
devils, and propitiation of gods, conducted by a priesthood, together 
with the observance of a highly developed ritual created to a great 
extent in imitation of Buddhism. It is a Universalism, moreover^ 
which purports to render man happy by teaching bim the discipline 
leading to assimilation with the Tao or Order of the World. 

The origia of this Universalism is hidden in the night of time ; but 
it had its principles, doctrines, and votaries a long while before the 
rise of the Han dynasty, as even the classical writings show clearly. 
Under that dynasty it had even developed into an actual religion with 
hermits, saints, and religious communities* But attention has never 
yet been drawn to the fact, that in the first century of our era this 
Universalistic system transformed itself into a disciplined Church. 

This process is inseparably connected with the name Chang Ling» 
^ 1^. 'I'his saint is described as a thaumaturgist of the highest 
order, as a compounder of elixirs of life, and as a first-rate exorcist; 
he was a god-man commanding spirits and gods. He personifies the 



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8* Origin of the Tcwist Church : De Groot 139 

tianaf onnation of ancient Taoist principle and doctrine into a religion 
with magic, priesthood, and hierarchy, under the very auspices of 
Laotszd, who appeared before him in person, and commissioned him 
to cany out that great organization. In obedience to this prophet, 
he transmitted his mission to his descendants, who actually survive to 
this day, as heads of the Church, in Eiangsi province, in the same 
place in Kwei-khi district where Chang Ling prepared his elixir of life. 

If any one deserves the name of founder of the Tao kia ^ ^ 
or the Taoist Church, Chang ling certainly is the man. Taoists, in fact, 
caU him to this day their T'ai Tsung ;^ ^or Grand Patriarch. His 
history, therefore, and the myths that have grown up round it, are 
worthy of a very careful attention. 

In the Memoirs of the State of Wei, which are a section of the San 
kiooh chi, or Memoirs of the Three Kingdoms, composed by Ch'en Sheu 
^ H^ as early as the last years of the third century of our era, we 
read as follows : 

* The second name of Chang Lu §^ ^ was Kung-khi. He was 
a man from Fung, in the state of Fei.^ His grandfather Chang Ling 
had resided in Shuh (Szd-ch'wen), and studied the Tao in the moun- 
tains of Kuh-ming. He composed a Taoist book, to lead the people 
astray. Those who followed and accepted his doctrines paid five 
pecks of rice, and were therefore styled by their contemporaries '' rice- 
rebels "• When Chang ling was dead, his son Heng propounded his 
doctrine ; and when Heng had died, his son Lu propounded it also.' ^ 

Fan Yeh, the chief compiler of the Books of the Later Han Dynasty, 
a hundred and even more years later, evidently copied in that work 
the above notice (ch. cv, f . 4), adding that Chang Ling resided in Shuh 
under the reign of Shun, that is between the years 126 and 146 of our 
era. He also says, that the book which he wrote was a ' charm-book * 
(^ ^). All other particulars which the Chinese know, or pretend 
to know, about Chang Ling, they owe to the pen of Koh Hung, who 
gave a biography of him in his Shen-sien cKwen ^ f|j[| "^^ This 
famous Taoist of the fourth century of our era calls him Chang Tao- 
ling ; he, or others before him, may perhaps have prefixed the word 
Tao to his name ling, which means a hill, in order to bring out the 
high attainments of its owner in the Tao or art of self -assimilation with 
the Universal Course or Order : or they may have inserted the word 
to Hi«f.mgiiiali him from two other Chang ling mentioned in the 
Memoirs of the Three Kingdoms and the Boohs of the Later Han 



^ In the north-western corner of the present Kiangsu province. Both names 
still exist there as names of district cities. * CSiap. viii, f. 22. 



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140 //. Religions of China and Japan 

That biography bears the stamp of reliable tradition mixed up with 
fable. It reads as follows : 

' Chang Tao-ling was a man from the State of Fei. A disciple of 
the high school, he made a thorough study of the five Classics, but then 
he sighed, and said : " This study will not add any years to my life," 
and he set to studying the doctrine of the prolongation of life. Having 
discovered the method of the Nine Tripods of the emperor Hwang for 
the preparation of eb'xirs of life, he desired to compound these elixirs, 
and wasted his fortune on drugs (required for the purpose), so that his 
family was ruined. He then resolved to earn his livelihood by tilling 
fields and rearing cattle, but these occupations yielded no profits, and 
ended in failure. 

' Being informed that there lived in Shuh many pure-minded generous 
men, easy to instruct and convert, and that there were in that region 
many famous mountains, he withdrew thither with his disciples ; and 
settled on the mountain of the Cries of the huh birds, where he com- 
posed a work on the Tao in twenty-four books. There, while he 
refined his thoughts and disciplined his will, suddenly a celestial being 
descended with an escort of a thousand carriages and ten thousand 
riders, with vehicles of gold shaded by canopies of feathers, drawn 
by teams of three dragons, and by tigers in numbers incalculable. 
He styled himself Secretary from under the Pillars,^ and Lad of the 
Eastern Ocean. He bestowed upon Chang ling a doctrine manifest 
and imposing, recently issued from the Right One {Laotsz6) ; this 
he accepted, and straightway found himself able to cure the sick. 
Upon this the people with one accord flocked aro\md him to worship 
and serve him as their master and teacher, and the nimiber of his 
disciples increased to some tens of thousands. 

' Without delay he appointed " sacrificers of spirits ", each of whom 
had to rule a section of the families, some of them performing the 
functions of mandarins and chiefs. And be instituted rules and regu- 
lations, and ordered his disciples, in accordance with their vocations 
and trades, to pay taxes in rice, silk, utensils, paper, pencils, fuel, and 
other articles of various kind. And he ordered the people to repair 
the roads, punishing with maladies those who would not do so ; and 
in the districts men were set to see whether bridges and roads were 
maintained in good order. On this the people cut away the brambles, 
drained the marshes, in short undertook everything, even more than 

* A star ' Under the Pillars' (j^ "l^j is mentioned in the Shinghing ^^ jjft 

and in the Boohs of the Tsin Dynasty (ch. xi, 1. 14) standing about the pole, 
around which, according to Taoist conception, the God of Heaven has his residence 
and court. Both works add that this star is charged with noting down sins 
and faults committed by men. 



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8. Origin of the Taoist Church: De Groot 141 

he desired; «id yet these foolish folk did not even understand that 
it was Chang ling who brought about all this. 

* In accordance with this writing sent down to him from heaven, 
ling wished to rule the people by playing upon their feelings of shame ; 
for he disliked the infliction of punishment. He therefore made an 
ordinance, to the effect. that the sick should write down all their sins 
committed since birth, and throw these autographic confessions into 
the water, swearing oaths to the gods that they would sin no more, on 
penalty of death. The result was that all people were restored to 
health ; the confessions of sin, which those who fell sick were forced to 
make, both cured them, and at the same time moved them to such 
a pitch of shame and regret that they lacked courage to sin again. It 
was the fear of Heaven and Earth which converted them, and from 
that time forward all sinners became virtuous people. 

' Ghfiuig ling acquired in that way much money and goods where- 
with to buy the drugs which he wished for the compounding of the 
elixir of life. When this was ready, he took no more than a half of it, 
because be did not yet wish to ascend into heaven ; but by this dose 
he was enabled to split his material person into several dozen bodies* 
In front of the gate of his dwelling was a pond, on which he regularly 
diverted himself in a boat, while Taoist doctors paid calls upon Viini 
and thronged his courtyard ; so that there was then one Chang Ling 
in his chair, eating and drinking with the visitors, while the true 
Chang Ling was on the water. 

'Afterwards, Chang Ling ascended to heaven in broad daylight, 
together with Chao Shing and Wang Ch'ang, and thus departed. His 
disciples, gazing upward after them for a long time, saw them dis- 
appear in the clouds. In the mountains of Shuh, where he had com- 
pounded the half only of the ehxir, he could as yet not rise to heaven, 
and merely became a terrestrial Sien. . . .' 

We thus see rise before our eyes the picture of a man of classical 
learning, so bent on the Taoist art of prolonging life that he sacrificed 
to that ideal everything he possessed ; a man who thereupon devoted 
himself with certain disciples to a life of asceticism and seclusion in 
a country far away from his own, and during this period received in 
his ecstasy a mission from Laotsz^, a mission embodied in a book, to 
cure the sick both physically and mentally. His cures secured him 
followers in great numbers, for whom he instituted a semi-clerical, 
semi-worldly government, with a system of taxation and a religious 
discipline based on self-humiliation before the higher powers, combined 
with confession of sins. Was he the first apostle of Taoist doctrine in 
Sz^ch wen ? Ch'en Sheu brands him as a man seducing the people 
by means of his celestial book, asserting that he wrote it himself, and 
that his contemporaries called him a rebel, that is to say, a man 



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142 //. ReUgiom of China and Japan 

exercising authority without imperial mandate or sanction; but this is 
not to be wondered at, since any founders or leaders of religious cor- 
porations, having an organization and rules of their own, would have 
a like fate in Confucian China to this hour. 

In all this traditional matter the historical ground comes out more 
clearly when we read, as we have done, in Ch'en Sheu's Memoirs, that 
Chang Ling's dericcJ and worldly state continued to exist and flourish 
as an actual power after his death under his son Heng and his grandson 
Lu. Following on the lines which we have quoted above, that historian 
proceeds to write as follows : 

* liu Yen, Governor (for the Han dynasty) of the province of Yih 
(comprising Sz^hwen), having raised Chang Lu to the dignity of 
Tuh-i Marshal, the latter, together with the Pieh-pu Marshal Chang Siu, 
defeated Su Ku, the Governor of Han-chung (in the north of Yih) ; 
thereupon, however, Chang Lu put Chang Siu aside, slew him, and 
rendered himself master of his people/ ^ 

*Liu Yen had commissioned Chang Lu with the dignity of Tuh-i 
Marshal, because the latter's mother exercised demonistio practices 
and, appearing in the guise of a young and beautiful girl, frequented 
his house continuaUy. When Chang Lu had occupied Han-chung, he 
barred the valleys and passes, and killed the envoys of the Han 
dynasty, so that the emperor wrote that the rice-rebels had closed the 
passes, and rendered it impossible for him to keep up intercourse. 
And Cihang Lu, under certain pretexts put to death more than ten noble 
and influential men in the province, as Wang Wei, Li Kwan, Ac., in 
order to overawe by punishment. . . . 

* In the first year of the Hing-p'ing i)eriod (a. d. 194), liu Yen died 
of an abscess on his back . . • When (his son) liu Chang, whose adult 
name was Ei-yuh, had succeeded him, Chang Lu showed so much 
pride and arrogance, and so little obedience, that liu Chang put to 
death his mother and younger brothers, thus filling him with the 
bitterest enmity. Several times liu Chang sent Pang i and others 
of his generals into the field against him, but they were defeated. 
Thus Chang Lu considerably increased his territory in Pa-si (northern 
Sz^hVen) ; and for this reason liu ChAng appointed P*ang i to be 
Governor of Pa-d, with orders to checkmate Chang Lu by force of 



arms 



' 2 



* Chang Lu having occupied Han-chung, instructed the people in 
Demonism {^ ^), and called himself King of the Teachers. Those 
who came thus to study were caUed first "warriors against spectres '• ; 
and then, after adoption of the sjrstem, " wine-sacrificers " ; each of 

* Memoirs of Wei, ch. viii, f . 22. 

* Memoirs of Shuh, ch. i, fl. 2 and 3. 



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8. Origin of the Taoist Church: De Groot 143 

these was placed at the head of a section of the people ; and when the 
section grew numerous, its '" wine-sacrificer " became an " officer-in- 
chief*', or " wine-sacrificer-in-chief ". They all alike taught the 
people honesty and trustworthiness, abstinence from imposture and 
falsehood, and voluntaiy confession of sins when ill — ^very much after 
the manner of the Yellow Headkerchiefs. And the '' wine-sacrificers " 
built lodging-houses for public use, in the same way that now post- 
houses are made ; they bought rice and meat for gratuitous use, which 
they stored in those lodgings, in order that wayfarers might take of the 
food according to their bodily needs ; but if they took in excess, they 
were rendered ill, in accordance with the demonistic doctrine. Trans- 
gressors of the laws were not punished unless previously pardoned 
thrice. No chiefs or rulers were appointed ; for it was the " wine- 
sacrificers" who were charged with the government of the people. 
Barbarians also took pleasure in these institutions. By his prowess 
he succeeded in maintaining his sway in Pa-si and Han-chung for 
thirty years. 

* The house of Han in its last days, lacking power to reduce him to 
submission, met Chang Lu with the bestowal of favours, uid created 
him a General for the Subjection of the People, with the dignity of 
Chamberlain at Court, charged also with the governorship of Han- 
chung and Ning-kiang and with no other obligations than that of 
maintaining intercourse with the court by sending tribute. At that 
juncture a signet of jade was found in the ground, and all his subjects 
were therefore desirous of raising him to the kingship of Han-chung 
and Ning-kiang; but his secretary, who was named Yen Fu, advised 
him not to do so. " The population of Han-chung and Sz^chVen," 
said he, '' amounts to more than a million famiUes ; the land is sur- 
rounded on all sides by steep strongholds ; there is wealth there, and 
the soil is well watered. If you respect the Son of Heaven above you, 
you will, just as has been the case with Hwan Wen-tszd and Fuh Yung, 
remain in the possession of your wealth and dignity ; but if you use 
your government to establish your own power, your feet shall be 
chopi)ed off ; do not pain yourself with a desire for kingship, neither 
assume a royal title, lest you call into existence a thing which may 
prove to be a forerunner of misfortune." Chang Lu followed this 
advice. 

* During the rebellion of Han Sui and Ma Ch'ao (a.d. 211), twenty 
to thirty thousand families of the people of Kwan-si (the country west 
of the present Si-ngan-fu) followed Chang Lu's son, Wu-kioh, and took 
refuge with him. 

* In the twentieth year of the Kien-ngan jwriod (a.d. 215), T*ai Tsu 
(Ts'ao Ts'ao, the first sovereign of the Wei dynasty) took the field from 
San-kwan and Wu4u, to reduce Chang Lu to submission. When he 



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144 //. Religions of China and Japan 

had reapched the Yang-p mg Barrier,^ Chang Lu desired to surrender 
Han-chung and submit, but his younger brother Wei would not hear 
of it, and with his forces, several ten thousands strong, obstinately 
defended the Barrier. Ts'ao Ts'ao, however, worsted him,^ and there^ 
upon came to Shuh. 

' When Chang Lu received news of the fall of Yang-p'ing, he would 
have humbly offered his submission but for Yen Fu, who said : "To 
go to the victor in these straits will be an act of but slight value ; it 
will be better to rely on Tu Kwan, and to withdraw on Poh-hu, not 
sending your hostages to the victor before you have driven him back ; 
your deed will then be appreciated the more highly." So Chang Lu 
hastily retired to the south, and came into central Pa. His attendants 
proposed to entirely bum the treasures, magazines, uid stores, but 
Chang Lu said : " It has been my wish from the very beginning to 
join myself to a legal dynasty, but hitherto I have been unable ; I am 
now fleeing simply to prevent a hostile encounter, and by no means 
with any evil intent. The treasuries and arsenals are the property of 
the d3masty." And he sealed the stores and drew off. 

' And Ts ao Ts ao, coming into southern Ching, praised Chang Lu's 
conduct very highly. Appreciating his goodwill, he sent his envoys to 
him to put him at ease, upon which Chang Lu went to him with all his 
family, and Ts'ao Ts'ao came to meet him. He then appointed him 
General for the Submission of the South, treated him with the ritual 
prescribed for the reception of visitors, and ennobled him with the 
rank of Feudal Lord of Lang-chung, with a personal domain inhabited 
by ten thousand families. His five sons also and Yen Pu he ennobled 
as under- vassals, and adopted Chang Lu's daughter into his family as 
wife for his own son Feng-tsu ; and when Chang Lu was dead, he 
conferred on him the posthumous honorary title of Feudal Prince of 
Yuen. His son Fu succeeded him in this dignity.' * 

Thus ended the religious realm of Chang Tao-ling, swallowed up in 
the short-hved empire of Wei, which Ts'ao Ts'ao by force of arms was 
then cutting out for himself from the territory of the decaying house of 
Han, the last emperor of which was finally dethroned in a.d. 220 by 
Ts'ao Ts'ao's son Ts'ao Fei "^ ^, known in history by the name 
of Wen ^, emperor of Wei. Interesting particulars about this religious 

^ Stated to have been situated north-west of Pao-ch'ing ^^ ^^, in the 
Han-chimg department. 

' According to the Books of the Later Han Dynasty (eh. cv, f. 5), he also 
beheaded him. This event is related more circumstantially in the Memoirs of 
Wei, eh. i, f. 38. 

• See the Memoirs of Wei, chap, viii, ff. 22 sqq. This account of Chang Lu's 
life and feats alBo occurs in the Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chap, cv, without 
any additional information worth mentioning. 



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8. Origin of the Taoist Church: De Groot 145 

state are supplied by the Tien-lioh ^ J^r or Wei-Uoh |^ Jg., a 
large work written somewhere about the middle of the third century ; 
which exists no longer, but extracts from which occur in the commen- 
tary of Fei Sung-chi ^ ij^ '^ upon the Memoirs concerning the 
Three Kingdoms : 

* In the Hi.p'ing period (a.d. 172-178) many rebels arose, causing 
widespread evil. In San-fu (the country around C!h'ang-ngan, the 
former capital of the empire) there was Loh Yao ]^ @* In the 
Kwang-ho period (178-184) there was Chang Kioh ^ ^ in the 
east, and CSiang Siu ^ j^ in Han-chung. Loh Yao taught the 
people how to make themselves invisible ; Chang Kioh practised the 
religion of Universal Peace, and Chang Siu that of the Five Bushels 
of Rice* The masters or teachers of the religion of Universal Peace 
carried staves with nine knots, made charms and spells, and ordered 
the sick to reflect upon their sins, their foreheads touching the ground ; 
also they gave them charm-water to drink ; and if they became better 
or were cured, they were held to be believers, while if they were not 
restored to health, they were considered to be unbelieving. The 
system of Chang Siu was much the same as that of Chang Kioh, but 
in addition he everywhere built ceUs or closets for purification, in 
which patients had to dwell to ponder on their sins. They employed 
men as ** officers against evil ", "wine-sacrificers", and "wine-sacri- 
ficers-in-chief ", whose duty it was to see that the five thousand 
characters of Lao-tsz^'s book were observed and practised everywhere. 
The principal business of these ** officers against evil ", or *' officers 
against spectres ", as they were also ciJled, was to pray for the sick ; 
which they did in the following manner. They wrote down the name 
and surname of the patient, with a declaration that he deserved 
punishment, and made three copies thereof, which they respectively 
sent up to heaven from an eminence, buried in the ground, and threw 
into the water, terming them autographs for the three rulers. They 
then bade the family of the patient pay them five bushels of rice ; and, 
since they did this invariably, they were therefore known as the Five 
Bushel Teachers. Their work was, of course, useless for the cure of 
the sick, and was merely meaningless heterodoxy ; but all the i>eople 
were stupid and ignorant enough to worship and serve them emulously . 

' Afterwards Chang Kioh was put to death (in A. d. 184), and Chang 
Siu, too, lost his life. Chang Lu in Han-chung, seeing that the people 
of that region had placed confidence in the work of Chang Siu and 
practised it, himself developed and improved it. He ordered and 
encouraged the erection of lodging-houses for free use, wherein rice 
and meat should be set out, in order that wayfarers might abide there. 

O.B.X L 



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146 //. Religions of China and Japan 

He preached a life of retirement and seclusion, and ordained that those 
sinning slightly should repair a road over a length of a hundred paces, 
to efface tiieir guilt. In obedience to the Monthly Prescripts (of the 
Li ib'), he forbade that there should be any killing in spring or summer 
(the seasons of production and growth of Ufe) ; moreover he interdicted 
the use of fermented liquors. People moving or living within his 
territory lacked the courage to disrespect him.' ^ 

It is interesting to read how important a part Demonism played in 
that clericid Taoist state of the three patriarchs of the Chang tribe; 
although this is not astonishing, considering that the existence of 
a powerful world of demons, identified with the cold, dark, life-destroy- 
ing and evil-producing half of the Universe, is one of the fundamental 
principles of the Taoist or Universalistic system. We can quite well 
understand also the humble submission of the sick to the three main 
parts of the Universe, Heaven, Earth, and Water. It is also an 
interesting fact that the CSiurch of the Chang adopted principles which 
may have been borrowed from the Buddhist religion ; which at that 
time had been busy for almost three centuries making a home for 
itself in China. The life of seclusion and asceticism, to which Chang 
ling, with his disciples, devoted themselves, and which his grandson 
CSiang Lu encouraged ; — ^the confession of sins before the higher 
powers ; — ^the benevolence shown to wayfarers by supplying them 
with free lodgings «id food and repairing roads and bridges ; — ^the 
humanity displayed towards criminals, who were only punished after 
having previously been pardoned thrice; — the mitigation or even 
abolition of corporal punishment; — the restriction placed upon 
executions, and upon the butchering of animals ; — ^the emphasis laid 
on truth-speaking and upon abstinence from fermented Uquors — all 
this is eminently Buddhistic, with especial reference to the Mahay&na 
form in which, very probably, Sakyamuni's Church entered China, and 
which is still predominuit to-day. Certainly we may well ask whether 
we do not here find ourselves in the period of amalgamation of the 
two religions. 

We have thus learned from our CSiinese authorities, that, besides 
Chang Lu, the heir to the work of his grandfather Chang ling, there 
were two other Taoistic apostles of the same surname engaged in the 
work of conversion and ecclesiastical organization. One of them, 
CSiang Siu, fought in alliance with CSiang Lu against Su Ku, the 
governor of Han-chung for the Han dynasty, and was afterwards 
killed by his ally; who thereupon united his territory with his own, 
and continued to convert its i>eople and to organize it on the same 
religious lines. When we collate what the historians have to say about 
the work of these two men, we cannot but conclude that it was of 
^ Memoirs of TTet, chap, viii, f . 28. 



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8. Origin of the Taoist Church: De Groot 147 

an identdoal tendency and nature. Similar to it also was that of the 
third apostle, the advocate of the Religion of Universal Peace in the 
eastern provinces ; indeed, the Tien-lioh says explicitly, that Cbang 
Sin's system was much the same as that of Chang Kioh. 

This Chang Kioh is a historicid figure of some significance, notorious 
as the religious rebel, from whose rising historiographers are wont to 
date the decay of the house of Han, resulting in its final downfall. 
* In the first year of the Chung-p'ing period (a. d. 184),' thus we read 
in the standard annals of the Later Han dynasty, * in spring, in the 
second month, a man in Kii-luh (in the present Pehchihli), Chang Kioh 
by name, called himself Hwang Tien, or Yellow Heaven. The troops 
of his faction, 360,000 strong, all wearing yellow headkerchiefs, rose 
in rebellion with one accord upon the same day. The people of Nan- 
p'ing and Kan-ling laid hands upon their feudal kings and joined the 
rebels. • . . And in autumn, in the seventh month, a priest in the Pa 
principahty, deeply versed in black magic, Chang Siu by name, rose in 
rebellion and mastered the districts of that principality.'^ The con- 
nexion between these two rebellious apostles is evident enough from 
the coincidence of their rising. 

* Chang Kioh of Kii-luh, who styled himself the Wisest Master, was 
an adept in the Tao of Hwang-ti and Lao-tszd. He brought up disci- 
ples, who cured the sick by making them confess their sins, kneeling 
and prostrate, and by treating them with charm-water and spells. 
The sick being thus cured in great numbers, the people placed their 
confidence in him, and took refuge with him. He sent out eight 
disciples to the north, south, east, and west, in order to instruct and 
convert the whole empire by the Tao of €k>odnes8, and thus, by craft 
and seduction, his followers in ten more years increased to several 
hundreds of thousands. They combined into prindpaUties or depart- 
ments, and in eight provinces, viz. Ts'ing, 8% Yiu, Ki, King, Yang, 
Yen, and Yti, the inhabitants came over to him in a body. He then 
founded thirty-six regions, very much the same as military divisions ; 
a large region containing ten thousand and more people, and a small 
one only six or seven thousand ; in each of these he appointed chiefs. 
And he pretended that Blue Heaven was dead, and Yellow Heaven 
was about to reign, and that, since the year would be a hiahrUze year 
(the first of a cycle of sixty), great prosperity would prevail in the 
world ; and with chalk or pencil they wrote the characters kitzh-tsze 
upon the gates of the (Capital, and on the official mansions of provinces 
and principalities. 

* In the first year of the Chung-p'ing period (A..D. 184, the Jdah-tsze 
year), Ma Yuen-i, the chief of one of their divisions, enlisted many 

' Ch. viii, ff. 11 and 12. 
l2 



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148 //. Religions of China and Japan 

tens of thousands in the provinces of King and Yang, with the purpose 
of assembling them in Yeh, and of thence starting the rebellion. And 
he went to the capital (Loh-yang or Honan) several times, persuading 
his adherents among the palace eunuchs, such as Fung SU and Sii Fung» 
to agree upon a simultaneous rising on the fifth day of the third moon, 
both within and without the imperial residence. But before their 
rebellion broke out, a disciple of Chang Kioh, one Tang Cheu of Ts*i- 
nan, betrayed the matter in a letter to the Throne. Ma Yuen-i was 
torn to pieces on a wheel in Loh-yang. The emperor Ling placed Tang 
Chen's letter into the hands of his three prime ministers, and Keu Tun, 
the governor of the province of Si -li (containing the capital) ordered Cheu 
Pin, with the help of the officers of the three departments, to search 
for adherents of Chang Kioh's religion in the Palace and among the 
bodyguards and the people ; and they put to death more than a 
thousand persons. Then they extended their searches to t^Q province 
of Ki, commencing a quest for Chang Kioh and his people. 

' Chang Kioh, seeing the matter betrayed, sent orders post-haste, 
day and night, to the several divisions, to rise at once. They wore 
yellow headkerchiefs as badges, on which account they were called 
"Ydlow Kerchiefs"; but they were also styled "Ant Rebels". 
Having killed a man as a sacrifice to Heaven, Chang Kioh adopted the 
title of General of Heaven, his younger brother Pao that of General 
of Earth, and another younger brother Liang became General of 
Mankind. Wherever they went, they burned the official mansions 
and took the cities. The provinces and principalities were at a loss 
what to do, as their chief officers, for the most part, fied ; in ten dajrs 
the whole empire responded to the call of the insurgents, and the 
capital trembled.' . . .^ 

Thus far the Chinese historian. It seems absurd to admit that those 
religious associates had organized themselves into conmiunities and 
into a formal church with deliberate intent to reverse the legal authority. 
We cannot find in the annals of that period a single word to confirm such 
an idea. It seems more rational to look at it in another way. We can 
fully understand that the government considered the organization of 
those Taoists as a kind of state within the state, and that the religious 
movement, having affected almost the whole empire, had raised its 
jealousy, suspicion, and fears to the highest pitch. Indeed, to the eight 
provinces, in which, according to the historian, the organized religion 
had been fostered, we have to add that of Yih, or the present Szd-chVen, 
where we are told that Chang Lu was at that time exercising his 
religious authority. There thus remained no more than three un- 
affected, those lying farthest away, viz. Liang ]^^, Fing ^, and 

^ Books of ihe Later Han Dynasty, oh. d, ff. 1 and 2. 



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8. Origin of the Taoist Church : De X^oot 149 

Kao ^, corresponding in the main to the present Kansuh, Shensi^ 
Kwangtung, and Kwangd. 

The year 184, opening as it did a new cycle, was to the credulous 
devotees pecuUarly hopeful for their young and flourishing Church, to 
which a new cycle of growth and progress thus opened itself out. Pro- 
pagandists travelled far and wide with renewed zeal, the most daring 
even gaining prosel3^s withii\ the Palace gates. But the perfidious 
backslider did his fatal work. His letter to the emperor may have 
been mere falsehood and alander, yet for a suspicious government 
it was sufficient reason to pounce upon the adherents of the faith. 
By dint of torture the members of the religion were forced to betray 
each other ; over a thousand were killed in the imperial residence 
only, and as the bloody terrorism swept over the provinces, and the 
forests was beaten for their chiefs, the followers could not possibly 
refrain from seizing arms in self-defence, and this, of course, the 
government interpreted as rebellion. History in China has often 
repeated itself in such matters ; in fact, history passes in review many 
such religious sects with ecclesiastical organization, first cruelly perse- 
cuted by the state for their spirit of association and their heterodoxy, 
thus forced to rise in self-defence, and finally crushed and smothered 
in streams of their own blood. 

This fate was also allotted to the Yellow Headkerchiefs. Badly 
armed, as we may suppose them to have been, they sustained in that 
same year a series of defeats from several generals, and Chang Kioh 
perished. They were not, however, annihilated for years, since among 
the events, as late as the year 207, we find mention made of their 
existence in the annals of the Han dynasty (Books of the Later Han 
Dynasty, ch. iz, f. 11). 

We have seen that the associates in Yih or Sz^ch'wen escaped 
destruction in the first place owing to the sagacity and valour of 
Chang Lu, combined with the infiuence of his mother over the Governor 
of Yih, and certainly owing also to the weakness of the house of Han, 
already tottering to its downfall, sapped as it was by the war of defence, 
then waged by the religious associates. We have seen that Chang Lu 
in the end saved his people by surrendering to Ts'ao Ts'ao, the final 
destroyer of the house of Han, thus at the same time acquiring for 
himseU and his sons high titles of nobility. He was thus also the man 
who eimobled the line of Patriarchs, or so-called Taoist popes, who 
have descended from him to the present day, and thus has commanded 
the respect which rulers and people in China have in all ages paid to 
that line because of its length and antiquity. But in the history of 
China his name is important for nothing so much as for the fact that 
he saved from destruction the Church of his grandfather Chang ling, 
when it received its baptism from the house of Han in streams of blood. 



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150 //. Religions pf China and Japan 



9 

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICE AND 
ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE SOTO ZEN SHU^ 

Bt ZENEAI OMOBL (Abstract) 

Intboduotiok. 

1. Thb most vital business of all Buddhists is to have a thorough 
understanding of birth and death. When you find the Buddha in 
the midst of birth and death, then you no longer see birth and death. 
When it is understood that birth and death is neither more nor less 
than Nirvana itself, there is no birth and death which you wish to 
shun, nor Nirvana which you wish to attain. It is only then that 
you are freed from birth and death. 

2. It is not easy to be bom as a human being, or to gain an oppor- 
tunity of becoming acquainted with the doctrine of the Buddhas. 
We must not then waste this life, the most excellent we can have in 
the midst of birth and death. 

3. Life is transient, and no one on earth can resist impermanence. 
We go alone to the nether world, and all that follows us is our own 
deeds, good and evil. 

4. Do not associate with people entertaining a fabe doctrine that 
denies the law of causation. This law is manifest everjrwhere and 
has no partiality. Were the law of causation empty, none of the 
Buddhas would have appeared on earth. 

5. There are three kinds of karmaic retribution in regard to time : 
(1) that which bears its fruit in this life ; (2) that which does so in 
the next ; (3) that which does so in some remoter future. These are 
called the three seasons of Karma. 

6. Let it be borne in mind that the present life is only one ; there 
are no two or three of it. How can we afford to waste it by the 
entertainment of false doctrines ? 



Bepbntangb and Bblbasb. 

7. The Buddhas and Patriarchs, out of their infinite love for all 
sentient beings, have left the gate of mercy open to the utmost extent, 
for they want to see every being enter there and testify the truth. 
Though there is no way to escape the threefold retribution of evil 

^ Abstract of a work recently compiled by the authority of the Soto School 
for its adherents. 



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9. Tlie Soto Zen Shu : Omori 151 

Eanna, repentance does much to lighten the burden, or even to clear 
away altogether the trace of sin. 

8. Therefore let us repent with the devout concentration of our 
hearts before all the Buddhas of thci past. The virtue of this repen- 
tance will make us free from stains,and enable us to grow within our 
hearts a pure and unobstructed faith, and strive ever onward. Then 
the self and the not-self lose their distinction, and the benefit derived 
therefrom extends universally over both sentient and non-sentient 
beings* 

9. In the main the idea is : ' Though my conditions are such as 
not to favour the progress of my faith on account of the Karma of 
previous evil deeds, yet all Buddhas and the Patriarchs who have 
attained to enlightenment according to the teachings of Buddhism, 
pitying me, will release me from the bonds of Karma, and make me 
participate in their love. The Buddhas and Patriarchs in their past 
were like myself, and I shall in my future be Uke them. 

10. ^ All the evil Karma that I have created in the past is due to 
my avarice, hate, and infatuation which I have cherished £rom time 
immemorial in act, in speech, and thought. Of all this I now repent.' 
In this repentance there will be no doubt of the spiritual help of the 
Buddhas and Patriarchs. Prostrate yourself, therefore, and lay bare 
your hearts before the Buddhas. Repentance and confession will 
extirpate the root of your siru 



Obdination and iNrriATION. 

11. Next, you should most sincerely revere the Triple Treasure of 
the Buddha, the Dharma (Law), and the Sangha (Brotherhood). 

12. Be not induced out of fear to believe in the mountain gods or 
any other spiritual beings, nor pay homage to the shrines of heterodox 
teachers. 

13. To take refuge in the Triple Treasure, it is necessary to be 
perfectly pure in faith. Whether it be in the time of the TathSgata 
or after his disappearance, approach him with folded hands, bow low, 
and repeat this formula : — 

' I take refuge in the Buddha : 
I take refuge in the Dharma : 
I take refuge in the Sangha.' 

14. The merit of the Triple Refuge is sure to mature at the time 
of a responsive communion between the disciple and the Protector. 
Be he deva or man, dweller in the lower regions, demon or animal, 
he is sure to come to take refuge in the Triple Treasure when the 
responsive communion is established. Eb^ving taken the Triple 



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152 II. Eeligions of China and Japan 

Refuge let him increase this merit in whatever stage of existence, 
and he is sure ultimately to mature the most perfect wisdom. 

15. Next you should be initiated into the threefold comprehensive 
precepts of purity, comprising (1) all decorous behaviour, (2) all good 
deeds, and (3) love to all sentient beings. After this you should be 
initiated into the ten grave prohibitory precepts : (1) Bo not kill ; 
(2) Do not steal ; (3) Do not commit adulteiy ; (4) Do not lie ; (5) Do 
not sell liquor ; (6) Do not speak of others' shortcomings ; (7) Do 
not praise yourself and blame others ; (8) Do not grudge charities ; 
(9) Have no anger ; (10) Do not speak ill of the Triple Treasure. 

16. To be initiated into all these precepts is to attain to Buddha- 
hood. The initiated enter the same rank as all the Buddhas, they 
are verily children of the Buddhas. 

17. All the Buddhas are always working, and embrace all individual 
beings in their infinite wisdom. All individual beings, when they come 
to live in it, recognize no distinction between the self and the not-self 
When this consummation is attained, eveiy being in the universe, 
be it the earth itself, or a form of vegetation, or a fence post, or a 
piece of brick, performs the work of a Buddha; inspired by the 
spiritual influence of the Buddhas, even inanimate things lead us to 
the state of enlightenment. This is called the merit of non-doing ; 
this is the awakening of the heart of wisdom (BodM-citta). 

Thb Awakening of thb Dssms to benefit others. 

18. By the awakening of the Wisdom-heart is meant the awakening 
of the earnest desire and effort to help all sentient beings to preach 
the further shore before one has crossed the stream oneself. In what 
ever situation let a man at the first opportunity awaken in himself 
a desire to help others before himself. 

19. With this desire even a maiden of seven summers may be 
a spiritual leader of the four multitudes of beings. That spirituality 
has nothing to do with the sexes is the most wonderful law in the 
teachings of the Buddhas. 

20. After the Wisdom-heart is awakened, a man may transmigrate 
in the six paths or the four forms of existence ; but his transmigration 
will still be turned into the prayer and practice of wisdom. There 
may be some whose merit for Buddhahood is already mature, and yet 
they would turn it all over to their fellow beings to help them to 
attain to Buddhahood. There may be others who never attain to 
Buddhahood though their merits are fully matured, for it is their 
desire to serve others and make them cross over to the further shore. 

21. There are four ways to serve others : (I) CSiarity ; (2) Loving 
words ; (3) Benefiting deeds ; (4) Sharing with others. 



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9. The Soto Zen Shu: Omori 158 

(1) By Charity is meant not coveting. Mind not how small yom* 
gift may be — even a phrase or a verse- of the Buddhas' teachings ; 
it may be the planting of a seed of goodness not only in this life but 
in the next. Only let there be no thought of reward in helping others. 
Not only the building of a bridge or the provision of a ferry-boat is 
a work of charity, but so are all forms of benefiting hfe, commercial 
and industrial. 

22. (2) By loving words we mean speaking tenderly to all sentient 
beings who are impartially regarded with lovingkindness. Praise 
those who are virtuous, pity those who are deficient in virtue. Loving 
words gain the hearts of enemies and keep the virtuous peacefully 
together. Let us learn that loving words have power to make the 
heavens revolve. 

23. (3) By loving deeds we mean contriving means to benefit 
others, be they noble or humble— only a helpless tortoise or a sick 
sparrow — ^without ever thinking of reward. The ignorant may say, 
* Others may be benefited, but what about one's own benefit ? * This 
is not so, however. Benefiting deeds benefit equally and impartially 
one's self as well as others. 

24. (4) Sharing with others means non-contradiction. The human 
Tathftgata appeared among human beings, and shared his fate with 
men. There is this spiritual law, that when otherness is identified 
with selfness, selfness in turn becomes identified With otherness. 

25. Such is the significance of the deed growing out of the Wisdom- 
heart. Let us reverently bow before the spiritual merit that extends 
over all beings who, thus received and embraced by all the Buddhas, 
are helped to cross over the stream. 

Upholding ajbo) GBATiTUDBt 

26. Sentient beings inhabiting this earth are destined by their 
Karma to have the Wisdom-heart awakened in them. Their wish 
to be bom in this world is fulfilled : why should they not be thankful 
for having seen the Buddha ? 

27. Blessed indeed are we who have come in the days of the good 
Dharma. Does not the Buddha say, *If one recognizes a master 
who teaches perfect wisdom, do not ask of what caste he is, do not 
attend to his outward features, do not consider his shortcomings or 
criticize his practices, revere his wisdom and bow before him respect- 
fully three times a day ' ? 

28. That we can see the Buddha and listen to his teachings is due 
to the transmission and maintenance of the good Dharma by our 
Buddhas and Patriarchs successively. We ought to be grateful for 
the gift of even one phrase or one portion of the Dharma. How 



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154 //• Religions of CMna and Japan 

much more ought we to be grateful for the incomparable gift of the 
eye-treasury of the good law. 

29. The proper way to show our gratitude is by the righteous 
upholding of our daily life, not to waste it, not to spend (our time) 
selfishly. 

30. Time passes more swiftly than a flying arrow. With whatever 
craft and contrivance, we are unable to restore one day that is gone by. 
A life of one hundred years spent in idleness is ii^eed a sorrowful 
existence. A man may live as the slave of the senses for one hundred 
years, only let him succeed in upholding one day of his life in the 
Law, and this one day will not only compensate the lost hundred 
years, but meritoriously influence the coming life of many a year. 
The living of one day is a precious existence. It is only through the 
righteous upholding of ourselves in the Law that the meritorious 
upholding of all the Buddhas becomes manifest. Accordingly a 
righteous upholding of one day is the seed of all Buddhahood, of the 
righteous upholding of all the Buddhas themselves. 

31. ' All the Buddhas ' means no other than Shaka-Muni himself. 
And this Shaka-Muni is nowhere but in one's own mind. The 
Buddhas of all ages, past, present, and future, become Shaka-Muni 
at their attainment of Buddhahood; i.e. they are all of the one Mind^ 
Find out what this one Mind is, and by so doing you will really show 
your gratitude for the Buddhas. 



10 

BUDDHIST INFLUENCE UPON THE 
JAPANESE^ 

By M. ANESAKL (Abstract) 

Buddhism came to Japan in the midst of clan strife, and its embodi- 
ment in the Constitution proclaimed by Prince Shotoku (a.d. 593-621) 
marked an epoch in Japanese history. In the first Article the Prince 
laid down that the harmony of all beings was founded on faith in the 
Three Treasures. Works of art and practices of charity aided the 
promulgation of the new ideal. A bronze statue of Buddha dedicated 
by the Princess Ck>nsort to the spirit of the departed Prince bore an 

^ As another paper also was communioated by Prof. Aneeaki, tlus abstract 
la Umited to the subjeot origmaUy selected by him, the Buddhist doctrine of the 
Communion of Saints. 



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10, Buddhist Influence upon the Japanese : Anesaki 155 

inscription which proves that the idea of attaining enlightenment in 
communion with the deceased, in whose memoiy and for whose sake 
the relatives of the deceased dedicate some meritorious works to 
Buddha, had already entered Japan. Buddhism teaches no eternal 
damnation. Every being will, though now plunged in sins, attain one 
day the supreme bliss of enlightenment, however long the way may be. 
If the deceased were in Buddha's land, he would look for the spiritual 
good of those who did pious works in his name. If the contrary, the 
living might help the soul of their dear one in bringing him further on 
the way to bliss. Dedications with this intention are called works 
done 'for the sake of Bodhi' or 'Eko' {Prandmana). With the 
Japanese Buddhists the community of believers extends to all spirits 
in any states of existence. Travellers in Japan will see monumental 
stones raised by the roadside, with the nearly uniform inscription, 
Sangai Banrei Kuy6 no To. It means 'the Tope erected for the 
(spiritual) benefit of all the spirits in the three worlds'. The erection 
is usually the work of a private person, and is carried out with solemn 
ceremony and recitations of sacred texts. The practice has even been 
extended to enemies in war. After the Korean expedition in the 
sixteenth century, the Prince of Satsuma, the most warlike of the 
feudal lords, erected a monimient in the graveyards of the Koya, 
with the inscription Teki mikaia jimbotsu h&ryo kuyO notame^ i. e. ' Dedi- 
cated to the spiritual welfare of those who died in the recent war, 
both on the enemy's side and on our side.' 

The Prince Regent further initiated various institutions for the 
encouragement of learmng and the extension of charity. Temples and 
monasteries were built, and a central cathedral was erected near the 
capital, dedicated to the Buddha Lochana, one of the spiritual bodies 
of Buddha. The images of the various celestial beings named in the 
sacred texts furnish the best relics of Japanese sculpture. 

In the following four centuries, known as the Heian period^^ the 
organization of the terrestrial hierarchies made great advances. The 
Hiei school on the mountain near KyCto was founded on the teachings 
of the ' Lotus of the True Law ', and propagated the belief in the 
Buddha who is a manifestation of the Eternal Buddha. Faith in him 
was the centre of all virtue. On the other hand, the Buddhism of the 
T5ji school was an extreme pantheism, affirming that everything is 
a manifestation, or even the body, of Buddha himself. The consoli- 
dation of the state, and the growing luxury of the court and the capital 
promoted the prosperity of the priests, and led to the elaboration 
of ritual and the refinement of sentiment. Buddhist art transferred 
itself to painting, and still more to poetry and literature. The bliss 
of the Buddha-lands, and the close communion of our spirits with 
^ Heian ia a name of Ky5t5, to which the capital was removed in 794. 



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156 //• Religions of China and Japan 

the saints in the heavenly worlds, were depicted in brilliant colours 
and complicated groups. More influential still was the sympathy 
towards human incidents and the beauty of nature expressed chiefly 
in Ijnical poems and romantic stories. These 83nnpathies are summed 
up in one word, * aware.* It means literally * pity ', but pity in a very 
special and profound sense. These sympathetic touches towards man 
and nature were always, or nearly so, interwoven with one another^ 
The novelists of the Heian period knew nothing 83nnpathetic in human 
incidents apart from the * aware ' in nature. What made that nature 
appeal to the human heart was the influence of Buddhism. That 
influence was based on the idea of the spiritual communion among 
all beings, and especially on the simile of the rain nourishing all the 
plants, in the fifth chapter of the 'Lotus'. The influence the 'Lotus'^ 
read and copied as a sacred work, exercised upon the Japanese, and 
its contribution to the growth of sympathy and the refinement of 
feeling, can never be over-estimated. 

The pomp and luxury of the court life and the hierarchic 
systems unhappily produced corruption : and the true religious 
spirit began to demand something mere lasting than the partial 
satisfaction of emotion, through appeals to the eye and ear. The 
pioneer of the new movement was Ktiya (a.d. 901-72). His faith 
in Amita, the Bedeemer in the Western Land of Bliss, was expressed 
in singing songs in praise of the Buddha, very similar to the practice 
of the Italian Disciplinati di Otsu Cristo. The propagation of the 
faith by singing and dancing was soon followed by the writings and 
paintings of Gtenshin (or Eshin, a.d. 942-1017), who lived ina monastery 
on Mount Hiei. His chief work, entitled Wojo TOahUy i.e. ' the princi- 
ples (of the teachings on) the birth (in Amita's land),' opened with 
a description of the miseries of various states of existenccv and then 
revealed the primal vows of Amita to save all those who believe in his 
name. It culminated in a brilliant delineation of the bliss of the Pure 
Land, and especially of the communion of saints. The writer uses the 
very expression shoju guye, which means exactly 'the communion 
of saints \ Byonin, also a monk of the Hiei (a. d. 1072-1132), was both 
more mystic in spirit and more popular in practice. Deeply impressed 
by the gospel of salvation by Amita's grace, he believed himself to 
have received a direct revelation from the Buddha in a verse which 
afSrmed that all men are common in their stock, and all works of piety 
are communicated and shared by those who are one in heart and faith. 
On this basis he tried to organize a society in which every believer 
should invoke Amita in faith that his devotion would secure the 
benefit of the whole communion. The god Kuvera was said to have 
appeared to the teacher in order to be enrolled at the opening of the 
list. 



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10. Bvddhist Influence upon the Japanese : Anesaki 157 

The hero and saint of the Amita-Buddhism appeared in the person of 
Honen (a.d. 1133-1212),^ whose religion continues to this day to be 
the most influential among the common people, and had a great 
indirect effect on Japanese literature. The greatest Japanese epic, 
not in volume but in merit and significance for. later ages, is the Heike- 
monogatari, i.e. 'The Fall of the Heikcf or Taira Clan.' This clan, 
which had succeeded to the glory of the Fujiwaras, was crushed by 
another military clan in 1185, after a brilliant era of only thirty years. 
Its fall deeply impressed the popular mind. A poet, who probably 
Jived in the thirteenth century, took up the rise and fall of the Taira 
as the subject of a narrajbive work, and Honen himself played a part 
in the episodes. One general of the falling clan, captured by the enemy, 
and another of the rising clan, disgusted with the horrors of battle, 
were converted to Honen's teaching. The epic, which opens with the 
preaching of the impermanency of worldly ^ories, closes with the 
gospel of salvation and the communion of faith. An ex-Empress, 
daughter to the head of the fallen dan, who lost all her kinsmen together 
with the Emperor, her only son, in the last battle, lives in retirement 
in an obscure nunnery among the hills near the capital. The ex- 
Emperor, father of her dead husband, visits her, and she relates her 
sad experiences and the consolations of her faith in spiritual com- 
munion and the efficacy of devotion for the sake of her dead son and 
lost kinsmen. These narrations are the most touching in the poem : 
they are in reality nothing but confessions of contemporary Buddhism, 
spoken by the most pitiful and sympathetic figure of the epic. The 
influence of the epic on the later literature has been enormous. 

[The latter part of the paper described .the rise of the Zen School 
(in the age following the thirteenth century), which is the subject of 
an independent paper by Mr. Omori, p. 128.] 

In conclusion, the author observed that the establishment of a firm 
military government in the beginning of the seventeenth century 
largely changed the aspect of society. The adaptation of Ck>nfucian 
ethics led to the decline of the Buddhist idealistic universalism in 
favour of a rigid morality of order and obedience. Whether the 
Buddhist ideals have gone for ever, or can be revived, only the 
coming generations can decide. 

^ See the author's paper (No. 4, p. 122) on this saint. 



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158 //. Religions of China arid Japan 

11 

A JAPANESE PHILOSOPHER ON SHINTO 

By J. CAREY HALL 

In the study of religions a good deal depends on the student's own 
point of view. In this, as in other subjects of research by the compara- 
tive method, the first requirement is to get a dear view of the objective 
facts upon which all or most of the competent observers are agreed. 
What are the ideals or objects of worship ? By what rites, that is, 
by what combinations of words and actions are the reverential feelings 
of the worshippers expressed ? and what influence, if any, have the 
worship and its associated beliefs upon the everyday social activities 
of those who hold the cult ? 

These questions have, so far as the old religion of Japan is concerned, 
been practically settled for English inquirers by the writings and 
translations of the well-known triad of savants. Sir E. Satow, Dr. 
W. 6. Aston, and Ptofessor B. H. Chamberlain. Dr. Aston's labours, 
confirmed in most of the essential conclusions by the researches of 
M. Bevon and Dr. Karl Florenz, have definitively fixed the position 
of Shinto, the Way of the Gods, in the field of religious development* 
It is a primitive nature worship, modified slightly by later accretions 
from Buddhism and Chinese ancestor worship. It is no higher in 
the scale of cults than was the Sun worship of the Incas of Peru« 
The most astonishing fact about it is its survival, or rather its resur- 
rection in the present day. 

Comparative mythology has enabled modem European savants to 
arrive thus at a practically unanimous judgement on the position 
of Shinto. In this paper I propose to show that their conclusion 
was anticipated nearly two centuries ago by a Japanese savant, not 
only unacquainted with the wide range of facts familiar to European 
scholars, but belonging to the strictest school of Confucianism, Dazai 
Shuntai by name (1680-1747). A word or two as to his position in 
the galaxy of philosophical writers who fiourished in Japan in the 
eighteenth century. 

Throughout the whole of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-18d7)> 
the best intellects of Japan concentrated their energies on the study 
of Chinese literature, especially the moral philosophy of the Juaha or 
Confucianists. For nearly a century the orthodox school, that of 
Chu-hi, the Thomas Aquinas of China, reigned in Japan as vigorously 
as in China itself. But the more deeply his writings were studied, 
the more pronounced became the distaste of Japanese thinkers for 
the strain of Buddhistic metaphysic which he had contrived to work 



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11. A Japanese Ptdlosopher on Shinto: Carey Hall 159 

into an amalgam with the positive morality of the Confucian canon. 
Hence two schools of dissenting thought sprang up. One of these, 
following the views of Wang Yang-ming, the Descartes of China, 
went in for intuitional illumiidsm. The other, tending to the opposite 
pole, reverted to the pure text of the Confucian books as its standard, 
rejecting the additions of later commentators of whatever school. 
It was to this sect of pure Confucianists that Dazai belonged. It 
furnished a brilliant group of writers on political and moral philosophy ; 
but its contempt for the primitive beginnings of Japan's national 
history provoked a reaction in favour of native antiquarian research, 
in which the national religion naturally occupied the first place. The 
coryphaeus of the nationalist revival, Mabuchi, was a younger con- 
temporary of Dazai. 

80 much for his point of view. He was free, at all events, from the 
patriotic bias in his study of his country's religion, and his intellectual 
powers were of a high order. We have all often heard of the three 
religions of Japan — Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism. This is 
the subject of Dazai's little treatise, the first portion of which I wish 
to bring to your notice. It is entitled Bendo Sho, a treatise on the 
ways, i. e. on the systems of doctrine, or rather of ethics, then as* now 
prevalent in Japan. Of its sixty -five pages, lees than thirteen, one- 
fifth of the whole, is devoted to Shinto : sixteen pages to Buddhism, 
and the rest, more than half of the whole treatise, to Judo, the way 
of the Literati, i. e. Confucianism. The following is his estimate of 
Shinto. 



Dazai Juk (1680-1747) ok thb Doctrinal Systbms (Ways) 
OF Japan (Shinto). 

The differences between the systems of the Schoolmen, the Buddhists, 
and the Theolaters (i.e. Shintoists) having been often orally explained 
to you, no doubt your lordships will have a general apprehension of 
the subject ; but as it has been dealt with piecemeal and the details 
are hard to remember, I shall now comply with your wishes and put 
on paper the substance of my lectures. 

That the three Systems, those of the Schoolmen, the Buddhists, and 
the Shintoists are like the three legs of a tripod, is a saying which has 
been attributed to Prince Shotoku (572-621), whom your lordships 
so deeply venerate. Its authenticity, however, cannot be admitted. 
The prince was a Buddhist, and consequently preferred that system 
to its rival the Way of the Schoolmen ; but let that pass. A tripod 
must have three legs*: and Shinto did not exist in the prince's time : 
it was not erected into a system till long after the prince's time. It 



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160 //. Religions of China and Japan 

is consequently impossible that he could have included it as one of 
the three legs of the tripod indispensably requisite for the State. As 
your lordships are devoted admirers of the prince, I am aware that 
my remarks wiU be displeasing to you ; but having been asked to 
give my opinion it would be disloyal were I not to give it without 
reserve. 

When we look back over Japanese antiquity we find that from 
Jimmu Tenno (mythical date 660-685 B. o.) till the time of the thirtieth 
emperor Kim-mei (540--671 a. d.) there was no such thing as a Doctrinal 
System in Japan. Everything was in a crude and inchoate condition. 
In the time of the thirty-second emperor Yomei (586-7) was bom 
that intelligent man known as the stable-door prince (Shotoku Taishi). 
He read books and acquired knowledge ; and in the time of the thirty- 
fourth sovereign, the empress Suiko (593-628), whilst occupying the 
position of Administrator of the Government, he established offices 
with their duties, regulated clothing and dress, and promoted etiquette 
and music, thus giving the country government and the people guidance, 
and dilTusing civilization throughout the empire. The stable-door 
prince's merits have earned for him the renown of a constructive 
sage. The prince's learning, however, whilst ample as regards Bud- 
dhism, was meagre as regards the Schoolmen. He was fond of the 
Buddhism he had so deeply studied ; but in respect of the system 
of the sages of the Central Cultured State (China) it would seem that 
he had but little knowledge. Moreover, most of what he wrote has 
not been transmitted to our times, and there is consequently a difficulty 
in arriving at a correct judgement of him. Of late there are some 
who say that a book called Kiuji Honki (i. e. Main record of old afiEairs) 
was written by him, and it is highly prized accordingly. If we look 
into this work, thinking to find therein the real system of the prince, 
we find we are greatly mistaken. It is manifest that the dictum about 
the three systems being like the three legs of a tripod could not have 
been uttered by the prince. If, indeed, the prince had ever really said 
anything of the kind he would have been greatly in error, as I shall 
proceed to show. Although this point has been touched on several 
times before, I shall now dwell on it fully, as desired. 

People nowadays believe that Shinto (the Gods' Way) is the Way of 
our Country, and that it is a distinct sjrstem which may be raided 
alongside of the Confucian System and the Buddhist System; but 
that is a great mistake. The Way of the Gods is included within 
the Way of the Sages. In the Book of Changes of the Chow djmasty 
(Chaw 7iA, 1110 B.C.) it is said :— 

* Observing the Way of the Gods of the Sky and seeing that the 
four Seasons fail not, the sage takes the Way of the Gods and therewith 
constructs his doctrine and the whole empire succumbs to it.' 



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11. A Japanese Philosopher on SMnto : Carey Hall 161 

This is the earliest passage ia which the expression ' Way of the 
Gods ' is to be found. By the Way of the Gods of the Sky is meant the 
sun, the moon, the stars and constellations, wind, rain, frost, dew, 
cold, heat, day, night, and so forth. All things between Heaven and 
Earth outside the sphere of human action are the work of the gods ; 
and so the creation of all things is due to them. It is for this reason 
that perfectly successful action is called the Way of the Gk>ds of Heaven. 
When it was said that the sages constructed their doctrine by the 
Way of the Gods, what is meant is that the Way of the Sages in every- 
thing acts with submissive respect as regards the sky, and in obedience 
to the orders of ancestors. Hence the former kings of antiquity in 
their government of the empire, gave their attention chiefly to the 
sacrifices to the sky and to the earth, to the hills and rivers, to the 
tutelary gods of the subject localities and the sacrifices of the ancestral 
temple ; and by prayer and sacrificial worship they served the gods 
and spirits. On behalf of the people they entreated for good year^t 
warding off calamities ; and by means of divination they decided 
doubtful matters. Thus in all things they paid reverence to the 
gods and spirits as being their first duty, their object being to obtain 
the help of the gods and spirits after human efforts should have done 
their utmost. 

Another remark must be made. Whilst the scholars and gentry act 
from their knowledge of principles, the common folk, being simple 
and ignorant, are mostly in doubt as to what to think on many subjects, 
and it would be difficult to bring them all to unanimity without calling 
in the gods and spirits, as an opportune resource. The sages, being 
well aware of this in their guidance of the people, proclaimed their 
commands in the name of the supreme ruler and the host of spirits. 
This is the sages' Way of the Gods. This is what is meant when it 
is said that the sages used the Way of the Gods to construct their 
83rBtem. In recent times there has arisen a school of rationalists, who 
say that the gentleman, being enlightened by reason, has no delusions 
about gods and spirits. They would throw over the gods and spirits 
altogether ; some of them alleging that gods and spirits are a theory 
invented by the sages as a device for governing the people. These 
rationalists do not know the Way of the Gk>d8. Confucius said : — ' The 
gentleman stands in awe of three things : first of all he regards with 
awe the dooms of the sky.' The dooms of the sky, being the Way 
of the Gods of the Sky, cannot be fathomed by human understanding. 
Therefore it is that the gentleman stands in awe of them. In the 
Chow Yih (Book of CSianges), in the section ' Connected arguments ', 
it is said : — ' The unfathomableness of the male and female principles 
(Yin and Tang) is called god.' The explanation of this given in the 
commentary of the diagram is : — ' How mysterious all things are is 



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162 //• Religions of China and Japan 

summed up in the word god,' (or gods, or divine). It all means that 
the gods and spirits are mysterious and imfathomable. Why it is 
that the commands (or dooms) of the sky are the business of the gods 
and spirits, not even the sages themselves understand. On what 
principle or for what reason it should be so, is beyond their ken. 
There is nothing for it but to accept the fact with awe and reverence. 
In this spirit to instruct the lower orders is by no means to hoodwink 
the people. It is not inventing the gods and spirits by way of a pious 
device. This is what the rationalists do not understand. Reflection 
will convince you of its truth. Consequently the Way of the Gods 
is contained by implication in the Way of the Sages. It is not a fact 
that there is anything that can be called the Way of the Gods apart 
from or other than that which is included in the Way of the Sages. 

