Part 33

Among various peoples it is the custom to abstain from work, or from some special kind of work, on certain occasions or days which are regarded as defiling or inauspicious. Work is often suspended after a death, partly perhaps because inactivity is a natural accompaniment of sorrow,[123] or because a mourner is supposed to be in a delicate state requiring rest,[124] but chiefly, I presume, from fear lest the work done should be contaminated by the pollution of death. Among the Arabs of Morocco no work must be performed in the village till the dead is buried. In Greenland everyone who had lived in the same house with the deceased was obliged to be idle for a certain period, according to the directions of the priests or wizards.[125] Among the Eskimo of Behring Strait none of the relatives of the dead must do any work during the time in which the shade is {284} believed to remain with the body, that is, for four or five days.[126] Among the Seminole Indians of Florida the relatives remained at home and refrained from work during the day of the burial and for three days thereafter, when the dead was supposed to stay in his grave.[127] The Kar Nicobarese abstain from work as a sign of mourning.[128] In Samoa all labour was suspended in the settlement on the death of a chief.[129] So also the Basutos do no work on the day when an influential person dies. They, moreover, refrain from going to their fields, or hasten to leave them, at the approach of clouds which give promise of rain, "in order quietly to await the desired benediction, fearing to disturb Nature in her operations. This idea is carried to such an extent, that most of the natives believe that, if they obstinately persist in their labour at such a moment, the clouds are irritated and retire, or send hail instead of rain. Days of sacrifice, or great purification, are also holidays. Hence it is that the law relative to the repose of the seventh day, so far from finding any objection in the minds of the natives, appears to them very natural, and perhaps even more fundamental, than it seems to certain Christians."[130]

[Footnote 123: _Cf._ _infra_, p. 308.]

[Footnote 124: _Cf._ _infra_, p. 307.]

[Footnote 125: Egede, _Description of Greenland_, p. 149 _sq._]

[Footnote 126: Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xviii. 319.]

[Footnote 127: Maccauley, 'Seminole Indians of Florida,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ v. 52.]

[Footnote 128: Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, p. 305.]

[Footnote 129: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 229. _Idem_, _Samoa_, p. 146.]

[Footnote 130: Casalis, _Basutos_, p. 260 _sq._]

Changes in the moon are frequently considered unfavourable for work. Among the Bechuanas, "when the new moon appears, all must cease from work, and keep what is called in England a holiday."[131] The people of Thermia, in the Cyclades, maintain that all work, so far as possible, should be suspended on the days immediately preceding the full moon.[132] In the Vishnu Purana it is said that one who attends to secular affairs on the days of the full or new moon goes to the Rudhirándha hell, whose wells are blood.[133] In Northern India it is considered bad to undertake any business of importance at the new moon {285} or at an eclipse.[134] According to the 'Laws of Manu,' a Brâhmana is not allowed to study "on the new-moon day, nor on the fourteenth and the eighth days of each half-month, nor on the full-moon day." It is said that "the new-moon day destroys the teacher, the fourteenth day the pupil, the eighth and the full-moon days destroy all remembrance of the Veda; let him therefore avoid reading on those days."[135] The Buddhists have their Sabbath, or _Uposatha_, which occurs four times in the month, namely, on the day of full moon, on the day when there is no moon, and on the two days which are eighth from the full and new moon. On these days selling and buying, work and business, hunting and fishing, are forbidden, and all schools and law-courts are closed.[136] In Ashantee and neighbouring districts, where the people reckon time by moons, there is a weekly "fetish-day" or sabbath, which seems to be of native origin. "In all the countries along the coast, the regular fetish-day is Tuesday, the day which is observed by the king of Ashantee. Other days in the week are held sacred in the bush. On this weekly sabbath, or fetish-day, the people generally dress themselves in white garments, and mark their faces, and sometimes their arms, with white clay. They also rest from labour. The fishermen would expect, that were they to go out on that day, the fetish would be angry, and spoil their fishing."[137] The natives of Coomassie, on the Gold Coast, have a law according to which no agricultural work may be done on a Thursday.[138] In Hawaii, where each month contained thirty nights and the different days and nights derived their names from the varying aspects of the moon according to her age, there were during every month four periods lasting from two to four nights in which the nights were consecrated or made taboo. So also there were tabooed seasons on certain other {286} occasions, as when a high chief was ill, or preparations were made for war, or on the approach of important religious ceremonies. These taboos were either "common" or "strict." In the case of the former men were only required to abstain from their common pursuits and to attend prayers morning and evening, whereas when the season of strict taboo was in force a general gloom and silence pervaded the whole district or island. "Not a fire or light was to be seen, or canoe launched; none bathed; the mouths of dogs were tied up, and fowls put under calabashes, or their heads enveloped in cloth; for no noise of man or animal must be heard. No persons, excepting those who officiated at the temple, were allowed to leave the shelter of their roofs. Were but one of these rules broken, the taboo would fail and the gods be displeased."[139]

[Footnote 131: Campbell, _Second Journey in the Interior of South Africa_, ii. 205.]

[Footnote 132: Bent, _Cyclades_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 133: _Vish['n]u Purá['n]a_, p. 209.]

[Footnote 134: Crooke, _Popular Religion of Northern India_, i. 23.]

[Footnote 135: _Laws of Manu_, iv. 113 _sq._]

[Footnote 136: Childers, _Dictionary of the Pali Language_, p. 535. Kern, _Der Buddhismus_, ii. 258.]

[Footnote 137: Beecham, _Ashantee_, p. 185 _sq._ _Cf._ Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 131 (Gold Coast natives).]

[Footnote 138: Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 304.]

[Footnote 139: Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian Islands_, pp. 40, 28. The word _tapua'i_ means "to abstain from all work, games, &c." (Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Dictionary_, p. 472).]

The peoples of Semitic stock or with Semitic culture also have their tabooed days. In Morocco work, or certain kinds of work, are avoided on holy days or in holy periods, as being unsuccessful or, in some cases, even dangerous to him who performs it; there is a saying that "work at a feast are like the stab of a dagger." Nobody likes to start on a journey on a Friday before the midday prayer has been said, and it is considered bad to commence any work on that day.[140] I was also told that clothes will not remain clean if they are washed on a Saturday. Among the modern Egyptians Saturday is held to be the most unfortunate of days, and particularly unfavourable for shaving, cutting the nails, and starting on a journey.[141] At Kheybar, in Arabia, again, Sunday is considered an unlucky day for beginning any kind of work.[142] There can be little doubt that the Jewish Sabbath originated in the belief that it was inauspicious or dangerous to work on the seventh day, and that the reason for this belief was the mystic connection which in {287} the opinion of the ancient Hebrews, as of so many other peoples, existed between human activity and the changes in the moon.[143] It has been sufficiently demonstrated that the Sabbath originally depended upon the new moon, and this carries with it the assumption that the Hebrews must at one time have observed a Sabbath at intervals of seven days corresponding with the moon's phases.[144] In the Old Testament the new moon and Sabbath are repeatedly mentioned side by side;[145] thus the oppressors of the poor are represented as saying, "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?"[146] Among modern Jews, at the feast of the New Moon, which is held every month on the first or on the first and second days of the month, the women are obliged to suspend all servile work, though the men are not required to interrupt their secular employments.[147] That the superstitious fear of doing work on the seventh day developed into a religious prohibition, is only another instance of a tendency which we have noticed often before--the tendency of magic forces to be transformed into divine volitions.[148] Like the ancient Hebrews, the Assyrians and Babylonians looked upon the seventh day as an "evil day"; and though they do not seem generally to have abstained from work on that day, there were various royal taboos connected with it. The {288} King was not to show himself in his chariot, not to hold court, not to bring sacrifices, not to change his clothes, not to eat a good dinner, and not even to curse his enemies.[149]

[Footnote 140: See Westermarck, _The Moorish Conception of Holiness (Baraka)_, p. 140 _sqq._]

[Footnote 141: Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 272.]

[Footnote 142: Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_, ii. 197 _sq._]

[Footnote 143: See Jastrow, 'Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,' in _American Journal of Theology_, ii. 321 _sqq._]

[Footnote 144: Wellhausen, _Prolegomena to the History of Israel_, p. 112 _sqq._ Jastrow, _loc. cit._ pp. 314, 327.]

[Footnote 145: _2 Kings_, iv. 23. _Isaiah_, i. 13. _Hosea_, ii. 11.]

[Footnote 146: _Amos_, viii. 5.]

