[107] Ibid. p. 367.
[108] Dunbar, loc. cit. p. 740.
Nor is there any reason whatever to suppose that the Brahman boys whom the Gonds of India used to kidnap and keep as victims to be sacrificed on various occasions,[109] were regarded as representatives of a spirit or god. They were offered up to Bhímsen, the chief object of worship among the Gonds, represented by a piece of iron fixed in a stone or in a tree,[110] now “to sanctify a marriage, now to be wedded to the soil, and again to be given away to the evil spirit of the epidemic raging,” or “on the eve of a struggle.”[111]
[109] Frazer, op. cit. ii. 241.
[110] Panjab Notes and Queries, § 550, vol. ii. 90.
[111] Ibid. § 721, vol. ii. 127 sq.
Dr. Frazer writes:—“At Lagos In Guinea it was the custom annually to impale a young girl alive soon after the spring equinox in order to secure good crops…. A similar sacrifice used to be annually offered at Benin.”[112] But Dr. Frazer omits an important fact mentioned or alluded to by the two authorities he quotes which gives us the key to the custom, without suggesting that it has anything to do with the corn-spirit. Adams states that the young woman was impaled “to propitiate the favour of the goddess presiding over the rainy season, that she may fill the horn of plenty.”[113] And M. Bouche observes, “Au Bénin, on a conservé jusqu’à présent un usage qui régnait jadis à Lagos et ailleurs: celui d’empaler une jeune fille, au commencement de la saison des pluies, afin de rendre les orichas propices aux récoltes.”[114] From these statements it appears that the sacrifice was intended to influence the rain, on which the crops essentially depend. That its immediate object was to produce rain is expressly affirmed by Sir R. Burton. At Benin he saw “a young woman lashed to a scaffolding upon the summit of a tall blasted tree and being devoured by the turkey-buzzards. The people declared it to be a ‘fetish,’ or charm for bringing rain.”[115] We have previously noticed that the people of Benin also have recourse to a human sacrifice if there is too much rain, or too much sun, so that the crops are in danger of being spoiled.[116] The theory of substitution accounts for all these cases.
[112] Frazer, op. cit. ii. 239.
[113] Adams, Sketches taken during Ten Voyages to Africa, p. 25.
[114] Bouche, Sept ans en Afrique occidentale, p. 132.