R ■' : •,\2\-:i'.:i-rvir:: ' = ■: .: |t' " ^ ',.■ - v - ':■:.;■::■ v;oTV'v.n-; : -' : -. - "i7.--. :/ ; f K : f. '; 4."-. v - J THE STUDY OF 1 ...... 1 S AND LEGENDS CONNECTED 1 ; • i. DC A7SQNS- LANDMARKS C. ETC. , I jj : ••: BURDICR *** • G ' < * .A » l "< x ^ ^ Ob .-< N .,/ ^ -, ^ tS AV ,- XX " i ,o ^ v* v -/- ■/- V W tf %. 1 o CV \° °A •\ % o v* ' *< ^ tV FOUNDATION RITES WITH SOME KINDRED CEREMONIES A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF BELIEFS, CUSTOMS, AND LEGENDS CONNECTED WITH BUILDINGS, LOCATIONS, LANDMARKS, ETC., ETC. BY LEWIS DAYTON BURDICK These old credulities, to nature dear, Shall they no longer bloom upon the stock Of History, stript naked as a rock ' Mid a dry desert ? " Wordswcrt'b's 'Memorials ol>a T6u)- J i« Italy, >v. • ' > > > ' ; | ' ', THE/ Bbbcy press Xonfcon PUBLISHERS 114 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK /Montreal ; • L THE UBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two COPV RECEIVED APR. 13 1901 Copyright entry CUesi./frs'fo/ CLASS tfbXXo. No. 7/9? COPY ft. fc° && Copyright, 1901, by THE Bbbcy press ^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. Introductory 9 II. Traces of Human Sacrifice at Foundations in Ancient Times 16 III. Human Sacrifice at Foundations in Modern Times 33 IV. Substitution of Animals 51 V. Substitution of Animal and Vegetable Products 62 VI. Images 76 VII. Images — Continued 87 VIII. Shadows and Specters 104 IX. Relics 117 X. Writings 137 XI. Circular Movements and Symbols 149 XII. Stones 167 XIII. Sacred Colors , 176 XIV. Pillars and Sites 184 XV. Completion and Christening 195 XVI. Landmarks and Boundaries 212 Authors and Publications 233 Index 239 " The path of Rita is sometimes spoken of as the path which King Varuna, one of the oldest Vedic gods, made for the sun to follow. . . . Later on, Rita, the true, is conceived as the eternal founda- tion of all that exists." — Buddhist Praying- Wheel, p. 91, from Max Muller's Hibbert Lectures. " Thy beams encompass all lands which thou has made — All eyes see thee . . . The land is in thy hand . . . ... by thee the people live . . . Since the day that thou laidest the foundations of the earth, Thou raisest them up for thy son who came forth from thy substance, The King of Egypt, . . . Son of the sun, living in truth, Akenaten, ..." Hymn to the Aten, edited by Prof. Breasted, translated by Mr. Griffith, History of Egypt, W. M. Flinders Petrie, Vol. ii. pp. 215-218. ' • In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho : he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, . . . " — I. Kings, xvi. 34. " I will not ruinate my father's house, Who gave his blood to lime the stones together, And set up Lancaster." — Henry VI. part iii. v. i. PREFACE. The primitive significance of many ceremonial in- stitutions can only be understood by careful investi- gation of accepted beliefs of the period in which they originated. Kites survive long after the decay of specific beliefs out of which they grew. New mean- ings are assigned to them. Ceremonies and customs are modified so as to be adapted to changed condi- tions. Sometimes these transformations but indicate the march of conquest. In the main, however, they are the outcome of environment, the inspiration of freer thought, a wider diffusion of knowledge, greater scientific attainments, and broader culture. They signify increased intellectual activity, and measure the growth and progress of a people ; they mark the battle- fields in the struggle towards a higher civilization. There is no pretense that the subject of foundation \J rites is exhaustively treated in the following pages. They only purport to contain a collection of such material pertaining to these and kindred ceremonies as the writer has found in his somewhat desultory read- ing of interest and importance, or which has seemed to throw light on the relationship between primitive customs of more barbarous people, and such adapta- tions and modifications of them as survive in later and higher civilizations. 8 Preface. Credit to the proper authorities has been given, as far as possible, in all cases. To the works of Baring- Gould, G. W. Speth, E. B. Tylor and Grant Allen, the writer acknowledges his great indebtedness. While he has not always accepted the interpretations of authors quoted or referred to, he makes no claim to infallibility of judgment, and only hopes that his humble contribution to the literature of the subject may be of some help to others interested in this de- partment of archeological investigation. FOUNDATION RITES. CHAPTER I. LNTKODUCTORY. The security of the foundation is the first consider- ation to the wise and conscientious builder in modern times. It is not only regarded as a matter of judi- cious economy, in the long run, that it should be so, but the builder is likewise held to be morally obligated to make reasonable provisions for the safety and se- curity of the structure which he erects. This is one of the recognized ethical laws of civilized nations. All well governed municipalities make it a penal of- fense to disregard it. The builder is expected to pos- sess a practical knowledge of the elementary principles of scientific construction, and to be guided thereby. No details must be overlooked that are essential to this purpose. In the belief in his fidelity and trust- worthiness rests our confidence in his work and in the safety of his structure ; and the measure of this con- fidence, to a large extent, gauges the commercial value of his services. If the building is of a public nature, or of consider- able importance, it is customary to have the foundation stone laid with some public ceremony, and in it, or under 9 io Foundation Rites. it, deposits are made of public records, newspapers, lists of contributors or stockholders, coins, pictures, etc. The ceremony is not always of a strictly religious char- acter, yet religious services almost invariably constitute some part of it. Historical papers are read, addresses are made in behalf of the enterprise for which the structure is erected, and God's blessing invoked upon it. It is entirely possible that many who witness these ceremonies are inspired with greater confidence in the future of the enterprise by the nature of these rites. However, it is probable that, in present times, the ceremony is regarded largely as a pleasant formality, and one for which few could give any special reasons, and one which would have nothing to do with the safety of the structure. It was not so in the primitive ceremonies of which all these later rites are but sur- vivals. It was an almost universal custom among primitive people to make human sacrifices on such occasions. The foundations must be laid in blood. To those who have not given special attention to the subject, the extent and diffusion of similar beliefs and customs, among nations in earlier stages of civil- ization, is a matter of great surprise. It is sometimes supposed that these kindred rites and beliefs have migrated from some common original source ; again, it is held, that they testify to the parallel development of the human intellect in like levels of culture. " How were similar conceptions of gods, rites, symbols, customs, and tales spread over the ancient world ? "Was it by independent origin ? Man and nature being more or less alike everywhere, the thinking and evolution might also be alike, That is one theory. Introductory. n Another is that the migration of races in early times might have carried all these conceptions from one re- gion to another." 1 No one theory is satisfactory to all students of comparative Mythology, but the fact is everywhere apparent that this similarity exists. Among these common beliefs was that of the Earth- Spirit, Earth-Goddess, or Mother-Earth. Certain functions were ascribed to her and by special rites she must be propitiated. Among the Khonds drops of her blood made the soft muddy ground harden into firm earth. 3 She took a high rank in the pantheon of the Incas, though subordinate to the Sun and the Moon, and offerings and libations to her made hopeful the harvest. 3 " Spirit of Earth, remember," she was invoked, in old Accadian tablets for healing the sick. 4 To properly propitiate the Earth-Spirit was of the utmost importance in beginning a new building, in the early stages of civilization. She must be reconciled to bearing the new load with which she was to be bur- dened. 5 "Partly with the notion of offering a propi- tiatory sacrifice to the Earth, and partly also with the idea of securing to himself forever a portion of soil by some sacramental act, the old pagan laid the founda- tion of his house in blood/* 6 Careful consideration must be given to the selection of the site so that it 1 Tlie Buddhist Pfaying-JVheel, William Simpson, 263. 2 Primitive Culture, E. B. Tylor, vol. ii., p. 271. 3 Ibid., p. 270. * Records of the Past, vol. i., p. 135. 5 Builders' Rites and Ceremonies, G. W. Speth, p. 3. 6 Foundations, S. Baring-Gould, Murray's Mag., Mar., 1887. 12 Foundation Rites. will not be unnecessarily offensive, and in the first act of breaking the soil, or taking formal possession of it, whatever was deemed most acceptable in return, must be offered with fitting ceremonies. These rites were strictly of a religious character, as they understood it. To secure the assent and favor of the supernatural beings around them, without which there would be no safety for their structure, was the primary considera- tion. They knew little of mechanical laws, and had no conception of scientific construction as now under- stood. Not only Mother Earth must be reckoned with, but the " hurtful demons " of the locality must be favorably approached. 1 There were hostile spirits in the air and in the heavens, and without they were appeased the stability of their structure could not be depended upon. There has been much discussion among anthropol- ogists in relation to the earliest religious beliefs of savages. The word Animism has been accepted quite commonly as most fittingly expressive of the lowest religious conceptions of primitive man. It is de- scribed as " a conviction that every thing, stick, stock or stone, tree, river, cloud, mountain, is as truly alive as man himself, or the beasts which sur- round him ; and that all, without exception, are as really possessed of a soul or spirit, as he is himself/' 1 In speaking of the term as applicable to the religious ideas of the lowest order in the valley of the Ganges, Professor Ehys Davids says it includes "all the con- ceptions preserved in the books of astrology, magic, 1 Builders' Rites and Ceremonies, G. W. Speth, p. 3. 2 Ibid., p. 2. J Introductory. 13 and folk-lore, the ideas of a future life and of the transmigration of souls, the beliefs as to all sorts of minor demons, and fairies, and spirits, and ghosts, and gods." 1 All things were believed to be animated, and conceived of as having personality. "Kivers run, winds blow, fire burns, trees wave, as a result of their own will." 2 "All nature is possessed, pervaded, crowded, with spiritual beings." 3 This belief has ex- tended to modern .times, and rude races are yet found with this philosophy ; and even where it has long since given way to higher conceptions, enlightened people " still talk," as Tylor says, ie of being in 'good and bad spirits/ only recalling with an effort the long past metaphysics which such words once expressed." 4 So far as the present consideration of the subject is concerned, it matters not whether this animistic be- lief, that all inanimate things are possessed with life or spirit, is really the earliest, among tribes lowest in the scale of humanity, and "the ground-work of the Philosophy of Eeligion," 5 or whether, preliminary to this, out of which it has grown, was the belief in ances- tral ghosts. 6 More directly bearing upon their relation to the ceremonies and sacrifices connected with foundations, were the habit and power of migration attributed to these indwelling spirits. They sometimes became separated from the animate and inanimate objects in 1 Buddhism, Rhys Davids, p. 36. 2 Modern Mythology, Andrew Lang, Introduction, xi. 8 Primitive Culture, E. B. Tylor, vol. ii., p. 185. 4 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 182. 5 i^id., vol. i., p. 426. 6 Evolution of the Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 437. 14 Foundation Rites. which was their proper home, and of which they were virtually the life. Sometimes they found their way safely back to their rightful habitations. Again they were estranged henceforth and became wandering spirits, or found a new abiding place. Their deserted tenements became the prey of evil powers. Destruction and decay awaited them, or at least threatened them. Without the indwelling spirit was provided for it, it was presumptuous to build a temple or lay the foundations of a new city. As in making atonement for trespassing on the domain of the Earth-Spirit, so in appropriating a life for the new structure, security was the primary thought. If, in the act of placing the foundation, a life is made homeless by the destruction of its cor- poreal tenement or making it a part of the substance of the foundation itself, what more natural conclusion than that the homeless spirit should take refuge, at once, in the tenantless structure which has come into existence at the opportune moment ? If we accept Tylor's definition of religion in its low- est form, as "belief in spiritual beings," 1 it is un- doubtedly true that none of the lowest tribes of which we have any knowledge, has been found without some religious belief. To some of these peculiar ideas of spiritual beings among primitive people, as we have attempted to show, is traced the origin of human sacrifice as a foundation rite. A large amount of evi- dence goes to show that this custom, at certain stages of civilization, has been almost universal in the world's history. Although its barbarous features have gradu- ally faded away with the enlightenment of the people, 1 Primitive Vulture, vol. i., p. 424. Introductory. 15 traces of it are yet found among savage races, and sur- vivals of it are conspicuous in the popular ceremonies of the most highly cultured nations. The distinct purpose of the primitive rite, as we have stated, was to secure the safety of the edifice, and this was equally true whether the sacrifice was to provide a new life or to propitiate the neighboring spiritual beings with which the soul of the new building must continually come in contact. Of this specific motive always asso- ciated with the earlier ceremonies there is but little trace in the formalities of similar occasions in modern times. Wherever and whenever advancing knowledge has made untenable beliefs that inspired them, the bloody scenes have been eliminated, for the motives on account of which they were instituted no longer had vital force. Yet we shall be able to show by his- toric and legendary citations, not only the great ex- tent of these sacrifices in ancient times, but that they have come down even to the present century. 1 6 Foundation Rites. CHAPTER II. TRACES OF HUMAN SACRIFICE AT FOUNDATIONS IN ANCIENT TIMES. The myths of a people contain its earliest history. Out of them must be gathered our knowledge of its primitive characteristics. Long after they have ceased to have any hold upon the populace its rudimentary beliefs are preserved in its mythology. A late writer on Norse Mythology says: " Its deities never existed actually. It is fictitious in form and letter, but true in substance and spirit. Truth is eternal and univer- sal. It is the common treasure of all mankind. But it lies hidden away in material and ritual images, like gold in quartz, and cannot become the current gold of Thought until it is liberated from its temporal and local incrustations." ' Plutarch says, " We must make use of myths, not entirely as (real) histories, but by taking out of them that which is to the purpose, as in the form of a similitude." 2 It is among the myths and legends of nations that we are to look for traces of customs which were largely outgrown when their more authenticated histories began. Their chronicles tell the story of them and new motives are discovered for them which are more acceptable. By additions 1 Gods of our Fathers, H. I. Stern, xv. 2 Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, Bohn, lviii. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 17 and interpolations the legendary records are recon- structed in conformity to the later thought. Out of these confused aggregations of the impossible and the real the patient antiquarian student gathers rich treas- ures of historic value. The Forum in ancient Rome was the market-place, an open space of ground in which the people met for the transaction of public business. The number of fora increased with the growth of the city. They were surrounded by buildings, public and private. The word originally means the empty space left before a tomb. For this reason it has been suggested that the Latin fora were really tomb-enclosures of the original foundation victims. 1 The origin of the great Forum is ascribed to Romulus and Tatius, 2 who are said to have filled up the swamp or marsh which occupied its site, and set it apart for a place of justice, and for as- semblies of the people. The story of the Forum as given by Plutarch is that the river had overflowed its banks in a recent freshet, leaving a deep mud on the plain where the Forum stood, and that it was soft and impassable yet covered with a crust. Curtius mounted on a spirited horse, in advance of the Sabines, plunged into the mire, from which he was unable to disengage his horse although he succeeded in escaping himself. 3 It is told differently by other historians. According to Livy, Curtius at first repulsed Romulus but was afterwards overpowered by him, and, in endeavoring to make his escape, fell into the lake, which was ever 1 Evolution of the Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 257. 2 Smith's Classical Dictionary, article Forum. 8 Langhorne's translation of Plutarch's Romulus, p. 17. 2 1 8 Foundation Rites. after called by his name, even when dried up, and the center of the Forum. 1 The story of Procilius is that the earth opened, and the Aruspices declared it was necessary for the safety of the city, that the bravest man in it should throw himself into the gulf, where- upon Curtius, mounted and armed, leaped into the abyss which immediately closed. 2 These legendary stories certainly have the appearance of being later in- terpretations of what was originally a human sacrifice. Of a similar character is the tradition that Romulus and Remus quarreled over the location of the Imperial city, with the result that Remus lost his life, and like- wise Faustulus and Plistinus, brothers and foster parents of the twin children. As it is told by Plutarch, 8 when they could not agree upon the site for the city, their dispute was referred to the decision of augury, and was decided m favor of Romulus, who was pro- ceeding to opei.. a ditch where the walls were to be built, when his brother, angered by the adverse de- cision of the augury, obstructed the work and made sport of it. He finally attempted to leap over the ditch to show his contempt for it, and fell in, or as " some say, he fell by the hands of Romulus." In the struggle which ensued the foster fathers also lost their lives, and all were buried by Romulus, in Remonia, which was the location on Mount Aventine chosen by Remus for the city. In later periods in which we have more definite facts, foundation victims were often near- est relatives, or those most closely associated with the building. There is reason to believe such sacrifices 1 Plutarch's Romulus, p. 17, note. 2 Ibid., p. 17, note. » Ibid., p. 13. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 19 were often voluntary, and looked upon as the highest honor. The disagreement over the site and the dis- satisfaction with the auguries would be reasons as- signed for the slaying of the victims long afterwards, when they were no longer influenced by the feelings which prompted them. It is said that the Aventine hill received its name from a king of Alba, Aventinus, who was reputed to have been killed by lightning and there buried. It was adorned with numerous temples in the early ages of the city, some of which were preserved as Christian churches after Christianity became the religion of the Empire. The church of St. Sabina dates from the days of Theodosius and is supposed by some historians to have been the celebrated temple of Diana, or at least, built on the site of that temple, or from its ruins. 1 Later on we shall again refer to the relics be- neath the high altar of St. Sabina, and the miraculous stone driven through its pavement, and only suggest in passing that it is not impossible but that the Aven- tine hill bore the name of the victim in the foundation rites of its great pagan temple. During the wars of the Lacedaemonians and the Messenians when continued reverses and expenditures had brought the affairs of the latter into a deplorable condition, with the desertion of their slaves and a pestilence upon them, they resolved to abandon their towns in the interior and move to the mountains. They selected for their future home the small town which Homer had characterized as "rocky Ithome." 1 History of All Religious Denominations, Thomas Wil- liams, Hartford, 1823, p. 25. 20 Foundation Rites. They sent an envoy to Delphi in order to learn the will of the gods, and were commanded by the oracle to sacri- fice a pure virgin (selected by lot out of the family of the ^Epytidae) at night to the gods below.' Forthwith the maidens of the designated family drew lots and the daughter of Lyciscus was selected for sacrifice. Epebolus, the seer, advised that she was not acceptable to the gods as she was not the daughter of her reputed father, bat only an adopted child. Aristodemus, an illustrious man of the same family, then voluntarily offered his daughter as a sacrifice in the place of the daughter of Lyciscus, who had fled meanwhile with her father to Sparta. The authority of the father was questioned by a Messenian lover of his daughter, who claimed she was betrothed to him, and finally as a last resort, in order to save her life, declared she was preg- nant, which so enraged Aristodemus that he forthwith slew his daughter. The assertion of her lover being found untrue, it was finally decided that she was an ac- ceptable sacrifice. Now it is expressly declared by Pau- sanias a that the pestilence did not extend to all parts of the country of the Messenians. To escape from it was their purpose in abandoning the interior and taking up their abode in Ithome. There the plague had no foot- hold. Not to drive it away, therefore, was the sacrifice of the maiden of the iEpytidse, but rather in order to gain the favor and protection of the gods in founding their new homes. Mommsen finds but slight trace of human sacrifice among the ancient Eomans except of those who were 1 Pausanias' Description of Greece, Bohn, vol. i., p. 245. 2 Pausanias, vol. i. , p. 245. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 21 convicted criminals, or those who voluntarily gave themselves for that purpose. He says, however, that, " the execution of the criminal condemned to death was as much an expiatory sacrifice offered to the divinity as was the killing of an enemy in just war," and, " when the gods of the community were angry and nobody could be laid hold of as definitely guilty, they might be appeased by one who voluntarily gave himself up." 1 There were in later times, among the Indo-Germanic stock, according to the same author, human sacrifices, but by those who were the offspring of degeneracy and barbarism. 2 Still there is good reason for believing that in the still earlier period be- fore Roman culture had even reached the condition of the time of which Mommsen writes, such rites pre- vailed to the same extent as among other early races. Mr. G.~W. Speth is authority for the statement that two Greeks and two Galatians were buried alive in the beast market at Rome. 3 Professor Mahafly says great Hellenistic cities, as, for instance, Antioch, had a girl sacrificed at their foundation. 4 The 22d of May was set apart as the anniversary of this sacrifice. 5 This virgin sacrificed at the foundation was afterwards worshiped as the for- tune of the town. 6 1 History of Rome, Theodor Mommsen. W. P. Dickson's translation, vol. i., p. 232. 2 Ibid., vol. i.,p. 233. 3 Builders' Rites and Ceremonies, G. W. Speth, p. 5. 4 The Tlireshold Covenant, H. C. Trumbull, p. 325, quotes from personal letter. 5 Religion of the Semites, W. Robertson Smith, p. 356. 6 Ibid., p. 356. 22 Foundation Rites. " At Laodicea the annual sacrifice of a stag that stood for a maiden, and was offered to the goddess of the city, stands side by side with the legend that the goddess was a maiden, who had been sacrificed to con- secrate the foundation of the town, and was thence- forth worshiped as its fortune." ! The annual mourn- ing on the mountains of Mizpeh, in Gilead, was thought to represent an ancient human sacrifice, like that of Laodicea. a In Babylonian literature or art there have not yet been found any certain traces of human sacrifices, 3 yet it must be remembered that as far back as our earliest knowledge extends there was a high degree of civili- zation among the Babylonians and Assyrians. Says Professor Jastrow : " When the foundations were to be laid for a temple or a palace, it was especially impor- tant to secure the favor of the gods by suitable offer- ings." 4 If the recent excavations and discoveries have not revealed any positive evidences of human sacrifices at foundations they have brought to light a wealth of material which will be discussed in future chapters treating of substitutions and survivals characteristic of the advanced culture of the period at which our present knowledge begins. Some points in the legends of the death of Osiris have curious interest in connection with the study of this sub- ject. During the reign of Osiris as King of Egypt his evil-minded brother Typhon, in league with the Ethio- 1 Religion of the Semites, p. 391. 2 Ibid., p. 471. 3 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 662. * Ibid., p. 663. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 23 pian Queen Aso, conspired to destroy him. 1 The secret measurement of Osiris was taken by the profligate Queen and a coffin of great elegance made to exactly fit his body. This having been taken into the ban- queting room, it was admired by all, and promised by Typhon to whomsoever it should exactly fit. When Osiris laid himself down in it the conspirators hastily closed the lid, sealed it up, and threw it in the river whence it drifted to the sea and was washed ashore at Byblus where it was ' ' enfolded, embraced, and concealed " 2 by a beautiful Erica plant which quickly grew up into a large tree, attracting the attention of the King, who caused it to be cut and made the foun- dation pillar of his home. Isis, in pursuit of her lost brother, gained entrance to the home of King Mala- cander, and finally obtained possession of the pillar in which the coffin was concealed. " As soon as ever she obtained privacy, and was left by herself, having opened the coffer and laid her face upon the face of the corpse," 3 finding herself spied upon by a little boy, she turned upon h'im with such a " dreadful look in her rage," that he died of fright. " Others say that the boy is called Palaestinos, or Pelusios, and that the city was named after him, having been founded by the goddess." 