The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume Ii Part 27

174, "Wherever they go they exercise power to seize what they want from the inhabitants. They smite their hand on their breast and say '_Harre_, give,' whenever they covet any thing, and none dares deny them. They never work; live by plunder; yet are highly respected, as none but persons of rank are admitted among them." This last statement, however, is contradicted by Ellis, who says (_op. cit._ i. 239) that "the fraternity was not confined to any particular rank or grade in society, but was composed of individuals from every cla.s.s."

[62] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 197.

Not the least of the privileges, real or imaginary, enjoyed by the Areois was that after death their spirits were believed to pa.s.s without difficulty to that paradise of delights to which otherwise none but the n.o.ble and wealthy could hope to attain.[63]

[63] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 245 _sq._, 397; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 434 _sq._

In spite of the profligate life which the Areoi led and their addiction to a round of frivolous amus.e.m.e.nts and entertainments, it seems likely that the Society was originally founded for some serious purpose, though the accounts which have come down to us hardly enable us to determine, or even to conjecture with a fair degree of probability, what that purpose was. That its aim was religious might be inferred on general grounds, and is confirmed by the close relation in which the Society stood to the national G.o.d Oro. Not only is Oro said to have founded the Society, but before a troop of Areois set out on their peregrinations they were obliged to kill many pigs in sacrifice to him and to offer large quant.i.ties of plantains, bananas, and other fruits on his altars.

Moreover, temporary shrines were erected in their canoes for the wors.h.i.+p of Oro's two divine brothers, Orotetefa and Urutetefa, who were traditionally said to have been the first members of the Society and were regarded as its tutelary deities. In these shrines the princ.i.p.al symbols were a stone for each of the brothers taken from Oro's temple, and a few red feathers from the inside of his sacred image. Into these symbols the G.o.ds were supposed to enter when the priest p.r.o.nounced a short prayer immediately before the sailing of the fleet.[64]

[64] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 234.

We might be better able to understand the purpose and the functions of the Areoi Society if we were acquainted with the nature and meaning which the natives ascribed to the G.o.d Oro, the reputed founder of the Society; but on this subject our authorities shed little light. He is described as the war-G.o.d[65] and as "the great national idol of Raiatea, Tahiti, Eimeo, and some of the other islands," and he was said to be a son of the creator Taaroa, who at first dwelt alone up aloft, but who afterwards, with the help of his daughter Hina, created the heavens, the earth, and the sea.[66] By European writers Oro has been variously interpreted as a G.o.d of the dead or of the sun; and accordingly the Society of the Areois has been variously explained as devoted either to a cult of the Lord of the Dead for the sake of securing eternal happiness in a world beyond the grave, or to a wors.h.i.+p of the sun-G.o.d; but the grounds alleged for either interpretation appear to be extremely slight.[67]

[65] Above, p. 258.

[66] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 324, 325.

[67] Gerland takes the former view, Moerenhout the latter. See Waitz-Gerland, _Anthropologie_, vi. 368 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 484. The only evidence adduced by Moerenhout for his interpretation of Oro as a sun-G.o.d is a statement that in the Marquesas Islands the Areois suspended their performances and went into retreat from April or May till the vernal equinox (which in the southern hemisphere falls in September), and that during their retreat they a.s.sumed the style of mourners and bewailed the absence or death of their G.o.d, whom they called Mahoui. This Mahoui is accordingly taken by Moerenhout to be the sun and equated to Oro, the G.o.d of the Areois in the Society Islands. But Mahoui seems to be no other than the well-known Polynesian hero Maui, who can hardly have been the sun (see below, p. 286 note^5); and Moerenhout's statement as to the annual period of mourning observed by the Areois in the Marquesas Islands is not, so far as I know, confirmed by any other writer, and must, therefore, be regarded as open to doubt.

His statement and his interpretation of Oro and Mahoui were accepted by Dr. Rivers, who made them the basis of his far-reaching theory of a secret wors.h.i.+p of the sun introduced into the Pacific by immigrants from a far northern country, who also built the megalithic monuments of Polynesia and Micronesia.

