object:1.56 - The Public Expulsion of Evils
book class:The Golden Bough
author class:James George Frazer
subject class:Occultism
class:chapter
LVI. The Public Expulsion of Evils
1. The Omnipresence of Demons
IN THE FOREGOING chapter the primitive principle of the transference
of ills to another person, animal, or thing was explained and
illustrated. But similar means have been adopted to free a whole
community from diverse evils that afflict it. Such attempts to
dismiss at once the accumulated sorrows of a people are by no means
rare or exceptional; on the contrary they have been made in many
lands, and from being occasional they tend to become periodic and
annual.
It needs some effort on our part to realise the frame of mind which
prompts these attempts. Bred in a philosophy which strips nature of
personality and reduces it to the unknown cause of an orderly series
of impressions on our senses, we find it hard to put ourselves in
the place of the savage, to whom the same impressions appear in the
guise of spirits or the handiwork of spirits. For ages the army of
spirits, once so near, has been receding farther and farther from
us, banished by the magic wand of science from hearth and home, from
ruined cell and ivied tower, from haunted glade and lonely mere,
from the riven murky cloud that belches forth the lightning, and
from those fairer clouds that pillow the silvery moon or fret with
flakes of burning red the golden eve. The spirits are gone even from
their last stronghold in the sky, whose blue arch no longer passes,
except with children, for the screen that hides from mortal eyes the
glories of the celestial world. Only in poets' dreams or impassioned
flights of oratory is it given to catch a glimpse of the last
flutter of the standards of the retreating host, to hear the beat of
their invisible wings, the sound of their mocking laughter, or the
swell of angel music dying away in the distance. Far otherwise is it
with the savage. To his imagination the world still teems with those
motley beings whom a more sober philosophy has discarded. Fairies
and goblins, ghosts and demons, still hover about him both waking
and sleeping. They dog his footsteps, dazzle his senses, enter into
him, harass and deceive and torment him in a thousand freakish and
mischievous ways. The mishaps that befall him, the losses he
sustains, the pains he has to endure, he commonly sets down, if not
to the magic of his enemies, to the spite or anger or caprice of the
spirits. Their constant presence wearies him, their sleepless
malignity exasperates him; he longs with an unspeakable longing to
be rid of them altogether, and from time to time, driven to bay, his
patience utterly exhausted, he turns fiercely on his persecutors and
makes a desperate effort to chase the whole pack of them from the
land, to clear the air of their swarming multitudes, that he may
breathe more freely and go on his way unmolested, at least for a
time. Thus it comes about that the endeavour of primitive people to
make a clean sweep of all their troubles generally takes the form of
a grand hunting out and expulsion of devils or ghosts. They think
that if they can only shake off these their accursed tormentors,
they will make a fresh start in life, happy and innocent; the tales
of Eden and the old poetic golden age will come true again.
2. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils
WE can therefore understand why those general clearances of evil, to
which from time to time the savage resorts, should commonly take the
form of a forcible expulsion of devils. In these evil spirits
primitive man sees the cause of many if not of most of his troubles,
and he fancies that if he can only deliver himself from them, things
will go better with him. The public attempts to expel the
accumulated ills of a whole community may be divided into two
classes, according as the expelled evils are immaterial and
invisible or are embodied in a material vehicle or scape-goat. The
former may be called the direct or immediate expulsion of evils; the
latter the indirect or mediate expulsion, or the expulsion by
scapegoat. We begin with examples of the former.
In the island of Rook, between New Guinea and New Britain, when any
misfortune has happened, all the people run together, scream, curse,
howl, and beat the air with sticks to drive away the devil, who is
supposed to be the author of the mishap. From the spot where the
mishap took place they drive him step by step to the sea, and on
reaching the shore they redouble their shouts and blows in order to
expel him from the island. He generally retires to the sea or to the
island of Lottin. The natives of New Britain ascribe sickness,
drought, the failure of crops, and in short all misfortunes, to the
influence of wicked spirits. So at times when many people sicken and
die, as at the beginning of the rainy season, all the inhabitants of
a district, armed with branches and clubs, go out by moonlight to
the fields, where they beat and stamp on the ground with wild howls
till morning, believing that this drives away the devils; and for
the same purpose they rush through the village with burning torches.
The natives of New Caledonia are said to believe that all evils are
caused by a powerful and malignant spirit; hence in order to rid
themselves of him they will from time to time dig a great pit, round
which the whole tribe gathers. After cursing the demon, they fill up
the pit with earth, and trample on the top with loud shouts. This
they call burying the evil spirit. Among the Dieri tribe of Central
Australia, when a serious illness occurs, the medicine-men expel
Cootchie or the devil by beating the ground in and outside of the
camp with the stuffed tail of a kangaroo, until they have chased the
demon away to some distance from the camp.
