CHAPTER XII: THE IDEAS OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

§ 81. We assume without hesitation that death is easily distinguished from life; and we assume without hesitation that the natural ending of life by death, must have been always known as it is now known. Each of the assumptions thus undoubtingly made, is erroneous.

This passage, which I extract from Forbes and Tweedie’s Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine, is followed by an examination of the tests commonly trusted: showing that they are all fallacious. If, then, having the accumulated experiences bequeathed by civilization, joined to that acquaintance with natural death gained through direct observation in every family, we cannot be sure whether revival will or will not take place; what judgments are to be expected from the primitive man, who, lacking all this recorded knowledge, lacks also our many opportunities of seeing natural death? Until facts have proved it, he cannot know that this permanent quiescence is the necessary termination to the state of activity; and his wandering, predatory life keeps out of view most of the evidence which establishes this truth.

So circumstanced, then, what ideas does the primitive man form of death? Let us observe the course of his thought, and the resulting conduct.

§ 82. He witnesses insensibilities various in their lengths and various in their degrees. After the immense majority of them there come re-animations—daily after sleep, frequently after swoon, occasionally after coma, now and then after wounds or blows. What about this other form of insensibility?—will not re-animation follow this also?

The inference that it will, is strengthened by the occasional experience that revival occurs unexpectedly. One in course of being buried, or one about to be burned, suddenly comes back to himself. The savage does not take this for proof that the man supposed to be dead was not dead; but it helps to convince him that the insensibility of death is like all the other insensibilities—only temporary. Even were he critical, instead of being incapable of criticism, the facts would go far to justify his belief that in these cases re-animation has been only longer postponed.

That this confusion, naturally to be inferred, actually exists, we have proof. Arbousset and Daumas quote the proverb of the Bushmen—“Death is only a sleep.” Concerning the Tasmanians, Bonwick writes:—“When one was asked the reason of the spear being stuck in the tomb, he replied quietly, ‘To fight with when he sleep.’ ” Even so superior a race as the Dyaks have great difficulty in distinguishing sleep from death. When a Toda dies, the people “entertain a lingering hope that till putrefaction commences, reanimation may possibly take place.” More clearly still is this notion of revival implied in the reasons given for their practices by two tribes—one in the Old World and one in the New—who both unite great brutality with great stupidity. The corpse of a Damara, having been sewn-up sitting “in an old ox-hide,” is buried in a hole, and “the spectators jump backwards and forwards over the grave to Edition: current; Page: [155] keep the deceased from rising out of it.” And among the Tupis, “the corpse had all its limbs tied fast, that the dead man might not be able to get up, and infest his friends with his visits.”

Apart from avowed convictions and assigned reasons, abundant proofs are furnished by the behaviour; as in the instances last given. Let us observe the various acts prompted by the belief that the dead return to life.

§ 83. First come attempts to revive the corpse—to bring back the other-self. These are sometimes very strenuous, and very horrible. Alexander says of the Arawâks, that a man who had lost two brothers “cut thorny twigs, and beat the bodies all over, uttering at the same time ‘Heia! Heia!’ as if he felt the pain of the flagellation. . . . Seeing that it was impossible to reanimate the lifeless clay, he opened their eyes, and beat the thorns into the eyeballs, and all over the face.” Similarly, the Hottentots reproach and ill-use the dying, and those just dead, for going away.

This introduces us to the widely-prevalent practice of talking to the corpse: primarily with the view of inducing the wandering duplicate to return, but otherwise for purposes of propitiation. The Fijian thinks that calling sometimes brings back the other-self at death; as does, too, the Banks’ Islander, by whom “the name of the deceased is loudly called with the notion that the soul may hear and come back;” and we read that the Hos even call back the spirit of a corpse which has been burnt. The Fantees address the corpse “sometimes in accents of reproach for leaving them; at others beseeching his spirit to watch over and protect them from evil.” During their lamentations, the Caribs asked “the deceased to declare the cause of his departure from the world.” In Samoa “the friends of the deceased . . . went with a present to the priest, and begged him to get the dead man to speak and confess the sins which caused his death;” in Loango, a dead man’s relatives question him Edition: current; Page: [156] for two or three hours why he died; and on the Gold Coast, “the dead person is himself interrogated” as to the cause of his death. Even by the Hebrews “it was believed that a dead man could hear anything.” So, too, when depositing food, etc. Among the Todas, the sacrificer addressed the deceased, and, naming the cow killed, “said they had sent her to accompany him.” Moffat tells us of the Bechuanas that, on bringing things to the grave, an old woman speaks to the corpse the words—“There are all your articles.” And the Innuits visit the graves, talk to the dead, leave food, furs, etc., saying—“Here, Nukertou, is something to eat, and something to keep you warm.”

