The Sacred Dance

Chapter XI Dancing as a Mourning and Burial Rite

I

There is no instance to be found in the Old Testament of dancing being performed as a mourning or burial rite; that must be acknowledged; yet in spite of this there are strong reasons for believing that the custom did exist among the Israelites. The silence does not imply that the rite was not in vogue; there are, also, sufficient reasons to account for the absence of reference to it. In the first place, excepting incidentally we should not necessarily expect it to be mentioned at all; it was not a public rite; if it had been one might conceivably have looked for some reference to it in the records, supposing it to have been performed on some great or special occasion; but as a private rite there was no reason for its being recorded in Hebrew literature. Another reason for its not being mentioned is because its original significance and importance had, it may be confidently asserted, been forgotten; like some other mourning and burial customs it would have been kept up for no other reason than that it had been handed down from time immemorial; so that there was no point in speaking of it. Moreover, in the case of some other Israelite mourning customs there is only here and there incidental mention in the Old Testament, although some of them were certainly very often practised, e.g. flute-playing, laceration of the body (modified later by the rending of the garment), cutting off of the hair, baring the feet, covering the head, the funeral feast; it might easily have happened in the case of any one of these that the incidental mention had not occurred (as, indeed, is the case with flute-playing); but that silence would not have justified denial of its existence, provided always that there were reasons for believing that it was practised. Now, as we shall see, in the case of dancing as a mourning or burial rite there are reasons for believing that it was in vogue among the Israelites, and that therefore the silence of the Old Testament is not in itself sufficient reason for denying that it existed among them.

There is a further potent reason for this custom never being mentioned: its practice was incompatible with Jahwe-worship, because of its connexion with Ancestor-worship, and therefore the suppression (supposing it had been mentioned) of all reference to it would have been regarded as a sacred duty by the later redactors of the sacred text. As is well known, the Old Testament literature was subjected to such redactions in times when a full development in the direction of a more rigid insistence upon and a more emphatic declaration of monotheistic worship had taken place; under these circumstances it would have been the most natural thing in the world for any reference to this rite in the sacred literature to have been deleted. So that, on this ground, again, the silence in the Old Testament regarding this mourning rite is no reason for denying that it existed.

But there are, on the other hand, positive grounds for the belief that it was in existence among the Israelites:

If analogies count for anything (and in the case of ancient customs, and especially burial rites, they are of the greatest importance), then the fact that dancing as a mourning or burial rite either is, or has been, widespread among all kinds of peoples all over the world would suggest that the Israelites practised it too. There are a number of other mourning and burial rites common to the races of antiquity (including the Israelites) and to the uncultured races of the present day346; if dancing formed an exception to these, being practised by all excepting the Israelites, there would have to be some very special reason assigned for this; but it is evident that such reason is not forthcoming.

Another reason which suggests the probability of dancing as a mourning rite among the Israelites is that it was a natural concomitant to flute-playing, which, as we know from the New Testament, was a very usual mourning rite; the two belong together, and where the one was in vogue it is reasonable to suppose that the other was not wanting. This applies, of course, to early times; it is always possible that with the development of religious ideas an antique custom may be modified, or even fall into disuse; in the present case neither the dancing nor the flute-playing fell into disuse until well into the Christian era (indeed, the former is still performed), but a modification of the custom took place in so far that they were not necessarily performed at the same time.

Then we have this further reason: it will be seen, when we come to consider the objects of dancing as a mourning rite, that they involve beliefs which seem to be common to man during some stages in his cultural and religious development. It is difficult to suppose that what had been characteristic of man generally should not have been so in the case of the Israelites. We touch upon this point again later.

But, finally, the strongest reason for believing that this custom was in vogue among the ancient Israelites is that it exists at the present day. Such things as mourning and burial customs are never innovations; modifications may arise, as we have just said; a custom may fall into disuse and be discontinued altogether; but when a rite is practised at the present day, it is not a new thing, but has a long history behind it. Regarding the particular example to be given presently it is known to go back at any rate to the beginning of the Christian era; but it is safe to say that it must be vastly older than that in reality; for of all customs none are so tenacious as those which have to do with mourning and burial, for they touch men at a very sensitive spot. If at any time such a custom as we are thinking of is known to have existed, or to exist now, it may be taken for granted that, as a matter of fact, it goes back to very much earlier, indeed to prehistoric, times. That much may be safely gathered from what we know of the customs of savage man and the way in which so many of them are still existent in modified forms. So that since, at the least, something corresponding to the sacred dance as a mourning rite is still in vogue among some of the Jews, it is hardly too much to say that that ipso facto proves its existence among their Hebrew ancestors in days gone by.

One other consideration may be urged. It must be allowed that the number of words found in the Old Testament for dancing is significant. When we know that dancing on various religious occasions formed an important element, as shown in the preceding chapters, the presumption is strong that it occurred also during the very solemn period of mourning.

It may, then, be contended that the cumulative effect of these arguments justifies the belief that the sacred dance as a mourning or burial rite was well known to, and practised by, the ancient Israelites, and that the silence of the Old Testament upon the subject is no reason to doubt this.

II

Among the Jews (both Ashkenazic and Sephardic) the sacred dance as a burial rite is known to have been in existence during the Christian era. During the Talmudic period (i.e. A.D. 500 and following centuries) it was customary, and is still, on occasion, for a laudatory speech to be made in the case of men either at the burial or afterwards. Such speeches were accompanied by what must be regarded as the remnant of some form of dance; while they were being delivered the mourners kept up a monotonous, but rhythmical, stamping of the feet; this was not applause, being too regular and incessant; it must be regarded as a means of giving vent to the emotions, just as the dance in the ordinary sense was. Its origin may have been, judging from parallels among other peoples, a sacred dance in honour of the deceased, which in course of time took this stereotyped and mechanical form. The word used is raqaʿ which occurs also in the Old Testament for the stamping of feet (2 Sam. xxii. 43, Ezek. vi. 11), though in neither case is there the slightest suggestion of dancing; but, as we have said, it is only to be regarded as a remnant of the earlier custom, not in itself a dance. The fact that it was done collectively by the mourners is a point of significance, for from what we know of funeral dances among other peoples such collective action was usual. Not but that individuals expressed their emotions in their own way, too; for we read, for example, of mourners being often carried away by the intensity of their feelings and acting in an extravagant way, tearing off their sandals and beating themselves with them; women were known during a funeral procession to jump on to the coffin. Compared with such things a dance in honour of a respected relative deceased would be a decorous proceeding. And when we remember that dancing was performed as an act of honour to the deity, a similar means of showing respect to a greatly loved and honoured person at his funeral is not so out of the question as it might seem at first. Krauss says that at funerals, in all probability, both men and women performed dances fitting to the occasion; and they certainly gesticulated with hands and fingers. He gives a concrete instance of a woman dancing before the picture of her dead son; “a proceeding not unheard of during funeral processions347”; the word used is rāqad, on which see above, p. 46.

Again, the Sephardic Jews (i.e. Spanish and Portuguese) have retained some ancient elements in their worship and ritual which have disappeared among the Ashkenazim, who include the bulk of the Jews. A notable instance of this is the procession round the corpse at burials. Circumambulation, a processional march round an object, cannot in its origin be distinguished from the encircling dance, for in many cases the purpose of the rite is the same. Nor can it be doubted that all such circumambulations are modifications of earlier forms, in which the less restrained emotions of men in an earlier and lower stage of civilization required the more exuberant outlet afforded by a dance-step of the more literal kind. It is said that “dancing and procession are sometimes confused terminologically, a result partly due to the existence of processional dances, or the enlivening of a procession by the dance348”; but whatever may be the case terminologically, there can be no confusion between the two essentially, for they present two modes of emotional expression, comparable with the ordinary religious dance and the ecstatic dance. Therefore there is justification for regarding the Sephardic processions round the corpse at funerals as the modification or remnant of a ceremony which was originally performed in a less controlled manner. The original meaning of the rite has of course been forgotten long since; but, as so often happens, the rite itself, or some modification of it, is still kept up.

It is the custom at the burial of Sephardic Jews for the mourners to make seven circuits round the bier during which seven short supplications are chanted or monotoned, each supplication concluding with the words: “And continually may he walk in the land of life, and may his soul rest in the bond of life349.” It is interesting to note that this Sephardic rite can be paralleled by something similar among other peoples. Its purpose will be considered later.

The custom seems to have been well-known as early as the time of Homer; in the Iliad (XXIII. 13) the circumambulation round the corpse of Patroclus is described. Again, we read that five hundred disciples went in procession round the funeral pyre of Buddha, in consequence of which the pyre kindled spontaneously350. D’Alviella refers to the Latin poet Statius’s description of the funeral rites celebrated in honour of the son of Lycurgus; among these was included a threefold procession round the funeral pyre351.

When the Argonauts in the poem of Apollonius Rhodius buried their dead comrade Mopsus, they marched round him thrice in their warrior-gear. So among the populations of India which practise cremation, the son or other relative who lights the pyre walks thrice round it. The custom of walking round the corpse, or the grave, after burial, is recorded of peoples as far apart in space and culture as the Central Eskimo, the Russian Tapps, the Buriats, the Shans, and the Arāwaks of British Guiana352.

At Chinese burials, after the body has been placed in the tomb, the mourners join hands and perform a sort of merry-go-round about the tomb; they repeat this three days later353. The Irish, even at the present day, when burying their dead, move in procession, sometimes three times, but at least once, round the grave-yard, accompanying the coffin354. This must, in all probability, be a modification of an earlier form of the rite in which the mourners went round the coffin itself; unless this be regarded as a continuation of the funeral procession itself; but, generally speaking, the particular custom of which we are thinking is quite distinct from the funeral procession.

From these instances of a modification of the sacred dance as a mourning rite we turn now to some in which the dancing is performed in the more literal sense.

III

Among the Arabs at the present day, and doubtless the rite in one form or another goes back to times of antiquity, the women and the young girls, when on their way to the place of mourning, make two circles by holding hands and dance what is called the Raḳṣa dance; while dancing they sing:

The Almighty, the Almighty, gives and takes;
The path to the place of mourning I desire not for myself...355.

Although other instances among the Arabs exist, they are not numerous. But as to other Semitic peoples we have been unable to discover examples.