When a village has been visited by a series of disasters or a severe
epidemic, the inhabitants of Minahassa in Celebes lay the blame upon
the devils who are infesting the village and who must be expelled
from it. Accordingly, early one morning all the people, men, women,
and children, quit their homes, carrying their household goods with
them, and take up their quarters in temporary huts which have been
erected outside the village. Here they spend several days, offering
sacrifices and preparing for the final ceremony. At last the men,
some wearing masks, others with their faces blackened, and so on,
but all armed with swords, guns, pikes, or brooms, steal cautiously
and silently back to the deserted village. Then, at a signal from
the priest, they rush furiously up and down the streets and into and
under the houses (which are raised on piles above the ground),
yelling and striking on walls, doors, and windows, to drive away the
devils. Next, the priests and the rest of the people come with the
holy fire and march nine times round each house and thrice round the
ladder that leads up to it, carrying the fire with them. Then they
take the fire into the kitchen, where it must burn for three days
continuously. The devils are now driven away, and great and general
is the joy.
The Alfoors of Halmahera attribute epidemics to the devil who comes
from other villages to carry them off. So, in order to rid the
village of the disease, the sorcerer drives away the devil. From all
the villagers he receives a costly garment and places it on four
vessels, which he takes to the forest and leaves at the spot where
the devil is supposed to be. Then with mocking words he bids the
demon abandon the place. In the Kei Islands to the south-west of New
Guinea, the evil spirits, who are quite distinct from the souls of
the dead, form a mighty host. Almost every tree and every cave is
the lodging-place of one of these fiends, who are moreover extremely
irascible and apt to fly out on the smallest provocation. They
manifest their displeasure by sending sickness and other calamities.
Hence in times of public misfortune, as when an epidemic is raging,
and all other remedies have failed, the whole population go forth
with the priest at their head to a place at some distance from the
village. Here at sunset they erect a couple of poles with a
cross-bar between them, to which they attach bags of rice, wooden
models of pivot-guns, gongs, bracelets, and so on. Then, when
everybody has taken his place at the poles and a death-like silence
reigns, the priest lifts up his voice and addresses the spirits in
their own language as follows: "Ho! ho! ho! ye evil spirits who
dwell in the trees, ye evil spirits who live in the grottoes, ye
evil spirits who lodge in the earth, we give you these pivot-guns,
these gongs, etc. Let the sickness cease and not so many people die
of it." Then everybody runs home as fast as their legs can carry
them.
In the island of Nias, when a man is seriously ill and other
remedies have been tried in vain, the sorcerer proceeds to exorcise
the devil who is causing the illness. A pole is set up in front of
the house, and from the top of the pole a rope of palm-leaves is
stretched to the roof of the house. Then the sorcerer mounts the
roof with a pig, which he kills and allows to roll from the roof to
the ground. The devil, anxious to get the pig, lets himself down
hastily from the roof by the rope of palm-leaves, and a good spirit,
invoked by the sorcerer, prevents him from climbing up again. If
this remedy fails, it is believed that other devils must still be
lurking in the house. So a general hunt is made after them. All the
doors and windows in the house are closed, except a single
dormer-window in the roof. The men, shut up in the house, hew and
slash with their swords right and left to the clash of gongs and the
rub-a-dub of drums. Terrified at this onslaught, the devils escape
by the dormer-window, and sliding down the rope of palm-leaves take
themselves off. As all the doors and windows, except the one in the
roof, are shut, the devils cannot get into the house again. In the
case of an epidemic, the proceedings are similar. All the gates of
the village, except one, are closed; every voice is raised, every
gong and drum beaten, every sword brandished. Thus the devils are
driven out and the last gate is shut behind them. For eight days
thereafter the village is in a state of siege, no one being allowed
to enter it.
When cholera has broken out in a Burmese village the able-bodied men
scramble on the roofs and lay about them with bamboos and billets of
wood, while all the rest of the population, old and young, stand
below and thump drums, blow trumpets, yell, scream, beat floors,
walls, tin pans, everything to make a din. This uproar, repeated on
three successive nights, is thought to be very effective in driving
away the cholera demons. When smallpox first appeared amongst the
Kumis of South-Eastern India, they thought it was a devil come from
Aracan. The villages were placed in a state of siege, no one being
allowed to leave or enter them. A monkey was killed by being dashed
on the ground, and its body was hung at the village gate. Its blood,
mixed with small river pebbles, was sprinkled on the houses, the
threshold of every house was swept with the monkey's tail, and the
fiend was adjured to depart.
When an epidemic is raging on the Gold Coast of West Africa, the
people will sometimes turn out, armed with clubs and torches, to
drive the evil spirits away. At a given signal the whole population
begin with frightful yells to beat in every corner of the houses,
then rush like mad into the streets waving torches and striking
frantically in the empty air. The uproar goes on till somebody
reports that the cowed and daunted demons have made good their
escape by a gate of the town or village; the people stream out after
them, pursue them for some distance into the forest, and warn them
never to return. The expulsion of the devils is followed by a
general massacre of all the cocks in the village or town, lest by
their unseasonable crowing they should betray to the banished demons
the direction they must take to return to their old homes. When
sickness was prevalent in a Huron village, and all other remedies
had been tried in vain, the Indians had recourse to the ceremony
called _Lonouyroya,_ "which is the principal invention and most
proper means, so they say, to expel from the town or village the
devils and evil spirits which cause, induce, and import all the
maladies and infirmities which they suffer in body and mind."