[Footnote 147: Allen, _Modern Judaism_, p. 390 _sq._]

[Footnote 148: Prof. Jastrow seems to have failed to see this when he says (_loc. cit._ p. 323) that "if the Sabbath was originally an 'unfavourable' day on which one must avoid showing one's self before Yahwe, it would naturally be regarded as dangerous to provoke his anger by endeavouring to secure on that day personal benefits through the usual forms of activity." Wellhausen, again, suggests (_op. cit._ p. 114) that the rest on the Sabbath was originally the consequence of that day being the festal and sacrificial day of the week, and only gradually became its essential attribute on account of the regularity with which it every eighth day interrupted the round of everyday work. He argues that the Sabbath as a day of rest cannot be very primitive, because such a day "presupposes agriculture and a tolerably hard-pressed working-day life." But this argument appears very futile when we consider how commonly changes in the moon are believed to exercise an unfavourable influence upon work of any kind. See _infra_, Additional Notes.]

[Footnote 149: Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_, p. 592 _sq._ Hirschfeld, 'Remarks on the Etymology of [vS]abb[)a]th,' in _Jour. Roy. Asiatic Soc._ 1896, p. 358. Jastrow, _loc. cit._ pp. 320, 328.]

The Jewish Sabbath was abolished by Christ. "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath";[150] "My father worketh [on it] hitherto, and I work."[151] Jewish converts no doubt continued to observe the Sabbath, but this met with disapproval. In one of the Epistles of Ignatius we find the exhortation not to "sabbatise," which was expanded by the subsequent paraphraser of these compositions into a warning against keeping the Sabbath, after the manner of the Jews, "as if delighting in idleness."[152] And in the fourth century a Council of the Church enacted "that the Christians ought not to judaise, and rest on the Sabbath, but ought to work on that day."[153] On the other hand, it was from early times a recognised custom among the Christians to celebrate the first day of the week in memory of Christ's resurrection, by holding a form of religious service; but there was no sabbatic regard for it, and it was chiefly looked upon as a day of rejoicing.[154] Tertullian is the first writer who speaks of abstinence from secular care and labour on Sunday as a duty incumbent upon Christians, lest they should "give place to the devil."[155] But it is extremely doubtful whether the earliest Sunday law really had a Christian origin. In 321 the Emperor Constantine issued an edict to the effect that all judges and all city people and tradesmen should rest on "the venerable Day of the Sun," whereas those living in the country should have full liberty to attend to the culture of their fields, "since it frequently happens {289} that no other day is so fit for the sowing of grain or the planting of vines."[156] In this rescript nothing is said of any relation to Christianity, nor do we know that it in any way was due to Christian influence.[157] It seems that Constantine, in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, only added the day of the sun--whose worship was the characteristic of the new paganism--to those inauspicious days, _religiosi dies_, which the Romans of old regarded as unsuitable for worldly business and especially for judicial proceedings.[158] But though the obligatory Sunday rest in no case was a continuance of the Jewish Sabbath, it gradually was confounded with it, owing to the recognition of the decalogue, with its injunction of a weekly day of rest, as the code of divine morality. From the sixth century upwards vexatious restrictions were made by civil rulers, councils, and ecclesiastical writers;[159] until in Puritanism the Christian Sunday became a perfect image of the pharisaic Sabbath, or even excelled it in the rigour with which abstinence from every kind of worldly activity was insisted upon. The theory that the keeping holy of one day out of seven is the essence of the Fourth Commandment reconciled people to the fact that the Jewish Sabbath was the seventh day and Sunday the first. In England, in the seventeenth century, persons were punished for carrying coal on Sunday, for hanging out clothes to dry, for travelling on horseback, for rural strolls and walking about.[160] And Scotch clergymen taught their congregations that on that day it was sinful to save a vessel in distress, and that it was proof of religion to leave ship and crew to perish.[161]

[Footnote 150: _St. Mark_, ii. 27.]

[Footnote 151: _St. John_, v. 17.]

[Footnote 152: Ignatius, _Epistola ad Magnesios_, 9 (Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, v. 768). Neale, _Feasts and Fasts_, p. 89.]

[Footnote 153: _Concilium Laodicenum_, can. 29 (Labbe-Mansi, _Sacrorum Conciliorum collectio_, ii. 580).]

[Footnote 154: Justin Martyr, _Apologia I. pro Christianis_, 67 (Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, vi. 429). Schaff, _History of the Christian Church_, 'Ante-Nicene Christianity,' p. 202 _sqq._ Hessey, _Sunday_, p. 29 _sqq._]

[Footnote 155: Tertullian, _De oratione_, 23 (Migne, _op. cit._ i. 1191).]

[Footnote 156: _Codex Justinianus_, iii. 12. 2 (3).]

[Footnote 157: _Cf._ Lewis, _Critical History of Sunday Legislation_, p. 18 _sqq._; Milman, _History of Christianity_, ii. 291 _sq._]

[Footnote 158: Gellius, _Noctes Atticæ_, iv. 9. 5; vi. 9. 10. Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi. 30. Neale, _op. cit._ pp. 5, 6, 86, 87, 206. Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic_, p. 8 _sq._ The Greeks, also, had "unblest and inauspicious" days, when no court or assembly was to be held, and work was to be abstained from (Plato, _Leges_, vii. 800; Karsten, _Studies in Primitive Greek Religion_, p. 90).]

[Footnote 159: Hessey, _op. cit._ p. 87 _sqq._]

[Footnote 160: Roberts, _Social History of the People of the Southern Counties of England_, p. 244 _sqq._]

[Footnote 161: Buckle, _History of Civilization in England_, iii. 76.]

CHAPTER XXXVII

RESTRICTIONS IN DIET

TRAVELLERS have often noticed with astonishment the immense quantities of food which uncivilised people are able to consume. Sir George Grey has described the orgies which follow the stranding of a whale in Australia, when the natives remain by the carcase for many days, fairly eating their way into it.[1] The Rocky Mountain Indians, though they often subsist for a great length of time on a very little food, will at their feasts "gorge down an incredible quantity."[2] A Mongol "will eat more than ten pounds of meat at one sitting, but some have been known to devour an average-sized sheep in the course of twenty-four hours."[3] The Waganda in Central Africa "sometimes gorge themselves to such an extent that they are unable to move, and appear just as if intoxicated."[4] It has been justly observed that what would among ourselves be condemned as disgusting gluttony is, under the conditions to which certain races of men are exposed, quite normal and in fact necessary. As Mr. Spencer observes, "where the habitat is such as at one time to supply very little food and at another time food in great abundance, survival depends on the ability to consume immense quantities when the opportunities occur."[5] When this is the case gluttony can hardly be {291} stigmatised as a vice; and I find no direct evidence that it is so even among savages who are described as generally moderate in their diet. The lack of foresight, which is a characteristic of uncivilised peoples, must prevent them from attaching much moral value to temperance. On the other hand, gluttony is sometimes said to be regarded with admiration. Mr. Torday informs me that the Bambala in South-Western Congo, when praising a man for his strength, are in the habit of saying, "He eats a whole goat with its skin."

[Footnote 1: Grey, _Journals of Expeditions in North-West and Western Australia_, ii. 277 _sqq._]

[Footnote 2: Harmon, _Journal of Voyages in the Interior of North America_, p. 329.]

[Footnote 3: Prejevalsky, _Mongolia_, i. 55.]

[Footnote 4: Wilson and Felkin, _Uganda_, i. 185.]

[Footnote 5: Spencer, _Principles of Ethics_, i. 436.]

At higher stages of culture intemperance is often subject to censure--because it is detrimental to health or prosperity, or because it calls forth an instinctive feeling of disgust, or because indulgence in sensual pleasures is considered degrading, or, generally, because it is inconsistent with an ascetic ideal of life. It is said in the Proverbs that "the glutton shall come to poverty."[6] According to the Laws of Manu, "excessive eating is prejudicial to health, to fame, and to bliss in heaven; it prevents the acquisition of spiritual merit, and is odious among men; one ought, for these reasons, to avoid it carefully."[7] Aristotle maintains that the pleasure with which intemperance is concerned is justly held in disgrace, "since it belongs to us in that we are animals, not in that we are men."[8] Cicero observes that, as mere corporeal pleasure is unworthy the excellency of man's nature, the nourishment of our bodies "should be with a view not to our pleasure, but to our health and our strength."[9] The same opinion is at least nominally shared by many among ourselves; whereas others, though denying that the gratification of appetite is to be sought for its own sake, admit as legitimate ends for it not only the maintenance of health and strength but also "cheerfulness and the cultivation of the social affections."[10] But most of us are undoubtedly less exacting, if not in theory at least in practice, and really find nothing blamable in pleasures of the {292} table which neither impair health, nor involve a perceptible loss of some greater gratification, nor interfere with duties towards neighbours.[11]

[Footnote 6: _Proverbs_, xxiii. 21.]

[Footnote 7: _Laws of Manu_, ii. 57.]

[Footnote 8: Aristotle, _Ethica Nicomachea_, iii. 10. 10.]

[Footnote 9: Cicero, _De officiis_, i. 30.]