On the other hand, there is a considerable amount of evidence regarding its existence among the Egyptians, both ancient and modern. In respect of the former this occurs mainly on inscriptions, so that it is graphic as well as informing. On one of these there is a representation of the ceremony of mourning in the chamber of the dead; harp-players, singers, and dancers appear as taking part in the ceremonies356.

“The sculptures and paintings of the xviii-xx dynasties,” says Flinders Petrie357, “show many scenes of funeral dances; usually one woman held a tambourine aloft and beat out a rhythm on it, while others danced round. Exactly this dance may be seen now when parties of women go up to the cemeteries a fortnight or a month after a funeral; an old negress is often the drummer, and the party stop every few hundred yards along the road for a dance.”

At the “Feast of Eternity” dancing always took place in honour of the dead; dancing men headed the procession in which the statue of the departed was borne. The step was rhythmic and slow, the arms being raised over the head during the dancing and the inside of the hands being turned upwards. Another position was that of stretching the right arm slantingwise upwards while the left arm was placed on the back. Behind the men three or four women follow, singing358.

In an inscription on a tomb at Benihassan there is a representation of dances at the funeral festival of the monarch Chnomhôtep, of the period of the twelfth dynasty; the dancing is performed by women very slightly clad. Funeral processions were always accompanied by women dancing and singing359. In a grave near the royal tombs of Abydos, belonging to the first dynasty (before 5000 B.C.) Flinders Petrie found a curved wand, ending in a ram’s horn, used for beating time in dancing360. There can be little doubt that this was used during the performance of the funeral dance.

As already pointed out, this rite is still to be seen among the modern Egyptians. Lane gives the following interesting description of it:

It is customary among the peasants of Upper Egypt for the female relations and friends of a person deceased to meet together by his house on each of the first three days after the funeral, and there to perform a lamentation and a strange kind of dance. They daub their faces and bosoms, and part of their dress, with mud; and tie a rope-girdle, generally made of the coarse grass called “halfa,” round the waist361. Each flourishes in her hand a palm-stick, or a nebboot (a long staff), or a spear, or a drawn sword, and dances with a slow movement, and in an irregular manner, generally pacing about, and raising and depressing the body. This dance is continued for an hour or more, and is performed twice or three times in the course of the day. After the third day the women visit the tomb, and place upon it their rope-girdles; and usually a lamb, or a goat, is slain there, as an expiatory sacrifice, and a feast is made on this occasion362.

Whether the performers of this dance know the purpose and meaning of it or not now is not stated; but there can be little doubt, knowing what we do of the object of similar dances on similar occasions among other peoples, that it had originally a twofold purpose, though these have now been amalgamated in one rite. In the first place, it was performed as an act of honour to the departed; this would have been more appropriately done on the occasion of offering the sacrifice at the tomb; probably at one time this was the procedure. But it had the further object of combating the evil spirits which were usually supposed to gather in the vicinity of a corpse, hence the palm-stick, etc.; this would be done on behalf of the spirit of the departed as well as of the mourners; the daubing of mud on faces and bosoms was by way of protection against the evil spirits, for it acted as a disguise. There are cases on record in which it is the angry spirit of the deceased himself who is feared and against whom protective measures are taken; but in the example before us the fact that a lamentation is made rather points to the spirit of the deceased not being feared.

This custom among the modern Moslems of Egypt may be supplemented by one or two examples of something similar among some heathen inhabitants of another part of Egypt. In writing about the Lattuka tribe of negroes in the Egyptian Soudan Frobenius says that dances are performed in honour of the dead, and he gives Baker’s description of this mourning rite. The dancers are decorated in the most extraordinary manner, doubtless as a special mark of respect for the departed. About a dozen enormous ostrich feathers were stuck into the head-dress of each dancer; hanging down from the shoulder was either the skin of a leopard, or of a monkey; around the loins of every dancer was a broad piece of leather which concealed a large bell attached to the waist; these bells sounded during the dancing. Further, each dancer had the horn of an antelope hanging down from his neck, and whenever a high pitch of excitement was reached these horns were blown, whereby a sound was produced which might be described as a combination of the “hee-haw” of a donkey and the hooting of an owl. This was diversified every now and then by a circle-dance in which the women joined in with the men; this part of the performance was done by the whole company following a leader; it is described as a “Hell-gallop.” The women, who otherwise danced separated from the men, were led by one of their number who was exceedingly fat; but in spite of this physical handicap the brave old lady persevered in the dance right to the end. Children also took part in the rite363.

The same custom, though differently carried out, is in vogue among the Makarakâ tribe who also belong to the Egyptian Soudan. Ceremonial dances are performed round their slain enemies by the Dinka tribe, inhabiting the same country.

In the case of the Lattuka tribe it is clear that the rite had again a dual purpose; they dressed themselves and danced in honour of the deceased, while the bell-ringing and horn-blowing would have effectively scared away the evil spirits; the more excited part of the dance may also well have been a means of frightening away unwelcome visitors from the spirit-world.

The dance of the Dinkas round their slain enemies may have one of two objects. Such dances are undoubtedly at times intended to be a coaxing of the slain not to be angry at having been killed; the dance is meant to soothe them because it is done in their honour, and therefore their spirits, it is thought, will not harm the slayers. On the other hand, an encircling dance of this kind round enemies may have the purpose of preventing the spirits of the slain from getting abroad; the magic circle keeps them in, and thus harm is averted.

IV

The religious dance among the Greeks and Romans played, as we have seen, a very important part. We should, therefore, naturally expect to find it figuring also among customs connected with mourning and burial. And there is clear evidence that this was the case364. Among them dancing as a mourning or burial rite was included in funeral processions and funeral games365. All three, dancing, processions, and games, belong together. But it was during the funeral feast, which formed the conclusion to the mourning ceremonies, that the dance figured most prominently. Illustrations of this dance as a mourning rite are given in Daremberg and Saglio, II. 848, 1385, who write thus:

Ces repas funèbres étaient accompagnés de danse. Il semble même que ces danses étaient quelquefois exécutées à part, avec plus de solennité et par un personnel plus nombreux. Dans la Grotta del Trichinio à Corneto elles se déroulent sur deux parois entières de la tombe; la scène se passe en plein air, sous les arbres où voltigent des oiseaux; dix danseurs s’y démènent en cadence; les hommes alternant aves les femmes, quelques-uns jouant de la lyre, de la flûte, ou des castagnettes. Parfois même ces danses donnaient bien à des concours; sur un bas-relief de Chiusi on voit, à droite, un groupe de pyrrhichistes et un musicien jouant de la double flûte; à gauche les juges sur une estrade366.

The ancient Roman funeral procession was accompanied by musicians, singers, dancers and pantomimists367.

Among funeral processions that of the ancient Roman nobiles is remarkable. The dead man was accompanied by all his ancestors, represented by persons resembling them in form and stature and wearing wax portrait masks (imagines)368.

These imagines maiorum stood in the alae of the atrium of the houses of Roman nobles; they were brought out and carried in the funeral procession. The origin of this strange custom has been explained by O. Benndorf. Just as, according to antique belief, the dead lived on in the grave, which was, therefore, made into a kind of dwelling-place for them, so, it was believed, that by producing the likenesses of those who inhabited this dwelling-place, it was possible to keep in touch with their personalities369. Hence the setting-up of the imagines in the atrium. When they were brought out to accompany the recently departed in the funeral procession, it meant that his ancestors were actually following his body. The descriptions which have come down to us are in reference to public funerals, or those of the wealthier classes who could afford to pay for sumptuous burials of an ostentatious character; but there is reason to believe that among the less well-to-do the same rites, though on a far more modest scale, were observed; for it has been rightly remarked that

all periods of the history of Roman burial are unified by the belief in the continued existence of the dead, and in his ghostly participation in the life of the family and the community, and by the consequent scrupulous care about proper burial, and the maintenance of right relations with the spirits of dead ancestors. The quick and the dead of ancient Rome were in a more than usually intimate communion370.

The sacred dance, as a mark of honour to the deceased, is therefore not likely to have been neglected among the poor any more than among the rich.

V

We come now to consider some examples of dancing as a mourning or burial rite among some of the savage and semi-civilized peoples. What will strike us here as strange are the contradictory ideas regarding the purpose of the rite; but it is just these opposing ideas that will be found to be so instructive. Various customs in existence at the present day among civilized peoples are explained in the light of the ideas and practices now to be considered.

There is no doubt that the object of this rite among uncivilized races which is most common now is the honouring of the departed; but it is probably true to say that this represents the latest development regarding its purpose, and that the other reasons for which it was performed take us back to earlier stages of the growth of savage thought regarding the departed.

We will begin by offering examples of this most developed idea and purpose of the rite.

In writing of the Kol tribes of Chota Nagpur who are remarkable for their pathetic reverence for their dead, Tylor says:

When a Ho or Munda has been burned on the funeral pile, collected morsels of his bones are carried in procession with a solemn, ghostly, sliding step, keeping time to the deep-sounding drum, and when the old woman who carries the bones in her bamboo tray lowers it from time to time, then girls who carry pitchers and brass vessels mournfully reverse them to show that they are empty; thus the remains are taken to visit every house in the village, and every dwelling of a friend or a relative for miles, and the inmates come out to mourn and praise the goodness of the departed. The bones are carried to all the dead man’s favourite haunts, to the fields he cultivated, to the grove he planted, to the threshing-floor where he worked, to the village dance-room where he made merry. At last they are taken to the grave, and buried in an earthen vase upon a store of food...371.

It is clear that the departed spirit is believed in some way to remain in the vicinity of the bones, or possibly to be inside them; and this reminds one of the quaint belief of life residing in the bones which occurs in the Old Testament372. In the case before us honour, affection, and solicitude are shown, and felt, for the departed: honour, in being borne in procession, which is performed rhythmically with a particular kind of step so that it must be regarded as coming under the category of the sacred dance; affection, because of the kind thought in taking him to the spots he loved; and solicitude, in that he is supplied with food. It is with the first of these that we are particularly concerned just now; and here is another illustration of it, also in India, but this time among the Musulmans; it is not strictly speaking a mourning rite, but it is an honorific ceremony for the departed and may therefore be appropriately given. During the Muharram373 Festival in India one of the ceremonies is the parading of the standard of the martyr Qāsim. He is one of the sacred bridegrooms, for at the age of ten he was betrothed to Fātima, daughter of Husain, and was slain in battle. His standard is carried by a man on horseback, who is followed by girls dancing in his honour, and singing elegies while beating their breasts. During another part of this festival there is the dance of Bharang, or “foolish chatterer”; his whole body is smeared with red ochre mixed with water; his head is covered with a shawl, and a small flag is attached to it. On his legs he carries tinkling bells, and during his dance he cries out: “Ali, ali, ali, zang374!” This is all done in honour of the departed saint. It is not a hazardous surmise to suggest that we have here an example of an adaptation of a rite millenniums older than its present form; and its oldest element is, in all probability, the sacred dance. The Bharang, with bells, paint, and disguise represents a development to which reference will be made again below.