See W. H. R. Rivers, "Sun-cult and Megaliths in Polynesia,"

_American Anthropologist_, xvii. July-September 1915, pp. 431 _sqq._ In proof of the supposed connexion between these megalithic monuments and a wors.h.i.+p of the sun, Dr. Rivers says (p. 440) that the Areois "held their celebrations in an enclosure called _marae_ or _marai_, at one end of which was situated a pyramidical structure with steps leading to a platform on which were placed the images of the G.o.ds during the religious celebrations of the people." But if by "their celebrations" Dr. Rivers means the ordinary dramatic, musical, and athletic performances of the Areois, he seems to be in error; for it appears to be certain that these exhibitions were regularly given, not at the _maraes_, but in or before large houses built or specially set apart for the purpose. See above, pp. 259 _sq._

Perhaps a faint gleam of light may fall on the mystery of the Areois from an examination of their traditionary first members and guardian deities, the two divine brothers, Orotetefai and Urutetefai. The similarity of the names of the brothers suggests that they may have been twins; for it is a common custom to bestow either the same or a similar name on each of a pair of twins in order to indicate their close relations.h.i.+p to each other.[68] If they were twins, there are some grounds for thinking that they were Heavenly Twins; for their father or creator, Taaroa, seems certainly to have been a sky-G.o.d, and their mother, Hina, is by some authorities regarded as the moon; moreover, the two brothers are said to have first descended from the sky to the earth on a rainbow.[69] If the twins.h.i.+p of the divine brothers could be made out, it might perhaps explain some of the peculiar features of the Areoi Society. For example, their remarkable custom of not allowing any of their offspring to live; for it has been a common custom in many parts of the world to put twins to death.[70] Further, the superhuman rank accorded to the Areois becomes more intelligible on this hypothesis. For among many savage peoples twins are credited with the possession of powers superior to those of ordinary humanity; in particular, they are thought to be able to influence the weather for good or evil, as by causing rain or drought and the wind to blow or be still.[71] Among the Baronga of South-Eastern Africa the supposed relation of twins to the sky is very clearly marked. They call the mother of twins by a name which means "Heaven" (_Tilo_), and consistently they style the twins themselves "Children of Heaven" (_Bana ba Tilo_).[72] The mother is even said to have "made Heaven," to have "carried Heaven," and to have "ascended to Heaven."[73] The connexion which is believed to exist between her and the twins on the one side and the sky on the other is brought out plainly in the customs which the Baronga observe for the purpose of procuring rain in time of drought. Thus they will take a mother of twins, put her in a hole, and pour on her water which they have drawn from all the wells, till the hole is half full, and the water comes up to her breast. This is thought to make the rain fall.[74] Or again, in order to get rain, the women will strip themselves naked except for a girdle and head-dress of gra.s.s, and thus attired will go in procession, headed by a mother of twins, and pour water on the graves of twins. And if the body of a twin has been buried in dry ground, they will dig it up and bury it again near a river; for the grave of a twin, in their opinion, should always be wet. Thus they hope to draw down rain on the thirsty ground.[75] Again, when a thunderstorm is raging and lightning threatens to strike a village, the Baronga will say to a twin, "Help us! you are a Child of Heaven! You can therefore cope with Heaven; it will hear you when you speak." So the child goes out of the hut and prays to Heaven as follows: "Go away! Do not annoy us! We are afraid. Go and roar far away." When the thunderstorm is over, the child is thanked for its services. The mother of twins is also supposed to be able to help in the same way, for has she not, as the natives express it, ascended to Heaven? They say that she can speak with Heaven, and that she is at it or in it.[76] Among the Kpelle, a negro tribe of Liberia, twins are regarded as born magicians, and as such are treated with respect, and people sometimes make them presents in order to ensure their goodwill; in doing so they are careful never to make a present to the one twin without the other, and the twin who was born last gets his present first, for he is regarded as the first-born. Twins are thought by the Kpelle to do wonders; they even say that "a twin surpa.s.ses every medicine-man."[77] Among the Fan or Fang, a tribe of the Cameroons in West Africa, there is a curious superst.i.tion that a twin ought not to see a rainbow. Should he by accident have caught sight of one, he must shave his eyebrows and dye the place of the one black and the place of the other red.[78] This superst.i.tion seems to imply a special relation between twins and the sky, and it reminds us of the Tahitian tradition that the two divine brothers, the first members of the Areoi Society, descended to earth on a rainbow.[79]

