^ ?':V'>\S'i*5.^-rcl4i masfmamms: COMPILATION < NOTES AND MEMORANDA HKAUIXC UrOX THK VHK ()!•' HUMAN ORDURE AND HUMAN URINE RITES OF A RELIGIOUS OR SEMI-RELIGIOUS CHARACTER VARIOUS NATIONS JOHN G. BOURKE. Captain, Third Cavalry, United States Army. ^.H-.-iB 1JJ "^ PRINCETON, N. J. \^ Dmiuon "BL (o \ 9 Section . (y k: . COMPILATION ( NOV 141! NOTES AND MEMORANDA HKAlUN(i I I'ON TllK ISIC OK HUMAN ORDURE AND HUMAN URINE RITES OF A RELIGIOUS OR SEMI-RELIGIOUS CHARACTER VARIOUS N ATI ONS. / JOHN G. BOURKE. Captain, Third Cavalry, United States Army. FKI.I.DW .IF THK AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOK THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE; MEMBER OF THE ANTHROPO- LOOICAl SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, D. C. ; AUTHOR OF THE "SNAKE PANCE OF THE MOQUIS OF ARIZONA," "AN APACHE CAMPAIGN," ETC. WASHINGTON, D. C. : 1888. CONTENTS Page. Preliminary observations 7 The. urine dance of the Zunis of New Mexico 8-10 Human urine drunk by Zunis — Human ordure and excrement of dogs eaten by Zunis — Refer- ence to a urine dance among the Bedouins of Arabia — The use of urine of animals among the Parsis. The Feast of Fools in Europe 10-12 The commemorative character of religious festivals 12, 13 Godfrey Higgins' opinion — The first Crusaders drank their own urine in Bithynia — Dove's dung sold for a price during one of the sieges of Samaria. Fray Diego Duran's account of the Mexican festivals 13, 14 Father Geronimo Boscana's opinion of Indian dances — Commemorative dances in vogue among Apaches, Mojaves, Zunis, Moquis, and Sioux. The urine dance of the Zunis may conserve a tradition of the time when vile ali- ment was in use 14, 15 Excrement used in human food 15-19 By the Indians of Florida, Texas, California, British America, &c. The Mexican goddess Suchiquecal eats ordure 18, 19 The Bacchic orgies of the Greeks 19 Complicated with ophic rites. Bacchic orgies in North America 19, 20 Descriptions by Kane, Bancroft, and Dall — Dogs eaten alive; human beings bitten — Prince Wied's account of such orgies among the Mandans — Such orgies possibly commemorate a former condition of cannibalism. The sacrifice of the dog a substitute for human sacrifice 20,21 Urine in human food 21 " Chinook olives " described by Paul Kane and by Herbert Spencer. Urine used in bread-making __ 21 By the Moquis of Arizona, according to Beadle. Urine used in the manufacture of salt 21 By the Indians of Bogota, according to G6mara. Siberian hospitality 21, 22 Women offered to strangers, who must drink their urine — Dulaure's account of this strange custom — A novel wedding custom noticed in Africa by Mungo Park ; urine of brides sprinkled upon the wedding guests. Poisonous fungi used in ur-orgies 22 By the Indians of Cape Flattery and by tlie Shamans of Siberia — Accounts of Kennard, Dr. Kingsley, Schultze, and George Kennan. A similar use of fungi quite probably existed among the Mexicans 23-25 Mushrooms and toadstools said to have been worshiped by the North American Indians 25 A former use of fungus indicated in the myths of Ceylon and in the laws of the Brahmins 25, 26 An inquiry into the Druidical use of the mistletoe 26-29 Medicinal qualities attributed to the mistletoe, as ascertained from various authorities — Hindoo women seem to use it secretly — The phallic derivation of the custom of kissing under the mistletoe bough — Concluding remarks. The mistletoe festival of the Mexicans 29 As decribed by Diego Duran. 6 CONTENTS. Page. Cow cluug and cow urine in religion 30, 31 Sioux and Assinniboines swear upon pieces of dried buffalo dung. Cow dung in the religious ceremonies of the Israelites 31 Human ordure mingled in the food of the Israelites 31, 32 Cow dung afterward substituted. Offerings of dung placed upon the altars of the Assyrian Venus 32, 33 The sacred cow's excreta a substitute for human sacrifice 33, 35 Views of Inman and Dubois — Ttie Hebrew propliets bedaub themselves with ordure. Human ordure and urine still used in India 35 Excrement gods of Egy]itians and Romans 35, 36 The Eoman goddess Cloacina. Israelitish dung gods 36-38 The disgusting worship of Baal-Peor — Mexican gods of excrement. The use of the lingam in India 38, 39 Urine and ordure as signs of mourning 39 Urine and ordure in industries-- 39-42 The Mexican mode of eradicating dandruff — Urine in corporal ablutions, and in dentifrices. Urine in ceremonial lustrations 42-43 Ordure in smoking and divination 43 Ordure and urine employed as medicines 44, 45 Urine given to newly-born children in California and Peru — Excrement used as a cure for wounds from poisoned arrows, in Panama; as a cure for rattlesnake bite, in Lower Califor- nia; and as a poultice for abscesses, in Africa — Urine given in domestic medicine, in Europe; also, to reindeer, in Europe and Siberia. Occult influences ascribed to ordure and urine 46, 47 Mode of administering urine among the Hurons — Used by the French and Komansas a cure for fever — English women in labor drank their husbands' urine — Sprinkled upon sick children in Ireland — Hottentot priests sprinkle urine upon the newly-married, upon the dead, and upon young warriors. Fearful rites of the Hottentots 47 The Galli of Cybele resembled the semi-castrated Hottentots. Urine used to baffle witches 47, 49 B3' Komans, French, English, Scotch, Irish, &c. — Boman matrons sprinkled their urine upon the the statue of the goddess Berecinthia — The Hurons of Canada wallowed in ordure, according to Father Le Jeune ; so did the Abyssinians — The ceremony of urination through the wed- ding-ring. Ordure used in love-philters 49-51 In France, and by Apache and Nava.io witches — The Manichean mode of making the eucharislic bread — The Albigenses used the same method. ■ Burlesque survivals 51-53 The festival of Hull — Said to be the same as our April Fool's Day — "Yellow water" sprinkled upon people in streets — A custom much like this noted in Portugal — The Apache and Navajo feast of the Josh-kan — The Aztec festival of blind-man's-buff^The Pawnees made a Sioux calumet-bearer drink human urine as an insult — The term "excrement-eater " one of vile opprobrium among Mandans, according to Matthews — "Water of amber" and "water of dung." Phallic survivals in France 53, 54 The use of "priapic wine" "holy vinegar," &c., from the sacred phalli of Saint Foutin and Guerlichon. Medicinal effects of urine 54, 55 URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. The object of the present monograph is to arrange in a form for easy- reference such allusions as have come under the author's notice bearing upon the use of human ordure, or urine, or articles apparently intended as substitutes for them, whether in rites of a clearly religious or '' medi- cine" type or in those which, while not pronouncedly such, have about them suggestions that they may be survivals of a former existence of urine dances or ur-orgies among tribes and peoples from whose later mode of life and thought they have been eliminated. The difficulties surrounding the elucidation of this topic will, no doubt, occur at once to every student of anthropology or ethnology. The rites and practices herein spoken of are to be found only in communities iso- lated from the world, and are such as even savages would shrink from revealing unnecessarily to strangers; while, too frequently, observers of intelligence have failed to improve opportunities for noting the existence of rites of this nature, or else, restrained by a false modesty, have clothed their remarks in vague and indefinite phraseology, forgetting that as a physician, to be skillful, must study his patients both in sickness and in health, so the anthropologist must study man, not alone wherein he re- flects the grandeur of his Maker, but likewise in his grosser and more animal propensities. Repugnant, therefore, as the subject is under most points of view, the author has felt constrained to reproduce all that he has seen and read, hoping that in the fuller consideration which all forms of primitive re- ligion are now receiving this, the most brutal, possibly, of them all, may claim some share of examination and discussion. To serve as a nucleus for notes and memoranda since gleaned, the author has reproduced his original- monograph, first published in the Transactions of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence, 1885, and read by title at the Ann Arbor, Michigan, meeting, in the same year. 8 URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. The Urine Dance of the Zunis. On the evening of November 17, 1881, during my stay in the village of Zuni, New Mexico, the Nehue-Cue, one of the secret orders of the Zunis, sent word to Mr. Frank H. Gushing* (whose guest I was) that they would do us the unusual honor of coming to our house to give us one of their characteristic dances, which. Gushing said, was unpre- cedented. The squaws of the governor's family put the long "living room" to rights, sweeping the floor and sprinkling it with water to lay the dust. Soon afler dark the dancers entered ; they were twelve in number, two being boys. The center men were naked with the exception of black breech-clouts of archaic style. The hair was worn naturally, with a bunch of wild turkey feathers tied in front and one of corn-husks over each ear. White l^ands were painted across the face at eyes and mouth. Each wore a collar or neckcloth of black woolen stuff. Broad white bands, one inch wide, were painted around the body at the navel, around the arms, the