4 The legend goes on to state that Typhon again gained possession of the coffin, recog- nized the body, tore it into fourteen pieces and scat- tered them abroad throughout Egypt. Isis persistently 1 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, Bohn, xiii. et seq. ; Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 209 et seq. 2 Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, Bohn, xv. 3 Ibid., xvii. 4 Ibid., xvii. 24 Foundation Rites. traced out the fragments, and wherever she found one made it the foundation of a temple of Osiris. 1 In ref- erence to this story Plutarch says : "Are not these things exactly like the fine-spun fables and empty tales that poets and story-tellers, like spiders, breed out of themselves, without foundation from first to last, and weave and spread them out ? Nevertheless, this history contains certain questions, and descrip- tions of real events ; and in the same way as mathe- maticians say that the rainbow is the image of the sun, variously colored through the reflection of the image upon the cloud, so the legend before us is a kind of reflection of a history reflecting the true meaning upon other things." 2 According to the fragments of Chaldean cosmogony preserved by Alexander Polyhistor from the writings of Berosus, a priest of Bel, at Babylon, about the time of Alexander the Great, before the heavens and the earth were formed, the universe was peopled with mon- sters of which a female called Omorca was mistress, whom Bel overcome and put to death, making of one half of her body the earth, and of the other half the heavens. 3 " This account of Berosus is now confirmed by the cuneiform records," says Professor Jastrow. 4 The Tiamat of the creation epic is the Omorca of Bero- 1 The Mummy, E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 278. 2 Isis and Osiris, xx. 3 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 509; Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 59 ; Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, vol. ii., p. 112, note. 4 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 419. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 25 sus, and when she is overcome by Marduk "he cuts her like one does a flattened fish into two halves." He splits her lengthwise. " The one half he fashioned as a covering for the heavens." * Out of this part of the body was built the firmament " in the midst of the waters " which di- vided "the waters from the waters." 2 To it Bel attached a bolt and placed a guardian over it with orders "not to permit the waters to come out." 3 One tradition is that out of the head of Omorca men were formed,* but according to others Bel cut off his own head, whereupon the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the earth ; and from thence men were formed. 6 The Chaldean story of Omorca is closely akin to the myth of the old Norse Cosmogony according to which the giant Ymir's body became the foundation of the universe. Ymir having been killed by the sons of Bor, the three pillars, Odin and his brothers, they flung his body into Ginnungagap, the great abyss, and of it formed the earth. From Ymir's blood were made the seas and waters ; from his flesh the land ; the moun- tains were formed out of his bones, the jagged ridges, peaks and cliffs from his teeth ; from some bits of broken bones were made the stones and pebbles ; they made the vault of heaven from his skull, and his eye- 1 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 428. 2 Genesis i. 6. 3 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 428. 4 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Bohn, p. 509, note. 5 Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 59 ; Chaldea, Z. A. Ragozin, p. 266. 26 Foundation Rites. brows were skilfully wrought into a walled castle for their home, while of his brains the clouds were fash- ioned. 1 From the putrid flesh of the giant were en- gendered a race of dwarfs, at first but maggots, but afterwards through favor of the gods becoming of hu- man shape and understanding. 2 The great ash, Yggdrasil, was the sacred tree of the Norsemen, under which every day the gods assembled in council. Its branches spread over the whole world and even reached above heaven. One of its three roots started from the body of the great Ymir in the place where Ginnungagap had formerly been, and under this root was Mimir's well, whose waters filled with wisdom whoever drank of them. Another root of Yggdrasil sprang from the skull of the giant which formed the heaven, and this was the holy fountain where the gods sat in judgment, and near to it was the beautiful dwelling of the Norns, the maiden sisters who determine the fate of mortals. 3 Brahma gave himself to form the universe. The sun was made of his eyes. His head is heaven. His heart became the moon. The winds are his breath. 4 One of the occasions for solemn sacrifices for which instructions are given in the Vedic rituals, was the building of city walls, when the bodies of five victims, a man, a horse, a steer, a sheep and a goat, were laid in the water used to mix the clay for the bricks to 1 Gods of our Fathers, H. I. Stern, p. 3 ; Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 404, 405. 2 Northern Antiquities, p. 409. a Ibid., pp. 411, 412. 4 Foundations, Baring-Gould, Murray's Mag., Mar., 1887. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 27 which their blood was supposed to give the necessary firmness. 1 Christ was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Christ was the corner stone and the apos- tles the foundation stones of the Church. 2 An old hymn for the dedication of a church says : ' ' Christ is made the sure foundation And the precious corner stone, "Who, the twofold walls uniting, Binds them closely into one." " Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious, . . . the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner." 3 "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 4 Ye are of the household of God, " built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." 5 " The blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundations of the world, may be required of this generation. " 6 The Hebrew word meaning son is derived from the Hebrew meaning to build, to erect, to construct, accord- ing to Gesenius, as quoted by Mr. William Simpson, who raises the question whether the sacrifice of the first born was a foundation rite. 7 " Thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix . . . the male shall be the Lord's. And every firstling of 1 Vedic India, Z. A. Kagozin, p. 407. 2 Foundations, Murray's Mag., Mar., 1887 ; Rev. xiii. 8. 3 1 Peter ii. 6, 7 ; Isaiah xxviii. 16. 4 1 Corinthians iii. 11. 5 Ephesians ii. 20. 6 Luke xi. 50. 7 Builders' Rites, p. 46. 28 Foundation Rites. an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb . . . and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou re- deem." 1 " Shall I give my first-born for my transgres- sion, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?" 2 The body of Osiris became the pillar of the house of King Malacander, 3 the three sons of Bor, Odin, Wili, and We, were the three earliest Asen (supports, pillars), 4 and Mahommedans say the twelve sons of Jacob are the twelve pillars which support the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem. 5 When Iphigenia, acting as the bloody priestess of Diana, is called upon to sacri- fice her only brother Orestes, she exclaims : " Of all the house, My father's house, one pillar, as I thought, Alone was left, which from its cornice waved A length of auburn-locks, and human voice Assumed." s The sons were the foundations of the family. " And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places ; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations." 7 The primitive relation between the words " son " and " build " is at least significant of the connection in ah important way of the sons in earliest times with beliefs and rites pertaining to building ; and the met- aphorical language of later times, picturing the sons as corner-stones and pillars of the house, serves to in- 1 Exodus xiii. 12, 13. 2 Micah vi. 7. 3 Isis and Osiris, xv. * Gods of our Fathers, p. 2. 6 Builders'' Rites, p. 46. 6 Iphigenia in Tauris, Euripides, translated by Robert Pot- ter. 7 Isaiah lviii. 12. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 29 tensify our conviction of the practical importance of this relationship in that remote period. The biblical story of the rebuilding of Jericho is of exceeding interest in connection with the study of human sacrifice in its relation to builders' rites in an- tiquity. As more commonly understood, the destruc- tion of the city had been decreed by divine judgment ; it was sacrilege, therefore, to rebuild it, and a curse had been pronounced by Joshua against whoever should attempt it ; in consequence of this, when the founda- tions of the new city had been laid by Hiel in the days of the wicked Ahab, he was punished for his temerity by the death of his eldest son, as it had been decreed in the adjuration of Joshua, and the completion of the work by setting up the gates, was followed by the death of his youngest male child. In comment on this particular incident Grant Allen says, ' ' Here we see evidently a princely master builder, sacrificing his own two sons as guardian gods of his new city." 1 Were the children of Hiel really sacrificed as a foun- dation offering ? A brief statement of the little data at command will at least throw some light on the ques- tion. The reign of Ahab is placed 876-854 B. C. 2 The earliest written account of Hiel's punishment, or sacrifice, is found in I. Kings xvi. 34, the final re- daction of which book is now placed 620-600 B. C. 3 In this account the verse containing it is the end of a chapter and unconnected with the preceding verses, 1 Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 255. 2 Polychrome Joshua, p. 64. 3 The Bible, Rev. J. T. Sunderland, p. 89. 30 Foundation Rites. in which the wickedness of King Ahab is related with which it has nothing to do. The construction seems to indicate that the verse is an interpolation of some editor's memorandum of an attempt to rebuild the fallen city, during Ahab's reign, by the Bethelite Hiel. It says "With Abiram his first-born he founded her and with Segub his youngest he set up her gates, ac- cording to the word of Yahwe through Joshua bin Nun." 1 It will be observed that the idea of a curse being pronounced against the builder is not contained in it. There is nothing to show that the offering of the builder's sons was in the nature of a punishment. The story is again told in Joshua vi. 2Q. The final redaction of this book was 440-400 B. 0. 2 The curse upon the one who rebuilds the fallen city is now made prominent. Moreover, it dates from the destruction of the city. There is no longer any question that the builder's offspring are the penalty of his transgression. This idea is brought out still more emphatically in the latest published translation : " The laying of the foundation shall cost him his first-born. The setting up of the gates shall cost him his youngest son." 3 " The aim has been," says the translator, "to render the sense of the original as faithfully as possible rather than to sacrifice that sense to give a literal translation." 4 The vital point at issue is whether 1 1 am indebted to Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., for this lit- eral rendering of this passage. 2 The Bible, J. T. Sunderland, 87 ; The Polychrome Joshua, p. 44. 3 The Polychrome Joshua, Rev. W. H. Bennett. 4 Polychrome Joshua, Introduction, v. Traces of Human Sacrifice. 31 the translator's conception of the passage quoted was originally connected with the historic incident related, or belongs to the thought of a later period. It may be noticed that the language of the oldest record of the event is most indicative of a foundation rite. From I. Samuel x. 5, it is also apparent that Jericho had been rebuilt and was inhabited in the reign of David, a century and a half before the time of Ahab. Hiel's rebuilding was then in all probability an enlargement of its fortifications. The offering of the great builder's sons to secure the divine favor in his great undertaking would be the most exalted pos- sible. Such an honor and privilege would perhaps link his name forever with the perpetuity of the city. As a patriotic and religious duty he accepts it as the perfection of his work, the crowning glory of his con- structive career. There is less probability of the thought of punishment for any wrong-doing connected with it. Such sacrifices of the members of builders' families are not unusual in the history of these rites. Two centuries later, the legend of the fact remains, but the belief in its necessity or efficacy has faded away. Some reason must be found by the chroniclers to account for the event, which is consistent with the moralities and ideals of the later period. The idea of penalty becomes associated with it. The conception of a divine anathema is born and usurps the place in history of the dead belief which inspired the event which the historian records. It may be added also that in Hebrew the word accursed is derived from a root meaning consecrated to God, 1 so that what was 1 Myths of the Neiv World, D. G. Brinton, p. 158. 32 Foundation Rites. originally an act of consecration might become at a later period a curse just as the old Norse word which meant in pagan times, to sacrifice, signified in later Christian times, to curse. 1 1 Mallett's Northern Antiquities, p. 284, note. Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 33 CHAPTEE III. HUMAN SACRIFICES AT FOUNDATIONS IN MODERN TIMES. The ancient oriental belief that the body of Brahma himself served for the foundation of the universe, finds its parallel in the legendary tales of the pueblo-dwell- ing Zunis of the New World. For, they said, with the substance of himself, the great all-father, Awona- wilona, impregnated the great deep and the scums which rose upon its surface became the all-containing earth and the all-covering sky. 1 It is a common belief, according to Elie Keclus, among the tribes of India, that the earth at first was a formless mass of mud which could not bear the weight of a man or his dwelling, and in which nothing could take root, and so God said, " Spill human blood before my face," and they sacrificed a child before him, when the bloody drops falling upon the soil, stif- ened and consolidated it ; 2 so Burma rocked under foot until Rani Attah made it solid with a sacrifice ; so Erin, the Isle of Saints, rose from the waves and sunk again every seventh year until an angel weighted it ; so the two rocks upon which the " large-breasted " city of Tyr was founded floated hither and thither 1 Myths of the New World, D. G. Brinton, p. 230. 2 Primitive Folk, Elie Reclus, p. 315. 3 34 Foundation Rites. until sprinkled with blood, when the rocks became immovable and took root in the waves. 1 The language which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Clarence when solicited by the Earl of Warwick to unite with the conspirators against his brother, ' ' Look here, I throw my infamy at thee ; I will not ruinate my father's house, Who gave his blood to lime the stones together, And set up Lancaster," 2 though it be but the metaphorical expression of the son's filial devotion, suggests at least the thought that the great poet's mind was familiar with the fact that human blood had figured in the ceremonial founding of many a house. Equally suggestive are the half re- pentant words of King John when he realizes the extent of the public indignation over the supposed murder of young Arthur : " There is no sure foundation set on blood, No certain life achieved by other's death." 3 And when death overtakes the King's nephew in at- tempting to save his life by leaping from the castle's wall, in his dying moments, he is impressed with the belief that his "uncle's spirit is in these stones." 4 The Irish-born St. Oolumba, who lived in the sixth century, and was the celebrated founder of monasteries in Ireland, Scotland and northern England, having been excommunicated and exiled from his native land, in 563, with twelve disciples, took up his abode on the little Island of Iona, near the west coast of Scotland, where 1 Primitive Folk, p. 315. 2 Henry VI. , v., ii. 3 King John, iv., ii. * Ibid., iv., iii. Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 35 lie founded a monastery which became the mother- church of the Picts, and for two centuries was foremost on the British Isles. The area of the Island in Anglo- Saxon Chronicles is estimated at " five hides/' or about three and one-half square miles. It is said the remarkable fertility of the soil, at that time believed to be miracu- lous, led Columba to select it for the headquarters of his missionary labors. According to the legendary tales of the Saint, when he attempted to build the walls of his monastery, through the work of some evil spirit, they fell down as fast as they were built. It was super- naturally revealed to Columba that they would never stand until a human victim was buried alive; 1 and he said to them, " It is permitted to you that some one of you go under the earth to consecrate it;" 2 whereupon, his companion Oran volunteered to accept the mission, and henceforth became the patron Saint of the monas- tery. Other accounts deny that the sacrifice of Oran was voluntary, but that it was as a punishment for deny- ing the resurrection ; and, according to others, it fell to him by casting lots. It is told that after three days Columba ordered the earth removed that he might take a farewell look of his friend, when he was so enraged at an impious remark of Oran that he commanded the earth to be flung in again, exclaiming, " Earth ! Earth ! on the mouth of Oran, that he may blab no more." All accounts agree that after the interment of the living monk the earth-spirits were appeased, and there was no further trouble with the foundations. 3 * Builders' Rites, p. 14. 2 Idea of God, p. 250. 3 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 104 ; TJie Threshold Covenant, p. 50 ; On Foundations, Murray's Mag., March, 1887. 36 Foundation Rites. Only a generation before Shakespeare wrote Henry VI. the blood of a Christian captive was literally given to " lime the stones together " at Algiers. The walls of the fort were built of concrete blocks made of lime and sand, rammed in a mold and exposed to dry in the sun. When baked thoroughly solid they were turned out of the mold and ready for use. Geronimo was a Christian who had served in a Spanish regiment. Cap- tured by pirates he was turned over to the Dey of Algiers. In 1569, September 18th, Geronimo was put into one of the molds and the concrete rammed around him, and when the block had hardened, it was placed in the walls of the fort. After the occupation of Algiers by the French a subsidence in the wall led to an examination of the blocks. Subsequently the block was removed ( December 27, 1853), in order to make room for anew fort. When this block of concrete was exploded it was found to contain a skeleton of a human body, the whole of which was visible from the neck to the knees, in a perfect state of preservation. The cast of the head, the remains, and the block of broken pise are now pre- served in the Cathedral of Algiers. 1 Earliest English Chronicles have preserved the story of Vortigern. In the middle of the fifth century, the Komans finally abandoned Britain. The weak and irresolute Prince of Dumnonium, unable to repel the aggressive Picts, invited the Saxon princes Hengist and Horsa to assist in driving them from his territory. 2 Finding the Picts so easy a prey they then turned upon 1 Builders' Bites, p. 5 ; TJireshold Covenant, p. 48 ; Idea of God, p. 252 ; On Foundations, Baring-Gould. 2 Hume's History of England, vol. i.,p. 12. Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 37 Prince Vortigern. Horsa fell at the battle of Aylesforcl but his brother Hengist was victorious throughout Kent. Private and public edifices were destroyed. Priests were slaughtered at the altar. Prince Vortigern consulted a magician who advised him to build a tower for his own defense since he had lost all of his fortified places. A suitable spot was selected on Mount Eryri. 1 Workmen were gathered and began the foundations, but what they built one day the earth swallowed the next. The magi- cian was again consulted and ordered that a son must be found " born of a mother without a father/' 2 with whose blood the foundations must be sprinkled. The victim was found in the shadowy Merlin, the reputed offspring of a Welsh Princess and a demon, whom baptism had saved from his malignant destiny, and whose miracu- lous powers finally saved him from the threatened sac- rifice. Many of the legends point to the sacrifice of the wives or sisters of the builders as most effective. Ac- cording to aEoumanian tale, Eadu the Black promised Manoli and his masons treasures, titles, and estates if they would build him a palace so great and beautiful that its equal could not be found, but if they failed, he threatened to have them walled-up living in the foundation of his monastery, which should be built by cleverer hands. For four days the masons toiled dur- ing the working hours and each night what they had built crumbled away. On the fourth night Manoli woke his comrades to hear his terrible dream. A voice 1 Builders' Rites, 14. 2 On Foundations ; Idea of God, p. 252. Teutonic Mythology, p. 1647. 38 Foundation Rites. had whispered to him while he slept that their work would be in vain, and each ni^ht would destroy the labor of the day unless they built into the wall, living, the first woman who should come upon them the next day. This the workmen took a solemn oath to do, in- fluenced by the prospective honors which waited for them. In the morning the master-mason was stricken with terror at the remembrance of his oath. He mounts a scaffold and scans the surrounding plain. In the distance the beautiful Flora advances with her husband's breakfast. The heart-broken Manoli clasps his doomed wife in his arms and holds her in position while the walls are raised around her. When she is finally hidden from sight, as Manoli moves away the faint voice of his wife moans " Manoli ! Manoli ! the wall is pressing on me, and my life is dying out." The magnificent structure was completed. The masons waited upon the scaffolding the coming of the Prince to accept it and reward them. By the command of the Prince the props below which held the scaffolding were knocked away, and all the masons fell to instant death. Manoli caught upon a projecting carving and would have escaped, but just then there came from the wall the moaning cry, " Manoli ! Manoli ! the cold wall is pressing on me ; my body is crushed, my life is dying out ; " and the master-mason, faint and giddy, fell to the earth. * A kindred story is told of the building of the fortress of Skadra by three brothers. The demon tore down by night as fast as three hundred workmen could build in the daytime, year after year. The demon must be 1 Builders' Rites, p. 16. Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 39 appeased by the sacrifice of the first of the wives of the three brothers who should come to bring them food. The brothers swore to keep the secret from their wives. The two eldest secretly warned their wives and when the wife of the younger came unsuspectingly they built her into the wall, though they consented to her en- treaty that an opening should be left in the wall for a time for her to suckle her babe. And the legend says, to this day, a stream of water, milky with lime, trickles down the fortress wall of the mother's tomb. 1 So, for three years, the workmen tried in vain to make the fortifications stand at Scutari, in Asia Minor, till they laid hold of a young lady who brought to them their dinner, and immured her in the walls. 2 a In a song, of which there are several versions, of the building of the bridge of Arta, it is told how the bridge fell down as fast as it was built, until at last the master-builder dreamed a dream that it would only stand if his own wife were buried alive in the founda- tions. He therefore sends for her, bidding her dress in festive attire, and then finds an excuse to make her descend into the central pile, whereupon they heap the earth over her, and thus the bridge stands," 3 but the wife spoke her dying curse upon the bridge, that it should tremble henceforth like a flower-stalk. 4 The same story is told of building the bridge of 1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105. 2 On Foundations ; The Threshold Covenant, p. 47. Grimm, 1143. 3 Quoted in TJie TJireshold Covenant, p. 52, from Rodd's Customs and Lore of Modern Greece. i Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105. 40 Foundation Rites. Tricha, excepting that instead of being revealed in a dream it was whispered to the architect by a bird, how that he mnst make the foundation stand. A Rouma- nian poet has connected a similar legend with the build- ing of the monastery Curtea de Argest, in Wallachia. 1 A young lady was built into the wall of Meder-Man- derscheid with an opening left, through which she was fed as long as she was able to eat, according to tradi- tion, and in 1844, the wall was broken through and a cavity in which was a human skeleton was actually discovered. 2 It is oftentimes only innocent children that will ap- pease the hostile spirits, or children that have been pur- chased with a price. As the Siberian railway ap- proached the northern boundaries of the Chinese Empire and surveys were made for its extension to the sea, there was great excitement at Pekin, on account of a rumor that the Russian minister had applied to the Empress of China for two thousand children to be buried in the road-bed under the rails in order to strengthen it. 8 Some years ago, in rebuilding a large bridge, which had been swept away several times by inundations in the Yarkand, eight children were purchased from poor people, at a high price, and immured in the founda- tions. The endurance of the structure is attributed by the Chinese to the propitiation of the river-god by the offering of the children, and not to the masonry. 4 To make the castle of Liebenstein stand fast and im- 1 TJie Threshold Covenant, p. 52. 2 On Foundations ; Builders' Rites, p. 5. 3 E. P. Evans, in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, vol. liv., pp. 208,209. ^ i bid> Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 41 pregnable it is told that a child was bought for hard money and walled in, It was given a cake to eat as the masons worked. As they progressed the child' cried, " Mother, I see thee still ; " and later, " Mother, I see thee a little ; " and as they put in the last stone, "Mother, now I see thee no more." 1 When the plague had devastated a Slavic town on the Danube, and it was determined that it must be built anew, with a new citadel, messengers were sent out one morning before sunrise in all directions with orders to seize upon the first living creature with which they should meet. The victim captured was a child whom they buried alive under the foundation stone of the new citadel. 