Accordingly, one evening the men would begin to rush like madmen
about the village, breaking and upsetting whatever they came across
in the wigwams. They threw fire and burning brands about the
streets, and all night long they ran howling and singing without
cessation. Then they all dreamed of something, a knife, dog, skin,
or whatever it might be, and when morning came they went from wigwam
to wigwam asking for presents. These they received silently, till
the particular thing was given them which they had dreamed about. On
receiving it they uttered a cry of joy and rushed from the hut, amid
the congratulations of all present. The health of those who received
what they had dreamed of was believed to be assured; whereas those
who did not get what they had set their hearts upon regarded their
fate as sealed.
Sometimes, instead of chasing the demon of disease from their homes,
savages prefer to leave him in peaceable possession, while they
themselves take to flight and attempt to prevent him from following
in their tracks. Thus when the Patagonians were attacked by
small-pox, which they attributed to the machinations of an evil
spirit, they used to abandon their sick and flee, slashing the air
with their weapons and throwing water about in order to keep off the
dreadful pursuer; and when after several days' march they reached a
place where they hoped to be beyond his reach, they used by way of
precaution to plant all their cutting weapons with the sharp edges
turned towards the quarter from which they had come, as if they were
repelling a charge of cavalry. Similarly, when the Lules or
Tonocotes Indians of the Gran Chaco were attacked by an epidemic,
they regularly sought to evade it by flight, but in so doing they
always followed a sinuous, not a straight, course; because they said
that when the disease made after them he would be so exhausted by
the turnings and windings of the route that he would never be able
to come up with them. When the Indians of New Mexico were decimated
by smallpox or other infectious disease, they used to shift their
quarters every day, retreating into the most sequestered parts of
the mountains and choosing the thorniest thickets they could find,
in the hope that the smallpox would be too afraid of scratching
himself on the thorns to follow them. When some Chins on a visit to
Rangoon were attacked by cholera, they went about with drawn swords
to scare away the demon, and they spent the day hiding under bushes
so that he might not be able to find them.
3. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils
THE EXPULSION of evils, from being occasional, tends to become
periodic. It comes to be thought desirable to have a general
riddance of evil spirits at fixed times, usually once a year, in
order that the people may make a fresh start in life, freed from all
the malignant influences which have been long accumulating about
them. Some of the Australian blacks annually expelled the ghosts of
the dead from their territory. The ceremony was witnessed by the
Rev. W. Ridley on the banks of the River Barwan. "A chorus of
twenty, old and young, were singing and beating time with
boomerangs. . . . Suddenly, from under a sheet of bark darted a man
with his body whitened by pipeclay, his head and face coloured with
lines of red and yellow, and a tuft of feathers fixed by means of a
stick two feet above the crown of his head. He stood twenty minutes
perfectly still, gazing upwards. An aboriginal who stood by told me
he was looking for the ghosts of dead men. At last he began to move
very slowly, and soon rushed to and fro at full speed, flourishing a
branch as if to drive away some foes invisible to us. When I thought
this pantomime must be almost over, ten more, similarly adorned,
suddenly appeared from behind the trees, and the whole party joined
in a brisk conflict with their mysterious assailants. . . . At last,
after some rapid evolutions in which they put forth all their
strength, they rested from the exciting toil which they had kept up
all night and for some hours after sunrise; they seemed satisfied
that the ghosts were driven away for twelve months. They were
performing the same ceremony at every station along the river, and I
am told it is an annual custom."
Certain seasons of the year mark themselves naturally out as
appropriate moments for a general expulsion of devils. Such a moment
occurs towards the close of an Arctic winter, when the sun reappears
on the horizon after an absence of weeks or months. Accordingly, at
Point Barrow, the most northerly extremity of Alaska, and nearly of
America, the Esquimaux choose the moment of the sun's reappearance
to hunt the mischievous spirit Tua from every house. The ceremony
was witnessed by the members of the United States Polar Expedition,
who wintered at Point Barrow. A fire was built in front of the
council-house, and an old woman was posted at the entrance to every
house. The men gathered round the council-house while the young
women and girls drove the spirit out of every house with their
knives, stabbing viciously under the bunk and deer-skins, and
calling upon Tua to be gone. When they thought he had been driven
out of every hole and corner, they thrust him down through the hole
in the floor and chased him into the open air with loud cries and
frantic gestures. Meanwhile the old woman at the entrance of the
house made passes with a long knife in the air to keep him from
returning. Each party drove the spirit towards the fire and invited
him to go into it. All were by this time drawn up in a semicircle
round the fire, when several of the leading men made specific
charges against the spirit; and each after his speech brushed his
clothes violently, calling on the spirit to leave him and go into
the fire. Two men now stepped forward with rifles loaded with blank
cartridges, while a third brought a vessel of urine and flung it on
the flames. At the same time one of the men fired a shot into the
fire; and as the cloud of steam rose it received the other shot,
which was supposed to finish Tuna for the time being.
