Disease Scapegoats.
To return to the use of the scape animal as a means of expelling disease. In Berâr, if cholera is very severe, the people get a scapegoat or young buffalo, but in either case it must be a female and as black as possible, the latter condition being based on the fact that Yamarâja, the lord of death, uses such an animal as his vehicle. They then tie some grain, cloves and red lead (all demon scarers) on its back and turn it out of the village. A man of the gardener caste takes the goat outside the boundary, and it is not allowed to return.[74] So among the Korwas of Mirzapur, when cholera begins, a black cock, and when it is severe, a black goat, is offered by the Baiga at the shrine of the village godling, and he then drives the animal off in the direction of some other village. After it has gone a little distance, the Baiga, who is protected from evil by virtue of his holy office, follows it, kills it and eats it. Among the Patâris in cholera epidemics the elders of the village and the Ojha wizard feed a black fowl with grain and drive it beyond the boundary, ordering it to take the plague with it. If the resident of another village finds such a fowl and eats it, cholera comes with it into his village. Hence, when disease prevails, people are very cautious about meddling with strange fowls. When these animals are sent off, a little oil, red lead, and a woman’s forehead spangle are put upon it, a decoration which, perhaps, points to a survival of an actual sacrifice to appease the demon of disease. When such an animal comes into a village, the Baiga takes it to the local shrine, worships it and then passes it on quietly outside the boundary. Among the Kharwârs, when rinderpest attacks the cattle, they take a black cock, put some red lead on its head, some antimony on its eyes, a spangle on its forehead, and fixing a pewter bangle to its leg, let it loose, calling to the disease—“Mount on the fowl and go elsewhere into the ravines and thickets; destroy the sin!” This dressing up of the scape animal in a woman’s ornaments and trinkets is almost certainly a relic of some grosser form of expiation in which a human being was sacrificed. We have another survival of the same practice in the Panjâb custom, which directs that when cholera prevails, a man of the Chamâr or currier caste, one of the hereditary menials, should be branded on the buttocks and turned out of the village.[75]
A curious modification of the ordinary scape animal, of which it is unnecessary to give any more instances, comes from Kulu.[76] “The people occasionally perform an expiatory ceremony with the object of removing ill-luck or evil influence, which is supposed to be brooding over the hamlet. The godling (Deota) of the place is, as usual, first consulted through his disciple (Chela) and declares himself also under the influence of a charm and advises a feast, which is given in the evening at the temple. Next morning a man goes round from house to house, a creel on his back, into which each family throws all sorts of odds and ends, parings of nails, pinches of salt, bits of old iron, handfuls of grain, etc. The whole community then turns out and perambulates the village, at the same time stretching an unbroken thread round it, fastened to pegs at the four corners. This done, the man with the creel carries it down to the river bank and empties the contents therein, and a sheep, fowl, and some small animals are sacrificed on the spot. Half the sheep is the property of the man who dares to carry the creel, and he is also entertained from house to house on the following night.”
It is obvious that this exactly corresponds with the old English custom of sin-eating. Thus we read:[77]—“Within the memory of our fathers, in Shropshire, when a person died, there was a notice given to an old sire (for so they called him), who presently repaired to the place where the deceased lay, and stood before the door of the house, when some of the family came out and furnished him with a cricket on which he sat down facing the door. Then they gave him a groat, which he put in his pocket; a crust of bread, which he ate; and a full bowl of ale, which he drank off at a draught. After this he got out from the cricket and pronounced, with a composed gesture, the ease and rest of the soul departed, for which he would pawn his own soul.”