legs at mid thighs and knees. Tortoise-shell rattles hung from the right knee. Blue woolen footless leggins were worn with low-cut mocca- sins, and in the right hand each waved a wand made of an ear of corn, trimmed with the plumage of the wild turkey and macaw. The others were arrayed in old cast-off Ameri- can Army clothing, and all wore white cotton night-caps, with corn-husks twisted into the hair at top of head and ears. Several wore, in addition to the tortoise-shell rattles, strings of brass sleigh-bells at knees. One was more grotesquely attired than the rest in a long India-rubber gossamer " overall " and a pair of goggles, painted white, over his eyes. His general "get-up" was a spirited take-off upon a Mexican priest. Another was a very good counterfeit of a young woman. To the accompaniment of an oblong drum and of the rattles and bells spoken of they shuffled into the long room, crammed with spectators of both sexes and of all sizes and ages. Their song was apparently a ludicrous reference to everything and everybody in sight. Gushing, Mindeleff", and myself receiving special attention, to the uncontrolled merriment of the red-skinned listeners. I had taken my station at one side of the room, seated upon the banquette, and having in front of me a rude bench or table, upon which was a small coal-oil lamp. I suppose that in the halo diffused by the feeble light and in my "stained-glass attitude" I must have borne some resemblance to the pictures of saints hanging upon the walls of old Mexican churches ; to such a flincied resemblance I at least attribute the performance which followed. The dancers suddenly wheeled into line, threw themselves on their knees before my table, and with extravagant beatings of breast began an outlandish but faithful mockery of a Mexican Catholic congregation at vespers. One bawled out a parody upon the Pater- noster, another mumbled along in the manner of an old man reciting the rosary, while the fellow with the India-rubber coat jumped up and began a passionate exhortation or sermon, which for mimetic fidelity was incomparable. This kept the audience laughing with sore sides for some moments, until at a signal from the leader the dancers suddenly countermarched out of the room, in single file, as they had entered. An interlude followed of ten minutes, during which the dusty floor was sprinkled by men who spat water forcibly from their mouths. The Nehue-Cue re-entered ; this time two of their number were stark naked. Their singing was very peculiar and sounded like a chorus of chimney-sweeps, and their dance became a stiff-legged jump, with heels kept twelve inches apart. After they had ambled around the room two or three times, Gushing announced in the Zuni language that a "feast" was ready for them, at which * Mr Cushing's reputation as an ethnologist is now so firmly established in two continents tUat no reference to his self-sacrificing and invaluable labors in the canse of science seems to be neces- sary. URIKE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. 9 they loudly roared their approbation and advanced to strike hands with the munificent "Americanos," addressing us in a funny gibberish of broken Spanish, English, and Zuni. They then squatted upon the ground and consumed with zest large "oUas" full of tea, and dishes of hard tack and sugar. As they were about finishing this a squaw entered, carrying an "olla" of urine, of which the filthy brutes drank heartily. I refused to believe the evidence of my senses, and asked Gushing if that were really human urine. "Why, certainly," replied he, "and here comes more of it." This time, it was a large tin pailful, not less than two gallons. I was standing by the squaw as she offered this strange and abominable refreshment. She made a motion with her hand to indicate to me that it was urine, and one of the old men repeated the Spanish word mear (to urinate), while ray sense of smell demonstrated the truth of their statements. The dancers swallowed great draughts, smacked their lips, and, amid the roaring mer- riment of the spectators, remai'ked that it was very, very good. The clowns were now upon their mettle, each trying to surpass his neighbors in feats of nastiness. One swal- lowed a fragment of corn-husk, saying he thought it very good and better than bread ; his vis-d-vis attempted to chew and gulp down a piece of filthy rag. Another expressed regret that the dance had not been held out of doors, in one of the plazas ; there they could show what they could do. There they always made it a point of honor to eat the excrement of men and dogs. For my own part I felt satisfied with the omission, particularly as the room, stuffed with one hundred Zunis, had become so foul and filthy as to be almost unbearable. The dance, as good luck would have it, did not last many minutes, and we soon had a chance to run into the refreshing night air. To this outline description of a disgusting rite I have little to add. The Zunis, in explanation, stated that the Nehue-Oue were a Medicine Order which held these dances from time to time to inure the stomachs of members to any kind of food, no matter how revolting. This statement may seem plausible enough when we understand that religion and medicine among primitive races are almost always one and the same thing, or, at least, so closely intertwined that it is a matter of difficulty to decide where one begins and the other ends. Religion in its dramatic ceremonial preserves, to some extent, the history of the par- ticular race in which it dwells. Among nations of high development, miracles, morali- ties, and passion plays have taught, down to our own day, in object lessons, the sacred history in which the spectators believed. Some analogous purjjose may have been held in \aew by the first organizers of the urine dance. In their early history, the Zunis and other Pueblos suffered from constant warfare with savage antagonists and with each other. From the position of their villages, long sieges must of necessity have been sustained, in which sieges famine and disease, no doubt, were the allies counted upon by the investing forces. We may have in this abominable dance a tradition of the extremity to which the Zunis of the long ago were reduced at some unknown period. A similar catastrophe in the history of the Jews is intimated in II Kings, xviii, 27 ; and again in Isaiah, xxxvi, 12 : "But Eab-shakeh said unto them : hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee to speak these words ? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their oivn dung and drink their oivnpiss with you?" In the course of my studies I came across a reference to a very similar dance, occurring among one of the fimatical sects of the Arabian Bedouins, but the journal in which it was recorded, the London Lancet, I think, was unfortunately mislaid. As illustrative of the tenacity with which such vile ceremonial, once adopted by a sect, will adhere to it and become ingrafted upon its life, long after the motives which have suggested or commended it have vanished in oblivion, let me quote a few lines from Max Miiller's "Chips from a German Workshop," "Essay upon the Parsees," pp. 163, 164, 10 URINE DANCES AND UE-ORGIES. Scri)_)ner's editiou, 1869: "The riirang is the urine of a cow, ox, or she-goat, and the rubbing of it over the face and hands is the second thing a Parsee does after getting out of bed. Either before applying the nirang to the face and hands, or while it remanis on the hands after being applied, he sliould not touch anything directly with his hands ; but, in order to wash out the Nirang, he either asks somebody else to pour water on his hands, or resorts to the device of taking hold of the pot through the intervention of a piece of cloth, such as a handkerchief, or his sudra, i. e., his blouse. He first pours water on his hand, then takes the pot in that hand and washes his other hand, face, and feet." (Quoting from Dadabhai-Nadrosi' s Description of the Parsees.) Continuing, Max Muller says : "Strange as this process of purification may appear, it becomes perfectly disgusting when we are told that women, after childbirth, have not only to undergo this sacred ablution, but actually to drink a little of the nirang, and that the same rite is imposed on children at the time of their investiture with the Sudra and Koshti, the badges of the Zoroastrian faith." THE FEAST OF FOOLS IN EUROPE. Closely corresponding to this urine dance of the Zunis was the Feast of Fools, in Continental Europe, the description of which, here given, is quoted from Dulaure : La grand'messe commen(,'ait alors ; tons les ecclesiastiques y assistaient, le visage bar- bouille de noir, ou convert d'un masque hideux ou ridicule. Pendant la celebration, les uns,vttus en baladins ou en femmes, dansaient au milieu du chojur et y chantaient des chansons bouflfbnes ou obscenes. Les autres venaient manger sur I'autel des saucisses et des boudins, jouer aux cartes ou aux dez, devant le pretre celebrant, I'encensaient avec un encensoir, ou brulaient de vieilles savates, et lui en faisaient respirer la fumee. Apres la messe, nouveaux actes d' extravagance et d' impiety. Les pretres, confondus avec les habitans des deux sexes, couraient, dansaient dans I'eglise, s'excitaient a toutes les folies, a toutes les actions licencieuses que leur inspirait une imagination effren6e. Plus de honte, plus de pudeur : aucune digue n'arretait le debordement de la folie" et des * * * * * passions. Au milieu du tumulte, des blasphemes et des chants dissolus, on voyait les uns se depouiller entierement de leurs habits, d'autres se livrer aux actes du plus honteux libertinage. , * * * Les acteurs, months sur des tombereaux pleins d' ordures, s amusaient a en Jeter a la populace qui les entouraieut. * * * Ces scenes etaient toujours accom- pagn6es de chansons ordurieres et irapies.