In late autumn, when storms rage over the land and break the icy
fetters by which the frozen sea is as yet but slightly bound, when
the loosened floes are driven against each other and break with loud
crashes, and when the cakes of ice are piled in wild disorder one
upon another, the Esquimaux of Baffin Land fancy they hear the
voices of the spirits who people the mischief-laden air. Then the
ghosts of the dead knock wildly at the huts, which they cannot
enter, and woe to the hapless wight whom they catch; he soon sickens
and dies. Then the phantom of a huge hairless dog pursues the real
dogs, which expire in convulsions and cramps at sight of him. All
the countless spirits of evil are abroad striving to bring sickness
and death, foul weather and failure in hunting on the Esquimaux.
Most dreaded of all these spectral visitants are Sedna, mistress of
the nether world, and her father, to whose share dead Esquimaux
fall. While the other spirits fill the air and the water, she rises
from under ground. It is then a busy season for the wizards. In
every house you may hear them singing and praying, while they
conjure the spirits, seated in a mystic gloom at the back of the
hut, which is dimly lit by a lamp burning low. The hardest task of
all is to drive away Sedna, and this is reserved for the most
powerful enchanter. A rope is coiled on the floor of a large hut in
such a way as to leave a small opening at the top, which represents
the breathing hole of a seal. Two enchanters stand beside it, one of
them grasping a spear as if he were watching a seal-hole in winter,
the other holding the harpoon-line. A third sorcerer sits at the
back of the hut chanting a magic song to lure Sedna to the spot. Now
she is heard approaching under the floor of the hut, breathing
heavily; now she emerges at the hole; now she is harpooned and sinks
away in angry haste, dragging the harpoon with her, while the two
men hold on to the line with all their might. The struggle is
severe, but at last by a desperate wrench she tears herself away and
returns to her dwelling in Adlivun. When the harpoon is drawn up out
of the hole it is found to be splashed with blood, which the
enchanters proudly exhibit as a proof of their prowess. Thus Sedna
and the other evil spirits are at last driven away, and next day a
great festival is celebrated by old and young in honour of the
event. But they must still be cautious, for the wounded Sedna is
furious and will seize any one she may find outside of his hut; so
they all wear amulets on the top of their hoods to protect
themselves against her. These amulets consist of pieces of the first
garments that they wore after birth.
The Iroquois inaugurated the new year in January, February, or March
(the time varied) with a "festival of dreams" like that which the
Hurons observed on special occasions. The whole ceremonies lasted
several days, or even weeks, and formed a kind of saturnalia. Men
and women, variously disguised, went from wigwam to wigwam smashing
and throwing down whatever they came across. It was a time of
general license; the people were supposed to be out of their senses,
and therefore not to be responsible for what they did. Accordingly,
many seized the opportunity of paying off old scores by belabouring
obnoxious persons, drenching them with ice-cold water, and covering
them with filth or hot ashes. Others seized burning brands or coals
and flung them at the heads of the first persons they met. The only
way of escaping from these persecutors was to guess what they had
dreamed of. On one day of the festival the ceremony of driving away
evil spirits from the village took place. Men clothed in the skins
of wild beasts, their faces covered with hideous masks, and their
hands with the shell of the tortoise, went from hut to hut making
frightful noises; in every hut they took the fuel from the fire and
scattered the embers and ashes about the floor with their hands. The
general confession of sins which preceded the festival was probably
a preparation for the public expulsion of evil influences; it was a
way of stripping the people of their moral burdens, that these might
be collected and cast out.
In September the Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Situa,
the object of which was to banish from the capital and its vicinity
all disease and trouble. The festival fell in September because the
rains begin about this time, and with the first rains there was
generally much sickness. As a preparation for the festival the
people fasted on the first day of the moon after the autumnal
equinox. Having fasted during the day, and the night being come,
they baked a coarse paste of maize. This paste was made of two
sorts. One was kneaded with the blood of children aged from five to
ten years, the blood being obtained by bleeding the children between
the eyebrows. These two kinds of paste were baked separately,
because they were for different uses. Each family assembled at the
house of the eldest brother to celebrate the feast; and those who
had no elder brother went to the house of their next relation of
greater age. On the same night all who had fasted during the day
washed their bodies, and taking a little of the blood-kneaded paste,
rubbed it over their head, face, breast, shoulders, arms and legs.