Dances in honour of the departed are recorded of the Conibos of the Ucayali river in Eastern Peru who, on certain occasions, perform them on the graves of the deceased375; also among the Maoris376. The inhabitants of Dutch New Guinea dance round the images of their departed on various festal occasions. Again, at the funeral feast among the Gilbert islanders dancing and singing is performed in honour of the dead; wailing is also included in these mourning rites377. It is also an important mourning rite among the Melanesians378. Similarly among the inhabitants of British New Guinea a high festival is held in honour of the departed at which a great dance takes place;

all the dancers are arranged in full dancing costume, including heavy head-dresses of feathers, and they carry drums and spears, sometimes also clubs and adzes. The dance lasts the whole night379.

In New Britain, too, the Sulka, a tribe dwelling to the south of the Gazelle Peninsula, dance in honour of their dead at a funeral feast380. An interesting account, together with an illustration, of the Maquarri dance among the Arāwaks, one of the Indian tribes of Guiana, is given by W. H. Brett381; this is danced in honour of the departed. It is called the Maquarri dance from the “whip,” more than three feet long, which is waved about during the dance by each dancer; with it the dancers lash each other’s legs until the blood flows; the whips have a sort of sacred character among the natives. It is the flowing of the blood which is now supposed to be pleasing to the dead; but it is pretty certain that this is a development; at one time the dance would have been considered as all-sufficient. Once more, among the North American Indians the funeral dance is performed at the grave when a sacrifice is made for the dead; the dancing is done round the grave and is accompanied by drum-playing and singing382. A similar rite is practised by the Bondas of Guinea383, and among the aborigines of Northern Australia384.

A case of particular interest is that of the dance of the Tami inhabitants; for while this is in honour of the dead, a further idea regarding the departed appears in connexion with it which leads on to another purpose of this mourning rite. The people of Tami, an island in the Indian archipelago, belong to the Melanesian stock; when they mourn for their dead the whole village takes part in the lamentation; the women dance death-dances in honour of the dead person while the men make preparations for the burial. Now these people, like many others, believe that when anyone has died the ghosts of his dead kinsfolk gather in the village, and are joined by the ghosts of other dead people; these ghosts may or may not be friendly inclined towards the living; but in case they are not, the people of the village take care not to leave the dancing mourners alone, they remain close at hand to help in case of need. This belief in the vicinity of the ghosts of the dead is further illustrated by these Tami islanders, for they have regular dancing seasons during which they dance round men disguised as familiar spirits; true, the dance “consists of little more than running round and round in a circle, with an occasional hop385,” but it is essentially a dance, and its essence is more important than its form. This is a case of personating the departed in the dance; and the idea seems to be that by doing so a proof is given that the departed are really still living and that their personality is imparted, for the time being, to the dancers. Something quite similar is found among the Pulu islanders, in the Torres Straits; the performers dance in pairs, personating the deceased, for this ceremony is sometimes performed for a number of recently deceased people at once; according to Haddon

the idea evidently was to convey to the mourners the assurance that the ghost was alive, and that in the person of the dancer he visited his friends; the assurance of his life after death comforted the bereaved ones386.

If it be asked why this personating of the deceased should be accompanied by dancing, the answer probably is that as dancing was the most usual way of honouring the departed, it would be thought of as the most efficacious means of attracting them. The Sioux, another North American Indian tribe, also performed dances at graves as a mourning rite, for they believed that in doing so they were, in some undefined way, joined by the departed in this dance387. It is very likely that the common custom of dances at funeral feasts originally had a similar object. Among the Esquimaux, for example, there are always dances at the funeral feasts, the dead are invited in song to come to the feast; offerings of food are made to them, and they feast and dance together with the living. At their great festival of the dead, which is held every few years, the dances are an important feature. The dancers dance on the graves, and on the ice if the deceased met their death by drowning388. Here we seem to have the purposes separately; the dancing at the funeral feasts is a joining together with the departed, the dancing on the graves is in their honour.

A very different purpose of the dance as a mourning rite next claims attention. That it sometimes has the object of appeasing the wrath of the departed, i.e. of their ghosts, is shown, for instance, by the fact that when among the inhabitants of Timor, an island in the East Indies, a head-hunter returns home after a successful expedition, sacrifices are offered to the man who has lost his head; and part of the ceremony consists of a dance accompanied by a song in which the death of the slain man is lamented and his forgiveness is entreated.

“Be not angry,” they say, “because your head is here with us; had we been less lucky our heads might now have been exposed in your village. We have offered the sacrifice to appease you. Your spirit may now rest and leave us at peace389.”

But even among friends there are cases in which the ghost of the deceased is annoyed and has to be kept in the grave so that the surviving relatives may not be molested by it; and the dance figures as part of the ceremony. Thus, among the Arunta of Central Australia as a finale to the mourning period the people gather on the spot where the deceased died, viz. the site where he once lived and which is now burnt and deserted. Here the men and women dance round the charred remains, the men beating the air with their spears, the women doing likewise with the palms of their hands and all shouting Wah! Wah! Wah! wa-a-ah! This, we take it, is done to drive off both the ghost of the deceased and any evil spirits which may be lurking about the unhallowed spot. When the dancing, the description continues,

which lasted about ten minutes, was over, the party proceeded to the grave at a run, the leader making a circuit from the main party, shouting wildly with a very prolonged intonation, Ba-au! Ba-au! The idea of the leading man making a circuit was, perhaps, though the natives could give no explanation, to prevent the spirit from doubling back to the camp from which they were supposed to be driving him.

When he reached the grave, into which the spirit of the dead man was supposed to have fled, he began dancing wildly upon it. He was soon joined by the rest of the party who began

to dance backwards and forwards on and around the grave, shouting Wah! Wah! and beating the air downwards as if to drive the spirit down, while with their feet they stamped upon and broke the twigs with which a newly made grave is always covered. When these were thoroughly broken up the dancing ceased390.

It must be confessed that the dancing here seems quite out of place, and yet there can be no doubt that it forms an integral part of the ceremonies. There seems to be something so entirely incongruous in scaring the ghost away by shouting at it and beating him down into his grave, and yet dancing on and around the grave which is so very frequently a mark of honour to the dead. The explanation is probably to be sought in the fact of the retention of a traditional custom concurrently with a later one which arose in consequence of the birth of new ideas regarding the activity of the spirits of the departed. We get a similar intermingling of rites among the Tarahumares of Mexico whose funeral ceremonies include the dance, though the object of the dance, in what is presumably a new form as compared with the original and traditional one, is the driving away of the ghost of the deceased. They have three funeral feasts; the first takes place a fortnight after the death, the second six months, and the last some months after that. At each of these feasts an important element is the ceremony of the hikuli dance. The hikuli is the sacred cactus, which is soaked in water and this is sprinkled over the dancers. The hikuli is supposed to drive away the ghost of the departed391. Here again the original custom of the dance performed in honour of the departed is retained, and there is added to it a further rite because in course of time new beliefs regarding the activity of the spirits of the departed had arisen; these beliefs were in reference to the possibility of anger on the part of the spirits because of their being cut off from their usual mode of life and taken away from their familiar haunts; they might be envious of those who were left, and might show their envy by harming the living. It became necessary, therefore, to devise means to counter these evil intentions by driving away the ghost of the departed. What these means were we know in many cases, but why particular means were chosen, such as the hikuli, or why they should be supposed to drive the spirit away is a matter of savage philosophy, and not always possible to penetrate. It must be evident, however, that the idea of driving away a ghost, together with the rite whereby this is effected, is subsequent in time to the simple rite of dancing in honour of the departed, because while this latter does not involve any theory as to the activity of spirits, the former obviously points to speculations on the subject. And as we have already said, the explanation of the incongruity of the two rites, as seen in the examples given, is to be sought in the retention of the earlier traditional rite concurrently with a later one which arose in consequence of the birth of new ideas regarding the activity of the spirits of the departed.

It is probable that a further step in the development of ideas regarding this activity is to be discerned in the belief that the spirit of the departed is joined by others who share with him his resentment against the living; and for safety the mourners disguise themselves, and, possibly, the dance then assumes a different purpose, namely, that of frightening the spirits away. This is said to be the purpose with which some of the tribes of Northern India dance at burials392; and the dance of the Bharang, disguised, to which reference was made above, points, perhaps, to the same thing; so also the custom of the inhabitants of the Aaru archipelago. Among them, when a member of the family dies, all the women leave the house with their hair hanging loose, to wail upon the shore; they tumble over one another head over heels in a strange kind of dance, and smear their bodies with dirt and mud393.

Summary and Considerations

Although in the Old Testament there is no mention of dancing as a mourning or burial rite, there are strong grounds for believing that it was practised. No customs are more tenacious than those which are concerned with the dead, and since some other mourning customs, known to have been in existence among the Hebrews, are not referred to in the Old Testament, the non-mention of this one is no reason for supposing that it was not practised. That the religious leaders looked upon this, as well as various other rites performed in connexion with the dead, as heathenish and superstitious, would of itself account for the silence of the Old Testament on the subject. The positive grounds for believing in its existence among the Israelites are: its very widespread vogue among different races all over the world; the object, or objects, for which it was performed, which involved beliefs regarding the departed common to all races during some stages of their cultural and religious development; and most important of all, its existence, though in a modified form, at the present day. Evidence is forthcoming of the rite among the Jews in post-Christian times.

Circumambulation round a corpse, which is in the nature of the sacred dance, was known and practised among the Greeks as early as the time of Homer, who mentions it; other examples are also recorded.

The rite is in vogue among the Arabs to this day who dance in circles on their way to the place of mourning; it is performed by women and young girls.

Much evidence is forthcoming as to its practice among the Egyptians, both ancient and modern, of which various examples are given above.