What is nowadays called the Way of the Gods is a made-up thing, 
got by grafting the Way of the Gonfucianists upon Buddhism. It 
would seem that the setting up of this construction was subsequent to 
the crossing over (from China to Japan) of the Buddhism of the Shingon 
sect. Thus in 806 a.d. Kengu (K5bd Daishi), being a man of godlike 
understanding, and seeing that in Buddhism- there are matters of all 
sorts, and thinking with longing regret on the great simplicity of the 
system of the wizards and spdl-chanters of Japan, mixed together 
a compound of seven or eight parts of Buddhism with two or three 
parts of Confucianism and in this manner elaborated a sort of Way 
(or system). 

His system (i. e. Byobu Shinto) is a tissue of strained explanations, 
which could not have existed, as has been alleged, in the time of 
Shotoku Taishi. At the present day Shinto, in its services of the 
gods, makes use of the prayers and offerings in the style of the 9iingon 
sect as handed down by the Acharyas and Gomashi ^ peculiar to it. 
This is a Way of wizards and chanters of spells, and is of no importance 
in the Way of the (jrods. These wizards and spell-chanters are persons 
in the service of the gods and spirits, and consequently necessary 
to the nation. Hence we find that in the Chow Ritual there were, 
amongst the officials of the spring season, the Grand Spell-chanter, 
the Lesser Spell-chanters, the Mourning Spell-chanters, the Domain 
Spell-chanters and the Spell-chanters of curses ; the Director of wizards, 
wizards and witches. All these officials were charged with the service 
of the gods and spirits as their main duty. Each of them had his 
assigned part in the sacrifices offered in the ancestral temple of the 
Emperor, in those offered in the fiefs of the nobles, and the less important 
sacrifices, as also on other great occasions of state ceremonial. This 
whole class of functionaries were concerned wholly and solely with the 

^ PriestB who light a fiie and then offer np prayers whilst it is buming. 



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11. ^ Japanese Philosopher on Shinto : Carey Hall 168 

service of the gods and spirits, and the performance of the sacrifices 
and invocations (or spells), and their way or method was handed 
down as a special tradition in their own families. What style of 
service it was that the wizards and spell-sayers of the C!how age practised 
cannot now be clearly ascertained ; but we may be certain that it was 
not very different in its main features from the style practised by 
the Acharyas, fortune-tellers, shrine-keepers, god-masters, sibyls and 
^maJtmahi ^ of the present day* In so far as old times were unlike the 
present day, and our country is widely separated from the strange 
country (China), there will doubtless be found diversities of names 
and meanings. But the actual performances will not be so very dis- 
similar after all ; for human nature and the principles of things are 
the same in all ages. 

This Way of sorcerers and prayer-chanters, so different from the 
Way of the gentleman, must seem to the latter a childish performance, 
an outlandish or even ludicrous proceeding ; but as it does no harm 
to the state, the sage emperors and enlightened kings of old did not 
interfere with it. As it was for the service of the gods, they said, We 
shall leave it to them; and so they made use of it and included its 
professionals in the official hierarchy. In later ages when it went so 
far as to make sacrificial victims of men, they put it under control. 
Of course nothing of the kind was allowed in the time of the former 
kings. Seeing, then, that sorcerers and prayer-chanters have a special 
Way of their own, apart from the Way of ordinary people, what use 
would it be for ordinary people to learn this peculiar Way ? Men 
nowadays who study Shinto raise a god-altar inside a dirty house* 
and, dressed up in durty garments, present dirty offerings, worshipping 
the gods early and late in the style of the sorcerers and prayer-chanters, 
belittling and pestering the gods and spirits ; until at last some of 
these devotees go mad. What the present day Shintoists call the 
* Spirit-light ' y& the Buddhistic Nyorai (i. e. Tathagata). What they 
call the * Spirit-light of the heart* is the Buddhistic heart- Amida, 
the Nyorai (Tathagata) of original perception. Their 'root-country' 
or * bottom-country ' is simply the state of after death. Their inner 
and outer purification, their purifying of the six roots and so forth, 
is merely the Buddhistic way of eliminating the troubled mind and 
seeking BoddfU (enlightenment). In particular, the purifying of the 
six roots, mentioned in the Hokhe-Kyo (the Sutra of the Lotus of the 
Good Law), has simply been stolen by the Shintoists and set up as 
a part of their doctrine. Altogether the Shintoists of to-day, whether 
they be of the Tui-iehi or the San-gen schools, are based on Buddhism, 
from which they have selected what suited them ; and though outwardly 

^ Buddhist devotees who annually repair to a mountain to give themselves 
up to prayer and rdlgioos ezeroi8eB--only from the Shingon and Tendai sects. 

m2 



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164 //. Religions of China and Japan 

they are opposed to Buddhism, in reality they are both of the same 
kidney. 

There is no mention in the ancient records nor in the ancient popular 
writings of what nowadays is called Shinto, because there was nothing 
of the sort in existence. From this you will understand that in the time 
of Shotoku Taishi the Way of the Gods had not come into being. As 
I have said above, the phrase, Way of the Gods, occurs in the Ckaw Tih 
(Book of Changes), meaning one of the subjects included in the Way 
of the Sages ; jret the notion that the Way of the Gods means the Way 
of wizards and prayer-chanters is widely entertained at the present 
day, and many, from the highest in the land to the lowest ranks of 
the people, are taking to the study of it with gusto. This is a great 
misapprehension ; a downright fallacy. The Way of wizards and 
prayer-chanters is concerned exclusively with the services of the gods 
and spirits, and has no connexion with self-discipline, the regulation 
of the family, the government of the country, or the administration 
of the empire. Consequently, every one outside of the ranks of the 
wizards and prayer-chanters can well afford to remain in ignorance 
of it, without the smallest disadvantage. It is not a study fit for 
scholars and gentlemen to pursue. 

In the Central Culture State (China), towards the close of the Chow 
dynasty, the Way (or system) of Meh Ti had great vogue and was 
considered as on a par with that of Confucius; insomuch that the two 
names were bracketed together, *Kung-Meh,' their followers, the 
literates and Mehists, being rivals. Meh's system subsequently fell 
into decay ; and under the Han dynasty the Hwang-Lao Way rose- 
into prominence. This was the system of Lao-tsze (Taoism) ; but 
in order to add dignity to it, the Yellow Emperor, Hwang Ti, was 
claimed as its founder ; and so the two names Hwang-(Ti) and Lao- 
(tsze) were joined together. From the time of the eastern Han dynasty^ 
(a. d. 26-220) Buddhism entered the Central Culture State and became 
widely disseminated. Hence it happened that subsequent to that 
era, the Ways of Shaka (Buddha) and of Lao-tsze were put in line- 
with the Way of Confucius, and the phrase Ju-ahih-tao (i. e. Confucian- 
ists, Buddhists, and Taoists) came into use. The giving of the name 
*Way' (Tao) to Lao-tsze's system is because his teaching was on 
the subject of Tao (Way). These are what are known as the San-Kiofh 
(i. e. Three doctrines or moral systems). In our country the doctrine 
of the Way (Taoism) has had no vogue. The recent vogue of Shinto 
is due to the notion that it is our country's system ; people not being 
aware that this tradition of wizards and prayer-chanters is an extremely^ 
insignificant sort of Way. The notion that, Confucianism being the 
Way of China and Buddhism being the Way of India, that of the 
gods is the Way of Japan, and that, these tluree being like the three. 



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11. A Japanese Philosopher on Shinto : Carey Hall 165 

legs of a tripod and of equal worth, no one of them ought to be dk- 
carded, is, I oonsider, a misconception much to be regretted. 

A few words of comment on Dazai's estimate of Shinto may be 
offered. First of all, be it noted that it is in substantial agreement 
with the conclusions of European savants ; the meagre and primitive 
elements of Shinto hardly deserve to be called a religion, certainly 
not a system of religion. Secondly, Dazai's method of inquiry is, 
in substance, that of modem savants, the method of comparison. 
But how scanty were Dazai's materials as compared with those now 
open to inquirers. The only country besides his own with whose 
history, manners, and ideas he was acquainted was China ; and in 
resorting to the Ritual of the Chow dynasty for a parallel with Japan's 
religious phenomena he went to the right place. The religious evolu- 
tion of the Japanese people in the sixth and seventh centuries of our 
era was at the same stage as that of China as depicted in the Chow 
ritual some eighteen centuries earlier. In both cases religion then 
consisted of two elements, ceremonies and magic. The ministers of 
religion were wizards and witches and chanters of spells. That there 
was any element of moral teaching combined with these ideas was 
the false pretension which evoked Dazai's crushing refutation. 



12 

LES ANCIENS RITUELS DU SHINTO 
consid6r]6s COMME FORMULES MAGIQUES 

Par MICHEL REVON 

LoBSQu'oN ^tudie le Shinto k la lumidre de la science comparative, 
on y pent remarquer un trds grand nombre de points oil, sous la 
religion, transparatt Pantique magie. Dans un ouvrage recent, j'ai 
relev6, ^ et Uk, les traces magiques qu'ofibne la Mythologie japonaise,^ 
et je me propose d'^tudier la question d'une manidre syst^matique 
dans un autre volume, relatif au Culte, c'est-JHlire audomaine pratique 
o^ cette magie se manifesto le mieux k Tobservateur. Pour I'instant, 
xaoa dessein est seulement de montrer, par un rapide coup d'oeil sur 
les Rituels, que ces vieux documents sont, avant tout, des f ormules 
ail magie et religion se confondent, mais oil I'esprit magique domine 
encore le sentiment religieux. 

^ V. Le SMntoisme, Ptris* 1907, t. i« Index, s. v. ' Magie '. 



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166 //. Religions of China and Japan 

Rien d'^tonnant k oe caraotdre primitif des Rituels, pour qui oon- 
siddre leur antiquity. En effet, s'ils apparaissent pour la premiere 
foiB dans le Engishihi (' Bdgles de Tire Engi '), en 927 de noire ire, 
oes textes n'en furent pas moins, en g^n^ral, d'une composition orale» 
peut-dtre mdme d'une redaction 6crite bien plus reoul^. Ce sont 
des f ormules archalques, dont les lettr^s du x« sidcle ne comprenaient 
pas toujours le sens, et dont la forme, arrfit^e sans doute, dans nombre 
de cas, dds le vn^ sidole, laisse assez entrevoir la lointaine origine 
des id^ qui en oonstitudrent le fond. Si done les mythes japonais, 
reoueillis au vm^ sidcle seulement dans les plus anciens terits qui 
nous soient rest^s, abondent en vieuz r^cits oil int^rvient sans oesse 
la magie, & plus forte raison devra-t-elle se retrouver dans les Rituels, 
c'est-JHlire dans des textes ant^rieurs, gardte aveo soin par Tesprit 
oonservateur du saoerdooe et maintenus d'autant plus fid^ment 
qu'on attaohait, oomme nous Tallons voir, une vertu spteiale k leur 
teneur. 

Le mot norUo (jj|^ ^), qui dteigne ces doouments, ne pent 
gudre nous servir k les oaraot^riser. Nori signifie * dire ' ; (o est 
resti obsour, malgr6 tons les efforts des philologues indigenes ; mais 
oomme norUo ne paratt 6tre que le premier ^l^ment du oompos6 noriio- 
goU> (jp^ ^1^), frequent dans les anciens textes, et oii le mot 
hoio {goto par adoucissement) signifie sfirement 'paroles,* on voit 
que le sens de Texpression est celui de * Paroles prononc^/ Le 
choix de ce nom donn6 aux Rituels montre d^jit qu'on semblait 
accorder plus d'int^rSt aux mots qui les compoeent qu'aux id6es 
qu'ils peuvent contenir. ' Paroles prononc^ ' s'applique moins bien 
ik une pridre qu'ik une formule magique. Mais pour 6tablir, contre 
Topinion accept^e jusqu'ik ce jour, que les Rituels ne sont pas de 
simples pridres, il f aut observer ce qui se trouve sous cette Etiquette 
si vague de norito, verifier si ces textes ne constituent pas plutSt des 
f ormules dont la rteitation produit un effet direct sur la volont^ des 
dieux, dont les phrases cadenc^ doivent 6tre prononc^ sans erreur, 
dont le rdle pent se combiner avec d'autres procMte magiques. C'est 
ce que nous allons examiner en feuilletant les 27 Rituels que nous 
a conserve le Engishihi. 

Le Rituel no. i {Toahigohi no MaUuri) 6tait prononc^ chaque annte, 
au moment des semailles, en vue d'obtenir une bonne moisson. Le 
Nakaiomi (1^ ^» * ministre interm^diaire ') qui le rteitait, comme 
repr^ntant sacerdotal de I'empereur, s'adressait aux dieux en ces 
termes : * Je declare, en presence des souverains dieux de la Moisson : 
Si les dieux souverains veulent donner en ^pis longs de huit largeurs 
de main et en ^pis abondants la moisson tardive qu'ils accorderont. 



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12. Les Andens Rituels du Shinto : Revon 167 

la moiBson tardive prodaite en se faisant d^utter Tteume des bras 
et en r^unissant la boue entre les cuisses oppos6es, je les oomblerai 
de louanges en dressant les pr6mices en un millier d'^pis, en maintes 
centaines d'^pis, et, ^levant haut les sommets des jarres {k 8ak6), 
disposant en rangs les ventres des jarres, Qe leur ofErirai oes pr^mioes] 
en jus et en 6fiJ* Suit one ^um^ration d'autres offrandes, parmi 
lesquelles nous remarquons un oheval Uano, un pore blanc et un coq 
blano. Or, le Kogoahai, de Tan 807, nous fait oonnattre Tongine 
l^ndaire de oe detail : Mi-toshi no Kami, * le dieu de I'auguste 
Moisson,' ayant jeti sa malediction sur les rizidres, les devins obtinrent 
cependant de lui, par le don de oes mdmes animauz blancs, le secret 
d'un prooM6 magique qui leur permit de sauver la r6colte compromise. 
Notre rituel repose done sur une histoire de magie ; et d'autres details 
encore, qui reparaitront plus nettement dans certains des rituels 
suivants, se rattachent dAjk k ce mdme ordre d'id6es. Tout ce que 
je veuz retenir de ce premier texte, c'est le caractdre conditionnel des 
ofiErandes qui doivent obtenir le r^sultat d^sird. La mfime precaution 
se retrouve d'ailleurs, dans les mdmes termes, vers la fin de notre 
document, oil I'officiant invoque les dieux qui pr6sident au depart 
des eauz dont va d^pendre Tirrigation. En somme, ce rituel est bien 
moins une pridre qu'un contrat, une convention positive oik les dieux 
re^oivent d'avanoe la remuneration promise en echange des services 
qu'on attend d'euz, et se trouvent ainsi moralement contraints de les 
rendre. Dans un hymne vedique, qui aocompagnait les rites magiques 
employes en vue d'un heureuz voyage d'affaires, Indra est invoque 
en qualite de ' commer9ant,' ' sans doute,' dit Victor Henry ,^ ^paroe 
qu'il vend ses faveurs aux gens pieux en echange de leurs oblations.' 
C'est exaotement I'attitude que nos vieux Japonais prStent k leurs 
dieux dans le Bituel des semailles, et nous voyons ainsi, dds le debut 
de notre recueil, quelle sera la nature familiere des relations entre 
ces dieux trop humains etles magiciens sacerdotaux qui vont exploiter 
leur puissance utile. 

Le Rituel no. ii (Kastiga Maiswri) est bien moins ancien que le 
precedent (il ne date que du milieu du ix« sidcle), et par suite il ne 
presente pas le meme interet au point de vue qui nous occupe. On 
pent remarquer oependant que, des quatre dieux adores au temple 
de Kasuga, les deux premiers, Take-mika-dzuchi et Futsu-nushi, 
etaient representee par des sabres magiques, tandis que les deux 
demiers, Koyane et sa f emme, nous rappellent la fameuse eclipse oil 
ce dieu, par ses * puissantes paroles rituelles,' contribua au retour 
de la deesse du Soleil. Le texte, d'ailleurs, implique encore, bien 
que sous une forme plus discrete, I'idee du lien necessaire qui doit 
unir les c^bandes aux services rendus ; car c'est * en consequence ' 
' La Magie dana Flnde antique, p. 112, n. 3. 



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168 //• Religions of China and Japan 

de ces offrandes qu'on demande aux dieux de prot^ger le souverain 
et sa oour. 

Le Bituel no. iii (Hiroae Oho-imi no MaUuri) s'adresse k la d^esse 
de la Nourriture, one des figures mattresses du plus anoien Shintd ; 
par malheur, le texte aotuel ne paralt Stre qu'un remaniement du 
norito primitif , qui aurait 6ti perdu. H nous suffira de noter qu'ici 
encore, les fiddles de la ddesse font aveo elle un maroh6 : tout en lui 
apportant diverses ofiErandes, ils lui en promettent d'autres pour le 
cas oiH la moisson serait trte abondante ; bref , ils la s6duisent par 
Tappat d'une prime. En mdme temps, ils demandent aux dieux 
des ravins d'envoyer aveo mod6ration les eaux nteessaires k Tirrigation 
des f ermes imp6riales, en les assurant que, s'ils remplissent bien cette 
fonction, tons les intdress^, depuis les princes et les hauts f onction- 
naires jusqu'aux demiers serviteurs de Texploitation, viendront leur 
apporter, un certain jour, des montagnes d'oSrandes, ^ en plongeant 
la racine du cou k la manidre des cormorans.' 

Un texte plus int^ressant est le Rituel no. iv (Taiavia no Kaze no 
Kami no Maiauri), document tr^ ancien qui nous raconte sa propre 
origine l^endaire. Durant plusieurs ann6es, des dieux inconnus ont 
gach6 toutes les r6coltes. Les devins n'ont pu d6couvrir quels sont 
ces dieux. Alors le souverain lui-mdme * daigne les conjurer,' et ils 
se ddvoilent k lui dans un rSve. Ce sont * Tauguste Pilier du Ciel 
et Tauguste Pilier du Pays', les dieux des Vents qui soutiennent 
Pordre du monde. Us r6clament certaines ofErandes, la fondation 
d'un temple k Tatsuta, une liturgie ; moyennant quoi, ils * f eront 
m&rir les choses produites par le grand et auguste Peuple de la r^on 
qui est sous le ciel, depuis les cinq espdces de c6r6ales jusqu'& la moindre 
feuille de legume.' Ici, ce sont les dieux qui poeent leurs conditions. 
On s'empresse de les remplir, * sans rien omettre.' Mais il semble 
que le souvenir des calamity pass^ ait laiss6 quelque m&Bance ; 
car, en mfime temps qu'on fait les offrandes pr6sentes, on annonce 
encore de futurs cadeaux, pour I'automne : si d'ioi-Ub les dieux n'ont 
pas envoys * les mauvais vents et la violence des eaux ', mais * hiai 
et fait mtbrir ' la moisson, on leur en accordera les pr6mices. Ce sera 
leur petite commission. 

Les Bituels nos. v et vi peuvent dtre n^ligte,enraisonde I'obscurit^ 
qui les entoure. On ne sait mSme pas en I'honneur de quels dieux 
ils furent dtablis k I'origine, et leur texte est trop pauvre pour qu'on 
en tire quelque chose. Le Rituel no. vii {Minadssuki no Tsukinami no 
Maisuri) ne nous arrStera pas davantage, malgr^ sa haute antiquity, 
car il est presque identique au Rituel no. i. 

Arrivons done au Rituel no. viii, OhoUmo-Hogahi, c.-i-d. ^ Porte- 
bonheur du Grand Palais.' Ce titre m6me nous laisse Ai\k pressentir 
le caractdre magique du document. En effet, nous trouvons d'abord 



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12. Les Andens Ritnels du Shinto :< Revcm 169 

ce Rituel d^fini, dans son propre texte, par les mots ama tsu kuswhi 
ihahi-goio 0^ ^^ ^h V^ signifient, selon moi: Mes celestes 
paroles magiques proteotrices.' H s^agit d'une f ormule dont la recita- 
tion doit floigner toute calamity da Palais, oomme f erait une amulette ; 
et ce qui le montre bien; c'est Timportance attribute k la r^gularit^ 
parf aite des mots prononc^ : car, dans on autre passage, on prie 
certains dieuz 'Correcteurs' {NahOf ||[) de redresser toutes les omis- 
sions qu*ils auraient pu voir ou entendre dans les rites ou les paroles 
de la c^6monie. Cette c^r^monie elle-mSme nous 6claire pleinement 
sur le caractdre magique du rituel qui en faisait partie. Nous en 
avons la description dans le Oi-shiki, au milieu du ix« sidcle (v. Sir 
Ernest Satow, Trans, of the Aeiai. 3oc. of Japan, vol. ix. part ii, 
p. 192 seq.). Un cort^e sacerdotal, oii Ton distingue surtout les 
Nakatomi, les Imibe (pr6tres abstinents, ^^) et les vestales, 
parcourt le Palais en tons sens ; et en divers endroits, depuis la grande 
salle d'audience jusqu'& la chambre de bains, jusqu'au priv6 mdme 
de Fempereur, les vestales font des aspersions de riz et de sak6, tandis 
que les Imibe suspendent des pierres pr6cieuses aux quatre angles 
des pidces visittes. Nous observons ioi, d'abord, une application de 
la coutume, appel6e sammai, qui consistait k rdpandre du riz pour 
barter les mauvais esprits. Quelle que soit la raison de cette cou- 
tume (simple appat jet6 aux demons, ou, conmie le suppose M. Aston, 
Shinto, p. 190, emploi symbolique de grains dont la forme reprisente 
un des aspects de la puissance g6n6ratrice, de la force vitale qui combat 
les maladies et la mort), en tout cas le rite en question ^tait trds 
pratiqu6 dans la magie japonaise. On ^arpiUait du riz & Tint^rieur 
de la hutte oil une f enmie allait accoucher ; dans la divination aux 
carrefours (tauji-vra), on marquait parfois sur le chemin une limite, 
oik Ton parsemait 6galement du riz, pour 6couter ensuite comme un 
oracle les paroles du premier passant qui traversait cette ligne ensor- 
cel^ ; et une vieille l^ende nous conte comment, lorsque le FUs des 
dieux descendit du ciel sur le mont Takachiho, des grains de riz f urent 
lanc6s k la vol^ dans les airs pour disperser les t6ndbres du ciel. MSme 
emploi magique des joyaux pour combattre les mauvaises influences. 
A travers toute la mytholpgie japonaise on voit 6tinceler des joyaux, 
dont certains sont des talismans : joyaux que les dieux suspencUrent, 
lors de F^clipse, aux plus hautes branches de la cl6ydre sacr6e, et 
dont I'telat devait rappeler le soleil ; joyaux qui, dans un autre r6cit 
f ameux, permettent de faire monter ou descendre k volont^ les flots 
de la mer ; joyaux qui visent mSme k ressusciter les morts, comme 
nous le verrons plus loin. On s'explique done tr^s bien le rdle magique 
de ces joyaux rouges qui, promente dans les appartements imp6riaux, 
font reculer partout devant leur clart6 les obscures menaces de Tin- 



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170 //. ; Religions of China and Japan 

visible. Un autre point encore k remarquer, c'est que, d'apres notre 
deaoription,'le8 Imibe r6citent le ritael *k voix basse.' Les sorciers 
polynteiens aussi disaient leurs pridres sur un ton bas et chantant, 
peut-6tre mdme sifiSant, analogue k la voix sifflante et chuchot- 
tante qu'ils attribuaient k leurs dieuz ; et au Japon m6me, dans la 
divination par la harpe (hoto-ura), une des pratiques de I'officiant 
consistait en un sifflement compliqu6. Au demeurant, toute cette 
atmosphere magique qui enveloppe notre rituel s'aocorde bien avec 
son texte lui-meme. On y precise d'abord les rites propitiatoires que 
les Imibe ont accomplis en abattant les arbres destinte k la construction 
du palais. Puis, on rappelle des souvenirs mythiques qui assurent 
d'avance I'efScacit^ de la formule r6cit^. On demande ensuite aux 
dieux protecteurs du Palais d'en ^carter diverses calamit^s, dont 
plusieurs, comme la morsure des serpents ou les souillUres d'oiseau 
tombant par le trou k f umto du toit, constituent des ^ offenses ' 
rituelles. Enfin, de mdme qu'on invoque les dieux Correoteurs pour 
toute omission possible, on insiste sur ce fait que les * innombrables 
cordons de grains porte-bonheur' ont 6t6 fabriqute par les joailliers 
sacr^s * en prenant grand soin d'6viter toute pollution et d'observer 
une propret6 parfaite.' Tous ces scrupules n'indiquent-ils pas assez 
I'importanoe magique qu'on attachait k chacun des rites de la c6r6- 
monie, comme aux moindres paroles de Tincantation ? 

Le Rituel no. ix {Mikado JUatsuri, 'Fete des Sublimes Portes'), est 
oonsacr6 aux dieux qui gardent Tentr^e du Palais. On proclame 
leurs * augustes noms ' parce qu'ils savent expulser les mauvaises 
influences des dieux * tortus ' {maga, Jj^ ^) et surveiller divinement 
les all6es et venues de la joum6e. Ge sont, pour ainsi dire, des con- 
cierges magiques, et leur caractdre mSme suffit k montrer la nature 
du norito, trte court, qui leur est adress6. 

Hatons-nous d'en venir au Rituel no. x, qui est d'une tout autre 
importance. CTest le Rituel de la Grande Purification (Oho-harahi, 
^ Ifij^* Le caractdre magique de ce texte est si Evident que M. Aston, 
qui d^finissait pourtant les norito comme des ' pridres ', emploie le 
mot * formule ' pour le dtoigner.^ Cette formule 6tait r6citte par 
le chef des Nakatomi, & la fin du &^ et du 12™« mois, pour effacer 
toutes les infractions, k la f ois morales et rituelles, que le peuple entier 
avait pu commettre dans Fintervalle. Le seul choix de ces dates 
est d^ik significatif : la c6r6monie d'6t6 nous rappelle ces lustrations 
qu'on pratiquait autrefois, le soir de la Saint- Jean, dans divers pays 
d'Europe, et la c^r^monie de fin d'annte surtout r^pond bien au besoin 
de renouvellement qu'^prouvent la plupart des hommes k cette date, 
et qui, au Japon, prend encore la forme populaire d'un exorcisme 

^ Shinto, pp. 3 et 294. 



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12^ Les Anciens Rituels du Shinto: Revon 171 

dramatist, appel^ Uuina, ou 'expulsion des d^ons.' La Grande 
Porifioation oomportait divers rites ; mais on mentionne souvent le 
Bituel oomme s'il oonstituait k lui seal toute la o^r6monie, oe qui 
prouve bien d6jjk le pouvoir magique qu'on attribuait aux paroles 
r6cit^. Ce Rituel commence par declarer nettement que o'est 
Tempereur qui *daigne purifier et laver* (|^ i^ )4l ]^ ^ 
harahi'tamahi hiyome-tamafu) les offenses oommises : par oik Ton voit 
que les dieux qui, un peu plus loin, vont 6tre appelte k intervenir, 
jouent en r6alit6 un role inf^rieur au sien et n'agissent, pour ainsi 
dire, que sur son ordre. Le droit d'absolution qu'il exerce ainsi 
d6rive de la souverainet6 g^n^rale que lui ont ' respeotueusement ' 
conf6r6e les dieux celestes, aux origines de la dynastie, oomme le 
rappdle aussitdt la suite du texte. Vient alors Tdnum^ration des 
crimes rituels, volontaires ou non, qu'il s'agit d'effacer. On peut 
relever sur cette liste au moins deux infractions qui int^ressent notre 
sujet. L'une est le fait de 'planter des baguettes' (kuahi'doskiy 
$ jM) dans les rizidres, probablement avec des incantations, de manidre 
ib dresser ainsi des bomes magiques sur le champ dont on se pr6tend 
propri^taire (c'est I'interpr^tation du Nthongi-Shiki). L'autre infrac* 
tion (maji-mono aeru teumi ^ ^ j^ ^) est celle qui consiste k 
' faire des sortileges,' soit d'une manidre g^n^rale, comme dans les 
histoires d'envoutement que nous trouvons d6}k dans le Kojiki, soit 
en particulier contre les b^tes du voisin, si Ton prtfdre joindre ce 
passage k I'expression kemono-tafuahi (^ "f^ J^),'tuer les animaux,' 
qui le pr6cMe. En tout cas, le caract<lre chinois employ^ montre 
qu'il s'agit de magie noire ; et c'est pourquoi le norito, qui pourtant 
est lui-m6me un texte magique, n'hMte pas k la condamner. Notre 
Bituel indique ensuite que le Grand-Nakatomi, lorsque ces fautes 
sont commises, doit preparer d'une certaine manidre des joncs, destinte 
sans doute k f oumir une sorte de balai purificatoire, puis reciter ' les 
puissantes paroles rituelles du celeste rituel ' {ama t8U norito no ftUo 
worOo-ffoto, ^ 1^ lie, ^ 75r iC |£ PI ^). Les commentateurs 
indigenes ont longtemps cherch6 k quelle myst^rieuse incantation 
pouvait bien faire allusion ce passage, sans voir qu'il s'appliquait tout 
simplement k notre norito lui-m6me. C'est le rituel 'celeste,' que les 
dieux r^vAdrent Ui-haut k I'ancdtre des empereurs, et dont son descen- 
dant faitrdp^ter les 'puissantes paroles ' : expression destinte jirappeler 
justement la vertu intrinsdque de cette prteieuse f ormule. Lorsqu'on 
la r6citera ainsi, ajoute notre texte, les dieux du ciel et de la terre 
s'approcheront pour teouter, et toutes les offenses disparaitront, 
balay6es, entraSn6es jusqu'ji I'oc^an par la d^esse des torrents, aval6es 
par la d^esse des tourbillons marins, pouss^ aux Enfers par le dieu 
dont le souf9e chasse devant lui toutes les impuret^s, et Ut, saisies 



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172 11^ Religions of China and Japan 

enfin par une divinity sonterraine qui les bannira poor jamais. Mani- 
f estement, oob divinitte ne sont que quatre rouages de la maohine que 
Tempereur fait mettre en branle par la main du Orand-Nakatomi, 
du magicien qui sait les mots oonsacr^s auxquels les dieux euz-mdmes 
ob^issent. Au demeurant, pour plus de sfiret^, on amdne un oheval 
dont les oreilles dress^es doivent inciter ces dieux k 6couter d'une 
manidre attentive, de mSme que les coqs chantants» le feu allum^, 
tons les procMte magiques du mythe de Tficlipse devaient rappeler 
le soleil, ou de mfime encore que, dans un autre rteit des vieilles 
annales shintolstee,^ on n'avait qu'it siffler pour que le vent se levat. 
Enfin, ordre est donn^ aux Urabe ( \% ^, ^devins') de jeter itlarividre 
les o£Erande8 expiatoires, auxquelles une sympathie myst6rieuse unit 
les p6chte eux-mdmes, qui disparattront aveo Tobjet auquel ib ont 
4t6 attach^, Le Rituel s'achdve ainsi par un dernier trait de oette 
magie qui Pa inspire tout enti^. 

Le Rituel no, xi est une invocation que les savants h6r6ditaire8 du 
Yamato, descendants des lettr6s cor6ens qui avaient introduit au 
Japon les etudes chinoises, pronon9aient avant la o&6monie de la 
Grande Purification. On les voit pr6ienter k Tempereur une efBgie 
humaine argents, qui devait jouer le role de bouc ^missaire en 
teartant de lui les calamity, et un sabre dor6 sur lequel il soufSait 
avant qu'on I'emportat, dans le m6me dessein d'tioigner k la fois, 
aprds ce transfert magique, les fautes commises et leur support 
matMel. Ge norito d'ailleurs, par une exception unique dans notre 
recueil, est tout k fait chinois, de fond comme de forme, et c'est pour- 
quoi nous n*y insisterons pas. 

Le Rituel no. xii, au contraire, est un des plus anciens norito d'in- 
spiration japonaise. Son titre, Ho-ahidzume (^ ^), / Apaisement du 
Feu,* indique assez le but de la formule, qui n'est point d'honorer 
le dieu duTeu, mais de le bannir du Palais. Le texte rappeUe d'abord, 
comme dans le Rituel no. x, la r6v^tion celeste qui a confix k I'em- 
pereur les * puissantes paroles ' en vertu desqueUes il est sup6rieur 
k ce dieu. On 6voque ensuite le crime atroce de cet * enfant an 
mauvais coBur,' qui fit p6rir sa mdre en la brulant l(»rsqu'elle le mettait 
an monde. Puis, on raconte comment Izanami elle-mfime, mau- 
dissant ce fils qui avait caus6 sa mort, remonta des Enf ers pour 
enfanter la D^esse de FEau, la €k>urde, la Plante des rividres et la 
Princesse des montagnes d'argUe (y^ Jfgjf, ^ )\\ ||5j jg [If jglh 
quatre choses divines dont elle enseigna aussitot I'usage magique contre 
Fincendie. Enfin, pour que ce dieu m6ohant *daigne n'fitre pas 
terriblement vif de cceur dans le Palais de Fauguste Souverain,' 
on le comble d'offrandes qui achdveront de le sMuire et de le dompter. 
^ Nihongi, voL i, p. 106 de la trad. Aston. 



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12. Les Andens Rituek du Shinto : Revon 178 

Ce norito, d'affleors, 6tait aooompagn6 de rites qui oonsistaient surtout 
dans raUninage d'un feu, aux quatre coins ext^rieurs de Fenceinte du 
Palais, ayeo Tappaieil primitif (Af-itn-iMu) dont on pent voir un 
exemplaire au Mus6e de rUniversit^ d'Ozford. Les o£Boiant8» ici, 
6taient les Devins, oe qui oonfirmerait encore, s'il en 6tait besoin, le 
cMaotdre magique de toute la c^monie. ^ 

Mdme esprit g6n6ral dans le Rituel no. ziii (JficAwiAe), dont Tobjet 
6tait paieillement d'employer certains dieuz k en combattre d'autres. 
Geux qu'on invoquait k oette occasion 6taient trois dieux des Routes 
et des Carref ours, que leur caractdre phallique f aisait consid^rer comme 
' dieux pr6ventifs ' (Sohe no Kami) contre les ^pid^mies qu'envoient 
les demons. Le Rituel commence par rappeler, sans grand respect, 
k ces dieux protecteurs que leurs f onctions furent inaugur^ au Oiel 
mdme, oh ils servirent iA\k le Fils des dieux. H leur dicte ensuite 
ce qu'ils ont k f aire : * Toutes les f ois que du Pays-racine, du Pajns 
profond, peuvent surgir des dtres sauvages et malveillants, n'ayez 
point de commerce ni de pourparlers avec eux, mais, s'ils vont en 
bas, veillez en bas, et s'ils vont en haut, veillez en haut, nous pro- 
t^geant contre la pollution par une garde de nuit et par une garde 
de jour.' En recompense, on leur pr^sente des oSrandes, dont on les 
prie de jouir tout en defendant les grands chemins * comme un multiple 
assemblage de rochers.' Et pour finir, le c^6brant insiste une fois 
de plus sur les ' puissantes paroles ' de sa f ormule. 

Le Rituel no. xiv ^tait destin6 & VOho-nihe, la plus solennelle des 
fetes du Shintd. Comme tous les primitifs, les anciens Japonais 
6prouvaient une vive repugnance k gouter les pr6mices de la moisson 
sans des rites pr61iminaires, qui avaient, selon moi, un but propitia- 
toire envers I'Esprit du riz (Vga no Mi-tama). C'6tait seulement 
aprds avoir accompli la cdremonie appel^e Nihi-name (*Nouvelle 
gustation') qu'on se d6cidait k manger le nouveau riz de rann^e. 
laOho-nihe (* Grande OfiErande de nourriture') 6tait une Nihi-name 
plus importante, ceUbr^e quelque temps aprds Favdnement des 
empereurs, et qui constituait pour eux une sorte de couronnement 
religieux. Cette c6r6monie, fort compliqu6e, comportait une longue 
sdrie de pr6paratif s oii la magie tenait une large place, de m6me que 
dans la partie essentielle de la fSte, oil Fempereur en personne, entour^ 
des dames d'honneur qui r6p6taient une f ormule myst^neuse, prenait 
part au zepas qu'il venait d'oSrir aux dieux ; mais le Rituel lui-mdme, 
assez banal, ne contient rien de particulier, et le seul point int^ressant 
k constater, c'est qu'il baigne, comme toujours, dans une atmosphere 
magique. 

' Poor plus de details, y. men etude sur Le Riitid du Feu dans Pancien ShiiUd^ 
Leyde, 1908, et of. Goblet d'Alviella^ Hiitoire rdigieuse du Feu, Vervien, 1887, 
p. 23 seq. et pMik 



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174 //. Religions of China and Japan 

Un autre norito dont rimportanoe n'apparait gu^re k la aeule lecture 
da texte, mais dont la valeur magique se r6vdle dds qn'on le re- 
place dans son milieu psyohologique, c'est le Bituel no« xv. Son 
titre, Mi-tama ahidzumuru {^^ |f|| "^f^h ^o^^ indique d6j& qu'il 
fl'agit d'apaiser, de calmer, de fixer 'I'auguste Esprit/ c'est-irdire 
Fesprit de Fempereur. Que va nous apprendre le texte mSme ? 
Aprds le rappel obligatoire du droit divin sur lequel la d3aia8tie f onde 
sa 80uverainet6, aprds I'^num^ration des offrandes habituelles, il 
demande aux dieux de procurer un long r^gne florissant au souverain 
et, en particulier, de 'daigner le faire rester paisiblement dans sa 
demeure, depuis ce 12°^^ mois jusqu'au 12>^« mois k venir' {hor^ 
no ahihaau yori hajimeUt hUa/ru ahihasu ni Uaru made m, tahirakeku 
ohaahi'toharo ni ohtishi'maaciahime'iamahe). On pourrait Stre tent6 de 
voir ici la crainte que le *' dieu incam6 ' ne quitte le palais oil sa pr6- 
sence, entourto des tabous que Ton connait, assure la pro6p6rit6 du 
peuple ; il semble bien cependant que ce * faire rester ' signifie simple- 
ment * faire vivre/ et dds lors, on devine le lien qui unit ce voeu 
au titre du document. H s'agit de maintenir dans son corps Tame 
imp^riale, de la rappeler au besoin si elle paraissait vouloir s'en 
6chapper, bref de renouveler magiquement la force vitale du souverain 
et de prolonger ainsi son existence. C'est le sens d'une c6r6monie 
qui se retrouve ^alement en Chine, que nous voyons mentionn^e au 
Japon dds le vn® sitele,^ et qu'on y coxmait aujourd'hui encore 
sous le nom de Chinhmsai (^ ^|^ ^). Le passage du Nihangi 
se rapporte au 11"*® mois de Tan 685, et c'est en eflfet au 11™« mois 
que notre f dte 6tait c616br6e dans le sanctuaire des prStres de la cour. 
Or, la glose identifie cette fdte avec une antique c6r6monie appelto 
Mi-iama furiahiki, 'secouement des augustes joyaux,' qui nous 
replonge en pleine magie. Le Kiujiki nous dit, en effet, qu'au moment 
oii la d6esse du Soleil donna I'investiture k I'ancStre des empereurs, 
elle lui remit dix prfeieux tr^sors : ' un miroir de la pleine mer, un 
miroir du rivage, un sabre de huit largeurs de main, un joyau de 
naissance, un joyau de retour de la mort, un joyau de perfection, un 
joyau de renvoi (des influences mauvaises) sur la route (par oii eDes 
sont venues), une feharpe k serpents, une ^harpe k guepes, et une 
6charpe k choses diverses.' EUe ajouta: 'En ecus de maJadie, rfeite k 
ces dix tr^rs les mots: Hi, fu, mi, yo, itau, mu, nana, ya, kokono, tori, 
et secoue-les yuroryura (onomatop6e). Si tu fais ainsi, les morts re- 
viendront durement k la vie.' Les objets qu'6num^re la d^esse du Soleil 
sont des talismans dont plusieurs interviennent dans la plus ancienne 
mythologie japonaise ; quant k I'incantation, elle repr6eente simple- 
ment la s^rie des nombres, de un jt dix, ce qui montre bien sa force 

* Nihmgi, ii. 373. 



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12. Les Anciens Rituek du Shinto : Revon 175 

intrins^ue et ind^pendante du sens des mots. Nous savcHis d'autre 
part que cette mSme incantation 6tait r^it6e k notre f6te par les 
jeunes vierges sacerdotales (Mi-kamtt-ko) qui ex^cutaient la kagura 
sacite, k Fimitation de la danse d'Uzume dans le mythe de r£clipse, 
tandis qu'un Nakatomi nouait des fils, qui manifestement devaient 
retenir Fame imp^riale, et qu'il enfermait dans un rfeipient clos. 
Ai-je besdn de rappeler ioi les conceptions primitiyes sur la nature 
volage de Fame, sur les procMte qui permettent de la ramener k son 
corps lorsqu'elle s'^are, sur les nceuds qu'emploient alors les sorciers^ 
en mdme temps que sur les tabous qui, d'une manidre g6n6rale, tendent 
k prot^ger la vie du chef diviq ? et n'est-il pas bien clair que notre 
rituel, si vague dans la forme, est nettement magique par les id6es 
qui en constituent le fond certain ? 

Les Bituels zvi k zxiv ne concement que les ofSces des temples 
d'Ise. Les nos. xvi et zvii sont une sorte de Rituel des semailles trds 
abr^6, et adress^ par un envoy6 imperial, dans le premier oas, k la 
d^esse du Soleil, dans le second, k la d^esse de la Nourriture. Dans 
le no. xviii, il n'est question que d'oSrandes de vStements k la d^esse 
du Soleil. Le no. xiz, qui avait encore en vue la Moisson, mais qui 
6tait rteit6 par le grand-pr^tre d'Ise, ofiEre quelques details plus int^res- 
sants. Les prStres ordinaires (KanntLshi, de Kami-nvshi, Jf^ r^ , 
^maitre du dieu,' notons-le en passant, cette Etymologic 6tant bien 
significative au point de vue magique) et les mono-imi (* abstinentes 
de choses,' c'6st-2irdire de choses impures, un autre nom des jeunes 
mi-hamu-ho que nous avons d6}k rencontr^es) sont invito k entendre 
les *pui8santes paroles ' de la formule, qui fait valoir k la d^esse du 
Soleil I'ample mesure des dons, inunenses 'comme les mers et les 
montagnes,' qui lui sont apport^s, * tandis que le Grand-Nakatomi 
lui-m6me est cach6 dans les branches d'oSrandes.' Les nos. xx et 
xxi sont des norito sans int6r6t, que pronon9aient, k I'occasion d'une 
autre f6te de la Moisson (Kan-naine, * divine gustation '), les envoyte 
impMaux, tandis que le no. xxii 6tait ricM, dans la mdme circon- 
stance, par le grand-prStre d'Ise. Le Rituel no. xxiii, pour I'intronisa- 
tion d'une princesse conmie vestale, nous livre une formule plus 
curieuse, dont on apercevra tout de suite le c6t6 magique : ^ L'oSrande, 
pour servir de b&ton aux divinity, d'une princesse sacr^e de sang 
imperial, ayant d'abord observe, suivant Tusage, la puret^ rituelle 
pendant trois ans, est faite dans le dessein que tu fasses vivre le 
Souverain d'une manidre paisible et ferme, aussi longtemps que le 
Ciel et la Terre, le Soleil et la Lune dureront. Moi, le Grand-Nakatomi, 
tenant par son milieu la lance redoutable, avec la crainte la plus pro- 
fonde je prononce cette cons^ration de la princesse par I'empereur, 
afin qu'elle puisse servir conmie un auguste b&ton.' N'avons-nous 
pas ici une survivance de ' I'abstinent ' du Japon primitif , dont I'as- 



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176 //. ReUgions of China and Japan 

cMaame ajsuurait, sous peine de mort, la fortune et la 8ant6 du village ^, 
de m&ne qu'ioi le sacrifice de la vierge imp6iiale doit garantir le 
bonhenr et la long6vit6 du souveraln ? Quant au Rituel no. xziv, 
il ne oonstitue qu'un simple avis, adress6 k la d^esse du Soleil ou it la 
dfesse de la Nourriture» de son transfert dans son nouveau temple, 
qu'on rebatissait tons les vingt ans. 

Aveo le Rituel no. xxv, nous retrouvons enfin un texte d'une certaine 
6tendue et d'un int6r6t phis g6n6ral. H est intituU : Taiari^ami wo 
uUuahi-tatemaiaturu norUo^ * Rituel pour le respectueux 61oignement 
des dieuz qui envoient des fl^aux.' Nous avons d6]k vu la mdme 
prtocoupation dans le Rituel no. xiii ; mais tandis que oelui-oi faisait 
intervenir les dieux des Routes contre les mauvais dieuz, le Rituel 
no. zxv s'adresse directement auz demons eux-mdmes; c'est done 
une veritable formule d'exoroisme, d'un caractdre magique encore 
plus apparent. Notre texte commence par rappeler comment le 
conseil supreme des dieux celestes, voulant * pacifier ' le pays avant 
la descente du futur empereur, envoya Futsu-nushi et Take-mika- 
dzuchi, qui triomphdrent des dieux terrestres et * r^duisirent au silence 
les rochers, les arbres, et jusqu'& la moindre feuille des herbes, qui 
jusqu'alors avaient eu le don de la parole.' Apr^ cet avertissement 
peu d^guis^, et d'autant plus net que, comme dit le norito, les mauvais 
dieux * connaissent bien, en vertu de leur divinity, les choses qui furent 
commenc6es dans la Plaine des hauts cieux,' on leur fait de nombreux 
cadeaux pour les squire ; et non pas seulement les offrandes ordi- 
naires d'^toffes, de poisson, degibier, de legumes, de riz, de sak6, mais 
encore, sous une forme naive, 'comme chose dans laquelle on voit 
clairement, un miroir; comme choses pour s'amuser, de pr6cieux 
grains de collier; comme choses pour tirer au loin, un arc et des 
fishes; comme chose pour frapper et couper, un sabre; comme 
chose qui part au galop, un coursier.' Enfin, aprds les avoir ainsi 
comblte de jouets nombreux et d'abondantes friandises, qu'on les 
prie d'accepter ' d'un co9ur clair, comme des offrandes pacifiques et 
su£Ssantes,' on demande avec instances k ces 'souverains dieux* 
qu'ils veuillent bien 'sans daigner dtre turbulents, sans daigner 
6tre f arouches et sans daigner nuire, se retirer aux lieux sauvages et 
purs des torrents de la montagne, et, en vertu de leur divinity, se tenir 
tranquilles.' 

Le Rituel no. xxvi, moins ancien et moins int^ressant, n'est que la 
formule employ^, k I'occasion d'un d6part d'envoy^ en Chine, pour 
oSrir des dons aux dieux marins de Sumiyoshi qui leur avaient pro- 
cur6 un port commode pour mettre k la voile. Remarquons seule- 
ment que, dans les circonstances de ce genre, les envoyte r^citaient, 

* V. men article, ■Asoeiicism (Japanese), dans V Encyclopaedia of Religion and 
Ethiea de James Hastings. 



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12. Les Andens Rituels du Shinto : .Revon 177 

en dehors de la ville, un norito adieesS exi partioulier auz dieux des 
Boutee, et qae» oomme dans le cas d'abattage des bois destinte k la 
oonstoiction da Palais, on ne conpait les arbres qui devaient fonner 
le navire qu'apr^ avoir accompli de soigneux rites propitiatoires, 
pour ^viter la colore de Tesprit qui les animait. 

Le dernier document de notre collection termine dignement la 
s^rie. Ce texte (no. zzvii) a pour titre : Idzwmo no hum no niiyakho 
no kamu TogotOy (tj ^ H ^ ^ ^ f^' '^^^ divines paroles de 
bonne fortune des chefs du pays d'Idzumo/ Ges miyakho^ d'abord in- 
d6pendant8, puis gouvemeurs h^r^ditaires avec un double pouvoir 
civil et religieux, finirent par perdre le premier, mais conserv&rent le 
second. Ce sont eux qui, aujourd'hui encore, dans cette vieille pro- 
vince, se transmettent Tallume-f eu pnmitif que leur ancdtre l^gendaire, 
le dieu Ame-no-hohi, avait re9u de la d^esse du Soleil elle-m^me, 
et que chaque grand-prStre d'Idzumo Idgue k son successeur par la 
C€r6monie appel6e hi-tmgi (^perpetuation du feu'). C^taient eux 
aussi qui, au vn°^ sidcle, pronongaient k la grande fdte de VOho- 
nihe (cf . no. ziv) la f ormule qu'on nous donne ici. Dans cette f ormule, 
trte longue, le miyakho annonce d'abord qu'il la r^ite, aprds divers 
pr6paratifs rituels, pour porter bonheur au rdgne du *dieu visible' 
qu'est le souverain. H raconte ensuite comment Ame-no-hohi, puis 
d'autres ambassadeurs cflestes, furent envoy^s sur terre pour preparer 
la descente du Eils des dieux; comment Ohonamochi, le roi divin 
d'Idzumo, celui qui acheva de 'fabriquer la terre' avec I'aide d'un 
magicien stranger et qui, le premier, fonda un gouvemement dans 
cette importante region de I'archipel, fut persuad6 par les envoy^s 
celestes d'abandonner au Fils des dieux sa domination temporeUe; 
comment il se d^doubla alors, par une curieuse application de I'id^e 
japonaise qui admet la separation possible des ames multiples de 
I'homme, attachant son ' esprit doux ' {nigi-tama) h un miroir-f 6tiche 
qu'U fit d6poeer dans un temple du Yamato, tandis que son ' esprit rude ' 
(ara-iama) allait reposer dans le grand temple d'Idzumo ; et comment 
enfin Ame-no-hohi retpxt d'en haut I'ordre de b6nir d^sormais le sou- 
verain, afin que son age f dt long, solide et heureux. Cost en execution 
de ce commandement qu'intervient, comme il le declare lui-mdme, le 
descendant d' Ame-no-hohi. H apporte k I'empereur des 'tr6sors 
diviils ' dont, chose pr^cieuse pour nous, il d^finit clairement le r61e 
magique. Ce sont d'abord soixante joyaux, blancs, rouges et verts. 
*Ces joyaux blancs sont les grands et augustes cheveux blancs 
(auxquds votre Majesty doit parvenir); les joyaux rouges sont la 
physionomie auguste, pleine de sant6, vermeille ; et les joyaux verts 
marins sont I'harmonieuse convenance avec laquelle votre Majesty 
etablira de tons cdt6s, comme avec la lame d'un large sabre, son grand 
et auguste rdgne durable sur le grand Pays des huit Qes.' Manifeste- 

G.K.I N 



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178 //• Religions of China and Japan 

ment, nous avons ici un ccis typique de oette oroyanoe k Taotion du 
semblable siir le semblable qui est on des dogmes essentiels de rhomme 
primitif . De mdme que les M61aii69ieii8, par exemple, attriboent k 
oertaiiies pierres une influence qui correspond k leur forme ^, de mdme 
nos Japonais primitifs attaohent k leurs joyanx une puissance qui 
s'accorde aveo leur couleur. La formule continue d'ailleurs par 
d'autres applications de ce principe de magie imitative : 'Gomme 
oe cheval blano plante fermement ses sabots de devant et ses sabots 
de derridre, ainsi les piliers du Orand Palais seront fermement ^tablis 
sur les roches sup^rieures et sur les roches inf^rieures; de mdme 
qu'il dresse ses oreilles, ainsi votre Majesty gouvemera la r^on sous- 
celeste avec des oreilles toujours plus droites ; etc. . . . ' H est 
possible qu'& un certain moment oes rites soient devenus des symboles ; 
mais comment n'y pas reconnaitre, k Porigine surtout, des pratiques 
inspir^es par cette logique primitive qui a construit toujours et partout 
la magie sur les mdmes principes universels ? La fin du document 
vient d'ailleurs confirmer cette manidre de voir ; car il y est dit, 
d'abord, que les ofibrandes sont f aites en t^moignage de ' respect de 
la part du dieu/ ce qui montre bien k quel point Tempereur est regard^ 
comme sup6rieur k ce dieu lui-mSme ; ensuite, que les ' divines paroles 
de bon augure^ que prononce le c616brant lui ont 6t6 dict^ d'en 
haut, ce qui met en lumidre tout k la f ois la valeur intrinsdque de la 
formule et Fidte de r6v61ation celeste sur laquelle on f onde son pouvoir. 

Concluons. De cette 6tude rapide il ressort bien que les pr^tendues 
'pridree' de Tancien Shinto sont surtout des formules magiques, 
etablies d'aprds un plan g6n6ral qui vise toujours k un r^sultat prteis 
et forc6. Ce plan comporte, en premier lieu, le rappel des mythes 
qui garantissent d'avance Tautorite et Tefficacit^ des paroles rituelles. 
Quand on ouvre un norito, il y a bien des chances pour qu'on le voie 
conmiencer par les mots '^ ^ i^ ^ — > Takama no hara ni...\ par 
le rteit de la deliberation divine qui se tint sur la ' Plaiue des hauts 
cieuz', et d*oii derivent,non-seulement le droit politique de Tempereur, 
mais aussi sa supreme fonction sacerdotale, et par suite le pouvoir 
des prStres magiciens qui ne sont que ses deiegu^s. Tantot le Rituel 
se contente d'^voquer cette investiture fondamentale, tantot il nous 
raconte quelque mythe particulier, qui se rattache plus directement 
k la formule r^veiee. Dans tons les cas, par un renversement de 
revolution reelle des idees, on s'efforce de nous representer les pratiques 
terrestres conmie instituees k Fimitation de cer6monies celestes qui, 
evidemment, furent imaginees d'aprds les rites dont elles deviennent 
la justification. Tout en commemorant ainsi les mjrthes auxquels il 

* R H. (3odriiigton, Tht Mdaneaians, Oxford, 1891, p. 180 seq. 



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12. Les Andens Rittiels du Shinto : Revon 179 

prttend se rattaoher, le Bituel c^bre les louanges dee dieux et 
dtoombre les ofiErandes pr^senties. Assur^ment, quelle que soit 
la confianoe du magicien dans la puissance de sa formule et de ses 
rites, il pense bien que oes proo^dte ne sauraient avoir toujours un 
efifet certain, et, pour forcer la main aux dieux, il pent juger prudent 
de se concilier leur faveur par des flatteries ou par des dons* Cest 
pourquoi, tout d'abord, dans maintes civilisations, les incantations 
ressemblent k des hymnes.^ En comparaison de ces 61ans, la sobri6t6 
de nos Bituels apparait comme plus conf orme & la magie : les dieux 
n'y sont glorifies, le plus souvent, que par quelques 6pithdtes, et 
I'expression * combler de louanges ' (^ %^ ^ ^), si fr6quente 
dans ces textes, n'y intervient gu^ que dans ses rapports aveo Tinu- 
miration des ofiErandes, comme si PoflBciant voulait dire tout simple- 
ment qu'ilrend aux dieux les honneurs qui leur sont dus en leur faisant 
les cadeaux qu'ils sont en droit d'attendre. Mais si les doges sont 
plutot brefs, s'ils sont mdme remplac^s parfois par des reproches ou 
par le silence, les ofiErandes, en revanche, sont toujours abondantes 
et longuement pr6cis^; elles sont meme vant^ nalvement, avec 
une complaisance qui pourrait surprendre, si nous ne savions qu'elles 
constituent d'ordinaire la condition essentielle d'un contrat oii la 
partie humaine veut faire valoir son apport. La mdme exactitude 
se retrouve dans le soin avec lequel on s'efiEorce d'^viter ou de corriger 
toute omission, toute faute ritueUe dans la formule conmie dans la 
c^monie. Enfin, dans certains cas, cette formule elle-m£me nous 
donne le meilleur critdre de sa nature par les procMte magiques qu'eUe 
contient. 

Les ^puissantes paroles' du Bituel portent done en elles-mdmes 
la preuve de leur caraotdre magique. Mais, pour s'en persuader 
d'une manidre encore plus dteisive, il sufiSt de le replacer dans son 
milieu, dans la fSte mSme qui Tenveloppe. On constate alors que la 
formule, adresste k des dieux magiciens, par des prdtres magiciens, 
est entour6e de rites magiques. Que les dieux japonais soient des 
magiciens, c'est ce qui n'6tonnera aucun 6tudiant des religions com- 
parses. Depuis la d6esse du Soleil, invoqute dds le premier Bituel, 
et que les mythes nous montrent tantot pratiquant la magie, comme 
lorsqu'elle secoue des joyaux pour produire des enfants, tantot la 
subissant, comme lorsque les autres dieux celestes, aprds avoir eux- 
m^mes fait une divination et accumul^ tons les procMte de sorcellerie 
pour Tattirer hors de sa caveme, I'emp^hent d'y rentrer en Tarr^tant 
avec une corde mystique, jusqu'au dieu Ohonamochi, c^br6 dans 
le dernier Bituel, et qui est connu dans la l^nde, non seulement 

* V. Victor Henry, Magie dans VInde antique, p. 12 ; C. Fossey, Magie aaey 
ritHne, p. 130, etc. 

