[103] Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 187. Quatremère, ‘Mémoire sur les asiles chez les Arabes,’ in Mémoires de l’Institut de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, xv. pt. ii. 346 sqq.
[104] Quatremère, loc. cit. p. 346.
[105] Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 271.
[106] Shortland, Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders, pp. 86, 97. Cf. Ellis, Tour through Hawaii, p. 347; Harmon, op. cit. p. 361 (Indians on the east side of the Rocky Mountains).
[107] Isaac also blessed his son by eating of his food (Genesis, xxvii. 4, 19, 24). The subject of hospitality has been incidentally dealt with by Mr. Crawley in his interesting book, The Mystic Rose (p. 239 sqq.; cf., also, p. 124 sqq.). I must leave the reader to decide how far the theory I am here advocating, which mainly rests upon my researches in Morocco, coincides with his. All through his book Mr. Crawley lays much emphasis on the principle of transference; but, if I understand him rightly, he also regards commensality as involving a supposed “exchange of personality” between the host and the guest, in consequence of which “injury done to B by A is equivalent to injury done by A to himself” (p. 237). To this opinion I cannot subscribe (cf. infra, on the [Origin and Development of the Altruistic Sentiment]). So far as I can see, the mutual obligations arising from eating together are fundamentally based on the idea that the common meal serves as a conductor of conditional imprecations.
The stranger thus being looked upon as a more or less dangerous individual, it is natural that those who are exposed to the danger should do what they can to avert it. With this end in view certain ceremonies are often performed immediately on his arrival. Many such reception ceremonies have been described by Dr. Frazer,[108] but I shall add a few others which seem to serve the object of either transferring to the stranger conditional curses or purifying him from dangerous influences. I am told by a native that among some of the nomadic Arabs of Morocco, as soon as a stranger appears in the village, some water, or, if he be a person of distinction, some milk, is presented to him. Should he refuse to partake of it, he is not allowed to go freely about, but has to stay in the village mosque. On asking for an explanation of this custom, I was told that it is a precaution against the stranger; should he steal or otherwise misbehave himself, the drink would cause his knees to swell so that he could not escape. In other words, he has drunk a conditional curse.[109] The Arabs of a tribe in Nejd “welcome” a guest by pouring on his head a cup of melted butter,[110] the South African Herero greet him with a vessel of milk.[111] Sir S. W. Baker describes a reception custom practised by the Arabs on the Abyssinian frontier, which is exactly similar to one form of l-ʿâr of the Moors:—“The usual welcome upon the arrival of a traveller, who is well received in an Arab camp, is the sacrifice of a fat sheep, that should be slaughtered at the door of his hut or tent, so that the blood flows to the threshold.”[112] Reception sacrifices also occur among the Shulis,[113] in Liberia,[114] and in Afghanistan.[115] Among the Indians of North America, again, it is a common rule that a dish of food should be placed before the new-comer immediately on his arrival, that he should taste of it even though he has just arisen from a feast, and that no word should be spoken to him or no question put to him until he has partaken of the food.[116] Among the Omahas “the master of the house is evidently ill at ease, until the food is prepared for eating; he will request his squaws to expedite it, and will even stir the fire himself.”[117] Among many peoples it is considered necessary that the host should give food to his guest before he eats himself. This is a rule on which much stress is laid in the literature of ancient India.[118] A Brâhmana never takes food “without having offered it duly to gods and guests.”[119] “He who eats before his guest consumes the rood, the prosperity, the issue, the cattle, the merit which his family acquired by sacrifices and charitable works.”[120] It is probable that this punishment has something to do with the evil eye of the neglected guest, for the idea of eating the evil wishes of others was evidently quite familiar to the ancient Hindus. It is said in Âpastamba’s Aphorisms:—“A guest who is at enmity with his host shall not eat his food, nor shall he eat the food of a host who hates him or accuses him of a crime, or of one who is suspected of a crime. For it is declared in the Veda that he who eats the food of such a person eats his guilt.”[121] In Tonga Islands, “at meals strangers or foreigners are always shewn a preference, and females are helped before men of the same rank”—according to our informant, “because they are the weaker sex and require attention.”[122] As to the correctness of this explanation, however, I have some doubts; the Moors, also, at their feasts, allow the women to eat first, and one reason they give for this custom is that otherwise the hungry women might injure the men with their evil eyes. In Hawaii the host and his family do not at all partake of the entertainment with which a passing visitor is generally provided on arriving among them;[123] and that their abstinence is due to superstitious fear is all the more probable as, among the same people, it is the custom for the guest invariably to carry away with him all that remains of the entertainment.[124]
[108] Frazer, Golden Bough, i. 299 sqq.
[109] Cf. the “trial of jealousy” in Numbers. v. 11 sqq., particularly verse 22: “This water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot.”
[110] Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 102.
[111] Ratzel, op. cit. ii. 480.