The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M208) On the last morning the orgies, which had been scarcely interrupted
during the night, were resumed, and continued till noon, when they ceased,
and the assembly proceeded to consummate the sacrifice. The victim was
again anointed with oil, and each person touched the anointed part, and
wiped the oil on his own head. In some places they took the victim in
procession round the village, from door to door, where some plucked hair
from his head, and others begged for a drop of his spittle, with which
they anointed their heads.(755) As the victim might not be bound nor make
any show of resistance, the bones of his arms and, if necessary, his legs
were broken; but often this precaution was rendered unnecessary by
stupefying him with opium.(756) The mode of putting him to death varied in
different places. One of the commonest modes seems to have been
strangulation, or squeezing to death. The branch of a green tree was cleft
several feet down the middle; the victim’s neck (in other places, his
chest) was inserted in the cleft, which the priest, aided by his
assistants, strove with all his force to close.(757) Then he wounded the
victim slightly with his axe, whereupon the crowd rushed at the wretch and
hewed the flesh from the bones, leaving the head and bowels untouched.
Sometimes he was cut up alive.(758) In Chinna Kimedy he was dragged along
the fields, surrounded by the crowd, who, avoiding his head and
intestines, hacked the flesh from his body with their knives till he
died.(759) Another very common mode of sacrifice in the same district was
to fasten the victim to the proboscis of a wooden elephant, which revolved
on a stout post, and, as it whirled round, the crowd cut the flesh from
the victim while life remained. In some villages Major Campbell found as
many as fourteen of these wooden elephants, which had been used at
sacrifices.(760) In one district the victim was put to death slowly by
fire. A low stage was formed, sloping on either side like a roof; upon it
they laid the victim, his limbs wound round with cords to confine his
struggles. Fires were then lighted and hot brands applied, to make him
roll up and down the slopes of the stage as long as possible; for the more
tears he shed the more abundant would be the supply of rain. Next day the
body was cut to pieces.(761)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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