The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3)

S >> Sir James George Frazer >> The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3)

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[Sidenote: The "stone of the sun."]

Again, the natives have two disc-shaped stones, each with a hole in the
centre, which together make up what they call "the stone of the sun." No
doubt it is regarded as a symbol of the sun, and as such it is employed
to cause drought in a ceremony which, like the preceding, combines the
elements of magic and religion. The sun-stone is kept in one of the
sacred places, and when a sorcerer wishes to make drought with it, he
brings offerings to the ancestral spirits in the sacred place. These
offerings are purely religious, but the rest of the ceremony is purely
magical. At the moment when the sun rises from the sea, the magician or
priest, whichever we choose to call him (for he combines both
characters), passes a burning brand in and out of the hole in the
sun-stone, while he says, "I kindle the sun, in order that he may eat up
the clouds and dry up our land, so that it shall no longer bear fruit."
Here the putting of fire to the sun-stone is a piece of pure
homoeopathic or imitative magic, designed to increase the burning heat
of the sun by mimicry.[539]

[Sidenote: Stones to make rain.]

On the contrary, when a wizard desires to make rain, he proceeds as
follows. The place of sacrifice is decorated and enclosed with a fence,
and a large quantity of provisions is deposited in it to be offered to
the ancestors whose skulls stand there in a row. Opposite the skulls the
wizard places a row of pots full of a medicated water, and he brings a
number of sacred stones of a rounded form or shaped like a skull. Each
of these stones, after being rubbed with the leaves of a certain tree,
is placed in one of the pots of water. Then the wizard recites a long
litany or series of invocations to the ancestors, which may be
summarised thus: "We pray you to help us, in order that our country may
revive and live anew." Then holding a branch in his hand he climbs a
tree and scans the horizon if haply he may descry a cloud, be it no
larger than a man's hand. Should he be fortunate enough to see one, he
waves the branch to and fro to make the cloud mount up in the sky, while
he also stretches out his arms to right and left to enlarge it so that
it may hide the sun and overcast the whole heaven.[540] Here again the
prayers and offerings are purely religious; while the placing of the
skull-shaped stones in pots full of water, and the waving of the branch
to bring up the clouds, are magical ceremonies designed to produce rain
by mimicry and compulsion.

[Sidenote: Stones to make or mar sea-voyages.]

Again, the natives have a stone in the shape of a canoe, which they
employ in ceremonies for the purpose of favouring or hindering
navigation. If the sorcerer desires to make a voyage prosperous, he
places the canoe-shaped stone before the ancestral skulls with the right
side up; but if he wishes to cause his enemy to perish at sea, he places
the canoe-shaped stone bottom upwards before the skulls, which, on the
principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic, must clearly make his
enemy's canoe to capsize and precipitate its owner into the sea.
Whichever of these ceremonies he performs, the wizard accompanies the
magical rite, as usual, with prayers and offerings of food to the
ancestral spirits who are represented by the skulls.[541]

[Sidenote: Stones to help fishermen.]

The natives of the Isle of Pines subsist mainly by fishing; hence they
naturally have a large number of sacred stones which they use for the
purpose of securing the blessing of the ancestral spirits on the
business of the fisherman. Indeed each species of fish has its own
special sacred stone. These stones are kept in large shells in a
cemetery. A wizard who desires to make use of one of them paints the
stone with a variety of colours, chews certain leaves, and then breathes
on the stone and moistens it with his spittle. After that he sets up the
stone before the ancestral skulls, saying, "Help us, that we may be
successful in fishing." The sacrifices to the spirits consist of
bananas, sugar-cane, and fish, never of taros or yams. After the fishing
and the sacrificial meal, the stone is put back in its place, and
covered up respectfully.[542]

[Sidenote: Stones to make yams grow.]