— (Dulaure, "Des Divinites Generatrices,' chap. XV, p. 315, et seq., Paris, 1825.) COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FEAST OF FOOLS AND THE URINE DANCE. In the al)Ove description may be seen that the principal actors (taking possession of the church during high mass) had their faces daubed and painted, or masked in a harlequin manner ; that they were dressed as clowns or as women ; that they ate upon the altar itself sausages and blood-puddings. Now the word blood-pudding, in French, is houdin— but houdin also meant excrement^ Add to this the feature that these *See in Dictionary of French and EngUsh Language, by Ferdinand E. A.Gasc. London. Bell and Daldv. York street, Covent Garden. 1873. ^v i. • i , Littro, whose work appeared in 1863, gives as one of his definitions, "anything that is shaped like a sausage." . > i c •»• Bescherelle, Spiers and Surenne and Beyer, do not give Gasc s dehnition. URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. H clowns, after leaving the church, took their stand in dung-carts {tomber- eaux), and threw ordure upon the bystanders ; and finally that some of these actors appeared perfectly naked {" on yoyait les lins se depouiller entierement de leurs habits "), and it must be admitted that there is certainly a wonderful concatenation of resemblances between these filthy and inexplicable rites on different sides of a great ocean. THE FEAST OF FOOLS TRACED BACK TO MOST ANCIENT TIMES. Dulaure makes no attempt to trace the origin of these ceremonies in France; he contents himself with saying, ''ces ceremonies * * * ont subsiste pendant douze ou quinze si^cles," or, in other words, that they were of Pagan origin. In twelve or fifteen hundred years the rite might well have been sublimed from the eating of pure excre- ment, as among the Zunis, to the consumption of the " boudin," the excrement symbol.* Conceding for the moment that this suspicion is correct, we have a proof of the antiquity of the urine dance among the Zunis. So great is the resemblance between the Zuni rite and that just described by Dulaure, that we should have reason for believing that the new country borrowed from the old some of the features transmitted to the present day, and were there not evidence of a wider distribution of this observance, it might be assumed that the Catholic missionaries (who worked among the Zunis from 1580, or thereabout, and excepting during intervals of revolt remained on duty in Zuni down to the period of American occupation) found the obscene and disgusting orgie in full vigor, and realizing the danger, by unwise precipitancy, of destroying all hopes of winning over this people, shrewdly concluded to tacitly accept the religious abnormality and to engraft upon it the plant flourishing so bravely in the vicinity of their European homes. DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FEAST OF FOOLS. In France, the Feast of Fools disappeared only with the French Revo- lution; in other parts of Continental Europe it began to wane about the time of the Reformation. In England, " the abbot of unreason," whose pranks are outlined by Sir Walter Scott, in his novel, " The Abbot," the miracle plays which had once served a good purpose in teaching script- tural lessons to an illiterate peasantry, and the " moralities " of same general purport, faded away under the stern antagonism of the Puritan * And very probably a phallic symbol also. 12 URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. iconoclast. The Feast of Fools, as such, was abohshed by Henry VIII A. D. 1541. (See " The English Keformation," Francis Charles Mas- singberd, London, 1857, p. 125.*) Picart's account of the Feast of Fools is similar to that given by Dulaure. He says that it took place in the church, at Christmas tide, and was borrowed from the Koman Saturnalia; was never approved of by the Christian church, as a body, Ijut fought against from the earliest times : Les uns etoient masques ou avec des visages barbouilles qui faisoient peur ou qui faisoient rire ; les autres en habits de femmes ou de pantomimes, tels que sont les ministres du theatre. lis dansoient dans le choeur, en entrant, et chantoient, des chansons obscenes. Les Diacres et les sou-diacres prenoient plaisir a mager des boudins et des saucisses sur I'autel, au nez du pretre celebrant ; ils jouoient a des seux aux cartes et aux des ; ils mettoient dans I'encensoir quelques morceaux de vieilles savates pour lui faire respirer une mauvaise odeur. Apres la messe, chacun couroit, sautoit et dansoit par Teglise avec tant d'impudence, que quelques uns n'avoient pas honte de se porter a toutes sortes d'indecences et de se depouiller entierement ; ensuite, ils se faisoient trainer par les rues dans des tombereaux pleins d' ordures, d'ou ils prenoient plaisir d'en jeter a la populace qui s'assembloit autour d'eux. lis s'arretoient et faisoient de leurs corps des mouvements et des postures lascives qu'ils accompagnoient de paroles impudiques. Les plus impudiques d'entre les seculiers se meloient parmi le clerge, pour faire aussi quelques personnages de Foux en habits ecclesiastiques de Moines et de Religieuses. — (Picart, "Coutumes et Ceremonies religieuses de toutes les Nations du Monde,'' Am- sterdam, Holland, 1729, vol. ix, pp. 5, 6.) Diderot and d'Alembert use almost the same terms ; the officiating clergy were clad "les uns comme des bouflFons, les autres en habits de femmes ou masques d'une fagon monstrueuse * * * ils mangeaient et jonaient aux d6s sur I'autel ^ c6te du pretre qui celebroit la messe. lis mettoient des ordures dans les encensoirs." They say that the details would not bear repetition. This feast prevailed generally in Continental Europe from Christmas to Epiphany, and in England, especially in York. (Diderot and d'Alembert, Encyclopsedia, " Fete des Fous," Ge- neva, Switzerland, 1779.) THE COMMEMORATIVE CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS. The opinion expressed above concerning the commemorative character of religious festivals echoes that which Godfrey Higgins enunciated sev- *Faber advances the opinion that the " mummers " or clowns who figured in the pastimes of the abbot of unreason, &c., bear a strong resemblance to the animal-headed Egyptian priests in the sacred dances represented on the Bembine or Isiac table. (See Faber's "Pagan Idolatry," Lon- don, 181C, vol. 2, p. 479.) URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. 13 ral generations ago. The learned author of Anacalypsis says that fes- ivals, " accompanied with dancing and music, * * were establislied to :eep in recollection victories or other important events." (Higgins' Vnacalypsis, London, 1810, vol. 2, p. 424.) He argues the subject at ome length on pages 424-426, but the above is sufficient for the present )urpose. In the religious rites of a people I should expect to find the earliest of their habits and ustoms. — (Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. 1, p. 15.) Applying the above remark to the Zuni dance, it may be interpreted IS a dramatic pictograph of some half-forgotten episode in tribal history, Co strengthen this view by example, let us recall the fact that the Army )f Crusaders under Peter the Hermit* was so closely beleagured by the VIoslems in Nicomedia in Bithynia that they were compelled' to drink iheir own urine.f We read the narrati^ie set out in cold type. The Ziunis would have transmitted a record of the event by a dramatic rep- :^esentation which time would incrust with all the veneration that religion 30uld impart. Dancing was originally merely religious, intended to assist the memory in retaining the sacred learning which originated previous to the invention of letters. Indeed, I believe that there were no part of the rites and ceremonies of antiquity which ivere not adopted with a view to keep in recollection the ancient learning before letters ivere known. — (Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. 