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180 //. Religions of China and Japan 

oomme un h6ro8 qui 61oigne les serpents, les gu^pes ou les mille-pattes 
en agitant par trois f ois des 6charpes appropri^es, mais encore comme 
Tun des deux ^tres divins qui enseigndrent aux hommes la magie et la 
m^deoine, tous les personnages du drame mjrthique agissent sans cesse 
comme des magiciens primitifs. D'autre part, les pr6tres qui s'adres- 
sent k ces dieuz, et qui d'ailleurs pr6tendent k une filiation divine, ne 
font que remplacer Pempereur dans les fonctions religieuses qu'il 
exer9ait en personne avant la division du travail social. Le Bureau 
des dieux {Jingikwan, ]f^ jjj)J^ ^ ), qui est le premier entre les 
divers conseils du Gouvemement, oomprend surtout : les Nakatomi, 
descendants du dieu magicien dont Tharmonieux norito s6duisit la 
d6esse du Soleil, et qui sont, en principe, les repr^sentants sacerdotaux 
du souverain, done les lecteurs du Rituel ; les Imibe, successeurs 
d'un autre divin sorcier de TGclipse, qui s'occupent avant tout de 
preparer les ofiErandes en ^vitant {imu, ]^^) toute impuret6, mais qui 
prononcent aussi deux de nos formules (nos. viii et ix) ; et les Urabe, 
dont le role principal consiste k exercer la Grande-divination par 
Pomoplatoscopie, mais qui interviennent aussi plus d'une fois dans 
ces textes. Or, I'empereur qu'ils suppl6ent n'est pas seulement le 
* dieu incam6 ' de qui depend le salut du peuple et vers qui convergent, 
on Ta pu voir, toutes les preoccupations des Rituels : il est aussi 
rinterm6diaire naturel entre les dieux c61estes et la nation, le vrai 
descendant de ce Jimmu, premier souverain terrestre, que le recit 
sacr6 nous laisse voir comme un pieux conducteur de peuples, aussi 
soucieux de rites que de conqudtes, et qui, le jour meme de son avdne- 
ment, instruisit un de ses fiddles dans Tart secret des incantations 
{Nihongiy i. 133). Dds lors, quoi d'6tonnant si les fonctionnaires 
sacerdotaux s'enorgueilUssent aussi de leurs proc6d^ magiques ? 
Enfin, les fdtes oii ces pretres-magiciens invoquent leurs dieux- 
magiciens sont fatalement remplies de moyens magiques dont nous 
avons not6 les plus saillants, 9a et Ut, et qui viennent renforcer Teffet 
de la formule. La magie est done k la base du culte, et Tantique 
Shinto nous rappelle ainsi de la manidre la plus exacte telle autre 
religion, comme celle de Tfigypte, oii Ton ^mettait la main sur la 
divinity au moyen de rites, de sacrifices, de pridres, d'incantations 
que le dieu lui-m^me avait r6v61^, et qui Fobligeaient k faire ce qu'on 
demandait de lui.' ^ 

Un dernier point k constater, c'est que, comme on pouvait s'y 
attendre, r^ldment magique dans nos Bituels est en raison directe 
de leur anciennet^. Les nos. i, iv, vii, viii, x, xii, xiii, xxv, xxvii, 
que la philologie amenait k regarder comme les plus vieux de la 
collection, se trouvent tous au nombre de ceux qui nous ont le mieux 

* G. Maspero, Mudes de myth, et d^arch, egypt,, i. 106. 



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12. Les Anciens Ritvsls du Shinto : Bevon 181 

servi jt d^montrer notre thdse ; et si les dates trop pr6cises qu'on 
avait era ponvoir assigher k certains d'entre eux par un examen tout 
ext^rieur n'ont pas oess6 de rester douteuses, le principe de leur 
anciennet^, tout au moins, parait bien confirm^ lorsque nous les 
^prouvons aujourd'hui avec cette pierre de touohe de Fidte magique 
que nous foumit la m6thode comparative. Nous voyons ainsi les 
textes s'ordonner peu k peu, se classer d'eux-m^mes sous nos yeux 
suivant la loi d'6volution gto^rale. Bien plus, cette transformation 
peut dtre observ6e dans un seul et m^me document. Par exemple, le 
Rituel no. i, qui avait pour but d'obtenir la moisson, renferme des 
passages si Strangers k cet objet qu'ils ont bien Tapparence d'inter- 
polations ult^rieures. Or, ce sont les paragraphes fondamentaux qui 
traitent les dieux avec le moins de respect, en leur faisant des pro- 
messes d'ofibrandes conditionnelles, tandis que les paragraphes adven- 
tices contiennent d6}k Findication d'une reconnaissance moins calculi. 
Dans les premiers, on dit aux dieux : ' Si vous nous donnez beaucoup 
de riz, nous vous comblerons d'ofibrandes ; ' tandis qu'on leur dit, 
dans les seconds : ' Nous vous pr^sentons ces ofiErandes, parce que 
vous prot6gez notre empereur.' Entre ces deux expressions, il y a 
une difference qui marque bien le d^veloppement de la penste reUgieuse. 
Mais la magie n'en demeure pas moins, comme une racine ^temellement 
vivace, Jt la base de cette f oi. Je n'en veux pour preuve que le Rituel 
de la Grande-Purification, qui, en condamnant la magie noire, montre 
assez qu'on croyait toujours k la magie en g^n^ral. En somme, nos 
Rituels repr^ntent un 6tat de transition oii la religion commence 
k s'^veiller, mais oii la magie domine encore. Au demeurant, la 
m^me tendance essentielle persiste dans les norito plus r6cents: au 
ix« si^le, par exemple, on y voit Pempereur octroyer aux dieux des 
titres honorifiques de second ordre, comme il ferait k sea chambellans, 
ce qui ne r6pond gudre k la conception d'une religion epur6e ; et de 
nos jours mdme, si les Rituels modemes ont perdu le souf9e po6tique 
qui inspirait parfois ceux d'il y a douze cents ans, ils ont conserve 
Taspect et I'esprit de ces vieilles formules magiques. 



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SECTION III 
RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS 



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ASPECTS OF EGYPTIAN RELIGION 
(PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS) 

By W. M. flinders PETRIE 

The proper field of an Address is to call attention to the general 
aspects of a subject rather than to discuss details, to look to 
principles and their application more than to the separate facts. As 
I am addressing the General Meeting, and not only the Egyptian 
Section, I would therefore remind you to-day of the many very 
diverse aspects and interests of the study of Religion in Egypt, and 
the different schools of research which find scope in it. This line of 
thought may be useful, not only to the student of Egypt, but perhaps 
more in the view of other religions, as we have in Egypt a wider 
range of material than has been preserved in most other lands. 

The sense of the subject which grows more insistive every year is the 
vastness of the pile of heterogeneous beliefs, cast into a land during 
thousands of years, interacting in every possible way and proportion, 
corrupted and confused, with a few main lines of idea apparently 
holding their own, but so changed by fresh influences that it is hard 
to say that anything remains what it was. If this is true of Egypt, 
probably it would be seen to be equally true of other lands, if we 
could review an3rthing like the same length of their history. And 
this confusion is not realized by a general reader, because nearly all 
works on the Egyptian religion have been monographs on some one 
particular aspect of it. To one writer it has been entirely solar, 
to another entirely funerary, to another a matter of temples and 
ceremonies. Not only have the various sections of it been treated 
as if none others existed, but the incessant changes and mutations 
have been overlooked in taking solely the point of view of some one 
age that was best known. This being the case in Egypt, how much 



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186 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

more is it true of other lands ? The ccmtinuity of beliefe from 
Sumerian to Semitic, from Mykenaean to Classic, from Pagan to 
Christian, is only dimly felt as yet ; and before we can have a science 
of Religions we need to learn the laws of religious continuity, — ^what 
parts of beliefr are usually lost, — ^how a new fSuth gains a hold on 
what went before it, — what is temporarily eclipsed and rises again 
into power. To openly deal with, and weigh, and study the 
reactions of beliefs one on the other, like a problem of physics, is 
the only road to a real history of religions. This again is complicated 
by political and social history ; the political dominance of one centre 
of worship or of one class of the population will be a leading cause 
of the dominance of the creed belonging to that centre or that class. 
These reflections which Egypt brings before us are inherent in any 
extensive view of religious history. 

The different aspects of "Egyptian religion which we may distin- 
guish are — 

Theologic, 

Funerary, 

Magical, 

Popular, 

Tribal, 

Psychological, 

Personal. 
Though each blends into, and combines with, the others in various 
ways, yet each aspect has a structure and a centre of its own, 
which may easily hide from attention the other interests of the 
subject. 

The Theologic view is a very wide one in Egypt. The splendour 
of the temples and the varieties of their structure attract the attention 
of all. The change from the simple hut to the brick chapel, the 
novelty of stone buildings copied from the brickwork, the expansion 
from a simple cell to a complex of chambers, the change from being 
a resting-place for the sacred bark through which ilie procession 
passed, to being a closed, dark, and mysterious shrine of a colossal 
figure, and the development of the vast and complex sanctuaries of 
late times, — all these changes imply corresponding alterations of 
belief about the divine presence. The architecture of the temples in 
its elements is copied from the house, and this is more clearly grasped 
when we see the models of the ordinary houses of the peasantry, 
which were made as shelters for the soul. These show that the house 
was the prototype of each stage of development of the temple, so 
that we have the central shrine, the store chambers on either side 



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1. President's Address: Flinders Petrie 187 

of it, the colonnade along the front, the courtyard before the 
colonnade, the stairway to the roof, and the separate chambers upon 
the roof. This descent of the temple from the type of the house 
should be sought also in other lands ; the basilica is a well-known 
instance. The decoration of the temples with figures and scenes 
of the ceremonial performed in the respective parts, is of the 
greatest value as showing the order of worship and the details of 
furniture which have entirely disappeared. Few parallels to such 
representations occur in other lands : perhaps the Panathenaic pro- 
cession on the Parthenon is the best example. The reason for such 
figures in Egjrpt is learned from the tomb decoration. There the 
figures of the offerings, of the cattle and servants, were provided for 
the incessant satisfaction of the ha to all time ; so the figures of the 
king performing the ceremonies would provide the incessant spiritual 
performance of the ritual, like a mediaeval endowment for perpetual 
masses. In other countries the absence of this belief, and the need 
of sheltering large bodies of worshippers, has prevented such ceremonial 
decoration being adopted. 

The subject of the ritual and ceremonial of the temple-service has 
been explained by the agreement of the ritual papyri and temple 
scenes. The ideal of it is entirely different from the western sense of 
religious service. There was no prayer and but little praise. But 
as the temple was the house of the God, copied from a human 
house, so the king or priest carried out the daily routine of a servant 
in a house. First thing in the morning the fire must be lit ; a lamp 
carried round to the master, as they usually rose before sunrise; 
then some incense burnt to give divine nourishment of perfume, 
incense being literally ^divine food^ {8ennurmder)j like cooking the 
morning meal. The master^s door was then opened, obeisance was 
made to him with protestations of fidelity, he was anointed, 
and the divine food of incense put before him. The servant then 
retired with assurances that he was ready to help his master. After 
the breakfast the servant comes forward again, goes through the 
same obeisance, and calls on him to awake in peace, declaring that 
his word is law, and that he will destroy his enemies. Then the 
master is washed, perfumed, and dressed in various clothes, anointed 
and decorated. The ground is sanded for him to walk on when 
he comes forth. Several offerings of incense and another washing 
represent the meals and cleansing during the day, and the service is 
over. Here we have the usual daily service to a great seigneur in 
Egypt, translated into the divine service rendered to the statue of 
the God. It raises the question how far other idolatrous rituals may 



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188 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

be similarly understood, a wide field of inquiry in ancient and modem 
religions. Unfortunately, of sacred books of theology — apart from 
funerary and magical works — we have but few examples; the ten 
books which described the worship, and the ten books of the Laws 
and the Grods, named by Clement as carried in the processions, have 
probably entirely disappeared, excepting, perhaps, a few hymns. 

The theology of the Gods is by itself an overwhelming subject. 
Only a part of the fragmentary information that remains has been 
put in order for a few Grods. We need to write a history of each 
Grod stating his origin, local and racial, the myths concerning him, 
his nature, titles, and properties, his ritual, the places and fluctuations 
of his worship and importance, his unifications with other gods, and 
the decay of his worship and transference into other religions. It 
might be as practicable to do this for five hundred years m Egypt as 
for a like period in Greece or Italy ; but this research has to extend 
over more than five thousand years. And as a preparation for such 
research there is needed a familiarity with the similar questions in 
a modem country — such as India — where each variation can be 
studied in a living state, and not as a fragmentary specimen. Not 
a single writer has been thus prepared for dealing with such work, 
and very few have paid any attention to the ever-fluctuating historical 
aspect of the theology. The modem frame of mind, brought up to 
the idea of a ^jealous Grod'* that excludes other worships, must be 
entirely set aside ; no such conception entered into the feelings of an 
Egyptian, nor indeed of most ancient worshippers. The God under 
whom a man was bom and lived was the god to him, and equally it 
was right in his view for every one bom under other gods to worship 
them. The common references to ^God^ or the ^ Great God*^ in 
religious inscriptions mean naturaUy the god of the place. The 
further back we can trace the history of the Gods, the more we find 
that they were originally separate ; until remotely each is the local 
god or goddess of one monotheist tribe or town. Hence each man 
naturally worshipped his tribal god, and it was tacitly assumed that 
there was but one divine entity as far as he was concerned. This 
appears to be the basis underlying all the complex mythology, which 
was the result of unifying dozens of tribes into a single connected 
government. In Greek mythology the separate introduction of each 
of the divinities from difi*erent sources is tiie line of modem inquiry, 
and this leads us back to the same type of monotheistic tribes that 
appear in Egypt. How far this is parallel, and how far it may be 
general to oiJier countries, is the study for the future. 

The temples and the gods needed a priesthood, and from the titles 



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1. Presidenfs Address: Flinders Petrie 189 

of priests that Icisted into historic times we gather how this priesthood 
arose. The king was always regarded as the High Priest of his land, 
as was so generally the case in other countries ; but different tribes 
began by entitling him the Greneral, or the Warrior. Other public 
functions led to the priesthood, such as the Great Constructor, or 
the Great Commander of workmen, like the Great Bridge-builder 
in Rome. The inundation ruled the life of the Egyptians, so that 
the Manager of the Inundation was to one tribe their most potent 
man. And medicine, as in many countries, was a priestly art, so that 
the great Physician was also the medium to the god. It also appears 
that in some tribes the high priesthood was held by women, according 
with the important position of women in Egypt. One high priestess 
was the Appeaser of the Spirit, while the priest was the Favourite 
Child ; another tribe called the priestess the Nurse and the priest the 
Youth. These facts of early society thus embalmed in the titles, 
show that modem theorizing on the origin of priesthoods is only 
a part of the truth — that medicine, and even leadership, was by 
no means the only road to priesthood, but that mechanical ability 
may be as much a means of ascendancy. 

The system of the priesthood is still obscure ; what were the exact 
services of each class ; whether it were hereditary, or who appointed 
priests ; how far certain classes might be promoted into other classes : 
who regulated the incomes of the priests from endowments ; whether 
their position and privileges depended on royal charter, as in the 
exemption fix)m public services by Nefer-ar-ka-ra ; how far private 
persons gave offerings for the priest ; these and many such matters 
are yet untraoed, together with the names and successions of most of 
the priesthoods. 

The cosmology was always a branch of theology, in Egypt as in 
most countries. The figures of the divinities of heaven, earth, and 
space are often represented, and inscriptions help us to imderstand 
them. How large a share the ideas had in ordinary views we can 
gather also from the prominence of the Cosmic statements in the 
Hermetic books ; the main part of those works is occupied with 
Nature and Man^s place in it. A view contrary to all Western 
thought is that of the sky as female and the earth as male ; the female 
sky is also implied in the Nippur cosmology, where Tiamat, the 
female chaos, is cut in two to form the sky and sea. This suggests 
that a division between different sources of the earliest beliefs might 
be made by means of the sex attributed to earth and sky, for such 
a difference must be established at a very early stage. There were 
also other Nature theories of savage type which fell into the back* 



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190 ///• ReHgion of the Egyptians 

ground, but which should lead to a long study with those of other 
countries. 

But we must proceed to an entirely different view, the Funerary, 
which is so prominent that it might well be taken to hide all other 
aspects of religion. This prominence of the tomb, the pjrramid, the 
stele, and the mummy is mainly due to the rise of the Nile-bed, 
which has blocked out of sight the Egypt of the living, and only 
left us the Egypt of the dead upon the desert. It is entirely a false 
view that we get by the present prominence of the funerary religion ; 
it filled but a small part of the thoughts and activities of the 
Egyptian, though it is the greater part of what has come down to 
us. We fi:equently wonder at the numbers of rock tombs, and the 
amount of work spent in hewing out the great halls that are seen 
in the cliffs of Beni Hasan and Asjrut. But a closer view shows that 
these were primarily the quarries for the stone, to build the palaces 
and temples in the cities below. When hewing out the blocks to 
serve for daily ostentation it was but little more work to prepare the 
future resting-place of a feudal noble or a Graeco-Egyptian commoner. 

The recent view that provision for the dead is due to fear of their 
action on the living, rather than to affection for the departed, must 
not be pressed too far. The widow that may be seen visiting her 
husband^s tomb and talking down a hole into the chamber, or nursing 
his skull for years, as many do, like Isabella and her basil-pot, or 
putting the skull up to view in a Brittany church, must make us see 
love as well as fear in the funeral. On the other hand, the feeling in 
a very savage state is well shown by the Troglodytae, who bound the 
body round from neck to legs, and then threw stones on it with 
laughing and rejoicing (Strabo, xvi. 4. 17). In Egypt the better 
feeling seems to have been leading from the first, as the dead were 
not only provided with food and drink, but also with their weapons, 
which would certainly arm them for any return to the living. The 
separation of all the bones, and the preservation of the skull out of 
the grave, shows that they were in no hurry to part from the dead. 
While the r^^ularity of the attitude and position of prehistoric 
burial, the precise placing of each of the various kinds of vases always 
in the same part of the grave, and the details of the slate palette, 
malachite paint and rubber, and of the figures of female slaves, all 
show the existence of a permanent frame of religious theory about 
the soul and its requirements. 

We owe the greater part of our knowledge of the Egyptians to 
their belief that the ka could enjoy the representation of earthly 



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!• President's Address: Flinders Petrie 191 

objects. But for that, the thousands of carvings and paintings of 
daily life on the tombs would never have been made. How far does 
this principle apply also to other lands, such as Etruria? Were 
those scenes painted to enable the dead to renew his pleasures ? The 
Roman lemuria required their black beans, yet they never were 
appeased by pictures. The great quantity of objects buried in 
Etrurian tombs, largely funerary models, would point to their beliefs 
in the activity of the dead being like the Egjrptian ; would then the 
paintings act likewise ? 

The formula of the stele is always a wish for material offerings for 
the dead, implying the same doctrine as the rest of the tomb; while 
at the same time the living with the gods is often wished also. The 
Roman only thought of appeasing the gods of the dead, the Greek of 
the fiaiewell to the living, the Christian of a prayer for peace. The 
Egjrptian point of view was of all those the &rthest removed from 
ascetic perfection, yet in later times he cradled asceticism before it ex- 
tended round the West. But throughout the whole range of Egjrptian 
thought the sense of consistency is unperceived. The incompatible 
beliefs of very different races and origins were housed together and 
united without the least feeling of incompatibility. The future life 
was in the grave, or in the cemetery, or in the fields of the kingdom 
of Osiris, or with the Sun-god in the heavens, or awaiting a resurrec- 
tion of the body, or any mixture of all of these together. This frank 
acceptation of incongruity may help us to understand incompatible 
statements in other lands. The theory of the underworld was changed 
and adapted to fit any of these various views of the soul ; and the 
astonishing compound of all the prayers and charms and directions 
for every kind of future was assimilated, edited and corrupted, until 
it forms the Book of the Dead as we know it. The criticism of that 
work is perhaps the most hopeless of any in religious literature ; yet in 
that we have the earlier stages which are otherwise gone beyond recall. 

It is in the provision for the future world that the Eg3^ian 
differed from most other peoples. The requirements of this life — 
food, drink, weapons, clothing, furniture — were offered also by other 
races ; but the provision for a different life, of the ushabtiu figures 
to work in the kingdom of Osiris, of the boat to follow the bark of 
the Sun, of the amulets to preserve the body for a resurrection, 
these seem peculiar to the Egyptian view. 

The Magical aspect was an active one throughout the whole 
history. In even the prehistoric times tusks of ivory with heads 
carved at the end are found, like some used on the Congo to-day ; 



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192 ///. Religion of the Egyptians . 

and the negro belief about charming a man'^s soul into a tusk and 
keeping it, seems probably connected with this. Strangely carved 
little slate figures in pairs are also probably for magic purposes. 
The tales of the early kingdom show that magic was then a main 
part of the beliefs of the people. And this lasted till the dose 
of the old religion, when magical charms were perhaps more used 
than ever in the Gnostic times. These practices were associated 
with the theology ; one of the finest incantations is that with a lamp 
calling on 'the Father of Light ^ to 'come down into this flame, 
inspire it with thy holy spirit. • . • O Logos that orderest day and 
night . • • Come show thjrself to me, O God of gods ; enter, make 
manifest thyself ... in thy ape form enter/ This must have been 
an invocation to Thoth, the s€un:ed ape, showing that one of the 
greatest gods was invoked to manifest himself by magic. These 
magical powers, in earlier times, were considered to place those who 
used them on a level with the gods, so that man could control 
and coerce the deities. But they are rarely for vengeful purposes, 
like most of the Western magic ; they are more generally to ob- 
tain benefits, information, or enlightenment, than to injure another 
person. A main part of the magical powers existed in the use of 
words. The doctrine of creation by a word or fiat was familiar in 
early myths, and the magic power of names was firmly believed in till 
later times. The old Egjrptian protested that ' the disdainful speech 
of Greece, with all its looseness and its smartness, takes all the strength 
out of the solemn, strong, energetic speech of Names ... we do not 
use words, but we use sounds full filled with deeds'^; for he hated that 
his ideas and spells should lose their power in Greek. 

Yet to the minds of the bulk of the population perhaps all the 
aspects that we have noted were less thought of than the Popular 
Religion. From primaeval times this centred on the animal gods ; 
the cat or goose or scarab was venerated by the poor man, and the 
serpent was the guardian of his house and of his tomb. And down 
to Roman times it was not blasphemy of the great gods, but the 
murder of a cat which would raise Alexandria in a flame ; it was the 
protection of their rival sacred animals which would set towns in 
deadly broil. The whole species of one animal was sacred in one 
place or another ; hawks or rams or apes as a whole were worshipped 
in their special tribes, as shown by the animal gods^ names being 
always plural. With this worship of the species went the keeping of 
one animal as an exemplar, and the sacramental eating of the seu»^ 
animal. We know that the ram and the pig were eaten yearly, the 



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1. President's Address: Flinders Petrie 198 

bull at loDger intervals. Was the keeping of a sacred animal for 
a time a compensatory act for the subsequent sacrifice ? This has 
been the case in the various instances of keeping and feasting men 
for a time before human sacrifice. If so, the sacramental eating of 
the sacred animal is the essential iejcXj and the keeping of a sacred 
individual is only an incident, which developed into a prominent form 
of worship. 

Another popular custom was the harvest festival under the harvest 
snake-goddess, who was the deity of the harvest month of Fhar- 
muthi, equal to April* The Osiris- Adonis festival has lately been 
fully expounded to us ; and the Osiris of renewed vegetation was 
undoubtedly popular, as we see by the bowls of earth full of sprout- 
ing com, which were the Egyptian equivalent of the ^gardens of 
Adonis \ This aspect of Osiris in his renewal, translated out of his 
original aspect as god of the kingdom of the dead, may probably 
have been the form most fitmiliar in everyday life. The yearly 
festivals of the seasons are more thought about than the far-apart 
deaths in a family. 

Dancing festivcJs took a large place in the religious life, as we may 
see in the present day at the visits to the cemeteries. An ecstatic old 
negress drumming a tambourine will be surrounded by a circling ring 
of women, wailing and dancing, stopping every minute or two to 
celebrate on their road to the cemetery. So it was in the times 
of Thothmes ; so they danced on the festive journeys to Bubastis ; 
and so the ascetics danced all night at their seven-week feasts. If 
the most scrupulous community would *keep the holy all-night 
festival • • • one band beating time to the answering chant of the 
other, dancing to its music . . • turning and returning in the dance \ 
like an orgiastic modem zikr, we may imagine how dancing would 
prevail in the less discreet circles. 

In the yearly festivals a prominent feature was the saturnalia of 
the mock king. It siurvived till modem times as the Coptic Abu 
Neras, which imitated the ancient style of the Egyptian king ; and in 
Philon there is a full account of a similar mock king, showing that it 
has long survived. 

At home there was also a private worship ; the family had their 
wooden shrines like a cupboard, or the pottery figure hung up with 
a lamp buming before it. And the god was not only in the home 
but by the wayside, in the little sanctuary like a modem wely, with 
four columns supporting the domed rool 

Such religion filled the mind of the peasant and the common man 
— his fitmily god above the buming lamp, his favourite shrine on the 

C.B.I o 



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194 ///. Religion of the Bigyptiaiis 

way to his work, the frequent oi^ of the dance and chant, the fight 
with his wicked neighbours in defence of his sacred totem, and the 
great events of the year, with the gardens of Osiris, the harvest feast, 
and the mock-king saturnalia. Such is the religion and faith that 
lasts through all creeds, that transforms its concrete ideas to fit any 
system that may come, — ^that makes Nebo, the prophet, the inter- 
preter of the will of Grod, be still called upon by the Mohammedans 
as en Neby, — that makes the old prehistoric brood of Tiamat out of 
the abyss be still read of by all Christians as the locusts of the 
Revelation. 

Yet another, and entirely difierent, aspect is that of the value of 
mjrth as preserving tribal history. In the historic times the extension 
of the worship of Amen or of Neit was the simple residt of the exten- 
sion of the political power of their centres of worship. The god 
followed the flag, in modem terms. So, before that, the fight of 
Horns and Set is stated to have been the driving of the Set worship- 
pers down through Egypt and finally out of the land. And thus we 
must interjnret all the early m3iJis; a god was only victorious by 
means of his tribe, and the religious myths have thus preserved the 
memory of tribal movements which otherwise would be beyond the 
ken of history or of tradition. The earliest history of Egypt is to be 
translated out of its mythology. And this is doubtless true of other 
lands ; the contest of Poseidon and Athena is tribal history. 

Another aspect for modem study is that of the Psychology of the 
Religion. We have but glanced at aU the other aspects, and this one 
is so vast that a mere list of the principles involved is all that can be 
stated here. All religious thought is broadly divided according to 
which end of the chain is regarded^ that which looks to the Deity or 
that which looks to the man — the external or ceremonial religion 
and the internal or mental religion. The external religion has many 
motives, which we may class as — 

1. Wish for blessings, (a) bodily, which was the general view of the 
Egyptian, and which brings in sacrifice and covenant ; (6) spiritual, 
which does not appear till the late times in Egypt, though so 
prominent in Judaism. 

2. Deprecation of wrath (a) by expiation for a wrong done^ as 
an equivalent; {b) by a desire for forgiveness. The whole soise 
of deprecation seems unknown in Egypt, as the sense of wrongdoing 
is unknown to the modem Egyptian. 

8. Wish for safety and blessing after death, alwajrs a strong motive 
in Egypt. 



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1. Prmdents Address: FUnders Petrie 195 

4. ABpiration for a spiritual ideal, of personal exceUenoe or divine 
union ; a late appearance in Egyptian religion. 

5. Magic to overcome spiritual powers, (a) to force good powers to 
help, {b) to restrain bad powers. Usual in Egypt. 

6. Tribal sense, (a) of need of union with the tribe ; primitive in 
Egypt ; (6) of devotion to the ancestral worship ; strong in Judaism. 

7. Social effect of numbers holding the same belief (a) in repressing 
change and variety, (b) in emotional excitement, as at a festival* 

8. Sense of splendour, vastness and mystery ; material or ideal. 

9. Veneration of historic associations and age. 

For the internal religion the classification of Dr. James may best 
be followed* He divides its mental aspects into the Religion of 
Healthy Mindedness and the Religion of Repentance. The Religion 
of Health we may classify as — 

10. Optimism, a cheerful satisfaction, which is truly Egyptian. 

11. Mental drill and training, which was incidcated in the early 
Egyptian proverbs. 

12. Philosophy, including Cosmology, which was strong in Egypt. 
18. Dogma, also a favourite subject, but not declared essential 

inEgyp*^ 

The Religion of Repentance seems unknown in earlier Egypt ; 

it includes — 

14. Conversion, strongly held in Hermetic works. 

15. Guidance, an aspiration much more Jewish than Egyptian. 

16. Saintliness, which only arose in the late asceticism. 

17. Mysticism, which was largely developed at the end and on 
to the Christian age. 

18. Hallucinations, of which we have no records till the end. 

Our last aspect of religion in Egypt is one which has been so little 
regarded that I venture to state it the more fuUy. The later beliefe 
which are largely occupied with Personal Religion are a part of 
a general wave of feeling which arose in the sixth or seventh caituiy 
before Christ The sense of personal conscience, of individual re- 
sponsibility, of inner balance of right and wrong, comes forward 
in Judaea, in Greece, in Egypt, as one of those general movements 
in thought and realisation which are seen spreading far over the 
civilized world. We scarcely realize how general a mode of thought 
could be in ancient as in modem times* Unless a positive fSsu^ous 
opposition arose between schools, the phrases and mental processes 
were soon unified over the civilized world. In recent centuries 
the phases of Euphuism, of Divine Right of Kings, of the Social 

o2 



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196 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

Contract, and of Evolution, have each dyed a century of thought 
and writing with their own colouring and catch-words. It is this 
principle which we may use in helping us to disentangle and date 
the successive phases of ideas which spread over the centuries before 
the Roman Empire. The mass of Hermetic and Gnostic literature 
is now far more cu^cessible since the collecting, translating, and editing 
which we owe to Mr. Mead ; and the material has now passed from 
the realm of the philologist to that of the historian. The argumaits 
for the dating of the Hermetic works will be dealt with in a following 
paper, to the Egjrptian section, for discussion. Here their position 
will be adopted with the bare mention of the facts. 

The earliest Hermetic document, the Kore ICosmouj is dated prob- 
ably to 510 B. c, and certainly within a century after that, by an 
allusion to the Persian rule. It is by far the most pagan, most 
material and graphic, of all this class of writings. The ideas which 
it thus dates, as being current at the time, are: Creation by the 
Word, the gods acting under the command of a supreme Grod, the 
function of created souls in the aether to keep nature circulating, 
the body a prison of the soul, the heavenly types of animals 
preceding the earthly creation, and the mission of Osiris and Isis 
to the earth. And the metempsychosis is especially that of the 
good and noble, and hence of the Indian rather than the Egyptian 
type. In the continuation of this document, the sermon of Isis to 
Horus, metempsychosis is assumed between human and animal bodies, 
the soul is individual, and at death it returns to its proper position 
in the sixty regions between the earth and moon. Thence it seems 
to have been conducted to earth again for a reincarnation. 

The next dateable document is the Definitions of Asclepius, which 
is passionately Egyptian and anti-Greek, and is addressed to an 
Egyptian king who must be as early as 860 b. c. In this document 
Grod is the universal Maker, so all are parts of God, and God is AU. 
At the same time He is identified with the Sun, owing to Ra worship. 
Around him, but beneath the stars, are the daimons who work the 
will of the gods by storm, earthquake, famine, and war. But man^s 
£sited acts are not punished, only his acts of impiety. The soul^s 
rational part, or logos^ is above the lordship of the daimons ; and if 
a ray of Grod shines through the sun into it, the daimons cannot act 
upon it. All other men are led and driven by the daimons. Here 
a specific conversion is formulated. 

The next document is the celebrated Perfect Sermon^ translated by 
Apuleius, the well-known passage of which about the destruction 
of Egyptian worship can only apply to 840 b. c. In this Grod is stated 



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1. Presidenfs Address: Flinders Petrie 197 

to be All in One, and One in All. Cosmos, Soul, and Grod are each 
separate entities. Daimons may be miited to gods or to men. Men 
may be joined to gods, to daimons, or to animals. Animals have 
souls and bodies, and are filled with spirit. In man sense is added, 
and a fifth and divine element from the aether. The Maker of all 
from Himself made the Second Grod, the Visible, and Perceptible, 
whom He loved as His Son* Man was made to contemplate this 
Son, and is in part deathless, in part subject to death while in 
the body. Evil is inherent in the world, and daimons drive men to it, 
but God has given sense to enable them to avoid it« The present 
world ¥rill be destroyed by flood, fire, or pestilence, and a pure one 
constituted. On leaving the body the soul is weighed by its highest 
guardian angel. If pious, it is allowed to rest, if evil, it is driven to 
vortices of air, fire, and water, ever racked with pain. The daimons 
were evoked by man and attached to the statues. Fate and Necessity 
begin and end things ; Order arranges their course. Ascetic com* 
munities were beginning at the back of the Fayum district, but no 
details of them are given. 

Almost as early as this must be About the Common Mindj for that 
refers to Egypt, Persia, and Greece as being the region of intelligent 
man ; and therefore before 882 b.c. In that is the rule of Fate; 
Agathodaimon, the First-bom God ; Life owing to Energy, Power, 
and Aeon ; and Logos ofl;en used of human reason, the strongest 
phrase being * Unto this Logos pay thy adoration and thy worship \ 
In the treatise on the Cup, or rather Font, the Logos doctrine begins 
to develop thus : ^ With Logos, not with hands, did the Demiourgos 
make the universal Cosmos.^ Conversion is the prominent motive of 
the treatise. The great Crater or Font full of Mind had been sent 
from God for men ; ^ Baptize thyself with this Fonfs baptism, thou 
that hast faith that thou canst ascend to Him who hath sent down 
the Font, ... as many as imderstood the tidings, and immersed 
themselves in Mind, became partakers in the Gnosis.^ With this we 
must connect the baptism of the ascetics described about 10 a.d., 
where the initiate was ^ made a partaker of the waters of purification \ 

In the Secret Sermon the Logos doctrine develops further. ^Thy 
Logos sings through me Thy praises.^ ^Send thou oblation . . . 
acceptable to Grod • . . but add, my son, ^through the Logos^."* 
The Logos is here a divine principle in-dwelling. The doctrine of 
Conversion passes the type of the heavenly Ray, or of baptism in the 
Font of Mind, and becomes * the tradition of Rebirth \ * Whenever 
I see within myself the sincere vision brought to birth out of Grod^s 
mercy, I have passed through myself into a body that can never die« 



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198 III* Religion of the Egyptians 

And now I am not what I was before, but I am born in Mind' (after 
the Font of Mind). * Who is the author of the birth ? The Son of 
God, the One Man, by Grod's will.^ 'The natural body which our 
sense perceives is far removed from this essential birth. The first 
must be dissolved, the last never can be. The first must die, the last 
death cannot touch* Dost thou not know thou hast been bom 
a Grod, Son of the One.^ The Sermon also brings in ^ Thy Mind that 
plap the Shepherd to Thy Reason or Logos \ Thus the Logos is an 
inferior or natural principle which has to be controlled by the Mind 
received by baptism in the Font of Mind. 

This image of the shepherd is then further developed in the best- 
known Hermetic work, the Shepherd qf Men or Poimandres. In the 
Creation ^a Holy Logos descended on that Nature, and upward 
to the Light from the Moist, Nature leaped forth pure fire \ * The 
Logos that appeared from Mind is Son of God.^ ^ From the down- 
ward elements Nature brought forth lives reasonless ; for He did not 
extend the Logos to them.^ ^Holy art thou who didst by Logos 
make to consist the things that are."* All these statements in no way 
go beyond, and scarcely reach, the Philonic doctrine of the Logos. 
And so far there is no trace of Wisdom appearing, which later takes 
the place which so far is attributed to the Logos. 

The earliest Wisdom work that can be dated is Sirach, otherwise 
Ecdesiasticus, which, it is agreed, was written between 190 and 170 b. c. 
In that Wisdom is fully personified : < I came out of the mouth of the 
most High , • . I compassed the circuit of heaven and walked in 
the bottom of the deep . . . and in every people and nation I got 
a possession*^ In Ecdesiastes Wisdom is only a quality, and is not 
personified ; and the earliest date allowed for that is the Persian age, 
or more probably after 800 b.c. The rise of the personification 
of Wisdom must, then, be about SOO b. c, or rather earlier ; and 
the documents where Logos holds the place of wisdom, and yet is less 
developed than in Philon, would be before 200 b. c. 

When we come to Philon, writing about 40 a. d., a new atmosphere 
is reached. Allegorizing is in full force, as being the ratio for past 
records. And that this is not peculiar to him or to Judaism is seen 
in Plutarch, who doubtless learned his Egyptian material when 
studying in 66 a. d. under his Egyptian tutor Ammonius. Philon's 
position is that Deity fiUs the void of space by his boundless fullness. 
He is the light, of which each ray is a divine portion (as in the earliest 
Conversion simile) : that a spiritual world is the pattern of the 
visible world: that the discrepancy of natures between a perfect 
Deity and a changing world, made it needful to have an intermediary. 



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1. Presidents Address: FUnders Petrie 199 

' It was not possible that anything subject to death should be imaged 
after the supremest QoA • • • but rather after the second Grod, who 
is His Logos.^ *Grod as Shepherd and King leads with law and 
justice the nature of the heavens • • • deputing His own Logos, His 
First-bom Son, to take charge of the sacred flock. ^ • His eldest Son 
whom elsewhere he hath called His First-bom, and who . . • con- 
templating His archetypal patterns fetshions the species.^ And the 
Logos is inherent in man, even when he is not worthy to be called 
a Son of Grod. 

Now we are in a position to review the development of ideas, 
having the fixed points of documents in 510 to 410 b. c, about 850, 
800; 190-170 B. c, and 40 a. d. And as we can trace a continuous 
development fix>m one to another of these, we are justified in ranging 
other undated documents in place according to the development of 
doctrine and ideas that we find in them. Here we only note the mo9t 
important lines of thought, with the latest date to which their 
introduction can be placed. (See table on next page.) 

It is of course possible that the Wisdom literature should be entirely 
taken out of the series ; but that would make little difference in the 
spacing of the documents between the fixed points of the Persian age 
and Philon. With the development of ideas that is already assumed 
by Philon, it is useless to try to bring any of these other documents 
much later in order to allow of their borrowing from Christian ideas. 
The development of doctrines cannot be changed by such an assump- 
tion, and therefore it is better to follow the course of unfolding and 
growth that we can see here. Moreover, the entire absence in the 
Hermetic works of the allegorizing spirit, which was fully developed 
by 40 A. D. and continued for at least four centuries as a prevailing 
system, also stamps them as belonging to an earlier phase. 

Here we must stop ; the next step is the introduction of Christian 
ideals and principles which were absent hitherto, and which quickly 
fitted into the forms of thought already familiar to the world. Thid 
new wine was put into the old skins, in spite of the warning against 
£Gusting and Sabbatism, the main ascetic and ceremonial principles ; 
the results were disastrous to both the wine and the skins within 
three centuries. 

Our review of the various aspects of Religion in Egypt has been 
but a glance ; those who know the subject already will be the first to 
forgive the imperfection of these remarks, as they will realize how 
entirely fragmentary such a view must b^ and they must pardon the 
repetition of fiimiliar facts in the endeavour to give a general con- 
ception of the position to those whose work has lain in other lines. 



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200 



///. Religion of the Egyptians 



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A PROPOS DES STATUETTES DE MEUNIERS 
pab jean CAPART 

Alak H. Gabdikeb a oonsacr^, dans la Berliner Zeitschrift, zliii, 
1906, pp. 55-9, un int^ressant article k une statuette reprtsentant 
le grand prStre de Ptah, Ptahmds, oocap6 k moudre du grain. A oe 
propos il a repris le probl^me de la signification des ouahebUs et 
cherch6 k montrer que ces demi^res figurines ne seraient que la con- 
tinuation de I'usage de d^poser dans les tombeaux de I'ancien empire 
des statuettes de serviteurs. Par suite d'une confusion, on aurait 
consid6r6 les oushebtis comme repr^sentant le mort lui-m^me et les 
statuettes de meuniers nous donneraient la preuve de cette confusion 
poussie jusqu'jk Tabsurde. Pour expliquer ce fait (Gardiner 6ont: 
' Une conception nouvelle et contrcdre apparait suivant laquelle le mort 
lui-m^me est appel6 k travailler dans la vie d'outre-tombe.' Je ne 
sais si (Gardiner pent expliquer la gendse de cette nouvelle croyanoe 
qui parait en contradiction formelle avec les croyances fun^raires 
r6v616es par les tombeaux de I'ancien empire. Et cependant il importe 
de s'en rendre compte pour expliquer le role des statuettes. 

Je voudrais essayer de proposer une explication de Vidke nouvelle 
qui a donn6 naissance aux oushebtis et montrer qu'il est peut-^tre 
possible d'expliquer les statuettes de meuniers et les oushebtis un 
peu diff^remment qu'on I'a fait jusqu'& pr6sent. 

Je commencerai par r6sumer ce que nous savons des figurines du 
type de meuniers : 

1. Statuette du grand pr§tre Ptahmds, publi6e k Rome en 1842 et 
rqrabli^e par Gardiner. Le grand prStre est revStu de son costume 
sacerdotal, i>eau de panth^re et boucle de cheveux tombant sur 
r^paule droite. Le texte donne le chapitre vi du Livre des Morts 
relatif aux oushebtis. 

2. Statuette du prince Thotmds, pr§tre de Ptah, pdre de Ptahmds, 
au Mus6e du Louvre, repr^ntant le d^unt en grand costume sacer- 
dotal. L'inscription porte : ' Je suis le serviteur de ce dieu auguste, 
son meunier.' ^ 

3-5. Trois statuettes au nom du gardien du tr6sor Mery-y, au mus^e 
de Leiden. L'inscription porte : ' Je suis le meunier d'Osiris, le ser- 
viteur de Nut.* 

6. Statuette au mus^e du Caire no. 1256 (journal d'entr6e 29927, 

achat) au nom de Ty. Les textes sont les suivants IT ^^ i^ Ji 

It^^fl'^S^^Ji^^ *^^ r6p6t6s, soit le com- 
mencement de la formule des oushebtis comme au no. 1. 



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202 ///. ReUgion of tlie Egyptians 

7. Statuette au mus^e du Caire no. 763 (journal d'entr6e 5019) 
au nom d'un intendant de la grande maison et scribe royal fj ' — ' _ 

ou _ \\ \\. Ici le d^unt est represent* portant la coiffure et la barbe 
des divinit^s. Les textes sont les suivants : & gauche et derri^re 

^^^^~"(|||, devant et k droite '*^^0^'^'^'^|i>^rQ^ 
plinthe, 4 gauche ^S^w^ \^ ^^ J^^= U iZl 






Sur sept statuettes il y en a done cinq qui afSrment formeUement 
que le ddfunt est le meunier d'Osiris ou du dieu v6n6rable, une (7) 
ajoute qu'il moud les pains d'offrandes d'Osiris dans I'autre monde, 
trois (»-6) ajoutent qu'il est le serviteur de la d^esse Nut, la mdre 
d'Osiris. Deux statuettes enfin donnent le texte ordinairement grav6 
sur les oushebtis, ce qui d^montre que les meuniers doivent se rattacher 
& rid6e qui donna naissance aux figurines de momie. 

Gardiner n'a pas pens^ que I'explication toute simple foumie par 
les textes pfit etre admise, et je ne Tai pas adnuse non plus lorsque 
j'ai publi6 les trois statuettes du mus6e de Leiden. tTai pr6fM 
alors y voir la traduction graphique d'un jeu de mot entre le verbe 
moudre et le verbe adorer. Pour Gardiner, les 6gyptiens se seraient 
tromp^s, ils auraient confondu deux classes de statuettes fun^raires 
et, pr6parant le mobilier fun6raire de hauts personnages, et sp6ciale* 
ment de deux grands prStres de Ptah, ils auraient pouss6 jusqu'& 
I'absurde la confusion qu'ils avaient faite entre les statuettes des 
serviteurs et les statuettes du d6funt lui-m6me. Et n^anmoins pour 
les ^gyptologues du xx« si^le, ignorant & peu pr^ tout de la religion 
et des rites fun^raires ^gyptiens, il suffit d'un simple coup d'ceil pour 
dteouvrir I'erreur et la confusion. Est-ce croyable ? L'invraisem- 
blance du fait m'a pouss^ k chercher une autre explication et, si je 
ne puis me flatter de I'avoir dteouverte, je pense n^anmoins oser 
dire que je commence & I'entrevoir. 

Lorsqu'on 6tudie les peuples de civilisation rudimentaire au point 
de vue de leurs coutumes fun6raires, on arrive assez rapidement k 
r6unir toute une s6rie de faits tendant k prouver que le traitement 
des morts s'inspire principalement d'une id6e de protection des vivants 
contre les morts. Les rites fun6raires sont d'abord hostiles au mort, 
et ce n'est que par un lent d^veloppement que, le point de vue primitif 



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2. Stattiettes de Meuniers: Capart 208 

8^6tant 6yaaoui, on en arrive k lee oonsid^rer comme favorables au 
mort et qu'on s'imagine que oelui-oi lee desire. 

n me parait assez olair que les coutumes fun^raires de rC^;3rpte 
jusqu'i la fin de I'ancien empire s'inspirent principalement de I'id^e 
d'empeoher la reunion de Tame et du oorps du dtfunt, de s'opposer 
k ce que le mort revienne parmi les vivante. Le cadavre 6tait paifois 
coup6 en plusieurs moroeaux, la tSte mise k part, ou bien on liait le 
oorps repli6 sur lui-m^me dans une natte. La tombe, depuis la 
simple fosse jusqu'au gigantesque mastdbay est destin^ avant tout 
k enfermer le corps, de fafon telle que, si Fame venait I'animer de 
nouveau, il soit dans I'impossibilit^ absolue de renverser les obstacles 
aooumul^ sur son chemin. Dans la tombe du type du mastaba, le 
corps, qui n'a refu aucune preparation conservatrice, est enferm6, 
le phis souvent sans mobilier f undraire, dans un lourd sarcophage, sans 
dfeors, reldgud dans une chambrette souterraine close elle-m§me par 
une dalle dpaisse et situde au fond d'un puits obstrud par des blocs 
de pierre agglutinds au moyen de mortier. Parfois m^me tout un 
systdme de couloirs et de faux puits coupes par des herses de granit 
vient encore apporter des obstacles imprdvus k la sortie du revenant* 
Quant k I'ame, au double, qui seul pouvait d6sirer sa reunion avec 
le corps, on s'ing^e k Ten ddtoumer en rdpondant d'avance k tons 
ses d6sirs. On prepare une statue, copie exacte du corps et, au moment 
oik Ton enf erme le corps au tombeau, une c6r6monie appelde I'ouverture 
de la bouche s'ex6cute sur la statue. Des prStres et des parents du 
ddfunt persuadent Tame que la statue est son corps et, obdissante k 
la suggestion, elle s'incorpore dans TefBgie de bois ou de pierre. La 
chapelle du tombeau oik on loge ce nouveau corps deviendra ndcessaire- 
ment une fundraire maison d'6temit6 pourvue de toutes les com- 
modity de Texistence et Ton pent ^tre assurd que Tame, y trouvant 
un train de vie ordinairement sup6rieur k celui auquel elle 6tait accou- 
tum6e sur la terre, ne ddsirera qu'une chose, c'est de poursuivre cette 
nouvelle existence sans songer k rien rdclamer des survivants entrds 
en possession de Thdritage. Des statuettes en bois, en pierre, peuplent 
la tombe, k moins que ce ne soient les scenes sculpt6es en bas-relief et 
qui dteorent les murailles. Statues et reliefs cr^nt autour de Tame 
et pour Tame seule toute une humanity factice qui, si elle est le reflet 
de I'autre, constitue ndanmoins pour le double une rdalitd sufSsante 
pour retenir Time en cette nouvelle demeure. La femme, les enfants, 
les serviteurs qui sont ]k repr^ntte viendront k leur tour reposer 
k proximity du cadavre du maltre et leurs doubles se logeront naturel- 
lement dans les statuettes ou les figures des reliefs. Ce seront leurs 
supports dtemels, absolument de la mSme mani^re que la statue 
principale du mort sert k immobiliser son &me. Lorsque les iddes 
se modifieront, on jugera parfois pr^6rable d'emmener du tombeau 



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204 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

Tame du mort en transportant sa statue, d'abord dans un autre tom- 
beau oii la chapelle seule sera habits, puis on conduira la statue dans 
les temples des dieux oii les doubles devenant les botes du dieu se 
nourriront h sa table. 

Mais il importe de noter ici une remcurque de Maspero: 'Dans les 
tombeaux on oonstate, k c6t6 des repr^ntations de serviteurs dent 
le nom est soigneusement indiqu6, des series de personnages anonymee 
qui accompagnent la f amille et Taident k transporter les provisions 
ou k s'acquitter de ses fonctions diverses : selon la doctrine de VBigyp- 
tien, tant qu'ils n'ont point de nom, ils n'ont pas d'ame, mais ils n'en 
existent pas moins, et ils sont prSts k devenir des personnes r^elles dka 
qu'on leur adjoindra un double.' Or Fexamen des murs des tombes 
montre que souvent on a gray6 apr^ coup, d'une main maladroite, 
des noms aupr^ de ces figures. 'Ge sont,' continue Maspero, ^de 
pauvres diables qui, d^irant augmenter leur probability de survie, 
se sont enrolls clandestinement parmi les clients du maltre. En 
inscrivant leur nom aupr^ d'un des corps anonymes, ils lui ont attach^ 
leur double et ont pris du service chez le d^unt : d^sormais, et pourvu 
qu'on n'effa9at pas leur l^ende, ils s'acquittaient de la fonction que 
la figure repr^sentait, ils en gagnaient le salaire, et ils recevaient de 
leur seigneur nouveau ce qui leur 6tait n^essaire pour 6viter I'anton- 
tissement de leur ^tre ' (Maspero, BvUetin de VInstUut igyptien, 
1904, pp. 377-84). 

Ainsi done, en r6sum6, dans ce systdme on cherche k ^viter la reunion 
de I'ame et du corps ; le corps n'est I'objet d'aucune mesure de momi- 
fication, I'ame est enferm^ dans une statue repr6sentant le d^unt 
sous I'aspect d'un 6tre vivant et, Ik oii se trouve la statue, soit dans 
la chapelle du tombeau, soit dans le temple, il f aut et il suffit de cr6er 
I'illusion d'une existence heureuse pour que I'ame ne cherche ni k 
modifier son 6tat ni k rien r^lamer des survivants. 

Abordons maintenant I'examen de la nouvelle thtorie que nous ren- 
controns principalement k partir du moyen empire. ' Une conception 
nouvelle et contraire apparait,' dit Gardiner, 'd'apr^ laquelle le 
mort lui-m6me est appel6 k travailler dans la vie infemale.' Oii le 
mort travaille-t-il, pourquoi le f ait-il ? H est Evident k premidre 
vue que ce n'est pas dans son domaine f un^rcdre oii les serviteurs Font 
accompagn6 en nombre suflSsant. C'est done dans un autre monde 
oii le mort s'est rendu avec son corps et son ame. Et ici je pense, 
qu'au contraire de la premiere thtorie qui cherche k mettre entre le 
corps et Fame une sorte de cloison 6tanche, on a cherche plutot k 
r6unir I'ame et le corps, quitte k les bannir tons deux de cette terre 
et k les envoyer dans une autre terre. 

Nous sommes en pr6sence de la premiere 6tape qui k la longue 
fera de tons les morts des Oniris, en identifiant chacun d'eux au prin- 



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2. Statuettes de Me^iruers: CapaH 205 

cipal dieu des morts, Osiris. Le procMd est appliqu6 d'abord au roi 
seul. Dans le but probable de Fempdcher de se r^incamer et de venir 
tourmenter son sucoesseur, on Tenverra au pays des dieux en le f aisant 
passer lui-meme pour un dieu. Les textes des pyramides, au moment 
oii on les transorit pour la premidre f ois sur les parois d'un caveau 
royal, ont en effet ce but. C'est ici que pour la premiere fois on dira 
d'un mort ' TOsiris un tel \ Les dieux r^ident dans leur domaine 
fun^raire localise sur cette terre ou hors de oe monde : le roi, arm6 de la 
puissance que confdre la magie, r^ussira k s'y introduire en usurpant 
la quality et les attributs divins. Je n'ai nul besoin, je pense, de 
rappeler les procM^s enf antins ou brutaux que Ton mettra en oeuvre 
dans ce but et qui iront m§me jusqu'i Tanthropophagie. 

On a remarqu6 depms longtemps d6j& que les procM6s originaire* 
ment r6serv6s au roi passent, petit & petit, par privil^e aux per- 
sonnages importants avant d'etre 6tendus & tons les morts. dependant 
ici, oik il s'agit en quelque sorte de se substituer par force ou par ruse 
h, un dieu, il devient impossible a priori d'appliquer purement et 
simplement k d'autres morts le procM6 employ6 pour le roi. Ce 
n'est que lorsque la signification premiere de I'usage s'est en grande 
partie perdue, que le roi pent permettre k d'autres de venir en r6alit6 
se substituer k lui-m^me et usurper sa place comme dieu des morts. 
Comment done et en quelle quality les morts parviendront-ils au do- 
maine des dieux ? Un procM6 magique envoie le corps chez les dieux 
et Tame I'aocompagne. Le dtfunt, qui revit en ce moment par la 
reunion de son ame et de son corps, s'introduira dans le domaine des 
dieux, absolument de la m6me mani^re que les pauvres diables de 
I'ancien empire s'insinuaient dans le domaine fun6raire des grands 
personnages. Dans ce cas Ut, si le maitre s'6tait 6tonn6 de rencontrer 
des figures 6trangdres, les repr6sentations des murailles ou les statuettes 
avec le nom graT6 et le titre lui assuraient que le nouveau venu f aisait 
r^ellement partie de sa maison ; s'il ne le connaissait pas davantage 
c'est qu'il 6tait confin6 dans les emplois les plus inf^rieurs, ou encore, 
'C'6tait un homme sans maitre qui venait se mettre sous la protection 
d'un maitre puissant, se contentant de la place la plus modeste dans 
son domaine. De m^me ici, celui qui veut se rendre au domaine 
fun^raire du dieu partira, guid6 pendant la route par Tun ou I'autre 
itin6raire f oumissant les indications indispensables et que Ton d6posera 
sur la momie ou que Ton transcrira sur le cercueil; parvenu 14-bas 
il s'enrolera parmi les colons attach^ au domaine. Le dieu, lors- 
qu'il le rencontrera, lui attribuera des terres k cultiver et le nouveau 
serviteur ensemencera la terre, entretiendra les canaux d'irrigation 
et exteutera k Tappel du dieu la corv6e pele-m^le avec tons les vassaux. 
De ce moment le mort deviendra un Osirien et, s'il a pris toutes ses 
precautions, ou plutot si les survivants les ont prises pour lui, il ne 



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206 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

cessera plus d'appajrtenir h la maison divine. Et o'est pourquoi 
dans les tombeaux on rencontre d'abord une, puis plusienrs figorineB 
du mort, sous Taspeot d'une momie couch^e dans un oeroueil qui 
est la copie du oeroueil r6el. La figurine de momie jouera le m^me 
rdle qu'autrefois la statue de double : Tame s'y attaohera de fa9on 
indissoluble et, de m^me qu'on conduisait la statue du double dans 
la chapelle du tombeau ou dans le temple du dieu, de mdme on con- 
duira la statuette de momie dans le domaine du dieu des morts ou 
on se contentera de lui f oumir les moyens d'y §tre transport^e magique- 
ment. Je rappelerai seulement les bateaux fun^raires soulptte ou 
peints, servant au transport de la figurine de momie k Abydos, oe qui 
n'est peut-Stre apr^ tout qu'un moyen de ne pas transporter rMlem^it 
la momie k Abydos dans le domaine du dieu Osiris. Que V<m. se 
rappelle aussi les rares stales trouv^es toutes, k ma oonnaissanoe, 
k Abydos, et oii Ton voit une figure de momie en ronde-bosse, alors que 
toutes les stales se rattachant k la premidre id^ montraient le dtfunt 
sous I'aspeot d*un vivant. 

Le mort, arriv6 * k Tendroit oil sont les dieux et son double aveo 
lui,' pour employer Texpression d'un texte, doit done se livrer aux 
travaux de la corvee pour laquelle on a eu soin de lui foumir les outilB 
indispensables. Mais le sort obtenu de la sorte ne paraissant nuUement 
enviable, lesfigurines de momie ne tardftrentpas k changer, et lechange- 
ment dut se produire d'autant plus ais^ment que I'id^ premidre qui 
avait pr6sid6 k leur confection s'att^nuait graduellement. La statuette 
repr^sentera maintenant un serviteur qui se substituera au mort 
lorsque le dieu Tappellera k la oorv6e. Puis, on multipliera le nombre 
des statuettes pour envoyer le dtfunt dans Tautre monde entour6 
de nombreux serviteurs. 

Mais tout cela n'explique pas encore les figures de meuniers. On 
remarque d6}k dans les tombeaux de Tancien empire que parmi les 
statuettes de serviteurs une des plus f r6quentes, sinon la plus {r6- 
quente, est celle de Tesclave, homme ou femme occup6 k moudre le 
grain nteessaire k la preparation des pains. Dans le cimeti^re de 
Rifeh explore pendant I'hiver 1906-7 par Flinders Petrie, on a d^oou- 
vert une s6rie nombreuse de petites maisons fun^raires en terre cuite, 
datant de T^poque du moyen empire. Dans quelques-unes on pent 
voir le mort lui-m^me represents par une figurine. Tout k fait ex- 
ceptionnellement, apparait un seul serviteur, modestement place sous 
I'escalier conduisant k la terrasse superieure de la maison, et qui est 
occupe k moudre du grain. 