As implied by the last case, this behaviour, originally adopted towards those just dead, extends to those dead some time. After a burial among the Bagos, “a dead man’s relations come and talk to him under the idea that he hears what they say.” After burning, also, the same thing sometimes happens: among the old Kookies the ashes are “addressed by the friends of the deceased, and his good qualities recited.” The Malagasy not only “address themselves in an impassioned manner to the deceased,” but, on entering the burial-place, inform the surrounding dead that a relative is come to join them, and bespeak a good reception. Even by such comparatively-advanced peoples as those of ancient America, this practice was continued, and, indeed, highly developed. The Mexicans, giving to the deceased certain papers, said:—“By means of this you will pass without danger between the two mountains which fight against each other. With the second, they said: By means of this you will walk without obstruction along the road which is defended by the great serpent. With the third: By this you will go securely through the place where there is the crocodile Xochitonal.” So, too, among the Peruvians, the young knights on their initiation, addressed their embalmed ancestors, beseeching “them to make their descendants as fortunate and brave as they had been themselves.”

After learning that death is at first regarded as one kind of quiescent life, these proceedings no longer appear so absurd. Beginning with the call, which wakes the sleeper and sometimes seems effectual in reviving one who has swooned, this speaking to the dead develops in various directions; and continues to be a custom even where immediate re-animation is not looked for.

§ 84. The belief that death is a long-suspended animation, has a further effect, already indicated in some of the foregoing extracts. I refer to the custom of giving the corpse food: in some cases actually feeding it; and in most cases leaving eatables and drinkables for its use.

Occasionally in a trance, the patient swallows morsels put into his mouth. Whether or not such an experience led to it, there exists a practice implying the belief that death is an allied state. Kolff says of the Arru Islanders, that after one has died, these Papuans try to make him eat; “and when they find that he does not partake of it, the mouth is filled with eatables, siri, and arrack, until it runs down the body, and spreads over the floor.” Among the Tahitians, “if the deceased was a chief of rank or fame, a priest or other person was appointed to attend the corpse, and present food to its mouth at different periods during the day.” So is it with the Malanaus of Borneo: when a chief dies, his slaves attend to his imagined wants with the fan, sirih and betel-nut. The Curumbars, between death and burning, frequently drop a little grain into the mouth of the deceased.

Mostly, however, the aim is to give the deceased available supplies whenever he may need them. In some cases he is thus provided for while awaiting burial; as among the Fantees, who place “viands and wine for the use of the departed spirit,” near the sofa where the corpse is laid; and as among the Karens, by whom “meat is set before the body as food,” before burial. Tahitians and Sandwich Islanders, too, who expose their dead on stages, place fruits and water Edition: current; Page: [158] beside them; and the New Zealanders, who similarly furnish provisions, “aver that at night the spirit comes and feeds from the sacred calabashes.” Herrera tells us of certain Brazilians, that they put the dead man in “the net or hammock he used to lie in, and during the first days they bring him meat, thinking he lies in his bed.” And the belief that the unburied required refreshment, was otherwise shown by the Peruvians, who held a funeral feast, “expecting the soul of the deceased, which, they say, must come to eat and to drink.”