They did this in order that the paste might take away all their
infirmities. After this the head of the family anointed the
threshold with the same paste, and left it there as a token that the
inmates of the house had performed their ablutions and cleansed
their bodies. Meantime the High Priest performed the same ceremonies
in the temple of the Sun. As soon as the Sun rose, all the people
worshipped and besought him to drive all evils out of the city, and
then they broke their fast with the paste that had been kneaded
without blood. When they had paid their worship and broken their
fast, which they did at a stated hour, in order that all might adore
the Sun as one man, an Inca of the blood royal came forth from the
fortress, as a messenger of the Sun, richly dressed, with his mantle
girded round his body, and a lance in his hand. The lance was decked
with feathers of many hues, extending from the blade to the socket,
and fastened with rings of gold. He ran down the hill from the
fortress brandishing his lance, till he reached the centre of the
great square, where stood the golden urn, like a fountain, that was
used for the sacrifice of the fermented juice of the maize. Here
four other Incas of the blood royal awaited him, each with a lance
in his hand, and his mantle girded up to run. The messenger touched
their four lances with his lance, and told them that the Sun bade
them, as his messengers, drive the evils out of the city. The four
Incas then separated and ran down the four royal roads which led out
of the city to the four quarters of the world. While they ran, all
the people, great and small, came to the doors of their houses, and
with great shouts of joy and gladness shook their clothes, as if
they were shaking off dust, while they cried, "Let the evils be
gone. How greatly desired has this festival been by us. O Creator of
all things, permit us to reach another year, that we may see another
feast like this." After they had shaken their clothes, they passed
their hands over their heads, faces, arms, and legs, as if in the
act of washing. All this was done to drive the evils out of their
houses, that the messengers of the Sun might banish them from the
city; and it was done not only in the streets through which the
Incas ran, but generally in all quarters of the city. Moreover, they
all danced, the Inca himself amongst them, and bathed in the rivers
and fountains, saying that their maladies would come out of them.
Then they took great torches of straw, bound round with cords. These
they lighted, and passed from one to the other, striking each other
with them, and saying, "Let all harm go away." Meanwhile the runners
ran with their lances for a quarter of a league outside the city,
where they found four other Incas ready, who received the lances
from their hands and ran with them. Thus the lances were carried by
relays of runners for a distance of five or six leagues, at the end
of which the runners washed themselves and their weapons in rivers,
and set up the lances, in sign of a boundary within which the
banished evils might not return.
The negroes of Guinea annually banish the devil from all their towns
with much ceremony at a time set apart for the purpose. At Axim, on
the Gold Coast, this annual expulsion is preceded by a feast of
eight days, during which mirth and jollity, skipping, dancing, and
singing prevail, and "a perfect lampooning liberty is allowed, and
scandal so highly exalted, that they may freely sing of all the
faults, villanies, and frauds of their superiors as well as
inferiors, without punishment, or so much as the least
interruption." On the eighth day they hunt out the devil with a
dismal cry, running after him and pelting him with sticks, stones,
and whatever comes to hand. When they have driven him far enough out
of the town, they all return. In this way he is expelled from more
than a hundred towns at the same time. To make sure that he does not
return to their houses, the women wash and scour all their wooden
and earthen vessels, "to free them from all uncleanness and the
devil."
At Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast, the ceremony was witnessed
on the ninth of October, 1844, by an Englishman, who has described
it as follows: "To-night the annual custom of driving the evil
spirit, Abonsam, out of the town has taken place. As soon as the
eight o'clock gun fired in the fort the people began firing muskets
in their houses, turning all their furniture out of doors, beating
about in every corner of the rooms with sticks, etc., and screaming
as loudly as possible, in order to frighten the devil. Being driven
out of the houses, as they imagine, they sallied forth into the
streets, throwing lighted torches about, shouting, screaming,
beating sticks together, rattling old pans, making the most horrid
noise, in order to drive him out of the town into the sea. The
custom is preceded by four weeks' dead silence; no gun is allowed to
be fired, no drum to be beaten, no palaver to be made between man
and man. If, during these weeks, two natives should disagree and
make a noise in the town, they are immediately taken before the king
and fined heavily. If a dog or pig, sheep or goat be found at large
in the street, it may be killed, or taken by anyone, the former
owner not being allowed to demand any compensation. This silence is
designed to deceive Abonsam, that, being off his guard, he may be
taken by surprise, and frightened out of the place. If anyone die
during the silence, his relatives are not allowed to weep until the
four weeks have been completed."
Sometimes the date of the annual expulsion of devils is fixed with
reference to the agricultural seasons. Thus among the Hos of
Togoland, in West Africa, the expulsion is performed annually before
the people partake of the new yams. The chiefs summon the priests
and magicians and tell them that the people are now to eat the new
yams and be merry, therefore they must cleanse the town and remove
the evils. Accordingly the evil spirits, witches, and all the ills
that infest the people are conjured into bundles of leaves and
creepers, fastened to poles, which are carried away and set up in
the earth on various roads outside the town. During the following
night no fire may be lit and no food eaten. Next morning the women
sweep out their hearths and houses, and deposit the sweepings on
broken wooden plates. Then the people pray, saying, "All ye
sicknesses that are in our body and plague us, we are come to-day to
throw you out." Thereupon they run as fast as they can in the
direction of Mount Adaklu, smiting their mouths and screaming, "Out
to-day! Out to-day! That which kills anybody, out to-day! Ye evil
spirits, out to-day! and all that causes our heads to ache, out
to-day! Anlo and Adaklu are the places whither all ill shall betake
itself!" When they have come to a certain tree on Mount Adaklu, they
throw everything away and return home.
