II
When all the data in the Old Testament have been gathered it is possible to discern certain types of the sacred dance; by this we do not necessarily mean varieties of mode, not but that these also occur; the type is indicated rather by the connexion in which the dance occurs. Therefore, although it is not to be supposed that there was, generally speaking, any idea of having particular kinds of dance reserved for different occasions, it is possible to attempt some kind of classification. At any rate, it is a convenient method to adopt in reviewing the evidence.
Emphasis must again be laid on the fact that when one is speaking of the “sacred dance” in past ages one has to allow to the term a wide connotation. We have come to use the word “dance” in a very restricted sense; in antiquity it was different; included in it are modes varying from a staid, march-like rhythmic step, to the wilder movements of the ecstatic dance.
(1) We draw attention first to the sacred processional dance. A cursory reference to one or two examples will suffice here as a more detailed examination of each type of dance will be found in the chapters to follow. Judging from the few data offered by the Old Testament, the sacred processional dance among the Israelites was always performed in honour of Jahwe. In the well-known instance of David and the Israelites dancing in procession before the Ark, it is really in the presence of Jahwe that it takes place since He is conceived as being present in the Ark. The dance assumes various forms according to the degree of religious excitement engendered. It is spoken of as being dancing of the ordinary kind, i.e. the common Hebrew word for dancing is used; but presently it takes on the character of a rotating dance, then there is jumping followed by something in the nature of skipping, and it is also spoken of as a whirling movement. It will be noticed that five different words are used here to express the different ways in which the dancing was performed. Although the occasion on which this took place was a very special one, it would be a mistake to suppose that the sacred dance was only reserved for such special occasions. It is rather to be gathered from the incidental way in which the dancing is mentioned that the rite was usual, and was only of a more elaborate character because of the special occasion. A single mention of this kind must, it may be safely asserted, imply a well-known and usual custom, otherwise it would be commented upon as something out of the ordinary.
(2) The sacred dance also takes the form of encircling a sacred object, either an idol, or a sacrificial victim, or an altar; in this last case the sacrificial victim would, of course, be included. The form of this type of dance was either a march-like step or a running step or else the worshippers held hands and danced round. This latter is nowhere specifically mentioned in the Old Testament; but it is such an obvious form for a dance to take that we can scarcely doubt its having existed among the Israelites. Besides, interesting examples of a concrete kind have been found depicting this form of dance round sacred objects which quite possibly owe their origin to Semitic inspiration; some of these are described in Chapter VI below. This encircling dance was undoubtedly an act of worship; it is also possible that in some cases it was intended to have a consecrating effect either upon the worshippers or upon the sacrificial victim; in the example given by Nilus (see [p. 95]) the latter would seem to have been the case. The theory of some scholars that the circle dance was a symbolic representation of the movement of the heavenly bodies has also a good deal to commend it. As a funeral rite this form of the sacred dance served some other purposes (see below).
(3) The ecstatic dance is that which has received most attention from scholars, and deservedly, for it is one of the most curious phenomena in the history of religious ritual. In the exuberance of emotion engendered by it the performers experienced what appeared to them to amount, for the time being, almost to a metamorphosis; they believed themselves to be infused and permeated by the influence—perhaps it would be truer to say the essence—of the deity in whose honour they were dancing. Thus came about what was conceived to be in some mystic, but wholly inexplicable way, a union with the deity adored. In the Old Testament we have the well-known example of the prophets performing this dance in 1 Sam. x. 5 ff.; its contagious character is graphically illustrated by the case of Saul, whose condition becomes such that the people ask: “Is Saul also among the prophets?” and he is spoken of as having been “turned into another man” because as a result of the ecstatic dance the spirit of Jahwe came mightily upon him. The language implies that when once the required condition has been reached it is then Jahwe Who takes the initiative; the body as such remains a passive instrument, but it becomes a Beth-el, a temporary house of God from which He speaks forth through the medium of the voice of the possessed.
As in the case of other types of the sacred dance, there cannot be anything unique about this even though it is only referred to once or twice in the Old Testament; its incidental mention without further comment stamps it as being nothing out of the ordinary.
Another form of this ecstatic type of dance is mentioned in the Old Testament, also in connexion with prophets, though not Israelite prophets. There was a peculiar kind of limping dance performed, as it would appear, on special occasions by the prophets of Baal. This began with a limping step round the altar as though the performers were lame, but soon developed into a wild jumping about on the altar, and culminated in self-laceration with knives and the like. In how far a state of semi-consciousness or total unconsciousness was attained is not indicated; but in the light of analogous cases (referred to in [Chapter VII]) it may be gathered that the loss of the physical sensation of pain inflicted by the self-laceration must imply to some extent a loss of consciousness so far as external surroundings were concerned. In writing about the prophetic ecstasy of Syrian as well as Israelite prophets, Dr T. H. Robinson well expresses the state in saying that it was
a peculiar psychic condition in which the subject seemed to be possessed of powers, indeed of a whole sphere of consciousness, which was denied to the ordinary individual, and to the prophet himself in normal states. He did not cease to be conscious of the world as it appeared to others, but he heard and saw things which were beyond their range. There were a number of well-marked physical phenomena connected with the condition of ecstasy, though these were not invariable. The subject might be affected with a certain constriction of the muscles, in which case the state resembled that of a trance. On the other hand, muscular activity might be largely increased. Leaping, bodily contortions, and loud cries resulted, which, as they tended to become regular and rhythmical, developed into dancing and song. The subject frequently experienced a kind of anaesthesia, and would slash wildly at his own body with knife or whip, without showing any signs of physical pain[32].