So general is the placing of provisions in or upon the grave, that an enumeration of the cases before me would be wearisome: a few must suffice. In Africa may be instanced the Sherbro people, who “are in the habit of carrying rice and other eatables to the graves of their departed friends;” the Loango people, who deposit provisions at the tomb; the Inland Negroes, who put food and wine on the graves; and the sanguinary Dahomans, who place on the grave an iron “asen,” on which “water or blood, as a drink for the deceased, is poured.” Turning to Asia, we find the practice among the Hill-tribes of India. The Bhils cook rice and leave some where the body was burnt, and the rest at the “threshold of his late dwelling . . . as provision for the spirit;” and kindred customs are observed by Santals, Kookies, Karens. In America, of the uncivilized races, may be named the Caribs; who put the corpse “in a cavern or sepulchre” with water and eatables. But it was by the extinct civilized races that this practice was most elaborated. The Chibchas, shutting up the dead in artificial caves, wrapped them in fine mantles and placed round them many maize cakes and mucuras of chicha [a drink]; and of the Peruvians, Tschudi tells us that “in front of the bodies they used to place two rows of pots filled with quiana, maize, potatoes, dried llama-flesh, etc.”

The like is done even along with cremation. Among the Kookies, the widow places “rice and vegetables on the ashes Edition: current; Page: [159] of her husband.” The ancient Central Americans had a kindred habit. Oviedo gives thus the statement of an Indian:—“When we are about to burn the body we put beside it some boiled maize in a calabash, and attach it to the body and burn it along with it.” Though where the corpse is destroyed by fire, the conception of re-animation in its original form must have died out, this continued practice of supplying food indicates a past time when re-animation was conceived literally: an inference verified by the fact that the Kookies, some of whom bury their dead while others burn them, supply eatables in either case.

§ 85. What is the limit to the time for the return of the other-self? Hours have elapsed and the insensible have revived; days have elapsed and the insensible have revived; will they revive after weeks or months, and then want food? The primitive man cannot say. The answer is at least doubtful, and he takes the safe course: he repeats the supplies of food.

It is thus with the indigenes of India. Among the Bodo and Dhimáls, the food and drink laid on the grave are renewed after some days, and the dead is addressed; among the Kookies the corpse being “deposited upon a stage raised under a shed,” food and drink are “daily brought, and laid before it.” By American races this custom is carried much further. Hall tells us of the Innuits that “whenever they return to the vicinity of the kindred’s grave, a visit is made to it with the best of food” as a present; and Schoolcraft says most of the North American Indians “for one year visit the place of the dead, and carry food and make a feast for the dead, to feed the spirit of the departed.” But in this, as in other ways, the extinct civilized races of America provided most carefully. In Mexico “after the burial, they returned to the tomb for twenty days, and put on it food and roses; so they did after eighty days, and so on from eighty to eighty.” The aboriginal Peruvians used to open the tombs, Edition: current; Page: [160] and renew the clothes and food which were placed in them. Still further were such practices carried with the embalmed bodies of the Yncas. At festivals they brought provisions to them, saying—“When you were alive you used to eat and drink of this; may your soul now receive it and feed on it, wheresoever you may be.” And Pedro Pizarro says they brought out the bodies every day and seated them in a row, according to their antiquity. While the servants feasted, they put the food of the dead on a fire, and their chicha vessels before them.

Here the primitive practice of repeating the supplies of food for the corpse, in doubt how long the revival may be delayed, has developed into a system of observances considerably divergent from the original ones.

§ 86. Other sequences of the belief in re-animation, equally remarkable, may next be named. If the corpse is still in some way alive, like one in a trance, must it not breathe, and does it not require warmth? These questions sundry races practically answer in the affirmative.

The Guaranis “believe that the soul continued with the body in the grave, for which reason they were careful to leave room for it” . . . they would remove “part of the earth, lest it should lie heavy upon them” . . . and sometimes “covered the face of the corpse with a concave dish, that the soul might not be stifled.” It is an Esquimaux belief “that any weight pressing upon the corpse would give pain to the deceased.” And after the conquest, the Peruvians used to disinter people buried in the churches, saying that the bodies were very uneasy when pressed by the soil, and liked better to stay in the open air.