2 It is said that many years ago, when the ramparts were being raised around Copenhagen, it was impos- sible to make the walls stand firm till they took a little innocent girl, placed her in a chair by a table and gave her playthings and sweetmeats, and while she was thus enjoying herself, twelve masons built an arch over her which they covered with earth to the sound of drums and trumpets. 3 There is a story in the folk-lore of China that in building a bridge near the gate of Shanghai some dif-' ficulty was found in laying the foundation, when the builder pledged the lives of two thousand children. The goddess to which they were pledged consented that it would be a sufficient propitiation if that number 1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 104; On Foundations Baring Gould. 2 The Threshold Covenant, p. 50. 3 On Foundations ; Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105. 42 Foundation Rites. were attacked with the smallpox from the effects of which about one half as many died. 1 A Calcutta correspondent of the London Times, as quoted by Mr. Speth from Folk- Lore Record, writes, August 1st, 1880 : " A rumor has got abroad and is firmly believed in by the lower classes of the natives, that the government is about to sacrifice a number of human beings in order to ensure the safety of the new harbor works, and has ordered the police to seize victims in the streets. So thoroughly is the idea im- planted, that people are afraid to venture out after nightfall. There was a similar scare in Calcutta some seven or eight years ago, when the Hooghly bridge was being constructed. The natives then got hold of the idea that mother Ganges, indignant at being bridged, had at last consented to submit to the insult, on the condition that each pier of the structure was founded on a layer of children's heads." 2 The reason assigned for the great strength of the tower of Winneberg is that a child of the master-mason was built into the wall. 3 It is believed a child was built in alive in the outer wall of Reichenfells Castle, and that a projecting stone marks the spot, and if that were pulled out, the wall would tumble down at once. 4 The village authorities bought a child of a poor mother and built it alive into the foundations of the church at Blex in Oldenburg/ and in 1615, Count Anthony Gunther of Oldenburg rescued an infant child that 1 Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, vol. i., p. 204. 2 Builders' Rites, p. 21. 3 On Foundations. 4 Builders'' Bites, p. 12. 6 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 251, Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 43 the workmen were about to bury under a dyke which they were repairing ; yet tradition says that this same Count buried a living child in the foundations of his own castle. 1 A boy named Hugo was sunk alive in the foundation when a portion of the dyke gave way at Butjadeirgen. 2 Two children were immured in the basement of the wall of Sandel ; and one in that of Ganderkesee. 3 When Detinetz, on the Danube, was built the Slavonic chiefs sent men out to take the first boy they met and immure him in the foundation. The Slavonic name for boy, " dijete," from this act became the name of the town. 4 A child's skeleton was found embedded in the foundations of the Bridge gate in Bremen city some years ago. 5 When Rajah Sala Byne was building the fort of Sial- ket, in the Punjaub, the foundations of the south- east bastion gave way so repeatedly that he had re- course to a soothsayer, who assured him that it would never stand until the blood of an only son was shed there, and the only son of a widow was sacrificed. 6 In 1463, when the broken dam of the Nogat was repaired, having been advised to throw in a living man, a beggar was made drunk and buried therein. 7 Lord Leigh was accused of having built an obnoxious person into the foundation of a bridge at Stoneleigh. 8 The wall of 1 On Foundations. 2 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 4 Ibid ; Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105 ; Teutonic Mythol- ogy, p. 1143. 5 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 58. 6 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 108. 7 Ibid., vol. i., p. 104 ; Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 250. 8 Primitive Culture,, vol. i., p. 106. 44 Foundation Rites. Hols worthy church was built over a living human being. * When Blackfriars Bridge was taken down, in 1867, having stood for a century, on removing the second arch, a quantity of bones, some of them human, were found, upon which had been laid the foundation of the pier. 2 It is said that faithless nnns were immured in the walls during the Middle Ages, and Eider Haggard states that he saw in the Museum in Mexico bodies immured in like manner by the Inquisition. 3 Walter Scott alludes to this practise in Marmion : "Yet well the luckless wretch might shriek, Well might her paleness terror speak ! For there were seen in that dark wall, Two niches, narrow, deep and tall ; Who enters at such grisly door Shall ne'er, I ween, find exit more." 4 And again, he says : " And now that blind old Abbot rose, To speak the Chapter's doom, On those the wall was to enclose, Alive, within the tomb." 5 In a note it is explained that a small niche, sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive wall of the convent ; a slender pittance of food and water was 1 On Foundations. 2 Builders' Rites, p. 11, on authority of London Illustrated News, March 2d, 1867, and Journal of the British Archeo- logical Association, vol. xxiii., p. 92. 3 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 250. 4 Marmion, Walter Scott, canto ii., xxiii. 6 Ibid., ii., xxv. Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 45 deposited in it ; and the awful words Vade in Pace, were the signal for immuring the criminal. 1 It seems to me, however, that the charge of infidelity is more likely to have been a later reason given than the cause of the original custom. Among the ruins of the Abbey of Coldingham were some years ago discovered the remains of a female skeleton, which, from the shape of the niche, and posi- tion of the figure, seemed to be that of an immured nun. 2 An old church two miles from Eugby was repaired in 1876. Part of it was built in the thirteenth century by the Normans. It became necessary to lower the north and south walls, and, in doing so, two skeletons were discovered about a foot below the original foun- dations. One was under each wall, exactly opposite each other. Each was covered by an oak slab six feet long by ten inches wide. The skulls were thought to be Danish. The teeth were in perfect condition and number. s The London Daily Graphic for October 16, 1893, said : "A Keuter's telegram from. Berlin states that a horrible discovery has been made at Angerburg, in the course of some excavations which are being carried on beneath a church there. The workmen came across a small walled-in space, in which they found a human skeleton, a broken chair, and the remains of a helmet and a pair of boots. The walls bore the marks of finger-nail scratches, and there was only too much evidence that some person had been walled in alive." 4 1 Globe Edition Scott's Poems, p. 511. 2 Ibid. , p. 512. 3 Builders' Rites, p. 9. 4 Ibid., p. 46. 46 Foundation Rites. It is said that under the walls of the only two round towers of the ancient Irish examined, human skeletons were found buried. 1 In the South Sea Islands the foundations of the temples were formerly laid in human blood. 2 " In Hindoostan, Burma, Tennasserim, Borneo, Japan, Galam, Yarriba, Polynesia, and elsewhere, there are modern survivals of this foundation-laying in blood. It would seem to have been well-nigh universal as a primitive usage/' 3 A boy and a girl were formerly buried alive in Galam, Africa, before the great gate of the city to make it impregnable. Similar sacrifices were usual at the foundation of a house or village in Great Bassam and Yarriba. Professor Tylor gives Ellis as authority for the statement that the central pillar of one of the temples at Masva was planted on the body of a human victim. 4 When a large house was built, among the Milanau Dayaks of Borneo, a deep hole was dug to receive the first post which was suspended over it ; a slave girl was placed in the ex- cavation, and at a given signal, the suspended post de- scended and crushed the girl to death. It is stated on the authority of an eye-witness, that a criminal was put in each post-hole for a protecting demon, when the gate of the new city of Tavoy, in Tennasserim, was built. 5 According to a seventeenth century account of Japan, it was believed that a wall would be secure from ac- cident if built on the body of a willing victim ; and when a great wall was to be built some slave, induced to 1 The Threshold Covenant, p. 50. 2 Ibid., p. 148. 3 Ibid., p. 52. 4 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 106. & Ibid., vol. i., p. 107. Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 47 offer himself for the purpose, would lie down in the trench, and his body would be crushed by the heavy stones lowered upon him. 1 The origin of the name of the town Dahomey is traced to the foundation rite of King Dako who built his palace (i on the body of Danh," which is the literal meaning of the word. 2 Human beings were buried for spirit-watchers under the gates of Mandalay, in Burma ; a queen was drowned in a Burmese reservoir to make the dyke safe ; the body of a hero was divided and buried under the fortress of Thatung to make it impregnable. Tylor says these are the records "whether in his- torical or mythical form, of the actual customs of the land." 3 The Burmese kings formerly had human beings buried alive at the four corners of the walls of their capital city at the time of its foundation. The spirits of the deceased would then watch over the population and foil the attempt of invaders to force an entry into the city. 4 Mr. Speth quotes from the Illustrated London News, April 14, 1894, the following passage, which refers to the palace at Mandalay, Burma : " This imposing building is literally reared above dead men's bones, as at the time of its erection over fifty persons of both 1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 107. 2 Builders' Rites, p. 4. 3 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 107. 4 Builders' 1 Rites, p. 43. Given on authority of a paper read before the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, 1892. 48 Foundation Rites. sexes, and of all ages and ranks, were sacrificed, their bodies being afterwards buried under the foundation of the city and palace. Four of the victims were even buried under the throne itself." Mr. William Simpson, commenting on the above statement, says, ' i I have no doubt about the sacrifices as given, but I am inclined to think that the Illustrated London Neivs is wrong about the city." Mr. Simpson's conjecture is, that, instead of Mandalay, it was the older capital, Amarapoora, six miles to the south of the present capital. 1 It was formerly a custom in Siam, when a new city gate was to be erected, for public officers to seize the first persons that passed by, who were then buried alive under the gate-posts to serve as guardian angels of the city. 2 In October, 1865, Christian laborers at Duga, near Scutari, rescued two children from the hands of two Arnaut Mussulmans, who had bound them and were about to bury them alive under a block- house. 3 Mr. H. Clay Trumbull gives the following story of China, on the authority of a native Chinese clergy- man : " When the bridge leading to the site of St. John's College, in Shanghai, was in process of build- ing, an official present took off his shoes, as indicating his rank, and threw them into the stream, in order to stay the current, and enable the workmen to lay the foundations. Finding this unavailing, he took off his garments and threw them in. Finally he threw him- i Builders' Rites, p. 44. 2 Ibid., p. 4. 8 Ibid., p. 4. Human Sacrifices in Modern Times. 49 self in, and as his life went out the workmen were en- abled to go on with their building. To this day the belief is general that that structure stands fast because of (his sacrifice/' 1 Elie Eeclus gives Bastian's San Salvador as authority for the statement that the Grand Jagga caused a man to be beheaded on the spot which his palace was to occupy. He then walked through the gushing blood towards the points of the compass, and struck the first blow with his pick-axe to prepare the foundation. a In building a house, in Alaska, until it came into the possession of the United States, in 1867, human sacrifices were common in making the foundation. It is said, at the present time, the same ceremonies are enacted, with the exception of the sacrifices. The earlier ceremony is described by one familiar with it. A spot is designated for the fireplace, and four holes dug for the corner posts. A slave that has been captured in war, or is a descendant of such a slave, is blindfolded and compelled to lie down face uppermost in the place selected for the fireplace. A sapling is cut and laid across the throat of the slave. At a given signal, the two nearest relatives of the host sit upon the respective ends of the sapling and thereby choke the victim to death. Four more slaves are blindfolded and one is compelled to stand in each post-hole when, at a signal, a blow is dealt on the forehead with a club oramented with the host's coat of arms. 3 1 The Tlireshold Covenant, p. 48. 2 Primitive Folk, Elie Eeclus, p. 316. 3 Tlie Tlireshold Covenant, p. 51, on authority of W. G. Chase in Journal of American Folk-lore vol. vi., p. 51 4 50 Foundation Rites. With the blood of fifty girls, who had been put to death for the purpose, the King of Ashanti, in Octo- ber, 1881, mixed the mud used in repairing the royal palace which had been injured by an earthquake. 1 1 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii. , p. 661. \\ Substitution of Animals. 51 CHAPTER IV. SUBSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. The preceding pages have pointed out the close connection of the sacrificial victim with the architect or founder of the city or building in process of construc- tion, in many cases. At other times captives in war or slaves have been used for the foundation sacrifice. Pro- fessor Robertson Smith expresses the opinion that the sacrifice of captives is not of the nature of an act of blood-revenge, such as that which is taken in hot blood, on the field of battle, but that as the captive is the choicest part of the prey taken from enemies he is therefore " chosen for a religious purpose." 1 " Man originally sacrificed his equal as the best sub- stitute for himself ; as advancing civilization rendered human sacrifices distasteful, the human victim was supplied by animals, ennobled by constant contact with man." 2 All slaughter of domestic animals appears to have been at one time sacrificial. 3 The domestic animals were regarded as the same blood or kin as the tribe, and the slaughter of one, like that of the king's son, was a 1 Religion of the Semites, p. 472. 2 Quoted from Prof. Eggling, in Builders' Rites, p. 45. 3 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 330 ; Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 249. 52 Foundation Rites. sacrifice. " This scarcely means more," says Grant Allen, " than that the sacred domestic animals were early accepted as substitutes for the human victim." 1 As examples of classic substitution of this sort, Mr. Tylor mentions the sacrifice of a doe for a virgin to Artemis in Laodicea, a goat for a boy to Dionysus at Potniae, and the story of the iEolians of Tenedos, who sacrificed to Melikertes, a new-born calf, instead of a new-born child, shoeing it with buskins and tending the mother cow as if a human mother. 2 Beasts, like men, according to the old Babylonian legend, are formed of earth mingled with the blood of a god. The kinship between gods and men was only one part of the larger kinship which embraces the lower creation. 3 According to the Satapatha Brahmana : ci At first, namely, the gods offered up a man as the victim. When he was offered up, the sacrificial essence went out of him. It entered into the horse. They offered up the horse. When it was offered up, the sacrificial essence went out of it. It entered into the ox. They offered up the ox. When it was offered up, the sac- rificial essence went out of it. It entered into the sheep. They offered up the sheep. When it was offered up, the sacrificial essence went out of it. It entered the goat. When it was offered up, the sacrificial essence went out of it. It entered the earth." They then found it by digging, in the substances of rice and barley, 1 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 330. 2 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 404 ; The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 329. 8 Religion of the Semites, p. 86. Substitution of Animals. 53 oblations with which have the same efficacy as the sacrificial animal victims. 1 Among the ancient Egyptians certain animals were fixed upon as the incarnations of certain deities. The sacred animal was the renewed life of the god incorpo- rate in it. The death of the sacred animal did not involve the death of the god whom it represented. 2 " The idea seems to have been/' says Mr. Trumbull, " that he who covenanted by blood with God, or with the gods, when his house, or his city, was builded, was guarded, together with his household, while he and they were dwellers there/' 3 Plutarch says, that after the burial of his brother and foster-fathers, in Remonia, Romulus sent for persons in Etruria who had a ritual of rules and cere- monies to be observed in the foundation of cfties, tem- ples, walls and gates ; and that at first a circular ditch was dug, and the first-fruits of everything reckoned good by use, or necessary by nature, were cast into it. Then each bringing a small quantity of earth from the country from which he came, threw it in promiscuously. In the next place they marked out the city like a circle round this center, and the founder fitted a brazen plowshare to a plow, and having yoked a bull and a cow together, himself drew a deep furrow round the boundaries. The business of those who followed was to turn all the clods raised by the plow inwards to the city. Wherever they designed to have a gate, the plow was lifted out of the ground, making a break in the 1 Quoted from Eggling's Translation in Builders' Rites, p. 45. 2 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 182. 8 TJie Threshold Covenant, p. 46. 54 Foundation Rites. furrow. 1 Other traditions affirm the sacrifice after- wards of the yoked pair which had drawn the plow . 2 If we accept the theory of Mommsen that all these leg- ends are but "improvised explanations" which it is " the first duty of history to dismiss/' 3 it is nevertheless true, that the persistent belief of the people in them, is testimony to the actuality of the primitive practise of the customs described. One of the oldest sacred customs of Rome which ex- tended down to a late period of its history, was the annual sacrifice of a horse on the Camjpius Martins. A struggle took place at this festival between the two halves of the old city for the horse's head, which was nailed to the king's palace under the Palatine, or to the Mamilian Tower, according as victory lay with one party or the other. 4 That this custom was the annual corn festival, observed at the end of the harvest, on what was once the king's cornfield, is the contention of Mr. Frazer. According to the legend as given by him at the time when the last of the kings was driven from Some, the corn stood ready for the sickle on the crown lands beside the river ; but no one would eat the ac- cursed grain. It was, therefore, flung into the river in such quantities that it became the nucleus of an isl- and. 6 The tail of the horse was cut off and carried with such speed to the king's house that the blood dripped on the hearth of the house. By spilling the blood of the sacrifice upon the hearth of the king the safety 1 Romulus, Langhorne's Translation. 2 The TJireshold Covenant, p. 265. 3 History of Rome, Theodor Mommsen, vol. i., p. 74. 4 Ibid., p. 81. 5 The Golden Bough, vol. ii., p. 68. Substitution of Animals. 55 of the town was ensured. This feature of the ceremony, and the formation of the island around the corn, at least suggest, that originally it may have had some con- nection with rites of building ; and this suggestion is materially strengthened by the sacrificial ceremonies of the horse at a later period among the northern nations. The rites in founding Messene are perhaps the most interesting in all Grecian history. When, in the twelfth year of the siege of Eira, the bending of the wild fig- tree on the banks of the Meda till its topmost boughs dipped in the stream, indicated that the period of safety had passed for the Messenians, according to the revela- tions of the Pythian priestess, Aristomenes buried in the fastnesses of Mount Ithoine, the secret records of the people, for in their preservation lay their only chance of again recovering their lost country. Three cen- turies afterwards, after the Theban victory at Leoctra, the scattered Messenians were recalled from their wanderings. A year before the victory, the god had foretold their return to the Peloponnese. As Epami- nondas was hesitating where to locate them and build a city for them, an old man, " like a priest of the mys- teries," appeared to him in a vision of the night, bid- ding him to restore the Messenians to their country if he would have immortality and a name ever glori- ous. The worship of the great goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, had been the most sacred rites of the coun- try until extinguished at the close of the second Mes- senian war. Xow the hero Caucon, the founder of these rites, appeared to Epiteles in a dream, and revealed to him, the spot where Aristomenes had hidden the 56 Foundation Rites. sacred records of the mysteries in the earth when forced to abandon his native land to the foe. 1 He was bidden to dig in the place where he should find an ivy and a myrtle tree growing in Ithome, and recover an " old woman who was ill and confined there in a brass coffin," and there he found " a cinerary urn of brass," in which were thin leaves of beaten tin rolled up like a book, on which were written the mysteries of the great goddesses, which Aristomenes had buried. 2 The seers announced that the omens were favorable, and preparations were at once made for building the town. Says Curtius : " On the terraces of Ithome, the Messenians had of old been most successful in their struggle against Sparta. Eighty-six years before, the same mountain had once more, though only tempora- rily, been the refuge of liberty. At the present time an enduring creation was to be accomplished ; the foundation stone was to be laid of a state vigorous with vitality ; and it was doubtless one of the happiest days in the life of Epaminondas, when it was permit- ted to him, in the midst of a population gratefully hailing his restoration of their freedom and of their native land, and recognizing the justice of the gods in the expiation of an ancient wrong, to commence with solemn sacrifices and prayers, the building of the city of Messene." 3 Says Pausanias : " That day they devot- ed to sacrifices and prayers, and on the following days they raised the circuit of the walls, and began to build 1 History of Greece, Ernst Curtius, "Ward's Translation, vol. iv., p. 454. 2 Pausanias' Description of Greece, vol. iv., p. 26. 3 Curtius' History of Greece, vol. iv. , p. 453. Substitution of Animals. 57 their homes and temples inside the walls." x There was a Messenian tradition from the time of Aristom- enes that Arcadia was a second native land to their own, and now the Arcadians brought down from their mountain-homes " the sacrificial victims for the heca- tombs at the Messenian foundation festival." 2 This was 369 B. C, and 287 years after Aristomenes had buried the records. Laying the foundation of a new house in modern Greece is under the direction of the priest, who at- tends with the family and workmen, in full canonicals, accompanied with holy water and incense. After prayer, those present are aspersed, and the site is sprinkled with consecrated water. A fowl or lamb is then killed and decapitated by one of the workmen and the blood is smeared on the foundation stone, under which the animal is afterwards buried, thereby giving strength and stability to the structure. 3 The Greek term for this ceremony indicates, says Trumbull, a sacrifice to the deity of the threshold, or the foundation.* Another belief among the modern Greeks is that whoever goes by where a foundation is being laid will die within a year unless it is prevented by the builders, who must sacrifice a lamb or black cock on the foundation stone. 5 According to a Swedish tradition a lamb was usu- ally buried under the altar of the first Christian churches to give them security. 6 Danish legends say 1 Pausanias, Bk. iv, ch. 27. 2 Curtius' Greece, vol. iv., p. 453. 3 Golden Bough, vol. i., p., 144. 4 The Tlireshold Covenant, p. 53. 5 Builders' Bites, p. 17. 6 Kirk-Grims in Cornhill Mag., Feb., 1887. 58 Foundation Rites. that a lamb was buried under the altar of a church and pigs and hens were buried alive under other houses. 1 Count Floris of Holland visited the island of Wal- cheren in 1157, and on his return to Holland, sent ex- perienced workmen to repair the sea-walls, which were in a dilapidated condition. In one place, where the dam crossed a quicksand, 2 they were unable to make it stand till they sank a live dog in the quicksand. 3 A living blind dog buried under the threshold of a stable is a device for preventing cattle from straying away, and a living cock buried under the wall or into it insures favorable weather. 4 There is a legend that when St. Patrick was build- ing one of his churches the materials were moved to another place every night. Investigation showed this had been done by a bull which, by order of the Saint, was killed, when there was no more trouble. There is a Eussian superstition that the first to enter a new house will die within the year ; but this may be prevented if some animal is killed and buried where the first stone is laid. It may be obviated also by another ceremony. Let the carpenters call out at the first stroke of the ax, the name of some bird or beast, and this bird or beast named is supposed to die within the year. 5 There is an old custom in some parts of the United States, after the frame is erected for a new house or other building, for the builders to climb to the peak of the rafters, and cry out, " This 1 Kirk-Grims ; Prim. Culture, vol. i., p.115 ; On Founda- tions, Murray's Mag., March, 1887. 2 On Foundations. 3 Ibid., Teutonic Mythology, p. 1142. 4 Builders' Rites, p. 17. 5 Ibid. Substitution of Animals. 