On voit done que le meunier joue un role important et que sa pre- 
sence etait de premiere necessite. H vit dans la maison mdme, k 
cote du mort, il est vraisemblablement exempte des travaux des 
champs et de la corvee. Ce qui est vrai des defunts ordinaires pent 



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2. Statuettes de Meuniers: Capart 207 

bien Tavoir i\A da dieu dee morts et le meunier du dieu devait ^ale* 
ment b6n6fioier des privileges que son emploi lui confdrait. De 1& 
le tmc magique qui consiste k envoyer le mort dans la maison du dieu» 
non plus en homme de peine soumis k la corvee mais bien en quality 
de meunier. La petite statuette le montrera dans Texercice de ses 
fonctions et le texte a£Srmera clairement que c'est lui qui moud le 
grain pour la preparation des pains d'Osiris dans Tautre monde. Par 
un raffinement qui est bien dans les habitudes ^gyptiennes, le meunier 
ajoutera qu'il n'est pas un nouveau venu, qu'U est au contraire un 
vieux serviteur de la maison, serviteur de la d^esse Nut, la mdre 
d'Osiris. Une fois mSme, et le fait est pr^cieux & noter, Tinsoription 
marque que la figurine est le * corps d'6temit6 ' du d^funt. 

En pleine histoire igyptienne des dieux sont morts et on a dd les 
ensevelir : oe sont les Apis. Dans la tombe inviol^e de deux Apis 
de Bamsds 11, Mariette a d^couyert dans des niches autour du saroo- 
phage 247 figurines f an6raires. Lorsqu'on lit les noms graves sur 
ohaoune d'entre elles on s'aperQoit que o'est toute la haute society 
memphite de T^poque, les grands dignitaires qui, tons vivants au 
moment de la sepulture de TApis, ont tenu k accompagner par leur 
efBgie le dieu dans son domaine fun^raire, assures de la sorte qu'& leur 
mort leur double ira rejoindre le corps etemel. 

n me semble que dans rhypothdse que je viens d'esquisser on 
comiHrend comment il se fait que d'abord on ne s'inquiete que trto 
mod^r^ment de la conservation d'un corps qui, on I'espdre, ne devra 
plus servir de support k Tame. Quand, au contraire, on cherche k 
envoyer dans le monde des dieux le corps et T&me qui s'y r6uniront, 
il importe de conserver le corps le mieux possible et les proo^d^s de 
momification seront d6velopp6s k la perfection. 

n me semble qu'en m§me temps on entrevoit comment des id^es 
de justification morale ont pu se d^velopper dans le mythe osirien. 
D'abord, on entre dans le monde des dieux par ruse, par magie et 
souvent k Tinsu du dieu. Bientot, on croit que le dieu impose ses 
conditions et il f aut, lorsqu'on arrive aux confins de son royaume, 
que Ton justifie de son identity, que Ton subisse un examen per- 
mettant de n'admettre les nouveaux venus qu'en toute sdret^. Mais 
ici encore, les livres de geographic inf emale, principalement le livre 
des Morts, permettront au d^funt de ne pas 6tre pris au d^pourvu et, 
de nouveau, le dieu sera vaincu dans la lutte et contraint d'admettre 
tous ceux qui auront eu soin de se munir des renseignements utiles, 
lis arriveront arm6s de formules d'une puissance telle que le dieu 
contraint ne pourra s'y soustraire. 

tPose esp6rer que ces vues, que je crois en partie nouvellee, ne 
paraltront pas trop hardies. H est malheureusement indispensable 
de cheroher k mettre de la precision dans I'explication de coutumes 



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208 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

oil les £!gyptien8 ne se sont jamais euz-mSme6 souoi^s d'en api>oriw. 
La seiile chose qui soit claire ]>our nous o'est que partout nous nous 
trouvons en presence d'id^es multiples, le plus souvent inconciliables 
les unes aveo les autres. II est fatal qu'en oherohant k en expliquer 
la gendse nous soyons obliges k f aire des constructions thtoriques qui 
certainement n'ont jamais exists telles quelles dans Fesprit d'aucun 
£g7ptien. 



8 
NOTES ON EGYPTIAN MAGIC 

By ALAN H. GARDINER. (Abstract) 

Maqio is not a discoverable entity, but a word to be defined; its 
definition is a mere matter of agreement among scholars. However 
desirable it may be that the word should be used in the same termino- 
logical meaning in all branches of the Science of Religions, this is not 
at present possible. Egyptology needs the term Magic for the classi- 
fication of its facts, and has within fixed limits the right to frame its 
own definition. The object of this paper is to formulate theoretically 
the sense of Magic as understood by Egyptologists. 

Magic belongs to the active side of men's relations to the super- 
natural. These active relations may best be classified under the three 
headings : (1) the Cult of the Gods ; (2) Observances connected with 
the Dead ; (3) Magic. The principle of division is given by the 
question cut bono ? (I) The aim of the Cult of the Gods was to 
benefit the Gods themselves in various ways, e. g. by giving them 
a house (the temple), clothes, food, music, dancing, and hjrmns. Of 
course the worshipper hoped to reap some advantages from his pious 
tending of the Gods, but this motive was in Egypt, where the cult 
had crystallized into custom, often absent : it should therefore be 
considered as of secondary importance. (2) Similarly in the obser- 
vances connected with the Dead, the primary beneficiaries wese the 
Dead themselves, though here more complex motives played a part. 
(3) Magic, on the other hand, was avowedly self-seeking ; whatever the 
employments to which it was put, it always sought to secure certain 
advantages to living persons. 

Not all rites, however, which served primarily to benefit the living 
are magical. Ordinary parlance forbids us to describe thus such 
practices as Prayer, Oracles, and Private Sacrifices* The reason ia 
that in these practices there is involved the intervention of a divine 
will between the performance of the rite and its expected effect. All 
magical rites, on the contrary, were supposed to be necessarily and 



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8. Egyptian Magic: Gardiner 209 

immediately efficacious. The criterion of immediate efficacy would, 
however, be insufficient alone to define Egyptian Magic : for many of 
the symbolical actions in the ceremonies of the temples and the tombs 
were doubtless felt to be cogent in their effects, yet cannot be called 
magical without extending the meaning of the term Magic in such 
a way as to make it useless as a classificatory heading. 

To define Magic as those actions which are (a) performed on behalf 
of the living, and (&) dependent on no other will but that of the agent, 
is not enough : for this definition would not exclude the ordinary 
techniqaea of daily life, e. g. trades, crafts, quest of food, &;c. As yet 
the common characteristic that links together Magic and Religion as 
sub-species of a particular species of human actions has been neglected : 
this characteristic is the necessary implication of Faith. Using the 
epthet religious in its narrower sense to describe all superstitious rites 
that are not magical (Cult of the Oods, Funerary Observances, Prayer, 
Oracles, A;c.)» it is plain that all religious rites imply Faith ; they 
involve a belief in the existence of beings of whom men know nothing 
by direct experience. Not so in the case of all actions by which 
men seek their own advantage. Trades and crafts, for example, 
make no appeal to the credulity of those who are engaged in them. 
It is true that men may believe in the success of their efforts, but such 
a belief forms no integral part of them, and is in fact usually absent. 
In Magio, on the other hand, an element of Faith is a necessity : here 
men are always more or less conscious of the exceptional and miraculous 
character of their action. It is this consciousness that makes twin- 
sisters, so to speak,of Magic and Religion ; and it is this consciousness 
again which marks the boundary-line between magical practices and 
the ordinary routine of human labour. 

Our final definition of Egyptian Magic must therefore run thus : 
Magical actiona are those which men perform en their own behalf or on 
behalf of other living persons ; and which involve, as a necessary and 
inseparable element^ a certain quantum of belief, though the attainment 
of their object is not thought to depend on any other will than that of the 
agent. 

The Egyptian language has no word for Religion ; religious actions 
lie so far apart from all others that only in a refiective age would the 
necessity of finding a general name for them be felt. Magic, on the con- 
trary, stands in a deep contrast with the simpler ways by which men 
seek their own advantages, but provokes comparison with these by 
the fact that it pursues the same object. A name had therefore to be 
found for it : in Egyptian the w<»rdfor Magic is h^e (Coptic {ir) ; it 
acquired a slightly wider sense than Magic in the terminological 
meaning here given to it. 

The distinction between Magic and the ordinary technical practices 



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210 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

of daily life may be well observed in Egyptian medical papyri. There 
a difference is made between ' remedies ' {phrt), which are lists ct 
drugs with directions for use, and * incantations ' (ini), of which the 
main feature is a mystical formula to be pronounced. ^ Remedies ' 
were used for the simpler maladies, * incantations' reserved for those 
that were more precarious : the reason being, that in the latter cases 
the intervention of Faith is an absolute necessity ; something mar- 
vellous was expected of the physician, who therefore employed magical 
means. ^ Remedies ' were utilized in a different spirit : here the 
doctor was regarded merely as a clever practitioner. Thus our docu- 
ments exhibit Medicine in the process of Uberating itself from Magic 
and becoming a science. 

Even in ' remedies ', however, Magic is latent : this is clear from 
the strange nature of many ingredients that are named, e.g. the milk 
of a woman who has borne a male child. It can be shown that magical 
properties were associated with many simpler food-stuffs, such as 
honey and onions ; but in many cases the well-tested wholesomeness 
of these was at least a contributory cause of their use. In * remedies ' 
the magical element has receded into the background. In many non- 
medical magical rites the gradual intrusion of scientific ideas can also 
be traced. Thus the borders of Magic and Science overlap. 

Among the purposes to which Magic was put in Ancient Egypt may 
be mentioned : the avoidance of death ; the protection of mothers 
and their children ; * laying spells on him whom one fears '; assistance 
to women in travail ; cures for pains in the head, snake-bites and 
scorpion-stings; ridding houses of snakes; protection against the 
dangers of the Nile ; preserving men from hunger and thirst, the risks 
of the law-courts, the attacks of evil persons, and plague. ' Black ' 
Magic is not exemplified in our magical documents, but is mentioned 
elsewhere. An extreme example of Magic is the purposeless, ostenta- 
tious wonder-working related in the Westcar Papyrua, The above 
enumeration shows that Magic was resorted to only in cases where 
normal human effort would have been of no avail ; in fact, where 
miracles were required, and where consequently a great appeal was 
made to Faith. 

In Egypt Magic and Religion stood on the same footing : they were 
two products of one and the same WeUanachauung^ not disparate 
either in their methods or in their psychological basis. Nor were 
they differently estimated from the ethical point of view : Magic was 
deemed permissible, so long as it was turned to no evil purpose. It 
follows that the classification of Egyptian superstitious practices as 
(a) religious, (6) magical, must be a purely external mode of classifica- 
tion : the distinction between Religion and Magic in Egypt has not, 
and cannot be made to have, any deeper significance. 



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4 

REMARKS ON SOME EARLY EGYPTIAN 

CULTS 

By PERCY E. NEWBERRY. (Absteaot) 

Most of the ensigns of the nomes of Egypt represent the fetishes, 
totems, or cult-objects of the early inhabitants of the districts of which, 
in historic times, they are the standards. Thus we have the Falcon 
of HieraconpoUs, the bolt-like object of Ekhmlm, the Grossed Arrows 
or the Crossed Arrows and Shield of Sais, the Harpoon of the North- 
West Delta. On the analogy of these, the Oryx was the totem-animal 
of the early people of the Minieh district, the Hare of those of the 
region of HermopoUs in Middle Egypt, the Tree of the people of Hera- 
cleopoUs and Siut, and the Knife of the inhabitants around Aphrodito- 
polis. Thus we see that the Ibis on this theory was not the primitive 
divinity of HermopoUs in Middle Egypt, but of the people of the North- 
East Delta, of which district the Ibis was in historic times the ensign. 
The Set-cult also would thus be located in predynastic times to the 
region about Shashotep to the south of Siut. 

Several of these cult-objects go back to prehistoric times : we find 
them figured at the masthead of boats painted on the decorated pottery 
of the prehistoric period. If we apply what may be called ^ the proof 
of continuity ' to these ensigns we gain a remarkable insight into the 
prehistoric political divisions of the Delta and Nile Valley. That we 
are right in applying this ' proof of continuity ' to the nome ensigns is 
proved by our finding many vases with representations of two or three 
standards on the same vase, and these standards are nearly always of 
4:ofUigtum8 states. Thus the Harpoon and Mountain occur together, or 
the Harpoon, Mountain, and Crossed Arrows ; or the Crossed Arrows 
and Tree-branch, or the Tree-branch and bolt-like object, and so on. 
The three commonest ensigns appearing on the decorated pottery of 
prehistoric times are the Harpoon, the Mountain, and Crossed Arrows. 
These it will be noticed are located to the North and West Delta. The 
Harpoon nome comprised the region around Mareotis, its capital being 
Senti-nefer. The Mountain was the deity of Xois, the standard of the 
Xoite nome in historic times being the Mountain and Bull, which 
suggests the fusion, or rather association, of two different cults. The 
Crossed Arrows and Shield was the standard of the nome of Sais : in 
early times the form of the shield in this ensign is a figure of 8, after 
the Twelfth Dynasty it is generally ovoid, whereas the Shield of the 
Dynastic Egyptians was rounded at the top and square below. The 
significance of this figure-of-8 shield has been pointed out in the Pro- 
4ieed%ngs of the S. B. A. 1906 (Feb.), p. 68. 

p2 



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212 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

Now it is important to note that nearly all the prehistoric ensigns 
represent inanimate objects, the two animate ones — ^the falcon and the 
elephant — ^being on the extreme south. From this the inference may 
be drawn that the fetish worshippers, as distinct from the animal or 
totem worshippers, belong to an earUer stratum, and perhaps different 
element of the population of the Nile Valley. This inference is supported 
by several facts in the later history of the Nile Valley and Delta. An 
important monument in this connexion is the Slate Palette of Nar Mer, 
which records the conquest of the Harpoon Chieftain of the North by 
the Horus Chieftain of the South. The racial type of these Harpoon 
people is very different from that of their conquerors, whose characteristic 
features are exemplified in the portrait of Nar Mer and his attendants. 
Herodotus (ii. 18), speaking of the inhabitants of that part of Egypt 
bordering on Libya (i. e. to the west of the Canopic branch of the NUe), 
says that they deemed themselves Libyans and not Egyptians, and did 
not even speak the same language. In late Ptolemaic times this North- 
Western comer of the Delta formed the nome of Metelis, so-called 
because it was inhabited mainly by immigrants. The fact seems to be 
that, rather than representing immigrants, this * foreign ' population 
preserved the least-mixed surviving elements of a predynastic people 
which had, before the coming of the Dynastic Egyptians, been spread 
throughout the Delta and Nile Valley bom Aswan to the sea. 

Adjoining the Eburpoon nome on the East was the Xoite nome, the 
standard or ensign of which was the cult-object of the Mountain and 
the totem-animal the Bull. The name of the mountain god is recorded 
in the Pyramid texts as AHW : the seat of his cult was Khasu (the 
Xois of the Oreek geographers). He is described in Middle Kingdom 
texts as *' Lord of the West ' : in Ptolemaic times he was ^ Ruler of the 
Temehu (Libyans) ', and * Chieftain of the Mountain '. Little is known 
as to the r61e he played among the Egyptian gods. They seem to have 
looked upon him as a sort of ' foreign deity ', an idea which his name 
indeed suggests ; nevertheless he played an important part in the 
ceremonial of the coronation of the king and also at the Sed festival 
A * Boyal Son ' of the period of Khufu was his High Priest. In the 
Fifth Dynasty occurs a title, ' khet-priest of the Double Axe,* which 
seems to have had some connexion with the cult oi AHW. Mr. Arthur 
Evans has pointed out that there existed in Minoan Crete and the 
Aegean a god of the Double Axe, with whom was associated a cult-object 
which he has called the * Horus of Consecration'. This object he 
describes as ' a kind of impost or base terminating at the two ends in 
two hornlike excrescences ' . This Minoan cult-object resembles in every 
particular the form of the god AHW. In Crete, as in the Egyptian 
Delta, he is also associated with the Bull divinity. 

The combination of two cults, the Bull and the Mountain, found in 



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4. Early Egyptian Cults: Newberry 218 

the historic ensign of the Xoite nome suggests our separating the cult- 
objects of the Packet, Fish-skin, and Calf, from the other Bull nomes of 
the Delta. The geographical distribution of these Bull nomes is 
important : they are placed around the nome which had for its ensign 
*the Sovereign '• Evidently here in the Delta was a Pre-Menite state, 
of which the ^ Bull Chieftain ' was the sovereign. To this Bull civiliza- 
tion the Egyptians perhaps owed the development of the hieroglyphic 
system of writing, as indicated by the signs used for North, South, East 
and West, which give a central spot somewhere about Busiris, the 
capital of the sovereign nome. 



THE TREATMENT OF THE DEAD IN EGYPT 

By WALDEMAR SCHMIDT. (Abstbaot) 

It is not always very easy to penetrate into the religious ideas and 
the religious feelings of little-known, wild, or half-wild peoples of our 
own age ; and, therefore, it must be much more difficult to under- 
stand and to penetrate into those of peoples which no longer exist, 
and which have disappeared from the world in the nearer or more 
distant past. 

For the religion of the peoples of the old Eastern World — ^the 
ancient peoples in Western Asia and in Egypt — we must in our in- 
vestigations consult first the Oreek and Roman writers, our ordinary 
source of information about the ancient world, to see what we can 
learn from them on the subject. But we must always try to check 
their statements from other sources. For confirmation and, if possible, 
for better information, we must go to the numerous inscriptions of 
antiquity, which have been discovered in different parts of the East 
in recent years and subsequently deciphered ; for it is always possible 
that the ancient Greek and Roman authors have made a confusion 
of one kind or another. Let us take an instance. We find in ancient 
times, east of Egypt in the desert, a people or tribe often spoken of 
by classical writers and in old inscriptions, the Nabathaeans, who are 
related to have had a god with the name of Duaares, a divinity resem- 
bling, to some extent, the Osiris of Egypt and the Dionysos of Greece. 
This is corroborated by the inscriptions found in Northern Arabia, 
at Petra and other places, which prove that a god of this name was 
worshipped in antiquity in those parts of the world, and that he was 
the principal divinity of Petra. Inscriptions are, in fact, our best 
sources, if only the information which they give us were more abundant. 



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214 III. Religion of the Egyptians 

In Egypt we have thousands of inscriptions, most of them connected 
with religion and religious matters. They teach us much about the 
official religion in the principal towns of Egypt ; they give us the 
names of the divinities adored in those places ; they acquaint us with 
the sacred animals attached to the divinities, and help to elucidate 
the worship and ceremonies in the temples and holy places. But 
it is always about the principal towns that we are informed ; about 
the smaller towns and the country we learn little, and we must confess 
to knowing still less about the religious ideas and feelings of the 
common people. 

We must go, therefore, to other sources, of which we fortunately 
have some at command. In the first rank must be mentioned what 
are commonly known as the Magical Texts ; and secondly the facts 
connected with the burial of the dead, which we learn from the study 
of tombs and the objects placed in them at the time of burial. 

This part of Egyptian archaeology was for long very much neglected. 
The first explorers of Egypt, when excavating tombs, took interest 
only in precious and remarkable objects, and paid no heed to the small 
and broken objects which occur there so commonly, nor to the disposi- 
tion of them on the dead body and in the tomb. But from the days of 
Champollion there was a change for the better. Attention was now 
paid to the construction and ornamentation of tombs, and several 
inscriptions and pictures were copied by visitors and students ; though 
the contents of the tombs still passed unnoticed. But we must not 
be too much surprised at this neglect, smce in the greater part of 
Europe it was for many years no better. Only in Scandinavia, in 
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, for nearly a century, has more care 
been taken in the exploration of tombs, by collecting and preserving 
all objects found, and noting precisely their disposition in relation to 
the human remains. After Scandinavia we must mention England 
as a country in which old tombs were sometimes excavated with great 
care, notably by Sir Richard Hoare, the eminent explorer of the 
tombs of the Bronze Age in Southern England. 

For the immense progress that has been made in the excavation of 
tombs in Egypt we are indebted largely to our President, Professor 
Hinders Petrie. He has shown how to work, and he has worked 
himself more than any other, excavating tombs, rich and poor alike, 
and describing their contents with the most exhaustive precision. 
He was the first also to discover a necropolis dating back to prehistoric 
Egypt. 

In endeavouring to interpret the religious ideas underlying the 
treatment of the dead in Egypt we cannot be too cautious ; but for 
some questions it is possible to find solutions. 

Firstly, we may take it for granted that it was a common belief in 



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5. Treatment of the Dead in Egypt: Schmidt 215 

Egypt, even in prehistoric times, that life did not end with the 
death of the individual — a belief which is also found among many more 
or less primitive tribes of the present day. In consequence of this 
common belief, every old Egyptian must have had the earnest wish to 
obtain after death as good an existence as possible. Whilst still living 
on earth, he must always have been thinking of the future and making 
his preparations ; and, after his death, it was the duty of the relatives 
who survived him to help him to get in his future state as good a con- 
dition of life as he could wish. If they failed to do so, there was a fear 
that he would feel dissatisfied in the other world, and would return 
after death to cause trouble. 

Here we touch a qu^tion about which M. Capart yesterday gave 
us a very interesting explanation. I agree with him that the old 
Egyptians from a very early date took great care to protect the living 
against attacks from the dead who were not satisfied with their new 
life after death, and who were supposed to believe that their relatives 
had failed in the duty owed to them. 

In prehistoric graves the skeletons are sometimes found imperfect, 
the body having apparently been cut to pieces soon after death. It 
is not easy to explain this fact, and several theories, such as anthro- 
pophagy, have been put forward. M. Capart is most likely nght when 
he thinks that the body was dismembered to prevent the dead man 
from coming back to make trouble on earth amongst the living. 

But in a later time this old custom seems to have been explained in 
Egypt in another way. When the Myth of Osiris had been formed, 
and it was generally admitted by the people that the body of Osiris 
had been cut to pieces, not by friends but by enemies, the Egyptians 
no longer cut the dead body to pieces, but took care to preserve it 
entire for a coming resurrection, if we can use that word. After that 
time the Egyptians probably tried other means to prevent the dead 
man from coming back to trouble the living. 

In Egyptian tombs of the pre}iistoric period the dead body lies on its 
side in a contracted position. This fact has been explained in different 
ways. It has been supposed to be an allusion to the idea of a future 
regeneration, a new birth ; but probably it was chosen only as expres- 
sing rest, like the contracted squatting position in which to this day 
people rest in the East. 

In the tombs we often find vessels and pots which certainly were 
once filled with food or provision for the dead man in his future life. 
In the prehistoric and predynastic tombs the deceased has very often 
with him a palette with paint, so that he might paint himself, as he did 
in his earthly life. The presence of these palettes seems to me to 
show clearly that the Egjrptians expected the future life to be very 
like the present one« 



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216 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

It is well known that in Egypt in early days the bodies of the 
deceased were dried in naphtha or other materials, and that later on 
the bodies were wrapped in linen with great care. In the Roman 
period the old burial customs were partly modified in this respect. 
Often the dead were not wrapped in linen bands as before, but buried 
in their best clothes. Possibly we have here an influence from Greece 
or Syria, two countries which in the time of the emperors had great 
influence upon the inhabitants of Egypt, especially in matters of dress. 

For the study of Egyptian burial customs it is hardly possible to 
overrate the care necessary in the excavation of tombs. It is a 
matter for congratulation that we have now exact descriptions of 
several important tombs, with publication of all the inscriptions in 
exUnao and of all the figures and scenes on the walls. We have also 
now excellent descriptions of the contents of many tombs from every 
period of ancient Egjrptian history. 

But we are only in the beginning of our investigations. Much is 
still wanted. Let us hope that the future will bring many new 
discoveries, such as may help us to understand the customs of the 
old Egyptians respecting the burial of the dead, and to penetrate 
more and more into the religious ideas of that ancient and very interest- 
ing people* 



6 

SUR UN TEXTE RELATIF AU CULTE DU 
ROI EN EGYPTE 

Pab a. MORET. (RissuMfe) 

Lb culte du roi est une des manifestations int^ressantes du sentiment 
religieux en E^ypte. On sait que les Pharaons 6taient adores par leurs 
sujets h, divers titres. 1^ Le roi est le fils et I'h^ritier des dieux ; il est 
Horus ; il est Ba incam6, Fimage vivante des dieux. £<> Au moment 
du couronnement, le roi re9oit un culte analogue h, celui que Ton rend 
aux dieux ; lors des f dtes 8ed, ce culte est renouvel6 dans un Edifice 
sp^ialement construit pour le culte royal. 3^ Le roi 6tant le prStre 
par excellence, re9oit, afin d'etre pur, avant de c616brer Foffice divin, 
Tadoration dans une partie du temple qui s'appelle Pa Dcncai^, 'la maison 
d'adoration.' 4o Le roi possMe des temples fun^raires o^ son double 
est ador6 dds son vivant et le sera apr^s sa mort. 5o Dans les pays 



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6. CuUe du Roi: Moret 217 

strangers, Nubie, Syrie, le roi est repr^sent^ par des statues, images 
vivantes de lui-m6me, qui sont Tobjet d'un culte. En r6sum6, les 
sujets de Pharaon adorent leur maitre vivant en chair et en os dans les 
temples de TE^ypte, et en e£Qgie dans les temples Strangers. 

Ge culte avait un caractdre officiel ; il 6tait c616br6 dans les temples, 
par des prStres de carri^re. Mais on pent se demander jusqu'jb 
quel point Tinitiative des particuliers y trouvait sa part. Les E^yptiens 
du peuple adorent-ils individuellement leur souverain ? Apportent- 
ils ik ce culte Tenthousiasme pieuz, la naive confiance qui sont carac- 
t6ristiques des sentiments populaires ? Les textes trouv6s dans les 
temples ne nous en disent rien ; par bonheur, un grand nombre de 
stales, k partir de la xvine dynastie, nous sont parvenues comme 
t^oignages du culte priv6 rendu au Pharaon. Je me prox>ose d'6tudier 
bridvement un de ces petits monuments qui, si je ne me trompe, est 
encore in6dit : c'est la st^le 34,037 du mus6e du Caire que je ne trouve 
point cit^ dans la classique Hisioire du professeur Flinders Petrie. 



St^le 34037 du Mus^ du Caire. 

La st&le est de petite taille. Dans le centre sont repr6sent6s assis 
devant la table d'offrande charg^e deux couples royaux se tenant 
enlaces: 1^ A gauche le roi Ahmds I«i','dieu bienfaisant,' et sa femme, 
la reine Nefritari; 2° A droite le roi Am^nophis I^, ' dieu bienfaisant,' 

et sa mdre, la m§me reine Nefritari. Une 6pithdte de la reine •¥- A 
expUque qu'elle est vivante. La stdle date du d6but du rdgne d'Am^no- 
phis I«r (xviii« dynastie) ; on pent supposer que le roi Ahm6s est mort ; 



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218 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

il se trouve ici associ^ au culte que re9oivent sa femme et son fils. 
Au bas de la stdle deux personnages, genou en terre, Invent lea mains 
pour adorer les quatre figures royales. Celui de droite s'appelle Houi ; 
il est un * servant d'Amon ' ; une courte l^gende explique qu'il * ofiEre 
toutes les bonnes offrandes pures, pains, vins, boeufs, oies '. L'orant 
de gauche est un ^prStre servant Smentaoui' ; la l^gende sym6trique 
indique qu'il adore les rois Ahmds, Am6nophis et la reine Nefritari. 

En plus de ces courtes formules d'adoration la st^le nous a conserv6 
deux pridres plus longues qui font Tint^rSt de ce monument. 

Le servant Houi prie sp6cialement le roi Ahmds: 'Adoration au 
dieu bienf aisant Nebpehtouri ; prostemement devant Ahmds {bis), 
le vivifiant, celui qu'on met dans son coeur,... qui 61eye celui qui est 
aim6 de lui...' Suivent des formules obscures qui demanderaient 
une 6tude d6taill6e et sans grand int6r6t pour le but que je me 
propose ici. 

Le servant Smentaou! prononce des paroles qui nous importent 
davantage : ' Adoration au dieu bienf aisant Zeserkari, prosteme- 
ment devant le maitre des deux terres. (Pour qu'il donne )^ les 
souf9es de vie que dispense Amon, une belle femme, des enfantB 
ob^issants, des biens nombreux, un beau tombeau aprds la vieillesse, 
un ensevelissement k I'occident de Thdbes, prendre possession de (ta) 
maison chaque jour, sans qu'il y ait d'embuche ; qu'il donne la vie, 
la sant^ et la force, les faveurs et les graces au double dc.SmentaouI.' 

n r6sulte de cette stdle et des monuments de ce type les renseigne- 
ments suivants : 1^ Le roi n'est point ador^ seulement dans les temples 
par les pr6tres de profession ; de simples particuliers lui d6dient des 
monuments de dimensions modestes, peu couteux, inspires par la 
devotion individuelle. 2^ Le culte n'est pas Gompliqu6 : il consiste 
k printer quelques offrandes k Timage du roi ou de son double. 
3^ Le roi n'est pas ador^ sp^ialement comme fils des dieux, comme 
pretre, comme Pharaon ; on s'adresse k lui pour obtenir des graces 
pendant cette vie et aprds la mort ; on le sollicite d'agir en tant que 
' dieu bienfaisant ', non dans I'int^r^t commun de r£tat, mais pour des 
graces individuelles. Dans les temples, le culte confdre au roi la 
divinity, le fait vivre parmi ses f r^res les dieux ; en 6change le Pharaon 
assure la vie spirituelle des dieux et I'existence mat6rielle des prStres. 
Le culte populaire ram^ne le Pharaon sur terre, pour qu'il intervienne 
dans les int^r^ts particuliers dont il prend charge. Dans les temples 
le culte rev^t un caractdre g6n6ral et national, tout en servant les 
int^rSts du sacerdoce ; pratiqu6 par les particuUers, il devient directe- 
ment utilitaire. En ^change de ses offrandes, le servant Smentaoul 

' La f Qrmule oubli^ ici est restitute d'apr^ des st^es similaireB du miu^e da 
Caire. 



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6. Cuke du Roi: Maret 219 

esp^re obtenir * une belle femme, des enf ants ob^issants, la richesse 
et la bonne sepulture apr^ une vie bien remplie '. En somme, il de- 
mande au roi la chance dans la vie; il ne s'adresserait pas autrement 
k on sorcier qui lui dirait la bonne aventure et pourrait lui promettre 
un talisman contre le mauvais sort. 

On pent k ce sujet sedemander, comme on Fa fait pour le culte adress^ 
auz dieuz, si des monuments de ce genre indiquent une sorte de 
d^6n6re8cence du sentiment religieuz, qui s'affaiblirait par une longue 
pratique au cours des si^cles, au point de transformer I'adoration 
rendue aux dieuz en une sorte de march6 entre Fadorateur et le dieu 
ador6. 

Je suppose au contraire que le culte naif, le recours int^ress^ au 
roi bienf aisant, tel qu'il se r^v^le sur cette stdle de la xvm® dynastie, 
est un 6cho fiddle d'une tradition aussi ancienne que le culte du roi 
en E^ypte. Le professeur Frazer, dans ses belles Lectures sur la 
royauti pr%fnUtve,€k d6montr6 que les premiers rois sont avant tout dee 
sorciers k qui Ton prete le pouvoir de dispenser les bons et les mauvais 
sorts, et qui sont responsables non point seulement de la prosp^rit^ 
publique, mais du bien-§tre de chaoun. Des textes officiels nous 
aflSrment que le Pharaon acceptait volontiers ce role, qu'il ne rdpudiait 
nullement le titre de Sorcier. Une inscription royale qui date pri- 
cis6ment du roi Ahmds d6finit «insi cette face de la personne royale : 
* Les ^rits (magiques) du dieu Thot sont k ses cotds ; le dieu lui a 

donn6 la science des choses ( ^ ■-'■^ = magie), il est celui qui en- 

seigne aux scribes leur science ; c'est lui le dieu Grand-Magicien 

^^fc^SM'^i u\' (Sethe, Urkundm, iv, pp. 19-20). Si les 

monuments 6manant de la chancellerie royale ddfinissent en ces 
termes les pouvoirs sumaturels du roi, il ne faut plus s'6tonner que 
de pauvres hdres osent demander au Pharaon des f aveurs aussi per- 
sonnelles, une chance aussi singulidre. 

Je dois not^, en fijiissant, que les stdles de ce genre sont plus par- 
ticulidrement abondantes au temps de la xvin^ dynastie. A cette 
6poque aussi les E^yptiens des hautes classes se plaisent k d6crire, 
dans leurs tombeaux, les rapports personnels frequents qu'ils ont aveo 
la famille royale. Le roi vient les visiter chez eux, se laisse adorer 
par eux cote k cote avec les dieux (tombe deNeferhotpou) ; il permet 
aussi aux gens d'humble condition de lui adresser leurs adorations et 
leurs vceux. Je me demande s^il n'y a pas quelque rapport entre 
ce d^veloppement du culte populaire des rois et la politique bien 
connue des Pharaons de la xviii« dynastie contre I'autoritd envahis- 
sante du sacerdoce officiel. C'est pr6cis6ment sous Amdnophis IV, 
le persteuteur des prdtres d'Amon, que la personne du roi se livre 



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220 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

avec le plus de confiance k I'adoration de sea sujets. Peut-Stre a-t-on 
encourage k cette 6poqu6 le oolte personnel du roi comme pour opposer 
le contre-poids de la pi6t6 populaire et loyaUste des sujets au culte 
officiel des dieux th^bains qui toumait k Favantage du saoerdoce. 

Quoi qu'il en soit, les monuments de ce genre nous aident k mieux 
comuatre le culte populaire rendu au roi, sur lequel les temples ne 
nous apprennent rien. Le vieux sentiment de orainte et de y^n^ration 
pour le chef qui s'impose k tous par sa science des choses divines et 
humaines, et par sa puissance mat<6rielle et sumaturelle,trouye encore» 
sous la xvin® dynastie, une forte expression dans le culte rendu au 

Dieu Bon (11), 1© Pharaon bienfaisant, prototyi>e des 6vergdtes et 

des C6sars trds grands et trds bons. 



7 

PRIESTHOODS OF WOMEN IN EGYPT 
By Miss MURRAY. (Abstract) 

Thb Old Kingdom is the practical starting-point for a study of this 
kind, as the earlier records are too scanty to be of use. The Egyptian 
custom of inscribing not only the dead man's name and titles on the 
walls of his tomb chapel, but also the names and titles of his wife and 
children, gives us a great mass of information as to the priesthoods ; 
while the Greek authors help us to identify the gods who were wor- 
shipped in early times. 

The identification of some of the Egyptian gods with Greek divinities 
ought to throw light on the priesthoods and ritual. For example, Neith 
is with reason identified by the Greeks with Athena. Athena is a 
goddess of war and carries a shield and spear, and one of the earliest 
emblems of Neith is a shield and arrows. Athena is the goddess of 
weaving, as proved by her contest with Arachne and her statue at 
E^hrae with distaffs in the hands (Pans. vii. 5. 9) ; while another 
ttnblem of Neith is the shuttle. Again, there was a sanctuary of Athena 
the Saite (Mount Pontinus : Paus. ii. 36. 8), and Neith is the goddess 
of Sais (a colony of Athens : Hdt.). Athena is also called the Worker, 
because she was the goddess of the arts of life and was therefore wor- 
shipped specially by artisans (Frazer, Paus. ii. 297). At Memphis 
the most important temple was that of Ptah, god of the arts of life, 
specially worshipped by craftsmen ; and the next in importance was 



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7. PriestJioods of Women: Murray 221 

that of Neith : for the temples are identified by the epithets applied 
to the respective deities, Ptah South of the Wall, Neith North of the 
Wall (MM. D 47, D 66 ; LD ii. 46 ; DM. 632, 668). I have found 
twenty-two holders of priesthoods of Neith in the Old Kingdom, Neith 
without epithet, Neith North of the Wall, and the Universal Neith 
(i.e. Neith in all her places) ; and these are, without exception, women. 
Unfortunately our knowledge of the priesthoods of Athena is of 
much later date, but Frazer (Paus. ii. 346) suggests that the ' long 
series of archaic female statues which were excavated between the 
Erechtheum and the North wall of the Acropolis are statues of 
priestesses of Athena.' 

The goddess whose worship was most widespread in Egypt is 
Hathor. In the Old Kingdom her two chief temples were at Dendereh 
and Memphis. Her worship at Dendereh was kept up till the end of 
Egyptian history, but at Memphis it was merged into that of Aphrodite, 
with whom she was identified by the Oreeks. The Memphite form of 
Hathor seems to have been Hathor, Lady of the Sycomore Tree ; for 
with few exceptions all the priestesses of her temple that are known are 
buried in the neighbourhood of Memphis. Hathor was served chiefly 

by female priests ( | V ) in the Old Kingdom, though a few male priests 

are known ; Hathor of Dendereh and Hathor of Cusae are the local 
forms of the goddess which were served by men as well as women, but 
Hathor of the Sycomore and the Universal Hathor (lit. Hathor in all 
her places) had priestesses only. But though there were many priests 

and priestesses of Hathor, the only overseer of her priests (^ |][) of 

whom I can find a record in the Old Kingdom was a man (AS. iii. 134). 
The priests and priestesses of Hathor are called ]^enrnetet\ there seem 
to be no uab priests of this cult. 

The position of Upuaut, the jackal god of Siut, is unique among the 
male divinities of Egypt, in that he appears to have been served by 
priestesses only, both vlab and kenu-neter, in the Old Kingdom at least. 
This is the only female uab priest that I know of at that period (MM. 
C 26). In the Twelfth Dynasty, however, th^^ seems to have been 
a change ; for, in the contracts of Hepzef a with the priests of the 
tem^e of Upuaut at Siut, the whole Kenbet or ' council ' of the temple 
were men, Hepzefa himself being the overseer of the prophets of 
Upuaut. But on the analogy of the priesthoods of Hathor, it does not 
follow, because the overseer of the ^enu-nekr was a man, that the 
Hem^-neUr themselves were of the same sex. The female priesthood 
of Upuaut survived till the Twenty-second Dynasty, as is seen in the 
sculptures at Bubastis. There, at the Sed-festival of Osorkon n, 
the great figure of the jackal-god, Upuaut Lord of Siut, is the 



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222 III. Religion of the Egyptians 

principal statue in the procession ; it leads the way when the proces- 
sion moves, it is given the most conspicuous place when the procession 
is stationary ; it towers above king, priests, and statues of other 
gods, when it is carried at the end of the procession immediately in 
front of the king (Fest. Hall. pi. ii.). In this last place, it is carried by 
six priests, and is preceded by a woman whose title is Mut neieren SauU 
*" Divine mother of Him of Siut.' Here is evidently the high-priestess 
of the god, who by reason of her rank and importance fills one of the 
most conspicuous places in the great ceremony. In the representations 
of the Sed-festival of Amenhetep in at Soleb (LD iii. 86) a woman 
also heads the procession of the priests of Upuaut, though there she 
has no title, and it is only from the sculptures of Osorkon that we 
know her rank and functions. In the Ptolemcdc texts at Edfu the title 
of the high-priestess of Siut is given. 

We have no records of the cult of Amen of Thebes in early times ; 
the god himself is hardly known till the Middle Kingdom, when the 
names of some of the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty are compounded 
with the name of Amen, i.e. Amen-em-hat. It is not till the New 
Kingdom that we first find mention of the shemayt, or female musicians, 
of Amen. These women must have been chosen for their voices or for 
their skill in music, as they belong to all classes of society, from the 
wives of artisans up to the ladies of the highest rank. The head of 
the shemayt was styled Great ahemayt of Amen (Br. Thes. 954). Similar 
priesthoods were attached to the temples of other divinities, for we find 
shemayt of Osiris (M.A. 1182), of Hathor (M.A. 1128), of Isis (B.M. 132) 
of Mut (M. A. 1128), of Hapi (M.A. 1139)), and a chief shemayt of Anhur 
(M.D. 78). 

In the Twentieth Dynasty the title of the chief priestess seems to 
have been changed; for she is then known as Divine Wife of Amen, 
Worshipper of the God, and this office was always held by a lady of 
the blood royal. The title of Worshipper of the God was probably the 
more important of the two, as it is enclosed in the queen's cartouche 
with her name. The high-priesthood of Amen appears to have carried 
with it the temporal as well as the spiritual power in Thebes, and it 
was ther^ore a matter of political importance that either the wife or 
the heiress of the ruler of Egypt should hold the office. Under the 
Saite dominion it was customary for the king to contract a purely 
ceremonial marriage with the high priestess, who then adopted the 
eldest princess, his daughter by another wife. This title of ' Wor- 
shipper * continues into the Ptolemaic period. 

That it was customary even in the early part of the New Kingdom 
for the queen to be a priestess seems to be shown by the sculptures at 
Tel el Amama, where Nefertythi makes offerings, equally with her 
husband, to the Aten. 



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7. Priesthoods of Women: Murray 228 

Of prieBtesses serving other male divinities in the Old Kingdom, 

I have found Aenu-neter of Thoth (^fly MM. D 6), of a jackal-god 

l??^'^ {l£l^y *^d of ^^'^^ >^> apparently a 
nome-god (^H"?- MM. T> 6). This last is a Aen-neter em-hhei 

\\ X ^^ n )' ^^^^''^S ^^^^ ^^^ women passed through the same 

grades of the priesthood as the men. In the Twenty-first Dynasty 
Queen Nesikhonsuisthe Hen-neter of Khnum (P. Hist. iii. 218). 

In Ptolemaic times there appears to have been a high-priestess as 
well as a high-priest in the chief temple of each nome. An almost 
complete list of these titles is foimd at Edfu, and has been classified 
by Brugsch {Did. Oiog. 1361, 1368). Almost all these priestesses have 
the subsidiary title of 'Sistrum-player', as well as the special titles of 
the high-priestesshood. The meaning of many of the special titles is 
not clear, but a few are obvious, e.g. Aert neat ' Chief of the throne,' 
at Edfu; dvat * Worshipper,' at Thebes and Sebennytus; Aeni ndrui 
* Servant of the two gods,' at Aphroditopolis; Aebst 'The Clother,' at 
Hieraconpolis; MtU neter 'Mother of the god,' at Letopolis; and urt 
' The great one,' at Sais. The study of these titles should throw light on 
the ritual and characteristics of the respective deities. Special titles 
like these denote a high antiquity. It would appear therefore that the 
male priesthoods of Amen were of later date than female priesthoods, 
for the priestess is Worshipper, the priest merely First Aen-nder ; whereas 
the high priests of Heliopolis and Memphis had special titles. 

In the cult of the dead kings one would hardly expect to find 
priestesses, but at the beginning of the Old Kingdom there are two : 
which suggests that in early times there was no distinction of sex in 
these priesthoods, but that later they passed entirely into the hands of 
men. These two women are Nefert-seten, Aen-neter of Snefru (A.S. iii. 
202), and Hetep-her-es, Aen-neter of Khufu (MM. B 2). Of the rare title 
Hen-neter of the Jf er^house of a king, one woman is known, Ba-hent, 
who was priestess of the Jf erf-house of Teta (MM* D 65). There seem 
to be no other priestesses of kings till the Nineteenth Dynasty, when 
there is a shemayt of Thothmes in (P.R. ii. 77). 

In the funeral ceremonies of nobles in the Old Kingdom women have 
no official duties, there is no female kf^eri-heb and no female Aen-ha^ 
and but one doubtful instance of an overseer of the Aenu-ka, where the 
title might refer either to the lady or her son (SM. i, pi. 7). In the long 
list of Senu-Zet, the Brethren of Eternity, whose duties and official 
status are stiU unknown, there are only two women (MM. D 1, D 61), 
but among the rare Children of Eternity there is one Sat-Zet (MM. D 11). 



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224 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

Still, in the cult of the Royal Dead, women were admitted to the 
priesthood. 

Although negative evidence is never conclusive, yet it is interesting 
to look through the early priesthoods and to see at which worships 
women assisted, at which they were the only officiants, and from 
which they were excluded. Neith, the goddess of war, has none but 
women priests ; while the goddess of birth, the frog Heqt, has none but 
men, though as an animal god she must be very early. The jackal 
Upuaut has only priestesses, the jackal Anubis has only priests. 

But in spite of apparent anomalies, it appears that from the eariiest 
times of which we have record, down to the end of Egyptian history, 
women's position in the service of the gods was assured. The evidence 
of Edfu shows that every great sanctuary had a high-priestess, and 
the glimpses that we occasionally catch of earlier times, added to our 
knowledge of the conservative character of Egyptian ritual, lead us 
to believe that this was the case throughout the whole historical 
period. 



8 

HISTORICAL REFERENCES IN HERMETIC 
WRITINGS 

By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE. (Abstract) 

The Kore Kosmau is the eariiest of the Hermetic writings, by its 
references to Egyptian gods and its strongly material tone. It uses 
the simile of a good satrap who bestows the fruits of victory upon 
the vanquished. This implies the Persian rule in Egypt, 625-405 B. o. ; 
and the only known source for the simile is the plunder of Gyrene 
about 518 B.C., when much treasure was brought into recently con- 
quered Egypt. The writing may then be dated about 510 B.C., or 
certainly before 410 B.C. The sermon of Ids to Horus is the con- 
tinuation of the same writing. 

The Definitions of Asckpiua to King Amman (Corp. Herm., xvi), 
expresses abhorrence of translation into Greek, and of Greek ideas 
and language. This points to a time before Philadelphus when 
translation was general ; and being addressed to an Egyptian king 
(Ammon being the mystic father of all the kings), and hating the 
Greek, it cannot refer to a later king than the last Eg3rptian, Nectanebo, 
359-342 B.C. It may then be placed about 350 B. c. 

The Perfect Sermon, translated by Apuleius (or some other early 
Latin-African), must have been written before the time of Constantine 
by the references of Lactantius, and still earlier by the style of the 



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8. Hermetic Writings: Flinders Petrie 225 

Latin translation. The allusions in it are not later than the first or 
second century; the worship of sacred animals, and wars on their 
account, the wrathful Ids, and the central importance of Egypt all 
show this. It is impossible, therefore, to put the statement of the 
destruction of the worship to the Christian triumph in 389 a.d. under 
Theodosius. The historical allusions are, to Egypt being the trans- 
ference of heavenly governance to earth — ^referring to the heavenly 
descent of the kings, which ended with Nectanebo ; to foreigners 
newly filling the land — ^which could be no novelty after the Mace- 
donian occupation ; to neglect and proscription of Egyptian worship— 
which was never hindered between the Persian att€U)k on the reb'gion 
and culture at the conquest in 340 b. o. and the Chnstian attack in 
389 a. d. ; to ScythiariS and Indians being the typical extreme foreigners, 
— as they were in the Persian army, but never since ; and to a very 
bloody war. All of these details are true of the violent Persian wreck 
of the country and its religion in 342 to 332 B.C., but none of them 
can be fixed to any later date before the limits when the document 
was well known. It must be dated, therefore, about 340 B.C. 

In the treatise Ahcmt the Common Mind (Corp. Herm., xiii), in- 
tellectual man is said to occupy Egypt, Persia, and Greece. This 
could not be written after the fall of Persia and the rise of Syria and 
Italy. 

If the longest Hermetic writings thus belong to the Persian age, 
it is probable that the whole group are not far removed from that 
period. 



9 

NOTES ON SOME PAINTINGS FROM POMPEII 
REFERRING TO THE CULT OF ISIS 

By Frbihbrb Fr. W. von BISSING. (Abstract) 

This spring I had occasion to re-examine the frescoes relating to 
the cult of Isis, which are now preserved in the Naples Museum. 
Several details appear to me not to have been hitherto well understood, 
and in some oases other monuments of Oraeco-Boman Egypt seem to 
afford interesting analogies, even if they do not contribute much to 
the interpretation. For instance the ewers carried by two priests of 
Isis on the fresco published by Guimet^ are surrounded at the 
bottom by a wreath of roses. An exactly similar wreath covers the 
foot of one of the so-called Canopic jars of Boman times in my 

^ L'lsia romaine, "pL rii : Naples fresco, S972. 



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226 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

collection — figures of the mummified Osiris in the shape of a vase. 
As for the very special form of the ewer which occurs in other 
similar frescoes,^ I do not know of any specimen exactly like 
these painted ones ; but vases of a somewhat baroque shape, with 
large spouts and handles, are known amongst the so-called Coptic 
metal vessels (published in my MetdUgefdsee^ and Strzygowski's KopU- 
sche Kunst ^, and offer a certain analogy to the Pompeian frescoes. 
I may say at the same time that the vessels which the bearded priests 
hold are simply the well-known SittUae in their characteristic late 
shape (cf . my MetaJlgefdsae, pL xii), and in no way imitate the form 
of a human breast. 

It seems surprising at first to see priests of Isis and Osiris wearing 
beards ; we are so accustomed, both in classical tradition and in ancient 
Egyptian statuary, to find priests with head and face clean-shaved 
that we readily believe the custom to have been universal. And yet 
there is more than one example extant of bearded priests of Hellenistic 
or Roman times. It may be sufficient here to quote the so-called 
Barracco Caesar which I still consider represented a Sothis priest, 
and a head in black granite from Dimeh, now in the Glyptothek at 
Munich (and soon to be published in my Denkmdler) ; where we 
see a man wearing a full beard and short but slightly curled hair, who 
is shown to be a priest by a fillet ending in two lotus-buds above his 
forehead. Fillets of this description are regularly worn by priests 
in Ptolemaic Egypt, and we see Harpocrates wearing lotus-buds 
exactly like these on Roman terra-cotta figures from the Fayoum. 

It seems to me very probable that the frescoes now in the Naples 
Museum go more or less directly back to Alexandrian paintings. 
More than one detail is wholly Egyptian, and has not always been 
rightly understood. On the great fresco showing the priest canning 
the water- jar out of the holy of holies,^ we see a priest standing next 
to the altar, and holding in his right hand a fan. Fans of this kind we 
know to have been already used in the Old Kingdom to kindle the 
embers, and even in these days they are to be found in most Egyptian 
kitchens. They often consist simply of the wing of a fowl. Right 
in front of the altar two ibises are depicted. Ibises certainly lived 
in the Alexandrian Isaeum, and were there kept by the priests. But 
it seems that at Pompeii, at any rate, instead of keeping live birds, 
statues of them were placed there. The Naples Museum has two 
figures of ibises^ of about natural size, imitating by different materials 

^ Naples freBoo, 8563. 
' e.g. N08. 3401 and 3600. 

* e.g. PI. XXX. 

* Gmmet» Vista romaine, pL viii : Helbig, WandgerndkUj 1112. 

* N06. 407 and 409 in the Ouida dd liuseo. 



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Fresco in the Naples Museum. 



C,R. I, p. 220] 



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9. Cult of Isis in Po7npeian Paintings: Bissing 227 

the colour of the sacred bird. These were found at Pompeii in the 
Isis temple, and probably had been used there to represent the living 
birds. It is possible that, just as in the frescoes, palm-groves and 
gardens surrounded the sanctuary ; but certainly at Pompeii there 
was little space for anything of the kind ; and the existence of evidently 
large gardens surrounded by walls in the immediate neighbourhood 
of the Isaeum, as shown on both the frescoes, seems to me a certain 
proof that these paintings picture not the temple of Isis at Pompeii but 
some more important sanctuary, probably the one at Alexandria. 
It is also evident that the architecture of the frescoes in no way agrees 
with the actual remains at Pompeii. 

But the most remarkable difference between the old descriptions 
and the resiilts of the recent careful examination is in regard to the 
other great fresco.^ It has generally been considered that a negro or 
Ethiopian was dancing there in front of the cella, and various reasons 
have been alleged for this dance : he was said to represent the 
Nile god, as on his head he wore water-plants. It is, however, difficult 
to believe that any Egyptian would have recognized * Father Nile ' 
in this disguise, and it seems very improbable that the Nile god shoiild 
dance on any occasion. We know him bringing offerings on old 
Egyptian monuments ; we see him lying as a venerable old man in 
the celebrated Vatican statue; as an old bearded man, although not 
always in venerable positions, we find him represented in Alexandrian 
terra-cottas. Even in the Isis temple itself there existed a picture 
of the Nile god as an elderly man with a large beard, namely, on the 
fresco of the arrival of lo in Egypt.^ Could the Nile god be represented 
twice in so absolutely different a way ? 

Even in the bad copies which have been published some interesting 
details may be seen. The face of the dancer resembles a mask of 
an animal more than that of a human being, and the body as well as 
the forehead and arms is covered with hair. In fact, it is not a negro 
but the god Bes, who is dancing here. Instead of the usual feathers 
he seems to be wearing water-plants on his head; but in some terra-cottas 
of Roman times we see upon the head of Bes a cow wandering through 
papyrus bushes ; on other occasions the god is wearing a lotus flower 
or palm-leaves on his head. The absence of the feather crown does not 
seem to me an insurmountable objection to the explanation of the 
dancing man as Bes.' I may add that several competent persons 
whom I asked to examine the original with me were quite convinced 
of this new interpretation. Of course it is not the god himself who 
is dancing, but a priest playing the part of the god. 

^ Guimet, op. cit, pi ix: Helbig, 1111. 
' Helbig, 138. 

' CL JahHntch des aUerhUchsUn Kaiserhatuea^ vi. p. 83. 
q2 



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228 ///. Religion of the Egyptians 

Bes is known to be a god of the dance from the earliest times, and 
already in the age of the Pyramids the dwarf dances * the dance of 
the god '. We know him to have been connected with the cult of Isis 
and Osiris, although we have as yet no particulars about his role. So 
we need not be astonished to find Bes dancing here before the sanctuary 
of Isis. Nor need the performance itself surprise us. Schaefer, in his 
remarkable essay on the Osiria mysterieSj has shown that at least as 
early as the xnth dynasty the ancient Egyptians used to perform 
the holy scenes of the life and death of Osiris ; and he has collected 
many passages referring to similar religious dramas. We now see 
that even in Alexandrian times these mysteries were carried on, imd 
that priests disguised as gods used to appear before the public. We 
may also quote the fact recorded, by Plutarch that Cleopatra disguised 
herself in public as Isis ; which she evidently can only have done on 
the occasion of festivals, when she played the role of the goddess. 
The custom itself was extremely old. On the Abusir reUefs from the 
sanctuary of the sun-god we see priests wearing the skins of dogs 
above their heads. Several statues, mostly of Saitic times, but probably 
copjdng an Old Kingdom fashion, show priests of Thoth with the 
skins of apes on their heads and shoulders. The priest imitates the 
appearance of the god, to make himself agreeable to the god, and to 
make his own power equal to that of the god. He becomes the likeness, 
the incarnation of the god. From this to the custom of appearing 
as a god before the worshippers, and of performing the life and death 
of a god there is only one step. 



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SECTION IV 
RELIGIONS OF THE SEMITES 



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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 
By morris JASTROW 

Pebmit me by way of introduction to give expression to a sense 
of embarrassment at being asked to preside over a section which 
comprises so many distinguished scholars far worthier of the honour 
whidi the Local Committee has seen fit to confer upon me. 

I am reminded of an utterance of Herbert Spencer that honours 
should not be conferred at the end of a man^s career as an acknow- 
ledgement of results achieved, but that they should be offered as an 
encouragement to those who are engaged in their lifers work and at 
a time when such honours can act as a further stimulus. It is in 
this sense that I gratefully accept the appointment, and with it the 
task of placing before you a survey of recent work and progress 
within the field of Semitic religions, and more particularly since the 
last International Congress for the History of Religions held in Basel 
in 1904. Before, however, recounting our gains, let us briefly recall 
our losses and pay our tribute to the memory of those who have 
been called away from their labours. Since the Basel Congress, the last 
of the pioneers in the young Science of Religion has passed away. 
I refer to Albert R^vtQe,^ the first occupant of the chair for the 
History of Religions at the College de France, whose name will 
always be associated with those of Max Muller and Comelis P. 
Tide — the trio to whom is so largely due the progress in the 
historical investigation of religions, and above all the present position 
of the study of rdigion in the realm of sciences. While Reville^s chief 
activity lay outside the field of Semitic religions, it touched this 
field at various points, notably in the last of his larger publications, 
a most valuable study of Jesus, representing the ripe fruits of a life- 
timers occupation with one of the most important themes in the whole 

* Bora April 3^ 1826 ; died Oct. 26, 1906. For a fiill aocoont of Albert 
lUville's career see the article by P. Alphand^ry in the Bevue de fHUtoire de9 
BeUgioM, vol. liv^ pp. 401-423. 



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282 IF. Religions of the Semites 

domain of religious history.^ Nor should we omit to mention the proof 
that he gave of that keen sympathy with present-day problems, which 
the scholar living in the seclusion of his study is in constant danger 
of losing. At an advanced age he threw himself with the vigour of 
youth into the public arena to raise his voice for truth and 
justice.* 

Alas! that we are also called upon to mourn the loss of his 
distinguished son, Jean R^ville.' Albert Reville died full of years 
with his lifers work accomplished. Jean Reville was snatched away 
in the midst of his labours. During the short incumbency of his 
father^s chair to which he was chosen as the natural successor, he 
maintained the high standard established for it. Many will miss his 
genial presence at this Congress, to which he himself had looked 
forward with intense joy, and in which he was to have taken a 
prominent part. Indeed, to Albert and to Jean Reville is due 
the initiative for holding these International Congresses; and it 
seems appropriate, therefore, to recall at this moment the eminent 
services rendered by father and son to the important cause to 
which they devoted their energies and activities. 