A fire serves both to give warmth and for cooking; and one or other of these conveniences is in some cases provided for the deceased. By the Iroquois “a fire was built upon the grave at night to enable the spirit to prepare its food.” Among the Brazilians it is the habit to “light fires by the Edition: current; Page: [161] side of newly-made graves . . . for the personal comfort of the defunct.” Of the Sherbro people (Coast Negroes) Schön says that “frequently in cold or wet nights they will light a fire” on the grave of a departed friend. By the Western Australians, too, fires are kept burning on the burial place for days; and should the deceased be a person of distinction, such fires are lighted daily for three or four years.

§ 87. Resuscitation as originally conceived, cannot take place unless there remains a body to be resuscitated. Expectation of a revival is therefore often acompanied by recognition of the need for preserving the corpse from injury.

Note, first, sundry signs of the conviction that if the body has been destroyed resurrection cannot take place. When Bruce tells us that among the Abyssinians, criminals are seldom buried; when we learn that by the Chibchas the bodies of the greatest criminals were left unburied in the fields; we may suspect the presence of a belief that renewal of life is prevented when the body is devoured. This belief we elsewhere find avowed. “No more formidable punishment to the Egyptian was possible than destroying his corpse, its preservation being the main condition of immortality.” The New Zealanders held that a man who was eaten by them, was destroyed wholly and for ever. The Damaras think that dead men, if buried, “cannot rest in the grave. . . . You must throw them away, and let the wolves eat them; then they won’t come and bother us.” The Matiamba negresses believe that by throwing their husbands’ corpses into the water, they drown the souls: these would otherwise trouble them. And possibly it may be under a similar belief that the Kamschadales give corpses “for food to their dogs.”

Where, however, the aim is not to insure annihilation of the departed, but to further his well-being, anxiety is shown that the corpse shall be guarded against ill-treatment. This Edition: current; Page: [162] anxiety prompts devices which vary according to the views taken of the deceased’s state of existence.

In some cases security is sought in secrecy, or inaccessibility, or both. Over certain sepulchres the Chibchas planted trees to conceal them. After a time the remains of New Zealand chiefs were “secretly deposited by priests in sepulchres on hill-tops, in forests, or in caves.” The Muruts of Borneo place the bones of their chiefs in boxes on the ridges of the highest hills; and sometimes the Tahitians, to prevent the bones from being stolen, deposited them on the tops of almost inaccessible mountains. Among the Kaffirs, while the bodies of common people are exposed to be devoured by wolves, those of chiefs are buried in their cattle-pens. So, too, a Bechuana chief “is buried in his cattle-pen, and all the cattle are driven for an hour or two around and over the grave, so that it may be quite obliterated.” Still stranger was the precaution taken on behalf of the ruler of Bogota. “They divert,” says Simon, “the course of a river, and in its bed make the grave. . . . As soon as the cazique is buried, they let the stream return to its natural course.” The interment of Alaric was similarly conducted; and Cameron tells us that in the African state of Urua, the like method of burying a king is still in use.

While in these cases the desire to hide the corpse and its belongings from enemies, brute and human, predominates; in other cases the desire to protect the corpse against imagined discomfort predominates. We have already noted the means sometimes used to insure its safety without stopping its breathing, supposed to be still going on; and probably a kindred purpose originated the practice of raising the corpse to a height above the ground. Sundry of the Polynesians place dead bodies on scaffolds. In Australia, too, and in the Andaman Islands, the corpse is occasionally thus disposed of. Among the Zulus, while some bury and some burn, others expose in trees; and Dyaks and Kyans have a similar custom. But it is in America, where the natives, as Edition: current; Page: [163] we see, betray in other ways the desire to shield the corpse from pressure, that exposure on raised stages is commonest. The Dakotahs adopt this method; at one time it was the practice of the Iroquois; Catlin, describing the Mandans as having scaffolds on which “their ‘dead live,’ as they term it,” remarks that they are thus kept out of the way of wolves and dogs; and Schoolcraft says the same of the Chippewas. Among South-American tribes, a like combination of ends was sought by using chasms and caverns as places of sepulture. The Caribs did this. The Guiana Indians bury their dead, only in the absence of cavities amid the rocks. The Chibchas interred in a kind of “bobedas” or caves, which had been made for the purpose. And the several modes of treating the dead adopted by the ancient Peruvians, all of them attained, as far as might be, both ends—protection, and absence of supposed inconvenience to the corpse. Where they had not natural clefts in the rocks, they made “great holes and excavations with closed doors before them;” or else they kept the embalmed bodies in temples.

