The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Part 3

[Sidenote: Some savages dissect the corpse to ascertain whether death was due to natural causes or to sorcery.]

In the first place, certain savage tribes are reported to dissect the bodies of their dead in order to ascertain from an examination of the corpse whether the deceased died a natural death or perished by magic.

This is reported by Mr. E. R. Smith concerning the Araucanians of Chili, who according to other writers, as we saw,[51] believe all deaths to be due to sorcery. Mr. Smith tells us that after death the services of the _machi_ or medicine-man "are again required, especially if the deceased be a person of distinction. The body is dissected and examined. If the liver be found in a healthy state, the death is attributed to natural causes; but if the liver prove to be inflamed, it is supposed to indicate the machinations of some evil-intentioned persons, and it rests with the medicine-man to discover the conspirator. This is accomplished by much the same means that were used to find out the nature of the disease. The gall is extracted, put in the magic drum, and after various incantations taken out and placed over the fire, in a pot carefully covered; if, after subjecting the gall to a certain amount of roasting, a stone is found in the bottom of the pot, it is declared to be the means by which death was produced. These stones, as well as the frogs, spiders, arrows, or whatever else may be extracted from the sick man, are called _Huecuvu_--the 'Evil One.' By aid of the _Huecuvu_ the _machi_ [medicine-man] throws himself into a trance, in which state he discovers and announces the person guilty of the death, and describes the manner in which it was produced."[52]

Again, speaking of the Pahouins, a tribe of the Gaboon region in French Congo, a Catholic missionary writes thus: "It is so rare among the Pahouins that a death is considered natural! Scarcely has the deceased given up the ghost when the sorcerer appears on the scene. With three cuts of the knife, one transverse and two lateral, he dissects the breast of the corpse and turns down the skin on the face. Then he grabbles in the breast, examines the bowels attentively, marks the last muscular contractions, and thereupon p.r.o.nounces whether the death was natural or not." If he decides that the death was due to sorcery, the suspected culprit has to submit to the poison ordeal in the usual manner to determine his guilt or innocence.[53]

[Sidenote: The possibility of natural death admitted by the Melanesians.]

Another savage people who have come to admit the possibility of merely natural death are the Melanesians of the New Hebrides and other parts of Central Melanesia. Amongst them "any sickness that is serious is believed to be brought about by ghosts or spirits; common complaints such as fever and ague are taken as coming in the course of nature. To say that savages are never ill without supposing a supernatural cause is not true of Melanesians; they make up their minds as the sickness comes whether it is natural or not, and the more important the individual who is sick, the more likely his sickness is to be ascribed to the anger of a ghost whom he has offended, or to witchcraft. No great man would like to be told that he was ill by natural weakness or decay. The sickness is almost always believed to be caused by a ghost, not by a spirit....

Generally it is to the ghosts of the dead that sickness is ascribed in the eastern islands as well as in the western; recourse is had to them for aid in causing and removing sickness; and ghosts are believed to inflict sickness not only because some offence, such as a trespa.s.s, has been committed against them, or because one familiar with them has sought their aid with sacrifice and spells, but because there is a certain malignity in the feeling of all ghosts towards the living, who offend them by being alive."[54] From this account we learn, first, that the Melanesians admit some deaths by common diseases, such as fever and ague, to be natural; and, second, that they recognise ghosts and spirits as well as sorcerers and witches, among the causes of death; indeed they hold that ghosts are the commonest of all causes of sickness and death.

[Sidenote: The possibility of natural death admitted by the Caffres of South Africa.]

The same causes of death are recognised also by the Caffres of South Africa, as we learn from Mr. Dudley Kidd, who tells us that according to the beliefs of the natives, "to start with, there is sickness which is supposed to be caused by the action of ancestral spirits or by fabulous monsters. Secondly, there is sickness which is caused by the magical practices of some evil person who is using witchcraft in secret.

Thirdly, there is sickness which comes from neither of these causes, and remains unexplained. It is said to be 'only sickness, and nothing more.'

This third form of sickness is, I think, the commonest. Yet most writers wholly ignore it, or deny its existence. It may happen that an attack of indigestion is one day attributed to the action of witch or wizard; another day the trouble is put down to the account of ancestral spirits; on a third occasion the people may be at a loss to account for it, and so may dismiss the problem by saying that it is merely sickness. It is quite common to hear natives say that they are at a loss to account for some special case of illness. At first they thought it was caused by an angry ancestral spirit; but a great doctor has a.s.sured them that it is not the result of such a spirit. They then suppose it to be due to the magical practices of some enemy; but the doctor negatives that theory.