59 is a good frame and deserves a good name, and what shall we call it ? " 1 After this is repeated several times, others respond with some name. This is possibly a survival of some similar belief as that of the Eussians, and may have been originally connected with some foundation sacrifice. The custom of sacrificing a slave girl to the spirits, among the Milanau Dayaks in Borneo, preparatory to building a large house, has been mentioned in the fore- going chapter. Travelers in the East report that a chicken is sometimes substituted for the slave girl, and is thrown into the hole dug for the purpose, and crushed by the suspended timber. According to the Chinese book, Yuh Hea Ke ( jeweled casket of divination), before beginning to build, the workmen should sacrifice to the gods of the neighbor- hood, of the earth and wood. Should the carpenters be very apprehensive of the building falling, they, when fixing a post, should take something living and put beneath it, and lower the post on it. Then, to liberate the evil influences, they should strike the post with an ax, and repeat, " It is well, it is well, May those who live within, Be ever warm and well fed." 2 Whenever a temple or building cracked in ancient India it was attributed to malevolent divinities, and offerings and sacrifices were made to propitiate them. The Rajahs formerly laid their foundations in human 1 Primitive Culture, vol. i. , p. 106. 2 Ibid., vol i., p. 107, note. 60 Foundation Rites. blood. In the reign of Shah Jehan, which began in 1627 and continued for thirty years, animals were slaughtered at Delhi and their blood used on the foundations of the city. 1 As out of the body of the Chaldean Omorca the universe was formed, in Persian myth, the divine ox, Ahidad, was slain that the world might be made. 2 Legend informs us, says Grant Allen, that the lamb was a substitute for a human victim, in the Hebrew rite of the Passover. 3 The laying of the foundation of the temple at Jeru- salem, the building of which was begun in the reign of Cyrus, is thus described : " And when the builders laid the foundations of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David, king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord ; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the founda- tion of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice ; and many shouted aloud for joy ; so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout 1 Builders' Rites, p. 44 ; Primitive Folk, p. 315. 2 On Foundations. 3 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 333. See Religion of the Semites, p. 445. Substitution of Animals. 61 of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people ; for the people shouted with a load shout, and the noise was heard afar off." * Before the foundation of the temple was laid, they began to offer burnt offerings from the first day of the seventh month. 2 In the reign of Darius, when the building of the temple was again renewed, and search was made for the decree of Cyrus concerning the first foundations, it was found among the rolls in the palace of Achmetha. " Let the house be builded," it said, "the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations there- of be strongly laid." 3 Then it was further decreed by Darius that "bullocks and rams and lambs," for burnt offerings, and wheat and salt, and wine and oil, should be given them day by day without fail, "that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savor unto the God of Heaven, and pray for the life of the King and of his sons." 4 1 Ezra iii. 10-13. 2 Ibid., iii. 6. 3 Ibid., vi. 3. * Ibid., vi. 9-10. 62 Foundation Rites. CHAPTER V. SUBSTITUTION OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. One of the divine gifts attributed to Apollo was skilfulness in laying foundation walls. In the third century before the beginning of the Christian Era, Callimachus sang : " Nor silent lyre nor noiseless tread should the servants of Phoebus have, when he so- journs among them, if they have a mind . . . that their walls should stand firm on ancient foundations." * " His fair tresses drop ambrosial dews, Distil soft oils, and healing balm diffuse ; And on what favored city these shall fall, Life, health, and safety guard the sacred wall," 2 It is said a town or colony was never founded by the Greeks without first consulting the oracle of Apollo. 3 "And following Phoebus men are wont to measure out cities. For Phoebus ever delights in founding cities and Phoebus himself lays their foundations. At four years of age Phoebus laid the first foundations in fair Ortygia, near the circular lake. The huntress Artemis was wont to bring constantly the heads of Cynthian she-goats, but from them Apollo was weav- 1 Hymn to Apollo, Banks' translation. 2 Ibid., Tytler's translation. 8 Smith's Classical Dictionary. Substitution of Vegetable Products. 63 ing an altar. The foundations he laid with horns ; from horns he built the altar itself, and placed under it walls of horns around." 1 " And from this model, just in every part, 2 Apollo taught mankind the builder's art." In the earliest times of which we have any knowl- edge of Babylonian religion animal and vegetable prod- ucts were listed among the offerings. 3 It was custom- ary to anoint the foundation stones of temples and palaces with oil and wine. Over the thresholds, and over the stones, libations of oil, honey and wine were poured. Nebopolassar placed sweet herbs under the walls. Nabonnedos poured oil over the bolts and doors, as well as on the thresholds of the Shamash temple at Sippar, and filled the temple with the aroma of frankincense. 4 Great importance was attached to the rite. The ancient Kings enjoined their successors to anoint the foundation stones with oil when in repairing the temples they should come upon them. 5 When Jacob woke from his sleep, at Bethel, and, vow- ing his vow, set up the holy stone for a pillar for God's house, he poured oil upon the top of it. 6 That this oil was primarily the fat of the animals sacrificed is the the conclusion of Eobertson Smith. 7 1 Hymn to Apollo, Banks' translation. 2 Ibid. , Tytler's translation. 3 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 661. * Ibid., p. 665. " 6 Inscription of Sennacherib. Records of the Past, vol i., p, 56 ; Annals of Assurbanipal ; Ibid., p. 107. 6 Genesis xxviii. 18. 7 Religion of the Semites, p. 364. 64 Foundation Rites. " Through the history of sacrifice," says Mr. Tylor, "it has occurred to many nations that cost may be economized without impairing efficiency. The result is seen in ingenious devices to lighten the burden on the worshiper by substituting something less valuable than what he ought to offer, or pretends to." x So the hair of an ox takes the place of the ox in some Parsi ceremonies. So the finger-joint or the tip of the finger is substituted for the human body. 2 To avoid taking life, in Brahminic sacrifice, melted butter is accepted for the living animal. 3 In the later sacred books of the Hindus directions are given for the ceremonies attending the building of a house. The place for the dwelling is marked out and sacrifice offered in the center on an elevated spot. The offerings are vegetable and animal products instead of the living beasts and men prescribed in the ancient Vedas. When the pits for the posts are dug, the in- structions are to pour water-gruel into them. The builder accompanies the oblation which he pours into the pits with the words, " To the Steady One, the Earth Demon, Svaha. " When the post has been placed in the pit, he exclaims : "This navel of the world I set up, a stream of wealth, promoting wealth. Here I erect a firm house, may it stand in peace, dropping ghee (melted butter). Stand here, post, firm, rich in horses and cows, stand safely, dropping ghee ; stand here fixed in the ground, prosperous, long-lasting, amid the prosperity of people who satiate themselves. 1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 399. 2 Ibid., volii., p. 400. 3 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 405. Substitution of Vegetable Products. 65 May the Malevolent Ones not reach thee." ! Two posts, were placed to each of the cardinal points. The sacred Kusa grass was sometimes put in the hole for the posts into which water with rice and barley were thrown with the words : " To the Steady One, the Earth De- mon, Svaha." 2 Rice was sometimes viewed as a living creature in sacrificial offerings. "In such a case it is not unreasonable to say that the rice may be regard- ed as really an animate victim." 3 According to Chinese legend, it was the life in the egg which became the foundation of the continent. It floated hither and thither until it finally grew into a continent. 4 Beneath the threshold of his dwelling the Eussian peasant buries eggs to propitiate the house spirits. 5 The city of Naples was built on an egg, legend says. An egg was found built into the walls of the Kirchspiels Church at Iserlohn. Egg-shells were found in the foundation of the chimney in a forest hut at Altenhagen. 6 Statues are preserved of Apollo, in which the great founder of cities is represented with a great pile of eggs underneath him, and another heap of eggs in the form of a cone beside him. 7 An egg fastened to the roof by fillets was hung in the temple of his daughters, 1 Builders' Rites, p. 9, from vol. xxix. Sacred Books of the East. 2 Builders ' Rites, p. 8. 3 Religion of the Semites, p. 224, note. 4 Myths of the New World, D. G. Brinton, p. 230. 5 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 19. 6 Builders' Rites, p. 9 ; Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. i., p. 226. 7 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, R. Payne Knight, p. 147. 5 66 Foundation Rites. Hilaria and Phoebe. 1 Eggs ornamented the Ionic capitals. 2 In describing his excavations of the temple at Nip- pur, Dr. Peters says : "The only mass of solid ma- sonry was the two-staged structure near the north- western edge, which constituted the ziggurat proper. Starting at the southern corner of this, I cut a trench through the center. It proved to be a solid mass of unbaked brick, sixty-seven and a half feet thick from top to bottom. First there were some six feet of im- mense blocks of adobe, then a mass of smaller sun-dried bricks arranged in a system so singular that there could be no doubt of its homogeneity. A strange find made here was a goose egg contained in a cavity be- tween blocks of unbaked brick. Some humorous or mischievous workman had walled it in two thousand years ago, and there we found it still intact." 3 Is it not far more probable that it was deposited there as a foundation sacrifice, in accordance with a sacred rite, and for a serious purpose, rather than as a freak of mischief or humor ? Belief in the potency of eggs to ward off evil in- fluences was primarily connected with the origin of a popular custom of modern times. The Easter eggs were formerly blessed by a priest and worn as an amulet. 4 The flame of a candle is a symbol of life. There 1 Pausanias' Description of Greece, book hi., chap. xvi. 2 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 110. 8 Nippur, John P. Peters, vol. ii., p. 123. 4 T. F. Thistleton Dyer, in Chambers's Encyclopedia, article Easter ; Brand's Popular Antiquities, p. 92. Substitution of Vegetable Products. 67 are many records of its use as a substitute for a living being. In Yorkshire it was at one time customary to bury a candle in a coffin. 1 It was clearly a survival of the barbarous human sacrifice at burials which pre- ceded it. The burning of three candles daily was sub- stituted for the daily sacrifice of three men at Heliop- olis. 2 Candles were carried as protection from evil beings by the South American Indians, in the Malay Peninsula, and in India. 3 They were placed in the stables and woodsheds in Bulgaria on the Feast of St. Demetrius to prevent evil spirits from entering into the domestic animals. 4 " A wondrous force and might Doth in these candels lie, which if at any time they light, They sure believe that neyther storm or tempest dare abide, Nor thunder in the skies be heard, nor any devil's spide, Nor fearful sprightes that walke by night, nor hurts of frost orhaile." 5 There are traces of the use of candles in making foun- dations secure. A tallow candle was discovered built into the wall of the tower of St. Osyth's Priory, Essex. One is said to have been immured in the chancel wall of Bridgerule Church. 6 The ceremonial benediction of candles in the Roman Ritual is proof that the belief in the efficacy of candles to protect dwellings was accepted by the Church : "From the habitations of those in whatsoever places they were lighted or placed, the princes of darkness, with all that minister 1 On Foundations. 2 Ibid. 3 Primitive Culture, vol. ii.,p. 195. 4 Ibid., vol.ii., p. 196. 6 Brand, Popular Antiquities, p. 24. Q On Foundations. 68 Foundation Rites. to them, were frightened, routed, and trembling fled away." 1 The belief which formerly prevailed in corpse- candles originated in the supposed connection between flame and life, and in some primitive ideas of the soul, which will be discussed further in subsequent chapters. The death-light, or corpse-candle, was sup- posed to move between the churchyard and the house where death was about to take place. It is thus re- ferred to by the Eeverend Increase Mather : " In some parts of Wales Death-lights, or Corpse-Candles (as they call them) are seen in the night time going from the house where somebody will shortly die, and passing into the Churchyard. Of this, my Honored and never to be forgotten Friend, Mr. Eichard Baxter, has given an account in his Book about Witchcrafts lately published." 2 The holy perfume was a " favorite accessory to sac- rifice " from early times. It was thought to be the blood of an animate and divine plant. 3 Even the right to look upon the sacred trees was reserved to certain holy families, who, when harvesting the gum, must not be defiled by contact with the dead, or with women. 4 ' ' According to the work of the apothecary, the pure incense of sweet spices" was prepared for the holy tabernacle. 5 1 "Ut quidcunque locis accensae, sive positee fuerint, discedunt principes tenebrarum, et contremiscant, et fugi- ant pavidicum omnibus ministris suisab habitationibus illis," etc. 2 Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 244. 8 Religion of the Semites, p. 406. *Ibid., p. 406, note and reference to Pliny. 5 Exodus xxxvii. 8. Substitution of Vegetable Products. 69 The perfume is an essential part of sacred things. According to tradition among the natives of Marti- nique, to smell of the flowers devoted to the Virgin is to depreciate the offering. The Virgin is cheated and can- not be expected to receive them with so much favor." 1 Incense burned on the threshold of the door and at the window was a protection against backbiters and slander- ers, according to Tuscan tradition. " Against people who chatter evil against us, take incense with the two fingers and the thumb and put it on the threshold of the door and at the window ... set fire to the incense, and say, " Incense, Incense ! Mayst thou burn well ! And so may burn, and so may burn The tongues who speak ill of me." 2 And likewise, according to an incantation described by Ovid, three pinches of incense put under the thresh- old in a mouse-hole will give protection from the evil eye and a slanderous tongue. 8 The ceremony attending the commencement of building a typical aboriginal house in New Mexico is described as follows : The material for the structure having been collected, the builder goes to the village chief, who prepares for him four small eagle feathers. The chief ties a short cotton string to the stem of each, sprinkles them with votive meal, and breathes upon them prayers for the welfare of the house to be 1 Two Years in the French West Indies, Lafcadio Hearne, p. 376. 2 Etruscan Roman Remains, Charles Godfrey Leland, p. 322. a ibid., p. 323.; 70 Foundation Rites. built and those who are to occupy it. The name of these feathers is Nakwakwoci, and means a breathed prayer. The prayers are addressed to Masauwu, the sun, and other deities concerned in house-life. These feathers are placed at the four corners of the house and a large stone is placed over each of them. The builder then decides where the door is to be located, and marks the place by setting some food on each side of it. He passes round the site sprinkling piki crumbs and other food, mixed with tobacco, along the lines to be occupied by the walls. As he sprinkles the offering he sings his Kitdauwi, house-song : " Si-ai, a-hi, si-ai, a-hai." 1 In the Masonic ceremony of laying the foundation, the Grand Treasurer places under the stone various sorts of coins and medals, amidst solemn music the stone is let down to its place, the Grand Master applies the plumb, square and level to the stone, in their proper positions, and pronounces it to be " well formed, true and trusty," then from the gold and silver vessels, the Grand Master, " according to ancient ceremony, pours the corn, the wine, and the oil on the stone," invoking a blessing upon the people, and assistance of the higher powers in the erection and completion of the structure, and protection for the workmen in their labor, and preservation from decay for the building. He then strikes the stone thrice with his mallet. The corn is emblematic of nourishment, the wine of re- freshment, and the oil of joy. 2 In commenting upon 1 The American Antiquarian, vol. xviii., pp. 18, 19. 2 Encyclopedia of Masonry, p. 187 ; The Masonic Manual, Robert Macoy, pp. 125, 126. Substitution of Vegetable Products. 71 this ceremony , and with particular reference to the burying of the coins and medals and pictures, Mr. Speth observes : " I do not assert that one in a hundred is conscious of what he is doing ; if you ask him he will give some different reason ; but the fact remains that unconsciously, we are following the customs of our fathers, and symbolically providing a soul for the structure. 1 The oil and wine and corn have taken the place of the blood of the primitive sacrifice, and in the language of the following closing lines of a hymn used in concluding the ceremony of laying the corner stone, we are almost unconsciously carried back to the early belief that the foundation must be built on a living being : " On Him, this corner stone we build, To Him, this edifice erect ; And still, until this work's fulfill'd, May Heaven the workman's ways direct." 2 1 Builders' Rites, p. 22. 2 Masonic Manual, p. 296. 72 Foundation Rites. CHAPTER VI. IMAGES. Ik preceding chapters 1 we have referred to the curious animistic belief quite generally accepted by primitive races, in accordance with which, inanimate objects are regarded as having life, or spirit, or soul. It can hardly be questioned that this conception of life is primarily associated with the earliest sacrificial rites pertaining to building. Some further observations upon the character of this early belief seem essential to a proper consideration of the substitution of images for men and beasts in these ceremonies. According to ancient division, soul was the life of the senses, or animal life, as distinct from body, on the one hand, and spirit, on the other. 2 Paul to the Thessa- lonians, asks the preservation of the whole " spirit and soul and body." s Body was the habitat of soul which went out when a man died, as one forsakes a burning house. 4 This is characterized by Mr. Tylor as " the ethereal, surviving soul of early culture." Says he : " The soul, as recognized in the philosophy of the lower races, may be defined as an ethereal surviving being, 1 Chapters i. and v. 2 Capias and His Contemporaries, Edward H. Hall, p. 142, note. 3 I. Thessalonians v. 23. 4 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 16, note. Images. 73 conceptions of which preceded and led up to the more transcendental theory of the immaterial and immortal soul which forms part of the theology of higher nations." 1 The Roman poet Lucretius discusses the question whether souls when men die hunt for particular atoms of worms, and build for themselves carcasses in which they may dwell, or whether they infuse themselves into bodies already made. The science of his day could not comprehend the possibility of myriads of living worms in the decaying body without some fragment of its life being left in it at death to animate them. 2 In view of the dangers arising from the transmission of the soul from one body to another, the poet asks : " Can, then, the soul, thus impotent of frame, When once disrobed, abandoned, and exposed, Through the wide air, to every boisterous breeze, Can it then triumph, dost thou firmly deem, Not o'er all time, but e'en one moment live ? " 3 It was sometimes held that the soul was multiple. Some of them might perish at death but one at least survived indefinitely, and was transferred to some new sphere of activity, its power to do good or evil being thereby increased. 4 As with man so " each bird, each bush, each rock has its own vital principle." 8 It was sometimes identified with a man's breath. 8 The dying man might transfer it to another. Hence they would sometimes crowd around the dying man to catch his 1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii. , p. 24. 2 Watson's Translations, Bohn, p. 130. 3 Good's Translation, Bohn, p. 376. 4 Tlie Religion of Primitive Peoples, D. G. Brinton, p. 71. 6 Ibid., 63. e Ibid., 72. 74 Foundation Rites. soul. 1 The sister of Dido exclaims, "If there still re- mains any last fluttering breath I will catch it with my lips." 2 Says Professor Frazer : "The houses in Nias are raised above the ground on posts, and it has happened that when the dying man lay with his face on the floor, one of the candidates has bored a hole in the floor and sucked in the chief's last breath through a bamboo tube." 3 The soul of a man might be transferred to his statue, or his image, or to a tree. The soul of a tree might take up its abode in another tree. Some tribes when cutting down a tree, would leave one twig standing, or plant another tree, that the spirit might not be rendered homeless. If a spirit for- sook a tree, or having left it for some purpose, forgot its way back, the tree would die. 4 The nineteenth Dyn- asty Egyptian tale of the two brothers relates that Bata placed his soul in a cedar tree for safekeeping, but when the tree was cut down, he fell dead. 5 The perma- nent loss of the soul meant swift destruction. ' ' For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose-his own soul ? " 6 The conclusion follows in prim- itive thought, that to insure the stability and perma- nence of anything, say of a new house, it was necessary to provide it with a soul of its own. The safety of the building was the primary object and this was essential to effect it. 1 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 238. 8 Virgil's JEneid, Bohn, iv. 238. 3 Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 238. 4 Builders 1 Bites, p. 2. 6 Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt, W. M. Flin- ders Petrie, p. 35 ; Records of the Past, vol. ii., p. 147. 6 Matthew xvi. 26. I Images. 75 The soul of a dying chief was sometimes caught in a bag, which was fastened to an image made to represent the deceased. The soul would then pass into the image. 1 The escape of the soul was thought to be by the open- ings of the body. In Celebes, they sometimes fasten fishhooks to a sick man's nose, navel and feet, so that if his soul should try to escape, it may be hooked and held fast. 2 A Haida medicine-man carries a hollow tube in which he bottles up lost souls and restores them to their owners. A picture in a Eussian Bible of the seventeenth century shows Lazarus looking on smiling while the Evil One pulls with a long hook the soul of Dives away, to the music of the drum, accompanied with the groans of other imps. 3 In a Terra Cotta from Melos, of Perseus with the head of the decapitated Me- dusa, the soul of Medusa is represented by a small figure rising out of the headless body and reaching for the head. 4 When the Prophet Zoroaster converted King Vish- taspa, one of the stipulations the king sought to make with the prophet before he accepted the new Faith, was that his soul should not leave his body until the resurrection. In this way he would thwart his enemies should they by any witchcraft seek to rob him of his soul, and so bring about his destruction. 5 It was a very ancient belief that if an image was made of a man and any injury was inflicted upon the 1 Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 239. 2 Ibid., vol. i., p. 123. 3 Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, vol. i., p. 201. 4 TJie Open Court, Nov., 1898. 5 Zoroaster, A. V. W, Jackson, p. 65. 76 Foundation Rites. image, the living man would be afflicted in a corre- sponding manner. If the image was gradually con- sumed the man would pine away and die. One of the Babylonian tablets contains a < formula for exorcis- ing evil spirits who make images to work evil with. It reads : " He who makes an image which injures the man, an evil face, an evil eye, an evil mouth, an evil tongue, evil lips, an evil poison, spirit of earth, re- member, spirit of heaven, remember/' 1 In the Code of Alonzo, the wise, of Castile, in the thirteenth century, this use of images was condemned as causing death or permanent infirmity to those against whom they were used. The law condemned to death those who made use of them. However, those who used images for good purposes, for casting out devils, for removing ligatures, for dissolving hail-clouds or fog, or for destroying locusts and caterpillars were not punished. 2 In 1317, Pope John XXII. issued a bull against science and magic in which he asserted that an attempt had been made to kill him by piercing a waxen image of him with needles in the name of the devil. 3 With the Dacotahs of North America when any one was ill an image of his disease, a boil or what not, was carved in wood. This image was then placed in a bowl of water and shot at with a gun. When the image was de- stroyed the disease disappeared. 4 The Philistines made 1 Records of the Past, vol. i., p. 136. 2 History of the Inquisition, Henry Charles Lea, vol. iii., p. 430. 3 Warfare of Science with Theology, Andrew D. White, vol. i., p. 384. 4 Myth, Ritual and Religion, Andrew Lang, Silver Library, vol. i. p. 99. Images. 77 images of their emerods and their mice and stowed them away in the ark in order to get rid of them. 1 Eed-Indians and Australians make images of bears and kangaroos and spear them in order to ensure success in the hunt. 2 April 26, 1315, Enguerrand de Marigny was arraigned at Vincennes before a council of nobles, and condemned to death, and executed on the 30th, on the charge of instigating his wife and sister to employ a certain man and woman to make waxen images of the young King Louis Hustin, and other personages, for the purpose of causing them to wither and die. 3 Jean d'Amant, in 1317, was tried before Bishop Eeggio charged with attempting the life of the Pope, and under torture, confessed to fabricating figurines, for that purpose, under the command of devils, and was condemned and executed. 4 In 1529 Pierre Eecordi was tried and condemned for making wax figurines, with invocations of demons, having prepared the images with the blood of toads mixed with his own blood and saliva, as a sacrifice to Satan, for the purpose of obtaining possession of cer- tain women. An image was placed under the threshold of the house of a woman he desired to gain control of, when, if she did not yield to him, she was tor- mented by a demon. When the images had accom- plished their work they were tossed in the river, and a butterfly was sacrificed to the demon. Recordi was 1 1. Samuel vi. 4, 5. 2 Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. i., p. 100. 3 History of the Inquisition, vol. iii. , p. 451. 4 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 452. 78 Foundation Rites. condemned to perpetual imprisonment with chains on his hands and feet, in the Carmelite Convent of Toulouse. 1 Plato condemned the use of waxen images by sorcerers in Greece, where they were set up at the cross-roads or affixed to the door of the victim, or at the tomb of his ancestors. 