[Footnote 10: Whewell, _Elements of Morality_, p. 124 _sq._]

[Footnote 11: See Sidgwick, _Methods of Ethics_, p. 328 _sq._]

Sometimes temperance has been inculcated on grounds which in other cases lead to the duty of fasting, that is, abstinence from all food and drink, or at least (in a looser sense of the word) from certain kinds of food, for a determined period. The custom of fasting is wide-spread, and deserves special attention in a study of moral ideas.

Fasting is practised or enjoined for a variety of purposes. It is frequently adopted as a means of having supernatural converse, or acquiring supernatural powers.[12] He who fasts sees in dreams or visions things that no ordinary eye can see. The Hudson Bay Eskimo "discovered that a period of fasting and abstinence from contact with other people endowed a person with supernatural powers and enabled him to learn the secrets of Tung ak [the great spirit]. This is accomplished by repairing to some lonely spot, where, for a greater or less period, the hermit abstains from food or water until the imagination is so worked upon that he believes himself imbued with the power to heal the sick and control all the destinies of life. Tung ak is supposed to stand near and reveal those things while the person is undergoing the test."[13] The Naudowessies totally abstain from every kind of either victuals or drink before a hunting expedition, because they think that "it enables them freely to dream, in which dreams they are informed where they shall find the greatest plenty of game."[14] The Tsimshian of British Columbia, if a special object is to be attained, {293} believe they can compel the deity to grant it by a rigid fasting.[15] The Amazulu have a saying that "the continually stuffed body cannot see secret things," and, in accordance with this belief, put no faith in a fat diviner.[16] A Tungus shaman, who is summoned to treat a sick person, will for several days abstain from food and maintain silence till he becomes inspired.[17] Among the Santals the person or persons who have to offer sacrifices at their feasts prepare themselves for this duty by fasting and prayer and by placing themselves for some time in a position of apparent mental absorption.[18] The savage, as Sir E. B. Tylor remarks, has many a time, for days and weeks together, to try involuntarily the effects of fasting, accompanied with other privations and with prolonged solitary contemplation in the desert or the forest. Under these circumstances he soon comes to see and talk with phantoms, which are to him visible personal spirits, and, having thus learnt the secret of spiritual intercourse, he thenceforth reproduces the cause in order to renew the effects.[19] The Hindus believe that a fasting person will ascend to the heaven of that god in whose name he observes the fast.[20] The Hebrews associated fasting with divine revelations.[21] St. Chrysostom says that fasting "makes the soul brighter, and gives it wings to mount up and soar on high."[22]

[Footnote 12: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 410 _sqq._ Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i. 261. Avebury, _Origin of Civilisation_, p. 266 _sqq._ Landtman, _Origin of Priesthood_, pp. 118-123, 158 _sqq._ Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, pp. 285, 651. Dorsey, 'Siouan Cults,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 390. Mooney, 'Myths of the Cherokee,' _ibid._ xix. 480. Herrera, _General History of the West Indies_, 1. 165 (ancient natives of Hispaniola). Niebuhr, _Travels through Arabia_, ii. 282.]

[Footnote 13: Turner, 'Ethnology of the Ungava District,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 195.]

[Footnote 14: Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of North America_, p. 285.]

[Footnote 15: Boas, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 50.]

[Footnote 16: Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 387, n. 41.]

[Footnote 17: Krivoshapkin, quoted by Landtman, _op. cit._ p. 159.]

[Footnote 18: Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 213. See also Rowney, _Wild Tribes of India_, p. 77.]

[Footnote 19: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 410.]

[Footnote 20: Ward, _View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos_, ii. 77.]

[Footnote 21: _Exodus_, xxxiv. 28. _Deuteronomy_, ix. 9. _Daniel_, ix. 3.]

[Footnote 22: St. Chrysostom, _In Cap. I. Genes. Homil. X._ (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, Ser. Graeca, liii. 83). _Cf._ Tertullian, _De jejuniis_, 6 _sqq._ (Migne, ii. 960, 961, 963); Haug, _Alterthümmer der Christen_, pp. 476, 482.]

Ideas of this kind partly underlie the common practice of abstaining from food before or in connection with the performance of a magical or religious ceremony;[23] but there {294} is yet another ground for this practice. The effect attributed to fasting is not merely psychical, but it also prevents pollution. Food may cause defilement, and, like other polluting matter, be detrimental to sanctity. Among the Maoris "no food is permitted to touch the head or hair of a chief, which is sacred; and if food is mentioned in connection with anything sacred (or 'tapu') it is considered as an insult, and revenged as such."[24] So also a full stomach may be polluting.[25] This is obviously the reason why in Morocco and elsewhere[26] certain magical practices, in order to be efficacious, have to be performed before breakfast. The Masai use strong purges before they venture to eat holy meat.[27] The Caribs purified their bodies by purging, bloodletting, and fasting; and the natives of the Antilles, at certain religious festivals, cleansed themselves by vomiting before they approached the sanctuary.[28] The true object of fasting often appears from the fact that it is practised hand in hand with other ceremonies of a purificatory character. A Lappish _noaide_, or wizard, prepares himself for the offering of a sacrifice by abstinence from food and ablutions.[29] Herodotus tells us that the ancient Egyptians fasted before making a sacrifice to Isis, and beat their bodies while the victims were burnt.[30] When a Hindu resolves to visit a sacred place, he has his head shaved two days preceding the commencement of his journey, and fasts the next day; on the last day of his journey he fasts again, and on his {295} arrival at the sacred spot he has his whole body shaved, after which he bathes.[31] In Christianity we likewise meet with fasting as a rite of purification. At least as early as the time of Tertullian it was usual for communicants to prepare themselves by fasting for receiving the Eucharist;[32] and to this day Roman Catholicism regards it as unlawful to consecrate or partake of it after food or drink.[33] The Lent fast itself was partly interpreted as a purifying preparation for the holy table.[34] And in the early Church catechumens were accustomed to fast before baptism.[35]

[Footnote 23: Bossu, _Travels through Louisiana_, i. 38 (Natchez). Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, i. 285 _sq._; Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iii. 440 _sq._ (ancient Mexicans). Landa, _Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan_, p. 156. Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, ii. 311 _sq._ (natives of Tjumba). Beauchamp, in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, iv. 56 (Hindus of Southern India). Ward, _op. cit._ ii. 76 _sq._ (Hindus). Wassiljew, quoted by Haberland, 'Gebräuche und Aberglauben beim Essen,' in _Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie_, xviii. 30 (Buddhists). Porphyry, _De abstinentia ab esu animalium_, ii. 44; Wachsmuth, _Hellenische Alterthumskunde_, ii. 560, 576; Hermann-Stark, _Lehrbuch der gottesdienstlichen Alterthümer der Griechen_, p. 381; Anrich, _Das antike Mysterienwesen_, p. 25; Diels, 'Ein orphischer Demeterhymnus,' in _Festschrift Theodor Gomperz dargebracht_, p. 6 _sqq._ Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, ii. 23, 74.]

[Footnote 24: Angas, _Polynesia_, p. 149.]

[Footnote 25: See Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 434 _sq._; Westermarck, _The Moorish Conception of Holiness_, p. 127.]

[Footnote 26: Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der gegenwart_, § 219, p. 161.]

[Footnote 27: Thomson, _Masai Land_, p. 430.]

[Footnote 28: Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, iv. 330; iii. 384.]

[Footnote 29: von Düben, _Lappland_, p. 256. Friis, _Lappisk Mythologi_, p. 145 _sq._]

[Footnote 30: Herodotus, ii. 40.]

[Footnote 31: Ward, _op. cit._ ii. 130 _sq._ _Cf._ _Institutes of Vishnu_, xlvi. 17, 24 _sq._]

[Footnote 32: Tertullian, _De oratione_, 19 (Migne, _op. cit._ i. 1182).]

[Footnote 33: _Catechism of the Council of Trent_, ii. 4. 6.]

[Footnote 34: St. Jerome, _In Jonam_, 3 (Migne, _op. cit._ xxv. 1140).]

[Footnote 35: Justin Martyr, _Apologia I. pro Christianis_, 61 (Migne, _op. cit._ Ser. Graeca, vi. 420). St. Augustine, _De fide et operibus_, vi. 8 (Migne, xl. 202).]