There are other Indian customs based on the same principle.[78] Thus, in the Ambâla District a Brâhman named Nathu stated “that he had eaten food out of the hand of the Râja of Bilâspur, after his death, and that in consequence he had for the space of one year been placed on the throne at Bilâspur. At the end of the year he had been given presents, including a village, and had then been turned out of Bilâspur territory and forbidden apparently to return. Now he is an outcast among his co-religionists, as he has eaten food out of the dead man’s hand.” So at the funeral ceremonies of the late Rânî of Chamba, it is said that rice and ghi were placed in the hands of the corpse, which a Brâhman consumed on payment of a fee. The custom has given rise to a class of outcast Brâhmans in the Hill States about Kângra. In another account of the funeral rites of the Rânî of Chamba, it is added that after the feeding of the Brâhman, as already described, “a stranger, who had been caught beyond Chamba territory, was given the costly wrappings round the corpse, a new bed and a change of raiment, and then told to depart, and never to show his face in Chamba again.” At the death of a respectable Hindu the clothes and other belongings of the dead man are, in the same way, given to the Mahâbrâhman or funeral priest. This seems to be partly based on the principle that he, by using these articles, passes them on for the use of the deceased in the land of death; but the detestation and contempt felt for this class of priest may be, to some extent, based on the idea that by the use of these articles he takes upon his head the sins of the dead man.[79]
Again, writing of the customs prevailing among the Râjput tribes of Oudh which practise female infanticide, Gen. Sleeman writes:[80]—“The infant is destroyed in the room where it was born, and there buried. The room is then plastered over with cow-dung, and on the thirteenth day after, the village or family priest must cook and eat his food in this room. He is provided with wood, ghi, barley, rice, and sesamum. He boils the rice, barley, and sesamum in a brass vessel, throws the ghi over them when they are dressed, and eats the whole. This is considered as a Homa or burnt offering, and by eating it in that place, the priest is supposed to take the whole Hatya or sin upon himself, and to cleanse the family from it.”
So, in Central India the Gonds in November assemble at the shrine of Gansyâm Deo to worship him. Sacrifices of fowls and spirits, or a pig, occasionally, according to the size of the village, are offered, and Gansyâm Deo is said to descend on the head of one of the worshippers, who is suddenly seized with a kind of fit, and after staggering about for a while, rushes off into the wildest jungles, where the popular theory is that, if not pursued and brought back, he would inevitably die of starvation, and become a raving lunatic. As it is, after being brought back by one or two men, he does not recover his senses for one or two days. The idea is that one man is thus singled out as a scapegoat for the sins of the rest of the village.
In the final stage we find the scape animal merging into a regular expiatory sacrifice. Other examples will be given in another connection of the curious customs, like that of the Irish and Manxland rites of hunting the wren, which are almost certainly based on the principle of a sacrifice. Here it may be noted that at one of their festivals, the Bhûmij used to drive two male buffaloes into a small enclosure, while the Râja and his suite used to witness the proceedings. They first discharged arrows at the animals, and the tormented and enraged beasts fell to and gored each other, while arrow after arrow was discharged. When the animals were past doing very much mischief, the people rushed in and hacked them to pieces with axes. This custom is now discontinued.[81]
Similarly in the Hills, at the Nand Ashtamî, or feast in honour of Nanda, the foster father of Krishna, a buffalo is specially fed with sweetmeats, and, after being decked with a garland round the neck, is worshipped. The headman of the village then lays a sword across its neck and the beast is let loose, when all proceed to chase it, pelt it with stones, and hack it with knives until it dies. It is curious that this savage rite is carried out in connection with the worship of the Krishna Cultus, in which blood sacrifice finds no place.[82]
In the same part of the country the same rite is performed after a death, on the analogy of the other instances, which have been already quoted. When a man dies, his relations assemble at the end of the year in which the death occurred, and the nearest male relative dances naked (another instance of the nudity charm, to which reference has been already made) with a drawn sword in his hand, to the music of a drum, in which he is assisted by others for a whole day and night. The following day a buffalo is brought and made intoxicated with Bhang or Indian hemp, and spirits, and beaten to death with sticks, stones and weapons.
So, the Hill Bhotiyas have a feast in honour of the village god, and towards evening they take a dog, make him drunk with spirits and hemp, and kill him with sticks and stones, in the belief that no disease or misfortune will visit the village during the year.[83] At the periodical feast in honour of the mountain goddess of the Himâlaya, Nandâ Devî, it is said that a four-horned goat is invariably born and accompanies the pilgrims. When unloosed on the mountain, the sacred goat suddenly disappears and as suddenly reappears without its head, and then furnishes food for the party. The head is supposed to be consumed by the goddess herself, who by accepting it with its load of sin, washes away the transgressions of her votaries.
[1] “Gazetteer,” i. 175.
[2] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xvii. 200; xxiii. 12; Campbell, “Notes,” 12 sqq.
[3] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 97, 60, 46.
[4] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xix. 465.
[5] Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology,” ii. 1161; Tylor, “Early History,” 143; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 229; Sir W. Scott, “Lectures on Demonology,” 105.
[6] Risley, “Tribes and Castes of Bengal,” i. 179.
