Volume 2, Part 1 Part 15 (1/2)
(vi.) In secret societies we find bodies of men grouped together with a single tutelary animal; the individual, in the same way, acquires the nagual or individual totem, sometimes by ceremonies of the nature of the bloodbond.
(vii.) Spirits of vegetation in ancient and modern Europe and in China are conceived in animal form. (See _Goat_, below.)
(viii.) The ominous animal or bird may develop into a deity. (See _Hawk_, below.)
(ix.) It is commonly a.s.sumed that the animals a.s.sociated with certain deities are sacred because the G.o.d was originally theriomorphic; this is doubtless the case in certain instances; but Apollo Smintheus, Dionysus Ba.s.sareus and other examples seem to show that the G.o.d may have been appealed to for help and thus become a.s.sociated with the animals from whom he protected the crops, &c.
(x.) The use of animals in magic may sometimes give rise to a kind of respect for them, but this is of a negative nature. See, however, articles by Preuss in _Globus_, vol. lxvii., in which he maintains that animals of magical influence are elevated into divinities.
_Animal Cults._
_Bear_.--The bear enjoys a large measure of respect from all savage races that come in contact with it, which shows itself in apologies and in festivals in its honour. The most important developments of the cult are in East Asia among the Siberian tribes; among the Ainu of Sakhalin a young bear is caught at the end of winter and fed for some nine months; then after receiving honours it is killed, and the people, who previously show marks of grief at its approaching fate, dance merrily and feast on its body. Among the Gilyaks a similar festival is found, but here it takes the form of a celebration in honour of a recently dead kinsman, to whom the spirit of the bear is sent. Whether this feature or a cult of the hunting type was the primary form, is so far an open question. There is a good deal of evidence to connect the Greek G.o.ddess Artemis with a cult of the bear; girls danced as ”bears” in her honour, and might not marry before undergoing this ceremony. The bear is traditionally a.s.sociated with Bern in Switzerland, and in 1832 a statue of Artio, a bear G.o.ddess, was dug up there.
_Buffalo_.--The Todas of S. India abstain from the flesh of their domestic animal, the buffalo; but once a year they sacrifice a bull calf, which is eaten in the forest by the adult males.
_Cattle_.--Cattle are respected by many pastoral peoples; they live on milk or game, and the killing of an ox is a sacrificial function.
Conspicuous among Egyptian animal cults was that of the bull, Apis. It was distinguished by certain marks, and when the old Apis died a new one was sought; the finder was rewarded, and the bull underwent four months' education at Nilopolis. Its birthday was celebrated once a year; oxen, which had to be pure white, were sacrificed to it; women were forbidden to approach it when once its education was finished.
Oracles were obtained from it in various ways. After death it was mummified and buried in a rock-tomb. Less widespread was the cult of the Mnevis, also consecrated to Osiris. Similar observances are found in our own day on the Upper Nile; the Nuba and Nuer wors.h.i.+p the bull; the Angoni of Central Africa and the Sakalava of Madagascar keep sacred bulls. In India respect for the cow is widespread, but is of post-Vedic origin; there is little actual wors.h.i.+p, but the products of the cow are important in magic.
_Crow_.--The crow is the chief deity of the Thlinkit Indians of N.W.
America; and all over that region it is the chief figure in a group of myths, fulfilling the office of a culture hero who brings the light, gives fire to mankind, &c. Together with the eagle-hawk the crow plays a great part in the mythology of S.E. Australia.
_Dog_.--Actual dog-wors.h.i.+p is uncommon; the Nosarii of western Asia are said to wors.h.i.+p a dog; the Kalangs of Java had a cult of the red dog, each family keeping one in the house; according to one authority the dogs are images of wood which are wors.h.i.+pped after the death of a member of the family and burnt after a thousand days. In Nepal it is said that dogs are wors.h.i.+pped at the festival called Khicha Puja.
Among the Harranians dogs were sacred, but this was rather as brothers of the mystae.
_Elephant_.--In Siam it is believed that a white elephant may contain the soul of a dead person, perhaps a Buddha; when one is taken the capturer is rewarded and the animal brought to the king to be kept ever afterwards; it cannot be bought or sold. It is baptized and feted and mourned for like a human being at its death. In some parts of Indo-China the belief is that the soul of the elephant may injure people after death; it is therefore feted by a whole village. In Cambodia it is held to bring luck to the kingdom. In Sumatra the elephant is regarded as a tutelary spirit. The cult of the white elephant is also found at Ennarea, southern Abyssinia.
_Fish_.--Dagon seems to have been a fish-G.o.d with human head and hands; his wors.h.i.+ppers wore fish-skins. In the temples of Apollo and Aphrodite were sacred fish, which may point to a fish cult. Atargatis is said to have had sacred fish at Askelon, and from Xenophon we read that the fish of the Chalus were regarded as G.o.ds.
_Goat_.--Dionysus was believed to take the form of a goat, probably as a divinity of vegetation. Pan, Silenus, the Satyrs and the Fauns were either capriform or had some part of their bodies shaped like that of a goat. In northern Europe the wood spirit, Ljesche, is believed to have a goat's horns, ears and legs. In Africa the Bijagos are said to have a goat as their princ.i.p.al divinity.
_Hare_.--In North America the Algonquin tribes had as their chief deity a ”mighty great hare” to whom they went at death. According to one account he lived in the east, according to another in the north.
In his anthropomorphized form he was known as Menabosho or Michabo.
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_Hawk_.--In North Borneo we seem to see the evolution of a G.o.d in the three stages of the cult of the hawk among the Kenyahs, the Kayans and the sea Dyaks. The Kenyahs will not kill it, address to it thanks for a.s.sistance, and formally consult it before leaving home on an expedition; it seems, however, to be regarded as the messenger of the supreme G.o.d Balli Penyalong. The Kayans have a hawk-G.o.d, Laki Neho, but seem to regard the hawk as the servant of the chief G.o.d, Laki Tenangan. Singalang Burong, the hawk-G.o.d of the Dyaks, is completely anthropomorphized. He is G.o.d of omens and ruler of the omen birds; but the hawk is not his messenger, for he never leaves his house; stories are, however, told of his attending feasts in human form and flying away in hawk form when all was over.
_Horse_.--There is some reason to believe that Poseidon, like other water G.o.ds, was originally conceived under the form of a horse. In the cave of Phigalia Demeter was, according to popular tradition, represented with the head and mane of a horse, possibly a relic of the time when a non-specialized corn-spirit bore this form. Her priests were called Poloi (colts) in Laconia. In Gaul we find a horse-G.o.ddess, Epona; there are also traces of a horse-G.o.d, Rudiobus. The Gonds in India wors.h.i.+p a horse-G.o.d, Koda Pen, in the form of a shapeless stone; but it is not clear that the horse is regarded as divine. The horse or mare is a common form of the corn-spirit in Europe.
_Leopard_.--The cult of the leopard is widely found in West Africa.
Among the Ewe a man who kills one is liable to be put to death; no leopard skin may be exposed to view, but a stuffed leopard is wors.h.i.+pped. On the Gold Coast a leopard hunter who has killed his victim is carried round the town behind the body of the leopard; he may not speak, must besmear himself so as to look like a leopard and imitate its movements. In Loango a prince's cap is put upon the head of a dead leopard, and dances are held in its honour.
_Lion_.--The lion was a.s.sociated with the Egyptian G.o.ds R[=e] and Horus; there was a lion-G.o.d at Baalbek and a lion-headed G.o.ddess Sekhet. The Arabs had a lion-G.o.d, Yaghuth. In modern Africa we find a lion-idol among the Balonda.