In the case of a sacrifice it is considered necessary not only that he who offers it, but that the victim also, should be free from pollution. In ancient Egypt a sacrificial animal had to be perfectly clean.[36] According to Hindu notions the gods enjoy pure sacrifices only.[37] In the Kalika-Purana, a work supposed to have been written under the direction of Siva, it is said that if a man is offered he must be free from corporal defect and unstained with great crimes, and that if an animal is offered it must have exceeded its third year and be without blemish or disease; and in no case must the victim be a woman or a she animal, because, as it seems, females are regarded as naturally unclean.[38] According to the religious law of the Hebrews, no leaven or honey should be used in connection with vegetable offerings, on the ground that these articles have the effect of producing fermentation and tend to acidify and spoil anything with which they are mixed;[39] and the animal which was intended for sacrifice should be absolutely free from blemish[40] and at least eight days old,[41] that is, untainted with the impurity of birth. Quite in harmony with these prescriptions is the notion that human or {296} animal victims have to abstain from food for some time before they are offered up. Among the Kandhs the man who was destined to be sacrificed was kept fasting from the preceding evening, but on the day of the sacrifice he was refreshed with a little milk and palm-sago; and before he was led forth from the village in solemn procession he was carefully washed and dressed in a new garment.[42] In Morocco it is not only considered meritorious for the people to fast on the day previous to the celebration of the yearly sacrificial feast, _l-[(][)a]îd l-kbîr_, but in several parts of the country the sheep which is going to be sacrificed has to fast on that day or at least on the following morning, till some food is given it immediately before it is slaughtered. The Jewish custom which compels the firstborn to fast on the eve of Passover[43] may also perhaps be a survival from a time when all the firstborn belonged to the Lord.[44]

[Footnote 36: Herodotus, ii. 38.]

[Footnote 37: _Baudhâyana_, i. 6. 13. 1 _sq._]

[Footnote 38: Dubois, _Description of the Character, &c. of the People of India_, p. 491.]

[Footnote 39: Keil, _Manual of Biblical Archæology_, i. 262.]

[Footnote 40: _Leviticus_, xxii. 19 _sqq._]

[Footnote 41: _Ibid._ xxii. 27.]

[Footnote 42: Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 118.]

[Footnote 43: Greenstone, 'Fasting,' in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, v. 348. Allen, _Modern Judaism_, p. 394.]

[Footnote 44: _Supra_, i. 459.]

In some cases the custom of fasting before the performance of a sacrifice may be due to the idea that it is dangerous or improper for the worshipper to partake of food before the god has had his share.[45] In India a regular performance of two half-monthly sacrifices is enjoined on the Brahmanical householder for a period of thirty years from the time when he has set up a fire of his own--according to some authorities even for the rest of his life. The ceremony usually occupies two consecutive days, the first of which is chiefly taken up with preparatory rites and the vow of abstinence (_vrata_) by the sacrificer and his wife, whilst the second day is reserved for the main performance of the sacrifice. The _vrata_ includes the abstention from certain kinds of food, especially meat, which will be offered to the gods on the following day, as also from other carnal pleasures. The Satapatha-Brâhmana gives the following explanation of it:--"The gods see through the mind of man; they know that, when {297} he enters on this vow, he means to sacrifice to them the next morning. Therefore all the gods betake themselves to his house, and abide by him or the fires (_upa-vas_) in his house; whence this day is called _upa-vasatha_. Now, as it would even be unbecoming for him to take food before men who are staying with him as his guests have eaten; how much more would it be so, if he were to take food before the gods who are staying with him have eaten: let him therefore take no food at all."[46] It is hardly probable, however, that this is the original meaning of the abstinence in question. It occurs about the time of new moon and full moon; according to some native authorities the abstinence and sacrifice take place on the last two days of each half of the lunar month, whilst the generality of ritualistic writers consider the first day of the half-month that is, the first and sixteenth days of the month to be the proper time for the sacrifice.[47] We shall presently see how frequently fasting is observed on these occasions, presumably for fear of eating food which is supposed to have been polluted by the moon; hence it seems to me by no means improbable that the _vrata_ has a similar origin, instead of being merely a rite preparatory to the sacrifice which follows it. But at the same time the idea that spirits or gods should have the first share of a meal is certainly very ancient, and may lead to actual fasting in case the offering for some reason or other is to be delayed. A Polynesian legend tells us that a man by name Maui once caught an immense fish. Then he left his brothers, saying to them:--"After I am gone, be courageous and patient; do not eat food until I return, and do not let our fish be cut up, but rather leave it until I have carried an offering to the gods from this great haul of fish, and until I have found a priest, that fitting prayers and sacrifices may be offered to the god, and the necessary rites be completed in order. We shall thus all be purified. I will then {298} return, and we can cut up this fish in safety, and it shall be fairly portioned out to this one, and to that one, and to that other." But as soon as Maui had gone, his brothers began at once to eat food, and to cut up the fish. Had Maui previously reached the sacred place, the heart of the deity would have been appeased with the offering of a portion of the fish which had been caught by his disciples, and all the male and female deities would have partaken of their portions of the sacrifice. But now the gods turned with wrath upon them, on account of the fish which they had thus cut up without having made a fitting sacrifice.[48]

[Footnote 45: _Cf._ Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 414.]

[Footnote 46: _Satapatha-Brâhmana_, i. 1. 1. 7 _sq._ Eggeling, in _Sacred Books of the East_, xii. 1 _sq._ Oldenberg, _op. cit._ p. 413, n. 1.]

[Footnote 47: Eggeling, in _Sacred Books of the East_, xii. 1.]

[Footnote 48: Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_, p. 26 _sq._]

Among many peoples custom prescribes fasting after a death. Lucian says that at the funeral feast the parents of the deceased are prevailed upon by their relatives to take food, being almost prostrated by a three days' fast.[49] We are told that among the Hindus children fast three days after the death of a parent, and a wife the same period after the death of her husband;[50] but according to a more recent statement, to be quoted presently, they do not altogether abstain from food. In one of the sacred books of India it is said that mourners shall fast during three days, and that, if they are unable to do so, they shall subsist on food bought in the market or given unasked.[51] Among the Nay[=a]dis of Malabar "from the time of death until the funeral is over, all the relations must fast."[52] Among the Irulas of the Neilgherries "the relatives of the deceased fast during the first day, that is, if . . . . the death occur after the morning meal, they refrain from the evening one, and eat nothing till the next morning. If it occur during the night, or before the morning meal, they refrain from all food till the evening. Similar fasting is observed on every return of the same day of the week, till the obsequies take place."[53] Among {299} the Bogos of Eastern Africa a son must fast three days after the death of his father.[54] On the Gold Coast it is the custom for the near relatives of the deceased to perform a long and painful fast, and sometimes they can only with difficulty be induced to have recourse to food again.[55] So also in Dahomey they must fast during the "corpse time," or mourning.[56] Among the Brazilian Paressí the relatives of a dead person remain for six days at his grave, carefully refraining from taking food.[57] Among the aborigines of the Antilles children used to fast after the death of a parent, a husband after the death of his wife, and a wife after the death of her husband.[58] In some Indian tribes of North America it is the custom for the relatives of the deceased to fast till the funeral is over.[59] Among the Snanaimuq, a tribe of the Coast Salish, after the death of a husband or wife the surviving partner must not eat anything for three or four days.[60] In one of the interior divisions of the Salish of British Columbia, the Stlatlumh, the next four days after a funeral feast are spent by the members of the household of the deceased person in fasting, lamenting and ceremonial ablutions.[61] Among the Upper Thompson Indians in British Columbia, again, those who handled the dead body and who dug the grave had to fast until the corpse was buried.[62]

[Footnote 49: Lucian, _De luctu_, 24.]

[Footnote 50: Ward, _View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos_, ii. 76 _sq._]

[Footnote 51: _Vasishtha_, iv. 14 _sq._ _Cf._ _Institutes of Vishnu_, xix. 14.]

[Footnote 52: Thurston, in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, iv. 76.]

[Footnote 53: Harkness, _Description of a Singular Race inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills_, p. 97.]

[Footnote 54: Munzinger, _Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos_, p. 29.]

[Footnote 55: Cruickshank, _Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast_, ii. 218.]

[Footnote 56: Burton, _Mission to Gelele_, ii. 163.]

[Footnote 57: von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 435. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 339 (Bakaïri).]

[Footnote 58: Du Tertre, _Histoire générale des Antilles_, ii. 371.]

[Footnote 59: Charlevoix, _Voyage to North-America_, ii. 187.]

[Footnote 60: Boas, in _Fifth Report on the North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 45.]

[Footnote 61: Tout, 'Ethnology of the Stlatlumh of British Columbia,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 138.]

[Footnote 62: Teit, 'Thompson Indians of British Columbia,' in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_, Anthropology, i. 331.]

In several instances fasting after a death is observed only in the daytime.

