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
Speaking of the god “Aidowedo,” the serpent in the Rainbow as believed by
the Negroes of Guinea, Father Baudin says: “He who finds the excrement of
this serpent is rich forever, for with this talisman he can change grains
of corn into shells which pass for money.” (“Fetichism,” Rev. F. Baudin,
New York, 1885, p. 47.) He goes on to narrate a very amusing tale to the
effect that the negroes got the idea that a prism in his possession gave
him the power to bring the Rainbow down into his room at will, and that
he could obtain unlimited quantities of the precious excrement.
Another myth of the foolish god “Kutka” represents him as falling in love
with his own excrement and wooing it as his bride; he takes it home in
his sleigh, puts it in his bed, and is only restored to a sense of his
absurd position by the vile smell.—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)
Possibly all this may be a myth to explain or to represent the state of
mind into which those who indulged in the “muck-a-moor” were thrown, but
even this interpretation seems far-fetched.
Sir John Moore, it is stated, fell in love with his own urine, and we
have read from Montaigne the story of the French gentleman who preserved
his egestæ to show to his visitors.
The tribes of the Narinyeri, Encounter Bay, South Australia, have
a legend that difference in language was caused when certain of
their ancestors “ate the contents of the intestines of the goddess
‘Wurruri.’”—(“Nat. tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, p. 60,
received through the kindness of the Roy. Soc., Sydney, N. S. Wales, T.
B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)
In the same chapter we are told of the omission of one or two ceremonies
“which were too indecent for general readers” (p. 61).
In the “Bachiller de Salamanca,” Le Sage has a hero whose misfortunes
would lead us to suspect that Le Sage had been reading of some of the
doings of the Kamtchatkan god “Kutka,” who, among the numerous pranks
played upon him by his enemies, the mice, suffered the ignominy of having
“a bag made of fish-skin attached to his orificium ani while he lay sound
asleep. On his way home Kutka desired to relieve nature, but was much
surprised, on leaving, at the insignificant deposit notwithstanding he
had freed himself of so great a burden.
“Surprised at his cleanliness, he narrated the circumstances to Clachy
(his wife), who soon discovered the true state of affairs, and pulling
off Kutka’s pantaloons, detached the heavily laden bag with great
laughters.”—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)
In the 14th century farce of “Le Muynier,” the Miller has absorbed some
of the popular ideas of his day, professed by certain philosophers of the
time. He believes that, at the moment of death, the soul of a man escapes
by the anus, and warns the priest to absolve him from his sins, saying:
“Mon ventre trop se détermine. Helas! Je ne scay que je face; ostez-vous.”
The priest answers: “Ha! sauf vostre grace!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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