The people are, therefore, driven to the conclusion that the trouble has no ascertainable cause. In some cases they do not even trouble to consult a diviner; they speedily recognise the sickness as due to natural causes. In such a case it needs no explanation. If they think that some friend of theirs knows of a remedy, they will try it on their own initiative, or may even go off to a white man to ask for some of his medicine. They would never dream of doing this if they thought they were being influenced by magic or by ancestral spirits. The Kafirs quite recognise that there are types of disease which are inherited, and have not been caused by magic or by ancestral spirits. They admit that some accidents are due to nothing but the patient's carelessness or stupidity. If a native gets his leg run over by a waggon, the people will often say that it is all his own fault through being clumsy. In other cases, with delightful inconsistency, they may say that some one has been working magic to cause the accident. In short, it is impossible to make out a theory of sickness which will satisfy our European conception of consistency."[55]

[Sidenote: The admission that death may be due to natural causes, marks an intellectual advance. The recognition of ghosts or spirits as a cause of disease, apart from sorcery, also marks a step in intellectual, moral, and social progress.]

From the foregoing accounts we see that the Melanesians and the Caffres, two widely different and widely separated races, agree in recognising at least three distinct causes of what we should call natural death. These three causes are, first, sorcery or witchcraft; second, ghosts or spirits; and third, disease.[56] That the recognition of disease in itself as a cause of death, quite apart from sorcery, marks an intellectual advance, will not be disputed. It is not so clear, though I believe it is equally true, that the recognition of ghosts or spirits as a cause of disease, quite apart from witchcraft, marks a real step in intellectual, moral, and social progress. In the first place, it marks a step in intellectual and moral progress; for it recognises that effects which before had been ascribed to human agency spring from superhuman causes; and this recognition of powers in the universe superior to man is not only an intellectual gain but a moral discipline: it teaches the important lesson of humility. In the second place it marks a step in social progress because when the blame of a death is laid upon a ghost or a spirit instead of on a sorcerer, the death has not to be avenged by killing a human being, the supposed author of the calamity. Thus the recognition of ghosts or spirits as the sources of sickness and death has as its immediate effect the sparing of an immense number of lives of men and women, who on the theory of death by sorcery would have perished by violence to expiate their imaginary crime. That this is a great gain to society is obvious: it adds immensely to the security of human life by removing one of the most fruitful causes of its destruction.

It must be admitted, however, that the gain is not always as great as might be expected; the social advantages of a belief in ghosts and spirits are attended by many serious drawbacks. For while ghosts or spirits are commonly, though not always, supposed to be beyond the reach of human vengeance, they are generally thought to be well within the reach of human persuasion, flattery, and bribery; in other words, men think that they can appease and propitiate them by prayer and sacrifice; and while prayer is always cheap, sacrifice may be very dear, since it can, and often does, involve the destruction of an immense deal of valuable property and of a vast number of human lives. Yet if we could reckon up the myriads who have been slain in sacrifice to ghosts and G.o.ds, it seems probable that they would fall far short of the untold mult.i.tudes who have perished as sorcerers and witches. For while human sacrifices in honour of deities or of the dead have been for the most part exceptional rather than regular, only the great G.o.ds and the ill.u.s.trious dead being deemed worthy of such costly offerings, the slaughter of witches and wizards, theoretically at least, followed inevitably on every natural death among people who attributed all such deaths to sorcery. Hence if natural religion be defined roughly as a belief in superhuman spiritual beings and an attempt to propitiate them, we may perhaps say that, while natural religion has slain its thousands, magic has slain its ten thousands. But there are strong reasons for inferring that in the history of society an Age of Magic preceded an Age of Religion. If that was so, we may conclude that the advent of religion marked a great social as well as intellectual advance upon the preceding Age of Magic: it inaugurated an era of what might be described as mercy by comparison with the relentless severity of its predecessor.

[Footnote 6: W. Martin, _An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_, Second Edition (London, 1818), ii. 99.]

[Footnote 7: M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna, 1784), ii. 92 _sq._, 240 _sqq._ The author of this valuable work lived as a Catholic missionary in the tribe for eighteen years.]

[Footnote 8: C. Gay, "Fragment d'un Voyage dans le Chili et au Cusco,"

_Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie_ (Paris), Deuxieme Serie, xix.

(1843) p. 25; H. Delaporte, "Une visite chez les Araucaniens," _Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie_ (Paris), Quatrieme Serie, x. (1855) p. 30.]

[Footnote 9: K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens_ (Berlin, 1894), pp. 344, 348.]

[Footnote 10: Rev. W. H. Brett, _The Indian Tribes of Guiana_ (London, 1868), p. 357.]