2 Professor Jastrow speaks of the popular use of images among the ancient Assyrians. An image of the desired victim was made of clay, or pitch, honey, fat, or other soft material, and physical torture was inflicted upon the person represented by " burning it, burying it among the dead, placing it in a coffin, cast- ing it into a pit or into a fountain, hiding it in an in- accessible place, placing it in spots that had a peculiar significance, as the doorposts, the threshold, under the arch of gates ; it would prognosticate in this way a fate corresponding to one of these acts for the un- fortunate victim." 3 The laws of Draco treated inanimate objects as if living beings. They were punished for injuries acci- dentally committed. The statue of Theagenes was indicted for murder because it finally fell upon one of his enemies who persisted in scourging it daily, and killed him. Under the law it was thrown into the sea. 4 One phase of the curious belief in relation to the soul in the thought of primitive people, is manifested in the formerly widespread custom of sacrifice at tombs. Small wooden figures are found in mummy cases which 1 History of the Inquisition, vol. iii., p. 456. 2 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 389. 3 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 268. 4 Pausanias, book vi. , chap. ii. Images. 79 are supposed to represent servants who accompanied their master to the realm of the departed, in order to serve him there. They were termed by the Egyptians ushebte, (i answerers," that is, those who would an- swer for the departed, and perform work for him. 1 Slaves and concubines were immolated at the funeral of a chief of the Aztecs. At the obsequies of the Chichimec rulers the guardian of the domestic idols was the first victim sacrificed. Two male slaves and three women were sacrificed among the Miztecs. In Michoacan seven women were sacrificed at the death of the chief. All were to serve him. In the honor of JSTezahualpilli two hundred men and a hundred women were offered up. 2 On the death of an Inca, the body was embalmed and removed to the temple of the sun at Cuzco, but the bowels were taken from the body to the temple of Tampu, five leagues away from the capital, and with them were buried plate and jewels, and sometimes a thousand servants and concubines. 3 Some slaves -are sacrificed at once when a person of consequence dies among the Ashantees so that he may have immediate attendance. A sufficient number of attendants are provided for him later. Heads of victims are placed at the bottom of the grave. Some of the lookers-on are called to assist in arranging the coffin or basket, and just as it rests upon the heads, a stone from behind stuns one of the assist- ants, followed by a cut in the back of the neck, 1 Biblical Antiquities, Smithsonian Institution Publication, p. 1003 ; The Mummy, E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 211, 215. 2 Pre-Historic America , Marquis de Nadaillac, p. 304. 3 History of Peru, W. H. Prescott, vol. i., pp. 33, 34. 80 Foundation Rites. when he is rolled into the grave which is filled up at once. 1 According to the Nilus' account, the holy camel was sacrificed by the Arabs upon a rude cairn, or heap of stones, and Grant Allen thinks this primitive altar was the grave of a chieftain of the tribe. 2 Egyptians of wealth and standing sacrificed their servants at the tomb so that they might follow their masters, as helpers, and be ready to till the fields of Aalu. Their bodies were embalmed and their statues placed in the tomb, prayers were inscribed for them, and they were expected to serve their masters faith- fully in the next world in recompense for the care be- stowed upon their mortal remains. In later times the mummiform statuettes already referred to took the place of human sacrifices. 3 Gonds of India sometimes make straw-men and sacrifice as substitutes for human sacrifice. An Indian law-book prescribes that when the sacrifice of lions, tigers or human beings is required, an image of a lion, tiger, or man shall be made with butter, paste or barley meal, and sacrificed instead. 4 A story is told by Marco Polo illustrating the belief that the life or soul can be transferred to the image, and the image substituted for the living person. In describing the burial custom of the better class of peo- ple in the city of Sachion in one of the provinces of the Great Khan, he says : " When the body is carried 1 History of Religions, Thomas Williams, 1823, p. 27. 2 Idea of God, Grant Allen, p. 333. 3 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A Wiedeman, pp. 254, 355. * Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 252. Images. 81 through the city to be buried without, wooden cottages are erected in the way, with a porch covered with silk, in which they place the body, and set before it bread, flesh and delicate meats, supposing the spirit to be refreshed therewith, which is held to be constantly present at the burying of the body ; and when they come to the place where the body is to be buried, they diligently and curiously paint upon papers made of the bark of trees the images of men and women, horses, camels, money and garments, all the instruments of the city sounding, which are burned together with the dead body ; for they say, the dead man shall have so many man-servants, and maid-servants, and cattle, and money, in another life, as pictures of them were burned with him, and shall perpetually live in that honor and riches." 1 The same author also tells us that all the great Khans and Princes of the blood of Zingis are carried to the mountain of Altai to be buried, wherever they may die, although it may be a great distance. Those who carry the corpse to the burial-place kill all with whom they meet, commanding them to go and serve the King in another life. They also kill the best horses with which they meet. "When the body of one of the great Khans was carried to the mountain ten thousand people were slain by the soldiers on the occa- sion, to furnish the king an army in the other world. 2 The horse of Baldur and his dwarf were burned with his body. 3 On the funeral pyre of Patroklos Achilles 1 Voyages of Marco Polo, chap. xi. 2 Ibid., chap. xiii. 3 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Bohn, p. 448. 6 82 Foundation Rites. placed the horses and hounds of the dead warrior. 1 It is but a little more than a hundred years since at the funeral of a cavalry general at Treves, his horse was led in the procession and killed at the grave and thrown upon the coffin. 2 " A cook, a groom, a page, a courier, and horses " were buried with the Scythian kings, ac- cording to the oldest of historians. 3 Riderless horses in the funeral procession of dead soldiers are modern survivals of the ancient rite. The artistic representation of the soul as a small human image has already been mentioned. This con- ception was common to many districts of the East. " The idea of a soul as a sort of thumbling is familiar to the Hindus and to German folk-lore." 4 We have spoken of the anxiety of King Yishtaspa lest his soul should escape from his body into the hands of his enemies. During the sleeping hours it was especially liable to wander away. If detained beyond a certain time its owner sickened and died. 5 Other wandering souls might take possession of its habitation during its absence. It might fall into the hands of unscrupulous mercenaries and be held for reward, or purposes of magic. It might meet with injury inflicted for re- venge by an enemy, and then the owner would die. By artful contrivances these souls were sometimes en- ticed away from their rightful homes. A study of this widely-spread belief throws light on the language of the Prophet. It seems to me unques- tionable, that it was these traffickers in souls which 1 Iliad, xxiii. 175. 2 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 474. 8 Herodotus, iv., 71, Gary's translation. * Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 450, note. 5 Ibid., i. 438. _ Images. 83 the prophet Ezekiel condemns : " Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, (amulets on all wrists), 1 and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature (fillets for the heads of persons of every height) to hunt souls ! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you ? 2 And will ye pollute me among my people for hand- fuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies ? 3 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly. Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my peo- ple out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord." 4 1 Polychrome Ezekiel, C. H. Toy, xiii. 18. Amulet is ex- plained in a note as a magic wristband in which a spirit is supposed to dwell. 2 Professor Toy says the last clause cannot be satisfactorily translated and better be omitted. Notes to chapter 13. The meaning is clear, however, as rendered in the King James version, if the interpretation here given is correct. 3 It is probable that the translators of the King James ver- sion believed in the actuality of these transactions with souls. It will be remembered that, in their dedication, they exalted the King for his book in defense of the belief in "Witchcraft, which he had written in answer to the work of Reginald Scott, who pronounced it a delusion. 4 -Ezekiel, King James' Translation, xiii. 18-21. 84 Foundation Rites. Mary Kingsley says that the Negroes on the West Coast of Africa are continually setting traps to catch the souls which wander from bodies of those who are asleep. When they have caught the soul they tie it up over the canoe fire and the owner sickens and dies. The trapper cares not whose soul he has caught. It is a matter of business with him. He holds it for reward and will only deliver it up on payment of his fees. Some witch doctors keep asylums for the entertainment of lost souls which have been wandering, and on return, found the bodies to which they belonged occupied by trespassing souls. These professionals harbor these strayed outcasts, and finally dispose of them to parties who have been bereft in like manner. Sometimes a trap is set for some particular soul which they desire to gain possession of. The trap is carefully baited. Knives and sharp hooks are concealed in the bottom of it when the trap is set for some one whom they wish to injure or destroy. If in this way they succeed in lac- erating or damaging the soul, even if it returns to its proper owner, he will then sicken and die. 1 A similar belief is found at Ilea, one of the Loyalty Islands. It is said they formerly had soul-doctors who were sent for when a man was ill, to restore souls to forsaken bodies. The doctor when sent for with his assistants to the number of twenty or more went to the burial-place of the family of the sick man, and arriving there, commenced playing on their nasal flutes to entice back the fugitive spirit to its old tenement. The women assisted by whistling. Finally the procession moved towards the dwelling of the invalid, playing their flutes 1 Travels in Western Africa, Mary H. Kingsley, p. 462. 1 Images. 85 and whistling, and so enticing back the truant spirit, which as they entered the house was peremptorily ordered to enter the body of the sick man. 1 Among the Karens the " Wi " has the power of re- viving the dead or dying, but he must first catch the spirit of some person alive and divert it to the dead one. 2 These crude ideas of early races in relation to the soul or life have been dwelt upon to a considerable ex- tent, for to them is traced the origin of the belief in the efficacy and potency of images as substitutes for living beings. It remains to point out some traces of this substitution in the rites under consideration, in ancient and modern times. The ancient Eomans were accustomed to place statues and images, as substitutes for living persons, under the foundations of their buildings. 3 Mr. Speth says : " In Kome many statues have been found in foundations, actually hidden from sight, although good works of art." 4 A fine statue was unearthed at the foundations of a convent which was being enlarged. It was carefully buried again by order of the monks who were superintending the work, in deference to the primitive belief of those who had originally placed it there. 5 " At Rome models in wax or dough often took 1 Principles of Sociology, Herbert Spencer, vol. i., p. 777, quoting from W. W. Gill's Myths and Songs from the South Pacific. 2 Ibid., p. 777, on authority of Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal. 8 TJie TJireshold Covenant, p. 56. 4 Builders' Rites, p. 9. 5 The Threshold Covenant, p. 56. 86 Foundation Rites. the place of animals. The same thing took place at Athens. " ' The successors of the Hindu Rajahs who laid their foundations in blood, sacrificed effigies of dried milk, according to the formula laid down in the later books. 3 1 Religion of the Semites, p. 222, note. a Builders' Rites, p. 45. ii Images. 87 CHAPTER VII. images (continued). Ik the Early and Middle Ages the science of the stars was supposed to exert a potent influence on all things human and terrestrial. Divination by points or circles made on the earth, or by casting figures, directed build- ers rightly. A Chinese author says, if bridges are not placed in proper position, such as the laws of geomancy indicate, they endanger the lives of thousands, by bringing about a visitation of smallpox, or sore eyes. 1 Books of geomancy, necromancy, and books of the Images were accepted authorities in the Middle Ages. Savonarola says every prelate had his astrologer and the Church itself was governed by astrology, at the end of the fifteenth century. 3 If the foundations of a house were to be laid, the astrologer stood by with his astro- labe to take the stars. The foundation of a city among the ancient Assyrians was a religious act. The preliminary operations were to be conducted with great care. Even the maledic- tions of the former owners of the soil might bring ill- luck upon the new city. " Each detail in the arrange- ments/' says Maspero, " is marked by long and com- plicated rites. It does not suffice to trace out an 1 Demonology and Devil Lore, M. D. Conway, vol. i. , p. 204. 2 History of the Inquisition, Charles Henry Lea, vol. iii., p. 438. 88 Foundation Rites. enclosure, to plan streets, to open markets, to assemble haphazard several thousands of families ; if the founder wishes that his work should last and prosper, he must draw within its walls not only a human popu- lation, but a divine one, too ; he must invoke a number of gods, who will not leave the town and will undertake to protect the inhabitants." 1 Therefore, when Sargon, the great King of Assyria, in the twelfth year of his reign, founded the capital city of Dur-Sarginu, before' beginning his operations, he devoutly consulted Hea, the king of the gods, and his sister Damkou. He went to the temple of Ishtar, Queen of Nineveh, and implored her blessing upon his scheme. Finding favor in her eyes, and receiving assurances of her assistance, he assembled his laborers and collected his materials. The city was laid out and its sides were traced with angles corresponding to the four points of heaven. To sanctify this structure and avert evil influences, figur- ines in baked clay, representing the great gods of the country, and cylinders and amulets were placed in various parts of it and in the openings for the gate- ways. 2 The very bricks for public buildings were holy things. They could only be made at certain seasons of the year, and must be prepared under the auspices of the lord of foundations, the god Sivan, in the month which bore his name. " The King, therefore, came during the first days of Sivan, and encamped with a large suite in the plain of Magganoubba. An altar had been erected ; he lit the fire, poured a libation in to the consecrated brass vase, killed a bull, and with 1 Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, G. Maspero, p. 193. 2 Ibid., p. 196. Images. 89 uplifted hands he prayed that Sivan and his father, Bel, the architect of the universe, would consent to direct the works." 1 Long afterwards, when it is finished, each of the gates is dedicated to one of the principal gods of the city, and the huge winged bulls, with human heads, are placed against the inner walls to stand as " the mystic guardians of the city," and to "ward off not only the attacks of men, but the inva- sion of evil spirits and of pernicious maladies." 2 As figures of composite animals of stone or metal, sometimes of colossal size, were placed at the entrances of the temple of the gods and the palaces of kings, by the Assyrians, which were considered as emblems of divine power, and believed to exclude all evil, 3 so lions were placed on either side of the steps of the gilded ivory throne of Solomon. There were six steps, and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions beside the stays. Twelve lions stood upon either side. 4 The winged composite figures of the Assyrians are connected by Assyriologists with the creatures seen in the vision of Ezekiel, and with the cherubim guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden, and with those carved on the Ark of the Covenant. 5 Says Professor Toy : " The form of the creatures is made up by the Prophet's imagination out of Baby- lonian material ; they bear a close resemblance (except in their upright form) to the guardian deity. Such composite forms, which go back to a remote antiquity, 1 Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, p. 200. 2 Ibid. 3 Biblical Antiquities, Smithsonian Publication, p. 1008. * I Kings x. 19, 20. * Biblical Antiquities, p. 1008. 90 Foundation Rites. came originally from the old animal- worship." * Mr. E. B. Tylor says : "It is improbable that at the time of Ezekiel there were any other types in the world answering the description of the four wings and the hands below them, except such Babylonian-Assyrian winged deities, and the adaptations of them by neigh- boring nations. 2 Of the Assyrian winged beings car- rying fertilizing cones in their hands, before the sacred palm-tree, which were conspicuous on the palace walls of Nineveh, Mr. Tylor says, " In more degenerate forms the art-student may trace the influence of such groups in the ornamentation of the Eenaissance, as in the Loggie of the Vatican." 3 They are " the predecessors of the winged genii whose graceful forms pervade Greek, Etruscan, and Eoman art. In later times when Christianity became an imperial religion, the Victories and Cupids and guardian genii of pagan Kome with slight change gave rise to the Christian angels, and as such have ever since retained their artistic place. " 4 The Assyrian palm-tree separated from the winged deities whose office was to make it fruitful, has made its way over the world, and given rise to the conventional Greek ornament called the "honeysuckle." " Eeduced to mere decoration, this pattern pervades modern build- ings and furniture, repeated with wearisome iteration by craftsmen from whose minds the sense of original meaning in ornament has long since died out. It is curious to see sometimes on a church wall the honey- suckle pattern bordering a space round sculptured 1 Polychrome Ezekiel, C. H. Toy, p. 95, note 6, chap. 1. 2 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, June 3, 1890, p. 391. 8 Ibid., p. 392. 4 Ibid., p. 393. Images. 91 angels, and to remember how far off and how long ago it was that the ancestor of the angel tended the an- cestor of the plant." ' The ancient Egyptians believed the gods themselves inhabited statues or figures made in their honor. 2 The custom of placing figures in temples and tombs is as old as the settlement of the Egyptians in Egypt. 3 By taking with him to the tomb the statuette of any god, the deceased placed himself under the sj)ecial protection of that deity, who would help him according to his power in the world to come. The greater the number and variety of gods he took with him, the more sure was he that the power of one would supplement that of another. These statues were supposed to be changed into real gods in the underworld, who would hasten to his service when properly invoked. 4 Images of divinities were placed in secret cavities in the walls of the houses which were supposed to be able by their influence to protect from evil influences the inhabitants of the dwelling. They were also buried in sand around the temples for the same purpose. 5 The secret cell in the walls for the images in a temple at Dabod, is described by Miss Edwards : " Adjoining the sanctuary is a dark side-chamber ; in the floor of the side-chamber is a pit, once paved over ; in one corner of the pit is a man-hole opening into a narrow passage ; and in the narrow passage are steps leading up to a 1 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, June 3, 1890. 2 The Mummy, E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 267. 3 Ibid. , p. 303. 4 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 296. & The Mummy, pp. 267, 269. 92 Foundation Rites. secret chamber constructed in the thickness of the wall." A block of masonry closes the secret entrance so perfectly as to defy detection. 1 Figures of the kings were placed in the temples and honored with services and offerings. According to the Kosetta stone the priests of all Egypt decreed that a figure or statue of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes, should be placed in the most conspicuous part of every temple, and service be performed three times daily before it. 2 Nineteen statues of Ti, a gentleman of the Fifth Dynasty, were found immured in the walls of his tomb. 3 A hiding place without inlet or outlet was constructed for the accommodation of these statues in the thickness of the wall of the tomb. 4 "Every sculptured statue, every painted portrait, whether of a living person or of a dead person, was regarded as a supplementary body dedicated to the service of the Ka," & which Miss Edwards defines as the life or vital principle. 6 Images of the gods of vanquished people were carried home by their conquerors, among ancient nations. The captivity of the god was the humiliation of its worshipers. It was practised by the Persians, the Greeks and the Eomans. 7 A temple was appropriated to the idols of conquered nations in the city of Mexico. 8 The Peruvians carried to the temple of the 1 A Thousand Miles up the Nile, Amelia B. Edwards, vol. ii., p. 166. 2 The Mummy, p. 301. 3 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, Amelia B. Edwards, p. 140. * Ibid., p. 116. 5 Ibid., p. 134. 6 Ibid., p. 129. 7 Pausanias' Description of Greece, vol. viii., p. 46. 8 Myths of the New World, p. 332. Images. 93 sun at Cuzco images of deities of nations over whom they were victorious, and, held in captivity, they ranked among the inferior gods of their conquerors. * Through the possession of their images the help and favor and protection of the gods they represented would be ob- tained. For this Eachel stole the Teraphim. 2 On the trial of Bridget Bishop for witchcraft, in New England, it was proven, that "poppets made up of rags and hog's bristles " stuck with headless pins, points outward, were entombed in her cellar-walls. 3 "The great powers of evil, " says Leland, "among whom was death, were more afraid of their own like- nesses than of anything else, for which reason horrible figures were placed here and there to protect all houses," among the Babylonian and Ninevite peoples. In this way the same author accounts for the presence of odd and puzzling figures, in Christian churches in the Middle Ages. It was a " manifold application of the principle of homeopathy," according to the lore of the time, "the driving out of devils by devils." 4 A hideous statue with a club stands at each of the four corners of the city walls of Mandalay, a survival of the ancient custom of the old Burmese kings, who buried a man alive at each of the corners of the walls of their capital city for its protection. 5 1 Prescott's Conquest of Peru, vol. i., p. 78. 2 Genesis, xxx. 19. 3 Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather, p. 137; Tlie Magnalia, ii. 397. 4 Etruscan Roman Remains, C. G. Leland, p. 306. 5 Builders' Rites, p. 43, on authority of a paper read before the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, in 1892. 94 Foundation Rites. In 1885, in the Anglo-Burmese war, King Thibaw employed Brahman astrologers, to establish a cordon of spiritual guards, by their incantations, round the palace stockade, that they might protect the royal inmates and drive back the British soldiery. 1 The Lacedemonians erected a statue of Enyalius, the war-god, in fetters, believing that, in this way, they could always retain him with them to conquer their enemies. 2 There were discovered a few years ago, in the interior of a bastion of London wall, figures and sculptures which are preserved in the Museum at Guildhall. 3 When the north wall of the parish church of Chumleigh in North Devon, was taken down a few years ago, there was found in it a very early carved figure of Christ crucified to a vine, or interlacing tree. The north wall having been falling in the fifteenth century, had been re-erected, and this figure was laid in it, and the wall built over it. 4 There have been found immured in foundation walls in Holland rude objects resembling nine-pins, which were thought to be rude imitations of babes in swaddling clothes, substituted for living children. 6 Painted images on the walls, and sculptured images built into the walls, of temples and churches, have been common from the remotest historical times, although the primary ideas of utility connected with their primitive use has been lost sight of in later times, and 1 Builders' Rites, p. 43. 2 Pausanias' Description of Greece, book iii., chap. 15. 3 Builders' Rites, p. 10. 4 On Foundations. 5 Ibid. Images. 95 they have come to be regarded largely as artistic adorn- ments. The image of the Virgin with a light before her, in a house in St. Pierre Martinique, is believed by the natives to entice the Virgin in, to bless the occupants, when she walks the street in her daily visitation, at six o'clock. 1 For the protection of the great one-story wooden communal buildings of the pueblo on the Northwest Coast, the main house-posts of fir, two or more feet square, ten feet tall, were carved to represent the thunder bird, the lightning snake, Dokibatl the Changer, or some other mythological character, or some family totem. 2 The Swastika which some suppose to have been the earliest form of the cross, is said to have been carved on the temples, and other edifices of Mexico and Central America. 3 It was in use in India, fifteen centuries be- fore the Christian era, and is found on a number of Buddhist edifices. 4 In India it was placed on the wall beside the doorpost to guard against the evil eye. It was depicted on the place where the family gods were kept, and on the rock walls of the caves. 5 It has been found in pre-historic lake dwellings of the bronze age. 6 A Chinese work says Wu Tsung-Chih, a learned man of Sin Shui, built a residence which was named " Wan- Chai," because of the Swastika decorations of the 1 Two Years in the French West Indies, Lafcadio Hearne, p. 376. 2 TJie American Antiquarian, vol. xviii., p. 21. 3 Tlie Swastika, Smithsonian Publication, p. 797. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., pp. 803, 805. 6 Ibid., p. 806. 