David and his people fasted for Saul and Jonathan until even on the day when the news of their death arrived.[63] Among the Arabs of Morocco it is the custom that if a death takes place in the morning everyone in the village refrains from food until {300} the deceased is buried in the afternoon or evening; but if a person dies so late that he cannot be buried till the next morning the people eat at night. In the Pelew Islands, as long as the dead is unburied, fasting is observed in the daytime but not in the evening.[64] In Fiji after a burial the _kana-bogi_, or fasting till evening, is practised for ten or twenty days.[65] In Samoa it was common for those who attended the deceased to eat nothing during the day, but to have a meal at night.[66] In the Tuhoe tribe of the Maoris, "when a chief of distinction died his widow and children would remain for some time within the _whare potae_ [that is, mourning house], eating food during the night time only, never during the day."[67] The Sacs and Foxes in Nebraska formerly required that children should fast for three months after the death of a parent, except that they every day about sunset were allowed to partake of a meal made entirely of hominy.[68] Among the Kansas a man who loses his wife must fast from sunrise to sunset for a year and a half, and a woman who loses her husband must observe a similar fast for a year.[69] In some tribes of British Columbia and among the Thlinkets, until the dead body is buried the relatives of the deceased may eat a little at night but have to fast during the day.[70] Among the Upper Thompson Indians a different custom prevailed: "nobody was allowed to eat, drink, or smoke in the open air after sunset (others say after dusk) before the burial, else the ghost would harm them."[71]

[Footnote 63: _2 Samuel_, i. 12. _Cf._ _ibid._ iii. 35.]

[Footnote 64: Waitz, _op. cit._ v. 153.]

[Footnote 65: Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 169.]

[Footnote 66: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 228. _Idem_, _Samoa_, p. 145.]

[Footnote 67: Best, 'Tuhoe Land,' in _Trans. and Proceed. of the New Zealand Institute_, xxx. 38.]

[Footnote 68: Yarrow, 'Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ i. 95.]

[Footnote 69: Dorsey, 'Mourning and War Customs of the Kansas,' in _American Naturalist_, xix. 679 _sq._]

[Footnote 70: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 41.]

[Footnote 71: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 328.]

Very frequently mourners have to abstain from certain victuals only, especially flesh or fish, or some other staple or favourite food.

In Greenland everybody who had lived in the same house with the dead, or who had touched his corpse, was for some time forbidden to partake of certain kinds of food.[72] Among the Upper Thompson Indians "parents bereft of a child did not eat fresh meat for several months."[73] Among the Stlatlumh of {301} British Columbia a widow might eat no fresh food for a whole year, whilst the other members of the deceased person's family abstained from such food for a period of from four days to as many months. A widower was likewise forbidden to eat fresh meats for a certain period, the length of which varied with the age of the person--the younger the man, the longer his abstention.[74] In some of the Goajiro clans of Colombia a person is prohibited from eating flesh during the mourning time, which lasts nine days.[75] Among the Abipones, when a chief died, the whole tribe abstained for a month from eating fish, their principal dainty.[76] While in mourning, the Northern Queensland aborigines carefully avoid certain victuals, believing that the forbidden food, if eaten, would burn up their bowels.[77] In Easter Island the nearest relatives of the dead are for a year or even longer obliged to abstain from eating potatoes, their chief article of food, or some other victuals of which they are particularly fond.[78] Certain Papuans and various tribes in the Malay Archipelago prohibit persons in mourning from eating rice or sago.[79] In the Andaman Islands mourners refuse to partake of their favourite viands.[80] After the death of a relative the Tipperahs abstain from flesh for a week.[81] The same is the case with the Arakh, a tribe in Oudh, during the fifteen days in the month of Kuâr which are sacred to the worship of the dead.[82] Among the Nay[=a]dis of Malabar the relatives of the deceased are not allowed to eat meat for ten days after his death.[83] According to Toda custom the near relatives must not eat rice, milk, honey, or gram until the funeral is over.[84] Among the Hindus described by Mr. Chunder Bose a widow is restricted to one scanty meal a day, and this is of the coarsest description and always devoid of fish, the most esteemed article of food in a Hindu lady's bill of fare. The son, again, from {302} the hour of his father's death to the conclusion of the funeral ceremony, is allowed to take only a meal consisting of _atab_ rice, a sort of inferior pulse, milk, ghee, sugar, and a few fruits, and at night a little milk, sugar, and fruits--a _régime_ which lasts ten days in the case of a Brahmin and thirty-one days in the case of a Sûdra.[85] In some of the sacred books of India it is said that, during the period of impurity, all the mourners shall abstain from eating meat.[86] In China "meat, must, and spirits were forbidden even in the last month of the deepest mourning, when other sorts of food had long been allowed already."[87]

[Footnote 72: Egede, _Description of Greenland_, p. 149 _sq._ Cranz, _History of Greenland_, i. 218.]

[Footnote 73: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 332.]

[Footnote 74: Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 138 _sq._]

[Footnote 75: Candelier, _Rio-Hacha_, p. 220.]

[Footnote 76: Charlevoix, _History of Paraguay_, i. 405.]

[Footnote 77: Lumholtz, _Among Cannibals_, p. 203.]

[Footnote 78: Geiseler, _Die Oster-Insel_, pp. 28, 30.]

[Footnote 79: Wilken, 'Ueber das Haaropfer, und einige andere Trauergebräuche bei den Völkern Indonesien's,' in _Revue coloniale internationale_, iv. 348 _sq._]

[Footnote 80: Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 142**, 353.]

[Footnote 81: Browne, quoted by Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 110.]

[Footnote 82: Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh_, i. 84.]

[Footnote 83: Thurston, in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, iv. 76.]

[Footnote 84: _Idem_, _ibid._ i. 174. Dr. Rivers says (_Todas_, p. 370) that, among the Todas, a widower is not allowed to eat rice nor drink milk, and that on every return of the day of the week on which his wife died he takes no food in the morning but only has his evening meal. The same holds good for a widow.]

[Footnote 85: Bose, _The Hindoos as they are_, pp. 244, 254 _sq._]

[Footnote 86: _Gautama_, xiv. 39. _Institutes of Vishnu_, xix. 15.]

[Footnote 87: de Groot, _Religious System of China_, (vol. ii. book) i. 651.]

The custom of fasting after a death has been ascribed to different causes by different writers. Mr. Spencer believes that it has resulted from the habit of making excessive provision for the dead.[88] But although among some peoples the funeral offerings no doubt are so extensive as to reduce the survivors to poverty and starvation,[89] I have met with no statement to the effect that they are anxious to give to the deceased all the eatables which they possess, or that the mourning fast is a matter of actual necessity. It is always restricted to some fixed period, often to a few days only, and it prevails among many peoples who have never been known to be profuse in their sacrifices to the dead. With reference to the Chinese, Dr. de Groot maintains that the mourners originally fasted with a view to being able to sacrifice so much the more at the tomb; and he bases this conclusion on the fact that the articles of food which were forbidden till the end of the deepest mourning were the very same as those which in ancient China played the principal part at every burial sacrifice.[90] But this prohibition may also perhaps be due to a belief that the offering of certain victuals to the dead pollutes all food belonging to the same species.

[Footnote 88: Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, i. 261 _sqq._]

[Footnote 89: _Ibid._ i. 262.]

[Footnote 90: de Groot, _op. cit._, (vol. ii. book) i. 652.]

Professor Wilken, again, suggests that the mourners abstain from food till they have given the dead his due, in {303} order to show that they do not wish to keep him waiting longer than is necessary and thus make him kindly disposed towards them.[91] This explanation presupposes that the fast is immediately followed by offerings or a feast for the dead. In some instances this is expressly said to be the case;[92] the ancient Chinese, for instance, observed a special fast as an introductory rite to the sacrifices which they offered to the manes at regular periods after the demise and even after the close of the mourning.[93] But generally there is no indication of the mourning fast being an essential preliminary to a sacrifice to the dead, and in an instance mentioned above the funeral feast regularly precedes it.[94]

[Footnote 91: Wilken, in _Revue colonials internationale_, iv. 347, 348, 350 _sq._ n. 32.]

[Footnote 92: Selenka, _Sonnige Welten_, p. 90 (Dyaks). Black, 'Fasting,' in _Encyclopædia Britannica_, ix. 44.]

[Footnote 93: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 656.]

[Footnote 94: _Supra_, ii. 299.]