Among the Greeks and Romans dancing as a mourning or burial rite was included in funeral processions and funeral games; one of the most curious customs being that of the presence of the imagines maiorum, or images of ancestors, in the Roman funeral processions of the nobility, who were thus believed to follow the dead body of their descendant to the grave. That a meeting between the recently deceased and his ancestors was believed to take place in the tomb we may well conceive; it would be precisely parallel to the Israelite belief expressed by the phrase of being gathered to one’s fathers394. It was, however, during the funeral feast that dancing, in the more literal sense of the word, figured most prominently.

The sacred dance as a mourning or as a burial rite among uncivilized peoples plays an important part. Among them the objects of the rite are not only various, but contradictory; chief among these is, however, that of giving honour to the departed. A few examples, of very many, have been considered. They are taken from peoples in lands as widely spread as India, North America, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Guiana, the Indian archipelago, and the Torres Straits; and it would be easy to offer further instances from many other countries.

Taking these as a whole, they point indubitably to the fact that this rite was, and is, usually performed as an act of honour to the deceased. This represents, we believe, its final development, so far as intention is concerned; there are cases of its continuance in which probably no purpose could be assigned for its performance other than that of traditional use. From this point of view we shall not be far wrong in regarding the rite as a remnant of ancestor-worship; the Roman custom of carrying the imagines maiorum in the funeral procession is clear evidence of this. The other purposes for which it was performed betray a far less developed outlook; and the fact that they exist side by side with that of the more rational object of honouring the dead offers but another illustration of a world-wide phenomenon, to be observed even among the most civilized peoples, viz. that more or less primitive ideas can be held on some things in conjunction with advanced thought on others.

By personating the deceased in the mourning dance it is believed by some that he can be induced to return to his friends and dance with them, greatly to the comfort of the relatives. The idea is about on a level with the Roman belief in the presence of a man’s ancestors, when their images are carried in the funeral procession. But the same rite can, among others, have the purpose of protecting the survivors from the spirit of the deceased; he is sometimes supposed to be annoyed at having been forcibly taken away from his familiar haunts, and lest he should vent his angry feelings on his relatives, they either dance to scare him away, or else propitiate him by various means. Another purpose of the rite is for the survivors to protect both themselves and their departed friend from the malice of other departed spirits who are believed to congregate in the vicinity of a corpse; in this case the dance is accompanied by sundry noises.

A variation of this is the dance round the corpse, whether by way of perambulation or dancing in the more literal sense. The magic circle thus formed keeps away unwelcome spirit-visitors. But this may have another purpose; it may possibly be a means of “keeping in” the spirit of the deceased, and thus preventing him from getting abroad and doing mischief. When the dance is performed round slain enemies the object of it seems to be that of propitiation.

If it be asked which of these purposes may be supposed to have been that for which the Israelites performed this rite, we imagine the reply would be: any or all of them, according to the stage of culture in which they found themselves. Two of them: that of honouring the dead, and that of forming the magic circle round the corpse (probably for keeping it safe), can be vouched for.

Footnotes

1 Pioneering in New Guinea, pp. 181 f. (1887); see further, J. E. Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual, pp. 31 ff. (1913).

2 The Evolution of Religion, p. 9 (1905); cp. the same author’s Greece and Babylon, p. 37 (1911).

3 See Marett, The Threshold of Religion, pp. 128 ff. (1909).

4 Mrs Lilly Grove (now Lady Frazer) and other writers, Dancing, p. 8 (1895); elsewhere in the same volume the writers say: “There must have been a period of the world’s history when every action in life, every game, every banquet, every dance, was a game, a repast, a dance, in honour of the gods,” p. 15. The evidence entirely bears this out if we take “gods” as meaning supernatural powers in general.

5 La danse ancienne et moderne, ou Traité Historique de la Danse, p. 19 (1754). For a different opinion see Irving King, The Development of Religion, p. 58 (1910).

6 Der Tanz und seine Geschichte, pp. 3-15 (1869).

7 He says: “Les différentes affections de l’âme sont donc l’origine des gestes, et la danse qui en est composée, est par conséquent l’art de les faire avec grâce et mesure relativement aux affections qu’ils doivent exprimer,” op. cit. p. 17.

8 ERE, X. 358 a.

9 Traité de la Danse, p. 8 (1891). Jevons (in a private communication) lays much stress on the sacred dance being, like every rite, “an expression of will.”

10 See Dalman, Palestinischer Diwan, p. 254 (1901); cp. Harrison, op. cit. p. 31.

11 Crawley, ERE, X. 358 a.

12 Ibid. See further Toy, Intr. to the Hist. of Religions, p. 50 (1913).

13 Dalman, op. cit. pp. 254 f.

14 ERE, X. 358 a.

15 Numbered 37984.

16 In the British Museum, e.g. see the specimens numbered B 36, B 167, B 625, B 643, E 20, E 35, E 137.

17 Lilly Grove, op. cit. p. 41.

18 ERE, X. 362 b.

19 In ERE, X. 358 a; cp. Harrison, op. cit. p. 44; Leuba, A Psychological Study of Religion, pp. 62 f. (1912).

20 Prof. J. Y. Simpson, Man and the Attainment of Immortality, p. 115 (1922).

21 Lectures on the origin and growth of Religion, as illustrated by the native religions of Mexico and Peru, p. 224 (1895).

22 Marett, op. cit. p. 127.

23 Vormann, “Tänze und Tanzfestlichkeiten der Monumbo-Papua,” in Anthropos, VI. 415 ff. (1911).

24 Frazer, GB, Balder the Beautiful, II. 274 (1913).

25 GB, The Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, II. 190 f., 195 (1912).

26 See, e.g., Toy, op. cit. p. 491.

27 Stow, The Native Races of South Africa, pp. 111 f.

28 Maori and Polynesian, their origin, history, and culture, p. 203 (1907).

29 Cp. de Cahusac, op. cit. p. 38.

30 Frazer, GB, The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, I. 54 (1911).

31 Millar in Hastings’ DB, I. 550 b.

32 The Classical Quarterly, October 1907, pp. 202 f.

33 Op. cit. p. 66, the expression is Hartland’s.

34 In the Targum of Isa. lxvi. 20, however, we have the noun kirkerān (fem. plur.) meaning “dances.”

35 In Neo-Hebrew the word means “to dance.”

36 In the Midrash Bemidbar Rabba to xx. 11 it is said: “When a man plans a sin Satan dances before him....”

37 The underlying idea regarding the threshold has continued through the ages in many localities, witches having taken the place frequently of evil spirits. Walpurgis Night (the eve of May Day) is the special time for their activity, and leaping over the threshold is then a necessary precaution.

38 Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 1887, p. 719.

39 Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel, p. 173 (1890).

40 In “Handkommentar zum A.T.,” Die Bücher Samuelis, p. 143 (1902).

41 Reste Arabischen Heidenthums, pp. 109 f. (1897).

42 Hebräisches und Aramäisches Wörterbuch, p. 98 (1910).

43 Encycl. Biblica, I. 999.

44 Beiträge..., p. 92.

45 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek des A.T., p. 610 (3rd ed.).

46 “He will protect and deliver it, he will pass over and preserve it.”

47 Encycl. Britannica, XVIII. 343 b (9th ed.).

48 But see Mic. iv. 6 f., Zeph. iii. 19, Jer. xx. 10, Ps. xxxv. 15, xxxviii. 18, Job xviii. 12, from which a clear meaning of the root is gained.

49 Cp. Nowack, Hebräische Archäologie, I. 273 (1894), where an illustration of the Egyptian instrument is given.

50 J. M. Brown, Maori and Polynesian, their origin, history and culture, p. 202 (1907).

51 See the present writer’s The Psalms in the Jewish Church, pp. 5 ff. (1910).

52 The text is clearly corrupt, but the above seems to be the best reconstruction; see Nowack, Die Bücher Samuelis, p. 172 (1902); the Septuagint reads lit. “with strength” (cp. 1 Chron. xiii. 8).

53 See Renan, Mission de Phénice, pp. 355 f. (1864); Clermont-Ganneau, Rec. d’Arch. Or. I. 95, 103 (1896).

54 De la Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, I. 372, 380 (3rd ed.).

55 Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 95 (1894); Lagrange, Études sur les religions Sémitiques, p. 84 (1903).

56 Die Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen, XV. 729 (1850).

57 Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, XXII. 105 ff. (1868); on this see further below, p. 179.

58 See M. Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, I. 503 (1905).

59 Das alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, p. 307 (1904); see also Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das alte Testament, pp. 45 ff. (1883).

60 Kypros, die Bibel, und Homer, I. 445, and the above numbered inscriptions in vol. II. (1893).

61 A full illustration is given in Hommel’s Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens, between pp. 270-271 (1888). A good description will also be found in Messerschmidt’s “Die Hettiter,” in Der alte Orient, IV. 23 f.; Garstang, The Land of the Hittites, pp. 220 ff. (1910).

62 Op. cit. I. 446; the inscription is numbered cxxvii. 1, in vol. II.

63 A. M. Blackman, in Hastings’ ERE, X. 294 b; see also the same writer’s The Rock Tombs of Meir, I. 22 ff., plate II (1914-15).

64 Erman, Aegypten and aegyptisches Leben im Alterthum, I. 335 f. (1885).

65 Wiedemann, Die Religion der alten Ägypter, p. 87 (1890).

66 ERE, XII. 780 a, 781 b; see also the same writer in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, VII. 22.

67 The Golden Ass, XI. 8-17 (the date of Apuleius is the second half of the second century A.D.); see also Herodotus, II. 61 ff.

68 II. 58-60.

69 Der Opfertanz des ägyptischen Königs, pp. 105 ff. (1912); that the running step was really a ritual dance is shown on pp. 109-119.

70 Erman, op. cit. I. 299-337; and see further generally, Champollion, Monuments de l’Égypte (1844); Lepsius, Denkmäler... (1897...); cp. Reinach, Orpheus, p. 42 (1909). As to the sacred dancing among the Therapeutae, of later times, see Philo, De Vita Contemplativa, pp. 127-129 in F. C. Conybeare’s edition (1895).

71 Its home was Sparta; it was introduced into Athens in the sixth century B.C. in the time of Pisistratus; ultimately it became a mere war game.

72 See A. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen, pp. 98 ff. (1898), where details will be found; an interesting account of the great procession is given on pp. 131 ff.; see also the same author’s Heortologie, pp. 116-205 (1864).

