Scatalogic Rites of All Nations / A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globe

by John Gregory Bourke

AS A MEANS OF WASHING VESSELS.

Among the Shillooks, “ashes, dung, and the urine of cows are the indispensable requisites of the toilet. The item last named affects the nose of the stranger rather unpleasantly when he makes use of any of their milk vessels, as, according to a regular African habit, they are washed with it, probably to compensate for a lack of salt.”—(“Heart of Africa,” Schweinfurth, vol. i. p. 16.)

“The Obbo natives are similar to the Bari in some of their habits. I have had great difficulty in breaking my cow-keeper of his disgusting custom of washing the milk-bowl with cow’s urine, and even mixing some with the milk. He declares that unless he washes his hands with such water before milking the cow will lose her milk. This filthy custom is unaccountable.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Baker, p. 240.)

A personal letter from Chief Engineer Melville, U. S. Navy, states that the natives of Eastern Siberia use urine “for cleansing their culinary materials.”

By the tribes on Lake Albert Nyanza, the “butter was invariably packed in a plantain leaf, but frequently the package was plastered with cow-dung and clay.” (“The Albert Nyanza,” p. 363. See, also, extract from Paullini, on p. 316, and from Schurig, p. 121, of this volume.) There certainly seems to be a trace of superstition in the first case mentioned by Sir Samuel Baker.

In the County Cork, Ireland, rusty tin dishes are scoured with cow manure; the manure is blessed, and so will benefit the dishes and bring good luck. It is a not infrequent custom to bury “keelars” and other dishes for holding milk under a manure-heap during the winter and early spring (when cows are apt to be dry, and the milk-dishes empty), to protect them (the dishes) from persons evilly disposed, who might cast a spell on them, and so bewitch either the cows or the milk. Such an evil-eyed person could not harm a dish unless empty.

“The cow is believed to be a blessed animal, and hence the manure is sacred.” (Personal letter from Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass.) This belief of the Celtic peasantry apparently connects itself with the religious veneration in which the cow is held by the people of India.