96 Foundation Rites. exterior. 1 It was placed on bells of parish churches at Appleby, Mexborough, Haythersaye, Waddington, Bishop's Norton, West Barkwith, and other places, as a magical sign to subdue the vicious spirit of the tempest. 2 A gigantic sculptured head, seven feet high, has been found at Izamal, one of the sacred towns of Yucatan, where the traditions of the natives say, the head of the prophet Zamna was buried beneath the pyramid known as the house of heads and lightnings. 3 At Labna, a row of skulls and human figures in stucco adorned the chief building, while actual human heads were en- shrined in the masonry of the immense pyramid, Tzem- pantli. 4 The sculpturing of the great temple of the war-god of the Aztecs represented walls of serpents. 6 The worshiper at the temple of Quetzacoatl gained entrance by crawling through the half-open mouth of a serpent. 6 Interlaced serpents were sculptured on the doors of the palace of the Inca, Huayna-Capac, and other buildings at Cuzco. 7 The hexagonal prism of baked clay preserved in the British Museum, which was found near Nineveh on the mound of Nebbi Yunus, describes the building of the palace of Esarhaddon. Twenty-two kings "of the land of Syria " brought "from the mountains of Sirar and Lebanon" divine images and bas reliefs for the pal- ace. "In a fortunate month, and on a holy day," the record reads, " great palaces for the residence of my majesty I began to build. Bulls and lions, carved in 1 The Swastika, p. 801. 2 Ibid., p. 798. 8 Pre-Historic America, Nadaillac, D'Anvers' translation, p. 348. 4 Ibid., pp. 340, 360. & Ibid., p. 358. 6 Ibid., p. 359. 7 Ibid., p. 415. Images. 97 stone, which with their majestic mien deter wicked en- emies from approaching, the guardians of the footsteps, the saviours of the path, of the King who constructed them, right and left, I placed them at the gates." Lionesses of bronze on sculptured bases were placed within it. " The great building from its foundation to its summit, I built and finished, and called it The Pal- ace, which rivals the world." Within the Palace was placed " the bull of good fortune, the genius of good fortune, the guardian of the footsteps " of his Majesty, to bring joy to his heart and watch over it forever. 1 The old Norse Nithing-post was supposed to have the power of working evil against the party towards whom it was set up, and it would bring destruction upon the dwelling towards which it was turned. A pole with a horse's head made one of great efficacy. A simple twig of the sacred hazel, however, would answer for one. It is related in one of the Sagas, that Jokul and Thornstein, having accepted a challenge from Fin- bogi, went to the place of meeting at the appointed time, but when, on account of a storm, their opponents did not appear, Jokul resolved to proclaim Finbogi a coward, and set up a Nithing-post against him. So he fashioned from a block of wood the rude figure of a human head, upon it cut magical runes, and fixed it to a post. He then killed a mare, opened the breast, and stuck the post in it, with the carved head turned to- wards Finbogi's dwelling, to bring disgrace and evil upon him. 2 When Eigil, in the ninth century, was banished from Norway, he took a horse's head and fixed it to a 1 Records of the Past, vol. iii., pp. 121-123. 2 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 156. 7 98 Foundation Rites. stake which he drove in the ground, and turning the head towards the land from which he had heen driven he exclaimed : il I turn this my banishment against the protecting deities of this country in order that they may all of them roam wildly about and never find a rest- ing place until they have driven out King Eirek and Queen Gunhilda." By this means it was supposed his own wrongs would be turned upon those who had caused them, and compass their destruction. 1 The interlacing vine to which the image of Christ was crucified, which was embedded in the wall of Chum- leigh, has a significance reaching far back into anti- quity. The Egyptians held the ivy sacred to Osiris, and the Greeks to Dionysus. It crowned the Eoman poets. It was the haunt of elves and fairies and had medical and magical properties in the Middle Ages. Marcellus of Bordeaux prescribed ivy taken from the head of a statue, plucked in the waning of the moon, as a cure for pain in the head. On the head of Bacchus it signified life. Christians laid it in coffins as a sym- bol of life. 2 On the walls of castles and towers and churches it carried protection from evil spirits which haunted them. It survives as a decoration, although its primitive significance is forgotten. Interlacing vines and branches were foils against witches and charms to counteract the effects of the Evil Eye. That certain eyes possessed power of fasci- nation and of exerting evil influences, is one of the most widespread and venerable of human beliefs. It is sanctioned by classical authors, physicians and the 1 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 156. 2 Etruscan Roman Remains, pp. 256, 257. Images. 99 Fathers of the Church. Its power is recognized in the Hebrew proverb, 1 and by St. Paul. 2 Some Evil Eye bewitched the tender lambs of Menalcas. 3 Pope Pius IX. was credited with possessing the power, and it is said that devout Christians, while receiving his bene- diction, with amulets and flexions of the fingers, guard- ed themselves against his Evil Eye. 4 Serpents were painted on the walls of the Etruscans, 5 to bring good fortune, and counteract the spells of Evil Eyes. To be effective they must be interlaced, with heads downwards and tails uppermost. They were on the walls of Cuzco and the temple of the war-god of the Aztecs. 6 Plaiting the hair in interlaces was in Chaldean magic a cure for the headache. Interlaced branches of the mulberry- trees protect the silk-worms from the influ- ence of the Evil Eye in Italy. Bewildering patterns in the carpets avert it in Persia. Rice strewn in the form of a cross about the bed secures it from witches in South Carolina. A linen cloth fastened to the chim- ney, or mustard on the doorsill, answered the same pur- pose among the blacks of Missouri. Cords intertwined or braided, as well as serpents, guarded the houses of the Etruscans. Shoes were made with the stitches crossed, and garments with the threads interlaced. Braided charms of cotton, or silk, or linen were carried in the pockets and sold in the shops. Says Leland, 1 Proverbs, xxiii. 6. 2 Galatians, iii. i. 3 Virgil, Eclogue, iii. 4 The 2Iagic of the Horseshoe, Robert M. Lawrence, p. 13. 5 Etruscan Roman Remains, p. 168. 6 Pre-Historic America, p. 127. LofC. ioo Foundation Rites. " this belief possibly enters into the real inspiration of all the most decorative art of all Europe, especially of the Middle Ages." * As sunflowers are emblems of the sun, the image of day before which evil spirits flee, therefore an offering of them placed on the threshold protects the house. 2 A hatchet, a pestle and a broom, in the form of a cross on the threshold, in a house where a babe is born, pro- tects the child from witches. 3 For this purpose coins are put under the doorsill when the foundations of a building were laid in China. 4 The moon might smite with disease or death. 5 Silver was the moon's own metal. 6 It were ill-luck not to have silver in the pocket when the new moon appeared. 7 When the responses of the oracle of the temple of Orapus had healed the af- flicted, silver coins were tossed in the fountain. 8 One secured the favor of elves and spirits if he passed their haunts, by burying silver coins beneath their temples of rocks and trees, and repeating : " These things I bury That I may gratify Spirits or witches That they may never Such things be wanting Or go against me, Changing my fortune From good unto evil." 9 1 Etruscan Roman Remains, pp. 168-172. 2 Ibid., p. 157. 3 Ibid., p. 208. 4 The Threshold Covenant, p. 71. 5 Myths of the Neiv World, p. 117 ; Psalms cxxi. 6. « Moon Lore, T. Harley, p. 219. 7 Ibid., p. 218. 8 Pausanias, book i. , chap. 34. 9 Etruscan Roman Remains, p. 156. Images. 101 The king's image enhanced the value of the precious metal as an offering. It then became a substitute for the living sacrifice. The Komans placed leaden seals stamped with the image of the Emperor in the foundations of their build- ings, and a Christian house built in the reign of Joviau, the successor of Julian, has been discovered at Kome, buried in the walls of which was a leaden seal with the image of Christ thereon. 1 Whatever may have been the thought in the cultured minds of those who placed the images of the Emperor and of Jesus in their foundation walls, without doubt they were unconsciously following the customs of their ancestors and " symbolically provid- ing a soul for the structure." " From the conscious- ness of cultured humanity/' says Herbert Spencer, " there have so completely disappeared certain notions natural to the consciousness of uncultured humanity, that it has become almost incredible that they should have been ever entertained. Bub just as certain as it is that the absurd beliefs at which parents laugh when displayed in their children were once their own ; so certain is it that advanced peoples, to whom primitive conceptions seem ridiculous, had forefathers who held these primitive conceptions." 2 The use of phallic images was widespread in an- tiquity. 3 It was observed in various parts of America. The women of Paraguay carried an image of the phallus 1 Magazine of Christian Literature, vol. iii., p. 47, " Dis- covery of an early Christian House at Rome," by S. Baring- Gould. 2 Principles of Sociology, vol. ii., p. 694. 3 Religion of the Semites, p. 438. 102 Foundation Rites. as an amulet. It was found by the soldiers of Cortez in relief on the walls of the temples in Panuca. It was found among the ruins of Mexico and Yucatan. 1 It was found at Uxmal. 2 " Reverence for phallic emblems shows itself in the earliest historic remains of Baby- lonia, Assyria, India, China, Japan, Persia, Phrygia, Phoenicia, Egypt, Abyssinia, Greece, Rome, Germany, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Great Britain, North and South America, and the Islands of the Sea." 8 Large quantities of phallic emblems were discovered at Tello, by M. de Sarzac, embedded in the walls, and also at Nippur. Those at Tello are described as made of (i baked clay, like long large-headed nails, some eight or nine inches in length," with inscriptions, and " thrust into the bitumen mortar between the bricks." Loftus found at Warka (ancient Erech) u a wall built entirely of these curious nail-headed cones, arranged in pat- terns." While but few of these were found at Nippur, large numbers of other phallic remains were found " by the side of a brick wall near the outer northern corner of the temple. This wall was encased in an immense mass of mud bricks. . . . The phalli lay along the base of the wall in such a manner that it seemed certain they must have been pushed into the spaces between the bricks, or pressed against the wall, and afterwards fallen to the ground." These were of all sizes from a foot or more down to an inch, and were made of different ma- terials, some clay, some porcelain, some stone, some were ornamented and others were plain. Dr. Peters expresses i Myths of the New World, pp. 176, 177. 2 Pre-Historic America, p. 338. a The Threshold Covenant, p. 230. Images. 103 the opinion they were connected with the worship of Ishtar, and were thrust or built into the wall. 1 Is it not probable that these phallic images were foundation offerings, and that they were survivals of more barbar- ous sacrifices in primitive times ? A magazine for the manufacture of these objects in large numbers was found at Nippur, 3 and at Lagash, De Sarzac found, besides cones, large numbers of copper statuettes of gods and goddesses and of animals, all ter- minating in a sharp point or attached to a cone-shaped object. At one place he found a series of them set up in concentric circles in the corners of an edifice and under the floor. 3 Professor Jastrow, while not inclined to accept these objects as phallic emblems, says " there can be no doubt that they were used to be stuck into some substance," and that they were placed at various parts of a building "asa means of securing the favor of the gods." 4 1 Nippur, John P. Peters, vol. ii., pp. 236, 237. 2 Religion of Babylonia arid Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., p. 670. 3 Ibid., p. 673. * Ibid., p. 673. 104 Foundation Rites. CHAPTEE VIII. SHADOWS AND SPECTERS. To the primitive man, as real as the body itself/ is the shadow which it casts upon the wall. The shadow is part of the living being, or the life itself. " May your shadow never grow less/' is a salutation the con- ventional meaning of which is, may prosperity and health attend you ; but there is little doubt that its original significance was connected with the crude thought that a shadowless man was a dead man. In the abode of the dead, his shadow betrayed Dante, as a living person. " As soon as those in the advance saw broken The light upon the ground at my right side, So that from me the shadow reached the rock, They stopped, and backward drew themselves somewhat ; And all the others who came after them, Not knowing why nor wherefore, did the same. Without your askings I confess to you This is a human body which you see, Whereby the sunshine on the ground is cleft." 2 The Zulus thought the reason a dead person had no shadow was because the shadow was the soul which had departed from the body when the person died. 8 Among 1 Principles of Sociology, Herbert Spencer, vol. i., p. 114. 2 Longfellow 's Translation, Purgatory of Dante, canto iii. 8 The Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 820. Shadows and Specters. 105 many races the two were identified as the same. The same word was frequently employed indifferently to sig- nify the soul or the shadow. 1 The Greenlanders say the shadow is one of the two souls which a man has, and it is the one which wanders away from his body at night when he is asleep. 2 The reflection of a man in the water or in a mirror was believed to be the soul by the Andamanese, the Fijians and many others. The Zulus thought a beast dwelt in dark pools which would take away a man's reflection and leave him to die. The Basutos believed crocodiles had the power to draw the reflection under water thereby causing his death. 3 It was for this reason that in ancient India and Greece it was a maxim that one must not look upon his image in water. It was an omen of death to dream of seeing one's self so reflected. If the water-spirit dragged the reflection underneath the water, he would die soulless. 4 Mirrors are accursed things, in the opinion of the Easkolniks, because they draw out the souls or reflec- tions of people, and so facilitate their escape or capture. 5 The custom of covering up mirrors after a death in the house is very widespread, and prevails in many coun- tries. The mirror is sometimes covered in the sick room. The soul is then prone to take flight, and the assistance of the mirror in projecting it out of the body might hasten death. 6 As with shadows and re- flections so it is with portraits. They are believed to 1 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 430. 2 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 116. 8 Tlie Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 145. * Ibid., vol. i., p. 146. 5 Ibid., vol. i., p. 146 ? « Ibid., vol. i,. p. 148. io6 Foundation Rites. contain the souls of the persons portrayed. It is for this reason that natives are unwilling to have their portraits taken oftentimes. They fear the loss of the soul with the picture, and that death will follow. There is a belief among some people of Russia that if their silhouettes are taken they will die within the year. 1 Instances are given of persons in the West of Scotland who fear to lose their health or life by being photographed. 2 In some islands near the equator, where little or no shadow is cast at noon, it is considered dangerous to go out of the house at midday lest a man may lose his soul. 3 Magicians in the island of Wetar pretend to be able to kill a man by stabbing his shadow. Demons in the Babar Islands get possession of a man's soul by secur- ing his shadow. 4 A certain hero among the Mangaians was easily slain at noon when it was discovered that as his shadow shortened, his strength waned. 5 A sacred enclosure on Mount Lycseus is said to have had the peculiarity that neither man nor beasts ever cast a shadow within it. It was believed that if a man entered this enclosure he was sure to die within a year. 6 The separation of the man from his shadow caused his death. If a man forfeited his soul he cast no shadow. In the (i Lay of the Last Minstrel," of the magician who had learned his art "in Padua, far beyond the sea," the poet says : 1 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p., 149 ; Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 820. 2 Ibid., vol. i., p. 149. 3 Ibid., vol. i., p. 142. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., vol. i; p. 143. v 6 Pausanias, book viii., chap. 38. Shadows and Specters. 107 " When in studious mood, he paced St. Andrews' cloistered hall, His form no darkening shadow traced Upon the sunny wall. " 1 Claude Frollo, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, speculates on the possibility of making gold from sun- beams, and says, " Averoes buried one under the first pillar on the left, in the sanctuary of the Koran, in the Grand Mosque at Cordova ; but the vault must not be opened to see whether the operation has been success- ful for the space of eight thousand years." 2 Sometimes, in Modern Greece, the builder entices a man to the foundation stone, secretly measures his body, or a part of it, or his shadow, and buries the measure under the stone ; or he lays it upon his shadow. He will then die in a year. 3 The Bulgarians take a thread and measure the shadow of some passer-by. The measure is buried under the foundation stone, when it is expected the man will soon die. If they caDnot get a human shadow they measure the shadow of the first animal that passes. 4 They catch the shadow of a passing stranger in Eoumania and immure it in the wall. The man will die in forty days. There were formerly professional shadow-traders who provided architects with shadows for making secure the foun- dations. 5 That there is a skeleton in every man's house is an 1 Lay of the Last Minstrel, Walter Scott, canto i. 2 Builders' Rites, p. 48. 3 Golden Bough, vol. i. , p. 144. 4 Ibid., vol. i., p. 144 ; The Threshold Covenant, p. 54. 5 Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 144; Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 253 ; On Foundations. 108 Foundation Rites. old proverbial saying. " The proverb is a statement," says Baring-Gould, " of what at one time was a fact. Every house had its skeleton, and every house was in- tended to have its skeleton ; and what was more, every house was designed to have not only its skeleton, but its ghost. . . . At the foundation stone laying of every house, castle, or bridge, provision was made to give each its presiding, haunting, protecting spirit." 1 Providing the building with a specter as a spiritual guard, in this author's opinion, is a later outgrowth of the primarily sacrificial rite. The association of violent deaths with haunted buildings is one of the oldest of traditions. Longfellow says : " All I'-vuses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors, The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floors. " Owners and occupants of earlier dates From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands, And hold in mortmain still their old estates." 2 "In ballads and traditions the remembrance is still preserved how children and animals were slaughtered for the purpose of strengthening large buildings with their blood." 3 The house may be deserted by living occupants, but the traditional specter lingers among the crumbling walls of the decaying structure. 1 On Foundations. 2 Haunted Houses, H. W. Longfellow, Household Edition, p. 214. 3 Cornhill Magazine, Feb., 1887, quoted in Kirk-Grims f rom Heinrich Heine. Shadows and Specters. 109 She is dead ; her house is dying, Silent house with close-locked doors, Ghosts and memories haunt thy floors, Vagrant children come and go 'Neath the windows, murmuring low ; Peering with impatient eye For a ghostly mystery." 1 In the ballad of the " Count of Keeldar," in the Minstrelsy of the Border, the practise of the ancient Picts in bathing their foundations in blood is alluded to, and the belief that in this rite originated the ghosts which haunted them. ' ' And here beside the mountain flood A massy castle frowned Since first the Pictish race in blood The haunted pile did found." 2 Specters and ghosts haunted the victims of witches only when something unusual had attended the death of the party appearing. 8 " Throughout Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and North Germany tradition associates some animal with every church, and it goes by the name of the Kirk- Grim. These are the goblin apparitions of the beasts that were buried under the foundation stones of the churches." 4 The writer of the above says that when a boy he drew a list of the Kirk-Grims that haunted all the neighboring churches. To the church of the parish 1 The Dying House, by T. W. Higginson, in Atlantic Monthly. 2 On Foundations. 8 The Magnalia, Cotton Mather, vol. i., p. 189, 4 Kirk-Grims. no Foundation Rites. in which he lived belonged two white sows yoked to- gether with a silver chain ; to another a black dog ; to a third a ghostly calf ; to a fourth a white lamb. 1 In Swedish tales the specter of the animal sacrificed at the foundation wanders in the churchyard, or is seen some- times when one enters the church when there is no service, as a little lamb "to spring across the quire and vanish.'- 2 A black dog haunts Peel Castle in the Isle of Man. " Almost certainly its bones lie beneath the foundation. Popular superstition acknowledges the existence of the specter dog, but forgets how he came there." 3 A blood-hound haunts Launceston Castle which Baring-Gould believes to be the specter of the animal buried under its walls. 4 Dogs were associated in the popular belief with foundations in very ancient times, and the color of the dog was of great signifi- cance. An old Babylonian tablet says : "If a white dog enters a temple, the foundation of that temple will be firm." Another affirms that if the dog be black which enters the temple the foundation of that temple will not be firm. If a brown dog or a yellow dog or a speckled dog entered a temple it was a favorable omen. "If yellow locusts appear in a man's house, the sup- ports of that house will fall." 5 Children and white ladies haunt houses and castles. These, says the writer in Cornhill, " are almost certainly reminiscences of the victims buried under the foundations of these build- ings." 6 Little white hands sometimes appear instead 1 Kirk-Orims. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 On Foundations. 5 Records of the Past, vol. v., p. 169 ; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, Jr., pp. 398, 402. 6 Kirk-Grims, Shadows and Specters. in of a child. A house in the west of England is said to be visited every cold morning and the marks of little fingers left on the pane of glass in the window. Bar- ing-Gould is informed of a case where human bones of a woman and child were found under the hearth in a house where the apparition of a woman in brown and a babe were supposed to have been seen. 1 One of the legends of Odysseus is very suggestive of this primitive rite. On his wanderings from Ilium he stopped at Temesa, where one of his sailors, for a serious offense, was stoned to death by the people, unmindful of which, Odysseus sailed away while the ghost of the murdered sailor remained to terrify the inhabitants until it was finally proposed to abandon the town. This the Pythian Priestess forbade them to do, but commanded them to build a temple to the ghost of the dead hero, and propitiate him by an annual sacrifice of the fairest of the girls of Temesa, which being com- plied with there was no further trouble with the ghost. 2 In the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, Mokanna exclaims: " Kings yet unborn shall rue Mokanna's name, And, though I die, my spirit, still the same, Shall walk abroad in all the stormy strife, And guilt, and blood, that were its bliss in life." And when Zelica was left, " Of those wide walls the only living thing," she was like some bloodless ghost such as they tell " In the Lone Cities of the Silent dwell, And there, unseen of all but Alia, sit Each by its own pale carcass, watching it." 3 1 On Foundations. 2 Pausanias, book vi., chap. 7 ; Bohn, vol. i., p. 372. 3 Moore's Lalla Rookh. ii2 Foundation Rites. The allusion of the poet is to the traditional belief that the ghosts of the departed people churchyards and each sits at the head of his own grave. In common belief the spirits of the dead haunted the place of their burial. " As formerly in their huts, so now in their graves, the dead would be regarded as the occupiers. Their spirits were still living, and would be seen from time to time haunting the spot." 1 The tombs of the dead in folk-lore tales were the meeting-places of invis- ible beings. "The barrows in Denmark were invari- ably regarded as the haunts of the fairies." 2 Dead soldiers haunt the battle-fields where they fall. In the Auersperg Chronicle, under the year 1223, from a certain mountain, it is recorded, near Worms, which has been identified as the Donnersberg, armed horse- men used to issue daily and return. They were ques- tioned by a man who armed himself with the sign of the cross, and replied that they were not phantoms or a band of soldiers, but the souls of slain soldiers. 3 It has been suggested that the victim whose remains were found in the wall of the church of Holsworthy, in ad- dition to making secure the stability of the structure, was designed to furnish a ghostly watchman for the church and churchyard, ' ' a spiritual policeman, warn- ing off robbers and witches." 4 It is probable that some of the tales of enchant- ment of princesses and heroes are but attenuated tradi- tions of rites connected with foundations and building. 1 The Science of Fairy Tales, E. S. Hartland, p. 231. 2 Ibid., p. 231. 8 Ibid., p. 216 ; Teutonic Mythology, p. 955. 4 Kirk-Grims. Shadows and Specters. 113 It is suggested by Mr. Hartland that there is "the survi- val of a belief in the enchanted lady as the indwelling spirit, the soul, the real life of the spot she haunted." * The enchanted princess who haunted the bridge near the gate of the town, according to a story of Old Stre- litz, might be released from the enchantment if some one crossing the bridge should speak the right word to her as they walked over it. In this mysterious word which none ever found, Mr. Hartland sees the "rem- iniscence of an incantation." 2 Of some primitive sacri- ficial ceremony long forgotten, the incantation whose memory survives in the lost word may have been an essential part. A story is related of the building of a tower, " once upon a time, in Mazowia," which has all the appearance of being a survival of the tradition of some foundation sacrifice. Seven chiefs, victors in a hundred battles, having grown old, ordered their soldiers to build a tower in their honor. For a year they built and built, but every day part of the tower tumbled down. Finally the chiefs assembled at the ruins, and at the sound of lutes and songs the tower magically grew from earth to heaven, and on its seven pinnacles shone the seven helmets of the leaders, while the soldiers sank down into graves which had been dug around the tower. 