James Frazer - The Golden Bough - A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 08 of 12)

The view that in Egypt the pig was sacred is borne out by the very facts which, to moderns, might seem to prove the contrary. Thus the Egyptians thought, as we have seen, that to drink pig's milk produced leprosy. But exactly analogous views are held by savages about the animals and plants which they deem most sacred. Thus in the island of Wetar (between New Guinea and Celebes) people believe themselves to be variously descended from wild pigs, serpents, crocodiles, turtles, dogs, and eels; a man may not eat an animal of the kind from which he is descended; if he does so, he will become a leper, and go mad. 90 90 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua (The Hague, 1886), pp. 432, 452. Amongst the Omaha Indians of North America men whose totem is the elk, believe that if they ate the flesh of the male elk they would break out in boils and white spots in different parts of their bodies. 91 91 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1884), p. 225; Miss A. C. Fletcher and F. la Flesche, “The Omaha Tribe,” Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, 1911), p. 144. According to the latter writers, any breach of a clan taboo among the Omahas was supposed to be punished either by the breaking out of sores or white spots on the body of the offender or by his hair turning white. In the same tribe men whose totem is the red maize, think that if they ate red maize they would have running sores all round [pg 026] their mouths. 92 92 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, op. cit. p. 231. The Bush negroes of Surinam, who practise totemism, believe that if they ate the capiaï (an animal like a pig) it would give them leprosy; 93 93 J. Crevaux, Voyages dans l'Amérique du Sud (Paris, 1883), p. 59. perhaps the capiaï is one of their totems. The Syrians, in antiquity, who esteemed fish sacred, thought that if they ate fish their bodies would break out in ulcers, and their feet and stomach would swell up. 94 94 Plutarch, De superstitione , 10; Porphyry, De abstinentia , iv. 15. As to the sanctity of fish among the Syrians, see also Ovid, Fasti , ii. 473 sq. ; Diodorus Siculus, ii. 4. The Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, in British Central Africa, believe that if a person eats his totemic animal, his body will break out in spots. The cure for this eruption of the skin is to bathe the body in a decoction made from the bone of the animal, the eating of which caused the malady. 95 95 R. Sutherland Rattray, Some Folklore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja (London, 1907), pp. 174 sq. The Wagogo of German East Africa imagine that the sin of eating the totemic animal is visited not on the sinner himself but on his innocent kinsfolk. Thus when they see a child with a scald head, they say at once that its father has been eating his totem and that is why the poor child has scabs on its pate. 96 96 Rev. H. Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute , xxxii. (1902) p. 307, compare p. 317. Among the Wahehe, another tribe of German East Africa, a man who suffers from scab or other skin disease will often set the trouble down to his having unwittingly partaken of his totemic animal. 97 97 E. Nigmann, Die Wahehe (Berlin, 1908), p. 42. Similarly among the Waheia, another tribe of the same region, if a man kills or eats the totemic animal of his clan, he is supposed to suffer from an eruption of the skin. 98 98 J. Kohler, “Das Banturecht in Ostafrika,” Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft , xv. (1902) pp. 2, 3. In like manner the Bantu tribes of Kavirondo, in Central Africa, hold that the eating of the totem produces a severe cutaneous eruption, which can however be cured by mixing an extract of certain herbs with the fat of a black ox and rubbing the body of the sufferer all over with the mixture. 99 99 C. W. Hobley, “Anthropological Studies in Kavirondo and Nandi,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute , xxxiii. (1903) p. 347. The Chasas of Orissa believe that if they were to injure their totemic animal, they [pg 027] would be attacked by leprosy and their line would die out. 100 100 Central Provinces, Ethnographic Survey , II. Draft Articles on Uriya Castes (Allahabad, 1907), p. 16. These examples prove that the eating of a sacred animal is often believed to produce leprosy or other skin-diseases; so far, therefore, they support the view that the pig must have been sacred in Egypt, since the effect of drinking its milk was believed to be leprosy. Such fancies may perhaps have been sometimes suggested by the observation that the eating of semi-putrid flesh, to which some savages are addicted, is apt to be followed by eruptions on the skin. Indeed, many modern authorities attribute leprosy to this cause, particularly to the eating of half rotten fish. 101 101 C. Creighton, s. v. “Leprosy,” Encyclopaedia Biblica , iii. col. 2766. It seems not impossible that the abhorrence which the Hebrews entertained of leprosy, and the pains which they took to seclude lepers from the community, may have been based on religious as well as on purely sanitary grounds; they may have imagined that the disfigurement of the sufferers was a penalty which they had incurred by some infraction of taboo. Certainly we read in the Old Testament of cases of leprosy which the historian regarded as the direct consequence of sin. 102 102 2 Kings v. 27; 2 Chronicles xxvi. 16-21.