Leaving the New World, throughout which the primitive conception of death as a long-suspended animation seems to have been especially vivid, we find elsewhere less recognition of any sensitiveness in the dead to pressure or want of air: there is simply a recognition of the need for preventing destruction by animals, or injury by men and demons. This is the obvious motive for covering over the corpse; and, occasionally, the assigned motive. Earth is sometimes not enough; and then additional protection is given. By the Mandingoes, “prickly bushes are laid upon” the grave, “to prevent the wolves from digging up the body;” and the Joloffs, a tribe of Coast Negroes, use the same precaution. The Arabs keep out wild beasts by heaping stones over the body; and the Esquimaux do the like. The Bodo and Dhimáls pile stones “upon the grave to prevent disturbance by jackals,” etc. In Damara-land, a chief’s tomb “consists of a large heap of stones surrounded by an enclosure of Edition: current; Page: [164] thorn-brushes.” And now observe a remarkable sequence. The kindred of the deceased, from real or professed affection, and others from fear of what he may do when his double returns, join in augmenting the protective mass. Among the Inland Negroes, large cairns are formed over graves, by passing relatives who continually add stones to the heap; and it was a custom with the aborigines of San Salvador “to throw a handful of earth, or a stone, upon the grave of the distinguished dead, as a tribute to their memory.” Obviously, in proportion as the deceased is loved, reverenced, or dreaded, this process is carried further. Hence an increasing of the heap for protective purposes, brings about an increasing of it as a mark of honour or of power. Thus, the Guatemala Americans “raised mounds of earth corresponding in height with the importance of the deceased.” Of the Chibchas, Cieza says—“they pile up such masses of earth in making their tombs, that they look like small hills;” and Acosta, describing certain other burial mounds in those parts as “heaped up during the mourning,” adds—“as that extended as long as drink was granted, the size of the tumulus shows the fortune of the deceased.” Ulloa makes a kindred remark respecting the monuments of the Peruvians.

So that, beginning with the small mound necessarily resulting from the displacement of earth by the buried body, we come at length to such structures as the Egyptian pyramids: the whole series originating in the wish to preserve the body from injuries hindering resuscitation.

§ 88. Another group of customs having the same purpose, must be named. Along with the belief that re-animation will be prevented if the returning other-self finds a mutilated corpse, or none at all; there goes the belief that to insure re-animation, putrefaction must be stopped. That this idea leaves no traces among men in very low states, is probably due to the fact that no methods of arresting decomposition Edition: current; Page: [165] have been discovered by them. But among more advanced races, we find proofs that the idea arises and that it leads to action.

The prompting motive was shown by certain of the ancient Mexicans, who believed that “the dead were to rise again, and when their bones were dry, they laid them together in a basket, and hung them up to a bough of a tree, that they might not have to look for them at the resurrection.” Similarly, the Peruvians, explaining their observances to Garcilasso, said—“We, therefore, in order that we may not have to search for our hair and nails at a time when there will be much hurry and confusion, place them in one place, that they may be brought together more conveniently, and, whenever it is possible, we are also careful to spit in one place.”

With such indications to guide us, we cannot doubt the meaning of the trouble taken to prevent decay. When we read that in Africa the Loango people smoke corpses, and that in America some of the Chibchas “dried the bodies of their dead in barbacoas on a slow fire;” we must infer that the aim is, or was, to keep the flesh in a state of integrity against the time of resuscitation. And on finding that by these same Chibchas, as also by some of the Mexicans, and by the Peruvians, the bodies of kings and caziques were embalmed; we must conclude that embalming was adopted simply as a more effectual method of achieving the same end: especially after noting that the preservation was great in proportion as the rank was high; as is shown by Acosta’s remark that “the body [of an Ynca] was so complete and well preserved, by means of a sort of bitumen, that it appeared to be alive.”