73 Cp. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, I. 165, 167, II. 1198 f., etc. (1906).

74 Hesiod, Theog. 259; Thucydides, IV. 3; Livy, XXVI. 9; Virgil, Aeneid VIII. 285; Plutarch, Thes. 21 (EB, I. 998); and see especially Emmanuel, La Danse Grecque antique, pp. 285 ff. (1896).

75 On the whole subject of the worship of Dionysos see Foucart, Le culte de Dionysos en Attique (1906). For the dances in connexion with his worship see below, pp. 121 ff.

76 Quoted by Andrew Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion, I. 272 (1901). See also de la Saussaye, op. cit. II. 246.

77 The Cults of the Greek States, II. 472 (1909).

78 See the first line in the quotation from the Iliad on p. 70.

79 These details are from Sittl, Archäologie der Kunst, pp. 378 f. (1895), where much further information will be found.

80 Ohnefalsch-Richter, op. cit. vol. II., No. cxxvii. 2.

81 Ibid. No. cxxviii. 3.

82 Cat. E, 695

83 Such as Müller und Wieseler, Denkmäler der alten Kunst, see e.g. I. plate XLIV (1854...); Jane E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903), who gives a number of illustrations.

84 These were sometimes of a lascivious character.

85 Op. cit. II. 472; see also p. 463.

86 III. x. 7 (Frazer’s ed.). See further, the interesting notes in Hitzig et Bluemner’s Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio, I. 766 (1896).

87 III. p. 320; see also Hitzig et Bluemner, in loc.; Farnell, op. cit. II. 472.

88 IV. xvi. 9. It recalls the episode of the maidens of Shiloh dancing in honour of Jahwe, Judg. xxi. 19 ff.

89 Cp. Emmanuel, La Danse Grecque antique (1896); for illustrations see Müller und Wieseler, op. cit. II. 17188 ff.

90 Ramsay, in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, IV. 36 (1883).

91 Cp. Reinach, Orpheus, p. 123 (1909): “Les jeunes filles athéniennes, qui célèbrent le culte de l’Artémis-ourse, s’habillent en ourses et se disent des ourses.”

92 Op. cit. II. 436 f.; see further Gruppe, op. cit. II. 1284, 1293; Lobeck, Aglaophamus, 1086 (1829); Bekker, Anecdota Graeca, I. 445 (1814-21); Lübker, Real-Lex. des Klassischen Altertums, s.v. Artemis (1914); Hesychius, s.v. Βραυρωνίοις; Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen, pp. 456 ff.; Heortologie, pp. 406 ff.; and see also Pausan. I. xxiii. 7. Cp. the custom among the Azimba of east-central Africa, when maidens attain puberty they celebrate the occasion by a dance in which only women take part: see Hartland in Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor, p. 197 (1907).

93 III. xi. 7.

94 Op. cit. I. 162. Herodotus refers to the Carneian festival in VII. 206.

95 Op. cit. I. 234.

96 Gruppe, op. cit. I. 271.

97 For its religious character see Mommsen, Heortologie, pp. 163 ff.

98 See further, p. 71, and W. H. Matthews, Mazes and Labyrinths, pp. 19 ff., 156 ff. (1922).

99 Prolegomena of the History of Religions, p. 123 (1884).

100 Ohnefalsch-Richter, op. cit. I. 446, 448, and numbered cxxxii. 2.

101 XVIII. 590-606 (Blakeney’s translation).

102 Aen. V. 545-603.

103 Frazer, GB, The Dying God, pp. 76 f. (1911).

104 GB, The Dying God, p. 77.

105 See Plutarch, Theseus, XXI.

106 Cp. the “Ladies’ Chain” in modern dancing.

107 Op. cit., and see also vol. I. 446.

108 Ohnefalsch-Richter, op. cit. I. 448.

109 Now in the Berl. Mus. Antiquarium.

110 Pro Murena, VI. 13, quoted by Bender, Rom und römisches Leben im Alterthum, p. 452 (1880).

111 Cp. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, I. 382 (1902).

112 Op. cit. pp. 154 f.; cp. Warde Fowler, ERE, X. 820 a; Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Römer, p. 118 (1886); Dill, Roman Society in the last century of the Roman Empire, pp. 76 ff. (1910).

113 Op. cit. I. 360.

114 Cp. Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Römer, p. 118, and the reff. there given (1886).

115 GB, The Scapegoat, p. 65 (1913), from Liv. vii. 1-3.

116 In de la Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, II. 33, cp. 149 (1905), and Reinach, Orpheus, p. 89. A great deal of information will be found scattered about in various volumes of the Sacred Books of the East series, e.g. I, XV (Upanishads); XII, XXVI, XLI, XLIII, XLIV (Satapatha-Brâhmana); XXXIV, XXXVIII, XLVIII (the Vedânta-Sûtras); XLIX (Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts); XXIII, XXXI (the Zend-Avesta); XXVII, XXVIII, XL (the Sacred Books of China). Also the relevant articles, which are many, in ERE, where special literature in abundance will be found.

117 Schoolcraft, The Indian Tribes of the United States, I. 191 (ed. by F. S. Drake, 1891); there is an illustration given of this dance.

118 Unknown Mexico, I. 330 f. (1903).

119 For the religious dance among the ancient Peruvians see Réville, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 224 ff. (1895); J. G. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligion, p. 385 (1867); Reinach, Orpheus, p. 230 (1909).

120 Hahl, Mittheilungen über Sitten und rechtliche Verhältnisse auf Ponape, in “Ethnologisches Notizblatt,” II. ii. 1 (1901), quoted by Frazer, Folk-lore in the Old Testament, I. 40 (1918). The Maoris attributed the origin of dancing to two goddesses, Raukata-uri and Raukata-mea, J. Macmillan Brown, Maori and Polynesian, p. 208 (1907); see also the interesting illustrations in Caillot, Les Polynésiens orientaux..., Pls. XLVII, XLIX-LII (1909).

121 Les religions des peuples non-civilisés, pp. 251 f. (1883).

122 Réville, Hibbert Lectures, p. 194.

123 Frazer, GB, Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, I. 307, 309 ff. (1912). The supremely important rôle assigned to the sacred dance among the natives of Australia is well known; see Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia, pp. 32, 106, 139 ff., 173, and the illustrations on p. 186 (1914); Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-east Australia, pp. 330, 416 (1904); Brough Smith, The Aborigines of Victoria, I. 166 ff. (1878), cp. Reinach, Orpheus, pp. 228 f.

124 GB, Spirits of the Corn..., I. 311.

125 See the whole of the Note on “The Pleiades in Primitive Calendars,” GB, Spirits of the Corn..., I. 307-319.

126 W. Schneider, Die Religion der Afrikanischen Naturvölker, p. 100 (1891).

127 Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika’s, p. 91 (1872).

128 Fritsch, op. cit. p. 352.

129 W. Schneider, op. cit. pp. 89 f.

130 For other dances in imitation of animals, see Ling Roth, The Aborigines of Tasmania, pp. 138 ff. (1899).

131 Cp. the personating of spirits or legendary animals among the N. American Indians, Frazer, GB, The Scapegoat, p. 375.

132 See, e.g., GB, The Magic Art, I. 302 ff.

133 E.g. Gen. xii. 6 f., xiii. 18, xiv. 13, xxxv. 4, 8; Josh. xxiv. 26; Judg. ix. 37; Jer. ii. 20, iii. 6, 13, xvii. 2; Ezek. vi. 13; Hos. iv. 13; cp. Isa. i. 29.

134 E.g. Gen. xiv. 7, xvi. 14; cp. xxi. 19, 33; Josh. xv. 7, xviii. 17, xix. 8.

135 See above, pp. 33 ff.

136 Patrol. Graec. (Migne), LXXIX. Col. 648.

137 Rel. of the Semites, pp. 135 f.

138 I. 189. Quoted by Buchanan Gray, Numbers (Intern. Crit. Com.), pp. 288 f. (1903).

139 Cp. Jane E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 127 (1903).

140 A reading based on the Samaritan and the Septuagint.

141 The name “calf,” ʿēgel, instead of “bull” or “cow,” refers to its smallness (perhaps in irony). Such images could not have been large as they were made of precious metal. But even when made of other materials, such as clay, they were small, to judge from the specimens found on the site of ancient Gezer.

142 It is true that the word is used of “surrounding” a table in the Hebrew of Ecclus. xxxv. 1 (xxxii. 1 in Greek), but it would be precarious to cite this late Hebrew meaning of it in support of the R.V. rendering of the word in 1 Sam. xvi. 11. In Ecclus. ix. 9 it is used of “mingling” strong drink.

143 Cp. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, p. 340, note 2: “The festal song of praise (tahlil) properly goes with the dance round the altar (cp. Ps. xxvi. 6 sq.), for in primitive times song and dance are inseparable.”

144 Psalms (Intern. Crit. Com.), II. 408 (1907).

145 Cp. Job xxvi. 10: “He hath worked out a circle (ḥôq ḥāg) upon the face of the waters”; or perhaps better: “He hath circumscribed a boundary....” This illustrates the root meaning of ḥag, “a circle”; and this is the formation of the festival dance. See, further, Driver and Gray, Job, Part II., Philological Notes, pp. 154, 180 (1921); Budde, Hiob, p. 146 (1896); Ball, The Book of Job, p. 322 (1922). See also Prov. viii. 27, and cp. Isa. xix. 17: “And the land of Judah shall be for a reeling (ḥagga’) to Egypt,” i.e. Egypt will become giddy through fear at the sight of Judah, and will thus “reel.” Ḥagga’ “may either be from an original sense of ḥāgag, or it may be equivalent to being excited as at a ḥag” (Oxf. Hebr. Lex.). More probably it is simply a derivative from ḥag, giddiness as a result of going round at the festival dance; it is used in Isa. xix. 17 in a metaphorical way.

146 Mishnah, Sukkah, iv. 2.

147 See above, pp. 48 ff. The prince-poet Imra-al-Kais refers in one of his poems to girls, gown-clad, going swiftly round the Davar (EB, I. 998).

148 Nili Opera, Narrat. III. 8 (in Migne, Patrol. Graec. LXXIX. 612 f.) “In later Arabia, the ṭawâf, or act of circling the sacred stone, was still a principal part of religion; but even before Mohammed’s time it had begun to be dissociated from sacrifice, and became a meaningless ceremony,” Robertson Smith, op. cit. p. 340.