[7] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 153.
[8] Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnography,” 114.
[9] “Indian Antiquary,” viii. 211.
[10] Chevers, “Medical Jurisprudence for India,” 415 sq.
[11] Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” ii. 62.
[12] Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 115; Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 141 sqq.
[13] “Rambles and Recollections,” i. 207.
[14] Nûr Ahmad Chishti, Yâdgâr-i-Chishti.
[15] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 42, 167.
[16] “Asiatic Studies,” 57 sq.
[17] “Rambles and Recollections,” i. 208.
[18] “Calcutta Review,” xviii. 68.
[19] Hoshangâbâd “Settlement Report,” 119, 255.
[20] Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 833, 816 sq.
[21] “Settlement Report,” 254 sq.
[22] Sultânpur, “Settlement Report,” 42.
[23] Blochmann, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” Introduction, xxiv.
[24] The chief authorities for Hardaul are Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xvii. 162 sqq.; V. A. Smith, “Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal,” 1875.
[25] “Settlement Report,” 451 sq.
[26] Ferrier, “Caravan Journeys,” 451 sq.
[27] “Allahâbâd Pioneer,” 10th March, 1891.
[28] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xxii. 155.
[29] “Annals,” ii. 744.
[30] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xvi. 520; Campbell, “Notes,” 96.
[31] Wright, “History,” 221, 267, 268.
[32] “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 276.
[33] “Gurgâon Settlement Report,” 37.
[34] Risley, “Tribes and Castes of Bengal,” i. 132.
[35] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 1; iv. 51; “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 355, 517; Tod, “Annals,” ii. 75.
[36] Campbell, “Notes,” 192 sqq.
[37] “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 201.
[38] Numbers of such charms are to be found in vols. i., ii., iii., “North Indian Notes and Queries.”
[39] “Settlement Report,” 256.
[40] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 188, 257.
[41] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 85.
[42] Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 71 sq., with note; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 127; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 237; Farrer, “Primitive Manners,” 159 sq.
[43] “Descriptive Ethnology,” 232.
[44] Campbell, “Notes,” 72 sq.
[45] Cooper, “Flagellation and the Flagellants,” passim; Dalton, loc. cit., 256; Campbell, loc. cit., 44 sq.; for restoration to life by beating, Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii. 245.
[46] “Nineteenth Century,” 1880.
[47] Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 833, 823.
[48] “Hindu Tribes and Castes,” i. 36.
[49] “Settlement Report,” 256 sq.
[50] “Primitive Culture,” i. 134; and compare Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 251.
[51] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 232.
[52] “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” iii. 38.
[53] Ferrier, “Caravan Journeys,” 113.
[54] “Travels in the Himâlayas,” i. 428.
[55] O’Brien, “Multân Glossary,” 218.
[56] Clouston, “Popular Tales,” i. 191.
[57] “Gazetteer,” 191.
[58] Campbell, “Notes,” 239.
[59] “Folk-lore,” iii. 13, 380; iv. 410; Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” ii. chap. xi.
[60] “Annals,” ii. 717.
[61] Gregor, “Folk-lore of N.E. Scotland,” 46, 157.
[62] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 42.
[63] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 293.
[64] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 330; for other instances, see Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” ii. 101.
[65] Madden, “Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal,” 1848, p. 583.
[66] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 64.
[67] “Rambles and Recollections,” i. 203.
[68] “Penseroso,” 83, 84.
[69] Brand, “Observations,” 424.
[70] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 16.
[71] Oppert, “Original Inhabitants,” 187.
[72] Hislop, “Papers,” 6, 47.
[73] “Popular Tales,” Introduction, lxviii.; “Calcutta Review,” April, 1884.
[74] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 81.
[75] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 27.
[76] “Settlement Report,” 155.
[77] Brand, “Observations,” 447.
[78] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 86, ii. 93.
[79] With this compare the Karnigor of Sindh—Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” ii. 295.
[80] “Journey through Oudh,” ii. 39.
[81] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 170.
[82] “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 851 sq.
[83] Ibid. ii. 871.
CHAPTER IV.
THE WORSHIP OF THE SAINTED DEAD.
Ἄιψσα δ’ ἴκοντο κατ’ ἀσφοδελὸν λειμῶνα
Ἔνθα τε ναίουσι ψυχαὶ, ἔιδωλα καμόντων.
Odyssey, xxiv. 12, 14.