3 Another kindred story is that of the White Lady who haunts the White Tower on the White Hill at Prague. As the tradition is, she was married to a king and be- trayed him, marrying his enemy, whom she afterwards deserted. She was finally caught and walled up in the 1 The Science of Fairy Tales, p. 253. 2 Ibid., p. 245. 3 Ibid., p. 221. 8 1 14 Foundation Rites. White Tower^ from which she can only be released if she shall find some one who will allow her to give him three stabs on the breast with a bayonet without utter- ing a word. 1 The infidelity of the woman is probably a later addition to the tale, invented to account for her incarceration in the wall after the original significance of the event was forgotten. Of curious interest in this connection are the tradi- tions associated with the founding of the cathedral of Our Lady of Guadaloupe in Mexico. In substance the story is as follows : In December, 1531, Juan Diego, an illiterate Indian convert of the Catholic Mission, was among the hills, on the outskirts of the Mexican city of Tlaltlolco, when he was accosted by a very beautiful woman who seemed to have descended from the sky. She addressed him in a friendly manner, and requested him to tell the Bishop of the diocese that it was the will of Heaven that he should build a temple on the spot to the Madonna. She then disappeared. Juan went to the Bishop and informed him of the vision which had appeared to him, and delivered the message entrusted to his care, but was told by the Bishop to go away and bring more convincing proofs of the miracu- lous apparition. Juan was confronted by the same vision on the same spot, on the next day. He duly re- ported it to the Bishop and was then told to visit the same place again on the following day, and ask the woman for some substantial evidence of her commission from Heaven. More beautiful than ever was the mar- velous vision that Juan beheld for the third time, the next day. He was then directed to a barren spot where 1 The Science of Fairy Tales, p. 245. Shadows and Specters. 115 nothing would grow, and told that he would there find roses in bloom. Going to the j^lace pointed out he was astonished to find, as had been predicted, bushes filled with blooming roses ; and moreover there was imprinted on the rough cape which he wore a likeness of the beautiful woman. The cape and some of the flowers were carried to the Bishop. The cape was hung in the Mission Church, and afterward in the temple erected on the spot where the meeting occurred, and the won- derful picture of the beautiful woman has been the object of much veneration for three and a half cen- turies since, and has been recently honored with a crown valued at $25,000. * The genuineness of the miracle has been certified to by the Sacred Congrega- tion of Rites at Rome, and received the approval of the Holy See. 2 It will be observed that the site upon which the cathedral was built, was the place of the appearance of the vision. Its mission was to secure the location and building of it in that particular place. After its construction was assured the vision appeared no more. These facts easily suggest the query, whether this is not the survival of some tradition connected with early foundation rites ? Not less applicable is the same question to the story told in one of the letters of the Younger Pliny, of the haunted house of Athens. In the dead of night a noise like the clashing of chains was frequently heard, at first at a distance, and as it approached nearer by degrees, a specter appeared in the form of an old man with long 1 Report of Archbishop Corrigan in St. Patrick's Cathedral of his visit to the shrine as given in the New York Tribune. 2 Ibid. n6 Foundation Rites. beard and disheveled hair, rattling the chains on his feet and hands. The house was declared uninhabitable and abandoned to the ghostly occupant. Tempted by the low price for which it was offered for sale, it was purchased by the philosopher Athenodorus, who took up his residence in the house and made preparations for the reception of its spiritual visitor. When the specter appeared in the manner in which it had been described to the philosopher, and stood before him, beckoning with his finger, Athenodorus followed, light in hand, to a certain part of the house, when the specter suddenly vanished. Having marked the place where the spirit left him, he notified the magistrate, and advised that the spot be dug up. It was accordingly done and the skeleton of a man in chains was there found. The bones were collected and buried with proper ceremonies, and the house was haunted no more. 1 1 Among my Books, James Russell Lowell, article, Witch- craft, with reference to Melmoth's translation of Pliny's Letters, vii. 27. Relics. 117 CHAPTER IX. RELICS. The potency of the relics from which the hell-broth * was brewed in the witches' caldron was an accepted fact in Shakespeare's time. How much, or how little, the great poet really believed himself of the virtues at- tributed to them, is unknown, and matters little. It is certain, however, that if he had ventured to give ex- pression to views upon the subject which were hostile to the well known beliefs of the reigning powers, his career would have been ended ingloriously, and the world would never have been enriched by the wonder- ful productions of his pen. Shortly before Macbeth was written the famous statute of King James had made the penalty death for using any part of a dead body for conjuring purposes. 2 A few years earlier it had been solemnly testified to in high court, that from " the joints of fingers and toes cutted off from dead corpses," 3 the storm which had been planned in North Berwick Kirk, which so nearly wrecked the king on his bridal trip, had been produced. The marvelous power of the relics of dead martyrs had been proclaimed by the wisest of the Fathers and 1 Macbeth, iv., i. 2 Encyclopedia Britannica, article, Witchcraft ; Principles of Sociology vol. i., p. 244. 3 Among my Books, James Russell Lowell, p. 113. n8 Foundation Rites. the Councils of the Church. St. Augustine had cata- logued the miracles wrought in his own diocese by the body of St. Stephen and there were no less than five cases of restoration of life to the dead. 1 " The minute particles of these relics," says Gibbon, i ' a drop of blood, or the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged, in almost every province of the Roman world, to possess a divine and miraculous virtue." 2 No sanctuary was complete without its sacred relics beneath or upon its altar. The Council of Trullan in the seventh century decreed the demolition of all altars without relics. 3 The Council of Mce in the eighth century forbade the consecration of any church without them. 4 The hand- kerchief or sponge which was saturated . " With gore distilled from martyr's vein," was a holy safeguard as an amulet to protect the person or the home. Borne in battle, such relics blunted the edge of the sword and averted death ; affixed to towers they thwarted the lightning. 5 As the fragments of the body of Osiris were made the foundations of temples, so the great mosques of Cairo are the shrines of the Saints of Islam. 6 The body of the crucified Saint is the rock upon which St. Peter's is founded, at Rome. 7 The final resting-place of 1 Lecky's Rationalism in Europe, vol i., p. 178 ; Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 271, note. 2 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 270. 3 Chambers's Encyclopedia, article, Relics. 4 Lecky's Rationalism in Europe, vol. i., p. 121. 5 Credulities Past and Present, William Jones, p. 187. 6 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 416. 'Ibid., p. 421. n mm— Relics. 119 St. Mark was in the great cathedral which bears his name, and, as it is represented in a famous picture, his soul flitted over the sea with its body, and St. Mark, St. George and St. Nicholas became the guar- dian Saints of the city of Lagoons. 1 The resting-place of Saints Gervasius and Protasius was revealed in a vision to Saint Ambrose when he wished for holy relics to found and consecrate his new church at Milan, 2 while under the high altar of St. Sabina at Rome rest the bodies of five Saints taken from under the ancient altar of Pope Eugenius II., accord- ing to the inscription of the leaden chest which encloses them. 3 Other relics at St. Sabina, as scheduled by a historian, are : an arm of St. Sabina ; part of the cane with which Christ was beaten and derided ; a rib of one of the holy innocents ; bones of the forty martyrs ; bones of the eleven thousand virgins ; part of the tunic of St. Dominic ; a cross of silver, in the middle of which is another cross containing a relic of the true cross of the Saviour, in the right arm of this cross are relics of St. Thomas, and St. Lawrence ; in the left arm, of St. Bartholomew, and St. Mary Mag- dalen ; in the top, of the apostles, St. Peter and St. James ; in the bottom, of St. Alexander, St. Sabina, St. Seraphia, St. Agnes, St. Hypolitus, and others ; there are other relics of St. Peter, Paul, Matthew, Stephen, Philip, James, Cosmas, Damanus, Apollina- rius, Catharine, Cecilia ; olives from Mount Olivet ; earth from the holy sepulcher ; part of the stone on 1 Evolution of God, p. 423. 2 Ibid., p. 420. 3 All Religions and Religious Ceremonies, Thomas Williams, 1823, p. 26, 120 Foundation Rites. which the Saviour slept and of the sepulcher of the Virgin. 1 What is the origin of the belief in the power of relics ? whence did the custom of using them in churches originate ? Is there any connection between such use of them and the sacrificial rites of founda- tions ? In discussing the latter question Mr. Speth 2 has called attention to the fact that the sacrifice is made to secure the safety of the edifice, and that the victim is not necessarily sacred or holy, and is sometimes a captive or slave, while the relic owes its value to the holiness of the departed, and is supposed to contribute to the sanctity rather than the stability of the struc- ture. It has already been noticed that the captive was regarded as the choicest portion of the spoils of victory, and as such would be a most acceptable offering to the gods. The slave was the personal substitute of the master, and the next thing to the master himself would be an offering of his slave. It must be noticed that in many of the traditions recorded the victims of the sacrifice were innocent children supposed to be spe- cially acceptable. It was a pure virgin which the oracle demanded at " rocky Ithome." It was a brother Saint that Saint Columba immured in the wall of his monas- tery. In the legend of Vortigern the blood of a son "born of a mother without a father" must sprinkle the foundation. Such a one would be a holy person. It was a queen of the royal household who was drowned in the Burmese reservoir. True, in later times, a stag 1 All Religions and Religious Ceremonies, p. 27. 2 Builders' Rites, p. 50. itffti Relics. 121 was substituted for the virgin at Laodicea. However, much evidence seems to indicate that primarily the sanctity of the victim was an element of its power. On the other hand, it may be well questioned, if belief in the power of the relics to sanctify the structure is not everywhere accompanied with belief in their guard- ianship and protection. Though the connection is not apparent at first between them, "Nevertheless," says Mr. Speth, (i it would appear as if the bones of the sacrifice had in some instances acquired the virtue of and been regarded as relics ; as if the one had gradually developed into the other. The transition is natural enough." 1 Referring to some bones found in connection with some repairs being made to the roof of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in a correspondence between Mr. William Simpson and Sir John Cowell, the latter writes : " The bones were those of dogs, sheep and foxes, as far as I can recollect, and were upon what may be considered capstones, for they were placed in the stone sockets of the spindles which carried the vanes along the top of the chapel, and were, I suspect, but the act of an ignorant or depraved set, who may very possibly have had in their minds the ancient customs, to which you allude, though in a very distorted form." 3 Commenting on this letter, Mr. Speth observes : " The distortion here referred to is very natural, and quite in the usual course. Originally there was a human sacrifice, then an animal one, later, with softened manners, the bones of animals were supposed to be sufficient, and last of all these bones continued to be used without any distinct idea 1 Builders' Rites, p. 50. 2 Ibid., p. 29. 122 Foundation Rites. of the reason, except that it had always been the custom." 1 And again, he says : "Had this discovery taken place at a time when relics were still in favor with the worshipers, would it not have been natural for them to assume, having forgotten their true import, that they were relics of departed saints ? " 2 Another case is referred to showing an apparent connection be- tween church relics and foundation sacrifices. In a note from Mr. Simpson to Mr. Speth, he quotes from Martene, given by Neale and Webb in the appendix to Durandus, p. 199, the following : "In the church of St. Benedict, consecrated by Pope Alexander II., there were relics in the chapel apse of St. John, in the bases of the piers, in the four angles of the bell tower, in the cross of the western gable, in the cross of the tower." The writer is speaking of the subject of relics in the altar, and they are given in the quotation above as church relics, and Mr. Simpson asks : "As these relics were not in altars, but exactly where foun- dation and completion sacrifices were placed, were the relics not a continuation or substitute ? " 3 According to Gibbon, the sophists described the ruin of the pagan religion as accompanied by the conversion of the temples into sepulchers in which the holy places which had been adorned by the statues of the gods were polluted by the relics of Christian martyrs, and the mutilated remains of infamous malefactors conse- crated as the objects of veneration of the people. 4 1 Builders Rites, p. 29. 2 Ibid., p. 51. 3 Ibid., p. 51. 4 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., pp. 266, 267. Relics. 123 After the conversion of Constantine, the emperors and consuls and generals visited the tombs of the apos- tles and their "venerable bones were deposited under the altars of Christ/' 1 The new capital of the Eastern world was enriched by the spoils of dependent provinces. After three hundred years the bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke and St. Timothy were transported to the Church of the Apostles on the banks of the Bospho- rus, and St. Andrew was adopted as the spiritual founder of the new city of Constantine. 2 Under the altars were the souls of the martyrs, in the vision of the Apocalypse. 3 While theologians debated whether the souls of dead Saints found tempo- rary resting-place under the altars or in the bosom of Abraham/ numerous miracles testified that their life- less bodies were in some way permeated with the su- pernatural powers which the living Saints had mani- fested. Fortunate indeed were the " places which had been consecrated by their birth, their residence, their death, their burial, or the possession of their relics." 5 If the souls did not actually visit the resting-place of their bodies, " the blessed spirits might wander solici- tous of the affairs of the world." 6 The sanctity of their souls might leave behind " a tincture and sacred faculty on their bodies." 7 1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 267. 2 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 268, note. 8 Revelation vi. 9. Eevised Version. 4 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 272, note. 5 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 272. 6 Religio Medici, Sir Thomas Browne, p. 71. 7 Ibid., p. 57. 124 Foundation Rites. In the vision of the souls under the altars, do we not catch a glimpse of the primitive thougnt of the ancient Egyptian ? The Ka, the second self, 1 the double, 2 the life, 3 one of the forms of the soul, 4 found its home in the tomb with the mummied remains, 5 to which it had at all times free access. The tomb was " the everlasting house " of the Ka only so long as the mummy of the body remained in it. 6 Suitable provi- sions were made at the tomb for the welfare of the Ka. So, acceptable offerings at the temple secured the favorable consideration of the Saints. 7 Sealed up in the leaden casket were the bodies of the Saints under the high altar of St. Sabina, 8 and walled up was the pas- sage-way leading to the innermost recess of the Mas- taba containing the sarcophagus in which was sealed up the mummied dead. 9 If it be true, as Mr. Trumbull contends, that the earliest form of the primitive temple was but a rude doorway whose sacred threshold was its altar, 10 and that the corner-stone was oftentimes literally the threshold of the building where the sacrificial rites took place, 11 1 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 240. 2 Ancient Egypt and Assyria, G. Maspero, English trans- lation, p. 149. 8 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, pp. 123, 131, 232, 263. 4 Tlie Threshold Covenant, p. 106 ; Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt, W. M. Flinders Petrie, p. 32. 6 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 124 ; Religion and Conscience, p. 32. 6 The Mummy, Wallace Budge, p. 328. 7 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 273. 8 All Religions and Religious Ceremonies, p. 27. 9 Tlie Mummy, p. 324. i° The Threshold Covenant, pp. 102, 126. n Ibid., pp. 46, 55. Relics. 125 an obvious relationship is suggested between the foun- dation deposits and the relics beneath the altar. Again, the conclusions which have been arrived at by exhaustive and independent investigations by the distinguished author of Synthetic Philosophy and the eminent antiquarian, Mr. William Simpson, are, that the temple is an outgrowth of the tomb, and the primi- tive altars but shrines of dead ancestors, or dead heroes. 1 Are not, then, the relics of these ancestral altars, in some sense, the very foundations upon which the tem- ples have been reared ? It was a belief of the Delphians that the remains of Bacchus were deposited by the side of the famous oracle. 2 Eelics of a Buddha were indispensable for the foundation of any dagobah. 3 Sanctuaries of the Celts were upon mounds, which were either barrows of the dead, or expressly made for temples, and the name of the god worshiped, in both Irish and Welsh, signified the " head or chief " of the mound. 4 Mont St. Mi- chel, near Carnac, in Brittany, is a chambered barrow surmounted by a little chapel. From the relics found in the tomb it is conjectured some person of impor- tance must have been buried there. 5 On little hillocks in the middle of a plain, which mark the graves of heroes, altars have been found in Denmark, Norway and Sweden 6 around which were held religious cere- monies. 1 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., chap, xix ; Appletons' Pop. Science Monthly, vol. xlii., p. 489 ; Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 411. 2 Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, Bohn Edition, p. 30, note. 3 Ibid. 4 Science of Fairy Tales, p. 231, note. 6 Ibid. 6 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 107, 158. 126 Foundation Rites. As Mr. Spencer has observed, every mausoleum of a great man " is visited with feelings akin to the relig- ious," and becomes " an incipient place of worship." 1 Moreover, as the same author has pointed out, it is a custom among many savage tribes, to bury a dead per- son in his own house, which is afterwards abandoned and acquires the attributes of a temple. 2 Throughout Central America the bones of a chieftain were deposited in the temple. 3 The bones of the Oaribs were cleaned, bleached, painted, wrapped in balsams and suspended in wicker baskets from the door of the dwelling. 4 As Moses took along with him in his wanderings the bones of Joseph, a widow of the Tankalis carries the bones of her dead husband wherever she goes, for a period of years. 5 Dr. Peters has known people to bury their dead in their cellars at Baghdad. They were buried beneath their houses in Nippur, and graves were built against the walls of the houses of Brousa. 6 The remains of Areas were transported from Msenalus to Mantinsea and placed by the altar in the temple of Hera, by command of the Oracle of Delphi : " Go there I bid you, and with kindly mind Remove his body to the pleasant city, Where three and four and even five roads meet, There build a shrine and sacrifice to Areas." 7 It is related of the Icelandic hero, Kvolld-Ulf, that, having fallen dangerously ill on the voyage, he directed 1 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 234. 2 Ibid., vol. i., pp. 251, 252. 3 Myths of the New World, p. 296. 4 Ibid., p. 297. 5 Ibid., p. 296. 6 Nippur, vol. ii., p. 113. 7 Pausanias' Description of Greece, viii., ix. Relics. 127 that when death came, his body should be placed in a coffin, and thrown into the sea, and that, wherever his remains were found, there his son should found his future home. 1 According to the Roman poet, the head of a spirited horse was buried in the sacred spot of the holy grove, where the Sidonian Dido reared the great temple to Juno at Carthage. 2 By this it was ensured that " the nation would be glorious in war, and gain their sub- stance easily through many an age." 3 Primitive belief in the protective power of sacred relics is illustrated by a tale of a merchant of Gron- ingen, who, on one of his voyages abroad, had obtained by bribery an arm of St. John the Baptist, which, on his return, he had encased in a pillar of a new house, which he was erecting. So implicitly he relied upon it for safety that in case of a conflagration he refused to take any other measures to preserve the house, say- ing that it was under good guardianship. The house escaped destruction, but so much curiosity was excited by the circumstance that he was compelled to reveal the cause of his confidence, when the relic was carried off and deposited in a church, where it continued to work miracles, although the merchant, who with its posses- sion had been so prosperous, was reduced to poverty. 4 The historian records that, among the Franciscans, in the fourteenth century, fragments of bodies and bones were treasured as relics, and set before altars in their houses and carried on the person as amulets. 5 1 Northern Antiquities, p. 287. 2 Virgil's JEneid, L, 1. 441. 8 Ibid., Lonsdale and Lee's translation, book i., line 445. 4 Lea's Inquisition, vol. i., p. 48. 5 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 80. 128 Foundation Rites. Among the natives of New Guinea, the preservation of the skulls, both of their friends and their enemies, is of great importance. The good qualities of those to whom they belonged is supposed to be imparted to the possessor of their skulls. The Field Columbian Museum is in possession of a collection of sixteen skulls, eight of men, seven of women, and one of a child, all of which were the property of a native chief, who adorned his house with them. They were care- fully preserved so that no part should be lost. The teeth were tied in, and in some cases where they were lost, new ones were substituted. The jaws were tied to the skulls by cords. 1 The dried bodies of dead an- cestors were the household gods which guarded the Marian islanders, and out of their skulls they gave oracles. 2 The soul of a dead Carib dwelt again in his bones and was ready to answer questions, or assist in confounding an enemy. The Guinea negroes com- municated with their forefathers through the ancestral bones in the sacred chest preserved in their little huts. 3 The large lodging house of the Mundrucus, which is also a barrack and fortress, is surrounded and guarded by the dried heads of their enemies. 4 By drinking the powder made of the residuum of the stewed remains of the dead, the Tarianas and Tucanos believe the virtues of the deceased are transmitted to them/ Some of the large houses of the Uacarras have more than a hundred graves. 8 1 Popular Science Monthly, vol. liv., p. 571. 2 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 151. 3 Ibid. 4 Travels on the Amazon, Alfred Russell Wallace, p. 359. c Ibid., p. 346. 6 Ibid. Relics. 129 Ancient records indicate that great importance was attached to the preservation of the heads of enemies which were arranged in heaps at the gates, or placed upon the walls. Notable men were flayed and their skins stretched upon the city walls. Hulai, the gov- ernor, was flayed and his skin stretched upon the walls of Damdamusa, 1 and a like fate befell Bubu in the city of Arbela, 2 in the reign of Assur-nasir-pal, according to records from one of the Nimroud temples. The heads of 150 of the soldiers of Amika were cut off and raised to the heights of his palace, 3 and at Pitura, " a strong town of Dirrai," where "two forts faced each other/' and a mighty castle " stood up like the summit of a mountain," a trophy of living captives and the heads of 800 slain soldiers was built about the great gate. 4 Heaps of heads at the gates of the royal city, Amidi (Kar-Amid) were piled. 5 The seventy heads of Aliab's sons by command of Jehu were arranged " in two heaps at the entering in of the gate." 6 Over against the cities of Nmni, 7 Burmarahna, 8 and Arzascu, 9 Shalmaneser built up pyramids of the heads of the people. The remains of fair Eosamund Clifford are identified in English history and tradition with Godstow nunnery. It is said when Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, came to the Abbey, and entered the church to pray, he found the 1 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p. 49. 2 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 45. 8 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 57. 4 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 61. 5 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 76. 6 II. Kings x. 8. 7 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p. 85. 8 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 87. 9 Ibid., vol. iii., p. 95, 9 130 Foundation Rites. tomb in the middle of the choir "covered with a pall of silke, and set about with lights of wax." At the dissolution of the nunnery the bones of Eosamund were found " closid in lede, and withyn that bones were closyd yn lether," and a very " swete smell came owt " of the tomb. When Hearne wrote in 1718, according to Bishop Percy, the foundations were still seen at Woodstock which had been Rosamund's labyrinth. 1 Equally potent for evil as for good were the bones of the dead. The Moor, who boasted a " thousand dreadful things," and only regretted he could not do a thousand more, exclaims : " Few come within the compass of my curse, Wherein I did not some notorious ill, As kill a man, or else devise his death, — Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves, And set them upright at their dear friends' doors, Even when their sorrows almost were forgot." 