object:1.51 - Homeopathic Magic of a Flesh Diet
book class:The Golden Bough
author class:James George Frazer
subject class:Occultism
class:chapter
LI. Homeopathic Magic of a Flesh Diet
THE PRACTICE of killing a god has now been traced amongst peoples
who have reached the agricultural stage of society. We have seen
that the spirit of the corn, or of other cultivated plants, is
commonly represented either in human or in animal form, and that in
some places a custom has prevailed of killing annually either the
human or the animal representative of the god. One reason for thus
killing the corn-spirit in the person of his representative has been
given implicitly in an earlier part of this work: we may suppose
that the intention was to guard him or her (for the corn-spirit is
often feminine) from the enfeeblement of old age by transferring the
spirit, while still hale and hearty, to the person of a youthful and
vigorous successor. Apart from the desirability of renewing his
divine energies, the death of the corn-spirit may have been deemed
inevitable under the sickles or the knives of the reapers, and his
worshippers may accordingly have felt bound to acquiesce in the sad
necessity. But, further, we have found a widespread custom of eating
the god sacramentally, either in the shape of the man or animal who
represents the god, or in the shape of bread made in human or animal
form. The reasons for thus partaking of the body of the god are,
from the primitive standpoint, simple enough. The savage commonly
believes that by eating the flesh of an animal or man he acquires
not only the physical, but even the moral and intellectual qualities
which were characteristic of that animal or man; so when the
creature is deemed divine, our simple savage naturally expects to
absorb a portion of its divinity along with its material substance.
It may be well to illustrate by instances this common faith in the
acquisition of virtues or vices of many kinds through the medium of
animal food, even when there is no pretence that the viands consist
of the body or blood of a god. The doctrine forms part of the widely
ramified system of sympathetic or homoeopathic magic.
Thus, for example, the Creeks, Cherokee, and kindred tribes of North
American Indians "believe that nature is possest of such a property
as to transfuse into men and animals the qualities, either of the
food they use, or of those objects that are presented to their
senses; he who feeds on venison is, according to their physical
system, swifter and more sagacious than the man who lives on the
flesh of the clumsy bear, or helpless dunghill fowls, the
slow-footed tame cattle, or the heavy wallowing swine. This is the
reason that several of their old men recommend, and say, that
formerly their greatest chieftains observed a constant rule in their
diet, and seldom ate of any animal of a gross quality, or heavy
motion of body, fancying it conveyed a dullness through the whole
system, and disabled them from exerting themselves with proper
vigour in their martial, civil, and religious duties." The Zaparo
Indians of Ecuador "will, unless from necessity, in most cases not
eat any heavy meats, such as tapir and peccary, but confine
themselves to birds, monkeys, deer, fish, etc., principally because
they argue that the heavier meats make them unwieldy, like the
animals who supply the flesh, impeding their agility, and unfitting
them for the chase." Similarly some of the Brazilian Indians would
eat no beast, bird, or fish that ran, flew, or swam slowly, lest by
partaking of its flesh they should lose their ability and be unable
to escape from their enemies. The Caribs abstained from the flesh of
pigs lest it should cause them to have small eyes like pigs; and
they refused to partake of tortoises from a fear that if they did so
they would become heavy and stupid like the animal. Among the Fans
of West Africa men in the prime of life never eat tortoises for a
similar reason; they imagine that if they did so, their vigour and
fleetness of foot would be gone. But old men may eat tortoises
freely, because having already lost the power of running they can
take no harm from the flesh of the slow-footed creature.
While many savages thus fear to eat the flesh of slow-footed animals
lest they should themselves become slow-footed, the Bushmen of South
Africa purposely ate the flesh of such creatures, and the reason
which they gave for doing so exhibits a curious refinement of savage
philosophy. They imagined that the game which they pursued would be
influenced sympathetically by the food in the body of the hunter, so
that if he had eaten of swift-footed animals, the quarry would be
swift-footed also and would escape him; whereas if he had eaten of
slow-footed animals, the quarry would also be slow-footed, and he
would be able to overtake and kill it. For that reason hunters of
gemsbok particularly avoided eating the flesh of the swift and agile
springbok; indeed they would not even touch it with their hands,
because they believed the springbok to be a very lively creature
which did not go to sleep at night, and they thought that if they
ate springbok, the gemsbok which they hunted would likewise not be
willing to go to sleep, even at night. How, then, could they catch
it?