At Kiriwina, in South-Eastern New Guinea, when the new yams had been
harvested, the people feasted and danced for many days, and a great
deal of property, such as armlets, native money, and so forth, was
displayed conspicuously on a platform erected for the purpose. When
the festivities were over, all the people gathered together and
expelled the spirits from the village by shouting, beating the posts
of the houses, and overturning everything under which a wily spirit
might be supposed to lurk. The explanation which the people gave to
a missionary was that they had entertained and feasted the spirits
and provided them with riches, and it was now time for them to take
their departure. Had they not seen the dances, and heard the songs,
and gorged themselves on the souls of the yams, and appropriated the
souls of the money and all the other fine things set out on the
platform? What more could the spirits want? So out they must go.
Among the Hos of North-Eastern India the great festival of the year
is the harvest home, held in January, when the granaries are full of
grain, and the people, to use their own expression, are full of
devilry. "They have a strange notion that at this period, men and
women are so overcharged with vicious propensities, that it is
absolutely necessary for the safety of the person to let off steam
by allowing for a time full vent to the passions." The ceremonies
open with a sacrifice to the village god of three fowls, a cock and
two hens, one of which must be black. Along with them are offered
flowers of the palas tree (_Butea frondosa_), bread made from
rice-flour, and sesamum seeds. These offerings are presented by the
village priest, who prays that during the year about to begin they
and their children may be preserved from all misfortune and
sickness, and that they may have seasonable rain and good crops.
Prayer is also made in some places for the souls of the dead. At
this time an evil spirit is supposed to infest the place, and to get
rid of it men, women, and children go in procession round and
through every part of the village with sticks in their hands, as if
beating for game, singing a wild chant, and shouting vociferously,
till they feel assured that the evil spirit must have fled. Then
they give themselves up to feasting and drinking rice-beer, till
they are in a fit state for the wild debauch which follows. The
festival now "becomes a saturnale, during which servants forget
their duty to their masters, children their reverence for parents,
men their respect for women, and women all notions of modesty,
delicacy, and gentleness; they become raging bacchantes." Usually
the Hos are quiet and reserved in manner, decorous and gentle to
women. But during this festival "their natures appear to undergo a
temporary change. Sons and daughters revile their parents in gross
language, and parents their children; men and women become almost
like animals in the indulgence of their amorous propensities." The
Mundaris, kinsmen and neighbours of the Hos, keep the festival in
much the same manner. "The resemblance to a Saturnale is very
complete, as at this festival the farm labourers are feasted by
their masters, and allowed the utmost freedom of speech in
addressing them. It is the festival of the harvest home; the
termination of one year's toil, and a slight respite from it before
they commence again."
Amongst some of the Hindoo Koosh tribes, as among the Hos and
Mundaris, the expulsion of devils takes place after harvest. When
the last crop of autumn has been got in, it is thought necessary to
drive away evil spirits from the granaries. A kind of porridge is
eaten, and the head of the family takes his matchlock and fires it
into the floor. Then, going outside, he sets to work loading and
firing till his powder-horn is exhausted, while all his neighbours
are similarly employed. The next day is spent in rejoicings. In
Chitral this festival is called "devil-driving." On the other hand
the Khonds of India expel the devils at seed-time instead of at
harvest. At this time they worship Pitteri Pennu, the god of
increase and of gain in every shape. On the first day of the
festival a rude car is made of a basket set upon a few sticks, tied
upon the bamboo rollers for wheels. The priest takes this car first
to the house of the lineal head of the tribe, to whom precedence is
given in all ceremonies connected with agriculture. Here he receives
a little of each kind of seed and some feathers. He then takes the
car to all the other houses in the village, each of which
contributes the same things. Lastly, the car is conducted to a field
without the village, attended by all the young men, who beat each
other and strike the air violently with long sticks. The seed thus
carried out is called the share of the "evil spirits, spoilers of
the seed." "These are considered to be driven out with the car; and
when it and its contents are abandoned to them, they are held to
have no excuse for interfering with the rest of the seed-corn."
The people of Bali, an island to the east of Java, have periodical
expulsions of devils upon a great scale. Generally the time chosen
for the expulsion is the day of the "dark moon" in the ninth month.
When the demons have been long unmolested the country is said to be
"warm," and the priest issues orders to expel them by force, lest
the whole of Bali should be rendered uninhabitable. On the day
appointed the people of the village or district assemble at the
principal temple. Here at a cross-road offerings are set out for the
devils. After prayers have been recited by the priests, the blast of
a horn summons the devils to partake of the meal which has been
prepared for them. At the same time a number of men step forward and
light their torches at the holy lamp which burns before the chief
priest. Immediately afterwards, followed by the bystanders, they
spread in all directions and march through the streets and lanes
crying, "Depart! go away!" Wherever they pass, the people who have
stayed at home hasten, by a deafening clatter on doors, beams,
rice-blocks, and so forth, to take their share in the expulsion of
devils. Thus chased from the houses, the fiends flee to the banquet
which has been set out for them; but here the priest receives them
with curses which finally drive them from the district. When the
last devil has taken his departure, the uproar is succeeded by a
dead silence, which lasts during the next day also. The devils, it
is thought, are anxious to return to their old homes, and in order
to make them think that Bali is not Bali but some desert island, no
one may stir from his own abode for twenty-four hours. Even ordinary
household work, including cooking, is discontinued. Only the
watchmen may show themselves in the streets. Wreaths of thorns and
leaves are hung at all the entrances to warn strangers from
entering. Not till the third day is this state of siege raised, and
even then it is forbidden to work at the rice-fields or to buy and
sell in the market. Most people still stay at home, whiling away the
time with cards and dice.
