Part 4 (1/2)
The ter sacred, reserved, prohibited by supernatural agents, the breaking of which prohibition will be visited by supernatural punishment This notion is one of the ion Holy places, holy persons, and holy things are all founded on this conception Prof W Robertson Smith,
says: ”Rules of holiness in the sense just explained, ie, a systes enforced by the dread of supernatural penalties, are found aion of the Semites, p 142
The holy ark of the North Aerous to be touched” that no one except the war chief and his attendant will touch it ”under the penalty of incurring great evil Nor would the most inveterate enemy touch it in the woods for the very same reason”
Adair, History of the American Indians, p 162
In Numbers iv 15 we read of the Jewish ark, ”The sons of Kohath shall co lest they die”
In 2 Sam vi 6, 7, we are told how the Lord s his hand on the ark to steady it So the Lord punished the Philistines for keeping his ark, and smote fifty thousand and seventy men of Bethshemesh, ”because they had looked into the ark of the Lord” (1 Saht of as the penalties of breaking taboo that cases are on record of those who, having unwittingly done this, have died of terror upon recognising their error Mr Frazer, in his _Golden Bough_, instances a New Zealand chief, who left the remains of his dinner by the way side A slave ate it up without asking questions Hardly had he finished when he was told the food was the chief's, and taboo ”No sooner did he hear the fatal news than he was seized by the most extraordinary convulsions and cramp in the stomach, which never ceased till he died, about sundown the same day”
All the old temples had an adytum, sanctuary, or holy of holies--a place not open to the profane, but protected by rigid taboos This was the case with the Jews It was death to enter the holy places, or even to make the holy oil of the priests Even the name of the Lord was taboo, and to this day cannot be pronounced
Take off your sandals, says God to Moses, for the place whereon you stand is taboo The whole of Mount horeb was taboo, and we continually read of the holy mountain The ideas of taboo and of holiness are admitted by Prof Robertson Smith to be at bottom identical
Some taboos are simply artful, as the prohibition of boats to South Pacific women, lest they should escape to other islands When Ta of the Sandwich Islands, heard that diamonds had been found in the mountains near Honolulu, he at once declared the ht be the sole possessor
In Hawai the flesh of hogs, fowls, turtle, and several kinds of fish, cocoa-nuts, and nearly everything offered in sacrifice, were reserved for Gods and men, and could not, except in special cases, be consu used for food seem to have been dictated by dread or aversion, but others had a foundation of prudence and forethought Thus there is little doubt that the prohibition of the sacred cow in India has been thethat animal from extermination in tined for the taboos upon certain kinds of food found in Leviticus and Deuteronoh atte animals it was beneficial or hurtful to eat Some ridiculous mistakes were made by the divine tabooist The hare, a rodent, was declared to ”chew the cud” (Lev xi
6, Deut xiv 7) The camel was excluded because it does not divide the hoof; yet in reality it has cloven feet But doubtless it was seen it ht be disastrous to kill the cainally a sacred ani certain kinds of food, which was in existence long before the Levitical laritten, perhaps arose partly from reverence, partly from aversion It may, too, have been connected with the totehty Bible na tribe; Doeg, the fish tribe;the carcass of a dead aniious In Lev xi 21--25 we find rigorous laws on the subject
Whoever carries the carcass of an unclean aniarments
The objects upon which a carcass accidentally falls, , and if of earthenware the defilement is supposed to enter into the pores, and the vessel, oven, or stove-rangethe Greeks, Romans, Hindoos,
Parsees, and Phoenicians(v) If a Jew touched a dead body--even a dead animal (Lev xi 89)--he became unclean, and if he purified not himself, ”that soul shall be cut off from Israel” (Nu a dead body are regarded by the Maoris as in a very dangerous state, and are sedulously shunned and isolated”(v) Doubtless it was felt that death was so which could communicate itself, as disease was seen to do
Eurip Alcest, 100
Virgil aen, vi 221; Tacit Annal, 162
Manu, y 59, 62, 74-79
Vendid iii 25-27
(v) Lucian Dea Syr, 523
(v) J Gk Frazer, Golden Bough, vol i, p 169
When iron was first discovered it was invested with mystery and held as a charm It was tabooed The Jeould use no iron tools in building the tes vi 7) Roht not be shaved with iron but only with bronze, as stone knives were used in circumcision (Ex iv 25, Josh v 2) To this day a Hottentot priest never uses an iron knife, but always a sharp splint of quartz in sacrificing an aniame of touch iron we may see a remnant of the old belief in its charm When Scotch fishermen were at sea and one of them happened to take the name of God in vain, the first man who heard hirasped the nearest bit of iron and held it between his hand for a while
E B Guthrie, Old Scottish Custoers, Social Life in Scotland, iii 218