[68] J. Rendel Harris, _The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends_ (London, 1903), pp. 1 _sqq._ _id._, _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_ (Cambridge, 1906), pp. 58 _sqq._; _id._, _Boanerges_ (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 291 _sqq._

[69] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 230, 232. Ellis does not admit that Orotetefa and Urutetefa were, strictly speaking, the sons of Oro. He writes: "According to the traditions of the people, Taaroa created, and, by means of Hina, brought forth when full grown Orotetefa and Urutetefa. They were not his sons; _oriori_ is the term employed by the people, which seems to mean _create_" (_op. cit._ i. 230). With regard to Hina (Heena), interpreted as the moon, or the G.o.ddess of the moon, see J. R.

Forster, _Observations_, p. 549; G. Forster, _Voyage_, ii. 152; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._. i. 428 _sq._, 458, 472; E.

Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 69.

_s.v._ "Hina," "Hina is by far the best known of all Polynesian legendary personages. In the more easterly islands she is a G.o.ddess, and is almost certainly the Moon-G.o.ddess." Similarly Mr. E. E. V. Collocot observes that Hina "is generally regarded as the Moon-G.o.ddess, and this view was spontaneously put forward by a Tongan; in conversation with me" (_Journal of the Polynesian Society_, x.x.x. (1921) p. 238).

[70] Abundant evidence of the custom is produced by Dr. Rendel Harris in his learned works, _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_ and _Boanerges_.

[71] _The Golden Bough_, Part I., _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 262 _sqq._

[72] H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1898), p. 412; _id._, _Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchatel, 1912-1913), ii. 394.

[73] H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 398.

[74] H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 399.

[75] H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-ronga_, pp. 417 _sq._; _id._, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 296.

[76] H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 399 _sq._

[77] D. Westermann, _Die Kpelle, ein Negerstamm in Liberia_ (Gottingen, 1921), pp. 68, 212, 355. The Bambara, another tribe of West Africa, similarly regard the last-born of twins as the elder of the two. See Jos. Henry, _Les Bambara_ (Munster i. W., 1910), p. 98. So, too, with the Mossi of the Sudan. See E.

Mangin, "Les Mossi," _Anthropos_, x.-xi. (1915-1916) p. 192.

[78] L. Martrou, "Les 'Eki' des Fang," _Anthropos_, i. (1906) p.

751; H. Trilles, _Le Totemisme chez les Fan_ (Munster i. W., 1912), p. 593. Compare H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 400, note^1, who reports the same superst.i.tion among the Fan on the testimony of his wife, who was for years a missionary in the tribe.

[79] Above, p. 267.

Another notion about twins which may possibly help to throw light on some of the practices of the Areoi Society, is that they or their parents or both are endowed with a fertilising or prolific virtue, which enables them to multiply animals or plants and thereby to increase the food supply. Thus, for example, some tribes of Northern Rhodesia keep pigeons in their villages, and in erecting a pigeon-cote they take care that the first stakes "are driven in by a woman who has borne twins, in order, they say, that the pigeons may multiply."[80] Some Bantu tribes of this region ascribe a similar virtue to both the father and the mother of twins. They think that such parents exert a beneficial or prolific influence at laying the foundations of pigeon-cotes, chicken-houses, goat-pens, or any other building used for the purposes of breeding; a certain woman who had borne twins thrice was lately in great request at these functions.[81] The Zulus think that all goats belonging to a twin bring forth young in couples.[82]

[80] C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern Nigeria_ (London, 1911), pp. 307 _sq._

[81] D. Campbell, _In the Heart of Bantuland_ (London, 1922), p.

155.

[82] Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood_ (London, 1906), p. 49.

