The reader will please look under the heading of “Myths” in this volume, and will there see a similar adventure related of the Eskimo, or rather the Kamtchatkan, god Kutka.
“Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.”—(Isaiah xvi. 11.)
[55] “The Eskimo call the better being ‘Torngarsuk.’ They don’t all agree about his form or aspect. Some say he has no form at all; others describe him as a great bear, or as a great man with one arm, or as small as a finger. He is immortal, but might be killed by the intervention of the god Crepitus.”—(“Myth, Ritual, and Religion,” Andrew Lang, London, 1887, vol. ii. p. 48.) A footnote to the above adds, “The circumstances in which this is possible may be sought for in Crantz, ‘History of Greenland,’ London, 1767, vol. i. p. 206.”
Crantz says of Torngarsuk: “He is immortal, and yet might be killed, if any one breaks wind in a house where witchcraft is carrying on.”—(Crantz, as above.)
[56] Among the Chinese and Hindus an identical partition of responsibility will be found ascribed to the deities. It would require a special disquisition to enumerate these gods and their functions, so far as known to us, but such an enumeration would do no good, because the accuracy of the statement will be admitted without dispute.
A clipping from the “Times,” of India, copied in the “Sunday Herald,” of Washington, D. C., June 2, 1889, bears upon this point:
“The general public are not aware of a ludicrous custom still followed in Hindu households of Bengal. The last day of Falgoon, that fell on the 12th ultimo, was observed in worshipping Ghantoo, the god of itches and the diseases of the skin which afflict the natives. Very early in the morning of the day the mistresses of the families, changing their nocturnal attire, put a useless, black earthen vessel outside the threshold of their back doors, with a handful of rice and masoor dal, four cowries, with a piece of rag smeared with turmeric. Wild flowers appearing in this season are offered in worship. (These flowers are called Ghantoo fool.) The young boys of the family stand in a semicircle before the mistress, with cudgels in their hands. When the conches are sounded by the female worshippers, as the signal of the poojah being over, the boys break the vessels into atoms. The mirthful children, in their anxiety to strike the first blow, sometimes break the fingers and hands of the matrons. The piece of rag is preserved over the doors of houses in the zenana. In the evening of the day, the boys of the lower order of the villages sing the songs of the occasion from door to door for pice.”
Although the adoration of Flatulence cannot be found among the Chinese, religious customs equally revolting have been ascribed to them. “The Chinese are addicted to the abominable vice of Sodomy, and the filthy practice of it they number among the indifferent things they perform in honor of their idols.”—(“The Travels of Two Mahomedans through India and China,” in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 195.) These Mahomedans travelled in the ninth century.
“The negroes of Guinea have a god of the small-pox.” See “Fetichism,” by Father P. Baudin, New York, 1885, p. 74.
According to the Guinea negroes, “Every man has three genii, or protecting spirits. The first is Eleda, who dwells in the head, which he guides.... This second genius (Ojehun) has his habitation in the region of the stomach.... Ipori, the third protecting genius, takes up his abode in the great toe.”—(Idem, p. 43.)