Lastly, the natives of the Isle of Pines cultivate many different kinds
of yams, and they have a correspondingly large number of sacred stones
destined to aid them in the cultivation by ensuring the blessing of the
dead upon the work. In shape and colour these stones differ from each
other, each of them bearing a resemblance, real or fanciful, to the
particular species of yam which it is supposed to quicken. But the
method of operating with them is much the same for all. The stone is
placed before the skulls, wetted with water, and wiped with certain
leaves. Yams and fish, cooked on the spot, are offered in sacrifice to
the dead, the priest or magician saying, "This is your offering in order
that the crop of yams may be good." So saying he presents the food to
the dead and himself eats a little of it. After that the stone is taken
away and buried in the yam field which it is designed to fertilise.[543]
Here, again, the prayer and sacrifice to the dead are purely religious
rites intended to propitiate the spirits and secure their help; while
the burying of the yam-shaped stone in the yam-field to make the yams
grow is a simple piece of homoeopathic or imitative magic. Similarly in
order to cultivate taros and bananas, stones resembling taros and
bananas are buried in the taro field or the banana grove, and their
magical virtue is reinforced by prayers and offerings to the dead.[544]

[Sidenote: The religion of the New Caledonians is mainly a worship of
the dead tinctured with magic.]

On the whole we may conclude that among the natives of New Caledonia
there exists a real worship of the dead, and that this worship is indeed
the principal element in their religion. The spirits of the dead, though
they are supposed to spend part of their time in a happy land far away
under the sea, are nevertheless believed to be near at hand, hovering
about in the burial-grounds or charnel-houses and embodied apparently in
their skulls. To these spirits the native turns for help in all the
important seasons and emergencies of life; he appeals to them in prayer
and seeks to propitiate them by sacrifice. Thus in his attitude towards
his dead ancestors we perceive the elements of a real religion. But, as
I have just pointed out, many rites of this worship of ancestors are
accompanied by magical ceremonies. The religion of these islanders is in
fact deeply tinged with magic; it marks a transition from an age of pure
magic in the past to an age of more or less pure religion in the future.

[Sidenote: Evidence as to the religion of the New Caledonians furnished
by Dr. G. Turner.]

Thus far I have based my account of the beliefs and customs of the New
Caledonians concerning the dead on the valuable information which we owe
to the Catholic missionary Father Lambert. But, as I pointed out, his
evidence refers not so much to the natives of the mainland as to the
inhabitants of certain small islands at the two extremities of the great
island. It may be well, therefore, to supplement his description by some
notes which a distinguished Protestant missionary, the Rev. Dr. George
Turner, obtained in the year 1845 from two native teachers, one a Samoan
and the other a Rarotongan, who lived in the south-south-eastern part of
New Caledonia for three years.[545] Their evidence, it will be observed,
goes to confirm Father Lambert's view as to the general similarity of
the religious beliefs and customs prevailing throughout the island.

[Sidenote: Material culture of the New Caledonians.]

The natives of this part of New Caledonia were divided into separate
districts, each with its own name, and war, perpetual war, was the rule
between the neighbouring communities. They cultivated taro, yams,
coco-nuts, and sugar-cane; but they had no intoxicating _kava_ and kept
no pigs. They cooked their food in earthenware pots manufactured by the
women. In former days their only edge-tools were made of stone, and they
felled trees by a slow fire smouldering close to the ground. Similarly
they hollowed out the fallen trees by means of a slow fire to make their
canoes. Their villages were not permanent. They migrated within certain
bounds, as they planted. A village might comprise as many as fifty or
sixty round houses. The chiefs had absolute power of life and death.
Priests did not meddle in political affairs.[546]

[Sidenote: Burial customs; preservation of the skulls and teeth.]

At death they dressed the corpse with a belt and shell armlets, cut off
the nails of the fingers and toes, and kept them as relics. They spread
the grave with a mat, and buried all the body but the head. After ten
days the friends twisted off the head, extracted the teeth to be kept as
relics, and preserved the skull also. In cases of sickness and other
calamities they presented offerings of food to the skulls of the dead.
The teeth of the old women were taken to the yam plantations and were
supposed to fertilise them; and their skulls were set up on poles in the
plantations for the same purpose. When they buried a chief, they erected
spears at his head, fastened a spear-thrower to his forefinger, and laid
a club on the top of his grave,[547] no doubt for the convenience of the
ghost.

[Sidenote: Prayers to ancestors.]

"Their gods," we are told, "were their ancestors, whose relics they kept
up and idolised. At one place they had wooden idols before the chiefs'
houses. The office of the priest was hereditary. Almost every family had
its priest. To make sure of favours and prosperity they prayed not only
to their own gods, but also, in a general way, to the gods of other
lands. Fishing, planting, house-building, and everything of importance
was preceded by prayers to their guardian spirits for success. This was
especially the case before going to battle. They prayed to one for the
eye, that they might see the spear as it flew towards them. To another
for the ear, that they might hear the approach of the enemy. Thus, too,
they prayed for the feet, that they might be swift in pursuing the
enemy; for the heart, that they might be courageous; for the body, that
they might not be speared; for the head, that it might not be clubbed;
and for sleep, that it might be undisturbed by an attack of the enemy.
Prayers over, arms ready, and equipped with their relic charms, they
went off to battle."[548]

[Sidenote: "Grand concert of spirits."]