Proof that like ideas suggested the like practices of the ancient Egyptians, has already been given.

§ 89. Some further funeral rites, indirectly implying the belief in resurrection, must be added; partly because Edition: current; Page: [166] they lead to certain customs hereafter to be explained. I refer to the bodily mutilations which, in so many cases, are marks of mourning.

We read in the Iliad that at the funeral of Patroclus, the Myrmidons “heaped all the corpse with their hair that they cut off and threw thereon;” further, that Achilles placed “a golden lock” in the hands of the corpse; and that this act went along with the dedication of himself to avenging Patroclus, and with the promise to join him afterward. Hair is thus used as a gage: a portion of the body is given as symbolizing a gift of the whole. And this act of affection, or mode of propitiation, or both, prevails widely among uncivilized races.

As further showing what the rite means, I may begin with Bonwick’s statement that, by Tasmanian women, “the hair, cut off in grief, was thrown upon the mound;” and may add the testimony of Winterbottom respecting the Soosoos, that one grave was seen—that of a woman—with her eldest daughter’s hair placed upon it. Where we do not learn what becomes of the hair, we yet in numerous cases learn that it is cut off. Among the Coast Negroes a dead man’s more immediate relations shave off all the hair; and some Damaras, on the death of a valued friend, do the like. Similarly with the Mpongwe, the Kaffirs, and the Hottentots. In Hawaii and Samoa the hair is cut or torn; the Tongans shave the head; the New Zealanders, in some cases, clip half the head-hair short; among the Tannese “cutting off the hair is a sign of mourning;” and on the death of the late Queen of Madagascar, “the entire country round Antananarivo was clean clipped, except the Europeans and some score or so of privileged Malagasy.” In America it is the same. A Greenlander’s widow sacrifices her tresses; the near relatives of a dead Chinook cut their hair off; and the Chippewayans, the Comanches, the Dakotahs, the Mandans, the Tupis, have the same custom. The significance of this rite as a sign of subordination, Edition: current; Page: [167] made to propitiate the presently-reviving dead, is shown by sundry facts. Among the Todas, there is a cutting off of the hair at a death, but only “by the younger members to denote their respect for their seniors;” and among the Arabs, “on the death of a father, the children of both sexes cut off their kerouns or tresses of hair in testimony of grief.” By South Americans, both political and domestic loyalty are thus marked. We read that among the Abipones, “on the death of a cacique, all the men under his authority shave their long hair as a sign of grief.” So was it with the Peruvians: the Indians of Llacta-cunya made “great lamentations over their dead, and the women who are not killed, with all the servants, are shorn of their hair.” That is to say, those wives who did not give themselves wholly to go with the dead, gave their hair as a pledge.

Like in their meanings are the accompanying self-bleedings, gashings, and amputations. At funerals, the Tasmanians “lacerated their bodies with sharp shells and stones.” The Australians, too, cut themselves; and so do, or did, the Tahitians, the Tongans, and the New Zealanders. We read that among the Greenlanders the men “sometimes gash their bodies;” and that the Chinooks “disfigure and lacerate their bodies.” The widows of the Comanches “cut their arms, legs, and bodies in gashes, until they are exhausted by the loss of blood, and frequently commit suicide;” and the Dakotahs “not unfrequently gash themselves and amputate one or more fingers.” In this last instance we are introduced to the fact that not blood only, but sometimes a portion of the body, is given, where the expression of reverence or obedience is intended to be great. In Tonga, on the death of a high priest, the first joint on the little finger is amputated; and when a king or chief in the Sandwich Islands died, the mutilations undergone by his subjects were—tattooing a spot on the tongue, or cutting the ears, or knocking out one of the front teeth. On remembering that blood, and portions Edition: current; Page: [168] of the body, are offered in religious sacrifice—on reading that the Dahomans sprinkle human blood on the tombs of their old kings, to get the aid of their ghosts in war—on finding that the Mexicans gave their idols their blood to drink, that some priests bled themselves daily, and that even male infants were bled—on being told that the like was done in Yucatan, and Guatemala, and San Salvador, and that the coast-people of Peru offered blood alike to idols and on sepulchres; we cannot doubt that propitiation of the dead man’s double is the original purpose of these funeral rites.