In Tonquin a _theckydaw_ or general expulsion of maleyolent spirits
commonly took place once a year, especially if there was a great
mortality amongst men, the elephants or horses of the general's
stable, or the cattle of the country, "the cause of which they
attribute to the malicious spirits of such men as have been put to
death for treason, rebellion, and conspiring the death of the king,
general, or princes, and that in revenge of the punishment they have
suffered, they are bent to destroy everything and commit horrible
violence. To prevent which their superstition has suggested to them
the institution of this _theckydaw,_ as a proper means to drive the
devil away, and purge the country of evil spirits." The day
appointed for the ceremony was generally the twenty-fifth of
February, one month after the beginning of the new year, which fell
on the twenty-fifth of January. The intermediate month was a season
of feasting, merry-making of all kinds, and general licence. During
the whole month the great seal was kept shut up in a box, face
downwards, and the law was, as it were, laid asleep. All courts of
justice were closed; debtors could not be seized; small crimes, such
as petty larceny, fighting, and assault, escaped with impunity; only
treason and murder were taken account of and the malefactors
detained till the great seal should come into operation again. At
the close of the saturnalia the wicked spirits were driven away.
Great masses of troops and artillery having been drawn up with
flying colours and all the pomp of war, "the general beginneth then
to offer meat offerings to the criminal devils and malevolent
spirits (for it is usual and customary likewise amongst them to
feast the condemned before their execution), inviting them to eat
and drink, when presently he accuses them in a strange language, by
characters and figures, etc., of many offences and crimes committed
by them, as to their having disquieted the land, killed his
elephants and horses, etc., for all which they justly deserve to be
chastised and banished the country. Whereupon three great guns are
fired as the last signal; upon which all the artillery and musquets
are discharged, that, by their most terrible noise the devils may be
driven away; and they are so blind as to believe for certain, that
they really and effectually put them to flight."
In Cambodia the expulsion of evil spirits took place in March. Bits
of broken statues and stones, considered as the abode of the demons,
were collected and brought to the capital. Here as many elephants
were collected as could be got together. On the evening of the full
moon volleys of musketry were fired and the elephants charged
furiously to put the devils to flight. The ceremony was performed on
three successive days. In Siam the banishment of demons is annually
carried into effect on the last day of the old year. A signal gun is
fired from the palace; it is answered from the next station, and so
on from station to station, till the firing has reached the outer
gate of the city. Thus the demons are driven out step by step. As
soon as this is done a consecrated rope is fastened round the
circuit of the city walls to prevent the banished demons from
returning. The rope is made of tough couch-grass and is painted in
alternate stripes of red, yellow, and blue.
Annual expulsions of demons, witches, or evil influences appear to
have been common among the heathen of Europe, if we may judge from
the relics of such customs among their descendants at the present
day. Thus among the heathen Wotyaks, a Finnish people of Eastern
Russia, all the young girls of the village assemble on the last day
of the year or on New Year's Day, armed with sticks, the ends of
which are split in nine places. With these they beat every corner of
the house and yard, saying, "We are driving Satan out of the
village." Afterwards the sticks are thrown into the river below the
village, and as they float down stream Satan goes with them to the
next village, from which he must be driven out in turn. In some
villages the expulsion is managed otherwise. The unmarried men
receive from every house in the village groats, flesh, and brandy.
These they take to the fields, light a fire under a fir-tree, boil
the groats, and eat of the food they have brought with them, after
pronouncing the words, "Go away into the wilderness, come not into
the house." Then they return to the village and enter every house
where there are young women. They take hold of the young women and
throw them into the snow, saying, "May the spirits of disease leave
you." The remains of the groats and the other food are then
distributed among all the houses in proportion to the amount that
each contributed, and each family consumes its share. According to a
Wotyak of the Malmyz district the young men throw into the snow
whomever they find in the houses, and this is called "driving out
Satan"; moreover, some of the boiled groats are cast into the fire
with the words, "O god, afflict us not with sickness and pestilence,
give us not up as a prey to the spirits of the wood." But the most
antique form of the ceremony is that observed by the Wotyaks of the
Kasan Government. First of all a sacrifice is offered to the Devil
at noon. Then all the men assemble on horseback in the centre of the
village, and decide with which house they shall begin. When this
question, which often gives rise to hot disputes, is settled, they
tether their horses to the paling, and arm themselves with whips,
clubs of lime-wood and bundles of lighted twigs. The lighted twigs
are believed to have the greatest terrors for Satan. Thus armed,
they proceed with frightful cries to beat every corner of the house
and yard, then shut the door, and spit at the ejected fiend. So they
go from house to house, till the Devil has been driven from every
one. Then they mount their horses and ride out of the village,
yelling wildly and brandishing their clubs in every direction.