The spirits of the dead were believed to go away into the forest. Every
fifth month they had a "spirit night" or "grand concert of spirits."
Heaps of food were prepared for the occasion. The people assembled in
the afternoon round a certain cave. At sundown they feasted, and then
one stood up and addressed the spirits in the cave, saying, "You spirits
within, may it please you to sing a song, that all the women and men out
here may listen to your sweet voices." Thereupon a strange unearthly
concert of voices burst on their ears from the cave, the nasal squeak of
old men and women forming the dominant note. But the hearers outside
listened with delight to the melody, praised the sweet voices of the
singers, and then got up and danced to the music. The singing swelled
louder and louder as the dance grew faster and more furious, till the
concert closed in a nocturnal orgy of unbridled license, which, but for
the absence of intoxicants, might compare with the worst of the ancient
bacchanalia. The singers in the cave were the old men and women who had
ensconced themselves in it secretly during the day; but the hoax was not
suspected by the children and young people, who firmly believed that the
spirits of the dead really assembled that night in the cavern and
assisted at the sports and diversions of the living.[549]

[Sidenote: Making rain by means of the bones of the dead.]

The souls of the departed also kindly bore a hand in the making of rain.
In order to secure their co-operation for this beneficent purpose the
human rain-maker proceeded as follows. He blackened himself all over,
exhumed a dead body, carried the bones to a cave, jointed them, and
suspended the skeleton over some taro leaves. After that he poured water
on the skeleton so that it ran down and fell on the leaves underneath.
They imagined that the soul of the deceased took up the water, converted
it into rain, and then caused it to descend in refreshing showers. But
the rain-maker had to stay in the cavern fasting till his efforts were
crowned with success, and when the ghost was tardy in executing his
commission, the rain-maker sometimes died of hunger. As a rule, however,
they chose the showery months of March and April for the operation of
rain-making, so that the wizard ran little risk of perishing a martyr to
the cause of science. When there was too much rain, and they wanted fine
weather, the magician procured it by a similar process, except that
instead of drenching the skeleton with water he lit a fire under it and
burned it up,[550] which naturally induced or compelled the ghost to
burn up the clouds and let the sun shine out.

[Sidenote: Execution of maleficent sorcerers. Reincarnation of the dead
in white people.]

Another class of magicians were the maleficent sorcerers who caused
people to fall ill and die by burning their personal rubbish. When one
of these rascals was convicted of repeated offences of that sort, he was
formally tried and condemned. The people assembled and a great festival
was held. The condemned man was decked with a garland of red flowers;
his arms and legs were covered with flowers and shells, and his face and
body painted black. Thus arrayed he came dashing forward, rushed through
the people, plunged from the rocks into the sea, and was seen no more.
The natives also ascribed sickness to the arts of white men, whom they
identified with the spirits of the dead; and assigned this belief as a
reason for their wish to kill the strangers.[551]

[Footnote 517: F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_, II. _Malaysia and the
Pacific Archipelagoes_ (London, 1894), p. 458.]

[Footnote 518: J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 498
_sq._ As to the mediums of exchange, particularly the shell-money, see
R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp. 323 _sqq._; R.
Parkinson, _Dreissig Jaehre in der Suedsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), pp. 82
_sqq._]

[Footnote 519: Le Pere Lambert, _Moeurs et Superstitions des
Neo-Caledoniens_ (Noumea, 1900). This work originally appeared as a
series of articles in the Catholic missionary journal _Les Missions
Catholiques_.]

[Footnote 520: Lambert, _Moeurs et Superstitions des Neo-Caledoniens_,
pp. ii., iv. _sq._; 255.]

[Footnote 521: George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa a Hundred Years Ago and long
before_ (London, 1884), pp. 340 _sqq._]

[Footnote 522: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 13-16.]

[Footnote 523: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 235-239.]

[Footnote 524: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 238, 239 _sq._]

[Footnote 525: Above, pp. 136 _sq._, 235 _sq._]

[Footnote 526: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 24, 240.]