It seems that Sir J. G. Frazer comes much nearer the truth when he observes that people originally fasted after a death "just in those circumstances in which they considered that they might possibly in eating devour a ghost."[95] Yet I think it would generally be more correct to say that they were afraid of swallowing, not the ghost, but food polluted with the contagion of death. The dead body is regarded as a seat of infection, which defiles anything in its immediate neighbourhood, and this infection is of course considered particularly dangerous if it is allowed to enter into the bowels. In certain cases the length of the mourning fast is obviously determined by the belief in the polluting presence of the ghost. The six days' fast of the Paressí coincides with the period after which the dead is supposed to have arrived in heaven no longer to return; and they say that anybody who should fail to observe this fast would "eat the mouth of the dead" and die himself.[96] Frequently the fasting lasts till the corpse is buried; and burial is a common safeguard against the return of the ghost.[97] The custom {304} of restricting the fast to the daytime probably springs from the idea that a ghost cannot see in the dark, and is consequently unable to come and pollute the food at night. That the object of the fast is to prevent pollution is also suggested by its resemblance to some other practices, which are evidently intended to serve this purpose. The Maoris were not allowed to eat on or near any spot where a dead body had been buried, or to take a meal in a canoe while passing opposite to such a place.[98] In Samoa, while a dead body is in the house, no food is eaten under the same roof; hence the family have their meals outside, or in another house.[99] The Todas, who fast on the day when a death has taken place, have on the following day their meals served in another hut.[100] In one of the sacred books of India it is said that a Brâhmana "shall not eat in the house of a relation within six degrees where a person has died, before the ten days of impurity have elapsed"; in a house "where a lying-in woman has not yet come out of the lying-in chamber"; nor in a house where a corpse lies;[101] and in connection with this last injunction we are told that, when a person who is not a relation has died, it is customary to place at the distance of "one hundred bows" a lamp and water-vessel, and to eat beyond that distance.[102] In one of the Zoroastrian books Ormuzd is represented as saying, "In a house when a person shall die, until three nights are completed . . . nothing whatever of meat is to be eaten by his relations";[103] and the obvious reason for this rule was the belief that the soul of the dead was hovering about the body for the first three nights after death.[104] Closely related to this custom is that of the modern Parsis, which forbids for three days all cooking under a roof where a death has occurred, but allows the inmates to obtain food from their neighbours {305} and friends.[105] Among the Agariya, a Dravidian tribe in the hilly parts of Mirzápur, no fire is lit and no cooking is done in the house of a dead person on the day when he is cremated, the food being cooked in the house of the brother-in-law of the deceased.[106] In Mykonos, one of the Cyclades, it is considered wrong to cook in the house of mourning; hence friends and relatives come laden with food, and lay the "bitter table."[107] Among the Albanians there is no cooking in the house for three days after a death, and the family are fed by friends.[108] So also the Maronites of Syria "dress no victuals for some time in the house of the deceased, but their relations and friends supply them."[109] When a Jew dies all the water in the same and adjoining houses is instantly thrown away;[110] nobody may eat in the same room with the corpse, unless there is only one room in the house, in which case the inhabitants may take food in it if they interpose a screen, so that in eating they do not see the corpse; they must abstain from flesh and wine so long as the dead body is in the house;[111] and on the evening of mourning the members of the family may not eat their own food, but are supplied with food by their friends.[112] Among the Arabs of Morocco, if a person has died in the morning, no fire is made in the whole village until he is buried, and in some parts of the country the inmates of a house or tent where a death has occurred, abstain from making fire for two or three days. In Algeria "dès que quelqu'un est mort, on ne doit pas allumer de feu dans la maison pendant trois jours, et il est défendu de toucher à de la viande rôtie, grillée ou bouillie, à moins qu'elle ne vienne de quelqu'un de dehors."[113] In China, for seven days after a death "no food is cooked in the house, and friends {306} and neighbours are trusted to supply the common necessaries of life."[114] There is no sufficient reason to assume that this practice of abstaining from cooking food after a death is a survival of a previous mourning fast, but the two customs seem partly to have a similar origin. The cooking may contaminate the food if done in a polluted house, or by a polluted individual. The relatives of the dead, or persons who have handled the corpse, are regarded as defiled; hence they have to abstain from cooking food, as they have to abstain from any kind of work,[115] and from sexual intercourse.[116] Hence, also, they are often prohibited from touching food; and this may in some cases have led to fasting, whilst in other instances they have to be fed by their neighbours.[117]

[Footnote 95: Frazer, 'Certain Burial Customs as illustrative of the Primitive Theory of the Soul,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xv. 94. See also Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, pp. 270, 590.]

[Footnote 96: von den Steinen, _op. cit._ p. 434 _sq._]

[Footnote 97: _Infra_, on Regard for the Dead.]

[Footnote 98: Polack, _Manners ani Customs of the New Zealanders_, i. 239.]

[Footnote 99: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 228. _Idem_, _Samoa_, p. 145.]

[Footnote 100: Thurston, in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, i. 174.]

[Footnote 101: _Âpastamba_, i. 5. 16. 18 _sqq._]

[Footnote 102: Haradatta, quoted by Bühler, in _Sacred Books of the East_, ii. 59, n. 20.]

[Footnote 103: _Shâyast Lâ-Shâyast_, xvii. 2.]

[Footnote 104: West, in _Sacred Books of the East_, v. 382, n. 3.]

[Footnote 105: West, _ibid._ v. 382, n. 2.]

[Footnote 106: Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces_, i. 7.]

[Footnote 107: Bent, _Cyclades_, p. 221.]

[Footnote 108: von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_, p. 151.]

[Footnote 109: Dandini, 'Voyage to Mount Libanus,' in Pinkerton, _Collection of Voyages_, x. 290.]

[Footnote 110: Allen, _Modern Judaism_, p. 435.]

[Footnote 111: Bodenschatz, _Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden_, iv. 177.]

[Footnote 112: Buxtorf, _Synagoga Judaica_, p. 707.]

[Footnote 113: Certeux and Carnoy, _L'Algérie traditionelle_, p. 220.]

[Footnote 114: Gray, _China_, i. 287 _sq._]

[Footnote 115: _Supra_, ii. 283 _sq._]

[Footnote 116: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 331 (Upper Thompson Indians). Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 139 (Stlatlumh of British Columbia). Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, pp. 578, 590; Caland, _Die Altindischen Todten- und Bestattungsgebräuche_, p. 81. de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 609 (Chinese). Wilken, in _Revue internationale coloniale_, iv. 352, n. 41.]

[Footnote 117: Turner, _Samoa_, p. 145; _Idem_, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, p. 228 (Samoans). Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 403 (Tahitians). Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 323 (Maoris). Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 169. Among the Upper Thompson Indians the persons who handled the dead body would not touch the food with their hands, but must put it into their mouths with sharp-pointed sticks (Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 331).]

However, an unclean individual may be supposed to pollute a piece of food not only by touching it with his hand, but in some cases by eating it; and, in accordance with the principle of _pars pro toto_, the pollution may then spread to all victuals belonging to the same species. Ideas of this kind are sometimes conspicuous in connection with the restrictions in diet after a death. Thus the Siciatl of British Columbia believe that a dead body, or anything connected with the dead, is inimical to the salmon, and therefore the relatives of a deceased person must abstain from eating salmon in the early stages of the run, as also from entering a creek where salmon are found.[118] Among the Stlatlumh, a neighbouring people, not even elderly widowers, for whom the period of abstention is comparatively {307} short, are allowed to eat fresh salmon till the first of the run is over and the fish have arrived in such numbers that there is no danger of their being driven away.[119] It is not unlikely that if the motives for the restrictions in diet after a death were sufficiently known in each case, a similar fear lest the unclean mourner should pollute the whole species by polluting some individual member of it would be found to be a common cause of those rules which prohibit the eating of staple or favourite food.[120] But it would seem that such rules also may spring from the idea that this kind of food is particularly sought for by the dead and therefore defiled.

[Footnote 118: Tout, 'Ethnology of the Siciatl of British Columbia,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxiv. 33.]

[Footnote 119: Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 139.]

[Footnote 120: In the Arunta tribe, Central Australia, no menstruous woman is allowed to gather the Irriakura bulbs, which form a staple article of diet for both men and women, the idea being that any infringement of the restriction would result in the failure of the supply of the bulb (Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 615).]

Moreover, unclean individuals are not only a danger to others, but are themselves in danger. As Sir J. G. Frazer has shown, they are supposed to be in a delicate condition, which imposes upon them various precautions;[121] and one of these may be restrictions in their diet. Among the Thlinkets and some peoples in British Columbia the relatives of the deceased not only fast till the body is buried, but have their faces blackened, cover their heads with ragged mats, and must speak but little, confining themselves to answering questions, as it is believed that they would else become chatterboxes.[122] According to early ideas, mourners are in a state very similar to that of girls at puberty, who also, among various peoples, are obliged to fast or abstain from certain kinds of food on account of their uncleanness.[123] Among the Stlatlumh, for instance, {308} when a girl reaches puberty, she fasts for the first four days and abstains from fresh meats of any kind throughout the whole period of her seclusion. "There was a two-fold object in this abstention. First, the girl, it was thought, would be harmed by the fresh meat in her peculiar condition; and second, the game animals would take offence if she partook of their meat in these circumstances," and would not permit her father to kill them.[124]

[Footnote 121: Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 343, &c.]

[Footnote 122: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 41.]

[Footnote 123: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 40 _sqq._ (various tribes in British Columbia). Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxiv. 33 (Siciatl). Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_, p. 93 _sq._ (Ahts). Bourke, 'Medicine-Men of the Apache,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 501. Du Tertre, _Histoire générale des Antilles_, ii. 371. Schomburgk, 'Natives of Guiana,' in _Jour. Ethn. Soc. London_, i. 269 _sq._ von Martius, _Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika's_, i. 644 (Macusis). Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. 200 _sqq._ (Western Islanders). Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 94. See Frazer, _op. cit._ iii. 205 _sqq._]

[Footnote 124: Tout, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxv. 136.]