149 “Damit wäre dann der kultische Tanz als Produkt der altorientalischen Vorstellungswelt erwiesen” (de la Saussaye, Religionsgeschichte, I. 380 [1905]).

150 See p. 94.

151 De Dea Syria, XLIX.; see Strong and Garstang, The Syrian Goddess, and Garstang’s notes on pp. 83 f. (1913).

152 Robertson Smith, op. cit. pp. 185, 335.

153 See Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, p. 91, where a good photograph of one of these trees is given.

154 Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden. Aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari, p. 181 (1879). I am indebted to the kindness of Prof. Bevan, of Cambridge, for this reference.

155 See Dussaud, Histoire et Religion des Nosairis, pp. 149 f. (1900).

156 Ohnefalsch-Richter, op. cit. I. 360; it is numbered xvii. 5 in vol. II.

157 Now in the Berlin Mus. Antiq., T.C. 668238.

158 Ohnefalsch-Richter, op. cit. I. 360; numbered xvii. 6 in vol. II.

159 Op. cit. I. 445; numbered cxxvii. 3 in vol. II.

160 Cp. Suidas, s.v. Ἀμφιδρόμια.

161 See Lobeck, Aglao., 237 ff., 639 ff., 695 (1829); Bekker, Anecdota Graeca, p. 207 (1814-1821); Pauly, Realencycl. der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft, IV. 1240 ff. (1862).

162 Warde Fowler in ERE, X. 827 b.

163 Religion und Kultus der Römer, p. 390 (1912).

164 Das Privatleben der Römer, p. 83 and the notes (1886).

165 The Indian Tribes of the United States, I. 146 ff.; ed. by F. S. Drake (1891).

166 Speck, Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians, p. 28 (1909).

167 Les Religions des Peuples Non-civilisés, I. 269 (1883).

168 GB, Spirits of the Corn..., I. 97.

169 Frazer, GB, Spirits of the Corn..., I. 240 ff., II. 326 ff.; The Scapegoat, 232 ff., 251 ff., 315.

170 Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 190 ff. (1875-1877); Wald-und Feldkulte, I. 244 (1904-1905).

171 Frazer, GB, The Magic Art, II. 47 ff.; see also the instances mentioned above, p. 98.

172 Frazer, GB, Spirits of the Corn..., I. 136 ff.

173 Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 174; Frazer, The Magic Art, II. 58 ff.

174 On the subject generally see Hölscher, Die Profeten: Untersuchungen zur Religionsgeschichte Israels, pp. 129-158 (1914).

175 In speaking of the exercises of the early prophetical bands Robertson Smith says that “they were sometimes gone through in sacred processions, sometimes at a fixed place, as at the Naioth at Ramah, which ought probably to be rendered ‘dwellings’—a sort of coenobium. They were accompanied by music of a somewhat noisy character, in which the hand-drum and the pipe played a part, as was otherwise the case in festal processions to the sanctuary (2 Sam. vi. 5; Isa. xxx. 29). Thus the religious exercises of the prophets seem to be a development in a peculiar direction of the ordinary forms of Hebrew worship at the time, and the fact that the ’prophesying’ was contagious establishes its analogy to other contagious forms of religious excitement” (The Prophets of Israel, p. 392 [1897]). See further, Gressmann, Palestinas Erdgeruch in der Israelitischen Religion, pp. 34 ff. (1909).

176 Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, p. 432.

177 See, for interesting parallels, S. A. Cook, in Essays and Studies presented to William Ridgeway, p. 397 (1913).

178 The Religion of the Semites, p. 432. But see S. A. Cook in the work just cited.

179 The R.V. rendering of 1 Kings xviii. 26, “And they leaped about the altar,” is misleading.

180 The text emendation here is obvious, it should be yithgôdâdu (“they cut themselves”) for yithgôrâru (“they assemble themselves”).

181 This has been illustrated by the excavations on the site of ancient Gezer undertaken by the Palestine Exploration Fund.

182 Genesis, p. 329 (1901).

183 See, further, von Gall, Altisraelitische Kultstätten, pp. 148 ff. (1898).

184 The word is also used for limping, or stumbling, in a figurative sense (Jer. xx. 10 and elsewhere; in Job xviii. 12, Ball would read balaʿ). According to Driver the cognate Arabic word means “to curve” (Oxford Hebr. Lex.); one thinks of the bent or curved position of the body during the performance of the “limping” dance.

185 See the various works of Schrader, Winckler, Zimmern, Jensen, O. Weber, Jastrow, etc.

186 See, e.g., Wiedemann, Die Religion der alten Aegypter, pp. 85-87 (1890); Erman, Die ägyptische Religion, pp. 61 f., 90 (1909), and the works of other authorities mentioned in previous chapters.

[187] Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, pp. 207-210 (1894); a good account of the Dancing Dervishes is given in W. Tyndale’s An Artist in Egypt, pp. 26-30 (1912); and see especially Gressmann, Palestinas Erdgeruch in der Israelitischen Religion, pp. 34 ff. (1909).

188 See Herodotus, II. 133.

189 The Prophets of Israel, p. 392 (1897); cp. Stade, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, I. 477 (1886).

190 Snouck-Hurgronje, Mekka, II. 281 (1888-1889). And see, further, Doughty, Arabia Deserta, II. 119 (orig. ed.); Robinson Lees mentions this dancing as taking place at holy places in Palestine, Village Life in Palestine, pp. 27, 28 (1897).

191 See Golénischeff, Recueil de Travaux, XXI. 22 f.; Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum A.T., I. 225 ff. (1909).

192 Regarding the musical accompaniment to such ecstatic dances, Iamblichus propounds the extraordinary theory that the reason why certain sounds and melodies produce an ecstatic state is because before the soul entered the body it was “an auditor of divine harmony,” and when, being in the body, it hears these, it recollects the divine harmony and participates in it; hence the cause of the ecstatic state and the faculty of divination (De Mysteriis, III. 9 end).

193 Die sequenti variis coloribus indusiati et deformiter quisque formati, facie caenoso pigmento delita et oculis obunctis graphice prodeunt, mitellis et crocotis et carbasinis et bambycinis iniecti, quidam tunicas albas in modum lanciolarum quoquoversum fluente purpura depictas cingulo subligati, pedes luteis induti calceis; deamque serico contectam amicuio mihi gerendam imponunt brachiisque suis humero tenus renundatis, attollentes immanes gladios ac secures, evantes exsiliunt incitante tibiae cantu lymphaticum tripudium. Nec paucis pererratis casulis ad quandam villam possessoris beati perveniunt et ab ingressu primo statim absonis ululatibus constrepentes fanatice pervolant, diuque capite demisso cervices lubricis intorquentes motibus crinesque pendulos in circulum rotantes, et nonnunquam morsibus suos incursantes musculos, ad postremum ancipiti ferro quod gerebant sua quisque brachia dissicant. Inter haec unus ex illis bacchatur effusius ac de imis praecordiis anhelitus crebros referens, velut numinis divino spiritu repletus, simulabat sauciam vecordiam, prorus quasi deum praesentia soleant homines non sui fieri meliores sed debiles effici vel aegroti.... Arrepto denique flagro, quod semiviris illis proprium gestamen est, contortis taeniis lanosi velleris prolixe fimbriatum et multiiugis talis ovium tesseratum, indidem sese multinodis commulcat ictibus, mire contra plagarum dolores praesumptione munitus. Cerneres prosectu gladiorum ictuque flagrorum solum spurcitia sanguinis effeminati madescere.... The translation is that of S. Gaselee in “Loeb Classical Library” (1915).

194 In ERE, VI. 403 a; we give the quotation in full as this large Encyclopaedia is not, for many, easily accessible.

195 On the Korybantes, the mythical attendants on Kybele, who were supposed to dance in wild fashion with the goddess on the mountains, see Rohde, Psyche..., II. 48 ff. (1907); the name was also given to the eunuch priests of the goddess in Phrygia.

196 Panofka, Dionysos und Thyiden, pl. I. 2 (1853).

197 Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 453 (1903).

198 The treasure is in the Berlin Museum, Cat. 2290; Harrison, op. cit., p. 428.

199 Harrison, op. cit. p. 393; see also Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, I. 162, II. 840, 1293; Lobeck, Aglao., II. 1085 ff.; Bekker, Anecdota Graeca, I. 234.

200 Harrison, op. cit. p. 397; Gruppe, op. cit. II. 748, 1293; Reinach, Orpheus, p. 123.

201 Philo, De Vita Contempl. II.

202 Diodorus, IV. iii. 2.

203 Rohde, Psyche, II. 11 ff.; Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon..., II. 2243-2283 (1894-1897).

204 Pausan. X. iv. 1, 2.

205 Harrison, op. cit. p. 540 (omitting the interjected words of Xanthias and Dionysos).

206 See Mommsen, op. cit. p. 224; cp. Foucart, Les grands mystères d’Eleusis, pp. 121 f.; and for the dancing at the celebration of the mysteries, see p. 142 (1904).

207 Quoted by Harrison, Pyth. III. 77.

208 Pausan. II. vii. 6. Cp. also Lobeck, Aglao., II. 1088; Reinach, Orpheus, pp. 153 ff.

209 Lines 680-691.

210 IV. 3.

211 Harrison, op. cit. p. 500; and the same author’s Themis, pp. 23 ff. (1912). Rohde, Psyche, I. 272.

212 Protr. II. 12. Concerning them Gruppe says: “Die Kureten, nach denen ein Magistratskollegium hiess, das unter dem proto-koures mystische Opfer feierte, sollten durch den Lärm der Waffen Hera vertrieben haben; eine Sagenbildung, die auf eine Angleichung an die Riten die zwar ebenfalls euboisch-boiotischen, aber vielleicht erst hier mit dem Artemis-dienst in Verbindung gesetzten Kultus der grossen Göttin hinweist” (Griech. Myth. I. 284; see also II. 820, 898, 1106, 1198).

213 Frazer, GB, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, pp. 250 f. (1907). See further, Hepding, Attis, seine Mythen und sein Kult, pp. 128 ff. (1903).

214 Ep. I. 49, II. 34, VI. 40; Dill, Roman Society in the last century of the Western Empire, p. 16 (1910).

215 On the Galli see Lucian, De Dea Syria, XLIII, L-LX.

216 Frazer, op. cit. p. 223. See further Cicero, De Divinatione, II. 50; Catullus, Carm. LXIII.; Lucretius, II. 598 ff.; Hepding, op. cit., pp. 142 ff.; Glover, The Conflict of Religions in the early Roman Empire, pp. 20 f. (1909).