[Footnote 11: W. H. Brett, _op. cit._ pp. 361 _sq._]

[Footnote 12: Rev. W. H. Brett, _op. cit._ pp. 364 _sq._]

[Footnote 13: Rev. J. H. Bernau, _Missionary Labours in British Guiana_ (London, 1847), pp. 56 _sq._, 58.]

[Footnote 14: (Sir) E. F. im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_ (London, 1883), pp. 330 _sq._ For the case described see R. Schomburgk, _Reisen in Britisch-Guiana_, i. (Leipsic, 1847) pp. 324 _sq._ The boy died of dropsy. Perhaps the mode of divination adopted, by boiling some portions of him in water, had special reference to the nature of the disease.]

[Footnote 15: (Sir) E. F. im Thurn, _op. cit._ pp. 332 _sq._]

[Footnote 16: Father A. G. Morice, "The Canadian Denes," _Annual Archaeological Report, 1905_ (Toronto, 1906), p. 207.]

[Footnote 17: Albert A. C. Le Souef, "Notes on the Natives of Australia," in R. Brough Smyth's _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London, 1878), ii. 289 _sq._]

[Footnote 18: (Sir) George Grey, _Journals of two Expeditions of Discovery in Northwest and Western Australia_ (London, 1841), ii. 238.]

[Footnote 19: A. Oldfield, "The Aborigines of Australia," _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S. iii. (1865) p. 236.]

[Footnote 20: A. Oldfield, _op. cit._ p. 245.]

[Footnote 21: J. Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, 1881), p. 63.]

[Footnote 22: H. E. A. Meyer, "Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay Tribe," _Native Tribes of South Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), p. 195.]

[Footnote 23: C. W. Schurmann, "The Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln in South Australia," _Native Tribes of South Australia_, pp. 237 _sq._]

[Footnote 24: Rev. G. Taplin, "The Narrinyeri," _Native Tribes of South Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), p. 25.]

[Footnote 25: R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London, 1878) i. 110.]

[Footnote 26: W. E. Stanbridge, "Some Particulars of the General Characteristics, Astronomy, and Mythology of the Tribes in the Central Part of Victoria, Southern Australia," _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, New Series, i. (1861) p. 299.]

[Footnote 27: Lorimer Fison and A. W. Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_ (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane, 1880), pp. 250 _sq._]

[Footnote 28: A. L. P. Cameron, "Notes on some Tribes of New South Wales," _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_ xiv. (1885) pp. 361, 362 _sq._]

[Footnote 29: Rev. W. Ridley, _Kamilaroi_, Second Edition (Sydney, 1875), p. 159.]

[Footnote 30: Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 46-48.]

[Footnote 31: _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 248, 323.]

[Footnote 32: E. Beardmore, "The Natives of Mowat, British New Guinea,"

_Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xix. (1890) p. 461.]

[Footnote 33: R. E. Guise, "On the Tribes inhabiting the Mouth of the Wanigela River, New Guinea," _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xxviii. (1899) p. 216.]

[Footnote 34: C. G. Seligmann, _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_ (Cambridge, 1910), p. 279.]

[Footnote 35: K. Vetter, _Komm heruber und hilf uns! oder die Arbeit der Neuen-Dettelsauer Mission_, iii. (Barmen, 1898) pp. 10 _sq._; _id._, in _Nachrichten uber Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel, 1897_, pp. 94, 98. Compare B. Hagen, _Unter den Papuas_ (Wiesbaden, 1899), p.

256; _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte, 1900_, p. (415).]

[Footnote 36: Father A. Deniau, "Croyances religieuses et moeurs des indigenes de l'Ile Malo," _Missions Catholiques_, x.x.xiii. (1901) pp. 315 _sq._]

[Footnote 37: C. Ribbe, _Zwei Jahre unter den Kannibalen der Salomo-Inseln_ (Dresden-Blasewitz, 1903), p. 268.]

[Footnote 38: P. A. Kleint.i.tschen, _Die Kustenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel_ (Hiltrup bei Munster, N.D.), p. 344. As to beliefs of this sort among the Sulka of New Britain, see _P._ Rascher, "Die Sulka,"

_Archiv fur Anthropologie_, xxix. (1904) pp. 221 _sq._; R. Parkinson, _Dreissig Jahre in der Sudsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), pp. 199-201.]

[Footnote 39: G. Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910), p. 176. Dr. Brown's account, of the Melanesians applies to the natives of New Britain and more particularly of the neighbouring Duke of York islands.]

[Footnote 40: Father Abinal, "Astrologie Malgache," _Missions Catholiques_, xi. (1879) p. 506.]