Again, the rule that, after touching a pig, a man had to wash himself and his clothes, also favours the view of the sanctity of the pig. For it is a common belief that the effect of contact with a sacred object must be removed, by washing or otherwise, before a man is free to mingle with his fellows. Thus the Jews wash their hands after reading the sacred scriptures. Before coming forth from the tabernacle after the sin-offering, the high priest had to wash himself, and put off the garments which he had worn in the holy place. 103 103 Leviticus xvi. 23 sq. It was a rule of Greek ritual that, in offering an expiatory sacrifice, the sacrificer should not touch the sacrifice, and that, after the offering was made, he must wash his body and his clothes in a river or spring before he could enter a city or his own house. 104 104 Porphyry, De abstinentia , ii. 44. For this and the Jewish examples I am indebted to my friend W. Robertson Smith. Compare his Religion of the Semites , 2 pp. 351, 426, 450 sq. The Parjas, a small tribe of [pg 028] the Central Provinces in India, are divided into clans which have for their respective totems the tiger, the tortoise, the goat, a big lizard, a dove, and so on. If a man accidentally kills his totemic animal, “the earthen cooking-pots of his household are thrown away, the clothes are washed, and the house is purified with water in which the bark of the mango or jamun tree ( Eugenia jambolana ) has been steeped. This is in sign of mourning, as it is thought that such an act will bring misfortune.” 105 105 Central Provinces, Ethnographic Survey , VII. Draft Articles on Forest Tribes (Allahabad, 1911), p. 97. If a Chadwar of the Central Provinces who has the pig for his totem should even see a pig killed by somebody else, he will throw away the household crockery and clean the house as if on the death of a member of his family. 106 106 Central Provinces, Ethnographic Survey , I. Draft Articles on Hindustani Castes (Allahabad, 1907), p. 32. The Polynesians felt strongly the need of ridding themselves of the sacred contagion, if it may be so called, which they caught by touching sacred objects. Various ceremonies were performed for the purpose of removing this contagion. We have seen, for example, how in Tonga a man who happened to touch a sacred chief, or anything personally belonging to him, had to perform a certain ceremony before he could feed himself with his hands; otherwise it was believed that he would swell up and die, or at least be afflicted with scrofula or some other disease. 107 107 See Taboo and the Perils of the Soul , pp. 133 sq. We have seen, too, what fatal effects are supposed to follow, and do actually follow, from contact with a sacred object in New Zealand. 108 108 Op. cit. pp. 134-136. In short, primitive man believes that what is sacred is dangerous; it is pervaded by a sort of electrical sanctity which communicates a shock to, even if it does not kill, whatever comes in contact with it. Hence the savage is unwilling to touch or even to see that which he deems peculiarly holy. Thus Bechuanas, of the Crocodile clan, think it “hateful and unlucky” to meet or see a crocodile; the sight is thought to cause inflammation of the eyes. Yet the crocodile is their most sacred object; they call it their father, swear by it, and celebrate it in their festivals. 109 109 E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), p. 211; D. Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London, 1857), p. 255; John Mackenzie, Ten Years north of the Orange River (Edinburgh, 1871), p. 135 note. See further Totemism and Exogamy , ii. 372. The goat is the sacred animal of the Madenassana [pg 029] Bushmen; yet “to look upon it would be to render the man for the time impure, as well as to cause him undefined uneasiness.” 110 110 J. Mackenzie, l. c. The Elk clan, among the Omaha Indians, believe that even to touch the male elk would be followed by an eruption of boils and white spots on the body. 111 111 Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1884), p. 225. Members of the Reptile clan in the same tribe think that if one of them touches or smells a snake, it will make his hair white. 112 112 Ibid. p. 275. In Samoa people whose god was a butterfly believed that if they caught a butterfly it would strike them dead. 113 113 G. Turner, Samoa (London, 1884), p. 76. Again, in Samoa the reddish-seared leaves of the banana-tree were commonly used as plates for handing food; but if any member of the Wild Pigeon family had used banana leaves for this purpose, it was supposed that he would suffer from rheumatic swellings or an eruption all over the body like chicken-pox. 114 114 Ibid. p. 70. The Mori clan of the Bhils in Central India worship the peacock as their totem and make offerings of grain to it; yet members of the clan believe that were they even to set foot on the tracks of a peacock they would afterwards suffer from some disease, and if a woman sees a peacock she must veil her face and look away. 115 115 Captain C. Eckford Luard, in Census of India, 1901 , vol. xix. Central India , Part i. (Lucknow, 1902) pp. 299 sq. ; also Census of India, 1901 , vol. i. Ethnographic Appendices (Calcutta, 1903), p. 163. Thus the primitive mind seems to conceive of holiness as a sort of dangerous virus, which a prudent man will shun as far as possible, and of which, if he should chance to be infected by it, he will carefully disinfect himself by some form of ceremonial purification.