It should finally be noticed that, though the custom of fasting after a death in the main has a superstitious origin, there may at the same time be a physiological motive for it.[125] Even the rudest savage feels afflicted at the death of a friend, and grief is accompanied by a loss of appetite. This natural disinclination to partake of food may, combined with superstitious fear, have given rise to prohibitory rules, nay, may even in the first instance have suggested the idea that there is danger in taking food. The mourning observances so commonly coincide with the natural expressions of sorrow, that we are almost bound to assume the existence of some connection between them, even though in their developed forms the superstitious motive be the most prominent.

[Footnote 125: _Cf._ Mallery, 'Manners and Meals,' in _American Anthropologist_, i. 202; Brinton, _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, p. 213; Schurtz, _Urgeschichte der Kultur_, p. 587.]

An important survival of the mourning fast is the Lent fast. It originally lasted for forty hours only, that is, the time when Christ lay in the grave.[126] Irenaeus speaks of the fast of forty hours before Easter,[127] and Tertullian, when a Montanist disputing against the Catholics, says that the only legitimate days for Christian fasting were those in which the Bridegroom was taken away.[128] Subsequently, however, the forty hours were extended to forty {309} days, in imitation of the forty days' fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Christ.[129]

[Footnote 126: _Cf._ _St. Matthew_, ix. 15; _St. Mark_, ii. 20; _St. Luke_, v. 35.]

[Footnote 127: Irenaeus, quoted by Eusebius, _Historia ecclesiastica_, v. 24 (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, Ser. Graeca, xx. 501). _Cf._ Funk, 'Die Entwicklung des Osterfastens,' in _Theologische Quartalschrift_, lxxv. 181 _sqq._; Duchesne, _Christian Worship_, p. 241.]

[Footnote 128: Tertullian, _De jejuniis_, 2 (Migne, _op. cit._ ii. 956).]

[Footnote 129: St. Jerome, _Commentarii in Jonam_, 3 (Migne, _op. cit._ xxv. 1140). St. Augustine, _Epistola LV (alias CXIX)_, 'Ad inquisitiones Januarii,' 15 (Migne, xxxiii. 217 _sq._). Funk, _loc. cit._ p. 209.]

Not only on a death, but on certain other occasions, food is supposed to pollute or injure him who partakes of it, and is therefore to be avoided. In Pfalz the people maintain that no food should be taken at an eclipse of the sun;[130] and all over Germany there is a popular belief that anybody who eats during a thunderstorm will be struck by the lightning.[131] When the Todas know that there is going to be an eclipse of the sun or the moon, they abstain from food.[132] Among the Hindus, while an eclipse is going on, "drinking water, eating food, and all household business, as well as the worship of the gods, are all prohibited"; high-caste Hindus do not even eat food which has remained in the house during an eclipse, but give it away, and all earthen vessels in use in their houses at the time must be broken.[133] Among the rules laid down for Snâtakas, that is, Brâhmanas who have completed their studentship, there is one which forbids them to eat, travel, and sleep during the twilight;[134] and in one of the Zoroastrian Pahlavi texts it is said that "in the dark it is not allowable to eat food, for the demons and fiends seize upon one-third of the wisdom and glory of him who eats food in the dark."[135] Many Hindus who revere the sun do not break their fast in the morning till they catch a clear view of it, and do not eat at all on days when it is obscured by clouds[136]--a custom to which there is a parallel among some North American sun-worshippers, the Snanaimuq Indians belonging to the Coast Salish, who must not partake of any food until the sun is well up in the sky.[137] Brahmins {310} fast at the equinoxes, solstices, conjunctions of planets, and on the days of the new and full moon.[138] The Buddhist Sabbath, or _Uposatha_, which, as we have noticed above, occurs on the day of full moon, on the day when there is no moon, and on the two days which are eighth from the full and new moon, is not only a day of rest, but has also from ancient times been a fast-day. He who keeps the Sabbath rigorously abstains from all food between sunrise and sunset, and, as no cooking must be done during the _Uposatha_, he prepares his evening meal in the early morning before the rise of the sun.[139]

[Footnote 130: Schönwerth, _Aus der Oberpfalz_, iii. 55.]

[Footnote 131: Haberland, in _Zeitschr. f. Völkerpsychologie_, xviii. 258.]

[Footnote 132: Rivers, _op. cit._ p. 592 _sq._]

[Footnote 133: Crooke, _Popular Religion of Northern India_, i. 21 _sq._]

[Footnote 134: _Laws of Manu_, iv. 55.]

[Footnote 135: _Shâyast Lâ-Shâyast_, ix. 8.]

[Footnote 136: Wilson, _Works_, i. 266. Hunter, _Annals of Rural Bengal_, ii. 285. Crooke, _Things Indian_, p. 214.]

[Footnote 137: Boas, _loc. cit._ p. 51.]

[Footnote 138: Dubois, _Description of the People of India_, p. 160. See also _supra_, ii. 297.]

[Footnote 139: Childers, _Dictionary of the Pali Language_, p. 535. Kern, _Der Buddhismus_, ii. 258.]

Among the Jews there are many who abstain from food on the day of an eclipse of the moon, which they regard as an evil omen.[140] We have also reason to believe that the Jews were once in the habit of observing the new moons and Sabbaths not only as days of rest, but as fast-days; and the Hebrew Sabbath, as we have seen, in all probability owes its origin to superstitious fear of the changes in the moon.[141] Or how shall we explain the curious rule which forbids fasting on a new moon and on the seventh day,[142] if not as a protest against a fast once in vogue among the Jews on these occasions, but afterwards regarded as an illegitimate rite?[143] This theory is not new, for Hooker in his 'Ecclesiastical Polity' observes that "it may be a question, whether in some sort they did not always fast on the Sabbath." He refers to a statement of Josephus, according to which the sixth hour "was wont on the Sabbath always to call them home unto meat," and to certain pagan writers who upbraided them with fasting on that day.[144] In Nehemiah there is an indication that it was a custom to fast on the first day of the seventh month,[145] {311} which is "holy unto the Lord";[146] and on the tenth day of the same month there was the great fast of atonement, combined with abstinence from every kind of work.[147] I venture to think that all these fasts may be ultimately traced to a belief that the changes in the moon not only are unfavourable for work, but also make it dangerous to partake of food. The fact of the seventh day being a day of rest established the number seven as a sabbatical number. In the seventh month there are several days, besides Saturdays, which are to be observed as days of rest,[148] and in the seventh year there shall be "a sabbath of rest unto the land."[149] In these Sabbatarian regulations the day of atonement plays a particularly prominent part. The severest punishment is prescribed for him who does not rest and fast on that day "from even unto even";[150] and it is on the same day that, after the lapse of seven times seven years, the trumpet of the jubilee shall be caused to sound throughout the land.[151] Most of the rules concerning the day of atonement are undoubtedly post-exilic. But the fact that no other regular days of fasting but those mentioned by Zechariah are referred to by the prophets or in earlier books, hardly justifies the conclusion drawn by many scholars that no such fast existed. It is extremely probable that the fast of the tenth day of the seventh month _as a fast of atonement_ is of a comparatively modern date; but it is perhaps not too bold to suggest that the idea of atonement is a later interpretation of a previously existing fast, which was originally observed for fear of the dangerous quality attributed to the number seven. Why this fast was enjoined on the tenth day of the seventh month remains obscure; but it seems that the order of the month was considered more important than that of the day. Nehemiah speaks of a fast which {312} was kept on the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month.[152]

[Footnote 140: Buxtorf, _op. cit._ p. 477.]

[Footnote 141: _Supra_, ii. 286 _sq._]

[Footnote 142: _Judith_, viii. 6. _Schulchan Aruch_, i. 91, 117.]

[Footnote 143: See Jastrow, 'Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,' in _American Journal of Theology_, ii. 325.]

[Footnote 144: Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, v. 72, vol. ii. 338.]

[Footnote 145: _Nehemiah_, viii. 2, 10:--"Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them _for whom nothing is prepared_."]

[Footnote 146: _Nehemiah_, viii. 9 _sqq._ See also _Leviticus_, xxiii. 24 _sq._; _Numbers_, xxix. 1. Among the Babylonians, too, the seventh month had a sacred character (]astrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 681, 683, 686).]

[Footnote 147: _Leviticus_, xvi. 29, 31; xxiii. 27 _sqq._ _Numbers_, xxix. 7.]

[Footnote 148: _Leviticus_, xxiii. 24, 25, 35, 36, 39. _Numbers_, xxix. 1, 12, 35.]