[Footnote 527: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 274.]

[Footnote 528: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 24, 26.]

[Footnote 529: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 211.]

[Footnote 530: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 218.]

[Footnote 531: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 224 _sq._]

[Footnote 532: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 275 _sqq._]

[Footnote 533: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 276.]

[Footnote 534: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 288 _sq._]

[Footnote 535: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 290, 292.]

[Footnote 536: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 292 _sq._]

[Footnote 537: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 293 _sq._]

[Footnote 538: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 294.]

[Footnote 539: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 296 _sq._]

[Footnote 540: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 297 _sq._]

[Footnote 541: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 298.]

[Footnote 542: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 300.]

[Footnote 543: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 301 _sq._]

[Footnote 544: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 217 _sq._, 300.]

[Footnote 545: George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa a Hundred Years Ago and long
before_ (London, 1884), pp. 340 _sqq._]

[Footnote 546: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 340, 341, 343, 344.]

[Footnote 547: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 342 _sq._]

[Footnote 548: G. Turner, _op. cit._ p. 345.]

[Footnote 549: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 346 _sq._]

[Footnote 550: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 345 _sq._]

[Footnote 551: G. Turner, _op. cit._ p. 342.]

LECTURE XVI

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF CENTRAL MELANESIA

[Sidenote: The islands of Central Melanesia. Distinction between the
religion of the Eastern and Western Islanders.]

In our survey of savage beliefs and practices concerning the dead we now
pass from New Caledonia, the most southerly island of Melanesia, to the
groups of islands known as the New Hebrides, the Banks' Islands, the
Torres Islands, the Santa Cruz Islands, and the Solomon Islands, which
together constitute what we may call Central Melanesia. These groups of
islands may themselves be distinguished into two archipelagoes, a
western and an eastern, of which the Western comprises the Solomon
Islands and the Eastern includes all the rest. Corresponding to this
geographical distinction there is a religious distinction; for while the
religion of the Western islanders (the Solomon Islanders) consists
chiefly in a fear and worship of the ghosts of the dead, the religion of
the Eastern islanders is characterised mainly by the fear and worship of
spirits which are not supposed ever to have been incarnate in human
bodies. Both groups of islanders, the Western and the Eastern, recognise
indeed both classes of spirits, namely ghosts that once were men and
spirits who never were men; but the religious bias of the one group is
towards ghosts rather than towards pure spirits, and the religious bias
of the other group is towards pure spirits rather than towards ghosts.
It is not a little remarkable that the islanders whose bent is towards
ghosts have carried the system of sacrifice and the arts of life to a
higher level than the islanders whose bent is towards pure spirits; this
applies particularly to the sacrificial system, which is much more
developed in the west than in the east.[552] From this it would seem to
follow that if a faith in ghosts is more costly than a faith in pure
spirits, it is at the same time more favourable to the evolution of
culture.

[Sidenote: Dr. R. H. Codrington on the Melanesians.]

For the whole of this region we are fortunate in possessing the evidence
of the Rev. Dr. R. H. Codrington, one of the most sagacious, cautious,
and accurate of observers, who laboured as a missionary among the
natives for twenty-four years, from 1864 to 1887, and has given us a
most valuable account of their customs and beliefs in his book _The
Melanesians_, which must always remain an anthropological classic. In
describing the worship of the dead as it is carried on among these
islanders I shall draw chiefly on the copious evidence supplied by Dr.
Codrington; and I shall avail myself of his admirable researches to
enter into considerable details on the subject, since details recorded
by an accurate observer are far more instructive than the vague
generalities of superficial observers, which are too often all the
information we possess as to the religion of savages.

[Sidenote: Melanesian theory of the soul.]