Jean R^ville^s studies, while covering mainly the early centuries 
of the Christian Churches, extended backward into pre-Christian 
times, and several smaller publications bear witness to his grasp of 
the spirit of the religion of the Hebrews, both in its earlier and in its 
later phases. Numerous articles and reviews in the Revue de PHieUmr 
dee ReligtonSy which he conducted with such signal success for over 
twenty years, show the wide scope of his attainments in the general 
field of Semitic religions. 

Coming to the closer circle, the names of Benihard Stade and of 
Samuel Ives Curtiss will naturally rise to our lips. In Stade,^ Old 
Testament and general Semitic scholarship lost one of its most dis- 
tinguished as well as one of its most usefGl representatives. Within 
the compass of his comparatively short life he accomplished more 
than is given to most who have rounded out their careers. His 
Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew Dictionary are standard compilations. 

^ JituM de Nazareth (Paris^ 1896 ; 2nd ed.^ 1906). 

* Lee itapee d*un IrUellectuel a propoe de Fqffuire Dreyfue (Paris, 1898). 

* Bom Nov. 6, 18M ; died May 5, 1906. For an account of his life and 
works see P. Alphand^ry and Engine de Faye in Bevue de fHietoire dee BeHgUme^ 
voL Ivii, pp. 269-292. 

^ He died Dec. 6, 1906. See August von Gall's sketch in the ZeUeehryifar 
AUteitamentHche Wieeenechqft, 1907, ]^. i-zix, with a bibliography of Stade's 
writings. 



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1. Presidents Address: Morris Jastrow 283 

Within the field of religious history, his laif;e work on the History 
of the People of Israel and his Biblical Theology are monuments 
of careful scholarship in combination with rare acumen. He 
excelled in constructive and reconstructive synthesis of the results 
of critical investigations, to which he himself largely contributed 
through numerous technical articles appearing in tiie Zeilschr^fi 
fur JUtestamentUche Wissenechqft^ which he founded and which 
he continued to edit until his death. Samuel Ives Curtiss, who 
participated in the Congress at Basel, likewise died in the prime 
of life, while engaged in exploring still further the new avenues of 
investigation which he had opened up, and which gave promise 
of shedding more light on Old Testament problems. Passing 
over the names of Professors Otto Pfleiderer and Albrecht Dieterich, 
whose activity lay in the more general field of the Philosophy of 
Religion and in the study of symbols and rites, it still remains for 
me to recall that in Jules Oppert and Prof. Eberhard Schrader 
there have passed away the last two of the pioneers in another 
youthful science — Assjrriology. Jules Oppert was among those who 
laid the foundations for the decipherment of the Babylonian- Assyrian 
inscriptions. Though covering in his activity the entire field of 
Assjrriology, his main work lay in philology and in the interpre- 
tation of tiie annals and of the legal and mathematical texts rather 
than in the field of religious history. Schrader was the first in 
Germany to take up the study of the cuneiform inscriptions, and, 
thanks to the sound philological method which he employed^ 
succeeded in dispelling the scepticism still prevalent in regard to 
the key to the decipherment of the Babylonian-Assyrian script. 
Schrader^s chief claim to grateful acknowledgement at a Congress 
of this nature rests upon his endeavour to apply the new material 
embodied in the recovered remains of Babylonian- Assyrian literature 
to the elucidation of the political and religious history of Israel. 
The importance of his Cuneiform In^riptions and the Old Testament 
(first issued in 1882) is sufficiently attested by the two editions which 
he prepared, by the English translation which was made of the 
second edition, and by the continuance of the publication, though 
along new lines, through two distinguished contemporary scholars — 
Professors Hugo Winckler and Heinrich Zimmem. 

The name of Winckler brings us to one of the most signi- 
ficant of recent movements in the domain of studies, bearing 
on the history and interpretation of Semitic religions. Whatever 
one^s attitude may be towards the astral-mythological key which 



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284 IF. Religions of the Sefnites 

Winckler has put forwiurd and with which he proposes to unlock 
the mysteries and intricacies of ancient Oriental thought, and to a 
large extent, also, of ancient Occidental thought, certainly the views 
of the school which he has gradually gathered aroimd him can no 
longer be ignored. Next to Winckler, Dr. Alfred Jeremias is the 
chief mouthpiece for the ancient Oriental world-conception (* Altorien- 
talische Weltanschauung^) which is supposed to underlie Baby- 
lonian culture in its various phases, and which through Babylonia 
and Assyria spread throughout the East and West* Wielding a 
&cile pen, as does Winckler himself, Jeremias imderstands how 
to present the views of the school in a manner more palatable to 
those who have leanings towards orthodoxy in matters of religion 
than is the case in the coldly rationalistic colouring which marks 
Winckler's writings. 

Let me endeavour to state as briefly and as simply as possible 
the Winckler-Jeremias thesis which so directly touches on Semitic 
religions in general Behind the literature and cults of Babylonia 
and Assyria, behind the l^ends and myths, behind the pantheon and 
religious belief, behind even the writings which appear to be purely 
historical, lies an astral conception of the universe and of its phenomena, 
afiecting all thought, all beliefis, all practices, and which penetrates 
even into the domain of purely secular intellectual activity, including 
all branches of science cultivated in antiquity. According to this 
astral conception, the greater gods were identified with the planets, 
and the minor ones with the fixed stars. A scheme of correspondence 
between phenomena in the heavens and occurrences on earth was 
worked out. The constantly changing appearance of the heavens 
indicates the ceaseless activity of the gods, and since whatever 
happened on earth was due to divine powers, this activity represented 
the preparation for the terrestrial phenomena, and more particularly 
those afiecting the fortunes of mankind. So tar we can accept the 
theory of the new school, but the ways begin to divide with the 
further insistence that this conception of the universe involves ex- 
tensive astronomical knowledge in early times, such as the theory 
of the precession of the vernal equinox, and that, furthermore, all 
myths and l^ends and even historical events were so closely 
associated with this astral theology as to be interpreted in terms 
which reflect the movements of the stm, moon, and planets, and the 
other phenomena of the starry universe. Proceeding further, it is 
claimed that the astral-mythological cult of ancient Babylonia became 
the prevailing * Weltanschauung ' of the ancient Orient, and that 



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1. Prmdenfs Address: Morris Jastrmo 285 

whether we turn to Egypt or to Palestine, to Hittite districts or to 
Arabia, we shall find these various cultures under the spell of this 
conception. It is impossible at this time to enter into details. For 
these one must be referred to the numerous monographs of Winckler 
and Jeremias,^ but attention should at least be called to the manner 
in which this theory is applied not only to the traditions in Genesis, 
but in other of the sacred books. Not merely the patriarchs them- 
selves become personifications of the sun or moon, but incidents 
recorded of them are variations of certain ^ motife ^ (to use the musical 
term) whose real significance is to be found when transferred to 
phenomena in the heavens. This peculiar intellectual process is 
extended far down into periods that are definitely historical, and it 
is claimed that even in the case of the Hebrew monarchs like David 
and Solomon, the chroniclers and annalists are so under the spell 
of the astral world-conception that, in giving expression to historical 
incidents, they cannot avoid the form and formulas of astral-mytho- 
logy. Winckler sums up the wide scope of the theory by sajring 
that there have been only two * Weltanschauungen ' in human history 
— the ancient Oriental and the modem scientific conception of the 
universe — and that the sway of the former may be traced to the begin- 
ning of the new era of scientific thought. 

It is not my purpose here to enter into an extended discussion 
of the theory, and I must content myself with pointing out that what 
seems to me to be its main defect is the ambition of its advocates 
to apply it indiscriminately. It is hard to believe that there should 
be a single key to unlock all mysteries and problems of antiquity 
or even of the ancient Orient ; but even if such a key exists, it 
seems almost preposterous to suppose that we should be in possession 
of it, when so much of the early history of the Orient is still obscure 
and so much more still unknown, awaiting the spade of the explorer 
and after that the patient ingenuity of the decipherer. The ad- 

^ See especially the following works of Winckler : Arabiick^emiHwh-Orieti' 
taluch (1901) ; Die Weltanschauung des Alien Orients ^(1904) ; Uimmels- und 
WeUenbUd der BabyUmier als Grundlage der Weltanschauung und Mythologie alter 
Volker (1903) ; Der Alte Orient und die Qesehichtsforsckung (1906) ; Die babglanische 
Weltschopfimg (1906) ; Die bahyUmisehe Geisteskultur in ihren Beatiehungen zur 
Ktdturentwickelung der Menschheit (1907) ; and of Jeremias : Das Alte Testament 
im Lichte des Alien Orients (2nd ed.^ 1906) ; Die PanhabyUmisten : Der Alte Orient 
und die Ogypiische Religion (1907) ; Babylonisches im Neuen Testament (1905) ; Das 
Alter der babyhnischen Astronomie (1908). The entire theory received its 
stimulus from the elaborate work of Eduard Stucken, Astralmythen der HebrSer, 
Babyhnier und Aegypter in five vols. (Leipzig^ 1896~1907)> which applies the 
^ astral ' test to the myths of various peoples. 



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286 IF. Religions of the Semites 

monition oifestina lente^ always in place in matters of scholarship, 
must be particularly borne in mind in the case of theories, theses, 
and hypotheses involving wide generalizations ; and one reason 
perhaps why the theory has not met with more sympathy among 
conservative scholars is an apparent impatience on the part of its 
advocates, who proceed by leaps and bounds rather than step by step. 
The result is that the weak spots of the theory are seized upon by 
opponents and somewhat unduly emphasized. I personally believe that 
Wiuckler and Jeremias have succeeded in showing the wide influ^ice 
exerted by mythological ^ motifs ** over the beliefis and mental attitude 
of a considerable portion of the Orient, and that the connecting link 
between Oriental and Occidental culture is to be sought within this 
field. There is also every reason to believe that the Euphratean 
culture represents the source and mainspring of this influence, but 
I am inclined to believe that the age of the so-called ^ Altorientalische 
Weltanschauung'* has been exaggerated, and that it is a mistake 
to convert it into a formula for universal application. An astral 
theory of the universe is not an outcome of popular thought, but 
the result of a long process of speculative reasoning carried on in 
restricted learned circles. Even astrology, which the theory pre- 
supposes as a foundation, is not a product of primitive popular 
fancies, but is rather an advanced scientific hypothesis — advanced 
and scientific, naturally, in comparison with views r^arding the 
universe and its government which belong to the child^s age in 
the annals of mankind. It is too early to predict the fate of the 
Winckler-Jeremias theory, except that it seems safe to say that it 
will not be accepted in the rather extreme form in which it is at 
present set forth. On the other hand, no scholar working in the field 
of Semitic religions nor in the general field of religious history can 
afford to be indifferent to it, much less to ignore it. There are 
indeed signs that the modifications which it will surely have to 
undergo are imminent, and that the definite results of the researches 
of its two indefatigable and leading advocates will ere long become 
part and parcel of our newly acquired knowledge. 

Prof. Jensen,^ striking out for himself, though on lines that betray 
the influence of the astral-mythological theory, interprets the Baby- 
lonian epic of Gilgamesh as representing, both in its entirety and in 
its special episodes, the course of the sun along the heavens, while 
Eabani, the friend of Gilgamesh and the second figure in the epic, 

' DoM GUgamMch-Epot in der WMUeratur, vol. i (Strassburg, 1906). 



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1. Presidenfs Address: Morris Jastroxv 287 

sjmbolizes the earth. The main purpose of the work, however, 
is to set forth the wide influence of the epic in the ancient world. 
The title of the book, The GUgamesh Epic in World-literature^ 
expresses the author^s main thesis that not only are traces of the 
tale to be found among many nations — which had been previously 
shown by several scholars — but that the story has so deeply entered 
into the traditions of various nations of antiquity, more particularly 
among the Hebrews and Greeks, as to make those traditions 
practically forms and variations of the mythological themes and 
•motife' — the term used by Jensen himself — to be found in the 
Babylonicm epic. The first volume, covering over 1,000 pages, 
deals with the Old and New Testaments exclusively. In a second 
he proposes to extend the investigation to the myths and traditions 
of the Greeks and Romans and no doubt to other groups. Jensen is 
nothing if not radical in the application of his thesis, and imder his 
guidance the prominent figures in the pages of the Old Testament — 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua (of whom 
he recognizes two Old Testament traditions and suggests the possi- 
bility of a third), Elijah, Elisha, Saul and Samuel, David, Jonathan, 
Absalom, Jeroboam, and Ahijah, &c., &c., become a form either of 
Gilgamesh or of Eabani. The oppression of the Hebrews by the 
Egyptians is claimed as a parallel to the distress of the Erechites in 
Babylonia, which is recounted at the beginning of the Gilgamesh epic. 
Gilgamesh appears as the saviour, just as Moses releases the Hebrews 
from their plight. Gilgamesh is aided by Eabani, and in the same 
way Moses is joined by Aaron. Hence Moses is a Gilgamesh and 
Aaron is an Eabani. 

It would not be just, in the case of an eminent and meritorious 
scholar like Prof. Jensen who has given many years to the preparation 
of his work, to attempt a brief criticism. Researches of this character 
can neither be accepted nor dismissed with a few words. The 
illustration I have chosen will, however, show at once the strength 
and the weakness of the method followed by Jensen. Parallel touches 
in historical events, separated by centuries and by vast tracts, are 
proverbially common, and when events of the remote past become 
blended with nature myths there are added further parallels which, 
since these myths symbolize the same phenomena in nature, are 
almost inevitable. On the other hand, the very quantity of the 
parallels adduced by Jensen out of the wealth of Old Testament 
traditions constitutes an argument in favour of his general thesis 
that cannot easily be pushed aside. Making due allowance for the 



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288 IV. Religions of the Semites 

play of coincidences, and for the rather artificial resemblances on 
which Jensen sometimes lays undue stress, there still remains a suffi- 
cient residuum to justify the assumption that the Babylonian epic 
has, with the spread of the influence of Babylonian culture, left its 
traces among the Hebrews, as it certainly did among the Greeks and 
possibly elsewhere. Whether the thesis can, however, be accepted in 
the wide application for which Jensen pleads may well be doubted. 
A scholar^s thesis, which he has produced and carefully nurtured, 
whose growth he has closely followed, which abides by him day and 
night, becomes his favourite child. Favourite children, petted and 
fondled, are apt to be somewhat spoiled — ^but that is no reason for 
consigning them to perdition. 

It must not be supposed that wide generalizations and largely 
applied theses sum up the work done within the domain of Assyriology. 
The past three years have been marked by a solid advance in our 
knowledge of the oldest and most difficult cuneiform texts, known as 
Sumero- Akkadian. This is in large measure due to a French scholar, 
Fran9ois Thureau-Dangin, who has furnished a translation of the 
historical and votive inscriptions in Sumero- Akkadian ^ ; and since 
these contain a large amount of material bearing on the Babylonian- 
Assyrian religion, Thureau-Dangin^s work represents a valuable con- 
tribution to this subdivison of Assyriology. The Sumero- Akkadian 
texts furnish in fact the basis for the study of the Babylonian pantheon 
as well as for the earlier forms of beliefs and rites. Dr. T. G. 
Pinches and Prof. Prince, of Columbia University, have also been 
active in this field ; and it is gratifying to add to these names that 
of a young scholar. Dr. Stephen Langdon, recently appointed to a 
special chair for Assyriological research at Oxford, whose activity in 
interpreting the Sumerian religious literature has already borne good 
fruit, and gives promise for the future. 

Prof. Zimmem, of Leipzig, pre-eminent in all that pertains to 
the domain of the Babylonian- Assyrian religion, has likewise devoted 
himself to the study of Sumerian hymns, witii the result of advancing 
the interpretation of a number of them containing laments, chiefly 
on the part of the goddess Ishtar, for the lost Tammuz.' The evidence 
thus brought forweuxl for the early existence of an extended Tammuz 
cult is most significant. Complementary to the hymns lamenting 

^ In French— Ze« Inscriptunu de Sumer et tTAkkad (Paris^ 1905) ; in German — 
Die sumerischen und akkadischen KamgHruchriflen (Leipzig^ 1907). 

* ^ Sumerisch-babylonische Tamuzlieder ' {Berichte der KgL Sdeht. Ges. d. WU9,, 
PhiloL-Uistor, Kla^se, vol lix, pp. 201-252). 



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1. Presidenfs Address: Morris Jastrow 289 

the decline and decay of vegetation as symbolized by the death of 
Tammuz, we should expect a cycle of exultant songs celebrating the 
return of Tammuz in the spring, after the winter rains have ceased. 
The results of my own work, which happens to fall within the same 
field of Babylonian- Assyrian religion, I shall have occasion to touch 
upon in a paper for the Semitic section. 

In passing from Assyriology to Old Testament studies, we come 
from one of the youngest of the sciences to one of the oldest ; and 
yet even here we find scholars still engaged upon problems which have 
all the aspect of being fundamental. It is, indeed, somewhat of 
a disappointment to find results that only a few years ago appeared 
definite, questioned and rather seriously questioned. It is not 
merely the adherents of the Winckler-Jeremias theory who have 
taken up an attitude of opposition to the reconstruction of the 
religious history of the Hebrews on the basis of the criticcJ work of 
the past two generations associated with such names as Reuss, Graf, 
Ewald, Euenen, Dillmann, Robertson Smith, Wellhausen, Stade, and 
Budde ; but within the camp of the critical school, there is at least 
one notable defection. Prof. Eerdmanns, occupjring the chair of 
Kuenen at Leyden, begins a recent work * by the statement that he * has 
cut loose from the critical school of Graf-Euenen- Wellhausen \ He 
questions the very starting-point of the development of Old Testament 
criticism, — ^the distinction of sources in the Pentateuch by Astruc 
in 1753, through the difierentiation in the use of Elohim and 
Yahweh. According to Eerdmanns, the use of Elohim in the Book 
of the Covenant does not refer to the God of Israel, but is to be 
taken as a plural, and he endeavours to apply this view to the stories 
in Genesis, which he claims even in their latest form show a polythe- 
istic colouring. He regards as the fundamental error of the school in 
which he was reared the assumption that the older sources have been 
re-edited and reshaped from a strong monotheistic point of view, with 
the intent of making them accord with the teaching and spirit of the 
great advocates of Hebraic monotheism — ^the prophets. The very 
existence of the * Priestly Code' — one of the bulwarks of modem 
Biblical Criticism — is threatened by Eerdmanns' radical thesis. 

It is too early to predict the efiect of this bombshell in the 
critical camp, but one is inclined to question a priori whether the 
work of generations can be undone in so simple a fashion — unless 
indeed we assume the position that there are no such things as 

^ AUlestameniHche Studien (Giessen^ 1008) : /. die KomposiHon der GensiU, 11. die 
Vorgewhichte IsraeU, 



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240 IV. Rehgions of the Semites 

definite results in research, and that scientific work represents merdy 
the swinging of a pendulum firom one side to the other — an agreeable 
play, but not thoroughly real. To be sure, there is this to be said on 
the other side — namely, that the critical school has gone too far in the 
attempt to distinguish further sub-sources within main currents. 
When single verses are broken up into three sections, a, 6, and c, 
and each assigned to a different vrriter or to the representative of 
a different school of thought, it is not surprising that a reaction 
should set in. I recall a remark that Renan was in the habit of 
making in his lectures at the College de France, to wit, that if the 
composition of the Hexateuch had been as complicated a process as 
some of the adherents of the critical school were inclined to believe, it 
was hopeless to expect modem scholarship to be able to trace it in 
detail. We must, I think, content ourselves with a recognition of 
the main currents imiting in the stream of the literary methods 
followed by the schools of Hebrew writers and compilers, and accept 
the warning not to carry too far a critical analysis of texts that have 
gone through so many vicissitudes. On the other hand, nothing 
can be more foolish than to suppose that, because the critics cannot 
agree on questions of detail, the results of scholarly investigation 
are not to be trusted or to be rejected. Scholarship of the highest 
order necessarily reaches out beyond the collection of mere data and 
material to tasks involving interpretation, synthesis, and reconstruc- 
tion. In these realms there is ample play for the individual mind, 
and it is here likewise that with increase of knowledge, and with the 
better understanding of material already secured, modifications of 
views and changing trends of thought are to be frequently expected. 
The historical and the exact philological method applied during three 
generations to the Old Testament has — it may safely be said — ^jdelded 
certain definite results that can only be questioned if we question 
the right to apply the method holding good in all other domains 
to a literature that is regarded as sacred by a large proportion of 
mankind. 

An admirable piece of constructive work that is well calculated to 
inspire confidence in the work of the critical school is Prof. Karl 
Budde's history of Old Testament Literature,^ to which Prof. A. 
Bertholet has added the chapters on the Apocrypha and Pteud- 
epigrapha. Differing from the ordinary Introductions by its treat- 
ment of the subject from the point of view of literary construction, 
the position of the work in a series devoted to the literatures of 

^ Geichichte der althebraischen Litteratur (Leipzig^ 1006). 



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1. Preddents Address: Morris Jastrmo 241 

the East^ is in itself a noteworthy feature. Carefully avoiding 
questions of detail, especially those still in dispute, Budde presents > 
in general outlines the direction taken by the ancient Hebrew 
literature in the course of its development, from the days of the 
kingdom in which he places the b^^nings of literary efibrts to the^ 
threshold of the Christian Enu 

The story told in an agreeable and vivid style betrays the sure 
hand of the master, and I single the work out here because it forms 
a suitable test by which to gauge the actual outcome of modem 
scholarship. No one who reads it can doubt for a moment the 
positive results of what is still sometimes decried as destructive 
scholarship. One feels here that doubtful hypothesis and mere 
speculations have been left behind, and that while much remains 
obscure and may for a long time remain so, we are marching on 
solid ground. 

The same impression of solidity is made by another production, 
completed since our last Congress and, as I have no hesitation in 
pronouncing, one of the most important contributions to the study 
of the Hebrew religion. I refer to the Hebrew Dictionary which 
still bears on its title-page the honoured names of Wilhelm Gresenius 
and Edward Robinson, but which is practically the work of three 
scholars of the present generation. Brown, Driver, and Briggs * ; with 
the lion^s share of the work falling to the lot of the chief editor. 
Prof. Francis Brown. If the Bible is to be regarded as a source 
of inspiration, then the Hebrew Dictionary may be defined as 'the 
beginning of wisdom \ A study of the terminology of a religion 
frequently furnishes points of view that illumine an entire series of 
fieurts. Word studies have in fact played an important part in the 
analysis of the Hexateuch, and it is now possible to carry them on and 
to control the results in a manner which would have been regarded as 
a boon by the students of two decades ago. The entire work of three 
generations of critical study of the Old Testament is practically 
roistered in this splendid production, which likewise uses the 
additions to our knowledge of Hebrew through comparative Semitic 
philology. 

The task of the lexicographer is both imselfish and thankless. 
He works in order to save work to others, and so largely is he limited 
to merely roistering material that he has little opportunity for putting 

* Litteraturen dee Ostens, published by Amelang, Leipcig, oomprisiiig Arabic^ 
Turkish, Persian^ Indian, ChineBe, Japanese literatures, &c, 

* A Hebrew and English Lejnean qf the Old TeHameni, S(e. (Oxford, 1892-1906). 



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242 IV. ReUghns of the Semites 

his own personality into his compilation. More fortunate is the 
oompiler of a oommentaiy, and while it must be his first aim oon« 
sdentioasly to reflect present-day accepted knowledge^it is his privilege, 
at kast in the case of disputed points, to present his own views by the 
side of others. A sign oftiiegr^ activity prevailing in Old Testament 
studies is the large number of series of commentaries to the Bible 
now appearing or recently completed. For various reasons, the first 
mention belongs to the International Series, which with each succeed- 
ing volume assumes a more secure position in the world of scholar^p. 
Amos and Hosea by the late President Harper of the University of 
Chicago, Psalms by Dr. Briggs, and Ecclesiastes by FroC Barton, 
represent the additions to Old Testament Books since 1905. In 
Grerman we now have two series completed ; one edited by Nowadc, 
the other by Marti, the former more detailed and reflecting to 
a larger extent individual views, the latter admirably adapted to 
the needs of students by the concise form in which its abundant 
material is presented. It is to be hoped that the interrupti<m in 
the puUication of the * Polychrome^ Bible is only temporary, and 
that the indefittigable editor, Profl Paul Haupt, will be aUe to 
complete his large undertaking. 

An endeavour to secure an improved text of the Old Testament, but 
limited to such changes as reflect the consensus of modem scholarship, 
is represented by the BibUa Hebraica edited with the co-operation of 
a group of eminent scholars by Prof. Rudolph EitteL The edition 
has been generally accepted as satis&ctorily fulfilling its purpose, 
which is to furnish a common basis from which as a point of 
departure further critical work can be carried on. 

As still lying within the field of Old Testament religion, the 
unlooked-for discovery some years ago of material bearing on the 
life of the Jewish colonies in Egypt —so admirably edited by 
Messrs. Sayce and Cowley ^ — has been followed by further finds that 
illustrate iiie relation of these Jewish colonies to the Mother-Church 
in Jerusalem during the period of Persian supremacy. Perhaps the 
most significant feature of these new documents is the proof they 
furnish that the Deuteronomic ideal of a central and single sanctuary 
was not yet put into strict practice, since offerings are brought at 
a sanctuary outside of Palestine. 

' Aramaic Papyri diicovered at Asnuin (London^ 1906). 

* Pablished by the Furk and Wagnalls Co. (New York^ 1902-6) in 12 vols, 
under the general editorship of Isidor Singer. 



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1. Prmdenfs Address: Morris Jastrow 248 

The completion of the JewiA Encyclopaedia* represents a contribu« 
tion of the first order to the study of the Religion of the Ancirat 
Hebrews as well as to the earlier and later phases of Judaism reared 
on the ancient foundations ; and this testimony can be given to it 
despite the inherent defects of a first attempt at an undertaking of 
such magnitude. As an adjunct to the Jewish Encyclopaedia one may 
regard the Monumenia ludaka^ — a most ambitious endeavour to 
compile some of the more important material in the extensive Jewish 
and Rabbinical Literature. The beginning is to be made with 
Crennan translations of the various Aramaic versions of the Old 
Testament known as the Targums (Bibliotheca Targumica^ which is 
to be followed by a Talmudic series {Monumenta Tahnudica\ in* 
duding a subdivision designated by the somewhat vague title of 
Babel-Bibel. It must be confessed that while the names of the 
editors fiimish a guarantee for scholarly work, the plan seems to 
be somewhat chaotic, and what has been issued is not calculated to 
inspire confidence. 

In this connexion let me direct attention to a capital little 
sketdh of Judaism by Mr. Israel Abrahams of Cambridge, pub- 
lished in the Constable series of ^ Religions Ancient and Modem ^ 
(London, 1906). Within a compass of one hundred pages the author 
outlines both the main currents in the development of this religion 
and its salient phases. The sketch merits a place by the side of the 
late James Darmesteter^s essay. Coup d'*onl iur VHittoire des Ju^s^^ 
to which it may be regarded as, in a measure, complementary. With- 
out assuming an apologetic tone, Mr. Abrahams presents a sjmipathetic 
and at the same time a philosophic treatment of his theme ; and while 
intended, primarily, for a general public, the volume contains many 
fruitful suggestions of value also to the special student. 

Compilation of works summarizing the results of past investigations 
seems to be the order of the day. A large undertaking under the designa- 
tion ' Kultur der Gegenwart \^ aiming at a summary of our knowledge 
in all departments of researdi, includes a volume on Oriental Rdigions 
in which Israel is treated by Wellhausen, Babylonia and Assyria by 

^ MmwofMnta ludaiea . . . herausgegeben von AiM^fust Wiinsche^ Wilhelm 
Neumann und Moritz AltschQler (Vienna and Leipzig^ 1906). 

* Vbiw, 1881. Also included in his volume Let ProphHes ifItraSl(PmB, 1892); 
English translation in Selected Eeeaye ofJamee Darmesteter (Boston, 1895). 

' Edited by Paul Hinneberg (Berlin, 1906). The work is to comprise four 
grand divisions^ the first embracing religion^ philosophy^ knguage, literature, 
music, and art ; the second statecraft, sociology, and economics ; the third the 
natural sciences ; and the fourth the technical arts. 

b2 



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244 IV. Religions of the Semites 

Carl Bezokl, Islam by Goldziher, Egypt by Ennan» India and Persia 
by OMenberg, and Christianity by Hiuiiack^JiUicher, and others. The 
indefittigaUe Dr. Hastings announces as ready the first volume of a 
Dictionary of Religion and Ethics. To students of Semitic religions 
as to students of religion in general, such a work, despite its necessary 
gaps and imperfections, will be indispensable, and we may expect fix>m 
it, when completed, as well as from a similar work to be puUished 
in German,^ a further stimulus to the historical study of the great 
religions of the past and of the religious problems of the present age. 

Within the field of Islam, likewise, the two most notable under- 
takings to be singled out in this rapid survey are works of compilation. 
After many years of preliminary labour, the publication of the 
Encyclopaedia of Islam has begun,^ the international character of 
which is not only illustrated in its list of contributors, which includes 
the Arabic scholars of two continents, but in the trilingual feature^ 
the parts appearing simultaneously in English, Grerman, and French. 
The work is to consist of three volumes of about 1,000 pages each, 
and is to cover geography, ethnology, and biography as well as the 
religion proper. It is safe to say that there is no work in the whole 
domain of Semitic Religions more urgently needed. Such a work will 
serve to sum up the labours of the large array of brilliant scholars, from 
De Sacy, Fleischer, Ewald, and Dozy to Noldeke, de Goeje, Robertson 
Smith, Groldziher, Wellhausen, Margoliouth, Browne, Bevan, and Mac- 
donald, and their pupils, who have devoted themselves to furnishing 
material for the historical study of Islam and who have made such 
notable contributions to the interpretation of Islamism in all its 
phases. 

Another undertaking of a large character, and all the more note- 
worthy because it is the work of one man, is the compilation of 
extracts in Italian translation from the chief Arabic sources for the 
study of Islam. Three large volumes of folio size, each containing 
over 600 pages, have already been issued by the indeCsitigable Prince of 
Teano, under the title of JnnaU deW Islam? This brings the collec- 
tion of the material, which is arranged chronologically under suitable 

* IHe ReHgian in QeschUshU und Gegemoati. Handworterbuch in gemein- 
verstfindlicher Darstellung, unter Mitwirkung von Hermann Gunkel und Otto 
Scheel^ heraosgcgeben von Friedrich Michael Schiele (TQbingen^ J. C. B. Mohr). 

* Encyclopaedia qf Islam. A Dictionary of the Geography^ Ethnography^ and 
Biography of the Mohammedan Peoples. Prepared by a number of leading 
Orientalists under the supervision of Dr. M. Th. Houtsma, Editor-in-chief, &c 
(Leyden, 1906). 

' Annali delt lilam, campUaU da Leone Caetani, Principe di Teano (Mikn^ 1905). 



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1. President's Address: Morris Jastravo 245 

headings embodying the chief events of each year, to the twelfth 
year of the Hegira. The work will comprise nine volumes, with 
three additional volumes for indices. By the stupendous nature of 
the undertaking Caetani links his name to tho6e great compilers 
of the past, Assemani and d^Herbelot, and it is needless to add that his 
work will be an indispensable aid to every student of Islam. The 
elaborate introduction and the full discussions which Caetani adds to 
his extracts will fistcilitate the use of the sources from which he 
draws. Thus, by having extracts from various writers bearing on 
the same event brought before him, the special student is aided 
in his task of applying critical methods to separate the unreliable 
and manifestly fidse from what is trustworthy in the compilations 
of the Arabic historians. 

In a rapid survey of several general works on Mohammed and 
Islam that have appeared during the past three years, it is possible 
to refer only to Prof. D. S. Margoliouth^s Mohammed and the Rise of 
Itiam (New York, 1906), which, however, also takes precedence of 
others by its thoroughness and by the literary charm of presentation. 
New sources have been used by the distinguished scholar, who brings 
to his task a wealth of learning that is not limited to one field, but 
extends to many others. Even more important than some of the 
detailed points in the career of Mohammed, more particularly of the 
influences by which he was surrounded, which are set forth in a new 
and striking light, is the keen and brilliant psychological analysis of 
the character and the methods of the Arabian prophet and leader. 
Data from Modem Psychology^ and more particularly the results 
of the scientific investigations of Spiritualism, as well as incidents in 
the history of Mormonism, are skilfully introduced to heighten the 
efiect of the picture drawn by Prof. Margoliouth ; and if asked to 
single out a chapter in a work which should be read in its entirety, 
I should like to point to the one on ' Islam as a Secret Society ^ (by 
which he means the early years of the new faith) as a particularly 
striking illustration of the author^s method and of his masterly 
grasp of the subject. Passing by various contributions of Professor 
Groldziher to the elucidation of important features in Mohammedan 
theology ^ — the field in which he is the acknowledged master^let me 
at least mention in a word the important summary by Rene Dussaud 
of the results of epigraphical finds of the last decades in Syria, with 

^ In the ZeiUchrift der d&utschen morgenlOndUchen Qesellschqft, the Archits 
f&r ReligwMwisseMchqft, in the OrientaiUche Stttdien in honour of Noldeke 
(Gieesen, 1906), &c. 



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246 IV. Religions of the Semites 

their bearings on pre-Idamite days in Syria.^ The part of qpedal 
interest to us is the diapter on the pantheon revealing, among other 
things, the extended worship of Allah and Allat, five or six centuries 
before Mohammed and in districts far removed from what had been sup- 
posed to be centres of the cult of these deities. This worship points to 
a dose connexion between various parts of Arabia in early days — a con- 
nexion that must also have been a fector in the work of Mohammed 
and his lieutenants in welding the Arabs into a united people. 

Islam has an interest not merely to the student of the past, but 
also and no less to the observer of the present ; and with the growing 
contact between East and West it requires no gift of prof^ecy to 
predict ancounters, both friendly and hostile, between the opposing 
forces represented by Christendom and Islamism. The task of the 
student of religions, whose eye is directed to the present, is therrfore 
one of practical importance and not merely of intellectual or historical 
interest. To this category belong such works as Vollers^ interesting 
volume on WeUrdigionen (Jena, 1907X in which the main currrats 
of thought in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam are taken up and 
sympathetically discussed. An interesting parallel is suggested 
between the gospels representing various streams of tradition regarding 
Jesus and the so-called Hadith literature, which aims to put together 
the traditions about Mohammed. Dr. C. H. Becker^s monograph on 
Chritientkum und Islam (Tubingen, 1907) also has bearings on modem 
conditions. He sees in Islam as in Christianity an offshoot of Oriental- 
Hellenistic culture and thought. The modem influence of the Occi- 
dent on the Orient is discussed in Vamb^ry^s JVestUcher KuUurtm/hus 
im 0$Un (Berlin, 1906), which sets forth the changes to be noted in 
Islam since 1875, when Vamb^ry^s work on ' Islam ' appeared. That 
European influence has even penetrated into the famous Arabic 
University of Azhar in Cairo may be gathered from Arminion^s 
VEnseignemenif la Doctrine etlaVie dans les UniversUSs Musulmanti 
d^tlgypte (Paris, 1907). 

A scholar combining a profound knowledge of the past of 
Islam with an extended study of its present condition and its 
practical workings is C. Snouck-Hurgronje, whose former work on 
Mecca revealed phases of life in the sacred centre of Islam that 
had escaped previous visitors. His keen powers of observation 
are manifested in the same d^ree in his recent study of Islam 
in parts of the Dutch Indies under the title of The Achehnesc.^ It 

* Ren^ Dossaud^ Les Arabes en Syrie avant ritdam (Paris^ 1907). 
2 London and Leyden (1906). Translated by A. W. S. O'SuUivan. 



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1. Preddents Address: Morris Jastraw 247 

coYer» in great detail social oonditioos, customs, rites, and laws of the 
natives of Northern Sumatra^ and shows conclusively that Islam in 
those distant parts is merely a thin veneer over primitive rites and 
old-esta b lished customs which are only modified suflSciently to make 
them accord on the surfieu^ with Mohammedan orthodoxy. What 
Snouck-Hurgronje has done for the one extreme of the scope of 
Islamic influence, Eduard Doutt^ is doing for the other extreme — 
Morocco. His work,^ when completed, will be an exhaustive study of 
the rites and customs existing in this old bulwark of the most fiumtic 
form of Islam, towards which the eyes of all Europe are again turned 
at the present time. To these two works must be added as a third 
Lord Cromer^s Modem Egypt (London, 1908), which, though writt^i 
from a somewhat different point of view, has this in common with 
Snouck-Hurgronje^s and Doutt^% that it represents the result of long- 
continued observation and study of present-day conditions in a country 
which has witnessed the enforced contact with a foreign civilization. 
With the profound changes going on under our very ejres in so many 
Islamic countries — in Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Algiers, and Morocco — 
and with others certain to follow upon such an important departure 
as is involved in the completion of the railway from Damascus to 
Medina— opened to traffic on Sept. 1 of this year * — with the prospect 
of its extension to Mecca itself within a twelvemonth, the importance of 
such studies as those of Vambdry, Snouck-Hurgronje, Doutt^ and 
Lord Cromer can hardly be overestimated in preparing us Europeans 
to grapple with the serious problems of the next decades. To under- 
stand a problem is half of its solution, and often the more difficult hall 
To understand one another sums up also in large measure the real aim 
in the historical and unbiased study of religions; for religion has been 
everywhere and at all times the dearest and most significant expres- 
sion of a people^s aims and its ideals — an unfiedling sjnnptom. of a 
nation's peculiar genius. It seems to me that the student of religions 
should regard it as one of the privileges of the subject engrossing his 
attention that, though he study forms of religion which belong to the 
past, he is always in dose touch with the present. A rdigion that 
unites all mankind has never yet existed and may always remain the 
dream of visionaries, but the touch of nature that makes all mankind 
of one kin is the power of faith— expressed in an infinite variety 
of forms — in the unseen and the unknown. The study of Semitic 

1 Mtrrdkeeh (Paris, 1005). 

' See the DaUy Telegraph of Sept. 6, 1906, and Martia Hartmami, 'Die 
Mekkabahn ' (Onentalidiiehe LUeraturzeUung, xi, No. 1). 



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248 IV. Religions of the Semites 

religions constitutes an especially striking illustration of this truth, 
not only because from centres of Semitic thou^t there have gone 
f<N-th the three religions that have encircled the entire world, but 
also because the phases of religious thought and practice through 
which the Semitic groups have passed, fairly represent the chief 
varieties of religious fsdth, beginning with a materialization of the 
powers dimly felt or more clearly recognized, and rising to the 
spiritualization of those same powers. 

I have attempted in a rapid and a most imperfect survey to 
give you a picture of the manifold activity prevailing in some of the 
sections of this wide field. Portions of the field, apparently remote, 
and yet on that account no less important, I have not even been 
able to touch upon, but I trust at least to have shown you what 
a vast amount of work is being done by a comparatively small band 
of scholars, scattered throughout the world but who are imited by a 
common interest in a great theme. We may feel confident that as the 
years go on the small band will grow to be a large one, for signs are 
everywhere apparent of a steadily increasing interest in the historical 
study of all religions. These Congresses have done their share in 
promoting this interest, and I feel sure that the one which we are 
privileged to hold in this ancient seat of learning, whence so many 
important movements for the advancement of human thought and 
human ideals have emanated as fit>m a natural centre, will help also 
to dispel that indistinct fear of the study of religions which appears 
still to be felt in certain quarters. Religion has eveiything to gain 
and nothing to lose from a dispassionate study of its manifestations 
and its phenomena. 

To us coming from various quarters of the globe it is itself an 
inspiration to catch somewhat of the classic spirit of this beautiful 
spot. To be in Oxford is to drink from a font of wisdom that flows 
on perennially and to gather fresh strength for the laiger tasks which 
each one of us hopes still lie before him. 



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A CHAPTER FROM THE BABYLONIAN 
BOOKS OF PRIVATE PENANCE 

By STEPHEN LANGDON. (Abstract) 

Thb most anoi^it liturgical literature which we possess in cuneiform 
oharaot^n is Sumerian. From it the Babylonians borrowed not only - 
their religious literature, but their principle of classification into publio 
and ]xriyate services. Of these the public services are evidently much 
the older. The earliest liturgical form evolved by the religious instinct 
of humanity was called *w«ilingto the flute';^ and though some public 
psalms of the kind are really hymns of praise containing no indication 
of sorrow or penance, yet the title itself reveals the original moUf. 
And not only this but the entire history of Sumerian and Babylonian 
religion, extending over a period of three thousand years, contains 
in the public services a dominant note of penance and fear of the gods. 
Religion is primarily a social expression of humanity, and it is the 
expression of their helplessness and their sinfulness. This does not 
imply that the Babylonian view of life was pessimistic ; their chief 
desires seem to have been long life, and descendants to minister to 
their cults in memory of the dead. Yet, after all, their public liturgies 
and psalms leave upon us, as they must have left upon them, an 
impression of indefinable longing to be more pure. 

Although the public liturgical forms are the most primitive, yet 
services for private devotion have come to us from a very early period. 
It is, however, probable that the first rituals evolved for the benefit of 
the individual were incantations and magic acts for healing the afSicted* 
who were supposed to be in the power of the demons. So far as we 
now know these rituals were performed in small huts, outside the cities 
in the plains, and preferably by the river's bank. If the symbolic act 
of magic were the use of holy water, the ritual was called * Incantation 
of the bU rimki or house of washing ', or * Incantation of the bU sola* 
me or house of baptism ' ; or,if the symbolic act consisted in employing 
salt and baked cakes, it was called * Incantation of the bU niiri or house 
of light '• So then from very primitive times two kinds of sacred 
liturgies grew up, one of public penance and praise, another of incanta- 
tion for private persons. The former was confined to the temple, the 
second to small huts in the fields. 

' er-iem-mOf in Semitic iigU ; for a list of titles of these peahns see iv. Raw. 
53, ooL ill. Several early Sumerian eriemma hymns have been published in 
Cuneiform Texts from the British Museum, pt. XV, some of which are translated 
in Babf/loniacat vol ii, and the entire collection in the writer's iSfiifii€rfan Psalms. 



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250 IF. ReBgions of tlie SemlcH 

For the temple servioes, which on the basis of the ancient psalms 
to the Ante (or lyre) were elaborated at great length, the Babylonians 
set apart special days called ^Sabbath ' days or days of public lam^it.^ 
These were the seventh and fifteenth of each month, and perhaps also 
the twenty-first and twenty-eighth. 

But the Sumerians evolved a still higher liturgical form, called 
* prayers of the lifting of the hand ', intended for private devotions in 
the temple. These were said by the worshipper, standing with right 
hand upraised before his god and the left hand placed across the 
waist ; at this early period grew up the practice of making small 
stone cylinders, upon which were incised a religious scene and the 
name of the owner, a dedication or some mark by which the cylinder 
could be identified from any other. These were used as private seals. 
Now the most common scene of all the many hundreds which have 
jbeen found is the representation of the owner standing before his god 
with right hand upraised in adoration. He is most often repres^ited 
as led to his god, who is seated upon a throne, by a minor deity and 
followed by another. This is of course a mere fantasy. Not until 
later times are seal impressions and seals found, on which the wor- 
shipper is represented as led to his god by a priest.^ 

It is not altogether safe to infer that no priest was present for 
the recitation of these private devotions. The great classification 
tablet of Sumerian and Babylonian liturgical literature [iv. Raw. 53] 
ends by saying, that these public and private temple services belong 
to the hala priests or psalmists. Certain it is, at least, that the aUpfik 
or priest of incantation had nothing to do with the temple services, 
which were confined to pubUc and private devotions. It must be 
considered a backward step in the history of religion, when in Semitic 
times the a^pu priests were allowed to use the private prayers of the 
lifting of the hand in their incantation services. Naturally the * house 
of baptism ', ' house of washing,' and ^ house of light ' rituals represent 
the practical side of all ancient religion. That which seemed essential 
to the average man was to secure control of the unseen powers, since all 
evil came from the demons. The gods abandoned men because they 
were negligent, sinful, impure : the demons then possessed them and 
brought calamity, disease, and troubles of all kinds. This idea is 
very primitive and is the practical side of the social and personal 
consciousness of imperfection, which gave rise to the temple services.' 

* For the derivation of Babylonian sapaUu^ as meaning 'lament', see ZDMO., 
1908, 29 f. 

* For a list of titles of Sumerian prajrers of the lifting of the hand see iv. Raw. 
53, iii. 44-iy. 28. 

* As a matter of facta large number of temple lamentation servioeB originated 
in laments over the fall of a city, a pestilence, a drou^^t, &c., vrbklh gave 



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2. Bahylofdan Books of Penance: Langdon 251 

As a matter of iaot every one seems to have made use of the inoanta- 
ticm rituab, and the priests worked out long services by appropriating 
the private prayers of the lifting of the hand and calling them incanta- 
tions. The * house of washing ' ritual was used expressly for the king, 
who either in person or by a representative was required to say the 
lU fimhi service in the dark of the moon, to avoid evil for his peo]de. 
One set of tablets gave the prayers, now called incantations, which 
the king repeated during the ritual, and another set of tablets gave the 
accompanying ritual of the oHpvi priests. We have, however, frag- 
ments of a &tf riniki service in which the priest said the prayers for 
the king. Here the evolution of ritual, in which the individual is 
lost and the service handed over entirely to the sacramental priest, is 
complete. 

Fortunately the material for studying the bU niJiri or ' house of light * 
ritual takes us back to the period before the prayers of the * lifting of 
the hand ' were taken over, and when the ritual meant what it was 
originally intended to be, viz. a service of incantation for an afflicted 
person, in which the incantations were said by the priest. It seems 
to have been customary to inscribe amulets with incantations from 
these various private rituals, to keep away the demons. It is from 
a littie amulet in the shape of a clay tablet, in the possession of 
Father Scheil of Paris, that we obtain the earliest incantation yet 
found from the hU n&n ritual. The inscription reads : 

Incantation of the house of light. 

Oh black bull of the deep,^ 

Idon of the dark house, 

Thou who art full of . . • 

Thou of Marad, 

By §ama§ who fills the world, 

By Ishtar who . . . , 

As for me who sit with hands upon my heart. 

May the sacred formula, the incantation * house of light ', 

With salt free from pain(?). 

Formtsla of placing saU at ihe hand. 

An amulet which dates from a period at least 2000 years later reads : 

Incantation of the house of light. Of Ninib councillor of the 
gods, beloved of the heart of Enlil am I. Against the god of the dark 
storm I watch. The sacred formula, incantation of the house of light, 
the darkness with light defeats. He who acts wisely (?).* 

a specific reason for the expression of the inborn and constant consoionsnees 
of fear and hnmiUty. 

^ The reference is to Marduk, child of the god of the sea, to whom his father 
confided all the mysteries of the water cult. This theological evolution is earlier 
than the Hammurabi dynasty. The Scheil tablet cannot be later than 2500 B.a 

' Lenormant, Chaix de TexUSf No. 27. Also copied by me. 



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232 IV. ReKgwM of the Semites 

For the actual use of one of the incantations of the hU n&ri group 
we have the following from a medical text : 

If a person fall ill with colic, on the day of the illness cause him to 
ride in a fiial;tnTtf-boat, cause him to embi^k, say the magical formula 
thus : — ^Incantation of the house of light. ... Oh virgin daughter of 
Enlil, thou who lackest not strength, &ri>anit, thou who art all seeing, 
thou that waitest, thou that standest, thou that intercedest (?) 
intercede (?). Sacred formula, an incantation. This sacred formula 
repeat : he shall live.^ 

These examples illustrate how short formulae of this ritual were 
used for healing the sick and for amulets. Two of these charms (only 
one is given in this abstract) indicate that they protected against the 
powers of darkness. Both are late and reflect the astronomical stage 
of Babylonian religion, so that it would be hardly just to conclude 
that the service was originally performed against the evils attendant 
upon eclipses, when the powers of darkness prevailed; but at least 
this was the case in later times. The formula on the Scheil tablet 
was used against disease, and so also the one in the medical text* 

We possess three long incantations of this ritual from the Sumerian 
period of which I shall give but one in this abstract. The service 
concerns the headache, and is valuable for showing how the Sumerians 
had worked out the incantation rituals before they were borrowed 
by the Semites.^ 

Incantation of the house of light. Namtar like a god invincible 
from heaven entered. He brought headache upon a man. Headache 
and pain at the throat he brought. Woe causing hdvda^ painful fever 
he ushered in. To his hand his hand he. extended ; to his foot his 
foot he extended ; over his hand his hands he passed ; over his foot 
his feet he passed. ' This man is the son of my hand, son of my 
foot is he.' Marduk beheld it. To his father Ea, into his house he 
entered ; him he addressed. ^ My father, Namtar, like a god in- 
vincible from heaven has entered. Upon a man he has brought 
headache. Headache and pain at the throat, &c» How he has sinned 
I know not, nor how to restore him.' Ea answered his son Marduk : 
*' My son what knowest thou not, what can I add to thee ? As for me, 
what I know thou also knowest, and thou, what thou knowest I also 
know. Go my son Marduk ; this man, the child of his god pacify (?)• 
Bread at his head place, rain water at his feet place. Smite the head- 
ache, the words of the curse of Eridu utter. Of his limbs the curse 
allay. May the headache ascend to heaven like smoke. Into the 
beneficent hand of his god restore the man.' 

Formtda of j^adng bread at the head. 

The reverse of the same tablet has a similar incantation, but here 
kneaded bread is placed at the hand. 

^ KOohler, Medizin, Taf. I 4-7. 

' Cuneiform Texts from the British Museum, pt. IV, plate 4. 



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2. Babylonian Books of Penance: Langdon 258 

Aoooiding to the andents water was the symbol of wisdom, and the 
mysteries of incantation, the power to control unseen spirits by acts 
and formulae, belonged to the god of the sea. This wisdom revealed 
by the father of the deep to his son Marduk was then revealed by 
Marduk to the aHjm priests. The mysteries of the fire cult belonged 
also to them, since they alone possessed the mysteries of magic. 

I have already shown how the prayers of the lifting of the hand 
were originally designed for private penance or hymns of praise in the 
temples, and how these were incorporated into the incantation rituals 
and used as magical formulae. The motif which lay behind this evolu- 
tion is evident. In the saying of private penance for sins the wor- 
shipper had not the comfort of an accompanying ritual. Moreover, 
the influence of the aHpu cult increased to such an extent, that the 
Babylonians and Assyrians confided the destinies of soul and body 
into its keeping. In the great rituals p^ormed by them we find 
men no longer seeking to be healed, but to be forgiven. They now 
say their prayers in the houses of washing, of baptism, or of light. 
In other words the whole liturgy of private penance went over to the 
incantation cults ; to the priests who forgave with sacraments of 
holy water and holy bread, and who burned away sins by the 
symbolic acts of burning perishable things. 

The ritual of the bU nuri cult followed the analogy of the bU rimki 
and bU sola* me cults. After the Sumerian period prayers of the 
lifting of the hand began to appear here also. Of these two have 
been found,^ each accomjMuaied by a ritual. In the long incantation 
services for kings the ritual was separated from the prayers. We 
conclude, therefore, that the prayer and ritual here are for private 
penance : the prayer has passed into an incantation and a magical 
service is added. Several variants of one of these prayers exist which 
show that the prayer could be used in the bU nori ritual, or in any other 
ritual which the priest and worshipper chose to use. I shall quote 
from a penitential prayer to Marduk to illustrate this phase of Baby- 
lonian religion. 

Incantation of the house of light. 

Hero Marduk whose anger is a destructive deluge, 

Who when appeased is a merciful father : 
Crying and not being heard harass me, 

Sighing and no answer distress me. 



The sanctuary of life verily I seek, 
Since to have mercy thou didst command the gods. 

The great sin which from my infancy I have committed, 
Blot out, even seven times remove 

^ King, Magic, No. 11, and No. 22, 36-67' 



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254 IV. Religions of the Semites 

Thv heart as the heart of my father 

And of my mother, return to its place ; 
Oh heroic Marduk, I will sing thy praise. 

The prayer is followed by a ritualistic note to offer incense before 
liarduk, to prepare ointment of oil, water, honey, and butter, and when 
the prayer is ended, to anoint the man.^ 

I shall close this paper by translating a section of the &U wQri ritual 
used for protection against evil om^is of nature. The tablet is so 
damaged as to render it impossible to identify the nature of the other 
incantations upon it. The catch-line indicates that the next section 
was used for the king in time of evil portents. This is important ; for 
it proves that incantations and prayers, strung togethw each with its 
own ritual, did not follow one after the other in a single service, but 
wece drawn up as a corpus of selections for various purposes. 

Incantation of the house of light. Oh §ama$, lord of heaven and earth, 

Establisher of right and justice, unbribable inquisitor, 

Bobed in splendour, enlightening the spirits of heaven and earth, 

Bestower of light upon pale-fac^ men. 

Lord of heaven and earth I seek thee, to thee I turn. 

Thy girdle cord I lay hold of as of the girdle cord of my god and goddess. 

Since to render judgement, to make decision. 

To bring peace to aU rests with thee. 

Since thou knowest how to spare, to be merciful, to rescue. 

Daily I some one the son of his god. 

Whose god is so and so, whose goddess is so and so. 

Stand before thy divinity. 

Thee I send unto the god who is angry with me. 

Unto the god who is enraged against me. 

The evil omens, the signs evil and unlucky (?) . • .^ 

The evolution of this service, originally purely magical, but at last 
absorbing the higher forms of penance and consolation, cannot fail 
to set the whole problem of Babylonian religion in a clearer light. 
The sacramental element always aUied to magic finally became necessary 
to the forgiveness even of ethical sin. The rituals of the magician in the 
fields gained an overshadowing importance upon the temple services. 
It is, in fact, these services that profoundly influenced practical religion 
down to the last century before (Christianity.^ 

* The verb pMht is parallel to Heb. ne^, and is used also for anointing 
sUmes and saored objects ezaotly as the Hebrew verb. So also a ptCU form pdSQu 
is used of one oonseorated i>y anointing, just as the Heb. IT^. In the rituals 
the sigmfksanoe is the porifioation from sin. 

* iv. Raw. 60 obv. 30-45. 

* lliis artiole is printed in full in Babyloniaca, vol. iii, pt. I. 



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8 
TWO NOTES ON HEBREW FOLKLORE 

By J, G. FRAZER 

§ L The Bird Sanctuary 

In the eighty-fourth Psahn we read : * How amiable are thy 
tabernacles, Lord of hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth 
for the courts of the Lord ; my heart and my flesh cry out unto the 
living Grod. Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the 
swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, evefa thine 
altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my Qod.' 

These words seem to imply that birds might build their nests and 
roost unmolested within the precincts and even upon the very altars 
of the temple at Jerusalem. There is no improbability in the sup- 
position that they were really allowed to do so ; for the Greeks in 
like manner respected the birds which built their nests on holy ground. 
We learn this from Herodotus. He tells us that when the rebel 
Pactyas, the Lydian, fled from the wrath of Cyrus and took refuge 
with the Greeks of Cyme, the oracle of Apollo commanded his hosts 
to surrender the fugitive to the vengeance of the angry king. Thinking 
it impossible that the god could be so merciless, I had almost said so 
inhuman, as to bid them betray to his ruthless enemies the man who 
had put his trust in them, one of the citizens of Cyme, by name 
Aristonicus, repaired to the sanctuary of Apollo, and there going 
round the temple he tore down the nests of the sparrows and all the 
other birds which had built their little houses within the sacred place. - 
Thereupon, we are told, a voice was heard from the Holy of Holies 
saying : ' Most impious of men, how dare you do so ? how dare you 
wrench my suppliants from my temple ? ' To which Aristonicus 
promptly retorted : * So you defend your own suppliants, O Lord, 
but you order the people of Cyme to betray theirs ? ' ^ 

Again, we read in Aelian ^ that the Athenians put a man to death 
for killing a sacred sparrow of Aesculapius. Li the great sanctuary 
of the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis on the Euphrates, the pigeons 
were as plentiful and as tame as they now are in the square of St. 
Mark at Venice.' We must remember that in antiquity the windows 
of temples as well as of houses were unglazed, so that birds could 
fly freely out and in, and build their nests, not only in the eaves, 
but in the interior of the sacred edifices. In his mockery of the 
* Herodotus, i. 157-159. ■ Aelian, Var. Hist., ▼. 17. 

' Luoian, De dea Syriaf 54. 



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256 IV. ReUgiom of the Semites 

heathen, the Christian Father, Clement of Alexandria, twits them 
with the disrespeot shown to the greatest of their gods by swallows 
and other birds, which flew into the temples and defiled the images 
by their droppings.^ To this day in remote parts of Greece, where 
windows are unglazed, swallows sometimes build their nests within 
the house and are not disturbed by the peasants. The first night 
I slept in Arcadia I was wakened in the morning by the swallows 
fluttering to and fro in the dark over head, till the shutters were 
thrown open, the sunlight streamed in, and the birds flew out. The 
reason for not molesting wild birds and their nests within the precincts 
of a temple was no doubt a belief that everything there was too sacred 
to be meddled with or removed. It is the same feeling which prompts 
the aborigines of Central Australia to spare any bird or beast which 
has taken refuge in one of the spots which these savages deem holy, 
because the most precious relics of their forefathers are deposited 
there.^ The divine protection thus extended to birds in the ancient 
world and particularly, as it would seem, in the temple at Jemsalmn, 
lends fresh tenderness to the beautiful saying of Christ : * ^ Are not 
two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of them shall not fall on 
the ground without your Father.' We may, perhaps, please our- 
selves by imagining that these words were spoken within the sacred 
precinct at Jerusalem, while the temple sparrows fluttered and twit- 
tered in the sunshine about the speaker. 