2. p. 179.) FEAY DIEGO DURAN's ACCOUNT OF THE MEXICAN FESTIVALS. All that Higgins believed was believed and asserted by the Dominican missionary Diego Duran. Duran complains bitterly that the unwise de- struction of the ancient Mexican pictographs and all that explained the religion of the natives left the missionaries in ignorance as to what was religion and what was not. The Indians, taking advantage of this, mocked and ridiculed the dogmas and ceremonies of the new creed in the very face of its expounders, who still lacked a complete mastery of the language of the conquered. The Indians never could be induced to admit that they still adhered to their old superstitions, or that they were boldly indulging in their religious observances ; many times, says the shrewd old chronicler, it would appear that they were merely indulging in some pleasant pastime, while they were really engaged in idolatry ; or that * Purchas, Pilgrims, lib. 8, chap. 1, p. 1191. London, 1622. Neither Gibbon norMichaud expresses this fact so clearly, but each speaks of the terrible sufferings which decimated the undisciplined hordes of Peter and Walter the Penniless, and reduced the surv.'vors to cannibalism. t In one of the sieges of Samaria it is recorded that " the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung sold for five pieces of silver." (2 Kings, vi : 25.) l^ URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. they were playing games, when truly they were casting lots for future events before the priest's eyes ; or that they were subjecting themselves to penitential discipline, when they were sacrificing to their gods. This remark applied to all that they did. In dances, in baths, in markets, in singing their songs, in their dramas (the word is " comedia," a comedy, but a note in the margin of the manuscript says that probably this ought to be " comida," food, or dinner, or feast), in sowing, in reaping, in putting away the harvest in their granaries, even in tilhng the ground, in build- ing their houses, in their funerals, in their burials, in marriages, in the birth of children, into everything they did entered idolatry and super- stition. Parece muchas veces pensar que estan liaciendo placer y estan idolatrando ; y pensar que estan jugando y estan echando suertes de los sucesos delante de nuestros ojos y no los entendemos y pensamos que se disciplinan y estanse sacrificando. Y asi erraron mucho los que con bueno celo (pero no con mucha prudencia), quema- ron y destruyeron al principio todas las pinturas de antiguallas que tenian ; pues, nos dejaron tan sin luz que delante de nuestros ojos idolatran y no los entendemos. En los mitotes, en los banos, en los mercados, y en los cantares que cantan lamen- tando sus Dioses y sus Senores Antiguos, en las comedias, en los banquetes, y en el diferen- ciar en el de ellas, en todo se halla supersticion e idolatria ; en el senibrar, en el coger, en el encerrar en los troges, hasta en el labrar la tierra y edificar las casas ; pues en los mort- uorios y entierros, y en los casamientos y en los nacimientos de los nifios, especial mente si era hijo de algun Senor, eran estranas las ceremonias que se le hacian ; y donde todo se perfeccionaba era en la celebracion de las fiestas ; finalmente, en todo mezclaban super- sticion 6 idolatria ; hasta en irse a banarse al rio los viejos, puesto escn'ipulo a la repub- lica sino fuese hablendo precedido tales y tales ceremonias ; todo lo cual nos es encubierto por el gran secreto que tienen.— (Diego Duran, lib. 2, concluding remarks.) Fray Diego Duran, a Fray Predicador of the Dominican Order, says, at the end of his second volume, that it was finished in 1581. • The very same views were held by Father Geronimo Boscana, a Fran- ciscan, who ministered for seventeen years to the Indians of CaUfornia. Every act of an Indian's life was guided by religion. (See "Chinigchinich," included in A. A. Robinson's "California," New York, 1850.) The Apaches have dances in which the prehistoric condition of the tribe is thus represented; so have the Mojaves and the Zunis; while in the snake dance of the Moc^uis and the sun dance of the Sioux the same faithful adherence to traditional costume and manners is apparent. THE UEINE DANCE OF THE ZUNIS MAY CONSERVE A TRADITION OF THE TIME WHEN VILE ALIMENT WAS IN USE. The Zuni urine dance may therefore not improperly be considered, among other points of view, under that which suggests a commemora- URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. 15 tion of the earliest life of this people, when vile aliment of every kind may have been in use through necessity. An examination of evidence will show that foods now justly regarded as noxious weee once not unknown to nations of even greater develop- ment than any as yet attained by the Rio Grande Pueblos. Necessity was not always the inciting motive ; frequently religious frenzy was responsible for orgies of which only vague accounts and still vaguer ex- planations have come down to us. EXCREMENT USED IN HUMAN FOOD. The very earliest accounts of the Indians of Florida and Texas refer to the use of such aliment. Cabega de Vaca, one of the survivors of the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, was a prisoner among various tribes for many years, and finally, accompanied by three comrades as wretched as himself, succeeded in traversing the continent, coming out at Ouliacan, on the Pacific coast, in 1536. His narrative says that the "Floridians " for food dug roots, and that they ate spiders, ant's eggs, worms, lizards, salamanders, snakes, earth, wood, ^he dung of deer, and many other things."* The same account, given in Purchas' Pilgrims (vol. 4, lib. 8, cap. 1, sec. 2, p. 1512), ex- presses it that "they also eat earth, wood, and whatever they can get; the dung of wild beasts." These remarks may be understood as apply- ing to all tribes seen by this early explorer east of the Rocky Moun- tains. Gomara identifies this loathsome diet with a particular tribe, the " Yaguaces " of Florida. " They eat spiders, ants, worms, lizards of two kinds, snakes, wood, earth, and ordure of all kinds of wild animals."t The California Indians were still viler. The German Jesuit, Father Jacob Baegert, speaking of the Lower Californians (among whom he resided continuously from 1748 to 1765), says : They eat the seeds of the pitahaya [giant cactus] which have passed off undigested from their own stomachs ; they gather their own excrement, separate the seeds from it, roast, grind, and eat them, making merry over the loathsome meal. *Ils mangent des araignees, des oeufs de fourniis, des vers, deslfizards, des salamandres, des cou- leuvres, de la terre, du bois, de la fiente de cerfs et bien d'autres ehoses. — (Alvar Nunez Cabe^a de Vaca, in Ternaux, vol 7, p. 144.) tComen aranas, hormigas, gusanos, salamanquesas, lagartijas, culebras, palos, tierra y eaga- jones y cagurratas. (G6mara "Historia de las Indias," p. 182.) He derives his information from the narrative of Vaca. The word "cagajon" means horse dung, the dung of mules and asses; "cagarruta" the dung of sheep, goats, and mice. IQ URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. And again : In the mission of St. Ignatius * *• * there are persons who will attach a \)iecQ of meat to a string and swallow it and pull it out again a dozein times iu succession for the sake of protracting the enjoyment of its taste. — (Translation of Dr. Charles F. Rau, iu Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1866, p. 363.) A similar use of meat tied to a string is understood to have once been practiced by European sailors for the purpose of teasing green com- rades suffering from the agonies of sea-sickness. Castafieda alludes to the Californians as a race of naked savages who ate their own excrement.* The same information is to found in Clavigero ("Historia de la Baja California," Mexico, 1852, p. 24), and in H. H. Bancroft's " Native Races of the Pacific Slope," vol. 1, p. 561, both of whom derive from Father Baegert. Orozco y Berra also has the story, but he adds that oftentimes numbers of the Californians would meet and pass the delicious titljit from mouth to mouth.f The Indians of British North America, according to Harmon, " boil the buffalo paunch, with much of its dung adhering to it " — a filthy mode of cooking, which in itself would mean little since it can be paralleled in almost all tribes; but, in another paragraph, the same author says, " many consider a broth made by means of the dung of the cariboo and the hare to be a dainty dish." (Harmon's Journal, &c., Andover, 1820, p. 324.t) The x\bbe Domenech asserts the same of the bands near Lake Superior : In boiling their wild rice to eat they mix it with the excrement of rabbit — a delicacy appreciated by the epicures among them. — (Domenech, "Deserts," vol. 2, p. 311.) Of the negroes of Guinea, an old authority relates that they '' ate filthy, stinking elephant's and buffalo's flesh, wherein there is a thousand inaggots, and many times stinks like carrion. * * * They eat *Peuple de sauvages qui vont tous nus et qui uiangcnt leurs propres ordures.— (Castafieda, Ternaux, vol. 9, p. 156.) Castaneda de Nagera accompanied the expedition of Francisco Vasquez tie Coronado which entered Arizona, New Mexico, and the bufifalo country in 1540-'4:2. Part of this expedition, under Don Garcia Lope de Cardena, went down the Colorado River, which separates California from Arizona, while another detachment, under Melchior Diaz, struck the river closer to its mouth and crossed into California. t Algumas veces se juntan varios Indios y d la redonda va corriendo el bocado de uno en otro.— (Orozco y Berra, " Geografia delas lenguas de Mejico," Mexico, 1854, p. 350.) J Harmon's notes are of special interest at this point, because he is speaking of the Ta-cully or Carriers, who belong to the same Tinneh stock as the Apaches and Navajoes of Arizona and New Mexico, Lipans of Texas, Umpquas of Washington Territory, Hoopahs of California, and Slow- cuss of the head-waters of the Columbia River. URINE DANCES AND UE- ORGIES. l^ raw dogge guts, and never seethe nor roast them."