Africa to Berlin some Negroes, among whom was one who was a great favourite in the explorer's family. Unfortunately he died; and his brother, who was with him, cut off, before burial, "a lock of hair and some finger-nail of the dead man to send to his parents in Africa in proof of his death." Not merely in proof of his death was this done, as the newspaper reports; for here we have what is called "the Yoruba custom of Ettá." It is practised by the tribes of the Slave Coast. When a man dies away from home the greatest exertions are made by his family to obtain something belonging to him, to be buried with the usual rites in his native place. Clippings of the hair and nails are usually carried home by his companions, if he have any. But these do not constitute an irreducible minimum; for if they cannot be obtained, a portion of his clothing is, as we might expect from our study of other superstitions, enough.2 So among the Dyaks (who, it will be remembered, have family mortuaries), if any one be murdered, eaten by a crocodile, or suffer some such misfortune, so that his body cannot be found, all his clothing obtainable is tied up in a bundle and buried. Similarly, if a Khási corpse cannot be recovered, as would happen, for example, if he were drowned in one of the large rivers in the plains, his kinsmen assemble on some prominent rock or hill overlooking the low country. One of them, taking in his hand some money-cowries, "and looking towards the site of the accident, shouts out the name of the deceased and calls on him to return; his spirit having been supposed to do so, they proceed to burn the cowries, which are symbolical of his bones, and any clothes 1 Daily News, 20th Feb. 1892. 2 Burton, ii. Gelele, 78 note; Ellis, Ewe, 159; Yoruba, 163. of the deceased they may possess." The ashes are placed in the bone-depository. When a Chinaman dies in battle, or at a distance from home, and his body cannot be obtained, an effigy of paper or wood is made, his soul is summoned to enter it, and it is then buried by his family with all the usual obsequies, as if it were his body.2 In Samoa, if it were impossible to recover the body, or at least (as we have seen) the skull, there was still a method left of performing the all-important rites for the dead. The relatives would go to the battle-field, or, if the man had died at sea, to the shore, and, spreading a cloth or fine mat, would watch until some reptile or insect crawled upon it. They would then quickly enclose the creature, take up the mat and bury it in the proper manner, as if they had the corpse. The luckless insect is, in fact, identified with the departed, in accordance with the beliefs discussed in an earlier chapter. Here, though the subject be far from exhausted, we may terminate our inquiry concerning funeral ceremonies based on the conception of sacramental union, on the one side with the survivors, on the other side with the forefathers of the clan. They afford ample evidence that death, as the most solemn and mysterious fact of our existence, has exercised the thoughts of men from the remotest ages. When they arose the idea of a soul or spirit, as distinct from its corporeal tenement, had hardly yet been evolved. Reason, as well as feeling, could do no otherwise than cling to the bodily relics of the dead. And still it clings, even in the highest plane of culture. And still-whatever hopes may linger in the recesses of the mind of reunion, in 1i. Journ. Anthr. Inst., 183. 2 i. Gray, 295. Rev. S. Ella, in iv. Rep. Aust. Ass., 641. some brighter and more lasting state of being, with those whom we have loved-we cannot but cherish the relics left to us of their bodily presence and think of the departed as yet about us while we hold these treasures; and there is consolation, albeit a dreary one, in the expectation that when we can hold these treasures no longer, the dust which has been dearest will be that which mingles with our own. CHAPTER XIV M MARRIAGE RITES. ARRIAGE, or sexual union of a more or less permanent character, from the intimate connection which it creates, has obvious analogies to the admission of a new member into a clan. In early stages of culture it was not, however, deemed to constitute admission into the clan; and to the present day, in English law, husband and wife, though united by the closest of all ties, are not reckoned among the next of kin to one another. Still it inaugurates a new relationship, not only as between the immediate parties, but also as between their respective kindred. As doing so, it is an occasion on which the consent and concurrence of the kindred are required, and it is appropriately solemnised by rites bearing a close resemblance to the blood-covenant. An examination of some of these rites will be useful in strengthening our apprehension of the sacramental ideas of savages, and will help to complete our view of the savage conception of life. Among several of the aboriginal tribes of Bengal a curious ceremony is practised. It is known as sindúr (or sindra) dán, and consists in the bridegroom's marking his bride with red lead. This ceremony is the essential part of the entire performance, which renders the union indissoluble, in the same way as the putting on of the ring in the marriage service of this country. The sindúr, or red lead, is generally smeared on the bride's forehead and the parting of her hair, but sometimes on her neck. It is usually done either with the little finger or with a knife.1 In either case this detail is significant, because it points to the origin of the custom. There can be no doubt that vermilion is a well-recognised symbol of blood. I have already mentioned the primitive usage of daubing the stone which was both. god and altar with the blood of the sacrificed victim. Everywhere in India the idol, whether a finished simulacrum or a rude unchiselled stone, is dashed with vermilion. Sometimes the object of worship is a tree; and its stem in the same way is streaked with red lead. Sir William Hunter lays it down that the worship of the Great Mountain, the national god of the Santals, "is essentially a worship of blood." Human sacrifices were common, until put down by the British. At the present day, "if the sacrificer cannot afford an animal, it is with a red flower or a red fruit that he approaches the divinity." 2 Nor is red as a symbol of blood confined to India. We do not need to go further afield than the Roman Catholic Church, or even certain sections of the English Church, to find red worn in ecclesiastical ceremonies on the day of a martyr's commemoration, expressly as an allusion to the outpouring of that martyr's blood. The use of the colour in the wedding ceremony has reference also to blood. 1 Dalton, 160, 216, 252, 273, 317, 321; Risley, passim. Hunter, Rur. Bengal, 188. No one reading the Indian evidence can be left in any uncertainty as to the meaning of the red lead. See Crooke, 197, 294; N. Ind. N. and Q., passim. |