§ 2. The Sileni Widow 
The Hebrew word for a widow, alemanah (^J9pi^), is perhaps 
etymologically connected with the adjective iUem (DJK) •dumb*. 
If this etymology, which appears to be favoured by the authors of 
the Oxford Hebrew Lexicon, is correct, it would seem that the Hebrew 
word for a widow means • a silent woman '• Why should a widow 
be called a silent woman ? I suggest with all due diffidence that the 
epithet may be explained by a widespread custom which imposes 
the duty of absolute silence on a widow for some time, often a long 
time, after the death of her husband. Thus among the Kutus, 
a tribe on the Congo, widows observe mourning for three lunar months* 
They shave their heads, strip themselves almost naked, daub their 
bodies all over with white clay, and pass the whole of the three months 
in the house without speaking.^ Among the Sihanakft in Madagascar 
the observances are similar, but the period of silence is still longer, 

* dement of Alexandria, Pro&epi.t iy. 52, p. 46, ed. Potter. 

' Spenoer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 134 sq. 

* Matthew x. 29. 

* Notes Anali/tiques sur les CoUecHons Ethnograpkiques du Musie du Congo. 
tome 1, fasoioule 2, Religion (Brussels, 1006), p. 185. 



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8. Notes on Hebrew Folk-Lore: Frazer 257 

lasting for at least eight months, and sometimes for a year. During 
the whole of that time the widow is stripped of all her ornaments 
and covered up with a coarse mat, and she is given only a broken 
spoon and a broken dish to eat out of. She may not wash her face 
or her hands, but only the tips of her fingers. In this state she 
remains all day long in the house and may not speak to any one who 
enters it.^ Among the Kwakiutl Indians of North- West America 
for four days after the death of her husband a widow must sit motion- 
less, with her knees drawn up to her chin. For sixteen days after 
that she is bound to remain on the same spot, but she enjoys the 
privilege of stretching her legs, though not of moving her hands. 
During all that time nobody may speak to her. It is thought that 
if any one dared to break the rule of silence and speak to the widow, 
he would be punished by the death of one of his relatives. A widower 
has to observe precisely the same restrictions on the death of his 
wife.' Similarly among the Bella Coola Indians of the same region 
a widow must fast for four days, and during that time she may not 
speak a word ; otherwise they think that her husband's ghost would 
come and lay a hand on her mouth and she would die. The same 
rule of silence has to be observed by a widower on the death of his 
wife and for a similar reason.^ Here you will remark that the reason 
for keeping silence is a fear of attracting the dangerous, and indeed 
fatal, attention of the ghost. 

But by no people is this curious custom of silence more strictly 
observed than by some of the savages of Central Australia. Thus 
among the Arunta a man's widows smear their hair, faces, and breasts 
with white pipeclay and remain silent for a certain time until a par- 
ticular ceremony has been performed which releases them from the 
ban. In this ceremony the performers are the sons and younger 
brothers of the dead man, who hold a large dish full of food close to 
the widow's face and make passes to the right and left of her cheeks. 
After that she is free to speak, though she still continues to smear 
herself with pipeclay. An Arunta widow is called Iivpirta^ that is, 
^ the whitened one ', because of the white clay on her hair, face, and 
breast. Sometimes she smears ashes over the pipeclay, and then she 
is called Ura-inpirta, the word ura meaning fire.^ Among the 

^ Rabesihanaka (a native Malagese), * The Sihanaka and their countiy,' The 
Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, Beprini of the First Four 
Numbers (Antananarivo, 1885), p. 326. 

' Franz Boas, in Fifth Report of the Committee of the British Association on 
the North-Western Tribes of Canada (1889), p. 43 (s^Murate reprint). 

* Franz Boas, in Seventh Beport of the Committee of the British Association on 
the North-Western Tribes of Canada (1891), p. 13 (separate reprint). 

* Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 600-2. 

O.B. X S 



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258 IV. ReUgions of the Semites 

Unmatjera and Eaitish, two other tribes of Central Australia, a widow's 
hair is burnt off close to her head with a firestiok, and she covers 
herself with ashes from the camp fire. This covering of ashes she 
renews during the whole period of her mourning; otherwise it is 
believed that her husband's spirit, who is constantly following her, 
would kill her and strip all the flesh from her bones. Further, she 
must observe the ban of silence until, usually many months after the 
death, her tongue is untied by her late husband's younger brother, 
who touches her mouth with food, thus indicating that she is free to 
talk once more.^ But among the Warramunga, another tribe of 
Central Australia, the command of silence imposed on women after 
a death is much more comprehensive and extraordinary. With th«n 
it is not only the dead man's widow who must be silent during the 
whole time of mourning, which may last for one or even two years ; 
his mother, his sisters, his daughters, his mother-in-law or mothers- 
in-law must all equally be dumb and for the same protracted p^od. 
More than that, not only his real wife, real mother, real sisters, real 
daughters, and real mothers-in-law are subjected to this rule of silence, 
but a great many more women, whom the natives reckon in these 
relationships, though we should not, are similarly bound over to 
hold their tongues, it may be for a year, or it may be for two years. 
As a consequence it is no uncommon thing in a Warramunga camp to 
find the majority of women prohibited from speaking. Even when 
the period of mourning is over, some women prefer to remain silent 
and to use only the gesture language, in the practice of which they 
become remarkably proficient. Not seldom, when a party of women 
are in camp, there will be almost perfect silence, though the women 
all the while may be canying on a brisk conversation on their fingers, 
their hands, and their arms. At Tennant's Creek not long ago there 
was an old woman who had not opened her mouth except to eat or 
drink for more than twenty-five years, and who will probably, if she 
has not done so already, go down to her grave' without uttering 
another syllable.^ With such examples before us, we can, perhaps, 
understand why the Hebrews called a widow * the silent woman '. 

If, finally, we ask why a widow should be bound over to silence 
for a longer or shorter time, the motive for the custom appears 
certainly to be a fear of attracting the dangerous attentions of her 
late husband's ghost. This fear is indeed plaioly alleged as the reason 
by the Bella Coola Indians, and it is assigned by the Unmatjera and 
Eaitish as the reason for covering the widow's body with ashes. The 
whole intention of these customs is apparently either to elude or to 

* Spenoer and GiUen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia^ pp. 507 iq. 
' Ibid., pp. 525 sq.; id., Native Tribes of Central Australia^ pp. 500 sq. 



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3, Notes on Hebrew Folk-Lore: Frazer 259 

disgust and repel the ghost. The widow eludes him by remaining 
silent ; she disgusts and repels him by discarding her finery, shaving 
or burning her hair, and daubing herself with clay or ashes. But on 
the contrary, when the long period of Arunta mourning is over and 
the poor ghost, after being chased out of all his old haunts, is driven 
into the grave and trampled down into it, the widow appears beside 
his narrow house with the gay feathers of the ring-neck parrot in her 
hair, as if to let him know that the days of her sorrow are ended. 
Yet still, by way of a last farewell, she strips the bright feathers from 
her hair, and kneeling down buries them with the dead man in the 
grave.^ 



4 

THE RELIGION OF CANAAN AT THE TIME 
OF THE ISRAELITE INVASION 

By STANLEY A. COOK. (Abstract) 

A GENBRAL estimate of Canaanite religion may be gained from the 
evidence of monuments and inscriptions, from the excavations, and 
from the allusions in the Old Testament.^ From the archaeology 
alone it is clear that Canaanite culture was at no rudimentary stage, 
while the Amama tablets indicate that there was no inferior mental 
ability. 

Robertson Smith has proved that religious and political institutions 
formed part of the same social structure : we have to deal with ' prac- 
tical systems ' wherein the relations between man and man, and man 
and the gods were well understood. Consequently, some ethical 
motives were never wanting, and one must avoid forming too low an 
estimate either of Canaanite nature-worship, or of the nature deities. 
But the fundamental weakness of these ' systems ' was, as Robertson 
Smith has said, their inability to separate ethical motives of religion 
from their source in a naturalistic conception of the godhead and its 
relation to man.' 

In the next place, an underlying identity of thought can be traced 
through Western Asia and Egypt from the earliest sources to the 

^ Spencer and QiUen, NaUve Tribes of Central Austraiia, pp. 503-8. 

' Further reference may be made to K Marti, Religum of the Old Testament 
(especially chap, ii) ; £. Sellin, Die alttesL Religion itn Bahmen der andem altorien' 
lalischen, and to the present writer's Beligion of Ancient Palestine. 

' Religion of the Semites, 2nd ed, p. 58 ; cf. pp. 74, 263 sq. 

s2 



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260 IV. Religions of the Semites 

present day. Common fundamental ideas reour in a great variety 
of shapes in the cults of Babylonia and Egypt, in the priestly and 
prophetical writings of the Old Testament, and in modem Palestine 
itself. The historical treatment of comparative religion reveals in- 
cessant progression or retrogression, sometimes in a single area, while, 
in the divase forms of religion in Western Asia to-day, it is possible 
to perceive how, under the influence of definite historical circumstances, 
the common underljring conceptions have taken different forms. 
Consequently, in deeding with the religion of a particular land (viz. 
Canaan), at a particular period (towards the close of the Second 
Millennium b.o.), we have to distinguish between the persisting 
features and those which are more accidental or incidental. We may 
not reconstruct a religion at variance with the known conditions 
of the age, and although it is necessary to consider the various external 
influences, we may not assume that the religion must have shared any 
specific characteristics which can be found in those lands by which 
Canaan had been, or still was politically influenced. 

Although there is much evidence to suggest that Babylonia had 
exerted an influence upon Canaan from an early age, it is often difScult 
to determine whether features, which find a parallel in the great accumu- 
lation of Babylonian literature, are really specifically Babylonian. 
The culture of ancient Arabia, though still incompletely known, ia 
a factor which cannot be ignored, and the region of Assyria, North 
Syria, and Mesopotamia is connected with Canaan by geography, 
political history, and by some archaeological details at a time when 
Babylonia itself, after the great Kassite invasion, had lost its earlier 
supremacy over the west. Some of the personal names in the Amama 
letters (about 1400 B.C.) suggest a direct influence from the north, 
and, since the cuneiform script and language were used even by the^ 
Hittites of Asia Minor, Babylonian culture could have entered Canaan 
only indirectly. On the whole, it seems safer to work up from the 
common prevailing religious conceptions to the point where we can 
recognize specific influences than to assume that specific Babylonian 
features must have left their mark when Babylonia was supreme, 
and must have persisted. 

We are fortunately able to gain some idea of the effect of Eg3rptian 
supremacy over the Mediterranean coastlands.^ Although the 
Egyptian national cult was extended over subject lands, some of the 
deities of Western Asia were received into Egypt. Religious con- 
ditions in Palestine were firmly established and, to jud^e from the 
evidence, were little affected by the Egyptian suzerainty. The latter 
involved chiefly the recognition of the head of the Empire and hia 

* See, for details, Religion of Ancient Palestine^ chap. vi. 



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4. Religion of Canaan: S. A. Cook 261 

gods. Here we are brought to the ' divinity of kings \ a belief for 
which there is a powerful array of evidence, although the modem 
inquirer can scarcely determine where conviction ended and conven- 
tion began.^ At all events, the Canaanite vassal chiefis, like the 
Egyptians, explicitly recognized the Pharaoh as their god, and their 
letters (in the Anuuma tablets) and the allusions in Egyptian texts 
supplement each other in illustrating some typical features of the 

* system ^ uniting deities, king, people, and land. Thus, the *' breath ' 
(or ^ spirit ') of the king, like that of the god, is life-giving, and his 
'name' implies possession and gives protection. It is interesting 
to find that * sin ' (khitfa) in the Amama letters denotes disloyalty to the 
king or the gods, while ' righteousness ' {s-d-h) is loyalty or obedience.* 
Hence, from the obligations uniting gods and men, we may infer that 
the root idea of ^righteousness' was adherence to the customary 
usage between the divine and human members of the ' system \ Thus 
it is that one could speak of the ' righteousness ' of the deity or of his 
followers. In the Amama tablets 'cursing' (verb arani) is also 
used of expulsion ; we may infer that it is literal excommunication, 
removal from the protective influence, whether of the gods or of men.' 

* Blessing,' to judge from the Canaanite word {b-r-h) in Egyptian texts, 
seems to have involved the reverse — ^acknowledgement, recognition. 
Captives cry for life that they may ' bless ' the temple of the god 
Amon, the * father ' of Ramses III, or that they may * bless ' his royal 
and divine insignia. Some such idea as this seems to appear in 
2 Kings xviii. 31. 

Now, the Pharaoh, the supreme human head of the 'system', was 
the incarnation of the national god, whose son he claimed to be. He 
had the attributes of the bull, the sun-god and the weather- (or storm) 
god. Since similar combinations can be traced outside Egypt (in 
Assyria and among the Hittites), the character of the Pha^ratoh as 
recognized in Canaan was not specifically Egyptian ; it belonged rather 
to the common stock of Oriental thought. Moreover, just as the 
monarchical 'system' did not exclude smaller political or social 

* systems ', a supreme god did not supersede the lesser deities. The 
Baal, far exceUence^ in Canaan was a weather- or storm-god, possibly 
with solar attributes, but he would not supersede the local Baalim. 
The evidence suggests that the practical working of the small systems 

* See W. B. Smith, op. cit., pp. 62 sqq., 72 sq., 245 sq. ; E. B. Sevan, English 
Historical Review, 1901, pp. 625 sqq. ; £. Komemann, BeitrOge z. AUen Oe* 
sehichU, i 1901, pp. 51 sqq., and J. G. Frazer, Ledurta on the Early History of 
the Kingship, passim. 

* See, on this, Journal of Theological Studies, July, 1906, p. 632, n. 1. 

* Compare the curses appended to Khammurabi's Code of Laws or typical 
Egyptian examples. 



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262 IV. Religions of the Semites 

was analogous to that of the monarchy.^ This, however, is a problem 
for comparative religion, and upon it depends the fundamental question 
— the effect of the decay of Egyptian supremacy upon Canaanite 
religion. After the decline of the Bamessid kings in the Twentieth 
Dynasty, and, centuries later, after the fall of the Israelite monarchy, 
it would seem that in both Egypt and Palestine the ruling priesthood 
occupy the position of former kings, while there is also a tendency 
for the national god to become more prominent in the religion of 
the individual. But the evidence does not allow us at present to trace 
the steps from the fall of Egyptian supremacy to the rise of the 
independent Hebrew monarchy, or to estimate with any confidence 
the development of Canaanite religion in the interval. It can only 
be affirmed that there was no sudden break in the development and 
that any investigation of this problem (which lies outside the scope of 
this paper) must take into account the general conditions in the earlier 
period. 

In conclusion, we may claim for ancient Canaan a higher stamp of 
religion than is usually granted. It was far removed from ' primitive * 
religion, although, like the popular beliefis in Palestine to-day, and the 
elaborate cults of Babylonia and Egypt, it went back to the same 
fundamental institutions. And, secondly, modem research has so 
interwoven departments of research that progress can be ensured only 
by checking the results reached in one path of inquiry by those in 
another. In the recent accumulation of Assyriological and Egypto- 
logical material, there is an occasional inclination to overlook the 
value of anthropology, or to suppose that the study of the fundamental 
institutions is no longer of the first importance. But we cannot sever 
religious cult from social custom ; and though we may not be prepared 
to accept every hypothesis of Robertson Smith in his Religion of the 
Semites, we may venture the opinion that the subject with which this 
paper deals C€m only be advanced by following upon the lines which 
this gifted scholar laid down nearly twenty years ago. 

^ Thus, the members of a group could be called the children of their deity, 
and in modem Palestine families will claim descent from some patron saint or 
voeU, who is virtually a local god. Such saints are sometimes alleged to be 
former sheikhs, and the sheikh of a tribe is himself generally the proper guardian 
of the cult. 



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TRACES OF ANIMISM AND TOTEMISM IN 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 

By H. J. DUKINFIELD ASTLEY. (Abstract) 

Thb volume of AnOiropclogical Essays presented to Professor E. B* 
Tylor, in honour of his seventy-fifth birthday, 1007, contains a most 
interesting paper by Dr. J. G. Frazer on Folklore in the Old Testa- 
menty in which he deals with the Mark of Cain, Sacred Oaks and 
Terebinths, the Bundle of Life, and other such subjects. Our object 
in this essay is to discover traces left by Animism and Totemism on 
the pages of the Old Testament, and, in order to do this, we shall 
make full use of the admitted results of the Higher Criticism of the 
ancient literature of Israel, recognizing the progressive character of 
the revelation therein contained, and the composite character of the 
books of which it is made up. Although the writings are themselves 
much later than the traditional view allows, yet modem knowledge of 
the primitive races of mankind enables us to detect in them relics 
of far more ancient days. It is now admitted that in the evolution 
of their culture and religion the ancestors of Israel must have passed 
through stages identical with those experienced by all other civilized 
races ; and these relics survive in the guise of superstitions, and in 
folklore and folk-customs. Coincidently with the Higher Criticism 
has been developed the Science of Anthropology, from which we 
learn that *at corresponding stages of culture man is always and 
everywhere the same ' ; that in modem savage peoples to-day we 
may see, in various stages, the primitive ideas of the race; and that 
there must have been a time when these ideas were of the same living 
significance among the ancestors of the civilized peoples as they are 
among savages to-day. 

In thus seeking to trace the primitive religious beliefs and social 
arrangements of the ancestors of the Hebrews, we do not deny the 
inspiration of the literature, nor impair the unique character of the 
revelation of which it was the vehicle ; but we do throw fresh light 
on the methods of the divine working, in showing that in this case, 
as in every other, Gkxl has to take men, so to say, as He finds them, 
and that His eternal purposes are only carried out through the slow 
but sure processes of evolution. 

The curliest religious ideas of which we can find traces in the past 
and of which we have evidences in the present, are comprised in what is 



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264 IV. ReBgions of the Semites 

known, following Professor Tylor, as Animism, along with which went, 
and goes, Totemism as the basis of social arrangement. 

Of Palaeolithic man we know too little to say anything definite ; 
it is when we arrive at the Neolithic stage of culture that Animism 
and Totemism are found ruling the religious and social life. Down 
to the present day the natives of Australia have continued in what 
may be described as the most primitive stage of both, though with 
varying degrees of complexity. 

It is unnecessary to define either term here, but, briefly stated, it 
will suffice to say that Animism represents man's earliest outlook 
upon Nature, and Totemism the earliest social arrangement by means 
of which, through the practice of exogamy, inbreeding was avoided 
through being made tabu. 

In Animism two stages may be recognized ; (1) the earliest, when 
man, knowing himself to be alive^ concludes that all things are alive 
too, and endowed with a personality similar to his own ; (2) what 
Professor Tylor meant more particularly by the term, the doctrine 
of souls. It is when the * soul ' becomes differentiated from the object, 
when, instead of *' the living tree * or ^ the living stone % we think 
of the ' tree-spirit ' or the *' stone-spirit ', that metempsychosis becomes 
possible; and also that a further advance in the evolution of religions 
is made, and polytheism and fetishism with their attendant magic 
arise. By this time, too, Totemism is dying out. 

Coming now to the Old Testament we will deal : 

I. With the subject of Animism. 

In the opening chapters of JE we are not surprised to find 
the narrative of the Living Tree and the Speaking Serpent, nor» 
later on, the story of the Speaking Ass. These, although of late date, 
have a flavour of the highest antiquity, and carry us back to a time 
when, to the ancestors of Israel, there was nothing miraculous in 
them, but it was as natural for an ass or a serpent to speak as for 
men to do so. So Homer tells us of the speaking horse (Iliad, xix. 
404-8 sqq.), and Idvy tells of the prodigy of the speaking ox, while 
Pliny says : ^ Est frequens in prodigiis priscorum bovem locutum ' ; 
but to the prieci themselves it was no prodigy, any more than it is 
to our children, in the neolithic stage of culture, when they read 
Aesop, or Phaedrus, or La Fontaine. 

These stories may be illustrated, as having their origin very far 
back, by what we know of the ideas of West Africans, or native 
Australians, and other savage tribes to-day. 

Balaam's ass was not only able to speak, but it could see the angel 
who was unseen by Balaam. So Telemachus could not see Athene 
standing over him, but Odysseus saw her, and the dogs ; so, in old 
Scandinavia, the dogs could see Hela, the death-goddess, move, unseen 



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5. Animism and Totemisni in O. T. : Astley 265 

by man, and in oor own popular superstitions a dog's melancholy 
howl means death near. 

Quite on the same lines is the occurrence of the * Living Tree ' 
in the enchanted garden where Yahweh Elohim walks and talks with 
man, the fruit of which gives immortality — and close beside it is the 
Sacred River or Fountain. These recur again in the last chapter of 
Revelation, and in the two great Sacraments of the Church carry 
on the ideas of primitive animism to our own age. 

In the stories of the Patriarchs we find Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
intimately associated with the sacred objects of the old animistic 
religion — trees, and wells, and stones ; and this is continued down 
to the establishment of the kingdom under David. 

In the ancient poem of Deborah there is a distinctly animistic 
flavour in the touch whereby it is said that the stars in their courses, 
i.e. either themselves as living entities, or the souls or spirits that 
controlled them, ' fought against Sisera.' 

In Num. zzi. 16-18, the people address the well dug by the 
nobles as itself a sacred fountain and quasi-divine. Connected with 
sacred trees and stones are the Matzebah and Asherah, which stood 
beside every hill-altar, and enshrined and ensured the presence of 
the deity. 

In the story of the Burning Bush we have an unmistakable sur- 
vival of animism, as we have idso in the story of Hagar, when she was 
cast out with Ishmael by Abraham. 

Passing on to the time of David, there is the interesting story of 
the oracle which bade him attack the Philistines when he heard *' the 
sound of a going in the mulberry trees', i.e. probably well-known and 
recognized sacred trees, adjoining a shrine of Yahweh. 

The reason why certain special trees, springs, and stones were 
accounted sacred is to be found in the growing difEerentiation of the 
object from its soul or souls, and the consequent multiplication of 
extra-corporeal beings which might attach themselves to any object, 
or pass indifferently from one to another. This is the origin of idolatry 
and polytheism, with fetishism and magic. This latter is the pro- 
vince of the Wirreenun (prophet and priest), and is of two kinds : 
(a) sympathetic, by which the kindly offices of well-disposed spirits 
were invoked, and {b) magic more properly so called, whereby malig- 
nant spirits were controlled. 

In JE Moses and Aaron are both magicians, and the magic 
wand is the wonder-working implement. Jacob circumvented Laban 
in the matter of the sheep and goats by magic arts. Witchcraft 
abounded in old Israel, and is strongly denounced in all their codes 
and by the later prophets. 

Connected with this is the trial by Ordeal, which, as consisting in 



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266 IV. ReUgions of the Semites 

the drinking of * holy water \ persisted even in the latest edition of 
the priestly legislation, in the case of a woman suspected of infidelity 
to her husband (Num. v. 11 sq.)* 

Coming to another branch of our subject, we may find in animism 
the true explanation of the persistence of the use of the term *' Mohim ' 
for God. The ' Elohim ' of a place originally meant all its sacred 
denizens collectively, and the name Elohim, which in the Old Testa- 
ment always signifies the one eternal God of the whole universe, 
carries us back to those primitive, pre-Babylonian times, when the 
ancestors of Israel were in the animistic stage of religion ; but animism 
and polytheism are both negatived in the Old Testament by the use 
of * Elohim ' with a verb in the singular. 

In the ritual of Azazel (Lev. xvi), we have the adaptation by the 
priestly legislator of ancient animistic conceptions to the purer con- 
ceptions of his own day. He substituted Azazel, as a personal angel, 
practically Satan, for the crowd of Se'irim or Jinns, to whom the 
people sacrificed ; and the scapegoat for the sacrificial victims. These 
Se'irim are t\*dce mentioned in the Canticles (ii. 7and iii. 6), where the 
poet adjures the newly-married pair not to play with love for fear 
of the Jinns, in a passage which may be translated *' I charge you, 
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the fairy hosts and by the tree-spirits '. 

They are nothing but inferior Elohim, and just as the Elohim have 
become condensed, so to say, in the idea of the one monotheistic 
God, so the Seirim have become Azazel, in whom we may, with Ben- 
zinger, see the Satan of later theology. Thus God and Satan both 
derive from animism when traced to their ultimate source. 

The last subject under the head of traces of animism is that of 
Names. 

To the savage names are not meaningless as with us, but part and 
parcel, essential attributes of the object to which they are attached. 
Names are mystery words, and he who knows the mystery name of a 
thing has that tlung in his power. Have we not in this idea of primi- 
tive man the explanation of the fact that such a vast number of the 
names of individuals in the Old Testament are compounds of Yahweh 
or El or Baal ? The custom was a survival from the animism of far- 
away ancestors, and the man thus named enlisted the protection of 
Baal, the strength of El, or the mysterious potency of Yahweh on 
his behalf. 

The same animistic conceptions may be seen in the theology of 
St. Paul ; in the prominence given to the ' name of Jesus ' in the 
New Testament ; in the * new name ' of Revelation ; and in the 
expression of the highest religious ideas by ourselves. 

II. We come now to Totemism, as to which only a brief reference 
can here be made. 



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5. Animism and Totemism in O. T. : Astky 267 

To show that the ancestors of Israel passed through a definite 
stage in the evolution of culture when their social system was arranged 
on a totemistic basis, we should be able to point to three things : 
(1) names derived from plants and animals ; (2) a system of tabu ; 
and (3) the practice of exogamy, together with traces of a time when 
descent was reckoned in the female line and not in the male. 

1. Bearing in mind the conceptions of primitive man with regard 
to names, we have at once a reasonable explanation of the large 
number of names derived from plants and animals in the Old Testa- 
ment, such as no other hypothesis affords, viz. that such a custom 
points back in every case to a time when society was organized on 
a totemistic basis. Thus among the Romans we find the gentes Fabii 
(beans), Asinii (asses), and Caninii (dogs). So among the Hebrews 
we find the Calebites (dogs), but the majority of such names in the 
Old Testament are personal, pointing to the American rather than 
the Australian type of Totemism. Full lists of such personal names 
and place-names are given in the Encyclopaedia Biblica. 

2. A system of tabu. In Lev. xi and Deut. xiv there are lists of 
animals which were to be accounted unclean, i. e. tabu by the Israelites ; 
probably survivals of the early totemistic stage of society in which 
they were the eponyms of totem classes, and therefore tabued as 
food: which gave them a character of sacredness expressed by the 
word * unclean '. 

In Ezekiel viii and Isaiah Ixv and Ixvi we find three interesting 
passages which show how potent the ancient animistic and totemistic 
conceptions remained among the people down to, and after, the Exile. 
These passages are of the utmost value and importance, for they tell 
us of mystic rites performed by members of initiated guilds, the 
representatives of the old totem clans. Originally the idea would 
be to render the totem animal prolific, and this afterwards developed 
into the mystic feast partaken of by all initiated members of the 
guild. 

3. The practice of exogamy and kinship through females, of which 
there is sufficient evidence in the Law of the Levirate, on which 
MacLennan and subsequent writers have said so much. 

Thus, imderlying all the progress of later times, we find in the 
Old Testament survivals of animistic and totemistic conceptions 
which tell of the earliest ideas of primitive man, and of social 'couches' 
long left behind when its earliest pages were written; and these form 
an abiding witness to the truth of the anthropological axiom that 
everywhere and always, in similar stages of culture and under a 
corresponding environment, man is the same. 

AU this is only a further proof of the correctness of the teaching 
of anthropology as to the evolution of man, and, incidentally, of 



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268 IV. Religions of the Semites 

the truth of the views propounded by the Higher Criticism as to the 
origin and development of the wonderful literature of Israel which 
goes by the name of the Old Testament. 



6 

THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREW 
PROPHETS 

By PAUL HAUPT. (Abstract) 

Thb religion of the Hebrew prophets is said to be the basis of 
Christianity ; but the doctrines of the various Christian Churches 
do not represent the original teaching of Christ, nor do the prophetical 
books of the Old Testament represent the religion of the Hebrew 
prophets. A great many sections in the early Hebrew prophets are 
later insertions added after the Babylonian Captivity or even during 
the Maccabean period* 

The second part of the Book of Zechariah was written [in the 
Maccabean period, about 160 b.o. Only the fibrst eight chapters of 
the Book contain genuine prophecies of Zechariah, the contemporaiy 
of Haggai who prophesied in the second year of Darius Hystaspis, 
i.e. 520 B.o. 

The prophet Micah was a younger contemporary^of Isaiah and 
prophesied at the beginning of the reign of Sennacherib, 705-701 b.o. 
But in Mic. v. 5 we read : 

When Absut invades our land. 

And treads upon our soil. 
We raise against her seven 

Or eight leaders of men. 

:DnK '•a-w njbcn njpr v^ i^bpm 

Assur, Assyria, stands here for Syria, i.e. the Seleucidan kingdom» 
and the seven or eight leaders whom the Jews put up against the 
Syrians, are the Maccabees, the aged priest Mattathias with his five 
valiant sons, John, Simon, Judas, Meazar, Jonathan ; and the son 
and the grandson of Simon, John Hyrcanus and Aristobulus whose 
coronation as the first King of the Jews (104 B.C.) is glorified in the 
second psalm, where Jhvh tells the raging gentiles and the princes 
who take counsel together : 

Have not I established my King 
On TAoTLf my holy mountain 7 



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6. Religion of the Hebrew Prophets : Haupt 269 

The King then continues : 

Jhvh's decree I proclaim : 

He said to me. Thou art my son. 
Ask, and thy heritage is thine. 

And the ends of the land thy possession. 
T^th a sceptre of iron thon'lt shatter them 

like a potter's yessel break them.* 

The Book of Obadiah was written after Judas Maccabaeus had 
defeated the Edomites in the b^^inning of the year 164 B.o.and before 
he undertook his second expedition against the Edomites at the end 
of that year. Bepharad is a corruption of Bepfhoris the capital of 
Galilee (nnfiD for nifiD, afterwards 'nifiV). Only the two couplets 
iv and v (verses 6 and 7 ; v. 6 is a gloss) are taken from an old poem 
written about 580 b.o. The prophecy against Edom in Jer. xlix. 
7-22 was compiled about 128 b.o.^ 

The Book of Nahum is a Maccabean festal liturgy for the celebration 
of Nicanor's Day, although it contains two old poems written by an 
Israelitish poet in Assyria about 606 B.C.' 

The Book of Jonah is a Sadducean apologue written about 100 b. o.^ 

A great many subsequent additions in the prophetical books of 
the Old Testament are due to the desire to blunt the edge of too keen 
denunciations of the early Hebrew prophets, who were pessimistic 
because they realized that Israel was beyond repentance. 

In the standard works on the religion of Israel we are told that the 
statement which we find at the beginning of the third chapter of the 
Book of Amos, the earliest of the Hebrew prophets, inaugurates 
a new phase of religion. But the two couplets, 

Hear ye now this word 

Which Jhvh has spoken about yon. 
About the entire race 

Which He brought from the land of Egypt : 

For you alone do I care 

Among all the races of the land; 
Therefore I visit upon you 

All your iniquities, 

' Gf . my remarks in the ZeUachrift der deutachen morgenUlndidchen OeseUschaft, 
ToL Iviii, p. 029, n. 22. 

' Gf . my papers on Psalm cxzxvii, and ScripUo plena of the emphatic la in 
Hebrew in reiser's Orientaliettsche Lftterahtr-ZeUung, vol x (Berlin, 1907), and 
vol xi, coL 238 ; also my explanation of Psalm Ixviii in the American Journal 
of Semitic Languagea, vol xxiii (Qiicago, 1907). 

' See Haupt, Tht Booh of Nahum (Baltimore, 1907), and ZeiUchrift der deui 
schen morgenlandischen OeaeUechaft, vol bd (Leipzig, 1907), p. 275. 

* See my paper, * Jonah's Whale,' in the Proceedings of (he American Phikh 
sophical Society, Philadelphia, 1907. 



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270 IF. ReUgiom of the Semites 

are a late gloss, which belongs to the preceding chapter, not to the 
following section. The lines of the genuine portions of the third 
chapters have 3 + 2 beats, not 3+3, as we find both in this gloss and 
in the preceding chapters. We find lines with 3 + 2 beats in English 
poems like Walter Scott's 

Proud Maisie is in the wood. 

Walking so early. 
Sweet Robin sits on the bush. 

Singing so rarely. 

or P. B. Shelley's 

One word is too often profaned 
For me to profane it. 

The metrical analysis of the Book of Amos, recently given by Sievers 
and Guthe, is erroneous. The Hebrew text of the gloss at the begin- 
ning of the third chapter must be read as follows : 

Da^i>V m.T naniBv njn nrirrnK i^ iii. i 
xzr\to pKtD n^rr-iut< nneenpn hrhv 

The doctrine that God chastises him whom He loves is not primitive, 
but a later theological abstraction. Similarly it is true that Amos 
intimates that the observances of religion will not be aecepted by 
Jhvh instead of righteousness of heart ; but it is a mistake to suppose 
that Amos realized that Jhvh was the god of the whole earth. 

We must always bear in mind that a passage in the prophetical 
books may be a later theological insertion added after the Exile or 
even during the Maccabean period. The early Hebrew prophets 
were no theologians, but patriots, — ^patriotic poets and national, social, 
ethical, religious reformers like Count Tolstoy. They were religious, 
but no theologians ; patriots but not politicians. For the kings and 
the politicians the prophets were very embarrassing persons. Their 
prophetic visions were to a certain extent psychopathic. We may 
safely say that a man whose nervous system is perfectly normal will 
hardly be a great poet or a great musician. The normal tyi^ is the 
type of mediocrity. If a man has sense enough to come in when it 
rains, that is all Nature requires. We must remember, however, that 
a high-strung fiddler is not a raving maniac, and that prophetic visions 
do not always pre-suppose ecstasy. 

The distinguished Hellenist of the University of Berlin, Ulrich 
von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, said in the beautiful oration which 
he delivered sixteen years ago as Prorector of the University of 



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6. Religion of the Hebrew Prophets: Haupt 271 

Oottingen, at the funeral of my great colleague and friend Paul de 
Lagarde, on Christmas Day, 1892 : ' He was not only a scholar, 
he was a prophet. He raised his voice as a prophet, discussing State 
and Church, education and religion, society and culture. It made 
no difference to him, if it remained the voice of one crying in the 
wilderness. He was dominated by a sense of an immediate mission 
from the Lord.' 

We may apply the name of the grand prophets of Israel to 931 men 
who comprehend with one glance the universe, both the world and 
what is beyond, who penetrate more deeply than others but who 
see everything from one point of view. They believe in the picture 
which they see and accommodate everything to it. They try to 
convert the world to their point of view. 

Such prophets are, for instance, HeracUtus and Parmenides, St. 
Augustine and Giordano Bruno, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas 
Carlyle — all subjective, powerful individualities who arouse strong 
sjrmpathies and antipathies. All have, as we read in the second 
part of (Goethe's Faust : — ' ein Erdenrest zu tragen peinlich.' 

The point of view from which they r^ard the universe is religious. 
Common sense cannot appreciate prophetic natures ; nor can the 
moral standard of the majority ^ be applied to the prophets or great 
statesmen. Such men are rarely happy .^ They see faults and 
troubles more plainly ; they preach therefore, Repent ! But they 
see through the earthly mist and vapour the realm of the sun and 
eternal truth. This gazing gives them perhaps a bliss beyond any- 
thing measured by the common human standard. 

The Hebrew word (nat^) for prophet does not mean predicter, but 
proclaimer . Even the meaning of the Greek term Trpo^i/n/s is primarily , 
not foreteller, but one who speaks forth. In Exod. vii. 1 we read 
that Jhvh said to Moses : * Thy brother Aaron will be thy prophet. 
He will speak to Pharaoh that he send the Israelites out of the land.' 
The Hebrew verb nitbd^ to prophesy, is semi-passive, expressing an 
action not dependent upon the will of the agent or subject. The 
prominent idea is not that of prediction, but that of delivering 
inspired messages. Cato's ' Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse 
delendam ' would have been regarded by the ancient Hebrews as 
a prophetic utterance. Bismarck's Oedanken und Erinnerungen 
would have been treasured as prophetic literature ; also the numerous 
messages of President Roosevelt, who has been compared by an 
American clergyman to the prophet Isaiah. 

* Friedrich Nietzsche would have said der vid zu vielen, 

* Ecoledastes says : * More wisdom means more pain ; and increase of know- 
ledge, more grief.* See Haupt, The Book of Ecdesiastea (Baltimore, 1905), and 
Kohekth odtr WeUschmerz in der Bibel (Leipzig, 1906). 



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272 IV. Religions of the Semites 

Instead of a prolonged theoretical discussion of the religion of the Helnrew 
prophets. Professor Haupt gave in conclusion a new metrical translation of the 
genuine prophecies of the earliest Hebrew prophet, Amos, a native of the Northern 
Kingdom, who lived among the herdmen of Tekoa in the Southern Kingdom, 
about 750 B. o. More than one-half of the Book of Amos consists of subsequent 
additions, many of which were added by theologians of a later age. If the 
glosses of an illustrative or theological character be eliminated, the genuine 
prophecies of Amos read like ancient Arabic poems. 



THE RELIGIOUS-HISTORICAL PROBLEM 
OF LATER JUDAISM 

By a. BERTHOLET 

By the Religious-Historical Problem of later Judaism, on which 
I have the honour of addressing you, I mean the question of how far 
the Jewish religion of the last centuries before the downfall of the 
Jewish State was influenced by foreign religions. It is a question 
which really assumes the dimensions of a problem ; for the fact of 
such an influence having taken place is beyond any doubt, and yet — 
is not the main characteristic of the post-exilic Jews their exclusive- 
ness ? Nevertheless, Professor Wellhausen's words are true : * The 
world invited them and they sat down to table.' Professor Wellhausen 
uses this expression in regard to the enticements of Hellenism in the 
days of Antiochus Epiphanes, a period in which a large proportion 
of the Jewish community, including even priestly aristocracy, seemed 
to have forgotten their own principles and prejudices. But it is wdl 
known how energetically the better instincts of the people awoke, and 
how gloriously the uprising of the Maccabees swept out the foreign 
leaven. With spiritual weapons, too, the struggle against the Greek 
danger was fought out : witness the Book of Daniel. But is it not 
strange ? While, in eagerly endeavouring to inculcate true persever- 
ance in ancestral beUefe and customs, he shuts 931 doors to Hellenism, 
the author of that work has no scruples at all about granting free access 
to a host of foreign Oriental thoughts. And why do the very descen- 
dants of those Maccabee heroes bear foreign, nay Greek names T 
And why does the custom of giving Greek names extend even to the 
people, as may be seen by the names of Philip and Andrew, disciples 
of Jesus ? Why is the very Council of the Jews called by a Greek 
name, Sanhedrin ? And the pulpit in the synagogue also by a Greek 
name, bema ? Why are the porch and the colonnade in the temple 
designated by Greek technical terms, Sioa and Ezedra ? Why is 



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7. A Problem of Later Jtcdawn : Bertkolet 278 

there a Babylonian curtain before the Holy of Holies ? Why do we 
meet in the temple with treasurers and accountants whose names are 
Persian ? Why is the high priest on the holiest day of the year 
attired in Pelusian and Indian 8tu£b ? Why all this at the very places 
where we expect to find Jewish national characteristics most carefully 
att^ided to ? Fori will not enumerate the long list of foreign words 
which crept into the late Jewish language of everyday life for the 
designation of foreign products and institutions, nor need I refer 
to the numerous metaphorical expressions in which foreign customs 
are reflected. We will confine ourselves to the religious side of the 
question, and glance at the actual state of things before venturing on 
their explanation. 

It is by no means easy to give a slight sketch of what Jewish religion 
adopted from abroad ; for here detail is necessary to keep the drawing 
true. But also in itself the question of how far foreign influences are 
to be taken into account is a very difficult one. 

First, late Judaism itself is far from being a unity : it shows the 
most various shades. Take the Palestine Jews and the Jews of the 
dispersion : is not the main diff^ence between them their very difference 
of position in regard to foreign elements ? But here the standard of 
our judgement should not be Philo, who represents the extreme of 
Hellenization, still less should we magnify that difference to a contrast 
of quality and principle : it is not the principle but only the degree 
of the adoption of foreign elements that is a different one. 

But even though the fact of this adoption, however various, is 
generally conceded, there is another difficulty, even more serious, 
in the difference of opinion as to the extent of foreign influences in any 
one case. On principle, I approve of every warning against over- 
estimation of them, the more so, as one is too often inclined, while 
finding out affinities, to omit the counter-proof which would consist 
in confronting the points of similarity with the points of contrast ; 
possibly, in many cases, this counter-proof would turn out to be the 
more important part of the argument. Certainly, much is won, if only 
we draw more sharply than is usually done the limits between fact 
and hypothesis, between what is quite certain and what is only par- 
tially so or not so at all. If, for example, we find that the Lilith 
mentioned in a late chapter of Isaiah is the Babylonian demon Lilltu, 
that the Asmodi of the Book of Tobit is the Persian Adshma Da3 va, that 
the original part of the Second Sibylline book reproduces line for line 
typical features of Eranian eschatology, that so special an item of 
this eschatology as the blessed ones eating of the holy bull reappears 
in the Jewish prediction of Eldad and Modad,that the Book of Adam 
speaks of its hero being washed in the Acherontian lake, that in the 
Ethiopian Book of Enoch the Fyriphlegethon and the other rivers 



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274 IV. Religions of the Semites 

of an underworld, situated in the West, are alluded to, — all these are 
instances where the fact of foreign elements having been adopted has 
simply to be accepted. And these examples, unimportant as they may 
seem when considered individually, are of great consequence as a 
whole, because they bring us out upon solid ground. If at some points 
the existence of foreign influences is a certainty, at still more it must 
at last be admitted as a possibility. But on this wider field it will 
require careful investigation of each special case to determine, e. g. 
whether the increasing individuality of late Judaism, the growing 
sublimation of its idea of God, the diminishing importance attached to 
sacrificial worship, the development of the profession of scribe, are duo 
to foreign, especially Hellenistic, influences ; also whether Persian 
ideas have influenced the Jewish ideal of cleanliness or the special 
estimation of beneficence, and so forth. For in all these cases the 
possibility of an independent though parallel development is not to 
be a priori excluded. And, even here, foreign influences may have 
played their part. But, as should never be forgotten, there are in 
such matters influences, of art for instance, which cannot be controlled 
or measured and the secret action of which is not to be underrated, 
undercurrents which flow in as opinions of the times, without anyone 
asking where they come from. I know of only two ways to get a 
somewhat trustworthy judgement as to the reality of foreign influences. 
Either we may compare a later state of the religion with a former 
one, and ask if an organic development of the latter from the former 
can be traced. If not, we certainly may be allowed to take the action 
of foreign influences for granted ; and we may be the more justified in 
this assumption inasmuch as Judaism of the last centuries B. o. mani- 
festly failed to produce men of original and creative genius. Or 
we may consider the actual state of the religion at a given moment 
and ask if it is at all congruous in itself. If, instead of being so, it 
contains insoluble antinomies, the evidence of the action of foreign 
influences may be looked upon as conclusive. ' This is the reason why 
Jewish eschatology, for example, in which so many opi>osite and con- 
tradictory conceptions are met with, proves to be a compound product 
of native and foreign elements. 

But assuming the existence of foreign influences as proved, new 
difficulties arise from the further question of their origin. To what 
a degree of helplessness our little knowledge in this respect may some- 
times lead, is clearly shown by the contradictory views about the 
Essenes, for whose peculiarities scholars have variously teied to 
account by assuming Orphic, Pythagorean, Syriac, Persian, or 
Buddhistic influences. And I could go even farther by demonstrating 
how the Atharvaveda curses the doer of the very thinig which the 
Essenes consider the greatest insult to the sun. If in this case a direct 



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7. A Problem of Later Judaism : Bertholet 275 

connexion is almost impossible, this very example may teach us 
precaution ; and so may Professor Dieterich's book Ndcyia do by 
showing how some conceptions which we meet with in late Judaism, 
such as those of a celestial meal, of celestial clothes, of books of judge- 
ment, &o., may be both of Oreek and Oriental origin ; setting mean- 
while aside the question whether the Oreeks themselves are not 
originally indebted for these conceptions to the Orient. Most of all, 
however, we have to regret that we know so little about the blending 
of Babylonian with Persian religion which must have taken place on 
Babylonian soil ; all the more so as there was no religious compound of 
greater consequence to the world of Western Asia and to Judaism, as 
Professor Gunkel has rightly emphasized. Besides, as one is perhaps 
tempted to overrate the relations of the Jews of the Egyptian disper- 
sion to their brethren in Palestine, let us point to the high significance 
which the dispersion in Babylon had for them, as is clearly recalled 
in the following passage of Jewish tradition : * When the law was 
forgotten, it was restored by Ezra (who came from Babylon) ; when 
it was forgotten a second time, Hillel the Babylonian came and 
restored it, and when it was forgotten a third time, B. Chija came from 
Babylon and gave it back once more.' 

And now let us try to obtain a survey, as concise as possible, of the 
most important parts of Jewish faith where the question of foreign 
influences becomes practical. They may already be observed in the 
conception of God. Greek, i. e. Platonic and especially Stoic philosophy, 
has enriched it with new ideas. So, when in the Book of Wisdom 
God is called He who is, we easily recognize the Platonic designation 
of God. Possibly we may add the ideas, pre-eminent in the Gospel; 
of God's moral goodness, of His exemplary perfection and of His pro- 
vidence. The alliance with Greek philosophy was especially sought, 
in the interest of Apologetics, with a view to the idea of natural know- 
ledge of God,the avoidance of anthropomorphisms and anthropopathies, 
the polemics against images of God, the Euhemeristic interpretation 
of the gods, the estimation of Paganism as demon worship, God's 
invisibility as proved by the impossibility of looking at the sun or 
into one's own soul, ftc. Many questions remain, e. g. whether the 
favoured practice of designating God as the Highest, the Qod of Heaven, 
and similar expressions, be the result of Persian influences. 

Without entering upon the speculations, deeply influenced from 
abroad, on the secrets of the celestial worlds, I merely instance the 
strong admixture of Egyptian-Orphic cosmogony in the Slavic Henoch, 
or the Platonic idea, in the Book of Wisdom, of a shapeless material 
from which the world was created. Oriental influence is certainly to be 
admitted in connexion with the idea of angels, as Jewish tradition itself 
assigns a Babylonian origin to their names. There is hardly a doubt 

t2 



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276 IF. Religions of the Semites 

that the seven angels of which we hear as early as the Book of Ezekiel 
are the Babylonian planetary gods as interpreted from the Jewish 
standpoint of Monotheism. The close relation betwe^i angels and 
stars has persisted and may still be demonstrated by the Jewish- 
Babylonian magic texts. Other groups of angels also betray their 
Babylonian origin by their very number, while in the Ethiopian Enoch 
the alternation of seven highest angels with only six may be dne to 
an influence of Parseeism, where the number of the Amesha Spentas 
likewise varies between six and seven. Above all, however, the 
opposition of good and bad angels with a personal chief at the head 
of the latter, sometimes reflected on earth in the figure of the Anti- 
christ, — the whole dualism between the reigns of light and darkness, — 
is not demonstrable by Jewish premises but draws its origin from 
Parseeism. No less non- Jewish is the dreadful thought that elementary 
Spirits are rulers in this world, encroaching, as it were, on divine 
Omnipotence. St. Paul, who had an attentive ear for the groaning of 
the whole creation, is a sufS,cient witness that even in his time a wave 
of that fatalism drawn from Babylonian astrology had discharged 
itself over Judaism. It is more difficult to determine the part which 
foreign influences had in developing Jewish conceptions of intermediate 
beings of another and less personal kind. I mean the theological 
speculations on hypostases ; where it is still an open question whether 
they are more influenced by Stoic tenets of a divine original power 
and its world-pervading effects, or by the Persian belief which makes 
the Amesha Spentas the personification of abstract ideas, or by 
Egyptian speculations which Professor Beizenstein in his Poimandres 
may be right in vindicating at least for Philo. 

In the conception of the nature of man, Greek, especially Platonic, 
influence clearly manifests itself in the dualism of the anthropology 
as well as in the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul, as contained 
in the Book of Wisdom; while in the same book the idea of human 
dignity, or, in the Testament of Reuben, the theory of the parts of 
the soul, may be Stoic. On the other hand, the influence of Oriental 
thought was at work in the speculations on the first man and on 
Paradise. 

But late Judaism was much more concerned with the pursuit of 
ideas about final, than about primaeval times, and it is significant that 
Paradise and the first man, that is to say * the Son of Man', reappear 
in its eschatological belie&. Jewish eschatology has become the very 
meeting-place of foreign elements. It is especially the merit of 
Professor Bousset, who in general has most successfully dealt with 
our problem, to have clearly shown that the expectation of a tran- 
scendent aeon which, inaugurated by a universal judgement of the 
world, replaces the aeon of this present world, differs so widely from the 



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7. A Problem of Later Jvdaism : Bertkolet 277 

expectation of a Messianio future which essentially concerns Israel 
alone and, on the whole, will only be enacted on the stage of this 
present earth, that they cannot have sprung from the same root. 
And here, considering the ideas about periods of the world, resurrection, 
general judgement, universal conflagration, a new world and ever- 
lasting life, we have first to take into account influences from Parseeism 
mixed with Babylonian elements, only incidentally Greek ideas ; while 
the Messianic expectation properly so called could not remain un- 
touched by the remarkable conceptions, then afloat in the surrounding 
world, of a Saviour personified in the reigning ruler, as they are attested 
e.g. by the interesting inscription of Priene. On the other hand, the 
idea of the soul's immortality which is to be found among the 
Hellenistic Jews, is influenced by Greek, and partly also, it may be, 
by Egyptian beliefs; while, again, the belief that demons struggle for 
the departing soul is of Persian origin. 

The time allotted to me does not admit of my completing this meagre 
sketch by pointing to so many foreign myths and legends which teemed 
on Jewish soil ; to such cosmological oddities as may be found especially 
in the Greek apocalypse of Baruch, to a great extent, as Professor 
Gumont has shown, in accordance with mythological ideas of the 
Mithra religion ; to magical conceptions, where besides Babylonian 
elements Egyptian ones take up the most considerable space, ftc* 
I should also have much to say about the influence of foreign models 
of style upon the later literature of the Jews and on their interpretation 
of the Old Testament. I hasten to enter upon the concluding question 
as to how to explain this far-reaching adoption of foreign matter. 

First, let me emphasize that it is nothing new in the history of 
Israelitish and Jewish religion. In very recent times our eyes have 
been increasingly opened to the fact that from the beginning foreign 
influences have acted abundantly upon Israel. Their having penetrated 
into late Judaism is therefore not to be viewed as an isolated phenome- 
non but in its general connexion. The spiritual life of peoples does not 
differ widely from that of individuals. Some work by themselves, 
like the spider which moves on its own threads, while others absorb 
foreign material in order to work it up like the bee. The latter is the 
case with the Jews. No one can understand their religion without 
a full intelligence of their astonishing faculty of assimilation ; this 
assimilation even going the length of actively supporting heathen cults 
or, as the recently discovered papyri of Assuan have informed us, 
of swearing by an Egyptian goddess. 

Moreover, to be sure, the milieu in which the Jews lived was never 
more suited for arousing that faculty to the highest pitch than at the 
very time with which we are dealing. It is commonly known how 
in Hellenism all dividing fences of separate culture fell down and the 



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278 IV. Religions of the Semites 

free current of thoughts flowing hither and thither tended to a universal 
levelling of spiritual development. The Jewish mother-community 
was still but an enclave in the midst of Hellemstio culture. From 
all sides the Hellenistic forms of social relations tried to insinuate 
themselves, and the times were not favourable to shutting the doors 
to trade, which is always more than a mere exchange of material 
goods. We see one of the most pious of Palestine Jews, Jesus Sirach» 
travelling. One must not think that travel in those days was very 
difficult; for we know by an epitaph that a Phrygian merchant made 
the journey to Rome seventy-two times. But we ought not to forget 
of what moment travel is. The Greek philosopher Xenophanes had 
once travelled; he had seen the black images of the Negro-gods and 
the red-haired idols of the Thracians, and this had forced the question 
upon him whether these peoples were less right than the Greeks with 
their theories about the gods. But the Jews did more than travel : 
they settled in foreign countries and the oucov/a^ became their home. 
Eables were invented of an old friendship and relationship between 
the Jews and Pergamon and Sparta. Of special consequence was 
their adoption of foreign languages, at least of the Greek tongue, 
which they partly used even in their public worship ; for there is a 
constant reflex action of language upon thought, and, indeed, these 
. Jews spoke not only in the words of foreigners but in their thoughts 
as well, at least where apologetic interests were at stake. And when 
their ultimate object had been thus attained, not only to adapt 
Judaism to the foreigner's taste but to win proeeljrtes, they could not 
avoid being affected by the ideas which these new-comers imported. 
Thus, when business or free choice led Jews of the dispersion baok to 
Jerusalem, for a short stay or even for permanent residence, they 
came enriched with spiritual treasures of foreign origin; and we may 
assume that the synagogues which they founded in the metropolis, 
such as those mentioned in the New Testament (Acts vi. 9), were 
natural centres of freer thoughts. 

And why should the adoption of foreign ideas have been resisted ? 
Were the Jews not entitled to regard the Maccabaean victories as a 
charm to render them proof against any danger which might arise 
from their inclination to syncretism ? Moreover, it has rightly been 
pointed out that in the eyes of the Jews action, not belief, was the 
main point, so that they did not need to be scrupulous in adopting 
foreign beliefs ; (the same was true of the Roman religion). Still, 
foreign influences were not confined to the domain of beUef • On the 
contrary, it is not difficult to trace in Jewish ethics considerable 
influences of Greek philosophy, especially of the Stoic-Cynical school, 
and, possibly, some Persian elements ; besides, the Jewish ritual is 
undoubtedly influenced by Oriental practices. 



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7. A Problem of Later Jvdaisni : Berthokt 279 

All this leads me to suppose that we must look beyond the reasons 
mentioned for a further one in trying to explain the adoption of foreign 
elements. By the Alexandrian literature we may see how zealously 
Jewish authors endeavoured to prove the Jewish origin of all Greek 
culture, nay even of that of the Egyptians which the Oreeks themselves 
regarded with so much reverence. The Palestine Jews did the same 
by pretending to be entrusted with the treasures of Enoch, who, a 
counterpart of the Hellenistic Hermes, was reputed the bearer of 
marvellous Babylonian wisdom of olden times. These are typical 
instances of the Jewish habit of claiming for their own whatever 
others possessed of spiritual goods. Not to be inferior to non-Jews 
in anything whatever, never to be outdone by them— that was a 
fundamental disposition of the Jews, as is attested by some psalms, 
and especially by the favourite tales of the glorious adventures of 
pious Jews at foreign courts. And this disposition runs as a strong 
and dominating motive through the whole of post-exilic Judaism. 
It reappears in Jewish apologetics, even Palestinian, where attacked 
positions are defended by pointing out their identity with heathen 
ones, much as, later on. Christian apologists say : * We teach the same 
as the Greeks.' This fundamental disposition is ultimately the natural 
expression of the claim, bom of a superior religious consciousness, 
that their own Gk>d was the Gk>d of the whole world ; and this is some- 
thing quite different from the assertions of the Greeks and the Romans 
that the polytheistic beliefs of all peoples applied to the same divine 
powers simply called by different names. The claim of the Jews 
tends to the acknowledgement that all things belong to one Gk>d, 
whose is the Orient as well as the Occident, their own Gk>d. Thus 
the prophet Malachi already asserts that all worship offered on earth 
is offered to Jahwe ; and a similar tendency caused any acceptable 
reUgious belief or practice whatever, no matter of what origin, to be 
laid hold of for the benefit of the Jewish religion, much as, again, later 
on the Christians did, as Justin proudly says : * Any good thing that 
has been said, belongs to us Christians.' This is apology of a lofty 
sort ! And by it we may see how the adoption of foreign elements 
finally turns out to be a sign of the spiritual conquest of the world 
by a religious belief. In this respect late Judaism becomes, within the 
narrow bounds of religious culture, a parallel phenomenon, if I may 
say so, to Hellenism, which likewise absorbed all available foreign 
elements. 

My colleague Professor Wemle has well said : * Even where foreign 
influences undoubtedly came into play, the question remains whether 
we ought not to seek in the inherent action of a religion the factor 
which gave it the bias toward this marked accessibility to foreign 
influences.* As to late Judaism, this observation strikes the mark. 



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280 IV. Religions of the Semites 

I think, and the proof may easily be seen in its having maintained 
its own individuality in spite of all these foreign influences. True, 
in the way of assimilation, the Jews did all that was possible ; but 
they did not only adapt themselves to what was foreign, they adapted 
the fcH^gn property to their own use : and this is the point. They did 
not lose themselves in foreign influences, they got the mastery of 
them ; they remained Jews, nay they became the more so by dealing 
frankly with them ; and what they adopted from without, only took 
the place, so to speak, of a gift offered by non-Jewish religions to the 
Jewish faith, as their tribute, which the Jews were very willing to 
accept: just as they liked to see in their temple the mounting flames 
of the sacrifice by which foreigners bowed to the God of Jerusalem. 
Thus, finally, the accessibility of later Judaism to foreign influ^ices is 
not incompatible with its exclusiveness ; moreover, their having 
entered in such numbers does not point, as one might think at first 
sight, to mere passivity, but to a very pronounced activity of Jewish 
rdigion ; it is a sign, not of its weakness, but of its strength. 