* And another says that the Mossagueyes make themselves "a pottage with milk and fresh dung of kine, which, mixed together and heat at the fire, they drinke saying it makes them strong." (Purchas, hb. 9, cap. 12, sec. 4, p. 1555.) The Peruvians ate their meat and fish raw, but nothing further is said by Gomara.f HUMAN ORDURE EATEN BY EAST INDIAN FANATICS. Speaking of the remnants of the Hindu sect of the Aghozis, an Eng- lish writer observes : In proof of their indifFereuce to worldly objects, they eat and drink whatever is given them, even ordwe and carrion. They smear their bodies also with excrement, and carry it about with them in a wooden cup, or skull, either to swallow it, if by so doing they can get a few pice, or to throw it upon the persons or into the houses of those who refuse to com^ ply with their demands. — (" Religious Sects of the Hindus," in Asiatic Researches, vol. 17, p. 205, Calcutta, India, 1832.) Another writer confirms the above. The Abb6 Dubois says that the Gurus or Indian priests sometimes, as a mark of favor, present to their disciples " the water in which they had washed their feet, which is pre- served and sometimes drunk by those who receive it." (Dubois, "People of India," London, 1817, p. 64.) This practice, he tells us, is general among the sectaries of Siva, and is not uncommon with many of the Vish- nuites in regard to their vashtuma. " Neither is it the most disgusting of the practices that prevail in that sect of fanatics, as they are under the reproach of eating, as a hallowed morsel, the very ordure that proceeds from their Gurus, and swallowing the water with which they have rinsed their mouths or washed their faces, with many other practices equally revolting to nature." {Idem, p. 71. |) That the same disgusting veneration was accorded the person of the Grand Lama, of Thibet, was once generally believed. Maltebrun asserts it in positive terms : It is a certain fact that the refuse excreted from his body is collected with sacred solici- tude, to be employed as amulets and infallible antidotes to disease. *De Bry, Ind. Orient, in Purchas' Pilgrims, vol. 2, p. 935. tComen cruclo la came, y el pescado.— (Grdmara, Hist, de las Indias, p. 234.^ t Again, on p. .'«1, Dubois alludes to the " Gynmosophists, or naked Samyasis of India, * * * eating human excrement, without showing the slightest symptom of disgust." As bearing not unremotely upon this point, the author wishes to say, that in his personal notes and memoranda can be found references to one of the medicine-men of the Sioux, who assured his admirers that everything about him was "medicine," even his excrement, which could be trans- muted into copper cartridges. 18 URINE DANCES AND UR ORGIES. And, quoting from Pallas, book 1, p. 212, he adds: H est hors de doute que le contenu de sa chaise perc6e est d6voteraent recueilli ; les parties solides sont distribuees comme des amulettes qu'on porte au cou ; le liquide est pris int^rieuremeut comme ime med6cine infallible. — (Maltebrun, Universal Geography, article "Thibet," vol. 2, lib. 45, American edition, Philadelphia, 1832.) The Abbe Hue denies this assertion : The Tale Lama is venerated by the Thibetans and the Mongols like a divinity. The influence he exercises over the Buddhist population is truly astonishing ; but still it is going too far to say that his excrements are carefully collected and made into amulets, which devotees inclose in pouches and carry around their necks. — (Hue, Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China, London, 1849, vol. 2, p. 198.) HUC AND DUBOIS COMPARED. Hue was a keen and observing traveler ; he was well acquainted with the languages and eustoms of the Mongolians ; his tour into Thibet was replete with incident, and his narrative never flags in interest. Still, in Thibet, he was only a traveler ; the upper classes of the Buddhist priest- hood looked upon him with suspicion. The lower orders of priesthood and people did seem to consider him as a Lama from the far East, but he did not succeed in gaining the confidence of the Thibetans to the extent possessed by Dubois among the Brahminical sects. The history of the latter author is a peculiar one : A French priest, driven from his native land by the excesses of the revolution, he took refuge in India, devoting himself for nearly twenty years to missionary labor among the people, with whom he became so thoroughly identified that when his notes appeared they were published at the expense of the British East India Company, and distributed among its officials as a text-book. THE MEXICAN GODDESS SUCHIQUECAL EATS ORDURE. The Mexicans had a goddess, of whom we read the following : Father Fabreya says, in his commentary on the Codex Borgianus, that the mother of the human race is there represented in a state of humiliation, eating cuitlatl {kopros, Greek). The vessel in the left hand of Suchiquecal contains ^'mierda,^^ according to the intei-preter of these paintings. — (See note top. 120, Kingsborough's " Mexican Antiquities," vol. 6.) The Spanish mierda, like the Greek kopros, means ordure. Deities, created in the ignorance or superstitious fears of devotees, are essentially man-like in their attributes ; where they are depicted as cruel and sanguinary toward their enemies, the nation adoring them, no mat- ter how pacific to-day, was once cruel and sanguinary likewise. Anthro- pophagous gods are worshiped only by the descendants of cannibals, URINE DANCES AND UE- ORGIES. 19 and excrement-eaters only by the progeny of those who were not un- acquainted with human ordure as an article of food. THE BACCHIC ORGIES OF THE GREEKS. The Bacchic orgies of the Greeks, while not strictly assimilated to the ur-orgies, can scarcely be overlooked in this connection. Montfaucon describes the Omophagi of the Greeks : Les Omophagies 6toient une fete des Grecs qui passoient la fureur Bacchique ; ils s'entortilloient, dit Arnobe, de serpens et mangeoient des entrailles de Cabri crues, dont ils avaient la bouche toute ensanglantee ; cela est exprimee par le nom Omopliage. Nous avons vu quelquefois des hommes tous entortillez de serpens et particulierement dans Mithras. — (Montfaucon, "L'Antiquite expliqu6e," tome 2, book 4, p. 22.) The references to serpent- worship are curious, in view of the fact that such ophic rites still are celebrated among the Mokis, the next-door neighbors of the Zunis, and once existed among the Zunis themselves. The allusion to Mithras would seem to imply that these orgies must have been known to the Persians as well as the Greeks. Bryant, speaking of the Greek orgies, uses this language : Both in the orgies of Bacchus and in the rites of Ceres, as well as of other deities, one part of the mysteries consisted in a ceremony (omophagia), at which time they ate the flesh quite crude with the blood. In Crete, at the Dionisiaca, they used to tear the flesh with their teeth from the animal when alive. — (Bryant, "Mythology," London, 1775, vol. 2, p. 12.) And again, on p. 13 : The Maenules and Bacchae used to devour the raw limljs of animals which they had cut or torn asunder. * * In the island of Chios it was a religious custom to tear a man limb from limb, by way of sacrifice to Dionysius. From all which we may learn one sad truth, that there is scarce anything so impious and unnatural as not, at times, to have prevailed. — [Idem. ) Faber tells us that — The Cretans had an annual festival * * * in their frenzy they tore a living bull with their teeth, and brandished serpents in their hands. — (Faber, "Pagan Idolatry,*' London. 1816, vol. 2, p. 265.) BACCHIC ORGIES IN NORTH AMERICA. These orgies were duplicated among many of the tribes of North America. Paul Kane describes the inauguration of Clea-clach, a Clallum chief (Northwest coast of British America) ; " he seized a small dog and began devouring it alive." He also bit pieces from the shoulders of the male by-standers. (See " Artist's Wanderings in North America," Lon- don, 1859, p. 212 ; also, the same thing quoted by Herbert Spencer, in " Descriptive Sociology.") 20 URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. Bancroft describes like orgies among the Cliimsyans, of British North America. (See in ''Native Eaces of the Pacific Slope," vol. 1, p. 171.) While the Nootkas medicine-men are said to have an orgie in which " live dogs and dead human bodies are seized and torn by their teeth ; but, at least in later times, they seem not to attack the living, and their performances are somewhat less horrible and bloody than the wild orgies of the northern tribes." {Idem, vol. 1, p. 202.) The Haidahs, of the same coast, indulge in an orgie in which the per- former " snatches up the first dog he can find, kills him, and tearing pieces of his flesh, eats them." (Dall, quoting Dawson, in " Masks and Labrets," Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C, 1886.) In describing the six secret soldier societies or bands of the Mandans, Maximilian, of Wied, calls attention to the three leaders of one band, who were called dogs, who are " obliged, if any one throws a piece of meat into the ashes or on the ground, saying, ' There, dog, eat,' to fall upon it and devour it raw, like dogs or beasts of prey." (Maximilian, Prince of Wied, "Travels," &c., London, 1843, pp. 356, 446.) A further multiplication of references is unnecessary. The above would appear to be enough to establish the existence of almost identical orgies in Europe, America, and Asia — orgies in which were perpetuated the ritualistic use of foods no longer employed by the populace, and pos- sibly commemorating a former condition of cannibalism. THE SACRIFICE OF THE DOG A SUBSTITUTION FOE HUMAN SACRIFICE. It would add much to the bulk of this chapter to show that the dog has almost invariably been employed as a substitute for man in sacrifice. Other animals have performed the same vicarious office, but none to the same extent, especially among the more savage races. To the American Indians and other peoples of a corresponding stage of development the substitution presents no logical incongruity. Their religious conceptions are so strongly tinged with zoolatry that the assignment of animals to the role of deities or of victims is the most natural thing in the world ; but their belief is not limited to the idea that the animal is sacred — it comprehends, additionally, a settled appreciation of the fact that lycan- thropy is possible, and that the medicine-men possess the power of trans- forming men into animals or animals into men. Such a belief was expressed to the writer in the most forcible way, in the village of Zuui, URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. 