Scatalogic Rites of All Nations: A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globeBourke, John Gregory
Religion
Scatalogic Rites of All Nations: A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globe
Bourke, John Gregory
Scatology
“Have you ever, while in New Mexico, witnessed the dance of that cluster
or order called the “Ko-sha-re” among the Queres, “Ko-sa-re” among the
Tehuas, and “Shu-re” among the Tiguas? I have witnessed it several
times; and these gentlemen, many of whom belong to the circle of my
warm personal friends, display a peculiar appetite for what the human
body commonly not only rejects, but also ejects. I am sorry that I did
not know of your work any sooner, as else I could have given you very
full descriptions of these dances. The cluster in question have a very
peculiar task, inasmuch as the ripening of all kinds of fruits is at
their charge, even the fruit in the mother’s womb, and their rites are
therefore of sickening obscenity. The swallowing of excrements is but a
mild performance in comparison with what I have been obliged to see and
witness.”—(Letter from Professor Bandelier, dated at Santa Fé, N. M.,
April 25, 1888.)
Major Ferry, whom the author met in the office of General Robert McFeely,
Acting Secretary of War, Oct. 5, 1888, stated that he was the son of the
first Protestant missionary to build a church at Mackinaw, and that the
Indians of the Ojibway tribe who lived in the neighborhood of that post
indulged from time to time in orgies in which the drinking of urine was a
feature.
Mr. Daniel W. Lord, a gentleman who was for a time associated with Mr.
Frank H. Cushing in his investigations among the Zuñis of New Mexico,
makes the following statement:—
“In June, 1888, I was a spectator of an orgy at the Zuñi pueblo in New
Mexico. The ceremonial dance of that afternoon had been finished in
the small plaza generally used for dances in the northwestern part of
the pueblo when this supplementary rite took place. One of the Indians
brought into the plaza the excrement to be employed, and it was passed
from hand to hand and eaten. Those taking part in the ceremony were few
in number, certainly not more than eight or ten. They drank urine from
a large shallow bowl, and meanwhile kept up a running fire of comments
and exclamations among themselves, as if urging one another to drink
heartily, which indeed they did. At last one of those taking part was
made sick, and vomited after the ceremony was over. The inhabitants of
the pueblo upon the housetops overlooking the plaza were interested
spectators of the scene. Some of the sallies of the actors were received
with laughter, and others with signs of disgust and repugnance, but not
of disapprobation. The ceremony was not repeated, to my knowledge, during
my stay at the pueblo, which continued till July, 1889.”—(Personal letter
to Captain Bourke, dated Washington, D. C., May 26, 1890.)
III.
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IN EUROPE.
Closely corresponding to this urine dance of the Zuñis was the Feast
of Fools in Continental Europe, the description of which here given is
quoted from Dulaure:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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