In the Central District of Busoga, Central Africa, when a woman has given birth to twins, the people of her clan do not sow any seed until the twins have been brought to the field. A pot of cooked grain is set before the children with a cake of sesame and all the seed that is to be sown. The food is eaten by the a.s.sembled people, and afterwards the field is sown in presence of the twins; the plot is then said to be the field of the twins. The mother of twins must sow her seed before any person of the clan will sow his or hers.[83] These customs seem clearly to imply a belief that twins and their mother possess a special power of fertilising the seed. Among the Baganda of Central Africa twins were supposed to be sent by Mukasa, the great G.o.d whose blessing on the crops and on the people was ensured at an annual festival. The twins were thought to be under the protection of the G.o.d, and they bore his name, the boys being called Mukasa and the girls Namukasa. And a series of customs observed by the parents of twins among the Baganda indicates in the plainest manner a belief that they were endowed with a fertilising virtue which extended, not only to the crops and the cattle, but also to human beings. Thus the parents of twins were supposed to make people fruitful by sprinkling them with a mixture of water and clay from pots, of which each of the parents had one. Again, some time after the birth the parents used to make a round of visits to relations and friends, taking the twins with them. At every house they danced, the father wearing a crown made from a certain creeper, and the mother wearing a girdle of the same material. At these dances offerings were made to the twins. These dances were most popular "because the people believed that thereby they obtained a special blessing from the G.o.d Mukasa, who favoured the parents of twins, and through them dispensed blessing wherever they went." The persons whom the twins and their parents honoured with a visit "thought that, not only they themselves would be blessed and given children, but that their herds and crops also would be multiplied." A ceremony performed by the father and mother of twins over a flower of the plantain indicated in the plainest, if the grossest, fas.h.i.+on the belief of the Baganda that parents of twins could magically fertilise the plantains which form the staple food of the people. No wonder, then, that among them a mother of twins is deemed a source of blessing to the whole community, and that for some time after the birth both she and the father were sacred and wore a distinctive dress to prevent any one from touching them. The father, in particular, "could do what he liked, because he was under the protection of the G.o.d"; for example, he was free to enter anybody's garden and to take the produce at will. Special drums, too, were made for the parents, one for the father and one for the mother; and for some time after the birth these were beaten continually both by day and by night.[84]

[83] J. Roscoe, _The Northern Bantu_ (Cambridge, 1915), p. 235.

[84] J. Roscoe, "Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda," _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, x.x.xii.

(1902) pp. 32-34, 80; _id._, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp.

64-72. These two accounts to some extent supplement each other.

I have drawn on both. As to the annual festival of the G.o.d Mukasa, see _id._, _The Baganda_, pp. 298 _sq._

Among the Hos of Togo, in West Africa, in like manner, special drums are beaten for the parents of twins, and the parents dance publicly to the music in the main street of the village, after going nine times round it. Some days later the parents go the round of all the Ho towns, everywhere executing the same dance to the same music at noon; but should one of the twins have died in the meantime, the parents dance at night. It is believed that, if the customary rites were not performed at the birth of twins, the parents of the twins would be crippled.

Curiously enough, the drums, to the music of which the parents dance, may not be beaten by any one without special reason; and no one else may dance to their music except such as have slain either a man or a leopard. Among these people the birth of twins is the occasion of very great rejoicing. They say that "the road which the mother of twins goes is better than the road which the rich man goes."[85] The saying suggests that the Hos, like the Baganda, regard a mother of twins as diffusing fertility wherever she goes; and, on the a.n.a.logy of the dances of parents of twins among the Baganda, we may conjecture that in like manner among the Hos the parents of twins are supposed to confer the blessing of fruitfulness on all the towns where they dance.

[85] J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stamme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 202-206.

Among the Barundi of East Africa the birth of twins is celebrated with rites, songs, and ritual dances, which last for days and even for weeks.

As soon as the news spreads, the neighbours, friends, and relations flock to the house to sing, bringing with them presents for the parents or offerings to the spirits. The amount of provisions thus acc.u.mulated is enormous, but the parents of the twins benefit little by it; the great bulk disappears as by magic among the self-invited guests.

Festivity, dancing, and singing are now the order of the day. Dancers, male and female, their faces painted red and white or yellow, dance like furies in a circle for hours together, singing ritual hymns at the top of their voices, while an old sorceress besprinkles the troop with l.u.s.tral water. It is commonly believed that if these rites were omitted, the twins and their parents would die. At the birth of twins it is customary to buy two black sheep or lambs and to dedicate them to the twins, one to each. These sheep are then left at liberty to run about as they like by day and night, and to enter the fields and browse at will.