Outside of the village they fling away the clubs and spit once more
at the Devil. The Cheremiss, another Finnish people of Eastern
Russia, chase Satan from their dwellings by beating the walls with
cudgels of lime-wood. For the same purpose they fire guns, stab the
ground with knives, and insert burning chips of wood in the
crevices. Also they leap over bonfires, shaking out their garments
as they do so; and in some districts they blow on long trumpets of
lime-tree bark to frighten him away. When he has fled to the wood,
they pelt the trees with some of the cheese-cakes and eggs which
furnished the feast.
In Christian Europe the old heathen custom of expelling the powers
of evil at certain times of the year has survived to modern times.
Thus in some villages of Calabria the month of March is inaugurated
with the expulsion of the witches. It takes place at night to the
sound of the church bells, the people running about the streets and
crying, "March is come." They say that the witches roam about in
March, and the ceremony is repeated every Friday evening during the
month. Often, as might have been anticipated, the ancient pagan rite
has attached itself to church festivals. In Albania on Easter Eve
the young people light torches of resinous wood and march in
procession, swinging them, through the village. At last they throw
the torches into the river, crying, "Ha, Kore! we throw you into the
river, like these torches, that you may never return." Silesian
peasants believe that on Good Friday the witches go their rounds and
have great power for mischief. Hence about Oels, near Strehlitz, the
people on that day arm themselves with old brooms and drive the
witches from house and home, from farmyard and cattle-stall, making
a great uproar and clatter as they do so.
In Central Europe the favourite time for expelling the witches is,
or was, Walpurgis Night, the Eve of May Day, when the baleful powers
of these mischievous beings were supposed to be at their height. In
the Tyrol, for example, as in other places, the expulsion of the
powers of evil at this season goes by the name of "Burning out the
Witches." It takes place on May Day, but people have been busy with
their preparations for days before. On a Thursday at midnight
bundles are made up of resinous splinters, black and red spotted
hemlock, caperspurge, rosemary, and twigs of the sloe. These are
kept and burned on May Day by men who must first have received
plenary absolution from the Church. On the last three days of April
all the houses are cleansed and fumigated with juniper berries and
rue. On May Day, when the evening bell has rung and the twilight is
falling, the ceremony of "Burning out the Witches" begins. Men and
boys make a racket with whips, bells, pots, and pans; the women
carry censers; the dogs are unchained and run barking and yelping
about. As soon as the church bells begin to ring, the bundles of
twigs, fastened on poles, are set on fire and the incense is
ignited. Then all the house-bells and dinner-bells are rung, pots
and pans are clashed, dogs bark, every one must make a noise. And
amid this hubbub all scream at the pitch of their voices:
"_Witch flee, flee from here, or it will go ill with thee._"
Then they run seven times round the houses, the yards, and the
village. So the witches are smoked out of their lurking-places and
driven away. The custom of expelling the witches on Walpurgis Night
is still, or was down to recent years, observed in many parts of
Bavaria and among the Germans of Bohemia. Thus in the Bhmer-wald
Mountains all the young fellows of the village assemble after sunset
on some height, especially at a cross-road, and crack whips for a
while in unison with all their strength. This drives away the
witches; for so far as the sound of the whips is heard, these
maleficent beings can do no harm. In some places, while the young
men are cracking their whips, the herdsmen wind their horns, and the
long-drawn notes, heard far off in the silence of night, are very
effectual for banning the witches.
Another witching time is the period of twelve days between Christmas
and Epiphany. Hence in some parts of Silesia the people burn
pine-resin all night long between Christmas and the New Year in
order that the pungent smoke may drive witches and evil spirits far
away from house and homestead; and on Christmas Eve and New Year's
Eve they fire shots over fields and meadows, into shrubs and trees,
and wrap straw round the fruit-trees, to prevent the spirits from
doing them harm. On New Year's Eve, which is Saint Sylvester's Day,
Bohemian lads, armed with guns, form themselves into circles and
fire thrice into the air. This is called "Shooting the Witches" and
is supposed to frighten the witches away. The last of the mystic
twelve days is Epiphany or Twelfth Night, and it has been selected
as a proper season for the expulsion of the powers of evil in
various parts of Europe. Thus at Brunnen, on the Lake of Lucerne,
boys go about in procession on Twelfth Night carrying torches and
making a great noise with horns, bells, whips, and so forth to
frighten away two female spirits of the wood, Strudeli and
Strtteli. The people think that if they do not make enough noise,
there will be little fruit that year. Again, in Labruguire, a
canton of Southern France, on the eve of Twelfth Day the people run
through the streets, jangling bells, clattering kettles, and doing
everything to make a discordant noise. Then by the light of torches
and blazing faggots they set up a prodigious hue and cry, an
ear-splitting uproar, hoping thereby to chase all the wandering
ghosts and devils from the town.
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