217 Fallaize, in ERE, X. 124 b.

218 Tylor, Primitive Culture, II. 133 f. (1920); he also mentions this type of dance among the Patagonians, Fijians and others, pp. 419 ff.

219 Frazer, GB, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 61.

220 Réville, Les Religions des peuples non-civilisés, p. 267 (1883); Schoolcraft, op. cit. I. 286.

221 Native Religions of Mexico and Peru (Hibbert Lectures, 1884), p. 225.

222 Malay Magic, p. 463 (1900).

223 Fallaize, in ERE, X. 124 b.

224 Frazer, GB, The Magic Art, I. 408; N. Tsaki, La Russie Sectaire, pp. 66 ff. The Shakers of New Lebanon attempt in the dance to obtain the Holy Spirit, Lilly Grove, op. cit. p. 7.

225 J. Macmillan Brown, Maori and Polynesian, p. 204 (1907).

226 Folk-lore in the Old Testament, III. 277 (1918).

227 In Allerlei, I. 164-168.

228 Introduction to the Study of Religion, p. 174 (1904).

229 “They prophesied until the time of the evening oblation” (‎‏עֲלוֹת הַמִּנְחָה‏‎), 1 Kings xviii. 29.

230 An inspired prophet.

231 A five-thonged scourge, with iron at the extremity of each thong.

232 The Sun and the Serpent, pp. 99 f. (1905).

233 The feast of Pesach (“Passover”) coincided with this; it was also a spring festival at which the firstlings of the herds were offered (Exod. xxxiv. 25).

234 E.g. 1 Kings viii. 2, xii. 32; Judg. xxi. 19; Lev. xxiii. 39, 41.

235 This is also true of the Targums, where an allusion to the dance is sometimes strikingly obvious, e.g. in the Targ. of Onkelos to Deut. xvi. 14; the people are bidden to rejoice at their feasts with the playing of flutes; this was one of the most usual accompaniments to the sacred dance all the world over.

236 See Moore, Judges, pp. 304 f. (1903).

237 Cp. Judges ix. 27.

238 See e.g. Reinach, Orpheus, p. 273 (1909); Carl Rathjens, Die Juden in Abessinien, p. 78 (1921).

239 Talmudische Archäologie, III. 101, and the references on p. 285.

240 Mishnah, Sukkah, V. 1.

241 Sukkah, IV. 1-4.

242 Cp. Reinach, op. cit. p. 271.

243 See Megillath Taanith, IV. 8-10; this was before the Day of Atonement had become a Fast-day; one sees, therefore, how ancient the custom was.

244 Megillath Taanith, V.

245 Bell. Jud. II. xvii. 6.

246 See further on this, Krauss, op. cit. III. 102, 285.

247 On these see further Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, I. 340 ff., 391 f. (1921).

248 Alois Musil, Arabia Petraea, III. 200 ff. (1908).

249 Dalman, Palestinischer Diwan, p. 254 (1901).

250 Featherman, Social History of Mankind, I. 334 f. (1881).

251 See G. Friedlander’s edition of this work, p. 208 (1916).

252 Cp. Enclow, JE, IV. 425 b, and Jacobs, JE, IV. 96 ff.

253 See Curtiss, op. cit. pp. 164 ff.

254 Kees, Der Opfertanz des ägyptischen Königs, pp. 105-226 (1912); Maspero, Études de mythologie et de l’archéologie égyptiennes, VIII. 313 (1893-1916); Blackman, Rock Tombs of Meir, I. 23 f., II. 25, and the same writer in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, VII. 21 f.

255 Erman, Aegypten..., I. 336.

256 Erman, op. cit. I. 340; see also Voss, Der Tanz und seine Geschichte, p. 20 (1869), who unfortunately omits references to authorities.

257 See further, Flinders Petrie, Stud. Hist. III. 69 (1904), and for festivals generally the same author’s Egyptian Festivals... (1908).

258 Schol. in Luc. Dialog. Meretr. VII. 4 (ed. Rabe, 1906), referred to by Harrison, op. cit. p. 146; see also Lübker, op. cit. 298 b.

259 Mommsen, Feste..., pp. 359 ff.; Harpocration, s.v. Ἁλῷα, I. 24 (ed. Dindorf [1853]). For Vintage Festivals see, further, Mommsen, Heortologie, pp. 66 ff.

260 Harrison, op. cit. pp. 146 f. On this festival see also Bekker, op. cit. I. 384 f.; Farnell, Cults..., III. 315 f.; Frazer, GB, The Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, I. 60 ff.

261 The author refers to his note on Pausanias, VIII. xxxvii. 3 in vol. IV. pp. 375 ff. of his Pausanias.

262 GB, Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, II. 339.

263 Gruppe, op. cit. II. 783; Preller, Griechische Mythologie, pp. 618 ff. (1872).

264 Cp. Pausan. VIII. xxv. 1 ff.; Ovid, Metam. V. 106; Pliny, XVI. 33; and for the Charites see Gruppe, op. cit. I. 81, II. 1073, 1083, 1189, 1284; Lobeck, op. cit. II. 1085 ff.; Julii Pol. Onom. IV. 95. For the Thesmophoria see Frazer, GB, Spirits of the Corn..., II. 16 ff.; Farnell, Cults..., III. 85-93; and for the Thargelia, GB, The Scapegoat, pp. 254 ff.; Farnell, Cults..., IV. 268 ff.

265 E.g. in the cult of Ἄρτεμις Κορδάκα, see Lobeck, De myst. priv. II. 959; Farnell, Cults..., II. 445; Pausan. VI. xxii. 1. The procession called φαλλοφορία was especially associated with Dionysos and Hermes, see Farnell in ERE, VI. 417 a.

266 See Farnell in ERE, VI. 403 b; he says: “this privilege of ecstasy might be used for the practical purposes of vegetation-magic.”

267 Mars was originally a god of vegetation; he appears subsequently as the god of war.

268 See Aust, Die Religion der Römer, p. 171 (1899).

269 A translation in full is given by Carter in ERE, II. 10 b, 11 a.

270 See further on the whole subject Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl. der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, II. 1463 ff. (1896).

271 See Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, III. 444 (1885).

272 Cp. the name of the month in which the festival was held, February, which gets its name from februare “to purify.”

273 March 19 was a special day as being the birthday of Minerva (Ovid, Fasti, III. 812; see Mommsen, Feste..., p. 59).

274 “... per urbem ire canentes carmina cum tripudiis solemnique saltatu,” Liv. I. 20. 4. See, further, Wissowa, op. cit. I. 482, who refers to Dion. Hal. II. 70. 2. Cp. de la Saussaye, op. cit. II. 441 ff.; and see Seneca, Epp. XV.; Quintilian, I. 2. 18.

275 GB, The Scapegoat, p. 232.

276 Frazer, ibid.; Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, III. 427 f. (1885); Aust, op. cit. p. 130; Cirilli, Les Prêtres Danseurs de Rome, pp. 97 ff. (1913); for Harvest Festivals generally among the Romans see Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, pp. 191 ff., for the Hilaria, pp. 321 ff. (1912); Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, s.v. Attis, I. 715 ff. (1884); for the Vinalia, Aust, op. cit. p. 173. Cp. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion, p. 145 (1905).

277 See, for illustrations not mentioned here, Lilly Grove, op. cit. pp. 65-92.

278 This is given by Frazer, GB, Spirits of the Corn..., I. 95 f., from A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, I. 167-169 (1904...).

279 Frazer, op. cit. p. 107. See also Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea, pp. 323 ff. H. L. Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, I. 262 (1896), says: “The Dyaks really seem to consider dancing as a part of divine service, attributing to it some mysterious and wholesome efficacy”;—they do not enquire why; it is taken for granted that it is so.

280 Malay Magic, p. 462 (1900).

281 Cp. Réville, Les Religions des peuples non-civilisés, p. 269, who tells of how the imitative magic dance develops into a specifically religious act.

282 Op. cit. p. 464; see, further, pp. 465 ff., and also Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, I. 364 f., II. 119 ff., 126 ff., 137 with the illustration on p. 138; and for the negro Baris, whose country is situated on either bank of the White Nile, see Featherman, Social History of the Races of Mankind, I. 74 (1881).

283 W. Schneider, Die Religion der Afrikanischen Naturvölker, pp. 52-58 (1891); Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika’s, p. 327 (1872).

284 On initiation dances see Harrison, Themis, pp. 24 f.

285 Bab. Talm. Rosh Ha-shanah 16 a, Mishnah, Sukkah, IV. 9; cp. Mishnah, Berakôth, V. 2; see also the curious story in Lucian, De Dea Syria, XIII.; and for numbers of examples of rain-charms see Frazer, GB, The Magic Art, I. 247-329.

286 The Threshold of Religion, p. 76 (1909).

287 ERE, X. 359 b.

288 The root meaning of ʿanah is “to sing,” see Isa. xxvi. 2, Exod. xxxii. 18, Ps. cxix. 172; and cp. the cognate Arabic root ghanna; in neo-Hebrew it is often used of singing in chorus.

289 A different interpretation of the passage is given by a few commentators, e.g. Briggs in the Intern. Crit. Com., but the natural meaning seems to be as above.

290 We have referred to this in another connexion, see p. 141. It is probable that we have in this episode a combination of an historical fact and some form of the Adonis myth.

291 Pausan. IV. xvi. 4. See, further, Hermann, Gottesdienstliche Alterthümer, §§ 24, 50.

292 Reference is made in 1 Sam. xxi. 5, 2 Sam. xi. 11 to an act of self-control which was also part of the consecration for battle; but this, which is found among many other races, had its special reason and does not come into consideration here.

293 GB, Spirits of the Corn..., II. 145, where other examples are given.

294 GB, Spirits of the Corn..., I. 22.

295 The possibility is not excluded that in all cases of animals being eaten in order to absorb their qualities, their sacredness may have been the real reason at one time in the history of the rite. When this reason was forgotten and its qualities became the sole reason for eating an animal, the extension of the idea in other ways would be natural.

296 Religion of the Semites, p. 288.

297 GB, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 165 f. (1911); the account is taken from S. Müller, Reizen en Ondergoekingen in den Indischen Archipel., II. 252 (1857). For another example see Chalmers, op. cit. p. 182.

298 C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 298 (1910), quoted by Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, p. 168.