In the first place, all the Central Melanesians believe that man is
composed of a body and a soul, that death is the final parting of the
soul from the body, and that after death the soul continues to exist as
a conscious and more or less active being.[553] Thus the creed of these
savages on this profound subject agrees fundamentally with the creed of
the average European; if my hearers were asked to state their beliefs as
to the nature of life and death, I imagine that most of them would
formulate them in substantially the same way. However, when the Central
Melanesian savage attempts to define the nature of the vital principle
or soul, which animates the body during life and survives it after
death, he finds himself in a difficulty; and to continue the parallel I
cannot help thinking that if my hearers in like manner were invited to
explain their conception of the soul, they would similarly find
themselves embarrassed for an answer. But an examination of the Central
Melanesian theory of the soul would lead us too far from our immediate
subject; we must be content to say that, "whatever word the Melanesian
people use for soul, they mean something essentially belonging to each
man's nature which carries life to his body with it, and is the seat of
thought and intelligence, exercising therefore power which is not of the
body and is invisible in its action."[554] However the soul may be
defined, the Melanesians are universally of opinion that it survives the
death of the body and goes away to some more or less distant region,
where the spirits of all the dead congregate and continue for the most
part to live for an indefinite time, though some of them, as we shall
see presently, are supposed to die a second death and so to come to an
end altogether. In Western Melanesia, that is, in the Solomon Islands,
the abode of the dead is supposed to be in certain islands, which differ
in the creed of different islanders; but in Eastern Melanesia the abode
of the dead is thought to be a subterranean region called Panoi.[555]

[Sidenote: Distinction between ghosts of power and ghosts of no
account.]

But though the souls of the departed go away to the spirit land,
nevertheless, with a seeming or perhaps real inconsistency, their ghosts
are also supposed to haunt their graves and their old homes and to
exercise great power for good or evil over the living, who are
accordingly often obliged to woo their favour by prayer and sacrifice.
According to the Solomon Islanders, however, among whom ghosts are the
principal objects of worship, there is a great distinction to be drawn
among ghosts. "The distinction," says Dr. Codrington, "is between ghosts
of power and ghosts of no account, between those whose help is sought
and their wrath deprecated, and those from whom nothing is expected and
to whom no observance is due. Among living men there are some who stand
out distinguished for capacity in affairs, success in life, valour in
fighting, and influence over others; and these are so, it is believed,
because of the supernatural and mysterious powers which they have, and
which are derived from communication with those ghosts of the dead gone
before them who are full of those same powers. On the death of a
distinguished man his ghost retains the powers that belonged to him in
life, in greater activity and with stronger force; his ghost therefore
is powerful and worshipful, and so long as he is remembered the aid of
his powers is sought and worship is offered him; he is the _tindalo_ of
Florida, the _lio'a_ of Saa. In every society, again, the multitude is
composed of insignificant persons, '_numerus fruges consumeri nati_,' of
no particular account for valour, skill, or prosperity. The ghosts of
such persons continue their insignificance, and are nobodies after death
as before; they are ghosts because all men have souls, and the souls of
dead men are ghosts; they are dreaded because all ghosts are awful, but
they get no worship and are soon only thought of as the crowd of the
nameless population of the lower world."[556]

[Sidenote: Ghosts of the great and of the recently dead are chiefly
regarded. Supernatural power (_mana_) acquired through ghosts.]

From this account of Dr. Codrington we see that it is only the ghosts of
great and powerful people who are worshipped; the ghosts of ordinary
people are indeed feared, but no worship is paid to them. Further, we
are told that it is the ghosts of those who have lately died that are
deemed to be most powerful and are therefore most regarded; as the dead
are forgotten, their ghosts cease to be worshipped, their power fades
away,[557] and their place in the religion of the people is taken by the
ghosts of the more recently departed. In fact here, as elsewhere, the
existence of the dead seems to be dependent on the memory of the living;
when they are forgotten they cease to exist. Further, it deserves to be
noticed that in the Solomon Islands what we should call a man's natural
powers and capacities are regarded as supernatural endowments acquired
by communication with a mighty ghost. If a man is a great warrior, it is
not because he is strong of arm, quick of eye, and brave of heart; it is
because he is supported by the ghost of a dead warrior, whose power he
has drawn to himself through an amulet of stone tied round his neck, or
a tuft of leaves in his belt, or a tooth attached to one of his fingers,
or a spell by the recitation of which he can enlist the aid of the
ghost.[558] And similarly with all other pre-eminent capacities and
virtues; in the mind of the Solomon Islanders, they are all supernatural
gifts and graces bestowed on men by ghosts. This all-pervading
supernatural power the Central Melanesian calls _mana_.[559] Thus for
these savages the whole world teems with ghostly influences; their minds
are filled, we may almost say, obsessed, with a sense of the unseen
powers which encompass and determine even in its minute particulars the
life of man on earth: in their view the visible world is, so to say,
merely a puppet-show of which the strings are pulled and the puppets
made to dance by hands invisible. Truly the attitude of these savages to
the universe is deeply religious.