2 It was thought dangerous, in early times in Europe, to leave corpses unguarded lest witches should take from them the choice ingredients for their charms. With powder ground from the bones of the dead, the ancient Peruvian sorcerer stupefied all in the house. 3 In some parts of Europe bones from the churchyard charmed against disease. A tooth from a corpse worn round the neck cured the toothache. 4 Hair and nail clippings became the property of 1 Reliques of English Poetry, Thomas Percy, vol. ii., p. 121. 2 Titus Andronicus, v. i. 3 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 244. 4 Berdoe's History of Medicine, p. 414. Relics. 131 Ahriman, according to Persian belief, and unless pro- tected became the weapons of demons. 1 Pliny taught that the parings of the toe-nails and finger-nails of a sick person, if mixed with wax and stuck upon the door of another person before sunrise, transmitted the disease. 2 The hair was regarded as an important part of the body, as the special seat of life and strength. It was cut from the head of the corpse sometimes to facilitate the escape of the soul from the body. 3 The possession of hair from a man's head or a shaving from his nails was a potent means of getting and retaining control over him. For this reason the Arab cut and put in his quiver the hair of a captive before releasing him, and Mohammed's hair was preserved and worn on the per- son of his followers. One such hair is a famous relic in the Mosque of the Companion at Cairawan. 4 Arab women laid their hair on the tomb of the dead. Maidens and young men of Syria deposited their hair in caskets of gold and silver and placed them in the temples. 5 Hair from the eyebrows was an important sacrifice among the Incas. 6 " The hair-offering and the offer- ing of one's own blood," says Robertson Smith, " are precisely similar in meaning in their origin." It played an important part in paganism and even " en- tered into Christian ritual in the tonsure of priests and nuns." 7 According to Rabbinical teaching, it was im- pious to leave the cut nails exposed to the public where 1 History of Medicine, p. 143. 2 Ibid., p. 407. 3 Religion of the Semites, p. 306, note. 4 Ibid., p. 307, note. 5 Ibid., p. 307. 6 Ibid., p. 313, note. » ibid., p. 316. 132 Foundation Rites. they might be made use of by evil-disposed persons. 1 The ancient Persian Sacred Books prescribed religious ceremonies to be used in burying them, which must be done at a certain depth, so many paces from water, and from fire, with a furrow drawn around the sacred spot to imprison the nasu or corpse-fiend. 2 If the clippings of hair and nails worked injury in the hands of malev- olent ones, they were equally powerful in promoting the welfare and security of the individual if retained in his control. They controlled the streams, protected from drouth, 3 propitiated the gods. Being part of the body, and containing part of the life and differentiated soul, an injury to them was at the risk of the soul. Barbers of the Maldives worked at the gates of the temples. The Tahitians buried the clippings at the temples. 4 In Danzig they were buried under the threshold. 5 Among the Peruvians the nail-parings and the hairs that were shorn or torn out with the comb were placed in niches in the walls. 6 It is said the same custom still prevails in Chile. T They are stuffed in the cracks of the walls or boards by the Turks. 8 The reason assigned by G-arcilasso de la Vega for the preservation of hair and nail-clippings in the walls by the Indians of Peru was that they might have these parts of the body in some accessible place in the con- fusion of the resurrection. 9 That his thought was of 1 Credulities Past and Present, W. Jones, p. 533. 2 Faiths of the World, St. Giles Lectures, p. 130 ; The Golden Bough, vol. i. , p. 202. 3 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 200. 4 Ibid. 6 Ibid., vol. i,, p. 202. 6 Ibid., vol. i., p. 203. 7 Ibid., vol. i„ p. 204. 8 Ibid. » Ibid., vol. i., p. 204, note. Relics. 133 later origin and not the primitive significance of the cus- tom seems a warrantable conclusion from the universality among early races of belief of the danger of neglecting to keep these relics from their enemies, and of security and protection that their possession ensured. A similar belief leads negroes of the Calabar district to cut off the head of a dead chief before burying the body. The head is concealed lest some rival town gain possession of the spirit and favor of the chief. By secretly hold- ing it in their own possession his favorable influence is assured. 1 In like manner the spirit of a man is secured for the service of a village which has possession of his eyeball, and the graves of white men are rifled to secure them. 2 In precisely the same manner that the hair and nails were preserved by the Peruvians in a farmhouse of Tremarrow in Cornwall was found a niche in which was preserved a human skull. 3 When- ever it has been taken down and buried strange dis- turbances have been reported to ensue, thereby demon- strating that the relic was the guardian spirit of the household. It is said that empty coffins have been found built into the walls in Germany, 4 and the coffin of a priest was built into the wall of Snailwell Church, Cambridge- shire. 5 These are supposed to have been substituted for the human remains which they would ordinarily have contained. Pliny is quoted as authority for the use of a nail drawn out of a sepulcher to expel phantoms from 1 Travels in West Africa, Mary H. Kingsley, p. 450. 2 Ibid., p. 449. a Builders' Rites, p. 28. 4 Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 105; Teutonic Mythology, P. U43. 6 Builders' Rites, p. 7. 134 Foundation Rites. a bedchamber, which should be driven into the thresh- old of the door. Cups for holding libations of blood have often been found in connection with monuments of the dead, and cup-hollows are found in menhirs and dolmens. 1 Two basins were built into the wall at Tucke-brande. 2 'Cal- drons have been found walled into the sides of churches. The story told of the church of Notre Dame at Bruges to account for the caldron reported to be in the wall, is, that the supply of meat for the workmen running short for the builders, the wife of the master-mason took the remaining bones and with vegetables made a soup which she carried to her husband, who was so angered that he built the caldron containing the bones into the wall. 3 " These caldrons walled into the sides of churches/' says Baring-Gould, (i are almost certainly the old sacrificial caldrons of the Teutons and Norse. When heathenism was abandoned, the instrument of the old pagan rites was planted in the church wall in token of the abolition of heathenism." 4 It seems more probable, however, that these caldrons contained the sacrificial victims immured to secure the stability of the walls. 6 Relics of the dead drove away malignant diseases and made productive fields. The tomb of Hesiod was, ac- cording to Pausanias, at Naupactus, till, in time of 1 Finger-Ring Lore, W. Jones, p. 154. 2 Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 109. 3 On Foundations, Murray's Magazine, March, 1887. * Ibid. 5 On Foundations, Murray's Magazine, March, 1887, p. 373, note. Relics. 135 pestilence which destroyed men and cattle, the people of Orchomenus sent messengers to Delphi, when the Pythian priestess bade them bring the bones of Hesiod to Orchomenus, which being complied with the pesti- lence disappeared. 1 Pausanias also relates another tra- dition of Orchomenus, to the effect that a certain specter which haunted a certain stone rendered their lands un- productive, when the oracle at Delphi instructed them to j>rocure the remains of Action and bury them there, which they did, offering them annually thereafter funeral rites, which gave them immunity from the blighting ghost. 2 In many parts of the earth offerings were made to ancestral spirits to secure favorable harvests. The native of Xew Guinea calls the names of the family dead in the center of his plantation and makes offerings to them before beginning his planting. 3 The propitia- tion of ghosts was as essential to success in primitive agriculture as fertilization in modern times. The Xew Caledonian fertilized his yam plots by burying images of them. 4 A bit of flesh from the sacrificial victim, annually distributed to each family of the Khonds of Bengal, and buried in his favorite field, made certain the harvest. 5 Sometimes the head and bones were buried in the fields and at others they were burnt and the ashes sprinkled upon them. e A West African queen 1 Pausanias, Bohn Translation, ix. , xxxviii. 2 Ibid., ix., xxviii. 3 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii., p. 491. 4 Myth, Ritual and Religion, Andrew Lang, vol. i., p. 97. 5 TJie Golden Bough, toI. i., p. 385. 6 Ibid., p. 389. 136 Foundation Rites. annually sacrificed in a tilled field a man and woman to secure good crops. 1 These immolations have been at- tributed by Mr. Grant Allen to the " definite desire to manufacture artificially an indwelling spirit " for the growing crop, in a manner precisely similar to that by which an " artificial guardian god or spirit for a build- ing " is supplied. 2 1 The Golden Bough, vol. i., p. 383. 2 Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlii., pp. 659, 660. Writings. 137 CHAPTER X. WRITINGS. If the argument of Juliet with herself, in the garden of the Capulets, to prove the immateriality of the hated name which her lover bore, had been entirely success- ful, she would not have implored him, in her passion, to "doff" his name and take some other. 1 With primitive races the name is an important part of one's personality. 2 " Let us go to the east coast of Green- land," says Dr. Brinton, "among people who a dozen years ago had never seen or heard of a white man. They believe that the person consists of three compo- nents, his living body, his thinking faculty and his name (atekata). This last enters the body when the child is named. It survives physical death, whereas the body and the thinking faculty die, the first cer- tainly, the latter sometimes." 3 Among the ancient people of the Nile man was a composite being consisting of many parts, among which were the body, soul, intelligence, shadow, name and Ka. 4 To these Dr. Wiedemann adds the heart and husk, or mummy. 5 The cooperation of these several parts constituted the living man. At death these parts 1 Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 2 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., pp. 242, 245. 3 Myths of the New World, p. 277. * Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 117, 5 Ibid. 138 Foundation Rites. were separated, to be reunited forever after long pro- bation. " The name, the shadow, and the heart awaited the arrival of the soul when its pilgrimage should be accomplished." 1 No being could exist without a name. It was essential to immortality. The preservation and protection of the name was, therefore, the supreme de- sire of the living. That it might be kept alive by the readers, it was inscribed on the walls of temples and monuments. 2 That it might survive neglect and de- struction by the living, it was buried and concealed be- neath the foundations. 3 The Hellenium was the most spacious of the temples of Naukratis. 4 Its vast enclosure wall, fifty feet thick and forty feet high, built six hundred and fifty years before the Christian Era, was repaired by Ptolemy Phila- delphus, who with a great building and gateway filled up a breach in it. Under the four corners, last and lowest of the foundation deposits, Mr. Petrie found " a little plaque of oval lapis lazuli in -the form of a royal cartouche, engraved with the names and titles of Ptolemy Philadelphus." On the lower stage of the great temple of Sin, the male moon-god, which King Urukh built in the ancient city of Ur, modern research has discovered the name of the King inscribed. 5 Sennacherib restored the fallen Kurili palace of his fathers whose foundations had been laid bare and their records lost. The " written rec- 1 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 118, 131. 2 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 294. 3 Herodotus, ii. 178. 4 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 33. 6 Booh of the Dead, C. H. S. Davis, p. 5. Writings. 139 ords " of his name were placed within the new founda- tions. 1 " Let my name "be placed in your dwelling, let my statue be erected to perpetuate my name that it may not perish," is the inscription of Nes-Hor. 2 " On tablets of gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, marble and alabaster, I wrote the glory of my name, and I put them into the foundations." So reads the tablets from the stone chest dug from the foundation walls at Khorsabad, in 1853, by Victor place, the tablets of the great Sargon, the builder of Dur-Sarginu. 3 Two in- scribed terra-cotta cylinders of Assur-banipal were found embedded in the walls of his palace, and four similar cylinders in the walls of that of Sennacherib. 4 It must be remembered that at the earliest period to which our present knowledge of the people of ancient Babylonia and Egypt extends, they were far advanced in civilization. The substitution of the name as a per- sonal offering is a long distance from the immured liv- ing sacrifice, and continuity of thought is not always ap- parent in the transitions and development of religious ideas. Closely allied with the name itself are the writings which record the personalities of its owner. The primitive victim provided a guardian spirit for the new edifice thereby promoting its safety and permanence. What relationship, if any, exists between the earlier thought and the dominant idea connected with the later deposits of inscribed tablets when the structure itself becomes the conservator of one of the component and essential parts of the living being ? 1 Records of the Past, vol. i. , p. 55. 2 Ibid. , vol. vi., pp. 82, 83. 3 Ibid., vol. xi., pp. 33, 39. 4 Asliur and the Land of Nimrod, Hormuzd Rassam, p 222. 140 Foundation Rites. Knowledge or possession of the name of the living or dead gave, to a certain extent, power over him. 1 " To know the true name of any being was to be master of the owner and of his powers." 2 " Unless thou tell my name, thou shalt not pass," says the Keeper of the Gate in the Hall of the Two Truths. 3 " I shall not let thee enter through me," says the left panel, "unless thou tell me my name." 4 Tell me my name," says the Ship in the Netherworld, " Tell us our name," say the winds, when thou movest by them." " Tell me my name," says the Eiver, " when thou sailest on it," " Tell me my name," says the solid earth, " when thou goest across it." 6 " I know thee, I know thy name, I know the name of the god who keeps thee," says the pilgrim, as he approaches each of the gates of the field of Aarru in the dwelling of Osiris, and, " Go through, thou art pure," sever- ally respond each of the gates. 6 "The names of the great gods side by side he wrote and to their power he trusted," says the inscription of Esarhaddon of Ab- dimilkutti, the King of Sidon. 7 The name is not always to be mentioned, or to be used lightly. 8 The savage withholds his name from the possession of him whom he fears. Names of the dead are sometimes tabooed to the living. 9 Eeligious scruples forbade Herodotus to mention the name of 1 Principles of Sociology, pp. 245, 246. 2 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, Wiedemann, p. 294. 3 Book of the Dead, chap. cxxv. 61. 4 Ibid., chap. cxxv. 54. 6 Ibid., chap. xcix. 6 Ibid., chap. cxiv. 7 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p, 112. 8 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 273. 9 Ibid., j). 271. Writings. 141 Osiris. 1 "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say onto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me to you ; and they shall say to me, what is his name ? what shall I say unto them ? And God said unto Moses, . . . Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." 2 When the name was inscribed upon something of itself sacred, its possession gave no power to work evil upon its owner. The sacredness of the object pro- tected the name. 3 Tablets inscribed with the name and deeds of the builder of a sacred edifice became sacred writings. Deposited securely in the walls, they were a perpetual reminder to the deity invoked of his obligations to protect the builder and his work. His divine guardianship was assured. The timin, a clay tablet or cylinder, was deposited in the foundation stone, or sometimes at the four corners. It was re- garded with peculiar reverence. It was intended to re- main forever. If found by a subsequent King, it must be reverently restored to its position. " I replaced the timin with a layer of large stones, I enclosed its place, and I made its deposit secure," says the inscription of Sennacherib, when the floods had undermined the foun- dations of the ancient Palace of Nineveh, and washed out its timin.* "When joyfully thou dost enter the holy buildings of Bit-Saggathu and Bit-zida . . . may thy lips proclaim their stability . . . like heaven 1 Herodotus, Book ii., chap. 132. 2 Exodus iii. 13, 14. 3 Religion of Ancient Egypt, A. Wiedemann, p. 294. 4 Records of the Past, vol. i., p. 31. 142 Foundation Rites. may their foundations stand fast," is inscribed on the cylinders found at the corners of the temple of the Moon, at Ur. 1 Nebuchadnezzar repaired the founda- tions of the temple of the Sun, at Senkereh, and the cylinders found beneath its ruins invoke the great god to regard the pious works of his hands with pleasure ; " and may the gates, and doors, and halls, and apart- ments of the temple of Tara, which I have built with no sparing of expense, remain recorded in thy book ! " a " By the grace of Ormazd, I founded this fortress," says the inscription of Darius, " and I founded it strong, and beautiful, and complete. Ormazd may protect me, with all the gods, me, and also this for- tress." 8 Inscribed deposits were the evidences of the cove- nant with the supernatural powers. They contained the letter of the bond between them and their servants, and their very presence insured protection and preservation. " He bestowed on me his protection . . . I am a King of his making," exclaims the " Son of the Sun," User- tesen I., " while extending the cord and laying the foundation" of the temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis, " I shall fill his altar upon earth, and I shall build, while I abide." In return, " There will be a remem- brance of my benefits in his house." 4 In the famous document known as the " Bull In- scription of Khorsabad," which was the first trans- lated from the Cuneiform, 6 it is learned that specific functions were ascribed by the ancient Assyrians to the 1 Records of the Past, vol. v., p. 147. 2 Ibid., vol. vii., p. 72. 3 Ibid., vol. ix., p. 73. * Ibid., vol. xii., pp 33, 57. 5 Ibid., vol. xi., p. 15. Writings. 143 several deities, in connection with the ceremonies of foundations. In the month of Sivan, the ground was measured and the bricks molded. Ab was the month of the god who lays the founding stone of towns and of houses. The gates set up at the extremities of the founding stone which was laid upon the bare rock, bore the name of the divinities, who gave their assist- ance. Assur lengthened the years of the Kings. "Ninip, who lays the foundation stone, fortifies its rampart." ' By some modern scholars divine origin is claimed for the roots of language. 2 Belief in the magical proper- ties of words, or in their connection with superior powers, or that they may be substituted for them has been persistent and widespread. When a chief of the Aztecs died, passports were presented to the coi^se, with one of which, he would be permitted " to cross the defile between the two mountains." With another he would avoid the great serpent. A third would put to flight the alligator. A fourth would guide him across the great deserts and the eight hills. 3 Among the Norsemen, songs would soften and enchant the arms of enemies, and Bunic characters destroy the effects of imprecations. " If I see a dead man hanging aloft on a tree, I engrave Bunic characters so wonder- ful, that the man immediately descends and converses with me," says one of the Eddaic poems. 4 Cotton and linen breastplates inked with symbolical characters 1 Records of the Past, vol. xi., pp. 18-24. 2 Principles of Sociology, vol. i., p. 837. 3 Pre-Historic America, p. 300. 4 Northern Antiquities, pp. 371, 372. 144 Foundation Rites. were worn by the followers of Aguinaldo, in the Phil- ippines, to protect them from harm. 1 A Stockholm manuscript of the fourteenth century says the mystic " Anamzaptas " was an amulet against epilepsy. " Abracadabra, " worn on the neck, staunched blood and healed the toothache. 2 Serpents stopped their motion and lay as if dead on pronouncing certain words, according to a manuscript of the reign of William III. Tibetans say, reading certain prayers renders the body proof against bullet and sword. 3 Cot- ton Mather tested victims of witchcraft by holy sen- tences and the reading of pious books. 4 Luther prescribed the first chapter of St. John's gospel to protect from thunder and lightning. 5 Formulas writ- ten on consecrated paper, buried in the corner of a field, were once believed to destroy insects and secure favorable weather. 6 Babylonian tablets affirmed the protection from binding holy sentences around the head, and on the "right and left of the threshold of the door." 7 Tablets were hung up in their houses to conciliate the plague-god and drive away the disease. 8 Chinese characters on the doorposts of the houses protect from 1 F. D. Millet in Harper's Weekly, March, 1899. 2 Credulities Past and Present, p. 237. 3 Ibid., pp. 240, 241. 4 Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 114 ; Tlie Magnalia, vol. ii, p. 400. 6 Warfare of Science with Theology, Andrew D. White, p. 342. 6 Ibid. 7 Records of the Past, vol. iii., p., 142. 8 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 269, note. Writings. 145 evil, and choice sentences from the Koran guard the gates and bridges and houses of the Mohammedans. 1 The- phylacteries of the Jews removed ligaments and averted evil. 2 " Ye shall lay up these words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates." 3 The Book of the Dead was the most important of the religious writings of the Egyptians. Portions of it were written by Thoth. 4 Thoth himself speaks through it revealing the will of the gods. 5 Its prayers and formulas secured victory for him who traversed the under world. 6 Written "on a band of undried papyrus with which all the limbs of of a man shall be wrapped, he shall not then be repelled from any gate in the Tuat. He shall be protected against the hands of the wicked ones eternally." 7 In earlier buildings of Babylonia, inscriptions, invo- cations and deposits were at the threshold, and later they were under the four corners. When they were at the threshold they were not at the four corners and 1 The Threshold Covenant, pp. 70, 71. 2 The Magnolia, Cotton Mather, vol. i., p. 185 ; Origin and Groivth of the Healing Art , Edward Berdoe, p. 75 ; Chambers's Encyclopedia. 3 Deuteronomy, chap, xi., 18, 20. 4 Authors and their Public in Ancient Times, G. H. Putnam, p. 12 ; Book of the Dead, chap, lxxiv. 5 Book of the Dead, C. H. S. Davis, p. 63. 6 Religion of Ancient Egypt, A. Wiedemann, pp. 244, 247. 7 Book of the Dead, chap, clxiii. 8 The Threshold Covenant, p. 22. io 146 Foundation Rites. monuments of ancient Babylonia, dating from the fifth millennium before Christ. 1 Among objects found in excavating at Nippur were tablets inscribed to some deity with the avowed object of protecting the life of the kings. The inscription of an agate dedicated to Ishtar, " for the life of Dungi, King of Ur," places it about 2750 B. C. Four hun- dred and fifty years later it had been carried by the Elamites to Susa and offered in the temple. A thousand years later still Kurigalzu conquered Elam and re-inscribed this votive tablet : " Kurigalzu, King of Karduniash, conquered the palace of Susa in Elam, and presented this tablet to Belit, his mistress, for his life ; " by him it was taken to the temple of Bel at Nippur. 2 According to the traditions of the Greeks, as related by Pausanias, in early times Demeter, the earth-god- dess, frequently visited Pheneus bringing with her certain kinds of pulse, but, in later times, for the visits of the goddess certain sacred writings were used in annual ceremonies. By the temple were two large stones known as Petroma, fitting into each other, con- taining a cavity in which were deposited these writings. Tli is Petroma was regarded with great reverence, and annually these stones were separated and these writings were taken out and read to the people while the priests with great ceremony struck the earth and summoned the gods of the lower world and the spirits of the soil. 3 Says Professor Tylor : " Modern examples may be 1 Threshold Covenant, H. V. Hilprecht in Supplement, p. 311. 2 Nippur, John P. Peters, vol. ii, p. 255. 8 Pausanias, book viii., chap. xv. Writings. 147 brought forward to show ideas as extreme as those which prevailed more widely a thousand years ago/' On the festival of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, whose body lies buried in the church of the Jesuit College at Rome, college students write letters to him, which are placed on his decorated altar and then burned unopened, the miraculous answer to which is vouched for in an Eng- lish book of 1870. x As the ancient Egyptian thought it necessary to take with him to the tomb small statues of his servants that they might be ready to serve him in a future life, so he sometimes prepared himself with a household scribe. A famous statue now in the Museum of Ghizeh, which was taken from the tomb of a gentleman of the Fifth Dynasty, represents a scribe kneeling with crossed hands, waiting his master's orders. Another, in the Museum of the Louvre, " waits, pen in hand, till the next sentence shall fall from the lips of his employer." 2 If the royal builders were to continue constructing palaces and temples in the future life care must be taken that their workmen might not be empty-hande'd. Di- minutive models of masonic tools, models of materials and models commemorative of the ceremonies performed in laying the foundations, were found under each corner of the gateway to the building of Ptolemy Philadelphus, at Naukratis. Similar deposits were found at Tell Ke- besheh under a temple in the ancient city of Am, and at Tell Gemayemi, in 1886, and at Tell Quarmus in 1887. 3 A complete series of them are fouud in a pit of the rock 1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 122. 2 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, pp. 140, 141. 8 Ibid., pp. 32, 63. 148 Foundation Rites. at Deir el Bahri. 1 These deposits are usually inscribed, and are considered of great historical value in determin- ing the age and date of important buildings in Egypt. 2 Foundation deposits of Tahutmes III. name him "be- loved of Hathor, Lady of Amu/' 3 and he is described as " beloved of Min of Koptos," on the models of tools, ores and vases discovered beneath the walls of the temple at Koptos. 4 1 History of Egypt, W. M. F. Petrie, vol. ii., p. 94. 2 Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, p. 33. 3 History of Egypt, vol. ii., p. 126. * Ibid., p. 128. Circular Movements and Symbols. 149 CHAPTER XL CIRCULAR MOVEMENTS AND SYMBOLS.