8 

SOME PROBLEMS SUGGESTED BY THE 

RECENT DISCOVERIES OF ARAMAIC PAPYRI 

AT SYENE (ASSUAN) 

By OWEN C. WHITEHOUSE. (Abstract) 

The Aramaic Papyri brought to light by recent discovery at Syene 
have thrown a welcome light on the obscure period 470-4^7 B. c. Our 
sources of information upon them have hitherto been (1) the undated 
prophecies of Malachi and those of the Trito-Isaiah, acccHrding to 
recent criticism (Isa. Ivi-lxvi), and (2) the memoirs contained in Ezra 
and Nehemiah which were redacted two centuries later, i.e. 250b.o.» 
and of disputed historic validity. These papjni, which are in nearly 
every case dated, afford us a clear spot of light. We shall chiefly refer 
to the three papyri edited by Sachau, of which the first is most complete. 
It will be our endeavour to see how far the light they afford will carry 
us into the contemporary and earlier history of Israel. 

I. The Aramaic of these documents is the bibUcal Aramaic. The 
Canaanite Hebrew was rapidly becoming obsolete as a spoken language. 
We may therefore accept the Revised Version rendering of m'ph&roah 
in Neh. viii. 8, given in the margin of the Revised Version, * and they 
read in the book, in the law of God loith an irUerprekUionJ* In other 



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8. Aramaic Papyri at Syene : Wliitehouse 281 

words, Aramaic was the spoken language of the ordinary Jewish exile, 
and Hebrew was to most of them unfamiliar. Moreover, we know that 
Aramaic was understood by the educated and ofGicial class in Jerusalem 
nearly three centuries earlier, in the days of Hezekiah, as the appeal 
of the Jerusalem rulers to Rabshakeh in 2 Kings xviii. 26, * Speak to 
thy servants in Aramaic ' (in the earlier Isaiah narrative), clearly 
indicates. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that as far back as 
the eighth century b.c.^ Aramaic had become the lingua franca of 
Western Asia. The legal and commercial docmnents in the newly 
published volume by Albert C3ay, of cuneiform texts from Nippur 
(seventh to fifth centuries), consist of tablets with dockets in Aramaic. 
In the light of these facts the question for Old Testament critics arises, 
how far are we to allow the appearance of sporadic Aramaisms to 
determine the lateness of a passage ? 

U. Some light is thrown by the papyrus (edited by Sachau) on the 
date of Joel. Nowack, Comill, and Marti argue from internal indica- 
tions that Joel's prophecies were composed about 400 B. o. Now at 
the close of these oracles we read that Egypt is to become a desolation 
on account of the outrages perpetrated on the Jews (iv. 19). These 
outrages we may surely connect with the destruction of the temple of 
Yaha at Yeb (Elephantine) by the Egyptian priests of the god Hntlb 
(Hnum), to which the letter addressed to Bagohi (lines 5-12) bears 
witness. This took place about 409 B.C., and confirms the views 
respecting the date of Joel already propounded by the above scholars. 

III. The temple at Elep)iantine existed in the days of Cambyses, 
525 B. 0., as lines 13 foil, show : ^ When Cambyses invaded Egypt 
he found that shrine built, but the shrines of the gods of Egypt they 
destroyed every one, while in that shrine no one injured anything 
whatever.' This special favour shown to the Jews by Cambyses was 
an inheritance from the policy of his father Cyrus, who associates his 
son's name with his own in the clay cylinder (lines 27 and 35) in the 
deference shown to Babylonian worship. This sheds a gleam of light 
on the historicity of Ezra, chap, i (with respect to the edict of restora- 
tion and temple rebuilding), and enhances its validity so strongly 
questioned by Kosters. 

rV. The papyri edited by Cowley and Sayce, as well as the stateli- 
ness of the temple of Y&hti at Elephantine, indicated in the Sachau 
papyrus (lines 10-12), point to a large and prosperous Jewish com- 
munity. They wei^ probably fairly numerous in the exile period. The 
Sln^m of Isa. xlix. 12 cannot on various grounds, phonetic and historic, 
be identified with the Chinese. For D^?^p read D^?!D (cf. njJD 
Ezek. xxix. 10, xxx. 6), or ' inhabitants of Syene '. The reference is to 

* Compare the remarks of Cowley in the Introduction to Sayce and Cowley*8 
edition of the Aramaic Papyri of Syene, p. 20. 



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282 IK. ReBgions of the Semites 

this Jewish oommunity. Compare the other reference to the Jewish 
diaspora in Isa. xi. 11 foil. 

V. The offerings of the temple at Elephantine, burnt offerings, 
meal offerings and incense (lines 20, 21), and fasting in times of scmtow, 
exhibit no suggestion of illegitimate forms of wcHrship. Yahweh (Y&hu) 
alone is worshipped. There is no mention of yedishim or TcedeehGih^ 
or of an Aeherah. As in the Old Testament the priests of other gods 
are called by the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew hemOrim (line 5). 
Profess(»r Sayce notes in his Introduction (p. 10) that the Jewish proper 
names are compounded with that of Yahweh as much as the names of 
the orthodox Jews who returned to Palestine from the captivity. 
They were therefore very different from the Jews settled in Migdol, 
Tahpanhes, and Memphis in the days of Jeremiah. These burned 
incense to the Queen of Heaven (Jer. xUv. 15). They had recently 
migrated thither, and those of the fresh migration, under Johanan ben 
Kareah, were joinii^ th^ kinsmen in Pathros and elsewhere* The 
language used by the inhabitants to Jeremiah, xUv. 18 f., refers 
to their untoward experiences in Palestine and not in Egypt (cf • xlii. 14). 
The origin of the purer worship in Syene goes back to the days of 
Hezekiah, whose reforms in worship are reported not only in 2 Kings 
xviii. 4, but in xxi. 3 and xviii. 22 (a distinct source, viz. the earUer 
Isaiah biography). These were the influences which affected the settle- 
ment at Syene, not those of Josiah's reformation when centralization 
of worship was a ruling principle. 

The Sachau papyrus traces the temple-structure back 120 years to 
the time of Cambyses, and then states vaguely (Une 13) : * already in 
the days of the kings of Egypt our fathers erected that temple.' The 
temple was probably preceded in early times by another simpler 
structure. 

Hos. ix. 3-6 indicates that in consequence of the Assyrian invasions 
there was a considerable migration to Egypt where food was unclean : 
* Egypt shall gather them, Memphis bury them.' In the last decade 
of the eighth century there was a close, friendly relation between Egypt 
and Hezekiah. For Hezekiah, though he ruled over a small realm, 
occupied an important strat^c position, and held the place of suzerain 
to the Philistine towns who looked to him for protection. This is clearly 
shown by the small, misdated oracle, Isa. xiv. 28-32, and by the Taylor- 
cylinder of Sennacherib. In the Palestinian campaign there described 
(cols. 2 and 3) Hezekiah holds an important place. Even Ethiopia, in 
its hour of apprehension (Isa. xviii), sends its messengers in papyrus 
boats down the Nile to Jerusalem. The resident Israelites (Ephraimite 
and to a certain extent perhaps Jewish) would look to Hezekiah as 
their political protector. 

These facts throw light on Isa. xix. 19-22, an Isaianic fragment in 



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8. Aramaic Papyri at Syene: Whitehouse 288 

the midst of a patchwork of ncm-Isaiamc passages, beginiiing with the 
formula, * in that day.' The passage begins : ^ In that day there shall 
be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar 
beside its border unto Yahweh.' The ^ border ' or * boundary ' {gfbhal) 
is an appropriate designation of Elephantine, a frontier fortress towards 
Nubia. (See note on papyrus B, line 3, p. 37, in Cowley and Sayce's 
edition.) The oracle prophesies future trouble and discipUnary chastise- 
ment to Egypt«, Evidently Assyria, * the rod of Yahweh's anger ' 
(Isa. X. 5), is intended, and we know that this ^ smiting ' did take place 
in the dajm of Aiurbanipal. 

Now this is the section to which, as Josephus teUs us (Wars of Jews, 
vii. 10. 2), Onias, son of Simon, appealed when he erected a temple at 
Heliqpolis. No such passage as this could possibly have been inserted 
in the Jewish prophetic <vacles after the exile period. Such a passage 
as this, which deUberately legitimizes the erection of an altar and 
mauibah (pillar) in Egypt, could hardly have found a place in Jewish 
writings of recognized validity after the temple of Zerubbabel was built 
unless it had, like the documents J and E, the prestige of ancient 
authority and a great name. 

Now in this passage and Amos v. 25 (also genuine) the expression 
* slaughtered offering and meal offering ' is a difficult phrase, as this 
distinction was post-Deuteronomic. Marti argues that in the Amos 
passage * meal offerings ' was added by a later gloss-writer, which is 
very probable. In the Isaiah passage we need have no scruple in 
erasing * slaughtered offering ' (zebhoA) ; for the LXX read koL vonjamxn 
tfiMTtas (there is no (r^yia). 

When we compare the above-quoted Hosea passage we note distinct 
conceptions coexisting respecting Yahweh's power and sovereignty. 
The Hosea passage regards land outside Palestine as unclean, and 
sacrifices there as invaUd. This is the well-known popular tradition 
reflected in the books of Samuel and elsewhere. The Isaiah passage 
reflects the teaching of Amos respecting Yahweh's universal power 
and sovereignty. I suggest that its application to Egypt was to the 
Hebrew relatively easy. In the Hosea passage Egypt does not appear 
to be placed on quite the same footing as Assyria. Ephraim ^ returns 
to Egypt ', out of which Grod had ^ called His son '. Winckler's dis- 
covery of the land Mu$r south of Judah (proved by two distinct Unes 
of evidence) originated from an extension of the Egyptian territory 
eastward (comi)are the Greek name Syria for the western extension 
of the Assyrian empire). Note the exceptional position of privilege 
assigned to Egypt in common with Edom (as compared with Ammon 
and Moab) in Deut. xxiii. 7 foil. (8 Heb.). Also note the relation of 
Abraham to Hagar the Egyptian (probably Musrite). So it was 
easy to believe that Yahweh's sway extended to Egypt. It was 



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284 IV. Religions of tlie Sefmtes 

peculiarly his own. He gives Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar as hire for 
that monarch's siege of Tyre (Ezek. xxix. 18-20). Similarly, in the 
Deutero-Isaiah (zliii. 3), Yahweh gives Egypt to Cyrus as his ransom 
for Jewish freedom. 

VI. The mysterious Malachi passage (i. 10 foil.), if we follow 
Ewald's interpretation, receives some light from the papyri dis- 
covered at Elephantine : * From East to West my name is great among 
the nations and in every spot incense is offered to my name and a pure 
sacrifice.* If by the term West or ^ setting of the Sun ' such a sanctuary 
as the temple at Yeb is intended, we have to assume that other shrines 
existed in the East, which in the future may yet be revealed by the 
traces discovered by the explorer. 



9 

RELIGIOUS WISDOM AS CULTIVATED IN 

OLD ISRAEL IN COMMON WITH 

NEIGHBOURING PEOPLES 

By CONRAD von OBELLI 

The old religion of Israel, which in former times was considered 
to be like an oasis in the vast desert of paganism, has been shown 
•to bear some relation to the religions of neighbouring peoples all 
around. The cult of Israel, as well as its civil law, its religious manners 
and customs, as well as its cosmogony and sacred poetry, are shown 
to be more or less similar to those of the Assjrrians, Babylonians, 
Arabians, and to be connected even with Egypt. 

But notwithstanding all the marks of cohesion with other nations, 
the Israelite genius proves to be an original one in all these spheres 
of religious life. The prophetic view of divine and human things 
assures to it a peculiarity of views and judgement which clearly 
distinguishes the Old Testament from every other monument of 
Oriental antiquity. The Law of Sinai bears a stamp of its own, while 
the national history, as it is reported in the canonical books, has no 
counterpart in the annals of other nations. The Psalms are different 
in spirit and religious feeling from the Babylonian prayers. And as 
regards the Prophets, the very representatives and promoters of 
religion, we vainly look for persons of equal spiritual condition and 
influence, though the name of nebVim was common enough in Palestine, 
Ammon, Moab, and elsewhere. The Israelites themselves held the 



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9. Religicms Wisdmn in Old Israel: von Orelli 285 

finn oonviotion that they possessed the privilege of true divine revela- 
tion. 

There is one sphere, however, which shows a more intimate con- 
nexion of their sacred books with those of foreigners. Is it not a 
strange phenomenon that in the poem of Job the author has chosen 
the masters of religious wisdom amongst a people dwelling beyond 
the frontier of Israel ? As regards Job himself, the great hero of 
the poem, there may be some doubt whether he belongs to an Aramean 
or an Edomite tribe ; but Eliphaz, the most venerable of his friends, 
the very pillar of patriarchal wisdom, is called a Temanite (^?9^?!?) 
and ascribed in this way to Edom. 

Israel, we know, was well aware of its separation from Edom not 
only by political but also by religious boundaries. The poet himself 
did not forget it ; he carefully avoids putting the holy name of the 
god of Israel, Jahveh, upon the lips of the speakers. But this does 
not prevent him from allowing them to discuss a problem which 
troubled the Israelites likewise, and to look for a solution which 
might be satisfactory to both parties ; at all events he supposes that, 
to a vast extent, religious belief is the same amongst the tribes of 
Israel and the clans of Edom. 

But this is not the only exception to the rule that the Israelites are 
aware of having a religion of their own. When in the book of Job 
Edomitic masters of religious philosophy expose their wisdom for 
the benefit of Hebrew readers, this may be an occasional fancy of 
the poet. But in the book of Proverbs we find a double statement 
of foreign origin comprising a considerable number of verses. In 
accordance with many recent scholars, I consider it to be almost 
certain that we should read (xxx. I) *The words of Agur, the son of 
Yakeh, the Massaite ', and at the head of the following chapter (xxxi. 1), 
' The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, that his mother taught him.* 
Since Hitzig recognized this kingdom of Massa, the existence of this 
people has been confirmed by cuneiform inscriptions of Tiglathpilesarni 
and Asurbanipal, where it is mentioned as a people of Northern Arabia. 
We find it also in two biblical passages (Gren. xxv. 14 ; 1 Chron. i. 30) 
in the vicinity of Dumah. 

This fact is very astonishing : pieces by foreign hands have been 
adopted by the collectors of the sacred canon. The prophecies of 
Balaam are of a different type, as they tend to glorify the God of 
Israel and his chosen people. As regards the two chapters of the 
Proverbs, we shall not examine now whether their present text is 
the work of a foreign author. The name Jahveh, which occurs here 
regularly, and some coincidences with well-known scriptural phrases, 
may prove that they have been revised by a Hebrew scholar. On 
the other hand the presence of Arabic style and Aramaic forms has 



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286 IV. Religions of the Semites 

been traced in both chapters ; and at all events the strange fact 
that they bear the name of foreign masters, cannot result from arbitrary 
invention or through a simple mistake. 

Accordmg to these testimonies there can be little doubt that this 
sort of religious wisdom was as common in Arabia and Edomitis as 
in Canaan. The books of the prophets confirm this view. Obadiah 
and Jeremiah speak of the wisdom of Edom or Teman with such 
an emphasis, that this wisdom must have been the glory of Edom 
even in the eyes of Israel (Obadiah 8 ; JeremiiAh xlix. 7 ; Baruch 
iii. 22 seq.). Looking at these passages we can hardly think of a 
science other than that in which the master of Theman excels in the 
book of Job. The author of this book may have idealized in some 
degree the religious tenor of the Edomitic speeches, but we cannot 
doubt that there were in that country such teachers of religion and 
morality as appear in his poem. 

The historical books also contain some notices about the matter. 
We read in 1 Eongs (x. 1 seq.) that Solomon received the visit of the 
queen of Saba, an Arabian kingdom, as she had heard of the fame 
of his wisdom, and wished to question him. This would have no 
meaning if she, in her own country, had no masters of wisdom who 
cultivated a similar science. And when it is statied in the same book 
(iv. 30), that * Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the sons 
of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt,* the author's meaning must 
be that these peoples, the tnp ^13, the nomadic tribes of the East, as 
well as the Egyptians, had a somewhat analogous wisdom ; else it 
would have been impossible to compare their wise men with the 
King of Jerusalem. I do not venture to say in what measure it may 
be justified, that the Book of Proverbs bears the name of Solomon, 
though it is evident that he favoured in every form the contact with 
the culture of his neighbours. As he profited by Phoenician technical 
art in building his temple of Jahveh, so he may have introduced or 
patronized the gnomic philosophy which flourished long ago in Eg3rpt 
and amongst the Beduins of the desert. If such was the case, we 
can understand that in old Israel this Chohmah was not considered 
to be a privilege of the people of Jahveh, though of course this wisdom 
was modified to a certain degree and purified by teachers who were 
worshippers of this Grod. We perceive in that case the high respect 
which they showed, even in later times, for the old wisdom of their 
neighbours, and we can easily explain that they did not despise 
learning from the masters of old in Edom and Arabia : at the same 
time they might hope to find for their own teaching intelligent hearers 
beyond the narrow frontier of their nation, as it is reported about 
Solomon. 

But the spiritual character of the Old Testament — C!hokmah itself — 



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9. ReUgiotis Wisdom in Old Israel: -von OrelK 287 

finds a fuller explanation as soon as we accept that origin of Hebrew 
wisdom which is suggested by the notices we have collected from 
different parts of Hebrew literature. It is well known that the 
CShokmah books differ remarkably from the rest of Old Testament 
scripture. Not only is the name of Jahveh avoided in some of them — 
this may be the case in other books too — ^but the whole spiritual 
physiognomy is a different one. We find in these books no allusion 
to the covenant of Moses or to the great deeds of Jahveh in the history 
of his people which are so frequently referred to in the Psalms, or 
in the exhortations of the prophets. It is most striking that the 
special revelations to Israel are entirely ignored, not only in the poem 
of Job, but also in the Book of Proverbs, which consists of a collection 
by different authors. The soil on which this wisdom flourishes is a 
more extensive one ; it is what we call the * religio naturalis ', the 
general revelation accessible to the whole of mankind. God's mani- 
festations in the universal creation are the very territory where these 
masters are moving. The wonders of nature show the might and 
wisdom of Grod which surpass every human intellect. Besides, it is 
human life, the history of mankind, the experience of the day, where 
the justice and bounty of €k>d is to be admired. Good manners in 
civil and family life are insisted upon without appealing to Mosaic 
law. 

Of course this general piety, along with its maxim, *The fear of 
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,' does not contradict the 
precepts of the sacred law, or the admonitions of the prophets. But 
the intelligent student of the Bible will not fail to observe that as 
a rule the moral level is lower in the Proverbs than in the Prophets 
and Psalms. In the Proverbs we find rules of life drawn rather from 
•experience and reasonable morality than inspired by the presence of 
the holy God of the prophets. This difference cannot be attributed 
to the didactic nature of these books. Take e.g. the Hundred Seniencea 
of All. This collection of Muhammadan proverbs certaioly shows 
a spirit as elevated as the Qur'an itself ; many of its sayings surpass 
those of Muhammad by their religious genius. 

The cosmopolitan character of the books of Chokmah (Proverbs, 
Job, Ecclesiastes) has long ago been observed ; but it has not yet been 
sufficiently explained, as I think. I cannot concur with recent scholars 
who attribute all these books to only one period of Judaic thinking, 
influenced by Greek philosophy. The practical genius of this wisdom, 
as well as its gnomic form, points to a Semitic origin. And literary 
arguments, which cannot be discussed at this moment, prove that this 
kind of religious philosophy, as well as the poetry of the Psalms, had 
l>een cultivated in Israel for a long period. Thus we cannot deny the 
astonishing fact, that simultaneously with the theocratic teaching 



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288 IK Re&gums of the Semites 

of priests and prophets there were teachers who professed in their 
schools a morality and piety of a more general character. It is not 
even impossible — and some notices make it probable — ^that the same 
persons could teach in both ways. 

The only satisfactory solution of the problem seems to me to be 
found in that relation to the wisdom of other peoples which we have 
stated above. If from the b^[inning Israel felt herself indebted for 
this knowledge to other nations, we can easily understand that it 
was considered as a neutral zone, where wise men met with ven^nble 
masters of other tribes which also knew the fear of God and ita 
enlightening power for every man. 

Unfortunately we do not possess any remnants of analogous wisdom 
of other Semitic peoples. As regards Babylonia, I should be happy 
if any of my learned hearers, more deeply initiated into the secrets of 
cuneiform texts, would give me some specimens of a similar character. 
But it is well known that in Egypt this kind of teaching flourished 
from very early times. I only mention the papyrus PrissCy which con- 
tains some pages of very remote antiquity attributed to Kakimna, a 
governor of the third dynasty, and another one of greater extent, 
written by the old Ptah-hotep, a governor of the fifth dynasty. The 
sentences of Ani and Amenemhat show that this kind of teaching^ 
was not neglected in later gen^ntions. 

If we comx>are the most important of these documents, the book of 
Ptah-hotep with our biblical Proverbs, there exists no doubt a certain 
spiritual affinity. The topics are a good deal the same. The Elgyptiaa 
monitor warns his son against gluttony, loquacity, idleness, disobedi- 
ence, proudness, evil ten^r, and all sorts of excesses. He recom- 
mends to him wisdom, courtesy, and devotion to his superior, justice, 
love of his wife, good education of his son, toe. It is true that the 
social scale of duties is a different one. The old Eg3rptian governor 
introduces his pupil to the diplomatic career ; he initiates him into 
the secrets of dealing with the dignitaries of the court, and into the 
obligations of royal service. We are astonished to see to what 
a high degree from very ancient times ceremonial behaviour had 
developed amongst the leading class of this country. The Hebrew 
masters presuppose a more modest level and less ambitious aspirations 
for their disciples. Nevertheless precepts relating to the intercourse 
of subjects with the king, and even such as refer to the king himself, 
are by no means wanting in the Proverbs of Solomon. They occur 
so frequently that they form a strong argument against the post- 
exilic origin of the whole book. 

It may be a mere play of chance that in some details Elgyptian 
phrases touch the biblical ones very nearly. Thus we read in the 
introduction of the compendium of Ptah-hotep a description of the 



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9. ReUgiom Wisdom in Old Israel: von OrelU 289 

decay of old men, whioh reminds us of the more detailed and almost 
hmnoTons picture of the same subject in Ecclesiastes. Much more 
striking is a passage of the same book, where the Egyptian says : 
* Wisdom is more difScult to be found than an emerald ; for this is 
discovered by slaves in the rocks of pegmatite.' It is an allusion to 
the task of sifting this mineral, in which emeralds are found, a work 
whioh was done by female slaves. Who does not remember the 
splendid chapter of Job, where the secret place where wisdom is found 
is contrasted with the mines where men are digging for precious stones 
and metals ? Such artificial mines were scarcely known in Palestine. 
The description seems to take its origin from the peninsula of 
Sinai, where the Egyptians held important mining-works from early 
times. 

Besides, the Book of Job seems to refer to the Pyramids, the mighty 
grave-monuments of the kings (iii. 14). And at the end of the poem 
the two beasts which are cited as irrefutable proofs of the might and 
wisdom of God, the crocodile (livjathan), and the hippopotamus 
(behemoth), belong to the wonders of old Egypt. 

But I should lay more stress on the mental affinity. The lessons of 
Kakimna, as well as those of Ptah-hotep, are not without a religious 
basis, notwithstanding the more worldly style of their exhortations. 
As Solomon considers the fear of God to be the beginning of wisdom, 
Ptah-hotep derives his teaching from an advice of his €k>d, who 
charged him thus to make fruitful the days of his advanced age and 
the experiences of his long life. And more than once he appeals to 
God not as a special divinity of the Egyptian pantheon, but as the 
deity who is the highest authority for the human conscience. Thus 
he admonishes the mighty one : (§ 6) ' Do not strike men with terror — 
God will do the same with you. If a person believe that he will gain 
life (i.e. livelihood) in this manner, Qod will take the bread from his 
mouth. If a man look to oppress others. He will reduce him at last 
to impotence. Do not strike men with terror, that is the will of God.' 

Elsewhere he legalizes the established order of human society in 
these words : (§ 7) * He who has the means of existence may do as 
he pleases • • • the means of existence being in the hand of God, 
you cannot rebel against that.' 

Or he sajm (cf. 12, 44), ' A good son is a gift from God, a son doing 
more than you have demanded of him.' 

Evidently it was not a morality independent of religion that 
Egyptian doctors taught their pupils. Even what we should call rules 
of simple prudence for practical life were esteemed a v^ierable doctrine 
and one pleasing to God. On the other side these moralists did not 
int^ere with the peculiarities of Egyptian religion, either with its 
mythology (it is an exception when Horos is mentioned) or with 



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290 IV. Religions of the Semites 

Its ceremonial duties, which take ap a large portion in other books, 
as, for instance, in theBook of theDead. In both respects the analogy 
with the Chokmah-books of old Israel is obvious. 

As regards the rhythmic form, the oldest parts of the Book of 
Proverbs almost continually show the short sentence of two lines 
with an antithetical parallelism, as Bishop Robert Lowth called it. 
This is the case in x. 1-xzii. 16. In another part of the book, which 
is said to have been added by the men of Hezekiah as a collection of 
proverbs of Solomon (xxv-xzix), the * parabolic' parallelism prevails. 
As the late Dr. Davidson observed, there exists really no reason for 
assigning a later date to this group of proverbs. Now the Elgyptian 
moral books we have mentioned do not show this short measure of 
two sentences. Nevertheless I should not deny all possibility of its 
I^yptian origin. 

But I should not like to go so far as to claim a direct influence of 
Eg3rptian wisdom upon Hebrew wisdom. It is much more probable 
that we have to accept a missing link between them. It seems to me 
to be the most natural solution of the question to find this missing 
link in the famous wisdom of Edom and its kinsmen ; whom the Hebrews 
called the children of the East. These tribes had felt the influence of 
Egyptian culture in early days, and were in closer relation then with 
Israel regarding language and religion. Here might have been the 
home of this wisdom, whence it found its way to the people of the 
Bible from the time of Solomon. 

At all events in post-exilic times Judaism was much less favourably 
disposed to such a liberal intercourse as may have taken place in 
former periods. After the exile, the kinsmen in Edom, Moab, Ac., 
were perhaps more hated than the Babylonians by the devout members 
of the Jewish congregation. The barriers that separated them from the 
unclean brethren were strengthened by Esdras and Nehemiah. When 
the law was the prevailing religion, the old liberal notion of pious life 
and wisdom had to undergo a revision. 

On this account it is extremely interesting to comx>are the Book 
of Proverbs with Ecclesiastious. In this collection, which the son of 
Sira laid down at the b^inning of the second century before Christ, 
we have a magazine of didactic poetry, as it may have been current 
in Jewish schools during the centuries after Esdras. It is no more 
the wide-hearted CShokmah of the Proverbs of Solomon, but the special 
morality of Judaism. Chokmah means no more the piety of all the 
children of Abram but the l^al correctness of the Jewish life. The 
territory of wisdom is no more a neutral Eone where the different 
members of the great Hebrew family meet together on equal terms, 
Edomites and Arameans or Arabians along with the sons of Jacob. 
In Ecclesiasticus Chokmah is the privil^e of Judah, it is identified 



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9. Religiotis Wisdom in Old Israel: von Orelli 291 

with the special revelation of Moees and the prophets. Wisdom has 
its home in Jersualem. 

One of my younger friends, Dr. C. Gasser, has published a remarkable 
book,^ in which he compares the two collections of proverbs, the 
canonical and the apocryphal pne. He detects a deep and thorough- 
going differttice between them, and shows that such expressions as 
thorah, chohmahy justice, wickedness, ftc, have undergone a change 
of meaning in the later period. The fear of God means now merely 
correctness in observing the sacred law ; the wise master of wisdom 
is nothing else than the Jewish scribe. The fact deserves consideration 
that the Alexandrine version of the old Book of Proverbs shows the 
same ideas as Ben Sira. It speaks of the vdyxos, where thorah had 
in the Hebrew text the meaning of instruction, as it is delivered to 
children by their father and mother. The wicked man (yen) is trans- 
lated by SyofKK, Soc. And the traces of foreign origin of the last 
chapters are entirely effaced by the translation which has incorporated 
these verses into the Proverbs of Solomon himself. 

The possibility that we have here two opposite spiritual currents 
of the last centuries b. o., a cosmopolitan and a pharisaical one, cannot 
be maintained, as there exists no conscious opposition between both. 
Ben Sira attributed the canonical Proverbs to Solomon, and did not 
desist from making large use of them. 

I think, therefore, that Dr. Gasser is right in saying that the spiritual 
physiognomy of the old Ghokmah-works is such as to separate them 
by a hagb chronological interval from the teaching of Ben Sira. 

Certainly the books of which we have been speaking do not reveal 
the highest truths and the deepest secrets of the Old Testament religion. 
But they possess their special charm and religious value. The very 
fact that we find here not only an unconscious relation but a conscious 
connexion and interchange of ideas between nations, separated by 
different religious laws and customs, is of great importance. When 
from the days of the old kings rulers of different clans and tribes 
sat together as the friends of Job, interchanging their knowledge of 
old sayings and proverbs and discussing practical religious problems* 
was it not a prelude to future times, in which the access to the highest 
revelation, bestowed on Judah, was opened to all nations of the 
world ? 

' Job. Conrad Gasser, Daa aUktbrdische Spruchbuch und die SprHehe Jesu Ben 
Sira. Gdtenloh, Bertelsmaim, 1003. 



u2 



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292 ir. ReUgims of the Semites 

10 

NOTICE OF THE WRITINGS OF ABU 

'ABDALLAH AL-HARITH B. ASAD AL-MU- 

HASIBI, THE FIRST SCTFI AUTHOR 

By D. S. MARGOLIOUTH. (Abstract) 

This person figures as the seventh in l^ushairl's list of Stifi saints, and 
is the first to whom any writings are attributed. Short biographies of 
him are furnished by Kushaiil, Ibn Ehallik&n, Ibn al-WardI, and 
others, the fullest being that by Subkl in his Usts of Shafi*ites. This 
last tells a story explaining the otherwise attested disapproval of 
MuhasibI by Ahmad b. Hanbal on the ground of professional jealousy, 
the latter being envious of Muhasibl's fame as a preacher ; it also shows 
that the phenomenon of ecstasy was not wanting in the stances of 
the earUest ^ufts. SubM further gives the number of Muhasibl's works 
as 200 ; the fullest list of titles is that furnished by the library of AbQ 
Bakr b. Khair, which only amounts to seven. The most celebrated 
of these is the ' Treatise on the Observation of God's Claims ', which 
exists in the Bodleian Library in full, and in the Berlin Library in 
epitome ; a portion of another (on Asceticism) is preserved in Ghaz&ll's 
^ Bevival of the B^ligious Sciences ' ; of another, called ' The Healing 
of the Heart's Disease', an account was given by Sprenger in the 
Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society. One on the Resurrection is 
said to exist in Paris. Another on Morals exists at Constantinople in 
the Eueupriilu-Z&deh Library, and of this the writer possesses a copy* 
Some small treatises also are preserved in Berlin. 

All these works are homiletic in character, none representing the 
metaphysical side of the author's activity, which, however, was suffi- 
cient to secure him a place in the history of the Sects of Islam, his name 
being associated with the ^iffitXs, whose later representatives were the 
Ash'arites. From the nature of their style and contents, which display 
evident improvisation and various characteristics of revivalist preach* 
ing, it is reasonable to suppose that they are records of sermons actually 
delivered, which, if collected during a series of years, might reach the 
number of volumes mentioned by Subkl. 

With regard to the light which they throw on the origin of ^Ofism, 
it is to be noticed that these sermons show evident traces of the use 
of the Gospel, as indeed the work on the ' Observation of God's Claims ' 
commences with a repetition of the Parable of the Sower, without 
distinct mention of its source. TheEeuprulii treatise, which is against 
hypocrisy, might be said to be an expansion of the doctrines of the 



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10. The First Sufl Author: MargoUauth 298 

Sermon on the Mount : and to the phraseology of the Grospels there 
seem to be some dear aUnsions : these may be due to infiltration or to 
actual study of the Gospels on the author's part. 

With regard to the relation of MuhfisibI to the later ^fLfism, his 
language is free from the technicaUties afterwards so largely employed 
by Ibn 'ArabI, and on the whole from those collected by Kushairl ; the 
ideas, however, embodied in the latter appear to occur. One of these 
is the hierarchy of saints, and the stages in the reUgious life, with 
special definitions of the virtues whereby those stages are to be attained : 
another the theory of ' absorption in the Deity ', for which the technical 
term fana does not appear to occur. The asceticism recommended by 
MuhfisibI differs from that preached by 'Abd al-Kfidir, the latter being 
disciplinary only and temporary, whereas the former is to last through 
life. Like *Abd al-Kfidir, however, MuhfisibI expresses shame for the 
Moslem Paradise ; and like Ibn 'Arabi he employs the formula * not to 
think ill of Grod ', without, however, drawing from it the same far- 
reaching consequences* 

Finally the author of the paper collected a few historical and archaeo- 
logical Elusions out of the writings of MuhfisibI, which (he thought) 
scarcely deserved translation, though they might, if published in the 
mginal, be of use to Moslem communities for practical purposes. 



11 

THE OLDEST PERSIAN MANUAL OF 
SUFIISM 

By R. a. NICHOLSON. (Abstract) 

Thb Kashfu ^UMaij^b, or * Revelation of the Mystery ', was com- 
posed in the latter half of the eleventh century by 'All b. *Uthmftn 
al-JullfibI al-HujwM, a native of Ghazna, in reply to certain questions 
which were addressed to him by a fellow-townsman. Aba Said al- 
Hujwlrl. Orientalists have long recognized the importance of this 
work as one of the oldest authorities for the early history of ^dfiism, 
but hitherto no attempt has been made to utilize the invaluable infor- 
mation which may be derived from it. As regards the author we know 
little beyond what he teUs of himself incidentally. The date of his 
death is given as 456 or 464 a. h., but probably he died after 465 a«h., 
for he seems to have survived Abu 'l-Qasim al-QushayrI, who passed 
away in that year. His Shaykh and model in ^dfiism was Abu '1-Fadl 
Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Khuttab, a pupil of Abu '1-Hasan al-Hufrl. 



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294 IV. Religions of the Semtes 

HusrI, who died in 371 A.H., was the sole pupil of AbQ Bakr al-Shibll, 
who was himself a pupil of the famous Junayd. The author also 
received instruotion from Shaykh Abu 'l-*Abbas al-Ashq&Dl (ShaqftuI), 
who based his doctrine on the theory of fana^ at self-annihilation ; and 
he mentions a large number of Shaykhs whom he met and conversed 
with in the course of his wanderings. Among many allusions to matters 
of autobiographical interest I can notice here only one, namely, the 
fact that part, at any rate, of the present work was written while the 
author was a captive at LahAwur in the district of Mult&n in the 
Pnnjftb. Besides the Kashfu ^UMaAjub he composed several treatises 
on ^Qfiism, as well as a volume of poetry, but he complains bitteriy 
that they were either left unread or mutilated by unscrupulous persons 
who passed them off as their own compositions. None of these books 
have come down to us. 

Although he was a SunnI in theology, al-HujwM, like many ^QfliB 
before and after him, managed to reconcile his orthodoxy with an 
advanced type of mysticism, in which the theorj of fana holds a domi- 
nant place, but he scarcely goes to such extreme lengths as would 
justify us in calling him a pantheist. He strenuously opposes and 
describes as heretical the doctrine that human personality can be 
merged and extinguished in the being of €rod. He compares annihila- 
tion in the mystic sense to burning by fire, which transmutes the 
quality of all things to its own quality, but leaves their essence un- 
changed: iron, for example, can never be converted into fire. In other 
points, too, such as the excitation of ecstasy by music and singing, and 
the use of erotic sjrmbolism in mystical poetry, his attitude is more or 
less cautious. At the same time no one can read the Kashfu ^UMaij^b 
without feeling that the spirit of the work is philosophical and specu- 
lative — in this respect it has a thoroug}ily Persian flavour — and that 
the @(lfiism which it was written to elucidate is. wholly incompatible 
with the dogmas of Islam. The author declares that his object is to 
set forth a complete system of ^Qfiism ; not to compile sayings, but to 
discuss and explain doctrines. Before stating his own view, he generally 
examines the current opinions on the same subject and refutes them 
if necessary. With the help of his book it is possible to realize what 
were the principal questions that occupied ^Qft teachers and writers 
from the ninth to the eleventh century of the Christian era, and to see 
what form these questions took under the influence of contemp<Mrary 
thought. 

The most important and interesting part of the Kashfu %Makj^ 
is the fourteenth chapter, entitled, ^ On the different doctrines of the 
^tlft sects,' in which the author enumerates twelve mystical schools 
and describes the characteristic doctrine of each. Ten of the twelve, 
he says, are recognized to be worthy of approbation, while two are 



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11. A Persian Manual of Siifiism^ Nichokon 295 

oonctemxied as hereticaL The ten approved schools, which agree in 
their principles, though differing in their practice and discif^ne, are 
the following : 

1. The Muhftsibis, whose founder was Hftrith b. Asad al-MuhftsibI of 
Ba9ra(t243A.H.). 

2. The Qa^fftrllB, who derive from Hamdun al-Qa^^ar of NfishftpOr 

(t27lA.H.). 

3. The TajtOtla, whose name refers to the celebrated @tlfi pantheist, 
TayfOr b. ls& b. SurQsh&n, commonly known as B&yazld of Bis^m 
(t261 A.H.). 

4. The Junaydls, so called after Abu 'l-Qasim Junayd of Baghdad 
(t297A.H.). 

5. The Nfirls, whose founder was Abu '1-Hasan al-NtM, also of 
Baghdad (t295A.H.). 

6. The Sahib, followers of Sahl b. 'Abdallah of Tustar (t283 A.H.). 

7. The Haklmis, who trace their origin to Muhammad b. 'All al- 
Hak&n of Tirmidh (t256 a.h.). 

8. The Eharrftzis, whose founder was Abu Sa^ al-Kharrftz of 
Baghdad (t277 or 286 A.H.). 

9. The KhafyfTs, who are spiritually descended from Muhammad 
b. Khaftf of Shirftz (t331 a.h.). 

10. The Sayyftrlis, who derive from Abu 'l-'Abb&s Sayyftrl of Merv 
(t342A.H.). 

The two heretical sects are the HulQlIs and the Hallfijis. The HulQliis. 
who hold the doctrine of incarnation {Aukd), claim to derive from AbO 
Hulm&n of Damascus (cf . Haarbrucker's trans, of Shahrist&nl, ii. 417) ; 
the Hall&jis from Fftris, a pupil of al-Hallftj. Fftris alleged that his 
doctrines were identical with those of al-Hallftj, but the author declares 
that no other pupil of al-Hallftj held such tenets, and that in the books 
composed by al-Hallftj there is nothing except profound theosophy. 

The MuHASiBis. llie oldest of the ten orthodox schools of ^Qfiism, 
is that of Hftrith al-Muhftsibl. According to al-Huji^lrl, the peculiarity 
of his doctrine consisted in his regarding rida (acquiescence in God's 
will) as a ^ state ' (fdl), not as a ' station ' {fnaqam). In ^Qft phraseology 
the name maqdm is given to any one of a series of * stations ', 
through which the traveller on the mystic way must pass before he 
can attain to union with Qod. The first of these * stations ' is repentance 
{taidHi), next comes renunciation (zuM), then trust in €rod {tawakkul), 
and so on. They are gained by voluntary effort, and each one marks 
a certain degree of achievement and merit. A * state ' (iol), on the 
other hand, is something that descends from God upon the heart, 
something that can neither be attracted nor repelled by human exertion, 
a heaven-sent ecstasy in which self-consciousness is lost. Muhftsibl 
hdd that rida was not » mogMt, but a ial. In other words, he denied 



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296 IV. Religions of the Semites 

that r%4A could be acquired by an act of effort at volition, and asserted 
that it was simply and solely a gift of God. Hie also differed from 
many ^t^ shaykhs in maintaining that a hci might be permanent ; 
indeed he went so far as to say that until it becomes habitual, its 
owner is not worthy of the name. 

The QAfSABis are distinguished by the doctrine of fnofomoi; 
whence they are also called Malftmatlis. The literal meaning of 
mdlamcA is ' blame '. In @Qfiism it has the signification of * blame 
incurred by a holy man through his acting in a way that gives 
offence to people who do not understand his motives '. For example, 
<»ie venerated by his nei^bours and in danger of falling into 
the sin of spiritual pride might intentionally conmiit some breach of 
the religious law in (»rder to turn the hearts of the people away from 
him. Some Mal&matls, not satisfied with acting sincerely and ignoring 
public opinion, made a point of drawing censure upon themselves by 
actions which bore the appearance of evil, but were really innocent. 

TheTAYFUBis and Junaydis are so called after two famous ^Qfls who 
took opposite sides in the mystical movement of the third century a.h« 
TayfQr was the personal name of B&yazld of Bis^m, a Persian who 
seems to have been the first to give ^tlfiism a definitely pantheistic 
form, while Junayd stands out as the protagonist of the moderate, or 
at all events more discreet ^tlfis, who profess that thdr religion is in per- 
fect harmony with the Koran and Apostolic traditions. The controversy 
between these schools was waged over two expressions familiar to 
students of Moslem theosophy : ' intoxication ' (mkr) and ^ sobriety ' 
{sakw). In the language of mjnstics, * intoxication ' denotes viol^it 
passion and longing for God, and ' sobriety ' denotes the attainment 
of one's desire. B&yazId and the TayfQris who follow him prefer the 
former state. They argue that ^ sobriety ' depends on the subsistence 
and equilibrium of human attributes, which are the greatest veil that 
can come between God and man, whereas ^ intoxication ' entails the 
destruction of these attributes and the survival of those faculties alone 
that are not tainted with mortality. To this the Junaydis answer that 
* intoxication ' is inconsistent with sanity, and that without sanity it 
is impossible to arrive at true comprehension of the Divine. Blindness, 
they urge, will never free a man from the IxHidage of phenomena : in 
(»der to be free, he must see things as they really are. Such vision is 
attainable only by the *' sober '. 

The doctrine peculiarly associated with the Nubis is expressed by 
the term i(A<Sf , which means literally ' preference ', but in this con- 
nexion implies the preference of another's interest to one's own, and is 
synonymous with altruism or self-sacrifice. 

The SahlIs laid particular stress on the spiritual warfare (mujohada) 
with the passions by means of austerities, such as fasting and acts of 



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11. A Persian Manual of SuJUsm: Nicholson 297 

devotion, such as dhikr. While ^tlfiiB in general consider that self- 
mortifioation is an indirect means of attaining contemplation {muaha- 
hada\ 8ahl al-Tostarl held that it is the direct cause. ' You must serve 
God,' he said, ' before you can be united to Him : union is the imme- 
diate result of service performed with God's blessing.' Against his 
opponents, who pronounced union to be the fruit oi Divine grace 
{fadJ)^ he appealed to the prophets, all of whom teach that mortification 
is obligatory. Their laws and commandments must be vain, unless 
mortification produces contemplation. 

The doctrine of the HakImis deals with the nature and various 
degrees of saintship (wUdyai)^ the vaUdity of miracles, the distinction 
between the miracles of the prophets and those of the saints, &c. 
It is interesting to note that Muhanmiad b. 'All al-HakIm first de- 
veloped the well-known ^Qfi doctrine of a hierarchy of saints, on 
whom depends the order of the world, headed by the QtM or Ohawih. 
He held that the saints are not, like the prophets, divinely protected 
from sin (ma'^m), but that they are preserved from whatever is incon- 
sistent with saintship, e.g. infidelity. This is the view of MuhfisibI 
and Junayd. Others believe that saintship involves obedience to 
God ifdat) and is forfeited by any one who conunits a great sin. 

Three sects have still to be mentioned : the Kharr&zis, the Khaflfis, 
and the Sayy&rlB. The special doctrine of the Khabsaqs is ' Annihila- 
tion and Subsistence ' {fana & haqa), of the Khaixf^, ^Absence and 
Bresence ' {ghaybat a hudur), and of the Sayyabis, ' Union and Separa- 
tion' (jaftC u tafriqa). I will conclude this summary with a brief 
account of the Kharrftzl doctrine, which had a far-reaching influence. 
Unfortunately it is not easy to disentangle the doctrine itself from 
the author's elucidation of it. 

Al-HujwM observes that Abu Said al-Kharrfis was the first to 
discourse on the theory of fana and baqa, and that he expressed the 
whole of his doctrine in these two terms, which are employed by 
mystics to denote the perfection of saintship, in reference to those 
who have transcended all ^ stations ' and ^ states ', and have found 
the object of their search. It is a grave error to suppose that fana 
involves annihilation of essence and personality, or that baqa implies 
any connexion between the human and Divine natures. Fana and baqa, 
when predicated (rf us, are attributes of ourselves : fana is annihilation 
of our thought of phenomena, and baqa is perpetuation of our thought 
of God. Abu Sa'id al-Kharrftz defined fana as ' dying to the sight of 
human abasement (ubadiyya) and living in the contemplation of 
Divine omnipotence (rvbubfiyya)\ i.e. the true servant of God is so lost 
in contemplation that he no longer attributes his actions to himself 
but refers them all to God. 



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298 IV. ReUgiom of the Semites 

12 

POPULAR JUDAISM AT THE TIME OF THE 

SECOND TEMPLE IN THE LIGHT 

OF SAMARITAN TRADITIONS 

By M. GASTER, (Abstract) 

I WISH to attack a problem which hitherto has not to my knowledge 
received that full attention which its importance deserves, viz. — 
What were the popular beliefs and popular practices among the Jews, 
especiaUy in the provinces and in the Diaspora, during the centuries 
before and after the destruction of the Second Temple ? 

There are no contemporary sources which could throw light on the 
religious beliefs and practices of the Jews during that period. The 
literary tradition of a purely Jewish character starts later, and is 
embodied in the Aggadic and Halachic works emanating from certain 
schools. These represent partly the practical and partly the theoretical 
developments of tradition, and allow only by inference conclusions as 
to the real life led by the people in Jerusalem. Little, if any, of 
the popular practices outside Jerusalem can be found in these writings. 
The same holds good for the Apocryphal literature which has recently 
been the object of scientific investigation. These writings emanate 
also mostly from scribes ; their authors are learned men : they hve 
mostly, if not exclusively, in Jerusalem. Their thoughts, conceptions, 
and ideas centre round the Temple and its worship, and no notice is 
taken, except in a few stray allusions, of the practices followed by 
the people at large, and by those who lived far away from Jerusalem. 
Each author of these Apocryphal writings seems to have a stand- 
point of his own; and the range of vision is limited by the fact that 
almost every one of the writers is engaged in polemical warfare. 
Each one tries to confound his neighbour and to uphold strenuously 
one special point of view. He may be the exponent of a school of 
thought or of a political religious faction. But these were not the 
views of the general public, of the mass of the nation, who took very 
little interest in the party fights going on between the various sects 
inside Jerusalem. This explains why there seems to be such a pro- 
found gap between the beliefs and notions contained in the Apocryphal 
writings and the Bible, Old Testament as well as New Testament. 
Many beliefs and practices in the latter appear, therefore, somewhat 
strange, and attempts have been made for a long time to find their 
origin and explanations in extraneous sources and extraneous influences. 
One source of information has hitherto, however, been somewhat 
neglected. I am alluding to the Samaritans. 



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12. Judaism at the time of the Second Temple: Gaster 299 

Without expecting too much — for we are standing practically at 
the beginning of such investigations — ^I may say that some valuable 
information could be gleaned from the traditions and religious beUefis 
and practices of the Samaritans. First, of course, it wiU have to be 
determined whether these traditions and ideas which are found in 
their writings and prayers and in their daily reb'gious practices are 
of a purely Jewish and pre-Christian origin, or whether the Samaritans 
have adopted, in addition to the Jewish tenets, also CSiristian and 
Mohammedan practices. Most of the scholars who have studied the 
Samaritan literature have limited their investigations almost exdu- 
sively to their liturgy, and have accepted almost as a dogma the 
view that the Samaritans owe many of their ideas and beliefs to 
every possible source : they are said to be indebted not only to 
Rabbimcal, late Judaism, to Karaites and the heathen inhabitants, 
to the Hauran, but also to CShristianity, and most extensively to 
Arabic teachings and examples. They are not credited with having 
retained or having possessed anything of their own. But I have 
failed hitherto to find the slightest proof for these assertions. It is 
much more natural to assume that they have shown the same tenacity 
in retaining these ancient practices and beliefe which they held long 
before the rise of Christianity, instead of believing that they have 
been constantly changing at every turn in their history. If it can 
be shown that Islam had no effect upon their religion, and a very 
slight one, if any, upon their religious rites, we should feel perfectly 
justified in believing that they have kept themselves also independent 
of other influences. For the last twelve himdred years they have 
stood under the exclusive influence and dominion of the Mohammedan 
rulers, and have lived under comparative toleration ; and yet, although 
they had adopted the Arabic language and had almost forgotten their 
own Samaritan and Hebrew language, still not a trace of Moham- 
medan influences can be shown in their Liturgy, in its system, order, 
and recital. I must guard against a common fallacy which considers 
everything written in the Arabic language or found in Mohammedan 
writings as if it were of Mohammedan origin. The Arabs have 
borrowed at the beginning wholesale from Jew and Christian alike, 
and much that is treated now as Mohammedan may be, and often 
is, of a different origin altogether. It is time that a ^ Caveat ' be 
uttered. The relation between Samaritans and Christians was, on 
the contrary, of short duration and marked by terrible persecutions 
on the part of the Christians, by a far bitterer feud between them 
than between the Samaritans and the Jews. Under such circum- 
stances, it is not likely that the Samaritans should have adopted 
anything from the Christians. Their literature is anything but com- 
prehensive. They have the Law, and some Apocrypha, but not the 



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800 IV. Religions of the Semites 

Prophets. They have a primitive set of prayers— enlarged later on 
by a few hymns — and ample Lessons from the Law. ' They have one 
attempt at codification of the Law, made in the tenth or eleventh 
century, a few polemical writings and a chronicle] copied out by 
every subsequent writer, and going, therefore, under different names, 
and finally a mjnstical, cabalistic, magical literature, of which nothing 
has been known hitherto. I have been fortunate enough to secure, 
through the munificence of my friend Mr. S. T. Cohen, of Manchester, 
the chief monument of that literature, the famous Samaritan mystical 
^ Shem-ha-mitfaresh ', corresponding to the Jewish * Shem ha-mef orash ' 
the Lieffable Name of God, the value and importance of which for 
the history of Cabbalah cannot be over-rated. I am exhibiting it 
here, and I may say, that as far as I am aware, it is the first time for 
centuries that it is shown in public or seen outside of Nablus. (One 
copy bears the date 1342.) Markah, of the fourth century, knows 
already an elaborate system of mystical cabalistic teachii^ among 
the Samaritans, and uses it, and Simon Magnus carries us back to 
the first century. 

The Samaritans thus represent at least one phase of the popular 
beliefs and traditions current among the Jews of that period. They 
claimed, in fact, to be t&e true Jews, and did not differ from the rest 
by any of their religious practices. 

The only point of contention was that they claimed that Sichem 
and Mount Garizim were the spot chosen for the worship of God, 
pre-ordained since the Creation, and explicitly stated in the Penta- 
teuch, and not Jerusalem or Mount Zion. But otherwise they must 
have shared with the rest of the Jews in what was known at that time 
as Judaism. They followed the popular Judaism of the provinces 
and of the lower classes, of the tillers of the ground from Galilee, 
and of the fishermen on the Lake of Tiberias, down to the gates of 
Jerusalem. Of course, great caution is required in sifting Samaritan 
traditions, but whatever recurs as a permanent factor in their religious 
belief and practices, and shows strong similarity to Jewish notions 
and to primitive Christianity, could be safely considered as a true 
element in helping to elucidate some of the problems of the religious 
life of that time. 

Let me limit myself to two or three points. Firstly, what was the 
position of the Cohen outside the Temple ? Was he a layman pure 
and simple, or was he entrusted with duties of a religious character 
outside those distinctly laid down in the Pentateuch ? It seems that 
with the destruction of the Temple every privilege attached to the 
Cohen had disappeared, and the fight between the two sections, the 
Pharisees and Sadducees, seems to have resulted in the elimination 
of the Cohen from practical life. Did he, then, exercise any spiritual 



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12. Judaism at the time of the Second Temple: Gaster 801 

function 7 ^ Was he a minister in the way in which the priest has 
been considered in the Temple? What part did he take in the religious 
life of the people in the provinces ? The origin of the Presbyter (or 
Diaconus) and the part he took in the Service seem to be still some- 
what obscure. But if we find that the Cohen exercised exactly the 
same priestly functions, and does still exercise them among the 
Samaritans, it might be inferred that he was the priest to the Jews 
in the provinces and in the Diaspora. The Priest or Presbyter has 
taken the place of the Cohen and then of the Zaken, Elder, in the 
new order of things. What are considered Sacraments in the Church, 
such as initiation, betrothal, marriage, last blessing of the dying, &c., 
we find to be still the exclusive function of the Cohen among the 
Samaritans. 

Take another point. What was the old form of worship outside 
Jerusalem ? The Papyri of Elephantine throw some light on the 
subject.]^ The Jews used to have an * altar ', not for 8<icrifices, but 
for burning incense and reciting prayers. Did this custom prevail 
in the provinces and in the Diaspora ? We know of the Synagogue 
that it was the place of assembly, where the Law was read. Jesus 
and the Apostles were called up to read their portion and to expound 
it. But what else was done, and what was the conception of the 
Synagogue in relation to the Temple ? We find, then, among the 
Samaritans again the * altar ' as an essential feature of the worship, 
the prayer as ' the sacrifice ', a certain primitive form of creed, the 
recital of verses from the first chapter of Genesis, selections from 
the rest and from the Law, and whole sections of the Bible, the priest 
as the appointed reader, the people merely joining in the responses, 
the whole service reminding one very strongly of the ancient descrip- 
tion of the * Maamad ' or local service in the Mishna, and leading 
up to the Liturgy of the Church. 

Turning to another set of ideas — ^the all-absorbing topic of the 
Messiah, the call of John to repentance and baptismal purification 
as the preliminary condition for the kingdom of heaven, the pre- 
ordination of the Messiah, his existence before the world, the 
evolution of events so arranged as to prepare for his advent, the 
transfiguration on the mount between Elijah and Moses — ^for all of 
these topics we find very close parallels in the Samaritan teaching 
of Fanuta and the Taieb, the Restorer through Repentance, the 
history of Moses, his pre-ordination, and the evolution of things so 
arranged as to coincide with his appearance as the Saviour of the 
world. Everything depended on that final event, on his transfigura- 
tion, and now on his expected return. 

Some of the points raised, notably those bearing on the elevation 
of Moses to the position of Saviour and Mediator, have already been 



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802 IV. ReBgions of tJie Semites 

noticed and discussed by Samaritan scholars* But they have drawn 
their information promiscuously and exclusively from some liturgical 
pieces belonging to widely different periods — fourth, eleventh, and 
fifteenth centuries, — and then these parallels were looked upon as 
proofs of Christian influences. My desire is rather to promote the 
study of the whole range of Samaritan literature, of their legal and 
ritual practices and religious beliefs as foimd in their books of laws 
and rubrics of their prayer-books ; a more comprehensive and in- 
dependent study of the oldest fragments of their literature and a 
recognition of the fact that therein may be foimd a new source of 
information about that popular Judaism which was the religion of 
the masses in the outlying districts of Palestine, traces of which have 
hitherto been found only in some of the Apocrypha of the Old and 
New Testaments, in Rabbinical literature and in the New Testament. 



18 

THE ETHNOLOGY OF GALILEE 

By PAUL HAUPT* (Abstract) 

Thb city of Hamath (Assyr. Hamm&ti), which is repeatedly 
mentioned in the Old Testament as the northern boundary of Palestine^ 
is not Hamath on the Orontes, but the ancient capital of Galilee, at 
the hot springs {hammai) south of Tiberias. Vat non we must point 
nton, and for n^iai ngi riBn (Joshua xix. 35) we must read n*)J? ngi nbn^ 
* Hot springs on the shore of the Great Harp' (plur. intens.), i.e. 
the Sea of Galilee. 

The names which are mentioned in Numbers xxxiv. 7-1 1» and 
Ezek. zlvii. 15-20, may be explained as follows: — ^The ^Entrance to 
Hamath' is the Wady al-Hammftm near Magdala; Mount Hor 
is the Jabal Jermak ; Zedad is a corruption of Zaida » Bethsaida;^ 
Hazar-enan is the Bound Spring, twenty-five minutes north-west 
of Magdala; Ziphron, Sibraim, Sepharvaim, Babyl. Sabara'in, 
Sepharad, and Arbatta (Arbacta, Arbana, &c., lot Sarbana, Sabraua) ^ 
are all corruptions of Sipp5rlm, Sepphoris, which appears in the Talmud 
as @ippoii(n) ^ with s on account of the r (cf . Arab, fifr <» Assyrian 

^ For m*1V instead of rrPVcf. the passage at the end of the Book of Amo0» where 
the LXX reads ytTtV ' they will seek,' instead of the Masoretic WH^ ' they 
will inherit '• 

* F(h: the explicative and before Arbana in 1 Maoc. v. 23, see Haupt, Pwrim 
(LeipEig, 1906, p. Id, L 10). 