If one of them dies it is replaced by another. The animals are described as the guardians of the children, the receptacle or symbol of their spirits, in short, as their fetish.[86] To some extent, they are a.n.a.logous to the pig which an Areoi used to offer to the G.o.d at the ceremony of his consecration; for, though sometimes the animal was killed, at other times it was liberated, and, being regarded as sacred or belonging to the G.o.d to whom it had been offered, was allowed to range the district uncontrolled till it died.[87] Among the Baluba, a tribe of the Belgian Congo, there is great joy at the birth of twins, and special ceremonies are observed on the occasion. The twins are invariably named Kyunga and Kahya, after the spirits of two ancient kings, and to these spirits the twins are consecrated. After being washed and decorated they are placed side by side in a winnowing-basket and carried by the women of the family in procession through the village, headed by the proud father. Dancing and singing they go to the ash-heap of the village. There they all rub themselves with ashes and perform another dance. After that, still led by the father of the twins, they go to the houses of the chief people, and in front of each house the father dances, while the women beat time with their hands. Wherever the procession halts, the householder is expected to come and admire the twins, to compliment the father, and to deposit a small present in the winnowing-basket.[88] Among the Herero of South-West Africa the parents of twins are looked on as sacred, and for a time they may not speak to any one, and no one may speak to them. But after the lapse of some days the family goes the round of the village, visiting three or four huts every day. The father of the twins sits down on the right side of the hut, and the inmates make him offerings of beads, oxen, and so forth.

When he has thus gone the round of the village, he repairs to the neighbouring villages, where the same ceremonies are repeated. It is often a year before he returns to his own village, and when he does so he brings back with him a great quant.i.ty of offerings. Henceforth the father of the twins enjoys all the privileges of a priestly chief; he may sacrifice at the holy fire, and he may represent and even succeed the chief in the office of priest for the village. The twins themselves are eligible for the same office. If a chief dies a natural death, he is succeeded in his priestly function by his twin son; whereas the chieftains.h.i.+p pa.s.ses to the chief's legal heir, who is properly the son of his eldest sister, and who thenceforth a.s.sumes the name of the twin.

A twin is bound by no taboo; he may eat of all flesh offered in sacrifice; he may drink of the milk of every holy cow, just like the chief and the priest themselves.[89]

[86] J. M. M. van der Burgt, _Dictionnaire Francais-Kirundi_ (Bois-le-Duc, 1903), pp. 324 _sq._; H. Meyer, _Die Barundi_ (Leipzig, 1916), pp. 110 _sq._

[87] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 242.

[88] Colle, _Les Baluba_ (Brussels, 1913), i. 253-255.

[89] J. Irle, _Die Herero_ (Gutersloh, 1906), pp. 96-99.

In these cases we are not told that twins and their parents are supposed to be endowed with a power of multiplying the herds and generally of increasing the supply of food by the prolific influence which they diffuse about them; but the a.n.a.logy of the customs and beliefs of the Baganda concerning the birth of twins renders the supposition probable.

At least on this hypothesis we can readily understand the round of visits which the parents, or one of them, pay to the surrounding towns or villages, and the presents which are made to them. If they indeed possess a power of imparting fertility and abundance wherever they go, it is obviously in everybody's interest to be visited by them, and clearly, on the same supposition, it is everybody's duty to make some return to them for the wonderful benefits which they have conferred.

Similarly we may perhaps suppose that the rounds which the Areois went from island to island, dancing, singing, and playing their tricks wherever they stopped, were believed to quicken the fruits of the earth, and possibly also to multiply the pigs and the fish. On that a.s.sumption, the unlimited right which these vagabonds enjoyed of appropriating and consuming the produce of the gardens was probably accorded to them as a natural and proper remuneration for the inestimable services which their mere presence was believed to render to the crops. The s.e.xual excesses, in which they appear to have indulged, would also be intelligible, if it was imagined that, on the principle of sympathetic magic, such indulgences actually promoted the multiplication and growth of plants and animals. But this explanation of the extravagant rites observed by the Areois, and of the quaint beliefs entertained concerning them, is offered only as an hypothesis for what it is worth. It may be worth while noting that among the Kpelle, a tribe of Liberia in West Africa, there is reported to exist a Secret Society of Twins,[90] but whether it bears any resemblance to the Society of the Areois I do not know.

[90] D. Westermann, _Die Kpelle, ein Negerstamm in Liberia_ (Gottingen, 1921), p. 228.