The Natural History of the Varieties of Man — John Shaqi
The Natural History of the Varieties of ManLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Science
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology
Next, the priest, the family, and all the
friends proceed to some convenient and pleasant spot in the vicinity,
previously selected, and at which a little temporary shed has been
erected as an altar, and there, with due ceremonies, another hog is
sacrificed to Agráng, a he-goat to Manásho and to Búli, and a fowl,
duck, or pigeon (black, red, or white, according to the special and
well known taste of each god) to each of the remaining nine of the
Noöni madai. The blood of the sacrifice belongs to the gods--the flesh
to his worshippers, and these now hold a high feast, at which beer
and tobacco are freely used to animate the joyous conclave, but not
spirits, nor opium, nor hemp. The goddess Mainou is represented in
the interior of each house, by a bamboo post, about three feet high,
fixed in the ground, and surmounted by a small earthen cup filled with
rice. Before this symbol is the great annual sacrifice of the hog above
noted, performed; and before this, the females of the family _once a
month_, make offerings of eggs. For the males, due attention to the
four annual festivals is deemed sufficient in prosperous and healthful
seasons. But sickness or scarcity always begets special rites and
ceremonies, suited to the circumstances of the calamity, and addressed
more particularly to the elemental gods, if the calamity be drought,
or blight, or devastations of wild animals--to the household gods, if
it be sickness. Hunters, likewise, and fishers, when they go forth
to the chase, sacrifice a fowl to the Sylvan gods, to promote their
success; and lastly, those who have a petition to prefer to their
superiors, conceive that a similar propitiation of Jishim and Mishim,
or of the Chiris, will tend to the fulfilment of their requests. And
this, I think, is nearly the whole amount of rites and ceremonies,
which their religion prescribes to the Bodo and Dhimáls. And anxious as
I am fully to illustrate the topic, I will not try the patience of my
readers by describing all that variety of black victims and white, of
red victims and blue, which each particular deity is alleged to prefer;
first, because the subject is intrinsically trifling; and second
because the diverse statements of my informants lead me to suspect,
that the matter is optional or discretionary with each individual
priest prescribing these minutiæ. I have mentioned the rude symbols
proper to Báthó and Mainou. None of the other gods seem to have any
at all, though a low line of kneaded clay attached to the Thalí that
surrounds the sacred Euphorbia in the yards of the Bodo is said to
stand for the rest of the divinities who, as I have already said, are
wont to be worshipped collectively rather than individually; and thus
the sun, the moon, and the earth, though adored by Bodo and by Dhimál,
have no separate rites, but are included in those appropriated to the
elemental gods. Witchcraft is universally dreaded by both Bodo and
Dhimál.
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