21 in 1881. The Indians were engaged in some one of their countless dances and ceremonies (and possibly not very far from the time of the urine dance), when the dancers seized a small dog and tore it limb from limb, venting upon it every torture that savage spite and malignity could devise. The explanation given was, that the hapless cur was a " Navajo," a tribe with which the Zunis have been spasmodically hostile for genera- tions, and from whose ranks the fortunes of war must have enabled them to drag an occasional captive to be put to the torture and sacrificed. URINE IN HUMAN FOOD CHINOOK OLIVES. The addition of urine to human food is mentioned by various writers. Speaking of the Chinooks, Paul Kane describes a delicacy manufactured by some of the Indians among whom he traveled, and called by him ''Chinook olives." They were nothing more or less than acorns soaked for five months in human urine. (Kane, " Artist's Wanderings in North America," London, 1859, p. 187.) Spencer copies Kane's story in his Descriptive Sociology, article "Chinooks.". UEINE USED IN BREAD-MAKING. A comparatively late writer says of the Mokis of Arizona : They are not as clean in their housekeeping as the Navajoes, and it is hinted that they sometimes mix their meal with chamber-lye for these festive occasions, but I did not know that until I talked with Mormons who had visited them. — (J. H. Beadle, "Western Wilds," Cincinnati, Ohio, 1878, p. 279.) Beadle lived and ate with the Mokis for a number of days. This story, coming from the Mormons, may refer to some imperfectly under- stood ceremonial. URINE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT. Gomara explains that, mixed with palm-scrapings, human urine served as salt to the Indians of Bogota.* SIBERIAN HOSPITALITY. A curious manifestation of hospitality has been noticed among the Tchuktchi of Siberia : Las Tschuktschi offrent leurs femmes aux voyageurs ; mais ceux-ei, pour s'en rendre dignes, doivent se soumettre a une epreuve d§goutante. La fille ou la femme qui doit passer la nuit avec son nouvel hote lui pr^sente une tasse pleine de son urine ; il faut qu'il s'en rince la bouche. S'il a ce courage, il est regard^ comme un ami sincere ; sinon, il est traite comme un ennemi de la famille. — (Dulaure, " Des Di^-init^s Generatrices," Paris, 1825, p. 400.) *Hacen sal de raspaduras de palma y orinas de hombre.— (Grdmara, Historia de las Indias, p. 202.) 22 URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. The presentatign of women to distinguislied strangers is a mark of savage hospitality noted all over the world, but never in any other place with the above peculiar accompaniment ; yet, Mungo Park assures his readers that, during his travels in the interior of Africa, a wedding occurred among the Moors while he was asleep. He was awakened from his doze by an old woman bearing a wooden bowl, whose contents she discharged full in his face, saying it was a present from the bride. Finding this to be the same sort of holy water with which a Hottentot priest is said to sprinkle a newly-married couple, he supposed it to be a mischievous frolic, but was in- formed that it was a nuptial benediction from the bride's own jjerson, and which, on such occasions, is always received by the young unmarried Moors as a mark of distinguished favor. — (Quoted in Brand, Popular Antiquities, London, 1849, vol. 2, p. 152, article "Bride- Ales." See, also, Mungo Park's "Travels in Africa," New York, 1813, p. 109.) In the last two citations religious or at least superstitious motives obtrude themselves; those to follow show these in a much more marked degree. POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-ORGIES. The Indians in and around Cape Flattery, on the Pacific coast of Brit- ish North America, retain the urine dance in an unusually repulsive form. As was learned from Mr. Kennard, U. S. Coast Survey, whom the writer had the pleasure of meeting in Washington, D. C, in 1886, the medicine men distil, from potatoes and other ingredients, a vile liquor, which has an irritating and exciting effect upon the kidneys and bladder. Each one who has partaken of this dish immediately urinates and passes the result to his next neighbor, who drinks. The effect is as above, and likewise a temporary insanity or delirium, during which all sorts of mad capers are carried on. The last man who quaffs the poison, distilled through the persons of five or six comrades, is so completely overcome that he falls in a dead stupor. Precisely the same use of a poisonous fungus has been described among the natives of the Pacific coast of Siberia, according to the learned Dr. J. W. Kingsley (of Brome Hall, Scole, England). Such a rite is outlined by Schultze. "The Shamans of Siberia drink a decoction of toad-stools or the urine of those who have become narcotized by that plant." (Schultze, '' Fetichism," New York, 1885, p. 52.*) ♦Corroborative testimony was also received by the author from Mr. George Kennan, of Wash- ington, D. C, who lived for three years among the Tchuktchi, Baruts, and Yakuts of Siberia. URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. 23 A SIMILAR USE OF FUNGI QUITE PROBABLY EXISTED AMONG THE MEXICANS. That some such use of poisonous fungi was made by other nations would be difficult to prove in the absence-of direct testimony ; but many incidental references are encountered which the reflective mind must con- sider with care before rejecting as absolutely irrelevant in this connec- tion. The Mexicans, as we learn from Sahagun, were not ignorant of the mushroom, which is described as the basis of one of their festivals. He says that they ate the nanacatl, a poisonous fungus which intoxicated as much as wine; after eating it, they assembled in a plain, where they danced and sang by night and by day to their fullest desire. This was on the first day, because on the following day they all wept bitterly, and they said that they were cleaning themselves and washing their eyes and faces with their tears.* It is true that Sahagun does not describe any specially revolting feature in this orgie, but it is equally patent that he is describing from hearsay, and, probably, was not allowed to know too much. In a second reference to this fungus^ which he now calls teo-nanacatl, he alludes to the toxic properties, which coincide closely with those of the mushrooms noted in Siberia and on the northwest coast of America : There are some mushrooms in this country which are called teo-nanacatl. They grow under the grass in the fields and plains ; * * * they are hurtful to the throat and intoxicate ; * * * those who eat them see visions and feel flutterings in the heart ; those who eat many of them are excited to lust, and even so if they eat but few.f The proof is not at all conclusive that this intoxication was produced as among the Siberian and Cape Flattery tribes ; but it is very odd that the Aztecs should eat mushrooms for the same purpose ; that they should hold their dance out in a plain and by night (that is, in a place as remote as possible from Father Sahagun's inspection). On the second day, to trust Sahagun's explanation, they would appear to have bewailed their behavior on the first; although it should be remarked here that cere- monial weeping has not been unknown to the American aborigines, and .♦Nanacatl, que son los hongos malos que emborrachan tan bien como el vino; y se juntaban en un llano despues de haberlo comido, donde bailaban y cantaban de noche y de dia i. su placer ; y esto el primer dia porque al dia siguiente lloraban todos mucho y deeian que se limpiaban y lavaban los ojos y caras con sus lagrimas.— (Sahagun, in Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiquities," vol. 7, p. 308.) + Hay unos honguillos en esta tierra que sc llaiuan teo-nanacatl; crianse debajo del heno en los campos 6 pdr.amos * * * danan la garganta y emborrachan * * * jog que los comen ven visfones y sientcn buscas eu el corazon ; ^ los que comen muchos de ellos provocan £ luxuria, y aunque scan pocos.— (Sahagun, in Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiquities," vol. 7, p. 369.) 24 URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. may, in this case, have been induced by causes not revealed to the stranger. Lastly, it is important to note that this poisonous fungus was a violent excitant, a nervous irritant, and an aphrodisiac. Another early Spanish observer, also cited by Kingsborough, describes them in these terms: They had another kind of drunkenness, * * * which was with small fungi or mush- rooms, * * * which are eaten raw, and, on account of being bitter, they drink after them or eat with them a little honey of bees, and shortly after that they see a thousand visions, especially snakes. They went raving mad, running about the streets in a wild state (" bestial embriaguez "). They called these fungi " teo-na-m-catl," a word meaning ''bread of the gods." This author does not allude to any effect upon the kidneys.