The Namaquas abstain from eating the flesh of hares, because they
think it would make them faint-hearted as a hare. But they eat the
flesh of the lion, or drink the blood of the leopard or lion, to get
the courage and strength of these beasts. The Bushmen will not give
their children a jackal's heart to eat, lest it should make them
timid like the jackal; but they give them a leopard's heart to eat
to make them brave like the leopard. When a Wagogo man of East
Africa kills a lion, he eats the heart in order to become brave like
a lion; but he thinks that to eat the heart of a hen would make him
timid. When a serious disease has attacked a Zulu kraal, the
medicine-man takes the bone of a very old dog, or the bone of an old
cow, bull, or other very old animal, and administers it to the
healthy as well as to the sick people, in order that they may live
to be as old as the animal of whose bone they have partaken. So to
restore the aged Aeson to youth, the witch Medea infused into his
veins a decoction of the liver of the long-lived deer and the head
of a crow that had outlived nine generations of men.
Among the Dyaks of North-West Borneo young men and warriors may not
eat venison, because it would make them as timid as deer; but the
women and very old men are free to eat it. However, among the Kayans
of the same region, who share the same view as to the ill effect of
eating venison, men will partake of the dangerous viand provided it
is cooked in the open air, for then the timid spirit of the animal
is supposed to escape at once into the jungle and not to enter into
the eater. The Aino believe that the heart of the water-ousel is
exceedingly wise, and that in speech the bird is most eloquent.
Therefore whenever he is killed, he should be at once torn open and
his heart wrenched out and swallowed before it has time to grow cold
or suffer damage of any kind. If a man swallows it thus, he will
become very fluent and wise, and will be able to argue down all his
adversaries. In Northern India people fancy that if you eat the
eyeballs of an owl you will be able like an owl to see in the dark.
When the Kansas Indians were going to war, a feast used to be held
in the chief's hut, and the principal dish was dog's flesh, because,
said the Indians, the animal who is so brave that he will let
himself be cut in pieces in defence of his master, must needs
inspire valour. Men of the Buru and Aru Islands, East Indies, eat
the flesh of dogs in order to be bold and nimble in war. Amongst the
Papuans of the Port Moresby and Motumotu districts, New Guinea,
young lads eat strong pig, wallaby, and large fish, in order to
acquire the strength of the animal or fish. Some of the natives of
Northern Australia fancy that by eating the flesh of the kangaroo or
emu they are enabled to jump or run faster than before. The Miris of
Assam prize tiger's flesh as food for men; it gives them strength
and courage. But "it is not suited for women; it would make them too
strong-minded." In Corea the bones of tigers fetch a higher price
than those of leopards as a means of inspiring courage. A Chinaman
in Seoul bought and ate a whole tiger to make himself brave and
fierce. In Norse legend, Ingiald, son of King Aunund, was timid in
his youth, but after eating the heart of a wolf he became very bold;
Hialto gained strength and courage by eating the heart of a bear and
drinking its blood.
In Morocco lethargic patients are given ants to swallow, and to eat
lion's flesh will make a coward brave; but people abstain from
eating the hearts of fowls, lest thereby they should be rendered
timid. When a child is late in learning to speak, the Turks of
Central Asia will give it the tongues of certain birds to eat. A
North American Indian thought that brandy must be a decoction of
hearts and tongues, "because," said he, "after drinking it I fear
nothing, and I talk wonderfully." In Java there is a tiny earthworm
which now and then utters a shrill sound like that of the alarum of
a small clock. Hence when a public dancing girl has screamed herself
hoarse in the exercise of her calling, the leader of the troop makes
her eat some of these worms, in the belief that thus she will regain
her voice and will, after swallowing them, be able to scream as
shrilly as ever. The people of Darfur, in Central Africa, think that
the liver is the seat of the soul, and that a man may enlarge his
soul by eating the liver of an animal. "Whenever an animal is killed
its liver is taken out and eaten, but the people are most careful
not to touch it with their hands, as it is considered sacred; it is
cut up in small pieces and eaten raw, the bits being conveyed to the
mouth on the point of a knife, or the sharp point of a stick. Any
one who may accidentally touch the liver is strictly forbidden to
partake of it, which prohibition is regarded as a great misfortune
for him." Women are not allowed to eat liver, because they have no
soul.