[Footnote 149: _Leviticus_, xxv. 4. See also _Exodus_, xxiii. 10 _sq._]

[Footnote 150: _Leviticus_, xxiii. 29 _sq._]

[Footnote 151: _Ibid._ xxv. 9.]

[Footnote 152: _Nehemiah_, ix. 1.]

In other Semitic religions we meet with various fasts which are in some way or other connected with astronomical changes. According to En-Nedîm, the Harranians, or "Sabians," observed a thirty days' fast in honour of the moon, commencing on the eighth day after the new moon of Adsâr (March); a nine days' fast in honour of "the Lord of Good Luck" (probably Jupiter),[153] commencing on the ninth day before the new moon of the first Kânûn (December); and a seven days' fast in honour of the sun, commencing on the eighth or ninth day after the new moon of Shobâth (February).[154] The thirty days' fast seems to have implied abstinence from every kind of food and drink between sunrise and sunset,[155] whereas the seven days' fast is expressly said to have consisted in abstinence from fat and wine.[156] In Manichæism--which is essentially based upon the ancient nature religion of Babylonia, though modified by Christian and Persian elements and elevated into a gnosis[157]--we meet with a great number of fasts. There is a continuous fast for two days when the sun is in Sagittarius (which it enters about the 22nd November) and the moon has its full light; another fast when the sun has entered Capricornus (which it does about the 21st December) and the moon first becomes visible; and a thirty days' fast between sunrise and sunset commencing on the day "when the new moon begins to shine, the sun is in Aquarius (where it is from about the 20th January), and eight days of the month have passed," which seems to imply that the fast cannot begin until eight days after the sun has entered Aquarius and that consequently, if the new moon {313} appears during that period, the commencement of the fast has to be postponed till the following new moon. The Manichaeans also fasted for two days at every new moon; and our chief authority on the subject, En-Nedîm, states that they had seven fast-days in each month. They fasted on Sundays, and some of them, the _electi_ or "perfect ones," on Mondays also.[158] We are told by Leo the Great that they observed these weekly fasts in honour of the sun and the moon;[159] but according to the Armenian Bishop Ebedjesu their abstinence on Sunday was occasioned by their belief that the destruction of the world was going to take place on that day.[160] There can be little doubt that the Harranian and Manichæan fasts were originally due, not to reverence, but to fear of evil influences; reverence can never be the primitive motive for a customary rite of fasting. The thirty days' fast which the Harranians observed in the month of Adsâr finds perhaps its explanation in the fact that, according to Babylonian beliefs, the month Adar was presided over by the seven evil spirits, who knew neither compassion nor mercy, who heard no prayer or supplication, and to whose baneful influence the popular faith attributed the eclipse of the moon.[161] But it may also be worth noticing that the Harranian fast took place about the vernal equinox--a time at which, as we have seen, the Brahmins of India are wont to fast, though only for a day or two.

[Footnote 153: Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier_, ii. 226, n. 247.]

[Footnote 154: En-Nedîm, _Fihrist_, (book ix. ch. i.) i. 4; v. 8, 11 _sq._ (Chwolsohn, _op. cit._ ii. 6, 7, 32, 35 _sq._). See also Chwolsohn, i. 533 _sqq._; ii. 75 _sq._]

[Footnote 155: Chwolsohn, _op. cit._ ii. 71 _sq._ _Cf._ Abûlfedâ, 6 (_ibid._ ii. 500).]

[Footnote 156: En-Nedîm, _op. cit._ v. 11 (Chwolsohn, _op. cit._ ii. 36).]

[Footnote 157: Kessler, 'Mani, Manichäer,' in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyclopädie f. protestantische Theologie_, xii. 198 _sq._ Harnack, _History of Dogma_, iii. 330. _Idem_, 'Manichæism,' in _Encyclopædia Britannica_, xv. 485.]

[Footnote 158: En-Nedîm, _Fihrist_, in Flügel, _Mani_, pp. 95, 97. Flügel, p. 311 _sqq._ Kessler, _loc. cit._ p. 212 _sq._]

[Footnote 159: Leo the Great, _Sermo XLII. (al. XLI.)_ 5 (Migne, _op. cit._ liv. 279).]

[Footnote 160: Flügel, _op. cit._ p. 312 _sq._]

[Footnote 161: Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 263, 276, 463.]

It is highly probable that the thirty days' fast of the Harranians and Manichæans is the prototype of the Muhammedan fast of Rama[d.]ân. During the whole ninth month of the Muhammedan year the complete abstinence from food, drink and cohabitation from sunrise till sunset is enjoined upon every Moslem, with the exception of young children and idiots, as also sick persons and travellers, who are allowed to postpone the {314} fast to another time.[162] This fast is said to be a fourth part of Faith, the other cardinal duties of religious practice being prayer, almsgiving, and pilgrimage. But, as a matter of fact, modern Muhammedans regard the fast of Rama[d.]ân as of more importance than any other religious observance;[163] many of them neglect their prayers, but anybody who should openly disregard the rule of fasting would be subject to a very severe punishment.[164] Even the privilege granted to travellers and sick persons is not readily taken advantage of. During their marches in the middle of summer nothing but the apprehension of death can induce the Aeneze to interrupt the fast;[165] and when Burton, in the disguise of a Muhammedan doctor, was in Cairo making preparations for his pilgrimage to Mecca, he found among all those who suffered severely from such total abstinence only one patient who would eat even to save his life.[166] There is no evidence that the fast of Rama[d.]ân was an ancient, pre-Muhammedan custom.[167] On the other hand, its similarity with the Harranian and Manichæan fasts is so striking that we are almost compelled to regard them all as fundamentally the same institution; and if this assumption is correct, Muhammed must have borrowed his fast from the Harranians or Manichæans or both. {315} Indeed, Dr. Jacob has shown that in the year 623, when this fast seems to have been instituted, Rama[d.]ân exactly coincided with the Harranian fast-month.[168] In its Muhammedan form the fast extending over a whole month is looked upon as a means of expiation. It is said that by the observance of it a person will be pardoned all his past venial sins, and that only those who keep it will be allowed to enter through the gate of heaven called Rayyân.[169] But this is only another instance of the common fact that customs often for an incalculable period survive the motives from which they sprang.

[Footnote 162: _Koran_, ii. 180, 181, 183.]

[Footnote 163: _Cf._ Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, p. 106.]

[Footnote 164: von Kremer, _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, i. 460.]

[Footnote 165: Burckhardt, _Bedouins and Wahábys_, p. 57.]

[Footnote 166: Burton, _Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah_, i. 74.]

[Footnote 167: We can hardly regard as such the passage in the Koran (ii. 179) where it is said, "O ye who believe! There is prescribed for you the fast as it was prescribed for those before you; haply ye may fear." The traditionists say that Muhammed was in the habit of spending the month of Rama[d.]ân every year in the cave at Hirâ, meditating and feeding all the poor who resorted to him, and that he did so in accordance with a religious practice which the Koreish used to perform in the days of their heathenism. Others add that [(]Abd al-Mu[t.][t.]alib commenced the practice, saying "that it was the worship of God which that patriarch used to begin with the new moon of Rama[d.]ân, and continue during the whole of the month" (Muir, _Life of Mahomet_, ii. 56, n.* Sell, _Faith of Islám_, p. 316). But, as Muir remarks (_op. cit._ ii. 56, n.*), it is the tendency of the traditionists to foreshadow the customs and precepts of Islam as if some of them had existed prior to Muhammed, and constituted part of "the religion of Abraham." See Jacob, 'Der muslimische Fastenmonat Rama[d.]ân,' in _VI. Jahresbericht der Geographischen Gesellsch. zu Greifswald_, pt. i. 1893-96, p. 2, _sqq._]

[Footnote 168: Jacob, _loc. cit._ p. 5.]

[Footnote 169: Sell, _op. cit._ p. 317.]

In various religions we meet with fasting as a form of penance, as a means of appeasing an angry or indignant God, as an expiation for sin.[170] The voluntary suffering involved in it is regarded as an expression of sorrow and repentance pleasing to God, as a substitute for the punishment which He otherwise would inflict upon the sinner; and at the same time it may be thought to excite His compassion, an idea noticeable in many Jewish fasts.[171] Among the Jews individuals fasted in cases of private distress or danger: Ahab, for instance, when Elijah predicted his downfall,[172] Ezra and his companions before their journey to Palestine,[173] the pious Israelite when his friends were sick.[174] Moreover, fasts were instituted for the whole community when it believed itself to be under divine displeasure, when danger threatened, when a great calamity befell the land, when pestilence raged or drought set in, or there was a reverse in war.[175] Four {316} regular fast-days were established in commemoration of various sad events that had befallen Israel during the captivity;[176] and in the course of time many other fasts were added, in memory of certain national troubles, though they were not regarded as obligatory.[177] The law itself enjoined fasting for the great day of atonement only.