* The list of quotations is not yet complete, Tezozomoc, also an author of repute, relates that at the coronation of Montezuma the Mexicans gave wild mushrooms to the strangers to eat; that the strangers became drunk, and thereupon began to dance. f All of which is a terse description of a drunken orgie induced by poisonous mushrooms, but not represented with the disgusting sequences which would have served to establish a connection with urine dances. Diego Daran also gives the particulars of the coronation of this Mon- tezuma (the second of the name and the one on the throne at the date of the arrival of Cortes). He says that, after the usual human sacrifices had been off'ered up in the temples, all went to eat raw mushrooms, which caused them to lose their senses and aff'ected them more than if they had drunk much wine. So utterly beside themselves w^ere they that many of them killed themselves with their own hands, and by the potency of those mushrooms they saw visions and had revelations of the future, the devil speaking to them in their drunkenness.^ Duran, of course, is not * Tenian otra manera de embriaguez * * * era con unos hongos 6 setas pequenas * * * que comidos crudos y por ser amargos, beben tras eUos 6 comen con ellos un poco de miel de abejas, y de aUi il poco rato, veian mil visiones y en especial culebras.— (By the author of "Ritos Antiguos, Sacriflcios e idolatrias de los Indies en Nueva Espaiia," Kingsborough, vol. ix, p. 17.) This author seems to have been the Franciscan Fray Toribio de Benvento, commonly called by his Aztec nickname of " Motolinia, the Beggar." He is designated by Kingsborough "the Un- known Franciscan." because, through motives of humility, he declined to subscribe his name to his valuable writings. t A los estranjeros, les dieron d, comer hongos montesinos que se embriagaban con ellos y con esto entriiron ^la danza.— (Tezozomoc, " Cronica Mexicana," in Kingsborough, " Mexican Antiqui- ties," vol. 9, p. 153.) J Ivan todos 4 comer hongos crudos, con la cual comida salian todos de juicio y quedaban peores que si hubieran bebido mucho vino tan embriagados y fuera de sentido que muchos de ellos se mataban con propria mano ; y con la fuerza de aquellos hongos vian visiones y tenian rebelaciones de lo porvenir hablandoles el Demonio en aquella embriaguez.— (Diego Duran, lib. 2, cap. 54, p. 564.) URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. 25 describing what he saw. Doubtless, in that case, his narrative would have been more animated and, possibly, more to our purpose. MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS WORSHIPED BY AMERICAN INDIANS. Dorman is authority for the statement that mushrooms were worshiped by the Indians of the Antilles, and toad-stools by those in Virginia,* but for w^iat toxic or therapeutic qualities, real or supposed, he does not say. A FORMER USE OF FUNGUS INDICATED IN THE MYTHS OF CEYLON, AND IN THE LAWS OF THE BRAHMINS. On the west shore of the Pacific Ocean, aside from the orgies of the Siberian Shamans, no instance is on record of the use of the mushroom or other fungus in religious rites in the present day. A former use of it is indicated in the Cingalese myths, which teach that- Chance produced a species of mushroom called mattikaf or jessathon, on which they lived for sixty-five thousand years ; but, being determined to make an equal division of tliis, also, they lost it. Luckily for them, another creeping plant [mistletoe ?] called badrilata grew up, on which they (the Brahmins) fed for thirty-five thousand years, but which they lost for the same reason as the former ones. — (Asiatic Researches, Calcutta, 1807, vol. 7, p. 441.) Among the Brahmins of the main-land no such myth is related ; but an English writer says : The ancient Hindus held the fungus in such detestation that Yama, a legislator, sup- posed now to be the judge of departed spirits, declares : "Those who eat mushrooms, whether springing from the ground or growing on a tree, fully equal in guilt to the slayers of Brahmins and the most despicable of all deadly sinners." — (Asiatic Researches, Cal- cutta, 1795, vol. 4, p. 311.) Dubois refers to the same subject. The Brahmins, he says — Have also retrenched from their vegetable food, which is the great fund of their sub- sistence, all roots which form a head or bulb in the ground, such as onions, J and those *Rushton M. Dorman, "Primitive Superstitious," New York, 1881, p. 295. tThe word "mattika " cannot be found in Forbes' English-Hindustani Dictionary (London, 1848.) It may, perhaps, belong to an extinct dialect. The word " matt," mining " drunk," would serve a good purpose for this article could a relationship be shown to exist l^tween it and mattika. This the author is of course unable to do, being totally ignorant of Hindustani. Neither does " badri- lata" occur in Forbes, who interprets "mistletoe" as "banda." The contributor to the Asiatic Researches, who used the word, though it meant "agaric." JHiggins believes that the ancient Egyptians had discovered similarity between the coats of an onion and the planetary spheres, and says that it was called (by the Greeks), from being sacred to the father of ages, oionoon — onion. * * * The onion was adored (as the black stone in West- minster Abbey is by us) by the Egyptians for this property, as a type of the eternal renewal of ages. * * * The onion is adored in India, and forbidden to be eaten. — (Quoting Forster's Sketches of Hindoos, p. 35, Higgins' Anaealypsis, vol. 2, p. 427.) 26 URINE DANCES AND UR-ORGIES. also which assume the same shape above ground, like mushrooms and some others. * * ■* Are we to suppose that they had discovered something unwholesome in the one species and prescribed the other on account of its fetid smell ? This I cannot decide ; all the information I have ever obtained from those among them whom I have consulted on the reasons of their abstinence from them being that it is customary to avoid such articles. — (Abbe Dubois, "People of India," London, 1817, p. 117.) This inhibition, under such dire penalties, can have but one meaning. In primitive times, the people of India must have been so addicted to the debauchery induced by potions into the composition of which entered poisonous fungi and mistletoe (the mushroom "growing on a tree") and the effects of such debauchery must have been found so debasing and pernicious that the priest-rulers were compelled to employ the same male- dictions which Moses proved of efficacy in withdrawing the children of Israel from the worship of idols.* AN INQUIRY INTO THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. But the question at once presents itself, for what reason did the Celtic Druids employ the much- venerated mistletoe? This question becomes of deep significance in the light of the learning shed by Godfrey Hig- gins and General Vallencey upon the derivation of the Druids from a Buddhistic or Brahminical origin. f That the mistletoe was regarded as a medicine, and a very potent one, is easy enough to show. All the encyclopaedias admit that much, but the accounts that have been preserved of the ideas associated with this wor- ship are not complete or satisfactory. The mistletoe, which they (the Druids) called "all-heal," used to cure disease. — (Mc- Clintock and Strong's Encyclopaedia, quoting Stukeley.) Within recent times the mistletoe has been regarded as a valuable remedy in epilepsy [Query: On the principle of simMa simUibusf] and other diseases, but at present is not employed. * * * The leaves have been fed to sheep in time of scarcity of other forage. [Which shows, at least, that it is edible.] — (Appleton's American Encyclopaedia.) Seems to possess no decided medicinal properties. — (International Encyclopaedia.) - Pliny mentions three varieties; of these — The hyphar is usefal for fattening cattle, if they ai-e hardy enough to withstand the purgative effects it produces at first. * * * The viscum is medicinally of value as an emollient, and in cases of tumors, ulcers, and the like. * But on the 6th day of the moon's age " women walk in the forests with a fan in one hand and eat certain vegetables, in hope of beautiful children. See the account given by Pliny of the Druid- ical mistletoe or viscum, which was to be gathered when the moon was six days old, as a preserva- tive from sterility."— (Sir William Jones, in Asiatic Researches, Calcutta, 1790, vol. 3, art. 12. p. 284; quoted by Edward Moor, "Hindu Pantheon," London, 1810, p. 334.) t It is now, perhaps, impossible to account for the veneration in which it was held and the won- derful qualities which it was supposed to possess.— ("The Druids," Reverend Richard Smiddy, Dublin, 1871, p. 90.) URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. 27 Pliny is also quoted as saying that it was considered of benefit to women in cliildbirtli — "in conceptum feminarum adjiivare si omnino secum habeant."