That such is the meaning is, indeed, in one case distinctly asserted. Turner tells us that a Samoan ceremony on the occasion of a decease, was “beating the head with stones till the blood runs; and this they called ‘an offering of blood’ for the dead.”

§ 90. All these various observances, then, imply the conviction that death is a long-suspended animation. The endeavours to revive the corpse by ill-usage; the calling it by name, and addressing to it reproaches or inquiries; the endeavours to feed it, and the leaving with it food and drink; the measures taken to prevent its discomfort from pressure and impediments to breathing; the supplying of fire to cook by, or to keep off cold; the care taken to prevent injury by wild beasts, and to arrest decay; and even these various self-injuries symbolizing subordination;—all unite to show this belief. And this belief is avowed.

Thus in Africa, the Ambamba people think that “men and youths are thrown by the fetich priests into a torpid state lasting for three days, and sometimes buried in the fetich-house for many years, but being subsequently restored to life.” Referring to a man who had died a few days before among the Inland Negroes, Lander says “there was a public declaration that his tutelary god had resuscitated him.” And Livingstone was thought by a Zambesi chief, to be an Edition: current; Page: [169] Italian, Siriatomba, risen from the dead. Turning to Polynesia, we find, among the incongruous beliefs of the Fijians, one showing a transition between the primitive idea of a renewed ordinary life, and the idea of another life elsewhere; they think that death became universal because the children of the first man did not dig him up again, as one of the gods commanded. Had they done so, the god said all men would have lived again after a few days’ interment. And then, in Peru, where so much care was taken of the corpse, resuscitation was an article of faith. “The Yncas believed in a universal resurrection—not for glory or punishment, but for a renewal of this temporal life.”

Just noting past signs of this belief among higher races—such as the fact that “in Moslem law, prophets, martyrs, and saints are not supposed to be dead: their property, therefore, remains their own;” and such as the fact that in Christian Europe, distinguished men, from Charlemagne down to the first Napoleon, have been expected to reappear; let us note the still existing form of this belief. It differs from the primitive form less than we suppose. I do not mean merely that in saying “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,” the civilized creed implies that death is not a natural event; just as clearly as do the savage creeds which ascribe death to some difference of opinion among the gods, or disregard of their injunctions. Nor do I refer only to the further evidence that in our State Prayer-Book, bodily resurrection is unhesitatingly asserted; and that poems of more modern date contain descriptions of the dead rising again. I have in view facts showing that, even still, many avow this belief as clearly as it was lately avowed by a leading ecclesiastic. On July 5th, 1874, the Bishop of Lincoln preached against cremation, as tending to undermine men’s faith in bodily resurrection. Not only, in common with the primitive man, does Dr. Wordsworth hold that the corpse of each buried person will be resuscitated; but he also holds, in common with the primitive man, that Edition: current; Page: [170] destruction of the corpse will prevent resuscitation. Had he been similarly placed, the bishop would doubtless have taken the same course as the Ynca Atahuallpa, who turned Christian in order to be hanged instead of burnt because (he said to his wives and to the Indians) if his body was not burnt, his father, the Sun, would raise him again.

And now observe, finally, the modification by which the civilized belief in resurrection is made partially unlike the savage belief. There is no abandonment of it: the anticipated event is simply postponed. Supernaturalism, gradually discredited by science, transfers its supernatural occurrences to remoter places in time or space. As believers in special creations suppose them to happen, not where we are, but in distant parts of the world; as miracles, admitted not to take place now, are said to have taken place during a past dispensation; so, re-animation of the body, no longer expected as immediate, is expected at an indefinitely far-off time. The idea of death differentiates slowly from the idea of temporary insensibility. At first revival is looked for in a few hours, or in a few days, or in a few years; and gradually, as death becomes more definitely conceived, revival is not looked for till the end of all things.