* The plDV bv rutrn OnM, i. e. the executive committee of the old (pre- 



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18. Ethnology of GaUlee: Haupt 808 

siparm, and Jftkat's $arHm » Sargon, &c.)* Shepham denotes the 
hills (Sefailm) east of the Sea of Galilee ; Ain » 'Aiun at the south- 
eastern end of the Lake. Hethlon (or rather Hittalon), « Hannathon 
(or rather Hinnathon) » Assyr. HinnatOn, is an old name of Nazareth. 
Jesus' native town was called Hittalon (Swathing)^ at Nazareth (Seclu- 
sion) because it was entirely shut in by hills. Berotha refers to the 
cisterns on the hill fifteen minutes south of Shefft 'Amr. Tamar » 
'Ain Qhamr, west of Shdbak, on the road from Hebr<ni to Elath.^ 

Galilee (Hamath) was conquered by Tiglath-pileser iv in 738 B.o. 
The Gkdileans were deported to Assyria. The few Jews who lived in 
(Salilee at the time of Judas Maccabaeus were rescued by his elder 
brother, Simon, and transferred to Jerusalem in 164 b.o. In 103 B.C. 
the first Maccabean King of the Jews, Aristobulus, judaized Galilee. 
The descendants of the Assyrian colonists in Galilee were still called 
at that time Itureans, i.e. Assyrians. Similarly the Samaritans were 
contemptuously called Hyrcanians, i.e. northern barbarians; hence 
the epithet of their conqueror, John Hyrcanus.* 

Many of the Assyrian colonists settled in Galilee were Aryans (Iranians). 
Sargon sent the Median chief Deioces, with his kinsmen, to Hamath, 
i.e. Galilee. The Itureans were famous archers ; so were the ancient 
Modes. The opinion that Sargon sent 6,300 Assyrians to Hamath is 
due to a misinterpretation; 6,300 in Winckler's KeilschrifUexU Sargone, 
p. 179, 1. 61, must be connected with the preceding line. 

Consequently it is by no means certain that Jesus of Nazareth and 
His first disciples were Jews by race ; they may have been Aryans. 
The speech of the Gkdileans ^bewrayed' thdr n<m-Semitic extraction 
(Matt. xzvi. 73) ; they could not distinguish the Semitic gutturals.^ 

Canon Cheyne remarks in his Encyclopaedia BMica (cpl. 1631) : 
* Professor Percy Gardner has well said, '^ Acc<»rding to all historical 
probability Jesus of Nazareth was bom at Nazareth." ' The tradition 
that Jesus was a descendant of David, and was bom at Bethlehem, 
is not original. The census referred to at the beginning of the second 
chapter of the third gospel took place in the year 7 A.D., i.e. at least 

Maocabean) Jewish congregation in Sepphoria, is mentioned in the Talmud 
{KidtL, iv. 6). 

^ Swathing >» enclosing, confining. Gf. cvp^o-orc pp*<l>og ttmapyopnfump kqi 
Kuy^^w iw if^ro (^^IIQ D^DI K-llTUa yisn W^ pDK V^JOV). Nazareth is 
swathed in a basin with a girdle of hills. 

* Of. my remarks in Peiser's OrieiUaiisHache Litteratur-ZeUung, voL zi, coL 238 
(Berlin, May, 1906). 

* See Haupt, The Book of BMer (CSiioago, 1906), adm.2. 

* Professor Deissmann remarked at the Berlin Congress for Historical Science 
(August, 1908), that the words attributed to Jesus in the New Testament showed 
that He spoke pure Aramaic — as though the Qreek text could indicate the 
correct pronunciation of the Semitic gutturals, Ac. I 



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804 IV. Religions of the Semites 

eleven years after the Nativity. An imperial census in the kingdom 
of Herod would have been impossible. There was no imperial assess- 
ment until Judea had been made an imperial province. Nor would 
the people have been assessed at their ancestral homes. Moreover, 
Mary would not have been required to accompany Joseph. 

Our Saviour Himself referred to the behef that the Messiah was to 
be a son of David as an opinicm of the Pharisees. The later traditicm, 
which endeavours to harmonize the life of Jesus with the alleged 
Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, is a concession to Jewish 
expectations <»r prejudices. Wellhausen begins his translati<m of the 
first gospel with the third chapter, corresponding to the beginning 
of St. Mark. The first two chapters of the first gospel, with the 
Davidic genealogy of Joseph, the virgin birth, the star of Bethlehem, 
the wise men from the east, the fli^t to Egypt, the slaughter of 
the innocents, are not considered. 

The thec»ry that our Saviour was not a Jew by race is not new. 
Forty years ago the distinguished French archaeologist Emile Bumouf 
stated, in the Bevue dea Deux Mondea, tome Ixxvi (August 15, 1868), 
that the founders of Christianity were Aryans, not Semites. I am 
indebted for this reference to my friend Professor Ludwig Schemann, 
of Freiburg i. B. I did not know Bumouf s article, nor had I read 
H. S. CSiamberlain's book Die Orundlagen dea 19^ Jahrhunderta. 
My attention was called to it after I had read a paper on the Aryan 
ancestry of Jesus and His first disciples at the general meeting of 
the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, April 25, 1908. 
CSiamberlain thinks that the Aryan elements in (xalilee were due to 
Greek immigrati<m during the last centuries B.C. This theory is 
untenable. Budolf v<m Jhering sajns, in his Vorgeachichte derEuropder 
(quoted by Chamberlain, op. cit., p. 220) : * Dem Boden seines Volkes 
war Christi Lehre nicht entsprossen ; das Christenthum bezeichnet im 
Gegentheil eine t)berwindung des Judenthums; es steckt bereits 
bei seinem ersten Ursprung etwas vom Arier in ihm.' No one, how- 
ever, has been able to prove the Aryan ancestry of Jesus and His first 
disciples. But as soon as we know that Hamath is the ancient capital 
of OaUlee, and that Itureans means Assyrians, i.e. the descendants of 
the Assyrian colonists in northern Palestine, the whole question appears 
in a new light. 



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14 

MAN'S FORGIVENESS OF HIS NEIGHBOUR— 
A STUDY IN RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 

By R. H. CHARLES 

When we study the teachings of the Old and New Testaments 
on this subject, we are at once struck with the vast ethical gulf that 
severs the latter from the former, not, indeed, on the question of 
Grod's forgiveness of man, but of man's forgiveness of his neighbour. 
In the New Testament, from the first page to the last, with the excep- 
tion of certain passages in the New Testament Apocalj^pse, it is either 
explicitly stated or implicitly understood that a man can only receive 
the Divine forgiveness on condition that he forgives his neighbour. 
Indeed, in their essential aspects these two forgivenesses are one 
and the same. But in the Old Testament it is very different. There, 
indeed, God's forgiveness is granted without money and without 
price to the sinner who truly seeks it. But the penitent in the Old 
Testament could accept and enjoy the Divine pardon and yet cherish 
the most bitter feelings towards his own personal enemy. There are, 
indeed, some noble passages in the Old Testament which forbid the 
indulgence of personal resentment. Though few in number, and 
indeed but as voices crying in the wilderness, they are yet of transcen- 
dent import ; for they form the beginnings of that lofty doctrine of 
forgiveness which reach^ its highest expression in the New Testament, 
as we shall now proceed to show. The presence of such passages in 
the Old Testament is evidence that already the more spiritual minds 
in Judaism were working towards loftier conceptions of forgiveness 
than those that had prevailed in the past or were current among their 
contemporaries. We shall now try to show the chief steps in the 
advance to this more ethical attitude towards an enemy. 

I. One of the oldest statements in the Bible which shows a con- 
sciousness that as a man dealt with his fellow men so God would with 
him, is found in Judges i. 6, 7, and the reflection on this point is, 
strangely enough, put in the mouth of a Canaanitish king Adoni- 
bezek : ' And Adoni-bezek fled, and they pursued after him and 
caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adoni- 
bezek said : Threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and their 
great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table : as I have 
done, so God hath requited me.' The primitive human law of exact 
retaliation, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life, is here described 
as the law of Divine procedure. In Exod. xxi. 23 sqq. this law is to 

C.U. I X 



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806 IV. Religions of the Semites 

be observed by the judges in Israel. In the hands of the late scribes 
and legalists this law was often crassly conceived, and in Jubilees and 
2 Maccabees the history of the deaths of notable evildoers is often 
rewritten so as to furnish examples of this law of retribution. Spiritually 
conceived, it represents a profound religious truth enunciated repeatedly 
in the New Testament. But to return, this doctrine, that with what 
measure we mete it is measured to us again , is found in Ps . xviii . 25 sq . — 

With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful . . . 

With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure, 

And with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself froward. 

II. The belief in such a connexion between a man's treatment of 
his neighbour and his treatment by God is sufficient to explain the use 
of such negaiive commands as Prov. xx. 22 : — 

Say not thou, I will recompense evil : 
Wait on the Lord and He shall save thee. 

Or in Prov. xxiv. 29 : — 

Say not, I will do to him as he hath done to me ; 
I will render to the man according to his work. 

These precepts are noteworthy since they are opposed to the principle 
of retaliation in itself, and that at a time when such a principle was 
universally current. 

lU. But there are one or two notable passages that go beyond 
these and contain positive commands that when we find our enemy in 
diffictiUy or distress we are to help him. Thus it is enjoined in Exod. 
xxiii. 4, 5 : 'If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, 
thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of 
him that hateth thee lying under its burthen, and wouldest forbear 
to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.' ^ And again in Prov. 
XXV. 21, 22 :— 

If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, 
And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink ; 
For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. 
And the Lord shall reward thee. 

This last noble passage, however, occurs in close proximity to a vile 
direction, that a man was not to rejoice over the affliction of an enemy 
lest God should see it and remove the affliction. And yet this base 
precept implies the existence of a higher one, that a man should not 
rejoice over a fallen enemy's misfortunes. 

IV. But the Old Testament ethics reaches its highest point of 
development in Lev. xix. 17-18, a passage the importance of which 
it would be hard to exaggerate. 

* These words are used simply in relation to a neighbour, not an enrany, in 
Deut xzii. 1-3. 



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14, Man's Forgiveness of his Neighbour : Charles 807 

This passage runs : ' Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine 
heart : thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin 
because of him. Thou shalt not take vengeance nor bear grudge 
against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour 
as thjrself .' 

Here all hatred of a brother is forbidden. In case a man's neighbour 
does a wrong he is to admonish him. If he has himself suffered a 
wrong, he is not to avenge himself on his neighbour, but to love him 
as himself. We have here a true foundation for subsequent ethical 
development on the subject of forgiveness. It is true that the sphere 
of the precept is limited here absolutely to Israelites or to such strangers 
or gdrim as had taken upon themselves the yoke of the Law. Neigh- 
bour here means an Israelite or Jew. Notwithstanding the passage 
is epoch-making, and served in some degree to fashion the highest 
pronouncement on forgiveness in later Judaism that we find in the 
Testaments of the XII Patriarchs. 

V. Finally, we have the notable instance of Joseph's forgiveness 
of his brethren ; but this act of grace on Joseph's part does not seem 
to have impressed later Old Testament writers, or led them to urge 
Joseph's conduct as worthy herein of imitation. 

We have now given practically all the higher teaching on forgiveness 
in the Old Testament ; but side by side with this higher teaching 
there are statements of a very different character, which exhibit the 
imforgiving temper in various degrees of intensity. Our classification 
of them is logical rather than chronological. 

I. In the first stage this temper manifests itself in a most unblushing 
and positive manner in one of the Psalms, where the righteous man 
prays to Yahweh to make him strong enough to pay out his enemies : 
* Do thou, O Lord, have mercy upon me, and raise me up that I may 
requite them ' (Ps. xli. 10). Side by side with this prayer we might 
place the unforgiving spirit of David — the man after God's own heart — 
when on his death-bed he charged Solomon not to let Joab's hoar head 
go down to the grave in peace ; and commanded him to deal similarly 
with Shimei, though David had promised to preserve Shimei's life. 

II. But this thirst for immediate personal vengeance could not, 
unless exceptionally, indulge itself when once order and law were 
established in the land. The person wronged could take to heart the 
words of the Deuteronomist, that God would ' avenge the blood of His 
servants ' (xxxii. 43), for that * Vengeance is Mine and recompense ' 
(xxxii. 35), and so might relinquish the desire of personally executing 
the vengeance ; but if so, then in many instances he prayed all the 
more vehemently for God to undertake the vengeance for him. Under 
this heading comes the most appalling exhibition of vindictiveness 
to be found in religious literature, i.e. the imprecatory Psalms. No 

x2 



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808 IV. Religions of the Semites 

amoont of explaining away or allegorizing can excise the malignant 
element in these productions ; nor in such utterances as the cxxxviith 
Flsalm, where the writer in his fury against Babylon declareth : 
'Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the 
rock.' The use of such Psalms in Christian worship cannot be justi- 
fied.^ And yet the faithful Jew felt no hesitation in believing tiiat 
God would fulfil such prayers. ' God,' he writes, ' is mine helper ; 
the Lord is of them that uphold my soul : He shall requite the evil 
unto mine enemies,' and then doses the Psalm with the expression of 
sated vengeance : ' Mine eye hath seen my desire upon mine enemies ' 
(Ps. Uv. 7). 

m. But as time went on the teaching of the nobler spirits began to 
make itself felt, and so the faithful came to feel that there was some- 
thing wrong in the vindictive spirit in itself and in its joy over an 
enemy's misfortune. We have already given some passages attesting 
such a higher temper, but I shall quote still another, and that one of 
the most remarkable in the Old Testament for its distorted ethics : — 

Rejoice not when thine ^lemy falleth, 

And let not thy heart be glad when he is overthrown. 

Lest the Lord see it and it displease Him, 

And he turn away His wrath from him. 

(Prov. xxiv. 17, 18).* 

Here we are bidden not to rejoice over an enemy's overthrow lest God 
see our malicious joy and so restore our enemy to prosperity. Though 
this precept shows an ethical advance on the part of some circle in the 
community — a consciousness that vindictive rejoicing over an enemy'a 
fall is wrong — ^yet the temper of the man who gave this precept 
and of him who observed it is immeasurably lower than that of the 
plain man who prayed bluntly to God to raise him up thathe might 
pay off old scores against his enemy. 

From the two conflicting series of passages on forgiveness we havo 
now dealt with, we see that there was no such thing as a prescribed 
and imqueetioned doctrine of forgiveness in the Old Testament, and 
that a Jew, however he chose to act towards his personal enemy, 
could justify his conduct from his sacred writings. It is easy to deduce 
the natural consequences of such a state of ethical confusion. 

When a man, and tiiat, too, a good man, has suffered wrong, his 

^ Even in Judaism the Imprecatory P&alms are not used in PMic Worship. 

* It has been suggested to me by a difltingnished Jewish scholar that the last 
line here means ' turn away His wrath from him (to thee) '. But there is no 
ground for this interpretation in the text If this was the meaning these two 
very important words ' to thee ' could not be omitted. Moreover, they are not 
found in the Septuagint, Syriao, or Vulgate vernoos, nor yet in the Tai;gam 
on the passage. 



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14. Man's Forgiveriess (f Ms Neighbour : Charles 809 

usual course is not to ask what is the very highest and noblest line of 
conduct he could take towards his ^lemy, but generally what is the 
least exacting and yet ethically acceptable amongst his orthodox 
contemporaries. And in a book where every jot and tittle was equally 
authoritative, if he chose the precepts that accorded best with his 
personal feelings, who could blame him 7 If he chose to indulge his 
personal animosities, he could do so without forfeiting his own sdf- 
respeot or that of the religious leaders of the community ; for he could 
support his action by sanctions drawn from sacred Ptolmist and sainted 
hero. It is true, indeed, that if he were an exceptionally spiritually 
minded man he could not fail to recognize the fact that there were 
a few Old Testam^it passages that conflicted with his natural feelings ; 
and if he were an exceptionally good man, he might forgo his desire of 
vmigeance ; as no doubt many an Israelitedid,andrender actual positive 
help to a Jewish enemy in distress. But to good Israelites general^ 
such isolated precepts were only counsels of perfection, and their 
fulfilment could not be held necessary to salvation, nor could they be 
said to i>o8sess any higher objective authority than those precepts 
and examples that conflicted with them in the same sacred books. 
With these isolated teachings, which represent only the highest the 
Old Testament was striving towards, let us compare a few of those 
which are characteristic of and central in the New Testament. 

' Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. . . • 
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also 
forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will 
your lather forgive you ' (Matt. vi. 12, 14, 15). 

*' Whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against 
any one, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive your 
trespasses ' (Mark xi. 25, 26). 

* How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him ? 
Until sev^i times ? Jesus saith unto him : I say not unto thee 
Until seven times; but UntQ seventy times seven' (Matt, xviii. 
21, 22). 

* If thy brother sin against thee, go and show him his fault between 
thee and him alone : if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother ' 
(Matt, xviii. 15). 

* If thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. 
And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and sev^i times 
turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him ' (Luke 
xvii. 3, 4). 

* Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing 
be put away from you, with all maUoe: and be ye kind one to another, 
tendar-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God also in CSuist 
forgave you ' (Eph. iv. 31, 2). 



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810 IV. Religions of the Semites 

'Thou hast heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy neighbour, 
and hate thine enemy ; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and 
pray for them that persecute you ; that ye may be the sons of your 
Father which is in heaven ; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust ' 
(Matt. V. 4a-46). 

Let us now contrast in a few words the teaching of the Old and 
New Testaments, and herein accept only that which is highest in the 
former. First, whereas the Old Testament in a few passages denounces 
the cherishing or manifestation of 'personal resentment against a fellow 
countryman, the New Testament requires universaUy the annihilation 
of the passion itself as regards fellow countrymen and strangera. 
Again, while in two or more passages the Old Testament inculcates that 
a man should do positive kindness to a hostile fellow countrjrman y)hen 
in distreaSy the New Testament everywhere explicitly and implicitly 
requires him to render such services whether the wrongdoer be Christian 
or non-Christian, prosperous or the reverse. 

We have now before us the startling contrast which the teachings 
on forgiveness in the Old and New Testaments present. How are 
we to explain it ? Li the past some schol€u*s have ignored the question, 
while others have regarded the New Testament doctrine of forgiveness 
as a wholly original contribution of Christianity. But such a view 
is no longer possible, now that recent research has brought to light 
the evidence of the Apocryphal books on this and other New Testament 
subjects. 

A study of the literature that comes between the Old and New 
Testaments shows that there was a steady development in every 
department of religious thought in the centuries immediately preceding 
the Christian era. This fact has already been fully recognized in the 
department of eschatology. And on the doctrine of forgiveness new 
light has come through a critical study of the Testaments of the 
XII Patriarchs. However, before we discuss the bearing of this 
work on the development of this doctrine, we must deal with a note- 
worthy section in Sirach xxvii. 30 to xxviii. 7, which attests some 
advance on the Old Testament doctrine and yet one not so advanced 
as that in the Testaments. In xxviii. 3-5 Sirach teaches the duty of 
forgiveness, but in the main as a measure of prudence. Forgiveness 
is befitting the frailty of sinful man, he urges — 

Man cherisheth anger against a man, 

And doth he seek healing from the Lord ? 

Upon a man like himself he hath no mercy. 

And doth he make supplication for his own sins ? 

He being flesh nourisheth wrath : 

Who shall make atonement for his sins ? (xxviii. 3-5.) 



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14. Man's Forgiveness of his Neighbour: Charles 811 

This advice is good, but strikes no very lofty note. Verses 1 and 2 
are, however, some advance on Old Testament doctrine. 

He that taketh vengeance shall find vengeance from the Lord, 

And He will assuredly take account of lus sins. 

Fomve thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee, 

Ana then when thou prayest thy sins shall be loosed. . . ?■ 

Remember thy last end and cease from enmity, 

. . . And be not wroth with thy neighbour. 

Here the doctrine of divine retribution makes more explicit the teaching 
of the Psalmist : — 

With the merciful thou shalt show thyself merciful. 
Moreover, it is now clearly implied that forgiveness is better in itself 
than vengeance ; and that a man should forgo wrath against his 
neighbour, for that the Jew who forgives his neighbour is forgiven of 
God. The recurrence of this teaching in later purely Jewish sources 
confirms the genuineness of the passage in Sirach, and proves that 
Jewish thought on the subject of forgiveness was developing on the 
highest lines laid down in the Old Testament. We might here quote 
some very fine sayings on this subject from the Talmud. *" If a friend 
be in need of aid to unload a burden, and an enemy to help him to 
load, one is commanded to help his enemy in order to overcome his 
evil inclination ' (B.M. 32). 

Again, ^Be of the persecuted, not of the persecutors ' (B.Q. 93 6). 
And again, *" Who is strong ? He who turns an enemy into a friend ' 
(Ab. R.N, xxiii). 

These sayings belong to a much later period than that we are dealing 
with. They are, however, valuable, as we have already observed, 
as evidence that Jewish sages were developing the best elements of 
the Old Testament and advancing to conceptions of forgiveness that 
woidd have been unintelligible to most Old Testament saints. 

Before we leave Sirach we might remark that on the whole we must 
regard this section on forgiveness as enforcing the wisdom or prudence 
of forgiveness, if we are to interpret it in character with the practically 
universal tone of that author. Notwithstanding it is some advance 
on Old Testament teaching, and forms in a slight degree a preparatory 
stage for that of the New Testament. That Judaism after the rise 
of Christianity did not stop at this immature stage I have already 
shown. It must be admitted, however, that forgiveness is only 
incidentally dealt with in Talmudic writings, and is not made the 
central doctrine of the religious life as it is in the New Testament. 
On the other hand, there is a genuine Jewish work of the second cen- 

> Tliis fomisheB an interesting anticipation of Mark zi 25 : * When ye stand 
im^ying, forgiye, if ye have aught against any one ; that your Father abo which 
is ID heaven may forgive your trespasses.' 



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812 IF. Religions of the Semites 

tury B.C. in which a doctrine of forgivenees is taught that infinitely 
transcends the teaching of Sirach, and is no less noUe than that of the 
New Testament. Moreover, this doctrine of forgiveness does not 
stand as an isolated glory in the Testaments of the XTI Patriarchs as 
in other Jewish writings, but is in keeping with the entire ethical 
character of that remarkable book, which proclaims in an ethical 
setting that God created man in His own image, that the law was 
given to lighten every man, that salvation was for all mankind, and 
that a man should love both God and his neighbomr. 

Let us now turn to this book and to the section in it which formulates 
the most remarkable statement in pre-Christian Judaism on the subject 
of forgiveness. 

Test. Gad vi. 3. * Love ye one another from the heart ; and if 
a man sin against thee, cast forth the poison of hate and speak peaceably 
to him, and in thy soul hold not guile ; and if he confess and rep^it, 
forgive him. 4. But if he deny it, do not get into a passion with him, 
lest catching the poison from thee he take to swearing, and so thou sin 
doubly. 6. And though he deny it and yet have a sense of shame 
when reproved, give over reproving him. For he who denieth may 
repent so as not again to wrong thee : yea, he may also honour and 
be at peace with thee. 7. But if he be shameless and persist in his 
wrongdoing, even so forgive him from the heart, and leave to God 
the avenging.' 

These verses show a wonderful insight into the true psychology 
of the question. So perfect are the parallels in thought and diction 
between these verses and Luke zvii. 3, Matt, xviii, 15, 35, that we 
must assume our Lord's acquaintance with them. The meaning of 
forgiveness in both cases is the highest and noblest known to us, 
namely, the restoring the offender to commimion with us, which 
he had forfeited through his offence. And this is likewise the essence 
d the Divine forgiveness — God's restoration of the sinner to communion 
with Him, a communion from which his sin had banished him. But 
our author shows that it is not always possible for the offended man 
to compass such a perfect relation with the offender, and yet that 
the offended, however the offender may act, can always practise 
forgiveness in a very real though limited sense. He can get rid of 
the feeling of personal wrong, and take up a right and sympathetic 
attitude to the offender. Thus forgiveness in this sense is synonymous 
with banishing the feeling of personal resentment, which arises 
naturally within us when we suffer wrong, and which, if indulged, leads 
to hate. When we have achieved this right attitude towards the 
offender, the way is open for his return to a right relation with ub. 
Moreover, so far as we attain this right attitude, we reflect the attitude 
of God Himself to His erring children. 



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14. MarCs Forgiveness of his Ndghhour : Charles 818 

This is the first and essential duty in all true forgiveness, and it 
is often all that a man can compass; and apparently the Divine 
forgiv^iess has analogous limitations^ — at all events, within the sphere 
of the present life. 

Returning now to our text, we can better appreciate the thought 
of our author. If a man does you a wrong, you are first of all to get 
rid of the feeling of resentment and then to speak gently to him about 
his offence. If he admit his off^ioe and repent, you are to forgive 
him. But if he refuse to admit his offence, there is one thing you 
must not do : you must not lose your temper lest he get infected by 
your angry feelings and in addition to his wronging he take to cursing 
you as well, and thus you become guilfcy of a double sin — ^his un- 
bridled passion and his a^^ravated guilt. In such a case, therefore, 
you must refrain from further reproof ; for one of two things will take 
place. The offender, though outwardly denying his guilt, will, when 
he is reproved, feel a sense of shame or he will not. If he feels a sense 
of shame, he may repent and honour you and be at peace with you. 
But if he have no sense of shame and persist in his wrong attitude to 
you, he must in that case be left to God. 

It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of this passage. 
It proves that in Qalilee, the home of the Testaments of the 
XII Patriarchs and of other apocalyptic writings, there was a deep 
spiritual religious life, which having assimilated the highest teaching 
of the Old Testament on forgiveness, developed and consolidated it 
into a clear, consistent doctrine that could neither be ignored nor 
misunderstood by spiritually-minded m^i. This religious develop- 
ment appears to have flourished mainly in Qalilee. The section on 
forgiveness in Sirach is little better than a backwater from the main 
current of this development, and is of importance as showing that 
even the Sadducean priest and cultured man of the workl could not 
wholly escape the influence of this bounding spiritual life that had 
its home in Qalilee. 

It is further significant that it was not from Judea, the stronghold 
of Pharisaic legalism, but from Qalilee, the land of the religious mjrstic 
and ethical eschatologist, that Christ and eleven of His apostles 
derived th^ origin and their religious culture. Christ's twelfth apostle 
was from Judea. 

We shall not be surprised, therefore, that when we come to the 
Sennon on the Mount we find the teaching of the Testaments is 
aeoqpted — accepted and yet lifted into a higher plane, and the doctrine 
of forgiveness carried to its final stage of development. We are to 
cherish the spirit of forgiveness towards those that have wronged us, 
for two reasons. Siist, because such is and always has been God's 
spirit towards man ; and secondly, because such must be our spirit 



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814 IV. Religions of the Semites 

if we are truly to be His sons. By having God's spirit we show our 
kinship with God. 'Love your enemies, and pray for them that 
persecute you, that so you may be sons of your Father in heaven ; 
for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth 
BQs rain on the just and on the unjust.' And this forgiveness He has 
proclaimed through His Son, as St. Paul teaches: 'Forgiving one 
another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven you.' 

Thus divine and human forgiv^iess, being the same in kind though 
differing in degree, are linked indissolubly together, and in the heart 
of the prayer given for the use of all men are set the words which 
own this transcendent duty, ' Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive 
them that trespass against us.' The man who forgives his enemy is 
so far forgiven of God, and has therein, whatever his Church may be, 
shown his essential kinship with God. 



15 

SURVIVALS OF HINDUISM AMONG THE 
MUHAMMADANS OF INDIA 

By T. W. ARNOLD 

In recent years the study of provincial peculiarities in Islam, of 
deviations from the orthodox type as laid down in authoritative 
creeds and the writings of professed theologians, has been pursued 
with very valuable results. Survivals of earlier beliefe and religious 
observances among the present-day Muslims of Syria, Algeria, Mada- 
gascar, the Dutch East Indies and other parts of the Muhammadan 
world, have been traced up to their source in the cults of these 
countries before the advent of Islam ; shrines of Muslim saints have 
been identified with the local centres of an earlier worship, notably 
in those parts of Central Asia where Islam has been adopted by a 
population originally Buddhist. The study of the customary law 
prevailing in various parts of the Muslim world has also been fruitful 
in emphasizing the diversities that exist within the pale of Islam. 
Scholars have noted those local peculiarities of belief and practice 
which keep alive among the faithful cultural characteristics, entirely 
opposed to the teachings of theologians, and condemned by the general 
body of the orthodox. 

It is proposed in what follows to give some illustrations of similar 
divergences from the orthodox type, to be observed among the 
Muhammadans of British India. 



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15. Hindu Surrnvals among Indian Muslims: Arnold 815 

As is well known, the Muhammadan population in India falls into 
two main divisions — (1) the indigenous converts and their descendants, 
and (2) the descendants of the Muhammadan invaders and settlers — 
from the Arab conquerors of Sind in the first century of the Hijrah 
to the more peaceful immigrants of modem times. For nearly 
thirteen c^ituries there have been almost uninterrupted additions 
to this foreign element in the population of India, adventurers and 
soldiers of fortune, exiles fleeing from oppression in their own land, 
scholars and men of learning seeking the patronage of the Muham- 
madan courts. Of these men and their descendants I do not propose 
to say much. To a very considerable extent they have upheld the 
purity of Muslim faith and practice ; from them, for the most part, 
have sprung the theologians and leaders of orthodox opinion in Muslim 
India. 

But, on the other hand, there has been manifest — more in some 
communities than in others, more among families long settled in the 
country than among recent arrivals — a certain approximation to 
Hindu customs and modes of life. The institution of caste especially 
has profoundly influenced the organization of Muslim society. Racial 
distinctions such as those of Say3rid, Mughal, Pathan, Ac, are often 
spoken of by Muhammadans as constituting their caste ; and though 
the same rigidity and restrictions do not prevail among these groups 
of foreign origin as are found in the indigenous Hindu castes, yet 
Sayyid families in India are often as watchful as Brahmans for the 
purity of their blood, and as strictly exclude intermarriage with 
outsiders. Long residence in the midst of a Hindu community has 
been known to cause Muhammadans of Afghan descent to so far 
forget their origin as to refuse to eat beef; and similar examples 
might be quoted of the adoption by these foreign immigrants of the 
religious prejudices of their Hindu neighbours. 

But I propose here rather to speak of those non-Muslim character- 
istics that are to be found among the indigenous Muhammadan 
population — among the converts and the descendants of converts. 
The reception of Islam by the Indian peoples who adopted it, has 
expressed itself in very different forms in diverse parts of the country. 
Some converts have become wholly Muhammadanized, and have 
allowed none to outstrip them in devotion to their new faith and 
a scrupulous adherence to its precepts and ordinances. Such zealots 
try to conceal the fact of their heathen origin and claim relationship 
with the older races of the Muslim world, e.g. Rajputs will sometimes 
call themselves QuraishI or Pathan ; and a rise in social scale has 
so often been accompanied with the honorific title of Sayyid, as to 
give rise to the familiar proverb, * Last year I was a weaver ; this 
year I am a Shaikh ; next year, if prices rise, I shall be a Say3rid.' 



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816 IV. Retigiom of the Semites 

Some of the most famous Muslim theologians in India and heads of 
religious communities have been of native origin. This whole-hearted 
acceptance of the new religion has not been confined to individuals, 
but there are whole communities of converts, such as the Mftppil}as 
of Malabar, who are distinguished for their fidelity to the ordinances 
of th^ faith and their knowledge and observance of its rites and 
laws. On the other hand, there are some communities of Hindu 
origin which have not succeeded in so completely severing themselves 
from their old associations. However much they may c(»iform in 
matters of religious observance, they still refuse to abandon the social 
customs and tribal laws that they share with their Hindu fellow 
tribesmen, though these customs are in conflict with the prescriptions 
of the Muslim ho^. This is notably the case with the Muhammadans 
of the Panjftb. Although this province has been the highway for the 
Muhanmiadan invaders since the elev^ith century, and has been 
continuously und^ Muslim influences for the last seven centuries, 
the Muhammadan law relating to marriage and inheritance — adminis- 
tered to this day in the law courts in other parts of Muslim India — 
is here practically a dead letter. The customs (is>bU) of the Hindu 
tribe from which they derive their origin take the place of the ordinances 
of the law ol Islam. Thus among some of the Muhammadans <^ the 
Panjab the daughter gets no share in the inheritance of her father, 
instead of the half of the share of a son allowed her by Muhammadan' 
law ; nor does a widow receive any share when she has sons. The 
giving of a dower is practically unknown, and a wife can be divorced 
only for adultery ; and intermarriage outside the tribe or Uiose few 
tribes with whom intermarriage is authorized by custom, is practically 
unknown^— so strong is the public opinion of the conmiunity against it. 
Similarly, in other indigenous Muslim communities the Hindu laws 
of succession are still observed, and the daughters and sisters are 
excluded from all share in the inheritance. The Hindu prejudice 
against the re-marriage of widows operates also among the indigenous 
Muhammadans of Bengal, where (in spite of the orthodox opposition 
to this prejudice) one-sixth of the Muslim women remain widows. 

By their adherence to these institutions of their Hindu ancestors, 
such Muhammadans reject some of the fundamental institutions of 
Muslim society. In other parts of the Muhammadan world, e.g. 
Algeria, Sumatra, and elsewhere, the Muhammadan law has equally 
failed to take the place of the old tribal customs. But what makes 
these divergences from the orthodox Muslim ty})e, among such com- 
munities in India as the Muhammadan Jats and Rajputs, the more 
significant, is the fact that they link these followers of the Prophet 
with large and closely organized Hindu tribes, whose faith and ideals 
of life have never been touched by Muslim influences, and whose 



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15. Hindu Survivak among Indian Musji'nfts: Arnold 817 

opposition to the spread of Muhammadan o^iquest has been for- 
midable and persistent. Thus, for example, in the Eastern Panjftb the 
Musahnan Rajput, Ghijar or Jat difiters in slight respects only from 
his Hindu fellow tribesmen. Almost the only difference between 
them is, that the Muhammadan clips the edge of his moustache, 
repeats the Muslim creed, and adds the Muhammadan marriage 
rite to the Hindu ceremony ; for he retains the old Hindu regidations 
of marriage and inheritance, submits to the same tribal restrictions, 
and preserves unaltered the social customs of the clan. This pride of 
race has in many cases prevented the Muhammadan converts from 
the higher castes, such as the Bajputs, from entirely severing their 
C(Mmexion with their Hindu caste-fdlows ; they still boast of their 
descent from Hiindu heroes and kings and exhibit many of the charac- 
teristics of a Shu*ubiyyah movement of an Indian type. So close 
have th^ relations with their Hindu brethren remained that in 
recent times, since the actively proselytizing Arya Samftj movement 
has begun to welcome back into Hinduism Muhammadan converts, 
there have been several cases of Rajput Muhammadans being again 
received into full fellowship with their Hindu caste-fellows and thereby 
breaking altogether the slender ties that had bound them to 
Islam. 

When we pass from the consideration of tribal and social customs 
to practices of the distinctively religious life, we find still more 
remarkable deviations from Muslim orthodoxy. Many of the Muham- 
madan Rajputs employ Brahmans at their marriages and maintain 
purohiku (or family priests) to read mantras on solemn occasions. 
In most parts of India there may be found instances of Brahmans 
taking a part in Muhammadan weddings, either openly, as in Rajputana, 
where the Brahman o£Biciates side by side with the rnvJla, or secretly, 
in districts where orthodox influences are stronger. Sometimes the 
Hindu rite precedes and the nikoi follows; e.g. the Pinjftrfts, or 
cotton-clecmers, of the Seoni district in the Central Provinces, at 
their marriages first perform the bhonwar ceremony of walking round 
the sacred fire, and afterwards the nihoA before the Q&<jl ; but they 
often go through the first ceremony secretly so that the Qftdl may 
not come to know of it. 

It is among the Muslim converts from the lower Hindu castes that 
the most remarkable instances of the survival of Hindu practices are 
to be found. Whatever the means of conversion may have been, it 
is certain that among some of these lower sections of the population — 
ignorant and unlettered — ^the change effected was very slight. It 
would seem that they were ill instructed in the tenets of their new 
religion from the very beginning, and have always remained so. 
Retaining the peculiar social characteristic of their old faith — that 



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818 IV. Religions of the Semites 

exdusiyeness of caste which makes the communal life of each section 
of the Hindu community a life and an organization apart — they have 
kept themselves shut away from foreign influaices, even those influences 
which in most Muslim lands have tended to bring about a uniformity 
in the life and thought of the faithful. 

The divisions of the Hindu caste system often correspond to occupa- 
tions, and the converts in passing over to Islam, while retaining the 
same occupation, are often found to differ but little from their old 
Hindu caste-fellows. Thus e.g. in Western India, there are Muham- 
madan cotton-cleaners, stone-masons, bricklayers, gardeners, butchers 
and others, descendants of converts from Hinduism, who scrupulously 
avoid eating or even touching beef, and openly worship and offer vows 
to Hindu gods ; they wear the Hindu dress — and this in a country 
where distinctions of creed usually express themselves in some charac- 
teristically different costume. They seldom visit a mosque, and 
seldom perform any Muslim rite, with the exception of circumcision. 
Most of them believe in the goddess Satvfil, who is supposed to register 
the destiny of a child on the sixth night after birth ; in the goddess 
MariftI (or Mother Death), who is worshipped to save them from 
cholera; in Mah&soba, the guardian deity of the field, to whom most 
husbandmen offer a fowl or a goat, at harvest time or when after the 
breaking of the rains the new ploughing season begins. Some of the 
Muhammadan Pindfirfis — ^the descendants of those freebooters whose 
predatory incursions in the eighteenth century made their name 
dreaded throughout Western India — ^who now follow the peaceful 
occupation of grass-cutters, have a special devotion to the goddess 
Yalammft ; the Pind&rfts of the Bij&pur district, who are said to be 
Sunnis of the Hanaft school, have built a temple in her honour. 
There are Muhammadan dhobas or washermen who offer vows to 
Varuna, as the water-god. The worship of Sltalft, the dreaded goddess 
of small-pox, is widespread among the lower middle classes all over 
India ; her cult is kept up especially by women ; and in the villages 
of the Eastern Panjftb, for example, a Muhammadan mother who 
had not sacrificed to Sltalft would feel that she had wantonly en- 
dangered the life of her child. 

In Bengal there are even Muhammadans who join in the worship 
of the Sun and offer libations like Hindus. The Bengali Hindus and 
Muhammadans not unfrequently meet at the same shrine, invoking 
the same object of worship, though under different names : thus tiie 
Satya Narain of the Hindu is the Sat3ra Pir of the BengaU Musalman. 
In the Sonthftl Parg€inahs Muhammadans are often seen carrying 
sabered water to the shrine of Baidyanftth, and, as they may not ^iter 
the shrine, pouring it as a libation on the outside verandah. Muham- 
madan cultivators also make offerings to the Grftmya Devatft or 



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15. Hindu Survivak among Indian Muslims: Arnold 819 

tatelary deity of the village, before sowing or transplanting rice seed- 
lings. Similar practices may be observed in other parts of Muslim 
India. When the Muhammadan Meos dig a well, they first erect 
a cJiobabra or platform for the worship of Bhairon or Hanumftn. In 
K&mrQp, in Assam, there are Musalmans who take a chief part in 
the paja offered to Bishaharl, the goddess of snakes. In the Madras 
Presidency Muhammadan women of the lower classes break coco- 
nuts at Hindu temples in fulfilment of vows. 

This worship of Hindu gods and godlings is open or secret according 
to the strength or weakness of the orthodox Muslim feeling in the 
community concerned. In Berar, for example, some Deshmukhs 
and Deshpandias profess Islam in public, but employ Brahmans in 
secret to worship their old tutelary deities. In districts far removed 
from centres of Muslim culture, such survivals of the older cult are 
comprehensible, but it is strange to learn that in a Muhammadan 
village in Hissftr — a district not many miles from Delhi — ^the headmen 
of the village were once discovered by an English official rubbing oil 
over an idol, while a Brahman read mantras ; they explained that 
their mvU& had lately visited them and had been very angry on 
seeing the idol and had made them bury it ; now that the muUa had 
gone, they were afraid of the anger of the god and were endeavouring 
to atone for the insult offered to him. 

It is not surprising to find Muhammadans with such strong leanings 
towards Hinduism taking part publicly in Hindu festivals ; e.g. the 
Muhammadan "pakhdhs (or water-carriers) of the Bombay Presidency, 
on Dasahrft, the festival of the autumn equinox, deck with flowers 
the bullocks that carry their leathern water-bags, paint them yellow 
and green, and parade them through the streets along with the buUocks 
of the Hindus. In Bengal the low-caste Muhammadans regularly 
join in the DOrgft PQja and buy new clothes for the festival like the 
Hindus. In parts of the Bombay Presidency there are Muhammadans 
who take part in all the Hindu festivals. The Meos consider Holi, the 
festival of the spring equinox, to be as important as any of the Muslim 
festivals, and celebrate also the Hindu festivals of Janamash^ami, 
Dasahrft and IMwftll. 

Besides keeping Hindu festivals, some of the low-caste Muham- 
madans have transferred Hindu religious usages into the festivals of 
Islam. The ihav(JSis of Northern India — a caste of masons and brick* 
layers — worship their tools at the Td al-fi^, making offerings of 
sweetmeats to them — herein imitating the observance of the Hindu 
craftsman who worships the implements of his toil at the Dasahrft 
festival. The characteristic feature of the ^rftddha, of offering to 
deceased ancestors cakes of flour, has been adopted by many of the 
Bengali Musalmans as an observance on the Shab-i-Barftt, the night 



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820 ir. Religions af the Semites 

on which God is believed to register the names of all those who are 
to be bom or die in the coming year. 

It need hardly be said that the Muhammadans who practise these 
rites are profoundly ignorant of the t^iets of their own religion. 
Sometimes the rite of circumcision is the only ceremony of Islam that 
they practise ; and there are even cases where their knowledge of 
religious doctrine does not even extend to the few words of the Muslim 
creed. Perhaps the lowest point of ignorance is reached by the 
Muhammadan peasantry of the Assam valley, some of whom have 
never heard of Muhammad ; others regard him as a perscmage corre- 
sponding in their system of religion to the Bftma or Lakshmana of 
the Hindus ; while some of the better educated among them ezplam 
that Muhammad is their chief pif , the minor saints being named 
Hoji (i.e. ^U), Ghoji (i.e. ^U), Auliyft, and Ambi]^. 

These instances of the survival of Hindu religious usages among 
the Indian Muslims are but a few of those that have been recorded by 
observers, and no attempt has been made in the present paper at 
a complete enumeratioB. I have also omitted all reference to local 
continuity of cult, where e.g. a mosque has replaced a Hindu tempfe 
or a Muslim saint has succeeded to a Hindu deity. 

The examples I have given are enough to show the remarkaUe 
persistence of Hindu tribal custom and religious beliefs and obser- 
vances in a religious S3rstem so entirely opposed to them as Islam. 
The existence of such practices is an abiding source of scandal to the 
orthodox, and protests are not infrequent ; missions are oftrai held 
by zealous mulbia who denounce such idolatrous practices. It should 
be noted that these practices are often confined to small groups of 
persons, and are mostly to be found in sections of the Muslim population 
that are little accessible to the influences of religious literature and 
the teachings ol the learned, in country districts rather than in towns, 
among depressed sections of the population, the followers of mean 
callings and occupations that are held to be degrading. The social 
inferiority to which Hindu feeling condemns such parsons tends to 
keep them untouched by many of the sentiments that animate the 
rest of the community. It is among corresponding sections of the 
Christian population of Euroi>e that one naturally looks for survivals 
of an earlier cult ; and it is owing to the study of Islam having been 
so long confined to written documents, that these divergences in 
Muslim practice have only come to be studied in recent years. 



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16 

BAHAISM : ITS ETHICAL AND SOCIAL 
TEACHINGS 

By Miss E. ROSENBERG. (Abstract) 

* The Divine Mamfestati<»is are sent and manifested to train the 
soak of men in suoh wise that the divine qualities may overcome 
the animal imperfections, and that the heavenly light may shine 
universally.' 

These are the words of Abdul Baha, the eldest son of the great 
founder of this faith, Baha u'Uah, to whom was entrusted the charge 
of establishing and carrying on his father's teaching. Baha u'Uah 
in his writings puts forward the great claim to be a Universal Mani- 
festation of Grod — a universal teacher — appealing not more especially 
to the East than to the West, but equally to the whole world of man- 
kind ; and Bahaism possesses tat us one unique point of interest 
in the fact that it is a great world-religion which has taken its rise 
in our own era. This great movement was started in 1844, when the 
young Ali Mohammad, known as the Bab, first declared his mission 
to his countrymen in Persia; and for a brief period of six years, 
which ended with his martyrdom, devoted his life to teaching the true 
meaning of religion. With him started that movement of living 
reform, elaborated and completed by the teachings of Baha u'Uah 
and his son Abdul Baha, of which we are now witnessing the effect 
in the wonderful awakening now taking place in that country. Had 
the inspiration of this religious movement been confined to the teaching 
of the Bab, it is quite possible that it would have effected merely a 
reformation within the religion of Islam. But the Bab's teachings 
and prophetic utterances were largely directed towards the preparation 
of the minds of his hearers for the advent of a far greater teacher than 
himself, who would shortly appear. These predictions were realized 
in the declaration of his mission by Baha u'Uah, nineteen years after 
the beginning of the movement inaugurated by the Bab. In his 
hands the teaching became world-wide in its appeal. At the present 
time nearly one-third of the people of Persia are f oUowers of Bahaism, 
and in the United States of America its adherents may be counted by 
thousands. At CSiicago the site has been purchased, and the pre- 
liminary steps taken, for the erection of the first house of worship for 
the Bahais of America. This is not intended to be a church, as we 
understand it, but a place of meeting whieh wiU be used as a spiritual 



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822 IF. Religions of the Semites 

and educational centre. Actually the first building of this kind to be 
erected, is now being completed at Ishkabad in Russian Turkestan. 
In Europe there are groups of Bahais at Stuttgart, Paris, London, 
Ac., Ac. Bahaism is also beginning to spread amongst the natives 
of India and Burmah, where its teachings are enthusiastically adopted 
by its adherents, as a means of establishing real unity and brotherhood 
amongst the numerous races and creeds of those countries. 

Most thinkers acknowledge this present time in which we are now 
living to be a period of great spiritual unrest, of deep searching after 
truth, and of intense desire for a restatement of the fundamental 
realities of religion, in terms harmonizing with the needs and aspira- 
tions of our particular age. Baha u'llah claims to have answered 
this need, and I wish to try to indicate as briefly as possible a few of the 
ways in which he has done this. 

Baha u'Uah's teaching is intensely practical. He says that no 
longer will mere words and talk about religion be accepted by the 
divine Assayer, but only true and righteous deeds. He has pointed 
out to his followers certain rules of conduct, certain acts that they must 
do, if they wish to learn from him. He says that work of any kind 
done in a faithful spirit of service is accepted before Grod as an act of 
worship, and that the first duty of a man is rightly to fulfil his part 
in the world and to the whole of society. Therefore it is enjoined upon 
all Bahais that they must have a definite employment, that is, an art, 
trade or profession of some kind, which they must practise for their 
own benefit and that of other men. Also, he teaches that one of the 
greatest works a man or woman can do, is to bring up a family of 
rightly trained and educated children, fitted to carry on the upward 
evolution of the race. To this end he makes it obligat<»y <ni all his 
followers to provide the best possible education that can be obtained 
for their children, both boys and girls equally. In this c<»mexion 
he uses these beautiful words : * He that educateth a child shall be to 
me as if he educated my own son,* and he enacts that special honour 
shall be rendered and a special provision shall be made for all teachers 
and educators. 

Baha u'llah strictly forbids mendicancy, but at the same tdme 
directs that the community of believers must provide work for all 
who need it. 

The care of the sick and disabled not otherwise provided for, and 
for children and widows who are left without means of support, also 
falls upon the general community. The funds for these purposes are 
to be supplied by proportionate contributions from all the Bahais 
and are to be administered by the elected councils called Houses of 
Justice. 

It is directed that each body or community of believers is to elect 



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16. Bahcdsm: Rosenberg 828 

a coandl called Beit-ul-Adl or House of Justice, from among those 
of its members who are most respected for their upright life, good 
oharaoter, and intelligence. There is also to be established a General 
House of Justice for each nation, and besides this a Universal House 
of Justice, consisting of members elected to represent every nation, 
which will form a kind of permanent board of arbitration and con- 
ciliation to which all international disagreements and difELculties are 
to be submitted, and whose decisions must be accepted by all Bahais 
as final and authoritative. Baha u'Uah enjoined that there should be 
no special class of priests, or clergy, set apart from the rest of the 
people for the purpose of teaching spiritual truths. This duty must 
be undertaken by those who are pre-eminently fitted for it, by their 
character and learning ; they are to receive no payment or salary, 
but must earn their own suppcnrt in the same way as the rest of the 
Bahais. Also the perfect civil and religious equi^ty of women with 
men is asserted in the clearest possible manner. 

He teaches his followers that the first necessity for them is to labour 
to establish Universal Peace, to abolish war and to associate with 
men of every race and religion in the spirit of true brotherhood, love 
and sympathy, and to acknowledge all men as seekers of the One 
Truth. 

The greatest stress is laid upon this, and it may be considered as 
one of the fundamental bases of his teaching. 

All prophets and religious teachers of the past are to be acknow" 
lodged as from Grod ; but, as the circumstances of every age are 
different, therefore it becomes necessary that from time to time a new 
teacher (nt prophet should appear, who can re-formulate the truth of 
the One Religion in a way which suits the needs of that age or period. 

There are many other aspects of Baha u'Uah's writings which it 
would be most interesting to analyse, but I must confine myself to 
saying that his Spiritual teachings are of the widest and most universal 
character and are not confined merely to directions concerning conduct 
and morals. 

Baha u'Uah's mission lasted forty years, and during his lifetime he 
wrote an immense number of short epistles, treatises, and books, 
some of them containing practical advice and directions, others of 
a purely mystical and spiritual nature ; several of these have already 
been translated into most European languages as well as English. 
From some of them I will quote a few passages, showing far better than 
any words of mine can do, the gist and scope of these writings. 

Religion is the greatest instrument for the order of the world and 
the tranquillity of all existing beings.' ^ 

' Religion is the necessary connexion which emanates from the 
' From The Words of Paradise, Baha a'llah. 
y2 



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824 IV. Religions of the Semites 

reality of things ; and as the Universal Manifestations of Qod are 
aware of the mysteries of bdngs, therefore they understand this 
essential connexion, and by their knowledge establish the Law of 
God.'i 

* In every country or government where any of this community 
reside, they must behave towards that government with faithfulness, 
trustfulness, and truthfulness.' ' 

* Members of the House of Justioe must promote '^ The Most Great 
Peace '' in order that the world may be freed from onerous expenditure. 
This matter is obligatory and indispensable, for warfare and conflict 
are the foundation of trouble and distress.' ^ 

* Blessed is the prince who succours a captdve, the rich one who 
favours the needy, the just man who assures the right of the wronged 
one from the oppressor, and the trustee who performs what he is 
commanded by the Pre-existent Commander.' ^ 

* The light of men is justice, quench it not with the contrary winds 
of oppression and tyranny.' * 

' Schools must first train the children in the principles of religion . . • 
but this in such a measure that it may not injure the children by 
leading to fanaticism and bigotry.' ^ 

* Knowledge is like unto wings for the being of man, and is as a ladder 
for ascending. To acquire knowledge is incumbent upon all, but of 
those sciences which may profit the people of the earth, and not such 
sciences as begin merely in words and end in mere words.' ^ 

* The kings — may Qod assist them—- or the counsellors of the world, 
must consult together, and appoint one of the existing languages, or 
a new language, and instruct the children therein in all the schools of 
the world, and the same must be done in respect to writing^ also. In 
such cases the earth will be as one (or united).' * 

' It is incumbent on every one of you to engage in some employment, 
such as arts, trades, and the like. We have made this, your occupati<m, 
identical with the worship of God, the True (3od.* ^ 

' Oh people of Baha ; ye are daysprings of love, and dawning places 
of the providence of God. Defile not the tongue with cursing or 
execrating any one, and guard your eyes against that which is not 
worthy. ... Be not the cause of sorrow, much less of sedition and 
strife. ... Ye are all leaves of one tree and drops of one sea.' ^ 

^ From Some Answered Questions, by Abdul Baha (pubL Kegan Paul). 

* From The Olad Tidings, B. uh. 

* From The Tablet of the World. 

* From The Words of Paradise, B. uh. • Ibid. 

* Ibid. *» From The TajaUiyat. 

* i.e. the characters employed must be similar for all languages. 

* From The Olad Tidings, B. uh. " Ibid. " Ibid. 



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16* Bahaism: Rosenberg 825 

' Oh friends, it is the wish of Abdul Baha that the Friends may 
establish general unity. . • . We are all servants of one threshold, 
waves of one sea, drops of one stream, and plants of one garden. • . . 
The beloved of Qod must be friendly even with strangers. Assemblies 
must be established for certain objects. For example, assemblies lor 
teaching the truth, gatherings for the spreading of the Fragrance of 
Otodii gatherings for the relief of orphans and for the protection of the 
poor, assemblies for the spread of learning, in a word there must be 
gatherings for matters which c<nicem the well-being of man, such 
as the organization of a society of commerce, of societies for the 
development of arts or industries, and societies for the expansion of 
agriculture. ... I hope all the Friends from the East and the West 
wiU rest in the same assemUy and adorn one gathering, and appear 
with all heavenly attributes and virtues in the world of humanity.' ^ 

It would be possible to compile many books of similar sayings 
from the writings both of Baha u'Uah and of his son Abdul Baha ; 
but I think I have quoted a sufficient number to show the very practical 
and helpful nature of these works, and also their universal application. 

I much wish that some one more competent had been able to describe 
this great movement, but I can only crave your indulgence for this 
short account of Bahaism as it now exists. 



17 

THE STARTING-POINT OF THE RELIGIOUS 
MESSAGE OF AMOS 

By H. W- HOGG, (Abstract) 

Thx suggestion offered in this paper has a bearing on the whole 
situation out of which the Dioy ^nm, or Xoyta of Amos, sprang. It 
concerns directly, however, quite a small point, viz. — ^What is the 
real meaning of the opening sentence of each of the series of <»racles 
constituting the first two chapters of the book in its present form 7 
The ambiguity lies in what follows the words ' For three transgressions 
and for four I will * (viz. i»JW j6). The first word (\6) has com- 
monly been taken negatively (* not '), but may plausibly be taken, 
as|by ProfesscNT Haupt, positively C assuredly *). The second word 
is still more ambiguous. Acc(Mxling as the first, the second, or the 
third radical is regarded as ' weak ^ it may be rendered ' leave in 
peace ', * allow to dwell ' (3nfi^«), * turn back ' (3^5^), or * make cap- 

* IVom an BpisUe of Ahdtd JBd^ addressed to Believers in Persia, Jvly 4, 1906. 



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826 IF. ReUgims of the Semites 

tive * (^¥^). The remaJning ambiguity lies in the third word, the 
pronoun. What is it that is, or is not, to be turned back ? Various 
answers have been given. The object of this paper is to suggest 
a new one. 

The suggestion arises naturally out of the general situation pre- 
supposed by the Xoyca of Amos. His message is one of threatening : 
the armies of Assyria will ere long oome and overwhelm the land. 
Whatever be the correct text of Amos iii. 9 (' Ashdod ' 0£ ' Asshur '), 
the book as a whole practically does not name the scourge that is 
to punish Israel. The most natural explanation is that one of the 
burning questions of the hour was : What is Assyria going to do ? 
Will it, or will it not, come on southwards ? (a) The indications in 
the book of a iK)pular optimism suggest that the people would refuse 
to believe that under such a king as Jeroboam, or such a god as 
Yahwd, they could come to grief. Amos knew better : Assyria had 
recovered from its illness and gone forth to conquer, and Israel's 
god would not intervene, lo£ in Israel there was no soundness. When, 
therefore, the people said : Can it be that the Assyrian will come 
on and overwhelm us ? Amos's answer is clear and decided : Yes, 
he will : ' For triple, nay, quadruple, iniquity* (conceived by Amos 
as practical revolt, nptrfi), says Yahwd, * I will not turn him back.^ 
(6) Any m<»re thoughtful persons who might not share the iK)pular 
optimism would be perplexed to understand how their god seemed 
to be going to let them go down bef<»re this awful world-conquering 
power. To such the answer of Amos was : Yes, our god is not turning 
the Assyrian back, because of our triple, nay, quadruple, rebellious 
iniquity. 

The naturalness of the translation suggested appears from the 
recurrence of the verb in this sense in the Sennacherib narratives : 
2 Kings xix. 7, ' Behold,' says Yahwd, [' I shall constrain him] and 
he will turn back to his own land ' ; and, in the Song of Derision 
in the other account, 2 Kings xix. 28, ^ I shall turn thee back by the 
way by which thou camest.' 

The following objections may be urged : (1) The suggestion implies 
a date later by several years than most scholars think probable. It 
has always seemed unnatural, however, to hold that Amos came 
forward with his message, in the f<Mrm in which he gave it, at the 
time when Assyria was at its very weakest. (2) The suggestion 
makes Amos attribute to Yahwd power over the Assyrian. What 
Amos says, however, is that Yahwd will not interfere ; and in any 
case, in Pognon's recently published Aramaic inscription from North 
Syria, Baal-shamain actually helped Zakir of ELamath and La'ash. 
(3) The suggestion seems to imply the {uresent order of parts in Amos. 
In fact, however, it does not. There was probably a real connexion 



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17. ReUgious Message of Amos : Hogg 827 

between Amos's peroeption of the Aasynaxi danger and his attack 
on the life of his time ; but the oracles introduced by the formula 
under consideration need not stand first. (4) It may be urged that, 
even if it be admitted that Ames's hearers were well aware of the 
Assyrian danger, it is awkward to suppose that Amos referred to 
the enemy simply as * him '. We do not know, however, what may 
have preceded the passage; and, in any case, is there any other 
rendering that is more satisfactory ? The most attractive of those 
put forward is : I will assuredly punish him — that is, Israel, or 
Damascus, or whatever the state named in the clause (so Haupt, 
Orient. LU.-ZeU., June, 1907, col. 906 f.; W. Staerk, AusgewdAUe 
Poetische TexU, Heft 2, 1908). That is the most obvious interpreta- 
tion of the pronoun, and the rendering * punish ' fcHr the verb seems, 
in the light of Haupt's remarks, possible; but Hum back' is cer- 
tainly more obvious. The suggestion offered in the paper, therefore, 
merits consideration. 



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OXFORD 

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 

BY HORACE HART, M.A. 

PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 



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4 

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