* Pliny is also authority for the reverence in which the mistletoe growing on the robur (Spanish "roble," or evergreen oak) was held by the Druids. The robur, he says, is their sacred tree, and what- ever is found growing upon it they regard as sent from heaven, and as the mark of a tree chosen by God. (Encyclopaedia Britannica.) Brand (Popular Antiquities, London, 1849, vol. 1, art. "Mistletoe") cites the opinion of various old authors that mistletoe was regarded " as a medicine very likely to subdue not only the epilepsy, but all other con- vulsive disorders. * * * ^■'j^g ]^^g]^ veneration in which the Druids were held by the people of all ranks proceeded in a great measure from the wonderful cures they wrought by means of the mistletoe of the oak. * * * The mistletoe of the oak, which is very rare, is vulgarly said to be a cure for wind-ruptures in children ; the kind which is found upon the apple is said to be good for fits." Much testimony may be adduced to show that the mistletoe was valued as an aphrodisiac, as conducive to fertility, as sacred to love, and, in gen- eral terms, an excitant of the genito-urinary organs, which is the very purpose for which the Siberian and North American medicine- men em- ployed the fungus, and perhaps the very reason for which both fungus and mistletoe were excluded from the Brahminical dietary. Brand shows that mistletoe " was not unkown in the religious cere- monies of the ancients, particularly the Greeks," and that the use of it, savoring strongly of Druidism, prevailed at the Christmas service of York Cathedral down to our own day. (See in Brand, Popular Antiqui- ties, London, 1849, vol. 1, p. 524.) The merry pastime of kissing pretty girls under the Christmas mistle- toe seems to have a phallic derivation. "This very old custom has descended from feudal times, but its real origin and significance are lost." (Appleton's American Encyclopaedia.) Brand shows that the young men observed the custom of "plucking off a berry at each kiss." (Vol. 1, p. 524.) Perhaps, in former times, they were required to swal- low the berry. A writer in Notes and Queries (January 3, 1852, vol. 5, p. 13) quotes Nares, to the effect that " the maid who was not kissed under it at * Montfiiueon says of the Druids: "Ilseroient que les animaux steriles deviennent feconds en buvant de I'eau de Gui."— (L'antiquite Expliquee, Paris, 1722, tome 2, part 2, p. 436— quoting and translating Pliny.) 28 URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. Christmas would not be married in that year." But another writer (February 28, 1852, same volume) 2:)oints out that " we should refer the custom to the Scandinavian mythology, wherein the mistletoe is dedicated to Friga, the Venus of the Scandinavians.'"* Another writer (Notes and Queries, 2d series, vol, 4, p. 506) says : As it was supposed to possess the mystic power of giving fertility and a power to pre- serve from poison, the pleasant ceremony of kissing under the mistletoe may have some reference to this belief. In vol. 3, p. 343, it is stated : A Worcestershire farmer was accustomed to take down his bough of mistletoe and give it to the cow that calved first after New Year's Day. This was supposed to insure good luck to the whole dairy. Cows, it may be remarked, as well as sheep, will devour mistle- toe with avidity. And still another, in 2d series, vol. 6, p. 523, recognizes that " the mistletoe was sacred to the heathen goddess of Beauty," and "it is cer- tain that the mistletoe, though it formerly had a place among the ever- greens employed in the Christian decorations, was subsequently excluded." This exclusion he accounts for thus : It is also certain that, in the earlier ages of the church, many festivities not at all tend- ing to edification (the practice of mutual kissing among the rest) had gradually crept in and established themselves; so that, at a certain part of the service, " statim clerus, ipseque populus per basia blaude sese invicim oscularetur. " This author cites Hone, Hook, Moroni, Bescherelle, Ducange, and others. Finally, in the 3d series, vol. 7, p. 76, an inquirer asks " how came it, in Shakespeare's time, to be considered ' baleful,' and, in our days, the most mirth-provoking of plants ;" and still another correspond- ent, in same series, vol. 7, p. 237, claims that "mistletoe will produce abortion in the female of the deer or dog." FORMER EMPLOYMENT OF AN INFUSION OR DECOCTION OF MISTLETOE. That an infusion or decoction of the plant was once in use may be gathered from the fact narrated by John Eliot Howard : Water, in which the sacred mistletoe had been immersed, was given to or sprinkled upon the people. — (" The Druids and their Religion," John Eliot Howard, in Transactions of Victoria Institute, vol. 14, p. 118, quoting " Le gui de chene et les Druides," E. Mag- daleine, Paris, 1877.t) * It was the only plant in the world which could harm Baldur, the son of Odin and Pri^a. When a branch of it struck him he fell dead.— (See in Bullfinch's Mythology, revised by Reverend E. E. Hale, Boston, 1883, p. 428.) " AVhen found growing on the oak," the mistletoe " represented man."— (Opinion of the French writer Reynaud, in his article " Druidism," quoted in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.) tSee notes on the Hindu Lingam of this monograph. URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. 29 THE MISTLETOE ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN HELD SACRED BY THE MOUND-BUILDERS. An American writer says, that among the Mound-builders the mistle- toe was " the holiest and most rare of evergreens," and that when human sacrifices were offered to sun and moon the victim was covered with mistletoe, which was burnt as an incense. (Pidgeon, "Dee-coo-dah," New York, 1853, p. 91, &c.) Pidgeon claimed to receive his knowledge from Indians versed in the traditions and lore of their tribes.* Mrs. Eastman presents a drawing of what may be taken as the altar of Haokah, the anti-natural God of the Sioux, in which is a representa- tion of a '' large fungus that grows on trees " (query, mistletoe?), which, if eaten by an animal, will cause its death, f THE MISTLETOE FESTIVAL OF THE MEXICANS. That the Mexicans had a reverence for the mistletoe would seem to be assured. They had a mistletoe festival. In October they celebrated the festival of the Neypachtly, or bad eye, which was a plant growing on trees and hanging from them, gray with the dampness of rain ; es- pecially did it grow on the different kinds of oak.| The informant says he can give no explanation of this festival. VESTIGES OF DRUIDICAL RITES IN FRANCE AT PRESENT DAY. It may be interesting to detect vestiges of Druidical rites tenaciously adhering to the altered life of modern civilization. In the department of Seine et Oise, twelve leagues from Paris (says a recent writer), when a child had a rupture (hernia) he was brought under a certain oak, and some women, who no doubt earned a living in that trade, danced around the oak, muttering spell- words till the child was cured, that is, dead. — (Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. 7, p. 163.) It has already been shown that the Druids ascribed this very medical quality to the mistletoe of the oak. Other curious instances of survival present themselves in the linguist- ics of the subject. The French word "gui," meaning mistletoe, is not of *See also Ellen^Russell Emerson, "Indian Myths," Boston, 1884, p. 331, wherein Pidgeon is quoted. t " Legends of the Sioux," Eastman, New York, 1849, p. 210. Readers interested in the subject of Indian altars will find descriptions, with colored plates, in the coming work of Surgeon Washington Matthews, U. S. Army, and in the " Snake dance of the Moquis of Arizona," by the author. tNeypachtly, quiere deeir " mal ojo;" es una yerva que nace en los arboles y cuelga de ellos, parda con la humedad de las aguas, especialmente se cria en los encinales y robles.— (Diego Duran, vol. 3, cap. 16, p. 391J^. Manuscript copy in Congressional Library, Washington, D. C.) 30 URINE DANCES AND UR- ORGIES. Latin but of Druiclical derivation, and so the Spanish "agiiinaldo," mean- ing Christmas or New Year's present, conserves the cry, slightly altered, of the Druid priest to the "gui" at the opening of the new year. cow DUNG AND COW UEINE IN RELIGION. The sacrificial value of cow dung and cow urine throughout India and Thibet is much greater than the reader might be led to infer from the brief citation already noted from Max Miiller. Hindu merchants in Bokhara now lament loudly at the sight of a piece of cow's flesh, and at same time mix with their food that it may do them good the urine of a sacred cow kept in that place.— (Erman, "Siberia," London, 1848, vol. 1, p. 384.) Picart narrates that the Brahmans fed grain to a sacred cow and afterward searched in the ordure for the sacred grains, which they picked out whole, drying them and administering to the sick not merely as a medicine, but as a sacred thing.* Not only among the people of the lowlands, but among those of the foot-hills of the Himalayas as well, do these rites find place; "the very dung of the cow is eaten as an atonement for sin, and its urine is used in worship." (Notes on the Hill Tribes of the Neilgherries, Short, Trans. Ethnol. Society, London, 1868, p. 268.) The greatest, or, at any rate, the most convenient of all purifiers is the urine of a cow ; * * * images are sprinkled with it. No man of any pretentions to piety or cleanli- ness would pass a cow in the act of staling without receiving the holy stream in his hand and sipping a few drops. * * * Jf the animal be retentive, a pious expectant will impatiently apply his finger, and by judicious tickling excite the grateful flow. — (Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," London, 1810, p. 148.) Dubois, in his chapter " Restoration to the Caste," says that a Hindu penitent " must drink i\n^. panchakaryam — a word which literally signi- fies the five things, namely, milk, butter, curd, dung, an