Again, the flesh and blood of dead men are commonly eaten and drunk
to inspire bravery, wisdom, or other qualities for which the men
themselves were remarkable, or which are supposed to have their
special seat in the particular part eaten. Thus among the mountain
tribes of South-Eastern Africa there are ceremonies by which the
youths are formed into guilds or lodges, and among the rites of
initiation there is one which is intended to infuse courage,
intelligence, and other qualities into the novices. Whenever an
enemy who has behaved with conspicuous bravery is killed, his liver,
which is considered the seat of valour; his ears, which are supposed
to be the seat of intelligence; the skin of his forehead, which is
regarded as the seat of perseverance; his testicles, which are held
to be the seat of strength; and other members, which are viewed as
the seat of other virtues, are cut from his body and baked to
cinders. The ashes are carefully kept in the horn of a bull, and,
during the ceremonies observed at circumcision, are mixed with other
ingredients into a kind of paste, which is administered by the
tribal priest to the youths. By this means the strength, valour,
intelligence, and other virtues of the slain are believed to be
imparted to the eaters. When Basutos of the mountains have killed a
very brave foe, they immediately cut out his heart and eat it,
because this is supposed to give them his courage and strength in
battle. When Sir Charles M'Carthy was killed by the Ashantees in
1824, it is said that his heart was devoured by the chiefs of the
Ashantee army, who hoped by this means to imbibe his courage. His
flesh was dried and parcelled out among the lower officers for the
same purpose, and his bones were long kept at Coomassie as national
fetishes. The Nauras Indians of New Granada ate the hearts of
Spaniards when they had the opportunity, hoping thereby to make
themselves as dauntless as the dreaded Castilian chivalry. The Sioux
Indians used to reduce to powder the heart of a valiant enemy and
swallow the powder, hoping thus to appropriate the dead man's
valour.
But while the human heart is thus commonly eaten for the sake of
imbuing the eater with the qualities of its original owner, it is
not, as we have already seen, the only part of the body which is
consumed for this purpose. Thus warriors of the Theddora and Ngarigo
tribes of South-Eastern Australia used to eat the hands and feet of
their slain enemies, believing that in this way they acquired some
of the qualities and courage of the dead. The Kamilaroi of New South
Wales ate the liver as well as the heart of a brave man to get his
courage. In Tonquin also there is a popular superstition that the
liver of a brave man makes brave any who partake of it. With a like
intent the Chinese swallow the bile of notorious bandits who have
been executed. The Dyaks of Sarawak used to eat the palms of the
hands and the flesh of the knees of the slain in order to steady
their own hands and strengthen their own knees. The Tolalaki,
notorious head-hunters of Central Celebes, drink the blood and eat
the brains of their victims that they may become brave. The Italones
of the Philippine Islands drink the blood of their slain enemies,
and eat part of the back of their heads and of their entrails raw to
acquire their courage. For the same reason the Efugaos, another
tribe of the Philippines, suck the brains of their foes. In like
manner the Kai of German New Guinea eat the brains of the enemies
they kill in order to acquire their strength. Among the Kimbunda of
Western Africa, when a new king succeeds to the throne, a brave
prisoner of war is killed in order that the king and nobles may eat
his flesh, and so acquire his strength and courage. The notorious
Zulu chief Matuana drank the gall of thirty chiefs, whose people he
had destroyed, in the belief that it would make him strong. It is a
Zulu fancy that by eating the centre of the forehead and the eyebrow
of an enemy they acquire the power of looking steadfastly at a foe.
Before every warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes
used to take the locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in
boiling water to extract the courage; this infusion of bravery was
then drunk by the warriors. In New Zealand "the chief was an _atua_
[god], but there were powerful and powerless gods; each naturally
sought to make himself one of the former; the plan therefore adopted
was to incorporate the spirits of others with their own; thus, when
a warrior slew a chief, he immediately gouged out his eyes and
swallowed them, the _atua tonga,_ or divinity, being supposed to
reside in that organ; thus he not only killed the body, but also
possessed himself of the soul of his enemy, and consequently the
more chiefs he slew the greater did his divinity become."
It is now easy to understand why a savage should desire to partake
of the flesh of an animal or man whom he regards as divine. By
eating the body of the god he shares in the god's attributes and
powers. And when the god is a corn-god, the corn is his proper body;
when he is a vine-god, the juice of the grape is his blood; and so
by eating the bread and drinking the wine the worshipper partakes of
the real body and blood of his god. Thus the drinking of wine in the
rites of a vine-god like Dionysus is not an act of revelry, it is a
solemn sacrament. Yet a time comes when reasonable men find it hard
to understand how any one in his senses can suppose that by eating
bread or drinking wine he consumes the body or blood of a deity.
"When we call corn Ceres and wine Bacchus," says Cicero, "we use a
common figure of speech; but do you imagine that anybody is so
insane as to believe that the thing he feeds upon is a god?"
questions, comments, suggestions/feedback, take-down requests, contribute, etc
contact me @ integralyogin@gmail.com or via the comments below
or join the integral discord server (chatrooms)
if the page you visited was empty, it may be noted and I will try to fill it out. cheers