We shall find all this illustrated in the examples, to be given in [Chapter VII], of this type of dance among a number of races.
Various means were employed to bring about this ecstatic state, such as alcohol, and other drugs; but there can be little doubt that the most frequent, and certainly the most primitive, means adopted was that of dancing.
(4) The kind of sacred dance which was the most common among the Israelites, as among other peoples, was that proper to Vintage and Harvest Festivals. That it seems, from the scanty references to it which we have in the Old Testament, as well as from many indications in regard to its performance among other races, largely to have lost its sacred character will not deceive us as to its originally religious purpose. It was a characteristic of Israelite worship that the note of joy should sound during its celebration; the command: “Ye shall rejoice before Jahwe your God” sufficiently bears this out. Apart, therefore, from the original purpose of this kind of sacred dance to which reference will be made in Chapter VIII, there is no reason to doubt that Vintage and Harvest dances among the Israelites were essentially of a religious character, although the rejoicing, of which dancing was one of the most natural modes of expression, might not always appeal to some of the more austere prophets, see, e.g., Amos v. 21-23. The very rare specific mention in the Old Testament of the festival dances is quite comprehensible, for what was obviously proper to the celebration of a feast it would be superfluous to speak about. Moreover, there is ample evidence in post-biblical Jewish literature of the existence of the sacred dance at festivals.
(5) Dances in celebration of victory in battle are referred to several times in the Old Testament. Taking the passages in which these are mentioned by themselves the custom of which they speak is nothing more than a simple and natural expression of joy and thanksgiving for victory. But all such customs have a long history behind them; and when analogous customs among other, less civilized, peoples are considered, some points of interest and significance emerge which suggest the possibility of the custom being, in its origin, due to a different and more practical cause. There are some grounds for believing that the custom of which the Old Testament speaks was a remnant of what was originally a dance performed by women which had for its object the helping of the men to gain a victory by means of imitative magic. In the Old Testament there is, of course, no trace of this beyond the fact that the dance was performed by women; and it has become simply an act of joyful thanksgiving to God and a tribute to the returning victors. It is necessary to consider the analogous rite in its earlier forms as seen among peoples of lower civilization to estimate what justification there may be for this supposition. If it should be the fact that this type of dance was, in its origin, a means of effecting victory by magic, it would be an interesting illustration of magic being, as Marett says, “part and parcel of the ‘god-stuff’ out of which religion fashions itself.”[33] Indeed, when dealt with in detail, this subject of the sacred dance in the Old Testament receives its chief interest and importance from the fact that at all events some of the types there mentioned are illustrations of the development of religion out of magic.
(6) There is some reason to believe that the sacred dance had a part to play during the rite of circumcision; late Rabbinic tradition seems to imply as much. It had its place among the Arabs on such occasions; and at initiation ceremonies all the world over the sacred dance was essential.
(7) Once more, the sacred dance during the Wedding ceremony, though only once implied in the Old Testament, was in all probability a regular institution; post-biblical Jewish literature offers presumptive evidence of its existence in earlier times among the Israelites.
(8) And lastly, we have the sacred dance as a Burial rite. As in other cases we have to rely, firstly, on the evidence of later Jewish literature, and, secondly, upon the analogous practice among other peoples. As we shall show, the emotions of fear, honour, and love, which according to the cultural stages of uncivilized men are felt for the spirits of the departed, are such as are common to mankind; and these emotions are expressed, among other ways, by means of the sacred dance. What cultural stage, or stages, are represented in the Old Testament as that, or those, through which the Israelites passed may well be a matter of difference of opinion; but that in both thought and practice they were, as a whole, in many respects no more advanced than other contemporary peoples does not admit of doubt. So that when we find this rite in existence at burials or during the mourning period among other Semites, and among the Egyptians, not to mention the Greeks, the presumption is justified that the Israelites practised it too.
In regard to much that has been said we are prepared for the objection that the evidence of the Old Testament does not offer sufficient justification for the assumptions made. We agree that this is so if we are to rely upon the Old Testament alone. But the object of the whole of our investigation will be to show that the beliefs and practices of any one race of people must, to do them full justice, be studied in the light of analogous beliefs and practices of other peoples. Only so can one fill up the lacunae which inevitably exist in the records of the races of antiquity. We have chosen as our illustration a rite which may, likely enough, be regarded as of very secondary importance; yet it is one which the evidence shows was at one time regarded as essential to man. It is therefore a study worth undertaking; for apart from its interest as a mere antiquarian investigation, we hope that it may be found to throw some modest side-lights on various other subjects.