299 Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 493 f. (1899).

300 De Flacourt, Histoire de la Grande Isle Madagascar, pp. 97 f. (1658), quoted by Frazer, GB, The Magic Art, I. 131 (1911).

301 The Secret Tribal Societies of West Africa, p. 17, quoted by Frazer, op. cit. I. 132.

302 Frazer, op. cit. I. 133 f.

303 Uit het leven der Bevolking van Windessi, in the “Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-Landen Volkenkunde,” XL. 157 f. (1898); GB, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 169 f.

304 E.g. in such cases as the May-pole dance, and the dances round the Midsummer fires.

305 Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, p. 455, where references to original authorities are given. See also Stade, Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments, i. 148.

306 GB, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, p. 158; for further examples see pp. 161 ff., and The Magic Art, I. 125 ff. Conceivably the taboo on the persons left at home during the absence of the fighting men may have originally had something to do with the victory dance being performed by women alone.

307 See the present writer’s Immortality and the Unseen World, chaps. VIII-X.

308 E.g. Gen. xxiv. 49 ff., xxix. 27; Judg. xiv. 7; Isa. lxi. 10; Jer. ii. 32, vii. 34, xxv. 10; Ps. xlv. 10 ff.; Cant. iii. 6-11; cp. 3 Macc. iv. 8. In the New Testament we have more details, e.g. Matth. xxii. 2, xxv. 1 ff.; Lk. xii. 36; John ii. 1 ff.

309 See König, Hebr. und Aram. Wörterbuch, p. 505, and cp. the Sept. τῇ Σουμανείτιδι (Cod. B).

310 Kimĕhôlath hammaḥanaim. Cp. the Septuagint rendering: ὡς χοροὶ τῶν παρεμβολῶν.

311 Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, p. 52, says, “The tenacity with which the Oriental mind, if left to itself, holds that which has always been, and turns to it as unerringly as the needle to the pole, has often been observed, and is our guaranty that we may find primitive religious conditions among people with whom, if we approach them in the right way, we may hold intercourse to-day.” This may certainly apply to the present instance.

312 In the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, pp. 287 ff. (1873).

313 Cp. the reference to the king in Cant. i. 4.

314 Mittel-Syrien und Damascus, p. 123 (1853).

315 Arabia Deserta, II. 118 (1921).

316 See Rothstein’s article, “Moslemische Hochzeitsgebräuche in Lifta bei Jerusalem,” in Dalman’s Palästinajahrbuch, 1910, pp. 102-123, especially 110-114; a photographic illustration of a sword-dance is given on p. 102; and Klein in the Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästinischen Vereins, VI. 94 ff. (1883).

317 “Its general unscientific nature has been demonstrated by Mr Fison and Dr Westermarck.... The theory, then, that mankind in general, or even a particular section of mankind, even in normal circumstances were accustomed to obtain their wives by capture from other tribes, may be regarded as exploded. There have been, of course, and still are, sporadic cases of capture of wives from hostile tribes or others, but such cannot prove a rule.” Crawley, The Mystic Rose: A Study of Primitive Marriage, p. 367 (1902).

318 Op. cit. pp. 323 ff.

319 For the reasons why these maleficent influences should be believed to be present on such occasions see Crawley’s work, chaps, XIII, XIV.

320 Palestinischer Diwan, p. 254 (1901). For the custom among the Arabs of the Hedjaz see Featherman, op. cit. V. 402.

321 Krauss, Talmudische Archäologie, II. 39 (1911).

322 Bacher, Aggada der Palestinischen Amoraim, III. 36 (1897); JE, VIII. 341 f.

323 Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, p. 193 (1896).

324 Abrahams, op. cit. pp. 195 f.; cp. with this the rite in the ancient Indian ritual, in which the bride takes seven steps towards the bridegroom; at the seventh he seizes her by the foot, Winternitz, Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell, in “Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften,” XL. 51 (1892).

325 Grunwald, in JE, VIII. 346 a, quoting from Chorny, Sefer ha-Massaʿot, p. 298.

326 Abrahams, op. cit. p. 196. For marriage rites among Jews and Mohammedans in Palestine to-day see Baldensperger in the Quarterly Statement of the Pal. Exploration Fund, 1899, pp. 140 ff., 1900, pp. 181 ff., 1901, pp. 173 ff.

327 Westermarck, Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco, p. 144 (1914).

328 Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 388 (1910).

329 On this, see further Crawley, op. cit. pp. 327 ff., 335 ff.

330 Op. cit. p. 321.

331 Op. cit. p. 344.

332 Featherman, Social History of the Races of Mankind, V. 480 (1881).

333 Westermarck, op. cit. p. 251.

334 Winternitz, Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell, XL. 30.

335 Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 374.

336 Skeat, op. cit. p. 381.

337 “For practical purposes, as is hardly necessary to premise, the complex fears of men and women are often subconscious, or are only expressed as a feeling of diffidence with regard to the novel proceedings, and also are not always focussed on the personality of either party with its inherent dangerous properties nor stimulated by conscious realisation of particular dangers.... We have, however, seen cases where the individual in marriage is consciously aware that it is his human partner who is to be feared” (Crawley, op. cit. p. 323).

338 Skeat, op. cit. p. 377, and for other dances at weddings see pp. 388 f., 392.

339 The History of Human Marriage, II. 584 (1921); see also Featherman, op. cit. I. 208.

340 Frazer, GB, The Scapegoat, p. 171.

341 Frazer, GB, The Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, II. 255.

342 Westermarck, Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco, p. 90.

343 Westermarck, op. cit. p. 144.

344 H. A. Metcalf’s translation, The Idylls and Epigrams of Theocritus... (1905).

345 The Mystic Rose, pp. 337 ff.

346 For these, see the present writer’s book, Immortality and the Unseen World: a Study in Old Testament Religion, pp. 141 ff. (1921).

347 Talmudische Archäologie, II. 67 f., 483 (1911); cp. also Thomson, The Land and the Book: Lebanon, Damascus, and beyond Jordan, pp. 401 ff. (1886).

348 Crawley, in ERE, X. 358 a.

349 The mystic number, seven, in connexion with the rite will not escape notice. The whole service will be found in Gaster’s Daily and Occasional Prayers, vol. I. (1901). The supplications, though not in precisely the same form in which they now appear, are known to go back to pre-Christian times; the antiquity of the ritual by which they are accompanied, especially when its nature is considered, will obviously be at least as great, let alone the long history behind it.

350 Sacred Books of the East, XI. 129 (1879-1910).

351 In ERE, III. 658 b.

352 Hartland, in ERE, IV. 426 b.

353 Walse, in ERE, IV. 453 b.

354 Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, I. 301 (1903).

355 Alois Musil, Arabia Petraea, III. 203 (1908).

356 For illustrations of this kind see, e.g., Rosellini, Les Monuments de l’Égypte et de la Nubie, Pl. CXIV. fig. 2, Pl. CXVI. fig. 6 (1831); Lepsius, Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Div. II, Pls. 52, 53 (1849); Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de l’art dans l’antiquité: l’Égypte, p. 701 (1882).

357 In ERE, V. 238 a.

358 Erman, Aegypten..., I. 336.

359 Erman, op. cit. I. 338, II. 434.

360 Reported in the Times, 29th June, 1922.

361 Cp. Herodotus, II. 85.

362 An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, II. 272 (1871).

363 Op. cit. pp. 344, 408 f., 452.

364 Among the Romans, during the earliest periods, funerals always took place at night; for the evidence see Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Römer, pp. 343 f. (1886).

365 As to funeral games see Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités Greques et Romaines, II. 1376 (1896...): “La présence de nombreux chars sur les vases peints du Dipylon fait croire qu’on continua à célébrer des jeux funèbres en l’honneur du mort, et cet usage persista longtemps encore, comme semble l’indiquer une peinture où un char de course est représenté à côté d’une stèle qu’on achève de décorer.” Cp. Rohde, Psyche..., I. 224 f. As Hartland points out (ERE, IV. 437 a), “funeral games, familiar to us in classical literature, are of very wide distribution. They cannot be separated from dances, for there is no hard and fast line between the two.”

366 See also Rohde, Psyche..., I. 221.

367 In Dionys. VII. 72 there is a description of such a procession in which troops danced in the dress of Sileni and Satyrs. Suet. Caes. 84 (Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Römer, pp. 352 f.).

368 Crawley, in ERE, X. 356 a.

369 Antike Gesichtshelme und Sepulcralmasken, p. 4 (1878), referred to by Marquardt, Privatleben der Römer, p. 241, and see further, pp. 353 ff.

370 Showerman in ERE, IV. 505 b, 507 b. Cp. Daremberg et Saglio, op. cit. s.v. Funus.

371 Op. cit. II. 32.

372 See the present writer’s Immortality and the Unseen World, pp. 9, 21 f.

373 I.e. “sacred,” the first month of the Musulman year.

374 Jaʿfar Sharif, Islam in India, or the Qānūn-i-Islam: The Customs of the Musulmans of India, translated by G. A. Herklots, pp. 161-174 (1921).

375 Frazer, GB, The Magic Art, II. 183.

376 J. M. Brown, Maori and Polynesian, p. 203. “Funeral dances and death-bed dances are a world-wide custom. We hear of them in Patagonia, in Abyssinia, in North America, in the East Indian isles and in the Highlands of Scotland; we read about them in ancient Egypt, and we can see them to-day in Spain, in Ireland, and in the centre of France,” Lilly Grove, op. cit. p. 4.

377 ERE, IV. 434 b.

378 Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, pp. 358 ff., 716 (1910).

379 Frazer, The Belief in Immortality, I. 200 (1913).

380 Frazer, op. cit. I. 399.

381 The Indian Tribes of Guiana, pp. 154 f. (1868).

382 Schoolcraft, op. cit. I. 198, 234.

383 Featherman, Social History of the Races of Mankind, I. 413 (1881).

384 Baldwin Spencer, The Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia, pp. 234 ff. (1914).

385 Frazer, op. cit. I. 293 f.

386 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, V. 256.

387 Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, V. 1070.

388 Nelson, The Eskimo about Bering Strait, Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Pt. I. 363 (1899).

389 Frazer, GB, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, p. 166.

390 Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 505 ff. (1899).

391 Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, I. pp. 384 ff. (1903).

392 ERE, IV. 481 a.

393 ERE, IV. 416 b.

394 See on this the present writer’s Immortality and the Unseen World, p. 180.