Ritual and belief : $b Studies in the history of religionHartland, Edwin Sidney
Religion
Ritual and belief : $b Studies in the history of religion
Hartland, Edwin Sidney
Ethnopsychology; Magic; Religion; Rites and ceremonies
A different case is that of a Myoro woman cited by Dr Frazer from
Captain Speke’s _Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile_.
Her child had died. She smeared herself with butter and ashes and ran
frantically about, “while the men abused her in foul language for the
express purpose of frightening away the demons” who had carried off
her child. And Dr Frazer asks: “If curses are meant to frighten, are
not the ashes meant to deceive the demon?”[251.2] From the
description of the scene, however, it seems probable that the demon
was conceived as actually in possession of the woman, and that it was
intended to drive him out of her. In that event again there would be
no deception of the demon--it was open war; while the ashes may be
referable to quite another cause, as will be suggested below.
A third possible example is the custom in Calabria, whereby the women
cease wailing at night and put off the black veils they donned at the
moment of death.[251.3] Here it may be, as Professor Frazer suggests,
a sufficient explanation that disguise is superfluous in the dark. The
custom of wearing veils or hoods to conceal the face in {252} mourning
is not confined to Europe, though widely spread there. The “weepers”
and other crape trappings still in use in France, but for the most
part abandoned in this country, are probably relics of it. It is found
among nations sundered as far as the Eskimo on the shores of the
frozen ocean from the tribes of the Eastern Archipelago and Melanesia.
The veil is sometimes worn without intermission. Among the Minuanes of
South America the widow carefully covers her face with her hair,
notwithstanding she remains for several days in the hut.[252.1] About
Bering Strait the housemates of a deceased Eskimo must remain in their
accustomed places in the house during the four days following the
death, while the ghost is believed to be still about. During this time
all of them must keep their fur hoods drawn over their heads, not to
deceive the dead man, but “to prevent the influence of the shade from
entering their heads and killing them.”[252.2] Where the mourners are
confined more or less to the house, however, the custom of veiling is
often, perhaps usually, more stringent on going out of doors than when
they are inside in the dark. In the lower culture the women at least
are frequently confined to the house, and only go out in case of
necessity at night, or at early morning and evening to weep at the
grave. But the Calabrian women would more naturally go out of doors,
if at all, by day; hence they would be more closely veiled by day; and
at night, when they would not go out, they might wear their ordinary
head-dress of a white handkerchief. It is at least curious that they
themselves assume that they would be recognized at night through the
disguise by “_il demonio_,” who has doubtless succeeded to the
pre-Christian terrors of the other world; and they declare it is lest
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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